F1 2021 - Race 7

After the double retirement of Verstappen and Hamilton last time out, Verstappen retained his lead in the drivers’ championship. After a strong performance from the Red Bull’s in Practice sessions, Verstappen put his car on top spot in qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Heading into Sunday, he was looking good to further extend his lead in the championship.

That being said… Hamilton look the lead of the race heading into the first corner of the first lap after Verstappen went wide. Verstappen kept the pressure up and undercut Hamilton in their first pit stop. By doing so, he regained his lead of the race, and of the live drivers’ championship. Many drivers were reporting a lot of tyre degradation, and what was thought to be a one-stop race was looking like a possible two-stopper. The engineers at Red Bull decided to keep Sergio Perez out much longer than his teammate and as Verstappen’s second set of tyres was starting to degrade, Perez was just going onto his fresh second set..

Verstappen pitted and he got what we thought was the second undercut of the day on Hamilton, but Hamilton chose to stay out. Verstappen was initially taking 2 seconds per lap out of Hamilton, and looked set to catch him. Meanwhile, Perez was closing into Bottas for third place. About 5 laps from the end, Hamilton was still in first and Verstappen was again reporting graining on his tyres, now on his third set of the race. Perez managed to catch Bottas, who was livid at his pit crew for ‘not listening’ to him when he suggested the two-stop strategy. Verstappen finally caught Hamilton, almost at the last minute, and went on to win the race and gain the extra point for fastest lap of the race. Some great strategy from Red Bull, and some questionable strategy from Mercedes, ensures that Verstappen retains his lead at the top of the championship.