I greet announcements that the BBC has secured the rights to cover Formula One with a groan, so you can probably gather it’s not among my all time favourite sports. Therefore, I wasn’t immediately enthusiastic about this puzzle but I can’t say the subject detracted much from it.
You could almost certainly have completed it if you were from Mars and had never heard of any of the racing drivers or teams. There was a good standard of cluing, even if one or two of the clues were quite intricate and involved two or more devices (such as taking initial letters and then reversing the result).
I won’t bother to point out all the F1 references because I’m not sufficiently interested, but they should be fairly obvious to most people.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Odd case in which first of Mercedes gets top points (5) | ||
| Acmes | Case* around M[ercedes]. | ||
| 4. | Solitary trips in Cavalier? (8) | ||
| Royalist | Solitary*. | ||
| 8. | Offered 11, has a drink (3,4) | ||
| Red Bull | Hidden in “offeRED BULLion”. | ||
| 9. | Soldier gets tenor to surrender (4,2) | ||
| Give in | GI + vein. | ||
| 11. | Button, missing 10s, nurses bad back in bars (7) | ||
| Bullion | Bu[tt]on (minus the TT races) around ill<. | ||
| 12. | Mark Top Gear racing driver’s given to old woman (6) | ||
| Stigma | Stig + ma. | ||
| 14. | Hug curve at first bend in circuit (5) | ||
| Clasp | C[urve] + S(-bend) in lap. | ||
| 16. | 32’s gone west and south, getting ready in Romania (3) | ||
| Lei | Le[w]i[s] (Hamilton, tax-averse Swiss motor racing driver). Lei is the Romanian currency, hence “ready”, although I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone use the term in the singular. | ||
| 17. | Poor di Resta loses one second in traffic(5) | ||
| Trade | D[i] Re[s]ta*. | ||
| 19. | 21A from the Weald (3) | ||
| Ewe | Hidden in thE WEald. | ||
| 20. | Grosjean’s first to move faster (3) | ||
| Gee | I think this is just a DD, Grosjean’s first letter being Gee phonetically and gee being a term for making something move faster (e.g. gee up). | ||
| 21/23. | Those following second Williams in a 29 (10) | ||
| Sheep shank | Sheep(=those following) + S + Hank (Williams). | ||
| 22. | Quiet starts for Sutil, Hülkenberg and 32(3) | ||
| Shh | Initial letters of Sutil, Hülkenberg and Hamilton. | ||
| 25. | More on a level with McLaren – not last off (6) | ||
| Calmer | McLare[n]*. | ||
| 27. | Woman’s on Rosberg’s tail, after backing of Polish citizen (7) | ||
| Burgher | Her after [Rosber]g after rub<. | ||
| 30. | Alonso crashed car (6) | ||
| Saloon | Alonso*. | ||
| 31. | The Evil One of Alcatraz? (3,4) | ||
| Old Nick. | DD (Alcatraz is a defunct prison, hence an old nick). | ||
| 32. | Drug given to a poet in city down under (8) | ||
| Hamilton | H, which I assume stands for heroin + a + Milton. Hamilton is a city in Victoria, Australia. | ||
| 33. | Ferrari regularly looking a little weak (5) | ||
| Frail | Odd letters of FeRrArI + l(ooking). | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Type of exercise drill held by spies all over (7) | ||
| Aerobic | (Bore in CIA) all reversed. | ||
| 2. | Dead leg I’m suffering halfway through a long innings?(6,3) | ||
| Middle age | (Dead leg I’m)*. Innings is often used to refer to a lifespan, as in “he had a long innings”. | ||
| 3. | Second car is Asian (5) | ||
| Saudi | S(econd) + Audi. | ||
| 4. | 10 extremely fast, without being sustained (10) | ||
| Relentless | R[ac]e + lent(=fast) + less(=without). Def is “sustained”. | ||
| 5. | E.g. Lotus position, starting yearly on grid and advancing(4) | ||
| Yoga | Initial letters of “yearly on grid advancing”. | ||
| 6. | Vettel is a freak – shows magic skills (9) | ||
| Levitates | (Vettel is a)*. | ||
| 7. | Reversal of fortune in Bottas win? Good (5) | ||
| Swing | Hidden in BottaS WIN Good. | ||
| 13. | Colour from tan under lamp (5,5) | ||
| Light Brown | Brown(=tan) under light(=lamp). | ||
| 15. | Condiment one eats on sausage (9) | ||
| Pepperoni | Pepper + I around on. | ||
| 18. | Webber’s class! (9) | ||
| Arachnida | CD, arachnida being the biological class which includes spiders (=webbers). | ||
| 21/10. | Fire people, in this event (4,4) | ||
| Sack race | DD (fire=sack, people=race). | ||
| 24. | A reversal of fortune reportedly has Raikkonen (fourth place) and Massa (fifth) run over 21A (7) | ||
| Karakul | A + luk (hom of luck) reversed with 4th letter of Raikkonen (K) and 5th of Massa (A) + r(un) on top. A karakul is a type of sheep. | ||
| 26. | Rookie driver owns one in the capital (5) | ||
| Lhasa | L (learner driver) + has(=owns) + A. | ||
| 28. | Free from car finally, Formula One driver initially starts to get upset (3,2) | ||
| Rid of | [Ca]r + reversal of initial letters of “Formula One Driver Initially”. | ||
| 29. | Speed of about 100mph on far side of track (4) | ||
| Knot | Ton< below (on) [trac]k. | ||
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Thanks Neal, relatively straightforward except for KARAKUL which I entered as a guess from the wordplay made harder by the hom of luck reversed which is almost as bad as an indirect anagram. Had 20a the same as yourself.
Thanks too to Hob, at least I reached the chequered flag today.
I reckon Hamilton refers to Hamilton, NZ rather than Hamilton, Aus. It’s a lot bigger (and I’ve heard of it 🙂 )
I had a similar reaction to Neal when I saw the puzzle had a F1 theme because I have grown to really dislike the sport over the last couple of decades and I now ignore it as much as possible, but as Neal said knowledge of the sport wasn’t necessary to complete the puzzle.
KARAKUL went in from the wordplay, although I think I may have come across it before in a previous puzzle. I finished in the NW corner with the RELENTLESS/BULLION crossers, RED BULL having previously gone in from the definition alone. I agree with Ben@2 that HAMILTON probably refers to the NZ city.
Very entertaining puzzle with some super clues.
Thanks NealH; I unaccountably missed out on LE(w)I(s). I agree that it should really have been the plural – ‘readies in Romania’ might have been better perhaps.
I particularly liked BULLION, CLASP, RELENTLESS and BURGHER; the latter being a nod to Gerhard Berger for those not in the know.
Made a boring train journey painless. Thanks Hob and Neal.
Near my destination I needed help for Karakul and I spent too long trying to make 1dn Pilates (spie{s} al{l} but why drop the two letters and where was the “t” coming from? Nice, if possibly unintended, red herring.
Burgher ref to Gerhard Berger perhaps?
Lots of nice clues in here – well themed (although perhaps too many anagrams/first letters? – with exceptions – like Button minus TT for example).
Thanks both!
F1 is second only to golf in being the most pointless sport on the planet, so the theme didn’t engage me. It was reasonably easy, so mercifully I didn’t have to spend too long on it. Quite liked LIGHT BROWN.
Despite not being fans of F1 it was interesting to see how many references were woven into the puzzle. Thankfully no knowledge of the sport was required!
Thanks Hob and Neal.
K’s D I don’t agree with you about F1 and golf: yes F1 is a dreadful activity, but golf is a rather good game. You should try it.
Hob may be an aficionado of F1, but he hasn’t inflicted it on us (I think the only knowledge required is that the Stig is someone on that appalling programme): this was all quite doable without any knowledge of the so-called sport. And much of it was on my opinion rather good, and clever of Hob to produce all those clues with a motoring connection but without strain.
Thanks to setter and blogger. Sounds like I’m the only F1 fan here. Yes, Hamilton could be either the Aust or NZ city. The NZ Hamilton is bigger but the Aust city is a centre of the wool (sheep refs) industry in Victoria. I liked 18d particularly.