Tag Archives: Lando Norris

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Qualifying results

Leclerc snatches pole in Spielberg for Ferrari but Vettel misses out on Q3 with mechanical; Hamilton demoted 3-spots for Q1 infraction after running second fastest

It was an intriguing qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria on Saturday as Ferrari found superior pace on this short, high speed circuit and actually managed to put Mercedes on the back foot. Confirming the trends in practice, young Charles Leclerc pushed his Prancing Horse to the pole position for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, besting Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap in his Silver Arrow by a rather hefty .26 seconds. Worse still for Hamilton and team Mercedes the season’s points leader was demoted three places via a penalty for blocking Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in Q1. So that will give Hamilton that much more to do come race day when he starts from P5 on the grid instead of on the front row.

But, as has so often been the case this year, the news for Ferrari was not all good despite their pace advantage over the Mercs. Their senior driver, Sebastian Vettel, continued his recent run of bad luck when an air pressure line to his engine failed, denying the German the chance to run in Q3 and relegating him to a P10 start. It was exactly the sort of thing the star-crossed German did not need on a day when he should have been contending for pole against his upstart teammate, as well as sticking it to Mercedes. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas also continued to sputter, or perhaps find his true level after a deceptively strong start to 2019, when he was out-qualified by Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen, P3 to P4. Hamilton’s penalty also elevates both drivers and that means the Dutchman, who enjoyed boisterous support from his orange-clad countrymen in the stands here, will start on the font row alongside Leclerc. Watching those two young guns duke it out as they race away from the starting line could be worth the price of admission by itself, especially as the Ferrari will run its opening stint on Soft Pirrellis while the Red Bull will be on the Mediums.

Kevin Magnussen gave scuffling Haas a bit of hope by posting the fifth fastest time but he will drop five positions on the grid due to a gearbox change penalty. Lando Norris was the only McClaren to make it into Q3 and laid down the sixth fastest lap. The two Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeos acquitted themselves very well, with Raikkonen slotting in at P7 and Antonio Giovinazzi in P8. And Verstappen’s teammate Pierre Gasly was once again miles behind him with only the ninth fastest time, which must be disappointing for the Red Bull team as well as ominous for Gasly’s future in that notoriously impatient squad.

Top 10 qualifying times for the Austrian:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:04.138 1:03.378 1:03.003 19
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:03.818 1:03.803 1:03.262 27
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:03.807 1:03.835 1:03.439 18
4 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.084 1:03.863 1:03.537 25
5 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:04.778 1:04.466 1:04.072 20
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:04.361 1:04.211 1:04.099 19
7 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:04.615 1:04.056 1:04.166 23
8 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:04.450 1:04.194 1:04.179 22
9 10 Pierre Gasly RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.412 1:03.988 1:04.199 18
10 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 1:04.340 1:03.667 9

Complete qualifying results — and adjusted grid — available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Ferrari’s race pace is as good as what they showed today in quali!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Hamilton romps to dominant victory in France, Bottas a distant P2; Leclerc P3, Vettel P5 as Ferrari’s hopes dim

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton was untouchable at Circuit Paul Riccard as he went on to dominate the French Grand Prix from pole and blow away the field for a dominant win on Sunday. On the hunt for his remarkable sixth F1 title the Englishman scored the Grand Slam in this eighth round of the World Championship — pole position, fastest lap, leading all race laps and the win — and aced his nearest competitor, teammate Valtteri Bottas in ostensibly the same equipment, by a whopping 18 seconds to the checkered flag. It was Hamilton’s fourth win on the trot and he has now won six out of the eight contests so far in 2019 and already leads Bottas by 36 Drivers’ points. That’s bad news for anyone hoping that either Bottas or Ferrari would take down the most dominant driver of this new turbo hybrid era, as man and machine once again look to be in perfect harmony and Hamilton is beginning to demoralize his closest rivals.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

With Bottas’s performance fading after a splitting the first four races with his peerless Silver Arrows rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is also showing signs of losing the metal war to Lewis. After a controversial penalty at the Canadian GP stripped him of victory two weeks ago the German four-time champ seemed to be suffering the psychological hangover during a very poor qualifying run on Saturday that saw Vettel related to a P7 start from the grid. While Vettel raced hard and kept it clean he was only able to claw back two positions to come home a rather tepid P5. His younger teammate Charles Leclerc finished where he qualified, P3, an encouraging sign for the Monegasque after some inconsistent quali runs lately. But it was all a bit of cold comfort for the legendary Scuderia from Maranello, who have been outclassed for the most part by mighty Mercedes and have seen potential victories in Bahrain and Canada undone by mechanical reliability and driver error respectively. While the Ferrari camp were still keeping their heads high and talking up their chances for major improvements going forward it’s becoming harder to see that happening because Mercedes, already the dominant car, will hardly be resting on their laurels as the summer moves along.

Further back in the pack, Max Verstappen did his usual fine work to finish ahead of Vettel in P4 but the Red Bull simply doesn’t have the pace to compete for victory unless one of the front running teams has a major mishap. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Hamilton seizes pole at Paul Ricard to keep momentum going, fading Bottas P2; Leclerc third fastest for Ferrari but Vettel’s woes continue with subpar P7 time

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton extended his hot streak by laying down a dominant lap for pole at the colorful and quite windy Circuit Paul Ricard during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. The English championship points leader came in having won three in a row and five out of the first seven rounds. That torrid run includes his controversial victory at Montreal two weeks ago that saw Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel demoted from a dominant win via a time penalty for unsafe reentry after cutting a chicane. Hamilton is not only looking to demoralize and psych out Vettel but also put his ambitious teammate Valterri Bottas back in his place. The Finn looked up for a Rosberg-like challenge to Hamilton’s supremacy after splitting two of the first four GPs to start the season. But since then Bottas has seen his Mercedes stablemate pull away in dominant fashion and he could do no better than a slightly shaky P2 time as the mistral seemed to play its tricks on his Silver Arrow here in the south of France.

For Ferrari, it was another mixed bag in a season in which they have struggled to get both their cars to perform at a high level simultaneously during qualifying. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Canada — Qualifying results

Vettel snatches pole from Hamilton as Ferrari come to play in Canada; Leclerc P3 while Bottas struggles in P6, Verstappen bounced in Q2

For the first time since Bahrain all the talk of Ferrari’s hypothetical straight line speed advantage over Mercedes finally materialized as Sebastian Vettel pipped Lewis Hamilton for pole at Circuit Gilles-Villenueve in Saturday qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Mercedes man had looked supreme throughout Q3 and it once again appeared that Hamilton would crush whatever fragile dreams of competitiveness Ferrari harbored by setting purple sector after purple sector. But Vettel and the fabled Sucderia had the last laugh today when the German four-time champion put in a blistering effort as the seconds ran down in Q3 to best Hamilton by two-tenths of a second. It was Vettel’s first pole since the German Grand Prix last year and a much needed boost for both the team and Vettel, who has looked less than fully confident at times this season. Obviously, Seb will also need to covert his pole into a victory on Sunday to jump start what is beginning to look like a hopeless campaign for Ferrari against the might of Mercedes. And look for Hamilton, who starts along side him in P2, to try every trick in his book to overhaul Vettel early and once again show that he and his Silver Arrow are an unstoppable force.

Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc qualified P3 and seemed to lose a little confidence as the day wore on. But it was nothing like the travails that afflicted Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate and nearest points rival. With Hamilton having won the last two contests on the trot after Bottas’ victory in Azerbaijan, the Finn is starting to look a little wobbly in the face of the Englishman’s  onslaught. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan — Results & aftermath

Bottas brilliant in Baku for the win, Hamilton P2 to extend Mercedes mastery; Vettel P3 for frustrated Ferrari

Valtteri Bottas entered the 2019 season vowing to be less of a wingman to his peerless 5-time World Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton and more of a threat to him for the title. So far in this young season Bottas has made good on his promise. After pipping Hamilton for pole position, Bottas was able to hold off the hard charging Hamilton on the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday at the alternately wide and tight Baku City Street circuit. It was something the Finn was unable to do in China two weeks ago but this time he kept his elbows out in a respectful but forceful manner and kept Hamilton behind him. Following that crucial first lap, the pace of Bottas’ Mercedes was untouchable by the rest of the field, including his elite teammate. Bottas was able to pull away and manage the race from the front, surviving some tricky tire strategy, as well as Hamilton’s best efforts, to eventually romp to the win by a healthy 1.5 seconds. That avenged Bottas’ heartbreaking loss here last year when a late lap puncture denied him certain victory and he now has two wins to bookend Hamilton’s own brace. Bottas leads the Englishman by a single point in the Driver’s standings, which he scored by taking fastest lap in Melbourne along with the victory there. The race in Azerbaijan, Round 4 of the Championship, also highlighted a dominant start by team Mercedes and marked their fourth consecutive 1-2 finish to start the year.

That is bad news for Ferrari and fans of the fabled Scuderia. After all the talk of the Prancing Horses having the pace advantage over the Silver Arrows, Ferrari has yet to prove that in a race this year. Mercedes appears able to turn up the performance without sacrificing reliability and they have two drivers who almost never make mistakes. Both those shortcomings bit Ferrari in Baku. Wile looking like the fastest overall during each round of practice, Ferrari’s young phenom Charles Leclerc binned his car into the TecPro barriers at the tricky Castle complex during Saturday qualifying. Yeoman’s work by the team’s mechanics enabled Leclerc to start with a healthy car on the grid on Sunday and he was elevated to P8 by the time the race started due to others’ penalties. But it was a far cry from a possible pole and put the Monegasque on an alternate tire strategy from the rest of the frontrunners, with Leclerc’s Prancing Horse starting on the Medium Pirelli’s while the other top 10 began on the softs. So Leclerc would obviously run a longer first stint and for a while it looked like the alternate strategy just might pay off with unexpectedly good results, as the Soft rubber of those around him expired much more quickly than expected.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Leclerc made a passel of passes through the midfield to get to P5 by Lap 7 and by the time Hamilton finished off the round of pit stops for the top 3 on Lap 14 Leclerc inherited the race lead. But Ferrari may have gotten greedy — they were also understandably worried about the life of the Soft tires to close the race to be fair — and kept Leclerc out on that first set of Medium tires all the way to Lap 34. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan — Qualifying results

Bottas sizes last-second pole at Baku at expense of teammate Hamilton; Vettel qualifies P3 for Ferrari after Leclerc crashes out in Q2

Mercedes ostensible Number 2 driver Valtteri Bottas snatched pole for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in the dying moneys of an action packed Saturday qualifying, knocking off his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s previously supreme time by .06 seconds as the checkered flag flew. For a desperate moment in Q3 it looked as if Mercedes had blown it by playing cute and loitering at pit out while a stream of cars launched onto the track for their last runs. But with the sun setting and the track cooling after several crash-induced delays to qualifying, Mercedes had the last laugh by enabling their two stars to utilize the slipstream of the closest cars in front of them — for Hamilton running last that meant Bottas — to get a tow down Baku’s enormous final high speed straight. That proved to be enough of an advantage for both Silver Arrows to once again lockout the front row. And for Bottas, who made just slightly better effect of that drafting technique than Hamilton, it meant gaining the prime position to try and avenge his loss in this race last year when he was leading handily but suffered a puncture that cost him victory just yards from the finish line.

Pics courtesy GrandPirx247.com

Mercedes’ joy once again came at the expense of Ferrari, which had been looking like the quickest cars coming into qualifying today. The fastest of the Prancing Horses on this tight and treacherous Baku City Circuit was actually the junior member Charles Leclerc who displayed a decided advantage over his teammate Sebastian Vettel and the entire field throughout each of the three practice sessions. But team and driver may have both gotten a little greedy in Q2. With Ferrari setting the pace the braintrust decided to put both cars out on the Medium Pirellis, the only cars in the remaining 15 to go out on the harder rubber. The Medium tires lacked just that bit of grip on the cooling asphalt and Leclerc misjudged his breaking by a fraction going into the very tight Turn 8 Castle complex. The young phenom tried to make the corner rather than play it safe and abort down the escape runoff but the Ferrari went straight and speared heavily into the TecPro barrier, ending the Monegasque’s day and badly damaging his chassis. From looking like a favorite for the pole Leclerc instead was left bitterly upbraiding himself and praying that his team of mechanics can rebuild a competitive car by the start of the GP tomorrow.

The surviving Ferrari of veteran Sebastian Vettel qualified P3 and the German looked like he might seize the pole that Leclerc left unclaimed. But Mercedes’ slipstream strategy nipped him at the end and relegated Vettel to the second row. He will start alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was very quick, as well, and qualified P4. The Dutchman’s Red Bull could be the dark horse for the race win because the car looks exceptionally well planted on this technical circuit and perhaps the team’s lack of straight line speed relative to the big two of Mercedes and Ferrari can be made up in race trim. Unfortunately, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly, while also very quick, was undone by incurring a major penalty for blowing by the inspection weigh station in Friday practice, which necessitates a pit lane start as draconian punishment. Look for the Frenchman to cut his way through the laggards at the back of the field in the opening laps, though of course he must stay patient in such tight quarters lest he throw the race away by clashing with slower competitors.

The misfortunes of some of the members of the top three teams proved a boon to several of the midfield runners. Now benefitted more than Sergio Perez, who did a wonderful day’s work by willing his Racing Point machine all the way up to the fifth fastest time. Similarly, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat had one of his good days and overcame a hard kiss off the wall on his rear right to qualify P6. McLaren rookie Lando Norris qualified P7, which was the best placement of any Renault-powered chassis on the grid by far. Antonio Giovinazzi also had his best-ever qualifying result, besting his Alfa-Romeo teammate Kimi Raikkonen P8 to P9, as Alfa also made good use of slipstreaming to set their fast final laps. Unfortunately for the young Italian he will drop back 10 spots on the gird come Sunday due to power unit changes. That means even after his mishap in Q2, Leclerc is slated to be elevated to P9 on the grid for tomorrow’s start. That is if Ferrari can rebuild his car without taking any parts-change penalties in the process.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Azerbaijan GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:42.026 1:41.500 1:40.495 20
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:41.614 1:41.580 1:40.554 21
3 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 1:42.042 1:41.889 1:40.797 23
4 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:41.727 1:41.388 1:41.069 15
5 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:42.249 1:41.870 1:41.593 17
6 26 Daniil Kvyat SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 1:42.324 1:42.221 1:41.681 23
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:42.371 1:42.084 1:41.886 23
8 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:42.140 1:42.381 1:42.424 21
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:42.059 1:42.082 1:43.068 21
10 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:41.426 1:41.995 11

Complete qualifying results amiable via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 at  8:00 AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out at this always eventful street circuit!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Mercedes and Hamilton pounce as Ferrari fumble away a win in the desert; Bottas P2 ahead of hard-luck Leclerc while Vettel spins

Ferrari had the dominant car and driver all weekend long. And in Sunday’s race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain everything appeared to be playing out just as it had in practice and qualifying, with a Prancing Horse firmly in the lead. It was their rising young star Charles Leclerc who was dominating from the front, showing his class by fighting back first against his 4-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel when Vettel got away quicker at the start and then leaving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in his wake. The 21-year-old pole-sitter looked to be on course for his maiden Formula 1 victory and perhaps the establishment of a new team and driver pecking order in the paddock. But on Lap 46 the dream weekend of Ferrari dominance began to crumble as Leclerc began compiling of engine issues and his blood-red car began losing power with what appeared to be a turbo problem. With Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton running a clean race even though he lacked the pure pace of the Prancing Horse the 5-time and current World Champ was in perfect position to take advantage of the Ferrari’s ill-timed reliability issues. In heartbreaking fashion, Leclerc saw his almost certain victory evaporate as Hamilton’s Silver Arrow relentlessly closed down his previously unassailable lead. On Lap 48 the Englishman passed the wounded Ferrari easily. Worse still for the Scuderia, Bottas was also able to catch up to Leclerc and took away P2.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

In a bare minimum of good fortune for the crestfallen Ferrari pilot the race finished under the Safety Car when both Renaults suffered terminal mechanical failures on Lap 53 of this 57-lap contest. With the drivers forced to hold station for the final few laps, this insured that Leclerc at least made the podium and kept his P3 before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could dispatch him on track, as the Dutchman most likely would have. But it was cold comfort on a day that promised so much more for the famed team from Maranello and their young Monegasque phenom. To compound Ferrari’s woes Vettel had a disappointing effort. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Leclerc scores maiden pole in Bahrain ahead of P2 Vettel to lead Ferrari rebound & front row lockout; Mercedes’ Hamilton only third fastest

After showing disappointingly pedestrian pace at Formula 1’s season opener in Australia two weeks ago, Ferrari rebounded strongly during Saturday qualifying for Round Two at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. And it was their precocious first year driver Charles Leclerc who bested not only the field for his first career pole position but also his 4-time World Champion teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Under the bright lights of this night race in the affluent Persian Gulf nation it was the Monégasque Leclerc who shone the brightest, setting a new track record of 1:27.866, eclipsing Vettel’s previous record lap from last year. With Ferrari back to the form they showed in preseason testing, the Scuderia dominated all practice sessions and then locked out the front row when it really mattered. And their 21-year-old ostensible Number 2 blasted a shot across not only Mercedes’ bow but also senior stablemate Vettel’s. The braintrust at Maranello have to be feeling much better about taking the fight to Mighty Mercedes than they did a fortnight ago after their underwhelming run in Melbourne. Now it’s up to the Prancing Horses to run away from the Silver Arrows come race day tomorrow and prove that it really will be game on for the Constructors’ Title in 2019.

Mercedes were clearly second best on Saturday after dominating the debut race of the season which led to Bottas’ impressive win. Lewis Hamilton did out-qualify Bottas P3 to P4 but then he also led the field from pole at Albert Park and was outclassed by his Finnish teammate. So look for Hamilton to work very hard to best Bottas tomorrow even if Mercedes do not have the pace to challenge for the win against what looks to be a resurgent Ferrari at a track that really seems to suit their blood red cars. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Qualifying results

Hamilton lays down marker for 2019 with pole run in Melbourne, pipping Bottas to lock out front row for Mercedes; Ferrari’s Vettel only good enough for P3 start in first race of new season

After the long, dark winter the new 2019 Formula 1 season began in earnest at the sunny Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday with the first qualifying session of the year at the now traditional opening weekend from down under. Proving that the more things change the more they stay the same, Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton, the current reigning World Champion, snatched pole out of the hungry hands of his Finnish teammate, Valtteri Bottas. With Bottas entering his third year with the factory Mercedes team desperate to give Hamilton more of a challenge and shed his wingman reputation it looked midway through Q3 that he’d done enough to get the better of Lewis. But Hamilton marshaled a mighty final lap of just 1:22.043, good enough for the lap record, as well as the pole over his crestfallen teammate by a mere .012 seconds.

If Bottas was dismayed yet again by Hamilton’s unearthly quali pace Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel must also have had a sinking feeling of deja vu. After finishing second to Hamilton in the championship for the last two seasons and working under a new team boss after Maurizio Arrivabene was canned in favor of former technical director Mattia Binotto, Vettel could only have been disheartened to find the pace of this year’s model of Prancing Horse still wanting that certain bit of magic in comparison the peerless Silver Arrows. Vettel could do no better than P3 with a time some seven-tenths slower than his pole-sitting nemesis. Vettel’s new teammate Charles Leclerc, who made the leap from last year’s sister Sauber team to Ferrari’s second seat, displacing veteran Kimi Raikkonen in the process, acquitted himself very well with a solid P5 run his first time out of the chute. Leclerc was bested, though, by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who pushed his now-Honda powered chassis to the very edge and up to a P4 qualifying time. It was difficult to get a true read on Red Bull and their engine partners, however, as Verstappen’s new teammate Pierre Gasly, who was promoted from Toro Rosso, got caught out by rapidly improving track conditions in Q1 and was bounced with only the 17th fastest time in that first session. Look for a lot of passing from Gasly early in tomororw’s race as he looks to atone for that lackluster effort and show that team Red Bull made the right choice is letting Daniel Ricciardo to give him the first team drive.

Further down the order, the Haas F1 team made a strong opening bid to earn the “best of the rest” moniker, as the returning duo of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified P6 and P7 respectively. Continue reading →