Motorsport Roundup: F1, WEC, F1 And F3 Season Openers, And A Wet MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix

The last seven days saw no dearth of racing action with season openers from Formula One, WEC, Formula 2 and Formula 3. In the world of two wheels, Indonesia’s debut MotoGP grand prix was certainly a classic with wet weather spicing things up. Here’s everything that transpired:

Formula One 

The 2022 Formula One season officially kicked off in Bahrain, and it couldn’t have begun a new era of technical regulations on a more thrilling note. After a long wait, Scuderia Ferrari were back to winning ways with Charles Leclerc after a tense scrap with reigning drivers’ champion, Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing. That being said, the latter suffered a late race DNF, which meant Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, made it a Ferrari 1-2 finish. This also meant seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished a fortunate third for Mercedes.  

MotoGP 

Indonesia had quite the debut on the MotoGP calendar with wet weather adding a bit of spice to proceedings. Despite the delay to get the race going, the wait was worth it, as the factory KTM of Miguel Oliveira managed a controlled ride to take the win. Reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo had a brilliant recovery ride to finish second for Yamaha, with the Pramac Ducati of Johann Zarco rounding off the top three runners.

Formula 2

 

Jehan Daruvala’s third season in Formula 2, and his first for Prema Racing, got off on a mixed note. While the Indian driver scored a strong second place finish in the sprint race, a messy feature race meant he finished in 14th position. Daruvala currently lies ninth in the drivers’ standings.

Formula 3

Kush Maini seemed to have a dream start to his rookie F3 campaign, qualifying third. But a costly error in missing the weighbridge meant the MP Motorsport driver was disqualified and had to start at the back of the grid in both races. Nonetheless, the Indian driver showed strong racecraft to recover to 15th place in the first race, and 17th in the second race after starting 30th and last.

WEC

The 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship season kicked off at the 1000 Miles of Sebring, and it served up quite the surprise.  After multiple red flag incidents, due to thunderstorms as well as a massive Toyota supercar crash, it was Alpine that took a shock win in the hypercar class with the no. 36 trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao. The no. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing of Sebatien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Rio Hirakawa, finished second with the no. 708 Glickenhaus of Olivier Pia, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe finished third. 

The coming week will have the second round of Formula One, and Formula 2 will take place at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.