Mercedes' Valterri Bottas won F1's Sprint Race after the Finn started from the front of the grid to dominate the event to finish ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton lost ground to his Dutch title rival.
11/09/21
Despite beating his rivals for Sprint Qualifying glory for today's Sprint Race, Valterri Bottas will start tomorrow's Grand Prix from the last row of the grid as the Finn takes the pain of power unit changes.
Bottas, who announced earlier in the week that he'd be driving for Alfa Romeo next season, drove a faultless race and kept the threat from Max Verstappen at bay for the 18 lap sprint.
BACK AT THE FRONT: Instead of collecting 25 points, Bottas added three points to his tally but the Finn was happy to finish a race right at the front for the first time in a while
Verstappen will inherit Pole Position ahead of the race and while the stats don't favour the Dutchman as he's yet to finish higher than fifth here, he's in a great position to extend his championship lead.
Daniel Ricciardo led the rest of the pack in his McLaren ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris which will turn into a front-row start for the Australian come tomorrow's race. Both McLaren drivers finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton who had a nightmare launch when the race began.
The British driver was slow off the line from second place and this left him vulnerable on the run down to Turn 1. Verstappen, Ricciardo, Norris cleared the Mercedes driver on the exit of the first chicane while AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly would have made it past if he hadn't of crashed.
BOTTLE-NECK: As the drivers raced to Turn 1, the field bunched up heading through the chicane and for Gasly, this is where his issues started
The Frenchman suffered a big crash after damaging his front wing as the pack slowed into Turn 1. Gasly nudged the back of Ricciardo's McLaren and as Gasly tried to turn the car right, his front wing dislodged as the AlphaTauri careered into the barrier after bumping across the gravel.
The Safety Car was deployed for a number of laps as Gasly walked away from the incident.
Behind Hamilton, the two Ferrari's settled for sixth and seventh as Charles Leclerc headed Carlos Sainz Jr. Sainz crashed heavily in the Second Practice session and his mechanics worked hard to get his SF21 back into shape.
Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi made up places from tenth to finish eighth as he headed Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to complete the top ten.
Despite from the back of the grid, Bottas is still in a good frame of mind and says that nabbing a podium finish is on the cards for the Finn. He'll need one heck of a recovery drive and some good straight-line speed if he's to make up ground.