Verstappen took the pole position in Abu Dhabi ahead of Hamilton and Norris. During the race, Hamilton had a better start and took the lead into the first turn. At turn six Verstappen attempted to pass, forcing Hamilton to evade by going off the track.
Emerging from the corner still in the lead, Hamilton was instructed to give up the advantage he had gained. The pair settled in their positions until the first round of pit stops, with Hamilton gradually extending his lead. He later lost much of his advantage when Pérez, Verstappen's teammate with Red Bull, and who had yet to make a pit stop, made it difficult for Hamilton to pass him, though Verstappen was unable to capitalise.
Later, a virtual safety car period allowed Verstappen to change his tyres without losing track position; however, despite the tyre advantage Verstappen was unable to challenge Hamilton. With seven laps remaining, the safety car was brought out for a crash involving Latifi. Red Bull used the opportunity to give Verstappen a fresh set of soft tyres, while Hamilton, still on his now-quite-old hard compound tyres, was not pitted. Race director Michael Masi took the decision to allow the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves before restarting the race with only one lap remaining. Upon the restart, Verstappen quickly passed Hamilton and held him off for the remainder of the lap to win the race and the championship. Hamilton took pole position in Qatar, while a penalty for failing to respect double waived yellow flags during qualifying forced Verstappen to start from seventh.
Verstappen quickly recovered to second place but was unable to threaten Hamilton's race lead despite setting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Fernando Alonso used a one-stop strategy to finish third, less than three seconds ahead Peréz in fourth, it was Alonso's first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. Bottas and Nicholas Latifi retired from the race after they and multiple others suffered punctures on track. The result reduced Verstappen's lead in the Driver's Championship to eight points while Mercedes's lead in the Constructors' Championship was reduced to five points. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying in Brazil, but was disqualified the following day for a technical infringement. Bottas won the qualifying sprint, giving him pole position for the Grand Prix.
By finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen increased his championship lead over Hamilton by two points, and Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished third, increased Ferrari's championship lead over McLaren. Hamilton finished fifth in the sprint from last on the grid, but a five-place grid drop due to taking a new engine relegated him to tenth on the grid for the Grand Prix. On race day, both Verstappen was able to overtake Bottas on the first lap. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Sainz were involved in a separate incident, with Norris getting a puncture. On lap 48, Hamilton caught up to Verstappen and attempted an overtake, but failed and resulted in both of them going off track. He won the race from Verstappen, decreasing Verstappen's championship lead from 21 points to 14 points.
Bottas won sprint qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, but was forced to start from the back of the grid after exceeding the quota of one on his power units' components. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop. Ricciardo led to the end to take his first victory since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix and McLaren's first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. His teammate, Norris, finished behind him to secure the team's first 1–2 finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix and the first 1–2 finish of the season.
And Bottas, after a penalty applied to Pérez, came third from the back of the grid. After the race, Verstappen was judged by the stewards to have been predominantly at fault for the collision with Hamilton. As a result, he was given a 3-place grid-penalty for the next race and two penalty points on his super licence. In France, Verstappen got his second pole of the season, only to go wide at the first turn and lose the lead to Hamilton in the first lap. After regaining first with an undercut in his first pit stop, Verstappen found himself under heavy pressure from both Mercedes drivers.
Verstappen relinquished his lead to pit a second time, one of two drivers to do so, returning to the track 18 seconds behind Hamilton. The speed advantage allowed him to make up the lost time, overtaking Bottas on lap 44 and Hamilton on the penultimate lap, for his third win of the year and his thirteenth win overall. Hamilton, now 12 points behind in the Drivers' Championship, did secure second, and with an overtake on lap 49, Pérez managed to take third place, pushing Bottas to fourth. It was the first race of the season where the race winner also took pole position and the fastest lap, and the first race of the season with no retirements. Red Bull extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship to 37 points after the race.
Verstappen kept hold of his lead until lap 42 when he was handed a five-second time penalty on the championship leader. Hamilton took back his pole position lead in the following lap and put in several fastest laps to eventually take the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix win with a margin of over 20 seconds. Leclerc took pole again in Azerbaijan, this time he was able to start the race. Hamilton was held up in his pitstop to allow Gasly to pass him in the pitlane, handing Verstappen the net race lead. On lap 30, Lance Stroll crashed out due to a tyre failure and brought out the safety car.
With Verstappen comfortably leading with six laps to go, he suffered a tyre failure, causing him to crash on the pit straight, bringing out the safety car and then the red flag on lap 46 and 48, respectively. Hamilton went up the inside of Pérez at the restart, but forgot to adjust his brake bias and missed the corner. Pérez won for the second time in his career and took his first win for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One, while Gasly took his third career podium. Leclerc took pole at the Monaco Grand Prix despite crashing in the final minutes.
The crash caused a driveshaft failure, meaning he was unable to start the race. Verstappen started at the front and led from Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr. On lap 30, Bottas was forced into retirement after his front-right tyre would not come off during a routine pitstop. Verstappen took the victory, as well as the championship lead for the first time in his career; Red Bull came away from this race with a one-point lead in the Constructors' Championship. Behind Verstappen, Sainz took his first podium for Ferrari, and Norris took his second podium of the season in third place. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole from Pérez and Verstappen.
Verstappen went into the lead at turn 1 on lap 1, after it started raining on race day. Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi crashed at the exit of turn 13, bringing out the safety car. Under the safety car, Schumacher lost control of his car and spun into the pit exit, losing his front wing. On lap 31, at turn 7, Hamilton made a mistake, hitting the wall and damaging his front wing. The moment he did, his teammate Bottas and George Russell had a crash at over 320 km/h on the start-finish straight, bringing out the red flag.
After the race restarted, Norris overtook Charles Leclerc for second, but the former was overtaken by Hamilton, resulting in a podium of Verstappen, Hamilton and Norris. Max Verstappen continues to lead the F1 world championship, but Lewis Hamilton cut the deficit from 14 points to eight after winning the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change. Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position and won the race, his first of 2021.
He was followed by Max Verstappen, who re-took the championship lead, and Sergio Pérez, who took his first podium since France. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying to start in first place for the first ever sprint in the British Grand Prix. In the sprint, Verstappen made a better start than Hamilton and overtook him before the first corner, leading every lap and winning the sprint with Hamilton second and Bottas third, thus Verstappen started on pole for the Grand Prix itself. On lap five of the sprint, Pérez spun, dropping him to the back of the field, and later retiring, forcing him to start from the pits for the race.
On the first lap of the Grand Prix, Verstappen and Hamilton collided at approximately 290 kilometres per hour at Copse corner. Hamilton made contact with Verstappen's right rear wheel, causing the tyre to come off and Verstappen travelled into the barrier, causing the race to be stopped temporarily. Hamilton was penalised for the contact with a ten-second penalty, which he served during his pit stop. Leclerc led most of the Grand Prix, but finished second after Hamilton overtook Norris, Bottas, and Leclerc in the late stages to win the race.
Formula 1 Drivers And Teams 2021 Meanwhile Stroll was by the accident ahead and drove into the side of Leclerc. After a safety car, teams were told there would be a standing start from the grid, but just beforehand all the drivers except leader Hamilton dived into the pits for slick tyres, as the track was drying. Verstappen continued his momentum in the United States Grand Prix, taking pole position. Despite Hamilton taking the lead in turn 1, Verstappen was able to win the race with Hamilton in second place, in front of Pérez. The result increased Verstappen's lead to 12 points as Hamilton collected an extra Championship point by setting the fastest lap.
Verstappen took pole from Russell and Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix in a wet qualifying session. The race was heavily affected by rain, which initially saw the start delayed by 25 minutes. After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility. It was not restarted, becoming the shortest race in Formula 1 history and the sixth to award half-points as less than 75% of the race was completed. Verstappen won by default, with Russell in second and Hamilton in third place.
As a result, Hamilton's lead in the championship was cut to three points from Verstappen. Verstappen took pole at the Austrian Grand Prix, the last race of the first triple header. Lando Norris received a penalty after being judged to have forced Sergio Pérez off track.
Pérez later received two penalties for doing the same to Charles Leclerc. Hamilton finished fourth, after picking up damage to the underside of his car, meaning that Verstappen was able to extend his championship lead to 32 points. Cars were now under parc fermé conditions following the end of free practice three instead of qualifying, further restricting teams and drivers from making major changes to setups ahead of the race.
The length of the two Friday practice sessions were cut from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. The current points leader obviously wasn't thrilled with the penalty assessments that arguably cost him a chance to win the race if Lewis Hamilton didn't make a big mistake or deal with a technical issue with the car. That said he does point out that the team turned in the fastest lap, an encouraging sign in a season full of them.
The F1 season comes to a close next Sunday when the field descends on the United Arab Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Neither driver has to win the race, but they do need to finish in the top ten to secure a win. Fastest lap gains a point, so barring the two drivers finishing in ninth and tenth place , it will just come down to who finishes in a better position next weekend in Abu Dhabi. Hamilton earned the 100th pole position of his career in Barcelona, but duly gave up first position on the first corner of the grand prix, having no option but to sacrifice the spot to an aggressive move by Max Verstappen. The engines are roaring almost as much as the crowd as the pit lane opens and the cars make their way to the grid for the final time in 2021.
The big talk is on tyres, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton starting the race on different compunds . Despite that, though, Pirelli expect the one-stop to be the fastest, no matter the starting tyre with hard tyres the choice at the stop. The altered Yas Marina layout hasn't affected tyre wear enough for a two-stop to become profitable unless a safety car intervenes.
Valtteri Bottas finished first in sprint qualifying, but was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. Verstappen was required to start from the back at the Russian Grand Prix for exceeding his quota of a number of his power unit components. The running order changed substantially as heavy rain began to fall in the closing laps. Hamilton took his 100th Formula One victory as well as the championship lead, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.
Under the previous rules, drivers could be disqualified as soon as such error had occurred. Drivers and teams are scheduled to compete for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion respectively. Should Lewis Hamilton go on to win the Qatar Grand Prix -- he's led every lap thus far and is leading by nearly nine seconds -- and should Max Verstappen finish second, the world championship fight would tighten considerably. Hamilton would cut Verstappen's lead from 14 points to six -- this includes Hamilton earning the bonus point for posting the fastest lap -- with two races remaining. Lewis Hamilton goes wire-to-wire in winning the Qatar Grand Prix, his seventh win on the season. Max Verstappen overcame a five-place pre-race grid penalty to finish second, and earns a big bonus point for posting the fastest lap.
A victory, worth 25 points, and the extra point for the fastest lap for Verstappen means Hamilton would need to finish fifth to keep the title race alive. Even if the Briton was second and claimed 18 points, Verstappen would head to the final race in Abu Dhabi with a commanding lead. Another exciting element of the 2021 F1 season was the debut of Sprint Qualifying. The 100km races determined the starting grid for Sunday's grands prix and awarded championship points to the top three drivers.
Channel 4's commentator called the inaugural Saudi GP "an incredible day of confusion," which is an understatement – this will go down as one of the most contentious races of all time. But it delivered on thrills and means a final race of the season with the two leading drivers tied on points, as the incredible 2021 season reaches its conclusion. Verstappen complained of having worn tyres with five laps to go, but he couldn't pit without losing second place to Ocon.
Hamilton nursed his own car home to take the win, with Verstappen 7sec behind – his time penalty making no difference to the order. Completing the excitement, Bottas passed Ocon metres before the chequered flag to complete the podium. Norris led for much of the race, and regained the advantage shortly after a late stop for a set of fresh rubber.
But rain began to fall on part of the track with around five laps to go, and while its increasing intensity meant most drivers pitted for treaded tyres, Norris believed he could stay out on slicks and overruled the team's request for him to do the same. The drama dutifully returned on the street circuit of Azerbaijan's capital, with a joint-record four red flags brought out during Saturday's qualifying session. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc managed to grasp pole position for the second race in a row but failed to keep it beyond lap two, when he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. After that the Monegasque went backwards down the order but recovered to fourth. Max Verstappen will start this Sunday's race from the front of the grid, having benefited from a slipstream provided by Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to post the fastest lap on Saturday, ahead of second-placed Lewis Hamilton. It's Lando Norris third, so he'll have the best seat to the start of the world championship duel.
Nicholas Latifi has crashed big time in the final sector and the safety car has to be called. If we get a restart then Verstappen could be in an ideal position to attack and take the title. Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in qualifying, but did not start the race.
Mercedes immediately lodged two separate protests against the race's result. Both protests were dismissed, but Mercedes immediately announced their intention to appeal the dismissal of the protest regarding the handling of the restart following the safety car period. Following the race there was multiple criticism of the race director, that he "didn't follow the rules", and that they "made a late call that prioritized entertainment over classic notions of competitive integrity".
