Mercedes Tag

By FIA Lewis Hamilton went quickest in first practice for his home grand prix, the British Grand Prix, with the defending champion beating tam-mate Valtteri Bottas by almost four tenths of a second. There was trouble for Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull Racing driver stopping on track at the end of the session with a suspected gearbox issue. Verstappen had a good opening to the session, setting the early pace on medium tyres before he was dislodged by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and then by Hamilton, who set a mediumRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The British Grand Prix marks the end of Formula 1’s first ever back to back to back run of race weekends which began in France, moved to Austria and will culminate this weekend at Silverstone. The event also serves as the home race for a majority of the teams who tend either have a home base or satellite office near the great track. Force India, McLaren and Williams will hope for a strong performance in front of the home crowd, where many of their factory employeesRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton topped the first free practice timesheets at the Austrian Grand Prix weekend got underway at the Red Bull Ring, with the champion leading a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of Valtteri Bottas, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen third at the Anglo-Austrian team’s home event. The Dutch driver was the first to set a lap time in the session and he was also an early spinner when he momentarily dropped the rear wheels of his RB14 into the gravel at Turn 4. His car pirouetted through 360 degreesRead More

By FIA Daniel Ricciardo battled engine issues and soaked up race-long pressure from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to score a superb Monaco Grand Prix win ahead of the German and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. The Australian, who led away from pole position, developed a power issue and a possible gearbox problem with his car midway through the race and after being told by his team that the problem could not be rectified, he delivered a superb defensive drive, with just six of his car’s eight gears at his disposal, to claim hisRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Spanish Grand Prix marks Formula 1’s return to Europe after the early season fly away races. It also marks the first big round of updates the teams implement for their new cars. For many, it is when the season truly begins as Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is the benchmark for the teams to find their true place in the pecking order and see if they have moved ahead or fallen behind their rivals since they last visited Barcelona for pre-season testing. Ferrari has clearly had theRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the opening practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing more than eight tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and almost a second clear of third-placed Sebastian Vettel. The Mercedes drivers’ dominance of the session was established early with Bottas using soft tyres to push into the 1m18s bracket. At that point the were backed up by Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, but the Australian wouldn’t figure in the session for much longer. With grip at the premium onRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Azerbaijan Grand Prix had it all, from a surprise winner for the second year in a row, a lot of crashes and controversy at Red Bull, to a second podium in Baku for Sergio Perez and Force India. Sebastian Vettel initially pulled away from Lewis Hamilton and appeared to have the race in the bag, but late pressure from Valtteri Bottas and the safety car period after Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen crashed in turn 1 turned the race on its head. Vettel out brakedRead More

By Adam Tate The Chinese Grand Prix was a thrilling, unpredictable race that also happened to throw a generous quantity of stats our way. Here are some of the best nuggets and details to ruminate on while we wait two weeks for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month. Up first is Ferrari’s Saturday success in 2018. Sebastian Vettel notched up his 52nd pole position. Kimi Raikkonen backed him up with a close second on the grid which gave the Scuderia their first back to back front rowRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix gave us a much clearer picture of the running order for 2018 than the season opening Australian Grand Prix did. The great news is that the long range pace of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull is very close this season. Of the three, Ferrari has capitalized the most on their rivals misfortune and it leads both championships with Sebastian Vettel 17 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton after opening the season with back to back victories. Ferrari leads Mercedes in theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the most thrilling in the desert kingdom in years as a high speed game of chess between Ferrari and Mercedes kept the winner in doubt until the final corner of the final lap. In the end Sebastian Vettel pulled off a magnificent victory as he nursed badly worn tires to the finish after switching from a planned two stop strategy to a one stopper. Valtteri Bottas closed on him in the Mercedes, but was unable to unseat his German rival. BehindRead More