Streets are blocked off for the welcome party where a rock band serenades the crowd with a Jerry Reed country classic: "East Bound and Down." The commotion on a recent weekend lures families out of restaurants People whistle and cheer as motors rev and exhaust pipes pop Kids run up and down the rows of parked cars Some of these race cars look like something a child might draw A cream-colored Toyota Yaris has googly eyes An old Volkswagen Beetle is painted black and yellow Its team (and their children) showed up dressed as bees They're all here for the local installment of 24 Hours of Lemons an endurance car race with a major twist: The cars can't cost more than $500 The series bills itself as "racing for real people." Team costumes are encouraged race judges in black robes sort cars into competition classes "C" is for ones that have more personality than power tells me it's a back-and-forth process with the teams — most of them want to be in as low a class as possible One team plies Rood with jalapeno hot dogs (yes the word "Bribed" is stenciled onto its hood with spray paint Assessing a 1987 Camaro wearing Budweiser-esque "Baddriver" livery "Nice and soft," he says as the car's frame keeps bouncing The 24 Hours of Lemons races started more than 15 years ago in California which is often refused by teams who ask that the earnings instead go to charity It's a take on France's famous 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race and this weekend's contest in South Carolina is shorter According to competition rules the cars must cost less than $500 — not including safety equipment Every car has a roll cage and fire suppression drivers are protected by head and neck restraints If drivers spin out or drive too aggressively they're given a talking-to and ordered into a penalty box for what's basically a timeout Vince Deno was driving his pink-wrapped Mazda Miata (name: Sparkle Rosa) when he went too fast during a yellow-flag caution The judges ordered him to sit on the back of the car for a slow roll through the paddock area using a megaphone to broadcast his apologies to all the teams On a sunny Saturday at Carolina Motorsports Park given the amount of non-performance-enhancing gear bolted onto their bodies Matthew Ramirez stands at a fence with his young son The track is about an hour from the famous Darlington Raceway "Especially the endurance aspect of just trying to race your garbage as long and fast as possible When I ask what she likes about the circuit "I feel like racing in general would be something that's very intimidating for a woman and also just someone that's new," she says "Everyone's just so welcoming and they help each other out." it's a mix of straightaways and sharp turns where some drivers spin out "I had apparently boiled the brake fluid," Shellie McKee tells me describing how when she pulled off the track for a penalty lap too much heat built up in the air-cooled braking system while her car sat still the brake pedal fell to her car's floorboard it needed a new radiator and fan after rear-ending another car "Half our team is at the parts store right now getting everything that we need and we're here bleeding brakes trying to save that," McKee says One team had to walk the track to find their only set of brake pads — which had flown off along with their car's front wheel Another group took on the challenge of replacing their engine for the first time a job that went on for hours after midnight about 50 of more than 80 registered cars are still on the track And that's the goal for these teams: staying in the race long enough to see the checkered flag "We're not in contention for anything," McKee says when I check in with her team "We're trying to fight to keep the car out there and keep it running teams and judges line up and applaud every car as it exits The McKees' Datsun didn't make it to the finish But they did win a tongue-in-cheek award — for having the worst brakes In a race where the loudest cheers are for teams that defy the odds Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway: Joey Logano — Winner: “The sport changes so quickly It is crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters Proud to finally get AAA Insurance into victory lane They have been a partner of mine since I have been at Penske so 13 or 14 years and we have yet to win with them so it was awesome to get that done here The JL Kids Crew is here so we will have fun with them in victory lane … A couple of times we had a really tough pit stall situation and the pit crew did a good job of managing that a couple here and a couple there and eventually we get the win Ross Chastain — Finished 2nd: “Starting 31st It’s all on this crew – the engineering group at Trackhouse Racing and the group at Chevrolet We made an adjustment during the race and it fixed the car All the problems we had yesterday and the start of the race I was not confident yesterday … you heard me in the booth say it it brought this Tootsies Chevy to life and that’s why you keep fighting.” Ryan Blaney — Finished 3rd: “The one time I didn’t pick the outside the 71 (Michael McDowell) got the lead and then I couldn’t get it back Just driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job Kyle Larson — Finished 4th: “(Michael) McDowell just did a really good job of timing the restarts He got clear to the lead and I just lost control of the race there we would have been hard to beat in clean air like that 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a great job today We’ll just study it and try to do a better job next time.” Erik Jones — Finished 5th: “It was a sloppy day in a lot of ways but just happy to come back from it and get a top five It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good kind of our first car this year that’s been pretty strong to throw it away and Toyota to get a good run and hopefully we can get rolling I would love this to be the start of our summer stretch and just keep it going” Austin Dillon — Finished 7th: “We had a fast No 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway You could tell we weren’t as good as we needed to be Our Chevrolet handled well in traffic towards the end of those last three restarts and we were able to inch our way forward but the bottom was still the dominant lane John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 8th: “It means a lot Had good long run speed – guys brought a fast Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE Just kind of all over the place with what we had The last couple of restarts were tough with the positions that we were in I’ve got to get better from a driver’s standpoint racing up towards the front Daniel Suarez — Finished 10th: “It was a good day for this No I think that we potentially had a little bit more but we were struggling a lot on restarts all day long except for the start of the race for some reason it was a decent day and it’s good to get back-to-back top-10 finishes.” Kyle Busch — Finished 20th: “It was a long day at Texas Motor Speedway in our 7-Eleven Chevrolet I slid through our pit stall in the middle of the race when we were going to take right side tires so the pit crew had to push the car back and call an audible to take four tires instead We made adjustments to our Chevrolet throughout the race and got it to where it was absolutely hauling let’s go’ and then lost the rear end after going over one of the bumps I feel like every time it’s time to go and the race is on the line Randall Burnett and the guys have a good piece heading to Kansas Speedway next week.” Shane van Gisbergen — Finished 22nd: “A decent finish today for my SafetyCulture team Just wasn’t comfortable with the car there at the start and struggled to find speed Thanks to my 88 crew for never giving up and continuing to work to make my Chevrolet better and better We will learn from this and continue to make improvements.” Michael McDowell — Finished 26th: “I just really hate it for everyone on this No We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position I went as far as I think you could probably go it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it but I probably should have conceded at that point Just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports but we had the opportunity to win the race I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts Josh Berry — Finished 32nd: “The car was really good I could tell early on that our car was really strong especially after the first pit stop when we made an adjustment it was really good and we got out front and felt really good about it You have no choice but to run the opposite lane Your car is never going to turn if you follow them I went around the 62 on the outside and felt pretty decent about it Then caught the 51 and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose I don’t know what I would do too much different especially at a place like this you are going to be fast it is going to be uncomfortable and you are going to be on edge Alex Bowman — Finished 35th: “I just saw guys wrecking in front of me 16 (AJ Allmendinger) came back across the track and we all piled in there I think we passed more cars than anyone’s ever passed at Texas (Motor Speedway) We just shouldn’t have been back there to begin with Denny Hamlin — Finished 38th: “It was blowing up for about a lap or so before it really detonated I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating that was (so) they can diagnose exactly what happened to it but they’ll go back and look at it and we’ll find out in a few weeks.” A Division of NBCUniversal DISCLAIMER: This site and the products offered are for entertainment purposes only and there is no gambling offered on this site This service is intended for adult audiences No guarantees are made for any specific outcome If you or someone you know has a gambling problem The NASCAR Cup Series cruises into the Lone Star State for an afternoon race at Texas Motor Speedway It will be the only race at the 1.5-mile track in Fort Worth, Texas, this season and the first of two consecutive races on intermediate tracks (the series heads to Kansas Speedway next weekend) before the NASCAR All-Star Race on May 18 Hendrick Motorsports has celebrated in victory lane in three of the past four Texas races, with Kyle Larson winning in 2021, William Byron in 2023 and Chase Elliott in 2024 Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing has also found success in Fort Worth in recent years winning the 2022 race and finishing fourth last season Who will dance the Texas two-step on Sunday? Here’s all the information you need to get ready for the Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway: Watch NASCAR race at Texas on Fubo (free trial) local) at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth What TV channel is the NASCAR Cup race at Texas on?FS1 is broadcasting the Würth 400 and has a pre-race show beginning at 2 p.m The Würth 400 can be live streamed on Max and the FoxSports app. Viewers can also stream the race on Fubo which is offering a free trial to new subscribers The Würth 400 is 267 laps around the 1.5-mile oval for a total of 400.5 miles The race will feature three segments (laps per stage) — Stage 1: 80 laps; Stage 2: 85 laps; Stage 3: 102 laps Chase Elliott broke a 42-race winless streak on April 14 before beating Brad Keselowski as the race ended under caution What is the lineup for the Würth 400 at Texas?(Car number in parentheses) The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more I agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies to serve relevant advertising and improve my service Pay to read The Race without adverts or cookies used for personalised ads By logging in, you agree to our use of third-party and analytics cookies to enhance your experience and improve our services. For more details, please review our Privacy Policy Jack Doohan is expected to be replaced for the next Formula 1 race at Imola after Alpine informed the rookie of its intention to make an immediate change Alpine promoted its junior driver to a race seat for 2025 after losing out on Carlos Sainz to Williams But Doohan’s seat seemed at risk before he had even raced in F1 as Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore explored the prospect of signing Franco Colapinto late last year Alpine was in talks to bring in 2024 Williams stand-in Colapinto for this season as a reserve and potential race driver even as Doohan made his debut in place of Esteban Ocon in the 2024 season finale Then Colapinto officially joined Alpine in January this year magnifying the pressure on Doohan in the build-up to his rookie season Though he has shown strong underlying pace at times and even surprised some at Alpine with how fast he was early in the season Doohan has also had a run of incidents and is without a point after six races He retired from Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix following a first-corner clash with Liam Lawson - after outqualifying team-mate Pierre Gasly for the first time in a grand prix qualifying Doohan’s poor results are partly owed to Alpine’s own unexpectedly tricky start to the year after a good pre-season but he has often struggled compared to Gasly While this is broadly in line with what might be expected of a rookie Doohan has not been afforded the same time as others GPs: Gasly 5 - Doohan 1Sprints: Gasly 1 - Doohan 1Average gap: Gasly 0.367s ahead The Race understands Doohan was informed before leaving the track in Miami on Sunday night that Alpine intended to make a change Colapinto is in line to replace Doohan from the next race at Imola is also an option for its driver line-up this season will remain part of Alpine's overall driver roster as it stands Alpine is yet to comment on Doohan’s situation or its driver intentions Please accept marketing cookies to enable YouTube videos Audi announce organisational restructure ahead of F1 arrival in 2026 5 Winners and 5 Losers from Miami – Who excelled in the Sunshine State Tsunoda concedes he ‘made life much more difficult’ with five-second penalty in Miami after battling for final point Antonelli taking plenty of positives from Miami weekend despite struggles on way to P6 in the Grand Prix ‘We took the tough decision’ – Vasseur defends Ferrari team orders situation in Miami as he acknowledges Hamilton’s frustration Norris got a great start and was challenging Verstappen into the first couple of corners. But he got squeezed, ran wide and that allowed Piastri through. From there, the Australian picked off Antonelli and then Verstappen for the lead, built a huge gap and was imperious as he grabbed his third straight Grand Prix win Norris dropped to sixth after that first lap moment but quickly made his way back up through the field He had to work hard to get past Verstappen and by then his team mate had too big an advantage for Norris to overhaul as they built the field by over half a minute READ MORE: Norris concedes he 'paid the price' as he reflects on Lap 1 battle with Verstappen in Miami "It's a great feeling to have won the race today Clearly the car was unbelievable today and we were able to use that pace advantage That’s down to everyone here trackside and the whole team at the factory putting in an incredible amount of hard work to get us to where we are now there’s lots of learnings to take away from the weekend but I’m very “A good result for the team today and congratulations to Oscar on the victory Max [Verstappen] put up a fight at the start and frustratingly I paid the price but that's just the way it can be in racing The team have done an amazing job all weekend the car has been beautiful with great pace and the double-shuffle pit stop was mega I'll take all these positives and get my head down at the factory to focus on Imola in two weeks' time.” “Today was an exceptional result for McLaren at the end of a remarkable weekend followed by first and second again today in the Miami Grand Prix which is a first for any team in a Sprint weekend and we’re mindful that tomorrow is the anniversary of our first victory of this era which was a fundamental milestone in the direction and development of our team I would like to thank the people at McLaren who have designed as well as our technical and commercial partners and fans who are with us on this exciting journey it was great to see the car performing so well during the race taking the opportunities that came his way and displaying excellent pace Lando was delayed in the mêlée at the start recovering from sixth and then overtaking Max Verstappen later in the stint but without this he was in strong contention for the win also “This is a great foundation for the rest of the year but we also know that maybe these were exceptional circumstances and see where it takes us now the racing season moves back to Europe.” but was powerless to hold the faster McLarens at bay All of that contrived to drop him behind his team mate Russell benefitting from a cheap stop after starting on the hard tyre and managed to stay in front of the Dutchman to pick up yet another podium "Ultimately the McLarens had a decent advantage over the rest of the field so congratulations to them and we’re looking forward to the upcoming triple header in Europe and it was nice to take my first Sprint pole position I’m still gaining experience in terms of my race management and I am sure that will continue to get better as the season progresses I am now excited for the next race at Imola and my first ever home Grand Prix I am sure the atmosphere and support will be incredible so I am very much looking forward to the weekend there." "Kimi meanwhile showed his talent this weekend but had a race where he will take away some good learnings That is completely normal for a rookie driver The race management will come as he continues to build his experience and we’re now looking forward to the upcoming triple-header in Europe The next race will mark Kimi’s first ever home Grand Prix at Imola and I am sure he will be looking forward to that." "Whilst George benefited from the Virtual Safety Car Kimi lost out having stopped just before it came out We had to box him to protect from Albon in the Williams who had the chance to deploy the undercut Some traffic in the pit lane cost him and ultimately his pace on the Hard tyre consigned him to P6 It has still been another good weekend for Kimi though as he continues his development "McLaren were the class of the field once again today and we are working hard to close that gap we leave Miami pleased we have added more points to our tally compared to Red Bull and Ferrari but knowing we have got work to do if we are to challenge at the very front each weekend Hopefully we can make some gains in this area starting in Imola in two weeks’ time." but found himself under pressure from Piastri He kept pushing the Australian wide into Turn 1 but in the end out-braked himself and let the McLaren past those two swapping places multiple times before again the McLaren got through but got jumped by Russell in the pits courtesy of a VSC he picked up a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane and managed to put his foot down on the last few laps to pull a five-second gap to Hadjar behind to make sure he held on to the last point “Yesterday I said that I would try my very best and I gave it everything that I could but it ended up being a struggle out there but in the end it was impossible to keep them behind but of course that is part of racing and overall the pace wasn’t really there We had nothing to lose so I was just trying to have a bit of fun on the track and it was cool to be out there racing The race was unfortunately quite difficult for us in general and we ultimately lacked pace and struggled with the breaks Every time that I tried to get close or push a bit more It was really down to tyre management today and the track had quite high degradation which is not our strong suit at the moment We need a bit more performance to make sure we are more competitive “It was unnecessary for me to be in that position with the time penalty and it made things a lot more difficult in the race for me and my old teammate certainly did nothing to make my life easier in those last few laps I was pushing a lot and he kept coming back It was tough to keep the five second gap but I had to do what I had to do and I maximised the pace I am happy I was able to score points but again it wasn’t just me and it is something we have to look at it is tough to get the car in the place we want but we will work towards it and make up for it in the future I am feeling more confident in the car as the weeks go by and we will unlock it." "We gave it everything today but well done to McLaren they were in a different league so P4 and a double points finish is as good as we could get from an often chaotic Miami GP Max put up a staunch defence of his lead and position in the opening stint but the VSC gave others the opportunity to capitalise on Max’s earlier stop and ultimately cost him a podium finish P10 for Yuki who did well to hold onto his point in the end The race showed that we still have a lot of work to do on the car to find that ultimate race pace We’ll take our learnings back to Milton Keynes and come back with everything we have for our 400th race in Imola in a couple of weeks time." with their drivers swapping positions multiple times throughout the Grand Prix and managed to pull off a good overtake on Antonelli to climb to fifth That matched his best result of the season and made up for the P4 he lost in yesterday’s Sprint Sainz also scored after surviving some last-lap contact with Hamilton "I’m glad I could reset and go again after yesterday The car was quick and today was all about pure pace I had a good rhythm all race and I’m very happy with the result when you look at where we were 12 months ago This shows all the progress we’ve made at Grove and now we’ve shown the world that we can race at the top This won’t happen every race and we’ll definitely have to keep fighting The operational misunderstanding of yesterday put us on the back-foot from the beginning as I had to start the race on a used compound Avoiding Lando in Lap 1 when he rejoined the track unfortunately resulted in contact with Alex which damaged my floor quite badly for the rest of the race There was some miscommunication between our two sides of the garage that we will analyse internally with the damage I had it was inevitable that I would end up losing positions I did everything I could to hold on and stick with the cars ahead today we had very good pace and the balance of the car is the best it’s felt since the start of the season so we’ll try to take the positives and review everything as a team." but I’m really pleased for the team with the result today Given the setbacks we had yesterday morning to come back fighting with both cars in the top ten in Qualifying and to finish with both cars in the points is incredibly rewarding It’s a long season and teams will bring updates so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out over the next few races but to score from five of the first six races is a different world to where we’ve been previously I couldn’t be more proud of the team and the world class drivers we have Alex and Carlos are really giving their all to this team and we are on a good pathway moving forwards." Ferrari appeared to get themselves into a pickle in Miami Hamilton climbed up through the field and had a cheap pit stop under the VSC then found himself right on his team mate’s tail on different strategies given he was on the faster mediums at the point - but the team only allowed it after three laps leading to Leclerc asking to be let through The team again allowed it but again after apparent delay we’ve made some solid steps forward this weekend and there are definitely learnings to take moving forward but considering where we started it was a decent recovery I’m starting to feel more at one with the car and I’m as motivated as ever to be fighting at the front but everyone is working incredibly hard behind the scenes and we’re hopeful of making progress in the coming races We’ll just keep pushing and stay focused on the work ahead." Lawson was tagged into a spin in the first corner by Doohan which dropped the Kiwi racer to last and also damaged his floor but ultimately retired thanks to that car damage knowing Tsunoda ahead had a time penalty coming He pushed and pushed late on to get within five seconds of the Red Bull winding up losing out by just over a tenth of a second "I’m not really happy with my driving today as I feel like I made some mistakes here and there We did several laps on hard tyres after the pit stop and overall it was an enjoyable race as it was a Qualifying battle with Yuki I knew I was still within the five second gap during the last lap as I had the gap difference live We missed a point by just one-tenth and a half I’m feeling confident heading to Imola next; I know the track well and I also won there in F2.” A big gap opened up into turn one so I went in and was following whoever was in front of me and then felt a hit from the side We took some big damage there and was holding out for some rain It's a shame because the team have done a great job this weekend and the car has been fast We'll reset ahead of the triple header keep looking forwards and keep improving things." It started with the fantastic reaction from the fans to our special livery and it continued on track with a fast paced rollercoaster for Isack and Liam then an incredible fight from P14 to P7 for Liam in the Sprint race before a penalty stripped him of his points Isack just missed the cut to Q3 by two hundredths of a second before missing the final point today by just 0.1s to Yuki after a very strong race Liam’s race however was ruined following a collision on lap 1 The good news is that our car and our drivers showed strong pace again this weekend even if the points didn’t come We will keep learning and pushing as hard as we can and we can’t wait to back on track in Imola in a couple of weeks Ocon could not convert his P9 grid slot into points in Miami as he lost out to a recovering Hamilton midway through the race parking up early on with what sounded like a PU problem That was his first retirement of the season to cap a difficult weekend for the rookie which saw him qualify in P20 twice “It was a solid race on our side but unfortunately we lacked a bit of pace to be fighting with the quicker guys in front We didn’t get very lucky as we didn’t pit under VSC had a couple of fights but they always ended the same way I think overall it’s been a strong weekend from the team and we need to keep that going once we find a bit more performance in the car there are some good learnings from this weekend and some good expectations for the upcoming races “It was going okay but I spent a good chunk of time in a DRS train which obviously wasn’t ideal for the tyres I think we had some pace but not enough to be in the points and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to finish the race I take away the positive that our pace and performance in the Sprint was competitive we tried to go forwards as much as possible but we had a PU failure Esteban’s first stint was okay – he was fighting against Hamilton pretty well and held him back for as long as he did so he drove well – but we didn’t get our pit stop timing correct so we got undercut by Hadjar That ruined it as in the second stint we couldn’t overtake him we could’ve had P10 and that’s the really disappointing thing sometimes we really nailed it; like in Q2 with Esteban There’s plenty of things that we need to understand today’s race pace and decision making because the pit stop didn’t work so we need to learn as a team and then put it right in Imola.” as he made contact with Lawson in Turn 1 on the opening lap and he could not limp back to the pits – parking up near an escape road and bringing out a VSC Gasly started from the pit lane after making some set-up changes overnight but he could only recover to P13 at the flag At least we are leaving Miami with one point following the Sprint Race yesterday We knew that today’s race was going to be tricky after having had a couple of issues on the car which we tried to fix for today I suppose we would have liked the rain to come during the race to give us a chance to fight but it did not come in the end We need to do some analysis on the performance we had here as we have been faster in previous races We have work to do between now and the next race in Imola.” “It was a tough end to the weekend for my side of the garage We were starting from the middle of the pack which always creates a challenge coming into the first few corners We were squeezed going into Turn 1 and with nowhere to go we had contact with [Liam] Lawson The damage was too much to make it back to the pitlane safely and we ultimately had to retire the car especially in managing the difficult weather conditions and I have felt comfortable in the car across the weekend Our focus now shifts toward the next few races We have the week ahead to reset and work to prepare for the upcoming triple-header as we head into the start of the European season.” “We leave Miami disappointed where ultimately we lacked performance to be competitive enough to fight for points Although we did not come away from Miami empty-handed Pierre was not happy with how the car felt in Qualifying and given his starting position we opted to make changes to his car and start from the pitlane so in a conventional dry race we tried to make progress and pitted Pierre under the second VSC Although we made up several positions ultimately it was only good enough for 13th Jack’s race unfortunately ended on the first lap after contact with Lawson at Turn 1 We have some time now between races to understand where we can improve and come back with some more performance for the European triple-header starting in Imola.” Hulkenberg started on the hard tyre and was the last man to pit but going long did not lead to the hoped for Safety Car He dropped down the order when he swapped to the mediums Bortoleto did not – he was radioing to say his power unit was suffering issues when he was called to the pits to retire having to park up off the track instead for his second DNF of the season “It’s been a pretty clean race today and felt like one of the better ones this year I managed to stay out of trouble at Turn One In contrast to most of the other cars I was on a reverse strategy starting with hard tyres to deliver a long first stint We didn't take the opportunity of the first Virtual Safety Car to make a pit stop which is something we need to review with the team it feels like we’ve taken another step forward this weekend With a bit more performance and improved car balance we believe we can get closer to fighting for points we’re now looking forward to starting the European part of the season.” "It was a decent race up to the point we had to retire and I felt we could’ve held that position to the end The pace was what we expected—we were a bit behind Haas and RB but still in the mix I started losing power on the straights in and eventually the car just shut down completely it looks like a fuel system issue that affected us but I haven’t had time to analyse it with the team yet especially as DNFs have been rare in my career We can still take quite a few positive from the weekend—our single-lap performance and the pace we had before the issue are points on which we can build We’ll look into everything we experienced this weekend and come back stronger for the next one." "Today’s race saw both our drivers get off the line well and deliver strong first stints we had to retire Gabriel due to a technical issue—potentially related to the fuel system—though we’ll know more once we’ve had a proper look at the car we may have benefited from boxing under the Virtual Safety Car and that’s something we’ll need to analyse carefully the team delivered two very clean pit stops—2.2 and 2.5 seconds—which is a real credit to the crew and we’ll take the lessons forward as we prepare for the European leg of the season." It was not to be for Aston Martin after a strong start to the weekend Alonso’s day made worse by a spin in the early stages of the race as he lost the rear by himself starting Alonso on the hard and Stroll the medium but to no avail We didn't have the pace the whole weekend We faced similar challenges today that we've had all season and couldn't capitalise on any chaos ahead of us We need to get better and hopefully in Imola take a step forward." "Difficult race for us today and very tricky conditions We just simply lack pace - we've been slow all season so far and today wasn't any exception With an uneventful race and no opportunities it just shows how we're not competitive and need to look at improving the car in all areas." "Today's results in the Miami Grand Prix are a reminder that we are simply lacking car performance There were very few opportunities to progress from our starting positions and the race turned out to be a comfortable one-stop race for the entire field It was important that we scored four points with Lance yesterday in the Sprint but under normal dry conditions we don't have a car capable of competing for points right now We need to continue to analyse where we can improve and work hard to be more competitive in Imola." “It was a very straightforward race as far as the tyres were concerned From the little data gathered over the weekend it had become clear that despite bringing a trio of compounds one step softer than last year’s in order to create more strategy choices it would probably still be a one-stop race and so it proved to be There was very limited degradation on the C3 and the C4 in fact on the latter it was even less than expected That explains why drivers who started on the Medium were able to extend their first stint to the halfway point of the race or even further especially as the Virtual Safety Car made it easier for the leaders to switch to the Hard compound HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri leads McLaren 1-2 after thrilling race in Miami "The low tyre degradation also contributed to the many battles especially early on when drivers were able to push as hard as they wanted It was a different scenario to the one we witnessed in Suzuka for example The track characteristics here are very different and it also demonstrates how difficult it is to have everything in place to produce the great show that the fans deserve to see.” MIAMI LOWDOWN: All the key moments as McLaren and Antonelli shine DRIVER OF THE DAY: Piastri's imperious Miami showing gets your vote OFFICIAL GRID: Wet Miami race in prospect as Gasly starts from pit lane Norris concedes he 'paid the price' as he reflects on Lap 1 battle with Verstappen in Miami © 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited and in so doing determinedly maintaining his place out front in a tight title fight Piastri laid down a marker in Florida that he will be exceptionally hard to beat this season Read moreLewis Hamilton however had another somewhat trying afternoon in the Ferrari after another testy run-in with his team over the radio Piastri has shown dominance from pole repeatedly this season, with this his fourth win, but at the Hard Rock Stadium he had to work for it and ensured he remains front and centre in the championship fight He now leads Norris by 16 points with Verstappen in third The Australian was driving at his very best his confidence high but matched with the calm assurance he has behind the wheel and with which he was able to deliver despite being chased to the flag by Norris The scale of their advantage over the rest of the field was breathtaking Once both drivers had clean air out front having passed Verstappen with Piastri finishing 37 seconds up on Russell Verstappen just held his lead through turn one but locked up and squeezed Norris off with the British driver losing places to sixth in the process in what was judged a racing incident after he had passed Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli They duelled for several laps to thrilling effect but on lap 14 Piastri finally made it stick at turn one by which point Norris had come back and almost caught them However the time it then took him to pass Verstappen during which he put nine seconds on his teammate a gap that was all but impossible for Norris to overcome with the two cars so closely matched and I just had to get him in the right position.” Lewis Hamilton whose relationship with his Ferrari team remains fractious Photograph: Shawn Thew/ReutersQualifying had been disappointing for Piastri but when it mattered he and Norris put the McLaren’s superior race pace to use with clinical effect Once he had passed Verstappen after a stout defence from the Dutchman Piastri was all but untouchable and he knew it showed how far he and the team have come “I remember two years ago in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team,” Piastri said recalling a race where Norris came 17th and he ended up lapped and second from last “To now have won the grand prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result.” This was indeed a masterful performance from driver and team for his first victory in Miami and a remarkable fourth in six races this season only the 24-year-old’s third campaign in F1 Free weekly newsletterThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action Hamilton and Ferrari however endured a more fractious afternoon Once more neither he nor Charles Leclerc were within a sniff of a podium and reduced to fighting the Williams of Carlos Sainz When Hamilton was clearly quicker Ferrari had Leclerc move over for him into seventh place but only after the British driver expressed intense frustration at the time the team took to make the decision “Have a tea break while you’re at it,” was his exasperated response They then had him give the place back later in the race and Hamilton’s response of: “You want to let him past as well?” was weighted with sarcasm and discontent Another indication the relationship with the Scuderia still has no little development in it For all that Verstappen and Red Bull had managed to find a better window for their car this weekend the McLaren was very much the class of the field in race pace and once more notably easier on its tyres than its competitors It is also notable this season that the two areas Piastri was considered unable to match Norris last year he has very much mastered and that is giving him a distinct advantage in the title fight for which he might now be considered favourite Red Bull launched a protest after the race stating they believed Russell had not slowed under yellow flags during the virtual safety car period but it was rejected by the stewards and the classification remained unchanged Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri parade in a Lego replica of their McLaren before the Miami Grand Prix Photograph: Debby Wong/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockTypically for the grand sense of fun and spectacle Miami presents before the race the drivers had taken to the track in specially built full-size Lego replicas of their car consisting of 400,000 blocks and weighing over a ton and a half They drove the track at 20km/h and proved enormously popular with the drivers but when the serious business was finished in Florida it must be considered that it is Piastri who now has all the building blocks in place for a serious tilt at the title As is often the case with Formula 1 sprint weekends no driver strung together a truly complete run across all the relevant sessions - but this week's #1 came closest and nailed the parts of the weekend that mattered most How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend This will be based on the full range of criteria ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results Piastri would have ended the weekend with a sprint/grand prix double but for the mistimed safety car that cost him on Saturday Want to quiz Edd about his rankings? You can do so on The Race Members' Club on Patreon. Head to this post Right now there's 75% off your first month to celebrate F175 as he should have qualified better on both days and relied on Norris’s Turn 2 excursion to jump his team-mate in the grand prix but what elevated his ranking was the intelligence with which he worked his way past Verstappen on Sunday Verdict: Strengthened his championship credentials Albon was unfortunate to lose an outstanding fourth place in the sprint to a safety-car delta infringement but it was a fair cop even though the circumstances mean it doesn't dent his ranking as much as it would usually have done qualifying performance with time lost in the chicane key to being outqualified by team-mate Carlos Sainz beating the Ferraris and passing Antonelli along the way to take his second fifth place of the season - surviving a rub of wheels with Sainz on the first lap and opportunistically passing his team-mate again later in the first stint at a point when he wasn't expected to Verdict: Another well-executed weekend.  Verstappen's pole position was another example of maxmising the second-best car and capitalising on the McLaren drivers slightly underdelivering The sprint blank after finishing fourth on the road was not of his doing given Red Bull's unsafe release while in the grand prix he was never going to be able to hang on to the lead ahead of the McLarens Would have been third but for the timing of the VSC that let Russell jump him with the only mild criticism a few moments in battle where he flirted with putting himself in harm's way Verdict: Papered over the Red Bull cracks.  Fortune was on Norris's side in the sprint with the timing of the safety car turning second into first He certainly had the pace to have won the grand prix from pole position but his failure to maximise qualifying meant he ended up taking the risk around the outside of Verstappen in Turn 2 that led to him being forced onto the runoff but Piastri was out of reach thanks to the time lost battling the Red Bull Antonelli's rookie campaign had been impressive but without ever startling with his speed He corrected that with a sensational sprint pole position backed up by a close third in qualifying proper Antonelli learning a big lesson at the start of the sprint when he tried to hang on around the outside of Piastri and fell back before being hit by Verstappen in the pits although the timing of the safety car and tyre-management inexperience cost him in the grand prix Verdict: A significant weekend in his rookie campaign Ocon was the stronger Haas driver in Miami although he wasn't able to translate that into a points finish His sprint chances were compromised by a lock-up on his final qualifying lap but he excelled by making Q3 for the main event After slipping behind Tsunoda at the start he defied competitive gravity in the first stint by hanging onto 10th ahead of Hamilton until lap 22 Hadjar's undercut relegated him to 12th in a car that didn't quite have the pace to fight back admitting after qualifying that he lacked confidence with things "not clicking" But he stuck to his task and was rewarded with race results that were ultimately as good as they were going to get for Mercedes That this counts as a difficult weekend for him performance-wise is testament to the quality of his season so far although he was a step behind Antonelli on qualifying pace he breezed into Q2 and potentially had the pace to make the top 10 but for failing to improve on his final lap which started to go awry when he had a big snap in Turn 2 He had a good race until an engine problem eliminated him coming close to passing Hadjar in the first stint The Racing Bulls car vied with the Haas for sixth-best in Miami and Hadjar accordingly spent much of his weekend floating around the periphery of the points His sprint qualifying ninth place was the standout moment He rued missing out on denying the penalised Tsunoda the final point on Sunday by 0.168s having lost just over a quarter of a second to him on the final lap This was a step forward from Bahrain and Jeddah although Hamilton still wasn't quite at the level of his team-mate A well-timed switch to slicks in the sprint allowed him to take third place while in the race the VSC and an opportunistic pass on Sainz left him behind Leclerc on a softer tyre When Ferrari eventually waved him past Leclerc so Hamilton dropped back behind late on.  Stroll's fifth place in the sprint owed much to a well-timed switch to slicks He also produced a superb first racing lap to climb from 15th to 11th having been denied a place in SQ2 by having to go round Verstappen approaching Turn 17 he was a step behind Alonso although finished close to him in the race in what proved to be the slowest car This was one of those weekends where Bearman struggled to string everything together as effectively as his team-mate although in the moments he did the pace was good take a point in the sprint before a penalty for an unsafe release that was not of his making so from the back row he was destined for a finish outside the points anyway before an engine failure eliminated him but he didn't always deploy it when he needed it His sprint qualifying performance was impressive He should at least have made Q2 in qualifying proper but for an error at the start of the lap that proved but Sauber's puzzling decision not to take the free gift of a VSC pitstop after starting on hards compromised that Miami proved to be a weak track for Alpine although Gasly grabbed a fortuitous point in the sprint after four cars ahead were penalised - a reward for keeping it clean He wasn't happy with the car in qualifying meaning he was eliminated in Q1 while team-mate Doohan advanced He started from the pitlane after suspension set-up changes and drove a decent race in a doomed cause.  This weekend was a microcosm of Doohan's season While he attributed not getting a second lap in SQ1 to the release of his team-mate he was ultimately responsible for the pushback required to avoid clipping the pitwall that cost him key places in the queue He also put himself in a risky position at Turn 1 on Sunday resulting in the collision with Lawson - although bad luck also played a part in his fate Alonso starred in the sprint element of the weekend putting the Aston Martin where it had no business to be in qualifying before being eliminated by the Lawson clash while on course for his first points of the season - something that could have been avoided had his push to take slicks earlier been heeded That form was impossible to repeat in qualifying proper as rivals extracted more of their potential but he blotted his copybook in the grand prix with an early spin albeit one that didn't impact what was always going to be a lowly result.  Verdict: Unrewarded sprint heroics the highlight.  Even when you consider the fact he didn't have Red Bull's minor floor upgrade He was unfortunate to be eliminated in SQ1 after not getting a final lap in but was the first to switch to slicks and bagged sixth in the sprint after four cars were penalised He was puzzled after producing what he felt was his best lap of the weekend in Q3 - as it was one that barely improved on his Q2 time slipping to 10th thanks to Hamilton getting a cheap pitstop under the VSC staying just far enough clear of Hadjar to hold the position when the five-second pitlane speeding penalty he carelessly acquired was applied Verdict: Not close enough to Verstappen's pace Leclerc was dissatisfied with Ferrari both in terms of the pace of its car and the way it managed team orders in the grand prix but ultimately got pretty much everything he could out of the package but while he was a passenger once he aquaplaned on a lap to the grid for the sprint crashing in such circumstances even in terrible conditions has to cost him heavily Verdict: Sprint disaster tanks his ranking The sprint component of the weekend was a disaster for Sainz with a lock-up on his final SQ2 lap leaving him down the grid then a bad misjudgement in the chicane while chasing Stroll costing him points Sainz qualifying well but losing ground at the start when Norris rejoined in front of him rubbing wheels with Albon and picking up floor damage The VSC timing meant he fell into the clutches of the Ferraris with both jumping him at the restart - a late lunge on Hamilton at the final corner not enough to allow him to reclaim a place but this was one of those weekends where things just didn't come together Sprint qualifying would have been better but for a small mistake with a points finish lost for causing the collision with Alonso A sensor problem cost him power at the end of his Q1 lap with sidepod damage sustained in the collision with Doohan at Turn 1 meaning his race was an exercise in battling on hoping for a miracle before he eventually retired his hobbled car Did you pick the winning Kentucky Derby horse Saturday at Churchill Downs Favored Journalism made a gallant run but Sovereignty emerged victorious in the 151st Run for the Roses Here is a recap of the biggest races leading up to the 151st Kentucky Derby: Bill Mott no longer needs an asterisk next to his Kentucky Derby victory The Mott-trained Sovereignty rallied down the stretch to win Saturday’s $5 million, Grade 1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs by 1 ½ lengths Sovereignty covered the 1 1/4 miles on a sloppy track in 2:02.31 and paid $17.96 on a $2 win wager Read the full story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/horses/kentucky-derby/2025/05/03/sovereignty-wins-kentucky-derby-2025-trainer-bill-mott/80017970007/#gnt-frnt=KD_Main C.L. Brown column: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/columnists/c-l-brown/2025/05/03/sovereignty-trainer-bill-mott-kentucky-derby-2025/80228876007/ Payouts: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/horses/kentucky-derby/2025/05/03/kentucky-derby-payouts-2025-final-odds-churchill-downs-sovereignty/80008920007/ Mercante and Gigante were neck and neck for most of the race until the final stretch  “I was trying to save some energy because I don't think the 1 1/8 is his best distance I take my time and make the right move,” Franco said “I feel awesome because I knew my horse was running which went off at 3-1 odds and paid $8.24 on a $2 win bet has accumulated over $1 million in career earnings Louis bounced back from his fourth-place finish in March at the Fair Grounds Kopion dethroned Vahva in the 7-furlong race on a sloppy track Making her Churchill debut with Kazushi Kimura in the irons, the 4-year-old daughter of Omaha Beach finished 3 lengths ahead of the Bob Baffert-trained Hope Road in 1:21.76 who won last year’s Derby City Distaff by 2 lengths in 1:21.75 engulfed Hope Road nearing the 1/16 marker and swiftly drew away LLC mare returned $7.48 on a $2 win bet and improved to 5-1-0 across seven career starts with her third victory in a row “She did get off a little bit slower than I thought she would but the jockey had a lot of confidence in her and rode her that way,” said trainer Richard Mandella who was celebrating his first graded-stakes win at Churchill since 1995 She’s starting to make it look like I know something.” The Derby City Distaff is part of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Dozen second- and third-place finishes in these races will receive a tiered bonus bankroll that will be applicable to Breeders’ Cup fees (pre-entry and entry) Mandella was unsure of Vahva’s next move in the winner’s circle Saturday “We think she can get two turns,” he added “but I don’t know if I want to fool with it until after the Breeders’ Cup.” Going off at 2-1 odds, the Chad Brown-trained Zulu Kingdom earned his third career graded-stakes victory Grade 1 American Turf Stakes race on Saturday at Churchill Downs Sired by Ten Sovereigns, the 3-year-old horse and Flavien Prat covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.64 on the turf Zulu Kingdom returned $6.34 on a $2 win bet The win comes less than two months after Prat and Zulu Kingdom won the Columbia Stakes in Tampa Bay Zulu Kingdom moves to 5-0-0 in six career starts His only loss was a seventh-place showing in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in November "He always gets himself in the race and runs faster than the rest." and New Century earned third.— Alexis Cubit The 90th running of The Churchill Downs featured a competitive field of 11 horses sprinting 7 furlongs Saturday in the $1 million Mindframe, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. finished first in 1:22.64 in a photo finish Banishing was second, and Nysos was third in a dead heat Mindframe is 4-2 through six career starts he finished first in the Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes Think Big and jockey Ben Curtis finished 5 ½ furlongs in 1:02.35 to claim the $600,000 Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Saturday at Churchill Downs They beat Boss Sully Think Big, owned by Godolphin, LLC (Mohammed Al Maktoum, et al.) improved to 5-0-1 across nine starts with the win The 4-year-old gelding is undefeated in turf sprints folks at Godolphin are bullish about his future “The great thing about him,” Godolphin USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said His ceiling’s a lot higher than a lot of horses … I think we’re really gonna have a lot of fun with him over the next year or so.”  Next up (if he’s healthy): The Jaipur Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in June Macho Music bolted to the lead out of the gate and never looked back in winning Saturday’s $600,000 Grade 2 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs by 3 1/4 lengths Trained by Rohan Crichton and ridden by Javier Castellano Macho Music covered the mile on a sloppy track in 1:35.65 and paid $29.86 to win on a $2 wager Macho Music entered off an 11 1/4-length victory in the Sophomore Stakes on March 30 at Tampa Bay Downs and he's very competitive," Castellano said "His last race down at Tampa when he stretched out in distance gave me a lot of confidence he'd be able to handle the step up in class today." and as soon as I moved my hands he didn't go anywhere," Gaming jockey John Velazquez said Macho Music set fractions of 22.43 for the quarter-mile 44.93 seconds for the half-mile and 1:09.66 for three-quarters before pulling away down the stretch the Florida-bred Macho Music improved to 4-2-0 in eight career starts for the ownership group of Mark Fletcher Taylor Crichton said Macho Music could return to action June 7 for the $500,000 Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes on the Belmont undercard at Saratoga Simply in Front lived up to its name Saturday in the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs Simply in Front pulled off a stunning upset It left the gate at 15-1 odds — the second longest in the eight-horse field Simply in Front returned $33.00 on a $2 win bet Despite oddsmakers and bettors’ lack of respect for Simply in Front prior to the $750,000 stakes race, Eddie Kenneally shrugged it off she won at big odds today," said Kenneally Kenneally’s victory ended a dominant run in the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile for Chad Brown Brown had won the past four editions of the race He vowed he always was confident Simply in Front would end in the money Saturday — even if he didn’t know if she’d end "She's worked here the last two weekends on this turf course and we were quite confident that she would run one of her best races even though she hadn't run for quite some time."  To Kenneally’s point: Simply in Front’s last start prior to Saturday was the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes, held at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29. Simply in Front placed seventh that day “We thought she would run well fresh — and she does run well fresh and she won some very good races off a little bit of a freshening.”  Next up for Simply in Front, Kenneally said, likely is the Just a Game Stakes, a Grade 1 event at Saratoga After a pair of wins and a runner-up showing in seven starts last year Kenneally was cautiously optimistic Saturday might simply be the beginning for Simply in Front and she's just carrying more flash," he said “But I think she could have an even better 4-year-old (campaign) this year." 1:12 p.m.: $750,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE LONGINES CHURCHILL DISTAFF TURF MILE – Grade 2 For Fillies And Mares 1:53 p.m.: $600,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE PAT DAY MILE – Grade 2 presented by SAP For 3-Year-Olds 2:38 p.m.: $600,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE TWIN SPIRES TURF SPRINT – Grade 2 presented by Accenture For 3-Year-Olds and Up 3:23 p.m.: $1,000,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE CHURCHILL DOWNS – Grade I presented by Ford For 4-Year-Olds and Up 4:06 p.m.: $1,000,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE AMERICAN TURF – Grade 1 For 3-Year-Olds 4:50 p.m.: $1,000,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE DERBY CITY DISTAFF – Grade I presented by Kendall-Jackson Winery For Fillies And Mares 5:39 p.m.: $1,000,000 (Includes $100,000 from KTDF) THE OLD FORESTER BOURBON TURF CLASSIC – Grade 1 For 4-Year-Olds and Up The "Riders Up" call has been given. “My Old Kentucky Home” has been sung. And the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby is officially in the books A little rain didn't rain on Sovereignty's parade Sovereignty won the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby on a cloudy and rainy day at Churchill Downs on Saturday reigning victorious at the first leg of the Triple Crown covered the 1 1/4 mile distance in 2:02.31 who entered Saturday 1 for 13 in the Derby after winning with Country House via disqualification in 2019 said "this one got there the right way." He added Sovereignty entered the 19-horse field with 9-1 odds This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page not a bad result considering most of the weekend you felt you haven't really got to grips with the car around Miami really happy to come away with P3 because I've been struggling this weekend But well done to the McLarens – they're just down the road you lucked in a little bit on the Safety Car but at the end of the race you had to keep Max behind you But I was pretty calm and I felt really good with the car to keep him behind me I think Lando's a bit upset with me because we had a bit of a crash on the Lego race this morning so I don't know if he's going to complain at me for something what was your favourite race of the day here in Miami without a doubt the race this morning – the Lego race It’s a P2 – a formidable job by the whole team to get both cars 30 seconds in front of the rest of the field I mean it's never the best feeling but Q: So was it too inviting to go around the outside of Max in Turn 2 But it's the way it is with Max – it's crash or don't pass Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today Q: The important thing is that you did what was right for you but qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year And to come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result obviously there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 [inaudible]… but we had a pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable today the big difference I see from you from last year to now is the race pace – how you control a race It seems that when we put Oscar in the lead of the Grand Prix You can control the pace from the time you get into the lead until the chequered flag So it was a good thing that I built that gap in the first stint I think towards the end I started to get things a bit more back under control But there’s still definitely some things to work on from this afternoon very happy with the points – but constantly got to keep learning Have you got any comments about the team – they’ve given you this absolute weapon it’s just incredible the hard work that’s gone in remember two years ago here in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team – I think we got lapped twice – and to now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result And the hard work of every single person – firstly the people here at the track what’s with the little dance in parc fermé OP: I knew that was going to be the question who has essentially made the Griddy world famous and stupidly made a bet with him that if I won the race I didn’t practice because I thought that was definitely not going to be needed that was my first attempt at a Griddy live on world TV but that’s the one and only time you’ll be seeing me do that You had to fight hard in those early laps and then demonstrated phenomenal pace in clean air Just how much did you enjoy yourself out there today It was tough at the beginning trying to get past Max It was not easy but I picked my moments when I needed to I could tell that we had a lot of pace from the get-go today and it was going to be a matter of when I got past But I wanted to do it as efficiently as I could because I knew once Lando got back behind me I wanted to get through quickly but cleanly I felt like I did a pretty good job of that Maybe not the strongest second half of the race of my life but I think building that gap and being quick at the right times was what I needed Q: You were clinical dispatching Kimi Antonelli Just how tough was it to get past Max Verstappen Kimi was very nice to me and didn’t make life very tough which is nice when you race against people who identify when someone’s quicker and don’t make the race more difficult for both of us I knew I had to try and build a gap while Lando was behind him you were 37 seconds ahead of the first non-McLaren car When you reflect on the weekend as a whole OP: Celebrations – that’s definitely top of the list at the moment but yesterday I was pretty frustrated with my performance but I think the likelihood of winning many races [after] qualifying fourth is pretty low but there was definitely some good fortune there as well I don’t want to rely on that every single Sunday this is the exception to the pace we’ve had this year but the pace we had today from lap one it felt like was unexpected I’ll definitely take the performance and we’ll try and work out how to do that every weekend but there’s still definitely things to work on from a personal side and from a team point of view Q: What part of the racetrack was the car particularly strong on here In qualifying we were not the quickest in the high-speed corners I think generally in the low-speed corners is where we seemed quite good this weekend and looking after the tyres becomes more important That’s probably been a strength of ours so far this year This has been the first very hot race we’ve had in terms of track temperature but the track temperature today was the highest we’ve had all year How difficult was it to work your way through from P6 I never wanted to let Oscar get too far out of my sights but I had to put up a good challenge in the first quarter or third of the race trying to get past the Mercedes but I made my way through reasonably quickly I think Q: And can we get your thoughts on the battle with Verstappen today Q: (Ticiano Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro) Oscar thinking about this race and the whole season what do you think is going to be harder: to overtake Max or to keep Lando behind you our two cars were clearly the best in the field by some margin being his teammate now for a couple of years it’s clearly going to be a strong fight between Lando and I Q: (Holly Cain – Palm Beach Post) Two years ago How does it feel palpably different to a year ago The determination and the hard work has always been there we knew that things were in the pipeline to help us come back to the front So while we got lapped twice that day in Miami two years ago that was nice for the whole team in terms of finally having a car capable of winning a race again There was obviously the 1-2 in Monza a few years ago but Miami last season was the turning point in winning races because we could be the quickest on track The determination and hard work are still identical just the joy and the celebrations are a bit more frequent Being first now means we have less tunnel time That’s something we’ve enjoyed over our competitors for the last few years So there are going to be challenges with being at the front Q: (Graham Harris (Motorsport Monday) Question for both of you: winning a race with a 35-second lead when should the team stop focusing on this year’s car and shift to next year it will take the others quite some time to catch up There are a lot of other smarter people than me who calculate when it’s time to switch to next year we do have a strong advantage at the moment but not every weekend has looked like this but I don’t expect every weekend to look like this I think we have the advantage everywhere we go We want to make sure we win both championships this year and put ourselves in a good spot for next year Q: (David Neal – Miami Herald) For Lando: After you got into second place I gave it a good shot from when I got into second I probably only stopped pushing the last 4-5 laps The gap went from almost 10 to four or three I tried the whole race basically until the very end To catch from 10 seconds was always pretty much going to be impossible Q: (Ticiano Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro) For both drivers: it’s always tempting to imagine an internal battle between teammates Could we witness something like Lewis vs Nico this year We clearly know that we have our strengths There will be weekends where Lando is stronger We’re very aware of the fact that we want this success for as long as we’re at McLaren But we don’t just want one opportunity at this success We want it for the next however many years and that’s an important and an easy thing to keep in mind for us and the whole team Q: (Holly Cain – Palm Beach Post) A follow-up to that Is it tougher racing for a championship against your teammate We know pretty much exactly how one another drives So from that side you have more information But there are other complications with having the same car You can have the same strengths and weaknesses on track whoever’s in front at the start is probably going to be in front at the end Then there’s the pit strategies and whatever that become a factor when you’re in the same team Cadillac unveil their team logo and brand during dazzling Miami launch event ahead of 2026 entry Williams duo keen to 'play with strategies' as they target strong result in Miami after impressive Qualifying What the teams said – Sprint day and Qualifying in Miami Former F1 and Le Mans racer Jochen Mass passes away aged 78 Sovereignty won the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday overtaking favorite Journalism late in the race to collect a payout of $3.1 million for the winner with a purse of $5 million for the second straight year Jockey Junior Alvarado rode Sovereignty to victory in the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs in Louisville to kick off the first race of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Horse Racing Here is a full breakdown of all the winning payouts and what the top five horses took home for their owners: (Winnings based on a $2 bet unless otherwise noted) The 2025 NASCAR season continued with the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday with Joey Logano capturing his first win of the year It also marked Logano's first victory at Texas Motor Speedway Logano finished in front after taking the lead in the race's final stretch passing Michael McDowell with only four laps to go McDowell crashed into the wall shortly after The NASCAR Cup Series is complete at Texas with an overtime showdown Joey Logano has won the WURTH 400 on May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway holding off Ross Chastain and Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in overtime for the win Logano took the lead from Michael McDowell who led late in the race but made a big block against Logano and ended up crashing on the following lap Austin Cindric won the first stage and Kyle Larson won the second of the race Logano's win marks two wins in a row for Team Penske after Cindric's win in the last race at Talladega Look back at the action with our live updates of the race LEGEND OF L.W. WRIGHT PART 2: The long Talladega con: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk? L.W. WRIGHT PART 1: The long Talladega con: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas: Live updates, highlights, live leaderboard for the WURTH 400LIVE LEADERBOARD: Full field leaderboard of NASCAR Cup Series WURTH 400 Joey Logano scores his first win of the 2025 season The 2024 champion will lock into the playoffs Find the full results here. OVERTIME: Team Penske leads restart for overtimeJoey Logano leads on the inside Ryan Blaney is on the outside of row 1 for the restart to begin overtime Michael McDowell made a wild attempt to block Joey Logano 22 below the white line down the backstretch McDowell got loose coming off turn 2 and crashed into the outside wall and hit the inside wall A strong day for McDowell comes to an abrupt end Michael McDowell and Ryan Blaney are battling for the lead with 10 laps to go at Texas Tyler Reddick spun going into turn 1 after contact with Daniel Suarez Reddick saved it and will be able to continue Michael McDowell continues to lead as the field comes back to green with 15 laps to go in Texas The 10th caution of the race is out for another big crash including Brad Keselowski Keselowski spun coming out of turn 2 and collected the others Michael McDowell jumped to the lead of the NASCAR Texas race after restarting on the front row Lap 236: Caution is out for another "Big One"Carson Hocevar Cody Ware and Ryan Preece were collected in a crash to bring out the ninth caution of the race hit Preece into the wall and Hocevar nearly went airborne from the crash causing his car to point the car toward the right as opposed to straight McDowell is still up toward the front with Ryan Blaney charging hard Kyle Busch was running third when he spun out in turn 4 close to the same bump Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry hit earlier in the race Busch hit the wall but will be able to continue Kyle Larson leads the field to green with Michael McDowell next to him for a restart with 42 laps to go Michael McDowell took two tires on what looks to be the final pit stop of the race and moved to second Jesse Love has spun out and crashed out of his second career NASCAR Cup Series start That will likely blow up the strategy and change the strategy for drivers who had not yet pitted under the green flag Lap 209: Green flag pit stops are underway at NASCAR Texas raceThere is one final pit stop upcoming which could decide the race if the race stays green Ryan Blaney is there for the race for the lead against Kyle Larson toward the end of the NASCAR Texas race Kyle Larson eases past his Hendrick Motorsports teammate with 77 laps to go but there is a big group including Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney close by to contend for the lead Ryan Blaney drove through the middle of Tyler Reddick and Carson Hocevar to move into the top five Mike Joy made a Star Wars reference with "May the Fourth" with a play on words of the famous line "May the Force be with you." Happy "May the Fourth," Star Wars fans Lap 177: William Byron leads restart at NASCAR Texas raceWilliam Byron is out front with damage to his front end and steering as the race restarts with 89 to go The seventh caution of the race is out after a wild crash involving Bubba Wallace spinning into Noah Gragson and collecting AJ Allmendinger Wallace hit the wall in the backstretch then bumped Logano to start the crash Lap 172: William Byron takes lead of NASCAR Texas race, despite contact with Cole CusterWilliam Byron connected with Cole Custer in the pit lane during the caution but still won the race off pit road to take the lead of the race Byron has damage to the right front fender and splitter Kyle Larson won the second stage of the race under the caution following the tire issue for Chris Buescher Lap 163: Chris Buescher has flat tire, brings out cautionChris Buescher had a flat tire but was able to limp it back to the pit lane to avoid the caution coming out one of the shells of the tires landed on the track and bringing out the caution Todd Gilliland stayed out during the caution and has the lead as we go back to green with 34 laps left in the second stage Kyle Larson quickly took the lead away with Ryan Preece second Tyler Reddick third and polesitter Carson Hocevar fourth Josh Berry was driving away from the field hit the bump in turn 4 Briscoe hit earlier Berry did hit the outside wall but he will be able to continue but is almost certainly out of the running for the win Lap 93: Christopher Bell has pit road trouble as green flag flies againBell had a tough sequence with a safety violation then had to pull down pit road again and asked to have his air hose reconnected His team was not able to connect it all the way and had to call him down again to fully fasten it Bell is currently scored 29th at the restart got loose and spun through the frontstretch to bring out the third caution of the race Briscoe tapped Riley Herbst and the outside wall Josh Berry rockets to the lead on the restart to begin the second stage of the NASCAR Texas race Josh Berry won the race off pit road and has taken the lead of the NASCAR Texas race heading into the second stage Berry has a win on a 1.5-mile track this season the first race of that variety this season Lap 80: Austin Cindric wins stage 1 of NASCAR Texas race under cautionAustin Cindric grabbed the lead early in the first stage and held on for the stage win under caution following Denny Hamlin's car going up in flames He coasted down the backstretch after spinning through turns 1 and 2 Hamlin lost power in the front stretch then flames shot out of the exhaust of the car Hamlin was able to get out of the car safely but his 21-race streak of finishing on the lead lap is over FS1 analyst Clint Bowyer theorizes that it's an oil pan failure Austin Cindric leads at Texas with Josh Berry and Chris Buescher closing in to make a run for the lead Lap 24: Scratch that, Denny Hamlin made a mistake with code wordsDenny Hamlin misheard a code word on whether or not he was going to pit He ended up coming around and pitting during the caution and has dropped to the back of the field Tires early in the race are not at a major premium drivers were able to get enough fuel to make it to the end of the stage Austin Dillon did the same and gained 11 spots Denny Hamlin did not pit under the caution and has taken the lead of the race Noah Gragson spun out through turns 1 and 2 to bring out the first caution of the NASCAR Texas race he just got loose through 1 and 2 and he was able to save the car we'll see pit stops which could flip the stage and possibly the race Denny Hamlin stayed out and will take the lead at the restart Lap 1: Green flag is out for NASCAR Texas raceThe green flag is out at Texas Carson Hocevar leads the field to green for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career The fuel window is approximately 70 laps at Texas With the stages just slightly longer than 70 laps look for teams to pit halfway between the stages and possibly twice during the final stage Drivers will need to lift off the throttle through turns 1 and 2 and find a way to not lift in turns 3 and 4 The grooves at Texas appear to go up to the middle lane for the race Engines are fired for NASCAR Texas raceIt's just about time to go racing for the WURTH 400 at Texas Motor Speedway The engines are fired for all 38 NASCAR Cup Series cars ready for 267 laps around the 1.5-mile speedway with William Byron on the other side of the front row Find the full starting lineup here. The WURTH 400 will be aired on the radio by the Performance Racing Network. PRN has affiliates all across the country, and their feed can also be streamed on NASCAR.com as well as the NASCAR app The race can also be heard on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio EXPERT PICKS: NASCAR Texas predictions 2025: Expert picks for Cup Series race RACE ODDS: NASCAR Texas odds: Who is Sunday's Cup Series race favorite DRIVERS TO WATCH: Chase Elliott and other drivers to watch at NASCAR Texas race WHEN WILL CHASE ELLIOTT WIN AGAIN?: When was Chase Elliott's last win in NASCAR Cup points race? Streak began after Texas over a year ago Our team of savvy editors independently handpicks all recommendations Prices were accurate at the time of publication but may change Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday accused Austin ISD of using materials to teach critical race theory His office filed a petition on May 1 seeking authorization to depose Superintendent Matias Segura and school board members as part of an investigation The AG's office alleges the district is using curricula related to the “The 1619 Project," which recenters U.S history around the impact of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans It was created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill in 2021 that banned the use of “The 1619 Project” in Texas public schools and sought to restrict how educators talk about race and racism in the classroom Abbott and other Republicans said they wanted to prevent schools from teaching critical race theory which was developed in the 1970s and 1980s to examine the ongoing effects of racism on U.S In a news release the AG’s office said it was “made aware of an Austin ISD official making statements implying that they were using curricula and teaching material linked to the 1619 Project.” “My office has begun the legal process to depose Austin ISD leaders and we will fully investigate the district’s policies involving the teaching of illegal CRT curriculum to make sure state law is enforced,” Paxton said in a statement “I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that Texas school officials are focused on helping students receive a world-class education The petition from the AG's office pointed to two "undercover interviews" Accuracy in Media conducted with two different Austin ISD employees in 2021 and 2022 The AG's office claims both interviews indicate the district may have an "unwritten policy" to get around the state's ban on teaching critical race theory Newsela gives teachers access to news-based articles as well as videos and the AG's office said some of the content available through the platform is linked to "The 1619 Project." Hawley’s subsequent promotion to the District’s Chief Officer for Organizational Transformation from November 2023 through March 2025 combined with her long history of promoting 'equity' in the District raise an even greater concern that her influence in reshaping the district may have entrenched an attitude of promoting Critical Race Theory while 'staying out of trouble with the Legislature' throughout the District’s policies and culture," the petition stated A spokesperson for Austin ISD said the district does not comment on pending litigation the advocacy chair for the Austin Council of PTAs who is running against incumbent John Cornyn in a Republican primary for the U.S is going after the district to win political points “Ken Paxton is running for Senate and both CRT — this nebulous term he uses to describe any anti-bigotry efforts — and his attacks on public schools are red meat to his ever-dwindling base," she said "This is nothing but a distraction and a waste of public resources." Hoffacker added the district has complied with requirements from the state “His investigation will find Austin has some of the most dedicated educators in the country,” she said a professor in UT Austin's College of Education said critical race theory is not taught in K-12 schools He added that Republican officials have not been able to clearly define what it is "There has been this attack on CRT in schools without really any evidence from any politicians that CRT is actually being taught," he said "This just looks like one more unwarranted attack that's just a public spectacle that will undermine public education even further." DeMatthews said Texas has more pressing problems to solve when it comes to education — from the teacher shortage to improving academic achievement and providing special education services "I think this is just one of a long line of embarrassing moves by the state of Texas to undermine its constitutional duty to provide a quality public education to every student," he said "It's unimaginable that this is where we're at." DeMatthews said elected officials should be focused on increasing state funding for public schools which have not seen an increase in the base level of per-student funding since 2019 Austin ISD is not the only district Paxton has accused of teaching critical race theory he filed a lawsuit against Coppell ISD outside Dallas KUT News has reached out to the AG's office for more details on the allegations and when Austin ISD officials and school board members could be deposed Correction: This story previously stated Paxton sued Coppell ISD last month Get quick access to your favorite articles Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers Make your voice heard with article commenting who came out on top as winners and the losers from the roller coaster ride that was NASCAR Cup at Texas.. Watch: Logano ecstatic after his 'methodical' win at Texas all those frustrating weekends don't matter as he's now one of seven drivers locked into the playoffs What was one of his worst season starts is now another potential run at the Cup for Logano It also continues an impressive streak of Logano winning at least one race every year Watch: Ryan Blaney: 'Can't do nothing right currently' so the pressure is on to finally reach Victory Lane and hopefully Sunday's decision doesn't haunt him as the season progresses Photo by: Matt Pearce Icon Sportswire Getty Images It ended in tears, but we have to give praise to veteran driver Michael McDowell. He drove his heart out at Texas taking the lead with a tire disadvantage and then holding on for the several restarts that followed He was just four laps away from securing Spire Motorsports its first Cup win in nearly six years and only lost the lead after blocking Logano all the way to the apron He literally did everything he could and even after losing the lead which led to him crashing into the outside wall while running third he put on a show that made him a 'winner' this weekend leaving him with a last-place finish and Toyota scratching their heads over what happened Watch: Chastain comments on his 'working-class day' to finish second Ross Chastain is one of the best defenders in NASCAR he is statistically the best restarter in the sport And that was on full display at Texas when a rash of cautions plagued the event in the closing laps coming from outside the top ten to march inside the top five reaching all the way up to second-place by the time the checkered flag flew After starting 31st and scoring no stage points he literally came out of nowhere at the end of that one finishing 24th and clearly angering Preece That's something we rarely -- if ever -- see who was battling for second at the time and having his best run of the year with his new 7-Eleven colors He was confused on the radio when the team asked what happened failing to understand why the car snapped around then but not in previous laps From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport In order to keep delivering our expert journalism we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker playMax Verstappen's exclusive first interview since daughter's birth (1:17)Max Verstappen talks to Ryan McGee in Miami his first interview since his daughter was born Lando Norris said Max Verstappen was "not racing very smart" at the Miami Grand Prix and suggested the reigning world champion destroyed his own race Verstappen defended superbly for four laps against Norris as the pair battled for second place They narrowly avoided colliding at one point Oscar Piastri builds his lead over his teammate after an impressive fourth win of the season.. Norris had also run wide at the start while trying to pass Verstappen, a moment which allowed eventual race winner Oscar Piastri through Norris later said when racing Verstappen it is either "crash or don't pass." he said the Red Bull driver's aggressive approach to their battle was counterproductive "It was fine," he said when asked about it Piastri had managed to overtake Verstappen a few laps earlier although he did not get a move done immediately Norris closed the gap on Piastri after getting past Verstappen but never got close enough to challenge for the win keeping Norris behind or passing Verstappen Piastri said: "Both very different challenges it's clearly going to be a strong fight between Lando and I Red Bull principal Christian Horner said the way Verstappen raced was "brave." "I was actually surprised that Max was able to hold them back for circa 14 laps or 13 I thought it was a very brave display," he said that may be a hurt to our own race because you're fighting hard I thought he did an outstanding job to keep Oscar behind as long as he did and then Lando." Palou began building on his stunning performance after winning the pole position on Saturday, and drove a perfect caution-free race on Sunday en route to his 14th IndyCar Series win and his third in four races in 2025 — a season in which his worst result is still a second-place finish in last month's round at Long Beach "It's probably my best race or my best weekend in IndyCar Palou said during the post-race press conference "Getting the pole when it was everything so tight and then today the fact that we had to run used tires that are used from qualifying but I think everybody that was on the Fast Six was in a small disadvantage than everybody else To still be able to keep a good performance honestly I felt it was probably one of my best races" While he mentioned right after the checkered flag that the race felt "a bit lonely," Palou emphasized the challenges he faced during his Sunday afternoon drive and why it was still very difficult to accomplish his feat at a track as demanding as Barber we always know that Barber is probably one of the more physical tracks that we have I'd say it's the most physically demanding for the drivers but the car doesn't like it towards the end of the tire life." Palou left Barber with a 60-point cushion over Lundgaard and looks unstoppable but he's not taking his amazing moment in the IndyCar Series for granted I'm aware that I'm very lucky to be in the position I'm in today to be able to compete for wins every single weekend I don't know how long that's going to last but hopefully it's going to be a long time The 2025 IndyCar season continues next weekend with the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course honestly Indy road course we've been really Hopefully we can maintain our performance there I'd say it's the toughest place because for some reason everybody has a good car there You have to work so hard to get into the fast 12 The same to get the pole or to stay in front Hopefully we can continue with the form we have had so far this year Alex Palou continues to rule the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Three-time and two-time defending series champion Palou led the warmup for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst on Sunday morning at Barber Motorsports Park a day after he won the NTT P1 Award for the fourth race of the season SEE: Warmup Results | Starting Lineup/Tire Choice who has won two of the first three races of the season The session took place under bright sunshine and air temperatures around 60 degrees a marked change from the intermittent rain of Saturday and the muggy heat of Friday at the 17-turn Colton Herta matched his starting position of third in the final practice Six-time series champion Scott Dixon was fourth at 1:08.2292 in the No Dixon will need that pace in the race to try and earn his first Barber victory as he is starting 26th after an off-track excursion in the first round of NTT P1 Award qualifying Saturday Two-time reigning Barber winner Scott McLaughlin looks to be in good shape for an attempt to three-peat McLaughlin joins Palou on the front row of the lineup Palou will seek his first win at Barber since he earned his first series victory in his inaugural start with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021 Palou drove for Dale Coyne Racing as a rookie in 2020 Gearing Up: Indy Roars to Life This Week with Sonsio Grand Prix Instant Recall: Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Paddock Buzz: Lundgaard Continues Breakout Year with Second Peerless Alex Palou Marches into May with Cruise to Barber Victory Stay up to speed on the latest INDYCAR news exclusive offers and more — delivered straight to your inbox 2025 INDYCAR® is a registered trademark of Brickyard Trademarks Alpine is evaluating Jack Doohan’s position and considering whether a driver change is needed as soon as the next Formula 1 race at Imola.   Doohan’s Miami Grand Prix ended on lap one after contact at the first corner with Liam Lawson who Doohan hit after braking early on the inside for Turn 1 then climbing over the kerb trying to avoid the Racing Bulls car.  It is the latest in a disappointing run of races at the start of Doohan’s rookie season which had actually begun brightly in terms of underlying pace.  But it has also been filled with several incidents He crashed out of the season opener in Australia on lap one in the wet picked up penalties in the sprint race and grand prix in China crashed heavily again in Friday practice in Japan and has now been eliminated on the opening lap for the second time in six events.  That record makes for an early trend of not piecing together complete weekends or delivering on the potential he has shown it was particularly unfortunate as it came in the first race that Doohan had outqualified team-mate Pierre Gasly He is one of four drivers yet to score a point in 2025 Doohan’s place has been at risk since Alpine signed Franco Colapinto from Williams as a test and reserve driver for 2025 Alpine’s executive advisor Flavio Briatore is a big supporter of Colapinto and has been keen to try him in a race seat but there has been division within Alpine on how best to proceed as the preference of others is to give Doohan time Alpine signed Doohan to the race seat in August last year and after extensive speculation at the start of the season about the threat from Colapinto, it was agreed that Doohan should have until the summer to prove himself - with Briatore even expressing that sentiment as of the end of the Miami Grand Prix weekend The Race understands that a change could be made early in the season after all potentially in time for the triple-header that begins at Imola in two weeks’ time.  Alpine said it would not comment on rumours and team principal Oliver Oakes did not conduct a media session on Sunday evening in Miami Earlier in the weekend in an FIA press conference he had slightly equivocated on Doohan's position by saying "as it is today Doohan expects to begin preparations at Alpine’s Enstone headquarters for the upcoming races “It was obviously good to get my first qualifying in front of my team-mate and feeling confident in the car,” Doohan said of his Miami weekend.  “These are the small little wins that we unfortunately have to take from this weekend - but we'll be carrying that into Imola “We have some sim work to do on the car and some sim work to do for the upcoming few races although I feel like I haven't really even done much driving.  “So I will be just shifting the focus straight to what's to come.” Whether he gets that chance depends on whether Alpine’s stakeholders opt to remain patient or give Colapinto a chance after all.  The young Argentine driver made a strong first impression when he joined Williams for a part-season last year and scored points despite his inexperience although did then have a mix of crashes and more difficult race weekends.  He also attracted significant backing from Latin American companies and that has carried over to Alpine which struck a partnership with Mercado Libre in February.  Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF is a Colapinto backer and while it does not have a direct deal with Alpine is now a strategic partner of Eni - Alpine’s energy and fuel partner as of February this year.  YPF CEO Horacio Marin made headlines when he appeared to state Colapinto would be driving for Alpine at Imola while unaware he was still on air during an interview in Argentina - although he subsequently claimed he was only expressing his personal hope that would be the case Oakes also responded to that earlier in the weekend during his FIA press conference appearances "I think it was a sponsor from Argentina off-camera giving his view on Franco "I’m sure there’s a lot of people in Argentina who’d like him in the car this Sunday.  "We’ve been pretty open as a team that that’s just noise.  But it’s natural that there’s always speculation there." A look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway Joey Logano — He was the first reigning Cup champion not to have a top-five finish through the first 10 races of the following season but changed the storyline by winning Sunday’s race The victory is the 37th of his career and it comes a week after his fifth-place finish at Talladega was disqualified for a post-race inspection Said Logano: “I told my wife last week before we left (for Texas) we’ll go win this one.’ It’s just how we do stuff I feel like we come back ten times harder.” Trackhouse Racing — Team placed two of its cars in the top 10 for the second time this season (Las Vegas was the other) Daniel Suarez placed 10th for his second consecutive top 10 Shane van Gisbergen’s 22nd-place finish was his second top-25 in the last eight races Legacy Motor Club — Team had both its cars in the top 10 for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500 dating back to last year’s playoff race at Talladega John Hunter Nemechek finished eighth for his first top 10 since Atlanta Ryan Blaney — Finished third after having failed to finish four of the previous seven races — His sixth-place finish was his second top 10 of the season and his best finish at Texas Austin Dillon — His seventh-place finish gives him three consecutive top 10s — tied with Kyle Larson for the longest active streak in the series after Larson finished fourth Ty Dillon — He was on the outside of the ninth row (18th place) for the overtime restart went to top and was four wide as he gained positions He rallied to finish 12th for his best finish of the season and it comes after fuel issues the past two races led to finishes outside the top 20 Denny Hamlin — Blown engine led to a last-place finish in the 38-car field and snapped his streak of finishing on the lead lap for 21 consecutive races Josh Berry — The Las Vegas winner was leading when he crashed and went on to finish 32nd Brad Keselowski — He was collected in a multi-car crash and finished 28th The former Cup champion has finished 26th or worse in five of the last six races Before the horses race in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday evening Baltimore had an annual race of its own with a poodle a crocodile and other sculptures trekking around the city through sand Celebrating its 25th year, Baltimore’s favorite spectator sport, the Kinetic Sculpture Race Upward of 30 sculpture teams navigated the citywide obstacle course testing their engineering skills and patience The rules are simple: Build a human-powered bike from recycled materials and make it through the 15-mile course in one piece as are bribes to race judges — they’ll be happy to look the other way during a cheat for some homemade cookies or a unique piece of art Participants began at the American Visionary Art Museum and climbed the steep hill at the base of Federal Hill Park where they tested their flotation calculations by doing a U-Turn around the singular pier The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one. they went to Patterson Park to see if they could outsmart the sand and mud pits It’s here where many tears are shed — it’s said you can hear the frustrated screams of cyclists past they’ll make their way back to the AVAM for a celebration and award ceremony ranging from “Grand Mediocre Champion,” celebrating the sculpture that finishes in the middle of the pack to the “Golden Dinosaur,” awarded to the vehicle that experiences the most memorable malfunction Kaitlin Newman Kaitlin.Newman@thebaltimorebanner.com Kaitlin Newman is a staff photojournalist at The Baltimore Banner she has previously worked for The Baltimore Sun and The Baltimore Business Journal Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. 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If the problem persists, please contact customer service at 443-843-0043 or customercare@thebaltimorebanner.com Sign up for TPR Today Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning Air Force Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos have advanced from a crowded field of 27 candidates to a runoff in the race for mayor of San Antonio Ortiz Jones was not available for comment as she attended the Fiesta Flambeau parade coinciding with Election Night "I think now that we got rid of the rest of the pack I think we'll have a lot of allies coming on board who So I'm very excited about that," Pablos told supporters at his Election Night watch party Pablos has represented the Republican party at the state level and Oritz Jones has represented the Democratic party in previous congressional races Both raised much of their campaign money from outside San Antonio and Texas While Ortiz Jones has consistently polled at the top of the pack "We need to work towards those things that matter Tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano garnered 12,178 votes — amounting to 12.05% — and District 4 Councilmember Adriana Rocha Garcia had 9,992 votes Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew reported at a Saturday afternoon press conference that voter turnout was light Total voter turnout including Saturday's in-person votes and early voting was 9.26% we feel like there's a lot of overshadowing by other community events and Fiesta," Carew said San Antonio was the second largest city in America that held a mayoral election on May 3 as longtime Mayor Ron Nirenberg reached his term limit Early voting for the runoff between Ortiz Jones and Pablos will begin on May 27 and the runoff Election Day will be June 7 Gran Turismo 7 Daily Races players have a new set of three events to enjoy over the coming week with the regular cycle continuing to switch out the events every Monday morning There’s a bit of a shake-up in the order this week as the regular Gr.4 and Gr.3 races give way to something quite a bit faster — and a lot scarier — and while it’s still the usual one-make road car race in the first slot it is for a vehicle whose roadgoing credentials are oft-disputed the holder of the fastest road legal production car lap at the Nurburgring Nordschleife with its SR8 the first sub-7 minute car in 2005 and the SR8 LM lowering that in 2009 — on the same set of tires it used to drive from Peterborough to the Nurburgring… It took another eight years before that was beaten In fact the “SL” in its name means “Street Legal” because it was developed with road use aforethought — like the Ariel Atom and various Caterham models — than a track toy with fewer compromises For this week’s Daily Race A you’ll be racing it around one of the fictional Sardegna Road Track layouts appropriately also designed as a road but with racing in mind on a seven-lap blast around the reverse layout of the C variant You’ll need to downgrade the Radical’s tires to Sports Hard for the event which becomes a bit of a slide-fest as a result There’s also two further things to bear in mind here so you’ll need to hold the car on the brakes or handbrake before the race starts or you’ll get an on-the-spot torque cut penalty and Driver Rating (DR) updates remain turned off comprising a five-lap race of the “full” Fuji International Speedway track in the Gr.3 cars It’s the usual free car choice affair though a glance at the early leaderboard suggests you might want something mid-engined here The only thing running outside normal parameters is the use of the slightly stickier Racing Medium tires That takes us onto the pretty scary-looking Race C that means a long track and it can really only be one: the Nurburgring 24h layout a modified LMP1-H does hold the outright lap record at the Nordschleife but this isn’t a natural car/track combination there’s a bit of a mix on the leaderboards but the most common choice is the 2016 Audi R18 — and yes that’s a hybrid diesel so watch out for over-revving it — along with some other modern You’ll also need to keep one eye on the regulations as the race requires Racing Medium tires along with a mandatory pit stop While you don’t need to change tires or take on any fuel you do still need to make a trip down pit road or you’ll cop a one-minute penalty after the race Watch out for cutting the pit-lane entry and exit as well Daily Races are the main ranked multiplayer events in GT7. Your Driver Rating (DR) and Sportsmanship Rating (SR) are determined by your performances, updating after each race, and these are used to set your ranking and league for the game’s flagship esports series each season by completing Menu Book 9 (“Championship: Tokyo Highway Parade”) in the GT Cafe single player hub A PlayStation Plus subscription is required to take part With GT7’s Daily Races updating every Monday across the game’s life to date See more articles on Lundgaard and McLaughlin Celebrate on Barber Podium Extended Race Highlights: 2025 Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Drivers React: Following Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Qualifying Highlights: 2025 Children's Of Alabama Indy Grand Prix Practice 2 Highlights: 2025 Children's Of Alabama Indy Grand Prix The checkered flag is out for the NASCAR Cup Series Texas race Joey Logano won the WURTH 400 on May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway after starting 27th following his disqualification penalty in the last race at Talladega This is the 37th win of Logano's NASCAR Cup Series career Austin Cindric won the opening stage of the race for his first career stage win at Texas The race had 12 cautions and 20 lead changes Here are the results from the NASCAR Texas race race results for WURTH 400 Cup Series raceThe unofficial full running order results from NASCAR Cup Series WURTH 400 at Texas Motor Speedway Gabe Whisnant is a Breaking News Editor at Newsweek based in North Carolina he directed daily publications in North and South Carolina Gabe led award-winning coverage of Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof's capture in 2015 along with coverage of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington You can get in touch with Gabe by emailing g.whisnant@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate in 2026 Kemp, a well-known and popular Republican figure in Georgia politics, was widely seen as the strongest potential challenger to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff He put out a lengthy statement on X, formerly Twitter I have had many conversations with friends and leaders across the country who encouraged me to run for the US Senate in 2026 I greatly appreciate their support and prayers for our family I have decided that being on the ballot next year is not the right decision for me and my family I spoke with President Trump and Senate leadership earlier today and expressed my commitment to work alongside them to ensure we have a strong Republican nominee who can win next November and ultimately be a conservative voice in the US Senate who will put hardworking Georgians first I am confident we will be united in that important effort and I look forward to electing the next generation of leaders up and down the ballot here in the Peach State who will keep our state and nation headed in the right direction in 2026 and beyond." With Kemp out, polarizing firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene could further complicate the GOP's path to unseating Ossoff in a vulnerable Senate seat A new poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, conducted between April 15 and April 24 among 1,000 registered Georgia voters, found that voters preferred Ossoff over Greene by a 17-point margin—the largest gap in the survey—in a hypothetical race with the Democrat getting 54 percent of the vote compared to 37 percent for the congresswoman The result was largely driven by Greene's unpopularity with independents, 60 percent of whom said they would back Ossoff in a matchup, and moderate Republicans, with nearly 10 percent of President Donald Trump's voters saying they would also back the incumbent The same survey found that Kemp was tops among possible GOP contenders leading within the margin of error at 49 percent to Ossoff's 46 percent The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points Newsweek has reached out to the Georgia Republican Party via email on Monday afternoon for comment Senator Thom Tillis is up for re-election in a state that has shown increasing competitiveness with potential Democratic challengers like former Governor Roy Cooper considering a run Overall, more than a dozen members of Congress have already announced they will not seek reelection in 2026, setting the stage for what could be a transformative midterm election cycle with control of both chambers hanging in the balance Senate campaign manager Ellen Foster said in a statement sent to Newsweek via email Senator Ossoff is well-prepared to defeat any challenger our campaign will continue to build insurmountable momentum needed to win next November." Taylor Greene said in a statement to Newsweek "Governor Kemp has been a great governor for the state of Georgia I wish him and his family well in all their future endeavors." Kemp has served as the governor of Georgia since 2019 Kemp was Georgia's secretary of state from 2010 to 2018 where he oversaw elections and was known for implementing strict voter ID laws and purging voter rolls—moves that drew criticism from voting rights advocates He previously served in the Georgia State Senate from 2003 to 2007 Kemp rose to national prominence during the 2018 gubernatorial race, where he faced Democrat Stacey Abrams in one of the most closely watched contests in the country in a race marked by allegations of voter suppression especially given his dual role as a candidate and the state's top elections official Kemp maintained strong support among Georgia's Republican base Kemp has positioned himself as a staunch conservative and signing a restrictive abortion law in 2019 He also drew national attention in 2020 for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic becoming one of the first governors to reopen his state amid lockdowns a move that sparked both praise and criticism Kemp faced significant backlash from Trump after he certified former President Joe Biden's narrow 2020 victory in Georgia Kemp handily defeated a Trump-backed primary challenger in 2022 and went on to win re-election against Stacey Abrams by a wide margin ET: This article has been updated with additional information and remarks Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair Hold us accountable and submit your rating of this article on the meter. Newsletters in your inbox See all Lando Norris emerged as the winner in a dramatic Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix with the Briton making a perfectly timed pit stop during a late Safety Car period to hold the lead to the end ahead of McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri Heavy rain had fallen at the Miami International Autodrome prior to the event getting underway with the conditions catching out Charles Leclerc who crashed en route to the grid putting him out of the running before the Sprint had started And with visibility proving challenging when the formation lap began When the Sprint eventually got underway in improved conditions polesitter Kimi Antonelli lost out at the start to Piastri the McLaren man holding the inside line at Turn 1 to move ahead while Antonelli suffered a wide moment and slipped down to fourth And while Piastri held a steady lead for several laps – amid various drivers pitting for slick tyres in the changing conditions – a chaotic sequence of events later in proceedings saw Norris become the new leader after Piastri pitted a position the Briton held onto as he made his own stop just as the Safety Car was called following a crash for Fernando Alonso With Norris leading home Piastri for a McLaren 1-2 Lewis Hamilton took third place after pitting early in a solid strategy call from Ferrari while Williams’ Alex Albon was initially fourth ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Haas’ Ollie Bearman in the rest of the points-paying positions following the Sprint it was confirmed that Albon Lawson and Bearman had all dropped out of the points with the Thai racer handed a five-second time penalty for not staying above the minimum time behind the Safety Car while Lawson received the same punishment for causing a collision with Alonso Bearman was also hit with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pits with these changes promoting Russell to fourth and Stroll to fifth while Yuki Tsunoda Antonelli and Pierre Gasly moved up into sixth Following just one practice session on Friday Sprint Qualifying took place later in the day to decide the grid for the 100km dash in which points would be awarded to the top eight finishers from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8 The closing moments of SQ3 provided a thrilling sequence of events as Antonelli put together a stunning lap to claim his maiden pole position the 18-year-old becoming F1’s youngest-ever polesitter in the process as he held off the McLarens of Piastri and Norris one change was confirmed to the grid as Yuki Tsunoda – who ended a challenging Sprint Qualifying in P18 – would start from the pit lane due to the set-up of the suspension on his Red Bull being changed under parc ferme conditions But there was further drama to come as torrential rain hit the Miami International Autodrome with the start time approaching – leading to Leclerc suffering a premature exit from the Sprint when he slid into the walls en route to the grid putting him out of the event before it had even begun Given the unpredictable nature of the conditions – with the rain having stopped prior to the 19-lap encounter starting – question marks remained over which tyre the pack would be starting on at the damp track And when the tyre blankets were removed ahead of the formation lap – which would take place behind the Safety Car – it was revealed that everybody had bolted on the intermediate tyres with the exception of Carlos Sainz on the full wets 2025 Miami GP Sprint: Leclerc crashes out on wet track on his way to the grid With plenty of spray being kicked up as the formation lap ensued Antonelli and Piastri reported struggles with visibility in the conditions while replays showed Max Verstappen going wide The Safety Car remained out on track to lead the field around – before a red flag was thrown resulting in all 19 cars returning to the pit lane and parking in the fast lane After that pause in the action – during which the conditions looked to have improved while Sainz made the switch from the wets to the intermediate tyres – it was announced that the Sprint would now get underway at 1228 local time The Safety Car again led the drivers out for another formation lap in preparation for a standing start on the much more raceable track As the lights went out for the remaining 15 laps of racing – with the formation laps having added towards the count – Antonelli struggled to launch as well as Piastri with the pair going into Turn 1 side-by-side before Piastri held the inside line to take the lead while Antonelli went wide dropping down behind Norris and Verstappen in the process The Mercedes driver took to the team radio to suggest that he had been pushed off the track just as Piastri began to build an early advantage from team mate Norris Elsewhere Alonso – still looking for his first points of the season – had enjoyed a strong start to move from P10 to P8 with Lawson also making gains in P9 after starting from P14 “It is drying very quickly,” Piastri reported having now extended his lead to 1.7s – and while his first corner incident with Antonelli was noted by Race Control it was then deemed that no investigation was necessary having been noted for a false start for being out of position – before this also was dismissed as requiring no further action It looked like an intra-team battle could be on the cards at Mercedes with Russell rapidly closing in on Antonelli in the fight for fourth place There was also plenty of action a little further back as Albon chased down Hamilton in a scrap for sixth the Williams driver being followed by Alonso in the process questions were arising over whether anybody would gamble on a switch to the slick tyres – and Tsunoda became the first to make a move diving into the pits for a set of used mediums to reemerge at the rear of the field Hamilton – who had been struggling for grip out on track – became the next to switch to slicks by bolting on the softs with Stroll and Sainz soon following suit for mediums A flurry of action then ensued as Verstappen and Antonelli pitted – only for contact to occur between them as Red Bull released their driver just as the Mercedes man tried to pull into his box resulting in debris scattering across the pit lane while the Italian was forced to continue on to the pit exit There was plenty of action throughout the field during the Sprint forcing him to return to the pits to retire It was not all smooth sailing for the Briton who reported debris out on track following Sainz’s issues with replays showing that the Williams driver spun and clipped the wall Norris subsequently pitted on Lap 15 – just as the Safety Car was called following a heavy crash for Alonso meaning that last year’s Miami Grand Prix winner was able to reemerge as race leader ahead of Piastri Verstappen – under investigation for that potential unsafe release in the pit lane – Albon It was soon confirmed that Verstappen had received a 10-second time penalty while replays showed that Alonso had been tagged by Lawson another incident that had been noted by Race Control and would be investigated after the Sprint As the Safety Car remained out on track for the final laps Norris ultimately crossed the line in P1 to take the Sprint victory ahead of Piastri marking the Briton’s first win since his triumph at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix With that penalty for Verstappen dropping the Dutchman down to the bottom of the order Hamilton followed the McLaren pair in third a solid result for the sole Ferrari in the event though the Thai driver was noted for a Safety Car infringement that will be looked at later with Lawson – another driver who was set to be investigated post-Sprint for that Alonso collision – and Bearman making up the top eight before those aforementioned penalties dropped Albon Norris took his first victory since the Australian Grand Prix by winning the Sprint "My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute so I’m happy," said Norris You box early – it paid off for Lewis and he had a good strategy – or do you stay out later and maybe get the Safety Car I would probably prefer if this happened tomorrow rather than today but I’ll take it A good job by the team so it was good fun." Following the Sprint, the drivers will next hit the track during Qualifying for the Grand Prix later on Saturday, with the session set to begin at 1600 local time. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the Miami GP as Piastri wins in dominant McLaren 1-2 Piastri full of praise for McLaren after ‘unbelievable’ and ‘impressive’ victory in Miami ‘We made it count when it mattered’ – Russell satisfied with recovery to podium after troublesome Miami weekend and after the race went to Overtime for a crash by McDowell Logano was able to hold off Ross Chastain for his first race win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season Chastain finished 0.346 seconds behind Logano Here are the complete race results for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway # indicates Rookie of the Year contender* indicates "Open" entry(i) indicates driver ineligible to score points TOBY CHRISTIEToby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER and outside the Los Angeles Center Studios since they were about to watch the world’s first-ever sperm race that’s what they thought they were about to watch and progressive motile sperm concentration.” Did I get caught up in it too? Yes, I did. In the days leading up to the race, I interviewed 17-year-old Eric Zhu, the co-founder of Sperm Racing “I really think we can be an Olympic sport,” said Sahana Mantha who serves as Sperm Racing’s director of operations when she’s not attending high school in North Carolina and we made a plan to have him shoot a video at the event while I watched the livestream from my home in New York along with thousands of other fans (if fans is the right word) Austyn started asking questions he wasn’t supposed to ask I started doing the same—calling several experts and pressing Zhu on what we had actually seen And we discovered that much of what had taken place at the L.A Center Studios last Friday was not what it initially seemed since they were about to watch the world\u2019s first-ever sperm race that\u2019s what they thought they were about to watch and progressive motile sperm concentration.\u201D Did I get caught up in it too? Yes, I did. In the days leading up to the race, I interviewed 17-year-old Eric Zhu, the co-founder of Sperm Racing \u201CI really think we can be an Olympic sport,\u201D said Sahana Mantha who serves as Sperm Racing\u2019s director of operations when she\u2019s not attending high school in North Carolina Austyn started asking questions he wasn\u2019t supposed to ask I started doing the same\u2014calling several experts Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images The Australian’s third consecutive race win takes his lead in the drivers’ championships to 16 points Piastri was not the only one winning this weekend with prizes up for grabs throughout the weekend on the Race Center Live watchalong.  Winners will be notified on Monday by email Please do join us for the next Race Center Live for a giant weekend of racing across Memorial Day Weekend F1 Garden Gnome F175 Peanuts Mechanics Jacket F175 Peanuts Classic Hooded Sweatshirt F175 Joe Cool Tee Snoopy Plush F1 Garden Gnome F175 Peanuts Classic Hooded Sweatshirt F175 Joe Cool Tee Snoopy Plush F1 Garden GnomeF175 Joe Cool Tee Snoopy Plush Become part of the largest racing community in the United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton has driven more laps than the majority of drivers on the current F1 grid Lewis Hamilton has gone viral on TikTok after posting hilarious onboard footage of the chaotic Miami lego race which took place ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.  For the 20 drivers it was an unforgettable moment at the Miami International Autodrome with the parade lap having been completed in life-size lego replicas of their F1 cars.  with one driver having driven the remarkable machine whilst the other sat in the back and recorded the chaos unfolding around them.  each car was been created by a team of 26 designers weighing 1,000kg - more than a real F1 car - reaching speeds of 20 km/h and actual Pirelli tyres It was potentially the slowest lap in the history of the circuit Hamilton posted a video of the lego race to TikTok which was filled with uncontrollable laughter and crashes Join RacingNews365's Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the biggest talking points from the Miami Grand Prix Oscar Piastri taking charge and Max Verstappen needing to change his McLaren approach are major discussions Rather watch the podcast? Then click here! Sign up for the daily digest and/or weekly newsletter and we'll make sure that you are fully up to date with the latest news from the Formula 1 world Find the latest F1 news and news from other motorsport series at RacingNews365.com the world's leading independent F1 website providing daily F1 coverage Check out the 2025 F1 calendar for an overview of all the races with extensive background and real-time information.  Follow RacingNews365 on your favorite social media channels It appears we have our second in-season Formula 1 driver axing in 2025, with Alpine set to replace Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto from the next race at Imola A driver change in season is always a sad development and very rarely anyone’s intention.  It reflects something not going as hoped or planned there is a particularly cruel aspect in that someone’s dream is over and what they’ve worked incredibly hard to earn is taken away What is earned must keep being earned and F1 drivers are subject to pretty excruciating was a function of the team’s tendency for upheaval.  and his extensive testing programme were all put in place well before the current Alpine team leadership were around.  He isn’t ‘their’ driver. Never really was And Oliver Oakes didn’t even join Alpine himself until the die was cast as Alpine had missed out on Carlos Sainz - with Doohan left as the path of least resistance.   while Oakes was keen to back Doohan as much as possible because that was in the team’s best interest he and Briatore were inevitably going to want to make their own driver choices at some point.  Now that’s finally happening at Doohan’s expense on a harsh timeline for any team except maybe Red Bull To select a driver and only run them for the first six events of a season (and one at the back end of the previous year) without being forced into the situation always reflects badly on a team's decision-making processes But while Doohan deserves enormous sympathy for the sudden interruption but at the top level you have to seize whatever opportunity you get with both hands and make the most of it Doohan has failed to do that and make himself undroppable which realistically was what he needed to do in the early races of 2025 to avoid this fate You can argue that he was being set up to fail but in F1 you are always vulnerable if you don't prove yourself to be a superstar driver and Doohan fell short of that.  it is a shame given he did show plenty of signs of good underlying speed notably in outqualifying team-mate Pierre Gasly in main qualifying last weekend There's no doubt he had the ability to become a regular points scorer certainly at the tracks where the weaknesses of the Alpine package didn't make it impossible and with more time there's no doubt he'd have had some strong weekends Elite sport can be cruel and Doohan has good reason to feel hard done by but the reality is that he didn't do enough to stave off his fate The team certainly didn't put him in a position to deliver his best and Doohan himself knew full well he was walking a tightrope he could have done more even with this narrow window of opportunity We didn't see the best of Doohan this year He will rue the fact that he only sporadically showed the very real pace that Doohan hasn’t made a great fist of trying to seize his chance at the start of this year The team undermined its rookie driver before the season had even started by dangling Colapinto over his head it’ll be able to point to Doohan’s patchy handful of weekends as justification for the switch.  Will Alpine also accept that it didn’t give Doohan the best environment to get the job done due to the circumstances it created around him?  I’ve seen his struggles to look comfortable in F1 compared to the other rookies that have got off to good starts in 2025 but none of those came into this year fearing that after a handful of races they could be gone So it’s not an entirely fair comparison.  The only surprise in this whole affair was the brief moment where it looked like the team had changed its mind and was going to give Doohan at least half a season. What happened with that?  it’s utterly plausible that someone changed their mind based on nothing of substance Or perhaps it was a way to smoke out some more commercial support from South America or speed up any incoming payments from existing arrangements…  None of the above is a reflection on Colapinto’s worthiness for an F1 seat He should get off to a better start than Doohan did let’s hope he’s given more time to turn it around.  Doohan definitely did not make an ironclad case that he was Alpine's best possible version for the long term but there was also clearly no priority given to making this work He was put in an unreasonable situation and couldn't beat the odds I'm not naive enough to pretend this is a novel way of going about business for F1 it is probably no coincidence Alpine team boss Oakes has spent much of this year sounding like a punchier jokier Christian Horner - and it's not like most F1 teams wouldn't discard both of their drivers in a heartbeat if they felt doing so could improve the team situation very funny when you remember the whole Oscar Piastri thing all that hand-wringing about driver loyalty all those quotes from then-Alpine chief Laurent Rossi about how now the Alpine Academy was suddenly maybe not worth it anymore because drivers and their management lacked integrity Different people are in charge now at Alpine they certainly do not have to answer for Rossi's words It's a wider top-level motorsport thing anyway (yes I'm thinking about the whole Alex Palou/McLaren saga) No F1 driver should ever be faulted if they leave a team even if everyone's saying they owe that team a lot They can never-ever hesitate - because team bosses certainly will not For all that Jack Doohan’s likely early exit from Alpine may seem unfair considering some strong potential he has shown we have to remember that Formula 1 is not a charity And one of the harsh realities about life as a F1 driver is that when opportunity comes knocking Just look at how Ollie Bearman’s destiny changed when he pulled off that sublime performance in Saudi Arabia last year or even how Colapinto wasted no time in getting up to speed with Williams in Monza and Baku last year Doohan’s run of seven races offered plenty of opportunities for him to prove to his Alpine bosses that he was the right man to lead them on the biggest ace up his sleeve was incumbency teams do not keep drivers because of their potential tomorrow – they want to see what you deliver today.  a bunch of penalties and that Japanese GP crash (even though it emerged afterwards it was not 100% his fault he kept the DRS open) are the opposite of what Alpine needed which was strong finishing positions and some points on the board There is no excuse that rookies need time to get up to speed now – just look at Isack Hadjar and how Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes on pole position in the sprint race last weekend.  even with the competitive situation of Alpine not being brilliant was make progress and ram home some finishes that showed he was moving onwards and upwards Some of these team principals need to take a good look at themselves and realise they are actually playing around with someone’s careers if not lives They don’t seem to take any responsibility for these rash decisions Liam Lawson was a typical example at Red Bull and now Doohan at Alpine - the management of both these teams made decisions to give these drivers a shot at the big time so they should see that out and give them a fair crack of the whip it’s a bit 'how long is a piece of string?' the drivers have had the chop when at least 50% of the root cause of their failures were actually down to the teams I think they should stand by their commitments and give these guys a chance until they get a minimum of three clean race weekends and then make a judgment and not a spur-of-the-moment decision after a bad weekend As far as the Alpine decision is concerned and its comments over the weekend it shows that Oliver Oakes Alpine’s ‘team principal’ is simply a puppet with Flavio Briatore pulling the strings behind the scenes.  do I think Lawson or Doohan are or were going to be the next Max Verstappen Probably not - but then is there another one on the horizon probably Piastri is in line for that accolade but is Colapinto a step forward from Doohan If he can repeat his early performance when he replaced Logan Sargeant But if he performs like he did at the end of his time in the Williams another Formula 1 team has fallen victim to its own decisions The moment Alpine signed Colapinto as a reserve driver I know F1 is a brutal business - but before Doohan had even started the season he was already under intense public pressure after the team he had been nothing but loyal to decided to put an alternative driver as a potential replacement in the shop window for everyone to see Has Doohan seized the opportunity given to him but Alpine certainly haven’t provided him with the environment to thrive either this is the same team that let current championship leader Piastri slip through their fingers into the welcoming arms of McLaren - so should we really be that surprised Doriane Pin seized the advantage from a dramatic opening lap and fended off pressure to deliver the win in Miami Race 1 from sixth on the grid Ella Lloyd made contact with second-place starter Rafaela Ferreira sending the rest of the field into avoiding action and the McLaren driver into retirement READ MORE: Norris wins chaotic Miami Sprint from Piastri and Hamilton after late Safety Car and multiple incidents Pin emerged both unscathed and up into second fighting back-and-forth with reverse grid polesitter Emma Felbermayr for the lead after the first Safety Car Eventually finding her way through into the lead the Mercedes driver controlled a second restart and ensured Alisha Palmowski couldn’t get close enough to gamble on a move It was a successful day for Campos Racing as both Palmowski and Chloe Chambers made up ground to deliver a double podium for the team F1 Academy Highlights: 2025 Miami GP Race One Standings leader Maya Weug recovered from a disappointing Qualifying in 10th to finish in fourth Williams’ Lia Block took the chequered flag in fifth but was demoted to 10th after receiving a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in her battle with Tina Hausmann through Turns 11 and 12 Nina Gademan made up eight places to classify in fifth ahead of Nobels and Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann Ferreira bounced back from her opening lap troubles to claim the final point in P8 READ MORE: Verstappen surges to pole position ahead of Norris and Antonelli in Miami GP Qualifying Chambers will want to finish two places better in Race 2 when she lines up on pole for her home event Lights go out at 13:05 local time on Sunday (UTC -4) You can read an in-depth report of the F1 ACADEMY Race 1 in Miami and catch up on any reactions on the official website here Piastri wins from Norris and Russell as McLaren seal commanding 1-2 in Miami Grand Prix MIAMI -- Lando Norris won a chaotic sprint race in Miami ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton Norris emerged in front of his teammate after a fortuitous safety car timed right as he left the pits after swapping his intermediate wet tires for slicks who had led since muscling Andrea Kimi Antonelli out of the lead at Turn 1 had to slow at a crucial moment as he approached the start-finish line with four laps left The win will be a morale boost for Norris after losing the championship lead to Piastri at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks ago "My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute I probably would prefer if this happened tomorrow rather than today Lando Norris won the race under safety car. Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesMeanwhile Piastri summed up his feelings on the team radio: "I don't think I will be buying any lottery tickets at this place." Piastri will take comfort from the fact that he only lost one point from his 10-point championship lead over the Englishman the Australian added racing is a "pretty cruel business A bit disappointed to come away with second but that's how it goes sometimes," he said "Hopefully that means I get a bit of luck this afternoon in qualifying and tomorrow another great start and I had to get my elbows out in that one Hamilton also claimed an overdue return to the podium for Ferrari after a brilliantly timed early stop for the dry tire. A prerace rain shower caught out Hamilton's teammate, Charles Leclerc, who crashed out on the way to the grid An elated Hamilton said afterwards: "I'm so happy with that I never thought it was going to rain in Miami It was the first time that we've all been on track in the wet here Hamilton started seventh and was struggling on intermediate tires He made a stop on Lap 12 for soft tires when the track started to dry and roared up the order as a result as did Aston Martin's Lance Stroll who made the same call guys," Hamilton said to Ferrari on the radio late on The changing conditions triggered chaos, none more so for Mercedes teen sensation Antonelli, who had on Friday evening become the youngest person to take a pole for an F1 event Antonelli ran wide at Turn 1 after Piastri's strong start and dropped to fourth "He pushed me off," the Italian complained after the move "Normal Turn 1," Antonelli's race engineer Antonelli's race would unravel further as the pit stops started As he approached Mercedes' pit box to switch from wets to dry Red Bull released Max Verstappen from his pit box -- located right before Antonelli's spot -- at the same time Verstappen made contact with Antonelli's car as he exited forcing the teenager to miss the box and essentially go round again before making his stop for wet tires When Antonelli vented his frustration over the radio Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty for the collision which was deemed an unsafe release by stewards The safety car was triggered shortly afterward when Liam Lawson drove into the path of Fernando Alonso Lawson finished seventh, but was later handed a five-second penalty and drops to 13th Alex Albon claimed a brilliant fourth for Williams ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Stroll but dropped to 11th after he received a five-second penalty for time infringements under the safety car Haas' Oliver Bearman continued his strong form in eighth -- likely to become seventh -- while Yuki Tsunoda put himself in the perfect place to capitalize on a Lawson penalty in ninth position points are only awarded to the top eight finishers The Miami Grand Prix continues with qualifying on Saturday afternoon Qualifying is complete for the NASCAR Texas race Carson Hocevar is on pole for the WURTH 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway after winning the pole during the May 3 qualifying session Hocevar ran a lap of 28.175 to win his first career pole award William Byron is on the outside of the front row to start the race Here are the qualifying results for the NASCAR Texas race Oscar Piastri has strengthened his lead in the World Championship by clinching his fourth victory of the season at the Miami Grand Prix the Australian leading home team mate Lando Norris to seal a dominant 1-2 for McLaren While Max Verstappen initially led away from pole a battle with Norris saw the Briton run wide and drop down the order – letting Kimi Antonelli and Piastri through in the process But as the laps ticked down – and Piastri overtook the Mercedes – Verstappen soon found himself under increasing pressure from the championship leader After Piastri eventually found a way past into the lead a recovering Norris subsequently followed through into second allowing the papaya cars to build up a sizeable gap at the front And while plenty of action unfolded behind them across the 57-lap event the papaya cars looked to be in a league of their own right to the chequered flag where Piastri crossed the line by 4.63s from Norris Mercedes’ George Russell claimed the final spot on the podium in third – despite being a whopping 37 seconds back from Piastri highlighting McLaren’s commanding performance – while Verstappen had to settle for fourth in the Red Bull continuing the statistic of the Miami polesitter never having won the race Alex Albon was an impressive fifth for Williams ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in sixth The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton the pair having been involved in a lengthy team orders debate in the latter stages that saw Hamilton moved in front before the positions were reversed later on Hamilton held onto eighth despite a late-race scrap with the Williams’ of Carlos Sainz the Spaniard remaining in ninth following the incident that will be investigated after the race grabbed the final point on offer in P10 for Red Bull the Racing Bulls driver finishing ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon in 12th and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly in 13th will be investigated for a possible yellow flag infringement after the race There was plenty of action as the Miami Grand Prix got underway Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg claimed P14 for Kick Sauber while Aston Martin had a challenging day at the Miami International Autodrome with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll the last classified runners in P15 and P16 with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson being forced to return to the pits while Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman both sparked Virtual Safety Car periods after stopping out on track with mechanical issues saw his race end on Lap 1 following contact with Lawson the Alpine driver pulling off the circuit after picking up too much damage to continue Championship leader Piastri was in commanding form at the Miami International Autodrome After an eventful two days of action at the Miami International Autodrome – featuring a chaotic wet-dry Sprint followed by a hard-fought Qualifying session – the attentions of the paddock turned to the Miami Grand Prix In a repeat of the heavy rain that had hit the circuit prior to Saturday’s Sprint the heavens had opened again in the hours before Sunday’s race While the showers had ceased as the start time approached – and the track was quickly drying – the teams would certainly be keeping an eye on the forecast for the 57-lap encounter One change to the grid – which would be headed by polesitter Verstappen and second-placed Norris – saw Gasly move from P18 to the pit lane due to the Alpine squad having changed the set-up of the car’s suspension whilst under parc ferme conditions After a unique drivers’ parade earlier in the day in which all 20 drivers got behind the wheel of fully driveable LEGO big build cars the field switched their focus to their usual challengers as the time for lights out neared Once the cars had assembled on the grid and the tyre blankets were removed ahead of the expected one-stop event it was revealed that most of the pack had opted for the medium compound Verstappen led away from pole position as the Miami Grand Prix got underway the five lights went out to get the Miami Grand Prix underway – and Verstappen initially got away smoothly only to experience a slight lock-up into Turn 1 which encouraged Norris to get alongside the Red Bull a moment of contact between the pair saw the Briton run across the apex into Turn 2 and drop a number of positions to end up in sixth allowing Antonelli and Piastri through into second and third The McLaren driver went on to report: “He forced me off” Meanwhile there was trouble further back for Doohan who made contact with the Racing Bulls of Lawson and picked up a puncture The damage ultimately proved too much for Doohan to return to the pits the Alpine stopping out on track which led to the deployment of a Virtual Safety Car Shortly after the VSC period ended on Lap 4 Piastri was quick to make a move on Antonelli to snatch P2 while Norris grabbed P5 from Albon – both welcome sights for the McLaren pit wall with Piastri subsequently starting to cut into Verstappen’s 1.5s lead as Hamilton overtook Hadjar for 11th and Sainz took sixth from team mate Albon It will be heavy if it hits,” Alonso was being told by his race engineer had noted the Lap 1 incident between Verstappen and Norris before deciding that no further action was needed with the same verdict being given to the Doohan and Lawson contact 2025 Miami Grand Prix: Pole-sitter Verstappen fends off attack from Norris who drops to P6 on the race start Russell – who looked to be struggling with his hard tyres – Sainz It did not take long for that to change again as Norris soon gained another position by getting past Antonelli There was heart-in-mouth moment for Alonso who suffered a spin at the same corner where he crashed in Saturday’s Sprint – but fortunately managed to avoid the walls on this occasion further tense scenes were playing out as Piastri set about trying to overtake Verstappen with Verstappen told by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to “stay on the inside” and “make him work for it” “It’s super slippery to drive,” Verstappen reported After the papaya car was initially forced wide Verstappen then out-braked himself and went wide in the process which allowed Piastri to cut back through to become the new race leader And just one lap later there was a sense of déjà vu for Verstappen as Norris closed in on the World Champion – but this time a move around the outside of Turn 1 did not work for the Briton leading the McLaren team to coach him over the radio on how Piastri found a way past 2025 Miami Grand Prix: Piastri powers past Verstappen to take the lead The battle got increasingly feisty by Lap 18 with Norris pushing Verstappen wide into Turn 11 to squeeze down the inside and take the position The Briton subsequently handed the place back – having seemingly gone off the track when making the overtake – but then retook P2 later in the lap became the first driver to pit on Lap 20 to switch from the medium to hard tyres – just as light drops of rain looked to be falling at the Miami International Autodrome Would the intensity of this increase as the race progressed a thrilling fight was playing out for 10th place between Ocon and Hamilton with the Ferrari man eventually finding a way past the Haas to claim the final points-paying position By Lap 24 the order ahead of Hamilton stood as Piastri McLaren looked to be in a class of their own with Piastri leading by eight seconds from Norris while the latter had built the same gap back to Verstappen in third – with the Mercedes pair getting closer to the Red Bull in fourth and fifth Antonelli subsequently dived into the pits on Lap 26 – but experienced a slightly slow stop after having to wait for Sainz to go past in the pit lane seemingly ruining the Italian’s chances of undercutting Verstappen was warned that “possible light drops of rain” could fall in the next two laps Verstappen could not keep the McLarens at bay despite battling hard against both Piastri and Norris The pit stops were soon coming in thick and fast with Verstappen the first of the top three to stop for the hard tyres But back on track Bearman was having mechanical problems the Haas driver pulling off the track at Lap 29 resulting in a Virtual Safety Car being called McLaren then called both drivers to pit in a double stack allowing Piastri and Norris to reemerge in P1 and P2 respectively while Russell benefitted from pitting under the VSC to take P3 from Verstappen Others having a good phase of the race included the Williams team with Albon picking off Antonelli for fifth while Sainz had grabbed seventh from former team mate Leclerc But things were not going so well for Tsunoda who had collected a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane with the Kick Sauber driver told to retire the car after earlier complaining of engine issues The Brazilian was ultimately unable to make it back to the pits and stopped on track meaning that another Virtual Safety Car was deployed an exciting battle played out between the two Ferrari cars and Sainz with Leclerc trying to overtake for seventh – a move that he subsequently pulled off with Hamilton then following through to move up into eighth Sainz was involved in a scrap with former team mate Leclerc A debate ensued over the radio at the Scuderia as Hamilton – running on the medium tyres in contrast to the hards on Leclerc’s car – suggested that he should be let by leading the seven-time World Champion to comment that the situation was “not good teamwork” as he was kept behind After further frustrated messages from Hamilton – who sarcastically told the team to “have a tea break while you are at it” amid a delay in making the call – the decision was eventually made to swap the cars Lawson became the fourth retiree from the race Piastri remained five seconds ahead of Norris in the lead – while Russell was a whole 27 seconds adrift in third outlining the commanding performance of the McLarens as Verstappen was on the chase in the fight for the final position on the podium Albon was running in fifth ahead of Antonelli with Hamilton and Leclerc still in seventh and eighth – and that situation was not settled yet with Leclerc having significantly closed the gap to his team mate Norris looked to be edging closer to Piastri as the Australian’s advantage came down to just over four seconds after lapping some backmarkers Would a late-race showdown ensue between the two McLaren drivers Hamilton made gains after starting from P12 on the grid The stewards looked to be in for a busy evening post-race having confirmed that they would investigate Sainz and Gasly for possible yellow flag infringements after the Grand Prix But there was still plenty of action to be had out on track as the race entered its final five laps with Norris again cutting Piastri’s lead down with Hamilton having been unable to close in on Antonelli the Briton was asked to swap positions back with Leclerc Leclerc had been told of this before Hamilton meaning that the seven-time World Champion had not known he was expected to yield while Leclerc commented: “We’ll discuss after the race.” The drama was not over for Hamilton who found himself being hunted down by the Williams of Sainz A last-lap lunge from Sainz ultimately did not go in the Spaniard’s favour – and will also be investigated after the race with Piastri crossing the line to clinch his fourth win of the season by 4.63s from Norris in a sublime day for McLaren 2025 Miami Grand Prix: Piastri crosses the line to take his third Grand Prix win in a row Russell added to his tally of podium finishes by taking third with Verstappen unable to close the gap in fourth Albon followed in a strong fifth for Williams ahead of the Mercedes of Antonelli in sixth and the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Hamilton in seventh and eighth Gasly and Hulkenberg in 11th through to 14th respectively with Alonso and Stroll completing the classification in 15th and 16th places A total of four drivers retired from the event Bearman and Doohan all failed to make the chequered flag Piastri has now increased his points tally to 131 at the top of the Drivers’ Championship while Verstappen remains in third on 99 points Norris and McLaren CEO Zak Brown were all smiles after a stunning performance from the team "I won the race that I really wanted to," said Piastri but Qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year To come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result Obviously there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 which helped me out a little bit and then I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through in Turn 1 From that point onwards I knew that I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable today." After a week off, F1 will travel to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from May 16-18. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action FACTS AND STATS: Piastri secures McLaren’s first victory hat trick in over 25 years VideoRACE START: Verstappen narrowly holds onto the lead in thrilling start to Miami GP Catch up lap-by-lap on the Miami Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri extended his championship lead to 16 points with victory ahead of teammate Lando Norris Read the report by Laurence Edmondson in Miami How Lego built life-size F1 cars for Miami GP driver parade grabbing the lead late after a Michael McDowell block went wrong ending in Logano's 37th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion locks himself into the playoffs to run for a fourth champion and second in a row Here's the updated NASCAR Cup Series points standings: NASCAR TEXAS RESULTS: NASCAR Texas results: Joey Logano is winner, plus full leaderboard Never before, in modern times at least, has a New York City mayoral race known such a generation gap and a three-term governor with tangible accomplishments does Cuomo’s top rival, as of now, is a 33-year-old state assemblyman named Zohran Mamdani has consistently polled second to Cuomo — if a distant second — and has rapidly built up name recognition through social-media channels Cuomo mostly ignores a proud democratic socialist who has won a bevy of new fans through his witty videos and promises to freeze rents and make buses free and he’s outraised every candidate in the race though the ex-governor can still pound the airwaves with his super-PAC (Disclosure: When I ran for office in 2018 Cuomo and Mamdani couldn’t be more different Cuomo is a 67-year-old white man who has been in the maw of politics longer than Mamdani has been alive He spent much of his career as an executive He has close relationships with corporate executives and real-estate developers; he loathes the progressive left and has made his mayoral campaign a referendum on their policies including defunding the police and not sufficiently supporting Israel Cuomo and Mamdani briefly overlapped in Albany: The democratic socialist entered the Legislature in 2021 representing the leftist hotbed of Astoria and was one of the lawmakers who might have voted to impeach the governor if he hadn’t resigned Mamdani, meanwhile, has spent much of his life in the trenches of pro-Palestinian activism. In the past, he has identified as an anti-Zionist, and he is a supporter of the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against Israel. After the Trump administration tried to deport Mahmoud Khalil the former Columbia student who led protests against the war in Gaza last year Mamdani emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the MAGA movement In New York City, like America, Israel may be the greatest dividing line between voters in their 20s and 30s and those who are older The youngest voters take an increasingly dim view of Israel; among Democrats it’s almost impossible to find an Israel hawk who is overly popular with a voter born after 1984 or so Liberals of a certain generation can still recall Labor Zionism and a time when the right wing of the Israel was marginalized That 2021 primary could have been a generation-gap election, but there were too many viable candidates and the polling remained far more volatile. That year’s Mamdani equivalent was probably Dianne Morales, a political neophyte who excited leftists but presided over one of the more chaotic campaigns in living memory a former de Blasio administration official also gobbled up votes from younger Democrats but she lost out in ranked-choice voting to Kathryn Garcia a relative centrist who won over more affluent liberals largely Black region where Cuomo should perform quite well professional-class voters are registered as Democrats and showing up in primaries Bernie Sanders campaigns taught at least one lesson to these progressives: Better register as a Democrat to matter in New York Mamdani’s campaign will be a test of how far pro-Palestine politics can go in a New York mayoral race It’s not an exaggeration to say that there has never been a competitive candidate like Mamdani in a citywide Democratic primary before; he’s young Orthodox Jewish voters and many moderates won’t go near him Progressives will do anything they can to elect him One wild card that does transcend generations is the Muslim and South Asian vote New York is home to an increasing share of both visiting mosques and temples and touting his work helping city taxi drivers a mix of working- and middle-class Black and Latino voters along with older white ethnics anti-Cuomo candidates can’t perform better Cuomo may also swallow up some of Garcia’s voters in lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn Mamdani has performed as well as anyone could have imagined for a state legislator who is still too young to legally serve as president But whether that’s enough to slow Cuomo’s juggernaut remains to be seen By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York Your hilariously snarky outbursts over the Ferrari radio made the fourth annual Miami Grand Prix memorable for audiences around the world No offense, Oscar Piastri — the McLaren driver has won four of the six races with 16 more to go during the 2025 F1 season The thing about this Miami race: Lando Norris finished nearly five seconds behind his teammate Piastri in second place — and 37 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell in third place Any intrigue for a thrilling finish was gone like Piastri when he took the lead from reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen during the 14th lap — with 43 laps to go That was until Hamilton jeered back and forth with race engineer Riccardo Adami when he had the pace to pass Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc with about 10 laps remaining As Hamilton stewed behind Leclerc without instruction Hamilton said: “This is not good teamwork — that’s all I can say.” When Ferrari finally cleared Hamilton to pass after several laps he snapped: “Have a tea break while you’re at it — C’mon.” Ferrari informed Hamilton that Williams driver Carlos Sainz was 1.4 seconds behind him — get this — after he was asked to return his place back to Leclerc “You want me to let him pass as well?” Hamilton shouted over the radio lighthearted and reflective after the race He said he was even happy with finishing in eighth place — if you can believe that from the seven-time F1 champion — while Leclerc finished seventh And I'm not going to apologize for being a fighter,” Hamilton told USA TODAY Sports “I'm not going to apologize for still wanting it Hamilton said he wasn’t upset at Leclerc or Ferrari His car simply isn’t performing how he’d prefer overall but he felt it “really come alive” after getting onto medium tires He was able to at least see a McLaren car in the distance He thought he had some chance to contend for at least sixth place right?” Hamilton said of his race comments “I don’t know what you’re gonna write — whether I was disrespectful or whatever ...” Insert a gif of Michael Scott from “The Office” with his “thank you” hands directed right at you The Miami Grand Prix race would have ended without a climax if Hamilton’s sarcasm and wit didn’t carry the end of the race from an entertainment standpoint The gap between Norris and Russell was so vast Sky Sports analyst and former driver Martin Brundle said: “McLaren could’ve made another pit stop just for the fun of it It’s also a measure of how difficult it is for Formula One to hold onto the American attention span beyond the fans who already clamor for the sport This is far from a Miami problem. The Miami race has become one of the best on the F1 calendar four years into a 10-year deal. An extension was announced this week for another 10 years of the Miami Grand Prix through 2041 F1’s presence in the United States runs through Miami — just like it does at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin is the moments of pure entertainment are few and far in between They’re easily digested on social media clips instead of a two-hour race unless the novice fan has elevated to appointment viewer Significant intrigue comes at the start of every race around Turn 1 where the pack fights mightily to get out in front Some drivers might overtake their struggling counterparts after the formation line is set Others will swap places after they pit once or twice during the race and finished third in the Miami sprint race But the pressure is mounting after his Grand Prix performances in his first season with Ferrari and seventh again in Saudi Arabia before what unfolded in Miami Leclerc and Ferrari appeared to all be at odds six races into being on the same side The drama that unfolded was sports and reality TV at its finest “I could have said way worse things on the radio You hear some of the things other people said in the past,” Hamilton said You got to understand that we're under a huge amount of pressure within the cars You're never going to get the most peaceful messages in the heat of battle Added Leclerc: “There’s no bad feelings with Lewis All I understand is he wants to try and optimize just as much as I want to try and optimize the car potential.” Ferrari trails first-place McLaren in the Constructors’ standings by 152 points They’re also looking up at Mercedes and Red Bull Hamilton is in seventh in the Drivers’ standings Leclerc (53) and his 18-year-old Mercedes replacement Kimi Antonelli (48) Hamilton’s elusive eighth title might still be elusive this season But he’s striving for a chance to just compete at this point in his transition from Mercedes to Ferrari “I truly believe that we fix some of the problems that we have with the car we'll be back in the fight … It just can't come quick [enough],” Hamilton said “I look forward to the time where maybe I can fight for a podium — and be nice.” The big one that didn't happen at Talladega last week came at the start of the final stage in the NASCAR Texas race when Bubba Wallace kickstarted the big wreck after he slid up into the wall causing Wallace to spin and starting a massive wreck It caused the seventh caution on lap 172 and also involved Noah Gragson Wallace had run in the top 10 for most of the race but returned to the pits soon after the restart William Byron led through the crash and after restart Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.