Formula 1 2021 news - Russian Grand Prix As it happened - Lewis Hamilton takes dramatic win
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Updated 26/09/2021 at 14:00 GMT
Join Alexander Netherton for all the action from the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, the last one to be held at Sochi. Can McLaren driver Lando Norris hold on to pole position and take the win after team-mate Daniel Ricciardo won last time out? Max Verstappen will start from the back of the grid after changing his engine.
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - GP of Russia 2021
Image credit: Getty Images
53/53 - HAMILTON MAKES IT 100
A vital win for Hamilton as he takes first place with Norris down in eighth. Verstappen will take second almost a minute behind, and Sainz is in third unless anything goes wrong.
52/53 - HAMILTON LEADS
Norris spins out, Norris recovers as Hamilton takes the lead and takes a huge lead and Verstappen is in third.
51/53 - NORRIS' LEAD DWINDLING
'Heavy rain' exclaims Norris as Hamilton cuts lead with the spray flying behind him.
50/53 - HAMILTON SECOND STILL
Hamilton is in second, 25 seconds behind. Stroll goes out after colliding with Gasly.
The seconds between the two top riders is now 18 seconds. It's all gone mad.
LAP 50/53 - HAMILTON PITS
AAAAAAARGH
LAP 49/53 - NORRIS SAYS 'SHUT UP'
An understandable retort to his team who tells him it's slippery.
LAP 48/53 - NORRIS WIDE AGAIN
Norris is asking to pit. One assumes that Hamilton will have to do the same.
Hamilton stays out as his team wait for him!
LAP 47/53 - NORRIS SLIPS
Norris slips wide as a wet patch gets to him. Hamilton has DRS and is a few hundreds of a second back.
LAP 46/53 - RAIN
PANIC. The umbrellas are out. Norris is a little over a second ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen says 'there's a little bit of drizzle'.
LAP 40/53 - NORRIS RETAINS LEAD
Norris just set the fastest lap of the race so far.
LAP 36/53 - HAMILTON IN FOURTH
Alonso and Perez pit meaning Norris and Hamilton are in first and second respectively. Sainz claims third and Ricciardo fourth.
Perez is ahead of Verstappen on fresher tires. Team orders to come?
LAP 34/53 - SCHUMACHER RETIRES
His car is borked.
Norris moves into P3 after going past Leclerc.
LAP 32/53 - HOW THINGS STAND
Hamilton is in fifth, Norris in fourth, Verstappen is in ninth as he sweeps past stroll. Perez, Alonso and Leclerc make up the front three wiith Perez leading, and they are all yet to pit.
LAP 29/53 - NORRIS PITS
Perez takes the lead, Alonso and Leclerc go ahead of him too, but Norris comes out in fourth
Bottas is in and out, allowing Verstappen through.
LAP 27/53 - HAMILTON AND VERSTAPPEN PIT
The two leaders of the championship come in and Hamilton appears to be quicker through his tire change.
Hamilton is in ninth, and Verstappen is behind Russell. Bottas is in seventh.
LAP 25/53 - HAMILTON FASTEST
With Verstappen stuck in traffic and Hamilton well behind Norris, the Mercedes driver set the fastest time of the race so far (which Ricciardo has now taken for himself) and he has the chance to extend his gap ahead of Verstappen. It's around six seconds now.
LAP 24/53 - 'I CAN'T TURN THE CAR'
The Dutchman complains that his tires are losing their grip.
LAP 22/53 - IT'S SPITTING
McLaren pit. Ricciardo, Perez, and Verstappen are in.
LAP 21/53 - HAMILTON CONSIDERS PIT
Hamilton asks his team if they're getting ready to pit him.
Now, with the rain coming in potentially, perhaps Hamilton holds an advantage because if he can hold on for the weather to change - if he does - then he could end up with an advantage.
LAP 17/53 - VERSTAPPEN CLOSING IN
Verstappen is sixth and just set the fastest lap of the race so far. His pace is outstripping Hamilton ahead of him.
LAP 15/53
Sainz pits, now potentially on a two-stop strategy.
LAP 13/53 - NORRIS THROUGH
After complaining about his tires, Norris breaks late to squeeze out Sainz as he regains his pole position. Down the back straight he slipped past and was able to hold on before the braking zone.
Vertsappen is now in ninth as Russell pits.
LAP 10/53 - VERSTAPPEN UP AGAIN
Verstappen sticks his nose in against Leclerc and the two cars almost collide, with Leclerc almost blocking him on as he wrestled with Vettel ahead of him.
Norris is pushing Sainz hard now.
LAP 9/53 - NORRIS CLOSING IN
Lando Norris has reeled Sainz back in, with a gab that was once at two seconds now comfortably under a second. The rain is yet to hit.
LAP 7/53 - VERSTAPPEN IS PAST
Verstappen slips past Bottas with little difficulty, and the Finn appears to make little effort to block him off. If his role was specifically to block his team's rival, he blew it.
LAP 5/53
Verstappen is in fifteenth, behind Bottas who just set the fastest lap. There's no change in the top 10 at the moment, but Hamilton will need to get a shift on rather than stay in sight of his rival's Red Bull.
LAP 2/53
Hamilton takes Alonso around the outside. There's a yellow flag in sector one with potential debris on turn two.
Hamilton is almost seven seconds off pole.
LAP 1/53
Sainz locks up but takes the lead, Hamilton is ahead of Ricciardo. Alonso is ahead of the pair of them. Bottas is up to fifteenth. Norris is in second. Russell third. Stroll fourth. Alonso sixth, Hamilton seventh, Perez eighth, Ocon ninth and then Raikkonen in 10th.
13:00 - FORMATION LAP BEGINS
The rain is coming down near the course, and is expected to arrive in due course, but when it does it should be a light shower in five minutes. Let's see.
12:50 - RAIN CLOSING IN?
The race has been blighted by poor weather this weekend, and it looks like there could be more to come.
12:35 - BOTTAS GRID PENALTY
As you can see below, Valtteri Bottas is way back on the grid after taking a new power unit. Given Red Bull are similarly troubled with position, perhaps Mercedes are content to allow Bottas to perform a blocking role early in the pack rather than closer to the top places. It makes sense, in a cynical way.
12:20 - HAMILTON ON VERSTAPPEN
Earlier in the week, Lewis Hamilton attempted to put the pressure on his championship rival, Max Verstappen.
Hamilton said: "Ultimately we all have to be smart, and know that there is a time you are not going to make the corner.
It's all about that you get to live to fight another day for the next corner. Naturally through experience you find that it's not all won in one corner. I'm hopeful we won't have any more incidents through the year.
Nevertheless, Hamilton expects Verstappen to remain aggressive.
"He's never done it in the past so I don't expect it to happen," Hamilton explained.
"And I think that's the way I will approach things, not expecting it, and just try to create the space that's needed.
"I'm sure he will and we will continue to learn."
12:05 - REVISED GRID
WELCOME
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the 2021 Russia Grand Prix.
The race is due to start at 13:00 BST, assuming the weather holds.
POLE REPORT
Lando Norris secured pole position in a dramatic qualifying session for the Russian Grand Prix.
Torrential rain forced the cancellation of the final practice session, but the weather relented to allow qualifying to take place as scheduled.
The Mercedes were tipped to be quick, and everything seemed to be going as predicted as Lewis Hamilton topped the timing sheets in Q1 and Q2.
Read the full pole report here.
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