Catie Munnings (GBR), Andretti United Extreme E. Copyright Sam Bloxham
After an enthralling day’s racing it was Andretti United who took their first win of the season in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.
The action kicked off with a bang in the first Semi Final, as top qualifiers X44 faced off against Veloce and Acciona Sainz. Undeterred by the pouring rain, Veloce’s Emma Gilmour took an early lead off of the line. It would not last very long, however, as Carlos Sainz used his hyper drive to take the position. From there, he stretched out a decent lead, as X44 and Veloce ran nose to tail through the tight technical sections.
By the time the teams entered the switch zone, Acciona Sainz had a 13 second advantage over their nearest rivals in Veloce. X44 were just a couple seconds further back. But now Acciona Sainz’s Laia Sanz faced her toughest challenge yet. All she had to do was hold off two of the most experienced drivers on the grid in X44’s Loeb and Veloce’s Sarrazin.
Still behind the green Veloce car, Loeb went for an ambitious move up the inside around the lake; a place nobody believed a pass was possible at. It was a bold attempt but ultimately it paid off, as the X44 car overtook Stephane Sarrazin, to continue its pursuit of Laia Sanz. Both Loeb and Sarrazin gradually started catching up to the Acciona Sainz car and the X44 driver used his hyper drive to good effect to take the lead. All three cars approached the rock garden nose to tail. Veloce, who had so far been unable to overtake Sanz, looked to be going out, until Sarrazin took an alternative line through the rocks. He had taken the lead! But, disaster! The alternative line had badly damaged the car and, as he went over the final jump, the suspension broke and he was unable to complete the race.
X44 had won an incredible opening race, with the Acciona Sainz team finishing just 0.72 seconds behind. Both teams had progressed to the final
Adam Morgan took his second win of the season in the final race of the weekend at Thruxton. Colin Turkington finished second with Senna Proctor third in a race which had three safety car periods.
It didn’t take long for the first safety car to be deployed. Gordon Shedden’s Honda made contact with Jade Edwards’ Honda, sending the pair into the wall and out of the race. The safety car came out to recover the cars.
On the restart on lap six, Ingram was hunting down Sutton, with both drivers fighting for the championship. On lap seven Ingram squeezed past Sutton at the final chicane. Jason Plato seized his opportunity and passed Sutton too.
The second safety car was brought out on lap ten as Sam Smelt and Carl Boardley made contact. Smelt’s car came to a halt on track while Boardley crawled back to the pits.
Just before the safety car was deployed, Ingram passed Stephen Jelley in a brave move around the outside at the high speed Noble corner.
The race was briefly restarted on lap 13 with Ollie Jackson retiring on lap 14 with a right suspension failure. The safety car was brought out for the third time to retrieve his car.
Lap 16 saw the restart, and a point of contention. Coming into the final chicane Morgan locked up heavily, and decided to cut the chicane instead of attempt to make the corner. He made a large gap on Turkington, which he later slowed down to rule out. However the argument could be made that it denied Turkington an overtaking opportunity.
On the final lap Ingram made another daring move on Rory Butcher and took fifth place.
Morgan took the win, with Turkington in second and Proctor in third. Hill, Ingram Butcher, Cook, Plato, Smiley and Sutton rounded off the top ten.
Conditions were cold and cloudy at Silverstone during qualifying, which didn’t help with tyres. One man though seemed to revel in the weather and made pole for the first time in his Moto GP career – Pol Espargaro (Honda)!
It looked like it was going to be Jorge Martin (Ducati) who was going to ruin the celebrations as he put in the fastest lap with few seconds to spare, but the lap was removed as he exceeded track limits – he qualified 4th on the grid.
Pol lead Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) on the front row.
Pole felt like a win – P. Espargaro. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
Race:
The cloudy conditions remained in place for Sunday, with highest temperatures of just 22 degrees.
There was a sell-out crowd for round 12 at Silverstone, with many of the fans gathering to witness Valentino Rossi’s (Yamaha) final race at the iconic British track. They also cheered for Cal Crutchlow, who again came back from retirement to race at his home-track, this time on the factory Yamaha alongside Fabio. Team-mate to Rossi on the Petronas Yamaha, Jake Dixon made his debut at Silverstone.
Due to Covid restrictions last year, Moto GP did not attend Silverstone so audiences were hyped up to witness something special. In the last six years there had been six different winners, could there be a seventh in seven?
Tyres seemed to be an issue at the track and whilst waiting for the warm-up lap the top three riders in the championship all changed their tyre combination to a mixture of soft and medium.
Pol Espargaro got a great start from pole and was soon leading the race from Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia). Bagnaia quickly made it through to second place but it was taken back by Aleix.
A shocking move from Marc Marquez (Honda) on lap one meant that he took out Austria’s (race one) winner Jorge Martin (Ducati). Neither one of the riders were able to get their bikes properly started to rejoin the race.
But disappointment for two riders went to elation for two others. Both Espargaro brothers were first and second from Bagnaia in third.
Weighing up his options, Aleix tried to pass Pol for first on lap three, but to no avail.
With 18 laps to go, Fabio took 3rd place from Pecco and soon had his eyes set on the two brothers ahead. Fabio had the fastest lap and quickly took second place from Aleix. Pecco seized an opportunity to also gain a place from Aleix but the Aprilia rider was having none of it and regained 3rd back within quick succession.
Lap 5 of 20 saw Quartararo take the lead and the gap just slowly kept getting larger and larger. There was nothing the rest of the pack could do to catch him. With 15 laps until the end, the gap was already 1.007 seconds.
Fabio leads the way. Courtesy of Moto GP website.
But what could Austria’s second race winner – Brad Binder (KTM) pull out of the bag this weekend? He was in 13th place with 14 laps to go.
Quartararo was in his element, finding his groove and setting better and better lap times. He soon was 2.031 seconds ahead of P. Espargaro, A. Espargaro, the two Suzuki riders in 4th and 5th and the factory Ducati’s in 6th and 7th.
Tyres became a factor for many of the riders during the race and two names that felt this the most were Valentino Rossi and Francesco Bagnaia. By lap 8, Rossi had been overtaken by Alex Marquez (Honda) in 8th place and Bagnaia had gone into 7th position, having been overtaken by Jack Miller (Ducati). P. Espargaro had also been caught and overtaken by Alex Rins (Suzuki), for 3rd.
Extending his lead, Fabio was 2.617 seconds ahead of A. Espargaro, Rins, P. Espargaro and current Moto GP Champion – Joan Mir (Suzuki).
The British crowds roared loudly for their fellow riders – Cal Crutchlow and Jake Dixon, but for all their efforts they were unfortunately in 17th and 19th place. This didn’t dampen the fans though because they were both riding well.
We could get used to this sight – Dixon on Petronas Yamaha. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
Meanwhile Rins, who had propelled himself from 10th on the grid had taken 2nd place from A. Espargaro, who made a small mistake and went wide, with 9 laps to go until the chequered flag.
Lap 13 saw A. Marquez take 7th place from Bagnaia, who passed him with relative ease, as the Ducati’s tyres had worn out.
The race leader however, was managing his tyres extremely well and had extended his lead even further to 3.458 seconds. Rins was trying everything to get the gap down between himself and the Frenchman, but he just couldn’t break away from Aleix.
Unlike, Miller who was quickly closing the gap down between himself and Pol. Pol made an unfortunate mistake on lap 15, which meant Miller breezed past him to take 4th.
With three laps to go, things went from bad to worse for Bagnaia, who had gone from 9th to 12th place within a few laps and finished the race in 14th, gathering only 2 championship points. Sitting in second in the championship prior to the race, he has plummeted down to 4th.
The last lap was Miller’s last attempt to get onto the podium. He managed to pass A. Espargaro for 3rd but Aleix passed him right back for a last lap battle. It was Aleix’s time to step up onto the podium for the first time in Moto GP and for his Aprilia team.
A. Espargaro and Miller. Courtesy of: Moto GP website,
Fabio’s lead was too great and he took his 5th race win this season with a massive gap of 3.467 seconds ahead of Rins and A. Espargaro.
Despite his mammoth efforts, Binder finished a respectful 6th in the race.
Finally, for his last race on British soil, the eight-time World Champion, Valentino Rossi finished 18th, but still celebrated for the crowd.
Rossi celebrating for the crowd. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
The pattern continued with a seventh winner at Silverstone in seven races and for the first time ever in Moto GP history, the top six finishers were all different manufacturers.
Top Ten Race Finishers:
1
F. Quartararo (Yamaha)
2
A. Rins (Suzuki)
3
A. Espargaro (Aprilia)
4
J. Miller (Ducati)
5
P. Espargaro (Honda)
6
B. Binder (KTM)
7
I. Lecuona (Ducati)
8
A. Marquez (Honda)
9
J. Mir (Suzuki)
10
D. Petrucci (Ducati)
Championship Results:
1
F. Quartararo
206 points
2
J. Mir
141 points
3
J. Zarco
137 points
4
F. Bagnaia
136 points
The 22 year old Frenchman dominated the field once more and took valuable championship points in the race. But the current champion now sits in second place, could we see a swing in the title-run and see Mir defend his number one spot?
Featured image: Podium finishers. Courtesy of: Moto GP Twitter page.
A rainy Spa on a Sunday after a wet qualifying? F1 fans everywhere anticipated the race with anxious excitement knowing both how good and how dangerous this race can be. Our first drama arrived 30 minutes before lights out as on the way to the grid Sergio Perez went over the paint at Les Combes and had little control as he slid into the wall. The car was not repairable before the scheduled start of the race and Red Bull were looking like they would have to take a DNS.
After two formation laps behind the safety car the start procedure was suspended, and everyone went back into the pit lane. It originally looked like the race had not started however, confirmed by Michael Masi, under article 6.5 of the technical regulations, the three hour window to complete a race started at the scheduled start time.
In the Red Bull camp, a fascinating conversation transpired between Johnathan Wheatly and Michael Masi as to whether Perez could re-join the race. Initially, Masi said he couldn’t because he had ‘outside assistance’, but the race had not officially started and therefore he could still make the start of the race. This actually caused Masi to check and get back to Red Bull. Masi confirmed almost 30 minutes later that Perez could start from the pit lane, much to Red Bull’s delight. It was then revealed that one lap had been taken off the lap count, suggesting Perez would be a lap down. However, with unprecedented circumstances, the regulations showed a loop pole which meant that Perez could start on the lead lap from the pitlane but could not start on the grid – eventhat was assuming they would go back to the grid. The confusion was mutual between fans, commentary, the teams, and the FIA.
After his team’s exceptional efforts, Sergio Perez’s crash and torrential rain cost him a chance at scoring points – Courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool
The confusion continued as to whether we would be on lap two or lap 6. Regulations are not covered for this sort of event, but you can probably expect to see them changed after today. Added to the mess, the three-hour count down clock was stopped with an hour of the time left. This is a ruling which the stewards are allowed to exploit according to the regulations for these sorts of circumstances.
Just over two hours after the race was due to start, the message that every fan wanted – ‘race will be resumed at 18:17 local time – was issued, and it seemed a timed race would be on! There was still potential that this could just be laps behind the safety car but either way, those fans at Spa deserved to see some cars. Coming out of the pits the race had officially started and as long as two laps were completed a classification and half points could be awarded. Whilst the track looked OK in terms of standing water, the problem still remained that the spray made visibility virtually zero for the drivers. Because of this, the race was suspended again.
Just 10 minutes later the dreaded message saying the race would not resume was produced. Max Verstappen won with George Russell getting a P2 and celebrating on the podium after some brilliant work yesterday was absolutely deserved. The biggest loser was Perez, who, despite re-joining the race, finished 20th making it not really worth running.
Whilst anti-climactic compared to yesterday’s qualifying, it is worth saying that, yes they have started in worse conditions in past decades, but these regulations are here for the driver’s safety, which is the most important thing, and it was definitely too wet to race.
Some of the most exciting action came from the fans, who, despite the awful weather, stuck with it and were out in force. Every time the camera panned to them they were laughing and joking having a great time. Daniel Ricciardo went out to entertain the grandstand opposite the pitlane with a Mexican wave, and full participation was achieved! Some of the most loyal fans in the world.
Ash Sutton extended his championship lead with a win in race two at Thruxton. He reeled in race one winner Josh Cook, who finished second, with Tom Oliphant third for the WSR team.
Cook led from pole at the start, with Rory Butcher passing Jake Hill, who dropped from second to fourth off the line. Jade Edwards jumped the start, seeming to misread the lights and was given a five second penalty.
There was drama for the Dynamics Honda team as both Dan Rowbottom and Gordon Shedden were into the pits by the end of lap two with mechanical issues. Jack Mitchell joined them in the pits in his Team HARD Cupra Leon, with his team mate Aron Taylor-Smith not even making the start. He broke down on the formation lap.
On lap three Sutton passed Oliphant for second place, with Cook 2.2 seconds up the road in the lead.
The other battle was between Butcher and Tom Ingram, who were fighting over fifth place.
By lap seven Sutton was just a second behind Cook, who had the full 75kg ballast on his Honda Civic. On lap nine Sutton was on the rear bumper of Cook, and was looking for the right opportunity to pass, which he eventually took.
Sutton’s Infiniti made the best exit out of the final chicane and had a run on Cook. He cut down the inside and passed into turn one, taking the lead and cruising to the chequered flag.
Lap 13 saw a hairy moment between Butcher and Ingram, as they made slight contact at Noble, an incredibly high speed corner, thankfully Butcher regained the car and held on without losing a place. However on lap 15 Ingram passed Butcher with a nice switchback move at the Complex. Colin Turkington was in the mix too, but couldn’t pass either.
Sutton took the win and extended his championship lead, with Cook and Oliphant behind him.
Hill was fourth and Butcher inherited fifth as Ingram suffered a puncture on the final lap, sending him all the way down to 12th. Turkington was sixth. Senna Proctor took seventh with Adam Morgan eighth and the Power Maxed pair of Jason Plato and Dan Lloyd rounding off the top ten.
Pos
Driver
Car
Team
+/-
1
Ash Sutton
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
20:42:975
2
Josh Cook
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
+0.878
3
Tom Oliphant
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+4.504
4
Jake Hill
Ford Focus ST
MB Motorsport
+5.036
5
Rory Butcher
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Gazoo
+8.059
6
Colin Turkington
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+8.452
7
Senna Proctor
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
+8.973
8
Adam Morgan
BMW 330i M Sport
Ciceley
+10.140
9
Jason Plato
Vauxhall Astra
Power Maxed
+10.995
10
Dan Lloyd
Vauxhall Astra
Power Maxed
+11.297
11
Chris Smiley
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+11.596
12
Tom Ingram
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+13.721
13
Aiden Moffat
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
+16.540
14
Stephen Jelley
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+16.844
15
Jack Butel
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+17.363
16
Jack Goff
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+18.875
17
Tom Chilton
BMW 330i M Sport
Ciceley
+20.066
18
Ollie Jackson
Ford Focus ST
MB Motorsport
+22.286
19
Sam Osborne
Ford Focus ST
Motorbase
+24.582
20
Rick Parfitt Jr
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+25.105
21
Carl Boardley
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
+27.640
22
Sam Smelt
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Gazoo
+28.163
23
Paul Rivett
Ford Focus ST
Motorbase
+28.679
24
Jade Edwards
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
+29.365*
25
Nicholas Hamilton
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+46.624
26
Dan Rowbottom
Honda Civic Type R
Team Dynamics
+6 Laps
Retirements
DNF
Jack Mitchell
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
Mechanical
DNF
Gordon Shedden
Honda Civic Type R
Team Dynamics
Mechanical
DNS
Aron Taylor-Smith
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
Driveshaft
– Jade Edwards received a 5 second penalty for a jump start.
Josh Cook cruised to his seventh win at Thruxton to keep his title challenge going in round 16 of the British Touring Car Championship.
He surged into the lead off the start line from third, passing Jake Hill and polesitter Dan Rowbottom and into the lead which he never surrendered.
Tom Oliphant also had a fine start from fifth and was third by the end of the first lap. Hill started well and passed Oliphant for second at the chicane.
A couple of cars were seen going off at the high-speed Church corner, with Paul Rivett spinning on lap two. Nicholas Hamilton later did the same, both losing the back end and spinning.
There was a battle developing behind the top three with seven cars all fighting for a better position. Ash Sutton put the moves on Adam Morgan into Church to take sixth and soon made light work of Rowbottom to chase down Rory Butcher in fourth.
The Scot did incredibly well in his Toyota to fend off the championship leader, despite the fact Sutton had 75kg of success ballast on his Infiniti.
On the penultimate lap Jason Plato was chasing down Ingram for tenth place on the road. Having been on his rear bumper for the majority of the race, the veteran finally made his move into the final chicane.
Plato squeezed past and Colin Turkington swooped in to capitalise on Ingram’s lost momentum. Ingram however recovered and passed Turkington into the complex.
Cook cruised to the win, his seventh at Thruxton and the 11th of his career. Hill and Oliphant rounded off the podium. Butcher impressively held off Sutton for fourth with Rowbottom going from pole on the grid to sixth. Morgan was seventh with Senna Proctor eighth. Plato and Ingram came home ninth and tenth.
Dan Lloyd was eighth on the road at the chequered flag but he was given a five second penalty for being out of position at the start.
Pos
Driver
Car
Team
+/-
1
Josh Cook
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
20:37:012
2
Jake Hill
Ford Focus ST
MB Motorsport
+1.360
3
Tom Oliphant
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+3.740
4
Rory Butcher
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Gazoo
+5.847
5
Ash Sutton
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
+6.506
6
Dan Rowbottom
Honda Civic Type R
Team Dynamics
+9.260
7
Adam Morgan
BMW 330i M Sport
Ciceley
+10.617
8
Senna Proctor
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
+12.144
9
Jason Plato
Vauxhall Astra
Power Maxed
+14.511
10
Tom Ingram
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+15.970
11
Dan Lloyd
Vauxhall Astra
Power Maxed
+16.635*
12
Colin Turkington
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+16.667
13
Gordon Shedden
Honda Civic Type R
Team Dynamics
+17.480
14
Tom Chilton
BMW 330i M Sport
Ciceley
+17.845
15
Stephen Jelley
BMW 330i M Sport
Team WSR
+18.535
16
Aiden Moffat
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
+21.375
17
Chris Smiley
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+21.659
18
Ollie Jackson
Ford Focus ST
MB Motorsport
+22.165
19
Jack Butel
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+23.507
20
Jack Goff
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+23.983
21
Jade Edwards
Honda Civic Type R
BTC Racing
+24.259
22
Sam Osborne
Ford Focus ST
Motorbase
+31.014
23
Jack Mitchell
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+33.060
24
Carl Boardley
Infiniti Q50
Laser Tools
+35.373
25
Rick Parfitt Jr
Hyundai i30N
Excelr8
+35.696
26
Sam Smelt
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Gazoo
+1 Lap
27
Aron Taylor-Smith
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+1 Lap
28
Nicholas Hamilton
Cupra Leon
Team HARD
+1 Lap
29
Paul Rivett
Ford Focus ST
Motorbase
+1 Lap
– Dan Lloyd given a 5 second penalty for improper grid position.
Jack Doohan took his second victory of the weekend in the Spa feature race, fending off a race-long challenge from Victor Martins to make a crucial dent in Dennis Hauger’s championship lead.
Doohan started the race from pole, but was spared from defending the lead into La Source as the race began behind the safety car because of the wet conditions. When the race got going with 14 laps on the board, Doohan bolted early out of the final chicane but Martins went with him to look at the outside into La Source.
Martins was too far back to convert that into an overtake attempt, but he stayed glued to the back of Doohan throughout the opening laps. After setting several fastest laps and running within half a second of Doohan, Martins saw his chance on lap 5 coming into Pouhon. Pulling to the outside of Doohan, Martins managed to come out of the corner in the lead, but not without running all four wheels over the limit of the track while setting up the move.
Victor Martins, MP Motorsport (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
After beginning to pull a gap over Doohan, Martins was instructed over the radio to hand the position back to avoid a penalty. He did on the following lap, but in doing so Martins dropped to more than a second behind Doohan.
Doohan then set the fastest lap when back in the lead, but Martins responded almost immediately to slash the gap back to half a second by lap 7. As they went through Rivage Martins almost nudged the back of Doohan but still couldn’t find a way past the Trident. All the while, Doohan and Martins had pulled more than five seconds clear of the rest of the field, led by Alex Smolyar in third.
As the race ticked over the halfway stage and the track began to dry, Martins’ wet tyres started to overheat and Doohan was able to start building up a gap over the MP Motorsport driver. By lap 9 Doohan was almost a second ahead, before a wide moment for Martins on lap 11 solidified Doohan’s lead over the closing laps.
Doohan took the win with just under two seconds in hand over Martins, who at least managed to reclaim the fastest lap points from Doohan before the end. Smolyar completed the podium in third, albeit 10 seconds back from the top two.
Alex Smolyar, ART (Lars Baron, Getty Images / FIA F3)
Caio Collet narrowly missed out on another podium as he came home fourth and just a second behind Smolyar, while Clement Novalak finished fifth ahead of Frederik Vesti and Logan Sargeant. Championship leader Hauger battled his way up to eighth place from 14th on the grid to take four points, and David Schumacher and Arthur Leclerc rounded out the top ten.
Doohan’s two wins this weekend means he’s now closed Hauger’s lead at the top of the standings from 63 points to 25. Vesti and Martins move up to third and fourth in the standings, displacing Olli Caldwell who was outside the points in all three races at Spa.
Formula 3 returns next weekend at Zandvoort in support of the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
X44 topped an incredible day’s qualifying yet again as the Arctic XPrix weekend gets into full swing.
It was the new girl, Emma Gilmour, who kicked off qualifying in Q1 for the Veloce team. Coming in for the occupied Jamie Chadwick, Emma set a strong pace for teammate Stephane Sarrazin to build upon. Stephane had an uneventful run and, after a 10 second penalty was awarded for Emma knocking over a flag, Veloce Racing set a benchmark time of 14:19.436.
JBXE’s Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky was next out on track and was going strong until the suspension broke as she went over the rocks. Their Q1 session ended without Kevin Hansen getting in the car.
Xite Energy Racing and ABT Cupra followed as both teams had incident free runs to go 3rd and 1st respectively, with ABT Cupra posting a superb time of 13:48.947, some 30.48 seconds quicker than Veloce’s initial time.
With ABT Cupra the new benchmark it was the turn of championship leaders Rosberg X Racing to take to the track. Johan Kristoffersson was the first of their two drivers to tackle the track and was several seconds up as he got to the halfway point of the lap. At that point disaster struck. As Johan went over a bump, the motor suddenly cut out. It took a few crucial seconds to reboot the car, and, as the car cut out twice more, they were left over a minute down when Molly Taylor took over. Yet more bad news for the RXR team as, just a short way into the lap, Molly rolled the car, sustaining huge bodywork damage in the process. Somehow, she was able to continue and brought the car home 1:40.69 seconds down on ABT Cupra’s time.
Sara Price got Chip Ganassi’s qualifying off to a flyer, handling the track superbly to give the team a lead coming in to the changeover. Last event’s super sector dominator, Kyle Leduc, came into the car and stormed the track to give the team a lead in this weekend’s super sector and provisionally fastest qualifier. However, at some point in the lap, Leduc hit a flagpole and was given a 10 second time penalty. This put them just behind ABT Cupra in the standings.
X44 were fastest qualifiers in both the previous rounds coming in to this weekend and they made a strong case to do so again. Both drivers had clean yet fast runs and they went quickest by about 3 seconds, with a time of 13:45.235.
Andretti United and Acciona Sainz finished off the first qualifying session in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland as both teams looked to set themselves up nicely for the races tomorrow. Acciona Sainz had a careful run and went 6th quickest, some 55.64 seconds off the pace. Unfortunately for Andretti United, the car shut off as Timmy Hansen came into the braking zone for the change over, losing him a minute of time. Catie Munnings was only able to claw back a bit of the deficit as the American outfit finished Q1 in 7th position.
Classification standings and points following Q1:
X44 13:45.235 9 points
ABT Cupra +3.71 8 points
Chip Ganassi +6.39 7 points
Veloce +34.20 6 points
Xite Energy +51.74 5 points
Acciona Sainz +55.64 4 points
Andretti United +1:29.95 3 points
RXR +1:44.40 2 points
JBXE DNF 1 point
Stephane Sarrazin kicked off Q2 for Veloce but problems started almost immediately for the Frenchman. By the time he had reached the first turn, the power steering had broken. He tried to reset the system but was unable to fix it and the team were only able to set a benchmark time of 16:51.810
Kevin Hansen then did his first and only lap of the whole of qualifying for the JBXE team. He was initially very quick but more issues struck as the car shut down coming in to the braking zone for the switch over, just as it did for his brother Timmy. Once they’d got the car going again, Mikaela jumped in and had a solid lap that saw the team go fastest so far with a 14:42.102.
Problems seemed to be the theme of the day as the next three teams all failed to complete their Q2 runs. Xite Energy’s Oliver Bennet suffered techincal issues, meaning he was unable to complete a lap. ABT Cupra’s Ekstrom made it a little further but came in to the switch zone with both rear tires punctured. The team were unable to change them and Jutta Kleinschmidt did not finish the run. Chip Ganassi’s Kyle Leduc didn’t even make the halfway stage as the rear left suspension broke going over a jump.
Next it was the turn of the Q1 quickest, X44. Loeb set the pace early, handing over to teammate Gutierrez with a 10 second advantage over JBXE. Christina had a steady run and brought the car home to provisionally top the session with a time of 14:37.598.
The rest of the qualifying session was uneventful as Andretti United, Acciona Sainz, and RXR all had solid runs to round off qualifying 3rd, 5th and 1st respectively.
Classification standings and points for Q2:
RXR 14:26.647 9 points
X44 +10.951 8 points
Andretti United +14.917 7 points
JBXE +15.455 6 points
Acciona Sainz +30.377 5 points
Veloce +1:56.163 4 points
ABT Cupra DNF 3 points
Xite Energy DNF 2 points
Chip Ganassi DNF 1 point
For the final qualifying classification the points from both qualifying sessions were added up, with ties being settled by who had the fastest super sector times. X44 topped the classification, going on to compete against Veloce and Acciona Sainz in Semi Final 1. ABT Cupra, RXR, and Andretti United will compete in Semi Final 2. The first 2 finishers in each semi final will progress to the final. The last spot in the final will be contested between Chip Ganassi, JBXE, and Xite Energy.
Final Qualifying Classification:
X44 17 points
ABT Cupra 11 points
RXR 11 points
Andretti United 10 points
Veloce 10 points
Acciona Sainz 9 points
Chip Ganassi 8 points
JBXE 7 points
Xite Energy 7 points
RXR’s lead at the top of the championship has weakened slightly following qualifying as X44 close to just 12 points away. Points that count in the championship are awarded by the position in qualifying, with the fastest, X44, receiving 12 points, and the slowest, Xite Energy, receiving just 4.
Here’s how the championship looks heading in to the races tomorrow:
RXR 81 points
X44 69 points
JBXE 49 points
Andretti United 46 points
ABT Cupra 46 points
Acciona Sainz 43 points
Xite Energy 41 points
Veloce 39 points
Chip Ganassi 36 points
With qualifying completed, we’re finely poised for an exciting day of racing tomorrow!
Max Verstappen has taken pole for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Williams’s George Russell, who put in a great performance in challenging conditions. Lando Norris crashed at Eau Rouge in the early stages of Q3, raising even more questions about the barriers at that corner.
The beginning of Q1 was initially delayed for 12 minutes because of heavy rain, but when it began both Russell and Nicholas Latifi headed out on track as the sole cars on intermediates. It was a decision that every other driver soon followed when the rain eased, as the times began to tumble.
Intermediates were the tyres of choice for Q2 as well. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas left it late to get a good lap in, being brought in for new sets and only moving out of the drop-zone in the closing moments.
The rain came down heavier for the start of Q3.
Sebastian Vettel was one of the first drivers to head out, and he almost immediately radioed his engineer saying he thought the session should be red-flagged because of how bad the conditions were.
It was indeed red-flagged a couple of minutes later, but only after Lando Norris crashed heavily at the Eau Rouge/Radillion complex. Vettel pulled up alongside the McLaren to check that Norris was okay, voicing some very angry comments over the radio. “What did I say?” he demanded.
At the time of writing, Norris has been taken for a precautionary x-ray on his elbow, but he managed to get out of the car on his own at least.
Following as his crash does from the six-car pile-up during W Series qualifying yesterday at the same corner, there is certainly a debate to be had over the barriers at Eau Rouge. Norris was sent spinning back across the track, and it was only good fortune that meant no-body was following close behind and put in danger of collecting him.
After a half an hour-long delay Q3 restarted.
Hamilton took provisional pole after the first runs, only to be bested by George Russell. It looked for a moment as if the Williams would actually take pole, only for Verstappen to cross the line and go fastest of all by three tenths.
More of the same can be expected for the race tomorrow in terms of weather, and we are certainly in for an interesting 44 laps!
Lorenzo Colombo took his first Formula 3 win at Spa, making up for the win he was disqualified from in Hungary, by dominating the field in the rain-drenched first sprint race.
Owing to the torrential rain throughout the morning, the race started almost an hour late and ran three laps behind the safety car before lights out.
When the race did get underway on lap 4, Colombo’s Campos led away from Hitech’s Jak Crawford and Roman Stanek. Jonathan Hoggard in fourth put a challenge to the inside of Stanek at La Source, but Stanek held on around the outside to keep third place.
On the first racing lap, the only change in positions came from MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet and Victor Martins, who moved up past Logan Sargeant for eighth and ninth respectively. On lap 5, Collet then made up another place by passing Clement Novalak for seventh at Les Combes.
Victor Martins, MP Motorsport (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
At the front of the field, Colombo made use of the clear visibility ahead of him to open up a four-second lead over Crawford by the end of lap five. Crawford himself had several seconds in hand over teammate Stanek, but Stanek was unable to drop the challenge of Hoggard who was staying consistently half a second behind the Hitech.
Hoggard’s pursuit of Stanek had opened up a gap between him and the Trident of David Schumacher in fifth behind. By the halfway stage, Schumacher was leading a train of cars including Frederik Vesti, Collet, Novalak and Martins.
On lap 9 Collet tried an audacious move around the outside of Vesti into La Source, but couldn’t get the traction on the wetter part of the circuit and Vesti retook sixth on the exit of the hairpin. At the same time, Collet’s teammate Martins managed to complete a move past Novalak for eighth coming into La Source.
Once past Novalak, Martins put in a new fastest lap time and started putting pressure on Collet ahead of him. Meanwhile, the train caught up with Hoggard who made a pair of costly mistakes on lap 10 and dropped away from the back of Stanek.
On lap 13 Schumacher took advantage of Hoggard running wide out of La Source to pull alongside the Jenzer. But as the two fought down the Kemmel Straight, Vesti and Collet entered the battle as well and Collet emerged from the spray in front of Vesti and Hoggard, albeit after taking to the runoff to avoid collecting the cars ahead of him.
Collet was then handed a five-second time penalty for completing the move off the track, but not before he’d been passed by Vesti on track for fourth place. Hoggard meanwhile fell back to seventh after being passed by Martins, while Schumacher came out of the fight worst as he tumbled back down the order to ninth behind Novalak.
Clement Novalak, Trident (Dan Mullan, Getty Images / FIA F3)
Entering into the final laps, Colombo out front retook the fastest lap title from Martins and continued to sprint away from the field. By the time he took the chequered flag, Colombo was more than 12 seconds clear of Crawford, who took second place by two seconds from Stanek.
Vesti finished fourth, while Collet’s penalty promoted Martins to fifth ahead of Hoggard, Novalak and Sargeant. Collet slotted into ninth position ahead of Alex Smolyar, who dropped Schumacher to P11 and outside of the points on the penultimate lap. Jack Doohan finished in P12 and will start this afternoon’s race from reverse grid pole.
image courtesy of ExtremeE 
