Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas says he is far from overawed with his qualifying performance in Melbourne, despite sealing his best-ever grid position at Albert Park and getting within 0.3s of what would have been his first Formula One pole....
Tomorrow it is important for me to have a quick and clean start and let the guys in front battle it out. That could then lead to some opportunities. We will keep working this evening to improve and find some more pace ready for tomorrow’s race.
There was a familiar look to the top of the timesheet as the 2017 F1 season burst into life in Australia on Friday afternoon, with Lewis Hamilton leading new team mate Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes one-two.
The eve of the 2017 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix - the last point of the year at which in theory anything could happen. From tomorrow, not only will we begin to see the real impact made by the wide-ranging regulation changes, but patterns will start to emerge which will illustrate the pecking order at this first race, and the likely form in the next two or three, before the European season at Barcelona in May heralds further major car upgrades....
The clean design of Red Bull's RB13 raised eyebrows in testing, particularly given the complexity of their rivals' 2017 machines. It also led to speculation that Red Bull might bring a raft of updates to Australia - something Max Verstappen indicated might well be on the cards when we sat down with him in Melbourne......
The preparations for the new WEC season are well underway. And it wouldn’t be WEC season without new autograph cards for the LMP1 drivers. A glimpse behind the scenes of the photoshoot. ...
BRITON LEADS THE WAY AT ESTORIL George Russell set the fastest time of the first day of pre-season testing at Circuito do Estoril during this afternoon’s session, stopping the clock at 1:27.606, less than a tenth ahead of teammate Nirei Fukuzumi and Raoul Hyman, with the Campos tester taking top honours in a wet morning […]