Ferrari showed off their 2020 Formula One car with a theatrical show of pride and passion on Tuesday, assuring success-starved fans that it was also very different under the skin to last year's model. The SF1000, marking the Italian team's 1,000th race that comes up this year, is the car Ferrari hope can end six years of Mercedes domination and dash Lewis Hamilton's bid to equal Michael Schumacher's record seven titles.
Races in New Jersey, Mexico and South Korea were dropped from Formula One's official 2014 calendar on Wednesday, with the season remaining at 19 races instead of a record 22.
Stewards said the sixth new turbocharger exceeded the driver's permitted allocation, triggering the automatic drop.
Nico Rosberg was hoping to savour, but it must have tasted sweeter than the champagne he drank out of Daniel Ricciardo's boot as the German inched closer to his maiden Formula One title.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified fourth with Mexican Sergio Perez, Verstappen's closest title rival and team mate but a massive 151 points adrift after 15 of 22 rounds, fifth and 0.773 off his team mate's pace.
The pole was the Finn's second in a row, after Brazil two weeks ago, and fourth of the campaign. Hamilton had been aiming for his 12th of the year.
A French doctor treating former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher said on Thursday that the German driver was making progress, but will need years to recover.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen sang "Viva Las Vegas" after racing to a record-extending 18th victory of the season and joining Sebastian Vettel in third place on Formula One's all-time winners' list.
Lewis Hamilton's record already bears comparison to Michael Schumacher's, and in some areas exceeds the great German's achievements.
Max Verstappen celebrated his 21st birthday in style on Sunday with the Red Bull driver carving from the back of the Russian Grand Prix grid to first in the space of 19 laps.
Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne said while he supported cost-cutting, there are other strategic issues under discussion that could force Ferrari to consider racing elsewhere.
'I really do believe this weekend we will be in a better position than we were last year'
Formula One qualifying will be halted under "double-yellow" conditions starting during this weekend's German Grand Prix in a tightening of rules aimed at avoiding a repeat of the controversy surrounding Nico Rosberg's pole in Hungary.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Professional sports events in Italy have been played without fans since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although some supporters have been allowed into pre-season soccer friendlies.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Lewis Hamilton led every lap from pole position to chequered flag, banging in a fastest lap for good measure to emphasise his supremacy
Formula One's record 22 race calendar for 2014 is 'beyond the limit' for teams but looks likely to be trimmed before it becomes definitive, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
IMAGES from the Belgian F1 Grand Prix
Much has been written about that afternoon, and the Brazilian's career and epic rivalry with Frenchman Alain Prost, with questions still asked about what caused the crash. What is certain is that it changed Formula One, triggering a major safety review and altering the course of sporting history.
Says he rejected Red Bull offer
Sergio Perez expects to have his Formula One future decided before next month's Malaysian Grand Prix and said on Thursday that he is currently weighing up two options.
Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday and retook the Formula One lead from team mate Lewis Hamilton after a fourth successive one-two finish for Mercedes.
"The comparison? I see still Ayrton winning the game because in the end Ayrton was such a charming guy and a personality. And obviously if someone loses his life and stays with us in the way of a legend, it's always something special. But I try to see it from a performance point and from a performance point, Lewis is going from one pole position to the next one and Lewis is going from one race win to the next one. Just like Ayrton did."
Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton beat team mate Nico Rosberg to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a front row sweep for dominant Mercedes.
He and Sebastian Vettel get on well, with the German keen on him staying, and Kimi Raikkonen has shown his loyalty this season by accepting team orders to his detriment.
Stewards were investigating whether the Mercedes driver, who won from 14th on the grid, illegally crossed a line separating the entry from the track when he hurriedly changed his mind about pitting during a safety car period.
Ferrari were already feeling the frustration and Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix added a measure of embarrassment to the mix for Formula One's most successful and glamorous team.
Mick Schumacher, who will face intense scrutiny as embarks on his Formula One career, said for now he was simply overwhelmed to be following in his father's footsteps and called his promotion a dream come true.
In a thrilling race with two safety car periods, reigning champion Hamilton went from pole position to the rear of the field before finishing second for Mercedes in a superb fightback. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third.
The prospect of seeing Sebastian Vettel beaten for the first time since last July is just one of the many novelties Sunday's season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix promises to deliver.
World Champion Lewis Hamilton has poked fun at Sebastian Vettel's remarks that Mercedes' recent dominance has made F1 'less exciting', saying that the German's run of four years in Red Bull was more boring than his two years supremacy.
Formula One is feeling a fresh wave of optimism under its new owners, while Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are the two most popular drivers, according to an extensive fan survey released on Friday.
Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for his home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort for the third year in a row
Formula One's struggling teams played down talk of a possible boycott of Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix on Friday as argument over division of the sport's revenues grew more heated on Friday.
Force India collected one of Formula One's stranger sanctions on Sunday when they were given a suspended 25,000-euro ($27,317.50) fine for a breach of the rules concerning driver numbers on their cars.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton saw off a strong Ferrari challenge at the Italian team's home Grand Prix to seal his seventh pole position in a row and 11th in 12 races on Saturday.
The German was joined on the front row of the grid by reigning world champion and closest rival Lewis Hamilton, in a Mercedes.
Sebastian Vettel justified his favourite tag for the Singapore Grand Prix when he stormed clear of his rivals in Friday's second free practice, lapping more than half a second quicker than Red Bull team mate Mark Webber.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrated his first Formula One pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.
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