Lewis Hamilton leads the provisional grid for the 2020 British Grand Prix.
| Row 1 | 1. Lewis Hamilton 1’24.303 Mercedes | |
| 2. Valtteri Bottas 1’24.616 Mercedes | ||
| Row 2 | 3. Max Verstappen 1’25.325 Red Bull | |
| 4. Charles Leclerc 1’25.427 Ferrari | ||
| Row 3 | 5. Lando Norris 1’25.782 McLaren | |
| 6. Lance Stroll 1’25.839 Racing Point | ||
| Row 4 | 7. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’25.965 McLaren | |
| 8. Daniel Ricciardo 1’26.009 Renault | ||
| Row 5 | 9. Esteban Ocon 1’26.209 Renault | |
| 10. Sebastian Vettel 1’26.469 Ferrari | ||
| Row 6 | 11. Pierre Gasly 1’26.501 AlphaTauri | |
| 12. Alexander Albon 1’26.545 Red Bull | ||
| Row 7 | 13. Nico Hulkenberg 1’26.566 Racing Point | |
| 14. Kevin Magnussen 1’27.158 Haas | ||
| Row 8 | 15. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’27.164 Alfa Romeo | |
| 16. Kimi Raikkonen 1’27.366 Alfa Romeo | ||
| Row 9 | 17. Romain Grosjean 1’27.643 Haas | |
| 18. Nicholas Latifi 1’27.705 Williams | ||
| Row 10 | 19. Daniil Kvyat 1’26.744 AlphaTauri | |
| 20. George Russell 1’27.092 Williams |
Penalties
Daniil Kvyat: Five-place penalty for gearbox change
George Russell: Five-place penalty for failing to respect double waved yellow flags
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2020 British Grand Prix
- Racing Point given 15-point deduction and fined £360,000 as stewards uphold Renault protest
- Missed chance to avoid Hamilton’s puncture “a mistake that could have cost us dearly”
- 2020 British Grand Prix Star Performers
- Silverstone restoring Becketts kerb to previous specification following tyre cuts
- Pirelli investigation reveals ‘highest forces ever’ contributed to Silverstone punctures
Lums (@lums)
1st August 2020, 15:11
I feel for bottas
Jere (@jerejj)
1st August 2020, 15:12
How can Albon fail at reaching Q3 for two consecutive events? This despite using the softest compound against Seb and Stroll using a step harder compound as did his teammate.
Lums (@lums)
1st August 2020, 15:13
He is still learning in the car as some will say. He needs 3 season.
bob (@riptide)
1st August 2020, 16:13
He basically lost all friday practice; by his own error though.
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
1st August 2020, 16:15
Missing most of FP1 was his fault also?
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
1st August 2020, 16:23
Because red bull want max to dominate his teammates as much as possible for good pr
Lums (@lums)
1st August 2020, 15:12
Just when you think your competition is having a bad day, he goes and smashes track record twice on his way to pole.
I feel for Bottas
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
1st August 2020, 15:16
Mercedes should had contracted Alonso. Would have given us a bit of entertainment this year. Bottas sucks so bad, he gives Lewis an easy championship. This is not good for the sport..
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
1st August 2020, 15:26
Do you think Alonso would have taken pole today against Hamilton?
Mashiat (@mashiat)
1st August 2020, 15:38
@sebsronnie Even if he didn’t, you know he would make a race of it tomorrow. Bottas is so slow compared to Hamilton in race trim that Hamilton can basically relax if he’s leading into turn 1 tomorrow.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
1st August 2020, 15:46
@sebsronnie
Qualy has never been Fernando’s greatest speciality. However, and unlike Bottas he would be breathing down Hamilton’s neck from the first corner.
Fernando Alonso in race condition is a real war machine. Remember in his Ferrari days when he used to have a car as good as Hamilton’s car or most of the time a slower car, he used to take him & other champions to school many times :)
David (@davidjwest)
1st August 2020, 16:09
Hamilton would smash Alonso as a team mate now, he’s so much more accomplished than in 2008 when they were team mates and when he still beat him in his rookie season. Hamilton made lots of errors in his early career, not so much nowadays.
David (@davidjwest)
1st August 2020, 16:10
* 2007.
SiDziner (@sidziner)
1st August 2020, 17:34
Alonso wouldn’t have a chance against Lewis. They were pretty evenly matched in Lewis’ rookie year, and Lewis is a LOT better than he was then. Can’t say the same for Alonso (he was pretty close to his peak at that point).
The only thing Alonso would do at this point is destabilize the team because he couldn’t beat his teammate. Alonso has a history of destabilizing teams.
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:33
Bottas’ qualy pace is good. It’s race pace/tyre conservation where Ham is particularly great
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 15:39
@spafrancorchamps
So you think a 39 year old Alonso who’s been away from the sport would for a bit will give an in prime
Hamilton something to worry about?
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
1st August 2020, 15:55
@blazzza
A 39 year old Alonso is probably more fit and active than Hamilton. He is only absent from F1, and if there is few drivers who can adapt as quickly to a racing machine as Fernando. Some simulation work and a practice session would suffise.
anon
1st August 2020, 17:51
I would say it is a reasonable question given that Hulkenberg, who is much younger than Alonso, only been out of F1 for 6 months and is still actively training (as he seems to be looking at options in the WEC), has shown it isn’t necessarily easy for a driver to return to the sport.
Alonso is several years older than Hamilton, and we know how quite a few drivers have commented that it is quite a bit harder to maintain that level of fitness at Alonso’s age – and that assumes he was training as intensely as before, which is not entirely certain. There are not many success stories of returning drivers – maybe only Lauda, and he was a lot younger at the time (7 years younger) than Alonso is now.
Richard Thorpe
1st August 2020, 18:00
Not a chance that Alonso is fitter than Hamilton, have you seen Hamilton’s training regime??
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
1st August 2020, 16:24
@blazzz definitely.
JacquesNotVilleneuve (@jacquesnotvilleneuve)
1st August 2020, 16:11
Mercedes should have signed George for next year. I think that he would learn how to dominate motorsport from Lewis and would enjoy celebrating all Lewis wins.
Chaitanya
1st August 2020, 15:13
Both RBR and Ferrari slower than last year.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
1st August 2020, 15:15
Depressing
anon
1st August 2020, 15:22
And that is the odd thing – most will attribute the dip in Ferrari’s performance to the engine investigation, but why are Red Bull struggling so much for pace too?
To me, it is not so much down to Mercedes being so fast, as their pace is only a few tenths better than 2019 – it’s that their rivals have gone backwards and lost performance this season. That is what is causing such a large gap – why are Red Bull slower than their 2019 times for the third dry qualifying session this season?
CarWars (@maxv)
1st August 2020, 15:25
Merc are only 7 of those few tenths faster.
anon
1st August 2020, 17:56
OK, I misread the times and thought it was a smaller gap – but it still doesn’t answer the main point I raised, which is why are their rivals going slower than they were in 2019.
Can you explain why Red Bull are consistently slower – because it has been several races now where they are slower in qualifying trim?
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:31
Agreed really puzzling re Red Bull
toiago (@toiago)
1st August 2020, 16:50
Did the tires change from last year to this one? Pirelli would usually alter the formula from one year to the next. It’s the only thing that would explain everyone being slower bar Racing Point, since theirs is a Mercedes-inspired design.
anon
1st August 2020, 18:07
No, the tyres are the same as they were in 2019 – if anything, this is arguably the period with the least changes in technical rules for several years, mainly because of the major rule changes that were meant to occur in 2021.
Why is it that Ferrari made what seems to be some fairly major mistakes with their car (rumours of aero problems and a weak gearbox casing that caused handling problems)? How is it that Red Bull seem to have made a car that is so aerodynamically unstable?
In focussing so much on Mercedes, it seems that people are overlooking the fact that their rivals seem to have got things wrong on their cars.
toiago (@toiago)
1st August 2020, 18:32
Thanks for the clarification.
It smacks of desperation, then. They – Red Bull and Ferrari – must be so desperate to close the gap that are maybe taking more risks than they normally would, which clearly aren’t paying off, increasing frustration even more, in a vicious circle.
I just saw the Lap Time watch article and it’s interesting to see that the teams are clearly distributed according to the engine. All the Mercedes teams progressed a lot, Renault only slightly, Honda is a tad slower than last year, and Ferrari is embarrassingly slower than last year (probably owing to the engine settlement). Could there be a clue in there as to why Mercedes is further away than last year?
David BR (@david-br)
1st August 2020, 22:20
anon @ one answer may be that other teams have invested their efforts in 2022 (previously 2021) on the basis that Mercedes have dominated this era, and there’s a better return for them to get the next era right, rather than trying to play catch up in the final year (now two) of this. So they’ve basically just given up and let Mercedes runaway with 2020 and maybe 2021.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 15:24
Merc 1 second faster than anyone… this makes F1 look bad.
At this point Lewis’ numbers really lose a bit of it’s shine. Schumacher’s Ferrari was never this dominant and not for 7 years straight. It will be 8 years next year too, with the engine- and chassis freeze for 2021 and limited off season development allowed.
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:28
@jeffreyj Apart from it not being this dominant for “7 years straight”. 2014-16 yes 2020 so far yes
Mashiat (@mashiat)
1st August 2020, 15:39
@3dom 2nd half of 2017 and 1st half of 2019 also should count.
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:46
@mashiat 1st third of 2019, agree (kind of, think you might be forgetting that Ferrari were quicker in Bahrain and Azerbaijan though so maybe that’s even questionable). Don’t personally agree with second half of 2017, Ferrari screwed up and Mercedes was just better mentally at the end of 2017, there certainly wasn’t a large performance advantage in Mercedes’ favour then.
asherway (@asherway)
1st August 2020, 15:57
@3dom – Sometimes a team might want to win with a narrow margin to ensure their advantage isn’t threatened by new regs. 17 and 18 led to the continuation of these PU regs. This is one single era, dominated entirely by one team.
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:59
@asherway it theoretically makes sense but that is a dangerous game and has to be highly speculative at best
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
1st August 2020, 16:12
Did you not watch the 2018 and 2019 seasons? @jeffreyj
Ian Stephens
1st August 2020, 23:57
Perhaps RBR & Ferrari are trying too hard and overreaching themselves.
There is evidence that Mercedes pushed to hard with engine development last year because Ferrari seemed to have an advantage, resulting in less reliability in the Mercedes engines this year. Of course when the rules were made clear to Ferrari they lost that advantage, leaving Mercedes 84 metres per lap quicker today (the difference between 1st and 10th on the grid).
In the case of RBR it seems to be a handling issue and I am sure they will correct it soon.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
1st August 2020, 15:15
With that level of advantage over any other car I’m really not sure why any other team bothers anymore, and that’s not even just Hamilton, it’s both cars. Continual Mercedes 1-2’s aren’t much fun to watch.
JacquesNotVilleneuve (@jacquesnotvilleneuve)
1st August 2020, 16:13
If Mercedes replaced Bottas by George, it would be more fun, because it would be a guarantee to win all races.
Aldoid
1st August 2020, 15:15
I was almost certain Bottas would steal it again this year, but Lewis shrugged off his Q2 spin & did what he does best. Impressive recovery. Mercs a long way up the road… things should be closer in race trim (hopefully).
Patrick (@anunaki)
1st August 2020, 15:16
Very boring championship ones again. One world class driver and a pretty good driver in the WCC car by a mile pretending to have a fight.
Karlos
1st August 2020, 20:48
It’s just dull isn’t it…..
CarWars (@maxv)
1st August 2020, 15:18
Stroll shows how easy it is to drive an overpowered car. Merc making it really boring.
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:29
Why blame Mercedes when their rivals are slower than last year?
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
1st August 2020, 16:26
Red bull and Ferrari are the ones to blame. The amount of money they have and still are no where close to merc
knightameer (@knightameer)
1st August 2020, 15:22
How times have changed. Albon in a Scuderia Toro Rosso used to be faster than Gasly in a RBR. Now Gasly in a Alpha Tauri is faster than Albon in a RBR.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 15:26
Albon has signed his death certificate with his abismal performance both yesterday and today…
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
1st August 2020, 15:30
Says more about the Red Bull chasis and Max.
toiago (@toiago)
1st August 2020, 16:55
I agree. With Gasly you could point the blame towards the driver because it hadn’t happened before. But now I’m starting to think that Max’s inputs are that much more emphasized within the team, hence the huge difficulty that other drivers (Gasly then, Albon now) have adjusting to the car, because it’s basically tailored to suit only Max’s needs.
Who does their simulator/development work anyways? If they care about their 2nd driver, whoever that may be, they should look into hiring a proper test/simulator driver to help with development, or else the 2nd driver will always be dead weight.
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
1st August 2020, 16:27
Its that red bull number 2 car which is slow. How else can you explain gasly being faster in a torro roso
knightameer (@knightameer)
1st August 2020, 17:03
The 2nd car situation this year is the same as last year. Nothing has changed. RBR may have to look outside their driver roster to fill in the 2nd car. Their own drivers are not upto it.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
1st August 2020, 15:25
Its like the grid starts from the third position
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 15:28
Mercedes needs to up the difficulty from ‘Very Easy’ to ‘Hard’ before the race tomorrow. This doesn’t even resembles a challenge.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
1st August 2020, 15:36
If only Codemasters could do something about the settings :)
John H (@john-h)
1st August 2020, 15:31
Great lap by Norris again. He’s really shining this season, much better than his rookie year.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
1st August 2020, 15:35
Indeed. He is showing progress and momentum. Keeping this up will be crucial against a proven race winner next year.
Fred
1st August 2020, 15:32
Its time for Hamilton to accept his privilege and give up his seat to an Indian female driver in the name of diversity. His sacrifice would be a powerful statement!
Dom (@3dom)
1st August 2020, 15:35
As much as you’re being sarcastic, it sounds like you would benefit from some education on what the promotion for diversity is all about.
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 15:46
+1.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
1st August 2020, 16:07
Come on man! These are loose comments. Respect the talent of the driver and the team.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 19:28
Calm down people. Sheesh.
This is clearly a tong in cheeck remark and it doesn’t offend anyone.
Fred
2nd August 2020, 2:16
Sarcasm or not, there is a girl right now in India that will never ever be an F1 driver because she has no stepping stone to get there. A young black kid in UK or USA will have an easy time to get there in comparison with her but apparently they are SO oppressed…
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 15:45
Alot of the people who are moaning about Merc and Hamilton domination are the same people who were saying all sorts of negative things when he joined Merc. I remember 2013- “Hamilton will finally get the midfield car he deserves” etc etc and now, alot of these people perhaps understandably can’t stand watching him smash all the records.
On the flip side I understand and in many ways agree that Merc domination isn’t good for the sport- but unless you start applying the rules unfairly so others catch up- there’s not much that can be done. Pub talks can be had about the levels of domination but fact is there has always been a dominant team in F1. Guaranteed Merc’s dominance won’t last forever.
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
1st August 2020, 15:48
Going back to those 2012 comments always makes for a good laugh!
JacquesNotVilleneuve (@jacquesnotvilleneuve)
1st August 2020, 16:16
In 2012, the McLaren car that Lewis drove was as slow and unreliable as the 2002 and 2004 McLaren.
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 18:43
I have to disagree somewhat- don’t think the Mclaren was slow- certainly it wasn’t the fastest but it was there at some tracks like Singapore, Belgium and Abu Dhabi to name but a few. But indeed I will agree it was unreliable.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 19:31
The 2012 McLaren was anything but slow. It was the fastest car on the grid, in fact. Unreliable? Yes, very. Also, there was Maldonado at Valencia.
Dual Wield
2nd August 2020, 0:33
Hamilton made that Mclaren in 2012 look better than it actually was. Red Bull still had the edge over Mclaren in qualifying. Vettel was under performing like he usually does when he doesn’t have tons of rear downforce until Newey found a solution in Singapore for the difficulties that Vettel was having and from then, they were back at being on top of everything. Mclaren struggled in too many races and were sometimes not even at the front to be considered a title challenger, unlike Red Bull who were always fighting for the lead no matter the conditions even when the car was struggling a little bit especially in the beginning. No can argue that they still were the best team overall especially in terms of pit stops, strategy, and being consistent in every department contrary to Mclaren who were an utter mess from start to finish. At the end of the day, Red Bull still cruised to the WCC with ease. Funnily enough, that was the starting point of the downfall for Mclaren.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
1st August 2020, 15:46
I missed the last 5 minutes because the BBC sucks.
But….
Leclerc continues to (mostly) impress me.
McLaren looking good again.
Lance. Give us one of your lightning starts tomorrow please before you settle into boring mode.
Alex Alex Alex :(
petebaldwin (@)
1st August 2020, 15:46
I actually feel a bit bad for Hamilton as he can’t take any pride in winning this easily… It’s like playing F1 2020 with the AI speed set to the lowest setting.
He wants to prove he’s the best in the world but he’s only able to prove he’s better than Bottas.
David (@davidjwest)
1st August 2020, 16:12
Same for Schumacher and Vettel really.
Hamilton has the best car this season no doubt, but he did win title(s) in an inferior car too.
JacquesNotVilleneuve (@jacquesnotvilleneuve)
1st August 2020, 16:19
@davidjwest
Hamilton already proved that he was able to win (especially wet) races in slow cars. The McLaren car he drove from 2010 until 2012 was as slow and unreliable as the 2002 and 2004 McLaren, yet he managed to fight for the WDC.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
1st August 2020, 17:55
@jacquesnotvilleneuve
The 2010 McLaren MP4-25 was indeed a championship winning car no question about that. Maybe not as fast as the RB6, however the RB6 that year was unreliable and a draggy car. You could argue that an Alonso or a Prost could have taken the WDC with that car.
Jenson stayed in the championship race till Korea and Hamilton has only himself to blame not to win that championship. He threw it away in both Monza & Singapore when he made two silly mistakes fighting Massa/Webber for 3rd position and he still finished 16 pts behind Vettel in the standings.
In 2011, the MP4-26 was only fast when the RB7 allowed it to be. The second fastest car and not a championship winning car, though that was Hamilton’s worst season in F1. Interestingly McLaren continued to develop it till the last race and by their own admission they thought they have the fastest car at the end of the year only to Vettel depriving them from pole positions in the last moment in qualy something that happened for example in Suzuka when Hamilton failed to cross the line in his second attempt and Vettel to snatch pole from Jenson by 0.009s.
In 2012, the MP4-27 was the outright fastest car, even faster than the RB8. However, McLaren managed to screw Hamilton chances to fight for the championship in arguably his best year since 2007 with bad strategies, pit operations and unreliability which contributed a lot of his decision to leave the team.
The McLarens driven by Hamilton in 2010-2012 were by no means as slow as the 2002 and 2004 McLaren
Dual Wield
1st August 2020, 18:27
In 2010 McLaren was the 3rd best car especially from Germany on wards when they lost the development race compared to Red Bull and Ferrari but Hamilton still went to the last race fighting for the championship against the 2 Red Bulls and Alonso. Lewis 2010 season was very special. The race craft he demonstrated in that season ( the last without Drs) was some of his best in F1. He had two imprudence in Monza and Singapore which can happen to anyone that were largely born out of desperation at his equipment disadvantage as the Red Bull and Ferrari were out developing them, and had already started the season from a better place. McLaren could barely scratch any wins that season in the dry.
Dual Wield
1st August 2020, 18:29
Ferrari produced a great car in 2010. It wasn’t slow by any means like Alonso wants you to believe and was one of there best cars that they build in the last decade or so. They had a period in the middle of that season that they were struggling a little bit but they where back competing at the front and fighting for wins from the German gp and the car was sometimes as fast as the Red bull on certain tracks in the 2nd half of that season. Alonso made numerous mistakes in the 2010 season. He spun on Lap 1 in Australia after leaving Button no room, jumped the start in China and earned a penalty, crashed in Monaco FP3 and damaged the car forcing him to miss qualifying and start last, overtook Kubica off the circuit in Silverstone earning a penalty, and crashed out all on his own in Belgium. Also don’t forget that Alonso earned 7 points extra in Germany because of team orders and still didn’t win the championship even tough he had the full backing of Ferrari behind him. If you go watch the 2010 season again, you will see that Mclaren where only better than Ferrari in the middle part of the season but after that it was crystal clear that Ferrari improved there car and overtook Mclaren in the development race to become the 2nd best car after Red Bull
Dual Wield
1st August 2020, 23:52
Tifoso1989 Good luck trying to win a championship under Martin Whitmarsh lol, one of the worst team principal to ever grace this sport. That RB6 was way ahead of Mclaren in 2010. Mclaren only pole came in Canada and that was because Red Bull qualified on the prime tyre otherwise they would have been on pole even on that track. Actually Ferrari had more poles than Mclaren that season. The RB6 was the car with the most downforce in the history of F1 up until that point according to Newey. The RB6 was one of the few cars in modern F1 history able to take the fastest and most challenging corners at flat-out pace. Red Bull in 2010 made 15 out of 19 pole positions. In qualifying it sometimes got pole by over a second. On most tracks it was unbeatable. The RB6 had absolutely stonking advantages at times. Vettel margin over P3 at Hungary 2010 for example was 1.2 seconds, also the RB6 was capable of taking pole at just about every race bar monza. Its a rather common misconception also that its pace was only in qualifying, but it lacked race pace. This imo, also isn’t true, whenever it got out front clearly it just shot into the distance. Whenever Red Bull needed to, they showed often unbelievable pace, like Hungary when Webber put a pit stop on Alonso in half a tyre stint. The RB6 was by far the best car on the grid. The car was mindbogglingly quick and one of the greatest cars ever produced. The only reason the season was so close is that like you said they had some reliability problems, also Vettel made too many mistakes like screwing up the SC restart in Hungary (where the car was a second faster than the rest of the field) collided with Webber in Turkey, hit Button in Belgium and sometimes being slower than his average teammate which didn’t help either. Webber also had the odd off day and crashes. Mclaren and Ferrari usually just picked up the pieces. For some reason history remembers 2010 as “close”. Maybe in points but not in performance.
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 18:52
@tifoso1989
I doubt neither would have done that with a world champion alongside taking points off them. Alonso’s efforts looked heroic in that 2010 Ferrari because he had Massa as his team mates and all the team orders to move him aside and while the Ferrari wasn’t the quickest in low fuel trim it was definitely up there with the Red Bulls in race pace.
This is some selective reviewing. You can’t look at Hamilton’s errors in isolation when the championship winner (Vettel) also had possibly more errors- Belgium crashing into JB and the famous Turkish grand prix. Alonso also had his moments when he benefited while not on the pace and he benefited from team orders like Germany.
You lost alot of credibility with this IMO. The Mclaren in 2012 was not the outright fastest car. Even if it was- it was the most unreliable as you rightly pointed out which means whatever inherent pace the car had was a waste because it couldn’t see the chequered flag.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
1st August 2020, 19:26
@blazzz
Prost managed to beat Ayrton in the same car in 1989. In 1988, he scored even more points than Senna in the championship, though the WDC at the time counts only the drivers best 11 results. He won the championship in 86 despite the Williams was the faster car something that only Schuamcher did emulate in his Benetton years. Prost did have Keke Rosberg a world champion alongside in 1986 :)
I think you missed Hungary, Turkey, Silverstone, Monaco, Valencia, Spain… where the difference in race pace between the RBRs and Ferrari was scary.
Hamilton was the pole man of the year with 7 poles to Vettel’s 6 and McLaren scored an overall 8 pole positions equal to RBR’s 8 but that was down more to Webber’s 2 poles against Jenson’s only 1. Hamilton retired twice while leading in Singapore & Abu Dhabi, get his pole revoked in Spain and was screwed many times in races pit stop/ strategy wise.
You agree with me on the fact that the MP4-25 was the fastest car in 2012 but because it’s unreliable it doesn’t count for you ? Frankly, I couldn’t care less but that doesn’t make it slow as you claim.
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 22:31
@tifoso1989
I am aware of that very acutely. But Alonso is no Prost/Senna. Secondly, in 1988 and 1989 the championship was an exclusive duel between the two giants- not quite the same as 2010 when anyone of 4 drivers could have won the title so futile comparison.
No one is disputing that the Red Bull was the better car over the season. But that Ferrari was there or thereabouts. Granted certain tracks Red Bull had a substantial advantage- but in Bahrain, Singapore, Germany, Italy and Singapore- Ferrari had an advantage. Its simply disingenuous to make that F10 look like a dog of a car- because it wasn’t.
Comprehension clearly isn’t a strong point of yours. I said *even if the Mclaren was the fastest*. Hardly an agreement.
So 8 poles apiece between Mclaren and Red Bull means Mclaren was the faster car?
Oh dear. Where did I claim the Mclaren was “slow”? I simply said it wasn’t the fastest car when you take the fact that overall the Red Bull and at times the Ferrari had better race pace.
Glad to see you at least don’t have a retort on Hamilton’s errors when all the other championship contenders also made mistakes (Webber, Vettel and indeed Alonso). Over the season, that balances out.
Ian Stephens
2nd August 2020, 0:06
I still think Hamilton’s best win at Silverstone was the Sunday race in 2006. Of course those GP2 cars could overtake, but 2 races and a reverse grid would be better entertainment than than qualy + race even in today’s F1 cars.
jeansilva02
1st August 2020, 17:44
I dont agree Lewis won a title with an inferior car, what season was that?
2014 and 2015 = best car
2017 and 2018= best car tied with ferrari (overall merc was a more efficent team, better strategies, etc etc)
2019 = best car tied with ferrari (but maybe if the ferrari PU was legal merc could be definitly better)
2008 = best car tied with ferrari ( the reason ferrari won hte constructors title was because the combo Raikkonen-Massa was better,) Lewis was great tha season but kovalainen was underwhelming at best ….
Blazzz (@blazzz)
1st August 2020, 18:58
@jeansilva02
This is Pub talk. Ferrari won the constructors which means they had the best car. You also forget that 2008 was an awful season for Kimi and so however “bad” Heikki was, wasn’t worlds apart from Kimi given the equipment Kimi had. A genuine question has to be asked- was it that Heikkie was that bad or was it that Lewis was just getting more out of the car than what the car was capable of?
I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.
Clark (@clarkf)
1st August 2020, 17:16
Somewhat depressing the Mercedes is a second faster than everyone else, so tomorrow will be a battle for fourth down Max may beat Bottas if he’s lucky. Thats assuming there isn’t a raft of penalties for Hamilton and Leclerc
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st August 2020, 19:34
Verstappen taking points away from Bottas would kill the championship fight even quicker…
Dawar Ahmed
1st August 2020, 17:34
I totally get Hamilton fans (having been a sworn Schumacher fan in his prime Ferrari days and forever since). Hamilton is an insanely amazing driver but he has a clear number 2 who doesn’t challenge him to his limits. We dont know how good hamilton is under real pressure which can only be put on by an equally insane driver (Alonso, Verstappen etc). And please, let’s stick to the recent past.
Also, in 2007 Hamilton in his rookie year was toe to toe with Alonso. However, if you actually saw that season there was much more to it. Firstly, yes it was a revelation of an insane talent in hamilton. However, the whole team deviated towards him and the frictions within the teams were very real. Both drivers have developed since then. I would totally tune in to watch them in the same team.
I have been a fan since 2000 when i was 10. I watch every race (as much as i can) until i fall asleep.
Jay
1st August 2020, 17:48
If Mercedes can’t do it, then at this point only Lewis could demand a more competitive teammate like Rosberg/Alonso rather than just beat a Bottas/Kovalainen.
JacquesNotVilleneuve (@jacquesnotvilleneuve)
1st August 2020, 20:50
@keithcollantine
The grid needs to be updated following Russel’s penalty. He shouls be on the last row.