Max Verstappen narrowly edged a sensational George Russell to take pole for the Belgian Grand Prix after Q3 was suspended for a high-speed Lando Norris crash at Eau Rouge.
The pole shootout started after minutes of heavy rain lashed the circuit, turning parts of the track treacherous for the volume of standing water.
Norris was just beginning his first flying lap when he lost control of his McLaren at Eau Rouge, and his attempted correction sent him slamming against the left-hand barrier as he crested through Radillon, which spat him across the track.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen edged Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez for the fastest time of final practice at the Belgian Grand Prix. The hour-long session was wet throughout, despite the rain that lashed the track during the morning abating in time for pit lane to open.
Drivers took to the track to embrace the first genuine wet running of the weekend with the forecast of heavy rain for the race in mind, and a greasy dry line emerged as the session progressed.
It was as the track improved that Verstappen — running an even skinnier, lower-downforce rear wing than yesterday despite the wet forecast — rocketed to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1m56.924s.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen set the fastest time but put his car in the wall in a twice suspended second practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was undertaking a race simulation when he lost control of his Red Bull Racing machine exiting Turn 7, losing control over the gravel and spinning backwards into the far barrier, spitting stones onto the track.
The damage was not visually severe, but the car was stopped in the rearward impact, so the session was called off with three minutes left on the clock.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas put Mercedes on top in first practice for the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
The Finn was 0.164s quicker than the Dutchman, while title leader Lewis Hamilton languished in 18th after abandoning his flying lap in traffic.
The Briton had set a Verstappen-matching time up to the Bus Stop chicane, where he encountered Nicholas Latifi’s Williams. He attempted to pass around the outside assuming the Canadian would make way, but Latifi took the outside line apparently unaware of the other car, forcing Hamilton to back out and ruining the lap.
Continue reading on RACEREsteban Ocon won his first Formula 1 grand prix from Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in a chaotic Hungarian Grand Prix.
Five cars crashed out of the race in damp conditions at the race start, while erstwhile title leader Max Verstappen also suffered heavy damage that took him out of podium contention and left him buried in the points.
A bad start from Valtteri Bottas was the catalyst for part of the carnage. The Finn slipped from second to sixth behind both Red Bull Racing drivers and Lando Norris and misjudged the greasy conditions on the brakes, hitting the back of the McLaren as they approached the apex.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton beat Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to the front of the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix for a 101st pole position.
Max Verstappen, the title leader for Red Bull Racing, could manage only third, 0.421s off the pace.
Hamilton was in control throughout the top-10 shootout, setting three purple sectors to snatch provisional pole with his first lap ahead of Bottas and Verstappen, but the Dutchman felt he lacked grip with his first set of tires, and his lap time was slower than his best from Q2.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton edged Max Verstappen by just 0.088s in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix after the session was suspended following a heavy crash by Mick Schumacher.
The title rivals set their times in a frantic final nine-minute dash for qualifying-representative times after teams lost eight minutes to Schumacher’s crash with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Schumacher had been embarking on a final qualifying simulation of his own when he lost the rear of his Haas car at the right-hand Turn 11, sliding off the circuit and smacking heavily sideways into the tire barrier.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas edged teammate Lewis Hamilton to the best time of FP2 at the Hungarian Grand Prix on a strong afternoon for Mercedes.
The Finn’s fastest time on the soft tire — a 1m17.012s — was just 0.027s quicker than Hamilton’s best effort thanks to purple splits in the first two sectors, surrendering time only in the final third of the lap.
Title leader Max Verstappen was third and 0.298s off the pace. The Dutchman struggled badly with balance in his Red Bull Racing machine with both the soft and the medium compounds.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen opened his Hungarian Grand Prix campaign with the fastest time of first practice ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
The Dutchman set his lap in the final 10 minutes of the session, forced to wait until the end of a red flag suspension to collect Yuki Tsunoda’s crashed AlphaTauri, to snatch top spot from the Mercedes by just 0.061.
It was an especially promising result for the Red Bull Racing driver given he was running with the Honda power unit involved in his 51G Silverstone crash two weeks ago to evaluate its viability to remain in his pool. Any serious problem with the motor would have pointed towards a near certain grid penalty later in the season for breaching his engine parts allocation.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton took victory in the British Grand Prix in a thrilling late dash after crashing into title leader Max Verstappen in a huge first-lap crash at Silverstone.
The two championship contenders touched as they went side by side into Copse, but the Dutchman came off worst, sent spearing over the gravel and into the barriers in a 51G smash. He emerged seemingly unhurt from the crash, but Red Bull Racing confirmed during the race that he has been taken to a nearby hospital for precautionary checks.
The crash was the culmination of a half-lap of intense battling between pole-getter Verstappen and Hamilton, who started alongside him on the front row.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen will start the British Grand Prix from pole after beating Lewis Hamilton in the first Formula 1 sprint qualifying session at Silverstone.
Hamilton was quickest in Friday qualifying to lead Verstappen off the front row, but the Dutchman’s start was sizzling — literally in the case of his brakes, which erupted in flames as he sat on the grid waiting for the lights to go out — to take the lead into the first turn from the tardy Briton.
Bottas even tried to pull alongside Hamilton, so slow was his getaway, but the Finn wasn’t far enough ahead to hold the line into Abbey and had to fall into line for third.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen topped a subdued final practice session at the British Grand Prix ahead of Formula 1’s first-ever sprint qualifying session.
The Dutchman completed just 21 laps, the equal fewest of the field, before calling it a day. The weekend’s tweaked schedule, with parc ferme conditions starting during qualifying on Friday evening, means teams couldn’t substantively alter setup during Saturday practice, lending the 60-minute session relatively little meaning.
Verstappen’s best time, a 1m29.902s, was 0.375 quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, though the Monegasque used the soft compound to rise to second place. His teammate, Carlos Sainz, followed in third a further 0.13s behind.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton will start F1’s first-ever sprint race from the front of the grid after edging title leader Max Verstappen in a tense qualifying session at the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton was unfancied to top the session after Mercedes showed poorly in opening practice, but the Briton built his way into the session until his first lap in Q3 put him convincingly in provisional P1 by more than 0.15s ahead of Verstappen.
And there was more to come from the reigning world champion, although his afternoon almost came undone through the final turns. Spurred by his boisterous home fans, he set two more purple sectors on his final flying lap but lost the rear of the car in Vale, losing all the time he’d gained.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen threw down the gauntlet at the British Grand Prix with the fastest time of the only practice session of the weekend before qualifying.
Verstappen’s best time of 1m28.035s, set on the soft compound that will enjoy exclusive use in the qualifying hour, was 0.779s faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose best time was set on the slower medium tire.
Lewis Hamilton, trailing the Dutchman by 32 points in the title standings, was third and 0.78s off the pace, with teammate Valtteri Bottas fifth and a further 0.182s adrift.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to more than the value of a full race win after a comfortable victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was completely unchallenged at the Red Bull Ring, leading every lap from pole and taking a point for fastest lap to grow his title lead to 32 points over Hamilton, who finished an ineffectual fourth.
The die was cast for Hamilton in the first 20 laps, when he struggled to pass Lando Norris, who started second on the grid and drove superbly to hold his own among the front-runners.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen beat a sensational Lando Norris to score a third straight pole position, while Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth on an unpredictable Saturday afternoon at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen started the hour as pole favorite after dominating last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same circuit, and the Dutchman took provisional pole after the first runs of Q3l but his second lap was poor, and he failed to improve.
Norris, wringing the maximum from his McLaren car, was on the attack just behind the Dutchman and benefiting from the slipstream. The Briton was already second after his first pole attempt and went purple at the first split with his final flyer to project himself onto pole.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen returned Red Bull Racing to the top of the time sheet in a warm final practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman’s best time of 1m 4.591s around the Red Bull Ring beat Valtteri Bottas’s best by 0.538s to put him in the box seat for pole later today.
Lewis Hamilton was third and 0.686s off the pace after having his best lap on fresh softs deleted for exceeding track limits exiting the final corner, but even that lap would have put his Mercedes around 0.4s behind Verstappen’s benchmark, just ahead of Bottas.
The soft compound was in almost universal use through the 60-minute session ahead of qualifying. Pirelli is using its most delicate tire, the C5, as this weekend’s soft compound, and with warm weather rolling in after a mild Friday and track temperatures nudging 120 degrees F, rubber preparation for a flying lap will be key to executing a clean qualifying lap.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton reasserted Mercedes’s credentials at the top of the time sheet with the fastest lap of second practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton struggled to string together a competitive time without exceeding track limits during the morning session, but with a fresh set of softs in the afternoon the Briton logged a time of 1m04.523s. His teammate, Valtteri Bottas, followed 0.189s behind, while Max Verstappen, quickest in FP1, was third and 0.217s off the pace.
The unsettled weather that has dominated the Red Bull Ring since Formula 1 arrived in Austria last week threatened to break shortly after the Dutchman set his quickest time a little after halfway through the 60-minute session, with rain affecting particularly in the first two sectors.
Continue reading on RACER