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| Photo Credit: Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. |
The fourth event of the 2021 Formula 1 season, the Grand Prix of Spain was the second week in a row that drivers and teams of the top open wheel racing series were pressed into competition. So far in this grand prix year, a fierce battle between Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team and Red Bull Racing led by drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has delivered on the pre-season precise of being a close, enduring affair. In qualifying, Hamilton’s #44 car narrowly bettered the Honda-powered race machine of Verstappen for what was the British driver’s 100th career Formula 1 pole.
With two fairly equal competitors in 2021, the results in the past three grand prix events ended in favour of the party that avoided a major mistake. For the third time in four races, Lewis Hamilton would be the driver closest to perfection as he sailed to the win at the Spanish Grand Prix.
While the majority of the race was led by the Honda-powered Red Bull race of Max Verstappen, the Dutch driver was unable to hold off the rush of the #44 Mercedes. Placed on a two-pit stop strategy, Hamilton was trailing the Red Bull Racing entry shortly before he took a set of scuffed medium compound tires on lap 42. Falling to almost 24 second behind Verstappen when he returned to the track after leaving pit road, Hamilton methodically ran down the #33 car with lap times often a second faster than the leader. At the start of lap 60, the Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes AMG race car superior grip and some assist from DRS was too much for the Red Bull Racing pilot. Taking the lead into turn 1, Hamilton comfortably drove to his fifth consecutive victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
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| Photo Credit: Charles Coates/LAT Images/Pirelli |
“What a day! It was a remarkable job by the whole team again this weekend and it’s so good to see fans back here.” said the defending Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion in a post-race release from the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team adding his pleasure to see several Union Jack flags in the grandstands. Lewis Hamilton’s 98th career victory in the series places him in a 14-point lead in this season’s point standings after four races.
An opening start where Max Verstappen shot to the lead over the polesitter Lewis Hamilton was not effort to secure victory in Spain. Hindered by a tire change on the first pit stop that lasted more than four seconds and leading on worn medium compound tires towards the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen came up short of winning again at the track where he claimed his first Formula 1 victory in his debut with Red Bull Racing in 2016. Verstappen’s second place finish comes with the consolation of claiming the race’s fastest lap. The #33 Red Bull Racing car was summoned to pit road for soft compound tires in the successful campaign for the extra point in the event. The 2021 Spanish Grand Prix was Max Verstappen’s 100th start with the Red Bull Racing team.
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| Photo Credit: Mark Sutton/LAT Images/Pirelli |
As was the case with Hamilton and Verstappen finishing in the same spot as their qualifying position, third and fourth place on the starting grid crossed the line after 66 laps in the same spot. Valtteri Bottas grabbed the final podium spot with his Mercedes AMG race car while Charles Leclerc crossed the line in the fourth position. Overcoming a difficult qualifying outing where the Mexican settled for eighth place, Sergio Perez drove his #11 Red Bull Racing vehicle to fifth place at the end of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. The top-finishing McLaren Racing entrant of Daniel Ricciardo settled for sixth place. The Australian described the event in a post-race press release saying, “It was a good weekend. I would say the best weekend so far as a whole and I felt like I got the maximum out of the car today.”
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| Photo Credit: Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. |
The second Scuderia Ferrari car drive by Carlos Sainz Jr. was the highest-finishing Spanish native in the 2021 Formula 1 race on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso came across the line in 17th place after a gamble to gain a top-10 finish on a single pit stop strategy on medium compound Pirelli tires failed to pay off. Alonso’s Alpine F1 Team teammate Esteban Ocon insured the squad gained points in the Spanish Grand Prix taking ninth place behind the McLaren Mercedes of Brit Lando Norris. Ocon was the only driver to collect points after the warm 66-lap event on a single tire change. Pierre Gasly finished 10th and took the point final of the event in what was an aggressive fight for the spot in the final laps that involved Fernando Alonso and the Aston Martin F1 Racing Team’s Lance Stroll. The only driver not running at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix was Sceuderia AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda who retired on track due to a yet-to-be unidentified issue.
The next race on the Formula 1 racing calendar is the historic Monaco Grand Prix with the main event scheduled for May 23rd.
| 2021 Formula 1 Season | ||||||
| Spanish Grand Prix | ||||||
| Race Results | ||||||
| Pos # | Car # | Driver | Team | Engine | ||
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 2 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | Honda | ||
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Scuderia Misson Winnow Ferrari | Ferrari | ||
| 5 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | Honda | ||
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr | Scuderia Misson Winnow Ferrari | Ferrari | ||
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine F1 Team | Renault | ||
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Scuderia AlphaTauri | Honda | ||
| 11 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 12 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo Racing | Ferrari | ||
| 13 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 14 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Racing | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 15 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing | Ferrari | ||
| 16 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Racing | Mercedes-Benz | ||
| 17 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine F1 Team | Renault | ||
| 18 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | ||
| 19 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | ||
| 20 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri | Honda | ||
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