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Max Verstappen finished behind both the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, but the Dutchman is confident about the Red Bull Racing’s pace this weekend.

Verstappen started the weekend by setting the pace in the morning session, but he slipped behind both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas when the pace quickened in the afternoon, although he admits he did not get a perfect lap in.

The current championship leader feels this weekend in Austria will be a close one against Mercedes, and he knows Red Bull will have to get everything right to ensure a third consecutive victory.

“From our side we didn’t have a perfect run in FP2 but nevertheless I felt good in the car and there are no real problems,” said Verstappen.  “Mercedes looked quite quick on the soft so we just have to make sure we have a little more pace on that compound because we looked stronger on the medium and in the long runs, which at the end of the day is the most important for the race.

“We also tested the new Pirelli prototype tyre which seemed to be fine. It did get quite greasy out there but luckily it was good enough to keep on driving so we had a good read on the long run pace.

Lewis Hamilton feels Red Bull Racing still have something extra over the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team this weekend at the Red Bull Ring, despite the Briton ending Friday with the fastest time overall.

The reigning World Champion was only seventh fastest in the mornings running in Austria as Max Verstappen set the pace, but the afternoon was a different story as the Briton led the way in a Mercedes one-two.

Hamilton said the changes the team made between sessions, reverting to a set-up close to what they used last weekend at the same track for the Styrian Grand Prix, made the car felt better, but he still believes Red Bull have not yet shown their true hand or form.

“Red Bull have definitely got something extra in their bag, but we’ve made some small steps forward and over a single lap, the car felt pretty good,” said Hamilton.  “FP1 was a bit of a struggle, we were trying different set up variations based on our work in the sim this week and the car wasn’t happy.

“In FP2, we reverted to a similar set up as last week, with a few other adjustments, and the car felt much better. I probably won’t change much now because most often if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So just tiny tweaks for me this evening.

Like in 2019, the Stadium Super Trucks are running back-to-back rounds at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. After supporting the NASCAR Xfinity Series in June, the trucks will join the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend at the Honda Indy 200 weekend. Eight drivers comprise the field.

Robby and Max Gordon, Robert Stout, and Matt Brabham are unsurprising faces as full-timers. The elder Gordon and Brabham won at Mid-Ohio in 2019, and the former also won Race #2 in the 2021 NASCAR weekend. While Brabham is still seeking his first win of the year, he is the only driver with podium finishes in every race in 2021 and was the fastest qualifier for both of the season’s rounds to date. Aaron Bambach also returns after running Mid-Ohio 1.

Although the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is on a bye week, points leader Sheldon Creed, who has dominated the season so far as he led the most laps and won all but one of the four races, has opted to skip the Mid-Ohio return. Driving the Continental Tire truck instead will be Jerett Brooks in his first race since the 2018 finale. It will be Brooks’ first time racing on a permanent road course; much of the off-road star’s SST background has been on non-paved and mixed-surface tracks such as Crandon (where he won his lone race in 2013), though he has three podiums on street circuits.

Bo LeMastus, who débuted in the season opener at St. Petersburg, is in the #42. He previously raced with #68.

After skipping Mid-Ohio 1, Jett Noland returns in the #50. He finished eighth and sixth at St. Petersburg in his second SST weekend. Since then, he has mainly focused on late models like the Southern Super Series. Last weekend, Noland made his ARCA Menards Series début at Pocono, where he finished eleventh for Niece Motorsports.

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team team-mate Valtteri Bottas making it a one-two for the German marque.

Hamilton, who had ended only seventh in the first session, set the best time of 1:04.523 to take the plaudits in the afternoon’s running, a session that saw light rain fall in the closing stages.

For the second session in a row, teams were able to test Pirelli’s prototype tyre ahead of its planned introduction at the British Grand Prix, and most took the opportunity to run it in the opening stages of the sixty-minutes of running.

Valtteri Bottas was the first of the frontrunners to complete a lap on the regular tyres, but his best of 1:04.712 was not enough to top the session as team-mate Hamilton went almost two-tenths quicker.

There was a small moment for Hamilton when the rain began to fell, with the reigning champion skating off the track and through the gravel trap at turn four.

A typical FIA Formula 3 qualifying which saw many drivers’ fast laps thwarted by traffic ended with Dennis Hauger taking his second pole position of the season and taking more points in the championship battle.

Caio Collet had set the pole time even later than Hauger but his lap time was deleted meaning Hauger was promoted back up to first in the PREMA.

Alongside the Norwegian in the front row for Sunday’s race will be Paul Ricard pole sitter Frederik Vesti who won at this track a year ago in his rookie season. The ART man will be hoping to make his good grid spot count after dropping back in France last time out.

Aleksandr Smolyar has been the king of race one so far this year, taking victories in both Barcelona and Paul Ricard but that will be tougher this time around after the Russian put his ART third on the grid, with Collet having to settle for fourth after his lap time deletion.

Jak Crawford backed up his fine practice form with fifth on the grid ahead of Trident’s Clément Novalak who bounced back from a poor practice for sixth on the grid

Max Verstappen edged out the two Scuderia Ferrari drivers in the opening practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday morning.

The Red Bull Racing driver and the current championship leader set a best time of 1:05.143 to pace the session, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. an encouraging second and third fastest respectively for Ferrari.

All teams were given prototype tyres to use in this session by Pirelli, and a lot of running early on was focused on running these tyres, which are set to start being used from the British Grand Prix onwards.

But it was the soft compound tyre that Verstappen used to good effect to take top spot, while main championship rival Lewis Hamilton ended only seventh for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

Valtteri Bottas ended fourth fastest in the other Mercedes, just over three-tenths of a second behind the pace, while Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda was an impressive fifth, two-tenths of a second and four places ahead of his team-mate Pierre Gasly. Tsunoda did have a minor moment after hitting the gravel on the exit of turn four and running through the gravel at turn five.

A rapid FIA Formula 3 practice session at the Red Bull Ring saw the series’ most recent winner Jack Doohan lead the way for Trident as the pace ramped up ahead of qualifying.

This weekend sees the first appearance of the year for the Pirelli medium compound tyres and the times saw a big shake up in the final minutes as the majority stepped on the gas to set representative times.

Doohan’s 1:19:745 was over two tenths quicker than the rest which is an impressive gap on such a short lap and he was only three tenths of the lap record, set by Sebastián Fernández in last year’s qualifying session. Although Caio Collet squeezed into the 1:18s in testing earlier this year.

PREMA looked strong once again as Olli Caldwell went second fastest for the Italian team ahead of Hitech GP’s Jak Crawford who was optimistic going into the weekend at one of his preferred tracks on the calendar.

Frederik Vesti was fourth fastest after failing to convert pole position in France into a big scoring weekend while his ART teammate and double race winner Aleksandr Smolyar was sixth, with Logan Sargeant in between.

Derek Griffith has signed with Kyle Busch Motorsports for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début. On Thursday, KBM announced Griffith will drive the #51 Toyota Tundra at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on 20 August with sponsorship from JBL and his home track Hudson International Speedway in Hudson, New Hampshire.

The 24-year-old’s career is mainly in late models and short tracks, winning the Pro All Stars Series national championship in 2018, the World Series of Asphalt titles in 2020 and 2021, and regularly competing in the prestigious Snowball Derby. Last year, he began racing in the ARCA Menards Series and its ARCA East counterpart. Running eight races in the former for Chad Bryant Racing, he scored top tens in all but one start with a best finish of third at Kansas. In the East Series, he won the pole and finished runner-up in his maiden race.

“Derek has proven himself as one of the top young talents in Super Late Model racing in recent years, has been very competitive in his limited ARCA opportunities and is deserving of the opportunity the chance to make a start in the Camping World Truck Series,” said team owner Kyle Busch. “As a Super Late Model racer myself, I know that to win some of the races he’s been able to win the last few years, he’s had to beat some of the best drivers in the country. Many of those drivers have the talent to compete at the national series level but never get the chance, so to be providing Derek with this opportunity is really special and I know that he’ll do a great job for us.”

Griffith joined the Toyota camp in 2021 as he began a limited ARCA national series schedule with Venturini Motorsports. After being caught in a wreck in the season opener, he finished fifth at Kansas in his second and most recent start to date. Venturini team-mates Drew Dollar and Corey Heim, the latter the current ARCA points leader, also made their Truck débuts in KBM’s #51 earlier in the year, as did part-timer/road course ringer Parker Chase.

“While Kyle has built KBM into the best team in the history of the Truck Series, I know that he still holds Super Late Model racers around the country in high regard and he’s given guys like Erik Jones, Harrison Burton, and Chandler Smith a chance to showcase their skills at the national series level,” Griffith stated. Smith will be one of his team-mates for the Gateway event. “I’m thankful to Kyle, everyone at KBM and Toyota Racing Development for this once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m looking forward to making the best I can out of it.”

After a two-year absence, Jerett Brooks will make his return to the Stadium Super Trucks this weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the Continental Tire truck. On Thursday, the tyre supplier announced Brooks as the driver via Instagram Story.

Brooks first competed in SST during the inaugural season in 2013, and he scored his only career win that year at Crandon; of the six drivers who won a 2013 feature round, Brooks, Sheldon Creed, and series founder Robby Gordon are the only ones who have or will run a race in 2021. While he has never run a full SST schedule, he has five career podium finishes. Brooks also helped lift Paul Morris to the 2017 championship by serving as his substitute driver in the season finale at Lake Elsinore while Morris was nursing a rib injury; a runner-up finish by Brooks in the final race allowed Morris to win the title by one point. His most recent start came in the final weekend of 2018 at the 2019 Race of Champions in Mexico City, where he finished seventh in two rounds.

He primarily races in AMSOIL Championship Off-Road, where he is currently second in the Pro 2 class standings behind ex-SST driver Keegan Kincaid. Incidentally, fellow Pro 2 racer Ryan Beat débuted the Continental Tire SST in 2019. Brooks won the 2019 and 2020 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Pro 2 titles, the latter of which made him the final LOORRS champion in that division prior to the sanctioning body’s demise. He also has a trio of Pro Lite championships in 2014 under TORC sanction, and 2016–2017 with LOORRS.

Although a multi-driver truck since its introduction, the Continental Tire-sponsored truck has mainly been driven by Creed, who piloted it in the first two weekends of 2021. The two-time SST champion won three of the season’s first four races.

As SST began racing at Mid-Ohio in 2019, Brooks has never competed there in a stadium truck. While much of his SST résumé is unsurprisingly in off-road environments, he raced on paved, non-stadium circuits at St. Petersburg and Long Beach street circuits in 2014 with three podiums. However, Mid-Ohio will be his first SST foray on a permanent road course.

Xevi Pujolar, the Head of Trackside Engineering at Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, says the team are still awaiting a decision from Kimi Räikkönen about his future with them beyond the current campaign.

The 2007 Formula 1 World Champion joined Alfa Romeo at the start of the 2019 season after leaving Scuderia Ferrari and has scored forty-eight points since then, with a best finish of twelfth in the final standings coming in his first year with the team.

He has only one point to his name so far in 2021 thanks to a tenth-place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, although he was unfortunate to earn a penalty in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix that relegated him from ninth to thirteenth.

Räikkönen’s motivation and commitment to racing remains clear, and Pujolar says that he is still putting in strong performances despite being the oldest driver on the grid and the most experienced driver in the history of the sport.

“I don’t know what his plans are, and I cannot speak for him,” Pujolar is as quoted as saying by Grandpx.news.

Pierre Gasly admits he was surprised that his first lap clash with Charles Leclerc that ended his Styrian Grand Prix last weekend was not investigated by the stewards.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver had started an excellent sixth at the Red Bull Ring, but the Frenchman’s race was over on lap one as contact with the Scuderia Ferrari driver on the exit of turn one punctured his left-rear tyre and ultimately broke his suspension.

Stewards deemed that no investigation was necessary for the clash, feeling it was just a usual first lap incident, but Gasly says the way his race was ended as a result of the contact with Leclerc was potentially a reason for it to be looked at closer than it was.

And he expects the topic to be discussed with FIA Race Director Michael Masi on Friday evening’s briefing during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

“In the end it doesn’t really matter to me, but I must say I was a bit surprised at the time that there was no further investigation,” Gasly is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Obviously it wasn’t done on purpose, and it’s not something which Charles deliberately did, but for sure it had quite a big consequence on my race.

Carlos Sainz Jr. says the Styrian Grand Prix went as well as he could have hoped last Sunday as he climbed from twelfth on the grid to finish sixth, and he knows that it will be an easier weekend if he can qualify better.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver remains at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend looking to build on the positivity from last weekend, with the Spaniard using good pace and an excellent strategy to move up the order.

But he knows that it was far from ideal for him to be eliminated in Q1 on Saturday, which made his afternoon in Styria more difficult than it should have been.

“I think it was the first race since I’ve been at Ferrari in which everything went exactly according to plan and of course the next step is to manage to qualify as well as we did in France,” said Sainz.

“Then perform in the race the way we did in the Styrian Grand Prix, when I went from twelfth to sixth place.”

This Independence Day there will be fireworks all across the United States, but perhaps none more exciting than those that will be seen at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as the NTT IndyCar Series comes to town for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. After a dominant win at Road America two weeks ago, Alex Palou leads the championship with 349 points and a 21-point lead over Patricio O’Ward in second. Palou’s teammate, Scott Dixon, sits in third place with 296 points, waiting for one of the young guns to make a mistake as the season begins to wind down.

This weekend will mark the highly-anticipated returns of Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus Veekay from injury, as well as the return of Santino Ferrucci with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. It will also mark the series debut of former Indy Lights and current IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge driver Ryan Norman as a part of Dale Coyne Racing.

One of the most physically taxing tracks on the calendar, the 3.634 km course will demand the most out of the drivers and should produce exciting racing for the fans. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Mid-Ohio was made a doubleheader event last year. Race one saw Will Power take the pole and dominate from start to finish, leading 66 laps of the 75 lap race. Power led all the way up until the pit cycle when he pit on lap 21, switching from the alternate red-wall tyres to the harder black-wall tyres. Alexander Rossi, who started on the harder compound, inherited the lead.

After he made his pit stop on lap 26, Power dominated the next stint, pulling away from teammate Josef Newgarden and the rest of the pack behind. Power pit from the lead on lap 47 as others pit around him and was able to leave pit lane with his lead intact, cruising home to his first ever win at Mid-Ohio.

Max Verstappen goes into the second consecutive race at the Red Bull Ring on the back of winning his team’s home race, the Dutchman will be looking to double up on his victory from last weekend.

The Styrian Grand Prix was all about Verstappen, the championship leader obliterated the field leaving no one capable of keeping up with him. The victory also made it four consecutive victories for Red Bull Racing, the first time they have achieved this in the hybrid era. This weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix may be at the same venue but Verstappen is aware that no weekend is ever the same.

This weekend will see not only softer tyres used by Pirelli for the first time ever at the circuit, but also the possibility of mixed weather yet again going into the weekend. On the form he is currently on though it will take a mountain to stop him, especially with all the hard work going on behind the scenes. Verstappen will be looking to extend his championship lead this weekend.

“To win our home race last weekend was a whole Team effort and we can be very happy with that, but we cannot expect the same result easily this weekend. People will learn from what they didn’t do so well last week and also we have softer tyre compounds which could mix things up as well.

“We had a very positive race but there are always things we can do better and I naturally expect everyone to be closer this weekend as this is usually what happens when you have back-to-back races at the same track.

On the back of last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix, this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix again at the Red Bull Ring brings the Alpine F1 Team another opportunity to add to their slowly increasing constructor’s tally, as they battle for sixth place.

Fernando Alonso after finishing ninth last time out, will experience racing at the same venue for a consecutive weekend for the first ever time in his long Formula 1 career. On the other side of the Alpine F1 Team, Esteban Ocon is hoping to bounce back after a highly disappointing Styrian Grand Prix, after finishing well outside of the points.

This weekend’s grand prix however does have a significant difference to last weekend, as the softest compound of Pirelli’s tyre range the C5, will be available for the first time ever at the circuit. Alpine Chief Race Engineer Ciaron Pilbeam knows just how important it is to gather as much information on the tyre’s performance as possible.

“We have the C5 compound this week, which we’ve never had in Austria before, so that brings a bit of an unknown. At a normal race weekend, the Friday plan is fairly standard and the information you need to gather doesn’t vary much.

“That is different this weekend as we already have information on the C3 and C4 and now we need to look at the C5. It will have more grip than the C4 and probably higher degradation as well. We’ll need to learn how high the degradation is and whether that pushes you towards a two-stop race strategy.”