Valtteri Bottas Tag

By FIA Lewis Hamilton set a new track record at Albert Park to claim his first pole position of the new season ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas as Ferrari failed to convert pre-season form into results in qualifying for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix. Across eight days of testing in Barcelona, the Italian squad looked to have found a distinct advantage over Mercedes, but in the time since the defending champions appear to have recovered their superiority. “Coming from Barcelona, we made some really big steps forward and we brought thatRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of second practice for the Australian Grand Prix, beating Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with the defending champion team followed by the drivers of Red Bull and Ferrari. Hamilton claimed the top spot on the yellow-banded C2 medium compound on offer from Pirelli this weekend. The lap arrived midway through the 90-minute session and eventually left the five-time champion 0.048s clear of Bottas. Behind the Mercedes duo, Max Verstappen was third fastest for Honda-powered Red Bull, though the Dutchman was 0.8s slower thanRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheet on the final day of pre-season Formula 1 testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Ferrari driver ended the day just 0.003s ahead of 2018 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, as Mercedes at last showed some true pace. Vettel’s final day benchmark arrived in the morning session. The German bolted on a set of C5 compound Pirelli tyres shortly before the lunch break and posted a time of 1:16.221. Vettel’s day ended early, however. The German added 42 laps to his morning total ofRead More

By FIA Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time of the first week of 2019 pre-season Formula 1 testing in Barcelona, beating Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon by two tenths of a second. In the morning Albon maintained the hold on top spot established by Toro Rosso on day three, when Daniil Kvyat claimed that session’s fastest time, but this afternoon Hulkenberg moved well clear of the 1:17.637 to post a lap of 1:17.393. The time was the quickest of the opening four days of pre-season testing and like the Toro RossoRead More

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 Luis Torres, Staff Writer The 69th season of Formula One has officially concluded, and Mercedes continued to steamroll the competition in the Hybrid Era. Lewis Hamilton once again proved to have risen on the occasion as Sebastian Vettel faded away due to Ferrari’s costly errors that eliminated him from the championship race. Not only that, the 2019 season is starting to look clear with key names having no choice but to become a test driver or find different ventures in favor of even younger drivers and even the comeback for theRead 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 Lewis Hamilton took his 11th pole position of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship as he headed a Mercedes 1-2 i in qualifying for the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit. Hamilton edged team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.162s in the final runs of Q3, with the Finn only losing out to the five-time champion due to a small error in the final sector of the 5.554km circuit. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start from third place on the grid, ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen,Read More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, almosgt three tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, whose team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished third. Ferrari set the pace early in the session with the Italian squad’s driver the only likely front runner to take to the track in the opening phase of the session. Räikkönen held sway initially with a time of 1:39.314 but Vettel took over at the top a third of the way through the session, beating hisRead More