It left him lacking grip at the restart to those around him and resulted in a madcap, almost unbelievable, series of incidents. Verstappen almost lost his car when he had a massive wobble coming out of the fast final corner as the race restarted with five laps to go. Leclerc pulled alongside on the straight,...
Hamilton, who starts fifth in Barcelona, said his target was to “try and get to the podium. I haven’t been on a podium for a long time”. His last podium was in Las Vegas last November, when he was driving for Mercedes. He referred to former team-mate George Russell taking the lead from fourth on...
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set a stunning pole position from team-mate Lando Norris at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Australian beat Norris by 0.209 seconds, vaulting himself ahead of the Briton -who had been faster on the first runs in final qualifying but made an error on his last lap. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third...
The Spanish veteran was among the pacesetters early on, but dropped back as the session developed and appeared to have a problem with the performance of his engine, judging by radio transmissions between the Spaniard and his engineer. Alonso, who retired in Monaco last Sunday with an engine failure, ended his session about five minutes...
Do you think the Monaco Grand Prix would have been any better without the mandatory two-stop rule? – Sukhpal The new rule introduced for the Monaco Grand Prix this year was a requirement to use three sets of tyres in the race. The idea was to increase the number of strategic options available, effectively force...
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “With the benefit of hindsight, let’s say that considering the situation in corner one-two, it could have been better for Lando to just lift and make sure that he could keep the second position because the car, again, with the benefit of hindsight, we see that he was very...
Leclerc echoed Hamilton’s insistence that the drivers did not blame each other. “There’s no bad feelings with Lewis, not at all,” he said. “I understand as well that Lewis is trying to do something different, so I appreciate that. I would have done the same thing as if I was him and trying to be...
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won for the fourth time in six races this year as he beat team-mate Lando Norris in an action-packed Miami Grand Prix. Both McLaren drivers fought intense battles with early leader Max Verstappen’s Red Bull as they moved up to the front of the field. Piastri, who started fourth, drove a race...
In McLaren’s view, Red Bull have not been painting the most accurate picture of the competitive picture between the two teams. “Red Bull, they are very good at making fast cars,” Stella said. “They are very exceptionally good, I would say, at driving fast cars, and they are extremely good also in creating the narrative...
“It’s been a great qualifying,” Verstappen said. “We improved the car a tiny amount, which helped me rotate it a bit better. “Q1, Q2, Q3 improving every run. Trying to find the limit. I had a tiny moment into Turn One trying to find more time there but it’s very tricky here with the tyres....
The race started on a wet track, after a 28-minute delay because of the poor conditions. Piastri made a better launch than Antonelli, and was alongside the Mercedes on the approach to the first corner, the position already won. Antonelli claimed Piastri had pushed him off, but in fact ran wide off track on his...
Antonelli’s previous highest grid position this season was third in the last race in Saudi Arabia, although his qualifying result position has improved in every session so far this season. His impressive 0.309secs margin over Russell came despite the Briton joining Verstappen in being the only driver to use two sets of tyres over two...
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the pace in practice at the Miami Grand Prix as a crash for Briton Oliver Bearman ended the session early. Piastri was 0.356 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in second place with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third as the teams prepared for sprint qualifying later on Friday. Bearman lost control...
Norris, who won the season-opening race in Australia, said: “There are just certain things that don’t allow me to feel what I need to feel and those things are what allow me to drive to the level I can drive at, to get pole positions and drive at the highest level in racing. “We’re talking...
Verstappen’s radio messages during the race clearly indicated he did not approve of the penalty he was given, but he was warned to keep his thoughts to himself. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said he felt the penalty was “very harsh” and asked rhetorically: “Whatever happened to ‘let them race on the first lap?’...