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 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 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 RACERFor 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.
Championship leader Max Verstappen topped both Ferrari drivers to put Red Bull Racing at the head of first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s lap came late in the session, having run the harder compounds early when the street track was at its dirtiest, but his time of 1m43.184s beat Charles Leclerc by just 0.043s.
The Dutchman was comfortably quickest in the first sector but lost time to the Ferrari driver at the second split, which comprises mostly slow-speed corners around the castle section of the track. He lost a little time to his personal best out of the final corner for not having a car to slipstream over the line.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen leads the drivers championship for the first time in his F1 career to finally make good on Red Bull Racing’s early-season pace.
Max Verstappen is in control of the championship for the first time in his Formula 1 career after a cruise to victory in Monaco, but title rival Lewis Hamilton was left fuming after a series of team mistakes left him languishing in seventh.
Max Verstappen has broken his Monaco podium hoodoo with a dominant victory on the streets of the principality to take the championship lead over a hapless Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen has taken the lead of the Formula 1 World Championship for the first time in his career after dominating the Monaco Grand Prix while title rival Lewis Hamilton struggled to a seventh-place finish.
Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen qualified second behind Charles Leclerc but gained a place before the race even started when Ferrari withdrew the Monegasque from the grand prix with a driveshaft problem related to his Q3 crash the night before.
The Dutchman aced his getaway from de facto pole to claim the lead, slicing defensively to the right to block the fast-starting Valtteri Bottas on the way to the first turn, and controlled the race thereafter, leading every lap of the grand prix in an imperious reassertion of his championship credentials with a four-point lead.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has skills and the machinery to contend for the championship but lacks the on-track backup to seal the deal.
Max Verstappen will start what promises to be a hotly contested qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix as Barcelona’s fastest man after topping final practice ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen’s best time of 1m17.835s was built largely on a purple middle sector, after which he was almost half a second up on Hamilton, before a fumbled exit from the chicane brought his advantage back down to 0.235s.
Hamilton’s best lap also left time on the table, similarly through the chicane. The Briton should have gained with his final flying lap on the soft tire but took too much of the tall yellow curb to improve his time.
Continue reading on RACER