Six times world champion Lewis Hamilton can expect a quicker car when the Formula One season finally starts in Austria next month, with Mercedes promising plenty of updates. The W11 car unveiled in February has yet to race, with the season delayed since March by the COVID-19 pandemic, and team technical director James Allison said months' worth of improvements are in the pipeline.
Max Verstappen won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix from pole position for Red Bull on Sunday.
World champion Lewis Hamilton, back in the car after his COVID-19-enforced absence at last week's Sakhir Grand Prix, was third but only 0.086 seconds off the pace.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc held off Lewis Hamilton to win his first Formula One race on Sunday in the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
IMAGES from the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Finn lapped the six-km Baku street circuit in one minute, 40.495 seconds, just 0.059 seconds faster than team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
Team by team analysis of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix (listed in championship order):
Red Bull have given "a definite no" to four-times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel's hopes of returning to them next year, team boss Christian Horner said on Friday. The German, who is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the season and facing an uncertain future, had said on Thursday he would say yes to a Red Bull drive if one was offered.
Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton clinched a record-extending 92nd career pole position in a Mercedes front-row lockout with team mate Valtteri Bottas at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday.
Sahara Force India enjoyed yet another double points finish in the 2016 Formula One season with Sergio Perez finishing a strong sixth and Nico Hulkenberg eighth at the action-packed Malaysian Grand Prix, in Sepang, Malaysia on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Saturday with Ferrari's championship leader Sebastian Vettel alongside the Mercedes driver on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton won in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and took championship lead.
Diehard F1 followers dotted the hills around the Hungaroring.
Lewis Hamilton stepped out on to the Italian Grand Prix podium, high above the red tide of Ferrari.
The five-time world champion went from pole position to last on a chaotic afternoon, the Briton hitting the barriers and spinning before finishing 11th in a race won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix
Force India overtook Williams for fourth position in the team standings after Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez bagged 22 points by finishing fourth and fifth in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc seized the first pole position of his Formula One career on Saturday with Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel second fastest to lock out the front row for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The strangest of campaigns crammed 17 races, instead of the record 22 originally envisaged, into little more than five months from July with four triple-headers.
The six times world champion took the chequered flag at Imola 5.783 seconds ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas, who started on pole position.
'The phenomenal Max Verstappen was both sloppy and superb in Germany, getting caught out during the first two starts, and even spinning his car around to give the crowd something to gasp at with a Batmobile-esque 360 degree turn. 'After Hamilton crashed and Verstappen sniffed victory, though, he pounced hard, put his foot down, and took a deserved race win,' says Rediff's F1 columnist Raja Sen.
Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on pole position for their home Italian Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday in a qualifying session that ended in farce and with drivers under investigation.
In an afternoon of heroes, Sebastian Vettel played the Bond villain at Silverstone, notes Raja Sen, who returns to Rediff.com as F1 columnist!
Red Bull's Max Verstappen will be doing all he can to stop six-times world champion Lewis Hamilton completing a Mercedes hat-trick and matching another of Michael Schumacher's Formula One records in Hungary this weekend.
Qualifying took place at a sunny Suzuka on Sunday morning after being postponed from its usual Saturday slot due to the approach of Typhoon Hagibis.
The Mercedes driver, with a record 94 wins, is the most successful Formula One driver of all time. The following details his progression to the 2020 title.
By virtue of this show, Sahara Force India collected six points from the race and consolidate its fourth position at the Constructor's standings with 101 points.
The German, taking his fourth win of the season, took the chequered flag 0.9 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen with Hamilton finishing fourth after sportingly surrendering third place to team mate Valtteri Bottas on the last lap.
Hamilton said he only realised the significance of what he had done when he came into the pitlane after taking the chequered flag.
Hamilton wrapped up his record-equalling seventh title in Turkey last month and picked up his 11th win of the season in Bahrain on Sunday. Mercedes have already won the constructors' title for an unprecedented seventh year in a row.
IMAGES from the Silverstone F1 GP on Sunday
Photos of the German Grand Prix.
The pole was the 91st of Lewis Hamilton's career and seventh at Silverstone.
Lewis Hamilton believes Charles Leclerc has usurped four times world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari's favourite.
Force India conceded fourth place to Williams in the team standings despite Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg securing a doubles points finish in the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix in Monza on Sunday.
Hamilton already had more race wins, pole positions and podium finishes than any other driver in the history of the sport.
The German, whose last victory was in Belgium in August 2018, took the chequered flag 2.641 seconds ahead of Monegasque team mate Charles Leclerc, who had started on pole position for the third race in a row.
The win also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, starting on pole, finished second after defending hard against Verstappen with the two 21-year-olds banging wheels as the Dutchman forced his way past. Verstappen took the flag under investigation.
While 40-year-old racers were relatively common in the sport's early days, they are a rarity in modern Formula One with an increasing emphasis on youth.
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