Nico Rosberg has finished fastest in the final practice session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
The Mercedes driver put in a best lap of 1:17.779 to finish nearly six-tenths of a second clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton, who only narrowly beat Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso into second place. Felipe Massa finished fourth for Williams, with teammate Valtteri Bottas in fifth.
FP3 began in hot and sunny conditions, allowing drivers to run freely without keeping one eye on the weather. McLaren was the first team to put in a serious effort, and was testing the car with new gear ratios after using its ‘joker’ change overnight. Kevin Magnussen duly set the pace to begin with, but Bottas managed to overhaul the Dane at the top of the timesheets with Massa soon following suit to slot into second place.
Mercedes opted not to push on the prime tire during the first half of the session, with Rosberg and Hamilton lying sixth and sixteenth respectively following their initial runs. Kimi Raikkonen put in a good lap for Ferrari to go fourth, only to be told to pit due to a problem on his F14 T. Fernando Alonso’s pace was also stunted when he spun at turn eight after locking up, damaging his tires. Hamilton lost a quick lap in the same place, but managed to avoid spinning.
Ferrari soon resolved the issue on Raikkonen’s car, allowing him to head out on the super-soft tire and go fastest of all at the halfway point in the session. The rest of the field opted to save their fastest run until the final few minutes of the session, which saw a flurry of times come in.
Alonso was the first to beat Raikkonen’s time, going fastest by four-tenths of a second with eight minutes remaining. Rosberg soon took Mercedes back to the top with his first run on the super-soft tire, pulling out another six-tenths despite a twitchy moment heading through the second to last corner.
Early leaders Massa and Bottas moved into third and fourth place respectively behind Rosberg and Alonso, but Lewis Hamilton soon got in the mix with his first flying lap. The Briton moved into second behind his teammate, and could not overhaul him before the checkered flag fell.
Although the gap may be large, there is no doubt that the battle will rage on between Hamilton and Rosberg this weekend. You can join us for live qualifying from Hockenheim at 8am ET on CNBC and Live Extra.
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
