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It was a disappointing race for Scuderia Ferrari on Sunday, with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr having to retire their cars from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was the first time since 2009 at the Albert Park Circuit, that Ferrari had no cars cross the finish line due to reliability issues. Leclerc went into the pit box very gingerly on Lap 21, with a visible power unit problem.

Leclerc was doing superbly out front, holding back the two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers of Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen. However, with the car failure the Monegasque driver has slipped down to third in the Drivers’ championship, leaving the Ferrari driver with plenty of catching up to do.

Leclerc addressed the disappointing end to the Grand Prix after his retirement, where he reiterated his point that the team must “get on top of things”.

“It’s a disappointing outcome for us today. At the beginning of the first stint on the Mediums we weren’t particularly strong, but towards the end of it, we started catching Checo (Perez). During the Virtual Safety Car, we decided to take the opportunity and pit for Hards, which was the right thing to do.

“It put us in a position where we could lead the race and what we had to focus on from then on was managing the tyres to the end. We then had an issue with the power unit and had to retire. It’s time to go home and reset before Canada. We have to get on top of things and come back stronger there.”

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal at the McLaren F1 Team believes that six points is the maximum the papaya-coloured outfit could have hoped for at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after struggling with drag all week in the McLaren MCL36 package. Daniel Ricciardo would cross the finish line in eighth-place, ahead of team-mate, Lando Norris, in ninth after failing to make Qualifying Three on Saturday, and splitting the strategies on Sunday.

“Given our starting positions and the performance we had in our package this weekend, we are happy leaving Baku with six points for the team. Daniel and Lando worked together with the team and maximised all that was in our hands today,” explained Seidl.

After briefly considering switching the drivers in the second stint to attempt an overtake on BWT Alpine F1 Team‘s Fernando Alonso, McLaren’s strategists opted to stay put due to not being able to compete with the straight-line speed that the Alpine showed.

“We knew before the race that, with our top-speed deficit at this track, we would struggle to overtake Alonso on track, which in the end didn’t allow us to progress further up the field despite trying a different strategy.

“We’ll keep working on understanding the car and see how we can optimise it further for the next race in Montreal, which is only a few days away.“

Daniel Ricciardo has said that he is happy with his eighth-place finish at Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he scored points at a track that McLaren F1 Team admit they struggled with the car’s package at. The Australian also opened up on the team orders that were instructed during the race, in order to maximise the result.

The number three driver explained that he was faster than his team-mate, Lando Norris, during the opening stint, but slower in the second.

“I’m happy to have scored some points, obviously for the team and for myself – it’s been a while. It was an eventful race with split strategies, so at the beginning I was a bit quicker than Lando on the Hard tyre, and there were some team orders, and then at the end he was quicker on the Hard and there were further team orders.”

McLaren opted to stay out on track during the Virtual Safety Car period caused by Carlos Sainz Jr’ retirement on Lap 10, giving them better track position. Ricciardo showed more pace than Norris, and was slowly coming under pressure from the Scuderia AlphaTauri car of Pierre Gasly behind. The Frenchman was able to overtake the McLaren driver when Norris came into the pits.

Ricciardo was able to jump his team-mate and led the Briton throughout the second stint. McLaren initially considered letting Norris pass Ricciardo to attempt an overtake on Fernando Alonso ahead, returning the place if he was unable to do so. However, despite showing more pace, the papaya-coloured team told both cars to hold position for a solid eighth and ninth-place finish.

BWT Alpine F1 Team brought home a double points finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Fernando Alonso finishing seventh after starting tenth and Esteban Ocon moving up into the points to finish tenth after starting thirteenth. 

Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said that having both cars earn points was attainable for the team considering the unique challenges that the high-speed street circuit present. With five drivers retiring, including both Scuderia Ferrari cars ahead, attrition played a role in Alpine’s success. 

“The aim today was to have both cars finish the race inside the points and we’ve been able to achieve that. The characteristics of the Baku City Circuit brings a unique challenge to both the drivers and the cars and we felt if we could get both cars across the chequered flag we would be in the points.”

Szafnauer said that there was a potential for an even better result in Baku, as Ocon’s starting position set the team back. When it came to race day, however, he was pleased with the performance of both drivers, who each gained positions during the race. 

“There was more potential in our package this weekend. Esteban was unfortunate in qualifying, which put him slightly further back on the grid than we would have liked. That said, both drivers drove smart, well calculated races today when it counts for points and we can be pleased that both made up places and into the top ten.” 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso matched his best race result of the season with a second consecutive seventh place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, utilizing the A522’s straight-line speed to move up the grid and benefitting from retirements ahead.

“The race was difficult to execute today but we did well, and I am happy with seventh. We obviously benefited from a few retirements, but these things happen, and we were there to capitalise on them and really maximise our strengths.”

Several of Alonso’s nearest competitors took the opportunity to pit under the virtual safety car on lap nine, while he remained on his starting mediums for a longer stint. After his stop on lap eighteen, his fresher tyres gave him a competitive edge, as he was able to overtake and defend well– particularly at the end of the race when both McLaren F1 Team drivers were on his tail. 

Ultimately, Alonso was happy with the performance of the team’s power unit and the car’s abilities on the vast straight of the third sector of Baku City Circuit. He will be looking for more points at the Canadian Grand Prix, which he predicts will provide a similarly competitive midfield fight. 

“I overtook a few cars on the new tyres and we were very fast on the straights so that was useful. Our power-unit is looking strong and competitive, so this is always a good thing. We are very close with a number of cars at the moment, and I expect it to be quite similar in Canada. Let’s aim to score more points there!”

Longtime road course ace Andy Lally has found slightly more employment for the rest of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season as he announced Monday that he is joining SS-Green Light Racing for the remaining road races. His new itinerary starts at Road America on 2 July followed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway (30 July), Watkins Glen International (20 August), and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (8 October). He will drive the #08 Ford Mustang in the four races.

“Very happy to announce that I’ll be doing ALL of the remaining @NASCAR_Xfinity road course races with @SSGLR0708 in the #08 starting at Road America! Plenty of room on the car for interested sponsors as well,” posted Lally on Twitter. While he mentioned he is doing all road courses, the team’s own tweet simply referred to “select events” beginning at Road America.

Lally is no stranger to SSGLR, running three Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course races for the organisation from 2014 to 2015 and in 2017 as well as the 2015 Watkins Glen event. A sports car veteran, all nineteen of his Xfinity starts since his début in 2007 have come on road courses with nine top tens and four top fives.

He was contracted to run the 2022 road courses for Alpha Prime Racing but departed the team in January. Nevertheless, after skipping the first road race at Circuit of the Americas in March, he rejoined the team for the next event at Portland International Raceway, where he finished seventeenth.

David Starr is running the bulk of the 2022 schedule in the #08 but stepped aside for road ringer Spencer Pumpelly at Portland. Joe Graf Jr., the team’s full-timer in the #07, has also piloted the #08.

Off-road is a completely different world from open-wheel, but Romain Grosjean seems more than interested to try it out. While the Frenchman has spent his entire career on pavement, his off-road aspirations include the SCORE International Baja 1000 and Extreme E, as revealed in a candid conversation between him and Extreme E driver Catie Munnings that was shared on the series’ various social media channels.

Both drivers are members of the Andretti organisation, with Munnings driving for Andretti United XE and Grosjean for Andretti Autosport in the NTT IndyCar Series. Munnings was a special guest of Andretti Autosport for IndyCar’s Sonio Grand Prix at Road America, and the chat between the two arose in the team paddock.

The twenty-one-second video posted by Extreme E begins with Munnings pitching the idea to Grosjean by discussing the “sand dunes in the desert,” to which he responds that he “like(s) the idea.” Munnings then suggests he “should try it” and brings up Jenson Button, who raced with Grosjean in Formula One and currently owns JBXE; Button ran the inaugural Extreme E race for his team in 2021.

Acknowledging his awareness of Button’s one-off, Grosjean comments it “definitely will be something that I [try], maybe try and do Baja 1000 first and then yeah, Extreme E.” Munnings issues her support by calling the 1000 “a good one” to which Grosjean answers, “It’s quite cool, I like the idea.”

Although Extreme E’s 2022 calendar does not have conflicting dates with IndyCar, one should not get too eager about potentially seeing Grosjean pilot a Spark Odyssey 21 in XE. Such an opportunity would only arise in the unlikely event that a team drops its male full-time driver or needs a reserve in case of injury or illness. Conversely, a Baja 1000 run is much more likely in the immediate future as the race takes place in late November, well after the IndyCar season concludes.

The Tatts Finke Desert Race is the most challenging off-road race in Australia, but its reputation has not stopped Toby Price from turning the Alice Springs-to-Finke-and-back run into his personal playground. He dominated the first day of racing on Saturday to the point where a runner-up finish on Sunday was not enough for Aaron James to surpass him for the overall victory, enabling Price to claim his eighth Finke and second in the Cars category.

With Jason Duncan as his co-driver, Price’s quest for an eighth victory began on a strong note when he topped the Prologue qualifying session, his #487 Mitsubishi TSCO Trophy Truck turning a lap time of 4:42.9 to edge out Josh Howells by two-tenths of a second for the pole. His momentum continued on Day #1 in more convincing fashion as his run from Alice Springs to Finke ended with a time of 1:36:38.5, over five seconds quicker than James’ Alumi Craft buggy.

James got back at Price on Sunday’s return trip to Alice Springs as his 1:42:10.9 trumped Price’s 1:45:07.6. However, the margin of two minutes, fifty-six seconds did not make up the advantage Price built the previous day. In total, Price’s time of 3:21:46.2 was two minutes and eight seconds greater than James’ 3:23:55.1, though the latter is still at least able to enjoy winning the Pro Buggy category.

Price is widely regarded as the top Australian off-road racer today, having won the Finke six times on a Bike before switching disciplines in 2021 to claim it on four wheels. He is the only person to win the Finke overall in both divisions.

In claiming Australia’s top off-road event, Price will have plenty of momentum through the summer as he prepares for a new excursion in North America: a three-race programme culminating in the legendary SCORE International Baja 1000 in November. Announced late May, Price will team up with fellow Aussie Paul Weel under the Team Australia name to drive a Trophy Truck in the Best In The Desert‘s Vegas to Reno on 10–13 August, the SCORE Baja 400 on 13/14 September, and the 1000 on 15–20 November. While Weel will be a newcomer to all three events, Price has run SCORE races as a co-driver in the past decade before finishing runner-up in the 2019 Baja 1000 alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah and retiring from the 2021 edition in a Trophy Truck Spec.

The twisty Sonoma Raceway is often regarded as a strategy course rather than one predicated on side-by-side action for the NASCAR Cup Series. Indeed, Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 was relatively clean in terms of on-track drama and many drivers instead found themselves being shot in the foot by pit road errors, mechanical trouble, or penalties.

Daniel Suárez was able to avoid the misfortunes and dominated the final stage, and he can finally call himself a Cup Series race winner. The Mexico native is the fifth foreign-born driver to win a Cup race as he joins Mario Andretti (Italy), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia), Earl Ross (Canada), and Marcos Ambrose (Australia); Suárez and Montoya are two of eighteen drivers to score their maiden Cup victories on road courses, with Montoya’s coming at Sonoma as well.

“It was special,” said Suárez in his press conference. He is the fortieth driver to win a race in each of NASCAR’s three national series (Cup, Xfinity, Truck) and the only one with wins in the Cup Series and an international division as a former Mexico Series champion. “I’ve been working very hard for this moment, not just myself, but my entire team. I am very lucky to have people around me in the team, but outside the team. My family always supporting me, my beautiful girlfriend Julia (Piquet) that she work very hard in the last few months keeping me up and letting me know that I was doing the right things. We just need to have a clean day. That’s what we had today.

“Today just felt special. I told her this morning that today felt good. We did it in front of a few hundred Mexicans and Daniel’s Amigos. It was just a special day. I have always seen California as my second home. To be able to get the first victory here is quite special.”

The path to victory opened when Suárez took the lead on the lap 85 restart, but it was not an easy journey: Chris Buescher endured a tumultuous day as he ran up front for much of the race before suffering a penalty for a crewman throwing a gas can, which was then rescinded and placed him back in contention. Despite Buescher and Michael McDowell‘s pursuits, they were unable to catch Suárez.

The Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was a massive risk that the NASCAR Cup Series was willing to take in 2022, and it ultimately proved to be a hit. In fact, the exhibition went so well for NASCAR that the sanctioning body announced Sunday plans to return for 2023.

“Our entire industry made a bold move by bringing the Busch Light Clash to the L.A. Coliseum this past February and it paid off by becoming an instant classic with both new and existing fans,” commented NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Development and Strategy Ben Kennedy, who masterminded the event. “We are intent on showcasing our sport and drivers on the biggest stage and there is none bigger than the L.A. Coliseum. We’re thrilled to return to the heart of Los Angeles to officially start the season and set the stage for the Daytona 500.”

Despite long taking place at Daytona International Speedway as a way to kick off the new Cup season, the Clash was moved to Los Angeles in 2022 to revitalise a race that had grown stale and uninteresting in recent years. While many questioned the viability of having stock cars race in a West Coast football stadium, it proved popular as approximately 60,000 attendees watched Joey Logano win.

The success of the event also sparked discussion about NASCAR potentially racing in other similar venues or even overseas, though neither are planned for the immediate future.

“With more than four million viewers, and really breaking through in a pop culture mecca like Los Angeles, the inaugural Clash at the Coliseum did everything it was intended to do and then some,” commented FOX Sports executive Bill Wanger. “It energised the sport, delivered new eyeballs and kicked off the season in grand fashion. We can’t wait to do it all again in 2023.”

Josef Newgarden survived two late restarts and used a brilliant first pit stop to catapult himself past Alexander Rossi and into victory lane at the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.

Newgarden knew he was better than Rossi on the alternate tyre, and kept close through a caution-filled first stint. The duo both made their first pit stops on Lap 15, where Newgarden got the edge as Rossi was held up slightly by Scott McLaughlin entering his box right in front of him. This gave Newgarden a gap of about five seconds to Rossi that he kept for the rest of the race, until the caution flew with eight laps to go as Pato O’Ward‘s engine gave way.

Another caution for Helio Castroneves right as the race went back green meant another chance for Rossi to take the win, but Newgarden had yet another fantastic start and bolted away to the victory as Rossi came under fire from Marcus Ericsson, who took second place while the polesitter was relegated to third.

This marks Newgarden’s third win of the season, and the American has now won on all three circuit types that IndyCar runs on; ovals (Texas), street circuits (Long Beach), and now a road course, an incredible feat achieved in less than half of the season.

“I think that’s what makes IndyCar so tough,” Newgarden said post-race. “It’s impossible to predict what is going to happen. I thought we had it all locked up in Detroit, like it was going to be easy from the front row, and it was anything but easy and went completely different than we predicted, and that’s exactly what makes this series so difficult and it makes it fun to be in.”

Team BMW‘s Stephen Jelley stayed calm and composed among a drama filled finale to seal the fourth win of his BTCC career as he took advantage of reverse grid pole at Oulton Park.

The drama kicked off early with contact between Dan Lloyd‘s Hyundai and Ricky Collard‘s Toyota sent the former cascading into the barrier at high speed and this re-entered the track being collected heavily by Colin Turkington, with Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton and Michael Crees also getting caught up.

It was Lloyd and Turkington who ended up worst affected with the former in hospital for x-rays and with the main title contenders out of the race, Jelley got his head down out front and scampered away at the restart superbly ahead of a potential season reviving display from Aiden Moffat.

While Josh Cook concluded the podium with Ricky Collard handed a penalty for a jump start which saw him down to 7th as he leaves an otherwise deflating weekend at the Cheshire circuit opening up a gap again atop the Drivers’ Championship standings due to Sutton and Ingram’s no score.

Dan Cammish held off Adam Morgan, while after a poor end to his opening race of the day, Ash Hand continued to impress reviving his day with a top 10 finish alongside Aron Taylor-Smith. While there was also cause for celebration for Jade Edwards who leaves Oulton Park with Jack Sears Trophy honours after solid finishes all weekend joining her teammate, Cook on the podium.

It was a strong Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, who did well to capitalise on Scuderia Ferrari’s double retirement and finish third and fourth at the Baku City Circuit.

George Russell had a very lonely race, with the double Ferrari DNF leaving the British driver all on his own. Russell drove maturely to secure another third-place finish for the Silver Arrows.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand had to work for his fourth-place, the seven-time World Champion suffered from back pain all race after the porpoising issue seemed worse than it ever has been. Hamilton twice had to work his way through the order, after pitting during the two Virtual Safety Cars. The 37-year-old did well late on to close down Pierre Gasly, who attempted a one-stop.

Team Principal Toto Wolff analysed the Grand Prix following their strong result, and was completely honest about the position the team are currently in.

“This is where we are at the moment – not as quick as the front runners but clear of the midfield. We never enjoy our rivals’ misfortune, we want to see a strong fight at the front and we’re hoping to catch up and join so there’s six of us there fighting. A strong job from George today, he managed the race and took his podium well. We need to find a solution for the bouncing because the car we gave Lewis today was so tough to drive, you could see the pain in his back all weekend.

George Russell claimed yet another podium for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, after a superb third-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having started in fifth, Russell had a very lonely race. The Brit inherited third-place after both Scuderia Ferrari drivers retired with suspected power unit failures, giving Russell a much welcomed podium finish.

The result sees Russell close the gap to Charles Leclerc in third in the Drivers’ standings, with just seventeen points between the pair.

Russell was very happy with the result, but addressed the horrific porpoising issue.

“We were smashing the ground every single corner and every lap for 90 mins, it was pretty brutal – I’ll sleep well tonight! It’s what we’ve got to deal with it at the moment, there’s not much we can do in the short-term. There’s lots of intelligent people, hugely talented engineers in the sport so I’m sure we’ll find a solution. We didn’t get the podium on pure pace today but we did it because the team have worked very hard to deliver a reliable car, we did a good job to be ahead of the midfield and obviously we picked up on Ferrari’s misfortune.

Scuderia AlphaTauri‘s French driver Pierre Gasly, fought Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team‘s oldest statesman Lewis Hamilton for fourth-place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Unfortunately, Hamilton was much too fast for the Frenchman.

Gasly’s team decided not to change tyres when a late Virtual Safety Car, the second of the race, was implemented. Hamilton on the other hand, did pit for fresh tyres making Gasly an easy target.

Despite just missing out on fourth, Gasly was extremely pleased with fifth-place and enjoyed his battle with Hamilton.

“It’s been pretty incredible for us today. Finishing in the top five is really good, especially considering how the start of our year has played out. We’ve not had that much luck so far, so it was important to get a clean weekend, which is what we’ve achieved here in Baku.

“We made no mistakes this weekend, we showed great pace in practice, then we had the best Quali of the year yesterday and today we finished in our highest position of the season to date. We also enjoyed a nice little battle with Lewis, which was fun.“