Another quality battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen saw the the British driver’s team outfox the Red Bull on strategy to give him his third win of the season. The Championship is a battle of two if it already wasn’t and it should be a season-long beauty. To find out more than you probably need about the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix Result our review attempts to cover as much of that as possible, and we hand out the titles of Great and Grape for the achievers and under achievers.
This bite sized review takes a look through the laps that mattered, the quickest way to relive the best bits without watching anything.
Then there are our ratings of the race itself, the drivers, and finish off with a bunch of graphs that are just interesting enough.
Talking of bunches, we nominate our best and worst into the great and grape. Great being good, and grape being bad for reasons we won’t bore you with.
Stuff happened and we try and cover most of the stuff with our 2021 Spanish Grand Prix Result
2021 Spanish Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets a good start and with the inside line squeezes inside Lewis Hamilton on the inside of Turn One and takes an uncompromising line on the outside of Turn Two. There appears to be a small touch. Further back Charles Leclerc got past Valtteri Bottas for third. Ricciardo (5th) and Perez (6th) are the bigger winners in the top six with two places gained each. No accidents or incidents through the field. Max Verstappen is 1.5 seconds clear of Hamilton as the second lap starts.
ORDER – VER HAM LEC BOT RIC PER OCO SAI NOR ALO
Lap 5 – Verstappen and Hamilton exchange fastest laps, Hamilton closing slightly on Verstappen but still over a second away. Bottas stuck behind Leclerc’s Ferrari and is nearly ten second behind the lead already. A word for Mick Schumacher who is 17th and ahead of both Williams cars. It doesn’t last long as Russell overtakes him on lap 8.
Lap 8 – SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Yuki Tsunoda has stopped out of track, which eventually brings out the Safety Car as it was too hard to remove safely. After moaning about having a different car to team mate Gasly, perhaps he has a point. To the degree of his car is now stuffed and Gasly’s isn’t. Ironically the Alpha Tauri breakdown could affect the sister Red Bull team as Max’s lead is now lost.
Lap 9 – Giovinazzi stops for tyres, but sadly one of his tyres had a puncture so they had to go out back for a newer set. That’s right, a puncture before it has been put on the car.
Lap 11 – Race resumes, no changes into the first corner. Stroll pinches 10th off Alonso.
ORDER – VER HAM LEC BOT RIC PER OCO SAI NOR STR
Lap 17 – Hamilton edging closer to Verstappen by half a tenth a lap but now under a second. But it is setting up a great head to head battle and looks like it will come down to the one pitstop. The pair are six seconds in front of third place Leclerc. By Lap 21 the lead for Verstappen is out to 1.3 seconds.
Much further back both the Williams’ have passed Mick Schumacher now. Pierre Gasly has been given a five second penalty for poor parking on the grid to start the race.
Lap 20 – Pierre Gasly takes his five second stop and pits for tyres. Interesting to see the cars in 11th, 12th and 13th have seven world championships between them. Vettel (12th) is right on Alonso’s tail. They pit together on Lap 22 and Vettel loses out to Alonso and Gasly.
Lap 24 – Hamilton right on Verstappen’s tail now – less than half a second and the Dutchman pits. Hamilton continues. Slowish pitstop for Red Bull with a sticking rear tyre. Slowish = four seconds. Hamilton stays out next lap too. And the one after. It appears Mercedes are purposely keeping Hamilton out longer knowing they will lose track position to Verstappen to give Hamilton a better end to the race.
Lap 29 – Hamilton finally pits and predictably behind Verstappen. But his tyres will be five laps fresher….
ORDER – VER HAM BOT LEC RIC RAI PER SAI OCO NOR
Lap 32 – Hamilton starts really closing in on Verstappen with the gap down to under a second. Further back Raikkonen’s alternate strategy saw him as high as fifth but by lap 35 he was 9th.
Lap 43 – Lewis Hamilton pits for a second time which throws the battle for first open nicely. Do Red Bull match the second pit stop or hold on against Hamilton with fresher tyres? Verstappen is 22 seconds ahead of Hamilton and stays out for now. Lewis sets a fastest lap straight away. And another one after. The gap is down to under 20 seconds so Verstappen has to stay out now.
ORDER – VER BOT HAM LEC RIC PER SAI OCO NOR ALO
Lap 47 – Perez nails Ricciardo on the outside on turn one for fifth place. Ricciardo and Sainz pit a lap later for new tyres and late race fun.
Lap 51 – Sainz passes Norris for 8th.
Lap 52 – Hamilton catches team mate Bottas, who had ample opportunity to let him pass but does not. Hamilton then bravely dives into turn ten and gets past but it was close. Meanwhile Verstappen is heard cracking the sh!ts with his team over strategy. A lap and a bit later Hamilton in four seconds in front. So Bottas was just being a bit of a jerk. Bottas pits on lap 54 no doubt lining up a challenge to steal the fastest lap point for himself.
Lap 55 – Hamilton within 8.4 seconds of Verstappen now with 12 laps to be completed. A lap later it is down to six seconds. And plunging.
Lap 57 – Bottas steals third from Leclerc.
Lap 58 – Gap between Verstappen and Hamilton down to three seconds.
Lap 60 – Hamilton takes Verstappen into the first corner. Better tyres and strategy.
ORDER – HAM VER BOT LEC PER RIC SAI OCO NOR ALO
Lap 63 – Verstappen scores fastest lap.
Lap 67 – Lewis Hamtion does it easy in the end cruising to victory.
FINAL ORDER – HAM VER BOT LEC PER RIC SAI NOR OCO GAS
2021 Spanish Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 7/10
This was supposed to a Red Bull track so we guess it is important to the overall picture that Mercedes got away with another win. Which team is fastest is not yet known, which is a great thing for a season-long battle. Losing the race may bring a change in strategy.
ON TRACK ACTION – 3 /10
Not a big amount of passes nor any drivers spinning off, but Barcelona rarely has much of either. On track battles boiled down to pitstop strategy where Mercedes were braver and better than Red Bull again.
ENDING 8 / 10
A split in the pitstop strategy between Verstappen and Hamilton gave the end of the race a nice tense finish as Lewis Hamilton chased Verstappen. Battle for tenth involving at least five cars was an interesting bit on the side.
OVERALL RATING 18 / 30
Decent enough Spanish GP. A battle at the front was welcome, but not a great amount of overtaking throughout the field
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
2021 Spanish Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -10 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
His 100th Pole was fine achievement on the Saturday, but again he was done by Verstappen into the first turns. However he and Mercedes went with an alternative strategy of pitting five laps later than Verstappen and that call along with Hamilton’s great drive was enough to steal victory.
THE GREAT – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Another great start helped, and Verstappen appears to be getting the maximum out of his car at every weekend. Got dudded by strategy this time around but showed some more pace in the end and grabbed Fastest Lap.
THE GREAT – CHARLES LECLERC
Showing some pre 2020 form and was clearly best of the rest this weekend. Made it look like Ferrrari is the next best car, which it may well be with Leclerc behind the wheel. Finished ten second ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.
THE GREAT – DANIEL RICCIARDO
The solid weekend he needed after Portugal. Outqaulified his team mate and finished ahead of him. Although Mazepin’s blocking of Norris in qualifying helped.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MICK SCHUMACHER – Doing what he can in inferior machinery. Raced ahead of the Williams cars for a while.
THE GRAPE-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
Failed to make it out of Q1 on Saturday and then prammed it by sort of accusing his team of inferior equipment to his team mate Gasly. Whether he was right or it was karma, he was the race’s only retirement early.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
VALTTERI BOTTAS – Another meh weekend. Got in Hamilton’s way when it was clear it was different strategy and Bottas’ driving up to that point had no right to slow Hamilton down. Fair enough it were just a Massa special but it wasn’t.
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