2021 Russian Grand Prix News
The Russian Grand Prix may have been held in Sochi, but the weekend proved to be rather soggy as it saw cancelled sessions, upside down grids and a record breaking winner. Here are all the best stats from a crazy weekend in Russia (with love).
Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to take his 100th win in F1 and 5th of 2021 so far. This means he has as many career wins as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Daniel Ricciardo combined. Hamilton has also now surpassed 4000 total career points, becoming the first driver in F1 history to break through this milestone.
Just like in the 2008 British Grand Prix, Hamilton won from fourth on the grid in a race which began with a front row made up of drivers who have never won a race between them. The pole sitter had taken their first ever career pole while driving for McLaren. And to add to the spookiness, Fernando Alonso finished 6th for the same team (Renault/Alpine) just like did at Silverstone in 2008. This was the second biggest winning margin (+53.271s) of Hamilton’s career, only being bested by the 2008 British GP (+68.577s).
Max Verstappen took on a fourth power unit at the start of the weekend to condemn himself to the back of the grid. From 20th, the Dutchman gained an impressive 18 places to finish second This was the most places gained in a race by a driver since Sebastian Vettel did the exact same thing in the 2019 German Grand Prix. Thanks to Hamilton’s win, Verstappen has now lost the lead in the drivers’ championship – he’ll go into the Turkish Grand Prix 2 points behind Hamilton.
Red Bull have fallen to 33 points behind Mercedes in constructors’ championship, an increase of 15 points. Despite starting from 16th, Valtteri Bottas managed to finish fifth and ahead of Sergio Perez - who started eighth and finished ninth. Unless Perez can reverse this kind of result, it's hard to see how Red Bull can claw its way back into the title fight. Mercedes has outscored the team by 80 points since the British Grand Prix. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz secured his third podium of 2021 and fifth of his career. Sainz had qualified on the front row for the first time in his career, becoming the first Spanish driver to start there since Fernando Alonso did so in the 2012 German Grand Prix.
Fourth-placed Ricciardo made it back-to-back finishes in the top five for the first time since the 2020 Russian and Eifel grands prix. It was heartbreak for Ricciardo's team mate Lando Norris however. Norris had started the race from pole, the first of his career and the first for McLaren in 170 races. Norris became the 102nd different driver to start from pole in F1 and the 18th different British driver to do so. Norris then led 30 of the 53 laps before making the wrong tyre choice when the rain fell with just a few laps remaining. The British driver dropped to seventh place and was left wondering what could have been.
Alfa Romeo scored points for only the fourth time in 2021, Kimi Raikkonen returning from his COVID-forced absence to finish eighth. The team still lanugishes 14 points behind Williams in the constructors' championship though. At Williams it was more celebration after George Russell plonked his car into third place on the grid. This led to the first McLaren, Ferrari and Williams top three on the grid since Brazil 2004 (Rubens Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya and Raikkonen). Williams have scored 23 points in the past five races, compared to Aston Martin who have only scored 11. Furthermore, Russell has scored the exact same amount of points over the past six races as Perez - 16.
