{"id":142214,"date":"2021-10-10T20:07:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T20:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=142214"},"modified":"2021-10-10T21:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T21:59:51","slug":"bottas-wins-turkish-gp-as-ricciardo-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=142214","title":{"rendered":"Bottas wins Turkish GP as Ricciardo struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

While his teammate Valtteri Bottas<\/a> enjoyed his first win of the season at the Turkish Grand Prix, it was a frustrating Sunday for Lewis Hamilton<\/a> as he missed out on a podium spot and also lost the world championship lead to Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Australia's Daniel Ricciardo is also irritated following the race at Istanbul Park, having started last due to a power unit change and finishing 13th.<\/p>\n

Hamilton started 11th because of a 10-place grid penalty, drove his way to third, but wound up a disappointing fifth after his team ordered a late-race tyre change.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes strategy allowed Verstappen to swing the championship race from down two points to Hamilton to now leading by six with six races remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frustrating at the time, because I could see second (place) and then I\u2019m back in fifth,\u201d Hamilton said about Mercedes' decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment I only have a certain amount of information and the team has other information. It\u2019s hard to want to give something up when you don\u2019t know the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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But Hamilton, the winner of a record 100 Formula 1<\/a> races, also reflected on what might have happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould we have stayed out? Who knows," Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

"If you look at a couple of other drivers that did, they dropped off massively and lost positions, so it was a risk either way. If I\u2019d stayed out you don\u2019t know if I\u2019d held position, but I\u2019m a risk-taker so I would have wanted to take that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formula 1 now leaves Europe and heads to the US Grand Prix on October 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the (six) points it\u2019s not going to be easy. We\u2019ll see in Austin how it\u2019s going to go,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n

"I think some tracks can be a bit better (for us).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sergio Perez capped a strong day for Red Bull by finishing third.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was fastest in Saturday qualifying but wasn't credited with the pole because of an engine change by his Mercedes team.<\/p>\n

He seemed headed for a podium finish but Mercedes called him in for the tyre change over Hamilton's objections.<\/p>\n

The call may have given Verstappen a bigger gap in the championship.<\/p>\n

Hamilton finally came in for new tyres on lap 51 but did not agree with the decision.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhy did you give up that place?\u201d a frustrated Hamilton barked on team radio, using an expletive.<\/p>\n

\"Ricciardo<\/p>\n

Hamilton was getting increasingly agitated after his pit stop as he lost ground to Ferrari<\/a>'s Charles Leclerc<\/a> and had Pierre Gasly\u2019s AlphaTauri gaining on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust leave it alone,\u201d Hamilton snapped to his race engineer when informed of Gasly\u2019s gap.<\/p>\n

Leclerc pitted earlier than Hamilton and finished fourth, missing out on a 14th career podium.<\/p>\n

Gasly finished sixth ahead of Lando Norris<\/a> of McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz junior drove his Ferrari from the back to a strong eighth-placed finish. Both he and Ricciardo started from the back after complete engine changes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sainz junior was voted the day\u2019s best driver, to his surprise when told about it.<\/p>\n

Bottas locked up his first win of the year when he passed Leclerc with about a dozen laps left. It was the first win for Bottas since the Russian Grand Prix in September last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a while," Bottas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably one of my best races ever in Formula 1. Everything was under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

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His 10th career win was a much-needed one during a frustrating last season with Mercedes before joining Alfa Romeo next year. He clocked the fastest lap on the 5.3-kilometre Istanbul Park circuit beneath a grey sky amid persistent drizzle.<\/p>\n

Bottas made a better start than Verstappen, which has rarely been the case. The Finnish driver hit 100 kilometres per hour in 3.09 seconds compared to 3.17 for Verstappen as spray kicked up from the wet track.<\/p>\n

Starting fifth, Alpine's Fernando Alonso<\/a> made a move on the outside of Gasly, who clipped Alonso\u2019s left-rear tyre and sent him spinning off. Back on track, Alonso also had contact with Haas driver Mick Schumacher. Gasly and Alonso both got five-second time penalties for the incidents.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hamilton soon jumped from 11th to ninth on the start but had trouble getting past AlphaTauri\u2019s Yuki Tsunoda with no DRS. Tsunoda blocked one attack well, but Hamilton overtook on the outside then caught Aston Martin's Lance Stroll on the next lap, and Norris soon after.<\/p>\n

Hamilton then clocked three fastest laps in succession as he chased down Gasly in fifth. He got him, too, on lap 15, but his relentlessly high speed was wearing down his tyres.<\/p>\n

As Sainz junior carved his way through the field, fastest laps switched between Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton again and Leclerc.<\/p>\n

Drivers waited for the track to dry out more before changing tires, but the rain started falling again.<\/p>\n

Mercedes told Hamilton to box for new tires on lap 42.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d said Hamilton, and did not come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, we\u2019ll stay out one more lap,\u201d his engineer told him.<\/p>\n

Hamilton refused again, then finally accepted.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While his teammate Valtteri Bottas enjoyed his first win of the season at the Turkish Grand Prix, it was a frustrating Sunday for Lewis Hamilton […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142217,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142214\/revisions\/142217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}