Catie Munnings’ rise has been as rapid as her pace behind the wheel, and whether it’s debuting in the European Rally Championship while still taking her final-year exams or becoming a TV presenter to fund her racing career, there’s nothing she does by half measures.
In 2021 she’s had a new reason to go flat out, taking up a position as one of Andretti United’s drivers in the inaugural Extreme E season, and with Timmy Hansen she became a race winner in Greenland. James and Michael caught up with Catie after the Arctic X Prix to talk about that victory and her newfound appreciation for pizza dough.
Plus we hear from Professor Lucy Woodall from the Extreme E scientific committee about the danger of microplastics and the role of plastic production in the climate crisis.
Max Verstappen has dealt a blow to Lewis Hamilton’s title chances with a comfortable 16-second victory in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen turned third on the grid into an easy victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix to extend his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman used the powerful slipstream on the 880-yard run from the start to the first braking zone to sweep effortlessly around the outside of polesitter Valtteri Bottas and into a lead he would relinquish only during the pit stop window.
It was a sweet start for Red Bull Racing but a disaster for Mercedes. Bottas and Hamilton had shared the front row, but Bottas’s limp defense at the first turn had him passed by his teammate and left him exposed to contact on the Turn 1 apex with Daniel Ricciardo, who had attempted to reserve the space for his McLaren.
Continue reading on RACERYou’d have got long odds as late as Saturday morning on Mercedes taking pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, but come the end of Q3 Valtteri Bottas had turned the form guide on its head — if anyone’s bothering to refer to the prediction book these days.
Valtteri Bottas has beaten Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to pole position for a surprise Mercedes front-row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Mercedes has secured a shock front row lockout at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.145s.
The German marque looked down and out throughout practice, but apparent problems with Red Bull Racing’s rear wing set up Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to underperform through the crucial grid-setting hour.
Black tape appeared on the ends of the rear wing flap on Verstappen’s car in response to apparent structural problems discovered during practice. The team subsequently neglected to engineer a slipstream with Sergio Perez on the first lap, handing Mercedes an opportunity to snatch provisional pole.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez consolidated Red Bull Racing’s stranglehold on the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time of Saturday practice, while Mercedes struggled to hit the sweet spot ahead of qualifying.
The Mexican ratcheted up expectations among his fanatical home crowd with a lap of 1m17.024s late in the session on a used set of medium tires, taking a 0.193s advantage over the sister car.
Verstappen set only one flying lap in the final four minutes of the hour, — having been waylaid in his garage for apparent damage at the rear of the car — and it was messy, the Dutchman complaining of an unexpected lack of grip.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas bested teammate Lewis Hamilton in a dusty opening practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair were split by just 0.076s after an hour on track, the Finn setting the pace with a time of 1m18.341s, but Briton will face a post-session stewards investigation for running wide at Turn 1 and cutting across the grass to rejoin at Turn 3 without driving wide around the traffic cone as required.
Max Verstappen — heavy favorite for victory ahead of the weekend on account of Red Bull Racing’s form at this track — was third and just 0.123s off the headline pace.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has confidently topped Friday afternoon practice for Red Bull Racing at the Mexico City Grand Prix while title rival Lewis Hamilton struggled with set-up.
Verstappen’s best time of 1m 17.301s was almost half a second quicker than anyone else. Valtteri Bottas, fastest in the morning session, was next in the order, but the Finn was 0.424s off the pace.
Lewis Hamilton trailed in third and 0.085s further back after a messy session for the reigning champion and 2019 Mexico winner. He had an early lap time deleted for setting a time during double waved yellow flags before destroying a set of hard tires with a lock-up into Turn 1.
Continue reading on RACERMichael Lamonato caught up with Matt Grubelich on Sports Drive to preview this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix
The margin is only 12 points, but with three Red Bull Racing-friendly circuits scheduled for the next three weeks, Max Verstappen is within touching distance of a historic championship victory over Lewis Hamilton.
With the Formula 1 title to be decided by a two-race showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, we’re joined by Ben Hunt, F1 journalist from the Sun newspaper in the UK, to look at how Hamilton has dragged himself back into contention, Mercedes’s late-season surge, and the escalating tension between rival team principals Toto Wolff and Christian Horner.
Long-time Dutch Formula 1 commentator and media figure Olav Mol looks at the rise of Max Verstappen in the Netherlands, explains the massive support behind the Red Bull Racing star’s world championship quest and offers his thoughts on the head-to-head title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
We pay our respects to Sir Frank Williams, and in a preview of the final two rounds of the season we catch up with Autosport F1 reporter Luke Smith to talk about his alleged passion for maple syrup and AFL football.
Helmut Marko gives his unbiased opinion that Max Verstappen deserves to be miles ahead in the championship already. Three of the remaining five tracks aren’t finished for some reason. We talk about Fox News unexpectedly.