Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Sochi Autodrom, 2021

2021 Russian Grand Prix race result

2021 Russian Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsTime/gapDifferenceReason
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes531hr 30m 41.001s
233Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda5353.27153.271
355Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari5362.4759.204
43Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes5365.6073.132
577Valtteri BottasMercedes5367.5331.926
614Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault5381.32113.788
74Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes5387.2245.903
87Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari5388.9551.731
911Sergio PerezRed Bull-Honda5390.0761.121
1063George RussellWilliams-Mercedes53100.55110.475
1118Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes53116.19815.647
125Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes521 lap1 lap
1310Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda521 lap35.563
1431Esteban OconAlpine-Renault521 lap12.925
1516Charles LeclercFerrari521 lap7.916
1699Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari521 lap24.853
1722Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda521 lap18.975
189Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari512 laps1 lap
196Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes476 laps4 laps
Not classified
47Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari3221 laps15 lapsHydraulic

Fastest lap: Lando Norris

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2021 Russian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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40 comments on “2021 Russian Grand Prix race result”

  1. What a crazy race.

  2. Norris, Perez, and Leclerc dropped the ball.

    1. I don’t think that’s really fair to say. Hamilton did not think Intermediates were the right choice either, the team just pushed the matter – no driver can predict the future, and it looked for a very brief time that the rain may have been easing.

      Norris was superb in a car that is absolutely miles off the Mercedes pace, and it would have been a very deserving first win. It worked out for Verstappen too; I didn’t expect that!

      1. Miles off the pace is a bit of a stretch. Faster in a straight line today and given the difficulty to overtake today I think you might be pushing it a bit.

        1. You are right Ian: that McLaren is a good car, challenging the RedBull and Mercedes on legitimate pace.

        2. Yes, ‘miles off’ is a bit of a stretch, but the Merc is considerably faster until they hit dirty air. The McLaren is just a difficult car to overtake due to their great straight line speed (and top driving!), but their true pace is definitely over .5s a lap off Merc, as evidenced by the rate Hamilton caught Norris.

          Crazy race though!

    2. Well, their teams did anyway…

    3. @jerejj
      I agree with Gary here, it’s quite rude to say it was the drivers’ fault. The driver doesn’t look at the weather radar, the team has to tell them what’s going. It only went wrong when it suddenly started to pour heavily and there is no way a driver can know that without the team talking them through this scenario.
      When you know there are big rain clouds coming, you simply have to call the driver into the pits, there is no other option.

      I like that McLaren weren’t settling for a safe podium, but rather gambled on a win. Ironically, going for the safe call would’ve won them the race today.
      Looking back at the results, I now realize most teams split their strategies (but not Mercedes). In that way the teams made sure they had at least one driver on the right tires.
      Mercedes on the other hand, didn’t have anything to lose with Bottas and going for Inters was the only way for Hamilton to beat Norris.

      1. @srga91 He still can mostly blame himself for rejecting the inter calls.

    4. They got cursed.

  3. Forza Kimi! Surely P7?!?

    1. @huhhii I doubt Norris gets a penalty, given circumstances.

      1. @jerejj And why do you think that? Surely a slam-dunk penalty. He crossed the pit lane entry line twice. First one can be put into force majeure due to weather conditions but not the second one.

        1. @huhhii Track conditions + slick tyres should fit the Force Majeure criteria.
          I’m positive he gets some slack on this occasion.

      2. @huhhii @jerejj I didn’t see a single stewards’ investigation the whole race, and haven’t heard anything being investigated afterwards either. Maybe they didn’t have stewards this weekend…

        1. @keithedinn He has been summoned to the stewards already: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/pvut63/lando_norris_has_officially_been_summoned_to_the/

          No news of the outcome yet though.

          1. The president is obviously Hamilton in Germany, but I’d say this is slightly different as he correctly entered thevl pit lane, then slid out of it, rather than entering it too late.
            Yes, he then re-enteted, but I think he rejoined the pit lane safely, as you should rejoin the track safely.

        2. @jerejj @eurobrun Yeah he got away with a reprimand. Disastrously bad stewarding yet again. Really amazes me how often the stewards get it completely wrong. Rules are rules, and this was a very clear breaking of the rule. Lando should have kept going for another lap after failing to stay inside of the pit entry.

  4. Alonso overtook both Red Bulls today to eventually lose a podium. What a shame.

    And Verstappen was saved by rain. Without it, not even top 5. What a lucky guy.

    1. Alonso has had so many stellar drivers from 2015 on, but somehow things never seem to work out for him to grab that podium. If he’d managed to nail the right lap to switch to inters today he could have had P2, since he was ahead of Ver before the rain.

  5. Norris, a bridge too far.

    Norris had a choice of a certain finish in 2nd place , or a gamble with more rain coming in.
    Why was his pit radio not more forceful?

    They can see what Norris can’t see, that there was more rain, they would have known what the conditions means ….
    They should have ordered him to pit.

    In the end Experiance told, well done Hamilton. 100th race win. The only dampner , Verstappens finishes 2nd.

    1. Hamilton is fighting for the WDC and WCC it makes sense for him to take less risk.

    2. I don’t understand why they didn’t bail Norris and pit him the lap after Hamilton. It was clear he was already losing 10+ seconds in one lap and could barely keep it on the circuit. They needed to bite the bullet and consolidate P2 at that point.

      1. I think they did pit a lap after ham. That lap was super slow, it just felt like 2.

        1. @ivan-vinitskyy So much happened in the last 5 minutes I have no idea. I thought he’d stayed out an extra lap but I could well be wrong. Need to re-watch it.

      2. Haven’t read it yet but with track position and just a few laps to go it could have very well been a safety (stroll/ gasly could have been worse) and Lando would have won under the safety car

  6. Gutted for Norris. He would have won that race from pole if dry.

    Storming drive from Alonso too.

    1. Storming drive from Alonso too.

      ..apart from the L1 shenanigans..

      1. @balue Shades of Singapore 2008. I didn’t see it but the commentators said Alonso had ‘practiced’ going off on the formation lap – and then promptly did so on the first lap. So it was a premeditated move. The point is that he gained a whole heap of places, not just one, and gave none back. Sneaky smart but not particularly laudable.

        1. @david-br That was borderline cheating, but he’s already complained the point about T1 offs gaining advantage without getting punished, and without any reaction from anybody decided to do it himself.

          1. @balue true, I remember him saying that some time ago, maybe various times. It was the ‘rehearsal’ bit that instantly reminded me of Piquet Jr. I guess…

        2. @david-br He was wide by side with Stroll going into T1 and filtered in behind Stroll before T3. Don’t think he gained any positions.

          1. @keithedin Maybe an optical illusion! I’d have to see it again, you may well be right, I honestly don’t know.

    2. @balue If it stayed dry he would have never been top 3 to begin with. You can’t claim driver superiority when it rains and it works out and then cry bad luck when it doesn’t work out

      1. @ivan-vinitskyy He won qualifying on merit when others crashed or were not fast enough. When it started to rain in the race the team should have overridden his objection like they did with Hamilton. He was unlucky the team played this so poorly. They had the weather radar, he didn’t.

  7. And the Biggest Winner goes to – Verstappen. Fresh PU with 2nd place finish, no need to worry on PU change. Meanwhile Mercedes will be headache to balance Hamilton’s PU while fighting a fierce competition this year, anyone leading will give hard time for Team Mercedes for overtaking.

    1. I’m surprised people aren’t factoring in how difficult that mercedes is to overtake in. I keep hearing how fast that car is in clear air but who cares when there is no clear air and it’s Williams like behind another car.

  8. Marinated Monolith (@)
    26th September 2021, 14:57

    F1 is, ultimately, a team sport. And you go against the advice of your team at your own risk.

    To be fair to Lando, Alonso also decided to stay out for longer than he should’ve and he’s been doing this for 15 years longer.
    They, along with Sainz, still has my vote for DotW though.

  9. McLaren…
    Grow some nuts and tell Norris to pit next time. That’s what all your computers are for, isn’t it?

    Norris did well today. Mclaren did not.

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