Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Max Verstappen has taken the first pole position of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season for Oracle Red Bull Racing, with team-mate Sergio Pérez locking out the front row in second place at the Bahrain International Circuit. Charles Leclerc was able to put his Scuderia Ferrari car in third, despite some late session drama, to produce a somewhat familiar top three.

Qualifying One

Nico Hülkenberg making it out of Qualifying One for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the story of the session, with the German driver setting a lap good enough for sixth place in the dying moments. Hülkenberg returns to Haas F1 Team full time for the 2023 season, and out-qualified team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, who was only able to put his car in eighteenth place.

Logan Sargeant was also a talking point of the session, after narrowly missing out on a Qualifying Two appearance in his Formula 1 debut weekend. The American driver set an identical time to McLaren F1 Team‘s Lando Norris, but placed sixteenth due to setting his lap after the British driver. What was a very impressive opening qualifying for the Williams F1 Team driver was also a very close call for the driver in the papaya-coloured car.

Pierre Gasly also surprised the paddock in his BWT Alpine F1 Team debut, only setting a time good enough for seventeenth in Qualifying One. The day would get worse for the Frenchman after a track limits mistake would delete his lap and drop him to the back of the grid, promoting Magnussen up to seventeenth, Oscar Piastri to eighteenth and Nyck De Vries to nineteenth.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates might be neighbouring countries, but a Saudi competitor had never won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge‘s overall until 2023 courtesy of Yazeed Al-Rajhi.

One could argue victory had slipped into Al-Rajhi’s grasp as Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb—who have been the top teams in the World Rally-Raid Championship since its inception and comprised the top two in the standings—were struck by misfortune that took them out of contention, but he maximised his opportunity when it opened. Al-Attiyah, the Dakar Rally winner and three-time ADDC champion, had dominated by winning the Prologue and first three stages before flipping in Stage #3; despite making it to the finish and winning the leg, his Toyota Hilux T1+ was too damaged to continue.

A cooling pipe was Loeb’s downfall in just the first stage. Unlike Al-Attiyah, Loeb’s problem was somewhat solvable and he rejoined the race, though a fifty-hour penalty was imposed for him changing his engine block. Loeb’s team-mate Guerlain Chicherit withdrew after Stage #1 due to motion sickness.

Al-Rajhi did not win any of the five stages, but his consistency placed him in prime position to capitalise on his rivals’ troubles. He finished second in Stages #1 and #2, fourth in Stage #3, and third in Stage #4 with the lattermost being his first leg as the overall leader. Entering the fifth and final leg, he led Martin Prokop by over ten minutes, a gap that Prokop was unable to close as he instead finished two minutes behind Al-Rajhi.

Despite being one of the top drivers in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, of which he is the reigning champion, Al-Rajhi was often stuck playing third fiddle to Al-Attiyah and Loeb in the W2RC. Although somewhat circumstantial due to the two’s elimination, he finally secured his spot atop the podium for the first time since the W2RC’s formation. It is also a strong comeback after he missed the FIA World Cup season opener in early February due to broken ribs in a post-Dakar skiing accident.

Kyle Busch is aiming to complete a rare feat only achieved once in NASCAR history, and the only other instance was his own doing: win the Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Series races in a single weekend. His latest attempt, coming at his home track Las Vegas Motor Speedway, is off to a good start as he dominated Friday’s Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 Truck race by leading 84 of 134 laps and beating runner-up Zane Smith by over two seconds.

Busch won the pole and never looked back in his first Truck start in a Chevrolet Silverado since 2007. Still, the race was not without the occasional snag such as a slow pit stop early on using a makeshift crew as many crew members were unable to reach the track in time for the start due to their plane breaking down prior to takeoff.

Although Smith, the reigning champion and last week’s Daytona winner, attempted to close the gap, lapped traffic made it difficult to catch up. He won the opening stage before being shuffled back in a late restart. With Smith too far back, Busch drove off to his sixty-third career Truck victory.

The only other time a driver has swept a weekend was Busch at Bristol in 2010.

“There were a couple dicey moments in traffic, not too bad, but I would have loved to have raced with Zane,” said Busch. “They kind of got off strategy where we were able to cycle up, and we got clean air for most of the start of that last run.

Chase Elliott will miss Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after a snowboarding accident in Colorado on Friday resulted in a left leg injury. Details of the injury were not specified, but an Associated Press report later in the day revealed surgery was successful.

Elliott was coming off a runner-up finish at Fontana after crashing out of the Daytona 500, leaving him fourteenth in points after two rounds.

While his timetable for return was not immediately disclosed, Elliott will receive an injury waiver to make the playoffs should he qualify. NASCAR has also waived the rule requiring a driver to be in the top thirty in points to be eligible.

“Chase’s health is our primary concern,” commented team owner Rick Hendrick. “He’s spoken with several members of our team and is understandably disappointed to miss time in the car. Of course, he has our full support, and we’ll provide any resources he needs. We hope to share another update later this weekend.”

Josh Berry will replace Elliott in the #9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. He has two prior Cup Series starts in 2021 for Spire Motorsports as a COVID-19 substitute for Justin Haley and Corey LaJoie, finishing thirtieth in the former’s ride at Dover and twenty-six in the latter’s at Michigan. Berry mainly races for Hendrick’s Xfinity Series affiliate JR Motorsports, with whom he has five victories and made the Championship Round in 2022. Two of said victories came at Las Vegas, both in the fall race in 2021 and 2022.

Haas F1 Team Principal Günther Steiner said that the team made steps forward during Friday running at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, having completed eighty-seven laps across the sessions. 

Steiner said that the focus of Free Practice One was to gain more knowledge on VF-23 and build off the work they put into pre-season testing last week, which was also held at Bahrain International Circuit. 

Nico Hülkenberg’s fastest lap in the first session placed him in fourteenth, while Kevin Magnussen clocked in six tenths ahead to take seventh. 

“Everything we learned at the test, today we could use. For FP1 we went out and made some set-up changes while continuing to learn.”

Free Practice Two gave the team the opportunity to run in the cooler, evening conditions that will be mirrored in qualifying. Hülkenberg landed in fifth place on the timing sheets while Magnussen, relegated to the garage for most of the session due to set-up changes, finished in sixteenth. 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen is encouraged by the result of the team’s practice sessions ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Having gained significant knowledge on VF-23. 

Magnussen completed thirty-eight laps across Free Practice One and Free Practice Two, and landed in seventh place and sixteenth place on the timing sheets, respectively. 

The Danish driver said that he felt confident in the outcome of his morning session, and that the team has been able to make progress on certain elements since testing. 

“FP1 was looking pretty good for us, we’ve been testing quite a bit today and we’ll put it together tomorrow. Some of the things the team have been working on between the test and now, we’ve tried them out and got a few answers.”

Overall, Magnussen feels good about Haas’ position after Friday running and expects a tight, competitive field when it comes time to race.

After five stages, the thirty-second Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is in the books. The final run from Qasr Al Sarab back to Abu Dhabi was a tight one as competitors hoped to rally for points in the World Rally-Raid Championship.

This was especially the case in RallyGP, where Adrien Van Beveren and Luciano Benavides were separated for the overall win by 2:58 entering Friday’s stage. Benavides, the winner of Stage #4, started first but was caught by much of his peers and finished seventh. Van Beveren was two spots ahead to seal his second W2RC victory after Andalucía in 2022.

Toby Price scored his second stage win of Abu Dhabi after Stage #3. The seven RallyGP finishers finished within just five minutes of each other. Mason Klein lost his clutch while Mohammed Al Balooshi was knocked out 120 kilometres before the finish due to an engine failure.

“I pushed so hard today and opened all the way. It was a tough and exhausting day,” said Benavides. “There was quite a lot of pressure this morning to do the stage at full gas, it was the only choice I had. But I think I did a good job and I’m happy with the result. To come away from the race with a podium and two stage wins is amazing. Of course, I want to win, but I think this is the best way to keep building race by race and the win will definitely come. I think I’m fourth in the championship now, so I’ll keep on giving my all and see what happens in Mexico.”

An even closer battle took place in Rally2 as the non-W2RC rider Tobias Ebster played spoiler to beat Paolo Lucci by just forty-nine seconds to seal the overall in his category. Jean-Loup Lepan, 3:20 back of Ebster, still won the class overall among championship contenders.

Preston Pardus will return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Circuit of the Americas on 25 March, driving the #50 Chevrolet Camaro for his family-owned Pardus Racing with sponsorship from Garage Oil Spirits.

“Excited to say I’m back in the NASCAR @xfinityracing Series this season! My season debut will be at @nascaratcota at the end of month driving the @americanbadasswhiskey 50 machine for Pardus Racing,” wrote Pardus on social media. “It’s really cool to have the Garage Oil Spirit brand on the car for CoTA being Texas is where American Badass Whiskey calls home!”

A regular in sports car racing who won the 2017 SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) National Championship Runoffs and the 2020 SCCA Super Sweep in Spec Miata, Pardus has often been entrusted with road course duties in the Xfinity Series since 2019. He made his début for Pardus Racing at Road America in 2019, where he retired due to a suspension failure followed by running the Charlotte Roval and placing twenty-seventh.

He became DGM Racing’s road course ringer in 2020, making fourteen starts over the next three years with three top tens: a tenth at Indianapolis and eighth at Road America in 2020, as well as a career-best seventh at the Charlotte Roval in 2021. 2021 also saw him attempt an oval for the first time at Martinsville where he placed eighteenth.

Pardus ran the five road courses in 2022 for DGM’s #91 with a best finish of eleventh at Road America.

While he made his name in circuit racing, Heikki Kovalainen has been easing himself more into rallying in recent years, most notably winning the 2021 Japan Rally Championship and making his World Rally Championship début in 2022. For 2023, his growing plate of off-road racing will include Extreme E for the first time as he will contest the upcoming season for JBXE alongside Hedda Hosås.

Kovalainen and JBXE owner Jenson Button have raced against each other in Formula One from 2007 to 2013, the former ironically being replaced by the latter at McLaren in 2010. They reunited on track again in Super GT between 2017 and 2019, a series in which both have won the championship. The two’s maiden F1 victories even came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Button in 2006 and Kovalainen two years later.

“To bring such an established name from the world of motorsport and someone I had the pleasure of racing against in Formula One is brilliant for the team and the series,” said Button, who raced for his own team at the inaugural Extreme E round in 2021. “Following his move into the world of rally, it was a no brainer for the team to approach him and I’m over the moon he’s agreed to join the team and equally delighted to be keeping Hedda after she has continued to make great progress in the car, she fully deserves her place.”

The first Finn to compete in Extreme E, Kovalainen’s first WRC start at the 2022 season-ending Rally Japan saw him score points as he finished tenth. For 2023, he will focus on the Finnish Rally Championship back home, racing for Secto Automotive Labs Rally Team alongside Justus Räikkönen, nephew of F1 alumnus Kimi Räikkönen.

“It’ll be something new again in my career,” commented Kovalainen. “After my Formula One stint I’ve done GTs as well as some rallying and I’m always looking for new challenges and looking forward to giving this a try. It’ll be a steep learning curve no doubt but I’m up for it and hopefully we’ll get up to speed quickly.”

Todd Gilliland was less than pleased when Front Row Motorsports announced Zane Smith would drive the #38 Ford Mustang for five NASCAR Cup Series races in 2023, especially as he had anticipated to run the full calendar in the car for a second year. While those plans remain unchanged, Gilliland was still able to find some backing for the five non-#38 starts primarily for Rick Ware Racing, though Carl Ruedebusch has also stepped up to help him out at FRM.

On Thursday, Ruedebusch announced his companies N29 Capital Partners, LLC and Ruedebusch Development and Construction will sponsor Gilliland in the #36 for the Talladega Superspeedway race on 23 April. Smith had entered the Daytona 500 in the #36, where he finished thirteenth. His crew chief Chris Lawson, currently atop Smith’s pit box in the Craftsman Truck Series, worked with Gilliland when he raced in said division.

“I wanted to ensure that Todd raced the full season in the NASCAR Cup Series this year,” said Ruedebusch. “He has proven that he can compete with the best of the best and be successful. We are thankful to Front Row Motorsports for making this opportunity available for Todd to reunite with his old team-mates and friend Chris Lawson to race for a win at Talladega.”

As a Cup rookie in 2022, Gilliland finished twenty-eighth in points with a pair of top tens, one of which was a seventh in the Talladega fall race.

Besides Talladega, Smith will replace Gilliland in the #38 at Phoenix Raceway (12 March), Charlotte Motor Speedway (28 May), Sonoma Raceway (11 June), Texas Motor Speedway (24 September), and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (8 October). Gilliland will move to RWR’s #15, which serves as their multi-driver car and driven by Riley Herbst in the Daytona 500, for those four rounds.

The fog that descended upon Qasr Al Sarab on Thursday did more than delay the start of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge‘s penultimate stage by two hours and cut the FIA classes’ race in half. Whether it be Pablo Quintanilla going from second in RallyGP to out of the rally entirely or the T1 entries jockeying for the top spot post-Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s retirement, the complexion of the overall class pictures became as cloudy as the desert morning that day.

After Al-Attiyah crashed out while leading in Stage #3, Yazeed Al-Rajhi inherited first overall in T1 with a nine-minute advantage over Martin Prokop. Al-Rajhi, seeking his first ADDC victory, provided some distance from the 2018 winner when he finished ahead of him by forty-six seconds; Al-Rajhi was third behind Sébastien Loeb and Henk Lategan, both of whom are out of overall contention due to early retirements. Prokop now trails Al-Rajhi by 10:27.

While unable to claim the ADDC outright, Loeb’s stage win gives him five bonus points towards the World Rally-Raid Championship T1. Already the points leader exiting the Dakar Rally, squeezing out stage points gives Loeb more of a cushion over Al-Attiyah after the latter’s wreck. Still, Loeb needs to reach the finish on Friday to guarantee the points he attained count towards the standings

“It wasn’t an easy stage to read as there were some broken dunes and you had to be extra careful as you couldn’t see where they were,” said Loeb. “We could’ve been in sixth gear in many more places than we were, no problem, but we had to be very careful. We had one landing that was a big hit so it proved you can get caught, but the car took it and we’re back at the bivouac all together. For the championship, today brings more points but we must finish tomorrow to get those points when we return to Abu Dhabi.”

In RallyGP, Stage #4 ended with an inverse as Luciano Benavides beat Adrien Van Beveren for the stage win by three minutes (3:22, to be exact), and now trails Van Beveren for the overall by three minutes (2:58). Ven Beveren had battled with Honda team-mate Quintanilla for the top position throughout the first four days but the latter’s bike broke down at the 220th kilometre to knock him out.

Fernando Alonso is excited to participate in his first race with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The veteran Spaniard made the surprise move to leave BWT Alpine F1 Team at the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season in order to replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin, and he was extremely pleased with how the AMR23 performed during pre-season testing.

With Lance Stroll back in the second car this weekend after the Canadian missed testing due to injury, Alonso feels there is a lot of potential in the car still to unlock as he bids to start his new journey with a strong result.

“I am excited for the first race of the season with Aston Martin and the start of this new journey,” said Alonso.  “The car felt good across the three days of the Test, but it is only testing and everyone will reveal their true pace this weekend.

“It is very early days but I think there is a lot of potential to unlock in the car and we will see what we can do here in Bahrain.

Having missed pre-season testing last week, Lance Stroll has declared himself fit to compete in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, although the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team will have both Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne on standby.

Drugovich, the 2022 FIA Formula 2 champion, took part in testing at the Bahrain International Circuit alongside Fernando Alonso last week, and the Brazilian was in line to replace Stroll had he not recovered from wrist injuries from a cycling accident.

However, Stroll will participate in Bahrain and said he was ready to race amid frustration that he was forced to miss pre-season testing due to his crash.  He had minor surgery on his right wrist last week and opted to miss the test in order to be fit and prepare for the opening race of the season.

“It was frustrating not to be out in Bahrain for the pre-season test and I was disappointed to miss the three days of running,” Stroll said.  “However, given the injury to my wrist, the team and I felt it was best to focus on recovery so that I would be ready for this weekend and the long season ahead.  

“It was an unfortunate accident – I fell from my bike when my tyre caught a hole in the ground – but thankfully the damage was not significant and a successful minor surgery on my right wrist fixed the problem very quickly. Since then, I’ve been working hard with my team to ensure that I am fully fit to compete this weekend.  

Pierre Gasly says it will take time to get ‘totally comfortable’ behind the wheel of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s A523, but he believes he can start his time with the team with a top ten finish in this Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

For the first time in his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career, Gasly will race without the backing of Red Bull, with all his previous starts coming for either Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing or Scuderia AlphaTauri.

He has been focusing on getting comfortable with his new team during the off-season, and he admits to being excited to get the new season underway this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit.

“I am very excited to race for the first time with Alpine this weekend in Bahrain,” said Gasly. “Since my first test in December with the team in Abu Dhabi, I’ve been looking forward to this moment, and now it’s almost here.

“All my focus is on preparing well for the race weekend and I’m already eager for my first qualifying laps in the A523 before we battle on Sunday in the race.

Recent rumours around the FIA Formula 1 World Championship paddock were hinting that Red Bull’s new owners were looking at making a change to its portfolio, with Scuderia AlphaTauri either being sold or relocated to the United Kingdom.

Since the death of Team Founder Dietrich Mateschitz last season, the initial belief was that the new owners would continue to honour the late Austrian’s wishes and retaining its two Formula 1 teams, but recent rumours have indicated this may not be the case.

Those rumours have included the possibility that AlphaTauri, who will race with Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries during the 2023 season, could be sold, while another option would for it to leave its Italian base and relocate to the United Kingdom, closer to its sister Oracle Red Bull Racing team.

However, current AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost has poured cold water onto this rumours, and after talks with Oliver Mintzlaff, the CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments of Red Bull GmbH, the future remains bright for the team in their current status.

And Tost insists the rumours surrounding the future of AlphaTauri are without foundation, and the team are focused on the 2023 season and improving on their ninth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship from last year.