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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 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 →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Qualifying results

Hamilton beats Bottas to pole as Mercedes flex pace at Hungaroring; Verstappen qualifies P3

With the return to good old three-round knockout qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix after F1’s rather underwhelming Sprint Race format two weeks ago in Great Britain, the hunt for pole for tomorrow’s race was once again focused solely on one-lap pace. And with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton dueling for that coveted top starting spot after their on track collision left Verstappen out of the British GP on Lap 1 and the entire Red Bull team hopping mad at Hamilton, who incidentally went on to win, there was more tension in the air than even a normally nervy qualifying Saturday. But as the Q3 session expired with all the top contenders waiting until the last possible second to make their final runs, it was team Mercedes that outperformed team Red Bull on this day and rather comprehensively. Hamilton hooked up a near perfect lap on Soft Pirellis to grab pole with a blistering 1:15.419 time and his wingman Valtteri Bottas was very nearly as good, slotting in at P2 on the grid just a little over three-tenths slower than the pole time. Verstappen was about a tenth in arrears of Bottas and will find himself in the unfamiliar position of starting from the second row in P3, ending a run of four consecutive poles for the Dutchman. His teammate Sergio Perez could not make the line in time for a final flying lap but was still fourth fastest and will line up alongside Verstappen on the grid, which should make the opening lap more than a little interesting with the Mercedes and Red Bulls stacked back-to-back, as they will be.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly returned to form after a bit of a lost weekend at Silverstone a fortnight ago, setting the fifth fastest time and bettering the hard charging Lando Norris, who could only get up to P6 in his McLaren. That was still miles ahead of his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who got bounced in Q2 and will start down in P11. Likewise, Gasly’s AlphaTauri teammate, rookie Yuki Tsunoda, could not get to grips with the tricky and breezy Hungaroring and found himself knocked out in Q1 with just the sixteenth quickest time. Charles Leclerc will be the sole Ferrari to start in the top ten at P7 because his stablemate Carlos Sainz crashed out in lurid fashion entering the final corner on his last hot lap in Q2. The Spaniard will have his work cut out for him trying to fight back from way down in P15, as will the team in rebuilding the car overnight. On the other hand, Alpine saw both of their drivers make it into Q3 for the first time since Round 4 in Spain, with the struggling Esteban Ocon actually outpacing his double-World Champion teammate Fernando Alonso, P8 to P9. And four-time Champ Sebastian Vettel pulled his Aston Martin into P10 to line up alongside fellow wizened veteran Alonso on the fifth row.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Hungarian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:16.424 1:16.553 1:15.419 19
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:16.569 1:16.702 1:15.734 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:16.214 1:15.650 1:15.840 17
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:17.233 1:16.443 1:16.421 16
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:16.874 1:16.394 1:16.483 15
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.081 1:16.385 1:16.489 17
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:17.084 1:16.574 1:16.496 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.367 1:16.766 1:16.653 15
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.123 1:16.541 1:16.715 15
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:17.105 1:16.794 1:16.750 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race, Round 11 of the Championship., airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Can Verstappen get his vengeance on Hamilton by coming from behind to win in this final round before the month-long summer break? Or was Max’s DNF via collision with Lewis in Britain the turning point of what was looking like a Championship season? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Results & aftermath

Verstappen romps to victory in Styrian Grand Prix; Hamilton and Bottas P2 & P3, Perez P4

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was completely untouchable in the first of two consecutive races at the Red Bull Ring, easily going from pole to victory in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix in the beautiful hills of Spielberg, Austria. Verstappen handily outclassed his main championship rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by over 35 seconds to take his second consecutive victory in this second of three back-to-back-to-back races. To be fair, Hamilton did make a penultimate lap second pit stop for new Soft Pirellis that enabled him to snatch away the extra point for fastest lap from the superlative Dutchman. Nevertheless, Verstappen increased his point lead over Hamilton, the seven-time and current reigning champion, to 18 with his second consecutive victory. The dominant win at Red Bull’s home circuit also highlighted just how far the RB16B chassis has come in a year’s time, with Verstappen gapping P2 Hamilton by just about the same margin Hamilton bested him by when Max finished P3 and Lewis was victorious in the second Austrian contest in what was Round 2 of the COVID-effected 2020 season.

Despite their glaring pace deficit to Verstappen’s Red Bull, It wasn’t all bad news for Mercedes on the day, as their beleaguered number two pilot, Valtteri Bottas, was able to hold of the hard charging second Red Bull of Sergio Perez for P3 and take the last spot on the podium. The Mexican simply ran out of laps as the 71 for today’s contest were just about the maximum for Bottas to keep that valuable position and perhaps restore some much needed confidence after an extremely demoralizing stretch for the Finn. In truth, it was solid drivel around for Bottas, as he was penalized for a sort of burnout in the pots during qualifying and had to start P5 instead of P2 where he qualified. Still, with Red Bull now consistently getting solid points results from Perez, the team now carries a 40-point lead over Mercedes in the all-important Constructors’ standings after eight rounds of the championship, which is roughly a third of the season.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was once again best of the rest and finished P5, as he has so often this season. The team were content to pull the talented young Englishman out of the top four’s elite fray and just run a steady pace to bring their man home fifth. However, the results were not so good for the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, who failed to score after some sort of power issue caused the Aussie to drop like a stone just as he was making up positions early in the race and he thereafter could make no further progress, finishing down in P13. Ferrari, their closest rivals for third in the Constructors’, took full advantage of Ricciardo’s misfortune with the Prancing Horses rebounding nicely from a points shutout in France last week. Carlos Sainz overcame starting from twelfth on the grid to grab an impressive P6 finish and Charles Leclerc finished where he started in P7 but only after a lot of crazy contact with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on Lap 1 forced the Monegasque in for a new front wing. While Gasly suffered terminal suspension damage after getting a puncture out of the contretemps with Leclerc and then being ping ponged by nearly the entire field as he decelerated down the order, Leclerc went on to be voted Driver of the Day for his storming and determined performance. It was an honor that most decidedly did not receive Gasly’s vote.

Further down, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll drove solid race to take P8, Alpine’s wise old head Fernando Alonso scored his third consecutive points finish in P9 and Yuki Tsunoda salvaged a single point for Alpha Tauri in P10 on a day when the team were surely hoping for more.

Top 10 finishers of the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 1:22:18.925 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +35.743s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 71 +46.907s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +47.434s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 70 +1 lap 8
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 70 +1 lap 6
8 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 4
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 70 +1 lap 2
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 70 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and you don’t even have to make a new hotel reservation — it may be called the Austrian Grand Prix but it is at this exact Red Bull Ring next Sunday and for the same number of laps to boot. It’s doubtful that Mercedes can find the pace to challenge the supreme Verstappen here during that short window but stranger things have happened. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs second consecutive pole to line up P1 for Styrian GP; hard luck Bottas betters Hamilton for P2 but will drop 3 spots due to penalty

The ascendent Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s top driver and the current points leader in the Championship after seven rounds, scored his second pole on the trot during Saturday qualifying to secure the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Styrian Grand Prix. Six days after winning at Paul Ricard in France, Verstappen earned even more satisfaction by setting the fastest time at his team’s home circuit, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, and setting himself up nicely for potential back-to-back victories in this second race of a three-week “triple header” of consecutive contests (the third of which will be at this exact circuit next week). Verstappen got the better of both Mercedes drivers relatively easily and the day’s competition for starting spots saw Valtteri Bottas actually outclass his more lauded teammate, Lewis Hamilton, P2 to P3, after Hamilton had a very scruffy final lap in Q3. However, true to the Finn’s luck so far this season, Bottas will be penalized three grid spots for dangerous driving in the pits earlier in practice and will have to start back amongst the midfield runners in P5, elevating Hamilton to the front row alongside his archrival Verstappen.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was well off the pace of his team leader and could only set the fifth fastest time, as he saw himself bettered by the theoretically inferior McLaren of Lando Norris, who crossed the line with a flying lap good enough for P4. AlphaTauri also looked strong here in Spielberg, with Pierre Gasly setting a time good enough for P6 and the erratic rookie Yuki Tsunoda coming home eighth fastest. Tsunoda will also be penalized three grid spots, though, after the stewards ruled that the young Japanese had impeded Bottas’ qualifying efforts during Q3. Ferrari had their pace deficit exposed again since leaving the slower street circuits behind them. A week after the team scored zero points in France, Charles Leclerc was only able to muster a P7 qualifying effort, while teammate Carlos Sainz really struggled and was knocked out in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest lap. One has to wonder what the Prancing Horses will really have come race day, where they seem to be at a pace disadvantage to teams like McLaren, AlphaTauri and even Alpine and Aston Martin over the long runs.

Speaking of those latter two teams, they rounded out the top ten qualifiers, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso enjoying his day with a P9 quali effort and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll taking P10, well ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who underperformed after a run of good results and could only set a rather pokey P14 time in Q2.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.489 1:04.433 1:03.841 20
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.537 1:04.443 1:04.035 23
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:04.672 1:04.512 1:04.067 25
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:04.584 1:04.298 1:04.120 17
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.638 1:04.197 1:04.168 21
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.765 1:04.429 1:04.236 18
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:04.745 1:04.646 1:04.472 21
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.608 1:04.631 1:04.514 21
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:04.971 1:04.582 1:04.574 18
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.821 1:04.663 1:04.708 18

Complete qualifying results and the penalty-effected starting grid available via Fomula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM here in the States. With Hamilton struggling on this short little circuit and Verstappen looking dominant as he should at the aptly named Red Bull Ring, look for some early aggression on Lewis’s part to try to pull himself back on even terms with the superlative Dutchman. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen rides gutsy two-stop strategy to victory over Hamilton in France; Perez P3 with late overtake on Bottas

Red Bull’s young Dutch master Max Verstappen took advantage of his team’s mid-race decision to switch to a two-stop strategy and rode that strategic masterstroke to victory in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard Circuit on Sunday. With tire degradation much worse than anticipated, the Red Bull pit wall decided to split their strategies between Verstappen and their second pilot, Sergio Perez, running Perez several laps longer than both rival Mercedes on the opening stint, while surprisingly calling in Verstappen for a second stop and switch back onto Pirelli Mediums on Lap 33. It was a high stakes gamble by the team’s race engineers, especially after Verstappen had retaken the lead over Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton while undercutting the English seven-time champion on his initial of tire change onto Hards on Lap 19. Although Verstappen lost track position and came out P4 when he emerged from his second stop, his Medium tires would not only be 11 laps fresher than Hamilton’s when the laps of this 53-lap contest wound down but would presumably deliver a performance advantage by virtue of their also being the softer compound to Hamilton’s aged Hard tires.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

And that’s exactly how it played out in the final stage of the race. While Mercedes were forced to pray and hope that they could use their second man Valterri Bottas to hold up Verstappen’s pursuit of P1, unlike Red Bull’s savvy decision making on the day hope and prayer is not a strategy. Perez graciously allowed Verstappen by to take over P3 on Lap 35 and the hunt for Hamilton was on. By Lap 44, Verstappen made easy work of P2 Bottas, who was livid with the Mercedes brain trust for not heeding his pleas to switch to a two-stop plan of their own earlier in the race. By Lap 51, Verstappen was right up to Hamilton’s gearbox and all the joy at Lewis’ opening lap capture of the lead when the pole-sitting Verstappen overcooked Turn 2 and slid off track seemed like ancient history. Verstappen pounced on the slowing Silver Arrow of his main championship rival and overtook Hamilton easily on the penultimate lap, streaking away down the road and towards a thrilling win that boosted his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings to twelve points. While Hamilton held on for P2, Bottas suffered the ignominy of being passed for the last podium position by Verstappen’s stablemate, Perez, making it an outstanding points haul for Red Bull at Paul Ricard and a bitter pill for mighty Mercedes to swallow. Between Verstappen’s initial undercut, which earned him back the lead when he reemerged from the pits ahead of Hamilton, the decision to split strategies by running Perez longer on his opening stint and then the brilliant call to switch to a two-stopper that ended up being the winning move, Red Bull made Mercedes’ normally sharp pit wall seem flat footed and pokey all day long. Lewis will still also be kicking himself for blowing the restart two week’s ago in Baku when Verstappen had already crashed out and the chance to score big points on him evaporated in a puff of locked up tire smoke.

With Bottas a disgruntled P4, team Mclaren were the happy best of the rest on Sunday. Lando Norris rode his team’s own long first stint strategy all the way up to a strong P5 finish, while Daniel Ricciardo had arguably his best race with his new team to come home a solid P6. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was in the mix with the other midfield runners all day but didn’t quite have the pace of the McLarens and finished P7. But the impressive young Frenchman did manage to fight of veteran Fernando Alonso’s Alpine effectively and Alonso had to settle for a P8 result. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll both managed to turn super long opening stints into points-paying P9 and P10 finishes respectively. After Vettel had started in P12 and Stroll was way back on the on the grid in P19, it made for very satisfying results for improving Aston Martin when the checkers flew. On the other side of the satisfaction equation, Ferrari had a miserable race, converting Carlos Sainz’s P5 and Charles Leclerc’s P7 starts into P11 and P16 finishes respectively for a big fat goose egg for the Scuderia on the day. That will go down as well with the honchos in Maranello as a plate of buttered noodles with ketchup for lunch would at the nearby trattoria.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 1:27:25.770 26
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +2.904s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.811s 15
4 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +14.618s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +64.032s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +75.857s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +76.596s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +77.695s 4
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +79.666s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +91.946s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

With the French Grand Prix actually the first of three consecutive race weekends in a row, the next two contests on this busy part of the calendar will be on Red Bull’s home turf at the eponymous Red Bull Ring, beginning with next weekend’s Styrian GP. Hope to see you then to see if Max and his team can keep up their momentum and keep Mercedes and Hamilton on the back foot!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs pole for Red Bull at Paul Ricard, Perez P4; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Mercedes

The 2021 F1 title tilt continued to distill down to the two top drivers on the two top teams, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a DNF at the last race in Azerbaijan to grab pole at the psychedelic Paul Ricard circuit during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Gran Prix. The flying Dutchman pipped his main title rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by around three-tenths on his final flying lap in Q3. Hamilton was also seeking redemption after blowing a sure podium and perhaps victory at Baku two weeks ago when he left a break bias control on by mistake on the final restart and slid off the track and out of the points. The English seven-time champ posted a solid time good enough for P2 and a starting spot alongside Verstappen at the front of the grid, as the two resumed their back and forth battle for supremacy that seems certain to last all year long. While Verstappen and Red Bull had the one lap pace today it’s an open question as to whether they can match Hamilton’s race pace when the lights go out on Sunday.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas posted a very good P3 qualifying result and appeared positively giddy to have left the street circuits of Monaco and Baku behind. That put the embattled Finn one slot ahead of Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, who will start P4 two weeks after inheriting the victory in Azerbaijan when Verstappen crashed out late in the race with tire failure. With the front four a full on Red Bull-Mercedes mix and match, look for some intense dicing on the opening lap and perhaps one or more of the top contenders getting pushed wide on the acres of multi-colored abrasive runoff areas on this most unique and frankly strange circuit in the south of France.

Behind the elite quartet, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz bested his teammate Charles Leclerc P5 to P7. The rare subpar result  by the Monegasque also ended Leclerc’s two-race pole-setting streak. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly managed to nail his last opportunity in Q3 to set the sixth fastest lap after having his previous best effort deleted for exceeding track limits. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daily Ricciardo qualified P8 and P10 respectively, while the veteran Fernando Alonso used all of his copious experience to over-perform and drag his Alpine up to a decent P9 starting spot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.001 1:31.080 1:29.990 16
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:31.237 1:30.788 1:30.248 20
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.669 1:30.735 1:30.376 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.560 1:30.971 1:30.445 16
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.079 1:31.146 1:30.840 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:31.898 1:31.353 1:30.868 22
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.209 1:31.567 1:30.987 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:31.733 1:31.542 1:31.252 18
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.158 1:31.549 1:31.340 17
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.181 1:31.615 1:31.382 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. A week after both men scored zero points, look for a ding dong battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in this latest high speed test of their respective title aspirations. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan — Results & aftermath

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

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

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

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

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

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

Top 10 finishers of the Azerbaijan GP:

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

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

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