Lewis Hamilton has beaten Max Verstappen in a thrilling Sao Paulo Grand Prix after the championship contenders almost collided while battling for the lead.
Lewis Hamilton has beaten title rival Max Verstappen from 10th on the grid in a race-long duel at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to reinvigorate his world championship chances.
The Briton wielded his Mercedes car’s straight-line speed advantage to perfection from his penalized starting position in the midfield, passing five cars off the line and rising to third after just five laps to assault the Red Bull Racing pair for a first victory since September.
His race was set up early despite teammate Valtteri Bottas failing to hold pole off the line and dropping to third, handing the Bulls an early one-two formation.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas has held off Max Verstappen to take pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in F1’s third ever sprint race.
Valtteri Bottas will start the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole position after beating Max Verstappen to sprint victory in Interlagos. Lewis Hamilton, who started at the back of the grid after being thrown out of qualifying with an illegal rear wing, gained 15 places to finish fifth.
Bottas got a great launch with soft tires from second on the grid while polesitter Verstappen struggled on the mediums. By Turn 1 the Finn was easily into the lead, leaving the Dutchman to fend off advances from Carlos Sainz, who slipped into second exiting Turn 4, where the Red Bull ran wide on cold tires.
It took a couple of laps for the medium rubber to warm up in the cool temperature, the track sinking to just 95 degrees F after a warmer morning practice. By the end of lap three Verstappen was sizing up Sainz for second, taking back the place from the Spaniard on the pit straight and into Turn 1, before chipping away to Bottas’s lead, the leaders sprinting around a second a lap quicker than the field.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton dominated qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix but is at risk of being disqualified from the results over an alleged technical infringement.
Lewis Hamilton will head the field for the Saturday sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after beating Max Verstappen by almost half a second.
The Briton never looked likely to be beaten in qualifying after being comfortably fastest in opening practice. Both his laps in Q3 were quick enough to top the session, and his final attempt, a 1m07.934s was 0.438s better than Verstappen’s scruffy fastest lap.
It was the first time Hamilton has topped qualifying since the Hungarian Grand Prix in August and only the fourth time he’s been fastest this season, though the sprint weekend format and his five-place grid penalty for a new engine mean he won’t be credited with pole position.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton topped title leader Max Verstappen by 0.367s in the crucial first practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ahead of Friday qualifying.
The Briton, who is running a new internal combustion engine that will cost him five places on Sunday’s grid, was unhappy with his car’s performance for most of the session, particularly on the medium tire, and his team had to make front suspension adjustments to address what he described as a bouncing front end before sending him out on softs.
His first flying lap on soft tires wasn’t enough to get near Verstappen’s one hot lap on the same compound. A second attempt got him 0.069s ahead, and his third run on softs stretched the margin to 0.367s.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas has beaten Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to pole position for a surprise Mercedes front-row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Mercedes has secured a shock front row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.145s.
The German marque looked down and out throughout practice, but apparent problems with Red Bull Racing’s rear wing set up Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to underperform through the crucial grid-setting hour.
Black tape appeared on the ends of the rear wing flap on Verstappen’s car in response to apparent structural problems discovered during practice. The team subsequently neglected to engineer a slipstream with Sergio Perez on the first lap, handing Mercedes an opportunity to snatch provisional pole.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas bested teammate Lewis Hamilton in a dusty opening practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair were split by just 0.076s after an hour on track, the Finn setting the pace with a time of 1m18.341s, but Briton will face a post-session stewards investigation for running wide at Turn 1 and cutting across the grass to rejoin at Turn 3 without driving wide around the traffic cone as required.
Max Verstappen — heavy favorite for victory ahead of the weekend on account of Red Bull Racing’s form at this track — was third and just 0.123s off the headline pace.
Continue reading on RACERThe margin is only 12 points, but with three Red Bull Racing-friendly circuits scheduled for the next three weeks, Max Verstappen is within touching distance of a historic championship victory over Lewis Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas led a comfortable Mercedes one-two in first practice for the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas, almost a second ahead of Max Verstappen.
The Finn’s fastest time of 1m34.874s was 0.045s quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s best effort and a substantial 0.932s faster than Max Verstappen’s quickest lap.
Bottas’s lap was built on a particularly impressive second sector, comprising Turns 7 to 12 and the long back straight. He gained half a second on Verstappen through that sector alone, and his 0.2s advantage over Hamilton through the middle split was enough to offset slower times in over the balance of the track.
Continue reading on RACERWith six points separating the title protagonists with just six races to go, Red Bull Racing is fighting for every inch in its quest to keep Max Verstappen ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas has beaten Max Verstappen to an easy victory at the Turkish Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton slumped to fifth in the wet.
Valtteri Bottas dominated a wet Turkish Grand Prix, but Max Verstappen has retaken the world championship lead by finishing second while Lewis Hamilton faded to fifth after rising as high as third from his 11th-place start.
Rain drenched the track in the morning, and although it reduced to barely a drizzle for the race, the track never truly dries, and the entire race was run with wet rubber.
In the tricky conditions Bottas executed the perfect start from pole to hold Max Verstappen in second at the first apex, and from there he wielded his Mercedes to perfection to constantly massage open the gap to the Dutchman until it was effectively insurmountable.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas will start from pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix after qualifying-topping teammate Lewis Hamilton was slapped with a penalty for an engine change.
Lewis Hamilton ended Friday at the Turkish Grand Prix as the quickest driver while title rival Max Verstappen struggled for pace.
Hamilton bettered his fastest time from morning practice to lower the bar to 1m23.804s, beating the absolute track record for the Istanbul Park circuit by almost a second.
Completing Hamilton’s perfect day was his race-simulation performance, his Mercedes lapping the quickest of all with full tanks, which bodes well for his recovery from a 10-place grid penalty for an internal combustion engine change this weekend.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton has started the Turkish Grand Prix with the fastest time of first practice, but Mercedes confirmed the Briton will serve a grid penalty for a new engine part.
Formula 1 is enjoying substantially better conditions on its return to Istanbul, with warmer weather and a grippier track banishing memories of last year’s drizzly conditions and greasy surface.
The improvement in the circuit has been immediately obvious. Hamilton’s best lap of first practice, a 1m24.178s, was more than four seconds quicker than the fastest time set at any point this time last year.
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