The fast road out of the slums: F1 and Motorsport 2019

[Kevin S]

Neuville making a hash of stage 5, with a couple of spins.



Ogier steady but not quick, 8s ahead of Neuville but could be about 15 behind Tanak and others.

[Kevin S]

Road clearing seems to be key on this stage as the times are dropping still.

[Kevin S]

Gah, Teemu beaten on the stage (just) by Latvala. Come on Elfyn....

[Kevin S]

Evans goes fastest after the 3rd of 6 splits...

edit - and the 4th...

and the 5th.... keep it tight Elfyn!

[Kevin S]

Yes! Surely the stage win in the bag there!

[ursus arctos]

There isn't any real doubt that "Mission Winnow" is "big tobacco", is there?

After all, it says Philip Morris International on the tin.

[Kevin S]

Yeah, and apparently the "A Better Tomorrow" on the new McLaren is British American Tobacco, too.

[Kevin S]

Evans has taken stage 7 as well - a great day for the Welshman. Suninen took stage 6, so that's four today and three in a row for M-Sport.

[Kevin S]

Ogier has retired - one more stage to go today. Currently Suninen in the lead and Evans 5th. Latvala, Tanak and Mikkelsen in between them.

[Kevin S]

Suninen losing some time to Tanak as his light pod has come loose and is slightly blocking his view.

[Kevin S]

Ha, but he retains the race lead by 2 seconds!

[Kevin S]

Latvala loses over 20 minutes. Tight at the top at the end of day one.

[Third rate Leszno]

Johan Kristoffersson showing his versatility again there. Not content with being twice WRX champion and a winner in touring cars and Porsche Carreras, he's bang on the WRC2 pace as well.

[Kevin S]

Red Bull race livery:

[Kevin S]

So day 3 of the first testing week today.

The Ferrari has been looking good with both Vettel on day 1 and Leclerc on day 2 clocking up the laps at top speeds.
Williams, not so much. In fact it's not even turned up yet. Apparently it's on a plane on its way to Barcelona this morning and we might get to see it in action this afternoon.
The Renault's wing's top section flew off while Ricciardo hammered along the Catalunyan start-finish straight.
Mercedes have just been pottering along with middling times, presumably as they're just happy with it all?
Gasly had a bit of a moment in the Red Bull, as did Albon on his first ever lap. Norris looking good though for McLaren, and the Haas seems quick again.

[Kevin S]

Caught up with the rest of Rally Sweden last night - a smashing race and a shame that M-Sport suffered from a couple of errors. Suninen looked on for the win for a while but he ended up going wide on a left hander into the snow and had to be pushed out. Tanak, on the other hand, was pretty flawless and a thoroughly deserved winner - he leads the championship. Evans put in a good drive for fifth and wasn't far off fourth in the end. A great result for a Brit in a snow rally.

Gronholm sadly wasn't up to managing the pace of the new generation cars, and has said that's his last go in the WRC now.

[Kevin S]

We have a Williams!

https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1098224105566949378?s=19

Let's hope the times it's posted aren't representative though

[Kevin S]

Bad day for Mercedes with oil pressure problems for Bottas. They already seem to be playing catch up to Ferrari who appear to have the more nimble car so far.

[Kevin S]

Russell has put in the miles in the Williams today with well over 100 laps completed. The times are not much to write home about but at this stage he and Kubica just need to be getting the strongest possible feel for the car. Green shoots.

[Kevin S]

Sky have got the rights for IndyCar 2019, and will show all 17 races live on the F1 channel - it's only one week until St Pete's. I wonder if they will try to get hold of a few more series?

[Flynnie]

Sky have got the rights for IndyCar 2019, and will show all 17 races live on the F1 channel - it's only one week until St Pete's. I wonder if they will try to get hold of a few more series?

I don't have BT Sport anymore anyway, but boooooooo.

[Kevin S]

I hope that we still get the full race and fast-forward videos on YouTube. They've been excellent.

[Kevin S]

Interesting read on the Beeb about the aerodynamic changes for 2021:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/47422390

[Kevin S]

Going to be interesting to see how the two Swedish IndyCar rookies get on this weekend and season. Marcus Ericsson of course has been through the full F1 academy as it were, with years of GP2 and of course Sauber F1 racing behind him. But then 18 points in five years wasn't the greatest return and Giovinazzi is the shiny new thing. Ericsson will drive for Schmidt Peterson as number 7. That's Robert Wickens' team, incidentally - no word yet on a return date for him but I think he is now able to lift himself up.



And the other Swede joining IndyCar is Felix Rosenqvist. He's raced against Stroll, Giovinazzi, Leclerc, Albon, Ocon and Verstappen in Formula 3 but in the last few seasons he's been racing in loads of different series - Indy Lights, DTM, GTs, Super Formula and Formula E for example - though 2018 was seemingly a quiet year for him. Unlike his compatriot though, Rosenqvist has actually won a few races in the past few years and maybe his varied experience will help him get to grips with IndyCar quickly.

He's got a drive with Chip Ganassi, alongside defending driver's champion Scott Dixon. Rosenqvist will be in car number 10.

[Third rate Leszno]

WRC Mexico this weekend, though I'll just be catching the highlights.