Valtteri Bottas Tag

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

By FIA Sebastian Vettel took his 55th career pole position in front of his home crowd at Germany’s Hockenheimring in a qualifying session that saw chief title rival Lewis Hamilton ruled out when he damaged his car running wide at the end of Q1. Vettel put in a superb performance in Q3 to set a new track record at Hockenheim with a time of 1:11.212. The German’s lap was more than three seconds faster than Nico Rosberg’s pole time of F1’s last visit to this track in 2016. Valtteri BottasRead More

By FIA Max Verstappen doubled Red Bull Racing tally of session-topping times at Hockenheim by setting a new track record in second practice for the German Grand Prix. The Dutchman posted a time of 1:13.085 on ultrasoft tyres to power past Michael Schumacher’s 2004 circuit record by 0.221s. As with the morning session, in which team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was quickest ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull edged Mercedes by 0.004s, with Hamilton again taking place, this time just under three hundredths of a second off top spot. Verstappen’s session wasn’tRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring marks the homecoming race for championship leader Sebastian Vettel who grew up nearby the circuit, and defending German Grand Prix winners Mercedes. It also marks the true halfway point of the season which has seen Ferrari and Vettel eek out just a bit of a points gap on Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton after a wild British Grand Prix. The race takes place at the Hockenheimring, one of the oldest and most historic venues on the Formula One calendar, HockenheimRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The British Grand Prix had it all, from spins, crashes and controversy, to a knock down, drag out fight for the win between Ferrari and Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton’s dream of sixth British Grand Prix victory and his fifth in a row was immediately ruined by a poor start and a spin after contact from Kimi Raikkonen sent him all the way to the back of the field on the opening lap, but his fight back to second place and the battles up and down the fieldRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The British Grand Prix marks the end of Formula 1’s first ever back to back to back run of race weekends which began in France, moved to Austria and will culminate this weekend at Silverstone. The event also serves as the home race for a majority of the teams who tend either have a home base or satellite office near the great track. Force India, McLaren and Williams will hope for a strong performance in front of the home crowd, where many of their factory employeesRead More

By FIA Valtteri Bottas edged team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just under two hundredths of a second to take his second consecutive Austrian Grand Prix pole position and the fifth pole of his career in a tight qualifying session at the at the Red Bull Ring. Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Q1 saw Mercedes quickly to the fore with Hamilton and Bottas trading times on ultrasoft tyres before Hamilton settled into P1 with a time of 1:04.080, just under a tenth of a second aheadRead More