The Austrian Grand Prix 2021 was the 9th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, during the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of July.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Lando Norris completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 27 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 29-34: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 20.841 seconds during his pit stop on lap 49, while the slowest one was was Antonio Giovinazzi's, who stopped the clock at 27.122 seconds, 6.281 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 29.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 2 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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6Daniel Ricciardo
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3Valtteri Bottas
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1Lando Norris
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3George Russell
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4Fernando Alonso
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3Sergio Pérez
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2Nicholas Latifi
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4Charles Leclerc
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1Mick Schumacher
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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5Carlos Sainz
2 stops
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1Antonio Giovinazzi
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5Yuki Tsunoda
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3Pierre Gasly
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4Lance Stroll
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6Sebastian Vettel
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1Nikita Mazepin
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-Lewis Hamilton
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-Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.73 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.43 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option, even if Max Verstappen managed to win the race making 2 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Red Bull Ring, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Collision
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Sebastian VettelLap 69
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Esteban OconLap 0
Qualifying
Max Verstappen dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.048 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:03.720. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lando Norris.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 12 out of the 15 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.