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Lewis Hamilton edged closer to a fourth Formula One world championship title as he kept Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at bay to take a third career Japanese Grand Prix win. It was a disastrous day for Sebastian Vettel, however, as a spark plug problem forced Hamilton’s only real title contender to retire from the race on lap five. Hamilton now has a 59-point lead over Vettel with four races remaining. At the start Hamilton got away well to hold his lead. Initially Vettel too looked to be in good shapeRead More

Lewis Hamilton emerged as the quickest driver of a rain-shortened second practice session in Japan as just five drivers set times. The rain started just as the second practice session was about to begin and conditions quickly worsened from a light shower into a steady, heavy downpour that resulted in the session being indefinitely delayed. Over the next 40 minutes the safety car undertook regular reconnaissance tours of the circuit and eventually the rain abated to the degree that the track was deemed driveable at 1445 local time. Ferrari’s KimiRead More

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel went quickest in opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second. The session was interrupted, however, by a heavy crash involving Carlos Sainz. Sainz’s smash came shortly after the midpoint of the session. The Toro Rosso driver ran wide on the entry to Turn 12, after the hairpin, and lost control of his car. The Spaniard spun across the track and arrowed nose first into the barriers, scattering debris across the surface. The session was immediately red-flagged asRead More

Lewis Hamilton opened up a 28-point lead over Sebastian Vettel at the top of the Formula One Drivers’ standings with a measured driver to victory ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. It was a disastrous evening for Ferrari, however, with Vettel and Räikkönen crashing out of the race moments after a dramatic start in wet conditions. Rain began to fall across the circuit in the hour before the race and though it stopped as the drivers steered their cars towards the grid, it began again 15Read More

Max Verstappen went quickest in final practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Red Bull Racing driver edging Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just seven hundredths of a second. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was third as Friday’s fastest man, Daniel Ricciardo, failed to complete a qualifying-style run after clipping the wall late in the session. Vettel made the early running, working his way to a time of 1:43.237 on ultrasoft tyres in the first 15 minutes of the session. Lewis Hamilton briefly held second place with a lap just under aRead More

Lewis Hamilton took the lead in the Fornila One Drivers’ title standings ahead of Sebastian Vettel after he headed a Mercedes one-two at the Italian Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows were utterly dominant at Monza with Hamilton beating third-placed Sebastian Vettel by more than 36 seconds. The Briton’s sixth win of the season puts him three points clear of Ferrari driver Vettel at the top of the Drivers’ standings after 13 races. While Mercedes’ progress to the top two places in the race was largely processional after Bottas had risen to P2 inRead More

Lewis Hamilton became Formula One’s new all-time pole position record holder and claimed the record for most Italian Grand Prix poles after he took top spot in a marathon qualifying session at Monza that was interrupted for more than two and half hours by heavy rain. Max Verstappen had claimed provisional pole ahead with am impressive lap of 1:36.702 as the conditions once again worsened at the Italian circuit. The Red Bull driver’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo slotted into P2, just over a tenth of a second behind the Dutchman. Hamilton,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Romain Grosjean was left angry after crashing during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, which he believes should have never started in the first place. The Frenchman put down the third fastest time in a rain-marred Q1 before aquaplaning and losing control of his No. 8 VF-17 at the start/finish line and hitting one barrier and sliding across the track and backing into the other. The Haas F1 Team driver’s crash red flagged qualifying, which is still in a delay. “I’m going to try to beRead More

Felipe Massa set the quickest time of final practice for the Italian Grand Prix as heavy rain led to a much-abbreviated session featuring just 16 minutes of running. The rain moved into the Monza area overnight and ahead of this morning’s session the downpours intensified to the degree that five minutes before the scheduled start at 11am local time, and following a test of the conditions by the safety car, Race Control reported that the session would be delayed indefinitely. Two further tests were undertaken and after the second theRead More

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in first practice ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix with the three-time champion finishing a second clear of championship leader Sebastian Vettel who finished third behind Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton set a best lap of 1:21.537s on the supersoft compound Pirelli tyres to finish 0.435 seconds ahead of Bottas, with Vettel 1.115s off the pace. With the session starting under heavily overcast skies, drivers quickly set about their preparations and after half and hour Bottas was in charge on soft tyres, with the Finn inRead More