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The penultimate leg of this year´s season-finale in Rally Japan saw yet a lead change as Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville passed Elfyn Evans on SS12 Lake Mikawako 2 and sits with a four-second lead heading for the final day of rallying in 2022.

Evans kicked off the penultimate day with a three-second lead in the morning and before the midday service he had a 5.9 seconds advantage over the Belgian but the Welshman lost his pace in the afternoon and that led to Neuville taking the chance to pass. This was the first lead change since Friday morning when the duo did share the rally lead at one point with identical times.

With only three stages being run in the afternoon as SS13 Okazaki City SSS 1 was canceled due to delays, the drivers did give the chance to go on the same stage again as Okazaki City played host for SS14 as well. It seems to become a two-way battle for the win as the gap down to a third place where Ott Tänak sits currently is almost 40 seconds from the lead.

Tänak however has managed to stretch a bit away from the local home hero Takamoto Katsuta, the Estonian is currently having a 24.6 seconds advantage. Sébastien Ogier predicted he will pass Gus Greensmith on the afternoon loop and he did that the Frenchman sits in fifth overall with Greensmith going down to sixth with 3:25 minutes gap to the rally lead.

WRC2 cars are still filling up the rest in the top ten leaderboard where Emil Lindholm is closing on his second driver´s world title this season in the class, after winning the WRC2 Junior title before Spain. As Teemu Suninen received a time penalty for being late to check in, the Finn has dropped down to tenth overall which meant Sami Pajari and Grégoire Munster climbed up a place each.

Max Verstappen once again lines up on the front row for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship‘s São Paulo Grand Prix.

Already crowned World Champion, Verstappen will be hoping to win yet another race and aim towards breaking more records. The Dutchman has already won fourteen races this season, with the most recent being the Mexican Grand Prix after an early battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen did a good job in qualifying today and will start second on the grid, after George Russell’s crash that led to a red flag saw the track get wetter meaning Kevin Magnussen got on pole for the first time in his Formula 1 career. Verstappen was in good form across all three sessions, comfortably getting through in a wet to dry first session and topping the dry second session.

Verstappen discussed his chances in tomorrow’s sprint race and his mistakes that led to him only being able to finish in second.

“We were working with pretty tricky conditions today and I locked up into turn eight which cost me pole today. It’s just difficult out there and you have to see how far you can push, but you don’t want to make any big mistakes that can be costly. Tomorrow is looking good but in these conditions anything can happen. We are still up there at the front which is the most important thing.

Guenther Steiner, Haas F1 Team’s Team Principal reflected on momentous day for the team as Kevin Magnussen picked up his first Pole Position in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on the weekend of his one hundredth Grand Prix start for the team and Team Founder’s Gene Haas’ birthday.

After coming away from the Mexico without any points, Haas headed into the penultimate race weekend of the season in Brazil in hope of some much needed points as they currently sit in eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship, only one point ahead of Scuderia AlphaTauri in ninth.

There would be a chance for more points this weekend as the São Paulo Grand Prix hosts the final sprint race of the season on Saturday, meaning that Friday would consist one one practice session before qualifying. Haas ended the first practice session of the weekend well with there also some room for improvement as Mick Schumacher finished eighth in the session and his team-mate Magnussen finishing in sixteenth with the team using all three slick tyre options in the FP1.

As we headed into qualifying, the weather conditions had changed with the teams preparing for rain later on. Drivers started Q3 on the Intermediate tyres as some parts of the track were slightly damp.

Magnussen had set a good lap time on the green rubber before Pierre Gasly switched to slicks on the Red soft tyre half way through the session. As his lap times were improving, everyone else decided to follow suit and change their tyres. Magnussen comfortably made it into Q2 after improving on his first run. However, his team-mate was unable to capitalise on the drying conditions and finished the session in twentieth.

Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen shocked everyone within the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on Friday as he secured his maiden pole position in the sport for Saturday’s sprint race at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

Coming into the penultimate race weekend of the season, there wasn’t much optimism when it came to weather conditions with early indications suggesting it was going to be a wet weekend. There was some slight rain fall before Q1 which led to all the teams going out for their first runs on the Intermediate tyres.

Magnussen’s fastest lap time on the green rubber was deleted for track limits. As the first round of qualifying progressed, Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly, was the first driver to switch to the Red soft tyre and it didn’t take long for the other drivers to follow suit. Magnussen comfortably bettered his first run with a time of 1:13.954 to advance into Q2.

Q2 continued with wet conditions remaining mixed as teams had to decide whether to go out on slicks or go back to the inters. With the track only being slightly wet in some parts, the drivers went out on the soft tyres for their first runs with Magnussen setting a time of 1:12.280. The Dane would then head back to the garage to put on a fresh set of Red soft tyres and advanced into Q3, finishing in seventh place in the session and with a lap time of 1:11.410.

For Q3, the weather began to change with the sky darkening and Magnussen was the first driver to come out for the final round of qualifying on a new set of Red soft tyres. His first lap time of 1:11.674 put him on provisional pole for the time being. Not long after, George Russell brought out the red flag after beaching his car at Turn 4.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT has now officially revealed the all-new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 machine, which has been a longtime secret project behind closed doors but made its public appearance for the first time on the home ground of Rally Japan.

The four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen from Finland was given the honor to drive the car alongside Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda in the passenger seat on the Okazaki City super special stage. Toyota also showcased the hydrogen rally concept car Toyota GR Yaris H2 with former team principal and four-time world rally champion Tommi Mäkinen.

The car is still being developed and it is expected to go on sale for the 2024 season. The car will feature in the WRC2 support class and it will most likely use a 1.6 liters turbocharged engine and five-speed sequential gearbox.

Despite what people say, sports have always intertwined with politics in some form. This seems to be doubly so for NASCAR where we have been greeted with cars supporting political candidates, rather outspoken drivers on such topics, and even a former president attacking a driver. Even topics as mundane as local residents and drivers arguing in favour or against renovating a track, which happens in virtually every form of racing, falls under this.

In the cases of Austin Theriault and Hermie Sadler, they’re bridging the two realms more directly as the former drivers become politicians.

As the United States midterm elections took place on Tuesday, Theriault ran as a Republican for District #1 in the Maine House of Representatives. He defeated Democrat Dana Marie Appleby by receiving 2,807 votes to 1,148. Despite the hyper-polarisation of current American politics, Theriault has repeatedly stressed his desire for bipartisanship. Other goals of his platform include tackling inflation and drugs, lowering taxes, and supporting agriculture and forestry.

Theriault competed in all three NASCAR national series between 2015 and 2019, albeit never contesting a full season. He has five career top tens in the Truck Series, four of which came for the since defunct Brad Keselowski Racing. Much of his racing success came in the now-ARCA Menards Series, where he won in his début in 2014; in 2017, he won seven times en route to the championship.

“l’m humbled Maine District # 1 voted for me to represent them in the Legislature,” tweeted Theriault. “The voters are frustrated with both parties and I hope to play a tiny part in reminding them it’s not about politics, ego or conspiracies, but government for the people. It’s time to move forward.”

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team had a challenging qualifying in the wet conditions of the Brazilian Grand Prix, with George Russell finishing third after causing a red flag during Q3 and Lewis Hamilton ending up in eighth place. 

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff reflected on the session’s difficulties, from the tightly packed early stages to the questionable conditions they faced in the pole shoot-out. 

“A tricky qualifying session where each part had its own challenges. It wasn’t easy to get a clear lap in, especially at the points when you needed consecutive laps, but we did manage to get through the first two sessions safely although it wasn’t as relaxing as we’d have liked.” 

Wolff said that the rain returning in Q3 made for a difficult session, as Hamilton wasn’t able to extract the pace he wanted due to a lack of grip, and Russell ended up spinning out into the gravel. He is optimistic about their opportunities to move up through the shaken-up field with the sprint ahead.

“The final session was all about track position; the conditions were deteriorating and, as it turned out, you wanted to be at the front of the group to get the best of the track. Neither driver had a great lap in the final session; George was happier with his car than Lewis who was lacking grip on the final run, but we have plenty of racing laps to recover with Lewis and at least he’s ahead of both Ferrari and one Red Bull on the grid.” 

It seems to become a good rally for the Japanese manufacturer Toyota as their British driver Elfyn Evans is still holding on to the Rally Japan lead after the Saturday morning three special stages but Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville is not that far behind with only 6.5 seconds to spear for the last win of the 2022 season.

The pair started the penultimate day of the season only three seconds apart, Evans managed to gain some advantage on the opening Nukata Forest 1 stage where he won but on the following Lake Mikawako 1 stage, Neuville came a bit closer to later lose some time on the final morning stage of Shinshiro City.

In third place currently is Ott Tänak who sits 26.9 seconds back as Kalle Rovanperä dropped down the order after he hit a rockface and had to change a puncture on the first stage this morning. The Finn also received a time penalty for being late at the check-in for the final morning stage and he is now in 12th overall.

Home hero Takamoto Katsuta is starting to close in on a podium at his home rally, the Japanese driver who had struggled with understeering issues yesterday is currently in fourth with 18.7 seconds down on Tänak but he has a large gap to a fifth place where M-Sport´s Gus Greensmith is currently with over two minutes.

Thursday night leader Sébastien Ogier has moved back up the order and he is currently 5.7 seconds down on Greensmith, the Frenchman is looking to pass Greensmith come to the afternoon stages. The rest of the field only consists of WRC2 runners where the title contender Emil Lindholm has moved back up to the class lead, he is ahead of his two fellow Finns Teemu Suninen and Sami Pajari while Grégoire Munster is rounding up in tenth.

Results after SS10 (top 10)

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s George Russell ended qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix in the gravel, spinning out during Q3 and causing a red flag early in the session. With rain incoming, none of the drivers went out and improved after the session restarted, and Russell was able to hang onto third place on the grid for Saturday’s sprint. 

Russell said that the mistake happened as the variable conditions at Interlagos caught him out, with the rain restarting while he was still one of the last cars out on track on the slick tyres.  

“There were some mixed emotions for me in that session. It was a pretty unique experience in Q3 – we were one of the last cars on the road, and as the lap progressed, the rain was falling harder and harder – and it was a lot wetter in the final corner than on the lap before.”

“On the next lap, I lost the car into Turn 4 and actually broke the headrest because my head was bouncing round so much; then I tried to do a 360 and beached the rear tyres in the gravel, which wasn’t my best decision. There’s a lot of gravel in there but the guys will have to take it to pieces to get everything out, so hopefully it will all be okay.” 

Despite the rough end to his qualifying, Russell was pleased with the second-row result and congratulated Kevin Magnussen for his first-ever pole in F1 after putting in an impressive lap ahead of the red flag and the rain’s restarting. 

Kevin Magnussen shocked the world of Formula 1 with his first-ever pole position after drama involving rain in qualifying.

The Brazillian Grand Prix returned this weekend, as the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season comes to a close. While all the talk was about the current world champion and the returning form of Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, it was Magnussen that took the headlines.

Qualifying was set to be interesting with rain falling and with the session being a day earlier than it is on a normal weekend, with Brazil being the third and final sprint race of the season, and it certainly was an interesting one.

Q1 – Double Alfa Romeo Exit, Lando Norris Tops Session after Wet Drama.

Q1 was an action-packed session that saw the circuit go from wet to dry, with drivers increasing their times every lap. Fernando Alonso set the pace in the wet part of the session, with both Scuderia Ferrari drivers struggling for pace.

The penultimate race of the season, the São Paulo weekend has kicked off and presents a challenge for the teams and drivers alike. The layout of the circuit has forced the teams to employ lateral thinking on how to achieve the necessary downforce through sectors one and three for the drag up the hill, however, the second sector is really where downforce is king and is the make-or-break of a drive.

Haas F1 Team were first to get a driver on the track with Danish Kevin Magnussen, during his one-hundredth appearance for the team, keen to get down to business as he leads the way out onto the Interlagos circuit as the lights turn green on the first practice session.

Before the session had the chance to get underway, those on grid penalty watch have already had an early one of the weekend, Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. has taken a sixth Internal Combustion Engine, double the permitted number in one whole season. The Spaniard is set for a five-place grid drop which will not take effect during the sprint race, but for Sunday’s main race, an almost identical penalty was served to Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver, Lewis Hamilton last year in Brazil.

Fifteen minutes in, the familiar Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 of current Champion Max Verstappen sat at the top of the timesheet after pushing a lap of 1:13.575 on the hard compound just as the driver completes his tenth lap around the 4.903km Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

The second stint of practice resumed with an equal balance of hard and medium compound tyres, with the medium compound tyre working in favour of Hamilton who slots into a comfortable fourth position three places above team-mate George Russell. Brazil’s new honourary citizen is still 0.470s down on Verstappen, but as we’ve seen before this season, the medium Pirelli rubber unlocks the full potential of the W13, a true match in heaven.

Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Champion, has completed his first FIA Formula 1 World Championship test with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team since joining the Silverstone-based outfit as a development driver.

The Brazilian, who will race in Formula 2 for the final time next weekend as champions are not allowed to continue within the championship, completed more than three hundred kilometres on board Aston Martin’s AMR21 at Silverstone last week.

By exceeding this distance in a Formula 1 car, Drugovich has overcome the final hurdle that could have prevented him from running in an official free practice session, and he will now compete in the opening practice for Aston Martin next weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

“It is amazing to have my first experience of a Formula 1 car,” said Drugovich.  “I learned a huge amount and we did all the necessary work and mileage to be ready for Abu Dhabi.

“The weather was a bit tricky, but we did quite a few laps on the dry tyres before running on the wet tyres at the end of the day. The performance of the car was so impressive: the smoothness of the gearshifts, for example, and the lateral grip means you can carry so much speed into the corners.

Lewis Hamilton says it would be ‘pretty amazing’ to see the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team overhaul Scuderia Ferrari and finish second in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022.

Hamilton is going through his longest winless run of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career and could go through a full season without tasting victory for the first time, but he has finished second in the past two races in the United States and Mexico City.

Forty points separate Mercedes from second placed Ferrari with two rounds to go, including this weekend’s sprint race in São Paulo, and although Hamilton knows it is a longshot that they can overtake them, he knows it would be great for everyone within the team for it to happen.

“I know how important it is for the team and everyone back at the factory in terms of bonuses,” Hamilton is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “Especially in a time when energy prices have gone through the roof, living costs in the UK have skyrocketed.

“So I know because I’m told and I can see how important and impactful that is for them, and also just how hard we’ve dug deep to catch up.

Logan Sargeant will compete in his third free practice session of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season this weekend in Brazil, but it will take place during Saturday’s second session rather than Friday’s first.

The São Paulo Grand Prix sees the third of the three planned sprint race weekends this weekend, meaning the race drivers will need to be in the car for the opening session ahead of Friday afternoon’s Qualifying session.

With cars being put into parc ferme conditions after Qualifying, Sargeant will take over the running of Williams Racing’s FW44 from Alexander Albon, aiming to have another clean session that will edge him closer to a Superlicence so he can be the Thai driver’s team-mate next season.

The American is excited for the latest opportunity behind the wheel of the FW44 and is looking to build on what he has learned so far during his first two outings at the Circuit of the Americas and the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the FW44 for FP2 in São Paulo,” said Sargeant.  “I can’t wait to keep progressing with the team and building on the experience I gained in Austin and Mexico City.

Alexander Albon is eager to end the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on a high with strong performances in both of the final two rounds of the year, starting this weekend with the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.

The Williams Racing driver returns to race in Brazil for the first time since the 2019 season, with the 2020 race having been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and with the Thai driver sitting out the 2021 season altogether after he lost his drive with Red Bull Racing.

This weekend will also be a Sprint race weekend – the third of three in 2022 – and Albon says it will be important to get on top of the set-up of the FW44 early on around one of the old school circuits on the Formula 1 calendar.

“Brazil is a really cool circuit, being one of the old school circuits with a lot of history and character,” said Albon.  “It’s also great seeing how passionate the fans are there, which makes it a great place to go racing.

“Heading into the last two races of the year, we obviously want to end the season on a good note, so we’ll give it everything we’ve got.