With drivers given free tyre choice, but constrained by the tyre choices made earlier in the weekend, every single car on the starting grid began the race on medium compound tyres. Pit lane starter Sergio Perez was the only driver on hards.
Charles Leclerc was the surprise leader at ther end of lap one. he was partly able to maintain his lead of the race so long because he pulled out a 27-lap stint on his second set of starting tyres.The Ferrari driver had the advantage of clear air and was able to preserve his tyres. However, he was both AlphaTauri drivers went even further, Tsunoda making his first set of tyres last 30 laps in traffic before he eventually pitted, the longest stint of any driver on the medium compound.
Sergio Perez said Red Bull went into the race with a flexible approach to his strategy. But they couldn’t find a solution to his persistent traffic problems.
Starting from the pit lane, he ran for just 18 laps on his hard rubber, before putting in a further 20 laps on mediums, pitting for a fresh set of the same and then finally turning the race into a three-stop, being pitted a third time for soft tyres.
Perez had recovered to the points but his final pit stop meant that he could take fastest lap from Hamilton, thus preserving Verstappen’s title lead by one point.
Several drivers also suffered very slow pit stops. Carlos Sainz Jnr took the brunt of it, losing 10 seconds added to his time compared to the fastest stop due to an issue with fitting the front left tyre. Lando Norris also had a notably slow stop and Fernando Alonso’s was slightly delayed too.
But of course the slowest stop was had by Lewis Hamilton – not due to a problem, but because he was required to serve a 10-second time penalty. Nonetheless he recovered to take the win, aided by Bottas hurriedly getting out of his way on lap 40.
Unlike when they swapped positions in Spain, Bottas ensured his team mate was not delayed. This was important, as Hamilton passed Leclerc to win with just three laps to spare.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 British Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2021 British Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Valtteri Bottas | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Max Verstappen | 1 | ||
Sergio Perez | 20 | 1 | 2 |
Lando Norris | 5 | 1 | 1 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 6 | 1 | 1 |
Lance Stroll | 14 | 3 | 5 |
Sebastian Vettel | 8 | 2 | |
Esteban Ocon | 9 | -1 | 1 |
Fernando Alonso | 7 | 0 | 1 |
Charles Leclerc | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 10 | 2 | 3 |
Pierre Gasly | 11 | -1 | 1 |
Yuki Tsunoda | 16 | 1 | 5 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 13 | 4 | 1 |
Antonio Giovinazzi | 15 | 2 | 2 |
Mick Schumacher | 18 | 2 | 3 |
Nikita Mazepin | 19 | 1 | 2 |
George Russell | 12 | -2 | -2 |
Nicholas Latifi | 17 | 0 | 1 |
2021 British Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2021 British Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’28.617 | 50 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’29.699 | 1.082 | 45 |
3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’30.266 | 1.649 | 52 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’30.524 | 1.907 | 45 |
5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’30.569 | 1.952 | 45 |
6 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’30.826 | 2.209 | 51 |
7 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’31.223 | 2.606 | 51 |
8 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’31.284 | 2.667 | 51 |
9 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’31.420 | 2.803 | 44 |
10 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’31.698 | 3.081 | 48 |
11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’31.895 | 3.278 | 48 |
12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’31.992 | 3.375 | 48 |
13 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’32.049 | 3.432 | 49 |
14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’32.210 | 3.593 | 48 |
15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’32.346 | 3.729 | 49 |
16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’32.477 | 3.860 | 51 |
17 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’32.862 | 4.245 | 50 |
18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’32.909 | 4.292 | 51 |
19 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’33.059 | 4.442 | 35 |
20 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 British Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | C2 (27) | C1 (25) | ||
Charles Leclerc | C2 (29) | C1 (23) | ||
Valtteri Bottas | C2 (22) | C1 (30) | ||
Lando Norris | C2 (21) | C1 (31) | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | C2 (20) | C1 (32) | ||
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C2 (28) | C1 (24) | ||
Fernando Alonso | C2 (24) | C1 (28) | ||
Lance Stroll | C2 (23) | C1 (29) | ||
Esteban Ocon | C2 (19) | C1 (33) | ||
Yuki Tsunoda | C2 (30) | C1 (22) | ||
Pierre Gasly | C2 (28) | C1 (18) | C3 (6) | |
George Russell | C2 (18) | C1 (33) | ||
Antonio Giovinazzi | C2 (23) | C1 (28) | ||
Nicholas Latifi | C2 (19) | C1 (32) | ||
Kimi Raikkonen | C2 (18) | C1 (33) | ||
Sergio Perez | C1 (18) | C2 (20) | C2 (10) | C3 (3) |
Nikita Mazepin | C2 (25) | C1 (26) | ||
Mick Schumacher | C2 (24) | C1 (27) | ||
Sebastian Vettel | C2 (18) | C1 (22) | ||
Max Verstappen |
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2021 British Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 27.543 | 19 | |
2 | George Russell | Williams | 27.812 | 0.269 | 18 |
3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 27.848 | 0.305 | 38 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 27.892 | 0.349 | 18 |
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 28.110 | 0.567 | 18 |
6 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 28.137 | 0.594 | 23 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 28.145 | 0.602 | 18 |
8 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 28.180 | 0.637 | 46 |
9 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 28.209 | 0.666 | 22 |
10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 28.213 | 0.670 | 23 |
11 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 28.433 | 0.890 | 29 |
12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 28.685 | 1.142 | 28 |
13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 28.772 | 1.229 | 19 |
14 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 28.817 | 1.274 | 20 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 29.082 | 1.539 | 48 |
16 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 29.134 | 1.591 | 30 |
17 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 29.253 | 1.710 | 25 |
18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 29.319 | 1.776 | 24 |
19 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 29.743 | 2.200 | 24 |
20 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 31.706 | 4.163 | 21 |
21 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 37.509 | 9.966 | 28 |
22 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 40.266 | 12.723 | 27 |
2021 British Grand Prix
- Who was to blame for Verstappen and Hamilton’s collision at Silverstone?
- Hamilton penalty “harsh” for move within FIA’s overtaking guidance – Allison
- Why Hamilton “wasn’t seen as wholly to blame” for the Verstappen crash
- Sainz convinced he had pace to challenge for podium without British GP setbacks
- F1 will “definitely” consider more points for future sprint qualifying races
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
18th July 2021, 23:18
Obviously, Perez was called in the pits for the 3rd time to take away a point for the Fastest Lap from Hamilton.
Funny, that Perez/Raikkonen collision was stated as Racing incident. :))
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th July 2021, 23:51
We all knew what was going to be the outcome of the race however, the 1st stint was competitive, they were either afraid of the tyre or trying to do just the one pitstop, then a quarter of the race to go merc flicked the switch and went 2s faster and 1s faster than lec for a long while.
Rodric Ewulf
19th July 2021, 3:45
How did Mazepin finish ahead of Schumacher Jr.? The unsung hero of this race.
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
19th July 2021, 4:38
Mazepin was in ahead of Schumacher for most part of the race (26 laps or so).
Rodric Ewulf
20th July 2021, 0:26
Looks like Mazepin is improving on tyre management, only this way he stands a chance of beating Mick Schumacher regularly.
https://www.racefans.net/2021/07/20/racefans-round-up-20-07-4/
Michael
19th July 2021, 9:48
Hamilton had quite a slow stop considering it was a 10 second penalty. The stop seemed quite good they just didnt start work after 10 seconds stationary more like 11 or 12. The stop was 12.7 seconds slower than Latifi’s fastest. A better stop could have seen him stay ahead of Norris.
F1oSaurus (@)
19th July 2021, 10:22
Wow that just despicable from Red Bull again. They tell Perez to drop his point so he can be the nice little pawn and help Verstappen take one point for FL away from Hamilton?
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
19th July 2021, 20:36
Yeah, that was quite shocking to willingly give point away to make sure another driver doesn’t scope FL point. At the pace he was going he had a good chance of catching p9 and p8 so many more points.
Rodric Ewulf
20th July 2021, 0:32
@f1osaurus Very similar to Bottas’ races that Mercedes compromised, tyre strategy and all, just to make their entitled one look brighter. Unsurprisingly you never cared at all about that. Bottas isn’t that better than Perez either, both had thrown away many points this seasons. Bottas with awful pace in some races and Perez with many unforced mistakes.
Rodric Ewulf
20th July 2021, 1:56
The race had a small number of real on-track passes, and we’re talking about Silverstone, not the most difficult track to overtake out there. I’m pretty certain that Bahrain had a lot more overtakes as for instance Perez recovery from last pace didn’t stalled like in Britain. Either he had unlearned to make a move for position or, more likely, the DRS train stopped him to easily do so. The cars being more closer than ever in the midfield has this downside, it looks like, when they cannot follow closely each other and have a DRS-dependence to overtake. That’s why artificial solutions like this will not work in the long run, including gimmicks like sprint qualifying (which is a race, regardless of what FIA unsuccessfully wanted everybody to say). Formula 1 needs more racey cars since a long time, and the 2022 model unveiled during the British GP seems only half decent to fulfill that purpose.
Jack
24th July 2021, 20:36
Worth noting that even Botass’s Mercedes had better pace than the remaining Redbull car of Perez. That may or may not say more about Perez than it does the Redbull car.
Not much passing in this race. High-speed corners make areo push worse so it was hard to get in DRS range.