The Turkish GP Review

With the championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton closer than ever, going into the Turkish Grand Prix was arguably stepping into a relative unknown. The wet conditions, along with the freshly laid tarmac, in 2020 gave us an exciting race with many struggling to find grip. Now Turkey isn't really a place where you would expect rain and as for people like us, we most probably imagine Turkey as a summer holiday destination. So seeing a wet race in 2020, you would never even imagine seeing something like that happen again and as the saying goes, "Lightning doesn't strike twice". Well, I may have some bad news...

The weather was pretty relentless and continued to rain throughout the race weekend, which for fans is usually seen as quite exciting, however many of us still haven't gotten over the trauma of the Belgian GP. Despite the conditions on the weekend, a race could still be held and so there wouldn't be any disappointed supporters.

A dry qualifying meant that reasonably normal running could continue. A surprise appearance in Q2 came from Mick Schumacher in which he put his car 14th on the grid, the best position for him so far this year. But this article is about the race, so let's get down to it...

With Lewis Hamilton taking a 10 place grid penalty for using a 4th new part to his engine, Bottas was promoted to pole. This was extremely key for Valterri although his dominance in the race proved his pace around the Istanbul Circuit. For Bottas it was a simple race with not many cars getting anywhere near him but any race with wet conditions is not simple and so his focus was extremely important. The only real overtake he had to make was on a struggling Leclerc, who had not pitted yet, to take back the lead of the race and from there he went on to win it. A marvelous race indeed for him and a much-needed confidence boost to take to the last 6 races of the season.

For Red Bull, it was a double podium that was desperately required to help swing the driver's championship back into Max's favour. However, this would not have been possible if wasn't for the epic defending done by Sergio Perez in order to keep the 7-time World Champion behind him. Lap 35 saw Perez and Hamilton having a complete one-on-one scrap in which Hamilton needed to overtake. At one point, Perez was nearly forced into the pitlane in this close wheel-to-wheel battle but Perez came out victorious which proved to be a decisive moment of the Grand Prix.

Sergio said in a post-race interview, "It was pretty intense at that point because Lewis really caught me at my worst time of my race". This again highlights the scale of his defensive moves.

For Max, it was a tough but quiet race where not much action followed him. It was critical for him to score good points and take advantage of Lewis' grid penalty. With the Mercedes car seeming to be dominant, it was a job well done by Verstappen and a 2nd place for him meant that he retakes the championship lead by 6 points.

A seemingly controversial point of the race was near the end of the Grand Prix and this was involving Lewis Hamilton. He was insistent that he should have stayed out and kept his position rather than pitting for new intermediate tyres. Eventually, when he did come in for the pitstop, he lost two positions and was put back on track in 5th, which the Brit was not happy about. Usually, Mercedes tactical awareness was impeccable but at the time of the race, it had seemed that they had gotten it wrong.

But in a post-race interview with the Pirelli Boss, Mario Isola, he believed that Hamilton couldn't have gone to the end of the race, saying it was "a bit dangerous" to have a no-stop race.

This lack of clear communication between the Mercedes pit wall and car #44 was vital in causing Hamilton to lose the lead of the championship.

Toto Wolff stated, "I think we just really need to work on the communication to trust each other" clearly expressing his views on the situation.

In response to the press, Hamilton put out an Instagram story containing a paragraph he had written about his feelings and his opinion on what happened to say, "It was my call to stay out and it didn't work...we win and lose as a team."

Nevertheless, my star performer of the Turkish GP has got to be Sainz as he cruised past many cars going from last to finishing 8th. With Sainz taking an engine penalty, it meant that he had to start from the back but this did not stop him in his charge to the points that should be recognised as an exemplary drive in tough conditions. The Ferrari driver took 2 points that see him go to 6th place in the driver's championship, half a point above his teammate.

Usually, when there is a wet race, you can expect some first lap retirements but this was not the case. Fernando Alonso was caught up with contact made by Pierre Gasly, seeing Fernando drop to the back of the grid. Obviously, this may have ruined his focus likely leading to the collision with Mick Schumacher not long after lap 1.

A slightly strange call was made by Aston Martin and Vettel to try a set of slick tyres although this proved to be a big risk with no reward whatsoever. It was almost as if he was ice skating along the circuit as no grip was to be found; the track was not drying.

Overall, it wasn't the most action-packed race but it did provide a somewhat clean race and a confidence boost for many drivers. In the circumstances of another wet F1 weekend this season *cough *cough Belgium, at least we got to see a full race completed with no big crashes involved. Thank you Turkey for giving us some good action and hopefully we will see another race there soon.

My Turkish GP driver ratings:

Valterri Bottas- 9.5

Max Verstappen- 8.5

Sergio Perez- 9

Charles Leclerc- 8.5

Lewis Hamilton- 8

Pierre Gasly- 8

Lando Norris- 7.5

Carlos Sainz- 9.5

Lance Stroll- 7.5

Esteban Ocon- 7

Antonio Giovinazzi- 7

Kimi Raikkonen- 6.5

Daniel Ricciardo- 6

Yuki Tsunoda- 5

George Russell- 6

Fernando Alonso- 6

Nicholas Latifi- 5

Sebastian Vettel- 5.5

Mick Schumacher- 7.5

Nikita Mazepin- 4

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