Massa secures shock pole in Austria at Mercedes’ expense

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Felipe Massa and Williams have stunned Mercedes by securing pole position for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian driver scored his first pole position in over five years at the Red Bull Ring, and will have teammate Valtteri Bottas starting alongside him on the front row after the British team took advantage of Mercedes’ failure to improve its times.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamiltonwere expected to fight for pole once again, but both made mistakes in the final part of qualifying, meaning that they had to settle for P3 and P9 respectively.

Qualifying in Austria began in sunny and dry conditions, and the drivers were quick to head out on track to put in an early banker lap. In the early runs, the Toro Rosso drivers showed good pace early on with Daniil Kvyat leading Jean-Eric Vergne at the top of the timesheets. Fernando Alonso managed to displace them with his first serious effort, but Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg soon took Mercedes back to the top in first and second place.

After suffering a brake issue in FP3, Jenson Button was keen to make up for lost time during the first part of qualifying. However, his efforts were not helped when he was blocked by Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson at the first corner. Following prior warning from the FIA, a number of drivers had their lap times deleted after not adhering to track limit rules at turn eight, meaning that they had to rally and post a clean lap for it to count.

In the race to avoid elimination, a number of the drivers had to switch to the super-soft tire for the final five minutes of the session. Daniil Kvyat put in a good time to jump up into second place, whilst Kevin Magnussen went P4 to avoid an early exit. Adrian Sutil saw his time deleted, having been good enough for P13, and could only go P17 with his clean lap, meaning that he was knocked out of qualifying alongside teammate Esteban Gutierrez. The Caterhams and Marussias once again dropped out in Q1, with Jules Bianchi finishing as the best of the backmarkers ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Max Chilton and Marcus Ericsson.

For Q2, all of the drivers opted to run on the option tire in order to give themselves the best possible chance of making it through to the top ten shoot-out. Nico Hulkenberg was the first to lay down a marker, and was soon joined by Sergio Perez, who fell just short of his teammate’s time. Kevin Magnussen managed to overhaul them, going three-tenths quicker, but he in turn was beaten by the Williams drivers.

Fernando Alonso was fortunate not to end his qualifying early after running wide at the final corner and narrowly missing the wall. Despite this scary moment, his lap time was still quicker than teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton duly returned Mercedes to the top with their first lap times, but Red Bull appeared to be struggling. After his first run, Sebastian Vettel was languishing in the dropzone, and needed to find some time with his final lap of the session.

However, the defending world champion could not improve by enough with his final effort, and qualified in 12th place. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo managed to squeeze through in ninth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, whilst Sergio Perez and Jenson Button dropped out once again in Q2. Pastor Maldonado secured his best qualifying result of the season in 14th ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean.

Having run the Mercedes drivers close in Q2, Valtteri Bottas was looking to spring a surprise and try to hassle the Silver Arrows in the final session. The Finn was quick to get out on track, and even a slight lock-up on his first lap did not prevent him from going quickest of all at first. Hamilton looked set to beat his time, but ran wide at turn eight and had his time deleted for exceeding track limits. Rosberg could not come to the rescue either, going second and handing provisional pole to Bottas.

The Finn could not improve on his final run after running wide, but nor could Lewis Hamilton after a big spin. Nico Rosberg also failed to find any extra time, allowing Felipe Massa to secure his first pole position in over five years, securing an all Williams front row – the team’s first in over ten years.

Rosberg was forced to settle for third place, with Hamilton finishing down in ninth without posting a lap time. Fernando Alonso ran well for Ferrari to finish fourth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen. Daniil Kvyat performed admirably for Toro Rosso, qualifying seventh, whilst Kimi Raikkonen finished down in eighth ahead of Hamilton. Nico Hulkenberg also failed to post a time, and was classified tenth.

After a difficult few years in Formula 1, Massa’s return to the front of the field will certainly be a popular result in the paddock. The Brazilian driver managed to capitalize on Mercedes’ mistakes when it mattered, and will be hoping for a similar result in the race tomorrow.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.