Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Charles Leclerc went fastest in an underwhelming and delayed final FIA Formula 1 World Championship practice session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore with a time of 1:57.782. The man that the Scuderia Ferrari driver is trying to chase down in Max Verstappen finished only 0.526 seconds behind the Monegasque driver with his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr., who was at top of the timesheet yesterday in practice two, had to settle for third.

The session got off to a very slow start due to a heavy downpour of rain which eased away throughout the hour but, the wet conditions on track were evident throughout.

Despite the session beginning on time, the pit lane exit remained closed for more than half of the session due to the wet weather, as the marshals worked hard to get the standing water off of the track.

With twenty-eight minutes remaining in the session, the pit lane exit went green and the cars were finally able to go out on track with Pierre Gasly going out first for Scuderia AlphaTauri and setting a lap time of 2:09.894, joined shortly by his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

It wouldn’t be long before Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo headed out onto the circuit, followed closely by the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team pairing of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel.

Kevin Eriksson will finally make his return to the race track after sustaining a preseason injury just before the start of the season. 

In a story told on the Nitro Rallycross Instagram page, Eriksson told fans that just before the season started when they (OMSE) were loading an FC1-X into a trailer and his father was operating the vehicle and accidentally ran over Kevin’s foot. The accident resulted in Eriksson missing the first two rounds at Lydden Hill and Strangnas.

Due to this mishap, the FC1-X now has a safety mode to prevent this from happening again which is always a positive takeaway with newer technologies.

“I’ve worked really hard to get back to fitness as quickly as I could, thanks to everyone who has supported me both on my recovery, and in general. My leg is not 100% working yet, but it’s good enough for what I need to do”, he said in an interview.

Now that Kevin has had about three months off, he is healed up and ready to return to action this weekend. He will be joined by his brother, Oliver Eriksson as they pilot FC1-X for team OMSE. Oliver is coming off a good outing at Strangnas after being the top qualifier from the first day but finding a bit of bad luck, although still with good pace in the second. 

Nitro Rallycross has released the full lineup for the first North American round featuring faces from skateboarding, freestyle motocross, hillclimb, and Pro4. 

Series Regulars in drivers like Andreas Bakkerud, Travis Pastrana, and Oliver Bennet return this weekend to continue their fight in the championship.

Former F1 World Champion Jensen Button is set to make his first appearance of the season this weekend as he fills the second slot for XITE Energy Racing. Whereas Kris Meeke fills in for the European rounds, Button will be completing the American events. ERX will mark his first time ever competing in rallycross.

This weekend’s top class of Group E sees the return of Andrew Carlson, the hometown hero at ERX. Carlson competed previously last season with the OMSE Honda Civic. After not getting the results he wanted last time out, Carlson has returned with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to aim for a better performance this weekend.

Second to Group E is the NRX NEXT class where a total of eight drivers will compete in a doubleheader weekend. Last year’s Champion, Casper Jansson makes the trip across the Atlantic again to defend his title but not without good contention from current points leader Tommi Hallman. The rest of NRX NEXT stacks up as normal however with the missing inclusion of Martin Enlund.

After a three-year break away from the Marina Bay Circuit, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team Trackside Engineer director Andrew Shovlin has admitted to the unpredictable nature of the circuit and the set-up proving difficult for the team to be at top of their game, as the opening day of the Singapore Grand Prix comes to a close.

“It’s great to finally be back in Singapore, but it’s a difficult circuit and the three-year break since we were here last doesn’t help in terms of understanding where to go on setup or knowing how the tyres are going to behave.”

The W13, whilst still troublesome in places, looked considerably better than it has done for the majority of the season during the opening day at Singapore; however, Shovlin still is wary of the work the team have to do overnight to ensure the car is functioning at peak performance ahead of Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“We’ve had a pretty clean couple of sessions, especially compared to Red Bull and Ferrari who looked to have a few issues, but we have managed to get through the majority of the planned work. The car was a bit better balanced in the first session and seemed easier to put the times in.

“In the second session we picked up a bit more locking and neither driver got a particularly clean lap in, so hopefully we’ll be able to make a bit of a step there overnight.”

It was a mixed opening day at the Singapore Grand Prix for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, after an unexpected surprise lap saw Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timesheets for the first time this season, setting a super time of 1.43.033s in Free Practice One. However, the Second Free Practice session turned out to be not as thrilling for the British driver, as he dropped to the fifth position, setting a time of 1.43.182 on the Medium and Soft compound.

The team are feeling confident that the W13 has more to give ahead of Saturday’s qualifying and hopes to unlock the car’s potential. Both drivers noted that the W13 was particularly difficult to drive in the demanding conditions of the Marina Bay Circuit, with the intense humidity and warm temperatures pushing the drivers to the limit, mentally and physically.

Hamilton seemed to suffer a similar fate as he too commented on the tricky conditions at the Marina Bay Circuit, but was happy with his drive during the First Practice session.

“Today started off well with FP1, but wasn’t as great in the second session. The car is what it is and we’re bouncing around a lot, but it doesn’t feel like we’re massively off this weekend. There’s not too much we can do about the stiffness of the car with the tools we have, but set up wise we can find more time.

“With the set-up that I had today, there was a lot of locking, which we will fix tonight so we can come back and give it a better go tomorrow. Conditions here are tricky, I definitely feel dehydrated after the sessions, a bit heavy and very hot. But the biggest problem is not the physical challenge so much as getting the car in the window for qualifying tomorrow.”

Today saw Formula 1 return to Singapore for the first time in two years, and it was a good day at the office for Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team.

It was a good Friday for the British team, with Lance Stroll finishing eighth and tenth consistently, with Sebastian Vettel finishing eleventh and twelfth across the two opening day sessions. Aston Martin will be looking to enter the battle for seventh in the Constructors’ Championship with Scuderia AlphaTauri and Haas F1 Team.

Stroll was the first driver to hit the walls of the Marina Bay Circuit in Free Practice One and had to stop on track, but he managed to get going again in time for Free Practice Two.

Stroll has struggled for consistency this season, having only five points to his name, but he will be hoping for a good and trouble-free weekend.

“Driving in Singapore is always good fun, but it is also really demanding in very hot conditions. I brushed the wall in FP1 today, but fortunately we did not damage the car too much. We did some important homework, especially in the second session, and I think this is going to be a race of opportunity. 

Max Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing had a disrupted Friday on Formula 1’s return to Singapore for the first time in two years.

It was an indifferent day for the Milton Keynes-based team. Free Practice One saw some good running for the team, with Verstappen finishing behind Lewis Hamilton in second and Sergio Pérez a few places back in fourth. Free Practice Two running was delayed for the Red Bull pair after multiple different issues on the RB18, and they struggling to find pace in the limited running available leading to Verstappen finishing fourth and Pérez down in ninth.

Verstappen will be hoping his one lap pace is strong for the Saturday qualifying session, with that being particularly important for the Singapore Grand Prix, since overtaking opportunities are a rarity to come by at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Verstappen shared his thoughts on the day’s running and is still optimistic that he can put in a good performance over the weekend and potentially secure the World Championship.

“I think we started out quite well in FP1 and then in FP2 we wanted to try a few things out but they just took a bit longer to change, and then we wanted to try something else and that also took quite a long time to change.

Formula 1 returned to Singapore today after a two-year break from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and it was a positive day for Scuderia Ferrari.

Ferrari won the last Singapore Grand Prix and finished with a one-two finish, with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc leading the way. The team picked up where they left off, with Carlos Sainz Jr. topping the Second Free Practice session followed by Leclerc.

The first session didn’t look too promising for the team, with Leclerc third and Sainz sixth but they seemed to up their game and look the fastest throughout the afternoon. However, despite their good form in the second session, it is only Friday, meaning there is still so much time to finalise the preparations ahead of the qualifying session and eventually the race.

Sainz is hoping the team can keep progressing into Saturday after a positive day on track.

“It’s been a busy first day here in Singapore. We managed to complete the full run plan but we also faced some challenges, particularly with the setup and car balance. We didn’t find the right window for FP1, but we managed to improve the feeling with the car for FP2.

With two NASCAR Cup Series starts under his belt, Daniil Kvyat is now looking to dip down into the lower tiers as he will race in the Xfinity Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on 8 October. He will drive the #26 Toyota Supra GR for Sam Hunt Racing.

A longtime NASCAR enthusiast, Kvyat made his Cup début in July at Indianapolis for Team Hezeberg and later ran the Watkins Glen race, but finished thirty-sixth in both as he struggled in an underperforming vehicle. As a result, Sam Hunt Racing will provide his best NASCAR equipment to date as the #26 is nineteenth in owner points with four top tens and two top fives.

An ex-Formula One driver, Kvyat is the first Russian to compete in an American NASCAR series. Fallout from his country’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in his FIA World Endurance Championship team G-Drive Racing withdrawing their entry for the 2022 season, which gave him an opportunity to head to America and race there; while NASCAR is tied to the FIA, whose policy impacts Russian competitors, via ACCUS, the former does not have such rules in place.

While the Roval is an infield road course, it provides Kvyat with the closest chance so far to race on an oval as the Roval uses much of the 1.5-mile oval. Although he is more known for his circuit racing, he has expressed interest in doing ovals and potentially racing full-time in the Cup Series in the future. A late model test with Hezeberg partner Reaume Brothers Racing in July also came on the short track Hickory Motor Speedway.

SHR’s #26 has been split between multiple drivers in 2022: Parker Chase, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Santino Ferrucci, Derek Griffith, Connor Mosack, John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, and Ryan Truex. Like Kvyat, Ferrucci comes from an open-wheel background.

McLaren F1 Team’s Executive Racing Director Andrea Stella said that the team had a smooth day of practice at the Singapore Grand Prix, though there is still speed to be found ahead of qualifying. 

Lando Norris finished free practice one and free practice two in nineteenth and eleventh respectively, while Daniel Ricciardo took twelfth and eighteenth on the timesheets. 

“Singapore is a tough, demanding venue for a variety of reasons, and it’s good to be back here to pick up this challenge. The sessions this evening went according to plan, both drivers worked through their programmes with no major problems.” 

Norris received upgrades for Singapore, which were a focus of Friday practice for McLaren. Stella said that the team was able to gain valuable knowledge about these parts throughout the day’s sessions. 

“It’s been good to introduce the new parts on Lando’s side, we’ve collected a lot of data that will help us optimise this new package. A big thanks to the team back at the factory for enabling us to deliver this package this weekend.”

McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris was not satisfied with the pace of his MCL36 after Friday’s practice sessions, finishing free practice one in nineteenth place and eleventh in free practice two. 

The British driver said that upgrades and alterations made to the car this weekend have had a positive impact at the demanding Marina Bay Street Circuit. 

“Tough day, just because of the temperature and the challenges of Singapore, but I think good that we’ve got a good understanding of the new bits on the car. 

“They’re performing as expected, which is in some ways similar to the way the car felt before the update, with just some small tweaks in the way that it works, and acts, which is what we want.”

Norris said that a top ten result in Saturday’s qualifying may be out of reach, though the team will push to “unlock” as much performance as possible ahead of the session.

In 2017, Michael Christensen scored the biggest victory of his career up to that point when he and Alega Motorsports won the GTD class in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Five years later, he has auctioned off the watch he received for the victory to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine as its defence from Russian invasion approaches day #220.

The watch, a Rolex Daytona model given to overall and class winners, was projected to go for €33,500 to €40,500. Including buyer’s premium, the auction ultimately reached a hammer price of €88,800. All proceeds from the auction will go towards the Save the Children Fund‘s Ukrainian programme. Save the Children has operated in the country since the start of hostilities in 2014, eight years before the full invasion.

“The watch is dear to my heart, as it was awarded to me after one of my biggest and proudest victories. At the same time, the situation in Ukraine is absolutely terrible and sad, and most children in Ukraine are growing up under completely different circumstances than I did,” said Christensen. “If I can help just a little bit, so they can look forward to a better life, I want to do it.

“It has been a long journey, and of course my nerves have been worn a little thin during the recent days. The decision to sell my Rolex Daytona watch was both a sad and satisfying decision. With the charitable purpose in mind and Bruun Rasmussen’s commitment, the sale made more and more sense to me during the process. Now I’m just so relieved that it went so well with a hammer price of half a million Danish kroner this evening.”

Christensen ran the 2017 Rolex 24 alongside Jesse Lazare, Daniel Morad, and Carlos and Michael de Quesada. Their #28 Porsche 911 GT3 R finished eighteenth overall to top the twenty-seven-car GTD class. The Dane would go on to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche, winning the LMGTE Pro championship in 2018/19 and the GTE Pro class at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Valtteri Bottas believes the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN can contend for a place inside the top ten in Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after a productive Friday for the team.

The Finn ended thirteenth fastest in the first session but improved significantly to seventh in the second session, held under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Bottas admitted he expected there to be more bumps in Singapore than there ultimately was, and going into the rest of the weekend, he hopes to find even more pace so they can fight for Q3.

“It’s been quite a positive Friday, a clean day in which we could go through all our programme nicely and do lots of laps,” said Bottas.  “Our pace looks quite decent and it’s nice to see we are in a condition to fight for Q3 tomorrow.

“It was interesting to have our first outing with the new cars here: the track felt a bit bumpy, but I was expecting more. I was still able to enjoy the track and had some good fun.

Matt Harman, the Technical Director at BWT Alpine F1 Team, says it was an ‘interesting’ opening day to the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, although both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finished inside the top ten in both sessions.

Ocon ended seventh in the opening session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and followed that up by improving to sixth in the second, while Alonso ended tenth and eighth.

Alonso suffered with a gearbox issue in the first session that restricted him to just eleven laps, and Harman says the team will be looking into the problem to ensure it does not happen again.

“It’s fantastic to be back here in Singapore even if it’s extremely hot and humid!” said Harman.  “It’s been an interesting day of Practice where we encountered an issue with Fernando’s gearbox with a small oil leak identified.

“As a precaution we decided not to run again in the first session, and we’ll investigate the root cause of the issue over the coming days as this is an unusual occurrence. His car was fitted with a replacement gearbox to ensure he could run in the second session.”

Esteban Ocon was pleased to be back driving at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but Friday’s running proved to the Frenchman that the track remains a challenging and physical one.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team driver had a productive Friday in Singapore, finishing seventh fastest in the first session and sixth in the second, but Ocon feels the three-week gap since the Italian Grand Prix has been welcome by everyone as they prepared for the most physical race of the season.

“There’s really nothing quite like driving in Singapore and it’s great to be back here after a few years,” said Ocon.  

“After both practice sessions today, it’s again quite clear how much of a challenge this track is physically with the heat and humidity so I think most drivers will have been pleased with having those extra few days of preparation ahead of the race weekend.”

Ocon believed it was good to test the updates Alpine had brought to Singapore this weekend, and he hopes the potential the team had on Friday can translate into a strong weekend.