Motorsport
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NOT for the first time, Saturday’s qualifying proved more entertaining than race day when the unpredictable Formula One circus set up camp near Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Qualifying in particular was wild and whacky, although it still ultimately uncorked a not unfamiliar result – a Mercedes-Benz lockout of the front row.
Right until the end of qualifying, the shootout threatened a boil-over.
By the end of Q2, the drivers were on slicks and then with a dry line obvious and just a couple of perilous damp patches to be leery of, all 10 survivors were on an equal footing and Supersofts for Q3.
So the order was: Rosberg, who earlier signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes, Hamilton, Ricciardo and Verstappen, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Alonso and Jenson Button.
“I think we had better than a 19.9 [time] in us,” said Ricciardo. “We don’t get many opportunities to get a pole from Mercedes, but I thought today there was definitely a chance.”
But Hungary was always a circuit that brought confidence to the Red Bull camp. After Friday’s practice, when he was second-fastest to Rosberg, our man Ricciardo ventured to suggest: “We have to target top three; the last two years we have had podiums here.”
As is all too often in F1, the race was virtually decided in the first couple of corners. The rest of the race was snoozy, large periods of processional activity only broken in the concluding stages by a frustrated Raikkonen making an occasional lunge at an overly defensive fifth-placed Verstappen. One resulted in Raikkonen losing part of his front wing.
“It’s not my job to determine if he was correct or not, but I have seen people penalised for much less.”
At the start, Ricciardo made a blinder from third and fired around the outside of Rosberg to get his nose in front… for the barest of moments.
Hamilton charged through to the lead in the usual scrimmage, and there he would stay, in so doing grabbing a six-point margin over Rosberg in the fight for the world championship.
Rosberg later grumpily declared he couldn’t pass Hamilton on the Hungaroring, while Ricciardo was clearly enjoying delivering a cuff behind the ear to his upstart Red Bull child prodigy team-mate, and at the same time beating home the Ferrari of Vettel.
“I think even if we had got the lead, their pace was good so they could have even over-cut us if they stayed out an extra lap. Third was the best we could do and Seb (Vettel) got really close in the last three laps.”
Lowndes, van Gisbergen snare Supercars wins at Ipswich
It was a weekend of two very different parts but one team was absolutely dominant
Shane van Gisbergen led home a crushing Triple Eight Race Engineering one-two-three in Saturday’s Australian Supercars Championship 120km sprint at Queensland Raceway, catching and passing struggling Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in the closing stages.
Ipswich, aka known as Hansonville, has been a happy hunting ground for Lowndes across many years.
Not that Whincup was too aggrieved. His pair of second places across the weekend pushed out his lead in the championship ahead of van Gisbergen, Mark Winterbottom and Lowndes.
Van Gisbergen was in the mix on Sunday until he made an instant call to pit after seeing Scott Pye fire into a gravel trap and assumed a yellow caution flag would be inevitable. It wasn’t. Van Gisbergen headed into the pit lane to complete a pit stop – only to have to double-stack behind teammate Whincup. It was a costly move.
Saturday’s sprint race was way more entertaining, helped by some lively preceding activity.
Kudos to Chris Pither, the Kiwi rookie who claimed a surprise but well-earned pole. Luck didn’t come into this process.
Six-time Australian Supercars champion Jamie Whincup’s looked to have control of the Saturday race, but his late-race pace was compromised by older tyres and a need to conserve fuel, allowing the fast-finishing van Gisbergen to snatch victory on the penultimate lap.
The championship situation is now: Whincup leads van Gisbergen by 110 points, with Winterbottom another 10 further back in third, and Lowndes fourth (-150).
Webber, Porsche claim back-to-back victory at Nurburgring WEC
Fighting back from a puncture in the first hour, Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley have sensationally taken the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid to victory in the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, round four of the World Endurance Championship.
It was the first win of the season for the reigning champions who took the lead late in the race when the #2 Porsche of Neel Jani/Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb collided with a slower LMGTE Am car, denying them a likely victory.
Webber emerged in front.
The #2 Porsche finished fourth, two spots behind the #8 Audi Sport Team Joest R18 of Loic Duval/Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grassi, which has reduced the points gap to the Jani car in championship.
There was no post-Le Mans joy for the Toyotas, which finished fifth and sixth after tough race.
Mawson wins again in German F4
Australian Joey Mawson has enjoyed another successful weekend in the German Formula 4 Championship, scoring a win, a third and a fourth in the three races held at Austria’s Red Bull Ring.
Mawson now holds a 254 to 208 points advantage over nearest rival Mick Schumacher as the series moves into the second half of the season.
He took a fighting fourth to get his weekend off to a strong start.
From pole for race two, Mawson led away and won easily by six seconds.
The final race of the weekend was a tough one from position seven, but secured another podium finish in the closing laps.
Mawson has increased his lead of the championship to 46 points over Mick Schumacher while also taking his podium tally to 11 from 15 races this season.
