Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Lando Norris enjoyed a strong Saturday around Albert Park, with the McLaren F1 Team driver qualifying fourth on the grid after ending fastest in final practice.

For the first time in 2022, McLaren appeared to show the kind of pace the MCL36 has been missing in the opening two races, and Norris was able to use that speed to good effect to put the car onto the second row.

Norris praised the team for the hard work they’ve been doing across the past couple of weeks to solve the issues that had prevented them fighting towards the front of the field in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and he hopes to continue the strong weekend into Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

“Very happy, it’s nice to be P4,” said Norris.  “It’s a good reward for the team and the best we could have done today by quite a long way.

“Big thanks to everyone here at track, and back at the factory, for their hard work, which made this possible. It’s good to be back in Q3 given where we’ve been over the last few weeks.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez both believe that there is still more performance to get out of the RB16, as Verstappen qualified second and Pérez in third for the Australian Grand Prix.

It was so nearly pole for Verstappen, who initially took provisional pole before being dropped to second by Charles Leclerc moments later. Verstappen appeared to lose a lot of time to the Scuderia Ferrari driver in the final sector, leaving Oracle Red Bull Racing with work to do ahead of the race.

Verstappen has found the weekend difficult so far but does believe that he has a strong car for the race. The Dutchman ended qualifying just over two tenths behind Leclerc.

“The weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle, there is a gap between Charles and I, but second of course is not bad and I think there is a lot more potential in the car than we are showing at the moment.

“I didn’t really feel 100% in the car today, so we tried to change a few things in the set up, but it didn’t quite make the improvements we hoped for and we’ll do the best we can tomorrow. I think we have a good race car and in race conditions everything stabilises a bit, so it is more consistent. Let’s hope we can have a good race tomorrow.”

Charles Leclerc continued his incredible start to 2022, by taking a dominant pole at the returning Australian Grand Prix, ahead of rival Max Verstappen who will most likely be his greatest challenger at the Albert Park Circuit come Sunday.

Leclerc performed brilliantly in the final qualifying session at Albert Park and claimed pole by just over two tenths of a second, after posting a 1:17.868. Considering he’s struggled at the circuit in the past, Leclerc has certainly nailed the transformed circuit, which has undergone significant changes.

The Monegasque driver was very pleased with his Saturday performance, and is feeling good ahead of Sunday’s race.

“I’m happy with my result today. This circuit is really tricky and I’ve always struggled here in the past. It may not have seemed like it this weekend because we’ve been quite fast, but I’ve done a lot of work to optimise my performance.

“The team did a great job. We stayed calm at all times, despite red flags, yellow flags and traffic. The biggest limitation for me was the sun. It was low and at an inconvenient angle and it was almost impossible to see where I was in Q2 and most of Q3. I took a lot of risks and I’m glad that I managed to put together such a good lap in the end. It doesn’t look too bad in terms of race pace. It’s very close with our competitors so it will be a difficult but exciting race tomorrow.“

Andretti Autosport dominated practice once again at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, putting four Andretti-affiliated cars in the top five. But it was Romain Grosjean who went fastest, with a 1:05.652 lap time well below the qualifying track record.

The session was much cooler than practice one, and it lent itself to ultra-fast laps, with the entire top five below the one minute, five second mark.

Much like in practice one, Andretti cars found themselves at the top of the session early as times began to fall. After ten minutes, defending Long Beach winner Colton Herta led the field, the first driver to dip into the one minute and six second mark. With thirty minutes remaining, Herta spun at the exit of turn six, gently backing into the wall. He sustained minor rear wing damage.

This didn’t set the young American back much at all, as he continued to find more and more time as the session went on. With thirteen minutes remaining, Grosjean managed to go two tenths faster than his teammate Herta to take the top spot with a 1:06.00 briefly before Simon Pagenaud became the first driver to dip into the one minute five second range.

The first red flag of the session came out for Jimmie Johnson, carrying too much speed through turn six and locking up, going nose-first into the barriers. Following an accident in practice one where he didn’t take his hands off the wheel, Johnson sustained a fracture on his right hand. As Johnson shared in a video on Twitter before practice, he is wearing a carbon-fiber splint and was cleared by IndyCar medical staff to compete in the session. Thankfully, Johnson said on the radio that he was okay following the crash, and managed to get his hands off the wheel quickly.

Mitch Evans took his first victory of the 2021-22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season in race one of the Rome E-Prix on Saturday after climbing from ninth on the grid to do so.

The Jaguar TCS Racing driver had missed out on the duals in Qualifying after encountering traffic on his fastest lap, but he did not let that disappointment faze him as he stormed through the field to take a superb win and reignite his championship challenge after a lacklustre opening couple of rounds.

By the time the race went behind the safety car at the end of lap one after a crash from Nissan e.dams’ Maximilian Günther, Evans had already passed both of the Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and André Lotterer.

He then used his attack mode to good effect to pass Avalanche Andretti FE Team’s Jake Dennis for sixth, although the Briton then repassed the New Zealander after using his own attack mode.  Evans then gained a place as Dennis nudged DS Techeetah’s António Félix da Costa as they battled over fifth, the Jaguar driver taking advantage of the Portuguese driver’s being delayed.

After finally dispatching Dennis, Evans then took over fourth place from Jean-Éric Vergne as the second Techeetah driver took his attack mode, and he moved up one more place as Nyck de Vries began a slide down the field as he suffered a technical issue on his Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team car.

Charles Leclerc has taken pole position for the second time in three races ahead of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, and will line up ahead of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez on the grid.

Q1 – An unfortunate crash ends the session

The first part of qualifying at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne saw Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s day go from bad to worse; when Lance Stroll crashed for the second time in the afternoon.

Stroll and Sebastian Vettel both damaged their Aston Martin cars in Free Practice Three and were running out of time to set a time in Qualifying One. Stroll was able to make it out on to the track, but did not look likely to set a time before the flag would wave. A miscommunication between himself and Nicolas Latifi saw the Williams F1 Team driver allow the Canadian past him, before re-overtaking him for track position. Stroll moved across into the path of Latifi, hitting the Williams and causing a lot of damage.

The Aston Martin car broke its front-right suspension in what was very similar damage to that from Free Practice 3 (but on the other side of the car), while the damage to Latifi’s car was much greater, in what is the second qualifying accident in a row for the Canadian Williams driver.

This accident brought out the red flag, which gave the Aston Martin mechanics enough time to send Vettel out on track, having missed the opportunity prior. However, the effort was not enough as the German was unable to move himself out of Qualifying One.

Martinsville Speedway is a classic short track where bumping and banging are to be expected, but the NASCAR Xfinity Series was perhaps too eager in that department. Friday night’s Call 811 Before You Dig 250 seemed to refer to digging graves for much of the field as fourteen caution flags were flown for incidents, including a massive pile-up at the start of overtime that collected fourteen cars. A wild scramble to the finish only added to the nighttime fireworks as Brandon Jones held off team-mate Ty Gibbs for the win before Gibbs got into a brawl with Sam Mayer regarding final-lap contact.

Gibbs won the pole and the tone was set even before the race began as rain resulted in a delay moments after the command was given to fire engines. When the race finally began, it only lasted a single lap before Brennan Poole‘s car failed. Compared to later segments, the first stage was relatively scant on yellows as Howie DiSavino III was responsible for the only other caution when his driveshaft broke. By the end, Gibbs led Justin Allgaier, Ryan Truex, Landon Cassill, Daniel Hemric, A.J. Allmendinger, Jones, Josh Berry, Mayer, and Sheldon Creed.

Stage #2 saw Jade Buford, Stefan Parsons, and Derek Griffith go around, with Parsons doing so after contact from Joe Graf Jr. who would be involved in a number of later collisions, while Griffith was the victim of a bump with Anthony Alfredo. Due to late pit stops, Jones would take the segment ahead of Cassill, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown, David Starr, Alfredo, Parsons, Jeremy Clements, Riley Herbst, and Shane Lee.

The final segment could be described as all hell breaking loose as ten cautions occurred, many of which were for single-car spins brought upon by bumps from others. All four JR Motorsports were involved in an incident, perhaps notably team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.—who was making his annual one-off start—spinning employee Berry. Earnhardt himself went around with eight laps remaining to set up overtime. The ensuing green flag only resulted in a parking lot when Mayer missed a shift while restarting second and stacked up the outside line. JRM team-mate Noah Gragson restarted on the inside but came up and was clipped by Mayer. Officially, fourteen drivers were involved: Gragson and Mayer, Alfredo, Allmendinger, Berry, Brown, Griffith, Herbst, Jeb Burton, Bayley Currey, Austin Hill, Mason Massey, Myatt Snider, and Kyle Weatherman.

Gibbs and Jones comprised the front row for the second overtime attempt. Despite an effort on the inside by Jones, Gibbs kept him at bay to take the white flag. Jones tried again via the inner groove exiting turn two and successfully cleared him in turns three and four as Gibbs was shuffled back into a three-wide run with Mayer and Cassill, and the situation concluded with Gibbs being sandwiched between Mayer and the wall.

McLaren F1 Team driver, Lando Norris, topped the timing sheets in Free Practice Three for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, after a promising session for the papaya-coloured team. Meanwhile, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team found themselves scratching their heads at two damaged cars when both drivers found themselves in the barriers.

Sebastian Vettel, who is competing in his first weekend of the 2022 season after missing rounds one and two due to COVID-19, lost control of the car at the exit of the turn ten, gliding through the gravel and into the wall, damaging the left-hand side of the car. Lance Stroll also hit the wall after locking his inside tyre at turn eleven, and damaging his front-left tyre on the exit barrier of the corner. Thankfully both drivers were okay, but unfortunately finished at the bottom of the timing table.

Norris would soon finish the session in first place, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo would put his number three McLaren in sixth place – a much more promising result for the Woking-based team that has been struggling in the opening rounds of the season.

Charles Leclerc would follow behind Norris in second place, with just under one-and-a-half tenths separating the first and second place finishers. Fellow Scuderia Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz Jr., would finish the final practice session in fifth place.

Simon Pagenaud came out fastest in a hotter than expected first practice session at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, in a session where Andretti Autosport-affiliated cars found themselves towards the top of the timing sheets. Unexpectedly to some, it was the affiliate Meyer Shank Racing that beat out Andretti to the top spot, with Alexander Rossi second and championship leader Scott McLaughlin third.

There was a small delay getting underway, as extra cleanup was needed from the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Series that hit the track just before, but when the green flag flew Andretti-affiliated cars dominated the early portions of the session. All four Andretti cars (Rossi, Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta, Devlin DeFrancesco) as well as both MSR cars (Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves) dominated the top ten.

But as the session went on, Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing took the lead and the field began to diversify with more Ganassi and Team Penske cars filling out the top of the time sheets.

Bad luck continued to plague Arrow McLaren SP, as Pato O’Ward slapped the wall exiting turn five with about twenty-six minutes to go. With the tyre slightly knocked off the rim, O’Ward managed to make it back to the pits without causing a red flag. With only one lap to his name, many thought his day was over, but all the team needed to do was repair some rear tow links and got him back on track. He was able to salvage some time in the session and finished in fourteenth place ahead of his teammate Felix Rosenqvist.

With 16 minutes to go, the session went red for the first time as Jimmie Johnson ended up nose-first in the tyre barrier at the outside of turn five. Johnson ran over the curbs and the car bottomed out hard, sending him straight into the barrier and ending his day with a twenty-fourth place finish. Johnson held onto the wheel through the contact and was seen shaking his right hand in the cockpit, raising concern about an injury. Neither Johnson or the team have confirmed any injury.

McLaren F1 Team’s Executive Director, Andrea Stella, was pleased with the team’s Friday practice sessions at the Albert Park Circuit, having noticed a slight improvement in performance after completing their programme without complication. 

Lando Norris finished fifth and eighth in Free Practice One and Free Practice Two respectively, while Daniel Ricciardo filled in eighth and tenth on the time-sheets. Stella said that their programme allowed them to hone in on tyre performance, a factor he said looks “interesting” for the Australian Grand Prix. 

“We’ve had a very productive Friday in Melbourne. Despite several interruptions for red flags, we could work through our programme without problems. Understanding the tyres was a significant part of that: they look interesting this weekend!”

McLaren has struggled to compete at the front end of the midfield so far this season, they’re currently placed eighth in the tight Constructors’ standings with six points. Having broken into the top ten with both cars on Friday, Stella is optimistic about the team’s potential to perform in Qualifying and be in contention for points. 

“In terms of competitiveness, we seem to have taken a small step forward. We’ll have to work hard tonight to try and consolidate our position with the aim of being in contention for a position in Q3 tomorrow, and hopefully fighting for some points on Sunday.”

When the Stadium Super Trucks last visited the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in September, Robby Gordon snapped Matt Brabham‘s Fastest Qualifier streak. Fast forward to April and the trucks’ return trip to Long Beach, and Gordon once again led the way in qualifying.

Gordon topped the twenty-minute practice/qualifying session on Friday with a best time of 1:46.666. He will seek to strengthen his grip on the California street circuit as the holder of the most SST Long Beach wins with four, which included winning Race #2 in 2021.

Brabham, who returns to the trucks after participating in Indy Lights testing at Indianapolis, finished nearly two seconds back. He is a three-time winner at Long Beach. 2018 Race #1 winner Gavin Harlien was third ahead of his first start since 2019; Harlien took a two-year hiatus to focus on academics. Jerett Brooks, 2021 Race #1 victor, was fourth.

Following sophomore Robert Stout was Davey Hamilton Jr., who last raced the trucks in 2018 and intends to race the full schedule. Hamilton live-streamed his qualifying run on Facebook.

A pair of SST débutants qualified eighth and ninth, respectively, as Ryan Arciero was ahead of Cleetus McFarland. Rounding out the top ten was Shaun Richardson of the now shuttered Boost Mobile Super Trucks, who is running his first American SST weekend since 2017.

McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris worked their way into the top ten during the Australian Grand Prix’s Friday practice sessions, with both drivers showing optimism for the team’s current trajectory.

Ricciardo finished eighth and tenth in Free Practice One and Two, respectively, completing a cumulative forty-seven laps. Having experienced the new modifications made to the Albert Park Circuit for the first time, he said that he is pleased with the changes overall.

“It was a good day, just getting back into the groove here in Melbourne, and I enjoyed it. The layout has always been fun, but it now has some additional changes to it and for the most part, I like them. Both cars ended in the top ten in both sessions today, so hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for the weekend.”

Ricciardo is going into his home Grand Prix with a positive outlook, and looks to keep moving forward with the car. Yet to score points this season, he hopes that “better days” lie ahead.

“We’re in a decent place with the car and we’ll just keep at it. We will try to adapt with the track in terms of changes for the rest of the weekend to stay on top of it. I have good confidence and hopefully it turns into better days to come.”

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team believe they have some idea of what direction they need to go with set-up for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, but their inability to get enough heat into their tyres is making it difficult for the team.

Lewis Hamilton finished seventh fastest when conditions were warmer in the morning session at Albert Park, but neither he nor team-mate George Russell broke into the top ten in the afternoon when temperatures dropped by around ten degrees Celsius.

Andrew Shovlin, the Track Engineering Director at Mercedes, says failing to get their tyres up to the correct working temperatures is hurting the team, but without confidence in the car, the drivers will not be able to carry the speeds through the corners needed to increase those temperatures.

Shovlin says they are in a ‘vicious cycle’ as a result of this, and if they can get over the tyre temperature problems, the team should be able to find a good amount of lap time to bring them into contention.

“We’re finding it hard to generate tyre temperature here so that’s the big thing we need to work on overnight,” said Shovlin.  “We were clearly more competitive in the first session than in the cooler conditions of the afternoon session, and the data we’re seeing from the car is supporting the fact we’re just not hot enough.

George Russell reiterated the fact that the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team are not where they want to be at this stage of the season, with the Briton failing to break into the top ten in either free practice session around the revised Albert Park circuit on Friday.

Russell joined Mercedes in 2022 after three years with Williams Racing, and he would have expected to be genuinely fighting at the front of the field for the first time in his Formula 1 career, but it has not turned out the way anyone could have imagined.

The British racer was only twelfth fastest in the morning session in Australia and eleventh in the afternoon, with porpoising again causing a lot of issues for the team down the straights of Albert Park.

“We’re not in a position where we want to be, there are quite a few midfield cars ahead of us and we’re obviously a long way off the pace from the front,” said Russell.  “We need to work hard tonight and understand the limitations.

“The car actually felt alright, we’re porpoising pretty bad into turn nine but I think that’s something we just have to deal with for the time being. We believe how we set the car up was the fastest way around the track but maybe it’s not, so we’ll be working hard tonight to understand more.

Valtteri Bottas says he has hope that his run of over one hundred consecutive Q3 appearances can continue this weekend in Australia after a strong looking day for the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver on Friday.

Bottas has made it into Q3 on both of his previous appearances with his new team, and it is one hundred and two in a row for the Finn, a record he is proud of and one he wants to continue this weekend at Albert Park.

The former Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver finished tenth fastest in the morning session at the revised Albert Park track, but he improved to seventh in the afternoon, which adds to his confidence about continuing his amazing run.

“I am pretty happy about where we are and I think I have a realistic chance to keep my Q3 streak going – I don’t want to give up on that!” said Bottas.  “That’s our goal, if we set the car up right tonight we should be fighting for a place in the top ten.

“We were able to run with different compounds today and the way they work reflect pretty much what we expected, so we are confident we can use them well, and I didn’t suffer from too much degradation, which is a positive.