F1 Grand Prix season wrap up
In auto racing news, the final F1 Grand Prix race of the season was the inaugural F1 GP race on the Las Vegas Strip. After a star-studded party and music performances on Welcome Night, the first practice race was a nightmare.
Under the bright lights of a rare, nighttime F1 race, a manhole cover popped up and destroyed one of the driver’s cars (driver ok, team owner not happy). The entire street track had to be checked and manholes sealed with cement instead of bolts, causing an hours-long delay for Practice 2. Fans who paid good money were told to leave, and F1 got a second practice running much later that ended at 4am PST! This link sums up the fiasco that was night one of Vegas GP: https://www.thedrive.com/news/carlos-sainz-handed-10-place-penalty-in-vegas-because-f1-cant-build-a-track-right
P3 was a relatively clean practice except for a wayward tire that bumped a wall, stopping the race with four minutes to go.
The qualifying races were very interesting! Here’s how it works. In 15-minute intervals, 20 cars start in Q1. The five race car drivers with the slowest times are eliminated. The same goes for the 15 cars in Q2. Q3 determines the top 10 order, and the all important pole position (the fastest driver who wins Q3.) Several big name drivers did not make the top 10, so there were some underdog drivers vying for the top prize on a rare Saturday night Grand Prix. Almost all GP races are on a Sunday, and the Vegas race was the first one such race on a Saturday night. Drivers’ and pit crews’ body clocks were definitely out of whack that weekend!
The race itself consists of 50 laps, and Max Ver Stappen once again won (now with 18 race wins out of this season’s 23.) But we had some major excitement on the last lap of the race to the checkered flag as Charles LaClerc overtook Eduardo Perez in the last lap to take 2nd podium. This F1/GP event drew in an estimated 315,000 fans and generated $1.7 billion over the three-day weekend for the Las Vegas economy. A pretty sweet and profitable debut, I would say!
Here is a brief very sarcastic R-rated for language video of the Vegas Grand Prix:
F1/GP season finale
In Abu Dhabi millions of dollars were at stake for the teams and drivers based on where they end up in the final rankings! Practices and Qualifying went about as expected, with Max Ver Stappen and team Red Bull, again earning the pole position (sigh), with LeClerc/Ferrari second, and Aussie rookie Oscar Piastri third on the grid for McLaren. While Max and Red Bull have already claimed the Drivers and Constructors trophies, this 58-lap race has Mercedes and Ferrari just 4 points apart for 2nd place. Four drivers are within 12 points of each other to fill out the 4th to 8th places, and win the tens of millions of dollars that go to the higher placed finishers.
In a clean, no crashes, last race of the F1/GP season, Ver Stappen easily won his 19th race. It was an absolutely dominant season for the Flying Dutchman, as no other F1 driver has racked up that many wins in one season. Joining him on the winners’ podium were Charles LeClerc and George Russell. Mercedes edged out Ferrari for second place earning $10 million, with McLaren securing fourth place over Aston Martin in the Constructors Cup.
With the Drivers Cup, after Max and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, capturing fourth in that tight bunch up of the four drivers previously mentioned is : A tie! Alphonso and LeClerc, with my boo, Lando Norris a point behind them! The link below shows both the Drivers and Constructors (team) 2023 final standings:
And that’s a wrap on the F1/GP 2023 season. Revving up engines again in March 2024!
Gym Bag Extras
In NFL news, after suffering through a three-game losing streak, a fully healthy San Francisco 49ers team went into Jacksonville, Florida, and pummeled the hot (five-game winning streak) Jaguars, 34-3! They then came home to Levi’s Stadium and defeated the Tampa Bay Bucs, 27-14. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy had a perfect passer rating over everyone in the NFL so far this season. On Thanksgiving night for a nationally televised audience, San Francisco played dominant defense while the 49ers offense hummed along, thoroughly crushing the Seahawks in Seattle, 31-13. Nothing better than enjoying a turkey leg on the home field of your biggest rival! The Niners hope to build on this three-game win streak as they head to Philadelphia to face the Eagles in what has been billed as the game of the season. This is a rematch of the 2022 NFC Championship game (where Purdy injured his elbow and exited the game, and the Eagles eliminated the Niners to advance to the Super Bowl.)
In baseball, the SF Giants have a new manager in local Bay Area native Bob Melvin. He already started filling out his coaching staff with some former Giants fan favorites, such as Matt Williams and Pat “the Bat” Burrell. Now that the coaching staff is complete, we turn our eyes toward President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi. Free agency opens soon and trades are in the wind!
Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously to approve the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas, banking on early January 2028 for new stadium completion. So where will the A’s play between now and then? Stay tuned for updates as this drama plays out!
College football rivalry week
With the 2023 season coming to a close, and final College Football Rankings out soon, it was a wild ride for several teams in the last two weekends. The Ohio State vs Michigan rivalry lived up to the hype with #3 Michigan beating #2 Ohio State, 30-24! The Apple Bowl up in Washington saw the 4th ranked Huskies beat their in-state rival, Washington State, on a last-second field goal, 24-21. The wildest finish was the Iron Bowl, where 8th ranked Alabama came from behind in the final 40 seconds to defeat its rival, Auburn, 27-24, on what was basically a hail Mary pass! Elation and heartbreak all in one play; that’s Rivalry Week in college football. Locally, Stanford is out but the Cal Bears won their last three games, dominating UCLA at the Rose Bowl, 33-7, to become bowl eligible with 6 wins (the number needed to become bowl eligible!)
コメント