In Pictures: Qatar 2021
The F1 circus arrived at Qatar a week later from Brazil. First time racing in the Losail International Circuit, and probably last, at least for the time being. Qatar will become a regular visit from 2023 onward in a new purpose-built circuit. There will be no race in 2022 as Qatar hosts the World Cup.
Being a bit of an unknown, everyone was expecting some kind of reshuffle, at the end of Friday FP1 it was Max Verstappen setting the fastest time, ahead of Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. FP2 gave a better impression of what to expect in qualifying and this time around, it was Bottas the fastest, ahead of Gasly, Verstappen, and Hamilton.
Practice three saw the first red flag of the weekend as Nikita Mazepin’s Haas was told to stop his VF21 at the end of the pit-lane. Afterwards it was business as usual with the Mercedes setting the fastest times, with Bottas 0.078 ahead of Hamilton.
Then came Qualifying and it was Lewis Hamilton getting Pole Position for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix al Losail Circuit. Max Verstappen was second, albeit 0.455 seconds down. Bottas was third with an impressive Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso just behind the Finn.
There was drama in the final seconds of qualifying as Pierre Gasly on his last lap had a puncture on his right front tire and stopped just in front of the pit-lane. There was confusion for everyone behind Hamilton as there were yellow flags and green lights displayed.
On Sunday, a couple of hours before the Grand Prix, it was announced that Valtteri Bottas got a three-place grid penalty for single waved yellow flag during qualifying, and Max Verstappen a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double waved yellow flags, so they started the race 6th and 7th respectively.
The race started and Hamilton built a comfortable lead to manage the rest of the Grand Prix. Behind him, Verstappen had a good start and by lap 5 he was P2 but could not get close to Hamilton in front. Further back it was a fast-charging Sergio Perez, recuperating from a terrible qualifying that saw him miss Q3 and started in eleventh, to finish P4, behind a fast Fernando Alonso. It was the first podium for the Spaniard in seven years since his second place at Hungary in 2014.
Regretfully, once again it was the tires making noise as there were several punctures during the race. Valtteri Bottas, George Russell, Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi experienced punctures on their front-left tires, which could be the result of very high wear combined with high-speed impacts against kerbs that are very aggressive at Losail.
Max Verstappen ended up with the fastest lap ever at Losail, a 1:23.196. And Fernando Alonso was voted Driver of the Day by the F1 Fans. Lewis Hamilton is now only 8 points behind Verstappen.