The Qatar Grand Prix 2021 was the 20th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Losail International Circuit in Al Daayen, Qatar, during the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of November.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Fernando Alonso completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 30 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 17-19: 5 stops
- Laps 22-27: 9 stops
- Laps 30-35: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 25.175 seconds during his pit stop on lap 41, while the slowest one was was Valtteri Bottas's, who stopped the clock at 36.341 seconds, 11.166 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 33.
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 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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2Nicholas Latifi
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3Mick Schumacher
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-Fernando Alonso
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6Lance Stroll
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4Esteban Ocon
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-Sebastian Vettel
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2Daniel Ricciardo
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2Carlos Sainz
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5Charles Leclerc
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2Nikita Mazepin
-
14Valtteri Bottas
2 stops
-
5Yuki Tsunoda
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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9Pierre Gasly
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3Antonio Giovinazzi
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2George Russell
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-Lewis Hamilton
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7Sergio Pérez
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5Lando Norris
3 stops
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5Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.22 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.13 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 5 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race, even if Lewis Hamilton 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 Losail International Circuit, 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, Nicholas Latifi, who had a puncture that could not be repaired on lap 50, and Valtteri Bottas, who had took damage to the car on lap 48.
Puncture
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Nicholas LatifiLap 50
Damage
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Valtteri BottasLap 48
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.455 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:20.827. 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.