Nico Hulkenberg Tag

By FIA Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat put in a superb late quick lap of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catlunya to run quickest on the penultimate day of the first Formula 1 pre-season test of 2019. With less than 15 minutes left in the session, the Russian driver bolted on a set of the softest Pirelli compound on offer this season, the C5, and delivered a lap of 1:17.704s to edge Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen by 0.058s. The Finn had held top spot since the morning session after setting a time ofRead More

By FIA Ferrari began its 2019 Formula 1 campaign in style as Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya lapping almost four tenths second quicker than nearest rival Carlos Sainz of McLaren and posting an impressive total of 169 laps as testing got underway in Spain. Vettel’s table-topping time was set just before the lunch break, with the four-time champion registering a time of 1:18.161. At the time that was almost 1.8 seconds clear of nearest rival Sergio Perez of Racing Point. The time then served asRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton signed off on his title-winning 2018 FIA Formula 1 campaign in style by taking a controlled and composed 11th win of the season ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. The final race of the season ended with Hamilton and Vettel joining McLaren’s Fernando Alonso for a series of tyre-smoking donuts on the start-finish straight to celebrate the Spanish two-time champion’s final race as a Formula 1 driver. Earlier, at the start, Hamilton got away well from pole position to claim the leadRead More

By FIA Fourth place in the Mexican Grand Prix was good enough to hand Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton his fifth FIA Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship title, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his second successive win at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen. Going into the race Hamilton knew that even if Vettel won the race a seventh-place finish in Mexico City would be good enough to take the title and starting from third on the grid, ahead of his title rival, the BritonRead More

By FIA Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of quickest time in practice for the Mexican Grand Prix, with the Dutchman topping the timesheet in FP3 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, more than two tenths of a second clear of championship leader Lewis Hamilton and title contender Sebastian Vettel. Verstappen went quickest late in a weather-compromised final practice session, moving ahead of Sauber’s impressive Charles Leclerc with his first qualifying-style lap on hypersoft tyres. The Dutchman set a time 1:16.385 to lead the Monegasque driver by 0.674s. Mercedes driver HamiltonRead More

By FIA After topping the morning timesheets at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Red Bull Racing again scored a 1-2 in the second practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen outpacing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by 1500ths of a second. The Dutchman stopped at the edge of the track late in the session, however, with an apparent engine issue. In the morning session the Red Bull duo were comfortably clear of the rest of the field, though Mercedes and Ferrari minimised hypersoft running in FP1, but in the qualifyingRead More

By FIA Max Verstappen headed a Red Bull Racing one-two in the opening practice session for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, with the 2017 race winner here beating out team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by almost half a second. Verstappen and Ricciardo set their quickest times on Pirelli’s hypersoft tyres and while both Mercedes and Ferrari ran on the pink-banded tyre during the 90-minute session, they posted their best laps on the ultrasoft tyres as they minimised running on the softest tyre in Pirelli’s range. As such, championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who canRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AUSTIN, Texas — Kimi Raikkonen snapped a win drought of over five years to capture a highly-contested victory in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton saw chances of clinching the championship evaporate at Circuit of the Americas. Despite constant pressure in the dwindling laps from both Max Verstappen (No. 33 Red Bull Racing) and Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 Mercedes), Raikkonen (No. 7 Ferrari) held steady  to score the 21st victory of his Formula One career and first since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix – 113Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief AUSTIN, Texas — Lewis Hamilton moved one step closer to capturing a fifth Formula One championship by scoring the pole for the United States Grand Prix following an intense battle during qualifying on Saturday at Circuit of the Americas. Despite a highly-contested fight brought by Ferrari, Hamilton managed squeeze enough pace out of his No. 44 Mercedes to lay down a lap of 1 minute, 32.237 seconds around the 3.426-mile, 20-turn circuit. That time was good enough to edge title rival Sebastian Vettel (No. 5 Ferrari)Read More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton made it a clean sweep in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, taking top spot in FP3 at Suzuka, just over a tenth of a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel, in a session brought to an early end when Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg crashed out. Hulkenberg, sweeping through the Esses on a qualifying run, took much kerb on a track still damp from an earlier rain show and spun. He went into the barriers on the right-hand side of the track, causing substantial damage to the rearRead More