First blood to Grosjean in Abu Dhabi practice

By Nov 1, 2013, 6:35 AM EDT
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Romain Grosjean has finished the first practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix quickest after producing a brilliant lap in the dying moments of the session to deny Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel top spot.

The Frenchman’s time of 1:44.241 proved to be unbeatable as all of the drivers ran on the medium compound tire in order to save their softs for the sessions later on this weekend.

Practice got off to a rather quiet start with most teams electing to only send their drivers out for an installation lap and nothing more to begin with in order to save their tires and engines. However, Sergio Perez eventually posted the first competitive time of 1:45.331, setting the example for the rest of the field. Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado all followed suit half way through the session, but the Williams driver was lucky not to put his Lotus in the wall after a slide at the final corner. A number of drivers took to their team radios to complain about a lack of grip on a relatively-unused circuit, meaning that it took some time to rubber in.

Grosjean was the first driver to topple Perez at the top, edging the Mexican out by just 0.002 seconds on the medium compound tire before the front runners finally emerged from the pits to set their first times. Sebastian Vettel looked to continue his relentless run of form by going quickest with thirty-five minutes remaining, but he was told that he needed to improve further by his engineer. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen soon proved that he did have to improve by going one-tenth quicker, but their sojourn at the top of the timesheets lasted but a few seconds as Vettel re-established his dominance. However, Mercedes hit back in fashion as Hamilton and Nico Rosberg moved into first and second place with thirty minutes left.

Mark Webber took the mantle to lead Red Bull’s charge by going second-quickest and splitting the Silver Arrows, but Vettel soon demoted his teammate to third place by going P2 himself, less than one-hundredth of a second slower after making a mistake at the final corner. Paul di Resta ran strongly to finish the session in seventh place, whilst James Calado piloted the other Force India as his bid for a full-time seat next season gathers steam. The Briton put in a confident display to finish the session in fourteenth before returning to his GP2 duties.

With just a couple of minutes remaining, Romain Grosjean produced a superb lap to go fastest of all for Lotus, and that is where he remained as none of the drivers opted to take on the soft tire. The Frenchman is currently enjoying a three-race streak of podium finishes, finishing third in India despite starting in seventeenth place, and he is looking increasingly capable of claiming his first win in Formula One.

Grosjean will be hoping to repeat this result later on today in the second free practice session, which is live on NBCSN from 9am.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”