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Sunday, August 30, 2020

Hamilton Scorches Spa-Francorchamps For Race Pole

Photo Credit: Pirelli & C. S.p.A.


In recent years, the Belgian Grand Prix has been recognized as the start of the second half of the Formula 1 season after the series’ summer break. With a revised 2020 schedule, the popular Formula 1 competition at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps appears as the seventh event on the recently finalized 17-race seasonal calender. 

The 20-car qualifying session for the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix concluded with the familiar sight of Lewis Hamilton’s #44 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team race car prevailing after time expired in Q3. Achieving a new track record on the 7.004-kilometer Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Hamilton’s 1-minute, 41.252-second lap time was roughly 1.3 seconds faster than the pole qualifying time last year. The pole for Sunday’s 44-lap race in Belgium is Lewis Hamilton’s 93rd career Formula 1 pole position and was dedicated to the memory of recently departed actor Chadwick Boseman who lost a battle with colon cancer on Friday.

With a time of 1-minute, 41.763 seconds in Q3, Valtteri Bottas secured a lock of the front row for Sunday’s main event. The second place qualifying position is the Finnish driver’s highest grid spot at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Slotted into the second row of the grid order for the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix is Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Reaffirming a position as a top runner in this Formula 1 season when excluding the dominant performances of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing RB16 vehicle was just 0.015 seconds slower than the second Mercedes AMG runner. With a course set to Renault following the 2020 season, Daniel Ricciardo is nonetheless eager to prove that himself and his current pairing with the Renault F1 team are capable of moments of greatness. Ricciardo’s Renault will be the highest starter in the Belgian Grand Prix wearing Pirelli soft compound tires. The top three starters (Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen) are the only participants on Sunday beginning the race on medium compound rubber. 


Photo Credit: Pirelli & C. S.p.A.


Alexander Albon and Esteban Ocon will start on the third row for the grand prix in Belgium. With Carlos Sainz Jr. positioned in seventh and Lando Norris qualifying in tenth, the McLaren duo sandwiched the two Racing Point entries as Sergio Perez starts one spot higher than Lance Stroll. 

Belgian Grand Prix qualifying is another painful outing for the Scuderia Ferrari team. The winning team of the previous two grand prixs on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Ferrari failed to have either of their two vehicles break into Q3. Last year’s Belgian Grand Prix victor Charles Leclerc could only obtain a 13th place starting spot while Sebastian Vettel grabbed 14th. Vettel’s top lap time in qualifying was more than two seconds slower than the pole-winning effort of Lewis Hamilton.  

The 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix will start Sunday at 3:10 pm local time or 9:10 am eastern time.


2020 Formula 1
Belgian Grand Prix
Starting Grid


Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Hamilton Wins Fourth Consecutive Spanish Grand Prix in Masterful Fashion

 

Photo Credit: LAT Images/Mercedes AMG


The sixth race for the 2020 Formula 1 season, the 4.655-kilometer Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya plays host to a special summer edition of the Spanish Grand Prix. Taking place in the middle of August rather than its typical early May, this season’s edition of the event presented a little extra heat than drivers and teams would be accustomed to on the track.  

A 66-lap race, the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix was another example of the prime form of Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team. From pole position, the British driver shot out to an early lead and would go unchallenged over the race’s 66-lap distance. Hamilton would take the chequered flag 24.177 seconds ahead of the runner-up. “This feels absolutely incredible. I was just in a daze out there, I didn’t even know it was the last lap in the end, that’s how in the zone I was.” Lewis Hamilton commented in a post-race release on his team’s website. Sunday’s triumph for Hamilton was the fourth year in a row that he won the Spanish Grand Prix.


Photo Credit: Pirelli & C. S.p.A



From the standing start of the Spanish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes launched near-flawlessly, his teammate had a less-than impressive start. Claiming second in qualifying on Saturday, Valtteri Bottas is beaten into the first corner by the Honda-powered Red Bull race car of Max Verstappen and later the Racing Point piloted by Lance Stroll. Rising from fifth to third in the first lap, the Canadian driver would fend off the Mercedes AMG team car for several laps but Bottas was able to overtake the Mercedes-Benz propelled Racing Point RP20 shortly after DRS would be enabled. Earlier this season in the grand prix of Hungary, Valtteri Bottas had a poor launch that dropped him to sixth place by the first lap. While Bottas humbly admitted the Hungarian Grand Prix miscue was a result of reacting to the wrong light, the reason for the difficult start in Spain was not immediately identified. 

As the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix progressed beyond one-third distance, teams began making pit stops with Max Verstappen pitting on lap 21 while Hamilton and Bottas came to the attention of their crew on lap 23. Lance Stroll pushed his vehicle deeper into the event waiting until lap 27 to come to pit road for new tires. The top-10 starters at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya started the event on the soft compound option Pirelli tire. Starting outside of the top-10, Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel would run the opening laps on medium tires allowing his car to run until lap 29 before coming to pit for its only pit stop. Several teams attempted a single-stop strategy with drivers as Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and the two Renault factory racers of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon joining Vettel. Through tire management, Sebastian Vettel would ultimately score a seventh place finish. 

While Max Verstappen’s tire selection mirrored Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull Racing experimented with belting hard compound Pirelli tires to the car of Alexander Albon. The harder tire was seen as a less viable choice during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend with Red Bull Racing becoming the only team to try it on Sunday. Running 22 laps on the hard compound Pirelli tires, Albon’s fastest time was more than 2.2 seconds slower than his teammate’s best time running on medium compound rubber.


Photo Credit: Pirelli & C. S.p.A



The only race retirement over the course of the Spanish Grand Prix was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Operating on a one-stop plan that Ferrari believes could have placed Leclerc in fourth place at the end of the event, an electrical fault with the control unit on the race car derailed their fight on lap 38. 

As Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory for the 88th time in his Formula 1 career, Max Verstappen took a solid second place collecting his fifth consecutive podium finish. The Dutch driver took the chequered flag by a comfortable margin just shy of 20.6 seconds over the Mercedes-AMG race car of Valtteri Bottas. The second Red Bull Racing driver Alexander Albon came across the start/finish line in eighth place.

Despite generating more headlines during the Silverstone races based on Lance Stroll’s practice pace ahead of the British Grand Prix, the substitution of Sergio Perez with Nico Hulkenberg and penalties related to the RP20's rear brake ducts, it’s rational to suggest Racing Point enjoyed a more successful race effort taking part in a slightly more quiet outing in Spain. Taking fourth and fifth place, the Racing Point team drivers would be classified in reversed positions. Aided by a single-stop tire strategy, Sergio Perez crossed the finish line fourth but was given a 5-second penalty for failing to acknowledge blue flags as Lewis Hamilton was passing his Racing Point. Lance Stroll assumed Perez’s spot in the race results being 2.2 seconds behind his teammate on track at the end of 66 laps. The points scored by both Racing Point drivers elevated the team to a narrow third place in the constructors’ championship as of after the Spanish Grand Prix. Appeals related to the August 7th ruling have been made by Racing Point as well as other competing teams that resulted in a loss of 15 constructor points.

Carlos Sainz Jr. led the McLaren squad across the line at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in sixth place becoming the Spaniard’s best result in his native grand prix. Lando Norris finished in 10th place just behind Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.

The next location for the 2020 Formula 1 series is the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix with the main event scheduled on August 30th. 


2020 Formula 1 Season
Spanish Grand Prix
Race Results