Last September Sebastian Vettel was locked in a volatile battle for supremacy inside a nascent Ferrari, but just 12 months later the four-time champion has stitched up a deal to flee the sinking scarlet ship for greener pastures.
Thailand’s Alex Albon at long last stepped onto a Formula One podium at Mugello, but will it be enough to keep him in his plum Red Bull Racing seat?
When Alex Albon opened his microphone after crossing the finish line third at the Tuscan Grand Prix he showed none of the exhilaration you might have expected from a racer at their first podium.
“Thank you, everyone; thanks for everything,” he radioed. “Thanks for sticking with me.”
I review the action from the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix with Nate Saunders from ESPN.
Knowing corner names makes you neither interesting nor cool. Lewis Hamilton break Valtteri Bottas’s spirit. Sebastian Vettel leaves Ferrari for Jordan. We appropriate some more IP for personal gain.
Formula One’s first visit to Mugello didn’t disappoint, serving up a chaotic grand prix sure to be one of this strange season’s most enduring memories.
On first reading the composition of the podium — two Mercedes drivers and a Red Bull Racing car — is unremarkable, but this was a siege of a grand prix, with only 12 cars made it to the chequered after almost two and a half hours and two red-flag restarts.
Three huge crashes defined this race. The first came on lap one when Kimi Raikkonen rear-ended Max Verstappen into the gravel and retirement at Luco, the Finn having made contact with Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean. Gasly was momentarily airborne and was too eliminated from the race.
Lewis Hamilton is one win short of equalling Michael Schumacher’s F1 victory record after triumphing at a chaotic Tuscan Grand Prix, while Alex Albon became Thailand’s first podium-getter with a strong third place.
F1 first visit to Mugello was high attrition, featuring two red flag interruptions and several multi-car crashes that left only 12 drivers still running when the chequered flag fell.
Hamilton wielded the disruption to his advantage. After losing pole to fast-starting teammate Valtteri Bottas on the first lap, he was able to seize back the lead at the first standing restart to break the Finn’s challenge.
Lewis Hamilton is one win away from Michael Schumacher’s all-time victory record after claiming his 90th F1 triumph in a marathon Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
Continue reading on RACERFormula One’s first visit to Mugello delivered the same old result: Lewis Hamilton leading a comfortable Mercedes front-row lockout with Max Verstappen leading the Red Bull Racing charge from third.
The rapid bends of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello have proved universally popular among drivers as an ‘old-school’ circuit. The track has a real flow to it, aided in part by the varying elevation, and the combination of abrasive tarmac, gravel run-off and close barriers makes this an all-round test of driving ability.
In some resects the 2020-spec F1 car is almost too fast for the circuit. So much is flat out — almost the entire middle sector is open throttle — that the driver can only make a meaningful difference to performance at the first and third splits.
Lewis Hamilton has snatched pole position for the Tuscan Grand Prix from teammate Valtteri Bottas after a yellow flag truncated the top-10 shootout at Mugello.
Hamilton had nosed ahead of Bottas after their first laps but had failed to improve with his final lap to seal the deal. However, Bottas was forced to abandon his own second lap when Renault’s Esteban Ocon spun his car through the gravel ahead of him at Poggio Secco, handing his teammate pole.
The Finn had clean swept all three practice sessions before qualifying, and Hamilton admitted to feeling on the back foot in the fight for pole.
As he did in both Friday sessions, Valtteri Bottas led the way in Free Practice 3 sessions for Mercedes at Mugello ahead of qualifying for the Tuscan Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas was fastest again for Mercedes in a hot second practice session for the Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello. Bottas took the top spot from teammate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 0.207s.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton claimed the inaugural pole of the Tuscan Grand Prix after a yellow flag interrupted the end of qualifying.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas set the fastest lap at F1’s first official timed session at Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello for the Tuscan Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERI preview the upcoming Belgian, Italian and Tuscan grands prix with last year’s podcast guests Jack Nicholls from BBC F1 and Luca Manacorda from Motorbox.com.