2021 Turkish Grand Prix: Bottas Wins at Istanbul Park

Held on 10 October 2021 at Istanbul Park in Tuzla, the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix was a Formula One round. It was the sixteenth of twenty-two rounds in the championship. Valtteri Bottas won from pole, a position he gained after Lewis Hamilton was dropped ten places on the grid.

Why was the race held in October?

The event was first set for 11 to 13 June, replacing the cancelled Canadian Grand Prix. It was postponed because of COVID-19 quarantine rules in Turkey and travel restrictions the British government placed on arrivals from there. The race was added back to the calendar on 25 June after the Singapore Grand Prix was cancelled.

A further change pushed the race back one week to 8 to 10 October on 28 August, as the number of Grands Prix on the calendar was reduced. It was the second consecutive year that Turkey had appeared as a replacement round, and the race ran with spectators in attendance after being held behind closed doors in 2020.

Bottas won his final race for Mercedes, ahead of Verstappen.

What was the history of the venue?

The 2021 race was the ninth Turkish Grand Prix, and every edition had taken place at Istanbul Park. Three former winners were on the entry list: Hamilton, who won the event in 2010 and 2020, Sebastian Vettel, who won in 2011, and Kimi Raikkonen, who took the inaugural race in 2005.

The race also marked the last Turkish Grand Prix before the scheduled return in 2027. Ten constructors entered two drivers each, with no changes from the regular season entry list.

What was different about the cars and tyres?

Mission Winnow, the title sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari, was banned from appearing at the race. Sponsor logos had not been used from the French to the Italian Grands Prix for legal reasons, and they returned at the Bahrain and later rounds. Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri both ran liveries that paid tribute to Honda, their engine supplier, on what would have been Honda's home race in Japan.

Red Bull's cars were predominantly white, inspired by the livery Honda used when it won its first Formula One race, at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The AlphaTauri cars carried the word arigato, which means thank you in Japanese. Five drivers also tried a prototype glove design in the first practice session, intended to prevent burns of the kind Romain Grosjean suffered at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Pirelli, the sole tyre supplier, brought its middle three compounds, the C2, C3 and C4. The track surface had been water-blasted after the smooth tarmac gave little grip the year before, but Pirelli only learned of this after its tyre choices had been made. After the first two practice sessions, Pirelli's Formula One boss Mario Isola said the selection was too aggressive.

Where did the championships stand before the race?

Mercedes led Red Bull by thirty-three points in the Constructors' standings. In the Drivers' standings Hamilton held a two-point lead over Verstappen, while Bottas was twelve points ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and thirty-one ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

How did free practice unfold?

Three one-hour free practice sessions took place, two on Friday and one on Saturday. Hamilton was fastest in the first session, ahead of Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, and he topped the second session ahead of Leclerc and Bottas. The first two sessions were dry, but the third was run in the wet.

In that wet session Pierre Gasly was fastest, ahead of Verstappen and Perez. Russell beached his Williams in the gravel, which brought out a red flag. Gasly missed the second session while his AlphaTauri mechanics diagnosed an engine fault.

How did Bottas take pole position?

Bottas took pole position in qualifying, although Hamilton had set the fastest time in the final segment. Because Hamilton used his fourth new internal combustion engine of the season, he received a ten-place grid penalty, which moved Bottas to the front. It was the eighteenth pole position of Bottas's Formula One career.

Verstappen took third, with Leclerc fourth and Gasly fifth. Alonso was sixth, Perez seventh and Norris eighth, while Stroll ninth and Tsunoda tenth completed the top ten. Qualifying was held under overcast skies, with air temperatures of eighteen to nineteen C (64 to 66 F).

Several drivers were eliminated in the earlier segments. Ricciardo, Latifi, Giovinazzi, Raikkonen and Mazepin went out in the first segment, while Sainz, Schumacher, Russell, Ocon and Vettel fell away in the second. Sainz had extra power unit components fitted, which meant he would start from the back regardless of where he qualified.

How did the race start?

The race began at 15:00 local time on Sunday under overcast skies, with light rain falling throughout. Ferrari and McLaren replaced the hybrid systems on the cars of Sainz and Ricciardo, so both started from the back of the grid. Hamilton started eleventh because of his engine penalty.

Alonso and Gasly tangled at the first corner on the opening lap. Gasly took a five-second penalty, while Alonso spun and rejoined in fifteenth. Alonso later touched Schumacher and received the same penalty. Hamilton passed Vettel on the first lap and got ahead of Tsunoda on the eighth, before passing Norris on the eleventh.

Sainz made several overtakes early on, climbing from nineteenth to ninth by the eighteenth lap. On the fourteenth lap he tried to go down the inside of Vettel at the eleventh turn. He had to use the inside kerb to stay on track in the damp conditions, which upset his car, and he struck Vettel's front left tyre.

How did the tyre strategy split the field?

Teams struggled to decide when to switch tyres, because the track did not dry quickly enough to allow a switch to slicks. Fresh intermediates were expected to be slower at first than the tyres already fitted, because rubber graining would affect them. Verstappen and Bottas pitted for intermediates on the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh laps.

Vettel tried medium slicks at one point, but the change did not work, and he made another stop to return to intermediates on the following lap. Leclerc had hoped to stay out for the rest of the race, while Hamilton waited for the track to dry enough for slicks. Bottas passed Leclerc on the forty-seventh lap to regain the lead, after which Leclerc pitted.

Hamilton stopped on the fiftieth lap, because the team believed staying out would cost him fifth place to Gasly. Both Hamilton and Leclerc were dissatisfied with the outcome of their tyre changes.

Who won and who lost ground?

Bottas won his final race for Mercedes, ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen retook the lead of the Drivers' Championship from Hamilton, who finished fifth after his late pit stop.

Ocon finished tenth without making a single pit stop. Over the final ten laps he gave up forty-eight seconds to Sainz. Ocon was the first driver to complete a full race distance without a pit stop in twenty-four years, since Mika Salo did it at the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix. There were no retirements during the race.

What happened in the aftermath?

Martin Brundle said Hamilton should take responsibility for his initial pit strategy, as he should have respected the original instructions to pit. Jenson Button, commentating for the broadcast, also suggested Hamilton had only pitted because he did not realise he would lose track positions after the stop.

Gasly said the drivers would speak to the race director about the stewards' recent decisions. Gasly had been penalised for his first-lap contact with Alonso, while Alonso was not penalised for improving his qualifying lap under double waved yellow flags. Race director Michael Masi said a system that deletes any lap completed under double waved yellows might be adopted from the next race. Alonso apologised to Schumacher for the opening-lap collision.

Norris and Tsunoda both complained that surface spray, mixed with oil and dirt, had hindered their visibility. Tsunoda felt that the spray contributed to a spin that cost him a points position. Masi said no other drivers had raised the matter with him, and he did not believe the conditions justified suspending the race.

How did the leading contenders finish?

What did the result mean for the title race?

The result put Verstappen back at the top of the Drivers' standings. Verstappen felt Mercedes had stepped up their performance significantly compared with earlier races.

Christian Horner was surprised by Mercedes' recent improvement in straight-line speed.