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2020 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Results & aftermath

Mercedes’ Hamilton untouchable in dominant win at Barcelona; P3 Bottas’ poor start costs him as Verstappen seizes second place for Red Bull

In a largely procedural Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday at the hot and dry Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton streaked away from his pole position when the lights went out to start the race and never faced a real challenge for the entirety of the 66-lap contest. When the checkers waved Hamilton stomped the next closest pursuer, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, by a whopping 24-seconds and the only real suspense in the race was whether it might possibly rain and shake things up via forcing a scramble for wet weather tires. But the dark clouds remained in the distance closer to the mountains and the sun continued to shine on Hamilton here, as he easily wrapped up his fourth consecutive win at the Spanish GP and expanded his lead over Verstappen in the drivers’ standings to a 37 point bulge.

While the superb Dutch Red Bull pilot was never able to offer a challenge to the front running Silver Arrow, Max was able to gobble up Hamtilon’s teammate Veltteri Bottas to grab P2 from the Finn at the start of the race. In fact, Bottas had such a poor getaway that he also lost a position to Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and he quickly fell to P4. While Bottas was able to claw that spot back from the young Canadian it proved to be a crucial bit of lost momentum and he spent the rest pf the race in recovery mode. Even after taking a gamble by switching off of Medium Pirellis onto the ostensibly faster Softs for his second stop on Lap 48 to try and close the gap to the Red Bull, Bottas was unable to mount a sustained attack on Verstappen, who easily maintained a large gap to come home P2, albeit miles behind Hamilton. Bottas did score the extra point for the fastest lap of the race yet after another tire switch back to Mediums two laps from the finish but it was cold comfort, as he saw his own deficit to second place Verstappen grow to 6 in the Drivers’ points and 43 to the leading Hamilton.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The mini-Mercedes of Racing Point had another very good day with the returning Sergio Perez finishing P4 and Stroll P5 on the track but the two switching spots after Perez was penalized 5-seconds after a dubious stewards’ call dinged the Mexican for ignoring blue flags. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz got his best ever finish at his home GP with P6 while teammate Lando Norris,w ho seemingly had to fight tooth and nail for every position on the day, also finished in the points at P10. Ferrari’s beleaguered Sebastian Vettel had something of a mild personal victory after converting a one-stopper and a final stint on some very old Soft tires into a P7 result. But even when there is some sort of optimistic result for the fabled Scuderia something else seems to take the bloom off it in 2020. In this case, it was a mysterious electrical problem that cut Charles Leclerc’s motor while he was mid-dice with Norris on Lap 37. The unlucky Monegasque was forced to retire shortly thereafter. Also unlucky was Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon, who got stuck mired in traffic and on very slow Hard tires mid-race after a highly questionable strategic decision by the Red Bull brain trust. Albon gamely fought with a bevy of midfield runners to try and get further up the order but could only manage a P8 finish. The man who Albon replaced at Red Bull last year, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, was able to finish in the points after his solid qualifying effort by coming home P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Spanish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 66 1:31:45.279 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 66 +24.177s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 66 +44.752s 16
4 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 65 +1 lap 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 65 +1 lap 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 65 +1 lap 8
7 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 65 +1 lap 6
8 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 65 +1 lap 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 65 +1 lap 2
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 65 +1 lap 1

Complete race result available via Formula1.com.

The drivers get anther little breather as the next race is in a fortnight’s time at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Hope to see you then to find out if anyone can possibly slow down the Hamilton-Mercedes juggernaut — though I wouldn’t bet on it!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Qualifying results

Hamilton takes pole in sweltering Spain to lead another Mercedes front row lockout, Bottas P2; Verstappen third quickest

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton laid the foundation to restore the narrative of Silver Arrows supremacy by streaking to a dominant pole position during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix. A week after he and the team were bested by a clever Red Bull and Max Verstappen for the victory at the 70th Anniversary GP at the second consecutive Silverstone race, normally Hamilton’s personal playground, the English points leader made himself at home at the familiar Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by setting the fastest overall time and claim the all-important top spot on the grid, where pole position has converted to victory in 15 of the last 19 contests held here. His teammate Valtteri Bottas could never quite hook up the final sector of this twisty track and had to settle for P2, albeit less than a tenth adrift of Ham the Man. Verstappen was third fastest but will not be able to pull the strategic coup that led to his dominant victory last weekend, as the Dutchman will be starting on the same Soft Pirelli tires as the two Mercs in front of him for this sixth round constest. However, the extreme heat in Catalonia may cause issues for the Silver Arrows, as it did during a hot race in Spielberg, Austria earlier in the season, so look for Verstappen to pounce on any potential unreliability or tire issues should they occur. The possibility of rain on Sunday could also shake things up.

Sergio Perez was back after his two week COVID quarantine and celebrated by whipping his Racing Point up to P4 on the grid, while regular teammate Lance Stroll qualified just behind the Mexican veteran in P5. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate was one again underwhelming in quali and could do no better than sixth fastest. Perhaps there is something about being Max’s teammate that psyches these talented up and comers out? Or perhaps it is simply that Vertsappen is that superior to them in the identical equipment. McLaren’s resurgence continued with Carlos Sainz qualifying P7 and Lando Norris P8, proving the team’s solid pace so far in 2020 is no fluke. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s sad decline also continued, as Charles Leclerc languished down in P9, while Sebastian Vettel’s new chassis did not seem to help the bewildered German 4-time champ that much. He was only able to set the eleventh best lap and was once again bounced out in Q2. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, one of those ex-Verstappen teammates who failed to keep the pace when up with the big team, did well on his own terms to take 10th spot on the grid for Red Bull’s junior squad. The young Frenchman will be desperate to score some points come race day tomorrow after starting from P7 last weekend and then coming up empty.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Spanish GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:16.872 1:16.013 1:15.584 15
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:17.243 1:16.152 1:15.643 15
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:17.213 1:16.518 1:16.292 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:17.117 1:16.936 1:16.482 15
5 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:17.316 1:16.666 1:16.589 15
6 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:17.419 1:17.163 1:17.029 18
7 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:17.438 1:16.876 1:17.044 17
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:17.577 1:17.166 1:17.084 18
9 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:17.256 1:16.953 1:17.087 18
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:17.356 1:16.800 1:17.136 18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here is the States. Hope to see you then to find out if anyone has anything for Hamilton — perhaps the heat will once again play havoc with Mercedes reliability? — or at least if Verstappen can best Bottas!

2020 F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix — Results & aftermath

Verstappen pays off superior Red Bull strategy with thrilling victory at Silverstone; Mercedes’ Hamilton & Bottas forced to settle for P2 & P3

Faced with the normally intimidating might of Mercedes for a second consecutive week at the high-speed Silverstone circuit Max Verstappne and his Red Bull team once again threw a strategic spanner in the works of putative Silver Arrows domination. After only qualifying P4 on Saturday for the first and last ever 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row from pole and P2 respectively, Verstappen was also the only elite runner to start the race on the Hard compound Pirrelli tires. But that “hard” label was really a misnomer, as Pirelli had dropped all their offerings down a notch on the hardness scale so that this week’s Hard was equivalent to last weekend’s Medium tires. It proved a brilliant strategic decision for Verstappen, especially under particularly warm and dry conditions this Sunday in Northamptonshire, which seem to be the Mercedes W11’s only real Achilles’ heel. So with the Red Bull’s downforce advantage sparing the wear and tear on their tires compared to the Silver Arrows brute force attack and with Max running the more durable yet still quick Hard compound, it rapidly became apparent that Verstappen’s strategy was to run longer stints than both Mercedes drivers and thereby gain track position and hold it. In the end the game paid off and the superlative Dutch driver pulled a coup.

Verstappen had a good getaway from the start, making quick work of Racing Point’s fill in driver, Nico Hulkenberg, who perhaps overachieved in qualifying to start P3. So right off the bat Verstappen was on then tails of the two Mercedes men, who held station after getting away cleanly with Bottas P1 and Hamilton P2. However, both of the Silver Arrows’ tires began degrading rapidly and first Bottas on Lap 13 then Hamilton on Lap 14 were forced to ditch their Medium tires for a new set of Hards. Meanwhile, Verstappen stayed out on his original set of Hards all the way to Lap 26, racking up a big lead in the process. Continue reading →

2020 F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Bottas fights back for pole for second consectuve Silverstone race, besting P2 Hamilton; temp driver Hulkenberg qualifies a wonder P3 for Racing Point

After the massive disappointment of last weekend’s late race tire blowout that dropped him straight out of the points like a stone, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas roared back to take pole for the second consecutive race at the venerable Silverstone circuit in two weekends. Bottas showed his determination to rebound by pipping his teammate and championship points leader Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second to take the top spot in tomorrow’s one and only Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the same track where it all started back in 1950. While Hamilton was no doubt briefly let down by having to settle for P2 on the grid, the English 6-time World Champion can no doubt take solace in his big points lead over his Finnish teammate after Hamilton survived his own tire delimitation on the final lap last weekend at the British GP yet still limped home to victory. And, as Bottas knows all too well from his years as the clear Number 2 at Mercedes, out-qualifying Hamilton is one thing and beating him a race is quite another.

Perhaps a bigger story than the seemingly inevitable Silver Arrows 2020 front row lockout was the amazing qualifying effort of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg. After starting the season out of a job Hulkenberg was drafted into the team around ten days ago due to their regular pilot Sergio Perez’s positive COVID test. Hulkenberg looked decent enough in last weekend’s qualifying but could not even make the race when his car mysteriously failed to start. But this Saturday Hulkenberg wrung the neck of his Racing Point to score the third fastest lap of the day ahead of the usually superlative Red Bull of Max Vertsappen. With fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong to again prevent Hulkenberg from starting tomorrow, it should be very exciting to see how the German veteran performs and if he really does have the pace to keep Verstappen behind him and score his first ever career podium in 177 starts. Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Results & aftermath

Hamilton limps to victory on 3 tires just ahead of Verstappen as Pirelli failures scramble end of British GP; Bottas plunges out of the points elevating Leclerc to a lucky P3

A rather boring procedural contest at Silverstone turned into a thriller in the final act when unpredictable tire failures put the cat amongst the pigeons and scrambled what seemed to be a preordained Mercedes romp to glory at Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton, dominating from the front all race long, suffered a left front failure of his Hard compound Pirellis on the final lap of this 52-lap contest and had to limp home on three wheels, barely holding off the rapidly oncoming Red Bull of Max Vertsappen. In a second-guesser’s delight, Verstappen had boxed on Lap 50 for fresh rubber in order to set the fastest lap while Mercedes inexplicably kept Hamilton out after their second driver, Valtteri Bottas, who had been comfortably cruising behind him in P2, suffered the first of the day’s serious tire failures. In a heartbreaking twist of fate for Bottas, the Finn had just passed the pits when his left front delaminated and he had to crawl around the full 3.6 miles of the circuit before getting fresh rubber, plummeting down the order as the front of the field zipped by him. By the time he got back to the team for the necessary tire change Bottas reemerged all the way down in P12 and could only climb back up to P11 before the laps ran out. With Hamilton able to limp to the win when he suffered his own delimitation Bottas being cruelly cast out of the points so late in the race was essentially the worst case scenario for his slim title hopes. One does wonder why Mercedes did not pit Hamilton for new tires once the issue with Bottas had reared its ugly head, especially since it seemed like Hamilton’s tires were the ones that started blistering first. The question also has to be asked if Red Bull would have better off leaving Verstappen out when Hamilton did not pit in the hopes that what did eventually happen to his tires might happen. No doubt if Vertsappen had stayed out and assuming his own tires were healthy to the end he would have lucked into the win at Hamilton’s expense.

Photos courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The beneficiaries of Bottas’s misfortune were many, none more so than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had been running a rather lonely race in P4 but was promoted to a happy P3 on the podium instead. Likewise, Renault had their best race of the young season with Daniel Ricciardo driving steadily and with terrific composure to pick off numerous other contenders and come home P4 and teammate Esteban Ocon a strong P6, personal best finishes for both in 2020. Lando Norris took P5 for much improved McLaren but their other driver, Carlos Sainz, was also bit by the tire failure bug on the final lap and by the time he limped to the finish line had fallen out of the points down to P13. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly drove a splendid race showing genuine race pace to take P7 ahead of the man who took his seat at Red Bull last year, Alexander Albon, who finished P8. Still it was a very good recovery drive for Albon, who tangled with Haas’s Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap and then received a 5-second penalty when the stewards dubiously judged him for being at fault for ending Magnussen’s race in their clash. The young Thai driver has got to start qualifying better, though, so that he can avoid those sorts of tangles with the midfield runners and start nearer to his peerless teammate Verstappen at the front of the grid lest he also get bounced from his coveted spot with the big team.

Rounding out the Top 10, Lance Stroll salvaged some points for Racing Point in P9 but it was hardly the result the team envisioned. Their usually powerful car looked surprisingly uncompetitive and they couldn’t even get their second car, which was supposed to be driven by Nico Hulkenberg as a substitute for the COVID-19 positive Sergio Perez, to start the race. A bad and perhaps ominous weekend for a team that had heretofore looked like giving Red Bull and Ferrari a run for their money. And speaking of disappointing, Sebastian Vettel held off Bottas to take the last point in P10 but it was hardly a great result for the four-time champion. The growing discrepancy in pace between he and Leclerc is a real head-scratcher and one wonders if Vettel is mentally checking out knowing that he won’t be with the Scuderia next year. Still, Ferrari can take some cold comfort in the fact that they had both their cars finish in the points while Mercedes only had one, albeit with Hamilton’s Silver Arrow in the only position that really matters.

Top 10 finishers of the British Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 52 1:28:01.283 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 52 +5.856s 19
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 52 +18.474s 15
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 52 +19.650s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 52 +22.277s 10
6 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 52 +26.937s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 52 +31.188s 6
8 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 52 +32.670s 4
9 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 52 +37.311s 2
10 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 52 +41.857s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and from this very same Silverstone circuit — the new minted and one-time only F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. With Pirelli slated to bring a softer set of compounds to that event than this week’s look for tire issues to once again be a potential factor and probably the only potential obstacle to total Mercedes domination. Hope to see you then to find out!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Qualifying results

Mercedes-Hamilton juggernaut rolls on with record pole at Silverstone, Bottas P2; Red Bull’s Verstappen qualifies 3rd

Anyone hoping that the pursuing teams had made up their deficit to mighty Mercedes in the fortnight between the Hungarian GP and this weekend’s British Grand Prix got a hefty dose of reality following Saturday qualifying for the fourth round of the 2020 Championship at the venerable Silverstone circuit. If anything Mercedes seem to be pulling away from their ostensible nearest pursuers, as the battle for pole at this pan flat high speed track was only between reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton and his long suffering number two, Valtteri Bottas. But with the cash on the table, it was Hamilton who smoked both his teammate and the rest of the field, covering the 3.66 mile lap created out of a former WWII bomber airfield in a blistering track record 1:24.303. It was a commanding recovery for Hamilton who had spun somewhat embarrassingly to bring out the Red Flag and halt Q2 just about midway through for a clean up when he brought excessive gravel back onto the track with him. But the English 6-time champion loves his home circuit and he dominated Q3 en route to setting his record 7th pole for a British GP. And however miffed Bottas must have been to miss out by a mere  3-tenths the teammates’ 1-2 results gave team Mercedes the edge over fabled Ferrari for the record for coveted front row lockouts, 66 to 65.

Unfortunately, Ferrari do not look like they will be reclaiming that particular record anytime soon either. Red Bull’s sublime Max Verstappen pipped the Prancing Horse of Charles Leclerc for P3 as the checkered flag flew to end the final qualifying session. But Leclerc’s P4 starting spot looks positively spectacular compared to that of his veteran teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Vettel has clearly struggled with his SF1000 all race weekend so far and could only muster the tenth fastest lap. With Vettel already fated to leave Ferrari at the end of this season and his F1 future uncertain one wonders where exactly the German 4-time champion’s head is at that he is getting trounced so badly by his young Monegasque teammate so far this season.

Likewise for Alexander Albon, Vertsappen’s Red Bull teammate, Saturday qualifying was bit of a disaster. Continue reading →

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 →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Qualifying results

Hamilton finds extra gear for searing pole in Hungary, Bottas P2 for Mercedes front row lockout; Surprising Racing Point qualify 3-4 as Red Bull and Ferrari chase pace

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton again showed his superb class in a race car, besting his game teammate Valtteri Bottas to take pole with a searing track record lap of 1:13.447. Despite lowering skies at the Hungaroring on Saturday rain never materialized, precluding another jumbled wet weather qualifying result like last week’s torrential and topsy turvy Styrian quali sessions. Instead the track just kept getting faster and faster as qualifying wore on and it rubbered in, enabling the cream to rise to the top, at least in terms of single lap pace. That saw Hamilton best Bottas by just over a tenth in the internecine battle between what are once again clearly the best cars in the field. But behind the predictable Mercedes front row lockout surprises abounded. Biggest of all was the outrageous speed of the Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez, who qualified P3 and P4 respectively and will monopolize the second row on the grid come race day. Despite facing increasing criticism and formal protests for their 2019 Mercedes lookalike cars, the former midfield stalwart pink clad Racing Points insolently pushed the Red Bull and Ferrari powerhouses further down the grid than either of those elite teams would normally expect to find themselves.

But even though they were relegated to the third row, Ferrari still had to be mildly pleased after a fairly disastrous start to the 2020 campaign. After crashing each other last weekend in Austria for the dreaded double DNF, Sebastian Vettel wrung the neck of his so far underwhelming SF1000, sliding it precariously around this tricky, technical circuit for a time good enough for P5. His junior but arguably more talented teammate, Charles Leclerc, was P6 and is no doubt still feeling chastened from his role as the instigator of the Ferraris’ wreck in Styria. Continue reading →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Styria (Austria II) — Results & aftermath

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 →

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

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 →