The 2020 Russian Grand Prix was no classic, but Lewis Hamilton’s inability to convert pole to victory was another illustration that the only team capable of beating Mercedes is Mercedes itself.
The Russian Grand Prix was delicately poised between three drivers on different strategies, but a double penalty for poleman Lewis Hamilton before the race had even started snuffed out any hopes of an exciting finish.
Instead Valtteri Bottas recorded a comfortable victory after inheriting the lead from his penalised teammate, easily covering Max Verstappen in the slower Red Bull Racing machine with an identical strategy.
Hamilton had the odds stacked against him even before his penalties, forced as he was to start on the delicate soft tyre. However, even on that unfancied alternative strategy he looked quick — indeed it was theoretically the fastest way to the flag — and he recovered to finish on the podium.
Valtteri Bottas took a comfortable victory at the Russian Grand Prix after teammate Lewis Hamilton copped two time penalties before the race started.
Hamilton started from pole and had his sights set on equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories, but two practice starts on his way to the grid outside the designated area in the pit lane immediately put him under investigation for breaching the rules.
Shortly after the race got underway the stewards slapped him with a five-second penalty for each offense, effectively rubbing him out of victory contention.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas has taken an easy win in Russia after polesitter Lewis Hamilton was slapped with two penalties on his way to the grid.
Championship leader Hamilton, who was targeting a record-equalling 91st Formula One victory in Sochi, made two practice starts outside the designated area in the pit lane before taking his place for the start of the race.
The stewards handed him two five-second penalties on safety grounds for the errors, effectively wiping him out of victory contention.
Lewis Hamilton is on pole to match Michael Schumacher’s record 91 Formula One victories, but his route to the front row was as tortuous as his path to the top step is shaping up to be.
The defining lap of Hamilton’s qualifying wasn’t his new track record to take pole, it was his first flying lap of Q2. The Briton was shod with the medium tyre, as was teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, to set it as his race-starting compound after the soft proved delicate in the Sochi heat.
Mercedes comfortably had the pace to run the yellow tyre in Q2, and Hamilton duly set a competitive time, but his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits out of the last turn.
Lewis Hamilton will have a chance to equal Michael Schumacher’s record 91 Formula 1 victories from pole position at the Russian Grand Prix after crushing the opposition in qualifying.
Hamilton was more than half a second quicker than Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in second and a dispiriting 0.652 seconds faster than teammate Valtteri Bottas, who will start third.
The Briton’s lap time of 1 minute 31.304 seconds was also a new track record for the Sochi Autodrom.
Lewis Hamilton will seek to equal Michael Schumacher’s record 91 victories when he starts from pole position at the Russian Grand Prix after dominating qualifying in Sochi.
Hamilton’s time of 1m31.304s was a new track record and put him more than half a second quicker than the rest of the field.
But the Briton didn’t have things all his own way. A red flag for a Sebastian Vettel crash in Q2 put him at risk of missing the top-10 shootout after his only representative lap of the session had been deleted for exceeding track limits.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton underscored Mercedes’s stranglehold on the field ahead of qualifying with a dominant display in final practice at the Russian Grand Prix.
The Briton’s time of 1m33.279s was 0.776 seconds quicker than teammate Valtteri Bottas and 0.817s quicker than McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.
Bottas’s best lap was compromised by traffic, after which he wasn’t allowed to access his more powerful engine modes to compensate, while Sainz’s lap was set less than 10 minutes before the end of the session when the circuit appeared to be coming back towards the drivers thanks to cloud cover cooling surface temperatures.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas maintained his domination of Friday practice at the Russian Grand Prix in the second session, putting Mercedes atop the time sheet by more than a second ahead of any other car in Sochi.
The Finn’s fastest time of 1m33.519s was 0.267s quicker than second-placed teammate Lewis Hamilton and almost 1.1s faster than Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in third.
Both Mercedes set their fastest laps in the first half-hour of the session despite the circuit improving as it was cleaned up though the 90 minutes.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas set the one-lap benchmark at a dusty Sochi Autodrom in a messy first session for Mercedes at the Russian Grand Prix.
Bottas, who typically performs well in Sochi, was 0.507s quicker than Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo despite the Australian setting his quickest time nearer to the end of the 90-minute session when the circuit was cleaner.
Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull Racing and 0.654s off the pace.
Continue reading on RACERLast September Sebastian Vettel was locked in a volatile battle for supremacy inside a nascent Ferrari, but just 12 months later the four-time champion has stitched up a deal to flee the sinking scarlet ship for greener pastures.
Thailand’s Alex Albon at long last stepped onto a Formula One podium at Mugello, but will it be enough to keep him in his plum Red Bull Racing seat?
When Alex Albon opened his microphone after crossing the finish line third at the Tuscan Grand Prix he showed none of the exhilaration you might have expected from a racer at their first podium.
“Thank you, everyone; thanks for everything,” he radioed. “Thanks for sticking with me.”
Formula One’s first visit to Mugello didn’t disappoint, serving up a chaotic grand prix sure to be one of this strange season’s most enduring memories.
On first reading the composition of the podium — two Mercedes drivers and a Red Bull Racing car — is unremarkable, but this was a siege of a grand prix, with only 12 cars made it to the chequered after almost two and a half hours and two red-flag restarts.
Three huge crashes defined this race. The first came on lap one when Kimi Raikkonen rear-ended Max Verstappen into the gravel and retirement at Luco, the Finn having made contact with Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean. Gasly was momentarily airborne and was too eliminated from the race.
Lewis Hamilton is one win short of equalling Michael Schumacher’s F1 victory record after triumphing at a chaotic Tuscan Grand Prix, while Alex Albon became Thailand’s first podium-getter with a strong third place.
F1 first visit to Mugello was high attrition, featuring two red flag interruptions and several multi-car crashes that left only 12 drivers still running when the chequered flag fell.
Hamilton wielded the disruption to his advantage. After losing pole to fast-starting teammate Valtteri Bottas on the first lap, he was able to seize back the lead at the first standing restart to break the Finn’s challenge.
Lewis Hamilton is one win away from Michael Schumacher’s all-time victory record after claiming his 90th F1 triumph in a marathon Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
Continue reading on RACERFormula One’s first visit to Mugello delivered the same old result: Lewis Hamilton leading a comfortable Mercedes front-row lockout with Max Verstappen leading the Red Bull Racing charge from third.
The rapid bends of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello have proved universally popular among drivers as an ‘old-school’ circuit. The track has a real flow to it, aided in part by the varying elevation, and the combination of abrasive tarmac, gravel run-off and close barriers makes this an all-round test of driving ability.
In some resects the 2020-spec F1 car is almost too fast for the circuit. So much is flat out — almost the entire middle sector is open throttle — that the driver can only make a meaningful difference to performance at the first and third splits.
Lewis Hamilton has snatched pole position for the Tuscan Grand Prix from teammate Valtteri Bottas after a yellow flag truncated the top-10 shootout at Mugello.
Hamilton had nosed ahead of Bottas after their first laps but had failed to improve with his final lap to seal the deal. However, Bottas was forced to abandon his own second lap when Renault’s Esteban Ocon spun his car through the gravel ahead of him at Poggio Secco, handing his teammate pole.
The Finn had clean swept all three practice sessions before qualifying, and Hamilton admitted to feeling on the back foot in the fight for pole.
As he did in both Friday sessions, Valtteri Bottas led the way in Free Practice 3 sessions for Mercedes at Mugello ahead of qualifying for the Tuscan Grand Prix.
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