In the round-up: Williams’ rookie Logan Sargeant reckons the Austrian Grand Prix was one of his best races yet.
In brief
Sargeant’s confidence grows with Austria performance
Logan Sargeant’s 13th place in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix was the second-best result of his rookie season to date, and left the Williams driver feeling very encouraged.
Although he started last on the grid and lost 12th to track limits penalties, Sargeant ran as high as ninth and thought Sunday’s grand prix was one of his best races yet.
“A good step in the right direction. Honestly, I think that’s more of what we had this whole weekend,” he said. “Just my fault for not getting it right in quali, but I think it shows we’re moving in the right direction.
“It feels good to finally have a pretty competitive race again. It sounds like a long time ago, but a more similar race to Bahrain where the pace was better and I was able to fight with others. Good race, got a little bit lonely at the end in that last stint, but I was able to hold on to it.”
Sargeant’s F1 debut in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix remains his best weekend of the year in terms of results, with his second-best qualifying position and best finishing position in a race.
Pirelli confirms Hungary debut for Alternative Tyre Allocation
Pirelli has confirmed Formula 1’s new Alternative Tyre Allocation will debut at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as revealed by RaceFans, after its planned introduction earlier in the year did not go ahead following the cancellation of Imola’s race.
Drivers will have to use hard compound tyres in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3. The total number of tyres allocated to each driver for the weekend will be reduced as F1 evaluates a change intended to cut the amount of freight it takes to each race.
The softest tyres in Pirelli’s range will be used at the race – the C5, C4 and C3 – one stage softer than was used at the race last year. For the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, drivers will have the C4, C3 and C2 as last year.
Palou downplays IndyCar domination
Alex Palou’s victory at Mid-Ohio last weekend was his fourth in the last five IndyCar races, and he now leads the championship by 110 points. However he says he’s not been the quickest driver throughout a weekend so far.
The Ganassi driver qualified fourth, assumed the lead after the first round of pit stops then built an advantage of five seconds by the chequered flag. He said the win was down to “having a good car and good strategy”, but Palou claimed he had to get creative to beat the drivers who qualified ahead.
“We had a really fast car, we knew we needed to try something different to the guys that are starting up front. That’s why we started on primary [harder compound tyres]. Everything went well, strategy, pit stops, and our pace was really good.”
He remained reluctant post-race to admit he is dominating the championship, saying “it’s really tight” at the top.
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“It’s all about putting everything together. We’ve been able to do this quite often this year, and hopefully we can keep it going. But honestly, we’ve not been the fastest on all practices or qualifying, just on the race. So that’s where I’m at.”
“I know we can have some good couple of races coming up now, and we’ll try to still maximise and do the best we can, try to win where we can”, he said.
Button finishes 21st in NASCAR’s history-making Chicago race
The first ever street circuit race for the NASCAR Cup Series in Chicago looked to be in trouble when rain delayed the start, and the race was later shortened due to decreasing visibility, but race featuring several notable guest drivers was widely considered a success.
Three-times Australian Supercars champion, New Zealand Grand Prix winner and World Rally Championship points scorer Shane van Gisbergen became the first driver to win on his top-level NASCAR debut in 60 years, and did so despite falling as low as 17th at one point.
Van Gisbergen was not the only international motorsport star to join in, as 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button made his second appearance in the series. Button made his NASCAR debut at the Circuit of the Americas earlier this year and also raced a modified Cup car at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Button qualified eighth in Chicago, converted that into tenth place in stage one of the race, but was spun around while entering the pits in stage two and dropped back to 24th. In the remaining laps he could only make his way up to 21st.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
When I came home from the tv studio Saturday evening, the first thing my wife asked me was: “why are we even putting our son in a go kart?”. To be honest, I asked myself the same question after Dilano’s death in Spa. pic.twitter.com/RrvTtfY69K
— Giedo van der Garde (@GvanderGarde) July 3, 2023
This is what full push for 80 laps looks like in an Indycar❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/tHIAoHvw9i
— Pato O’Ward (@PatricioOWard) July 3, 2023
Just been sent a press release for a driver titled ‘Spa Heartbreak for …’ A driver was tragically killed at the meeting – in these circumstances retiring from the 24hrs is not ‘heartbreak’
— Ben Evans (@bencommentator) July 3, 2023
oh wow there is a MASSIVE queue for the fanzone (so I’m running away lol) – it’s absolutely mad seeing that for a team that struggles to score points and a driver who hasn’t, it’s very cool/amazing to me how much people really love F1 now
— Hazel Southwell (@HSouthwellFE) July 3, 2023
Lap 63. 67.9419 seconds. 119.643 MPH.
Go for a ride around @Mid_Ohio with the No. 6 for the @TAGHeuer Fastest Lap.#INDYCAR // @FRosenqvist pic.twitter.com/NwSufsGBX1
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 3, 2023
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