Valtteri Bottas Tag

By FIA Hamilton, who comes into this weekend carrying a 40-point championship lead over chief rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, posted a time of 1:33.584 a third of the way through the session after bolting on a set of hypersoft compound tyres as the field set about qualifying simulations. The Briton’s time saw him finish 0.199s ahead of Bottas. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third fastest at the Sochi Autodrom, with the Dutch driver recording a best time of 1:33.827. That left him just under two hundredths of a secondRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix with a blistering lap of the Marina Bay Street Circuit that left him three tenths of a second clear of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton’s title rival Sebastian Vettel could only manage third place. In Q1, after Kimi Räikkönen set the early pace with a time of 1:38.534, red Bull’s bypassed the Finn with a time of the 1:38.153. Verstappen then slotted into P3 with his opening lap of 1:38.715. Vettel, who seemed to back out ofRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took a sensational 68th career win at Monza, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen after starting third. Räikkönen was forced to settled for second place ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas after being passed by Hamilton nine laps from the flag. Vettel finished fourth after dropping to the back of the field following a coming together with title rival Hamilton on the opening lap of the race. At the start, pole position man Kimi Räikkonen held his advantage to take the leadRead More

By FIA Kimi Räikkönen edged team-mate Sebastian Vettel to head a front-row lock-out for Ferrari in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton finishing third ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Räikkönen, whose last pole came at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, set a time of 1:19.119 to not only take his 18th career pole position but also to shatter the Monza lap record set 14 years ago by Juan Pablo Montoya. The Finn set the early pace in Q1 with a time of 1:20.937, almost six tenthsRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel continued to set the pace in final practice for the Italian Grand Prix, but the Ferrari driver was pushed hard by title rival Lewis Hamilton who finished just eight hundredths of a second behind the German. Ferrari were quickly to the fore in the hour-long session, with Kimi Räikkönen setting the early pace with a time of 1:21.399. Vettel might have challenged that but he suffered a lock up in Turn 1 and was forced to abandon the attempt. He lapped again and set a timeRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel closed the gap on championship leader Lewis Hamilton with a controlled drive to the flag after overtaking the championship leader on a chaotic first lap defined by a Turn 1 collision that took out Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Sauber’s Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen took the final podium spot Red Bull Racing. At the start, Vettel got away well to immediately put pole-sitter Hamilton under pressure. But behind chaos was unfolding. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, starting fro P18, locked up massively on the approach toRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time of the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, edging Drivers’ Championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 0.168s. In the early part of the session Hamilton led the way on medium-compound Pirelli tyres and the Briton headed the timesheet with a time of 1:44.369. That left him just three thousandths of a second clear of Räikkönen, who ran on soft tyres during the opening phase of the 90 minutes, Räikkönen was the first of the frontrunners to move to supersoftRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Hungarian Grand Prix has been dominated by the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull in recent years, an anomaly on the calendar, but a chaotic, rain struck qualifying gave us a Mercedes front row lockout and a poorly executed race on the part of Ferrari gave Lewis Hamilton a surprise victory. The race was full of tension, controversy and excitement from the get go. From Red Bull suffering another Renault power unit failure for Max Verstappen, to his team mate Daniel Ricciardo’s heroic overtakes thereRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel edged Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas to top the final practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but there were spins for both Bottas and team-mate Lewis Hamilton during an up and down session for Mercedes at the Hungaroring. On Friday the Silver Arrows almost a second of Vettel’s pace on ultrasoft tyres and while Bottas got to within a tenth of a second of the German in FP3’s qualifying simulations, both Mercedes drivers struggled for grip, with Hamilton at one stage suggesting that he couldn’t competeRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton powered from 14th on the grid to a 66th career victory, and back into the lead of the FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship standings, as Sebastian Vettel crashed out of a dramatic, rain-hit German Grand Prix. Hamilton had climbed from 14th on the grid to fifth place by the midpoint of the race but with Vettel holding a solid lead after starting from pole position it looked the Briton’s best hope would be to minimise damage in the title race. However, rain then began to fall. With the showerRead More