Ricciardo fastest in rain-affected final practice in China

By Apr 19, 2014, 12:02 AM EDT
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Daniel Ricciardo has finished fastest in a rain-affected final practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix today that saw most of the front-runners choose to spend most of their time in the pits.

The Red Bull driver posted a fastest time of 1:53.958 on Saturday morning at the Shanghai International Circuit to finish ahead of Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean, but few drivers made a serious effort to finish on top of the timesheets.

Rainfall overnight meant that the track was wet for the beginning of FP3 on Saturday morning, prompting the teams to head out on the intermediate tire at the beginning of the session. Some oil on the track from a supercar race also complicated matters, and most opted to sit out the first part of the session. The Lotus drivers were the first to venture out for a serious run with Romain Grosjean winning the inter-team battle with his initial lap time, and his effort remained the benchmark for the first half of the session.

In a bid to beat Grosjean, Valtteri Bottas spun his Williams as the British team once again lamented the wet conditions that have hindered its qualifying form for much of the season. Jules Bianchi and Marcus Ericsson also struggled to keep their cars on track, but Daniel Ricciardo – after first taking a quick selfie – managed to finally topple Grosjean’s time to go fastest of all on the intermediate tire.

After encountering rear suspension trouble on Lewis Hamilton’s car yesterday, Mercedes’ concerns now lay with the #44 car of Nico Rosberg as the mechanics worked on his brakes throughout the session. Compatriot Sebastian Vettel was also left on the sidelines for a small part of the session because of a minor fire on one of his brake ducts, but he eventually got back out in order to assess the conditions further.

With 20 minutes to go, Pastor Maldonado’s session came to an early end once again due to a problem on his Lotus E22 car that forced him to pull over on the side of the back straight. A lot of teams opted to curtail their running early in order to avoid a crash in the slippery conditions that could potentially sideline a car for qualifying later today.

Ultimately, Ricciardo’s lap time was good enough to secure him P1, but it is unlikely that the results from this session will bear any resemblance to the starting grid in China.

You can watch qualifying live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 2am ET. Click here to tune in via live stream.

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 and also ran into Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (who was at the track Saturday).

“I have a great picture of Roger Penske, the governor and Flavor Flav,” Detroit Grand Prix chairman Bud Denker said. “It’s a great one. I’ll cherish that one for a long time. It’s pretty precious.”

With the Detroit GP holding nightly free concerts in Hart Plaza inside the race course, Flav made an impromptu appearance to freestyle at Big Boi’s show Friday before also showing up during Steve Aoki’s Saturday night set.

He then rode with Power and his wife, Liz, in a pickup truck around the 1.645-mile street course during driver introductions Sunday morning.

Flav was wearing a red No. 12 Will Power shirt that the defending series champion 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 gave “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.”