Rob is accosted for his taste in keyboards while Michael contemplates legal action against an old friend of the show.
Mercedes and Ferrari will be hoping to win some pride off freshly minted double world champion Max Verstappen when they return to the modern classic that is the Circuit of the Americas for the 2022 United States Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen comfortably wins the first-ever Miami Grand Prix to leave Charles Leclerc reliant on Ferrari’s next upgrade package. Featuring Stuart Codling, executive editor, GP Racing.
Australian-American NBC Sports broadcaster Leigh Diffey joins hosts Matt Clayton and Michael Lamonato to talk about the hype surrounding the inaugural Miami Grand Prix and F1®’s skyrocketing popularity in the United States (02:22), the effect of ‘Drive to Survive’ on IndyCar and NASCAR (04:00), how F1® drivers make the transition to IndyCar (09:15) and the potential for young American Colton Herta to be successful in F1® (11:50), while we look back at last Sunday’s race in Miami won by reigning world champion Max Verstappen (17:28).
Max Verstappen won the inaugural Miami Grand Prix after surviving a late-race battle with Charles Leclerc to slash his championship deficit again.
Leclerc started from pole and held first off the line but Verstappen launched to second around the outside of Carlos Sainz, boxing in the Spaniard behind the lead Ferrari, forcing him to concede and instead focus on holding back Sergio Perez from fourth.
The Red Bull Racing car’s straight-line speed then became decisive. Verstappen latched onto the back of Leclerc on lap eight and dragged him through the final sector. The benefit of DRS made for an easy move into Turn 1 at the start of the following lap.
Continue reading on RACERNot bad for a car park. Michael is joined by Rod Gordon from Superlicence F1 Podcast to discuss his lucky number and the little-known official slogan of the Miami Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc will lead Ferrari’s first front-row lockout in more than two years, beating teammate Carlos Sainz to pole position for the Miami Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen had taken provisional pole with his first lap of Q3 but the Dutchman left the door open with a mistake at Turn 5, his car snapping from underneath him and sending him wide across Turn 6.
The Ferrari drivers didn’t need the invitation. Sainz had just set a purple first sector and Leclerc took the second split to put the pair about level at the final split.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull’s Sergio Perez beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the top spot in a sweltering final practice ahead of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Mexican set his fastest lap with less than five minutes on the clock, with a rapid final sector in particular taking him to a best time of 1m30.304s, bettering Leclerc’s best by just 0.194s.
Leclerc struggled with his first flying lap on softs when the track was at its hottest, the soft Pirelli rubber squirming as the asphalt topped out at around 130 degrees F, but a late flier as conditions cooled by almost 15 degrees F unlocked more time, popping him into second.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has taken top spot from Charles Leclerc in a reversal of form in Friday’s second practice for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver put his updated car to good advantage to pip the Ferrari by 0.106s and flip the order from first practice.
The W13 looks improved compared to the difficult machine of the first four rounds, and though the bouncing was sometimes still evident at the end of the Miami International Autodrome’s long straights, it seemed less frequent than in previous races.
Continue reading on RACERFerrari’s Charles Leclerc beat Mercedes man George Russell to top spot in the first timed session at the brand-new Miami International Autodrome for the Miami Grand Prix.
The championship leader emerged at the head of the pack after a flurry of late laps on the soft compound as the track began to cool slightly, having been heated to a scorching 127 degrees F at the start of the hour.
Dropping more than 10 degrees at the end of the session, Leclerc logged a time of 1m31.098s to pip Russell by 0.071s in a promising first test of Mercedes’ car upgrades designed to turn around its shocking start to the season.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton chops down a tree. Formula E reveals a series of billboards. We attempt to play the Florida Man game but discover all the stories are fairly grim.
Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton at his own game to claim victory in a nailbiting United States Grand Prix, reasserting himself as the championship favourite in this dramatic season.
Michael Lamonato caught up with Matt Grubelich on Sports Drive to review all the thrills from the United States Grand Prix in Texas.
As part of National Safe Work Month in Australia, FIA Formula 1 medical rescue coordinator Dr Ian Roberts and FIA Formula 1 medical car driver Alan van der Merwe discuss their differing paths to their roles, the biggest safety advances in F1 and how they helped Romain Grosjean survive his dramatic crash in Bahrain last year, while we review Sunday’s US Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen fends off a charging Lewis Hamilton to take a strategically aggressive but perfectly judged victory in Austin and double his points lead. Featuring F1 journalist Abhishek Takle.
We consider the thrill of using a telephone, the humanity of competitive spam eating and the majesty of a giant dancing Heineken bottle.
Cracking F1 race in the US this morning — Max wins, Lewis second and Shaq just being Shaq. Michael Lamonato joins us on Rowsey’s Sports Show.
Max Verstappen scored an impressive victory over Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling United States Grand Prix, and with five rounds to go and a handy points lead, it could have been a championship defining race too.
The United States Grand Prix was almost a microcosm of the season to date. Form swung wildly between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing from first practice to the chequered flag, and in the end there was practically nothing between Verstappen and Hamilton on track. Either could have walked away a worthy winner.
But tiny percentage called got the job done for the challengers to put Verstappen in a strong position atop the title table, and Red Bull Racing closed its deficit to Mercedes in the constructors stakes to re-enliven its hops of a title double.
BACKGROUND
Around a month ago the Circuit of the Americas would have been considered a neutral venue for the two leading teams, favouring neither over the other. Two weeks ago it had moved into the Mercedes column thanks to the German marque’s performance at Istanbul Park, a track that makes similar demands of the car.
After first practice those more recent predictions appeared sure to come true. Mercedes led Red Bull Racing by almost a second, its car looking substantially more at ease through the high-speed corners in particular.
But the unexpected heat of the weekend, above 30°C, and the bumpiness of the track meant major changes were required for both cars overnight.
Mercedes had to raise its ride height so as to not risk floor damage, particularly on full tanks, while Red Bull Racing had Sebastien Buemi spend the night in the simulator at Milton Keynes to identify superior set-ups.
When the cards were put on the table on Saturday it was RBR and Verstappen who emerged with the better package.
But there was uncertainty around how these changes would affect race pace, particularly on the hard tyre. Knowing early that the hard compound would be key to a likely two-stop race, few drivers sampled the white-walled tyre, saving them instead for Sunday at the expense of understanding its longevity.
THE RACE-WINNING MOVE
For a moment it seemed Verstappen’s race would be undone in a moment, with Hamilton acing his start to take the lead at the first turn, but it quickly became clear that the W12 was no match for the RB16B on the medium tyre. Verstappen could easily follow Hamilton, even noting how much the Briton was sliding around on his overheating rubber.
But rather than try to launch a move or hang back and let Hamilton chew his tyres, Verstappen was handed the aggressive option of an early pit stop, coming in for the hard tyre on lap 10.
Mercedes was forced to make a decision: cover the early stop or stick it out on the ailing medium tyres. Without the benefit of having run the hards in practice, the team assumed they’d be similarly as delicate as the medium and that therefore splitting 46 laps between a pair of them would be too much to ask of the rubber. … Continue reading