Nifty driving and team choice-making made the difference. Verstappen, who started in the back row, finished second.
SOCHI, Russia—Rain has implications in many sports, and it is definitely a factor in Formula 1 racing, It’s a matter of how teams/drivers respond. And on Sunday afternoon in Russia, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton responded well following a late-race rain shower.
The adjustments enabled Hamilton to overtake McLaren’s Lando Norris and win his 100th career race. In so doing, Hamilton also took a two-point lead in the 2021 World Championship ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished second 53 seconds behind. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. finished third.
Lewis Hamilton: I want to start by thanking the fans – we have such a great crowd here. Wow! 100. Going to bed last night, there were subtle little mistakes with the job that I did yesterday. I was so determined to do the best job I could. It was tough. Max must have done a good job to get up to second. The rain came, and it was an opportunistic and great call, my team.
And Hamilton was right about Verstappen’s finish, who began the race in the last row, but ended the race as the runner-up. When asked about his last-to-almost-first day, Verstappen had this to say. “To go from previous to second is very, very good. With the penalty, we had only to lose one spot is not too bad. From the back, many things happen in the first lap and even in the first stint with a lot of cars fighting each other. You have to stay clean, and I think we managed to do that pretty well, and then the crucial call to go to the inters worked out.”
Hamilton had a poor start but continued to be no worse than sixth, getting stuck behind the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo and even locking up his tires, having to pit for new ones. Hamilton decided to use an undercut with his team, which could put him ahead of his rivals, Sainz Jr. and Norris, who took the lead on lap 13 and maintained it for most of the race. Because of his strategy, Hamilton was now in second with Verstappen.
Norris continued to lead, having more speed in the straights than the corners, which gave Hamilton an advantage. Then, with seven laps to go, the expected rain finally arrived, enough for Hamilton to pit for intermediates. The gap was now 25 seconds.
Norris–fearing that he would lose the lead–decided to take a risk and tough it out on the slicks. But the McLaren driver could not keep control of the car. After sliding out and nearly hitting the barriers, he decided that coming in for intermediate tires was the best choice, which meant losing his position and eventually finishing seventh.
Hamilton assumed the lead and went on to win his record 100th race, which enabled him to retake the lead in the driving championship and also to expand Mercedes’ lead over Red Bull in the chase for the Constructors title.
For Sainz Jr., who took the lead early, it was another podium for Ferrari. “First off, all, I got a good launch, and that was the priority,” he said “But then the rain came at the worst possible time because my hard tires were going away. We make the right call at the right time, though, and managed to get back into P3 and a solid race in general.”
Ricciardo ended up fourth overall, while Mercedes Valtteri Bottas had a quiet race despite the conditions, finishing in fifth. Fernando Alonso took sixth in the Alpine, while eighth went to Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo. Ninth went to the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, while Williams George Russell took tenth after starting the race from third.
Only seven rounds are left in the 2021 season. The next race, in Istanbul, Turkey, comes in two weeks on the weekend of October 8-10.
