Laps, times and tires chartsRaceFans

Mercedes gave Lewis Hamilton the chance to win the Bahraini Grand Prix when they reacted quickly to the first pit stops behind him, and put him in the pits ahead of race leader Max Verstappen.

Tires degrade quickly on the Bahrain Abrasive International Circuit, and riding on new tires offers a powerful “undercut” advantage. Hamilton gained a huge two-and-a-half seconds after switching to the new rubber, and having been only 1.7 seconds behind Red Bull in the lead before, he was sure to put himself in a position to take the lead. advance at this point.

Red Bull responded in the only way they could – by extending Verstappen’s first and second stints for as long as they dared. With further degradation forcing Hamilton to return to the pits for his second stop on lap 28 – half distance, suggesting he would need to set a third time – the plan seemed to work.

Indeed, the strategists can be confident that, having arguably dropped the ball by letting Hamilton take the lead in the first place, they put Verstappen in a position where he was able to pass the Mercedes for the lead three laps from the end. (The movement didn’t stick, but that’s not the problem.)

Two things allowed Mercedes to be so aggressive with Hamilton’s strategy. The first was the presence of Valtteri Bottas. Once freed from Charles Leclerc, Bottas was close enough to the leaders to be a factor, and Mercedes moved him closer to a conventional strategy, forcing Red Bull to cover both options. Unfortunately for Bottas this was marred by a slow second pit stop.

The second important factor was that Mercedes kept on hand a new set of C2 hard tires for the race, which Red Bull did not have. Both drivers made good use of it in their intermediate stint, the importance of which was not lost on Verstappen.

“I think from a strategy point of view we will have to analyze what we could have done better,” he said. “We didn’t have the tires like them, so we didn’t really have a lot of flexibility in the strategy. So maybe here too we could have done better in the choice of our tires throughout practice.

“Last year we would have been very happy with this result and now we are disappointed so we have definitely taken a good step forward and of course it’s still a very long season. We just have to keep going and try to do better. “

Red Bull may have started the season with the fastest car, but the world champions took the opportunity to prove they can with tactical superiority and speed.

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2021 Bahrain Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each pilot on each lap. Click the name to highlight, right click to reset. Switch the drivers using the commands below:

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix race chart

The differences between each driver at each lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large deviations omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, and right click to reset. Switch the drivers using the commands below:

Position change

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times

All driver lap times (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, and tilt pilots using the control below:

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps

Fastest lap of each driver:

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2021 Bahrain Grand Prix tire strategies

Pneumatic strategies for each driver:

	1st relay	2nd relay	3rd relay	Step 4
Lewis hamilton	C3 (13)	C2 (15)	C2 (28)
Max Verstappen	C3 (17)	C3 (22)	C2 (17)
Valtteri Bottas	C3 (16)	C2 (14)	C2 (24)	C3 (2)
Lando norris	C4 (12)	C3 (21)	C2 (23)
Sergio Perez	C3 (2)	C3 (17)	C2 (19)	C3 (18)
Charles Leclerc	C4 (12)	C3 (20)	C2 (24)
Daniel Ricciardo	C4 (13)	C3 (19)	C2 (24)
Carlos Sainz Jnr	C4 (15)	C3 (22)	C2 (19)
Yuki tsunoda	C3 (15)	C2 (18)	C2 (23)
Lance ride	C4 (12)	C3 (16)	C2 (28)
Kimi raikkonen	C3 (13)	C2 (16)	C3 (27)
Antonio Giovinazzi	C3 (12)	C2 (18)	C3 (25)
Esteban Ocon	C4 (13)	C3 (18)	C2 (24)
George russell	C4 (13)	C3 (23)	C3 (19)
Sebastian vettel	C3 (24)	C2 (31)
Mick schumacher	C3 (14)	C3 (19)	C2 (22)
Pierre Gasly	C3 (4)	C2 (15)	C3 (20)	C2 (13)
Nicolas latifi	C4 (14)	C3 (18)	C3 (19)
Fernando Alonso	C4 (11)	C3 (18)	C2 (3)
Nikita mazepin

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops lasted:

	Driver	Team	Pit stop time	Difference	On the knees
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23,848		39
2	Nicolas latifi	Williams	23.983	0.135	32
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	23,993	0.145	2
4	Kimi raikkonen	Alfa romeo	24.046	0.198	29
5	Lewis hamilton	Mercedes	24,076	0.228	28
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	24.105	0.257	19
7	Kimi raikkonen	Alfa romeo	24.107	0.259	13
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	24.176	0.328	32
9	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	24,191	0.343	38
ten	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa romeo	24,223	0.375	30
11	George russell	Williams	24.248	0.400	36
12	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	24,262	0.414	16
13	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	24.317	0.469	19
14	Yuki tsunoda	AlphaTauri	24.328	0.480	33
15	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	24.341	0.493	37
16	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	24.353	0.505	15
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	24,373	0.525	11
18	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	24,471	0.623	31
19	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	24.566	0.718	54
20	George russell	Williams	24,621	0.773	13
21	Sebastian vettel	Aston Martin	24,626	0.778	24
22	Daniel Ricciardo	Mclaren	24,655	0.807	32
23	Daniel Ricciardo	Mclaren	24,688	0.840	13
24	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	24,767	0.919	17
25	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	24,775	0.927	29
26	Lewis hamilton	Mercedes	24 839	0.991	13
27	Lance ride	Aston Martin	24,884	1.036	12
28	Lando norris	Mclaren	24 899	1.051	12
29	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	24.925	1.077	12
30	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	24.983	1.135	39
31	Yuki tsunoda	AlphaTauri	25.046	1.198	15
32	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	25.226	1.378	13
33	Mick schumacher	Haas	25.343	1,495	33
34	Lance ride	Aston Martin	25.525	1.677	28
35	Lando norris	Mclaren	25,640	1,792	33
36	Mick schumacher	Haas	25,798	1,950	14
37	Nicolas latifi	Williams	26.046	2,198	14
38	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa romeo	31,998	8,150	12
39	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	32,897	9.049	30
40	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	38,338	14,490	4

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix

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