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2021 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Qualifying results

Leclerc earns poll at home GP while crashing out late in Q3; Verstappen, thwarted by Red Flag, settles for P2; Bottas P3 but Hamilton languishes in P7

The return of the classic Monaco street race to the F1 calendar after a year’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic was cause for celebration enough. But Saturday’s qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix was a suitably scintillating event, fitting the already festive mood of the joyful Monegasques and annual visitors in attendance. Hometown hero Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari on pole for the team’s best start this year and first pole since 2019. It was also the local lad’s best qualifying effort in four attempts at his home race, although Leclerc somewhat perversely secured the top starting spot by crashing out after he blew the entry into the chicane just past the Piscene and smashed his car into the Armco barrier late in Q3. That brought out the Red Flag with not enough time to get the final quali session restarted and thwarted the last gasp effort of Max Verstappen’s hard charging Red Bull to wrest pole away from the formidable Ferrari man. Both have looked nearly equal all weekend long so far but Verstappen will have to settle for P2 unless there is enough damage to Leclerc’s Prancing Horse to force penalties for replacement parts overnight, a possibility the Scuderia are currently denying. If things do stay status quo, it is highly probable that the race victor will be either Leclerc or Verstappen, as passing is ultra difficult at this ultra-tight, ultra-slow, ultra-legendary street circuit and the winner usually comes from the front row of the grid.

Valtteri Bottas, the nominal number two Mercedes driver, was nearly as disappointed as Verstappen by the abrupt ending, as the Finn felt that he too had a shot to take pole with his final flying lap. Bottas will have to settle for P3 and the satisfaction of besting his superlative Silver Arrows teammate and current points leader Lewis Hamilton on the day, and by quite some distance at that. The normally dominant Hamilton never seemed to have a handle on his Merc and found himself bogged downing in an unlikely P7 starting spot when the session was called off. As good as the seven-time champ is, It will be tough for Lewis get a podium finish on the morrow and Verstappen could take a big bite out of the English legends current tenuous 14-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship. Unfortunately for Verstappen, however, his teammate Sergio Perez had another poor qualifying effort and could only muster the ninth fastest time, putting in doubt how much the veteran Mexican can really be of assistance to the Dutchman’s dreams of winning the race and overhauling Hamilton. The decision to go with the experienced Perez for 2021 is already coming under second-guessing, as so far he is not really faring any better than any of Max’s other younger teammates have done in the past.

Carlos Sainz pulled the second Ferrari up to P4, although the Spaniard was still disappointed with that result, as he had been neck and neck with Leclerc and Verstappen during the practice sessions. Still, it was a fine result for resurgent Ferrari after a terrible 2020 and the fabled team from Maranello have a very good chance of scoring a ton of points come race day. McLaren’s Lando Norris kept up his excellent qualifying form, slotting in at P5. But teammate Daniel Ricciardo had another down day in an up and down first season with McLaren when he was bounced in Q2. The affable Aussie will start way back in P12 and no matter how cool the team’s new throwback Gulf-colored livery, Ricciardo will have virtually no shot at winning his second Monaco GP from that lowly position.

Pierre Gasly acquitted himself well for AlphaTauri, as usual, and will start P6, while wise old head Sebastian Vettel used his massive experience around the streets of Monaco to secure the eighth fastest lap in his Aston Martin, only around three-tenths behind Hamilton. And Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi secured tenth on the grid in his Ferrari-powered C41, making it a very good day all around for Italians as well as Monegasques.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:11.113 1:10.597 1:10.346 27
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:11.124 1:10.650 1:10.576 23
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:10.938 1:10.695 1:10.601 28
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:11.324 1:10.806 1:10.611 25
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:11.321 1:11.031 1:10.620 23
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:11.560 1:11.179 1:10.900 30
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:11.622 1:11.116 1:11.095 30
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:12.078 1:11.309 1:11.419 26
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:11.644 1:11.019 1:11.573 26
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:11.658 1:11.409 1:11.779 28

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. It could be a big turning point in the championship with Mercedes struggling and Red Bull and Ferrari ascendent. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

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 Turkey — Qualifying results

Stroll grabs wonder pole in wet & wild Turkish GP qualifying, Perez P3 in banner day for Racing Point; unhappy Verstappen settles for P2 after key Red Bull strategy call; Mercedes’ season-long pole streak ends

With an already slick new surface giving drivers fits during dry practice sessions for Formula 1’s return to Turkey and Intercity Istanbul Park, traction was even further compromised by a deluge at the start of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. The rain on top of the new asphalt resulted in a long Red Flag period in Q1 to try and wait the weather out after the best drivers in the world went skating around the circuit as if on ice. Clearly, no slick Pirellis would be used and the treacherous track conditions meant the day was ripe for unexpected qualifying results. And that’s just what happened. The Racing Point of Lance Stroll put in a perfect, highly technical lap and coaxed his car around, keeping it out the gravel traps to seize pole away from the usual suspects. Stroll made the most of the team’s pivotal Q3 decision to run him and his teammate, Sergio Perez, on Intermediate rather than full Wet tires on a tricky but marginally improving track. Crucially, when Perez temporarily set the fastest lap on his Inters and bested the Red Bull of Max Verstappne’s time early in the final session the Red Bull brain trust reacted and pulled Verstappen in from a very tasty hot lap to have the Dutch rainmeister match Racing Point’s move off the full Wets and onto the Inters. However, Versteppen simply couldn’t get the Inters to perform as well as the Racing Point duo and had to watch Stroll take his first career pole ahead of his P2 time nearly 4-tenths in arrears. Perez slotted in at third fastest and a disgruntled Verstappen was left rueing the team’s strategy call, although one can certainly understand their logic in looking to find the magic crossover point in tire performance. For the young Canadian Stroll, who has struggled mightily since missing the Eiffel GP with what was eventually diagnosed as COVID, there were no regrets only jubilation. His joy might not be long lived because holding on to that top spot tomorrow in the face of Verstappen’s onslaught could be more than a little tricky. But grabbing an F1 pole is nonetheless something he can carry with him as a badge of honor for the rest off his life. And who knows? If the weather is the same in Istanbul tomorrow, which it could well be, Stroll and the two Racing Points may just be able to excel again in these funky conditions.

Stroll’s wonder pole in the wet was also the first time this season a non-factory Mercedes hadn’t claimed that honor. If Verstappen was miffed by his team’s decisions the Mercedes duo of points-leader Lewis Hamilton and second place Valtteri Bottas were utterly flummoxed, as the normally superlative Silver Arrows stubbornly refused to get any of their wet weather tires to turn on and perform. Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna — Results & aftermath

Hamilton makes his own luck for victory at Imola; Bottas P2 as Mercedes earns unprecedented 7th consecutive Constructors’ title; Ricciardo P3 after Verstappen’s late tire failure

Luck was truly the residue of design for Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Sunday, as the Englishman converted a P2 start and a poor getaway into yet another brilliant race win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Despite losing a position to the hard-charging Red Bull of AMx Verstappen on the opening lap, Hamilton recovered, held off the hungry AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and ran an exceptionally long 30-lap first stint on his opening set of Medium Pirelli tires, eleven more laps than his pole-sitting teammate Valtteri Bottas and twelve more than Verstappan. That put Lewis in prime position to take advantage of a perfectly timed and exceedingly short Virtual Safety Car deployment necessitated by the removal of Esteban Ocon’s disabled Renault on race lap 29. Ever the opportunist, Hamilton nipped into the pits to take on a fresh set of Hard tires with the efficient stop under the VSC taking around ten seconds less than the green flag stops that Bottas and Verstappne had made earlier. Hamilton came out comfortably ahead of both of his main rivals on the day and never looked back on his way to his record extending 93rd Grand Prix victory. The superlative six-time Champion also ballooned his points lead to a massive 85 points over Bottas, including the bonus point for fastest lap, and in his current form and run of good fortune it seems inevitable that he will tie the great Michael Schumacher’s seven Drivers’ titles before the season is over.

For Bottas, it seemed that his recent bad luck would simply continue when he picked up floor damage after running over debris early in the race. That cost the Finn a ton of downforce and he was easy meat for Verstappen to hunt down and eventually overtake after Bottas locked up defending against the Red Bull man on Lap 43. The podium looked set with Bottas resigned to the last step at P3 but on Lap 51 out of 63 Verstappen’s right rear tire blew out, sending the Dutchman careening off the road into the gravel and out of contention. Bottas was back in second and both he and Hamilton pitted a lap apart for fresh rubber under the resultant Safety Car, which was extended for a few laps after Williams’ George Russell overcooked it trying to heat up his tires and bashed into the barriers. The two Silver Arrows held station after an intense restart to come home 1-2, with Hamilton beating Bottas to the line by well over five-seconds. If it wasn’t the result Bottas was hoping for at the start of the race after earning pole he could at least take satisfaction from the undeniable fact that he had helped team Mercedes clinch an unprecedented seventh consecutive Constructors’ Championship with his constant contributions over the course of the year and on this day at Imola.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Verstappen’s abrupt retirement left that last podium position an open question for several hungry aspirants behind the untouchable top two. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and the lone remaining AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat, his unfortunate teammate Gasly having retired on Lap 8 with a water pressure issue, both opted to pit under the Safety Car and had the advantage over Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s sole survivor, Alexander Albon, who had all stayed out on older rubber. When the race restarted on Lap 58 there was fierce jockeying for position between those five, with Kvyat making the most hay by getting by Perez, Albon and Leclerc to elevate himself up to P4 with P3 Ricciardo next on his hit list. Meanwhile, Perez dusted off Albon and then the young Thai inexplicably spun himself out, doing himself no favors with the Red Bull brass as he fights to keep his seat with the big team. Ricciardo drove brilliantly to hold off the quicker Kvyat, also desperate to keep his F1 seat, and the veteran Aussie was able to take a his highly gratifying second podium of the year, though his time with Renault will end when the season does. Kvyat did himself a world of good with that hard-earned P4, while Leclerc bested Perez for P5. The Mexican had second thoughts about that second pit stop and came home a disgruntled P6. The two McLaren’s of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris avoided drama to come home a decent P7 and P8 respectively, while the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi took advantage of the chaos on track and a disastrously slow pit stop for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to celebrate the news that they would both be returning to the team next year by taking the last points in P9 and P10 respectively.

With Vettel plunging out of the points after a terrible 13 seconds stationary in the pits for a stuck wheel nut it brought to mind days of old when a disfavored driver might be made an example of by the Machiavellis of Maranello. More likely it was just another bit of rotten luck in an extraordinarily rotten season for the beleaguered four-time champion. It was also not a great day for Red Bull, who scored zero points after Verstappen’s late race blowout and Albon’s own goal spin-o-rama.

Top 10 finishers of the Emilia Romagna GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 63 1:28:32.430 26
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 63 +5.783s 18
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 63 +14.320s 15
4 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 63 +15.141s 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 63 +19.111s 10
6 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 63 +19.652s 8
7 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 63 +20.230s 6
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 63 +21.131s 4
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 63 +22.224s 2
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 63 +26.398s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time, as F1 returns to Turkey and Intercity Istanbul Park for Round 14 of this COVID-effected 17-round 2020 season. Hope to see you then to see what new records Hamilton can break and find out how it all shakes out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Germany — Results & aftermath

Hamilton romps to victory, equals Schumacher’s win record, as bad luck befalls Bottas; Verstappen a distant runner-up, joyful Ricciardo P3

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton scored a decisive win in Sunday’s German Grand Prix, aka the Eiffel GP, taking advantage of his teammate Valtteri Bottas’s misfortune and putting the rest of the field in the dust to earn his 91st career F1 victory. That ties the English six-time champion with the legendary Michael Schumacher for all-time wins in Formula 1 and Hamilton has six more races left on the calendar to exceed a mark that many through would never be approached much less surpassed. Recovering decisively from the two previous relatively lost race weekends where he shot himself in the foot with avoidable penalties, Hamilton now has a 69-point bulge in the Driver’s standings over Bottas after the latter DNF’s through no fault of his own. Hamilton is also on track to tie another epic Schumi record by earning his seventh Drivers’ Championship, putting his name in the hat for best-ever F1 pilot and potentially transforming a very weird and belated, COVID-marred 2020 campaign into a season for the ages. In a nicely symbolic coda to the race weekend, Hamilton was gifted one of Schumacher’s race helmets from 2012, the German legend’s last season, by son Mick Schumacher. The fast-rising Mick hopes to be able to dice with Hamilton on track in the very near future and one day try for a championship season of his own to carry on family tradition. But that is for the future. In this present, Hamilton has proven to be the greatest driver of this generation by some distance and Sunday’s easy win just reinforced that.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Despite starting from pole, Bottas was rounded up by Hamilton relatively quickly when his team leader passed the Finn for P1 on Lap 13. Hamilton would never look back and while Bottas was hoping to use an undercut strategy with an early pit stop to try and get back to the front it all came to naught when his Silver Arrow suffered terminal loss of power and he was forced to retire on Lap 19. Suddenly all the talk of Bottas mounting a late season challenge to Hamilton’s supremacy fizzled just like his power unit. That left one putative contender remaining with the majority of the 60-lap event still to be contested: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. But despite looking quick enough to challenge the front running Merc at times, the Dutch wunderkind could never really match Hamilton’s pace over the long runs. This was proven when a Safety Car on Lap 44 erased nearly all of Hamilton’s lead by bunching up the field and seemed to give Verstappen the late-race opening he was looking for. But when the Safety Car was withdrawn on Lap 49, Verstappen could make no inroads over the remaining eleven laps and Hamilton ended up cruising home over four-seconds to the good. Red Bull may be gradually getting closer to Mercedes’ supreme pace but they are running out of races to truly overhaul them.

Bottas’ misfortune opened the door to a podium position from one of the “best of the rest” in the field and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo seized the opportunity by charging through it with a masterful drive to take a skillful P3. Holding off the game Racing Point of Sergio Perez down the stretch, the veteran Aussie grabbed his first podium since 2018, his first as Renault driver and the factory team’s first since way back in 2011. It seems almost a pity that Ricciardo will be moving on to McLaren next year after such a satisfying achievement for both driver and team but that’s the way the F1 world turns. Just ask Perez, who was racy all day long to continue his strong streak of points finishes with a solid P4. Racing Point declined to re-sign the steady Mexican earlier and he still doesn’t have a ride for next season. And just ask today’s other Racing Point driver, Nico Hulkenberg, who pinch hit for the team on short notice for the second time, this time repacking the ill Lance Stroll, and fought his way from dead last on the grid all the way up to a terrific P8 finish, earning him rightful Driver Of The Day accolades. The German will be back broadcasting the next race assuming Stroll makes a full recovery from whatever is ailing him.

Carlos Sainz took P5 for McLaren, Pierre Gasly was P6 for AlphaTauri and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc finished behind those two ostensible midfield runners in P7, which was still far superior to his Scuderia stablemate Sebastian Vettel’s latest pointless P11. Roman Grosjean scored his first points of the year for Haas in P9, as did Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi in P10, who bested Vettel’s factory Ferrari with the laps winding down in a desperate bid to extend his F1 career, which is likely in jeopardy.

Top 10 finishers of the German GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 60 1:35:49.641 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 60 +4.470s 19
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 60 +14.613s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 60 +16.070s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 60 +21.905s 10
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 60 +22.766s 8
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 60 +30.814s 6
8 27 Nico Hulkenberg RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 60 +32.596s 4
9 8 Romain Grosjean HAAS FERRARI 60 +39.081s 2
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 60 +40.035s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — the Grand Prix of Portugal from the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, which has never hosted an F1 race. Regardless, look for the peerless Hamilton to continue his onslaught on the Formula 1 record books there now that he seems to have put his brief bumpy patch well and truly behind him. Hope to see you then!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Tuscany — Results & aftermath

Hamilton takes victory in wild and wooly Tuscan GP; Bottas second again, as Albon scores maiden podium amidst multiple crashes & stoppages

About the only predictable aspect of the first ever Tuscan Grand Prix staged at the old school, gravel trap-rich Magello circuit was that Mercedes ace Lewis hamilton would find a way to make amends for last weekend’s race destroying mistake and likely come home the winner. While his teammate Valtteri Bottas, desperate for a victory to delay Hamilton’s seemingly unstoppable assault on this year’s Drivers’ title, actually overtook the pole-sitting points leader when the lights went out to start the race it was only the beginning of a crazy day that saw not one but two Red Flag periods and a remarkable three standing starts. The action really began right after that Bottas overtake when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen suffered some sort of engine or software issue that saw him plummet back through the field and then get punted into a pit of gravel at Turn 2 by the oncoming Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen, ending the Dutchman’s race before it could really begin. Last week’s unlikely victor in Italy, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, also made contact with Raikkonen and shot into the Turn 2 trap to end any chance of another Cinderella finish for the young Frenchman. The opening lap carnage, which also saw McLaren’s Carlos Sainz spin but survive for the moment, brought out the day’s first Safety Car. It would not be the last.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

With Bottas leading the field as the Safety Car dove for the pits at the end of Lap 6 to restart the race, the Finn advanced very slowly to the start/finish straight, weaving to warm his tires in the process. But the pack at the rear only saw the green flag at that point and a mass of them sped up to try and time their getaway for maximum effect. It proved disastrous as the rear of the field concertinaed resulting in a huge pile up when Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and the unlucky McLaren of Sainz all collided at speed and littered the front straight with broken race cars and carbon fiber debris. Luckily no one was injured but the mess required a Red Flag for cleanup, making it the second race in a row to feature that sort of stoppage after a much less dramatic one at Monza the previous round. When the race finally resumed with the second standing start of the day, Hamilton beat Bottas off the line easily and took the lead for the first time since he started from pole.

The craziness didn’t end there, however, because on Lap 44 Lance Stroll’s Racing Point suffered some sort of rear left tire or suspension failure that sent the young Canadian spearing through a gravel trap and hard into a tire barrier. Fortunately Stroll was OK despite the heavy G-load of the impact. But once again a Red Flag stopped the race after the Safety Car collected the field and the remaining cars returned to the pits for a second time to wait out the stricken and smoking Racing Point’s removal.  Just like that, the entire podium from last week’s Italian GP — Gasly, Sainz, and Stroll — were now all spectacular DNFs in Tuscany. After another long delay and another standing start, the third of the day, Bottas suffered the ignominy of being blown off the line by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo when the race resumed on Lap 47. But Ricciardo’s dreams of a podium shoey were dashed when first Bottas got that P2 spot back on the subsequent lap and then the lone surviving Red Bull of Alexander Albon gobbled up the Aussie on Lap 51 of this 59-lap contest. For Ricciardo it was heartbreak at seeing a podium finish slip away but for Albon it must have been a very sweet result indeed when he came home behind the inevitable Hamilton-Bottas one-two. It was the young Thai driver’s first F1 podium and was a much needed confidence boost after a challenging and frequently disappointing season so far. And for Hamilton it was redemption after his penalty last weekend and a reminder to everyone in the F1 paddock that Ham is the man to beat, none more emphatically than his frustrated Silver Arrows stablemate Bottas.

With the crestfallen Ricciardo settling for P4, the twelve cars left in the contest saw the lone Racing Point of Sergio Perez finish in P5, followed by Lando Norris’ McLaren in P6 and the AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat in P7. Ferrari’s 1000th F1 GP was a bit of letdown despite both their drivers finishing in the points and the beauty of the dark burgundy tribute livery. Charles Leclerc seemed to change tires about twenty times but could do no better than P8 while Sebastian Vettel, who suffered a broken wing on that first-lap kerfuffle, managed to hang on for the last point in P10. Truth be told they were both probably lucky that so many cars failed to finish as they were so slow around here that they may well have come up empty otherwise. The Prancing Horses sandwiched the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen, whose eventful day finished at P9 when he was assessed a 5-second penalty for illegally crossing the pit line, which dropped him behind Leclerc in the final results. It did mark the first points for the team since the opening round in Austria.

Top 10 finishers of the Tuscan GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 59 2:19:35.060 26
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 59 +4.880s 18
3 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 59 +8.064s 15
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 59 +10.417s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 59 +15.650s 10
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 59 +18.883s 8
7 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 59 +21.756s 6
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 59 +28.345s 4
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 59 +29.770s 2
10 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 59 +29.983s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — the Russian Grand Prix from the beautiful Sochi circuit on the Black Sea. Hope to see you then to find out what’s next in this bizarre Formula 1 season!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Brazil — Results & aftermath

Verstappen rolls to victory for Red Bull in wild Brazilian GP; Gasly an ecstatic P2, Sainz promoted to P3 after Hamilton penalized for late race collision with Albon; Ferrari teammates crash out

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had the wings all day long and rolled to a dominant win at the Brazilian Grand Prix, his peerless performance the one constant in a topsy-turvy contest at sunny Interlagos on Sunday. With no bad weather to throw curveballs during the proceedings the contestants themselves provided the unpredictability and occasional rashness that led to a thrilling race and the unexpected result of having Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz take P2 and P3 respectively to share the podium with Verstappen and grab their highest career finishes in Formula 1. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was demoted from P3 after a late race gamble to pit from the lead for fresh rubber under Safety Car conditions backfired. Instead, it led to a major loss of track position when the Englishman emerged in P4 and a desperate attempt to get back to the front when the Safety Car was withdrawn with only three laps remaining. But while the newly minted six-time champ got by Gasly for P3 easily enough he couldn’t make a clean pass on the P2 Red Bull of Alexander Albon. Hamilton stuck his nose in forcefully on the penultimate lap going into Turn 10 but the door closed quickly and he ended up spinning out the impressive Thai rookie, denying Albon a probable second place result — a first potential podium for the youngster — and what could have been an even more amazing day for the Red Bull team. Hamilton, perhaps a bit too honestly, accepted full responsibility for the incident and was promptly penalized off the podium down to P7, much to Sainz’s and McLaren’s overjoyed advantage. Worse still for Mercedes, the second car of Valtteri Bottas suffered an oil pressure failure on Lap 52 that led to the Finn’s first retirement since the rainy crahfest at Hockenheim in late July.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

But as disappointing as things ended up for mighty Mercedes they went even more sideways for Ferrari. With Charles Leclerc making a heroic effort to claw back positions after a pre-race grid penalty saw him start down in P14 and Sebastian Vettel running solidly at the front and hunting a podium, it seemed almost inevitable that the two intra-team rivals would end up fighting over the same piece of track as the laps wound down. With Leclerc on slightly fresher Soft Pirellis, having pitted four laps later than Vettel during the Bottas Safety Car period, the Monegasque was able to close the gap to his senior teammate, who had lost precious time and, in fact, lost out while dicing with Albon for P3. On Lap 66 of this 71-lap contest, Leclerc was close enough to make a move and pass Vettel coming out of Turn 3 heading into the Reta Oposta. But Vettel got the DRS on Leclerc as they both steamed into Turn 4, the Descido do Lago. Vettel got his nose ahead but pressed his advantage just a little too aggressively, pushing across the track and into Leclerc’s front tire and wing with his left rear tire. As quickly as that, both Ferraris were out of the race, with the hard-charging Leclerc’s day of brilliant recovery work done in by a broken front right suspension courtesy of his teammate. Simultaneously, Vettel’s left rear tire delaminated badly after the contact and the carcass became a buzz saw whipping away at all that precious carbon fiber body work. It was a hell of a finish for the famed Scuderia going from a guaranteed strong points day to zero and will certainly not please the braintrust at Maranello. It’s also sure to worsen the already strained relations between the upstart would-be team leader and the decorated veteran, who has in truth made more than his fair share of mistakes during his tenure at Ferrari.

But whatever drama and fireworks happened behind them, the day belonged to the trio of Verstappen, Gasly and Sainz. No one could touch the Dutchman all race long and both Red Bulls seemed to be way ahead of their key rivals in terms of getting their tires to both turn on and maintain performance here at this very short and busy 4.3 kilometer circuit. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Brazil — Qualifying results

Verstappen seizes pole in Sao Paolo for Red Bull; Ferrari’s Vettel P2, Hamilton P3 for Merecedes

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen earned his second career pole position and second of the year during Saturday qualifying for the Brazilian Gran Prix. The Dutch wunderkind was consistently faster than the more vaunted Ferraris and Mercedes, as the Red Bull team look to finish the season strong and stick it to the big boys in the penultimate race of the Formula 1 calendar tomorrow at Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paolo, more commonly know as Interlagos. Verstappen was over a tenth quicker than Sebastian Vettel’s P2 Prancing Horse and the P3 Silver Arrow of newly minted 6-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Known for having driven one of the best ever wet weather races here back in 2016, Verstappen will be looking to keep his top spot until the checkered flag flies on Sunday and earn his first Brazilian GP win.

With the teams originally mixed and matched at the front of the grid, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was promoted to P4 alongside his teammate Lewis Hamilton even though Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc bested the Finn in quali because Leclerc faces a 10-spot grid penalty come race day due to a power unit change. It should be fun watching the talented young Monegasque motor his way back up to the front from a lowly P14 start. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Results & aftermath

Ferrari outfox Mercedes in strategic Singapore GP as Vettel bests teammate Leclerc for win; Vertsappen P3

In a tense and highly strategic Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, where track position was king on the extremely tight Marina Bay Street Circuit, resurgent Ferrari made the right calls while Mercedes gambled and lost. Sebastian Vettel, who has had a run of poor races recently and been eclipsed by the rising star of his younger teammate Charles Leclerc, was called to the pits on Lap 20 to respond to the similarly timed pit stop of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While Leclerc was at that time leading the race and controlling the pace of the field from the front while nursing his tires, the Monegasque phenom had just passed the pit entrance when Ferrari’s brain trust saw that Verstappen’s crew were laying out tires for the Dutchman. Vettel, running just in front of Verstappen, happened to be right at the pit entrance, however, and fortuitously for him it was he who got the call to go for the undercut and ditch his Soft Pirelli’s for fresh Hard compound tires to hopefully get to the end of the race with only that one stop. It proved to be just the luck that Vettel, a four-time World Champion who frankly looked as if he had lost his touch in 2019, needed to get back to the top step of the podium and take a much-needed win to sooth his battered ego.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

While Vettel rejoined the race in P10 he emerged in front of Verstappen, plus all of the cars in front him had yet to pit, including his teammate Leclerc and the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. When Leclerc came in for his own set of Hard tires a lap later Vettel’s pace on fresh rubber on his out lap was good enough get him in front of his formerly front running teammate. The now irate Leclerc was now doomed to look at Vettel’s gearbox for the rest of the race and he complained bitterly about the team’s decision making, which had essentially switched him from P1 to second place. Meanwhile Mercedes rolled the dice with Hamilton, who now led the race. While they ran Bottas only until Lap 23 until pitting him they kept Hamilton running at the front despite ever declining pace in regards to the two Ferraris and Verstappen’s Red Bull. It slowly became apparent that the Mercedes pit wall was either hoping for a Safety Car to provide them with a cheap and quicker pit stop than the usual 27-second delta under green flag conditions or they were trying to calculate the precise moment when the twin Ferraris would run into the slower traffic in front of them, thereby making a standard pit stop not as costly to Hamilton’s track position when he blended back in. But in the end it didn’t pay off.

There was no Safety Car at this time — in fairness there would be a raft of them later in the race — so Hamilton pitted on Lap 26 and was only stationary for 2.4 seconds as his Hards went on. But the Ferrari’s were barely impeded by the traffic in front of them and when Hamilton emerged he was behind not only Vettel and Leclerc but also Verstappen’s Red Bull. He did beat his teammate out for P4 but this was somewhat engineered by team orders to Bottas to hang back and cede Hamilton that position. The Englishman’s only hope of getting back to a podium finish after starting from P2 on the grid was that he had newer tires than his rivals that would enable him to make some passes at the end of the grueling 61-lap contest. But three Safety Car periods in the last 25 laps put paid to that hope and while the elite cars in the top five could pass inferior machines in twisty old Marina Bay none of the elite top five could pass each other. Vettel controlled his post-Safety Car restarts masterfully and kept his hungry and angry young teammate behind him to come away with his first F1 win since Belgium last year, a much needed salve to his frayed confidence. Leclerc had to settle for a somewhat hard-luck P2 and saw his win streak end at two. But it was an outstanding day for the famed Scuderia from Maranello, as they showed that the Prancing Horses could be fast not only on the wide open country tracks of Europe but also a high downforce street circuit like Singapore.

Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Leclerc holds off two Mercedes for second consecutive win in front of delirious Ferrari fans at Monza; Bottas P2, Hamilton P3; Vettel spins out of the points early

Rising star Charles Leclerc earned his second consecutive win and a permanent place in the hearts of Ferrari fans with a hard fought victory at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy on Sunday. Coming off his first career win at historic Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium a week ago Leclerc arguably topped that personal first by fighting off both formidable Mercedes to take the win in front of the delirious tifosi at what Ferrari and Italians in general have always considered the most important race of the year. Using every defending skill and trick in his arsenal to hold off the Silver Arrows of first Lewis Hamilton and then Valtteri Bottas, Leclerc delivered the first Monza win for the famed Scuderia from just up the road in Maranello since 2010 when Fernando Alonso took the honors. The Ferrari SF90 now has reliably superior straight line speed to the Mercedes and the ultra-fast Monza circuit was the perfect proving ground for that, confirming the post-summer break trend that began at Spa. While it is too late for Leclerc to come anywhere close to challenging Hamilton for the title this season the talented Monegasque served notice that he could be the English 5-time champion’s biggest rival in the coming years.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Leclerc led from pole and he and Hamilton made their first stop for tires a lap apart, with Hamilton boxing on Lap 20 just one lap before Leclerc came in on Lap 21. But Ferrari opted to put Leclerc on the Hard Pirelli compound while Mercedes opted for Medium tires. It was an intriguing decision by Ferrari with potential pitfalls if Leclerc could not make the Hard tires work effectively for the remainder of the race. He was the only driver that opted for this strategy. The two contenders on their different tire compounds promptly began battling for the lead in spirited fashion and when Hamilton tried to make the pass on Lap 23 after closing the gap to within a whisker’s distance Leclerc essentially shoved Hamilton off track to maintain his lead. Leclerc was shown the black and white flag for that but that only serves as a caution against future behavior and is not a penalty. Similarly, when Hamilton had reloaded and made another go at Leclerc on Lap 36 after two brief Virtual Safety Car periods Leclerc locked up through the edge of the chicane and drove straight over the curbs. But the stewards ruled that he gained no real advantage over Hamilton even while rejoining in front of the Mercedes. By this time Hamilton’s tires were going off and his teammate Bottas, who had stayed out longer on his first stint than the two frontrunners and pitted on Lap 28 for his own set of Mediums, was closing down both of the leaders from his P3 position. When Hamilton had a lockup of his own on Lap 42 of the 53 lap contest and had to take the escape route into the chicane it was clear his tires were shot. Bottas easily inherited P2 without any internecine warfare and set about trying to catch Leclerc to try and take the victory for himself.

But Leclerc had other ideas on this day. Continue reading →