Hello! It's Alanis King, as always. Nice to talk to you again.
What a week of motorsports action we had, highlighted by Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen taking an improbable pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Let's get into it.
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| Mark Thompson | Getty Images Mercedes Finally Wins a Formula 1 Race This time last year, the Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton was locked in an even fight for the title with Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen. This year, one race before the season finale, Hamilton's Mercedes team finally got its first win of 2022. George Russell won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, on a weekend when Mercedes finally started to look like itself again. Mercedes has dominated most of the last decade of F1, but car regulations changed this year, and the team just never got the hang of the new rules. Red Bull's been the star of the show all season, and Ferrari's been fast but reliably bad at everything else. Mercedes has been slowly clawing its way back out of the hole all year, and it all culminated in Brazil. Russell won the sprint race on Saturday, which set the field for the big race on Sunday before grid penalties. Hamilton finished third in the sprint. Russell and Hamilton stayed out of most of the carnage during Sunday's race—and there was a lot of it, from Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo to Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc—to finish first and second ahead of the two Ferraris, Carlos Sainz and Leclerc. The Brazilian Grand Prix was Russell's first F1 win, while Hamilton remains winless on the season. He only has one more race to change that at the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. If he doesn't win in Abu Dhabi, this will be the first winless season of Hamilton's 16-year F1 career. No pressure, though! |
Nurphoto | Getty Images The Red Bull F1 Drivers Swear They're Done Fighting The Brazilian Grand Prix was one of the most chaotic we've seen in years. If you didn't watch it, make sure you catch a replay. In addition to all the wrecks and other drama, Red Bull had one little request for Max Verstappen at the end of the race: to let his teammate, Sergio Pérez, pass him to gain some extra championship points. The request requires some context. Verstappen won the drivers' championship weeks ago, thanks to a record-breaking season and dutiful teamwork from Pérez, who regularly adheres to team orders that help Verstappen. Checo will hold up other drivers like his life depends on it to help his teammate, then pull over to let Verstappen pass. Pérez is loyal on track. In Brazil, Verstappen and Pérez were running sixth and seventh toward the end of the race. Red Bull did something I never thought the team would do—ask Verstappen to pull over for Pérez—but it made sense. Pérez needed the points in his fight for runner-up in the drivers' championship. Verstappen, who already secured the title this season, didn't need any more points. Verstappen refused to let Checo pass, explaining: "I told you already last time. Don't ask that again to me—are we clear about that? I gave my reasons, and I stand by it." Pérez, who was not thrilled, said on the radio: "Thank you for that, guys. Thank you." "I'm sorry about that, Checo," team principal Christian Horner told him. "It shows who he really is," Pérez responded. The boys got into such a nasty spat that Verstappen's mom got involved, with reports saying she posted about Pérez "cheating on his wife" on Instagram. On Monday, Pérez tweeted: "With Max and the team everything was discussed yesterday and it will remain internal, this is behind us and we will continue working as the great team that we have been until now." So, yeah, things are going great at Red Bull Racing! We all love each other here! Please stop asking! |
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What's Coming Up This Weekend? |
Hello, it's Motorsports Editor Fred Smith. Here's what you need to know about the year's final major race. Formula 1 – Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Sunday, 5:00 a.m. ET, ESPN2 Finally, a 22-race Formula 1 season draws to a close. The season's biggest storylines are long since wrapped up, but last weekend's dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix has thrown a few new logs on the dying embers of the season. Max Verstappen's petulance headlines the season finale. As mentioned, the long-since-crowned 2022 champion chose not to give his late-race position to teammate Sergio Pérez for reasons he has apparently declared to Red Bull Racing but will not reveal to the public. Pérez is tied with Charles Leclerc in the drivers' championship, both vying for second place, but Perez would have been up two points if Verstappen had let him pass. At Mercedes, a suddenly winning car has salvaged the team's season and kept their hybrid-era winning streak afloat. It has also made George Russell a race winner in his first full season with the team, but all-time wins record holder Lewis Hamilton is in danger of going winless for a full season for the first time in his entire career. Given how fast the W13 was last weekend, both as a leading car with George Russell and fighting through traffic in both races in Hamilton's hands, this race should be a great opportunity to change that. Sunday also marks the end of Sebastian Vettel's celebrated career. The four-time champion steps away from the sport at just 35, handing his lead seat at Aston Martin F1 to 41-year-old two-time champion Fernando Alonso. |
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