If qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix were further evidence of the fight between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing being posied on a knife edge, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton proved that he could be the difference between success and failure.
Lewis Hamilton squeaked to pole position by less than half a tenth ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Briton took his 99th pole despite failing to improve his first banker lap with his second attempt, leaving him vulnerable to Max Verstappen, who then was trailing by only 0.091s.
But the Dutchman found only 0.004s on his own second attempt. Instead Perez was the biggest gainer, finding almost a quarter of a second to come within a minuscule 0.035s of Hamilton’s still-standing benchmark.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen reasserted Red Bull Racing’s qualifying credentials with a dominant one-lap display in Saturday morning practice for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Verstappen had several laps deleted for exceeding track limits before setting a flying lap on fresh soft tires late in the hour and logging an unbeatable time of 1m14.982s, almost half a second quicker than anyone else.
But the competitive picture ahead of qualifying remains uncertain, with Lewis Hamilton the quickest Mercedes in third and 0.557s off the pace, the front-running pair separated unexpectedly by McLaren’s Lando Norris after a late flier of his own.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton has snatched his 99th F1 pole position from Sergio Perez in a nailbiting qualifying hour at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas completed a Friday clean sweep by topping second practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after Max Verstappen retired from the session with a drive problem.
The Finn set his quickest time of 1m15.551s on the medium compound early in the session, and though he undertook a subsequent three-lap qualifying simulation with the grippiest soft tire, he was unable to improve.
He was followed closely by teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was able to fractionally improve on his medium-tire time with the softs, though only enough to close to within 0.01s.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheet for Mercedes in a crash-strewn first practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola.
Just 0.041s separated the teammates, with Max Verstappen just 0.017s further back in third, at the end of the one-hour session, which was disrupted by two red-flag suspensions to clean up three crashed cars.
The first came at the 38-minute mark when Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon came together entering the Villeneuve chicane.
Continue reading on RACERI preview the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with last year’s podcast guest Ted Kravtiz.
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Formula One rarely serves up races like the Italian Grand Prix, but Pierre Gasly’s win for AlphaTauri ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll completely flipped the script.
Before this mad Monza race F1 had gone been 147 races — more than seven years — since anyone other than a Mercedes, Red Bull Racing or Ferrari driver topped the podium.
And in a season dominated by Mercedes, it took some plot twists to take Gasly to the top step.
A French-speaking driver in an Italian car wins the Italian Grand Prix, exactly as expected. Valtteri Bottas decided the championship isn’t for him. We accidentally upset someone named Bert.
I review the action from the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with Luca Manacorda from motorbox.com
Often F1 fans and pundits have hypothesised what the sport would look like released from the iron grip of the frontrunning teams. The Italian Grand Prix delivered us the thrilling answer, with Pierre Gasly taking an emotional maiden victory.
For a time it seemed this was a race no-one wanted to win.
Poleman Lewis Hamilton was penalised for making his sole pit stop while pit lane was closed. Valtteri Bottas took himself out of contention with a shocking first lap. Red Bull Racing’s already off-pace weekend was compounded by damage to Alex Albon on the first lap and a power unit problem taking Max Verstappen out of the race.
Pierre Gasly is the first Frenchman to win a Formula 1 race in 24 years after claiming his maiden victory in a thriller at the Italian Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old AlphaTauri driver beat McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll to the flag after inheriting the lead from poleman Lewis Hamilton, who served a stop-go penalty for a tyre change while pit lane was closed.
But Hamilton wasn’t the only frontrunner to hit trouble, with a slew of problems creating a perfect storm to deliver the unpredictable podium.