Formula One was in Qatar for the first time ever for the FORMULA 1 OOREDOO QATAR GRAND PRIX 2021. It was a race where Hamilton had the upper hand, with Bottas and Verstappen both earning grid penalties during qualifying. The one-stop turned out to be a risky strategy for those who attempted it.
Lewis Hamilton got away well off the line, as did Fernando Alonso from third on the grid. Further back, Max Verstappen had a great start, getting by Valtteri Bottas who had a poor start. Verstappen got by a lot of people on the inside of the first corner, but was forced off the track in turn 2 by Fernando Alonso. Alonso get a good run off of turn 2, getting by Pierre Gasly and up into P2. By the end of the first lap, Hamilton had a nearly 2 second lead.
Max Verstappen spent a couple of laps in P4. Gasly ran wide in the final corner on lap 4, giving Verstappen the position. The following lap, Verstappen overtook Alonso with some help from the circuit’s only DRS zone down the main straight.
Being unable to keep up with Hamilton’s pace, Max Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit for new hard tyres on lap 17. Mercedes responded the following lap, pitting Hamilton for hard tyres. On the team radio, Hamilton complained the pit stop was too early.
Sergio Perez also pitted for hard tyres, having advanced to P4 after a poor qualifying session gave him a P11 start on the grid. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas stayed out to try the one-stop strategy, believing that Perez was going for a two-stop strategy. But his tyres would not make the distance. He had a front-left tyre failure that sent him running off into the gravel. He had to limp back to the pit lane, dropping to P14.
Red Bull was the first to pull the trigger on their second pit stop. Both Verstappen and Perez pitted on lap 42 for sets of medium tyres. Hamilton responded the following lap, doing the same.
After the pits stops, Alonso found himself in P3 and the team wanted him to stay there to earn the team’s second podium finish in 2020. Esteban Ocon was told to keep Perez behind and he tried as hard as he could. Perez got by with DRS down the main straight. Ocon tried to take the place back on the inside of the first corner, but Perez stayed ahead. Ocon tried again going side-by-side around the outside of Perez, but he was no match for the Red Bull.
However, the Alpine pit wall was almost certainly getting tense as more one-stop runners dropped off with front-left tyre failures. George Russell and Nicholas Latifi both suffered punctures after going over the kerbs. The failures were sudden, with Bottas and Latifi both confirming on the radio that there was no warning that the tyre was about to fail. Alpine responded by telling Alonso to avoid the kerbs.
Mercedes had Bottas return to the pit lane to retire the car, throwing a wrench in their battle for the fastest lap point.
The virtual safety car was deployed with just 3 laps remaining in the race to allow the marshals clear the stuck car of Latifi, who was not able to make it back to the pit lane after this tyre failure. The VSC enabled Verstappen to make a cheap pit stop for soft compound tyres. It ultimately didn’t matter because the VSC ended after Hamilton had already started his final lap, guaranteeing Verstappen the fastest lap and the bonus point that goes with it.
Lewis Hamilton took the race victory, closing the championship gap to just 8 points with two races remaining in the season. Verstappen had to settle for P2 in the race. Alonso almost certainly breathed a sigh of relief to see that his tyres were able to survive the remaining distance in the race, earning him his first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix when he was on Ferrari.
The teams and drivers will now have a week to relax before the final sprint to the finish of the 2020 Formula One season. The penultimate round of the championship will be held at the brand new Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia on the weekend of December 3.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L. Hamilton | ||
| 2 | M. Verstappen | ||
| 3 | F. Alonso | ||
| 4 | S. Perez | ||
| 5 | E. Ocon | ||
| 6 | L. Stroll | ||
| 7 | C. Sainz | ||
| 8 | C. Leclerc | ||
| 9 | S. Vettel | ||
| 10 | L. Norris | ||
| 11 | P. Gasly | ||
| 12 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| 13 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| 14 | K. Raikkonen | ||
| 15 | A. Giovinazzi | ||
| 16 | M. Schumacher | ||
| 17 | G. Russell | ||
| 18 | N. Mazepin | ||
| DNF | N. Latifi | ||
| DNF | V. Bottas | ||
