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2019 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Results & aftermath

Mercedes’ Hamilton holds on to prevail in tense Monaco GP ahead of aggressive P2 Verstappen; but Red Bull driver pushed off podium by pit penalty to elevate Vettel & Bottas

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton drove one of the most tense and nervy races of his illustrious career to earn his third Monaco GP victory on the tight and twisty streets of Monte Carlo on Sunday. Saddled with increasingly worn and ineffective Medium Pirelli tires since way back on Lap 12 of this 78 lap street fight Hamilton was also boxed in by a mandatory one-stop strategy, as all his nearest rivals were running a run-stopper but also with the benefit of being on the more durable Hard Pirelli rubber. There was a surprising lack of pace difference between the two compounds — and also a lack of durability difference in the Soft tires compared to the other two tires. That enabled teams up and down the order to gamble but it almost paid the greatest jackpot for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Running on the hardest tires on offer, Vertspappen hounded Hamilton at nearly every corner of this legendary circuit for lap after lap in the second half of the race. But at Monaco it is also legendarily difficult to pass and despite Hamilton’s increasingly desperate radio communication with the Mercedes pit wall about the impossibility of finishing the race on his blistering, grip-less rubber his engineers talked him through his most panicky moments and reminded the English 5-time World Champion that catching and passing are two completely different things in Monte Carlo. Thus, even as Verstappen reeled him in as the laps wound down, finally making a dive to the inside on Lap 77 as the two cars screamed out of the tunnel and towards the Nouvelle Chicane, Hamilton was able to close the door abruptly on the Dutch hard-charger, sending the Red Bull spearing offline through the chicane while Hamilton still had enough grip to get beak on line and on form for the high speed swimming pool section. After all that white-knuckle race and tire management from the front that was the race and Hamilton held on for a hard-earned win on a weekend where the Formula 1 world mourned the loss of 3-time champ and all around legend Niki Lauda, whose ties to the current Mercedes team run deep. It was a fitting and fittingly gritty tribute to the great Austrian champion and also secured Hamilton his most decisive points lead of the season.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Verstappen was really only able to hound Hamilton from that P2 position because his team released him prematurely on a fateful Lap 11 Safety Car scramble for fresh rubber that saw Vertsppen launch into the other Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas, as he was heading down pit lane. That led to an extra stop for Bottas for Hard tires after his brand new Mediums suffered a slow puncture due to the contact with the hasty Red Bull. It also led inevitably to a 5-second time penalty for the Red Bull man that insured that even though Vertsppen finished the race in P2 he was demoted off the podium and was classified as the fourth place finisher. That redounded to the benefit not only of the victimized Bottas, who was elevated to the podium and P3, but also Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who inherited Vertspapen’s second place finish.  Vettel, who seemed to be lurking behind Hamilton and Verstappen waiting for the dicing duo to take each other out and thus inherent the lead, was nonetheless content with his P2, which somewhat saved the day for the Scuderia.

Their young, talented and somewhat erratic number two driver Charles Leclerc had a miserable weekend all around and failed to finish on Sunday. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Hamilton asserts authority with blistering pole lap to best Bottas; Verstappen takes P3 ahead of Vettel, Leclerc fails to make it out of Q3 for Ferrari

Mercedes’ ostensible number two driver Valtteri Bottas set down a marker early in Q3 during Saturday qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix that seemed sure to net the Finn pole position for the race. It was a track record time of just over 70 seconds that the tricky Monte Carlo circuit had never seen before and Bottas appeared to have the measure of his teammate and only real rival, Lewis Hamilton, as well as the rest of the field. But personifying the old saying you’ve got to take the belt from then champ, Hamilton put together a pure blinder as time ran down in the last quali session to pip Bottas by a mere .09 seconds and secure his second career pole at this legendary and legendarily tight street circuit. At a place where starting track position often determines the winner, the 5-time and current reigning champion showed once again that when the big prizes are on the line he still can put it all together and perform at a higher level than anyone else in this era of Formula 1.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quick all weekend long and finally ran a nice clean qualifying session at what had been a personal bogey track for the Dutchman to secure P3 on the grid, besting Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who did well to grab P4 despite crashing in free practice 3 earlier on Saturday morning and brushing the wall more than once while pushing hard in qualifying. But that did only a little to offset Ferrari’s woes after the team badly miscalculated in Q1 and failed to get their second driver Charles Leclerc out in time to set a fast enough time to escape the normally perfunctory Top 15 cutoff line. The native Monegasque, who perhaps caused some team confusion by missing a mandatory call to the weigh-bridge and then had to be pushed back down the pit lane manually to make the random stewards exam, was thus saddled with a P16 time and will only start P15 due to others’ penalties. Leclerc was understandably miffed after the mishap and will have it all to do in the race to try and make a decent showing and save the blushes of the Scuderia.

Vertsppen’s Red Bull teammate did reasonably well to qualify P5 behind Vettel, while Kevin Magnusen did a terrific job for team Haas to set the sixth fastest time. Daniel Ricciardo was likewise the lone Renault to make the Top 10 in P7 and the two Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and rookie Alexander Albon showed real pace at this high downforce street circuit to qualify P8 and P10 respectively. Spaniard Carlos Sainz used his experience to push his McLaren up to P9, well; ahead of his rookie teammate Lando Norris, who could do no better than P12.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:11.542 1:10.835 1:10.166 28
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:11.562 1:10.701 1:10.252 27
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:11.597 1:10.618 1:10.641 19
4 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 1:11.434 1:11.227 1:10.947 27
5 10 Pierre Gasly RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:11.740 1:11.457 1:11.041 24
6 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:11.865 1:11.363 1:11.109 24
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:11.767 1:11.543 1:11.218 25
8 26 Daniil Kvyat SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 1:11.602 1:11.412 1:11.271 30
9 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:11.872 1:11.608 1:11.417 30
10 23 Alexander Albon SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 1:12.007 1:11.429 1:11.653 31

Complete qualifying results amiable via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to see how the front row duel between Hamilton and Bottas shakes out or if Vettel or Vertsappen might get the better of the two Mercedes men!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of China — Results & aftermath

Hamilton runs away from Bottas & field to dominate Chinese GP, Mercedes finish 1-2; Intrigue builds at Ferrari as team orders boost Vettel to P3 at Leclerc’s expense

The Chinese Grand Prix was essentially won on the getaway the moment the lights went out to start the race at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton got the better escape from the line and bested his pole-sitting Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to take a lead he would never really relinquish. After Bottas’ inspiring pole run in Saturday qualifying it had to be deflating for the Finn to once again find himself looking at Hamilton’s war wing for nearly the entirety of the race, as so often happened last season en route to Hamilton’s fifth World Championship. After Hamilton’s somewhat lucky win in Bahrain two weeks ago where he and Mercedes were the beneficiaries of Ferrari’s fumbles, Hamilton was simply supreme in Shanghai this contest and no other driver in the field could put him under duress from Lap 1 onward. It was Hamilton stamping his authority back on team Mercedes and the series itself after Bottas had won in Round 1 in Melbourne. It also put the Englishman solidly into the lead of the Drivers’ points for the first time this young season. And when Bottas brought his Silver Arrow home safely in P2 6.5 seconds in arrears of Hamilton he was also a good 7 seconds ahead of the P3 Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, insuring the third consecutive Mercedes 1-2 finish in three contests so far and maximum points for this era’s dominant team in the 1000th Formula 1 race. It was also Hamilton’s 75th career victory, the most by any current F1 driver and second most in the sport’s history behind only the great Michael Schumacher.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Ferrari the days discontents ran deeper than their cars clear inferiority to the Mercedes and Vettel’s eventual third place and Charles Leclerc’s P5 finish. The Scuderia’s brain trust made an early and consequential call from the pit wall on Lap 11 for their young phenom Leclerc to the let the veteran Vettel through. While that is never an order for any driver to swallow and Leclerc was understandably miffed it also had the net negative of not paying off. Vettel was not really that much quicker than Leclerc if at all, struggled to get the Medium Pirellis that the all the top five started on to work and never really seemed a threat to P2 Bottas up ahead. The team then tried to make a different play by splitting their strategy, calling Vettel in first on Lap 19 for the Hard compound and then telling Leclerc to stay out to Lap 31 to theoretically take advantage of fresher tires at the end with much younger Hards..

But the very abrasive Shanghai Circuit had other ideas for any team seeking to make the race a one-stopper. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Mercedes and Hamilton pounce as Ferrari fumble away a win in the desert; Bottas P2 ahead of hard-luck Leclerc while Vettel spins

Ferrari had the dominant car and driver all weekend long. And in Sunday’s race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain everything appeared to be playing out just as it had in practice and qualifying, with a Prancing Horse firmly in the lead. It was their rising young star Charles Leclerc who was dominating from the front, showing his class by fighting back first against his 4-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel when Vettel got away quicker at the start and then leaving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in his wake. The 21-year-old pole-sitter looked to be on course for his maiden Formula 1 victory and perhaps the establishment of a new team and driver pecking order in the paddock. But on Lap 46 the dream weekend of Ferrari dominance began to crumble as Leclerc began compiling of engine issues and his blood-red car began losing power with what appeared to be a turbo problem. With Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton running a clean race even though he lacked the pure pace of the Prancing Horse the 5-time and current World Champ was in perfect position to take advantage of the Ferrari’s ill-timed reliability issues. In heartbreaking fashion, Leclerc saw his almost certain victory evaporate as Hamilton’s Silver Arrow relentlessly closed down his previously unassailable lead. On Lap 48 the Englishman passed the wounded Ferrari easily. Worse still for the Scuderia, Bottas was also able to catch up to Leclerc and took away P2.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

In a bare minimum of good fortune for the crestfallen Ferrari pilot the race finished under the Safety Car when both Renaults suffered terminal mechanical failures on Lap 53 of this 57-lap contest. With the drivers forced to hold station for the final few laps, this insured that Leclerc at least made the podium and kept his P3 before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could dispatch him on track, as the Dutchman most likely would have. But it was cold comfort on a day that promised so much more for the famed team from Maranello and their young Monegasque phenom. To compound Ferrari’s woes Vettel had a disappointing effort. Continue reading →