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 RACERCan Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen withstand the expected Mercedes fightback? I preview the upcoming French, Styrian and Austrian grands prix with last year’s podcast guests: In the Fast Lane‘s Matt Clayton, GP Racing‘s Stuart Codling and ESPN’s Laurence Edmondson.
Never has the Formula One paddock been more intensely pressurised than in this most unusual 2020 season.
We’re two rounds into an unprecedented run of 10 races in 13 weeks, and with the full schedule of events still undetermined, every grand prix threatens to make or break a championship.
The pressure has never been higher. Fortunately Lewis Hamilton thrives on it.
We review the Styrian Grand Prix, the Everybody Loves Raymond of F1 races, and analyse Fernando Alonso’s Renault reunion, the Hey Hey It’s Saturday of F1 returns.
I review the action from the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix with Laurence Edmondson from ESPN.
Lewis Hamilton opened his 2020 victory account by converting a superlative wet-weather pole into a comfortable win at the Styrian Grand Prix to confirm Mercedes’s place at the head of the field.
Hamilton was absolutely peerless in the saturated qualifying conditions, and though Max Verstappen started alongside him on the front row of the grid, the Red Bull Racing driver never quite had the pace to challenge for the lead, and by the time of his pit stop on lap 24 that his strategy had become defensive rather than progressive.
Off the podium the battle for fourth went down to the wire, with the front of the midfield tightly matched after different strategies brought Racing Point, Renault and McLaren together in the battle for points.
Lewis Hamilton has taken his first win of the season in a one-two victory for Mercedes at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Briton had been untouchable since recording his masterful pole position in the wet from Max Verstappen on Saturday afternoon. The Red Bull Racing driver expected to challenge Hamilton for victory come the race, but the reigning world champion never gave him a chance, acing his start and nailing the single safety car restart to keep the Dutchman at arm’s length throughout.
The margin at the chequered flag was 13.7 seconds, and Hamilton was serene in rejoining the winners circle in 2020.
Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two to take his first win of the season at the Styrian Grand Prix. The Briton had total control over the race from the start, surrendered the lead only once — to teammate Valtteri Bottas in the pit stops — to take a perfectly managed 13s victory.
Continue reading on RACERMercedes may have a new all-black livery, but its superiority over the field remains stubbornly unchanged, as Valtteri Bottas’s dominant pole so aptly illustrated at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.
Not even a trip through the gravel and a clumsy spin on the grass in his second run could keep Bottas from pole and a new track record with a time of 1 minute 2.939 seconds. It was enough to pip teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.012 seconds.
The margin between the quickest Mercedes and the next-best car, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, was a foreboding 0.538 seconds. The Dutchman said the gap was exacerbated by balance problems aboard his RB16, but even was forced to admit the Mercedes is simply in a different league.
Lewis Hamilton has put on a masterclass of wet-weather driving with a dominant pole position in saturated Styrian Grand Prix qualifying.
The superlative driving spectacle almost didn’t happen, with heavy rain cancelling Saturday practice and threatening to write off qualifying in the deluge.
But fortunately the rain eased enough to allow the track to drain sufficient to get the session underway after only a 46-minute delay, allowing Hamilton to put on a show of wet-weather excellence.
Lewis Hamilton dominated a soaking wet qualifying session for the Styrian Grand Prix, topping the time sheet in the treacherous conditions by a massive 1.2s margin.
Continue reading on RACERQualifying for the Formula 1 Styrian Grand Prix is in jeopardy after Saturday morning practice was called off due to persistent rain.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen topped Friday afternoon practice for the Styrian Grand Prix in a tightly contested three-way battle between Red Bull Racing, Mercedes and Racing Point.
Continue reading on RACER