Tag Archives: Renault

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 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 Styria (Austria II) — Qualifying results

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 →

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 →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Qualifying results

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 →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Brazil — Results & aftermath

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.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

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 →