Racetrackmasters

Lewis Hamilton lead Mercedes’ one-two ahead of Valtteri Bottas closely followed by Lando Norris who ended up P3 in the second qualifying session at Monza. This comes as Daniel Ricciardo lost the third position due to track violations. Under cloudless skies and temperatures exceeding 28 degrees, Lewis Hamilton finished with a time of 1m 20.192s beating Leclerc’s time set last year in the same session with a 0.786s gap. Hamilton also lead his teammate Bottas with 0.262s making him top in the practice session. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo lost his third position after running too wide at the exit of the Parabolica meaning Mclaren’s Lando Norris came in third despite missing in on the middle part of the practice session due to a power unit problem, but it was solved after changing to the soft slicks giving the british racer P3 just 0.897s behind Hamilton. Pierre Gasly(AlphaTauri) took P4 being the fastest Honda runner just a tenth of a second quicker than Max Verstappen(Redbull Racing) who came in 5th despite spinning into the wall during first practice at Ascari after driving wide at the exit of Lesmo 1. Carlos Sainz came in 6th with a time of 1m 21.313s being in the second Ferrari as the sister AlphaTauri driven by Daniil Kvyat came in 7th. Lance Stroll(Racing Point) came in 8th as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was able to get to the top ten after finishing 9th, this was good news for Ferrari who had been struggling this season despite Sebastian Vettel finishing out of the top ten, being 12th but this was an improvement compared to Spa although he too experienced a spin at the exit of Lesmo 1. 10th position was taken by Sergio Perez(Racing Point) bringing into question why the likes of Alex and Ricciardo were missing from the top ten. This is because their laps were deleted(same case happened to Vettel too) due to track infringements at the Parabolica. Alexander albon(Redbull) and Daniel Ricciardo ended up ranking 14th and 15th respectively. Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th in his AlfaRomeo C39 as his teammate Kimi Raikkonen who is a polesitter at Monza came in 17th, as Kevin Magnussen(Haas) came before him in 16th. Romain Grosjean came in 18th being the second Haas. The 19th and 20th positions were taken by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and George Russel respectively.

The Turkish Grand Prix will be returning to the Formula 1 calender this year and the event organisers hope to open the race to 100,000 spectators to experience the race. The F1 race will be held in Istanbul Park circuit on November 15th as Liberty Media put the event back to the calendar for the 2020 F1 season. The Turkish GP was last held in 2011 but it was listed to feature the 2020 F1 calendar’s 17 rounds with the event being round 14. The organisers were initially not certain on opening the event to spectators. The chairman Intercity Promoters, Vural Ak on Tuesday confirmed that spectators will be allowed in the Istanbul Park circuit even as covid-19 pandemic still continues to affect globally. “We are prepared for anything, if the disease becomes worse than now, then the race can be run without spectators,” Viral Ak said, being open to the possibility that there might be a spike in covid 19 cases forcing an alternate plan. “At the moment for safety reasons, if we close some sections, about 100,000 spectators will be able to watch the race by following social distancing rules.” Viral added. Normally the Istanbul circuit can hold over 220,000 spectators in the grandstand and open areas meaning holding 100,000 spectators the park circuit will just be half full. The chairman also revealed the ticket prices will be very low as the promoters are not looking to make profits but just interested in running a successful race event which will be backed by the government. “Formula 1 normally has certain standards and ticket prices are at a certain level, however, as Intercity, we do not seek to gain financial advantage from this and the government has encouraged us.” “The ticket prices will be 30 TL(£3) per day. It will be 90 TL(£9) in total for three days. Tickets will be on sale next week and we think the tickets will sell very quickly.” the chairman added. There are also plans to allow a limited number of fans at the Tuscan GP which will be held in Russia mid September and the Portuguese GP which will be held end-October. The rest of the race rounds have not yet permitted spectators.

Mattia Binotto struggles to explain the disappointment and anger after a worst performance at Spa-Francorchamps, however he was unable to explain the reason behind the non-performing Ferrari SF 1000. Ferrari’s downfall at Spa started in Saturday’s qualifying session when Charles Leclerc Finished 13th while his teammate Sebastian Vettel finished 14th. The race did not do justice for them as they finished in the same positions having not earned any points, it was even more surprising that Kimi Raikkonen(Alfa Romeo) was able to beat the ferrari duo being their engine customer. Mattia Binotto however said that the team’s performance needed to be put into consideration believing that the downfall was caused by track characteristics. “I think it is wrong to use the word crisis for the moment we are going through, certainly this is a very bad result within a difficult season that we are experiencing. But we knew it was coming, we saw it in winter testing, and then came the freeze(after car modification) and the impossibility to develop the car.” “On a track that requires aerodynamic efficiency and power, we were severely lacking in both,” said Binotto after Sunday’s race. “We are disappointed and angry, as indeed are our fans and with good reason. It’s a difficult moment in a season that we knew from the start would be a tough one, but it’s at times like this that we need to stand firm and look ahead in order to get over this difficult period. It’s the only way we will get out of this situation.” The Ferrari team boss also took liabity after being questioned on why they had lagged so far behind. “The entire team is responsible, myself as team principal as first,” Binotto said. “Am I the right man or not ? Not myself to answer. How long it will take? “ “I think if you look back in all the winning cycles that have been set, it’s always many years. There are no silver bullets in F1, patience and stability is required.” the Ferrari boss added, but also warned that this is just a small set back but the oldest team in Formula 1 will step back to its glory

The defending champion Lewis Hamilto won his 89th grand prix this sunday at Spa-Francorchamps. This puts him two wins away from Michael Schumacher’s record 91 wins and may also equal the veteran’s seven title wins if he wins this year. The Mercedes’ driver only made one pitstop on lap 11 after the safety car came out after Antonio Giovinazzi(Alfa Romeo) and George Russel(Williams Racing) incident that saw their two cars off the race. The next 33 laps for Hamilton were successful although he had expressed concerns over his hard tyres which were vibrating. After finishing the race he did a ‘wakanda salute’ on the podium paying tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was the main actor in the movie ‘black panther’. The black american actor passed on Friday night after a 4-year battle with colon cancer. The 35-year-old had dedicated his pole position to Chadwick Boseman on Saturday. “Today’s a really important pole for me because I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick passing away” “It’s been such a heavy year, I think, for all of us and it just really, really broke me so it was really not easy to get back in focus coming into today, with that hanging on my heart.” said Hamilton on Saturday after getting the pole position. His dedication to the ‘Black Panther’ actor paid off with his undisputed win at Spa. “As a kid, dreaming of superheroes, and finally seeing a superhero of the same colour for me was really a remarkable moment for the black community, I broke down when I heard the news,” said Hamilton after the race.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly presented an impressive performance at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday evening’s Belgium grand prix. He finished the race position 8 which was a good performance and also a tremendous improvement from the Spanish Grand prix at Catalunya. The frenchman dedicated his success to Anthoine Hubert who passed on a year ago after a crash in the 2019 Formula 2 race at Spa. This was not the only factor giving him ‘the best driver of the day’, his car was the only one on the grid to start on the hard tyre and he also decided to stay out when the safety car came out after a crash that involved Antonio Giovinazzi(Alfa Romeo) and George Russel(Williams Racing). What impressed many was the impressive pass that he pulled off as he tried to pass Racing Point’s Sergio Perez while they were running downhill from La Source to Eau Rouge. The 24 year-old managed to squeeze between the RP20 and the barrier. “Honestly I thought we were in the wall,” Pierre Gasly recalled “I’m not kidding I was inside…I was like I can’t move more than that. And at that point we’re probably going 280 or 300km/h”. “Sergio is a hard racer,” Gasly continued “I knew it but there for sure, My heartbeat went slightly high when he started to squeeze me, but I was committed and I was like, there is no way I’m gonna lift, I’m gonna make this move work, and it was a great one.” Pierre Gasly also pulled off another pass on Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who tried to hold him off. He later commented on Ferrari’s problems saying he had seen their struggle with higher and lower wings and it was painful for him considering their achievements, however he was happy to be ahead of them. The AlphaTauri driver also admitted it wasn’t easy for him in the fist laps due to the hard tyres.”so I tried to keep it clean, stay close to the guys ahead. I was happy to make these two positions on lap one, because we didn’t expect that.”

Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton won the Belgium grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps followed by his teammate Valtteri Bottas having a gap of 8.448 seconds between the two Mercedes’ cars. This made it the 4th victory for the brit to have earned at Spa. Redbull’s Max Verstappen finished third in the race making it his 7th podium in the 2020 Formula 1 season(a podium for every race so far). Max was 15.455 seconds slower than Hamilton. Bottas had tried to keep his teammate Lewis behind him in the onset of the race but was forced to remain behind through the La Source turn as he went to the outside. Thanks to the tow from Hamilton, Bottas was able to maintain his position but lost some speed through Eau Rouge which made him experience a challenge from Max’s Redbull. The Renault Formula 1 team has a reason to smile after Daniel Ricciardo finished 4th in the race only missing Verstappen by a mere 3.422 seconds. Esteban Ocon finished 5th after overtaking Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon in the final stages of the race. Maclaren’s Lando Norris followed in closely finishing seventh just 1.062s behind the No.6 Redbull. However, his conterpart at Mclaren Carlos Sainz did not start his race as his Mcl 35 car experienced a power unit problem which led to a faulty exhaust system. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took the 8th position as Daniil Kvyat, his teammate finished 11th missing the window to earn himself some points which were scooped by the Racing Point duo,Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez who got the 9th and 10th position respectively. The troubled Ferrari SF1000 drivers Sebastian vettel and Charles Leclerc Finished 13th and 14th respectively. There was a huge incident on the track as Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his C39 and crashed on to the barriers on the outside of turn 14, due to the intensity of the crash a tyre from the Alfa Romeo bounced back onto the track as Kimi Raikonnen was able to manoeuvre through but it was too late for Williams’ driver George Russel to avoid the same. The Williams’ FW 43 hit the tyre rupturing the suspension system. The car went on to hit the barriers prompting the immediate deployment of the safety car, a lot of debris had remained on the track but was cleared for the race to continue. None of the drivers got hurt.