Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner, has been given an official warning by the FIA, after comments he made following the announcement before the race, that Max Verstappen had been awarded a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double-waved yellow flags in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Horner breached Article 12.2.2 f) and 12.2.1 k) of the FIA International Sporting Code.

The Red Bull Team Principal referred to the marshal who was waving the double-waved yellow flag as “rogue”, he has since offered an apology to the marshal who accepted it.

After being summoned, Horner has offered to take part in the 2022 FIA International Stewards Programme early next year.

Lewis Hamilton claimed victory number one-hundred-two, after winning the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix in dominant fashion to claw back yet more points to championship leader Max Verstappen. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas retired from the race.

It was a fairly easy evening for Hamilton, the Seven-time world champion made a great start off the line from pole and quite simply never looked back. His title-rival Verstappen could only see Hamilton in the distance, after the Dutchman was awarded a five-place grid penalty before the race.

Hamilton was comfortable out in front and never looked troubled on his way to claiming back-to-back victories, reducing the gap to Verstappen to just eight points.

Hamilton knows he still has his work cut out but is thriving in the championship battle.

“It’s been a hell of a year so to be at this point of the season and have back-to-back wins is a great feeling. It was a pretty straight forward race for me, a little bit lonely but of course, we needed those points, so a really solid job by the team. A big thank you to everyone trackside and back at the factories for all their hard work. I’m really grateful for these points and it’s amazing to be able to close the gap so much in the last two weeks.

Spa Francorchamps Circuit in Belgium had previously advised the organisers of the Motorsport UK 5 Nations British Rallycross Champion that they were no longer able to host the December event scheduled due to work schedule, severe flooding and the current COVID situation. The organisers have been working very hard to secure a replacement venue to allow the championship to reach its planned conclusion, even looking at joining the Irish Rallycross, but has been unable to find an economically viable solution for an alternative venue.
Each of the championships concerned were therefore concluded at Lydden Hill over the weekend of 6-7 November. The 2021 winners are as follows.

Motorsport UK Supernational Rallycross Championship – Jason Bleasdale has won the class after winning four of the seven rounds. Slawomir Woloch finished second with Paige Bellerby in third.

Motorsport UK Junior Rallycross Championship – Max Langmaid never looked back, claiming the remaining six wins this season. Will Ovenden finished second with Owen Robbins in third.

Swift Sport Rallycross Championship – Going into the final round, Max Weatherley and Luke Constantine had each won three rounds, however, Constantine’s big accident at Knockhill ruled him out of round six and the points gap was too big to close leading to Weatherley taking his fourth victory and the 2021 title.

Super 1600 Championship – Both Darren Scott and Phil Chicken suffered serious mechanical issues at Knockhill meaning that Craig Lomax managed to bag maximum points and his fourth win. After round seven, Lomax was crowned the Super1600 Champ. Scott finished second having won two rounds with Belgium based driver Nick Snoeys claiming one win. Chicken finished third in the standings.

Lewis Hamilton clinched a comfortable win at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix to seal his seventh win of the season. Max Verstappen finished in second position to limit the damage and keep the lead in the drivers’ championship.

Fernando Alonso with a well-crafted race secured a podium position. The Spaniard was back on the podium for the first time since 2014.

The race at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar started at five pm local time under the lights with air temperatures at 26 degree C and track temperatures at 31 degree C.

There was breaking news before the race started that Verstappen was given a five-place grid penalty for not slowing down under double-waved yellow flags in qualification. Valtteri Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags.

This mixed up the starting grid with Hamilton and Pierre Gasly on the front row. Alonso and Lando Norris were on the second row.

Championship leader Max Verstappen will not be starting the Qatar Grand Prix from second place, instead he will be lining up in seventh at the Losail International Circuit, after being given a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double-waved yellow flags.

In what is a massive blow to his championship hunt, Verstappen will be starting from seventh place for the race which many of the drivers believe will be difficult to overtake at. The stewards found footage showing Verstappen failing to slow in a double-waved yellow section of the circuit at the end of qualifying, the flag was out for Pierre Gasly’s stricken Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda.

It was obvious Verstappen had ignored the flags, as he improved on his lap-time by two tenths of a second, he isn’t the only driver though who has been awarded a grid-penalty.

Valtteri Bottas was awarded a three-place grid penalty and now starts fifth, after ignoring a single-waved yellow flag. It sets the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix up beautifully, with Verstappen and Bottas starting in the bottom of the top ten.

Will pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton make the most of the opportunity?

I’ve accomplished my pre-season goal of a top-three place in my maiden Ginetta GT5 Challenge so I’m very, very pleased especially considering this year marks only my second full season in car racing. 

I’d been in the title hunt for the entire season and finished off the season in style – two victories, which should have been three but that’s another story, I’ll come on to that later!

The seven-event, 18-race season closed out at Croft and Donington Park. I arrived at Croft for the penultimate event in mid-September second in the series and trailing series leader, the eventual champion, Josh Steed by 67-points. But an unusually poor qualifying session, resulting in only eighth and 13th place starts, put me right on the back foot. 

I should have been at the sharp end, like I’d been all season, which would have allowed me to fight for wins as had been the norm this year. It was weird. I finished the two races in seventh and 10th and left Croft third in the standings.

The important thing was that I needed to learn from that experience so that it didn’t happen again. Mathematically, I could have still won the title heading to the last three races at Donington but I needed Steed to have a couple of bad races there.

Lewis Hamilton claimed an emphatic pole-position at the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix which is being held at the Losail International Circuit, much is still unknown though going into Sunday’s race.

There is a wide range of tyres being started on for the Grand Prix, with the top three all starting on the medium compound tyre, followed by a number of drivers starting on the soft, including fourth place starter Pierre Gasly. Pirelli have noticed incredible track evolution during the second day of Formula One action on the circuit, with times tumbling every session.

Pirelli are predicting that the 57-lap race will be a two-stopper, with the ideal strategy being to start on the mediums followed by a stint on the hards before a final stint on the mediums. With so little data though on how the circuit behaves, there is no definite answer as to what the best strategy will be for the race, leaving much for the teams to discuss as they edge closer to the race.

Pirelli’s Head of F1 and Car Racing Mario Isola is expecting to see a mix of strategies during the race, with still so much unknown about the venue.

“Track evolution remained high today, also with no support races on the schedule, which meant that we saw the fastest times right at the end of qualifying, and some medium tyre times in Q2 that were faster than the soft tyre times in Q1. With just short stints in qualifying, and FP3 this morning taking place in the heat of the day (with a focus on qualifying) the teams can only rely on FP2 for relevant long-run information, which is crucial when it comes to formulating the strategy.

It was another tough qualifying for the Uralkali Haas F1 Team, with drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualifying on the last row of the grid, the position they have grown all too accustomed too.

Schumacher put in a good performance during qualifying at the Losail International Circuit but was yet again eliminated from qualifying in the first session. The German will start the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix from nineteenth place on the grid.

Despite his starting position, Schumacher has enjoyed driving around the circuit and actually believes the team have exceeded their targets for this weekend.

“It’s a fun track – I enjoy driving here and definitely night driving is something to get used to. We knew it was going to be tough but actually overall I’m quite happy. We maximised what we had from the lap time and matched our targets, if not even exceeding them a bit.

“There was always going to be traffic in the last corner, it’s just the way the last sector builds. Everyone wants some temperature for the last corner but then nobody wants to give up a position, so we all stack. We managed it well as a team so I’m very happy about that.”

It was a first-ever Qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix to forget for the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team, with both drivers failing to make it out of Qualifying One. Kimi Räikkönen will start sixteenth with Antonio Giovinazzi in eighteenth at the Losail International Circuit.

Räikkönen qualified the better out of the two Alfa Romeo’s in what was the only positive to take away from a disappointing qualifying. Williams Racing’s George Russell starts ahead of both Alfas, a big problem for the team whom are fighting Williams for eighth in the Constructors’ standings.

Räikkönen ended qualifying satisfied with his performance and isn’t too sure where the problems with the car lies, he expects an interesting race on Sunday.

“We did the best we could out there: it was not a bad lap and surely there wasn’t anything specific we could point our finger at. The car wasn’t bad in terms of balance, we were just not fast enough and the lap time reflected that. The track was the best it has been all weekend, and it is going to be interesting to see how the racing shapes up tomorrow.

“Starting that far back is not ideal, but it’s what we got and we’ll try to improve. Overtaking won’t be easy, but that’s pretty much the same everywhere we go so let’s see what we get out of this.”

George Russell was Mr Saturday yet again after making it to Qualifying Two at the Qatar Grand Prix, eventually qualifying in fifteenth place. Team-mate Nicholas Latifi didn’t make cut for second qualifying and lines up seventeenth at the Losail International Circuit.

It was a good Saturday for Russell, both Williams Racing drivers have struggled in recent events, therefore making it to the second qualifying session is a solid step forward by himself and the team. Most importantly the British driver qualified ahead of both Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN drivers, the team’s main rivals now for the remainder of the season.

Russell is happy with his performance and is looking forward to the race on Sunday.

“I am pleased with the job we did today as we were a few tenths ahead of the Alfa Romeos, who are our main rivals, but unfortunately, we were just a bit too far from Q3. It was fun out there but it’s always a shame when you can’t make that next step, especially when you put in a strong lap.

“We were struggling to make the most of the tyre on the first lap but for Q2, we tried to maximise that one lap and we just couldn’t quite get the most out of it. I think it will be difficult to overtake tomorrow but it’s unique conditions here and a new track, so we’re looking forward to the race and let’s see what we can do.”

Max Verstappen has been summoned to the stewards ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon after potentially going through double yellow flags on his final flying lap and not aborting his lap.

After Pierre Gasly had run across the kerbs at turn fifteen and damaged his car, the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver continued onto the start and finish straight, only to stop his car on the run to the finish line.

Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen continued to attack up until the chequered flag and improved his time, even though it was still 0.455 seconds back on the best time of the session set by Lewis Hamilton.

It is unclear to whether the incident triggered a yellow sector with race control.  Had it done so, Verstappen’s steering wheel would have illuminated, and he would have been forced to abandon his lap.  What is clear was that the double yellow flags were being waved on track.

Should he be found guilty, Verstappen faces a grid drop penalty for Formula 1’s first-ever race at the Losail International Circuit, which would give Hamilton an extra advantage at the front of the field.

Carlos Sainz Jr. will start the Qatar Grand Prix from seventh on the grid, with the Spaniard admitting the decision to qualify in Q2 on the medium tyre was a big gamble.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver only just made it into the top ten in Q2, but once inside the top ten, Sainz showed he had the pace to be fighting at the front of the midfield.

Sainz will be surrounded by drivers on the soft tyres at the start, which he believes will make the opening of the race a little tricky, but he believes that he will have the advantage and be in the fight for good points on Sunday evening under the floodlights at the Losail International Circuit.

“P7 is a good qualifying result, given where we were yesterday and it shows the progress we’ve made today with the car,” said Sainz.  “In Q2 we took a big risk running twice with the Medium and thankfully it worked after a very strong first attempt.

“On Softs it would have been easier to get into Q3, but given our tyre degradation, we believe the Medium tyre is the best for our race, although I’ll be surrounded by Soft runners at the start and that is going to be extremely challenging. In Q3 I was able to put together a good lap but didn’t manage to improve on that P7.

Lando Norris was happy with the outcome of Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, with the McLaren F1 Team driver pleased to end sixth on the grid at the Losail International Circuit.

Norris believed McLaren made good progress with the car between final practice on Saturday afternoon and Qualifying under the floodlights, and he rewarded the team with a place on the third row of the grid alongside Fernando Alonso.

The only downside for Norris was the fact he made it into Q3 on the soft compound tyre, but he will be looking to make the most of that to score good points for the team and hopefully help close the gap to Scuderia Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Very happy with today,” said Norris.  “We made a good amount of improvement from FP3 into qualifying and we weren’t expecting P6.

“I’m definitely pleased with that, especially because it wasn’t an easy P6, but it was done with probably one of the best laps I’ve done in qualifying for quite a long time. I’m satisfied with my job and what we did as a team as well. That helped us out today. So, a positive day overall.

Christian Horner says he is pleased to see Max Verstappen on the front row for the Qatar Grand Prix, but he believes the run to the first corner could be the decisive moment of Sunday’s race.

With overtaking looking like it will be difficult around the Losail International Circuit, Horner says the start and the run down to the first corner could have big ramifications for the race, with the Team Principal of Red Bull Racing hoping Verstappen can get the jump on title rival Lewis Hamilton.

“It’s great to be on the front row with Max, he got the maximum performance out of the car today and has an opportunity down into turn one tomorrow, but it’s going to be very difficult to follow closely after that with the speed of these corners and mount an overtake,” said Horner. 

“So the first 500m are going to be crucial and then it will come down to strategy, pit stops and reliability, all of those factors, and the tyres are under constant load at this track, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how they last tomorrow.”

Whereas Horner was pleased to see Verstappen on the front row, he was disappointed to see the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez eliminated from Qualifying in Q2, with the Mexican set to start the race down in eleventh.

Toto Wolff says it was a spectacular Qualifying session under the floodlights at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday, with Lewis Hamilton dominating to take his one hundred and second pole position of his career.

Hamilton ended more than four-tenths of a second ahead of title rival Max Verstappen, while team-mate Valtteri Bottas ended over six-tenths back in third.

Wolff, the team principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, was delighted with the way Hamilton dominated in Qatar despite not having had the pace in free practice.  On the flip side, Bottas appeared to lose pace compared to practice, but he is still in a good place to give the team a strong result on Sunday evening.

And he believes Mercedes have what it takes to carry the momentum from Qualifying into race day as they look to replace Red Bull Racing at the top of the Constructors’ Championship, with Hamilton also looking to overhaul Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings.

“That was a spectacular qualifying session and what a lap by Lewis to take pole,” said Wolff.  “This is the result of the hard work both in the build-up and during the weekend on understanding the car and finding the right set-up at this new track.