[Race] The GROAT - Round 1 - 2000 Suzuka vs 2019 Silverstone vs 2021 Abu Dhabi

[crmalcolm]

2000 Suzuka
The race started at 14:30 local time. The conditions for the race were dry and overcast for the race. The air temperature was at 22 °C (72 °F) and the track temperature at 23 °C (73 °F). Approximately 151,000 people attended the race. During the final parade lap, Häkkinen's car developed an leak in the hydraulic system which caused smoke to depart but managed to take the start. Frentzen started the race using Jordan's spare monocoque. Häkkinen accelerated faster than Michael Schumacher off the line, withstanding the German's attempts to maintain his position to clinch the lead heading into the first corner. Behind the leading three in the run down into the first corner, Ralf Schumacher moved ahead of Barrichello and Coulthard withstood his attempts to pass for third position. Verstappen made the best start in the field, moving from 14th to tenth at the end of the first lap, while Fisichella made a poor start and lost eight places over the same distance; the result of his anti-stall system activating. At the completion of the first lap, Häkkinen led from Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Irvine, Barrichello, Button, Herbert, Villeneuve, Verstappen, Frentzen, Trulli, de la Rosa, Wurz, Salo, Alesi, Heidfeld, Zonta, Diniz, Fisichella, Gené and Mazzacane.

Häkkinen set the fastest lap of the race on lap two and began to maintain the gap between himself and Michael Schumacher while both drivers pulled away from the rest of the field. Villeneuve moved into eighth position when he passed Herbert on lap seven, while Trulli clinched 11th from teammate Frentzen. Verstappen became the first retirement of the race when he coasted across the circuit with gearbox problems on lap nine and drove to his garage. Diniz made his first pit stop on lap 13, starting the first round of pit stops. At the front of the field, Häkkinen increased the gap between himself and Michael Schumacher to two seconds, who in turn was a further ten seconds ahead of Coulthard in third. Ralf Schumacher was a further 8.8 seconds behind the second McLaren driver, but was drawing ahead of Irvine in fifth. Further back, Trulli made a pit stop from tenth on lap 15 and emerged in 18th position. Irvine became the first of the front runners to pit the following lap and emerged behind Frentzen.

Wurz, Herbert, Salo and Heidfeld all made pit stops on lap 18, while Trulli lost time after going off the track. On the 19th lap, Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Frentzen, Pedro de la Rosa and Fisichella made their first pit stops. Barrichello and Button made pit stops on the following lap, and rejoined ahead of Irvine. Alesi retired from the race with an engine failure and spun off onto the circuit on lap 21. Häkkinen was asked by his team to make a pit stop earlier than scheduled on lap 22. Michael Schumacher took over the lead for one lap before his pit stop on lap 23 giving it to Coulthard. The Scot took his pit stop on lap 24 handing back the lead to teammate Häkkinen. On the same lap, Villeneuve passed Irvine into turn 16 for seventh position. All of the drivers had made pit stops by the end of lap 25. The race order was Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Button, Irvine, Herbert, Frentzen, Trulli, Diniz, Zonta, Salo, de la Rosa, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Gené, Wurz and Mazzacane. Häkkinen set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 26, a 1:39.189, as he built a gap between himself and Michael Schumacher to 2.9 seconds.

Trulli became the first driver to make a second pit stop on lap 28. Light rain began to fall on lap 29 and track started to become slippery. The gap between Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher fell by one second after the McLaren driver encountered lapped traffic on lap 30. Ralf Schumacher lost sixth position to teammate Button after making a mistake on the same lap, while Frentzen pulled off the track at the entry of First Curve to retire from a hydraulic pump issue which caused his gearbox to fail. Michael Schumacher closed the gap to Häkkinen by 0.7 seconds by lap 31, although he made minor contact with Zonta two laps later. Further down the order, Heidfeld overtook Trulli for 13th position on lap 34. The second round of pit stops began on the same lap when Irvine made a pit stop. Häkkinen made his second stop on lap 37, and came out of the pit lane 25.8 seconds behind rival Michael Schumacher but ahead of Coulthard.

Michael Schumacher began to immediately pull away from Häkkinen, and radioed Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn that he was approaching slower cars and asked whether he should make his final pit stop earlier than scheduled. Brawn told Michael Schumacher to remain on the circuit for the time being. Coulthard, Barrichello and Button remained in third, fourth and fifth positions respectively, during their second stops on lap 38 and 39. Wurz went into retirement when he spun sideways near the entry of the pit lane on lap 40. Michael Schumacher made his final pit stop on the same lap, and emerged 4.1 seconds in front of Häkkinen, due to a pit stop lasting 1.2 seconds less than Häkkinen's. Ralf Schumacher became the sixth retirement of the race when he lost control of the rear of his car and spun into the gravel trap when trying to lap Gené at turn two on lap 42. This allowed Villeneuve to enter the points-scoring positions in sixth. Heidfeld became the final driver to make a scheduled pit stop on the same lap.

At the conclusion of lap 42, with the scheduled pit stops completed, the order was Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen, Coulthard, Barrichello, Button, Villeneuve, Herbert, Irvine, Zonta, Salo, Diniz, Trulli, Fisichella, de la Rosa, Gené, Heidfeld and Mazzacane. Heidfeld retired from a suspension failure on lap 43 as de la Rosa passed Fisichella for 13th position on the same lap, and Fisichella was forced onto the gravel to avoid contact. de la Rosa made up a further position overtaking Trulli five laps later. Gené became the race's final retirement with an expired engine on lap 49. Michael Schumacher maintained his lead throughout the remaining four laps and crossed the finish line on lap 53 to win his eighth race of the 2000 season in a time of 1'29:53.435, at an average speed of 128.902 miles per hour (207.448 km/h). Michael Schumacher was crowned 2000 Drivers' Champion as Häkkinen could not catch his points total in the one remaining race. He also became the first driver to clinch the title with Ferrari since Jody Scheckter in 1979. Häkkinen finished second in his McLaren, 1.8 seconds behind, ahead of teammate Coulthard in third with Barrichello in fourth. Button finished in fifth position and was drawing closer to Barrichello by the race's finish. Villeneuve rounded out the points scoring positions in sixth. Herbert, Irvine, Zonta, Salo and Diniz rounded out the next five positions. de la Rosa, Trulli, Fisichella and Mazzacane were the last of the classified finishers.


2019 Silverstone
On Lap 1, the two Haas drivers collided at the exit of turn five. Both cars pitted, but both would go on to retire as a result of the damage, Kevin Magnussen on Lap 6 and Romain Grosjean on Lap 9. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton fought for the lead, with Bottas maintaining 1st place until Lap 4, when Hamilton overtook at turn seven. Bottas then regained the lead shortly after at turn nine.

After battling for 3rd place in the preceding laps, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen entered the pits at the same time on Lap 14, with Leclerc ahead. The Red Bull pit stop was the faster of the two and Verstappen emerged in front after the two cars were side by side whilst driving through the pit-lane. However, this lead would not last, as Verstappen ran wide shortly after at turn 4, allowing Leclerc through.

Bottas pitted from the lead at the end of Lap 16, emerging behind Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Three laps later, Antonio Giovinazzi, who was running in 9th place, suffered a mechanical failure and spun into the gravel at turn 16. This incident brought out the safety car, allowing Hamilton an advantageous pit stop, maintaining the lead from Bottas. Other drivers including Vettel, Leclerc, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly also came into the pits.

Racing resumed on Lap 24. Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg made contact shortly after the restart, damaging Pérez's front wing. This forced Pérez to pit and caused him to eventually finish the race last of the running cars in 17th place. Verstappen and Leclerc continued to battle for position, until Verstappen began to pull away and was allowed through by his teammate Gasly, taking 4th place.

Leclerc overtook Gasly around the outside of turn 3 on Lap 36, taking 5th position. Shortly after, Verstappen took 3rd place from Vettel on the Hangar Straight. However, in an attempt to retake the position, Vettel locked up his brakes and collided with the back of the Red Bull at the entry to turn 16. Both cars spun into the gravel, but were able to escape and continue the race, with them both emerging behind Leclerc and Gasly. Vettel fell down the order over the remainder of the lap due to damage to his front wing, before pitting to have it replaced. He would go on to cross the line in 15th place, but was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision, demoting him to 16th.

Lewis Hamilton won the race for a record sixth time, claiming the extra point for recording the fastest lap of the race on his final lap, and setting a new lap record of 1:27.369.

On lap 12, for Pierre Gasly's pit stop, the Red Bull Racing team broke the record for the fastest pit stop time, with 1.91 seconds, beating the previous time of 1.92 seconds, which was jointly held by Red Bull and Williams and had stood since 2013.


2021 Abu Dhabi
The race started at 17:00 local time on Sunday 12 December. Lewis Hamilton immediately took the lead from Max Verstappen on the race start, prompting Verstappen to attempt to regain his position at the turn 6 chicane. Verstappen's trajectory forced Hamilton off the track, and the Briton re-entered slightly further ahead of the Dutch driver than he was before the corner. Arguing that he should have ceded the position to Verstappen, Red Bull Racing protested the racing line taken by Hamilton, and were told by radio that Hamilton had ultimately given back any advantage gained. The incident was referred to the stewards, which concluded that no further investigation was necessary. Hamilton then utilised the durability of his medium-compound tyres to extend his lead over Verstappen, whose soft-compound tyres were suffering from greater degradation.

Verstappen made his stop at the end of lap 13 with Hamilton following suit one lap later, both opting for a set to the hardest tyres. The lead drivers pitting elevated Sergio Pérez to first, with the Mexican driver being informed his strategy was to hold up Hamilton to allow his teammate Verstappen to catch up. Hamilton caught up with Pérez on lap 20; a spirited defence from the Red Bull second driver allowed Verstappen to significantly close the gap from about 11 seconds after the pits to 1.3 second. Verstappen was unable to take advantage of it, with Hamilton's superior pace extending the gap to four seconds by the midpoint of the race.

On lap 26, Alfa Romeo's Kimi Räikkönen collided with the barriers at turn 6, prompting his retirement due to brake issues in his 349th and final Formula One race. On the same lap, George Russell retired in his final race for Williams due to gearbox issues. On lap 35, Antonio Giovinazzi retired his car alongside the track due to gearbox issues, which triggered a brief virtual safety car period. Red Bull used this opportunity to bring Verstappen in for a fresh set of the hard-compound tyres without losing track position; Mercedes, not wishing to give up track position, directed Hamilton to stay out. Using the advantage of fresher tyres, Verstappen gradually reduced the post-stop deficit from seventeen seconds to eleven, but not at a rate which would have been sufficient to catch Hamilton before the end of the race.

On lap 53, a crash at turn 14 for Nicholas Latifi, who was fighting for position with Haas' Mick Schumacher and had dirty tyres after going off circuit at turn 9, brought out the safety car. Hamilton again stayed out without pitting because he would have lost track position had the safety car period not ended, while Verstappen pitted behind him for a fresh set of the softest available tyres. Pérez retired under the safety car due to oil pressure. After Verstappen's pit stop, he retained second, but with five lapped cars (those of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, and Sebastian Vettel) between himself and Hamilton (in first). As the debris from Latifi's crash was being cleared by the race marshals, the lapped drivers were initially informed that they would not be permitted to overtake. During lap 57, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner asked race director Michael Masi why the lapped cars were not directed to overtake; Masi then gave the direction that only the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were to unlap themselves.

Immediately after Vettel passed the safety car to join the lead lap, race control announced the safety car would enter the pits at the end of the lap to allow for a final lap of green-flag racing, leading to angry remonstrations from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. On the final lap, Verstappen used his fresh soft tyres to pass Hamilton into turn 5 to take the lead of the race. He held off counter-attacks from Hamilton to win the race and his first World Drivers' Championship, with Hamilton in second and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. in third. AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda finished in a career-best fourth place. Mercedes gained enough points to win their eighth consecutive Constructors' title, extending their own record. Over the radio, Wolff appealed to Masi to reinstate the order of the penultimate lap, to which Masi gave the reply: "Toto, it's called a motor race, ok? We went car racing."

[BTCC frog]

Silverstone 2019 gets my vote. The racing was incredible that day, particularly the battle between Verstappen and Leclerc but also Bottas and Hamilton, which proved that Bottas can overtake and makes the last season so baffling. Abu Dhabi 2021 would rank as one of the very worst races of all time, in my opinion, but we've been over that enough times.