Formula 1 2021 British Grand Prix was held at the Silverstone Circuit, UK. This was the 10th round of the 2021 Formula 1 season and the first of the three races where F1 tried out the new Sprint Qualifying race weekend format. Red Bull had won the last five races, with Max winning four of them.
Lewis did an exceptional job to secure the P1 slot for the first-ever Sprint qualifying on Saturday, but Max won the first-ever sprint race, meaning he had the pole for the Sunday race. The shockers went on after the preliminary races. Sunday ended with Lewis Hamilton emerging as the winner ahead of Leclerc and Bottas and sending Max crashing with a 51G impact into the barriers.
To give you a briefer, Max came into the weekend with a lead of more than 30 points over Lewis Hamilton. Since the start of the turbo-hybrid era in F1, Mercedes has won most of the races at the Silverstone, and this year, they needed something special to win the race in front of the British crowd. This was also the first race where a full-capacity audience was allowed to the race.
Pre-Race Preparations Thursday
The weather outlook for the race weekend was looking great for the race and the spectators—no threat of rain, instead warm weather with plenty of sunshine. Mercedes finally decided to introduce upgrades to its 2021 challenger to have a chance to take the fight against Red Bull right to the end of the season.
Friday Practice & Qualifying
Free Practice – Max quickest on FP1
Max Verstappen was the fastest at the end of the first practice session on Friday afternoon. He was quicker by seven-tenths than Lando Norris, while Lewis Hamilton was third quickest ahead of Leclerc and Bottas. It looked like the battle for the P1 slot was going to be between Max Verstappen, Lewis, and Bottas. Carlos Sainz made it two Ferraris in the top 6 ahead of Vettel, Perez, Ricciardo and Ocon.
Friday Qualifying – Q1 to Q3 has Max on top until Lewis takes over
The drivers were only allowed to use soft tyres for the Friday evening qualifying. Max finished the Q1 session fastest ahead of Lewis and Charles Leclerc. Yuki Tsunoda was the surprise elimination of the session in a faster car. Raikkonen, Mazepin, Mick, and Latifi all failed to reach the second round of the qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton started to put everything together and went quickest, but Max delivered a lap faster by a tenth from him. At the end of second runs during Q2, Lewis delivered an even faster time and finished the session nearly three-tenths faster than the Red Bulls. George Russell was the star of the Q2 session after managing to enter Q3 for the second race in a row. Alonso, Gasly, Ocon, Giovinazzi and Stroll failed to reach Q3.
Lewis went faster than Max at the end of the first round of runs, sending the crowd wild. Lewis went early for his final run and was on an absolute flyer after setting two purple sectors, except for a brief oversteer in the final chicane that ruined his lap. Max set a green first sector, but a slower middle sector meant he finished 0.075 sec behind Lewis. Bottas was third ahead of Leclerc, Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, Russell, Sainz and Vettel.
Saturday Practice & Sprint Qualifying
Free Practice – Max gets it back in FP2
Max was back on top at the end of the practice session on Saturday. The Red Bull struggled with understeer during the qualifying session and could not utilise the pace of the car. The two Ferraris were second and third quickest behind Max. Ocon was fourth ahead of Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Bottas and Gasly. This session does not have any significance as the qualifying is done, and cars will be in Parc Ferme conditions for Sprint and Sunday's race.
Saturday Sprint Qualifying – Max in top form and secures pole
Max made a great start and out-dragged Lewis going into the opening sequence of corners. Lewis tried hard to pass and even on the outside of Copse but failed to regain his P1 position. The top ten started on mediums apart from Bottas, who started on softs. Alonso made good use of soft tyres from outside of the top ten and was P5 at the end of lap 1. Russell and Sainz came together, and Sainz dropped to P18 because of that crash.
Perez had a bad sprint after he spun on lap 5 and dropped to P19. He later retired from the race and would start the race on Sunday from the back of the grid. By the end of lap 17, Max had enough pace to finish ahead of Lewis by 1.4 sec and secure the pole position for Sunday's race ahead of Lewis and Bottas. Leclerc finished 4th ahead of Norris and Ricciardo, who displaced Alonso to P7. Vettel, Russell and Ocon completed the top 10.
Sunday Race
Lewis wins after a wheel-to-wheel combat with Max at Copse corner
Max made a good start, but Lewis was right behind him. Lewis made one attack after another until the Copse corner. Max fended Lewis while going into Brooklands, but Lewis was not going to stay second and went for the inside line going into Copse corner. Both the drivers were side by side, and Lewis's front left touched Max's right rear, sending him to crash into the barriers with a 51G impact. Leclerc was leading the race prior to the red flag. Lewis received a 10-sec penalty for the crash.
The race restarted on lap 4, and Leclerc made a great start ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Lewis seemed to have no answer to the pace of the Ferrari. At the end of lap 8, Sergio Perez was up to P13 after starting from the pitlane. Leclerc was doing a stellar job, but by lap 16, his engine developed intermittent electrical power shut-offs. This allowed Lewis to stay close to him. Norris, who overtook Bottas on the restart, pitted from P3 on lap 21. A slow pitstop dropped him behind Bottas and a possible first British GP podium.
Lewis pitted on lap 27, served the penalty and changed to hard tyres. He came out in P5 behind Norris. Sainz pitted on lap 28, but a slow 12-sec pitstop cost a couple of positions. Leclerc pitted a lap later, and a smooth pitstop meant he kept the lead of the race. Lewis passed Norris for P3 on lap 31 through Copse corner. Bottas moved aside on lap 40, and Lewis was in P2. With ten laps to go, Lewis had a gap of 7.3 sec behind Leclerc. Lewis was within a second by lap 50, and then on lap 51, he dived down the inside of the Copse corner and retook the lead of the race.
The home crowd went crazy as they saw Lewis retake the lead. Leclerc settled into P2. Lewis crossed the line and clinched his 8th British GP win ahead of a brilliant Leclerc and Bottas. He cut Max's lead to 8 points from 33.
Norris finished 4th, which could have been P3 ahead of Ricciardo, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll, Ocon and Tsunoda.
F1 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix
F1 teams head to Budapest for the 11th race of the season before a 4-week summer break. Hungary has been a happy hunting ground for Mercedes in recent years. Let us see who comes out on top to carry the momentum into the summer break.