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Coming from triumphs in Brazil and Qatar, Lewis Hamilton this Sunday won his third consecutive victory of the season, at the Saudi Arabian GP, in a breathtaking duel from the first to the 50th lap. The race was marked by a series of incidents and the collision itself with rival Max Verstappen, in the various disputes that the pair staged. Valtteri Bottas completed the podium in third.
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With this, the decision of the Formula 1 title in 2021 goes to the last race of the year, at the Abu Dhabi GP, as Hamilton drew with Verstappen in the drivers’ championship: the two now add 369.5 points.
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen even defeated the Saudi Arabian F1 GP — Photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images
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The Circuit de Jeddah did not fail with the riders’ expectations of being a fierce track, which does not forgive mistakes: the race had three starts, with four riders still abandoning in the first 20 laps. The first incident took place on lap 10, with Mick Schumacher, from Haas. Besides him, Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Pérez, Nikita Mazepin and George Russell also left the race.
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The dispute was paralyzed for more than 30 minutes, adding the two red flags raised, as well as several activations of the virtual safety car, in incidents involving Yuki Tsunoda and Vettel, and for the removal of debris on the track.
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Mercedes even benefited from the first safety car of the race, which gave Hamilton and Bottas the advantage of replacing the medium tires with the hard ones without major consequences in the classification of the race. The RBR, however, saw the game turn with the first red flag, keeping Verstappen in the inherited lead after the seven-times champion’s pit stop and also making his change.
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In the second restart, Verstappen took the lead of his rival off the track and had to start from third place in the last restart of the race, in which the Mercedes driver was surrounded by the opponent and Esteban Ocon and had to wait until the last laps to attack.
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From lap 40 onwards, there was no lack of controversial moves in Hamilton’s overtaking attempts, with the right to a spread, crash and a 5s penalty for the Dutchman. It is worth noting that there is yet another incident between the two to be investigated after the race. The key overtaking of the race came on the 43rd turn.
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For RBR, which was still waiting for the chance to overtake Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, Pérez’s withdrawal was calamitous, as the German rival scored with his two drivers – with Valtteri Bottas in third place, overtaking Esteban Ocon in the last meters of the end back.
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The 22nd and final round of F1 in 2021 will be next weekend, on December 12th, at the Abu Dhabi GP.
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F1 Saudi Arabian GP — Photo: F1
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Starting from pole, Hamilton makes a smooth start, protected by Mercedes colleague Bottas; the Finn, in second, closed the way to prevent a maneuver by Verstappen, in third place. The Dutchman also saw Charles Leclerc put the car beside him to try to overtake on the outside, but he kept his position.
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In the middle of the grid, Esteban Ocon touched Pierre Gasly, who dropped from sixth to eighth; his AlphaTauri colleague Yuki Tsunoda dropped from eighth place to 12th. While Lando Norris gained one position, his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo jumped from 11th to ninth, with Antonio Giovinazzi completing the top 10 in the same place he started the race.
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1. Aiming to recover after the classification below expectations, starting in 15th, Carlos Sainz gained two positions at the beginning of the race and, four turns later, appeared in 13th after overcoming Tsunoda. Up front, Hamilton was already opening almost 3s ahead of Verstappen, in third.
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2. From ninth place, Ricciardo passed Gasly while Sainz passed Fernando Alonso to take 11th place. Before, Alpine’s Spanish had already been surpassed by Antonio Giovinazzi.
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3. The tranquility of the race was interrupted by Mick Schumacher’s crash at turn 22 on lap 10. The Haas German came out of the back and, in a move similar to Leclerc’s in the second free practice in Jeddah, hit the barriers from behind soft and then laterally.
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4. The security car entered the lane; with that, Mercedes called in Bottas and Hamilton to change tires, with the two replacing the medium tires with the hard ones. Sergio Pérez, a colleague of Verstappen at RBR, also visited the pits. With the seven-time champion’s strategy, Max took the lead in the race.
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5. Four laps later under a yellow flag, the race direction signaled the red flag, which stopped the race for the completion of the barrier repairs. With this, RBR was able to change Verstappen’s tires, repeating the choice of rivals from Mercedes, and keep it in the lead for the restart without having to stop it during the race.
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6. The race was resumed on lap 16, which was not even completed. Hamilton, in second place, passed Verstappen.
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Coming from the inside, the Dutchman left the track and regained the lead of the race while Ocon plunged from fourth to second place, leaving Bottas behind and moving away from the leaderboards. With that, the Mercedes Brit dropped to third.
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7. In the following corners, still on the 16th lap, Leclerc ended up surrounded by Pérez and touched the Mexican’s RBR side, who was upset on the track and lost his front wing.
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At the same time, Nikita Mazepin was unable to brake and avoid a heavy rear-end collision with George Russell; the Haas Russian stopped at the corner of the track, his car severely damaged. Another red flag paralyzed the race for 20 minutes.
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8. Punished for the maneuver with which he regained Hamilton’s lead, Verstappen had to re-start from third place, behind the British Mercedes, after the RBR “negotiated” the sanction with the race direction. With that, Ocon inherited the leadership of the race.
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Hamilton, in second, had a bad start. He slowed down as he tried to pass through and, surrounded by Verstappen and Ocon, fell behind as the Dutchman from RBR regained the lead.
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The Alpine Frenchman, who came to touch the seven-times champion’s front wing, left the track and dropped to third, but regained the vice-leadership in the next few meters.
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9. Right after the restart, on lap 18, Hamilton overtook Ocon to take the runner-up lead in the race.
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10. While the two Ferraris nearly met in a contest for eighth place, with Carlos Sainz getting the better of lap 23, Tsunoda ran into Sebastian Vettel on the exit of turn 1 and went straight, breaking the front wing.
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The Japanese AlphaTauri’s brakes, who plummeted from ninth to 16th place, even presented flames, but he managed to restart the car to leave the exhaust area – with the virtual safety car activated. The rookie changed the part in the pits and returned to the race in last place.
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11. Fernando Alonso spun and was barely missed by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi.
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12. Shortly thereafter, Vettel locked wheels with Kimi Raikkonen, leaving debris from the floor of the Aston Martin on the track that forced yet another virtual safety car into action on lap 30.
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13. The dispute was released on lap 33 only for another activation of the virtual safety car three turns later, but the green flag in turn 36 authorized the resumption of the dispute. Hamilton, 0s7 behind Verstappen, opened the mobile wing.
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The seven-time champion came out of the way and placed the car next to the RBR rival, but the Dutchman didn’t relent, he spread the car and the two left the track. In the bid, Hamilton was even touched, keeping the second place.
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14. On the next lap, the leaders collided: Hamilton was preparing to attempt a new overtake, when Verstappen, instructed to return the lead to his rival, braked. With no reaction time, the Mercedes driver collided with his rival.
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15. Hamilton passed Verstappen on lap 42, taking change in yards ahead. However, the Dutchman was punished with 5s for gaining advantage by leaving the track in one of the previous disputes. On lap 43, the Mercedes driver finally took the lead in the race.
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