2021 Season Rewind
The 2021 season flagged off with some specialties. The game began with the introduction of three new rookies Nikita Mazepian, the son of Dimitry Mazepian, the owner of Haas F1 who obviously joined his daddy's team Haas F1. Next one was the son of the king Mick Schumacher, the son of Michael Schumacher, the GOAT of F1. Next new face was the Japanese racer Yuki Tsunoda who bloomed through the Honda's Formula Dream Project later backed by Red-bull junior team and in the 2021 season he joined Alphatauri F1 team, the sister team of Red-bull racing. This season also saw the introduction of 2 new circuits which made the game more spicy and interesting. Those were the Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit Abu Dhabi and the Losail International circuit Qatar.
The Flag off was hosted by the Bahrain international Circuit Sakhir on 28th march where Lewis Hamilton Bagged the first win of the season with a blistering drive and that was a spectacular race with many Lewis X Max Duos taking place but the Britisher bagged the trophy setting the time of 1:32:03.897 in a 52 lap long race with the Red-Bull of the Dutchman tagging along the rear wing of the Mercedes. The fastest lap was grabbed by the flying finn Valtteri Bottas. The race was eventful with the Dutchman Max starting on the pole and finishing second. It was max who dominated in both free practice and qualifying but it was the briton who stromed out to finish the race first with a blistering drive.
After the Bahrain GP the drivers was given a little time to breath and the F1 was back in action about almost a month later. This time the arena was on Imola Italy, the Emilia Romanga GP. Italy saw the Dutchman, Max swing back in action setting flames to the circuit denying victory to his rival Lewis Hamilton on a 63 lap long race. The Imola GP saw to Britishers sharing podium too. It was another young gun, Lando Norris From McLaren Mercedes who took his best finish of the year and tasted the champagne for the first time. Also it was eventful with George Russel and Valtteri Bottas crashing and taking out each other out from the race. The one point for the fastest lap was grabbed Lewis Hamilton after another thrilling race in Italy. Here Max finished in 2:02:34.598, almost +22.000s ahead of Lewis.
Then at the Portuguese and Spanish GP it was Lewis who bagged the victory. Lewis was dominant on those races. On the Portuguese GP Lewis finished P1 in a long 66 lap battle gaping his rival Max in about 29.148 seconds. Although Hamilton won the race the quali and free practice saw his Finnish teammate Vatteri dominating over him. It was the Finn who took the pole and was a front row lockout for Mercedes with Lewis just behind his teammate with Max just behind the Silver arrows. Also the Finn grabbed the 1 point for the fastest lap. Meanwhile in Spain the spectators saw a complete Lewis Hamilton Dominance on quali and race. Red-Bull showed amazing pace during the Free Practice three, which was the only time we saw the presence of red-bull in the Silver Arrow dominated FP1, FP2 and race.
But the following five races saw a strong comeback from Red-Bull racing with complete dominance over the Silver-Arrows. Red-Bull thrilled their fans with back to back wins in Monaco, Azerbaijan, France Styria, and Austria. On Monaco it was the Dutch Lion who dominated over the British,finishing in about 1:38:56.820 which is 8.986 seconds faster than his former teammate Carlos Sainz. The Monaco GP was another moment which the Mercedes wold not liked to be reminded of because it was one where the title contender Sir Lewis Hamilton finished P7 and for being more bitter, his teammate, the flying Finn was not able to make it the whole race. Valtteri retired on the 29th lap due to the struck tyre in pit stop. At Baku street track the race was of mixed feelings for Red-Bull, with Max Verstappan crashing the Red-bull and Perez winning the GP and horrible for Mercedes with the championship contender Lewis Hamilton finishing in one of his worst positions that is P16 and his team mate Valtteri finishing P12. But the race was joyous for Sebastian Vettel as he finished P2 in the race, grabbing 18 points.
At France, F1 saw a total Red-Bull domination over the silver arrows in Free Practice sessions Qualifying and Race, it was FP1 where Mercedes showed that they are alive. The 53 lap long race concluded with Max topping on the grid with a blistering drive knocking off 1:27:25.770 with Lewis tagging just behind with 2.904 seconds slower than the Dutchman. And for Red-Bull the icing on the cake was Sergio Perez who grabbed P3 after a long bargain over the flying Finn Valtteri's Mercedes. The next game held at the GROSSER PREIS DER STEIERMARK Austria was yet another massive game for Red-bull, where they dominated on FP1, FP2 and Qualifying. Yet again it was the Dutchman who grabbed the winners trophy from the silver arrows of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas with a finish of 1:22:18.925, pulling off a gap of more than 35 seconds over the Mercedes of Lewis.
The next race was the home run for the 7 time world champion, Lewis Hamilton and it ended up in controversy too. The British GP saw the introduction of Sprint races to F1. It was the Dutchman who dominated the free practice sessions, but on quali it was the home boy who was the fastest. Even though it was Lewis who took the pole the Dutchman grabbed victory from Lewis in over 1.430 seconds gap. But the race was undertaken by drama which let the Dutchman's RB16 find the barriers on the very first lap which led to his early retirement from the race. The incident was later described as a mis-judgement from Lewis Hamilton who Grabbed the winners trophy with a blistering drive that cloaked 1:58:23.284 gaping the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc over 3 seconds.
F1 reached Hungary with a special twist on the season. It was Mercedes who dominated on the free practice sessions and qualifying but the race day was full of twists and drama. On the starting grid it was a front row lockout for the silver arrows with Lewis P1 followed by Valtteri P2, the red bull if Max was right behind them on P3. But a little sprinkle of rain made all the difference in the results. The chaotic tumble-ins and running offs that took place on the trun one of the first lap forced Nikita Mazepian, Lando Norris, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, and Lance Stroll for immediate retirement, and the race was red flagged which made the pit lane pretty chaotic as well. At the restart it was the Britisher Lewis the only one at the starting line. Even though Max kept his RB16 running it was still hard to push the car to the limit. But Lewis was able to keep a decent lead over the Williams of George Russel and Alpine of Esteban Ocon who were able to gain positions from pit exit. But George was asked byy the race control to give back the positions and Lewis was on the pit which gave clean air of the Frenchman Esteban Ocon. The main contributor for the win of Ocon in Hungary was Fernando Alonso, his teammate who defended Lewis for a long time giving Esteban time to breath. Ocon took the shot and pushed the alpine hard to find his first chequerd flag in F1 clocking a time of 2:04:43.199 which is more than 2 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. Even though Sebastian finished P2 with just over 1.8 seconds slower than Ocon, he was disqualified after the required fuel sample could not be extracted from his car following the race.
Another big event took place as F1 rejoined at the SPA-Francorchamps, for the Belgian GP. The day was filled with rain pouring over and over again spreading agony and anxiety about the race-day. The rain also caused so many debris on the track during the quali. It was when Lando Norris crashed with the barriers which caused the quali to be red flagged. But at the end of the quali it was his fellow Britisher George Russel the one who out qualified Lewis Hamilton with the fastest first sector and speedy third sector, but all these events didn't stop Max for grabbing the pole. On the race day it was total drama where rain took away the whole race except for one lap. Due to heavy rain the race was cut short into 1 lap which was completed by the drivers starting from the pit lane and ending behind the safety car. That gave the British young boy his first chance to taste the podium champagne and since there was only one lap each drivers were given half the points apart from the regular basis.
The next main event comes at Italy where the F1 came after a wonderful victory of Max on his homeland and as the commentary said it was a double dutch delight for Max Verstappan. Now they joined back in Italy for another race weekend. It was Mercedes dominance on FP1,FP2 Qualifying and sprint races. But it was neither Red-Bull nor Mercedes who dominated on the race-day. It was Ricciardo and McLaren who showed their strength on the Italian circuit. The race was pretty horrific for both the championship contenders. The race started with Max P1, Ricciardo P2 and Norris P3 as the championship contender Lewis was finished 4th on the Sprint race and the flying finn was given the tail end due to the power unit replacement.
From the lights out, the Italian track saw the McLaren dominance and it came to the complete circuit when the championship protanganists Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappan crashed and took each other out of the race on the 25th lap. The absence of the titans gave Danny the clean air he needed and he flew through the Autodromo Natzionale Monza to find the chequerd flag. And For McLaren it was an icing on the cake as they got a 1,2 which meant Lando Norris finished second.
After an eventful Italian GP F1 went to Russia for the Sochi GP. At Sochi too drama took the race away. It was the man of the circuit, Valtteri Bottas who dominated the practice sessions but things went apart for him on qualifying as the McLaren British kid Lando with his ex teammate Carlos from Ferrari took the sweet spots. And that race was marked on Lando's memory wall as the best, as it was his first pole on his F1 career. But it was the calm before the strome. Lando was in a hype with his first pole and was starting P1 on the race-day. But things never went well for him. It was the un-expected rain that caused problems. Until the 47th lap the race was clearly dominated by Lando but after the 47th lap things started getting a bit slippery with rain entering the scenario. Lando was confident with his tyres and refused to go for the intermediate compounds. But things began to fell apart from his hands as the track got wetter and other drivers switched to wets and later as the track got full wet he lost the grip and ran off to the run-off area conceding positions.
That event gave Lewis the lead and he found the chequered flag to finish the race as a centurion, winning his hundredth race.
At Turkey It was again Mercedes but this time it was Valtteri who took the win, and the following two races was won by Red-Bull which gave Max a dominating lead over Lewis Hamilton. But on United States it was the wing-man of Max Verstappan, Sergio Perez who made the win possible for Max Verstappan by defending the seven time world champion and giving Max crucial lead ahead.
But the next four races saw Lewis Hamilton entering God Mode and taking the chequerd flag three in a row and equaling points to his dutch rival. On his trail of the three victories Lewis had a closed call with the Dutchman on the Jeddah circuit which was the fresh ground, It happened by the miscommunication and the titans touched each other while swapping the cars as per request from race control. And on Quatar the two time world champion Fernando Alonso who was now driving for Alpine got to taste the podium champagne after a long break.
Now F1 reached their home ground, the modified Yas Marina Circuit Abu Dhabi for one last dance. The race at the Yas Marina was the decider with the titans standing neck to neck and the fire raging on. The race at the Yas Marina saw complete Lewis Hamilton dominance from the start and it was a spectacular showdown from the titans where everything looked clear and safe on the hands of Lewis Hamilton until the Williams of the Canadian Nicholas Latifi found the barriers on lap 50. The safety car was deployed and that lasted for almost 7 laps and that confusion and dilemma gave Max a chance to pit and catch behind the silver arrow of Lewis. Then all that left was one lap of racing which was enough for Max as he pushed the car and grabbed the Championship Trophy from Lewis Hamilton to be the First World Champion from Netherlands. Max Verstappan became the champion of the world and the fourth one to get the achievement under the age of 25, after Vettel Alonso and Hamilton.
At the end of the race it was mixed emotions for me. Happy for Max while Sad for Lewis. Both of them had given us a spectacular season which is really a roller coaster for the title rivals and that had came to a nice ending, at the end of the day the Ultimate aim was to have a good and entertianing season. Thank you each drivers for putting out an extra ordinary season where with each races the excitement and expectations went high. Also the next season is just a 100 days away all the very best.
