2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The **2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race, held on 5 December 2021 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, in Saudi Arabia. The inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was the 21st round of the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship.

## Background

### Affects of COVID-19

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was announced to be on the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship calendar in November 2020. The race was originally to take place on 28 November, but it was rescheduled due to the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the eve of the race weekend, Williams CEO Jost Capito announced that he was tested COVID-positive, therefore missing the weekend with the team.

### Frank Williams

On 28 November, one week before the race, Williams co-founder and former owner Sir Frank Williams died at the age of 79. Teams sported tributes on their cars, and a minute's silence took place approximately one hour before the start of the race. On Sunday, former Williams driver Damon Hill did a lap of honour in the FW07, Williams's first championship winning car.

### Alpine

Alpine ran a special livery for the weekend to commemorate their 100th race with one of their sponsors Castrol.

### Championship Permutations (Before the race)

#### Constructors Championship Permuations

Going into the race, Ferrari lead the championship over McLaren. In order for the championship to be taken to the final race in Abu Dhabi, McLaren needed to outscore Ferrari by at least 24 points. Failure to do that would see Ferrari crowned champions.

#### Drivers Championship Permuations

Norris was leading the championship going into the weekend, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Norris needed to outscore Sainz by 2 points to knock Sainz out of contention for the championship. If Norris wanted to win the championship this weekend, he would need to finish third and hope Leclerc doesn't score points.

 1st(Without the fastest lap)
 2nd (With the fastest lap)
 2nd (Without the fastest lap)
 3rd (With the fastest lap)
 3rd (Without the fastest lap)

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race or practice.

### Tyre Choices

Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C2, C3, and C4 compounds of tyre to be used during this Grand Prix weekend.

## Practice

There were three practice sessions, each scheduled for one hour. The first two practice sessions took place on Friday 3 December at 16:30 and 20:00 local time (UTC+03:00) and the third practice session took place at 17:00 on 4 December.

## Qualifying

Qualifying took place on 4 December at 20:00 local time and lasted for one hour.

## Race

The race started at 20:30 local time on 5 December and lasted for 50 laps. The race was interrupted with incidents that resulted in one safety car period, two red flags, and four virtual safety car periods.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Constructors' Championship standings

## External Links

1. ↑  Includes 1 point for fastest Lap
2. ↑  Yuki Tsunoda finished 10th, but received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sebastian Vettel.