Racetrackmasters

Red Bull have strongly denied any suggestion Max Verstappen deliberately collided with Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix. The two championship contenders touched for the second time this season at Monza, but unlike at Silverstone where only the Dutchman retired, this time both were eliminated as the Red Bull went over the top of the Mercedes at the first chicane. Unsurprisingly, offering their reaction, Verstappen and Hamilton blamed each other, drawing comparison to a similar incident on Lap 1, when Lewis bailed across the kerbs at the Roggia chicane. “I don’t think you can judge them exactly the same because he just kept squeezing and squeezing while I was really alongside,” said Max. “You need two people to work together to make the corner. If one guy is not willing to work, it’s not going to happen. “We are fighting for position and unfortunately we touched. It’s very unfortunate what happened today, nobody likes to see that.” Lewis said: “I was in exactly the same position, but I gave way, and that’s racing. “He didn’t want to give way today. He knew that when he was going into Turn 2 what was going to happen. He knew he was going over the kerbs, but he still did it. “We’ll speak to the stewards and see. But I don’t really know what else to say.” Verstappen was given a three-place grid penalty for the Russian GP after the race, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff hinted that there was a decision by Max to touch. “The stewards are going to decide who is to blame, or predominantly to blame. We’ve seen that in the past,” he told Sky Sports. “[Verstappen] doesn’t look like [he’s] alongside, then you go over the sausage kerb. But if you compare it to what Lewis said at Turn 4 in Lap 1, there was no space left and he was pushed off the track actually. “But let the stewards make the judgement. I don’t want to be a panther, like some of my colleagues do. “I think at that stage, [Hamilton] was on the inside and [Verstappen] just went straight off at the sausage kerb and jumped into him.” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko quickly shot down Wolff and 1996 world champion Damon Hill, who also suggested Verstappen decided to “take Hamilton out”. “It’s clear the two of them will not be friends,” he was quoted by grandpx.news as saying. “It’s our fault with the pit stop that Max was near Hamilton, but I would declare it a racing incident. “Hamilton could have left more space, but assuming Max did it intentionally is nonsense. It’s not like [Alain] Prost and [Ayrton] Senna either. The difference is huge. “The result may be the same, but that was on purpose. This time neither of them had any such intention. You cannot plan for both of you to be out.” The Mercedes boss did conclude with a call for the race officials to ensure the situation between Verstappen and Hamilton didn’t escalate further. “If we don’t manage that in the right way – I’m sure the stewards will look at it in the right way – this is going to continue,” he said. “We had a high-speed crash at Silverstone, we had one car landing on top of the other one on Lewis’ head, so how far can it go? Maybe next time we’ll have a high-speed crash and land on each other. “If you see the car, the whole thing is damaged over the Halo and the wheel was on Lewis’ head.”

The FIA are set to take a closer look at the crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix, due to the potentially serious outcome the accident could have had. While innocuous at first glance, the Verstappen/Hamilton clash on Lap 26 of the Monza race could have had very serious consequences as Verstappen’s car came to rest on Hamilton’s Halo cockpit protection system and made contact with his helmet. It’s this potential outcome that has led the FIA to decide that their Safety Department will investigate the accident. “Incidents that are different, so it’s not necessarily high G impacts or anything like that, but are unusual, we do look at,” said FIA Race Director Michael Masi to media. The FIA’s Safety Department was set up to analyse serious accidents in order to generate relevant learnings and applicable solutions to safety concerns. “Our Safety Department does look at them in detail, investigate, and see what we can learn and what we can improve for the future,” Masi said. “That’s how we have a whole lot of the safety features that we have today, and will continue to evolve into the future. “We are already collecting all of the data, so we have all of the information, and that will all go to our Safety Department, together with any photographs and anything else we have along the way.” Despite it being Verstappen and Hamilton’s second collision in five races, Masi said there was nothing untoward about the Italian GP incident that warranted special treatment or intervention from him or the stewards. “They’re in a very tight championship fight, two fantastic drivers and they’re extremely close,” he said. “Once you are in that situation, both drivers will take more risks one way or the other. “There wasn’t anything, in our perspective, silly – the stewards looked at it in exactly the same manner as they would any other incident and decided that one driver was predominantly to blame.”

Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo have revealed special liveries they will be using for the Italian GP which will be held this weekend at Monza. Aston Martin have added the iconic James Bond film logo 007 on the AMR21 to celebrate the release of the newest James Bond Film, No Time To Die. However, the green colour scheme will remain the same. The Aston Martin brand has been associated with the James Bond franchise for long with the starring character being well known for driving Aston Martin cars, and will be driving the same in the upcoming film which will be released on 30th September. This is not the first time a Formula 1 car will feature the 007 logo as Red Bull ran a special James Bond livery back in 2019 to celebrate Formula 1’s 1007th race. Alfa Romeo on the other hand has also created a special livery for their home race this weekend. They have replaced the white colour on the engine cover with green creating the Italian flag and also acting as a replica of their logo. The change will not only be on their F1 cars as the team also revealed their drivers will be in race suits that will be matching the cars, meaning the suits will be having shades of green. The team has been renowned for using special liveries, such as the Valentine’s Day livery they sported during pre-season testing last year.

The organisers of the Formula 1 event held at Zandvoort reveal they made a loss of over 10 million euros due to the COVID-19 pandemic according to Dutch Grand Prix Sporting Director Jan Lammers. The Dutch GP which was held last weekend at Zandvoort hosted 70,000 spectators each day for the three days the Formula 1 event was held. This was two thirds of the capacity and having no financial backing from the government of Netherlands, the organisers only relied on the sale of tickets. Lammers tries to explain how the event made such a huge loss even before calculations are made. The organisers had already encountered losses before the Dutch Grand Prix was held. “We have not yet carried out all the calculations, but a few weeks ago, we had to to say goodbye to more than 10 million euros.” “At that point you have already incurred 100 percent of your costs and then you cannot accommodate a third of the people. Moreover, we do this without a single euro of financial support from the government. We’re proud of that, but at the time we weren’t happy. “However, when we see how other industries have been affected by coronavirus, we say that the glass is half full. So that’s still good. We don’t want to complain and whine too much, we just have to deal with it.” “Like I said, we haven’t done the calculations yet, so we don’t know yet how big the blow is going to be.” “However, there is a solid business structure behind the event, so we can take a hit. But this cannot go on for another two or three years, but there is no risk or danger. It’s all going fine.” The fans were very happy and praised the event, the teams and drivers were also excited with the Dutch Grand Prix returning to the Formula 1 calendar after 36 years. The event received even much more excitement as Max Verstappen took pole position and eventually won the race in his home ground giving the orange army a reason to celebrate. Lewis Hamilton amid defeat by Verstappen also lauded the event because of the good atmosphere and the vintage nature of the Zandvoort track. Jan Lammers admits although the Dutch GP faced many challenges, the fans were happy. “It was a beautiful weekend,” said Lammers. “People came in and left with a smile on their faces. “Getting to this point, the past year and a half has been a big challenge. “Here and there people have resisted our event and sometimes that’s not what you want to focus on. We’ve been in court multiple times, but we’ve won all the lawsuits and got all the permits we need. “In that respect, those challenges have only made everything better. I hope they continue to challenge us like that, because that only ensures that we continue to grow. “If you want to put on an event like this in 2021, then you have to comply with a lot of new rules. We’ve found out about that over the past two years, but so far it’s all gone well.”

Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries has been in the rumour mill as he is linked for a Formula 1 move next year. But his hopes could be frustrated because of his link to Mercedes. The 26-year-old has been driving for Mercedes Formula E team since 2019 and won the 2020-21 Formula E championship with the team. In Formula 1, the Dutch is currently one of the Mercedes reserve drivers. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been finding a place for De Vries on the Formula 1 grid in 2022. This comes after George Russell’s move to the world champion’s team replacing Valtteri Bottas. There was speculation that De Vries could join Williams team in 2022, but the team confirmed on Wednesday that former Red Bull driver Alex Albon will be taking George Russell’s seat for 2022 beside Nicholas Latifi. This Means De Vries has only one option left to join the F1 grid in 2022, with Alfa Romeo. The team has signed Valtteri Bottas who is currently driving for Mercedes to occupy one of the seats next year. Alfa Romeo team boss Fred Vasseur in an interview said there were complications with his team, which is Ferrari backed, hiring a Mercedes-backed driver. “De Vries looks complicated for me because he is strongly linked to Mercedes,” said Vasseur. “It’s much easier for us to deal with someone who is under contract with Ferrari than with someone who is under contract with Mercedes.” Vasseur also said the team still remains in consideration of Antonio Giovinazzi continuing with them for the fourth season. Giovinazzi was previously a junior Ferrari driver. “He was part of the deal in the past and he will be part of the discussion with Ferrari,” Vasseur said. “We have a very strong link and very open discussions and it will never be an issue to deal with Antonio and Ferrari.” Vasseur also admits the team is considering one of the front running Formula 2 drivers such as Guanyu Zhou who is a junior Alpine driver. Sauber, which runs Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team is also keen on one of their highly rated junior drivers, Theo Pouchaire joining Formula 1. With all these options, Vasseur intends to wait and watch how the Monza and Sochi Formula 2 rounds will play out before making any decision. “By the end of September we’ll have a good picture of the junior series,” he said. “Antonio is part of the family, he did some good steps. I think we are not in a rush to take a decision if you have a look on the global picture. “I want to be focused on what we are doing, to give them time to show what they can do, all of them, and we will take a decision probably in the beginning of October.”

Corinna Schumacher, wife to seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has opened up on her husband’s condition for the first time since 2013 when the champ suffered a serious head injury after a skiing accident in the French Alps. Since then, the seven-time world champion has been out of the public eye and his family has kept the recovery of his progress private with little or no comments. However, Corinna has shed some light into the progress of the 52-year-old after speaking in an upcoming Netflix documentary called Schumacher which shows the life and career of one of the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time. “Michael is here. Different, but he’s here,” she said. “That gives us strength, I find. He still shows me how strong he is every day. “We live together at home, we do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he’s comfortable, and to simply make him feel our family, our bond. “And no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will. We’re trying to carry on as a family, the way Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives.” Corinna Schumacher says she prefers to keep her husband’s condition and health private as a replication of how Schumacher prefered to keep his family life private and out of the media despite being a superstar in his F1 career. “‘Private is private’, as he always said. It’s very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.” “I never blamed God for why this happened now. It was just really bad luck, all the bad luck anyone could ever have in their life.”

Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica will continue standing in for Kimi Raikkonen this weekend at Monza. This comes after Kimi Raikkonen tested positive for Covid-19 last week and has not yet been cleared to race. Kimi’s PCR test came in positive on Saturday morning despite running both Friday’s practice sessions at Zandvoort. This led to Kubica being called in a short notice to replace the Finn. Last weekend was the Pole’s first race in F1 since Abu Dhabi GP back in 2019 racing for Williams. However, it was not the first time for Kubica to drive the Alfa Romeo C41 as he has been taking part in several free practice sessions with the car this season. Zandvoort’s twisty layout presented a challenge for the 36-year-old but despite the circumstances he was able to finish last Sunday’s race ranking P15. “First of all, I want to share my best wishes for Kimi: I hope he makes a full recovery and returns to the cockpit soon,” said Kubica. “I am looking forward to racing in Monza, an incredible track in which I claimed my first podium, in 2006. “Unlike Zandvoort, it is a track I know well and this will help, particularly since the Sprint Qualifying weekend format means we will be one practice session short. “I am happy with what I did in Holland and I can’t wait to help the team out one more time in Monza.” Alfa Romeo announced that Raikkonen is still isolating at home and will be back on the grid at Sochi for his final races in F1 as he awaits retirement at the end of the season.

The Italian Grand Prix in Monza is scheduled for this weekend, this includes the second sprint race of the season. The pairs for the press conferences on Thursday have been announced. Max Verstappen doesn’t know yet, a day before the press conference, with whom he will sit in the press area. The Alfa Romeo driver should be Kimi Raikkonen, but because of his positive coronatest last weekend it is uncertain if he will sit next to the Dutchman. If the Finn is not seated there then Robert Kubica will accompany the Red Bull driver. With the announcement of Valtteri Bottas’ move to Alfa Romeo as George Russell replaces him at Mercedes and Alex Albon replacing Russell at Williams, expect more questions about the 2022 season to be asked. This comes as AlphaTauri announced it will be retaining Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda for 2022. It is expected more teams will announce their 2022 driver line-ups as Antonio Giovinazzi is not sure of his seat for next year, so this will be an interesting press conference.

Williams F1 team has announced that Alex Albon will take George Russell’s seat as Nicholas Latifi remains for 2022 season. This marks an F1 return for Albon who has been Red Bull’s test and reserve driver for 2021. The 25-year-old made F1 debut in 2019 racing for Toro Rosso and later upgraded to Red Bull for 2020 taking two podiums. However, Red Bull replaced him with Sergio Perez for 2021. Nicholas Latifi on the other hand will be remaining at Williams for the third season. He scored his maiden points in Hungary after finishing seventh and scored more in the Belgian GP after finishing ninth in the rain shortened race. Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi were previously teammates back in 2018 at DAMS in Formula 2. “I am really excited and looking forward to returning to a Formula 1 race seat in 2022,” said Albon. “When you take a year out of F1 it’s never certain you will make a return so I’m extremely thankful to Red Bull and Williams for believing in me and helping me on my journey back to the grid. “It’s also been great to see all the progress Williams have been making as a team this year and I look forward to helping them continue that journey in 2022. “My focus now returns to my test and reserve driver role at Red Bull and helping the team fight for this year’s world championship.” Latifi joined Williams back in 2019 as a test driver and in 2020 upgraded to race driver for the team. “I’m excited to be continuing with Williams for another year; partly because of F1’s new technical regulations, but also because the team is moving in a more competitive direction with new owners, management and people on the technical side,” he said. “I’ve felt at home here since the day I arrived, and I think I’m in the right place to continue with my positive trajectory. The aim is to continue making little improvements so we can all take advantage of the opportunity we have next year. “I’m super excited to work with next year’s car and it’s like a fresh start for everybody. I feel privileged to be part of that change.”

Alfa Romeo has revealed its desire to retain Kimi Raikkonen for 2022 by offering him an advisory role if by any chance the former world champion is interested. The 41-year-old announced his retirement last week ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix despite missing the Zandvoort race weekend after testing positive for Covid-19. Although he has not yet made any plans in regards to his future apart from spending more time with his family, Alfa Romeo has expressed its interest in retaining him for 2022 as an advisor as he holds experience in the F1 sport. Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur said he would like to talk with Raikkonen to see if he wishes to continue working together with the team. Vasseur signed Raikkonen at the end of 2018 after Ferrari let him go. However, Vasseur says it is wrong to try to rush Raikkonen into making 2022 plans with his retirement news having just only come out. “I think I saw that already he had some proposal for other series or something like this, so I think it’s much better to let things calm down,” explained Vasseur. “Then we’ll have time to discuss about what we could do in the future. I would be more than keen to have Kimi on board somewhere, but I think he has to take time. “I think it would be a mistake [for him] to take another option today, and say: ‘Okay I will do this, and I will do this.’ He has to calm down to realise what the decision means and then it will be time to decide about the future.” “He was able to bring to the team huge experience,” said Vasseur. “He drove the last 20 years, in a winning team, always fighting for the championship. “This was a huge support to the development of the team. I’m not speaking about results on the day-by-day basis, but midterm development on the project. He knows perfectly where the performance is coming from. “And also in parallel, in terms of image for the team, it was a huge push. I would have loved to have better results and to do more, but that’s also the purpose of racing, that you always want to do more and to get more. But it is like it is and the support from Kimi was an impressive one.”

Today AlphaTauri-Honda announced that they will stay with the driver pairing of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda for the 2022 Formula One season. Pierre Gasly said, “I am very happy to be moving forward with Scuderia AlphaTauri for another season in Formula 1, especially after seeing the progress that we’ve made as a team since I first joined in 2017. Seeing the performance we’ve shown so far this season, I think there are great things to achieve for the rest of this season and for next year, especially with the upcoming changes to the championship in 2022. I’m very excited to see what we can accomplish in the new era of F1 and to keep working with the team as best as I can to bring us forward in the team standings. This year has been very successful so far and I really believe we can work well together to do even better in 2022.” Yuki Tsunoda said, “I’m really excited to be staying with Scuderia AlphaTauri for a second season. It’s an incredible opportunity and I’m so thankful to the team for letting me continue to grow my experience in Formula 1 with them. I have a very good relationship with Pierre, I have learnt a lot from him already this year and his experience has helped me to keep developing my own skills, so it’s great to be continuing my F1 journey with him. Having recently moved out to Faenza I am feeling very settled within the team and am looking forward to the upcoming season.” Team Principal Franz Tost said, “I’m pleased to announce today that we will keep both our drivers here at Scuderia AlphaTauri for the 2022 season. Pierre’s development in the years has been impressive and in his time with us he managed to make it to all three steps of the podium. Starting with the second place in Brazil in 2019, he then won our home Grand Prix the following year in Monza and this year he has already achieved a podium with a 3rd place in Baku. I am confident there’s more to come and this is why we are excited to have him with us for another season. Furthermore, he is using his experience in F1 to help Yuki with his development. This year we have seen that the positive relationship between the two, made of a competitiveness on-track and a friendship off-track, has proven effective for the team. Yuki has joined the team as a rookie and is continuing to learn every day, the feedback from the engineers shows that he is absorbing all the information given to him and improving. As a rookie, Yuki is only at the beginning of this journey, so it’s good that he can continue what we’ve started together. It’s great for us to be securing our driver line-up so early in the season, so we can now focus on the rest of 2021, where we’re in a tough fight in the midfield pack.”

Valtteri Bottas will drive for Alfa Romeo starting from the 2022 Formula One World Championship, the team said on Monday. Bottas has signed a multi-year contract with Alfa Romeo and will replace fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen at the backmarker squad. Raikkonen finally retires from F1 at the end of 2021, after 20 long years in the sport. Bottas, who will drive alongside Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo, currently drives for Mercedes-Benz AMG. Bottas started his F1 career in 2013 with Williams and made the move to Mercedes in 2017 after the sudden retirement of Nico Rosberg. However, he has failed to make much of an impact since joining the top team, although he does have nine wins, 17 pole positions and 63 podiums under his belt. He is currently third in the 2021 Drivers’ Championship. Filling in for Bottas at Mercedes will be current Williams driver George Russell, Mercedes said on Tuesday. The promising driver impressed when he filled Lewis Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain, coming close to achieving victory but ultimately missing out due to a pit stop error and puncture. Russell started his F1 career with Williams in 2019 and has made some impressive drives, consistently outperforming his car. This was most recently seen at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix where he qualified second in heavy rain at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, outpacing Hamilton. Russell will drive alongside Hamilton in 2022 as the sport introduces new technical regulations. A replacement for him at Williams is yet to be announced.

Following Valtteri Bottas’ departure to Alfa Romeo Racing, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team has today announced that George Russell will be team-mate to Lewis Hamilton from 2022. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team confirmed yesterday that it would part ways with Valtteri Bottas, who will join the Alfa Romeo Racing outfit next year. The Finn joined Mercedes in 2017, scoring 9 race wins, 54 podiums and 17 pole positions to date with the team.The Anglo-German outfit has now announced that Bottas will be replaced by Russell, who will become team-mate to reigning seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, beginning from the 2022 Formula One season as the sport enters a new era of technical regulations. “It’s a special day for me personally and professionally, but also a day of mixed emotions. I’m excited and humbled to be joining Mercedes next year, which is a huge career step, but it also means I’ll be saying goodbye to my team-mates and friends at Williams. It has been an honour working alongside every member of the team, and an honour to represent the Williams name in F1. „Since I joined in 2019, we have worked tirelessly to push each other forward and bring the team back up the grid where it belongs. We’ve battled for every qualifying position, every point, and every tenth of a second. No matter how tough it’s been, nobody has ever given up, and that has inspired me every day. I’ve loved every moment in what I’d describe as a true heart and soul racing team, and I’ll be pushing harder than ever to make sure we end our story in the best possible way. “Looking ahead to next season, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely buzzing. It’s a huge opportunity and one I want to grab with both hands. But I’m under no illusions as to the scale of the challenge; it’s going to be a steep learning curve. Valtteri has set a high bar, consistently delivering week in and week out, scoring wins, pole positions and helping win multiple championship titles.” “My target must be to reward the trust that Toto, the team, and the board have placed in me by ensuring I play my part in continuing that success and I want to do my new team-mates proud.” “Of course, one of those new team-mates is in my opinion the greatest driver of all time. I’ve looked up to Lewis since I was in go-karts and the opportunity to learn from someone who has become a role model both on and off track can only benefit me as a driver, a professional, and a human being. For now, though, I have nine more races as a Williams driver, and I want to make sure they are the best nine of my time with the team. Then, and only then, can I turn my attention to 2022. A huge thank you to Williams, to Mercedes and to everyone who has supported me in getting to where I am today. I couldn’t have done it without every single one of you,” added Russell. Commenting on the announcement, Team Principal Toto Wolff said: “This hasn’t been an easy process or a straightforward decision for us. Valtteri has done a fantastic job over the past five seasons and he has made an essential contribution to our success and to our growth.„Together with Lewis, he has built a benchmark partnership between two team mates in the sport, and that has been a valuable weapon in our championship battles and pushed us to achieve unprecedented success. “Looking forward to 2022, we are very happy to confirm that George will have the opportunity to take the next step in his career and join Mercedes. He has been a winner in every racing category – and the past three seasons with Williams have given us a taste of what the future could hold for him in F1. Now, it is our challenge together to help him continue learning within our environment and alongside Lewis, the greatest F1 driver of all time,” Wolff concluded.

Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time of a heavily disrupted first practice at Zandvoort. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was second, 0.097 seconds behind his championship rival. The session experienced a 33-minute delay due to the engine failure as the marshalls tried to clear away the Aston Martin, but were cautious due to concerns about the voltage of the car. Thousands of Dutch fans poured into the circuit to witness Formula 1’s first visit to The Netherlands for 36 years but weren’t able to see much action due to the lengthy stoppage. Before the red flag, most drivers opted for the hard tyres, but with limited time remaining after the delay, all went out on softs. Sebastian Vettel was forced to become a fire marshal to deal with his Aston Martin that suffered a suspected power unit failure in first practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. On F1’s return to Zandvoort after a 36-year delay, only 24 minutes of action were possible in the opening hour-long session at the circuit beside the seaside. With just under 44 minutes remaining, Vettel brought out the red flags as his Aston Martin suffered a suspected power unit failure. Vettel had earlier been informed of an MGU-K problem following his exploratory laps of the circuit, but after returning to the track, the AMR21 was soon forced to pull over. With smoke starting to billow from the car, there was then the remarkable sight of Vettel claiming a fire extinguisher from a trackside marshal. After initial teething problems in trying to operate the device, and seemingly heated discussions with the marshal concerned, Vettel finally managed to squirt foam over and inside the car. However, there then appeared to be a further discussion as to whether he was using the correct extinguisher, as second and third systems were handed to the four-time champion. Upon the arrival of a recovery truck a few minutes later, Vettel was still attempting to apply foam inside the car. It then became a question of the safety of the car as no marshal was willing to touch it in order to strap it up so it could be loaded onto the truck and transported back to the garage. It was not until a specially suited team member with a device to measure any likely electrical discharge had given the all-clear could the car finally be cleared, with the track only going green again with six minutes remaining. As a circuit new to the calendar, with all bar home hero Verstappen not having driven the current revised configuration with its banking at turn three and the final corner, time on track was crucial to understanding the 2.6-mile, 14-turn layout. The lost time was not what anyone would have wanted, but it was a circumstance beyond anyone’s control given the situation in front of packed grandstands, teeming with orange-clad Verstappen fans. Once the green flag was shown, it was Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who topped the timesheet by just 0.097s to Red Bull’s Verstappen, setting a time of one minute 11.500secs. The duo still managed 17 laps overall, two fewer than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who was third quickest ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc, with the duo 0.101s and 0.123s behind Hamilton. The Briton’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, was a further tenth of a second adrift in fifth. There was then a gap of more than four-tenths of a second to Fernando Alonso in his Alpine, with the Spanish driver ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon. The top 10 was completed by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, the latter a second back. Lando Norris, who was forced off track and onto the grass in the dying moments by Ocon, was 11th, 1.179s down. Vettel only managed six laps overall and was 19th on the timesheet, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in his AlphaTauri, who failed to set a time following an early spin and failing to return. 2021 F1 DUTCH GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1) POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m11.500s 2 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m11.597s 3 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m11.601s 4 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m11.623s 5 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m11.738s 6 Fernando Alonso CHI Alpine F1 Team 1m12.158s 7 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m12.231s 8 Antonio Giovinazzi GBR Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m12.359s 9 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m12.431s 10 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m12.515s 11 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m12.679s 12 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m12.907s 13 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m13.053s 14 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m13.081s 15 George Russell ISR Williams Racing 1m13.181s 16 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m13.328s 17 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m13.516s 18 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m13.847s 19 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m15.984s 20 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda No Time Set

Miami Grand Prix organisers have announced the name of the track that will be making its F1 debut in 2022. This comes after the Grand Prix received a lot of opposition locally for its placement on the F1 calendar plus a number of factors that brought about its delay. Construction is underway on the 5.41 KM and 19-turn track that will be known as Miami International Autodrome. The circuit, which is expected to have a May date on the 2022 F1 calendar, is based around the Hard Rock Stadium campus that is also home to the Miami Dolphins American football team. Tom Garfinkel, the event’s managing partner, said: “I’m happy to reveal that the official name of our circuit is the Miami International Autodrome. “We’ve worked hard to create a circuit that has great racing and multiple passing opportunities. “In addition, we are working to innovate fan experiences across the Hard Rock Stadium sports and entertainment campus in Miami Gardens, experiences that reflect how Miami has become an international curator of culture across food, art, fashion, music, and sports.” The 2022 race heralds the start of a 10-year contract for the event that becomes the second for the US on the calendar alongside the United States Grand Prix in Austin.