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Lance Stroll feels the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team were hoping for more than just a sixth and seventh place finish in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix but struggles with tyre degradation at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya made life difficult.

Stroll made a good start and overtook eventual second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton heading into turn five, but within a few laps, he was struggling with his tyres and the pace drop off prevented him from challenging for the top three positions.

Cars around him did not seem to have the same kind of tyre degradation issues, something the Canadian hopes Aston Martin can look into and understand, but ultimately sixth place was the best possible result on Sunday afternoon.

“It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I’ve pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did,” said Stroll.  “That put me in a good position going into Turn Five and I could hold the place.

“Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace. My tyre degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn’t seem to have the same issue, so it’s something we’ll look to understand for the coming races.

Extreme E has created a new position of Technical Director, which will oversee the development side of the series as well as its upcoming Extreme H sister series. On Monday, the series named Mark Grain to the post, ending his longtime tenure at McLaren Racing.

“Having experienced Extreme E first hand as a competitor and loved every minute, when the chance came to join the championship, I jumped at it,” said Grain. “Extreme E continues to evolve and break new ground in motorsport, having already established many firsts which make its appeal so unique. The opportunity to play a part in its future is incredibly exciting, especially with the introduction of hydrogen fuel cell racing.

“We don’t want to sit back; we want to continue to push and evolve. Extreme E already has a track record of challenging common assumptions and ways of going racing, and I share the strong ambition to maintain that momentum.”

Grain had worked at McLaren for nearly three decades, starting on the sports car side where he was the senior technician for the F1 GTR programme that won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. His rise through the ranks brought him to the Formula One side, serving as the chief mechanic when Lewis Hamilton scored the 2008 World Drivers Championship followed by working in managerial roles. Before heading off to Extreme E, his final roles were as a manager for Arrow McLaren in the NTT IndyCar Series and NEOM McLaren XE.

Prior to McLaren, Grain was a test team mechanic for Benetton and Williams Racing, helping the latter win the 1992 and 1993 F1 World Drivers and Constructors titles.

Frédéric Vasseur says the recent updates brought by Scuderia Ferrari’s SF-23 have helped the team in Qualifying trim, but come race day, there is still plenty to do to be competitive.

Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified on the front row at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday, but once the race got underway, it was not so easy for the Spaniard, who ultimately lost positions to both Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers and Oracle Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez.

Vasseur, the Team Principal at Ferrari, says it was clear on Sunday that both Red Bull and Mercedes were quicker than they were, although the team were hindered more by its lack of consistency rather than its outright performance levels.

“We made a step forward this weekend in terms of our qualifying pace, with Carlos on the front row after the best Saturday of his season so far,” said Vasseur.  “However it is clear that, in terms of race pace, Red Bull and Mercedes are quicker than us.

“As for the upgrades, I think we have made a step forward overall if you compare this weekend with Miami. Clearly, we know it is still not enough. Our problem is not our outright performance, it is our lack of consistency.”

Having started on the front row of the grid, Carlos Sainz Jr. went into the Spanish Grand Prix hoping to fight at the front of the field, but Scuderia Ferrari’s race was hindered by tyre management and degradation that left him only fifth at the chequered flag.

Sainz had been one of the stars during Qualifying on Saturday afternoon and was Max Verstappen’s closest challenger for pole position, but once he fell in behind the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver at turn one on lap one, he was always then on the back foot as he struggled with his tyres.

The Spaniard, who was cheered on by his home fans at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, felt he gave it his all throughout Sunday’s race, but he was overhauled by both of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez.

“It was a tough race,” admitted Sainz.  “Unfortunately, we couldn’t fight at the front as our pace is pretty much dictated by tyre management and degradation.

“I know Sundays have been frustrating so far this season, but we gave it our all on track this weekend and we will keep working on this new package and on developing our car.

Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell praised the simulator time and effort put in by Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team reserve driver Mick Schumacher on Friday evening that helped them completely turn around their Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a struggle for Mercedes, with Hamilton worried about even making it into Q3, but a simulator session from Schumacher saw them arrive on Saturday with a much better car and one that was able to challenge for a front row starting spot.

Qualifying did not go the way they wanted, however, as Hamilton and Russell qualified fourth and twelfth respectively, but on Sunday, Mercedes were clearly the second fastest team on track, and they were able to climb through to finish second and third, behind only Max Verstappen.

“Friday was a real struggle with the balance, it was way out of the window,” Hamilton is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “It was very hard to drive, very unpredictable. And then we did some great work overnight.  

“We’ve got a great team, with Mick back in the simulator on Friday night, and he did some great work, which helped us get on the right track on Saturday.” 

Andy Lally will run the NASCAR Cup Series‘ four remaining road course races for Rick Ware Racing, the team announced Monday. He will race the #15 Ford Mustang with sponsorship from Camping World. The first race is Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, followed by the Chicago Street Course on 2 July, Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 13 August, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on 8 October.

The sponsor deal came together after Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis noticed a tweet from Lally saying he had “a really cool opportunity for the road courses in Cup, but I need to find a little help.” Lemonis previously also stepped up to sponsor individual trucks when his company held the naming rights to the now-Craftsman Truck Series.

“This is obviously an incredible opportunity and I am very thankful to Rick, RWR and Camping World for making this all come together in a very short amount of time,” Lally said. “So many of my chances to race in NASCAR have been one-race deals. With five races now, I get to really focus and embed myself with a team to develop a stronger communication and understanding of each other, as well as learning what the Next Gen car likes on road courses.

“This all came about because I wrote a note across my social media channels explaining I had an opportunity to return to the NASCAR Cup Series. I was thrilled when Marcus Lemonis, CEO and Chairman of Camping World, reached out and committed to all five road course races with Camping World as the primary sponsor. It blew my mind. I can’t thank Marcus and the Camping World family enough.”

Lally was the 2011 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, but did not return in the series for a decade before attempting two races for Live Fast Motorsports in 2021 and 2022. He retired from both races at Indianapolis and COTA in thirty-ninth.

Desert racing legend Johnny Johnson died Monday in his hometown of San Felipe after a battle with liver cancer. He was eighty years old.

Johnson was one of the early pioneers in desert racing, scoring fifteen Baja 1000 victories as early as winning the Modified class at the second running in 1968. That began a three-peat in the category before he moved on to a variety of buggy divisions, even winning the overall alongside Bobby Ferro in 1973. His final Baja victory came in 1992. He also had two wins in the Baja 500, the most recent edition taking place just two days before his passing, and a pair of SCORE class championships in 1980 and 1981.

In 1971, Johnson starred in the television special Behind the Wheel, hosted by renowned writer George Plimpton, alongside Formula One great Jackie Stewart.

He was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2010.

“Johnny won 112 races in his career, including a remarkable 15 Baja 1000 wins, but it was his love for life and willingness to help his friends and fellow racers that we’ll remember most,” stated the Hall of Fame.

It’s not a secret that Team Audi Sport‘s 2023 Dakar Rally was a trainwreck. After arriving in Saudi Arabia with high expectations and a swanky new RS Q e-tron E2 that produced immediately with a stage win, the team ultimately struggled to keep up with Toyota and Prodrive before Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel wrecked and Mattias Ekström had to settle for fourteenth overall.

In mid-May, the team returned to the Saudi desert to begin testing and examine what exactly went wrong. Much of the concerns surrounded tyre failures, for which Audi used two different BFGoodrich tyres to experiment in as similar conditions to the rally as possible. To achieve the latter, the car was driven across different courses like a thirteen-kilometre gravel-and-sand path and a 110-km stone track. Winds were particularly high during the test while temperatures ran as high as 42° C.

“Our technology, the entire team and our drivers and co-drivers have the potential to drive at the very front. Our stage results proved that, so it was all the more annoying that tyre failures and other problems set us back in January,” said Audi Motorsport head Rolf Michl. “Now we have to find solutions. Our systematically planned test was the next important step on this path after the theoretical analysis.”

The trio of drivers returned for the test, with Sainz having fully healed from the broken vertebrae he sustained in his Dakar crash in Stage #9. While Sainz and Ekström’s co-drivers Lucas Cruz and Emil Bergkvist were also present, Peterhansel was without Édouard Boulanger who was still recovering from his back injuries from their accident. As such, Cruz served as Peterhansel’s navigator too.

“Audi Sport supported this testing perfectly,” offered Sven Quandt, director of team partner Q Motorsport GmbH. “We were able to reproduce tyre failures during the runs, which is pleasing in that it allows us to analyse very well the conditions and circumstances that caused us headaches in January. Closely related to this are the suspension settings, which we have varied. We haven’t worked out a one hundred percent solution yet, but the test was valuable and we’re on the right track.”

Toto Wolff was delighted to see Lewis Hamilton and George Russell claim the first double podium finish of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Mercedes were the second fastest team outright at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya behind Oracle Red Bull Racing, although Wolff remains realistic that there is still work to be done to be truly competitive this season.

Wolff, the Team Principal and CEO at Mercedes, says the cooler than expected temperatures in Spain on Saturday and Sunday benefitted the team and gave them an operating window where the car excelled, but they need to understand the recently upgraded W14 more before they can be sure it is genuinely back at the front.

“I’m really pleased with the hard work that has been done in Brackley and Brixworth, and happy for everyone in the Team,” said Wolff.  “It’s a good result but we need to be realistic too.

“The lower temperatures today and on Saturday really suited us; it was nice and fresh, not too hot nor too cold, and the car was in a mega window.”

Lewis Hamilton admitted he did not expect to finish second in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, particularly after being so far away from the front of the field earlier in the weekend.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team were the second fastest team on Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya behind Oracle Red Bull Racing, with Hamilton being followed home by team-mate George Russell to complete a double podium finish.

Hamilton was extremely happy with the result, even if Max Verstappen was in a league of his own up front, and it is a positive result for everyone who has been working hard to improve the W14 and introduce new updates to the car after their low-key start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

“I am so happy after today,” said Hamilton. “I didn’t expect us to come here this weekend and finish second.

“I was able to keep everything under control today. We couldn’t keep up with the Red Bull of Max (Verstappen) as they are in another league, but this is still a really positive result. For George to come through from P12 to P3 is also spectacular.

TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team have returned to the top of the Constructors’ Championship, after returning to form in-style at the Jakarta E-Prix double-header.

Having endured a challenging few rounds, Porsche returned with a bang in Southeast Asia, as Pascal Wehrlein got back to winning ways. Having remarkably not won since the end of January in Diriyah, Wehrlein claimed victory in the first of two races in the Indonesian capital. Having lost the lead of the Drivers’ Championship in Monaco, it was the perfect response by the German, who claimed the team’s first rostrum since António Félix da Costa‘s win in Cape Town.

Whilst Wehrlein won the opening race of the weekend, Da Costa finished eighth, having recovered from fifteenth on the grid. Team Principal Florian Modlinger was ecstatic after Wehrlein’s win on Saturday, with the team boss having hailed the side’s “terrific achievement”.

“What a sensational win for Pascal,” Modlinger said on Saturday. “To lead for almost the entire race and beat the strong competition was a terrific achievement. The team at the racetrack and back in Weissach perfectly implemented the strategy we had set ourselves.

“António also put in a strong drive. Although there were very few overtaking manoeuvres in the race, he ploughed from P15 to P8, which is quite remarkable. We are now back leading the teams’ classification. Another tough day awaits us tomorrow. We are highly motivated and now we’ll focus on reclaiming the lead in the drivers’ standings.”

Pascal Wehrlein took zero risks on Sunday at the Jakarta E-Prix after storming to victory on Saturday, with the German having had the “championship in mind” throughout the double-header.

Having lost the lead of the championship in Monaco, Wehrlein entered the weekend on a mission. After successfully winning for the first time since the end of January in race one, he simply targeted a good points haul on Sunday. Wehrlein qualified sixth and actually made a poor start, as a result of having been on the dirty side of the grid.

Despite this, he recovered to finish the race in sixth, ensuring that he took the lead of the championship by one-point. A top-five was on the cards had he pushed a little harder; however, Wehrlein was keen to play it safe due to it having been “very difficult to overtake”.

“After my win on Saturday, I’m delighted that I was able to regain the lead in the championship today. Overall, things were a bit more difficult today. I had to start from the dirty side of the track and lost a position right at the start. I tried to move up the field, but it was very difficult to overtake. With the championship in mind, I didn’t want to take too many risks.”

“Jakarta was a success for Porsche” – António Félix da Costa

On the other side of the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team garage, António Félix da Costa managed one better than he did in race one after clinching seventh.

The Nissan Formula E Team did excellently at the Jakarta E-Prix double-header to recover from a challenging opening race of the weekend, with the Japanese manufacturer having gone on to claim their best result of the season in race two.

Saturday was a bit of a day to forget for Sacha Fenestraz and Norman Nato in Southeast Asia, with both drivers having finished outside the points. Fenestraz finished seventeenth whilst Nato claimed twelfth, marking a point-less start to the weekend for Nissan. The team performed better on Sunday right from the start of the day though, as Fenestraz qualified for the duels, where he secured seventh on the grid.

Nato could only secure twelfth; however, just like he did on Saturday, the Frenchman made up several places in the race. Nato made up seven places on Sunday to finish fifth, to secure his best result of the season. Fenestraz also made up places and crossed the line in fourth, matching his best result of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

It overall meant that Nissan claimed their best result of the season, adding some strong points to their tally. The outfit are now eighth in the standings and comfortably ahead of those behind, meaning they can now focus on catching those ahead. Team Principal Tommaso Volpe was “very happy” with how his side recovered on Sunday, following what was without a doubt a “rollercoaster of a weekend”.

“A rollercoaster of a weekend, with a tough race yesterday and a really good one today. We were stronger in qualifying and had a much better strategy during the race. Both drivers did a great job, with some impressive overtakes. Sacha even battled for the podium until the final corner, while Norman’s defense was very solid at the end of the race.

Sacha Fenestraz ended the Jakarta E-Prix double-header last weekend on a real high, with the Frenchman having matched his best result in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Whilst the weekend ended well for the rookie, it started in disappointing fashion. Round ten in Jakarta was a bit of a nightmare for the Nissan Formula E Team driver, as he qualified twelfth and finished nineteenth. Round eleven on Sunday was significantly better though, with Nissan having made some changes overnight. Fenestraz was able to make it into the duels ahead of Sunday’s race, where he secured seventh on the grid.

The rookie made an excellent start to the race and slotted into fourth, where he remained until the chequered flag was flown. Fenestraz wasn’t quite able to overtake Mitch Evans for third, meaning his search for a maiden Formula E rostrum continues. Nevertheless, it was a good recovery by the Nissan driver, who’s now thirteenth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Fenestraz was pleased with Sunday’s “positive race” and believes the weekend showed the team’s “strengths and weaknesses”, helping them identify where to improve.

“This weekend was a good way to see our strengths and weaknesses as a team. Today was a very positive race, it was great for the crew to reward their hard work over the last few months. Yesterday was quite frustrating, but we came back strongly and both cars had very good pace. Norman did a superb job to come from P12 on the grid to P5 at the finish and I’m really happy that we both took a strong result.

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR points leader Mason Filippi is back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as he will pilot the #66 Ford Mustang for MBM Motorsports at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday.

Filippi made his début at Portland in 2022 with DGM Racing, where he finished twenty-fifth. Another attempt came at Indianapolis later that year but he failed to qualify.

He also ran his first Craftsman Truck Series race at Mid-Ohio for G2G Racing but placed last due to an engine failure; while Filippi was originally entered for the Sonoma Truck race months prior, he was replaced by Stefan Parsons amid drama embroiling the team.

Much of his racing experience comes in sports cars as a GT World Challenge America alumnus who has competed in the MPC since 2019. After finishing second in the TCR standings as a rookie, he currently leads the TCR points with podiums in all three races to date; racing alongside Mark Wilkins, he finished third in the first two races at Daytona and Sebring before winning at Laguna Seca in May.

The California native grew up competing at Sonoma in karting before breaking into sports cars. He has enjoyed success there in his main discipline, dominating the 2019 TC America TCR season finale there from the pole.