Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Callum Voisin won Race 1 at Donington Park on Saturday afternoon for Carlin ahead of team-mate Roberto Faria.

Joel Granfors started on pole and hung Matthew Rees out to dry at Redgate, with the pair making contact at McLeans and going into the gravel.

Granfors then spun back across the track and was incredibly lucky not to be collected by any of the 22-strong grid behind.

Granfors’ spin forced Luke Browning off in avoidance, though; the Hitech GP driver skipped across the gravel and went into the barrier with broken suspension.

Rees was able to continue, while Nico Christodoulou and Javier Sagrera retired with broken suspension.

Joel Granfors took pole for Race 1 in the GB3 Championship‘s first visit to Donington Park this season.

The Championship leader will line up third in Race 2 on Sunday morning, with that grid determined by each driver’s second-quickest time.

The Checkered Flag spoke to the Swedish driver ahead of Race 1.

“It was very, very tight, hundredths to [Matthew] Rees, but I’m happy with that,” he said.

“P1 for the first race and P3 tomorrow, I think.”

Sergio Pérez led the third and final free practice session of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix as he clocked the fastest lap time in the dying minutes of the session.

Charles Leclerc finished in second position, just 0.041 seconds slower than the Mexican driver. Leclerc’s Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz finished in third position, 0.370 seconds behind the leader.

Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top five positions at the end of the session.

The third free practice session started in sunny conditions with air temperatures at 27 degrees C and track temperatures at 51 degrees C.

The softest tyres in the Pirelli range of tyres has been designated for this race – white-striped hard compound tyres (C3), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C4), red-striped soft compound tyres (C5).

Joel Granfors and Max Esterson took pole position for the first two GB3 Championship races of the weekend at Donington Park on Saturday morning.

Branden Oxley set the first representative time, similar in pace to last year’s pole time in the old Tatuus BF3-020, but Luke Browning quickly smashed it with a 1:24.064.

Oxley also improved, setting a 1:24.102 before Javier Sagrera and Callum Voisin put their Carlin cars in the top two positions, separated by just 0.006s.

Nico Christodoulou, running with Arden Motorsport this weekend for his first GB3 action in partnership with Velocity Racing Development, shot up the order to go fourth.

Championship leader Granfors then went quickest, with Matthew Rees and Max Esterson getting up to third and fourth respectively.

Carb Day serves as the final practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series field before Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, though it was a session to forget for Colton Herta and David Malukas as both were involved in wrecks. For Herta, the only practice he got was being an aeroplane pilot as he found himself flying through the air before landing on his roof, though he walked away without injury.

The two crashes only capped off an inauspicious day that began with a rain delay, and the colder temperatures prompted Rinus VeeKay to only run eighteen laps before concluding his run. Once the weather cleared, Malukas’ day ended when he made contact with Santino Ferrucci in turn one, shooting him into the wall.

Later in the session, Herta lost control of his car and clipped the outside turn two wall, and the ensuing lift caused the vehicle to flip onto its roof before coasting down the backstretch and hitting turn three nose-first. Herta’s accident was very similar to Dan Wheldon‘s blowover in the 2003 race, with both taking off at nearly the same position and angles. Despite the scary nature, he was released from the medical centre without issue.

“Well first off I’m fine,” Herta subsequently tweeted. “More importantly we’re moving to the backup car and will be ready to race Sunday. Thank you to everyone at the medical center and of course the on track safety team.”

While Herta’s flight dominated the day’s airwaves, Chip Ganassi Racing continued its strong Month of May as Tony Kanaan, Marcus Ericsson, and 500 pole winner Scott Dixon were respectively first, second, and fourth quickest. Kanaan set a best time of 39.6277 seconds, ahead of Ericsson’s 39.6468. Fellow Ganassi driver Jimmie Johnson was the fastest rookie in seventh.

Pato O’Ward is not going anywhere anytime soon. On Friday, Arrow McLaren SP announced the Mexican driver has signed a contract extension through the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.

Since joining the McLaren family in 2020, O’Ward has blossomed into one of IndyCar’s top young drivers. After a two-win campaign and third-place points finish in 2021, he provided a glimmer of hope in what has otherwise been a difficult start to the 2022 season for McLaren by winning at Barber. He currently sits seventh in points.

“The entire team is excited that Pato is on board for the long haul,” said team president Taylor Kiel. “He is an important part of our plan here at Arrow McLaren SP, his energy and work ethic is infectious. Having watched him develop since he joined the team, I look forward to building on these foundations to increase our performance and achieve our common goals in the years to come.”

His involvement with McLaren has also extended beyond the IndyCar programme with tests for the Formula One arm, including the Young Drivers Test in Abu Dhabi in late 2021. While the path to F1 is open, he would have to earn the seat by enjoying sustained success in IndyCar. Until then, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is more than happy to have him and fellow IndyCar driver Colton Herta as the team’s TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) drivers.

“Pato is an important part of McLaren’s future in IndyCar and we are happy that he will be a key part of Arrow McLaren SP for years to come,” commented Brown. “He is an incredibly talented driver who has already shown what he is capable of in IndyCar and I look forward to watching him take the next step in his promising career.”

The NTT IndyCar Series continues its quest for environmentally friendly racing by announcing Friday that its new partnership with Shell Pennzoil will see the creation of a fully renewable fuel for use in the 2023 season. This will make the series the first major North American motorsport to use such a type of fuel.

Shell Pennzoil became the new official fuel supplier for IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, with the deal set to begin in 2023 and replacing Speedway. The company is a longtime sponsor of IndyCar head Roger Penske‘s Team Penske in both IndyCar and NASCAR, and the combination has resulted in two Indianapolis 500 victories with Rick Mears (1983 and 1988) and a NASCAR Cup Series championship with Joey Logano (2018). In 2021, Shell was named IndyCar’s official oil and lubricant provider.

“The fuel and lubricant, and energy solutions developed through our strategic relationship with IndyCar and Penske Corporation can ultimately help accelerate reduced carbon emissions from transport in many sectors of the economy,” commented Carlos Maurer, Shell’s executive vice president of Sectors and Decarbonisation. “Shell’s motorsports technical alliances around the world provide a testing ground for fuel and lubricant technologies and products in demanding road conditions.”

Shell’s new concoction for 2023 will be a blend of ethanol and various biofuels. The ethanol, which comes from the remains of sugarcane, is provided by Brazilian company Raízen. By being fully renewable, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by at least sixty percent.

“This race fuel development for IndyCar is a great example of how fuels technology is pivotal in helping decarbonize the sport,” commented Shell Global Solutions president Dr. Selda Gunsel. “Today’s development takes us one step closer to that goal.”

As Ross Chastain continued his strong 2022 by adding a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win to complement his two Cup Series triumphs, his Niece Motorsports team-mate Carson Hocevar was in the crosshairs of Ryan Preece. Hocevar and Preece were fighting for the win late when the latter was squeezed by his adversary into the wall, leading to choice words from Preece.

Hocevar, who has come so close to scoring his maiden Truck Series win on numerous occasions but fell short each time, was eager to make Friday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway the night where it all came together. He led a race-high fifty-seven laps, five more than Stage #1 winner Zane Smith, before facing a challenge from Preece. A wreck involving Jesse Little and Tyler Ankrum with four laps remaining resulted in overtime, which began with Hocevar and Preece comprising the front row.

As they ran through the first two turns, Hocevar went up the turn three banking and sandwiched Preece between his truck and the outside wall. After crossing the backstretch, further contact between the two caused Hocevar to spin and Preece to fall off pace. Chastain, who was running third, slipped by and took the lead before the caution came out; he would lead the final two overtime laps to secure his fourth career Truck win.

Preece, who finished eleventh, was far from pleased with the incident.

“All you kids watching right now wanting to get to this level: don’t do that,” Preece told FOX Sports. “Race with respect, don’t wreck the guy on the outside if you’re trying to win your first race. It doesn’t get you anywhere.

McLaren F1 Team had a bitter-sweet afternoon on Friday, with Lando Norris finishing fifth in both practice sessions, while Daniel Ricciardo put his car in the wall at the start of his Free Practice Two stint.

Currently fourth in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship constructors standings, McLaren are hoping to score more points at the Monte Carlo circuit – a circuit that has famously become almost impossible to overtake at in recent years due to the increased size of F1 cars.

In order to maximise the number of points they leave the weekend with, McLaren will be hoping for a good result in qualifying on Saturday – but with crucial data collection being missed from the second practice session as a result of Ricciardo’s accident, the Woking-based team have a bit more difficult of a job on their hands.

Andrea Stella, the Executive Director of Racing at McLaren, is optimistic about the MCL36’s pace so far this weekend.

“Monaco is always a challenge for drivers and for teams and, this year, that challenge seems even greater with a new generation of cars which seem quite temperamental. Lando’s sessions today were relatively clean, while Daniel lost most of FP2 with a crash at the Swimming Pool, the causes of which we are still investigating.”

McLaren F1 Team‘s Daniel Ricciardo found his Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice Two session come to an end before it even started, after losing the rear of his MCL36 car mid-corner at the swimming pool chicane. The Australian lost the rear again while trying to correct the initial mistake, before hitting the barrier on exit and sliding into another barrier at the following chicane.

Thankfully, the Australian driver was okay, but significant damage to the car meant that he was to unable to make it back out on track; meaning his session ended without a lap time being set. This is not ideal for McLaren, as this is a missed opportunity for crucial data collection going into one of the trickiest weekends on the calendar from a driving and overtaking perspective.

With his future beyond 2022 currently uncertain (and lots of media talks after a disappointing outing in Spain), Ricciardo says that he will put the crash behind him and focus on the upcoming sessions:

“FP2 was obviously a very short session with a crash on the first lap. We had a decent running earlier in the day, I feel it was a solid FP1, and we obviously just tried to push the car more and try a few things with set-up. I think we ultimately just pushed it a bit too far and I lost the car in the high-speed Swimming Pool.“

The thirty-two year old went on to explain that he tried his best to catch the initial slide, but due to the narrow nature of the Monaco street circuit, wasn’t able to save it.

The sixth round of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship commenced on Friday with the first two practice sessions at the Monaco Grand Prix.

After Oracle Red Bull Racing’s one-two finish last time round in Barcelona, the team come into this weekend race with a lot of confidence with both drivers having solid performances across both sessions, but were not able to get the better of Scuderia Ferrari and the home favourite Charles Leclerc, who finished top of both sessions.

The current world champion Max Verstappen found himself in fourth place after both practice one and practice two, completing fifty nine laps across the sessions, with his best time coming in practice two with a 1:13.103.

Verstappen currently holds the record lap time around the Monaco Grand Prix and will be hoping for a more positive outcome going into Qualifying on Saturday after an impressive day from Ferrari and his championship rival.

“We tried quite a few different things with our set up today to see how the car is behaving, was happier with the car in FP1 than in FP2,” said Verstappen. “If we get better balance we can attack the corners a bit more, then of course our lap times will improve.

Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari has topped the first two Free Practice sessions of his home grand prix in Monaco, gathering valuable data for the rest of the weekend. The Monégasque driver completed twenty-nine laps on the Medium tyre in Free Practice One, before completing thirty laps altogether on the Hard and Soft compounds in the second practice session.

Leclerc was happy with how his Friday went, but continues to look ahead at the rest of the weekend in order to maximise the performance in his Ferrari F1-75 car.

“It was great to see so many people around the track today, considering that it is only Friday. It really makes me look forward to the next two days and hopefully we can give our tifosi a good result.

“We had consistent running and completed a good number of laps. We still have to fine tune the balance but, all in all, it wasn’t too bad and we just need to make the usual step from Friday to Saturday now.“

The young Ferrari driver will be hoping for a smooth weekend in Monaco, after an unlucky car failure in Spain saw the number sixteen drop behind Max Verstappen in the world championship standings. He will also be hoping to put an end to his unlucky streak, of never finishing a Monaco Grand Prix.

Tony Kanaan is known for his NTT IndyCar Series exploits as the 2004 champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner. While he currently competes in Stock Car Brasil, he is keen on trying out American stock cars. In an exclusive interview with Brazilian motorsport publication Grande Prêmio, he revealed he is in talks to run two NASCAR road course races in 2022. Kanaan did not specify a team nor series, but added that Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar team-mate and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is assisting with negotiations.

“There is an opportunity, still very remote, it’s still too early to say, but to do at least two NASCAR races on the road circuits here in the United States, especially now that I’m doing Stock Car,” Kanaan told Grande Prêmio.

Kanaan is no stranger to closed-wheel racing, winning the 2015 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona overall and dabbling in the Superstar Racing Experience. Prior to joining Ganassi’s IndyCar programme in 2014, he had a meeting with NASCAR powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing about potentially racing in the now-Xfinity Series before graduating to the Cup Series, though no contract offer came.

Since retiring from full-time IndyCar racing in 2020, Kanaan returned to his native Brazil to race in Stock Car Brasil for Full Time Bassani. After placing thirty-second in the 2021 standings, he currently sits seventeenth in points with a best race finish of eleventh at the Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna. His team-mate for the multi-driver Corrida de Duplas races (such as at José Carlos Pace) is Pietro Fittipaldi, a fellow IndyCar driver and former NASCAR regional series champion.

Due to his SCB obligations, a NASCAR start would have to avoid clashing with said series. For example, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course slate on 31 July–1 August appears to be an obvious choice for NASCAR, but it is on the same weekend as SCB’s race at Autódromo José Carlos Pace. The Cup and Xfinity road races at Road America (2/3 July) also conflicts with Stock Car Brasil’s Velopark race.

Charles Leclerc ended the opening day at the Monaco Grand Prix the same way he started it, on top. The Monegasque ended Free Practice Two as the driver to beat, ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergio Pérez.

The Monegasque dipped under the seventy-three second mark, setting a weekend best time so far of a 1:12.656, just four-hundredths faster than Sainz. The rest of the field were well off of the Scuderia Ferrari duo, who appear to have some margin to those behind. Max Verstappen ended the day fourth, whilst the ever-impressive Lando Norris ended the day fifth.

The same couldn’t be said for his team-mate, as Daniel Ricciardo brought out a red flag during the session after crashing heavily at the Swimming Pool section. The Australian unlike his car was okay.

George Russell was once again top Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver in sixth, from Pierre Gasly in seventh. Only the top seven drivers were within a second of the pacesetter.

To Fernando Alonso in eighth there was another three-tenths, the Spaniard was ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Yuki Tsunoda who rounded-off the top ten. Tsunoda may be in trouble though, with himself and Kevin Magnussen under investigation for impeding, and an unsafe release. Lewis Hamilton was a woeful twelfth, whilst Mick Schumacher who had a new MGU-K and gearbox fitted following the morning session, finished seventeenth.

Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice 2 Full Results:

Home boy Charles Leclerc topped Friday’s opening session, with Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz Jr a whisker behind at the Circuit de Monaco.

Leclerc looked strong around the streets of his home country, on the back of a shocking retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix. The Monegasque set the fastest time of the morning on the yellow-walled Medium tyres, clocking a 1:14.531. The top three were separated by just seven-thousandths of a second, tiny margins around the historic venue.

Last weekend’s winner Max Verstappen was fourth, within two tenths of his title rival. It was then the McLaren F1 Team on the timesheets with Lando Norris, who started the weekend off on a good-note, ending the morning in fifth-place. Pierre Gasly also went strongly, finishing just behind Norris in sixth but one place ahead of the British driver’s team-mate.

Then came the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team with George Russell in eighth and Lewis Hamilton in tenth, the pair sandwiched Sebastian Vettel who impressed.

The swimming pool section appears to be catching a number of drivers out, most notably Kevin Magnussen, It wasn’t a great morning for the Haas F1 Team, as Mick Schumacher brought out the session’s sole red flag. The German stopped at the pit-entry, due to a suspected gearbox issue.