Tag Archives: Toro Rosso

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Hamilton dominates in Abu Dhabi to end championship campaign in style; Verstappen P2, Leclerc P3, as Bottas battles from last to fourth

Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton capped off his sixth championship season with a dominant win at Yas Marina Circuit in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In the final race of the 2019 F1 campaign, a late afternoon affair that goes from day to night conditions, Hamilton and his Silver Arrow were as untouchable as they gave been throughout the year. The newly minted 6-time champ claimed his 11th victory of the year out of twenty-one GPs and finished far ahead of his closest pursuers. Hamilton won from pole and also set the fastest lap of the race for a bonus point, coming home a whopping 16.77 seconds ahead of the second place Red Bull of Max Verstappen. It was a suitably perfect performance in what has been another banner year for the 34-year-old, who was justifiably left wishing that the season could continue after his effortless win. It also gave Hamilton 84 career wins, shockingly close to what seemed to be Michael Schumacher’s record F1 total of 91. No doubt Lewis will be dreaming of overtaking Schumacher for that milestone in 2020, as well as tying the German legend’s even more awesome achievement by racking up a seventh Drivers’ title. But all that is in the future and for now Hamilton can ride off into the winter break knowing that he was unquestionably the supreme Formula 1 ace in 2019 and has put himself in the conversation as one of the best in the sport’s fabled history.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Verstappen it was also a relatively easy day that saw the Dutchman hold off challenges from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and turbo lag issues from his own car to secure a P2 finish and lock down third place in the Drivers’ ahead of the hard-charging Leclerc. The Monegasque Ferrari man, who had  breakout year and seems destined for greatness if given the right equipment, finished P3 in the race and survived an after-race investigation for fuel irregularities that led to a hefty fine for Ferrari but no penalties for Leclerc. Behind the top three, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas drove a superb race after starting from the rear of the grid due to engine penalties, clawing his way all the way up to a P4 finish just about a second behind Leclerc for the last podium place. One wonders if the Finn’s result might have been even better had a technical glitch not prevented the DRS system from operating until Lap 18. Continue reading →

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 →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Brazil — Qualifying results

Verstappen seizes pole in Sao Paolo for Red Bull; Ferrari’s Vettel P2, Hamilton P3 for Merecedes

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen earned his second career pole position and second of the year during Saturday qualifying for the Brazilian Gran Prix. The Dutch wunderkind was consistently faster than the more vaunted Ferraris and Mercedes, as the Red Bull team look to finish the season strong and stick it to the big boys in the penultimate race of the Formula 1 calendar tomorrow at Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paolo, more commonly know as Interlagos. Verstappen was over a tenth quicker than Sebastian Vettel’s P2 Prancing Horse and the P3 Silver Arrow of newly minted 6-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Known for having driven one of the best ever wet weather races here back in 2016, Verstappen will be looking to keep his top spot until the checkered flag flies on Sunday and earn his first Brazilian GP win.

With the teams originally mixed and matched at the front of the grid, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was promoted to P4 alongside his teammate Lewis Hamilton even though Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc bested the Finn in quali because Leclerc faces a 10-spot grid penalty come race day due to a power unit change. It should be fun watching the talented young Monegasque motor his way back up to the front from a lowly P14 start. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Mexico — Results & aftermath

Hamilton seizes victory in Mexico City, holds off P2 Vettel for Mercedes’ 100th F1 win; Bottas stays alive with P3 finish; pole-sitter Leclerc undone by poor pit stop

Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton edged closer to his amazing 6th Drivers’ Championship with a decisive win at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City on Sunday. Utilizing a daring one-stop strategy, Hamilton pitted on Lap 24 of this 71-lap contest, shucking off his original Medium Pirellis for a set of durable but pokey Hard tires. With 47 laps left to run Hamilton could be heard over the radio agonizing over that strategy and second-guessing the team’s timing. But even without the calming precense of his usual race engineer Pete Bonnington, who is on medical leave for the next few races, the Silver Arrow braintrust was able to collectively nurse Hamilton through his moments of doubt. Then they were rewarded by watching their ace driver easily hold off the pursuing Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel as the laps wound down. With the current Formula 1 spec being particularly ill-suited to close pursuit due to brake overheating issues and the ambient temperature at this extremely high altitude circuit close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the top 5 drivers had to essentially hold station during the last third of the Grand Prix. And so Hamilton was able to convert a P3 start, as well as surviving some opening lap wheel-banging with Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen, into Mercedes’ 100th overall F1 victory. It also left the English superstar just 4 points shy of his sixth title and all but guaranteed secure that milestone next week in Austin, Texas.

For archrival Ferrari it was day of missed opportunities. After being gifted a front row lockout when Verstappen was stripped of his pole position for inexplicably failing to slow under a waved yellow flag on the last lap of Saturday qualifying the legendary Scuderia decided to split their tire strategy between their two drivers, the pole-sitting Charles Leclerc and P2 starter Sebastian Vettel. Vettel would attempt the one-stopper, matching Hamilton but running deeper on his opening stint, and Leclerc went Medium to Medium tires on his first stop on Lap 16 , which meant he would definitely have to stop again. When Vettel finally pitted on Lap 37 after being held up by a battle between midfield runners Carlos Sainz of McLaren and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso, he switched from his starting set of Medium tires onto the Hard compound to finish the race. But he also emerged in P4, well behind his teammate Leclerc, who now led the race, as well as Hamilton’s P2 Mercedes and the third place Red Bull of Alexander Albon. A little over halfway through, it appeared the race was now Leclerc’s to lose.

But Ferrari managed to lose it for him. When Leclerc made his second stop for the mandatory switch to a second tire compound, for the Hards like the other front runners, the Prancing Horse pit crew uncharacteristically botched the tire change at the rear left, making for a 6.2 second stop, about four fat seconds longer than the other contenders. That shuffled Leclerc back behind Bottas in P4 and that was where he would finish the race. Vettel came home P2 behind the voctorius Hamilton and Bottas drove effectively after his big qualifying shunt to come home P3 after starting from sixth on the grid. That podium finish meant that Bottas also delayed the inevitable Hamilton coronation at least until the United States GP next week.

Albon drove arguably his best race since going the senior Red Bull team mid-season, keeping his nose clean and showing impressive race craft for a rookie to take P5. Albon’s teammate Verstappen saw his self-inflicted demotion from pole compounded by tangling with both Mercedes during the opening laps. The Dutch wunderkind lost positions after coming together with Hamilton going into Turn 1 and being bounced off track. He then suffering a total tire de-lamination while dicing with Bottas on Lap 5 when the Finn’s front wing contacted the Red Bull’s right rear. After crawling around the circuit en route to the pit lane for critically needed fresh rubber Verstappen emerged dead last. But he had a typically superb recovery drive to will his way all the way back up to P6 as the checkered flag waved. But Verstappen had to be rueing what might have been had he only used a bit more common sense throughout his ragged weekend in Mexico.

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2019 F1 Grand Prix of Mexico — Qualifying results

Verstappen takes lightning pole in Mexico City but faces investigation; Leclerc P2 & Vettel P3 for Ferrari, Hamilton P4 but P6 Bottas crashes heavily for Mercedes

Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen avenged last year’s disappointment when he was mere hundredths of second shy of pole position in Mexico City to outclass all other competitors and grab the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Mexican Grand Prix. However, Verstappen also set his fastest lap time as a yellow flag was being waved at the end of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s race after Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas crashed heavily while approaching the final turn. The Dutchman inexplicably failed to slow at all through the yellow zone despite already having a mega-fast banker lap that no one else could top. And so the stewards are investigating and Verstappen may face a penalty that once again denies him pole at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The pace of the Red Bull in Verstappen’s supremely skilled hands must have been a shock to Ferrari after dominating in all practices so far. But when it came time for the lap times to count and determine the grid rising star Charles Leclerc found himself about half a second behind the pole-sitting Red Bull despite absolutely throwing his Prancing Horse into corners and ostensibly starting alongside him in the front row at P2. Leclerc’s senior teammate Sebastian Vettel was third fastest while Mercedes seemed to struggle in the thin air of this high altitude venue and their ace Lewis Hamilton could do no better than P4. While Bottas was heavily winded by the harsh deceleration of his Silver Arrow’s impact head-on with a protruding Techpro barrier and was examined after sustaining such heavy G-forces he appeared unhurt. Such was not the case for his badly mauled Mercedes and while his initial time in Q3 before the shunt was good enough for a P6 start it’s possible the necessary rebuild might require enough parts replacements to push him to the back down the order or even force a start from the put lane come Sunday.

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon again showed his promise to qualify P5, while the improving McLaren team had another strong outing in their bid to lay claim to being “the best of the rest” with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris taking P7 and P8 respectively. Daniil Kvyat was P9 and an ailing Pierre Gasly was P10 for Toro Rosso to round out the top 10 starters in Mexico.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Mexican GP:

POSNODRIVERCARQ1Q2Q3LAPS
133Max VerstappenRED BULL RACING HONDA1:15.9491:16.1361:14.75816
216Charles LeclercFERRARI1:16.3641:16.2191:15.02418
35Sebastian VettelFERRARI1:16.6961:15.9141:15.17018
444Lewis HamiltonMERCEDES1:16.4241:15.7211:15.26220
523Alexander AlbonRED BULL RACING HONDA1:16.1751:16.5741:15.33618
677Valtteri BottasMERCEDES1:17.0621:15.8521:15.33818
755Carlos SainzMCLAREN RENAULT1:17.0441:16.2671:16.01419
84Lando NorrisMCLAREN RENAULT1:17.0921:16.4471:16.32220
926Daniil KvyatSCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA1:17.0411:16.6571:16.46922
1010Pierre GaslySCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA1:17.0651:16.6791:16.58622

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race will be broadcast live on ABC starting at 2:30 PM Eastern here in the States. We’ll have to wait till then to find out whether Verstappen keeps his coveted number one grid spot or faces sanctions from the stewards for not slowing under yellow that push him further back in the field to start the race. Hope to see you then!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Results & aftermath

Bottas cruises to victory in Japan after Vettel fumbles start; Hamilton P3 as Mercedes lock up 6th consecutive Constructors’ title

After being bested by Ferrari in a rare, Typhoon-necessiated Sunday morning Qualifying that saw the Prancing Horses of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc start the Japanese Grand Prix 1-2, Mercedes proved once again that when the points are really on the line they are still the team to beat in Formula 1. Vettel bogged down as the lights went out to start the race Sunday afternoon at the Suzuka Circuit, nearly but not quite jumping the start, and the Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas, quicker than his teammate Lewis Hamilton all weekend, pounced. The Finn launched beautifully to easily pass not just Vettel but also the P2 Leclerc, who quickly found himself wheel banging with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going into turn one. As Bottas sailed away, the Monegasque Ferrari man lost adhesion trying to defend while turning and smashed into Verstappen’s side pods, sending the Red Bull off track and causing damage that would eventually force the Dutchman to retire on Lap 15. That kerfuffle, which led to Leclerc being penalized and demoted after the race, also held up Hamilton, who had to brake to avoid the incident and was nearly side-swiped himself by the oncoming McLaren of Carlos Sainz. Those crucial delays back in the lead pack left Bottas free to fly with Vettel recovering enough to plant himself in a not very threatening P2, and the front-running Merc quickly built up a healthy lead that he would never really relinquish.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix.com

Meanwhile Leclerc was circulating with a damaged wing after the coming together with Verstsappen and spewing carbon fiber all over the track, as well as onto the pursuing Hamilton’s helmet and visor. Leclerc inexplicably defied calls to pit for a new wing until Lap 4, an impetuous decision that earned him yet another time penalty after the race. Meanwhile, when Vettel pitted at the end of Lap 16 for a second set of Soft Pirellis it became obvious that Ferrari would be running a 2-stop strategy for him. Bottas pitted a lap later for Medium tires, fulfilling the requirement to use at least two compounds, but the team also told him he would be running a 2-stopper eventually to match Ferrari’s lead man, while they would try to split strategy and run Hamilton on a one-stopper. That gave the intra-team advantage to Bottas, as the Suzuka circuit proved to be very tough on tires. So while Hamilton stayed out nominally leading the race until Lap 21 he was unable to gain any advantage whatsoever with his degraded rubber and in fact lost bucketloads of time relative to Bottas and Vettel on their fresh tires. The English points leader came out P3, well behind Vettel, and could be heard second-guessing his team as to why they hadn’t just put him on the Hard tires to try to make it to the end on a one-stop after all. But apparently the performance disadvantage of the Hards was just too great for Mercedes to take that gamble whatever their potential longevity advantage.

In the end Bottas came home for a relatively easy victory. A disappointed Vettel was able to hold off the furious late-race charge of Hamilton on fresh Soft tires by a mere four-tenths for P2. But while Hamilton was intensely frustrated by his third place finish and how the day played out to his teammate’s advantage, big picture-wise everyone at Mercedes had to be ecstatic with the double podium at Suzuka. That massive points haul secured the team’s unprecedented sixth consecutive Constructors’ Championship. Hamilton will have to wait a race or two to potentially clinch his own remarkable sixth Drivers’ title but Mighty Mercedes had done it again despite an increasingly effective second half challenge from Ferrari that simply came too late in the season.

The surviving Red Bull of Alexander Albon had a brilliant run to come home P4 and somewhat salvage the day for the team after Verstappen’s disappointing DNF.

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2019 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Results & aftermath

Ferrari outfox Mercedes in strategic Singapore GP as Vettel bests teammate Leclerc for win; Vertsappen P3

In a tense and highly strategic Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, where track position was king on the extremely tight Marina Bay Street Circuit, resurgent Ferrari made the right calls while Mercedes gambled and lost. Sebastian Vettel, who has had a run of poor races recently and been eclipsed by the rising star of his younger teammate Charles Leclerc, was called to the pits on Lap 20 to respond to the similarly timed pit stop of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While Leclerc was at that time leading the race and controlling the pace of the field from the front while nursing his tires, the Monegasque phenom had just passed the pit entrance when Ferrari’s brain trust saw that Verstappen’s crew were laying out tires for the Dutchman. Vettel, running just in front of Verstappen, happened to be right at the pit entrance, however, and fortuitously for him it was he who got the call to go for the undercut and ditch his Soft Pirelli’s for fresh Hard compound tires to hopefully get to the end of the race with only that one stop. It proved to be just the luck that Vettel, a four-time World Champion who frankly looked as if he had lost his touch in 2019, needed to get back to the top step of the podium and take a much-needed win to sooth his battered ego.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

While Vettel rejoined the race in P10 he emerged in front of Verstappen, plus all of the cars in front him had yet to pit, including his teammate Leclerc and the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. When Leclerc came in for his own set of Hard tires a lap later Vettel’s pace on fresh rubber on his out lap was good enough get him in front of his formerly front running teammate. The now irate Leclerc was now doomed to look at Vettel’s gearbox for the rest of the race and he complained bitterly about the team’s decision making, which had essentially switched him from P1 to second place. Meanwhile Mercedes rolled the dice with Hamilton, who now led the race. While they ran Bottas only until Lap 23 until pitting him they kept Hamilton running at the front despite ever declining pace in regards to the two Ferraris and Verstappen’s Red Bull. It slowly became apparent that the Mercedes pit wall was either hoping for a Safety Car to provide them with a cheap and quicker pit stop than the usual 27-second delta under green flag conditions or they were trying to calculate the precise moment when the twin Ferraris would run into the slower traffic in front of them, thereby making a standard pit stop not as costly to Hamilton’s track position when he blended back in. But in the end it didn’t pay off.

There was no Safety Car at this time — in fairness there would be a raft of them later in the race — so Hamilton pitted on Lap 26 and was only stationary for 2.4 seconds as his Hards went on. But the Ferrari’s were barely impeded by the traffic in front of them and when Hamilton emerged he was behind not only Vettel and Leclerc but also Verstappen’s Red Bull. He did beat his teammate out for P4 but this was somewhat engineered by team orders to Bottas to hang back and cede Hamilton that position. The Englishman’s only hope of getting back to a podium finish after starting from P2 on the grid was that he had newer tires than his rivals that would enable him to make some passes at the end of the grueling 61-lap contest. But three Safety Car periods in the last 25 laps put paid to that hope and while the elite cars in the top five could pass inferior machines in twisty old Marina Bay none of the elite top five could pass each other. Vettel controlled his post-Safety Car restarts masterfully and kept his hungry and angry young teammate behind him to come away with his first F1 win since Belgium last year, a much needed salve to his frayed confidence. Leclerc had to settle for a somewhat hard-luck P2 and saw his win streak end at two. But it was an outstanding day for the famed Scuderia from Maranello, as they showed that the Prancing Horses could be fast not only on the wide open country tracks of Europe but also a high downforce street circuit like Singapore.

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2019 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Results & aftermath

Leclerc scores maiden F1 win as Ferrari bests Mercedes in Belgium; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Silver Arrows

In the first race back from the summer break and on a sunny Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps that was dimmed by the tragic death of up and coming Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert in the feature race on Saturday, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made good on the flashes of brilliance he has so often shown this season to score his maiden Formula 1 victory at one of the most legendary circuits on the calendar. The Prancing Horses finally put together their pace advantage with enough aero efficiency and reliability to best the normally supreme Silver Arrows of Mercedes. Leclerc started from pole and his senior teammate Sebastian Vettel began in P2 after Ferrari locked out the front row in Saturday qualifying, forcing Mercedes to play catch-up with their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas starting in P3 and P4 respectively. Hamilton was able to better Vettel late in the race to seize P2 and then did an outstanding job closing the gap to Leclerc. But the Englishman ran out of laps and had to settle for a second place finish, which hardly did his massive points lead in the Drivers’ Championship any harm whatsoever. Bottas, who was re-signed by Mercedes for another year during the break, finished P3.

Despite finishing off the podium in P4 Vettel did yeoman’s work for his team. After being the first of the top runners to pit on Lap 16 and doffing his starting Soft Pirelli’s for the more durable Mediums, Vettel inherited the lead when first his teammate, then Hamilton and then Bottas pitted on the successive laps of 21, 22 and 23. But rather than fighting to keep the lead Vettel played the good solider and gifted P1 back to Leclerc on Lap 26. The proud German 4-time champion then played a superb rear gunner role for Leclerc’s benefit holding up Hamilton for several laps before finally being passed on the Kimmel Straight on Lap 32. It was an unusual show of selflessness for any F1 driver let alone Vettel and must have been appreciated by the team. But having pitted so early, with the team perhaps banking in a late Safety Car that never materialized, Vettel was doomed to stop again for fresh rubber on Lap 34 while the top 3 sailed away from his grasp.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The race got off to a choppy start with a nasty tangle between Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going into Turn 1 at La Source. The result was floor damage for Raikkonen but a catastrophic steering failure for Verstappen that sent the Dutchman spearing off into the barriers at the top of the hill. Thankfully Verstappen was uninjured but his day was over almost before it began, putting an end to a superb recent run that saw him win two of the previous four contests, as well as his finishing streak of 25 consecutive top 5 finishes. The ensuing Safety Car period was too early to benefit anyone strategically and only lasted until the end of Lap 4.

Outside of the elite Top 4 and with Verstappen and Raikkonen’s misfortunes blowing the points positions wide open McLaren’s Lando Norris looked to score a massive P5 result after his teammate Carlos Sainz suffered a breakdown on Lap 3. But Norris’s car died on the start finish straight on the last lap of this 44 lap tilt. So the heartbroken rookie could only watch as car after car was able to finish in front of him and he slid down the order and out of the points in P11. The main beneficiary of Norris’s agony was Alexander Albon, making his debut for Red Bull after being promoted from Toro Rosso during the summer break. Albon gladly took that P5 position, while Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso opportunistically grabbed P6 and P7 respectively.  Nico Hulkenberg salvaged at least a little something for struggling Renault with an eighth place finish despite the fact that he will not be returning to the factory team next year. The second Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, who was demoted back down from Red Bull to make room for Albon, soothed his injured pride just a little bit with a P9 result. And the second Racing Point of Lance Stroll took the last points paying position by coming home in P10 after wheel banging his way past Haas’ Romain Grosjean late in the race.

Top 10 finishers of the Belgian Gran Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 44 1:23:45.710 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 44 +0.981s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 44 +12.585s 15
4 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 44 +26.422s 13
5 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 44 +81.325s 10
6 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 44 +84.448s 8
7 26 Daniil Kvyat SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 44 +89.657s 6
8 27 Nico Hulkenberg RENAULT 44 +106.639s 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 44 +109.168s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 44 +109.838s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time at the similarly legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit right in Ferrari’s backyard. With the Scuderia on the ascent that high speed circuit should suit the Prancing Horses’ straight line advantage and the tifosi will be looking for an even better result from their pilots at the expense of mighty Mercedes. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Results & aftermath

Hamilton redeems Mercedes’ 2-stop gamble by hunting down Verstappen Red Bull for victory late in the game; Ferrari’s Vettel & Leclerc P3 & P4 but miles off the pace

The last race before the summer break turned into a thrilling affair in Hungary on Sunday, with Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen seeking to win his first race from pole and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton looking for redemption after a disastrously sloppy run at a rainy Hockenheim a week ago. It all came down to a crucial strategy call by the Silver Arrows braintrust that even the supremely skilled Hamilton was uncertain would succeed. With an insurmountable lead to the trailing Ferraris behind him and having wrung the life out his Hard Pirellis chasing down Verstappen in the lead for 18 laps, his best attempts to pass all thwarted, Mercedes gambled and called Hamilton back in for a fresh set of Medium tires on Lap 49. The strategists had worked the sums and believed that Hamilton’s fresher and better performing rubber would be able to make up huge chunks of time on the Dutchman, who was running a conventional one-stopper and had switched to the Hards off of Mediums way back on Lap 25. While it took several laps to begin paying off and Hamilton voiced his doubts about the call during that limbo period the maneuver finally started coming good on Lap 59 when the delta between Hamilton’s tire performance increase and Vertsappen’s aging Pirrellis’ drop off began to intersect.

At first it crept up to over a second a lap pace advantage for Hamilton. By Lap 65 the English defending champion was more than 2 seconds a lap faster than the struggling Vertasppan, who could do nothing to avert his fate at the front of the race. With the Red Bulls’ tires completely shagged, Hamilton made an easy pass down into Turn 1 on Lap 67 to take the lead with three laps remaining at the Hungaroring. Verstappen subsequently dove to the pits on Lap 68 to change to Soft tires and set the fastest lap for the bonus point but it was cold comfort for the surging prodigy, who was looking for his third victory in the last four GP, as well as running then table in Hungary after his first-ever career pole position. But Verstppen was a victim of his success to a degree and the team were unwilling to roll the dice on throwing away his front-running track position with a like-for-like stop when Hamilton hit the pits for his second stop. So Hamilton rewarded team Mercedes’ excellent strategy gamble with qualifying lap after qualifying lap to take the win and restore what the 5-time champ will certainly see as the natural pecking order of F1 in 2019. But one thing is for certain — Verstappen in the intpoving Red Bull versus Hamilton in the on-the-limit Mercedes is the fight that every Formula1 fan has been anticipating for some time now. If the second half of the season is going to be anything like these last several tight races that battle is going to be epic.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

It was certainly not all good news for Mercedes, or Red Bull for that matter. Their second driver, Valtteri Bottas, who appears to be genuinely at risk for keeping his factory Merc seat, had just the start he didn’t need after out-qualifying Hamilton in P2. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Germany — Results & aftermath

Verstappen reigns supreme in wet & wild German GP; Vettel battles back from 20th to P2; Kvyat an unlikely P3 as treacherous Turn 16 brings disaster for Mercedes, Leclerc

Sunday’s German Grand Prix from a wet and wooly Hockenheimring had a chaotic throwback feel from beginning to end. But Red Bull’s wunderkind Max Verstappen outlasted all other rivals in the trickiest of mixed conditions to add another stunning victory to his increasingly impressive resume. The young Dutchman showed again why he is considered the future of Formula 1, as he put on another masterclass of wet weather driving. He even overcame a spin to vanquish the elements, the circuit and his rivals en route to the win, his second in the last three contests. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel salvaged the Scuderia’s day at the races after their young challenger, Charles Leclerc, crashed out midway through the race. Vettel kept his cool even when his car did not seem to be working that well and piloted his Prancing Horse from the back of the field and twentieth on the grid, where he was relegated after a turbo issue caused him to miss Saturday qualifying entirely, all the way up to a P2 finish. It was a remarkable turnaround for the 4-time champion and may give Vettel the confidence boost he needs after a hard luck first half of the 2019 campaign. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat earned the the last place of the podium with a stellar P3 finish, a dark horse result if there ever was one and a great moment for both the new father and the Toro Rosso team.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Meanwhile Mercedes had a disastrous day as they suffered the rare ignominy of both their cars finishing out of the points.* How it all unfolded was as surprising as it was dramatic. The race began with formation laps under the Safety Car on the wet circuit which had been drenched with rain about forty minutes prior to the start of the race. That trimmed four laps off the scheduled 67-lap race distance but no customers would be asking for a refund when the day was done. With the whole field starting on full Wet Pirelli rain tires as the lights finally went out for the start, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton got away cleanly from pole and his teammate Valtteri Bottas swamped Verstappen to grab P2 when the Red Bull man spun his rears and bogged down. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen even bettered Verstappen’s start, though the Dutchman quickly retook P3 from the veteran Finn. The chaos to follow was foreshadowed when Racing Point’s Sergio Perez spun and crashed out bringing out the first of many Safety Cars of the day. That sent the main contenders scrambling to the pits for Intermediate tires on a track that was very damp but no longer soaking wet. It was the right call as the time difference between those who stayed out on full wets and those who changed to Inters quickly proved.

The next chapter in this epic occurred when Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault blew an engine on Lap 15 and prompted a Virtual Safety Car. That sent Charles Leclerc diving to the pits for fresh Inters, a clever call by a Ferrari team that has often not made those this year. Continue reading →