Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Kalle Rovanpera tops the leaderboard for day one after finishing fastest above Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak. The young Finn Rovenpera would prove he could right his wrongs this year in Croatia by getting off to a hot start. Rovenpera won three of the four stages in the morning loop but the tricky and changing conditions wouldn’t make it easy.

Teammate Elfyn Evans would see some of those conditions bring him some trouble after getting two punctures during the morning loop. With deflated tires, Evans fell back to sixth even though he held the fastest time on stage three. Even though his speed was excellent for the one-stage his luck wouldn’t improve on the day as he sits sixth overnight.

Unfortunately, Esapekka Lappi’s day came to an abrupt end when the driver made contact with rocks on the side of the road forcing him to retire for the day and restart with repairs tomorrow.

Repairs were required for the overnight second-place driver, Thierry Neuville, as the driver had a good start to the day until some alternator problems. Neuville had been following Rovenpera closely all day until an alternator issue disabled the car on a road section resulting in the Belgian pair pushing the car back to a late service arrival. While this setback resulted in a 40s time penalty, Neuville battled back in the final afternoon loop by winning a stage and keeping his pace up to hold on to second going into day 2.

Both Hyundai teammates, Ott Tanak and Oliver Solberg managed a relatively clean race day as the former finished third on the day and the latter finished fifth. Solberg would catch damage after aquaplaning slowing his pace a bit but enough to hold on to that number five spot.

Zane Maloney took pole position for the FIA Formula 3 Feature Race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Friday.

Track conditions improved throughout the day after a sodden Practice session, with Maloney taking his first F3 pole at only the second time of asking with a 1:41.180s at the end of the session.

That time came after the red flag caused by Enzo Trulli and Arthur Leclec tripping over each other at Rivazza, Maloney improving on Isack Hadjar and Gregoire Saucy‘s times on a drying track.

Roman Stanek will line up second on Sunday, ahead of Jak Crawford, Saucy, Oliver Bearman and Victor Martins.

Hadjar will lead Zak O’Sullivan, Caio Collet and Kush Maini to round out the top ten.

FIA Formula 3 Championship Qualifying Result – Imola

Several drivers failed to set times at a soaking wet Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Friday, but Victor Martins set the quickest after just five tours of the Imola circuit.

Most of the field headed out early, with times eventually spread over five seconds apart.

Ido Cohen and Kaylen Frederick exchanged top spot before BWT Alpine F1 Team junior Martins set a time which would not be beaten.

The session was punctuated by red flags for off-track excursions into the gravel traps and walls lining the circuit.

The local Ferrari Driver Academy prospects of Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman (both Prema Racing) found themselves in the lower reaches of the timesheet, with Leclerc finishing over 11 seconds off Martins’ pace.

Charles Leclerc missed out on pole position in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but almost eight-tenths of a second to title rival Max Verstappen, but the Monegasque racer says he cannot be unhappy with the position on what was a tricky day for all amid changeable weather conditions at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver had been on top after the first runs in Q3 but lost out to the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver despite both drivers having to go through a yellow flag zone after Valtteri Bottas stopped at the side of the track.

Leclerc aborted one lap in Q3 and was set to go again when red flags flew again, meaning he was unable to take the battle to Verstappen for pole.  However, he feels he does have the pace in the F1-75 to fight for the Sprint race win on Saturday.

“Qualifying didn’t end exactly as I wanted it to, but starting the race from P2 isn’t too bad,” said Leclerc.  “It was a tricky one. Q1 and Q2 were all about making it through to Q3 – and then pushing hard.

“I did one strong lap in the last session, then decided to abort my second lap to save the tyres for my last two runs at the end of Q3. Unfortunately, that never happened because of the red flags.

Max Verstappen took his first pole position of the season on Friday, with the Dutchman surviving a yellow flag during his best lap to snatch top spot away from title rival Charles Leclerc.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was forced to lift off the throttle through the yellow flag zone after Valtteri Bottas was forced to stop at the side of the road, but despite the lift, his lap time was still good enough to take pole position.

Verstappen said it was important to not make mistakes on a day of changeable weather conditions at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, and it was pleasing to end the day in top spot for Saturday’s Sprint race.

“It was good out there today but also very easy to make mistakes, so luckily we mainly stayed out of trouble,” said Verstappen.  “We started on the slicks initially and then it started raining again, making the right call on how you wanted to prep your laps was key today and ultimately we chose the right one, so I’m of course very pleased with that.

“When I saw the yellow flags for Valtteri I immediately lifted so there won’t be any trouble there, it does cost you lap time but luckily the lap was still good enough for pole.”

Bill Elliott wants another go at the Superstar Racing Experience, even if it won’t be for the championship. On Friday, SRX announced Elliott will run the 2022 season opener at Five Flags Speedway on 18 June and the Stafford Motor Speedway event on 2 July.

“I can’t wait to climb back into my SRX car and compete against the class of guys in this series,” said Elliott.

Elliott contested the full 2021 season, but his campaign was marred by multiple misfortunes as he placed in the bottom two across the first four races. He finally found life in the finale at the Nashville Fairgrounds as he won his heat race, led the most laps, and joined his son Chase on the podium by finishing third. He ended the season ninth in points, avoiding a last-place finish among the ten full-timers.

Prior to the 2021 SRX season, the 1988 NASCAR Cup Series champion had not run a full slate in any racing division since retiring from weekly Cup competition after the 2003 season. While he has mainly focused on supporting Chase’s own career in the two decades since, he has occasionally returned to the driver’s seat, including making a NASCAR Xfinity Series road course start in 2018.

Alongside his title, he has forty-four career Cup victories and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.

Jüri Vips took the first Pole Position of his FIA Formula 2 career on a wet and soggy evening at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, beating DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa by a tenth of a second.

The afternoon practice session was disrupted by rain and saw Ralph Boschung at the top of timing sheets at the checkered flag and it was the Swiss driver who was first to set a competitive time.

He was then toppled by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes before the Estonian driver, Vips, moved to the top.

Before the drivers could head out for their final few push laps in their attempt at Sunday’s Feature Race Pole, Olli Caldwell found himself spinning off the track in Sector 1 which brought out the first and only red flag of the Qualifying session.

Boschung found even more time once the drivers were allowed back on track, a time that was beaten by Vips with a few minutes remaining in the session. His time of 1:40.221 would end up being the fastest time of the day.

Practice for the opening round of the 2022 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari has been postponed due to heavy rain and delays from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship qualifying session.

With rain disrupting the opening day of the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the practice session for the Porsche Supercup was due to follow the Formula 1 qualifying session.

Unfortunately due to five reg flags throughout that session the Porsche practice was pushed further back into the evening, ultimately it was a mixture of that and heavy rain that would lead the race organisers to postpone the session until Saturday morning.

The rescheduled session is due to take place from 9:15-10am CEST.

Read our preview of the 30th Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season here.

Guenther Steiner says Friday at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari was just the pick-me-up that the Haas F1 Team needed on the back of their underwhelming Australian Grand Prix, with Kevin Magnussen securing the team’s best ever Qualifying result.

Magnussen survived an off-track moment during the early minutes of Q3 that saw him spin off track at turn twelve to cause a red flag, but he was able to keep the car going and return to the pits before Qualifying an excellent fourth, behind only Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

Team-mate Mick Schumacher was unable to make it into Q3, the German still waiting for his first top ten appearance of his Formula 1 career after a mistake on what turned out to be his one and only attempt in Q2 left him only twelfth.

Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, admitted the changeable weather conditions at Imola made for a difficult Qualifying session for everyone, but from fourth and twelfth on the grid, the team can be happy with their days work, and it gives them optimism of a decent weekend to come.

“A very good day today,” said Steiner. “They were very challenging weather conditions and I know that is the same for everyone but after Australia we really needed this, and we bounced back.

Kevin Magnussen survived an off-track moment that saw him cause a red flag to take an excellent fourth place on the grid for the Sprint race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Friday afternoon.

Magnussen spun at turn twelve early in Q3, giving his Haas F1 Team mechanics a moment of fear, but he was able to get back on track and return to the pits, the session having been red flagged as a result of the spin.

When the session resumed, Magnussen was able to put his VF-22 onto the second row of the grid, the best Qualifying performance ever for Haas, and he feels it puts him in a good position for the rest of the weekend as he looks to score points for a third time in four events.

“First of all, what a result,” said Magnussen.  “It’s great, it feels amazing, I can’t really believe it – it’s that close to top-three.

“P4 is the best qualifying for Haas ever, so I’m really proud of that and the team. I went off, lost the car and went all the way through the gravel. I managed to just keep it going and do a bit of a four-point turn and get back on track.

After ending third fastest in the morning session at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Friday, Michael Belov hit top spot in the second session to conclude the running on the opening day of the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season.

Belov, running a full campaign in 2022 with MP Motorsport after running only a partial campaign last year with G4 Racing, took top spot with a time of 1:46.509, which was two-tenths of a second faster than the quickest time in the earlier session.

After being well down the order in the first session, ART Grand Prix’s Mari Boya ended the day second fastest, 0.265 seconds back on Belov, while morning pace setter Paul Aron completed the top three for Prema Racing.

Proving that his pre-season pace was genuine, ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini placed fourth after being only fifteenth in the morning, while Hadrien David, another driver hotly tipped to be a title contender this season, was fifth for R-ace GP.

Kas Haverkort was the best of the Van Amersfoort Racing drivers in sixth, just ahead of Arden Motorsport’s Joshua Dürksen, the Paraguayan the leading rookie in the session ahead of MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif, who was eighth.

British racing driver Abbie Eaton will return to W Series, completing the 18-driver grid for the upcoming 2022 race season. She will be joining the top eight qualifiers from the 2021 drivers standings as well as nine drivers who completed pre-season tests in Barcelona and Arizona, five of whom will make their W Series debut next month.

Eaton made her debut with W Series in 2021, racing with Écurie W and achieving four top-10 finishes within six races. Unfortunately Eaton’s racing season came to an end after she endured a back injury at race one of the seasons double header finale at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin last October.

The 30-year-old has been working during the off-season to recover from her accident. She is an on screen test driver for ‘The Grand Tour’ on Amazon Prime and an ambassador for Racing Pride, a movement breaking down stereotypes and promoting LGBTQ+ inclusivity within motorsport.

She is now set to join fellow British racer Sarah Moore in making up the full Scuderia W team and will appear at the highly anticipated season opener in Miami on 6-8 May 2022. W Series will continue its partnership with Formula One, supporting eight Grand Prix weekends with 10 races visiting Spain, France, Mexico and Japan for the first time. The season will open with a double header in Miami at the Miami International Autodrome and will finish with two races at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

Abbie Eaton commented, “To have another opportunity with W Series is what I’ve wanted ever since I broke my back six months ago, so I’m relieved that all my hard work has paid off. I’m super excited to be back and hoping to get stronger as time goes on, but the tests and races I’ve done over the last few weeks have been promising and I’m looking forward to the first race in Miami.“

Paul Aron led the way in the opening collective test session of the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Friday.

Thirty-six cars hit the Italian circuit on Friday morning as preparation for the opening round of the season began in earnest, and it was Prema Racing and Mercedes-Benz protégé Aron who headed the field with a best time of 1:46.726.

In a session that was delayed initially by the weather, times tumbled throughout, and Aron and team-mate Dino Beganovic ended at the top, ahead of another returning driver in MP Motorsport’s Michael Belov.

Pietro Delli Guanti, racing for the new Race Performance Motorsports (R-P-M) team in 2022, was an encouraging fourth fastest ahead of the leading rookie in the field, Prema’s Sebastián Montoya.

Another rookie, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Joshua Dufek, placed sixth ahead of a pair of Arden Motorsport drivers, Edoardo Barrichello and Noel León, while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort and Arden’s Joshua Dürksen completed the top ten.

Max Verstappen will start from pole position for Saturday’s Sprint race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with Qualifying being halted several times after five red flags. Charles Leclerc will start from second at Scuderia Ferrari’s home race, whilst Carlos Sainz Jr was left frustrated after crashing in Qualifying 2.

Verstappen mastered the wet conditions to claim pole at Ferrari’s home, the Dutchman will start in the optimum position for the first Sprint race of the season. The shock of the session came as both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers failed to make it out of Qualifying 2, after rain and red flags played havoc throughout the session.

Qualifying 1:

After no dry running in Free Practice 1 and a forty percent chance of further rain during Qualifying, all twenty cars exited the pits as soon as possible, whilst a surprising dry line remained around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit. Not all cars began on the soft tyres though, with some deciding to set their opening laps on the Intermediates after so much rain fell overnight and during Friday morning.

Lewis Hamilton was one of the few to venture out on the Intermediates, however instantly reported to his team that there was a dry line. Both Mercedes drivers suffered from horrendous porpoising.

It didn’t take long for the session to be red-flagged, as Alex Albon’s rear-right tyre exploded in dramatic fashion after what appeared to be a combustion of heat due to too much friction. Fiery parts of his FW44, including his brake-line, were scattered across the circuit. Unsurprisingly this represented the end of Albon’s qualifying.

Rain greeted the drivers and teams as they headed out on track for the first European race of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and it was Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who would end the session fastest, despite his struggles with the wet track.

This weekend features a sprint race on the Saturday, so despite the wet weather, all teams were keen to get out on to the circuit and make the most of the track time ahead of qualifying later in the day.

The green light flickered on, signalling the start of the session and drivers headed out on to the track on the full wet-weather Pirelli tyres, despite the additional grip from the tyres the conditions were tricky, with championship leader Charles Leclerc claiming the first spin of the day as he pirouetted at turn 14.

The track conditions would claim the Williams Racing duo next, first Nicholas Latifi, who headed through the gravel trap before telling the team over the radio “the car keeps going into anti-stall, very strange.” Alex Albon also had a brief moment as he skimmed over the grass before getting back on track in a separate incident.