2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Previous←	2021 Bahrain Grand Prix
Round	2 of 2021
Next→	2021 Portuguese Grand Prix
Race Details
Date	April 18, 2021
Race Number	1037
Official Name	Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'emilia Romagna 2021
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.909 km (3.050 mi)
Distance	63 laps, 309.267 km (192.170 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time	1:14.411
Fastest Lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time	1:16.702 on lap 60
Podium
First	Max Verstappen
Second	Lewis Hamilton
Third	Lando Norris
Lap Leaders

The 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'emilia Romagna 2021) was the second race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, between April 16 and April 18 2021.

Lewis Hamilton took his 99^th career pole, with the Red Bulls qualifying one hundredths of a second behind him. Rain hit the track before the race, causing Fernando Alonso to slip off at Tosa and break his front wing, but was able to get it replaced, while Lance Stroll's brakes caught fire and were replaced. At the start, Max Verstappen had a good launch, edging Hamilton off Tamburello, the latter running over the sausage kerbs and damaging slightly his front wing endplate. The safety car was deployed after a collision between Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin, with Mick Schumacher spinning and breaking his front wing while weaving to warm his tires during the safety car period. Hamilton later made a rare error and slid at Tosa, breaking his front wing, but reversed and kept going right before George Russell collided into Valtteri Bottas, causing a red flag. The session was restarted, with Verstappen leading the remainder of the race to win. Hamilton meanwhile was able to recover to second ahead of Lando Norris in the closing laps, the latter passing the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc at the restart. Sergio Pérez slipped back to 12^th from second, having given a 10-second stop/go penalty for overtaking under the safety car and spinning on the red flag restart, with Yuki Tsunoda 13^th (later 12^th) after crashing during qualifying, spinning and penalized post-race for track limits violations. A few more penalties were applied post-race, with Stroll dropping one place from 7^th to 8^th after gaining an advantage over Pierre Gasly, who was one of the four drivers to start on wet tires, and Kimi Räikkönen, who finished 9^th, was penalized for a red flag restart infringement, dropping him down to 13^th, losing Alfa Romeo's maiden points of the season and promoting Alonso into 10^th, taking his first points since his comeback.

Background

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was intended to be a one-off race for the 2020 Formula One Season, but following the rescheduling of the 2021 calendar, which saw the Chinese Grand Prix postponed and the Australian Grand Prix moved to November, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was reinstated onto the calendar.

Lewis Hamilton won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen despite having a slower car than Red Bull, with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitting that the rule changes have allowed cars to be more competitive and to make the field more mixed up. However, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believed that there is potential with the W12 to close down any deficit it has.

With much of the post-race debate also focused on track limits violations, as seen when Verstappen was told on the radio to relinquish the lead back to Hamilton in the previous race after running off-track while completing the overtake, the FIA is set to trial a "no-nonsense" rule for the Imola weekend, in which stewards will now be able to flat-out disqualify a driver if they run four wheels outside the white lines and onto the run-off areas.

Following the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on April 9, the race weekend was rescheduled to make way for the broadcast of his funeral. Friday's free practice sessions were moved 30 minutes earlier, while Saturday's free practice and qualifying were moved an hour earlier. A minute's silence will be observed before qualifying, and also on race day for Moto2 champion and MotoGP Aprilia Racing Team Gresini owner Fausto Gresini, who died on February 23 following a battle with COVID-19, with the MotoGP paddock doing the same at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao on the same day.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
4	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
9	Nikita Mazepin	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing Honda	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6L V6t	P
16	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
22	Yuki Tsunoda	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6L V6t	P
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
47	Mick Schumacher	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
63	George Russell	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
Source:

Practice Overview

The full practice results for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix are outlined below:

No.	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.769	10	1:17.281	18	1:16.253	13
4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.935	13	1:16.485	8	1:15.414	2
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:17.984	14	1:17.092	15	1:16.389	14
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:17.739	9	1:16.823	12	1:16.537	17
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:17.883	12	1:17.273	17	1:16.803	19
9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1:18.823	18	1:17.857	20	1:17.398	20
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:16.888	4	1:15.629	3	1:15.890	6
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:18.228	16	1:16.411	6	1:15.551	4
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:17.457	7	1:16.835	13	1:16.186	9
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:16.909	6	1:16.371	5	1:15.738	5
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:17.489	8	1:16.737	10	1:16.245	12
22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:19.781	20	1:16.419	7	1:16.230	11
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:18.360	17	1:16.817	11	1:16.228	10
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:16.622	3	1:16.999	14	1:14.958	1
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:16.605	2	1:15.561	2	1:15.515	3
47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:19.480	19	1:17.350	19	1:16.448	16
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	1:16.888	5	1:15.834	4	1:15.908	7
63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1:17.866	11	1:17.179	16	1:16.427	15
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:16.564	1	1:15.551	1	1:15.908	8
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:18.058	15	1:16.513	9	1:16.612	18
Source:

Qualifying

Q1

Yuki Tsunoda crashed and destroyed the rear of his car exiting the Variante Alta chicane, thus did not further participate in qualifying. He was joined by Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Schumacher and Mazepin out in Q1.

Q2

Eliminated from Q2 were Sainz, Russell, Vettel, Latifi and Alonso, who for the first time since the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix was out-qualified by a team-mate.

Q3

Lewis Hamilton took his career 99^th pole position, with Perez and Verstappen within 0.01 seconds behind him. Lando Norris originally set the second fastest lap time before it was deleted for track limits violations, with the 2020 race's polesitter Valtteri Bottas only 8^th fastest having topped Friday's practice sessions.

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		2	1:14.823		4	1:14.817		1	1:14.411	1
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda		6	1:15.395		1	1:14.716		2	1:14.446	2
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda		4	1:15.109		5	1:14.884		3	1:14.498	3
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari		8	1:15.413		3	1:14.808		4	1:14.740	4
5	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda		11	1:15.548		7	1:14.927		5	1:14.790	5
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes		13	1:15.669		8	1:15.033		6	1:14.826	6
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes		3	1:15.009		2	1:14.718		7	1:14.875	7
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes		1	1:14.672		6	1:14.905		8	1:14.898	8
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault		5	1:15.385		9	1:15.117		9	1:15.210	9
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes		10	1:15.522		10	1:15.138		NC*	—	10
11	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari		7	1:15.406		11	1:15.199				11
12	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes		14	1:15.826		12	1:15.261				12
13	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes		9	1:15.459		13	1:15.394				PL‡
14	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes		12	1:15.653		14	1:15.593				14
15	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault		15	1:15.832		15	1:15.593				15
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		16	1:15.974							16
17	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		17	1:16.122							17
18	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari		18	1:16.279							18
19	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari		19	1:16.797							19
107% Time: 1:19.899
NC	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda		NC†	—							20
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Stroll's Q3 lap times were deleted due to exceeding track limits.
• ^† Tsunoda had failed to set his Q1 lap time as he had spun off and crashed at Variante Alta. He was subsequently given a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change as his gearbox broke in half from the impact, but it did not affect his starting position.
• ^‡ Vettel had taken the start of the race from the pit lane after having trouble with his brakes of his car.

Grid

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Lewis Hamilton	2
	______________	Sergio Pérez
Row 2	3	______________
	Max Verstappen	4
	______________	Charles Leclerc
Row 3	5	______________
	Pierre Gasly	6
	______________	Daniel Ricciardo
Row 4	7	______________
	Lando Norris	8
	______________	Valtteri Bottas
Row 5	9	______________
	Esteban Ocon	10
	______________	Lance Stroll
Row 6	11	______________
	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	12
	______________	George Russell
Row 7	13	______________
	Sebastian Vettel*	14
	______________	Nicholas Latifi
Row 8	15	______________
	Fernando Alonso	16
	______________	Kimi Räikkönen
Row 9	17	______________
	Antonio Giovinazzi	18
	______________	Mick Schumacher
Row 10	19	______________
	Nikita Mazepin	20
	______________	Yuki Tsunoda

• * Vettel had taken the start of the race from the pit lane after having trouble with his brakes of his car.

Race

Results

The full results for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	63	2:02:34.598	2	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	63	+22.000s	1	19FL
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	63	+23.702s	7	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	63	+25.579s	4	12
5	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	63	+27.036s	11	10
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	63	+51.220s	6	8
7	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	63	+52.818	5	6
8*	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	63	+56.909s	10	4
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	63	+1:05.704	9	2
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	63	+1:06.561	15	1
11	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	63	+1:07.151	2
12†	22T	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	63	+1:13.184	20
13‡	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	63	+1.34.733	16
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	62	+1 lap	17
15§	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	61	Gearbox	PL
16	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	61	+2 laps	18
17	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	61	+2 laps	19
Ret	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	30	Collision	8
Ret	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	30	Collision	12
Ret	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	0	Collision	14
Source:

• ^T Indicates a driver used their test/spare car.
• * Stroll finished 7^th, but was given a post-race 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining advantage on Gasly on Lap 11, demoting him to 8^th.
• ^† Tsunoda was given a post-race 5-second time penalty for track limits violations, but it did not affect his finishing position.
• ^‡ Räikkönen finished 9^th, but was given a post-race 30-second time penalty for a post-red flag restart procedure infringement, hence demoting him to 13^th.
• ^§ Vettel was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

• 99^th Pole Position for Lewis Hamilton.
  • Hamilton has taken pole at the 30^th different circuit.
• First front row start for Sergio Pérez.
• 11^th race win for Max Verstappen
• 2nd podium for Lando Norris
  • This is the 700^th podium finish for a British driver.
  • Hamilton and Norris' podiums make it the first time since the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix two British drivers finished on the podium.
• First podium finish for the McLaren-Mercedes partnership since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
• First points for the rebranded Alpine team.
• First points for Fernando Alonso since the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix.

Standings

Hamilton was able to maintain a one-point lead ahead of Verstappen thanks to setting the fastest lap of the race, whilst Alpine scored their first points as a team rebranded from Renault.

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts +/- 1 Lewis Hamilton 44 — 2 Max Verstappen 43 — 3 Lando Norris 27 ▲1 4 Charles Leclerc 20 ▲2 5 Valtteri Bottas 16 ▼2 6 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 14 ▲2 7 Daniel Ricciardo 14 — 8 Sergio Pérez 10 ▼3 9 Pierre Gasly 6 ▲8 10 Lance Stroll 5 — 11 Yuki Tsunoda 2 ▼2 12 Esteban Ocon 2 ▲1 13 Fernando Alonso 1 ▲6

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts +/- 1 Mercedes 60 — 2 Red Bull Racing-Honda 53 — 3 McLaren-Mercedes 41 — 4 Ferrari 34 — 5 AlphaTauri-Honda 8 — 6 Aston Martin-Mercedes 5 — 7 Alpine-Renault 3 ▲2

Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

References:

V T E	Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Circuits	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (2020–present)
Races	2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024

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