2021 Spanish GP Review

Written by Luke Murray

Hamilton defeats Verstappen after Mercedes strategic masterclass

The Spanish grand prix was yet another race which we were treated to a Hamilton vs. Verstappen fight with Hamilton coming out on top. The race began with Max getting past Hamilton into turn 1 with a brave move which nearly ended in catastrophe, Yuki Tsunoda's stricken Alpha Tauri then brought out the safety car on lap 6 which gave Hamilton a chance to get back past Verstappen but he couldn't make the most of the opportunity. The battle for the lead then cooled down for a while with Max maintaining a slender lead over Hamilton. After the first round of stops it was evidently clear that Hamilton had more pace than Verstappen on the medium tyres so he took the decision to pit onto another, fresh set of mediums in a move that mirrored Hungary 2019. Luckily for Hamilton it worked, he made up the pit-stops gap to overtake Max on lap 60 to take his 98th career victory and his third of the season.

DRIVER WEEKEND REVIEWS:

Mercedes:

Hamilton:9/10, faultless weekend, grabbed pole when it looked that it was Verstappen's for the taking, had excellent race pace as well to enable the strategy which lead to him winning the race. However, the win was mainly down to the excellent strategy deployed by Mercedes meaning he doesn't get the perfect 10 rating.

Bottas:4/10, Was pretty close to pole in qualifying, but got held up by Leclerc for much of the race meaning he wasn't able to challenge for the victory. Also caused some controversy by not letting Hamilton past very easily when he was hunting down Verstappen which inevitably would've caused some friction in the Mercedes camp, overall not a great weekend for the Finn.

Red Bull:

Verstappen:8/10, Lost pole to Hamilton despite possibly having the quicker car on the day, however more than made up for it with his lightning start and brave overtake. Race pace was average on the mediums and whilst he did his best, Hamilton and Mercedes were just too strong and he had to consolidate second.

Perez:4/10, Very poor qualifying where he made a mistake on his flying lap meaning he started very out of position down in 8th, however he did somewhat make up for it with some very promising race pace to recover up to 5th. His qualifying really let him down and he'll be hoping for a much better weekend in Monaco.

McLaren:

Norris:5/10, Outqualified and outraced by his teammate which is quite bizarre given how the last two races have gone, however he wasn't too far behind his teammate meaning he gets a 5 rating.

Ricciardo:6/10, He looked a lot more comfortable this weekend both outracing and outqualifying Norris, this will be a much-needed lift for Ricciardo as his struggles have been highly publicised and this performance will silence any doubters for a while at least.

Aston Martin:

Stroll:5/10, A lot closer to the midfield battle this weekend but still not quite there. A questionable strategy from Aston meant any hopes Stroll had for points went out the window, a disappointing weekend for the whole team.

Vettel:4/10, He would've hoped the floor upgrades for this weekend would promote him further up in the field but to no avail, similar to Stroll he had qualifying and race pace which left a lot to be desired, his miserable start to life at Aston Martin continues.

Alpine:

Ocon:7/10, Another outstanding qualifying session from Ocon putting his Alpine 5th for the race, outqualifying his teammate Alonso by some margin. He had decent race pace; however it wasn't enough to keep Sainz and the McLarens behind and he eventually dropped to 9th, another impressive drive in Ocon's bid to repair his damaged reputation from last year.

Alonso:3/10, He often goes very well at his home race in Catalunya however that could not be said today, he was bested by his teammate in qualifying by some margin and had a horrid time towards the end of the race eventually finishing a lowly 17th, a poor performance by his lofty standards.

Ferrari:

Leclerc:8/10, It was a quiet but very good weekend from Leclerc finishing 'best of the rest' in both qualifying and the race. On top of this, he also gave Bottas a very hard time in the early stages of the race which will definitely put a smile on the face of everyone back at Maranello.

Sainz:6/10, Was slower than his teammate but that was always to be expected given it's just his 4th race for the prancing horse. He put in a good qualifying performance and showed good race pace too, but he'll be disappointed to have finished 7th with Ricciardo just marginally pipping him to 6th.

Alpha Tauri:

Gasly:6/10, An average qualifying and a silly penalty for misjudging his grid slot put him on the back foot for this one. However, he fought back with some lightning pace at the end of the race to steal the last points paying position.

Tsunoda:2/10, Had a terrible day on Saturday being knocked out of qualifying 1 after a mistake and then proceeding to blame the team in the press. Things didn't get much better in the race either when he had to retire on lap 6 with an electrical problem. He'll want to forget this one quickly.

Alfa Romeo:

Raikkonen:5/10, He was quite a bit off the pace of his Italian teammate in qualifying leaving him 17th for the start, however a good race performance and a smart strategy meant he managed to finish a very respectable 12th.

Giovinazzi:5/10, He outpaced Raikkonen in qualifying and put his Alfa Romeo 14th for the start which is no mean feat. However, this good work was undone by a painfully slow pitstop, meaning he could only manage 15th.

Haas:

Schumacher:7/10, an incredible effort in qualifying meant he beat Latifi and put 7 tenths on his teammate Mazepin. He slipped back in the race, but none the less his performance didn't go unnoticed by those in the paddock as he continues his impressive rookie season.

Mazepin:2/10, Another poor performance from the Russian as he was comprehensively outpaced by his teammate Schumacher for the whole weekend and only caused problems with blue flags in the race. He is still yet to prove why he deserves a seat on the F1 grid.

Williams:

Russell:6/10, Another solid weekend from Russell qualifying only 15th, but beat his teammate by some margin. He was in the fight for points for a small portion at the end of the race, however his tyres fell off towards the end and he had to consolidate 14th.

Latifi:3/10, His qualifying left a lot to be desired being outpaced by his teammate by 8 tenths, however he somewhat made up for this with a decent race performance rounding off the day in 16th place.