In basketball we would say ‘a game of partials’, or a match in which the scoreboard instead of being constantly in balance sees a team stretch by several points only to be reached and vice versa. There 2021 F1 season in some ways it was like that. Hamilton and Mercedes at the beginning of the season seemed to have responded immediately to the initial post-test stammering due to a regulation that effectively put a spoke in the wheel of the cars built using a low rake philosophy due to the decrease in the bottom of the car in the rear tire area. At Portimao and Barcelona the W12 proved to be the fastest car on the track by far, but then despite the controversy linked to the stiffening of the rear wings Max Verstappen managed to place a four-of-a-kind between Monaco and the Red Bull Ring brace passing through Le Castellet and for the unexpected puncture remedied in Baku.
Hamilton responded before the summer break in Great Britain – land of heated controversy over the Copse contact – and in Hungary, with Verstappen signing another one-two after returning from holidays in Spa and Zandvoort thanks to the new battery ‘pocket’ Honda. The brace between the United States and Mexico, then, seemed the definitive hook of Verstappen to the resistance of Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion and Mercedes responded as champions in Brazil and Qatar and now they have the wind behind them with two races still to be played. Two more wins would mean title number eight for Lewis Hamilton. “The beauty of this championship is that the balance is constantly changing – he stressed Ross Brawn in the usual editorial drawn up following each Grand Prix – on several occasions we have seen Red Bull or Mercedes about to take off, but then the opponent promptly responded. Now there are still two races with 52 points available and 8 to divide Max and Lewis. The title race continues to give emotions, Verstappen has limited the damage in Qatar even if there remains the doubt of what he could have done starting from the front row. Hamilton seemed in control throughout the race, he didn’t make any mistakes ”.
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