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23/03/2018

Courtesy of Autosport.
http://www.autosport.com/f1/news

Lewis Hamilton edged out Max Verstappen to complete a clean sweep of Friday's practice sessions for the 2018 Formula 1 season's curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton did not improve on his first-practice benchmark significantly but a 1m23.931s was good enough to keep Mercedes ahead of Red Bull around Melbourne's Albert Park circuit.

The teams were more lethargic hitting the track in second practice, with Kevin Magnussen the first to venture out four minutes in, but flying laps kicked in almost immediately afterwards.

Verstappen fired the first real statement of intent after 10 minutes with a 1m25.063s on soft tyres, which Valtteri Bottas beat by three tenths of a second in his soft-shod Mercedes.

Hamilton usurped top spot soon after on a 1m24.569s and went quicker on his second run on a set of supersofts to get down to a 1m24.385s.

Verstappen then lapped only 0.016 seconds slower, still on softs, while it took a set of ultrasoft tyres for Kimi Raikkonen to vault Ferrari ahead of both on a 1m24.214s after 35 minutes of running.

Hamilton moved back in front within a matter of seconds as he switched to the softest-compound Pirellis and broke the 1m24s barrier with a 1m23.931s.

Bottas then briefly made it a Mercedes one-two, but Red Bull then gave Verstappen a set of ultrasofts and he stole into the 0.228s gap between the W09s.

Raikkonen was shuffled back to fourth, 0.283s off the pace and a couple of tenths clear of Sebastian Vettel.

Daniel Ricciardo was poised to emphasise Red Bull's position as Mercedes' closest challenger until a red flag halfway through the session ruined a hot lap.

Ricciardo was just 0.110s slower than Verstappen after the first two sectors before loose wire on the start-finish straight triggered a brief stoppage.

The session resumed swiftly but by this point the frontrunners had completed their qualifying simulations, which meant attention turned to long runs and there were no more changes at the top.

Ricciardo's aborted flying lap allowed Romain Grosjean to cap a very impressive opening day of the season for the Haas team with sixth place.

Haas was one of the understated stars of pre-season testing and Grosjean's 1m24.648s, just 0.717s slower than Hamilton, put the American team comfortably clear of its midfield rivals.

McLaren was next in the best-of-the-rest scrap, with Fernando Alonso eighth-fastest ahead of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen and second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne.

Haas's half-second advantage over the midfield was at odds with an otherwise ultra-close fight contested by McLaren, Renault, Force India, Williams and Toro Rosso.

Less than a second covered from Alonso in eighth to Sergey Sirotkin in 18th, while Sauber ended the day adrift at the foot of the times.

Marcus Ericsson pipped Formula 2 champion and F1 debutant Charles Leclerc by just 0.001s, but both drivers lapped 0.8s slower than the nearest cars ahead.

Williams's Lance Stroll, who had been 14th fastest, had to pull over on-track after the end of session practice starts with concerns about his car overheating.

23/02/2018

Hating the Halo, what are your thoughts?

What's it like driving a 2018 Mercedes Formula One car with the new Halo fitted? Valtteri Bottas was the first man to find out... ------ Don't forget to subs...

20/02/2018

Is the future bright,is the future orange?
https://youtu.be/jcfVnoRT-og

All is quiet at the McLaren Technology Centre when the night shift takes an unusual turn. Watch as our fearless, historic spirit converges with our new futur...

23/12/2017

https://youtu.be/LSmwEiNhKuQ

This is a movie digest of 4 time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton driving a time attack on the Nürburgring GP course in “Gran Turismo Sport”. Watching Gran T...

09/10/2017

To paraphrase a well know saying “the fat lady is on stage and clearing her throat”. Another dismal weekend for Ferrari, has all but seen Lewis take his 4th drivers championship. Vettel who appeared to have problems getting to the grid, retired on lap 6 with reported spark plug issues. With 4 races to go, it appears only mathematics give Vettel a chance. Lewis is now 59 points ahead of 2nd place Vettel and a win In Austin Texas for Lewis, will mean Vettel has to Finnish at least 5th to keep his hopes alive. Lewis won in 2016 with Vettel finishing 6th. Only Ferrari know if the trouble from the past two races are ‘self inflicted’ consequences of his Singapore and Malaysia crashes. Whatever the reason, Bottas is now Vettel’s closest contender.
The Red Bull’s showed great pace once again and if not for Alonso delaying the challenging - the once again impressive -Verstappen, there was real possibility Lewis would have been overtaken on the last lap. Raikkonen’s 5 place grid penalty due to a new gearbox after crashing in p3, saw the fin in mid pack off the start. Hulkenberg showed Kimi the grass on lap 1, that sent the fin back to 11th, virtually ending any podium chance on a notoriously difficult track to overtake. The championship picks up again in 2 weeks.

04/10/2017

Finally, Max gets his first win in dry conditions in a straight fight. Max has come in for a lot of unfair criticism of late, from drivers and commentators that should frankly know better. Sunday in Malaysia will go some way to quelling that noise. Max made a considered move and led for the rest of the race, to secure his second win of what will surely be many wins in his young career. It’s true that both Mercedes were well off the pace all weekend and Bottas showed just how difficult the Merc was to drive. Ferrari would have given both Red Bull’s a tough time but you have to be at the sharp end to win and The Ferrari power unit fell short. For me, Raikkonen had the most to loose once Vettel was posted to the back of the grid. Kimi for vertically the first time this season, would have been free to race. Alas, it was not to be and his prancing horse stayed in the stable. Ironically, since the announcement of the Honda/McLaren split, both cars have shown promise and it will be interesting to see what next years chassis-engine paring might bring. Vettel capped of a bad weekend for Ferrari with another miss judged maneuver after the flag, that will in all probability result in a 5 place grid penalty for the next round - due to a gearbox change. A more mature of late Lewis, understood the maths of letting an obviously quicker Max take the win, with the only running Ferrari dropping valuable points behind. In a flyaway round one week away, neither Ferrari or Mercedes would have wished for their respective underperformance so far from home.

18/08/2017

The wait is almost over, the excitement mounts, the lights begin to go on 1, 2, 3 ,4, 5...
https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/videos/874350532721930/

31/07/2017

The Hungarian Grand Prix - the race of what might have been:
If Raikkonen had not blown qualifying at turn 6 he might have turned pole, in to a first win since Australia 2013.
What a great result it would have been for spectators and Kimi fans alike, if Raikkonen had been allowed to pass his struggling team mate.
Had the ‘amateur’ Verstappen not took out his team mate, where might have the Red Bull of Riccardo have finished?
Had Verstappen not picked up a 10 second stop-go penalty where might he have finished - he finally came in 13 second behind the eventual winner Vettel.
Where might Lewis have finished, if the radio gremlins had not meant he had to come in on pit board instructions while he had speed to burn and was a second a lap faster than Bottas once released.
What might McLaren and Alonso achieve given a 100% ERS/KERS system. The McLaren picking up fastest lap in closing stages showed what might be.
What might the Lewis/Bottas reversing deliver come the season end.
All the above and Riccardo giving Max the finger, as Verstappen passes after the collision. What fun we had!

14/07/2017

F1 rocks London ahead of Silverstone GP.
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10935427/formula-1-returns-to-london-with-iconic-event-ahead-of-british-gp

A bumper crowd turned out to watch Formula 1 cars run up and down Whitehall on Wednesday night as the sport returned to the streets of London for the first time in over a decade.

17/05/2017

Spain turned out to be a good race but alas, between only two cars. A Raikkonen sandwich in turn one took out a lunging Verstappen, the 3 in to 1 didn't work. After Bottas breaked early allowing Kimi and Max down the outside. Bottas clipped Raikkonen's rear tyre and bumped him in to Verstappen - both went out to suspension failure.
The race was ultimately won by the strategists in the Merc garage, running Lewis long on the medium 2nd stint and switched to the soft tyre for the final laps. Vettle pitted immediately and came out side by side with Lewis in to turn 1. Lewis did what Lewis does and tried to get down the outside but Vettle held him of for a few laps but the better tyre choice allowed Lewis to pass on the pit straight like a 'train' commented Vettel. From then on it was a matter of tyre management for Lewis who now trails Vettel by 6 points going to Monaco. A Lonley Ricciardo came in 3rd benefitting from the early clashes.
A note has to be said for McLaren, Alonso showed the master he is by qualifying 7th but the afore mentioned Raikkonen sandwich forced Fernando on to the gravel an dropped him down the order where he stayed until the later laps where he picked off both Williams. Vandoorne made a rookies error bizarrely turning in to Massa and breaking his suspension.
The McLaren showed in the right hands it has potential, let's see what the returning Button can do in the next race.