2021 Not in Japan Fry's Turkish Delight GP

[erwin greven]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Last lap!!!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Meh, Gasly has now fallen back from Lewis and they are on the last lap

[erwin greven]

And Bottas wins the first GP this season!!! And the 10th of his career... Yes, 10th only...

[theracer120]

Bottas wins maybe his last race.

[Everso Biggyballies]

So Bottas wins from Max with Sergio only 5 secs behind. Leclerc 4th and Lewis 5th. Max leads the WDC.

[erwin greven]

Max back in the championship's lead.

[theracer120]

Ocon made it to the end without stopping and still finished in the points.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Ocon did a no stop race. I think the only one. Seb on the other hand did a 2 stop

RESULT
POS DRIVERGAP TYRE
1 Valtteri BOTTASLEADER 1
2 Max VERSTAPPEN+14.584 1
3 Sergio PEREZ+33.471 1
4 Charles LECLERC+37.814 1
5 Lewis HAMILTON+41.812 1
6 Pierre GASLY+44.292 1
7 Lando NORRIS+47.213 1
8 Carlos SAINZ+51.526 1
9 Lance STROLL+82.018 1
10 Esteban OCON1 L 1
11 Antonio GIOVINAZZI1 L 1
12 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN1 L 1
13 Daniel RICCIARDO1 L 1
14 Yuki TSUNODA1 L 1
15 George RUSSELL1 L 1
16 Fernando ALONSO1 L 1
17 Nicholas LATIFI1 L 1
18 Sebastian VETTEL1 L 2
19 Mick SCHUMACHER2 L 1
20 Nikita MAZEPIN2 L 1

[Everso Biggyballies]

Wouldnt mind being a fly on the wall in the Mercedes debrief.... Lewis not happy about being overruled and told to box against his wishes.... did it cost him a place or even 2. Be amusing if he loses the title by a single point.....

Anyway given even the radio chat about it, it will be a fiesty meeting.

[Vassago]

Ocon made it to the end without stopping and still finished in the points.

First time since Mika Salo @ 1997 Monaco GP that a driver completed original race distance or two hour limit without a pitstop? (2016 Brazilian GP doesn't count since they changed tires under red flag).

[XcraigX]

[Star]

Just seen the race, here are my thoughts.

It was a mostly dull race. I thought the penalty for Gasly at the start seemed a little harsh but what do I know? Vettel trying out the slicks, oh dear. I get that you have to try these things but it was a big mistake, all power to him for keeping the car on the road and making it back to the pits for more inters.

Perez is doing exactly what Red Bull want from him. He did so well to keep Hamilton behind him, even if he did use part of the track he shouldn't have. Mind you it did look like Hamilton pushed over the pit lane line there so that's probably why he didn't get a penalty for it.

Brave try by Leclerc to go to the end on the one set of inters, it just didn't quite work for him. Bottas did well to take the win and Verstappen had no answer to the speed of the Mercedes. It's good he's increased his lead on Hamilton again.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Lewis's procrastination was the issue that cost him

It seems from reading between the lines and reading the radio comms between Bono and Lewis that, for all his whinging and procrastinating, that Lewis was adamant the track was going to be dry enough for slicks before the end, and that all (including Lewis) would stop for slicks and he would save a stop. His belief that his inters and times were as good as those that had pitted was due to the fact that the inters on a damp (ie not wet) track go through a graining stage before being 100%. Temporarily Lewis was quicker than those who took tyres early.

When it became obvious that the track was never going to be dry enough for slicks Mercedes were aware that Lewis was running the real risk of a tyre failure, and were on the verge of the chords becoming visible. A potential NIL points is why Lewis had to stop for his own new set of inters and go through his own graining period. This was when Lewis was being caught by Gasly and Lando..... luckily for Lewis he got through the graining and with his new tyres over Gasly's several laps older ones allowed Lewis to gap them a little. But far too late to make a dent on those ahead.

Bottom line is that had Lewis come in when Sergio did (lap38) he would likely have finished 3rd if only due to the Merc's straight line advantage which is what Max was bitten by in his chase of VB..

So for all his whys and how did the Merc team let it happen the bottom line is his procrastination and belief he would be able to go to slicks is what was the problem. By the time he had taken on the new inters (lap50/58) and got them over the graining stage and bedded in there were only 3 or 4 laps left.

FWIW Ocon who managed to finish, by the last lap the chords were exposed and he says the only reason he continued was that had he pitted in the last minutes for safety, he would have been out of the points so cruising round to a finish with fingers crossed was the option that worked out. He was told after he would not have finished the next lap.

Re Ocon Merc have used the state of his (Ocon's) tyres at the end as a justification to why they had to pit Lewis.
https://www.racefans.net/2021/10/11/oco ... -mercedes/

[Everso Biggyballies]

It seems Lewis has thought things out and now has raised his hand to say its his mistake as outlined above in my previous post

[Ruslan]

Interesting race.

1. Mercedes: clearly the superior car. This does not bode well for Red Bull for the rest of the season. In a Helmut Marko interview, he said that Mercedes will have the advantage in four of the six remaining races. Red Bull is only competitive at Mexico and Brazil. See: https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/96186/ma ... urite.html

2. A good day for Hamilton would have been a 3rd place finish. He was close. The kicker was the seven laps it took him to get around Tsunoda early in the race. He definitely would have had third if he had not been delayed. He had no problem getting around the next two cars (which were both Mercedes powered). Is there an issue here that needs to be addressed?

3. I think if Hamilton had pitted when Mercedes first told him to he would have ended up behind Perez. Could he have gotten around a determined Perez? Took him seven laps to get around Tsunoda.

[Circuitmaster]

A lot of people saying the Mercs are far superior all of a sudden.. If it's true, I haven't really seen it. True, they were faster in Turkey, but as we've seen, different tracks favour different teams.. and even despite their pace advantage, Lewis couldn't get past Sergio in the supposedly inferior Red Bull.

The Mercs have secured one pole in the last twelve races. If they're the fastest car, then they're really botching this season.