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"F1 2017"

Schedule & Results

And the season is underway!


Post edited by Smedders on 25/03/2017 at 09:22.

I've just noticed that today's qualifying is at 2pm, not 1pm as it usually is for European GP's.

Third practice later on this morning will be interesting, we will see if Hamilton can improve on his mediocre performances yesterday and if Red Bull can keep up their good form.

Hopefully the cars will grip a bit better today as some parts of practice yesterday descended into farce with cars going off the track and down the safety roads (or barriers).

Verstappen is quickest again in practice 2, scotching fears that the Renault engine would struggle in Azerbaijan, although he did crash later on in the session and did quite a bit of damage to the right side of his car.

Bottas was second and Vettel fifth, although Hamilton could only manage 10th this time. He seems to struggle on low-grip street tracks and is looking dodgy here, we'll have to wait and see if he can improve at all over the next 2 days.

Palmer meanwhile is looking like he's going to lose his drive with Renault mid-season, as the team are reportedly unhappy with his form, and crashing off in practice 2 will do him no favours either. He also had a bad, awkward interview with a BBC journalist yesterday which the team is reported to be unhappy over.

It's looking like it's going to be an interesting weekend.

First practice is over and the Red Bulls finish 1-2, although both Vettel and Hamilton, who finished in 3rd and 5th, weren't on the fastest tyres so the session wasn't really representative of what's to come later on in the weekend.

Perez had a big accident, having an argument with a wall which unsurprisingly came off a lot better than his car did, so we didn't have a full session while the million pieces his car exploded into were cleared off the track.

The Azerbaijan GP weekend kicks off at 9-45am today, hopefully Hamilton can build on his Canada success and cut Vettel's lead at the top of the driver's championship or maybe even go top himself.

It'll be interesting to see how the McLarens perform after their engine upgrade, although they will both be starting from the back of the grid due to penalties imposed for using more engine parts than they're allowed to.

It just gets worse for McLaren as both Alonso and Vandoorne will be starting at the back of the grid in Azerbaijan due to an engine upgrade which has taken them over the permitted amount of parts they're allowed to use in a season.

We'll have to wait and see if this upgrade makes much of an improvement on the cars performance, but let's face it they desperately need to do something.

I know we're not even halfway through the current season but the provisional race calendar for 2018 has been released:

2018 Calendar

Germany and France are back but China and Singapore are in doubt.

It's nice to see Kubica back in F1 after he nearly severed his arm in a rally crash a few years ago.

After his recent testing for Renault teams may be interested in bringing him back into the racing fold next season and I for one would be pleased to see him back as I do rate him as an excellent driver.

An excellent win for Hamilton puts him 12 points behind Vettel, the race couldn't have gone any better for him.

Alonso has a rant on the radio after being easily overtaken on the straights and then breaks down again. Will he still be there at the end of the season? At the minute I think not.

A superb final lap from Hamilton puts him on pole, 0.33 seconds ahead of Vettel followed by Bottas then Raikkonen.

Mercedes just seemed to click and the tyre problems weren't an issue, Hamilton has now equalled his hero Senna's record of 65 career pole positions.

Vettel now fastest in 3rd practice by 0.3 seconds to Raikkonen and Hamilton.

The Ferrari's are starting to show their pace and Mercedes are still struggling with their tyres, it will be a very interesting qualifying session.