We experienced a season full of emotions in 2021, but the great figure was Max Verstappen. The 24-year-old Dutch driver managed to claim his first world drivers' championship this season, defeating seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The debate as to whether Mercedes or Red Bull had the best car remains unresolved. In many races, the Mercedes looked extremely fast, especially in the last races, such as the Brazilian, Qatar and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, however, the Red Bull took off in the middle of the season, in the Styrian, Austrian, Dutch, French Grand Prix. It was such a fierce fight that the drivers’ and constructors' championships were defined until the last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The two contenders for the drivers' title reached the Middle Eastern country with the same number of points, so the champion would be the one who finished ahead of his rival. This race was quite linear, everything made it seem that Lewis Hamilton was going to be crowned champion for the eighth time, however, an overtake on the last lap by Max Verstappen towards the British made the Dutchman take the lead of the race and, subsequently, he won the championship. It was a historic season.

Red Bull was the great protagonist. Maybe they didn't win both championships, but that didn't lower their heads, on the contrary, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, even commented that it was more important for them to win the drivers' championship, which they did. With Sergio Perez as the teammate of the reigning champion, Max Verstappen, Red Bull managed to obtain its fifth drivers' championship in the entire history of this team in the highest category of motorsport. The Mexican driver finished in fourth position in the championship, but he was a key factor for the Dutchman to be crowned. In this piece we will compare the performance of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the qualifying session and in the race, having a support to say who had the best season.

Qualifying session

In this session, Max Verstappen managed to obtain pole position 8 times (Bahrain, French, Styrian, Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, US and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix), while Checo Perez failed to obtain the first position. It should be noted that Max Verstappen did not set a time during the qualifying session of the Russian Grand Prix, as it would be useless due to his power unit penalty. Out of a total of 21 races (leaving aside the Russian GP), Max managed to obtain a better qualifying position than his teammate on 20 occasions, being the Emilia Romana (Imola) Grand Prix the only one where Checo managed to finish ahead of the Dutchman, with a difference of 0.052 seconds. The best position that the Mexican achieved in this session was second, in Imola, while the worst was sixteenth, in the Dutch Grand Prix. Max's best position was pole position in 8 races, while his worst was third. The average position for this session was 1.95 for the Dutchman (2nd place rounded), while Perez's was 6.3 (6th rounded). Likewise, the average difference from Verstappen to Perez was 0.672 seconds, that is, just over half a second.

Race

In the main race on Sundays, Max managed to take the victory in 10 races (Emilia Romana, Monaco, French, Styrian, Belgian, Dutch, US, Mexican and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix), while Sergio Perez was victorious on one occasion, during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The reigning champion, Max Verstappen, set a new record in the entire history of Formula 1 for the driver with the most podiums in a single season, with a total of 18. For his part, the Mexican driver managed to be present on the podium in 5 occasions. In terms of DNFs (unfinished races), Verstappen had a total of 3, while Perez had 2. It should be noted that Checo managed to finish the race ahead of his teammate on a total of 3 occasions, the same races as Verstappen failed to finish. Finally, Verstappen's average finish position in the race was 1.8 (if we round it up it would be 2nd place), while Perez's was 6.6 (that is, 7th). As we know, Max Verstappen managed to finish in the first position in the drivers' championship with 395.5 points, crowning himself champion of the season, while Sergio Perez finished in fourth place with 190 points (205.5 points less than his teammate). Charts are attached to facilitate understanding of the information.