2021 Portuguese Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

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The Portuguese Grand Prix was decided by teams’ understanding of tyres – and their ability to execute a one-stop strategy in the best way.

Red Bull said their relative pace to Mercedes was down to not being able to get the medium tyres working in the same way. That was reflected by Max Verstappen overtake on Valtteri Bottas at the start of the second, hard tyre, stint.

Mercedes had problems with their pit stops in several recent races, notably the 11-second stop for Bottas in Bahrain which ruined his race. Today again they gave away around half a second to their rivals at their first (for Hamilton, only) stops.

The time Bottas lost put him out of the pits close enough to Verstappen to be vulnerable to the Red Bull, with his warmer tyres. Although the sensor problems he later encountered might have relegated him to third place anyway, the time lost in the pit stop certainly played a part.

McLaren and Lando Norris again showed impressive tyre management to finish ‘best of the rest’ behind the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers. Norris took advantage of starting on soft tyres to move up the order, briefly taking fourth from Sergio Perez and able to build a reasonable lead over the rest of the field, then looked after medium tyres for 44 laps.

Carlos Sainz Jnr, who had pitted one lap earlier than Norris, found that Ferrari were having much bigger problems with the medium tyres. Although he initially fought with Norris and was able to hold sixth place, by the final few laps his car seemed like a sitting duck, pushed out of the points by being overtaken by both Alpine drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly.

Aston Martin and Lance Stroll attempted a curious strategy. Stroll qualified poorly, starting 17th, and chose to start on a fresh set of soft tyres, presumably to help him move up the order early in the race. He ran an enormous 39 laps on those tyres – over half the race distance – before switching to mediums for a shorter stint to the end and a 14th-place finish.

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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

Position change

DriverStart positionLap one position changeRace position change
Lewis Hamilton201
Valtteri Bottas10-2
Max Verstappen301
Sergio Perez4-10
Lando Norris712
Daniel Ricciardo1627
Lance Stroll1703
Sebastian Vettel100-3
Esteban Ocon6-1-1
Fernando Alonso13-25
Charles Leclerc802
Carlos Sainz Jnr51-6
Pierre Gasly90-1
Yuki Tsunoda14-2-1
Kimi Raikkonen152
Antonio Giovinazzi1200
Mick Schumacher1902
Nikita Mazepin2001
George Russell110-5
Nicholas Latifi1800

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix lap times

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

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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’19.84966
2Valtteri BottasMercedes1’19.8650.01665
3Sergio PerezRed Bull-Honda1’20.6430.79455
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’20.9331.08447
5Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1’21.0321.18366
6Charles LeclercFerrari1’21.4961.64763
7Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’21.6961.84755
8Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’21.8862.03734
9Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’21.9702.12159
10Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1’21.9872.13864
11Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’22.0142.16565
12Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1’22.0582.20961
13Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’22.1672.31860
14Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’22.3252.47660
15Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1’22.4162.56760
16George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’22.6542.80560
17Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1’22.7552.90661
18Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’23.1553.30660
19Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1’23.6413.79264
20Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’33.67313.8241

Verstappen’s fastest lap time was deleted because he exceeded track limits at turn 14. Bottas therefore scored the bonus point for fastest lap.

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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3
Lewis HamiltonC2 (37)C1 (29)
Max VerstappenC2 (35)C1 (29)C3 (2)
Valtteri BottasC2 (36)C1 (27)C3 (3)
Sergio PerezC2 (51)C3 (15)
Lando NorrisC3 (22)C2 (44)
Charles LeclercC2 (25)C1 (41)
Esteban OconC3 (22)C1 (44)
Fernando AlonsoC2 (40)C1 (26)
Daniel RicciardoC2 (41)C1 (25)
Pierre GaslyC3 (24)C2 (42)
Carlos Sainz JnrC3 (21)C2 (45)
Antonio GiovinazziC2 (22)C1 (43)
Sebastian VettelC3 (22)C2 (43)
Lance StrollC3 (39)C2 (26)
Yuki TsunodaC2 (21)C1 (44)
George RussellC2 (28)C1 (37)
Mick SchumacherC2 (32)C1 (32)
Nicholas LatifiC2 (24)C1 (40)
Nikita MazepinC2 (31)C1 (12)C3 (21)
Kimi RaikkonenC3 (1)

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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari25.89221
2Lance StrollAston Martin26.0270.13539
3Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri26.1720.28024
4Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri26.2020.31021
5Max VerstappenRed Bull26.3190.42764
6Fernando AlonsoAlpine26.4420.55040
7Valtteri BottasMercedes26.5730.68163
8Nicholas LatifiWilliams26.5950.70324
9Sergio PerezRed Bull26.6070.71551
10Sebastian VettelAston Martin26.6200.72822
11Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo26.7290.83722
12Max VerstappenRed Bull26.7430.85135
13George RussellWilliams26.8430.95128
14Lewis HamiltonMercedes26.9071.01537
15Valtteri BottasMercedes26.9381.04636
16Lando NorrisMcLaren26.9521.06022
17Nikita MazepinHaas26.9841.09243
18Esteban OconAlpine27.0331.14122
19Charles LeclercFerrari27.0821.19025
20Nikita MazepinHaas27.1861.29431
21Mick SchumacherHaas27.2451.35332
22Daniel RicciardoMcLaren28.6392.74741

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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2 comments on “2021 Portuguese Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. A pity it doesn’t show how many laps LW and VB’s tyres had before they put it. I think that even if VB had stopped at same time that MV, latter’s tyres would be better for some 2-3 laps because they were new, and they tend to have better performance on the first laps.

    I sometimes wonder how different would be with refueling.

  2. They need to increase the pit lane speed limit here. The pit-stop penalty on this track is almost 25-odd seconds. That is at least 5 seconds higher than most other tracks and reduces strategic variation.

    If speed limit is increased, at least this penalty will reduce.

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