Formula One
 

We had a Formula One 2019 which ended with British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton clinching his sixth world title and nothing yet for this 2020 season which is already approaching race 14.

Hamilton already has a 47 point lead so is well on his way to a seventh world title.

Hamilton is an excellent driver, but why has he to drive for Mercedes? :wah:

Overpriced ugly gherkins! :O:

The Mercedes cars are by far the most powerful on the track at but I can;t help wondering what has gone wrong at Ferrari.

It is good to see Vettel (the finger man) struggling now :03:

Because that's the other half of the winning formula. Lewis was a great driver, but not a dominant winning driver until he joined Mercedes.

I'm sorry to see Vettel waning but he should never have left RedBull. As far as Ferrari goes, they lost their engine advantage from last year when it was ruled illegal and I think they are putting more effort into the 2021 new rules car than this years extension chassis.

Then how about Williams selling? It's the end of a long and glorious run. Sure, it's not supposed to change much on the surface but I don't believe that will last more than a couple of years.

After day 2 of practice for Sundays Italian GP, Hamilton leads ahead of Bottas in second.

Very predictable thus far.

As expected, Hamilton takes pole position for tomorrows race and in doing so he drove the fastest F1 lap ever with Bottas taking second place on the grid.

This was also Mercedes first qualifying 1-2 at Monza since 2016.

Ferrari's latest difficulties in qualifying brought up another uncomfortable statistic for Formula 1's struggling giants, as they missed out on the top 10 on the grid for their home Italian GP for the first time in a generation.

Leclerc finished 13th and Vettel 17th.

Pierre Gasly took a stunning upset win in the Italian Grand Prix for Red Bull's Alpha Tauri team in one of the most remarkable races in history.

Lewis Hamilton was dominating until he was penalised for being called in for a stop when the pit lane was closed.

Two safety cars in quick succession mixed up the order and Gasly took the lead after Hamilton served his penalty.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz closed him down but the Frenchman just held him off to take his first grand prix victory.

Hamilton fought back from last place, 18 seconds off the back of the pack, to seventh, just two places behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

2020 Driver Standings

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY CAR PTS
1 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 164
2 Valtteri Bottas FIN MERCEDES 117
3 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA 110
4 Lance Stroll CAN RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 57
5 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN RENAULT 57
6 Alexander Albon THA RED BULL RACING HONDA 48
7 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 45
8 Pierre Gasly FRA ALPHATAURI HONDA 43
9 Carlos Sainz ESP MCLAREN RENAULT 41
10 Daniel Ricciardo AUS RENAULT 41
11 Sergio Perez MEX RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 34
12 Esteban Ocon FRA RENAULT 30
13 Sebastian Vettel GER FERRARI 16
14 Nico Hulkenberg GER RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 6
15 Daniil Kvyat RUS ALPHATAURI HONDA 4
16 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 2
17 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 1
18 Nicholas Latifi CAN WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
19 Kimi Räikkönen FIN ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 0
20 Romain Grosjean FRA HAAS FERRARI 0
21 George Russell GBR WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0

Valtteri Bottas had led the way through practice, but Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton got the job done when it counted as he snatched pole for the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello…

Hamilton spent much of practice getting comfortable with the new track, nestled in the Tuscan hills, rather than chasing outright lap time. It was Bottas that led the way after Q1, but there was a few hundredths that separated them, and Hamilton then ramped it up in Q2 to lead a session for the first time during the weekend.

In the first runs in Q3, Hamilton once again set the pace, with Bottas within 0.06s, but all hope was not lost as there was still one run to go. However, Renault’s Esteban Ocon got it all wrong on his lap, spinning and bringing out the yellow flags, which forced much of the field to back off.

That gave Hamilton his 95th career pole position and 69th for Mercedes, the latter figure higher than the career total of any other driver. With Bottas slotting into second, it gave Mercedes their seventh consecutive front row lockout – two short of their record set in 2014-15.

And after the red flag Bottas politely let Hamilton pass at the restart -what a farce!

The two GT WC races in Magny-Cours last night and today were good fun. Straightforward motorsport: No DRS, no push to pass, no MickyMouse BS.

Looking forward to the 24h in LeMans next weekend.

Lewis Hamilton took his 90th career victory by beating Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in a chaotic, incident-strewn Tuscan Grand Prix.

The race was punctuated by two red flags, the first caused by a pile-up on the pit straight, the second by a high-speed crash for Lance Stroll.

In one of the most dramatic races for years, six cars had retired before a lap of racing had completed.

Red Bull's Thai-British driver Alex Albon took a maiden podium in third.


POS DRIVER NATIONALITY CAR PTS
1 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 190
2 Valtteri Bottas FIN MERCEDES 135
3 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA 110
4 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN RENAULT 65
5 Alexander Albon THA RED BULL RACING HONDA 63
6 Lance Stroll CAN RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 57
7 Daniel Ricciardo AUS RENAULT 53
8 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 49
9 Sergio Perez MEX RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 44
10 Pierre Gasly FRA ALPHATAURI HONDA 43
11 Carlos Sainz ESP MCLAREN RENAULT 41
12 Esteban Ocon FRA RENAULT 30
13 Sebastian Vettel GER FERRARI 17
14 Daniil Kvyat RUS ALPHATAURI HONDA 10
15 Nico Hulkenberg GER RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 6
16 Kimi Räikkönen FIN ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 2
17 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 2
18 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 1
19 Nicholas Latifi CAN WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
20 George Russell GBR WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
21 Romain Grosjean FRA HAAS FERRARI 0

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton claimed his 96th pole position by a huge 0.563s from Max Verstappen for the Russian Grand Prix, despite coming within a matter of seconds of being knocked out of Q2 in a dramatic qualifying session at Sochi that saw Sebastian Vettel crash heavily to bring out the red flags.

Hamilton had his Q2 time deleted for a track limits infringement leaving him in the drop zone when Vettel crashed at Turn 4 with just over two minutes left of the session, bringing out the red flags.

When the session was restarted, Hamilton crossed the line with less than two seconds to spare to begin his flying run – his last chance to get into Q3. He then posted the fourth quickest time to make it to the pole position shoot out.

A stunning first lap in Q3 from the six-time champion then saw him establish a new track record with a 1m 31.391s effort, before the Briton narrowly improved it on his second run to claim what was only his second pole position at the Sochi Autodrom – while Valtteri Bottas, who’d led Q1 and looked fast all weekend, will have been hugely disappointed not to at least make the front row, at a track he’s always shone on.

Hamilton is leading from the start so the question is...can he equal Schumacher's record?

Yeah he might equal Schumacher's record but he's not done it against other top class cars or drivers. You could put the dumbest pillock in the world in that Mercedes and they'd still win the race, wait a minute.......:O:

The ten second penalty didn't help but a third place finish keeps him in the running for another world title. Plenty of races left for the challengers though.

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY CAR PTS
1 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 205
2 Valtteri Bottas FIN MERCEDES 161
3 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA 128
4 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN RENAULT 65
5 Alexander Albon THA RED BULL RACING HONDA 64
6 Daniel Ricciardo AUS RENAULT 63
7 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 57
8 Lance Stroll CAN RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 57
9 Sergio Perez MEX RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 56
10 Pierre Gasly FRA ALPHATAURI HONDA 45
11 Carlos Sainz ESP MCLAREN RENAULT 41
12 Esteban Ocon FRA RENAULT 36
13 Sebastian Vettel GER FERRARI 17
14 Daniil Kvyat RUS ALPHATAURI HONDA 14
15 Nico Hulkenberg GER RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 6
16 Kimi Räikkönen FIN ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 2
17 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 2
18 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 1
19 Nicholas Latifi CAN WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
20 George Russell GBR WILLIAMS MERCEDES 0
21 Romain Grosjean FRA HAAS FERRARI 0

Red Bull's engine partner Honda is to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2021.

The move leaves Red Bull and Alpha Tauri needing to find an engine supplier and the sport with just three engine companies.