Category: Formula 1

Perez rejuvenated after Japanese GP turnaround

Sergio Perez says he can be strong at any circuit this season given his improved performance across the last two Japanese Grand Prix weekends. Suzuka was towards the end of the 2023 calendar and Perez struggled in October, qualifying some 0.8s off …

Sergio Perez says he can be strong at any circuit this season given his improved performance across the last two Japanese Grand Prix weekends.

Suzuka was towards the end of the 2023 calendar and Perez struggled in October, qualifying some 0.8s off Max Verstappen in fifth place, and then retiring after multiple collisions. This time around, Perez was just 0.066s off his teammate in qualifying and comfortably finished second, and he sees the result as indicative of his potential for the entire season.

“I think we are in a good momentum,” Perez said. “I think if you remember here last year, it was probably my worst weekend. So I think if we are strong in places like this with a lot of high-speed content, medium-speed, I think we can be strong anywhere else. It’s been a good weekend.”

Perez looked able to stay relatively close to Verstappen for much of the first part of the race before fading from contention, and he says it was higher than expected tire degradation that compromised his chances of sticking with his teammate.

“With the start, doing that restart again is always quite hard to keep the focus for such a long period of time. It worked alright. My second start was a little bit better, but just not enough to get Max.

“I think we paid the price a little bit because we were a little bit off balance on that first stint, which meant we couldn’t keep it alive. We had to box and we were undercut by Lando [Norris]. And then I had to push too much on that medium stint. But then on the hard stint, I was a lot more comfortable, and the pace came back. But yeah, I think I suffered a bit from that first stint being a bit unbalanced.”

The struggles in the first stint were highlighted by a slight off-track moment at the second Degner corner, with Perez feeling he lost touch with Verstappen at that stage.

“It was quite a tricky corner. A lot of people went out there. I just went in over the curb and I was just hoping to don’t pick up any damage because it’s so easy with these floors to go off and have damage. As far as I know, we don’t have any. I just understeered wide and went over the curb.

“Once you are at the top of the curb, it’s game over. You just have to let the car roll, go over it, because it’s better to be over than on top of it. But I obviously picked up a lot of dirt on my tires, which took a lap or two to really clean up, and I lost a couple of seconds with that.”

Alonso ranks Suzuka sixth as one of his best performances

Fernando Alonso believes his performance at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he finished sixth, was one of the best of his career. Qualifying in fifth place, Alonso had warned that he feels he regularly overachieves in qualifying and then slips back …

Fernando Alonso believes his performance at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he finished sixth, was one of the best of his career.

Qualifying in fifth place, Alonso had warned that he feels he regularly overachieves in qualifying and then slips back to the team’s average position over a race distance. Aston Martin had an upgrade at Suzuka and Sunday’s race saw Alonso only drop behind Charles Leclerc, holding off Oscar Piastri for much of the final stint and earning a top-six finish he rates highly.

“I think it was my best weekend in I don’t know… Inside the top five ever, for me,” Alonso said. “P5 in qualifying, that lap, and P6 in the race is completely out of position. So very proud.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I think we are the fifth fastest team by a good margin to the fourth and a good margin to the sixth. We are quite established there. There is no way to compare us with Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes, so that’s why to finish P5 and P6 is completely unusual.

“We did it in Australia as well – we finished P6 – here P6 again, P5 I think in Jeddah, so we are executing the races very well and the others are experimenting a little bit with the strategy and other things. We are capitalizing on those, but we need to improve the pace, for sure.”

Pushed on how he comes to the conclusion of the pecking order, Alonso added: “I drive the car on track. I see it.”

The two-time world champion had praise for the way Aston Martin is delivering as a race team, but wants to see further gains made in terms of outright car performance.

“I think there are a couple of things in the pipeline to improve the car. I think this first package is just the first baseline of what we will introduce later in the season,” he said. “So we still need to analyze many things, but as I said we are executing very well on Sundays, maximizing the points or even more than what we deserve normally.

“Pit stops were great, actually on the second stop when I saw the green light and I went, I said ‘Maybe they didn’t change all four tires’ because for me this felt like the fastest ever. So I’m curious to see the time.

“There are small things here and there that are making it possible to get the result, but I think fundamentally the pace is not where we want to be, and this is something we need to focus on now.”

Hamilton trying to decipher mixed messages from Mercedes

If you’re Lewis Hamilton, it must be tough to know just how to feel about your current professional situation right now. The seven-time world champion surprised the sporting world with his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025, particularly …

If you’re Lewis Hamilton, it must be tough to know just how to feel about your current professional situation right now.

The seven-time world champion surprised the sporting world with his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025, particularly with the timing of the announcement that confirmed the move prior to this current season.

And while Hamilton has generally not dodged questions about that future move so far this year, he’s always brought the topic back to Mercedes and his desire to end his hugely successful time there on a high. But at this moment, that’s looking particularly challenging.

Hamilton went through a rollercoaster of emotions during the race weekend in Suzuka. It was so refreshing to see how positive he was heading into the race – joking and laughing in his Thursday media session – and that mood continuing into qualifying, where he was remarkably upbeat about seventh place on the grid.

OK, maybe that’s overstating it a little. The grid position itself didn’t excite Hamilton, but he was boosted by how the car felt, and how he was able to really push it in that incredible opening sector that all drivers seem to absolutely love attacking in Formula 1 machinery.

Plus, the gap to Red Bull in qualifying was smaller than it had been at the same venue just six months earlier. But the same was true for Ferrari, and Aston Martin, and McLaren. And come race day, Mercedes was slipping to the back of that pack – partly through strategic choice, it must be said – while Ferrari was rising to the front of it.

The direction at Ferrari appears very clear right now. Fred Vasseur has got the team working harmoniously, with an understanding of what is required to improve itself in all areas. Carlos Sainz points out that a better car is central to so much of the impression of progress in other departments too, but then it’s obvious Ferrari is improving its car.

The catalyst for that was identified as the Dutch Grand Prix last year, where Ferrari really gained an understanding of how to make a car work effectively under the current regulations. Since then, every update and development appears to have been in the right direction. As Sainz himself acknowledges, having a more competitive and compliant car opens up more strategic options, and there are positive knock-on impacts that translate into better race results.

That’s a great sign for Hamilton’s future, but the same really can’t be said for the team he still has to complete another 20 races with.

By the end of Sunday’s race, Hamilton’s mood had, understandably, deteriorated markedly. Seventh on the grid became ninth in at the checkered flag, and Mercedes had definitely not maximized its strategy; an area where Ferrari used to face regular criticism.

A Dutch journalist trying to follow-up to Hamilton’s race summary of “It was OK” was perhaps too hasty in attempting to fill the silence – understandable, in his second language – and asked if he was jealous of the Ferraris being ahead, or looking forward to joining them instead.

Hamilton is trying to enjoy his final races at Mercerdes, but the team’s struggles to find performance in the car is not making it easy. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

“Do you have any better questions?” and a rapid exit after 26 seconds was the polar opposite to where Hamilton’s demeanor had been just 24 hours earlier.

And you can’t blame him, because for every hint at progress at Mercedes since the start of 2022, it increasingly appears that the team still does not understand its car well enough to cement those gains.

Toto Wolff changed his plans ahead of Suzuka after having originally intended to remain in Europe for the race weekend. His attendance was explained as being due to him wanting to get a boost from being around the race team and helping with its direction at a time when it is trying new things.

But after a humbling result that leaves Mercedes with just 34 points from the opening four rounds – its second-worst return in its F1 history – Wolff was candid in his admission that Mercedes is still lost when it comes to getting a car to perform under these rules.

Revealing that tests in Melbourne had proven to the team that its car had huge amounts more downforce compared to 2023, but it wasn’t translating into performance, Wolff insisted that Mercedes is closer to answers as a result. But it still doesn’t have them.

“Everything over these two years that we’ve seen points to there should be more downforce than we believe it is,” Wolff said. “And now we’ve measured the downforce and it’s there, we’re just not able to extract the lap time out of it that we should and that simulations show us. And it’s not trivial. I see you looking at me like ‘What the hell?!’ Now imagine what we think!”

The mixed messages between lessons being learned but understanding being missing are tough to read. And over the last two-and-a-bit seasons, the feeling may well have grown within Hamilton that those answers are not going to be forthcoming soon enough.

Whether he strongly believed the difference between Ferrari’s upward momentum and Mercedes’ decline would be so stark four races into the season is something only Hamilton will know, but as his replacement is sought, Wolff appears to concede there will be no quick fix.

“I think you can look at it from various perspectives. I believe that we are in a rebuild phase, we need to acknowledge that now three years into these regulations,” he said. “We’ve got to do things differently to what we’ve done in the past without throwing overboard what we believe is goodness in the way we operate.

“And ‘rebuild’ could mean putting a young driver in there and giving him an opportunity with less pressure, or putting a more experienced driver in the car that can help us dig ourselves out of the current performance picture.”

Mercedes’ succession planning was always one of its great strengths during its dominant spell, and it’s a team full of immensely talented people and impressive facilities that have worked out the best way to win under previous regulations before.

To write it off completely would be dangerous, but with the likes of Ferrari and even McLaren continuing to speak confidently about the directions they’re heading in – and backing it up with improvements on-track – the Mercedes situation looks ever more concerning.

With the 2026 rules reset looming, unless there’s a lightbulb moment within Mercedes’ engineering team very soon, Hamilton could find himself denied the positive finish to that partnership he so craves, but even more justified in his decision to seek a new challenge.

Mercedes leaves Japan with answers despite ‘not good’ results

Toto Wolff believes the Japanese Grand Prix has yielded some important answers to perplexing questions for Mercedes as it gains an understanding of how to extract performance from its car. George Russell finished seventh and Lewis Hamilton ninth at …

Toto Wolff believes the Japanese Grand Prix has yielded some important answers to perplexing questions for Mercedes as it gains an understanding of how to extract performance from its car.

George Russell finished seventh and Lewis Hamilton ninth at Suzuka, a reversal of their qualifying positions after a frustrating weekend in terms of final results. However, Wolff says the previous race in Australia allowed Mercedes to prove it has raw aerodynamic potential in the car that is just simply not yet translating into the expected performance.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I think the car is so complex where we put it in terms of the aero balance and the mechanical balance, and these two need to correlate,” he said.

“We’ve followed a certain trajectory over the last years, and keep going in circles and we came to a point saying ‘okay we’re going to do something different here,’ because we are measuring downforce with our sensors and our pressure tabs and it’s telling us we have 70 points more downforce in a particular corner in Melbourne than we had last year, but in lap time it’s not a kilometer per hour faster, so it doesn’t make any sense.

“So where is the limitation? I think we wanted to tick a few boxes to understand is there any limitation that we haven’t spotted, and I think there is.

“There should be more downforce than we believe it is, and now we’ve measured the downforce and it’s there, we’re just not able to extract the lap time out of it that we should and that simulations show us. It’s not trivial.”

Given the experiments Mercedes has carried out over the last few races, and with Hamilton actually stating how much happier with the car’s handling he was prior to Sunday, Wolff says the finishing positions should not distract the team from the signs of progress.

“When you look at the results – 7th and 9th in qualifying and 7th and 9th in the race – that’s clearly not good. And everybody knows that. But we’ve definitely made a big step forward in how we want to run the car and in our understanding.

“This was one of the worst tracks for us last year, we were pretty close to the frontrunners – not Max [Verstappen] but the guys behind – in qualifying, that came as a surprise. We were very quick through the Esses, where last year we were nowhere.

“And in the race when you look at how it unfolded we were trying to make a one-stop stick, probably over-managed the tires and had an atrocious first stint but a very competitive second and third stint once we basically did what the others did. That would have looked completely different.

“So seventh and ninth, just not good. There’s nothing to add, nothing to make rosey, I think we’re going away from Suzuka not happy with the result but definitely there is more to come.”

Smaller Suzuka gap shows Ferrari gains – Sainz

Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months. At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind …

Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months.

At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind race-winner Max Verstappen, while teammate Charles Leclerc was a further 44s off in fourth place. This time around, Sainz picked up another podium and was just under 21s away from Verstappen, with Leclerc close behind, and the Spaniard says it proves where Ferrari has been able to strengthen.

“It’s very satisfying,” Sainz said. “We exactly improved the car in the places that we wanted to improve it, and Suzuka proves it. Still, places like Suzuka, we are not as quick as the Red Bull, which is the target, but as soon as we bring a good upgrade to the car that goes in the right direction, hopefully it can get us closer.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“But yeah, we’ve improved everywhere, and especially in the race pace. It also allows us to have more strategic flexibility, that last year we didn’t have. It allows me to go forward in the races and instead of looking in my mirrors all the time to offset myself with strategy and then overtake people, which is something that last year wasn’t on the cards at any point. So, I’m happy and it makes me enjoy racing more.”

Despite those positive signs that Ferrari is moving in the right direction, and his victory in Melbourne, Sainz says he never had any expectations that Red Bull could be challenged at Suzuka.

“We kind of knew our race pace was better than our qualifying pace,” he said. “Still probably not enough to go for a win because obviously starting P4 and given how good the race pace of the Red Bull is, it’s almost impossible to think about a win, but I was hopeful of achieving a podium that in the end we managed to achieve, even if it was a very tough race, very strategic.

“The track condition changed a lot through the race. We went from a very sunny track that we hadn’t had all weekend to a very cloudy track. The degradation went down a lot and you could push a lot more on the tires halfway through the race.

“This changed the whole situation quite a lot. At one point, I thought the podium wasn’t possible, but then with a new hard [tire], the pace was mega and I could get back onto the podium.”

Verstappen credits car changes after qualifying for Suzuka dominance

Max Verstappen counts his dominant performance in the Japanese Grand Prix as “a very, very good win” for Red Bull after leading home a one-two. Saturday’s front-row lock-out was followed by Verstappen warning that he had some concerns over his race …

Max Verstappen counts his dominant performance in the Japanese Grand Prix as “a very, very good win” for Red Bull after leading home a one-two.

Saturday’s front-row lock-out was followed by Verstappen warning that he had some concerns over his race pace after the lack of running in practice. In warmer conditions than the rest of the race weekend, Red Bull dominated with Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez never seriously threatened, and Verstappen says it’s one of the team’s best performances this year.

“I think the critical bit was, of course, the start, to stay ahead,” Verstappen said. “After that, actually, the car just got better and better for me throughout the race. I don’t know if it had to do with the clouds coming in, but everything just went really well. Pit stops went well. Strategy, I think, worked out well. Couldn’t have been any better!

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I think it was a very, very good win. It took a few laps to settle in a bit with the car, but I think we made some good changes to the car before going into qualifying, which then helped today.

“So basically after the first stint, some tiny adjustments were made to the car and that helped me then to feel even more comfortable and whenever I needed to go faster, I could. Whenever I needed to look after my tires, I could. That’s always a very nice feeling to have once you’re driving. Medium tires, hard tires… Possibly the hard tires felt a bit better, but overall, on both sides, I think we were very competitive.

“I was not happy up until basically qualifying, but then we did make some changes. I cannot go into detail what we did, but it did help today. It made it a lot nicer to drive and a bit more under control.”

Verstappen’s victory comes after he retired from the last race in Australia, but he says he had no concerns heading to Suzuka given the run of reliability and form he had enjoyed prior to that.

“It’s not a relief, it’s just nice to win, and it’s nice to win here in Japan. It’s always an important race for us,” he said. “The fans, of course, we have a lot of support here, and it’s great to win here in front of Honda, and basically have three cars in the points as well.

“Melbourne felt like a bit of a hiccup but what we did today, that’s what we want to do, and that’s what we aim to do every single weekend.”

Albon reflects on how latest crash will set back Williams

Alex Albon says the crash he suffered at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix will hurt Williams due to its lack of spare parts and chassis. Daniel Ricciardo moved across as Albon was trying to pull alongside on the run to Turn 3, with the pair …

Alex Albon says the crash he suffered at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix will hurt Williams due to its lack of spare parts and chassis.

Daniel Ricciardo moved across as Albon was trying to pull alongside on the run to Turn 3, with the pair making contact and both hitting the same tire barrier. The damage to the barrier caused a red flag and while Albon was understanding of the decision not to penalize Ricciardo — who was also fighting with Lance Stroll and had a tire disadvantage — he says the impact on Williams could be painful.

“Softs against mediums starting, so (I) had a grip advantage,” Albon said. “Kind of prized the grip I had out of Turn 2 and was able to crawl underneath him and have a good run into Turn 3. It was more about just trying to get him a little bit offline from Turn 3 and try and find a way for 4/5/6/7 to see if I could upset his line a little bit.

“Obviously just one of those things. He didn’t see me, clearly. I tried to back out of it last minute. There was a moment where I realized ‘he hasn’t seen me here’ and the way he’s pulling across, it’s tricky. So I hit the brakes and tried to get out of it. But we’re almost too far alongside him that as I’ve backed out of it, he still was coming across and I couldn’t avoid it.

“It’s no secret that we are having a tough time with it at the moment with the parts we’ve got, and this is gonna hurt us for sure.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Williams could only run one car in Melbourne as a result of Albon’s FP1 crash that damaged his chassis, and the team won’t have a spare before Miami. Albon admits he was thinking of the potential repercussions as the crash was unfolding, although Williams team principal James Vowles later told RACER the initial images before the car was returned to the garage suggested the chassis had survived the incident.

“The impact itself was relatively low speed, but it’s the way that I hit the tire wall,” Albon added. “Normally, we have these kind of plastic barriers but this was much more dug in, and it really stops very violently. They’re the questions I’m worried about — not for me, for the car — because that’s where you can do damage. We haven’t had the car back yet, we need to assess it. Hopefully, it’s OK.

“Immediately, as soon as I was before I even hit the wall, it was like, ‘This is exactly what we don’t need.’ We need to assess it and try and come back strong for China.”

Ricciardo escapes penalty after Albon clash

Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix. Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap …

Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap of the race, but the Australian — starting on mediums and with a pace disadvantage to those on softs — had Lance Stroll to his left. With Ricciardo moving towards the outside of the track before the left-handed Turn 3, Albon tried to back out of the move but his left front made contact with Ricciardo’s right rear. Both cars hit the tire wall heavily, causing a red flag.

“We definitely got gobbled up on that medium,” Ricciardo said. “It was weird because the cars in front of us look like they got off the line well. I guess [George] Russell — and pretty sure everyone in front — was on the medium. So it just looks like Yuki [Tsunoda] and I didn’t have the grip that we anticipated.

“As soon as we launched, I could see [Valtteri] Bottas and [Nico] Hulkenberg just split us and go around. Then into Turn 1, I was in the middle, I think with Yuki and an Alpine sling by. Turn 2 I thought, ‘All right, let’s just settle’ and I soon as I got on the throttle, I was still struggling.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“Then I think Stroll was on my outside, so I was trying to hold him off. Then I guess as I started to come back for Turn 3, Albon’s there. I watched his onboard, and I don’t even know if he wanted to be there, but his traction was so much better on the soft that he was like, ‘Well, there’s space,’ until there wasn’t, so I didn’t see him.

“But honestly, I always assume maybe someone is there — it’s lap 1 so I never try to use the full width of the track and be completely ignorant. But yeah, I guess there was obviously not enough room.

“All things considered, if we could wind back the clock an hour, I would start on the soft. But for the record, I wanted to be on the medium. That’s not something I fought against. But knowing what we know now the soft would have been a lot better for us.”

The stewards investigated the collision after the race and opted to take no further action, given how many cars were a factor in the incident and the fact it was on the opening lap of the race.

“On the approach to Turn 3, the driver of Car 3 [Ricciardo] noticed Car 18 [Stroll] on his left and stated that he wanted to give that car sufficient room,” the stewards’ decision read. “He stated he then looked to the apex of Turn 3. He did not see Car 23 [Albon] on his right.

“The driver of Car 23 stated that he thought he could overtake Car 3 on the outside, into Turn 3, but then suddenly realized that Car 3 had not seen him, applied the brakes but could not avoid the contact with Car 3.

“Accordingly we determine this to be a first lap incident and decide to take no further action.

“If this incident had occurred on a subsequent lap, or without the presence of the third car (Car 18), a different determination would have been made.”

Verstappen cruises to Japanese Grand Prix victory

Max Verstappen claimed a comfortable victory ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in a Red Bull one-two finish at the Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen was flawless off the line to hold Perez at bay into the first corner, but the Dutchman was forced into a …

Max Verstappen claimed a comfortable victory ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in a Red Bull one-two finish at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Verstappen was flawless off the line to hold Perez at bay into the first corner, but the Dutchman was forced into a second standing start when the race was almost immediately red flagged for a heavy crash between Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon.

Albon followed Ricciardo out of Turn 2 in the middle of the road and tried to sneak up the Australian’s outside into the left-handed Turn 3.

Ricciardo moved to the right to take the racing line just as the Williams driver pulled alongside the RB’s rear axle, and despite the contact being relatively light, both cars speared off the road and into the tire barrier at speed. The drivers emerged uninjured, but the barrier needed significant repair, suspending the race for half an hour.

While Verstappen held sway from the start, chaos soon ensued behind. Steve Etherington/Motorsport Images

The race was restarted from the grid on lap 3, and Verstappen was again slick dropping the clutch to hold a lead he wouldn’t meaningfully relinquish for the rest of the afternoon, completing a breezy 12.5s victory over Perez.

“It was very nice,” Verstappen said. “I think the critical bit was of course the start, to stay ahead. After that the car just got better and better for me throughout the race.

“Everything just went really well. It couldn’t have been any better.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Perez had a more complicated grand prix. Slower in the first stint, he was undercut by Lando Norris and forced into a comeback charge.

But the Mexican was in a fighting mood. After a pair of gutsy passes through 130R past the Mercedes drivers on an alternative strategy, he snatched the place back from Norris with a dive into the chicane to restore himself to net second and secure Red Bull’s third one-two finish of the season.

“It was a good weekend for the team,” he said. “I think we have good momentum. If you remember here last year, it was probably my worst weekend. If we’re strong in places like this … I think we can be strong everywhere.”

Carlos Sainz collected his third podium of the year with a well judged two-stop strategy, including two stints on the medium tire.

While Norris vaulted has high as second with a pair of early stops, the McLaren’s worse degradation left him vulnerable to Sainz’s better balance strategy, the Spaniard sweeping into second on lap 46 of 53.

“I had a good race,” he said. “I’m very happy because it was quite tough out there with the degradation. I thought [a podium] was on, but I thought it was going to be very difficult to get back into P3. “

Charles Leclerc executed an ambitious one-stop strategy on a day tire life was uncertain owing to the lack of practice time and warmer Sunday weather. Leclerc ran a long 25-lap opening stint on the medium tire, briefly taking the lead of the race, before switching to the hard and clinging on ahead of the faster finishers. He was no match for teammate Sainz late in the race, but he had more than enough pace to keep Norris at bay in the battle for fourth and fifth.

Fernando Alonso finished sixth, holding off a fast-finishing George Russell with the aid of Oscar Piastri, who he expertly held in his DRS zone to create a buffer to the Mercedes.

Piastri defended sternly to keep seventh from Russell. The Briton tried a move into he chicane with four laps to go, but the pair made light contact, and Piastri held the place by running off the road.

The Australian wasn’t so lucky three laps later, however, when a wide moment exiting the same turn left him vulnerable to a DRS move into the first corner, finishing behind Russell win seventh and eighth.

Lewis Hamilton was a frustrated ninth after a botched attempt to complete the race with a single stop, with a late conversion to two stops giving him limited reprieve after having let Russell through in a team order early in the race.

Yuki Tsunoda was an excellent 10th, gaining places on both Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas in the pit lane at his second stop, scoring the final point of his home grand prix.

The RB driver was being pursued by Lance Stroll in the faster Aston Martin car in the final stint, but the Canadian didn’t have the pace to make an impact and was passed by Nico Hulkenberg for 11th on the final tour.

Kevin Magnussen finished 13th ahead of Valtteri Bottas and the woefully slow Alpine cars piloted by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Logan Sargeant finished 17th and last after running off the track at the second Degner with 11 laps to go while chasing Hulkenberg for position.

Zhou Guanyu was the race’s only retirement after the first-lap crash, stopping early with a gearbox issue.

Formula 1 schedule: Start times, TV networks, and more in 2024

Check out the Formula 1 schedule for the 2024 season, including start times, TV networks, and more. Updated every week!

The Formula 1 schedule has undergone slight changes heading into the 2024 season. The season’s first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will be on a Saturday due to Ramadan. Also, China is set to return for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. This means Formula 1 will have a 24-race schedule in 2024.

Below, you can check out the full Formula 1 schedule for the 2024 season, with start times and TV networks for each race.

Formula 1 schedule: Race dates, TV start times for 2024

Sunday, April 7: Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka Circuit (1:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, April 21: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit (3:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, May 5: Miami Grand Prix, Miami International Autodrome (4:00 p.m. ET, ABC)

Sunday, May 19: Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN2)

Sunday, May 26: Monaco Grand Prix, Circuit de Monaco (9:00 a.m. ET, ABC)

Sunday, June 9: Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2:00 p.m. ET, ABC)

Sunday, June 23: Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, June 30: Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Ring (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, July 7: Britain Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit (10:00 a.m. ET, ESPN2)

Sunday, July 21: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, July 28: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, August 25: Netherlands Grand Prix, Circuit Zandvoort (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, September 1: Italian Grand Prix, Autodromo Nazionale Monza (9:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, September 15: Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Baku City Circuit (7:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, September 22: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay Street Circuit (8:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, October 20: United States Grand Prix, Circuit of the Americas (3:00 p.m. ET, ABC)

Sunday, October 27: Mexican Grand Prix, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez (4:00 p.m. ET, ABC)

Sunday, November 3: Brazilian Grand Prix, Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Noon ET, ESPN2)

Sunday, November 24: Las Vegas Grand Prix, Las Vegas Street Circuit (1:00 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, December 1: Qatar Grand Prix, Losail Circuit (Noon ET, ESPN2)

Sunday, December 8: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit (8:00 a.m. ET, ESPN2)

What time is the F1 race on today?

You can watch the Formula 1 race today on ESPN as the sport travels to Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix, which will kick off at 1:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, April 7.

What time is F1 qualifying?

Formula 1 qualifying from Japan will be live at 2:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 6, with coverage on ESPN2. This is due to the race being early on Sunday, which gives America a very late start time.

How can I watch F1 in the USA?

Every Formula 1 race during the 2024 season will be available on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2 for residents in the United States of America. Practice and qualifying will vary by week, but every race is on TV or the ESPN App.

[lawrence-related id=6414]