Verstappen Takes Pole, Hulkenberg Loses Front Row Qualifying Spot

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) continues his dominance by securing yet another pole position in Canada. The Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying session took place in wet conditions which served as the great equalizer amongst drivers. The driver that benefitted the most from the weather was Nico Hulkenberg 9Haas). At the end of Q3 Hulkenberg had secured what seemingly was a typo on the session results. P2 in qualifying for a Haas car is not something an F1 fan sees everyday. Unfortunately for Nico Hulkenberg that triumph would be cut short quickly as the FIA stewards found him guilty of a speeding violation under a red flag. The finish is still a promising one. It is the highest Nico Hulkenberg has qualified all season. The full report can be view below:

One driver that can’t seem to shake the misfortune recently is Sergio Perez (Red Bull). Perez stated to the media, “Definitely not feeling great, not going through a great moment,” after qualifying P12 in Canada. The second place championship point sitter has not been in great form for the last two races and Red Bull was hoping that things might turn around in Canada during qualifying. That change did not come however. Perez will have to fight tooth and nail to move up into the podium places. The worst of the weather seems to have come and passed. More dry conditions are expected tomorrow.

After the session championship points leader Max Verstappen stated, “I do think the car improved to drive. It was super slippery out there, but we made all the right calls so, of course, I’m very happy to be on pole here. Maybe it’s dry tomorrow, but we have a good race car.” Full qualifying results after all penalties were applied are below.

F1 2023 Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying Results

The 24 Hours of Le Mans has concluded. Fans poured into Le Mans in record attendance with over 325,000 people visiting the venue over the weekend. The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P took the Hypercar crown. The No. 51 Ferrari fought tooth and nail to secure the win in their first return since 1973. The No. 08 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 had remained in striking distance since the 12 hour mark. However, at the 16 hour mark the No. 08 suffered a slow leaking puncture which saw the Ferrari ahead.

At the 20 hour mark the Ferrari experienced a hybrid charging issue that allowed the No. 08 car to retake the lead and make up lost time due to the puncture. However, the Ferrari was able to find the pace towards the end of the stent to pull away from the pack. The demise of the Toyota came after a spin out resulted in major damage to the car late in the race. While the Toyota Gazoo team was able to make repairs. The time lost proved to be too great despite finishing on the lead lap. After navigating back markers the Ferrari was able to create a 1m27.792 gap to the No. 08 Toyota.

Cadillac Held its Own in the Race

Behind the two leaders were the No. 02 and No. 03 Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs. The two cars had basically held the P3 and P4 positions for the entire second half of the race pacing off of one another. The finish was incredible for the Cadillac camp’s V-series.R 24 Hours of Le Mans debut. In contrast the Porsche Penske team has a race to forget. The Porsches led the race early but issues plagued the team throughout the race.

The No. 75 car suffered a fuel pump failure early on. The No. 6 Porsche 963 crashed at Porsche Curves with Kevin Estre at the wheel. The car then suffered further lost time due to a battery charging issue.  The sister No. 5 car was in contention for a top five place until a broken driveshaft in the race’s closing hour dropped the car to ninth. The car would not recover to fight for a top 5 finish. There were 3 Hypercar retirements in the race.

LMP2

The No. 34 LMP2 car from Inter Europol Competition found the pace to edge out previous race leaders in their maiden 24 Hours of Le Mans. The class win comes after the team had secured their first podium at Spa. In second was the No. 41 Team WRT car who led the class for portions of the race. The top two cars were the only cars on the lead lap in the class. Duqueine Racing took P3 to round out the podium.

LMGTE AM

The No. 33 Corvette secured its third class win of the season at Le Mans. The Corvette was the only car in class to finish on the lead lap in a dominant performance for the American side. In second was the No. 25 RT by TF Aston martin Vantage and in third the GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. The podium left just out of grasps for the P4 finishing No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 as the team fell 5.312 seconds behind at the end of the race.

Full Race Results are Below

The FIA ​​WEC will travel to Italy next for round five in Monza which takes place 7 – 9 July.

The Le Mans 24 hour race takes place this weekend and the cars have officially completed qualifying 1 to set positions for the new Hyperpole qualifying format. The Hyperpole format will feature a 30 minute session with free choice or tires. No stops are expected and the way the race ends will dictate the top of the starting grid for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans and the top 8 for the race on Saturday. The positions in 9th and below for each class are set on the grid for the start of the race on Saturday afternoon. The teams that qualified are as follows:

The 8 Hyperpole qualifiers in the Hypercar class

1. Ferrari 499P #50 Ferrari AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Miguel Molina / Nicklas Nielsen
2. Ferrari 499P #51 Ferrari AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi
3. Toyota GR010 Hybrid #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Mike Conway / Kamui Kobayashi / José María López
4. Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryō Hirakawa
5. Porsche 963 #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Dane Cameron / Michael Christensen / Frédéric Makowiecki
6. Porsche 963 #75 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Felipe Nasr / Mathieu Jaminet / Nick Tandy
7. Cadillac V-Series.R #3 Cadillac Racing – Sébastien Bourdais / Renger Van Der Zande / Scott Dixon
8. Cadillac V-Series.R #2 Cadillac Racing – Earl Bamber / Alex Lynn / Richard Westbrook

The 8 Hyperpole qualifiers in LMP2

1. Oreca 07-Gibson #28 JOTA – David Heinemeier-Hansson / Oliver Rasmussen / Pietro Fittipaldi
2. Oreca 07-Gibson #41 Team WRT – Rui Andrade / Robert Kubica / Louis Delétraz
3. Oreca 07-Gibson #63 Prema Racing – Doriane Pin / Daniil Kvyat / Mirko Bortolotti
4. Oreca 07-Gibson #48 Idec Sport – Paul Lafargue / Paul-Loup Chatin / Laurents Hörr
5. Oreca 07-Gibson #10 Vector Sport – Ryan Cullen / Gabriel Aubry / Matthias Kaiser
6. Oreca 07-Gibson #47 Cool Racing – Reshad de Gérus / Vladislav Lomko / Simon Pagenaud
7. Oreca 07-Gibson #923 Racing Team Turkey – Salih Yoluc / Tom Gamble / Dries Vanthoor
8. Oreca 07-Gibson #9 Prema Racing – Bent Viscaal / Juan Manuel Correa / Filip Ugran

The 8 Hyperpole qualifiers in LMGTE Am

1. Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #83 Richard Mille AF Corse – Luís Pérez Companc / Alessio Rovera / Lilou Wadoux
2. Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #54 AF Corse – Thomas Flohr / Francesco Castellacci / Davide Rigon
3. Chevrolet Corvette C8.R #33 Corvette Racing – Nicky Catsburg / Ben Keating / Nicolas Varrone
4. Aston Martin Vantage AMR #25 ORT by TF – Ahmad Al Harthy / Michael Dinan / Charlie Eastwood
5. Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #57 Kessel Racing – Takeshi Kimura / Scott Huffaker / Daniel Serra
6. Aston Martin Vantage AMR #55 GMB Motorsport – Gustav Dahlmann Birch / Marco Sørensen / Jens Reno Møller
7. Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #21 AF Corse – Simon Mann / Julien Piguet / Ulysse de Pauw
8. Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #74 Kessel Racing – Kei Cozzolino / Yorikatsu Tsujiko / Naoki Yokomizo

Ferrari on Top

Despite dominance in every race this season by Toyota, it was the Ferrari’s and that triumphed in qualifying. Ferrari AF Corse took a 1-2 in qualifying practice as No.50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar driven by Antonio Fuoco sets 3m25.213s. This time was just 0.199s ahead of sister Ferrari 499P. he Toyotas settled for 3rd and 4th. The qualifying session was red flagged twice. The first stoppage was for a collision between Filipe Albuquerque in No. 22 United Autosports LMP2 car and No.36 Alpine ELF Team car driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere. The second red flag was flown for an accident involving the No.37 Cool Racing Oreca-Gibson with Malte Jakobsen aboard. All drivers appear to be ok.

Full qualifying resuts can be found here:

The teams will head out for one more practice session before Hyperpole. After Hyperpole there will be two more free practice sessions before the race.

For more coverage check out 24 Hours of Le Mans

Round 3 at Road America has concluded. The weekend was full of blistering lap times, broken records and surprises. After a disappointing Race 1, Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Ducati) came out flying in race 2 with the look of determination. Herrin had a scuffle with second place championship point sitter Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing). Beaubier ultimately retired from the race after a mechanical failure. Herrin won Race 2 with Tytlers Cycle Racing rider PJ Jacobsen securing second behind by 2 seconds.

After a troublesome start to the weekend for the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha team. Championship leader Jake Gagne and Cameron Petersen mustered the pace to squeeze out a P3 and P4 finish respectively. The Yamahas had multiple engine failure issues this weekend. Fifth place finisher Tony Elias (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) announced his retirement in surprising fashion directly after the race.

After the Race

Talking to the MotoAmerica media Herrin had the following comments after winning Race 2, “It was just for the haters, man. It just felt good. It felt right. But it was all in good fun. That felt really good. Like I said on the podium, I think this just motivates me to do more. I know that this is for sure one of our strongest tracks, but we’ve got to figure out how to make tracks like Barber not be such a weakness for us. I think just getting more time on the bike and a little bit more confidence will for sure help with that. I’m so happy that I’m a part of this team. It’s been really like a family these last two years. It’s a bummer that the DeNaples couldn’t be here for this one, because I know that they wish they could.”

Herrin Continued His Thoughts

“It just feels good. It feels good to be 33 years old winning Superbike races on a bike like I’m riding right now and just having fun. This track has always been one of my favorite tracks, but today it really felt like… I’ve been racing here since 2006. This is my 18th season racing at this track. It felt like ’06 with the crowds that we had today. It was just really special going around the track afterwards and seeing everybody cheering on the fence. It’s really motivating as a racer to be out there and see a crowd like that. So, thank you to everybody for showing up. Thank you to the whole team for everything that they do for me. I’m ready to keep going.”

Comments from Second Place Finisher PJ Jacobsen

PJ Jacobsen provided insight on the race from his perspective, “Josh (Herrin) rode really, really well today. My starts just suck, and they’ve been sucking all year. So, that’s one thing that I need to figure out how to get off the line better. In the race, I feel like we were doing pretty consistent lap times, into the nines and stuff like that. I caught up to him and Cam (Beaubier), and then Cam had the problem. Then I felt like I was catching Josh a little, and then it stayed like that. Then the last few laps it felt like we were going pretty fast. I think I did 2:09.2 with two laps to go. Then there was pretty decent gap. I don’t know if it was a gap enough to go and try to challenge for the win.”

Road America features multiple long straights which allow riders who get goo starts to take off early on the race.

Steel Commander Stock 1000

Travis Wyman secured his first win of the 2023 season over Kaleb Dekaryel (Orange Cat Racing) in P2 and Hayden Gillim (Disrupt Racing) in P3. Wyman stated that he had issues harmonizing with the bike this weekend. He provided the following comments to the MotoAmerica Media, ““It’s definitely where I wanted to be yesterday, but I think we were still missing a little bit of something. So, the guys put a great package underneath me today. I think just the little bit cooler temperatures gave me more confidence to just get out and push, because in Q2 yesterday morning it was about similar temperatures, a little overcast, and the bike felt its best.

Yesterday in the race when the sun was beating down, I didn’t have the confidence in the grip level. I knew if I got a wholeshot, I could put my head down and go to work. I saw the gap getting bigger and bigger, and then all of a sudden it was back down to the plus zero again.”

He continued, “Honestly, I thought it was Ezra behind me the entire time, and I just kept my head down for a couple more laps and I looked up and I saw on the monitor going into three and it was Kaleb. Kaleb has been strong at the end of the races, so I had to keep going. Just really never looked back. The bike was phenomenal. It was a huge step up from yesterday. It felt like it did in Q2. I got to give it all to my team. It’s been a long time coming. It’s been since Laguna 2021 when I won a Stock 1000 race.”

Supersport

Xavi Fores (Warhorse HSBK Ducati) secured his 5th win of the season aboard his Ducati Panigale V2 at Road America. Despite this feat it was second place finished in both races, Stefano Mesa had the fastest lap of the race. Stefano seemed to be on pace to make a challenge for the win towards the middle stages of the race. However, the deficit provided to be too much and despite hiding the fastest lap of the race he fell short to Fores by 4 tenths of a second.

Fores provided the following comments, “I realized already this morning in warmup I was not able to pass him on the draft. He is lighter than me and the bike is fast, but I wanted to see how was his pace. I ran wide in the chicane…lost the front a little bit, so I said, okay. I looked back and no one was coming close to us. I said, ‘okay, I’m going to let him pass and try to understand his pace.’ So after that, on the first split, I was a little bit faster than him and I was solid braking into turn five, so I passed again. I was quite okay doing 16 on my pace. I was pushing so hard.”

Junior Cup

Rossi Moor (Fairium NGRT- Gray Area Racing KTM) won the race on the sole KTM RC390 on grid. The win also comes during Moor’s first races at the iconic Road America. The feat was achieved by a margin of 3 tenths of a second. In a hard fought second place was Max Van (SportbikeTrackGear.com) followed by Race 1 winner Avery Dreher (Bad Boys Racing) in third. Moor had the following comments to the media after finishing P2 in race 1.

“Yesterday, I wanted to try and stay in second place and try to not lead the race because I remember when Avery was saying that on this track you really don’t want to lead, especially on the last laps since the draft is so important here. But I was analyzing the race yesterday and I thought that I had the pace to be able to break away. I just have to put my head down and sometimes you need a little bit of luck, like somebody making a mistake, to have that little breakaway. So, it was a really good race for me, after the bad luck I’ve had this season with two DNF’s. But finally, I got the win and I’m super excited.”

Build Train Race

Series newcomer Mikayla Moore dominated the competition in Race 2 by a margin of 11 seconds. This was her first race at Road America. Last year’s champion Kayleigh Buyck finished second place and Aubrey Credaroli finished third. Moore has proven she is no rookie to racing after securing maximum points this weekend at Road America. She will look to repeat this result at the Ridge in 4 weeks time.

Mission King of the Baggers

Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong led the Mission King Of The Baggers field by 5.7 seconds to secure the win. This was redemption for Fong at Road America after a disappointing P7 finish in race 1. Tyler O’Hara (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods) and James Rispoli (Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson) rounded out the top 3.

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing) has continued his dominance at Misano with a win in Race 1 for WorldSBK. The win marked 12 wins out of 13 on the season. Ducati pulls off the 1-2 with Michael Ruben Rinaldi for Aruba.it Racing Ducati. Toprak Razgatlioglu secured third which ushered his first podium of the weekend. Razgatlioglu has only missed the podium two times during the 2023 campaign. After a flying Superpole Danilo Petrucci retired from the race after crashing ending all possibilities of a chance at a podium. He was on track to finish 4th in the race at the time of the crash Jonathan Rea fell to P5 after showing promise in free practice. In an irregular finishing fashion, Axel Bassani (Team Motocorsa Racing) rode his Ducati to a top 5 finish.

Race 2 is tomorrow and the Ducatis look to be dominant on the weekend.

The top six from WorldSBK Race 1, full results here

1 Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
2. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +5.221s
3. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) +8.971s
4. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) +14.285s
5. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +18.595s
6. Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +19.021

Fastest Lap: Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) – 1’33.901s

You can find full results here

For more coverage from Misano on Sunday check out the WorldSBK VideoPass!

The 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” for the fifth round of the year at the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round. The weather stayed sunny despite early reports of rain for the weekend. As the riders headed into Superpole. Track temperatures appeared to be optimal for the early session. Championship Leader Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing) led the field with 1’33.017. Despite Ducati securing a 1-2 finish in FP3 Toprak Razgatlioglu was able to find the necessary pace to secure P2 in Superpole. Bautista’s teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi settled for 3rd after running second fastest in FP3.

Jonathan Rea who was third fastest in FP3 fell to P6 in Superpole. It was a great session for Danilo Petrucci who has struggle to find chemistry with his Ducati V4R this season so far. Petrucci finished 4th fastest behind Rinaldi in his best finish this season.

Full Superpole results from Misano are below

Watch the 2023 season continue to unfold in dramatic fashion with the WorldSBK VideoPass!

Formula 1 lands in Spain this weekend for the Spanish Grad Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It’s a fast turn around for the teams. The teams just finished racing in Monaco this past Sunday. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) continues his push for the 2023 championship. After his last win in Monaco Verstappen is clear 39 points ahead of teammate Sergio Perez who had a nightmare race in Monaco. Perez will be looking to bounce back in Spain to ensure his teammate doesn’t end his championship hopes.

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) continues to show fans why he’s been in the sport for 20+ years. Alonso currently sits in third ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in fourth and George Russell in fifth. Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are still looking for answers to the start of the 2023 season. The team has shown glimpses of promise in qualifying and practice but those events have not led to race results for the Scuderia. Ferrari will be looking to change this pattern in Spain this weekend.

Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur spoke to F1.com regarding Ferrari upgrades for the weekend. “There are a lot of questions, the first one is about package. I think it’s not just about potential, and package and upgrades, but we also have to operate the package in a better window. The first target for us is not just to put downforce on the car, it’s to have the car a bit more consistent, and on top of the update we have a big room for improvement with the current car in terms of performance.

Vasseur Continued Discussing A Car Redesign

“Do we have to restart from scratch on the group on the car? I would say that, as long as I’m convinced we can improve on the current car, it would be a mistake during the season to change completely the target. The introduction of a package, you are not doing 100% of the usage of the package the first race. It will be an opportunity for us to continue to develop the car with this base and I hope we will do a step forward in Barcelona for sure, but it won’t be the end of the development of the car, we have updates for the next 2-3 races coming in after this one.”

The race weekend schedule can be found here:
2023 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix Schedule

Broadcast Details can be found here

World Broadcast Details

Check out F1.com for more exclusive coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix throughout the weekend.

This morning the French Grand Prix at Le Mans took place to cap off the race weekend. The race was full of on track incidents that led to 8 factory riders retiring from the race. Unfortunately for Ducati one of those riders was Francesco Bagnaia. Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) came together on lap 5 of the race after Vinales attempted in inside pass that proved to be more than he could muster. Both riders were forced into retirement. Bagnaia and Vinales had some words over the incident that involved a period of shoving track side. The two riders appear to have escaped without major injury.

Marco Bezzecchi claimed victory at Le Mans bringing him one point behind the championship leader Bagnaia. Saturday’s Sprint race winner, Jorge Martin capitalized on the DNF incidents and was able to secure a P2 finish in the Grand Prix. His second podium of the weekend. Teammate Johann Zarco rounded out the podium in third which was a great result for the Prima Pramac Team.

Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing) and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing) also had an on track clash. The incident resulted in both of them retiring from the race. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) who was seemingly cruising to a podium finish also crashed out of the race with 2 laps to go. Marquez would have secured a second place finish before the crash and will leave this race empty handed. Marc Marquez had 3 crashes on the weekend.

Jack Miller who was competing for a podium this weekend also DNF the Grand Prix. Alex Rins (LCR Honda CASTROL) and Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) completed the DNF list. Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Lenovo) fill in for Enea Bastianini finished 11th in his MotoGP return.

Full Race Results are available Below

MotoGP Championship Standings

MotoGP qualifying at the French GP at Le Mans has concluded and championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) secured pole. Marc Marquez (Team HRC) takes P2 is his first qualifying session back form injury since Portugal. Marquez seemed to be cruising to what would have been his 65th pole position but Bganai had other plans. Luca Marini rouded out the top three falling 0.137s behind Bagnaia. Jack Miller (KTM Racing) who ran fastest in FP2 fell 3 tenths behind Bagnaia earning him a best P4 in Q2. Miller and Bagnaia had engine issues in the session.

2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo failed to make it to Q2 and will start 13th on the grid for the Sprint and Grand Prix. Otherwise the session was mostly uneventful. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) crashed at Turn 1 with a few minutes behind the end of the session. Espargaro walked away from the incident without major injury and the yellow flags were withdrawn. Many riders failed to find pace after tire changes resulting in their early times standing for final qualifying. Complete qualifying results are below.

Full Qualifying Results

For more content on the race weekend be sure to check out MotoGP VideoPass.

The WeatherTech Sportscar Championship started off the weekend with Practice 1 today at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. There was much anticipation for the session as it marked the first time the new GTP class would take the track in Monterey, CA. 9 GTP cars entered the class this weekend as well as, 8 LMP2 cars, 5 GTD Pro and 16 GTD cars. IMSA is also hosting the Michelin Pilot Challenge, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championship and MX-5 Cup.

Driver Campbell Power (Penske Porsche) secured the fastest lap in practice setting a 1:16.703 for the Penske Porsche side. Campbell spoke to IMSA.com in a post session interview and stated, “I only drove the last 20 minutes of the session. Felipe did a lot at the beginning and then I just jumped in. I just got some mileage at the end, so feeling comfortable and that’s the main thing heading into tomorrow. For me, the first time here in a prototype so very different obviously to what I’m used to, but very enjoyable. Now we’ve got a lot to go through tonight – the session was very late today – to get ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s a big day with final practice and qualifying.”

Highlighted Incidents

There was only one incident involving the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R crashing into the barrier at turn at less than 20 minutes after the start of the session. Sebastien Bourdais (Cadillac Racing) ran wide coming out of turn 5 and lost control of the car. The car slid into the tire barrier but did not appear to have major structural upon first views. Bourdais walked away from the crash and the No. 01 car retired from the session.

The class leaders in practice 1 were: Louis Deletraz in Le Mans Prototype 2, 1:17.897 (103.428 mph) in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07; Frankie Montecalvo in GT Daytona (GTD), 1:24.796 (95.013 mph) in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3; and Ben Barnicoat in GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), 1:25.020 (94.763 mph) in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

Full Practice Results are Below

Be sure to check out IMSA TV for more coverage of the races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend.