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DPA
Berlin
Sergio Perez delighted a home crowd when he topped final practice Saturday for the Mexican Formula One Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull team-mate and championship leader Max Verstappen.
Perez clocked 1 minute 17.024 seconds around the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, finishing .193 of a second ahead of Verstappen who had been first in both Friday sessions.
Verstappen’s title rival Lewis Hamilton, the defending and seven-time champion, was six-tenth back in third as Mercedes found no extra pace ahead of qualifying later Saturday and the race Sunday.
Verstappen leads the standings by 12 points with five to races to go so Hamilton has little margin for error at a circuit where the high altitude is believed to favour the Red Bull car.
The rivals have two previous wins each at the venue which is back on the calendar after being dropped last year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier late on Friday, Max Verstappen bounced back to set the fastest time in second practice by almost half a second, leaving Mercedes pair Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton second and third respectively after their one-two in FP1.
While Hamilton wrestled with what he called “insane” traffic at the start of this session, had a lap time deleted for double-yellow flags, and then locked up on hard tyres, rival Verstappen had already beaten Bottas’s leading FP1 time with an early medium-tyred benchmark time of 1m17.920s. Halfway through the session, soft tyres were fitted by most of the field and Verstappen set the ultimate fastest lap of 1m17.301s.
That left Bottas 0.424s back in P2 while his team mate Hamilton was 0.509s behind Verstappen in third, leaving home hero Sergio Perez fourth, just a whisker behind Hamilton. The Mexican spun in FP1 but recovered to show particularly competitive pace on the medium-tyred long runs at the end of FP2 while Bottas was also rapid, on hard tyres however, as the session neared its close.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly continued his impressive form, taking sixth in this session between the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz (P5) and the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc – who said at the end of the session that he was struggling with “engine issues” – in seventh. Gasly’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda finished eighth fastest but faces a back-of-grid start on Sunday after taking new PU components.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel took P9 – while Alpine driver Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10, 1.4s off the top and just ahead of his United States Grand Prix sparring partner Kimi Raikkonen in P11.
Lando Norris was next up in P12, splitting the Alfa Romeos as Raikkonen’s team mate Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took 14th but was unhappy with the balance of his car, complaining that it was “turning itself”. He finished ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (P15), who put just seven laps on the board thanks to a gearbox issue on Friday afternoon that kept him in trhe garage for much of the session.
Haas’ Mick Schumacher took 16th while Lance Stroll, who starts at the back alongside Tsunoda on Sunday, finished 17th for Aston Martin.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi finished 18th but team mate George Russell suffered a post-Halloween fright, complaining that his “gearbox has gone” early on, which led to the Briton retreating to the garage and finishing 20th without a time on the board.
Between the Williams pair was Haas’ Nikita Mazepin, who faces a post-session trip to the Stewards for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions after going off at Turn 8.F1 agrees to stage Chinese Grand
Prix through to 2025
The Chinese Grand Prix will remain on the Formula One calendar until 2025 following the announcement of a new deal.
The race in Shanghai has been absent from the schedule for the past two years, and will not form part of next season’s record-breaking 23-round calendar either following coronavirus restrictions. But the fixture, first introduced in 2004, remains in the sport’s long-term plans. Commenting on the contract extension, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said: “This is great news for all of our fans in China and we are delighted to announce this agreement that will see us racing in Shanghai until 2025. “While we are all disappointed we could not include China on the 2022 calendar due to ongoing pandemic conditions, China will be restored to the calendar as soon as conditions allow and we look forward to being back with the fans as soon as we can.”
Berlin
Sergio Perez delighted a home crowd when he topped final practice Saturday for the Mexican Formula One Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull team-mate and championship leader Max Verstappen.
Perez clocked 1 minute 17.024 seconds around the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, finishing .193 of a second ahead of Verstappen who had been first in both Friday sessions.
Verstappen’s title rival Lewis Hamilton, the defending and seven-time champion, was six-tenth back in third as Mercedes found no extra pace ahead of qualifying later Saturday and the race Sunday.
Verstappen leads the standings by 12 points with five to races to go so Hamilton has little margin for error at a circuit where the high altitude is believed to favour the Red Bull car.
The rivals have two previous wins each at the venue which is back on the calendar after being dropped last year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier late on Friday, Max Verstappen bounced back to set the fastest time in second practice by almost half a second, leaving Mercedes pair Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton second and third respectively after their one-two in FP1.
While Hamilton wrestled with what he called “insane” traffic at the start of this session, had a lap time deleted for double-yellow flags, and then locked up on hard tyres, rival Verstappen had already beaten Bottas’s leading FP1 time with an early medium-tyred benchmark time of 1m17.920s. Halfway through the session, soft tyres were fitted by most of the field and Verstappen set the ultimate fastest lap of 1m17.301s.
That left Bottas 0.424s back in P2 while his team mate Hamilton was 0.509s behind Verstappen in third, leaving home hero Sergio Perez fourth, just a whisker behind Hamilton. The Mexican spun in FP1 but recovered to show particularly competitive pace on the medium-tyred long runs at the end of FP2 while Bottas was also rapid, on hard tyres however, as the session neared its close.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly continued his impressive form, taking sixth in this session between the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz (P5) and the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc – who said at the end of the session that he was struggling with “engine issues” – in seventh. Gasly’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda finished eighth fastest but faces a back-of-grid start on Sunday after taking new PU components.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel took P9 – while Alpine driver Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10, 1.4s off the top and just ahead of his United States Grand Prix sparring partner Kimi Raikkonen in P11.
Lando Norris was next up in P12, splitting the Alfa Romeos as Raikkonen’s team mate Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took 14th but was unhappy with the balance of his car, complaining that it was “turning itself”. He finished ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (P15), who put just seven laps on the board thanks to a gearbox issue on Friday afternoon that kept him in trhe garage for much of the session.
Haas’ Mick Schumacher took 16th while Lance Stroll, who starts at the back alongside Tsunoda on Sunday, finished 17th for Aston Martin.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi finished 18th but team mate George Russell suffered a post-Halloween fright, complaining that his “gearbox has gone” early on, which led to the Briton retreating to the garage and finishing 20th without a time on the board.
Between the Williams pair was Haas’ Nikita Mazepin, who faces a post-session trip to the Stewards for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions after going off at Turn 8.F1 agrees to stage Chinese Grand
Prix through to 2025
The Chinese Grand Prix will remain on the Formula One calendar until 2025 following the announcement of a new deal.
The race in Shanghai has been absent from the schedule for the past two years, and will not form part of next season’s record-breaking 23-round calendar either following coronavirus restrictions. But the fixture, first introduced in 2004, remains in the sport’s long-term plans. Commenting on the contract extension, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said: “This is great news for all of our fans in China and we are delighted to announce this agreement that will see us racing in Shanghai until 2025. “While we are all disappointed we could not include China on the 2022 calendar due to ongoing pandemic conditions, China will be restored to the calendar as soon as conditions allow and we look forward to being back with the fans as soon as we can.”
