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2026 F1 Grand Prix of China — Qualifying results

Antonelli makes F1 history as youngest ever pole-sitter in Shanghai; Russell overcomes gremlins to grab last-second P2 for early favorites Mercedes; Hamilton P3, Leclerc P4 for next best Ferrari

In a dramatic final session of Saturday qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, newly mighty Mercedes needed to deploy all of their technical and strategic expertise to both salvage their veteran driver’s Sunday starting position and maximize their junior driver’s best efforts. With what is clearly the virgin season’s best car, last week’s race winner George Russell, who was also victorious in the Sprint race earlier in the day, faced Q3 gremlins that threatened to put him at the bottom of the Top 10. But the team brilliantly got him out of the garage and back onto the track with just enough time for one flying lap. Meanwhile, teammate Kimi Antonelli had already laid down a blistering benchmark provisional pole lap immediately prior to Russell emerging from the pits at Shanghai International Circuit, daring his teammate and any other challengers to better it. While Russell couldn’t catch his Silver Arrows stablemate with his last desperate attempt, he did manage a fantastic nail-biting flier that vaulted him from “No Time” to P2 for Sunday’s grid. Meanwhile, Antonelli hung on in the face of Ferrari’s and McLaren’s best efforts to become Formula 1’s youngest ever pole-sitter, the 19-year, 6-month-old Italian besting the great Sebastian Vettel’s previous record of 21-years and two-months set at Monza back in 2008. The acid test for Antonelli, though, will be a clean getaway from that historic pole when the lights go out on Sunday. The young star has struggled mightily in both race starts under the new format, with another extremely slow start in the Sprint, where he started from second but finished in P6 as a direct result of bogging down again.

Despite looking feisty all race weekend, Ferrari found themselves in the familiar for 2026 runners up role to the Mercs, with Lewis Hamilton besting teammate Charles Leclerc P3 to P4. McLaren have clearly been working very hard and showed improvement since the opener in Melbourne, closing the gap even while still trailing the top two teams. Oscar Piastri claimed P5 on the grid for the Papayas ahead of P6 Lando Norris. The Alpine of Pierre Gasly made his own statement by bettering both Red Bulls and slotting into P7, an impressive effort that relegated Max Verstappen to P8 and Isack Hadjar to P9. Those lowly quali positions show that the Red Bull braintrust have a lot of improvements to unlock to get to terms with both this new car and their new Ford engines. Haas’s Oliver Bearman took P10 with a fine effort for the competitive American midfield team.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Chinese GP:

Driver Grid Qual time
A.K. Antonelli
Mercedes

·

#12
1
1:32.064
G. Russell
Mercedes

·

#63
2
1:32.286
L. Hamilton
Ferrari

·

#44
3
1:32.415
C. Leclerc
Ferrari

·

#16
4
1:32.428
O. Piastri
McLaren

·

#81
5
1:32.550
L. Norris
McLaren

·

#1
6
1:32.608
P. Gasly
Alpine

·

#10
7
1:32.873
M. Verstappen
Red Bull

·

#3
8
1:33.002
I. Hadjar
Red Bull

·

#6
9
1:33.121
O. Bearman
Haas

·

#87
10
1:33.292

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Sunday’s race airs live beginning at 1 AM  Eastern exclusively on Apple TV here in the States. Whether you pull the all-nighter or catch up with the race with an Apple TV replay on demand after a good night’s sleep, Round 2 of Formula 1’s new era will surely be worth a watch to see how the teams are improving and getting to grips with these very tricky and brand new hybrid machines. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Mexico City — Results & aftermath

Norris dominates scrappy Mexico City GP to retake championship lead; gritty Leclerc holds off Verstappen for second place; Piastri does damage limitation coming home P5

McLaren’s Lando Norris capped off a picture perfect weekend with a dominant victory at Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, vaulting himself back into the championship lead ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri by a single point. In a scrappy contest on a very hot and dusty Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez that saw multiple drivers struggle to keep their cars on the circuit when pushing ten-tenths, Norris reigned serene and supreme, capitalizing on his pole position and then running away to the tune of an over 30-second advantage over the second place Ferrari of Charles Leclerc when the checkers flew. Piastri was able to somewhat limit the damage to his championship aspirations, despite the psychological blow of relinquishing the lead to Norris, by improving on his poor P7 starting position to come home in P5. While Piastri  maximized his race pace to work his way by both Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell late in the going en route to that fifth place result, the young Aussie ace could not quite find a way past impressive Haas rookie, Oliver Bearman, who held off the McLaren to finish a career high P4. Piastri was also hindered by a penultimate lap Virtual Safety Car due to the stricken Williams of Carlos Sainz, which did not come to an end until the last half of the final lap of this 71-lap tilt. Likewise, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was also balked by that late VSC as he pursued Leclerc/\’s Prancing Horse, and the Dutchman had to settle for P3. It was still a valuable 15-points for Verstappen after starting from P5, and kept him in the Drivers’ Championship conversation by staying within 36 points of Norris and 35 of Piastri with only four rounds remaining.

Top 10 finishers of the Mexico City GP:

DRIVER TEAM TIMES
1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:42.980
2. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +30.324
3. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.725
4. Oliver Bearman Haas +9.906
5. Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.110
6. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +5.772
7. George Russell* Mercedes +2.450
8. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +6.159
9. Esteban Ocon Haas +19.018
10. Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +1.399

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight, the São Paulo Grand Prix from legendary Interlagos. Norris will be looking to keep his mojo working, Piastri will be desperate to regain his momentum and Verstappen will be keen to keep the pressure on the talented but young McLaren duo. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Results & aftermath

Russell reigns supreme to take victory in Singapore; Verstappen holds of Norris for P2; McLaren claim Constructors’ Title but tensions between P3 Norris & P4 Piastri come to a head after early race contact

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Mercedes’ George Russell dominated Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, converting his pole position into an easy victory and avenging a last lap shunt here at Marina Bay Street Circuit back in 2023 that cost him a podium on that day. But it was all smiles for the British ace this year, as no one could really match his race pace and Russell controlled brilliantly from the front, masterfully managing his tires, deftly navigating a slew of back markers in the late going and leaving his closest competitors well in the rearview mirror. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the runner up over five-seconds adrift, although the Dutch Master did manage to hold off the best efforts of McLaren’s Lando Norris to secure that solid P2. Norris, who was never able to really put a move on Verstappen on this tight, difficult-to-overtake circuit despite his extreme proximity to the Red Bull’s gearbox as the race wound down, nevertheless came home ahead of his teammate and championship rival Oscar Piastri. Norris gained a position on Piastri with some aggressive maneuvers on the opening lap and then consolidated his eventual P3 finish when the McLaren mechanics botched Piastri’s only pit stop on Lap 27 of this grueling 62-lap contest to the tune of an achingly slow 5.2 seconds. All in all, it was a fairly miserable day for Piastri individually, the Aussie points leader feeling hard done by Norris’s aggressive, wheel banging opening lap pass and thereafter making his displeasure known early and often on the team radio. But the McLaren pit wall played it straight in Singapore and the team was rewarded with enough points on the day between Norris’s third place and Piastri’s P4 to easily clinch their second Constructors’ title in succession with six rounds still remaining and the tenth in the team’s illustrious history. So, Piastri had to grin and bear it for the sake of such a great occasion for the Papaya organization and their faithful fans. But going forward, and with his points lead over Norris trimmed to just 22, Piastri will no longer be playing the good soldier as he duels with his teammate for the ultimate individual prize in Formula 1 and both talented young pilots hunt for their first F1 crown.

Top 10 finishers of the Singapore GP:

POS.

NO.

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPS

TIME / RETIRED

PTS.

1

63

George Russell

Mercedes

62

1:40:22.367

25

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing

62

+5.430s

18

3

4

Lando Norris

McLaren

62

+6.066s

15

4

81

\Oscar Piastri

McLaren

62

+8.146s

12

5

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

62

+33.681s

10

6

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

62

+45.996s

8

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

62

+80.667s

6

8

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

62

+85.251s

4

9

87

Oliver Bearman

Haas

62

+93.527s

2

10

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams

61

+1 lap

1

Complete race results amiable via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight, as the teams make the long journey across the Pacific to Austin, Texas and Circuit of the Americas, the home of the United States Grand Prix and Round 19 of the 2025 season. COTA is a very different animal than Marina Bay and its long straights and high speed curves should be more suitable to McLaren than the last two street circuits. As for whether bygones will be bygones between Piastri and Norris, that’s another matter entirely. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

 

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Qualifying results

Verstappen snatches pole from two McLarens with stunning final effort at Silverstone; Piastri settles for P2, Norris P3; Mercedes’ Russell solid in P4, as Ferrari fail to follow up on practice pace

After a disappointing race last week in Austria that saw his day end on Lap 1 due to a crash that was not his fault, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded big time during Saturday Qualifying for the British Grand Prix. Proving one again that he remains the sport’s most talented pilot even in a car no other driver seems to be able to come to grips with, Verstappen laid down a final flying lap in Q3 that vaulted him ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris and onto the pole for Sunday’s race. If they want to show what a perfect lap looks like at Silverstone in the future, they can simply replay the Flying Dutchman’s sublime effort, which looked smooth and effortless en route to a blistering 1:24.892 time. Contrast that with the other contenders’ final efforts, when they knew the pressure was on to produce and the track was at it’s best, and there were small mistakes aplenty, including from P2 Piastri, who Verstappen knocked off from the top spot, and McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who had to settle for P3 and the second row after getting just that little bit too aggressive over the kerbs of the tricky final sector.

Somewhat lost in all the excitement was another fine effort from Mercedes’ George Russell, who kept it clean enough for a solid P4 time, quite a bit better than teammate Kimi Antonelli’s P7. The Italian Silver Arrows’ rookie will also be demoted three grid spots from there due to the penalty accrued from his ill advised first-lap lurch at the Red Bull Ring last week that took out not only himself but also Verstappen. Ferrari disappointed somewhat after teasing legitimate pole speed throughout the practice sessions. The Prancing Horses receded a bit come crunch time and Lewis Hamilton could only work his way up to P5, with Charles Leclerc just behind in P6, both drivers having slightly scruffy last efforts in Q3. The Ferrari faithful will be hoping that somehow their race pace will be better tomorrow than the one-lap speed in relation to the other top teams today.

Haas’s Oliver Bearman showed both his brilliance by setting a super strong P8 time and also his rookie-ness by picking up a 10-spot grid penalty for hard charging the pit lane entrance under Red Flag conditions at the end of Practice 3. Fernando Alonso got the most from his recently upgraded Aston Martin with the ninth fastest time and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also did yeoman’s work to make it into Q3 even if he could not improve on P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the British GP:

POS.

NO.

DRIVER

TEAM

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing

1:25.886

1:25.316

1:24.892

18

2

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren

1:25.963

1:25.316

1:24.995

21

3

4

Lando Norris

McLaren

1:26.123

1:25.231

1:25.010

20

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:26.236

1:25.637

1:25.029

19

5

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:26.296

1:25.084

1:25.095

19

6

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:26.186

1:25.133

1:25.121

21

7

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:26.265

1:25.620

1:25.374

18

8

87

Oliver Bearman

Haas

1:26.005

1:25.534

1:25.471

18

9

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

1:26.108

1:25.593

1:25.621

15

10

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine

1:26.328

1:25.711

1:25.785

21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 10 AM Eastern here in the States. With any of the top six having a legitimate shot at victory, it should be a compelling contest, and if the rain that didn’t come today does come tomorrow, who knows what could happen? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

Norris prevails over Piastri in chaotic Austrian GP; Ferrari gain in Constrcutors’ with Leclerc P3, Hamilton P4; Red Bull score zero at home race after Verstappen taken out by Antonelli on Lap 1, sloppy Tsunoda finishes last

A race after crashing out in a clash with his teammate in Canada, McLaren’s Lando Norris kept his cool under the hot Spielberg sun, fending off his chief rival and fellow Papaya driver Oscar Piastri to take victory at Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. In a chaotic race that saw four retirements, including the usually impervious Red Bull of Max Verstappen, Norris reestablished his championship potential by controlling the race from the front after starting from the pole, deftly weaving his way through back-markers at the very short and intense Red Bull Ring and executing a very clean final stint under pressure to earn a valuable win. Despite a late race charge by Piastri after the final round of pit stops in this 70-lap contest, Norris withstood the challenge, as his young Aussie rival and current points leader could never quite close up enough to get the DRS and find a way by. Norris’s 25-points on the day versus Piastri’s second place 18 tightened up his deficit to a mere 15-points and, most importantly, restored the young Briton’s confidence after his error in judgement in Canada. It will be game on at Silverstone next weekend, where Norris will enjoy a slight home race advantage from the fans, while Piastri will be looking to reassert his dominance over his teammate and reignite his championship campaign.

As if to drive home the point of McLaren’s absolute dominance this Grand Prix weekend, Not only did Norris and Piastri finish 1-2 but the third place Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was nearly 20-seconds in arrears when he took the checkered flag.  Still, with stablemate Lewis Hamilton slotting in at P4, it was a good day for the Scuderia in the points, especially on a day where their nearest rivals for second place in the Constructors’ had downright dismal outings. Ferrari couldn’t have drawn it up any better when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli made an overly optimistic dove bomb move on Lap 1 steaming into Turn 3. The Silver Arrow’s rear tires locked up under breaking and Antonelli slammed into the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull, ending both their races before they could even compete a single circuit. To show just how rare that DNF was, it ended Verstappen’s astonishing 31-race scoring streak, a catastrophe for the team, as Yuki Tsunoda ran a ragged race and came home P16 when all was said and done, plumb last among the surviving cars. Still, it must be noted that Verstappen put himself into jeopardy by only qualifying P7 and Tsunoda is only the latest in a long line of second Red Bull drivers who are unable to find any kind of pace in the car. So, Red Bull’s situation might be even more grave than their zero-points result in Sunday in Austria before most of their corporate brass. For Antonelli, it was a brutal comedown after scoring his first podium in Canada two weeks ago and a reminder that they don’t call them “rookies” for nothing. George Russell salvaged at least a little something on the day, finishing where he started in P5, but Mercedes still saw Ferrari overtake them for P2 in the Constructors’ one race after it seemed they were ascendent after a 1-3 in Montreal. They’ll be hoping to get back on terms when they fire the engines up again in Silverstone.

Places 5 through 10 were nothing but happy surprises and good vibes, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson continuing his rebound from his short-lived tenure with Red Bull at the start of the season by scoring his best ever F1 finish in P6. Wily old vet Fernando Alonso kept his Aston Martin out of trouble and the pursuing whippersnapper Gabriel Bortoleto behind him en route to seventh place. It was still an outstanding day for Kick Sauber, with not only rookie Bortoleto driving superbly to score his first F1 points in P8 but also veteran teammate Nico Hulkenberg adding to the team total in P9. Haas’s Esteban Ocon made it two races in a row in the points with a solid P10, no doubt helped by the slew of retirements, including both midfield-running Williams.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

POS.

NO.

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPS

TIME / RETIRED

PTS.

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren

70

1:23:47.693

25

2

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren

70

+2.695s

18

3

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

70

+19.820s

15

4

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

70

+29.020s

12

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

70

+62.396s

10

6

30

Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls

70

+67.754s

8

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

69

+1 lap

6

8

5

Gabriel Bortoleto

Kick Sauber

69

+1 lap

4

9

27

Nico Hulkenberg

Kick Sauber

69

+1 lap

2

10

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas

69

+1 lap

1

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the British GP from the legendary Silverstone Circuit, the grandaddy of them all in F1. We’ll see if  McLaren can keep pulling away from the field at a very different kind of circuit than the Red Bull Ring and, if so, whether the Piastri-Norris battle may once again lead to an internecine clash that opens the door for the other contenders. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Results & aftermath

Norris holds off Leclerc for maiden Monaco win in plodding, strategic race; Piastri P3, Verstappen P4: FIA double-pit stop rule change backfires

Formula 1 and the FIA tried to fix the age old problem of passing at the venerable Monaco circuit and avoid last year’s Red Flag-induced processional by mandating two separate pit stops for Sunday’s dry and sunny Monaco Grand Prix. It did not quite work out exactly as planned. Instead of creating more opportunities for strategic overtakes, the clever team engineers bent the procedure to their own individual goals for the race and ended up using whichever car and driver that qualified lower as a blocker for the car that qualified in the better position to create a safe window for their pit stops. This created long stretches of the 78-lap race where most of the field were running well below full speed, as drivers like Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon took turns playing cork in the bottle to the second half of the field to ensure each of them could pit twice without any real threat of being overtaken. In the end, the key to Monaco, as it almost always is in good weather, was the Saturday qualifying order. And pole-sitter Lando Norris, who also set the track record in his McLaren en route to the top starting spot, was able to survive the best efforts of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, as well as having to wade through a slew of back markers, to capture his first Monaco victory.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen did his best to put a spanner in Norris’s works by running a long and not particularly fast second stint from nominal the race lead while waiting for the penultimate lap to make his mandated second stop for fresh Pirellis. This backed Norris into Leclerc late in the going as Verstappen was simply goal hanging for a Safety Car of some sort or a Red Flag, and therefore the proverbial “cheap” pit stop.  But there were no late incidents and once Verstappen ducked in, Norris sped away from Leclerc’s Ferrari rather easily to secure the win, with the Monegasque and last year’s storybook winner settling for second place. Norris’s McLaren teammate Piastri had a bit of wild and wooly weekend in the principality, with plenty of drifting and airborne kerb-banging, but kept it clean enough in the race to bring the car home in P3. Piastri now leads in the Drivers’ championship by a mere three points over the reinvigorated Norris. Verstappen, who had nothing to lose by running  to the bitter end for his second stop due to his massive time cushion over the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, claimed P4 at the finish, exactly where he started.

While Hamilton ran a lonely and unsatisfying race after a bit of clever pit strategy early on to get him out in front of Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, his P5 was two places better than his penalty-induced seventh place start on the grid and about as much as one could expect for improvement here on the streets of Monte Carlo. Hadjar continued to impress despite ceding a spot to Hamilton early in the race on pit cycles and came home a very solid P6, with Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson also scoring for the squad in P8. Esteban Ocon secured his and Haas’s best result of the season in P7, while the Williams duo of Albon and Sainz were rewarded for their slow going shenanigans by scoring valuable team points in P9 and P10 respectively.

Mercedes had a disastrous day as their gamble on running a long first stint on Hard tires with both their cars did not pay off at all due to the slow pace of the midfield runners in front of them. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli scored exactly zero points on a frustrating day the Silver Arrows team will be keen to put behind them as they pack up for the short trip to Barcelona next weekend.

Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

78

1:40:33.843

25

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

78

+3.131s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

78

+3.658s

15

4

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

78

+20.572s

12

5

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

78

+51.387s

10

6

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

77

+1 lap

8

7

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas Ferrari

77

+1 lap

6

8

30

Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

77

+1 lap

4

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

76

+2 laps

2

10

55

Carlos Sainz

Williams Mercedes

76

+2 laps

1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time as F1 wraps up another hectic sequence of three races on the trot with the Spanish Grand Prix from the well-loved Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Hope to see you then at a much more conventional and faster race track where overtaking should at least be reasonably possible and we’re also sure see the return of only the single mandatory pit stop after this weekend in Monaco’s unintended consequences from the FIA’s fiddling.

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Monaco — Qualifying results

Norris beats Leclerc to pole in Monaco, sets track record; Piastri P3, Hamilton demoted from P4 due to blocking penalty

On the biggest race weekend of the year, with the traditional Memorial Day Weekend Sunday lineup of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca-Cola 600, Saturday qualifying for arguably the most prestigious trophy of them all took place on the fabled streets of the Principality of Monaco under perfect conditions. With the elite teams of Formula 1 posting ultra-competitive lap times on this tight and twisty temporary circuit, it came down to a final Q3 shootout between hometown hero and Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc and the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. In the end, Norris pipped Leclerc for pole by dint of setting the new lap record, an astonishing 1:09.954, ahead of the Monegasque’s seemingly impervious 1:10.063. It was quite the fillip for young Norris, who, after displaying a lack of confidence under intense pressure from teammate Piastri, has reasserted himself with his decent P2 in Emilia-Romagna last weekend and today’s impressive one-lap heroics on one of the toughest circuits on the calendar. Of course, Leclerc will be charging hard from P2 at the start of tomorrow’s tilt in an effort to execute an opening lap pass on Norris, often the surest way to victory on what is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake.

With Piastri coming up a bit short of that sterling top two and slotting in at P3, it appeared his partner in the second row on the grid would be the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. But Hamilton, who had a small shunt to end free Practice 3, was also dinged three grid spots for impeding Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during qualifying after his race engineer gave him some incorrect information about Verstappen’s pace on track. That dropped Hamilton to a difficult P7 spot on tomorrow’s grid, while Verstappen reaped the rewards and was elevated to P4 despite only qualifying P5. The Racing Bull of impressive rookie Isack Hadjar and the Aston Martin of veteran pilot Fernando Alonso also benefitted from Hamilton’s misfortune, with Hadjar being promoted to P5 and Alonso to P6 for tomrorow’s race. Esteban Ocon did yeoman’s work to make Q3 and hustle his Haas up to P8; the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson qualified a confidence-boosting P9 and Alexander Albon put his Williams in P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Monaco GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.285

1:10.570

1:09.954

27

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:11.229

1:10.581

1:10.063

27

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.308

1:10.858

1:10.129

29

4

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:11.575

1:10.883

1:10.382

28

5

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.431

1:10.875

1:10.669

21

6

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:11.811

1:11.040

1:10.923

27

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.674

1:11.182

1:10.924

30

8

31

Esteban Ocon

Haas Ferrari

1:11.839

1:11.262

1:10.942

32

9

30

Liam Lawson

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:11.818

1:11.250

1:11.129

26

10

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:11.629

1:10.732

1:11.213

34

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 9 AM Eastern here in the States. While it looks to be a Norris-Leclerc/McLaren-Ferrari shootout from the front, the second McLaren of Piastri and Verstappen’s Red Bull are sure to be in the mix thanks to Hamilton’s unfortunate penalty. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2025 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Qualifying results

Verstappen stuns McLaren duo at Suzuka with surprise pole; Norris out-duels teammate Piastri for P2; Tsunoda fails to impress after promotion to Red Bull for home race

Saturday qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix at the storied Suzuka Circuit looked for all the world like a battle for pole between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. With Norris taking victory in Piastri’s backyard to open the season in Melbourne and Piastri getting the better of Norris for the win in China two weeks ago, all eyes were on the Papaya duo to see who would emerge as the fastest qualifier. But all eyes were on the wrong team and drivers. Reigning champion Max Verstappen proved he is not ready to go gently into that good night this early in 2025, with a blistering final lap that knocked a stunned Norris off the pole and relegated Piastri to P3 and the second row. With Verstappen’s Red Bull trimmed to the limit for maximum straight line speed even though Suzuka has many more twisty bits than straights, the Flying Dutchman was able to hustle his RB21 to the tune of a track record 1:26.983, a mere one hundredth ahead of Norris. It was not only a nice moment for Verstappen after a challenging first two rounds of the season but also for Red Bull engine supplier Honda at their home circuit. However, new Red Bull Number Two Yuki Tsunoda did not fare much better on the day than most of Verstappen’s other wingman of recent vintage. The young Japanese driver, opting for a much more downforce heavy setup, ended up a desultory P15 despite the enthusiastic urgings of his countrymen in the stands. Liam Lawson, the driver Tsunoda replaced at the big team just three races into the season, out-qualified him in P14 driving his own former Racing Bull. That was probably not what Tsunoda or Red Bull had envisaged when they made the switch and this race weekend began.

Behind the elite top three, Charles Leclerc bettered by some margin his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, P4 to P8.  Mercedes’ George Russell had a fairly ragged final effort in Q3 and could not improve his P5 position when the scoring was over, while rookie Silver Arrows teammate Kimi Antonelli made impressive leaps throughout the three difficult sessions to wind up a surprisingly strong P6. Fellow rookie Isack Hadjar was able to overcome a persistently painful too-tight lap belt situation to pull himself all the way up to an quite solid  P7, while Williams’ Alexander Albon and Haas’s Oliver Bearman, yet another rookie, filled out the rest of the top ten in P9 and P10 respectively.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese Grand Prix:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:27.943

1:27.502

1:26.983

17

2

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.845

1:27.146

1:26.995

15

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:27.687

1:27.507

1:27.027

18

4

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:27.920

1:27.555

1:27.299

21

5

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:27.843

1:27.400

1:27.318

17

6

12

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes

1:27.968

1:27.639

1:27.555

18

7

6

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls Honda RBPT

1:28.278

1:27.775

1:27.569

18

8

44

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

1:27.942

1:27.610

1:27.610

23

9

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

1:28.218

1:27.783

1:27.615

20

10

87

Oliver Bearman

Haas Ferrari

1:28.228

1:27.711

1:27.867

21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.,com.

Tomorrow’s race airs overnight here in the States beginning at 1 AM Eastern Sunday morning on ESPN. With Verstappen in his preferred spot — up front and in clean air — we’ll have to see if McLaren’s long run pace can pull the Red Bull back into their clutches of if the four-time Champ is only beginning to show that he’s a serious contender to earn his fifth on the trot despite all predictions to the contrary. Hope to see you then to find out how it all plays out!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of Qatar — Results & aftermath

Verstappen cruises to victory while chaos envelopes rest of field; Leclerc earns P2 ahead of Piastri as Ferrari close the gap to McLaren

A week after clinching his fourth consecutive Drivers’ title in Las Vegas, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen showed no signs of resting on his laurels at Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix. Peeved about being penalized one grid spot for an incident with Mercedes’ George Russell during Saturday qualifying, Verstappen launched off the line like a man possessed when the lights went out to start the race. He quickly made short work of the pole-sitting Russell, exacting his desert vengeance swiftly while steaming into Turn 1. Russell also lost a position to McLaren’s Lando Norris, dropping the lead Silver Arrow down to P3 with less than a third of lap yet run. Meanwhile, there was carnage at the back of the pack, with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg losing traction and ping-ponging off Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and rookie Franco Colapinto’s Williams. While Hulkenberg was able to drive away from the accident from the large runoff area at the apex of Turn 1 with only a puncture, Ocon and Colapinto were not as fortunate and a Safety Car was deployed to retrieve both stricken cars.

It was a quick clean up and the race restarted towards the end of Lap 4, Verstappen quickly pulling a decent gap over the pursuing P2 McLaren of Norris. Once again, there was contact towards the rear, with the RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson and the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas all making contact with one another but all three also able to continue. Lawson was eventually penalized 10-seconds for causing that collision and then the stewards also busted Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton for jumping the start, earning the seven-time champ a 5-second penalty. With all of the top contenders running slightly longer on their starting sets of Medium Pirelli tires due to that early Safety Car period, Russell became the first of the top ten to pit for fresh rubber on Lap 24, perhaps feeling the heat from the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri behind him and angling for an undercut advantage. But that gambit came to less than nothing when the Silver Arrows mechanics uncharacteristically botched the stop with a sticky rear right tire, leaving Russell helplessly stationary for an excruciating 7-seconds. When Russell rejoined on his new set of Hard compound tires, he found himself down in P11, behind several ostensibly slower cars and with a lot of work to do to pull himself back into the serious points.

The race began to get downright bizarre on Lap 30 of the 57-Lap contest from Losail International Circuit when a wing mirror from Alexander Albon’s Williams fell off and lay stationary just before the end of the start-finish straight. While double yellow flags were deployed in that sector, the race director inexplicably did not deploy a Safety Car to retrieve the errant mirror and lap after lap the cars had to try and tiptoe around that dangerous bit of debris. On Lap 33, however, Bottas ran over it, sending shards of glass and carbon fiber across the track surface. On Lap 34, Hamilton and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz both sustained punctured tires as a result of running over that debris. On Lap 35, the Safety Car was finally deployed to clean up the jagged mess but it was far too late for those already disadvantaged by it. To make matters worse, Norris had failed to lift for the double yellows in that area while in hot pursuit of Verstappen a little earlier. The Dutchman immediately took notice and so too did the stewards, who soon announced they were investigating the McLaren man’s potential infraction.

When things had been cleaned up and the race restarted on Lap 39, it was once again Verstappen and Norris battling it out at the front, the Englishman getting much closer this time and running side by side with the Red Bull before backing out of the effort and living to fight another day, But once again there was trouble at the back, as the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez spun violently and ended up unable to continue, as did Hulkenberg, who got beached in one of the gravel traps. It was another terrible day for Perez, who seems more than likely to lose his Red Bull seat due to his horrid drop in form in the second half of the season, which has cost the team dearly in their hopes of repeating as Constructors’ champs. When the race restarted once more on Lap 42, Verstappen swanned away this time, while Norris found himself under attack by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. While Norris was able to hold the Prancing Horse off to maintain second place, on Lap 45 the hammer dropped and Norris was assessed a race altering 10-second stop/go penalty, which relegated him to last of the runners in P15 when he emerged from the pits. Hamilton also received a second penalty, this time a drive through for speeding in the pits earlier, adding insult to injury for the proud Englishman on a day where nothing went right for him and he would score no points.

As for Norris, he desperately tried to get back into the points, his indiscretion costing the McLaren team in their fight against Ferrari for the all-important Constructors’ Championship. Leclerc was now firmly ensconced in P2 and ended up 6-seconds behind  the victorious Verstappen when the checkered flag flew, making it a very good day for the Scuderia and the Monegasque. Russell had seemingly recovered from his disastrous pit stop when he crossed the line in P3 but was assessed a 5-second time penalty for dropping back too far from the Safety Car during its final deployment. That promoted Piastri to the podium in P3, Russell being relegated to P4 on a frustrating day for the Briton. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had a superb drive to finish a very valuable P5, making the most of the rash of retirements and woes to other points contenders. Carlos Sainz further helped close Ferrari’s gap to McLaren to an eminently manageable 21-point deficit, while Norris clawed his back in the points with a late race pass on Bottas for P10 and also set the fastest lap en route to make it a pair on a day where much more seemed to be on the cards for him. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso gave a vintage effort to finish an impressive P7 in a car that was nowhere on the straights; Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu scored his and the team’s first points of the year with an excellent drive to finish P8; and the  lone surviving Haas of Kevin Magnussen also took valuable points in P9

Top 10 finishers of the Qatar GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

57

1:31:05.323

25

2

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

57

+6.031s

18

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

57

+6.819s

15

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

57

+14.104s

12

5

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

57

+16.782s

10

6

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

57

+17.476s

8

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

57

+19.867s

6

8

24

Zhou Guanyu

Kick Sauber Ferrari

57

+25.360s

4

9

20

Kevin Magnussen

Haas Ferrari

57

+32.177s

2

10

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

57

+35.762s

2

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The 2024 season F1 finale is but a week away, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from the visually stunning Yas Marina Circuit. Hope to see you then for yet more fireworks before we draw the curtains on what has been an enthralling season of motor racing at the sport’s highest level!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of the United States — Results & aftermath

Ferrari ambush rivals in Austin as Leclerc surges to victory, Sainz P2; Verstappen holds off Norris for last podium spot to extend Championship lead

After being flummoxed and frustrated by their lack of pace in Saturday’s Sprint race and Grand Prix Qualifying, Ferrari unlocked what they thought they had all along in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at the beautiful, flowing Circuit of the Americas. Charles Leclerc came from P4 on the grid to overtake both the pole-sitting McLaren of Lando Norris and the P2 Red Bull of Max Verstappen, as well as his P3 teammate Carlos Sainz, on the exit of the steeply uphill Turn 1. Norris and Verstappen, with the tunnel vision of the two main Drivers’ Championship contenders, took their personal battle out wide there, with Norris taking evasive action into the runoff, allowing Leclerc to scamper through the open space unimpeded and instantly take the lead of this 56-lap contest on the opening lap. Verstappen recovered enough to keep Sainz at bay and maintain P2 but Norris lost enough momentum to relegate him to P4 behind the Spaniard’s Prancing Horse. The frantic action continued until not long after DRS was enabled  when Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, starting on the Hard Pirelli tires after a poor qualifying result saw him mired down in P17 on the grid, lost it heading into Turn 18 and beached his Silver Arrow in the gravel trap there. In an abrupt instant, the seven-time champ’s day came to a premature end and a Safety Car was deployed to retrieve the stricken Mercedes.

When racing resumed towards the end of Lap 5, Leclerc was just able to keep Verstappen’s charging Red Bull behind him and then attempt to build a gap from the point utilizing his SF24’s superior performance at this track. The car worked like a charm for the Monegasque and by Lap 20 he had pulled a whopping 8-second lead over the Dutch Master. The Ferrari pit wall then pulled their own successful strategy maneuver by calling in Sainz on Lap 22 for his first pit stop for fresh Pirellis, a swap off the opening-stint Mediums onto the durable Hards. The Scuderia braintrust were hoping the undercut here in Austin would be as powerful as their simulations, with Red Bull waiting until Lap 26 to pull Verstappen in. Indeed, it worked a treat for Sainz when Verstappen’s now Hard-shod car came out behind the Spaniard, Sainz having been able to put in some impressive laps on fresh rubber to build his advantage in the intervening laps. With enough of a cushion and perhaps anticipating that Verstappen might not be their main challenger this day, Leclerc came in a lap later for his own fresh Hards, emerging from the pits in P3, still ahead of his teammate and behind the yet-to-pit McLaren duo of Norris and Oscar Piastri .

McLaren continued to stay out over the next several laps, hoping that track position and running longer than their key rivals would give them the decisive fresh tire advantage in the race’s closing stanza. But when Leclerc made easy work of Piastri for P2 on Lap 31 Team Papaya new that it was time to pull the pin. Continue reading →