[mayankk]

What a driver, and what a champion!
Equals the most wins. This was going to be a year of shattered records from him , and covid notwithstanding, the champ is showing exactly what he is capable of.
Amazing day!!

[PGNarain]

Great race and what an achievement by Hamilton! I was so hoping that Mick Schumacher would also be racimg, but soon and perhaps next time.

Amazing run from Nico Hulkenberg also, starting 20th and finishing 12th after a last minute change.

After equalling the record 91 wins, Mick Schumacher gifts Lewis Hamilton one of his Dad's helmets when he was racing with Mercedes.

https://youtu.be/kOo4H_Kwu7Q

[SideView]

Originally Posted by PGNarain

Amazing run from Nicole Hulkenberg also, starting 20th and finishing 12th after a last minute change.

Well done Hamiton, hope he gets the respect that Schumi got. ( that too he has done it with multiple manufacturers once he matches the title wins)

Minor correction: Hulk got 8th , hope he gets a race seat for next year.

[DIY410]

Sad that both Senna and Michael where not physically present to give their helmets. Lewis was a big fan of Senna.

Sebestian Vettel should just retire, I don't think he will be as fast as Perez.

I do hope Perez and Hulkenberg find a seat next year. Albon doesn't deserve a Redbull seat for next year, mistake after mistake.

I was waiting for the Shoey, Daniel said that he completely forget about it and he genuinely appears sad that he didn't remember to do it.

[shibujp]

Bottas needs a bit luck now. His start was good enough to fend off Hamilton in the first couple of corners. However locking his brakes into turn 1 showed that he needs to step up his race craft to hold someone like Hamilton behind him. Hamilton's restart after the safety car brought on by Norris' retirement was indicative of exactly this quality. Even Verstappen struggled to anticipate and react. As the gap to the championship grows even more it's had to see Bottas' challenge to the championship materialise.

The most popular winner today should be Riccardo and it was about time. A fitting achievement for driver and team. If it had not been for Leclerc holding him up I believe Riccardo may have been able to challenge Verstappen. The Renault definitely has the pace especially in a straight line.

Another standout was the Hulk. However I guess everyone expects it from him after the show he put on in Silverstone. From dead last to P8 is a wonderful testament to his capabilities. Perhaps he should open show as a consultant F1 driver and charge per the points in the races he participates in. Kind of like what Danny Sordo and Sebastian Leob are doing for Hyundai in WRC.

Tough luck for Lando Norris. At one point he looked sure to win a podium before powerplant issues wrecked it all for him. Another driver who is capable of solid results. His friend Russell though got literally punched out of the track by Kimi who set a record by being the driver with the most number of F1 races under his belt by participating in the Grand Prix today. His team congratulated him on it, but the resulting silence said its all!!

Great gesture by Mick Schumacher to hand over his father's helmet to Hamilton in honor of Hamilton matching Schumy's race win record. 91 wins for the pair! It got me to thinking that if Schumacher had been alive, we would have seen a different Ferrari too.

What is happening with George Russell. his performances have fallen off since the new management and suddenly Latifi seems to be doing better. Also Giovinazzi beat Vettel to P10 but I felt that Vettel didn't really fight for it all that hard either!

Drive on,
Shibu

[motorworks]

Actually the race was not all that interesting, no rain and no weather change. A lot of cars retiring kept the interest on to some extent. I think it was a rather easy win for Hamilton, irrespective of retirement by Bottas. Max did not have serious pace to challenge Hamilton at all.

A very popular podium position for Ricciardo, I must say he did a very good job in passing Leclerc quickly and then kept his eye on the top 3 when bottas retired. He seems like a genuinely good racer, who manages his tyres well, gets overtaking done, and also makes no fuss while doing all of this. I really wish he does well in Mclaren next year. He is one of those guys who deserves a top drive. In my mind, Max, Leclerc, and Ricciardo are the best out there today, obviously apart from Hamilton. I really wish Mercedes had hired him instead of Bottas at some point in the last few years. Rosberg consistently challenged Hamilton in most races, unlike Bottas who looks like the perfect wing man.

And lastly at Ferrari, I was very surprised when Leclerc bagged 4th in qualifying, and was keen to see if there was genuine pace improvement. Honestly, I dont think so. Maybe the qualifying position was due to the track temperature or some external factors, and when it came to the race, Leclerc could not defend against Renault or even the Racing point. In fact, if Bottas, Albon and Ocon had not retired, Leclerc would have not finished P7 at all. Nothing to really take home from here for Ferrari. And Seb, I think he has lost all interest this year and is just lugging around. Kimi seems to be all over Seb in every race!

[arun_josie]

Red Bull has shown lot of confidence in Albon but he is still racing around Kvyat and Gasly. Verstappen is now 80+ points ahead of Albon. If Red Bull doesn't have the confidence in bringing back Gasly then maybe they should look at Perez as he still doesn't have seat for 2021.
It was an excellent race for Hulkenberg. Vettel would have felt happy seeing the pace of Racing Point when Hulkenberg overtook him.

But for the safety car, Hamilton would have lapped everyone except Verstappen.

[fz_rider]

Two really talented racers are out of seat. I would love to see both Perez and Hulkenberg get a seat next year.
If RedBull is really serious about winning a constructor championship, they need an experienced driver to get the points, the way Webber did it. Webber wasn't a RedBull junior, and its the last time RedBull won a championship with this kind of combination. For god's sake give Perez a chance.

Despite having a good car, its difficult to go into a race with just couple of qualifying laps under the belt, for an out of job racer. Hulkenberg did a tremendous job, coming from back of the grid.

Very happy for Ricciardo, a well deserved podium. Him along with Lando have been the standout performers this season.

Finally, it was fitting for Lewis to match Michael in Nurburgring. Nice gesture by the Schumacher family.

[F1 Freak]

Eifel GP report

This was one of the most awaited weekends of the season as the legendary Nurburgring made its comeback for the first time after 2013 due to the pandemic. The iconic circuit is situated in the south of the historic city of Cologne, with Eifel mountains in the backdrop which makes for amazing eye candy. The big treacherous Nordschleife was completed in 1927, but after the near-fatal crash of Niki Lauda in 1976, was abandoned. A more modern Grand Prix circuit was opened in 1984, with the inaugural European GP and in 1985, the German GP. It fell off the calendar till 1995 and then held various GPs in the guises of European, German and Luxembourg GP until 2013. This weekend it made comeback, with every soul being excited about it.


Before the weekend it was announced that F2 drivers Callum Illot and son of the legendary Michael Schumacher, Mick Schumacher, will make their F1 debut in FP1 with the former driving for Haas and the latter for Alfa Romeo. This added an extra hype to the weekend as Mick’s calibre would be compared to his father.


To everybody’s disappointment, the weekend started on the dismal note as the FP1 and FP2 were cancelled due to the notorious and unpredictable weather of Nurburgring, as a result, postponing the debut of Mick. Moreover, one of the Mercedes staff members was tested positive for the Coronavirus, which resulted in them flying an alternate team at the last minute. Just before FP3, it was announced that Lance Stroll was not feeling well and wouldn’t be able to drive this weekend. To everybody’s joy, Nico Hulkenberg was called as the replacement driver.


In Fp3 it was Valterri Bottas of Mercedes who topped the session, but the surprise factor was Charles Leclerc, who managed to put the Ferrari 3rd. It seemed the upgrades on Ferrari were doing its job.



Valterri Bottas repeated his FP3 result in Qualifying as he took the provisional pole by an amazingly small gap. But it was a disaster for Nico Hulkenberg as he qualified dead last.



Well race start was an interesting one, Bottas and Hamilton had a good fight, and the former outmuscled the latter and it looked good for him. But on lap 13, Valterri handed the lead right to Lewis as he had a big lockup, which forced him to pit due to a big flat spot. From thereon Lewis comfortably led the race to his Schumacher’s record-equaling 91st victory while Bottas was forced to retire due to engine issues.

A virtual safety car was required at lap 14 as Kimi crashed into the Williams of Russell at turn 1 sending him airborne, causing a left rear suspension and tyre failure, which resulted in his DNF. Later Kimi was penalized 10s for the incident.

There was more drama as Danil Kyvat, who straight-lined a Chicane, got his wing swept by the Red Bull of Albon. Albon was penalized but later retired due to power unit issue.

Ocon retired due to a PU issue at lap 23. Lando Norris also got into trouble as his Mclaren‘s Renault power unit had troubles, and later retired at lap 44 with a smoking side pod.

This prompted a safety car under which Hamilton, Ricciardo and Max pitted for softs, while Perez pitted a lap later for the same. Hamilton pulled to the victory from the restart which happened with 10 laps remaining.

Verstappen had to fend off Ricciardo, who finished third for his first podium with Renault, followed by Perez, Sainz and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri who is having an amazing season. But the Driver of the Day had to be the amazing Nico Hulkenberg who finished into the points, P8, from dead last, without having any practice.

Also, Lewis Hamilton was gifted Michael’s Helmet from his Mercedes days by his son, Mick Schumacher as a token of respect and appreciation for equaling the record.

[akash_v12]

RedBull

Max Verstappen did an outstanding job with his RB16 this weekend, chasing Lewis Hamilton the best he could in his car for the majority of 61 Laps finishing just 4 seconds behind the 91-race winner. However, things didn’t go down too well for Alex Albon, who suffered a lock-up into turn 3 in the first lap, causing him to pit early, a minor collision with sister team AlphaTauri’s Kvyat which gave him a 5-second penalty. But, as Lap 23 finished up for him, he entered the pits to finally retire with a pierced radiator and the former penalty was deemed useless for him. RedBull Team Principal, Christian Horner said that Albon’s race was the toughest for the young Thai driver.

Alfa Romeo

Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi shined in Qualifying in which he took P14. His impressive start led to him to rocket ahead from P14 to P11 in the 1st Lap itself. Competent driving meant that he got the car home with a place in the points as he finished P10 scored points for only the 2nd time this year.
The Veteran, Kimi Räikkonen qualified P19 and was doing quite well until he crashed into Williams’ George Russel which gave him a 10-second penalty. He ended up finishing in a respectable P12.

Haas

Haas’ Romain Grosjean complained about a probable broken finger when he was hit by gravel from Kimi Räikkonen but managed to keep going superbly finishing at P9 scoring his 1st points since Germany 2019 where he finished 7th.
Not a splendid race for Kevin Magnussen who finished only 13th ahead of Nicholas Latifi and Daniil Kvyat and qualified 15th managing to score only a single point throughout the season.

Williams

Williams’ George Russell had a bad day. He was great off the start and was ready to score his first World Championship Points until Kimi Räikkonen shunted into him while trying to control the oversteer into Turn 1 causing him to retire the FW43 keeping him without points for 32 races over 2 seasons.
Nicholas Latifi too finished P14 only behind Daniil Kvyat who suffered a Front-Wing Loss when Alex Albon crashed into him. Latifi too has not managed to score a point this season

Ferrari

Ferrari had a balanced qualifying this weekend as Charles Leclerc qualified at a solid P4 showing improvement in the SF1000. He unfortunately couldn't turn that into a podium and finished a decent P7. This shows that the SF1000 is still lacking in pace and with repeated complains of balancing issues, it's no surprise that Charles dropped down a few places. Sebastian Vettel got knocked out in Q2 showing his lack of confidence in the car. While in the race, he tried pushing the Scuderia hard which ended up sending his SF1000 spinning off the track in Turn 1, loosing a handful of positions and finishing at a disappointing P11.

Racing Point

It was a astonishing weekend for racing point as their 2nd driver Lance stroll was unfit to take part in the gp who was replaced by the super sub driver Nico hulkenburg recieving another chance to race in his home GP. New car parts and the lack of experience on the track made him qualify at P20 but had an astonishing finish at P8 after an amazing recovery run. The Hülk also managed to get driver of the day. Sergio Perez qualified at a disappointing P9 but pushing hard in the race meant that Checo finished at an excellent P4 and was constantly challenging Daniel Riccardo for the podium.


McLaren

It was a half decent race for the British team with Carlos sainz finishing P5 starting from 7th on the grid but teammate Lando Norris being forced to retire due to power unit issues. The British driver was on course for his second podium of the season but mechanical issues ruined his race. The team seemed to have decent pace this weekend but are still lagging behind their competitors Renault and Racing point. Lando Norris currently stands 6th in the drivers championship with 65 points and teammate Carlos sainz down in 11th with 51 points. McLaren currently stand 4th in the constructors championship with 116 points in what is turning out to be a very tight and exciting midfield battle this year. But it made my day when Lando followed his predecessor’s footsteps and went and sat on the beach chair

AlphaTauri

It was a average weekend for Redbull's sister team AlphaTauri. Pierre Gasly came home to take an impressive 6th place after starting from P12 on the grid. The same cannot be said for his team mate Daniil Kvyat whose race was pretty much ruined after making contact with RedBull Racing's Alex albon and losing his front wing as a result. Kvyat finished last of the 15 remaining drivers at the end of the grand Prix with the Frenchman again doing better than his teammate. The team continues to show how much they've improved from last season. Gasly stands 10th in the drivers championship with 53 points and Daniil Kvyat is 14th with 14 points. The Italian team currently stand 6th in the constructers championship 67 points just behind Italian rivals, Scuderia Ferrari.

Mercedes

A mixed-bag day for Mercedes with one driver, Lewis Hamilton equalling Schumacher’s record of 91 whereas the other having a MGU-H issue. Bottas’s championship dreams might’ve just gone into vain with this weekend’s result. However, Hamilton as usual has been driving amazingly well .