Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Max Verstappen praised the efforts of his Oracle Red Bull Racing team following his dominant pole position in Montreal, in difficult situations, which caught multiple drivers out.

Verstappen showcased exceptional pace throughout the qualifying session, finishing in a remarkable time of 1:25.858s during the initial phase of Q3. His impressive lap secured pole position by a substantial margin of over one second compared to his closest contender, Nico Hülkenberg, before the red flags were deployed due to Oscar Piastri’s crash.

“We made the right calls at the right time today. It was very important to get the communication right with the Team, to really keep on top of things as the weather was changing by the minute, we were clear with what we wanted to do.

“It was good that I could really push the car, despite the conditions on track. I like this track and in the wet it’s even more challenging.”

Verstappen is feeling a lot more positive than he did on Friday and hopes he can carry the momentum of pole position into the race.

Carlos Sainz Jr. has received a three-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix after being found guilty by the stewards of obstructing Pierre Gasly during the final stages of Q1 in the qualifying session in Montreal on Saturday afternoon.

During Gasly’s last lap in Q1, the cameras captured him being forced off the track to avoid Sainz at the final chicane. As a result, Gasly missed the opportunity to advance to Q2 and will now begin Sunday’s race from the seventeenth position.

Despite the incident, Sainz managed to make it into Q3 and secured the eighth position in qualifying. However, due to the three-place grid drop, he will now start the race from 11th place. Consequently, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon, and Sainz’s Scuderia Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc will all move up one position as a result of his grid drop.

Following a thorough investigation conducted after the qualifying session, which involved conversations with both drivers and team representatives, as well as a comprehensive examination of the marshalling system, data, video footage, timing, and in-car video evidence, the stewards concluded that Sainz had obstructed Gasly during Q1, an official statement from the FIA read:

“The driver of Car 55 [Sainz] stated that he was surprised that the driver of Car 22 [Yuki Tsunoda] overtook him into Turn 13 and as a result he accelerated late to start his fast lap,” said the stewards’ report. The driver of Car 10 [Gasly] stated that the driver of Car 55 could have and should have gone earlier. Telemetry showed a significant speed differential between Cars 55 and 10. Although the overtaking move by Car 22 took the driver of Car 55 by surprise, it is our determination that the driver of Car 55 was predominantly to blame and [that he] unnecessarily impeded Car 10.”

Max Verstappen took pole position once again in Canada in an action-packed qualifying session that saw the conditions go from wet to dry, meaning the grid will be mixed up tomorrow giving us potential for an exciting race.

Nico Hülkenberg took all the headlines to put his Haas on the front row with an incredible effort and will start ahead of Fernando Alonso, who once again put in an impressive lap as Aston Martin Armaco Cognizant F1 Team debut their new upgrades.

Q1 – AlphaTauri Pair Knocked Out, Gasly Disappoints

As soon as the session got going Zhou Guanyu brought out the red flag after stopping due to a drive issue, that saw him unable to get out of first gear. The Chinese driver got the car going again after he stopped, and managed to get back to the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake garage.

As the track kept getting quicker, the drivers kept improving their times with Fernando Alonso and Verstappen trading the fastest laps. Zhou failed to recover from his issue and was knocked out with the slowest time, followed by Logan Sargeant.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri duo of Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were unable to get out of the drop zone and will start eighteenth and sixteenth. The other driver knocked out was Pierre Gasly, which is a massive disappointment for BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Ash Sutton shows little signs of letting up with a third successive BTCC pole position at Oulton Park on Saturday (17 June) as his dominance continues.

Sutton leads the Drivers’ Championship by 14 points having taken six wins from 12 races and will head into Sunday’s action looking to again win at least two out of three races.

Before the Top Ten Showdown, Sutton was more than three tenths of a second clear of Tom Ingram and Jake Hill in particular and during the final ten minutes, Sutton set an early mark that wouldn’t be matched.

Albeit, it was a tad closer than the opening stanza as Hill sat second. Ricky Collard who continues to improve will sit third tomorrow. While after topping practice earlier on Saturday, Bobby Thompson will start fourth.

Dan Cammish had to settle for fifth, ahead of reigning champion Ingram who will be frustrated with sixth place. Colin Turkington was initially seventh but disqualified for failing scrutineering checks. Josh Cook as a results sits in seventh ahead of Aron Taylor-Smith, Rory Butcher and Adam Morgan.

Max Verstappen returned to the top of the charts in the third and final practice session of the weekend after a poor showing on Friday, edging out Charles Leclerc in the wet.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver had a much-needed good session after an inconsistent session on Friday and will have his sights set on pole position in qualifying, but with more rain forecasted, it could be a very interesting hour of Formula 1.

After a predominantly dry day of running on Friday, the drivers were met with a wet track as heavy rain persisted in the area. Consequently, teams opted to equip their cars with extreme wet tyres in the early stages of the session. As the session progressed, around 10 minutes in, drivers began transitioning to intermediate tyres. This move allowed teams to assess the optimal point at which to switch tire types, considering the conditions they are likely to encounter during qualifying later today.

During the intermediate tyre phase, Verstappen and the Scuderia Ferrari drivers posted the fastest laps. Verstappen, which was a major improvement from Friday’s running, emerged as the quickest, surpassing Carlos Sainz Jr. by a margin of over two and a half tenths, with a time of 1:24.480s.

Unfortunately, Sainz’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when he spun into the barrier at Turn 1, causing substantial damage to both the front and rear of his SF23. The incident led to red flags and presented his mechanics with a significant repair task ahead of qualifying. It will be a tough one to take for Sainz, with Ferrari’s weekend going so well well up to this point, and the race is now on to have the car ready for qualifying.

Brandon Semenuk is undoubtedly the top driver in the American Rally Association today. After scoring his first championship in 2022, he has stepped it up by winning all five races so far into 2023.

With his second title within reach, he spoke with The Checkered Flag on Wednesday about his season, the overlap between rally and his other passion of mountain biking, and the rally world following Ken Block‘s passing.

The Season So Far

“It’s been a really good year. Typically, rally doesn’t go like that. There’s always some sort of drama and it’s easy to just get a flat tyre or something simple and ruin a rally. Definitely very fortunate that we’ve had a smooth drive up until now.”

When Semenuk sat down with TCF, he was four days removed from winning the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. Besides being his sixth consecutive ARA victory, it was the first at the event for Subaru Motorsports.

“We’ve done the event three times prior and this year was a bit more tricky with the conditions,” said Semenuk. “It’s Southern Ohio in June so it’s usually hot, humid, but this year, we didn’t really get any rain before the event so the roads were extra dry, a lot of dust but also really loose on the roads. To profile the roads, they’re very crowned, and when they get dry like that, it’s like driving on ball bearings.

Lewis Hamilton has insisted that Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team have work to do, despite topping the second practice session in Montreal.

Hamilton proved to be the faster of the two Mercedes drivers, setting the fastest time of the day at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. With a time of 1:13.718s, which he achieved during his qualifying simulation run in the extended Free Practice Two session, with the first session having limited running due to a track CCTV problem.

The seven-time World Champion admitted that he loves racing in Montreal and that he really enjoyed the first day, despite the disruptions.

“I love driving this track, it’s mega! From the moment you leave the pitlane you just think “yeah, this is wicked!” It is probably the bumpiest circuit that we’ve been on for a long time, however. I think everyone is struggling with the bumps though.”

Hamilton reflected on the first day of running in Montreal and all the disruption that went on during the first practice session, and while he was pleased with the progress the team has made, he played down expectations.

After running the first two rounds of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, David Starr only attempted one other race at Talladega in April where he missed the show. That will change on 24 June when he enters Nashville Superspeedway as the driver of the #35 Chevrolet Camaro for Emerling-Gase Motorsports.

The arrangement was set up by sponsor Kales Truck & Heavy Equipment in partnership with The Magnifyde Agency.

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Kales Truck & Heavy Equipment because they represent the American Dream,” said Starr. “It is inspiring to see how far they have come from a small business to where they are today. I’m excited to have them on board for the ride and help share their story to NASCAR fans across the country.”

Starr has been an Xfinity part-timer since 2020, though he only acquired the label as his full-time campaign that year ended due to COVID-19. After doing much of the 2021 schedule with MBM Motorsports and 2022 for SS-Green Light Racing, he joined Our Motorsports for Daytona and Fontana, respectively finishing twenty-second and thirty-fifth.

He returned to SSGLR for Talladega, but failed to qualify.

Isaac Feliu‘s maiden Dakar Rally in 2022 ended with a serious accident that resulted in severe injuries. Two years later, having fully recovered, he and Carles Falcón intend to be back for the 2024 Rally, both competing in Malle Moto for TwinTrail Racing Team.

TwinTrail Racing Team is the motorsport arm of TwinTrail Experience, a Spanish adventure motorcycle organiser owned by Feliu while Falcón is company manager. In a vlog released 6 June, Feliu revealed he had registered himself and Falcón for the 2024 Dakar Rally but stressed that they have not been officially accepted for the grid. Aspiring Dakar competitors must submit their qualifications to the Amaury Sport Organisation, who then reviews the applications before the initial wave of acceptance letters are sent out on 20 July.

The duo made their Dakar débuts in 2022 in a three-man effort for TwinTrail along with Albert Martín. The team had been formed in 2021 and qualified for the 2022 Dakar Rally via the Andalucía Rally. Feliu’s race came to an abrupt end when he fell off a large drop in the opening kilometres of Stage #9, leading to a concussion and a a fracture to his C7 vertebra. After being assisted by fellow rider Harite Gabari, he was airlifted to a military hospital for evaluation. Feliu was discharged and returned to Spain in February. Although without Feliu, Falcón and Martín reached the finish in sixty-eighth and seventy-first among all bikes, respectively.

In the year and a half since, Feliu focused on rehabilitating his injuries while continuing to run TwinTrail Experience. To get back to speed, he competed in events like the amateur Hellas Rally Raid in May alongside Falcón, where Feliu retired after four legs while Falcón finished 159th overall.

The team is raising funds for the effort via donations, with contributors being labelled as Supporters. Donations are split into three tiers: Supporter Basic for €30, Supporter Pro for €60, and Supporter Navigator for €90.

Matt Mills has joined Kyle Busch Motorsports for a pair of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Richmond Raceway on 29 July and the Milwaukee Mile on 27 August. He will drive the #51 Chevrolet Silverado RST with backing from his longtime sponsor J.F. Electric.

“I’m really excited that KBM is providing me with an opportunity to showcase my abilities driving two races in the # 51 Silverado,” said Mills. “It makes it even more exciting that Richmond is the first race because I was born about an hour from there and I’ve had some strong runs there in the Xfinity Series, so I couldn’t think of a better track to make my KBM début at. J.F. Electric has been a long-time supporter, and this wouldn’t be possible without them, Utilitra, and Thompson Electric.”

KBM will easily be the best equipment that Mills has driven for in his NASCAR career, having bounced between various midpack outfits since making his Truck début in 2016. He has nineteen Truck starts to his name, including four in 2023 for Young’s Motorsports with a best finish of nineteenth in the most recent event at Gateway.

Much of his career has been in the Xifnity Series, racing for B.J. McLeod Motorsports from 2018 through 2022 as a near-full-timer and notching a top ten at Daytona in 2019; he also recorded a Cup start with BJMM in 2021. In 2023, he ran two Xfinity races for Emerling-Gase Motorsports.

Richmond is Mills’ home track, though he has never competed there in a truck. On the other hand, he has six Xfinity starts at the Virginia short track and strung together back-to-back thirteenths in 2020. Milwaukee is a new addition to the Truck schedule.

Over a year after its unveiling and development, the Ford Ranger T1+ co-developed by M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport will make its global competition début at the Baja España Aragón on 21/22 July. The vehicle will also run the Rallye du Maroc on 12–18 October as one of the final tests before heading off for the 2024 Dakar Rally in January.

“To lead the charge at one of the ultimate global off-road events, the Dakar Rally, has been a goal of ours,” commented Ford Performance racing director Mark Rushbrook. “We cannot underestimate the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. We need to finish and learn first with Ranger T1+ and partners like M-Sport and NWM, who bring their expertise to bear. Together, we can do amazing things in the sand dunes of the Arabian Peninsula.

“Our first time in Dakar will be a learning adventure that will help inform how we compete in the future. But as with all racing, we’re not just racing to win, we’re also racing to help build better products for our customers.”

The Ford Ranger T1+ was revealed in April 2022 by NWM and M-Sport, the former a South African Rally-Raid Championship team while the latter races in the World Rally Championship, with factory backing from Ford Performance. NWM currently fields Rangers without M-Sport support in the SARRC for Woolridge’s sons Gareth and Lance Woolridge.

Although the joint project hoped to race the 2023 Dakar Rally, it was pushed back a year amid supply chain concerns. Dakar veteran Nani Roma joined the programme in May after testing the truck in Morocco for much of spring. Roma is a nine-time winner of the Baja Aragón, with five coming in a car and the other four on a bike.

Following the first day of practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen admitted that he and Oracle Red Bull Racing have some work ahead of them. They encountered ride issues that affected their performance throughout the day, which resulted in Verstappen finishing in sixth position, trailing behind Lewis Hamilton’s pace-setting Mercedes by almost half a second.

The second practice session was disrupted by rain and extended to 90 minutes due to circuit CCTV problems in the initial session. Verstappen struggled to match Hamilton’s pace, with limited laps completed in the first session. Despite the challenges, Verstappen acknowledged the need for improvements and is determined to address the issues for the upcoming race, which he will aim to win and extend his growing Drivers’ Championship lead.

“It wasn’t a straightforward day with basically no running in FP1, it was the same for everyone though. At least we could get in a decent amount of running in FP2. I think we still have quite a bit of work to do as the car isn’t fantastic at the moment over the bumps and kerbs. I mean it’s still not too bad, but we definitely need to fine-tune a few things.”

The Dutchman went on to speak about the potential conditions in qualifying tomorrow, and he predicted that there may be a few surprises and a mixed-up grid for the race on Sunday.

“I think it might be raining tomorrow which will throw a few surprises out there in qualifying, then perhaps dry on Sunday so that will also affect things. It was a tricky session but sometimes we have those days.”

Alex Albon believes Williams Racing aren’t in a bad place despite a disrupted Friday in Montreal, which saw Free Practice One abandoned and Free Practice Two extended to 90 minutes.

Albon was pleased with the progress of the new upgrades on his car, despite the two disrupted sessions. Albon is the only Williams driver to get the upgrades this weekend, with the team set to introduce them to Logan Sargeant at the British Grand Prix.

The Thai driver feels fairly pleased with the upgrades so far, and he’ll be hoping he can add to his singular points finish on Sunday.

“The disrupted day hasn’t hurt us too much. We did a lot of simulator practice and it’s kind of what I expected so there haven’t been any nasty surprises with the car, which is a good thing. We didn’t really complete a proper FP2, so we didn’t put on a proper set of tyres, but otherwise, we’re not in a bad place.”  

Albon has never scored points in Montreal, having failed on two previous occasions in 2022 and 2019. The Williams driver has just a singular point to his name this season but has been outperforming the package provided to him, once again.

Lewis Hamilton led George Russell in a Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, with the British pair putting in late laps in the second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The session was extended from the usual 60 minutes to a 90-minute session due to Free Practice 1 being cut short because of CCTV problems that were found around the problems, and the FIA deeming it a safety concern. 90 minutes of action saw two red flags, some surprises and a constant threat of rain, and it was Mercedes that came out on top ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. in third.

Hamilton secured the fastest time with a laptime of 1:13.718s on the soft compound tyres, edging ahead of his teammate Russell by a mere 0.027 seconds. The Scuderia Ferrari pair of Sainz and Charles Leclerc sandwiched Fernando Alonso’s upgraded Aston Martin, occupying positions three to five. Alonso left it late to set his time, and he will be hoping for more pace compared to the Mercedes if he is to get back on the podium after missing out in Monaco and Spain.

The soft tyre runs, however, were influenced by various factors. A red flag was brought out when Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas started smoking, causing him to come to a stop, and then another red flag stopped the running, with Esteban Ocon being instructed to halt his Alpine in the middle sector due to suspected water pressure loss.

Oracle Red Bull Racing shifted their focus fairly quickly to longer runs on medium tyres, so their lap times on the soft compound aren’t representative of their capabilities. As a result, world champion Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Pérez finished sixth and eighth, respectively.

In a race that tested the limits of luck and misfortune, the Porsche 911 RSR proved its mettle in the GTE-Am class at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite accidents taking out several contenders, the GR Racing team displayed flawless driving, securing a podium finish with third place. The Iron Dames also made history, matching a 91-year-old record with their impressive fourth-place finish. As the race marked the end of an era for GTE regulations, the successful 911 RSR bids farewell to Le Mans, making way for the new Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Reflecting on their achievement, Michael Wainwright from the GR Racing team expressed his delight, saying, “I’m delighted for me personally, of course, but even more so for our team. We’ve been working towards a result like this for eight years – and it worked out at the centenary celebrations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, of all places. It was great fun, even though it was pretty wild due to all the incidents. Now, it’s time for some celebrating.”

Rahel Frey of the Iron Dames praised the team’s effort, stating, “The race went brilliantly; we made very few mistakes. Everyone in the team did a perfect job both on and off the track. The crew was really strong and supported us one hundred percent.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t quite maintain the necessary pace at the end to hold on to a podium position. My brakes were struggling at the end. Maybe we did too much braking and not enough accelerating. We deserved more.”

The intense competition and numerous incidents made for a thrilling race, showcasing the resilience and determination of the Porsche teams. With the 24 Hours of Le Mans celebrating its centenary, the podium finish for the GR Racing team was particularly special.