Paddy Driver

Fernando Alonso is yet to confirm whether he wants to stay in F1 beyond 2018 and McLaren is deciding whether to continue with Stoffel Vandoorne, who has struggled to realise the potential shown in his junior single-seater career. McLaren has Formula 2 title contender and reserve driver Lando Norris waiting in the wings, but has been linked with multiple drivers including Kimi Raikkonen and ... ...

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Giovinazzi finished a close second to Toro Rosso F1 racer Pierre Gasly in GP2 in 2016 and replaced the injured Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber for the first two grands prix of ’17, but has since performed only testing duties for Ferrari and Sauber, plus some free practice sessions for Sauber and Haas. Ferrari made Giovinazzi its third driver in 2017 and the Italian has increasingly become integral ... ...

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Ricciardo rocked everybody from the upper echelons of Red Bull to the journalists writing that his new contract with the team was a formality with his decision to leave the team for Renault at the end of the year. The long-term impact of the bombshell will be a fascinating sub-plot to the next two Formula 1 seasons, but it creates huge ripples in the short-term as well. F1's driver market silly ... ...

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Romain Grosjean was impeded by Max Verstappen during qualifying for the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, but Verstappen escaped censure when the stewards decided the wet conditions combined with another car slowing down in front of him meant he hadn't impeded the Haas unnecessarily, as defined in the rules. In qualifying for the 2017 British GP, Lewis Hamilton also escaped censure despite blocking ... ...

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Romain Grosjean was impeded by Max Verstappen during qualifying for the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, but Verstappen escaped censure when the stewards decided the wet conditions combined with another car slowing down in front of him meant he hadn't impeded the Haas unnecessarily, as defined in the rules. In qualifying for the 2017 British GP, Lewis Hamilton also escaped censure despite blocking ... ...

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After finishing fourth in Bahrain and seventh in Monaco, Gasly earned sixth place at the Hungaroring - the same position where he had qualified in the event's wet qualifying session. The 22-year-old has now scored 26 of the team's 28 points so far this season. "From FP1 we were competitive," Tost told Motorsport.com. "Pierre was nearly always within the first 10, and I was quite convinced ... ...

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After finishing fourth in Bahrain and seventh in Monaco, Gasly earned sixth place at the Hungaroring - the same position where he had qualified in the event's wet qualifying session. The 22-year-old has now scored 26 of the team's 28 points so far this season. "From FP1 we were competitive," Tost told Motorsport.com. "Pierre was nearly always within the first 10, and I was quite convinced ... ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 9Hamilton really made the difference in the sodden final sector on his way to pole position. After that superb performance, it was a question of controlling the race, with the strong first stint extending the life of the ultrasoft vitally important. The only question mark is we'll never know the answer to is how he would have responded to Vettel pressure late ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 10Hamilton has to be given the benefit of the doubt for the hydraulic problem in qualifying that was caused by a known weakness in the system. In the race, he did what he needed to do to clear the midfield then, after the confusion led to him staying out, made no mistake in bringing it home. Yes, luck played a bit part, but in the weekend overall that went both ...

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Heading into any grand prix weekend, there's no shortage of conventional wisdom chucked around on the subject of which car the track in question might favour.Sometimes that expectation is accurate, although surprises such as Ferrari prevailing at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix two weeks ago still spring up.But some tracks defy categorisation and don't neatly fall into the ...

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At Silverstone a fortnight ago, several drivers hit trouble at the first corner after they did not close their rear wing at the high-speed Abbey corner. Romain Grosjean hit the wall hard in practice while Marcus Ericsson crashed in the race.A new DRS zone on the start/finish straight at Hockenheim has opened up a similar scenario, with the German track's opening turn a very fast right ...

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F1 has often been criticised for being too closed off to fans, but, after his debut in the World Endurance Championship, Fernando Alonso said that the access fans have in the WEC would not work in F1 as it would cause drivers to "hide even more".Webber, who won the WEC with Porsche in 2015 and is a regular fixture on Channel 4's F1 coverage, sided with Alonso.He told Motorsport.com ...

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The third DRS zone at Silverstone, running through the pit straight as well as Turn 1, Abbey, and Turn 2, Farm, was a factor in two major shunts during the weekend.Romain Grosjean crashed at Turn 1 in practice, leading Lewis Hamilton to call the new DRS zone "a pointless exercise" and "just dangerous", before Marcus Ericsson went off in a similar incident in the race."I think ...

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Kimi Raikkonen did something extraordinary after the British Grand Prix. Having been hit with a 10-second penalty for booting Lewis Hamilton into a spin, he simply accepted the punishment matter-of-factly and apologised.That this seems worthy of comment says a lot about the way teams and drivers respond to penalties in Formula 1, both those issued to them and to their rivals. While ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 9Hamilton had to dig deep to bag pole position and delivered a largely superb lap, albeit with a little time lost to an oversteer moment at Club. His poor getaway played a part in putting him in harm's way at the start, but after being clattered by Raikkonen he recovered as quickly as could be expected then seemed to preserve his mediums slightly better than his ...

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During Friday's practice for the British Grand Prix, many Formula 1 drivers blatantly ran wide on to the run-off area in the course of a normal flying lap.Usually the FIA is only concerned about such behaviour when drivers are deemed to have gained an advantage. While that was not the case on Friday, it was felt that it could become an issue over the course of the weekend, especially ...

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OK. Enough loot has been spent already. Enough people have had their say. We have commissions and sub-commissions and strategy groups and advisory groups and all the usual Formula 1 fracas. It's fun to read about; it's fun to retweet. And it could be, by now, that Liberty Media actually does know exactly what it's bought - or why it bought it.I doubt it, however.Only Bernie ...

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The F1 world championship leader was given a three-place grid penalty at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix for impeding Carlos Sainz Jr's Renault in Q2.Vettel explained after qualifying that Ferrari had not informed him of Sainz approaching, though the stewards ruled that "being aware of the issue of rear vision with his mirrors" he should have come off the racing line just in ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 8He was beaten by Bottas in qualifying, albeit by the narrowest of margins, and before being derailed first by a strategy blunder and then a loss of fuel pressure he had the race under control. Perhaps he could have dealt better with, and done more to manage, the blistering rear tyres and kept Vettel behind him, but even so Hamilton wasn't at fault for the race ...

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With the FIA continuing its push to try to improve overtaking opportunities, a third DRS zone will be added along the start-finish straight at Silverstone this weekend.Its location is especially intriguing because, with the first Abbey right-hander and the following Farm left hander both being flat out on low fuel, it means drivers will have the option of keeping their DRS open ...

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Ocon missed Q3 in 11th place, while Perez was caught in traffic in Q1 and could not better 17th, before gaining a spot when Charles Leclerc was penalised."We are lacking a bit of pace, to be honest," said Ocon. "First run was quite good for me luckily, because we got traffic in the second one, and I couldn't improve there."That's how Sergio got squeezed out, because of traffic. We ...

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The new mode was tested in France last week and Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul said it was "great news" that it would be "making an impact for the first time" at the Red Bull Ring.After filling the fifth row of the grid, well beaten by the Haas team, drivers Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg said it made little difference to their qualifying performance.Hulkenberg lapped three tenths ...

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Of the top three teams' drivers, only Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen have deals that run past 2018 - with championship leader Mercedes yet to confirm either Hamilton or teammate Valtteri Bottas for next year.Red Bull is working on an extension for Verstappen's teammate Daniel Ricciardo, but also retains Carlos Sainz under contract - and could call him back to ...

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In a bid to try to help overtaking around the Red Bull Ring, the FIA has added an extra DRS zone between Turns 2 and 4.But while a lack of overtaking has been an issue in F1 this season, top drivers like Sebastian Vettel are fearful about a push that could make grand prix racing too artificial."I don't know if it is a solution to put in [extra] DRS zones," said Vettel."Don't get me ...

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Lewis Hamilton - 9It's hard to argue with pole position and a comfortable race win, and Hamilton and Mercedes were back in the sweet spot in France. Hamilton's Q3 performance could have been better in terms of time, if not position, so it wasn't a perfect weekend. But at all the crucial moments – qualifying, the start, the restart – he never released his vice-like grip on the French ...

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