This is a familiar sight. Formula One embarks on a double-header in Austria starting this weekend, as Red Bull return to their home Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen’s victory in France last time out gives him a 12-point advantage as we approach the 4.3 kilometre circuit that also happens to provide some happy memories for F1 as a whole. Spielberg ended the drought of races during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, allowing fans around the world to enjoy cars going quickly in circles again. It hosted the first two races of 2020, and now returns to host the eighth and ninth races of a thus far remarkable 2021 season.
Red Bull have now won three consecutive races for the first time since 2013, and expectations that Mercedes were about to return to form in France were bulldozed by the Austrian team’s victory and double-podium.
Max Verstappen’s victory in France gives him a 12-point lead coming into Austria – Courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool
For what is really the first time since the arrival of the hybrid era, Mercedes find themselves in desperate need of a result. Red Bull are pushing them perhaps harder than anyone has been able to since 2014, and a short, technical track with little margin for error will likely suit Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, meaning that we are set for a stunning couple of races.
And the Red Bull Ring is not devoid of overtaking spots, so the battle behind the front two teams should be an intense one. There remains ambiguity over Ferrari’s sheer lack of pace in the French Grand Prix, with the Hard tyres refusing to switch on for either Carlos Sainz or Charles Leclerc, so keeping the rubber in check may just be another head-scratcher for the likes of McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin and anyone else who plans to obtain third in the Constructors’ standings come the end of the year.
A terrible Sunday for Ferrari in France yielded no points – Courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari Press
But that may not even have to be a factor. Thunderstorms, along with an orange weather warning, are anticipated this weekend in the Styrian mountains, so expect there to be some strategic and handling difficulty for the teams and drivers.
Mercedes need another bounce back, but they are going to have to achieve it in Red Bull’s back yard. The next two weeks will be massive in the context of this year’s world championship.
Remy Gardner dominated the 8th round of Moto2 at the Sachsenring in Germany to take third win in a row, increasing his lead at the top of the championship.
Raul Fernandez at the 2021 Moto2 Le Mans Race. Image courtesy of Rob Gray (Polarity Photo)/KTM
Heading into the weekend, Gardner on 139 points was only 11 points ahead of his teammate Raul Fernandez, with Italian Marco Bezzecchi 3rd on 101, and Britain’s Sam Lowes 4th on 75.
The Sachsenring, at 2.28 miles, is a tight, twisty track, and the focus for the weekend was on tyre preservation. High temperatures on Friday and Saturday, with a slightly cooler temperature on race day also added to the tension, with the whole field on a hard compound on the front and a soft rear.
A blistering lap time of 1:23.397 in Q2 earned Raul Fernandez pole, pushing Di Giannantonio into 2nd, with Remy Gardner completing the front row. After a crash in Q2, Britain’s Sam Lowes started on the 3rd row of the grid in 7th place.
Fernandez took the lead off the line, closely followed by Gardner. Di Giannantonio dropped back into 6th, and Xavi Vierge moved up from 5th on grid up into 3rd.
The opening laps seemed to be shaping up to be another battle between Fernandez and Gardner, as the two Ajo KTMs pulled away from the rest of the field, with a half second gap opening up behind them to Vierge.
On lap two, Gardner passed his teammate and took the lead, as Sam Lowes dropped back into 14th.
The Ajo’s increased their lead with every lap – 2.5 secs ahead of third place on lap 3, and on lap 4 a gap of 3.8 secs.
Gardner settled into a rhythm putting in faster lap times, with Raul Fernandez pushing hard to stay on his tail, but on Lap 5 the rookie showed his lack of experience and lost the front end at turn 3, sliding into the gravel and out of the race.
Spain’s Aron Canet, who started 10th on the grid, had worked his way up through the field and now moved up to second, starting to pull away from Bezzecchi.
Gardner, riding a lonely race, gradually stretched out his lead to 5 seconds ahead of Canet with Bezzecchi in 3rd.
On lap 21 Lowes moved up into 8th place, meanwhile Bezzecchi & Di Giannantonio swapped places in a battle for 3rd, with Bezzecchi eventually making it stick.
Gardner extended his lead to 6.5 secs over 2nd place Canet, who in turn was over 2 seconds ahead of Bezzecchi.
On lap 26 Honda Team Asia rookie Ai Ogura passed Xavi Vierge to move up into 5th, and both Ogura and Bezzecchi started to close in on Canet.
Remy Gardner at the 2021 Le Mans Moto2 RaceImage courtesy of Rob Gray (Polarity Photo)/KTM
The last lap brought yet more surprises, with Vierge, running in 6th, crashing out on turn 1, followed by Joe Roberts at the same corner, and Ai Ogura out on turn 8. Gardner crossed the line comfortably ahead of Canet who held onto 2nd, with Bezzecchi in 3rd. Di Giannantonio claimed 4th, and after the incidents on the last lap Sam Lowes moved up to take 5th.
The gap at the top of the championship has now widened, with Gardner going into the next round at Assen 36 points clear of teammate Fernandez, who is now only 11 points ahead of Bezzecchi. Can Fernandez pull something out of the bag at the Dutch TT, or will Gardner make it four in a row and further increase his lead?
First fifteen riders:
1 Remy Gardner AUS – Red Bull Ajo KTM – 25 points
2 Arón Canet SPA – Aspar Team – 20
3 Marco Bezzecchi ITA – SKY Racing Team VR46 – 16
4 Fabio Di Giannantonio ITA – Federal Oil Gresini – 13
5 Sam Lowes BRI – Elf Marc VDS Racing Team – 11
6 Marcel Schrotter GER – Liqui Moly Intact – 10
7 Jorge Navarro SPA – MB Conveyors Speed Up – 9
8 Albert Arenas SPA – Inde Aspar Team – 8
9 Marcos Ramirez SPA – American Racing – 7
10 Cameron Beaubier USA – American Racing – 6
11 Nicolo Bulega ITA – Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 – 5
12 Alonso López SPA – Flexbox HP40 – 4
13 Bo Bendsneyer NED – Pertamina SAG – 3
14 Barry Baltus BEL – NTS RW Racing GP – 2
15 Celestino Vietti ITA – SKY Racing Team VR46 – 1
During the qualifying Johann Zarco (Ducati) took pole breaking Fabio Quartararo’s (Yamaha) row of poles. He then took a tumble on turn 4, with just over a minute of qualifying left. Moments later Takaaki Nakagami also fell – turn 1. Both incidents caused the yellow flags to be waved meaning that Zarco clinched pole from Quartararo, Jack Miller (Ducati) and Marc Marquez (Honda).
Clouds looming over the pole sitter. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
Race:
Although being hot and humid at the Sachsenring Circuit, there were clouds above which caused concerns that it might turn to rain, but the race was not declared a wet race.
The 30 lap circuit, with it’s mainly left-hander corners, along with the weather conditions could potentially play into Marquez’s hands – but was this too much to ask?
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) led from the line, getting ahead of Marquez and Zarco. Whilst Marc went forwards, the championship leader went backwards. But it was Brad Binder (KTM) who gained the most places from the grid going up 6 places by lap 2.
M. Marquez soon took the lead from A. Espargaro, but Aleix didn’t want to give up the position easily and fought Marc for it. Meanwhile, Jack Miller (Ducati) and Quartararo had a tussle for 4th behind them.
Leading from the front. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
It was the reigning champion Joan Mir (Suzuki) who quickly got the fastest lap, but it was soon taken by Marquez, who was all to happy to start gaining a lead on Aleix.
It wasn’t long until Miguel Oliveira (KTM) stole fastest lap, twice in a row and also passed Quartararo for 5th place. He was picking up the pace and fast. He knew he couldn’t let Marc get too far ahead, whether or not Marquez was 100% fit or not.
Lap 5, turn 1, during a racing incident, both Alex Marquez (Honda) and Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) fell into the gravel.
On the next lap, it was Lorenzo Savadori’s (Aprilia) turn to end his race early.
Seeing Marquez eek his lead out further Miller decided he needed to make a move on Zarco and passed him with 23 laps to go, into 3rd place.
But then, it seemed the weather had took a turn and the white flags started to be waved, which meant that riders could come into the pits to change their bikes should they wish to – in preparation for rain. However, lap 10 saw the white and red flags being waved, signifying rain. The clouds never picked up momentum though and no rider came into the pits to swap their bikes.
The number 93 knew some riders who saw drops on their visors may slow down and he saw this as his moment to really push forward. The gap between him and Miller soon became 1.417 seconds with 21 laps to the end.
All bikes had medium and hard tyre combinations except Nakagami’s Honda which had a soft rear tyre. It was either going to be a masterstroke or a disaster, it was not the former.
As the rain became a little harder A. Espargaro went from 2nd to 4th and Fabio passed Johann, to take 5th place. It was now Marquez leading Miller, Oliveira and A. Espargaro, going into lap 12.
It wasn’t long into the 12th lap that Oliveira secured 2nd from Miller and went straight into hunting down Marquez. The gap between the two was 1.669 seconds.
Oliveira soon managed to get away from the rest of the pack and secured another two fastest laps in a row, trying to hunt down the King of the Ring, but Marquez responded with another fastest lap and extended his lead to 1.989 seconds, half-way through the race.
Meanwhile, at the other end of group – Maverick Vinales (Yamaha) and Franko Morbidelli (Yamaha) were having an awful weekend, fighting to not be in last place.
Mini battles started to form, mainly between Binder and Zarco for 6th place and Quartararo and A. Espargaro for 4th.
The gap between Marquez and Oliveira slowly declined to 1.411 seconds, with 12 laps to go – could Miguel catch Marc?
Oliveira hunting down Marquez. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
Digging deep with 11 laps to go Marquez kept his consistent lap times and still led Oliveira, but Fabio and Jack had swapped positions in 3rd and 4th behind him.
A. Espargaro couldn’t hold onto his 5th place any longer from Binder, who needed to try and aim for a podium finish.
The gap dipped to just under one second between the Honda and the KTM in 1st and 2nd, with 5 laps to the chequered flag. But, Marquez responded in typical Marc-of-old style and found some energy and picked the pace up again and soon extended his lead to 1.095 seconds, which soon became 1.931 seconds with 3 laps to go.
During this time Zarco was passed by Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati), handing Fabio some more precious championship points and Binder passed Miller (whose tyres were starting to show signs of wear) for 4th place.
Last lap of the race and all Moto GP fans, regardless of who they follow or what team they support – were behind Marc Marquez to just stay on his Repsol Honda and win. And that was just what he did! For the first time in 581 days Marc Marquez passed the finish line in first place! Keeping his winning record at the Sachsenring going, this was his 8th victory in a row in the Premier Class at the German circuit and the 11th win in a row from all classes. Marquez also took his 57th Moto GP victory.
Celebrating with his team. Courtesy of: Moto GP website.
Holding himself together in the interview after the race he stated that he wanted to try and fight for a podium finish and that he wasn’t sure he could go for the win, saying …”it was really hard to concentrate…”.
Oliveira finished 2nd taking three podiums in a row for KTM. In his post-race interview he said …”I’ll take a second anyday at Sachsenring to him…” and Fabio Quartararo took the last podium position securing important points for his championship lead.
There was nothing but respect for Marc in Parc Ferme from all the riders – they all know and understand what he has gone through and what he has had to do to get back to where he is now.
It is undeniable that Marquez is King Of The Ring!
Race results: Top Ten:
First
M. Marquez
Second
M. Oliveira
Third
F. Quartararo
Fourth
B. Binder
Fifth
F. Bagnaia
Sixth
J. Miller
Seventh
A. Espargaro
Eight
J. Zarco
Ninth
J. Mir
Tenth
P. Espargaro
Championship results: Top Four:
First
F. Quartararo
131 points
Second
J. Zarco
109 points
Third
J. Miller
100 points
Fourth
F. Bagnaia
99 points
The championship is still extremely close and hard to predict. What will happen in the next round at Assen? It is a typically good track for Yamaha, but will the race mirror this?
For the second time in seven days, Penske driver Josef Newgarden missed out on his first IndyCar win of 2021, which looked all-but-certain with two laps to go.
Having led 53 out of 55 laps from pole position, it was a cruel turn of fate that would see his Penske tumble down out of contention with a technical problem on the final restart.
Alex Palou, who chased down Newgarden the entire race, was rewarded with his second win of the season with an audacious move around the outside of Turn One. As a result, Palou takes the overall lead in the drivers’ championship from rival O’Ward.
Josef Newgarden at Road America. Photo Courtesy of James Black.
The start of the race began with Newgarden leading into Turn One. Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey made an incredible start to take second place from the second row on the grid. It seemed, for a brief moment, that Harvey would take the lead with a look around the outside of Newgarden at Turn One, but backed out.
The first round of pit stops took place around laps 11-15, with Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, who started 13th, staying out the longest. At the front, it was normal service resumed as Newgarden continued to lead.
That was, until lap 23 when Marcus Ericsson spun out of the race at Turn Three, bringing out the first caution. Almost the entire field took the opportunity to make their second routine stop under yellows.
Only two drivers chose not to pit, IndyCar debutant Kevin Magnussen, who replaced Felix Rosenqvist at Arrow McLaren SP this weekend. The other driver who chose not to pit was Rahal Letterman Lanigan Takuma Sato. Both drivers started 21st and 20th respectively.
On the second restart, Magnussen cycled to the front of the field and led an IndyCar field for the first time in his career. The Dane spent a few laps in front until Sato took the lead down at Turn Five. Shortly afterward, Magnussen headed for the pits but would eventually see his race end in dissapointment. The Arrow McLaren pulled off the track at Turn Seven with a reported loss of power.
This triggered the next phase under cautions. Five drivers initially stayed out (Chilton, Sato, Askew, Harvey, and Daly), but were forced to refuel transferring the lead back to Newgarden. With three laps to go, a spin by Ed Jones brought out the final caution at Turn 12.
On the final restart, Newgarden accelerated confidently towards Turn One with Alex Palou giving chase. However, the American driver suddenly lost drive, leaving him helpless against the fast-charging Spaniard.
Colton Herta finished second, battling with an unruly Andretti car with high tyre degradation. He reported vibrations for large parts of the race but managed to finish ahead of Will Power, who was in imperious form all day.
Scott Dixon had an excellent day to finish in fourth. He started 13th and made some brilliant on-track moves before undercutting the field on the final pitstop cycle.
Grosjean and Ware. Photo Courtesy of James Black.
Dayle Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean was the other standout performer, finishing in the top five for the second time in his IndyCar career. He pulled off some magnificent overtakes, and would have finished on the podium had he not been disadvantaged by the first cautionary period. His moves on both Alexander Rossi and Graham Rahal into Turn Five was incredibly impressive, and further underlines his competitiveness in the series.
Marcus Ericsson finished in sixth, doing extremely well to recover from a caution-causing spin to ensure Ganassi had three cars in the top six.
Alexander Rossi had a solid race to finish seventh ahead of Takuma Sato, who made some big late-race moves after a bold strategy call gave him much fresher tyres for the final stint.
Patricio O’Ward came into this race championship leader but leaves with a 28-point deficit to Palou. He struggled with fuel-saving and could not match the pace of those on similar strategies. After starting on hard tyres, he stopped with the soft tyre runners early on. He would be eventually overtaken by Sato on the final lap to finish ninth.
Max Chilton rounded out the top ten to give Carlin their best result for a long time, benefitting from the same bold strategy as Sato.
Oliver Askew stood in for Rinus VeeKay in the Ed Carpenter Racing outfit. He would eventually finish 12th after being one of those who had to refuel under green with thee laps to go.
NASCAR regular Cody Ware delivered an impressive debut performance to finish 19th, just behind sixth-place starter Simon Pagenaud.
We now have a two-week break before IndyCar returns to Mid-Ohio on July 4th.
Since returning to France and Paul Ricard in 2018, the two races weren’t ‘thrillers’, Lewis Hamilton leading 105 of the 106 laps raced in 2018 and 2019 combined. Expectation for this race was therefore low, the main talking point being the raising of tyre pressures and temperatures to prevent the incidents that happened in Baku from happening in France.
With rain washing the track this morning and the Formula 3 cars clearing some of the rubber laid down over the weekend, anticipation began to build as the weather conditions changed. Unfortunately for fans hoping the weather could affect the outcome, this turned out to be a dry race.
As the lights went out and they all got a clean get away, it looked like Verstappen had the better start, staying ahead of the two Mercedes. However, he locked up going into turn one, manging to make the corner he then had to correct some huge understeer, making him cut turn two, narrowly missing the yellow bollards on the inside. This gave the lead to Hamilton, who opened up a one second gap by the end of the first lap. The stewards decided no investigation was needed to Verstappen’s trip off track because he had manged to make it around turn one without any issues, therefore he did not need to use the escape road to re-join the track.
There was movement all the way down the field in the opening few laps. Perez didn’t have a great start but was quickly back up into fourth place by the end of lap one. Sainz, Gasly and Leclerc began a tight battle, with only two seconds between the three of them by lap six, it appeared this was going to last all race.
The McLaren boys also started there afternoon of entertaining Formula 1 fans all over the world, by battling each other into turn one, Norris having to concede and use the escape road. Just a few laps later, they came across Alonso who had issues with grip from his tyres on lap 11. Ricciardo first made a great move using DRS into the chicane, Norris then taking advantage of a struggling Alonso in the slip stream and making a move down the inside just three corners later. Both the McLaren’s looked very competitive today, which was great to watch. They then brought the constructors championship battle on track and had some great racing with both the Ferrari’s and Gasly before the pitstops, where the undercut proved powerful and Ricciardo came out ahead of Sainz and Gasly.
Back to the leaders, and Verstappen pitted first, hoping that the undercut would work against Mercedes. Pitting just a lap later, Hamilton came out and it looked tight as Verstappen came down the main straight. The undercut had worked for RedBull, with Verstappen beating Hamilton into the first corner on warmer tyres. RedBull decided to leave Perez out, on the radio saying, “Plan A, plus 3”, seemingly suggesting the one stop plus three laps. This allowed them to pull Perez back into the team race after a not so great start. Perez is well known for his management of tyres, so was able to keep up a good pace whilst out for the extra nine laps.
Appearing to be on a longer strategy than his rivals around him, Norris began to question if it was the right choice before coming into pit much later than everyone else. However, this worked to his advantage, having younger, fresher tyres he made his way through the field with some fantastic moves. He nearly collided with Gasly on lap 29 but managed to pass him just one lap later. He then followed that up by making moves on Leclerc and Sainz for P5. It seems he didn’t get the memo that its hard to pass at Paul Ricard!
By lap 33 Verstappen, Hamilton and Bottas were experiencing issues with graining, especially on the front tyres. All three were talking about switching to a two stop strategy, but Mercedes seemed to hold firm, telling Bottas to stay as they were. RedBull felt different and pulled the trigger by pitting Verstappen just a few laps later. With his teammate the only car between him and the Mercedes, it was a straightforward team move, with compliments all round. The question now was if Bottas could hold up Verstappen long enough for Hamilton to get the win. On lap 45 we got our answer. Already saying over the radio he had no tyres, Bottas managed to defend against a DRS move into the chicane, but went too deep, leaving the door open for Verstappen to show the true straight line speed advantage RedBull had over Mercedes this weekend and making the move. A feisty Bottas came over the radio to explain that this was why he wanted to switch to a two stop.
The battle was now on, and Verstappen was hunting down Hamilton. However, Hamilton had begun to respond to the threat he knew was coming by increasing his speed and matching Verstappen’s lap times, hoping this would be enough to stay ahead. Sadly for him, it wasn’t. Verstappen caught him with two laps to go and inevitable made the move for the lead into the chicane for the lead. A role reversal from Spain a few weeks ago.
Whilst this was happening Perez had caught Bottas and made a great move into turn one for the final step on the podium having kept up with the top three all race and now benefiting from the poor strategy choice at Mercedes.
Verstappen took a great victory, Hamilton finishing P2 and Perez P3. This is the first time RedBull have won three consecutive races since 2013, with Verstappen and Perez being on the podium together for the first time ever. This Win for Verstappen means he stays in the lead of the driver’s championship for the rest of the triple header and definitely makes this interesting in the title battle for both the constructors and drivers championships.
Jack Doohan took his first Formula 3 victory in the Paul Ricard feature race, making the most of the changing conditions to overhaul longtime leader Dennis Hauger.
Doohan had a slow getaway from fourth on the grid and dropped behind Trident teammate Clement Novalak. On the front row, Hauger jumped polesitter Frederik Vesti for the lead into the first corner.
In the opening laps, Novalak looked the fastest car on track. He passed Victor Martins for third on lap 2, then kept up the pressure on second-placed Vesti. The ART driver was visibly struggling on his wet tyres, as Hauger was able to open up a three-second lead by the end of the first lap. But when Novalak made a move on Vesti on lap 6 he instead ran wide and fell to fifth behind Martins and Doohan.
Jack Doohan, Trident (Bryn Lennon, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
By this point the rain had stopped, and as the track started to dry Doohan found pace in the conditions. He passed Martins for third on lap 7, then took second from Vesti on lap 10 when Vesti ran wide through Turn 3.
Doohan then started closing up the gap to Hauger, whose wet tyres were rapidly losing grip on the drying track. By lap 12 Hauger’s lead had been halved, and Doohan was then close enough through lap 14 to try a move into the final corner.
After Doohan took the place in the corner, Hauger repassed him down the straight. They then went into Turn 1 side by side, and Doohan was able to get his Trident back ahead of the Prema and hold the lead on the run down to Turn 3.
Dennis Hauger, Prema (Clive Rose, Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
Doohan couldn’t sprint clear of Hauger as his own tyres started to overheat in the latter stages of the race. But although Hauger got as close as half a second in the final laps, the Norwegian didn’t have enough grip of his own to try a move and Doohan held the lead to the chequered flag.
Vesti continued to struggle in the conditions after dropping behind Hauger and Doohan and wasn’t able to stay in the podium positions. On lap 11 he went wide at De Beausset and fell to fifth behind Martins and Caio Collet, who ended up settling the podium battle between themselves.
Martins at first looked the faster of the two MP Motorsport cars, but he started to lose pace in the second half of the race. After setting a fastest lap on lap 13, Collet then reeled in his teammate and passed him for third on lap 15 to take his second podium of the year.
Caio Collet, MP Motorsport (Rudy Carezzevoli, Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
Martins came home fourth ahead of Novalak in fifth and Vesti in sixth. Seventh place went to Ayumu Iwasa who led the remaining ARTs of Alex Smolyar and Juan Manuel Correa, and Jak Crawford took the final point in tenth place.
Charouz’s Reshad de Gerus was the only driver to gamble on a tyre change, despite most of the field battling against their wet tyres as the track dried. But despite being five seconds quicker than the leaders and setting a late fastest lap, De Gerus ultimately didn’t have enough time to reach the points and only finished 21st.
Doohan’s win has propelled him up to third in the championship. Hauger remains the points leader, although Martins is now just six points behind him in second. Olli Caldwell, who entered the weekend second in the standings, retired from the feature race with suspension damage and is now fifth in the championship between Novalak and Smolyar.
Formula 3 returns in two weeks’ time at the Red Bull Ring in support of the Austrian Grand Prix.
A sterling performance from Max Verstappen saw him dominantly beat the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as he took his fifth career pole for this weekend’s French Grand prix.
We did not need to wait long for the third disrupted qualifying session in as many Grand Prix weekends, as Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda found the barriers after spinning on the exit of turn one. Mercedes looked as though they were returning to their irresistible form as Hamilton and Bottas briefly topped the timesheets, before the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez pegged them back again. The end of the session saw an immensely frustrating moment for Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen, as Mick Schumacher wrecked his Haas on the exit of Turn 13. He ironically secured his passage to Q2 as a result, costing the aforementioned duo their final Q1 laps. The Haas driver would however take no further part in qualifying; this was Schumacher’s second qualifying crash in the last three races.
An otherwise impressive qualifying ended with Mick Schumacher in the wall for Haas – Courtesy of Haas Media
A calmer second qualifying session saw Charles Leclerc narrowly scrape into the top ten, as Esteban Ocon, fresh off a new Alpine contract, was knocked out on the medium tyres. Fernando Alonso, who has not enjoyed the perfect return to the sport, will be glad of out-qualifying his home hero team mate this weekend. George Russell, who did ever so well to once again reach Q2, ended up fourteenth for Williams.
Fernando Alonso out-qualified Esteban Ocon at his team mate’s home race – Courtesy of Renault Sport Media
Max Verstappen’s first run in the final session was an immense four tenths quicker than second best Lewis Hamilton, as Mercedes contrived to return to the front, but not to the top of the timesheets. Verstappen’s final run was an improvement of another four tenths, as Sergio Perez’s front row seat was short-lived, as Bottas and Hamilton displaced the Mexican, but still failed to get anywhere near the flying Dutchman, who looked simply unstoppable.
Verstappen’s pole position never looked in doubt in an exceptional performance – Courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool
10 of the 16 races at the Circuit Paul Ricard have been won from pole, but the threat of rain tomorrow gives us a chance of a wide-open race, as Max Verstappen seeks to further press home his championship advantage.
Prema’s Arthur Leclerc dominated the second Paul Ricard sprint race, leading from pole position to the chequered flag to score his first win and first points of the season.
Leclerc got a perfect start from the head of the field, as second-placed Jak Crawford stalled as the lights went out and Olli Caldwell and Dennis Hauger had to avoid the Hitech rather than challenge for the lead.
Hauger initially got past Caldwell for second, but Caldwell retook the position after the first few corners and Hauger dropped back towards Ayumu Iwasa instead. But Iwasa wasn’t able to keep up the challenge and instead fell to fifth behind Jack Doohan by the end of lap 1.
Jack Doohan, Trident (Bryn Lennon, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
After the opening lap, the three Premas then started to pull away from Doohan and the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Victor Martins put in moves as he improved from 11th on the grid. By the end of lap 1 Martins was already up to sixth ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Clement Novalak. On lap 3 Martins picked off Iwasa, then passed Doohan for fourth on lap 7.
At the front, Caldwell set a couple of fastest laps to keep within DRS range of Leclerc. But he was unable to get close enough to challenge for the lead, and instead he dropped to third on lap 8 as Hauger passed him into Turn 1.
However, Hauger was no more able to close the gap than Caldwell was, and Leclerc began setting fastest laps of his own. By lap 10 Leclerc was already more than two seconds clear of his teammates, helped somewhat by Hauger needing to drive defensively to keep Caldwell at bay.
Dennis Hauger, Prema (Clive Rose, Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
As Leclerc built his gap up to three seconds in the closing laps, Caldwell’s pace dropped off and brought Martins into play for the podium. Martins managed to cut the gap from 2.3 seconds on lap 13 to a second on lap 18, before then taking third away from Caldwell on the penultimate lap.
Leclerc led Hauger across the line for a Prema 1–2, while Martins’ third place marked his second podium of the day. Doohan finished fifth behind Caldwell and ahead of teammate Novalak. Alex Smolyar, Calan Williams, Iwasa and Frederik Vesti rounded out the points.
ART’s Alex Smolyar took his second win of the Formula 3 season in the opening Paul Ricard sprint race, seeing off four other race leaders including home favourite Victor Martins.
Smolyar started the race from sixth while Jenzer’s Calan Williams led the field away from reverse grid pole. While Williams held the lead at the start, David Schumacher was slow away from second and dropped to fifth behind Logan Sargeant, Ayumu Iwasa and Juan Manuel Correa.
Williams was unable to pull out of DRS range of Sargeant in the opening laps. Although Sargeant ran wide several times while in the Jenzer’s dirty air, the American overtook Williams for first place on lap 7.
Calan Williams, Jenzer (David Ramos, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
But Sargeant didn’t last long in the lead, as Iwasa followed him past Williams on the same lap and continued to pressure the Charouz. Iwasa took the lead himself on lap 10 at Signe, although he was handed a five second penalty for completing the move off the track.
While Iwasa continued to lead despite his penalty, Smolyar and Martins came into play in the leading pack. Smolyar had already passed Schumacher for fifth by the second lap, and took fourth from teammate Correa on lap 9. Martins meanwhile was climbing up the field from tenth on the grid, and was on Smolyar’s tail in fifth by lap 11.
Smolyar moved into the podium positions with a move on Williams for third on lap 14, then passed Sargeant for second when Sargeant again struggled in the dirty air behind Iwasa. Martins repeated the same moves on lap 16 to run third behind Iwasa and Smolyar.
Victor Martins, MP Motorsport (Rudy Carezzevoli, Getty Images / FIA Formula 3)
Smolyar and Martins then both overtook Iwasa on lap 17 with the Russian becoming the fourth leader of the race. But on the following lap, oversteer at Signe allowed Martins through to take the lead of his home race.
While Martins looked set to win with just three laps remaining, Smolyar remained within a few tenths to keep him under pressure. Smolyar then closed up behind Martins on the final lap, and retook the lead out of Signe. Martins came home in second, and Williams completed the podium after Iwasa’s penalty was applied.
Sargeant finished fourth ahead of Clement Novalak, Correa and Jack Doohan. Iwasa’s penalty dropped him to eighth, with championship leaders Dennis Hauger and Olli Caldwell rounding out the top ten. Their Prema teammate Arthur Leclerc finished 12th for the reverse grid pole for race two, having started at the back of the grid after crashing in qualifying.
IndyCar returns this weekend for the ninth round of the season at Road America, Wisconsin for the REV Group Grand Prix.
Last year, as the series was forced to alter its schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic, Road America stepped up, switching dates, and hosted a doubleheader. This year, the track is back to one race.
It is a circuit where Penske and Andretti showed real promise last year in qualifying but failed to capitalise on their promising grid positions. Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta in particular will be looking for redemption at the famous road course situated in Wisconsin.
Chip Ganassi Honda took two out of two wins with both Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon. However, only one of those drivers returns to the famous circuit adjacent to Lake Elkhart following the incident plagued race in Detroit.
Keen fans will remember the incredibly entertaining duel in Race Two between Rosenqvist and Patricio O’Ward that would go down to the wire. Rosenqvist came out on top, arguably one of his best race-day performances to date. O’Ward would have to wait for his first win but came away from the race having declared himself as a future star in the making.
Fast-forward a year and O’Ward has firmly delivered on the promise he showed that day. He has taken two wins at both Texas and Detroit, two pole positions, and comes into the weekend as the championship leader.
DRIVER CHANGES
Felix Rosenqvist sits out for this weekend. Photo Courtesy of Chris Jones.
Felix Rosenqvist sits out for this weekend following his incident at Detroit, where he crashed head-on into a barrier, reportedly due to a stuck throttle. His seat will be taken by none other than ex-Haas Formula One driver Kevin Magnussen, who follows former teammate Romain Grosjean to make his IndyCar debut.
The Danish driver reunites with McLaren, the team who facilitated his progression into Formula One, and where he spent two full seasons through 2014 and 2015. He comes off the back of a win in IMSA with Chip Ganassi and will be looking to make an impression on teams throughout the paddock for a potential full-time seat in 2022. What he can realistically achieve is another matter, as he comes in having never tested an IndyCar before.
Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay made the headline this week as news of a bicycle accident was widely reported. Later it became clear that he suffered a broken clavicle and may miss out on this weekend’s race. After undergoing successful surgery, the Ed Carpenter Team put out a release confirming VeeKay’s absence, replaced by Arrow McLaren’s reserve driver Oliver Askew.
This will be Askew’s second outing after substituting for Felix Rosenqvist at Race Two in Detroit. Hopefully, that would have been valuable experience heading into a race where he failed to finish higher than 15th in 2020.
The final addition comes in the form of Cody Ware who will make his IndyCar debut alongside Dayle Coyne Racing with RWR.
Ware, who drives full time in NASCAR got his first taste of an IndyCar earlier this year during a test day with the team at Sebring International Raceway. He also had a run-out at Road America two weeks ago as part of a rookie test day.
PALOU VS O’WARD
Palou and O’Ward, Indy 500. Photo Courtesy of Joe Skibinski.
This will be arguably the most interesting and fiercely competitive rivalry on the grid. Alex Palou has a win and a podium in the first two road courses this season and has been consistently quick everywhere he has been. As Chip Ganassi won both races last year despite not qualifying in the Top Five, you know they have race pace and strategy figured out.
He managed a podium and a subsequent Top Ten finish with Dayle Coyne Racing in his maiden outing at Road America, so you would expect him to be do something doubly impressive in what is considered the top team in IndyCar
O’Ward continues to impress. His ferocious race-craft alongside his quirky and endearing personality has charmed race fans across the world, earning him a spot as one of the hottest properties in the sport. A podium and a Top Ten in 2020 mimicks Palou’s result and they both sit at the top of the drivers’ championship, separated by just *one* point.
I expect O’Ward to impress in qualifying but to be challenged relentlessly by Palou in the race.
WHAT IS GOING WRONG AT PENSKE?
Newgarden. Detroit. Photo Courtesy of Joe Skibinski.
Nine races and for Penske to be winless is staggering.
They have a combined four world championships between Power, Newgarden, and Pagenaud. Yet the team have been let down by poor qualifying performances and unfortunate strategy decisions.
They most certainly should have won both races at Detroit. Will Power took the lead in Race one after Rosenqvist’s red flag cycled him to the front on fresher tyres. However, with five laps to go, Grosjean brought out the final red flag which would spell doom for the Australian.
Having pitted under red flags, the Penske’s ECU overheated and failed to take the restart. A painful end to what was an incredible performance by the 2014 champion.
Likewise, Newgarden led 67 out of 70 laps in Race Two, but failed at the final hurdle after having to stretch his final stint on the softer ‘red’ tyres beyond their capabilities. O’Ward would eventually take the win as Newgarden struggled to hold on to the rears.
Newgarden is the most likely out of the cohort to achieve Penske’s first win of 2021, with three podiums and a pole position. For their sake, they will hope they will not have to wait long for it.
The REV Group Grand Prix of Road America gets underway on Friday 18th June. Qualifying will take place on Saturday 19th at 19:30 (BST) while the race is set to get underway on Sunday 20th at 17:00 (BST).
image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports
