Max Verstappen sailed to pole position in a mixed-conditions qualifying hour ahead of shock front-row starter Nico Hulkenberg.
The Dutchman had set a formidable benchmark early in a frenetic Q3 as heavier rain began to fall at the circuit with a lap of 1m25.858s.
Conditions were temporarily improving with all 10 cars on track despite the rain, and the identity of the second-quickest driver was changing rapidly. Esteban Ocon had the place first, followed by Fernando Alonso and then Hulkenberg, who clocked in 1.244s behind Verstappen.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen was fastest on a soaking-wet final Saturday practice session ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, after Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari at the first turn.
The hour started with the track under significant amount of standings water and with drivers requiring the full-wet tire just to make it around the lap. But the rain had eased by the time the pit lane opened, and it took only 10 minutes of cars circulating for the Aston Martin drivers to be the first to sample the intermediates.
The green-marked rubber was faster around most parts of the lap, but puddles in the braking zone for the hairpin and the final chicane prevented Fernando Alonso from taking top spot immediately, the Spaniard repeatedly running off-track in the final sector. By the time he’d strung a lap together, most of the rest of the field had switched to intermediates too, and top spot rotated rapidly between several drivers.
Continue reading on RACERMercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have topped the mostly dry second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Dark clouds descended on Montreal, but rain held off until the final five minutes of the 90-minute session, allowing teams to complete dry qualifying and race simulations uninterrupted.
The track was declared wet in the final 10 minutes in anticipation of the thunderstorm crawling towards the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, leading to the bizarre scenes of most of the field fitting intermediate tires but lapping a still-dry track.
Continue reading on RACERFirst practice at the Canadian Grand Prix has been called off after less than five minutes of running due to a local closed-circuit television failure.
The CCTV system is used by race control for safety and stewarding purposes but failed shortly after the start of FP1. The failure coincided with a red flag caused by Pierre Gasly stopping on track between Turns 7 and 8 with a clutch problem that left him without drive.
The Frenchman’s stopped car was recovered quickly (pictured above), but the session resumption was delayed and subsequently abandoned due to the TV failure.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen scored a rare grand slam victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole and logging the fastest lap of the race on his way to a commanding 24-second victory.
Verstappen’s win was only very briefly in doubt at the start of the race, when a strong launch by front-row starter Carlos Sainz had them running side by side into the braking zone at Turn 1. But the Dutchman had the inside line, which forced the Spaniard to yield and concede the place and consolidate second.
Verstappen was rarely spotted after that, building enough of a buffer to comfortably hold the lead after his two pit stops and stamp his authority all over the race, extending his championship lead to 53 points.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated the fight for pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix after Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and George Russell all failed to make it through to Q3.
Verstappen has been peerless all weekend at a circuit that has accentuated his Red Bull Racing car’s strongest qualities. The Dutchman was so good in qualifying that he didn’t bother to complete his final flying lap despite setting a purple middle sector. He still ended the day with a half-second advantage. After the first runs he had been 0.924s ahead of the pack.
“The car was really good,” he said after clocking 1m 12.272s for pole. “The car was on rails and was really enjoyable to drive today.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen completed a clean sweep of Spanish grand prix practice after a rain-affected final practice session in Barcelona.
Dark clouds rolled over the circuit and lightning was striking in the distance as FP3 went green, and drivers were queued at the end of the pit lane on slick tires in a bid to validate overnight set-up changes before the forecast rain arrived.
Verstappen quickly rocketed to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1m 13.664, and teammate Sergio Perez followed 0.25s further back, but the session was halted after just eight minutes when Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams at the final corner.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has swept Friday practice with another session-topping time in a close-run FP2 ahead of local favourite Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen lowered the day’s benchmark to 1m 13.907s with his single push lap on the soft-compound tire early in the session, and no-one who followed was able to better it.
Alonso, who had spent first practice earlier in the day evaluating car upgrades, got closest. The Spaniard strung together a lap just 0.17s shy of the Dutchman, including the fastest time in the final split.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen set a sizzling pace to start practice at the Spanish Grand Prix at the top of the time sheet comfortably ahead of Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen used the soft tire to set a lap of 1m14.606s, besting Perez’s best by 0.768s. The Mexican, however, spent most of the session on the medium compound, whereas the Dutchman enjoyed a long stint in the middle of the hour on softs.
Both drivers were equipped with new power units for the weekend as well as revised floor edges and diffusers.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix after the Dutchman’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez failed to make it past Q2.
In a fraught qualifying hour defined as much by who could keep their car within the white lines of the track boundary as by who could go fastest around the circuit, Verstappen emerged supreme, topping every segment of qualifying on his way to pole.
Leclerc ran him close at the end, getting to within 0.048s after a gutsy attack on the track’s final sector, but Verstappen’s time of 1m04.391s couldn’t be beaten. The world champ will line up in pole position on Sunday afternoon following the standalone sprint on Saturday.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen took his second victory at the Monaco Grand Prix with a dominating performance despite a chaotic final 30 laps with the arrival of heavy rain.
Pole-getter Verstappen had beaten second-starting Fernando Alonso off the line easily and was on badly worn medium tires when the showers arrived on lap 50, but he had Fernando Alonso around 10 seconds behind him, depriving him the freedom of immediately responding to weather.
It was a dream scenario for the pursuing Alonso, who had started the race on the hard tire in the hope of running longer than the Dutchman and capitalizing on a late race disruption or the need to switch to intermediates.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen beat Fernando Alonso to pole position with a last-gasp lap at the end of a thrilling and unpredictable qualifying session at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Pole position changed hands five times after the end of the first runs, with Alonso, the Ferrari drivers and even Esteban Ocon rotating through top spot before Verstappen’s final lap.
Track grip was ramping up constantly, and Red Bull hatched a plan to have Verstappen be the last driver on track to take advantage of the conditions.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen and Sergio Perez controlled final practice at the Monaco Grand Prix before a Lewis Hamilton red flag ended the session six minutes early.
Red Bull had changes made overnight to drastically improve the balance of the RB19, having started the weekend unusually wide of the mark, and Verstappen made great use of his new setup to top the timesheets with a lap of 1m 12.776s.
Perez rotated through top spots during the session but ended up a wafer-thin 0.073s adrift of his teammate.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen edged out Charles Leclerc for top spot in second practice at the Monaco Grand Prix after FP1 leader Carlos Sainz crashed out of the session.
Verstappen set the benchmark late in the soft-tire runs at 1m12.462s, though it was enough to pip Leclerc by only 0.065s. The Red Bull driver’s slender advantage was through the first two sectors, with the Ferrari again the car to beat in the final split.
Sainz was third, 0.107s off the headline time, but crashed shortly after setting his fastest lap. The Spaniard, who was comfortably fastest in the first practice hour, clipped the inside apex exiting the second Swimming Pool chicane and snapped his suspension, which sent him careening into the exit barrier.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz edged Fernando Alonso to top spot in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as the Red Bull Racing drivers struggled for composure around the serpentine street track.
With medium tires bolted on, Sainz and Alonso spent the final 15 minutes trading fastest laps, gradually separating themselves from the chasing pack. But with around five minutes to go Sainz set a sizzling final time of 1m13.372s to put top spot beyond reach of the Aston Martin driver, the margin 0.338s.
Despite setting the quickest time in the first split, Alonso lost the opportunity to respond when Alex Albon put his Williams in the barriers at Sainte Devote, bringing out red flags with four minutes remaining.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen beat polesitter Sergio Perez to victory in a late-race duel to maintain his championship lead.
Verstappen started the race ninth on the hard tire, alternating with Perez, who opened the race on mediums.
The Red Bull Racing’s pace advantage around the Miami International Autodrome was so significant that it took the Dutchman only 15 laps to rise to second place, at which point he was only 3.5s adrift of the lead. By this stage, the hard tire was the better compound and he made incremental gains on the leader to put Perez under pressure.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen topped the second practice at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of both Ferrari drivers despite Charles Leclerc crashing out of the session.
The Dutchman made easy work of the field with a soft run of 1m 27.930s, which put him 0.385s ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.468s on Leclerc.
The Monegasque had more time to give, having ruined his flying lap with a lock-up into Turn 17 at the end of the long back straight that cost him valuable time — the smaller of Leclerc’s two major mistakes.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell topped a slippery first practice session at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes duo left their soft-tire runs until the final two minutes of the session, when the circuit was at its cleanest, with Russell setting the pace at 1m30.125s to pip Hamilton by 0.212s.
It was a strong return for Russell, who spent most of the first 30 minutes having his steering rack changed after rejecting an experimental new part following just two opening laps in the car.
Continue reading on RACER