HAMILTON MAKES HISTORY AS RAIN ROBS NORRIS

The 2021 Russian Grand Prix was a fascinating race even before its thrilling wet-weather climax, where the two leading British drivers had wildly contrasting fortunes. Lewis Hamilton went on to take another incredible career milestone with his 100th Formula 1 win, a first for any driver in the championship’s history. Lando Norris lost a first grand prix career victory as the knife-edge call on when to pit when the rain came down in the final laps went in Mercedes’ favour for several key reasons.

THE START

Norris at least leaves the Sochi weekend with one major F1 career achievement: his first pole position. That came after McLaren had made the right judgement on when to take slicks in Q3 while Hamilton and Mercedes floundered – the reverse of what was to come late in the race the next day.

But well before that drama, Norris first had to tackle a couple of problems – the first being how to defend the lead on Sochi’s lengthy run from the grid to the first big stop, the Turn 2 right. He’d said after topping qualifying that “probably the only place I wouldn’t want to be pole is here”, and it was obvious why when the lights when out. Carlos Sainz Jr made “the best possible start on the dirty side” from alongside Norris on the front row, but when George Russell enjoyed better grip from his shock third place on the racing line, the Williams was quickly alongside the Ferrari.

But all was not lost for Sainz, who was able to survive “nearly banging wheels [with Russell] to see who was the one catching Lando’s tow”. Sainz held firm got things stopped with a locked right-front to avoid taking a costly trip to the runoff, where Fernando Alonso led Pierre Gasly, Antonio Giovinazzi and the last-starting Max Verstappen through the mandatory rejoining path, and Gasly clipped a bollard.