Valtteri Bottas Tag

By FIA Last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas hit the top of the timesheets at the Yas Marina Circuit, edging FP1’s quickest man, Max Verstappen by just four hundredths of a second, with Daniel Ricciardo third in the second Red Bull. Bottas set the pace in the opening part of the session, using ultrasoft tyres to hold top spot just over two tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen, who also ran on ultrasofts. Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen was the first to make the move to hypersoft tyresRead More

By FIA Valtteri Bottas led a Mercedes one-two in second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, finishing just three thousandths of a second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the Mercedes’ closest challenger finishing seven hundredths of a second behind champion Hamilton. Bottas set his session-best time just after the session was a third of the way through. After early laps on soft tyres, Bottas followed Vettel out on track on supersofts. Both backed off on their initial flyers and went for a second attempt, with VettelRead More

By FIA Daniel Ricciardo put in a superb final flying lap to claim pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix, beating team-mate Max Verstappen by just two hundredths of a second at the Autódromo Hermanos as Red Bull Racing claimed its first front-row lockout in five years. Verstappen had looked well place to claim his first career pole position after taking provisional top spot in the first runs of Q3, but on the drivers’ final flyer Ricciardo found another gear and jumped from fourth after the first runs to poleRead 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 FIA Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of the final practice session for the United States Grand Prix, outpacing Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen by less than a tenth of a second as championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished third. On Friday, Vettel’s hopes of maintain a fragile title challenge were hit when he incurred a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently during a red flag period, but he bounced back this morning as F1’s teams finally got some dry running at the Circuit of the Americas. Ferrari focusedRead More

By FIA Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took his eighth pole position of the season at Suzuka and the 80th of his career, while title rival Sebastian Vettel faces a ninth-place race start after a troubled final segment of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas will start alongside Hamilton in the second Mercedes, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with start at the front of row three, alongside the second Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen. Vettel established an early benchmark in Q1 with a lap of 1:29.049, more than half a second clearRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in the opening practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix finishing half a second clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and almost seven tenths of a second ahead of the third-placed Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen and championship challenger Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth and fifth places, but both set their best times using the supersoft Pirelli compound, while Hamilton session-best time of 1:28.691s was delivered on soft tyres. Vettel ended the session just under a second offRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix extend his Drivers’ Championship lead over title rival Sebastian Vettel to 50-points, after Mercedes called on race leader Valtteri Bottas to move aside in order to defend against a threat from eventual third-place finisher Vettel. Pole position man Bottas held his advantage at the start and controlled the early phases of the race, with Hamilton coming under strong pressure from third-placed Vettel. Vettel briefly managed to get past Hamilton after the drivers’ single pit stops but when the title leader reclaimedRead More

By FIA Valtteri Bottas claimed the sixth pole position of his career and his first since the Austrian Grand Prix in July beating Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton to the front of the Russian Grand Prix grid by 0.145s. Title contender Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, was forced to settle for third place and the second row of the Sochi Autodrom grid, where he will be joined by team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Both Ferraris were more than half a second off the pace of Bottas. “It feels good,” said Bottas, who tookRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton went quickest in final practice for the Russian Grand Prix, with the Briton breaking the Sochi Autodrom track record to beat team-mate Valtteri Bottas 0.254s. Ferrari, meanwhile, took third and fourth places, with Sebastian Vettel marginally ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, but the German title contender ended the session six tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton. Vettel set the pace in a quiet opening phase of the hour-long session, with the German claiming P1 with a lap of 1:33.859. However, his spell at the topRead More