2020 Formula 1 Season
Contents
2020-07-05 Austrian Grand Prix
- Retirements
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull - hydraulics
- Daniel Ricciardo, Renault - overheat
- Lance Stroll, Racing Point - engine sensor
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas - brake failure
- Roman Grosjean, Haas - brake failure
- George Russell, Williams - fuel pressure
- Kimi Raikonnen, Alfa Romeo - wheel failure
- Alex Albon, Red Bull
- Daniil Kvyat - Rear wheel failure
- Both Mercedes also having gearbox issues and told to stay off the curbs
- Result:
- Valteri Bottas - Mercedes
- Charles LeClerc - Ferrari
- Lando Norris - McLaren
- Lewis Hamilton was 2nd on the road, but was given a penalty for contact with Alex Albon
- Lewis Hamilton ends 4th
2020-07-12 Styrian Grand Prix
- Retirements
- Charles LeClerc - collision with Sebastian Vettel
- Sebastian Vettel - collision with Charles LeClerc
- Esteban Ocon - cooling issue
- Carlos Sainz - bad pitstop - sticky wheel nut
2020-08-02 British Grand Prix
- Nico Hulkenberg retires prior to the race; car wouldn't start
- Alex Albon hits Kevin Magnussen, Magnussen retires, possible damage to Albon's car?
- Daniil Kvyat - serious accident
- Alex Albon - 5 second penalty for hitting Kevin Magnussen
- Exciting finish
- Valteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton both suffer punctures at the end due to excessive tire wear
- Max Verstappen almost wins -> comes in second place
2020-08-09 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone
Different wheels and tires
- Racing point qualifies into third with Nico Hulkenberg
- McLaren outside the top 10
- Everyone starting on medium or hard tires (makes sense after tire issues everyone had last week)
- Max Verstappen starting on hard tires
- Vettel spins on lap 1!
- Lap 6: Bottas gets a tire temperature warning
- Lap 7: Alex Albon comes in for a very early pitstop
- Lap 8: Gasly, and Giovinazzi come in for early pit stops
- Lots of early pitstops
- Verstappen going fast on the hard tires
- Pierre Gasly is doing well, especially in comparison to Verstappen
- Verstappen is arguing with his engineers to allow him to drive more aggressively -- engineers are worried about tire temperatures
- Mercedes having serious tire issues, which Verstappen is taking advantage of
- Bottas pits on lap 14, with his tires completely fried
- Hamilton laps on lap 15, same issue -> Verstappen in the lead
- Red Bull pits on lap 27 and puts on the medium tires to secure the lead
- Lap 31 - Daniel Ricciardo spins out
- Lap 32 - Red Bull and Mercedes pit Verstappen and Bottas; Hamilton takes the lead
- Lewis' tires are looking really awful
- Is Mercedes looking to one-stop Hamilton?
- Is Valteri getting a worse strategy from Mercedes?
- Hamilton pits on lap 42, comes out in 4th, behind Charles LeClerc
- Kevin Magnusson retires due to mechanical issues
- Red Bull thriving in the heat -- good news for later races?
- Max Verstappen wins, Hamilton 2nd, Bottas 3rd
- Charles LeClerc still outdriving his car
2020-08-16 Spanish Grand Prix
- Mercedes lock out the front row as usual, with Hamilton in pole
- Verstappen in 3rd, with Racing Point in 4th and 5th
- Ferrari are 9th and 11th for Leclerc and Vettel respectively
- Top 10 all on soft compound tires, those behind them on mediums
- Pirelli has brought harder compounds to this race, so we should hopefully see fewer of the tire wear issues that we had last race
- Likely a two stop race, but can do one-stop if you use the hard tires
- Off start Max Verstappen gets a better start than Valteri Bottas and surges into 2nd
- Bottas drops into 4th as he is also passed by Lance Stroll
- Albon pits early, on lap 18, goes onto the hard tires (1 stop strategy for him?)
- Max Verstappen (very frustrated) pits on lap 22, goes out again on medium tires
- Hamilton pits on lap 24, slow pitstop, but still manages to come out ahead of Verstappen
- Bottas, behind Hamilton, comes out behind Verstappen
- Max Verstappen's radio traffic has been the most entertaining thing about this entire Grand Prix
- Bottas: "These black overalls are f***in hot"
- Lance Stroll pits on lap 28
- The choice to put Alex Albon on hard tires is questionable, because he came out of the pits into traffic, and the hard tires just aren't performing as expected
- Possible rain after lap 50
- Kimi Raikonnen has raced more miles than any other Formula 1 driver
- Charles LeClerc spins out on Lap 37 as his engine just cuts out; does manage to get the car restarted, but is now in last place, from 11th; comes into pits and retires from race
- Alex Albon pits again on lap 41 and goes onto medium tires
- Verstappen pits on lap 42, goes onto a fresh set of medium tires
- Only Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas and Perez are on the lead lap, everyone else has been lapped
- Bottas pits on lap 49, puts on soft tires
- Hamilton laps on lap 51, stays on medium tires
- Sergio Perez gets a 5sec penalty for ignoring blue flags
- Hamilton wins, Verstappen 2nd, Bottas 3rd
- Easy race for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes "ez win, ez lyfe"
- Sebastian Vettel did better than expected, even though Ferrari had a bad strategy
2020-08-30 Belgian Grand Prix
- Another front-row lockout for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Valteri Bottas second
- Max Verstappen in 3rd
- Daniel Ricciardo in 4th (unusually high)
- Carlos Sainz will not be starting the race due to an exhaust failure
- Ferraris starting in 13th and 14th‽
- Charles LeClerc up to 9th (making up 4 places) on the opening lap
- However, by lap 4 the Ferraris are fading once again, with Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez both passing Leclerc
- Pierre Gasly is doing better than expected by choosing to start on the hard compound tires
- Lap 11: Big crash between George Russell and Antonio Giovinazzi both drivers appear to be okay
- Basically everyone is doing pit stops under the safety car
- Lots of debris on the track
- After the restart things proceed fairly normally
- Pierre Gasly continues to do pretty well, but that's partially because he chose not to stop during the safety car
- Charles LeClerc stops again on lap 25, drops into last place
- Lewis Hamilton wins, Valteri Bottas 2nd, Max Verstappen 3rd
- Another somewhat boring race
- Ferrari are still awful
2020-09-06 Italian Grand Prix
- New regulation: no more "party modes" during qualifying -- have to run qualifying using the same engine mode as the race
- Mercedes gets another front-row, Hamilton on pole, Bottas in 2nd
- Carlos Sainz in 3rd, Sergio Perez in 4th (McLaren, Racing Point)
- Max Verstappen all the way back in 5th, alongside Lando Norris
- Ferrari still awful -- Charles LeClerc starting in 13th, Sebastian Vettel in 17th
- Bottas and Verstappen have terrible starts, dropping into 6th and 8th respectively
- McLaren in 2nd and 3rd as of lap 2
- Lewis Hamilton showing why he's the world champion in this race
- Lap 6: Sebastian Vettel brake failure
- Verstappen makes his way back up to 7th, battling with Bottas
- Alex Albon gets a 5 second time penalty for failing to leave a car's width to the edge of the track for Roman Grosjean on lap 2
- Charles LeClerc pits on lap 18
- Lap 20, Kevin Magnussen pulls over -- "something broke"
- Sector 3 yellow flag
- Safety car
- Lap 21 Lewis Hamilton pits under the safety car
- Carlos Sainz chooses not to pit and takes the lead
- Did Lewis Hamilton pit illegally? Pit lane entry was supposed to be closed when the safety car was deployed
- Antonio Giovinazzi and Lewis Hamilton are both under investigation for coming in with a closed pit lane
- Pit lane officially opens on lap 22, McLarens pull in then
- Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz come out in 7th and 8th respectively
- LeClerc, who stayed out, moves up into 4th as everyone else pits
- Big crash with Charles LeClerc on lap 25
- Another brake failure?
- LeClerc leaves the car under his own power, seems to be okay
- Race is red-flagged on lap 26
- LeClerc's Ferrari really tore up the tire barrier when it crashed, and it needs to be repaired
- Antonio Giovinazzi and Lewis Hamilton have a 10 second stop-and-go penalty
- Lance Stroll might win
- Lando Norris under investigation for driving unnecessarily slowly when coming into the pits under the safety car in order to gain an advantage for McLaren
- Standing start, not a start under a safety car
- Race restart on lap 28
- Lance Stroll locks up on restart and drops from 2nd into 8th
- Hamilton comes into the pits on lap 29 to serve his penalty
- Pierre Gasly in first, and Kimi Raikonnen in 2nd
- Giovinazzi comes in on lap 31 to serve his penalty
- Verstappen retires on lap 31 as well -- unknown problem with the car
- Big battle between Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly for the lead
- Pierre Gasly win, Carlos Sainz 2nd, Lance Stroll 3rd
- Lewis Hamilton in 7th, Valteri Bottas in 5th
- Really encouraging to see how well McLaren is doing
2020-09-13 Tuscan Grand Prix
- Racing at Mugello circuit
- Another Mercedes front-row lockout, Hamilton gets pole
- Red Bull looks much better than they did in the last race, Max Verstappen in 3rd, Albon in 4th
- Pierre Gasly does much worse than he did in the last race, qualifying 16th
- Charles LeClerc in 7th, Vettel in 14th, once again failing to make it to Q3
- On start, Bottas gets a wonderful start catching an early lead, Hamilton in 2nd
- Max Verstappen crashes on lap 1!
- Lots of other damage
- Pierre Gasly loses his front wing
- Sebastian Vettel loses his front wing
- Significant damage to the aero on Roman Grosjean
- Carlos Sainz hit and spun around
- Safety car comes out
- Max Verstappen had an issue with his car -- very down on power, drops back through the grid
- Pierre Gasly tangles with Kimi Raikonnen and Raikonnen launched into the back of Max Verstappen
- Looks like Verstappen had an issue with a sensor on the power unit before he crashed
- LeClerc takes advantage of the chaos to move up into 3rd
- Albon remains in 4th
- Safety car goes in on lap 6
- Another big crash on the safety car restart!
- Kevin Magunussen, Carlos Sainz Nicholas Latifi, and Antonio Giovinazzi tangle
- Race gets red-flagged
due to the amount of debris on track due to Nichola Latifi's car blocking the pit exit -- couldn't route the cars through pit lane under the safety car
- Teams are allowed to change tires under a red flag, so, in effect, this is a free pitstop for everyone
- Of course, it's so early, teams might have to do a two-stop race anyway, but it does allow everyone to rethink their strategy
- Esteban Ocon retires under red flag, because of brake issues
- Hamilton and Bottas switch to medium tires
- Most of the rest of the field chooses to remain on soft tires, but some do change to a new set of soft tires
- Race restarts on lap 9
- Lewis Hamilton regains the lead from Valteri on the start
- LeClerc holds on in third
- Albon drops back into 7th
- Lap 18
- Lance Stroll passes Charles LeClerc to get into 3rd
- Alex Albon passes Sergio Perez to get into 6th
- Lap 19: Daniel Ricciardo passes Charles LeClerc
- The Renault looks very good at Mugello
- Lap 20: Alex Albon passes Charles LeClerc to move up into 5th
- The Ferrari is not looking good here -- doesn't seem like it can compete with Renault, Racing Point or Red Bull in a normal race setting
- Lap 22: Charles LeClerc pits
- Was losing a lot of pace, as seen above
- Goes onto the hard tires, comes out in 13th (last place)
- Lap 28: Daniel Ricciardo pits
- Going for an undercut on Lance Stroll?
- Lap 29: Sergio Perez pits and goes onto the medium tires
- Lots of pit stops on lap 30 -- all the cars on soft tires are starting to come in
- Lap 32: Daniel Ricciardo's undercut pays off as he passes Lance Stroll to move up into 3rd
- Lap 38: Charles LeClerc pits again and goes onto the medium compound tires
- LeClerc has been pitting a lot
- Lap 44: Lance Stroll spins out --
this is the second time in two races that Lance Stroll has made an unforced error, it looks like
- It was actually a tire puncture -- nothing Stroll could have done
- Safety car comes out and both Hamilton and Bottas pit
- Race is red flagged again on lap 46
- 13 laps left - after this it'll be a sprint to the finish
- On the restart, Daniel Ricciardo gets past Bottas, into 2nd
- Bottas does manage to re-pass Ricciardo a lap later, though
- Lap 51: Alex Albon passes Daniel Ricciardo to move up into 3rd -- Albon literally saving Redbull
- Lewis Hamilton wins, Valteri Bottas 2nd, Alex Albon 3rd
- Ferrari in 9th and 10th with LeClerc and Vettel respectively
2020-09-27 Russian Grand Prix
- Lewis Hamilton in pole position, Max Verstappen in second -- qualifying looks good for Red Bull
- More problems in the heat for Mercedes?
- Valteri Bottas in 3rd, Sergio Perez in 4th
- Racing Point looking good as they have all season
- Ferrari doing awful as usual
- Charles LeClerc starts in 10th
- Sebastian Vettel starts 14th
- Alex Albon had qualified 10th, but dropped 5 places because of a gearbox change
- Mercedes under investigation?
- Lots of action on lap 1
- Carlos Sainz spins
- Lance Stroll spins
- Valteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo both pounce on Max Verstappen, sending him back into 4th and putting the Mercedes in 1-2 with the Renault in 3rd
- Safety car comes out
- Both McLarens have dropped to the back of the grid
- Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll are both out of the race on lap 1
- Lance Stroll probably got hit by someone which upset the backend of his car
- Carlos Sainz just clipped the wall going through the escape road on turn 1, stupid mistake
- Lots of cars pit on lap 1, notably Alex Albon and Lando Norris
- Lance Stroll was hit by Charles LeClerc on lap 1 -- nothing Stroll could have done?
- Safety car goes in on lap 5
- Lewis Hamilton takes two 5 second time penalties for a violation on practice starts
- Lewis Hamilton probably won't be winning the race; let's see where he finishes with the penalties
- Daniel Ricciardo pits on lap 16, goes out on hard tires
- Lap 17 Lewis Hamilton comes into the pits and serves his 10 second time penalty
- Hamilton comes out ahead of Daniel Ricciardo -- probably will end up in 3rd or 4th at this rate
- Lap 25, Max Verstappen comes in, goes out with hard tires
- Bottas comes in on lap 26, goes out on hard tires
- Daniel Ricciardo is under investigation for not using the escape road when he exceeded track limits
- The surprise in this race is how well Charles LeClerc is doing
- No drama
- Putting in a solid performance given all the performance problems Ferrari has had this year
- Daniel Ricciardo earns a 5 second time penalty (to be assessed after the race) for not using the escape road when he exceeded track limits
- Valteri Bottas wins, Max Verstappen 2nd, Lewis Hamilton 3rd
- Rather boring race, especially towards the end
- Charles Leclerc finishes respectably, in 6th place
2020-10-11 Eifel Grand Prix
- Held at the Nurburgring
- Mercedes gets another front-row lockout
- Valteri Bottas in first
- Lewis Hamilton 2nd
- Max Verstappen starts 3rd
- Charles LeClerc starts 4th
- Free practice was cut short by rain
- Unless drivers have raced here in the past, they're not really going to know what the track is like - once again, this is not one of F1's usual tracks
- First time F1 has raced here in 7 years
- Lance Stroll is out sick, and has been substituted by Nico Hulkenberg
- Cold race, cold track - air temperature of ~10ºC
- The usual problem that F1 cars have is keeping tire temperatures down
- This time they'll have to worry about keeping tire temperatures up
- After a turn 1 scare from Lewis Hamilton, Valteri Bottas regains his lead
- Charles LeClerc's Ferrari isn't fast, but he is doing a great job of defending his place against Daniel Ricciardo
- Alex Albon pits very early, on lap 8
- Did he pick up a small puncture or something?
- Had massive vibrations from a flat-spot that he picked up from a turn 1 lockup
- Went back out on medium tires
- Lap 9, Daniel Ricciardo finally passes Charles LeClerc - Can he catch up to Max Verstappen and get a podium?
- Charles LeClerc pits on lap 11
- Goes back out on medium tires
- Sebastian Vettel has a big spin, almost goes into the gravel
- Looks to be an unforced error
- Vettel pits on lap 12 and puts on the hard tires
- Lap 13, Hamilton passes Bottas and takes the lead
- Big lockup from Bottas allows Hamilton to catch up and overtake
- Valteri Bottas pits on lap 13
- George Russel also has a big spin, and picks up a puncture
- Bottas comes out behind Daniel Ricciardo - could this be the race that Ricciardo picks up a podium?
- Russel is out because Kimi Raikonnen locked up and slid right into him
- Bottas passes Ricciardo on Lap 16
- Lap 16 Virtual Safety Car deployed so that the marshals can clear away George Russel's car
- Lap 17 Lewis Hamilton pits - long pit stop 4.2 seconds
- Is this because Mercedes is running their substitute pit crew after one of their primary pit crew tested positive for COVID?
- On restart from the virtual safety car, Danii Kvyat locks up and when attempting to rejoin the track gets clipped by Alex Albon, and loses his front wing - Lap 17
- Valteri Bottas has engine issues - engine in "limp home" mode
- With Bottas out, can Ricciardo get a podium?
- Kimi Raikonnen gets a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision with George Russell
- Lap 22 - Albon locks up hard again, almost takes out Pierre Gasly
- Lap 23 - Esteban Ocon retires with hydraulics issues - brakes and gearshift not working well
- Albon gets a 5 second time penalty for hitting Daniil Kvyat
- Alex Albon gets retired - power unit problem
- Was there some issue with his car that was causing him to lock up so much?
- Lap 26 - Lando Norris has a sensor issue with his engine
- Lap 30 - Lando Norris retires
- LeClerc pits again on lap 37
- Lando Norris pulls aside on lap 44
- Did his engine finally give up the ghost?
- Looks like it
- Full safety car deployed on lap 45
- Daniel Ricciardo comes in immediately
- Hamilton and Verstappen also come in
- Sergio Perez stays out one extra lap
- Lewis Hamilton wins - 91 wins, equals Michael Schumacher's record
- Max Verstappen comes 2nd, gets fastest lap
- Daniel Ricciardo gets 3rd - well deserved podium for Ricciardo and Renault
2020-10-25 Portuguese Grand Prix
- Mercedes have a front-row lockout
- Verstappen's Red Bull starts 3rd
- LeClerc, unexpectedly, is in 4th - ties for best start this season for Ferrari
- Racing Point leads the "midfield", with Sergio Perez in fifth
- Ricciardo made a mistake in qualifying - starts tenth
- Going off the racing line might be very costly here
- Estoril has a new surface
- Lower traction off racing line
- Only one DRS zone but there still might be a lot of overtaking as people make mistakes
- DRS zone is at a critical part of the track - kicks in just as cars hit 8th gear for the main straight
- Sebastian Vettel is all the way back in P15
- Huge drop from start/finish into Turn 1
- Rain in the area - will cars have to switch to intermediate tires
- Pit stops are costly on this track
- Hamilton gets a good start
- Bottas loses out to Verstappen - Verstappen has soft tires, while the Mercedes are both on medium tires
- Bottas forces Verstappen wide and Verstappen hits Sergio Perez as he comes back onto the racing line
- Hamilton has a big lock-up later in the first lap, allowing Bottas to take the lead
- Verstappen gets passed by Carlos Sainz - drops to 4th
- Sainz then passes Hamilton for 2nd place!
- Light drizzle starts
- Kimi Raikonnen is battling for 5th with Charles Leclerc - Raikonnen has gained almost 10 places on the first lap
- Carlos Sainz passes Bottas for the lead on lap 2
- Looks like a lot of the cars that started on medium tires are having trouble, but that doesn't explain Verstappen's difficulties
- Stewards investigating contact between Verstappen and Perez
- Verstappen battling hard for 4th with Lando Norris
- Kimi Raikonnen ends the first three laps in sixth place
- Lap 5 - Verstappen passes Norris for 4th
- Stewards dismiss the contract between Perez and Verstappen as a racing incident
- Lap 6 - Sainz loses lead to Bottas
- Hamilton passes Sainz on lap 7 -- looks like medium tires are starting to come into their optimal temperature range
- Verstappen passes Sainz on lap 8, and LeClerc passes Raikonnen for 6th
- Rain ends
- LeClerc is doing remarkably well - McLarens seem to be fading
- Raikonnen is dropping back through the grid, his Alfa Romeo just isn't fast enough
- DRS zone is very large, and as a result, passes are very easy
- Verstappen is struggling with tires
- Lap 12 - LeClerc makes it back to 4th
- Verstappen is fading
- However, the problem is that pit stops are very expensive here, so Red Bull don't want to go to a 2-stop strategy if they don't have to
- Hamilton narrowing the gap to Bottas
- Daniel Ricciardo pits on lap 14, is he on a 2-stop strategy?
- Lots of people are having trouble with tires
- Lap 18 - Lance Stroll makes a very aggressive move on Lando Norris and skids off as a result
- Damage to both Stroll's Racing Point and Norris's McLaren
- Stroll manages to stay off the gravel, however, and doesn't cause a safety car period
- Lap 20 - Hamilton retakes the lead
- Medium tires finally coming into their own
- Alex Albon pits on lap 20 - trades soft tires for mediums
- Sergio Perez is back up into 11th after falling into last place after his contact with Verstappen
- George Russell is in 9th - Can Williams get a point today?
- Lap 24 - Verstappen pits - goes out medium tires
- Lance Stroll gets a 5 second penalty for his contact with Norris
- I like how Lance Stroll only gets a five second penalty for this reckless move, but Lewis Hamilton gets a 10 second penalty for for doing practice starts from the wrong spot
- Tire strategy could be a critical factor later on
- Formula 1 rules say that you have to use at least two tire compounds in a race
- Red Bull were able to put the medium tires on Verstappen and Albon because they started with soft tires
- However Mercedes started on medium tires, so they have to use either soft or hard tires
- Going to hard tires might be a problem for Mercedes, because of how long it's taking for tires to warm up
- Lap 27 Carlos Sainz pits & goes out on medium tires
- LeClerc is in third because Verstappen went into the pits - doing well on medium tires
- Sebastian Vettel pits on lap 28 - goes out on hard tires
- Hamilton is just flying - stretching his lead before he pits
- Lots of black-and-white flags for exceeding track limits
- Lance Stroll gets another 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits
- Lap 35 - LeClerc pits and goes out on hard tires - allows Max to get back into 3rd place
- Verstappen is not challenging Mercedes because he might be conserving his fuel
- Formula 1 cars run very light on fuel to save on weight
- Normally this is not a problem because the teams have historical data about fuel consumption
- However Estoril is a new track for Formula 1, and the teams don't have this data - fuel loads are based on simulations and guesswork
- Mercedes are absolutely dominating - over a 40-second gap between themselves and Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton pits on lap 41, comes back out hard tires and in 2nd place
- Bottas pits on lap 42 asks for soft tires, but he is given hard tires per team rules
- Bottas is struggling for grip, but Hamilton seems okay
- Lap 43 - Lando Norris has a slow puncture - can be managed for now but might need to pit later on
- Verstappen is coming up on Bottas - Bottas really needs to get a move on
- Lots of blue flags as Hamilton and Bottas lap more and more of the field
- Lap 48 - Ocon has still not come into the pits - needs to have at least 1 pit stop to satisfy race regulations
- Alex Albon just got lapped by Max Verstappen (ouch)
- Lap 54 - Lance Stroll retires from the race - not a big surprise there, he was in last place any way after his two time penalties
- Lap 54 - Ocon finally comes in for a pit stop and goes out on soft tires
- Soft tires are really fast on this track, but degrade quickly and unpredictably
- Lap 59 - Lewis Hamilton reports a cramp (Lewis is getting old)
- Lap 65 - Pierre Gasly passes Sergio Perez for 5th (Good for Gasly)
- Race results
- Lewis Hamilton wins (record 92 wins in Formula 1)
- Bottas 2nd
- Verstappen 3rd
- LeClerc 4th
- Raikonnen finishes 11th - decent result for him!
2020-11-01 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
- Racing at Imola - another "classic" F1 track
- 63 laps
- Bottas outqualifies Hamilton at the last second in Q3, securing pole
- Hamilton is 2nd
- Verstappen qualifies 3rd
- Pierre Gasly qualifies 4th - really good result and handily beating Alex Albon
- Daniel Ricciardo starts 5th, with Alex Albon in 6th
- Charles LeClerc did well at first in qualifying but faded in Q3, and qualifies 7th
- McLaren and Racing Point are uncharacteristically far back in the grid
- McLaren is 9th and 10th
- Racing Point is 11th and 15th
- Imola is a narrow track - might make passing difficult
- Most cars starting on medium tires - medium then soft?
- Great start for Max Verstappen, gets ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the first corner
- Kevin Magnussen spins on lap 1 - contact with Sebastian Vettel
- Overall, lap 1 has been pretty clean - I was expecting a lot more contact
- Lance Stroll breaks his front wing on lap 1 - comes in to the pits and goes out on hard tires
- Not looking good for Alex Albon - sixth place qualifying wasn't that great, and immediately loses a place to Charles LeClerc
- Lap 9 - Pierre Gasly has to retire - "terminal situation" with the car
- Coolant leak - engine would not have survived the race
- Lap 14 - Charles LeClerc pits - soft tires starting to give out
- Goes back out on hard compound tires - tires are wearing faster than expected in the race?
- Lap 15 - Ricciardo and Albon both pit - go back out on hard tires
- Lap 19 - Verstappen pits - goes back out on hard tires
- McLarens are pitting and going out on mediums - are they trying a 2-stop strategy
- Do they think that the others are going to have to do a 2-stop strategy anyway, because even the hard tires won't last long enough
- Lap 20 - Valteri Bottas comes in, goes back out on hard tires
- Lap 22 - Bottas informed that he has floor damage
- Looks like he picked it up from debris from another car on lap 2
- Was informed that it is "significant"
- Lewis Hamilton is going very long - somehow Lewis can just make his tires last longer than everyone else
- Initial plan appeared to be to pit around lap 26 and put on the hard tires, but his mechanic has asked if he can go 10 more laps
- That will allow Lewis to get the soft tires
- Lap 28 - pitched battle in the midfield between Daniel Ricciardo, Charles LeClerc and Kevin Magnussen
- Ricciardo and LeClerc pass Magnussen to get 8th and 9th respectively
- Albon gets stuck behind Magnussen
- Only gets the place when Magnussen pits
- Lap 29 - Esteban Ocon withdraws with a clutch problem - pulls over to the side of the track
- Will this be a safety car
- If so, what does that do for Lewis Hamilton's strategy?
- Currently there are only yellow flags around sector 2 and 3 of the track - whole track is not yellow-flagged
- Lap 30 - Virtual Safety Car declared in order to allow the marshals to get Esteban Ocon's car off the side of the track
- This helps Lewis Hamilton, because the time lost for a pit stop under virtual safety car is 17 seconds, as opposed to the 27 seconds in normal green-flag racing
- Lewis Hamilton comes in and goes out again on hard tires
- Mercedes' strategy always seems to blatantly favor Lewis Hamilton and it makes me feel bad for Valteri Bottas
- Lap 31 - VSC ends (It's almost as if the VSC was there just to give Lewis Hamilton a nice pit window)
- Lap 40 - Sebastian Vettel finally comes in for a pit stop - pit stop is extremely slow - 13 seconds
- Lap 43 - Bottas locks up and goes wide in Rivazza
- Max Verstappen quickly takes advantage and passes him and moves up into 2nd place
- Raikonnen has run an extremely long time - lap 46 and he still hasn't come in for a pit stop
- Sergio Perez is doing extremely well, and has been in the top-10 for the past 5 races, but he doesn't have a drive next year - this is unfair
- Lap 51 - Max Verstappen picks up a right-rear puncture - "something broke"
- Mercedes really has the plot armor this season
- Safety car comes out on lap 52
- Everyone pits - no real shuffling in track position
- Both Hamilton and Bottas take the opportunity to shift back onto soft tires for the finish
- Lap 53 - George Russell out as well in an incident behind the safety car
- Skidded out while trying to keep temperature in his tires
- Lance Stroll damn near runs over one of his own mechanics when he comes in for a pit stop on lap 54
- Racing Point makes a strange decision to pit Sergio Perez, even though he had a podium place after Verstappen's off; as a result we might see Daniel Ricciardo on the podium once again
- Safety car ends on lap 57
- Lap 58, on safety car restart, Alex Albon spins -
possible contact from Carlos Sainz totally unforced error
- Another disastrous race for Red Bull
- Increasingly looking like Alex Albon will not be with Red Bull next year
- Daniil Kvyat has a really good restart - moves up into 4th
- Looks like Alpha Tauri is doing better than Red Bull this race
- Race results
- Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas get the Mercedes 1-2
- Mercedes locks the constructor's championship
- Mercedes gets 7th Constructor's World Championship - breaks record for most consecutive world championships
- The driver's championship will either go to Lewis Hamilton or Valteri Bottas
- Daniel Ricciardo gets another podium
- Daniil Kvyat does well to get into 4th with Alpha Tauri
- Battle between McLaren and Racing Point for 4th place in the constructor's championship heats up
- McLaren finishes 7th and 8th - in the points, but not where they wanted to be
- It's really unfair that Lance Stroll has a guaranteed seat next year, and Sergio Perez does not
2020-11-15 Turkish Grand Prix
Qualifying
- Wet qualifying
- Session red-flagged halfway through Q1
- Q1 restart
- Track is still very wet, even thought it had been swept
- Kimi Raikkonen goes sideways on out lap
- Romain Grosjean goes into gravel - out of qualifying
- Another red flag
- How many sets of wet tires do these teams have?
- Q1 restart 2
- Red Bulls go fastest, with Verstappen in first
- Raikkonen goes behind the Red Bulls
- Ferraris go behind Raikkonen
- Mercedes don't do well - Hamilton barely makes it into Q2, in 14th
- Nicholas Latifi screws up
- Q2
- Verstappen is still doing very well
- Hamilton and Bottas are only getting up into ~5th place
- Kimi Raikkonen is doing very well - experience shows in these conditions
- Lance Stroll also doing very well
- Albon is keeping up with Verstappen
- Ferrari has fallen off - doesn't look like they're going to make it into Q3
- TV feed cuts out
- Q3
- Track looks drier
- Some cars are going out on intermediates
- Verstappen is ~4s ahead of everyone else
- Sergio Perez goes very fast on intermediates -- time to swap for other teams?
- Verstappen swaps to intermediates but it's not working out for him
- Hamilton only finishes qualifying in P6
- Racing Point does very well
- Lance Stroll takes pole
- Sergio Perez in third
- Verstappen can only manage P2
- Racing Point breaks Mercedes' streak of capturing pole position in every race
Race
- 58 laps
- Damp track - cars starting on wets and intermediates
- Lance Stroll on pole
- Verstappen 2nd
- Lewis Hamilton in 6th
- Vettel in 11th
- Verstappen has a bad start
- Hamilton has a great start, jumps past two cars right away
- Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, and Valtteri Bottas all spin out going into turn 1
- Sebastian Vettel also has a great start, jumping up past Max Verstappen, into 3rd!
- Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez maintain a 1-2 in the opening lap
- Lewis Hamilton goes wide, gets passed by Vettel and Max Verstappen
- Mercedes are having lots of problems building temperature in their tires
- Lance Stroll has a huge lead early, because of his privileged position at the front
- Lap 7: LeClerc comes in, switches to intermediate tires
- Lap 8: Bottas comes in for a pit, goes out on intermediate tires
- Lap 8: The pack is starting to catch up to the Racing Points out in front
- Lap 9: Ferrari bring Sebastian Vettel in, after seeing how much faster LeClerc is on the intermediates
- Mercedes also bring in Lewis Hamilton over his objections that the full wets are doing fine
- Lap 10: Lance Stroll comes in, goes back out on intermediates
- Lap 11: Perez comes in - Verstappen now has the lead
- Verstappen wants to stay out on full-wet tires, because of his experience with the intermediates during qualifying
- Hamilton is absolutely flying on intermediate tires
- Lap 12: Verstappen pits, goes back on intermediates - comes out just ahead of Vettel and Hamilton, just behind Perez
- Lap 13: Antonio Giovinazzi has a mechanical issue; rolls to a stop in sector 2 -- yellow flags in sector 2
- Virtual Safety Car declared
- Lap 15: Virtual Safety Car ends
- Lap 16: Hamilton tries making a move on Vettel, locks up, and loses a place to Albon
- Lap 16: Albon passes Vettel as well, moves up behind the Max Verstappen/Sergio Perez battle
- Red Bulls are faster, but the Racing Points have track position
- Lap 18: Verstappen has a big spin as he tries to pass Sergio Perez
- Avoid crashing but loses 3 places
- Lap 20: Albon is in 3rd, and is catching up to the Racing Points
- Lap 26: Vettel starts pulling away from Hamilton
- The Ferraris are doing very well in the wet
- Lap 29: All the lead cars are struggling with tire wear on the intermediates; however the track hasn't fully dried out yet, so they can't come in and go out on slick tires
- Lap 30: DRS enabled
- Lap 31: Charles LeClerc pits, goes back out on new intermediates
- Lap 34: Alex Albon spins out, Lewis Hamilton moves up into 3rd place
- This is exactly the sort of mistake that will cause Albon to lose his seat
- Lap 36: Kevin Magnussen retires
- Both Haas cars are out at this point
- Lap 37: Lance Stroll pits, goes back out on new intermediate tires
- Lewis Hamilton passes Sergio Perez to take the lead
- Hamilton is the apex predator of Formula 1 - show any weakness whatsoever and he'll eat you alive
- Lap 40: Vettel and LeClerc pass Lance Stroll - Stroll falls back into 6th
- Lap 41: LeClerc passes Vettel for fourth
- Bottas keeps spinning
- Is there something wrong with his car?
- Bottas isn't as good a driver as Lewis, but he's not this bad
- Lap 42: Lance Stroll has fallen back into 8th - lost his cool
- Lap 44: Charles LeClerc passes Max Verstappen for 4th
- Verstappen immediately heads for the pits for fresh tires
- Goes back out on another set of intermediates
- This is Verstappen's third pit stop
- Lap 45: Carlos Sainz passes Alex Albon for 5th
- Lap 48: Bottas comes in for another set of intermediates; goes back out in 5th
- Lap 49: Daniel Ricciardo locks up and spins - loses 9th place to Lando Norris
- Lap 51: Kimi Raikkonen spins, as does Max Verstappen, on the same corner
- Lewis Hamilton is a master at eking life out of worn tires
- Lap 53: Max Verstappen passes Alex Albon to regain P6
- Lap 56: Lewis Hamilton pits just in case it might start raining again - has a 20 sec lead over Perez, so the stop doesn't cost him position
- Lando Norris passes Lance Stroll for 8th
- Exciting finish behind Lewis Hamilton
- LeClerc makes a move on Perez in the second to last corner
- Perez hold LeClerc off
- Then, in the last corner, Vettel passes LeClerc to get 3rd
- Lewis Hamilton wins his 7th F1 World Championship
2020 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Night race
- 3 DRS zones
- Lewis Hamilton in pole, Valteri Bottas in 2nd, another Mercedes front row
- Verstappen and Albon in 3rd and 4th - good on Albon for qualifying so highly
- Sergio Perez qualified 5th (how is it possible that he won't have a drive next year?)
- Daniel Ricciardo in 6th
- McLaren didn't qualify well at all - Lando Norris in 9th
- Carlos Sainz had a mechanical problem that caused him to spin out in Q2, in 15th as a result
- Top 10 teams are all starting on medium tires
- Carlos Sainz is on soft tires, Charles LeClerc on hard tires
- The problem is that soft tires wear incredibly quickly on this track
- Ferrari are 11th and 12th
- Lap 1: Bottas gets a poor start - loses four places by the time he gets to turn 1
- Lap 1: Fiery crash - red flag
- Looks like a Haas crashed and caught fire
- Fires are so rare in modern F1
- Romain Grosjean?
- Damage to Lando Norris
- Lance Stroll also spun out
- Romain Grosjean walks away from the crash, thank goodness
- Car was almost cut in half by the crash
- Car went straight through the barrier, weight of the engine wrenched the car in half, causing the fuel to spill out
- Halo probably saved Grosjean's life
- Haas is going to have to face some questions about how their car came apart like that
- Race will be red-flagged while barriers are repaired
- That was the worst crash I've ever seen in F1
- Minimum of 45 minute delay as they repair the barrier
- Not a normal place where you'd expect cars to go off the track, which is why the crash was so severe
- Romain Grosjean
- Suspected broken ribs from deceleration
- Minor burns to hands and ankles due to heat
- Looks like the fire was due to the fuel collector that feeds the engine rupturing as the engine was torn away from the rest of the car
- Restart
- Hamilton starts on pole
- Verstappen starts 2nd
- Perez moves up to 3rd, Bottas falls back to 4th
- Albon falls back to 5th
- Lap 3 (after restart):
- Daniel Ricciardo falls way back through the grid - is in 10th
- Lance Stroll spins out, safety car
- Lance Stroll is upside down! This is the second person the halo has saved today
- Daniel Kvyat moved up inside Lance Stroll and made wheel to wheel contact, causing Stroll to flip
- Vettel was complaining about LeClerc's aggression - reference to Austria last year
- Valtteri Bottas picks up a puncture, has to come in to the pits
- Lance Stroll has the worst luck
- Lap 8: Safety car comes in, racing resumes on lap 9
- Lap 13: Daniel Kvyat picks up a 10 second time penalty for flipping Stroll
- Vettel is complaining about his car
- Carlos Sainz has a great move on Charles LeClerc
- Increasingly clear that Sergio Perez deserves the second Red Bull seat over Alex Albon
- Bottas is far back in the pack; the Mercedes is not a great car in traffic
- Kimi Raikkonen has wing damage - will have to come in for a new front wing
- Daniel Ricciardo pits on lap 17, comes out on hard tires
- Lap 20: Lewis Hamilton pits, goes back out on medium tires - 2 stop strategy?
- Lap 21: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez pit
- Lap 26: Valtteri Bottas pits again
- Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are together on the grid once again
- Lap 35: Max Verstappen pits - undercut on Lewis Hamilton?
- Lap 36: Lewis Hamilton pits
- Lap 37: Sergio Perez pits
- Lap 39: Valtteri Bottas pits once again
- Tires are wearing out very quickly in this race
- Lap 47: Verstappen pits - goes out on new tires so that he can make a play for fastest lap
- Lap 55: Sergio Perez suffers engine failure and his car catches fire as well
- Albon moves up into 3rd place
- Lewis Hamilton wins, Max Verstappen 2nd, Alex Albon 3rd
- McLaren get 5th and 6th
- McLaren moves up to third place in the constructor's championship
2020 Sakhir Grand Prix
- Raced at the same track, Bahrain, but in a different configuration
- Lewis Hamilton is out because of COVID
- George Russell is substituting for him
- Who does Williams have substituting for Russell?
- Valteri Bottas starts on pole, George Russel manages to qualify 2nd
- Wow, this is going to give the Hamilton haters something to chew on
- Max Verstappen qualifies 3rd
- Charles LeClerc qualifies 4th - really good qualification for Ferrari
- Sergio Perez qualifies 5th
- Daniil Kvyat, from Toro Rosso qualifies 6th
- Daniel Ricciardo is in 7th
- McLaren's highest qualifying is in 8th, with Carlos Sainz
- Alex Albon didn't even make it into Q3 - starts in 12th
- Williams calls up Jack Aitken to substitute for George Russell - start 17th
- Lando Norris starts 19th after taking a penalty for an engine change
- Pietro Fittipaldi is substituting for Romain Grosjean
- Unusual layout, sandy track, windy day
- Lap 1:
- George Russel takes the lead after turn 1 after an excellent start
- Kimi Raikonnen spins out in the back
- Sergio Perez, Charles LeClerc, and Max Verstappen come together and spin
- Verstappen is out - this means that Bottas is basically guaranteed 2nd place in the driver's championship at this point
- Full safety car deployed as Verstappen's car (and possibly some others) have to be cleared
- Charles LeClerc is also out
- Verstappen is mad, and I don't blame him
- Verstappen takes evasive action to get around the collision between LeClerc and Perez, and might have made it out if the runoff area had been asphalt instead of gravel
- Instead, he goes straight into the tire wall and is out of the race
- Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo move up into 3rd and 4th - big moves for McLaren and Renault
- Lap 6, safety car ends
- On restart, Russell gets off well
- Bottas struggles and is put under pressure by Sainz, but manages to hold on to 2nd
- Lap 8, Lando Norris moves up into 9th - massive gains for him as well
- Lap 21 - Lando Norris pits, gets off soft tires and goes onto mediums
- Lap 28 - Daniil Kvyat pits - goes onto medium tires
- Lap 29 - Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz pit
- This race is going to be decided by pit strategy, looks like
- Lap 30 - Daniel Ricciardo pits
- Lap 42 - Esteban Ocon pits and goes onto the hard tires
- Lap 43 - Lance Stroll pits, and comes out with medium tires just ahead of Esteban Ocon
- Lap 46 - George Russell pits and goes out with hard tires
- Lap 48 - Alex Albon pits and goes out on hard tires
- Lap 50 - Valteri Bottas pits, comes out 8 seconds behind George Russell
- Lap 52 - Pierre Gasly pits again
- Lap 55 - Nicholas Latifi pulls over
- Virtual Safety Car
- Lando Norris pits
- Sebastian Vettel pits
- Lando Norris pits just as the safety car ends
- Lap 58 - Virtual safety car and pit stops really helped Sergio Perez, who moves up into 3rd, after Lance Stroll locks up
- Once again, how is it just that Sergio Perez doesn't have a drive next year
- Lap 61 - Virtual Safety Car - Jack Aitkin lost his front wing
- Lap 63 - Full safety car, in order to create a gap for the marshals to retrieve the front wing lost from Aitkin's car
- George Russel pits
- Valteri Bottas pits
- Mercedes double stack
- Confusion in the Mercedes pits - what's going on?
- Bottas loses track position to Sergio Perez, Estaban Ocon and Lance Stroll - comes out in 5th
- George Russell needs to come back into the pits because they have a mixed set of tires on the car
- Russell comes out in 6th, behind Bottas
- Sergio Perez is now leading the race
- Can George Russell make it back to the lead?
- Lap 68 - Safety car ends
- Lap 70 - Russell passes Valteri Bottas
- Lap 72 - Russell passes Lance Stroll - moves up into 3rd
- Lap 73 - Russell passes Esteban Ocon - moves up into 2nd
- Lap 77
- Sainz and Ricciardo pass Bottas
- Sainz moves up into 5th
- Ricciardo moves up into 6th
- Bottas drops to 7th
- Really horrible race for Valteri
- Lap 79 - Russell picks up a rear-left puncture and has to pit
- Lap 87 - Race ends
- Sergio Perez gets his first win in F1
- Esteban Ocon gets his first podium
- Russell gets 9th place - first points finish, first point for fastest lap
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Yas Marina circuit
- Max Verstappen qualifies for pole
- Valteri Bottas qualifies 2nd
- Lewis Hamilton is back, in 3rd place
- Lando Norris has a great qualifying - 4th place
- Alex Albon qualifies 5th - decent, but not a good look when Max Verstappen has pole
- Racing Point, Renault and Ferrari start relatively far back in the grid
- Most teams are going to be on a one-stop strategy for this race - hard tires are pretty durable on this track
- Top 3 are starting on medium tires
- Lando Norris and Alexander Albon are starting on soft
- Mix of soft, medium and hard all across the grid - pit stop strategies are going to be interesting
- Yas Marina is such a pretty circuit
- Verstappen has a good start (for once) and leads through the first lap
- Not a lot of drama in the first lap, thank goodness - no spins or crashes
- Lap 2 - Pierre Gasly has a great pass against Esteban Ocon
- Mercedes might have had to turn down the power on their engines due to reliability issues
- This is why Red Bull might have the lead here today
- Lap 6 - Albon passes Lando Norris to take 4th
- Lap 10 - Sergio Perez pulls over with mechanical failure
- Virtual Safety Car deployed
- Perez's engine just cut out - looks like an oil pump failure
- Pretty much everyone comes in for a pit stop, with the notable exception of Ferrari
- Lap 11 - full safety car comes out
- Possible oil on the track
- Sergio Perez's car looks stuck - might need the forklift to get it off the track, hence the full safety car
- Lap 13 - safety car ends
- Daniel Ricciardo did not pit during the safety car, and, as a result is up into 5th
- Carlos Sainz under investigation for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane, as McLaren was double-stacking its cars for the pit stop under the safety car
- Lap 25 - Max Verstappen has doubts about whether he'll be able to go to the end of the race with the hard tires that he has
- Lap 26 - Lewis Hamilton repeats Max Verstappen's concerns about tires
- Lap 36
- Hamilton complaining about flat spots
- Vettel pits
- Lap 40 - Daniel Ricciardo (finally) pits - trades hard tires for medium
- Verstappen wins - gets a grand slam by getting pole, leading every lap and getting fastest lap
- Bottas 2nd, Hamilton 3rd, Albon 4th
- Boring race
- McLaren manage to get third place in the constructor's championship, as Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finish 5th and 6th
