F1 qualifying head to head - Which drivers came out on top?

Verstappen with the trophy for pole position in Zandvoort — Photo: © LAT Images

Formula 1

F1 qualifying head to head - Which drivers came out on top?

GPFans looks at the qualifying battles within each team in 2021

GPFans Staff

Saturday 25 December 2021 16:00

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A remarkable F1 season delivered an incredible battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and provided the Red Bull driver with his first title.

But how have the drivers compared to their team-mates over a single lap?

Qualifying often shows which drivers can become one with the car when it matters most, with some of the greatest F1 moments happening on a Saturday.

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The results below include only qualifying sessions and exclude the results of the three sprint qualifying events, which were conducted over 100km 'races'.

Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton 17-5 Valtteri Bottas

Despite the wide margin Hamilton had over outgoing team-mate Bottas in qualifying across the season, it was not until the Qatar Grand Prix the championship runner-up overhauled the Finn's amount of pole positions.

The Briton ultimately ended up with five poles to Bottas' four.

Red Bull - Max Verstappen 20-2 Sergio Perez

Verstappen was by far the fastest over one lap, yet Perez was able to find enough pace to overcome his team-mate on two occasions.

The world champion, though, earned 10 pole positions whilst Perez's best qualifying performance came with second in Imola.

Ferrari - Charles Leclerc 13-9 Carlos Sainz

Leclerc took two surprise poles in a row in Monaco and Baku, whilst Sainz's best performance of second proved he had pace. The Spaniard got the better of his team-mate four times in the last five races of the season to ensure a respectable margin.

McLaren - Lando Norris 15-7 Daniel Ricciardo

Considering the difficult start to the season for Ricciardo, 15-7 doesn't read too badly for the Australian who endured a difficult first season with the team as he struggled to understand the car.

Given his previous two years of experience with McLaren, Norris looked comfortable in the MCL35M, with his reward a sublime first pole of his career in Russia.

Alpine - Fernando Alonso 11-11 Esteban Ocon

The closest battle of the entire grid saw Ocon level the scores at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Both drivers had a best result of fifth on a Saturday, with Alonso proving he has the pace to be back in the sport.

AlphaTauri - Pierre Gasly 21-1 Yuki Tsunoda

The biggest defeat for any driver came for rookie Tsunoda, who avoided a whitewash with a great effort in Abu Dhabi.

In fairness to Tsunoda, Gasly was in superb form all season long, perhaps proving he deserves another shot at the top.

Aston Martin - Sebastian Vettel 14-8 Lance Stroll

Vettel found some comfort in his move from Ferrari to Aston Martin despite some troubles for the Silverstone-based team.

Stroll was no slouch but was unable to match his world champion team-mate across the season.

Williams - George Russell 20-2 Nicholas Latifi

Four Q3 appearances for Russell prove his worth for Mercedes, especially with second in Spa as a highlight, yet the 20-2 score against Latifi doesn't tell the full story.

The Candian was often less than a tenth away from his team-mate when missing out on a Q2 berth. F1 is a sport of fine margins.

Alfa Romeo - Antonio Giovinazzi 13-7 Kimi Raikkonen, Giovinazzi 2-0 Robert Kubica

Both drivers may be leaving but it was Giovinazzi who showed more impressive speed across the season.

When Raikkonen was sidelined for two races with the coronavirus, Kubica was unable to pull off an unlikely win against Giovinazzi in qualifying.

Haas - Mick Schumacher 20-2 Nikita Mazepin

Mazepin struggled to match fellow rookie Schumacher throughout the year, with the German's efforts to reach Q2 in Turkey one of the better performances by anyone of the entire season.