Mercedes has won an unprecedented seventh consecutive constructors championship with a Lewis Hamilton-led one-two victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola.
Continue reading on RACERFormula One’s first two-day weekend takes place at one motor racing’s great venues: Imola, the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, where an interesting race awaits.
The format change to expunge Friday practice from the schedule fulfils two aims. The first is to reduce the logistical burden of road travel between Portugal and Italy for back-to-back weekends, particularly with the background of COVID-19 restrictions.
The second reason has potentially far-reach consequences — the evaluation of the viability of a shortened format to ease the burden of individual races in exchange for cramming more events into a season.
Valtteri Bottas will start from pole position ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in F1’s first race in Imola in 14 years.
Bottas trailed Hamilton by 0.031 seconds after their first laps of the top-10 shootout, but a 0.2-second improvement with his second lap turned that into a 0.097-second advantage at the flag, delivering him his fourth pole of the season.
“I knew in the last lap I had to risk it and go hard and the car responded,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to get pole. I had the shakes afterwards!”
Valtteri Bottas snatched a fourth 2020 pole position from teammate Lewis Hamilton to lead a Mercedes front-row lockout at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton positioned himself for pole at Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after topping the weekend’s only practice session.
Continue reading on RACERHamilton’s record 92nd victory was won in emphatic fashion, but his wasn’t the only example of individual brilliance at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
I review the action from the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix with Chris Medland from Racer.
Felipe Massa remembers his days as Michael Schumacher’s teammate at Ferrari, compares Schumacher with Lewis Hamilton after Hamilton broke Schumacher’s F1® win record in Portugal, and recalls his title near-miss at home in the unforgettable 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton wins his 92nd grand prix, Alex Albon gets stuck in a chimney and Lance Stroll gets the sheds (sic).
This was Lewis Hamilton’s biggest victory margin of the season, but you wouldn’t have predicted it at the end of the first lap, when he’d dropped to third from pole and was struggling to get his tyres fired up in the blustery, drizzly conditions.
F1 first competitive visit to Portimão for the Portuguese Grand Prix provided yet another interesting challenge for drivers and teams. Not only was Algarve in full swing of an autumnal transition, but recent resurfacing work left the circuit extremely slippery.
Though that combination lost Hamilton places off the line, those tricky conditions also put an emphasis on the driver to carefully and precisely manage the race from the cockpit. The Briton rose spectacularly to that challenge to not simply resume the lead from teammate Valtteri Bottas but turn in his biggest win of the year.
Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver in Formula One history after claiming a record-breaking 92nd victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimão.
Hamilton started from pole but in drizzly conditions slipped to third at the end of the first lap behind teammate Valtteri Bottas and the fast-starting McLaren of Carlos Sainz.
But the blip lasted only until Hamilton managed to get some heat into his tyres in the overcast and blustery weather. He and Bottas resumed their place at the front of the pack by lap seven, and by lap 20 the Briton had built enough momentum to pass the Finn to take back the lead.
Lewis Hamilton scored a record 92nd Formula 1 victory at a canter at the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Briton took the checkered flag a comfortable 25s ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas to break Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins.
Continue reading on RACERFor the second grand prix in a row Formula One teams will embark on a race distance without the volume of race simulation data that normally dictates strategy.
Whereas at the Nürburgring bad weather cancelled Friday running, in Portimão it was a series of red flags that robbed teams of most of the valuable second practice session after they’d already surrendered 30 minutes to Pirelli for 2021 tyre testing.
On a freshly resurfaced circuit still sufficiently oily that track evolution is seemingly random and unpredictable, the dearth of practice data means teams and drivers will tackle the race on gut instinct.
Lewis Hamilton will target a record-breaking 92nd F1 victory when he starts from pole position at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimão.
The Briton took his 97th career pole position with a strategic masterstroke, fuelling his car for an extra flying lap at the death when his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, took enough fuel for only one.
Bottas was holding provisional pole when the pair left pit lane for the final runs of qualifying, but though the Finn successfully fended off Hamilton’s first attempt to wrest top spot from him, he was powerless to reply to the Briton’s second flying lap.
Lewis Hamilton bested teammate Valtteri Bottas at the last moment to claim pole for the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas completed a clean sweep of practice sessions for Mercedes at the Portuguese Grand Prix but Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing look poised to threaten for pole.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas stayed quickest for Mercedes after two red flags prevented drivers from completing their practice programs in the second practice session for the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas set the early pace in Formula 1’s first official session in Portimao for the Portuguese Grand Prix.
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