Valtteri Bottas will start the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole position after beating Max Verstappen to sprint victory in Interlagos. Lewis Hamilton, who started at the back of the grid after being thrown out of qualifying with an illegal rear wing, gained 15 places to finish fifth.
Bottas got a great launch with soft tires from second on the grid while polesitter Verstappen struggled on the mediums. By Turn 1 the Finn was easily into the lead, leaving the Dutchman to fend off advances from Carlos Sainz, who slipped into second exiting Turn 4, where the Red Bull ran wide on cold tires.
It took a couple of laps for the medium rubber to warm up in the cool temperature, the track sinking to just 95 degrees F after a warmer morning practice. By the end of lap three Verstappen was sizing up Sainz for second, taking back the place from the Spaniard on the pit straight and into Turn 1, before chipping away to Bottas’s lead, the leaders sprinting around a second a lap quicker than the field.
Continue reading on RACERFernando Alonso has topped a warm final practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix while stewards investigations into Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen remains unresolved just hours before the sprint.
Alonso was 0.864s quicker than the under-investigation Verstappen at the top of the order, but his best lap of 1m11.238s was substantially off the pace of either session on Friday. FP2 during sprint weekends is run under parc ferme conditions, confining its usefulness to long runs rather than ultimate pace or set-up changes.
Verstappen was summoned to the stewards in the hours before final practice began for touching Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing after qualifying, an apparent breach of the FIA international sporting code, but no decision had been made before the end of practice.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton dominated qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix but is at risk of being disqualified from the results over an alleged technical infringement.
Lewis Hamilton will head the field for the Saturday sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after beating Max Verstappen by almost half a second.
The Briton never looked likely to be beaten in qualifying after being comfortably fastest in opening practice. Both his laps in Q3 were quick enough to top the session, and his final attempt, a 1m07.934s was 0.438s better than Verstappen’s scruffy fastest lap.
It was the first time Hamilton has topped qualifying since the Hungarian Grand Prix in August and only the fourth time he’s been fastest this season, though the sprint weekend format and his five-place grid penalty for a new engine mean he won’t be credited with pole position.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton topped title leader Max Verstappen by 0.367s in the crucial first practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ahead of Friday qualifying.
The Briton, who is running a new internal combustion engine that will cost him five places on Sunday’s grid, was unhappy with his car’s performance for most of the session, particularly on the medium tire, and his team had to make front suspension adjustments to address what he described as a bouncing front end before sending him out on softs.
His first flying lap on soft tires wasn’t enough to get near Verstappen’s one hot lap on the same compound. A second attempt got him 0.069s ahead, and his third run on softs stretched the margin to 0.367s.
Continue reading on RACERA maiden championship is within touching distance for Max Verstappen after a Mexico masterclass, and only victory in Brazil this weekend will keep Lewis Hamilton in striking distance.
Absolute domination. Max Verstappen trashes Lewis Hamilton on his way to victory in Mexico City to put one hand on the 2021 drivers championship. Featuring Thomas Maher from RacingNews365.com.
FIA Formula 1 race director and safety delegate Michael Masi joins us to reflect on a chaotic three years in the job, discuss the biggest misconceptions about his role and talk about the revamped Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit set to host the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2022, while we review Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen.
We agree to investigate the viability of a chicken parma NFT, Rob worries about insulting Daryl Somers and Michael concludes 20 seconds is enough time to talk about all the action in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Michael Lamonato caught up with Matt Grubelich on Sports Drive to share his analysis on the Formula 1 Mexico GP from this morning.
Max Verstappen is closing in on his first Formula 1 world championship, and with a dominant performance in the Mexico City Grand Prix the Dutchman and Red Bull Racing stamped their authority on the 2021 season.
Catie Munnings’ rise has been as rapid as her pace behind the wheel, and whether it’s debuting in the European Rally Championship while still taking her final-year exams or becoming a TV presenter to fund her racing career, there’s nothing she does by half measures.
In 2021 she’s had a new reason to go flat out, taking up a position as one of Andretti United’s drivers in the inaugural Extreme E season, and with Timmy Hansen she became a race winner in Greenland. James and Michael caught up with Catie after the Arctic X Prix to talk about that victory and her newfound appreciation for pizza dough.
Plus we hear from Professor Lucy Woodall from the Extreme E scientific committee about the danger of microplastics and the role of plastic production in the climate crisis.
Max Verstappen has dealt a blow to Lewis Hamilton’s title chances with a comfortable 16-second victory in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen turned third on the grid into an easy victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix to extend his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman used the powerful slipstream on the 880-yard run from the start to the first braking zone to sweep effortlessly around the outside of polesitter Valtteri Bottas and into a lead he would relinquish only during the pit stop window.
It was a sweet start for Red Bull Racing but a disaster for Mercedes. Bottas and Hamilton had shared the front row, but Bottas’s limp defense at the first turn had him passed by his teammate and left him exposed to contact on the Turn 1 apex with Daniel Ricciardo, who had attempted to reserve the space for his McLaren.
Continue reading on RACERYou’d have got long odds as late as Saturday morning on Mercedes taking pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, but come the end of Q3 Valtteri Bottas had turned the form guide on its head — if anyone’s bothering to refer to the prediction book these days.
Valtteri Bottas has beaten Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to pole position for a surprise Mercedes front-row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Mercedes has secured a shock front row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.145s.
The German marque looked down and out throughout practice, but apparent problems with Red Bull Racing’s rear wing set up Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to underperform through the crucial grid-setting hour.
Black tape appeared on the ends of the rear wing flap on Verstappen’s car in response to apparent structural problems discovered during practice. The team subsequently neglected to engineer a slipstream with Sergio Perez on the first lap, handing Mercedes an opportunity to snatch provisional pole.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez consolidated Red Bull Racing’s stranglehold on the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time of Saturday practice, while Mercedes struggled to hit the sweet spot ahead of qualifying.
The Mexican ratcheted up expectations among his fanatical home crowd with a lap of 1m17.024s late in the session on a used set of medium tires, taking a 0.193s advantage over the sister car.
Verstappen set only one flying lap in the final four minutes of the hour, — having been waylaid in his garage for apparent damage at the rear of the car — and it was messy, the Dutchman complaining of an unexpected lack of grip.
Continue reading on RACER