Vettel quickest in final practice for Belgian GP

By Aug 24, 2013, 6:04 AM EDT
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Sebastian Vettel continued his good practice form at the Belgian Grand Prix by finishing fastest in the final session ahead of qualifying later today at Spa-Francorchamps.

The German driver finished ahead of Fernando Alonso and teammate Mark Webber at the top of the timesheets, laying down an impressive pace that suggests Mercedes’ comments about the pace of the Red Bull are entirely correct.

With clouds hanging over the circuit, rain appeared to be on the horizon. However, the session began in dry conditions with Valtteri Bottas setting the first benchmark time of 1:49.806 for Williams ahead of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez for McLaren. Kimi Raikkonen soon displaced his compatriot at the top of the timesheets whilst Felipe Massa and Paul di Resta both had near-misses with the wall at turn nine, and Lewis Hamilton sent his Mercedes into a spin at the Bus Stop chicane.

Jean-Eric Vergne sent out a reminder of his ability by moving into P1 on fresh tires at the half-way stage of the session, with Toro Rosso continuing their good form from Friday’s practice sessions. The front runners soon switched to fuel simulation runs, but Sebastian Vettel moved up into P2 as he looked to find the optimum pace of the Red Bull on the hard tire before the track fell silent as the teams prepared for one final qualifying simulation at the end of the session.

Adrian Sutil was the first driver to emerge on the medium tire, going fastest with his first flying lap despite a lock-up at La Source. The Force India was quickly beaten by both Ferrari drivers and Nico Rosberg, and Esteban Gutierrez gave Sauber something to shout about by going third-fastest with five minutes remaining. 2010 pole-sitter Mark Webber was late to emerge, but he immediately moved up into second place, and his example was duly followed by Vettel who displaced Alonso by one-tenth of a second.

The result suggests that Red Bull are once again set to be leading the race for pole position later today with Ferrari in close company. Interesting, Mercedes, who have claimed the last three pole positions, seemed to struggle in the low temperatures. However, as Hamilton proved in Hungary, the practice results are far from conclusive.

Qualifying begins at 8am ET live on NBC Sports Live Extra.

Will Power shows Flavor Flav what time it is in IndyCar: ‘This is the highlight of the weekend’

By Jun 4, 2023, 11:00 PM EDT
Will Power Flavor Flav
Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – When Flavor Flav unexpectedly showed up in Team Penske’s pits for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix weekend, Will Power knew what time it was.

So the defending NTT IndyCar Series champion dropped it on the man who made oversized clocks as fashion accessories famous.

And he used the kind of wordplay that was the pride of Public Enemy (the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group led by Chuck D with Flavor Flav as loyal sidekick).

“I said to Flavor Flav, ‘You know, people today are going to have to ‘Fight the Power,’ ” Power said with a broad smirk, referencing one of Public Enemy’s most memorable and strident anthems. “And it was true! They had to ‘Fight the Power.’ ”

With a second place in Detroit, the No. 12 Dallara-Chevy driver earned his best finish since last September and impressed a musical hero who apparently attended his first IndyCar race this weekend and promptly fell in love with the sport.

After being interviewed by NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee during the Peacock qualifying broadcast Saturday, Flavor Flav made the rounds.

He met with Roger Penske in Team Penske’s at-track headquarters, freestyled in an on-stage cameo during Steve Aoki’s Saturday night concert in Hart Plaza and then rode with Power in a pickup truck around the 1.645-mile street course during driver introductions Sunday morning.

Flav was wearing a red No. 12 shirt that Power believes was purchased at a track merchandise trailer.

“That is the highlight of the weekend,” he said. “Flavor Flav was wearing my shirt, man.”

It was a dream come true for the two-time IndyCar champion and 2018 Indy 500 winner. Power, 42, grew up listening to Public Enemy with his buddies in Toowoomba, Australia, and they went nuts when he posted photos with Flavor Flav to his personal Facebook page.

“My friends are like, ‘Dude, you should just quit racing now. You have made it to the top,’ ” Power said. “We all listened to Public Enemy, and they would never believe that I actually would be hanging out with Flavor Flav. That is nuts. I’ll have to go Vegas to hang out with him. Maybe we’ll do a rap together.”

“Yeeaaah, boy!” third-place finisher Felix Rosenqvist, who apparently might have given “It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” a few spins while growing up in Sweden, chimed in during the postrace news conference.

The only disappointment for Power was coming up 1.1843 seconds short of beating Alex Palou.

Flav had promised to celebrate on the podium if Power had won the race.

“He is the most positive dude you will ever meet,” Power said. “Pretty cool experience. Pretty cool to put it on your personal Facebook.

“All your friends that you went to school with, they’re like, ‘Man this dude is big-time, he’s hanging out with Flavor Flav. ‘I sat next to Ice-T at dinner. I have also had dinner with Slash from Guns N’ Roses. I wish I got videos of those ones as well so I could put it on the personal Facebook

“No one cares about race cars or that I won the Indy 500. It’s like, ‘You had dinner with Slash? You know Flavor Flav?’ Yeah!”

Power already has in mind some future musical guests he’d like to meet, starting with another of Detroit’s own.

“I’m more of a ’90s rap guy, but if I met Eminem, that would also be epic,” Power said. “Ice Cube’s the one, man. If I could meet Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg in Long Beach. Why doesn’t someone bring them to Long Beach? Maybe they should have an Ice Cube day. That would be dope.”