Hamilton draws first blood in Brazilian GP practice - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton sent out an early warning shot to Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by topping the timesheets in first practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday at Interlagos.

Despite being involved in a minor road traffic accident earlier this week and arriving in Brazil one day later than planned, Hamilton showed few signs of rustiness as he easily gapped the field.

The Briton recorded a best lap time of 1:13.543 to finish half a second clear of Rosberg at the top of the order, leaving the German driver to settle for P2 ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg were continually working on their setups throughout a rather routine first practice session, with both having minor off-track moments as they found the limit of grip around Interlagos.

Ferrari once again established itself as being ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes as Vettel finished just one-tenth of a second behind Rosberg in third place. Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth, four-tenths of a second further back from his teammate despite taking a trip through the gravel late on.

Complete with a newly-upgraded power unit from Renault, Red Bull made a good start to the weekend as Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat ended the session P4 and P6 respectively. Valtteri Bottas finished seventh for Williams ahead of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen in eighth.

Former Interlagos pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg ran well to finish ninth ahead of Pastor Maldonado, who rounded out the top ten in FP1 for Lotus. Jolyon Palmer deputized for Romain Grosjean in the sister E23 Hybrid, lapping less than two-tenths of a second shy of Maldonado to finish P12 behind Carlos Sainz Jr.

McLaren had a relatively average session as Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso ended FP1 13th and 16th respectively, split by Felipe Nasr and Sergio Perez.

Home favorite Felipe Massa was unable to match the pace of Bottas in the sister Williams car as he finished 17th ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. The Manor duo of Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens propped up the order yet again, finishing over four seconds off the pace.

FP2 for the Brazilian Grand Prix is live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 11am ET on Friday.

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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.

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:

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.