Lewis Hamilton won the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix for Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso.
| Position | No. | Driver | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| 2 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda |
| 3 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda |
| 5 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault |
| 6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari |
| 8 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 9 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes |
| 10 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes |
| 11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda |
| 12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda |
| 14 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari |
| 15 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari |
| 16 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari |
| 17 | 63 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes |
| 18 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari |
Fastest lap: Max Verstappen
Not classified: Valtteri Bottas, Nicholas Latifi
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Brownerboy (@brownerboy)
21st November 2021, 15:32
How convenient that they wait until after Max has done his FL to throw the VSC despite Latifis car being there for 2 laps. Even more convenient that they also end it after Lewis has already crossed the line to start the last lap so has no chance to respond.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:34
Yeah, that was quite suspicious I thought.
Cobray (@)
21st November 2021, 15:35
He had the fastest lap anyway.
Ajaxn
21st November 2021, 15:39
Lewis with energy recovery and batteries fully charged, might have stood a chance of a final fastest last lap.
Shame on Bottas, had he stayed out and had a last minute pit stop, he might have acted as security on that fatest lap.
Cobray (@)
21st November 2021, 15:41
on 15 lap old soft vs basically 1 lap supersoft? is this supposed to even be a debate?
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:49
@cobray It was only 1sec faster than Max’s previous medium tyre run. If you consider Ham was quite a bit faster in the race + there would have been even less fuel on the last lap makes it debatable. In any case VSC should not have interfered.
Arnoud van Houwelingen (@kavu)
21st November 2021, 21:46
Ajaxn, the VSC is irrelevant because Max would have had the fastest lap anyway. Without the VSC Max would have had an extra pitstop at the penultimate lap and pitted for soft tyres because he was 50 seconds in front of Alonso and of course Lewis couldn’t respond. No way with those old medium tyres Lewis would have clocked a 1:23:00 in the last lap!
Macademianut (@macademianut)
21st November 2021, 15:36
FIA totally in the Red Bull camp. Embarrassing. If they could race in green for the laps before, why not the next few laps?
That too, make the VSC end after HAM started the final lap but before VER starts his.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
21st November 2021, 16:19
Exactly right .
To go further there was ZERO reason to deploy VSC.
The official reason was because of the crane removing Latifis car and not wanting another Jules Bianchi disaster BUT Latifi was miles off track, he parked car next to an access road, there was no danger of another car crashing into it as he was off the “firing line” so why did they deploy a crane when they could’ve left the car there for a few more laps unless race control fully well knows that deploying a crane even if it was for no reason would guarantee a VSC and neutralize the standings at the end of the race…
It just stinks off meddling and corruption, this is the worst the FIA has been since 2008 for all out raw manipulation.
Great job corrupt FIA guaranteeing Alonso pole(Tyres were one lap away from exploding and VSC pace neutralized this ) and max 1 extra point for fastest lap
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
21st November 2021, 17:40
No, the official reason was they had to put stewards outside the barriers.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
21st November 2021, 15:36
Given the dominance of the Top 2, the fastest lap point is now irrelevant anyway
Say Lewis got it here and at the next race – he’d still need to win at Abu Dhabi. Same if Max gets all the FL points.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:42
That’s if you assume they’ll be in top 2 every time. I’m not so sure, just look at the situation with tyres and at next track there could be other variables out of driver’s control.
Plossl (@)
21st November 2021, 15:42
Things lately have gone from coincidences to a bit scripted, its all getting a bit ‘fixed tricks’
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
21st November 2021, 15:59
This is an extraordinary and hilarious thread.
grapmg (@)
21st November 2021, 16:26
Exactly not only this one but all the hilarious claims about FIA being biased to one or the other. The FIA is incompetant but not biased
Ciaran (@ciaran)
21st November 2021, 17:42
@hahostolze There is an inverse relationship between the quality of a Formula 1 season, versus the quality of comment sections during said seasons ;)
MG1982 (@mg1982)
21st November 2021, 16:28
Wow…..!!!
How convenient so many times all these years they deployed the SC/VSC and/or ended the SC/VSC period so that everything played perfectly just for HAM amongst the front runners!!
JohnH (@johnrkh)
21st November 2021, 15:33
Well done Hamilton, well done Verstappen, great job from Alonso.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:33
Bottas is getting worse and worse. Grid penalty, bad start, spent first 10 laps barely making any progress forcing him onto 1 one stop which backfired and then not even bothering with fastest lap.
Ajaxn
21st November 2021, 15:40
As fast as he is qualifying, you have to say he’s just as poor racing…
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
21st November 2021, 15:51
@ivan-vinitskyy
Obviously this was a rather weak race for Bottas, but he was on his way to P3 before that puncture.
Also, Bottas had already secured a one-stop strategy before that puncture. Mercedes was probably trying to keep him out long enough to take softs for the final stint. That strategy backfired, but it’s hard to blame Bottas for that.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:57
@hotbottoms I don’t think they planned it. It was always better to start well and keep close to Red Bulls. VB failed at it, forcing him onto a 1 stopper. I don’t think they even cares where Bottas would finish as long as it was in front of Max.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
21st November 2021, 16:01
@ivan-vinitskyy
Yes, of course it is better to be at the front than at the back. What I’m saying is that Bottas was nevertheless recovering and fighting for P3, so his race wasn’t as horrible as the puncture made it seem.
Alonso took P3 with a one stop strategy and he wasn’t forced to do it.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
21st November 2021, 17:42
Raikkonen gained 4 positions off the start, Bottas lost what, 4 or 5? Enough said.
Qeki (@qeki)
21st November 2021, 15:34
Trust El Plan
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
21st November 2021, 15:34
Ok, what the heck is up with race Direction?
how do they put up Green flags with a crawling car on track? how is latifi’s car fine to stay in the runoff for Several minutes but then it needs cleaning up on the penultimate lap under VSC?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
21st November 2021, 15:42
@mrboerns Looks like they were trying to move Latifi’s car using the crane only, then put out a VSC when they needed to send marshals out. Sensible race direction all round really.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
21st November 2021, 17:06
Red Andy nope.
crane and Marshal safety is a WEAK excuse and not a very smart one when you look at the details;
Latifis car was miles off track, there was no risk of being rammed by another car, it was close to the end of the race so why not just leave the Williams which was parked in a safe position next to a Marshal Post out of the way? Also if marshal safety was top priority why did race control wait 3 laps to deploy VSC? That’s because there was no need for vsc in the first place and deploying vsc immediately would indirectly benefit merc who could’ve pitted HAM so he could set fastest lap and +1 point…..
I think the crane was pointlessly and deliberately used at the end of the race as it would guarantee a VSC (VSC was introduced after Jules
Bianchi’s death when he crashed into a tractor) to protect alonso as his tyres was risk of exploding and lose 3rd and to protect max fastest lap for extra 1 point as Lewis couldn’t pit and set a green lap under VSC.
It just stinks of race manipulation and politics and wish the fia was more accountable for trying to fix races .
Jere (@jerejj)
21st November 2021, 15:35
Silverstone 2013 & 2020 again.
Davey
21st November 2021, 19:00
At least no rear tyres blew today.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
21st November 2021, 15:36
So, the championship is decided by who is fastest in Abu Dhabi (assuming as we all do that Mercedes is faster in Saudi-Arabia). That’s pretty wow. What a season.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
21st November 2021, 15:36
So, the championship is decided by who is fastest in Abu Dhabi (assuming as we all do that Mercedes is faster in Saudi-Arabia). That’s pretty wow. What a season.
melanos
21st November 2021, 16:45
It’s déjà vu all over again (Yogi Berra)
Felix
21st November 2021, 15:36
Lewis Hamilton impressive from all weekend pole podium and all important win
Ajaxn
21st November 2021, 15:41
Hard to believe Bottas is driving the same car.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:43
Its a shame so much pace is not being rewarded properly. 6 points isn’t much.
JustSomeone
21st November 2021, 15:40
2 teams running away at almost 2 seconds per lap, including free pitstops – that’s what 300M$ *extra* gets you. Let’s hope FIA gets controlofer F1 back in the next few years, and maybe will be a real competition again .
(For those that haven’t seen it… WSBK race 1 today, that was a real championship decider)
Crannog
21st November 2021, 15:41
Mercedes will always be dominant. Hamilton will never retire. How long can this stay interesting to people? The hope is next year will be different. Then, next year, when Mercedes is one second ahead, my interest is done. I’ll watch again after Hamilton dies in the cockpit of natural causes age 87, one thousand time F1 champion.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
21st November 2021, 15:45
He isn’t winning most races, he didn’t have the fastest car all season, he didn’t have most poles, he made quite a few mistakes. I don’t think you can complain much this season.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
21st November 2021, 16:31
Well, M.Schumacher didn’t either. It’s about the best car overall, at least… which is the Mercedes without doubt.
Plossl (@)
21st November 2021, 15:55
Lol, this isn’t an Airport, you don’t need to announce your departure
Crannog
21st November 2021, 18:42
One vocal person probably represents hundreds of silent people. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding this extremely tiresome. If Mercedes wins into perpetuity, it would be hard to believe people will keep watching in any significant way.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2021, 20:03
While I agree that mercedes dominated for way too long, this season they weren’t dominant, I think it’s even debatable they were the fastest, they so far got luckier, but only on the driver’s championship, when you take punctures into account (which you should) the luck on the constructors’ has been pretty similar, it’s just bottas has been decent more often than perez has; furthermore, hamilton should no longer dominate I think, he’s getting old and while he’s still putting in good performances, he will have russell in the same car next year, and should mercedes not nail the next regulations there’s several strong drivers that are gonna give him a run for his money or outperform him from other cars, like verstappen, leclerc, alonso, norris.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st November 2021, 15:44
IF those tyre failures were purely down to wear i’ll say the same thing i’ve said every-other time that has happened in recent years.
A tyre should lose a lot of performance & show some sign that it’s about to fail long before it actually reaches the point where it fails due to been run too long or wearing too much. This sort of sudden failure is something we have seen far too often the past 10 years, Far more than I remember seeing before.
And let’s not also forget that Pirelli altered the tyres after Silverstone last year & again for this year as well as the cars themselves been modified for this year in part to help the tyres by taking some of the load off them & yet we have still seen some of the same issues this year we have seen previously despite that & some of the other regulations that have been introduced for Pirelli (Which were never needed previously) in terms of pressures, cambers & starting temperatures.
slowmo (@slowmo)
21st November 2021, 15:52
@stefmeister we already know that Pirelli will blame kerbs or debris as they’ve done every single time in the past.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
21st November 2021, 15:46
Curious decision by RB to pit Sergio. He might have actually made it to the end in 3rd tbh, considering how good he is on tyres.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
21st November 2021, 16:32
+1. His strategy didn’t seem to be the best.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2021, 20:05
Yes, but alonso deserved a podium, so I didn’t mind.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
21st November 2021, 15:51
I love Sky, via Button and Hill’s attempt to hype the battle even further. Laughable suggestion that perhaps Mercedes have blinked and modified their rear wing – when they don’t seem to realise that Hamilton has been using an old engine.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
21st November 2021, 16:06
What an amazing lights to flag win by Lewis.
But i have to say that I hate the race fixing by the FIA trying to meddle with the racing to deny Lewis fastest lap attempt and protect Max and alonso.
There was absolutely zero reason to bring the VSC out apart from guaranteeing Max’s fastest lap point and protecting alonso’s podium as his tyres was on the verge of exploding at full race speed.
Was the VSC brought out at the orders of Pirelli to protect their brand image as their dangerous trash tyres was failing at an alarming rate?
Was it done to guarantee Alonso podium as one of the race stewards had €100k wager on a him to finish top 3 as it looked like that was not going to happen until vsc as his tyres was going to explode?
I understand it was officially deployed because of the the crane removing Latifi but why wait 3 laps if that was the case? This was not a Jules
Bianchi Japanese GP 2014 situation as Latifi’s car was miles off a dry clear track next to one of the access roads and not on the ‘firing line’ so they could’ve left the car there until end of the race…
It reminds me of when the VSC was deployed for next to no reason under similar circumstances towards the end of the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix which looked suspicious as it guaranteed Charles Leclercs his first ever podium as his PU had a terminal power loss issue.
Again I say it was a huge win for Lewis taking the title to the last 2 races but I wish the terrible gulf stewards did not artificially meddle in the actual race as the questionable VSC in the closing laps was not justified at all.
Qeki (@qeki)
21st November 2021, 16:19
@ccpbioweapon Agree you with the most parts. Still I think if there are marshalls on track it should be at least VSC. It was Latifi that chose where to pit his car. Maybe it wasn’t as bad situation as Jules’ but it could have been and then it would have been too late.
But it certainly helped Alonso and Verstappen.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
21st November 2021, 16:42
You have 0% proof! Maybe…. maybe was some help for ALO, not for VER. HAM had no chance against VER in the FL battle. VER was going to pit with +2 laps to go anyway, if HAM pitted VER would have noticed and cancelled his pit-stop, taking the win. No brainer here.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
21st November 2021, 16:39
Wow, so they’re protecting ALO too…. against RBR?!?! That makes a lot of sense indeed….!!!!!! Flash news: VER pitted again for the softest tyre available, HAM had no chance to take the FL! By being 2nd and given the gap to 3rd place, VER had the upper hand all the way against HAM. By pitting when the penultimate lap was about to start, then warm-up in the penultimate lap, take the FL in the last lap. HAM had no answer to that strategy. If pitted, VER would have cancelled the pit-stop and took the win. HAM wasn’t even in cards for the FL against VER!
melanos
21st November 2021, 16:49
So now race direction and the stewards are conspiring to secure a podium for Alonso. Nice bridge I have here for you to buy.
Slimmie205
21st November 2021, 17:05
Mercedes has the best cards now. Such a shame. The last 2 races they’ll be putting that rocket engine back in for Lewis. Heartbreaking for RB. They should champs by now and rightfully so.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2021, 20:07
Yes, they got unlucky with verstappen this year, but for the constructors’ luck wise it’s been fair, mercedes is deservedly ahead there due to bottas being decent more often, let’s see if they manage to win at least 1 title, or more like, prevent mercedes from winning one, cause it never happened in the hybrid era.
Hosford90
22nd November 2021, 5:41
The level of tinfoil hat absurdity starting to build in the comments on this site is honestly embarrassing. Get over yourselves.
Davey
22nd November 2021, 13:36
Hey you, still don’t get why I turned my back on George Russell and why Michael Masi should be dismissed?