The British Grand Prix 2021 was the 10th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, during the weekend of the 16th to the 18th of July.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Charles Leclerc, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Max Verstappen started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and had to retire on lap 0th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 41 pit stops during the race, although only 22 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 2 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 18-25: 14 stops
- Laps 27-30: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Nicholas Latifi's, stopping the clock at 27.543 seconds during his pit stop on lap 19, while the slowest one was was Lewis Hamilton's, who stopped the clock at 40.266 seconds, 12.723 seconds slower than Latifi, during his pit stop on lap 27.
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
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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2Charles Leclerc
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1Lewis Hamilton
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-Valtteri Bottas
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1Lando Norris
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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11Sebastian Vettel
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-Fernando Alonso
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4Carlos Sainz
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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-Esteban Ocon
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6Lance Stroll
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2Antonio Giovinazzi
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-George Russell
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6Yuki Tsunoda
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-Mick Schumacher
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3Nicholas Latifi
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2Nikita Mazepin
3 stops
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-Pierre Gasly
4 stops
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16Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.63 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 16 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 2, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
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, Sebastian Vettel, who had to retire on lap 40, and Max Verstappen, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 0.
Retired
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Sebastian VettelLap 40
Collision
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Max VerstappenLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.075 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:26.134. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Max Verstappen.
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 14 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.