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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 Russia — Qualifying results

Hamilton pulls pole out of bag after Q2 Red Flag scare; Red Bull’s Verstappen beats out Bottas for P2 to split Mercedes duo

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton barely squeaked through the second round of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom on Saturday after having his only lap in Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits and then being balked by a Red Flag situation late in the session. With only a shade over two minutes remaining in Q2 Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel lost control of his Prancing Horse and suffered a heavy sideways shunt at the exit of Turn 4 that left his car in pieces and saw his teammate Charles Leclerc barely avoid his smashed car for what could have been a much more serious accident. However, the cleanup of Vettel’s broken Ferrari necessitated a Red Flag stoppage of qualifying and forced Hamilton back into the pits along with the rest of the field. And with only a meager 2:15 left in the session that meant that all the drivers would also have to do an unaccustomed hurry up on the out lap to make it to the start line prior to the session expiring. Despite a big Mercedes gamble that ended up sending out Hamilton essentially last in the queue, the superlative English pilot made it to the line with just a tick over a second remaining left in his pocket. Now on Soft Pirellis after doffing the preferred Medium compound tires to try and squeeze as much speed as possible out of the lap, Hamilton set a time  good enough to get him into Q3 and then quickly returned to dominating the rest of the field on pace. Hamilton easily set the pole time after that Q2 squeaker and reinforced that he is the best driver in the best car and the rest are just swimming in his wake. The only possible fly in the ointment is that Hamilton will have to start the race on the rather fragile Soft tires with which he set his fastest — and only — lap time in Q2, as per the rules.

That could open him up to attack via overcut by Red Bull’s Max Verstppen, who bested Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas for second quickest to earn the honor of starting alongside Lewis on the grid. Verstappen also gambled by betting that his best time in Q2 on Mediums would carry him through, which it did, and so the Dutch wunderkind will start on the strategically preferred tire, potentially running far longer than Hamilton on the opening stint. Bottas had to settle for P3 and the second row after taking too much curb on his final flying lap, thereby losing a crucial tenth of a second by which Verstappen bested him. However, Bottas will also be starting on the Mediums so the Finn may be able to salvage a potential victory by similarly making the most of his more durable rubber to Hamilton’s disadvantage, in addition to the Mercedes’ overall superior pace hopefully overhauling the Red Bull of Verstappen. The first 20 laps or so of tomorrow’s 56-lap contest should be extremely interesting!

Filling out the remainder of the Top 10 qualifiers, Sergio Perez really excelled to hustle his Racing Point up to best of the rest in P4 and will line up alongside Bottas in machine with equally good straight-line speed. Daniel Ricciardo also looked extremely fast in his Renault and set the fifth fastest time by the time the day’s final checkered flag had flown, while his younger teammate Esteban Ocon managed a lap good enough for P7. The McLaren of Carlos Sainz split the yellow Renaults, earning P6 on the grid, while his teammate Lando Norris will start from P8. The AlphaTauri of the impressive Frenchman Pierre Gasly was P9 in quali but the man who replaced him at Red Bull last year, Alexander Albon, was again miles away from his splendid stablemate Verstappen and will start from way back in P10.

While Vettel was unhurt by his rather heavy crash his team is going to have a big job rebuilding his car overnight and have him ready to start the Grand Prix. No doubt he will also start from then pits if they can get it rebuilt in time. The other Ferrari of Leclerc was bounced in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest time but the aggrieved Monegasque will have the silver lining of an extra set of tires and the choice of which ones to start on that could help his overall race result. Still, this can hardly be the Saturday at Sochi that team Ferrari had hoped for and both their drivers will have to make the best of bad situations if they are to come away with any points at all tomorrow.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Russian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:32.983 1:32.835 1:31.304 19
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:33.630 1:33.157 1:31.867 21
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:32.656 1:32.405 1:31.956 19
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:33.704 1:33.038 1:32.317 15
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:33.650 1:32.218 1:32.364 15
6 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:33.967 1:32.757 1:32.550 15
7 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 1:33.557 1:33.196 1:32.624 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:33.804 1:33.081 1:32.847 19
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:33.734 1:33.139 1:33.000 21
10 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:33.919 1:33.153 1:33.008 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 starting at 7AM Eastern here in the States. Between the split strategies of the Mercedes teammates and the hard charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who smells blood in the water and potential victory in the air, expect some real fireworks along the coast of the Black Sea. 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!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Tuscany — Qualifying results

Hamilton claims pole at Mugello for inaugural Tuscan GP; Bottas settles for P2 after late yellow scuttles final try; Verstappen third fastest but closing the gap

Looking to put last week’s own-goal well and truly behind him, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton took pole for the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix at the twisty, rolling Mugello circuit during Saturday qualifying. After letting an almost certain victory in the previous Italian Grand Prix at Monza when he didn’t see the lighted track signals and entered a closed pit, earning a race destroying penalty in the process, Hamilton recovered to once again best his teammate for the top starting spot. It was Hamilton’s astounding 95th pole position and 69th with the Silver Arrows. While the English points leader failed to improve his best time with his last lap, Valtteri Bottas was balked from bettering his own time when the Renault of Esteban Ocon spun off track in front of him and brought out a yellow flag, forcing the Finn to lift and essentially gifting pole to his superlative teammate. The getaway from the line will be key tomorrow, as Mugello does not appear to be an easy circuit to overtake on, so after leading the time sheets for most of the sessions in the weekend except when it really counted Bottas will be practicing his starts in his sleep tonight.

While Mercedes earned their seventh consecutive front row lockout, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull showed improved one-lap pace that resulted in a P3 time just .35 seconds behind Hamilton’s pole effort. The Dutchman will be hoping for equally good race pace and perhaps a first lap contretemps between the two Silver Arrows directly in front of him to try and the pull the upset tomorrow. Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon acquitted himself well with the fourth fastest time after struggling greatly with his previous qualifying efforts. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc also excelled, hoisting his Prancing Horse all the way up to P5 on the grid after crashing out of the Italian GP in spectacular fashion last week. Sergio Perez qualified in sixth position on a weekend when he learned he had been sacked by Racing Point for next season in favor of the underperforming but 4-time Champion Sebastian Vettel. It was probably cold comfort for the veteran Mexican pilot to see Vettel’s Ferrari knocked out in Q2 with only the fourteenth fastest lap and to add insult to injury Perez was docked one grid place for a small collision with the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen during Practice 2.

Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll, who will have his seat as big as he wants it since his father owns the team, qualified directly behind him in P6, while Daniel Ricciardo hustled his Renault up to an over-achieving P8 start. Carlos Sainz was the lone McLaren to qualify in the top 10 with the ninth fastest time while Ricciardo’s teammate Ocon had to settle for P10 after his spin. Last week’s surprise winner, Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri, was reminded of the fickle nature of Formula 1 success when one isn’t driving for an elite team — the Frenchman was unceremoniously knocked out in the first qualifying session and will start from way back in P16.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Tuscan GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:15.778 1:15.309 1:15.144 14
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:15.749 1:15.322 1:15.203 11
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:16.335 1:15.471 1:15.509 12
4 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:16.527 1:15.914 1:15.954 14
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:16.698 1:16.324 1:16.270 18
6 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:16.596 1:16.489 1:16.311 16
7 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:16.701 1:16.271 1:16.356 14
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:16.981 1:16.243 1:16.543 14
9 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:16.993 1:16.522 1:17.870 17
10 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 1:16.825 1:16.297 DNF 14

Full qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

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

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Gasly takes Cinderella victory at Italian GP after pivotal penalty plunges Hamilton down the order; Sainz a hard-fought P2, Stroll P3 to complete topsy turvy youth power podium

A funny thing happened on the way to the latest Lewis Hamilton coronation during Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at the ultra-high speed Monza circuit. With the Mercedes ace was once again leading easily and dominating from the front, he and the team made a fatal blunder when they pitted during a Safety Car on Lap 21 while the pits were closed. The lighted signals on the outside of Parabolica en route to the pits are admittedly not that easy to discern for a driver at speed but that cut no ice with the stewards, whose key concern was the safety of the marshals as they pushed the disabled Haas of Kevin Magnussen back towards pit entry in order to clear it as a hazard on track. The verdict hung over Hamilton’s head for some time due to another Safety Car and a resultant Red Flag period after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed out in scary fashion deforming the tire barrier at that same Parabolica on Lap 25. But eventually Hamilton was assessed the dreaded Stop and Hold penalty +10 seconds for his illegal stop, a drive and park in pit lane to be served under green flag conditions when racing resumed despite his and the team’s protestations.

That put the cat amongst the pigeons for a truly topsy turvy result, as Hamilton was shuffled all the way to the rear of the field investigators he served his penalty, opening the door for some of the usual midfield runners to earn a level of glory that has been nearly impossible to achieve in this long Mercedes-Red Bull-Ferrari big three era. The greatest glory was seized by Frenchman Pierre Gasly for the Italian AlphaTauri team, who drove the last half of the 53-lap race after a second standing restart to end the Red Flag period as if his very career depended on it. A year after he was demoted from the senior Red Bull team the 24-year-old Gasly must have given the Red Bull brain trust second thoughts about that decision, as he held of the determined effort of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz to take an improbable Cinderella victory at Monza. It was Gasly’s first career F1 victory, the first by a Frenchman since Olivier Panis at Monaco in 1996 and his team’s second-ever win — the first since some kid named Sebastian Vettel won for Toro Rosso back in 2008 at this very same circuit.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Sainz fought desperately to try and get his own maiden win but came up just short as the laps ran out on him and the tenacious Gasly hung tough against his onslaught ahead. Still, the P2 finish was the 26-year-old Spaniard’s best ever result and he drove a splendid and composed race all around. He has got be having some serious doubt now about his decision to move to Ferrari next season, though, The resurgent McLaren and the pokey Prancing Horse look to be heading in two opposite directions in terms of performance. Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, just 21, claimed the last podium position in P3, making up a very young and unexpected top 3 for this crazy race. To be honest, it was good to see Mercedes get shut out of the victory and podium positions and even if it was a somewhat flukey, one-off result these three young men will carry the glory of this special day with them for the rest of their lives. A few more unpredictable results like this could also be just the tonic that Formula 1 needs to entice a new generation of fans. It’s only too bad that due to COVID-19 precautions there weren’t any actual tifosi in the stands to witness this stunning result.

Sainz’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris took P4 ahead of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas to complete a quartet of young guns at the head of the field. Bottas struggled mightily all day, dropping like a stone at the start from P2 to P4 at the end of the opening lap and never looking all that racy afterwards. While the veteran Finn may have picked up some damage as cars rubbed by him he looked to be the driver most affected by the new restrictions on in-race engine mapping and he had a hard time just getting to and then maintaining his final P5 position. The Mercedes Achilles heel of overheating while running behind other cars and not in clean air also may have balked his progress. But at least he can take some small comfort in the fact that he bested his normally superlative teammate’s finish, as Hamilton fought gamely from last after his penalty by passing the nine cars left in front him but could only drag himself up to P7 before the laps ran out. Renault had another good day, if not quite as good as their overachieving midfield rivals and saw Daniel Ricciardo come home P6 and Esteban Ocon P8. The second Racing Point of Sergio Perez took the last point in P10.

As off-kilter a day as Mercedes may have had their two historic rivals had it far worse, Red Bull leader Max Verstappen got off to an uncharacteristically bad start that saw him actually lose positions on the opening lap and was mired in the midfield after the post-Red Flag restart before having to retire his car on Lap 31 for preemptive engine preservation reasons. His teammate Alexander Albon, who all will continue to note replaced Gasly at Red Bull midseason last year, tangled with the eventual race winner going into the first chicane on Lap 1 and was penalized for not leaving a car’s length during the encounter. But the bigger penalty was the damage he picked up in the skirmish and he came home a dismal P15, second to last of the cars still running. It was even worse for Ferrari at their home Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel suffered terminal brake failure on Lap 6 and had to limp home to retire the car. And as mentioned, Leclerc had a high speed, high-G shunt on Lap 25, which looked to be driver error but that he was thankfully able to walk away from. So as bad as it was that there were no fans to share in Gasly’s improbable run to glory from Ferrari’s perspective it’s probably just as well there weren’t any to witness this latest ignominy for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 1:47:06.056 25
2 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 53 +0.415s 18
3 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 53 +3.358s 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 53 +6.000s 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +7.108s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 53 +8.391s 8
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +17.245s 7
8 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 53 +18.691s 4
9 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +22.208s 2
10 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 53 +23.224s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix from the Mugello Circuit, the first time this test track has ever been used in an F1 GP. Perhaps the strange surroundings will produce another entertainingly bizarre result since the drivers are all starting from scratch there. More than likely, Hamilton and Mercedes will return to their dominating form. Hope to see you then to find out either way!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Hamilton pips Bottas for pole at Monza and another Mercedes front row lockout; McLaren’s Sainz and Racing Point’s Perez qualify a surprising P3 and P4, relegating Red Bull’s Verstappen to third row

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton’s dominant season continued when he was able to outpace his teammate Valtteri Bottas by a mere six one-hundredths of a second to grab pole for the Italian Grand Prix at the classic high speed Monza circuit during Saturday qualifying. Hamilton, who has now earned living legend status while remaining at the top of his game, extended his F1 pole record to 94, seemingly able to turn up the wick to fend off his hard charging Finnish teammate despite this being the first weekend of the FIA-mandated ban on “party modes” and other performance enhancing engine mapping tricks. Mercedes have now locked out the front row of all but one of the eight Grand Prix this season and the Silver Arrows continue to be on another level from the rest of the field with Hamilton essentially on his own planet at this point.

But, as predictable as the blistering pace of the Mercs was, the rest of quali managed to serve up several surprises. The superb Red Bull RB16 found the limits of its supreme downforce design when the ace pilot Max Vertsappen could set no better than the fifth fastest lap of the final session at this temple of outright speed. That opened the door for the Renault-powered McLaren of Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes-fired Racing Point of Sergio Perez to secure their places in the second row with fast laps good enough for P3 and P4 respectively, pushing Verstappen back into the foreign-for-him third row on the grid. Simply put, Sainz and Perez’s mounts simply had the legs on the Red Bull, at least for one-lap pace, and it wouldnt be totally surprising if one or both maintained that advantage in tomorrow’s race where over 60 percent of a racing lap is taken at full throttle. The second McLaren of Lando Norris will line up alongside Vertsappen after earning a P6 spot on the grid, while the factory Renault of Daniel Ricciardo qualified P7 and the second Racing Point of Lance Stroll set the eighth fastest time. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon struggled all day with strict enforcement of track limits by the stewards and could muster only the ninth fastest time, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was the last the top ten starters.

Finally, Ferrari’s dismal 2020 continued in ignominious fashion when Charles Leclerc drove the wheels of his Prancing Horse in Q2 and still did not advance. He’ll have to settle for P13 on the grid. Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel got bounced in Q1 again after getting tangled up in a gaggle of other midfield runners all trying to inhabit the exact same space on the circuit for their final runs in the first session. It is actually a good thing there were no fans at Monza to witness this year’s Ferraris’ brutal lack of pace. One can be sure, however, that the corporate chieftains at the factory in Maranello just up the road from here were watching today’s woeful proceedings with a rather jaundiced eyes.

Top 10 qualifiers for then Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:19.514 1:19.092 1:18.887 18
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:19.786 1:18.952 1:18.956 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:20.099 1:19.705 1:19.695 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:20.048 1:19.718 1:19.720 17
5 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:20.193 1:19.780 1:19.795 17
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:20.344 1:19.962 1:19.820 18
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:20.548 1:20.031 1:19.864 16
8 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:20.400 1:19.924 1:20.049 19
9 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:21.104 1:20.064 1:20.090 19
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:20.145 1:19.909 1:20.177 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Can anyone stop Lewis Hamilton’s assault on the Formula 1 record book? I wouldn’t bet on it but hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Results & aftermath

Hamilton romps to victory at Spa, Bottas P2 as Mercedes dominate again; Verstappen P3 for Red Bull; Renault on the ascent

The 2020 dominance of the Mercedes factory team and their ace pilot Lewis Hamilton continued today as Hamilton sailed to victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit and teammate Valtteri Bottas claimed second place. With Hamilton starting from pole and Bottas P2 on the grid and both cars clearly faster than the next best Red Bull of Max Verstappen, the only suspense in today’s race was wondering if the Hard compound Pirellis on both Silver Arrows would make it to the end of the race after a very long second stint. But the tires held up just well enough to get to the end even though they had run a whopping 33 laps out of the total 44 race distance. Nearly all the competitors pitted under a Safety Car, which was deployed on Lap 10 after being prompted by a lurid accident between Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and the Williams of the promising young Englishman George Russell. Verstappen ran the same strategy but could never get enough of a gap to Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo behind him to risk a second stop for fresh rubber later in the race and try and undercut Bottas. So the Dutchmen had to be content to run a somewhat dull race too far to strike the Finn and simply take his customary podium by coming home P3.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Despite running out of laps to make a proper lunge at Verstappen, Ricciardo & Renault had to be well pleased with his sterling P4 effort, with the team all the more so when second driver Esteban Ocon made a pass against Red Bull’s Alexander Albon to seize P5 on the penultimate lap of the race. Albon had to settle for P6, less than impressive when compared to the performance of his teammate Verstappen in what is ostensibly identical equipment. Renault seem to like these long, high speed old school circuits so look for their new found pace to carry over next week at Monza, likely causing some headaches for Red Bull in the process. McLaren’s Lando Norris drove very well to earn P7 after qualifying tenth. But it was a decidedly mixed day for the team, as Carlos Sainz was unable to start the race after experiencing a terminal exhaust issue on the warm up lap. That opened up the points to AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who made a two-stop strategy work despite some creeping doubts by clawing back a ton of positions on fresh Mediums as the laps wound down to take P8. The Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez took the last points in P9 and P10 respectively.

Ferrari’s day went as poorly as their terrible qualifying effort indicated it would. Sebastian Vettel finished P13 and Charles Leclerc P14 today after each had taken a turn winning the Belgian GP in the prior two years. To make matters even worse, both Prancing Horses finished behind Kimi Raikkonen in an Alfa Romeo, which is essentially a Ferrari support team. With only a week until their home grand prix in Italy and clearly badly down on straight line speed, which is at even more of a premium at Monza than at Spa, look for the mood of the legendary team from Maranello and their fanatical fans, the tifosi, to get much worse before it gets better in what is looking like for all the world a completely lost 2020 campaign.

Top 10 finishers of the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 44 1:24:08.761 25
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 44 +8.448s 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 44 +15.455s 15
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 44 +18.877s 13
5 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 44 +40.650s 10
6 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 44 +42.712s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 44 +43.774s 6
8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 44 +47.371s 4
9 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 44 +52.603s 2
10 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 44 +53.179s 1

Complete race results available via Fomrula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the fearsome “temple of speed.” Mercedes will be keen to rub salt into the Ferrari’s self-inflicted wounds in their back yard and in front of their crestfallen tifosi and Renault will be looking to up their game to take the fight to Verstappen’s Red Bull on equal terms. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Qualifying results

Hamilton train keeps rolling with pole at Spa; Bottas second fastest, Verstappen P3; Ferrari have met their Waterloo

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton continued his seemingly unstoppable momentum in this truncated, COVID-affected 2020 season by taking a blistering pole for the Belgian Grand Prix during Saturday qualifying at the venerable Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Two weeks after a dominant win in the Spanish GP and having been victorious in four out fo the six contests so far, the English 6-time Champion and current points leader hustled his Silver Arrow around this beautiful and long 4.3 mile road course to the tune of 1:41.252, six-tenth quicker than his game but outclassed teammate, Valtteri Bottas. While that locked out the front row for Mercedes yet again and Bottas will line up alongside Hamilton in P2, the Finn simply doesn’t seem to be able to match Hamilton’s supreme pace in the W11 this year, particularly not in race trim. Once again, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was the only other car and driver combo to even give Mercedes any hint of a fight on outright pace, as the talented Ducthman wheeled his car around for a lap good enough for P3 on the grid just .015 in arrears of Bottas. The RB16’s superior downforce, as well as Verstappen’s mastery in the wet, could throw the wild card into another easy Hamilton win if we get rain on Sunday, something that is always well within the realm of possibility here in the Ardennes forest.

Renault had an excellent qualifying effort that saw veteran Daniel Ricciardo vault himself all the way up to P4 and a starting spot in the second row beside his former Red Bull stablemate Verstappen. The second Renault of Esteban Ocon also came good with a P6 time. They will sandwich Vertsappen’s wingman Alexander Albon, who did decently to set the fifth fastest time. The McLaren of Carlos Sainz continued his recent superiority over his precocious teammate Lando Norris by out-qualifying the young Englishman for the second race weekend in a row, P7 to P10 in this instance. And while the two Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll easily made it into Q3 and qualified P8 and P9 respectively, the team was probably still disappointed and a little surprised by being blown off by both Renaults and one McLaren after their mini-Mercedes was normally the best of rest outside of the big three teams this season.

A sad note on Ferrari: after winning the last two Belgian GP with Sebastian Vettel in 2018 and Charles Leclerc in 2019 the same duo were unceremoniously bounced out in Q2 when Leclerc could achieve no better than the 13th fastest lap in a field of 15 and Vettel only the 14th. Simply put, the inability (or unwillingness) of the Scuderia to develop their cars and improve their pokey straight-line speed is one of the key frustrations of the 2020 season. The fact that the SF 1000 now appears to be getting slower each week and dropping further into the clutches of teams like Alpha Tauri and even Williams is nothing short of a travesty. The legendary team from Maranello appear to have given up on 2020 entirely and with the new spec Formula being delayed until 2022 this also bodes ill for their competitiveness next year, even assuming better team dynamics with the departure for the lame duck Vettel. Right now Carlos Sainz has got be wondering if his dream drive might not be looking like a nightmare and perhaps even rethinking his decision to leave what looks to be a fast-improving McLaren operation. With a now-confirmed eleven contests remaining it’s hard to see how Ferrari right this particular ship, always a bad thing for the sport. If they don’t score any points tomorrow, which is looking like a 50-50 proposition at best, the Italian press and the tifosi will be howling for blood just a week away from their home GP at Monza. Tomorrow in Belgium could truly be Ferrari’s Waterloo, though what such a nadir would mean with so many races still to go is anybody’s guess.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:42.323 1:42.014 1:41.252 15
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:42.534 1:42.126 1:41.763 17
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:43.197 1:42.473 1:41.778 17
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:43.309 1:42.487 1:42.061 11
5 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:43.418 1:42.193 1:42.264 15
6 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 1:43.505 1:42.534 1:42.396 15
7 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:43.322 1:42.478 1:42.438 15
8 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:43.349 1:42.670 1:42.532 15
9 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:43.265 1:42.491 1:42.603 15
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:43.514 1:42.722 1:42.657 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN starting at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if either weather or competitors can do anything to slow down the Hamilton express!

2020 F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Bottas fights back for pole for second consectuve Silverstone race, besting P2 Hamilton; temp driver Hulkenberg qualifies a wonder P3 for Racing Point

After the massive disappointment of last weekend’s late race tire blowout that dropped him straight out of the points like a stone, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas roared back to take pole for the second consecutive race at the venerable Silverstone circuit in two weekends. Bottas showed his determination to rebound by pipping his teammate and championship points leader Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second to take the top spot in tomorrow’s one and only Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the same track where it all started back in 1950. While Hamilton was no doubt briefly let down by having to settle for P2 on the grid, the English 6-time World Champion can no doubt take solace in his big points lead over his Finnish teammate after Hamilton survived his own tire delimitation on the final lap last weekend at the British GP yet still limped home to victory. And, as Bottas knows all too well from his years as the clear Number 2 at Mercedes, out-qualifying Hamilton is one thing and beating him a race is quite another.

Perhaps a bigger story than the seemingly inevitable Silver Arrows 2020 front row lockout was the amazing qualifying effort of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg. After starting the season out of a job Hulkenberg was drafted into the team around ten days ago due to their regular pilot Sergio Perez’s positive COVID test. Hulkenberg looked decent enough in last weekend’s qualifying but could not even make the race when his car mysteriously failed to start. But this Saturday Hulkenberg wrung the neck of his Racing Point to score the third fastest lap of the day ahead of the usually superlative Red Bull of Max Vertsappen. With fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong to again prevent Hulkenberg from starting tomorrow, it should be very exciting to see how the German veteran performs and if he really does have the pace to keep Verstappen behind him and score his first ever career podium in 177 starts. Continue reading →