Motorsport journalist and podcaster
If you had to pick Alejandro Agag’s spirit animal, you probably wouldn’t choose the donkey, yet it’s to the attitude of this humble farmyard animal that the Extreme E CEO credits his success: don’t get distracted and keep your eyes on the prize.
But no common donkey could have made itself the youngest person elected to European Parliament, and a lack of opposable thumbs would have made launching two pioneering electric racing series unmanageably complex.
But Alejandro has done all those things and much more, and on the eve of the finale of Extreme E’s inaugural championship James and Michael caught up with the man who set it all up to talk about what’s motivated him to dominate the electric racing scene, his hopes for the future of the planet and what it’s like to buy a massive ship.
We also hear the final part of our chat with Professor Lucy Woodall from the Extreme E scientific committee about the importance of uniting people from different walks of life in the fight against climate change.
Lewis Hamilton has cruised to a crucial victory at the Qatar Grand Prix to slice his title deficit to Max Verstappen down to just eight points with two races still to run.
Lewis Hamilton trails Max Verstappen by just eight points in the championships standings after an easy victory over Max Verstappen at the first Qatar Grand Prix.
The Briton got the perfect start to assert control over the race, but Verstappen was determined not to be left languishing in the midfield, having started the race seventh following a penalty for ignoring yellow flags in qualifying. A perfect launch on the clean side of the track lifted him three places on the first lap, and passes on Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso had him back in second by lap five.
Four seconds split the title protagonists, and Verstappen started to light up the timing board, but the visage of competitiveness was short lived. Hamilton put his foot down just as the gap began to shrink, and a little more than 10 laps later the margin blew out to 10s.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton holds all the cards in Formula 1’s first-ever Qatar Grand Prix, and with car pace and strategy on his side, he’s well placed to half his championship deficit to Max Verstappen.
Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton ended practice at the Qatar Grand Prix comfortably ahead of the pack after a second successive day of rear wing problems for Red Bull Racing.
Bottas was quicker than Hamilton around the new-to-F1 Losail International Circuit for the third straight session, topping the final practice hour by 0.078s. Despite FP3 taking place in unrepresentatively warm daytime conditions in comparison to qualifying or the race, the Finn lowered the track record by another 0.8s, down to 1m22.573s.
Red Bull had no answer to the Mercedes pace in the final practice hour, with Max Verstappen 0.341s off the pace in third and teammate Sergio Perez another 0.2 further back in fifth.
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