Yas Marina Circuit Tag

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

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 Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets for the Pirelli tire test at Yas Marina Circuit on Wednesday. The final time Formula 1 cars will be on track for 2017, Vettel concluded the day with a time of 1 minute, 37.551 seconds on the new hypersoft tire compound at the 3.451-mile, 21-turn track. The early part of the day was halted by the four-time champion as his Ferrari stopped on track to bring out a red flag briefly before resuming. Mercedes rival Valtteri Bottas, who also won theRead More

Valtteri Bottas will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from the front of the grid after the Finn beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just under two tenths of a second to claim his fourth career pole position. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel will start third ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who delivered a superb final flying lap to climb from sixth place after the first runs of Q3. In Q1, four-time champion Hamilton was one of the first on track and he quickly grabbed top spot with a lap ofRead More

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in final practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.273s. The Constructors’ champions’ closest rival was Kimi Räikkönen, with the Finn finishing 0.257 behind compatriot Bottas. In a quiet start to the session, which was run in full sunshine conditions not relative to those to come in qualifying and the race, Räikkönen led the way with a time of 1:38.999 set on ultrasoft tyres. However, just under 20 minutes into the session both Mercedes joined the fray and theRead More

Lewis Hamilton took top spot in second practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, edging out Sebastian Vettel by just under fifteen hundredths of a second. Daniel Ricciardo finished was third, separated from Vettel by almost the same margin. As with the early afternoon session at the Yas Marina Circuit, it was Mercedes driver Hamilton who set the early pace, holding P1 with a time 0.8s clear of Ricciardo. The session’s qualifying simulations came early on however, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas embarking on his performance run before the half hourRead More

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of opening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by just over a tenth of a second. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was third, two hundredths of a second behind four-time champion Hamilton. Brazilian Grand Prix winner Vettel set a best time of a 1:39.006 on Pirelli’s ultrasoft tyre compound to finish 0.120 seconds ahead of Hamilton on the same compound. Hamilton headed the order in the early part of the session logging a time of 1:41.135s on theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Mercedes announced Monday that Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg has accepted an ambassador role with the team. Rosberg, 31, retired just days after capturing his first F1 title in a thriller at Yas Marina Circuit in November. The news comes on the same day that the team confirmed Valtteri Bottas as his replacement alongside Lewis Hamilton, moving over from Williams. The German has made no plans to compete in any form of racing in 2017, but the team confirmed the role and stated that his firstRead More