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The final race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season and the Gen-6 car culminated in the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway. In a battle of Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., it was Larson who came out on top for his first title.

Larson won the pole ahead of Elliott, while Hamlin qualified six and Truex twelfth.

Stage #1

Corey LaJoie was behind the opening stage’s two cautions after contact with Bubba Wallace on lap six, which sent Wallace into the wall, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on lap 15, causing Stenhouse to spin. After Larson and Elliott led through the two incidents, Ryan Blaney took the lead on the lap 21 restart.

Blaney led until Kevin Harvick took the position on lap 49. The two battled with Truex before the latter won out and drove off to the stage win. Harvick, Elliott, Larson, William Byron, Cole Custer, Blaney, Kurt Busch, and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top ten. Busch, along with Ross Chastain, were participating in the final NASCAR race for Chip Ganassi Racing before the team’s assets and Chastain head to Trackhouse Racing Team and Busch moves to 23XI Racing.

Stage #2

Elliott and Truex led the field to begin the second stage. After a lap of jockeying, the championship drivers occupied the top four.

Max Verstappen sealed a comfortable win at the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix and extended his lead over Lewis Hamilton to eighteen points in the drivers’ championship.

Hamilton had to defend hard to keep second position as Sergio Pérez hunted the Briton down in the final laps. This is the third race in a row that both Red Bull Racing drivers finished in the podium places.

The race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City took place under hot conditions with air temperatures at 21 degree C and track temperatures at 48 degree C.

Valtteri Bottas started on pole position with team-mate Hamilton on the front row. Verstappen and Pérez started on the second row. Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz were on the third row.

Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen started in the top ten positions. All the drivers except Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda started on the medium compound tyres.

It eluded him for years, but he has finally done it and in the best way possible: Daniel Hemric is a NASCAR race winner, and he won an Xfinity Series championship with it.

In a dramatic overtime finish, Hemric chased down reigning champion Austin Cindric before beating him to the line by just .030 of a second.

Cindric won the pole ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, who was still reeling from losing the Truck Series championship race on Friday despite his dominant campaign there. Hemric started fourth, Noah Gragson seventh, and A.J. Allmendinger twelfth. Spencer Boyd, Landon Cassill, Ryan Ellis, Joey Gase, Timmy Hill, and Stephen Leicht failed to qualify.

Nemechek led much of the opening stage before Cindric took the lead on lap 21 and drove off to the stage win. Hemric finished second ahead of Nemechek, Justin Allgaier, Gragson, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Michael Annett, Riley Herbst, and Justin Haley.

Hemric won the race off pit road to lead the field to begin Stage #2. Jeffrey Earnhardt spun and wrecked on lap 60 for the first race-related caution of the night. Nemechek became the new leader shortly after the restart before Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Hemric reclaimed the spot on lap 87 and led to the win. Cindric got by Nemechek for second. Allgaier, Gragson, Haley, Burton, Annett, and Herbst rounded out the top ten.

Valtteri Bottas clinched pole position at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix in the eighteenth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton had to be content with second position and will start from the first row. Max Verstappen finished in third position. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team have locked out the front row for the race on Sunday.

The qualifying session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City took place under sunny conditions with air temperatures at 21 degree C and track temperatures at 45 degree 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).

Q1: Alonso Eliminated

The eighteen-minute long first qualifying session got underway and the first drivers on the track were the Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers and Nicholas Latifi.

In his final race for Toyota Gazoo Racing, Kazuki Nakajima brought home the GR010 Hybrid Hypercar to take the final victory of the season. It was a dominant race from the #8 crew, but the points deficit was too much for them to over hall to take the championship from the sister team in the #7 car: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.

The race itself for the Hypercar class was a fairly straightforward one. Nicolas Lapierre in the #36 Alpine Elf Matmut entry had an incredible start, diving up the inside of both the Toyota machines to take the lead going into Turn 1. However it wasn’t due to last as the pace of the Toyotas had the sole LMP1 car being reeled in almost as quickly as it darted away. To add insult to injury, Lapierre suffered a gear shift issue that forced the car into the garage for six laps. Any hope the Alpine team had of challenging the Toyotas for the final win of the season disappeared as they had to focus on fighting back up through the field. They made it back to overall P3 with two hours to go, a position they weren’t challenged for nor looked like progressing from at all between then and the chequered flag.

There was a scare for the leading #8 Toyota when Brendon Hartley, mid way through the race, also suffered a gear shift issue. The car was struggling to select gears when shifting down. Luckily, a quick steering wheel change at the driver change over solved the issue and they went on to win the race from the sister car by 7.351 seconds.

Once again, Team WRT showed incredible race craft as they dashed from seventh on the grid to claim the triple (FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 champions, European Le Mans Series LMP2 and 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 winners) with race victory at the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain. Not only did they climb up the grid from seventh to take the championship and race victory, but they dominated the field with a staggering 1m14s lead at the chequered flag. It has been an amazing performance from the rookie team who have certainly shaken themselves of the ‘underdog’ label.

The tightest battle in class was between the two JOTA entries, battling for second on the podium. With the points gap between second and third not enough for Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson to overtake the sister team in the championship, it was a battle of pride over anything else. Davidson, in his last professional race – he announced he would be retiring from racing after the 8 Hours of Bahrain – was definitely up for the challenge and was egging Da Costa on when he climbed out of the car for the last time to hand the #38 JOTA to the Portuguese driver for the final stint.

Sergio Pérez topped the final free practice session in front of his adoring home crowd at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was in second position, 0.193 seconds behind the Mexican. Lewis Hamilton was in third position with a gap of 0.651 seconds behind the leader.

The sixty-minute long all-important third free practice session started under sunny conditions with air temperatures at 17 degrees C and track temperatures at 35 degrees C.

The track had cement dust deposited on it due to oil leakages from the support races making it even more slippery.

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).

After silence for the first five minutes, Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver on the track on a used set of soft compound tyres. The young Japanese driver was joined by Lance Stroll and George Russell.

Ben Rhodes began the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season by winning the first two races. On Friday night, he ended the season with his first series championship. Despite not winning the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Rhodes finished ahead of Championship Round rivals Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, and Matt Crafton to secure the title in his sixth full year of Truck competition.

A pair of eliminated drivers led the way in qualifying as Chandler Smith won the pole ahead of Sheldon Creed. Rhodes topped the Championship Four with a fourth-place qualifying effort ahead of Crafton’s fifth. Zane Smith and Nemechek started thirteetnh and sixteenth, respectively. Dawson Cram, Jennifer Jo Cobb, and Norm Benning missed the show.

Creed, reeling after missing the final round by just four points, quickly jumped to the lead. Ten laps in, Nemechek’s title hopes were quickly jeopardised when contact with Kris Wright caused him to brush the wall and his left-front tyre to go down. As a result, he fell two laps down and out of the top thirty. Lawless Alan‘s spin a lap later led to a caution.

Smith passed Creed for the top spot on lap 35 and led to the stage win. Todd Gilliland, Stewart Friesen, Rhodes, Carson Hocevar, Crafton, Christian Eckes, Zane Smith, and Derek Kraus rounded out the top ten; Nemechek was thirtieth. Taylor Gray spun with a downed right-rear coming to the finish.

Beating the field off pit road between segments, Creed assumed the lead to begin Stage #2. Nemechek elected to pit, subverting expectations that he would stay out and take the wave-around to return to the lead lap. The stage commenced with Creed taking off ahead of Rhodes. Although Nemechek began the stage as the first lapped truck and would rejoin the lead lap if a caution came out via free pass, Creed and the leaders eventually passed Spencer Boyd, shuffling the pass to him instead.

Max Verstappen comfortably finished on top of the time charts in second free practice at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finished in second position and third positions at the end of the second free practice session.

The sixty-minute long second free practice session started under dry conditions with air temperatures at 21 degrees C and track temperatures at 41 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).

It will be Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll’s turn to take on a new power unit and start the race from the back of the grid. Lewis Hamilton has escaped with a reprimand for incorrectly rejoining the track in the morning practice session.

All the drivers went out on the track as soon as the session started. Verstappen is the early leader on the medium compound tyres with a lap time of 1m18.818s.

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway appears to be the last race for StarCom Racing. On Friday, the team announced the sale of its charter to a currently anonymous buyer.

“It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our StarCom Racing fans,” read a statement from the team. “After the championship this weekend, our #00 charter will take new ownership. Thank you so much to all our fans for the fun memories and loyal support over the years!”

While the news did not reveal if the team will continue in as an Open operation or on a part-time basis, the wording of the statement suggests a shutdown. Various StarCom personnel have also issued their farewells; in September, mechanical director Charlie Langenstein made a since-deleted Twitter post that revealed the team would fold at the end of the 2021 season.

StarCom débuted in late 2017 with 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope, who also serves as general manager, in the #00. Acquiring a charter led to full-time competition in 2018 with multiple drivers, including the introduction of a part-time #99 car. Landon Cassill ran the full 2019 season and finished thirty-second in points before being replaced by Quin Houff. Cassill holds the team’s best finish of eleventh in the 2019 summer Daytona race.

Although the team generally finishes in the bottom half of the running order, all but two of their seven top-twenty finishes have come on superspeedways. The #00 has also finished in the top twenty in all four fall Talladega starts, with 2021’s being the team’s best finish of the year in nineteenth.

Valtteri Bottas finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City. Lewis Hamilton was in second position and Max Verstappen was in third position at the end of the first free practice session.

The sixty-minute long first free practice session started under clear skies and sunny conditions with air temperatures at 18 degrees C and track temperatures at 38 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).

Kimi Räikkönen was the first driver on the track followed by the Uralkali Haas F1 Team team drivers. Charles Leclerc complained about the dust on the yet to be rubbered in track.

Bottas went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m21.327s on the soft compound tyres. Hamilton was 0.222 seconds behind him in second position.

Achieving the opposite of last weekend, the Championship-leading Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 has claimed pole position over the sister car. Kevin Estre and Neel Jani have also extended their advantage over championship challengers James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, taking pole in LM GTE Pro.

With the battle set between the Toyota duo after last week’s results, all eyes were on Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Harley who were Toyota’s elect qualifiers for the 8 Hours of Bahrain. After the first laps, Kobayashi had provisional pole, competitively setting a 1:46.250 with a six tenth advantage over the New Zealand driver. Unsurprisingly, both drivers returned to the track for second runs. As the cars raced at the Bahrain International Circuit last weekend, they have more data now about tyre wear and degradation than they did last week, so worries of burning through too many tyres in qualifying were not as prominent.

Kobayashi bailed on his second run, leaving the door open for Hartley to snatch the pole position point, but the driver of the #8 car couldn’t find anymore than three tenths out on track giving the additional point this weekend to #7 team. Taking pole position has put the #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in a very strong position now only having to finish the race to take the 2021 championship. Only if the #7 car fails to make it to the chequered flag will the #8 team become 2021 champions.

The #36 Alpine Elf Matmut LMP1 car crossed the line seven tenths off the pace of Kobayashi, starting third in class. It is likely to have a quiet race for the finale of the season with the Toyotas outpacing it and focusing on each other for the title battle.

Showing more impressive one-lap pace, the #22 United Autosports OCREA took pole position in LMP2 in the hands of Filipe Alberquerque. The Portuguese driver set a 1:49.525 in the final moments of the session to knock Norman Nato off of pole by three tenths of a second. It was a tightly fought, with the top five ending within a second of each other at the end of the session.

Fernando Alonso says he will not bring up the move that saw Kimi Räikkönen overtake him with all four wheels off the track during the United States Grand Prix when the drivers meet FIA race director Michael Masi this Friday, but he is looking to bring up why drivers were not penalised for running off track at turn one on lap one at the Circuit of the Americas.

Looking back at the race in the United States, Alonso says the decision not to penalise Räikkönen was questionable, and he still believes the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver should have given the place back to the Alpine F1 Team racer.

“When you pass outside the circuit you normally give up the position,” Alonso is quoted as saying by racefans.net. “If we bring this topic to the drivers’ meeting we will have the same answer so we will not bring it.

“I think if you are talking [about] football and you take the ball inside the area with your hands it will be a penalty so you don’t need to bring this to every match. Every time you touch the ball with your hands in the penalty area it’s going to be a penalty, every match.”

However, Alonso’s main concern regarding the race in Austin is the fact that drivers were able to run off-track at the exit of turn one on the opening lap and potentially gain an advantage without being penalised, with kerbing being removed earlier in the weekend after issues in Formula 4 races.

Esteban Ocon will race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the first time since 2018 this weekend, with the Alpine F1 Team driver excited to return to the venue of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Frenchman missed the 2019 event as he sat out the season after losing his seat with the Racing Point Formula One Team, while the 2020 race was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ocon says the track in the capital city of Mexico is a good one, and even though they will be running a high downforce set-up, the altitude will make it feel like they have low downforce levels, with the speed down the start/finish straight amongst the fastest of the year.

“It’s always cool to visit Mexico City as it’s quite an electric place,” said Ocon.  “There’s a nice buzz there when Formula 1 visits and we haven’t been there for a couple of years so I’m sure the atmosphere is going to be special this year.

“In between Austin and here, I spent a little bit of time on holiday in Mexico and it’s a great place. After a short rest, I’m feeling fresh and ready to take on this weekend.

Kimi Räikkönen feels the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team have been close to scoring points in the last couple of races, and he hopes to make that next step and break into the top ten in the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend.

Räikkönen, who will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season, says it will be important for Alfa Romeo to get everything right across the whole weekend if they are to be a genuine top ten contender on Sunday afternoon.

However, the Finn knows the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a tricky one to get right and an easy one to make a mistake on, particularly with how slippery it can be.

“We hope to be able to score points in Mexico City: we went really close in the last couple of races so our pace should allow us to be in the fight but, as always, it will be a matter of getting everything right across the weekend,” said Räikkönen.  

“This is a very slippery track and it’s easy to make mistakes, especially in qualifying, but it’s really rewarding when you put a lap together.

Sebastian Vettel: “We want to pick up where we left off in the U

Sebastian Vettel wants to continue where he left off two weeks ago at the Circuit of the Americas in this weekends Mexico City Grand Prix, with his performance in the United States seeing him score a point in tenth place despite starting the race at the back of the pack following a grid penalty for an engine change.

The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team racer has enjoyed his time racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in front of passionate fans of Formula 1, and he is aiming to bring home another top ten finish this Sunday afternoon.

“I have always enjoyed coming to the Mexican Grand Prix,” said Vettel.  “The fans are so passionate, and the lap is really challenging, so I’m excited to get going.

“We want to pick up where we left off in the US and build up a run of points scores. Preparation and reacting well is key because tyre performance is critical and the race can be interrupted by Safety Cars and Virtual Safety Cars.”