Valtteri Bottas Tag

By FIA Ferrari completed a clean sweep of practice session one-twos at the Sakhir Circuit, with Charles Leclerc running quickest in the final hour of practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver set a best time of 1:29.569 on the soft compound Pirelli tyres with a little under 20 minutes left in the session. He was immediately followed on track by team-mate Sebastian Vettel who slotted into P2 0.169s behind. The pace left all of their rivals in the shade, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton eventually becoming the Scuderia’sRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel edged team-mate Charles Leclerc by 0.035s as Ferrari continued to dominate the free practice sessions for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. The early running in Friday’s early evening session was made by Mercedes with Valtteri Bottas topping the timesheet with a lap of 1:30.124 set on medium tyres. That left the Australian Grand Prix winner 0.079s ahead of FP1’s quickest man Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton was third. Ferrari then took the initiative, sending both its drivers out on soft tyres for performance runs just before the half-hour mark.Read More

By FIA Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in the opening practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix beating team-mate Sebastian Vettel by 0.236s. The Ferrari duo ended the 90-minute session more than seven tenths ahead of chief rivals Mercedes, for whom Valtteri Bottas was quickest. The pace of the Italian squad was a return to the good for the team had shown in pre-season testing but which had been surprisingly absent at the season-opener two weeks ago in Australia. Mercedes made the early running at the Sakhir circuit withRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas took a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory, finishing 20 seconds ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and claiming the bonus point on offer for fastest at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, got Red Bull Racing’s Honda-powered era off to good start by handing the Japanese manufacturer its first podium finish since 2008 as he claimed third place beind the Mercedes duo. At the start, Bottas made a good start from the front row and managed to get past pole position man Hamilton in TurnRead More

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