Rodger Ward

The BBC holds its annual SPOTY event each December to celebrate the greatest British sporting achievements of the year.<br>Lewis Hamilton is a two-time winner of the main award, including last year, but F1 title rival Verstappen is set to be up for the international World Sports Star gong.<br>The nominees for the award were announced by the BBC on Monday morning, and comes following a fraught ...

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The Stewards, having received a report from the Race Director, summoned (documents 39 & 40) and heard from the drivers and team representatives, have considered the following matter and determine the following:<br>No / Driver 33 - Max Verstappen<br>Competitor Red Bull Racing Honda<br>Time 22:19<br>Session Race<br>Fact Car 33 braked in a manner which caused a collision with Car 44 in turn ...

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Lewis Hamilton took victory after a number of incidents with Verstappen that saw both drivers air complaints over team radio about their title rival.<br>The most notable incidents came in wheel-to-wheel fights between the two drivers. Verstappen twice ran Hamilton deep at Turn 1, and was asked to give the position back on both occasions. He received one five-second time penalty for gaining an ...

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Several times this year, the stewards' calls have been criticised for their inconsistency, with different verdicts for incidents that drivers have found to be similar to previous ones.<br>The decision not to penalise Max Verstappen for pushing Lewis Hamilton off the track in Brazil made McLaren driver Lando Norris say his penalty for a very similar incident in Austria was unfair.<br>Earlier this ...

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At last weekend's Qatar GP, it took over 21 hours from the end of qualifying before final decisions were announced after Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas were accused of yellow flag offences.<br>After qualifying finished at 6pm local time, summonses for the three drivers were issued between 8.37pm and 9.40pm, asking for them to appear before the stewards the following afternoon ...

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Just minutes after the chequered flag came out at Losail, Horner was ordered to visit the stewards’ office for alleged breaches of the International Sporting Code.<br>The two elements of the code – Article 12.2.1 f) and 12.2.1 k) relate to the standards of conduct that competitors are expected to follow.<br>It is understood that the action has been taken after Horner and Red Bull’s ...

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The Competitor provided the Stewards with a letter dated 16 November 2021 with Appendices setting out its arguments in support of the Petition.<br>Pursuant to Art. 14 of the ISC, a petition for review must be filed against a Stewards' decision and can only be granted if a Competitor successfully demonstrates "that a significant and relevant new element is discovered which was unavailable to the ...

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After a failed stint with Red Bull's main team, Gasly returned to its sister team AlphaTauri after the 2019 summer break, remaining the Faenza squad's lead driver ever since.<br>As soon as he regained his confidence, the Frenchman started producing excellent results, topped off by a stunning maiden win in last year's Italian Grand Prix.<br>In 2021 Gasly has continued to shine, almost ...

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A representative from the Mercedes team is required to report to the FIA via video conference at 17:00 local time on November 18 as per a steward document issued on Wednesday ahead of the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix.<br>The FIA said the hearing is to determine whether Mercedes has the right to review the case, which would depend upon the Brackley and Brixworth-based outfit presenting “a ...

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Below is the full explanation by the FIA stewards:<br>The Technical Delegate reported that Car 44 failed the test designed to check the requirements of the last paragraph of Art. 3.6.3 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations. The check is described in Technical Directive 011-19. In lay terms, there is a gap between the upper and lower parts of the rear wing. When the DRS is not activated ...

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Hamilton beat Red Bull driver Verstappen to pole position by four tenths of a second in qualifying on Friday as the championship contenders locked out the front row of the grid for the sprint race.<br>But Hamilton faces possible exclusion from the qualifying session after the DRS element of his rear wing failed the post-session checks by the FIA’s technical delegate.<br>A lengthy hearing ...

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Hamilton topped qualifying at Interlagos on Friday afternoon, beating title rival Max Verstappen by four-tenths of a second at the end of Q3.<br>But FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer found in his post-session checks that the DRS (drag reduction system) on Hamilton’s Mercedes W12 car was not in compliance with the rules.<br>The gap between the two rear wing planes when DRS is open must not exceed ...

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Ricciardo struggled in the first part of the season to get the most out of the car, although he has been much stronger since the summer break, logging a victory in the Italian Grand Prix.<br>Stella says the team learned lessons from Ricciardo during the process of helping the Australian to adapt to the car this year.<br>“Indeed, it was a learning process for us,” said Stella. “We get a new ...

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O’Ward racked up his first two IndyCar wins and four other podium in 2021, taking the fight to eventual champion Alex Palou down to the last round of the season.<br>Unfortunately his #5 Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet was tagged at the hairpin by Ed Jones at the end of the first lap of last Sunday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, spinning O’Ward to the back of the field. It’s likely the damage he ...

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Verstappen will start Sunday's race from pole position because of sprint race winner Valtteri Bottas dropping to the rear of the field thanks to Mercedes giving him a fourth 2021 engine ahead of Friday evening qualifying, which the Finn also topped.<br>Lewis Hamilton, who finished the sprint race in fifth after making a poor start, reckons Verstappen's position at the head of the pack for the ...

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Verstappen scored a dominant victory in Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix to move back into the lead of the F1 drivers' championship, keeping title rival Lewis Hamilton at bay throughout the race.<br>Red Bull ran a two-stop strategy and reacted to both of Mercedes' attempts to undercut Verstappen with Hamilton, clinching him a popular victory in front of over 70,000 fans in the first Dutch Grand Prix ...

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The Dutchman was on a quick lap in the opening stages of second practice at Zandvoort when the session was stopped following Lewis Hamilton’s car failure.<br>On board images had shown the Red Bull driver passing Stroll’s Aston Martin moments after the red flag was shown, before he slowed.<br>Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was shown footage of the Verstappen passing Stroll incident on ...

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With bad weather at Spa-Francorchamps making it too dangerous for cars to race, F1 drivers were only able to complete some slow laps behind the safety car before the event was called off.<br>However, the two full laps and one lap into the pits were enough for the official result to be declared and half points handed out.<br>It is a situation that has left many within F1 unhappy, and it has emerged ...

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Norris disagrees with the principle of points being handed out with no proper racing laps completed, while acknowledging that the six earned by his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo for fourth place were useful in the ongoing battle with Ferrari.<br>Norris had a shot pole at Spa having been fastest in Q1 and Q2 on Saturday, before crashing in Q3.<br>That left him in 10th place, before a gearbox ...

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The Overtake Award is backed by Crypto.com, the cryptocurrency company that already has strong links with F1’s sprint events.<br>F1 says that new prize is “designed to celebrate the bravery exhibited by drivers who make bold moves in pursuit of success.”<br>In addition, F1 notes that “new broadcast graphics will be introduced live during each race, to signal overtaking possibilities and ...

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One of the controversial aspects of last weekend's British Grand Prix was the way in which both Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and Christian Horner lobbied the stewards as they looked into the crash involving Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.<br>Wolff had gone there on the advice of F1 race director Michael Masi in a bid to make sure that they were aware of the FIA guidelines regarding who has the ...

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Horner was left angry at the way that Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff was able to speak to the stewards during their deliberations over the crash between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in last weekend’s British Grand Prix.<br>After Wolff was advised over team radio by F1 race director Michael Masi to go and speak to the stewards, Horner marched down there himself to make sure that his team’s ...

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The Finn and the Spaniard were part of a train of cars ahead of the last runs in Q2 that all slowed up on their out laps at Turn 9 in a bid to create gaps to the cars ahead.<br>Bottas going slowly meant other cars behind him were held up, and that led to Sebastian Vettel being slowed so much he blocked Fernando Alonso's final Q2 effort.<br>Vettel himself has also been summoned for impeding Alonso ...

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Bottas spun his car while pulling out of the Mercedes pit box with 20 minutes remaining in the session, ending up in the middle of the fast lane and pointing towards the McLaren garage.<br>Bottas reported over team radio that it was the “tyre warm-up”, with his race engineer replying: “Not great, as it turned out”.<br>The McLaren mechanics standing by the team’s garage quickly helped ...

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The first of these changes was at the front of the MCL35M, as McLaren finally saw fit to adopt the chassis ‘horns’ that we’ve seen other teams use for quite some time now.<br>The ones introduced by McLaren share a similarity with those used by Mercedes, rather than the multiple element variants seen elsewhere, such as at Ferrari or Alfa Romeo.<br>These winglets help ...

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