Trident’s Richard Verschoor took the first win of the Formula 2 season in the Bahrain sprint race, after pouncing on the lead early on and controlling the race from then on.
Verschoor started from second place on the reverse grid, alongside polesitter Felipe Drugovich. But when the lights went out Drugovich was bogged down off the line and Verschoor immediately assumed the lead heading down to Turn 1, while Jehan Daruvala and Ralph Boschung filtered into second and third.
Drugovich slipped back into the midfield pack as he recovered from his slow start, eventually stabilising in sixth place behind Liam Lawson in fourth and Jake Hughes in fifth. At the start of the second lap Drugovich passed Hughes for fifth place. Their battle down to Turn 1 opened the door for Theo Pourchaire, Jack Doohan and Juri Vips, who all passed Hughes over the course of the lap to demote the Van Amersfoort driver down to eighth.
Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport (Clive Mason, Getty Images / FIA F2)
Hughes’ struggles then continued as he tried to fight back but ended up making contact with Marcus Armstrong and spinning the Hitech around. That brought out the safety car as Armstrong was unable to get going again.
Behind the safety car Drugovich, who had fallen behind Pourchaire, reported that Pourchaire’s car was dropping oil on the track. At the restart on lap 6 Pourchaire then fell down through the order with a mechanical failure and was forced to retire. Meanwhile Lawson darted to the inside of Daruvala at Turn 1, but Daruvala was able to hold off the Carlin to keep third place.
After fending off Lawson, Daruvala started to reel in Boschung as the Swiss driver’s tyres fell away from him. On lap 15 the gap between the two was just a few tenths, and Boschung had little grip to defend second place as Daruvala made his move into Turn 1 on the following lap.
Boschung was able to briefly reclaim second place on lap 17 after a virtual safety car period brought on by Hughes stopping on track. But that only lasted a lap until Daruvala was back in front of the Campos, and on lap 21 Lawson demoted Boschung another place as he took third at Turn 1.
Liam Lawson, Carlin (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F2)
As the battle over second, third and fourth unfolded behind him, Verschoor continued unchallenged in the lead. By the time the final lap came around he had a 2.3 second gap over Daruvala, and crossed the line to comfortably take his second victory in F2.
Boschung finished the race in fourth behind Lawson, and ahead of Drugovich in fifth. Logan Sargeant made his way into the points in the closing stages to take sixth place for Carlin, and Vips and Ayumu Iwasa rounded out the points in seventh and eighth.
This weekend, the NTT IndyCar series take on the high banks of Texas Motor Speedway in the XPEL 375. The series has observed a long three week break after the season opener at St. Pete, only adding to the anticipation of three wide racing at over 200mph around the 1.5-mile oval. The drivers will complete 248 laps, making it a 372 mile long race, to be exact. This will be the 35th IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway, in the speedway’s 25 year history, with Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward winning the 2021 races.
Texas has proven to be a very significant race as in three of the last four seasons, the winner has gone on to win the championship; five-time Texas winner Scott Dixon in 2018 and 2020, who is the all-time winner at the track, and Josef Newgarden in 2019.
Pato O’Ward celebrating 2021 Texas win (Photo by Chris Owens/IndyCar Media)
Despite its wide turns, this track has little room for error. The 20 degree banked turns one and two are unforgiving as drivers who wash up the race track, coming off the racing line, often spin around upon entering the slippery grey tarmac and smack into the outside wall. Going two wide into the 24 degree banked turn three is only for the bold. Getting tight off turn four on the outside often results in slamming into the outside wall. Three wide along the back straightaway is not unusual to see. We may even see four wide in spectacular fashion like we did at the end of the 2016 race when Graham Rahal came out on top in a photo finish.
Battling in the closing laps in 2016 with Rahal in 3rd (Photo by Chris Owens/IndyCar Media)
Two new optional aerodynamic pieces, the barge board and trimmed sidewall, will be available for the first time this season. It is the hope that these aerodynamic pieces will allow for cars to more closely follow and draft each other, and experience less aero wash from the dirty air made by the car ahead.
One of the most exciting additions to the driver line-up this weekend is that Jimmie Johnson will partake in his first oval IndyCar race. Last year, the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion only did non-oval races but late in the year the itch to race in an Indy 500 overtook any safety concerns and Johnson decided to make the transition to full-time IndyCar racing for this year and will attempt to make the 2022 Indy 500. Johnson has had immense success at Texas Motor Speedway, winning seven NASCAR Cup races in his career, making him no stranger to getting it done at Texas, but has had to relearn how to race successfully round here in an IndyCar.
Also racing is AJ Foyt Enterprises’s JR Hildebrand on a part-time schedule. The American IndyCar veteran is racing in place of rookie Tatiana Calderón who is not partaking in the oval races this season. The beloved Illinois veteran Ed Carpenter also makes his usual appearance at Texas Motor Speedway competing for his own now three-car Ed Carpenter Racing team for the weekend.
The weekend schedule for the XPEL 375 is as follows. An opening one hour practice session will take place on Saturday at 10am Central Time, followed by single car qualifying at 1pm CT. A special 30-minute practice session for seven drivers will take place at 4pm CT for them to further establish a high groove around the track. A final one hour practice session will take place later in the day starting at 4:45pm CT . The green flag for the XPEL 375 is on Sunday at 11:45am CT.
Featured Image: 2021 Texas IndyCar race (Photo by Chris Owens/IndyCar Media)
Isack Hadjar took victory for Hitech in the opening Formula 3 race of the season in Bahrain, after initial winner Oliver Bearman was handed a time penalty at the chequered flag.
Bearman started the race in second place behind the Carlin of reverse grid polesitter Zak O’Sullivan. At the race start Bearman went straight for the inside of Turn 1 to try and take the lead, but O’Sullivan managed to cover the Prema off and keep the lead for the opening lap.
Hadjar meanwhile started in fourth place behind David Vidales. After Vidales held Hadjar off into Turn 1, the Hitech driver then had to defend in a tight battle with Alex Smolyar and Zane Maloney early on.
Zane Maloney, Trident (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
Hadjar moved up into the podium positions by passing Vidales at the end of the first lap. But coming onto the main straight, Vidales used the slipstream to pass Hadjar back for third while Maloney followed him through and demoted Hadjar to fifth.
However as the opening stages of the race unfolded, Vidales burned through his tyres quicker than the cars around him and dropped back from the leaders O’Sullivan and Bearman. On lap 3 he fell back to sixth as Maloney, Smolyar and Hadjar all passed the Campos, then eventually fell back into the clutches of Prema’s Arthur Leclerc as well.
As Maloney assumed third place, Bearman began to close on O’Sullivan for the lead. O’Sullivan had enjoyed a comfortable buffer of more than a second over the Prema in the early laps, but Bearman began to wear that down to half a second by lap 4. On lap 5, Bearman then made his move and took first place from the Carlin.
Oliver Bearman, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)
Once in front, Bearman started to pull out a multiple second gap over O’Sullivan by the halfway stage, when O’Sullivan’s tyres began to fall away from him. By this point Hadjar was running in fourth place having despatched Smolyar, and was pursuing Maloney’s Trident for third.
By lap 15 Bearman was more than three seconds clear of O’Sullivan, while Maloney, Hadjar and Smolyar were swarming behind him. Maloney and Hadjar took advantage of O’Sullivan’s failing tyres to bump him off the podium shortly after, before Hadjar’s momentum then carried him past Maloney into second on lap 16.
With only a handful of laps remaining Bearman had a comfortable lead of 3.5 seconds, while Hadjar had lost too much time fighting past Smolyar, Maloney and O’Sullivan to make that up. But as Bearman continued pushing to build his gap even further, his engineer came on the radio to warn him about a string of track limits violations against his name.
Bearman initially crossed the line in first ahead of Hadjar, but while he and his team were celebrating on the radio he was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits too many times. This dropped him to second behind Hadjar, handing Hitech the win.
Smolyar completed the podium in third place ahead of Maloney in fourth and Leclerc in fifth, and O’Sullivan came home in sixth in the end. Caio Collet took seventh for MP Motorsport, and Kaylen Frederick, Juan Manuel Correa and Vidales rounded out the final points positions.
As the Formula 1 paddock descends on Bahrain’s International Circuit for the opening Grand Prix of the season, Formula 3 is also getting ready to launch its 2022 championship with a fresh format, plenty of new drivers and a title fight that’s anyone’s guess.
The title fight is the minimum for Trident and Prema
Oliver Bearman, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)
Since the FIA F3 championship began in 2019, two teams and their drivers have dominated proceedings – Prema and Trident. The two Italian teams have claimed every drivers’ and teams’ title between them, and ended last season with their two lead drivers – Dennis Hauger and Jack Doohan respectively – far ahead of the rest of the field in the championship standings.
With that record it’s a safe bet to assume those two teams will again be favourites this year, and they certainly have the driver talent to back that up.
Of the two Prema perhaps has the most instantly standout stable. Arthur Leclerc returns for a second season with the team, and although he had a lacklustre debut in 2021 he does come to this year off the back of a pretty dominant Formula Regional Asian title, also with Prema. He’s joined by another sophomore driver in Red Bull junior Jak Crawford, who finished on the podium with Hitech during his debut year and showed impressive pace along the way.
The final member of the Prema lineup is Oliver Bearman – Ferrari junior, and winner of the 2021 ADAC and Italian F4 championships. Although he’s going up against experienced teammates, Bearman’s recent titles and rise through the junior ranks mean he’ll be as much in the title hunt as anyone.
As for Trident, their lineup boasts a similar blend of experienced drivers and rookies. In the #1 car is Red Bull junior Jonny Edgar, who had a solid debut year in 2021 with Carlin, while Roman Stanek joins the team for his third season in F3.
Their teammate is rookie Zane Maloney, who comes with a British F4 title and race wins in Formula Regional European behind him. As one of the fastest drivers in pre-season testing in Bahrain, Maloney will certainly be a rookie to keep an eye on at the front of the field.
Zane Maloney, Trident (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
Can anyone take the fight to the top teams?
Of course, Trident and Prema don’t have an exclusive hold over the title fight. They may have been top of the table in every F3 season so far, but there are eight other teams on the grid, with plenty of formidable talent spread throughout the field.
One name that jumps out is the newly-signed Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar. The Frenchman comes to F3 having finished fifth in Formula Regional European and third in Formula Regional Asian, but more importantly he topped two of the three days of pre-season testing. Hitech may have finished down the order last year, but it wasn’t that long ago they were winning races with Liam Lawson and Juri Vips at the helm.
Isack Hadjar, Hitech (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
Speaking of Formula Regional European, the reigning champion Gregoire Saucy will make his debut this year with ART. Saucy also showed strong pace in pre-season testing and can surely be expected to be in the fight for poles, podiums and race wins in his debut year.
However, Saucy will have to come out swinging at ART to avoid being overshadowed by the team’s new signing Victor Martins. In his debut with MP Motorsport last year Martins was by far the field’s standout rookie, taking a win and five podiums and finishing fifth in the championship.
Although ART haven’t been able to challenge for the title in the FIA F3 era, with a driver like Martins in the car that could change this year.
Further down the grid Zak O’Sullivan leads an all-rookie lineup at Carlin. O’Sullivan’s short racing CV already includes last year’s GB3 title, the runner-up spot in British F4 and Ginetta Juniors and the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award, all of which has earned him a place in the Williams F1 Driver Academy.
With Carlin he’s unlikely to be in the title hunt, but given his calibre it would not be surprising to see him on the podium or even end Carlin’s hunt for a first win in FIA F3.
A new format for 2022
Victor Martins, ART (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F3)
Last of all, F3 will see a revised format for this year. After running separately to Formula 2 last year, both feeder series’ are back on the same billing and each with one sprint race and one feature race instead of three races across the weekend.
F3’s sprint race will take place on Saturday and the feature race will be on Sunday before the Bahrain Grand Prix. The grid for both races will be set by qualifying on Friday, with the feature race decided by the full qualifying results and the sprint race by reversing the top 12.
The points on offer for pole position and the fastest lap have been halved to two and one point respectively. Points for the sprint race have also been reduced with the winner taking 10 points instead of 15, and the remainder of the top 10 scoring 9 points for second down to 1 point for 10th place.
The feature race points remain the same as before, meaning the winner will score 25 points following the system used for an F1 Grand Prix.
Formula 3’s first sprint race of the season begins on Saturday at 09:45 and the feature race will start on Sunday at 08:45.
This weekend the 2022 Formula 2 championship gets underway in Bahrain, with plenty of new drivers and even a new team looking to open the season with a strong result.
The new weekend schedule
Liam Lawson, Carlin (Bryn Lennon, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F2)
It’s not just the makeup of the grid that’s different this year – the format has also been tweaked for the new season. Last year F2 and Formula 3 ran on separate weekends with three races across Saturday and Sunday, but now they’re back on the same billing and returning to the familiar schedule of one sprint race and one feature race.
It’s not a complete return to the pre-2021 way, however. The sprint race remains on Saturday with the feature race taking place before Sunday’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix. Qualifying on Friday will set the grid for Sunday’s feature race, while the starting order for Saturday’s sprint race will be decided by reversing the top 10 from qualifying.
The points system has also been tweaked for 2022. The number of points available for pole position and the fastest lap in each race has been halved for this year, meaning pole is now worth two points and the fastest lap is a single point. The points for the sprint race have been adjusted as well – the top eight still score, but victory will now award 10 points with 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 available for the remaining places.
The feature race keeps the same F1 points system as it has always used, with 25 points for the winner down to one point for tenth place.
Will experience lead the way?
Juri Vips, Hitech (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F2)
Heading into a new season of F2, the focus will always be on the returning drivers with experience behind them.
In 2022 only four drivers are still with the same team as last year: Juri Vips (Hitech), Theo Pourchaire (ART), Ralph Boschung (Campos) and Roy Nissany (DAMS). Of those Vips and Pourchaire will be expected to be in the title hunt as both are fighting to impress F1 teams, and both have good working relationships with their teams to build on after their successful debuts.
Liam Lawson is another driver who will be one to watch this season and this weekend in particular. After winning on his debut last year with Hitech, the New Zealand Red Bull junior moves to Carlin who finished third in the teams’ championship last year. As one of the winners from Bahrain last year, he should be a threat for the top spot in Sakhir again.
Another driver who will be interesting to watch after moving teams is Felipe Drugovich. The Brazilian has switched from UNI-Virtuosi to MP Motorsport for his third season, which theoretically would be a drop down the grid.
But it was with MP that Drugovich took three victories (including one in Bahrain) during his debut season in 2020. With a more comfortable environment he may return to fighting at the front of the field again this year.
Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F2)
Fresh faces, big impact
As Oscar Piastri showed last season when he won the title at the first attempt, experience isn’t everything in F2 – and there’s a bumper crop of rookies joining the series for 2022 looking to follow in his footsteps.
Reigning champions Prema are no exception. With Piastri leaving the series, Prema have called up Red Bull junior and reigning Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger to take his seat. Given his and his team’s recent success, Hauger is considered one of the favourites for the title this year.
Hauger won’t be without his competition though. His F3 title rival Jack Doohan is also joining the grid for a full campaign this year with the UNI-Virtuosi team. His team enjoyed recent championship challenges led by Callum Ilott and Guanyu Zhou, while Doohan himself already has some competitive F2 experience under his belt from running in the final two rounds last year. This is definitely a pairing to watch out for.
Jack Doohan, UNI-Virtuosi (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA F2)
Further along the grid there are more impressive rookies joining the field. Logan Sargeant, Frederik Vesti and Clement Novalak will race with Carlin, ART and MP Motorsport respectively after earning plenty of plaudits in F3 in recent years. Meanwhile F3 race winners and podium finishers Olli Caldwell, Ayumu Iwasa, Enzo Fittipaldi and Calan Williams will represent Campos, DAMS, Charouz and Trident respectively, and former F1 eSports driver Cem Bolukbasi joins Charouz after a race-winning Euroformula Open campaign last year.
And last but not least, there is a new team on the grid in the form of Van Amersfoort Racing. The Dutch feeder series stalwarts are taking over HWA’s vacant entry, and for their first season will pair experienced F2 and F3 driver Jake Hughes with rookie Amaury Cordeel.
Racing gets underway this weekend with the F2 sprint race on Saturday at 16:40 UTC and the feature race on Sunday at 10:40 UTC.
Scott McLaughlin led nearly half the race to take his first career IndyCar win after holding off Álex Palou in the final two laps. Starting from the pole, he led the first 25 laps before a yellow came out for rookie Malukas hitting the wall coming out of turn 3. Scott Dixon led 26 laps but was on a three-stop strategy while McLaughlin led the two stop drivers out on track. McLaughlin retook the lead with 22 laps to go when Dixon made his final stop after a 41 lap stint.
McLaughlin doing the shoey (Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar Media)
A crucial moment that led to McLaughlin’s victory was a successful overcut by the Kiwi on Rinus VeeKay on lap 65, who had been leading the middle stage of the race, after making his final stop and just barely getting out in front.
In the final 20 laps, we saw a performance out of McLaughlin that was very reminiscent of his Supercar days, the Australian series that he won three years in a row with Team Penske, and promoted him to the IndyCar Series. Reigning champion Palou kept him honest and the gap to under a second. Both were barely able to use push-to-pass due to a lack of fuel. With two laps to go, Palou was piling on the pressure, before McLaughlin caught backmarker rookie Devlin DeFrancesco who refused to move out of the way. McLaughlin and Palou were still trapped behind him in the final corner but McLaughlin held off Palou in the hairpin and took the chequered flag.
Scott McLaughlin and Álex Palou (Photo by Chris Owens/IndyCar Media)
The only yellow of the day came out for rookie David Malukas on lap 25 when he hit the outside wall after he ran across the marbles coming out of the first chicane. This flipped the field order as the top 12 drivers had yet to make their first stop which handed the lead to Alexander Rossi.
Will Power came home in third and was hovering at four seconds behind the leaders for the last 10 laps of the race in no man’s land. Power was the only driver to start the race on the primary black tyres and got squirrelly as he lit them up when taking the green flag. Power lost the position to Palou on the restart when he was the only one on the softer red tyre. The street course masters’ outright pace combined with a unique strategy that allowed for easier overtaking throughout his runs, resulted in two Roger Penske cars on the podium.
Podium; from left to right: Álex Palou (2nd), Scott McLaughlin (1st) and Will Power (3rd) (Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar Media)
Colton Herta came home in fourth position but perhaps we could have seen him closer to the front three. Herta was frustrated to learn halfway through the race that his team pitted him extra early due to not getting enough fuel in the car on the first stop, denying him from being able to get the most out of his primary black tyres.
Romain Grosjean had a great Andretti Autosport debut coming in fifth place however one heart raising moment for him came on pit road during the first wave of pit stops when Marcus Ericsson hip-checked Graham Rahal into Grosjean and narrowly avoided being put into the pit wall. Veekay managed to convert his three-stop strategy to one less after pitting on lap 61 earning him sixth place. Rounding out the top 10 were Rahal, Dixon, Ericsson and Takuma Sato in his debut for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR.
Jimmie Johnson (Photo by Chris Owens/IndyCar Media)
Christian Lundgaard had a quiet race but was the highest finishing rookie in 11th place. Jimmie Johnson had his best IndyCar race to date and was legitimately competing over 15th place at one point but came home in 23rd place in the end. Tatiana Calderón also had a successful debut and had multiple battles with her teammates Dalton Kellett and Kyle Kirkwood. Kellett fell well off the lead lap in the latter stages due to gearbox issues. Malukas retired from his crash on lap 25.
Full finishing order: (1st) Scott McLaughlin, (2nd) Álex Palou, (3rd) Will Power, (4th) Colton Herta, (5th) Romain Grosjean, (6th) Rinus VeeKay, (7th) Graham Rahal, (8th) Scott Dixon, (9th) Marcus Ericsson, (10th) Takuma Sato, (11th) Christian Lundgaard, (12th) Pato O’Ward, (13th) Jack Harvey, (14th) Helio Castroneves, (15th) Simon Pagenaud, (16th) Josef Newgarden, (17th) Felix Rosenqvist, (18th) Kyle Kirkwood, (19th) Callum Ilott, (20th) Alexander Rossi, (21st) Conor Daly, (22nd) Devlin DeFrancesco, (23rd) Jimmie Johnson, (24th) Tatiana Calderón, (25th) Dalton Kellett, (26th) David Malukas.
Featured Image: Scott McLaughlin celebrating in victory lane (Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar Media)
Scott McLaughlin came from down under in the Firestone fast six to take pole position in emphatic fashion. The battle appeared to be between street course pole master Will Power and defending St. Pete pole winner Colton Herta but out of nowhere in the final lap after Power and Herta had completed their final run, McLaughlin went from sixth to first to take his first P1 pole award with a :59.4821 pole time. The kiwi was the first driver to break the one minute lap time of the weekend in practice two with a :59.734. Talking to NBC about starting from the pole, he said “I’m used to braking with cars in front, so I better not overshoot like an idiot tomorrow.”
Street course pole master Will Power (Photo by James Black/IndyCar Media)
Qualifying second was nine-time St. Pete pole winner Will Power with a time of :59.6058. Colton Herta, Rinus Veekay, Romain Grosjean, and Simon Pagenaud qualified third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. It was quite the rollercoaster for Grosjean so far as he was fastest in practice one but in practice two, he drove hard into the back of Takuma Sato, his old Dale Coyne Racing car, when he failed to slow up and avoid contact with the pack up of cars warming up ahead of him. There was significant damage to the car but the team got Grosjean and the car back out there for qualifying and initially in the fast six, posted the fastest time on the first run.
Making up sixth to twelfth place on the grid is Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, Graham Rahal and rookie Kyle Kirkwood. Talking to NBC, Dixon said he “mistimed the peak” of the softer red tyre and like many others during the day such as Palou and Harvey, had hit the wall in turn nine. During qualifying round one, Pato O’Ward had also smacked the wall coming out of turn nine.
Kyle Kirkwood was the only driver in the fast 12 to not post a time under the one minute mark but was still the fastest rookie and has been all weekend. His rookie teammate Tatiana Calderon, had gained over a second on her best time in practice with a 1:00.939 qualifying 25th, beating Jimmie Johnson. Calderon told NBC she had “found a ton of grip” in qualifying.
Making up the rest of the field, from 13th to 26th place are as follows: Alexander Rossi (13th), Dalton Kellett (14th), Christian Lundgaard (15th), Pato O’Ward (16th), Helio Castroneves (17th), Devlin DeFrancesco (18th), Callum Ilott (19th), Conor Daly (20th), Felix Rosenqvist (21st), Takuma Sato (22nd), Jack Harvey (23rd), David Malukas (24th), Tatiana Calderon (25th) and Jimmie Johnson (26th).
The green flag for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg flies at 12pm ET (5pm GMT) tomorrow.
Featured Image: Scott McLaughlin racing around St. Petersburg (Photo by James Black/IndyCar Media)
The first race weekend of the IndyCar season gets underway at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a 26 driver entry list for the NTT IndyCar Series race and a record 14 driver entry list for the Indy Lights race this Sunday.
The 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit is rather unique in that it uses a runway of Albert Whitted Airport for its front straightaway before entering downtown St. Petersburg. What follows are several tight corners before two 90 degree right handers that lead onto a fast flowing final sector that runs down to a hairpin, taking drivers back round onto the airport runway.
Will Power racing down Bay Shore Drive (Photo by Joe Skibinski/IndyCar Media)
Turn 1 has been a spot for drivers to get their elbows out and makes passes before entering the downtown section. Before the hairpin, there is a heavy breaking zone that drivers use to their advantage to get runs on the leading car down the main straightaway. Due to the narrow twisty corners that the track possesses, overtaking is a challenge so varying strategies are implemented in an attempt to get to the front by leapfrogging the field; in the pits or finding clean air out on track. This year will be no different.
The NTT IndyCar Series drivers will complete 100 laps (180 miles) for their race on Sunday while the Indy Lights drivers will complete a 60 minute timed race. This will be the 19th running of the race that first began in 2003 under the CART series. Paul Tracy won the inaugural event.
Recently, there has been a trend of back to back winners of the event. Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015 and 2016, Sebastien Bourdais in 2017 and 2018 and Josef Newgarden in 2019 and 2020. Therefore, Colton Herta, the 2021 winner, hopes to keep this streak alive this weekend. Surprisingly, Scott Dixon, the six-time champion has yet to win here but has four runner-up finishes, most recently in 2019. If Dixon wins the race this weekend, he will tie Mario Andretti for second for all-time wins with 51.
Scott Dixon practising at St. Petersburg (Photo by Joe Skibinski/IndyCar Media)
The NTT IndyCar Series practice gets underway on Friday at 3:40pm ET. Saturday is comprised of another practice session at 9am ET, followed by qualifying starting at 12:30pm ET. Warmup on Sunday is at 8:45am ET, engines are fired at 12:23pm ET and The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding race goes green at 12:30pm ET.
The Indy Lights practice gets underway on Friday at 10:05am ET followed by qualifying at 1:40pm ET with a final practice session starting at 5:40pm ET to wrap up Friday. The 60 minute race starts at 9:30am ET on Sunday.
Featured Image: Taking the green flag at the 2021 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Photo by Chris Jones/IndyCar Media)
This week, the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series championship gets underway in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 2022 roster of drivers includes no less than six rookies, and 20 veteran full-time drivers in total, making it the largest full-time field of competitors in IndyCar for a decade.
IndyCar never fails to disappoint, with a diverse array of tracks from across the United States and drivers from all over the world, to a traditional points based system where all positions count, oh and not to mention it has one of the most welcoming fanbases you’ll find in motorsports; there’s every reason to watch IndyCar this season whether you’re a veteran or rookie yourself. Let’s get you up to speed with what’s new for IndyCar in 2022.
Formula E returned this weekend, after a two week break to the Circuit Hermanos Rodiguez after a year’s hiatus, and the venue certainly did not disappoint. The reintroduction of fans to what is arguably one of the most animated circuits on the calendar only served to make the atmosphere more electric as Pascal Wehrlein finally clinched his and Porsche’s first win in the all-electric series, with a dominant display from the front row to fend off current championship leader Edo Mortara. Wehrlein took pole in a dominant fashion, having impressed throughout the group stages, posting the fastest time of the entire session in his group. He soon disposed of Vandoorne and Vergne to claim his position in the final duel alongside previous race winner Mortara. However, Mortara was unable to clinch his first pole in the series, missing the mark by only two tenths and had to settle for P2 and a front row start opposite the German driver. Despite this disappointment, Mortara looked strong, continuing with his fantastic form from the beginning of the season. Struggling Techeetah seemed to come into their own in the capital city, with both Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa both making the duels, lining up in P4 and P5 for the start of the race, whilst title favourites Mercedes struggled in the conditions, both drivers unable to reach the semi-finals in the new qualifying format.
Image Credit: Formula E
Wehrlein started well, able to fend off Mortara’s attack at the start of the race whilst Alexander Sims’ bad run of luck continued with his Mahindra stopping on the first lap due to a technical issue. Wehrlein continued to hold firm until attack modes began to be deployed and strategy came into play. Mortara pounced early on to seize the lead as Porsche worried over energy management and both Wehrlein and Lotterer began to slip down the order, the pair both caught by Vergne in the early stages. Both Vergne and Da Costa began to hunt down Mortara for the lead, but Porsche had already begun to claw back the positions they had lost earlier.
Wehrlein, with more energy than those around him, was given the order to hurry things up and cleared Vergne shortly after, before he hunted down Mortara to retake the lead of the race and the German driver never vanquished the position, Lotterer was ordered to stay behind to ensure that a repeat of last year’s events in Puebla did not occur, leaving the Porsche veteran still searching for his first win in the electric series. Both Porsches crossed the line with just over a second to go, forcing an extra lap onto many drivers’ already tight energy management strategies – it worked well for Porsche who were able to claim a dominant 1-2 in the city that has caused them so much pain in the past, Vergne picked up his first podium of the season, taking a well deserved P3.
Image Credit: Formula E
The extra lap did not work out so well for others such as Envision’s Robin Frijns who looked incredible in the middle of the race and was forced to manage his depleting energy reserves in the latter stages. Equally, Mitch Evans and Sam Bird finally looked to have some decent points on the board for Jaguar before the extra lap forced them to run out of energy halfway through the final lap.
