#Formula1 Ooredoo #QatarGP 2021 Preview – #F1 #QatarGP
Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Sao Paulo 2021 Race Start, Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (Interlagos), Sao Paulo, Brazil. Image credit to Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images. Hamilton Brazilian GP victory, 2021 Brazilian GP, 2021 Sao Paulo GP, 2021 Brazilian GP Results. 2021 Qatar GP Preview, Qatar Grand Prix Preview.
After Lewis Hamilton put on a stunning display to claim victory from 10th on the grid beating title-rival Max Verstappen with 12 laps to spare, round 20 of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship heads to the Losail International Circuit in Lusail, Al Daayen, Qatar for the Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021. This will be the last race of the final triple-header on the 2021 schedule.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – A Look At The Losail International Circuit
Losail International Circuit is a permanent racing facility located just outside in the town of Lusail, north of Doha, Qatar.
Built in just under a year by 1,000 workers at the cost of $58 million US dollars, the track opened in 2004 and hosted the inaugural 2004 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix, won by Spaniard Sete Gibernau.
The track is 5.380 kilometres (3.343 miles) in length, with a main straight of 1,068 metres (3,504 ft). It is surrounded by artificial grass to stop the sand encroaching on the track.
In 2007, Losail installed permanent outdoor lighting for night racing. At the time, the lighting of the Losail Circuit by Musco Lighting was the largest permanent venue sports lighting project in the world, a title, which now belongs to another Persian Gulf motorsport facility, the Yas Marina Circuit in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The first night race in MotoGP history was the season-opening 2008 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix in March 2008.
In February 2009, a GP2 Asia Series night race took place at the circuit with the qualifying lap record posted by Nico Hulkenberg with a 1:35.741.
The World Superbike Championship visited Losail in 2005–2009 and 2014–2019; whilst the World Touring Car Championship visited the venue in 2015–2017.
The Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 took the place of the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix after the event in Melbourne was cancelled for the second time due to the coronavirus plague.
The Qatar Grand Prix will return to the calendar again in 2023, signing a ten-year deal with Formula 1 and moving to a new-purpose built facility from 2023 onwards.
This will become the fourth night race on the Formula 1 calendar following the Singapore, Bahrain and Sakhir Grands Prix.
The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.380km (3.343 miles) in length with 16 corners.
The race distance is 306.660 kilometres (190.549 miles) with 57 laps in total.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – A Lap Of The Losail International Circuit
Here is an onboard lap of the Losail International from the 2021 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix, with now-retired MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi riding his Petronas-Yamaha YZR-M1. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T_IvWjGSjA.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Qatar, the hardest compounds in its range. The C1 white side-walled Hard compounds, the C2 yellow-marked Medium tyres and the C3 red-branded Soft rubber. F1’s sole tyre supplier will also take along the green-branded Intermediates and the blue-branded Wet tyres in case of rain.
All drivers will have eight sets of the C3 softs, three sets of the C2 mediums and two of the C1 hards.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – DRS Zones
There will be just one DRS zone at the Losail International Circuit with the DRS Detection Zone just before the final corner with the Activation Zone from the beginning of the main straight.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – Pit-lane Speed Limits
Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Hamilton snatches Brazilian GP victory from Verstappen
Lewis Hamilton clinched his 101st-career victory at the Brazilian GP snatching the victory from title-rival Max Verstappen with 12 laps to spare after starting 10th on the grid.
Verstappen finished second in-front of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, with the Dutchman given a black-and-white flag from the FIA for his defending against Hamilton at one stage, although escaped an investigation by the stewards, which saw both championship contenders going off track.
When the 71-lap Brazilian GP began, Verstappen got the better getaway this time from the left-hand side of the grid and was immediately alongside pole-sitter Bottas, who held on around the outside of turn one.
But Verstappen ran the Finn out wide on the exit of the first part of the Senna Esses sequence to secure the move and take the lead.
Just behind, McLaren’s Lando Norris got a great launch off the line alongside the slow-starting Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in third place, with the Briton going far to the right of the circuit as it passed the SF21, but as Norris fell back left in preparation for the opening corners, the duo tangled, and the McLaren picked up a puncture.
Whilst Norris ran off the track and dropped to the rear of the field, Bottas’s slower line through the opening sequence after being almost fully off circuit at the turn one exit meaning Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was able to run alongside him as they charged down the second straight.
As they braked for turn four’s downhill left hander, Bottas went wide as he could not hold his line, giving Perez third as the two Ferrari’s – lead by Charles Leclerc after Sainz’s poor start – and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also momentarily shot through the turn four run-off area.
Verstappen had a 1.2 second gap at the end of the opening lap, by at this point Hamilton already made up three places from his 10th-place starting spot and then overtook Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel to grab sixth at the start of the second tour.
The Briton passed Sainz and Leclerc at the same spot in consecutive laps, with Bottas then ordered to let his Mercedes team-mate by at the beginning of lap five and gave Hamilton third place.
But on the next tour, the safety car was deployed, so the marshals could clear a large amount of debris at the opening corners, which followed Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda – the only driver not to start on the C3 yellow side-walled medium compounds, with the Japanese driver running the C4 red-marked softs – tangling at turn one as they battled over 12th place and Tsunoda losing his front wing.
The race went back to green on lap ten, with Verstappen waiting until he was halfway down the grid slots before pulling clear, with the two Red Bulls able to keep out of Hamilton’s attack range behind.
Verstappen rapidly restored his 1.3 second advantage over team-mate Perez, who had Hamilton 0.4 seconds behind him, but then the Grand Prix was stabilised once more with the virtual safety car as the marshals cleared more debris at turn one – this time coming from a clash between Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen at the back of the pack, with the Haas VF-21 racer suffering a damaged front wing.
The race went green once more halfway through the 14th tour, with Verstappen’s gap maintained and Hamilton back at Perez’s rear again.
The top four immediately moved clear of the Ferrari duo, lapping in the low 1:14’s with the rest in the 1:15’s or slower.
Perez asked his Red Bull team for Verstappen to give him DRS assistance as he fought to keep Hamilton behind him, but the Dutchman continued to pull clear, with his lead 2.4 seconds at the beginning of lap 18.
Here Hamilton used DRS to get a good slipstream to be on Perez’s outside and the Briton moved ahead with a solid move late on the brakes at the left-hander, but the Red Bull driver hit back with DRS down the second straight and reclaimed second with a similar brilliant overtake to the outside of the turn four left-hander.
A tour later, with Verstappen’s lead up to 3.7 seconds as the following duo battled, Hamilton made the same move, but Perez was unable to stay in his wake and the Mercedes breezed into second.
He at first ate into Verstappen’s gap by a few tenths running in clear air, but the Red Bull driver gradually responded and increased his lead back towards the four-second mark as their mediums began to lose grip.
Now a two-car fight at the front, Mercedes brought Hamilton in at the end of the 26th tour for a set of C2 white-branded hards, with Verstappen stopping a lap later.
Although Hamilton’s undercut advantage was reduced by having to pass McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, the earlier move to the fresher tyre meant the world champion cu Verstappen’s lead to just over a second.
After the leaders faced a second virtual safety car on lap 30 – called for more debris, which came off of Stroll’s Aston Martin as he raced by Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi down the pit-straight, a legacy of his earlier clash with Tsunoda, for which the AlphaTauri driver was given a 10-second time penalty – Hamilton was running out of DRS range behind his championship rival.
Red Bull reassured Verstappen he was continuing to be quicker in sector two, as he had been all weekend, with Hamilton’s less draggy F1 W12 EQ Performance racer quicker along the straights, which makes up most of the lap at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
By this point Bottas was up into third place, which he gained after pitting during the virtual safety car meaning he was able to jump Perez, who made a pit-stop the tour after Verstappen.
The gap between front-two receded and flowed slightly over the next ten laps, with Red Bull then opting to trigger the second round of pit-stops at the end of the 40th lap – with Verstappen coming in for a fresh set of hards.
Mercedes left Hamilton out longer for three more laps, after which he emerged 2.6 seconds behind Verstappen – having momentarily looked like he might left out too long to run – as he was at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton was much faster in the final stint, posting a series of fastest laps in the low 1:12’s and high 1:11’s, which meant he cut into race leader Verstappen’s gap and finally reached DRS range.
On the 48th tour, just after Hamilton make a small move to the inside of turn one, to which Verstappen reacted, the Briton was close enough to make a move into turn four.
Although Hamilton got ahead of the Red Bull on the outside line, Verstappen charged back on the inside and pulled back towards the Mercedes, the pairing going side-by-side off the track on the exit of the turn four left-hander, but with the RB16B narrowly in-front.
The incident was noted by the stewards, but they decided that the investigation was not necessary, which made Mercedes furious in its discussion with Race Director Michael Masi.
Verstappen held his lead at just under a second over the next stage of the Grand Prix – at one point weaving left-and-right down the other straight, which gave the Dutchman a black-and-white warning flag, as Hamilton mounted a second attack at turn four, this time failing to get far enough alongside the Red Bull meaning Verstappen had to firmly defend as he did before.
But with 12 laps remaining, Hamilton again forced Verstappen to react a little after a look into the inside of the opening corner, which meant the Red Bull was slower down the second straight once more after being on the less ideal line through the rest of the Senna Esses.
Hamilton was therefore much closer to the Dutchman with DRS this time and got ahead before the braking zone, the seven-time world champion swept the Red Bull from the outside to the inside just before the left-hand fourth corner and sealed first place.
Hamilton pulled clear over the final 12 tours to claim the Brazilian GP victory with a 10.496 second gap to Verstappen, as Bottas could not meet Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s requirement to “go and get” Verstappen – as the Finn finished three seconds behind the Red Bull in the final podium place.
Perez was on course to finish not far behind Bottas in fourth before Red Bull opted to pit the Mexican on the final lap to snatch the fastest lap bonus point on a set of softs right at the end, which he done so, as behind him Leclerc lead his Ferrari team-mate Sainz to a fifth and sixth place for the Scuderia.
Gasly fought by the one-stopping Alpines later on to recover to seventh place on his two-stop strategy, with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon ending the race in eighth and ninth respectively.
Norris claimed the final point on offer finishing tenth after his one lap loss was negated by the deployment of the safety car and the Briton rose back into the points – aided by McLaren team-mate Ricciardo retiring late on with a power issue and Stroll also forced to end his race early not long after.
Aston Martin’s Vettel was 11th and in-front of Alfa’s Raikkonen who ended the Grand Prix 12th and Williams Racing’s George Russell who came home 13th.
The other Alfa of Antonio Giovinazzi finished the race 14th and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda who took 15th and Latifi 16th in the other Mercedes-powered FW43B racer.
The two Haas VF-21’s of Nikita Mazepin and Schumacher brought up the rear.
2021 Qatar GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen heads to Qatar on top of World Driver’s Championship with 332.5 points and a 14-point lead over title-rival Lewis Hamilton who is second on 318.5 points while Valtteri Bottas is a further 129.5 behind the Dutchman in third on 203 points.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team comes to Sao Paulo sitting on top of the World Constructors Championship with 521.5 points and an 11-point advantage over nearest rivals Red Bull Racing who are second on 510.5 points whilst Ferrari are third and a further 234 points behind the Silver Arrows on 287.5 points.
Click here for the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
2021 Qatar GP Preview – F1 Quickfire News
- Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team have requested a “Right to Review” of the incident at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix when Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen defended the lead from Lewis Hamilton, forcing both drivers to run wide. Hamilton who started tenth on the grid, had been charging down Verstappen’s Honda-powered RB16B, ending with an attempted overtake around the outside at turn four on the 48th tour with both drivers running wide before rejoining, and Verstappen held the lead. The stewards noted the incident but not action was necessary and as the race continued, Hamilton passed the Dutchman 11 laps later and went on to claim victory. Mercedes’ short statement on Tuesday afternoon read: “The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team confirms that we have today requested a Right of Review under Article 14.1.1 of the International Sporting Code, in relation to the Turn 4 incident between Car 44 and Car 33 on lap 48 of the Brazilian Grand prix, on the basis of new evidence unavailable to the Stewards at the time of their decision.” The team representatives will meet with the stewards to discuss the new evidence.
- On Tuesday, it was announced that Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi will be leaving the Hinwil-based outfit at the end of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship season following a three-year spell with the team. The Martina-Franca born native, became the first Italian since Jarno Trulli in 2011 to race a full-season in Formula One beginning at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix for Alfa Romeo Racing and has competed in 59 Grands Prix so far – including two in 2017, when he substituted injured driver Pascal Wehrlein to make his debut. His best result to date was scoring a fifth-placed finish at the 2019 Brazilian GP. Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Team Principal Frederic Vasseur said: “Saying goodbye to a driver is never easy, especially so in the case of Antonio, who has been part of the team for so long. As we part ways, we will cherish the memories of the good times and learn lessons from the bad ones, knowing these moments all made us grow together as a team. We wish Antonio the best for his future after the 2021 season: before then, we still have three races to achieve some good results together and finish the year strongly.” Vasseur concluded. Credit to Sauber Motorsport for the quote.
- Following the announcement of Antonio Giovinazzi’s departure from the team, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN confirmed that Guanyu Zhou will join the team alongside 1 Valtteri Bottas for the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship campaign. The first ever Formula One race driver from China, Zhou had experienced success at all levels of racing and has been on the radar of most F1 teams for some time. He came second in the Italian F4 Championship in 2015, before clinching victories in Euro F3 and F2, Formula One’s support categories. In 2021, it has been a breakthrough year for Zhou, currently sitting second in the Formula 2 Driver’s Championship and is ready to push for title-glory in the final two events in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Zhou joins 10-time Grand Prix winner Bottas in a blend of youth and experience in a time when the sport will see a new set of rules and regulations and all teams starting their quest for championship success. Zhou stated: “I dreamt from a young age of climbing as high as I can in a sport that I am passionate about and now the dream has come true. It is a privilege for me to start my Formula 1 racing career with an iconic team, a team that has introduced so much young talent into Formula 1 in the past. Now the dream is reality. I feel well prepared for the immense challenge of Formula 1, the pinnacle of my sport, alongside a proven, world-class talent in Valtteri Bottas. I wish to thank the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team for this opportunity. Next year the target will be to learn as much as possible and as quickly as possible. To be the first ever Chinese driver in Formula 1 is a breakthrough for Chinese motorsport history. I know a lot of hopes will be resting on me and, as ever, I will take this as motivation to become better and achieve more.” Zhou concluded. Credit to Sauber Motorsport for the quote.
The Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 weekend begins Friday November 19 with Free Practice 1 and Qualifying, followed by Free Practice 2 and the Qualifying Sprint Race Saturday November 20 and the 57 lap Race Sunday November 21.
