Verstappen took the pole position in Abu Dhabi ahead of Hamilton and Norris. During the race, Hamilton had a better start and took the lead into the first turn. At turn six Verstappen attempted to pass, forcing Hamilton to evade by going off the track. Emerging from the corner still in the lead, Hamilton was instructed to give up the advantage he had gained. The pair settled in their positions until the first round of pit stops, with Hamilton gradually extending his lead. He later lost much of his advantage when Pérez, Verstappen's teammate with Red Bull, and who had yet to make a pit stop, made it difficult for Hamilton to pass him, though Verstappen was unable to capitalise.
Later, a virtual safety car period allowed Verstappen to change his tyres without losing track position; however, despite the tyre advantage Verstappen was unable to challenge Hamilton. With seven laps remaining, the safety car was brought out for a crash involving Latifi. Red Bull used the opportunity to give Verstappen a fresh set of soft tyres, while Hamilton, still on his now-quite-old hard compound tyres, was not pitted. Race director Michael Masi took the decision to allow the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves before restarting the race with only one lap remaining. Upon the restart, Verstappen quickly passed Hamilton and held him off for the remainder of the lap to win the race and the championship.
Cars were now under parc fermé conditions following the end of free practice three instead of qualifying, further restricting teams and drivers from making major changes to setups ahead of the race. The length of the two Friday practice sessions were cut from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying in Brazil, but was disqualified the following day for a technical infringement. Bottas won the qualifying sprint, giving him pole position for the Grand Prix. By finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen increased his championship lead over Hamilton by two points, and Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished third, increased Ferrari's championship lead over McLaren. Hamilton finished fifth in the sprint from last on the grid, but a five-place grid drop due to taking a new engine relegated him to tenth on the grid for the Grand Prix.
On race day, both Verstappen was able to overtake Bottas on the first lap. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Sainz were involved in a separate incident, with Norris getting a puncture. On lap 48, Hamilton caught up to Verstappen and attempted an overtake, but failed and resulted in both of them going off track. He won the race from Verstappen, decreasing Verstappen's championship lead from 21 points to 14 points. In France, Verstappen got his second pole of the season, only to go wide at the first turn and lose the lead to Hamilton in the first lap. After regaining first with an undercut in his first pit stop, Verstappen found himself under heavy pressure from both Mercedes drivers.
Verstappen relinquished his lead to pit a second time, one of two drivers to do so, returning to the track 18 seconds behind Hamilton. The speed advantage allowed him to make up the lost time, overtaking Bottas on lap 44 and Hamilton on the penultimate lap, for his third win of the year and his thirteenth win overall. Hamilton, now 12 points behind in the Drivers' Championship, did secure second, and with an overtake on lap 49, Pérez managed to take third place, pushing Bottas to fourth. It was the first race of the season where the race winner also took pole position and the fastest lap, and the first race of the season with no retirements.
Red Bull extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' championship to 37 points after the race. Formula 1 has announced the race calendar for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. A record-breaking 23-race schedule features the inaugural Miami Grand Prix and the return of the Australian, Canadian, Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix – all of which have been absent for two seasons due to the covid-19 pandemic. The F1 Sprint format, which was debuted this year and sees qualifying take place on Friday, sprint qualifying on Saturday and the grand prix on Sunday, is set to make up at least a third of the 2022 calendar.
Verstappen took pole from Russell and Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix in a wet qualifying session. The race was heavily affected by rain, which initially saw the start delayed by 25 minutes. After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility. It was not restarted, becoming the shortest race in Formula 1 history and the sixth to award half-points as less than 75% of the race was completed. Verstappen won by default, with Russell in second and Hamilton in third place.
As a result, Hamilton's lead in the championship was cut to three points from Verstappen. Leclerc took pole again in Azerbaijan, this time he was able to start the race. Hamilton was held up in his pitstop to allow Gasly to pass him in the pitlane, handing Verstappen the net race lead. On lap 30, Lance Stroll crashed out due to a tyre failure and brought out the safety car. With Verstappen comfortably leading with six laps to go, he suffered a tyre failure, causing him to crash on the pit straight, bringing out the safety car and then the red flag on lap 46 and 48, respectively. Hamilton went up the inside of Pérez at the restart, but forgot to adjust his brake bias and missed the corner.
Pérez won for the second time in his career and took his first win for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One, while Gasly took his third career podium. Hamilton took pole position in Qatar, while a penalty for failing to respect double waived yellow flags during qualifying forced Verstappen to start from seventh. Verstappen quickly recovered to second place but was unable to threaten Hamilton's race lead despite setting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race.
Fernando Alonso used a one-stop strategy to finish third, less than three seconds ahead Peréz in fourth, it was Alonso's first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. Bottas and Nicholas Latifi retired from the race after they and multiple others suffered punctures on track. The result reduced Verstappen's lead in the Driver's Championship to eight points while Mercedes' lead in the Constructor's Championship was reduced to five points.
At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole from Pérez and Verstappen. Verstappen went into the lead at turn 1 on lap 1, after it started raining on race day. Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi crashed at the exit of turn 13, bringing out the safety car. Under the safety car, Schumacher lost control of his car and spun into the pit exit, losing his front wing. On lap 31, at turn 7, Hamilton made a mistake, hitting the wall and damaging his front wing.
The moment he did, his teammate Bottas and George Russell had a crash at over 320 km/h on the start-finish straight, bringing out the red flag. After the race restarted, Norris overtook Charles Leclerc for second, but the former was overtaken by Hamilton, resulting in a podium of Verstappen, Hamilton and Norris. Hamilton earned the 100th pole position of his career in Barcelona, but duly gave up first position on the first corner of the grand prix, having no option but to sacrifice the spot to an aggressive move by Max Verstappen. The calendar will grow again in 2022 because of the addition of the Miami Grand Prix.
Twenty-three races — including the return of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after its debut last week — are scheduled from March 20 to Nov. 20. About a month has been cut from the season to avoid a clash with the FIFA World Cup. To accommodate that compressed schedule, races will be held on back-to back Sundays 11 times, up from eight this season, giving teams less time to rest. Bottas won sprint qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, but was forced to start from the back of the grid after exceeding the quota of one on his power units' components. Verstappen started at the front with the McLarens second and third. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop.
Ricciardo led to the end to take his first victory since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix and McLaren's first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. His teammate, Norris, finished behind him to secure the team's first 1–2 finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix and the first 1–2 finish of the season. And Bottas, after a penalty applied to Pérez, came third from the back of the grid. After the race, Verstappen was judged by the stewards to have been predominantly at fault for the collision with Hamilton. As a result, he was given a 3-place grid-penalty for the next race and two penalty points on his super licence.
That means wall-to-wall racing through most of the spring, summer and autumn which is great for TV viewers, but makes for a punishing schedule for the hard-working teams. The drama dutifully returned on the street circuit of Azerbaijan's capital, with a joint-record four red flags brought out during Saturday's qualifying session. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc managed to grasp pole position for the second race in a row but failed to keep it beyond lap two, when he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton.
After that the Monegasque went backwards down the order but recovered to fourth. Leclerc took pole at the Monaco Grand Prix despite crashing in the final minutes. The crash caused a driveshaft failure, meaning he was unable to start the race. Verstappen started at the front and led from Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr. On lap 30, Bottas was forced into retirement after his front-right tyre would not come off during a routine pitstop. Verstappen took the victory, as well as the championship lead for the first time in his career; Red Bull came away from this race with a one-point lead in the constructors' championship.
Behind Verstappen, Sainz took his first podium for Ferrari, and Norris took his second podium of the season in third place. On the formation lap, Sergio Pérez stalled at the last turn and was relegated to start in the pit lane, leaving his 11th place spot vacant. On the first lap, Nikita Mazepin spun at turn 3, crashing into the barrier and calling out the safety car. AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly collided with Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren the lap after the safety car ended, while Mick Schumacher spun off behind the pack.
Lewis Hamilton got past Verstappen on lap 40, but on lap 53 Verstappen overtook Hamilton at turn 4, before being ordered to give the place back because he exceeded track limits. In the end, Hamilton won from Verstappen, and Valtteri Bottas completed the podium. Lando Norris came fourth and Pérez, after starting from last, recovered to fifth. Alpine are due to give new Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri some track time, while both Ferrari and Haas will test another Formula 2 driver, Robert Shwartzman.
Mercedes welcomes Formula E champion Nyck de Vries, and Formula 2's Logan Sargeant makes his debut in a Williams. All teams will be obliged to run rookies in free practice sessions from 2022, so expect to see a lot more of them during grands prix weekends. Turkey's Istanbul Park circuit wasn't originally on the 2021 race calendar, but was called up to replace the cancelled Canadian Grand Prix. It would then be postponed indefinitely on account of UK government travel restrictions, which would have a big impact on many of the British-based teams, and replaced by the Styrian Grand Prix. That changed a second time in late June, when it was re-added to the schedule in place of Singapore. Meanwhile Stroll was by the accident ahead and drove into the side of Leclerc.
After a safety car, teams were told there would be a standing start from the grid, but just beforehand all the drivers except leader Hamilton dived into the pits for slick tyres, as the track was drying. Bottas took pole in Mexico City, but was spun around at the first corner by Daniel Ricciardo. Another incident behind involving Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher took both drivers out of the race, calling out the safety car. Verstappen took his second win in a row, increasing his lead from Hamilton in second, and Pérez took the final spot on the podium in his home race.
The Qatar Grand Prix will be the first F1 event in Qatar and is usually reserved for Moto-GP races. Teams will be challenged to learn the bumpy track and all its nuanced limits as they only get three practice attempts over the weekend. Out of all the drivers on the current grid, only Sergio Perez and Nikita Mazepin have raced at the new circuit in their junior careers. Sky's race day coverage of this weekend's Abu Dhabi grand prix will also simulcast on Channel 4, as mentioned above.
All Sky customers will have access to qualifying on Saturday and the race via Sky Showcase. However, Sky Sports F1 will be the only place where you can watch every session, including free practice, as well as the Formula 2 finale. In the event of one of these relatively unlikely outcomes leading to a tie on points, the driver who has claimed the most wins of the season would take the title. This season, Max has won nine grands prix while Lewis has won eight, which would therefore make Max the drivers' champion if they were tied on points. In the event two drivers had the same number of points and grand prix victories, the countback continues through the highest number of second places, highest number of third places and so on. Going into the final grand prix of the year at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit, Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton are tied on 369.5 points each.
The last time where the two leading Formula 1 drivers in the championship went into the final race tied on points was in 1974. "We are excited to announce the 2022 calendar as we prepare to enter a new era for the sport with brand new regulations and cars for next year that are designed to create closer racing," said Stefano Domenicali , President and CEO of Formula 1. "This season has been incredible so far with great battles on the track, large audiences tuning in and fans returning to the races after the impact of the pandemic. Another exciting element of the 2021 F1 season was the debut of Sprint Qualifying. The 100km races determined the starting grid for Sunday's grands prix and awarded championship points to the top three drivers. Channel 4's commentator called the inaugural Saudi GP "an incredible day of confusion," which is an understatement – this will go down as one of the most contentious races of all time.
But it delivered on thrills and means a final race of the season with the two leading drivers tied on points, as the incredible 2021 season reaches its conclusion. It was "won" by Max Verstappen, who had qualified on pole, with a delighted George Russell in the Williams finishing behind him after a sensational lap on Saturday. The second of the back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring saw Verstappen pick up where he left off, delighting the Austrian crowd with pole position and then leading every lap of his team's home grand prix.
A huge number of Dutch fans also mad there way to Austria to watch their hero dominate proceedings. The final race of the season will take place in Abu Dhabi on 12th December 2021. There were two raced in Bahrain in 2020's COVID-19 effected schedule, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton winning the race on the 'normal' F1 layout before Sergio Perez took a sensational first ever F1 win on the shorter outer loop. The postponement would mean a gap in the F1 calendar of over a month, between the now opening round in Bahrain on 28th March and the yet-to-be-confirmed replacement for the cancelled Vietnam Grand Prix on 2nd May. With the announcement of the delays to two races, it was also confirmed that the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, at the historic Imola circuit, will return for a second year to plug the gap. Imola hosted an emergency race in 2020 to help fill the disrupted season, and was popular with fans, after challenging the drivers with its more old school layout, despite proving slightly tricky for racing.
No announcement has been made yet about what race will take place on the empty May date, but speculation is mounting that Portimao in Portugal will also step back in as it did in 2020. Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in qualifying, but did not start the race. Max Verstappen, in the second slot, was the first driver on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change. Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position and won the race, his first of 2021. He was followed by Max Verstappen, who re-took the championship lead, and Sergio Pérez, who took his first podium since France. Verstappen was required to start from the back at the Russian Grand Prix for exceeding his quota of a number of his power unit components.
Norris took his first career pole position, from Sainz , and Russell. The running order changed substantially as heavy rain began to fall in the closing laps. Hamilton took his 100th Formula One victory as well as the championship lead, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.
Teams were required to allow a driver who had competed in fewer than two Grands Prix to replace one of their race drivers in a Friday practice session over the course of the season. Whilst these rules are intended to give a chance to more non-Formula One drivers to test a Formula One car, the wording of this rule meant that teams satisfy the requirement if one of their regular drivers was in their rookie season. The inaugural Qatar Grand Prix will be the 20th race of the 2021 F1 world championship and will be held on November 21.
The teams will battle at the Losail International Circuit outside Doha, and the main race is scheduled as per the traditional format i.e. without sprint qualifying. The Formula 1 race calendar for the rest of 2021 has been confirmed by the FIA on Saturday. The schedule has been altered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the new dates have now been announced. The season is currently headed up by British driver Lewis Hamilton as he aims for yet another championship. But when the leader slowed on the straight to hand back the place, Hamilton ran into the back of the Red Bull, causing damage to his front wing – a result of poor communication between teams and race control, it is thought. Both cars were able to continue and Verstappen yielded again but immediately re-took the position at the next corner.
