daniel ricciardo Tag

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets as practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix got underway at the Sakhir Circuit, with the German finishing four tenths of a second clear of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. It wasn’t a wholly successful session for Ferrari, however, with Kimi Räikkönen stopping on track early in the session with smoke rising from the back of his car. It left the Italian squad bookending the timing, with Räikkönen 20th and last on the sheet. Vettel’s P1 time, set on soft tyres, came with around halfRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Ever since Nico Rosberg’s maiden victory at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit has been one of Mercedes best tracks on the F1 calendar. Despite Fernando Alonso’s a stunning victory in 2013, the silver arrows have taken pole position every year since 2012 and have won the race every year since 2014. 2016 Champion Nico Rosberg has won it twice, but it’s really three time champ Lewis Hamilton who is the king of China; he has five poles and four wins from 10 startsRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo will start the Australian Grand Prix from 15th position after being handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. The 27-year-old Aussie spun in Turn 14 during Q3 on Saturday and backed his RB13 into the barrier, causing significant damage to the rear. Since he didn’t officially turn a lap during the session, Ricciardo was previously set to start the race from 10th. The penalty pushes Force India’s Sergio Perez up to 10th and slid Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, EstebanRead More

Lewis Hamilton took the first pole position of the new Formula One season, edging Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to take his sixth Australian Grand Prix pole by three tenths of a second. Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo crashed out, however, hitting the wall early in the final part of qualifying. The Red Bull driver is set to start tomorrow’s race in P10. Hamilton set the pace in Q1, claiming top spot 10 minutes into the session with a time of 1:24.191. That was good enough to keepRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Red Bull pulled clear of Ferrari last year to be Mercedes’ most consistent challenger. Max Verstappen won in Spain, Daniel Ricciardo was robbed of certain victory at Monaco, nearly pipped Rosberg at Singapore, and finally won in Malaysia. Such was the hype that they were widely expected to pick up where they left off and potentially challenge Mercedes for the championship this year. Testing was not a resounding success as the team played their cards close to their chest, but the prevailing feeling is that theyRead More

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the first practice session of the new Formula One campaign, finishing more than half a second clear of new team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The three-time world champion ended the session at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit with a best time of 1:24.220, set on ultrasoft tyres, to beat Bottas, who moved to Mercedes from Williams at the start of this year, by 0.583 seconds. Apart from the Mercedes pairing, no other driver ran with the purple-banded Pirelli tyres during the sessionRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Following a strong preseason, Daniel Ricciardo has tabbed Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel as likely contenders to dethrone Mercedes. The Red Bull Racing driver told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he is hoping the pace shown by his former teammate’s Italian squad is legitimate. “From the first test day, Ferrari made a very good impression,” Ricciardo said. “I hope they keep it up because it would be nice if someone could fight Mercedes. They’ve improved a little of everything and they also seem to be very goodRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor It was all thumbs up for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari today. The four time champ looked absolutely unassailable as he set the fastest time of testing so far and completed a day high 156 laps. His 1:19.024 on ultra softs bested the Mercedes duo on the same tires by three tenths of a second and Felipe Massa’s Williams by four tenths. So confident was Vettel that he visibly slowed on the final straight for most of his fast laps, an ominious sign for their challengers that theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Felipe Massa and Williams surprised the field by topping the time sheets for the opening day of the second pre-season test from Barcelona today. The Brazilian veteran clocked a solid 1:19.726 in his FW40 on the super soft tires and logged a massive 168 laps around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Daniel Ricciardo got Red Bull close to Massa’s time with a 1:19.900, but had to run the ultra soft tires in order to do so. The Aussie ran 89 laps for a solid if most unspectacular dayRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A tripleheader of launches on Sunday kicked off with Red Bull Racing officially showcasing its 2017 Formula 1 challenger – the RB13. The Milton Keynes-based team has put a hit out on Mercedes with its latest creation, having shown an aggressive design that features a sharkfin, common on every team’s new car minus Mercedes (although they are still debating the T-wing concept and sharkfin). However, what makes the RB13 unique is the slot opening in the tip of the nose. The Christian Horner-led squad took toRead More