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2021 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes pole in wet conditions at Spa, denying overachieving P2 Russell; Hamilton settles for P3; promising Norris crashes out in lurid Q3 shunt at Eau Rouge

Formula 1 returned from the long summer break and arrived at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium with a bang — a bit too literally for McLaren’s talented young driver, Lando Norris. On a consistently wet day in the Ardennes, the rain picked up between the second and third qualifying sessions and Norris found himself running a hot lap early in Q3 that only lasted as long as Eau Rouge. His McLaren twitched in the standing water there and when Norris attempted to correct he lost control of his mount and spun violently into the tire barriers, destroying the car. Norris appeared to injure his left arm in the violent shunt but was otherwise unscathed when he finally emerged from his wrecked chassis after a tense few moments. Just like that, one of the main contenders for pole at the Belgian Grand Prix was out of the running and Norris will also likely have to start from the pits tomorrow after the crew spend the night rebuilding his car.

After a long Red Flag delay to clean up the track, the remaining nine drivers and their teams scrambled to figure out how best to deal with the weather, which thankfully lightened up during the pause, though it was certainly still wet. As time ran down in the stop-start Q3, everyone decided that Intermediate wet tires were worth the risk and at first Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton set a time that appeared fast enough to claim pole. But the circuit continued to improve and, surprisingly, it was the Williams of George Russell who displaced the seven-time champion Hamilton from that top spot by several tenths as time ran out in the final quali session. When Hamilton was unable to better Russell’s mark on his final attempt, it looked like the younger of the two Englishman might earn a flukey but still joyous first career pole. But Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had other ideas. With the bitter taste of his collision-affected P10 at the last race in Hungary still fresh in his mouth and plenty of time to brood about it during the long break, the young Dutch Master hooked up his final lap beautifully and dashed Russell’s pole dreams, besting the Briton by a shade over three-tenths. Nevertheless, Russell was still elated to earn his first front row start in F1, as were Wiliams after a long slog back to respectability, and he will line up in P2 across from Verstappen to start tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Hamilton had to settle for the third best time and Norris’s McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed to be nowhere earlier in qualifying, excelled as the sessions wore on and earned a much needed solid P4 starting spot for himself and the shaken team. Cagey old veteran Sebastian Vettel, who had been calling for a Red Flag prior to Norris’ shunt and was livid with the race directors after the crash, still kept his head together enough to pilot his Aston Martin to the fifth fastest time on the day. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also did well in the wet and will line up alongside Vettel on the third row in P6 on the grid. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez could only manage a time good enough for P7 but he still bested the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who not only qualified down in P8 but will be pushed back 5 spots on the grid due to his culpability for running into Verstappen at the Hugaroring on the opening lap. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, the shock winner of that contentious Hungarian GP, set a P9 time but will slot in at P8 on the grid for tomorrow’s contest due to Bottas’ penalty. That is exactly the starting spot Ocon had in Hungary when he drove to victory so the Frenchman may be feeling that he has the rest of the field right where he wants them.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:58.717 1:56.559 1:59.765 20
2 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:59.864 1:56.950 2:00.086 24
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:59.218 1:56.229 2:00.099 22
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 2:01.583 1:57.127 2:00.864 22
5 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 2:00.175 1:56.814 2:00.935 23
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 2:00.387 1:56.440 2:01.164 23
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:59.334 1:56.886 2:02.112 22
8 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:59.870 1:56.295 2:02.502 22
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 2:01.824 1:57.354 2:03.513 23
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:58.301 1:56.025 DNF 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With more foul weather forecast at Spa for Sunday it could be another crazy race result in a season full of them. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Results & aftermath

Alpine’s Ocon earns shock victory in Hungary after first lap melee takes out five top contenders; Vettel finishes P2 for Aston Martin but DQ’d for fuel violation; Hamilton fights back to take P3 after early strategic error by Mercedes; Verstappen salvages P10 on disastrous day for Red Bull

Just a little bit of rain before the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix was enough to soak the Hungaroring and lead directly to a thoroughly scrambled race with some of the most unexpected results in a Formula 1 contest seen in years. With all the runners starting the GP on Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires, the die was cast for massive unpredictability when Mercedes number two man, Valtteri Bottas, perhaps trying to make up for a poor start that saw the Finn lose several spots when the lights went out, badly misjudged his breaking point going into Turn 1 and plowed into the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris. That set off a chain reaction of mayhem and collisions amongst several top contenders that led to the retirement of not just Bottas and Norris but also the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll when all were mauled too badly to continue. And while pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was unaffected by his teammate’s blunder, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was not so lucky, as he was smashed into by Stroll when the Canadian attempted to reenter the track after taking evasive action prior. That led to major damage to Verstappen’s floor and barge board that was not able to be fully repaired even in the prolonged Red Flag period for cleanup that followed that massive first lap shunt, badly compromising the Dutchman’s race pace thereafter.

Meanwhile, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who started in P8 and P10 respectively, danced their way through the carnage and were able to emerge unscathed with the wreckage in their rearview and only Hamilton in front, with Ocon ascending to P2 and Vettel to P3 when first the Safety Car was deployed and then the race halted for the Red Flag. After the debris field had been cleaned up, Hamilton led the field back to the grid for a standing restart at the end of Lap 3. But the Englishman found himself starting completely alone on the track because the entirety of the other fourteen cars still able to participate dove into the pits to get off the wet tires and onto slicks, as the circuit had dried sufficiently for that maneuver and no more rain was forecast on the day. It was a bad miscalculation by the Mercedes brain trust, perhaps aggravated by the ban on team comms with the leader during the formation lap, because Hamilton was forced to plod around for an extra lap before he could get his own slick Medium Pirellis, while the entirety of the field zoomed around on that fresh racy rubber. By the time Hamilton emerged form the pits, the erstwhile race leader found himself dead last in P14 (Haas’ Nikita Mazepin having been taken out of the race by a pit lane collision with the unsafely released Alfa of Kimi Raikkonen). That strange strategic error by the usually nimble Mercedes pit wall saw Ocon take the lead of the race with only Vettel within shouting distance of the Frenchman. With Hamilton having it all to do to claw his way back into contention, Ocon controlled the race masterfully at the front and his Alpine team also aided him with a sterling pit stop at the end of Lap 37 nearly a second quicker than Vettel’s the lap prior. That proved to be the decisive edge that Ocon needed and the 24-year-old Frenchman was able to keep the 34-year-old and four time champion Vettel behind him until the very end no matter how much pressure the German veteran applied. When the checkers flew, Ocon took was 1.859 to the good ahead of Vettel to earn a stunning maiden Formula 1 victory that no oddsmaker would have given you 100-to-1 on at the beginning of the day.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

To make matters even more frustrating for the already frustrated Vettel, his Aston ran out of fuel on the cool down lap and then was unable to provide a liter’s worth of gas to the FIA, as required. Therefore, Vettel was disqualified and his terrific P2 result nullified. That meant that Hamilton, who fought like crazy, particularly with Ocon’s Alpine teammate, Fernando Alonso, in real multi-lap, wheel-banging ding dong battle, to will himself up to a P3 podium spot despite feeling dizziness and fatigue during the contest, was then promoted to P2 and earned 18 championship points, a net of three extra points due to Vettel’s infraction. Meanwhile, Verstappen struggled to make headway against normally inferior competitors in his badly damaged Red Bull and could only make it back up to P10, earning an addition point due to his promotion after the race. Continue reading →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Qualifying results

Hamilton beats Bottas to pole as Mercedes flex pace at Hungaroring; Verstappen qualifies P3

With the return to good old three-round knockout qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix after F1’s rather underwhelming Sprint Race format two weeks ago in Great Britain, the hunt for pole for tomorrow’s race was once again focused solely on one-lap pace. And with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton dueling for that coveted top starting spot after their on track collision left Verstappen out of the British GP on Lap 1 and the entire Red Bull team hopping mad at Hamilton, who incidentally went on to win, there was more tension in the air than even a normally nervy qualifying Saturday. But as the Q3 session expired with all the top contenders waiting until the last possible second to make their final runs, it was team Mercedes that outperformed team Red Bull on this day and rather comprehensively. Hamilton hooked up a near perfect lap on Soft Pirellis to grab pole with a blistering 1:15.419 time and his wingman Valtteri Bottas was very nearly as good, slotting in at P2 on the grid just a little over three-tenths slower than the pole time. Verstappen was about a tenth in arrears of Bottas and will find himself in the unfamiliar position of starting from the second row in P3, ending a run of four consecutive poles for the Dutchman. His teammate Sergio Perez could not make the line in time for a final flying lap but was still fourth fastest and will line up alongside Verstappen on the grid, which should make the opening lap more than a little interesting with the Mercedes and Red Bulls stacked back-to-back, as they will be.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly returned to form after a bit of a lost weekend at Silverstone a fortnight ago, setting the fifth fastest time and bettering the hard charging Lando Norris, who could only get up to P6 in his McLaren. That was still miles ahead of his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who got bounced in Q2 and will start down in P11. Likewise, Gasly’s AlphaTauri teammate, rookie Yuki Tsunoda, could not get to grips with the tricky and breezy Hungaroring and found himself knocked out in Q1 with just the sixteenth quickest time. Charles Leclerc will be the sole Ferrari to start in the top ten at P7 because his stablemate Carlos Sainz crashed out in lurid fashion entering the final corner on his last hot lap in Q2. The Spaniard will have his work cut out for him trying to fight back from way down in P15, as will the team in rebuilding the car overnight. On the other hand, Alpine saw both of their drivers make it into Q3 for the first time since Round 4 in Spain, with the struggling Esteban Ocon actually outpacing his double-World Champion teammate Fernando Alonso, P8 to P9. And four-time Champ Sebastian Vettel pulled his Aston Martin into P10 to line up alongside fellow wizened veteran Alonso on the fifth row.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Hungarian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:16.424 1:16.553 1:15.419 19
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:16.569 1:16.702 1:15.734 18
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:16.214 1:15.650 1:15.840 17
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:17.233 1:16.443 1:16.421 16
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:16.874 1:16.394 1:16.483 15
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:17.081 1:16.385 1:16.489 17
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:17.084 1:16.574 1:16.496 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.367 1:16.766 1:16.653 15
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:17.123 1:16.541 1:16.715 15
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:17.105 1:16.794 1:16.750 15

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race, Round 11 of the Championship., airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Can Verstappen get his vengeance on Hamilton by coming from behind to win in this final round before the month-long summer break? Or was Max’s DNF via collision with Lewis in Britain the turning point of what was looking like a Championship season? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Results & aftermath

Hamilton survives first lap collision with Verstappen & penalty to take 8th victory at Silverstone; Leclerc a noble P2 for Ferrari, Bottas P3; Verstappen taken to hospital after crash battling Lewis

The intense competition for the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship was inevitably going to get nastier than the forced public bonhomie between the two primary contenders for the title, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s superstar Mac Verstappen. On Sunday at the British Grand Prix in Round 10, things finally got properly unfriendly between two top contenders. After Verstappen won the first ever Sprint Qualifying race/non-race on Saturday to claim pole for today’s real race, Hamilton made no mystery of his determination to seize the top spot from the Dutchman early on. The two best drivers on the planet diced wheel-to-wheel from the moment the lights went out at the venerable Silverstone Circuit, the Mercedes man forcing Vertsappen to take unorthodox lines to keep Hamilton behind on the opening lap. The intense fight came to a head midway through Lap 1 when Hamilton tried an inside move heading into Copse at a rapid rate of knots. Verstappen, perhaps not believing Hamilton would stuff it in on the inside at that tricky section, appeared to lose sight of his rival and closed down to make the apex of the next corner, clipping Hamilton’s front left wheel/wing with his Red Bull’s rear right in the process. In an instant, the Red Bull’s rear right tire was off the rim and Verstappen went careening off the circuit through a very shallow and ineffective gravel trap and into a tire barrier sideways at nearly 180 mph. While Hamilton’s Silver Arrow suffered only very minor wing damage, Verstappen’s mount was essentially totaled and the unlucky Dutchman took an excruciatingly long time to emerge from his wrecked car. Young Max did eventually emerge under his own power but he was taken to hospital for precautionary reasons, probably to monitor any possible concussion symptoms after such a very high-G impact. In just one lap, Verstappen’s race was over and shortly thereafter Hamilton’s was also put at risk despite emerging from the contretemps unscathed.

After a long Red Flag period with the race restarting from a standing grid for a second time, the P2 Hamilton was immediately assessed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. While one can certainly debate the stewards’ decision to put the onus on Hamilton — it looked like a racing incident to these eyes — there was no arguing that Hamilton now would have a major time deficit to somehow make up. With the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc inheriting the race lead after the Hamilton-Verstappen shamazzle and driving confidently to maintain that P1, it looked like a big ask for Hamilton to catch the Monegasque when he came out of the pits down in P5, after serving the penalty during his first and only tire service on Lap 28, all the more so when  Leclerc held his lead after his own pit stop for fresh rubber on Lap 30. But Hamilton put his mind to the task, making short work of McLaren’s Lando Norris for P3 after gaining another position on pit rotation. That left only his Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas between him and Leclerc’s Ferrari. And with Hamilton closing down Leclerc’s Prancing Horse by nearly a second per lap, the team quickly gave Bottas team orders to let Hamilton through, which the Finn dutifully did on Lap 40 of this 52-lap contest. Unfortunately for Leclerc, it was then just a matter of time before the Mercedes’ superior pace saw the English seven-time World Champion right on his gearbox. And on Lap 50 Hamilton was able to sweep by Leclerc’s Prancing Horse, ironically with a nearly identical inside move through Stowe that had caused so much grief to Red Bull and Verstappen on that fateful opening lap. Perhaps fearing a similar fate, Leclerc ran wide and off the track momentarily and Hamilton flew away past him and on towards his remarkable eighth career British Grand Prix victory. Truly, Silverstone is a magic elixir for the seven-time champ.

For Red Bull, the results essentially could not have been worse. Continue reading →

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain — Sprint Qualifying results

Verstappen has better getaway to win debut Sprint Qualifying over Hamilton at Silverstone, take pole for British GP; Bottas P3

Formula 1 on Saturday introduced a limited Sprint Qualifying format for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, where drivers started in their positions based on the usual three-round knockout qualifying, this time held on Friday evening, but the pole and other grid positions were determined by the results of this 17-lap mini-race. At the site of the first-ever Formula 1 race in 1950, the fabled Silverstone Circuit built on a former WWII bomber air field, the experiment saw Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton lose out to the ascendent Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Despite his front left brakes catching on fire while he sat waiting the start, Verstappen still got the better getaway than Hamilton when the lights went out for the Sprint Quali and easily went on to win it and the pole for tomorrow’s race, rendering Lewis’ superb fastest lap in Q3 on Friday evening not much more than a footnote. Hamilton will still line up in P2 alongside the Flying Dutchman for his home race, one which the superlative Mercedes man has won an amazing six times, but it is Verstappen who will sit on the pole, his fourth-in-a-row, by virtue of winning this mini-contest despite the fact the he was second to Hamilton in “qualifying.”

I’m not sure I get the logic of this format, however much of a sugar rush it is, as fastest one-lap pace has ever been the determining factor for pole positions in F1 and this Sprint format seems to cheapen the accomplishment of hooking it all up perfectly in Q3, as Hamilton did on Friday. And, while Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas kept it clean to finish where he started (and thereby start where he finished) in P3, Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, showed the dangers of the Sprint for both driver and team when he spun out in dirty air, had to then pit for a new wing and eventually retired his Red Bull prematurely so the team could make changes to the car out of parc fermé conditions. After “qualifying” P5, Perez was classified dead last in the Sprint and will start from the rear or the pits tomorrow and his team will have a lot of extra work overnight to fix whatever is ailing his mount, not to mention engineering a strategy to get the Mexican back to the front. For all of the F1 brass’s stated desire to save money and control costs, adding an additional 17 racing laps to the Grand Prix weekend, with all the attendant competitiveness on the track that entails, seems like an odd way to economize.

This was the top 10 Sprint Qualifying Grid based on Friday’s “qualifying” results (complete grid available via Formula1.com):

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:26.134
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:26.209
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:26.328
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:26.828
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:26.844
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:26.897
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:26.899
8 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:26.971
9 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:27.007
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:27.179

And these are the results for the top 10 of the Sprint Qualifying to set the grid for tomorrow’s race — as you can see, if F1 wanted to jumble things up from where the drivers “qualified,” they did succeed in that  (complete Sprint results also available via Formula1.com):

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 17 25:38.426 3
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 17 +1.430s 2
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 17 +7.502s 1
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 17 +11.278s 0
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 17 +24.111s 0
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 17 +30.959s 0
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 17 +43.527s 0
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 17 +44.439s 0
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 17 +46.652s 0
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 17 +47.395s 0

Tomorrow’s British Grand Prix airs live beginning at 10AM Eastern of ESPN here in the States. With today’s stunt, er um, Sprint out of the way let’s see if Hamilton and Mercedes have anything for the dominant looking Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Hope to see you then for the real race to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Qualifying results

Verstappen aces second consecutive pole at Red Bull Ring; Norris a surprisingly potent P2 for McLaren, Perez P3; Hamilton & Mercedes off the pace

A week after dominating the Styrian Grand Prix for an easy win, Red Bull’s championship-leading Max Verstappen was back to his imperious ways at the team’s home circuit, as the superlative Dutchman earned a second consecutive pole position at the Red Bull Ring, this time for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix. On a track that suits him like a hand-tailored garment, Verstappen kept his positive momentum going on a day when his main championship rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, took a step backwards. Not only did Verstappen earn the top starting spot in Saturday qualifying but instead of Hamilton or the second Merc of Valtteri Bottas nipping at his heels, Verstappen will have McLaren’s hard charging young star Lando Norris alongside him on the front row of the grid in P2. The 21-year-old Englishman maximized the superior straight-line speed of his Mercedes-powered MCL35M chassis to earn his best ever Formula 1 starting spot, setting a fast time just .048 behind the points leader and, alongside the 23-year-old Verstappen, will make up one of the youngest front rows in F1 history. Norris’ success came at the expense of the factory Mercedes drivers, as Hamilton could manage no better than a P4 time and Bottas slotted in at P5, with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez bettering them both by setting the third fastest time in Q3. That leaves Checo in prime position to play the loyal Red Bull wingman during tomorrow’s race. It’s now fairly clear that this track no longer suits the Silver Arrows as it did a year ago and that other teams have improved their performance here at the Red Bull Ring enough in the interim to make Mercedes look positively mediocre. Toto Wolff and the AMG braintrust will have to figure out a way to minimize the potential damage from tomorrow’s race by finishing both cars well up in the points and then looking forward to better days at Silverstone in two weeks. Because realistically, the Mercs have very little shot at winning against the ascendent Red Bull of Verstappen and neither Hamilton or Bottas may see the podium tomorrow after the checkers fly.

AlphaTauri had a very nice day of qualifying, with Pierre Gasly slotting in at P6 and the somewhat erratic rookie Yuki Tsunoda coming home seventh fastest. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was solid in P8 but will have to start behind his teammate Lance Stroll, who qualified P10, after it was judged that Vettel had impeded Alpine’s Fernando Alonso during Q2, earning the veteran German driver a three-spot grid penalty. And another up-and-coming young Englishman, Williams’ George Russell, broke through into Q3 and set a time good enough for ninth fastest in that final quali session, an exciting milestone for both the rebuilding team and their ambitious and talented young pilot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.249 1:03.927 1:03.720 16
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:04.345 1:04.415 1:03.768 19
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.833 1:04.483 1:03.990 24
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:04.506 1:04.258 1:04.014 18
5 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.563 1:04.376 1:04.049 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.841 1:04.412 1:04.107 21
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.967 1:04.518 1:04.273 21
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.846 1:04.493 1:04.570 20
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:04.907 1:04.553 1:04.591 15
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.927 1:04.547 1:04.618 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With Verstappen having won three out of the last four contests and looking to pull away from Hamilton in the championship, the stars seem aligned for him to so at this favorite track barring unexpected drama. The real question is if Norris can keep Perez, Hamilton and Bottas behind him for a very special result. It’s a big ask but young Lando has been building up to that kind of breakthrough all season. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Results & aftermath

Verstappen romps to victory in Styrian Grand Prix; Hamilton and Bottas P2 & P3, Perez P4

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was completely untouchable in the first of two consecutive races at the Red Bull Ring, easily going from pole to victory in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix in the beautiful hills of Spielberg, Austria. Verstappen handily outclassed his main championship rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by over 35 seconds to take his second consecutive victory in this second of three back-to-back-to-back races. To be fair, Hamilton did make a penultimate lap second pit stop for new Soft Pirellis that enabled him to snatch away the extra point for fastest lap from the superlative Dutchman. Nevertheless, Verstappen increased his point lead over Hamilton, the seven-time and current reigning champion, to 18 with his second consecutive victory. The dominant win at Red Bull’s home circuit also highlighted just how far the RB16B chassis has come in a year’s time, with Verstappen gapping P2 Hamilton by just about the same margin Hamilton bested him by when Max finished P3 and Lewis was victorious in the second Austrian contest in what was Round 2 of the COVID-effected 2020 season.

Despite their glaring pace deficit to Verstappen’s Red Bull, It wasn’t all bad news for Mercedes on the day, as their beleaguered number two pilot, Valtteri Bottas, was able to hold of the hard charging second Red Bull of Sergio Perez for P3 and take the last spot on the podium. The Mexican simply ran out of laps as the 71 for today’s contest were just about the maximum for Bottas to keep that valuable position and perhaps restore some much needed confidence after an extremely demoralizing stretch for the Finn. In truth, it was solid drivel around for Bottas, as he was penalized for a sort of burnout in the pots during qualifying and had to start P5 instead of P2 where he qualified. Still, with Red Bull now consistently getting solid points results from Perez, the team now carries a 40-point lead over Mercedes in the all-important Constructors’ standings after eight rounds of the championship, which is roughly a third of the season.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was once again best of the rest and finished P5, as he has so often this season. The team were content to pull the talented young Englishman out of the top four’s elite fray and just run a steady pace to bring their man home fifth. However, the results were not so good for the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, who failed to score after some sort of power issue caused the Aussie to drop like a stone just as he was making up positions early in the race and he thereafter could make no further progress, finishing down in P13. Ferrari, their closest rivals for third in the Constructors’, took full advantage of Ricciardo’s misfortune with the Prancing Horses rebounding nicely from a points shutout in France last week. Carlos Sainz overcame starting from twelfth on the grid to grab an impressive P6 finish and Charles Leclerc finished where he started in P7 but only after a lot of crazy contact with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on Lap 1 forced the Monegasque in for a new front wing. While Gasly suffered terminal suspension damage after getting a puncture out of the contretemps with Leclerc and then being ping ponged by nearly the entire field as he decelerated down the order, Leclerc went on to be voted Driver of the Day for his storming and determined performance. It was an honor that most decidedly did not receive Gasly’s vote.

Further down, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll drove solid race to take P8, Alpine’s wise old head Fernando Alonso scored his third consecutive points finish in P9 and Yuki Tsunoda salvaged a single point for Alpha Tauri in P10 on a day when the team were surely hoping for more.

Top 10 finishers of the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 1:22:18.925 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +35.743s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 71 +46.907s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +47.434s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 70 +1 lap 8
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 70 +1 lap 6
8 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 4
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 70 +1 lap 2
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 70 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and you don’t even have to make a new hotel reservation — it may be called the Austrian Grand Prix but it is at this exact Red Bull Ring next Sunday and for the same number of laps to boot. It’s doubtful that Mercedes can find the pace to challenge the supreme Verstappen here during that short window but stranger things have happened. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Styria — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs second consecutive pole to line up P1 for Styrian GP; hard luck Bottas betters Hamilton for P2 but will drop 3 spots due to penalty

The ascendent Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s top driver and the current points leader in the Championship after seven rounds, scored his second pole on the trot during Saturday qualifying to secure the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Styrian Grand Prix. Six days after winning at Paul Ricard in France, Verstappen earned even more satisfaction by setting the fastest time at his team’s home circuit, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, and setting himself up nicely for potential back-to-back victories in this second race of a three-week “triple header” of consecutive contests (the third of which will be at this exact circuit next week). Verstappen got the better of both Mercedes drivers relatively easily and the day’s competition for starting spots saw Valtteri Bottas actually outclass his more lauded teammate, Lewis Hamilton, P2 to P3, after Hamilton had a very scruffy final lap in Q3. However, true to the Finn’s luck so far this season, Bottas will be penalized three grid spots for dangerous driving in the pits earlier in practice and will have to start back amongst the midfield runners in P5, elevating Hamilton to the front row alongside his archrival Verstappen.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was well off the pace of his team leader and could only set the fifth fastest time, as he saw himself bettered by the theoretically inferior McLaren of Lando Norris, who crossed the line with a flying lap good enough for P4. AlphaTauri also looked strong here in Spielberg, with Pierre Gasly setting a time good enough for P6 and the erratic rookie Yuki Tsunoda coming home eighth fastest. Tsunoda will also be penalized three grid spots, though, after the stewards ruled that the young Japanese had impeded Bottas’ qualifying efforts during Q3. Ferrari had their pace deficit exposed again since leaving the slower street circuits behind them. A week after the team scored zero points in France, Charles Leclerc was only able to muster a P7 qualifying effort, while teammate Carlos Sainz really struggled and was knocked out in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest lap. One has to wonder what the Prancing Horses will really have come race day, where they seem to be at a pace disadvantage to teams like McLaren, AlphaTauri and even Alpine and Aston Martin over the long runs.

Speaking of those latter two teams, they rounded out the top ten qualifiers, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso enjoying his day with a P9 quali effort and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll taking P10, well ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who underperformed after a run of good results and could only set a rather pokey P14 time in Q2.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Styrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.489 1:04.433 1:03.841 20
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:04.537 1:04.443 1:04.035 23
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:04.672 1:04.512 1:04.067 25
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:04.584 1:04.298 1:04.120 17
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:04.638 1:04.197 1:04.168 21
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.765 1:04.429 1:04.236 18
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:04.745 1:04.646 1:04.472 21
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:04.608 1:04.631 1:04.514 21
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:04.971 1:04.582 1:04.574 18
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:04.821 1:04.663 1:04.708 18

Complete qualifying results and the penalty-effected starting grid available via Fomula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM here in the States. With Hamilton struggling on this short little circuit and Verstappen looking dominant as he should at the aptly named Red Bull Ring, look for some early aggression on Lewis’s part to try to pull himself back on even terms with the superlative Dutchman. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen rides gutsy two-stop strategy to victory over Hamilton in France; Perez P3 with late overtake on Bottas

Red Bull’s young Dutch master Max Verstappen took advantage of his team’s mid-race decision to switch to a two-stop strategy and rode that strategic masterstroke to victory in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard Circuit on Sunday. With tire degradation much worse than anticipated, the Red Bull pit wall decided to split their strategies between Verstappen and their second pilot, Sergio Perez, running Perez several laps longer than both rival Mercedes on the opening stint, while surprisingly calling in Verstappen for a second stop and switch back onto Pirelli Mediums on Lap 33. It was a high stakes gamble by the team’s race engineers, especially after Verstappen had retaken the lead over Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton while undercutting the English seven-time champion on his initial of tire change onto Hards on Lap 19. Although Verstappen lost track position and came out P4 when he emerged from his second stop, his Medium tires would not only be 11 laps fresher than Hamilton’s when the laps of this 53-lap contest wound down but would presumably deliver a performance advantage by virtue of their also being the softer compound to Hamilton’s aged Hard tires.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

And that’s exactly how it played out in the final stage of the race. While Mercedes were forced to pray and hope that they could use their second man Valterri Bottas to hold up Verstappen’s pursuit of P1, unlike Red Bull’s savvy decision making on the day hope and prayer is not a strategy. Perez graciously allowed Verstappen by to take over P3 on Lap 35 and the hunt for Hamilton was on. By Lap 44, Verstappen made easy work of P2 Bottas, who was livid with the Mercedes brain trust for not heeding his pleas to switch to a two-stop plan of their own earlier in the race. By Lap 51, Verstappen was right up to Hamilton’s gearbox and all the joy at Lewis’ opening lap capture of the lead when the pole-sitting Verstappen overcooked Turn 2 and slid off track seemed like ancient history. Verstappen pounced on the slowing Silver Arrow of his main championship rival and overtook Hamilton easily on the penultimate lap, streaking away down the road and towards a thrilling win that boosted his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings to twelve points. While Hamilton held on for P2, Bottas suffered the ignominy of being passed for the last podium position by Verstappen’s stablemate, Perez, making it an outstanding points haul for Red Bull at Paul Ricard and a bitter pill for mighty Mercedes to swallow. Between Verstappen’s initial undercut, which earned him back the lead when he reemerged from the pits ahead of Hamilton, the decision to split strategies by running Perez longer on his opening stint and then the brilliant call to switch to a two-stopper that ended up being the winning move, Red Bull made Mercedes’ normally sharp pit wall seem flat footed and pokey all day long. Lewis will still also be kicking himself for blowing the restart two week’s ago in Baku when Verstappen had already crashed out and the chance to score big points on him evaporated in a puff of locked up tire smoke.

With Bottas a disgruntled P4, team Mclaren were the happy best of the rest on Sunday. Lando Norris rode his team’s own long first stint strategy all the way up to a strong P5 finish, while Daniel Ricciardo had arguably his best race with his new team to come home a solid P6. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was in the mix with the other midfield runners all day but didn’t quite have the pace of the McLarens and finished P7. But the impressive young Frenchman did manage to fight of veteran Fernando Alonso’s Alpine effectively and Alonso had to settle for a P8 result. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll both managed to turn super long opening stints into points-paying P9 and P10 finishes respectively. After Vettel had started in P12 and Stroll was way back on the on the grid in P19, it made for very satisfying results for improving Aston Martin when the checkers flew. On the other side of the satisfaction equation, Ferrari had a miserable race, converting Carlos Sainz’s P5 and Charles Leclerc’s P7 starts into P11 and P16 finishes respectively for a big fat goose egg for the Scuderia on the day. That will go down as well with the honchos in Maranello as a plate of buttered noodles with ketchup for lunch would at the nearby trattoria.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 1:27:25.770 26
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +2.904s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.811s 15
4 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +14.618s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +64.032s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +75.857s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +76.596s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +77.695s 4
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +79.666s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +91.946s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

With the French Grand Prix actually the first of three consecutive race weekends in a row, the next two contests on this busy part of the calendar will be on Red Bull’s home turf at the eponymous Red Bull Ring, beginning with next weekend’s Styrian GP. Hope to see you then to see if Max and his team can keep up their momentum and keep Mercedes and Hamilton on the back foot!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs pole for Red Bull at Paul Ricard, Perez P4; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Mercedes

The 2021 F1 title tilt continued to distill down to the two top drivers on the two top teams, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a DNF at the last race in Azerbaijan to grab pole at the psychedelic Paul Ricard circuit during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Gran Prix. The flying Dutchman pipped his main title rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by around three-tenths on his final flying lap in Q3. Hamilton was also seeking redemption after blowing a sure podium and perhaps victory at Baku two weeks ago when he left a break bias control on by mistake on the final restart and slid off the track and out of the points. The English seven-time champ posted a solid time good enough for P2 and a starting spot alongside Verstappen at the front of the grid, as the two resumed their back and forth battle for supremacy that seems certain to last all year long. While Verstappen and Red Bull had the one lap pace today it’s an open question as to whether they can match Hamilton’s race pace when the lights go out on Sunday.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas posted a very good P3 qualifying result and appeared positively giddy to have left the street circuits of Monaco and Baku behind. That put the embattled Finn one slot ahead of Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, who will start P4 two weeks after inheriting the victory in Azerbaijan when Verstappen crashed out late in the race with tire failure. With the front four a full on Red Bull-Mercedes mix and match, look for some intense dicing on the opening lap and perhaps one or more of the top contenders getting pushed wide on the acres of multi-colored abrasive runoff areas on this most unique and frankly strange circuit in the south of France.

Behind the elite quartet, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz bested his teammate Charles Leclerc P5 to P7. The rare subpar result  by the Monegasque also ended Leclerc’s two-race pole-setting streak. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly managed to nail his last opportunity in Q3 to set the sixth fastest lap after having his previous best effort deleted for exceeding track limits. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daily Ricciardo qualified P8 and P10 respectively, while the veteran Fernando Alonso used all of his copious experience to over-perform and drag his Alpine up to a decent P9 starting spot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.001 1:31.080 1:29.990 16
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:31.237 1:30.788 1:30.248 20
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.669 1:30.735 1:30.376 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.560 1:30.971 1:30.445 16
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.079 1:31.146 1:30.840 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:31.898 1:31.353 1:30.868 22
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.209 1:31.567 1:30.987 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:31.733 1:31.542 1:31.252 18
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.158 1:31.549 1:31.340 17
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.181 1:31.615 1:31.382 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. A week after both men scored zero points, look for a ding dong battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in this latest high speed test of their respective title aspirations. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!