Rosberg takes US GP pole in shortened qualifying session

By Oct 25, 2015, 11:04 AM EDT
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Nico Rosberg will start today’s United States Grand Prix from pole position after topping the timesheets during the postponed qualifying session on Sunday morning.

After rain washed out the planned session on Saturday afternoon, qualifying eventually got underway at 9am local time, albeit in conditions similar to the wet FP3 session earlier in the weekend.

Drivers took to the track for the beginning of Q1 as heavy rain continued to fall, with Romain Grosjean saying that conditions were “on the limit” for the session to take place.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was the first to fall foul of the slippery track, taking too much kerb in the first sector before sliding off the circuit and into the wall to leave Toro Rosso with a big repair job ahead of the race. His shunt also prompted the stewards to bring out the red flag.

The session resumed with Hamilton setting the early pace in the wet conditions. As more and more cars circulated and dried the track, times began to tumble, but the Briton remained in P1 until the end of Q1.

Sebastian Vettel made a rare mistake at turn ten to leave his car with minor damage, forcing him to sit out the remainder of the session. The four-time world champion narrowly made it through to Q2, with Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr, Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens joining Sainz in the dropzone.

With heavier rain incoming, the teams opted to send their drivers out early at the beginning of Q2, and it was Mercedes who once again set the pace. Nico Rosberg produced a fine lap to take P1 early on, edging out Hamilton by one-tenth of a second to end Q2 at the top of the order.

The worsening rain prevented the drivers from improving in the final five minutes of the session, resigning the McLaren drivers to their regular Q2 exit. Fernando Alonso finished 11th, marking his best qualifying result of the season so far, while teammate Jenson Button finished down in 14th.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was arguably the most surprising dropout in Q2, finishing 12th ahead of Romain Grosjean. Pastor Maldonado propped up the order, ending the session 15th in the sister Lotus.

As the checkered flag was waved in Q2, Vettel, Button and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat took to their team radios to call for the session to be red flagged, believing the conditions to have become too dangerous for more running.

The start of Q3 was delayed by ten minutes before race control decided to call the result, believing conditions to be unsafe for any further running in qualifying.

As a result, the grid is formed from the Q2 result with Rosberg taking pole position in Austin for the second year in a row. Hamilton will start alongside him on the front row of the grid. Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat lock out the second row for P3 and P4, while Sebastian Vettel drops from fifth to 15th by virtue of his grid penalty.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg move up to fifth and sixth for Force India ahead of Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen, with Kimi Raikkonen also falling down ten places from P8 to P18 due to his grid penalty.

After claiming his third straight pole position, Rosberg will now be hoping to end his winless streak that dates back to the Austrian Grand Prix in June and delay Hamilton’s title celebrations.

However, should Hamilton outscore Rosberg by two points and Vettel by nine, he will be crowned F1 world champion for the third time on Sunday.

You can watch the United States Grand Prix live on NBC from 2:30pm ET today.

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT
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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”