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It was the first training session with two new names: Pietro Fittipaldi (24) replaced the now famous hero of fire last Sunday, Romain Grosjean (34).
Can Bottas still react?
And Briton Jack Aitken (25) took a seat for George Russell (22) for the first time in a Williams Mercedes. Russell himself replaced the crown victim and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (35) in the Silver Arrow.
The super talent with 36 points-less races so far has seized the opportunity and imposed himself in the top ten right after training began.
In the end, Russell was even in first place. After 55 minutes he took the lead for the first time in Formula 1 with 55.030 seconds, ahead of Bottas with 55.154 seconds. Then Albon (Red Bull-Honda) and teammate Verstappen briefly took the lead.
“Russell becomes world champion!”
Many experts expected this twist from Russell. They did not understand Mercedes’ decision to give Finn Valtteri Bottas (31) a chance again for 2021 and not to promote the junior Williams driver.
You could have saved yourself many millions with it. As Niki Lauda (who died in May 2019) once said to BLICK: “One day Russell will be world champion!”
Grosjean: Call all the team leaders
Grosjean followed training in the spotlight at Haas-Ferrari. “My goal is to participate in my last Formula 1 race in Abu Dhabi next Sunday. Who wants to stop with an accident? “
What if it doesn’t work? “Then I’ll phone all the team leaders in January and ask them to give me another chance for 10 or 15 laps in a GP car. I still have a super license for 2021 “.
“Where do you burn first?”
The Frenchman with the Swiss passport again described the most dramatic 27 seconds of his life on Sky England: “When at first I couldn’t get out and immediately thought of Niki Lauda, I felt calm. So now you’re dying and you ask me: where do you burn first? On your shoes, on your hands. It will hurt.It was then that my three children came to mind. They needed their father. This gave me the strength to fight. These thoughts probably didn’t last a second! “
“My gloves were black”
Grosjean recalls: “The second time we tried to go out there was another moment of shock. I tried to get out of the car on the left, but my left foot was stuck. Somehow I managed to get my foot out of the shoe. When I got out I had to reach the fire. When I was outside, I first looked at my gloves. Once they were red, now they were black! “
“You must have thought I was dead!”
After the rescue, FIA chief Jean Todt advised him to call his family immediately. Grosjean: “You had to think for about three minutes that I was dead! My eldest son Sascha at first thought I was now black and charred! Simon, who is five, believed that I was thrown out of the car because I had super powers. And my three-year-old daughter paints me a picture every day! ”
Ferrari director now at Haas!
Before the first training session for the penultimate round of the world championship, it became known that Ferrari technology director Simon Resta (who was retired by Alfa Sauber in 2019!) Will be looking after Haas-Ferrari in the future! Yes, the Reds want to support Schumi’s new team by all means.
While Resta can’t work miracles in 2021, next season he should come out a little more than the meager three points of the Corona season: Grosjean ninth at the Nürburgring, Magnussen tenth in Budapest.
Nothing new from Alfa-Sauber
When the eighth World Cup Alfa-Sauber could not benefit from the new path. With places 14 (Raikkonen) and 15 (Giovinazzi) they were about 1.3 seconds behind Russell. That’s a lot in this short stretch. Behind only the two Williams-Mercedes and Haas-Ferrari.
Only Lando Norris (16th in McLaren-Renault) was not part of the six drivers who in 2020 always cornered between discomfort and misery.
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