F1 - 2021 - Saudi GP

FIVEDOOR

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This is a new track and many believe that passing will be a difficult.

The intrigue started in qualifying with Max having scorcher of a lap in Q3 when he put his car in the wall in the last corner of the lap. He started 3rd behind Lewis and Bottas.



://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azzEnM6-Isk

Grid

1/ Hamilton
2/ Bottas
3/ Verstappen
4/ Leclerc
5/ Perez
6/ Gasly
7/ Norris
...
11/ Ricciardo - was knocked out of Q1 by a whisker.

The track is a new track so there were many question marks heading into the race. The track has 27 turns with limited run off for most of the track with walls lining the much of the course.

The race was one of the more exciting races of the season with some questionable driving tactics thrown in the mix to spice up the interest.

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRhhS6BnLSY

1/ Hamilton
2/ Verstappen
3/ Bottas
4/ Ocon
5/ Ricciardo
6/ Gasly
7/ Leclerc
8/ Sainz
9/ Giovinazzi
10/ Norris

Vettel/Perez/Mazepin/Russell/Schumacher failed to finish

Hamilton won the start from Bottas and Verstappen. Perez locked up the fronts into first corner and managed avoid hitting Verstappen (now that would been a great career mole lol). Schumacher's cars rear snapped out and he hit the wall, bringing out first the yellow flag. Lewis came in to pits but Max stayed out for track position and the yellow flag turned into a red flag with all the cars filing into the pit lane. This allowed max to get fresh tyres in addition to the first place he got when he stayed out on the yellow flag.

Hamilton won the restart, Max went deep under brakes with Hamilton on the outside, with Max failing to take the turn and running off course for the for the next turn apex. Hamilton was forced to avoid Max, but this allowed Ocon to get in from of Hamilton. Max got 5 second penalty for passing out of bounds. Further back there was another accident with Leclerc getting the squeeze between the wall on Perez, clipping Perez' rear wheel sending him into retirement. The subsequent melee also took out Mazepin and Russell. Although Mazepin crashed into back of Russell, surprisingly it wasn't his fault ;) , as one can't see around the corner with the walls and when the traffic has checked there is nowhere to go and not enough time to react. Wrong place, wrong time. This was also one of the criticism of the track before the race.

Second Yellow/red flag Max won the start from Ocon

On lap 37 Lewis passes Max, but Max does another hail Mary braking effort and fails to stay on track so told by team to give the stop back to Lewis, which is followed by a heavy braking by Max while in the middle of the track and Lewis his the rear of his car, both survive to continue the fight. Max does let Lewis past just before the DRS zone so he gets the open wing and overtakes Lewis straight away. Lewis does get past, but it appears Max may have let him past. Max's tyres seem to go off in the last couple of laps and he finished some 7 seconds behind Lewis.

I haven't checked to see if Max was further penalised by the Stewarts after the race. The braking incident was just stupid. Max claims he was just trying to let Lewis past, but if that is the case you don't stay in the middle of the track and brake heavily, smart move would be to move to the side of the track and lift of slightly, which will be sufficient.

NB- exceptional effort by Ricciardo, from 11th to 5th on a difficult to pass track.

I missed why Vettel retired.

Both Hamilton and Max now on equal points, next (the last) round has the potential of being very exciting. I expect plenty of spite :headbanger"
 
Thanks for that gnarly write up! Much appreciated.

And yeah max got 5sec penalty applied post race, but didn't change the results,

Re, the circuit, fancy building a brand new circuit from scratch, and having basically zero run off, in 2021... Like... they built a brand new street circuit.. WTF? Why bother! It freeking annoyed me it did.

This last race, heck I think I'm even going to get a subscription to what ever channel its on and watch it.
 
This last race, heck I think I'm even going to get a subscription to what ever channel its on and watch it.
That's a thought. It has the potential to be one of the better races.
 
Update re Norris.

Norris was running 6th when the yellow flag came out as a result of the Schumacher accident and lost track position to those who did not stop. Short time later the race was red flagged allowing the rest of the field to re tyre, thus disadvantaging Norris. He ended 14th on the road after the fiasco, so bit unlucky. He managed to finish 10th.
 
More on Saudi round.

Race directors offer to Red Bull to redress the over taking issue during the second red flag.

George Russell on the track, great exiting track to drive on, but dangerous due to many blind corners

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDaiRIUrOao
 
oops delete me, wrong thread.
 
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