An uneventful race weekend in Turkey, you say? Here's why it wasn't.

Some might say the Turkish Grand Prix weekend was an uneventful one...it was anything but. Kimi and his drink, redemption for Valtteri, a new Driver of the Day, the Diabolica, the ever-changing weather conditions, a grippier track, engine penalties - it had it all!

Brilliant Bottas

Valtteri Bottas could not have asked for a better race weekend. Over a year from his last win and less than 10 races to go in his Mercedes career, another win for the Finn in the German outfit started to look increasingly unlikely. But on a weekend where his teammate had a 10-place grid penalty, he was expected to deliver. And so he did.

Ever since Bottas found out about his future at Alfa Romeo, a secure one at that, it seems to have lit a spark in him. It’s almost as if we’re witnessing a new, freer Bottas. What he describes as “one of the best races I’ve ever had” saw him take pole - one he inherited from Lewis Hamilton - dominate almost the entire race to win his tenth ever and solidify his hold on P3 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Valtteri drove a faultless race and thoroughly deserved the win. Here’s to hoping this wasn’t the last time we heard the Finnish National Anthem this season. And if Mercedes do win the Constructors’ Championship, Bottas, without a doubt, has and will play a significant part in it.

“Leave it alone, man.”

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, though, things weren’t as smooth sailing. Running in P3 for quite some time after Leclerc and Perez ahead of him had pitted, Lewis Hamilton looked like he was on a zero-stop strategy and would finish P3 after starting P11.

Hamilton, who was fastest in Qualifying, started in P11 after a 10-place grid penalty for fitting a new Internal Combustion Engine. He had damage limitation to do over the 58 laps of the race - makeup places to reduce Verstappen’s Championship lead. On Lap 50, with Verstappen at this point leading the Championship by only one point, things were looking good for Lewis, up until he came into the pits, after which he rejoined the race in P5 behind Perez and Leclerc.

Questionable strategy? With only eight laps left, it looked like it. Why did Lewis agree to it? In his defence, no one told him he’d lose two positions in doing so. But the question is, could he have held on to P3 till the end without a pit stop? Seeing that Ocon had done it successfully, Hamilton liked his chances when asked about it after the race. But Ocon didn’t have to charge through the field. With the data Mercedes had during the race, they believed pitting was the best option. Had he not done so, with his depleting tyre performance, Mercedes predicted that he would’ve finished P8. But, we can never know for sure...

“You owe me a couple of Tequilas.”

After the battle between Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton on Lap 34 and 35, where Sergio held off Lewis to maintain P4 and, more importantly, keep him away from Max Verstappen, Max owes him those Tequilas.

The 2020 Turkish GP was where Hamilton won his seventh World Championship, but the 2021 Turkish GP might have just been the race that denies him his record-breaking eighth World Championship. Verstappen’s drive from P20 to P2 in Sochi was undoubtedly crucial in his title fight against Hamilton. But the defence Perez put up might just prove to be even more critical. This was a race at the end of which Verstappen regained the Championship lead - now with six points between himself and Hamilton - a lead that most likely would’ve been of just one point had it not been for Sergio’s exceptional defence.

The second drivers to the Championship protagonists have proved to be very important this season. If Max and Lewis stay as close in battle as they have so far, the Championship might well be decided by the performances Checo and Valtteri put in in the remaining races.

The Driver of the Day

After seven seasons in the sport and some phenomenal performances over the years, it must come as a surprise that this is the first time Carlos Sainz has been voted Driver of the Day after it was introduced in 2016 because he sure was surprised.

Carlos seems to have found himself at Ferrari. The way he’s adapted to a car that a four-time World Champion in Vettel found challenging to handle in such a short time - amazing. Like Lando Norris, his former teammate, said, “Not many people knew how good Carlos is, and this year Carlos has proved how good he is against Charles, whom everyone rates as one of the best drivers in Formula 1.”

And Charles is one of the best. Without a doubt. Carlos has teamed drivers like Verstappen and Norris, and now Leclerc, all of whom are considered to be “generational talent”, which might be the reason Carlos’ performances fly under the radar a lot of the time. But people often forget how young he is as well, and with the talent and skill he possesses, he too is a generational talent.

Starting P19 to finish P8, and in the process, making 12 overtakes is no easy feat, but Sainz made it look like a walk in the park. It looks like the Driver of the Day in Istanbul has bigger plans for 2022...

“If you stay ahead of Bottas, P1.”

This was not the answer Charles was looking for when asking about his tentative position at the end of the race, given the pace he was doing. But it has to be said - Ferrari have been pretty good with their strategies lately. The decision to keep Charles out as long as they did in the race might not have been the best thing to do, but they were spot on with the other strategies they employed over the weekend.

Coming into Turkey, given their performance here in 2020, Ferrari were confident they had a car that could potentially compete for a place on the podium, just as they did last year. With their engine upgrade (which looked good in Russia for Charles), the wet weather conditions and Sainz’s skill in the rain, and otherwise, this was definitely the right place for them to take an engine penalty for Carlos.

Looking at how good their short-run pace was, Carlos did lose heart, but considering how good their long-run pace was as well, he knew he could use that to his advantage. And he did. Brilliantly.

Given his penalty, Carlos wasn’t expecting to participate in Qualifying as much as he did. With the tricky track conditions, Ferrari’s low downforce settings and high traffic in Sector Three, Charles found it hard to put in a clean lap. In Q2, though, Ferrari sent Carlos to give his teammate a slipstream, which helped Charles advance to Q3 and qualify a brilliant P4. Carlos’ Q1 lap that made sure he advanced to Q2 also pushed Daniel Ricciardo, in a McLaren, into the elimination zone and out of Qualifying. Given that McLaren are their main competition for P3 in the Constructors’ Championship, knocking Ricciardo out of Qualifying - which would later result in him taking a penalty and starting behind Carlos - played to their advantage and helped them close the gap to them in the Championship.

Turkey was a win-win-win situation for Ferrari. But it also has to be said that Leclerc losing out on the podium two years in a row in Istanbul to the same driver, Sergio Perez, was a little harsh.

Tense times down at Alpine

Fernando Alonso’s Alpine was in an excellent position to finish the race in the top 5. However, his mega Qualifying effort was lost in the first few seconds of the race when he was spun around by the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly going into Turn 1.

Watching him slide down the order to join back in P16, Alpine turned their attention to their French driver, Esteban Ocon, who started in P12, now running in P11 after his teammate’s spin. As the Intermediate tyres started degrading to “Slicktermediates” and drivers around him began pitting for a new set, Alpine decided to keep Esteban out - see if he could go the distance and make his starting set last till the very end. The gamble paid off, and he became the first driver in 24 years to go the full race distance without pitting, that is, if this year’s “race” at Spa-Francorchamps isn’t considered.

If there’s anything we learned from the Russian GP, it’s that good communication can either make or break your chances. And that’s precisely what Alpine did. They ran the risk of potentially not scoring any points at the end of the race. But with Ocon’s tyre management and Alpine’s clear strategy and communication with him, they pulled it off! If only Hamilton had the option of nursing his tyres the way Esteban did.

Who knew the rule about using two compounds of tyres in a race is not applicable in wet conditions? Alfa Romeo definitely didn’t.

“My arms are too short to turn the wheel.”

There may be times when Gasly might feel his arms are too short to turn his steering wheel (referring to high understeer). But feeling like he hasn’t done a good enough job throughout a race weekend is not something he would often feel because off-weekends for him this season have been few and far between. Qualifying P5 and sealing his spot in P4 for the race start, and with an excellent Honda engine at the back of his car, he too, like Alonso, looked a strong contender for a top 5 finish.

Had it not been for the 5-second penalty he got for his Lap 1 incident with Alonso, which was a little harsh, P5 was his for the taking. Who’s to say he couldn’t have challenged even Leclerc for P4 in the closing stages? In the end, he crossed the finish line in P6 - just a couple of seconds off of Hamilton after being right on his tail for the last few laps of the race - to record his fifth top 6 finish of 2021.

A good race weekend in Turkey looked almost certain for Alpha Tauri, with both drivers starting in the top 10 and showing great pace. Yuki Tsunoda made a Q3 appearance for only the third time, qualifying P10 and starting in P9. Yuki needed a clean weekend for himself and his team, which looked the case for a large part of the race. He defended extremely well from Hamilton in the first few laps of the race but was later passed on Lap 8. He looked in a good position to finish P9, that is until he lost his front going into Turn 9 and spun, losing places to Vettel, Ocon and Giovinazzi.

Formula 1 can be a lonely sport at times, and Yuki knows that. Although Alex Abon, Red Bull’s reserve driver, has been helping him through this, he needs a good weekend that’ll help boost his confidence.

The Star of Qualifying

George Russell, Mr Saturday himself, was surprisingly not the star of qualifying at Istanbul Park. In Q2, though, he was on what looked like a great lap to get himself into Q3 yet again, only to be denied by a slippery Turn 14 - a corner Charles Leclerc fell prey to earlier in the session - where he ran wide and, as a result, couldn’t improve his time.

The star of Qualifying, though, was Mick Schumacher. He put in a belter of a lap to make it to Q2 for only the second time in his career, this being the first time he would actively participate in it. He qualified in P14, ahead of a Ferrari and a McLaren, which put him in a good position for Sunday. But it wasn’t meant to be as an out-of-position Alonso, trying to make his way back up the field, found himself in P15 wanting to overtake the rookie on Lap 2, and in the process, collided with and caused him to spin - an incident Alonso later got penalised for.

Haas may have decided not to develop their car in 2021, but Mick has certainly developed himself as a driver over the season.

The Curious Case of Kimi and his Drink

If ever you need a little upliftment, listening to Kimi’s radio comms might just do the trick. A story that started at the Hungaroring in 2018, when Kimi was with Ferrari, and his drinking system wasn’t connected, is to this day a source of laughter for Formula 1 fans worldwide. The Turkish GP produced a sequel to the story, and this time, it was Kimi who disconnected the drinking system leaking into his helmet, which led to the drink leaking into his boots. Understandably annoyed, his sequence of radio messages to his engineer is worth a listen!

Aditi Krishnan

aditikrishnan21@gmail.com