Vettel was eliminated in the second stage of qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after a close-fought session, ending up 13th despite lapping less than seven-tenths off the overall best time. It marked Vettel’s second straight qualifying defeat to new Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll, who finished on the bubble in 10th place after lapping two-tenths faster. Vettel explained after qualifying at Imola that he was still lacking total confidence in the Aston Martin AMR21 car following his arrival at the team over the winter and limited mileage thus far. “We are obviously right in the midfield, and it’s very tight, so a couple of tenths could make a big difference,” Vettel said. “I was happier with the feel of the car, but still missing maybe that last bit of confidence. Overall I think it’s getting better. As I said, it’s very tight, so we will see tomorrow. “Maybe we’ll have a bit of rain that could help us.” Vettel felt he “lost a little bit” on … [Read more...] about Vettel missing ‘last bit of confidence’ with Aston Martin F1 car
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Horner: Aston “a little naive” to expect F1 aero rule tweaks
It emerged in Bahrain that teams running low-rake cars - such as Aston Martin and Mercedes - appeared to be hurt more by the updated aerodynamic rules for 2021 than those with high-rake concepts. The FIA moved to cut downforce and reduce speeds for 2021 on safety grounds, with much of this cut being achieved by changes to the regulations surrounding floor designs. Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer revealed on Friday at Imola that he was pushing the FIA to consider making tweaks this year "to make it a bit more equitable" between teams running high- and low-rake car concepts. Read Also: Aston pushing FIA to cut gap between high, low rake F1 cars But Horner - whose Red Bull team races with a high-rake car concept - said he was "slightly surprised" to hear how strong Szafnauer's opposition was after just a single race. "We had a sample of one, that Mercedes won that race with what we classify a low-rake car," Horner said on Sky Sports F1. … [Read more...] about Horner: Aston “a little naive” to expect F1 aero rule tweaks
Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton takes pole in Imola F1
Hamilton will start ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. Read Also: Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton beats Perez, Verstappen to pole Hamilton never expected to beat Red Bulls in Imola qualifying Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'14.411 2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1'14.446 0.035 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1'14.498 0.087 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1'14.740 0.329 5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1'14.790 0.379 6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1'14.826 0.415 7 Lando Norris McLaren 1'14.875 0.464 8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1'14.898 0.487 9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1'15.210 … [Read more...] about Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton takes pole in Imola F1
Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton beats Perez, Verstappen to pole
Hamilton held on to take his 99th career pole despite not improving on his final flying lap, with his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas qualifying down in eighth, on spot ahead of Lando Norris, who lost a time that would have put him third due to a track limits violation. Both Mercedes cars and Verstappen will start the race on the advantageous medium tyres after successfully getting through on the yellow-walled rubber, which offers significantly better durability compared to the softs. Hamilton led the way after the first runs in Q3 with a 1m14.411s, but could not recover time lost in the first sector on his second effort. This meant he did not improve the pole benchmark, despite setting the fastest time in the final sector, but as his rivals did not improve by enough he held on to claim his first pole of the 2021 season. Perez outqualified Verstappen in his second event for Red Bull, ending up just under 0.1s adrift of Hamilton's fastest time. But the Mexican driver … [Read more...] about Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton beats Perez, Verstappen to pole
Alpine A120 could have high-performance variants
The Alpine A120 sports car could get a range of hotter siblings. Alpine’s road to revival has been long and mostly fruitless up until this point. While we’ve seen a bunch of concepts and a few prototypes , details surrounding the proposed sports car have been kept mostly under wraps. Until now… According to a new report from Autocar , the A120 is going to be just the first of many in a line of high-performance vehicles from the marque. The mid-engined A120 coupe will be joined by a convertible variant down the line, and eventually a range of more powerful options. The base, mid-engined A120 will have a starting price of around €50,000 ($52,984), which puts it well within range of cars like the Alfa Romeo 4C , which starts at €53,000 ($56,163). The car will be shown at the beginning of next year at a dedicated launch event, with deliveries expected to begin that following summer. Under the hood will be a high-performance four-cylinder engine developed as part … [Read more...] about Alpine A120 could have high-performance variants