Hamilton Takes 100th F1 Win In Russian Rain
Calum Gill 15:23 26/09/2021
Lewis Hamilton won his 100th race in Formula 1, as a frantic last few laps in the Russian Grand Prix caused by heavy rain dashed Lando Norris' hopes of a maiden victory.
And the rain helped Hamilton's title rival Max Verstappen vault from seventh to second in his Red Bull after timing his change to wet tyres perfectly. The Briton's win puts him back into the title lead but Verstappen's drive from the back of the grid in Sochi means Hamilton's advantage is only two points. Hamilton already held the record for most F1 wins with Michael Schumacher next in the all-time list with 91 victories. The late downpour turned the race on its head and while it gave the Mercedes driver a victory, it helped Verstappen even more.
McLaren's Norris, who took his maiden pole position on Saturday, was leading with five laps to go in his McLaren when it started to rain. It was light initially and only over a few corners, but Verstappen, who was at that point struggling in seventh place, was one of the first drivers to pit for treaded intermediate tyres. It was the making of his afternoon as Norris and Hamilton - more than 30 seconds up the road in their battle for the lead - initially stayed out. A similar decision briefly vaulted Alpine's Fernando Alonso, who was leading Verstappen in sixth place before the rain, to third. Halfway around the lap following Verstappen's stop, Norris was asked if he wanted to stop for intermediate tyres and he said: "No."
Hamilton was also saying it was not raining that heavily, but was ordered to come in because more rain was coming. He stopped a lap after Verstappen, with four to go, leaving Norris out in front on his slick tyres as the rain fell increasingly heavily. Hamilton was 14.9 seconds behind Norris a lap after he had stopped, but the rain was by now so bad that the seven-time champion caught the McLaren within five more corners and swept by into the lead. Norris finally stopped after tip-toeing around the rest of the lap but the delay in coming in for tyres dropped him down to seventh place at the end.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who stopped for tyres at the same time as Verstappen, took third, while McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas also benefited from early stops for treaded tyres to take fourth and fifth ahead of Alonso. The returning Kimi Raikkonen took eighth for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez, and George Russell in the Williams, who rounded out the top 10.
Norris' maiden victory slides away
The error of judgement by team and driver in the late rain was a bitter blow for Norris after appearing on course for an impressive maiden victory for so long. The 21-year-old lost the lead to Sainz at the start and tracked the Ferrari for 13 laps before re-passing for the lead. Hamilton, meanwhile, had dropped from fourth on the grid to seventh on the first lap and he spent the first part of the race stuck in a train behind Russell in third, who was ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Ricciardo.
When Russell and Stroll pitted out of the way, Ricciardo appeared to be holding Hamilton back to give Norris some breathing space at the front. At the same time Verstappen had made excellent progress from his place on the back row of the grid following an engine penalty and was only two seconds behind Hamilton - with team-mate Sergio Perez and Alonso between them - after just 20 laps. After both Norris and Hamilton had pitted, Norris had a 10-second lead, which the Mercedes driver remorselessly closed.
But with 10 laps to go, Norris appeared to be in control, with Hamilton not able to get within a second of him, only for the rain to change everything. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was another to suffer for a late decision to change tyres. Starting from the back of the grid, he was ninth heading into the closing laps, two spots behind Verstappen, and was briefly up to fourth as the rain threw everything up in the air. But stopping late on the same lap as Norris meant he dropped down out of the points into 15th.
The rest of the field
Stroll came home in eleventh place, despite a 10-second time penalty for a collision with Pierre Gasly. He finished ahead of Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel in twelfth, and Gasly in thirteenth. Esteban Ocon could only manage fourteenth for Alpine, ahead of Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi in the other Alfa Romeo. Yuki Tsunoda was seventeenth in the other AlphaTauri, ahead of home boy Nikita Mazepin in the Haas. The two retirements were for Williams' Nicholas Latifi and Mick Schumacher in the other Haas.
