Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Joel Eriksson will continue racing for the Dragon/Penske Autosport team in this weekend’s New York City E-Prix after being confirmed as the replacement driver for Nico Müller, who has departed the team as he focuses on racing in the DTM Series in 2021.

Eriksson replaced Müller in the Puebla E-Prix last month and finished seventeenth in his very first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race, before ending fifteenth and ahead of team-mate Sérgio Sette Câmara in race two.  This was despite Sette Câmara having more experience in the series having raced all year long for Dragon/Penske Autosport.

The twenty-three-year-old Swede is looking to use the experience he had in Mexico to improve this weekend in Brooklyn, which will host the tenth and eleventh races of the 2020-21 season.  The venue was missing from the calendar last year due to COVID-19, having been on the calendar in the three years prior.

“I am thrilled to be back racing in Formula E for another weekend and prove what I can do,” said Eriksson, who last raced in single seaters prior to his Puebla appearance back in the Macau Grand Prix in 2018. “Big thanks to DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT for putting this continued trust in me.

“We worked well together in Mexico, and my driving evolved with every session and lap. It is amazing to head across the Atlantic to be part of a World Championship event in New York City itself.

Williams Racing fell just short of a points finish at the Austrian Grand Prix, after George Russell finished in eleventh place at the Red Bull Ring. Nicholas Latifi finished fifteenth.

Russell who ran in tenth for the majority of the race, was overtaken by Fernando Alonso with only four laps remaining after defending the Spaniard brilliantly for so much of the race. The British driver continues his search for his first ever point for Williams, the British Grand Prix which hosts the next round of the championship would be a fitting place to do it.

Latifi had a lonely race, the most dramatic moment of Latifi’s race came after the chequered flag. The Canadian was awarded a thirty-second time penalty plus had three-penalty points added to his licence, for failing to slow under double-waved yellows on the final lap.

Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson knows that the team did everything they could to get that tenth place but is frustrated to fall just short.

“We gave it everything today and fought hard with the midfield teams. Frustratingly, George couldn’t quite hold on to 10th place, but we can be pleased with our weekend’s work. The car has behaved well, and we have pushed it very hard.

“After a challenging triple-header, we are looking forward to some time at home before we head to Silverstone, where we’ll look to build on the work from the last couple of weekends. It will be great to be back at Silverstone in front of a home crowd as we take on the challenge of the new Sprint Qualifying format.”

George Russell yet again came agonisingly close to getting his first ever point for Williams Racing, after finishing eleventh at the Austrian Grand Prix. Team-mate Nicholas Latifi finished fifteenth.

After his best ever qualifying for Williams after starting in eighth, Russell slipped a few places early on in the race. Despite this the British driver battled hard to climb up to tenth, before a long battle with veteran Fernando Alonso.

Russell defended valiantly for so long but came up just short, Alonso overtook the Williams with only four laps to go, a bitter pill for Russell to swallow. Nevertheless Russell can be proud of his performance at the Red Bull Ring despite falling just short yet again.

“Today was so close, yet so far. I got off the line well at the start, but then Tsunoda had quite a big lock up and cut in front of me to avoid going into his teammate, so I had to get on the brakes and lost a couple of places. That didn’t really change the outcome of our race as there were faster cars that were always going to finish ahead of us.

“That P10 point would feel like a race victory for us, so I was fighting with everything I had. Of all the drivers to have behind you in this situation, Fernando wouldn’t be who you’d choose; he was flying and holding him off just wasn’t possible on my tyres. We’re all disappointed to miss out by such a small margin, but we’re making real progress and we’ll take the positives on to Silverstone.”

The Austrian Grand Prix was a disappointing one for the Alpine F1 Team, with Fernando Alonso scoring a single point and Esteban Ocon retiring on the opening lap at the Red Bull Ring.

After both drivers qualified poorly, Alpine F1 Team Executive Director Marcin Budkowski knew that scoring any points was going to be a challenge. Alonso rose to the challenge however and had a race long battle with Williams Racing’s George Russell, who was occupying the final points spot. Alonso overtook the British driver with only four laps remaining, to finish in tenth and extend his consecutive points finishes to four races in a row.

Ocon had another race to forget in Austria, the Frenchman’s race lasted three corners after being sandwiched in between Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi on the exit of turn three, breaking his front-right suspension. Ocon retired immediately.

Budkowski believes that tenth is a good result considering how poor qualifying was and is hoping for a better result at the British Grand Prix.

“Considering the circumstances, finishing in tenth place is a decent result as it was always going be a challenge to score points from fourteenth and seventeenth on the grid. Esteban got sandwiched at Turn 3 on the first lap and was forced to retire with a broken suspension.

Fernando Alonso extended his points scoring run to four races in a row, after snatching tenth place off Williams Racing’s George Russell in the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. Team-mate Esteban Ocon retired on the first lap.

After starting in fourteenth place, Alonso had a lot of ground to make up if he wanted to keep his points run going. The veteran Spaniard dug deep throughout the race where for almost the entirety of it, he sat behind Russell who was occupying the final points spot.

With four laps remaining though Alonso made his move on Russell and climbed up to tenth, extending his run of consecutive points finishes and adding a single point to the team’s tally. Alonso despite being happy with the point, believes he deserved more.

“It was difficult to score points today and we knew this starting from so far back. We are happy with the point, although we know we deserved more this weekend, but it’s better than nothing. It was a tense and a good battle with George [Russell] on-track this afternoon and in the end, we had better tyres and managed to accomplish the overtake.

“On a positive, we saw some good improvements from the team this weekend and the car felt good across all three days here. I feel more confident now going into Silverstone for the next race with the car and the tyres and I’m enjoying being more competitive.”

The Austrian Grand Prix produced a comfortable win for Max Verstappen as he recorded his third consecutive win and extended his lead at the top of the 2021 FIA World Drivers’ Championship.

Lando Norris took another step forward in a stellar season as he clinched his third podium of the season. There was more frantic action in the midfield at the ninth race of the season at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.

Top of the class…

Max Verstappen – Red Bull Racing Honda

Qualifying margin to team-mate: -0.270s | Race margin to team-mate: -57.915s

Max Verstappen had a race weekend he could savour for the second week in a row at the Red Bull Ring circuit. The Dutchman in front of a sea of fans clad in orange simply ran away with the race victory.

Verstappen was not happy with his pole lap and was almost eclipsed by the final flying lap of Norris. But after that he simply sailed to his fifth win of the season. It was his first grand slam win with pole position, all laps lead, fastest lap and the win.

Verstappen has now extended his lead in the drivers’ championship to thirty-two points over Lewis Hamilton and seems unbeatable at the moment.

For the first time in seven years, Michael Annett will run a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. On Monday, Young’s Motorsports announced Annett will drive the #02 Chevrolet Silverado in Friday’s Corn Belt 150 at Knoxville Raceway.

While the Knoxville dirt track is new to the Truck schedule for 2021, Annett’s last start in the series incidentally came on the surface in 2014 at Eldora Speedway, where he finished twenty-fifth for NTS Motorsports. Prior to that race, he ran eight Truck races in 2008 for Bill Davis Racing and Germain Racing, scoring two top tens with a runner-up finish at Kentucky.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran, currently in his fifth year with JR Motorsports, sits tenth in points after seventeen races with eight top tens and a best run of third at Road America last Saturday. Annett’s last national series start outside of the second tier came in the Cup Series in 2016, his third and final full-time season at the top level.

With Iowa Speedway no longer on the Xfinity schedule, Knoxville essentially serves as Annett’s NASCAR national home track. Knoxville is approximately forty miles away from his hometown Des Moines, and his father Harrold Annett fielded sprint cars at the circuit for the likes of Mike Brooks and Sammy Swindell. The elder Annett, who served as chairman of TMC Transportation until his death, was inducted into the Knoxville Raceway Hall of Fame in 2007. TMC will sponsor Annett’s truck for the race, and the vehicle will sport a livery modelled after Harrold’s dirt cars.

“It’s been my dream to race at Knoxville ever since I can remember,” said Annett. “I can’t thank Tyler (Young, team principal) and Young’s Motorsports enough for giving me the opportunity.”

The Austrian Grand Prix was somewhat disappointing for the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team, after their ultra-impressive performance in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. Pierre Gasly brought home yet more points for the team in ninth whereas Yuki Tsunoda ended the race in twelfth.

Gasly and Tsunoda who started the race sixth and seventh respectively, both opted for a two-stop strategy as they started on the soft compound tyre. Unfortunately for both drivers the strategy didn’t go as planned, as they played catch-up throughout the race on the one-stoppers.

Gasly did well to work his way up to ninth to extend his points scoring run, whereas Tsunoda made his afternoon one to forget after crossing the white line on pit entry for both of his stops. This resulted in two separate five-second time penalties.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda Chief Engineer Claudio Balestri believes that it’s not possible to be happy with the result, considering where both drivers started the race. Nevertheless the team did get two more crucial points for their constructors tally.

“Today we tried our best in terms of strategy. Starting on soft tyres with both cars we decided to utilise a two-stop strategy, using the advantage of having two new sets of Hards, but at the end of the race we weren’t able to stay in front of the other cars on one-stop strategies. Pierre showed good pace today, especially in the last stint. He was able to catch the one stoppers and finish the race just behind them, without the yellow flag in turn four on the final lap Pierre would have also tried to overtake Leclerc.

Pierre Gasly finished in the points yet again after finishing in ninth place at the Austrian Grand Prix, whereas team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had a horrible afternoon at the Red Bull Ring. The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda rookie finished in twelfth.

Gasly was one of the few drivers who started the race on the soft tyres after opting for a two-stop strategy. The Frenchman who started sixth found himself playing catch up for the majority of the race. Gasly was surrounded by drivers who were going for the one-stop, meaning that after his second stop he was stuck behind the one-stop runners.

It may not have been as good a finish as Gasly was hoping, for but the Frenchman is yet again in the points, helping increase his personal points tally.

“I think today was harder than we imagined, but the good thing is we’re consistently scoring points. We thought we would benefit more from the two-stop strategy, but we struggled more than expected on the Softs at the start of the race.

“There are some positives to take away though and we still showed some strong pace out there.  We’re continuing to battle at the top of the midfield but it’s disappointing to not be finishing further up the grid today. We’ll review all the data tonight and then look forward to Silverstone, which is a track I love.”

Teamwork was the key to Scuderia Ferrari’s double points finish at the Austrian Grand Prix, despite both drivers starting outside the top ten. Carlos Sainz Jr drove superbly to finish fifth with Charles Leclerc in eighth.

Ferrari opted to run their drivers on different strategies at the Red Bull Ring, Leclerc started on the mediums and then went onto the hards, with Sainz doing the opposite and running his opening stint much longer than everyone else.

Sainz’s strategy meant that he was one of the fastest cars on circuit at the end of the race, the Spaniard found himself behind Leclerc who moved out of the way for his team-mate. This allowed Sainz to make the most out of his fresher tyres and climb his way up to sixth. Sainz was elevated to fifth place at the end of the race after Sergio Pérez was awarded two five-second penalties, for twice being deemed to have forced Leclerc off the circuit.

Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto was proud of the team spirit shown between the drivers during the race, and believes fifth was the best result possible on the day.

“This result is in line with our potential at this track. Fifth place was on the cards and the most we could aspire to. Carlos secured it with a great drive, while Charles definitely deserved better.

After another poor qualifying at the Red Bull Ring for both Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz Jr put in a strong performance to finish in fifth place at the Austrian Grand Prix after working together with his team-mate Charles Leclerc who finished eighth.

It was a very similar performance to the one he put in at the Styrian Grand Prix with virtually the same strategy in use. The team decided to start Sainz on the hard compound tyres and run as deep as possible into the race. By the time Sainz eventually stopped for a set of the yellow C4 medium tyres, the Spaniard was able to push as much as he wanted, whilst those around were running much slower to preserve their older tyres.

It didn’t take long for Sainz to get onto the back of the top ten train, where with the help of his team-mate he managed to work his way up to sixth place. At the flag however Sainz was promoted to fifth after Sergio Pérez who crossed the line in fifth, was awarded two separate five-second penalties, resulting in ten seconds being added to his finishing time dropping him down to sixth and Sainz up to fifth.

Sainz proved yet again just how good his pace and racecraft is in the SF21, the Spaniard just has his one-lap pace to improve on.

“I’m leaving Austria feeling confident about the work we are doing weekend after weekend. Today we executed a smooth race with a good strategy, great tyre management and teamwork. We chose to start on Hards, which we knew would make us struggle in the first few laps. That cost me a couple of positions at the start due to the lack of grip but I knew my race was not about lap 1.

Elite Motorsport are one of two teams in their first BRDC British Formula 3 Championship season in 2021, but they’re adapting quickly.

They’re far from a new team, though, having replaced Lanan Racing.

The Norfolk squad have won the last four Ginetta Junior titles with Tom Gamble, Adam Smalley, James Hedley and Tom Lebbon.

Lebbon was the team’s second driver announced for its debut British F3 campaign, between Javier Sagrera and José Garfias.

Their line-up has brought a variety of experience to the grid, though the team had its first podium finish within three races.

Want to win money easily? Just bet on Chase Elliott winning on a road course.

Elliott dominated the final stage of Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 to win his second straight road race and seventh of his career, and become the first NASCAR Cup Series race winner at Road America since Tim Flock in 1956 (then the lone instance of Cup racing at the Wisconsin circuit).

Hendrick Motorsports team-mates William Byron and Kyle Larson qualified on the front row, while Elliott started thirty-fourth after being unable to set a qualifying lap before time expired, a fate that also befell others like Saturday’s Xfinity Series winner Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe. Busch would have started at the back regardless as he switched to a backup car following a wreck in practice, as did Ryan Preece. Bubba Wallace (transmission change), Justin Haley (engine change), Kyle Tilley, Josh Bilicki, and Quin Houff (all unapproved adjustments) were also ordered to the rear.

Byron led every lap in the opening stage. Daniel Suárez was not as fortunate as a transmission issue caused him to stop on track on lap four, resulting in a caution, before going to the garage. Tilley also produced a yellow flag when he drove into the gravel. By the end of the segment, Byron led A.J. Allmendinger, Larson, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch, and Elliott. Allmendinger did not receive stage points as he is running for the Xfinity championship.

Xfinity regular Austin Cindric took the lead to begin the second stage, though his day came to an end early in the final segment due to a gear issue. Matt DiBenedetto led laps before Kyle Busch assumed the position. Busch and many drivers elected to pit before the stage break, allowing Reddick to inherit the lead and stage win. Byron, Ross Chastain, Larson, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Wallace, Haley, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top ten.

At 23 years of age, Ernie Francis Jr. is the youngest driver in the Camping World SRX Series among the nine full-timers. Despite his youth, the seven-time Trans-Am Series champion showed he can wheel an SRX car around a .686-mile oval as he dominated Saturday’s race at Lucas Oil Raceway for his first win of the season.

Heat races

Rallycross star Scott Speed, driving a ringer car for the second time, dominated the first heat. Michael Waltrip ran behind Speed for much of the early portion before the caution came out for running too many laps under green, which Tony Kanaan used to his advantage to take second.

Willy T. Ribbs finished at the back to be on the pole for Heat #2. Paul Tracy led early before being passed by Hélio Castroneves, who held the spot through the next green-flag caution and the finish.

Heat #1 results

Heat #2 results

Feature

Unlike the usual 100 laps, the race was 76 laps long to celebrate the 4th of July weekend.

Seeking to win his third race in a row, Tony Stewart started on the pole for the feature ahead of Speed. Speed led the first twelve laps before being passed by Francis. Three cautions for hitting the green flag limit took place on laps 26, 48, and 66.

Max Verstappen became the first driver to win all three races in a triple-header to make it four wins from the last five races, with incredible display to win the Austrian Grand Prix. Team-mate Sergio Pérez on the other hand had a race to forget.

Verstappen not only extended his championship lead to thirty-two points with victory again in Austria, the team also extended their lead in the constructors standings to end what has been the perfect triple-header for Verstappen. The Dutchman was barely seen during the race, he was in a complete league of his own so far ahead that he had time to pit for fresh tyres just to get the fastest lap, and still win by seventeen seconds! The championship leader was cheered on the entire race by a sea of orange, as thousands of Dutch fans made the journey to the circuit.

For Pérez it was a much less enjoyable race at the Red Bull Ring. The Mexican who started third was tenth by the end of the fourth lap, Pérez who was behind Lando Norris attempted an overtake around the outside of turn four, unfortunately there wasn’t enough room for the Red Bull number two who went into the gravel. Norris was awarded a five-second penalty. The race didn’t get much better for Pérez as later on in the race he was awarded two separate five-second penalties, resulting in ten seconds being added to his finishing time, dropping him at the end from fifth to sixth.

Both incidents involved Charles Leclerc, the first was a carbon copy of what happened on lap four between Norris and himself, except this time it was Leclerc who went into the gravel at turn-four. The second incident came six laps later on lap forty-seven as Leclerc was again deemed to have been forced into the gravel by Pérez, this time at turn six. Pérez is very sorry about both incidents, the Mexican stating that he doesn’t like being at fault for ruining someone else’s race.

Pérez’s disappointing race won’t hamper the mood in the Red Bull Racing camp after Verstappen’s dominance, with Team Principal Christian Horner believing that Verstappen’s performance further proves the level of driver he is.