Max beats Hami with superior Red Bull strategy: Race Analysis

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Max Verstappen extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton as he took his 3^rd victory of the season with Hamilton finishing 2^nd and the other Red Bull driver Sergio Perez completing the podium.

London, 21 June 2021: Red Bull claimed their third consecutive win in 2021 after Max Verstappen used a superior strategy to pass Lewis Hamilton one lap from the end of the race. Sergio Perez completed the podium as Valtteri Bottas finished P4. McLaren finished best of the rest with Lando Norris in P5 and Daniel Ricciardo in P6. Pierre Gasly finished in P7 in his home race ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in P8. Aston Martin got double points finish as Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finished in P9 and P10 respectively.

Carlos Sainz finished in P11 and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in P16, both cars unable to score points. George Russell gave Williams another solid finish in P12 ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P13. Esteban Ocon finished a lowly P14. Alfa Romeo pairing of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen finished P15 and P17 respectively, ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi. Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin rounded up the grid with all 20 cars finishing the race.

Hamilton got ahead in the lead after polesitter Verstappen lost control and went off track in turn 1. He slotted into P2 ahead of Bottas in P3 and Perez in P4. Meanwhile, Ricciardo made up two places as Alonso passed Norris as well. Norris ultimately losing two places at the start.

Hamilton maintained a gap of 2s over Verstappen with both matched on pace with Bottas not far behind. Perez was in P4 and behind him were Sainz, Gasly, Leclerc, Alonso, Ricciardo and Norris. Ricciardo hunted down Alonso and was finally able to pass him on lap 11, with Norris getting past Alonso two corners later.

Leclerc triggered the pitstops in the midfield by pitting on lap 14 for hard tyres to undercut his rivals. Ricciardo following in the next lap with Sainz and Gasly, Alonso pitting another lap later.Leclerc emerged ahead of everyone as he undercut his rivals including Ricciardo.

Meanwhile, at the front Mercedes triggered the pitstops as they called in Bottas on lap 17 for hard tyres, to make gains on Verstappen. Verstappen pitted on lap 18 to cover Bottas. Hamilton pitted a lap later and to no avail emerged behind Verstappen as Mercedes had underestimated the undercut. Hamilton hunting Verstappen but unable to get past him. Perez pitted on lap 24 to emerge back in P4.

Both Verstappen and Mercedes drivers were vocal about their tyre degradation as they were increasingly favoring a two stopin the cockpit. With the wounds of Barcelona still fresh in the minds of Red Bull, they pitted Verstappen on lap 32 for medium tyres to not fall prey to Mercedes’ undercut. Both Mercedes cars decided to stay out favoring track position.

In the midfield, both Ferrari’s were struggling due to tyre wear and Leclerc pitted for a second time emerging out of the points. Norris had pitted on lap 24 and Ricciardo let him by so he could utilise the superior pace of his McLaren.

On lap 44 Verstappen had closed up to Bottas and made the pass before turn 10. Bottas making his frustration known to Mercedes pit box about not changing to a two stop.  With 9 laps to go Hamilton was 5s ahead.Verstappen closed up by lap 52, passing the Briton using DRS and re-taking the lead.

Verstappen extends his championship lead on a track where Mercedes was expected to be dominant. It is a good momentum for Red Bull heading into the next two races of the triple header which will held in Austria.

Red Bull had a clear advantage in qualifying over Mercedes. Race pace wise they were closely matched, but a superior strategy by Red Bull enabled them to win. Red Bull had the upper hand this weekend where Mercedes previously dominated. This shows that their car has clearly improved compared to Barcelona, which was the last conventional circuit visited by Formula 1. Red Bull did not suffer with high tyre degradation and ran lower downforce to achieve higher straight-line speed. Mercedes were running with higher downforce levels than Red Bull, thus, having inferior straight line speed. This was to keep the tyre temperatures under control by preventing them from sliding. Their race pace was on par with the Austrian squad but with an inferior strategy were forced to stay out and concede the win. It has been three races since Mercedes has not won a race and they have lost ground in both drivers and constructors’ championship.

McLaren were best of the rest. Their qualifying pace is not the benchmark of midfield, but they were miles faster than their immediate rivals Ferrari in race. They did not suffer tyre degradation unlike their Italian rivals and maximised points with both their cars. McLaren brought a small upgrade to their rear wing endplate. They retake 3^rd in the constructor’s championship from Ferrari. Ferrari had the worst weekend of their 2021 season, with no cars scoring points and losing 3^rd in the championship. They showed encouraging qualifying pace, with Sainz qualifying best of the rest in P5. However, in the race they struggled with tyre degradation and inferior straight-line speed meant they were sitting ducks down the two straights.

AlphaTauri in the hands of Gasly showed its points potential with good qualifying performance as well. Gasly has been able to extract the full potential of the AT02. On the other side of the garage Tsunoda has struggled with consistency as he got knocked out of Q1 due to his mistake. Alpine too has shown improvement in pace after introduction of new upgrades in the previous races. Like the AlphaTauri, Alpine showed encouraging qualifying and race pace with Alonso achieving points and Ocon not far off. Aston Martin have scored points for the third consecutive race in what has been a turnaround compared to the start of the season. The 4-time champion is more comfortable with car and with Aston Martin executing good strategies they seem to maximise their races.

Russell in the Williams had a commendable race as he finished P12 on merit with the FW43B showing signs of improvement in race pace and being less affected by the winds which was a problem at the start of the season. Alfa Romeo had a mediocre race as they could not challenge for points. Both drivers lamenting that the car was too slow to be in the top 10. Haas reached Q2 for the first time this season with the help of Schumacher, admittedly due to a red flag caused by him. Nevertheless, it is a silver lining for them and another positive step for the young driver.

Saturday Qualifying Results were:

Note – Stroll and Tsunoda failed to set a time within the Q1 107% requirement and race at the stewards’ discretion.