On Sunday, F1 returned to Turkey for the first time since 2011. We knew that we were going to have an exciting and historic race, and we had just that. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton made history by winning his seventh drivers’ championship by winning the Turkish Grand Prix. He is now tied with F1 icon Michael Schumacher with seven world titles, a record that no one thought could be beaten. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez finished an impressive second with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finally getting back on the podium in third. As we entered the weekend, the drivers’ championship could have only been won by Hamilton or his teammate Valteri Bottas. In order to keep his championship hopes alive, Bottas needed to outscore Hamilton by eight points. All Hamilton needed to do was finish ahead of him to secure the title for the fourth consecutive year. 

When Friday practice started, it gave the impression that it was shaping up to be a great race. All of the drivers were spinning, partly due to the fact that no one has raced there since 2011. Another factor was the track itself. It was recently reworked, which meant that it had very little grip, which meant that every driver had to be flawless because they could spin out and crash. When qualifying happened on Saturday, it was raining. This threw even more chaos since Friday was completely dry. Everyone was shocked to see Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll take pole position for the first time of his career. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified in second, and Perez qualified in third. The biggest shock was Hamilton qualifying in sixth and Bottas in ninth. This gave the fans hope of someone finally breaking the Mercedes dominance.

On race day, it was raining again, and everyone was hyped for the race. When the lights went out, Bottas immediately spun and ended up in 18th, effectively ending his title chances. Stroll kept the lead ahead of Perez who was able to get past Verstappen. Vettel was able to get up to third at the end of the lap, moving up eight places from his initial 11th place start. As the race continued, it was Stroll ahead of Perez, then Verstappen in front of his teammate Alex Albon, then Vettel and Hamilton. However, on lap 18, Verstappen spun while chasing Perez, effectively dropping him out of a chance of winning. After the first round of pit stops, the Racing Points were still in the lead; however, Hamilton was gaining ground. Stroll entered the pits again and quickly fell down the order, eventually finishing in ninth. Hamilton took over the lead and never looked back. After 58 laps, Hamilton crossed the line and became a seven-time world champion. On the last lap, there was a battle for second. Perez was defending against Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc, with Vettel right behind him. In the final couple of turns, Leclerc tried to divebomb Perez but locked his brakes, lost a position to Vettel and finished in fourth . Perez barely survived in second place with Vettel less than a second behind. This marked Perez’s 11th podium in his career. This also marked Vettel’s first podium this year which has been filled with misfortune and a bad car.

With both championships decided, Mercedes can take these next three races easy, but I doubt they will. The next race is in Bahrain on Nov. 26-29. One thing to look forward to is the battle for third in the constructors standings, with four teams within 24 points of each other. Each position is critical because of the different amounts of prize money, which can help the development of next year’s car. Everything is still to play for as F1 heads to Bahrain in a season that has shown that anything can happen.