Motorsport Roundup: Leclerc, Bastianini And Evans Win In F1 & F2 And Formula E

There was no dearth of racing action the last seven days to satiate that thirst for motorsport. Formula One returned to Australia after a two-year gap, Formula E saw double-header races in Rome, and we had an intensely competitive MotoGP race at Austin, Texas. Here’s a lowdown on everything that went down:

Formula One

Sure, the 2022 Formula One Australian Grand Prix wasn’t the most chaotic of races, but it had plenty of action up and down the field. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a dominant fourth career win after Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen retired from the race due to technical issues. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez finished second, with Mercedes’ George Russell taking his first podium of the season in third place. 

With most of his title rivals having a disappointing weekend, Leclerc has taken a massive stranglehold at the top of the drivers standings, with Russell now second and Perez third. In the constructors' standings, Ferrari continues to hold a commanding lead over Mercedes.

MotoGP

The fourth round of the 2022 MotoGP season served up a cracking race at the Circuit of the Americas. While the factory Ducati of Jack Miller led for quite a while, it was Enea Bastianini, whose superior race pace helped him take the lead with four laps to go and cruise to a second win of the season for Gresini Racing Ducati. Suzuki’s Alex Rins managed to take second place on the final lap, with Jack Miller rounding off the top three finishers. One of the stars of the race is undoubtedly eight-time champion, Marc Marquez, who after being last on the opening lap clawed his way back up the field to finish a fine sixth place.

This win puts Bastianini back into the lead of the riders standings, five points ahead of Alex Rins in second place, and eleven ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in third position.

Formula E

After a long gap, the 2022 FIA Formula E World Championship returned to racing action with double headers at Rome. The entire weekend belonged to Mitch Evans and Jaguar Racing as he managed to battle his way up the field to take victory in both races. In the first race, Evans was joined by Robin Frijns of Envision Virgin Racing in second and the Mercedes of Stoffel Vandoorne in third place. In the second race, it was DS Techeetah’s Jean Eric Vergne who finished second with Frijns in third place. In the drivers standings it is Vergne who leads Frijns by just two points, with Vandoorne in third place, a further four points back.

WEC

 

While there’s still some time for the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship to get underway, preparations for new entrants is well underway already. One of them is ByKolles, who’ve recently revealed and successfully completed their first test of their new Vanwall LeMans hypercar. Expect the driver lineup to be announced as we get closer to the 2023 season.