The last weekend of the GP was exceptional, with Roman Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton missing in isolation, suffering from COVID-19. We welcomed two debutants, Fittipaldi and Aitken. The seven-time world champion was replaced by George Russell, who moved from the worst car in the field to the best.

All the fans waited for the first practice, George Russell got into Lewis Hamilton’s car and won the Friday practice sessions. Max Verstappen set the best session time during Saturday’s training. George Russell was only seventh and Valtteri Bottas second.

It’s time to qualify. Q1 session was not very interesting, Magnussen, Latifi, Aitken, Raikkonen and Fittipaldi dropped out of the first part.

The second part of qualifying was unlucky for many drivers.

Lando Norris, who finished fifteenth in qualifying, couldn’t cope with the problems and the traffic congestion. Antonio Giovinazzi ranked higher. Sebastian Vettel and Alex Albon showed worse pace than their teammate again, they both missed Q3. Esteban Ocon is the last driver to fail to advance.

The anticipated Q3 provided a lot of emotions. A phenomenal time was set by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who secured himself a start from fourth place. Pole Position was won by Valtteri Bottas, followed by George Russell, who made the time 0.026 seconds worse! Max Verstappen took the third position.

After qualifying, we were informed that Lando Norris would start from the 19th position by replacing parts on his car.

As the red lights went out on Sunday, George Russell took the lead. Again, the confusion happened at the very beginning, where Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen made an effective turn. Sergio Perez was fighting for third position but Charles Leclerc hit him to brake and turned the Racing Point car.

The Monakian himself suffered in the incident, broke the wheel and had to withdraw from the competition.

The most unlucky man of this fuss was Max Vertsappen, while trying to bypass Perez, Max crashed into the gravel and hit the barrier.

The safety car hit the track and Sergio Perez visited the pit lane. On lap 7, we got back to the competition. George Russell defended his position again and began to drive away. Valtteri Bottas was overtaken by Carlos Sainz. In a few seconds, Bottas dealt with the Spaniard and started chasing Russell.

On lap 55, we saw Latifi’s car standing on the side of the road, information about the Virtual Safety Car appeared on the track. Many drivers went to the pit and Sergio Perez moved to fourth place.

On Lap 63, Jack Aitken crashed, leaving debris marks on the track. The safety car came out on the track again and the real excitement began. George Russell – the main contender for the victory went to boxing, but due to a huge mistake of the team he got the wrong tires. Valtteri Bottas was in the queue for replacement, he spent 27s with mechanics because his tires were changed, they were removed and a set was installed in which he visited the service alley. On the next lap, George Russell came back to boxing, thus losing the chance to win.

During the restart, Sergio Perez was in the lead, followed by Ocon. Bottas was fourth, Russell was fifth. George did not give up whenever he could, overtaking more drivers. Suddenly, the information about the punctured tire was given to none other than George Russell, many people did not care about it because it was thought that it was a simple producer’s mistake, Valtteri Bottas was losing position all the time, so he could have had problems.

Unfortunately, it was George Russell who had a flat tire, he lost a chance on the podium after visiting the pits. Ultimately, the race was won by Sergio Perez, with Esteban Ocon on the lower step of the podium, followed by Lance Stroll. George Russell finished ninth with the fastest lap.

Charles Leclerc received a post-race penalty, a step back three at the start of the race in Abu Dhabi and two penalty points for causing a collision at the start of the race.

The next and last race of the season in a week’s time in Abu Dhabi, where George Russel will most likely sit in Mercedes again. Romain Grosjean will not take part and thus he ends his F1 career.

This is written by

Wiktoria Monczak