The 2021 F1 season is approaching its halfway point. Round 10 at Silverstone marked a milestone in the history of F1: the introduction of the inaugural F1 Sprint. Due to this new format the traditional schedule of the GP weekend went through some major changes.
Qualifying session took place on Friday already after only one hour of free practice for the teams. Teams had a free choice of tyres for the Sprint, which made things simplier for the teams in qualifying. Everyone opted for the soft compound in Q2. Although Verstappen had been in a class of his own in the first practice, Hamilton bounced back in the qualifying in front of his cheering fans. To the delight of the home crowd, Russell again made it into the top ten, as did his two countrymen as well. Home hero Hamilton laid his hands on provisional pole by 0.172s to Verstappen, who suffered from massive understeering issues. Hamilton didn't manage to improve on his last flyer, due to losing the rear of his W12 in the last sector. Verstappen made improvement on his final attempt, but still ended up 0.075s short of Hamilton's benchmark. Bottas qualified third fastest, with Ferrari's Leclerc fourth and Red Bull's Perez fifth. Finally Ricciardo had also got his things together at the wheel of his McLaren, and the Australian qualified 7th behind his teammate Norris (6th). Russell was impressive 8th in the under-performing Williams, beating Ferrari's Sainz and Aston Martin's Vettel. The qualifying session defined the starting grid for the Sprint, which was going to define the starting grid for Sunday's race.
The Sprint included 17 laps and 100 kilometres and there were no mandatory pit stops. Hamilton started on the first grid slot but got a mediocre start, which Verstappen smelled right away. The Dutchman aggressively made it to the lead, and although Hamilton pushed as hard as he could to challenge Verstappen for the lead, Verstappen wasn't to be deprived of his lead. They were both on the medium compound, whilst Bottas in third was on the soft rubber. The Alpine duo of Alonso and Ocon, too had started to the Sprint on the softs, as had Alfa Romeo's Räikkönen. Alonso's opening lap was magical. He managed to make up six places, jumping up to P5. On the other hand, Ferrari's Sainz had a settleback-filled start to the Sprint. He was involved in a first-lap collision with Williams' Russell, which dropped the Spaniard down to P16. Perez, who had started to the Sprint from P5, made a costly mistake on lap 5, losing the control of his RB16B. He span out, avoiding a crash into the wall just barely. The Mexican rejoined the track at the very back of the pack. There were close battles in the midfield among the McLaren duo of Norris and Ricciardo, Alpine's Alonso and Aston Martin's Vettel, but the gaps between the top three remained stable throughout the Sprint.
Verstappen crossed the finish line first, which meant pole position for Sunday's race and three points in the bag. Hamilton had to settle for being the runner-up in spite of the extra boost from his cheering home crowd. The home hero was rewarded with two points. Teammate Bottas completed the podium, getting the final point. Charles was to line up alongside the Finn for the race, followed by the McLaren duo of Norris and Ricciardo. Alonso and Vettel finished 7th and 8th respectively. Russell made stunning 9th, leaving Alonso's teammate Ocon 10th. Due to the first-lap collision, Sainz was unable to make it higher than P11. Perez, on the other hand, retired from the race in the end, and he will probably start to the race from the pitlane.
So fourth consecutive pole position for Max Verstappen! And what a start the British GP saw, as the lights went out. Hamilton in P2 got a slightly better start than pole-setter Verstappen and was aggressively challenging the Dutchman right from the start. It was a fierce battle, which got a dramatic and scary-looking end at Copse; Hamilton dived into the inside of Verstappen, and the front left tyre of Hamilton's W12 touched Verstappens's rear right tyre. The contact sent Max's RB16B flying into the tyre wall. Hamilton ended up slightly wide, and Charles in his Ferrari grabbed the lead. Verstappen's Red Bull was completely wrecked on the right side, and the driver himself was helped out his car. The race was red-flagged, and the cars were to return to the pit lane. The stewards took the collision into investigation.
Half an hour had passed, before Verstappen's wrecked car had been untangled from the barriers and lifted onto a pick-up truck. Leclerc held onto his lead at the restart, holding Hamilton behind. Bottas had a poor restart, and the Finn lost his third place to McLaren's Norris. Meanwhile, Hamilton had been considered at fault for causing the collision with Verstappen, and the Briton was handed a 10-second time penalty. Although Charles reported about a power unit issue on the team radio, Hamilton had it hard to make it within DRS distance from the Monegasque. Ferrari's race pace seemed very convincing indeed.
Hamilton came in for his first pit stop on lap 28. After the 10-second penalty and switch to the hard compound, the home hero rejoined the track in P4 behind Norris. Due to Norris' delayed pit stop, Bottas had made it ahead of the McLaren driver. Hamilton had it easy to chase down Norris and pass his countryman at Copse. Hamilton's next target was his teammate Valtteri, who was only four seconds ahead. On lap 40 Mercedes gave a straightforward team order to Bottas: do not fight Lewis. And the Finn had no option but to let his teammate past at the end of the back straight.
With two pit stops completed and ten laps to go, Charles' gap to Hamilton was 7.5 seconds. But the Briton's pace was storming -fastest lap one after another. The gap kept decreasing sector by sector. Hamilton's lap times were a second faster than those of Charles'. With two laps remaining, flying Hamilton had made it at the very tail of Charles' Ferrari. The reigning world champion attacked again at Copse; Charles ended up slightly off track, and Hamilton took the lead.
Hamilton drove to the chequered flag as the race winner for the historic 8th time at Silverstone and made his fans go crazy. Charles was magnificent runner-up, although even victory was almost within the Monegasque's grasp. Once again Bottas completed the podium. The McLaren duo of Norris and Ricciardo finished 4th and 5th. Carlos Sainz finished 6th for the Scuderia. Unfortunately one of the Spaniard's pit stops hadn't go to plan (taking 12 seconds). Without the delayed pit stop the Ferrari ace would have fought for even higher positions.
In terms of the championship standings, the British GP turned out quite crucial. The Mercedes duo bagged 40 points for the Silver Arrows, whilst their closest rival Red Bull claimed zero points on the British soil. Verstappen still leads but by one single point only and Red Bull by one single point as well, so the battle is definitely heating up. There's still one more race to go until the summer break -the Hungarian GP. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
Comments
Authorize to comment