Start, Sochi Autodrom, 2021

Rate the race: 2021 Russian Grand Prix

2021 Russian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Russian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2021 Russian Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (38%)
  • 9 (39%)
  • 8 (18%)
  • 7 (3%)
  • 6 (0%)
  • 5 (0%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 295

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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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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71 comments on “Rate the race: 2021 Russian Grand Prix”

  1. 10. A classic. Poor Lando

    1. All we need is sprinklers and a reverse grid.

      At least this wasn’t an upset created by a red flag.

      1. Agree, both very contested things but they’re the right things to create excitement.

    2. 9. F1 is not perfect.
      The drama always helps but before that I can’t understand how some teams just keep falling for the same strategic blunder. Track position is key, mistakes like these in dry conditions are bewildering.

  2. Best Russian GP.

  3. Brilliant. This whole season. Even if the races are bad, the tension is amazing. And what a finish.

    1. Yeah, the tension is like a Hitchcock masterpiece:)

  4. Best Russian GP thus far.

    1. RandomMallard (@)
      26th September 2021, 14:42

      @jerejj That’s like trying to pick a bar of gold from a selection of manure

      1. @randommallard funny you should say that. Last year’s race was quite good. My girlfriend, who previously refused to watch F1, watched that race with me in a cafe in Sardinia and since then has watched most races. She liked it enough to be converted.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          26th September 2021, 14:56

          @hahostolze Fair enough. I might be being a little harsh on Sochi. I didn’t particularly enjoy 2020 too much mainly because it was pretty flat and dull at the front, especially after it was ruled that Hamilton needed to take penalties and Bottas just sort of gave up any kind of attacking.

          2019 was alright because of the Ferrari drama (tow, team orders argument, and then them ruining their own race with retirements and pit stops), and 2018 was good in parts, although spoiled a bit by the merc team orders. I’ve heard, though I wasn’t a fan at the time, that 2017 was alright, ended a bit like today’s was set to with a car on faster tyres behind but unable to overtake the leader.

        2. @hahostolze you watched the race in a cafe in Sardinia? That’s pretty cool 😎

      2. Ahaha, very true analogy.

    2. Yet again a track that usually delivers poor racing comes up with a cracker in 2021. What a season!

  5. Really good race and a great call by Mercedes to pull Hamilton in against his wishes. McLaren dropped the ball not doing the same with Norris.

    Verstappen did well to get through as many cars. Got lucky at the end with the rain but it sounds like Max made the decision to put for inters when he did judging by the team radio – obviously less to lose from 7th than 1st or 2nd.

    Feels like a bit on an anticlimax to have Lewis and Max in 1st and 2nd to be honest. Gutted for Norris.

    1. @petebaldwin Yeah, they shouldn’t have left that choice to a driver that was obviously over-excited. Not that I blame him, that’s some crazy pressure to get thrown at you all of a sudden… For your first win even.

      1. I don’t agree it was silly of norris to not come in, it was the only chance to win, hamilton would’ve jumped him in the pits otherwise and he never won a race so far, and he’d have likely won on the dry also.

        Indeed, I thought the same, verstappen had little to lose by pitting cause you only get 6 points by coming 7th, so I perfectly understand the gamble to pit for him, for hamilton it was also low risk because of the gap he had behind him, had people been closer he probably wouldn’t have risked to end up out of the points or something.

    2. @petebaldwin – Easy to see that in hindsight, but if the rain had held off just another minute or two, Norris’ call would have been spot on. We’ve seen it cut both ways. Merc got it right today.

      Sucks for Norris, but can you imagine if he pulled in for inters and Hamilton had stayed out and won? Rough couple of weeks for Norris.

      (not pushing back on your comment, just sort of adding to it.)

  6. 11/10. Wonderful race.

    1. With you on…. that absolutely brilliant.

  7. I thought Lando had made the right call. The rain was only on one part of the track. Lap or two later it was a downpour. Damn. Maybe his team should’ve realised and pushed for a stop and they could have saved it. Maybe not.

    I’m happy he took the risk, if he’d pulled it off it would have been one for the ages. He’ll get a win sooner or later.

    What a race and to have HAM/VER up there at the end.. what a season!

    1. Absolutely and on the dry he was on course to win imo, he seemed to have the measure of hamilton, mclaren and norris are both good lately.

  8. I feel so bad for NOR, he deserved that one.

    VER extremely lucky (luck swings both ways!) after an average performance.

    Great race, that’s gonna hurt NOR for a while I feel :-(

    1. Lucky it rained but he made the call to stop for inters at he right time.

    2. Yes, verstappen was owed a bit of luck but it’s still nowhere near balanced this year, imo luck only gave him 5 points vs hamilton here. Unfortunately his tyres went down way too soon, otherwise a 4th place looked possible on the try, I was expecting that.

  9. 10. Perfect throughout.

  10. RandomMallard (@)
    26th September 2021, 14:41

    I think this is my first 10/10. Had everything. Good racing throughout, a fight through the pack, late race rain turning everything on it’s head. And history with 100 wins.

    If you’d told me my first 10 out of 10 would have been a race at Sochi, then I would have asked you exactly what hallucigens you were taking.

  11. What a cracking race! Rain or not, that was tense the whole way through! Really feel for Norris. Pretty incredible result for Max. Great to see Lewis finally take that elusive 100th victory. I thought for a brief moment we might even see Fernando on the podium! That was a lot of rain! It reminded me of the 2007 European GP.

    1. Indeed, alonso was on the podium until it started raining heavily.

  12. Haha, I feel for the people who didn’t watch and see the result. And are like how is this a 10 :)

    1. Ahah, true.

  13. 10. A great race that had tension throughout. Even if you ignore the close championship it’s still a brilliant season of races this year.

  14. 10/10. Thrilling race from start to finish. Good on-track battles throughout the field, different strategies playing out, faster cars having to fight their way through, several younger drivers getting a good shot at their best finishes, plus some rain drama at the end.

    Only downside was that we were denied a full, proper on-track battle between Hamilton and Norris at the end because of the rain, but this was still an instant classic.

  15. A very difficult, heart-breaking 9/10 for me. A brilliant tragedy.

    Motorsport can be so unforgiving, but like Massa said in 2008 – that’s racing.

  16. Poor Lando, but these are important lesson for him, great race 10/10. Congrats to Lewis for 100 wins.

  17. 10/10. Absolutely outstanding.

  18. 9. Great fun but DRS trains and a 53 second gap to second place at the end (due to a strategic error or two), plus some bad pit stops took a little edge off.

  19. 9/10
    Just brilliant.
    Lando needs to learn from this. His time will come. Mclaren is on the up.
    Well done Sainz. Well done Russel.

  20. What a race! 10/10, we had amazing strategy and unexpected result with the rain and most importantly, we didn’t have any type of accidents(especially at turn 3).

    Great race, solid result for the championship

  21. This one goes to eleven.

  22. Solid 9. A classic. Fast cars working themselves through te pack. Fantastic driver by the yound dog. Gutting result in the end, max nowhere until it really mattered in the end. Good stuff.

    1. driving*
      young* ofc

  23. Victor (@victorandrei1999)
    26th September 2021, 14:51

    You have to go back to 2012 to find such an exciting season like this. Speaking of 2012, this reminded me about Valencia, which never been great for racing, except for that particular race!

  24. I love the rain, but this time around it destroyed an epic hard fought win for either NOR’s 1st or HAM’s 100th.

    That hurt.

  25. Fantastic race. I gave it a 9 just for the rain in the last laps robbing Norris for his maiden and deserved win.

    1. Definitely understandable reasoning to dock a point for that, a shame for both norris and leclerc; also, bottas was absolutely nowhere till it rained, I think he gained the most out of it with the early inter call.

  26. It was pretty good for F1, I guess. Wouldn’t give it anywhere near a 10 though, personally.

    All the arguments against reverse grids, and yet we essentially had one making the race last longer than the first 2 laps…
    And then the rain came…
    So it seems that for F1 to get a 10 from a lot of fans, we just need reverse grids and wet tracks…. And people laugh at Bernie’s suggestions…

    1. Indeed, I wasn’t a fan of bernie, but these were right ideas.

    2. And btw, if you ever saw any comments from me on reverse grid before this race, you’ll see I was always for that, and also rain.

  27. A 9 for me – I won’t be sad to see Sochi go, but I’m glad it managed to produce a classic before it went.

    Tense, edge of the seat stuff. Superb season.

  28. Best race ever……Lewis never gives up…..what a way to get your 100th win..and what a future Lando has..

  29. Up until the rain fell, I was gonna give it a 7 or an 8. Now I don’t know. It felt like the rain ruined a couple of good drives (Alonso, Leclerc) and an excellent one (Norris) and gave a free pass to two drivers who were nowhere before that (Verstappen and Bottas). It became a lottery that wiped out the previous 47 laps and made it a fight of the team strategies rather than one of the drivers themselves.

    Anyway, I guess it’s good for the championship, but it sucks when you get invested in a driver coming of age in front of your eyes until he gets beaten by a man who needed to be overruled by his team despite being a 7 time champion. Mercedes won this race, not Lewis.

    1. Verstappen wasn’t doing too badly before that, surely worse than I expected but nowhere near bottas!

  30. That was a 10/10. It had everything. Uncertainty, chaos, dry, rain, overtaking for the lead. Everything

  31. Solid 9. Would be a 10 if the track was more visually interesting.

  32. A 10/10 from a McLaren fan. Obviously I wished the result would had been different though.

  33. This one had all the ingredients for a great race so it has to be a ten!

  34. Last to second – Driver Of The Day from me for Max.
    100 wins for the GOAT.
    Lando showing his future potential to be a top driver.
    Great race.

    1. Driver of the weekend is gonna be hard, because norris was exceptional and not sure if a bad call ruins it, hamilton was terrible in quali and on the first stint of the race, verstappen plateaued behind alonso.

    2. Think I’d go for norris all in all.

  35. I need to have a bit of a lie down after that, mega race.

    So happy for Lewis. Nice to see Carlos up there. And gutted for Lando; maybe the wrong call but it could’ve dried up just as quickly, these kinds of things happen and there is no doubt Lando’s time will come.

  36. 1 (1%)
    2 (0%)
    3 (0%)
    4 (0%)
    5 (0%)
    6 (0%)
    7 (2%)
    8 (16%)
    9 (37%)
    10 (42%)
    Total Voters: 201

    This is a 10 for me, absolutely, it was already an exciting race (reverse grid!) before the rain, then it became really crazy, not to mention the end of qualifying was surprising as well, rain is always good to have.

    Many battles even on the dry, shame for norris, leclerc who had a great race and the slick gamble didn’t pay off and alonso who for a moment was on track to get another podium after 2014.

  37. A very good race. Was probably heading for an 8 anyway but with the excitement of the rain. gave it a 9.

    Great to have three drivers who had never won a race, in the first places on the grid. The first time this has happened since 1975 apparently. Good racing and overtakes all the way through. It was interesting that the field did not spread out too much because the two fastest cars were not at the front i.e Merc and RBR.

    Really felt for Lando. He had a fantastic drive and I can see why he stayed out when the rain was light. I really think McLaren dropped the ball though. They have weather radar. I think they should have called him in when the others came in. The chances are he still might have finished 2nd or 3rd but he would not have been 7th. Anyway, he and they will learn a lot from this.

  38. I had to change my hoodie because of the sweat at the end! Total classic!

  39. Everyone seems to rate this lottery of a race very high but it was a 3 for me

  40. All of the three young talents had their heart broken when the first win got away from them so cruelly. Leclerc & Russel in Bahrain and now Norris in Sochi…

  41. 10/10 clearly . 100 race wins for Hamilton and 100% win record for Mercedes in Sochi when it wasn’t expected.

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