Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, ahead of Max Verstappen.
Scuderia Ferrari decided to use the medium tyres for Carlos Sainz in the first stint of the race, just like most of the drivers in the top ten, while Charles Leclerc started the Russian Grand Prix with hard tyres, in an attempt to extend the first stint as long as possible and rely on the fasater compounds in the second part of the race.
At lights out, Carlos Sainz led into Turn 2, with a great move from the Ferrari around the outside of Lando Norris and despite a lock up he was able to keep it on the track at Turn Two and speed off into the lead. Charles Leclerc also had a great start and was up to 13th from 19th after the first few corners.
Unfortunately, the tyre degradation on the SF21 car was higher than the McLaren’s and on lap 13 Carlos was passed by Norris: a big speed advantage through the second DRS straight and he passed the Ferrari before the braking zone. The Spanish driver’s race pace with hard tyres was far from ideal and Carlos eventually lost a lot of time behind Bottas, unable to lap faster with fresher tyres than Norris with older compounds.
However, Carlos Sainz appeared to have got through the graining stage on his tyres and in the last 10 laps was looking strong for third place, but eventually Sergio Perez passed Carlos for third.
On the other hand, Charles showed a good race pace on the hard tyres, helped by the upgraded power unit and was able lap close to the times or Red Bull and Mercedes. The Monegasque driver’s first pit stop came on lap 36, but it was a slow one and Charles was back in 13th place, having to make up ground for a points finish in the last ten laps. Some nice overtaking moves from Charles to recover up to eighth place, as the risk of rain increased for the last few laps. Carlos decided to pit for inters and proved the right choice as the Spanish driver recovered to third place and scored another podium for the Maranello team, while Charles remained on slicks and lost a lot of time when the rain heavily hit the track in the final laps to finish outside the top ten.
Russian Grand Prix – Here are the complete race results from this afternoon’s 2021 F1 World Championship race from Sochi.
Results (Classification):
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes– 53 laps
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +53.271
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +62.475
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +65.607
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +67.533
Fernando Alonso Alpine +81.321
Lando Norris McLaren +87.224
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +88.955
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +90.076
George Russell Williams Racing +100.551
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +106.198
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1 lap
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +1 lap
Esteban Ocon Alpine + 1 lap
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo + 1 lap
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri + 1 lap
Nikita Mazepin Haas +2 laps
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing NC
Mick Schumacher Haas NC
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