Tag Archives: Charles Leclerc

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top 10 finishers of the Bahrain GP:

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

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

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

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Turkey — Results & aftermath

Hamilton earns record-tying seventh Drivers’ Championship with come from behind win in Turkey; Perez P2 & Vettel P3 after masterful wet weather drives

In typical Lewis Hamilton fashion the Mercedes ace battled back from a mediocre qualifying effort and extraordinarily difficult track conditions to take a storming victory in the return of the  Turkish Grand Prix at Intercity Istanbul Park on Sunday. Starting from P6 on the grid and with his Silver Arrow struggling to heat up the wet weather tires necessitated by both a wet and unaturally smooth track, Hamilton survived the treacherous early portion of the race, biding his time and steadily improving his track position until by Lap 37 of this 58-lap contest he passed Racing Point’s Sergio Perez to take the lead. It was a lead he would somewhat astoundingly never relinquish, as Ham the Man hung on to his aging Intermiediate Pirelli tires for so long they eventually turned into slicks and actually benefitted his performance by dint of their baldness on what was a rapidly drying circuit during the closing laps. Keeping his head down and waving off a potential late safety stop for fresh Inters floated by his team braintrust, Hamilton not only went on to win the race by a massive 31.6 seconds, thereby locking up this year’s Drivers’ Championship, but with that accomplishment tied the great Michael Schumacher’s record of seven overall Formula 1 titles. With his nearest rival, teammate Valtteri Bottas, having a disastrous day that featured multiple spins and saw the Finn finish well out of the points in P14, the only thing that might have kept Lewis from clinching this year’s crown was a last lap squall that could have proven difficult to navigate on his well worn, 50-lap old Inters. But more rain never came and so Lewis Hamilton drove his way to victory and into the Formula 1 firmament with a terrific drive that showed yet again why he is not only the greatest driver of this era but also now firmly in the argument for greatest F1 pilot of all time.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Perez also drove a superb race, outlasting his pole-sitting Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll by matching Hamilton’s one-stop strategy and holding off a brace of hard-charging Ferraris on the treacherous final corner to secure a highly impressive P2 finish. The veteran Mexican driver, who used all his guile and experience to collect the third P2 finish of his career, also did himself a world of good in his quest to remain in F1 next year after being unceremoniously sacked by Racing Point earlier in the year. Conversely, Stroll had a hard luck day after making his first-ever start from pole. The young Canadian led much of the first half of the race but a second stop for fresh Inters on Lap 36 proved to be his undoing, as the circuit had evolved into a very strange condition where it’s freshly laid asphalt was still too wet for slick Pirellis but also too dry for the Intermediates to work effectively. That swung the advantage to drivers like Hamilton and Perez, who stayed out on their old Inters and worked off most of the tread to a better performance effects. As a result, Stroll lost a ton of positions over the final twenty laps and had to settle for P9. Combined with Perez’s superb P2 it was still a great day for the Racing Point team and their quest for third in the Constructors’ standings. But Stroll had to be crestfallen to not even make the podium after such an auspicious start to the day, much less having his dreams of an F1 win unceremoniously dashed.

With Sebastian Vettel starting from P11 and teammate Charles Leclerc a lowly P12, both Ferraris actually came good in the race for once. While both drivers made the dreaded double pit stop, on this day the Prancing Horses actually seemed to like these slick conditions and maximize the performance of their tires. Vettel in particular drove like the four-time champion he is rather than the completely lost-at-sea aging veteran he has looked like for much of this misbegotten year. After impressive early work to deftly advance through the field while others slid and skidded all around him, Vettel was able to snatch P3 and a podium from his junior teammate when Leclerc out-breaked himself while dicing with Perez on the final lap. Leclerc had to settle for P4 but it was still one of the best days — if not the best —  that have Ferrari have had in a generally miserable 2020. A bit further back of the Ferrari duo, McLaren also had an excellent result, with Carlos Sainz taking an impressive P5 and Lando Norris moving up to P8 with a strong late-race push. Team Red Bull had a trying day with both Mex Verstappen and Alexander Albon spinning multiple times en route to disappointing P6 and P7 finishes respectively. Renault’s Daniel Riccardo, who also struggled in these challenging conditions, held on well enough to take the last point in P10.

In the end, though, it was Hamilton’s day through and through. With rare emotion stifling his normally talkative and ebullient nature, the Englishman reflected the weight of his mighty accomplishment in tying Schumacher’s iconic record of seven World Championships, a mark of excellence previously thought to be untouchable. That he deserves all the accolades that are sure to come his way for joining that elite company and making it a two man club was more than validated by his wonder drive to somehow take victory against all the odds and run of play here in Turkey on this fateful Grand Prix Sunday. That he can potentially earn his eighth title and stand alone at the top of the Formula 1 summit next year seems right now less of a possibility and more of a fait accompli. Of course, as the wise old hand once said, that’s why you go racing. But at this point it’d be very difficult to bet against Hamilton because in his heart of hearts you know he wants to be the all-time leader in F1 Championships. And what Lewis Hamilton puts his mind to he always seems to achieve.

Top 10 finishers for the Turkish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 58 1:42:19.313 25
2 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 58 +31.633s 18
3 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 58 +31.960s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 58 +33.858s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 58 +34.363s 10
6 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 58 +44.873s 8
7 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 58 +46.484s 6
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 58 +61.259s 5
9 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 58 +72.353s 2
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 58 +95.460s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — the Bahrain Grand Prix from the arid Bahrain International Circuit. While it’s highly doubtful there will be any rain to spice things up who knows what spanners the Formula 1 gods will yet throw into the works? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

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 Emilia Romagna — Qualifying results

Bottas wrests pole from Hamilton at Imola; Verstappen takes P3 after rebounding from engine troubles

A week after Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton set the record for most Formula 1 wins his overshadowed wingman Valterri Bottas knocked the English legend down a peg some small measure by snatching pole from the six-time champion and current points leader during Saturday qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. As F1 returned to the fateful Imola circuit, aka Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, for the first time since 2006 and Italy for the third time this season, Bottas set a blistering final lap of 1:13.609  at a circuit he has never raced at in anger before, bettering Hamilton’s already excellent time by a tenth as the checkers flew. While Hamilton has a stranglehold on this year’s title and is essentially a mortal lock to rack up his record-tying seventh Drivers’ Championship to match the great Michael Schumacher after passing the German legend in wins last week in Portugal, Bottas remains mathematically alive and anytime he can better his intimidating teammate can only be good for the Finn’s psyche. Whether this pole position translates into a win tomorrow is another matter, of course, but Hamilton could be facing a mental letdown after such a historic win last weekend so we shall see who has the edge when the lights go out for Sunday’s GP.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified third nearly half a second behind Hamilton’s P2 Merc. Still, the Dutchman was fairly fortunate to even make it into Q3 after a rare spark plug issue caused a scramble by his mechanics to fix the misfire during Q2 when Verstappen hadn’t yet set a time. The remarkable Red Bull crew, who routinely have the fastest pit stops during the races, came through again with flying colors, enabling their man Max to set a lap quick enough to get through to the final quali session and then set the third best time overall. Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Portugal — Results & aftermath

HAMMER TIME — Lewis Hamilton becomes winningest Formula 1 driver with dominant 92nd victory at Portuguese GP; Bottas a distant P2, Verstappen P3

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton rewrote the Formula 1 record books on Sunday by breaking a tie with the great Michael Schumahcer and becoming the all-time leader in victories with 92 after a dominant win in the Portuguese Grand Prix at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, Portugal. Racing away from pole, the English six-time World Champion and current points leader actually ceded his lead during a chaotic Lap 1 multi-car shuffle that saw McLaren’s Carlos Sainz surge forward from P7 on the grid to lead the race. Appearing to struggle for grip on cool Medium Pierrelli tires, his teammate and Mercedes Number 2, Valtteri Bottas, also passed Hamilton, relegating him to P3 in the order. But Sainz’s lead would prove to be short-lived. The Spaniard who started on the Soft tires, saw rapid performance degradation while the Medium-shod Mercs rapidly came into their own. Bottas passed Sainz on Lap 6 and Hamilton followed suit the following lap, setting up the usual internecine battle between the Silver Arrows. By Lap 19 Hamilton had closed the gap to Bottas and was harassing the Finn from directly behind his gearbox. On Lap 20, Hamilton made a decisive pass for a lead that he would never relinquish for the rest of the race.

Pics courtesy GrandPirx247.com

Clearly excelling on a long tire stint compared to his rivals, Hamilton ran all the way to Lap 41 on his first set of Mediums and then came in for a new set of Hards to finish off the 66-lap contest, having built enough of a gap over Bottas to still come out ahead, especially since Bottas was called in directly after him. While Bottas playfully pleaded to go to an alternate strategy and take a gamble on the least-favored Soft tires, that option was nixed by the Mercedes brain trust and Bottas had to hold station on matching Hards behind his superlative teammate for the remainder of the race. With the bit between his teeth and a historic prize to be grasped, Hamilton carved through backmarkers, lapping all but the top four finishers to cruise home to his record-setting win number 92. In the end, Lewis crossed the line over 25.5 seconds ahead of his P2 teammate. With a maximum points haul of 26 after also setting the fastest lap, Hamilton now leads Bottas, who races as number 77, by 77 points in the Championship with only four rounds remaining in the bizarre but entertaining 2020 season. So it’s nearly a lock that Hamilton will also tie Schumacher’s once unfathomable title record of seven Drivers’ Championships by the end and almost guaranteed that Hamilton returns in 2021 to break that mark with this era’s most dominant car before the new, cost saving and more spec-oriented formula kicks in 2022.

But for now, it is time to savor this individual accomplishment in what is already Hall of Fame career with first McLaren and now Mercedes and to pay respect to Lewis Hamilton for breaking a record that was previously thought to be untouchable. Simply put, Ham the Man is in the conversation for greatest all-time F1 pilot regardless of the era and no matter how easy he makes it look the 35-year-old Englishman is also making history every time he hits the track. With several more years of racing at the top level likely to come, Hamilton should continue to rewrite the record book in a way that will truly never be matched again.

Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Portugal — Qualifying results

Hamilton snatches pole from Bottas for inaugural Portimao race, aims to break Schumacher’s victory record tomorrow; Verstappen third fastest

In this most unusual COVID-effected year, which has forced Formula 1 to confine itself to Europe for the bulk of an improvised season, the drivers faced another challenge when they made the first-ever Grand Prix qualifying attempts at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, aka Portimao, on Saturday. After a long delay precipitated by the need to secure several loose and potentially dangerous drainage grates around the rolling 4.653 kilometer circuit, the unfamiliar and very green track still produced a familiar result when Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton bested his teammate Valtteri Bottas in the dying moments of Q3, grabbing pole position for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix by a tenth and earning the best possible starting spot to try to win the race and break a tie with the great Michael Schumacher for most-ever wins by a Formula 1 driver. Hamilton will be gunning for an astounding win number 92 tomorrow and it’d be a brave person who would bet against him getting it. Bottas must have been crestfallen to once again play second fiddle to his championship points-leading teammate, having led every practice and qualifying session prior to that final, most important one. The Mercedes braintrust put both their men on the Medium Pirellis for Q3, a somewhat risky and counterintuitive move, especially with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looking quick enough to threaten the Sliver Arrows’ hegemony while running the ostensibly faster Soft tires. But the gamble paid off and the Mediums wound up being the better performing tire during crunch time, at least if one was driving the peerless Mercedes W11. Interestingly, Hamilton set the fastest overall lap for pole after running two hot laps on his tires on this recently repaved, low abrasion surface, while Bottas ran only the traditional single hot lap and had to once again settle for P2. But the unlucky Finn was still quick enough by around two-tenths to hold off Verstappen, even with the Red Bull man on the softer rubber. The talented Dutchman will start behind the Mercs in the second row in P3 and will be keen to overtake one or both of the top two at the start, perhaps taking advantage of a contretemps between Mercedes teammates heading into Turn 1. Continue reading →

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 Germany— Qualifying results

Bottas pips Hamilton for pole at Nurburgring; Verstappen qualifies P3

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes’ number two driver, followed up his gift win in Russia two weeks ago by wresting pole from his more heralded and points-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton during Saturday qualifying for the German Grand Prix. On a green track with very limited practice time for the entire field due to adverse weather conditions, all was sunny for the Finn at the famed Nurburgring when it counted, as he put together three purple sectors late in Q3 to pip Hamilton’s best effort and take the top starting spot for tomorrow’s race. Bottas is looking to keep his slim championship hopes alive with the races ticking down and grabbing pole at this legendary venue after back-to-back self-inflicted errors by Hamilton balked his previously unstoppable momentum is at least a hopeful sign. For the Silver Arrows, it was yet another front row lockout in 2020, no matter that Hamilton will feel he left some time on the table during his final fast lap. The English six-time F1 champ will be looking to put his mistakes at Monza and Sochi behind him and will certainly be trying to jump his teammate at the start tomorrow to reclaim the sense of inevitability that previously surrounded his title aspirations.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looked like giving the Mercedes boys a run for pole but struggled for grip late in Q3 and could only post the third fastest lap when it really mattered, albeit just a few hundredths behind Hamilton. Still the Dutchman’s effort put him the usual half-second ahead of his teammate, Alexander Albon, and the Red Bulls were actually split by a sterling effort from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who will slot in alongside Verstappen in P4 on the grid, a spot ahead of Albon’s P5. Once again, Leclerc badly outclassed his more seasoned teammate, Sebastian Vettel, whose dismal year continued when the German four-time champion could only muster a time good enough for P11 and was bounced in Q2. The Renault’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon qualified P6 and P7 respectively, while Lando Norris was P8 and Carlos Sainz P10 for McLaren. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten qualifiers and will start P9. However, his teammate Lance Stroll fell ill and Nico Hulkenberg nearly had to be parachuted in on extra-short notice to take the young Canadian’s spot for the both quali and the race. With such extremely limited seat time, however, the veteran German struggled mightily and will start from twentieth, last on the grid.

Top 10 qualifiers for the German GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:26.573 1:25.971 1:25.269 19
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:26.620 1:25.390 1:25.525 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:26.319 1:25.467 1:25.562 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:26.857 1:26.240 1:26.035 18
5 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:27.126 1:26.285 1:26.047 15
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:26.836 1:26.096 1:26.223 18
7 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 1:27.086 1:26.364 1:26.242 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:26.829 1:26.316 1:26.458 18
9 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:27.120 1:26.330 1:26.704 17
10 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:27.378 1:26.361 1:26.709 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 8AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out whether Bottas can really make this a title race down the stretch, Hamilton will reassert his dominance or Verstappen will find something to spoil the Mercedes party!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Russia — Results & aftermath

Bottas steals win in Sochi after needless penalty by Hamilton relegates him to P3; Red Bull’s Verstappen splits the Silver Arrows in P2

A funny thing happened on the way to Lewis Hamilton’s coronation as winner of the Russian Grand Prix and preemptive favorite for the 2020 Drivers’ Championship. Before the race even started Hamilton and his Mercedes team made another crucial error in judgment that put them afoul of the stewards and led directly to a penalized infraction with race ruining results, not dissimilar to what happened two races ago at Monza when Hamilton foolishly entered a closed pit lane if less severe in outcome. On Sunday at Sochi Autodrom on the coast of the Black Sea it was practicing his starts outside the acceptable areas for doing so that led to Lewis’ undoing. So despite starting from pole and then holding off his onrushing teammate Valtteri Bottas to lead the opening lap Hamilton would very shortly be assessed two separate 5-second time penalties for two distinct illegal pre-race practice starts. Interestingly, the penalties were handed down directly after a Safety Car period brought out when both McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll crashed out on the opening lap in unrelated shunts. But the penalty was announced on Lap 7, two laps after the end of the SC, so the Mercedes brain trust had to go into overdrive trying to game out recovery strategies for their points-leading driver under Green Flag conditions, especially after he also had to start on the undesirable Soft Pirelli tires due to a very tense and scrambled qualifying effort on Saturday. But in the end Hamilton did nothing more than stay out for a few more laps and try to extend his lead over Bottas as best he could.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Despite his protestations about wanting to prolong his first stint, the team finally succeeded in getting Hamilton to go to the pits for fresh rubber at the end of Lap 16, where he swapped the fragile Softs for a pair of Hard compound tires that would have to make it till the end of this 53-lap contest. Bottas then inherited a lead that he would never relinquish, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, whom Bottas passed skillfully for P2 when the lights went out to start the race, got that position back. Hamilton emerged way down in P11. Still complaining bitterly about both the team’s strategy call and the perceived unfairness of the penalties, Hamilton nonetheless began to regain ground almost immediately as the drivers in front of him began to cycle in for their own pit stops, which the Mercedes pit wall had obviously factored in to their decision on when to pit Hamilton in the first place. By Lap 19 he passed the pokey Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel for P7 and by Lap 21 he had made it all the way back to P5. After Vettel’s stablemate Charles Leclerc pitted on Lap 29 and AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat made his stop on Lap 31 that elevated Hamilton into the third place spot he was destined to hold onto for the remainder of the contest. When Bottas crossed the line for the easy if opportunistic victory it put him eleven points to the good over Hamilton on the day, as the Finn also set the fastest lap of the race for the bonus point to take the full 26 on offer. That closed the gap between the two Silver Arrows intra-team rivals to 44 points in the Drivers’ standings with seven more scheduled rounds currently remaining on the calendar. Bottas’s unwillingness to roll over and Hamilton’s own missteps have suddenly made things a lot more interesting in what was looking like a cakewalk for the English six-time Champion. But counting on Hamilton making mistakes every weekend seems like anything but a sure bet and Bottas is going to have to beat the champ mano-a-mano and wheel-to-wheel if he wants to really put a scare into Lewis and make a serious run at his first title.

Verstappen held on to that P2 after a solid if lonely all round drive at Sochi, a strong podium finish which must have felt even sweeter than usual after a two-race points drought for the talented Dutchman. His Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon was less impressive, which is becoming the norm, as the young Thai driver could only manage the final point down in P10 after having to fight far too hard for that meager reward all race long. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was the best of the rest with a splendid P4 effort, likely giving the team second thoughts about their decision to part ways with the steady Mexican pilot at the end of the season. Daniel Ricciardo led out a good day for Renault with a P5 finish even after being assessed a 5-second penalty of his own for redoing the track incorrectly while overcooking a position swap with his teammate, Esteban Ocon. Ocon held on with old tires to finish P7. Those two sandwiched Ferrari’s Leclerc, who drove wonderfully well in a slow ride to take a P6 finish, salvaging something for the Scuderia on a day when their second driver Vettel was once again nowhere in the race. The German four-time champ came home a dismal P13 in what has been pretty much an unrelentingly dismal campaign for him. The Russian Kvyat finished a solid P8 in front of his countrymen and his AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly salvaged P9 after an ill-advised late second pit stop during a brief Virtual Safety Car that simply didn’t last long enough to make that move pay off.

Top10 finishers of the Russian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 1:34:00.364 26
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +7.729s 18
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +22.729s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 53 +30.558s 12
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 53 +52.065s 10
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +62.186s 8
7 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 53 +68.006s 6
8 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +68.740s 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +89.766s 2
10 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +97.860s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks’ time, as Formula 1 returns to the legendary Nürburgring for the fist time since 2013. By then, Hamilton should be feeling like a caged animal looking for redemption and vengeance while Bottas will be looking to keep his unexpected momentum going and keep sticking it to his vociferous critics. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

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!