Michael Lamonato, FIA-accredited journalist and host of the F1 Strategy Report, joined Matt Grubelich to review the Formula 1 race out of Belgium.
Max Verstappen wins again, this time from sixth on the grid, with almost embarrassing ease ahead of brief race leader Sergio PĂ©rez in the sister Red Bull Racing car.
Max Verstappen claimed a comfortable victory from sixth on the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Perez had started from the front row and snatched the lead from polesitter Charles Leclerc at the end of the Kemmel straight on the first lap control the race early on. But Verstappen was already up to fourth by then, behind Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, and the Dutchman was targeting the top step.
The championship leader bided his time to make his moves. On lap 6 he snatched third from Hamilton at the end of the Kemmel straight, and on three laps later he mugged Leclerc on the brakes to take second place around the outside of Les Combes.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen take sprint pole and victory on another tricky wet day at Spa-Francorchamps despite losing the lead shortly after the start.
Max Verstappen dominates a rain-affected qualifying but won’t start on pole position thanks to a five-place gearbox penalty.
Max Verstappen dominated qualifying on a drying track for the Belgian Grand Prix but will cede pole position to Charles Leclerc thanks to a gearbox penalty.
Despite a Q2 scare that saw him barely scrape through to the pole shootout in 10th, Verstappen mastered the slicks-on-damp conditions of Q3 to take top spot by an imperious 0.82s. But the Dutchman must serve a five-place grid penalty for unsealing his fifth set of gearbox components, one more than allowed for the season, which will drop him to sixth on the grid and promote Leclerc to pole on Sunday.
“Last year I had more penalties and we could still with the race,” Verstappen said, recalling his drive from 13th to victory. “That’s still the target on Sunday.”
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz topped the sole practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix in heavy rain as Formula 1 contemplates potential alternatives to running qualifying on Friday afternoon.
Rain fell constantly and with varying intensity through the sprint weekend’s only hour of practice, making it impossible to draw meaningful comparisons between the teams and drivers. Only 15 drivers were able to set a lap, but most were unrepresentative, with more than 10 seconds covering the spread.
Five drivers, including championship leader Max Verstappen, failed to set a time, with only a pair of installation laps to his name.
Continue reading on RACERAll eyes are on the radar, with rain forecast to disrupt running on all three days at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Total domination. Max Verstappen storms to a half-minute victory in Hungary to give Red Bull Racing a record-breaking 12th straight win. Featuring F1 commentator Alex Jacques.
Pit Talk — Dan gets his comeback as Red Bull Racing claims a slice of history: Hungarian GP review
Max Verstappen claims Red Bull Racing’s 12th consecutive victory, a new benchmark for dominance in Formula 1. McLaren gets another second place in a big boost to the British team. And Daniel Ricciardo ticks some big boxes on an understated impressive first race back.
Michael Lamonato, FIA-accredited journalist and host of the F1 Strategy Report, joined Matt Grubelich to chat the news and topics following the Hungarian Gran Prix, where Max Verstappen has once again claimed victory.
Max Verstappen leads Red Bull Racing to a new record for domination, claiming the team’s 12th-straight win, one more than the legendary benchmark by McLaren set in 1988.
Lewis Hamilton says he’s been operating beneath his usual competitive standard despite not having the car to take the fight to the leaders.
The Briton beat Max Verstappen to a shock pole by just 0.003s on Saturday to set up a potentially fascinating battle, but a slow start opened the door to a bold move on the brakes by the Dutchman to assume the lead into the first corner.
Verstappen went on to claim a 33s victory, the largest since Hamilton won the 2021 Russian Grand Prix by almost a minute. Hamilton eventually trailed home fourth, 39s off the lead.
Continue reading on RACERMcLaren boss Andrea Stella is buoyed by McLaren’s second consecutive podium finish but isn’t willing to call his team a permanent front-running fixture without a bigger sample size of circuits.
The team is enjoying a powerful resurgence from the midfield into the leading pack thanks to a major three-part upgrade package, the first phase of which was brought to the car at the Austrian Grand Prix at the start of the month.
Lando Norris qualified and finished fourth at the Red Bull Ring before leading teammate Oscar Piastri to a 2-3 qualification and 2-4 finish at the British Grand Prix on the following weekend.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has lauded his team for breaking the 35-year-old record for successive victories previously held by McLaren.
Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was the 12th in a row for Red Bull Racing, dating back to last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, taking it one race clear of McLaren’s 1988 record.
The legendary 1988 McLaren MP4/4 won 11 straight grands prix in an almost perfect season in which Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined to claim 15 of 16 race victories.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has won his seventh successive grand prix in a masterclass performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The victory was Red Bull Racing’s 12th in a row, eclipsing the previous record set by McLaren in 1988.
Verstappen started second on the grid alongside pole-getter Lewis Hamilton but wasted no time snatching the lead into the first turn. The Dutchman was daring on the brakes into the hairpin, defying a Hamilton squeeze to emerge from the apex with first place.
Continue reading on RACERDaniel Ricciardo outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda at the Hungarian Grand Prix, his first race back in Formula 1, but is keeping expectations in check for what he expects to be a grand prix of difficult lessons.
Ricciardo recorded AlphaTauri’s best qualifying result in five races when he put his car 13th on the grid in Budapest, a result that eclipsed all but one of predecessor Nyck de Vries’s Saturday performances.
It also put him four places ahead of new teammate Tsunoda, who was knocked out of qualifying in Q1, albeit with a time just 0.013s slower than the Australian in a super-tight session.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton breaks his 20-month pole drought, taking his 104th top-qualifying spot just 0.003 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.