results Archives

F1 / Round 15: 2022 Dutch Grand Prix Highlights and Provisional Results

As the drivers left the grid for the first of 72 laps, the home crowd filled the air with orange for their countryman – championship F1 leader Max Verstappen. Both Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc got a good start but it was the Red Bull driver who had a slight edge. Further back, Mercedes-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton also sliced through the grid and had just a tiny bit of contact with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who had been one slot ahead of him on the grid.

With Zandvoort having very short laps, the cars raced across the starting grid again within a very short time. Haas driver, Kevin Magnussen, provided some drama in the opening lap as his car went wide into the gravel and although he bounced off a barrier, he managed to remain in the race but in last position. His team mate, Mick Schumacher, was not doing well either, having slipped two positions back from eighth on the grid.

Within the first 12 minutes, 6 laps had already been completed and Verstappen was already setting the fastest time. But just one lap later, Leclerc pushed hard and did an even faster lap, gaining a bit on the Dutchman. Hamilton was less than a second behind Sainz who was dropping back from the front two.

Tyre degradation was appearing and Scuderia Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly went into the pits for new tyres, followed by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. They had started on softs which did not seem to be a good choice. Alpine F1’s Fernando Alonso also came in on lap 13 for tyres. Schumacher’s pit-stop was frustrating as it took a while before he could be released.

Lap 15 saw Sainz and Sergio Perez, the other Red Bull driver, pitting. It was messy as Sainz could not shoot back out straight away due to Perez coming past and the Ferrari driver was still for 11 seconds – which is a long time in the pitlane.

As Leclerc headed off to the pits, Hamilton inherited second place, 12 seconds behind Verstappen. When the Ferrari driver got back to the race, he was fourth with Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell ahead.

When Verstappen finally came in on lap 19, Hamilton took the lead, followed by Russell. Switching to mediums, the Dutchman had a very quick stop as usual, returning in third place and about 8 seconds behind Hamilton, and 5 seconds ahead of Leclerc. Up to that point, both Mercedes-AMG drivers were still on their original tyres – a one-stop strategy?

The Alfa Romeo ORLEN team must have been grateful that their cars remained in the race, Zhou Guan-Yu in 13^th and Valtteri Bottas in 15^th place. But Zhou picked up a 5-second penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane.

On lap 28, Verstappen closed in on Russell and speeding along the main straight with DRS open, he easily slipped past the Mercedes-AMG into second as he powered his way around on the outside. One lap later, Hamilton left the lead to Verstappen as he rushed into the pits. While changing tyres, Russell, Leclerc and Perez passed by so he rejoined in fifth, 11 seconds ahead of Sainz.

It was Russell’s turn on lap 31 which gives second place to Leclerc, who has a 7-second gap to close with Verstappen. He’s comfortably ahead of Perez who has to keep an eye out for Hamilton sneaking up on him. It was hard to say which Mercedes-AMG driver might have a chance at winning the F1 race as Russell was faster than Hamilton at times.

Halfway through the F1 race, Verstappen looked steady in the lead with an 8-second gap from Leclerc, with Perez around the same time gap from the Ferrari driver. This meant his focus could be entirely on Hamilton who was in his mirrors. Hamilton gets past on lap 37 but Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel is in the way and the Mercedes-AMG driver cannot pull away from Perez quickly enough. Perhaps too focussed on Hamilton, Perez is caught by surprise as Russell slips past him as well into fourth place.

On lap 45, there was confusion when Scuderia Alphatauri’s Yuki Tsunoda pulled to the side as he seemed to have tyre problems. He was able to make it back to the pits where his wheels were checked. He rejoined and then had problems again after 3 laps and pulled over between Turns 4 and 5. but the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was activated as the Japanese driver left his car.

This triggered a flurry of activity in the pits and on lap 49, Verstappen pit from the lead! The Mercedes-AMG drivers also did the same, but the Red Bull driver got back out and still kept his lead. Racing resumed on lap 50 as the VSC was deactivated. Hamilton was then 12 seconds behind Verstappen, with his team mate 3 seconds away. Instead of being able to keep the lead, Hamilton had been forced into working for the win again due to the VSC.

Alfa Romeo lost a car again as Bottas came to a stop on the main straight while he was in 18^th place. The F1 Safety Car came out on lap 56 and Verstappen shot straight to the pits for softs. But the Mercedes-AMG duo did not do the same, so Hamilton was back in the lead with his team mate shadowing him. However, on lap 58, as the cars diverted along the pit lane because the marshals were clearing the Alfa Romeo, Russell did a stop and got soft tyres. That dropped him to third behind Verstappen.

The F1 Safety Car ended its duty after 3 laps. Mercedes-AMG had a buffer between Hamilton and Verstappen but lost it. They had a good chance of Hamilton winning but if he could not, then Russell was ready to take over. As the race started, the Dutchman pulled out and swooped past the Mercedes-AMG easily. The Dutchman regained the lead in the Dutch Grand Prix with 11 laps remaining.

Within a short while, Verstappen had already opened the gap to 2 seconds. As the cars charged through Turn 1, Russell passed Hamilton who was very frustrated at having mediums while his British team mate had softs that worked a lot better. From being in the lead, Hamilton now had to deal with a determined Leclerc who passed him on lap 66.

Verstappen had the speed to stay ahead no matter how hard Russell tried, while Hamilton struggled with his tyres to try to keep Sainz from also displacing him. How quickly his fortunes had changed.

Clocking a fastest lap, Verstappen again won in front of his home crowd which went crazy as their hero sped across the finish line. He had pretty much led from pole position on the grid and got it right again.

F1/Round 8: Provisional Results and Highlights of 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

After the frustration at Monaco, Charles Leclerc would have been eager to make sure that he took full advantage of his pole position on the Baku startline to get ahead. But as the lights turned green, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was alert enough to shoot ahead when the Ferrari driver locked up at the first corner, and then began to pull away. As for Perez’ team mate, Max Verstappen, trying to also pass Leclerc was not the immediate objective as he has another Ferrari in his mirrors.

Further back, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, starting in ninth, managed to sneak past Scuderia AkphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. The rest of the pack generally stayed in order of grid positions initially.

By lap 4, Perez was already 2 seconds ahead of Leclerc while Verstappen had closed in from behind. He could not afford to allow the Dutchman to get past because, when they hit the straight, the Red Bulls would use their superior speed to widen the gap. Sainz was already falling back to about 4 seconds from Verstappen and would soon have Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell coming up.

On lap 9, yellow flags appeared as Sainz departed from the track into the run-off area at Turn 4. He remained there and it was heard over the radio that there was a brake failure. The Virtual Safety Car was activated since the Ferrari was not obstructing and the marshalls got to work recovering the racing car.

With his team mate out, Leclerc quickly headed to the pits to get on hard tyres. Others who came in during the period were Russell, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton as well. Leclerc’s pit stop put him one place down behind Verstappen and about 14 seconds behind the race leader when he rejoined. The pit stops gave Alpine’s Fernando Alonso a chance to get up to fifth, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was in sixth with his team mate Daniel Ricciardo in seventh.

Hamilton’s pit stop also allowed Vettel to jump ahead and engage Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. However, on lap 13, the Aston Martin driver misjudged the corner at Turn 3 and had to go straight, losing his place to a few others. In his haste to rejoin, he nearly hit Tsunoda.

By lap 15, Verstappen was right up behind Perez and ready to overtake, which he did without drama as his team mate let him go by. Now Perez would have to watch for Leclerc who was still some 10 seconds behind. With that safe gap, Perez came in to get fresh and hard tyres. But the stop was a slow one and when he rejoined, Leclerc had gone past and he just managed to get in ahead of Russell.

Verstappen finally came in on lap 19 to change his tyres for the first time, also to hards. He had a 9-second gap when he came in but it was not enough to allow him to return and still be in the lead, which was taken by Leclerc. Meanwhile, further back, Hamilton’s patience paid off as he pushed past Ocon and got up to ninth.

And then disaster struck for Leclerc on lap 20 as smoke appeared from his car and he lost power. He managed to return to the pits – but his race was over. Another race to forget for Ferrari which had started the season looking good. So it was Red Bull in 1-2, with Russell 14 seconds behind the leader in third. But the race isn’t over till the chequered flag comes out and with the high temperatures, things could still happen to change the expected outcome.

Along with Leclerc, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou GuanYu also had to retire. On lap 24, he was asked to pit as there was ‘a technical issue’, preventing him from finishing another race.

As the 51-lap race crossed the halfway point, the three front cars were well ahead of the others. Behind Russell, the gap was around 20 seconds to Scuderia Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly. Pursuing him were Hamilton and Ricciardo, with Tsunoda trying hard to stay with them.

While Leclerc was saying how ‘hurt’ he felt with the engine failure, Hamilton was really feeling hurt physically. He was heard to tell his team over the radio that his back was hurting badly due to the porpoising. This condition is occurring in the new 2022 cars as the ground effect aero causes them to ‘bounce’ at high speed. The alternating downforce and lack of it keeps pulling the car body up and down. While some constructors have found solutions, it seems that the Mercedes-AMG engineers still can’t overcome it and the drivers are getting suffering.

Another Ferrari-powered car also ended its race on lap 33. It was the Haas F1 of Kevin Magnussen who had been struggling to endure the porpoising and was about to get past Ocon. But then he dropped back and pulled to the side of the track. The Virtual Safety Car was again activated, giving the three front-runners an opportunity to get fresh tyres for the remainder of the race.

When racing resume on lap 36, Hamilton had gotten new tyres and was ready to push hard. He quickly got past Tsunoda who was on old tyres, nut would have to work hard to close the 10-second gap to Gasly. His team mate, Russell, was in a comfortable position in third and did not try too hard to go after Perez.

On lap 40, balck and orange flags were waved at Tsunoda as his car was spotted with a damaged rear wing. He was required to go back to the pits where the crew was waiting to fix the problem with tape. But the fix meant he would have no DRS although he did get new tyres.

Hamilton got past Gasly on lap 42 and was up to fourth, but still over 30 seconds behind Russell. It was a good position for a change but he still had to be alert for Gasly trying to take back the position from him. However, the Scuderia Alphatauri driver was also told not to try too hard as getting the points was important – no point engaging Hamilton and then making a mistake and have to retire.

With less than 10 laps remaining, both McLarens were in the top 10 and looking forward to taking home points from Baku. Ahead of them was Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who was within reach but Alonso was not close enough to try to take on Vettel. Both McLarens were watching Alonso closely, waiting for just one mistake.

Verstappen must have been praying not to have any surprise like last year as he headed towards the finish. But for Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, there would be no crossing the finish line as he was pulled out of the race on lap 48. Verstappen did have a moment of concern when he reported that he felt ‘something’ with his brakes but he took the chequered flag without incident and strengthened his lead, along with that of Red Bull Racing with Perez also picking up a big chunk of points.

F1/Round 5: Highlights and Provisional Results of 2022 Miami Grand Prix

The 72nd Formula 1 race on American soil saw Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc getting off to a good start and reaching the first corner before his team mate, Carlos Sainz, who had been caught by surprise by a hard-charging Max Verstappen. Mercedes-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton was also displaced from his eighth starting position briefly by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who got a good slingshot start.

Going into the first turn, Hamilton had contact with Alonso and later, the Mercedes-AMG driver reported that he felt damage at the rear. Hamilton’s team mate, George Russell, who had started in 12th position, also had a bad start and slipped down to 15th to drop behind Alfa Romeo’s GuanYu Zhou who would have to retire by the 8th lap due to a technical issue.

The two Aston Martins had started from the pitlane as the cars had ‘fuel issues’, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who did not take part in qualifying due to an earlier crash, started from the back of the grid.

On lap 10, as Verstappen got within DRS range on the start-finish straight, he got past Leclerc whose car seemed to have damaged tyres. Behind Leclerc was his team mate Sainz who was pursued by the other Red Bull, Sergio Perez. 8 seconds behind the four frontrunners were two former team mates – Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas – duelling for fifth place.

On lap 12, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver to return to the pits to change his medium tyres for hards, rejoining at the back. He was closely followed by Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen who also wanted to get onto hard tyres like Tsunoda. However, Verstappen seemed to be doing okay with his medium tyres. None of the top 10 cars were called in for tyre-changes.

On lap 20, Perez began to drop back noticeably and seemed to be losing power. However, his engineers could not see anything on the telemetry but he had slipped back by almost 3 seconds during the lap. Whatever it was, his gap from Sainz extended to 7 seconds. Later, the engineers would report that a sensor issue had been the cause.

Lewis Hamilton was the first of the top 10 to come in on lap 23, retaining his position as he shot back out. Two laps later, Leclerc came in, glad to finally be rid of the tyres that were making it a struggle to drive his car. When he rejoined, he was down in fourth, 27 seconds behind Verstappen in the lead and 2 seconds ahead of Bottas. After the Alfa Romeo driver was a wide gap to Russell who was some 16 seconds furtherback.

Finally, Verstappen came in for hard tyres on lap 26, losing the lead which was taken over by Sainz. And just two laps later, both Sainz and Perez came in at the same time, with the Red Bull crew getting four tyres changed in less time than the Ferrari crew (apparently there was a wheel nut problem). Verstappen was back in the lead, with a 7-second gap from Leclerc.

Russell, who had started in 12th, had done well to be up to fifth by lap 30, managing to stay keep Bottas back as Hamilton tried to close the 4-second gap. He was still on his original tyres, one of the last few drivers who had not come in. But Hamilton was not happy as the tyres were running hot with the high track temperatures.

Further down the field, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was also having a hard time with his tyres, and the only glimmer of hope given to him as he struggled to stay close to McLaren’s Lando Norris was that rain ‘might come in 3 minutes’. Russell too was hoping for a change in weather – or a Safety Car making an appearance.

Lap 41 provided the huge crowd with some excitement as Scuderia Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alonso made contact when the Alpine locked up going into Turn 1. Gasly was unable to avoid and fell to to 11th spot but worse, Norris was just behind and couldn’t avoid him and slid off to the side to end his race. Out came the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) – with Russell probably smiling under his helmet. The Stewards decided that Alonso was at fault and gave him a 5-seond penalty.

With the VSC activated, Russell came into the pits, along with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who decided to take on soft tyres. Perez also made a second stop, this time to go to medium tyres again. Gasly had come in just as the VSC ended and was heard to say that he thought something had broken.

The race got underway again with 10 laps remaining of the 57-lap race. Verstappen sped off with Leclerc just behind. Their team mates were under 3 seconds behind and both also close enough to duel for the third place.

Russell was playing the dutiful No. 2 to his team mate as he kept clear of Hamilton who was aiming to get past Bottas, which he did by lap 48. That was as far as the 7-time world champion would make it as it was then a 3-second gap to Perez. One lap later, however, Russell found himself in an advantageous position after having overtaken Bottas as well and slipped ahead of Hamilton into fifth place. However, he was later told to give the place back to Hamilton as the move had been done off the track.

As the race reached its final 5 laps, the excitement was building up. Verstappen was able to keep Leclerc from passing while Sainz was managing to hold third place for Ferrari. Verstappen made no mistakes and crossed the finish line to big cheers from the Red Bull fans. Another good day for the Dutchman who is now climbing back up the championship ladder.

F1/Round 22: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021

As the 19 cars (Haas F1’s Nikita Mazepin could not start due to COVID-19 infection) slowly took their places on the starting grid for the final round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, the air was full of tension. Tonight’s result would decide who the new champion would be. It could well be the race of the century.

As the lights went out, the Red Bull driver got a good start but was not quick enough to outrun Lewis Hamilton to the first turn and coming out on the other side was the Mercedes-AMG. But the first controversy started by Turn 6 as Hamilton ran wide and Verstappen alleged that he had been pushed off the track. However, the Stewards did not see anything wrong and decided not to investigate… much to Christian Horner’s frustration again.

While McLaren Lando Norris slipped back and was overtaken by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, it was Verstappen’s team mate, Sergio Perez, who managed to slip into third place about 4 seconds behind Hamilton. It was a good position to be where he could take over when the two leaders headed into the pits.

By lap 11, Hamilton was 3,5 seconds ahead but coming in was something that would need to be carefully considered as there was a risk in giving up the place too soon. Meanwhile, Verstappen was beginning to struggle with the soft tyres he started with, as opposed to Hamilton who had mediums from the start.

On lap 14, Verstappen had to come in and took on hard tyres. As usual, Mercedes-AMG followed next and when Hamilton rejoined, he was ahead enough to be in second place behind Perez who had taken over. However, Verstappen was further down and rejoined as Norris passed by. He had a 9-seconds gap from Hamilton who was ahead of Sainz.

With everyone more careful not to be the cause of any incident that could impact either of the championship leaders, Sainz didn’t put up a fight when the Red Bull was about to pass. Verstappen was up into third place but Hamilton had been pushing harder to reach Perez, and the gap was still 8 seconds.

On lap 20, Hamilton began to dice with Perez who had been instructed to delay the Mercedes-AMG driver enough so that Verstappen could close in. And as Hamilton had to be careful, he lost out as Verstappen shot forward unimpeded by his team mate who was ready to head for the pits. This put the Dutchman in second position and ready to fight for the title.

16 seconds behind Verstappen was Tsunoda, pursued by Bottas, while Perez slotted into fifth place after getting his fresh tyres. However, the Japanese drivers position was lost when he pitted, dropping him to tenth.

Alfa Romeo ORLEN’s Kimi Raikkonen did not get to finish his final F1 race as his car had braking problems around lap 26 and he had to limp back to the pits. Fans of the Finn, who was among the senior drivers, were saddened that the 20-year career had to end on a low note.

At the halfway point of the 58-lap race, Hamilton was still in the lead, 4 seconds ahead of Verstappen but without the security of having Bottas near enough. Though his team mate was in third, he was some 20 seconds behind. In any case, he had to come in for a tyre change and rejoined in tenth. His place was taken over by Perez who had a comfortable gap from Alpine F1’s Fernando Alonso, so he could focus on staying in the race.

Raikkonen’s team mate, Antonio Giovinazzi, also had an unhappy ending with the team as his car came to a stop on lap 36, triggering the Virtual Safety Car to enable clearing. Verstappen came in for hard tyres and rejoined still in second place as Hamilton did not want to lose his top spot. Twenty laps remained and Hamilton looked like he would keep the hard tyres till the end and take another world championship.

The Virtual Safety Car had given Verstappen a chance to close in on Hamilton and by lap 43, he had gained 4 seconds, though the gap was still over 12 seconds. His steady progress to close the gap meant that it was going to be a thrilling finish. And with 12 laps remaining, Hamilton was also getting close to backmarkers which could make things tricky.

With his tyres having been in use for over 37 laps, the team was warning Hamilton to be careful on the kerbs. A puncture would be disastrous at this point with the remaining laps.

7 laps from the end, Hamilton finally got past the traffic but Verstappen still had to carefully find his way past at least 5 cars, some of whom were also battling each other. The delay kept the gap at around 12 seconds.

And then Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi crashed at Turn 14 while duelling with Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher, and the Safety Car had to come out. Just 6 laps remained and with the cars unable to race, the release of the Safety Car would certainly be a dramatic moment as the two leaders tried to sprint to the finish. Verstappen decided to come into the pits to get fresh tyres – certainly the last time in the race – but Hamilton was unwilling to take any risk of losing his position right at the front.

With 3 laps remaining, the gap was just 3 seconds between Hamilton and Verstappen. Everyone was biting their nails as the outcome was going to be very tight. Verstappen still had 5 slower cars in front of him.

On the 57th lap, the cars were still behind the Safety Car so it seemed like a real shoot-put to the finish line. Then race control told the 5 cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake the Safety Car as it was about to leave the track – and it would be Hamilton and Verstappen going for it as they were side by side. An incredible setting to the end of the season!

The moment racing resumed, Hamilton had a slight edge but Verstappen grabbed the lead – and held it to the chequered flag to become the new World Champion. Crossing the line, the Dutchman was about 2 seconds ahead of the Mercedes-AMG driver, whose boss was unhappy at the circumstances. But his team does win the Constructors Championship again, which makes it 8 times in a row. But for the Red Bull Racing team, the hard work finally paid off and for Honda, their engine supplier, it was a great way to end F1 involvement.

*Valtteri Bottas leaves the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS team to take over the spot vacated by Kimi Raikkonen, while Williams Racing’s George Russell will become Lewis Hamilton’s team mate in 2022.*

Guanyu Zhou 2022 F1 Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN — *Guanyu Zhou will join Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN in 2022 to partner with Bottas.*

F1/Round 13: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Dutch Grand Prix

As the race got underway, all eyes were on Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton who were on the front row, something which had not been seen since since Silverstone where even before the first lap was completed, contact between the two cars saw the Red Bull Racing driver bouncing off into the barriers. Thankfully, there was no drama as the Red Bull driver took the lead with Hamilton getting into his slipstream as they headed to Turn 1.

Zandvoort is an old-school track with overtaking opportunities limited so it wasn’t surprising that the order remained pretty much as it was on the starting grid. However, Fernando Alonso (Alpine F1) managed to find a gap and moved two places up even before the first lap was completed.

Daniel Ricciardo’s woes started early as smoke was seen coming from his McLaren and oil was also leaking onto the track. However, he still kept going and after a couple of laps, the problem seemed to go away as he held on to ninth place.

As the race headed into its second quarter, Verstappen still led with a gap of almost 3 seconds from Hamilton. The frontrunners remained out but some of the backmarkers were getting a change of tyres.

At 18 laps – one quarter of the way – the front three drivers continued to hold positions, with Valtteri Bottas doing his usual duty of watching Hamilton’s back. Further back, Scuderia Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly was trying to keep ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Sergio Perez, the other Red Bull driver, had qualified poorly and was struggling to move up the field from his starting position at 16th.

On lap 21, Hamilton had enough of his tyres and came in for a fresh set, the first among the frontrunners to do so. The move saw Red Bull also bringing in Verstappen and getting him out and ahead of Hamilton in a time 9/10ths of a second quicker than the stop at the Mercedes-AMG pits. Bottas had inherited the lead, and Verstappen was almost 10 seconds away.

As lap 26 began, Verstappen was chasing Bottas while keeping an eye in the mirror on a fast closing Hamilton. The World Champion had cut the gap to less than 2 seconds, which was making for a very interesting battle. The chase was hard on the Red Bull’s tyres, which was what Bottas was aiming to do.

But pushing hard, Verstappen eventually overtook Bottas on the 32nd lap, with Hamilton shooting past still intent on closing the gap. Bottas came in, got his new tyres and was out in 2.2 seconds, still able to slot back into third place but 24 seconds behind his team mate. He had no threat from Gasly who was 2o seconds behind, so he settled into maintaining his defending position.

About halfway through the race, only two drivers had still not come in for new tyres – Land Norris and Robert Kubica, who was taking Kimi Raikkonen’s place in the race because Kimi had tested positive for COVID-19.

On lap 38, a pile-up was avoided when Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin COGNIZANT) spun on the banking at Turn 3 as he tried to pass Kubica. Bottas was coming along and just managed to miss the cars.

On lap 41, Hamilton came in for a tyre change again and Red Bull did the same thing one lap later with Verstappen, The positions did not change and the Dutchman had newer tyres to give maximum effort as he tried to increase the 3-second gap from his rival. In retrospect, there was concern that with 30 laps to go, Hamilton had done the second tyre change too early and worse, he had been given used tyres.

On lap 43, Nikita Mazepin (Haas F1) was forced to end his race when his car developed a hydraulic issue that could not be fixed. He was the first driver to retire at the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix. Following him was Yuki Tsunoda of Scuderia AlphaTauri who would also get to go home early. He had notified his team that he had lost power and telemetry confirmed a problem, so he was brought in.

Hamilton was around 2 seconds behind Verstappen on lap 57 as the Red Bull driver started to get close to traffic ahead. But it wasn’t necessarily good for Hamilton who was noticing some power problems in his car. But the slower cars see the two race leaders coming up and move aside as much as they can, not wanting to be responsible for causing any incident.

*Dutch Grand Prix in the 1950s at the Zandvoort Circuit which had a different layout from the one used for the 2021 Grand Prix.*

Less than 10 laps from the end of the race, Hamilton was finding the going harder and harder as the tyres were worn out, and the gap started to widen. It looked like Verstappen would be able to take the chequered flag and regain his championship lead – with team mate Perez providing a few more as he had managed to make it up to points positions. However, in his attempt to get past Norris, there was contact between the cars which the Stewards noticed and considered.

In the closing laps, the Mercedes-AMG team decided that their cars should have fresh tyres so that the drivers could at least put in the fastest lap and collect the precious point for the team.

F1/Round 3: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

♦ It seemed like a good, incident-free start to the race… at least for the first lap. Then, as the second lap was beginning, Kimi Raikkonen ran into the back of Antonio Giovinazzi (his team mate). The front wing came off and he tried to drive on but could not and had to turn off into the gravel. An early start as usual for the Safety Car which was deployed to allow the Alfa Romeo to be removed and debris cleared. Giovinazzi, however, was still in the race and Daniel Ricciardo was waiting to pounce on the ‘wounded’ Alfa Romeo.

♦ Although Valtterri Bottas was in the lead, his engineers saw the brakes overheating (smoke was coming out too) and this was a concern for the restart when the Safety Car moved off on lap 6. Max Verstappen was ready for the moment and got around Lewis Hamilton to slot into second place and aim for the race leader.

♦ But the World Champion was not going to settle for third place, and within a lap, he slipped part Verstappen to regain second position less than a second behind his team mate.

♦ Lando Norris had used his tyre advantage to overtake Sergio Perez for 4th place, but then the Mexican driver who is with Red Bull Racing this year out-maneuvered the McLaren driver going through Turn 1 with the help of DRS.

♦ Ricciardo had started from 16th position and steadily worked his way up the field. By lap 18, he was able to pass Sebastian Vettel to grab 10th position and start thinking of some points to take home at the end of the race.

♦ Bottas didn’t make things easy for Hamilton, who was showing a lot of determination to take the lead. On lap 20, as the cars raced around Turn 1, Hamilton surged around his team mate and into the lead. It was like a replay of the 2020 race when Hamilton did the same thing.

♦ With a third of the race done, most cars were changing their soft tyres for harder ones. The two Mercedes-AMG cars were ahead of two Red Bulls, with one Ferrari (Charles Leclerc) about 12 seconds further back. Verstappen was within striking distance of Bottas but never had a clear chance to overtaken, allowing Hamilton to concentrate on building up his buffer with a succession of fastest laps.

♦ At the halfway mark, it was still both Mercedes-AMGs ahead, and then two Red Bulls. Fernando Alonso was the better-placed Alpine in 6th, watching Ricciardo’s progress and waiting for a chance to attack the McLaren driver, Both Ferraris were still in the points, but in 9th and 19th positions, they could easily drop out too. In fact, Leclerc was under threat from the second Alpine driven by Esteban Ocon, just a couple of seconds away.

♦ On lap 36, Verstappen started the chain of pit stops to get onto harder tyres to sustain an offensive. While Bottas shot in after the Dutchman, Hamilton was willing to stay out a bit longer, telling team that he thought the tyres were still okay, but he was ordered in. At that point, he had a 4-second lead and Perez inherited the lead of 12 seconds. But if he came into the pits, he would immediately fall to 4th.

♦ 22 laps remained as Hamilton sped after Perez, setting a fastest lap again. Verstappen had no answer to the speed of the Mercedes-AMG. He also had to watch his mirrors for Bottas who had been given encouragement personally by the team boss to go after the Red Bull.

♦ On lap 47, Nikita Mazepin, the ‘bad boy’ of the F1 world with his controversial behaviour, caught the attention of the Stewards who investigated him ignoring blue flags, which required him to allow the race leader to pass. The Russian drver has made some mistakes before, and explained that he was new and ‘unaware’. This time, he got a 5-second penalty although that was of no great consequence since he was at the back of the field anyway.

♦ By lap 51, Perez was probably finding it difficult with the old tyres, and Hamilton got by to regain the lead. The Red Bull driver then came in for the long-overrdue tyre change and as expected, slotted into 4th place when the rejoined.

♦ With the softer tyres, Perez pushed hard and got a fastest lap. He was making steady progress up the field in the final 10 laps but had still to get past some cars. As 5 laps remained, Hamilton was in a reasonably comfortable and safe lead, 5 seconds ahead. Bottas was not trying any harder and would settle for third, with Perez not within striking distance.

♦ 2 laps before the end, with a 30-second gap, Bottas rushed into the pits to get soft tyres and he was planning to go for the fastest lap and snatch that 1 bonus point from Perez. Veerstappen did the same thing since he had a 32-second lead ahead of Bottas, and he too was eyeing that 1 precious point.

♦ As Hamilton took the chequered flag, Verstappen and Bottas were both trying hard to be quickest driver of the day – and Bottas was the one because Verstappen’s time was deleted due to track limits infringement.

F1 (Round 16) – Highlights Of The 2019 Russian Grand Prix And Results

♦ Lewis Hamilton finally gets a win after 4 races and increasing assurance of another world championship title, possibly being confirmed in Mexico.

♦ Controversies again in the Ferrari camp led to Sebastian Vettel retiring with engine problems and Charles Leclerc losing his lead due to the virtual safety car being deployed.

♦ Red Bull’s two drivers – Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon – started the race in poor form, the former having been given a penalty and the latter having had an accident in qualifying. But they managed to finish 4th and 5th (Albon moving up from 20th at the beginning) to collect points for the team.

♦ Poorly planned pit stop saw Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo immobile longer than necessary and dropping way down the field to end 13th. He must miss the lightning-quick and precisely planned pit stops at Ferrari.

(Provisional results)

Next race in Japan (Suzuka) on October 13

F1 (Round 15) – Highlights Of The 2019 Singapore Grand Prix And Results

♦ A 1-2 finish for Ferrari in Singapore and for Sebastian Vettel to stand at the top of the podium – which he has not done since August last year.

♦ ‘Unfair’ was how Charles Leclerc felt when the Ferrari team allowed Vettel to undercut him and come into the pits one lap earlier, resulting in Leclerc losing his lead.

♦ Lewis Hamilton managed only fourth among the finishers but his strong points lead still gives him a comfortable buffer for the remaining rounds.

♦ Although his qualifying time got him eighth place on the starting grid. Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified and dropped to last position. This was due to the MGU-K of the Renault exceeding the power limit during the qualifying session.

Mercedes-AMG GT R — *The AMG GT R is the 11th Official F1 Safety Car provided by Mercedes-AMG over the past 23 years. It is the quickest Safety Car in the sport’s history so far.*

Next race in Russia on September 29

Piston.my

results

F1 / Round 15: 2022 Dutch Grand Prix Highlights and Provisional Results

F1/Round 8: Provisional Results and Highlights of 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

F1/Round 5: Highlights and Provisional Results of 2022 Miami Grand Prix

F1/Round 22: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021

F1/Round 13: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Dutch Grand Prix

F1/Round 3: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

F1 (Round 16) – Highlights Of The 2019 Russian Grand Prix And Results

F1 (Round 15) – Highlights Of The 2019 Singapore Grand Prix And Results

F1: Highlights of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix

F1 / Round 15: 2022 Dutch Grand Prix Highlights and Provisional Results

F1/Round 8: Provisional Results and Highlights of 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

F1/Round 5: Highlights and Provisional Results of 2022 Miami Grand Prix

F1/Round 22: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021

F1/Round 13: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Dutch Grand Prix

F1/Round 3: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

F1 (Round 16) – Highlights Of The 2019 Russian Grand Prix And Results

F1 (Round 15) – Highlights Of The 2019 Singapore Grand Prix And Results

F1: Highlights of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix

Archive

Red Bull RB17: Track-Only Hypercar with F1 Performance

The New Mercedes-AMG GT 43: 421hp, 500Nm; 0-100km/h in 4.6 Seconds

Locally Assembled 2024 Kia Carnival Open For Bookings

Report: 95% of Malaysian Speeding Tickets Are For Speeds Of 130kmh To 170kmh

42 Buses Restricted, 77 Buses Penalised in Ops Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2024

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on YouTube

The Piston Show