Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Jeddah Corniche Circuit, 2021

2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix championship points

2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Championship leaders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are tied on points going into the final race of the 2021 season.

F1 drivers championship after the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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F1 constructors championship after the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

TeamTotal
1Mercedes587.5
2Red Bull559.5
3Ferrari307.5
4McLaren269
5Alpine149
6AlphaTauri120
7Aston Martin77
8Williams23
9Alfa Romeo13
10Haas0

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2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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51 comments on “2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix championship points”

  1. What an incredibly bonkas race…. this race had everything. Hamilton ties for the lead, and Bottas gets 3rd on the line to secure his place as the greatest #2 of all time. Wow!!!

  2. What we saw today is a result of spineless stewarding at Brazil and terrible circuit design. Thankfully everyone got through the weekend without getting hurt, at least in the F1 race.

    1. This is key really, Brazil was giving Verstappen carte blanche to drive like a lunatic.

      Funny thing is, if Verstappen had given Hamilton space round the outside of Copse and lived to fight another day, like Hamilton would have done and always does, he’d be 18 points out in front right now.

      1. This is true, hamilton seems to play it safer in those situations.

      2. @scribe

        Red Bull deserves this based on their years long refusal to correct Verstappen when he has clearly been in the wrong…..on many occasions. Even with his old teammate Ricciardo. Helmut the grunt and Christian the demon have been constant enablers. Welcome to your comeuppance. Hope they lose both championships. They deserve neither.

      3. True, but I still think Hamilton got very lucky at Silverstone @scribe and was to blame. I’ve been very frustrated this year with Max’s driving as a fan of F1 more than anything, but I don’t lay the blame with him as much as the stewarding decisions. He’s obviously been brought up in a particular way, it’s just the lack of contrition that frustrates me because otherwise blimey he’s quick.

    2. Funny that (if I’m not mistaken) Vitantino Luizi was again a steward this weekend, just like he was in Brazil.

    3. Yup, sadly very much exactly as expected and signalled by many drivers right after that race @john-h. What you get when the stewarding fails to keep the “players” honest.

  3. This track after both the issues with F1 and F2 shows it needs major adjustments.

    1. Fully agree…
      Having watched most sessions, the track is cool for single lap qualifying, not suitable for racing.

      1. @justsomeone

        So….like Monaco??

  4. after 9 months and 21 races, you couldn’t have scripted the championship battle any better if you tried.

    1. You could write this ;-)

      1. d’oh should be couldn’t write this

    2. János (@meandthewanderlust)
      5th December 2021, 21:11

      Oh, you certainly could!

      PS: I know it’s just a saying :D

    3. Well, one driver knows he will win if both of them fail to finish. The other knows it too.

      Not a script I want.

    4. It’s good that the title battle is a straight winner takes all, because other than that there is literally only Leclerc vs Norris for best of the rest, and Ocon’s outside chance of pipping Alonso.

  5. With the pace the Mercedes has now, it will be very hard to win the driver championship for RedBull.

    1. Hamilton wasn’t even close to the limit on the wall in any lap. He was gaining all the time on the full-throttle parts and straight without DRS. Wrong tyre or otherwise for Max this was as on as Brazil sadly.

    2. The constructors looks done and dusted with Perez out…

      and so it comes down to the last race of the season, where Max is still ahead on number of wisn, and so might still fancy his chances with a mutually assured destructive run off track..

      I can still see Max doing a Rosberg and taking them both off.
      Who needs track position when you can just break later than the track allows.

      1. If I was Redbull I would replace Perez ASAP with Norris. Ocon would be good too but my guess is that he is the reserved replacement for Lewis in Merc.

    3. The pace difference was exaggerated because verstappen was on the wrong tire. And Hamilton was making him hustle through s2 to keep a gap. So it was basically medium vs hard, let’s do qualifying laps and see who runs out of tire first.

      Rbr made a mistake going for mediums. They thought they needed for the start I assume. But they are playing defense here so that wasn’t very smart. If Bottas had got by ricciardo earlier that decision could have put them third.

  6. When we said we wanted close racing for the win, not sure any of us expected it to be this close and this dirty.

    Shame that Max just can’t keep it clean. I’ve started this season as a big fan of his, but lately, especially after Brazil, I feel that he doesn’t deserve to win.

    1. The whole ‘yield or we crash’ has to be penalized. This is not racing: the faster driver has to stay behind or his race ends if he tries to pass. No matter who does it (and Hamilton did it in the race too), it robs us of great battle. Imagine the famous Arnoux / Villeneuve fight with no space left to the opposition…

    2. The worst part of it, is that Brazil more or less gave him the idea that he is allowed to do this from the FIA/Stewards too @gechichan.

      A real shame because when they go right TO the limit of allowed it is great fun, not so when it gets taken too far – which is exaclty where the Stewards should have stepped in. I am sure we would then be able to see better racing.

  7. For the second time this year Lewis front wing at Max’s tyre win him a race.

  8. Max just needs to take Lewis out next week to be champion.

    1. @scalextric yep and Max already mentioned his win advantage at post race interview. It’s def on his mind.

  9. So maybe 2 x 5 seconds penalty for Lewis.
    1 for causing a collision when he should pass a given opportunity
    1 for forcing a driver off track.
    And an extra one for not keeping the right distance behind safety car.
    And Bottas for obstruction and driving to slow.

    1. Great driving by Max today ;)

    2. 1 for forcing a driver off track.

      I despair. Verstappen was literally behind Hamilton. If he brakes so late he goes off track, that doesn’t qualify as ‘drawing level’! This is now the 3rd or 4th time they’ve used this ‘ruse,’ brake so later Verstappen can’t make the corner (he did it again later, losing control of his steering, with more contact!) but then claim that it was his rivals fault.
      It’s like dealing with protesting toddlers in the middle of a mud fight.

      1. For that incident he gave twice the option to pass. And even got 5 secondes for that.
        I mean the moment Lewis got the black and white flag for unsporting behaviour.
        But you probably missed that one

        1. erikje – I have no idea how you’re not banned for the things you say. What a disgrace.

          1. Banned for an opinion? But I missed the black and white flag too, however I heard something from the commentators that there was some move from hamilton that could be investigated too after the race, so not surprised if there was such a flag.

          2. @esploratore1 erikje regularly posts inflammatory, blatantly misleading, or just plain false “opinion”. Sure, other posters do the same, however erikje is ever present in this regard. One might say that in my “opinion” erikje is largely responsible for my diminished respect and enjoyment of these forums.

    3. Max had lady luck with him today together with Vitantino Luizi in the stewards squad. He also drove dirtier than ever. Still he didn’t win. I know, I know you alternate reality, Max’s’ car is very slow and Lewis drives a rocket with an illegal wing and deserves half a dozen penalties.
      Anyway, Max can still crash into Lewis next weekend and be champion. That should make you happy.

  10. Amazing for the championship to go to the final round like that. But I really hate the fact that the championship might be decided by the farce that was the Belgian GP.

    1. Instead hungary was very fair…

      1. What was unfair in Hungary? The weather?

  11. Seriously, whatever. Verstappen’s driving is now demeaning the history of Formula 1. It’s clear he feels anything at all after Interlagos qualifies as ‘hard racing.’ As predicted. I can’t even so he won’t deserve the title because it’s unclear (depending on Abu Dhabi) whether this ‘driving’ will be what wins him the championship or his real driving, the brilliant talent he also shows, But just now that race left a bad taste.

    1. At least Lewis received the black and white flag for lack of sports manship.
      Some penalties are coming is the stewards are objective. Al least 5 sec for his causing a collision

      1. Even if he got a 5 sec penalty nothing would happen, he had huge margin in the end.

  12. Valencia in the dark, with cash.
    If they take each other out in Abu Dhabi, like Senna and Prost, does Max win it?

    1. Yes, Max wins because of the fake win in SPA.

      1. Max got hit in Silverstone, lost win in Baku, lost it arguably also in Bahrain where it should have been his…very unfair to say it’s because of Spa.

        1. Absolutely, if this title has been unfair, it happened earlier than spa and not towards hamilton.

        2. But I’m guessing because of the strange race, red flags and such verstappen maybe gained 3 points through luck here, not a lot ofc.

        3. Max didn’t get hit in Silverstone. He cut accross the track when a car was already on the inside. We know have enough information on Max’s driving standards to definitely conclude that he cost himself at least 18 points in silverstone.

  13. I know this with Lewis and Max being tied on points…don’t put it past Max and Red Bull to get Max or Sergio (or one of their junior members) to wreck Hamilton in the finale to prevent Mercedes taking driver’s and constructors, because Max holds the tiebreaker based on wins. I wouldn’t put anything past Christian “I blame rogue marshals for my troubles” Horner and Helmut “I don’t even know what’s going on anymore because I’m a fossil” Marko.

  14. Bottas sealed third. Which is a big deal for him to go out of the team without falling to Perez. He held up his end in the battle of #2s. Likewise Perez had a pretty poor season despite some early promise.

    Stick a fork in Ferrari vs McLaren. Ricciardo is “back”, kind of, but man he waited until Ferrari got their car sorted and it was way too late.

  15. Not a lot up for grabs in the last race. The main battles should be the obvious one for the title, a three way scrap for 5th in the drivers championship between Leclerc, Norris and Sainz and an interteam battle for 10th between Alonso and Ocon.

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