Ferrari disappointed after falling behind Red Bull in Spain qualifying - MotorSportsTalk

Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel made no secret of their disappointment after qualifying behind both Mercedes and Red Bull for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne said that he expected Ferrari to return to winning ways soon, but the marque looked further away from doing so than at any point so far this season on Saturday in Barcelona.

Raikkonen could only qualify fifth with a late lap, while a scruffy effort from Sebastian Vettel left him sixth on the grid – both over one second behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton.

Having comfortably been the second-fastest team for some time, to lose out to Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen was concerning for Ferrari.

“It was not an easy day. We did our best, but the result is a bit disappointing,” Raikkonen said.

“We seemed to struggle quite a lot in the last sector and I’m not surprised we were losing a lot of time there. Before qualifying we made some changes to my set-up and the car felt better, but it was not easy to get the laps that we wanted and make the handling exactly as we desired.

“The car felt OK yesterday, today I was quicker, but the wind has been turning around a bit, making some places quite tricky. My last run was better than so far today, but obviously it’s not where we want to be.

“Our rivals did a better job today, we have to keep working and improving and see what we can do tomorrow in the race.”

Vettel admitted that, while disappointed, he was not surprised to have lost out to Mercedes and Red Bull.

“I think every day can be tough but for sure I didn’t expect to be that far off, especially because this morning we had a good rhythm,” Vettel said.

“I didn’t get hold of the car, I didn’t get the feeling that I had earlier today, and couldn’t nail the laps. I don’t think that it is a surprise, if you don’t get it together here it can be quite costly, and we know this.

“I think the gap to Mercedes is bigger than it has been all weekend. So clearly we didn’t get it right.

“As for tomorrow’s race, for sure the further up you qualify, the better: this rule applies everywhere. We will focus on the start, first lap and then there is a long race, and lot of things we can do.

“Usually there are several pit-stops here so we can play with the strategy and pass people that are slower than us.

“I think the car is quicker than P6, so I have high hopes for tomorrow.”

The Spanish Grand Prix is live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 7am ET on Sunday.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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