Formula 1 Driver And Team Standings

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change. Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position and won the race, his first of 2021. He was followed by Max Verstappen, who re-took the championship lead, and Sergio Pérez, who took his first podium since France. Verstappen continued his momentum in the United States Grand Prix, taking pole position. Despite Hamilton taking the lead in turn 1, Verstappen was able to win the race with Hamilton in second place, in front of Pérez.

The result increased Verstappen's lead to 12 points as Hamilton collected an extra Championship point by setting the fastest lap. Bottas took pole in Mexico City, but was spun around at the first corner by Daniel Ricciardo. Another incident behind involving Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher took both drivers out of the race, calling out the safety car. Verstappen took his second win in a row, increasing his lead from Hamilton in second, and Pérez took the final spot on the podium in his home race. Verstappen took the pole position in Abu Dhabi ahead of Hamilton and Norris.

During the race, Hamilton had a better start and took the lead into the first turn. At turn six Verstappen attempted to pass, forcing Hamilton to evade by going off the track. Emerging from the corner still in the lead, Hamilton was instructed to give up the advantage he had gained.

The pair settled in their positions until the first round of pit stops, with Hamilton gradually extending his lead. He later lost much of his advantage when Pérez, Verstappen's teammate with Red Bull, and who had yet to make a pit stop, made it difficult for Hamilton to pass him, though Verstappen was unable to capitalise. Later, a virtual safety car period allowed Verstappen to change his tyres without losing track position, which was an attempt to catch Hamilton with fresher tyres. Race director Michael Masi took the decision to allow the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves before restarting the race with only one lap remaining. Upon the restart, Verstappen quickly passed Hamilton and held him off for the remainder of the lap to win the race and the championship. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying in Brazil, but was disqualified the following day for a technical infringement.

Bottas won the qualifying sprint, giving him pole position for the Grand Prix. By finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen increased his championship lead over Hamilton by two points, and Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished third, increased Ferrari's championship lead over McLaren. Hamilton finished fifth in the sprint from last on the grid, but a five-place grid drop due to taking a new engine relegated him to tenth on the grid for the Grand Prix. On race day, both Verstappen was able to overtake Bottas on the first lap. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Sainz were involved in a separate incident, with Norris getting a puncture. On lap 48, Hamilton caught up to Verstappen and attempted an overtake, but failed and resulted in both of them going off track.

He won the race from Verstappen, decreasing Verstappen's championship lead from 21 points to 14 points, while Bottas completed the podium. Verstappen would again take pole at the first Dutch Grand Prix to take place since 1985 at Zandvoort. He held his lead from Hamilton to take the win at his home race, taking over the lead of the championship by three points.

Bottas came third, overtaking Norris, who finished tenth, in the standings for third place. Bottas won sprint qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, but was forced to start from the back of the grid after exceeding the quota of one on his power units' components. Verstappen started at the front with the McLarens second and third. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop. Hamilton and Verstappen collided, ending their races prematurely. Ricciardo led to the end to take his first victory since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix and McLaren's first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

His teammate Norris finished behind him to secure the team's first 1–2 finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix and the first 1–2 finish of the season. After a penalty applied to Pérez, Bottas came third from the back of the grid. After the race, Verstappen was judged by the stewards to have been predominantly at fault for the collision with Hamilton. As a result, he was given a 3-place grid-penalty for the next race and two penalty points on his super licence.

The two title rivals for the drivers' crown entered the last race of the season with equal points. Verstappen sealed the title after winning the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after a last-lap restart pass on Hamilton. Mercedes initially protested the results, and decided not to appeal after their protest was denied. This was the first season since 2008 where the champion driver was not from the team that took the constructors' title. The major issue has been one of consistency, and how the top two contending teams were too easily allowed to converse with race director Michael Masi to advance their own positions. Some have expressed regret, saying that Masi has tried to do his best in difficult circumstances, that his job is demanding and not easy, and was not helped enough by those around him.

Realising he couldn't match the young Frenchman on outright speed, Lauda often started behind his teammate as he instead opted to concentrate on race setup. His decision paid dividends as he pipped the Frenchman to the title at the final race in Portugal through being a more consistent points scorer across the year. Lauda won five grands prix in 1984 to Prost's five, but only once finished outside the top two all year. He also became only the second driver ever to win the world championship without scoring a single pole position all season. An interesting parallel for Alonso might be Schumacher,7 who returned to F1 in 2010 after three seasons away. In the three seasons before he retired again, he finished ninth, eighth and 13th in the standings, leading just three laps and notching only one podium in 58 races.

Although Alonso is younger than Schumacher was in his comeback attempt — age 39, versus 41 — his current relative driver Elo (+30) is a lot lower than Schumacher's was (+46) one race into the 2010 season. For good or potentially for bad, Alonso remains the biggest wild card of the 2021 season. Hamilton took pole position in Qatar, while a penalty for failing to respect double waived yellow flags during qualifying forced Verstappen to start from seventh. Verstappen quickly recovered to second place but was unable to threaten Hamilton's race lead despite setting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Fernando Alonso used a one-stop strategy to finish third, less than three seconds ahead Peréz in fourth, it was Alonso's first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Bottas and Nicholas Latifi retired from the race after they and multiple others suffered punctures on track. The result reduced Verstappen's lead in the Driver's Championship to eight points while Mercedes's lead in the Constructors' Championship was reduced to five points. Max Verstappen took his third season pole at the Styrian Grand Prix, the first of two back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring.

On the first lap, three cars collided at the third turn, forcing Pierre Gasly out of the race. Verstappen won from Lewis Hamilton, meaning Verstappen extended his title lead to 18 points. Valtteri Bottas came third, taking his first podium since Spain. Verstappen took pole at the Austrian Grand Prix, the last race of the first triple header. Lando Norris received a penalty after being judged to have forced Sergio Pérez off track.

Pérez later received two penalties for doing the same to Charles Leclerc. Hamilton finished fourth, after picking up damage to the underside of his car, meaning that Verstappen was able to extend his championship lead to 32 points. In France, Verstappen got his second pole of the season, only to go wide at the first turn and lose the lead to Hamilton in the first lap. After regaining first with an undercut in his first pit stop, Verstappen found himself under heavy pressure from both Mercedes drivers. Verstappen relinquished his lead to pit a second time, one of two drivers to do so, returning to the track 18 seconds behind Hamilton.

The speed advantage allowed him to make up the lost time, overtaking Bottas on lap 44 and Hamilton on the penultimate lap, for his third win of the year and his thirteenth win overall. Hamilton, now 12 points behind in the Drivers' Championship, did secure second, and with an overtake on lap 49, Pérez managed to take third place, pushing Bottas to fourth. It was the first race of the season where the race winner also took pole position and the fastest lap, and the first race of the season with no retirements. Red Bull extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship to 37 points after the race. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole from Pérez and Verstappen.

Verstappen went into the lead at turn 1 on lap 1, after it started raining on race day. Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi crashed at the exit of turn 13, bringing out the safety car. Under the safety car, Schumacher lost control of his car and spun into the pit exit, losing his front wing.

On lap 31, at turn 7, Hamilton made a mistake, hitting the wall and damaging his front wing. The moment he did, his teammate Bottas and George Russell had a crash at over 320 km/h on the start-finish straight, bringing out the red flag. After the race restarted, Norris overtook Charles Leclerc for second, but the former was overtaken by Hamilton, resulting in a podium of Verstappen, Hamilton and Norris. He made his return, heavily bandaged up and still suffering the effects of his accident, just six weeks later at Ferrari's home race at Monza. Lauda defied the odds to finish fourth on his return and took the championship down to the wire with a podium at the United States Grand Prix four weeks later. The season finale took place in appalling wet conditions in Fuji, with some drivers even appealing for the race to be cancelled.

Lauda was one of those, and fearing for his safety, he pulled into the pits to retire after just two laps. With the Austrian failing to score, Hunt's podium finish was enough to send the title his way. Leclerc took pole again in Azerbaijan, this time he was able to start the race. He led for one lap before Hamilton got past on lap 2 at turn 1. Hamilton was held up in his pitstop to allow Gasly to pass him in the pitlane, handing Verstappen the net race lead.

On lap 30, Lance Stroll crashed out due to a tyre failure and brought out the safety car. With Verstappen comfortably leading with six laps to go, he suffered a tyre failure, causing him to crash on the pit straight, bringing out the safety car and then the red flag on lap 46 and 48, respectively. Hamilton went up the inside of Pérez at the restart, but forgot to adjust his brake bias and missed the corner. Pérez won for the second time in his career and took his first win for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One, while Gasly took his third career podium. Leclerc took pole at the Monaco Grand Prix despite crashing in the final minutes.

The crash caused a driveshaft failure, meaning he was unable to start the race. Verstappen started at the front and led from Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr. On lap 30, Bottas was forced into retirement after his front-right tyre would not come off during a routine pitstop.

Verstappen took the victory, as well as the championship lead for the first time in his career; Red Bull came away from this race with a one-point lead in the Constructors' Championship. Behind Verstappen, Sainz took his first podium for Ferrari, and Norris took his second podium of the season in third place. He began go-karting at aged 14, when he discovered the sport during a family holiday. His F1 career started at McLaren in 1980 with a disappointing campaign, but it kicked into life when he signed for Renault.

He took his first few wins in 1981, and finished 4th in the drivers' championship in 1982. But his career took a huge step in 1983, when he pushed Brabham's Nelson Piquet all the way and finished within two points of the title win. He made Mansell an offer he couldn't refuse, and boy was he glad he didn't. The 1992 seasons saw Mansell make the most scintillating starts to a campaign, with five straight victories in a row. He won three of the next five races, and dominated winning the championship by a huge margin over teammate Ricardo Patrese.

He set his sights on America the following year, joining the IndyCar series, and won the championship. Meanwhile Stroll was by the accident ahead and drove into the side of Leclerc. After a safety car, teams were told there would be a standing start from the grid, but just beforehand all the drivers except leader Hamilton dived into the pits for slick tyres, as the track was drying.

Verstappen took pole from Russell and Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix in a wet qualifying session. The race was heavily affected by rain, which initially saw the start delayed by 25 minutes. After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility. A nearly three-hour delay followed before the race was resumed.

It was not restarted, becoming the shortest race in Formula 1 history and the sixth to award half-points as less than 75% of the race was completed. Verstappen won by default, with Russell in second and Hamilton in third place. As a result, Hamilton's lead in the championship was cut to three points from Verstappen. For the 2021 season, the schedule of a race weekend was revised.

Cars were under parc fermé conditions following the end of free practice three instead of qualifying, further restricting teams and drivers from making major changes to setups ahead of the race. The length of the two Friday practice sessions were cut from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. The 2021 W Series for female drivers was added to the list of support racing series alongside Formula 2, Formula 3, and Porsche Supercup. The 2021 W Series season started at the Red Bull Ring, where it was a support event for the Styrian Grand Prix in late June. Formula 2 and Formula 3 supported Formula One on alternate weekends, rather than the same ones as a cost saving measure. Under the previous rules, drivers could be disqualified as soon as such error had occurred.

The race time limit for red-flagged races was also be reduced from four hours to three hours. From the 2021 United States Grand Prix, lap times set under double waved yellow flags were automatically deleted. One of the most thrilling seasons in F1 history, 1986 delivered a titanic three-way fight featuring F1 heavyweights Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, and Nelson Piquet. Prost became the first back-to-back champion since Jack Brabham in 1960 after a dramatic and famous season-finale in Adelaide, during which title favourite Mansell's left rear tire exploded on the Brabham Straight at 180 mph. Prost took the win to pip a dejected Mansell by just two points in the final standings, despite the Englishman having held the championship lead for seven consecutive races before the finale in Australia. Racing Point, which used to be Force India, which used to be Spyker, which used to be Midland, which used to be Jordan, becomes an Aston Martin works team in 2021, marking the company's return to F1 for the first time in 60 years.

Naturally both shall be retained to drive the Mercedes-clone RP20 for a second season? Stroll – a talented driver no doubt but also the son of the team's owner and Aston Martin shareholder Lawrence – will remain, but Perez finds himself out of a drive just a week after finally taking his first F1 win. On the face of it making a step forward , Vettel arrives as a refugee from a relationship that went sour and will be looking to reclaim some of his former lustre – the 53-time race winner only stood on the podium once in 2020. The engines are roaring almost as much as the crowd as the pit lane opens and the cars make their way to the grid for the final time in 2021. The big talk is on tyres, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton starting the race on different compunds . Despite that, though, Pirelli expect the one-stop to be the fastest, no matter the starting tyre with hard tyres the choice at the stop.

The altered Yas Marina layout hasn't affected tyre wear enough for a two-stop to become profitable unless a safety car intervenes. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying to start in first place for the first ever sprint in the British Grand Prix. On lap five of the sprint, Pérez spun, dropping him to the back of the field, and later retiring, forcing him to start from the pits for the race.

On the first lap of the Grand Prix, Verstappen and Hamilton collided at approximately 290 kilometres per hour at Copse corner. Hamilton made contact with Verstappen's right rear wheel, causing the tyre to come off and Verstappen travelled into the barrier, causing the race to be stopped temporarily. Hamilton was penalised for the contact with a ten-second penalty, which he served during his pit stop. Leclerc led most of the Grand Prix, but finished second after Hamilton overtook Norris, Bottas, and Leclerc in the late stages to win the race.