- Formula 1 - Romagna Grand Prix; from Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Practice 1. Friday @ 4:55am - 6am (ESPN2) live
- Formula 1 - Romagna Grand Prix; from Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Practice 2. Friday @ 8:25am - 9:30am (ESPNU) live
- Formula 1 - Romagna Grand Prix; from Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Practice 3. Saturday @ 4:55am - 6am (ESPN2) live
- Formula 1 - Portugal Grand Prix; from Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Qualifying. Saturday @ 7:55am - 9am @ (ESPN2) live
- Formula 1 - Romagna Grand Prix; from Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Race. Sunday @ (7:30am pre-race) 8:55am - 11am (ESPN) live
- IndyCar Series - Honda Grand Prix of Alabama. From Barber Motorsports
Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Sunday @ 3pm - 6pm (NBCSN(HD)) live
- Bitchin Rides. Mon/Tue/Wed @ 5pm - 6pm (MotorTrend) replays
- Garage Squad. Mon/Wed @ 7pm - 8pm (MotorTrend) replays
- Wheeler Dealers. Mini-marathon. Monday @ 8pm - 11pm (MotorTrend) replays
- Auto Mundial. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (MotorTrend)
- Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (MotorTrend)
- Restoration Garage. Wednesday @ 11pm - 12am (MotorTrend) replays
Bahrain turned into the close racing between RedBull and Merc we've been looking for, despite the podium looking quite familiar once the flag dropped. Merc was on the back foot heading into this race having some detrimental effects from the 2021 floor regulations which they have yet to counter with development. The car is much better than testing, but still slower than the Red Bull, which was proven out with Max taking a spectacularly large 4-tenth gap in qualy for pole. The race boiled down to two particular strategy decisions deep into the race; the first was Merc pitting Hamilton for his thirds set of tires to cover off a possible Verstappen undercut which didn't quite pan out (Max didn't stop for another ten laps to counter that strategy) and Max giving Hamilton his position back after passing him off course on the very corner Red Bull blew the whistle on Merc for taking advantage of most of the race. The latter became the big discussion point as you'll see in the recap below. However the ability of Hamilton to hold off Max with ten-lap older tires and a slower car for the last handful of laps of the race was impressive to say the least. Also, Perez had an electrical problem in the formation laps which forced him to start from pit lane -- he overcame that better than expected and took sixth, but he wasn't in the strategy to counter Valtteri because he was out of the mix all race, so once again Max was racing by himself. In the end, Hams took the win, Max came in a close second and Valtteri took third. Sound familiar? In other action the rookie Tsunoda is officially fast. Alpha Tauri was fast all weekend to be frank, but had difficulties on race day and Tsunoda finished 9th, but in the points; the only points for the team with Gasly's DNF. Also, Aston Martin didn't look great, also struggling with the new regulations, Vettel looking even worse after getting caught up in yellow flag drama during qualy and not slowing down. Lando and Danny did well, taking 4th and 7th respectively and Leclerc took 6th, staying up in the mid-field per usual. Sainz took 8th so he did decently on his debut given Charles is the benchmark. Lance took the final points spot in tenth for Aston Martin's first race. There's a lot to unpack here; Merc have to get some downforce back in the rear of the car, but still have the best pair of cars/drivers to score the most points until otherwise proven. Red Bull have to get past the electrical gremlins (Max was also dealing with some odd power delivery problem, sound familiar?) to be more consistent on Sunday. We'll be in Italy this weekend so it'll be interesting to see if Ferrari can make a strong showing now that they have their powerunit sorted out relative to last season. It'll also be good to see who can make the next best step forward between the top teams. I usually list the drivers standings at this point of the post, but I'll start that later in the season.
Enjoy your motorsport weekends.
Video courtesy of Formula1.
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