The last weekend of this incredible 2021 World Championship begins with the title contenders who do not spare themselves that much. In the first free laps, despite the temperatures in the afternoon much higher than those expected for qualifying and the evening race, both Verstappen with his Red Bull and Hamilton with the Mercedes did not go too far and lowered the lap times very quickly. We therefore saw an interesting session from the point of view of data, despite the pre-tactic seen throughout the year and the environmental conditions that were not ideal or too representative. The data of the two best laps of the two drivers were both influenced by two peculiarities: Hamilton was deprived of time by track limits, while Verstappen enjoyed an important wake in the first of two long straights in the central sector which allowed him to significantly lower the time in that stretch and get the best performance, in the lap in which, in reality, he showed less potential in the other sectors. This is why we kept the Hamilton lap (the track limits at the last corner have little to do with performance throughout the lap) and we took Verstappen’s second best lap, 46 thousandths slower than the best, but much more representative of what we saw on the track, and as always we compared them.
Throughout the session we saw a very strong Mercedes in the first sector. Both in the first corner to the left of 90 degrees, and above all for the whole fast section of the 2-3-4 curves that is covered in full, Hamilton is constantly about 3-4 km / h faster than Verstappen, accumulating a nice advantage of almost 2 tenths in the first section of the track. Verstappen, however, is much faster in the new turn 5 and then the power unit package comes into play in the two straights. At Mercedes we saw a first part of the session with a lot of clipping by Hamilton at the end of the straight, almost completely disappeared in the last 20 minutes, while on the Honda front from the data it seems that the power curve has been improved gradually, looking for the right balance with the always excellent aerodynamic efficiency of the RB16B. Verstappen is also slightly more aggressive in the chicane between the two straights and thanks to the sum of all these factors he in turn earns almost 2 tenths in the central sector. Mercedes certainly seems to have a lot of power, but RedBull seems able, at least for now, to keep up with the aerodynamic efficiency in the first straight and then, thanks to a better behavior in the narrow chicane between the two extensions, have a much better entry into the second long straight and therefore to resist the acceleration of the W12 also in this section. Obviously it is extremely premature to draw conclusions of any kind on the power unit front, given that in all probability the units mounted today on board the two cars will not even be those used in qualifying and the race.
Once out of the straights, the third sector is also interesting in turn. Hamilton continues to express more speed in the fast turn 9 and in the consequent full turns 10 and 11. The W12 seems extremely performing in the fast corners and where there is a need for a strong front. Verstappen, however, responds with an excellent performance in the triple 12-13-14 around the Hotel inside the Marina. The fast curve 15 is again the prerogative of Hamilton, while the slow curve 16 of Verstappen, in a continuous succession of balances that bring the gap in the third sector to be only 20 thousandths between the 2 drivers, and 13 thousandths at the end of the lap. .
Mercedes therefore seems very comfortable in all fast corners, especially where the limit shifts to the front. RedBull responds with a more refined car in the changes of direction and in the slow and high steering angle corners, showing once again two very different mechanical setups between the two cars that for now end up being equivalent at the end of the lap. We will see in the second free practice if we can pick up other interesting signals both on the tire and on the power front, given that the environmental conditions will be much more similar to those of qualifying and the race.
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