Ferrari were the fastest in pre-season testing, raising suspicions that their new SF70H car has closed the chasm between Mercedes and the rest.
Formula One's governing body faced calls to modify qualifying procedures for safety reasons after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalised in Malaysia at the weekend. Championship leader Hamilton and his team mate were demoted five places on the starting grid at Sepang for impeding rivals when they slowed to save fuel after completing their final qualifying laps.
Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo took the overseas personality of the year prize.
Stage is set for Mumbai's motorsports fans to witness Formula One star Lewis Hamilton scorching the roads of the Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai on Sunday.
As the Formula One season moves into its second half Sebastian Vettel's armour suddenly appears to have some chinks after Lewis Hamilton's superb victory left the German in the shade for the second consecutive race in his previously imperious Red Bull.
McLaren questioned Lewis Hamilton's version of events on Friday after the 2008 Formula One champion told an interviewer he had been thrown out of his old team's garages in pre-season testing.
Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 50th Formula One victory on Sunday with a pole-to-flag U.S. Grand Prix drive that kept his title hopes alive and trimmed Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg's lead to 26 points with three races remaining. Rosberg, who had been chasing his 10th triumph of the season, finished second on a sunny Texan afternoon with a big crowd but little drama -- even if Hamilton spent much of it worrying about reliability. The straightforward victory was Hamilton's fourth in Texas in five seasons and ended a barren stretch for the triple world champion dating back to his last win in Germany in July.
The key to being a really quick Formula One driver, is to take risks on the racetrack and be in no rush to start a family, according to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
The key to being a really quick Formula One driver, is to take risks on the racetrack and be in no rush to start a family, according to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a hat-trick of pole positions disappeared at the Chinese Grand Prix on Thursday when McLaren said he would collect a five place penalty on the starting grid for an unscheduled gearbox change.
The X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger is reportedly broken after her split from Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton, as she kept breaking down and crying during the three-day sunshine stint in Antigua.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to increase his lead over Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to 28 points with eight races remaining.
Lewis Hamilton wrote a personal letter to the head of Formula One's governing body to escape a possible race ban for his Monaco Grand Prix outburst against stewards and rivals.
'Vettel disgraced himself, to be honest'
Sebastian Vettel lost his second-place finish after being disqualified by stewards for a fuel irregularity.
'The most important thing, I think, is really about finishing races and analysing and making sure you get as many race points as you can, of course'
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday that he missed winning and intended to clamber back on top of the podium in Turkey this weekend. "This weekend obviously I want to get points, but I want to win. I miss winning, so that's my plan," the 23-year-old told reporters at the Istanbul Park circuit.
Germany's Nico Rosberg celebrated his first Formula One world championship on Sunday after finishing runner-up in a tense Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton amid accusations of 'dirty tricks'.
Former champion Nigel Mansell has hailed Lewis Hamilton as the Formula One driver to beat while rejecting comparisons between the 23-year-old Briton and golfer Tiger Woods. "I don't think he is like Tiger Woods at all," the 1992 champion, also a keen golfer, told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday.
The 21-year-old Briton will race for McLaren next year alongside double world champion Fernando Alonso.
Pre-season testing times suggest that Ferrari and McLaren, who won all the races between them last year, are still in a class of their own.
The Briton will be toiling flat out on May Day, the international workers' holiday, to deny his German rival a seventh successive win and fourth of the sport's longest ever season.
Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton has lashed out at the plans of new qualifying format in the Formula One, saying the drivers should be consulted before changing the rules.
Following's Verstappen's 2021 title win, here's a list of F1 champions over the years...
The final phase of qualifying was halted, with only Piastri and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg having set times, when Sainz slammed backwards into the barriers at the final corner as he prepared to start his flying lap.
Team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen's lap of one minute 22.109 seconds was one of his best of the year and the Dutch driver sounded remarkably relaxed given the amount of pressure on him.
After pipping Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel with a lap of one minute 23.599 seconds in the first practice, the Briton shaved almost a second in FP2, his quickest lap clocked at 1:22.60.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won a rain-delayed and shortened sprint race from pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday to stretch his Formula One lead to 118 points.
Lewis Hamilton moved within reach of a fourth Formula One world championship on Sunday after winning a Japanese Grand Prix that saw Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel retire with engine problems.
Lewis Hamilton's hopes of securing the Formula One title in China this weekend could be scuppered by a video posted on the Internet.
Lando Norris put McLaren on pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday
'NO problem. Nobody was hurt, which is the most important thing'
Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday with championship-leading Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg qualifying alongside him on the front row.
Hamilton has won 71 races, 20 fewer than Schumacher, and four titles for Mercedes in the past five years. The first was with McLaren in 2008.
Lewis Hamilton wrapped up his pre-season testing with Mercedes in eye-catching style on Saturday with a lap that was easily the fastest seen so far this year in Barcelona.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton stormed to a Canadian Grand Prix victory on Sunday to become a magnificent seventh winner in seven Formula One races this season and seize the championship lead.
Lewis Hamilton cast himself as the Rafael Nadal of Formula One on Thursday, recognising in the Spaniard's epic Wimbledon triumph the same fire that burns within him on the racetrack. Hamilton, now resident in Federer's native Switzerland, compared the beaten world number one to Michael Schumacher, Formula One's now-retired but once dominant seven times champion.
McLaren played down a report on Sunday that their world champion Lewis Hamilton had threatened to quit Formula One in disgust over a lying controversy.
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado will start Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix on pole position for Williams after Lewis Hamilton was sent to the back of the grid because McLaren failed to put enough fuel in his car.
Jenson Button has hit out at former teammate Lewis Hamilton's description of McLaren as a team where he felt suffocated on Thursday, admitting the drivers work hard but describing the freedom they enjoy as "phenomenal".
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