2021 Austrian Grand Prix

The 2021 Austrian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 BWT Großer Preis von Österreich 2021) was a Formula One motor race held on 4 July 2021 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The race was the ninth round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship, and the 35th running of the Austrian Grand Prix (the 34th as part of the World Championship since 1950) as well as the second of two consecutive races to be held at the Red Bull Ring with the Styrian Grand Prix held the week before at the same venue.

2021 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 9 of 22[a] in the 2021 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Layout of the Red Bull Ring
Race details[2]
Date	4 July 2021
Official name	Formula 1 BWT Großer Preis von Österreich 2021
Location	Red Bull Ring Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.318 km (2.683 miles)
Distance	71 laps, 306.452 km (190.420 miles)
Weather	Partly cloudy
Attendance	132,000[3]
Pole position
Driver	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:03.720
Fastest lap
Driver	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:06.200 on lap 62
Podium
First	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda
Second	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes
Third	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

Background

Further information: 2021 Formula One World Championship § Entries

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.^[4] Callum Ilott drove for Alfa Romeo Racing in place of Antonio Giovinazzi in the first free practice session, as well as Roy Nissany, who drove for Williams in place of George Russell, and Guanyu Zhou, who drove for Alpine in place of Fernando Alonso, making his Formula One practice debut.^[4]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.^[5] Initially, Pirelli selected C2, C3, and C4 tyre compounds before changing the tyre choices in accordance with the double event at the same venue, preceded the week before by the Styrian Grand Prix.^[6]

Qualifying

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen set the fastest time in qualifying to take the seventh pole position of his career. He was followed by Lando Norris who qualified a career-best second and McLaren's best since 2012, and Verstappen's teammate Sergio Pérez in third place.^[7]

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:04.249	1:03.927	1:03.720	1
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:04.345	1:04.415	1:03.768	2
3	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:04.833	1:04.483	1:03.990	3
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:04.506	1:04.258	1:04.014	4
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:04.563	1:04.376	1:04.049	5
6	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:04.841	1:04.412	1:04.107	6
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:04.967	1:04.518	1:04.273	7
8	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:04.846	1:04.493	1:04.570	111
9	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1:04.907	1:04.553	1:04.591	8
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:04.927	1:04.547	1:04.618	9
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:04.596	1:04.559	N/A	10
12	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:04.906	1:04.600	N/A	12
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:04.977	1:04.719	N/A	13
14	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:04.472	1:04.856	N/A	14
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	1:04.782	1:05.083	N/A	15
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	1:05.009	N/A	N/A	16
17	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:05.051	N/A	N/A	17
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:05.195	N/A	N/A	18
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:05.427	N/A	N/A	19
20	9	Nikita Mazepin[b]	Haas-Ferrari	1:05.951	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:08.746
Source:[9][10]

Notes

• ^1 – Sebastian Vettel received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso during qualifying.^[11]

Race

Race winner Max Verstappen after passing the chequered flag

The race started at 15:00 local time. Esteban Ocon retired on the first lap after colliding with the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi and breaking his front suspension. The safety car was deployed and the race was continued on lap 4. At the restart, Lando Norris, who was running 2nd at the time, tried to defend against the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez at turn 4, which resulted in Perez going off-track and joining back in tenth place. Norris was given a 5-second time penalty for the incident. On lap 31, Norris pitted to serve his penalty and to change his tyres. Perez received two 5-second penalties, having been judged to have "forced Leclerc off track" on two occasions.^[12] On the last lap, Kimi Räikkönen collided with the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, meaning Vettel was unable to finish the race.^[13] By taking pole, fastest lap, win, and leading every lap of the race, Max Verstappen achieved his first career grand slam.^[14]

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	71	1:23:54.513	1	261
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	71	+17.973	5	18
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+20.019	2	15
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+46.452	4	12
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	71	+57.144	10	10
6	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	71	+57.9152	3	8
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+1:00.395	13	6
8	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	71	+1:01.195	12	4
9	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	71	+1:01.844	6	2
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	70	+1 lap	14	1
11	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	70	+1 lap	8
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	70	+1 lap3	7
13	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	70	+1 lap4	9
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	70	+1 lap	15
15	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	70	+1 lap5	16
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	70	+1 lap6	18
177	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	69	Collision	11
18	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	69	+2 laps	19
19	9	Nikita Mazepin[b]	Haas-Ferrari	69	+2 laps8	20
Ret	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	0	Collision	17
Fastest lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-Honda) – 1:06.200 (lap 62)
Sources:[10][15][16]

Notes

• ^1 – Includes one point for fastest lap.
• ^2 – Sergio Pérez received a 10-second time penalty for forcing Charles Leclerc out of the track twice.^[15]
• ^3 – Yuki Tsunoda received a five-second time penalty for crossing the line at the pit entry.^[15]
• ^4 – Lance Stroll received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.^[15]
• ^5 – Kimi Räikkönen finished 16th on track, but received a post-race drive-through penalty converted to a 20-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sebastian Vettel. He was classified 15th due to Nicholas Latifi's penalty.^[15]
• ^6 – Nicholas Latifi finished 15th on track, but received a post-race 10-second stop-and-go time penalty converted to a 30-second time penalty for not respecting double yellow flags.^[15]
• ^7 – Sebastian Vettel was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.^[15]
• ^8 – Nikita Mazepin received a post-race 10-second stop-and-go time penalty converted to a 30-second time penalty for not respecting double yellow flags. This made no difference as he finished last.^[15]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Max Verstappen 182 2 Lewis Hamilton 150 3 Sergio Pérez 104 4 Lando Norris 101 5 Valtteri Bottas 92 Source:[17]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull Racing-Honda 286 2 Mercedes 242 3 McLaren-Mercedes 141 4 Ferrari 122 5 AlphaTauri-Honda 48 Source:[17]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2021 Spielberg Formula 3 round
• 2021 W Series Spielberg round 2

Notes

1. At the time of the event Formula One planned to hold twenty-three Grands Prix.^[1]
2. Nikita Mazepin is Russian, but he competed as a neutral competitor using the designation RAF (Russian Automobile Federation), as the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships. The ban was implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency in response to the state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.^[8]

References

1. Smith, Luke (28 August 2021). "Formula 1 reveals updated 2021 calendar, drops to 22 races". Autosport. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
2. "Austrian Grand Prix 2021". Formula1.com.
3. "Formula 1 announces TV, race attendance and digital audience figures for 2021". Formula1.com. 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
4. "2021 Austrian Grand Prix – Entry List" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 1 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
5. Southwell, Hazel; Collatine, Keith (21 May 2021). "Pirelli will bring different tyre compounds for two races at Red Bull Ring". Race Fans. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
6. Jonathan Noble (19 February 2021). "Pirelli reveals tyre compound choices for F1 2021". Motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
7. "Austrian GP: Verstappen beats Norris to pole, Hamilton fourth". Motorsport. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
8. Luke Smith (5 February 2021). "Mazepin set to race under neutral flag after CAS ruling extends to F1". motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
9. "Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis von Österreich 2021 – Qualifying". Formula1.com. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
10. "Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis von Österreich 2021 – Starting Grid". Formula1.com. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
11. "Vettel handed 3-place grid drop for impeding Alonso in qualifying". Formula1.com. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
12. "Leclerc says he wants to move on after clearing air with Perez over two on-track clashes in Austria". Formula One. 4 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
13. "Dramatic last lap collision with Raikkonen a 'misunderstanding' says Vettel". Formula 1. 4 July 2021. Archived from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
14. "F1 – Verstappen extends title lead with Austrian Grand Prix grand slam as Hamilton finishes fourth". 4 July 2021.
15. "Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis von Österreich 2021 – Race Result". Formula1.com. 4 July 2021. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
16. "Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis von Österreich 2021 – Fastest Laps". Formula1.com. 4 July 2021. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
17. "Austria 2021 - Championship". www.statsf1.com.

External links

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