F1

MERCEDES could dump Valtteri Bottas BEFORE the end of the season, according to reports.The Finn is in his fifth year with the team, having joined from Williams to partner Lewis Hamilton in 2017.
Valtteri Bottas is under pressure at MercedesCredit: Splash
George Russell is in line to join the teamCredit: Alamy
But Mercedes insiders are reportedly ‘losing faith’ in the 31-year-old.
This could open the door to current Williams star George Russell – with the Brit part of their young driver programme.
Bottas has posted second placed finishes in the last two Driver’s Championships, as well as previous third and fifth-placed efforts.
But, in a dominant car, Merc chiefs expect better.
Bottas finished third in Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix, despite starting the race in pole position.
And one team source told the Mail: “There is some unrest at the factory about Valtteri.
“He is not up to it, which was made clearer by the job we saw Russell do in Bahrain.”
Bottas has won nine races since joining Mercedes, including two last season.

Mercedes may decide to replace Bottas, 31, as Lewis Hamilton’s partnerCredit: Getty
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Russell, meanwhile, impressed when stepping in for Hamilton at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year.
The 23-year-old could count himself unlucky not to win the race, after a botched pit stop spoiled his chances.
He is very much expected to become a full part of the team next season, even if Bottas manages to survive this campaign.
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Lewis Hamilton’s post race reaction to winning the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix More

FORMULA ONE bad boy Nikita Mazepin has apologised to Sergio Perez after blocking him during the Portugal GP.The Russian was slapped with a five second time penalty and given a point on his superlicence for ignoring blue flags and almost causing a smash.
Nikita Mazepin arrives in the pit lane on a scooterCredit: Alamy
Nikita Mazepin trails team-mate Mick Schumacher in the Portugal Grand PrixCredit: Getty
Mazepin, who was dead last, blocked Perez who was leading the race at the time, causing the Mexican to take defensive action.
Mazepin, who finished the race last, accused his Haas team of not warning him that Perez was approaching at speed.
He said: “It’s pretty simple, totally my mistake on that. I didn’t really get a warning from the team, but no excuses on this.
“It is just my fault. I apologised to Checo already.”
Perez, who was fourth, added: “I thought that he saw me. He apologised after the race. He basically didn’t see me. I thought he did.”
Defending champion Lewis Hamilton won the race for the 97th win of his career.
The Brit’s victory in Portugal was far from routine however as he battled back from third place and seized upon errors from Max Verstappen and his own team-mate, Valtteri Bottas.
Nikita Mazepin has apologised for blocking Sergio PerezCredit: Getty
Lews Hamilton sprays champagne on the podium in PortugalCredit: Getty
Hamilton’s Mercedes team celebrate his victoryCredit: Splash

🏁 F1 2021 calendar: practice times, dates and racetrack info
Hamilton said: “Max had a small mistake which then put me in a nice position.
“And then with Valtteri, I managed to just get him at Turn One. Just right on the limit.”
For Verstappen, he now trails Hamilton by eight points in the championship after the opening three races.
But while Hamilton has pounded out the results like a machine, Verstappen has made costly errors.
The Dutchman was judged to have fallen foul of the rules with regards to going off track and gaining an advantage.

Verstappen has now been punished THREE times, costing him a victory in Bahrain and a pole position and fastest lap bonus point in Portugal, with the race won by Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said: “Now we’ve lost the victory, fastest lap, and pole position.
“All good things come in threes. I hope that’s the end of it. Something has to change.”

Lewis Hamilton’s post race reaction to winning the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix More

F1 race bosses are adamant they were right to punish Max Verstappen in the Portugal GP.The Dutchman was judged to have fallen foul of the rules with regards to going off track and gaining an advantage.
Red Bull have hit out at Max Verstappen’s punishments – but race chiefs believe they are rightCredit: Splash
Race chiefs issued a strict warning that lap times would be deleted to those drivers who exceeded track limits and drove over the white lines.
Verstappen has now been punished THREE times, costing him a victory in Bahrain and a pole position and fastest lap bonus point in Portugal, with the race won by Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said: “Now we’ve lost the victory, fastest lap, and pole position.
“All good things come in threes. I hope that’s the end of it. Something has to change.
“Either you make a boundary with kerbs or you make gravel or something. If you go out, there’s an automatic penalty.
“[Lando] Norris overtook [Sergio] Perez, went over with all four wheels, and there were no consequences. So it’s not consistent, and that’s not racing when you juggle the rules like that.”
Red Bull boss, Christian Horner also took issue with the track limits rule and accused the race stewards of inconsistency.
He added: “The whole track limits debate is just frustrating. It’s been brutal for us across the first three events.
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“The win in Bahrain, the pole position and now the fastest lap. So it’s been pretty expensive for us.
“Norris passed Perez fully off the track. Again, another track limits inconsistency. We didn’t see anyone else have the penalty that Max did. He would’ve achieved that (fastest) lap.”
However, Michael Masi, the FIA’s Race Director, hit back at the accusations of double standards.
He said: “Having looked at it post-race, it’s very clear that Max was off the track (and) that he was faster in that mini-sector than anyone and as a result got the fastest lap of the race, which is a world championship point.
“There were a number of lap times that were deleted during the race. Also, there were a few that were deleted during qualifying.
“So I think that shows that we were policing the track limits for everyone equally.”
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MAX VERSTAPPEN is beginning to realise the size of the task in front of him if he is to beat Lewis Hamilton to the F1 title.Red Bull have built him a car capable of challenging for victories; it is now down to him to get them by cutting out the mistakes.
Max Verstappen will be starting to appreciate the size of the task in dethroning Lewis HamiltonCredit: Getty
Hamilton took advantage of Verstappen’s minor mistakes to win the Portugal F1Credit: Rex
The Dutchman left Portimao cursing his luck after three – albeit minor – mistakes over the weekend allowed ruthless Formula One champion Hamilton to take full advantage.
The Brit’s victory in Portugal was far from routine as he battled back from third place and seized upon errors from Verstappen and his own team-mate, Valtteri Bottas.
In fact, all three drivers made mistakes, it was just that Hamilton had the skills to recover after initially cursing his luck when Verstappen had first caught him off-guard.
It happened after the Safety Car was called in following Kimi Raikkonen’s accident, as Hamilton took his eye off the ball.
Hamilton said: “I was focusing on Valtteri and literally just for a split-second I looked in my mirror just to see where Max was.
“In that split second, that’s when Valtteri went, so I lost out to Valtteri and so that wasn’t great.
“Then, I was in Valtteri’s tow, and Max about to pull out. I was like ‘you idiot’ to myself.
“Then after that, obviously being behind the two I just had to gather my thoughts and make a couple of tweaks in terms of how I was driving and then start on the attack again.”
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Christian Horner is confident Verstappen can challenge Hamilton for the entire seasonCredit: Getty

Hamilton took his opportunity on lap 11 when the Red Bull man had a wobble at Turn 14 before sizing up a move on Bottas.
Just nine laps later he completed it, sweeping past the Finn who had turned into Turn One too tight – a big mistake that allowed Hamilton to take the racing line and swoop past.
And the 36-year-old never looked back as he powered his way to the 97th victory of his career.
Hamilton added: “Max had a small mistake which then put me in a nice position.
“And then with Valtteri, I managed to just get him at Turn One. Just right on the limit.”
For Verstappen, he now trails Hamilton by eight points in the championship after the opening three races.
But while Hamilton has pounded out the results like a machine, Verstappen has made costly errors.
In the opening race in Bahrain, he overtook Hamilton on the penultimate lap only to be told by the race stewards to surrender the position for exceeding track limits.

The same infringement cost him pole in Portimao as his lap time was deleted meaning he started in third place.
And there was the added embarrassment of being told on TV he would not earn the bonus point for setting the fastest lap in the race as that too was scrubbed off for going wide of the track.
He put a brave face on it and is now ready to take the fight to Hamilton again in Barcelona this weekend – but he has to cut out the errors.
He said: “It was a good fight with Lewis and from there it was super close with the three of us. I tried to attack Valtteri but I could just not get close enough.
“By pushing I had a little wobble and Lewis was already close and got me into Turn One. I tried to put the pressure on but it was good. It felt more like racing.
“This is what everyone wants to see and what I want [to be challenging for titles] because the last few years, we have not been close.
“So it is a good start to the season, that is for sure, and it keeps everyone excited.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner hailed Verstappen’s second-place while also pointing out that Hamilton is fallible, illustrated by his crash in Imola.
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Verstappen is now enjoying his best-ever start to an F1 season and Horner believes the championship will go down to the wire.
He said: “We’ve managed to split the Mercedes. You can see it’s very, very marginal.
“It was frustrating not to get that point at the end [for fastest lap] but we’ll definitely take that result.
“Track limits are a bone of contention and the consistency of their application. This championship will come down to all the marginals.”
Meanwhile, Bottas was again unable to convert his pole and has the unwelcome statistic of taking just one win in his last 19 races.
In fact, the Finn, who is under pressure to keep his seat at Mercedes, has the same amount of F1 victories as Nico Rosberg since 2016; the same season the German retired from the sport.
Bottas is down in fourth place in the drivers’ championship behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was fifth in the race behind Sergio Perez.
Norris said: “My confidence is at an all-time high. It is going well and we are executing everything as best as we can.”
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Meanwhile, Hamilton and Verstappen have promised to keep their title fight clean – for the time being.
Hamilton said: “None of us here are under any illusion of just how hard it is out there for us, how close the battle is and how we are giving absolutely everything in our day-to-day lives in order to be best prepared and deliver at the weekends.
“The pressure is immense between us all and I think there’s a huge amount of respect between us.
“Of course, it’s always great when you have a race where you’re able to follow and overtake and capitalise on the small margins.
“Max has been pulling absolutely everything out of the Red Bull and given us a great run for our money, so I think it’s going to be like this for the rest of the season, which I think can be incredibly exciting.
“It is very, very hard but fair and I think that’s what makes great racing and I think we will continue to keep it clean and keep it on the edge, but I don’t think either of us has a plan to get any closer than we have been.”
Verstappen added: “It’s been really cool, especially when you race a driver, when you know that you can go to the absolute limit.
“I guess you can trust each other to just race super-hard. You can see in the three races we’ve had, Lewis has never had something like ‘oh, we’re going to crash’.
“I always have full trust in Lewis that we all give each other enough space.”
Lewis Hamilton’s post race reaction to winning the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix More

MAX VERSTAPPEN is beginning to realise the size of the task in front of him if he is to beat Lewis Hamilton to the F1 title.Red Bull have built him a car capable of challenging for victories; it is now down to him to get them by cutting out the mistakes.
Lewis Hamilton won Sunday’s Portuguese Grand PrixCredit: Getty
Lewis Hamilton celebrates his victory in PortimaoCredit: Getty
The Dutchman left Portimao cursing his luck after three – albeit minor – mistakes over the weekend allowed ruthless Hamilton take full advantage.
The Brit’s victory in Portugal was far from routine as he battled back from third place, as he seized upon errors from Verstappen and his own teammate, Valtteri Bottas.
In fact, all three drivers made mistakes, it was just that Hamilton had the skills to recover after initially cursing his luck when Verstappen had first caught him off-guard.
It happened after the Safety Car was called in following Kimi Raikkonen’s accident, as Hamilton took his eye off the ball.
Hamilton said: “I was focusing on Valtteri and literally just for a split-second I looked in my mirror just to see where Max was.
“In that split second, that’s when Valtteri went, so I lost out to Valtteri and so that wasn’t great.
“Then, I was in Valtteri’s tow, and Max about to pull out. I was like ‘you idiot’ to myself.
“Then after that, obviously being behind the two I just had to gather my thoughts and make a couple of tweaks in terms of how I was driving and then start on the attack again.”
Hamilton took his opportunity on lap 11 when the Red Bull man had a wobble at Turn 14 before sizing up a move on Bottas.
Just nine laps later he completed it, sweeping past the Finn who had turned into Turn One too tight – a big mistake that allowed Hamilton to take the racing line and swoop past.
And the 36-year-old never looked back as he powered his way to the 97th victory of his career.
Hamilton added: “Max had a small mistake which then put me in a nice position.
“And then with Valtteri, I managed to just get him at Turn One. Just right on the limit.”
For Verstappen, he now trails Hamilton by eight points in the championship after the opening three races.
But while Hamilton has pounded out the results like a machine, Verstappen has made costly errors.
In the opening race in Bahrain, he overtook Hamilton on the penultimate lap only to be told by the race stewards to surrender the position for exceeding track limits.
The same infringement cost him pole in Portimao as his lap time was deleted meaning he started in third place.
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Lewis Hamilton didn’t have the best of starts to the race but quickly recovered to take pole positionCredit: AP
Lewis Hamilton’s lead at the summit of the Driver’s Championship is now eight pointsCredit: Reuters

And there was the added embarrassment of being told on TV he would not earn the bonus point for setting the fastest lap in the race as that too was scrubbed off for going wide of the track.
He put a brave face on it and is now ready to take the fight to Hamilton again in Barcelona this weekend – but he has to cut out the errors.
He said: “It was a good fight with Lewis and from there it was super close with the three of us. I tried to attack Valtteri but I could just not get close enough.
“By pushing I had a little wobble and Lewis was already close and got me into Turn One. I tried to put the pressure on but it was good. It felt more like racing.
“This is what everyone wants to see and what I want [to be challenging for titles] because the last few years, we have not been close.
“So it is a good start to the season, that is for sure, and it keeps everyone excited.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner hailed Verstappen’s second-place while also pointing out that Hamilton is fallible, illustrated by his crash in Imola.
Verstappen is now enjoying his best-ever start to an F1 season and Horner believes the championship will go down to the wire.
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He said: “We’ve managed to split the Mercedes. You can see it’s very, very marginal.
“It was frustrating not to get that point at the end [for fastest lap] but we’ll definitely take that result.
“Track limits are a bone of contention and the consistency of their application. This championship will come down to all the marginals.”
Meanwhile, Bottas was again unable to convert his pole and has the unwelcome statistic of taking just one win in his last 19 races.
In fact, the Finn, who is under pressure to keep his seat at Mercedes, has the same amount of F1 victories as Nico Rosberg since 2016; the same season the German retired from the sport.
Bottas is down in fourth place in the drivers’ championship behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was fifth in the race behind Sergio Perez.
Norris said: “My confidence is at an all-time high. It is going well and we are executing everything as best as we can.”
Today’s finals standings

Hamilton (Mercedes)

2. Verstappen (Red Bull, +29.148)
3. Bottas (Mercedes, +33.530 and fastest lap)
4. Perez (Red Bull, +39.735)
5. Norris (McLaren, +51.369)
6. Leclerc (Ferrari, +55.781)
7. Ocon (Alpine, +63.749)
8. Alonso (Alpine, +64.808)
9. Ricciardo (McLaren, +75.3691
10, Gasly (Alpha Tauri, +76.463)
11. Sainz (Ferrari, +78.955)
12. Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo, one lap)
13. Vettel (Aston Martin, one lap)
14. Stroll (Aston Martin, one lap)
15. Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri, one lap)
16. Russell (Williams, one lap)
17. Schumacher (Haas, one lap)
18. Latifi (Williams, two laps)
19. Mazepin (Haas, two laps)
20. DNF – Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
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