Lando Norris suffers agonising heartbreak as Lewis Hamilton hits historic milestone

The 2021 F1 season was full of all-time classic races amid Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton's tense fight for the championship. 

As the season entered its final stretch of races, the battle began to intensify. Round 15 of the campaign saw the paddock descend on Sochi, which would mark Russia's final year on the F1 calendar.

While the year had largely been controlled by Verstappen and Hamilton, there was a shock result on the cards on Saturday during qualifying. In mixed conditions, Lando Norris fired to his first career pole position with McLaren.

The Woking-based squad's position in the pecking order was far from the title-winning form it finds itself in today, and it was still recovering from the lows it suffered in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Norris beat former team-mate Carlos Sainz to pole position, while Max Verstappen started 20th with a grid penalty for a fresh power unit.

George Russell capitalised on the changing conditions to pull his Williams machine into third while Hamilton was fourth, despite a spin during his final attempt.

With the run of almost one kilometre from pole position to the first braking zone at Sochi, Norris was immediately under pressure at the start of the grand prix.

Sainz swooped around the outside of Norris into Turn 2 and claimed the lead, putting a slight dent the Briton's hope of a first grand prix win.

However, Norris stuck with his rival and on lap 13, he took back first spot. All the while, the threat of rain lingered over the Sochi Autodrom and as Norris built up his lead and attempted to seal his first win in F1, dark clouds rolled in.

Late on in the race, the first spits of rain began to pelt the track. Lewis Hamilton, in the tricky conditions, managed to close the gap to Norris as a crossover period to the intermediate tyre emerged.

But with just a handful of laps remaining, Norris opted against pitting while Hamilton decided to fit the wet-weather tyre to his car.

Although he now had a large gap to Hamilton, Norris had to hope the rain would ease off, or at the very least, not intensify any further. Unfortunately for the McLaren driver, the heavens opened.

Still running the slick tyre, Norris saw his margin to Hamilton dramatically close and on lap 51 of 53, Norris slid off the track at Turn 5, gifting the lead to Hamilton.

Things went from bad to worse for Norris when he finally decided to pit. He slid across the pit entry line, costing himself further time and putting himself at risk of a penalty. However, on this occasion, the stewards decided to simply issue him a reprimand.

The strategy call from Mercedes aided Hamilton to a milestone 100th race win as he became the first driver in F1 history to reach the figure.

He also reclaimed the championship lead over Max Verstappen, but the Dutchman was content with his recovery to second place on the road after starting at the very back of the field.

But there was an underlying feeling of disappointment for Norris, who classified in seventh place.

It would be a wait of four and a half years before he finally got to climb to the top step of the podium at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.