Lewis Hamilton sets pace in F1 Silverstone practice; Bottas second

Associated PressAug 7, 2020, 12:39 PM EDT
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SILVERSTONE, England — Lewis Hamilton was fastest in practice for the 70th Anniversary F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone today as Mercedes looked set to dominate yet again.

Hamilton beat teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.176 seconds in the second session and was 0.815 faster than the best of the non-Mercedes cars with Daniel Ricciardo in third for Renault.

Ricciardo showed good pace to take third by a small margin from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, and Charles Leclerc was seventh in the first Ferrari.

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Sebastian Vettel parked his Ferrari at Copse corner after it began gushing fluid from its underside with five minutes remaining. He appeared to have damaged the floor while driving over the curbs. Vettel was running 14th at the time as his difficult season continued.

That brought out the safety car and the session was soon stopped when Antonio Giovinazzi’s Ferrari, too, stopped on the track.

Bottas set the fastest time in the first practice session, beating Hamilton’s best time by .138 seconds. Max Verstappen was third-fastest for Red Bull. Nico Hulkenberg placed fourth as the German stands in at Racing Point for Sergio Perez, who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The race marks the 70th year since the Formula One championship began. The first race in 1950 was at Silverstone. It’s the second race in Britain after the calendar was reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic.

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

By Mar 27, 2023, 3:00 PM EDT
IndyCar video game 2024
IndyCar
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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”