Max Verstappen came into the Russian Grand Prix weekend expecting to lose his title lead to his rival, Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver became the overwhelming favourite for the victory after Verstappen was to start from the back of the grid due to taking his fourth power unit.
Coming from the back of the grid to the podium is possible, and was actually done one race before at Monza by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. But, coming through the field at Sochi proved to be a lot more difficult.
Yet, Verstappen took advantage of the situations around him to make the most out of his damage limitation weekend. With Hamilton ultimately taking the victory after a tricky race, Verstappen trails by just two points in the standings – with Hamilton expected to take his own fourth power unit before the end of the season.
The happiest Verstappen has ever been with finishing in second place.
But the race had its ups and downs for the Dutchman. Starting last, Verstappen was not alone when it came to fast cars around him. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was starting alongside, with Bottas just ahead in 16th.
On the opening lap, the Red Bull driver made the least progress as Leclerc promoted himself up to 12th after a daring turn two – diving straight down the inside. Verstappen took the cautious approach, bailing out of turn two and going through the run off.
Still, Verstappen managed to pick off the likes of Antonio Giovinazzi, Yuki Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi and both Haas cars in the opening laps, before finding himself behind Bottas. Getting past the Mercedes as quickly as possible was going to be key for his race.
So, that is exactly what he did. Down the inside of the Mercedes at turn 13 on just the sixth lap. Job done.
Then a tight moment. Verstappen had now caught the fast starting Leclerc, who himself was battling wheel-to-wheel with the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel throughout the opening sector. Leclerc and Vettel continued to be side by side coming out of turn five, with the Red Bull behind beginning to get a sniff. Moving into a space on the right, Leclerc quickly cut Verstappen off in a attempt to distract Vettel. It did not work. The two came perilously close to touching before Leclerc ran wide and gifted the position to Verstappen – who in turn became a tad concerned with his front wing.
The progress did not stop, and Verstappen was quickly into the top ten.
Ahead, Hamilton had a poor start and found himself fighting in a pack in sixth. Verstappen could begin to see them, trailing Hamilton by just five seconds. It was at this point where Hamilton got his head in gear and began to clear the ones ahead and pull away – a botched pit stop from McLaren for Daniel Ricciardo certainly helped matters.
Running in the top five, Verstappen bolted on the hard tyres and found himself getting back up to seventh after a number of laps.
Then it started to go a bit peak tong for the Dutchman. The hard tyres did not seem to work as well as the mediums, and Verstappen found himself struggling to ‘turn the car’ – in his words.
Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez opted to go long in the first stint, meaning they were on full attack mode on fresher tyres. Perez came out in front of his Red Bull teammate and began pulling away, whilst Verstappen found himself in the rare situation of being overtaken by a car that wasn’t a Mercedes.
Alonso was having a good day, as past the Red Bull he went. Verstappen was stuck in seventh, whilst his title rival Hamilton was closing down Lando Norris for the lead. To make matters worse for him, Leclerc also had fresher tyres and was eating into the gap between himself and Verstappen.
Then the slice of good fortune came, something Verstappen has lacked this season. Well, good fortune mixed with skilled communication and class decision making.
The rain hit, if you could not tell.
Verstappen managed to keep his car on the black stuff before his change to inters, something many around him failed to do. On his lap into the pitlane, Verstappen had managed to pass Ricciardo and Sainz, before capitalising on Alonso and Perez staying out for one more lap.
Inters were clearly the decision at this point, and the Dutchman found himself in a situation similar to a player in the Formula 1 game against 0% AI. Vettel, Perez, Alonso and Leclerc were all done by Verstappen within a lap. Third place was now occupied.
Then, Norris went off as he remained on slicks. Passing the devastated McLaren at the pit entry, Verstappen was in second. Hamilton was first.
Those two are inevitable.
You cannot blame Hamilton for being a little disheartened, despite gaining the championship lead and achieving his 100th win in Formula 1. Climbing out of his machine at parc ferme, the last thing Hamilton would have wanted to see was Verstappen’s Red Bull pull into the second position slot.
So, after all the shenanigans, the gap at the top is just two points. But the question is, will Hamilton actually take a fourth power unit, or risk what he has now?
The Motorsport Formula 