Aston martin db6

Wanting more from Aston Martin after falling behind Mercedes in Spain, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has confirmed that “something is coming” for the Canadian Grand Prix. Off the podium at his home race in Barcelona, Alonso wasn’t dejected by the result but instead determinedly said that “it will not happen again” and that Spain was Aston Martin’s “last race without podiums”. But with Mercedes having taken a notable step forward with the introduction of their B-spec W14, Alonso is facing tight competition for that final spot on the podium. In Spain it went to Mercedes where Lewis Hamilton and George Russell capitalised on an off-weekend for Sergio Perez to finish 2-3 behind race winner Max Verstappen. Alonso has made it clear he not only wants that to be a one-off but he wants to be fighting Verstappen for the race wins, and soon. “I think that in two weeks we will see a completely different picture and, hopefully, we will fight with the Red Bulls soon,” he said. “In … [Read more...] about Aston Martin tease ‘something is coming’ to rival Mercedes upgrades

Toyota had seemed set to return to the top of the Le Mans timesheets for the first time since opening practice on Wednesday with Kamui Kobayashi heading the majority of the session. However, a late 3m26.579s from Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P LMH smashed Kobayashi's best by almost a second. And, with eight minutes to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi set a 3m27.013s lap to go second, despite the #51 Ferrari having spent the first half of the three-hour session in the pits. The Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs were denied the chance to respond as a late full-course yellow, when Manuel Maldonado went off, hampered any further late improvements. Instead, Kobayashi had to settle for third in the #7 Toyota. Mathieu Jaminet in the #75 Porsche 963 LMDh was the initial pacesetter on a 3m28.454s but was soon usurped by the two Toyotas. Kobayashi claimed top spot with a 3m27.822s in the #7 car, before Sebastien Buemi went second in the sister #8 machine on 3m27.879s. However, Kobayashi … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Ferrari locks out 1-2 ahead of Toyota in third practice

Ferrari will lead the grid for the 100th anniversary Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend with its pair of 499P prototypes. Here is the full grid following the qualifying and hyperpole sessions. Pos No. Class Team Car Drivers Time 1 50 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen 3’22.982 2 51 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/ Antonio Giovinazzi 3’23.755 3 8 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Sebastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley /Ryo Hirakawa 3’24.451 4 75 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Felipe Nasr /Mathieu Jaminet/Nicholas Tandy 3’24.531 5 7 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Mike Conway/ Kamui Kobayashi /Jose Maria Lopez 3’24.933 6 2 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook 3’25.170 7 5 … [Read more...] about WEC 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours starting grid · RaceFans

Taking over the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that Alessandro Pier Guidi drove to second in Hyperpole, Calado whisked to a time of 3m27.275s shortly before Jean-Eric Vergne ’s #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes. The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held. Calado was 1.003s faster than Esteban Gutierrez in the Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 that will start the World Endurance Championship blue riband from 14th. Gutierrez was in turn 0.162s faster than the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh campaigned by Will Stevens , which missed qualifying on Wednesday due to an electronic problem. Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims . Jose Maria Lopez … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Calado puts Ferrari top in final practice session

Fuoco paced the 30-minute session, featuring the fastest eight cars from Wednesday's first qualifying, with a best time of 3m22.982s at the wheel of the 499P he shares with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen . Both of the Ferrari LMHs jumped to the top of the timesheets early on, with Alessandro Pier Guidi initially leading the way on a 3m23.987s in the #51 car ahead of Fuoco in the sister #50 entry. Pier Guidi then improved to a 3m23.478s, which was scrubbed for a track limits infringement, before Fuoco upped the ante by posting the first sub-3m23s effort of the week so far, outpacing his team-mate by 0.773s despite getting baulked by a GTE Am Ferrari exiting Indianapolis. That time remained the benchmark when the session was red-flagged with five minutes left on the clock as a result of Cadillac driver Sebastien Bourdais stopping at the first chicane after suffering a dramatic fire. Bourdais was able to escape the smouldering #3 Cadillac V.Series-R unscathed, having … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Ferrari locks out front row, Cadillac suffers fire

At last week's Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell scored a double podium after the Brackley team's comprehensive upgrade package delivered a solid step forward. While Hamilton still finished 24 seconds behind dominant winner Max Verstappen , Mercedes' W14 was the second-strongest car on the high-downforce circuit, providing the team with a solid baseline to continue its recovery. The double podium also elevated Mercedes above Aston Martin to second place in the constructors' standings. But Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering director, expects the Canadian Grand Prix to be a more difficult weekend for the Silver Arrows due to the low-downforce nature of Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is the polar opposite of the Barcelona circuit that its revamped 2023 car was competitive at. "The fact is that the update kit works very well around circuits like Barcelona with a lot of high-speed performance," Shovlin said in Mercedes' post-race … [Read more...] about Mercedes: Canada a “bigger challenge” than Barcelona for upgraded F1 car

Ferrari secured a front row lock-out in hyperpole qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours, claiming their first pole in the famous race in half a century. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The number 50 Ferrari shared by Antonio Fuoco – who drove the pole-winning lap – Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will start famous 24-hour endurance race from the front of the field, ahead of their team mates in the number 51 car. Toyota will start third on the grid with the number eight car, ahead of the number 75 Porsche Penske. The half-hour hyperpole session, unlike other rounds of the World Endurance Championship, saw all classes on the track at the same time. After Wednesday’s qualifying session, the eight hypercars participating included both Toyotas, both Ferraris, two Cadillacs – the number two and number three – and two Porsche Penskes, the number five car and number 75. The Toyotas were the first cars over the line to begin their first flying laps of the session … [Read more...] about Ferrari locks out front row on its return to the top flight at Le Mans · RaceFans

With Fernando Alonso still going very strong over 40, Nico Rosberg used that as inspiration to discuss his time as team-mate to Michael Schumacher when he returned to F1. Schumacher initially called time on his legendary Formula 1 career after the 2006 campaign, by which point he had broken a plethora of records with the jewel in the crown being his status as a seven-time World Champion. But after a Ferrari return in 2009 to cover for the injured Felipe Massa was thwarted for Schumacher by a neck injury, the German racer secured a return to Formula 1 for 2010 as he and Nico Rosberg became team-mates at the new Mercedes team. Schumacher’s return lasted three seasons, though did not feature anything like the success of his past, with a P3 finish at the 2012 European Grand Prix and setting the fastest qualifying lap in Monaco that year serving as the highlights. Having turned 41 in his first Mercedes season, he bowed out at the age of 43. And now Alonso, who ended Schumacher’s … [Read more...] about Nico Rosberg reveals Michael Schumacher’s adaptation struggles upon F1 comeback

Carlos Sainz sees that Fernando Alonso is leading the popularity vote in their native Spain, but he perfectly understands why. In recent years it has been Sainz at the forefront of Spain’s Formula 1 hopes as a Ferrari driver, winning for the first time at the 2022 British Grand Prix, that a season where he also claimed a further eight podium finishes. All the while Alonso was fighting to pick up the scraps in the midfield-running Alpine, but with his F1 2023 switch to Aston Martin thrusting Alonso back into the podium scene, his fans back in Spain, where he and Sainz both hail from, are out in full enthusiastic force once more. Alonso has featured in five of the seven podiums so far this season, with a P2 in Monaco representing his best result, and though he was unable to get near the top three at the most recent attempt, his home race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the support of the home crowd did not waver. Sainz though made it clear that there is no feeling of … [Read more...] about Carlos Sainz responds to jealousy suspicions over Fernando Alonso popularity