Ferrari dominated second practice at the French Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz leading Charles Leclerc in the top two spots. Max Verstappen was more than half a second adrift in third.
Sainz, who will start the race no higher than 10th thanks to a power unit change penalty, set a session-best time of 1m 32.527s to edge his teammate by just 0.101s. The Spaniard set his quickest lap on his second flyer on the soft tire despite the sweltering track temperature of 131 degrees F.
Verstappen had no answer to Ferrari’s one-lap pace and elected to skip straight to his long-run work afterwards. He ended the hour 0.55s off the pace and complaining of understeer in his RB18, the same problem having afflicted him in the first session earlier in the day.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz narrowly edged Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to top final practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Spaniard’s fastest lap, a 1m08.610s, was just 0.05s quicker than Leclerc’s best effort, both on the soft tires. Pole-getter for today’s sprint, Max Verstappen was third and 0.168s off the pace.
The Ferrari teammates were among the most prolific lap-setting teams despite the fundamentally dead-rubber nature of the hour run under parc ferme conditions, accumulating 82 laps between them, or more than a race distance in total.
Verstappen’s session was somewhat more subdued, the Dutchman completing only 32 laps mostly on medium tires, on which his quickest time was set. He broke out a used set of softs at the end of the hour but got caught in traffic and opted against pursuing a flying lap.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz won the first Formula 1 race of his career in a sensational British Grand Prix.
Sainz endured a roller-coaster afternoon to claim his maiden win. He started on pole and held the lead with a robust defense on Max Verstappen at the first turn, but he didn’t have the Dutchman’s pace early in the race, and a mistake on lap 10 at Becketts gifted Red Bull Racing first place.
He got the lead back just two laps later when Verstappen dropped deep into the midfield with a puncture and bodywork damage, but now his teammate, Charles Leclerc, was the one applying pressure, with the Monegasque desperate to get past before the charging Lewis Hamilton caught them.
Continue reading on RACERFerrari’s Carlos Sainz topped second practice at the British Grand Prix ahead of a resurgent Mercedes in the hands of Lewis Hamilton.
The Spaniard was lucky to keep his best time, however, of 1m28.942s after running wide at Copse thanks to a combination of his bouncing car and a tailwind down the old pit straight, though he arguably lost time in the second sector as a result anyway.
The lap time being allowed to stand, Sainz ended the session 0.163s quicker than home hero Lewis Hamilton in an encouraging result for Mercedes and its latest major update package.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz beat world championship leader Max Verstappen to claim his first career Formula 1 pole position in a drenched top-10 shootout at the British Grand Prix.
Rain set in just was the grid-setting hour was set to begin and intensified dramatically just before Q3, soaking the circuit to the point where the intermediate tire was at the limit of its capabilities.
It turned the shootout into a lottery, with times improving with every lap as the standing water was cleared from the track and the rain subsided again.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz topped first practice at the Australian Grand Prix but will be investigated after the session for blocking.
Sainz appeared to impede Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in the final sector, running him wide out of the penultimate corner in a move that the stewards are taking up before FP2 later today.
The Spaniard went on to beat teammate Charles Leclerc by half a second with a lap of 1m19.806s to lock out the top of the time sheet for the Scuderia in a confidence-inspiring track debut for the team’s new diffuser.
Continue reading on RACERFerrari blows up the driver market, Daniel Ricciardo blows up Cyril Abiteboul’s heart and the news cycle blows up the timeliness of our podcast.
