Our 2021 Russian Grand Prix Result Review is here for a race that was helped by wet Qualifying and delivered plenty on track including a late spray of rain. Ultimately Lewis Hamilton won, which was his 100th win of his career, but the star of the race was Lando Norris who was caught out by the late downpour.
With so much to cover we won’t bored you with too much intro.
Our review usually covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend. This time there’s not much to do.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered. And we don’t blame you.
The 2021 Russian Grand Prix Result Review Summary and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 Russian Grand Prix – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch both races? Well here are the laps that mattered.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – Carlos Sainz makes a good start despite being second on the grid and sneaks past pole sitter Lando Norris into turn four. Behind the top two George Russell keeps third, and there’s loads of movement behind him. Lance Stroll zooms up to fourth. Daniel Ricciardo battles both Alonso and Hamilton and gets the better of both. Hamilton is just seventh at the end of the first lap. Kimi Raikkonen continues his first lap craft and is up to 10th. Kimi yet to lose a place on the start this season.
ORDER – SAI NOR RUS STR RIC ALO HAM PER OCO RAI
Lap 4 – After watching what felt like at least 80 replays of the start we eventually come back to live action. Not a bad time to see how the stars are going at the back from the group who all took penalties. Bottas is 14th, Verstappen is 15th but Leclerc is best in 12th. Bottas sets a fastest lap.
Lap 5 – Sainz has a two second lead over Norris who is more than five seconds ahead of third placed Russell who heads a tight pack behind him including Stroll, Ricciardo, Hamilton and Perez.
Lap 6 – Verstappen overtakes Nottas for 14th. Normally a move for 14th means bugger all for a grand prix, but this gives Verstappen a leg up in his chase for Hamilton for the Championship. You could argue that Valtteri made that very easy for Max. You could also argue that Bottas had four fingers on the steering wheel during that overtake leaving one finger free for Lewis Hamilton. A few laps later Max overtakes Gasly for 13th. He is still behind Leclerc.
Lap 9 – Norris has closed to within a second, and importantly within DRS, of Carlos Sainz for the lead. They are seven or so seconds ahead of third placed Russell. Token shot of a radar for rain.
ORDER – SAI NOR RUS STR RIC HAM PER ALO OCO RAI
Lap 10 – Leclerc overtakes Vettel for 11th but runs too deep. Vettel retakes him, Then Max Verstappen overtakes Leclerc for 12th. Ouch for Leclerc, great for Max.
Lap 12 – George Russell continues to caravan the field in third which drags Lewis Hamilton closer to a chasing Max Verstappen and seeing the Mercedes driver drift further from the lead.
Lap 13 – Lando Norris overtakes Carlos Sainz for the lead down the back straight. To the surprise of the commentators and coverage who had to drag themselves away from talking about some other much duller shit.
Lap 14 – Lance Stroll pitted on Lap 12 going for the undercut, and it worked out a treat when he came out in front of Russell who pitted at the end of lap 13. That gives the billionaire’s son, I mean, Aston Martin driver a net third place.
Lap 15 – Carlos Sainz pits from second. He comes out just in front of Stroll.
ORDER (Pitstop) – NOR RIC HAM PER ALO OCO RAI VER LEC VET (0 Pits) — SAI 13th STR 14th RUS 15th (1 Stop)
Lap 16 – Big shots for the race (Norris, Ricciardo) and Championship (Hamilton, Verstappen) stay out for now. Verstappen in up to 6th and just 16 seconds behind the leader and a full second quicker than Hamilton and catching quickly. Could there be yet another clash coming? More fastest laps keep coming from Max and he’s just over five seconds from his Championship rival in third by lap 18.
Lap 20 – Are McLaren and others holding on for rain? A look at the radar from the pitlane shows there’s something out there but not quite for the track. Rain would be delicious right now.
Lap 23 – Daniel Ricciardo pits from second which will be a relief for Hamilton. And it is a relief for a bunch of cars that were around him as the McLaren pit stop was super slow by today’s standard. He ends up behind Ocon. Thanks.
Lap 24 – Norris is doing a majestic job at the front of the Russian Grand Prix. He has a 12 second lead over Hamilton in second.
ORDER – NOR HAM PER ALO VER LEC VET GAS BOT SAI
Lap 27 – Hamilton pits. Verstappen pits. Vettel pits. OK, so the third one wasn’t as important but still. Daniel Ricciardo had been setting fastest laps but it is enough to make up the gap to Hamilton. That bloody pitstop. In other good news for Lewis, Max Verstappen ended up coming out behind George Russell.
Lap 29 – Lando Norris pits from the lead. And he has done it so well thus far. Lando gets the premium pitstop unlike his team mate and he ends up fourth and behind Perez, Alonso and Leclerc. Norris has six seconds on Sainz who is currently 6th but a net second. That becomes net third as Lewis Hamilton overtakes the Ferrari on lap 30.
Lap 32 – Ricciardo overtakes Stroll for 8th, followed not long after by Max Verstappen. A quick Championship check sees Hamilton nine seconds or so in front of Verstappen with three cars in between.
ORDER – PER ALO LEC NOR HAM GAS SAI RIC VER STR
Lap 34 – Smelling an oiled-up and speedy Hamilton behind him, Norris overtakes Leclerc for third, putting a car in between him and Lewis Hamilton. Five seconds will help too.
Lap 35 – The rain radar screen continues to tease. Meanwhile old wily racers Perez and Alonso are yet to pit. If that rain comes soon it could be a masterstroke. Of course as soon as the previous sentence has been typed both Alonso and Perez pit. This means all of the dirvers have made a pitstop.
ORDER – NOR HAM SAI RIC PER VER ALO STR RUS OCO
Lap 38 – Lewis Hamilton now within two seconds of Norris for the battle for the lead. Meanwhile Alonso overtakes Verstappen for sixth. As results stand Hamilton takes the Championship lead.
Lap 42 – A quick check-in. Hamilton is chasing Norris for the lead and is just 1.6 seconds away. Sainz is 27 secs behind Lewis Hamilton. Perez is harassing Ricciardo for fourth. Alonso is nearly five seconds behind Perez in sixth and Max is one second further back. Commentators are still talking up the rain. This could make the last laps interesting.
Lap 46 – Perez overtakes Ricciardo for fourth. Even more exciting is that the umbrellas have gone up in the crowd. Rain is here apparently. Better do an order before shits hits the fan.
ORDER – NOR HAM SAI PER RIC ALO VER LEC STR RUS
Lap 47 – Norris runs wide down the back straight. The track must be wetter than it looks on TV. It is on the section of track closest to the sea. No one on wet tyres yet. Hamilton within half a second of Norris.
Lap 48 – Rain is increasing and expected to do so more. Perez overtakes Sainz for third. Norris runs wide again. Hamilton is sliding. Cars must pit now. Those further behind might be lucky to do so earlier than the leaders and get an advantage. Norris and Hamilton stay out.
Lap 49 – Stroll puts Vettel into the wall for fun. The cars behind Perez all pit for wet tyres.
Lap 50 – Hamilton pits for wet tyres and Norris doesn’t. It isn’t raining now, but threat of more. How can you keep up with all this. Norris may just stay out and hang on. What drama. The race continues to give.
Lap 51 – Norris stays out on dry tyres. There are parts of the track which are quite slippery but others not too bad. He is 18 seconds ahead of Hamilton at the start of the lap. Quarter of a lap later it is only eight seconds. A few corners later Norris slides off and has a mini spin. What a crying shame for the McLaren driver. Just went a lap too far. Hamilton takes the lead.
Lap 52 – It is really wet now and poor Lando Norris finally pits. He drops to sixth. What a shame. Lewis Hamilton is a full 51 seconds second in front of Max Verstappen in second – from the back of the grid!
Lap 53 – Lewis Hamilton wins the Russian Grand Prix, had it not been for the rain maybe he wouldn’t. But either way it is win number 100 for him and hats off for that achievement. Max Verstappen does damage limitation very well with second from the back of the grid. Poor old Lando Norris ends up 7th.
FINAL ORDER – HAM VER SAI RIC BOT ALO NOR RAI PER RUS
2021 Russian Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 8/10
Lewis Hamilton takes the Championship lead which seems rather important. But Red Bull had to expect it after taking a penalty, so the damage limitation wasn’t too bad in the end.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
There was a good amount of overtaking and battles throughout the race, and it was helped in part with having faster cars at the back of the grid. But there was an overtake for the lead and most other positions so what else would you like? Then there was the split strategies which mixed up the race even more. Plus the threat of rain for sizzle.
ENDING – 10 / 10
Threat of rain for the last ten laps…then it came. Do drivers pits, stay out? Some timed it to perfection, others not so. Sadly it cost Lando Norris a deserved victory, but it added plenty of excitement for the neutral and F1 fan alike.
OVERALL RATING 26 / 30
A race that had plenty again. A mixed up grid led to good racing throughout, then for added spice the threat of rain eventually came and made the last few laps hard to keep up with.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
Austrian GP – 20/30
British GP – 22/30
Hungarian GP – 26/30
Belgian GP – 0/30
Dutch GP – 12/30
Italian GP – 25/30
2021 Russian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
First ever pole position. Should have won the race if not for staying out a lap too long on dry tyres with the late race downpour. Undoubtedly the star of the weekend. Handled the post race media beautifully. A superstar and a future Champion in waiting.
THE GREAT – LEWIS HAMILTON
Got the race win, and was patient behind others in the first half of the race. Mercedes got the strategy just right, especially during the last race rain. Made up for a bit of a shocker on the Saturday.
THE GREAT – MAX VERSTAPPEN
As he said himself in the post race media bit, he didn’t expect second when he woke up on Sunday morning. But second it was come race day. Solid damage limitation if ever we’ve seen it.
THE GREAT – CARLOS SAINZ
Podium finish for the Ferrari driver, and he led the race as well.
THE GREAT – DANIEL RICCIARDO
Outqualified and outraced again, but not by as big a margin of previous months. Did a solid job on race day to end up fourth.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
GEORGE RUSSELL – Superb qualifying but as ever Mr Saturday disappoints again on a Sunday.
KIMI RAIKKONEN – First race back after Covid and he grabs four points for eighth place.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
SEBASTIAN VETTEL / LANCE STROLL – Threatened with pace during Qualifying and the Race at certain times but ended up pointless. Running into each other late wouldn’t have helped.
PIERRE GASLY / YUKI TSUNODA – One of those races where Pierre Gasly may have sprung a surprise, but it never quite worked out all weekend. Another invisible weekend for Tsunoda. Feels like a wasted seat there for 2022. Bring on Dan Ticktum.
2021 Russian Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 British Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
Read our last edition from after the Italian Grand Prix here.
