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The Turkish Grand Prix 2021 was the 16th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Istanbul Park in Istanbul, Turkey, during the weekend of the 8th to the 10th of October.
Valtteri Bottas won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 20 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 34-37: 12 stops
- Laps 39-40: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 22.442 seconds during his pit stop on lap 36, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 35.509 seconds, 13.067 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 39.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only Sebastian Vettel decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Valtteri Bottas, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
7Daniel Ricciardo
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11Fernando Alonso
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-Lando Norris
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2Nicholas Latifi
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2George Russell
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5Yuki Tsunoda
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2Nikita Mazepin
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-Max Verstappen
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11Carlos Sainz
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5Kimi Räikkönen
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3Sergio Pérez
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
1Lance Stroll
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2Pierre Gasly
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5Mick Schumacher
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5Antonio Giovinazzi
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1Charles Leclerc
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6Lewis Hamilton
2 stops
-
8Sebastian Vettel
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.33 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 8 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Istanbul Park, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
This was a clean race. There might have been some minor incidents, but in the end all drivers managed to cross the finish line, and none were disqualified after the race ended..
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.13 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:22.868. Valtteri Bottas was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.