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F1 2021

FP1 ​

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton lapped fastest for Mercedes in practice for the Sao Paulo Formula One Grand Prix on Friday after incurring a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's race. The Briton put in a best lap of one minute 09.050 seconds, with Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen second and 0.367 slower at an overcast Interlagos with occasional drops of rain and plenty of empty seats in the stands.

Verstappen leads Hamilton, who picked up the penalty for an engine change and complained that the front end of his car was "really poor", by 19 points with four races remaining including Brazil. Red Bull's Mexican Sergio Perez was third on the timesheets with Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas fourth in the day's only practice session before qualifying for Saturday's sprint race. The 100km sprint offers points for the top three in 3-2-1 sequence and Hamilton's penalty will only apply to Sunday's starting grid.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was fifth fastest ahead of the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Ferrari reclaimed third place overall from McLaren at the previous race in Mexico and are looking to extend their advantage. McLaren had Lando Norris 15th and Australian Daniel Ricciardo 19th, but they were running a different programme to the others.
  1. HAM 1:09.050
  2. VER +0.367
  3. PER +0.442
  4. BOT +0.517
  5. GAS +0.830
  6. SAI +1.074
  7. LEC +1.092
  8. OCO +1.095
  9. ALO +1.151
  10. STR +1.302
  11. TSU +1.324
  12. VET +1.363
  13. RAI +1.393
  14. GIO +1.537
  15. NOR +1.560
  16. MSC +1.835
  17. LAT +1.852
  18. RUS +1.888
  19. RIC +1.940
  20. MAZ +2.292
 

Szafnauer has "no intention of leaving" Aston Martin F1 team​

Szafnauer, who has long served as the boss of the Silverstone-based F1 squad from its Force India and Racing Point days, was recently joined at Aston Martin by former McLaren F1 chief Martin Whitmarsh as Group CEO. Szafnauer took to Instagram to call the reports "pure media speculation and not based on fact". Aston Martin had also responded to a request for comment by calling it "speculative conjecture". It led to a grilling for Szafnauer about his future during Friday's FIA press conference at Interlagos, during which he said he was "as surprised as anybody else" to read the reports. "It's always humbling and flattering to say if Alpine are reorganising, I think [Alpine CEO] Laurent Rossi said that in Mexico, for the media to speculate that I could be wanted there," Szafnauer said. "It's always nice to be wanted."

Asked if he could categorically say he would be with Aston Martin next year, Szafnauer said: "I've been at the team for 12 years, I have no intention of leaving. I love this team. Most of the senior managers, especially through Racing Point, the senior leadership team was recruited and put there by myself, and I have no intentions of leaving them. I've been loyal to this team. I've had many, many offers in the 12 years that I've been working for this team, especially in the days of the bankruptcy and insolvency. I could have left many times, but I'm loyal to the employees there."

Throughout the remainder of the press conference, Szafnauer was given a number of opportunities to directly deny he had been in contact with Alpine or could join them in the future, but fell short of doing so. Szafnauer was asked if he was absolutely not joining Alpine at any stage in the future, to which he replied: "I learned a long, long time ago that predicting the future is an impossibility. And if I could do that, I would be in Vegas now." Szafnauer said he had not spoken about the reports with Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll, but felt sure they would catch up at some point soon. "We haven't talked about rumours," Szafnauer said. "There's lots of stuff that goes on in the media that we don't talk about."

Despite being "reticent to disclose contractual details", Szafnauer did confirm that he had "a long-term contract in place with Aston" when asked if he had a deal for next year. Szafnauer noted that "many, many teams" had contacted him about a possible job this year when asked if he'd had contact with Alpine, and then referred to a press conference which occurred seven months ago that he thought may have sparked the reports. "I think it was, I was sitting next to Laurent Rossi when [Jonathan] McEvoy asked if Aston Martin were recruiting a CEO to take my job, and I knew nothing of that," Szafnauer said. "Jokingly, Rossi said, 'ah, if you're leaving, come talk to us', and that was about it. I don't know if that's what sparked the Auto Hebdo article." Szafnauer added: "Like I said, I'm fully committed to the team I'm in. I've been there forever. I have no intentions of leaving. I've got to focus on the rest of the season. The season hasn't gone quite to what we thought it was going to, how it was going to go."
 

Track limit restrictions for turn four at Interlagos​

Formula 1 drivers have been advised of new restrictions governing how track limits will be enforced at turn four ahead of todayā€™s qualifying session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The stewards will delete any lap time achieved by a driver who runs wide at the corner. Any driver that exceeds track limits at that corner on three occasions during Sundayā€™s race will be shown the black and white flag. Further infringement will result in them being reported to the stewards. Drivers were also reminded to adhere to article 27.3 of the Sporting Regulations, part of which states: ā€œDrivers will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it and, for the avoidance of doubt, any white lines defining the track edges are considered to be part of the track but the kerbs are not.ā€

The full guidance to drivers is as follows:
ā€œA lap time achieved during any practice session or the race by leaving the track on the exit of turn four, will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards. Each time any car fails to negotiate turn four exit by using the track, teams will be informed via the official messaging system. On the third occasion of a driver failing to negotiate turn four exit by using the track during the race, he will be shown a black and white flag, any further cutting will then be reported to the stewards. For the avoidance of doubt this means a total of three occasions combined not three at each corner. The driver must only re-join the track when it is safe to do so and without gaining a lasting advantage. The above requirements will not automatically apply to any driver who is judged to have been forced off the track, each such case will be judged individually. Drivers are reminded of the provisions of Article 27.3 of the Sporting Regulations.ā€
 
Sao Paulo Grand Prix ā€“ Here are the complete results from qualifying ahead of tomorrowā€™s sprint race at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.

Results Q3
  1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes -1:07.934
  2. Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.438
  3. Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.535
  4. Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.549
  5. Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.843
  6. Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.892
  7. Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +1.026
  8. Lando Norris McLaren +1.046
  9. Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1.105
  10. Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.179
 
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