MANAMA, November 28 (Reuters): Seven times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took his 98th career pole position in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas alongside on the front row. Red Bull's Max Verstappen qualified third. Hamilton's fastest lap of one minute 27.264 seconds was a track record time.    

(Reuters): Lewis Hamilton was further down the starting grid than he has been all year on Saturday but closer than ever to winning a record-equalling seventh Formula One world championship and becoming the sport's most successful driver of all time. The Mercedes driver, the sport's record polesitter and race winner, qualified sixth for the Turkish Grand Prix -- a race returning for the first time since 2011 and Hamilton's first chance to clinch the title. Until S

LONDON, November 2 (Reuters): Mercedes celebrated their record seventh successive Formula One constructors' title on Monday with champagne glasses raised remotely and special home deliveries of facemasks. The sport's dominant team are used to toasting success but amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with many staff working from home, this year's triumph was always going to be very different to the previous six. In the past factory staff, at Brackley and the engine side

IMOLA, Italy, October 31 (Reuters): Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes at the top of the time sheets in the sole practice session on Saturday ahead of the Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix. The 35-year-old clocked one minute 14.726 seconds on a cool but sunny morning at Italy’s Imola circuit, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.297 seconds. The Briton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas was 0.492 seconds slower in third. Mercedes, winners of a

LONDON, October 26 (Reuters): Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff jokingly suggested he would have to sell the factory to keep Lewis Hamilton after the Briton's record 92nd career win in Portugal on Sunday. Hamilton is out of contract at the end of the year, by which time the 35-year-old is likely to have won a record-equalling seventh championship and rank as the most successful driver in the history of the sport. He and Wolff have yet to sit down and hammer out the de

(Reuters): Lewis Hamilton put no limits on what he could achieve after roaring past retired Ferrari great Michael Schumacher on Sunday as the Formula One driver with most wins in the history of the sport. The Mercedes driver's 92nd victory was one of his most crushing, Hamilton lapping all but three rivals at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Hamilton took the chequered flag a huge 25 seconds ahead of second placed team mate Valtteri Bottas, who had led at the end of the first

(Reuters): Six-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton donned a T-shirt protesting against police violence in Nigeria for a pre-race television interview at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday. Nigerians have been demonstrating for weeks against a police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which rights groups have for years accused of extortion, harassment, torture and murders. "I've got to show this," Hamilton, Formula One's only Black dri

LONDON, October 12 (Reuters): Lewis Hamilton looks sure to become the most successful Formula One driver of all time but argument about the greatest will rumble on. But the Mercedes driver, who equalled Ferrari great Michael Schumacher's all-time record 91 wins in Sunday's Eifel Grand Prix and is heading for a seventh title, said that did not matter to him. "There's a lot of talk in all sports about greatest, past and present, and I think it's almost imp

Reuters  Lewis Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher's all-time record 91 Formula One wins on Sunday with an Eifel Grand Prix victory that catapulted the Mercedes driver closer to a seventh world championship. While the Briton triumphed at the Nuerburgring, the German circuit where Ferrari great Schumacher won five times, team mate Valtteri Bottas suffered a huge hit to his title hopes with a first retirement of the season. Hamilton, celebrating his seventh win of the

(Reuters): Valtteri Bottas seized pole position with a last lap blast at the Eifel Grand Prix on Saturday as Mercedes team mate and Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton joined him on the front row at the Nuerburgring. Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had been on provisional pole after the first flying laps of the final session at the German circuit, qualified in third place with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc fourth. Bottas's pole was his third of 2020 and an

LONDON, October 10 (Reuters): Formula One's governing body approved on Friday a ban on the sort of 'reverse engineering' that allowed the Racing Point team to compete this season with a car resembling last year's title-winning Mercedes. The FIA said its World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) had approved changes to the 2021 technical regulations "that will prevent the extensive use of reverse engineering of rival designs for the design of a car’s aerodynami

NUERBURGRING, October 9 (Reuters): Bad weather denied Mick Schumacher a Formula One practice debut at the Eifel Grand Prix on Friday, with the medical helicopter unable to take off due to fog and the opening session called off. Organisers had set the clock running for the 90-minute session at a cold and damp Nuerburgring but kept the pit lane exit closed. After two half-hourly updates, they announced there would be no running. Schumacher, the Formula Two championship leader an

LONDON, October 3 (Reuters): Renault will meet their obligations under the rules if Red Bull ask for an engine supply after Honda leave Formula One at the end of 2021, the French team's boss Cyril Abiteboul said on Friday. Honda announced their departure earlier, leaving Red Bull Racing and sister team AlphaTauri seeking a new power unit supply for 2022. The sporting regulations state that "each manufacturer must, if called upon to do so by the FIA, supply at least three

LONDON, September 30 (Reuters): Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, who accused stewards of seeking to stop him winning at last weekend's Russian Grand Prix, said on Tuesday that he was "only human" and would continue to learn. In what read like a veiled apology, but did not refer directly to the race in Sochi or the stewards, the Mercedes driver posted a message on Instagram thanking his fans for their support. "I may not always get it right in the face

(Reuters): Mick Schumacher will take part in first Friday practice with Alfa Romeo at the Nuerburgring next week as Ferrari seek to give their three leading junior drivers Formula One race weekend experience. Britain's Callum Ilott will take part in the same session with the Ferrari-powered Haas team while Russian Robert Shwartzman will get his chance on the final Friday of the season in Abu Dhabi with Haas or Alfa. Schumacher, son of Ferrari great and seven-times world

LONDON, September 28 (Reuters): An increased number of positive COVID-19 results in the run up to last Sunday's Russian Formula One Grand Prix shows that safety protocols are working well, the sport said on Monday. Seven people were positive from 3,256 tests between Sept. 18-24 on the drivers, teams and personnel. There had been only nine from the nine previous rounds. "Formula One and the FIA safety protocols are working very effectively including testing, tracing

(Reuters): Mercedes knew Lewis Hamilton was going to be in trouble with Formula One stewards when they saw where he was practising his starts for the Russian Grand Prix, according to engineering director Andrew Shovlin. The six-times world champion, on pole position at Sochi on Sunday, was handed two five second penalties and ended up third in a race won by team mate Valtteri Bottas. The penalties put on hold his bid to equal Michael Schumacher's record 91 wins and trimm

(Reuters): Lewis Hamilton accused Formula One stewards of trying to stop him winning after being handed two time penalties in Sunday's Russian Grand Prix. The punishment, for infringements before the race had even started, cost the six-times world champion the lead and the chance to fight for a record-equalling 91st career win. The Mercedes driver finished third after starting on pole position. "I need to go back and see what the rules are and what exactly I did

(Reuters): Formula One's governing body set out new pre- and post-race rules for driver attire on Sunday in a move that bars world champion Lewis Hamilton from wearing campaigning T-shirts on the podium. The Briton wore a black T-shirt at the Tuscan Grand Prix two weeks ago with the words "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" on the front and a photograph of the slain Black medical worker on the back with "Say her name". Taylor was killed by pol

LONDON, September 15 (Reuters): Six-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said he would not let up on using his platform to campaign for racial justice as the sport's governing body confirmed there would be no investigation into his actions at the Tuscan Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver wore a black T-shirt on Sunday declaring "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" on the front of it and 'say her name" on the back over a photograph of the slain e