Lewis Hamilton wins historic 100th F1 race
Sochi hosted the 15th stage of the Formula 1 Grand Prix 2021. Lewis Hamilton won his 100th career F1 race, Max Verstappen took the second place.
Lewis Hamilton won his 100th Formula 1 victory in a bizarre and spectacular Russian Grand Prix. For a long time, Lando Norris seemed set for his first victory, but a heavy rain shower in the closing phase of the race threw a spanner in the works. Max Verstappen took advantage of the rain and finished his impressive catch-up race in second place, but has to give up his championship lead.
Because qualifying took place on a wet track, the entire field had a free tyre choice for the race that started on a dry track. A few drivers, including Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen chose to start on the hard tyre, but the majority opted for the mediums.
At the start Daniel Ricciardo shot away from his fifth starting position, but due to some pushing and pulling he still had to give up some places. In the hectic pace of the long run heading into Turn 2, Hamilton dropped out as Carlos Sainz overtook former team-mate Lando Norris for the lead.
Max Verstappen has managed to limit the damage from his grid penalty in Russia by driving from twentieth to second place. “I didn’t expect this when I woke up this morning.”
Bottom line, he said, “going from twentieth to second is just really good.” Still, it was certainly not an easy game, said Verstappen. Although Verstappen’s advance seemed unstoppable before that, he had a harder time after the first stop and struggled on his tires.
