Photo: Leonhard Foeger Agence France-Presse
The track at Spielberg, the pilot of Red Bull Max Verstappen has moved ahead of the Mercedes of the Finnish Valtteri Bottas and the two Racing Point.
The calendar year 2020 from the F1 expanded Friday, the two Great extra Prizes, in Italy and in Russia, a news which was formalized on the sidelines of the Grand Prix of Styria, in Austria.
With the GP of Tuscany on September 13 at Mugello, on the land of Ferrari, and of Russia on the 27th in Sochi, the season now has ten dates. “More will be announced in the weeks to come,” promises the promoter of the championship, Formula One.
The objective of organizing between 15 and 18 races, compared to 22 initially, by the close in Abu Dhabi in mid-December is maintained. “We have more confidence in our project to run until the end of the year,” says the p.-d. g. of the F1, Chase Carey.
No positive test
Free practice 3 are programmed to a 12 h (6 h in Quebec) Saturday, followed by qualifying at 15 h (9 p.m. in Quebec), if however the weather : heavy rains are expected throughout the day and could disrupt this program.
Off the track, the F1 and the international automobile Federation (FIA) published the results of 4566 screening tests COVID-19 made in the paddock between last Friday and Thursday. None came back positive, as this was already the case of 4032 tests performed the previous week. A good point for the premier class of motor sport, which has got to take full pandemic coronavirus through a memorandum imposing the closed-door screening required every five days.
If the channel of the Russian had been scheduled before the health crisis, which has forced the Formula 1 to overhaul its calendar, the GP of Tuscany made its entry in the championship, which is never passed through the Mugello, 35 km from Florence.
The circuit, very much appreciated, drivers, and hosts a round of the MotoGP, belongs to Ferrari. The Scuderia will celebrate the 1000th GP in its history.
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“Right direction “
“We’re going in the right direction with more and more races “, welcomes the senior director of Alfa Romeo Racing, Frédéric Vasseur. Step by step, we built a beautiful championship. “
“We are starting to have a calendar substantial. It should make a nice season, it is good for us, for the fans and for F1 in general. You need to push to add a few more races and it will be well “, also encourages his counterpart at Haas, Guenther Steiner.
The championships of Formula 2 and Formula 3 will also be in Mugello on the same dates. For the F3, this will be the final meeting of the season. The F2 has yet to confirm its past dates.
Among the tracks for the rest of the F1, travel in Asia (China, Vietnam), the Americas (Canada, Usa, Mexico, Brazil), followed by the Middle East (Bahrain, Abu Dhabi) have been mentioned. Several european circuits (Imola, Italy, Portimao in Portugal, Hockenheim in Germany) are negotiating them, to enter the calendar.
The sleeve opening of 2020, won by Bottas ahead of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Norris was held in Austria, already on the Red Bull Ring, last week, with more than three months late.
The season should begin mid-march in Melbourne, Australia, but the GP was cancelled just before the first free practice session after the discovery of a case of coronavirus in the paddock.
Verstappen dominates test
On the track, Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Verstappen was ahead of the Mercedes of the Finnish Valtteri Bottas and the two Racing Point. His Red Bull, however, seemed to complicated to maneuver, the Dutchman and his team-mate thai Alexander Albon multiplying fears. “Dissatisfied” of his car in free practice 2, according to his team Mercedes, the Briton Lewis Hamilton, in campaign to equal the record of seven world titles of Michael Schumacher, has to settle for the sixth fastest time. His fellow countryman Lando Norris (McLaren), author of his first podium last Sunday, has been sentenced to a penalty of three places on the starting grid for a no overtaking under the yellow flag.
