Magazine: Hamilton dominates in F1 Qatar GP

Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix last weekend to reduce Max Verstappen’s lead to just eight points with two rounds to go, and Fernando Alonso scored his first Formula 1 podium for seven years. We explain how it happened as well as rating the drivers.

The battle between Mercedes and Red Bull also got controversial again, with arguments over on-track clashes, rear wings and grid penalties. We investigate – and give opinions on – all of it, while Alex Kalinauckas also highlights the key problems Red Bull needs to solve ahead of the final two GPs of 2021.

The World Rally Championship finished last weekend, Monza providing the setting for a titanic struggle for victory between Toyota drivers Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans. Tom Howard was there to see how Ogier came out on top to secure his eighth world crown before retiring from full-time rallying.

It’s 20 years today since the late Richard Burns took the WRC crown with Subaru. We mark the occasion by picking out his greatest drives, 16 years after his untimely death.

Gary Watkins reviews all the class battles of the 2021 World Endurance Championship and ranks the best prototype and GT drivers of the year, while Megan White talks to Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell about their battle for the W Series crown – and what comes next.

There’s all the usual news and opinion from the club-racing world, too. Paul Lawrence looks ahead to this weekend’s Roger Albert Clark Rally and Ben Anderson gets behind the wheel of a Praga R1 sports-prototype at Donington Park – and comes away impressed.

The new Formula E season is almost upon us but, before it kicks off, we take one last look at the 2021 campaign in our free 20-page supplement. Matt Kew explains how Mercedes became a force in the all-electric series, plus there are guest columns from champion Nyck de Vries and team boss Ian James.

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