2021 Bahrain Grand Prix

## Lap Leader

The **2021 Bahrain Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 race which was held on 28 March 2021 at the Bahrain International Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the west of Bahrain. It served as the season opener of the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship, and was the seventeenth running of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

## Background

After Pre-season testing there was excitment about the closeness of the pack, with the relative speeds of Ferrari, AlphaTauri, McLaren, Alpine and Aston Martin all uncertain. McLaren and Aston Martin significantly modified their aerodynamics, with McLaren changing from Renault power units to Mercedes, and Aston Martin's having issues with their "low-rake" philosophy. Alpine, meanwhile, had shown decent but not spectacular pace in testing. AlphaTauri, with a new driver in Yuki Tsunoda, looked to progress upwards from a year which included a win for Pierre Gasly at Monza, and Ferrari sought to recover from their previous season, which had been their worst in F1.5 history.

Haas, one of the three teams at the back of the grid, had announced before the start of the season that development on their 2021 car had already ceased, and that the team's sole focus was on the 2022 technical regulation changes. Their two rivals, Williams and Alfa Romeo Racing, last and eighth in 2020, had privately taken a similar approach by gradually stopping development of their uncompetitive cars, although no public comments were made until after the race.

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. Three drivers made their debuts in Formula 1.5. Yuki Tsunoda, who had finished third in the 2020 Formula 2 Championship, had impressed in pre-season testing for AlphaTauri. Two rookies debuted further down the grid for Haas: Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, made his debut alongside Nikita Mazepin, a Russian driver who competed under a neutral flag, due to his country's role in a doping scandal. Schumacher had won the previous year's Formula Two championship, while Mazepin had finished fifth.

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium and soft respectively) for teams to use at the event. These were the same tyres as had been used in the previous year's event, but one step softer than those which had been used in 2019, when the C1, C2, and C3 compounds had been used. Ferrari and Alpine tested the 18-inch tyres intended for the 2022 cars in the three days after the event.

## Practice

The first practice session started at 14:30 local time (UTC+03:00) and the second practice session started at 18:00 local time, both on 26 March. The final practice session started at 15:00 local time on the following day. All three practice sessions lasted for one hour. This was the first race with the reduced practice lengths, with the first and second practice sessions having previously been 90 minutes in length from 2007 to 2020.

The first practice session ran without incident and ended with Lando Norris fastest for McLaren, ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. The second practice session ended with Norris again fastest, ahead of Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo. Kimi Räikkönen hit the barriers at turn 3. The third practice session ended with Gasly fastest ahead of Sainz and the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen.

Norris downplayed his strong practice form, saying he was not completely happy with his car despite topping the first two sessions.

## Qualifying

Qualifying commenced at 18:00 local time on 27 March. A spin for the Haas of Nikita Mazepin early in the first part of qualifying (Q1) was quickly overshadowed by his actions near the end of the session. The Russian rookie angered many by not only breaking the 'unwritten gentleman's agreement' among the drivers to not overtake in the final sector of out laps, but by exacerbating the issue in spinning at the first corner, ruining the chances of others, including Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel, to set a better lap time. The eliminated drivers were Ocon, Nicholas Latifi, and Vettel and the two Haas drivers, Mick Schumacher and Mazepin. Vettel would receive a five-place grid penalty for failing to slow adequately for the yellow flags after Mazepin's second spin, and would start the race from last.

Yuki Tsunoda in his AlphaTauri, who struggled on the medium tyres having been fastest at the end of Q1, and ended up eliminated in Q2. George Russell failed to reach higher than 11th in his slow Williams. The other drivers knocked out were the two Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen, who ended the session in 10th and 8th.

In Q3, the top 7 drivers battled for pole position, in which Charles Leclerc took the top honours. Pierre Gasly followed, qualifying on the front row in 2nd place. The two McLaren drivers locked out the 2nd row with reigning World Champion, Daniel Ricciardo, in third and Lando Norris in fourth. Carlos Sainz qualified 5th in his first weekend for Ferrari, whilst Alonso was 6th fastest on his return to the sport. Lance Stroll qualified 7th in Aston Martin's first qualifying session.

## Race

F1.0 Driver Sergio Perez stopped on the formation lap on the way to the grid, which prompted an additional formation lap and shortened the race from 57 to 56 laps. Perez managed to restart his Red Bull, and was instructed by his team to start the race from the pitlane, in line with the regulations. When the race got underway, Nikita Mazepin lost control of his Haas car on the exit of turn 3 and spun into the barriers on the exit of the corner. Mazepin retired from his debut race. The safety car was deployed until the end of lap three, and at the restart Leclerc held the lead. Lando Norris, who had passed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap, managed to pass the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly. Gasly then made contact with Ricciardo's rear and lost his front wing, necessitating a pitstop, the contact with Gasly resulted in a loss of pace for Ricciardo for the rest of the race. Mick Schumacher in the other Haas also spun, but was able to continue.

Norris managed to pass Leclerc for the lead on lap 8 following a sustained battle, and numerous moves were being made in the tightly packed field. When Alpine told Fernando Alonso to pit from fourth place for fresh tyres on lap 11, it triggered a flurry of activity as teams sought to not be outwitted by the undercut strategy of others.

By lap 18 all the drivers had pitted, and Carlos Sainz Jr., Sebastian Vettel and Alonso were engaging in a three-way scrap for fith place, described as 'brilliant wheel-to-wheel racing' by Jolyon Palmer, from which Sainz emerged triumphant on lap 23. The rookie Yuki Tsunoda soon overtook the two former World Champions in quick succession: first the Aston Martin of Vettel on lap 25; then Alonso on lap 27. Alonso was forced to retire from the race, with a brake issue.

Sainz overtook Lance Stroll for fourth into turn 1, and Esteban Ocon was rear-ended by the Aston Martin of Vettel. Both were able to resume racing.

### **Post Race**

Alpine revealed that Fernando Alonso's retirement was caused by a sandwich wrapper getting lodged in one of his brake ducts. Yuki Tsunoda's performance was highly praised, with Ross Brawn calling him the "best rookie F1 has had for years". Tsunoda was critical of his own performance, stating he was only "half satisfied". Sebastian Vettel felt that he could not have avoided a collision with Esteban Ocon, but he did apologise for the incident. Ocon was pleased with his race pace and strategy, but was disappointed with his final result, attributing it to bad luck in qualifying and the collision with Vettel; he believed he could have finished in the lower half of the points had his qualifying attempt been "normal".

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

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Constructors' Championship standings

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## External Links

1. ↑ Sebastian Vettel received a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect double yellow flags in Q1
2. ↑  Sebastian Vettel received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Esteban Ocon.
3. ↑  Gasly was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
4. ↑  Latifi was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.