F1 Grand Prix race results: Lewis Hamilton wins Qatar GP
Lewis Hamilton won the Qatar Grand Prix at Losail International Circuit on Sunday for Mercedes to beat title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull, while Fernando Alonso ended his F1 podium drought with Alpine.
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Hamilton led from start to finish, while Verstappen battled back from a five-place grid penalty to finish second with fastest lap.
Fernando Alonso used a one-stop podium to finish third, braving it out despite a string of front-left tyre failures – that claimed Valtteri Bottas among others.
2021 Qatar Grand Prix race results
Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Interval | Points | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | 57 | - | 25 | ||
2 | Max Verstappen | 57 | 25.743 | 25.743 | 19 | |
3 | Fernando Alonso | 57 | 59.457 | 33.714 | 15 | |
4 | Sergio Perez | 57 | 1'02.306 | 2.849 | 12 | |
5 | Esteban Ocon | 57 | 1'20.570 | 18.264 | 10 | |
6 | Lance Stroll | 57 | 1'21.274 | 0.704 | 8 | |
7 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | 57 | 1'21.911 | 0.637 | 6 | |
8 | Charles Leclerc | 57 | 1'23.126 | 1.215 | 4 | |
9 | Lando Norris | 56 | 1 lap | 2 | ||
10 | Sebastian Vettel | 56 | 1 lap | 1 | ||
11 | Pierre Gasly | 56 | 1 lap | |||
12 | Daniel Ricciardo | 56 | 1 lap | |||
13 | Yuki Tsunoda | 56 | 1 lap | |||
14 | Kimi Raikkonen | 56 | 1 lap | |||
15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 56 | 1 lap | |||
16 | Mick Schumacher | 56 | 1 lap | |||
17 | George Russell | 55 | 2 laps | |||
18 | Nikita Mazepin | 55 | 2 laps | |||
Nicholas Latifi | 50 | |||||
Valtteri Bottas | 48 | |||||
View full results |
How the Qatar Grand Prix unfolded
From pole position Hamilton led AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on the long run to Turn 1, while Alonso forced his way past Gasly for second on the exit of Turn 2. Verstappen, who was demoted to seventh on the starting grid after failing to slow for double-yellow waved flags in qualifying, moved up to fourth immediately – despite being barged wide on the entrance to Turn 2 by Alonso.
In the second Mercedes, Bottas – who was demoted three places after qualifying – compounded that with a poor start and dropped to 11th.
Hamilton ended Lap 1 with a two-second lead already, with Alonso holding up Gasly and Verstappen. Gasly then ran wide at the final corner on Lap 3, allowing Verstappen up to third. McLaren’s Lando Norris ran fourth, ahead of Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull).
Verstappen DRS-ed past Alonso for second on Lap 5, putting him second but over 4s behind Hamilton. His teammate Perez worked his way up the field, passing Tsunoda, Sainz and Ocon.
Verstappen reported front wing damage on Lap 8, after which Hamilton’s lead extended to over 5s as Max was told to stay off the kerbs. Behind Alonso in third, Gasly came under attack from Norris and Perez, with Norris grabbing fourth on Lap 12 and Perez further demoting Gasly a lap later. Perez then passed Norris for fourth on Lap 16.
Verstappen pitted on Lap 18, taking hard tyres and rejoining just ahead of Alonso. Mercedes responded a lap later with Hamilton, the gap between them – which had been over 10s now reduced to 8s.
Bottas made slower progress as he also worked his way forwards, moving past Norris into fourth position on Lap 23, while Perez pitted before half distance and rejoined in traffic. Alonso pitted to cover him, so Perez had to pass him on track – but they both tripped up over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was running a long first stint.
Perez passed Alonso with a spectacular move through Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 29, clearing him to focus on his battle for the final spot on the podium with Bottas. But that was decided when Bottas’s left-front tyre blew on Lap 34, causing him to go off into the gravel. After a pitstop, he rejoined in 14th.
Verstappen pitted again on Lap 42 for fresh mediums, covered by Hamilton a lap later who took scrubbed mediums, with an 8s gap between them. Perez also stopped, dropping to seventh and promoting Alonso – who wasn't going to stop again – back to third.
Perez then had to battle past Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Ocon – while Norris was forced to pit with a puncture with seven laps to go, handing fourth to Perez. Williams’s George Russell then suffered a left-front puncture, with teammate Nicholas Latifi also endured an identical failure.
A late virtual safety car was called to remove Latifi’s stranded Williams. Verstappen pitted again for new softs in a bid to ensure his point for fastest lap.
After the race went green on the final lap, Hamilton won by almost 30 seconds, ahead of Verstappen. Alonso braved it out on his one-stop strategy to finish third ahead of Perez, while Ocon led a train of Stroll, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris and Vettel.
Meantime, Bottas pitted to retire due to car damage and Gasly finished outside the points despite starting on the front row.
2021 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | 57 | 1'23.196 | 232.799 | ||
2 | Lewis Hamilton | 50 | 1'25.084 | 1.888 | 1.888 | 227.633 |
3 | Sergio Perez | 49 | 1'25.613 | 2.417 | 0.529 | 226.227 |
4 | Lando Norris | 51 | 1'25.746 | 2.550 | 0.133 | 225.876 |
5 | George Russell | 55 | 1'25.768 | 2.572 | 0.022 | 225.818 |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | 53 | 1'26.358 | 3.162 | 0.590 | 224.275 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | 53 | 1'26.434 | 3.238 | 0.076 | 224.078 |
8 | Charles Leclerc | 46 | 1'26.555 | 3.359 | 0.121 | 223.765 |
9 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | 46 | 1'26.570 | 3.374 | 0.015 | 223.726 |
10 | Fernando Alonso | 48 | 1'26.682 | 3.486 | 0.112 | 223.437 |
11 | Pierre Gasly | 46 | 1'27.019 | 3.823 | 0.337 | 222.572 |
12 | Yuki Tsunoda | 50 | 1'27.043 | 3.847 | 0.024 | 222.510 |
13 | Esteban Ocon | 46 | 1'27.061 | 3.865 | 0.018 | 222.464 |
14 | Daniel Ricciardo | 50 | 1'27.198 | 4.002 | 0.137 | 222.115 |
15 | Valtteri Bottas | 39 | 1'27.246 | 4.050 | 0.048 | 221.992 |
16 | Nikita Mazepin | 55 | 1'27.340 | 4.144 | 0.094 | 221.754 |
17 | Lance Stroll | 44 | 1'27.356 | 4.160 | 0.016 | 221.713 |
18 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 40 | 1'27.823 | 4.627 | 0.467 | 220.534 |
19 | Mick Schumacher | 46 | 1'28.412 | 5.216 | 0.589 | 219.065 |
20 | Nicholas Latifi | 44 | 1'28.732 | 5.536 | 0.320 | 218.275 |
View full results |
2021 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix tyre history
Cla | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | M | 21 | H | 24 | M | 15 | ||
2 | Max Verstappen | M | 20 | H | 24 | M | 14 | S | 5 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | S | 26 | H | 34 | ||||
4 | Sergio Perez | M | 19 | H | 22 | M | 19 | ||
5 | Esteban Ocon | S | 27 | H | 33 | ||||
6 | Lance Stroll | M | 23 | H | 34 | ||||
7 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | M | 30 | H | 30 | ||||
8 | Charles Leclerc | M | 27 | H | 30 | ||||
9 | Lando Norris | S | 28 | H | 24 | M | 7 | ||
10 | Sebastian Vettel | S | 29 | M | 30 | ||||
11 | Pierre Gasly | S | 16 | M | 25 | M | 26 | ||
12 | Daniel Ricciardo | M | 26 | H | 30 | ||||
13 | Yuki Tsunoda | S | 12 | M | 25 | H | 22 | ||
14 | Kimi Raikkonen | S | 10 | M | 20 | H | 26 | ||
15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | S | 15 | M | 17 | M | 24 | ||
16 | Mick Schumacher | S | 25 | M | 36 | ||||
17 | George Russell | S | 17 | H | 32 | S | 9 | ||
18 | Nikita Mazepin | M | 31 | S | 27 | ||||
Nicholas Latifi | S | 18 | H | 32 | |||||
Valtteri Bottas | M | 36 | H | 15 | |||||
View full results |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Related video
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments