Charles Leclerc scored his third Pole Position in a row for Ferrari for the September 20-22 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 2019 at the always fun, always challenging Marina Bay Street Circuit with Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes-AMG splitting the Ferraris to start along side Leclerc in Position 2 and Sebastian Vettel in the other Ferrari starting in Position 3, Row 2.  Max Verstappen for Red Bull will also start on Row 2.  Row 3 will have Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes-AMG in Position 5 and, racing for his first time in Singapore, Red Bull‘s Alexander Albon in Position 6.  All teams ran Pirelli’s Soft (C5 red) tire compound for Qualifying Session 3 (Q3).

Statement from Sean Bratches, Managing Director of Commercial Operations at Formula 1 -more-

Charles Leclerc for Ferrari will start on his 2nd Pole in the last two races. Mercedes-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton will start on the front row next to him, with Mercedes-AMG’s Valtteri Bottas in the 2nd row, 3rd position.

If the FORMULA 1 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2019 had been 45 laps instead of 44 laps Lewis Hamilton/Mercedes-AMG, more than likely would have caught and overtaken Charles Leclerc/Ferrari on the last lap, but the race at Spa, Formula 1’s longest track was 44 laps and Hamilton’s late race push could not catch Leclerc.  Earlier in the race Hamilton pitted one lap after Leclerc, both putting on the Pirelli Medium compound tires.  Hamilton is famous for being able to get excellent wear out of his tires and it showed again at the Belgian Grand Prix with Leclerc’s tires wearing out near the end of the race allowing Hamilton to close, what had been, a significant gap due the degradation of the tires on the Ferrari.  Mercedes-AMG rounded out the Podium with Valtteri Bottas coming in 3rd.  Sebastian Vettel came in 4th for Ferrari.

FIRST LOOK: Formula 1’s 2021 car in the wind tunnel
21 August 2019 – Lawrence Barretto | formula1.com

Road & Track magazine for August 2019 is a Formula 1 issue, with articles on Lewis Hamilton, a tribute to Niki Lauda, Red Bull drama, the dynamics of driving a modern Formula 1 car and more. I haven’t read the articles yet, but it should be interesting, you know how Formula 1 stuff is, it’s always interesting.

In a very exciting finish, with 4 laps to go, Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes-AMG overtakes Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the lead.  Hamilton benefiting from a Mercedes-AMG strategy to bring him in early and run him on the Medium Compound tires.  Verstappen was on the Hard Compound.  Hamilton started running faster laps and, eventually, as Verstappen’s tires got to the point where they were of no use.  Hamilton is known for being able to get the most out of his tires.  Mercedes-AMG’s tire compound gamble paid off big time, Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2019, this was Hamilton’s 7th time winning the Hungarian. (Final Race Results: Hungarian Grand Prix 2019; Tire Allocations: Hungarian Grand Prix 2019)

Max Verstappen becomes the 100th different driver to start from pole position in Formula 1 history for the FORMULA 1 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2019.  Max’s Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly will start in 6th position. The other cars inside of the Red Bull sandwich in the first three rows are Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in positions 2 and 3 for Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel in positions 4 and 5.  The Qualifying Sessions were dry, with a 60% chance of rain forecast for the race . (Starting Grid: Hungarian Grand Prix 2019; Tire Allocations: Hungarian Grand Prix 2019)

The FORMULA 1 GERMAN GRAND PRIX 2019 had enough rain to create a new level of tires drama that we had not seen yet this season.  The race started with the Formation Lap lasting for 3 laps so that the Race Director could decide if the race should start with the normal standing start or, based on weather conditions do a Safety Car start.  The standing start, which is preferred by the drivers, saw the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Gasly, that started on Rows 1 and 2 being badly passed before turn 1.  All cars started on Full Wets.  It became obvious very early in the race that the wet conditions were going to be a major factor creating a little more drama and throughout the race there was more than enough tires drama. 

As parts of the track dried, most teams switched to Intermediates and then the tires drama escalated, as the race continued some teams gambled and switched to Softs, but quickly found out that they were a little too optimistic as cars on Softs, starting sliding all over the place, some going off the track, some maintaining control to get back on and some stopped when they hit a barrier.  The crashes that caused Yellow Flag situations, allowed those cars on Softs to quickly pit to get back on Intermediates.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the race with an amazing performance by Sebastian Vettel, who started dead last, finishing 2nd for Ferrari on his home track and Danill Kvyat put Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda on the Podium with his 3rd place finish Verstappen also earned the fastest lap point.

Start up front for the FORMULA 1 GERMAN GRAND PRIX 2019

After dominating runs by both Ferraris in the Practice sessions on Friday, both Ferraris had very disappointing Qualifying sessions.  Sebastian Vettel had a turbo issue on his first and only lap in Q1 and his teammate Charles Leclerc due to mechanical issues at the start of Q3 also retired his car and will start the race in 10th position, with Vettel starting in 20th position.

Mercedes-AMG has Lewis Hamilton on pole and Valtteri Bottas starting in 3rd position.  Max Verstappen for Red Bull will start on the first row with his teammate Pierre Gasly starting in 4th position.  To round out the first 3 rows Kimi Raikkonen for Alfa Romeo will start in 5th position and for Haas’ Romain Grosjean will start in 6th position.

With the Ferraris staring so deep in the pack it will be an interesting race to see them fight through traffic to get to the front of the pack.