Sergio Perez led a Red Bull one-two in final practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a close contest with Mercedes.
In a quiet session in unrepresentative daytime conditions Perez set the benchmark at 1m 24.982s on a set of soft tires to beat teammate Max Verstappen by 0.152s.
Lewis Hamilton was a close third for Mercedes at 0.24s off the pace. The Brit set 17 laps for the session, among the most of any driver, as he sought to verify overnight fixes targeted at an unbalanced W13 on Friday.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has ended Friday practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with he fastest time after rocketing to top spot in FP2 in Yas Marina.
Verstappen took control of the time sheet a quarter of the way through the session on his first soft tire run but improved that time twice more, including with another fresh set of tires, to secure top spot with a time of 1m 25.146s.
It gave him a 0.341s buffer over George Russell’s Mercedes, which was suffering significant cuts in engine power down the straights before switching to race runs in the second half of the session.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton led teammate George Russell in a Mercedes one-two in opening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Both drivers surged on soft tires to take the top two spots with around 15 minutes remaining, with Hamilton 0.22s ahead of Russell.
Charles Leclerc was a close third, 0.035s adrift in his Ferrari, while Sergio Perez was 0.334s off the pace for Red Bull.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell claimed the first Grand Prix win of his Formula 1 career with a superbly controlled drive to victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Briton aced his getaway from pole and mastered two safety car restarts to grind out the win ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton, securing Mercedes’s first win of the year and first one-two finish since 2020.
“This is just the beginning,” he radioed his team. “I’m so proud of all of you. I knew we could do this.”
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has won his first Formula 1 race after a thrilling duel with Max Verstappen for victory in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint.
Russell started third behind pole-getter Kevin Magnussen and Verstappen in second, but the Dutchman was the only driver among the frontrunners to start on the medium tire, giving him a grip disadvantage off the line.
The Briton attempted to take second from him immediately at the start, and again through the first lap, but was constantly rebuffed. By the start of the second lap, Verstappen’s yellow tires were up to temperature and he set his sights forward to the lead.
Continue reading on RACEREsteban Ocon beat Sergio Perez to top sport in final practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
It was a typically straightforward Saturday practice session on a sprint weekend, with parc fermé conditions in effect after qualifying on Friday. The focus was on assessing the endurance of the soft tire ahead of the 24-lap sprint race later today.
Ocon started the hour with nine laps on the medium tire, but the yellow compound found little favor among the drivers, and he subsequently switched to a 16-lap run on the soft compound.
Continue reading on RACERKevin Magnussen took a sensational maiden Formula 1 pole position for himself and his Haas team at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with a perfectly timed qualifying lap on slicks before rain soaked the Interlagos circuit.
Q3 started with rain looming on the radar, and nine of the 10 cars in the shootout lined up at pit exit on the soft tire to bank a lap before the heavens opened.
Magnussen was the first in the queue to take to the damp track in the drizzle, and his position on track paid dividends as conditions worsened, putting him on provisional pole with a 0.203s margin ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez edged Charles Leclerc at the top of the time sheet in the crucial first practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Perez took top spot around 30 minutes into the session with an early switch to the soft tire, and his best time of 1m11.853s couldn’t be beaten before the end of the hour.
Leclerc came agonizingly close when Ferrari undertook its qualifying simulation laps near the end of the session, with just 0.004s splitting the Scuderia driver from taking control.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated old rival Lewis Hamilton to win the Mexico City Grand Prix and break the record for most wins in a season.
The Dutchman got the perfect start from pole to hold the lead through the first three turns from George Russell and Hamilton, who started second and third but squabbled between themselves in the Red Bull’s slipstream.
Hamilton passed Russell, who was then demoted to fourth by Sergio Perez, leaving Verstappen to establish a 1.3s gap by the end of the lap. Hamilton kept him honest without threatening a pass, keeping him within 2.5s.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen will start the Mexico City Grand Prix from pole position alongside George Russell after a strong afternoon for Mercedes.
The German marque had topped the first two qualifying segments, but Verstappen unleashed in Q3 to put 0.132s on the rest of the field led by Russell. Lewis Hamilton slotted into a close third but had his lap deleted for cutting Turn 3, forcing him into a one-run session at the death.
Verstappen was first out among the top three for the second runs and immediately slammed on a faster time, lowering the benchmark by 0.172s to 1m17.947s.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell led a Mercedes one-two in final practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix after Max Verstappen struggled to string together a lap.
Russell set the benchmark early with a 1m18.399s on softs, the most used tire of the hour, and teammate Hamilton crossed the line shortly afterwards just 0.114s adrift.
The younger Briton had the edge in the first and particularly the last sectors, while Hamilton clawed back around half the difference in the middle split. It translated to a comfortable lead for the German marque over the field, the W13 appearing at home in the low-grip conditions of the still slippery, high-altitude circuit.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc crashed out of the 90-minute Pirelli tire test topped by George Russell at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s car spun off the track through Turn 8 and rear-ended the wall, with his left-rear corner suffering the worst of the damage. The Monegasque was unhurt, blaming a lack of grip on the experimental tires, as well as the dusty track, for the mistake.
The time it took to collect his wrecked car and repair the barriers cost teams and Pirelli almost 20 minutes in the middle of the session. By the time Leclerc found the barrier, Russell had already topped the session as one of five drivers granted 45 minutes of free practice during the tire test after handing their cars to rookie and reserve drivers in FP1.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz led Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to the top of the time sheet in first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Sainz, pole-getter last weekend in the USGP at Circuit of The Americas, set a best time of 1m20.707s to best Leclerc by just 0.046s in a largely trouble-free session for the works team.
The same couldn’t be said for the Ferrari power unit, however, which failed in the back of Pietro Fittipaldi’s Haas car after just nine laps in a plume of smoke down the front straight.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to victory at the United States Grand Prix despite a slow pit stop costing him the lead just after half-distance.
Victory meant Red Bull Racing also secured the constructors’ championship over Ferrari for the first time since 2013.
Verstappen had snatched first place from pole sitter Carlos Sainz off the line with a great start from second on the grid to claim the Turn 1 apex. Sainz was set to follow him out of the corner, but George Russell, starting from fourth, was attempting to slice down the inside of teammate Hamilton and went in too hot.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz took his third career pole position with top spot at the United States Grand Prix.
The Spaniard dueled exclusively for pole with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who had taken provisional pole after the first laps, while both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen threatened from third and fourth.
Leclerc improved with his second lap, but not enough to fend off Sainz, who bested him by 0.065s. It’s Ferrari’s first pole at the Circuit of The Americas, but Sainz said it wasn’t enough to make his team favorite for victory.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc topped an unrepresentative second practice session at the United States Grand Prix ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.
The extended 90-minute practice session was entirely co-opted by Pirelli for an in-season tire test given the dearth of opportunities for private testing during the packed 23-race season, making the times close to opaque for comparison purposes for this weekend’s race.
However, any driver who was replaced by a reserve or rookie driver in FP1 was exempt for the first 30 minutes to undertake regular set-up work, which meant Leclerc, Bottas and Ricciardo were eligible to run regular tires before switching to tire testing.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz bested Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the top spot in first practice for the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.
The Ferrari driver was the first among the front-runners to set a time on the soft tire and immediately rocketed to top spot with a 1m36.857s in warm and blustery conditions, with the ambient temperature 86 degrees F and the circuit peaking at 104 degrees F.
Hamilton responded for Mercedes in his upgraded W13, but the Briton was almost half a second off the pace, slipping to 0.475s adrift of the benchmark.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated the wet-weather Japanese Grand Prix to win his second world title after Charles Leclerc dropped from second to third with a post-race penalty.
The heavens opened over the track in the hour before the race started, and lights went out as scheduled with the field on intermediate tires.
But the grand prix was neutralized halfway around the lap when Carlos Sainz aquaplaned into the barrier exiting the hairpin, with Gasly collecting an advertising hoarding that tore free from the wall in the impact.
Continue reading on RACER