Italian Grand Prix Tag

By FIA Racing Point Force India driver Sergio Perez, topped a wet opening practice session for the Italian Grand, outpacing Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen by more than half a second. Perez’s team-mate Esteban Ocon took third place ahead of the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley on a timesheet given an unfamiliar look due to the conditions. After Räikkönen made a late improvement to take P1, Perez jumped to the top of the order with his final lap of the 90-minute session, as track conditions began to improve as the rain abated.Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In what has become a consistent series of unfortunate circumstances, the future of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza is once again in doubt. One of the most revered events on the calendar, the Italian circuit is the oldest and among the most historic in Formula 1. A three-year deal was agreed upon after lengthy negotiations in 2016 between Autombile Club of Milan, which own the circuit, and former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. Although its race date for 2018 is safe, political obstacles have endangered theRead 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

Mercedes again topped the practice timesheets at Monza, but after Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the first practice, the afternoon session saw team-mate Valtteri Bottas take top spot. The Finn set a best time of 1:21.406s on the supersoft compound tyres to edge out Hamilton by just fibve hundredths of a second. Afetr finishing the morning session 1.1s behind FP1 pacesetter Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel moved Ferrari closer to the Silver Arrows with a best of lap of 1:21.546 that left him just a tenth of a second behind Bottas. Team-mateRead 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

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In only five months, the McLaren F1 team and CEO Jost Capito have officially split up. Formerly the head of Volkswagen’s motorsport efforts, Capito left to join the Woking-based team and worked alongside bosses Eric Boullier and Jonathan Neale – coming onboard at last year’s Italian Grand Prix. However, with former chairman Ron Dennis out and McLaren bringing in a new executive director in Zak Brown, the team elected to part ways with Capito. “Regrettably, we have not been able to find common ground with JostRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor After incredibly lengthy negotiations, the contract to extend the Italian Grand Prix at Monza through 2019 has finally been signed. It came after months of rumor and speculation on the future of the race. It came after Imola challenged to move the race. It came after Bernie Ecclestone and Angelo Sticchi Damiani butted heads several times. News of the new contract being agreed to broke during the Italian Grand Prix weekend back at the beginning of September, but officials insisted there were still small details toRead More