Race The GROAT - Round 1 - 2018 Hockenheimring vs 2020 Istanbul Park vs 2021 Silverstone
2018 Hockenheimring
The race started in dry conditions although there was a high chance of rain later in the race. As they went through turn 1 it was Sebastian Vettel who led for Ferrari followed by Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen. By the start of the second lap Vettel led Bottas by 1.5 seconds, meanwhile Lewis Hamilton had climbed to thirteenth but Daniel Riccciardo had failed to make up any ground from nineteenth. On lap three Räikkönen informed his team over his radio that he was starting to get some rain on his visor. Of the front runners Räikkönen was the first to make a pitstop on lap 14 switching onto the soft tyres (the middle tyre of the three on offer). On the same lap Hamilton overtook Kevin Magnussen to take fifth. The race leaders kept in formation until lap 26 when the race leader, Vettel, made his pitstop and rejoined in fourth place before Bottas pitted himself on the following lap promoting Vettel back into third behind Räikkönen. With the leaders on lap 29 the race saw its first retirement in the form of Ricciardo, the Australian pulling over between turns 10 and 11 with what appeared and later transpired to be power loss, however this did not disrupt the rhythm of the race as his car was recovered quickly. On the same lap Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen also made his first pit stop, this meant that it was Räikkönen who led followed by Vettel, Hamilton (yet to make his compulsory pitstop) and Bottas. However, after a couple of laps Vettel slowed down after complaining of overheating tyres from being with a couple of seconds from Räikkönen and on lap 39 they switched positions on the run down to turn 6 at the same time as Bottas' race engineer telling him over the radio that they expected it to start raining in eight minutes (around 5 laps) time and on the same lap Hamilton made a pitstop onto the ultrasoft tyres.
On lap 44 it started to rain and on the following lap Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc came into the pits to put on the intermediate tyres and Pierre Gasly changed to a set of full wet tyres. Two laps later Verstappen also made a pitstop onto the intermediate tyres. On lap 46 Vettel mounted the kerb at the final corner and lost a small portion of his front wing. Then on lap 52, braking into turn 12, Vettel locked the rear brakes and went straight on into the barriers, taking himself out of the race, this caused a safety car so that they could recover Vettel's car. As a result of the safety car Valtteri Bottas decided to make a pitstop on lap 53, however because of the late call Mercedes didn't have the tyres ready and therefore Bottas was in his pitbox for almost 20 seconds (pitstops times are usually 2–3 seconds). On the same lap Hamilton was also told to pit, he started to enter the pitlane but aborted the pitstop after a miscommunication with his engineer, Hamilton then cut back on to the track essentially cutting across the final corner. Räikkönen then made a pitstop on the following lap onto the ultra soft tyres handing the race lead to Hamilton and second to Bottas. On lap 52 it stopped raining and Sergey Sirotkin pulled over to the side of the track to retire and on lap 54 his teammate Lance Stroll retired in the pits with a brake failure. On lap 58 the race resumed and although Hamilton retained the lead fairly easily through turn 1 Bottas attacked Hamilton going into turn 7 with what ex-F1 driver turned analyist Jolyon Palmer considered an unusually high level of aggression from Bottas, however Hamilton managed to hold him off. An investigation also started into Carlos Sainz for overtaking while under safety car conditions. On lap 61 Bottas was told that he wasn't allowed to try and overtake Hamilton, behind Bottas was Räikkönen around 1.2 seconds back followed by Verstappen another 1.5 seconds behind. On the following lap there was confirmation that Sainz would be given a 10-second time penalty for overtaking behind the safety car. Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean charged through the pack making up 4 places in the final 10 laps. The race was won by Hamilton with Bottas and Räikkönen completing the podium. Although Sainz was tenth at the finish line he was demoted to twelfth following the application of his ten-second penalty.
2020 Istanbul Park
Stroll held onto the lead after starting from pole position, while his teammate Pérez moved up from third place into second. This was the first time Stroll had led a lap of a world championship Grand Prix. Both Red Bull drivers accelerated slowly from the standing start, and were overtaken by other drivers who started behind them, with Verstappen falling from second to eighth place at the start. Much of the grid chose to launch in second gear, but the drivers of the two Honda powered teams (Red Bull and AlphaTauri) all chose to start in first gear.
Ocon and Ricciardo made contact at the first turn, which caused Ocon to spin. Bottas also spun while avoiding a collision with Ocon. Ricciardo apologised to his teammate for the encounter, although Ocon did not think the contact was Ricciardo's fault. Hamilton squeezed past this incident to move into third place. Another incident involving Bottas and Ocon later on the first lap left Ocon with a punctured tyre, and Bottas with steering damage for the rest of the race.
Vettel gained a large number of places on the first lap, moving into fourth place after starting eleventh. Vettel overtook Hamilton to gain third place when the Mercedes driver slid off at the ninth turn. Hamilton rejoined the track in the same sixth position he had started in. Sainz moved up from fifteenth into ninth on the first lap while his McLaren teammate Norris was slow off the line. Starting from an even numbered grid position was seen as a disadvantage due to the lower grip levels on that side of the track.
Leclerc, who was in fourteenth place at the time, made a pit stop to switch from full wet tyres to intermediates on lap six, with the frontrunning drivers doing the same over the following laps. The Ferrari driver's speed on the new tyres convinced other teams to change the tyres on their cars. Hamilton and Vettel made their pit stops on lap eight, while Stroll pitted on lap nine and Pérez on lap ten. A slow pit stop for Pérez allowed Stroll to extend his advantage to ten seconds. Verstappen, who had been unable to pass Vettel, waited until lap eleven to switch from the full wets to the intermediates. This allowed Verstappen to emerge from the pit lane ahead of the Ferrari driver. Albon led a Grand Prix for the first time before he took a pit stop for intermediate tyres on lap twelve.
There was one virtual safety car period during the race. This occurred after Giovinazzi retired with gearbox issues on the twelfth lap. Other drivers were required to slow down while his Alfa Romeo was recovered. Albon had lost a position to Hamilton during the first pit stop cycle, but was able to overtake him once drivers were allowed to return to racing speed as his Red Bull's tyres came up to temperature quicker than those of Hamilton's Mercedes. Albon moved up another position on the sixteenth lap when he overtook Vettel.
The Red Bull and Racing Point cars were the fastest on the track in the earlier stages of the race, with Verstappen and Albon catching up to Pérez and Stroll ahead of them. Verstappen spun at high speed on lap eighteen while trying to pass Pérez. This damaged the Red Bull's tyres, meaning that he had to pit again. This allowed Albon, Vettel, and Hamilton to pass Verstappen. Albon then began to catch Pérez, only to fall back as his tyres wore out.
Some teams hoped that it would be possible to switch onto dry weather tyres, but as the race progressed this was ruled out. At the end of the 30th lap Ferrari brought Leclerc into the pits to change onto a second set of intermediate tyres. Leclerc's pace on the new tyres encouraged others to also stop. Sainz moved up into sixth place after Ricciardo spun on the 32nd lap. Ricciardo pitted for new intermediates at the end of that lap, with Sainz and Vettel doing the same a lap later. Vettel's pit stop lasted five seconds, slow by modern Formula One standards. Tyre wear caused Albon to spin on the 34th lap, which allowed Vettel and Hamilton to overtake him. Albon came into the pits at the end of that lap, then struggled to find grip on his second set of intermediate tyres.
Stroll led for all but three of the first 35 laps, briefly relinquishing it during the first pit stop cycle before regaining it as other drivers came in for their first pit stops. He lost the lead on lap 36 when the team brought him into the pits for a new set of intermediate tyres. After this he fell to ninth place by the end of the race. According to the Racing Point team, this was due to damage to his car's front wing that caused a loss of aerodynamic downforce, which in turn damaged the tyres. Stroll had told his engineer before the pit stop that he did not want to change tyres. Norris also pitted on the 36th lap.
Pérez briefly led after Stroll's pit stop, but Hamilton overtook him a lap later using the drag reduction system, which had been enabled on lap 30. Hamilton caught up to Pérez after Vettel (who Hamilton had been unable to overtake on track) made his second pit stop. As Stroll struggled on the new set of tyres the team decided against replacing the tyres on Pérez's car. Leclerc followed Vettel past Stroll after the Racing Point driver made an error on the 39th lap, before using the drag reduction system to overtake his Ferrari teammate on the next lap. Leclerc was in ninth place before his pit stop, but was in third by the end of the 43rd lap.
Hamilton went on to win the race from Pérez by a margin of half a minute, having completed the 309.396 kilometres (192.250 mi) in one hour, 42 minutes, and 19.313 seconds at an average of 181.425 kilometres per hour (112.732 mph). On the final lap Leclerc attempted to pass Pérez for second place, but made an error and was passed by Vettel. Leclerc said his inability to see behind him due to dirt on his wing mirrors contributed to his mistake. This was the second time Hamilton had won the event; the first was the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix. It was his 94th Grand Prix victory, and his tenth of 2020. This was Vettel's only podium in 2020, and Pérez's best result since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton and Pérez had continued without stopping again on heavily worn intermediate tyres. Pérez said his tyres were close to failing at the end. The Mexican driver had used the same set of tyres for 48 laps, while Hamilton had used his for 50 laps. Hamilton chose against changing his tyres as he did not want to repeat what had happened at the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix, where an accident while entering the pit lane on worn tyres cost him the championship. Most of the tread had been worn off of Hamilton's tyres by the finish, leaving them nearly slick. The lack of safety car periods and the slow drying of the track surface allowed Hamilton to manage his tyre wear and temperatures effectively throughout the race.
The rest of the top ten all finished on the lead lap. Sainz passed both Stroll and Albon to finish in fifth place as the latter two both lost time to graining tyres. Verstappen, who finished in sixth place, made a third pit stop on lap 43, after which he was unable to catch Sainz. This proved to be the only race of the season where Verstappen neither retired nor finished on the podium. Albon finished in seventh place, behind his teammate, who had passed him with seven laps remaining. Sainz's teammate Norris overtook Stroll to gain eighth place during the closing stages of the race. Norris also scored the bonus point for fastest lap, which he set on the final lap of the race with a time of one minute and 36.806 seconds at an average speed of 198.508 kilometres per hour (123.347 mph). Ricciardo claimed the final points paying position in tenth after a spin allowed Norris to pass him.
There were six other drivers who were still running at the end of the race, all one lap down. Ocon finished eleventh after dropping to the back on the first lap. The AlphaTauri drivers finished twelfth and thirteenth after a difficult weekend for the team. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate and sole remaining title rival Bottas finished in fourteenth place after spinning six times during the race. Räikkönen dropped to fifteenth at the finish due to a lack of grip from his front tyres. Russell finished in sixteenth after struggling for tyre temperature.
Giovanazzi, Latifi, and Grosjean were the only drivers to retire from the Grand Prix, while Magnussen was classified as finishing despite not completing the race. Latifi and Grosjean both retired in the pits with damage following a collision. Grosjean's teammate Magnussen, who had been running as high as eleventh until he lost two laps to a botched pit stop, withdrew late in the race while experiencing problems with poor visibility.
2021 Silverstone
The race started at 15:00 BST (14:00 UTC). Hamilton had a better start than Verstappen, and they ran side by side through the first corner, each contesting for the lead throughout the first half of the lap. A better run out of the fourth turn allowed Hamilton to briefly get ahead going in to the sixth turn, but Verstappen was able to get back past on the inside, with Hamilton then accelerating faster than Verstappen out of the seventh turn. Hamilton and Verstappen collided with each other at the ninth corner, with Verstappen's rear-right tyre stripped from the wheel rim. Verstappen slid sideways across the gravel trap on the outside of the track, and collided with the tyre wall at at least 290 km/h (180 mph).
The crash saw a red flag brought out following Verstappen's retirement, with the race suspended for fifteen minutes while Verstappen's car was removed and the tyre wall repaired. Hamilton received a ten-second time penalty for causing the collision, with stewards ruling that Hamilton was predominantly, but not fully, at fault in the contact. Hamilton's car was repaired during the stoppage. Verstappen was taken to the circuit medical centre, and subsequently hospital, for precautionary checks after the 51 g (500 m/s2; 1,600 ft/s2) sideways impact into the barriers. Verstappen was released from hospital later that night as he was not seriously injured.
The collision with Verstappen caused Hamilton to lose speed, allowing Leclerc to get through into the lead before the race was neutralised. Hamilton pitted from second, served his ten-second time penalty and came back out fourth. He quickly dispatched Norris's McLaren and then his teammate, Bottas, who was instructed to let Hamilton past. Norris suffered a slow pit stop following an issue with the rear right tyre, placing him behind Bottas in fourth as he rejoined the race, where he remained for the rest of the race. Norris lost further time after emerging from the pit lane as he had to clear Alonso. This was the fifteenth consecutive race in which Norris finished in the points. Bottas's water bottle broke during the race. Leclerc struggled with intermittent power issues throughout the first half of the race, with momentary losses of power keeping the interval between him an Hamilton at around 1.5 seconds. Hamilton caught up to Leclerc on lap 50, where he overtook him for the lead. Hamilton's move on Leclerc was similar to the one he made on Verstappen, but both drivers left each other more room. Leclerc had led for almost the entire race, which was seen as unexpected given the relative pace of the Ferrari SF21 to the Mercedes W12 and the Red Bull RB16B.
Vettel lost control of his Aston Martin during a battle with Alonso on the fourth lap. This saw Vettel drop down to last; he recovered into 17th, but later retired. Kimi Räikkönen, in the Alfa Romeo, also spun, on lap 49, after a minor collision with Red Bull driver Pérez. Pérez pitted on the next lap for new soft tyres, in a bid to take Hamilton's fastest lap away (which is worth a championship point). Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly had a puncture late in the race, which dropped him out of the points.
The race started in dry conditions although there was a high chance of rain later in the race. As they went through turn 1 it was Sebastian Vettel who led for Ferrari followed by Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen. By the start of the second lap Vettel led Bottas by 1.5 seconds, meanwhile Lewis Hamilton had climbed to thirteenth but Daniel Riccciardo had failed to make up any ground from nineteenth. On lap three Räikkönen informed his team over his radio that he was starting to get some rain on his visor. Of the front runners Räikkönen was the first to make a pitstop on lap 14 switching onto the soft tyres (the middle tyre of the three on offer). On the same lap Hamilton overtook Kevin Magnussen to take fifth. The race leaders kept in formation until lap 26 when the race leader, Vettel, made his pitstop and rejoined in fourth place before Bottas pitted himself on the following lap promoting Vettel back into third behind Räikkönen. With the leaders on lap 29 the race saw its first retirement in the form of Ricciardo, the Australian pulling over between turns 10 and 11 with what appeared and later transpired to be power loss, however this did not disrupt the rhythm of the race as his car was recovered quickly. On the same lap Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen also made his first pit stop, this meant that it was Räikkönen who led followed by Vettel, Hamilton (yet to make his compulsory pitstop) and Bottas. However, after a couple of laps Vettel slowed down after complaining of overheating tyres from being with a couple of seconds from Räikkönen and on lap 39 they switched positions on the run down to turn 6 at the same time as Bottas' race engineer telling him over the radio that they expected it to start raining in eight minutes (around 5 laps) time and on the same lap Hamilton made a pitstop onto the ultrasoft tyres.
On lap 44 it started to rain and on the following lap Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc came into the pits to put on the intermediate tyres and Pierre Gasly changed to a set of full wet tyres. Two laps later Verstappen also made a pitstop onto the intermediate tyres. On lap 46 Vettel mounted the kerb at the final corner and lost a small portion of his front wing. Then on lap 52, braking into turn 12, Vettel locked the rear brakes and went straight on into the barriers, taking himself out of the race, this caused a safety car so that they could recover Vettel's car. As a result of the safety car Valtteri Bottas decided to make a pitstop on lap 53, however because of the late call Mercedes didn't have the tyres ready and therefore Bottas was in his pitbox for almost 20 seconds (pitstops times are usually 2–3 seconds). On the same lap Hamilton was also told to pit, he started to enter the pitlane but aborted the pitstop after a miscommunication with his engineer, Hamilton then cut back on to the track essentially cutting across the final corner. Räikkönen then made a pitstop on the following lap onto the ultra soft tyres handing the race lead to Hamilton and second to Bottas. On lap 52 it stopped raining and Sergey Sirotkin pulled over to the side of the track to retire and on lap 54 his teammate Lance Stroll retired in the pits with a brake failure. On lap 58 the race resumed and although Hamilton retained the lead fairly easily through turn 1 Bottas attacked Hamilton going into turn 7 with what ex-F1 driver turned analyist Jolyon Palmer considered an unusually high level of aggression from Bottas, however Hamilton managed to hold him off. An investigation also started into Carlos Sainz for overtaking while under safety car conditions. On lap 61 Bottas was told that he wasn't allowed to try and overtake Hamilton, behind Bottas was Räikkönen around 1.2 seconds back followed by Verstappen another 1.5 seconds behind. On the following lap there was confirmation that Sainz would be given a 10-second time penalty for overtaking behind the safety car. Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean charged through the pack making up 4 places in the final 10 laps. The race was won by Hamilton with Bottas and Räikkönen completing the podium. Although Sainz was tenth at the finish line he was demoted to twelfth following the application of his ten-second penalty.
2020 Istanbul Park
Stroll held onto the lead after starting from pole position, while his teammate Pérez moved up from third place into second. This was the first time Stroll had led a lap of a world championship Grand Prix. Both Red Bull drivers accelerated slowly from the standing start, and were overtaken by other drivers who started behind them, with Verstappen falling from second to eighth place at the start. Much of the grid chose to launch in second gear, but the drivers of the two Honda powered teams (Red Bull and AlphaTauri) all chose to start in first gear.
Ocon and Ricciardo made contact at the first turn, which caused Ocon to spin. Bottas also spun while avoiding a collision with Ocon. Ricciardo apologised to his teammate for the encounter, although Ocon did not think the contact was Ricciardo's fault. Hamilton squeezed past this incident to move into third place. Another incident involving Bottas and Ocon later on the first lap left Ocon with a punctured tyre, and Bottas with steering damage for the rest of the race.
Vettel gained a large number of places on the first lap, moving into fourth place after starting eleventh. Vettel overtook Hamilton to gain third place when the Mercedes driver slid off at the ninth turn. Hamilton rejoined the track in the same sixth position he had started in. Sainz moved up from fifteenth into ninth on the first lap while his McLaren teammate Norris was slow off the line. Starting from an even numbered grid position was seen as a disadvantage due to the lower grip levels on that side of the track.
Leclerc, who was in fourteenth place at the time, made a pit stop to switch from full wet tyres to intermediates on lap six, with the frontrunning drivers doing the same over the following laps. The Ferrari driver's speed on the new tyres convinced other teams to change the tyres on their cars. Hamilton and Vettel made their pit stops on lap eight, while Stroll pitted on lap nine and Pérez on lap ten. A slow pit stop for Pérez allowed Stroll to extend his advantage to ten seconds. Verstappen, who had been unable to pass Vettel, waited until lap eleven to switch from the full wets to the intermediates. This allowed Verstappen to emerge from the pit lane ahead of the Ferrari driver. Albon led a Grand Prix for the first time before he took a pit stop for intermediate tyres on lap twelve.
There was one virtual safety car period during the race. This occurred after Giovinazzi retired with gearbox issues on the twelfth lap. Other drivers were required to slow down while his Alfa Romeo was recovered. Albon had lost a position to Hamilton during the first pit stop cycle, but was able to overtake him once drivers were allowed to return to racing speed as his Red Bull's tyres came up to temperature quicker than those of Hamilton's Mercedes. Albon moved up another position on the sixteenth lap when he overtook Vettel.
The Red Bull and Racing Point cars were the fastest on the track in the earlier stages of the race, with Verstappen and Albon catching up to Pérez and Stroll ahead of them. Verstappen spun at high speed on lap eighteen while trying to pass Pérez. This damaged the Red Bull's tyres, meaning that he had to pit again. This allowed Albon, Vettel, and Hamilton to pass Verstappen. Albon then began to catch Pérez, only to fall back as his tyres wore out.
Some teams hoped that it would be possible to switch onto dry weather tyres, but as the race progressed this was ruled out. At the end of the 30th lap Ferrari brought Leclerc into the pits to change onto a second set of intermediate tyres. Leclerc's pace on the new tyres encouraged others to also stop. Sainz moved up into sixth place after Ricciardo spun on the 32nd lap. Ricciardo pitted for new intermediates at the end of that lap, with Sainz and Vettel doing the same a lap later. Vettel's pit stop lasted five seconds, slow by modern Formula One standards. Tyre wear caused Albon to spin on the 34th lap, which allowed Vettel and Hamilton to overtake him. Albon came into the pits at the end of that lap, then struggled to find grip on his second set of intermediate tyres.
Stroll led for all but three of the first 35 laps, briefly relinquishing it during the first pit stop cycle before regaining it as other drivers came in for their first pit stops. He lost the lead on lap 36 when the team brought him into the pits for a new set of intermediate tyres. After this he fell to ninth place by the end of the race. According to the Racing Point team, this was due to damage to his car's front wing that caused a loss of aerodynamic downforce, which in turn damaged the tyres. Stroll had told his engineer before the pit stop that he did not want to change tyres. Norris also pitted on the 36th lap.
Pérez briefly led after Stroll's pit stop, but Hamilton overtook him a lap later using the drag reduction system, which had been enabled on lap 30. Hamilton caught up to Pérez after Vettel (who Hamilton had been unable to overtake on track) made his second pit stop. As Stroll struggled on the new set of tyres the team decided against replacing the tyres on Pérez's car. Leclerc followed Vettel past Stroll after the Racing Point driver made an error on the 39th lap, before using the drag reduction system to overtake his Ferrari teammate on the next lap. Leclerc was in ninth place before his pit stop, but was in third by the end of the 43rd lap.
Hamilton went on to win the race from Pérez by a margin of half a minute, having completed the 309.396 kilometres (192.250 mi) in one hour, 42 minutes, and 19.313 seconds at an average of 181.425 kilometres per hour (112.732 mph). On the final lap Leclerc attempted to pass Pérez for second place, but made an error and was passed by Vettel. Leclerc said his inability to see behind him due to dirt on his wing mirrors contributed to his mistake. This was the second time Hamilton had won the event; the first was the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix. It was his 94th Grand Prix victory, and his tenth of 2020. This was Vettel's only podium in 2020, and Pérez's best result since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton and Pérez had continued without stopping again on heavily worn intermediate tyres. Pérez said his tyres were close to failing at the end. The Mexican driver had used the same set of tyres for 48 laps, while Hamilton had used his for 50 laps. Hamilton chose against changing his tyres as he did not want to repeat what had happened at the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix, where an accident while entering the pit lane on worn tyres cost him the championship. Most of the tread had been worn off of Hamilton's tyres by the finish, leaving them nearly slick. The lack of safety car periods and the slow drying of the track surface allowed Hamilton to manage his tyre wear and temperatures effectively throughout the race.
The rest of the top ten all finished on the lead lap. Sainz passed both Stroll and Albon to finish in fifth place as the latter two both lost time to graining tyres. Verstappen, who finished in sixth place, made a third pit stop on lap 43, after which he was unable to catch Sainz. This proved to be the only race of the season where Verstappen neither retired nor finished on the podium. Albon finished in seventh place, behind his teammate, who had passed him with seven laps remaining. Sainz's teammate Norris overtook Stroll to gain eighth place during the closing stages of the race. Norris also scored the bonus point for fastest lap, which he set on the final lap of the race with a time of one minute and 36.806 seconds at an average speed of 198.508 kilometres per hour (123.347 mph). Ricciardo claimed the final points paying position in tenth after a spin allowed Norris to pass him.
There were six other drivers who were still running at the end of the race, all one lap down. Ocon finished eleventh after dropping to the back on the first lap. The AlphaTauri drivers finished twelfth and thirteenth after a difficult weekend for the team. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate and sole remaining title rival Bottas finished in fourteenth place after spinning six times during the race. Räikkönen dropped to fifteenth at the finish due to a lack of grip from his front tyres. Russell finished in sixteenth after struggling for tyre temperature.
Giovanazzi, Latifi, and Grosjean were the only drivers to retire from the Grand Prix, while Magnussen was classified as finishing despite not completing the race. Latifi and Grosjean both retired in the pits with damage following a collision. Grosjean's teammate Magnussen, who had been running as high as eleventh until he lost two laps to a botched pit stop, withdrew late in the race while experiencing problems with poor visibility.
2021 Silverstone
The race started at 15:00 BST (14:00 UTC). Hamilton had a better start than Verstappen, and they ran side by side through the first corner, each contesting for the lead throughout the first half of the lap. A better run out of the fourth turn allowed Hamilton to briefly get ahead going in to the sixth turn, but Verstappen was able to get back past on the inside, with Hamilton then accelerating faster than Verstappen out of the seventh turn. Hamilton and Verstappen collided with each other at the ninth corner, with Verstappen's rear-right tyre stripped from the wheel rim. Verstappen slid sideways across the gravel trap on the outside of the track, and collided with the tyre wall at at least 290 km/h (180 mph).
The crash saw a red flag brought out following Verstappen's retirement, with the race suspended for fifteen minutes while Verstappen's car was removed and the tyre wall repaired. Hamilton received a ten-second time penalty for causing the collision, with stewards ruling that Hamilton was predominantly, but not fully, at fault in the contact. Hamilton's car was repaired during the stoppage. Verstappen was taken to the circuit medical centre, and subsequently hospital, for precautionary checks after the 51 g (500 m/s2; 1,600 ft/s2) sideways impact into the barriers. Verstappen was released from hospital later that night as he was not seriously injured.
The collision with Verstappen caused Hamilton to lose speed, allowing Leclerc to get through into the lead before the race was neutralised. Hamilton pitted from second, served his ten-second time penalty and came back out fourth. He quickly dispatched Norris's McLaren and then his teammate, Bottas, who was instructed to let Hamilton past. Norris suffered a slow pit stop following an issue with the rear right tyre, placing him behind Bottas in fourth as he rejoined the race, where he remained for the rest of the race. Norris lost further time after emerging from the pit lane as he had to clear Alonso. This was the fifteenth consecutive race in which Norris finished in the points. Bottas's water bottle broke during the race. Leclerc struggled with intermittent power issues throughout the first half of the race, with momentary losses of power keeping the interval between him an Hamilton at around 1.5 seconds. Hamilton caught up to Leclerc on lap 50, where he overtook him for the lead. Hamilton's move on Leclerc was similar to the one he made on Verstappen, but both drivers left each other more room. Leclerc had led for almost the entire race, which was seen as unexpected given the relative pace of the Ferrari SF21 to the Mercedes W12 and the Red Bull RB16B.
Vettel lost control of his Aston Martin during a battle with Alonso on the fourth lap. This saw Vettel drop down to last; he recovered into 17th, but later retired. Kimi Räikkönen, in the Alfa Romeo, also spun, on lap 49, after a minor collision with Red Bull driver Pérez. Pérez pitted on the next lap for new soft tyres, in a bid to take Hamilton's fastest lap away (which is worth a championship point). Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly had a puncture late in the race, which dropped him out of the points.