Yet another. Lewis Hamilton has undisputedly won today the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2021. With today’s victory he has won at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya a total of six times. And the last five victories have been consecutive. It seems that nobody can overshadow him.
Despite not making a brilliant start, having been overtaken by Max Verstappen, the Briton did not lose his temper. In fact, the Dutchman led the race during sixty of the sixty-six scheduled laps. They started both on soft tyres, and the paces were rather equal. But Mercedes was able to score best as regards cunning and strategy, something that Red Bull was not able to do.
Seeing themselves stuck behind Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and his team decided to make a second pit stop. On the contrary, Max Verstappen, seemed to be willing to try to continue with the medium compound until the finish. The result was devastating for the second classified in the overall standings, since Verstappen was easily overtaken by Lewis Hamilton on new soft tyres.
And this has been victory number ninety-eight for Lewis Hamilton, who achieved yesterday his pole position number one hundred. Today’s result has served the Englishman to detach himself in the standings, as he has now won three of the four races staged this season so far, against one victory by Verstappen. Since Fernando Alonso’s victory in 2013, the rest of the editions have gone so far to Mercedes, with one exception, Verstappen’s victory in 2016, the first of his sports career.
Although the attention was mainly focussed on these two drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc had a battle of their own as well. The Monaco-born driver overtook the Mercedes driver during the first few laps, but eventually, Bottas was able to get back his third starting position, after a better pit stop strategy. However, Charles Leclerc, finished in a commendable fourth position, thus equalling his best result of the year.
The top positions were decided thanks to strategies, but there has been one driver who made a huge part of the work on the track, driving. We’re talking about Checo Pérez. The Red Bull driver was only able to be eighth yesterday in the qualifying, but today, he offered great overtakings at the Circuit. The result was his rise to fifth position. Behind him, Daniel Ricciardo classified as the best McLaren driver.
One of the local representatives, Carlos Sainz, was more than busy. He had to fight hard for his seventh position. Although he lost a couple of positions at the start, the Spaniard had to work hard all along the race. In the last quarter of the race, Sainz overtook Lando Norris and Estaban Ocon, both with very similar pit stop strategies. It was precisely with Lando Norris, with whom he featured one of the most controversial moments of the day. When the Madrid-born driver got into the slipstream of Norris, the McLaren Driver changed his path sharply to cut him. This cost him a red and white flag as a warning by the race direction.
With Lando Norris (McLaren) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) on eighth and ninth position respectively, Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) was the one to close the scoring positions. Things did not go that well for Fernando Alonso. Despite being almost throughout the race among the top 10, the two-times world champion had a complicated finish. Battling hard against the Aston Martin’s, especially with Lance Stroll, his hard work was not compensated, largely due to the strategy. With a single pit stop, his tyres said enough. Eventually, the Spanish driver changed his tyres, but took the chequered flag in seventeenth position.
Several touches during the race, but no accident or serious disputes during the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2021. In fact, the only driver who was not able to finish the race was Yuki Tsunoda. The AlphaTauri driver caused the deployment of the Safety Car in the seventh lap, after his engine stopped working in turn 10.
Hauger, Doohan and Nannini shine in F3
Dennis Hauger took the victory of the third race of the weekend of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. Thus, the Prema Racing driver has been able to show that his pole position was not a coincidence. Today’s race was the only race to respect the positions of the qualifying session, since the other races rearranged some positions in reverse order.
In addition to Hauger, Jack Doohan (Trident) also used the chance to start from second position and held on to it with tooth and nail. Third on the podium was Nannini (HWA Racelab). The other side of the medal went to Victor Martins (MP Motorsport) who had to settle for the fifth position despite starting next to Hauger.
Three races and three different winners. Formula 3 is becoming a high-level event, very similar to the intermediate class, Formula 2. In fact, there have been nine different drivers on the three podiums. This translates into a recently set-up classification that is more than tight and with many question marks and doubts when it comes to highlighting one of them.
Olli Caldwell (Prema Racing) was the driver who was closer to breaking the above statistics. The winner of the second race almost made it onto the podium, but he scored valuable points during this weekend. The Englishman kept off a group made of almost eight single-seater with minimum distances between them.
Saucy strengthens his leadership in Formula Regional by Alpine
Two out of two. Grégoire Saucy stepped today again on the highest spot of the podium at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He already showed yesterday that he is eager to claim the crown of the single-make championship this year and today he showed his authority again.
It is true that the ART Grand Prix driver started again from the pole position, but this fact has not detracted from his performance during the race. With today’s victory, he is a little bit more of a leader, and moreover, with his main rival for the title out of combat.
We are talking about David Vidales. The Spaniard has experienced a weekend to forget. Today he was involved in a multiple incident again, which led him to retire. Vidales arrived in Barcelona in second position of the standings, but after the two zeros of this weekend, the leader escapes and he falls back a couple of positions. But it is a long season and the options are still there.
The second place went to Alex Quinn (Arden) who managed to keep up the pace with Saucy. The third-placed driver took the chequered flag a little bit later, it was Isack Hadjar (R-ACE GP). He had a good performance, as he managed to clearly improve his sixth position on the starting grid.
With several Spanish representatives, their results were quite different. Brad Benavides (DR Formula) finished thirteenth, after improving almost 10 positions. Mari Boya (Van Amersfoort Racing) closed the top 20, followed by his team-mate, Lorenzo Fluxá. Catalan driver Belén García (G4 Racing) followed Vidales line and she was also involved in an incident with several cars.
Nearly 1000 Circuit Members enjoyed the show on site
After almost 15 months without opening its doors to the public, today Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was able to welcome almost 1000 people. In addition, these people are part of a very important group of people for the Catalan racetrack: The Circuit Members. They were able to enjoy the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2021 on site.
