May 2021

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Alfa Romeo wins right to review Raikonnen’s Imola penalty

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Alfa Romeo could have some points coming their way after winning the right to appeal Kimi Raikkonen’s penalty at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Raikkonen saw P9 taken away from him after he had initially spun behind the Safety Car at Turn 3 in Imola as drivers prepared for a rolling race restart, but hesitation from the team meant that Raikkonen did not retake his original position before the first safety car line. That meant that he was then required to take the restart from the pit lane, something which the Finn did not do, leading to a post-race 30-second time penalty. Alfa Romeo had asked for clarification from the race director shortly after Raikkonen’s spin but received no response prior to the race resuming, while in issuing the penalty the stewards acknowledged the confusion of the regulations but had no choice other than to issue the mandatory penalty. The regulations have been amended to avoid any future incidents such as Raikkonen’s but they have also deemed Alfa Romeo’s right to appeal admissible because full information on what the right course of action would be was not available at the time. The FIA said: “Subsequent to the decision and as part of this present hearing, the Stewards have discovered that the specific cases that they referred to were not following a Red Flag. “While this was only one element among many considered by the Stewards, this information was unavailable to the Competitor at the time of the original decision and was a part of the discussion by the Stewards and is therefore deemed significant and relevant.” The full appeal will be heard prior to the Portuguese Grand Prix.

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Toyota GR010 Hybrid wins in its debut at Spa

Kevin Peterson08 mins

Toyota started its first-ever race with the all-new GR010 Hybrid on the front foot by qualifying both cars on the front row, but its narrow pace advantage over the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson meant the Japanese giant needed a relatively smooth race to secure victory. That didn’t happen however, with polesitter Kamui Kobayashi throwing away the lead in the second half of the race by going off the track at Bruxelles in the #7 car, losing a lap in the process. The #8 car also had its issues, notably receiving a 30-second time penalty for an early pitstop infraction, in which the Toyota crew took the refuelling hose off the car six seconds short of the required 35-second minimum time. That gave Alpine a fighting chance to take a win with the grandfathered and pegged back LMP1 car, which was run by Rebellion until last season. In the #36 car Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere traded the lead with the #8 Toyota depending on the pitstop sequence, but ultimately couldn’t live with the #8 Toyota’s race pace. Sebastien Buemi crossed the line with a 1m07 gap on Negrao, who was further held back by a late puncture. The #7 Toyota took on the lion’s share of the Cologne team’s teething issues with its all-new Hypercar, losing time with a slow pitstop early on and having to do a full system reset during a late full-course yellow. Kobayashi ultimately took third, one minute clear of the leading LMP2 car, after also having to take a drive-through for Lopez hitting the #91 Porsche at the Bus Stop. LMP2: United Autosports dominatesIn LMP2 United Autosports produced another crushing display with its #22 Oreca 07-Gibson. Phil Hanson, polesitter Filipe Albuquerque and newcomer Fabio Scherer led from start to finish and amassed a healthy one-minute lead, with only a late drive-through penalty for a full-course yellow violation able to dent their dominant lead. The #26 G-Drive Aurus-badged Oreca driven by Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto and Nyck de Vries looked set for second place after being driven to the front by De Vries, but the team was forced to abandon the race with an oil leak in the fifth hour. That promoted the #28 JOTA Oreca of Stoffel Vandoorne, Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist to second, but a drive-through for dangerous driving by Blomqvist handed second to the #38 sister car of Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson. The #38 trio finished 44 seconds behind the winners, with #28 car a further minute in arrears. Racing Team Nederland took a Pro-Am win courtesy of a trouble-free run by Giedo van der Garde, Frits van Eerd and Job van Uitert, beating Inter Europol to fourth in class. Early LMP2 Pro-Am frontrunner DragonSpeed was hampered by a drive-through for Juan Pablo Montoya – for causing a collision – and lost further time to finish seventh in class and third in Pro-Am, behind RealTeam Racing. Series debutant Team WRT also fell away from the front due to a clutch issue, but the Belgian squad’s Oreca also looked competitive in the hands of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. GTE Pro: Porsche defeats FerrariIn a five-car GTE Pro class, the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani proved the pick of the field. Picking up where he left off after his stunning pole on Friday, Estre continued to dominate the field during the opening stages of the race, with only a puncture being able to worry the Porsche factory team. Estre and GTE debutant Jani took the win 25 seconds ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris, the #51 488 GTE Evo of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The #52 sister car of Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra, another car hit with a drive-through for full-course yellow infractions, completed the podium 1m38 behind. Chevrolet finished a distant fourth on its first outing outside North America with the C8.R, one lap behind the class leaders. Antonio Garcia shared the #63 machine with Oliver Gavin, who made his final appearance as a professional racer after a glittering 20+ year career, which included five Le Mans wins for Corvette. The second Porsche, the #91 of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, finished last in class after suffering two right-rear punctures and being punted off by the #7 Toyota. GTE Am: AF Corse wins as Rovera shinesThe #83 AF Corse dominated the GTE Am class. After being established at the forefront by Francois Perrodo, Italian GT champion Alessio Rovera underlined his credentials by sprinting away from the field. Nicklas Nielsen finished the job, crossing the line with a 1m08 lead on the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin of standout amateur Ben Keating, Felipe Fraga and Dylan Pereira. The #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Alessio Picariello, Marco Seefried and Andrew Haryanto look set to finish third, but it too was hit with a FCY-related 30-second penalty and was demoted to fifth. That promoted the #47 Cetilar Ferrari of Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Antonio Fuoco to third in class.

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Bottas tops Portimao qualifying as Hamilton finishes second, Verstappen third

Kevin Peterson011 mins

Valtteri Bottas successfully claimed pole position from Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes front-row lock-out for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimão. The Finn’s best Q3 time of 1:18.348s was just 0.007s quicker than Hamilton, while the two Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were several tenths off the pace as they claimed the second row of the grid. Carlos Sainz was the highest-placed Ferrari in fifth ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Lando Norris, after a shock early elimination for Daniel Ricciardo who missed the cut at the end of Q1. Ahead of the start of qualifying at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, there was heightened activity at the Mercedes garage as mechanics completed their work reassembling Valtteri Bottas’ car. Meanwhile their McLaren counterparts had themselves only just finished addressing an ECU issue on Lando Norris’ MCL35M. However everyone was ready for action when the lights went green at the end of pit lane for the start of qualifying in bright, breezy and rather cool conditions. Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin led the way out, followed by the two McLarens on medium tyres, including Norris. Mazepin set the first time of the session which was soon bumped off the top spot by Norris and then by Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi. The first serious run came from Carlos Sainz with a lap of 1:19.480s, while his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc had his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. His next was nonetheless good enough for second place, but he was soon pushed aside again by a sequence of flying laps from Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. After an extra warm-up lap, Lewis Hamilton made his presence felt by going top with just under ten minutes on the clock with a time of 1:18.726s. That was half a second quicker than Sainz but his lap was also then deleted, allowing Sainz to reclaim top honours for a few seconds before Bottas went a tenth faster. Hamilton played it safe with his next run which was good enough for sixth place behind the two Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Perez subsequently ran into the gravel at turn 4 but was able to extricate himself, shortly after Alonso had also briefly spun at the same corner as a result of the blustery tailwind conditions. With time running out, the bottom five consisted of the two Haas drivers (Schumacher and Mazepin) and both Williams (George Russell and Nicholas Latifi), together with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was on the bubble. There was still plenty of time for them to punch in one final effort, and Vettel duly leapt up to fourth place and safety just as Norris was finally able to find some pace to move to the top ahead of Bottas. Bottas and Hamilton both improved on their final Q1 runs to straddle Norris in first and third respectively, with Ocon also improving to fourth ahead of Sainz, Perez, Leclerc, Vettel, Giovinazzi and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. Tsunoda battled his way to safety in 12th and Russell scraped through in 15th by four hundredths, but a late improvement for Ocon had the knock-on effect of producing a shock elimination for Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren. Stroll also found himself in the drop zone alongside Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin as the dust settled. When the session resumed, everyone hit the track with most sporting the medium compound with the notable exception of Norris, Gasly and Tsunoda. Sainz set the early benchmark with a time of 1:19.560s which was soon bettered by Leclerc. Verstappen was a third of a second quicker still, and then it was the Mercedes drivers’ turn to play their hand with Hamilton finding a totally new gear with a time of 1:17.968s, almost half a second quicker than Bottas. Meanwhile Norris used his soft tyres to slot into third place ahead of Ocon, Perez, Vettel and Verstappen. While the medium compound was clearly the best tyres to stat the race on, the soft compound was giving other drivers such as Norris such an advantage that Ferrari and even Red Bull were struggling for pace and now risked possibly missing the cut if they stuck to the same strategy. Even Hamilton and Bottas made a precautionary change to the red-walled tyres before their final runs, albeit with the hope of aborting their runs should they not be needed. Only Leclerc stayed on the mediums and he was soon shuffled back by a better effort from the soft-shod Gasly, but the Monegasque then countered with a better lap of his own to ensure safe passage in sixth place. The final laps flew thick and fast. Hamilton, Bottas and Norris held on to the top spots ahead of Ocon with Verstappen also safely through ahead of the two Ferraris, and Perez cutting it a little fine in eighth ahead of Vettel and Gasly. Just missing out was Russell despite a much improved final run leaving him in 11th place on the Sunday’s grid, with Giovinazzi, Alonso, Tsunoda and Raikkonen also eliminated. As the final round of qualifying got underway, most of the drivers opted for an extra warm-up lap on their soft tyres. However Verstappen was straight on it and looked set to take provisional pole, only to end up surviving a scary oversteer moment at turn 4 that cost him his lap time for straying outside the track limits. That allowed Bottas to take the top spot by 1:18.348s by seven thousandths of a second from Hamilton, with Perez third ahead of Sainz, Norris and Leclerc. As the cars came out for their final runs, Hamilton changed to the medium tyres that had worked so well for him in Q2. Bottas followed his team mate’s lead, while everyone else was on the soft compound. Aware that Verstappen hadn’t posted a time yet, the McLaren pit wall cheekily advised Norris “Don’t do…

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Marquez declared fit to race after Jerez FP3 crash, escapes major injury

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Six-time world champion Marc Marquez escaped “major injury” after a high speed crash in Spanish MotoGP practice at Jerez on Saturday and is fit to continue racing. “After his check, marcmarquez93 has been declared FIT for the remainder of the SpanishGP,” his Honda team tweeted. The 28-year-old Spaniard fell heavily in the third practice session at the circuit where last year he broke his right arm in the opening race to end his 2020 campaign. “Marc is perfectly fine,” MotoGP doctor Angel Charte told Spanish television station DAZN. Marquez made his comeback after nine months out and multiple bouts of surgery at the Portuguese MotoGP last month. He admitted to a “lack of strength” after he struggled in Friday practice at Jerez. In Saturday’s opening session he lost control of his bike at 180km at turn seven, sliding across gravel on his left arm and into a barrier. Clearly shaken he managed to walk away, returning to the pits on a scooter. After a medical check-up at the track Honda reported their star rider had “no major injuries suffering only a contusion”. Shortly after in a second tweet the team added: “To double check his condition after the Turn 7 fall, @MarcMarquez93 is heading to hospital for further checks. “These are precautionary and Marquez is not experiencing any pain or discomfort.” Charte said he ordered a scan as “a check-up”. “He has a big bruise on his neck and back, it doesn’t cost us anything to do a scan,” the doctor said. “It’s only a control scan, nothing more.” the doctor added. Marquez finished seventh on an emotional return to the championship in Portugal on 18 April having elected to skip the opening two races of 2021 at Qatar. At Jerez on Friday he could muster only 16th in the opening two practice sessions. After the third session Takaaki Nakagami riding for Honda’s satellite LCR team topped the timesheets ahead of championship leader Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha.

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Quartararo takes pole at Jerez, Marquez finishes 14th

Kevin Peterson07 mins

MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, narrowly seeing off fellow Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli. It meant Quartararo maintained his perfect MotoGP qualifying record at Jerez, having now taken four poles in four attempts at the Spanish venue. A change in temperature and wind speed seemed to catch out several riders right in the lead-up to qualifying, with the pre-qualifying FP4 session punctuated by a number of late crashes. The two Aprilia riders crashed to kick off the chaos – although Espargaro had also fallen at the start of FP4 – before Suzuki rider Alex Rins, Honda’s Pol Espargaro and Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci followed suit. Pol Espargaro’s fall was particularly nasty, coming at high speed at the same corner – the Turn 7 right-hander – that also brought upon Marc Marquez’s shunt earlier today. When the pole shoot-out began, Quartararo got the early advantage, leading ex-team-mate Morbidelli by 0.005s after the initial round of laps. He then improved right as the chequered flag flew, stretching his lead over Morbidelli to 0.057s. The Petronas Yamaha man had no response and settled for second, which still represented a great return given he’d unexpectedly found himself having to fight through Q1. Morbidelli had posted two laps in FP3 that were easily good enough for an automatic Q2 spot. But the first one was deleted for track limits immediately, and then his second lap was chalked off after a post-session investigation, and therefore Morbidelli was consigned to the first segment of qualifying. Yet he advanced with ease, doing so alongside the KTM of Brad Binder, who was the Austrian marque’s sole Q2 representative. Ducati rider Jack Miller, who was the beneficiary of Morbidelli’s FP3 cancellations and got a direct Q2 ticket, as a result, made the most of it by completing the front row, having followed team-mate Francesco Bagnaia on his fastest lap. Bagnaia himself then moved up to fourth place at the chequered flag, with Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) joining him on the front row. Maverick Vinales was only seventh for Yamaha, with Aleix Espargaro ninth and the two Suzukis of Alex Rins and Joan Mir completing the top 10, despite Mir being just 0.399s off the pole time. Binder and Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl rounded out the Q2 classification. Despite his FP4 crash, Pol Espargaro got his first qualifying win over new team-mate Marquez, but the factory Honda pair had to settle for 13th and 14th respectively. It marked Marquez’s first Q1 exit since 2015, but the Spaniard will have been relieved to avoid major injury in his FP3 crash, having been to hospital for a CT scan that uncovered no substantial damage. The Honda duo were supposed to be even further back, as Binder’s KTM team-mate Miguel Oliveira was just 0.022s behind the South African after following Binder on his final Q1 lap. But, having already missed out on Q2, Oliveira then had the lap chalked off for track limits, and was relegated to the sixth row, allowing Avintia Ducati rookie Enea Bastianini to join the Hondas on row five instead. Valentino Rossi followed his Petronas Yamaha team-mate Morbidelli in Q1 but could only place seventh-fastest in the session, meaning he has qualified no higher than 17th for a third consecutive event. Pos Name Team Bike Group 1 Group 2 1 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m36.755s 2 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 1m36.916s 1m36.812s 3 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1m36.86s 4 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1m36.96s 5 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 1m37.008s 6 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 1m37.054s 7 Maverick Viñales Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m37.07s 8 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1m37.085s 9 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 1m37.124s 10 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 1m37.154s 11 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m37.35s 1m37.467s 12 Stefan Bradl Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m37.502s 13 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m37.407s 14 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m37.489s 15 Enea Bastianini Avintia Esponsorama Racing Ducati 1m37.675s 16 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m37.746s 17 Valentino Rossi Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 1m37.915s 18 Luca Marini SKY VR46 Avintia Team Ducati 1m37.925s 19 Danilo Petrucci Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m38.065s 20 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 1m38.069s 21 Iker Lecuona Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m38.139s 22 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1m38.325s 23 Tito Rabat Pramac Racing Ducati 1m38.641s

alfa romeo wins right to review raikonnen’s imola penalty

Verstappen tops as Hamilton comes second in Portimao FP3

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set two laps quick enough for top spot during final practice for Formula 1’s Portuguese Grand Prix. Verstappen finished the one-hour session with a best time of 1:18.489s to finish 0.236s clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton at Portimao. Valtteri Bottas finished in third position for Mercedes while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took fourth, as Formula 1’s leading two teams grabbed the top positions. Alpine caught the eye through Friday practice and maintained that speed through Saturday lunchtime’s session. While Fernando Alonso had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, running wide at Turn 1, Esteban Ocon placed fifth overall. Ocon’s time left him ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz while Lando Norris was the lead McLaren driver in eighth position. AlphaTauri fared better than its Friday display, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda ninth and 11th respectively, as Alfa Romeo was represented inside the top 10 by Kimi Raikkonen. In a closely-contested session Daniel Ricciardo and Antonio Giovinazzi took 12th and 13th respectively but were both within 1.1s of pacesetter Verstappen. Haas has spent 2021 at the back of the grid but Mick Schumacher suggested after Friday practice that he could creep into contention for Q2. Schumacher delivered on that notion by placing 15th through final practice. Conversely Aston Martin’s subdued 2021 campaign showed little sign of taking an upturn in fortunes. Lance Stroll, running the updated AMR21, was only 16th, while Sebastian Vettel could muster only 18th spot. They were split by Williams’ George Russell, who slipped down the leaderboard compared to Friday, while Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin capped the order. Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:18.489s 21 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:18.725s + 0.236s 21 3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:18.820s + 0.331s 19 4 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:18.840s + 0.351s 24 5 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:18.860s + 0.371s 19 6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.001s + 0.512s 23 7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:19.050s + 0.561s 24 8 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.272s + 0.783s 18 9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:19.374s + 0.885s 25 10 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 1:19.415s + 0.926s 25 11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:19.485s + 0.996s 25 12 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:19.582s + 1.093s 19 13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:19.588s + 1.099s 23 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:19.949s + 1.460s 20 15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:20.033s + 1.544s 21 16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:20.090s + 1.601s 17 17 George Russell Williams 1:20.127s + 1.638s 18 18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:20.214s + 1.725s 21 19 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:20.681s + 2.192s 19 20 Nikita Mazepin Haas 1:20.690s + 2.201s 20