Tag Archives: Esteban Ocon

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

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

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

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

Top 10 qualifiers for the Saudi Arabian GP:

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

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

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

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Qatar — Qualifying results

Hamilton blisters field for pole at inaugural Qatar GP; Verstappen P2, Bottas P3 while rest of grid jumbled by unpredictable results at Losail

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton gave his very best effort to keep his title hopes alive and the momentum going after last week’s win in Brazil by laying down an untouchably fast lap in Saturday Qualifying, seizing the pole position for tomorrow’s inaugural Qatar Grand Prix. With the entire field coming to grips with the first time use of the Losail International Circuit for a Formula 1 race, Hamilton proved to be the fastest learner in the bunch, setting a track record 1:20.827 time, some .455 seconds faster than his closest competitor, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. It was a fairly whopping advantage in Formula 1 terms that earned Ham the Man his first pole since way back in Round 11 at Hungary and sees him peaking at the right time as the season rushes to its conclusion. With only three races remaining in the 2021 campaign including tomorrow’s final leg of a grueling, multi-hemisphere triple header and Hamilton trailing Verstappen by 14 points in the Drivers’ standings, victory will be crucial for the legendary English pilot if he is to secure his unprecedented eighth world title and hold off the Dutch wunderkind who is more than a little hungry to score the first of his already impressive career.

While the second Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas did his part for the team by setting the third fastest time, thereby putting him in a position to harass Verstappen from behind and support Hamilton’s quest for victory in tomorrow’s race, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez struggled mightily at Losail. Despite having raced here back in his GP2 days, Verstappen’s Mexican wingman was unceremoniously bounced out of Q2 with only the eleventh fastest time. While this will give Checo and the team some extra tires and strategic options, starting from P11 with a ton of competitive cars in front of them can hardly be what they were hoping for on the day. In fact, perhaps due to the unfamiliarity of the circuit, there were numerous unpredictable qualifying results up and down the field. Continue reading →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Turkey — Results & aftermath

Bottas excels in dominant win at wet Turkish GP; Verstappen P2, Perez P3 on good day for Red Bull; disgruntled Hamilton settles for P5 after questionable late pit stop

Mercedes’ number two driver Valtteri Bottas, who has endured such a difficult season that the team decided not to bring him back for next year, showed his quality by taking a dominant victory at the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday. With the conditions at the Intercity Istanbul Park circuit very challenging throughout the race due to consistently drizzly and humid conditions that ruled slick tires out entirely, Bottas managed his Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires masterfully, converting the pole position he inherited due to teammate Lewis Hamilton’s 10 grid-spot engine change penalty into a dominant win ahead of the two pursuing Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. While Bottas bested P2 Verstappen by over 14.5-seconds and also nabbed the bonus point for the day’s fastest lap, it actually turned into a fine day for the Dutchman and team Red Bull as a whole. Not only did he get his second second place in-a-row but wingman Perez was somewhat gifted his P3 after a controversial late call by the Mercedes braintrust to pit Hamilton for a fresh Inters on Lap 51 of this 58 lap contest. Hamilton, who started down in P11 on the grid after the penalty but had fought his way all the way up to P3 by that point with a slew of determined passes, had been lobbying to stay out and run to the end on his original set of Inters. But the team instead he box and when he emerged from the pits and found himself behind Perez and also Leclerc once again the English seven-time champion was vociferously displeased with the strategy call and repeatedly questioned the wisdom of the move.

Presumably, the Silver Arrows brain trust were looking to cover a late cloudburst that would have rendered Hamilton’s nearly bald original Inters useless in standing water. But the end realist was Hamilton having to fight through the predictable graining period of the treaded Pirellis without enough laps remaining for them to return to their best performance. He could never threaten the P4 Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in front of him to advance his position as the laps ran outand had to settle for holding off Pierre Gasly’s rapidly closing AlphaTauri and coming home P5. While it was decent damage limitation on a day when he started outside the points, Hamilton will no doubt be grilling the team on their strategy call and the fact that it had net result of Lewis ceding the championship lead back to Verstappen by six points with six races left in the season.  So while it was a good day in the abstract for Mercedes, who finally got a strong showing from Bottas with his win and a decent points haul from Hamilton after chosing to take the hit and change his power unit, it somehow still felt a bit less than fulfilling due to Hamilton’s bitter disappointment with the team’s tire tactics. On the other hand, Red Bull were well pleased with their double podium results on the day when it was clear that they didn’t have the race pace to challenge Mercedes for the win. With the rounds dwindling to a mere half dozen, it will be all to play for at the next race in the USA at COTA in two week’s time.

Pics courtesy GRandPrix247.com

Not only did Leclerc have an excellent race by securing that valuable P4 for Ferrari but the Scuderia got the bonus of a spectacular recovery effort by Carlos Sainz, who started from way back in P19 due to his own engine change penalty but made a passel of passes to fight all the way back up to a P8 finish. It was easily one of the Spaniard’s best efforts on the year, if not career, and shows that if the engineers at Maranello can get next year’s chassis and engine up to snuff they have a driver combo that can potentially compete with any other duo on the grid. Gasly also did well by AlphaTauri to take that P6 just behind Hamilton, though the Frenchman and his team will be wondering what might have been if he hadn’t been handed a rather harsh 5-second penalty for contact with Fernando Alonso on the opening lap that looked pretty much like a standard racing incident. Lando Norris, who had to recover psychologically from his heartbreaking experience in Sochi two weeks ago, was the only McLaren in the points after finishing P7 at a circuit that simply did not seem to suit their papaya-colored cars due to an abundance of long, medium speed corners. With Ferrari hot on their heels for third in the all important Contructors title, McLaren will be hoping for a better fit when they unload in Austin. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who seems to excel in these sorts of mixed weather conditions, did well again to finish in P9, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who ran the entire race on one set of Inters, held on to P10 for the final points paying position.

Top 10 finishers of the Turkish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 58 1:31:04.103 26
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 58 +14.584s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 58 +33.471s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 58 +37.814s 12
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 58 +41.812s 10
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 58 +44.292s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +47.213s 6
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 58 +51.526s 4
9 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 58 +82.018s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 57 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time — the return of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas after a year’s hiatus due to COVID. Hamilton will be positively champing at the bit to get back on track and put the disappointment of today’s events behind him. Verstappen will be looking to keep and expand his lead in the points with his first F1 title so close he can almost taste it. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Russia — Qualifying results

Norris earns surprise pole at Sochi in wet conditions; Sainz takes P2, Russell P3; Hamilton falls to P4 after late crash entering pits

With Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton’s chief rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, doomed to start last or nearly last in tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix due to not only the Dutchman’s penalty for crashing into Hamilton two weeks ago at Monza but also his team’s decision to swap out Verstappen’s engine at track that doesn’t really suit them, Hamilton was looking to grab pole at the Sochi Autodrom and set himself up for maximum points for the race. However, the weather and a rare unforced error by the seven-time World Champion put paid to that plan. Somewhat stunningly, Hamilton found himself with only the fourth best time on the day, a fast lap he had set early in the final quali session while on the Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires after a day of rain here on the shores of the Black Sea. But the rain had stopped for long enough and the track had dried to such an extent by the start of Q3 that other team’s gambled on switching to slick tires in an effort to achieve a superior time to the one Hamilton set on the Inters. Williams’  George Russell was the first to commit, followed very shortly by all the other non-Mercedes drivers. And while at first it did not appear the risk was worth the reward, the circuit continued to improve and a true dry line had formed as the time wound down in Q3. That saw the Mercedes pit wall make a somewhat tardy call to bring their boys in and match the others’ strategies by throwing on some Soft Pirellis, too. However, Hamilton badly botched his pit entrance for the change, smacking the wall at pit in hard and essentially snapping his front wing in half. Not only did the team have to take much longer time than anticipated to give Hamilton a new wing but it also backed up his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who had to wait until those repairs to the team leader were made. By the time the Mercedes duo reemerged, the other runners had been able to get their tires heated up properly with several consecutive laps, something the two Silver Arrows no longer had the time to do.

This redounded to the benefit of several drivers not named Hamilton, as the normally superlative English hot shoe spun off track when trying to get something out of his cold tires and his earlier time on the treaded wet weather tires would have to be the one that stood. It only ended up being good enough for P4 on the grid, as first Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and then McLaren’s Lando Norris and Russell overhauled him. Continue reading →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

MADNESS AT MONZA: Ricciardo wins, Norris second for shock McLaren 1-2; Hamilton and Verstappen take each other out mid race; Bottas salvages P3 for Mercedes after Perez penalty

In a stunning result for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, beleaguered McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo shocked the Formula 1 paddock by passing the pole-sitting Red Bull of Max Verstappen when the lights went out to start the race and somehow held on to take the win when the full 53 laps of this classic contest at Monza had been run. Better yet for the team, their second car, driven by the talented young Englishman Lando Norris, was able to keep pace with his older teammate, tucking in right behind Ricciardo to cross the line in P2 as the checkers flew. So, not only was it the completely rebuilt team’s first victory since 2012 but that made it the first 1-2 for McLaren since back in 2010 when Lewis Hamilton was still driving for them, and Ricciardo’s first win since 2018 when he was Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull. A truly amazing renaissance for the Aussie in Italy!

Meanwhile, behind the top two papaya colored McLarens the slow burning antagonism between this season’s top two championship contenders came to an unfortunate and dramatic new inflection point. With Verstappen and his chief rival for the drivers’ title, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, splitting their tire strategies to start the race, Verstappen pitted first on Lap 24 to doff his initial set of Medium Pirelli tires in favor of the Hards. But it was an uncharacteristically awful start for the normally crisp Red Bull pit crew when a problem either with the gun or the nut of the right front led to a whopping 11 seconds stationary for the Dutchman instead of the usual 2.5-3 seconds. After already losing the lead to the hard charging Ricciardo on the opening lap, that left Verstappen fuming even more as he rejoined down in P10. Meanwhile Hamilton, who had started on the Hards, pitted two laps later for fresh Mediums, ostensibly giving him the performance advantage for the remainder of the race. But Hamilton’s stop was also on the slow side, some 4-seconds, which combined with Verstappen’s incredibly slow stop, saw Hamilton reemerge from the pit lane behind Norris and nearly alongside Verstappen, who was streaking down the start-finish straight.

With Hamilton leading into the Turn 1 chicane complex by half a car, Verstappen tried to stuff his Red Bull into the tightening radius of the curves. Hamilton didn’t give a millimeter and Verstappen wound up plowing through the big sausage curbs at the edge of the chicane, launching his Red Bull directly on top of Hamilton’s Silver Arrow. Thankfully the Halo device once again did its job and showed its merit, because the full weight of the Red Bull landed on top of the Mercedes’ roll hoop and cockpit area, cracking the floor of Verstappen’s mount in a fierce spray of carbon fiber. Verstappen’s rear will did appear to make contact with Hamilton’s helmet but thankfully the Halo deflected any more serious impacts and both drivers emerged unscathed. Their races, however, were shockingly over in that instant, with Verstappen netting only two points on the weekend in Italy due to finishing second in Sprint Qualifying on Saturday and Hamilton getting exactly zero on a day when he had the pace to perhaps challenge for victory. Verstappen now leads Hamilton by 5 in the Drivers’ in a a rivalry that has officially reached the boiling point with a planned eight more rounds to go. For those who’ve wanted a return to the good old days of Prost versus Senna, it appears those dreams of fierce conflict are coming true in the season long Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry. All eyes will surely be on these two fiery competitors when racing resumes in Russia in a fortnight to see just what happens next.

That elite double DNF left it to both team’s number two drivers to salvage what they could on the day. While Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who was officially jettisoned from the team for next season just this past week, did yeoman’s work to drag himself up from the rear where he was forced to start due to a host of engine component change penalties, the Finn finally found himself bogged down at P4 and trailing the lone surviving Red Bull of Sergio Perez. While it looked like Bottas had finally overtaken Perez on Lap 43, the Red Bull was able to fight back and retake the position when Bottas overcooked the move just a little too much. But Perez was assessed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and then gaining an advantage during an earlier pass by the Mexican on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. That meant that in the end Bottas was elevated to P3 and the last spot on the podium after his remarkably good recovery drive and Perez was demoted to P5 behind Leclerc, who also benefitted greatly from the failure of Verstappen and Hamilton to finish. Carlos Sainz slotted in at P6, making it a good enough day for Ferrari in front of their home fans, but perhaps a little less than totally pleasing, as they watched McLaren, their closest rival in the Constructors’ Standings, grab a terrific haul of points with their spectacular 1-2 finish.

Lance Stroll came home in P7 in his Aston Martin, the two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were P8 and P10 respectively and George Russell, who will leave Williams for Mercedes next year, finished in P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 1:21:54.365 26
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +1.747s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +4.921s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +7.309s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.723s 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +10.535s 8
7 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +15.804s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +17.201s 4
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +19.742s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 53 +20.868s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time, the Russian Grand Prix from the visually stunning Sochi Autodrom on the Black Sea.  Look forward to seeing you then to find out how Verstappen and Hamilton recover from their latest contretemps!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

DUTCH TREAT — Verstappen earns dominant win in F1’s return to Holland to the delight of delirious Dutch fans; Hamilton second best  on the day; Bottas a distant P3

Red Bull’s Dutch phenom Max Verstappen drove to a dominant win from pole on Sunday, earning a relatively easy victory at his home race in the return of the Netherlands Grand Prix at Zandvoort after an absence of some 36 years. In front of packed grandstands set amongst the dunes of this seaside circuit that were filled mostly with his raucously enthusiastic orange-clad countrymen, Verstappen drove away from the P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out to start the race and never really looked back. He managed his tires brilliantly to maximize a one-stop strategy and eventually came home nearly 21-seconds up of the second place Hamilton after some late strategic miscues by the Mercedes pit wall allowed their number two driver Valtteri Bottas to make a late second stop for fresh Soft Pirellis and threaten Hamilton’s extra point for fastest lap. Hamilton and the team gave up on any chance of victory by pitting on Lap 71 of this 72-lap contest and then Hamilton salvaged that extra point by setting the fastest time on the final lap of the race. Still, with Verstappen’s two consecutive wins on the trot, including last week’s half point effort in the washout at Spa, the Dutchman is back into the lead over Hamilton for the Drivers’ World Championship by a slim 3 points. So, even though the two title contenders never really mixed it up on track at Zandvoort, such was Verstappen’s pace advantage over Lewis on the day, this is the kind of nip and tuck title battle between drivers on rival teams that Formula 1 fans have been clamoring for for years now. And certainly the throng of deliriously happy Dutch fans were thrilled with their man Max, who is singularly responsible for this race being back on the schedule after a decades-long hiatus, and will not be complaining about any aspect of Sunday’s contest even if his victory seemed preordained.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Bottas, who is likely out at Mercedes for next season in favor of Williams’ George Russell, it was another frustrating day being forced to play the loyal wingman to Hamilton instead of competing for his own prizes. At first deploying Bottas on a longer first stint than the top two in an effort to push Verstappen back into Hamilton’s clutches, when that didn’t really work the late call for fresh rubber on Lap 68 was made to protect the Finn from any kind of tire failure and preserve his number three position in the race. But when the team ordered him to dumb down his fast laps to preserve Hamilton’s extra point he was once again reminded where exactly he ranks within the Silver Arrows hierarchy. While he held on to that valuable P3 when the checkers flew, it must have been a bittersweet feeling for Bottas to say the least, especially as he appears to be exiting the team at the end of the year, But for Mercedes, their eventual two-three result was ultra-valuable in the all important Constructors’ fight with Red Bull. For while Red Bull’s number two Sergio Perez battled back gamely from a pit lane start after a poor qualifying and subsequent engine change, he could only fight his way up to a P8 finish worth just four points despite making what seemed like twenty passes along the way. The respective final results for the teams saw Mercedes leading Red Bull by twelve points in the Constructors’ after this thirteenth round of the Championship was done and dusted in Holland.

AlphaTauri’s impressive Pierre Gasly was the best of rest on the day, finishing a lap down on the top three but still a very solid P4 after a mostly lonely race running all by his lonesome. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc did try to catch up to Gasly as the laps wound down but ran out of time and placed in P5. Worse still for the Scuderia, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was able to pick off the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz on the final lap on fresher Hard Pirellis, nicking P6 and relegating Sainz to P7. Ferrari will be hoping for better results at their home circuit of Monza next weekend but its hardly a given they will actually have the straight line speed to contend for the podium places against, say, McLaren or Aston Martin. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon came home in P9 and Lando Norris was able to work his McLaren into the last point paying position in P10 after starting from an uncharacteristically poor P13 on the grid.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 72 1:30:05.395 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +20.932s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 72 +56.460s 15
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 71 +1 lap 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 71 +1 lap 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 8
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +1 lap 6
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +1 lap 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 2
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed that is Monza. Hamilton and Mercedes will be hoping the long straights there suit their car better than the tight twists of Zadvoort did, while Verstappen and Red Bull will simply be trying to keep their mojo working and the Silver Arrows in their rear view mirrors. Hope to see you then for all the action from Italy!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD — Verstappen seizes pole for the return of the Dutch GP; Hamilton bests Bottas for P2

After last week’s rainout at Spa, it was a welcome sight to see the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula 1 schedule after an absence of some 36 years. Not only was the weather at the historic beachside Zadvoort circuit bright and sunny, but the track itself was a delightful tonic to the F1 enthusiast, with its undulating, twisty topography, unpredictably banked corners and its old school gravel traps and lack of runoff areas. While many of the drivers had some experience here in the junior ranks, none had driven challenging Zandvoort in anything like Formula 1 machinery and the learning curve was steep. But Red Bull’s young Dutch master aced the test at his home circuit by laying down a blistering 1:08.885 lap time over the short 4.259 kilometer circuit and besting the rapidly improving P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton as time ran out in Saturday’s final qualifying session by a mere .038 seconds. Hamilton, who had a power unit swap earlier in Friday practice that cost him loads of track time, seemed to close the gap to Verstappen’s benchmarks rapidly as Q3 wound down and it should be a highly competitive battle between the two top championship contenders come tomorrow’s race when they line up side by side at the start.  The race itself should likely be an unpredictable one with the walls so close and overtaking sure to be a difficult and frustrating proposition and the lap times very tight between competitors.

Hamilton’s P2 lap came at the expense of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had held the second slot until the very last laps of qualifying were run. The Finn also looks to be out at Mercedes for next year, with Williams’ young, hard charging George Russell rumored to be taking his seat at the Silver Arrows and Valtteri moving to Alfa Romeo to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen. (Raikkonen will also miss this weekend’s action after testing positive for COVID-19. Longtime F1 driver Robert Kubica was brought in to replace him for the race.) Pierre Gasly continued to impress at AlphaTauri, blasting his way all the way up to P4 after being consistently fast all weekend long so far. The impressive Frenchman headed both the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who still managed solid efforts with times good enough for P5 and P6 respectively, a particularly good result for Sainz and his mechanics after the Spaniard mashed his front end into a barrier during free Practice 3 right before quali. Antonio Giovinazzi, who is also rumored to be on the hot seat at Alfa, pulled a great lap out of the bag to earn an impressive P7 on the grid. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso qualified P8 and P9 respectively, and Daniel Ricciardo was the sole McLaren to make it into Q3 and then set the tenth fastest time. Surprisingly, his normally outstanding teammate Lando Norris failed to get out of Q2 after appearing to struggle with the gusty conditions here. Look for Lando, who will start back in P13, to storm his way up into the points come race day. He won’t be the only one out of position and hunting for early passing opportunities: Vertsappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez also got caught out by rapidly evolving track conditions early on and was unceremoniously bounced out in Q1. Coming off a very poor non-points finish at rainy Spa where he crashed on the reconnaissance lap, the veteran Mexican will have it all to do tomorrow if he is to be of any help to his teammate, as he will start way down in P16.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:10.036 1:09.071 1:08.885 15
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:10.114 1:09.726 1:08.923 17
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:10.219 1:09.769 1:09.222 17
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:10.274 1:09.541 1:09.478 17
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:09.829 1:09.437 1:09.527 18
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:10.022 1:09.870 1:09.537 19
7 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:10.050 1:10.033 1:09.590 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.179 1:09.919 1:09.933 17
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.435 1:10.020 1:09.956 13
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:10.255 1:09.865 1:10.166 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 8AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With this tight and unforgiving track all but guaranteeing collisions between competitors and cars spearing off into the crash barriers, it should be an event-filled contest which could provide unpredictable results. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Results & aftermath

WASHOUT AT SPA: Belgian Grand Prix aborted due to heavy rain; Verstappen categorized P1, Russell P2 and Hamilton P3 on qualifying form; half points to be awarded

Formula 1 suffered a dismal return after the long summer break when the Belgian Grand Prix was abandoned due to heavy rains at the long and hilly Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Sunday. After trying several times over three hours to get the race going, Race Control eventually made the difficult decision to terminate the race and call the drivers into the pits for a final time on the day. Despite only running laps behind the Safety Car, half points will still be awarded to the top ten “finishers,” which mainly came down to how the drivers qualified in yesterday’s not quite but nearly as wet three rounds of Saturday qualifying. So that saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the rather anticlimactic victory today, with Williams’ George Russell earning his maiden podium by dint of his excellent effort yesterday and taking P2. The young Briton led out his potential future teammate, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, who trundled home classified in P3.

The biggest losers on the a day when F1 itself took it on the chin were Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who was set to start in P7 but who crashed out earlier on a pre-race reconnaissance lap and finished dead last in P20 after his crew scrambled to get his car back together during the delays; McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had to start from P15 due to his own qualifying shunt and the resultant 5-grid spot penalty for replacing his engine and finished there; and Mercedes second driver Valtteri Bottas, who was also serving a penalty for his part in the melee at the start of the prior Hungarian GP, and also finished out of the points in P12, certainly not the result the Finn was looking for with Russell making a strong push to take his Mercedes factory seat. Those three competitive drivers would surely have been looking to pull themselves into the points paying positions but were denied that opportunity by the uncooperative weather.

Their misfortunes really benefitted Ferrari, whose Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified P11 and P13 respectively but saw their positions elevated to P8 and P10 through the various misfortunes of others by the time the race was called off. Further up in the field, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren earned P4 with his sterling quali effort, Sebastian Vettel saw his Aston Martin classified a solid P5 and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly came home in P6. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in P7 and Williams Nicolas Latifi in P9 rounded out the Top 10. Latifi’s points result also made it a banner day for team Williams, which along with Russell’s freak podium, made for a much needed shot in the arm for the storied F1 team that has really been scuffling for the last several years.

Top 10 finishers of the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1 0:03:27.071 12.5
2 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1 +1.995s 9
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1 +2.601s 7.5
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1 +4.496s 6
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1 +7.479s 5
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1 +10.177s 4
7 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1 +11.579s 3
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1 +12.608s 2
9 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1 +15.484s 1
10 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1 +16.166s 0.5

Complete race results, such as they are, available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, the return of the Dutch Grand Prix from the legendary dunes of the Zandvort circuit after an absence of 36 years. Let’s hope the weather cooperates in Holland after such a disappointing weekend in Belgium — and hope to see you then for some actual racing!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes pole in wet conditions at Spa, denying overachieving P2 Russell; Hamilton settles for P3; promising Norris crashes out in lurid Q3 shunt at Eau Rouge

Formula 1 returned from the long summer break and arrived at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium with a bang — a bit too literally for McLaren’s talented young driver, Lando Norris. On a consistently wet day in the Ardennes, the rain picked up between the second and third qualifying sessions and Norris found himself running a hot lap early in Q3 that only lasted as long as Eau Rouge. His McLaren twitched in the standing water there and when Norris attempted to correct he lost control of his mount and spun violently into the tire barriers, destroying the car. Norris appeared to injure his left arm in the violent shunt but was otherwise unscathed when he finally emerged from his wrecked chassis after a tense few moments. Just like that, one of the main contenders for pole at the Belgian Grand Prix was out of the running and Norris will also likely have to start from the pits tomorrow after the crew spend the night rebuilding his car.

After a long Red Flag delay to clean up the track, the remaining nine drivers and their teams scrambled to figure out how best to deal with the weather, which thankfully lightened up during the pause, though it was certainly still wet. As time ran down in the stop-start Q3, everyone decided that Intermediate wet tires were worth the risk and at first Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton set a time that appeared fast enough to claim pole. But the circuit continued to improve and, surprisingly, it was the Williams of George Russell who displaced the seven-time champion Hamilton from that top spot by several tenths as time ran out in the final quali session. When Hamilton was unable to better Russell’s mark on his final attempt, it looked like the younger of the two Englishman might earn a flukey but still joyous first career pole. But Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had other ideas. With the bitter taste of his collision-affected P10 at the last race in Hungary still fresh in his mouth and plenty of time to brood about it during the long break, the young Dutch Master hooked up his final lap beautifully and dashed Russell’s pole dreams, besting the Briton by a shade over three-tenths. Nevertheless, Russell was still elated to earn his first front row start in F1, as were Wiliams after a long slog back to respectability, and he will line up in P2 across from Verstappen to start tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Hamilton had to settle for the third best time and Norris’s McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed to be nowhere earlier in qualifying, excelled as the sessions wore on and earned a much needed solid P4 starting spot for himself and the shaken team. Cagey old veteran Sebastian Vettel, who had been calling for a Red Flag prior to Norris’ shunt and was livid with the race directors after the crash, still kept his head together enough to pilot his Aston Martin to the fifth fastest time on the day. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also did well in the wet and will line up alongside Vettel on the third row in P6 on the grid. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez could only manage a time good enough for P7 but he still bested the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who not only qualified down in P8 but will be pushed back 5 spots on the grid due to his culpability for running into Verstappen at the Hugaroring on the opening lap. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, the shock winner of that contentious Hungarian GP, set a P9 time but will slot in at P8 on the grid for tomorrow’s contest due to Bottas’ penalty. That is exactly the starting spot Ocon had in Hungary when he drove to victory so the Frenchman may be feeling that he has the rest of the field right where he wants them.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:58.717 1:56.559 1:59.765 20
2 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:59.864 1:56.950 2:00.086 24
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:59.218 1:56.229 2:00.099 22
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 2:01.583 1:57.127 2:00.864 22
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 2:00.175 1:56.814 2:00.935 23
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 2:00.387 1:56.440 2:01.164 23
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:59.334 1:56.886 2:02.112 22
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:59.870 1:56.295 2:02.502 22
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 2:01.824 1:57.354 2:03.513 23
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:58.301 1:56.025 DNF 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With more foul weather forecast at Spa for Sunday it could be another crazy race result in a season full of them. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Results & aftermath

Alpine’s Ocon earns shock victory in Hungary after first lap melee takes out five top contenders; Vettel finishes P2 for Aston Martin but DQ’d for fuel violation; Hamilton fights back to take P3 after early strategic error by Mercedes; Verstappen salvages P10 on disastrous day for Red Bull

Just a little bit of rain before the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix was enough to soak the Hungaroring and lead directly to a thoroughly scrambled race with some of the most unexpected results in a Formula 1 contest seen in years. With all the runners starting the GP on Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires, the die was cast for massive unpredictability when Mercedes number two man, Valtteri Bottas, perhaps trying to make up for a poor start that saw the Finn lose several spots when the lights went out, badly misjudged his breaking point going into Turn 1 and plowed into the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris. That set off a chain reaction of mayhem and collisions amongst several top contenders that led to the retirement of not just Bottas and Norris but also the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll when all were mauled too badly to continue. And while pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was unaffected by his teammate’s blunder, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was not so lucky, as he was smashed into by Stroll when the Canadian attempted to reenter the track after taking evasive action prior. That led to major damage to Verstappen’s floor and barge board that was not able to be fully repaired even in the prolonged Red Flag period for cleanup that followed that massive first lap shunt, badly compromising the Dutchman’s race pace thereafter.

Meanwhile, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who started in P8 and P10 respectively, danced their way through the carnage and were able to emerge unscathed with the wreckage in their rearview and only Hamilton in front, with Ocon ascending to P2 and Vettel to P3 when first the Safety Car was deployed and then the race halted for the Red Flag. After the debris field had been cleaned up, Hamilton led the field back to the grid for a standing restart at the end of Lap 3. But the Englishman found himself starting completely alone on the track because the entirety of the other fourteen cars still able to participate dove into the pits to get off the wet tires and onto slicks, as the circuit had dried sufficiently for that maneuver and no more rain was forecast on the day. It was a bad miscalculation by the Mercedes brain trust, perhaps aggravated by the ban on team comms with the leader during the formation lap, because Hamilton was forced to plod around for an extra lap before he could get his own slick Medium Pirellis, while the entirety of the field zoomed around on that fresh racy rubber. By the time Hamilton emerged form the pits, the erstwhile race leader found himself dead last in P14 (Haas’ Nikita Mazepin having been taken out of the race by a pit lane collision with the unsafely released Alfa of Kimi Raikkonen). That strange strategic error by the usually nimble Mercedes pit wall saw Ocon take the lead of the race with only Vettel within shouting distance of the Frenchman. With Hamilton having it all to do to claw his way back into contention, Ocon controlled the race masterfully at the front and his Alpine team also aided him with a sterling pit stop at the end of Lap 37 nearly a second quicker than Vettel’s the lap prior. That proved to be the decisive edge that Ocon needed and the 24-year-old Frenchman was able to keep the 34-year-old and four time champion Vettel behind him until the very end no matter how much pressure the German veteran applied. When the checkers flew, Ocon took was 1.859 to the good ahead of Vettel to earn a stunning maiden Formula 1 victory that no oddsmaker would have given you 100-to-1 on at the beginning of the day.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

To make matters even more frustrating for the already frustrated Vettel, his Aston ran out of fuel on the cool down lap and then was unable to provide a liter’s worth of gas to the FIA, as required. Therefore, Vettel was disqualified and his terrific P2 result nullified. That meant that Hamilton, who fought like crazy, particularly with Ocon’s Alpine teammate, Fernando Alonso, in real multi-lap, wheel-banging ding dong battle, to will himself up to a P3 podium spot despite feeling dizziness and fatigue during the contest, was then promoted to P2 and earned 18 championship points, a net of three extra points due to Vettel’s infraction. Meanwhile, Verstappen struggled to make headway against normally inferior competitors in his badly damaged Red Bull and could only make it back up to P10, earning an addition point due to his promotion after the race. Continue reading →