Luke Etheridge

Max Verstappen put himself in the best possible place to win his first world championship, as he took pole position for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His title rival Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside in second, as Lando Norris secured his best qualifying since the Russian Grand Prix to start in third.

It was all about the first run in qualifying three for Verstappen, as Red Bull decided to use his teammate Sergio Perez to give the Dutchman a tow in the middle sector. Verstappen was over half-a-second up on Hamilton after this first run in Q3, with Lewis losing time thanks to a small lock up in turn five.

Mercedes elected not to use the tow on their final run, and although Hamilton improved, he remained over three tenths of a second behind Verstappen, whose time of 1:22.109 was good enough to secure a tenth pole position of the season.

Sergio Perez managed to slot his Red Bull into fourth place, while it was a bad qualifying session for Alfa Romeo-bound Valtteri Bottas, who finds himself sandwiched between the Ferrari’s of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in sixth position. Yuki Tsunoda recovered from having his first lap deleted after a small mistake in the final corner to put the Alpha Tauri in eighth position, with Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top ten.

One small note of optimism for Mercedes is that they were able to get into the final qualifying session on the medium tyres, with all the other runners having to use the softs. Verstappen’s time on the mediums would have been good enough to get him into Q3, but concern about track evolution – and a potential flat spot on the yellow-walled tyres – meant he elected to go out again on the soft tyres.

There is the potential for the qualifying results to change, as plenty of drivers complained about traffic, especially during the second qualifying session. Fernando Alonso felt he had been held up by Ricciardo in the final corner, as the Spaniard just missed out on the top 10 and will line up eleventh. Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovanazzi and Sebastian Vettel were the other drivers eliminated in Q2. Vettel was particularly frustrated about the traffic in the final sector as the drivers were preparing their tyres for the final runs, with the German even coming to a complete stop at one point.

The main moment of drama in the first session came when Mick Schumacher launched a bollard onto the racing line, which was then collected by Lando Norris. This did cause a red flag with just over five minutes remaining, but didn’t cause issues for those towards the top of the order.

It wasn’t the ideal sign-off to George Russell’s Williams career, as he was outqualified by Nicholas Latifi, with the highly-rated Brit failing to improve on his final run. They will line up in sixteenth and seventeenth, with Kimi Raikkonen starting his final grand prix from eighteenth position. The two Haas’ take their usual spots on the back row of the grid, with Mick Schumacher outqualifying Nikita Mazepin by six tenths of a second.

Many people thought that the changes to the Yas Marina circuit would suit the Mercedes package better than the Red Bull one. Alas, it is Verstappen who starts in the perfect position for tomorrow’s race, with the lights going out at 13.00 GMT.

Looking at the results, the inaugural Saudi Arabian GP was a fairly bog-standard race. It was the perfect result for the championship battle as well, with Lewis Hamilton’s victory over Max Verstappen meaning the two are tied ahead of this weekend’s finale at the re-designed Yas Marina circuit. Anyone who watched the race though will have been left with a bitter taste in their mouth, no matter who they want to win.

Jeddah looked like being a fairly dull race for the first few laps, but this changed when Mick Schumacher lost his Haas at Turn 22, in an almost identical manner to Charles Leclerc earlier in the weekend. This is where the issues with the FIA’s rulebook started being exposed. Mercedes pitted both drivers, with Valtteri Bottas hanging back more than what is allowed by the regulations, in order to cost Verstappen as much time as possible should he choose to pit.

The Dutchman stayed out, with Red Bull perhaps sensing that a red flag was not far away, where they would be able to get a free tyre change.  Lando Norris and others don’t think this should be allowed, but it was certainly a mistake by Mercedes to leave themselves vulnerable to this – especially on a street circuit where any accident is likely to lead to a red flag for barrier repairs.

Hamilton got a superb restart (perhaps helped by the fact that he’d strayed a bit more than the required 10 car lengths behind Verstappen, allowing the Red Bull’s tyres to cool), but Max did what he is getting an unfortunate reputation for doing. He skipped over the kerb at Turn One, retaining the position and also allowing Ocon to jump Lewis. Behind, Perez was the catalyst for a shunt between Latifi and Mazepin, causing all three to retire and leading to another red flag.

This is when Formula One turned into an episode of Deal or No Deal. Masi ‘offered’ Red Bull an opportunity to demote Verstappen to third, behind Ocon and Hamilton. Why an offer, and not an outright order? Because race direction don’t have the power to dish out punishments, and it is at the team’s discretion to follow their instructions, even though failure to do so nearly always leads to a time penalty.

Red Bull unsurprisingly took the offer, but Verstappen made up for earlier with a wonderful move up the inside into turn one to regain the lead. We then saw the best of the two title protagonists, as they traded fastest laps, with the gap constantly hovering at around one second. This was despite multiple – albeit necessary – VSC interruptions for debris, another sign of Sunday’s scrappy nature.

The biggest dramas however were yet to happen. Hamilton took advantage of the double DRS to get a fantastic run on Verstappen into the first corner, but the Dutchman’s determination to stay ahead forced both cars off the circuit, with the Brit unsurprisingly annoyed over the radio.

Then came the synchronised slowdown shenanigans. Max was told to ‘strategically’ give the place to Lewis, and he tried this on the run to the final corner, in order to take advantage of DRS on the main straight. Lewis slowed down as well, reluctant to pass. Scenes very reminiscent of Baku in 2017 followed, as Hamilton collided with the rear of the Red Bull, with both cars fortunate to only have minor damage. Mercedes say Lewis was unaware that he was being let by. If so, why would he hang back in what appeared to a deliberate attempt to ensure he had the DRS into Turn 1? Red Bull say Max only braked to let Lewis through – if so, why did he do it while on the racing line?

Verstappen received 15 seconds of penalties for all of this, five during the race for the initial defence, ten afterwards for braking on the straight. He also let Hamilton through for the lead, with the Brit rather foolishly squeezing Max off track, which could well have led to a steward’s enquiry. With cooked tyres and a damaged diffuser, all Verstappen could do was watch Hamilton streak away to victory, leaving us all with the prospect of an explosive show-down in Abu Dhabi.

It’s easy to blame Verstappen or Hamilton for those incidents, as well as the various comings together throughout the season – the majority of social media has picked a side. But would any of this have happened if the FIA hadn’t allowed things to fester throughout the past few seasons? Yes, we want to see people race hard, but it needs to be fair and preferably on the race track. Drivers feel they can go for ridiculous, one-in-a-million moves, knowing that acres of tarmac run-off await. A small gravel strip on the edge of the corner might make people think twice about running off circuit, and probably would have led to Verstappen getting penalised during the Brazilian GP. That may well have stopped him attempting the moves we saw in Jeddah, and therefore stopped Hamilton feeling the need to retaliate through the final corner.

Alpine may also feel hard done by, as Bottas’ safety car antics didn’t lead to a penalty, despite others being previously penalised for the same offence. This inconsistency has become endemic in Formula One, and may well become pandemic throughout motorsport. If the greatest drivers in the world can get away with it, what’s stopping youngsters on their way up the ladder thinking they too are immune to the rulebook?

This Sunday should be a mouth-watering championship finale as the winner takes it all. Hopefully, it is great racing we are talking about in a few days’ time, not shoddy stewarding and Dick Dastardly driving.

Before the Russian Grand Prix weekend, many Formula One fans would have sighed at the prospect of a Lewis Hamilton-Max Verstappen 1-2 in Sochi. In the end though, we had by far the best Russian race since it’s debut in 2014, and one which was a microcosm of the season so far.

As soon as Max Verstappen opted for new power unit components after FP1 on Friday, his weekend was always going to be about damage limitation, whereas Lewis Hamilton knew he wouldn’t have a better chance to retake the championship lead with his main rival out of the picture. This looked like a straightforward task right up until the final moment s of qualifying, when old intermediates on a drying pitlane led to the smallest of mistakes from the seven-time champion. Fixing the front wing meant Hamilton (and Valtteri Bottas, who was held behind the Brit) only got one lap on slick tyres, leaving Lewis starting fourth behind Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, and his future teammate George Russell.

Still, many would have expected the Mercedes man to take an easy victory on Sunday, but this looked a lot less likely by the time the field reached the braking zone for turn two. Just like in the Monza sprint race, Hamilton was slow away, and he dropped to seventh before re-passing Fernando Alonso.

As his rivals pitted, this is where Hamilton’s mastery came to the fore. ‘Bono my tyres are gone’ has become the most feared message in Formula One, as it’s normally followed by purple sectors across the board for Car #44. For a man who was initially known as being hard on his tyres, Lewis seems to be able to eek out performance when the rubber is far from fresh, and this – combined with a less than ideal stop for McLaren’s Ricciardo – helped him jump up the order.

Once on fresh hards, Hamilton looked unstoppable. Sainz was dispatched with consummate ease, and the gap to Norris started rapidly reducing. Dirty air started having an effect though, and Lewis couldn’t quite get within that all important one second window.

Up until Spa, the prospect of wet-weather led to excitement rather than trepidation from Formula One fans. And Sochi proved that you don’t need monsoon-like conditions to cause drama; just a small shower can create panic and problems. As the heavens opened over the Black Sea coast, Norris initially extended his lead, and it looked like we were going to get a second debut winner of the season. Both drivers stayed out when the majority were pitting, before a decisive move from the McLaren driver proved to be costly. Whereas the Woking team were more advisory about Lando pitting, Mercedes were insistent: The slicks would soon be skidding, and intermediates were the only option. Straight away Hamilton gained time, and within one and a half laps he was well on the way to his hundredth victory – a simply staggering achievement.

Of course, the irony in this is that the rain hindered Hamilton’s chances of taking a record-breaking eighth title. Max Verstappen was in seventh, struggling to make up ground before the downpour, and he came in at just the right time to shoot up the order, finishing in second, and an astonishing eighteen places higher than he started. A twelve point swing had been reduced to seven, and he is now just two points behind with seven races still remaining.

For Lando, his time will come. And with an extra engine in the bag, Max may well be slight favourite for the championship despite trailing in the standings, thanks to a drive which again showed why many expect him to be the man to pick up the baton from Hamilton. But yesterday was Lewis’ day. Even the young karter from Stevenage could have barely imagined getting one hundred race victories, and there’s no reason why more won’t be added to the tally. The greatest of all time? That’s a bold statement. The greatest of his time? Unquestionably. The future is bright for Formula One, with Max, Lando, George and Charles Leclerc all looking like world championship material. But you’d be a brave individual to bet on any of them to surpass the achievements of Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton.

Formula One heads for its traditional summer break after the Hungarian Grand Prix, and a few of the drivers will be glad to see some sun after a sprinkling of rain caused chaos on lap one at Budapest.

It looked like a mistake from one Mercedes had created the perfect opportunity for the other. Valtteri Bottas’ wet-weather prowess has come into question after disappointing performances over the last twelve months, and taking out Lando Norris – as well as both Red Bulls – will give extra ammunition to those who think his time at the Silver Arrows should come to an end this season. The fact that George Russell is taking part in this week’s Pirelli test for Mercedes will only add fuel to the fire.

With Lewis Hamilton being the only front-running car left unscathed, it should have been straightforward for the Brit to claim his hundredth victory in Formula One after the red flag. But nothing is ever simple in Formula One. Out on his own in the record books, Hamilton was left out on his own on track as all the other cars came in for slicks. One lap later, the reigning champion was last with it all to do. Mercedes have history for making strange strategy decisions when forced to think on their feet (for example, pitting Lewis at Monaco 2015 and handing victory to Nico Rosberg), and this was another case of them being caught out when things go astray from the plan.

At this point, Hamilton would have snapped your hand off at the opportunity to take a podium, but it was another performance that took the fans (and his) breath away, dicing his way through the field on one of the trickiest tracks for overtaking on the calendar. Red Bull will certainly be hoping that Lewis’ usual post-summer break performance boost is not as potent this year, otherwise Max Verstappen may have his work cut out if he is to retake the championship lead.

Although Bottas’ first lap catastrophe didn’t lead to retirement for Verstappen, the damage done to the floor and barge board pretty much ended any chances of a competitive finish for the Dutchman. Crash damage in this cost-limited season is much more problematic than usual, and with Max’s engine from Silverstone being irreparably damaged, at least one grid penalty after the break is almost a certainty.

All this drama allowed a young gun and an old hand show exactly why they belong in Formula One. Esteban Ocon drove superbly to keep Sebastian Vettel at bay, the Frenchman taking Alpine’s first ever win in the sport as a constructor, and the first since 2013 for the team based at Enstone. This may not have been possible were it not for the dogged defending from his teammate, Fernando Alonso. Almost inch-perfect with his car placement until a lock up at turn one allowed Hamilton through, Alonso showed the kind of performance he was known for in his original F1 foray, and a performance which will quiet those detractors who believe one of Alpine’s juniors should be in that seat. Yes, it’s a shame for Christian Lundgaard, Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou that their path is blocked by a 40-year-old, but you aren’t going to find many 40-year-olds who can perform like the Spaniard.

The drivers get a chance to recuperate for four weeks before the final twelve races of Formula One’s longest ever season. Thanks to a Mercedes resurgence and some bad luck for Red Bull, it looks like we may need every one of those to decide the championship.