Tag Archives: Kevin Magnussen

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Sprint Qualifying results

Verstappen wins Sprint race at Red Bull Ring to earn P1 start in Austrian GP; Ferrari’s Leclerc & Sainz duke it out for P2 & P3

Formula 1’s gimmicky Sprint Qualifying format returned for this first time this season to set the grid for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. On a sunny day at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen converted his “pole” from Friday’s standard qualifying into a victory in the 23-lap Sprint Race on Saturday, earning the top starting spot for tomorrow’s race and 8 championship points in the process. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will line up alongside the Dutch points leader in P2, having out dueled his teammate and last week’s race winner Carlos Sainz, in a rather fierce internecine on track battle. In the event, Sainz came off second best after a series of mutual hip checks and had to settle for P3. Mercedes’ George Russell will start from P4, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton battled back from a nasty sideways shunt during Friday qualifying to take the last point available in this format in P8. Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez also had to fight his way to the front after being penalized for exceeding track limits during quali and being relegated to P13 for the start of the Sprint. The veteran Mexican ace picked his way through the field expertly in the limited laps available and ended up all the way up in P5 when the checkers flew. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon secured P6 but teammate Fernando Alonso’s car wouldn’t fire up on the grid and he will go back to P19 on the grid tomorrow, a far distance from his original P8 qualifying effort. The two Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher seem genuinely quick here and finished the Sprint in P7 and P9 respectively. Schumacher held off Hamilton for several laps before finally giving up the last point paying position to the seven-time champ’s Silver Arrow.

Top 10 finishers of the Sprint race to set the grid for tomorrow’s Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 23 26:30.059 8
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 23 +1.675s 7
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 23 +5.644s 6
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 23 +13.429s 5
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 23 +18.302s 4
6 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 23 +31.032s 3
7 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 23 +34.539s 2
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 23 +35.447s 1
9 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 23 +37.163s 0
10 77 Valtteri Bottas* ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 23 +37.557s 0

*Bottas took a new power unit after the Sprint and so will start from P20 tomorrow.

Complete Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

Complete “qualifying” results from Friday also via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. At a track where the home team and their main man Max dominate it’s an open question if the Ferraris have anything at all to challenge the flying Dutchman, as he seeks to gap his nearest championship rivals. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Britain — Results & aftermath

Superb Sainz defies team orders to earn maiden F1 win in incident-packed British GP; Perez storms back to P2 as Verstappen falters to P7; Hamilton bests Leclerc for final podium spot in wild Silverstone action

In a race that had to be seen to be believed, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz emerged form the chaos and unpredictability of Sunday’s British Grand Prix with his first Formula 1 victory. The ostensible number two man at the Scuderia defied a late post-Safety Car strategy call by the Ferrari pit wall that would have had the Spaniard act as a blocker to his teammate Charles Leclerc. Instead, having come in for fresh Pirelli Soft tires under the full course yellow on Lap 39 of this 52-lap contest at the venerable Silverstone Circuit, and knowing that Leclerc had stayed out for some inexplicable reason on his old, well-worn Hard tires, Sainz vetoed that plan and quickly made short work of his stablemate to recapture and keep the lead of a race from which he started on pole.

By the time Sainz claimed that vital first F1 win, the start seemed like a million years ago. On the opening lap on a reasonably clear and sunny day at Silverstone, there was a horror shunt between Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyou, Mercedes’ George Russell and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. With numerous drivers bogging down at the start due to many closing to do their first stint on the west grip Hard Pirellis, that led to a big shuffle in the field between the quicker cars on softer rubber and the slower runners. Gasly thought he saw an opening between Russell and Guanyu and made for it. But the door quickly closed when Russell jinked to the left, causing the front of the AlphaTauri to strike both the flanking cars rear wheels. That sent Russell into a spin but the rookie Guanyu was upended and flew into a scary barrel roll at high speed across the gravel trap, eventually hitting the catch fence with some force before coming to rest in the space between the tire barrier and the actual concrete wall behind. Wedged in as he was, the Alfa Romeo rookie remained trapped in his car for some time as the medical teams and marshals worked the problem, with Russell sprinting over to see if he could lend a hand. After what seemed like an eternity, the young Chinese driver was successfully extracted and put in an ambulance to be taken to the on site care center for further evaluation. Thankfully, it turned out that Guanyu was not seriously injured. But he, Russell and the Williams’ of Alex Albon, who was also peripherally involved in the mayhem and speared sharply into the pit straight wall, were all out of the race before the first corner had been successfully navigated. Gasly also sustained damage that would eventually end his race on Lap 28. Additionally, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda all sustained some degree of damage in that midfield melee.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Understandably, the clean up from the resultant debris field and the several stranded cars, as well as Guanyu’s extraction, required an extensive Red Flag period of about 45 minutes. Lost in all that drama was the fact that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had overtaken the pole-sitting Sainz rather easily heading into that eventful Turn 1. However, as the race was stopped before even the first sector could be completed and timed, everyone went back to their original grid positions when the contest was finally ready to restart, officially on lap 3 after a second formation lap behind the Safety Car. The second time proved the charm for Sainz, as he held off Verstappen’s deja vu challenge. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Qualifying results

Leclerc recovers from spin to set blustering final lap, earn pole in Barcelona; P2 Verstappen thwarted by engine woes, Sainz P3 on good day for Ferrari

Amidst scorching hot conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc kept his cool. The F1 points leader recovered from a spin earlier in Q3 and, after a pit stop for fresh tires, went back out and laid down an untouchable lap that earned him pole as the checkers flew to end the final quali session. The Monegasque brought some heat of his own to this very familiar Spanish circuit, blistering the track to the tune of 1:18.750, a good quarter-second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While Leclerc, who at times this season has seemed be his own worst enemy in terms of unforced errors, showed good mental fortitude to recover from his clumsy spin and hook up that splendid pole lap, Verstappen was hamstrung in his efforts to respond when his DRS failed to open during his final hot lap, robbing the Dutchman of vital speed. Once again, the Red Bull showed a disconcerting fragility but on this day, at least, Ferrari’s lead driver did not.

Behind Verstappen, Leclerc’s stablemate, Carlos Sainz, earned cheers from his countrymen in the grandstands by setting the third fastest time in Q3. That made it a very promising day for Ferrari because Sergio Perez, the Red Bull number two, could hustle himself up to no better than P5 when time expired. That enabled George Russell to sneak his Mercedes into P4 with a sterling effort in what has not been an elite car to this point. So, Russell will line up alongside Sainz on the second row come Sunday, while his Silver Arrows teammate, Lewis Hamilton, qualified a respectable P6 and will be across from Perez on the third row. This circuit does seem to suit the porpoising-plagued Mercs but it is yet to be seen if they can covert that into a much needed positive double points result tomorrow or if they can really match the race pace of this year’s big dogs, Red Bull & Ferrari,  when the lights go out.

Rounding out the top ten qualifiers, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas continued to deliver the goods for his new team by setting the seventh fastest time. And team Haas had an excellent run, with Kevin Magnussen doing yeoman’s work for P8 and P10 Mick Schumacher getting into Q3 for the first time in his young career thanks to the McLaren of Lando Norris having his best lap in Q2 disqualified for exceeding track limits. Norris’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo flew the McLaren flag with a time good enough for P9 and look for the out-of-position P11 Norris to join him in rapid order tomorrow as he fights his way to the front.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Spanish Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:19.861 1:19.969 1:18.750 12
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.091 1:19.219 1:19.073 16
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.892 1:19.453 1:19.166 16
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:20.218 1:19.470 1:19.393 14
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.447 1:19.830 1:19.420 17
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:20.252 1:19.794 1:19.512 15
7 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:20.355 1:20.053 1:19.608 18
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:20.227 1:19.810 1:19.682 18
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.549 1:20.287 1:20.297 15
10 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:20.683 1:20.436 1:20.368 18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

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

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna — Results & aftermath

Red Bull rebound, romp to dominant Verstappen-Perez 1-2 at Imola; Leclerc throws away sure Ferrari podium with late spin gifting Norris P3

After reliability woes cost them dearly in two of the young season’s first three races, team Red Bull came to Imola full of determination to put those issues behind them and enable their drivers to succeed to their full potential this weekend. By the end of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, aka Imola, on Sunday it was emphatically Mission Accomplished. After both cars failed to finish in Round 1 in Bahrain and their ace Max Verstappen also DNF’d in Round 3 in Australia due to mechanical issues, Verstappen’s car ran perfectly and he dominated this first Sprint weekend of the season. The Dutch master qualified P1 on Friday, fought back against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to win Saturday’s Sprint race and claim pole for the GP and then blistered the field for an easy win from the front on Sunday. Verstappen finished some 16.5-seconds ahead of his P2 teammate Sergio Perez, while also running the fastest lap of the race to earn the bonus point. So that made 26 points extracted from the race plus 8 for the Sprint win for a massive 34-point haul that enabled the flying Dutchman to vault back into the championship chase with his key rival this year, Leclerc. Ferrari and Leclerc also did their best to tighten things up through a series of unforced errors at the circuit named for their founder and his son, leading no doubt to brutal headlines in the Italian papers come Monday morning.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The first embarrassment for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello came on Lap 1 of the contest when the Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz and the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo collided going into Tamburello side by side. While Ricciardo was able to crawl away from the scene and restart, Sainz was beached in the gravel for the second straight race, following up his Lap 1 DNF in Australia with a Lap 1 DNF in Italy, a stunning string of disappointments for the Spaniard. While the team showed their faith in Sainz by signing him to a new 2-year contract in the weeks between the two races, it’s clear that he has got to settle down and get some results for Ferrari if they are to have a fighting shot to beat out ultra quick Red Bull for the Constructor’s title. Frankly, these serious lapses from such an experienced driver are a head scratcher and Carlos had better find his confidence and poise in a hurry.

But that wasn’t the only misfortune to befall mighty Ferrari in front of their home fans, the always passionate and vocal tifosi. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna — Sprint results

Verstappen charges back after slow start to win Imola Sprint race, earns pole for GP; Leclerc relegated to P2 after late pass; Perez recovers for P3

Formula 1’s somewhat gimmicky Sprint Race to determine the race day starting grid returned for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Saturday. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen recovered from a slow getaway at the start of this 21-lap mini-race, and eventually hunted down and passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with two to go to take the win and earn pole for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. After an interminable, rain-effected three rounds of standard knockout qualifying on Friday, which saw five Red Flag stoppages due the greasy conditions catching drivers out, the bright and sunny Sprint Saturday was at least entertaining, with good wheel-to-wheel combat up and down the field to change around the initial “qualifying” results and set tomorrow’s starting order for real. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, was able to greatly improve on his qualifying effort of P7 to take P3 in the Sprint, while Leclerc’s stablemate Carlos Sainz recovered from another unforced error that saw the Spaniard bin his Prancing Horse in Q2 in the damp on Friday and claw his way all the back to a P4 finish on Saturday. The mixed Red Bull-Ferrari front two rows provide a mouth-watering prospect for tomorrow’s opening lap, especially should rain return to Imola

McLaren had a very good day, albeit with Lando Norris losing two spots off his quali result and coming home in P5 and Daniel Ricciardo finishing where he started the Sprint in P6, which honestly seems to be where those two cars should be at this track. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas had a nice effort to take 7 and Haas had a beautiful day in northern Italy, with Kevin Magnussen continuing his run of good form since being drafted back into the team taking P8 and teammate Mick Schumacher earning his highest ever F1 grid position in P10. Alpine’s wily old veteran Fernando Alonso filled out the Top 10 of the Saturday Sprint coming home in P9. On the glass-half-empty side of the ledger, alarm bells must be ringing at the Brackley headquarters of mighty Mercedes, as the severe porpoising that has bedeviled them from the very beginning of this year’s new ground effects-dependent formula returned with a vengeance at Imola. This race could well be a write off for the Silver Arrows — George Russell only managed a P11 finish on the day, while seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was an astonishingly poor P14 when the checkers flew to end the Sprint. Four rounds into the 2022 campaign it’s beginning to look like by the time Mercedes figure out their aerodynamic woes it will be well and truly too late to compete for either title.

Here’s how the Top 10 qualified on Friday:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:19.295 1:18.793 1:27.999 22
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:18.796 1:19.584 1:28.778 22
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.168 1:19.294 1:29.131 22
4 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:20.147 1:19.902 1:29.164 21
5 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:20.198 1:19.595 1:29.202 26
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:19.980 1:20.031 1:29.742 21
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:19.773 1:19.296 1:29.808 25
8 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:20.419 1:20.192 1:30.439 23
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:20.364 1:19.957 1:31.062 25
10 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.305 1:18.990 13

And here are the results for the Top 10 finishers of the Sprint Race on Saturday:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 21 30:39.567 8
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 21 +2.975s 7
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 21 +4.721s 6
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 21 +17.578s 5
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 21 +24.561s 4
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 21 +27.740s 3
7 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 21 +28.133s 2
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 21 +30.712s 1
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 21 +32.278s 0
10 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 21 +33.773s 0

Complete qualifying & Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how the elite Ferrari-Red Bull battle plays out in the Scuderia’s back yard — and if more more rain might throw a wrench into the teams’ best laid plans!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Results & aftermath

GAME ON: Verstappen strikes back for Round 2 victory in Saudi Arabia with late pass on P2 Leclerc; Sainz P3 & unlucky Perez P4, as 2022 appears to be two-team battle between Ferrari & Red Bull

After failing to finish in Round 1 of the 2022 Formula 1 season last week in Bahrain and starting from a disappointing P4 for this Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen received not only improved reliability but also the key breaks during the race to out-duel Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and take his first win of the season. Leclerc and Ferrari had been brilliant all day, using a devious head fake that lured the pole-sitting Red Bull of Sergio Perez into an early stop on Lap 16 while Leclerc stayed out despite team radio suggesting otherwise. It proved to be the first pivotal moment of an eventful race because Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed out on the very next lap and forced the deployment of a Safety Car. That allowed the rest of the field to come to the pits for cheap stops for fresh rubber while Perez had just completed his for the full fare. When everyone had cycled through behind the Safety Car, Leclerc now led the race, with Verstappen leapfrogging both Sainz and his teammate Perez for second, while Sainz and Perez squabbled over P3 and P4 respectively. At that point, it looked for all the world that Leclerc had the best car and he seemed to lead out Verstappen fairly easily once the race went back to green on Lap 21.

But the tricky and tight Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit was not done doling out surprises on the day and after twenty-six fairly straightforward laps with the main contenders staying in lockstep the proceedings were again interrupted. First, the Alpine of a hard charging Fernando Alonso lost power and slowed to a stop just in front of pit entry on Lap 37 and then the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo followed suit in practically the exact same area a lap later. This forced the race director not only to engage the Virtual Safety Car in order to retrieve the stranded pair of cars but also to keep the pits closed this time due to their proximate location. Interestingly, by the time the VSC ended on Lap 41 Verstappen had crept a little closer to Leclerc than he was able to at race pace and now only trailed the lead Prancing Horse by just under a second, the delta necessary to activate the Drag Reduction System in the rear wing. It also set things up for a grandstand finish between the two drivers, who so far have to be seen as the favorites for this year’s championship. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia — Qualifying results

Red Bull’s Perez snatches pole from Ferrari’s Leclerc at tricky Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit; Sainz P3, Verstappen P4; Hamilton shockingly knocked out in Q1; Schumacher airlifted to hospital after vicious Q2 shunt

On an incident-filled and frankly scary Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was Red Bull’s ostensible Number Two who managed to come out on top of the timing sheets. Veteran Sergio Perez bested not only his much more heralded teammate, Max Verstappen, but also both Ferraris, the team that looks most likely to challenge Red Bull for the big prizes this season. With a rebel drone strike on a nearby oil facility yesterday sending a a wave of unease through the paddock, the simmering tension was further compounded when Haas’s Mick Schumacher lost it during Q2 and suffered a vicious shunt  Turn 10 of this very tight and tricky Jeddah Conriche Street Circuit that shot him into one concrete barrier and then across to the other side of the track and down the road for quite some ways. While the Haas was completely destroyed, the car also did its part by breaking apart at the rear, as designed, thereby dissipating energy away from the driver. So, despite the massive impact, the initial medical reports on Schumacher were all positive and he was airlifted to hospital for precautionary reasons rather than emergency ones. However, the young German, who is trying to follow in his seven-time champion father Michael’s footsteps, was preemptively ruled out for the Grand Prix and it looks like Haas will only be fielding Kevin Magnussen’s car when the lights go out for tomorrow’s race. Magnussen kept his cool after his teammate’s disturbing crash and qualified P10.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Schumacher’s accident led to a lengthy Red Flag period with just under five minutes in Q2, both for Schumacher’s painfully slow extraction from his wrecked car and then for some serious track cleanup and barrier repair at the scene of the crash site. But the marshals and race directors did yeoman’s work and were able to get Quali back underway, leading to the all important top ten shootout in Q3. Ferrari had looked the strongest on overall one-lap pace through the race weekend so far, so it was no surprise to see Charles Leclerc, last week’s race winner and pole-sitter in Bahrain, lay down the quickest lap as the seconds ticked down in the final qualifying session. His teammate Carlos Sainz slotted in right behind him by a little over a tenth on his final lap, making it a provisional Ferrari front row lockout, But Perez had other ideas. The veteran pilot drove a flawless final lap, coming nerve wrakingly close to the barriers at times, but wringing the maximum speed out of the Red Bull to earn his first-ever Formula 1 pole and beat back the Ferrari challenge for today. Interestingly, his normally superlative teammate Verstappen struggled to get his Soft Pirelli tires into their optimal operational window durning a cool and breezy night in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and the Dutch reigning world champion could only muster the fourth fastest time. So it will be Perez and Leclerc on the front row and Sainz and Verstappen on row two, which should make for a really intriguing and likely contentious opening lap in tomorrow’s GP. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Leclerc victorious in season opener, Sainz P2 in promising start to 2022 campaign for Ferrari; disastrous late double DNF for Red Bull leads to podium for Mercedes’ Hamilton, P4 for Russell

In the first race of the 2022 Formula 1 season, team Ferrari proved that its early mastery of the new ground effect-dependent chassis and new engine specs was not a fluke. The famed Scuderia from Maranello, which suffered a prolonged period of mediocrity for much of the prior turbo-hybrid era, saw a spring resurgence as their blood red Prancing Horses finished one-two in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. Charles Leclerc, who clearly was the fastest man of the weekend, earned victory after starting from the pole, while his stablemate Carlos Sainz fought hard and took advantage of the terminal failures of both contending Red Bulls late in the race to come home a happy  P2. That marked the first one-two Ferrari finish in a GP since 2019 in Singapore when Sebastian Vettel led home Leclerc. While Leclerc was relatively dominant all day, he was effectively harassed by Verstappen’s Red Bull for the lead throughout, including a ding dong, see saw battle between the two after the first round of pit stops between Laps 16 and 20. Verstappen and his team made effective use of the undercut coming in a lap earlier than then Monegasque to gain track position on Leclerc, which led to several laps of Verstappen passing Leclerc going into Turn 1 and Leclerc snatching the lead back coming out of Turn 4, where the Ferrari’s excellence in the slow speed corners neutralized the Red Bull’s straight line pace advantage. After a period of holding stations and status quo for many laps after that while Verstappen bided his time, it looked like it would be game on again between the two contenders when a full Safety Car was deployed on Lap 46 of this 57-lap contest after Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri stopped on track and unceremoniously burst into flames. It proved to be a very bad omen for other Red Bull-engined cars.

With the field now bunched up again behind Leclerc after pretty much everyone dove to the pits for the cheap stop and a switch to the high performing Soft Pirelli tires to finish out the race, Leclerc’s advantage over Verstappen was reduced to less than a second. But by the time the Safety Car tucked in at the end of Lap 50, Verstappen had been on the radio complaining about a heavy feel to the steering, perhaps having something to do with the power steering hydraulics. Leclerc initiated the restart superbly and gapped Verstappen, although the Dutch reigning world champion still seemed able to stay on the lead Ferrari’s gearbox. But Verstappen’s radio messages to and from the pit wall kept getting more fraught and there was clearly trouble brewing in the car. Sure enough, on Lap 54 something in Verstappen’s engine let go and he was quickly overtaken by most of those behind him. Verstappen wound up limping his mount to the pits but the issue was terminal and he was forced to retire. Climbing out of the car in stunned disbelief as the race stormed to its conclusion without him was a sad way to begin the defense of his first championship.

Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Leclerc snatches pole for season opener, Sainz P3 in promising start for Ferrari; Red Bull’s reigning champ Verstappen qualifies P2, Hamilton only P5 as Mercedes struggle

The real beginning of Formula 1’s latest new era yielded a multitude of surprises, as the teams put the completely redesigned cars on display for the first time in earnest during Saturday Qualifying for tomorrow’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. With a radical new set of rules changing the look and design of the cars, most notably in cutting down on the complexity of the wings and exterior aero elements for less downforce but with a renewed emphasis on ground effects to stick the chassis to the road surface in exchange, it was the first opportunity to see which teams came out of the box strong and which still had work yet to do. And the answer appears to be that Ferrari has made the biggest improvements under the new regulations and the famed team from Maranello could well be geared up for a mano a mano brawl with Red Bull and their reigning champion, Max Verstappen, for the big prizes at the end of the year. Obviously, one swallow does not make a spring, but Charles Leclerc was able to put his blood red Prancing Horse on pole under the lights at the Bahrain International Circuit, besting Verstappen’s vaunted Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull RB18 at the line by a relatively hefty .123-seconds. Confirming the potential power of the new Ferrari design, Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz was also in contain for the pole, though in the end he slotted in at P3 just barely of Verstappen’s pace. Meanwhile, the Dutch champ’s Ref Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, looked set to reprise his pivotal wingman role once again in 2022, as the Mexican veteran could manage no better than the fourth fastest lap in the face of the Prancing Horses’ rediscovered competitiveness.

The inverse of Ferrari’s resurgent good fortune was the poor debut performance of the normally mighty Mercedes new W13 chassis. With the new ground effects also come new aero headaches and Mercedes have suffered from severe oscillations, aka “porpoising”, throughput testing and in these first days of practice. While the team’s braintrust were able to dial out some of that, especially on their seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton’s mount, Hamilton could still do no better than a P5 start for tomorrow’s race. To say the least, that is an unfamiliar position for the Briton, who frankly dominated the just completed hybrid era until the ascendence of Verstappen and his controversial championship-clinching win to end the 2021 campaign in Abu Dhabi last December. Worse still for the eight-time consecutive Constructors’ Champions, their new number two, England’s young George Russell, suffered the ignominy of qualifying down in P9, about where he would normally end up in the pokey Williams last year. If that wasn’t disheartening enough, the previous Merc second banana, Valtteri Bottas, out-qualified Russell in P6 with his new team, the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo. In fact, Ferrari power looked like this first weekend’s winner already, with not only Bottas keeping his Q3 streak alive at Alfa but also Kevin Magnussen marking his return to F1 with a brilliant effort to capture P7 on the grid for perpetual back marker Haas despite battling hydraulic issues. and it was a very promising day for the Scuderia on the power plant front. On the other side off the engine equation, all four Mercedes-powered McLarens and Aston Martins failed to make it into the final qualifying round. Savvy veteran Fernando Alonso willed his Alpine Renault into P8 with a fine final effort while the Red Bull (Honda)-powered AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly struggled with overall handling rand could do no better than P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Bahrain GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:31.471 1:30.932 1:30.558 15
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:31.785 1:30.757 1:30.681 14
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:31.567 1:30.787 1:30.687 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.311 1:31.008 1:30.921 18
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:32.285 1:31.048 1:31.238 17
6 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:31.919 1:31.717 1:31.560 15
7 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:31.955 1:31.461 1:31.808 12
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.346 1:31.621 1:32.195 14
9 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:32.269 1:31.252 1:32.216 17
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:32.096 1:31.635 1:32.338 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN here in the States beginning at 11AM Eastern here in the States. Can Ferrari set the pace over the course of a full Grand Prix or will Verstappen’s superlative skills where down the Prancing Horses and deny them victory? And just how much pain will Mercedes take tomorrow as the team focuses on early season damage limitation? Look forward to seeing you then to find out how it all shakes out in the 2022 opener!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Results & aftermath

Hamilton untouchable at Hungaroring for dominant win; Verstappen recovers from pre-race shunt to take P2, Bottas P3 after poor start

Mercedes Ace Lewis Hamilton romped to victory at one of his favorite tracks on Sunday, dominating the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole and coming home over 8 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer. It made for Hamilton’s eighth career win at the Hungaroring and his second on the trot out of the first three races of this long delayed 2020 season, sending an ominous message to any other Championship hopeful that in this Mercedes Silver Arrow in this particular era, Ham is still the man to beat. With the field starting on wet weather tires due to a pre-race shower, Hamilton was unfazed and shot away from the top spot on the grid as if from a cannon. On the other hand, his teammate and only true rival due to sharing the identical superlative machinery, Valtteri Bottas, completely muffed his start from P2, very nearly jumping it and then bogging down once the lights really did go out. Bottas struggled for grip and was overtaken by both Ferraris, the overachieving Racing Point of Lance Stroll and, most crucially, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The Flying Dutchman, who qualified poorly in P7 and then spun into the barriers on the wet warm-up lap, necessitating a heroic  effort by his mechanics to the front end on the starting grid, remarkably had clawed his way all the way up to P3 by the end of the first flying lap.

Pics courtesy Grand Prix247.com

With the track drying quickly, though, and the clouds looking threatening but producing no more rain it was quickly apparent that everyone should ditch the wet weather tires ASAP. Continue reading →