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Max Verstappen was pleased to take pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, but the Red Bull Racing driver was not happy with the laps he completed in Q3 that left him perilously close to being beaten by Lando Norris when it mattered.

Verstappen topped both the first and second segments of Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring with relative ease, but when it came to the top ten shootout in Q3, he was only 0.048 seconds ahead of the McLaren F1 Team driver when the chequered flag fell.

The popular Dutchman says he will analyse what changed in Q3 that prevented him from streaking to an easier pole position than what actually materialised, but all-in-all, he was happy with his day.

“Q1 and Q2 were very good and comfortable but I was not entirely happy in Q3 as my laps weren’t amazing,” said Verstappen.  “I’m of course happy to be on pole, especially at the Red Bull Ring again, and having three poles in a row is great for the Team.

“But I cannot be entirely happy as I always want to be perfect and I always want to analyse what went well and what went wrong. Maybe that is how I grew up but I also believe that is how you keep improving.”

Pato O’Ward led the final practice session ahead of Qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, with the Mexican getting the better of Friday’s pacesetter Josef Newgarden.

O’Ward, one of only two drivers to have won twice during the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season, set a best lap of 1:06.0911 to lead the way for the Chevrolet-powered Arrow McLaren SP team, although he was only 0.0082 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Newgarden.

Colton Herta was third for Andretti Autosport, just 0.0928 seconds off the pace as the top twenty-one cars of the twenty-six cars racing this weekend were within a second of O’Ward’s best time.

Fourth went the way of Graham Rahal of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, 0.2437 seconds off O’Ward’s best, while fifth was Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport, just ahead of Team Penske duo Will Power and Scott McLaughlin, the latter the first of the rookies in the field.

Jack Harvey, who will be looking to get his season back on track after a torrid run of bad luck and bad results since the Indianapolis 500 in May, was eighth fastest, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was only ninth, just ahead of Arrow McLaren’s returning driver Felix Rosenqvist.

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, with the Dutchman confirmed the kind of pace he had shown all weekend long during the free practice sessions.

The Red Bull Racing driver will be joined on the front row by the impressive Lando Norris, with the McLaren F1 Team racer securing his best Qualifying position of his career.

Q1 – Räikkönen, Ocon Exit

The opening session at the Red Bull Ring saw a thrilling conclusion, with Kimi Räikkönen the first of those to be eliminated, the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver finishing just over three-tenths back on team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, who comfortably made it through in the second C41-Ferrari.

Also eliminated, and well adrift of his team-mate was Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon in seventeenth, with the Red Bull Ring again proving a difficult circuit to get right for the Frenchman.  Team-mate Fernando Alonso was an encouraging third fastest!

Nicholas Latifi was unable to break into Q2 for Williams Racing, with the Canadian continuing his run of being out-qualified by team-mate George Russell, who was able to make it into Q2 for an eighth consecutive race weekend.

Max Verstappen will go into Saturday afternoon’s Qualifying session for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring as clear favourite for pole position after the Dutchman was more than half a second ahead of the field in final practice.

The Red Bull Racing driver stayed in the garage for the early part of the session as other drivers ran laps on Pirelli’s prototype tyre, but when he joined the track, he was immediately quick.  His best lap of 1:04.591 was 0.538 seconds clear of second placed Valtteri Bottas.

After ending Friday afternoon’s session first and second, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team were forced to settle for second and third, with Bottas over a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. 

Hamilton did set a time of 1:04.994 to move into second, but it was immediately deleted as he exceeded track limits at the exit of the final turn.  However, it would have still seen the reigning World Champion end over four-tenths of a second away from Verstappen’s best.

Behind the leading three came the ever-impressive Pierre Gasly, with the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver ending just 0.003 seconds behind Hamilton.  His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was unable to break into the top ten, with the Japanese racer ending twelfth after surviving a wild moment exiting the penultimate turn that saw him spin and almost hit the barriers.

Lewis Hamilton will remain with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team until at least the end of the 2023 Formula 1 season after agreeing a new contract with the German outfit.

The seven-time World Champion has put pen-to-paper on a new deal that will see him race for Mercedes for eleven consecutive seasons, having joined the team ahead of the 2013 season.

Since joining the team, Hamilton has amassed six of his World Championship triumphs, as well as seventy-seven victories and seventy-four pole positions.  He is bidding this year to win an eighth title, which would break the record he currently shares with Michael Schumacher.

And Hamilton will now continue with Mercedes into the new era of Formula 1, which begins with a major aerodynamic overhaul in 2022.

“It is hard to believe it’s been nearly nine years working with this incredible team and I’m excited we’re going to continue our partnership for two more years,” said Hamilton.  “We’ve accomplished so much together but we still have a lot to achieve, both on and off the track.

Dennis Hauger delivered one of FIA Formula 3’s greatest drive as he charged through to victory from 12th on the grid , extending his championship lead considerably.

The PREMA driver started from the sixth row by virtue of securing pole position yesterday but he was able to make decisive moves when others couldn’t to get through to third behind Matteo Nannini and Clément Novalak.

The leading duo went wheel-to-wheel into turn four on lap 21 but they both ended up in the gravel with Novalak not making it out, opening the door for Hauger to cruise through on his way to the top step of the podium, with fastest lap to boot.

His teammate Olli Caldwell joined him in the rostrum by holding off Logan Sargeant for second although the American struggled with tyre wear in the latter stages and fell back on the final couple of tours.

The second train of cars in a race which saw endless overtaking was eventually led home by Victor Martins who recovered from a brief gravel visit himself to beat Jak Crawford who looked accomplished fighting against the best of Formula 3.

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a Cup Series driver-featured sim racing production, has been discontinued for the rest of 2021. Five races were run during the first half of the season under Fox Sports broadcast, but the league was not picked up as NBC took over coverage.

The PIS was formed during in spring 2020 as the racing world was sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring Cup drivers and other real-life competitors on iRacing, the PIS proved to be a hit as it provided fans with a sense of normalcy even in difficult times. For 2021, Fox aired five races that took place in the weeks leading up to races at major events like Talladega and Darlington, new tracks to the actual calendar such as Bristol Dirt and Circuit of the Americas, and a fictional street circuit in Chicago. The Darlington race also marked the sim racing début of the 2022-bound Next Gen car, which had been revealed earlier in the day.

Although NBC Sports was initially expected to continue the series upon assuming broadcast duties for the second half, a schedule for the network was never provided. On Friday, NASCAR confirmed the series would not return for the rest of the year. Such a decision was spurred as ratings and interest declined in response to the world reopening. Nevertheless, NASCAR has not ruled out the possibility of reviving the PIS for special occasions.

While a formal championship was never kept, James Davison would have mathematically won the 2021 title if one existed. Davison was the only driver to have multiple wins with victories at COTA and Chicago. William Byron, Brad Keselowski, and Erik Jones respectively won at Bristol, Talladega, and Darlington; Keselowski would also win the real-life Talladega event.

With the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heading to one of the premier sprint car tracks in Knoxville Raceway, Jordan Anderson Racing has enlisted the services of a driver who certainly knows his way around Knoxville and in a sprint car. On Friday, JAR announced Parker Price-Miller will drive the #3 Chevrolet Silverado in 9 July’s Corn Belt 150. It will be his maiden NASCAR race.

Nicknamed “The Law Firm”, Price-Miller is no stranger to winning at Knoxville. The 410 sprint car racer has won at the Iowa dirt track and participated in the prestigious Knoxville Nationals, making the A-Main in 2018 (finished eighteenth, won the B-Main) and 2019 (sixteenth). The Indiana native has also raced outside the United States, winning the Canadian Nationals in 2016 and 2018 and competing in Australia.

“As a sprint car driver, it’s so cool that I’m getting the opportunity to make my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début at a track that is the absolute mecca of sprint car racing,” Price-Miller said.

“This year racing for Guy (Forbrook), we have been trying to run as many weekly races at Knoxville at possible in preparation for the famed Knoxville Nationals in August. I am hoping to apply some of the things I have learned over the years to have an edge over the NCWTS regulars and earn a solid finish for everyone in the sprint car community.”

After the Truck race, Price-Miller will also run Knoxville’s 410 sprint car event the following day.

Charles Leclerc does not feel Scuderia Ferrari’s pace was representative on Friday, particularly in the afternoon session when the Monegasque racer ended sixteenth fastest.

Leclerc was an encouraging second in the morning session behind Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, but he was compromised at the end of the afternoon session by drizzle just as he was about to start a qualifying simulation.

Leclerc, who has two pole positions to his name in 2021, says the team are feeling positive about their chances of having a strong Qualifying on Saturday, while also believing they have a strong car for race day.

“It was a busy day, because of the packed programme we ran,” said Leclerc.  “We still have lots of things to work on, and I don’t think our times are representative.

“The main improvement we need to find is on the rears and we also have to tune the car better for tomorrow. We used the C5 compound for the first time, and have to understand how to extract the maximum from it.

Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed his Friday at the Red Bull Ring, with the Japanese racer ending inside the top six in both free practice sessions.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver ended the morning session an impressive fifth, and he followed that up by posting the sixth fastest time in the afternoon, less than nine-tenths of a second off the best time of the day set by Lewis Hamilton.

Tsunoda says the team have been able to identify things that they struggled with in last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same circuit, and coupled with the progress made, he was happy with his own mistake-free day in Austria.

“We’ve had a decent day and are happy that we’ve maintained the pace from last week,” said Tsunoda.  “We have worked hard on our longer running, as that was something we found we struggled with during the race, and I think this has been really positive.

“They weren’t the easiest conditions out there, the circuit is much colder this week and then we had some rain towards the end of FP2.

Antonio Giovinazzi says it was a positive Friday for himself and for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, with the Italian placing inside the top ten in the afternoon session at the Red Bull Ring.

Giovinazzi sat out the morning session as Alfa Romeo gave Callum Ilott a chance behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari, but despite this, he was able to have a competitive afternoon session to end tenth fastest.

The Italian says there is still work to be done by Alfa Romeo to fine tune and refine their package ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session, where Giovinazzi will be aiming for a second appearance in Q3 of the season.

“It was quite a smooth FP2 for me, we finished the full programme we set out to do including some laps on the prototype tyres and some high-fuel runs,” said Giovinazzi.  “In general, it was a positive session.

“The midfield seems very close, as always, so we will need to keep working hard to find that little extra performance to be at the edge, especially on Saturday. We still have one session before qualifying to refine our package and then we’ll give our maximum in qualifying.”

Callum Ilott participated in his second free practice session of the season with the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, and the young Briton says he felt he was able to learn a lot during his twenty-three-lap run.

The runner-up in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship replaced Antonio Giovinazzi for the session, and he performed admirably to finish sixteenth fastest, less than a second shy on the team’s regular race driver Kimi Räikkönen.

Ilott had his first practice outing in the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this year, and he felt more comfortable behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari than he did at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

And Ilott felt he did a respectable job as he took to the track the majority of the field had raced at just last weekend.

“I really enjoyed the session today:  I feel I made a good progression and we were able to try and learn a good amount of things,” said Ilott.  “Jumping in the car when everyone else had a full week of running here is never easy, but I still feel it was a very positive session.

Fernando Alonso made amends from missing first practice at the Red Bull Ring by placing inside the top eight in the afternoon, with the Alpine F1 Team driver feeling there is still more to come this weekend.

The veteran Spaniard sat out the opening session as Alpine gave test driver Guanyu Zhou an opportunity behind the wheel of the A521, but despite this, he was able to break into the top ten in the afternoon, 0.870 seconds behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso says experiencing Pirelli’s softest compound of tyre in Austria, a tyre that was not available seven days ago within the Styrian Grand Prix, was good, and he hopes the team can fine tune their car overnight in a bid to be competitive in Qualifying on Saturday.

“It was good to be back in the car this afternoon especially with the C5 tyre compound, that we didn’t have last weekend,” said Alonso.  “It was good to try some laps on them on both short runs and long runs.

“I think that we still need to do some work to fine tune the set-up of the car; with this tyre compound, maybe, we have a different balance. It was quite a smooth FP2 for us and there’s more to come tomorrow hopefully.”

The opening day of the Austrian Grand Prix has been a mainly positive one for Mclaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris, the British driver ended both sessions just inside the top ten.

The opening sessions at the venue where Norris claimed his first podium in Formula 1, saw him test multiple things, resulting in ending the day ninth fastest almost a second behind the pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.

Both sessions went fairly smoothly for Norris, the only mistake by the driver came in the second practice session where Norris span on the exit of the first corner. Thankfully for the team the spin was harmless and no damage was caused. Norris can be somewhat optimistic going into Saturday.

“A positive day because we tested a lot of different things, but we just haven’t put everything together really. Of the things we tested, some were good, some not as good, and we now have a better understanding of the car than we did last weekend. Hopefully we can choose all the best things from the work we did today and progress tomorrow to make sure we’re that little bit quicker than we were last week. Today was a productive day and let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

“It’s been an interesting day” – Daniel Ricciardo

For the other Mclaren F1 Team driver Daniel Ricciardo, it was at least to him a good day at the office, the classification however doesn’t make for pretty reading with the Australian ending the opening day in fifteenth.

Opening practice at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course saw Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden comfortably top the times as he goes in search of his first win of the 2021 NTT Indycar Series.

The Nashville, Tennessee native saw a dominant victory snatched away from his grasp at Road America last time out as his Penske Chevrolet developed a problem on the last restart with under five laps to go, just one race since he was overtaken late on by Pato O’Ward for the win in Detroit.

O’Ward himself was also quick but he was a quarter of a second of Newgarden’s table-topping time for Arrow McLaren SP to give Chevrolet a one-two although there was a swarm of Honda’s behind them.

Leading the Honda contingent was Jack Harvey who continuously proves how the little guys can mix it at the front with Meyer Shank Racing, but he is yet to win in Indycar despite many strong performances on road courses.

Alexander Rossi has had something of a nothing season so far so he will desperately want a good weekend and he started well in fourth ahead of Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean.