Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Turkish Grand Prix

Photo courtesy of Sky Sports F1

Because of COVID still being a problem in Japan, Formula 1 found their way back to Turkey!

And just like last year, it was a weird raining/not raining sort of hybrid race.

Here are the winners and losers.

Losers

5. Fernando Alonso

Alonso had a great qualifying session and started 5th. Unfortunately, through no fault of his own, he got crashed off the track on the first lap and fell back to 15th.

Not a good start, but there’s still a lot of race left.

Except he then crashed into Mick Schumacher and got a 5 second time penalty, effectively ruining his race entirely.

Not great.

4. Red Bull Racing

This isn’t for the result. Red Bull actually had quite a good result.

But late in the race, Red Bull pit Sergio Perez who was holding up Lewis Hamilton to help Max Verstappen extend his championship lead.

Lewis didn’t catch Verstappen in the end, but for a few laps he was, and that’s a risk I just don’t understand taking.

Oh well. No harm, no foul I guess.

3. Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton was in P3 and only one spot behind Max Verstappen to minimize the damage in the championship fight, and Lewis was more than fine staying on his set of tires and finishing third.

Mercedes decided to pit him for new tires anyway.

The result? Hamilton lost two positions and, because of that, lost 5 more points to Verstappen than he would have if he stayed out.

I don’t know, but maybe trust the guy who has won 7 world championships if he says he’s ok staying out…

2. Sebastian Vettel

Vettel was in a fight for the points and decided to gamble on dry tires to gain a ton of positions and get a great points haul.

One small problem. The track was nowhere near dry enough.

That took Vettel from a possible points finish to nowhere near the points at all.

1. Nikita Mazepin

I’ve said it before this year, but I’ll say it again since Mazepin ignored blue flags and cut off Hamilton in a corner almost ruining his race entirely.

Pay drivers are a thing in Formula 1. It’s just the way it is. But other pay drivers who know they aren’t up to snuff stay out of the way.

If Mazepin can’t do that, he has less of a place in this sport than he already did.

Garbage driver.

Winners

5. Max Verstappen

A straight forward race from Verstappen, but when you take the championship lead heading into the final 5 races, that’s a good result to me.

4. Pierre Gasly

Gasly had a great qualifying session, and even overcame a (very questionable) five second time penalty to fight back and finish 6th.

He’s done a great job this season, much like last season.

3. Sergio Perez

After an impressive start to the season, there were lots of results from Perez to believe that the 2nd Red Bull seat was cursed.

But this was a very good weekend for the Mexican driver, as he finished on the podium which was a huge help towards the constructors championship.

2. Valtteri Bottas

A great weekend again for Bottas, who won the Turkish Grand Prix and generally seems more relaxed since it was officially announced he would not be returning to Mercedes next year.

If this was the last win for Bottas in Formula 1, it was a well driven and well deserved one.

1. Carlos Sainz

Sainz started stone dead last to start the race, and did a great job driving into the points and getting multiple fastest laps of the race.

The Carlos Sainz special.

Quiet, but incredibly impressive.