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It was the first time we'd ever seen a Formula 1 car slalom flat-out through a slow-moving traffic jam. And it was terrifying. We are talking a speed differential of well over 100mph, many, many times greater than that which killed Gilles Villeneuve in 1982, an accident that was all about one driver cruising, another on a flat-out qualifying lap. The regulations as currently configured are tailor-made to create exactly that situation. All it would have taken for an aircraft-style crash at Sepang on Saturday would have been one of the five drivers on their in-laps to have wandered a few feet off line, unaware even there was a car approaching them at racing speeds. Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen were not expecting another car still on its qualifying lap. In their minds the session was over. So as Massa was acknowledging the crowd for a pole position he hadn't actually secured yet, he will doubtless have been surprised as the flat-chat Nick Heidfeld blasted past him, just as had the McLaren drivers a few seconds earlier when they'd baulked his approach to turn four. Nick got through the traffic physically unscathed, the only damage being to his lap time, dropping him from a likely third fastest to seventh. Just behind him, Fernando Alonso was even more badly blocked. It was an incident that could so easily have ended in the medical centre rather than the stewards room. © 2021 Autosport
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Abu Dhabi / Results
Pos | Driver | Time |
---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | 1h36m28.645s |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | 1h36m44.621s |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | 1h36m47.060s |
4 | Alexander Albon | 1h36m48.632s |
5 | Lando Norris | 1h37m29.374s |
Standings / After 17 races
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | 347 |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | 223 |
3 | Max Verstappen | 214 |
4 | Sergio Perez | 125 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | 119 |
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Coming up
Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|
Bahrain | Bahrain | 28 Mar |
Emilia Romagna | Imola | 18 Apr |
? | ? | 2 May |
Spain | Catalunya | 9 May |
Monaco | Monte Carlo | 23 May |
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Berlin / Results
Pos | Driver | Time |
---|---|---|
1 | Stoffel Vandoorne | 47m22.107s |
2 | Nyck de Vries | 47m23.447s |
3 | Sebastien Buemi | 47m24.948s |
4 | Rene Rast | 47m25.687s |
5 | Sam Bird | 47m30.817s |
Standings / After 11 races
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Antonio Felix da Costa | 158 |
2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | 87 |
3 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 86 |
4 | Sebastien Buemi | 84 |
5 | Oliver Rowland | 83 |
Browse full championship table |
Coming up
Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|
Diriyah | Diriyah | 26 Feb 2021 |
Diriyah | Diriyah | 27 Feb 2021 |
Santiago | Parque O'Higgins | |
Santiago | Parque O'Higgins | |
Sanya | Sanya | |
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