Hamilton clinches a dominant win ahead of Verstappen at the Qatar Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton clinched a comfortable win at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix to seal his seventh win of the season. Max Verstappen finished in second position to limit the damage and keep the lead in the drivers’ championship.

Fernando Alonso with a well-crafted race secured a podium position. The Spaniard was back on the podium for the first time since 2014.

The race at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar started at five pm local time under the lights with air temperatures at 26 degree C and track temperatures at 31 degree C.

There was breaking news before the race started that Verstappen was given a five-place grid penalty for not slowing down under double-waved yellow flags in qualification. Valtteri Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags.

This mixed up the starting grid with Hamilton and Pierre Gasly on the front row. Alonso and Lando Norris were on the second row.

Carlos Sainz and Bottas started on the third row. The drivers’ championship leader Verstappen started in seventh position with Yuki Tsunoda on the fourth row.

Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel completed the top ten positions on the grid. Hamilton started on the medium compound tyres with Gasly, Alonso and Norris on the soft compound tyres.

Hamilton had a good start to lead Gasly and Alonso into Turn 1. Verstappen had a great start to gain three places and was in fourth position as he went into Turn 1.

Bottas had a poor start and dropped to eleventh position. Vettel lost seven places and fell to seventeenth position.

Verstappen quickly dispatched Gasly and Alonso and was in second position behind Hamilton. By the end of lap 10, the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was 5.507 seconds.

The order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso, Gasly, Norris, Sergio Pérez, Ocon, Sainz, Bottas, Stroll, and Leclerc.

Tsunoda started the pit stops on lap 10 and rejoined in last position. On lap 18, Verstappen pitted and rejoined in second position.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team immediately pitted Hamilton and he rejoined in the race lead with a gap of 10.293 seconds to Verstappen.

Pérez made rapid progress as he got into fourth position and Bottas was in sixth position.

On lap 20, Pérez pitted and rejoined in twelfth position. Bottas had a long first stint and stayed in third position as the drivers around him pitted.

By lap 30, Pérez overtook a feisty Alonso for fourth position. On lap 31, Hamilton had to get past a lot of backmarkers and Verstappen cut the lead to 6.35 seconds.

On lap 34, Bottas suffered a puncture and suffered front-wing damage. After a pit stop for a change of tyres and front-wing, the Finn rejoined in fourteenth position. The very long first stint was disastrous for Bottas.

On lap 37, Gasly pitted for a second time and rejoined in eleventh position. On lap 42, Verstappen pitted and rejoined in second position.

Pérez pitted and rejoined in seventh position. Hamilton also pitted and rejoined in first position, over nine seconds ahead of Verstappen.

On lap 46, Pérez was in sixth position as he got past Lance Stroll. With ten laps to go, Pérez got past Ocon for fifth position.

On lap 50, Norris pitted and rejoined in eleventh position. Bottas retired from the race to end a miserable day for him.

Both George Russell and Nicholas Latifi suffered tyre failures as the kerbs of the Losail circuit took their toll on the tyres and caused front-wing damage. All the drivers who had pitted only once were under pressure.

With four laps to go, a DRS-train of Ocon, Stroll, Sainz and Leclerc had developed from fifth position.

On lap 55, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed to clear Latifi’s car. Verstappen pitted under the VSC for the soft compound tyres and rejoined in second position.

Hamilton clinched a comfortable win to take his seventh win of the season. Verstappen finished second and took the point for the fastest lap for good measure. Hamilton cut the lead in the drivers’ championship to eight points.

Alonso who had pitted only once was helped by the VSC to keep his third position. This was the Spaniard’s first podium since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2014.

It was a good recovery drive for Pérez as he finished in fourth position. With Bottas’s DNF, Red Bull Racing cut the 11 point lead of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship to five points.

Ocon completed a good day for the Alpine F1 Team as he finished in fifth position. Stroll made a one-stop strategy work to finish in sixth position.

The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Sainz and Leclerc finished in seventh and eighth positions. Norris and Vettel completed the top ten positions.

So the inaugural race at Qatar is done and dusted. Verstappen goes to another brand new race in Saudi Arabia with an eight point lead in the drivers’ championship.

The intense championship battles will resume in two weeks time at another brand new race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (Dec 03 -05 2021).

2021 Qatar Grand Prix Race Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time/Retired	Laps	PTS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:24:28.471	57	25
2	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	+25.743s	57	19
3	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	+59.457s	57	15
4	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	+62.306s	57	12
5	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	+80.570s	57	10
6	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+81.274s	57	8
7	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	+81.911s	57	6
8	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	+83.126s	57	4
9	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	+1 lap	56	2
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+1 lap	56	1
11	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	+1 lap	56	0
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	+1 lap	56	0
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	+1 lap	56	0
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	+1 lap	56	0
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	+1 lap	56	0
16	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	56	0
17	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	+2 laps	55	0
18	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	+2 laps	55	0
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	DNF	50	0
NC	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	DNF	48	0