In what was arguably the greatest Russian Grand Prix that has ever happened, Lewis Hamilton managed to secure his 100th win in Formula 1 after a rain hit last couple of laps derailed Lando Norris’ road to victory.
After a poor opening lap, Hamilton found himself down in seventh, battling the likes of Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo. Whereas front row starters Norris and Carlos Sainz escaped with each other out front. After struggling for the second race in a row behind Ricciardo, an error in the pit stop by the McLaren crew for the Australian enabled Hamilton to leapfrog by the time his pit stop came around. The Mercedes man then set his sights on Norris ahead who had managed to build a lead.
Even though Hamilton had fought to just one second behind, Norris had it controlled as he managed to maintain the gap to around 1.3s. Then his road to victory was thrown off course as the rain decided to hit in the remaining five laps. Sticking with the slicks, the conditions seemed to affect the middle sector only – until it didn’t. With that sector becoming treacherous, multiple cars decided to pit for inters with Hamilton and Norris opting against the wishes of their teams. One lap later, Hamilton was in as Norris carried on. This decision proved crucial as rain reached the entire track, leaving drivers like Norris and Charles Leclerc drowning on the slicks.
Norris could not help but slide off the track at turn five, leaving Hamilton home sweet as Norris dropped down the order to eventually finish seventh. Heart-breaking for the Brit who was laps away from a maiden victory.
During all the chaos, Max Verstappen completed his impressive recovery drive to finish in second place, making the most out of his damage limitation weekend. Working his way swiftly up to the top five in the dry conditions, Verstappen found himself stuck behind Ricciardo and Sainz, before being attacked by Alonso on fresher tyres, with Leclerc bearing down. Then, the rain hit. Verstappen slid his way past Ricciardo in the damp conditions on the slicks, before making the right call at the right time to promote himself up to second – taking advantage of the ones who chose to do an extra laps on the slicks.
After coming through from 20th on the grid, Verstappen only trails Hamilton by a mere two points after his second place finish, making this the most successful second place he has ever had. Despite securing the 25 points, Hamilton would not have been delighted to see his title rival appear alongside him at parc ferme.
Sainz looked to have missed out on a podium place after being one of the first drivers to duck into the pits after losing his early lead, but managed to come home to third – pitting at a similar time to Verstappen for inters. His third podium finish for Ferrari. Ricciardo found himself fighting both Ferrari’s in the wet conditions on slicks, but managed to cross the line in fourth, missing out on consecutive podiums by three seconds.
Another driver who took a grid penalty for a new power unit was Valtteri Bottas, who also took a grid penalty in the previous round at Monza. Interesting. Questions were asked whether or not this was a plot to try and keep Verstappen behind – which failed if it was. It took Verstappen just six laps to make his way past in what was looking to be a grim day for Bottas. As the Dutchman and Leclerc cut through the field, Bottas struggled to go further then 14th, stuck behind Pierre Gasly. Thankfully for the Finn, the rain was a chance to flip his race on its head, promoting himself to fifth at the end due to pitting at the correct time.
Behind, Alonso managed to maintain his starting position in sixth – but looked to be in the fight for the podium when the rain started to fall. Being one of the drivers to do an extra lap on the slicks, the Alpine driver slipped down the order but was a comfortable sixth at the line, ahead of the disheartened Norris. An unfortunate situation for the Spaniard. However, his day was far better then Esteban Ocon as the other Alpine driver could only finish in 14th after a less then memorable race for the Frenchman.
Points have come few and far between for Kimi Raikkonen this season, but the Finnish man was able to use his experience to place his Alfa Romeo in eighth at the line – a welcome return to the points. Raikkonen crossed the line just one second ahead of Sergio Perez who was caught out by the tricky conditions.
The Mexican managed to extend his first stint in his Red Bull, before pitting for fresher tyres and working his way into third position. But, Perez was in the group of drivers who decided to stay out longer on the slick tyres, before being massively affected and caught out by the weather – finishing down in ninth.
Another driver who was quite fortunate with the weather chance was the Williams of George Russell. After a strong start, Russell formed quite the queue behind him in third place, but was eventually done by multiple cars as the laps ticked on and strategy became key; eventually dropping out of the points. Yet again however, the weather change invited an opportunity to claim P10, which he took.
Aston Martin missed out on any points with their drivers coming home in 11th and 12th. Stroll had a messy end to the race as the rain fell, spinning around Gasly and making contact with his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, not once but twice in a matter of seconds. Oh, before spinning and saying hi to the barrier. Adding insult to injury, Stroll was handed a 10s penalty and two penalty points for his collision with Gasly.
Speaking of Gasly, his frustrated weekend did not improve as he could only finish in 13th. Stuck in the midfield battle, Gasly experienced the same problems as the majority of the field when it came to following and passing another car. To make matters worse, the AlphaTauri man was tagged round by Stroll and then suffered an off at turn 13.
With the exciting back row, we were looking forward to a strong fight through the field by Verstappen and Leclerc. And that is what we got, but it did not end well for Leclerc. Starting 19th, Leclerc had a storming opening lap as the Ferrari man worked his way up to 12th. Like Perez, the Monegasque extended his first stint and was able to re-work his way through, putting pressure on Verstappen before the rain hit. Then, like Norris, he made the wrong call. Deciding to stay out and brave the conditions, Leclerc suffered multiple slides off the track, including one at turn five which looked to be heading toward the barrier. Sadly, this threw all of his good work down the drain as he came home in 15th. A very costly mistake as he looked set for a top seven finish from the back of the grid.
Unlike his teammate, Antonio Giovinazzi did not have a good day. With his radio communication failing to work throughout the entire race, the Italian was effectively in the dark when it came to the crucial change of tyres at the end, finishing down in 16th. Ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who suffered one of the worst opening laps you will see, losing eight places and eventually crossing the line in 17th.
Although Nicholas Latifi was classed as a finisher in 19th, he retired with six laps remaining with a technical issue – meaning Nikita Mazepin would technically finish as the last runner, two laps down from the leader.
The Russian finished as the sole Haas as Mick Schumacher was forced to the side-lines with a hydraulic leak.
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