Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Reiterating their position as ‘rivals of Toyota Gazoo Racing‘ for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Glickenhaus Racing ended the first night session of the week fastest. Toyota took second and third, with Brendon Hartley charging in the #8 three tenths off the pace setter Romain Dumas.

It wasn’t the most dramatic session for the Hypercars, with Dumas setting the benchmark time of 3:28.900. He took the leading position early on in the session and wasn’t challenged for the top spot by time the chequered flag fell. As this was the first night session of the week, teams and drivers were focusing on getting a feel for their cars in the cooler temperatures of the evening and collecting important data that will see them through the middle seven hours of the race.

The Alpine Elf Team struggled again to stay on pace with its fellow Hypercars, 3.6s off the pace of Dumas. Even in qualifying it struggled to be in the fight at the front, 2.6s off Kamui Kobayashi in the #7. It is looking like, on pace, it will be a two team race for the top step of the podium.

Rene Rast kept the trend of WRT being fastest in LMP2 after his team mate Robin Frjins took the faster class lap in qualifying. After the slower start to the weekend the team seem to be back on the form they have showed so far this season and are certainly in contention to be the ones to beat come Saturday. But it will not be a walk in the park, as United Autosports were once again on their rear win, with the fastest time set by the #22 only two tenths off the reigning class Le Mans winners.

Dries Vanthoor made it a Team WRT one-three with a final lap improvement, going just under a tenth faster than the Cool Racing trio. The #37 had held third in class for most of the two hour session, but was beaten at the last and had to settle for fourth. #9 Prema Orlen Team rounded off the class top five, meaning the top five cars in class were covered by four tenths of a second.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur is heading to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with hopes to continue to move up the field in a season that has proven to be especially competitive. The team currently sits in fifth in the constructors’ standings with McLaren F1 Team ahead and BWT Alpine F1 Team just one point behind. 

Vasseur said that he is pleased with the team’s past results, and wants to build from the success they’ve had by maximising their points totals every weekend.

 “We are heading to Baku with the aim to continue our team’s progression this season. We have done really well so far and we can be satisfied with the results we achieved, but we know we will need to keep working hard in every round to get the most out of each weekend.”

Vasseur emphasised the team’s need to be on top of every session from the first practice to race day, as the Monaco Grand Prix showed just how miniscule the margins between each position have been. 

“We saw in Monaco how the margins are really small: you can go from P6 to P16 in a blink of an eye. This is why we need to be really sharp and make the most of every session, of every lap.”

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas hopes to take advantage of any opportunities that come his way at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as he looks to continue his run of solid results– having earned points in every race this season but one, where he had retired. 

Bottas emphasized the importance of a “trouble-free weekend” in order to compete at the sharp end of the midfield. He also noted that the team has seen issues come up on Fridays in past weekends, and by working to solve these problems, they would be better able to fully optimize their cars and set themselves up for success in Baku.

“Baku is a place with both good and bad memories for me, so I definitely hope to add some more of the pleasant kind this weekend. It’s crucial we can have a trouble-free weekend: we have been having some good results despite some Friday issues so far, and if we were to fix these, we could really see the full potential of our package. We know we can fight towards the front when we do it and it has to be the aim here as well.

“This is a track that can produce some chaotic races so we will need to be ready to make the most of any opportunity. It could be a lot of fun on Sunday.”

“The potential we have is obvious” – Zhou Guanyu

Team-mate Zhou Guanyu also aims for a clean effort in Baku, where he can continue to improve and show the potential of the team to keep moving forward competitively. 

The first hour of qualifying has confirmed two thirds of the grid, whilst the top six in each class will be decided tomorrow during Hyperpole. Michael Fassbender took the #93 Proton Racing out of contention for a Hyperpole appearance with a big crash on the Mulsanne Straight, bringing out the sole red flag of the session.

With only five cars in the class, all of the Hypercars were guaranteed an appearance in Hyperpole as long as they set a lap time. It was touch and go for the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing which spent the first half of the session in the garage with right rear repairs. Helped slightly by the red flag, Brendon Hartley set one sole lap in the dry before the rain came, 13 seconds off the pace but importantly, had a lap time on the board.

Returning to the top of the class, Robin Frijns set the fastest lap of LMP2, a lap time that wasn’t challenged throughout the 45 minutes of running (the final 15 minutes all but lost to rain fall). The usual FIA World Endurance Championship suspects of United Autosports, JOTA, Realteam by WRT and Prema Orlen Team filled the top six, taking the Hyperpole spots for tomorrow. The Pro/Am team of TDS Racing / Vaillante put in a great showing with Mathias Beche setting a time good enough for fourth in class and looking like a Pro/Am was going to make it into Hyperpole. Unfortunately for the team, a track limits breech saw them lose their times, dropping them to the back of the grid.

After their incidents in first practice, Vector Sport nor the #45 Algarve Pro managed to make it out on track, failing to set lap times. They will start right at the back of the field with TDS, having it all to do during the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Disputing difficulties of Balance of Performance (BoP), Laurens Vanthoor put the #92 Porsche GT Team at the top of the GTE Pro timing board with a 3:50.999. It was still close between the Porsche and #63 Corvette Racing, and if things stay as they are BoP wise, expect the pair to be battling hard for pole position.

The first practice session of the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans has been concluded with Brendon Hartley fastest for Toyota Gazoo Racing. The 3:29.411 saw him clear of second place by almost half a second, but for most of the session the advantage seemed to be with Glickenhaus Racing.

For the majority of the three hours, Glickenhaus had a one-two at the top of the timing screen. Franck Mailleux‘s early 3:29.917 was unmatched until the closing moments of the session, with his time only 0.021s off the fastest time set by Jose Maria Lopez in the official test last weekend. Pipo Derani made it look like a dream start for the privateer team, going 0.185s slower than Mailleux and holding onto a team one-two for most of the session.

Hartley’s time came with 20 minutes left of the session. Before setting his 3m29s lap time, the Toyotas had been about half a second off the Glickenhaus; the #7 in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi ending that far off the top three in fourth. It was a session of struggles for the sole LMP1 car as the Alpine Elf Team entry finished 1.6s off the time of Kobayashi. Andre Negrao‘s 3:32.075 had him 2.2s off the benchmark set by Hartley.

Alex Lynn was unbeatable in LMP2, setting his 3:31.563 early on in the session. It was enough to put him fourth on the overall timing board, ahead of the struggling Alpine and #7 Toyota. The top three in class outpaced the Alpine also, Antonio Felix da Costa and Robert Kubica in the #38 JOTA and #9 Prema Orlen Team second and third in LMP2 respectively.

FIA World Endurance Championship class leaders and class winners from last year WRT were fourth, behind the Alpine but only six tenths off of Lynn’s pace. They placed highest of the three WRT cars entered in this weekend’s race, with the sister WEC entry car fifth – Norman Nato 0.025 off Robin Frijns – and the third sole Le Mans entry 13th in class.

As the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Northern California to race at Sonoma Raceway, G2G Racing has enlisted a pair of California natives to help out as Mason Filippi will drive the #46 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and Travis McCullough is in the #47. Neither driver is locked into the race and will therefore have to qualify their way in.

Filippi is fresh off making his NASCAR Xfinity Series début on Saturday at Portland, where he finished twenty-fifth for DGM Racing. He entered the race with much success in sports cars as a former Pirelli World Challenge and TC America Series racer, and currently competes in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class for Bryan Herta Autosport. He finished second in the 2019 MPC standings, while he is currently eleventh in points. Filippi boasts three career wins in the MPC.

While Filippi is more than familiar with road courses, McCullough is more a mainstay of short tracks in series like the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour and Lucas Oil Modifieds. That is not to say that he has no road racing experience, having started his career on such a discipline and making a pair of starts in the now-ARCA Menards Series West in 2007 and 2008 at Sonoma; he also entered the Auto Club Speedway infield road course race during the former season but his car failed to start. The 2008 Sonoma race ended with an eighteenth.

“Been a dream to run one of these Trucks,” McCullough commented. “Going back to my original roots of road racing in a new series. It will have its learning curves, but still will be one for the books.”

G2G Racing, a new team for the 2022 season, began the year with hopes of running two full-time entries but has since retracted to a single truck racing the majority of the calendar with multiple drivers. At the first road course race at Circuit of the Americas, Matt Jaskol finished thirty-third in the #46 while the #47 failed to make the race with Samuel LeComte. COTA was the #47’s last attempted race to date, and has only made two starts with Johnny Sauter at Daytona and Brennan Poole at Atlanta. Save for a DNQ at Daytona and skipping Bristol Dirt, the #46 has run every race with Jaskol holding its best finish of nineteenth at Atlanta, and it sits thirty-fourth in owner points.

Colin Garrett‘s racing career has mainly been on ovals and in stock cars, but he is proving himself as a more than capable road course driver in the SRO TC America Series. On Saturday, he will get a chance to see how well his touring car performance translates back to NASCAR as he enters the Camping World Truck Series race at Sonoma Raceway, driving the #30 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for On Point Motorsports.

Although Garrett has never run a NASCAR national series road course race, he had three such tarts in the now-ARCA Menards Series East during his full-time campaigns in 2018 and 2019. Racing at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Watkins Glen International, the latter twice, he scored top tens at each track once with a best finish of eighth at New Jersey.

For 2022, he joined Rooster Hall Racing‘s BMW programme in TC America’s TCX class and stressed its importance to helping him develop his road racing repertoire. Appropriately, his series début came at Sonoma where he finished fifth and sixth in the weekend’s two races. Garrett won the series’ third race at NOLA Motorsports Park in April, and currently sits third in points after four races.

“I’m really excited to be back on the NASCAR circuit with On Point Motorsports at Sonoma Raceway,” said Garrett. “I’m hoping for a good clean race and hoping to finish well for the team and my sponsors. That would be a great day for us all. I recently raced at Sonoma in the TC America Series and did well so I am looking forward to doing that again on Saturday.”

Garrett made two Truck starts in 2019 and 2020 for Niece Motorsports, respectively finishing twenty-first and twenty-fourth at Las Vegas and Kansas. Since 2019, he also made sporadic starts in the Xfinity Series primarily for Sam Hunt Racing, scoring six top-twenty finishes in twelve starts with a best finish of fourteenth at Homestead 2020 and Martinsville 2021.

Introduced back in 2020, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has used the Hyperpole session to dictate the front starting positions of each class. It was brought in as a way to allow the front runners a chance to get the perfect lap around the 13.626km circuit. However, qualifying at the Le Mans isn’t decided in one session, but two, so here is everything you need to know about the Le Mans qualifying format.

The two sessions are due to the fact that, although the circuit is very long, with 62 cars out at the same time traffic, slow zones and yellow flags are a big factor to contend with. Before Hyperpole was introduced, qualifying did take place over multiple sessions, but in every one all cars would go out on track to try and set the fastest lap.

Hyperpole sees only the top six runners of each class taking part, dropping the number of cars on track down to 24 rather than 62. This reduces the chance of hitting traffic on a fast lap and the potential of multiple slow zones effecting a possible pole lap, giving the drivers a chance to not only got for the fastest lap in class but also push the limits of their cars to go for fastest lap records uninterrupted.

The first qualifying session, called qualifying and taking place on Wednesday evening, will be an hour long and consist of all 62 cars being out on track. The aim will be to finish in the top six in class. The second session, almost 24 hours later on Thursday evening, is Hyperpole. Most of the grid will be set come the end of qualifying, with only the class pole sitters and top six remaining to be decided.

The Hypercars will all progress straight into Hyperpole as there are only five entries in that class, meaning it will be 23 cars in Hyperpole this year. In opposition, only one Pro car will not make it into Hyperpole as that class has seven entries.

The first changes to Balance of Performance (BoP) for the GTE cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans have seen a reduction across the board for Ferrari, with Porsche picking up a rear wing adjustment whilst Corvette and Aston Martin see no changes.

GTE winners of the 2021 rendition of the race have been given a three litre reduction to their maximum fuel and a reduction of engine power of 0.07 RPM (0.06 RPM for Am runners) as well as a minimum rear wing angle from the floor moving from 5.3 to -5.3. Porsche runners also picked up a rear wing angle alteration, going from 2.0 to -1.8. The new BoP, which was released ahead of the start of the first session of the weekend, came into effect immediately, so lap times and pace set in the three-hour practice session will reflect these changes.

It isn’t uncommon for the BoP to be changed again ahead of the race start, as teams will come forward with data and lap times from the four practice sessions and qualifying to appeal to the ACO. The BoP set for Le Mans is not calculated in conjunction with the FIA World Endurance Championship BoPs and has its own system. This means that data collected from the opening two rounds of the year will not have factored into this BoP change.

Sebastian Vettel is extremely excited for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after the four-time World Champion took a famous podium at the Baku City Circuit last season.

It was Vettel’s best drive of 2021, the German made the most of others mistakes and secured his first and currently only podium for the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team.

Whilst a repeat of his second-place finish seems incredibly unlikely, the streets of Baku always produce shocks and surprises. Nevertheless, the German is “ready to get back” to Azerbaijan.

“It’s great to be back at Baku. It has been one year since I took my first podium with Aston Martin at this track, so this is a special race for me. It will be interesting to see how the new cars adapt to the circuit, especially with the mix of fast and slow speeds around the straights and tight corners, but I am ready to get back out in Azerbaijan.”

“I’m excited to see how we can perform” – Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll on the other hand had a horrific race in Baku last season, after crashing incredibly heavily down the main-straight. The Canadian suffered a horrifying tyre failure at almost 200 mph, which saw the Aston Martin driver strike the wall with some immense force.

Pierre Gasly showed immense pace and racecraft at the Monaco Grand Prix, after storming his way through the field on the Intermediate tyre at the Circuit de Monaco, however, points were not to be for the disappointed Frenchman.

Qualifying cost Gasly dearly in Monaco, after a strategic error saw the French driver drop out in Qualifying 1. This left the Frenchman with an impossible task at Monte-Carlo. Looking back on the Grand Prix, Gasly explained how “gutted” he was with how the weekend unraveled.

“I was really gutted with how Monaco turned out because we were very quick in all the free practice sessions and I felt very comfortable with the track. We’d managed to find a good car set-up for this unique circuit and then, in the one session where we really had to get everything right, we made mistakes that cost us dear, as Qualifying is the most important session of the weekend. We did not manage it well and then, starting from the back, it’s more or less mission impossible. But I was happy about the wet conditions, as that would give us more of a chance.

“I can be very happy with the race, taking risks, pitting on the first lap for Inters in low grip conditions, passing cars and putting on a show, so it was frustrating not be rewarded with at least a point. As a team we know we have work to do to perform at the highest level in the coming races. We know the performance level is there, so we are going to keep pushing even if we have lacked success so far, but there are signs that we still have plenty of chances to do something good, maybe starting this weekend in Baku.”
 
Moving forward, Gasly is excited about the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he took an unexpected podium last season. The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver was one of many to capitalise on the chaos that unfolded.

The French driver finished third at the Baku City Circuit last year, and is expecting another strong weekend at the venue.

Sergio Pérez heads into this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix with fond memories of the Baku City Circuit, after claiming his first victory for Red Bull Racing at the venue last season.

The Monaco Grand Prix winner has launched himself into title contention, the Mexican finds himself just fifteen points behind his team-mate in the championship, with so much left to play for.

Pérez claimed victory at Azerbaijan last year under crazy circumstances, after Max Verstappen crashed heavily out of the lead following a scary tyre failure. The Mexican driver will be hoping to make it back-to-back street circuit victories, after signing a two-year contract extension with Red Bull.

Pérez is “grateful for the opportunity” given to him by the Austrian team, and can’t wait to get going this weekend.

“I was very happy to extend my stay with the Team until at least 2024, that tells you the great work we have done together and how happy we are with each other. Having my future decided allows me to stay one hundred percent focused on the main goal of winning races and world titles. It’s amazing how hard work always pays, two years ago I was without a seat in F1 and today I’m in the best team.

Unique racing helmets are not uncommon at prestigious races, but Luis Felipe ‘Pipo’ Derani‘s 24 Hours of Le Mans helmet has a special twist. The one-off design, created by renowned French Artist Jean-Baptiste Launay – better known as Jisbar – will be auctioned off after it is race with this weekend with all proceeds going to the GRAACC Hospital in Sao Paulo.

The reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion came up with the project as a way to help the 30-year-old hospital continue to treat children and adolescents from 0-18 with the most advanced scientific treatments and a way to honour his late father who passed away in 2018. The GRAACC, which treats around 4,000 children every year, was where his father went to receive treatment for his cancer, giving Derani a special appreciation for the work and efforts the staff deliver day to day.

“I have always followed the work of GRAACC closely, and I have also visited the hospital,” said Derani. “Everything they have done over the last 30 years is sublime, helping so many children and adolescents in the fight against cancer. As many people know, my father passed away in 2018 with the disease and this is when I saw a possible future way to honour his memory.

“I met Jisbar a short time ago and became a big admirer of his art. When I presented him with the idea of holding the auction in Le Mans for the benefit of the GRAACC Hospital, he accepted right away.

“I hope that we can raise a large amount to help the GRAACC Hospital to continue this important and vital work, helping so much those who are in this battle against cancer.”

Austin Wayne Self has backed out of Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Sonoma Raceway, but rather than the typical reasons for such actions like funding or suspension, he is doing it to potentially celebrate one of the greatest moments of his life. On Tuesday, his AM Racing team announced it will not enter the Sonoma event as Self plans to be with his wife Jennifer for their child’s birth later in the week.

“AM Racing has elected not to participate in Saturday’s Door Dash 250 at Sonoma Raceway as driver Austin Wayne Self and wife Jennifer are expecting the arrival of their first child later this week,” reads a team statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, the team has elected to forgo the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, so Austin can make his family top priority.”

Self is currently nineteenth in points with a pair of top tens. Although the team has fielded a part-time #37 truck alongside Self’s #22, AM will not do the same for Sonoma.

It is not uncommon for drivers to have a substitute in the event that their spouse goes into labour. Such a case happened as recently as last Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Portland, where Kaz Grala served as Sheldon Creed‘s backup in the #2 should Creed’s wife Cami give birth.

McLaren F1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl said that the team was hard at work last week in preparation for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the double-header ahead, focused on analysing and better understanding how to get the most of their new upgrades.

“The team is feeling prepared for Baku after the European double header. We’ve been busy over the last week analysing the data we’ve gathered on our new upgrades and ensuring they’re fully optimised. This has also been an opportunity for the team to rest up and get ready to go for another set of exciting back-to-back races.”

Coming off the Monaco Grand Prix, Seidl said that the set-up of the cars will need to be entirely different than last time out in order for the car to suit the uniquely high-speed sections of the street circuit.

“While both Baku and Monaco are street circuits, both require a very different approach to setting up the car. Its long straight, which sees the highest top speed on the calendar, demands a reduced downforce setup, which is rare for a street circuit.”

With such small margins of error at Baku City Circuit, Seidl said he predicts an unpredictable, eventful race that could work for or against the team.