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2021 F1 Grand Prix of Russia — Results & aftermath

AGONY & ECSTASY AT SOCHI: Late rain dooms Norris’s victory hopes, as Hamilton’s timely switch to wet tires leads to stunning 100th victory; Verstappen also benefits to take P2 after starting last; Sainz P3 for a rare podium for Ferrari

After earning his first Formula 1 pole position and then leading for much of the race, things were looking good for McLaren’s Lando Norris to take his first career win at Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix. Holding off the hard charging Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who had patiently clawed his way back from a a disappointing and disjointed qualifying effort that saw him start from P4 and then an equally poor start to the race that dropped Hamilton several positions even further behind that, Norris seemed to have enough in his car and tires as the laps wound down to keep the seven-time champion behind and secure a breakout victory, albeit one that should surely have been very close at the line. However, the weather gods of the Black Sea had other ideas and on Lap 46 of the 53-lap contest the rains that had dogged qualifying on Saturday returned to play their part in this dramatic race from the Sochi Autodrom. At first relatively light, the intensity of the downpour increased over the waning laps to such a degree that slick tires began to seem more like ice skates. With Norris and Hamilton far in front of the field and essentially running their own race, one by one the cars behind them began to pit for Intermediate wet weather Pirellis to deal with the rapidly deteriorating conditions on the greasy circuit. It was crunch time for the respective brain trusts at McLaren and Mercedes to consult the radar and make their own decisions about whether to pop into the pits for rain tires.

Crucially, McLaren’s pit wall let them be talked into staying out by a recalcitrant Norris, who understandably did not want to give up his lead and potentially the win by pitting so late in the race when the rain might just as well cease as quickly as it started. It turned out to be a major miscalculation, however, because the rain kept intensifying and then Hamilton, who was, in fact, equally reluctant to make the extra stop, was ordered by Mercedes to come in for Inters and complied on Lap 49. Norris stayed out hoping he could manage the final four laps on his older Hard slick tires but it was clearly the wrong call, as his McLaren kept stepping out with increasing frequency. By Lap 51, Hamilton had caught the struggling Norris and passed him for the lead easily when Norris slid into a runoff area at Turn 5, the wettest part of the track. Norris conceded the impossibility of his circumstance and tiptoed into the pits for the necessary Inters but by now it was too late. Hamilton had secured a lead he would never relinquish after a lot of hard work and the right call by the team and Norris saw a large portion of the frontrunners pass him while he was in the pits, so slow and tentative was his in lap. While Hamilton took the checkers to finally earn his mind-blowing one-hundredth career F1 victory, the crestfallen Norris came home a supremely disappointing P7 on a day when it looked like he would be the one dancing on the top step of the victors’ podium. The young Englishman could only curse the Russian rains and console himself with the fact that he is one of the up and coming drivers in the sport and his day will certainly be coming in the future.

Perhaps the only driver happier than Hamilton was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, his only championship rival. After starting from dead last on the grid in P20 after the team decided to take a fresh engine for this race, Verstappen gave his usual brilliant effort and made a ton of passes early in the race to pull himself back into the points paying positions. Prior to the rain, however, he had stalled out around P6. But the Dutchman was an early taker for the Intermediate tires when the showers began falling, coming in a lap earlier than Hamilton on Lap 48, and in the ensuing scramble of some cars on slick and some on Inters, managed to whip by a ton of other competitors in short order. By the time the laps ran out Verstappen had somehow managed to finish second overall, a massive amount fo damage control on a day where he was not even realistically thinking of a podium. While Verstappen did concede the lead to Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings, it was only by a razor thin two points and not the potential double digit swing it could have been. In that way it was a very fortuitous and successful day for Verstappen and Red Bull. They also know that Hamilton, too, will likely have to change his engine and incur the penalties that go with it sometime fairly soon, while ideally Max’s power unit should be good to go for the rest of the season. It certainly seems like this 2021 heavyweight title bout is going to go down to the wire and could be decided at the last race of the year in the second week of December in Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who started alongside Norris in P2, who got by the McLaren for the lead early but then seemed to fade after a poorly timed early pit stop, also got the benefit of the Scuderia’s wise decision to throw a set of Inters on his Prancing Horse on Lap 48. That enabled the Spaniard to fight his way forward all the way up to P3 and the last spot on the podium. Perplexingly, however, the team split their strategy and kept the unlucky Charles Leclerc out on slicks until the final lap of the race. Leclerc, who was positively sliding for the last few laps, tumbled out of the points and down to P15 on a day where he drove much better than that and deserved better. The second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, the prior race winner at Monza, actually bettered his teammate Norris with a solid P4 finish despite clearly being not as fast all day. Again, the switch to wet tires proved the deciding factor for the affable Aussie, as the failure to do so proved to be the heartbroken Norris’s undoing.

Top 10 finishers of the Russian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 1:30:41.001 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +53.271s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +62.475s 15
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +65.607s 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +67.533s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +81.321s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +87.224s 7
8 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 53 +88.955s 4
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +90.076s 2
10 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +100.551s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — the Turkish Grand Prix. With the battle between Hamilton and Verstappen see-sawing away and tight as a tick look for more on track excitement as the races dwindle to a handful. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Russia — Qualifying results

Norris earns surprise pole at Sochi in wet conditions; Sainz takes P2, Russell P3; Hamilton falls to P4 after late crash entering pits

With Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton’s chief rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, doomed to start last or nearly last in tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix due to not only the Dutchman’s penalty for crashing into Hamilton two weeks ago at Monza but also his team’s decision to swap out Verstappen’s engine at track that doesn’t really suit them, Hamilton was looking to grab pole at the Sochi Autodrom and set himself up for maximum points for the race. However, the weather and a rare unforced error by the seven-time World Champion put paid to that plan. Somewhat stunningly, Hamilton found himself with only the fourth best time on the day, a fast lap he had set early in the final quali session while on the Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires after a day of rain here on the shores of the Black Sea. But the rain had stopped for long enough and the track had dried to such an extent by the start of Q3 that other team’s gambled on switching to slick tires in an effort to achieve a superior time to the one Hamilton set on the Inters. Williams’  George Russell was the first to commit, followed very shortly by all the other non-Mercedes drivers. And while at first it did not appear the risk was worth the reward, the circuit continued to improve and a true dry line had formed as the time wound down in Q3. That saw the Mercedes pit wall make a somewhat tardy call to bring their boys in and match the others’ strategies by throwing on some Soft Pirellis, too. However, Hamilton badly botched his pit entrance for the change, smacking the wall at pit in hard and essentially snapping his front wing in half. Not only did the team have to take much longer time than anticipated to give Hamilton a new wing but it also backed up his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who had to wait until those repairs to the team leader were made. By the time the Mercedes duo reemerged, the other runners had been able to get their tires heated up properly with several consecutive laps, something the two Silver Arrows no longer had the time to do.

This redounded to the benefit of several drivers not named Hamilton, as the normally superlative English hot shoe spun off track when trying to get something out of his cold tires and his earlier time on the treaded wet weather tires would have to be the one that stood. It only ended up being good enough for P4 on the grid, as first Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and then McLaren’s Lando Norris and Russell overhauled him. Continue reading →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

MADNESS AT MONZA: Ricciardo wins, Norris second for shock McLaren 1-2; Hamilton and Verstappen take each other out mid race; Bottas salvages P3 for Mercedes after Perez penalty

In a stunning result for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, beleaguered McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo shocked the Formula 1 paddock by passing the pole-sitting Red Bull of Max Verstappen when the lights went out to start the race and somehow held on to take the win when the full 53 laps of this classic contest at Monza had been run. Better yet for the team, their second car, driven by the talented young Englishman Lando Norris, was able to keep pace with his older teammate, tucking in right behind Ricciardo to cross the line in P2 as the checkers flew. So, not only was it the completely rebuilt team’s first victory since 2012 but that made it the first 1-2 for McLaren since back in 2010 when Lewis Hamilton was still driving for them, and Ricciardo’s first win since 2018 when he was Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull. A truly amazing renaissance for the Aussie in Italy!

Meanwhile, behind the top two papaya colored McLarens the slow burning antagonism between this season’s top two championship contenders came to an unfortunate and dramatic new inflection point. With Verstappen and his chief rival for the drivers’ title, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, splitting their tire strategies to start the race, Verstappen pitted first on Lap 24 to doff his initial set of Medium Pirelli tires in favor of the Hards. But it was an uncharacteristically awful start for the normally crisp Red Bull pit crew when a problem either with the gun or the nut of the right front led to a whopping 11 seconds stationary for the Dutchman instead of the usual 2.5-3 seconds. After already losing the lead to the hard charging Ricciardo on the opening lap, that left Verstappen fuming even more as he rejoined down in P10. Meanwhile Hamilton, who had started on the Hards, pitted two laps later for fresh Mediums, ostensibly giving him the performance advantage for the remainder of the race. But Hamilton’s stop was also on the slow side, some 4-seconds, which combined with Verstappen’s incredibly slow stop, saw Hamilton reemerge from the pit lane behind Norris and nearly alongside Verstappen, who was streaking down the start-finish straight.

With Hamilton leading into the Turn 1 chicane complex by half a car, Verstappen tried to stuff his Red Bull into the tightening radius of the curves. Hamilton didn’t give a millimeter and Verstappen wound up plowing through the big sausage curbs at the edge of the chicane, launching his Red Bull directly on top of Hamilton’s Silver Arrow. Thankfully the Halo device once again did its job and showed its merit, because the full weight of the Red Bull landed on top of the Mercedes’ roll hoop and cockpit area, cracking the floor of Verstappen’s mount in a fierce spray of carbon fiber. Verstappen’s rear will did appear to make contact with Hamilton’s helmet but thankfully the Halo deflected any more serious impacts and both drivers emerged unscathed. Their races, however, were shockingly over in that instant, with Verstappen netting only two points on the weekend in Italy due to finishing second in Sprint Qualifying on Saturday and Hamilton getting exactly zero on a day when he had the pace to perhaps challenge for victory. Verstappen now leads Hamilton by 5 in the Drivers’ in a a rivalry that has officially reached the boiling point with a planned eight more rounds to go. For those who’ve wanted a return to the good old days of Prost versus Senna, it appears those dreams of fierce conflict are coming true in the season long Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry. All eyes will surely be on these two fiery competitors when racing resumes in Russia in a fortnight to see just what happens next.

That elite double DNF left it to both team’s number two drivers to salvage what they could on the day. While Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who was officially jettisoned from the team for next season just this past week, did yeoman’s work to drag himself up from the rear where he was forced to start due to a host of engine component change penalties, the Finn finally found himself bogged down at P4 and trailing the lone surviving Red Bull of Sergio Perez. While it looked like Bottas had finally overtaken Perez on Lap 43, the Red Bull was able to fight back and retake the position when Bottas overcooked the move just a little too much. But Perez was assessed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and then gaining an advantage during an earlier pass by the Mexican on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. That meant that in the end Bottas was elevated to P3 and the last spot on the podium after his remarkably good recovery drive and Perez was demoted to P5 behind Leclerc, who also benefitted greatly from the failure of Verstappen and Hamilton to finish. Carlos Sainz slotted in at P6, making it a good enough day for Ferrari in front of their home fans, but perhaps a little less than totally pleasing, as they watched McLaren, their closest rival in the Constructors’ Standings, grab a terrific haul of points with their spectacular 1-2 finish.

Lance Stroll came home in P7 in his Aston Martin, the two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were P8 and P10 respectively and George Russell, who will leave Williams for Mercedes next year, finished in P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 1:21:54.365 26
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +1.747s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +4.921s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +7.309s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.723s 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +10.535s 8
7 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +15.804s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +17.201s 4
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +19.742s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 53 +20.868s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time, the Russian Grand Prix from the visually stunning Sochi Autodrom on the Black Sea.  Look forward to seeing you then to find out how Verstappen and Hamilton recover from their latest contretemps!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Sprint Qualifying results

Bottas wins Sprint Qualifying race at Monza but P2 Verstappen inherits pole due to Mercedes engine penalties; Hamilton finishes down in P5 after poor start, as McLaren take advantage with Ricciardo finishing P3 and Norris P4

The second of Formula 1’s experimental and somewhat gimmicky Sprint Qualifying races this year took place on Saturday at the fabled Temple of Speed, the Autodromo Nazionale in Monza, Italy, and it demonstrated once again what a risky proposition it can be for the top contenders. After Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton earned P1 and P2 for the Sprint race during the normal three-round knockout “qualifying’ that is moved to Friday for these events with the extra mini-race, the team was feeling positive when they kept Red Bull’s Max Verstappen starting behind their men in P3. But Hamilton got a dreadful start in the Sprint when the lights went out and dropped from P2 down to P5, behind not only Verstappen, his only serious title rival, but also the two Mercedes-powered McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. To complicate Hamilton’s day even more, a Safety Car was deployed before the end of the first lap when Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri speared off the road with a broken front wing and so Norris’ McLaren was therefore able to run several laps at slow speed while the track was cleared, saving his Soft Pirellis significant wear and tear. This, then, enabled the talented young Englishman to keep Hamilton at bay for the remainder of the race because his tires never reached a critical drop off in performance. While Bottas, who is officially out at the Mercedes factory team for next season, swanned away and easily kept Verstappen behind him, Hamilton spent the remaining laps of this 18-lap Sprint trying in vain to get around Norris’ McLaren and somehow make up the positions he threw away at the start. But despite pushing hard throughout, Hamilton could never get close to an overtaking move on Norris and had to settle for a disappointing P5 finish. And while Bottas was able to secure the Sprint win and grab three Championship points, it was almost entirely a pyrrhic victory because the Finn will not start from pole in tomorrow’s Grand Prix but rather from the back of the grid as penalty for replacing several high mileage engine components in his Silver Arrow.

That left Red Bull’s Verstappen the biggest winner of the day because even though he came home P2  he will start from pole in the Grand Prix. He also earned two valuable Championship points to Hamilton’s zero on the day and Hamilton will be mired back in the second row in P4 when he lines up on the grid for the race. The only potential saving grace for Lewis and Mercedes is that they seem to have a genuine pace advantage over Red Bull at this ultra-high speed circuit with its seemingly endless long straights and blindingly fast, sweeping curves. But as the Mercedes team saw today, it’s actually not that easy to pass here at Monza, especially when Hamilton is going to have to first get by both McLarens, which have essentially the same power units under their hoods as Hamilton.

Sprint Qualifying results Top 10:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 18 27:54.078 3
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 18 +2.325s 2
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 18 +14.534s 1
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 18 +18.835s 0
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 18 +20.011s 0
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 18 +23.442s 0
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 18 +27.952s 0
8 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 18 +31.089s 0
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 18 +31.680s 0
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 18 +38.671s 0

Complete Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

And this is the actual Top 10 starting grid for tomorrow’s race after Bottas’ penalties are factored in:

POS NO DRIVER CAR
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA
2 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI
7 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA
9 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT

Tomorrow’s Italian GP airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Hamilton can claw his way back to the top step or Verstappen will take his lucky pole and convert it into another victory!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

DUTCH TREAT — Verstappen earns dominant win in F1’s return to Holland to the delight of delirious Dutch fans; Hamilton second best  on the day; Bottas a distant P3

Red Bull’s Dutch phenom Max Verstappen drove to a dominant win from pole on Sunday, earning a relatively easy victory at his home race in the return of the Netherlands Grand Prix at Zandvoort after an absence of some 36 years. In front of packed grandstands set amongst the dunes of this seaside circuit that were filled mostly with his raucously enthusiastic orange-clad countrymen, Verstappen drove away from the P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out to start the race and never really looked back. He managed his tires brilliantly to maximize a one-stop strategy and eventually came home nearly 21-seconds up of the second place Hamilton after some late strategic miscues by the Mercedes pit wall allowed their number two driver Valtteri Bottas to make a late second stop for fresh Soft Pirellis and threaten Hamilton’s extra point for fastest lap. Hamilton and the team gave up on any chance of victory by pitting on Lap 71 of this 72-lap contest and then Hamilton salvaged that extra point by setting the fastest time on the final lap of the race. Still, with Verstappen’s two consecutive wins on the trot, including last week’s half point effort in the washout at Spa, the Dutchman is back into the lead over Hamilton for the Drivers’ World Championship by a slim 3 points. So, even though the two title contenders never really mixed it up on track at Zandvoort, such was Verstappen’s pace advantage over Lewis on the day, this is the kind of nip and tuck title battle between drivers on rival teams that Formula 1 fans have been clamoring for for years now. And certainly the throng of deliriously happy Dutch fans were thrilled with their man Max, who is singularly responsible for this race being back on the schedule after a decades-long hiatus, and will not be complaining about any aspect of Sunday’s contest even if his victory seemed preordained.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Bottas, who is likely out at Mercedes for next season in favor of Williams’ George Russell, it was another frustrating day being forced to play the loyal wingman to Hamilton instead of competing for his own prizes. At first deploying Bottas on a longer first stint than the top two in an effort to push Verstappen back into Hamilton’s clutches, when that didn’t really work the late call for fresh rubber on Lap 68 was made to protect the Finn from any kind of tire failure and preserve his number three position in the race. But when the team ordered him to dumb down his fast laps to preserve Hamilton’s extra point he was once again reminded where exactly he ranks within the Silver Arrows hierarchy. While he held on to that valuable P3 when the checkers flew, it must have been a bittersweet feeling for Bottas to say the least, especially as he appears to be exiting the team at the end of the year, But for Mercedes, their eventual two-three result was ultra-valuable in the all important Constructors’ fight with Red Bull. For while Red Bull’s number two Sergio Perez battled back gamely from a pit lane start after a poor qualifying and subsequent engine change, he could only fight his way up to a P8 finish worth just four points despite making what seemed like twenty passes along the way. The respective final results for the teams saw Mercedes leading Red Bull by twelve points in the Constructors’ after this thirteenth round of the Championship was done and dusted in Holland.

AlphaTauri’s impressive Pierre Gasly was the best of rest on the day, finishing a lap down on the top three but still a very solid P4 after a mostly lonely race running all by his lonesome. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc did try to catch up to Gasly as the laps wound down but ran out of time and placed in P5. Worse still for the Scuderia, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was able to pick off the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz on the final lap on fresher Hard Pirellis, nicking P6 and relegating Sainz to P7. Ferrari will be hoping for better results at their home circuit of Monza next weekend but its hardly a given they will actually have the straight line speed to contend for the podium places against, say, McLaren or Aston Martin. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon came home in P9 and Lando Norris was able to work his McLaren into the last point paying position in P10 after starting from an uncharacteristically poor P13 on the grid.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 72 1:30:05.395 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +20.932s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 72 +56.460s 15
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 71 +1 lap 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 71 +1 lap 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 8
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +1 lap 6
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +1 lap 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 2
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed that is Monza. Hamilton and Mercedes will be hoping the long straights there suit their car better than the tight twists of Zadvoort did, while Verstappen and Red Bull will simply be trying to keep their mojo working and the Silver Arrows in their rear view mirrors. Hope to see you then for all the action from Italy!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD — Verstappen seizes pole for the return of the Dutch GP; Hamilton bests Bottas for P2

After last week’s rainout at Spa, it was a welcome sight to see the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula 1 schedule after an absence of some 36 years. Not only was the weather at the historic beachside Zadvoort circuit bright and sunny, but the track itself was a delightful tonic to the F1 enthusiast, with its undulating, twisty topography, unpredictably banked corners and its old school gravel traps and lack of runoff areas. While many of the drivers had some experience here in the junior ranks, none had driven challenging Zandvoort in anything like Formula 1 machinery and the learning curve was steep. But Red Bull’s young Dutch master aced the test at his home circuit by laying down a blistering 1:08.885 lap time over the short 4.259 kilometer circuit and besting the rapidly improving P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton as time ran out in Saturday’s final qualifying session by a mere .038 seconds. Hamilton, who had a power unit swap earlier in Friday practice that cost him loads of track time, seemed to close the gap to Verstappen’s benchmarks rapidly as Q3 wound down and it should be a highly competitive battle between the two top championship contenders come tomorrow’s race when they line up side by side at the start.  The race itself should likely be an unpredictable one with the walls so close and overtaking sure to be a difficult and frustrating proposition and the lap times very tight between competitors.

Hamilton’s P2 lap came at the expense of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had held the second slot until the very last laps of qualifying were run. The Finn also looks to be out at Mercedes for next year, with Williams’ young, hard charging George Russell rumored to be taking his seat at the Silver Arrows and Valtteri moving to Alfa Romeo to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen. (Raikkonen will also miss this weekend’s action after testing positive for COVID-19. Longtime F1 driver Robert Kubica was brought in to replace him for the race.) Pierre Gasly continued to impress at AlphaTauri, blasting his way all the way up to P4 after being consistently fast all weekend long so far. The impressive Frenchman headed both the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who still managed solid efforts with times good enough for P5 and P6 respectively, a particularly good result for Sainz and his mechanics after the Spaniard mashed his front end into a barrier during free Practice 3 right before quali. Antonio Giovinazzi, who is also rumored to be on the hot seat at Alfa, pulled a great lap out of the bag to earn an impressive P7 on the grid. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso qualified P8 and P9 respectively, and Daniel Ricciardo was the sole McLaren to make it into Q3 and then set the tenth fastest time. Surprisingly, his normally outstanding teammate Lando Norris failed to get out of Q2 after appearing to struggle with the gusty conditions here. Look for Lando, who will start back in P13, to storm his way up into the points come race day. He won’t be the only one out of position and hunting for early passing opportunities: Vertsappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez also got caught out by rapidly evolving track conditions early on and was unceremoniously bounced out in Q1. Coming off a very poor non-points finish at rainy Spa where he crashed on the reconnaissance lap, the veteran Mexican will have it all to do tomorrow if he is to be of any help to his teammate, as he will start way down in P16.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:10.036 1:09.071 1:08.885 15
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:10.114 1:09.726 1:08.923 17
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:10.219 1:09.769 1:09.222 17
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:10.274 1:09.541 1:09.478 17
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:09.829 1:09.437 1:09.527 18
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:10.022 1:09.870 1:09.537 19
7 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:10.050 1:10.033 1:09.590 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.179 1:09.919 1:09.933 17
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.435 1:10.020 1:09.956 13
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:10.255 1:09.865 1:10.166 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 8AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With this tight and unforgiving track all but guaranteeing collisions between competitors and cars spearing off into the crash barriers, it should be an event-filled contest which could provide unpredictable results. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Results & aftermath

WASHOUT AT SPA: Belgian Grand Prix aborted due to heavy rain; Verstappen categorized P1, Russell P2 and Hamilton P3 on qualifying form; half points to be awarded

Formula 1 suffered a dismal return after the long summer break when the Belgian Grand Prix was abandoned due to heavy rains at the long and hilly Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Sunday. After trying several times over three hours to get the race going, Race Control eventually made the difficult decision to terminate the race and call the drivers into the pits for a final time on the day. Despite only running laps behind the Safety Car, half points will still be awarded to the top ten “finishers,” which mainly came down to how the drivers qualified in yesterday’s not quite but nearly as wet three rounds of Saturday qualifying. So that saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the rather anticlimactic victory today, with Williams’ George Russell earning his maiden podium by dint of his excellent effort yesterday and taking P2. The young Briton led out his potential future teammate, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, who trundled home classified in P3.

The biggest losers on the a day when F1 itself took it on the chin were Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who was set to start in P7 but who crashed out earlier on a pre-race reconnaissance lap and finished dead last in P20 after his crew scrambled to get his car back together during the delays; McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had to start from P15 due to his own qualifying shunt and the resultant 5-grid spot penalty for replacing his engine and finished there; and Mercedes second driver Valtteri Bottas, who was also serving a penalty for his part in the melee at the start of the prior Hungarian GP, and also finished out of the points in P12, certainly not the result the Finn was looking for with Russell making a strong push to take his Mercedes factory seat. Those three competitive drivers would surely have been looking to pull themselves into the points paying positions but were denied that opportunity by the uncooperative weather.

Their misfortunes really benefitted Ferrari, whose Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified P11 and P13 respectively but saw their positions elevated to P8 and P10 through the various misfortunes of others by the time the race was called off. Further up in the field, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren earned P4 with his sterling quali effort, Sebastian Vettel saw his Aston Martin classified a solid P5 and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly came home in P6. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in P7 and Williams Nicolas Latifi in P9 rounded out the Top 10. Latifi’s points result also made it a banner day for team Williams, which along with Russell’s freak podium, made for a much needed shot in the arm for the storied F1 team that has really been scuffling for the last several years.

Top 10 finishers of the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1 0:03:27.071 12.5
2 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1 +1.995s 9
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1 +2.601s 7.5
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1 +4.496s 6
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1 +7.479s 5
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1 +10.177s 4
7 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1 +11.579s 3
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1 +12.608s 2
9 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1 +15.484s 1
10 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1 +16.166s 0.5

Complete race results, such as they are, available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, the return of the Dutch Grand Prix from the legendary dunes of the Zandvort circuit after an absence of 36 years. Let’s hope the weather cooperates in Holland after such a disappointing weekend in Belgium — and hope to see you then for some actual racing!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes pole in wet conditions at Spa, denying overachieving P2 Russell; Hamilton settles for P3; promising Norris crashes out in lurid Q3 shunt at Eau Rouge

Formula 1 returned from the long summer break and arrived at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium with a bang — a bit too literally for McLaren’s talented young driver, Lando Norris. On a consistently wet day in the Ardennes, the rain picked up between the second and third qualifying sessions and Norris found himself running a hot lap early in Q3 that only lasted as long as Eau Rouge. His McLaren twitched in the standing water there and when Norris attempted to correct he lost control of his mount and spun violently into the tire barriers, destroying the car. Norris appeared to injure his left arm in the violent shunt but was otherwise unscathed when he finally emerged from his wrecked chassis after a tense few moments. Just like that, one of the main contenders for pole at the Belgian Grand Prix was out of the running and Norris will also likely have to start from the pits tomorrow after the crew spend the night rebuilding his car.

After a long Red Flag delay to clean up the track, the remaining nine drivers and their teams scrambled to figure out how best to deal with the weather, which thankfully lightened up during the pause, though it was certainly still wet. As time ran down in the stop-start Q3, everyone decided that Intermediate wet tires were worth the risk and at first Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton set a time that appeared fast enough to claim pole. But the circuit continued to improve and, surprisingly, it was the Williams of George Russell who displaced the seven-time champion Hamilton from that top spot by several tenths as time ran out in the final quali session. When Hamilton was unable to better Russell’s mark on his final attempt, it looked like the younger of the two Englishman might earn a flukey but still joyous first career pole. But Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had other ideas. With the bitter taste of his collision-affected P10 at the last race in Hungary still fresh in his mouth and plenty of time to brood about it during the long break, the young Dutch Master hooked up his final lap beautifully and dashed Russell’s pole dreams, besting the Briton by a shade over three-tenths. Nevertheless, Russell was still elated to earn his first front row start in F1, as were Wiliams after a long slog back to respectability, and he will line up in P2 across from Verstappen to start tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Hamilton had to settle for the third best time and Norris’s McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed to be nowhere earlier in qualifying, excelled as the sessions wore on and earned a much needed solid P4 starting spot for himself and the shaken team. Cagey old veteran Sebastian Vettel, who had been calling for a Red Flag prior to Norris’ shunt and was livid with the race directors after the crash, still kept his head together enough to pilot his Aston Martin to the fifth fastest time on the day. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also did well in the wet and will line up alongside Vettel on the third row in P6 on the grid. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez could only manage a time good enough for P7 but he still bested the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who not only qualified down in P8 but will be pushed back 5 spots on the grid due to his culpability for running into Verstappen at the Hugaroring on the opening lap. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, the shock winner of that contentious Hungarian GP, set a P9 time but will slot in at P8 on the grid for tomorrow’s contest due to Bottas’ penalty. That is exactly the starting spot Ocon had in Hungary when he drove to victory so the Frenchman may be feeling that he has the rest of the field right where he wants them.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:58.717 1:56.559 1:59.765 20
2 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:59.864 1:56.950 2:00.086 24
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:59.218 1:56.229 2:00.099 22
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 2:01.583 1:57.127 2:00.864 22
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 2:00.175 1:56.814 2:00.935 23
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 2:00.387 1:56.440 2:01.164 23
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:59.334 1:56.886 2:02.112 22
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:59.870 1:56.295 2:02.502 22
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 2:01.824 1:57.354 2:03.513 23
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:58.301 1:56.025 DNF 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With more foul weather forecast at Spa for Sunday it could be another crazy race result in a season full of them. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Qualifying results

Hamilton beats Bottas to pole as Mercedes flex pace at Hungaroring; Verstappen qualifies P3

With the return to good old three-round knockout qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix after F1’s rather underwhelming Sprint Race format two weeks ago in Great Britain, the hunt for pole for tomorrow’s race was once again focused solely on one-lap pace. And with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton dueling for that coveted top starting spot after their on track collision left Verstappen out of the British GP on Lap 1 and the entire Red Bull team hopping mad at Hamilton, who incidentally went on to win, there was more tension in the air than even a normally nervy qualifying Saturday. But as the Q3 session expired with all the top contenders waiting until the last possible second to make their final runs, it was team Mercedes that outperformed team Red Bull on this day and rather comprehensively. Hamilton hooked up a near perfect lap on Soft Pirellis to grab pole with a blistering 1:15.419 time and his wingman Valtteri Bottas was very nearly as good, slotting in at P2 on the grid just a little over three-tenths slower than the pole time. Verstappen was about a tenth in arrears of Bottas and will find himself in the unfamiliar position of starting from the second row in P3, ending a run of four consecutive poles for the Dutchman. His teammate Sergio Perez could not make the line in time for a final flying lap but was still fourth fastest and will line up alongside Verstappen on the grid, which should make the opening lap more than a little interesting with the Mercedes and Red Bulls stacked back-to-back, as they will be.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly returned to form after a bit of a lost weekend at Silverstone a fortnight ago, setting the fifth fastest time and bettering the hard charging Lando Norris, who could only get up to P6 in his McLaren. That was still miles ahead of his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who got bounced in Q2 and will start down in P11. Likewise, Gasly’s AlphaTauri teammate, rookie Yuki Tsunoda, could not get to grips with the tricky and breezy Hungaroring and found himself knocked out in Q1 with just the sixteenth quickest time. Charles Leclerc will be the sole Ferrari to start in the top ten at P7 because his stablemate Carlos Sainz crashed out in lurid fashion entering the final corner on his last hot lap in Q2. The Spaniard will have his work cut out for him trying to fight back from way down in P15, as will the team in rebuilding the car overnight. On the other hand, Alpine saw both of their drivers make it into Q3 for the first time since Round 4 in Spain, with the struggling Esteban Ocon actually outpacing his double-World Champion teammate Fernando Alonso, P8 to P9. And four-time Champ Sebastian Vettel pulled his Aston Martin into P10 to line up alongside fellow wizened veteran Alonso on the fifth row.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Hungarian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:16.424 1:16.553 1:15.419 19
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:16.569 1:16.702 1:15.734 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:16.214 1:15.650 1:15.840 17
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:17.233 1:16.443 1:16.421 16
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:16.874 1:16.394 1:16.483 15
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.081 1:16.385 1:16.489 17
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:17.084 1:16.574 1:16.496 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.367 1:16.766 1:16.653 15
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.123 1:16.541 1:16.715 15
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:17.105 1:16.794 1:16.750 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race, Round 11 of the Championship., airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Can Verstappen get his vengeance on Hamilton by coming from behind to win in this final round before the month-long summer break? Or was Max’s DNF via collision with Lewis in Britain the turning point of what was looking like a Championship season? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Results & aftermath

Hamilton survives first lap collision with Verstappen & penalty to take 8th victory at Silverstone; Leclerc a noble P2 for Ferrari, Bottas P3; Verstappen taken to hospital after crash battling Lewis

The intense competition for the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship was inevitably going to get nastier than the forced public bonhomie between the two primary contenders for the title, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s superstar Mac Verstappen. On Sunday at the British Grand Prix in Round 10, things finally got properly unfriendly between two top contenders. After Verstappen won the first ever Sprint Qualifying race/non-race on Saturday to claim pole for today’s real race, Hamilton made no mystery of his determination to seize the top spot from the Dutchman early on. The two best drivers on the planet diced wheel-to-wheel from the moment the lights went out at the venerable Silverstone Circuit, the Mercedes man forcing Vertsappen to take unorthodox lines to keep Hamilton behind on the opening lap. The intense fight came to a head midway through Lap 1 when Hamilton tried an inside move heading into Copse at a rapid rate of knots. Verstappen, perhaps not believing Hamilton would stuff it in on the inside at that tricky section, appeared to lose sight of his rival and closed down to make the apex of the next corner, clipping Hamilton’s front left wheel/wing with his Red Bull’s rear right in the process. In an instant, the Red Bull’s rear right tire was off the rim and Verstappen went careening off the circuit through a very shallow and ineffective gravel trap and into a tire barrier sideways at nearly 180 mph. While Hamilton’s Silver Arrow suffered only very minor wing damage, Verstappen’s mount was essentially totaled and the unlucky Dutchman took an excruciatingly long time to emerge from his wrecked car. Young Max did eventually emerge under his own power but he was taken to hospital for precautionary reasons, probably to monitor any possible concussion symptoms after such a very high-G impact. In just one lap, Verstappen’s race was over and shortly thereafter Hamilton’s was also put at risk despite emerging from the contretemps unscathed.

After a long Red Flag period with the race restarting from a standing grid for a second time, the P2 Hamilton was immediately assessed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. While one can certainly debate the stewards’ decision to put the onus on Hamilton — it looked like a racing incident to these eyes — there was no arguing that Hamilton now would have a major time deficit to somehow make up. With the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc inheriting the race lead after the Hamilton-Verstappen shamazzle and driving confidently to maintain that P1, it looked like a big ask for Hamilton to catch the Monegasque when he came out of the pits down in P5, after serving the penalty during his first and only tire service on Lap 28, all the more so when  Leclerc held his lead after his own pit stop for fresh rubber on Lap 30. But Hamilton put his mind to the task, making short work of McLaren’s Lando Norris for P3 after gaining another position on pit rotation. That left only his Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas between him and Leclerc’s Ferrari. And with Hamilton closing down Leclerc’s Prancing Horse by nearly a second per lap, the team quickly gave Bottas team orders to let Hamilton through, which the Finn dutifully did on Lap 40 of this 52-lap contest. Unfortunately for Leclerc, it was then just a matter of time before the Mercedes’ superior pace saw the English seven-time World Champion right on his gearbox. And on Lap 50 Hamilton was able to sweep by Leclerc’s Prancing Horse, ironically with a nearly identical inside move through Stowe that had caused so much grief to Red Bull and Verstappen on that fateful opening lap. Perhaps fearing a similar fate, Leclerc ran wide and off the track momentarily and Hamilton flew away past him and on towards his remarkable eighth career British Grand Prix victory. Truly, Silverstone is a magic elixir for the seven-time champ.

For Red Bull, the results essentially could not have been worse. Continue reading →