Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series can be summed up with three words from Thanos: “I am inevitable.”

Despite going off course twice in Saturday’s Henry 180 at Road America, Busch took the lead shortly after the final restart with five laps to go and pulled away for his 101st win in the series and in his maiden start at the Wisconsin track.

Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Ty Gibbs, driving a new #81 car as Busch was in the #54, won his first career Xfinity pole while Busch started fifth. Matt Jaskol, Gray Gaulding, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Colby Howard, Boris Said, Kyle Weatherman, and Bayley Currey failed to qualify.

Gibbs led the first two laps before A.J. Allmendinger, who won at Road America in 2013, sprung to the lead and would take the stage win. Austin Cindric, Jeb Burton, Justin Haley, Noah Gragson, Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Josh Bilicki, and Riley Herbst rounded out the top ten.

Allmendinger also won the second stage, a segment that saw Sam Mayer crash out. Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Haley, Busch, Brandon Jones, Gibbs, Cindric, Harrison Burton, and Herbst finished behind him.

Super Max Verstappen won yet again at the Red Bull Ring to make it four wins from the last five races, as he cruised his way to claim victory at the Austrian Grand Prix. Team-mate Sergio Pérez finished sixth in eventful race for the Mexican.

Verstappen dominated the grand prix, leading from flag to finish as no one was able to keep within eyesight of the Dutchman. During the race there was very little coverage of Verstappen due to his sheer dominance, winning the race by just over seventeen seconds. Had he not done a second pit-stop purely to get the fastest lap he would have won by nearly forty seconds over Valtteri Bottas.

The win moves Verstappen into complete control of the championship, he now leads Lewis Hamilton by thirty-two points after taking all three wins from the triple header. Verstappen was cheered on the whole race by an army of Dutch fans in attendance, as he made it win number five of the season.

“To win again at home at the Red Bull Ring is just incredible. I expected it to be good, but not this good, and the car was on rails. It was really nice to drive and the pace was incredible on both tyre compounds. I could push and also look after the tyres which is exactly how you want it to be and I could extend my gap lap after lap. Just like everyone else we learnt from last weekend and we optimised the car even more by improving the set-up.

“It’s actually hard to put into words because it was so enjoyable to drive and the weekend was the best it could be, so let’s hope we can carry on in the same way. It’s a great reward for everyone in the Team and it was also very nice to have Honda represented on the podium by Tanabe.

Matt Brabham capitalised on late contact between Robby Gordon and Jerett Brooks to take the lead in Sunday’s Stadium Super Trucks round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and he held off Gordon’s final charges to score his first weekend sweep since the 2016 Detroit Grand Prix.

In the wake of Bill Hynes and Bo LeMastus‘ fight after Saturday’s event in response to the latter’s driving, Hynes started on the pole ahead of Max Gordon, whom Hynes was defending in the tussle. LeMastus was approached by United States Auto Club officials for his actions in the race, but did not receive further discipline beyond starting last. Brabham started eighth.

Robert Stout, who began his race in fourth, quickly pounced on the lead after passing the top three in the Keyhole corner. Aaron Bambach took second from Hynes as they came to the the end of the first lap. LeMastus spun into the wall after taking the jump at the start/finish line; the resulting damage to his left rear forced him to pit during the first competition caution, and he would spin again a lap before the yellow.

In the Keyhole on lap three, Hynes was swamped by Jerett Brooks, Jett Noland, Brabham, and Robby Gordon. At the caution a lap later, Stout led Bambach, Brabham, Brooks, Gordon, Noland, Hynes, and Max Gordon.

The race resumed on lap five with Stout leading Bambach, while Robby Gordon and Brabham began pressuring Brooks for third. A lap later, Gordon forced a three-wide battle between Stout and Bambach that he won out. Brooks and Brabham joined the picture to bunch the top five together.

Max Verstappen cruised to Austrian Grand Prix victory to make it three wins in a row from the triple-header, to extend his championship lead to thirty-two points over title rival Lewis Hamilton.

In a carbon copy of last week’s Styrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen led from flag to finish to make it four wins from the last five races, as well as back-to-back wins at the team’s home track the Red Bull Ring, not only extending his own lead in the drivers standings but also extending the team’s lead in the constructors.

Thankfully it was a much more exciting race compared to last weekend, with action from lap one to lap seventy-one, the race even featured an early safety car.

Verstappen yet again got a great start to see him lead into turn one, with Lando Norris and Sergio Pérez following suit as the whole grid thankfully got round the first corner safely. On the run up the hill into turn three for the first time the midfield ran three-wide but not without collision. As the cars all closed together to get around the tight corner Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon’s Austrian nightmare continued as he was caught in between Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi, damaging his front-right suspension and forcing him into an early retirement, bringing out the races only safety car in the process.

On lap four the race got back underway with Verstappen leading Norris, Pérez, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas across the line, with Pérez immediately attacking Norris at turn one by going around the outside and wide over the huge yellow kerbs, the pair ran side-by-side up the hill into turn three with both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team cars right in their gearbox. The battle continued down into turn four where drama struck, Pérez again went around the outside of Norris but went off into the gravel and dropped down to tenth. Norris was awarded a five-second penalty for supposedly forcing Pérez off the circuit, a decision many don’t agree with.

After dominating from start to finish for the third straight race, Josef Newgarden finally converted that dominance into victory in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. On the week of the fiftieth Anniversary of Roger Penske‘s first NTT IndyCar Series win, the 2019 series champion gave “The Captain” and Team Penske their first win of the season after a hard charge by Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Marcus Ericsson.

In the last eight laps, Ericsson brought the leading gap down from just over three seconds to about a half a second at the very end as traffic creeped up, but the 30-year-old American had amazing grace under pressure to pull away just a bit more and hold onto the victory. His victory today makes Newgarden the winningest American driver in the field with nineteen victories.

An all-American front row on Independence Day saw Newgarden lead the field to green alongside Colton Herta, and Newgarden flew out to a lead as cars fanned out three-wide behind the leaders. As the field braked hard into turn four, Ryan Hunter-Reay had to check up and his Andretti Autosport teammate James Hinchcliffe both spun in turn four to bring out the first caution of the day. The returning Felix Rosenqvist was also involved as well, being spun in the first turn of the race for the second consecutive year, this time by Romain Grosjean.

Now with a single-file restart at the normal finish line, Newgarden led the field to green again on lap four, but the field ran into trouble once again in the complex of turns four and five to force another caution. Will Power and Scott Dixon were having a spectacular battle for fourth place, and going into turn five side by side Power was squeezed to the curb and spun, throwing smoke across the already blind corner. As incoming cars scattered through plume of smoke, Ed Jones of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan had nowhere to go and smashed into Power, ending his day.

Third time was the charm to finally get a full lap of racing in as the restart came on lap nine as Newgarden charged away. Further back, Grosjean continued to storm into the top ten and looked to the outside of fellow countryman Sebastien Bourdais in the keyhole turn two for ninth place, making an incredible save on the very edge of the track. It was determined that Bourdais blocked Grosjean before that move as he tried to move to the inside, and was forced to give the position back. Adding salt to the wound, Bourdais was also asked to give up tenth place as well to the hard-charging Patricio O’Ward, who started twentieth.

Nico Müller has announced he will not compete in the final three rounds of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with Dragon/Penske Autosport as he looks to focus on racing in the DTM Series this year.

Müller was forced to miss the last round of the championship at the Autódromo Miguel E. Abed, the venue of the Puebla E-Prix as he was racing in the opening round of the DTM Series at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza with Audi Team Rosberg.

But now the Swiss racer, who took a surprise podium in the bizarre Valencia E-Prix by being one of the few to conserve enough energy to make it to the chequered flag, has announced he will not be returning to the team for the final three rounds in New York, London and Berlin.

“Due to several clashing commitments, @DragonRacing_FE & myself have decided to part ways – meaning I won’t race in the final 3 rounds of @FIAFormulaE S7,” said Müller on social media.

“Thanks for nearly 2 seasons of passionate hard work & the memories we created. Wish the whole @DragonRacing_FE team all the best whilst my focus is on my DTM & Audi works driver duties – the future is bright!”

Dave Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams Racing, admitted that the team thought it was going to be difficult to qualify higher for the Austrian Grand Prix than they did in the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend, but George Russell not only achieved that, he did so on the medium compound of Pirelli tyre.

Last weekend, Russell qualified eleventh on the grid, missing out on the top ten by a very narrow margin, but this time the margin was in his favour, with the Briton 0.006 seconds faster than Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. as he made it into the top ten shootout for the first time as a Williams driver.

In Q3, Russell went onto qualify ninth – which became eighth after Sebastian Vettel was given a post-session grid penalty – and Robson says it was an excellent performance by driver and team to get this high up the grid.

“We thought that bettering our qualifying result of last week might be difficult, especially given how tricky it can be on this short track,” said Robson.  “However, George – aided by the entire team – produced an excellent performance to not only make it to Q3, but to do so on the Medium tyre.

“There is still a long way to go this weekend, but we can afford a moment of contentment before we move on to the serious business of the race tomorrow.”

Claudio Balestri, the Chief Engineer of Vehicle Performance at Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda, admits the team went into Qualifying without an optimised balance on either AT-02, but small changes were enough to see both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda qualify in the top seven.

Gasly was able to qualify sixth for a third consecutive weekend, while Tsunoda enjoyed his best Qualifying performance to date to end up seventh, although both drivers will be starting the race on the soft compound of Pirelli tyre.

Balestri says the decision to use the soft was to ensure they had the opportunity to get into Q3, and after the decision paid off, the team will now do their homework in a bid to maximise their performance and results on race day.

“Today was a busy day,” said Balestri.  “Track temperatures were very different, compared to Friday, so we had to take this into consideration when setting up our cars.

“In the morning session, we continued to test the new tyre for this event and then we focused our attention on Qualifying preparation. At the end of FP3 we were not fully satisfied, as the balance was not really optimised, especially for the softer compound at this race.

Fernando Alonso refused to fully blame Sebastian Vettel for the block that ultimately cost him a chance of an appearance in Q3 at the Red Bull Ring, with the Spaniard laying the responsibility firmly on the German’s engineers on the pit wall.

The Alpine F1 Team driver felt he was on course to make it into Q3 and go for a top six place on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix when he found Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Vettel on the racing line at the final corner.

Vettel has handed a three-place grid penalty for the offence, but Alonso knows it was the responsibility of those on the Aston Martin pit wall to inform their driver that he was quickly approaching on his final flying lap.

“Today we lost an opportunity to be in a better position than last week on the starting grid, perhaps P5 or P6,” said Alonso, who will start only fourteenth as a result.  “It was an unfortunate situation with Seb [Vettel], which his team should have managed better.

“It’s not Seb’s fault and, as drivers, we’re relying on our engineers to communicate things that are happening on track. It’s disappointing as we had the potential today.

Carlos Sainz Jr. admitted it was a risk to get through into the top ten shootout by using the medium Pirelli tyre at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday, and the plan backfired as the Spaniard missed out by 0.006 seconds.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver avoided the soft tyre in Q2 but was knocked out of the top ten in the closing moments by an improvement from Williams Racing’s George Russell.  And Sainz felt he could have had a good Q3 had it made it through.

And after a strong Styrian Grand Prix last weekend at the same circuit, Sainz is hopeful that Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix will see him move up the order and score another good haul of points. He will start tenth thanks to Sebastian Vettel‘s penalty.

“Today we decided to take a bit more of a risk by trying to make it into Q3 using the Medium tyre,” said Sainz.  “After a decent first attempt with that tyre, we went for it and unfortunately missed the cut by only 6 thousandths of a second.

“I’m obviously not happy with that because it was extremely close and we couldn’t show the good progress we’ve made this week. These past few days, we worked hard on the balance, the set up and my driving style and we could have had a good Q3.

Sebastian Vettel felt it was the right call by the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team to get through Q2 on the soft Pirelli tyres, and he will be aiming for points on Sunday despite having been handed a three-place grid penalty post-session for blocking Fernando Alonso.

The German initially qualified eighth but will drop to eleventh thanks to the penalty, but he believes the soft tyre gamble, with the AMR21 looking like it had the potential to qualify on the medium compound, was the right way to go.

“We can certainly aim for points tomorrow and I am happy with our approach to start on the Soft tyres,” said Vettel.  “They will not last as long as the Mediums or Hards, but it will be a fast tyre so let’s wait and see what we can do tomorrow.

“We made some small improvements across all the sessions and the car has been better balanced today. We have been competitive all weekend and it is the first time this year that both cars have been in Q3.

“If we can run in some clean air tomorrow, we will be able to show some decent race pace.”

Frederik Vesti finally converted a great qualifying into a great race as he took victory in the final FIA Formula 3 race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

The ART driver started second and remained there during the opening laps but he was quick to make his move for the lead when DRS was enabled, overtaking Dennis Hauger in the PREMA and storming home from there on.

Hauger though ensured he completed his fantastic weekend by holding off teammate Olli Caldwell on the last lap after a late virtual safety car for debris following contact between Jak Crawford and Jack Doohan while fighting for fifth. Hauger claimed the win in race one and third in race two to see his points lead extend massively.

Caldwell took two podiums from the weekend but PREMA have a big repair job on after Arthur Leclerc and Victor Martins came together on the run to turn four. Leclerc was forced onto the grass and he was unable to stop the car, hurtling into the innocent Clément Novalak who’s race was ended in the gravel trap.

Aleksandr Smolyar made it a very good day for ART in fourth as he lost out to the PREMA’s over the distance but they were all well clear of the chaos for fifth on back and he picked up more valuable points for his championship.

George Russell secured Williams Racing’s first appearance in Q3 since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, with the Briton feeling the performance of the FW43B at the Red Bull Ring was on another level compared to normal.

The Mercedes-Benz protégé has been dubbed ‘Mr Saturday’ for a while now thanks to his superb performances in Qualifying, but Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix saw him make another step up as he made it into the top ten shootout for the first time as a Williams driver.

Russell qualified ninth but will move up to eighth on the grid thanks to a penalty for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Sebastian Vettel, and even more remarkable, he will start the race on the medium Pirelli tyre after getting through Q2 on that compound.

“Qualifying was pretty special; we usually do well on Saturdays but that was on another level,” said Russell.  “I had a lot of confidence in the car, which really helped when it came to nailing my Q3 lap with only one shot.

“P9 in any circumstances is a great place to be, but starting on the mediums with a few cars ahead on the soft tyres puts us in a strong position for the race and hopefully gives us a real advantage when it comes to making strategy decisions.

Pierre Gasly was pleased with another top six grid slot on Saturday, particularly after the Frenchman has not felt as comfortable behind the wheel of the AT-02 as in previous races at the Red Bull Ring.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver says the consistency the team has shown in recent races is very much a positive, with Gasly now having taken sixth on the grid in four of the past five races.

Gasly, who retired on lap one of the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend after contact with Charles Leclerc, is hoping for better luck this Sunday, and he knows strategy will be key, particularly with the one-time race winner starting on the soft compound tyre.

“It feels like every weekend we’re Qualifying in a similar position and I’m really happy with that, sixth is another strong performance for us, so today is a good day,” said Gasly.  

“I haven’t been as comfortable in the car this weekend for some reason, so going into Quali we had a bit of an unknown, which is why I’m really pleased we managed to make it work this afternoon.

Toto Wolff felt the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team did not translate the form they showed in final practice on Saturday morning into the kind of result they were hoping for in Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton was only able to qualify fourth, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas fifth as Max Verstappen swept to a third consecutive pole position.  Lando Norris and Sergio Pérez also managed to get between the pole sitting Red Bull Racing driver and the two Mercedes drivers.

Wolff, the Team Principal and CEO at Mercedes, says there is a need to continue improving the car after ending three-tenths behind Verstappen in Q3, but the team feel they will be in a better position when it comes to race pace on Sunday.

“What started as a good day in FP3 we couldn’t translate into a good qualifying session,” said Wolff.  “The gaps here are very small and our performance in qualifying wasn’t great, and that showed in the final result.

“We need to analyse whether a slip-stream could have helped us but overall, we just need to continue to develop the performance of the car.