Tag Archives: Alfa Romeo

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Results & aftermath

Red Bull rebound, romp to dominant Verstappen-Perez 1-2 at Imola; Leclerc throws away sure Ferrari podium with late spin gifting Norris P3

After reliability woes cost them dearly in two of the young season’s first three races, team Red Bull came to Imola full of determination to put those issues behind them and enable their drivers to succeed to their full potential this weekend. By the end of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, aka Imola, on Sunday it was emphatically Mission Accomplished. After both cars failed to finish in Round 1 in Bahrain and their ace Max Verstappen also DNF’d in Round 3 in Australia due to mechanical issues, Verstappen’s car ran perfectly and he dominated this first Sprint weekend of the season. The Dutch master qualified P1 on Friday, fought back against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to win Saturday’s Sprint race and claim pole for the GP and then blistered the field for an easy win from the front on Sunday. Verstappen finished some 16.5-seconds ahead of his P2 teammate Sergio Perez, while also running the fastest lap of the race to earn the bonus point. So that made 26 points extracted from the race plus 8 for the Sprint win for a massive 34-point haul that enabled the flying Dutchman to vault back into the championship chase with his key rival this year, Leclerc. Ferrari and Leclerc also did their best to tighten things up through a series of unforced errors at the circuit named for their founder and his son, leading no doubt to brutal headlines in the Italian papers come Monday morning.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The first embarrassment for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello came on Lap 1 of the contest when the Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz and the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo collided going into Tamburello side by side. While Ricciardo was able to crawl away from the scene and restart, Sainz was beached in the gravel for the second straight race, following up his Lap 1 DNF in Australia with a Lap 1 DNF in Italy, a stunning string of disappointments for the Spaniard. While the team showed their faith in Sainz by signing him to a new 2-year contract in the weeks between the two races, it’s clear that he has got to settle down and get some results for Ferrari if they are to have a fighting shot to beat out ultra quick Red Bull for the Constructor’s title. Frankly, these serious lapses from such an experienced driver are a head scratcher and Carlos had better find his confidence and poise in a hurry.

But that wasn’t the only misfortune to befall mighty Ferrari in front of their home fans, the always passionate and vocal tifosi. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna — Sprint results

Verstappen charges back after slow start to win Imola Sprint race, earns pole for GP; Leclerc relegated to P2 after late pass; Perez recovers for P3

Formula 1’s somewhat gimmicky Sprint Race to determine the race day starting grid returned for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Saturday. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen recovered from a slow getaway at the start of this 21-lap mini-race, and eventually hunted down and passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with two to go to take the win and earn pole for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. After an interminable, rain-effected three rounds of standard knockout qualifying on Friday, which saw five Red Flag stoppages due the greasy conditions catching drivers out, the bright and sunny Sprint Saturday was at least entertaining, with good wheel-to-wheel combat up and down the field to change around the initial “qualifying” results and set tomorrow’s starting order for real. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, was able to greatly improve on his qualifying effort of P7 to take P3 in the Sprint, while Leclerc’s stablemate Carlos Sainz recovered from another unforced error that saw the Spaniard bin his Prancing Horse in Q2 in the damp on Friday and claw his way all the back to a P4 finish on Saturday. The mixed Red Bull-Ferrari front two rows provide a mouth-watering prospect for tomorrow’s opening lap, especially should rain return to Imola

McLaren had a very good day, albeit with Lando Norris losing two spots off his quali result and coming home in P5 and Daniel Ricciardo finishing where he started the Sprint in P6, which honestly seems to be where those two cars should be at this track. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas had a nice effort to take 7 and Haas had a beautiful day in northern Italy, with Kevin Magnussen continuing his run of good form since being drafted back into the team taking P8 and teammate Mick Schumacher earning his highest ever F1 grid position in P10. Alpine’s wily old veteran Fernando Alonso filled out the Top 10 of the Saturday Sprint coming home in P9. On the glass-half-empty side of the ledger, alarm bells must be ringing at the Brackley headquarters of mighty Mercedes, as the severe porpoising that has bedeviled them from the very beginning of this year’s new ground effects-dependent formula returned with a vengeance at Imola. This race could well be a write off for the Silver Arrows — George Russell only managed a P11 finish on the day, while seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was an astonishingly poor P14 when the checkers flew to end the Sprint. Four rounds into the 2022 campaign it’s beginning to look like by the time Mercedes figure out their aerodynamic woes it will be well and truly too late to compete for either title.

Here’s how the Top 10 qualified on Friday:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:19.295 1:18.793 1:27.999 22
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:18.796 1:19.584 1:28.778 22
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.168 1:19.294 1:29.131 22
4 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:20.147 1:19.902 1:29.164 21
5 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:20.198 1:19.595 1:29.202 26
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:19.980 1:20.031 1:29.742 21
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:19.773 1:19.296 1:29.808 25
8 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:20.419 1:20.192 1:30.439 23
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:20.364 1:19.957 1:31.062 25
10 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.305 1:18.990 13

And here are the results for the Top 10 finishers of the Sprint Race on Saturday:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 21 30:39.567 8
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 21 +2.975s 7
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 21 +4.721s 6
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 21 +17.578s 5
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 21 +24.561s 4
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 21 +27.740s 3
7 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 21 +28.133s 2
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 21 +30.712s 1
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 21 +32.278s 0
10 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 21 +33.773s 0

Complete qualifying & Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how the elite Ferrari-Red Bull battle plays out in the Scuderia’s back yard — and if more more rain might throw a wrench into the teams’ best laid plans!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Red Bull’s Perez snatches pole from Ferrari’s Leclerc at tricky Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit; Sainz P3, Verstappen P4; Hamilton shockingly knocked out in Q1; Schumacher airlifted to hospital after vicious Q2 shunt

On an incident-filled and frankly scary Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was Red Bull’s ostensible Number Two who managed to come out on top of the timing sheets. Veteran Sergio Perez bested not only his much more heralded teammate, Max Verstappen, but also both Ferraris, the team that looks most likely to challenge Red Bull for the big prizes this season. With a rebel drone strike on a nearby oil facility yesterday sending a a wave of unease through the paddock, the simmering tension was further compounded when Haas’s Mick Schumacher lost it during Q2 and suffered a vicious shunt  Turn 10 of this very tight and tricky Jeddah Conriche Street Circuit that shot him into one concrete barrier and then across to the other side of the track and down the road for quite some ways. While the Haas was completely destroyed, the car also did its part by breaking apart at the rear, as designed, thereby dissipating energy away from the driver. So, despite the massive impact, the initial medical reports on Schumacher were all positive and he was airlifted to hospital for precautionary reasons rather than emergency ones. However, the young German, who is trying to follow in his seven-time champion father Michael’s footsteps, was preemptively ruled out for the Grand Prix and it looks like Haas will only be fielding Kevin Magnussen’s car when the lights go out for tomorrow’s race. Magnussen kept his cool after his teammate’s disturbing crash and qualified P10.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Schumacher’s accident led to a lengthy Red Flag period with just under five minutes in Q2, both for Schumacher’s painfully slow extraction from his wrecked car and then for some serious track cleanup and barrier repair at the scene of the crash site. But the marshals and race directors did yeoman’s work and were able to get Quali back underway, leading to the all important top ten shootout in Q3. Ferrari had looked the strongest on overall one-lap pace through the race weekend so far, so it was no surprise to see Charles Leclerc, last week’s race winner and pole-sitter in Bahrain, lay down the quickest lap as the seconds ticked down in the final qualifying session. His teammate Carlos Sainz slotted in right behind him by a little over a tenth on his final lap, making it a provisional Ferrari front row lockout, But Perez had other ideas. The veteran pilot drove a flawless final lap, coming nerve wrakingly close to the barriers at times, but wringing the maximum speed out of the Red Bull to earn his first-ever Formula 1 pole and beat back the Ferrari challenge for today. Interestingly, his normally superlative teammate Verstappen struggled to get his Soft Pirelli tires into their optimal operational window durning a cool and breezy night in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and the Dutch reigning world champion could only muster the fourth fastest time. So it will be Perez and Leclerc on the front row and Sainz and Verstappen on row two, which should make for a really intriguing and likely contentious opening lap in tomorrow’s GP. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Leclerc victorious in season opener, Sainz P2 in promising start to 2022 campaign for Ferrari; disastrous late double DNF for Red Bull leads to podium for Mercedes’ Hamilton, P4 for Russell

In the first race of the 2022 Formula 1 season, team Ferrari proved that its early mastery of the new ground effect-dependent chassis and new engine specs was not a fluke. The famed Scuderia from Maranello, which suffered a prolonged period of mediocrity for much of the prior turbo-hybrid era, saw a spring resurgence as their blood red Prancing Horses finished one-two in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. Charles Leclerc, who clearly was the fastest man of the weekend, earned victory after starting from the pole, while his stablemate Carlos Sainz fought hard and took advantage of the terminal failures of both contending Red Bulls late in the race to come home a happy  P2. That marked the first one-two Ferrari finish in a GP since 2019 in Singapore when Sebastian Vettel led home Leclerc. While Leclerc was relatively dominant all day, he was effectively harassed by Verstappen’s Red Bull for the lead throughout, including a ding dong, see saw battle between the two after the first round of pit stops between Laps 16 and 20. Verstappen and his team made effective use of the undercut coming in a lap earlier than then Monegasque to gain track position on Leclerc, which led to several laps of Verstappen passing Leclerc going into Turn 1 and Leclerc snatching the lead back coming out of Turn 4, where the Ferrari’s excellence in the slow speed corners neutralized the Red Bull’s straight line pace advantage. After a period of holding stations and status quo for many laps after that while Verstappen bided his time, it looked like it would be game on again between the two contenders when a full Safety Car was deployed on Lap 46 of this 57-lap contest after Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri stopped on track and unceremoniously burst into flames. It proved to be a very bad omen for other Red Bull-engined cars.

With the field now bunched up again behind Leclerc after pretty much everyone dove to the pits for the cheap stop and a switch to the high performing Soft Pirelli tires to finish out the race, Leclerc’s advantage over Verstappen was reduced to less than a second. But by the time the Safety Car tucked in at the end of Lap 50, Verstappen had been on the radio complaining about a heavy feel to the steering, perhaps having something to do with the power steering hydraulics. Leclerc initiated the restart superbly and gapped Verstappen, although the Dutch reigning world champion still seemed able to stay on the lead Ferrari’s gearbox. But Verstappen’s radio messages to and from the pit wall kept getting more fraught and there was clearly trouble brewing in the car. Sure enough, on Lap 54 something in Verstappen’s engine let go and he was quickly overtaken by most of those behind him. Verstappen wound up limping his mount to the pits but the issue was terminal and he was forced to retire. Climbing out of the car in stunned disbelief as the race stormed to its conclusion without him was a sad way to begin the defense of his first championship.

Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Leclerc snatches pole for season opener, Sainz P3 in promising start for Ferrari; Red Bull’s reigning champ Verstappen qualifies P2, Hamilton only P5 as Mercedes struggle

The real beginning of Formula 1’s latest new era yielded a multitude of surprises, as the teams put the completely redesigned cars on display for the first time in earnest during Saturday Qualifying for tomorrow’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. With a radical new set of rules changing the look and design of the cars, most notably in cutting down on the complexity of the wings and exterior aero elements for less downforce but with a renewed emphasis on ground effects to stick the chassis to the road surface in exchange, it was the first opportunity to see which teams came out of the box strong and which still had work yet to do. And the answer appears to be that Ferrari has made the biggest improvements under the new regulations and the famed team from Maranello could well be geared up for a mano a mano brawl with Red Bull and their reigning champion, Max Verstappen, for the big prizes at the end of the year. Obviously, one swallow does not make a spring, but Charles Leclerc was able to put his blood red Prancing Horse on pole under the lights at the Bahrain International Circuit, besting Verstappen’s vaunted Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull RB18 at the line by a relatively hefty .123-seconds. Confirming the potential power of the new Ferrari design, Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz was also in contain for the pole, though in the end he slotted in at P3 just barely of Verstappen’s pace. Meanwhile, the Dutch champ’s Ref Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, looked set to reprise his pivotal wingman role once again in 2022, as the Mexican veteran could manage no better than the fourth fastest lap in the face of the Prancing Horses’ rediscovered competitiveness.

The inverse of Ferrari’s resurgent good fortune was the poor debut performance of the normally mighty Mercedes new W13 chassis. With the new ground effects also come new aero headaches and Mercedes have suffered from severe oscillations, aka “porpoising”, throughput testing and in these first days of practice. While the team’s braintrust were able to dial out some of that, especially on their seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton’s mount, Hamilton could still do no better than a P5 start for tomorrow’s race. To say the least, that is an unfamiliar position for the Briton, who frankly dominated the just completed hybrid era until the ascendence of Verstappen and his controversial championship-clinching win to end the 2021 campaign in Abu Dhabi last December. Worse still for the eight-time consecutive Constructors’ Champions, their new number two, England’s young George Russell, suffered the ignominy of qualifying down in P9, about where he would normally end up in the pokey Williams last year. If that wasn’t disheartening enough, the previous Merc second banana, Valtteri Bottas, out-qualified Russell in P6 with his new team, the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo. In fact, Ferrari power looked like this first weekend’s winner already, with not only Bottas keeping his Q3 streak alive at Alfa but also Kevin Magnussen marking his return to F1 with a brilliant effort to capture P7 on the grid for perpetual back marker Haas despite battling hydraulic issues. and it was a very promising day for the Scuderia on the power plant front. On the other side off the engine equation, all four Mercedes-powered McLarens and Aston Martins failed to make it into the final qualifying round. Savvy veteran Fernando Alonso willed his Alpine Renault into P8 with a fine final effort while the Red Bull (Honda)-powered AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly struggled with overall handling rand could do no better than P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:31.471 1:30.932 1:30.558 15
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:31.785 1:30.757 1:30.681 14
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:31.567 1:30.787 1:30.687 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.311 1:31.008 1:30.921 18
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:32.285 1:31.048 1:31.238 17
6 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:31.919 1:31.717 1:31.560 15
7 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:31.955 1:31.461 1:31.808 12
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.346 1:31.621 1:32.195 14
9 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:32.269 1:31.252 1:32.216 17
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:32.096 1:31.635 1:32.338 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN here in the States beginning at 11AM Eastern here in the States. Can Ferrari set the pace over the course of a full Grand Prix or will Verstappen’s superlative skills where down the Prancing Horses and deny them victory? And just how much pain will Mercedes take tomorrow as the team focuses on early season damage limitation? Look forward to seeing you then to find out how it all shakes out in the 2022 opener!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Hamilton earns pole in Jeddah after Verstappen hits wall on final attempt, relegating points leader to P3 on grid; Bottas will start P2 as Mercedes lock out front row

With time expired in Q3 during Saturday qualifying for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the daunting, high speed Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looked to be setting a blistering lap good enough to snatch the pole position from Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton. But the Dutch points leader stepped just that far over the line and smacked the wall at the last corner with his right rear tire, bringing his car and his qualifying attempt to an abrupt end. That meant Hamiton’s fastest lap held up as the pole time and Verstappen was also unable to jump the second Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas. So Bottas will line up alongside his team leader in P2 for a Mercedes front row lockout and Verstappen will start P3… assuming that he didn’t damage his gearbox badly enough to force a pre-race change, which would demote him a further five positions on a very tight and demanding circuit where overtaking will be at an absolute premium. With Verstappen leading Hamilton by a slim 8 points in the Drivers’ Championship, it is mathematically possible for the Dutchman to take the F1 crown in this penultimate race with a net gain of 18 points. But it is also quite a bit more likely that Hamilton, who has been on a superb run of form that has seen the English seven-time champ win the last two GP on the trot, will continue to apply the pressure, eat into Verstappen’s lead if not overtake him and, either way, push this titanic 2021 title tilt to the final round in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

Behind those front three, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc landed safely in P4 after his teammate Carlos Sainz had several hairy moments of snap oversteer in Q2 and failed to advance out of that round. Sainz will have to figure out a way to move forward from P15 and help the team maximize points in their fierce fight with McLaren, which saw Lando Norris qualify in P7 and Daniel Ricciardo in P11. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez struggled his way to a disappointing P5 qualifying time, while the two AlphaTauris performed well at this brand new track, with the talented Pierre Gasly setting the sixth fastest time in Q3 and rookie Yuki Tsunonda continuing his recent improvement by slotting in at a decent P8. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi qualified in P9 and P10 respectively.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Saudi Arabian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:28.466 1:27.712 1:27.511 23
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:28.057 1:28.054 1:27.622 25
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:28.285 1:27.953 1:27.653 19
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:28.310 1:28.459 1:28.054 24
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:28.021 1:27.946 1:28.123 23
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:28.401 1:28.314 1:28.125 26
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:28.338 1:28.344 1:28.180 21
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:28.503 1:28.222 1:28.442 26
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:28.752 1:28.574 1:28.647 22
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:28.899 1:28.616 1:28.754 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 12:30pm Eastern here in the States. It will be tense times all around with fingers crossed in the Red Bull garage that Verstappen didn’t seriously damage his car in that fateful late-quali tank slapper. Conversely, Hamilton will be looking to convert pole into the win and, perhaps with a bit of misfortune to his title rival, overhaul the Dutchman to take the lead going into the final contest. Also, if I were a betting man I would count on at least one Safety Car or Red Flag period to potentially shake things up — especially concerning is the pit out blend line where it seems to me cars exiting could come to grief with those steaming down the start-finish straight at full chat if everyone is not super careful.  Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Mexico City — Results & aftermath

ECSTASY FOR RED BULL, AGONY FOR MERCEDES: Verstappen earns dominant win in Mexico City; Hamilton holds on for P2 over Perez but pole-sitter Bottas spins out of points in opening lap contretemps

Red Bull’s superlative pilot Max Verstappen took another step closer to earning his first Formula 1 Drivers’ title by cruising to a dominant victory at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday. The Dutch wunderkind, who started from P3 on the grid after Mercedes surprised the paddock by locking out the front row during Saturday qualifying, made an outstanding overtaking move going on the outside into Turn 1 against the pole-sitting Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and the P2 car of Lewis Hamilton. To compound the Finn’s misfortunes, Bottas was promptly spun around after contact from the rear by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, completely wrecking both fo their days although no penalties were assessed. With Verstappen also scooting around the outside of the English seven-time Champion in that impressive two-for-one maneuver, he took a lead in the race that he would never really relinquish again. As the lead Red Bull scampered away from him in the distance, Hamilton was forced to defend his vital second place for the latter portion of this 71-lap contest against Verstappen’s teammate and hometown hero Sergio “Checo” Perez. The hard charging Mexican harried and harassed Hamilton as best he could in an effort to strip even more points from the number two man in the Championship and aid Verstappen’s title hunt but Hamilton had enough left to hold on for those valuable P2 points when the laps ran out.

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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 Azerbaijan — Results & aftermath

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

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

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

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

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

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

Top 10 finishers of the Azerbaijan GP:

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

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

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

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Results & aftermath

Verstappen masterful in Monte Carlo against depleted field, as Leclerc fails to start, Bottas DNFs; Sainz salvages P2 for Ferrari, Norris P3 for McLaren; Hamilton a disgruntled P7, loses championship lead

The return of the Monaco Grand Prix to the Formula 1 calendar after a year’s hiatus due to the global COVID-19 pandemic failed to live up to the intriguing qualifying results a day earlier when pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari suffered a driveshaft failure on the pre-race installation lap that may or may not have been related to his crash late in Saturday qualifying. While many tifosi were angry that the team didn’t preventatively just change the gearbox and team principle Matteo Binotto claimed the issue was, in fact, unrelated to Leclerc’s heavy shunt, the end result was removing the pole sitting Prancing Horse before the lights even went out and denying the young Monegasque a chance for victory in his home Grand Prix. But for Red Bull’s Max Vertstappen, it removed arguably the Dutchman’s biggest threat for a win on the day. Despite technically starting from P2 on the grid, Max was able to lead the field away at the start in Leclerc’s absence and cut off the attacking Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas to take a lead that Verstappen would not relinquish all race long. Things got even more favorable for Verstappen and Red Bull when Bottas, the only serious challenger remaining and running solidly in P2, suffered a stripped wheel nut on his first pit stop on Lap 31. The pit crew were unable to remove his right front wheel by any means or method, forcing the unfortunate Finn to retire prematurely in freak fashion. While the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz drove well enough to ascend to a P2 finish and salvage some good points on a day when they should have had many more, the Spaniard was unable to pose a real challenge to Verstappen’s hegemony. The Flying Dutchman easily secured his first victory — and first ever podium — on the fabled streets of Monte Carlo, a career-defining fillip for an F1 driver no matter how it comes to them.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Making things even sweeter from the Red Bull perspective, Mercedes strategy to try and elevate Hamilton above his rather poor P7 qualifying position did not come good and he finished where he started after first the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and then the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel rode the overcut by running slightly longer of their first tire stint to come out ahead of Hamilton after that trio’s respective first round of pit stops. Hamilton was audibly irate over his radio at this strategy failure, especially because he had really been gifted a minimum of P6 with Leclerc’s pre-race retirement. Hamilton was forced to look at Gasly’s gearbox for the entirety of the contest and while he pitted late for fresh Soft Pirellis and then set the fastest lap for the bonus point, the seven-time champion saw his points lead in this year’s Drivers’ Standings evaporate with Verstappen’s dominant win. So Hamilton now finds himself in the unfamiliar position of trailing in the championship after the Mercedes mishaps in Monaco, four points in arrears of the formidable flying Dutchman. All in all, it was a very bad weekend for for the Silver Arrows because Red Bull’s second driver, Sergio Perez, redeemed his own lackluster P9 qualifying effort, paying off the team’s clever strategy of running him all the way to Lap 35 before his first stop, a full six laps longer than Hamilton had done. That saw the Mexican emerge directly in front of his team leader with clear track in front to push hard, an advantage he maximized to jump all the way to P4. While Perez could never quite catch and pass the McLaren of Lando Norris to take it to the podium, the combined Red Bull 1-4 finish vaulted the team into the lead of Constructors’ standings ahead of Mercedes by a single point. Perez’s solid effort no doubt will boost his confidence and reaffirm the team’s commitment to him after occasionally erratic performances in the prior first four rounds of the season. Now he just needs to build on this good result and qualify better going forward.

 

Norris held on for that podium with his P3, a wonderful result for a young driver on the cusp of a really special career, though McLaren’s feelings must have been mixed when their other pilot, Daniel Ricciardo, suffered the ignominy of being lapped by his rapid teammate on Lap 52 of this 78-lap contest. Ricciardo is struggling to get to grips with his new ride at McLaren and could only manage a point-less P12 result. On the other hand, Aston Martin had their best points haul of the season with Vettel’s savvy P5 and Lance Stroll also managing to turn a long first stint to his advantage and come home P8, a good effort by driver and team after the Canadian had started down in P13. Gasly, Hamilton’s bête noire on the day, kept his calm in the face of the trailing Mercedes multiple onslaughts, confident in the ability of his AlphaTauri to keep the frustrated Hamilton behind him at this ultra-difficult-to-overtake circuit. And the Alpine of Esteban Ocon held off the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi to secure P9, although Alfa’s young Italian hot shoe was still positively giddy over scoring the team’s first Formula 1 World Championship point of the 2021 campaign.

Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 78 1:38:56.820 25
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 78 +8.968s 18
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 78 +19.427s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 78 +20.490s 12
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 78 +52.591s 10
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 78 +53.896s 8
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 78 +68.231s 7
8 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 77 +1 lap 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 77 +1 lap 2
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 77 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time — the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. While Baku is another street circuit, it’s a horse of a different color than the nearly single-lane Monte Carlo track, and much faster and easier to pass on if equally unforgiving in its together spots. So expect a less processional contest at this lovely city circuit by the Caspian Sea, as well as Ferrari and Mercedes teams anxious to redeem themselves, as well as an ever more intriguing championship battle between the challenger Verstappen and the champ Hamilton. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!