Category Archives: Motorsports

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 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 →

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!