Charles Leclerc will lead Ferrari’s first front-row lockout in more than two years, beating teammate Carlos Sainz to pole position for the Miami Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen had taken provisional pole with his first lap of Q3 but the Dutchman left the door open with a mistake at Turn 5, his car snapping from underneath him and sending him wide across Turn 6.
The Ferrari drivers didn’t need the invitation. Sainz had just set a purple first sector and Leclerc took the second split to put the pair about level at the final split.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull’s Sergio Perez beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the top spot in a sweltering final practice ahead of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Mexican set his fastest lap with less than five minutes on the clock, with a rapid final sector in particular taking him to a best time of 1m30.304s, bettering Leclerc’s best by just 0.194s.
Leclerc struggled with his first flying lap on softs when the track was at its hottest, the soft Pirelli rubber squirming as the asphalt topped out at around 130 degrees F, but a late flier as conditions cooled by almost 15 degrees F unlocked more time, popping him into second.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has taken top spot from Charles Leclerc in a reversal of form in Friday’s second practice for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver put his updated car to good advantage to pip the Ferrari by 0.106s and flip the order from first practice.
The W13 looks improved compared to the difficult machine of the first four rounds, and though the bouncing was sometimes still evident at the end of the Miami International Autodrome’s long straights, it seemed less frequent than in previous races.
Continue reading on RACERFerrari’s Charles Leclerc beat Mercedes man George Russell to top spot in the first timed session at the brand-new Miami International Autodrome for the Miami Grand Prix.
The championship leader emerged at the head of the pack after a flurry of late laps on the soft compound as the track began to cool slightly, having been heated to a scorching 127 degrees F at the start of the hour.
Dropping more than 10 degrees at the end of the session, Leclerc logged a time of 1m31.098s to pip Russell by 0.071s in a promising first test of Mercedes’ car upgrades designed to turn around its shocking start to the season.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after a Sergio Perez crash ended qualifying early.
Perez was pursing the dominant Leclerc for pole when he lit up his rear tires at Portier, spinning his car and rear-ending the barrier. His broken car came to rest blocking the track, triggering the red flags that brought qualifying to a premature close.
But Leclerc already had the session well in hand. Not only had he put 0.225s on the field after the first flying laps, but he opened his final attempt with a purple first sector that put him another 0.2s up on everyone else before the red flags flew and called off the session.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen led a dominant Red Bull one-two at a wet-dry Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after Ferrari imploded on home soil.
Leclerc was running third entering the final 11 laps of the race when Ferrari rolled the dice on a late pit stop to try to apply pressure to leaders Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who had controlled the race from the first lap.
Perez and then Verstappen followed him into the pits on the following two laps, but with an extra lap of temperature in his tires, the Monegasque was suddenly on Perez’s gearbox and attempting to find a way through. But the title leader over-committed through Variante Alta, clambering over the first set of curbs and spinning backwards and into the barriers on exit, damaging his front wing.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen won the first sprint race of the season after passing Charles Leclerc for the lead with two laps to go.
The reigning champion started from pole but launched poorly, gifting Leclerc the lead and allowing him to control much of the race.
But the 21-lap sprint was at the upper range of endurance for the soft-compound tire, and the Ferrari struggled more than the Red Bull machine in the final five laps.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has topped a dry final practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ahead of the first sprint race of the season.
The Briton put his Mercedes 0.081s ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completing the top three, 0.283s adrift.
It was the first dry session of the grand prix weekend after both practice and qualifying on Friday were heavily affected by rain, but despite the change in climatic conditions, parc fermé rules remained from Friday night according to sprint weekend rules.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen snatched pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from Charles Leclerc in a chaotic qualifying session that featured five red flags and several bands of rain.
The Dutchman had just snatched to spot in Q3 with a time of 1m27.999s when the penultimate of those red flags was thrown, for Valtteri Bottas’s stopped Alfa Romeo car at Variante Alta with just under three minutes remaining.
The suspension proved decisive. Drivers had been needing multiple push laps to generate tire temperature on a track that was struggling to reach 60 degrees F, and a new band of rain arrived just minutes before Q3 was set to resume.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc led teammate Carlos Sainz to a dominant Ferrari one-two in a wet first practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
The Scuderia was almost 1.5s quicker than any other team around the tricky wet track, with Max Verstappen next best in third. It’s a potential portent for the rest of the weekend given first practice is the only session not run to parc ferme conditions according to the sprint weekend format, with qualifying coming later today.
Rain had lashed the Imola circuit all night, and cold conditions this afternoon ensured the surface remained wet and treacherously low in grip throughout the hour.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc dominated the Australian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen retired with another apparent power unit problem.
The poleman was cleanly away from the grid and kept Verstappen at bay in the early laps, but it soon became clear the Dutchman was struggling. He reported severe graining on his left-front medium tire and locked up several times in the tricky final sector, dropping a lot of time to the leading Ferrari.
Things only got worse from there. Having made no inroads during the pit stops, Verstappen’s car lost power down the front straight on lap 38, forcing him to park by the side of the road and retire from the race.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc will start the Australian Grand Prix from pole position after beating Max Verstappen to top spot in an unpredictable qualifying session.
Verstappen had seized the momentum in the disrupted final segment, which had been red flagged halfway through for a Fernando Alonso smash, and held provisional pole when the checkered flag fell. But Leclerc was last on the road and purple first and last sectors blew away Verstappen’s best time to take pole by a comfortable 0.286s.
“It felt good,” he said. “This weekend we really worked hard.”
Continue reading on RACERLando Norris took a shock P1 in Friday practice for McLaren, ending Ferrari’s stranglehold on Albert Park ahead of qualifying.
Norris’ hot lap couldn’t be beaten after Lance Stroll understeered into the barrier on the outside of Turn 11 and broke his front wing and left-front corner, causing a red flag and ending the session with less than five minutes still to run.
It compounded a difficult day at an increasingly painful weekend for Aston Martin. Sebastian Vettel also crashed just 20 minutes into the hour, losing control of his car through the fast Turn 9-10 at around 160mph. He skidded sideways through the gravel on the far side of the track, making heavy contact with the barriers and ripping off his right-front wheel.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Lecler kept Ferrari on top in second practice for the Australian Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen to the top spot by a quarter of a second.
Ferrari had things all its own way for much of the session, the red cars looking clearly more comfortable around the revised circuit layout as Leclerc lowered the day’s benchmark to 1m18.978s.
The one problem in an otherwise clear hour of running came late, when fuel tanks were filled, with Leclerc enduring significant bouncing near the end of the front straight and in particular the long flat-out run between Turn 6 and Turn 9.
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 RACERMax Verstappen pinched victory from Charles Leclerc in a tense conclusion to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman launched his bid for victory late, with Leclerc having controlled most of the race until the final 10 laps.
Leclerc inherited the lead from poleman and erstwhile leader Sergio Perez, who had been managing the pace until his first pit stop, on lap 15.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez has taken his first F1 pole position in an elongated qualifying session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after a major crash for Mick Schumacher delayed the completion of Q2.
Schumacher ran deep onto the curb at Turn 10 which unsettled his car and spun it backwards in a shower of sparks. It slammed sideways into the concrete barrier at the exit of Turn 11, ripping both right-hand wheels from the chassis, and was catapulted further down the track, eventually coming to rest at Turn 12.
The German was reported to be conscious and talking but had to be extricated from the car by the medical team, after which he was transported by ambulance to the medical center. Haas said afterwards that he appeared physically fine but would be airlifted to hospital for precautionary checks.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc completed a sweep of practice sessions at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, once again leading Max Verstappen.
The Monegasque improved his time at the last moment with blistering pace through the first sector before losing time to the Dutchman over the balance of the lap to edge the Red Bull Racing car by just 0.033s.
But Verstappen will feel comfortable knowing there was more pace in his car but for a mistake on his last flying lap that sent him clattering over the curbs at Turn 22.
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