Race Results 2021 Turkish F1 Grand Prix

Event: Turkish F1 Grand Prix
Track: Istanbul Park Circuit

Max Verstappen driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda during the F1 Grand Prix of Turkey at Intercity Istanbul Park

Weather: wet 17.8°C
Tarmac: wet 15.6°C
Humidity: 92.4%
Wind: 0.5 m/s SE
Pressure: 1006.4 bar

Valtteri Bottas scored his 10th race win today. The Finnish driver won the Turkish F1 GP for the 1st time. It was also his 1st race win of the 2021 season. The Mercedes driver started from pole and kept his head cool during this wet race. It was the 121st race win for Mercedes.

2021 Turkish F1 GP Race Report

A light drizzle caused the tarmac to be wet. All cars were fitted with intermediate tyres to start the race on. The start was clean and all cars had a good getaway.

The tight first turn did usually causes some drama and this time Fernando Alonso was the victim. The Spanish driver had a good start from P5 in the Alpine on the clean side of the track. He got alongside Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri before turn 1 to snatch P4 from the French driver. Unfortunately the AlphaTauri driver under-steered into the back of the Alpine and hit the rear left of Alonso's car, causing him to spin off. Alonso was able to go on but returned on the track on P16. Gasly later on received a 5 second penalty for causing a collision.

Start of the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix

Nicholas Latifi caused the second yellow flag of the race when the Canadian driver spun off at turn 10 in the Williams. Alonso probably was quite angry and caused Mick Schumacher to spin the Haas in lap 2, when he did a do or die manoeuvre at turn 4. The Alpine driver received a 5 sec. time penalty for it later on in the race.

Lewis Hamilton started from P11, because his Mercedes was fitted with a 4th engine earlier this weekend, which gave him a 10 places grid penalty. Hamilton had passed Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin at the end of the first lap and now was driving on P9 behind AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda. It took Hamilton 7 laps to pass the young Japanese driver for P8. He passed him on the outside at turn 3.

Carlos Sainz who started from the back of the grid on P19 for getting a 4th power unit was doing great. The Ferrari driver was already on P12 by lap 9. Hamilton now was passing Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll for P7. Daniel Ricciardo who also had to start from the back on P20 was having a hard time passing drivers and was only up to 16th place.

In lap 11 Hamilton was behind the McLaren of Lando Norris battling for P6. The Mercedes driver was flying on the long back straight and passed the McLaren for P6 at turn 12. He now had to hunt down Pierre Gasly who was 6 sec. in front. Hamilton gave it all he got and drive fastest lap (1:34.206) after fastest lap (1:33.450). In lap 13 he already had closed 2 sec. to Gasly and told his team the track was still quite wet and his tyres were wearing down.

Sainz was having a lot of benefit of the new power unit and passed Vettel in lap 14 for P10. One lap later Hamilton was already behind Gasly and overtook the AlphaTauri on the long straight to turn 12 for P5. He now was 7 seconds behind his next victim Sergio Perez who was driving on P4 with the Red Bull. Hamilton now was 19 sec. behind the race leader and his teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Max Verstappen now had to speed up the Red Bull to not get under threat by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc behind him on P3. The Dutchman was 3s behind Bottas and 2.6s in front of Leclerc. In lap 17 Verstappen managed to driver the fastest lap up till then with a 1:33.282.

Sainz had reached Tsunoda in lap 18 and overtook the AlphaTauri for P9. This lap Bottas drove the fasest lap and set it to 1:33.145, while Hamilton now had closed down the gap towards Perez to 4.6s.

Ricciardo was not having a lot of speed in the McLaren and was still driving on P16 at lap 21. Hamilton at the same time clocked the fastest lap get Perez and set it to 1:33.019 min and now was 3.4s behind Perez.

Ricciardo was the first driver to do a pitstop to get a fresh set of intermediate tyres when he stopped in lap 22 with a pitstop that took 2.8s. Tsunoda now spun around in at turn 9 and dropped to P13 and lost three places. One lap later Leclerc scored fastest lap with a 1:32.981 and Bottas already was getting close to the 2 slow Haas cars on the track to lap them in lap 24. Verstappen now was 2.8s behind him.

The top 3 was still quite close with Leclerc 2 sec. behind Verstappen who was 2.6s behind race leader Bottas in lap 26. Three laps later Hamilton was getting closer to Perez and was only 2 seconds behind him. The lap after that Bottas told his team on the radio that it now was raining from turn 6 to 12.

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W12 and Sergio Perez in the Red Bull fighting for position during the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix

In lap 31 Hamilton was only 0.7s behind Perez and trying to pass the Mexican driver for P4. Fernando Alonso pitted one lap later for a new set of intermediates. In lap 33 Sainz told his team it now was raining more. Hamilton now was 21 seconds behind the race leader Bottas and only half a second behind Perez to try and attack the teammate of his championship rival. Hamilton did all he could to pass him at turn 12, 13 and 14, but Perez put up a great fight and they drove side by side in those corners and on the main straight towards turn 1, where Perez got in front again. Leclerc improved the fastest lap time again in lap 34.

Verstappen drove in to the pits at the end of lap 37 for to get a new set of inters in 2.1 sec and lost only 1 place to return back to the track in front of Perez on P3. Sainz did the same but lost 6 seconds because his stop took 8.1s. Bottas also pitted one lap later and got his new set of inters in 2.5 sec. Vettel also pitted and choose to new set of medium slick tyres. He was the first to check out slicks in current conditions. When he drove out he soon experienced a very bad level of grip and went back in the pits right away to get a set of inters. Perez also pitted for a new set of inters now, he returned as 6th.

In lap 39 Hamilton was 2.8s behind Verstappen who was driving on P3. He still was driving around on the set of inters he started on. Leclerc was now leading the race and was 6s ahead of Bottas when he had huge lockout at turn 12 and almost ended up in the gravel.

The Mercedes team was telling Hamilton to pit, when he asked "Why?". He said his tyres were still ok. Leclerc was asking his team if he can drive to the end of the race without a pitstop. The Ferrari driver now was losing time and Bottas was only 1.1s behind Leclerc at the end of lap 45.

In lap 46 Sainz moved up to P9 by overtaking Esteban Ocon who also was driving on the first set of inters with the Alpine. Hamilton told his team again he wanted to stay out.

Max Verstappen congratulates Valtteri Bottas on his 2021 Turkish Grand Prix win

Bottas passed Leclerc for the lead at turn 1 of lap 47. Leclerc pitted for his new set of inters was at the end of lap 48 with a pitstop that took 3.1 sec and came back on the track on P4 behind Hamilton. His teammate Sainz took over the fastest lap  with a 1:32.597 min.

In lap 51 Mercedes again told Hamilton to box and he obeyed to get a new set of inters. The pitstop took 2.3 seconds, but he did lose 2 places and got back on track as 5th. Leclerc was struggling to get up to speed and Perez passed him for P3. Hamilton was complaining towards his team that he should not had go in for a new set of tyres and now was struggling to stay ahead of Gasly.

In lap 56 Gasly was only 1 second behind Hamilton and Norris was also only 1.5s behind Gasly on P7. Bottas was driving one of the best races of his career and even drove the fastest lap in the last lap of the race.

Classification 2021 Turkish GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	77	ValtteriBottas	Mercedes	Mercedes W12Mercedes M12 E…	1	58	49	1:31:04.103	26
2	33	MaxVerstappen	Red Bull	Red Bull RB16BHonda RA621H	2	58		1:31:18.687+14.584s	18
3	11	SergioPérez	Red Bull	Red Bull RB16BHonda RA621H	6	58		1:31:37.574+33.471s	15
4	16	CharlesLeclerc	Ferrari	Ferrari SF21Ferrari 065/6	3	58	9	1:31:41.917+37.814s	12
5	44	LewisHamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes W12Mercedes M12 E…	11	58		1:31:45.915+41.812s	10
6	10	PierreGasly	AlphaTauri	AlphaTauri AT02Honda RA621H	4	58		1:31:48.395+44.292s	8
7	4	LandoNorris	McLaren	McLaren MCL35MMercedes M12 E…	7	58		1:31:51.316+47.213s	6
8	55	CarlosSainz	Ferrari	Ferrari SF21Ferrari 065/6	19	58		1:31:55.629+51.526s	4
9	18	LanceStroll	Aston Martin	Aston Martin AMR21Mercedes M12 E…	8	58		1:32:26.121+1:22.018	2
10	31	EstebanOcon	Alpine	Alpine A521Renault E-Tech 20B	12	58		1:31:14.837+10.734s	1
11	99	AntonioGiovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo C41Ferrari 065/6	16	57		1:31:15.592+11.489s
12	7	KimiRäikkönen	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo C41Ferrari 065/6	17	57		1:31:20.625+16.522s
13	3	DanielRicciardo	McLaren	McLaren MCL35MMercedes M12 E…	20	57		1:31:23.174+19.071s
14	22	YukiTsunoda	AlphaTauri	AlphaTauri AT02Honda RA621H	9	57		1:31:28.529+24.426s
15	63	GeorgeRussell	Williams	Williams FW43BMercedes M12 E…	13	57		1:31:32.219+28.116s
16	14	FernandoAlonso	Alpine	Alpine A521Renault E-Tech 20B	5	57		1:31:34.608+30.505s
17	6	NicholasLatifi	Williams	Williams FW43BMercedes M12 E…	15	57		1:31:40.119+36.016s
18	5	SebastianVettel	Aston Martin	Aston Martin AMR21Mercedes M12 E…	10	57		1:31:59.986+55.883s
19	47	MickSchumacher	Haas	Haas VF-21Ferrari 065/6	14	57		1:31:23.389+19.286s
20	9	NikitaMazepin	Haas	Haas VF-21Ferrari 065/6	18	57		1:31:47.531+43.428s

Fastest lap: 1:30.432 min by Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes (no.77) in lap 58

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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