NASCAR news

[HossC]

Kimi Antonelli took another pole at yesterday's Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen, George Russell and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. World Champion Lando Norris had to start from 13th after he got a 10-place grid drop for using too many engine components in a season. 

Max briefly took the lead on the first lap before dropping back to third, and Lewis hit George, ending George's race and earning Lewis a 5-second penalty. After the resulting safety car, Max got back to second and Oscar Piastri moved to third before both Ferraris got ahead of him. There were a couple of short VSCs (virtual safety cars) which mixed the order a little through the pit stops. Lewis failed to receive the front wing tweak he wanted and knocked over a mechanic as he left the pits. The mechanic was unhurt, and although the incident was investigated after the race, it didn't affect the outcome.

Despite being shuffled back to third in the pit stops, Kimi retook the lead with 10 laps to go and went on to take another win. Behind him were Charles, Max and Lewis. Lewis' fourth place was enough to move him to second place in the Drivers' Championship ahead of the non-finishing George. The race highlights are here.

Next week's Hungarian Grand Prix is the last before the summer break, and several teams will have upgrades for the race.

[HossC]

The Ferraris looked fastest in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the weekend, but it was World Champion Lando Norris who took pole in his McLaren. Both Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) got 3-place grid penalties for separate incidents in qualifying.

Off the line, Lando initially got a perfect getaway, but went wide a few corners in and lost the lead to his team mate Oscar Piastri. Both Ferraris also got good starts as did Max Verstappen. These five then swapped positions a bit though different pit strategies, and Lando managed to take back the lead from Oscar. Sadly for Oscar, his gearbox failed on lap 56 (of 70) and he had to retire from second place.

At the flag, Lando took his first win of the year followed by Max. Kimi recovered well to take third, and after Lewis managed to pick up a pit lane speeding penalty, he was demoted to fifth behind Charles Leclerc. That's still four different teams in the top four places. You can see the highlights here.

Kimi has now extended his lead to 50 points over Lewis, which is two race wins.

F1 now takes its annual 4-week break, during which time the factories have to shut for two weeks to give their globe-trotting staff a break.

One bit of extra F1 news today: if there's still war in the Middle East at the end of the season, the finale will be held in Europe.