VERDICT: Beat two quicker cars and excelled in battle during the race. He controlled fifth for the rest of the race, although only held onto it under attack from Sainz after some hard but fair contact at Turn 17. He then got back to where he started by repassing Norris through Turn 13/14 and Sainz – who thought he was letting Norris back past after gaining an advantage at Turn 12 by leaving the track – through Turn 17/18. Had a lively first lap, initially jumping to fifth, then being passed by Sainz through the esses, then slipping behind Norris to run seventh. However, his underlying pace gap to Norris looked in the 0.1-0.2s bracket. VERDICT: Delivered in qualifying and the race, particularly with his brilliantly-managed final stint.Ĭame within a couple of hundredths of picking off Sainz’s Ferrari with a well-put-together lap, particularly in the closing corners where he avoided his team-mate’s mistake of pushing a little too hard and overworking the tyres. He did so brilliantly, never allowing Hamilton into DRS range. He couldn’t keep the Mercedes behind, settling into second despite taking to the Turn 1 runoff.Īfter undercutting Hamilton at the first stop then taking an early second stop, the question was whether he could balance up speed and tyre management. Verstappen bogged down a little at the start, which Red Bull put down to underestimating the available grip when evaluating its settings, and immediately moved left to cover Hamilton. The last sector made the difference in his battle for second with Hamilton, which Perez suspected might have had a little to do with the light rain but was more likely down to a couple of minor errors, with the final deficit only 0.015s. He even managed to take provisional pole on the first runs in Q1, only to slip to third on the final runs. Hit the ground running in FP1 and strung together his strongest weekend of the year based on Friday and Saturday. VERDICT: Not quite at Hamilton’s level in qualifying and “made some progress, but quite slowly” in the race. He then gradually closed the five-second gap to Sainz, who defended well, but Bottas took sixth place with a DRS pass on the penultimate lap. He gained one position through the first pitstop phase thanks to Gasly’s retirement, then overcut Norris at the second round of pitstops. Spent the short first stint in 10th, having been told to hand a place back to Gasly after passing him by taking to the Turn 1 run-off, ensuring he lost ground to the group ahead during the first 10 laps. Oct 25 : United States Grand Prix review Race That final lap had started adequately, but began to unravel at the end of the esses before he shipped significant time with front lock-ups and struggles to get the nose in later in the lap. Having shaded Hamilton on the first runs, he failed to improve on the second and ended up fourth-fastest. VERDICT: Gave Verstappen a run for his money but just lost out.īottas took his sixth ICE at the start of the weekend, meaning he went into qualifying carrying a five-place grid penalty. He closed the gap and at one stage looked favourite to catch and pass Verstappen, but once in the turbulent air was never quite able to get into DRS range – although he almost did on the last lap. That offset was extended to eight laps by the time he made his second stop for another set of hards with a deficit of 8.8s to make up. He lost that to Verstappen’s undercut, running three laps longer before his switch to hards. Made a better start than Verstappen and was able to take first place on the inside line at the first corner, which gave him the lead for the first stint. It was tight through the final sector, but Hamilton fell behind right at the end of the lap, ultimately ending up 0.209s slower. With Verstappen quicker in the first sector and Hamilton faster in the second, it added up to a deficit of just 0.024s for Hamilton at the end of sector 2.
F1 2021 DRIVER RATINGS DRIVERS
This year, in an attempt to utilise a wider range of scores, we have recalibrated the scoring to make 5 out of 10 an average mark and therefore indicative of a decent drive given the high standard of drivers in F1.įor a more in-depth explanation, read our outline of the modified system. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton stole the limelight during F1’s return to the United States, and whatever attention could be spared from that battle was probably drawn to Fernando Alonso’s hilarious antics.īut it was a race with plenty of action up and down the grid – and, as usual, Edd Straw has offered his take on how well each of the 20 drivers fared.Īfter each grand prix, The Race will rate each driver’s weekend with a mark out of 10.
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