Qualifying Tag

By INDYCAR ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Josef Newgarden’s cagey tire strategy paid off Saturday with the NTT P1 Award for the REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR at Road America. Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden was the only driver in the Firestone Fast Six who elected to use new Firestone primary “black” tires for the entire final round of qualifying instead of used primary tires or the grippier, but less durable Firestone alternate “red” tires. That paid off with a best lap of 1 minute, 46.0186 seconds in theRead More

By FIA F1 Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton by almost three tenths of a second to claim pole position for tomorrow’s 2021 FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. Valtteri Bottas took will line up in third place on the grid ahead of Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez The opening Q1 segment got off to a stuttering start and the hour-long session was barely three minutes old when the action had to halted. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda tried too too much kerb in Turn 1 andRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Kevin Magnussen has had to adapt quickly with little preparation time in the NTT IndyCar Series. It became apparent after qualifying for the REV Group Grand Prix he has work to do for tomorrow’s race. The ex-F1 and current IMSA racer will roll off 21st out of the 25-car field at Road America. Not enough to advance out of Group 1 qualifying. After the session, the man deputizing Felix Rosenqvist put it bluntly, “there’s been a lot to learn.” “Very different car than I’ve used to.Read More

By FIA Charles Leclerc grabbed a surprise second consecutive pole position, taking top spot in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix thanks to a late red flag following an incident involving Ferrari team-mate Carlose Sainz and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Lewis Hamilton recovered from a slow start to the weekend to take second place, while pole position favourite and championship leader Max Verstappen qualified third. With stoppages and incident always likely at the Baku City Circuit, a large queue formed in pit lane ahead of the start of Q1 as driverRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – Sage Karam had an eventful Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not only he had to make the 33-car field, he had a good view of Simon Pagenaud’s mechanical problems. Karam had began the Month of May showing good speed where he even end up in the top-10 standings. Like his competitors starting on the final row next Sunday, Fast Friday and qualifying proved to be a struggle. As a result of missing the top-30 Saturday, Karam had to qualify again and makeRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power got a different taste of Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he was surprisingly relegated to the stress of last-chance qualifying to make the final row of the Indianapolis 500.  What the Team Penske driver didn’t expect Sunday was a kiss of the Turn 2 wall on the last lap of his four-lap run.  Power, the second driver on the track in the five-car session to settle the final three spots in the race, drifted high out of the corner and smacked the SAFER Barrier with the right rearRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – There’s no qualifying stress like the battle to make the Indianapolis 500, where one of the NTT IndyCar Series’ all-time best qualifiers finds himself fighting just to make this year’s race.  Team Penske’s Will Power, whose 62 career pole positions are one short of Mario Andretti’s all-time record, failed to qualify Saturday among the 30 fastest that locked themselves into the field for the May 30 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He must come back Sunday and take part in a five-car battle for the final three spots in the 33-car field.  All five drive cars are powered byRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a home pole position for Formula 1’s 2021 Monaco Grand Prix beating Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen with his opening lap of Q3. Leclerc then crashed midway through his final run to deny any of his rivals an opportunity as the red flags came out. In Q1, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas leds the way, with the Finn setting a session-best time of 1:10.938, around eight hundredths of a second ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen eased through to the second segment in third place thanks to aRead More

By Kirby Arnold, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – They’re the Chevrolet flies in the Honda soup, but two cars from Ed Carpenter Racing are ready to take an important plunge into familiar waters – a run for the pole position in the Indianapolis 500.  On a day when Honda-powered cars dominated the speed charts Saturday on the first day of qualifying for the May 30 race, Ed Carpenter and Rinus VeeKay carried the Chevrolet banner. Carpenter qualified fourth fastest at 231.616 mph and VeeKay fifth at 231.483. The third Carpenter car, driven by Conor Daly, qualified 19th at 230.427. Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – On a hot Saturday at Indianapolis, 35 drivers had the daunting task of trying to put together four solid laps that’ll either get them into the Fast Nine or make the top-30. It’s no easy task as conditions, the luck of the draw and risking everything can dictate how a competitor go about their run. Scott Dixon wasted no time as not only he was the first man to qualify, he literally set the tone. His four-lap average of 231.828 mph was theRead More