Brendan Lines      30th Aug, 2020

Lewis Hamilton has  claimed his 93rd career pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton was over over half a second ahead of teammate Valterri Bottas and nearest rival Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P3, Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo rocketed to an impressive P4.

 

Hamilton drove in commanding style improving on every lap in the qualifying sessions, with seemingly endless amounts of speed on tap, Hamilton blitzed the field in the clean air, as other teams opted to chase the tow looking for every ounce of assistance to match the pace of the Brit.

Hamilton dedicated his pole winning performance in memory of ‘Black Panther’ actor Chadwick Boseman’s passing.

“It’s really not easy to perform at your best when you have something weighing on your heart, and to be truthful it was so difficult to shake off that negativity and channel it into something exceptional, but Chadwick showed that was possible,” Hamilton said after qualifying.

“I’ve done a lot of laps in my F1 career, but those two laps in Q3 were almost perfect. You can’t see my face under my helmet out there, but I was smiling, this track is just incredible and I was totally on the limit,

“We decided to go out early and run in the clean air as it’s so easy to make a mess of the tow if you get blocked or there’s a yellow flag and we definitely made the right call. We’ve got a big race still to come tomorrow and the Red Bulls looked good on the long-runs on Friday.”

Valtteri Bottas’ Q3 lap was +0.511s shy of Hamilton’s pace, the Finn was unfazed missing pole and will start tomorrow’s race from the front row in Spa for the first time, both Mercedes cars will start on Medium tyres.

“But I’m actually not too bothered about missing pole, as starting second or third can be an advantage in Spa,” he said.

“We’ve seen it before that with a tow on the first lap you can overtake the leader going into Turn 5. I hope there’s plenty of opportunity tomorrow to try and fight for a good result and I’m looking forward to an exciting race.”

Verstappen has been hot on the heels of the Mercedes’ pace all weekend, his Q3 lap was just one hundredth off Bottas, the closest Red Bull has been to Mercedes in qualifying.

The Dutchman opted to deploy his power unit’s battery at the start of his Q3 lap, the result may have been different had there been more in reserve from his Honda-powered RB16.

“Overall, it’s been a really positive weekend so far, we came here and thought it was going to be really tricky for us and actually to be that close to Valtteri and in P3 is a good result,” he said.

“The lap was decent and of course I always look at the fastest car and we are half a second down but I think it is the closest we have been to Mercedes in qualifying this year,

“For us on this track, that is not normally our type of qualifying track, I think we can all be very happy with the result and now I’m looking forward to the race.”

Daniel Ricciardo  converted his Friday practice pace into qualifying results come Saturday, splitting the cars of his former team Red Bull, his P4 was locked away on his first run in Q3, bringing an all too familiar smile back to the face of the Australian.

“I’m very happy with today’s qualifying. It was so close to the top three, but Max got me by a couple of tenths at the end. My lap was clean and probably as good as it was going to get. I left it all out there and the second row is a big reward,” he said.

Alex Albon was matched his best qualifying result for the season in P5 and is now in the hunt for his first Formula 1 podium, the RB16’s set up finally working in the favor of the Thai driver, his Q3 lap was just two tenths down from Ricciardo.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon will start along side Albon in P6, it will be the first time both Renault cars will start in the top six this season.

Carlos Sainz was the fastest of the McLaren’s in P7, his first Formula 1 career top ten start at the Belgian track, while teammate Lando Norris rounded out the top ten three tensth off Sainz’s pace.

Sergio Perez lead the charge for Racing Point qualifying P8 with teammate Lance Stroll in P9 , both RP20 cars seemed to deliver below their expected pace over +1.2s off their Mercedes power counterparts.

The 60 per cent chance of rain forecast for the race is likely mix up the race, cars running slightly higher levels of down force could be the order of the day over outright horsepower of the all conquering Mercedes power unit.

The Belgian Grand Prix begins 10:40pm ACST tonight.

Full Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42.323	1:42.014	1:41.252	15
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:42.534	1:42.126	1:41.763	17
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.197	1:42.473	1:41.778	17
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:43.309	1:42.487	1:42.061	11
5	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.418	1:42.193	1:42.264	15
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:43.505	1:42.534	1:42.396	15
7	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:43.322	1:42.478	1:42.438	15
8	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:43.349	1:42.670	1:42.532	15
9	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:43.265	1:42.491	1:42.603	15
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:43.514	1:42.722	1:42.657	17
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:43.267	1:42.730		12
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:43.262	1:42.745		12
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:43.656	1:42.996		12
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:43.567	1:43.261		12
15	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:43.630	1:43.468		11
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:43.743			6
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:43.838			6
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:43.950			6
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:44.138			6
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:44.314			8

 

 

 

 

 

Brendan Lines      29th Aug, 2020 10:00am

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen threw down the gauntlet to Mercedes topping the charts in FP2 just +0.048s ahead of a surprising P2 for Renault’s Daniel Riccardo, Lewis Hamilton was fastest of the Mercedes in P3 +0.096 off Verstappen’s time.

Rain swept across the surrounding Ardennes Forest during the F2 support race Friday session, F1 cars took their time in FP2 waiting for the track to dry.

“Personally, I think Mercedes are still struggling a bit with the balance and I expect them to be stronger tomorrow. You can see already that they are very competitive on the long runs and I don’t think I will be fighting them for pole because we can’t really follow when they turn it up in qualifying,” Verstappen said after FP2.

“If we can at least be a bit closer that would be good ahead of the race. It was important to get some decent dry running today, even if the conditions change over the weekend, so we can find a good baseline. It’s never easy around Spa to find the perfect downforce level and you can see everyone trying different things, but I think we are in a reasonable place and we will find out tomorrow exactly where that puts us.”

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo’s P2 is an improvement on his run of P3’s in practice from previous weekends in Silverstone, but the Aussies FP2 performance was soured by a loss of hydraulic pressure parking his R.S.2O on the Kemmel Straight.

“It was another good FP2 as has been the case for us at the last few rounds. We have to do it tomorrow, though, as that’s when it counts. Today was strong, even with the issue at the end. For safety, we pulled the car over as there’s no point taking risks with mechanical issues on Fridays,”Ricciardo said.

“Our low fuel run was a good one. During the lap, I knew it felt good and sometimes you just know when the car’s working. I knew it was competitive and I wasn’t that surprised it was up there on the timesheets. It was a good day and we certainly understood a lot from it.”

Lewis Hamilton’s P3 came off the back of mixed runs on the Hard and Soft tyres, a slight wobble at the Bus stop chicane on his push lap cost the Brit, while teammate Valtteri Bottas put aside his birthday celebrations dropping from P1 in the morning session to P6 for FP2.

Alex Albon couldn’t quite keep up with his teammate Verstappen, but Albon’s P4 was an improvement from FP1 and his RB16 baseline setup is looking very suited to the Spa-Francochamps circuit.

Sergio Perez was the fastest of the Racing Point cars in P5, with just one car in the top ten for FP2, but Racing Point say they are finding new areas of improvement that will see Lance Stroll back in the fight come FP3 over one lap pace.

Lando Norris lead the McLaren’s after a power unit problem forced him to wind down his engine power to ‘Scenario 1’ under the teams instructions, his lap of 1:44.168 was enough for P7 some three tenths ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in P9.

Esteban Ocon couldn’t match Ricciaro’s pace settling for P8, while Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten for Alpha Tauri challeging for his fourth consecutive Q3 appearance in as many weeks.

Full FP2 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.744		21
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:43.792	+0.048s	12
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.840	+0.096s	23
4	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:44.134	+0.390s	21
5	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.137	+0.393s	23
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:44.162	+0.418s	27
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:44.168	+0.424s	22
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:44.208	+0.464s	23
9	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:44.474	+0.730s	23
10	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:44.600	+0.856s	27
11	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.678	+0.934s	23
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:44.826	+1.082s	26
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:44.861	+1.117s	29
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:44.896	+1.152s	23
15	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:45.440	+1.696s	19
16	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:45.463	+1.719s	25
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:45.683	+1.939s	21
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:45.774	+2.030s	26
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:45.834	+2.090s	12
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:46.242	+2.498s	12

 

 

Brendan Lines     29th Aug, 2020 09:00am

Birthday boy Valtteri Bottas topped FP1 at the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton by just +.069s, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was hot on the heels of Mercedes just one thousand of a second off Hamilton.

The flying Finn was in full flight setting his fastest lap on the Soft tyre, a good start to his weekend after forgettable Silverstone Grand Prix weekends.

“It’s been a good birthday so far for me – I can definitely think of worse things to do on your birthday than driving this track. The first session was good, the second turned out to be a bit more tricky. It was nothing major, and I didn’t get the laps quite right, but I think we might have to revert some set-up changes back to FP1,” he said.

Mercedes’ Friday program focused on rear wing comparisons and understanding tyre performance on low and high fuel around the Spa-Francochamps circuit.

As Mercedes dialled in the balance if it’s car, Verstappen radioed that his Red Bull felt tight in the front-end on the Hard tyre, overcoming the RB16’s recent mid corner understeer problems.

Verstappen’s run on the Soft tyre was just over a tenth quicker than Racing Point’s Sergio Perez in P4 and three tenths quicker than Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll who was in P5

Both Racing Point drivers are optimistic there’s more pace to extract from the RP20.

Red Bull’s Alex Albon had a fast car from the get go finishing in P6 around half a second off Mercedes, the Spa layout suiting his RB16, with little sign of recent understeer problems.

Esteban Ocon was the fastest of the Renault’s in P7 two tenths ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo in P9, both Renault cars ran inside The top ten as FP1 progressed.

Carlos Sainz split the Renault’s in his McLaren for P8 as Lando Norris went P10 just five hundredths adrift of Sainz , just seven tenths of a second covered the top ten in FP1.

Despite damaging the floor of his AT01 on a kerb, Alpha Tauri’s mechanics had Pierre Gasly back out on track, Gasly and teammate Daniil Kyvat finished P11 and P12 respectively.

Kimi Raikkonen was the only Alfa Romeo out On track the Finn placed a respectable P13, a power unit issue kept Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa in the garage for FP1.

Fifty horespower down on engine power on a fast Spa layout, Ferrari were punching with one arm tied behind its back, both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel languished in P14 and P15 respectively, but over one and a half seconds off Mercedes pace.

Nicholas Latifi was the fastest of the Williams cars in P16, while George Russell finished P17,both cars opting for lower downforce settings for top end speed come qualifying.

Both Haas cars remained garaged for FP1 after encountering power unit issues on drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen’s out laps.

Full FP1 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:44.493		18
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:44.562	+0.069s	17
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:44.574	+0.081s	20
4	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.629	+0.136s	22
5	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.868	+0.375s	22
6	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:45.049	+0.556s	22
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:45.099	+0.606s	20
8	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:45.222	+0.729s	24
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:45.225	+0.732s	21
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:45.274	+0.781s	28
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:45.447	+0.954s	25
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:45.503	+1.010s	17
13	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:45.704	+1.211s	19
14	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:45.759	+1.266s	18
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:46.179	+1.686s	15
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:46.488	+1.995s	19
17	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:46.570	+2.077s	21
18	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari			1
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari			2
20	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari			2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brendan Lines 17th Aug, 2020 09:30am

Lewis Hamilton took a flawless victory leading the Spanish Grand Prix from start to finish from pole, scoring his fourth win of the 2020 season, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes teammate Valterri Bottas.

Hamilton was in a world and class of his own, the Brit dominated off the line racing unchallenged into Turn 1, lapping the field up to P4 finishing +24.0s ahead of Verstappen.

“This feels absolutely incredible. I was just in a daze out there, I didn’t even know it was the last lap in the end, that’s how in the zone I was,” Hamilton said.

“I can’t remember the last time I felt like that. It was really special and a real surprise after our recent tyre problems,

“We brought all of our learnings from the previous weekend into this one and that enabled us to do well today,

“A fantastic effort from everyone in the team, I’m so grateful for all their hard work and for continuing to push, so a huge thank you to everyone at the factories,

“I got the perfect start and then it was all about tyre management. It was so hot out there and very demanding, but I was just focused on protecting the tyres and bringing the car home. What an incredible result.

Verstappen, starting from P3 split the Mercedes cars, placing his Red Bull in the slipstream of the Mercedes, Verstappen passed and blocked Bottas, dropping the Fin back to P4 and into the clutches of the Racing Point cars.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll seized P3 in the Turn 1 jostling, Bottas eventually recovered to P3. Stroll dropped to P5 as the race unfolded, but was promoted back into P4 after the race, when teammate Sergio Perez was handed a five-second time penalty for disobeying blue flags.

Perez was demoted to P5 still finishing ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in P6, who muscled his way through the tight mid-field order on the Soft tyre in the early phases of the race.

Sainz passed the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in P7 in the closing stages, Vettel held on to P7 seemingly running his own one-stop strategy amid much confusion over Ferrari’s team radio from the pitwall.

Vettel finished a second ahead of Red Bull’s Alex Albon who finished P8, Albon’s day was marred when his team opted to put him out on the Hard tyre in traffic — Albon seemed to play ‘Guinea Pig’ for Verstappen’s later move to the Medium tyre.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly had a ‘day out’ passing Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and McLaren’s Lando Norris on the opening lap, a middle stint stuck in mid-field traffic held up the Frenchman’s charge settling for P9 ahead of Norris who rounded out the top ten.

Dan Ricciardo’s ‘delicious’ pace in free practice was soured by disappointing race pace from Renault, the Aussie made up places starting from P13, but finished outside the points in P11, teammate Esteban Ocon finished P13.

Daniil Kyvat held station for Alpha Tauri starting and finishing P12, but the Russian fought hard passing Ricciardo on lap 2 on the outside of Turn 4, and eked out his first stint on the Soft tyre to lap 33 hoping to over-cut the midfield.

Charles Leclerc was the only DNF for the race, his Ferrari engine shutdown at the chicane locking up the rear tyres sending his SF1000 into a spin, he managed to restart the car but later pitted to retire the car.

With Leclerc out, Haas’ Romain Grosjean was classified last in P19, another late defensive move, this time on Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen, might leave Grosjean some explaining to do in the next Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) meeting for the Haas driver/GPDA chairperson.

Grosjean added an incident with Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi at Turn 1, together with a half-spin at Turn 8 on the penultimate lap to really make it a forgettable Spanish Grand Prix for himself.

Räikkönen finished P14, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, the sister Alfa of Antonio Giovinazzi placed P16, with the two Williams of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi in P17 and P18.

This time around Mercedes handled its tyres hot conditions to great effect as Hamilton thwarted any chance Verstappen might repeat his superiority from Silverstone, the win now places Hamilton 37 points clear of Verstappen in the Drivers Championship standings.

Formula 1 now moves to Spa- Francochamps, Belgium for the next round in two weeks time.

Brendan Lines 16th Aug, 2020 07:30am

Lewis Hamilton scored his 92nd pole at the Spanish Grand Prix, his fourth of the 2020 season, beating teammate Valtteri Bottas by just 0.059s, as Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was the feel good story in P4 for his F1 return behind Max Verstappen in P3.

Hamilton’s fifth pole at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya sees him move ahead of Ayrton Senna (4 poles) at the circuit.

“This is a great result for the team and I’m grateful for everyone continuing to push. It was very hot and quite gusty out there which made for a tricky session,” Hamilton said.

“We changed a few things overnight, made a good step forward and I was pretty happy with my first laps in each Qualifying session,

“The first Q3 lap was really solid but there was still a bit of room for improvement. But my second lap wasn’t particularly great and I just couldn’t go quicker. In the end, it was very close with Valtteri out there, he’s keeping me on my toes and every millisecond counts.”

“Tomorrow is going to be challenging, as the race scenario is completely different. Over a single lap, we seem to have the edge, but Red Bull’s race pace looks strong and the run down to Turn 1 is very long, so I’m expecting a tough battle.

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen has been hot on the heels of the Mercs all weekend, holding down P3 in every session.

Qualifying was the same for the Dutchman, but now Verstappen has closed the gap to Mercedes down to just six tenths of a second.

Sergio Perez heads the charge at Racing Point in P4 +0.20 ahead of teammate Lance Stroll in P5.

Perez, who was cleared for a return to F1 after testing negative to COVID-19, kept his cool in the heat of Q3.

“We had to be very careful preparing the tyres on the out lap, not pushing too hard because the track was so hot,” Perez said.

“It was also a physical challenge having missed the last two weekends,

“I’m very pleased that – once again – we’ve been able to show the strengths of the car in different conditions and on a different circuit.”

Red Bull’s Alex Albon took P6 just one-hundreth of a second ahead of Carlos Sainz’s McLaren in P7, on his home track, Sainz beat teamate Lando Norris who finished P8.

Norris pipped the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by three-thousands of a second, the Monegasque would have to settle for P9.

Pierre Gasly continued his run of Q3 appearances to round out the top ten, knocking out Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who misses Q3 again this week.

The Spanish Grand Prix starts 10:40 ACST tonight.

Brendan Lines 15th Aug, 2020 10:00am

Lewis Hamilton reversed the order at Mercedes finishing FP2 for the Spanish Grand Prix in P1, two tenths of a second ahead of Valtteri Bottas in P2, who was fastest in the morning session.

As the temprature climbed for the afternoon session, there was much interest around Mercedes’ performance on the Pirelli tyres after its troubles at the second race at Silverstone, despite Hamilton going fastest with a lap of 1:16.883s.

“It’s definitely been quite tough out there today. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Spain when it’s been this hot,” Hamilton said after FP1.

“The weather is beautiful, but it’s tricky for the car and very tough on the tyres as well. It’s also been quite windy and that can make it difficult out there, but it’s a good challenge. It’s been a positive day, particularly the second session which went better for me,

“We didn’t see any blistering, the tyres felt OK and the long runs didn’t look too bad, but we also didn’t see any blistering last Friday, so we’ll have to remain careful,

“We’ll debrief this evening and see where we stand and what we can do to improve. The Red Bulls look very close to us on the long runs, so we can expect another close race here.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Bottas who despite taking P2, survived a wobble at Turn 15 and a venture onto a gravel trap late in the session.

Max Verstappen held P3 across both Friday’s sessions, closing the gap to the Mercedes to just six tenths of a second in FP2, Red Bull teammate Alex Albon had quiet session managing just P13.

Daniel Ricciardo rocketed within a second of Mercedes in P4, while teammate Esteban Ocon struggled for rear-end stability in P9.

The Aussie, Ricciardo actioned his words that his R.S.20s pace in free practice was ‘delicious.’

“It was really similar [to Silverstone] actually,” said Ricciardo.

“We had a quiet Silverstone FP1, then a delicious FP2, similar here today. Max just got me for [third], I wanted that again so he’s cut me deep, but it was a good day. We found a bit in P2. I wasn’t particularly that happy with P1, so we made some changes. I thought at the time they were a little bit bold but it worked out so I think we’ll stay as we are for now.”

Romain Grosjean pulled out another surprise result for Haas, a lap of 1:18.133 was a tenth quicker than his FP1 time, teammate Kevin Magnussen finished out if the top ten in P12.

Charles Leclerc placed his Ferrari in P6, heading the tight mid-field tussle, as point-six of a second covered P6 back to P16. Sebastian Vettel had a bumpy ride through the final chicane dropping to P12.

Carlos Sainz improved taking P7 and remains the quicker McLaren on his home track, the Spaniard finished well ahead of teammate Lando Norris in P14.

Sergio Perez kept his claim as the fastest of the Racing Point cars taking P8 ahead of Lance Stroll in P11, both cars hovered just under +1.5s slower than the Mercedes.

Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten for Alpha Tauri, the Frenchman building up for a third successive run at Q3, Daniil Kyvat finished the session in P15.

The Alfa’s of Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi struggled in the heat finishing P17 and P18 respectively.

George Russell was back in his Williams, but complained both axels was like ‘driving on ice’ as he finished P20 behind Nicholas Latifi in P19 some seven tenths ahead.

FP3 and Qualifying from 7:30pm ACST tonight.

Brendan Lines 15th Aug, 2020 08:25am

Valtteri Bottas set the pace in FP1 for the Sapnish Grand Prix, with Lewis just +0.039s behind in P2 for the morning session at Circuit de Catalunya.

Track temperatures were upward of 40°C in the searing Spanish heat, over double that when the teams visited Catalunya for winter testing six months ago.

Tyre management was high on Bottas’ FP1 program.

“It’s a nice feeling to be back on track here and feeling the improvements of the car since we were last here, back in pre-season testing. The car felt good out there, but obviously there’s some fine-tuning to do.” Bottas said after FP1.

“We did long runs on all of the tyre compounds today and I didn’t experience any blistering, so there will be lots of learnings for us to look into in order to really maximise tyre performance here,

“We’re looking strong but the main thing will be Sunday with these temperatures and whether we can keep these tyres in a good condition.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took P3 with a lap of 1:17.724s nearly a second off from Bottas’ pace, teammate Alex Albon spent the morning tuning mid-corner oversteer out of his car, finishing P8 +1.821s adrift of the leaders.

Ferrari were back on the pace with Charles Leclerc in P4, a change of chassis seemed to make a world of difference for Sebastian Vettel, the German snared P5 with a lap of 1:17.981, just +0.011s off Leclerc’s time.

Haas signalled it might be able to turnaround its early season slump with top ten finishes for drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finishing P6 and P9 respectively.

Sergio Perez slotted into P7 in his first session back in anger, sitting out the Silverstone rounds after a positive COVID-19 test, the Mexican lead the charge for Racing Point finishing ahead of teammate Lance Stroll in P10.

Carlos Sainz got accustomed to a new chassis tub in his McLaren taking P11 ahead of teammate Lando Norris in P13.

It was a low key day for Renault with Esteban Ocon in P12, Daniel Ricciardo tweaked his front-end aero settings on the Hard tyre to finish P18.

Alpha Tauri focused on long runs, Pierre Gasly finished P14 with Daniil Kyvat in P18.

The Alfa Romeo’s of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen finished P16 and P17 respectively, notably the only team to run the Soft tyre exclusively.

Williams reserve driver Roy Nissany made his free practice debut, after a nervous spin he managed P20 in George Russell’s car, just behind teammate Nicholas Latifi in P19.

Brendan Lines 9th August, 2020 08:00am

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas scored the 13th pole position of his career, his second of the 2020 season and his second at Silverstone on Saturday pipping teammate Lewis Hamilton in a closely-fought battle for pole by just +0.063s, but Racing Point’s super-sub Nico Hülkenberg stole the show qualifying P3 for his second race back in F1.

“It’s been a crazy week and after the highs and lows of my comeback last week, P3 on the grid for tomorrow is a nice highlight! Last week definitely helped me feel more prepared for this weekend,but qualifying was still a real challenge today. In Q2, I made life hard for myself a little bit and I thought I might have damaged the car.” Hülkenberg said after qualifying.

“I haven’t been through the motions of a race start and going wheel-to-wheel for a while now, and I’m still learning the car. But I’ll give everything I’ve got to make sure we get a strong result.”

‘Hulk’ was the only driver to get within a second of the Mercs front row lockout headed by Bottas.

“I knew I’d have an opportunity to improve on the second run in Q3 and I pulled the sectors together, I got absolutely everything out of myself and the car,” Bottas said.

“A one-stopper will be difficult with the compounds we have this weekend – but I know the team will be looking at all the options for tomorrow. I think the race pace is there and I hope I can get another good start like last weekend.”

Lewis didn’t quite build on his first lap of Q3, the Brit not getting the final sectors lit up they way he expected on the Medium tyre.
“Valtteri did a fantastic job today, he put in a very strong lap when it mattered in Q3 to take pole. My first lap in Q3 was good, but the second one wasn’t really all that great,” Hamilton said.

“I just didn’t pull it together, made a couple of mistakes right at the end and ultimately you pay for that. The change in wind direction made it a bit trickier out there today, but that was the same for everyone so no excuses.”

Rounding out the second row was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a tenth adrift from Hulk in P4.

Daniel Ricciardo who has showed consistent pace all weekend on the Medium tyre, slotted into P5, equalling Renault’s best qualifying for the season.

Lance Stroll couldn’t match Hulk in the sister Racing Point qualifying P6, behind Stroll, Pierre Gasly kept up his great run of Q3 appearances for Alpha Tauri taking P7.

Charles Leclerc was the best of the Ferrari’s in P8, while Sebastin Vettel could not get out of Q2 and will start from P12.

Lando Norris makes up the top ten for McLaren, scraping into Q3 but couldn’t better his position for the race.

The 70th Anniversary GP at Silverstone begins 10.40pm ACST.

Brendan Lines 8th August, 2020 10:00am

Valtteri Bottas set the pace in the morning’s FP1 session, with Lewis +0.138s back in P2, the positions were reversed in the afternoon for FP2, as Lewis topped the timesheets with Valtteri +0.176s shy in second.

Teams favoured running their usual practice programs on the Soft compounds, opting to keep the Medium and Hard tyre allocations for qualifying — teams had learnt their lessons from the previous week’s blow-outs in the final laps, not to push the Softs in the hot Silverstone conditions.

“We focused a lot on the tyres today and there doesn’t seem to be a lot between the Medium and the Soft when it comes to single lap pace. The Soft is struggling with the high-speed corners, especially in these hot temperatures and if you’re running on higher fuel,” Bottas said yesterday.

Daniel Ricciardo proved Renault’s claim on third in the Championship may not be an idle threat, as the Aussie took P3 in FP2 running just eight tenths off Hamilton’s time.

“In the morning we did quite a bit of data gathering so we knew it wasn’t going to be totally representative. For the afternoon, we had a bit of a warm-up, made a change to the car, which worked,” Ricciardo said.

“Our long runs also looked decent, so that’s a good base for Sunday.”

Ricciardo’s teammate Esteban Ocon finished P10 across both sessions with respective laps of 1:27.701 and 1:26.928.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was P3 and P4 across the sessions, Verstappen says he doesn’t expect the change in tyres to really set the order any differently.”

Alex Albon’s Red Bull went fast enough for P6 in FP1 and P11 in FP2 with respective laps of 1:27.280s and 1:26.960s.

Nico Hülkenberg came back to fill Sergio Perez’s seat at Racing Point this weekend and was on the pace from the out set of FP1 scoring P4 seven tenths off Mercedes, with Lance Stroll in P8 (1:27.539s).

The Racing Point cars reversed their order in FP2, as Stroll took P5 ( 1:26.501s) and Hülkenberg P6 (1:26.746s).

It was another tough day for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who’s SF1000 came to a halt with drive issues effectively red-flagging FP2. Vettel would have to be satisfied with P7 for FP1 and P14 for FP2.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had a more positive day in P5 for FP1 and P7 in FP2.

FP2 proved to be a more competitive showing for McLaren, opting to spend most of FP1 correlating data on its cars.

Lando Norris was the fastest if the McLaren’s in FP2 holding down P8 whole Carlos Sainz was P9 just +.051s adrift from Norris.

Out side the top ten, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre began his bid for a Q3 appearance again this week, the Frenchman posted P13, but Daniil Kyvat slotted ahead of Gasly in P11.

Williams is hoping to consolidate on its performance from last week, George Russell showsed some consistency placing P15 and P16 across the sessions, while Nicholas Latifi placed P16 and P19.

Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi made way for Robert Kubica in FP1, Kimi Räikkönen was the best of the Alfa’s in P17 and P18 in the Friday sessions.

FP3 and Qualifying for the 70th Anniversary GP at Silverstone begins from 07:30pm local time tonight.