2021 Fujitsu Grand Prix of Australia

Map of the Phillip Island Circuit

*CRC Wiki note: You can watch the race via CRC's YouTube channel using this broadcast link.*

The **2021 Fujitsu Grand Prix of Australia** was a 207.15 mile (333.38 kilometer) motor race held on 14 March 2021 as the opening race of the 2021 AT&T Champ Car World Series season. The race was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, in Ventnor, Victoria, Australia for the second year in a row. The track holds a three year deal to host the event, with the contract up for renegotiations after the 2022 event. In accordance to Champ Car event protocols, practice took place on Friday, 12 March, while qualifying took place on Saturday, 13 March.

Andrew Draco entered the season, and the race, as the defending Indycar World Driver's Champion, while Striker Motorsports entered as the defending Indycar World Team's Champion. Ray Taylor entered the race as the defending race winner, having won the 2020 event to open the previous season. None of those parties played a major role in the race, as practice was dominated by the Panasonic Team Impulse duo of Hazel Lacasse and Sakura Ishibashi, with the duo also locking out the front row in qualifying, with Ishibashi starting on pole ahead of Lacasse. After a hectic 75 lap shootout, Esther Hoffson would take her first career Champ Car win ahead of the Swiss drivers of Simona Leroux and Nicole Liechti.

## Race Background

The 2021 Fujitsu Grand Prix of Australia continued the lineage of Australian events hosted by the Indycar World Championship dating back to the very beginning of the World Championship in 2000. Surfer's Paradise hosted the event from 2000 until 2019, with Phillip Island signing a three year contract to host from 2020 until 2022. The 2020 event was highly acclaimed for its unpredictability and entertainment, with several pundits calling it one of the highlights of the 2020 season.

The 2021 race began the second year of the Champ Car World Series, managed by Horizon Corporation. It was the first time 28 cars had been present for a road course event since the 2018 Straight Talk IndyCar Series season, with thirteen teams taking part in the event. Andrew Draco entered as the defending Indycar World Driver's Champion, but carried the statistic of having never won on Australian soil. Striker Motorsports entered as defending Indycar World Team's Champion, with an impressive resume at Surfer's Paradise, but it hadn't translated well to Phillip Island. Instead, underdog teams trended positively for the event. The previous year's race was won by LM Competition's Ray Taylor, who broke a nearly 2 year winless drought in the process.

Race attendance fared better in 2021, than the year prior. In 2020, a little less than 45,000 attended the event. In 2021, the attendance grew to just shy of 50,000 fans, with statistical anomalies accounting for media personnel and Champ Car personnel. The track's full capacity is 53,000.

Firestone, continuing with the tire selection procedure that has been in place since the 2010 season, opted to supply teams with the red-walled 'alternate' tire compound for the event. The alternate compound is the softer compound of tires available for the season, providing an increase in grip at the expense of durability.

## Entry List

All 28 cars entered for the full 2021 season were present for the event, coming from 13 teams. 7 entries were powered by Alpine-Renault, 7 entries were powered by Chevrolet, 8 entries were powered by Honda, and 6 entries were powered by Mercedes-Benz.

## Practice

Both free practice sessions were held on Friday, the 12th of March. Free Practice 1 was held from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. local time, while Free Practice 2 was held from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time.

## Qualifying

Qualifying took place on Saturday, the 13th of March, in a new format for the series. Beginning in 2021, road and street course events would use the European knockout qualifying format. Q1 would determine 20th through 28th, while Q2 would determine 11th through 19th. Q3 would be a pole shootout, and determine the top 10 starting positions in the race.

## Race Report

### Opening Laps

Panasonic Team Impulse led the field to the green flag to start the 75 lap race, but the lead was taken away by turn 3. Isabel Espinoza capitalized on a poorly-coordinated start from the Team Impulse duo of Sakura Ishibashi and Hazel Lacasse to jump from third on the grid to the race lead. This gave Obsidian Racing Team their first laps led since the 2015 season when Henna Venalainen last led for the team. Likewise, Stephanie Porter-Kelley also dispatched the Team Impulse duo by the start of lap 2, putting Chevrolet in a 1-2 position for the early laps of the race. By the end of lap 2, Lacasse had fallen from second to seventh behind Isabel Espinoza, Porter-Kelley, Ishibashi, Kunimitsu Kinoshita, David Wessel, and Camyron Jackson.

Trouble would be a running narrative early in the race. Mildred Moon crashed out on the opening lap, being sent wide at turn 11 and sliding over the wet grass into the tire barrier. A caution was not thrown due to its isolation from the field. Another incident occurred approaching turn 4 for lap 4, when Keisha Fox was bumped into the grass, followed by Lucien Lachapelle and Diego Jaramillo. That incident did not cause a full course caution, but later in the lap, a multi-car crash between Camyron Jackson, Matheus Michelin, and Astrid Krane would draw out the yellow, after all three went off track and collided in the treacherous turn 11. All three would be evaluated and clear from the infield medical center. The caution would allow the drivers to pit for the first time for fresh Firestone tires, with the exception of Isabel Espinoza, and Porter-Kelley, who maintained their track positions, as well as Kaylee Zappa and Brad Nerri, who gambled on valuing track position over tires as both were well down the order before the caution.

The race would go back to green on lap 9, with the drivers on fresh tires scrambling to gain track position and pass those who stayed out on the starting tire set. Brad Nerri, on the older tires, got up to speed quicker, jumping from fourth to second by turn 3, tailing the Obsidian Chevrolet of Isabel Espinoza. While Nerri pursued Espinoza, Porter-Kelley began battling for third with Kinoshita, reviving a rivalry that began back in Formula One in 2013. Kinoshita would gain the upper hand on the exchange, chasing down the front duo when the second caution of the race would come out at the end of lap 10. Turn 11 again proved to be a problem spot, while the accident itself stretched far beyond just that corner. Gerard Perth slid off the road, and into the tire barrier, but unlike with the first caution, the larger part of the accident came from avoiding the wrecking car of Perth. Lucien Lachapelle, moving to the inside line to avoid Perth's pirouetting Mercedes, came across the nose of Diego Jaramillo, who also came across the nose of Ronald Walker. All three cars initially saved their cars, with Jaramillo sliding across the wet grass in an attempt to keep the car safe, but couldn't avoid rejoining the track right into the sidepod of Lachapelle. Both Jaramillo and Lachapelle pitched into a long slide towards the tire barrier on the outside of turn 12, and retiring from the race.

The second caution saw another round of pit stops, which mixed the running order up, and gave David Wessel the race led, which he'd hold onto for a period of time. Kunimitsu Kinoshita, despite having phenomenal pace, would pull the car to pit lane on lap 16, retiring due to mechanical issues. Likewise, Keisha Fox would be parked on lap 18 for reported oil leaking due her incident on lap 3 with Lachapelle. After 18 laps, 19 cars were left running of the initial 28 starters.

### Mid-Race

Esther Hoffson would take the lead of the race on lap 19, passing Siri Lundqvist and David Wessel to assume the lead approaching the first round of green flag pit stops. Hoffson and Wessel battled for the race lead, while the battle for third dissolved to being between the two Swiss drivers, Nicole Liechti for Black Rose Racing, and Simona Leroux for Red Bull Highlight Racing. The front of the field would see the lead change hands between Hoffson and Wessel on multiple occasions, with the majority of the first half of the race dominated by the two Honda-powered drivers. On lap 35, Cristine Espinoza's day came to an early end. The elder Argentinian driver crashed out, but due to her being alone on track, a caution wasn't called, and she was cleared and released from the infield medical center. Green flag pit stops began on lap 37, with Esther Hoffson relinquishing the race lead to Isabel Espinoza a lap later on lap 38 to make her second stop. Espinoza would stretch her tires to lap 44, giving the lead to Stephanie Porter-Kelley, who would lead two laps before pitting and giving the lead to Nicole Liechti and completing the pit cycle on lap 47. Liechti at that point led from Ray Taylor, Esther Hoffson, Simona Leroux, and David Wessel. Liechti would hold onto the lead until making her final green flag pit stop on lap 57, handing it to David Wessel, who added to his lap total for a lap before doing the same, handing it over to Isabel Espinoza, who clinched the points for most laps led by reassuming the lead for the third time in the race.

### Closing Laps

Espinoza held a 12 second advantage over Porter Kelley with 10 laps to go in the race. A bit further down the order, Nicole Liechti was charging through the cars on older tires, closing in on Espinoza by two seconds a lap. While Espinoza held her gap from the rest of the field, the cars on older tires began being caught by cars with fresher tires on the alternate strategy, creating a lot of wheel to wheel racing within the top 10. It would all come undone on lap 68. While entering the downhill turns of 9 and 10, Ray Taylor clipped Kaylee Zappa twice, with the second contact pushing both into the tire barriers at the base of the hill near turn 10, ending the race for both of them after being in the top 10 all race long. The third and final caution of the race neutralized the field, negating what would have been a walk off win for Isabel Espinoza and Obsidian Racing Team. It also now required the 16 remaining drivers to make a strategy call. Stay out on the current sets of tires, or come in for fresh tires and attempt to blitz the rest of the field with a grip advantage. All 16 drivers stayed out, with drivers like Hoffson, Liechti, and Leroux on the freshest tires in the field. With Espinoza's lead gone, the restart with two laps to go ensured pandemonium. Coming to the restart, Espinoza led Porter-Kelley, Lacasse, Liechti, Leroux, Hoffson, Wessel, Kirichenko, Blackman, and Ishibashi. The front three got a jump on the restart, only for Porter-Kelley to challenge Espinoza out of turn 2. Both Liechti and Hoffson moved by Lacasse, with Hoffson going three wide in turn 6 to assume the race lead. Hoffson went from sixth to first on the restart, to hold the lead for the final time as the rest of the field sorted out positions amongst them. Simona Leroux would push herself ahead of Espinoza, with Nicole Liechti following suit to secure the final podium spot on the final lap. For Hoffson, it marked both the first win for her and for Eastern Atlantic Motorsports, and gave her the Indycar World Championship points lead for the first time in her career.

## Box Score

### Race Statistics

* Cautions: 3 for 12 laps
* Lead Changes: 12 between 5 drivers
* Weather: 76-80 degrees (F), winds North-Northwest between 6 and 13 mph.

## See Also

* 2021 Honda 300, the following race of the 2021 Champ Car season.