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The Mexican had qualified on the front row at Imola, but his hopes of a good finish were wrecked by a spate of incidents in the tricky conditions. He spun early on behind the safety car, and was then handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for overtaking rivals as he regained his original position. Later on in the race after the red flag restart, he spun once again – dropping him well down the order and leaving him 11th in the final result following Kimi Raikkonen’s penalty. Perez felt bad for his team and has vowed to learn lessons from what happened, as he admitted that he was left on the backfoot by having his first experience of running a Red Bull car in wet conditions. Speaking after the race, Perez said: “Basically it has been a very bad day and a bad job. I am very sorry to the team, so I am looking forward to learning from what went wrong. “I didn’t know this car in these conditions and it took a lot to put the right temperature into the tyres in the early … [Read more...] about Perez “very sorry” to Red Bull for Imola F1 woes

The Spaniard is returning to F1 after two seasons away, and has faced a battle to get fully comfortable with Alpine as he gets back into the swing of things. But despite an encouraging run in the Bahrain GP opener, he had a more difficult time at Imola last weekend. The two-time F1 world champion was outqualified by teammate Esteban Ocon, spun in the wet conditions before the start and then ran in the midfield before Kimi Raikkonen’s post-race time penalty handed him his first point of the season. On a weekend when drivers in new teams appeared to struggle more, Alonso said that the tricky wet conditions certainly did not help those adapting to new surroundings. However, he said it would be wrong to use that as an excuse as he admitted he needed to be better prepared for future races. “It feels kind of obvious that every lap I do, every lap we do, these drivers, we feel more comfortable,” Alonso said about the challenge new drivers were facing. “Here [at … [Read more...] about Alonso: Playing catch-up in F1 is no excuse for current form

Stewards determined the Alfa Romeo driver breached regulations having failed to enter the pitlane for the restart of the race after the red-flag period caused by the clash between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell. On the lap prior to the restart following the race suspension, Raikkonen spun his Alfa Romeo at Turn 3. Sporting regulations dictate that a driver may retake his position as long as this is achieved prior to the first safety car line. If this is not completed, then the driver must enter the pitlane and rejoin the race once the entire field has passed on the restart. As a result, Raikkonen has lost his ninth place finish, dropping him to 13th, while promoting the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso to ninth and 10th respectively. It ensures two-time world champion Alonso will score a point in only his second race back after two years away. "On the lap before the re-start following the race suspension, Raikkonen spun at Turn 3. Art 42.6 indicates … [Read more...] about Raikkonen loses points after post-race penalty at Imola

Williams driver Russell collided with Bottas when trying to overtake the Mercedes car for ninth place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, resulting in a big crash. The incident eliminated both drivers from the race and brought out a red flag due to debris strewn across the track. It also caused Bottas’s car to almost be written off due to the amount of damage sustained. Bottas and Russell blamed each other for the incident, but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was unimpressed by Russell’s actions, saying he has “lots to learn” and should have been more mindful against a car from his parent team. Russell issued an apology for Bottas on Monday evening, saying he “should have handled the whole situation better”. Speaking before issuing his apology, Russell said he was confident that the incident would not have a negative impact on his relationship with Mercedes. Russell has been a member of its junior programme since 2017, and is widely tipped to one day succeed either … [Read more...] about Russell insists Bottas crash won’t harm Mercedes relationship