2021 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Winners And Losers

Formula One’s Drive To Survive Netflix crew will certainly be licking their lips at what transpired at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. It has everything, including chaos, three restarts, crashes, as well as another controversial incident between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen which sets the scene for the perfect tie-breaker showdown worthy of a season finale. 

In this report, we take you through the winners and losers in the penultimate round of the 2021 Formula One season:

Winners

Lewis Hamilton

This race was anything but straightforward for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Sure, he led the early stages after qualifying on pole position, but lost the lead to the Red bull Honda of Max Verstappen in the first red flag period. But the Briton was shadowing his title rival all the time, and had some close wheel-to-wheel moments. But the highlight of the race has to be what seems like a miscommunication where Verstappen was trying to give the position to Hamilton, but the pair collided in the process. Despite incurring front wing damage, Hamilton eventually got past and took his 103rd career win.  

This win is crucial for Hamilton’s hopes for an eight title, as he’s now tied on 369.5 points with Verstappen heading into the season finale. 

Esteban Ocon

After Fernando Alonso’s heroics at Qatar, it was teammate Esteban Ocon’s turn to be the hero at Saudi Arabia. Sure, the Alpine driver benefitted hugely from the red flag period, but he put up a valiant defense for third position. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas clinched third place on the final lap by less than a tenth of a second. Nonetheless, fourth is another strong result for the Alpine squad in their attempt to seal the fifth spot in the constructors standings

Daniel Ricciardo

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After a difficult triple header, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo had a welcome return to form at Jeddah, even getting in the fight for a podium. Eventually, the Australian had to settle for fifth, which was important for McLaren to try and stop Ferrari’s momentum in the fight for third in the constructors standings.

Antonio Giovinazzi 

Arguably one of the most under the radar performances in the race, the Alfa Romeo driver managed to stay out of the carnage, and finished a strong ninth in his penultimate race in F1.

Losers

Max Verstappen 

Everything for the championship leader started to go wrong from the final Q3 run, where a certain pole position qualifying lap was squandered by hitting the barriers on the final corner. Starting third on the grid, the Red Bull Racing Honda driver did gain the lead in the red flag period, but a crucial error in cutting the corner while battling title rival Lewis Hamilton incurred a five second time penalty. 

That’s not all, as while surrendering the lead to Hamilton, the two collided, with the stewards asserting blame on Verstappen,leading to a 10-second time penalty. Fortunately, Verstappen still managed to finish in second place, but is now level on points with Hamilton in the drivers standings heading into the season finale.

Fernando Alonso

While one side of the Alpine garage was on a high, the other side had a race to forget. Fernando Alonso struggled throughout the race weekend, and made multiple mistakes in the race to finish 13th at the chequered flag.

Yuki Tsunoda

The AlphaTauri driver seemed set for a strong result early on in the race, but a costly error while battling Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel undid all that hard work. Tsunoda had to pit for repairs, and then spent the rest of the race trundling down in 14th place until the chequered flag.

The Formula Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has set up a firecracker end to an intense 2021 season with a tiebreaker fight for the drivers’ title coming to a close at the season finale in seven days time at Abu Dhabi. It is scheduled to run from December 10-12, 2021.