Lewis Hamilton lead Mercedes’ one-two ahead of Valtteri Bottas closely followed by Lando Norris who ended up P3 in the second qualifying session at Monza. This comes as Daniel Ricciardo lost the third position due to track violations. Under cloudless skies and temperatures exceeding 28 degrees, Lewis Hamilton finished with a time of 1m 20.192s beating Leclerc’s time set last year in the same session with a 0.786s gap. Hamilton also lead his teammate Bottas with 0.262s making him top in the practice session. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo lost his third position after running too wide at the exit of the Parabolica meaning Mclaren’s Lando Norris came in third despite missing in on the middle part of the practice session due to a power unit problem, but it was solved after changing to the soft slicks giving the british racer P3 just 0.897s behind Hamilton. Pierre Gasly(AlphaTauri) took P4 being the fastest Honda runner just a tenth of a second quicker than Max Verstappen(Redbull Racing) who came in 5th despite spinning into the wall during first practice at Ascari after driving wide at the exit of Lesmo 1. Carlos Sainz came in 6th with a time of 1m 21.313s being in the second Ferrari as the sister AlphaTauri driven by Daniil Kvyat came in 7th. Lance Stroll(Racing Point) came in 8th as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was able to get to the top ten after finishing 9th, this was good news for Ferrari who had been struggling this season despite Sebastian Vettel finishing out of the top ten, being 12th but this was an improvement compared to Spa although he too experienced a spin at the exit of Lesmo 1. 10th position was taken by Sergio Perez(Racing Point) bringing into question why the likes of Alex and Ricciardo were missing from the top ten. This is because their laps were deleted(same case happened to Vettel too) due to track infringements at the Parabolica. Alexander albon(Redbull) and Daniel Ricciardo ended up ranking 14th and 15th respectively. Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th in his AlfaRomeo C39 as his teammate Kimi Raikkonen who is a polesitter at Monza came in 17th, as Kevin Magnussen(Haas) came before him in 16th. Romain Grosjean came in 18th being the second Haas. The 19th and 20th positions were taken by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and George Russel respectively.

The Turkish Grand Prix will be returning to the Formula 1 calender this year and the event organisers hope to open the race to 100,000 spectators to experience the race. The F1 race will be held in Istanbul Park circuit on November 15th as Liberty Media put the event back to the calendar for the 2020 F1 season. The Turkish GP was last held in 2011 but it was listed to feature the 2020 F1 calendar’s 17 rounds with the event being round 14. The organisers were initially not certain on opening the event to spectators. The chairman Intercity Promoters, Vural Ak on Tuesday confirmed that spectators will be allowed in the Istanbul Park circuit even as covid-19 pandemic still continues to affect globally. “We are prepared for anything, if the disease becomes worse than now, then the race can be run without spectators,” Viral Ak said, being open to the possibility that there might be a spike in covid 19 cases forcing an alternate plan. “At the moment for safety reasons, if we close some sections, about 100,000 spectators will be able to watch the race by following social distancing rules.” Viral added. Normally the Istanbul circuit can hold over 220,000 spectators in the grandstand and open areas meaning holding 100,000 spectators the park circuit will just be half full. The chairman also revealed the ticket prices will be very low as the promoters are not looking to make profits but just interested in running a successful race event which will be backed by the government. “Formula 1 normally has certain standards and ticket prices are at a certain level, however, as Intercity, we do not seek to gain financial advantage from this and the government has encouraged us.” “The ticket prices will be 30 TL(£3) per day. It will be 90 TL(£9) in total for three days. Tickets will be on sale next week and we think the tickets will sell very quickly.” the chairman added. There are also plans to allow a limited number of fans at the Tuscan GP which will be held in Russia mid September and the Portuguese GP which will be held end-October. The rest of the race rounds have not yet permitted spectators.

Mattia Binotto struggles to explain the disappointment and anger after a worst performance at Spa-Francorchamps, however he was unable to explain the reason behind the non-performing Ferrari SF 1000. Ferrari’s downfall at Spa started in Saturday’s qualifying session when Charles Leclerc Finished 13th while his teammate Sebastian Vettel finished 14th. The race did not do justice for them as they finished in the same positions having not earned any points, it was even more surprising that Kimi Raikkonen(Alfa Romeo) was able to beat the ferrari duo being their engine customer. Mattia Binotto however said that the team’s performance needed to be put into consideration believing that the downfall was caused by track characteristics. “I think it is wrong to use the word crisis for the moment we are going through, certainly this is a very bad result within a difficult season that we are experiencing. But we knew it was coming, we saw it in winter testing, and then came the freeze(after car modification) and the impossibility to develop the car.” “On a track that requires aerodynamic efficiency and power, we were severely lacking in both,” said Binotto after Sunday’s race. “We are disappointed and angry, as indeed are our fans and with good reason. It’s a difficult moment in a season that we knew from the start would be a tough one, but it’s at times like this that we need to stand firm and look ahead in order to get over this difficult period. It’s the only way we will get out of this situation.” The Ferrari team boss also took liabity after being questioned on why they had lagged so far behind. “The entire team is responsible, myself as team principal as first,” Binotto said. “Am I the right man or not ? Not myself to answer. How long it will take? “ “I think if you look back in all the winning cycles that have been set, it’s always many years. There are no silver bullets in F1, patience and stability is required.” the Ferrari boss added, but also warned that this is just a small set back but the oldest team in Formula 1 will step back to its glory

The defending champion Lewis Hamilto won his 89th grand prix this sunday at Spa-Francorchamps. This puts him two wins away from Michael Schumacher’s record 91 wins and may also equal the veteran’s seven title wins if he wins this year. The Mercedes’ driver only made one pitstop on lap 11 after the safety car came out after Antonio Giovinazzi(Alfa Romeo) and George Russel(Williams Racing) incident that saw their two cars off the race. The next 33 laps for Hamilton were successful although he had expressed concerns over his hard tyres which were vibrating. After finishing the race he did a ‘wakanda salute’ on the podium paying tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was the main actor in the movie ‘black panther’. The black american actor passed on Friday night after a 4-year battle with colon cancer. The 35-year-old had dedicated his pole position to Chadwick Boseman on Saturday. “Today’s a really important pole for me because I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick passing away” “It’s been such a heavy year, I think, for all of us and it just really, really broke me so it was really not easy to get back in focus coming into today, with that hanging on my heart.” said Hamilton on Saturday after getting the pole position. His dedication to the ‘Black Panther’ actor paid off with his undisputed win at Spa. “As a kid, dreaming of superheroes, and finally seeing a superhero of the same colour for me was really a remarkable moment for the black community, I broke down when I heard the news,” said Hamilton after the race.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly presented an impressive performance at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday evening’s Belgium grand prix. He finished the race position 8 which was a good performance and also a tremendous improvement from the Spanish Grand prix at Catalunya. The frenchman dedicated his success to Anthoine Hubert who passed on a year ago after a crash in the 2019 Formula 2 race at Spa. This was not the only factor giving him ‘the best driver of the day’, his car was the only one on the grid to start on the hard tyre and he also decided to stay out when the safety car came out after a crash that involved Antonio Giovinazzi(Alfa Romeo) and George Russel(Williams Racing). What impressed many was the impressive pass that he pulled off as he tried to pass Racing Point’s Sergio Perez while they were running downhill from La Source to Eau Rouge. The 24 year-old managed to squeeze between the RP20 and the barrier. “Honestly I thought we were in the wall,” Pierre Gasly recalled “I’m not kidding I was inside…I was like I can’t move more than that. And at that point we’re probably going 280 or 300km/h”. “Sergio is a hard racer,” Gasly continued “I knew it but there for sure, My heartbeat went slightly high when he started to squeeze me, but I was committed and I was like, there is no way I’m gonna lift, I’m gonna make this move work, and it was a great one.” Pierre Gasly also pulled off another pass on Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who tried to hold him off. He later commented on Ferrari’s problems saying he had seen their struggle with higher and lower wings and it was painful for him considering their achievements, however he was happy to be ahead of them. The AlphaTauri driver also admitted it wasn’t easy for him in the fist laps due to the hard tyres.”so I tried to keep it clean, stay close to the guys ahead. I was happy to make these two positions on lap one, because we didn’t expect that.”

Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton won the Belgium grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps followed by his teammate Valtteri Bottas having a gap of 8.448 seconds between the two Mercedes’ cars. This made it the 4th victory for the brit to have earned at Spa. Redbull’s Max Verstappen finished third in the race making it his 7th podium in the 2020 Formula 1 season(a podium for every race so far). Max was 15.455 seconds slower than Hamilton. Bottas had tried to keep his teammate Lewis behind him in the onset of the race but was forced to remain behind through the La Source turn as he went to the outside. Thanks to the tow from Hamilton, Bottas was able to maintain his position but lost some speed through Eau Rouge which made him experience a challenge from Max’s Redbull. The Renault Formula 1 team has a reason to smile after Daniel Ricciardo finished 4th in the race only missing Verstappen by a mere 3.422 seconds. Esteban Ocon finished 5th after overtaking Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon in the final stages of the race. Maclaren’s Lando Norris followed in closely finishing seventh just 1.062s behind the No.6 Redbull. However, his conterpart at Mclaren Carlos Sainz did not start his race as his Mcl 35 car experienced a power unit problem which led to a faulty exhaust system. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took the 8th position as Daniil Kvyat, his teammate finished 11th missing the window to earn himself some points which were scooped by the Racing Point duo,Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez who got the 9th and 10th position respectively. The troubled Ferrari SF1000 drivers Sebastian vettel and Charles Leclerc Finished 13th and 14th respectively. There was a huge incident on the track as Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his C39 and crashed on to the barriers on the outside of turn 14, due to the intensity of the crash a tyre from the Alfa Romeo bounced back onto the track as Kimi Raikonnen was able to manoeuvre through but it was too late for Williams’ driver George Russel to avoid the same. The Williams’ FW 43 hit the tyre rupturing the suspension system. The car went on to hit the barriers prompting the immediate deployment of the safety car, a lot of debris had remained on the track but was cleared for the race to continue. None of the drivers got hurt.

This year’s qualifiers turned out to be the worst for the Ferrari team after Leclerc and Vettel ended up ranking 13th and 14th in the overall qualifying standings, they also had the worst second round qualifiers after they had been both eliminated. Sebastian Vettel said they had tried everything and also put a lot of effort the previous night to make things a little better. They had tried to add more downforce to the car but things got even worse through the second qualifying round as Charles Leclerc ended up 17th and Vettel last. Miserable enough is that their two cars were slower than their pace at Spa-Francorchamps last year having a gap of 1.317s as willims turned out quicker by making a 2.424s difference from 2019. A close comparison to the stats shows that the SF1000 is slower and less stable than the 2019 car, the 2020 car also lifts along the flats which is unlikely in other cars. Data and analysis which were pulled out from the speed trap at the top of the Kemmel straight shows that Charles Leclerc is 12km/hr slower than 2019 having recorded a speed of 345km/hr, this shows that lack of power is also a problem. Trying to solve the power issue problem they reduced the downforce from the SF1000, but they ended up creating a problem with getting the tyres to the right window so the drivers are lacking grip both when accelerating and braking and this badly influences their performance. However their car has made it two times to the podium with Leclerc despite their struggles this season, it shows their strategies have not paid off. They could end up being in the midfied in the constructors’ championship which is unheard of from the team that ranks among the top. It could be their worst performance since 1980(40 years ago).

Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo is just the man to watch in the Belgin grand prix. This is after he ended up ranking 4th in the Saturday’s qualifiers. The Renault team has been struggling to remain in the mid-field battle after enduring a tough time at Catalunya in Spain, but the Saturday qualifier gave them high hopes as Ricciardo’s teammate Esteban Ocon finished 6th. This may have all been contributed by the downforce options that the team tried out making the RS20 ‘come alive’ as Daniel described. “We are pretty light, we feel this was a characteristic of the car last year. I feel like for whatever reason, the cars seems a bit more happier with a little bit less load on it” said the 31-year-old. “Obviously you can’t run this low around a circuit like Barcelona, but when we do come to these more high speed flowing circuits it just seems like it’s in a better place with a smaller rear wing.” This was his ever best qualifying perfomance at Spa being his 10th visit to the track. The Australian had turned out second in thecond free practice session on Friday before stopping on the track after the team spotted a hydraulics issue. He also expressed a feeling that the R.S20 felt faster and ‘fun’ than the last year’s car. Ricciardo also added that his team was very nervous and had their expectations high on the Saturday’s qualifier but it all paid up to see him in the second row also saying that the car had a little lower downforce than other cars on the grid which gave the best for the first and third qualifying rounds though the second run was compromised. Ocon was also happy ranking 6th in the run saying, “It’s been strong all weekend, we put the car down and compared to Barcelona, it’s handling so much better, so with all the changes we did coming into this race” “It gave us confidence, we have seen it is working on track, so we can work with a lot more calm and easy spirits. It feels good, I’m happy.”

Mercedes driver Valtteri bottas has set the pace by recording the fastest lap in the First Practice session of the Belgium grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Valtteri recorded the fastest time of 1m 44.493 seconds by narrowly beating his teammate Lewis Hamilton by a 0.069 second gap claiming P1. Hamilton recorded a lap time of 1m 44.562 seconds. Verstappen had set the initial pace in the morning at the Spa on medium tyres, but Bottas immediately jumped to position 1 in the standings after switching to the soft Pirellis. The redbull driver recorded a lap time of 1m 44.574 seconds just 0.081 seconds shy of Valtteri’s time after changing to soft tyres. Bottas had experienced a front left puncture as the practice session was coming to end but he was able to pit. Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez had equally the best moments at the Spa Practice 1 as Perez took 4th and Stroll taking 5th recording lap times of 1m 44.629 seconds and 1m 44.868 seconds respectively which was a good performance for Racing Point. Alexander Albon finished 6th having about half a second gap between him and his teammate Max Verstappen. Esteban Ocon in his Renault finished seventh as his teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth in the practice session leaving a gap of 0.126 seconds between the drivers. Carlos Sainz finished the session eighth while his partner Lando Norris ranked 10th in their Mclaren cars. Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly ended the session at 11th and 12th respectively after recording their fastest lap times on the medium compound tyres, though, through the earlier stages of the session Gasly was provoked by Mclaren’s Lando Norris holding him off on the track around Stavelot but the race stewards failed to note the incident. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkoned ended up 13th after his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi suffering a technical issue limiting him to only two practice laps. The Ferrari duo, Leclerc and Vettel ended 14th and 15th after struggling with their SF1000 cars which were losing power along the straights . Latiffi and Russel ranked 16th and 17th respectively in their Williams FW43 cars while the Haas team experienced problems with their cars. Romain Grosjean experienced a loss of power in the early stages of the practice session, the same problem which affected Kevin Magnussen’s car prompting engine removal.

Lewis Hamilton has spoken about the shows of solidarity in the United States against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin county last week saying he was “Inspired and proud”. The 6-time world champion however has no plans to boycott the Belgian grand prix as the athletes in United States who are in protest against racism and racial injustices. Fixtures in the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer were on Wednesday postponed following boycotts, sparked by the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team refusing to leave their locker room. Tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled out of a major tournament in New York set for Thursday, with Lewis Hamilton writing on Instagram that he was “so proud” of her decision. The Formula 1 champion said that he will not be considering boycotting the Sunday’s grand prix but takes a lot of inspiration from the player-led protests in the United States and fully feel aligned with them in the fight for social justice. Hamilton has been leading the Black Lives Matter movement in recent months calling for greater diversity and equal opportunity both in Motorsport and the society at large. “Ultimately it’s disgusting that minorities and people out there have to protest to get justice, and even when they do, justice is still not given,” Hamilton told Sky Sports when asked about the events in the USA. “It’s such a mess over there but I’m really so inspired and proud of the other athletes out there that are utilising the platform they have, using their voice.” Other Formula 1 drivers stood up in solidarity with Lewis Hamilton, with Daniel Ricciardo saying the Formula 1 drivers have to discuss the ongoing events around the world. “It’s devastating that’s the thing, it’s like when is it enough? I’m not one to read the news to be honest, but when I do, especially this now you just shake your head in disbelief.” “If there’s something we can do of course I think we will. Let’s try to do something, but we have to have that discussion.” Sebastian Vettel also echoed on Hamilton’s thoughts saying they are quite happy as drivers for their actions against racial discrimination and will keep sending the same message.