Formula 1 Race Highlights 2021

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen topped all the practice sessions and subsequently took a career fourth pole position. This was the first time he achieved back-to-back pole positions. At the next race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified third with teammate Sergio Pérez second, marking the first time he was out-qualified by a teammate since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.

At the race start, Verstappen was able to pass both Pérez and pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton to take the lead. He remained in the lead after the first round of pit stops as well as the restart, following the race being suspended on lap 33. Rival Hamilton finished second, reducing his championship lead over Verstappen to one point.

In the following Portuguese Grand Prix, Verstappen finished second after a long battle with Lewis Hamilton. At the Spanish Grand Prix, the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton continued, with Hamilton employing a faster two-stop strategy versus Verstappen's one-stop race. This provided Hamilton the advantage of faster tyres, allowing him to overtake Verstappen with several laps remaining in the race. Hamilton took the victory, with Verstappen taking second and the fastest lap, increasing Hamilton's championship lead to 14 points.

At the next race in Monaco, Verstappen qualified second behind Charles Leclerc, but Leclerc suffered a driveshaft failure on the way to the grid and was unable to start the race. Verstappen controlled the race from the front on the way to victory. Hamilton finished seventh, though claiming an extra championship point by setting the fastest race lap. The result enabled Verstappen to take the lead in the Drivers' Championship for the first time in his career, by a margin of four points over Hamilton. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified third behind Leclerc and Hamilton. Verstappen and Hamilton passed Leclerc in the opening laps before Verstappen took the lead by way of a faster pitstop.

Verstappen would comfortably hold the lead until lap 46 when he suffered a tyre failure causing him to crash at high-speed and retire. A mistake by Hamilton on the restart dropped him to last place, meaning Verstappen maintained his championship lead. Verstappen's mistake on the first lap allowed Hamilton to take the lead which Verstappen retook during the pit stop phase. Verstappen pitted for a second time from the lead and set after the Mercedes duo, overtaking Hamilton for the lead on lap 52 of 53. He also took the fastest lap point, extending his championship lead to twelve points.

Verstappen clinched pole position again at the Styrian Grand Prix and led the race from start to finish, to give him his fourth win of the season and further extend his lead to 18 points. In Canada, Verstappen topped all three practice sessions and qualified 3rd, two-tenths off Sebastian Vettel in pole position. He eventually finished 3rd and set the fastest lap of the race. In Britain, Verstappen was plagued by issues, finishing the first practice session early due to a gearbox problem and crashing in the second practice session before retiring from the race due to a brake problem. He would then finish 4th in Germany after strategy errors let a recovering Hamilton get past him as he went on to win the race. Verstappen ended the first half of the season with a retirement in Hungary and was narrowly behind his teammate in the championship due to his own recent resurgence and Ricciardo's unreliability.

In Monaco, Verstappen made another error when he crashed near the end of the third free practice session in an incident which closely resembled a crash he had at the same spot two years earlier. His team could not repair his car in time for qualifying and he had to start last at a track on which it is notoriously difficult to overtake. Teammate Ricciardo, meanwhile, pressed home Red Bull's advantage at the track by taking pole position and the race win. Verstappen managed to salvage 2 points by finishing 9th place, overtaking 6 cars on track. Verstappen now lay in 6th place in the championship with 35 points, only 3 points ahead of Fernando Alonso in the McLaren, and 37 points behind his teammate in 3rd, who had taken two wins in the first six races. Verstappen then earned his fifth career win in Mexico.

He had been visibly upset after just missing out on becoming the youngest pole-sitter in Formula One history, with Ricciardo beating him to pole position by 0.026 seconds. Verstappen, however, had a much better start than Ricciardo and took the lead of the race into the first corner, overtaking the fast-starting Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. He was poised to win the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix, having overtaken Räikkönen, Vettel, Bottas, and Hamilton. However, he collided with Force India driver Esteban Ocon who was trying to unlap himself on faster tyres.

Ocon received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident. After the collision with Ocon, Verstappen finished in 2nd place behind Hamilton. During an argument with Ocon after the race, Verstappen pushed the Force India driver, for which he was given two days of "public service" as a penalty by the FIA. He then finished his season with another podium as he finished 3rd in Abu Dhabi. At the next race in China, Verstappen qualified 5th and had moved up to 3rd at the end of the first lap. Both Red Bull drivers pitted for fresh tyres during a safety car which left them with a tyre advantage over the front-runners ahead.

In an overtake attempt on Sebastian Vettel for 3rd place, Verstappen collided with the championship leader, causing him to fall to 8th and receive a 10-second penalty. He recovered to 4th place, with his penalty causing him to be classified 5th. In Azerbaijan, Verstappen was embroiled in a race-long battle with Ricciardo for 4th place. After numerous position changes between the two teammates during the race, Ricciardo ran into the back of Verstappen during an overtake attempt from which the Dutchman aggressively defended, causing the retirement of both cars.

Both drivers were blamed by the team and reprimanded by the stewards. Verstappen bounced back in Spain with his first podium of the season by finishing 3rd behind the Mercedes drivers, holding off Sebastian Vettel. However, the race was also not without incident as he had run into the back of Lance Stroll during the virtual safety car period, causing minor front wing damage.

Following the summer break, Verstappen qualified on pole at the Belgian Grand Prix, ahead of Williams driver George Russell in second and Lewis Hamilton in third. The race was run for three laps, all behind the safety car, with the race official race results taken from the running order at the end of the first lap, with Hamilton and Verstappen both retaining their qualifying positions. As less than 75% of the race distance was completed, half points were awarded, resulting in Verstappen closing the gap to Hamilton to three points. At the Dutch Grand Prix Verstappen again qualified on pole, beating Hamilton by 0.038 seconds. During the race Verstappen was able to fend off attacks from both Mercedes drivers to take the win, taking the lead in the Drivers' Championship by three points.

For the Russian Grand Prix, Verstappen was required to start at the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit components. He made his way back up the field, and after taking an early pit stop for intermediate tyres late in the race, he finished second. At the Turkish Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified second with Bottas on pole. With the race being run in wet conditions and the drivers on intermediate tyres the whole race, Verstappen finished second behind Bottas, taking the lead in the Drivers' Championship by six points as Hamilton finished fifth. At the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the final lap to win the race, and his first Formula One World Drivers' Championship. In the final race, Verstappen, who had qualified on pole position, had a poor start off the line and dropped to second place.

Verstappen was trailing Hamilton by over ten seconds until a late safety car was called in due to a crash at turn 14 involving Nicholas Latifi. Verstappen pitted during the safety car period and utilised his new soft tyres to pass Hamilton at turn 5 of the final lap of the race to secure the win and the World Drivers' Championship. Sochi has never favored the Red Bull car, and the team was fairly open about its hopes - fifth place was what they were after, terming this race one of disaster mitigation, trying not to fall too far behind Lewis in the championship standings.

Starting last on the grid, Verstappen was a man possessed. He started on the hard compound tire, letting him stay out longer. But he had pace the others were lacking, consistently lapping quicker than the rest of the field and overtaking other racers with composure and maturity. In the end, as the rain fell hard with a few laps to go and perfect timing from Max and co. to change onto intermediates, he leapfrogged several drivers to finish second.

On a track that didn't suit his car, to climb from last to the second step on the podium and relinquish only a few points to Hamilton was a dream outcome for Max and the Red Bull team. Love him or hate him, there can be no denying that Lewis Hamilton is one of F1's all-time racing greats. But this weekend, he set a new milestone, becoming the first driver to ever win 100 races in Formula 1, becoming the sport's first-ever centurion, and reclaiming the championship lead in the process. That means of all 1,050 F1 Grands Prix that have been raced since Silverstone in 1950, Lewis has won 9.5% of them.

At the United States Grand Prix, Verstappen took pole position in qualifying, edging Hamilton by 0.209 seconds. Verstappen won the race and extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to twelve points as Hamilton finished second with the fastest lap. At the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified third with a gap to pole-sitter Bottas of 0.350 seconds.

Verstappen's main opponent Hamilton qualified second. At the race start, Verstappen took the lead from Bottas and Hamilton into turn 1 and won the race, and as a result extended his lead in the championship to 19 points. Verstappen finished the 2020 season in 3rd place in the championship with 214 points.

He claimed two race victories, eleven podium finishes, one pole position, and three fastest laps. I had a lot of good battles with the Ferrari drivers. At Monaco in 1975 I'd started ninth on the grid, on a wet track, but as usual I had set the car up to be quick in the second part of the race.

I got up to second place, with Niki in front, but it was very difficult to pass. Over the last 10 laps I was much faster but the Ferrari was very wide. Niki was one of those guys – every time I had a dice with him, it was always very fair. He was the number one rival because he was an excellent driver and he had a very good car. Jody, Ronnie and James were all quick, too, but their cars weren't as consistently competitive. The 2021 Formula 1 season has not been short on action.

In addition to Red Bull Racing providing a viable challenge to Mercedes-AMG's turbo-era dominance, Ferrari and McLaren have both seen a strong resurgence in the sport and a crop of young drivers have revealed an overflow of new talent in the sport. This season is the closest title race in years, showcasing one of the greatest rivalries in years, akin to that of Michael Schumacher vs. Mika Hakkinen in the early aughts. This weekend passed, the Sochi Autodrom in Russia played host to the latest round of racing in the F1 Championship and to say it was a race of unexpected outcomes would be a massive understatement. While we'd predicted an easy race for Lewis Hamilton, he hit his jackman in the pits during practice, hit the pitlane wall during qualifying, and on his final hot lap, spun out. This allowed Lando Norris to qualify on pole, Carlos Sainz to slot into second, and the young hotshot, George Russell to qualify third.

Verstappen clinched second place at the Spanish Grand Prix, after qualifying in third. At the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, he scored a podium in third place, following his third place on the starting grid. He suffered from two consecutive DNFs at the Italian and Tuscan Grands Prix after which he lost second place in the Championship. At the Russian Grand Prix, Verstappen finished the race in second, his seventh podium finish of 2020.

At the Eifel Grand Prix, Verstappen finished in second after qualifying in third. At the Portuguese Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified 3rd, however a poor first lap meant that he dropped back down the order to fifth place. He recovered to 3rd and took his 40th podium in Formula 1. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Verstappen looked set to claim 2nd due to Valtteri Bottas' ailing Mercedes slowing down, but a sudden puncture denied him any chance of a podium finish; Verstappen spun, resulting in his 4th retirement of the 2020 season. The wet and chaotic German Grand Prix began similarly to the race in Austria for Verstappen, as a poor start caused him to fall behind. However, he would inherit the lead midway through the race after a crash by race leader Hamilton.

Verstappen would go on to extend his lead after the track began to dry, claiming his second victory of the season. In Hungary, he claimed the first pole position of his career and led most of the race before being passed in the closing laps by Hamilton, who had made another stop for fresh tyres in a gamble to catch the leader. In Canada, Verstappen's final lap in the second qualifying session was hampered by a red flag brought out by Kevin Magnussen's crash. This caused Verstappen to qualify 11th and start the race in 9th place. In Austria, Verstappen started 3rd but suffered a poor start, dropping down to 8th.

After a charge towards the front, he made his way up to 2nd before controversially passing Leclerc for the lead of the race with three laps to go. This marked the first Honda-powered race victory since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. In Britain, Verstappen, running in 3rd place, was hit from behind during an overtake attempt by Sebastian Vettel and spun into the gravel. Verstappen was able to continue and crossed the line in 5th place. In the first six races of the season, Verstappen had been involved in at least one incident in each race. In Australia, he qualified 4th but fell behind Kevin Magnussen at the start.

In his attempts to retake the position he ran wide multiple times and damaged his car, with a spin causing him to fall further down the order. He recovered to eventually finish the race in 6th place. At the next race in Bahrain, he crashed during qualifying and started in 15th place. He had a productive first lap after which he found himself in the points while challenging Lewis Hamilton. He attempted an overtake on the reigning World Champion at the start of lap two, but collided with the Mercedes driver and suffered a puncture that ultimately led to suspension damage, forcing him out of the race. Hamilton started on pole position, with Verstappen relegated from his P2 grid slot to seventh before the race after picking up a penalty for ignoring yellow flags in qualifying.

Verstappen was back up to P2 by Lap 5, but in truth, Hamilton never looked troubled as he took his seventh win of the year at Losail. Hit play on the video above to see the key moments from the race under the lights. Tyre wear was high as we expected on this hot and abrasive circuit during the 2021 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, which led to nearly everyone choosing the medium to start the race on and then focussing on the hard as the main race tyre. This stood up extremely well to the demands on it, with some long stints that helped to set up a thrilling finale to this race between the championship protagonists. The result was a fantastic strategic duel that led to a thrilling finale between two drivers absolutely on top of their game, managing their tyres perfectly.

The 2021 F1 season has seen the return of Fernando Alonso to F1 after he spent a stint in Indycar pursuing the Motorsport Triple Crown - wins at the Monaco F1 GP, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Indianapolis 500. The 40-year-old is still in search of the Indianapolis 500 victory, but he's still got what it takes to run with the best in F1. Had it not been for the late-onset rain, Max might never have made it to the podium. Alonso, despite being in a much slower Alpine F1 Team car, managed to fend off advances from Max.

Earlier in the race, he managed to get ahead of Hamilton and held him at bay for some time, too. It's not the first time in the season we've seen Alonso dogfighting with the best, and one has to wonder if, given a genuinely capable car, Fernando might be able to chase down a third F1 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. Hamilton earned the 100th pole position of his career in Barcelona, but duly gave up first position on the first corner of the grand prix, having no option but to sacrifice the spot to an aggressive move by Max Verstappen.

Before the Belgian Grand Prix, Verstappen received a new teammate in Alexander Albon after Pierre Gasly was demoted back to Toro Rosso. In the race, Verstappen had a poor start and collided with Kimi Räikkönen at the first corner, resulting in suspension damage and causing Verstappen's first retirement of the season. In Italy, he did not set a time during qualifying after his car lost power in Q1, but he was already required to start from the back of the grid due to an engine component penalty. After damaging his front wing on the first lap, he recovered to finish the race in 8th place. 3rd and 4th-place finishes followed in Singapore and Russia respectively.