Weekend Preview: 9/10 June 2018

Some of the things happening this weekend.

Times are approximate and in British Summer Time.

Formula 1: Canadian Grand Prix

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Iles Notre Dame, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Race: Sunday 5:30pm Sky Sports F1. Race start 7:10pm.
Delayed: 10:40pm Channel 4

Often a great race. Very tough on brakes, interesting now they have smaller brakes and energy recovery slowing the cars. The walls show no mercy which is at it should be, it makes this place a challenge.

The long straight back to the pits was always a great passing zone until they ruined it by allowing it to be a DRS zone, nearly every overtake is a guaranteed success.

Mercedes’ power unit upgrade hasn’t arrived, the Renault unit is down on top end so the Red Bulls may be a little behind. Ferrari still have to execute and not trip up but there’s a good chance of a win waiting here.

Points after Monaco
Drivers:
110 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 2 wins
96 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 2 wins
72 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 2 wins
68 Valterri Bottas (Mercedes)
60 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
35 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
32 Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
26 Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)

Constructors:
178 Mercedes AMG;
156 Scuderia Ferrari;
107 Red Bull Racing;
46 Renault F1;
40 McLaren Renault;
26 Force India Mercedes;

Formula E: Zürich ePrix

Zürich, Switzerland

Race: Sunday, 4:30pm Channel 5 and 4:45pm Eurosport 2. Race start 5:00pm.

This is a fascinating one. The first major league circuit race in Switzerland since the 1950s is the electric series. That’s a big statement right there.

And I have to say as a racetrack, at least as a line drawing, looks very promising. Just 10 corners and a long straight into a hairpin, this looks like it could be a good one. I reserve final judgement until I actually see it on TV! It does appear to have a cobbled pitlane though – that could prove a mistake.

Points after Berlin
Drivers
162 Jean-Eric Vergne (Techeetah) 3 wins
122 Sam Bird (DS Virgin) 2 wins
86 Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra) 2 wins
85 Daniel Abt (Audi Sport) 2 wins

Teams
205 Techeetah-Renault;
161 Audi Sport Abt;
139 DS Virgin;
108 Mahindra;
96 Jaguar;

IndyCar Series: Texas 600km

Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Race: early hours of Sunday morning, 1:00am BT Sport ESPN. Race start 1:30am ish.

Despite a focus on IndyCar for the last two weeks I’ve had to relegate it to last billing of my highlights this week simply because it starts at 1:30am and runs to 4am here in the UK. I’m already committed to an overnight race next weekend with Le Mans which must take priority, I just can’t do it for two weeks in a row!

That said, Texas is often a highlight. What changes will the aero package bring this week? My thinking is a race decided by mechanical grip and tyre wear. How long you can make a stint last on old tyres, when you go for the big boost in grip on new ones, is it better to stop more often to go faster or will the stops cost you too many laps? All of this going on above 210 mph. It’ll be wild.

Points
309 Will Power (Penske Chevy) 2 wins
304 Scott Dixon (Ganassi Honda) 1 win
298 Alexander Rossi (Andretti Honda) 1 win
278 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Honda) 1 win
270 Josef Newgarden (Penske Chevy) 2 wins
232 Robert Wickens (SPM Honda)
221 Graham Rahal (RLL Honda)
197 Marco Andretti (Andretti Honda)