F.1godfather

In brief

Capito: Russell has Williams’ full support to go to Mercedes

With Mercedes set to make a call on their drivers line-up for the

2022 F1 season

during the summer, Capito said he believes his driver is ready to join the world champions.

“I would wish that George gets the seat because he is in the position now, in his terms of [his] career where he can handle to be at an absolute top team and fight for the championship. And I would never hold a young driver back if he can have this kind of opportunity,” Capito explained.

“So I hope, for him, that he gets this opportunity and from the team’s side, of course, we would very much love to keep him.

“If he goes to Mercedes, if he gets the offer, he gets the full support from us and if not, he gets the full support from us as well. So and that’s why, on our driver side, we can easily wait until that decision is taken. Whatever way it comes, we’ll be okay.”

Leclerc takes first F3 pole at the Hungaroring

Arthur Leclerc took pole position in qualifying for the Formula 3 round at the Hungaroring, beating title leader Dennis Hauger by 0.089 seconds in the final moments of the session. Leclerc has struggled with mechanical problems throughout his F3 season so far, retiring twice at the last round in Austria. Despite one win at Paul Ricard he trails Hauger by 89 points in ninth place.

As per F3’s 2021 format, Leclerc will start from pole position in Sunday’s race. He incurred a three-place grid penalty in the previous round at the Red Bull Ring which will apply to the partially-reversed grid for race one. Saturday’s first race will see Jonny Edgar start from pole, having qualified 12th.

Frederik Vesti was issued a three-place grid drop penalty for leading a train of cars too slowly into turns 12-14, which means having qualified seventh-fastest, he will start Saturday’s first race ninth, rather than the sixth place he would have been in from the reverse-grid format.

Chadwick on pole despite Marti challenge

Jamie Chadwick will start first on the grid for W Series’ Hungary round, after being given a much closer run to pole than might have been expected. After the 30 minutes of running, Chadwick was ahead of every other driver by seven-tenths of a second.

W Series rookie Nerea Marti, 2019 title rival Beitske Visser and Silverstone race winner Alice Powell ensured she did not take the top spot easily. In the end, Chadwick was able to put in a final, quick lap to take pole by two-and-a-half tenths of a second. A late charge by Powell saw her keep the 2021 title fight alive by qualifying second, while Marti held on to place third, Visser joining her on the second row.

Although no drivers incurred penalties during the qualifying session, former GP3 driver Vicky Piria was handed an unusual 60-second stop-go penalty, served during practice, for repeatedly exceeding track limits during the morning session.

Giovinazzi hoping to reverse Friday fortunes

Antonio Giovinazzi had a tricky free practice day, which saw him miss must of the first session due to a power unit problem.

The Alfa Romeo driver has often been quick in Friday sessions this year, frequently putting in what look like impressive times, but then being unable to replicate them in qualifying.

He said he was hoping that a more challenging Friday means he will reverse that trend today. “Overall it was a difficult day, we missed FP1 and then my best lap in FP2 was deleted,” he said. “Not a great start of the weekend.

“But I think we can do the opposite that we did always, that we were really strong on Friday and not so strong on Saturday. Hopefully we can reverse this tomorrow.”

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Claire Dubbelman: ‘I’m not the exception, you can do it too’ (Females in Motorsport)

“Dubbelman: ‘It’s my job to make an F2 and F3 weekend run as smoothly as possible. On those weekends, which are always together with Formula 1, I’m responsible for the whole FIA team which means the race director, assistant race director, stewards, and technical people.’”

Round four: Post-qualifying press conference (Formula 3)

Leclerc: “I think it will not be easy, we know that this track is really really hard to overtake. It’s one step more than Barcelona or Paul Ricard so for sure it will not be easy, but I’m taking it.”

How rising F1 star Lando Norris sees the sport’s future beyond 2022 (The Drive)

“Norris: ‘Well the whole idea of next year’s car is to create better racing. Hopefully better for us to drive and race each other much closer, more frequently, maybe racing at tracks we’ve not been able to necessarily race at because it’s basically impossible.’”

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