2021 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

GAME ON: Red Bull’s pace for real as Verstappen beats Hamilton for premier pole of 2021 at Sakhir;  Bottas P3 ahead of Leclerc’s improved Ferrari

The 2021 Formula 1 season is upon us after a long, cold winter and events on track wasted no time heating up during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s opening round Bahrain Grand Prix. It was time to find out if Mercedes had been hiding their pace in relation to the seemingly ascendent Honda-powered RB16 B Red Bull chassis. It took three rounds of quali to answer that compelling question but in the end Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen laid down the gauntlet by putting together a seamlessly fast final lap, wresting pole away from seven-time champ and Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton by a fairly cushy six-tenths of a second. Coming off his season-ending victory last year in Abu Dhabi and with a winter’s worth of upgrades to the Red Bull, Verstappen looks like he finally has the finely honed weapon to compete with Hamilton and the Silver Arrows for at least the Drivers’ Championship if not the Constructors’. The Dutchman will be keen to continue his momentum and hunt down a victory in tomorrow’s debut contest of 2021 to show that the German behemoth will not have things their own way this year after absolutely dominating the modern hybrid era.

It was not all good vibes for team Red Bull, however, as they saw Mercedes number two Valtteri Bottas recover from some discomfort with his new W12 mount to set a solid final time good enough for P3, while their new hire Sergio Perez succumbed to the curse of being Verstappen’s stablemate and got bounced in Q2. The veteran Mexican, who was brought in to the team after a superlative season last year to add consistency and stability to the troublesome number two Red Bull pilot role, will have to start a disappointing P11 tomorrow, with a lot of ground to be made up if he is going to help his teammate hold off the dual Silver Arrows onslaught. To be fair to Perez, the team may have botched his strategy by sending him out on the Medium Pirellis rather than the faster Softs when it was crunch time in P2.

Ferrari showed that they too made significant improvements in the offseason, especially in the power department, if not quite lifting them to the level of the top two teams. Charles Leclerc drove the wheels of his SF21 to set the fourth fastest time, only about a tenth behind Bottas. New Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz, who made the jump to Maranello from McLaren, was quite a bit off that pace after looking very close to Leclerc up until that point and could only manage a P8 starting position. Pierre Gasly was the lone AlphaTauri to make it into the top ten but again looked very sharp after his breakout year in 2020. The young Frenchman appears to be maturing and improving every season and he tucked in right behind Leclerc with a solid P5 time. Daniel Ricciardo outpaced his teammate Lando Norris in his debut for McLaren, P6 to P7, while two-time champion Fernando Alonso impressed on his return to F1 after a hiatus dating to 2018 by setting a very respectable P9 time for newly badged Alpine (formerly Renault). And Lance Stroll got through to Q3 and will start P10 for the renamed Aston Martin team (formerly Racing Point and still powered by Mercedes engines), while his new teammate, former Ferrari man Sebastian Vettel, saw his bad luck from 2020 carry over when he had to slow for yellow flags at critical moment in Q1 and could not make it out of that session. The German four-time champion will start from a lowly P18 and will have to control his emotions and make steady progress if he is to avoid a repeat of the last few years’ many mental errors. At the very least, the British Racing Green-clad livery is beautiful to look at even if team Aston Martin will have a hard time replicating last season’s success as a “mini Mercedes” under the new restrictive downforce rules.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:30.499 1:30.318 1:28.997 15
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:30.617 1:30.085 1:29.385 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.200 1:30.186 1:29.586 17
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:30.691 1:30.010 1:29.678 15
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:30.848 1:30.513 1:29.809 15
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.795 1:30.222 1:29.927 18
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.902 1:30.099 1:29.974 18
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:31.653 1:30.009 1:30.215 17
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:30.863 1:30.595 1:30.249 15
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:31.261 1:30.624 1:30.601 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 10:55 AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Time to find out if Verstappen has what it takes in race trim to bring the fight to mighty Mercedes. Hope to see you then!

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — Steinhart Ocean One Bronze Dive Watch B&P

Up for sale [SOLD] is arguably one of the best everyday beater watches on the market today — the Steinhart Ocean One Bronze with box & papers and extra unused OEM leather strap & buckle.

This example of Ocean One Bronze features the “faded” greenish-brown elapsed time insert with lume pip, a 42mm solid bronze mid case & bezel with heavy stainless steel screw-in back and a sapphire crystal, as well as signed screw-in bronze crown. All that insures this rugged diver has the same depth rating as a modern Rolex Submariner. The thing I like about this Steinhart, though, is that it’s not just direct copy of a Rolex like so many of their other offerings. Instead, it has its own distinctive style, with horizontally brushed dial that changes in the light from “gray metallic” (as Steinhart calls it) to pure chocolate (which is more accurate, IMO), plus military inspired super Luminova “Explorer”-style quarter Arabics & triangle and large gilt sword hands that glow like a torch.

Under the hood is another quality feature — a rock solid ETA 2824-2 automatic movement with hacking seconds, the same ebauche you’ll find in Swiss watches that cost ten times as much as this bad boy. Bought by me in 2017, this watch has never been opened and still keeps excellent time. With its incredible build quality and scratch resistant bronze case, this is a true dive watch and can handle pretty much anything you can dish out. It’s been with me to the beaches of Mexico and the south of France and is basically a perfect watch to wear when you still want to show some style but don’t feel like flashing your high value pieces. It’s certainly also good as a no thought required daily driver up for any activity from yard work to manning the grill to jacuzzi to scuba. A rather remarkable value-to-quality proposition, this Ocean One is pretty much ready for anything you want to do.  

This big 42mm dive & military-inspired watch is in overall Excellent condition with just a few light marks here and there and the bronze case, crown and bezel are developing a very attractive patina (which can easily be reversed with a light polish if one so wishes). This Ocean One Bronze comes complete with the original box & papers and I am throwing in a brand new unworn Steinhart leather strap with extra signed screwed bronze buckle in addition to the original OEM leather-backed canvas strap with its bronze buckle that I usually wore the watch on. Like the case itself, the canvas strap has also developed some attractive wabi from wear and is nicely broken in without being thrashed. Its olive drab color and canvas texture really make the bronze case pop, IMO.

Click here to contact me about this ultimate daily beater Steiner Ocean One — it’s a one helluva lot of watch of the money!  SOLD

Men’s Cologne — Invasion Barbare by MDCI Parfums

I don’t often write outright negative reviews — what’s the point in that there is usually something to enjoy in most offerings out there so why take time to dwell on the negative? But for Invasion Barbare, I’ll make an exception. Because anything both this hyped and this expensive should be exceptionally good and it just isn’t to my nose. I’m not even going to go with the damning with faint praise “it’s solid but nothing special.” I’m saying that I do not like the way Invasion Barbare smells at all. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this reaction places me in the extreme minority of opinions about this highly regarded niche fragrance from the very lux MDCI Parfums. Perhaps swayed by the retail price of $250 per 75ml via Lucky Scent ($375 if you spring for the over-the-top Roman bust flaçon) or grand guru of perfume reviewers Luca Turin’s 5-star rave, people can’t seem to help gushing about this 2006-created “oriental fougère.” But I really don’t like it. For all the talk about the incredible blending of ultra-natural ingredients, IB smells highly synthetic to my nose, as well as unbalanced and flabbily “spicy” until the reasonably pleasant woody dry down. There is a notable lack of greenness in the composition with a lavender that is barely there, subsumed by violet, ginger, cardamom and vanilla notes that provide an almost oppressive warmth and sweetness. I suppose this is what makes Invasion Barbare skew “oriental” but simply put this is not how I like my fougères.

Invasion Barbare starts out with a very heavy violet accord — a note I don’t dislike at all in a many classic men’s scents from Grey Flannel to Morabito’s Or Black — but here it is somewhat flaccid/withered and paired pretty much instantly with ginger, cardamom and a very persistent vanilla, which I admit is a note I usually don’t love and I certainly don’t love it in this. If this parfum-strength juice did actually have more of that promised lavender — or more kick and brightness from the very fleeting grapefruit/bergamot top notes — it might rescue it from the claustrophobic feel I get when wearing it. But the “sharpness,” such as it is, comes from a kind of cedar note buzzing in the background through the dry down, which is pleasant enough on its own, paired with a very realistic but incongruous thyme that just adds to the overall sense of a construction out of balance. It’s also not helped by an utterly generic musk in the base that, paired with the persistent vanilla, really clings to the skin for hours on end for a kind of clean laundry meets woodsy-spiciness plus powder effect. How anyone could perceive these accords as “ultra-natural” and “of the highest quality” is beyond me. Frankly, they smell cheap and artificial and that’s with trying it in winter, undoubtably showing this fragrance in its best light. In warm weather I think it could well be unwearable.

If you want something in this vein but one hundred times better and more distinctive (again, my opinion only) search out an original bottle of vintage Gucci Pour Homme. Yes, the cedar, patchouli and general pencil shavings feel that it shares with Invasion Barbare are dialed up way higher in the lamentably discontinued Gucci PH, perhaps due to a greater concentration of Iso E Super (an ingredient I would bet is also in IB in some quantity). But that is a good thing as it doesn’t allow the ginger that they also share to become so stiflingly prominent and more patchouli would, in fact, have really helped Invasion Barbare to counterbalance its cloying vanilla/musk base notes. At least Guccci Pour Homme has a real masculine personality and doesn’t come across like it was designed by committee out of the most clichéd and synthetic aroma chemicals available after being planned on a white board in some conference room, as well as containing no unisex vanilla. Sure, Gucci Pour Homme may also be nearly as expensive on the secondary market as a brand new bottle of IB but I will take the vintage, out-of-print designer frag over this over-hyped niche offering any day of the week. For a more economical analog you could go with the original Burberry for Men, although in its current formulation it is undoubtedly less refined, more minty and less bold than either the Gucci or the IB, but does share a lot of the same general vibe and can be had for very little money.

So there it is — I don’t like Invasion Barbare. A lot of people do, however, and will praise it to the skies as one of the best fougères in the modern firmament. For me it is neither “fresh” enough or “fougère” (i.e., green) enough to be a pleasant wearing experience, much less deserving of a full bottle purchase at that extremely high price point. Worst of all, it lacks cojones and is altogether generic smelling. Your mileage may vary, of course, so I suggest sampling before you buy, as you probably should with any cologne, especially an expensive one like this. You may well like it a lot, as most reviewers seem to, and find it one of the best, most masculine, most gentlemanly scents out there. For me, it served as a fine motivation to have a vigorous workout so I could justify a second shower on the day to wash it off. So I suppose it wasn’t a total loss after all.

Men’s Cologne — Ungaro pour L’Homme I by Emanuel Ungaro

Ungaro pour L’Homme I was the first of three Emanuel Ungaro masculine fragrances released in successive years between 1991 and 1993. Of the three, only the unapologetically macho and boozy Ungaro III is still in production, which is a pity as I and II have plenty to offer the omnivorous frag-head. That said, it’s not hard to see why the first two Ungaro pour L’Hommes were discontinued rather abruptly shortly after Salvatore Ferragamo acquired the brand from Chanel. This first one is described as an Oriental Fougere, a term that seems somewhat like an oxymoron but I suppose because there is a bit of lavender, bergamot and lemon in the composition that is the justification for this hybrid categorization and it is placed close to the infamous Zino from Davidoff on the definitive H&R Genealogy of Masculine Fragrances chart, which makes sense both conceptually and in terms of their similar styles. Like Zino, Ungaro I is primarily an Oriental scent, though it is thankfully much less musty/heavy than Zino. What you get with Ungaro is a heady rose/pathcouli/oakmoss blend with a hard to pin down musk in a base that mainly features sandalwood with hints of amber, tonka and honey. Perhaps because the bottle I have is likely from the early-to-mid-’90s (though not the first batch since it has the Roman numeral on it to distinguish it from it’s successors) I don’t really get a lot of the bright citrus top notes originally listed, though there is definitely some cool lavender up front. Mainly this is one of the most rose-forward men’s fragrances I’ve ever come across, much more so than another ostensible rose powerhouse, Van Cleef & Arpels Pour Homme. The Ungaro is altogether brighter than the gloomy VC&A Pour Homme with an almost photo-realistic rose accord as opposed to Van Cleef’s impression, which is submerged in massive amounts of oakmoss, spices, woody notes and leather. Sure, the oakmoss is quite prominent in Ungaro I, and since this is a vintage potion I assume it’s the real stuff, but here it seems to be dancing a pas de deux with the rose and not overwhelming it. There is a touch of sage, artemisia and pine giving this juice a forested if not really a green feel and I also get some sort of cedar-like woodiness that doesn’t seem to be in the notes. But these heart notes are fairly fleeting and quickly become submissive to a rather impressive and refined patchouli that emerges to the fore in the dry down alongside a pleasantly creamy but subtle sandalwood and just enough amber and honey to keep Ungaro I from getting overly somber.

Now, as you can probably tell from that description, the original Ungaro pour L’Homme can be a tricky scent for the uninitiated and there is something definitely throwback-gentlemanly about it that will make a younger guy raised on aquatics and sport scents run screaming for the hills at first sniff. This is a man’s eau de toilette and specifically a rather well dressed and even formal man. I wore this on New Year’s Eve and I think those sorts of special occasions are where it shines most brightly. You’d be hard pressed to pull off Ungaro I in jeans and a T-shirt or a casual meet-up for brunch with friends. This is essentially a nocturnal scent and not suitable for the office unless you are the boss and want to make a power statement to strike fear into the hearts of the millennials who work for you. It’s not even doable for your average date night unless you happen to be going to a fancy French restaurant that still has a dress code and a wine list like an encyclopedia. Undoubtedly one of the main reasons for its short time in production was that this first Ungaro pour L’Homme was asking a question that was becoming increasingly irrelevant in the ’90s when it debuted and certainly even less so as we progressed into the 2000s and beyond. That would be: What should the well-dressed man wear during some of life’s more formal occasions? There just aren’t enough of these sorts of black tie events in most people’s lives to justify something as over-the-top conservative slash dandified as Ungaro I. I enjoy wearing it but this is no one’s idea of a signature scent — it’s simply not versatile enough for that — and I probably reach for it a mere handful of times in any given year. I’m fairly sure my 3.5 oz bottle will last longer than I will. In fact, it almost feels more 1890s than 1990s and you could easily see Sean Connery’s suave, cigar smoking, ruffle-shirted rogue in The Great Train Robbery wearing this rather majestically anachronistic masculine concoction.

Ungaro pour L’Homme I does smell very, very good and if you have acquired the taste for a dominant rose note in your colognes it’s definitely worth sampling. The problem being, however, that it is discontinued as mentioned and the prices on the secondary market are quite high, like well into the $200s for full size bottles. You can find somewhat pricey decanted mini-samples on eBay from time to time, so that might be the best route to try before you really buy and spend niche money on what was always just a very good quality designer frag. Alternatively, I don’t see the comparison anywhere else but to my nose Ungaro I smells reasonably similar to Guerlain’s Heritage, at least to the latter’s current EDT formulation. For me the two share a similar bright rose note with fizzy oakmoss/patchouli/sandalwood vibes, though there isn’t any of the famed “Guerlainade” vanillin base of Heritage in the Ungaro. Heritage is also somehow more versatile even if still an acquired taste for most modern men and lends itself to casual as well as formal situations once you’ve gotten into a groove with it. But the original Ungaro pour L’Homme is simply too jarringly out of time for that kind of everyday wear. While I don’t find it as gloomy or overly dark as many people seem to and I think comparisons with animalic ball breakers like Salvador Dali Pour Homme and Balenciaga Pour Homme are misguided — de la Renta’s brooding Pour Loui this is definitely not — this eau de toilette performs more like a parfum, projecting quite strongly for the first four hours or so and then settling down to a still potent moderate phase where the patchouli really kicks in until dying down to a pleasant skin scent at around the 8-9 hour mark. I’d say it’s for a relatively mature man who is secure in his own skin, as this one will perplex most men and women under 35, if not 45. It’s definitely masculine and a borderline powerhouse but has a classiness that pulls it back from the brink of loud and uncomfortable. Given the right occasion, Ungaro pour L’Homme I is a rather stunning addition to one’s gentlemanly presentation. It’s just that finding such an occasion and an appreciative audience for this fascinating and rare out-of-print Oriental Fougere can be more of a challenge than actually finding a bottle.

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Red Bull’s Verstappen runs away from Mercedes to take easy win in season finale; Bottas P2, Hamilton P3 in procedural contest

With Mercedes engines suffering from a mysterious MGU-K issue that left them down on power, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had no problem sprinting away from this year’s dominant Constructors’ champions to take an easy victory at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, at long last earning the supremely talented Dutchman his first win of the truncated 2020 season. After a run of unpredictable race results, perhaps none more so than last week’s surprise win for Racing Point’s Sergio Perez after Mercedes self-destructed in the pits, Sunday’s finale was a purely procedural affair at the Yas Marina circuit, a track where overtaking is always at a premium even with the DRS gimmick. The pole-sitting Verstappen easily swanned away from the Silver Arrows of Valtteri Bottas and champion Lewis Hamilton, who returned from a COVID infection and did not seem to possess his usual superlative stamina. Regardless, no one could challenge Verstappen’s Red Bull at this day-into-night race and no gambles were taken by the Mercedes brain trust that might have jeopardized Bottas’ second place in the Drivers’ points and allowed Verstappen to claim that honor if the inconsistent Finn finished below P2. After last week’s debacle, the reigning Contructors’ champs were content to play it safe and see their men come home P2 and P3, with Bottas leading home Hamilton, but Verstappen outclassing Bottas by a whopping 15.9 seconds. Don’t count on this being a harbinger of a real challenge to Mercedes’ potential dominance next season, as the Merc engines were clearly ailing and nearing end of life here in round 17, especially as they chose not develop them much further after clinching their record seventh title in a row way back at Imola in early November with eight races still to go. But For verstappen the victory was still sweet, saving the best for last in this challenging year by earning his first victory of a frustrating season when he almost always had to look at a Silver Arrows tailpipe no matter how well he drove.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Verstappen’s much maligned teammate Alexander Albon also did his part by showing good form and staying close enough to the top three to make any strategic pit stop gamble the Mercedes pit wall may have wanted to try a nonstarter, as either Bottas or Hamilton would surely have come out behind the mercurial Thai. So he helped Red Bull keep Mercedes honest, holding off even a long shot threat to Verstappen’s supremacy on this day and coming home a solid fourth place. Along with another fourth in Styria in Round 2, a third in the first Bahrain race and another opportunistic podium earlier in Tuscany in Round 9, the result in Abu Dhabi might be enough for Albon to keep his seat at the big Red Bull team, which is what Christian Horner and the other VIPs have always said they wanted, at least in public. But if so, he will need to work hard on qualifying pace, where he was buried by Verstappen all season long, to give himself a better shot at earning high places in the races rather than constantly trying to fight his way through theoretically inferior cars with all the attendant risk that entails. Of course, Albon’s erratic track record over the course of the year still might not be enough to keep Red Bull from replacing him with the free agent Sergio Perez, who has had his best year in F1 by far. Either way, all should be revealed in this particular soap opera very soon.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

It was also a banner day for McLaren, capping a fine comeback season by not only seeing their drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finish an impressive P5 and P6 respectively but also earning a very valuable third place in the Constructors’ with that big points haul. The storied team was able to regain at least some of its past glory by leapfrogging the powerful Racing Point team for that coveted position on the final day when Lance Stroll could only muster and point in P10 and a luckless Perez DNF’d on Lap 10 with transmission failure. While Perez didn’t really get a chance to defend his wonderful win at Sakhir a week ago and Stroll somewhat underwhelmed after starting from P8, the Racing Point team still has a lot to be pleased with as they head into the offseason as the fourth best Constructor and ready for the change to Aston Martin branding and Sebastian Vettel partnering Stroll for 2021.

While Renault couldn’t overtake their nearest rivals McLaren and Racing Point and had to settle for fifth in the final Constructors’ standings it was still a good year for the French team, who will rebrand as Alpine for next year. Veteran Daniel Riccardo, who will leave to drive for McLaren next year, finished P7 and Esteban Ocon took P9. Ocon will remain at Renault/Alpine and partner with returning two-time champ Fernando Alonso in 2021. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who had a breakout season including a win at Monza in Round 8, came home P8 to secure tenth in the Drivers’ Standings.

A final word on Ferrari: The Scuderia finished a woeful campaign on a woeful note, with Charles Leclerc P13 and the outgoing Vettel P14 in ostensibly his final race in a Prancing Horse, both behind the P12 of the “junior” Alfa Romeo driven by the venerable Kimi Raikkonen. Here’s hoping that Ferrari’s boasts about massive engine upgrades for next year are true — and perhaps Sainz arrival will pick things up, as well — because sixth in the Constructors’ with barely a chance of challenging Racing Point, McLaren or Renault for positions, let alone Mercedes and Red Bull for wins, simply won’t cut it for another season.

Top 10 finishers of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 55 1:36:28.645 25
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 55 +15.976s 18
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 55 +18.415s 15
4 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 55 +19.987s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 55 +60.729s 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 55 +65.662s 8
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 55 +73.748s 7
8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 55 +89.718s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 55 +101.069s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 55 +102.738s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

Final Drivers’ Standings are here.

Final Constructors’ Standings are here.

The next race, gods willing, will be on March 21st, 2021 back at good old Melbourne, Australia. Enjoy the offseason wherever you are and hope to see you then!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Qualifying results

Verstappen snatches pole at Yas Marina to break Mercedes’ season-long streak; Bottas betters Hamilton for P2 to spoil the champion’s return

After missing last week’s wild and wooly Sakhir Grand Prix due to COVID, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton returned for Round 17 and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the strange, abbreviated 2020 F1 season. But if the current and seven-time World Champion expected to simply come back in and grab an easy pole after his enforced absence his teammate Valtteri Biottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had other ideas. After struggling somewhat throughout Saturday qualifying, Hamilton appeared to have done enough to hook up a pole-worthy lap when the checkers flew at the end of Q3 and he went to the top of the pylon. But his time as provisional fastest man on the day was short-lived when Bottas came steaming home six-tenths ahead of his illustrious stablemate, seeming to simultaneously get the better of Hamilton while also keeping Mercedes’ season-long pole streak comfortably intact. But barely a moment later, Verstappen crashed the Silver Arrows celebration by laying down a time of 1:35.246, .025 better than Bottas and good enough to give Red Bull — and any team not named Mercedes — their first pole of the year. So P2 Bottas will start on the front row alongside pole-sitter Vertspappen, who will have a hungry Hamilton right behind him on the second row in P3. With Verstappen having crashed out on the opening lap last weekend, Hamilton seeing the young substitute George Russell nearly win in his car and Bottas being thoroughly outclassed by the substitute Russell just as he has been by Hamilton for most of the season, the list of competing motivations to win tomorrow’s race and the resultant pressure on the drivers is almost too delicious to contemplate. Simply put, the start at Yas Marina for the Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday could be absolutely bananas.

The McLaren of Lando Norris also acquitted himself exceedingly well, out-qualifying his teammate Carols Sainz P4 to P6 and taking a spot alongside Hamilton on the second row of the grid. For good measure, Norris also bettered Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon, who once again was found slightly wanting with his qualifying efforts with only the fifth fastest time. Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Sakhir — Results & aftermath

Perez earns first career win in wild Sakhir GP; Ocon P2, Stroll P3 after Mercedes throw away near-certain Russell debut victory with sloppy pit stop

With Mercedes ace and reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton sidelined with COVID the Sakhir Grand Prix always had the potential to be a wide open affair. But few could have imagined how crazy Sunday’s race would actually turn out to be. The normally supreme Mercedes factory team blew what should have been another easy one-two Silver Arrows finish when a risky double-stack pit stop to try to take advantage of a Safety Car on Lap 63 backfired spectacularly, opening the door to the surviving “best of the rest” to take advantage. The Silver Arrows team confused the drivers’ tires, sending out Hamilton’s stand-in and race leader, George Russell on a set of Medium Pirellis allotted to regular driver Valtteri Bottas and forcing the team to also remount the same set of old Hard tires back onto then-P2 Bottas’s car in desperation. The blunder not only left the luckless Bottas stationary in the pits for an excruciating 24 seconds while the team scrambled to make sense of the situation but also necessitated ordering Russell, who normally drives for the backmarker Williams team but was surely dreaming of his maiden F1 victory in the world’s fastest race car, back in for the correct set of his matching tires, as per the regulations. When the insanity was finally sorted it found Racing Point’s Sergio Perez leading the race, with Renault’s Esteban Ocon now in P2, the second Racing point of Lance Stroll in third and the nonplussed Mercedes duo of Bottas and Russell demoted to P4 and P5 respectively. But with the Safety Car withdrawing at the end of Lap 68 and 19 laps remaining the ultra-fast Mercedes duo still had a chance to claw their way back to the front.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

As he had been all race prior, It quickly became apparent that Russell was again the faster man, especially with fresh Mediums giving him a major advantage over Bottas’ older Hard tires. The young Englishman quickly dispatched his teammate to ascend to P4 and then on Lap 72 passed Stroll for P3 and at least a consolation podium position if not the win of his dreams. Any points would be Russell’s first in F1 but he was clearly still hunting for victory, making quick work of Ocon for P2 on lap 73 and taking chunks of time out of Perez’s lead. But on Lap 78 Russell’s promising charge was again thwarted by a slow rear left puncture that forced yet another trip to the pits for new rubber. It was heartbreak for Russell and the team, who rejoined down in fifteenth and could only make it back up to P9 before the laps ran out, earning him his first-ever championship points but also wondering forlornly what might have been.

For the veteran Perez, however, it was sweet vindication when he took the checkered flag as the winner, the Mexican’s fist victory in 190 F1 career races. With Checo inexplicably slated to lose his Racing Point seat for next season he made the best possible advertisement for his services for any potential suitors out there. He not only ended up winning thanks to Mercedes’ own goals but that he did was all the more remarkable because he had to recover from an opening lap collision with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc that pushed him to the rear after he had to immediately pit for a front wing change. Perez never gave up, though, but kept on pushing and put himself in position to capitalize when Mercedes needlessly overcomplicated their strategy and then failed to execute. If not for last week’s bitter disappointment when he suffered engine failure while in position to finish P3, Perez would be looking at three consecutive podiums. If he doesn’t get a drive for next year it won’t be because of performance that’s for sure, as he’s had a tremendous second half and may well have cemented fourth place in the Drivers’ standings with today’s remarkable win. In the even bigger picture, Perez became only the second Mexican national to win a Formula 1 GP and the first since the late, legendary Pedro Rodriguez took victory at Belgium way back in 1970.

For Renault’s Ocon it was nearly as special a result when he came home P2, his first ever podium and by far his best result in an on again, off again career. And for Perez’s Racing point teammate Lance Stroll it was a second P3 podium in a somewhat inconsistent and COVID-interrupted season. The duo’s win and third place made for a banner points haul for Racing Point after they were shutout last week, solidifying their third place in the massively valuable Constructors’ standings where positions equal literally millions of dollars. With Daniel Ricciardo finishing P5 it was also a nice day for team Renault, who sit solidly at fifth in the Constructors’ with an outside chance of overtaking McLaren in the points in the final race next week at Abu Dhabi. Also contributing to the wide open nature of this contest, the opening lap kerfuffle between Perez and an over-ambitious Leclerc knocked out Leclerc’s Ferrari and also saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crash out while he was taking evasive action and skidded through the gravel, spearing nose-first into a crash barrier. Just like that two of the potential high points contenders were instantly erased and many midfield runners had opportunities to capitalize. The McLaren of Carlos Sainz couldn’t touch the eventual top three but still scored an opportunistic P4 result. Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon did well enough to haul himself up to a P6 finish and will be hoping to quiet the rumors of Perez replacing him at Red Bull. The AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat came home ahead of the luckless Bottas in P7 while the two Mercedes were doomed to a P8/P9, Bottas leading the crestfallen Russell. The second McLaren of Lando Norris took the last point in P10.

Final note: While a relatively healthy Romain Grosjean was a welcome sight in the Bahrain paddock after last week’s horror crash his injuries will prevent the Frenchman from competing in the final race next week. Pietro Fittipaldi, who finished last of the active runners after facing a very steep learning curve, will likely drive for Haas again in Grosjean’s place at Yas Marina for the season finale.

Top 10 finishers of the Sakhir GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 87 1:31:15.114 25
2 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 87 +10.518s 18
3 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 87 +11.869s 15
4 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 87 +12.580s 12
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 87 +13.330s 10
6 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 87 +13.842s 8
7 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 87 +14.534s 6
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 87 +15.389s 4
9 63 George Russell MERCEDES 87 +18.556s 3
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 87 +19.541s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next and last race of the 2020 season is in but a week’s time — a short trip for the teams to neighboring Abu Dhabi and the beautifully futuristic Yas Marina circuit. With Hamilton’s return uncertain, young George Russell may well have a chance for a second bite of the cherry to salve today’s disappointment. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Sakhir — Qualifying results

Hamilton out with COVID but Bottas takes pole at Sakhir, Russell P2 in Mercedes debut for another Silver Arrows front row lockout; Verstappen P3 for Red Bull

A week after Romain Grosjean survived a horrifying and fiery crash, Formula 1 remained in Bahrain for the Sakhir Grand Prix and the disturbing news kept right on coming. While Grosjean was a welcome sight in the paddock walking only with a light limp and bandages on his burned hands, Lewis Hamilton was absent and in self-quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 during the week. That unfortunate event saw Williams’ regular driver George Russell drafted into the factory Mercedes factory team to pinch hit for Hamilton alongside Silver Arrows regular, Valtteri Bottas. With a rejiggered Bahrain International Circuit utilizing the outer track for the first time to differentiate the Sakhir GP nearly devoid of the usual serpentine turns and featuring one of the fastest laps in F1 history at well under a minute to cover its rectangular and short 2.2 miles, Saturday qualifying was fast, furious and highly unpredictable. But in the end it wound up the usual Mercedes front row lockout anyway, with Bottas making hay in Hamilton’s absence to take pole and Russell showing some serious chops on debut in the top car to take P2 despite it being essentially a brand new experience for him.

While Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looked very fast throughout and seemed primed to steal pole from the Mercs midway through Q3, Bottas bettered the Dutchman’s best lap to snatch it back, barely having time to look back when Russell crossed the line a minuscule .026 seconds behind him. Russell clearly has the pace to win tomorrow’s Grand Prix but it remains to be seen if the youngster can master the clutch-dependent start in unfamiliar equipment that is so essential for a lightning getaway when the lights go out. Still, the 22-year-old has got to be thrilled to have given Bottas such a run for his pole money on debut and his performance will no doubt raise his profile in the F1 rankings going forward.

Verstappen had to settle for P3 on the grid, as he did last weekend here, but this will ostensibly put him on the cleaner side of the track again, so look for Max to pounce in case one or both of the Mercs come to grief on the opening lap. However, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon was back to his underwhelming qualifying ways after a solid P4 effort last week. On this day, Albon was inexplicably bounced in Q2 with only the twelfth fastest lap. Similarly, Charles Leclerc over-performed in his Ferrari to qualify a very solid P4, while Sebastian Vettel continued to limp to the finish of his awful 2020 campaign with a subpar P13 effort in the penultimate quali of his Ferrari career. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez showed his quality once again to qualify P5 a week after being denied a sure podium by late race engine failure. Teammate Lance Stroll, who also DNF’d last week after being flipped upside down, could do no better than P10. Daniil Kvyat out-qualified his AlphaTauri teammate Charles Gasly P6 to P9, while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz were the lone representatives of their teams to make it into Q3, with Ricciardo taking P7 and Sainz setting the eighth fastest time.

With Russell substituting for Hamilton at Mercedes this weekend, 25-year-old Formula 2 driver Jack Aitken was brought in to take Russell’s seat at Williams for at least this race. And with Grosjean understandably needing more to time to recover from his injuries young Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of two-time champ Emerson, will fill that seat at Haas.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Sakhir GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53.904 53.803 53.377 24
2 63 George Russell MERCEDES 54.160 53.819 53.403 25
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 54.037 53.647 53.433 17
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 54.249 53.825 53.613 21
5 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 54.236 53.787 53.790 17
6 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 54.346 53.856 53.906 26
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 54.388 53.871 53.957 15
8 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 54.450 53.818 54.010 20
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 54.207 53.941 54.154 28
10 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 54.595 53.840 54.200 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race, the second-to-last pf the year, airs live on ESPN beginning at 12PM Eastern here in the States. With Hamilton away and a whopping 87 laps to play, look for an unpredictable race where literally anyone of the top 10 starters could potentially win. Hope to see you then to find to how it all shakes out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Hamilton wins Bahrain GP marred by horrific Grosjean opening lap crash; Verstappen P2, Albon elevated to P3 as late-race failure dooms Perez’s podium hopes

Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, one of Formula 1’s most seemingly anodyne races, provided a frightening reminder of the inherent risks of the sport when Romain Grosjean’s Haas speared off the track on the opening lap and hit an oblique-angle armco barrier head-on at nearly 140 mph, sending the cockpit area with the Frenchman through the barrier like a missile and tearing the rear completely off the car. That catastrophic structural failure also breached the fuel system, igniting the car on impact and engulfing Grosjean in a huge fireball. It was one of the most spectacular and horrifying crashes during an F1 race in probably decades but the constant advances in safety throughout that time ensured that the Frenchman survived the shunt with only relatively minor injuries. The halo device in particular appeared to have done the life-saving work it was designed for, protecting the driver not only from a serious head injury, as befell the late Jules Bianchi when he slid under a crane on track under yellow at a rainy Suzuka in 2014, but also miraculously keeping Grosjean conscious after impact and able to release his own belts to escape the inferno engulfing him within a little under 20 seconds. The first-lap medical car, which follows directly behind the pack on the opening lap for just such an incident and was the brainchild of the legendary Professor Sid Watkins back in the early ’90s, also did exemplary work, with Dr. Ian Roberts and driver Alan van der Merwe getting to the scene promptly and able to assist Grosjean’s escape and treat the shaken driver immediately. It might have been a different story had the halo device, as well as the now standard HANS device, not kept Grosjean conscious, as the safety personnel would have had to somehow extract him from within the fire. As it was, the fortunate Frenchman suffered only burns to his hands and is recovering in a nearby military hospital and in good spirits.

After that, the race itself mainly seemed an afterthought, with a very long Red Flag period delay to repair the barrier at Turn 6, which was designed at an angle for cars to skid off of not strike directly, offering drivers and the entire paddock far too long to watch replays of the horrific incident and consider the danger of their profession that all too often is minimized in this generally hyper-safe era of F1. But after over an hour stationary in the pits, the drivers did what they are paid to do, remounting their vehicles and getting back out to restart the race. It was only Lap 3 of this 57-lap contest and while Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton led Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from a second stationary grid start, the race one again came to an unceremonious halt when the Racing Point of Lance Stroll flipped over after contacting Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri while contesting the same apex real estate at Turn 8. Kvyat’s car had also been the one that touched wheels when Grosjean cut across the track abruptly to send him into that lurid crash but the Russian was not at fault there. In the case of the Stroll incident, however, he was deemed to be the culprit and was levied a 10-second time penalty by the stewards. After a much quicker Safety Car period, the race restarted yet again on Lap 9 and Hamilton put his foot down and got on with the business of winning the Grand Prix.

Obviously it’s never easy driving a Formula 1 car, especially after witnessing such a traumatizing crash, but Hamilton blocked out all distractions and made it look that way, holding off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull handily throughout the remainder of the race and keeping it clean to take yet another win, his eleventh out of fifteen races this year, as well as extending his F1 record victory total to 95. With Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas having an off day after suffering an early puncture that essentially ruined his race, Verstappen gave yet another effort good enough for P2 but his car never really matched the pace of the lead Silver Arrow. Verstappen’s teammate, Alexander Albon, got a much needed bit of luck late in the race when the Racing Point of Sergio Perez, running comfortably in third and looking for his second successive podium, suffered what looked to be a turbo failure on Lap 54 and tumbled out of the points. That promoted Albon to P3 and the last spot on the podium, marking the first time this year both Red Bull’s had made it to the post-race champagne celebration, and perhaps taking Albon off the hot seat. With Bottas also finishing in eighth after his poor race, that elevated Verstappen to only 12 points behind the Finn for second in the Drivers’ Championship with only two races remaining. Bottas will now have to put his head down, regroup quickly for next week’s GP at this same Sakhir circuit and then do the business to hold off the hard charging Dutchman and stave off the ignominy of finishing third in this year’s most dominant chassis.

Further down the order, the rest pf the top 10 also benefitted from Perez’s heartbreaking late-race retirement, with the McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz making out particularly well by coming home P4 and P5 respectively. With both Stroll and Perez failing to finish for Racing Point, McLaren’s solid points haul on the day saw them elevated to P3 in the valuable Constructors’ Championship with a 12 point gap to now-P4 Racing Point. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly did well to make the most of a two-stop strategy, running an exceptionally long second stint and avoiding the drama that befell his teammate Kvyat to take a solid P6. The Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon battled each other all race long and eventually would up sandwiching Bottas at the finish in P7 and P9 respectively. And perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Perez’s engine failure was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who snuck into the last points paying position at P10 with a car that was frankly terrible on anything less than the freshest rubber.

A final word about Grosjean’s accident: This exact type of impact with a stationary barrier is what killed Francois Cevert at Watkins Glenn in 1973 and Grosjean’s angle of entry would also probably have led to the same of cockpit intrusion that resulted in Jules Bianchi’s eventually fatal brain injury when he submarined that ill-placed crane in the rain in Japan. There can be no doubt that the halo saved Romain Grosjean’s life on this day in Bahrain. It may be “ugly” fro  an aesthetic perspective but it absolutely did its job in the Haas’s crash even if the cause of the fuel cells breach and ignition require further investigation. The debate over whether cockpit protection is really needed in open wheel/single seater racing is well and truly over and it needs to be mandated right down to the lowest professional levels of the sport. The safety of the drivers, famous and anonymous, demand nothing less.

Top 10 finishers of the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 57 2:59:47.515 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 57 +1.254s 19
3 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 57 +8.005s 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 57 +11.337s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 57 +11.787s 10
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 57 +11.942s 8
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 57 +19.368s 6
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 57 +19.680s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 57 +22.803s 2
10 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 56 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — at this exact circuit for the Sakhir Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the delayed, abbreviated and very weird 2020 season. Look for some track safety improvements following Sunday’s incidents and hopefully a cleaner race by the drivers overall.

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Supreme Hamilton smashes Bahrain track record for pole; Bottas qualifies P2, Verstappen P3

Fresh on the heels of earning his record-tying seventh Drivers’ Championship with a fine come-from-behind wet weather win in Turkey two weeks ago, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton showed no sign of slowing down. The English living legend blistered the bone dry Bahrain International Circuit under the lights during Saturday night qualifying, setting a new track record en route to taking pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Team Mercedes also returned to their front row lockout ways after having that season-log streak snapped last time out in Turkey when Valtteri Bottas set the second fastest lap time in Q3, albeit nearly three-tenths adrift of Ham the Man. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sounded less than distraught at qualifying behind the Silver Arrows in P3, as that will put the Dutchman on the clean side of this often sandy track. He should also get a good tow from Hamilton when the lights go out to perhaps aid an overtaking move down into the first corner. Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon will start alongside him on the second row and behind Bottas in P4, only the second time this year the young Thai has managed to pull himself within one spot of his superlative teammate during qualifying, the other being at Mugello in Tuscany in early September.

Behind the front four, Sergio Perez was the lone Racing Point to start in the top 10 with a fine P5 qualifying effort. Hard to believe the savvy Mexican veteran still does not have a F1 drive for next year. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon qualified P6 and P7 respectively, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat were P8 and P10, sandwiching the McLaren of Lando Norris, who will start P9.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:28.343 1:27.586 1:27.264 16
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:28.767 1:28.063 1:27.553 16
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:28.885 1:28.025 1:27.678 15
4 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:28.732 1:28.749 1:28.274 18
5 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:29.178 1:28.894 1:28.322 20
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:29.005 1:28.648 1:28.417 17
7 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 1:29.203 1:28.937 1:28.419 14
8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:28.971 1:29.008 1:28.448 14
9 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:29.464 1:28.877 1:28.542 17
10 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:29.158 1:28.944 1:28.618 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s night race in the desert airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!