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2021 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Qualifying results

Hamilton takes 100th pole besting P2 Verstappen in Barcelona; Bottas qualifies P3

On a sunny, breezy day in Barcelona where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the time sheets in Q1 and Q2 and looked like he would cruise to an easy pole position, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton showed once again that you have to take the belt from the champ. The English seven-time World Champion pulled just that much more out of the bag in the final session of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix to become the first Formula 1 driver to reach the century mark in poles by a mere three-hundredths of a second over the Dutch hard charger. Building on his own amazing record and putting Michael Schumacher’s previous mark of 68 even further in the rearview, the mind-blowing 100th top starting spot will be all important at the highly familiar Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which all the teams use for pre-season testing and where passing is at a premium. The winner nearly always comes from the front row, so Verstappen’s disappointment at being bested by Lewis the Legend this day will be somewhat tempered by his starting alongside the lead Silver Arrow in P2, not to mention his minuscule fast lap time deficit to the points leader. Once again, as it did last weekend in Portugal, it seemed like the Iberian winds played a bit of havoc with the aero-sensitive cars, perhaps abetted by the relatively harder compounds Pirelli has chosen to provide for these two back-to-back races, for it seemed that improvement later in the qualifying sessions was hard to come by. We’ll see if tire strategy is as paramount and potentially surprising tomorrow in Barcelona as it was at Portimao.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate acquitted himself well enough in the face of the unquestioned brilliance of the top two superstars, qualifying P3 about a tenth in arrears of Verstappen. He will be flanked by the Ferrari of the increasingly confident Charles Leclerc in P4. With his Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz setting the sixth fastest time, the Prancing Horses appear to have legitimately improved enough to contend for podiums this year, especially since the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez seems to be succumbing to the dreaded curse of being Verstappen’s teammate. The Mexican veteran had a lurid spin midway through Q3 when he dropped a rear wheel into the gravel and could only recover enough to take a rather poor P8. On the other hand, Esteban Ocon continued his strong start to the season for Renault-powered team Alpine by splitting the two Ferraris and grabbing fifth on the grid. Highlighting Ocon’s prowess in the A521, his two-time champion teammate Fernando Alonso was only fast enough for P10. And McLaren also had bit of a mixed bag, seeing Daniel Ricciardo recover from his inexplicable P16 quali flub in Portugal to take a P7 time but the normally impressive Lando Norris finishing the final session down in P9. Both the MCL35M chassis and Norris usually seem to have better race pace, and Perez will be looking to make up ground in a hurry, so look for a fierce battle throughout the midfield in the early going of tomorrow’s race, to say nothing of the intriguing duel for supremacy between Hamilton and Verstappen at the front.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Spanish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:18.245 1:17.166 1:16.741 19
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:18.090 1:16.922 1:16.777 14
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:18.005 1:17.142 1:16.873 16
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:18.041 1:17.717 1:17.510 18
5 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:18.281 1:17.743 1:17.580 15
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:18.205 1:17.656 1:17.620 15
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:18.264 1:17.719 1:17.622 14
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:18.203 1:17.669 1:17.701 17
9 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.821 1:17.696 1:18.010 17
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:18.281 1:17.966 1:18.147 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM here in the States. Can Hamilton dust off Verstappen and give himself a little breathing room in the championship here in Round 4 or will young Max have a lesson of his own to teach the English master? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Portugal — Results & aftermath

Hamilton vanquishes nearest rivals for easy win in Portugal; Vertsappen P2, Bottas struggles to P3

Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix, which seemed to promise so much after a very tight qualifying between the front running Mercedes and Red Bull teams, instead turned into something of a wet firecracker. In an ominous sign for the rest of the field, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton returned to dominating form and handily trounced the rest of the field, including his pole-sitting teammate Valtteri Bottas and closest rival in terms of sheer talent, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Despite starting from P2 and actually being passed for that position by the Dutchman when he bobbled a post-Safety Car restart on Lap 7, the superlative English seven time champion rebounded quickly, first retaking that second place from Verstappen on Lap 11 and then dusting off Bottas on Lap 20 to grab the lead of the race. While Red Bull’s other driver Sergio Perez used an exceptionally long stint on his opening set of Medium Pirellis to inherit the race lead for a large chunk after the Mercedes man made his first pit stop on Lap 38, Hamilton bided his time until the delta between his fresher Hards and Perez’s old Mediums inexorably converged. By Lap 51 the Mexican was easy meat for the Silver Arrow and Ham the man took back his rightful lead. With Hamilton and his W12 back in perfect harmony, Lewis took the checkered of this 66-lap contest just under half a minute ahead of P2 Verstappen and 33.5 seconds in front of the beleaguered Bottas. It could be that the Red Bulls were just uniquely unsuited to the track here in Portugal and they definitely struggled with the windy conditions on their aero-sensitive RB16B chassis. But Mercedes also seemed to grab a decisive pace advantage in a straight line, with the Honda-powered Red Bulls looking very much down on power by comparison. The next race in Spain will be highly instructive to discover whether Mercedes have come to grips with this year’s rule changes and are on their way to another year of domination or if Red Bull can continue improving their mounts to keep the Silver Arrows honest.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

While Verstappen settled for P2 and the cold comfort of beating Bottas to the line, he was unable to set the fastest lap and earn the bonus point after a late switch to Soft Pirellis when his quickest time was deleted due to exceeding track limits in the attempt. That meant that Bottas, who pulled the same trick with a late switch to Softs, snatched that extra point with the race’s fastest lap. However, that honor will mainly benefit his teammate’s championship pursuit and not the Finn’s own, which now looks as improbable as at any time in his tenure with the big Mercedes factory team. Perez finished where he started, in P4, despite his heroic effort in stretching his first set of tires all the way to Lap 52. Truly, the veteran Mexican is a master of keeping life in his rubber.

Best of the rest was the rapidly improving Lando Norris of McLaren, who scored a very handy P5 finish after battling with a lot of other midfield runners throughout the race. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo had a good recovery drive for the team after qualifying a lowly sixteenth on the grid. The gritty Aussie fought his way all the way back into the points and came home P9 with a determined and savvy effort. Charles Leclerc was the lone Ferrari to earn points on the day, finishing P6 and getting the better of the Scuderia’s tire strategy when the team gambled on splitting it by putting Carlos Sainz onto Mediums and Leclerc on Hard tires after their first stops. The Hards proved to be the way to go for the long haul and Sainz struggled badly late in the race and finished down in P11. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso were genuinely quick, especially as the laps wound down and the cars got lighter by nursing off their fuel, with Ocon coming home P7 and Alonso in P8. The feat was particularly impressive by the Spanish two-time champion, who battled up from a P13 start in what was his best drive since coming back to F1 after a three year hiatus in WEC. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took the last point with a tenth place finish.

Top 10 finishers of the Portuguese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 66 1:34:31.421 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 66 +29.148s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 66 +33.530s 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 66 +39.735s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 66 +51.369s 10
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 66 +55.781s 8
7 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 66 +63.749s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 66 +64.808s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 66 +75.369s 2
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 66 +76.463s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a weeks’ time, the nearby Spanish Grand Prix at the very familiar Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which all the teams use for preseason testing. Hopefully for the sake of a tight championship contest Red Bull were just ill-suited to Portimao this weekend and will be back to their harassing ways, bringing the fight for victory to Hamilton and Mercedes. Look forward to seeing you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Portugal — Qualifying results

Bottas bests Hamilton for pole at Portimao as Mercedes lock out front row; Verstappen a disappointed P3, Perez P4 for Red Bull

Mercedes number two driver Valtteri Bottas looked more like a number one during tricky Saturday qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix, taking pole and from his championship-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton. With gusty winds whipping the cars as they made their way around the rather hilly and twisty Portimao circuit and the Pirellli tires proving a bit of a puzzlement to the teams in not particularly warm conditions, the veteran Finn was the one who was able to best hook up a fast lap to take the premier starting spot for Sunday’s race and deny Hamilton his one-hundredth pole. The normally superlative Hamilton, who similarly wrested last yer’s pole position from Bottas in this tricky little circuit’s debut on the Formula 1 calendar, found himself adrift of his Silver Arrows teammate by a mere seven-one-thousandths of a second when time ran out. It was a  nice rebound by Bottas after he was crashed out by the rash George Russell’s Williams at the last race in Emilia Romagna two weeks ago.

Intriguingly, while the Mercedes duo both chose the Medium Pirelli tires to run on when it counted most in Q3 the Red Bulls both decided the Soft tires were better suited to their chassis. It didn’t quite pay off, however, as Max Verstappen struggled with a tail wind into turns 13 and 14 that led to his fastest lap early in the final qualifying session being deleted for exceeding track limits. While the flying Dutchman was able to set a quick time later in Q3 he couldn’t quite match the pace of the Silver Arrows even on the Softs and had to settle for P3. Likewise, his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was also unable to really challenge the dominant Mercedes on this day and slotted in on the second row alongside Verstappen in P4. Tire strategy between these two top teams should be very interesting come race day, assuming that Mercedes continue to favor the Mediums while Red Bull prefer the Softs. The seemingly ever present winds here in the Algarve will also have their say, I’d reckon.

Ferrari continued what appears to be a nice little 2021 renaissance, with Carlos Sainz out-qualifying his more heralded stablemate Charles Leclerc P5 to P8. The Prancing Horses are already miles ahead of their woeful pace last season and could conceivably land a podium finish or two before the year is out with a little luck. Esteban Ocon did a fine job for Alpine with a stout P6 effort, really outclassing legendary teammate Fernando Alonso on this day, who was unceremoniously bounced in Q2 with only the thirteenth fastest lap. Similarly, McLaren’s Lando Norris continued to excel, nabbing the seventh fastest time, while his veteran teammate Daniel Ricciardo was flummoxed when he found himself eliminated in Q1 with a lap only good enough for P16, not to mention over a second behind the rapidly developing Norris in that session. Rounding out the top ten starters for tomorrow’s race, Pierre Gasly continued his impressive run of making it into Q3 and was able to fight his twitchy car for a time good enough for P9, while Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel had his best quali effort in some time and certainly his best for his new team, taking P10 on the grid, some seven grid spots ahead of teammate Lance Stroll. That should do some good for Vettel’s rather fragile confidence. Now the German four-time champ just needs to avoid what have become his far too frequent unforced errors and get a solid points finish in tomorrow’s race.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Portuguese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:18.722 1:18.458 1:18.348 23
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:18.857 1:17.968 1:18.355 24
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:19.485 1:18.650 1:18.746 20
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:19.337 1:18.845 1:18.890 22
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.309 1:18.813 1:19.039 23
6 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:19.092 1:18.586 1:19.042 17
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:18.794 1:18.481 1:19.116 24
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:19.373 1:18.769 1:19.306 29
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:19.464 1:19.052 1:19.475 26
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:19.403 1:18.970 1:19.659 22

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live at 10AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how things shake out between not only the Mercs and Red Bulls but also between the respective teammates, as well, which could be a real ding dong battle between the four best cars on the grid!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna — Results & aftermath

Verstappen dominates at rainy & wet Imola for win; Hamilton salvages P2 with remarkable recovery drive after uncharacteristic error; Norris an impressive P3 for McLaren; Bottas crashes out, error-ridden Perez fails to score

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated in tricky wet weather conditions on Sunday at Imola to take victory in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, his first win of what looks to be a very promising season for both the Dutchman and his team. While cars all around him slipped and slid off on a track that started wet after pre-race rain and never fully dried, Verstappen passed pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton for the lead on Lap 1, kept his ride on the black stuff and avoided the serious trouble that bedeviled so many of contenders throughout the day and flew away to what was eventually a fairly easy victory. Meanwhile Hamilton, his certain archrival for the 2021 championship, made an uncharacteristic unforced error when he was closing up on Verstappen nearly midway thorough the race. Carving his way through back-markers on Lap 31 of this 64-lap contest, Hamilton took it in too deep entering Tosa just three laps after pitting for a set of Medium Pirellis, his first slick tires of the day. Hamilton slid off a damp asphalt and through the gravel, nosing into a barrier. For a while it seemed he might be stuck, as it took the English seven-time champ forever to find reverse. But he finally managed to extricate himself ever so gingerly and headed towards the pits, albeit while losing a lap after such a lengthy delay. Fortunately for Hamilton, though not at all for the team, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was already having a dismal day mired back in P8, was speared into by Williams’ (and Mercedes development driver) George Russell in a vicious shunt at high speed that sent both cars crashing out with massive damage. While both Bottas and Russell were thankfully OK physically, if none too happy with each other, the massive debris field forced a prolonged Red Flag period on Lap 34.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

But the disaster for Bottas perversely redounded to Hamilton’s benefit. Not only were the Mercedes mechanics able to change his front wing without losing any time in the pits where all cars still running were now stationary but he also got back on the lead lap at the end of the Red Flag delay, when he and the other lapped cars were allowed to drive around the circuit to get to the tail end of what was now a rolling restart. So while Hamilton had still been shuffled back to P9, he could now begin making passes for position with the resumption of the race, something he did with aplomb in an effort to make amends for his rare gaffe. While Verstappen ran away from the field easily and was now untouchable, Hamilton gradually worked his way up to P5 by Lap 42 and then dispatched the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc for P4 and P3 on Laps 50 and 55 respectively. On a day where he looked to have possibly thrown a strong result away after starting from pole, the Englishman’s damage limitation drive came about as good as possible when he executed a masterful pass on the McLaren of Lando Norris to claim P2 on with only four laps remaining. And in so doing, Hamilton also managed to set the race’s fastest lap, thereby claiming the bonus point so that even when Vertsappen won the race by over 20 seconds, Hamilton still retained his Drivers’ Championship lead by a single slim point with his gutsy P2 finish and that opportunistic fastest lap bonus. That said, both Hamilton and Mercedes know they have a real battle on their hands with the Red Bulls this year and that both driver and team have got to improve their performance and consistency if they are going to hold off young Max’s determined pursuit of his first title in equal or perhaps even superior equipment.

All was not sweet music for Red Bull despite Verstappen’s glorious win, however. With Bottas crashing out, the team missed a golden opportunity to land a hard blow against Mercedes in the Constructors’ battle when second driver Sergio Perez made a mess of his opportunity to do score big points. After being handed a penalty on Lap 12 for inexplicably passing under the first Safety Car, Perez still looked to be fighting for a podium when the race resumed post-Red Flag. But on Lap 38 Perez made another unforced error, albeit under tricky wet-dry conditions. Seemingly sitting pretty in P4 with 26 laps remaining to get closer to his teammate and thwart Hamilton’s progress, Perez spun off the circuit and dropped all the way back to P14. The veteran Mexican, of whom much greater things are expected, could only manage to work his way back up to P11 when the laps ran out, scoring zero points on a day where it seemed certain Red Bull would net a far larger haul. The uncharacteristically ragged and fruitless outing by Checo opened the door to McLaren’s Lando Norris for his second career podium and while he could not hold off Hamilton’s hard charging Merc the talented Englishman did keep both Ferraris behind him to claim P3. It was an impressive drive from the ascendent Norris and along with Daniel Ricciardo’s P6 made for a very satisfying day for the much improved McLaren team.

Ferrari also must have been well pleased with a very solid run from team leader Charles Leclerc for P4 and a good comeback drive from Carlos Sainz after some early race mistakes to take P5. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also recovered from a nearly disastrous strategy call by the team to keep him out on full wet tires for far too long sent the Frenchman plummeting down the order. But Gasly hung tough and managed to take P7 when Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was penalized 5-seconds for track limits abuse after the race. Still, Stroll drove well for his adjusted P8 and the points were important for the team in light of Sebastian Vettel being forced to retire due to an accumulation of mechanical gremlins late in the race. And somehow the rather pokey Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso also managed to score points in P9 and P10 respectively by dint of simply surviving the fray and staying out of the gravel traps that led to grief for so many drivers on this wet and unpredictable day in Italy. A day that could well be remembered as the beginning of the end of Mercedes-Hamilton hegemony and the real start of the championship run of Max Verstappen.

Top 10 finishers of the Emilia Romagna GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 63 2:02:34.598 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 63 +22.000s 19
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 63 +23.702s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 63 +25.579s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 63 +27.036s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 63 +51.220s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 63 +52.818s 6
8 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 63 +56.909s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 63 +65.704s 2
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 63 +66.561s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

With the season now really rolling, the next race is but two weeks away — the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve aka Portimao. The Round 3 rematch between  Verstappen and Hamilton in what is looking like a season-long heavyweight fight can’t come soon enough for me. Hope to see you then to find out what’s next in the real inter-team rivalry we’ve been waiting for!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna — Qualifying results

Hamilton bests Red Bulls for pole at Imola as Perez surprises by out-qualifying Vertsappen

After a three-week layoff following the beginning of the 2021 season in Bahrain the anticipation couldn’t help but build for another showdown between Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull phenom Max Verstappen at the fast and flowing Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, aka Imola. Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix offered the opportunity for the first real rematch of the young campaign after Verstappen seemed to have the faster car at the Sakhir Circuit during the first round but Hamilton still managed to pip the Dutchman for victory via superior strategy. It also meant a test of Mercedes’ ability to upgrade their cars in relation to Red Bull, a team they acknowledge has the pace advantage for now, by using those three weeks of tuning and analysis to potentially close that alleged gap. When it really counted, the latest results ended up in Mercedes’ favor, as Hamilton was able to put together a superb lap in Q3 that resulted in his astonishing 99th career pole. And while Hamilton just pipped the second Red Bull by a mere .035 seconds, it was new man Sergio Perez who ended up closest to the peerless Englishman, getting the better of his more favored teammate Verstappen by some five-one hundredths. It was a surprising result and should make for an intriguing start to tomorrow’s contest, with the veteran Mexican lining up alongside Hamilton on the front row and Verstappen eager to pounce from directly behind the Merc’s gearbox in P3. Perez will also be starting on the Soft Pirellis, which he felt needed to get through Q2 cleanly, while the other two top contenders will be on the favored, longer lasting Mediums. So look for a split Red Bull strategy to play its part in attacking Mercedes during the race, as well.

If Hamilton and Mercedes were nearly giddy at earning their hard fought pole position that joy was tempered more than a little by the subpar performance of their number two driver, Valtteri Bottas. Bottas struggled to match the pace of not only his multi-championship teammate and the aspiring Red Bulls but also a veritable hoard of other top ten contenders and could only set the eighth fastest time. With this year’s Merc looking not quite as dominant and several of the other non-“big two” teams having made significant improvements, the Finn will have his work cut out for him trying to get back in touch with the elite trio at the front of the field and be of some use in playing the team game to help Ham the Man fend off those hard charging Red Bulls. Taking advantage of Bottas’ mediocrity on the day was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who slotted delightedly into P4 after a very solid qualifying effort on a short, flowing circuit that seems to suit this year’s improved Prancing Horse. Like Mercedes, though, it was a split result for the Scuderia because their other pilot, Carlos Sainz, got inexplicably bounced out in Q2. While Sainz will have that always valuable extra set of Pirellis to play with, the Spaniard was anything but thrilled to be starting from P11. He will also have to dig deep to try and salvage points against the very evenly matched field of competitors ahead of him.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Pierre Gasly got a good result for AlphaTauri at was is essentially their home circuit with a strong lap good enough for P5 on the grid. It salvaged the day somewhat after their rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda, who scored on debut in Bahrain, crashed out in Q1 and essentially destroyed the back end of his AT02, giving the team mechanics a mountain of work to get the car repaired in time for tomorrow’s GP. The two McLaren’s also looked very fast all day, especially young Lando Norris. But at crunch time the veteran Daniel Ricciardo bested Norris P6 to P7 when the latter had a superior time deleted due to exceeding track limits, something that was an ongoing theme for many drivers throughout the day. Esteban Ocon did very well to handily out-qualify his more heralded Alpine teammate, Fernando Alonso, P9 to P15. And Lance Stroll also struck a blow for youth over experience by getting the better of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel P10 to P13 for an Aston Martin team that still seems to be struggling to come to grips with the 2021 rules changes. Concentrating on changes to the design of the floor f the cars, these appear to have hurt the aero of so-called low rake cars like Mercedes and Aston Martin (formerly Racing Point) and to the benefit of the rest of the more high rake cars on the grid like Red Bull and McLaren.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Emilia Romagna GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:14.823 1:14.817 1:14.411 23
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:15.395 1:14.716 1:14.446 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:15.109 1:14.884 1:14.498 20
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:15.413 1:14.808 1:14.740 19
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:15.548 1:14.927 1:14.790 21
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:15.669 1:15.033 1:14.826 21
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:15.009 1:14.718 1:14.875 15
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:14.672 1:14.905 1:14.898 22
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:15.385 1:15.117 1:15.210 20
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:15.522 1:15.138 DNF 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race coverage begins at 9 AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if the two Red Bulls can hunt down Hamilton’s Silver Arrow and, if so, which driver can beat him for the win!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

GAME ON: Red Bull’s pace for real as Verstappen beats Hamilton for premier pole of 2021 at Sakhir;  Bottas P3 ahead of Leclerc’s improved Ferrari

The 2021 Formula 1 season is upon us after a long, cold winter and events on track wasted no time heating up during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s opening round Bahrain Grand Prix. It was time to find out if Mercedes had been hiding their pace in relation to the seemingly ascendent Honda-powered RB16 B Red Bull chassis. It took three rounds of quali to answer that compelling question but in the end Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen laid down the gauntlet by putting together a seamlessly fast final lap, wresting pole away from seven-time champ and Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton by a fairly cushy six-tenths of a second. Coming off his season-ending victory last year in Abu Dhabi and with a winter’s worth of upgrades to the Red Bull, Verstappen looks like he finally has the finely honed weapon to compete with Hamilton and the Silver Arrows for at least the Drivers’ Championship if not the Constructors’. The Dutchman will be keen to continue his momentum and hunt down a victory in tomorrow’s debut contest of 2021 to show that the German behemoth will not have things their own way this year after absolutely dominating the modern hybrid era.

It was not all good vibes for team Red Bull, however, as they saw Mercedes number two Valtteri Bottas recover from some discomfort with his new W12 mount to set a solid final time good enough for P3, while their new hire Sergio Perez succumbed to the curse of being Verstappen’s stablemate and got bounced in Q2. The veteran Mexican, who was brought in to the team after a superlative season last year to add consistency and stability to the troublesome number two Red Bull pilot role, will have to start a disappointing P11 tomorrow, with a lot of ground to be made up if he is going to help his teammate hold off the dual Silver Arrows onslaught. To be fair to Perez, the team may have botched his strategy by sending him out on the Medium Pirellis rather than the faster Softs when it was crunch time in P2.

Ferrari showed that they too made significant improvements in the offseason, especially in the power department, if not quite lifting them to the level of the top two teams. Charles Leclerc drove the wheels of his SF21 to set the fourth fastest time, only about a tenth behind Bottas. New Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz, who made the jump to Maranello from McLaren, was quite a bit off that pace after looking very close to Leclerc up until that point and could only manage a P8 starting position. Pierre Gasly was the lone AlphaTauri to make it into the top ten but again looked very sharp after his breakout year in 2020. The young Frenchman appears to be maturing and improving every season and he tucked in right behind Leclerc with a solid P5 time. Daniel Ricciardo outpaced his teammate Lando Norris in his debut for McLaren, P6 to P7, while two-time champion Fernando Alonso impressed on his return to F1 after a hiatus dating to 2018 by setting a very respectable P9 time for newly badged Alpine (formerly Renault). And Lance Stroll got through to Q3 and will start P10 for the renamed Aston Martin team (formerly Racing Point and still powered by Mercedes engines), while his new teammate, former Ferrari man Sebastian Vettel, saw his bad luck from 2020 carry over when he had to slow for yellow flags at critical moment in Q1 and could not make it out of that session. The German four-time champion will start from a lowly P18 and will have to control his emotions and make steady progress if he is to avoid a repeat of the last few years’ many mental errors. At the very least, the British Racing Green-clad livery is beautiful to look at even if team Aston Martin will have a hard time replicating last season’s success as a “mini Mercedes” under the new restrictive downforce rules.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:30.499 1:30.318 1:28.997 15
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:30.617 1:30.085 1:29.385 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.200 1:30.186 1:29.586 17
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:30.691 1:30.010 1:29.678 15
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:30.848 1:30.513 1:29.809 15
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.795 1:30.222 1:29.927 18
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.902 1:30.099 1:29.974 18
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:31.653 1:30.009 1:30.215 17
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:30.863 1:30.595 1:30.249 15
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:31.261 1:30.624 1:30.601 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 10:55 AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Time to find out if Verstappen has what it takes in race trim to bring the fight to mighty Mercedes. Hope to see you then!