Barcelona,
09
May
2021
|
17:41
Europe/Amsterdam

2021 Spanish Grand Prix - Sunday

KEY MOMENTS

  • Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won a strategic tyre battle in Spain, stopping twice with a soft-medium-medium run to overhaul Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who initially tried to hold him off with just one stop, from P Zero Red soft to P Zero Yellow medium.
  • Once Hamilton was past him, Verstappen made a second stop to take the soft tyres and claim the extra championship point for fastest lap. The soft-medium-soft strategy was used by all the finishers from second place to eighth place.
  • Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who finished ninth, was one of just two drivers to stop only once, going from soft to medium. The other driver was Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who did the opposite by going from medium to soft.
  • The only other drivers to adopt the same strategy as Hamilton were George Russell (Williams) and the two Haas drivers. The other Williams of Nicholas Latifi was the sole driver to stop three times.
  • Track temperatures were around 10 degrees cooler during the race compared to qualifying, at around 32 degrees centigrade (with 26 degrees ambient).

HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED

  • HARD C1: Not used at all during the race, with the cooler temperatures prompting more use of the softer compounds available.
  • MEDIUM C2: Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver to start the race on the medium, running it for 37 laps before switching to the soft tyre (the only driver to run this strategy). Verstappen also ran this compound for 36 laps in the second half of the race. Alpine drivers completed the longest stints on this compound (Fernando Alonso for 40 laps and Ocon for 42 laps)
  • SOFT C3: Used by all the drivers at the start of the race apart from Raikkonen. Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ran it for longest during the opening stint before their first stops: 28 laps in total.

FORMULA 3 – RACE 3

Prema driver Dennis Hauger won Sunday’s F3 race – the one that awards most points – from pole, which he claimed in qualifying on Friday. Behind him there was a close fight between Trident’s Jack Doohan and HWA’s Matteo Nannini, with the son of the famed motorcycle racer coming out on top to seal his first podium. On a demanding track that became progressively warmer, looking after the P Zero White hard compound tyres was paramount over the 22 laps. Those that managed this successfully were rewarded, while some others lost places as their tyres degraded at a higher rate towards the end of the race.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“This was an intense strategic battle, so it’s perhaps surprising that in the end the top four finished exactly as they started on the grid, despite plenty of movement and pit stops during the race. The cooler temperatures today prompted extensive use of the soft and medium tyres, which as we expected also led to nearly all the drivers making two pit stops. With most drivers moving from the soft to the medium after the start of the race, they had some flexibility on strategy. However, it soon became apparent that two stops were necessary here due to the abrasive nature and high-energy demands of this track, which makes the performance of the soft tyre as a key element to the race all the more commendable.”

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
HARD MEDIUM SOFT
- Hamilton
1m20.665s
Verstappen
1m18.149s
- Bottas
1m21.407s
Bottas
1m19.430s
- Verstappen
1m21.411s
Perez
1m19.483s
LONGEST STINT OF THE RACE
COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C1 - -
MEDIUM C2 Ocon 42
SOFT C3 Hamilton, Leclerc, Raikkonen 28
PIT STOP SUMMARY
CAR DRIVER START PIT 1 PIT 2 PIT 3
44 HAM C3u C2n (28) C2u (42)  
33 VER C3u C2n (24) C3n (60)  
77 BOT C3u C2n (23) C3u (53)  
16 LEC C3u C2n (28) C3u (58)  
11 PER C3u C2n (27) C3u (57)  
3 RIC C3u C2n (25) C3u (46)  
55 SAI C3u C2n (22) C3u (46)  
4 NOR C3u C2n (23) C3u (51)  
31 OCO C3u C2n (23)    
10 GAS C3n C2n (18) C3n (47)  
18 STR C3n C2n (22) C3u (39)  
7 RAI C2n C3n (37)    
5 VET C3n C2n (21) C3u (38)  
63 RUS C3n C2n (9) C2n (28)  
99 GIO C3n C2u (8) C3u (39)  
6 LAT C3n C2n (9) C2n (27) C3u (50)
14 ALO C3u C2n (21) C3u (61)  
47 MSC C3n C2n (23) C2n (50)  
9 MAZ C3n C2n (22) C2n (42)  
22 TSU C3n      

C1 = Hard C1 | C2 = Medium C2 | C3 = Soft C3
n = new | u = used