Max Verstappen took pole for the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix with a confident performance that had all the hallmarks of a title favourite.
Max Verstappen will aim for a third win in four races after claiming a comfortable pole at Austria’s Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen blitzed qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix to put Red Bull Racing on pole at the Red Bull Ring. The Dutchman needed only his first flying lap in the top-10 shootout to set an unassailable time of 1m03.841s ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton attempted to improve with his second flyer, but congestion in the final sector of his warm-up lap left him ill prepared and the Briton could not improve.
Instead it was Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes who emerged as Verstappen’s challenger after a compromised first lap, but though the Finn set three personal best sectors, he was still 0.194s shy of the benchmark.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton broke Max Verstappen’s practice streak by topping the final session ahead of qualifying at the Styrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s best time of 1m04.369s was 0.204s quicker than Verstappen’s best effort, although the Dutchman’s final flying lap, attempted in the final 10 minutes when the circuit was at its fastest, was hamstrung by traffic at Turn 3, leaving him 0.155s down in the first sector.
The bulk of Verstappen’s advantage over the weekend to date has been in the power-sensitive first sector, where his Honda power unit is best able to stretch its legs.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen swept Friday practice for Red Bull Racing, but the Dutchman benefited from Lewis Hamilton having his best lap deleted for track limits.
The Dutchman’s best time of 1m05.412s in his Red Bull was 0.077s slower than Hamilton’s fastest lap, but the Briton was found by the stewards to have run too far wide at Turn 10 and subsequently had the time erased. Hamilton’s next-best time was good enough for only fourth, 0.384s adrift.
His Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, also attracted the attention of the stewards, albeit for the far more serious transgression of spinning in the pit lane.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen opened the Austrian doubleheader with the quickest time of first practice for the Styrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen, winner of last weekend’s French Grand Prix, took his Red Bull Racing car to the top of the time sheet with a time of 1m05.910s. Pierre Gasly made the session a Red Bull-back 1-2, albeit with the sister AlphaTauri car, 0.256s further back.
Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas followed, the pair closely matched at around 0.45s off the leading Dutchman’s pace.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull Racing breached Mercedes’s French Grand Prix fortress against the odds, breaking the title fight wide open.
The French Grand Prix delivered yet another thriller in this too-close-to-call championship fight, with Max Verstappen sensationally stripping Lewis Hamilton of the lead on the penultimate lap in a serious statement of title intent.
Max Verstappen has pulled off a masterful strategy to pass Lewis Hamilton for victory with two laps to go in a nail-biting French Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen overcame Lewis Hamilton to take victory in the French Grand Prix with a late charge from fourth to extend his championship lead.
The Dutchman passed Hamilton for the win on the penultimate lap, the fifth change of the lead in the race, after an inspired gamble on a second tire change gave the Red Bull Racing driver almost 20 seconds to make up on the Briton’s Mercedes with 20 laps to run.
It was a replay in reverse of the Spanish Grand Prix, where Mercedes had played a similar blinder against Red Bull Racing to secure victory.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen snatched pole from Lewis Hamilton for the French Grand Prix, and regardless of its effect on this weekend’s race, it’s an important marker in the championship fight.
Max Verstappen has claimed pole position while Lewis Hamilton has struggled with his car at the French Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will head the French Grand Prix grid after beating Lewis Hamilton in a duel for pole position.
The Dutchman started the qualifying hour as the form man after final practice, but Hamilton’s mechanics were busy making changes to the Briton’s Mercedes as the session began to cure its uneasiness on the soft tire.
After the pair’s first laps in Q3 Verstappen led the way, his advantage a seemingly unimpeachable 0.4s. Hamilton, however, had more than that up his sleeve for his second lap and improved enough to pinch what would have been provisional pole — only for the Red Bull Racing driver to find an extra 0.3s with his only own attempt and seal the deal.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen narrowly bested Valtteri Bottas for the fastest time of an intriguing second practice for the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard, despite the two drivers using different tire compounds.
Verstappen came through late with a lap on the soft tire to top Bottas by just 0.008s, but neither Bottas nor Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton could keep the grippiest compound alive for long enough to set a contending time.
Bottas’s best effort was instead set on the medium compound — his best on the soft was more than 0.3s off the pace — while Hamilton was 0.253s adrift on the qualifying rubber.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas opened the French Grand Prix with the fastest time of first practice, but his Mercedes team was fuming about high curbs damaging his car.
Bottas had a 0.335s advantage over teammate Lewis Hamilton, but he was an early victim of the aggressive curbs dotted around the track, incurring damage to his front wing and requiring his first spare to be fitted just minutes into the session.
Circuit Paul Ricard has had a series of narrow, tall “baguette” curbs installed just beyond the regular red and white strips to deter drivers from running wide over the track’s vast expanses of asphalt, but they proved to be car destroyers based on the first hour of running.
Continue reading on RACERThe cancellation of the Singapore Grand Prix for the second successive season bodes badly for Formula 1’s record-breaking season.
For years Red Bull Racing has dreamed of having a teammate befitting Max Verstappen’s prodigious pace, and Sergio Perez proved he’s their man in Baku.
Sergio Perez confirmed his arrival for Red Bull Racing for his first win in navy overalls in a dramatic ending to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that saw title protagonists Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fail to score.