@MercedesAMGF1’s @LewisHamilton storms to dominant #QatarGP victory. #F1

Hamilton Qatar GP victory – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton claimed a dominant Qatar GP victory and ahead of title-rival Max Verstappen who recovered to second for Red Bull and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who completed the top three in a race, which saw a series of punctures.

 

 

Hamilton closed the Driver’s Championship lead down to eight-points with his 102^nd career win as the sport heads to Saudi Arabia for the first time in a fortnight.

 

When the 57-lap Qatar GP began, pole-sitter Hamilton immediately moved to cover the inside of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on the rundown to turn one, swooping ahead of the Frenchman as Alonso closed up behind him.

 

By covering off Gasly’s line, Hamilton had a comfortable time in the right-hand, long opening corner, with Gasly and Alonso trailing behind him – whilst behind Verstappen, who had immediately launched past the slow-starting Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, the duo beginning the Grand Prix in sixth and seventh thanks to their grid penalties for speeding through double-waved yellows in qualifying, followed McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz into turn one.

 

As the pairing went deep, Verstappen jumped ahead on the inside and had the momentum to run alongside Alonso – who swung across unsighted and forced the Dutchman to run half onto the sandy AstroTurf run-off and back off into the turn two long left-hand corner.

 

But Verstappen managed to remain in-front of Norris and chase the leaders out-front, with Alonso up ahead, then getting by Gasly into turn three.

 

Hamilton completed the opening tour 1.7 seconds clear of his former McLaren team-mate as the Briton continued to pull clear as Verstappen complained that he was “stuck” behind Gasly.

 

The Frenchman ran wide at the last corner at the end of the third tour – as Verstappen got the momentum with DRS assistance to fly ahead of the AlphaTauri as they ran down the main-straight to begin the fourth lap.

 

At the end of that lap, Verstappen closed in on Alonso using DRS and on the fifth tour was easily ahead of the Spaniard by the opening corner braking zone, always 4.4 seconds behind race-leader Hamilton.

 

F1’s leading duo shot off into the distance from Alonso, who was almost 20 seconds off the lead by the Grand Prix’s opening ten laps, but during this stage, Verstappen reported possible damage to his front wing after striking the kerb heavy during the initial tours after he reached second place.

 

Red Bull initially reported everything looked out, but Verstappen reported lift-off over-steer going through the first corner and was put down a front-wing end-plate damage.

 

He was at first able to match Hamilton’s times in the mid-1:27’s, but as the Briton increased his pace and reached the low 1:27’s, the Red Bull driver could not keep up and began to stably drop back.

 

The gap between the front-two was close to ten seconds when Red Bull brought Verstappen in at the end of the 17^th tour to switch from the C2 yellow side-walled medium rubber he and Hamilton began the Grand Prix on to the C2 white-marked harder compounds – emerging just ahead of the yet-to-stop Alonso.

 

Mercedes brought Hamilton in on the following lap, despite the world champion insisting his tyres were “good” and said “don’t stop me too early” – the race leader also putting on the hards as his team copied Verstappen’s strategy.

 

The earlier stop assisted Verstappen take a chunk from Hamilton’s lead, which was at 8.3 seconds at the end of the Briton’s out-lap.

 

From there, the duo traded quickest laps across the next proceedings of the race, with Verstappen steadily bringing down the gap to 6.7 seconds at the halfway point – after reporting to his team they should “have a bit of run” charging on with second place secured.

 

The main focus for the rest of the Grand Prix was who would take the final podium place, with Alonso holding onto third throughout the initial stint.

 

The double world champion came in to swap the softs for hards on the 23^rd tour, rejoining in-front of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was yet-to-stop, and the charging Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who already pitted for a set of mediums to hards as part of his push from 11^th on the grid.

 

Alonso covered Perez for a few tours – including as they overtook the long-running Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who suffered a lock-up into the opening corner when Alonso attacked at turn one and ran deep after moving late to defend late against the Alpine – with the Mexican then making the move stick in a close wheel-to-wheel fight through the first two turns on the 29^th lap.

 

But Bottas was also a consideration for Perez as his Mercedes Team-Boss Toto Wolff ordered the Finn to start overtaking cars that passed him as he fell to 11^th off the line, with the Silver Arrows leaving him out on the mediums until five laps pat the midway point of proceedings.

 

On the 33^rd lap, Bottas was hit with a sudden front-left puncture as he reached the turn six hairpin, with the Mercedes driver slipping into the gravel as the Finn struggled to control his F1 W12 EQ Performance racer in scenes mirroring the end of the 2020 British Grand Prix.

 

Bottas had to do nearly a full tour on the deflated tyre, dropping behind Perez and Alonso, and raised concern for the front-runners.

 

With Hamilton and Verstappen both reporting vibrations with their harder tyres approaching the final 15 tours of the race, Red Bull kicked off the second window of stops by pitting Verstappen at the end of the 41^st lap and Hamilton stopping again at the end of the next tour.

 

As they went back onto the mediums, the gap between the duo was 8.4 seconds having been going back towards the 10 second margin before Verstappen pitted, their focus became on taking the bonus fastest-lap point.

 

In the battle for third place, Perez pitted on the same lap as Red Bull team-mate Verstappen and had to fight his way past several cars attempting to keep on the one-stopper despite the threat of a puncture.

 

This included Alonso, Norris and the other Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who was told to defend aggressively against Perez flew back up the order as his team-mate done so late in the Hungarian Grand Prix to save the team’s victory against a rapid Hamilton.

 

After passing Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll a few tours after rejoining from his second stop, which he complained about on his team radio, on the 47^th lap, Perez used DRS to get a slipstream on Ocon down the main-straight.

 

Ocon defended the inside line, but Perez flew around the outside and although the Frenchman attacked back into the second corner and turn four, the Alpine driver was unable to get back in-front.

 

This set-up a showdown for P3, with Perez still needing to get ahead of Norris to catch Alonso, but a series of late punctures meant the battle was stopped.

 

Williams Racing’s George Russell had his front-left tyre let go with six tours remaining and on the following lap his team-mate Nicholas Latifi had the same tyre on his set of tyres puncture as the Canadian ran down the main-straight.

 

Although Russell was able to make his way back to the pits, Latifi pulled off at the end of the turn six hairpin and a short moment later – just after Norris came in with his own puncture – the virtual safety car was deployed.

 

Red Bull stopped Verstappen for a final time for a fresh set of the C3 red-branded softs and emerged so far behind rival Hamilton that he still had the final lap to go when the Grand Prix went green again with the leader well into his final tour.

 

This meant that even though Verstappen already had the fastest lap after he and Hamilton traded it during the earlier proceedings on their second set of mediums – Verstappen’s final stint – using the softs he had been given to lock in the fastest lap bonus point setting a 1:23.196 as he crossed the line 25.743 seconds behind the racing-winning Briton.

 

The virtual safety car stopped Perez from eating into Alonso’s gap and meant the Spaniard did not have to abort his one-stop strategy.

 

Alonso then officially took his first podium in his F1 comeback by 2.8 seconds ahead of Perez, with Ocon and Perez following them in fifth and sixth respectively.

 

The Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc were stuck in the one-stoppers’ DRS train behind Ocon before the virtual safety car deployment and remained there even as the race resumed to take seventh and eighth.

 

Norris’s late stop meant he came home ninth, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top ten – his one-stop strategy combined with the virtual safety car to help the German gain ground after dropping back at the start.

 

The virtual safety car also ruined Gasly’s attempts to make his two-stop strategy work, the Frenchman one of the first to pit in the opening stint and being unable to follow Perez through the one-stoppers, settling for 11^th.

 

McLaren’s Ricciardo finished in 12^th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 13^th and Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi who were 14^th and 15^th respectively.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin ended the race 16^th and at the rear as Williams’ George Russell ended up 17^th.

 

Mercedes retired Bottas in the pits just before the puncture drama unfolded.

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2021 Qatar GP – The Top Three

 

 

2021 Qatar GP Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance:

“We needed those points today. I can’t wait to watch the race replay to find out what happened behind me. I’m really grateful for these points, it’s been a hell of a year. Back-to-back wins here, feel good, I feel fit, fitter than I’ve ever felt. Bring on the next two!”

 

2^nd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B:

“Our starting position was compromised, but luckily we had a really good start. Of course, I know it’s going to be difficult to the end, but it keeps it nice, keeps it exciting. This track was fun to drive as well. I feel good, but it’s going to be a tight battle to the end.”

 

3^rd Place – Fernando Alonso, #14, Alpine F1 Team-Renault, A521:

“Unbelievable, seven years! Finally, we got it, honestly, I thought to be leading after Lap 1, on the red tyre I wanted to have a go at Lewis. We tried one stop from the beginning, but we didn’t know the [tyre] wear at a new venue for everybody. The car was superb and [the team] deserve it. I’ve waited so long for this, so I’m very happy.”

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Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 Race Results Classification (57 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	57	1:24:28.471	25
2	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	57	+25.743s	19
3	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+59.457s	15
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	57	+62.306s	12
5	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+80.570s	10
6	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	57	+81.274s	8
7	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	57	+81.911s	6
8	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	57	+83.126s	4
9	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	2
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	1
11	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	56	+1 lap	0
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	0
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	56	+1 lap	0
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
16	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
17	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	55	+2 laps	0
18	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	55	+2 laps	0
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	50	DNF	0
NC	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	48	DNF	0

 

* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1105/qatar/race-result.html

 

Click here for the Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The penultimate round of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship heads from one new circuit to another in the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the inaugural Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021 from Friday December 3-Sunday December 5.