Valtteri Bottas bested teammate Lewis Hamilton in a dusty opening practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair were split by just 0.076s after an hour on track, the Finn setting the pace with a time of 1m18.341s, but Briton will face a post-session stewards investigation for running wide at Turn 1 and cutting across the grass to rejoin at Turn 3 without driving wide around the traffic cone as required.
Max Verstappen — heavy favorite for victory ahead of the weekend on account of Red Bull Racing’s form at this track — was third and just 0.123s off the headline pace.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has confidently topped Friday afternoon practice for Red Bull Racing at the Mexico City Grand Prix while title rival Lewis Hamilton struggled with set-up.
Verstappen’s best time of 1m 17.301s was almost half a second quicker than anyone else. Valtteri Bottas, fastest in the morning session, was next in the order, but the Finn was 0.424s off the pace.
Lewis Hamilton trailed in third and 0.085s further back after a messy session for the reigning champion and 2019 Mexico winner. He had an early lap time deleted for setting a time during double waved yellow flags before destroying a set of hard tires with a lock-up into Turn 1.
Continue reading on RACERMichael Lamonato caught up with Matt Grubelich on Sports Drive to preview this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix
The margin is only 12 points, but with three Red Bull Racing-friendly circuits scheduled for the next three weeks, Max Verstappen is within touching distance of a historic championship victory over Lewis Hamilton.
With the Formula 1 title to be decided by a two-race showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, we’re joined by Ben Hunt, F1 journalist from the Sun newspaper in the UK, to look at how Hamilton has dragged himself back into contention, Mercedes’s late-season surge, and the escalating tension between rival team principals Toto Wolff and Christian Horner.
Long-time Dutch Formula 1 commentator and media figure Olav Mol looks at the rise of Max Verstappen in the Netherlands, explains the massive support behind the Red Bull Racing star’s world championship quest and offers his thoughts on the head-to-head title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Helmut Marko gives his unbiased opinion that Max Verstappen deserves to be miles ahead in the championship already. Three of the remaining five tracks aren’t finished for some reason. We talk about Fox News unexpectedly.
We pay our respects to Sir Frank Williams, and in a preview of the final two rounds of the season we catch up with Autosport F1 reporter Luke Smith to talk about his alleged passion for maple syrup and AFL football.
Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton at his own game to claim victory in a nailbiting United States Grand Prix, reasserting himself as the championship favourite in this dramatic season.
Rosberg X Racing puts one hand on the Extreme E championship with victory in the Enel X Island X Prix after the car-destroying Sardinia course broke steering and hearts at Chip Ganassi Racing. We hear from Professor Lucy Woodall on the role of climate change in the natural disasters afflicting the Mediterranean. James and Michael come up with a new tagline for the series.
Michael Lamonato caught up with Matt Grubelich on Sports Drive to review all the thrills from the United States Grand Prix in Texas.
As part of National Safe Work Month in Australia, FIA Formula 1 medical rescue coordinator Dr Ian Roberts and FIA Formula 1 medical car driver Alan van der Merwe discuss their differing paths to their roles, the biggest safety advances in F1 and how they helped Romain Grosjean survive his dramatic crash in Bahrain last year, while we review Sunday’s US Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen fends off a charging Lewis Hamilton to take a strategically aggressive but perfectly judged victory in Austin and double his points lead. Featuring F1 journalist Abhishek Takle.
We consider the thrill of using a telephone, the humanity of competitive spam eating and the majesty of a giant dancing Heineken bottle.
Cracking F1 race in the US this morning — Max wins, Lewis second and Shaq just being Shaq. Michael Lamonato joins us on Rowsey’s Sports Show.
Max Verstappen scored an impressive victory over Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling United States Grand Prix, and with five rounds to go and a handy points lead, it could have been a championship defining race too.
The United States Grand Prix was almost a microcosm of the season to date. Form swung wildly between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing from first practice to the chequered flag, and in the end there was practically nothing between Verstappen and Hamilton on track. Either could have walked away a worthy winner.
But tiny percentage called got the job done for the challengers to put Verstappen in a strong position atop the title table, and Red Bull Racing closed its deficit to Mercedes in the constructors stakes to re-enliven its hops of a title double.
BACKGROUND
Around a month ago the Circuit of the Americas would have been considered a neutral venue for the two leading teams, favouring neither over the other. Two weeks ago it had moved into the Mercedes column thanks to the German marque’s performance at Istanbul Park, a track that makes similar demands of the car.
After first practice those more recent predictions appeared sure to come true. Mercedes led Red Bull Racing by almost a second, its car looking substantially more at ease through the high-speed corners in particular.
But the unexpected heat of the weekend, above 30°C, and the bumpiness of the track meant major changes were required for both cars overnight.
Mercedes had to raise its ride height so as to not risk floor damage, particularly on full tanks, while Red Bull Racing had Sebastien Buemi spend the night in the simulator at Milton Keynes to identify superior set-ups.
When the cards were put on the table on Saturday it was RBR and Verstappen who emerged with the better package.
But there was uncertainty around how these changes would affect race pace, particularly on the hard tyre. Knowing early that the hard compound would be key to a likely two-stop race, few drivers sampled the white-walled tyre, saving them instead for Sunday at the expense of understanding its longevity.
THE RACE-WINNING MOVE
For a moment it seemed Verstappen’s race would be undone in a moment, with Hamilton acing his start to take the lead at the first turn, but it quickly became clear that the W12 was no match for the RB16B on the medium tyre. Verstappen could easily follow Hamilton, even noting how much the Briton was sliding around on his overheating rubber.
But rather than try to launch a move or hang back and let Hamilton chew his tyres, Verstappen was handed the aggressive option of an early pit stop, coming in for the hard tyre on lap 10.
Mercedes was forced to make a decision: cover the early stop or stick it out on the ailing medium tyres. Without the benefit of having run the hards in practice, the team assumed they’d be similarly as delicate as the medium and that therefore splitting 46 laps between a pair of them would be too much to ask of the rubber. … Continue reading
Max Verstappen has treated a sell-out Austin crowd to a nailbiting last-lap victory over Lewis Hamilton at the United States Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen withstood a late Lewis Hamilton lunge for victory to record a nail-biting win at the United States Grand Prix.
The two title contenders were running different tire strategies that brought them together on track for the final two laps of the race, with Verstappen defending on eight-lap-older tires.
Hamilton clung to the back of the Red Bull Racing car but struggled to break through the DRS threshold ahead of the straights, Verstappen nailing his launches to keep himself just far enough ahead to maintain a gap, taking the flag by 1.3s.
Continue reading on RACER