Lewis Hamilton is closing in on a seventh Formula One championship but his dominant Mercedes team should get there first at Imola on Sunday.
The Ministers of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the State of Kuwait…
32 | the publication reaches you by | Bahrain NewsMercedes currently share the record streak with Ferrari, who won six in a row between 1999 and 2004 in a golden era for the Italian team when seven times champion Michael Schumacher was at his peak.
That means Hamilton, winner of a record 92 races with eight victories so far this season, or team mate Valtteri Bottas need finish only fourth for Mercedes to add another title to the sequence even if Red Bull finish one-two.
Red Bull must score 34 points more than Mercedes to spin things out to the following race in Turkey, where Hamilton could wrap up his own championship battle if things go his way on Sunday.
The Briton is 77 points clear of Bottas going to a circuit, named after Ferrari founder Enzo and his son Dino, where neither have raced previously in F1.
Imola will also always be remembered for the dark weekend of 1994 when Brazilian triple champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died after crashes.
“It’s a track with lots of history but one that the Mercedes works team has never raced on before, so there are quite a few unknowns heading into the race weekend,” said team boss Toto Wolff.
The third race this year in Italy, another first, will be behind closed doors after the Covid-19 pandemic forced promoters to scrap plans to allow 13,000 spectators a day.
The race weekend will run to a two-day format, with no Friday practice but an extended session on Saturday before qualifying.
The novelty of that was slightly diminished by this month’s Eifel Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring also effectively becoming a two-day event when bad weather ruled out any running on the Friday.
Kimi Raikkonen, the most experienced driver in Formula One history, was around last time Imola was on the F1 calendar but others have raced there in junior series.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was only six years old when Raikkonen finished fifth for the same team in 2006, raced at Imola in Italian Formula Four.
“It was an amazing track, so I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like in a Formula One car,” said the Briton.
“With it only being a two-day race weekend, it’ll definitely make things interesting by missing out on two free practice sessions. Hopefully my previous experience there will give me a helping hand on Saturday and Sunday.”
ONE of the largest jewellery retailers, Malabar Gold and Diamonds, has launched a special collection of diamond and…
22 | the publication reaches you by | Bahrain News
Do you have information you want to reach our readers?
You can subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter and Google pages or use our RSS feed channel to always read the most important news about Bahrain, the Gulf and the world.
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are the seven Arab states which border the Persian Gulf, namely Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).This excludes the non-Arab state of Iran. All of these nations except Iraq are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
