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The French Grand Prix 2021 was the 7th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France, during the weekend of the 18th to the 20th of June.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 22 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 14-19: 12 stops
- Laps 31-34: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 29.682 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Mick Schumacher's, who stopped the clock at 31.457 seconds, 1.775 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 15.
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 1 stop. Only Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
13Yuki Tsunoda
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4Mick Schumacher
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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1Valtteri Bottas
-
6Carlos Sainz
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1Pierre Gasly
-
2George Russell
-
1Fernando Alonso
-
2Nicholas Latifi
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Sergio Pérez
-
3Lando Norris
-
3Esteban Ocon
-
2Antonio Giovinazzi
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2Nikita Mazepin
-
-Kimi Räikkönen
-
9Lance Stroll
-
3Sebastian Vettel
2 stops
-
9Charles Leclerc
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-Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.61 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 4.5 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 Circuit Paul Ricard, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
This was a clean race. There might have been some minor incidents, but in the end all drivers managed to cross the finish line, and none were disqualified after the race ended..
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.258 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:29.990. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lewis Hamilton.
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 13 out of the 14 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.