Hamilton storms to home pole position at British GP - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix from pole position after setting the pace during qualifying on Saturday at Silverstone.

The Mercedes driver recorded a fastest lap time of 1:32.248 to secure an emotional pole at his home grand prix, delighting over 100,000 British fans that came out to see him on Saturday.

Hamilton led the way after his first run in Q3, edging out teammate Nico Rosberg by 0.113 seconds for provisional pole. When track conditions failed to improve for their second runs due to the wind picking up, the Briton was able to pit and revel in his 46th career pole position.

Rosberg did stay out on track in a bid to improve his time, but it was all in vain as he finished second when he failed to improve his time, lamenting a lack of grip.

Williams outqualified Ferrari with relative ease at Silverstone as Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished third and fourth respectively. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fifth and sixth in what was a disappointing session for the Italian team.

Daniil Kvyat led the way for Red Bull, finishing seventh ahead of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr. Kvyat’s teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, finished tenth.

Force India endured something of a mixed qualifying session on Saturday. Nico Hulkenberg made it through to Q3, qualifying ninth, but Sergio Perez was unable to make it past Q2 after falling foul of track limits to leave himself P11 on the grid.

Ahead of qualifying, the teams and rivers were warned about running wide at turn nine, resulting in a number of lap times being deleted throughout the three sessions for exceeding track limits.

Romain Grosjean was also hit by this ruling as both he and Lotus teammate Pastor Maldonado struggled to find any pace in qualifying, dropping out in 12th and 14th place respectively in Q2. They were split by Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen, who will start from 13th after struggling for rear grip.

McLaren’s troublesome start to the 2015 season continued at Silverstone as both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were eliminated in Q1. Alonso was fortunate to get out at all after a leak on his car ahead of qualifying, but could only finish 17th in the session ahead of Button in P18.

Alonso had named Sauber as being McLaren’s closest competitor for qualifying on Friday, and it proved to be an accurate prediction as Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr qualified 15th and 16th.

As usual, the two Manor drivers propped up the timesheets during Q1 as Will Stevens outqualified Roberto Merhi for P19 on the grid.

The British Grand Prix is live on CNBC and Live Extra from 7:30am ET on Sunday.

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It took four attempts for Kyle Larson to win his first High Limit Sprint Car Series race in the series he co-owns with brother-in-law Brad Sweet, but once he found victory lane, he has been undefeated with his win at Eagle (Nebraska) Raceway. For the second week, Abreu led early only to fall prey to Larson.

The win was Larson’s third straight victory and the fifth consecutive top-five, giving him a perfect sweep of the season after finishing 10th in last year’s inaugural race at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.

Larson started third behind Abreu and Brent Marks but was embroiled in a fierce battle with Anthony Macri for third during the first dozen laps. Larson slipped by Macri in traffic until a red flag waved for a flip by Lachlan McHugh.

Meanwhile at the front of the pack, Marks retook the lead from Abreu on Lap 18. Larson followed one lap later and then caution waved again. Tyler Courtney lost power and fell to 24th after starting eighth.

Marks scooted away on the restart but tragedy struck in Lap 26. Leading the race, Marks hit a pothole in Turn 1, bicycled and then flipped, handing the lead to Larson.

Abreu caught Larson again during the final laps and in a reprise of their battle at Tri-City Speedway, the two threw sliders at one another for several laps until Larson built some separation and ran away to the checkers.

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧. 𝗪𝗔𝗦. 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗖.@EagleRaceway went above and beyond in their return to the main stage with the High Limit Sprint Car Series tonight!

pic.twitter.com/H3XKQEOpg6

— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) June 7, 2023

“I didn’t feel like my pace in [Turns] 1 & 2 slowed down a ton,” Larson said from victory lane. “I missed it once there and then I saw his nose in 3 & 4. I didn’t know if he nailed the bottom that well behind me and I think he might have slid me in the next corner, so he was definitely on the top.

“I was nervous to move up there because my car was really pogoing up in the entry of 1. I got up just in time, made a few mistakes and he threw a couple more sliders at me but he was just a little too far back and I was able to squirt around him. Then I really had to commit to hitting my marks – back my effort down a bit to avoid mistakes.”

After leading early, Abreu fell back as far as sixth, but faith in his car kept hope alive.

“I just needed to do a few things a few laps before I did and fix some angles, then my car got a whole lot better,” Abreu said. “I’m thankful for this team; they do an amazing job. They don’t give up on me. I know my car is going to be there right at the end of these races, so it’s just the discipline of being patient.”

For Abreu, it was his third near-miss this season. He was leading at Lakeside in the 2023 opener until a tire went flat in the closing laps and he lost the lead to Larson late in the Tri-City Speedway race. Abreu has finished sixth or better in his last three High Limit races with each result being progressively better until his pair of runner-up results.

Third-place finisher Scelzi was the hard charger, advancing from 17th.

“I had a very specific plan; don’t go near [the hole in Turn 1],” Scelzi said. “It worked out. No one wanted to start on the top. I think I gained a couple of rows there on the choose cone and ran the middle, which seemed to be better than right around the bottom.”

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid in fourth and Macri rounded out the top five.

World of Outlaws star and former NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne was one of 41 entrants, but he was not among the 26 starters. He failed to advance to the Main after finishing eighth in the B Main and seventh in his heat.

Feature Results

A Feature (40 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[4]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[17]; 4. 71-Michael Kofoid[5]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]; 6. 9-Chase Randall[9]; 7. 26-Zeb Wise[14]; 8. 1X-Jake Bubak[15]; 9. 8-Aaron Reutzel[10]; 10. 14D-Corey Day[18]; 11. 11-Cory Eliason[12]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[11]; 13. 88-Austin McCarl[13]; 14. 21H-Brady Bacon[22]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[16]; 16. 7S-Robbie Price[19]; 17. 21-Brian Brown[23]; 18. 22-Riley Goodno[26]; 19. 52-Blake Hahn[25]; 20. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[21]; 21. 3J-Dusty Zomer[6]; 22. 14-Cole Macedo[7]; 23. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 24. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 25. 25-Lachlan McHugh[20]; 26. 53-Jack Dover[24]

2023 High Limit Sprint Car Series

Race 1: Giovanni Scelzi wins at Lakeside Speedway
Race2: Anthony Macri wins at 34 Raceway
Race 3: Kyle Larson wins at Wayne County Speedway
Race 4: Kyle Larson wins at Tri-City Speedway

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