Featuring Luke Smith from Autosport. Max Verstappen wins the first races of his title-defending season after outmanoeuvring Charles Leclerc in an enthralling battle to the chequered flag.
Max Verstappen passes Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the final race of 2021 to make himself the new world champion, Featuring former F1 driver Alex Yoong.
Read the full 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix strategy analysis here.
Max Verstappen is the 2021 world champion after a chaotic and controversial single-lap dash with Lewis Hamilton to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will start on pole in the race of his life, but Lewis Hamilton from second will have the more favourable strategy to fight for the title in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand prix.
Down to the wire. Lewis Hamilton wins in Saudi Arabia to level the scores and set up a do-or-die championship showdown Max Verstappen. With Phil Horton from Auto Week.
Read the full 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix strategy analysis here.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was always going to be memorable for setting the scene for the last race of the season, but a chaotic inaugural event in Jeddah delivered plenty of its own highlights.
Lewis Hamilton wins easily in the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix to slice Max Verstappen lead to just eight points with two races to go. Featuring ESPN’s Nate Saunders.
Lewis Hamilton made victory look easy in Qatar, blowing away title rival Max Verstappen and reducing his championship deficit to just eight points.
Lewis Hamilton holds all the cards in Formula 1’s first-ever Qatar Grand Prix, and with car pace and strategy on his side, he’s well placed to half his championship deficit to Max Verstappen.
Hamilton hits back: Lewis makes 24 passes in one race weekend to beat Max Verstappen in Brazil and keep his championship hopes alive. Featuring BBC pit lane reporter Jennie Gow
Lewis Hamilton can win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix — an ordinarily unremarkable statement made extraordinary by the last 24 hours in Formula 1.
Absolute domination. Max Verstappen trashes Lewis Hamilton on his way to victory in Mexico City to put one hand on the 2021 drivers championship. Featuring Thomas Maher from RacingNews365.com.
Max Verstappen is closing in on his first Formula 1 world championship, and with a dominant performance in the Mexico City Grand Prix the Dutchman and Red Bull Racing stamped their authority on the 2021 season.
You’d have got long odds as late as Saturday morning on Mercedes taking pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, but come the end of Q3 Valtteri Bottas had turned the form guide on its head — if anyone’s bothering to refer to the prediction book these days.
Max Verstappen fends off a charging Lewis Hamilton to take a strategically aggressive but perfectly judged victory in Austin and double his points lead. Featuring F1 journalist Abhishek Takle.
Max Verstappen scored an impressive victory over Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling United States Grand Prix, and with five rounds to go and a handy points lead, it could have been a championship defining race too.
The United States Grand Prix was almost a microcosm of the season to date. Form swung wildly between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing from first practice to the chequered flag, and in the end there was practically nothing between Verstappen and Hamilton on track. Either could have walked away a worthy winner.
But tiny percentage called got the job done for the challengers to put Verstappen in a strong position atop the title table, and Red Bull Racing closed its deficit to Mercedes in the constructors stakes to re-enliven its hops of a title double.
BACKGROUND
Around a month ago the Circuit of the Americas would have been considered a neutral venue for the two leading teams, favouring neither over the other. Two weeks ago it had moved into the Mercedes column thanks to the German marque’s performance at Istanbul Park, a track that makes similar demands of the car.
After first practice those more recent predictions appeared sure to come true. Mercedes led Red Bull Racing by almost a second, its car looking substantially more at ease through the high-speed corners in particular.
But the unexpected heat of the weekend, above 30°C, and the bumpiness of the track meant major changes were required for both cars overnight.
Mercedes had to raise its ride height so as to not risk floor damage, particularly on full tanks, while Red Bull Racing had Sebastien Buemi spend the night in the simulator at Milton Keynes to identify superior set-ups.
When the cards were put on the table on Saturday it was RBR and Verstappen who emerged with the better package.
But there was uncertainty around how these changes would affect race pace, particularly on the hard tyre. Knowing early that the hard compound would be key to a likely two-stop race, few drivers sampled the white-walled tyre, saving them instead for Sunday at the expense of understanding its longevity.
THE RACE-WINNING MOVE
For a moment it seemed Verstappen’s race would be undone in a moment, with Hamilton acing his start to take the lead at the first turn, but it quickly became clear that the W12 was no match for the RB16B on the medium tyre. Verstappen could easily follow Hamilton, even noting how much the Briton was sliding around on his overheating rubber.
But rather than try to launch a move or hang back and let Hamilton chew his tyres, Verstappen was handed the aggressive option of an early pit stop, coming in for the hard tyre on lap 10.
Mercedes was forced to make a decision: cover the early stop or stick it out on the ailing medium tyres. Without the benefit of having run the hards in practice, the team assumed they’d be similarly as delicate as the medium and that therefore splitting 46 laps between a pair of them would be too much to ask of the rubber. … Continue reading
Max Verstappen will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position, and despite lining up alongside title rival Lewis Hamilton, he does so from a position of strength.