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Saturday brought a very special watch, with the cold weather and rain completely rewriting the balance of power. Canadian Racing Point driver Lance Stroll could start from pole position, followed by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, with third place being Stroll’s teammate Sergio Perez.
The two Mercedes fought all Saturday with conditions that did not improve until Sunday.
About an hour before kick-off, the sky broke again near Istanbul, projecting another chaos. In addition, the warm-up was no longer good, Antonio Giovinazzi knocked down the rubber wall and George Russell hit Williams against the wall of the pit lane.
Verstappan, who started from second place at the beginning, was terribly stuck, but the two Racing Points entered very well, as did Lewis Hamilton, who came behind them in third position. His biggest rival world champion, Valtteri Bottas, slid into the first corner and fell back to 17th place.
Then Hamilton also left the field, so Sebastian Vettel, Verstappen and Alex Albon also passed. In the lead, Stroll built a significant lead over Perez, who was followed by a decent distance to Vettel. The track started to dry out and more and more people switched to temporary tires. However, the Red Bulls were out on rain tires for a long time, resulting in a huge waste of time.
In interests, Hamilton was the fastest, constantly attacking Vettel.
After the wheel changes, Stroll, Pérez, Verstappen, Vettel, Hamilton, Albon, Ricciardo, Sainz, Leclerc, Magnussen were in the top ten.
After the elimination of Giovinazzi, a virtual safety car “entered” the track, which shook the field properly, and after the restart, Albon even overtook Hamilton after the latter held back when he pursued Vettel.
Verstappen also fought a big battle with Perez, then on lap 18 he lost control on the back straight and spun several times on the track, causing him to backtrack a lot. Bottas also spun, the Finn, who couldn’t get close to the scoring spots, suffered a lot.
In the lead, the two Racing Points and Albon also started to run out of tires, thanks to which Vettel and Hamilton also caught up quickly. Then his German wheel change was ruined by Ferrari, and Albon spun,
Hamilton had already found himself on the imaginary podium.
With the track dry and DRS enabled, the first three came closer and closer, then Stroll defended new interests and Hamilton passed Perez and took the lead 21 laps before the end.
Strollon’s new tires didn’t help either, in fact they only hurt him, the two Ferraris, Albon and Sainz, respectively, overtaking him.
On lap 46, Hamilton then eluded Bottas, who perfectly summed up this race and practically the entire season. The British rider, who is racing for his seventh World Cup title, has built a sure lead over the lead over Pérez, chased by Leclerc, but Monaco made a mistake and lost a lot of time. Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen also glided back and forth.
Hamilton also complained about tire wear, but ultimately did not come out in the final laps. Meanwhile, Stroll also suffered, falling back to ninth place due to a poorly timed shutdown.
Hamilton started the last lap with a big lead, which he held to the checkered flag, so with his 94th career victory, he won his seventh World Championship title, placing Michael Schumacher at the top of the perpetual standings.
In the last innings, there was a great battle at 2-3-4. places, Pérez finally took second place, finishing third with Vettel, ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in the final corners. This is the first podium for the four-time German world champion this year.
The biggest loser of the race (along with Bottas) was clearly Lance Stroll, who drove for a long time but was deprived of his first F1 win by a poorly timed wheel change.
The World Cup will resume in Bahrain in two weeks.
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