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

2021 Dutch Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Max Verstappen and Red Bull successfully repelled a dual-pronged attack from Mercedes to win the Dutch Grand Prix through a combination of pace, strategy and execution.

Despite the high frequency of incidents around the tricky, remodelled Zandvoort circuit, the race was not plagued by accidents and Safety Car interventions as many in the paddock had anticipated. Instead, the race that unfolded was a straight shoot-out between Verstappen in front and his championship rival Lewis Hamilton pursuing him.

Hamilton remained within four seconds of his adversary for the vast majority of the 72 laps of the race, even getting as close as just over a second of the Red Bull after the pair made their first pit stops – far earlier than the rest of the field.

With their first attempt at an undercut having failed to get Hamilton ahead of Verstappen, Mercedes took an aggressive approach with Valtteri Bottas’ strategy in an attempt to make the most of their extra car advantage.

Keeping Bottas out on his soft tyres for a further 10 laps not only allowed Mercedes to explore a one-stop strategy with their second car, but provided an opportunity for him to hold up the Red Bull around the narrow, winding corners, back Verstappen into Hamilton and open up a potential passing opportunity.

With the benefit of their new medium tyres, Verstappen and Hamilton both began taking over a second a lap out of Bottas ahead. But as soon as Verstappen got to within a second of Bottas at the start of lap 29, Hamilton’s hopes of using his team mate to catch the Red Bull were dashed. George Russell – who is widely expected to be confirmed in the near future as his next team mate – exited the pit lane right in front of him, forcing him to back out on the approach to turn two and costing him a full second.

Verstappen, with such a performance advantage over Bottas at this stage of the race, simply bided his time over the rest of the lap and was well within the slipstream of the Mercedes by the time he reached the DRS activation point. There was little Bottas to do to prevent Verstappen from cruising by and back into the lead once more.

Having been unsuccessful in their first attempt, Mercedes opted for a second attempt at undercutting Verstappen at the end of lap 39, bringing Hamilton in for a second set of mediums. Again, Red Bull immediately responded – only this time, Verstappen emerged ahead of both Hamilton and Bottas, who had fallen to over 25 seconds behind the leader after his extended first stint, and having briefly lost time when Sebastian Vettel spun in front of him on lap 37.

Despite his protestations over his tyres being unable to last to the end of the race, Hamilton continued to remain close enough to Verstappen to keep the thousands of Dutch fans lining the circuit from being too comfortable. Aided by the pace advantage of the medium tyres compared to the hard-shod Red Bull, Hamilton sat within two seconds of the leader for several laps before the gap eventually fell to around four seconds.

As the laps counted down and it became clear that Verstappen was firmly in control of the race, Mercedes used the enormous gap they held over Pierre Gasly in fourth to orchestrate a late switch to softs to secure the bonus point for fastest lap.

As Verstappen claimed a popular home victory, Christian Horner pointed to his driver’s ability to dispatch Bottas at the first opportunity following his first stop as the winning move of the race.

“The crucial part of the race for Max – because the two-stop was the faster race – was to make sure that we re-passed Valtteri immediately,” said Horner.

“And he did that. That then opened up opportunities to make the second half of the race much more manageable, whereas if he’d have spent a lot of laps behind Valtteri, that could’ve opened us up to an undercut.”

While Red Bull were successful in keeping Mercedes at bay this time around, they are likely to increasingly rely on Sergio Perez to ensure that Verstappen is not left to fend for himself too often over the crucial races to come in the season.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Dutch 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:

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

2021 Dutch 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 Hamilton200
Valtteri Bottas300
Max Verstappen100
Sergio Perez20112
Lando Norris1303
Daniel Ricciardo101-1
Lance Stroll1200
Sebastian Vettel1502
Esteban Ocon80-1
Fernando Alonso923
Charles Leclerc500
Carlos Sainz Jnr60-1
Pierre Gasly400
Yuki Tsunoda140
Robert Kubica1601
Antonio Giovinazzi7-3-7
Mick Schumacher17-1-1
Nikita Mazepin181
George Russell110-6
Nicholas Latifi19-13

2021 Dutch 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:

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

2021 Dutch Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’11.09772
2Valtteri BottasMercedes1’12.5491.45269
3Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’13.2752.17860
4Sergio PerezRed Bull-Honda1’13.4612.36459
5Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1’13.9582.861Set on 2 laps
6Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’14.2363.13948
7Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1’14.3233.22660
8Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’14.6753.57854
9Charles LeclercFerrari1’14.7803.68358
10Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1’14.8183.72157
11Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1’14.9203.82359
12Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’15.1254.02866
13Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’15.2604.16345
14Robert KubicaAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’15.4424.34544
15Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’15.6114.51457
16George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’15.6284.53157
17Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1’15.7834.68644
18Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’15.7904.69325
19Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1’15.9274.83036
20Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1’16.0664.96935

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Dutch Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Max VerstappenC3 (21)C2 (19)C1 (32)
Lewis HamiltonC3 (20)C2 (19)C2 (31)C3 (2)
Valtteri BottasC3 (31)C2 (36)C3 (5)
Pierre GaslyC3 (24)C2 (47)
Charles LeclercC3 (34)C1 (37)
Fernando AlonsoC3 (33)C2 (38)
Carlos Sainz JnrC3 (31)C1 (40)
Sergio PerezC1 (8)C2 (39)C3 (24)
Esteban OconC3 (31)C2 (40)
Lando NorrisC2 (42)C1 (29)
Daniel RicciardoC3 (30)C1 (41)
Lance StrollC3 (27)C1 (43)
Sebastian VettelC3 (10)C1 (34)C2 (26)
Antonio GiovinazziC3 (27)C2 (6)C1 (37)
Robert KubicaC2 (40)C1 (30)
Nicholas LatifiC2 (23)C1 (47)
George RussellC2 (27)C1 (41)C3 (1)
Mick SchumacherC3 (4)C1 (26)C2 (39)
Yuki TsunodaC3 (31)C2 (17)
Nikita MazepinC2 (33)C1 (8)

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

2021 Dutch Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Sergio PerezRed Bull18.55547
2Max VerstappenRed Bull18.5780.02340
3George RussellWilliams18.6340.07927
4Sebastian VettelAston Martin18.6640.10910
5Sebastian VettelAston Martin18.6810.12644
6Lewis HamiltonMercedes18.8680.31339
7Valtteri BottasMercedes18.8730.31831
8Fernando AlonsoAlpine19.0180.46333
9Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo19.0490.49427
10Max VerstappenRed Bull19.1420.58721
11Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri19.1630.60824
12Lewis HamiltonMercedes19.2020.64770
13Esteban OconAlpine19.2400.68531
14Sergio PerezRed Bull19.2870.7328
15Lance StrollAston Martin19.3890.83427
16Daniel RicciardoMcLaren19.4490.89430
17Charles LeclercFerrari19.4900.93534
18Robert KubicaAlfa Romeo19.7081.15340
19Lewis HamiltonMercedes19.7701.21520
20Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri19.8501.29531
21Nikita MazepinHaas19.9991.44433
22Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo20.0431.48833
23Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari20.3271.77231
24Lando NorrisMcLaren20.4431.88842
25Nicholas LatifiWilliams20.6462.09123
26Valtteri BottasMercedes21.7303.17567
27Mick SchumacherHaas24.5786.02330
28George RussellWilliams25.5336.97868
29Mick SchumacherHaas35.57317.0184

2021 Dutch Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Dutch Grand Prix articles

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

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

  1. This one was clearly in the bag for Redbull all weekend long. Mercedes could have added some excitement had they delayed the second stop by about 3 laps to clear the Ricciardo train. Wrongest circuit to include overtaking slower cars as part of undercutting the leader.

  2. A 3.6s stop for Hamilton didn’t help either. That lost second and a half would have come in handy to try to sandwich Verstappen behind bottas. What kept this close was Hamilton wringing the neck of that Mercedes. He got no help from his team or Bottas.

    1. He got help from bottas, he slowed down verstappen by 3 sec and let hamilton pass immediately.

    2. @dmw

      What kept this close was Hamilton wringing the neck of that Mercedes.

      Like Verstappen in Barcelona with his Red Bull still inferior in tyre management, and on the other hand the France race is an example of him overcoming a slightly faster Mercedes as well.

  3. Laps 32-37, undercut with hard tyres could have done the trick for Lewis…

  4. btw, i find it funny that we assume that the RBR was the faster car because Max edged Lewis.
    i think they were pretty similar and Max might have been the one who wringed the neck of that RBR – ask Checo!

    I am not saying it was that way, but it is funny, we assume Lewis had the slower car when Bottas was faster than Checo even in clear air.

Comments are closed.