With just two races remaining as the Formula One 2021 Season draws to a close, Scuderia Ferrari aim to finish in the top three for the first time since 2019.
27/11/21
With only two races remaining, Scuderia Ferrari have pulled clear in the battle for third in the Constructor's Championship with legendary rivals McLaren performing poorly over F1's triple-header.
Ferrari sit in third in the championship with 297.5 points with McLaren on 258 points.
With both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr finishing every race in the points, the Prancing Horse overturned the deficit and gained 47 points over the Mexican, Brazilian and Qatar races.
A best of fifth was achieved twice by Leclerc in both Mexico and Brazil, while Sainz Jr finished third in F1's third and final Sprint Race of the season in Brazil - however becuase of the unique points system, the Spaniard only gained a point.
The Qatar GP marked Sainz Jr's 13th consecutive points streak - stretching all the way back to Austria this season - which is the longest active points streak on the grid.
UPTURN IN FORTUNE: Over the season so far, Ferrari have secured two Pole Positions, four podiums and only one retirement which has aided their fight for third
Ferrari aim to finish third for the first time since 2019 with the Scuderia bouncing back after their dismal sixth place finish last season after aerodynamics tweaks and a loss of engine peformance saw Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel struggle to score points.
If Ferrari were to finish third this season, it would be fifth time since 2010 that that the Scuderia finished the year in the top three.
For Ferrari, there's not only the pride in finishing third and bouncing back after such a poor previous season, it's about the prize money as well.
McLaren however, have only scored four points over the past three races.
OLD FOES: Ferrari and McLaren have fought for wins, podiums, championships in the past - but this battle is the closest these teams have fought for a number of seasons
In fact, the Woking team have scored the same amount of points as Alfa Romeo, who sit ninth in the championship, over the triple-header. Retiring 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen scored Alfa's four points with an eighth place finish in Mexico.
British driver Lando Norris has scored all the points as Qatar saw Australian's Daniel Ricciardo come home pointless for the third time in three races.
In McLaren's 900th championship start, Norris was on-course for a fourth or fifth place finish but a slow puncture put pay to out-scoring Ferrari and much needed double figure points.
In the Driver's Championship, Norris leads Leclerc by a single point with the lead drivers for each team on 153 and on 152 points each.
With two races to go, 39.5 points seperate the titans of F1 with 88 points left on the table, Ferrari seem to have the upper-hand.
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