Max Verstappen takes a Barcelona grand slam, winning the race from pole having led every lap and setting the fastest lap of the race.
Max Verstappen scored a rare grand slam victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole and logging the fastest lap of the race on his way to a commanding 24-second victory.
Verstappen’s win was only very briefly in doubt at the start of the race, when a strong launch by front-row starter Carlos Sainz had them running side by side into the braking zone at Turn 1. But the Dutchman had the inside line, which forced the Spaniard to yield and concede the place and consolidate second.
Verstappen was rarely spotted after that, building enough of a buffer to comfortably hold the lead after his two pit stops and stamp his authority all over the race, extending his championship lead to 53 points.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominates the battle for pole position after nominal title challenger Sergio Pérez suffers another shocker to start 11th.
Max Verstappen dominated the fight for pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix after Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and George Russell all failed to make it through to Q3.
Verstappen has been peerless all weekend at a circuit that has accentuated his Red Bull Racing car’s strongest qualities. The Dutchman was so good in qualifying that he didn’t bother to complete his final flying lap despite setting a purple middle sector. He still ended the day with a half-second advantage. After the first runs he had been 0.924s ahead of the pack.
“The car was really good,” he said after clocking 1m 12.272s for pole. “The car was on rails and was really enjoyable to drive today.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen completed a clean sweep of Spanish grand prix practice after a rain-affected final practice session in Barcelona.
Dark clouds rolled over the circuit and lightning was striking in the distance as FP3 went green, and drivers were queued at the end of the pit lane on slick tires in a bid to validate overnight set-up changes before the forecast rain arrived.
Verstappen quickly rocketed to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1m 13.664, and teammate Sergio Perez followed 0.25s further back, but the session was halted after just eight minutes when Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams at the final corner.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen sets a sizzling pace in Barcelona, but qualifying is shaping up to be super-tight.
Max Verstappen has swept Friday practice with another session-topping time in a close-run FP2 ahead of local favourite Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen lowered the day’s benchmark to 1m 13.907s with his single push lap on the soft-compound tire early in the session, and no-one who followed was able to better it.
Alonso, who had spent first practice earlier in the day evaluating car upgrades, got closest. The Spaniard strung together a lap just 0.17s shy of the Dutchman, including the fastest time in the final split.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull Racing is in superlative form after six straight victories, but could the team possibly sweep the entire season?
Max Verstappen set a sizzling pace to start practice at the Spanish Grand Prix at the top of the time sheet comfortably ahead of Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen used the soft tire to set a lap of 1m14.606s, besting Perez’s best by 0.768s. The Mexican, however, spent most of the session on the medium compound, whereas the Dutchman enjoyed a long stint in the middle of the hour on softs.
Both drivers were equipped with new power units for the weekend as well as revised floor edges and diffusers.
Continue reading on RACERThe odds were heavily stacked in his favour, but rather than them lightening his load, Bagnaia felt their full weight for three days at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
There wasn’t a single moment of the Valencia Grand Prix weekend at which the presumptive world champion looked truly comfortable. He did his best to maintain an air of calm, but his on-track performance was a glimpse of the roiling turmoil beneath the surface.
He only just scraped through free practice 0.059 ahead of the Q2 cut-off time.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFabio Quartararo has praised title leader Francesco Bagnaia for closing the 91-point gap between them despite lamenting his Yamaha’s lack of pace leaving him fighting with one hand behind his back.
Quartararo starts the title-deciding Valencia Grand Prix this weekend with a 23-point deficit and an extremely narrow path to a second world championship.
The Frenchman has been vociferous about Yamaha’s shortcomings this year despite a bright start to the season that propelled him to an early points lead.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSIt all comes down to this.
After 19 races, four changes to the championship lead and an unprecedented fightback, just Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo remain in contention for the 2022 MotoGP title with one race remaining.
Either winner will write an improbable chapter in motorcycling history.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFrancesco Bagnaia was so close to the MotoGP championship trophy that he could have seen his own reflection in the solid silver plaques bearing the names of the riders he hopes to emulate at this weekend’s Valencia Grand Prix.
He had been placed alongside the glittering prize in a photo shoot with title rival Fabio Quartararo, who he leads in the standings by an almost unassailable 23 points.
But despite being closer to the trophy than he’s ever been before, he refused to touch it.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFrancesco Bagnaia is on the cusp of doing the unthinkable.
Just nine rounds ago the man christened as Bologna’s best hope was watching his bike slide through the gravel at the Sachsenring as reigning champion Fabio Quartararo powered up the road and to eventual victory.
His fourth crash of the year put him a staggering 91 points off the title lead. No rider has ever come back from such a margin.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFabio Quartararo has been cursed by his own pre-season prophecy of non-competitiveness on his outgunned Yamaha M1.
Only a brief spell of success in the middle of the year threatened to disprove his prediction from way back during pre-season testing. Since the midseason he’s been forced to helplessly watch on as other riders chipped away at the points lead he’d toiled so hard for.
This weekend comes his final reckoning.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFeaturing Laurence Edmondson from ESPN. Max Verstappen leads a Red Bull Racing one-two at the Spanish Grand Prix to take the championship lead after Charles Leclerc retires with an engine failure.
Alpine Academy driver Jack Doohan joins hosts Matt Clayton and Michael Lamonato to talk about his breakthrough Formula 2 podium finish in Spain last weekend, his maiden Formula 1 test in the 2021 Alpine in Qatar, the differences between F2 and F1 machinery, why he moved into the Alpine Academy for 2022 and how the fast rise of stars like Max Verstappen has been a game-changer for young drivers, while we wrap up last Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Michael is joined by Rodney Gordon from Superlicense Podcast, who reminds him that in a younger, more innocent time he forecast Carlos Sainz as the 2022 world champion. Daniel Recardo (sic) contacts the Discord channel.