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Charles Leclerc thanked team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. for giving him a welcome tow during Qualifying for the French Grand Prix on Saturday, with the Monegasque using the tow to take him to pole position.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver admitted he was struggling for balance for much of the weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard leading up to Qualifying, and he knew any kind of mistake when it came to tyre management would open the door to his rivals.

Nevertheless, Leclerc stormed to pole position – his seventh of the season and sixteenth of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career – although he knows Oracle Red Bull Racing, and in particular Max Verstappen, will come back fighting on Sunday.

“Leading up to this afternoon, it had been quite a difficult weekend for me,” said Leclerc.  “I struggled with the balance and knew that in this kind of heat, you pay the price for the smallest mistake because your tyres overheat. 

“Today, I felt good building up to that last lap in Q3. Carlos gave me a nice tow, which helped me to have a bigger margin and seal pole position. It was a good qualifying with great teamwork behind it.

Luke Browning made it two wins from two races at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday to further extend his GB3 Championship lead.

He started, as he did in Race 1, from pole, this time with Branden Oxley separating him from title rival Joel Granfors on the grid.

Oxley made a storming start and took the lead into La Source, as everyone kept it clean behind.

Granfors took advantage of the tow to get down the inside of the Chris Dittmann Racing driver into Les Combes. Oxley ran over the sausage kerb and back on track, clipping Granfors.

Tom Lebbon also lost his front wing as the field closed up trying to avoid the incident through Malmedy.

Fernando Alonso admitted it was pleasing to qualify seventh for the French Grand Prix on Saturday after a challenging weekend for the BWT Alpine F1 Team at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

The Spaniard had been struggling for pace up until final practice but was able to make it count when it mattered to make it into Q3 for a fifth consecutive weekend, and he put his car on the fourth row on the grid.

Alonso says tyre management will be key on Sunday, and Alpine’s long-run pace appeared strong, something that makes the two-time World Champion optimistic for a good result.

“It has been a challenging weekend so far but seventh is a strong position for us to start in tomorrow,” said Alonso.  “We were not totally happy in practice with the car balance and so we’ve been working hard all weekend to improve that.

“Yesterday the long runs seemed quite strong for us, so let’s see whether we can make some gains tomorrow. Tyre management is going to be a big factor as they are overheating and graining, so it’ll be a real challenge in the heat.

Championship leader Max Verstappen claimed his eighth front-row start of the year, but not from pole, as the Dutchman was once again beaten to the top spot by title rival Charles Leclerc ahead of Sunday’s French Grand Prix.

Verstappen had looked very strong all weekend, but it quickly became a reality in Qualifying that Scuderia Ferrari were once again faster over a single-lap. The reigning World Champion did all he could; however, second-place was the best he could manage.

The Dutchman admitted after the session the the RB18 once again struggled for “grip”, something which will concern Oracle Red Bull Racing ahead of the race, where track temperatures are predicted to be the hottest they’ve been all weekend.

“Overall we were lacking a bit in qualifying with grip and general pace. We pushed hard but there were a few areas on the track that I couldn’t improve on, especially in my final lap. We have a good race car but looking after the tyres is key, it’s much warmer tomorrow and that will have an impact so we’ll have to see what we can do strategy wise.

“For the Ferrari’s to be on pole again shows that they have a great car and I expect them to be very quick again. It’s good to have Checo alongside though and we are quick on the straights so let’s see what we can do.”

Lewis Hamilton won the inter-team Qualifying battle against Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team team-mate George Russell, after securing a fourth-place start for Sunday’s French Grand Prix.

The seven-time World Champion enjoyed one of his best Saturday’s of the season, despite having had less running-time than his opponents. Hamilton sat out Free Practice One on Friday, as Nyck de Vries was used by the team in one of the two mandatory young driver sessions.

Despite this, Hamilton will start Sunday’s race at the Circuit Paul Ricard from fourth; however, his fastest-lap was almost nine-tenths slower than pole-sitter Charles Leclerc.

The gap to the front concerns Hamilton ahead of the race, he knows, though, that everyone at the factory is working hard to help the team close the gap.

“I was quite happy with my lap and my performance at the end of Q3, it was a nice lap. But for whatever reason, we seem to be a lot further off this weekend, and so is the whole chasing pack. The two top teams are just in their own league performance-wise. I’m not sure why that gap has got bigger between these two races.

Nick Gilkes‘ results have improved in the last few rounds of the GB3 Championship; Hillspeed‘s sole entry has been closing the gap to the front throughout the season.

The Championship is at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps this weekend; The Checkered Flag spoke to one of GB3’s two Canadian drivers in the paddock after he took P13 in Race 1.

“Reasonably happy. I think I made a few mistakes which cost me a bit, I lost quite a few positions at the start.”

The first race of the weekend was very much a sprint, as the safety car neutralised the field for the first two laps after an incident which caused James Hedley and Nico Christodoulou to retire, damaged Alex Connor and Callum Voisin‘s cars, and later saw Hedley’s JHR Developments team-mate Matthew Rees disqualified for his hand in the buildup.

Gilkes was just behind the chaos as it unfolded, and gave his view from the cockpit.

Charles Leclerc clinched pole position at the 2022 French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.

Max Verstappen was in second position, 0.304 seconds slower than Leclerc. Sergio Pérez was in third position at the end of the session. Leclerc was aided by a tow from team-mate Carlos Sainz in the final qualification session.

Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris rounded off the top five positions in the qualification session.

The qualifying session started under hot conditions with air temperatures at 29 degrees C and track temperatures at 53 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Luke Browning took yet another win to aid his GB3 Championship title challenge in Race 1 at Circuit du Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday.

The Hitech GP driver started on pole, ahead of Joel Granfors and Max Esterson, with Cian Shields rounding out the second row.

Alex Connor, Callum Voisin, Nico Christodoulou and James Hedley came together exiting La Source on the opening lap, putting Christodoulou and Hedley out immediately and bringing out the safety car.

Before the safety car came out, though, Granfors was able to make the most of the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight to jump Browning into Les Combes and take the lead.

Connor pitted with front-right suspension damage at the end of Lap 1, falling to the back of the reduced 20-car field which followed the safety car through the endurance pitlane while Christodoulou’s Arden Motorsport car was recovered.

Max Verstappen topped the final practice session at the 2022 French Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished behind the Dutch driver.

Verstappen was in a league of his own as he had the measure of both Scuderia Ferrari drivers ahead of qualification.

The third and final free practice session at the Circuit Paul Ricard started with air temperatures at 28 degrees C and track temperatures at 51 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Sergio Pérez led Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll on to the track and set the first timed lap of 1m33.628s on the medium compound tyres. Verstappen displaced his team-mate from the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m32.837s,

Sebastian Vettel says the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team have a decision to make to what specification they will use across the rest of the French Grand Prix weekend after both he and Lance Stroll ran different spec cars during Friday practice at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

The German, who drove a one-hundred-year-old Aston Martin Grand Prix car ahead of the event, ended fourteenth fastest in the morning session in France, before taking thirteenth in the afternoon despite the temperatures soaring.

Vettel hopes to see Aston Martin back in contention in Q2 after both drivers were eliminated at the first hurdle in the past two Grand Prix, but he hopes the team make the right call with the set-up, particularly with how the close the midfield has proven to be so far this weekend in France.

“I went a little faster than I did yesterday in the 100-year-old car!” joked Vettel.  “We ran with two different specs on the cars today.

“It was good to compare but now we have to pick and choose what works best for FP3 and qualifying tomorrow. The key for us will be to try and make it into Q2 tomorrow so we have a good starting point for the race.

Valtteri Bottas missed the opening free practice session at the Circuit Paul Ricard as Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN gave test driver Robert Kubica a run, but the Finn was able to get into a rhythm quickly when he got out on track in the second session.

Bottas completed twenty-seven laps on Friday afternoon and placed twelfth in the fastest times, but he knows the team will need to find some more pace if they want to be at the front of the extra-tight midfield pack this weekend.

However, he has high hopes and believes in his team, and feels they can perform well in Saturday’s Qualifying session before fighting for points on Sunday.

“Stepping into the car at the beginning of FP2, it took me a few laps to get into the rhythm but I had a good feeling with the car straight away,” said Bottas.  “The midfield seems even closer than usual, and I have a feeling there’s a lot more to come, both from the car and myself.

“I am looking forward to qualifying: I think we have a good chance of doing well.”

It was a low-key day for the BWT Alpine F1 Team at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Friday, with neither Fernando Alonso nor Esteban Ocon breaking into the top ten in either practice session.

Alonso admitted the balance of the A522 was not to his liking and he expects changes to be made to the car before Saturday’s running, although he said they did learn a lot on Friday when it came to tyre management amid the hot temperatures in the south of France.

Despite ending the second session eleventh – he had been fifteenth in the morning – Alonso hopes the changes to the car will enable him to fight for the top ten in Qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a challenging Friday for us especially driving in these extremely hot conditions in France,” said Alonso.  “We tried to adapt the car as best as we could to deal with these high temperatures and focused on tyre management and cooling down during the two practice sessions.

“On reflection, we are not totally happy with the balance of the car so far and we need to look at some potential changes overnight.

Kevin Magnussen says he is amazed and impressed that his Haas F1 Team can still find pace in the VF-22 despite the car not having any updates applied to it.

The Dane was only seventeenth in first practice for the French Grand Prix on Friday but jumped into ninth in the afternoon, and he hopes the pace can improve further on Saturday at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Magnussen is excited by the prospect of the upgrades the team are developing, and he believes they will be able to make another jump forward when they are introduced.

“I don’t think it was a bad day,” said Magnussen.  “We made a decent jump from FP1 to FP2 – it didn’t look so good in FP1 – but then we made some changes and found some pace. Hopefully that carries into tomorrow and we have a good FP3, going into qualifying.

“It’s very impressive how the team is finding pace in the car despite no upgrades so I’m very happy about that and I’m excited to see what the car will be like when we do get upgrades.”

The Dutch father/son duo of Martin and Mitchel van den Brink will contest the 2023 Dakar Rally together in the Truck category, an effort that was virtually assured on Friday when their Mammoet Rallysport team acquired title sponsorship from Eurol Lubricants, rebranding them to Eurol Rally Sport. Both will race at Dakar for Team de Rooy in Iveco PowerStars with liveries from the new backer.

“Eurol’s support as new main sponsor means that I will also be on the start line in the Dakar Rally of 2023 in a Team de Rooy truck,” said the older van den Brink. “We are now working hard to achieve that, but this is a good start. Through the role of Eurol, van den Brink Jr. is still stuck with Sr.”

Martin has raced at Dakar since 2009, primarily for his own team with support from MKR Technology. In 2017, he and his Renault led the Truck class after two stages before a fire knocked him out of contention, though he was able to rebound with a pair of stage wins. He joined his son at Team de Rooy for the 2022 Rally and placed sixth in class.

He is a two-time class winner each in the Morocco Desert Challenge and Rallye du Maroc, the latter of which is the upcoming leg of the World Rally-Raid Championship. In 2016, he finished third at the Silk Way Rally.

Mammoet, a Dutch heavy lifting company, maintained a close partnership with him and his team for over a decade, and co-sponsored his Team de Rooy truck alongside Eurol while Mitchel used TDR’s standard green Petronas livery.

Sponsorship is hard to come by, and the financial picture is typically not pleasant when a family-run team has to boot their own family member from the driver’s seat. NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Brandon Brown, whose Brandonbilt Motorsports team has had erratic funding throughout the 2022 season, will learn this firsthand as he is replaced by Austin Dillon in the #68 Chevrolet Camaro for 30 July’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. To preserve his playoff eligibility, he will drive Mike Harmon Racing‘s #47 in the event.

Dillon brings both Cup Series experience and sponsorship from Maestro’s Classic for the race. The 2013 Xfinity champion was involved in a wreck in his first series start of the year at Charlotte with Big Machine Racing Team. Big Machine and Brandonbilt both have technical alliances with Richard Childress Racing, who fields the #3 Cup car for Dillon.

“We are diligently working to secure the necessary funding that is needed to keep Brandon in the No. 68 for the remainder of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and we look forward to his return the following weekend at Michigan International Speedway,” said Brown’s father and Brandonbilt owner Jerry Brown.

Brown scored his maiden win at Talladega in late 2021, but what was supposed to be a popular victory for a small operation quickly became overshadowed by fans’ chants maligning President Joe Biden during Brown’s post-race interview, which were misheard by NBC reporter Kelli Stavast as “Let’s Go Brandon”. The phrase has since become a minced oath for conservatives to criticise Biden, and its indirect ties to Brown prompted potential sponsors to hesitate about investing in Brandonbilt. Although Brown is a Republican like many of those using the phrase, he sought to distance himself from the situation and eventually tried to “take it back” by spinning it into a positive context. Ironically, his tactic entering the 2022 season was to acquire full-time sponsorship from the cryptocurrency LGBCoin, which had glaring anti-Biden connotations from its investors, before NASCAR rejected it. Nevertheless, the debacle prompted many of his existing sponsors like Larry’s Hard Lemonade to withdraw their funding.

The #68 spent much of 2022 rotating between sponsors like TradeTheChain, Zero FG Energy Drink, Solid Rock Carriers, Jabs Construction, and the family-owned Brandonbilt Foundations. At Road America, Brown seemed to find closure for the “Let’s Go Brandon” fiasco when he partnered with Sheletta Brundidge, author of the children’s book Brandon Spots His Sign about her son Brandon—who has autism—interpreting signs with the phrase as personal motivation for him. The Brundidges attended the race and gave out copies of the book, while its cover appeared on the #68’s hood. Speaking to the Associated Press after the race, Brown called it a “breakthrough moment for us. This can be positive. This can be good. It doesn’t have to be hateful or divisive.”