Bottas wins, Verstappen retakes F1 championship lead: Turkish GP lap-by-lap

Valtteri Bottas was uncatchable in the Mercedes as Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez consolidated a difficult weekend for Red Bull with a double podium, finishing second and third respectively.

Bottas led from lights out, losing the lead briefly after his pitstop before catching and re-passing Charles Leclerc for the lead.

Lewis Hamilton’s recovery from 11th was looking good for third until a late call by Mercedes for fresh inters dropped him to fifth place to hand the lead of the championship back to Verstappen.

Here is how the Turkish Grand Prix unfolded.

With the track fully wet, intermediates were the only option for the drivers, without enough standing water to warrant the full wets.

Officially the chance of rain was set at 20% for the race according to the radars but the low temperatures and lack of sunshine meant there was little chance of a dry line emerging before the opening few laps were completed.

Daniel Ricciardo brought the formation lap to a close after he took an engine penalty to start last on the grid.

Bottas aced his start to hold onto first with Max Verstappen slotting into second. Fernando Alonso was the one who lost out, spinning round after contact with the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. Sergio Perez poked his nose down the inside at Turn 1 leaving no room for Gasly to turn into the corner, drifting into Alonso and tapping the Alpine round.

The Spaniard dropped down to 17th but wasn’t finished making contact. A clumsy look to the inside of Mick Schumacher spun the Haas into 19th place. Both Gasly and Alonso were handed time penalties later on for their efforts.

Lewis Hamilton made a decent start and was up to 9th as the first lap came to a close, rounding Sebastian Vettel at Turn 12 on the outside line. A quick look down the inside of Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 3 on the second lap didn’t quite pay off but the Mercedes driver was looking very punchy early on.

Multiple drivers were told to protect their intermediates and keep them cool with no rain falling but slicks some way off. Verstappen was told as early as lap 6 to keep his tyres in good shape and focus on protecting the front right.

Carlos Sainz was on a recovery mission from the back row and was up to 13th with a move on Kimi Räikkönen into Turn 12.

A great run out of the final chicane gave Hamilton a great tow down the front straight on lap 8 versus Tsunoda and the move for eighth was on. He set up a switchback three corners back to take the place around the outside at Turn 3 and into 4.

He repeated the move one lap later, securing seventh place from Lance Stroll on lap 9.

Gasly was handed a five-second penalty on lap 10 for his collision with Alonso on the opening lap but the Alpine driver was the recipient of his own sanction too for spinning Schumacher himself.

Lap 11 and Hamilton was up to sixth with a straightforward pass in the slipstream of Lando Norris into Turn 12, setting the fastest lap of the race at that time in the process. He was 19sec off the lead as he crossed the line, lapping a second quicker than Verstappen was managing in second place.

As Hamilton set consecutive fastest laps, there were very early signs of a dry line emerging on lap 13. Despite that, the Mercedes driver warned there was too much water on the track to begin considering a swap to dry tyres.

The other driver on the move was Sainz as he cracked the top 10 entering lap 14. A dive down the inside of Turn 12 gave him the place but a mid-corner snap of oversteer pushed him into the front axle of Vettel and resulted in minor contact between the two. Both continued but the four-time champion was less than impressed.

Hamilton was up to fifth place on Gasly in the same place on lap 15 with another slipstream pass without DRS enabled. The next car up the road was the Red Bull of Sergio Perez 7sec ahead.

On lap 16, Verstappen was informed that he’d managed the tyres better than either Mercedes driver and he could begin to push the pace. He was 3.4sec down on the leader at the start of the lap and was four-tenths quicker by the end of it.

Lap 17 and Sainz dived down the inside of Tsunoda to take ninth place from the AlphaTauri.

A snap of oversteer for Bottas out of Turn 1 on lap 18 showed just how hard he was pushing to respond to the pace of Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had the gap down to 2.6sec by lap 20. Hamilton’s progress had slowed and he was hovering around 17.5sec behind the leader as he gradually closed the gap to Perez ahead under the 4sec mark.

Ricciardo was asked what he could do on fresh intermediates and McLaren was the first team to fit a fresh set of the green-walled tyres on lap 22. The rest watched the Australian’s sector times eagerly to gauge the pace differential of new tyres.

Tsunoda’s difficult opening stint continued with a spin at Turn 9 on lap 23. He lost the back end of the car on a damp part of the track and it snapped on him, spinning around before rejoining.

Ricciardo’s first flying effort wasn’t good enough to secure the fastest lap as that honour went to Leclerc on lap 24.

Bottas and Gasly reported that there was drizzle falling at Turn 9 on lap 25 just to further complicate the picture for teams. Mercedes reported that no significant rain was expected but the tread on the intermediates was looking more like a slick tyre by lap 28 for the front runners.

Hamilton had the gap to Perez down to 2sec but a chop from Mazepin as the Mercedes attempted to lap the Haas driver at Turn 11 cost him time, the Russian apparently unaware the leaders were coming through.

Vettel put a move on Ocon to take 10th from the Alpine man on lap 29. The Aston Martin driver was asked if the track was likely to dry before the end of the race just past halfway to which he responded ‘Yes’.

Alonso was the second to pit for fresh intermediates on lap 32, rejoining down in 18th position.

Hamilton had the gap down to 1sec to Perez as the Red Bull drivers began to struggle in the middle sector of the lap. Bottas began to gap Verstappen to the tune of 4.5sec after the Dutchman had initially closed.

Ricciardo had made little progress since his stop for new inters but moved by Nicholas Latifi on lap 33 for 16th place.

With a tow onto the back straight on lap 34, Hamilton was able to get alongside Perez into the final chicane to set up a switchback opening lap 35. The two went side-by-side down the pit straight but Perez was late on the brakes to hold off Hamilton and keep fourth place.

Verstappen had fallen to 5.6sec back from the leader and was told to pit by Red Bull on lap 36. A rapid stop was good enough to get him back out in fresh air ahead of Perez and Hamilton.

There were plenty more takers for fresh inters including Sainz but it was a slow stop for the Ferrari driver, stuck stationary for six extra seconds. Vettel was the one to risk it on slick tyres, swapping onto mediums to be the only one on dries. His gamble didn’t pay off, spinning, running wide at Turn 3 and crawling around the track struggling for any purchase. He was back in for inters a lap later, almost hitting the barriers on pit entry.