F1 grand prix

[Dunedin]

So, Lewis will have to fight another day for this seasons title. Max a well deserved "Driver of the day" and a good drive from Kimi.

Kimi,Max, Lewis on the podium.

[Biggin]

Hamilton takes Pole in the US from Vettel, Raikkonnen, Bottas and Ricciardo but Vettel has a 3 grid place Penalty so will start from 5th

Could be interesting as in 2nd Qualy Raikkonnen is on Ultra Soft Tyres whilst Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas are all on Softs. Looks like Ferrari are hoping that Raikkonnen will get the jump on Hamilton with the Grippier tyres and therefore control the start of the Race to help Vettel trying to regain places.

[Dunedin]

Correction Dunners Vettel is 67 points behind Hamilton

What's 10 points between friends. It is not that they are rivals.lol lol.

It will probably be over after this next weekends race, with Lewis taking the title again.

I hope so Dunners, If Lewis wins then I think we need somebody other than Vettel in 2nd place for him to take the title.

Bottas or Verstappen.

[Biggin]

Correction Dunners Vettel is 67 points behind Hamilton

What's 10 points between friends. It is not that they are rivals.lol lol.

It will probably be over after this next weekends race, with Lewis taking the title again.

I hope so Dunners, If Lewis wins then I think we need somebody other than Vettel in 2nd place for him to take the title

[Dunedin]

Correction Dunners Vettel is 67 points behind Hamilton

What's 10 points between friends. It is not that they are rivals.lol lol.

It will probably be over after this next weekends race, with Lewis taking the title again.

[Biggin]

Correction Dunners Vettel is 67 points behind Hamilton

[Dunedin]

Well today's race was "a walk in the park" for Lewis, putting him 57 points ahead of Vettel. I think it is amusing that Ferrari's second biggest problem seems to be Verstappen, who seems to cause both Kimi and Vettel hassle with his agresive driving style.

[stean]

I think the way Lewis is driving at the moment he could have passed Bottas in a straight fight, but fair play to Bottas letting him pass. As for team orders don't anyone be in any doubt that Ferrari would have done the same.

[Biggin]

Hamilton wins in Russia to move 50pts clear of Vettel but only after team orders for Bottas to let Hamilton through.
Mercedes nearly blew it on strategy they brought in Bottas ASIs correct as he was in the lead , and they should have brought Hamilton in next lap but they did not and Vettel did so Hamilton comes in next lap and comes out behind Vettel fortunately fo Mercedes Vetel made a slight mistake and Hamilton got past thereafter they were concerned about Hamiltons tyres and so ordered the switch

1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Vettel
4 Raikkonnen
5 Verstappen

[Biggin]

Bottas take pole in Russia in a Mercedes 1-2  Vettel 3rd

[Biggin]

Hamilton wins in Singapore and extends his Championship lead to 40 pts . It was an uneventful race Vettel passed Verstappen on the 1st lap, but Verstappen regained that place at the pit stops. So final placings were as the grid start so Hamilton's exceptional lap in qualifying won him the race

1 Hamilton
2 Verstappen
3 Vettel
4 Bottas
5 Raikkonnen

[Biggin]

Hamilton takes a surprise Pole in Singapore with a stunning lap in is first run in 3rd part of qualifying

1 Hamilton
2 Verstappen
3 Vettel
4 Bottas
5 Raikkonnen

[Dunedin]

A few changes announced in the last few days. Kimi to leave Ferrari and rejoin his old team at Sauber and to be replaced by Leclerc. 18 year old Brit, Lando Norris is to take Vandoorne's place at McLaren alongside Carlos Sainz and will be the youngest driver to enter F1.

[StellaL]

As Damon Hill said on Sky's coverage yesterday, Ferrari have a big problem and it's called Lewis Hamilton. Long may that situation continue.

[Biggin]

Against all the odds Hamilton wins in Monza he got off to a good start and got slip stream going into turns 3 & 4 and was overtaking Vettel on the outside Hamilton slightly in front when they had a coming together spinning Vettel who had to Pit for a new nose fortunately for him the safety car was brought out for another incident at the start so he joined the tail after the restart Hamilton passed Raikkonnen , but Raikkonnen  the got by Hamilton. two were running close and Ferrari pitted first Mercedes left Hamilton out for another 8 laps and deployed Bottas to hold up Raikkonnen , when Bottas pitted Hamilton was on the tail of Raikkonnen who had taken too much out of his tyres early on and they started to Blister so Hamilton bided his time to take Raikkonnen with a good few laps to spare and when passed quickly built up a comfortable lead

1 Hamilton
2 Raikkonnen
3 Bottas
4 Vettel

Hamilton no has a 30pt lead in the Championship

It was a good race, Hammy proving how good a driver he is. Vettel did his best to knobble him, but came off second best

Yes Angleseyite it was a good race and not the usual procession really good drive from Hamilton and for once the right Strategy calls from Mercedes , and must mention Bottas who had a supberb drive staying out as long and holding up Raikkonnen

[Angleseyite]

Against all the odds Hamilton wins in Monza he got off to a good start and got slip stream going into turns 3 & 4 and was overtaking Vettel on the outside Hamilton slightly in front when they had a coming together spinning Vettel who had to Pit for a new nose fortunately for him the safety car was brought out for another incident at the start so he joined the tail after the restart Hamilton passed Raikkonnen , but Raikkonnen  the got by Hamilton. two were running close and Ferrari pitted first Mercedes left Hamilton out for another 8 laps and deployed Bottas to hold up Raikkonnen , when Bottas pitted Hamilton was on the tail of Raikkonnen who had taken too much out of his tyres early on and they started to Blister so Hamilton bided his time to take Raikkonnen with a good few laps to spare and when passed quickly built up a comfortable lead

1 Hamilton
2 Raikkonnen
3 Bottas
4 Vettel

Hamilton no has a 30pt lead in the Championship

It was a good race, Hammy proving how good a driver he is. Vettel did his best to knobble him, but came off second best

[Biggin]

Against all the odds Hamilton wins in Monza he got off to a good start and got slip stream going into turns 3 & 4 and was overtaking Vettel on the outside Hamilton slightly in front when they had a coming together spinning Vettel who had to Pit for a new nose fortunately for him the safety car was brought out for another incident at the start so he joined the tail after the restart Hamilton passed Raikkonnen , but Raikkonnen  the got by Hamilton. two were running close and Ferrari pitted first Mercedes left Hamilton out for another 8 laps and deployed Bottas to hold up Raikkonnen , when Bottas pitted Hamilton was on the tail of Raikkonnen who had taken too much out of his tyres early on and they started to Blister so Hamilton bided his time to take Raikkonnen with a good few laps to spare and when passed quickly built up a comfortable lead

1 Hamilton
2 Raikkonnen
3 Bottas
4 Vettel

Hamilton no has a 30pt lead in the Championship

[Biggin]

Ferrari Lock out the Front row at Monza in a very tight Qualy first it was Hamilton on pole just to be pipped by Vettel who was in turn pipped by Raikkonnen

1 Raikkonnen
2 Vettel
3 Hamilton
4 Bottas

[Biggin]

Ferrari blow Mercedes out the water in an interview at the end of the race Hamilton said that Vettel passed him as if he was not even there. Ferrari definitely now the strongest/fastest car on the grid and Hamilton will now need a lot of luck to win the Championship.
Monza up next week and that would point to another Ferrari win.
Hamilton probably lucky this weekend tat Raikkonnen got a puncture in 1st corner incident and eventually retired, so next week Hamilton could be looking at 3rd

1 Vettel
2 Hamilton
3 Verstappen
4 Bottas

Bottas drove a good race after starting 17th and also involved in a 1st corner incident  forcing him to pit and change strategy

[Biggin]

Hamilton on pole from Vettel and Ocon the final qualifying turned wet and that enabled Hamilton to take pole, had it been dry I think Vettell would be on pole

I hope I am wrong but I think Vettel will win tomorrow as long as it stays dry

[Biggin]

Spanish two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has announced he is to retire from Formula 1.


The McLaren driver, 37, will at the end of this season conclude a career that began with a debut for Minardi at the Australian Grand Prix of 2001.

[Dunedin]

Yes a good lead for Lewis , but I am still worried about the Ferraris they are certainly the faster car at the moment and especially at some of the races to come in Asia, but hopefully Lewis can win a few more before then a very interesting season

Bill.
Did you see Ricciardo has signed for Renault.

[Biggin]

Yes a good lead for Lewis , but I am still worried about the Ferraris they are certainly the faster car at the moment and especially at some of the races to come in Asia, but hopefully Lewis can win a few more before then a very interesting season

[stean]

I am a big F1 fan and a massive fan of Lewis, and it's nice to see someone else is too. I agree with all your comments about the race, but it all stem's from that brill race in Germany. Lewis was very down before that race, especially when he lost the GB grand prix, but with a bit of luck and fantastic driving he won the German GP. and you could see the confidence ooze out of him. I think now his confidence is so high it will be very hard for Seb to catch him. Also well done to Seb for being first to shake Lewis hand, as Lewis didn't after the GB race.
Can't wait for the next race.

[Biggin]

Against the odds Hamilton wins the Hungarian GP , Ferrari on top all weekend and Mercedes struggling but come Qualifying the rains came and Mercedes locked out the Front row with Hamilton on Pole.
The race was still expected to go in Ferraris favour especially if they got off to a flier however Mercedes Pair kept their positions into the first two bends and kept the Ferraris behind , and they pitted Raikkonnen early Mercedes responded by pitting Bottas who maintained his lead over Raikkonnen Hamilton who was on the faster tyre than Vettel  hung on for another 10 laps before pitting and that let Vettel take the lead, But Ferrari probably kept him out a bit longer than they should and with Bottas putting in two fast laps and Vettel pit stop slow because of a sticking wheel Bottas was back in 2nd Position and he held off Vettel and Raikkonnen until 5 laps from end by which time Hamilton was home and dry

1 Hamilton
2 Vettel
3 Raikkonnen
4 Ricciardo
5 Bottas

Hamilton now has a 24pt lead in the championship

[Janad20]

Thankfully common sense has prevailed and the new quali sessions have been kicked into the long grass. I saw nothing wrong with the old ones, so am glad they have been resurrected.
On a different note, has anyone any comments on the C4 coverage of F1. I personally found the Advert breaks a right pain in the posterior and can only hope that live coverage will not be subjected to the same as the highlighted one.
Thank God, Alonso walked away from what was one of the worst crashes seen in many a year. His guardian angel sure did his job.

[RedEyes]

The final starting order was pretty much as any fan could have predicted, based on the quality of the cars and the skill levels of the drivers.  So, it's true to say that fiddling with the qualifying rules achieved absolutely nothing in that respect.  As I said in my last post, the cream always rises to the top and I would have been more surprised if it had affected the start grid in any major way.

What the changes did do was to put cars on the track from the beginning of each session, thus providing the spectators with something to spectate.  All too often, they had to hang around for half a session before any cars finally appeared on the track (the third session was often like that and could definitely be called boring).  People pay a lot of money to go to these things in order to see cars tearing around a race track, not sitting the pits playing a game of russian roulette.

I don't think the new rules are perfect (and it seems that the teams and drivers aren't totally convinced either) but they are a step in the right direction and I'm sure there are people. sitting around a table right now,.deciding how to improve on them.

[StellaL]

Strange isn't it all that messing about with the qualifying and we ended up with a really good race which had absolutely nothing to do with the changes.

[RedEyes]

I'm not so sure it has anything to do with any one team dominating.  If there is a superior team then it will always be at the front, no matter what the qualifying rules are.  The cream always rises to the top, as it has done this time.

I think it more likely it was an attempt to get cars on the track and if so, it certainly worked.  Beats the public sitting looking at cars in the pits for half of each session.

With a little bit of tweaking, the new rules should work well in terms of entertainment. It's not perfect at the moment, but nobody has really had the time to work on strategies.

[StellaL]

It's absolute rubbish. Apparently Bernie Ecclestone wants to end the domination of Mercedes and he thought this would do it. All it has done is make what was one of the most exciting parts of the sport, Qualifying 3, boring.  He didn't have the same sentiments when Red Bull were dominant.

[lmj52]

Not sure if I like the new qualifying rules. A bit messy and even the commentators are unsure what's going on