2021 Turkish Grand Prix

Championship standings

Hamilton leads Verstappen by two points. Bottas is third, 12 points ahead of Norris in fourth. Pérez is fifth, 31 points behind Bottas. Mercedes lead the Constructors’ by 33 points over Red Bull.

Previous race

At Sochi, Verstappen started from the back after exceeding his power unit quota. Norris took his first career pole from Sainz and Russell. Heavy rain began to fall in the closing laps; Hamilton took his 100th Formula One victory, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz, reclaiming the championship lead.

Car upgrades

The track surface at Istanbul Park has been water-blasted after the smooth tarmac provided almost no grip at the 2020 race. Following the first two practice sessions, Pirelli’s head of F1 Mario Isola acknowledged the tyre selection was “too aggressive” — Pirelli had not known the surface was to be water-blasted before making their compound choices. Leclerc said he hoped the slippery surface would still favour Ferrari.

Milestones

Red Bull and AlphaTauri run tribute liveries to Honda — their engine supplier whose final season in the sport this is — on what would have been the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. The Red Bull cars run in a predominantly white livery inspired by the Honda team’s first Formula One championship race win at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The AlphaTauri cars feature the word “arigato” (Japanese for “thank you”).

Tyre choices

Pirelli brings the C2, C3, and C4 compounds.

Practice

Hamilton topped both dry FP1 and FP2 ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc, and Leclerc and Bottas respectively. The third session was wet; Gasly was fastest ahead of Verstappen and Pérez. Russell beached his car in the gravel, bringing out a brief red flag.