| Row 1 | 1. Lewis Hamilton 1’16.741 Mercedes |
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| 2. Max Verstappen 1’16.777 Red Bull |
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| Row 2 | 3. Valtteri Bottas 1’16.873 Mercedes |
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| 4. Charles Leclerc 1’17.510 Ferrari |
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| Row 3 | 5. Esteban Ocon 1’17.580 Alpine |
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| 6. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’17.620 Ferrari |
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| Row 4 | 7. Daniel Ricciardo 1’17.622 McLaren |
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| 8. Sergio Perez 1’17.701 Red Bull |
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| Row 5 | 9. Lando Norris 1’18.010 McLaren |
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| 10. Fernando Alonso 1’18.147 Alpine |
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| Row 6 | 11. Lance Stroll 1’17.974 Aston Martin |
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| 12. Pierre Gasly 1’17.982 AlphaTauri |
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| Row 7 | 13. Sebastian Vettel 1’18.079 Aston Martin |
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| 14. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’18.356 Alfa Romeo |
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| Row 8 | 15. George Russell 1’19.154 Williams |
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| 16. Yuki Tsunoda 1’18.556 AlphaTauri |
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| Row 9 | 17. Kimi Raikkonen 1’18.917 Alfa Romeo |
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| 18. Mick Schumacher 1’19.117 Haas |
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| Row 10 | 19. Nicholas Latifi 1’19.219 Williams |
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| 20. Nikita Mazepin 1’19.807 Haas |
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2021 Spanish Grand Prix
- Two reasons why Catalunya may not predict the championship – at least this year
- McLaren to keep “drip-feeding” updates onto 2021 car
- Working group tackling F1’s track limits problem
- ‘We’ll discuss what went wrong’: Hamilton and Verstappen team radio transcript analysis
- 2021 Spanish Grand Prix Star Performers
Jere (@jerejj)
8th May 2021, 15:15
Perez was surprisingly slow, but Mclaren’s error with Ricciardo, though. How many times do F1 teams have to make these mistakes so that they wouldn’t happen again?
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
8th May 2021, 15:19
@jerejj
Absolutely! Especially since times usually get progressively slower in the afternoon at Barcelona.
TFLB (@tflb)
8th May 2021, 15:17
For the second week in a row, an extremely anticlimactic Q3 in the end. Perhaps the sprint races do have a merit (and now I’m ducking behind the parapet…)
S
8th May 2021, 15:19
They would if the grid wasn’t going to be the same as always…
Facepalmer
8th May 2021, 15:34
Unless you allow propaganda to infect your brain – no, sprint races doesn’t have a merit.
TFLB (@tflb)
8th May 2021, 15:40
I wasn’t being serious. Actually I think they’re a terrible idea.
kpcart
9th May 2021, 5:07
they do in many racing series. It may or may not work in F1, but you will get used to it, just like how everyone got used to Hybrid power, DRS, halo etc etc.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
8th May 2021, 15:18
The Mercedes is definitely the faster car – by a whole 3ms over a 4.675 km track.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
8th May 2021, 15:28
Well, most chances are it is. In most cases the older guys seem to be beaten by the younger team mates, so I find it hard to believe that, in most cases, a 36 years old HAM is faster than a 23 years old VER. Plus, we have the example of RUS beating convincingly BOT in his only race for Mercedes etc etc.
Facepalmer
8th May 2021, 15:35
Hard to believe?
Then open your eyes.
And stop this stupid hate.
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2021, 15:40
Just ‘stupid’ suffices here I think.
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2021, 15:39
@mg1982 Yes, that’s what they were saying even back in the 1950s when Fangio was regularly winning races despite being the oldest driver in the field. Maybe people over 25 should be banned from the sport so it doesn’t affect your own weird notion of what’s possible?
kpcart
9th May 2021, 5:07
Hard to believe? hard to believe the world is round too??
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th May 2021, 15:29
I’d like to say though: it’s 1 red bull vs 2 mercedes, the 2nd mercedes driver was within 1 tenth of hamilton, how can we say red bull is competitive if we only have 1 reference point? On paper, verstappen might bring an extra tenth, how can we prove he doesn’t? Perez isn’t helping with his 9 tenths off the pace.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
8th May 2021, 16:15
@esploratore –
Because the Red Bull also beat a Mercedes? That is two reference points for you. Of course you can continue to look for more; but i doubt anything can change your mind.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
8th May 2021, 15:54
@kbdavies 36 milliseconds you mean.
melanos
9th May 2021, 10:18
Never let data hard data spoil your narrative. Divide them by 12, or simply make them up, it’s all the same in the end.
Rodber
8th May 2021, 15:57
They’re playing with Max, to break his spirit. At one point they let him take a half second advantage. Then they turn a dial and wham, down comes the sledge hammer on poor Maxy.
ian dearing
8th May 2021, 16:26
Yea it was quite obvious Mercedes were going to turn the engine up right at the end knowing they could totally dominate the RB by .036. Max had no chance of ever making up a deficit such as that. And Mercedes trying to hide their dominance by turning down Bottas so he finished third. Deceitful and dishonest.
You must be asking yourself why nobody can see what you clearly can?
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2021, 16:32
:o) Exactly. 0.036 seconds is a tough ask even for Max’s demi-god level talent.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
8th May 2021, 15:22
Amazed how teams still end-up piling on each other at the end of the lap with a few seconds left.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th May 2021, 15:24
@spoutnik Indeed. They never learn from past mistakes.
LB (@burden93)
8th May 2021, 15:24
Great qualifying session, super super close! Weird that for the second week in a row the times have got slower on the second runs.
100 poles is quite incredible, some of them have been out of this world. That will take some beating in years to come, by the end of his career he has a realistic chance of getting near double anyone else
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
8th May 2021, 15:29
After FP3 I thought Mercedes had more in hand than just a couple of hundreds, so this a little bit of a surprise.
Great laps from Lewis and Max, just a shame we were denied a final showdown between them.
Great efforts also by Leclerc, Ocon, Russell and Schumacher!
AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
8th May 2021, 16:23
@srga91 Realistically, you’ll rarely find Mercedes/Red Bull slower by 1.5 seconds than their 2020 lap times, most of which is down to the floor changes. 2020 pole lap was 1:15.5, so a sub 1:17 lap was expected. Even went with 1:16.680 in my predictions, which was pretty close to the real deal today.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
8th May 2021, 19:04
@asleepatthewheel
I didn’t mean in absolute lap time, but compared to RB. Mercedes are usually running more fuel or less potent engine modes in FP3 compared to RB, so seeing both teams (or at least Verstappen) very closely matched in qualifying really bodes well for the championship.
I also went for a 1:16.6 and you’ll be glad to hear that my time is 0.006 closer to pole than your’s is =D
kpcart
9th May 2021, 5:09
how do you know they are running more fuel or less potent engines? there is no evidence to suggest that, just your oppinion.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
8th May 2021, 15:29
In Barcelona, front row very much decides how the race goes.
Some stellar performances in midfield though from Leclerc and Ocon.
From ‘Come on Valtteri’ to ‘Get in there Lewis’, the story will be same tomorrow.
Question though – is Perez putting too much pressure on himself? At least a second row is expected in that car and that is not happening.
lexusreliability?
8th May 2021, 15:34
F1 fans seem to have memories of a goldfish. It wasn’t that long ago that Perez outqualified Max and was reasonably close. It also isn’t news that Perez isn’t a high performer over a single lap. Not many drivers can live with Max over one lap, so hardly a surprise.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
8th May 2021, 15:39
No one expects Perez to regularly out qualify Max.
No one also expects the RBR to be on the fourth row in Barcelona on a clear day from a seasoned veteran like Perez.
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2021, 15:48
A second behind Max and 8th on the grid isn’t good though. @pinakghosh is right that Red Bull ideally want Perez on the second row.
lorrydriver1
8th May 2021, 16:39
Perez out qualified Max just as Button outscored Lewis over a season. But that belies a lot of data that the teams look at. Button can’t get out of Q1 when Lewis in equal machinery plants a car on pole (only to be denied by technicalities). So Perez out qualifies his team mate when the teams can see the data showing consistently slow pace. As we saw with Pedro and Lewis’s discussions today, when they both tested for Maclaren the data was there for all to see. RB can see the data and it doesn’t look good.
Edvaldo
8th May 2021, 16:44
The field is too tight and this being the track every driver knows best, even mazepin, wasn’t ever going to be a walk in the park for someone still dealing with issues with the car.
He said himself it would take some time.
Kie
8th May 2021, 23:17
+1
Green Flag
8th May 2021, 15:41
Interesting that the Ferrari are the bread in an Alpine sandwich.
MCG (@malrg)
8th May 2021, 15:43
Admin, please delete my previous two comments as i messed this up:(
I like to compare the average qualifying of manufacturers as a “somewhat” indicator of where they sit relative to each other from a Manufacturer perspective, I have found this to be a good indicator and obviously it smooths out the further into the season we get as out layers like maybe Ric in the last race reduce.
This is the average position of the two cars per team per race, then rolled up into the average across the # of races to date
Average Qualifying per Manufacturer/overall
Manufacturer Avg/Quali
Mercedes 2.63
Red Bull 4.25
Ferrari 6.25
McLaren 7.75
Alpine 10.38
AlphaTauri 11.75
Aston Martin 12.75
Alpha Romeo 14.63
Williams 15.13
Haas 19.13
Vuyo Boltina
8th May 2021, 15:48
Why was Sainz complaining about Sir Lewis Hamilton. . .”THIS HAMILTON GUY IS GOING TO GIVE US A TOUGH SESSION”? Looks like he has more problems in front of him than SLH, maybe I got that out of context, does anyone know where that came from?
David BR (@david-br)
8th May 2021, 16:30
Kind of funny, true. Maybe it’s a bit of a Ferrari influence seeping in, convincing themselves they’re far enough up the grid to ‘be a contender’ and they’ve finally noticed who’s been driving around at the front while they were languishing at the back of the mid-field.
Edvaldo
8th May 2021, 16:40
Pole position was within reach of Red Bull in all events until now, yet they could only get one.
Guess verstappen isn’t that great on saturdays. He lost pp so many times already.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
8th May 2021, 22:09
was the RB the ultra dominant car so far this weekend or previous races? why would you say it was his PP to lose? I see a lot of people that are very confident RBR is the best car by a mile and Max should just breeze through qualy like it’s a formality… why is that (other than a bias against Max)?
Edvaldo
8th May 2021, 23:29
please tell me where did i say it was his to lose. If he lost it by 0.036, it was within his reach to get it and that’s what i said.
He also made a big mistake in turn 2 in Imola to lose it by a similar margin, then lost another one in Portimao by going wide.
If one thing, you’re the sensitive biased one here if you fail to see all that.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
9th May 2021, 10:17
you said it yourself: “… He lost pp so many times already.”
MCG (@malrg)
8th May 2021, 22:22
See my previous non scientific stats comment, PP was only within reach of Max because of Max, Merc is still the dominant car – Both Merc’s close to pole, only one RB close.
MCG (@malrg)
9th May 2021, 2:05
NB! Not saying that Lewis is not phenomenal, he has almost always outperformed his team mate, (Is that him or his team mate? we don’t know) has set every record imaginable (is that him or the car?) this is a GOAT argument that can simply never be settled as it is all relative, but there is no argument that he is the most successful driver ever. Lewis still in the best car so Max now has a valid argument as to whom the current in form driver is.
anon
8th May 2021, 17:38
Whilst we have to put up with the idiotic chest thumping of “my driver is better than your driver” at the front, looking further down the grid – does anybody feel that it’s a case of things turning sour rather quickly for Tsunoda?
This really wasn’t Tsunoda’s best day – he was a bit ragged on his qualifying laps, which resulted in him going out in Q1, seemed to be letting those frustrations then get the better of him with his outbursts on the radio, then capped it off with his post-qualifying comments where he had a dig at the team not giving him the same car as Gasly. I would assume that comment was more down to the heat of the moment, but I can’t imagine that sort of behaviour going down too well at Red Bull.