Lewis Hamilton wins for the 105th time, this one in Belgium. George was disqualified after the race due to race issues. LeClerc got P3

Race win no. 105 for Lewis in Belgium

It was a not a race where Mercedes were in the front. In fact Lewis rued they had one of the worst days on Friday. McLaren were clearly the fastest car and with a 10-place grid penalty Max was out of the contention. However Mercedes slowly kept chipping up. Lewis Hamilton is a 7-time World Champion and it showed this weekend how. He extracted the maximum out of the package given to him. In Quali he slowly kept chipping away and ended up at decent P3 position, with George in P6.

At the race start he got off to a flier and overtook Perez who was starting at P2. Then within a few laps he overtook LeClerc who had started at Pole. Lewis kept the lead for the majority of the race until George came up with a different sublime plan. George went completely against the rest of the field and decided to go for a 1-stop strategy. Fresh asphalt has been laid at the Belgium track and looks like the tire degradation was not that severe. George nursed his car for 34 laps and took the chequered flag, narrowly beating Hamilton and a charging Oscar Piastri. He deserved the victory but was unfortunately disqualified as his car was found 1.5kgs under-weight. Still nothing takes away from Lewis as he too drove a fantastic race.

Red Bull lagging in Belgium

Both the Red Bull drivers were disappointed and rightly so. Sergio Perez narrowly squeezed through to Q2 but then put a spectacular lap to start the race P2. However he fumbled the start and was overtook by Lewis. Then he kept falling back and eventually finished a lowly P7, which doesn’t help much with the Constructor’s Championship. Similarly Max Verstappen had a 10-place grid penalty but he couldn’t move up the grid that fast either and ended up finishing P4. Red Bull are just 42 points behind McLaren in Constructors and there are still 10 races to go. So anything can happen.

McLaren fumble

Lando Norris did not get a good start and his race was pretty much done at that point. He finished P5, behind Max. Oscar had a better race but a pit-stop fumble meant he was behind the Mercs. Thanks to George disqualification, he got a decent P2 position. They had the fastest car and yet could not capitalize on it.

Ferrari are now the 4th fastest car on the grid – behind McLaren, Red Bull and the Mercs. Charles somehow managed to pull a stunner and put his car on Pole. However he could not hold on to it and finished P3. Carlos had an average race and he finished P6. Alonso, Ocon and Ricciardo got the final three places.

Belgium GP : Lewis winner after George disqualification

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Lewis Hamilton won for the first time since 2021, that too at home in British GP. Max came in second and Lando third.

Lewis Hamilton : King of British GP

Come the hour, come the man. The last race Lewis Hamilton won was in Saudi Arabia in 2021. Since then there have been no victories and even Lewis doubted himself whether another victory will come his way or not. Till 2021 he has been someone who is used to winning with his first F1 win coming way back in 2007. Since 2022 and the new regulations, Mercedes have just missed the mark. Max Verstappen has taken almost all the victories and he has been absolutely dominant. Even team-mate George Russell has tasted success with victories in Brazil and last week in Austria. However Lewis was stuck at 103 race wins and what better way to end the drought with a victory at home – the legendary British GP at Silverstone. This would be his record 9th victory at a single circuit – which also happens to be his home race.

Starting from the front row, Lewis always looked formidable. At it started to rain, it was Lewis who was the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers and soon he got the race lead. However McLarens were too fast and soon they were ahead. But then in the last stint Lewis came out ahead of Lando and worked his magic to make the Softs runs for 12 runs on the very punishing British GP track. While Lando succumbed to Max on hards, Lewis maintained his pace and stayed ahead right till the chequered flag. It is a victory he will relish for a long time.

Team-mate George Russell had an absolute disaster as he had to retire the car due to water issues. Starting from Pole he could have easily finished in P2 at least but today was not in his destiny.

Another race lost by McLaren

McLaren was overall the fastest car in the race and yet Lando and Piastri finished P3 and P4 respectively. As the race started both the McLaren drivers took the lead when it started to drizzle. However the first poor pit stop call meant that McLaren did not go for double-stack and kept Piastri hanging dry on the slicks as it started to rain heavily. He lost a lot of time and dropped from P2 to P5. Then in the final pit-stop McLaren lost time and came out behind Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, instead of front. Worst they put on the Softs when they actually had the Mediums and it was the best option. Max soon overtook Lando when his Hards were activated. Piastri was able to match the pace of Max but it was not enough. McLaren needs to put its act together if they want to put up a fight to Max and Red Bull

Red Bull missing at the British GP

The Red Bulls did not look like a Championship winning team this weekend at the British GP. Sergio Perez was out in Q1 and bad calls meant that he was way behind everyone. Max was itchy the entire weekend. Starting P4 he did not have the pace to beat McLaren and the Mercedes. Still some good pit-stop calls and the unbelievable talent of Max meant that he finished a decent P2. Red Bulls do not have the pace advantage anymore.

Hulkenburg scored a superb P6 position again and HAAS would be super delighted. Even Aston Martin would be happy with the P7 and P8 finish. Albon came P9 and Yuki Tsunoda got a P10.

British GP : Lewis won his 9th home race

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Yes its true. No we are not hallucinating. Yes it is happening. No we are not on some fancy stuff. No its not April 1st. This is not a joke.

LEWIS HAMILTON IS ENDING HIS 11 YEAR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SILVER ARROWS AND WILL BE MOVING TO FERRARI FOR THE 2025 SEASON.

The last time we saw such a shocker was when Lewis moved from a fairly decent McLaren team to a barely upcoming Mercedes team. Of course that turned out to be a dream move and one of most successful partnerships ever in the history of Formula 1, with Hamilton winning 6 World Championships with the team in Brackley.

Lewis to Ferrari

The move came out of nowhere. Yes there have always been rumors of Hamilton planning to move to Maranello but he has always turned them down, stating that he has and will always be associated with Mercedes, just like Sterling Moss.

But then came this stunning news of Lewis moving to Mercedes, despite have a contract with Mercedes for 2025 season. There must have been some exit clause. What is surprising is that he has not even driven the 2024 W15 car and even before that he has decided to switch. Yes the past two years have been frustrating but Lewis is not someone who would bow out so quickly. 

However this is exactly what had happened a decade ago. McLaren was the team which gave Lewis a break into F1 and Lewis gave them a Championship. However they were all over the place from 2009 to 2012 and it was then that he decided to make a move to the untried Mercedes team. Many called it an unwise move but then he proved them all wrong as Mercedes gave him the best car on the grid when the rules changed in 2014. 

Lewis looking forward

This time however there are no rule changes, at least until 2026. But then like last time this would give him a good opportunity to gel with the Italian team before new rules kick in. Ferrari has not won a championship in more than 15 years. Their 2022 car was good but they fumbled their way through the season as the car development got bad and they made many errors – strategic as well as silly. It will be a wonderful opportunity for Charles to put himself against the 7-time World Champion. No better way to compare than putting two good drivers in the same car. It will be a great opportunity for Ferrari too, to learn from the Champ the winning ways of Mercedes team and how to get things together. 

This move also leaves us with two interesting follow-up questions. Who will replace Lewis in that Mercedes seat? Can it be Carlos, or Albon or even Alonso. Or will they put their rising star Kimi in the hot seat. Also what will now happen to Carlos, who will have to drive the Ferrari knowing well that he will be leaving at the end of the season. Ideally, him moving to Red Bull to replace Checo and Alonso filling in the Mercedes seat for the time-being would be the best case scenario. 

Only time will tell how things unfold from here. 

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Lewis Hamilton snatched his first Pole since Saudi 2021. This was his 104th career Pole and 9th at Hungary

Lewis Magic in Hungary

It has been a long time since we have seen that Lewis magic in a Quali session. The Quali was different with only Hard tires allowed in Q1, Mediums in Q2 and Softs in Q3. Some drivers were caught out in this as they did not have good performance on Hards or Mediums like Carlos Sainz but for most it was business as usual. Lewis had a fast car as seen in the practice sessions but a Pole was something that even he had not imagined. He extracted the most of his Mercedes and snatched Pole by a mere 0.003 seconds. This is his record 104th Career Pole and a record 9th Pole at Hungary. This Pole is a good boost to his confidence and for the team.

Meanwhile his team-mate George Russell had a disaster as got stuck in traffic and couldn’t get out of Q1. He will be starting P18 in the race. Despite having a quick car, it will be difficult as Hungary is not an easy over-taking car.

Max misses by a sliver

The standard that Max has set for himself and by everyone else is so high that anything less than a Pole seems like a disappointment. Max missed out on Pole by a mere 0.003 seconds but he seemed devastated. To be sure he was unable to find the balance in the practice sessions too. But the Red Bull has good race pace and he will still be the favourite to win the race. His team-mate Sergio Perez continues with the rough patch with a crash in FP1 session and then not making the most in Q3. He will be starting P9 in the race.

McLaren making the most at Hungary

McLaren seems to have found their mojo and Silverstone was not a one-off event. From fighting at the end of the grid to being just 0.085 seconds off Pole is mighty impressive. Lando Norris extracted the most, although he was still disappointed for not getting the perfect lap, and put his car on P3. Equally impressive was rookie Oscar Piastri who was just behind Lando and will be starting P4. Expect at least one McLaren to be on the podium.

Alfa Romeo surprise

This one came out of nowhere. The Alfa Romeos were quick in the practice sessions and they made the most in Quali too. Zhou got his career best P5 position and Valtteri Bottas P7. Alfa was not even in the mid-field fight and suddenly they seem to be another contender to be ahead of the grid. Zhou especially was very impressive and he will be looking to get some good points in the race.

Ferrari lacking pace

Ferrari again failed to get their act together. Carlos Sainz was nowhere on the Mediums and he failed to get into Q3 for the first time in 2023. They also lacked pace and were behind the McLarens, Mercedes and even Alfa Romeo. Ferrari has a lot of soul-searching to do. Charles LeClerc will be starting P6 and he would be lucky if he can hold on to this position.

Aston Martin seem to be slipping down and their position is now taken by the McLarens and even Mercedes. Fernando will be starting P8 in the race and Stroll was much behind, not getting into Q3. Nico Hulkenburg managed to get into Q3 but only a lowly P10. Both the Alpines failed to get into Q3. Daniel Ricciardo did well after getting a set in Alpha Tauri and managed to out-qualify team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

Hungary Starting Grid : Lewis on Pole, Max P2

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The three days of testing in Barcelona provided Formula 1 drivers and teams with their first proper insight into how the 2022 cars behave on track.

Mercedes and Red Bull: Still at top in Barcelona

One of the challenges for Mercedes and Red Bull last year was dovetailing their titanic fight for both world championships with the development on the very different 2022 car.

They would also have the harshest restrictions on aerodynamic testing (covering both windtunnel time and CFD work). This seemed like the greatest potential for the two top teams to drop the ball. Or they simply be outgunned by those who had more opportunity to focus on the new rules.

But Lewis Hamilton bullishly declared this week: “My team doesn’t make mistakes. Of course, there is always a risk, but we don’t make mistakes.”

And Mercedes’ performance in the first test backed that up, with Red Bull just as impressive. This goes for the meaningful metrics like lap counts and the ones loaded with caveats like the laptimes.

“If there’s any team on the grid right now that still expects to be at the front when it matters, it’s going to be Mercedes and probably Red Bull,” reckoned McLaren’s Lando Norris.

By the time the test concluded the order read: Mercedes first, Mercedes second, Red Bull third, Red Bull fourth. Mercedes’ drivers did their times on the softest tyres. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen one and two steps harder respectively.

Ferrari in good form

The vibe after three days of testing is that all of Ferrari’s rivals are talking up the team from Maranello, the work it has done with its car and the apparent power of its new engine.

This is a big opportunity for Ferrari. It had a decent chunk more windtunnel time permitted by the regulations in the first half of last year. And over the rest of 2021 it still had a bigger aero testing allowance than Mercedes and Red Bull.

Ferrari is happy to acknowledge this has manifested itself into a few positives with the F1-75. With lots of laps, the car’s behaving well in terms of balance and reliability, and no big issues as such.

Alpine and Alfa Romeo struggled in Barcelona

There we were at the end of day one waxing lyrical about how impressive reliability had been almost universally among the teams. No red flags and 1100-plus laps represented a pretty emphatic answer to F1’s biggest step into the unknown in a generation.

But those statistics weren’t quite repeatable, as it turned out.

Friday morning had 5 red flags. And though there were no further stoppages in the afternoon, it’s worth considering that four teams – three of which caused red flags – didn’t reappear at all, and another managed only a handful laps.

Alpine called it a day before lunch due to the effects of a hydraulic leak in the first hour – which led to a fire in the back of the car – while Fernando Alonso was driving. Haas and Aston Martin hoped to get back out but oil leaks for each put paid to those ambitions, and AlphaTauri “simply ran out of time” to repair its car after Pierre Gasly’s off in the morning.

Valtteri Bottas did get 10 laps on the board for Alfa Romeo during the first hour or so of afternoon running, but that was its lot. And when you consider that was all on the intermediate tyre, during the period when the track had been artificially soaked, it adds up to no meaningful running.

The ‘porpoising’ effect

In Barcelona, all teams suffered to a greater or lesser extent from porpoising or bouncing at high speed on the pit straight.

Teams thus spent much of the three-day test looking for ways to control it through ride height or aero adjustments.

This seems to be an integral part of the 2022 car concept.

Thus it may take some time to fully get on top of the issue while not compromising overall performance, for example by being obliged to run the cars significantly higher than the optimum figures with which they were designed to be fully effective.

Controlling porpoising at different tracks with differing characteristics won’t necessarily be easy, and the fact that teams hadn’t anticipated the phenomenon after their long months of tunnel and CFD work indicates that they will have a lot of work to do to successfully model it and thus address it.

The new cars might be no slower at all

It’s been clear for a while that the new cars were not going to be as slow as was first suggested when the regulations were proposed way back in late 2019.

Slower times were never a stated target, rather a likely consequence of rules designed to cut downforce and reduce areas of development.

The closer we got to testing the greater the indication that actually, pretty soon these new cars wouldn’t be any slower at all.

Well now we have our first reference points. These cars produce laptime in a slightly different way as they are quicker down the straights and through the high-speed corners but worse in the slow-speed stuff.

Barcelona is a tricky comparison because F1 hasn’t tested here for two years and the last time it did, the Turn 10 hairpin was different. So let’s use last year’s qualifying because that gives us a fixed point.

Hamilton’s pole lap in 2021 was a 1m16.741s. That’s 2.4s faster than the fastest time we’ve seen this week, also set by Hamilton.

Given the grand prix would have been held in more favourable conditions, the cars were a known quantity, and everything would have been prioritised for performance, that’s a gap that the teams will eat into rapidly.

Consider that in 2019, the benchmark from the first week of pre-season testing was 1m17.393s, and became 1m15.406s in qualifying at the grand prix.

So even back then, the cars got two seconds faster by competition time.

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Three more teams launched their cars : Mercedes, McLaren and Alpine.

Mercedes 2022: Back to Silver

The most anticipated car launch has finally taken place with Mercedes unveiling their W13 on Friday. Toto, George and Hamilton were all at the car launch with huge interest on what the W13 will look like.

More importantly though, it’s the first time Hamilton has spoken since his return to F1 was made official. Hamilton said: “I never said I’d stop, I love doing what I do, it’s a privilege. You feel like a family.

Returning to tradition after two years in a black livery, the Silver Arrows are back in silver. The revolutionary new rules giving them a fresh challenge in their bid to continue their winning streak.

McLaren 2022: MCL36 has more blue and papaya

McLaren launched their 2022 car resembling the Gulf livery in Monaco 2021, which was loved by everyone.

The Woking team is hopeful that F1’s new regulations, which are designed to promote overtaking and have reintroduced ground effect aerodynamics to the sport, could offer the opportunity to return to the front of the grid on a more permanent basis.

“Over the last year the team have been hard at work developing the MCL36. We want to take advantage of any opportunities we might find in the design and production of these new cars,” team principal Andreas Seidl said.

The car appears to follow a different design philosophy to the Aston Martin as well as that of Haas. Technical director James Key said his team had considered the distinctive and louvered sidepods on the Aston Martin, but opted for its more narrowly packaged design.

“I think, first of all, it’s nice to see diversity in the space of three car launches” Key said. “So it shows that some of the fears about all cars looking identical [under the new rules] isn’t necessarily the case.

Another standout feature of the MCL36 is its pull-rod front suspension layout. This is a departure from the push-rod designs that were common on the front of all 2021 F1 cars.

Alpine 2022: there is Pink, thanks to BWT

Alpine will contest the first two Formula One races of 2022 in a predominantly pink livery before switching to a different scheme for the rest of the season.

This year Alpine has a new title sponsor, BWT, which previously sponsored the Force India/Racing Point team between 2017 and 2020 when it ran an all-pink car.

To mark that new partnership Alpine has produced two liveries — a “real” one for the season, and a “flipped” one for the opening two races of the year.

Alpine, who’s drivers are Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, will race in the pink livery at the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs.

It will then switch to its regular livery for the rest of the season, where the Alpine blue is the predominant colour.

Barcelona Testing

There will be first stage of pre-season testing in Barcelona from 23rd to 25th February. However this will be a closed testing, with no live feed for the audience.

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Nobody in the beginning of 2021 F1 season would have imagined that we will be heading into the last race at Abu Dhabi with the two main title challengers at equal points. It is still bonkers to think that after 21 races both Max and Lewis are exactly at 369.5 points.

This season finally we have a battle of the equals. Both Mercedes and Red Bull had strong cars. Both dominated certain circuits, both tried to build momentum but then things changed. Not just the drivers but also the team Principles Toto and and Christian have given enough drama, going at each other and not leaving an inch in defending their drivers.

Team-mates need to deliver

The second drivers – Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes and Sergio Perez for Red Bull had an equally important role to play in fight. However it must be said that while both shined at times, they have performed below expectation. Valterri having lost his Mercedes seat is just a shadow of his former self and nowhere near challenging Lewis like the previous years. Sergio Perez came in Red Bull with high hopes and 10 years of F1 experience. However even he has proved to be no match to the insane talent of Max Verstappen.

Max and Lewis – as different as they can be

The two title contenders are as different as they can be. Lewis belongs to the old guard and Max is the young gun. Lewis already has seven World Championships under his belt and is gunning for a World Record 8th one. Max is the prodigy, the youngest F1 driver and now hunting for his maiden F1 title. Lewis is calm, composed and calculated. Max is aggressive, unrelenting and a hard racer. Lewis talks about feelings and emotions. Max is objective and rational. Lewis is what one would call a ‘woke’ person. He cares about the world – Racism, Climate change, LGBT rights etc.. He has other interests like Fashion and Music.  Max only talks about racing and nothing else. They are like Yin and Yang.

Throughout this season we have seen Max and Lewis coming head to head in almost all the races. Sometimes it has been fair, sometimes a bit rough and sometimes downright ugly. Things have only gotten worse in the last few races as the season is coming to an end and Championship tighter than ever.

The last run is a winner takes all race. He who wins the race will win the Championship. Let us hope that there is less ugliness and no touching/crashes in the title decider. Either way expect a lot of tears – both of joys and sorrows – at the end.

We F1 fans are very lucky to be witnessing such a close title fight between two protagonists who cannot be more different than each other. We missed seeing another legendary but different era pair –  Ayrton Senna and Micheal Schumacher – fight each other but this time we are blessed.

Thank you Formula 1

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Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in the tricky Turkish GP Quali session. However he is taking a new Engine and thus will be starting 10 positions back. Bottas is P2 and Max Verstappen is P3.

Lewis fastest in Turkish Quali

It was a very tricky Turkish Quali session with rain playing hide and seek. The conditions were just good enough to start the Quali session on slicks. The entire FP3 session was done on Inters by everyone. Mercedes looked good in all the practice session and the Mercedes boys did not disappoint when it mattered. The seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton kept on chipping at the time-sheet and ensured to get the best lap in Q3, when it mattered the most. He knew well beforehand that he will be taking a 10-place grid penalty due to a new Engine being taken and thus wanted to minimize the damage as much as possible.

The other outgoing Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas did a fine job too. He was in good touch in all the practice sessions and just missed Lewis by 1/10th of a second. Thanks to the Lewis penalty, the will be starting from Pole tomorrow. His main goal would be to hold off Max Verstappen as much as possible.

Red Bull has some work to do

Red Bull does not seem to have the pace to match Mercedes at the Turkish GP. Max is lucky that Lewis will be starting from the back of the grid. He will be starting from the front row and would love to overtake Bottas as soon as possible. Max is just 2.5 points behind Lewis and this one of the most intense title fight in recent times.

Stunning Lap by Charles Leclerc

The Ferraris were all over the place in the practice session. Carlos Sainz is taking a new engine this race and thus will be starting from the back of the grid. Charles Leclerc seemed twitchy all the time but put in a fantastic lap when it mattered the most. He will be starting P3 tomorrow.

Gasly was also in superb touch in all the practice sessions and continued his good form in Quali. He will be starting P4 tomorrow. In fact both the Alpha Tauri managed to get in Q3.

Alonso pulled off a stunner yet again, extracting the maximum of that Alpine and he will be starting P5 tomorrow. Checo would be disappointed with his performance yet again as he will be P6 tomorrow. He will be hoping to gain places quickly tomorrow and try to keep Lewis behind him as much as possible.

Lacklustre McLaren

McLaren had a great last few races but seemed a bit out of touch at the Turkish Circuit. The Monza race winner Daniel Ricciardo was surprisingly out in Q1. Lando managed to put in a decent show and will be starting P8 tomorrow.

Lance Stroll made in to Q3 too despite having a slip-up in his final run in Q2. On the other hand George Russell would be very disappointed as he looked all set to get in Q3 but the last turn slip-up meant that he will be starting P13 tomorrow. Mick Schumacher managed to get into Q2 in his HAAS and was very happy with his performance.

Turkish Quali Classification: Lewis fastest, Bottas Pole

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Lewis Hamilton becomes the first driver to win 100 F1 races as he crossed the line at Sochi. Lando had a fantastic race but was cursed by rain in the final laps. Max Verstappen managed to somehow get an incredible P2 while starting P20.

King Lewis at Sochi

Sochi has been a good hunting ground for Mercedes, having won all the race here. Both the Mercs looked good in the practice session. However they botched things up in the wet Quali session with Lewis crashing against the pit-lane entry wall and messing the strategy. Lewis was P4 at the start whereas Mercedes took a gamble with Bottas, giving him another fresh engine and invoking a grid penalty to tactically hold off Max at the back.

The start did not go well for Lewis as he played it safely to avoid any mishaps. He lost 3 places at the start and was stuck behind the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo for a long time. However his car came alive after the pit-stop when he switched to the Hards. He quickly passed other slow cars but was not able to overtake Lando in the same Mercedes powered McLaren. However lady luck was on his side as he took the right gamble to pit for Inters as the rain started to increase. Lando on the other hand was reluctant to pit and wanted to carry on till the end. But the rain became strong enough to warrant a pit-stop. He was sliding everyone and a shunt seemed imminent. Eventually he pitted for Inters but lost too much time by then and finished P7, nowhere close to where he would have preferred.

Great job by Max, Checo was unfortunate

Red Bull took the engine penalty for Max here as they knew the track doesn’t suit their car well. This was a damage limitation race for Max and he would be very happy with the P2 end result. He started well from P20, overtaking slower cars quickly and even managed to overtake Bottas without much effort. However he had tyre issues soon and wasn’t able to move beyond P7, stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo. However rains turned things around. He pitted at the right time for Inters and was able to finish on the podium. Max is just 2 points behind Lewis in the Driver’s Championship.

Perez was doing a good job in Red Bull and had reached till P3 but then rain played havoc with his strategy. Him pitting and coming out eventually cost him multiple places, finishing P9. He must be very disappointed.

Sainz on podium for Ferrari

Sainz managed yet another podium for Ferrari. He had a great start to the race. Starting P2, he got a wonderful slip-stream behind Norris and was able to overtake him at turn 2. Norris eventually overtook him again in the middle of the race. The second half was not that great for him but the rains came as a blessing as finished P3.

Daniel Ricciardo drove a wonderful race, keeping Lewis him in the first half and then Max in the second. He would be happy with the P4 finish.

Valtteri Bottas has a bad race right till the end, before it started to race. He was stuck at P14 for most of the race. However he pitted at the right time and somehow finished P5.

Alonso had a mega-race too. He was quick throughout and finished a respectable P6. In a complete surprise, the recovering Kimi Raikkonen managed to get some points for Alfa Romeo as he finished P8 in the hectic end of the race. George Russell had a great start too from P3 but the Williams just did not have the race pace. He finished with a sole point at P10.

Sochi Race Classification : Lewis got his 100th race win with Max at P2 and Carlos P3

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The Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Bottas lock the front row of the Hungary GP with Red Bulls locking the second row.

Mercedes back in form at the Hungary GP

Hungary GP has been a favourite hunting ground for Lewis, winning 8 races here in the past. He seems to be continuing the trend. The win at Silverstone has given a much needed boost to the Mercedes team and to Hamilton as the championship seemed to be drifting away from them. In all the practice sessions Mercedes seemed to be a bit better than Red Bulls and it showed in the Quali session.

This is Hamilton’s 101st career pole and he will certainly relish it.

Interestingly both the Mercedes will be starting on the Mediums whereas the Red Bulls of Max and Sergio will be starting on Softs. So it will be a great start to the race. Valtteri Bottas, under pressure from George Russell to preserve his Mercedes seat, did his job perfectly, coming in at P2. On the other hand there would be much disappointment for George as he could not come in Q2 for the first time this season. Both Valtteri and George need to perform well as Mercedes team Principal Toto Wolff has said that the second seat for 2022 will be decided in the summer break.

Red Bull aching to fight back

Red Bull is still licking their wounds from the Silverstone race, as Max was pushed off by Lewis and Sergio couldn’t do much. They would have very much wanted to come back stronger but can’t seem to find any distinct advantage to put them ahead of Mercedes firmly.

A slight controversy erupted in Q3 as Lewis was extremely slow in coming out of the pit lane, so eventually Sergio ran out of time and couldn’t complete his final lap. Max did not comment much about it but there were a lot of boos from the crowd for Lewis. Anyway, going by the pace, it was highly unlikely that Sergio could have improved from his P4 position. Red Bull would be hoping to jump ahead of Mercedes as they are on soft and Mercedes on Mediums.

Gasly back in form

Alpha Tauri and Pierre Gasly showed a lot of promise when the season started. However it did not quite convert into good positions and points. Gasly has shown that promise again and he will be starting P5 tomorrow. His team mate Yuki Tsunoda had a crash in FP2 session and did not seems to be in good touch. He will be starting P16.

Lando Norris did not seem to have good practice sessions but he made the most when it mattered. He will be starting P6 tomorrow. His much senior teammate Daniel Ricciardo was a disappointment once again as he failed to get into Q3.

Roller Coaster for Ferrari

Ferrari’s fortunes keep changing with every session. Charles LecLerc had a fantastic Quali session again and he will be starting P7. Carlos Sainz showed a lot of promise but he crashed in Q2 and ending his hopes of qualifying further. He will be starting P15.

Alpine looking Solid

Both the Alpine drivers managed to get into Q3. Esteban Ocon will be starting P8 and Fernando Alonso, celebrating his 40th birthday this week, will be starting P9.

Sebastian Vettel just managed to squeeze into Q3 and will be starting P10 in the race.

Hungary GP Quali Result : Mercedes on Mediums, Red Bulls on Softs.

It will be a very very interesting start to the race!

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