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2021 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Sprint Qualifying results

Verstappen has better getaway to win debut Sprint Qualifying over Hamilton at Silverstone, take pole for British GP; Bottas P3

Formula 1 on Saturday introduced a limited Sprint Qualifying format for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, where drivers started in their positions based on the usual three-round knockout qualifying, this time held on Friday evening, but the pole and other grid positions were determined by the results of this 17-lap mini-race. At the site of the first-ever Formula 1 race in 1950, the fabled Silverstone Circuit built on a former WWII bomber air field, the experiment saw Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton lose out to the ascendent Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Despite his front left brakes catching on fire while he sat waiting the start, Verstappen still got the better getaway than Hamilton when the lights went out for the Sprint Quali and easily went on to win it and the pole for tomorrow’s race, rendering Lewis’ superb fastest lap in Q3 on Friday evening not much more than a footnote. Hamilton will still line up in P2 alongside the Flying Dutchman for his home race, one which the superlative Mercedes man has won an amazing six times, but it is Verstappen who will sit on the pole, his fourth-in-a-row, by virtue of winning this mini-contest despite the fact the he was second to Hamilton in “qualifying.”

I’m not sure I get the logic of this format, however much of a sugar rush it is, as fastest one-lap pace has ever been the determining factor for pole positions in F1 and this Sprint format seems to cheapen the accomplishment of hooking it all up perfectly in Q3, as Hamilton did on Friday. And, while Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas kept it clean to finish where he started (and thereby start where he finished) in P3, Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, showed the dangers of the Sprint for both driver and team when he spun out in dirty air, had to then pit for a new wing and eventually retired his Red Bull prematurely so the team could make changes to the car out of parc fermé conditions. After “qualifying” P5, Perez was classified dead last in the Sprint and will start from the rear or the pits tomorrow and his team will have a lot of extra work overnight to fix whatever is ailing his mount, not to mention engineering a strategy to get the Mexican back to the front. For all of the F1 brass’s stated desire to save money and control costs, adding an additional 17 racing laps to the Grand Prix weekend, with all the attendant competitiveness on the track that entails, seems like an odd way to economize.

This was the top 10 Sprint Qualifying Grid based on Friday’s “qualifying” results (complete grid available via Formula1.com):

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:26.134
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:26.209
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:26.328
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:26.828
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:26.844
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:26.897
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:26.899
8 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:26.971
9 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:27.007
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:27.179

And these are the results for the top 10 of the Sprint Qualifying to set the grid for tomorrow’s race — as you can see, if F1 wanted to jumble things up from where the drivers “qualified,” they did succeed in that  (complete Sprint results also available via Formula1.com):

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 17 25:38.426 3
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 17 +1.430s 2
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 17 +7.502s 1
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 17 +11.278s 0
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 17 +24.111s 0
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 17 +30.959s 0
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 17 +43.527s 0
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 17 +44.439s 0
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 17 +46.652s 0
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 17 +47.395s 0

Tomorrow’s British Grand Prix airs live beginning at 10AM Eastern of ESPN here in the States. With today’s stunt, er um, Sprint out of the way let’s see if Hamilton and Mercedes have anything for the dominant looking Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Hope to see you then for the real race to find out how it all shakes out!

F1 Debuts New “Sprint Race” Qualifying Format at Silverstone

The powers that be in Formula 1 have decided to tinker with their highly successful qualifying format, debuting a new 17-lap “sprint race” on Saturday at Silverstone to determine the starting grid for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix. Moving the normal three rounds of knock-out “qualifying” to Friday evening, those results only determine the starting spots for the sprint race not the pole or race day grid order. Instead, today’s sprint race will determine the actual starting spots for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Without having yet seen the sprint race quali, I have some serious misgivings about this new format. Why debut it in the middle of the season? Has the impact on the teams’ resources and personnel been considered thoroughly vis a vis having to prep for an entirely separate min-race in addition to the full GP the next day? Racers being racers, will we see some drivers taking each other out in the heat of competition for those precious grid spots during the sprint qualifying? And how are penalties going to be assessed for things like changing  gear boxes and other elements, since F1 have essentially forced the teams to risk more frequent damage to the cars?

While it’s clear that F1 brass want more unpredictability and passing by making pure one-lap speed not solely determinative of grid position and increasing the odds of multiple cars being out of position when the GP begins, why introduce this smack dab in the middle of a championship already 9 rounds old? Is that really fair to the competitors who have been playing by one set of rules for the first part of the season? Lastly, as the adage goes: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. F1 qualifying is already compelling as is and rewards the fastest cars with the best grid positions. Yes, everyone is always moaning about the perceived lack of passing in the races but except at a circuit like Monaco this is a bit if a canard, especially this season we have seen fine competition at the front of the field thanks to the highly competitive Red Bull challenging Mercedes’ usual supremacy, as well as a very tight midfield battle for points where teams like McLaren, Ferrari, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Alpine duke it out for positions on a weekly basis.

So, in my opinion, the Sprint Race Qualifying seems like a bit of a gimmick that one would find trotted out in a lower form of the sport to drum up interest and not at its highest level, as well as a solution in search of a problem, especially since it is being introduced mid-season. I think it would have been better deployed next season when the chassis will be theoretically spec and quasi-identical and the need to create performance uncertainty will be greater. But we’ll see how it works out in actuality today and perhaps I will be eating my words. More to come…

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

Verstappen cruises to dominant win at Austrian GP for third straight victory; Bottas P2 & Norris P3; Hamilton finishes off the podium in P4 after suffering curb damage

Red Bull’s peerless top pilot Mex Verstappen proved one again why this year’s title fight is not going to be another walkover for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. With the grandstands finally packed with fans, the vocal majority of them wearing Dutch Orange, Verstappen converted his second consecutive pole at the Red Bull Ring, the team’s eponymous home track, into his second consecutive victory, swanning away from the rest of the top contenders easily and dominating Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix in effortless style. It marked a clean sweep by the young Dutch Master of the so called “triple header” of three consecutive races on three consecutive weekends during this busy part of the season. Verstappen has also won four of the last five rounds and if not for a blown tire late in the going at Baku, the Red Bull man would be looking at six on the trot. It’s worth noting yet again that Hamilton failed to take advantage of the Dutchman’s DNF in Azerbaijan when Lewis muffed his break bias settings on the late restart and frittered away a sure podium if not the win, something that could well prove to be the turning point in 2021’s F1 championship and the moment that signaled the end of Mercedes’ run of seven consecutive championships in the turbo hybrid era.

In fact, Hamilton failed to maximize his points on this day, as well, coming home off the podium in P4 after suffering with rear floor damage from running too hard over the deceptively tricky sausage curbs at the Red Bull Ring. While nothing terminal, the damage compromised Hamilton’s pace to such a degree that the Mercedes brain trust made the rare decision to swap second driver Valtteri Bottas ahead of him into P2 on Lap 52 of this 71-lap contest. To add insult to injury, the McLaren of Lando Norris then handily passed Hamilton for P3 on the subsequent lap. Lewis will be glad to see the back of Spielberg, Austria and will be hoping his old stomping grounds at Silverstone will be the tonic he needs to get his championship campaign back on track when the F1 circus makes its way to England in two weeks time. As it is, hamtion has had to watch his deficit to Verstappen balloon to 32 points in the Drivers’ standings in the face of the Red Bull ace’s three race onslaught.

Bottas ran a good race and held on to that P2 at the finish, holding off Norris while coming home nearly eighteen-seconds adrift of Verstappen. It did consolidate a much needed better run of form for the Finn, whose contract is up after the season, after finishing a valuable P3 last week at the Styrian version of this race. Norris was truly brilliant all day long, maximizing the pace of his McLaren against the theoretically superior cars around him and taking his impressive third third-place finish and podium of the season. If the rapidly improving young Englishman hadn’t been given a dubious penalty for supposedly forcing the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez off track earlier in the race it’s possible that Norris could even have bested Bottas on the day and defended his P2 starting spot. Regardless, the team will be thrilled not only with Norris’s continued development into an elite F1 driver and their Mercedes-powered MCL35M into possibly the third best car on the track, but also with the outstanding drive today of Daniel Ricciardo, who overcame a terrible P13 qualifying effort to battle all the way up to a P6 finish, contributing yet more vital points for McLaren.

Red Bull’s Perez not only did not benefit from Norris’s early penalty because he lost a ton of places when he ended up in the gravel while going for that pass on Lap 4, but the veteran Mexican was also assessed two different 5-second time penalties when the stewards judged that he returned the favor on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc when they were battling on two separate occasions at that very same Turn 4. Again, the penalties seemed tricky-tacky for what simply looked like hard racing. But the stewards had already set the precedent with Norris’s penalty earlier so they could hardly make a different decision regarding Perez’s actions against Leclerc. That cost Checo P5 when those 10 seconds were debited from him at the finish, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who had swapped places with Leclerc on fresher Pirelli’s under team orders on Lap 66, being elevated into that P5 spot and Perez being demoted to P6. On the occasion of his 200th career Grand Prix, this race in Austria is probably not one that Perez will want to put in his personal time capsule.

The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, livid after his couple of contretemps with Perez’s Red Bull in which the Monegasque came off the worse and in the gravel, did manage to nurse his Prancing Horse home in P8. That made it a fairly good result for Ferrari after their cars had lined up P11 and P12 on the grid, although the brass back at Maranello will be less than pleased to see McLaren pulling away from them for P3 in the Constructors’. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was back in the points in P9 after a DNF here last weekend, although the team’s other driver, Yuki Tsunoda, made a hash of his race with a couple of silly pit entry penalties that saw the young  Japanese driver relegated to P12. On the other hand, Alpine’s wise old head Fernando Alonso made it a four-race points scoring streak by fighting his way up to P10 by the time the checkers flew.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 1:23:54.543 26
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 71 +17.973s 18
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +20.019s 15
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +46.452s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +57.144s 10
6 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +57.915s 8
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +60.395s 6
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 71 +61.195s 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 71 +61.844s 2
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 70 +1 lap 1

Complete race results amiable via Formula1.com.

After the three races in three weekend sprint the next contest is in a fortnight’s time, the venerable British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Hamilton will be hoping the old airfield circuit, which he usually seems to dominate and where he has racked up six career wins, will be the tonic he needs to reinvigorate his championship aspirations after a rough run of five winless races. Verstappen, on the other hand, will be looking to prove that his Red Bull is the better car on any given circuit on the calendar this year. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Qualifying results

Verstappen aces second consecutive pole at Red Bull Ring; Norris a surprisingly potent P2 for McLaren, Perez P3; Hamilton & Mercedes off the pace

A week after dominating the Styrian Grand Prix for an easy win, Red Bull’s championship-leading Max Verstappen was back to his imperious ways at the team’s home circuit, as the superlative Dutchman earned a second consecutive pole position at the Red Bull Ring, this time for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix. On a track that suits him like a hand-tailored garment, Verstappen kept his positive momentum going on a day when his main championship rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, took a step backwards. Not only did Verstappen earn the top starting spot in Saturday qualifying but instead of Hamilton or the second Merc of Valtteri Bottas nipping at his heels, Verstappen will have McLaren’s hard charging young star Lando Norris alongside him on the front row of the grid in P2. The 21-year-old Englishman maximized the superior straight-line speed of his Mercedes-powered MCL35M chassis to earn his best ever Formula 1 starting spot, setting a fast time just .048 behind the points leader and, alongside the 23-year-old Verstappen, will make up one of the youngest front rows in F1 history. Norris’ success came at the expense of the factory Mercedes drivers, as Hamilton could manage no better than a P4 time and Bottas slotted in at P5, with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez bettering them both by setting the third fastest time in Q3. That leaves Checo in prime position to play the loyal Red Bull wingman during tomorrow’s race. It’s now fairly clear that this track no longer suits the Silver Arrows as it did a year ago and that other teams have improved their performance here at the Red Bull Ring enough in the interim to make Mercedes look positively mediocre. Toto Wolff and the AMG braintrust will have to figure out a way to minimize the potential damage from tomorrow’s race by finishing both cars well up in the points and then looking forward to better days at Silverstone in two weeks. Because realistically, the Mercs have very little shot at winning against the ascendent Red Bull of Verstappen and neither Hamilton or Bottas may see the podium tomorrow after the checkers fly.

AlphaTauri had a very nice day of qualifying, with Pierre Gasly slotting in at P6 and the somewhat erratic rookie Yuki Tsunoda coming home seventh fastest. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was solid in P8 but will have to start behind his teammate Lance Stroll, who qualified P10, after it was judged that Vettel had impeded Alpine’s Fernando Alonso during Q2, earning the veteran German driver a three-spot grid penalty. And another up-and-coming young Englishman, Williams’ George Russell, broke through into Q3 and set a time good enough for ninth fastest in that final quali session, an exciting milestone for both the rebuilding team and their ambitious and talented young pilot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.249 1:03.927 1:03.720 16
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:04.345 1:04.415 1:03.768 19
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.833 1:04.483 1:03.990 24
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:04.506 1:04.258 1:04.014 18
5 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.563 1:04.376 1:04.049 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.841 1:04.412 1:04.107 21
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.967 1:04.518 1:04.273 21
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.846 1:04.493 1:04.570 20
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:04.907 1:04.553 1:04.591 15
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.927 1:04.547 1:04.618 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With Verstappen having won three out of the last four contests and looking to pull away from Hamilton in the championship, the stars seem aligned for him to so at this favorite track barring unexpected drama. The real question is if Norris can keep Perez, Hamilton and Bottas behind him for a very special result. It’s a big ask but young Lando has been building up to that kind of breakthrough all season. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Results & aftermath

Verstappen romps to victory in Styrian Grand Prix; Hamilton and Bottas P2 & P3, Perez P4

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was completely untouchable in the first of two consecutive races at the Red Bull Ring, easily going from pole to victory in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix in the beautiful hills of Spielberg, Austria. Verstappen handily outclassed his main championship rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by over 35 seconds to take his second consecutive victory in this second of three back-to-back-to-back races. To be fair, Hamilton did make a penultimate lap second pit stop for new Soft Pirellis that enabled him to snatch away the extra point for fastest lap from the superlative Dutchman. Nevertheless, Verstappen increased his point lead over Hamilton, the seven-time and current reigning champion, to 18 with his second consecutive victory. The dominant win at Red Bull’s home circuit also highlighted just how far the RB16B chassis has come in a year’s time, with Verstappen gapping P2 Hamilton by just about the same margin Hamilton bested him by when Max finished P3 and Lewis was victorious in the second Austrian contest in what was Round 2 of the COVID-effected 2020 season.

Despite their glaring pace deficit to Verstappen’s Red Bull, It wasn’t all bad news for Mercedes on the day, as their beleaguered number two pilot, Valtteri Bottas, was able to hold of the hard charging second Red Bull of Sergio Perez for P3 and take the last spot on the podium. The Mexican simply ran out of laps as the 71 for today’s contest were just about the maximum for Bottas to keep that valuable position and perhaps restore some much needed confidence after an extremely demoralizing stretch for the Finn. In truth, it was solid drivel around for Bottas, as he was penalized for a sort of burnout in the pots during qualifying and had to start P5 instead of P2 where he qualified. Still, with Red Bull now consistently getting solid points results from Perez, the team now carries a 40-point lead over Mercedes in the all-important Constructors’ standings after eight rounds of the championship, which is roughly a third of the season.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was once again best of the rest and finished P5, as he has so often this season. The team were content to pull the talented young Englishman out of the top four’s elite fray and just run a steady pace to bring their man home fifth. However, the results were not so good for the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, who failed to score after some sort of power issue caused the Aussie to drop like a stone just as he was making up positions early in the race and he thereafter could make no further progress, finishing down in P13. Ferrari, their closest rivals for third in the Constructors’, took full advantage of Ricciardo’s misfortune with the Prancing Horses rebounding nicely from a points shutout in France last week. Carlos Sainz overcame starting from twelfth on the grid to grab an impressive P6 finish and Charles Leclerc finished where he started in P7 but only after a lot of crazy contact with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on Lap 1 forced the Monegasque in for a new front wing. While Gasly suffered terminal suspension damage after getting a puncture out of the contretemps with Leclerc and then being ping ponged by nearly the entire field as he decelerated down the order, Leclerc went on to be voted Driver of the Day for his storming and determined performance. It was an honor that most decidedly did not receive Gasly’s vote.

Further down, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll drove solid race to take P8, Alpine’s wise old head Fernando Alonso scored his third consecutive points finish in P9 and Yuki Tsunoda salvaged a single point for Alpha Tauri in P10 on a day when the team were surely hoping for more.

Top 10 finishers of the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 1:22:18.925 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +35.743s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 71 +46.907s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +47.434s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 70 +1 lap 8
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 70 +1 lap 6
8 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 4
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 70 +1 lap 2
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 70 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and you don’t even have to make a new hotel reservation — it may be called the Austrian Grand Prix but it is at this exact Red Bull Ring next Sunday and for the same number of laps to boot. It’s doubtful that Mercedes can find the pace to challenge the supreme Verstappen here during that short window but stranger things have happened. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs second consecutive pole to line up P1 for Styrian GP; hard luck Bottas betters Hamilton for P2 but will drop 3 spots due to penalty

The ascendent Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s top driver and the current points leader in the Championship after seven rounds, scored his second pole on the trot during Saturday qualifying to secure the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Styrian Grand Prix. Six days after winning at Paul Ricard in France, Verstappen earned even more satisfaction by setting the fastest time at his team’s home circuit, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, and setting himself up nicely for potential back-to-back victories in this second race of a three-week “triple header” of consecutive contests (the third of which will be at this exact circuit next week). Verstappen got the better of both Mercedes drivers relatively easily and the day’s competition for starting spots saw Valtteri Bottas actually outclass his more lauded teammate, Lewis Hamilton, P2 to P3, after Hamilton had a very scruffy final lap in Q3. However, true to the Finn’s luck so far this season, Bottas will be penalized three grid spots for dangerous driving in the pits earlier in practice and will have to start back amongst the midfield runners in P5, elevating Hamilton to the front row alongside his archrival Verstappen.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was well off the pace of his team leader and could only set the fifth fastest time, as he saw himself bettered by the theoretically inferior McLaren of Lando Norris, who crossed the line with a flying lap good enough for P4. AlphaTauri also looked strong here in Spielberg, with Pierre Gasly setting a time good enough for P6 and the erratic rookie Yuki Tsunoda coming home eighth fastest. Tsunoda will also be penalized three grid spots, though, after the stewards ruled that the young Japanese had impeded Bottas’ qualifying efforts during Q3. Ferrari had their pace deficit exposed again since leaving the slower street circuits behind them. A week after the team scored zero points in France, Charles Leclerc was only able to muster a P7 qualifying effort, while teammate Carlos Sainz really struggled and was knocked out in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest lap. One has to wonder what the Prancing Horses will really have come race day, where they seem to be at a pace disadvantage to teams like McLaren, AlphaTauri and even Alpine and Aston Martin over the long runs.

Speaking of those latter two teams, they rounded out the top ten qualifiers, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso enjoying his day with a P9 quali effort and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll taking P10, well ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who underperformed after a run of good results and could only set a rather pokey P14 time in Q2.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.489 1:04.433 1:03.841 20
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.537 1:04.443 1:04.035 23
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:04.672 1:04.512 1:04.067 25
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:04.584 1:04.298 1:04.120 17
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.638 1:04.197 1:04.168 21
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.765 1:04.429 1:04.236 18
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:04.745 1:04.646 1:04.472 21
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.608 1:04.631 1:04.514 21
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:04.971 1:04.582 1:04.574 18
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.821 1:04.663 1:04.708 18

Complete qualifying results and the penalty-effected starting grid available via Fomula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM here in the States. With Hamilton struggling on this short little circuit and Verstappen looking dominant as he should at the aptly named Red Bull Ring, look for some early aggression on Lewis’s part to try to pull himself back on even terms with the superlative Dutchman. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen rides gutsy two-stop strategy to victory over Hamilton in France; Perez P3 with late overtake on Bottas

Red Bull’s young Dutch master Max Verstappen took advantage of his team’s mid-race decision to switch to a two-stop strategy and rode that strategic masterstroke to victory in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard Circuit on Sunday. With tire degradation much worse than anticipated, the Red Bull pit wall decided to split their strategies between Verstappen and their second pilot, Sergio Perez, running Perez several laps longer than both rival Mercedes on the opening stint, while surprisingly calling in Verstappen for a second stop and switch back onto Pirelli Mediums on Lap 33. It was a high stakes gamble by the team’s race engineers, especially after Verstappen had retaken the lead over Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton while undercutting the English seven-time champion on his initial of tire change onto Hards on Lap 19. Although Verstappen lost track position and came out P4 when he emerged from his second stop, his Medium tires would not only be 11 laps fresher than Hamilton’s when the laps of this 53-lap contest wound down but would presumably deliver a performance advantage by virtue of their also being the softer compound to Hamilton’s aged Hard tires.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

And that’s exactly how it played out in the final stage of the race. While Mercedes were forced to pray and hope that they could use their second man Valterri Bottas to hold up Verstappen’s pursuit of P1, unlike Red Bull’s savvy decision making on the day hope and prayer is not a strategy. Perez graciously allowed Verstappen by to take over P3 on Lap 35 and the hunt for Hamilton was on. By Lap 44, Verstappen made easy work of P2 Bottas, who was livid with the Mercedes brain trust for not heeding his pleas to switch to a two-stop plan of their own earlier in the race. By Lap 51, Verstappen was right up to Hamilton’s gearbox and all the joy at Lewis’ opening lap capture of the lead when the pole-sitting Verstappen overcooked Turn 2 and slid off track seemed like ancient history. Verstappen pounced on the slowing Silver Arrow of his main championship rival and overtook Hamilton easily on the penultimate lap, streaking away down the road and towards a thrilling win that boosted his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings to twelve points. While Hamilton held on for P2, Bottas suffered the ignominy of being passed for the last podium position by Verstappen’s stablemate, Perez, making it an outstanding points haul for Red Bull at Paul Ricard and a bitter pill for mighty Mercedes to swallow. Between Verstappen’s initial undercut, which earned him back the lead when he reemerged from the pits ahead of Hamilton, the decision to split strategies by running Perez longer on his opening stint and then the brilliant call to switch to a two-stopper that ended up being the winning move, Red Bull made Mercedes’ normally sharp pit wall seem flat footed and pokey all day long. Lewis will still also be kicking himself for blowing the restart two week’s ago in Baku when Verstappen had already crashed out and the chance to score big points on him evaporated in a puff of locked up tire smoke.

With Bottas a disgruntled P4, team Mclaren were the happy best of the rest on Sunday. Lando Norris rode his team’s own long first stint strategy all the way up to a strong P5 finish, while Daniel Ricciardo had arguably his best race with his new team to come home a solid P6. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was in the mix with the other midfield runners all day but didn’t quite have the pace of the McLarens and finished P7. But the impressive young Frenchman did manage to fight of veteran Fernando Alonso’s Alpine effectively and Alonso had to settle for a P8 result. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll both managed to turn super long opening stints into points-paying P9 and P10 finishes respectively. After Vettel had started in P12 and Stroll was way back on the on the grid in P19, it made for very satisfying results for improving Aston Martin when the checkers flew. On the other side of the satisfaction equation, Ferrari had a miserable race, converting Carlos Sainz’s P5 and Charles Leclerc’s P7 starts into P11 and P16 finishes respectively for a big fat goose egg for the Scuderia on the day. That will go down as well with the honchos in Maranello as a plate of buttered noodles with ketchup for lunch would at the nearby trattoria.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 1:27:25.770 26
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +2.904s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.811s 15
4 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +14.618s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +64.032s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +75.857s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +76.596s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +77.695s 4
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +79.666s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +91.946s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

With the French Grand Prix actually the first of three consecutive race weekends in a row, the next two contests on this busy part of the calendar will be on Red Bull’s home turf at the eponymous Red Bull Ring, beginning with next weekend’s Styrian GP. Hope to see you then to see if Max and his team can keep up their momentum and keep Mercedes and Hamilton on the back foot!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs pole for Red Bull at Paul Ricard, Perez P4; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Mercedes

The 2021 F1 title tilt continued to distill down to the two top drivers on the two top teams, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a DNF at the last race in Azerbaijan to grab pole at the psychedelic Paul Ricard circuit during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Gran Prix. The flying Dutchman pipped his main title rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by around three-tenths on his final flying lap in Q3. Hamilton was also seeking redemption after blowing a sure podium and perhaps victory at Baku two weeks ago when he left a break bias control on by mistake on the final restart and slid off the track and out of the points. The English seven-time champ posted a solid time good enough for P2 and a starting spot alongside Verstappen at the front of the grid, as the two resumed their back and forth battle for supremacy that seems certain to last all year long. While Verstappen and Red Bull had the one lap pace today it’s an open question as to whether they can match Hamilton’s race pace when the lights go out on Sunday.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas posted a very good P3 qualifying result and appeared positively giddy to have left the street circuits of Monaco and Baku behind. That put the embattled Finn one slot ahead of Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, who will start P4 two weeks after inheriting the victory in Azerbaijan when Verstappen crashed out late in the race with tire failure. With the front four a full on Red Bull-Mercedes mix and match, look for some intense dicing on the opening lap and perhaps one or more of the top contenders getting pushed wide on the acres of multi-colored abrasive runoff areas on this most unique and frankly strange circuit in the south of France.

Behind the elite quartet, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz bested his teammate Charles Leclerc P5 to P7. The rare subpar result  by the Monegasque also ended Leclerc’s two-race pole-setting streak. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly managed to nail his last opportunity in Q3 to set the sixth fastest lap after having his previous best effort deleted for exceeding track limits. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daily Ricciardo qualified P8 and P10 respectively, while the veteran Fernando Alonso used all of his copious experience to over-perform and drag his Alpine up to a decent P9 starting spot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.001 1:31.080 1:29.990 16
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:31.237 1:30.788 1:30.248 20
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.669 1:30.735 1:30.376 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.560 1:30.971 1:30.445 16
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.079 1:31.146 1:30.840 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:31.898 1:31.353 1:30.868 22
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.209 1:31.567 1:30.987 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:31.733 1:31.542 1:31.252 18
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.158 1:31.549 1:31.340 17
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.181 1:31.615 1:31.382 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. A week after both men scored zero points, look for a ding dong battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in this latest high speed test of their respective title aspirations. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan — Results & aftermath

Perez victorious at Baku after Verstappen loses sure victory with late tire failure; Vettel shows old form to take P2, Gasly holds off Leclerc for P3; Hamilton blows penultimate lap restart to tumble out of points

The return of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to the Formula 1 calendar after a year’s hiatus provided the season’s most exciting race so far, as the ultra-challenging Baku City Circuit so often does. But this year’s drama hinged not on driver error but rather tire failure. With Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leading comfortably ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton and poised to extend his championship lead, the unlucky Dutchman suffered a catastrophic failure of his left rear Hard Pirelli tire while steaming down the start-finish straight around 200 miles per hour at the end of Lap 47. As his car speared off and smashed nose first into the barriers on his right, victory was snatched from Verstappen with a mere four laps remaining in the contest. It was nearly identical to an incident that took Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll out of the race back on Lap 31 in another huge shunt that was almost certainly precipitated by an unexpected tire failure. The debris from and removal of Verstappen’s stricken mount caused a Red Flag to be thrown on Lap 48, as well as the race director’s desire that all teams should have the option of switching onto new Pirellis as a precaution once they were back stationary in the pits, which all in fact did.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

After a lengthy delay, it was decided the race was safe to resume from a standing start with just two laps remaining. Perez had inherited the lead due to Max’s misfortune and Hamilton was positively licking his chops just behind him in P2, keen to get the jump on the veteran Mexican and steal a victory. But Hamilton made a crucial error by leaving his “magic” on for the actual restart, a tool that helps warm up the Silver Arrows’ brakes prior to racing speeds being achieved. So as Perez sprinted away cleanly, Hamilton locked up heading into Turn 1 and straight-lined off into the escape area. The English seven-time champ suffered the ignominy of watching the entire field pass him before he could rejoin the track, not to mention the agony of knowing he would now score zero points on a day where he should have been poised to make up massive ground against his primary title rival Verstappen. It was another crazy twist of fortune on the streets of Baku, which has seen its fair share of them, and benefitting most from the woes of the top two title contenders were Perez, the remaining Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. Perez put his foot down and never looked back after Hamilton’s fateful off, showing that Red Bull’s faith in him was justified by earning a victory to somewhat salve the team’s wounds at seeing Verstappen crash out. Vettel was also brilliant all day, showing signs of his old form by making a longer run on his opening set of tires pay off, grabbing armfuls of track position and having fresher rubber to make passes during the critical laps prior to the Red Flag and come home an elated P2. It was a fantastic result for Vettel and the team on a day where Stroll thankfully also walked away from his frightening shunt.

And Gasly was tenacious in holding off the hard charging Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who was desperate to get to the podium after starting from pole but frankly lacked the race pace to truly compete for the top spots. Gasly kept his elbows out and kept the Monegasque behind him to grab a terrific P3. It still wound up being a decent day for Ferrari, with Leclerc’s settling for a solid P4 and Carlos Sainz coming home a rather fortunate P8 after recovering from his own unforced error earlier in the race that saw the Spaniard have to take to the escape road and grab reverse to rejoin the race. Lando Norris also hung in doggedly with what seemed to be a difficult car to handle and when the dust had settled and the checkers flew the young English McLaren driver found himself with a very pleasing P5 result. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo likewise benefitted from the race’s attrition rate and bobbles by the favorites to add some more points for McLaren in P9. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso somehow managed to work his way up to a P6 result with a great restart on that penultimate lap after being mired well out of the points for most of the day. Gasly’s AlphaTauri teammate, rookie Yuki Tsunoda, also got a much needed boost of confidence by not only running a clean race but also taking his best F1 finish in P7, adding up to a bushel full of valuable points for the team.  And the venerable Kimi Raikkonen scored his first point of the year for Alfa Romeo by coming home in P10 on day where survival and a bit of good luck trumped pure pace and skill.

As bad as Red Bull felt about Verstappen’s DNF at least they could hang their hat on Perez’s victory. For Mercedes the news on Sunday was all bad because, in addition to Lewis’ uncharacteristic blunder, their second driver Valtteri Bottas was nowhere all day and finished out of the points in P12. One wonders if the Mercedes brain trust is not quite thinking through a two car strategy, as much of this weekend’s calls seemed to be solely designed to advantage Hamilton and not really deliver performance for Bottas. Either way, with the Silver Arrows now trailing team Red Bull by 26 points in the Constructors’ standings after six rounds of the Championship the pressure on Bottas to perform better or lose his seat has got to be hotting up.

Top 10 finishers of the Azerbaijan GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 51 2:13:36.410 25
2 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 51 +1.385s 18
3 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 51 +2.762s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 51 +3.828s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 51 +4.754s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 51 +6.382s 8
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 51 +6.624s 6
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 51 +7.709s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 51 +8.874s 2
10 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 51 +9.576s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks’ time from the very colorful and eccentric Paul Ricard Circuit in France. After two tight street circuits in a row, it’s about as different a track from Baku and Monaco as you could want. So look for the top contenders to refocus and compete at the highest level without fear of crashing into barriers. Let’s hope the drivers can also have full confidence in their Pirelli tires by then, as well. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan — Qualifying results

Ferrari’s Leclerc nabs second consecutive pole in Red Flag-marred Baku qualifying; Hamilton salvages a P2 start, Verstappen P3 after Q3 ends early

Ferrari’s ace pilot Charles Leclerc secured his second consecutive pole position at the second consecutive street circuit on the calendar, this time through the very demanding boulevards and alleyways of the Baku City Circuit during Saturday qualifying for the return of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Two weeks after setting the fastest quali time in Monaco before crashing out, Leclerc survived today’s crash-laden affair and benefitted from setting a fine fast banker lap early in Q3. That held up very nicely when that final qualifying session was ended prematurely under a Red Flag due to rookie Yuki Tsunoda misjudging his breaking point and spearing his AlpahTauri into the barriers nose first. A collateral shunt by Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, made certain that there was not enough time to clear the track and resume, so the Monegasque was therefore awarded the top starting spot. It will be something of a deja vu do-over for Leclerc and he will be desperate to forget his heartbreaking experience in Monte Carlo when his car was unable to start his home race despite earning the pole, likely due to his untimely Q3 shunt there. This time, Leclerc kept everything clean and he and  Ferrari will have as good a chance as any team and driver of taking victory tomorrow at this demanding and highly technical track.

The Red Flag may or may not have cost Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton a shot at pole but in any event Lewis will line up beside Leclerc in P2 so he will likely try to wrest the lead from the Ferrari right when the lights go out. Hamilton was also pleased to start one spot better than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was disappointed to have only the third fastest time on the board when the session was ended. After looking like he had the fastest car and Verstappen looking the fastest driver, the Monaco winner and current points leader will have to duke it out from P3 against the talented rivals ahead of him if he wants to keep his championship momentum going. The Dutchman’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez qualified a disappointing P7, which puts him out of position since he was very fast during practice sessions, so look for the savvy Mexican to make up places at a fairly rapid rate. And that was still miles ahead of Hamilton’s Silver Arrows partner Valtteri Bottas, who struggled for pace and grip once again and could only muster a lowly P10 time when Q3 ended. On the other hand, the second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly excelled by taking P4 on the grid, matching his career best qualifying performance. Sainz should line up in P5 if he did not damage his Prancing Horse too badly when he skidded and spun off into the barriers after locking up behind Tsunoda. Lando Norris qualified P6 in his McLaren, salvaging something for the team after Daniel Ricciardo crashed out heavily in Q2. But the young Englishman was later assessed a 3-spot grid penalty for not entering the pits promptly when a Red Flag came out in Q1, so that will drop him to P9 on tomorrow’s grid.

Despite his costly mistake, Tsunoda still had his best quali effort and set the eighth fastest time. And Alpine’s Fernando Alonso used the tow like a wise veteran should, managing to haul himself up to P9 by the time final session stopped after letting Hamilton’s Merc punch a whole in the air in front of him during his best flying lap.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Azerbaijan GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:42.241 1:41.659 1:41.218 19
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:41.545 1:41.634 1:41.450 21
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:41.760 1:41.625 1:41.563 19
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:42.288 1:41.932 1:41.565 18
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:42.121 1:41.740 1:41.576 18
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:42.167 1:41.813 1:41.747 20
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:41.968 1:41.630 1:41.917 18
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:42.521 1:41.654 1:42.211 19
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:42.934 1:42.195 1:42.327 20
10 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:42.701 1:42.106 1:42.659 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 8AM Eastern here in the States. With the grid properly scrambled and the treacherous nature of this most entertaining and demanding of street circuits it should be a real doozy. Your guess is as good as mine as to who emerges victorious after 51 grueling laps in Baku so hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!