2021 Qatar Grand Prix

2021 Qatar Grand Prix
Previous←	2021 São Paulo Grand Prix
Round	20 of 2021
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The Losail International Circuit
Race Details
Date	November 21, 2021
Race Number	1055
Official Name	Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021
Location	Losail International Circuit Lusail, ‎Al Daayen‎, ‎Qatar
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.380 km (3.343 mi)
Distance	57 laps, 306.66 km (190.550 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time	1:20.827
Fastest Lap
Driver	Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:23.196 on lap 57
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton
Second	Max Verstappen
Third	Fernando Alonso
Lap Leaders

The 2021 Qatar Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021) was the 20^th race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at the Losail International Circuit between November 19 and November 21 2021. It was the inaugural F1 race held in Qatar.

Background

The Losail International Circuit, originally host as the Qatar Grand Prix for MotoGP since 2004, was announced to be replacing the TBC slot due to the canceled 2021 Australian Grand Prix on September 30 2021, marking it the first time Qatar hosted Formula One. A 10-year deal to host the race beginning 2023 was also signed.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2021 Qatar 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

FP1

Max Verstappen set the fastest time, followed by Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas.

FP2

Valtteri Bottas was quickest, followed by Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen. Nikita Mazepin had to sit out due to a severely damage chassis.

Practice Results

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

No	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.291	11	1:24.135	14	1:23.711	11
4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.215	10	1:23.632	5	1:23.895	13
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:25.328	12	1:24.020	9	1:23.884	12
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:25.688	13	1:25.209	18	1:24.499	18
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:25.828	15	1:24.631	15	1:24.246	16
9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1:27.500	20	No Time	NC	No Time	20
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:24.160	2	1:23.357	2	1:22.835	4
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:24.915	8	1:23.787	8	1:22.846	5
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:25.905	17	1:24.056	12	1:23.186	7
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:24.790	7	1:24.095	13	1:23.276	9
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:26.712	19	1:23.705	6	1:24.154	15
22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:24.648	5	1:23.735	7	1:23.567	10
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:24.972	9	1:24.041	11	1:23.209	8
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:23.723	1	1:23.498	3	1:22.651	3
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.509	4	1:23.570	4	1:22.388	2
47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:26.699	18	1:25.575	19	1:24.680	19
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	1:24.713	6	1:24.033	10	1:23.048	6
63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1:25.871	16	1:24.954	16	1:23.923	14
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:24.194	3	1:23.148	1	1:22.310	1
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:25.757	14	1:25.072	17	1:24.288	17
Source:

Qualifying

Q1

Eliminated from the session were Raikkonen, Latifi, Giovinazzi, Schumacher and Mazepin, who was nearly four seconds off having not driven much in FPs 2 and 3.

Q2

Perez, Stroll, Leclerc, Ricciardo and Russell were all eliminated in the session.

Q3

Having set the fastest time early on, Hamilton managed to improve again to the fastest time overall of the session, just before Gasly, who was fourth fastest, ran over the kerbs exiting Turn 15 and receiving a puncture and broken front wing. Verstappen and Bottas stayed second and third fastest as yellow flags were deployed for a slowing Gasly, meaning Hamilton secured his first pole position since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, with the gap of 0.455 the largest margin of the season.

Qualifying Results

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

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1	1:21.901		1	1:21.682		1	1:20.827	1
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda		2	1:21.996		4	1:21.984		2	1:21.282	7*
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes		3	1:22.016		5	1:21.991		3	1:21.478	6†
4	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda		8	1:22.535		2	1:21.728		4	1:21.640	2
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault		6	1:22.422		3	1:21.894		5	1:21.670	3
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes		14	1:22.839		9	1:22.216		6	1:21.731	4
7	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari		4	1:22.304		10	1:22.241		7	1:21.840	5
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda		7	1:22.458		7	1:22.058		8	1:21.881	8
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault		11	1:22.565		6	1:22.012		9	1:22.028	9
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes		9	1:22.549		8	1:22.146		10	1:22.785	10
11	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda		5	1:22.398		11	1:22.346				11
12	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes		10	1:22.551		12	1:22.460				12
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari		13	1:22.742		13	1:22.463				13
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes		12	1:22.688		14	1:22.597				14
15	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes		15	1:22.863		15	1:22.756				15
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		16	1:23.156							16
17	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes		17	1:23.213							17
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		18	1:23.262							18
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari		19	1:23.407							19
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari		20	1:25.859							20
107% Time: 1:27.634
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Verstappen was given a five-place grid penalty for not slowing down during waved double yellow flags.
• ^† Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for not slowing down during waved single yellow flag.

Grid

The starting grid of the feature race of the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix is outined below:

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Hamilton	2
	______________	Gasly
Row 2	3	______________
	Alonso	4
	______________	Norris
Row 3	5	______________
	Sainz	6
	______________	Bottas
Row 4	7	______________
	Verstappen	8
	______________	Tsunoda
Row 5	9	______________
	Ocon	10
	______________	Vettel
Row 6	11	______________
	Pérez	12
	______________	Stroll
Row 7	13	______________
	Leclerc	14
	______________	Ricciardo
Row 8	15	______________
	Russell	16
	______________	Räikkönen
Row 9	17	______________
	Latifi	18
	______________	Giovinazzi
Row 10	19	______________
	Schumacher	20
	______________	Mazepin

Notes

• Bottas and Verstappen penalised 3 and 5 grid places respectively for yellow-flag infringements during qualifying.

Race

Report

Just hours before the race, Verstappen, Bottas and Sainz were summoned to the stewards for yellow flag infractions during qualifying. As a result, Verstappen was handed a five-place grid penalty, dropping from second to seventh, while Bottas received a three-place penalty, dropping down to sixth. Sainz meanwhile was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Hamilton led out of the start, with Alonso passing Gasly a few corners later while Verstappen leapt to fourth. Bottas however dropped down to eleventh. As the race progressed, Hamilton gradually began to extend his advantage from the field, while Verstappen made his way to second in a couple of laps. Perez and Bottas also progressed. Verstappen dropped from Hamilton as he reported minor wing damage.

Verstappen stopped on Lap 17, and Hamilton followed a lap later and retained the lead, though lost a bit of time encountering traffic and Verstappen's pace on newer tires. At this stage, Bottas, Norris and both Ferraris are yet to stop, with Perez and Alonso passing Leclerc after the Monegasque locked up at Turn 1.

Drama began on the 33rd lap when Bottas suddenly suffered a puncture on the front left tire, limping back to the pits, dropping down and rejoining out of the points. Hamilton, Verstappen and Perez then made their second stops, trading fastest laps with each other as Perez recovered again, passing Stroll and Ocon to reclaim the final podium spot from Alonso, who was voicing concerns on his tires running on a long stint.

More puncture incidents then followed, with Russell being the first of these to receive the puncture, then Norris, and then Latifi. Unlike Russell, who made it back to the pits to have his tires replaced, Latifi was forced to stop on the side of the track to retire, just as Norris pitted from 5^th with the similar issue, dropping down to 10^th. Bottas meanwhile had retired earlier following damage received from his puncture.

Perez' charge on Alonso was all but over when the VSC was called in the closing laps to recover Latifi's car. Verstappen pitted for soft tires in an attempt to set the fastest lap. Hamilton meanwhile, completed the final tour without incident and won the race, with Verstappen a distance behind in second and Alonso in third ahead of Perez. Completing in the points were Ocon, Stroll, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris and Vettel.

Results

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

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	1:24:28.471	1	25
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	57	+ 25.743	7	19FL
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	57	+ 59.457	3	15
4	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	57	+ 1:02.306	11	12
5	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	57	+ 1:20.570	9	10
6	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	57	+ 1:21.274	12	8
7	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	57	+ 1:21.911	5	6
8	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	57	+ 1:23.126	13	4
9	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+ 1 lap	4	2
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	56	+ 1 lap	10	1
11	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	56	+ 1 lap	2
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+ 1 lap	14
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	56	+ 1 lap	8
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	56	+ 1 lap	16
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	56	+ 1 lap	18
16	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	56	+ 1 lap	19
17	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	55	+ 2 laps	15
18	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	55	+ 2 laps	20
Ret	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	50	Puncture	17
Ret	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	48	Puncture damage	6
Source:

Milestones

• First Qatar Grand Prix held.
  • Qatar is the 33^rd sovereign nation to host a grand prix.
• 900^th start for McLaren.
• 102^nd pole position and race win for Lewis Hamilton.
  • Hamilton extends his record of taking pole position at the most different circuits at 31, and making Losail as the 30^th different circuit to win.
  • This race also marks Hamilton's 60^th victory from pole position, and his 175^th race led.
• First front row start for Pierre Gasly.
• 98^th podium for Fernando Alonso, his first since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.
  • Alonso breaks the record for the most races between consecutive podiums at 105 races.

Standings

With two races remaining, Hamilton closed the gap to Verstappen to eight points. Bottas' retirement meant that Red Bull closed into Mercedes to 5 points in the constructor's championship battle. Alonso's podium meant that Alpine took off from AlphaTauri with a 25-point difference, as neither driver of the latter team scored. Ferrari also extended their advantage from McLaren by 8 points after yet another poor showing from McLaren.

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts. +/- 1 Max Verstappen 351.5 — 2 Lewis Hamilton 343.5 — 3 Valtteri Bottas 203 — 4 Sergio Pérez 190 — 5 Lando Norris 153 — 6 Charles Leclerc 152 — 7 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 145.5 — 8 Daniel Ricciardo 105 — 9 Pierre Gasly 92 — 10 Fernando Alonso 77 — 11 Esteban Ocon 60 — 12 Sebastian Vettel 43 — 13 Lance Stroll 34 — 14 Yuki Tsunoda 20 — 15 George Russell 16 — 16 Kimi Räikkönen 10 — 17 Nicholas Latifi 7 — 18 Antonio Giovinazzi 1 —

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts. +/- 1 Mercedes 546.5 — 2 Red Bull Racing-Honda 541.5 — 3 Ferrari 297.5 — 4 McLaren-Mercedes 258 — 5 Alpine-Renault 137 — 6 AlphaTauri-Honda 112 — 7 Aston Martin-Mercedes 77 — 8 Williams-Mercedes 23 — 9 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 11 —

Only point-scoring drivers and constructors are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

References:

V T E	Qatar Grand Prix
Circuits	Lusail International Circuit (2021, 2023-present)
Races	2021 • 2023 • 2024

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