France 2002 – Michael Schumacher

Rather unbelievably the stage was set for Michael Schumacher to secure a record-equalling 5^th world title on the 21^st of July 2002. What had been a long shot at the start of the weekend became something of a formality once Schumacher’s Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello had his car completely fail on his while on the grid. Barrichello was Schumacher’s only real threat for the title by this stage of the season, with him gone all Schumacher needed to do was win the race and for Juan Pablo Montoya to finish off the podium.

Montoya was on pole though and would hold off Schumacher at the start of the race. It was clear Schumacher had better pace though and he was expected to jump the Williams driver in the opening pitstop sequence. Schumacher duly did just that, however he had made a rare mistake while exiting the pits by crossing the white line. A drive through penalty was awarded to him and he slipped back behind McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, whom had himself jumped Montoya in the pits.

Schumacher was not ready to give up on a 5^th championship and a 61^st victory. He reeled Raikkonen in and put the young Finn under tremendous pressure in the closing laps. Eventually the McLaren driver was forced into an error, slipping wide on oil left behind by Allan McNish’s Toyota on the run down to the Adelaide hairpin.

Schumacher pounced at once and completed a smart comeback from an error you’d usually only attribute to a rookie. A 5^th title was his and a place in history was secured forever.

Germany 2009 – Mark Webber

Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello started alongside each other for the 2009 German Grand Prix and would remain that way most of the way down the main straight on lap 1. Webber swiped across the track and made contact with Barrichello at high speed, though both cars came away from the impact undamaged. Barrichello snatched the lead, Webber was given a drive through penalty for a dangerous move and it looked like his hopes of a maiden win were shattered.

Webber had other ideas though. After retaking the lead from Barrichello when the Brazilian stopped early, Webber set about going on a charge. Red Bull pulled Webber in for his 1^st stop and he quickly retook the lead before stopping again to take his penalty. This left Felipa Massa in the lead from Barrichello. Webber made his way back up to 2^nd place prior to the 2^nd and final stops, before leapfrogging Barrichello once again in the pit sequence to take a famous 1^st F1 victory.

Canada 2011 – Jenson Button

Jenson Button was down in 21^st place on lap 37 of the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. By lap 70 he was 1^st. His journey there was filled with incidents, luck and pitstops. Button started the race in 7^th place and rose to 5^th at the start. He made an error mid-lap and dropped down to 7^th again behind Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. After getting by Hamilton when Hamilton made an error, Button defended robustly from his team-mate. This led to the pair having a race-ending collision for Hamilton down the main straight on lap 8.

Button, who had stopped for intermediate tyres prior to the safety car period to retrieve Hamilton’s stricken McLaren, was then given a drive through penalty for overspeed during the safety car period. Dropping to 15^th, his hopes of victory went from slim to zero. Or so we all thought.  Button methodically began to make his way back up the order to 8^th place before the rain intensified to a point that full wets were required. This dropped Button back down to 11^th as the race was halted for a 2 hour period due to the weather. When the race eventually restarted Button once again started to make his way back up the order.

Button then had an incident with Alonso on lap 37, which left Alonso stranded on a kerb and brought out the safety car yet again. Button suffered a punctured tyre in the clash and the subsequent pitstop would drop him down to 21^st and last place. For a 3^rd time Button had to fight his way through the field.

With DRS being enabled on lap 46, this journey became easier for Button and he quickly rose to 10^th and back into the points. Following the field switching to dry tyres, Button was in 4^th and only had Schumacher, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel ahead of him. A 6^th safety car for an accident further down the field bunched the field up and made Button’s life just that bit easier. He quickly breezed by both Webber and Schumacher on the same lap and set off after leader Vettel.

On the final lap Vettel still led by 0.9s from Button, until the reigning champion ran wide through turn 6 and allowed Button to take the lead and win one the finest comebacks F1 had ever seen.

Brazil 1993 – Ayrton Senna

The 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix started off perfectly for Ayrton Senna. In front of his adoring home fans, he barged ahead of Damon Hill off the line to chase after leader Alain Prost. On lap 11 Senna was repassed by Hill and on lap 25 things went from bad to worse for the Brazilian. While overtaking a backmarker, Senna failed to notice the yellow flags being waved due to an incident. Senna was slapped with a stop/go penalty and dropped back behind 3^rd placed Michael Schumacher in the running order.

A rain shower changed things after Prost opted not to pit for wet tyres, unlike Hill, Schumacher and Senna before a safety car, its 1^st official appearance following trials at the French and British races the previous year, bunched up the field. Prost then spun on the main straight on lap 30 and crashed into the stricken Minardi of Christian Fittipaldi. Hill now led form Senna, who had jumped Schumacher during the pitstop phase.

Once the track began to dry later in the race Senna was in touching distance of Hill. When the change back to slick tyres occurred Senna would pass Hill for the lead and pulled away from the Brit with ease. Senna eventually won by 16.6s from Hill and claimed his 2^nd ever home win.

Germany 1993 – Alain Prost

Williams started from a predictable 1-2 for the German Grand Prix. Alain Prost ahead of Damon Hill, both other them well over half a second ahead of Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. Prost got a dreadful getaway and was passed by Hill, Schumacher and Senna at the start. On the way down to the 1^st chicane Prost repassed Senna, who would then spin and drop back to the rear of the field, then set off after Schumacher. Martin Brundle then had a spin which forced Prost to take evasive action across one of the chicanes. Prost eventually got by Schumacher on lap 6.

Prost was then handed a controversial stop/go penalty for cutting the chicane in the Brundle incident. After the race Prost would go on to call the decision “a scandal”. After dropping to 6^th in the aftermath of his penalty, Prost then began to make his way back through the field in a superior car.

Prost made his way back up to 2^nd behind team-mate Hill and in the closing laps reduced his lead to just 8s. On the penultimate lap disaster struck Hill and his left rear tyre suddenly deflated and he had to retire the car before making it back to the pits. This allowed Prost to slip by and take his 51^st and final win in F1.

Canada 1998 – Michael Schumacher

The 1998 Canadian Grand Prix started off in a wild manner and would continue to be a race of controversy and confusion. There was an abandoned start, 2 opening corner pile-ups and 5 cars out on the opening lap including polesitter Mika Hakkinen. This left Hakkinen’s McLaren team-mate David Coulthard in the lead ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella and Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher quickly found his way by Fisichella and inherited the lead on lap 19 when Coulthard retired with transmission issues. It looked like Schumacher would romp away with the win with no real competition left in the field. Then he pitted. On his way out from the pits he failed to notice the faster car of Heinz-Harald Frentzen on the outside of T1. Frentzen was pushed off into the gravel and out of the race.

After his 1^st stop, Schumacher came out in 3^rd behind Fisichella and home favourite Jacques Villenueve. Villenueve wasn’t a problem for long after trying, and failing, to overtake Fisichella after a safety car period. Schumacher was then given a stop/go penalty for forcing another car off the track and dropped back behind Damon Hill after taking it. A controversial weaving incident with his old rival later and Schumacher was back into 2^nd behind Fisichella. The Italian relinquished the lead to Schumacher after making his only pit stop, this left Schumacher with a window in which to build up a lead prior to his 2^nd and final stop.

The then double world champion succeeded in his mission, leaving the pits ahead of Fisichella and kept a 16s cushion over the Benetton driver until the end of the race.

Britain 1998 – Michael Schumacher

In dry conditions Michael Schumacher probably didn’t stand much of a chance of winning the 1998 British Grand Prix. The then double world champion had qualified on the front-row, but was nearly 0.5s away from rival Mika Hakkinen. Then it rained. A lot.

The start took place in mixed conditions, however it didn’t take long for the weather to turn back for the worse and drivers began to peel into the pits for wets in their droves. By lap 38 conditions were beyond treacherous and several spins, including David Coulthard, meant the stewards had no choice but to deploy the safety car. Schumacher had been sitting behind Alexander Wurz just before the safety car period and confusingly emerged ahead of him before it would end.

While the stewards deliberated over the unusual incident Hakkinen, who had led all race, had a spin at the front of the field and allowed Schumacher through into the lead on lap 52. Just 2 laps from the end of the race the stewards finally handed Schumacher a 10-second penalty for overtaking under the safety car.

Confusion reigned since Ferrari were sure the stewards had missed their 25 minute time window to hand Schumacher his penalty by 6 minutes. The team were also unsure over the handwritten note which had been handed to them and didn’t clearly state if the penalty was to be applied post-race or had to be taken in-race. In a compromise Ferrari brought Schumacher into the pits on the final lap of the race and seemingly handed the win to Hakkinen.

However Schumacher had actually already crossed the finish line on his way into the pits, thanks to the finish line being before the starting line. Schumacher had already won the race before he had taken his penalty. The stewards couldn’t apply the penalty post-race either because to do so said penalty had to have taken place in the last 12 laps of the race, which Schumacher’s hadn’t.

The penalty was eventually rescinded and the matter investigated by the FIA World Council who confirmed the trio of errors from the stewarding team. Schumacher was a 31 time grand prix winner, had taken his 3^rd win in a row in 1998 and had won 2 of the previous 3 races despite being handed mid-race penalties.

The 2021 British Grand Prix was full of drama, controversy and emotion. From home wins, to big shunts and heartbreak in Maranello, Laura Leslie takes you through the best stats from the weekend.

Home hero Lewis Hamilton won for the 99^th time in his career in style, but not without a decent spoonful of controversy first. The 7-time champion had to fight back from a 10 second penalty after causing a collision with title rival Max Verstappen on the opening lap. With just 3 laps left in the race Hamilton blasted by race leader Charles Leclerc and cut Verstappen’s championship lead down to just 8 points. Hamilton scored a total of 27 points across the weekend - 2 in sprint qualifying and 25 in the race. This is the most a driver has scored in one weekend since Hamilton scored 50 points in the 2014 double points finale at Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes also cut the lead Red Bull had over it in the constructors’ championship to just 4 points thank to both Hamilton’s points and Valtteri Bottas getting a ‘double podium’ of 3^rd in sprint qualifying and the race. Hamilton became the 1^st driver in history to win the same race 8 times in 2 different locations – Hungary and Great Britain. He also became the 1^st driver in history to score 8 consecutive podiums in the same race – 2014-2021.

For Red Bull the British Grand Prix turned into a nightmare weekend. While the team still leads both championships, it’s lead has been slashed in both by Mercedes. Neither car scored points in the grand prix itself – the first time the team has gone without points in a grand prix since the 2020 Emilia Romanga Grand Prix. Verstappen did score 3 points for winning the inaugural sprint qualifying session though. This win led to Verstappen scoring his 4^th pole position in a row – the first time Honda power has done this since the opening 4 rounds of 1991.

Red Bull’s loss was Ferrari’s gain however. The opening lap crash allowed Leclerc to sneak through into the lead and he came just 3 laps away from a shock victory. Instead Leclerc had to settle for 2^nd and his 1st podium since last year’s British Grand Prix. Leclerc has now led 50 laps in total this season, more than twice the amount of Bottas and 9 more than the Finn in the previous 15 races. Prior to Sunday Ferrari had only led 1 lap in the previous 27 races.

Despite the strong haul of points Ferrari still finds itself 15 points adrift of McLaren in the constructors’ championship. The papaya team had one of its strongest weekends of the year so far with both cars finishing in the top 5 for the first time in 2021. Lando Norris became the 1^st McLaren driver in the team’s history to score points in 15 consecutive races and remains the only driver to score in all 10 rounds of 2021 so far. The superfast Brit has hauled himself back up to 3^rd in the drivers’ standings ahead of the half-way point of the season.

Norris’ team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had by far his best weekend since joining the team. His 1^st top 5 finish of the year and a number of fine overtakes bode well for the remainder of the year. McLaren itself has scored points in 17 consecutive races now – its 4^th best ever run of this kind.

Alpine continued to close in on Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship after Fernando Alonso put in a fine performance to finish 7^th – 4 places up from his initial starting spot in sprint qualifying. This is Alonso’s 5^th points finish in a row. It wasn’t all bad for Aston though, the team is now just 1 point behind Alpha Tauri following Lance Stroll’s 8^th place.

It was hero-to-zero for George Russell and Williams. Russell had qualified in a superb 8^th for sprint qualifying, but unfortunately that was as good as it got. Russell has now gone 47 races at Williams without scoring a point – the worst run for a driver in the team’s history. Kimi Raikkonen became the 1^st F1 driver in history to race at the same track 20 times. While at the rear of the field Nikita Mazepin finished ahead of team-mate Mick Schumacher on merit for only the 2^nd time in 2021.

Seven lucky drivers have had the honour of grabbing their maiden Formula One win at the British Grand Prix. Laura Leslie takes you through them below.

Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina – 1950

It was the first race of a brand new championship and the start of a legacy which remains to this day. The 1950 British Grand Prix was the inaugural round of the Formula One world championship. Contested by 21 drivers from 9 different countries, the race was held at the old Silverstone airport over 70 laps. Italian Giuseppe Farina would start from pole alongside his Alfa-Romeo team-mate Luigi Fagioli and that’s how the pair would also finish the race. In 3^rd was Brit Reg Parnell in the 3^rd of 4 Alfa-Romeo cars.

Farina also bagged the fastest lap of the race, meaning he also become the 1st driver to grab a hat-trick of pole, win and fastest lap. Farina would go on to score a further 4 wins and 18 podiums, before leaving F1 at the end of 1955 after a nasty crash spooked him into withdrawing from what would have been his final grand prix.

Jose Frolian Gonzalez - 1951

Argentinian driver Jose Frolian Gonzalez had taken part in just 4 grand prix prior to his maiden win in the 1951 British Grand Prix. His 1^st 3 starts yielded nothing but non-finishes, so he switched to Ferrari part-way into the 1951 season in the hopes of a change of fortunes.

The move worked. In his first race for Ferrari he finished 2^nd before taking that maiden win at the next race at Silverstone. The win was also Ferrari’s 1^st in Formula One and Gonzalez would finish on the podium in every other race he started for the Scuderia that season. Gonzalez would score only 1 other win in his F1 career, 3 years later and again in Britain. Ferrari have since won 238 total races and taken 16 constructors’ championships.

Stirling Moss – 1955

1955 heralded the first trip away from Silverstone for the British Grand Prix since it’s pre-F1 days at Brooklands. Held at Aintree, which was indeed located within the famous horse-racing course near Liverpool, the race was won by a promising British talent by the name of Stirling Moss.

Moss led home a dominant Mercedes 1-2-3-4 and had to put up with a conspiracy that team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio had deliberately driven slower than he could have to allow Moss to win. Fangio denied all the rumours and insisted that Moss had simply ‘been the quicker driver’ throughout the race. Moss won a further 15 races in his career, becoming the driver with the most wins to have failed to become world champion. Mercedes withdrew from F1 at the end of 1955 and would not return for 65 years.

Tony Brooks – 1957

Once again held at Aintree, the 1957 British Grand Prix was to be a very rare thing in F1 history. A shared victory. Tony Brooks would drive his car for the first 38 laps of the race before handing over driving duties to Stirling Moss for the remainder of the race. Moss would cross the line in 1^st place and both he and Brooks were attributed as the winners.

This was the 3^rd and final time that two drivers would share a win in F1 history. The victory was also the first for manufacturer Vanwall, the team winning the brand new constructors’ championship the following season. Brooks won 5 more times in his career, 3 of those being for Vanwall.

Jo Siffert – 1968

It would be 13 years before F1 saw another maiden winner at the British Grand Prix. This time held at Brands Hatch, Swiss driver Jo Siffert became the 1^st driver from the country to win in F1. Siffert drive for Rob Walker entered Lotus cars alongside Brits Jackie Oliver and Graham Hill. Siffert had been considered an outsider for the win prior to the race.

Both Hill and Oliver would end up retiring from the race with mechanical failures, Siffert taking up the Lotus mantle well and crossing the line 4.4s ahead of Ferrari’s Chris Amon. It would be Rob Walker’s 9^th and final win as a privateer outfit. Siffert won once more in his career, at the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix.

Peter Revson – 1973

The 1973 British Grand Prix is primarily famous for a 13 car pile-up on lap 1 which would cause 11 cars to retire from the race. Peter Revson, heir to the Revlon cosmetics house, was one of the lucky ones to avoid the carnage. Driving for McLaren, the American had qualified a strong 3^rd on the grid. In the race Revson took advantage of a collision between leaders Jackie Stewart and Ronnie Peterson and would end up crossing the finish line 2.8s ahead of Peterson’s Lotus.

The win was the first for McLaren in the country where it would eventually settle in and call home. The team has won the British Grand Prix a total of 14 times, most recently in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton. Revson won once more in his career, the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix. He would unfortunately have his career cut short the following year when a testing accident claimed his life prior to the 1974 South African Grand Prix.

Johnny Herbert – 1995

It could, and probably should, have been David Coulthard who made this list. The Scot was leading his home race in 1995 when he was slapped with a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pits. This misdemeanour left the race lead in the hands of Johnny Herbert.

The plucky Brit drove his Benetton home ahead of Jean Alesi, giving the team some cheer in the aftermath of it’s champion Michael Schumacher being taken out of the lead by Damon Hill earlier in the race. Herbert would go on to win again later in the season at Monza and helped the team to it’s 1^st constructors’ championship at the end of the year. Herbert would win his 3^rd and final race 4 years later at the 1999 European Grand Prix.

Formula One returns to ‘motorsport valley’ this weekend for the British Grand Prix. Laura Leslie guides you through the best stats and facts ahead of what promises to be an action packed weekend.

The British Grand Prix has been held a total of 71 times since 1950. The race has been located at 3 different race tracks – Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch. Silverstone has played host to the race every year since 1987 after previously alternating years with Brand Hatch from 1963 to 1986. Aintree hosted the race on 5 occasions between 1955 and 1962.

A total of 39 different drivers from 15 different countries have won the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton has won more British races and been on pole more than any other driver – 7. The 7-time world champion has won 6 of the previous 7 British Grand Prix and has been on the podium in every turbo hybrid era race so far. Hamilton has also led the most laps of the current crop – leading 40.81% of all race laps held since 2014.

It's Ferrari who lead the way in total number of constructor wins – 17. The Italian marquee sits 3 wins ahead of McLaren and 7 ahead of Williams. 11 other manufacturers have won the British Grand Prix – including 2021 title rivals Mercedes (8) and Red Bull (3). 15 different teams have taken at least one pole position in the British Grand Prix. Like wins, Ferrari has the most poles from any manufacturer – 15. Perhaps the most surprising team on the list is the Shadow team which took pole in 1975 with Welsh driver Tom Pryce.

The most recent occasion on which a team outside the ‘big four’ of Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari won the British Grand Prix was 2006. Fernando Alonso won for Renault extending his winning streak that year to an impressive 4 races. Alonso would go on to start his 300^th Formula One race 12 years later at the 2018 British Grand Prix.

The driver who wins the British Grand Prix has gone on to win the title that season on 11 occasions in the past 25 years. The winning constructor has done likewise in 15 of those 25 years. A total of 12 different British drivers have won their home race on 27 occasions – a win rate of 38.02%.

The fastest ever British Grand Prix was won by Nigel Mansell in 1987. Driving for Williams, the Brit won with an average speed of 146.208 mph in just 1 hour, 19 minutes and 11 seconds. In recent years the average race time has been around the 1 hour 30 minute mark.

Interestingly, prior to 2014 the reigning world champion had only won the British Grand Prix in 4 of the previous 25 races. Only one Ferrari driver has ever won back-to-back British Grand Prix while driving for the Scuderia – Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953. In addition Ferrari won 6 of the first 11 British Grand Prix to be held – however the Italian team has only won 11 times in the last 60 years.

The 2021 WRC season is half-way and now the Safari dust has settled, it's time to take a look who are in the Top 5 of the standings and are adding up the numbers 'on the crest' and who's 'cutting short' of numbers.

1. Seven time World Champion Sébastien Ogier wasn't going to be fulltime in the WRC in 2021 when he was planning before Covid but after a shortened 2020 season his hunger for more rally success wasn't satisfied yet. From the first 6 rallies this year Ogier has won four of them in his Toyota Yaris WRC: Monaco, Croatia, Italy and the Safari. Ogier lost the lead of the championship briefly after round 2 (Arctic Rally) when Ott Tänak won but since then he has steadily increased his championship lead. The Arctic Rally in Finland was also the only rally of the 6 were Ogier needed to use Super Rally rules to continue the next day. The Frenchman who lives in Switzerland has also won the most stages so for this year, 30 (an average of 5 stage wins/rally) his closest competitor is Ott Tanak (Hyundai) with 24 stage wins.
2. Elfyn Evans (Toyota) who almost defeated Ogier in last year's championship, has won 1 rally of the 6 (Portugal) and has scored 2 more points than in 6 of the 7 rounds in 2020. A lowly 10th place in the Safari Rally, when he had to use Super Rally on the second day, has hurt Evans title hopes. Evans' hope of close battle with his team-leader towards the end of the season isn't over, as he was very consistent in the first half with 19 stage wins in total and led in 3 rallies (Portugal, Monte Carlo and Croatia).
3. Currently 3rd in the championship is Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville who had to find a new co-driver just before the start of the season. The Belgian was a bit of a surprise in the early stage of the championship with 3 consecutive podium finishes. An optimistic pace note in SS7 of the Portuguese rally, leading to Neuville having to drive with broken suspension as a consequence, halted that run when he finished only 36th. He finished 3rd again in Italy, but it was a painful weekend in the Safari Rally when he retired from the lead of due to yet more broken suspension.
4. Another Hyundai driver with reliability issues on his car in the first half is Ott Tänak, in 2 of the 6 rallies he had to use Super Rally due to suspension problems, finishing 21st (Portugal) and 24th (Italy) to score only 9 points. This was a shame for the Estonian, as he won the Arctic Rally in Finland where he won 5 of the 10 stages and led from start to finish.
5. It's been 27 years since we've seen a Japanese driver on the podium in the WRC. In this year's Safari Rally, Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) ended that Japanese drought, which began when Kenjiro Shinozuka finished second in the Safari Rally with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo I. Katsuta has been improving throught the 1st half of the year as in the 1st 3 rounds he finished 6th, in Portugal and Italy he finished 4th and the Safari he achieved his maiden podium with a 2nd place. He also was in the lead for the 1st time (2 stages in the Safari Rally) and has won 3 stages in total this year, which is a career best.

RALLY WINS

1	Sébastien Ogier	4
2	Ott Tänak	1
3	Elfyn Evans	1

STAGE WINS

1	Sébastien Ogier	30
2	Ott Tänak	24
3	Elfyn Evans	19
4	Thierry Neuville	17
5	Dani Sordo	8
6	Kalle Rovanperä	5
7	Takamoto Katsuta	3
8	Adrien Fourmaux	1

 

RoKit Venturi Racing

Like many other teams on the grid, Venturi has struggled to find consistent form – particularly with it’s second car. 4 no-score races have left the team down in 6^th place in the teams’ championship. Peculiarly it leads the drivers’ championship with Edoardo Mortara. The Swiss driver has had 3 podiums – one of those including a win at the most recent round in Puebla. It was the team’s 2nd win since it joined Formula E and 1/3^rd of it’s total podiums have come in 2020-21 alone.

The other car - driven by Normal Nato - has struggled to find form for much of the season and languishes down in 23^rd place in the drivers’ championship. Nato has had one stand-out moment - a strong 5^th place finish in the second Valencia round. With the team just 30 points behind championship leader’s Mercedes-EQ, it is imperative that Nato finds some form in New York and London.

BMW i Andretti Motorsport

After a shaky start to the season where it only managed 12 points in the first 4 weekends, BMW i Andretti have scored 66 points in the most recent 4 weekends. This turnaround in form has seen the team rise from last in the championship to 7^thand only 1 point behind Venturi. This is something of an achievement in light of Maximilian Gunter’s double DNF in the season opener.

Jake Dennis provided the team with a win in round 2 at Valencia and the British driver sits in 8^th place in the drivers’ championship equal on points with Stoffel Vandoorne. A 4^th and 5^th placed finish for the team in Puebla race 1 hints at the kind of form it is capable of. It’s also worth remembering that on the last visit to New York in 2019, BMW i Andretti secured 2 podiums and 2 double points finishes – scoring more points that weekend than any other team.

Mahindra Racing

Mahindra ended a 24 race podium-less streak when Alexander Sims secured 2^nd place in the 2^nd race in Rome. Another quickly followed in race 2 in Valencia thanks to the other car driven by Alex Lynn. Those two results have been the highlight in a rather disappointing year for Mahindra however – just 34 points scored in the other 7 races.

A double DNF for Lynn in the opening round at Diriyah included a huge accident from which he was lucky to escape unhurt. Without that Mahindra could easily have been in the middle of Venturi and BMW i Andretti’s fight for 6^th in the championship. As it stands the team is 2 points ahead of Porsche and 4 ahead of Nissan e.Dams and will be aiming for the podium once more in New York and London.

TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team

Make no bones about it, Porsche should be leading both championships. Instead it finds itself down in 9^th place with just 68 points and almost no hope of winning either title. A double disqualification for the team at race 1 in Puebla – a race which Pascal Wehrlein had won – thanks to inputting the wrong codes for their tyres has to be the low point though. Wehrlein was also given a post-race penalty which dropped him off the podium in Puebla race 2.

The team lost a total of 36 points in Puebla thanks to the dramas. Porsche also suffered a double DNF in the 1^st Valencia race and has dropped points in various other races thanks to incidents and bad luck. It hasn’t been helped by a barren year for Andre Lotterer outside a 2^nd place finish in race 2 at Valencia.

Nissan e.Dams

For a team which has had 17 wins, 38 podiums and 21 pole positions a total of a solitary podium in 2020-21 is simply unacceptable. Oliver Rowland was promoted to 2^nd place after Wehrlein’s penalty in Puebla race 2 – outside that result it’s been a season to forget.

2015-16 champion Sebastien Buemi has struggled severely to be on the pace all year long and has only scored 11 points from 9 races. Buemi hasn’t scored anything at all for 5 consecutive races. The Swiss driver will be happy to be returning to New York – a location in which he bagged himself a 1^st and a 3^rd on the series last visit there in 2019. The return to London will also evoke happy memories for Buemi since it was there he clinched the title in 2016.

DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT

Dragon Racing sort of sits in no-mans-land in the championship. The team is 22 points behind Nissan e.Dams and 24 ahead of NIO 333 following a predominantly torrid season of 6 non-scoring finishes.

There has been one podium though, from Nico Muller in race 1 at Valencia and on many occasions Dragon Racing has looked to have plenty of raw pace. It just hasn’t translated into points. The team hasn’t scored points in any of the last 4 races and also has lost Muller to the DTM series for the remainder of the season. Instead Joel Eriksson – who already replaced Muller in Monaco and Puebla - will join Sergio Sette Camara.

NIO 333 Formula E Team

Despite scoring points in 5 of the 9 races so far, NIO 333 finds itself rooted to the bottom of the teams’ championship and remains the only team so far in 2020-21 to fail in scoring podium finish.

There have been flashes of promise in qualifying and the team often finds itself struggling with energy management in the races. If it can get on top of this then it could easily be an outside bet for a podium in the hands of Oliver Turvey in New York and London. Turvey is 2 points ahead of Buemi in the drivers’ championship and must be aiming to remain ahead in the final 4 races. Team-mate Tom Blomqvist will want to get a top 10 finish – the Swede has failed to score in each of the previous 5 races.

The 2020-21 Formula E season has been unpredictable to say the least. 8 winners in 9 races, 18 drivers on the podium, 10 separate disqualifications, 4 different championship leaders and any of a dozen drivers could come out on top at the ExCel London arena at the end of July.

Mercedes EQ

Mercedes-EQ head into the New York double-header with a 3 point lead over DS TECHEETAH in the championship. However, there is only a 24 point gap between the German squad and 5th placed Envision Virgin Racing. The team is one of two so far this season to have both its drivers, Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne, win a race and the only to have one of those drivers – de Vries – win more than once. Neither driver currently has a spot in the top 5 of the drivers’ championship though.

With 5 no-scores for de Vries and 4 for Vandoorne, inconsistency has cost the team dear when it’s clearly been one of, if not the, top package of the season. Both drivers will head into New York confident of a turnaround. No driver has led the drivers’ championship for more rounds than de Vries (4), but the Dutch driver is currently in 6th place and 13 points behind Edoardo Mortara in the standings. Vandoorne is 5 points further back in 7th.

DS TECHEETAH

Joining Mercedes-EQ as the other team to have both its drivers win a race in 2020-21, the reigning champions are in a decent position to make it 4 driver titles and 3 team titles in a row if it has a strong end to the season in New York and London. Sitting just 3 points off the championship lead, the recent double-header in Puebla resulting in just 12 points for the team could be costly – additionally this was on a weekend its nearest rival Mercedes-EQ also came away with a measly score of 8 points.

The pace is very much there, as demonstrated by the double podium finish in Monaco, the consistency is lacking though. Both drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa, have had 4 no-score races this year – one round resulting in a complete no score for the team at the 1st race in Diriyah. A disqualification for Da Costa in the 1st Valencia ePrix – he was one of 5 drivers to be disqualified from that race - can also be blamed.

Despite this, Da Costa still only sits 12 points behind championship leader Mortara. The reigning champion will head into New York confident of a good result, having been on the podium during the last double-header visit there in 2019.

Jaguar Racing

It has been a season of ups and downs for Jaguar. The team scored its only win of the season at the 2nd Diriyah round through new signing Sam Bird, however Bird has only scored 6 points in the last 6 rounds. This unfortunate slide in form has seen Bird drop from being the championship leader after the Rome ePrix weekend, to being outside the top 10 after the most recent race in Puebla. Bird is 24 points away from the championship lead, therefore wins in the final races are a must.

Team-mate Mitch Evans has not won a race in 2020-21, but he has finished on the podium 3 times, something only matched by Mortara. If Evans can get onto the top step, then that 12 point gap between him and Mortara will start to look very small indeed.

Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler

It’s been a rough year for an Audi Sport team who went winless last season for the 1st time in series history. In particular for Lucas Di Grassi, who despite winning the opening Puebla round, has failed to make an impact on the higher points positions all year. Before Puebla the 2017-17 champion has only scored 14 points and was down in an unfamiliar 18^th place in the standings. That Puebla win lifted him to 13^th – 35 points off the championship leader.

Di Grassi’s team-mate, Rene Rast, has seen slightly better results – although no wins. Rast finished behind Di Grassi in round 1 at Puebla to help take Audi Sport’s first 1-2 finish since the first 2017-18 New York City ePrix. Rast is 4th in the driver’s standings and like Jaguar’s Evans, is 12 points off the top spot.

Despite the mixed fortunes, Audi Sport finds itself in 4th place in the teams’ championship, on the same number of points as Envision Virgin Racing and 14 behind leaders Mercedes-EQ.

Envision Virgin Racing

Despite losing team stalwart Bird to Jaguar over the off-season, Envision Virgin have put together one of the most consistent campaigns out of all 12 teams. It hasn’t won a race, but it has scored double figure points on 5 occasions – equal to RoKit Venturi Racing and BMW i Andretti Motorsport.

Robin Frijns has scored a brace of 2nd place finishes to put him 2nd in the standings, 10 points behind Mortara. 5 no-score results have cost the Dutchman dear though, including a double no-score at the most recent round at Puebla.

Team-mate Nick Cassidy also has 5 no-scores. Cassidy has momentum on his side going into New York however, with a 2nd place in round two at Puebla saving his team from an awful weekend and keeping it in sight in the team’s championship – on 99 points and 14 off the top spot just like Audi Sport.

With a smorgasbord of winners, smattering of controversy and the rise of the young guns, 2021 has provided plenty of juice to the ongoing season narrative.

Chip Ganassi:

No team has won more races this season than Chip Ganassi. The team leads the driver’s championship with Alex Palou and has seen three of it’s four drivers win a race thus far. Palou won the opening round in Alabama, his maiden IndyCar victory, and the Spaniard added to this with another win at Road America. Palou is the second Spanish driver to win an IndyCar race; and became the first driver who isn’t Scott Dixon to win more than once in a season for Ganassi since Dario Franchitti in 2011. No driver has as many podiums in 2021 as Palou – 6.

Dixon himself won the opening round in Texas and has only finished outside the top ten once in 2021. This leaves the six-time champion in third place in the title race – 56 points behind Palou. This is not an insurmountable gap for Dixon with six races to go. Back in 2015 he managed to claw back a 47 points gap to Juan Pablo Montoya in the final race of the season.

Marcus Ericsson is Ganassi’s second first-time winner of 2021. He grabbed victory on the streets of Belle-Isle to make it the first time in its IndyCar history that Chip Ganassi has had three different winning drivers in one season.

Ganassi’s fourth driver is former NASCAR driver and four-time champion Jimmie Johnson. The American has struggled to get to grips with the intricacies of an IndyCar and so far has only finished in the top 20 once in his seven races. Johnson has been skipping the oval races.

Arrow McLaren

The biggest challenger to the Ganassi empire has been Arrow McLaren and it’s young hotshot Patricio O’Ward. The Mexican scored his maiden win in round two at Texas, before becoming the first repeat winner of 2021 with victory in the second Belle-Isle round. O’Ward is 39 points behind Palou in the championship and will be hoping to become both Arrow SP and McLaren’s first IndyCar champion.

What O’Ward doesn’t have which Palou does, is team-mate back-up. New Arrow McLaren recruit Felix Rosenqvist, ironically poached from Chip Ganassi, has struggled to make any impact in 2021. The Swede has yet to register a top ten finish and had to miss two rounds – replaced by Oliver Askew and Kevin Magnussen respectively -  thanks to a huge crash in the opening Belle-Isle round.

Dale Coyne

The forever fledgling Dale Coyne team threw a gamble at 2021 by hiring Formula One veteran Romain Grosjean. Many were skeptical of the move, however Grosjean has impressed everyone across the pond with some mature and fast drives. Grosjean qualified on pole for the IndyGP and would lead most of the race before eventually losing out to Rinus Veekay in the closing laps. Grosjean settled for second equaling the best result for a rookie in 2021. The Frenchman currently lies 16^th in the championship and has had four top ten results.

In the other full time Dale Coyne car there have been bursts of pace, but very little to show for them. Ed Jones has often flirted with the top ten in races only for misfortune to rob him of a great result. The Dubai born driver only has one top ten to show from 2021 so far and will be looking to remedy that in the closing six rounds.

Formula One returned to the Red Bull-Ring just seven days after its last visit, leaving with a familiar result and a very happy set of Dutch fans. It wasn’t all smiles for everyone though, with numerous time penalties being handed out during the race – including two drivers who received two each.

Max Verstappen dominated like he never had before, taking his first ever ‘grand slam’ – pole, win, fastest lap and led every lap. This was a Red Bull driver’s first ‘grand slam’ since Korea 2013 and only the fifth time the team has taken one – the previous four all came from Sebastian Vettel.

Verstappen scored his 50^th career podium, making him the youngest driver in history to reach this milestone – the previous record holder was Vettel after the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. Verstappen now leads Lewis Hamilton by 32 points, with momentum very much on his side in the aftermath of his third win-in-a-row.

In the other Red Bull it was a mixed bag of fortunes. Sergio Perez started from third, but two five-second time penalties – both for causing a collision - in the race left him down in a distant sixth place. Perez remains in third in the championship – as a result Red Bull only extends its own championship lead over Mercedes by four points to 44.

It was a damage limitation weekend for Mercedes, which just didn’t have the pace in answer to Verstappen. Hamilton struggled with damage in the race and finished where he started, fourth. It now means Hamilton has won exactly one-third of the races so far in 2021, finished second in one-third and finished off the podium in the other one-third. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas secured his best result of 2021 so far with second, after jumping the McLaren of Lando Norris in the pits after Norris had to serve a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Perez.

Third place means Norris has now had three podiums in 2021 – each one of them being a third placed finish. Indeed, Norris only other podium of his career was also a third place in Austria last year – Norris has scored 24% of all his career points at the Red Bull-Ring. This was Norris 14^th consecutive points finish and preserves his record of being the only driver to score points in every 2021 round so far. The result means the Brit has now broken the 100 point barrier in the championship, keeping him ahead of Bottas and only three points behind Perez.

A strong sixth place from Daniel Ricciardo helped McLaren edge away from Ferrari in the constructor’s championship – the gap between the two long-standing rivals now 19 points. McLaren have now scored points for 16 consecutive races. Ferrari scored double points for the first time since Baku with fifth for Sainz and eighth for Leclerc. The Italian team has still only scored one podium in the previous 12 races.

The battle for fifth place in the constructor’s championship remains close and unpredictable, with Alpha Tauri now on 48 points compared to Aston Martin’s 44. Pierre Gasly added to Alpha Tauri’s total with a ninth place finish and two points – extending the team’s consecutive points run to an impressive 12 races. It could easily have been a double points finish, but for Yuki Tsunoda getting two separate five-second time penalties for crossing the white line at the entry to the pits .Aston Martin failed to score any points this weekend, the first time it has done so since Spain back in May.

The final point went to Alpine and Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had lost all hope of scoring points after being held up by Vettel in qualifying. It was his sixth points finish of the year and Alpine’s eighth-in-a-row.

Alonso’s joy was George Russell’s heartbreak. The British driver scored his best ever qualifying result for Williams with ninth on Saturday – which became eighth on Sunday morning after a three-place penalty was applied to Vettel. In the end he only missed out on his first points for Williams by 5.632s. Williams haven’t scored points since the 2019 German Grand Prix (36 races ago), by far its longest drought in its history.

The NASCAR Cup season is just over half way and from the 36 planned races we have seen the chequered flag19 times, this it gives us a good moment to take a look at who's doing well and what stands out in the current season stats.

Out of the 19 races so far we've had 11 different  winners, if we compare that stat to last season's race winners (13 out 36 races) then it has been so far a season with more variety based on the drivers who have won. The driver with the most wins at the halfway point is Kyle Larson (Hendrick Motorsports - Chevrolet) who has won four races; more remarkable is that Larson won three races in a row (Charlotte, Sonoma & Nashville). He has also started four times from pole position and won two of those races. Not only has Larson the most wins (4) and started four times from pole position, he also has the most fastest lap times, also four.

So far 59 drivers have started this season in a Cup race, 36 drivers have a some stage led a race which is 61% of the drivers. It's another stat that shows how variable this season has been as last year over a full season of 36 races we had 43 different drivers that led at least one lap in a race. 

On the teams side is has been a slightly different story with only four teams able to win a race. The team having best chance of a win is Hendrick Motorsports, the team from Charlotte North Carolina which competes with Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE's and has won nine of the 19 races. All four drivers of the team have at least won one race (Alex Bowman (3), Chase Elliott (1), Kyle Larson (4) and William Byron (1)).

Thirteen drivers have made their debut this season since the Daytona 500, the best of the Rookies has been Chase Briscoe (Stewart-Haas Racing / Ford). Briscoe (26 years from Mitchell, Indiana) had his best result in the 19 races as a 6th place at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) in the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix. His best oval result has been twice in 11th place at Talladega and Darlington.

Championship leads are not so relevant during the year as NASCAR works with a playoff system for the title towards the end of the year but consistency is always important! Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing - Toyota) hasn't won a race yet this season but has been able fo finish in the Top 5 ten times, thirteen times he finished in the Top 10 and has an average finish of 8.53 which is a career best at the moment. He has been in the lead of the championship since the second race at Daytona. Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing - Chevrolet) is the other driver who led after the Daytona 500.

From the active drivers Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch now have both 58 wins in NASCAR Cup, Harvick hasn't won a race since last year's second Bristol race,  while Kyle Busch has been setting a new milestone in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with 100 wins and has won twice in the Cup this year (Kansas and the second Pocono race).

At this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Sergio Perez will become the 19^th Formula One driver to have started 200 races. On four of these occasions the driver went on to win that race. Laura Leslie takes you through them below.

Michael Schumacher – 2004 European Grand Prix

It was a season of crushing domination for Michael Schumacher, with 13 wins from 18 races and a record-breaking seventh title – his fifth championship in succession. The German started his 200^th grand prix from pole and never really looked to be in danger in front of his home support at the Nürburgring. He was helped by Kimi Raikkonen holding up the field in the opening nine laps – the McLaren struggling in 2004, but Raikkonen had made a super start to leap from fourth to second by the end of lap one. This allowed Schumacher to build a significant lead by the time of his first stop on lap 28. He would end up finishing 17s ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Jenson Button – 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix

2009 world champion Jenson Button was arguably having the season of his career in 2011. He was consistently beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton and would end up finishing the title race in second place, only behind a dominant Sebastian Vettel. At the Hungarian Grand Prix though, it was Button who would dominate following a mistake from Hamilton. Button took full advantage of Hamilton spinning while in the lead – and then re-joining the track in front of Paul Di Resta in an unsafe matter. The resulting penalty for Hamilton meant Button has a clear road to victory on a day when the weather couldn’t seem to make it’s mind up on rain or shine. Button held off Vettel by 3.5 seconds to take his 11^th career win and second of 2011.

Nico Rosberg – 2016 Singapore Grand Prix

On his way to his first and only world title, Nico Rosberg took perhaps his finest career win at his 200^th race start. After utterly destroying team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.647s in qualifying, Rosberg was only really ever threatened by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian driver would make a late pit-stop to switch to some supersoft tyres and was bearing down on Rosberg in the closing laps. Rosberg held his nerve though and won by just 0.488s. It was to be the penultimate win of Rosberg’s career and his eighth of nine in 2016.

Lewis Hamilton – 2017 Belgian Grand Prix

For Lewis Hamilton his 200^th race start came in the Belgian Grand Prix fresh off the back of the summer break. Hamilton had a tough time in the previous race in Hungary and looked to be losing momentum to rival Sebastian Vettel in the championship chase. Hamilton led from pole and would only lose the lead to Vettel during the pitstop phase of the race. The Brit would come under attack from the German later in the race thanks to a safety car period, but Hamilton held Vettel off by 2.358s to win for the fifth time in 2017 and the 58^th time in his career.

 

It’s double bubble time for Formula One once again as it does back-to-back races at the same track for the third time in the past twelve months. It was the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend, it’ll be the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend. We take a look back at the former and a sneak peak ahead at the latter.  

Max Verstappen scored his 4^th win of 2021 – making it his most successful season yet – and the 14^th win of his career. This was also the first time the Dutchman has ever won back-to-back races. The win helped Red Bull to a 4^th win in-a-row, the first time the team has done this since the closing rounds of 2013. Verstappen has led a total of 332 laps in 2021 and has yet to complete a race lap outside the top four. Red Bull lead the constructor’s championship by 40 points, while Verstappen now leads the driver’s championship by 18.

Red Bull has five wins now in 2021, its best total since 2013. For power unit supplier Honda, it was the first time the company had taken four wins in-a-row since the beginning of the 1991 season.

For Mercedes it was an unsuccessfully successful weekend. Another double podium, it’s 4^th of 2021, did some major damage limitation on a weekend it seemed further away from Red Bull than ever. Lewis Hamilton remains one of two drivers who have completed very race lap of 2021 – 504 of them. For team-mate Valtteri Bottas, it was a return to the podium after a torrid few races during which his average finishing position fell from 6.75 to 8.125.

Mercedes finds itself with its biggest deficit in the constructor’s championship in the turbo hybrid era. The largest gap prior to this had been a 20 point deficit to Ferrari after the 2018 British Grand Prix.

McLaren stretched its points-scoring run to a brilliant 15 races thanks to Lando Norris. The British driver has finished in the points at every round in 2021, the only driver to do so, and has yet to finish lower than 8^th. Despite this, the team lost ground to Ferrari in it’s battle for 3^rd in the constructor’s championship – the gap down to 12 points.

Styria was welcome relief for Ferrari, just a week after it’s worst race result in over 40 years. After struggling in qualifying, both cars scored points for the 5^th time in 2021. Charles Leclerc having to put up one of his finest fightbacks after a first lap incident left him in near dead last.

It was heartbreak for Williams and George Russell after the Brit retired from 8^th place, having spent a solid 24 laps in that position. Williams have now gone 35 races without scoring a world championship point. Alpha Tauri experienced better fortunes by taking its 11^th straight points finish after Yuki Tsunoda scored for the 3^rd time in 2021. The Italian team remains ahead of Aston Martin in the standings, despite the latter outscoring it by three points in Styria.

After nineteen years, the World Rally Championship returned for the Safari Rally Kenya.

The big difference from the new version and the old version were the lengths of stages. For example the 2002 edition had 264 competitive kilometers over 12 stages, while this year's edition had only 49 competitive kilometers devided over 18 stages - it may be a lot shorter, but it wasn't less of a challenge for the participants.

Seven time champion and current series leader Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) started the rally strongly by winning the opening Super Special on Thursday, but it wouldn't be until SS16 that he went back into the lead. He would go on to win this challenging rally in his first and maybe his only participation. Ogier won the most amount of stages of the rally (7) and stayed out of trouble where his rivals couldn't. This is Ogier's 53rd win in his WRC career and his 89th podium.

A surprise this season is Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota). During SS7 Oserian 2 both he and Ogier set the fastest time of the stage. Just like his team-leader, Katsuta avoided any major drama during the event and made no errors. Katsuta finshed second, 21.8s behind Ogier - it's also the first podium finish for the 28 year old from Nagoya. 

Never really close to victory was Hyundai driver Ott Tänak. With only one stage win and the power stage win in the second half of the rally, this gave him his second podium of  the season. After two low scores in the previous rounds where he hit mechanical issues, a solid podium must give Tänak a confidence boost for the rest of the season.

The M-Sport Ford drivers finally had a good result; Gus Greensmith finished fourth which is his best career result in the WRC and teammate Adrien Fourmaux won for the first time a Special Stage, when he was 4.1s faster on SS16 than Ott Tänak. A fifth place for Fourmaux is a repeat of his best career result - he also finished fifth in Croatia this year.

Kalle Rovanperä was the only Finnish driver at the start of the rally. He had a good start with 2 stage wins (SS4 & SS5). Rovanperä was briefly in the lead at the end of SS5, but then he got stuck in sand at the beginning of SS7 and had to use Super Rally to start the third day. From SS8 onwards he could only make up on place to finish sixth in the rally.

Kenyan Onkar Rai made his debut in the WRC with a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5. Rai impressively managed to finish in the points with a seventh place, as more of the top drivers hit troubles (Thierry Neuville, Elfyn Evans, Dani Sordo & Oliver Solberg). 

Biggest loser of the rally was Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). The Belgian won 4 stages and led 12 stages during the rally, but on SS15 Hell's Gate when he was in the lead the right rear suspension of his i20 Coupe WRC broke. It's the first time of the season Neuville had to retire and scores 0 points in the championship.  

One of the participants was Polish driver Sobiesław Zasada in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 of M-Sport Poland. Zasada is 91 years 'young' and is the oldest person ever to compete in a WRC rally. Zasada 2021 Safari rally adventure ended in the final stage on sunday with a broken suspension. It was his fourth Safari Rally under the WRC banner; in 1978 he finished sixth with a Mercedes 280E.

At the end of the rally we find 4 different makes in the top 10 - Toyota (4), Hyundai (1), Ford (3), Volkswagen (2).

Formula One makes it’s ninth visit to the Red Bull Ring since the track returned to the schedule in 2014. On seven of those occasions it has hosted the Austrian Grand Prix, while on the other two occasions – including this weekend’s race – it has been the Styrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes have been the dominant force at the Red Bull Ring since 2014, with six wins from the eight races held there in that time – or 75%. The other two races have been won by Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Each driver who has won at the Red Bull Ring since 2014 has done so twice. Nico Rosberg won in 2014 and 2016, Lewis Hamilton won in 2016 and in 2020 (Styria), Valtteri Bottas won in 2017 and 2020 (Austria) and Verstappen won in 2018 and 2019.

It’s Bottas who leads the way for most podiums though, with five since 2014. 2021 championship rivals Hamilton and Verstappen both have four podiums each. The Red Bull Ring has been a fairly happy hunting ground for Ferrari, it’s drivers have appeared on the podium on six occasions – Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc twice each.

Four different drivers have won pole position at the Red Bull Ring, Bottas and Hamilton both currently on three poles each with Felipe Massa and Charles Leclerc taking one pole each. 26 different drivers have scored at least one point at the track since 2014, including 15 from the 2021 grid. Hamilton and Bottas are the only two drivers to have scored more than 100 points at the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton 120 and Bottas 110.

So far in the 2021 season, only three drivers have completed all 433 race laps – Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz. Somewhat unsurprisingly after having had to retirements, it’s Bottas who has completed the fewest amount of race laps this year – 351. Of the teams it’s McLaren who have the most race mileage, with 864 laps out of 866 completed.

Verstappen has led 261 laps this year, more than double his title rival Hamilton – 122. Between them they have led 88.45% of the season so far. While he may not have led any laps in 2021, Lando Norris has finished higher than his grid position in every race so far and has scored points in each round. He is the only driver on the grid to do this.

Formula E returned after a month long absence with it’s predictably chaotic and controversial racing. The series was racing in Mexico for the sixth consecutive season, this time on a new track - Autódromo Internacional Miguel E. Abed near Puebla.

The 2020/21 Formula E season has now seen a whopping eight different winners in just nine races – Nyck de Vries is the only repeat winner with victories in Saudi Arabia and Valencia. The Puebla ePrix saw two new winners for the season in Lucas di Grassi (race one) and Edoardo Mortara (race two).

For 2016/17 champion Di Grassi it meant the end of a near two year barren spell without winning – his last win had come 21 races previously at the 2019 Berlin ePrix. The Brazilian inherited his 11^th career victory after Pascal Wehrlein was disqualified. It would have been Porsche’s first victory in the series. Di Grassi now sits in 13^th place in the title standings.

For Mortara the wait for a new win was even longer than Di Grassi’s by a few months – Hong Kong in 2019 was his most recent and maiden win, as well as Venturi Racing’s. The Swiss driver’s win in the second of the weekend’s races means he now leads the driver’s championship by 10 points from Robin Frijns. Former championship leader Frijns had a nightmare weekend in which he failed to score any points.

Audi’s Rene Rast scored his first podium of 2021 with second in race one. The German also bagged both fastest lap points to move himself up to fourth in the championship – equal on points with Mitch Evans and reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa.

Further down the field, Sebastien Buemi endured another horrible weekend with a disqualification in race one and a disappointing 14^th place in race two. The 2015/16 champion has only had two points finishes all year and only one of those was in the top five. His winless streak has also been extended to 21 races, by far the worst run in his Formula E career so far.

The team’s championship remains close and unpredictable. Mercedes-EQ continue to lead with 113 points despite only scoring eight points across both races at the weekend. The only team to evade the podium places so far in 2021 is the unfortunate NIO 333 team, who left the weekend pointless. It was also a pointless weekend for the Dragon/Penske Autosport team, it’s second barren weekend in a row.

Rain threatened and so did Mercedes, however it was Max Verstappen and Red Bull who came out on top in a dry French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.

For Red Bull this was it’s first hat-trick of wins in the turbo hybrid era and only it’s second double podium since the 2017 Japanese Grand Prix. For power unit supplier Honda the wait for a hat-trick of wins was even longer – over 30 years since Ayrton Senna won the opening four rounds of the 1991 season for McLaren. This was Red Bull’s 68^th win and the 191^st time it’s had a driver on the podium.

Max Verstappen has now won an F1 race for the 13^th time and is now equal to David Coulthard and Alberto Ascari on the all-time winners list. Verstappen also scored the first in race hat-trick of his career and he is still yet to spend a single race lap outside the top four in 2021. The Dutchman also now leads the driver’s championship by 12 points from Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen also scored his 13^th career fastest lap and led an F1 race for the 30^th time.

The other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez scored the 12^th podium of his career and helped the team to extend it’s lead over Mercedes in the constructor’s championship to 37 points. Perez also stood on the podium exactly 50 years to the day since fellow Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez scored his final F1 podium – in the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix.

McLaren extended it’s points scoring run to 14 races with another double points finish – it’s sixth out of seven races so far in 2021. Lando Norris remains the only driver on the grid to have scored points in every round of the season.

It was more joy for Aston Martin, which scored it’s second double points finish of the season and fifth points finish in a row thanks to Sebastian Vettel. Meanwhile midfield rival Alpha Tauri extended it’s points scoring run to 10 races in succession.

It was a nightmare race for Ferrari which dropped from fifth and seventh on the grid to a lacklustre 11^th for Carlos Sainz and 16^th  for Charles Leclerc in the race. Leclerc scored his worst result in a race at which he was running on track at the end since he finished the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix in 19^th and last for Sauber.

Williams had more to cheer about after George Russell finished a strong 12^th place and has led the team back above Haas in the constructor’s championship. Williams and Haas are the only two teams to have scored no points so far in 2021.

This was also the first race to feature no retirements since the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, which coincidently Verstappen also won. This is the 10^th time in F1 history that such an event has occurred.

Formula One returns to Paul Ricard and the French Grand Prix for the first time in two years this weekend. The series was forced to skip the event in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There have been a total of 86 French Grand Prix over the years, however just 60 of those have been part of the Formula One World Championship. The first was held back in 1950 and had only skipped one year prior to 2009 – 1955 in the aftermath of the Le Mans disaster that same year. The race has been held at seven different locations – Reims, Rouen, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mans, Paul Ricard, Dijon and Magny-Cours.

As it stands 32 different drivers have won the French Grand Prix. The most successful of these is Michael Schumacher who has won the race a record eight times between 1992 and 2006 - 53.33% of French Grand Prix he raced in. All of the races won by the seven-time champion were held at Magny-Cours. Of the drivers currently on the grid in 2021 just three have won the French Grand Prix previously. Lewis Hamilton has won both races held at Paul Ricard since 2018, while Kimi Raikkonen (2007) and Fernando Alonso (2005) both have a win each at Magny-Cours.

Perhaps surprisingly Juan Manuel Fangio retains a long held record for most poles in France – five. Just like with wins, three drivers from the 2021 grid have been on pole in France before – Hamilton (2), Alonso (2) and Raikkonen (1). In fact only one other driver from the current crop has even started on the front row in France – Valtteri Bottas in both 2018 and 2019. This means Mercedes have locked out the front row in all the French Grand Prix it has started since it’s return in 2018.

Indeed Mercedes have won both the 2018 and 2019 French Grand Prix, securing it’s 48^th one-two finish in the series at the latter. Aside from the current Mercedes line-up, four other drivers on today’s grid have previously stood on the podium in France. Hamilton and Raikkonen are the only drivers from the six to have bagged a podium at both Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard, while Alonso has stood on the podium three times at Magny-Cours only. The remaining four drivers have exclusively appeared on the podium in Paul Ricard – Hamilton, Bottas, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

Current driver’s championship leader Verstappen goes into the French Grand Prix with the best start to a season in his entire F1 career, despite a DNF at the previous round in Azerbaijan. Luckily for the Dutchman his nearest rival, Lewis Hamilton, also failed to score and so the gap between the two remains four points. Red Bull lead the constructor’s championship from Mercedes by 26 points and are the only team to have two winning drivers in 2021.

Further down the pack, Lando Norris will be hoping to extend his run of points finishes to 12 races for McLaren and also keep his record of being the only driver to score in every round of 2021 so far. While Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will be seeking a third straight pole position, something Ferrari have not done since late 2019 – it had a run of six poles on the bounce between Belgium and Mexico.

For the home crowd there will be two drivers to cheer in 2021 – Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Only Gasly has previously scored any points at Paul Ricard – a solitary point for 10^th place in 2019. In 2018 the pair collided on lap one and retired from the race adding to the unfortunate stat that in 14 of the 16 F1 races at Paul Ricard, at least one French driver has retired from the race.

Formula E returns at the weekend for rounds eight and nine of the 2021 championship after a month long break. Both round take place in Mexico and the Autodromo Miguel E. Abed, a track drafted in to replace Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – a track currently being used as a hospital.

So far in 2021 there have been six winners from seven races, with Nyck de Vries being the only repeat winner. Four different teams have won a race and it has led to an incredibly close battle for both championships. Rather oddly, all five drivers at the top of the standings have had at least three no-scores each.

Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa won last time out in Monaco to move up to fourth in the championship. He sits just behind Dutch pair, de Vries and Robin Frijns. Audi driver Frijns leads Mercedes’ de Vries by just five points. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans remains the highest placed driver in the championship – he has 54 points in third place. The New Zealander has had three podiums so far this year, the most of any of the 14 drivers who have taken silverware home this season.

The team’s championship is currently led by Mercedes-EQ on 105 points, which is just two points ahead of Jaguar. Champions of the previous two seasons, DS Techeetah are a further five points away from Jaguar. The only team without a podium so far in 2021 is the unfortunate NIO 333 team, which currently has a best result of sixth place from round two in Saudi Arabia.

It’s been a struggle for two of the series’ champions in 2021 – Sebastian Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi. 2015-16 champion Buemi is currently in the longest win drought of his Formula E career. The Swiss driver hasn’t won a race since the first race in New York in 2019 – 19 races ago. Buemi currently languishes in 22^nd position in the standings.