It was a funny atmosphere on Phillip Island on Friday night.

Nothing had really changed, but at the same time everything had changed.

Practice had gone ahead without a hitch, the circuit basked in glorious sunshine. But the forecast was close at hand for every team and rider, with brows furrowed about the viability of holding a grand prix in the high winds predicted for Sunday.

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Daniel Ricciardo returns to the cockpit for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix with little on the line but much to prove.

Ricciardo’s grand plan to find himself a place at a race-winning team is coming together. He spent the months after being axed from McLaren deconstructing and rebuilding himself in the Red Bull simulator as a reserve driver, and after just 10 rounds he got the nod to replace the ousted Nyck de Vries at sister team AlphaTauri.

His first two races were promising, but the run ended suddenly with a practice crash in the Netherlands that broke his left hand and left him unable to drive until this weekend.

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MotoGP has brought forward the Australian Grand Prix to Saturday afternoon in a bid to avoid inclement weather forecast for Sunday.

The 27-lap grand prix will now take place at 3:10pm tomorrow instead of the sprint, less than three hours after the conclusion of qualifying.

The sprint will be moved to 2:00pm on Sunday in the feature race’s original slot.

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Jack Miller is hopeful his upgraded KTM can take the fight to dominant Ducati at his home Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Miller has had a roller-coaster of a first season with the Austrian brand, bursting from the blocks with a podium in the fourth round but losing his way through the middle of the campaign.

Ducati, meanwhile, has won all but three of 15 races so far this season, with Miller’s former factory team taking six of those via title leader Francesco Bagnaia.

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Reigning Australian Grand Prix winner Álex Rins has cast doubt on the running of this year’s race, with high winds forecast to disrupt Sunday running.

Phillips Island has basked in warm and sunny weather on Thursday, but conditions are set to deteriorate over the weekend.

Fresh winds and light showers and will arrive for qualifying and the sprint on Saturday, while Sunday’s radar predicts up to 6 millimetres of rain and strong winds of up to 45 kilometres per hour. Gusts could be as strong as 70 kilometres per hour.

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Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner has denied reports that he’s attempting to oust Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko from Formula 1.

Reports in the Brazilian and German media during the week suggested Horner has spent the last year making a play for total control of the energy drink brand’s F1 operations, which include both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri.

But Auto Bild has reported that three-time champion Max Verstappen has thrown his weight behind Marko, tying his future at the team to the Austrian retaining his place in the garage.

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Champion-elect Max Verstappen romped to a straightforward victory at a tire-compromised Qatar Grand Prix ahead of another podium performance for McLaren.

Verstappen’s only risk came off the line, when George Russell attempted to press him onto the Turn 1 apex to take position.

Lewis Hamilton, starting third, got a better launch with his soft tires and tried to sweep around both, but he turned in too early and clipped his teammate, sending himself and Russell spinning off track.

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Max Verstappen has won the 2023 Formula 1 world championship after finishing the Qatar sprint second behind first-time winner Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen started third on the grid but needed only to prevent teammate Sergio Perez from outscoring him by six points to seal the deal in the 62-mile sprint.

Polesitter Piastri took the lead thanks to a sizzling start, with soft-tire gambler George Russell slotting into second ahead of Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

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Max Verstappen has taken pole position for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix after dominating qualifying at the Losail International Circuit.

Verstappen needed only one lap to storm to his 10th pole of the season, though a snap of oversteer owing to the low-grip conditions forced him to abandon what could have been a better time with his second tour.

But his first time of 1m 23.778s was more than quick enough to seal top spot, with the Dutchman 0.441s faster than the rest of the field.

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Max Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix at a canter to claim Red Bull’s second consecutive Constructors’ championship.

It was an easy afternoon for Verstappen, whose only brief scare came off the line when both McLaren drivers took him side by side into the first turn. Oscar Piastri, starting from the front row, had to yield from the inside line, but Lando Norris swept from third around the outside and threatened to take the lead. Verstappen, however, positioned his car perfectly to force Norris to slot behind him through Turn 2, from where he was uninhibited to build an insurmountable margin.

A brief safety car to clear first-lap debris was only a momentary interruption, with the Dutchman charging to a formidable 19.3s victory. With Ferrari and Mercedes scoring only minor points, Red Bull Racing comfortably secured its sixth teams championship with six rounds remaining for the season.

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Max Verstappen dominated the fight for pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of rookie Oscar Piastri, who took his first grand prix front-row start at Suzuka.

Verstappen steamrolled the competition on his way to an advantage of more than half a second at the end of the hour to put his Red Bull team on track to win the constructors championship on Sunday.

The only wrinkle in an otherwise easy day for the Dutchman came in Q1, when Williams rookie Logan Sargeant crashed out of the session without a time, causing an almost 15-minute suspension.

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Max Verstappen completed a practice clean sweep of the Japanese Grand Prix but with a reduced margin to Lando Norris in second.

Verstappen left it late to set his final flying lap, logging a 1m30.267s, the fastest time of the weekend so far. But Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were within striking distance in second and third with newfound performance gains the long first sector.

Norris was 0.24s off Verstappen’s pace, with Piastri just 0.048s further back.

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Max Verstappen topped second practice at the Japanese Grand Prix with a reduced margin ahead of Charles Leclerc after a clumsy Pierre Gasly crash ended practice early.

Gasly was following teammate Esteban Ocon through the second Degner corner where he understeered off track and through the gravel, where he dragged his left-front wheel along the barriers and snapped his suspension. With less than two minutes left on the clock, the session ended with the flying of red flag to collect the stricken Alpine.

The shortened session was of no consequence to Verstappen, who ended Friday on top with an ultimate time of 1m30.688s, heading Leclerc and the rest of the field by 0.32s.

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Max Verstappen set a foreboding pace in an overcast first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. The Dutchman fired early, taking top spot just minutes into the hour-long session and improving his time with every stint on fresh tires.

The Red Bull driver started on the hards, switched to Pirelli’s experimental medium tire and concluded with a blistering time on the softs. His final time of 1m31.647s blitzed Ferrari’s Singapore Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz by 0.626s, the world champion fastest in every sector in part thanks to a brand-new Honda power unit bolted to the back of his car.

Lando Norris was third quickest for McLaren, 0.745s behind Verstappen after a late lap on fresh softs but 0.182s quicker that Charles Leclerc, who was 0.927s adrift.

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Carlos Sainz claimed victory in the Singapore Grand Prix after a thrilling late Mercedes chase fell short. The Ferrari driver’s triumph ended Red Bull Racing’s undefeated streak for 2023 and the team’s hopes of F1’s first perfect season.

Pole-getter Sainz had nailed his getaway and spent the rest of the evening setting a slow pace around Marina Bay to ensure his preferred one-stop strategy would work.

Charles Leclerc had put himself up to second at the start to act as his teammate’s chief defender against front-row starter George Russell, but an early safety car — for a Logan Sargeant wall-banging incident on lap 19 — dropped the Monegasque down to sixth, leaving Sainz vulnerable to Mercedes.

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Carlos Sainz is on pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix after both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were eliminated in the bottom 10 on a disastrous day for Red Bull Racing.

The conclusion of the shocking qualifying session was delayed by more than half an hour to repair barriers following a high-speed Lance Stroll crash in Q1.

Championship leader Max Verstappen didn’t have the pace to progress to the pole shootout after a scrappy final lap in Q2 left him 11th on the grid and just 0.007s short of the cut-off time. Sergio Perez will start 13th after spinning out over the Turn 2 curb on his final lap.

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Carlos Sainz rocketed to top spot in final practice at the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of another difficult session for Red Bull.

Sainz’s session-topping lap of 1m 32.065s was enough to pip Mercedes’s George Russell by just 0.069s. Lando Norris made McLaren the third different team represented inside the top three with a lap 0.169s further back.

Max Verstappen improved in the final minute of the session to take fourth place, but the reigning champion was 0.313s slower than Sainz and looking no more likely to take pole than he was one night earlier.

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Ferrari completed a Friday clean sweep, with Carlos Sainz besting Charles Leclerc to top spot in second practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Championship leader Max Verstappen struggled, with he and Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez languishing in eighth and seventh and more than half a second off the pace.

Ferrari expected a difficult weekend at the slow-speed Marina Bay track, but the scarlet cars were uncatchable on the soft tire during the first night session of the weekend. FP2 is the most important practice session of the weekend, being the only one run under lights and at roughly the same time as qualifying and the race.

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