Cullen

Listen to this article With the Le Mans 24 Hours on the horizon, Sebastien Bourdais says his sportscar racing odyssey "is about to get a whole lot crazier". He's not wrong. The Frenchman has been a regular in sportscars for most of the past two decades, but the difference this time is that it's not in parallel with a single-seater programme. For the first time since 2010, the four-time Champ Car champion has no US open-wheel ride this year. Instead, he's split his focus between the IMSA Sportscar Championship with Chip Ganassi Racing's Cadillac DPi-V.R, and the World Endurance Championship with Vector Sport in the ubiquitous LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07. Bourdais acknowledges that the door to an IndyCar return is now "pretty much" closed. "I was still hoping that there might be something this year towards the end of the season with maybe a third car programme kick-starting to help that going," he tells Motorsport.com prior to securing a second IMSA win of the season at … [Read more...] about How in-form Bourdais is nailing his “normal transition”

Listen to this article Kobayashi posted a 3m27.247s lap early in the one-hour qualifying period from which the fastest six cars in each class go through to Thursday evening’s Hyperpole session ahead of this weekend’s double-points round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Japanese driver’s time aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid gave him a margin of almost exactly one tenth over the best of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs. Olivier Pla posted a 3m27.355s in the #708 entry to beat Ryan Briscoe in the sister car, which ended up six tenths behind on a 3m27.978s. The Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car ended up fourth in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre on a 3m29.656s. The #8 Toyota was in the pits receiving attention to its rear suspension early in the session when the quick times were posted and only made it out on track after a brief red-flag period after half an hour. Light rain was already falling when Brendon Hartley began his lap, the New Zealander … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Toyota edges Glickenhaus in first qualifying

Listen to this article Brendon Hartley got down to a 3m29.441s with 20 minutes of the three-hour session remaining in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to push the #709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH down to second. Glickenhaus driver Franck Mailleux had led the way with a 3m29.917s, which was just a couple of tenths up on Pipo Derani’s 3m30.102s in the sister car, which ended up third in the final times. A 3m30.403s set by Kamui Kobayashi aboard the #7 car set early in the session had stood as the fastest Toyota time before Hartley improved on Sebastien Buemi’s earlier best in the #8. The second Toyota was pushed down to fifth by the fastest LMP2 runner in the dying stages of the session. Alex Lynn found just over two tenths aboard his United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson with a 3m30.238s to improve on a time set early in the session which had stood as best in class until his improvement. The Alpine A480-Gibson, the final runner in the Hypercar class, ended up eighth in the … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Toyota leads Glickenhaus in first practice

Listen to this article The Japanese marque's pair of GR010 Hybrids, which swept the front row in Hyperpole qualifying earlier, were untouchable in Thursday evening's two-hour night session, the final on-track running before Saturday morning warm-up. Read Also: Le Mans 24h: Hartley beats Kobayashi in dramatic pole duel Hartley thrilled to beat "Mr Qualifying" Kobayashi to pole Jose Maria Lopez set the pace aboard the #7 Toyota with a best lap of 3m28.322s, 0.362s faster than Sebastien Buemi in the sister #8 machine. Best of the rest was the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH in which Pipo Derani set a late improvement of 3m30.141s to get within two seconds of Lopez's benchmark. Richard Westbrook posted a 3m30.822s, exactly 2.5s off the pace, to go fourth in the sister #709 Glickenhaus, just ahead of the Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car driven by Andre Negrao . United Autosports led the way in the LMP2 class courtesy of a 3m32.226s effort from Alex … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Toyota dominant in final practice

Listen to this article The #709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Franck Mailleux had not even logged a single lap during the 15-minute session before hitting trouble, as the French driver appeared to spin exiting Mulsanne corner before coming to a stop on the right-hand side of the track. It's understood Mailleux lost control on exit because of a faulty traction control sensor. Moments later, another one of the American favourites, the GTE Pro pole-sitting #64 Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy was also seen cruising at reduced speed between Mulsanne and Indianapolis with what the marque called a "driveline issue", albeit Tandy made it back to the pits. There was further drama when Nico Muller beached the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 Oreca 07 in the gravel, which combined with Alexandre Cougnaud suffering an off at the Dunlop chicane in the #3 DKR Engineering LMP2 triggered a full-course yellow period. This meant many cars didn't set a representative lap, with those that did so generally only … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Drama for Glickenhaus, Corvette in warm-up

Listen to this article In the final on-track running before Hyperpole qualifying, Kamui Kobayashi recorded a best effort of 3m26.796s at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid - around half a second quicker than he managed during first qualifying on Wednesday. Brendon Hartley backed that up with a 3m27.115s in the sister #8 car to go second-quickest ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs. The American boutique marque's best lap was a 3m27.466s from Olivier Pla in the #708 car, a little under seven tenths off the pace and marginally slower than its first qualifying benchmark, while Ryan Briscoe posted a 3m28.073s in the sister #709 machine. Propping up the order in the five-car Hypercar class was Alpine's grandfathered A480-Gibson LMP1, despite receiving a power increase in a revised Balance of Performance issued as the three-hour session began. Read Also: Alpine gets power increase in revised Le Mans BoP Matthieu Vaxiviere was 2.4 seconds down on … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Toyota quickest in accident-strewn third practice

Listen to this article Hamilton and Mercedes teammate George Russell have experienced excessive porpoising and bottoming at the Baku street track, with the latter especially complaining that it has affected his visibility at the end of the straight. Hamilton acknowledged that he wasn't able to complete a planned long run on Friday, which meant that the team didn't get all the data that it wanted. He also noted that after overnight changes on the car on Saturday the porpoising had moved from the end of the main straight to the fast kinks at the beginning of it. He qualified seventh, two places behind Russell. "Honestly, we had so much bottoming at the end of the straight yesterday that I couldn't finish my long run, my back was a real mess," he said. "Thank God for Angela [Cullen]. I've got Angela to give me physio every night, and acupuncture. I woke up with quite a bit of pain this morning. "And now we don't have it as bad at the end of the straight, but it's … [Read more...] about Hamilton’s back was “a real mess” after aborted long run at Baku

Lewis Hamilton has moved to quell speculation he could miss this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix after he experienced severe back pain during yesterday’s race. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The Mercedes driver described the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as “the most painful race I’ve experienced”. His car was porpoising heavily and bottoming out on the track’s long, bumpy straights throughout the 51-lap grand prix. Afterwards, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said his driver’s pain was not only muscular but “goes properly into the spine and can have some consequences.” He added the team would “have someone on reserve, which we anyway have at every race, to make sure that our cars run” in Canada. However, in a social media post, on Monday Hamilton said he was feeling better following treatment from his physiotherapist Angela Cullen and intend to race this weekend. “Yesterday was tough and had some troubles sleeping but have woke up feeling positive today,” he … [Read more...] about Hamilton says he won’t miss Canadian GP despite back pain · RaceFans

Listen to this article At times, the bouncing was so bad that Hamilton had to lift in the series of sweeping kinks at the start of the pit straight. He also had to battle intense pain in his back caused by the car bottoming on the straights. Hamilton said he was suffering more than teammate George Russell because of a difference in specification between the two W13s, as revealed by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after qualifying. Despite his problems, Hamilton moved up from seventh on the grid to fourth at the flag, albeit aided by both Ferraris failing to finish. "There were a lot of moments where I didn't know if I was going to make it," he said. "Just whether I was going to keep the car on track, because I don't know if you saw it, I nearly lost it in the high speed several times. "So the battle with the car was intense. And then at the end, the last 10 laps to the flag, I was just having to go internal, like 'You can do this, you've got this. Just bear with it.'" … [Read more...] about Hamilton admits to “strange experience” of fearing Baku F1 accident