Ahmedabad: British car-racer Lewis Hamilton won his third consecutive Formula 1 (F1) title for Mercedes, despite the chaos, at the Jeddah Corniche circuit during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (GP) 2021 on Sunday.
Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen began the race from first, second, and third place, respectively. Hamilton led his Mercedes counterpart by 1.5 seconds as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez nearly slammed into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the 4th lap.
Mick Schumacher’s heavy crash at the 10th lap led to suspension during Verstappen’s lead. The red flag in the 13th lap indicated all cars return to their pit lanes.
The top 3 during the 14th lap were Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the first place, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes. Hamilton completed the first corner at the restart to gain the top spot, but Verstappen steered outside the white line to overtake him before Nikita Mazepin crashed into a wall at the 15th lap and raised another red flag.
The race restarted with Verstappen in the lead, whereas Esteban Ocon, ranking third, was pushed wide and outside by Hamilton in the 17th lap.
A yellow flag was raised in the 23rd lap when Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri spun off, and one of its wings came off. Though Hamilton came 2nd after the incident, he reduced the time difference to less than half a second in the 26th lap. Meanwhile, the safety cars on track also affected the racer’s performance.
Hamilton led with the fastest lap at 35 as Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo, and Bottas came 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively. Another mishap happened in the 38th lap when Hamilton Verstappen nearly collided. The British nearly rammed into the Red Bull and damaged his front wing.
The final ten laps saw a fierce and ongoing tussle between the two. The time difference between the racers closed in with Hamilton overtaking his opponent at the 48th lap with a time difference of 8 seconds to win the Saudi Arabian GP.
Meanwhile, Verstappen was the Best driver at the event. At 369.5 points each, Verstappen and Hamilton will battle for the final spot at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021.
(Avya Mathur)