Buemi storms to London ePrix pole on Saturday - MotorSportsTalk

LONDON – Sebastien Buemi will start today’s FIA Formula E London ePrix from pole position after posting the fastest time during qualifying on Saturday afternoon at Battersea Park.

The e.dams driver produced a stunning lap of 1:24.648 in the final stage of qualifying to take pole by over four-tenths of a second from Dragon Racing’s Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Title rivals Lucas di Grassi and Nelson Piquet locked out the second row of the grid, leaving the championship fight finely-poised ahead of the race later today.

Q1 saw di Grassi lay an early claim to pole position in his bid to get back ahead of Piquet at the top of the standings by setting the fastest time. The Brazilian managed to edge out e.dams driver Nicolas Prost after the first part of qualifying by just 0.153 seconds, with Sam Bird finishing a further six-tenths of a second back due to a battery issue.

Fabio Leimer finished his first Formula E qualifying in the wall, which in turn prevented Stephane Sarrazin from posting a quicker lap, leaving him fourth in Q1.

Andretti’s Jean-Eric Vergne headed up the second group in qualifying as he went in search of a fourth pole position of the season, but an early mistake cost him dearly. A lock-up in the middle sector meant that he had to abandon his first lap, and his second full-power effort was only good enough for second place behind di Grassi.

Oliver Turvey made an impressive start to life in Formula E by ranking fourth after the first two groups, whilst Bruno Senna rounded out the top five at the halfway point in the session.

The third group resembled something of a throwback to the 2006 F1 season as Jarno Trulli, Sakon Yamamoto and Nick Heidfeld all headed out on track. However, none of the trio were able to topple di Grassi at the top, with Heidfeld finishing as the lead Q3 car in eighth place. Daniel Abt went ninth, whilst Karun Chandhok ended the session in the wall after locking up at the final corner.

In the fourth and final qualifying group, the title race took a big swing as Sebastien Buemi shot to the top of the timesheets with his first lap, going four-tenths quicker than di Grassi to secure pole position for the London ePrix. Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr put together a ragged lap, leaving him fourth overall.

Jerome d’Ambrosio dealt another blow to di Grassi’s title hopes by edging out the Brazilian driver by just one-thousandth of a second for second place, relegating the title fighter down to third on the grid.

In a rather tantalizing prospect for the title race, we have the three serious championship contenders starting within the top four, and with the likes of d’Ambrosio and Vergne lurking, the fight for the race win at Battersea Park is set to be an intense one.

The London ePrix kicks off at 4pm local time at Battersea Park on Saturday.

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The NTT IndyCar Series will return to the Motor City for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix but with start times in a new location for 2023.

After a 30-year run on Belle Isle, the Detroit GP has moved a few miles south to the streets of downtown on a new nine-turn, 1.645-mile circuit that runs along the Detroit River.

It’s the first time single-seater open-cockpit cars have raced on the streets of Detroit since a CART event on a 2.5-mile downtown layout from 1989-91. Formula One also raced in Detroit from 1982-88.

The reimagined Detroit Grand Prix also will play host to nightly concerts and bring in venders from across the region. Roger Penske predicts the new downtown locale will be bigger for Detroit than when the city played host to the 2006 Super Bowl.

Here are the details and IndyCar start times for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend (all times are ET):

CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX INDYCAR START TIMES

TV: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com. Leigh Diffey is the announcer with analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Kevin Lee are the pit reporters. Click here for the full NBC Sports schedule for IndyCar in 2023.

Peacock also will be the streaming broadcast for both practices and qualifying.

POSTRACE SHOW ON PEACOCK: After the race’s conclusion, an exclusive postrace show will air on Peacock with driver interviews, postrace analysis and the podium presentation. To watch the extended postrace show, click over to the special stream on Peacock after Sunday’s race ends.

COMMAND TO START ENGINES: 3:23 p.m. ET

GREEN FLAG: 3:30 p.m. ET

PRACTICE: Friday, 3 p.m. (Peacock Premium); Saturday, 9:05 a.m. (Peacock Premium); Sunday, 10 a.m. (Peacock Premium)

PRACTICE RESULTS: Session I l Session II l Warmup l Combined

QUALIFYING: Saturday, 1:20 p.m. (Peacock Premium)

STARTING LINEUP: Alex Palou captured the first street course pole of his IndyCar career; click here for where everyone will begin Sunday’s race

RACE DISTANCE: The race is 100 laps (170 miles) on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary street course in downtown Detroit.

TIRE ALLOTMENT: Seven sets primary, four sets alternate. Rookie drivers are allowed one extra primary set for the first practice.

PUSH TO PASS: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation (Indy NXT: 150 seconds total, 15 seconds per). The push-to-pass is not available on the initial start or any restart unless it occurs in the final two laps or three minutes of a timed race. The feature increases the power of the engine by approximately 60 horsepower.

FORECAST: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 80 degrees with a 0% chance of rain.

ENTRY LIST: Click here to view the 27 drivers racing Sunday at Detroit

INDY NXT RACES: Saturday, 12:05 p.m. 45 laps/55 minutes (Peacock Premium); Sunday, 12:50 p.m. 45 laps/55 minutes (Peacock Premium)

INDY NXT ENTRY LIST: Click here to view the 19 drivers racing at Detroit