Hamilton Beats the Heat for Spanish Grand Prix Pole

Photo Credit: Steve Etherington/ Mercedes AMG

After two races competing on Britain’s Silverstone Circuit, the Formula 1 arrives at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix. Another grand prix event taking place without fans in attendance, the Spanish Grand Prix has been a widely-supported race first appearing on the Formula 1 schedule in 1951. The venue for the grand prix since 1991 has been the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya currently configured in a 4.655-kilometer layout. Normally held on mid-spring, the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix’s placement in the middle of August presents hotter weather resulting in track temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius during Saturday’s qualifying.

 

Qualifying in Spain ended once more in favour of the Mercedes AMG F1 team. Besting his teammate Valtteri Bottas with a 1-minute, 15.584-second lap time, Hamilton secured his 92nd career Formula 1 pole position is his fourth in 2020. In a media release from the Mercedes Petronas F1 Team, Lewis Hamilton commented “The first Q3 lap was really solid but there was still a bit of room for improvement. But my second lap wasn’t particularly great and I just couldn’t go quicker. In the end, it was very close with Valtteri out there, he’s keeping me on my toes and every millisecond counts.”. Hamilton has won the Spanish Grand Prix on a total of four occasions with three falling consecutively from 2017 to 2019. Placing a tight second on the time chart after qualifying, Valtteri Bottas helped to secure the fifth all-Mercedes AMG team front row in the six events so far this season.  

Riding into Spain with the momentum of a victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone last week through the combination of steady race pace and strategic tire use, Max Verstappen continues to be the lead challenger to the Mercedes AMG race cars. Recording a top time of 1-minute, 16.292 seconds, Verstappen and his Honda-powered Red Bull vehicle were 0.649 seconds slower than Bottas’ car. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya holds a special significance for Max Verstappen for being the site of his first-ever Formula 1 win in 2016 running his first race with Red Bull Racing. 

Making a return after missing the two Silverstone races due to testing positive for COVID-19, Sergio Perez has shown a definite desire to prove his importance with Racing Point. Getting back up to speed quickly through practices, Perez posted a fourth fastest Q3 time less than two-tenths of a second slower than Max Verstappen. Perez’s effort placed him ahead of Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll who will start the Spanish Grand Prix alongside the second Red Bull Racing entry driven by Alexander Albon. 

The McLaren Formula 1 race team locked up the fourth row for Sunday’s race with Carlos Sainz Jr. narrowly claiming an advantage over Lando Norris at his home country’s event. Starting eighth, Norris’s Q3 qualifying effort beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by just 0.003 seconds on the stop watch. Making his second consecutive Q3 appearance in Spain, Pierre Gasly settled for the tenth place grid position piloting his AlphaTauri. Sebastian Vettel, continuing to experience what has amounted to be a dismal 2020 season to date, will start in 11th place after missing the opportunity at a top-10 qualifying by just 0.002 seconds after Q2. 

With the warm summer heat beaming on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, tire wear and management is anticipated as a factor for Sunday’s race once again for Formula 1 drivers and teams. The top 10 qualifiers on Saturday had set top times on Q2 with soft compound Pirelli rubber. If Ferrari and Vettel are willing to make a gamble, they can choose to start the Spanish Grand Prix on medium compound tires. Based on the data in practice sessions, the use of hard compound tires during the course of Sunday’s race is not expected.

Set for 66 laps around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix’s start time on Sunday is 3:10 pm local time (9:10 am Eastern time).

2020 Formula 1
Spanish Grand Prix
Starting Grid

Jules Bianchi Succumbs to 2014 Japanese Grand Prix Crash Injuries

Photo Credit: Ferrari S.p.A

The events of a Formula 1 race that concluded October 5th of last year have today become the focus of ultimate sorrow. A former champion of the French Formula Renault 2.0, Formula 3 Euro Series and more-recently up-and-coming Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi has died at the age of 25 years old.

News of Jules Lucien André Bianchi’s Friday evening passing was shared online early Saturday morning in France. A statement arriving from the family of Jules Bianchi was posted on the driver’s official fan club page on Facebook. Translated from French, the statement from the now-departed driver’s parents and siblings said, "Jules fought until the end, as it has always done, but yesterday, his battle has ended.” The Bianchi family expressed their thanks to the medical staff in Japan and France for more than nine months of efforts following the accident at the Suzuka circuit.

In the final laps of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, the Suzuka Circuit was being pounded by heavy rain resulting from Typhoon Phanfone. During the retrieval of the stricken Sauber driven by Adrian Sutil from the Dunlop Curve runoff area, the Marussia-Ferrari driven by the promising French driver Jules Bianchi slid wide entering the same corner. Bianchi’s loss of control resulted in a 212-kilometre per hour impact with a vehicle recovery crane. The Marussia reportedly slid under the tractor crane and proved to be an exceptionally violent accident. Eventually, word came out the driver of the Marussia suffered a severe head injury. When a medical crew reached the crash scene, they arrived to find Jules Bianchi in what his father later described as a “desperate” condition.

Photo Credit: Andrew Hone/ Pirelli 

 

Through the remaining grand prix events for the 2014 season, concerns and well-wishes for Jules Bianchi showed how a multi-million-dollar sport is not without the capacity to care. The hashtag #JB17 was placed on the sole Marussia-Ferrari competing at the following Formula 1 race. #ForzaJules were worn on Ferrari race cars with Bianchi recognized as a graduate of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Lewis Hamilton dedicated victory at the race after Suzuka (the inaugural Russian Grand Prix) to Jules Bianchi. Remaining in a coma since the accident in Japan, the prognosis for the driver grew less positive in recent months. At the beginning of this week, Jule’s father Philippe Bianchi recalled the current state of his son as a “daily torture” as time has gone by.  

Bianchi was as much admired for his personality as he was for his driving skill among his race team. Manor Marussia team principal John Booth described him as a “very special driver.” Serving as the most monumental performance in less than two seasons, Jules Bianchi’s ninth place at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix handed the Marussia team its ever constructor points. After the crash in Japan, Booth remained in the hospital on the weekend the Marussia F1 Team ran a single-car at the Russian Grand Prix. Jules Bianchi’s 2014 teammate with Marussia was quick to share his thoughts in a tweet following the news of the French driver’s passing.

No words can describe what his family & the sport have lost. All I can say it was a pleasure knowing & racing you. x pic.twitter.com/NVcfbV9qdR

— M A X Chilton (@maxchilton) July 18, 2015

Following the announcement of his death, Ferrari has also remembered the life of Jules Bianchi. Formerly a test driver with Scuderia Ferrari, Bianchi was on the minds of an over 16,000-person crowd that attended Ferrari for Family Day at Maranello. Jules Bianchi becomes the first Formula 1 driver since 1994 to die as a result of a grand prix competition weekend crash when the San Marino Grand Prix claimed the life of Ayrton Senna.