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Valtteri Bottas controlled proceedings from start to finish as he went on to claim victory for the first time since the 2020 Russian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver finished the race ahead of the two Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez as the former reclaims the championship lead by six points.
Starting Grid
After Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty, Valtteri Bottas inherited pole position as the Finn lined up on the front row of the grid alongside the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Row two consisted of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in fourth. The experienced Fernando Alonso started alongside Sergio Perez on row three with Lando Norris and Lance Stroll starting from row four. Yuki Tsunoda lined up ninth with Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top 10.
Championship leader Hamilton started 11th, Esteban Ocon in 12th, George Russell in 13th, Mick Schumacher in 14th, Nicholas Latifi in 15th, Antonio Giovinazzi in 16th, Kimi Raikkonen in 17th, Nikita Mazepin in 18th with Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo starting from 19th and 20th respectively.
As It Happened
As the lights went out, everyone got away cleany with Bottas keeping his lead. Behind him, Perez, Gasly and Alonso scrapped for fourth place as the Spaniard was tagged by the AlphaTauri man which dropped him down to 17th.
The Alpine of Alonso was once again involved in a collision as he clipped Schumacher with the German falling down to 19th. Latifi had a spin of his own which saw the Canadian come back onto the track in 20th.
After the first five laps of the Turkish Grand Prix, Bottas led the race ahead of Verstappen in second and Leclerc in third. Perez ran fourth, Gasly in fifth, Norris in sixth, Stroll in seventh, Tsunoda in eighth, Hamilton in ninth and Vettel in 10th.
During the opening exchanges, Sainz was on a real charge as the Spaniard claimed 11th by lap nine. The Mercedes of Hamilton was also moving through the pack quite nicely with the Brit moving up to seventh after some stellar defending from Tsunoda kept him at bay for a couple of laps.
Gasly and Alonso were both awarded five-second time penalties after their troubles on lap one with the latter running near the rear of the field.
Hamilton gained another position as he hunted down the top five. The Brit cleared his compatriot Norris to claim sixth.
After making up eight positions in the opening 10 laps, Sainz moved up into the points as the Spaniard got past Vettel into turn 12.
Down the back straight, Hamilton gained yet another place as the Brit claimed fifth place. Sainz got himself into ninth place as the Ferrari driver overtook Tsunoda into turn 12.
On lap 22, Ricciardo was the first driver to come into the pits as he fitted a fresh set of intermediate tyres. Tsunoda clipped the kerb on the entry of turn nine which saw him spin around. The Japanese driver subsequently lost a couple of positions as he came back onto the circuit in 13th.
At the midway point of the race, Bottas continued to lead ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez, Hamilton, Gasly, Norris, Stroll, Sainz and Vettel.
Alonso was the next driver to make a pit stop as the Spaniard fitted new inters and came back onto the circuit in 18th.
A fantastic battle ensued for fourth place as Perez and Hamilton abttled for the position. The Brit thought he had taken the position but the Mexican repsonded fantastically into the final corner to stay ahead of the charging Hamilton.
The leading pair of Bottas and Verstappen made their pit stops which released the Ferrari of Leclerc into the lead of the race.
Vettel made the slick tyre gamble, however, that completely backfired and the German returned to the intermediate tyre a lap later.
Sainz moved up to eighth place as the Spaniard got ahead of Ocon into turn one. On lap 47, Bottas reclaimed the race lead. The Finn, who fitted on new intermediate tyres, got past Leclerc with the Monegasque still running on his worn inters.
After losing the race lead, Leclerc came in for new tyres as he came back out onto the track behind Hamilton in 4th.
With five laps to go, Bottas led ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Perez, Gasly, Norris, Sainz, Ocon and Stroll.
On lap 51, Hamilton came into the pits to fit a nw set of intermediate tyres. The Brit came under pressure from Gasly and Norris in the last few laps but was able to hold onto fifth.
Perez made the move for third as Leclerc went through the graining stage with his tyres as the Mongasque driver finished fourth.
Stroll made the move for ninth as he got ahead of Ocon, who narrowly finished inside the top 10 without making a pitstop.
In the end, it was Bottas who crossed the line first ahead of the two Red Bull’s of Verstappen and Perez. Leclerc claimed fourth ahead of Hamilton in fifth, Gasly in sixth, Norris in seventh, Sainz in eighth, Stroll in ninth and Ocon in 10th.
What’s Next?
Formula 1 takes a week break before heading off to the Circuit of the Americas in the United States. Verstappen currently holds a six-point lead at the top of the championship as tht title battle continues with only a handful of rounds to go.
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