Formula 1 - 2017

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Intrigue around new Chinese F1 team revs up

Intrigue about the possibility of an 11th team entering Formula 1 ramped up on Wednesday when a new name was registered in Britain and the FIA confirmed it had been sounded out about a slot on the grid.

There have been rumours for several weeks that new contenders were pondering getting involved in grand prix racing, but no firm plans had been revealed.

However, an update of Britain's Companies House register has revealed the renaming of a business as China F1 Racing Team Limited.

The company, which had previously been called Bronze Fortune Limited, is run by a French lawyer called Michael Orts, who has competed in sports car racing in Europe and America.

Little is known about the plans and Orts was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday about whether this was a serious bid to get on the grid.

However, speaking at the FIA Sport Conference in Geneva on Wednesday, president Jean Todt confirmed that the governing body had been approached by some individuals regarding a future entry.

"There are always rumours, but we have had some interest from some teams," said Todt.

When asked to give more detail on the number, Todt said simply: "Not many."

It is up to the FIA when it chooses to open up the tender process to new teams, and Todt said it would only do so if there were serious candidates.

"When we feel it is time we will be able to make a tender," he said.

"At the moment we have ten teams and the idea is to have up to 12 teams. So we have an opportunity, if we have one or two strong newcomers it could be possible."

He added: "First we need to check ourselves the request. It's going through a kind of audit to see who are the potential buyers.

"If it's a big manufacturer, it's easy, if it's a privateer, you need to be more careful. And then, once you are sure that there is a real interest, and once you're sure that people are able, like it was the case with Haas, for example, then we make tender."

Todt was adamant, however, that it was unrealistic to expect a new team to be put together as soon as 2018.

"No, it would be foolish to think that a new team would be ready in eight months, even less."

 

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Perez/Ocon will be "handful" to manage - Force India

Force India expects its driver pairing will now be a "handful" to manage for the remainder of the campaign, judging by Esteban Ocon's recent impressive form.

Ocon caused some headaches for the team in Canada when his brilliant pace as he closed in on Perez left the pitwall facing a team orders headache about whether or not to swap its drivers around.

And while in the end the team elected not to impose team orders, chiefs have admitted that the situation may prompt a rethink about its rules of engagement for the rest of the year.

Force India's deputy team principal Bob Fernley is predicting an increasingly intense fight between his drivers from now on with Ocon having stepped up his pace.

"We were very clear on our choice of Esteban and we believe he had that potential," Fernley told Motorsport.com.

"You don't have to go that far back to see his F3 days against Max Verstappen. He was more than a match for him, so one would expect him to be at that level.

"He hasn't disappointed. If anything, he has over-performed, so in the second half of the season it is going to be quite a handful."

Fernley believes that Perez still holds a slight edge in pace, but acknowledges that Ocon has closed the gap – and will only become stronger when he starts competing at tracks he has raced in F1 before.

"There is still a little bit [of a gap]," said Fernley. "Even in qualifying here [in Canada] this weekend there was a couple of tenths. I think you will see it tightening even more post Silverstone, when Esteban effectively comes into his second year with those circuits.

"Then we will see another step up, and that is when we will have to be on our toes as a team."

When asked how good he believed Ocon could be, Fernley replied: "I think it is probably too early to make those assumptions.

"What he has done is remarkable and great, but he has to get through a whole season. Even in Canada he showed remarkable maturity in driving to the limit, but not having any incident with his teammate.

"Whichever way you look at it, it was great viewing and that is the maturity we are looking for. We will probably get a better idea at the end of the season when he has done the full season against Checo."

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"No magic bullet" from Renault for Red Bull in 2017

Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says there will be no "magic bullet" upgrade in 2017, and the focus instead is on reliability.

Such an approach is also being pursued by Mercedes, and it reflects the fact that in the fourth season of the current formula the manufacturers are finding it harder to make significant gains.

Earlier in the season, Red Bull's management suggested Montreal as the venue for a performance upgrade, and the team's frustration about its absence was very clear.

"No, there won't be," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com when asked if a major step was coming soon.

"I'm sorry, including for myself and the yellow team, which is the main area of our focus, but there is no such magic bullet any more.

"I love Red Bull, but they're still not in charge of the development plan of the engine, nor of the communication on the engine side!

"The way that our engine development is working is that we are now in a constant improvement world of development.

"The thing is last year we were in a position that we were suffering a deficit that was such that by bringing something, there was a clear difference to all teams.

"It's not going to happen this year, it's not going to happen even next year, because now the gap has reduced in such a way that it's all going to be about small, small steps that eventually will bridge the gap to the leaders.

"And that is happening almost on a race-to-race basis. There are steps that you can do on every single race weekend, when that does not involve new hardware, and then there is new hardware, which will be based on a new power unit, obviously."

  

Abiteboul is confident that the next wave of engines will allow all Renault users to in effect run harder for longer.

"We have better reliability. Maybe we will continue to have some difficulties because we're still using the first engine of the season, but with the engines that could be introduced or will be introduced, they will have a much better reliability rate, which means that we can improve in terms of mileage that we can cover at maximum performance.

"Mercedes has talked about that, and it's the same thing on our side. It gives us also the possibility to explore different utilisation modes of the engine, which will be starting to do in the next few races. And there will be more changes of the hardware also to improve the reliability."

However,m he did concede that a performance upgrade could yet be introduced, assuming it is proven on the dyno.

"There might be also later in the season introduction of new hardware to bring more performance, but the first thing is reliability.

"We are thinking in particular of power unit number four, because power unit number three already exists. If we had a blow-up in Montreal, number three already existed."

He suggested that new technology could help to give the 2018 engine a boost.

"There will be continuous small steps, and there is also a healthy step that we are trying to build-up for next year, and as we speak, we are already well advanced for next year's engine, which is representing a certain innovation in one particular area – or several areas.

"But even there, it's a composition of small steps, everywhere on the engine package."

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Kvyat unsure he wants Sainz collaboration anymore

Daniil Kvyat says he is unsure if he wants to collaborate with Toro Rosso Formula 1 teammate Carlos Sainz on track anymore after they disagreed on slipstreaming tactics in Canada.

Sainz suggested via team radio that Kvyat was "not respecting" arrangements for when they would 'tow' each other on fast laps during qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

But Kvyat said Toro Rosso's policy is for its drivers to take it in turns at alternating races to help the other out, with Kvyat the beneficiary in Canada as per the rotation.

When asked by Motorsport.com for his reaction to Sainz's comments, Kvyat retorted: "He was behaving incorrectly after qualifying. What I see in qualifying data is zero gain for me in the tow.

"You can take his best lap of qualifying and my best lap in qualifying, it's zero [difference], it's exactly the same top speed, it's exactly the same straightline speed.

"He's just seeing a ghost behind the corners. We are rotating, that's how our strategy works: one race I'm behind, the next race he's behind.

"In Baku he would have been getting a tow but now I'm not sure I really want to collaborate in qualifying anymore. From my side everything is clear as the sky, absolutely clear.

"If he has some questions to me, he's more than free to come and talk to me, if he's brave enough. If he's not brave enough, he'll come and talk to you guys and send hidden messages to the media all the time."

Sainz said the team discussed his concerns at a meeting on Saturday night after qualifying and that the matter was now "forgotten about".

"I prefer not to talk [about it]," said Sainz. "That will stay inside the team. I expressed my opinion and my thoughts about the situation, which at the point I thought it was clearly unfair towards me, especially in this kind of track.

"I expressed them, discussed them and now we have forgotten about it and found a solution for that. We are happy [going forward]."

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Why F1 needs to change its approach to gaming

Formula 1 should overcome the political resistance from the teams about licencing and embrace a new era of gaming if it wants to attract new followers the way other sports are doing.

Bernie Ecclestone once infamously said that he didn't see the need for F1 to win over the 'young generation' because they hadn't got the money to buy Rolex watches. But the reality is that every sport needs to attract new followers if it is to prosper long term.

Getting youngsters hooked on a sport ensures you have your audience of the future. But in an era where F1 has been pushing itself behind TV paywalls, and is only now playing catch up on social media, there had been concerns that grand prix racing wasn't doing what it needed to bring those new fans in.

It's something new owners Liberty Media have been keen to address (which is why there has been a social media explosion), but there is perhaps one area where F1 really needs to take things to the next level: gaming.

For a host of sports have found out that rather than kids getting their first experience by being taken to events by their parents, or stumbling across footage on YouTube, the first touch-point for many now is playing games.

The growing popularity of soccer in the United States, for example, has been helped by a growth in the FIFA football franchise on consoles and PCs. Oft-quoted surveys suggest that over a third of people who bought FIFA became active soccer fans after playing the game – with half actually becoming more interested in the game.

It has been the same story for American Football – where the new generation of the sport's followers have been helped by the Electronic Arts franchise Madden NFL.

As EA's ex-chief competition officer Peter Moore once famously told ESPN: "The National Football League will tell you that there's been no greater tool to consistently make young football fans than Madden."

F1 does not find itself outside of this phenomenon either. The results of Motorsport.com's Global F1 Fan Survey 2017 showed that more than 50 percent of respondents regularly played computer games – and that figures grows to 80 percent among 16-24 year-olds.

A vast majority of these play their games on consoles and perhaps most encouragingly for F1, the officially licenced F1 game has come out as the most popular – ahead of Gran Turismo and Need for Speed.

But, while F1 has has had its own long history of an official F1 game, for too long the impression has been that this was more about a money-making exercise for the sport rather than an effort to do it all can to use it as a tool to actively embrace the new generation.

F1 2016 is acknowledged to be the best grand prix game there has been since Codemasters took over the licence , F1 2017 promises to take things even further, and has added the chance to try out famous cars from the past.

But while the official licence brings a lot of positives in using teams, tracks and drivers, on the flipside is that there are certain restrictions that limit the game's potential - like unrealistic damage models and, perhaps the biggest angst among fans, the inability of drivers to switch teams.

Such a fantasy element is one of the reasons the FIFA and Madden franchises do consistently so well, because imagination, and fan loyalty, knows no limits.

Where F1 has really been missing out though is in tapping into the booming eSports business, which is predicted to be a $2 billion industry by 2020 and one that attracts around 500 million viewers per year.

F1 has no official gaming league, and many competitions between fans are left to individuals on forums to sort out.

Even in other racing games – like rFactor and iRacing – the recent talk has been of F1 trying to clamp down on the unofficial mods that prove so popular because they do not have an official licence.

iRacing's own top-tier single seater category does have a licence to run a 2015 McLaren MP4-30, but it is very much an eSports series without official sanction - called simply the 'iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series'.

Other sports have woken up much earlier to the eSports boom. NFL gamers compete for the ultimate accolade in the Madden Bowl – which has a prize pool of $250,000. Most NBA teams are now committed to setting up a franchise around eSports and competitive gaming.

And if you think that competitive gaming and eSports is small fry to the wider world, think again. The ESL One eSports event in Cologne last year attracted 14,000 people every day – producing YouTube videos with views that many real sports would die for.

In fact, it delivered 31 million hours of footage overall – which had 40 million impressions. This popularity is not something that big brands can ignore.

All of motor racing, and especially F1, has a great opportunity in this area. Certainly worldwide racing game sales are high enough to justify a concerted effort on this front.

The Gran Turismo franchise, which is now 20 years old, has sold 77 million copies in its lifetime; Forza Motorsport is now a billion dollar franchise, while Project Cars has sold two million copies. But ahead of the pack by a long-way is the mobile game, Real Racing 3 - which has had a staggering 300 million downloads.

It is clear there are big opportunities to tap into this market. Formula E trialled its own E-gaming event at Las Vegas earlier this year, and McLaren is being bold in its World's Fastest Gamer competition – where the prize will be a one-year contract to be an official simulator driver.

For McLaren executive director Zak Brown, the World's Fastest Gamer is a toe-in-the-water exercise in to the eSports arena and has been pushed along thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Logitech.

He is well aware though about how important gaming has become though, and he offers an interesting perspective of how gaming could have a formal place on the motor racing ladder.

"We are one of the few sports where you are not going to do it at school, it is expensive – and a lot of people who want to get the opportunity cannot do it," he explained.

"So like in football, this is about building the grass roots of motorsport. If grassroots of motorsport has previously been karting, it is still a narrow audience because it is still expensive.

"I see can gaming becoming the ultimate grass roots of motorsport, because it is wide and deep and everyone can afford it. That will then build a bigger foundation for motorsports."

Building that foundation should be viewed as a priority for F1's new owners, for it can deliver a huge captive audience that can be turned into proper racing fans.

Darren Cox, the original mastermind behind Gran Turismo's GT Academy and whose consultancy IDEAS + CARS is helping with McLaren's World's Fastest Gamer contest, said that the scale of numbers of people playing racing games is overlooked too easily.

"I was at Le Mans once, with the head of Real Racing 3's studio and on Sunday at 9am, he had his data [on the game] out on his phone," Cox explained.

"There were three million people playing his game at that moment – and it was a Le Mans download. Suddenly more people are gaming than watching the real race – and no one talks about it."

Covert a percentage of those into fans who will tune in to watch your category or buy your merchandise, and that's a good boost for any business.

Cox added: "One of the racing forums did a survey recently and one response stood out to me – it was, how did you come to be involved in motorsport? 78 percent said that they were fans of motorsport because of gaming, not the other way around."

In years to come then, perhaps F1 will push on to ensure that its official game is the best of the best out there, even if it means overcoming of the political resistance from the teams about aspects of the licence.

Perhaps too we will have an official F1 gaming league that attracts the world's fastest gamers, played out in front of huge audiences and attracting the kind of audiences that rivals the real grands prix themselves?

And maybe teams like McLaren could actually go out and buy their own teams to enter these categories, building up an entirely new fanbase for the future.

Brown adds on that point: "I wouldn't rule that out. I have probably pushed the envelope in terms of how much my bosses will accept additional racing, but in the future absolutely.

"I don't see how any F1 team can now ignore the power of eSports, the audience, or the people it produces."

 

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Mercedes won’t interfere in potential McLaren Honda divorce

Mercedes says it won't "jump in bed" with McLaren to supply Formula 1 engines until the Woking-based team has definitely split with current partner Honda.

McLaren's criticism of Honda ramped up in Canada with Fernando Alonso's engine failure three laps from the chequered flag – that robbed the team of its first point in 2017 – the latest in a string of breakdowns.

McLaren boss Zak Brown has admitted McLaren has alternative plans in mind for 2018 if Honda's struggles continue, with rumours suggesting it could switch back to Mercedes power, which it last ran in 2014.

Mercedes currently supplies engines to Force India and Williams alongside its works outfit, with its F1 boss Toto Wolff saying during this week's FIA Sport Conference in Geneva that Mercedes has the capacity to supply a fourth team next year.

When asked if Mercedes was open to supplying McLaren in 2018, Wolff said: "This is not our priority at the moment.

"First we would like to see Honda and McLaren sorting out their relationship. There's quite some momentum in the market at the moment, which we watch from the sidelines.

  

"This is a position we have put ourselves in because the most important thing is that Honda performs, stays in the sport and has a good deal with its customer teams or works teams.

"We wouldn't want to interfere at that stage, that is our priority."

When asked if McLaren was talking to Mercedes about a supply, Wolff replied: "If you are being considered as the new bride you want the couple to divorce first before you jump into the bed."

Wolff said F1 was in a "very fortunate" situation with four "premium" engine manufacturers currently involved and that it was important Honda, who will also supply Sauber next year, stayed in F1.

"The main priority is for Honda to stay in the sport and for Honda to have a functioning relationship with its customers," he said.

"That's why at the moment we do not wish to dive into this topic."

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Renault sport Formula 1 team: Robert Kubica test in Valencia

“It has been a long time away for me. Let’s start the engine and try to discover again the emotions an F1 car can give.” 

Robert Kubica has returned to a Formula 1 cockpit for the first time in over six years to conduct a private test with Renault Sport Formula One Team at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo on 6th June 2017.

Robert completed 115 laps using the team’s 2012 specification, Renault V8 powered E20. 

This was Robert’s first time in a Formula 1 car since pre-season testing for the 2011 season. Here it is; in his own words.

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HAMILTON: I’M A HUGE FAN OF FERRARI

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton hinted in a recent interview that he could retire at the end of this season, and now on the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he threw fuel on the fire by saying that he is a big fan of Ferrari.

Asked if he would consider joining the legendary Italian team, Hamilton replied, “That’s not something I’m thinking, at the moment all I think about is beating the Ferrari.”

“But I’ve made it no secret I’m a huge fan of the team, a big fan of Ferrari and what they’ve achieved in the history of motorsport and the normal world in terms of the cars that they make.”

“Who knows what the future holds, at the moment I can’t imagine myself being anywhere else but here. I’m really enjoying the fight we have with Ferrari and admiring them for the strong competition.”

In the interview with Auto magazine Hamilton said that he could “decide to stop at the end of this year” and, in Baku, was asked by reporters about the statement.

To which he responded, “The dream for a lot of sportsmen and women is to go out on top. I guess you could then say a lot of people stopped before their time. I haven’t decided whether I want to stop before my time, at the moment I don’t plan to.”

“There are many parts of what the season stops you doing. There are so many great things that come along with it, that I’m really enjoying at the moment, but for sure there are things I look at and think: Jeez, if I had the whole year there is so much I could achieve and so many things I could tick off the bucket list.”

“But then I’ll look back and think I’ve not been racing a Formula 1 car, so there is a time and a place for lots of different things. Prioritising is important and choosing the right times. I guess only God knows when the time is right for certain things.

“But right now I’m very, very fortunate being in this team. I’ve got an amazing team around me and a great boss who enables me to have part time for other interests which keep me going,” added the triple F1 World Champion who has driven only Mercedes powered cars during his Formula 1 career.

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VETTEL: WE DESERVE MORE CREDIT THAN MERCEDES

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel believes that his team deserve more credit than Mercedes this season, as he points to how the Italian squad have closed the gap on the once dominant Silver Arrows.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Vettel said, “So far this season is really, really good for us. Let’s not forget that for the last three years Mercedes blew everyone else away.

“They improved their chassis quite a lot from 2014 to 2016 so as a team they have obviously grown a lot but so far this year we have been more or less the same on pace and l think that is more credit to us than them.

“They’ve had that sort of development pace for the last couple of years, so it is more credit to us that we can go at their pace so far,” he added.

Mercedes were on the back-foot after a below par Monaco Grand Prix, but bounced back admirably to score one-two in Canada, snatching the balance of power away from the Reds.

Vettel acknowledges, “It is going to be crucial to keep up the development race. This is a very important year for us. We are working well and things are coming together.”

“We are starting to see some of the results of what we tried to put into place a while ago. Hopefully this is just the beginning and there is a lot more to come. I feel very comfortable.”

Looking back on last year’s race at Baku, Vettel believes he could have won the race but fluffed it, “Last year was 90 per cent me and 10 per cent the car. We changed something on the car from Friday to Saturday which wasn’t good but it wouldn’t have stopped me winning the race.”

“I could have easily won the race but l just didn’t deliver. I’m here to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” added Vettel who tops the drivers standings after seven rounds, and will be hunting a fourth victory of the season on Sunday.

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GROSJEAN: FERRARI? LIFE IS FULL OF SURPRISES

The silly season is slowly firing up and Haas driver Romain Grosjean makes no secret that he is dreaming of a call from Ferrari to take his career to the next level.

Asked during the FIA press conference if he felt he was on the Maranello ‘shopping list’, he replied, “Good question, I don’t know. Life is full of surprises.”

“If you ask Valtteri what he was doing last December, I’m sure he was thinking: I’m going to go again with Williams and the next thing you know he’s in a world championship car. It’s a phone call and the best thing you can do is do the best thing on track.”

“Valtteri is waiting on Mercedes, and there is the Kimi situation, what is he going to do? Everyone has thought he is going to be out of Formula 1 since 2010 and here we are in 2017, he’s 37 and still here doing a decent job.”

A couple of years ago Grosjean made a point of learning Italian, and took a step towards the Scuderia by turning down Renault and opting for Ferrari powered Haas, but what the future holds is anyone’s guess.

“If there is an opportunity, a seat with them then I believe I am in a good position but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“I’m frustrated sometimes because I love winning and that’s what matters to me in Formula 1,” Grosjean explained.

“You come from other categories where you’ve won everything and then you come to F1 and you don’t get the chance to win a race because it’s like you are starting a 100 meters race 10 seconds behind the others.”

“But it’s great to see how we can start from zero as a new team and we can build and surprise a lot of people. Everyone was saying: Haas are coming to F1, they’ve got four years full-time in the wind tunnel, they’re going to be great – then last year we struggled a little bit.

“That’s normal for F1. The whole process was to prepare for 2017 and we’re already looking at 2018 and improving every year.”

“The year started well. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have the front six places already locked so the race kind of starts from P7 onwards. Williams and Force India have been very fast recently so you have maybe one spot in the top 10 to try and score points so it’s quite tricky,” added Grosjean who lies 12th in the points standings with 10 to his credit.

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TATA: LET’S GET DIGITAL DONE IN FORMULA 1

The day when Formula 1 fans will be able to race virtually with real drivers in live grands prix may not be so far off as the sport looks to develop the digital dimension which has been largely neglected prior to Liberty Media’s takeover of the sport.

Mehul Kapadia, one of those who helps make things happen as head of Formula One business at official “connectivity partner” Tata Communications, is eager to step on the accelerator.

“While Formula One gets criticized for being late on the digital journey, a lot has been happening,” he told Reuters in an interview. The conversations which are now happening are far more: Let’s get it done.”

It was not always that way.

Liberty Media, the U.S. firm that completed a takeover of the sport in January, immediately identified digital as an area ripe for development as it seeks to tap lucrative new revenue streams and give fans more of an experience.

Its chief executive Greg Maffei said last September that less than one percent of revenues were from digital and that there was a huge amount of video feed and data about the races that were being captured but not processed incrementally for the dedicated fan.

Formula One’s chief technical officer John Morrison said at the same time, at the awarding of Tata’s F1 connectivity prize in Austin, Texas, that the sport was about two years away from fans being able to race virtually in a real race.

The main problem, he explained then, was getting the accuracy of GPS positioning down to about 10mm from the current 200mm.

Kapadia could see that obstacle being overcome, “If you look at the pace of development happening in that field, two years doesn’t seem to be incorrect. Is the appetite there to commercialise it? That is a different question.”

Kapadia said fans could be divided into four distinct groupings that needed to be catered for.

There are those attending the race, those watching on television at home, people ‘consuming’ the sport on the move, and the largest group of all – a restless ‘always on generation’ seeking bite-sized entertainment.

“They don’t have 90 minutes for anything apart from the exam papers they are forced to sit. A lot are not even watching movies now,” he said.

That demographic is one that Formula One has a particular interest in targeting and Kapadia said there was plenty that could be done immediately with existing technology to win them over.

The important thing was for fans to see progress after being promised change, even if only providing quick and reliable WiFi trackside that would allow the use of more interactive smartphone apps and augmented reality.

A start was made in Canada this month when free WiFi was available to fans throughout the race weekend, while footage from inside the previously off-limits pre-race drivers’ briefing was also released.

The use of 360 cameras and VR technology could be harnessed to provide an immersive experience from various parts of the track and pitlane.

“I would like a bunch of things to happen by next year so that people start seeing the path,” said Kapadia. “Everything won’t happen but some things happening will give people the confidence of the trajectory.

“Personally I would like to see the power of connectivity unleashed at the race. Fan experiences at the racetrack completely evolving to the next level because they can now connect in, literally, to what’s happening.

“The other thing is, I believe a lot of bite-sized content throughout the year, not just on the race day … We have amazing stuff that can happen, amazing footage, driver experiences which are out there.

“I believe this entire digital transformation thing is about unlocking the value for those four different groups, converting it from a once-in-a-while experience to something that you can participate in throughout the year at any point of time.”

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Stoffel Vandoorne set for Azerbaijan GP grid penalty

McLaren-Honda driver Stoffel Vandoorne is set to join team-mate Fernando Alonso in sustaining an engine-related grid penalty for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Both MCL32s have already exceeded their engine allocation for the 2017 campaign, meaning that the introduction of new components will lead to five- or 10-place grid penalties.

Honda has not yet confirmed the elements which will be changed in Vandoorne’s car, but the Belgian revealed that he will take a grid drop, with Alonso also poised to be demoted due to taking on new parts.

“I don’t think we have high hopes, but we’ll try our best from our side,” said Vandoorne.

“We have some penalties already to start the weekend, which isn’t ideal, but it’s the situation we’re in, so we’ll try our best, focus maybe a bit more on race runs, and hopefully we can play a bit during the race.

“We’re probably competing to start at the back of the grid.”

On whether a performance boost is expected from Honda this weekend, Vandoorne replied: “It’s difficult to say, to be honest. I think it’s probably more a question for Honda.

“I don’t think there’s many new introductions this weekend, so I don’t think it will be too different.”

Vandoorne, who has never raced on the Baku City Circuit, quipped that he has at least managed to rack up experience on the team’s “reliable” simulator.

“I definitely spent some time in the simulator, like I do before every Grand Prix,” he said of his preparations.

“I’ve done a lot of laps in there. At least our simulator is reliable, so I managed to do a fair amount of laps there!”

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FIA tweaks blue flag rules for Azerbaijan Grand Prix

The FIA has tweaked the rules around lapped cars following several complaints that passing a backmarker has become increasingly difficult with the new generation of cars, as it has become harder to close up to another car under the new aerodynamic regulations.

Cars that are about to be lapped are shown a blue flag when leading cars get to within a second on track, which is a signal that the slower car must move over as a "priority" – if they fail to do so after being shown three consecutive blue flags, then they could face a penalty.

The 'blue flag' rule will remain largely unchanged, with a car that is about to be lapped by a leading car still being shown a pre-warning when a chasing car is three seconds behind. That consists of a warning to the team to tell their driver that a lead car is approaching.

This is done automatically by Formula 1's timing system to "ensure consistent application of the rules".

But this weekend, blue flags will now be shown trackside, along with a cockpit warning light and a timing screen message, when a lead car is within 1.2 seconds, two-tenths earlier than previously, meaning backmarkers will be required to move over sooner "at the first available opportunity".

The FIA hasn't confirmed if this change will remain for the remainder of the season, of if it is just for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

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Massa: Sainz move as bad as Grosjean's race-ban crash

Felipe Massa believes Carlos Sainz deserved a harsher penalty for triggering their crash in Canada, insisting the Spaniard's move was no different to the manoeuvre that earned Romain Grosjean a race ban in 2012.

Massa was taken out by Sainz on entry into Turn 3 on the opening lap of the Montreal race, the Toro Rosso driver having lost control after contact with Haas driver Grosjean in the preceding corner.

The incident earned Sainz a three-place grid penalty, despite his insistence that the Frenchman had been in the blind spot of his rear-view mirror.

But Massa reckons Sainz was let off easy, as the Williams driver evoked Grosjean's accident in the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix – in which the Frenchman cut across Lewis Hamilton and triggered a pile-up, taking Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez out of the race.

Grosjean was handed a race ban in the aftermath, and Massa reckons the FIA stewards should have been "strong as well" in deciding Sainz's punishment.

"When I saw [a replay of the crash], I saw that he [Sainz] started it, which is a shame. Because I don't think it was so different, what he did, compared to what Grosjean did, and he [Sainz] only lost three places at the start.

"This is something that I remember before, when Grosjean was doing in a bit dangerous manoeuvres so they put him one race at home. But now I think maybe they need to be strong as well.

"Fortunately nothing happened [in Canada] but it could have been like a big accident. And I think if we had a big accident, the result would have been different, which is not correct.

"We saw so many people losing three places [on the grid] by doing a very little thing - and then you are doing a lot more dangerous thing and you have three places. It's inconsistent."

In regards to Sainz's argument that the crash was down to a larger problem with rear-view mirrors in 2017, Massa said: "Mirrors is a problem and, if you don't see, then you need to change.

"I think the FIA needs to do an investigation and if somebody is not seeing the right way, they cannot race with these mirrors, they need to change the mirrors. The mirrors is something [important] for the safety as well."

 

Steiner: Sainz "hurting his reputation"

Gunther Steiner, Romain Grosjean's team boss at Haas, criticised Sainz's "dull" mirrors argument in the aftermath of the Canada GP weekend - in which the Spaniard had picked up a reprimand for a near-miss with Grosjean's teammate Kevin Magnussen on Friday before twice moving over on the Frenchman at the start of the race, which resulted in the crash.

Two weeks on, Steiner has now added that Sainz's repeated rules infringements were "hurting his reputation".

"I think he should know better, he is a better driver than that to do this in my opinion," Steiner said that.

"I was quite disappointed about his moves in Canada, what he did [on Friday], he couldn't see Magnussen coming, he got a reprimand and no points on license. It was the same with us with [Esteban] Gutierrez last year and we got five places of grid penalty for a very similar incident.

"[Sainz] got away well there and for me there is a point in saying he does the same thing in the race, he knows he doesn't see in his mirrors, that is what he says twice.

"To run into [Grosjean] once and then go back and run into him a second time was, like, come on.

"I don't think he needs to have this behaviour because he is better than that as a driver, he is a good driver. This is hurting his reputation because people think about this.

"It is not one incident, if a guy has one incident it is like 'hey we all make mistakes' which you hold your hand up but it seems like [there are] getting more and more, and here this year when he ran into [Lance] Stroll [in Bahrain]

"If you do it once, it is fine, but if you keep on doing it, it is like - 'is he actually not as good as I think he is', you know."

MIKA: Massa clearly loves to complain, always putting in his two cents - Turning into a real whiner really over everything.

Massa and many other drivers who have been reckless in the past do exactly just that, they forget that they too have made massive mistakes.

Has Felipe forgotten about his own reckless driving while at Sauber at the 2002 Italian Grand Prix? Massa took out Pedro De La Rosa, handed a 10 place grid penalty for the USGP which cost the Sauber team their points. As a result, Sauber dumped him from their team for 2003 after he made a bunch of similar mistakes throughout '02.

[MIKA27]

Haas to use 'spotters' in Baku qualifying

The Haas Formula 1 team is to use IndyCar-style 'spotters' at this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a bid to avoid the problems it has suffered with traffic in qualifying.

Kevin Magnussen was hampered by traffic in Q2 in Monaco and failed to get out of Q1 in Canada after failing to get a clear lap.

Following the Canadian Grand Prix, team boss Gunther Steiner said he would consider assigning team members to spot and following discussions, he has decided to go ahead with the strategy.

"We've got some changes in place," Magnussen told reporters in Canada. "We've both got a person, looking at just traffic and nothing else so it can just be like a spotter on the GPS so hopefully that will help.

"It's one of the things with us, we're growing every race and improving and it's good to see that we're immediately making steps.

"It's not clear after the first race where we had traffic in Monaco that we need to make a change - it could be just an annoying unlucky situation.

"But then it happened straight after again and then we take action and that's really good to see. I like that."

Haas has chosen to re-assign current members of staff, rather than recruiting new people, to focus on traffic.

"On Friday, we will sit down together [and discuss it]," said Steiner. "We have our candidates anyway - it's just telling them what they need to do."

Steiner admitted Haas might not need spotters at every race, but it was important to have a solution in place should they be required going forward.

"It does need somebody to watch on the GPS or data who is out there and try to see what they're actually doing, the other guys," he said.

"I think Canada was particularly difficult because of the short circuit so the same amount of cars, less space, so obviously you run into each other and then how people they're managing tyres different to get to the fast lap.

"If you know that at least you can tell the driver how he should react to get to his. It will still be difficult but the race engineer himself he has got too much to do and if it's for both the cars it's pretty easy.

"But what happened in Canada – short track, difficult tyre warm-up process – we need to do something. If we need to do it everywhere so even if we don't need them, we have them and next time when you need them they will be trained for it."

[MIKA27]

Timberlake concert prompts US GP schedule change

Formula 1 has made an unprecedented change to the qualifying timetable for the United States Grand Prix due to a Justin Timberlake concert.

Teams have been left frustrated after the Saturday schedule for the Austin event was changed to encourage more people to stay at the venue for the evening's concert.

The FP3 session will run as normal, from 11:00 to 12:00. However, the usual two-hour gap before qualifying has been extended to four hours, with the session now running from 16:00 to 17:00.

The FIA was asked to change the schedule by new bosses in an attempt to make more people stay for that night's concert – although equally it could encourage music fans who were only planning to attend the show to come early and see the F1 cars in action for the first time.

The change was discussed in Thursday's team managers' meeting in Baku.

Teams are frustrated because the change will disrupt a routine that has hitherto been set in stone.

It extends the working day of crew members, ensuring that they will finish two hours later than normal, but without the benefit of a late start that comes with night race schedules and so on.

Saturday is the one evening when mechanics do get some time off, as the cars go into parc ferme.

There's also a concern that better resourced teams will take advantage of the longer gap by planning changes of parts that they wouldn't normally be able to do in the two-hour gap.

However, the bigger picture is that teams are concerned that the change sets a precedent, and that there may be further requests from F1 in the future for similar reasons, and which might have a bigger impact on their workloads.

The change also impacts TV schedules, with qualifying now starting at 21:00 GMT.

[MIKA27]

SAUBER: What a mess!

Last night, at strange hours that have little logic in the media world, Sauber issued two press statements:

The first denying reports that its two drivers were being treated differently;

The second, announcing the departure of Monisha Kaltenborn, citing “diverging views of the future of the company”. This was, as we say in English, rather arse-about-face.

The statements were issued in the name of Pascal Picci, the team chairman. This is strange. Picci, as previously mentioned in an earlier post, can count less than 10 Grands Prix attended in his life which does lead one to question whether it is wise to have divergent views from a team principal who has been around the sport for 20-years and is one of the sharper brains to be found in the F1 paddock. It was this intellectual ability that led to Peter Sauber appointing Monisha Kaltenborn as the sport’s first female team principal, and giving her a third of the shares in the team.

Peter Sauber could never be accused of playing to the gallery by appointing a woman to the job, in order to be politically correct, he chose Monisha because she was the best person for the job. Thus the divergence of views with the chairman does not sound like a very clever reason to split the team from its motive force. Picci may be very skilled at managing other assets, but Monisha is an asset and, if she is walking away from the team that she obviously loves, she has obviously not been managed very well.

As to what happens in the future, who can say?

The Switzerland problem remains, although some ambitious folk would move anywhere to become a team principal. The obvious names have already been mentioned but I forgot to include Graeme Lowdon of Manor, a man who knows how to do the job and is available and wants to run an F1 team again.  There have also been reports about Colin Kolles, who has been out of the F1 game for a few years but might also consider the position if it was offered to him. Others might be wary of a chairman who ditches the pilot while the team is still in choppy waters. 

We will have to see how all of this develops but the big fear is that the departure of Kaltenborn, will lead to the team delaminating. There are the hard core Sauber folk, the locals who have worked there for years, but the teams needs more than that to survive and it will take a good leader – and good management of that leader – to get where it ought to be.

When all is said and done, there is no law to stop people wasting their money by thinking they know best.

It’s not the first time we have seen that happen – and it probably won’t be the last.

Kaltenborn’s departure does add to the increasing feeling that being a team principal is increasingly like being a football manager. That’s not very healthy for the sport because success takes time, money and good understanding of the sport and how to run a team.

[MIKA27]

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX FACTS & STATS

This will be the second grand prix to be run on the streets of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, as Round 8 of the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship.

The track layout remains the same as last year, with its long pit straight along the edge of the Caspian Sea, but the event has been re-named for 2017.

Last year it ran under the banner of the European Grand Prix – this year it is run as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the first time.

Track

• Length 6.003km (the second longest of the year)
• 2016 pole position Nico Rosberg, 1:42.758s
• 2016 fastest lap Nico Rosberg, 1:46.485s (lap 48)
• Lap record 1:46.485s (Nico Rosberg, 2016)
• Tyre choice Red Supersoft, yellow Soft, white Medium – the third time this combination has been used in 2017
• Distance to Turn One 202m (longest of the season: Barcelona 730m)
• Longest straight 2.1km miles, on the approach to Turn One (longest of the season)
• Top speed 370km/h, on the approach to Turn One (fastest of the season)
• Full throttle 56 per cent (highest of the season: Monza, 75 per cent)
• Brakewear Medium. There are six significant braking events around the lap, the hardest into Turn One
• Fuel consumption 2kg per lap, which is high
• ERS demands High, due to lots of full-deployment
• Gear changes 62 per lap/3,162 per race

Victories

• Champions Mercedes have won 55 of 66 races since the introduction of the 1.6 litre V6 turbo hybrid power units in 2014, and four of seven this season.
• Canada on June 11 saw Mercedes take their first one-two of the season.
• Triple world champion Hamilton has 56 career victories, putting him second in the all-time list behind Michael Schumacher (91). Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has 45, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso is on 32 and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen 20.
• Ferrari have won 227 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114, Mercedes 68 and Red Bull 52. Former champions McLaren and Williams have not won since 2012.
• Pole Position
• Mercedes have been on pole in 61 of the last 66 races.
• Hamilton has had 65 career poles, equalling the late Ayrton Senna’s total in Canada. Schumacher holds the record of 68, which means Hamilton can pull level with the German at his home British Grand Prix if he takes pole in Baku and Austria.
• Four drivers have started on pole this season — Hamilton (four times), Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen.

Podium

• Hamilton has 109 podiums to date and is second on the all-time list behind Schumacher (155). Vettel has 92, Raikkonen 86.
• Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has finished third in his last three races.
• Canada saw Vettel finish off the podium for the first time this season.
• Points
• Vettel leads the championship standings with 141 points.
• Hamilton is 12 points behind Vettel.
• McLaren are the only team yet to score in 2017. The only other drivers yet to score are Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
• Vettel and Hamilton both have 12 scoring finishes in a row, with three wins each.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

• This will be the first Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Formula One history. Last year’s inaugural race in Baku carried the official designation of European Grand Prix.
• No driver on the current grid has won before in Baku, or been on pole there. Rosberg, last year’s winner from pole, retired at the end of last season.
• Azerbaijan is the only track on the current calendar where Hamilton has yet to win.
• The track is the second longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps, and also one of the hottest and fastest thanks to the 2.1km straight, which is the longest of the season.
• Williams, with Bottas, hit a top speed of 373 kph last year on the approach to Turn One. It is also the first anti-clockwise layout of the year.

 

[MIKA27]

FIA ramps up policing of F1 teams over illegal oil burning

The FIA has stepped up its clampdown on Formula 1 teams potentially trying to get a power boost by using oil as fuel ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

A fresh directive has been issued to teams after a season-long focus on oil burn initially prompted by Red Bull suspecting rivals had found a way around the regulations.

It is understood the latest move has come unprompted from the FIA because it wants to ensure all teams are operating within the regulations.

When the issue first came to light the FIA upped its monitoring of oil usage and its chemical composition to ensure that no wrongdoing was taking place.

However, with there being grounds to suspect that there could still be ways to get around the rules, the FIA has now stated explicitly that the use of chemicals in oil that could help improve combustion is not allowed.

In a note sent to teams from Marcin Budkowski, head of the F1 technical department, he is emphatic about what is and is not allowed.

Budkowski wrote: "We wish to remind you that, as previously stated in various meetings and re-emphasised in TD/004-17, we consider the use of oil as fuel to be prohibited by the Technical Regulations.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the only fuel that may be used for combustion is petrol, and the only permitted characteristics of that petrol are clearly set out in Article 19 of the technical regulations.

"Even though the technical regulations do not directly specify the permitted characteristics of engine oil used in F1, we would consider any attempt to use additional components or substances in oil for the purpose of enhancing combustion as a breach of the technical regulations."

Earlier this year, the F1 Commission approved a three-point plan for 2018 in a bid to stop teams from exploiting the area of oil burn.

Rule changes planned for next year include a new regulation that teams must supply the measurement of the oil level of its main tank to the FIA at all times of the event, that active control valves between the power unit and engine air intake be banned and that teams be limited to a single specification of oil per engine at a grand prix.

[MIKA27]

JAMES HUNT POSTER SERIES

This series of four James Hunt posters were created by the team at Automobilist to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the British driver’s World Championship victory, piloting the McLaren M23.

The 1976 season was exceedingly volatile and the battles between Niki Lauda and James Hunt became legendary, eventually inspiring the 2013 blockbuster film “Rush” starring Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, and Olivia Wilde.

The series of posters are limited to 1000 of each design, and they’re officially licensed by both McLaren Racing Limited and James Hunt Racing.

[skalls]

So what a race.

First off I detest this circuit (it's marginally worse than Monaco which is the second worst circuit).  I want it to go away.  But man what a race full of good racing, bad racing, smarts and rampant stupidity.

1. Stroll raced a hell of a race.  Youngest guy in the field but drove with the most maturity it seemed.
2. Valteri had an awful start but totally redeemed himself with that drive.  What a last second finish too.  I don't understand what more Mercedes needs to see before signing him to a long term deal.
3. Alonso finally got some points.  Granted he got those points because of the sheer number of retirments but still, he's punching way way way above his weight class due to that powerplant.
4. Lewis, wth are you doing slowing down that much and brake checking Vettel?  Also the pit crew should get 10 lashes for forgetting to screw in the head rest thingy.  Pissed that race away because of poor choices.
5. Vettel, stop acting like a 6 year old petulant asshole in the car, it's beneath you.
6. Kimi once again got hit by Valteri.  
7. Aside from Alonso, Jolyn Palmer must be the unluckiest guy in the field.  That guy cannot catch a single break.  I don't see how Renault retains him next year, even if he wins out the rest of the season.  I also don't see any other team picking him up either.
8. Force India, I'm not even in racing but Rule #1 is you don't take out your teammates.  I think Diffy on NBCSN said it best that the team not putting their foot down last week perhaps caused this mess this week.  Oh to be a fly in the wall during the post race meeting.
9. Romain, I don't understand how your killing the breaks in your car and Kevin isn't.  Love ya man and rooting for you because your the home country team, but get with the program.  That was another double points finish that Haas could've had.  A near podium by Kevin too.
10. Toro Rosso is sucking wind this week.

I still want this circuit to go away and never be raced again but what an interesting race.

[LLC]

That was like a three ring circus but very enjoyable to watch. Great to see a Canadian on the podium; first since Jacque Villanueva many years ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bartolomeo]

What a shit show....I loved every minute of it!

so many stories within the race to mention

[OZCUBAN]

Great race if only they were all that good great result by the way ?

[MIKA27]

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX: RICCIARDO SURVIVES THE CHAOS

Where to begin? Let’s start at the end…

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo defied the odds to win an incident packed and chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Valterri Bottas stormed from last place in the Mercedes, thanks to a first turn collision, to steal second place on the finish line from 18 year old Lance Stroll who claimed third place for Williams, on a day the boy became a man and some of the biggest names in Formula 1 tripped up.

The Australian secured his fifth career Formula 1 win, while Bottas overtook Stroll’s Williams on the finish line to take second place by a tenth of a second.

For Ricciardo who crashed 24 hours earlier in qualifying, and a start that forced him to pit early it was one of his sweetest victories, one which even he would have not predicted before the race.

Beaming from ear to ear he said on the podium, “I can’t really believe it. It was a crazy race. We knew the podium was a chance after the restart, then we heard of the problems with Lewis and Seb.”

“I made an unplanned pitstop at the beginning, and I dropped to 17th place. Did I think I would win today? Not for all my money but this was the race we expected last year all the safety cars and the chaos. I said it yesterday we had to stay out of trouble and it certainly pulled off today, ” he added.

Bottas was involved in a first lap collision with his fellow countryman (and nemesis) Kimi Raikkonen which resulted in a puncture on his Mercedes. A slow return to the pits saw him drop a lap down the field. But credit to him for never giving up, and seizing the moment to unlap himself during the safety car period.

Thereafter he blitzed around the challenging confines of Baku, relentlessly carving his way up the field and benefiting from the shenanigans and hard luck of others. Late in the race he was up to third and half a dozen seconds behind Stroll in second.

Bottas would have been forgiven if he had decided to play it safe and settle for an unlikely third. But that’s not how he thinks and went in pursuit of the Williams. On the final lap,on the main straight it looked done and dusted but somehow the Finn caught a mega slipstream and pipped the young Canadian on the line. It was riveting stuff.

He summed up his afternoon, “Just a crazy race with so much happening. I was one lap down in the beginning and had to overtake under the Safety Car and catch them all again. This just shows never give up as you never know what is going to happen.”

“The team managed to fix the car a bit in the red flag. It was just really fun. With what happened in the beginning, it’s a good result for us.”

“Going into Turn Two I was on the inside, Kimi was on the outside, and there was no space for me to go but over the curb. The car obviously jumps and I couldn’t keep the line. It was a racing incident,” concluded Bottas.

Although he did not win or even finish second, the day belonged Stroll. The teenager put behind him a torrid start to the season which prompted a great deal of criticism from all quarters, and after his first points finish in Canada last time out he went even better in Baku.

He out-qualified his vastly experienced teammate Felipe Massa a day earlier and then delivered a mature performance, of the highest order, to stay out of trouble and set an impressive pace to claim his first podium and becoming the second youngest top three finisher in F1 history.

The boy who was not long ago the target of many jokes, became a man who won the respect of fans on the day in Baku – voted by them as the Driver of the Day – and a thoroughly deserving accolade  indeed. 

It was a very happy podium, with Stroll perhaps the happiest of all, “I’m just lost for words right now. I can’t quite realise what’s just happened. It was a hectic race, people crashing and we just stayed out of trouble. I kept my head cool, took it to the end and my pace was good.

“Valtteri just took me at the end, it must have been one of the closest finishes of all time, side by side at the finish line. I couldn’t believe ahead of the weekend that I’d be standing on the podium, it’s so amazing.”

“Motorsport is a love-hate relationship. We had a couple of hard races but the last two have been amazing and I’m just over the moon right now,” he added with a huge grin and thumbs up to his billionaire father oozing pride at the foot of the podium. 

In a stop-start race, the safety car came out three times in quick succession before a red flag stopped the race near the midway point because debris littered the track.

Shortly before that, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were involved in an incident that threatens to sour their good relations.

Hamilton appeared to stop his car right in front of Vettel, causing Vettel to collide into him. An irate Vettel then accelerated alongside Hamilton and appeared to deliberately swerve back into him.

Vettel was given a 10-second stop-go penalty, but Hamilton lost valuable time – sacrificing the lead which he held comfortably amid the three restarts – changing a loose headrest at the same time while Vettel served his time penalty.

The pair were running one-two before destiny intervened. First Hamilton’s headrest worked itself loose and forced him to stop and adjust it. Then Vettel was slapped with a ten second penalty for a case of ‘road rage’ during the third restart, the Ferrari nearly slamming into the back of the very slow Mercedes.

Vettel’s reaction, moving alongside and swerving at Hamilton, was uncalled for and did not escape the stewards’ attention and they penalised him accordingly.

When they returned to the track, Vettel led Hamilton and it stayed that way despite the Mercedes driver pursuing with all he had but to no avail. Vettel was fourth and Hamilton fifth.

It was Hamilton’s race to win, after another stunning qualifying lap he was untouchable around Baku and was in control of the race until bad luck intervened.

While Vettel made a good start to hang on to second place, and looked set to challenge late on in the race until fate dished out a most unexpected script.

Vettel claimed Hamilton had braked in front of him and he responded by driving into the back of his rival before then bumping the Briton from the side.

“I think it’s just not driver conduct. It’s dangerous driving and to get a 10-second penalty for that… I don’t need to say anything else,” Hamilton said afterwards.

Vettel pleaded innocent and told reporters, “Nothing happened, did it? He brake checked me as well, so what do you expect?”

“I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose but for sure it was not the right move. If I’m struggling, people at the back struggling even more, so I don’t think it was necessary.

“I got damage, he risked damage. He’s done something similar in China at the restart a couple of years ago so it’s not the way to do it, I think.

“I passed him because he pitted. After the incident, we were side by side, I raised my hand and told him, well I didn’t say anything, but showed him that I wasn’t happy with that.”

No doubt the knives are now sharpened in the battle for the title, and afterwards the animosity was palpable which sets the scene for an intriguing duel between the two for the remainder of the season.

Esteban Ocon of Force India, survived a collision with his teammate Sergio Perez, was sixth ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas, and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz, who recovered from a first-lap spin to avoid his teammate Daniil Kvyat.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso, scored McLaren’s first points of the year in ninth, with Pascal Wehrlein claiming the final point for Sauber. Only 13 cars finished the race.

Blow-By-Blow

A dramatic start saw Bottas go into Turn 2 on the inside of Raikkonen. The Mercedes driver appeared to take too much kerb in the corner and he was launched into the side of his fellow Finn’s Ferrari. Raikkonen shipped damage and dropped to fifth, but Bottas suffered front wing damage and a front right puncture. He was forced to pit for repairs and dropped to the rear of the field.

At the front, Hamilton, who had taken the lead at the start began to swiftly build a gap to second-place title rival Sebastian Vettel. By lap eight the margin was 3.6 seconds but Vettel responded with a fastest lap on the following tour to stay within touching distance.

Further back, Ricciardo made an early stop, shedding his starting supersofts for softs. The Australian, who also had debris removed from brake ducts during the stop, then began to haul his way back up the order from the ninth position he had taken at the start.

Debris was a worry too for team-mate Max Verstappen. Soon after the start the Dutchman reported that he was unhappy with the behaviour of his car and he was told he may have had debris in the radiator ducts and that the situation would be monitored.

On lap 13, though, Verstappen suddenly slowed and began to fall down the order. At the same time Kvyat’s Toro Rosso expired and he pulled over at the side of the track.

The need to recover the car brought out the first safety car of the race and that caused a flurry of pit stops with all of the frontrunners taking on fresh tyres. Verstappen too headed for the pit lane, but unfortunately for the Red Bull man, his visit wasn’t temporary and he retired from the race.

Under the safety car the order saw Hamilton leading Vettel, with Perez in third place ahead of William’s Felipe Massa and the second Force India of Esteban Ocon. At the back Bottas was allowed to unlap himself and the Finn began a comeback.

On the re-start Hamilton kept his lead but Vettel came under heavy pressure from Perez who drew alongside the Ferrari. Vettel protected the line well, however, and kept second place.

Within seconds, though, the Safety Car was again deployed, this time to clear debris at several locations on the track, and cars were directed through the pit lane as the wreckage was removed.

Just before the Safety Car left the track again at the end of lap 19, the key incident of the race unfolded.

Hamilton slowed dramatically to back up the field and Vettel ran into the back of the Briton’s Mercedes. Vettel responded by running alongside Hamilton and banging wheels with the Mercedes man’s car.

Then, as the racing resumed, Vettel was attacked again, not just by Perez, but also by Massa and Ocon.

The Brazilian got past Perez and tried to pass Vettel down the inside. Vettel again resisted and held P2 but Massa’s move dropped Perez into the clutches of Ocon who tried to pass his team-mate. The team-mates collided and Perez was forced to the pits where it looked like he would retire.

Caught up in the mess was Raikkonen. The Finn ran over the debris from the Force India collision and suffered a right-rear puncture. By the time he made it back to the pits his car had sustained too much damaged and it looked like he too would be forced out of the race.

The Safety Car was deployed yet again, but this time, with debris strewn across the track in a number of places, the red flag was eventually displayed.

Cars were directed back to the pit lane and the dissection of the events that had just taken place began, with the incident between Vettel and Hamilton being placed under investigation by the stewards and the two drivers engaging engineers and team principals in animated discussion.

Action resumed just after 1815 local time, with both Perez and Raikkonen rejoicing the field having been repaired. However, as the SC got set to leave the circuit, third-placed Felipe Massa reported that he had a car problem.

When racing resumed the Brazilian was immediately in trouble. Team-mate Lance Stroll passed on the right but Ricciardo was smarter and went down the inside, outbraking both to rise from fifth to third with a standout move. Behind them Renault’s Hulkenberg made a mistake and clipped a barrier, breaking his right front suspension, and exiting the race.

On lap 27 Hamilton now led from Vettel, Ricciardo and Stroll with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen in fifth place. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was in an unlikely sixth place after starting 19th, while Sainz was seventh ahead of Bottas and Grosjean. Perez was in P14 ahead of Raikkonen but both were under investigation as it appeared their crews had worked on the car outside the fast lane in the frenzy to get them going again.

Hamilton, though, had a problem with his head restraint and was told he had to pit to fix the issue. That dropped him to eighth place. The damage was minimised when moments later Vettel was handed a 10-second stop and go penalty for the SC incident with Hamilton. The German served the penalty at the end of lap 33 and dropped to P7 ahead of Hamilton.

Ahead, and somewhat improbably, Ricciardo now led the race in front of Stroll and Magnussen. The Haas driver didn’t hold the podium position for long, however, and on lap 38 the Dane was passed by both Ocon and a resurgent Bottas.

The Finn then passed the Force India driver and began setting fastest laps as he chased down Stroll. As the laps counted down it didn’t look like the Mercedes driver had done enough but on the final lap he closed hard and after Ricciardo had taken the flag to claim his fourth career victory, Bottas managed to pass Stroll across the line in a hugely exciting finale.

Stroll took third, becoming the first Canadian to stand on the podium since Jacques Villeneuve at the German Grand Prix in 2001.

Behind them Vettel held Hamilton at bay to finish fourth, while behind the Mercedes driver Ocon took sixth ahead of Magnussen, Sainz, Alonso and Wehrlein.