Hamilton returns to dominating form with victory in Styrian GP, Bottas strong for Mercedes 1-2; hobbled Verstappen P3; Ferraris crash each other out to complete disastrous weekend
Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton didn’t have to wait long to get the bad taste of last week’s penalty-induced P4 finish put of his mouth. After grabbing pole in rain-soaked conditions yesterday, Hamilton was back to his usual championship form on race day in beautifully dry & sunny conditions for this back half of the doubleheader of races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The English six-time F1 champ simply ran away from the field on Lap 1 of the Styrian Grand Prix, never to be seen again by any of the other top contenders and with no bothersome electrical gremlins forcing him to tame his aggression, as was required in race one. In the end, it was all rather procedural for Hamilton on this day, as he reminded everyone that he is still the man to beat in Formula 1 and made his intentions clearer than ever of tying the great Michael Schumacher’s record seven World Championships this very year.
It was also a better day for Mercedes as a team than last week, as their number two man Valtteri Bottas, who won the first Austrian race to open the season, was able to pounce on the wounded Red Bull of Max Vertsappen late in today’s contest to seize P2 and compliment Hamilton’s victory. Fighting gamely with a damaged front wing and an underpowered machine compared to the supreme Silver Arrows, Verstappen was able to re-pass the hard charging Bottas on Lap 66 but had to yield to the inevitable on Lap 67 of this 71-lap contest. It was a good recovery drive from Bottas, who started from P4 on the grid after failing to fully come to grips with Saturday’s very challenging wet qualifying conditions. Still, it must give the veteran Finn some pause that he ended up over 13.7 seconds adrift of his teammate after he had bested him so handily last week for an encouraging season-starting win. Continue reading →
Mercedes’ Hamilton secures scintillating pole amidst torrential conditions at Red Bull Ring; Red Bull’s Verstappen P2 despite late spin, Sainz P3 for improving McLaren; Ferrari in trouble
For the first time in Formula 1 history two races will be run at the same circuit on back-to-back weekends, and the dubious honor goes to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. But it was the weather that lent real distinction to this second race weekend of the 2020 season and not the fig leaf of a new title, the Grand Prix of Styria, for what is in reality simply a second identical Austrian GP. With the travel and logistics concerns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic forcing this normally globe-hopping motorsport series to compress the schedule and repeat races at some European circuits on consecutive weekends, this Saturday’s “Styria” qualifying was nonetheless completely distinct from last weekend’s sunny “Austrian” affair and offered up a lot of excitement and surprising results to match.
Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton bested this generation’s nominal Rainmeister, Red Bull’s Max Vertstappen, to seize the pole in torrential and thoroughly treacherous conditions at this valley track nestled among the Styrian Mountains. Verstappen and Hamilton had been trading provisional pole throughout Q3, during which the weather actually deteriorated again, after slightly lightening up for the delayed start of Q1 and into Q2. But when Vertsappen lost control and spun harmlessly late in his final try with time expired in the final session, it meant Hamilton had secured pole after an outstanding and supremely well controlled effort under these adverse circumstances. Continue reading →
FORMULA 1 RETURNS — Bottas takes victory in long-delayed first race of 2020 season but Hamilton loses P2 due to penalty; Leclerc promoted to P2 and Norris to P3 in wild opening round
After a nearly four month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Forumla 1 season finally kicked off on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. After such a long layoff between seasons it was a somewhat predictably wild and ragged race, although Mercedes was once again the class of the field. With their new black livery, the Silver Arrows took pole and second fastest times during Saturday qualifying, with their usual number 2 man, Valtterri Bottas claiming pole position for Sunday’s race ahead of P2 teammate and reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton. In a harbinger of things to come, Hamilton was demoted 3 spots for failing to slow properly for yellow flags during quali. That meant Hamilton, on a quest for his record-tying seventh Drivers’ Championship, had to start from back in P5 on the grid, while Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team had lodged the last minute complaint against Lewis, was elevated to P2 alongside Bottas.
Image courtesy GrandPrix247.com
When the lights went out to start the race, though, Bottas blew the Red Bull off the line and shot away from the rest of the field, leaving the rest of the top 9 squabbling amongst themselves and the speedy Hamilton fighting his way back to the front. After avoiding contact going into Turn 1, the Champ quickly began dispatching his slower rivals, getting by McLaren’s Lando Norris for P4 on Lap 4 and subsequently past the competitive second Red Bull of Alexander Albon on Lap 9 for P3. It should have set up a fascinating tussle with Verstappen but on Lap 11 the Dutchman’s Red Bull went haywire with the electrical system repeatedly putting his machine into anti-stall mode. Unfortunately the malfunction proved terminal and Verstappen was out of the race just like that. Once again, as it has been so many times since 2014, mighty Mercedes saw their two drivers dominating yet another Grand Prix from the front.
Verstappen’s was the first of many retirements on a very hot summer’s day in Austria, with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo going out on Lap 18, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll calling it a day on Lap 21 and beleaguered Haas’ Kevin Magnussen suffering break failure on Lap 26, which brought out the day’s first Safety Car. It would not be the last. Continue reading →
Hamilton dominates in Abu Dhabi to end championship campaign in style; Verstappen P2, Leclerc P3, as Bottas battles from last to fourth
Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton capped off his sixth championship season with a dominant win at Yas Marina Circuit in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In the final race of the 2019 F1 campaign, a late afternoon affair that goes from day to night conditions, Hamilton and his Silver Arrow were as untouchable as they gave been throughout the year. The newly minted 6-time champ claimed his 11th victory of the year out of twenty-one GPs and finished far ahead of his closest pursuers. Hamilton won from pole and also set the fastest lap of the race for a bonus point, coming home a whopping 16.77 seconds ahead of the second place Red Bull of Max Verstappen. It was a suitably perfect performance in what has been another banner year for the 34-year-old, who was justifiably left wishing that the season could continue after his effortless win. It also gave Hamilton 84 career wins, shockingly close to what seemed to be Michael Schumacher’s record F1 total of 91. No doubt Lewis will be dreaming of overtaking Schumacher for that milestone in 2020, as well as tying the German legend’s even more awesome achievement by racking up a seventh Drivers’ title. But all that is in the future and for now Hamilton can ride off into the winter break knowing that he was unquestionably the supreme Formula 1 ace in 2019 and has put himself in the conversation as one of the best in the sport’s fabled history.
Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com
For Verstappen it was also a relatively easy day that saw the Dutchman hold off challenges from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and turbo lag issues from his own car to secure a P2 finish and lock down third place in the Drivers’ ahead of the hard-charging Leclerc. The Monegasque Ferrari man, who had breakout year and seems destined for greatness if given the right equipment, finished P3 in the race and survived an after-race investigation for fuel irregularities that led to a hefty fine for Ferrari but no penalties for Leclerc. Behind the top three, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas drove a superb race after starting from the rear of the grid due to engine penalties, clawing his way all the way up to a P4 finish just about a second behind Leclerc for the last podium place. One wonders if the Finn’s result might have been even better had a technical glitch not prevented the DRS system from operating until Lap 18. Continue reading →
Hamilton earns pole for final race of the season; Bottas second quickest but starts at rear due to engine penalties; Verstappen qualifies P3
Lewis Hamilton, looking to close out his 2019 championship season in suitably dominant style, earned his first pole position since Germany in Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Mercedes ace and newly minted 6-time World Champion was head and shoulders above his nearest competition en route to the top spot on the timing sheets, besting his teammate Valtteri Bottas by 2-tenths of a second. Unfortunately for Bottas that strong effort in the gloaming of Yas Marina Circuit was for nought, as the Finn will be relegated to the back of the grid due to multiple power unit replacement penalties. It should make for an exiting race for the Silver Arrow’s number two man, who has already clinched second overall in the Drivers’ standings, as he powers his way through back of the field in the opening laps of tomorrow’s race.
Third fastest was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who struggled to keep his rear tires under him when pushing hard but crucially out-qualified Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in his quest to take third in the Drivers’ points when the curtain comes down after tomorrow’s GP. Leclerc somehow managed to muff his timing and could not set a better fast lap than P4 before the checkers flew to end Q3. The talented Monegasque, who had a breakout year and seems to be on the cusp of greatness, will be pushing hard at the start of tomorrow’s race to try and overtake Verstappen and claim third overall in the season’s standings for himself. Continue reading →
Verstappen rolls to victory for Red Bull in wild Brazilian GP; Gasly an ecstatic P2, Sainz promoted to P3 after Hamilton penalized for late race collision with Albon; Ferrari teammates crash out
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had the wings all day long and rolled to a dominant win at the Brazilian Grand Prix, his peerless performance the one constant in a topsy-turvy contest at sunny Interlagos on Sunday. With no bad weather to throw curveballs during the proceedings the contestants themselves provided the unpredictability and occasional rashness that led to a thrilling race and the unexpected result of having Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz take P2 and P3 respectively to share the podium with Verstappen and grab their highest career finishes in Formula 1. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was demoted from P3 after a late race gamble to pit from the lead for fresh rubber under Safety Car conditions backfired. Instead, it led to a major loss of track position when the Englishman emerged in P4 and a desperate attempt to get back to the front when the Safety Car was withdrawn with only three laps remaining. But while the newly minted six-time champ got by Gasly for P3 easily enough he couldn’t make a clean pass on the P2 Red Bull of Alexander Albon. Hamilton stuck his nose in forcefully on the penultimate lap going into Turn 10 but the door closed quickly and he ended up spinning out the impressive Thai rookie, denying Albon a probable second place result — a first potential podium for the youngster — and what could have been an even more amazing day for the Red Bull team. Hamilton, perhaps a bit too honestly, accepted full responsibility for the incident and was promptly penalized off the podium down to P7, much to Sainz’s and McLaren’s overjoyed advantage. Worse still for Mercedes, the second car of Valtteri Bottas suffered an oil pressure failure on Lap 52 that led to the Finn’s first retirement since the rainy crahfest at Hockenheim in late July.
But as disappointing as things ended up for mighty Mercedes they went even more sideways for Ferrari. With Charles Leclerc making a heroic effort to claw back positions after a pre-race grid penalty saw him start down in P14 and Sebastian Vettel running solidly at the front and hunting a podium, it seemed almost inevitable that the two intra-team rivals would end up fighting over the same piece of track as the laps wound down. With Leclerc on slightly fresher Soft Pirellis, having pitted four laps later than Vettel during the Bottas Safety Car period, the Monegasque was able to close the gap to his senior teammate, who had lost precious time and, in fact, lost out while dicing with Albon for P3. On Lap 66 of this 71-lap contest, Leclerc was close enough to make a move and pass Vettel coming out of Turn 3 heading into the Reta Oposta. But Vettel got the DRS on Leclerc as they both steamed into Turn 4, the Descido do Lago. Vettel got his nose ahead but pressed his advantage just a little too aggressively, pushing across the track and into Leclerc’s front tire and wing with his left rear tire. As quickly as that, both Ferraris were out of the race, with the hard-charging Leclerc’s day of brilliant recovery work done in by a broken front right suspension courtesy of his teammate. Simultaneously, Vettel’s left rear tire delaminated badly after the contact and the carcass became a buzz saw whipping away at all that precious carbon fiber body work. It was a hell of a finish for the famed Scuderia going from a guaranteed strong points day to zero and will certainly not please the braintrust at Maranello. It’s also sure to worsen the already strained relations between the upstart would-be team leader and the decorated veteran, who has in truth made more than his fair share of mistakes during his tenure at Ferrari.
But whatever drama and fireworks happened behind them, the day belonged to the trio of Verstappen, Gasly and Sainz. No one could touch the Dutchman all race long and both Red Bulls seemed to be way ahead of their key rivals in terms of getting their tires to both turn on and maintain performance here at this very short and busy 4.3 kilometer circuit. Continue reading →
Bottas victorious in Texas but P2 Hamilton claims sixth Formula 1 Title; Verstappen P3 on bad day for Ferrari
Mercedes’ had another landmark day to punctuate another season full of Silver Arrow excellence. The might German team dominated the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday and took a one-two finish deep in the heart of Texas. While their number two driver Valtteri Bottas rode his pole position and a superior two-stop tire strategy to a dominant win, his teammate Lewis Hamilton came home P2, easily earning enough points to clinch his remarkable sixth F1 Drivers’ Championship. With Bottas the only man left with a minute mathematical shot at this year’s title entering the race, Hamilton put it all on the line in Austin. He committed to a risky one-stop strategy and battled a bumpy and windy race track while declining playing it safe to just come home with the bare minimum points to clinch.
Instead the English bulldog took it to the limit, even dicing with his Finnish wingman and going so far as to push Bottas off the track on lap 51 of this 57-lap contest in a despaired bid to maintain the lead and ring up another championship with a win. In the end, Hamilton could not hold off Bottas’ fresher Medium tires on the same superlative equipment and the Finn was able to get by on Lap 52 and cruise home to victory. But Hamilton did fend off the best attempts of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to take P2 at the checkers and ring up a remarkable sixth championship, surpassing the great Juan Manual Fangio of Argentina for second all-time. Hamilton trails only Michael Schumacher’s record seven F1 crowns and knowing his personality and relentless pursuit of excellence it will be uppermost in his mind this offseason to match that seventh title next season, especially with major new rules changes looming in 2021. But for now Lewis Hamilton can bask in the glory of achieving what only one other driver in Formula 1 history has ever done before. And team Mercedes should be well satisfied with both their driver lineup and the continued performance of their engine and chassis that has already secured them their own sixth Constructors’ Championship and their sixth in a row to boot. Continue reading →
Verstappen takes lightning pole in Mexico City but faces investigation; Leclerc P2 & Vettel P3 for Ferrari, Hamilton P4 but P6 Bottas crashes heavily for Mercedes
Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen avenged last year’s disappointment when he was mere hundredths of second shy of pole position in Mexico City to outclass all other competitors and grab the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Mexican Grand Prix. However, Verstappen also set his fastest lap time as a yellow flag was being waved at the end of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s race after Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas crashed heavily while approaching the final turn. The Dutchman inexplicably failed to slow at all through the yellow zone despite already having a mega-fast banker lap that no one else could top. And so the stewards are investigating and Verstappen may face a penalty that once again denies him pole at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The pace of the Red Bull in Verstappen’s supremely skilled hands must have been a shock to Ferrari after dominating in all practices so far. But when it came time for the lap times to count and determine the grid rising star Charles Leclerc found himself about half a second behind the pole-sitting Red Bull despite absolutely throwing his Prancing Horse into corners and ostensibly starting alongside him in the front row at P2. Leclerc’s senior teammate Sebastian Vettel was third fastest while Mercedes seemed to struggle in the thin air of this high altitude venue and their ace Lewis Hamilton could do no better than P4. While Bottas was heavily winded by the harsh deceleration of his Silver Arrow’s impact head-on with a protruding Techpro barrier and was examined after sustaining such heavy G-forces he appeared unhurt. Such was not the case for his badly mauled Mercedes and while his initial time in Q3 before the shunt was good enough for a P6 start it’s possible the necessary rebuild might require enough parts replacements to push him to the back down the order or even force a start from the put lane come Sunday.
Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon again showed his promise to qualify P5, while the improving McLaren team had another strong outing in their bid to lay claim to being “the best of the rest” with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris taking P7 and P8 respectively. Daniil Kvyat was P9 and an ailing Pierre Gasly was P10 for Toro Rosso to round out the top 10 starters in Mexico.
Tomorrow’s race will be broadcast live on ABC starting at 2:30 PM Eastern here in the States. We’ll have to wait till then to find out whether Verstappen keeps his coveted number one grid spot or faces sanctions from the stewards for not slowing under yellow that push him further back in the field to start the race. Hope to see you then!
Bottas cruises to victory in Japan after Vettel fumbles start; Hamilton P3 as Mercedes lock up 6th consecutive Constructors’ title
After being bested by Ferrari in a rare, Typhoon-necessiated Sunday morning Qualifying that saw the Prancing Horses of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc start the Japanese Grand Prix 1-2, Mercedes proved once again that when the points are really on the line they are still the team to beat in Formula 1. Vettel bogged down as the lights went out to start the race Sunday afternoon at the Suzuka Circuit, nearly but not quite jumping the start, and the Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas, quicker than his teammate Lewis Hamilton all weekend, pounced. The Finn launched beautifully to easily pass not just Vettel but also the P2 Leclerc, who quickly found himself wheel banging with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going into turn one. As Bottas sailed away, the Monegasque Ferrari man lost adhesion trying to defend while turning and smashed into Verstappen’s side pods, sending the Red Bull off track and causing damage that would eventually force the Dutchman to retire on Lap 15. That kerfuffle, which led to Leclerc being penalized and demoted after the race, also held up Hamilton, who had to brake to avoid the incident and was nearly side-swiped himself by the oncoming McLaren of Carlos Sainz. Those crucial delays back in the lead pack left Bottas free to fly with Vettel recovering enough to plant himself in a not very threatening P2, and the front-running Merc quickly built up a healthy lead that he would never really relinquish.
Meanwhile Leclerc was circulating with a damaged wing after the coming together with Verstsappen and spewing carbon fiber all over the track, as well as onto the pursuing Hamilton’s helmet and visor. Leclerc inexplicably defied calls to pit for a new wing until Lap 4, an impetuous decision that earned him yet another time penalty after the race. Meanwhile, when Vettel pitted at the end of Lap 16 for a second set of Soft Pirellis it became obvious that Ferrari would be running a 2-stop strategy for him. Bottas pitted a lap later for Medium tires, fulfilling the requirement to use at least two compounds, but the team also told him he would be running a 2-stopper eventually to match Ferrari’s lead man, while they would try to split strategy and run Hamilton on a one-stopper. That gave the intra-team advantage to Bottas, as the Suzuka circuit proved to be very tough on tires. So while Hamilton stayed out nominally leading the race until Lap 21 he was unable to gain any advantage whatsoever with his degraded rubber and in fact lost bucketloads of time relative to Bottas and Vettel on their fresh tires. The English points leader came out P3, well behind Vettel, and could be heard second-guessing his team as to why they hadn’t just put him on the Hard tires to try to make it to the end on a one-stop after all. But apparently the performance disadvantage of the Hards was just too great for Mercedes to take that gamble whatever their potential longevity advantage.
In the end Bottas came home for a relatively easy victory. A disappointed Vettel was able to hold off the furious late-race charge of Hamilton on fresh Soft tires by a mere four-tenths for P2. But while Hamilton was intensely frustrated by his third place finish and how the day played out to his teammate’s advantage, big picture-wise everyone at Mercedes had to be ecstatic with the double podium at Suzuka. That massive points haul secured the team’s unprecedented sixth consecutive Constructors’ Championship. Hamilton will have to wait a race or two to potentially clinch his own remarkable sixth Drivers’ title but Mighty Mercedes had done it again despite an increasingly effective second half challenge from Ferrari that simply came too late in the season.
The surviving Red Bull of Alexander Albon had a brilliant run to come home P4 and somewhat salvage the day for the team after Verstappen’s disappointing DNF.
Hamilton & Mercedes back on top with fortuitous win at favorite Sochi track, Bottas second for Silver Arrows 1-2; Leclerc 3rd for Ferrari but Vettel DNFs
After three post-break races in which they were thoroughly outclassed by their arch-rivals Ferrari, mighty Mercedes got back to their winning ways at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday. Despite their inferiority to the Prancing Horses in a straight line, which saw young phenom Charles Leclerc start from pole for the Scuderia and Sebastian Vettel overtake P2 starter Lewis Hamilton with the aid of Leclerc’s slipstream on the opening lap, the Silver Arrows benefitted greatly from a mid-race Virtual Safety Car that enabled them to get a “free” pit stop, emerging with a 1-2 lead in a race that they would never relinquish. The fact that the VSC was caused by a failure of Vettel’s MGU-K unit, forcing the German to pull off to a runoff area while profanely wishing for the return of the simpler V-12 engines, made it all the more bitter of a pill for Ferrari to swallow. With his wingman Bottas able to hold off the hard-charging but lonely Ferrari of Leclerc for the last 23 laps of this 53 lap contest Hamilton cruised home to take his ninth victory of the season and fourth overall at Sochi Autodrom. It was Mercedes sixth win here and they are the only team to claim the top step since Sochi was added to the F1 schedule in 2014. Bottas held station for a P2 finish and the talented Leclerc was left with an unfulfilled third place.
Despite a somewhat anti-climactic second half, which truth be told was caused by F1’s foolish insistence on keeping the pits open during the first laps of a Safety Car or VSC period and allowing random track position to determine who gets the lucky quick pit stop, the opening of the race was gangbusters in terms of both on track action and intra-team intrigue. With the bitter taste of Singapore still in Leclerc’s mouth, where he was undercut on pit strategy by Vettel leading directly to the latter’s victory at Leclerc’s expense, Ferrari still insisted on playing Machiavellian games. With a prearranged move Vettel got the drop on Hamilton as the lights went out and then drafted his teammate Leclerc down the long front straight to also overtake the Monegasque for the lead of the race. During a brief Safety Car period from Laps 2 -3 caused by a 3-car shunt between Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo and Antonio Giovanazzi, Leclerc could be heard talking about doing what was asked of him at the start and wanting Vettel to give him back P1. But when the Safety Car period ended Vettel had other ideas, as well as the pace to keep Leclerc behind him.
To add fuel to those conspiracy minded among us, Ferrari then appeared to try and engineer an involuntary give back of the lead to Leclerc by keeping Vettel running on his opening set of Soft Pirelli tires a bit too long. By the time Vettel came in for the switch to Mediums on Lap 26 he was losing over a second to Leclerc on track. It was all rendered moot by Vettel’s engine failure just a lap after pitting but the head games from the masters of Maranello are sure to increase the growing tension and distrust between their two highly talented pilots, one a highly accomplished four-time World Champion and one ambitious in the extreme and seeking to make his mark in the sport. Compounding the complexity for Ferrari it was Vettel’s DNF that caused the Virtual Safety Car that enabled Hamilton and Bottas to dive to the pits to change off of Mediums and onto Softs in half the loss of track time as under Green flag conditions. Leclerc meanwhile stayed out and pitted two laps later on Lap 30 under another Safety Car period caused by the Williams of George Russell’s break failure and crash. But he gave up his leading track position even so and was only able to rejoin in P3, crucially behind the obstinate Merc of Bottas. So there will be a lot to discuss — and probably a lot of hard feelings — at team Ferrari’s post-race debrief!
