F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton positive for Covid-19

SAKHIR, Bahrain --  World champion Lewis Hamilton has tested positive for coronavirus and will miss this weekend's Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain, Formula One's governing body FIA announced Tuesday.

"In accordance with COVID-19 protocols and public health authority guidelines in Bahrain he (Hamilton) is now isolating," said an FIA statement.

"The procedures set out by the FIA and Formula 1 will ensure no wider impact on this weekend's event.

Hamilton, who on Sunday won the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first of back-to-back races in the Gulf state, has already secured a record-equalling seventh world championship this season.

"He woke up on Monday morning with mild symptoms and was informed at the same time that a contact prior to arrival in Bahrain had subsequently tested positive," a statement from Hamilton's Mercedes team said.

"Lewis therefore took a further test and returned a positive result. This has since been confirmed by a retest.

"Lewis is now isolating in accordance with COVID-19 protocols and public health authority guidelines in Bahrain.

"Apart from mild symptoms, he is otherwise fit and well, and the entire team sends him its very best wishes for a swift recovery."

Mercedes added that Hamilton had been tested three times last week and returned a negative result each time as part of the sport's strict anti-virus protocols, the last of which was on Sunday afternoon at the Bahrain circuit.

Hamilton sealed his seventh title in Turkey two races ago to equal the all-time record of Michael Schumacher

He then cruised to his 11th win this year and record-increasing 95th victory on Sunday in a race overshadowed by Romain Grosjean's horrific crash, which left the Frenchman receiving hospital treatment for burns after his car exploded in flames after ploughing into a barrier.

"It was such a shocking image to see," said Hamilton, who like all of the drivers had a near 90-minute wait for the restart after the opening-lap crash.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were having to "live like hermits" earlier this season to avoid Covid-19, revealed Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after the team recorded two positive cases at the Eifel Grand Prix in Germany in October.

Wolff said both drivers were confined to their rooms. "They are the most restricted of the whole group, of the whole team," he said.

"It's certainly not a great situation for them because you need almost to live like a hermit -– and that is what they are doing.

"They are at home, they are not going out for dinners and they are not meeting other people. When we do de-briefs, by Zoom or Microsoft Teams, they are not sitting with their engineers in the room."

Agence France-Presse

Vettel wins tense Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari

MANAMA - Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel held on by the skin of his teeth to win a tense Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in his 200th race start on Sunday.

His tyres fading, the championship leader took the chequered flag only 0.6 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who piled the pressure on in the final 10 laps.

Bottas's team mate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who had started ninth after a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, finished third.

Vettel now leads Hamilton by 17 points after two of the 21 races.

The win under the floodlights was the 49th of Vettel's grand prix career and an unprecedented fourth at the Sakhir desert circuit.

It also made the 30-year-old, who won in Melbourne two weeks ago, the first Ferrari driver since compatriot Michael Schumacher in 2004 to win the first two races of a season.

"These tyres were done, done, in the last 10 laps," a jubilant Vettel told his team over the radio after crossing the line.

He had earlier told his team that everything was under control but that, he recognised later with a smile, was not at all the reality.

"With Bottas' pace I thought he would catch me. I tried to keep it as clean as possible. Our plan worked but just, Bottas had a bit of a sniff but ran out of laps," said the four times champion.

INJURED MECHANIC

Vettel had led from pole position, with Bottas slotting into second place at the start from third on the grid, but ended up having to battle the Mercedes pair alone.

Mercedes’ decision to go for the more durable medium tyres and a one-stop strategy, compared to Ferrari’s move to bolt on softer rubber in anticipation of a two-stop race, brought the evening alive.

Drama in the pits, when team mate Kimi Raikkonen was brought in to test the strategy, decided Ferrari in favour of keeping Vettel out.

Raikkonen was given the green light to exit before his left rear tyre had been changed, with the Finn's car then hitting a mechanic who was taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg while the driver retired.

Hamilton could take some consolation in equalling Raikkonen's all-time record of 27 successive points finishes.

"I started ninth so third is not bad at all," said the Briton. "It's damage limitation."

Both of the Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo retired within the first five laps.

Verstappen suffered a rear-left puncture after making contact with Hamilton as he tried to pass the Briton, and limped back to the pits.

"Going into the corner I was ahead and then of course you always try to squeeze each other a bit," said the 20-year-old.

"But I think there was still enough space on the left. He drove into my left rear and gave me a puncture and also destroyed the diff."

GASLY FOURTH

The energy drink company's other team Toro Rosso celebrated a remarkable day, however, with fourth place for French driver Pierre Gasly.

That represented a stunning turnaround for Honda, Toro Rosso's engine partners after three nightmare years at McLaren.

Danish driver Kevin Magnussen was fifth in the Haas ahead of Nico Hulkenberg for Renault.

Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne gave McLaren, now with Renault engines, a second successive double points finish in seventh and eighth respectively to lift the team to third overall. But they finished a lap down.

There were also celebrations at Sauber, with Sweden's Marcus Ericsson finishing ninth for his first points since 2015 and the Swiss team's first of the season, but gloom at Williams whose drivers finished last.

The former champions are now the only team yet to score points this season after Force India's Esteban Ocon secured 10th place.

(Editing by Alan Baldwin/Pritha Sarkar)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

F1: Bottas ends Hamilton's pole run in Bahrain

MANAMA - Finland's Valtteri Bottas took his first Formula One pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with a sizzling lap that ended Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton's bid for a seventh in a row.

Triple world champion Hamilton qualified alongside, a mere 0.023 - or 17 centimetres - slower than Bottas's time of one minute 28.769 seconds but with everything still to play for on Sunday.

That clinched the first front row lockout of the season for the reigning champions after two races with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel splitting the Silver Arrows.

Hamilton, joking and laughing in a later news conference, appeared delighted for Bottas and offered a warm handshake to a man who left China last weekend with his mind in turmoil after a costly mistake behind the safety car.


"Firstly, a big congratulations to Valtteri. He has been working so hard, gelled so well with the team and today he was just quicker, he did the better job and hats off to him," said Hamilton.

"That's how close I think qualifying should always be. It forces us all to be more on the limit."

"For sure, it feels good," said Bottas, the first Finnish driver to secure a pole position since Hamilton's then-team mate Heikki Kovalainen for McLaren at the 2008 British Grand Prix, 168 races ago.

"It's my first pole in my career in my fifth season in F1 so it took a few years but hopefully it's the first of many for me," he added.

Vettel, joint leader of the world championship standings with Hamilton after two races with one win each, will start in third place with Red Bull's Australian Daniel Ricciardo fourth.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, whose last pole was also in 2008, qualified fifth.

Mercedes won the race last year with now-retired champion Nico Rosberg, the man Bottas has replaced, and have now taken five successive poles at the desert Sakhir circuit.

Hamilton had been fastest in both the first and second phases of qualifying, and set the pace with his first lap in the final session before Bottas pulled off his masterstroke.

The unflappable Finn let out a rare whoop over the team radio, with engineer Tony Ross -- who had inadvertently called Bottas 'Nico' during the race in China -- replying that "for a moment there you actually showed some emotion, well done".

Hamilton and Vettel, sitting alongside Bottas in front of reporters, jokingly asked the polesitter whether the Finnish language had a word for 'excited' or 'exciting'.

Bottas thought hard but words failed him. "Kind of," he hesitated, as his rivals laughed.

"See, it doesn't exist," said Vettel. "It's not one that's really used much in the vocabulary," added Hamilton.

"I don't know really," concluded Bottas.

Dutch teenager Max Verstappen qualified sixth for Red Bull with Nico Hulkenberg seventh on a good day for Renault, who had Britain's Jolyon Palmer in 10th place after his first appearance in the final phase.

Brazilian Felipe Massa starts eighth for Williams and France's Romain Grosjean ninth for Haas.

German driver Pascal Wehrlein also made a strong return after a back injury kept him out of the first two races, qualifying 13th for Sauber while Swedish team mate Marcus Ericsson was only 19th.

(Editing by Ed Osmond and Ian Chadband)

source: news.abs-cbn.com