Formula 1 2021 Spanish Grand Prix – Lewis Makes the Best Start to a Season with 3rd Win

The Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2021 F1 season, was held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain. This was the 61st running of the Spanish GP, the 51st as a world championship round and the 31st in the current circuit. It was also the first round of the season when a limited number of spectators were allowed to attend the race on Sunday. 

Heading into the event, Lewis Hamilton had a lead of 8 points over Max Verstappen in the driver's championship. On Saturday, Hamilton became the first man in the history of Formula 1 to score 100 pole positions ahead of Verstappen and Bottas. 

Verstappen did a brilliant job at the start of the race, but Mercedes's gamble on strategy paid off at the end when Hamilton won his 3rd race of the season and 98th race of his illustrious career. Verstappen and Bottas completed the Spanish GP podium.

Pre-Race Preparations Thursday:

The weather prediction for the Spanish race weekend was for mixed conditions. Friday and Saturday were expected to be dry, with a chance of rain on Sunday to spice the things up for the fans. Teams usually bring big upgrade packages to Barcelona to test the efficiency of their car aerodynamics on a high-speed and flowing circuit. The circuit is not ideal for overtaking, and qualifying is as important as you would consider on a street circuit. 

Pirelli again brought the three hardest compounds for the race weekend to accommodate the high tyre temperatures due to the abrasive surface and extreme lateral loads. C1 (White) was the hard tyre, C2(Yellow) was the medium and C3(Red) was the soft tyre for the race.

Friday Practice:

Bottas was quickest in the FP1 session, and Hamilton was fastest from his teammate in the FP2 session. Red Bull was expected to be quicker than Mercedes, but their early-season advantage over an unpredictable Mercedes seemed to have evaporated. The silver cars looked quick in qualifying and race simulation modes. Red Bull was a match for Mercedes, if not quicker, in both forms. 

Ferrari looked like the best midfield car for the first time this season when Leclerc finished the FP2 in third place within two-tenths of Hamilton's time. Alpine was the surprise package of the Friday practice when both cars finished in the top 6 during FP2. McLaren, which introduced a significant upgrade package including a new front wing and floor, did not feature any car in the top 10. Alpha Tauri had a better day than expected and looked on the form to challenge for Q3 on Saturday.

Saturday Practice:

Max Verstappen, who aborted his qualifying run during FP2 on Friday, made sure he finished the session on top going into the qualifying. Lewis Hamilton was in second place ahead of the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Bottas had a below-average session and was the 5^th quickest ahead of Norris, Gasly and Ricciardo. Sergio Perez seemed to have some health issues and could only manage a time good enough for 10^th.

Qualifying:

Lando Norris finished the session fastest after using the second set of soft tyres to progress into the Q2 session. He was blocked by Nikita Mazepin in the final chicane on his first flying lap and so had to do a second run in Q1. Mazepin later received a penalty for blocking Norris. Yuki Tsunoda was the shock of the session when he failed to take advantage of a fast car. Four other drivers who failed to reach Q2 included Räikkönen, Latifi, Mick and Mazepin.

Surprisingly, no one decided to qualify for the race on more durable medium tyres. The reason is that the circuit is tough to overtake, and the run to the first corner is very long. Therefore, nobody wanted to lose a place by starting on the slower medium tyres. Both Aston Martins were eliminated along with Gasly, Giovinazzi and George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton put his car on P1 by going 0.036 sec quicker than Max Verstappen. Valterri Bottas was a tenth behind his teammate in third place. It looked like the battle for pole position would be won on the final flying laps of the day, but the top three failed to improve on their final runs. Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to score 100 pole positions, and that too with the Mercedes engine. Leclerc was the only driver to improve on the last run and finished 4^th on the grid ahead of Ocon. Carlos Sainz qualified P6 on the grid ahead of an improved Ricciardo. Perez was 8^th due to pain in his shoulder. Norris qualified a lowly 9^th on used soft tyres after having to do two runs in Q1. Fernando Alonso qualified 10^th, making it two Alpine cars in the top 10.

Sunday Race:

Lewis made a good start when the five red lights went out, but Max utilised the tow from Lewis's Mercedes and forced his way into the lead going into turn 1. Behind the leading two, Bottas was caught off guard, and Leclerc passed Bottas on the outside of turn 3 for 3^rd place. Ricciardo made a good start and was into P5 ahead of Perez, who started 8^th. All the other cars safely made it to the end of lap 1 without any incident. Yuki Tsunoda stopped at the newly added turn 10 on lap 8, resulting in the safety car's deployment. This made it 100% deployment of the safety car in the 2021 season. 

Verstappen controlled the restart of the race on lap 11 and continued to lead the race from Hamilton. Despite leading the race, Max pitted on lap 24 for a set of new medium tyres, and he did so on his own. The team wasn’t ready for the stop, which resulted in a longer 4.2 sec stop for the Dutchman. Lewis pitted on lap 28 and came out behind Max in the second place. Bottas jumped the Ferrari of Leclerc by pitting on lap 23; Leclerc pitted on lap 28. 

Mercedes deployed their race-winning strategy move on lap 41 when Lewis pitted for a used set of medium tyres and came out in P3 behind Bottas. Later, Max's race engineer said it could be Hungary 2019 all over again when Max lost the race in a similar strategy masterstroke by Mercedes. On lap 52, Lewis passed his teammate, who later pitted on lap 57 for new tyres. Bottas dropped behind Leclerc but was able to retake P3 later in the race.

Lewis made a move on Verstappen on lap 60 into turn 1 and disappeared into the distance. Max pitted to switch to brand new, shining soft tyres and grabbed the extra point for the fastest lap. Lewis crossed the line on lap 66 to claim his 3^rd win of the season and 98^th of his career. Max finished second, ahead of Bottas. Leclerc was best of the rest in 4^th, ahead of Perez in 5^th and Ricciardo (season-best) 6^th place. Sainz was in 7^th place ahead of Norris in 8^th, Ocon 9^th and Gasly to score the final championship point for Alpha Tauri.