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LIVE | Turkish Grand Prix: Hamilton from P11, Verstappen hunting down Bottas
After eleven months the Turkish Grand Prix is back on the program and the race has all the ingredients to become a spectacle. Lewis Hamilton has to catch up through the midfield, Max Verstappen wants and needs to win and the teams in the midfield are hungry for success. Follow the race from start to finish on GPblog's liveblog!
LIVE: The Turkish Grand Prix
The race will start this afternoon at 13:00 UK time, which is an hour earlier than normal. All sessions this weekend are therefore an hour earlier than normal and the race is no exception.
Can rain play a role?
On Saturday the drivers had to deal with rain, but the conditions were not nearly as bad as a year earlier when grip was nowhere to be found. These factors should ensure more overtaking on the track.
For Verstappen, it's to be hoped he can stay close to Valtteri Bottas. The Mercedes car has looked strong all weekend and is a lot faster than the Red Bull Racing car. Meanwhile, the Dutchman will also have to look to the rear, with Hamilton looking to make an advance.
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Hamilton fighting through the field
Formula 1 is fast approaching the business end of the 2021 season, and the World Championship title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen rumbles on. It seems like it’s going to go down to the wire, with Hamilton currently holding a two-point lead.
Going into the Russian Grand Prix, Hamilton and Mercedes would’ve expected that lead to be much bigger. Red Bull Racing opted to install a fourth engine into Verstappen’s car for the race in Sochi. He managed to work his way through the field, and aided by some rain, he managed to limit the damage as much as possible and finished in second place. Hamilton will be hoping to do something similar today.
In his whole Formula 1 career, Hamilton has only started from 11th once before. This came in the 2010 Australian Grand Prix when the Brit was still competing for McLaren. In the wet, Hamilton worked his way up to sixth position for the chequered flag. As a Mercedes driver, Hamilton has started from 10th place twice. In the 2016 Russian Grand Prix, Hamilton worked his way up to second to complete a Mercedes one-two on a track which is one of their strongest. He started from the same place in the 2016 European Grand Prix and managed to finish fifth.
His only other start for Mercedes in the same ballpark came in the 2013 Italian Grand Prix. The car wasn't dominant in that season, and the Brit only just scored points.
For his Championship bid, Hamilton needs to get on the podium to limit the damage. His own statistics prove that this is possible. However, around Istanbul Park, an advance through the field isn’t going to be easy. Tricky wet conditions could cause other drivers to make mistakes and help Hamilton jump through the field, as long as he avoids any incidents himself. And drying track conditions could help Hamilton find an advantage pitstop.
