Porsche does have a fairly substantial history in Formula 1, most notably with McLaren in the 1980s. Porsche provided turbo engines to McLaren that were co-branded with TAG. Had the relationship with Red Bull gone through, it would have reunited Porsche and TAG Hauer.
Porsche's last time in Formula 1 as an engine supplier came in 1991 with their Porsche 3512
engine with the Footwork team. It ended up being a nightmare as the V12 engine was far too heavy and underpowered. As a result, the engine only qualified five of 12 possible attempts and never finished a grand prix before Footwork ditched the Porsche V12 in favor of a Ford DFR V8.
- In Free Practice No. 1 at Monza, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest with a lap at 157.262 mph. He was .077 seconds quicker than teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. Mercedes' George Russell was third, then Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Verstappen had set the fastest first two sectors of the entire session with about 25 minutes to go on one particular lap, but
got held up by McLaren's Lando Norris.
There were no red flags during the session, but Sergio Perez had a DRS issue that limited his speed. As a result, he ended up 14th.
Sainz was fastest in Free Practice No. 2 with a lap at 158.699 mph in his
Ferrari. He was .143 seconds quicker than Verstappen. Leclerc was third fastest, then Norris and Russell.
Haas F1's Mick Schumacher stopped on-track during the session with a power unit issue and was limited to nine laps
on-track.
- At Fuji Speedway, Toyota GAZOO Racing's Sebastien Buemi was fastest overall in FIA World Endurance Championship Free Practice No. 1 with a lap at 111.943 mph Thursday night. Buemi's lap was nearly a quarter of a second faster than teammate Mike Conway. Peugeot
TotalEnergies' James Rossiter was third, then Paul Di Resta in the second Peugeot. Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre was fifth.
In LMP2, AF Corse's Nicklas Nielsen was fastest in class with a lap at 110.187. This was sixth overall and fastest in the Pro-Am subclass.
Nielsen was nearly a quarter of a second faster than United Autosports' Alexander Lynn. Teammate Filipe Albuquerque was third, then JOTA Sport's Ed Jones and Team WRT's Robin Frijns.
AF Corse's James Calado was fastest in GTE-Pro with a lap at 104.438 mph in his Ferrari. He was
.169 seconds faster than Porsche GT Team's Michael Christensen. Teammate Richard Lietz was third, while Antonio Fuoco was fourth. Corvette Racing's Nick Tandy rounded out the top five.
GTE-Am was topped by the Porsche of Team Project 1's Matteo Cairoli with a lap at 103.024
mph. This was a mere .003 seconds quicker than the Aston Martin of D'Station Racing's Tomonobu Fujii. Northwest AMR's David Pittard was third, then the Ferraris of Giancarlo Fisichella and Gabriel Aubry.
Free Practice No. 2 on Friday afternoon in Fuji (the wee hours of early Friday
morning due to the 13-hour time difference) saw the speeds increase. Kamui Kobayashi was fastest with a lap at 113.466 mph, the only driver to complete a lap in under 90 seconds. Kobayashi's lap was .225 seconds faster than teammate Brendon Hartley. Peuegot's Loic Duval was third, then Lapierre and Jean-Eric Vergne.
LMP2 had JOTA Sport's Antonio Felix da Costa go fastest with a lap at 110.513 mph. This lap was .142 seconds quicker than Jones. Albuquerque was third, then Nielsen and Frijns.
AF Corse's Alessandro Pier Guidi
was fastest in GTE-Pro with a lap at 104.482 mph. The lap was .164 seconds faster than Porsche GT Team's Gianmaria Bruni, followed by teammate Kevin Estre. Miguel Molina was fourth, then Tommy Milner.
GTE-Am was led by Michele Gatting in the "Iron Dames" Ferrari with a lap at
102.914 mph. The lap was only .015 seconds faster than teammate Fisichella in the regular Iron Lynx No. 60. Fisichella's lap was tied to the thousandth of a second with TF Sport's Marco Sorensen. AF Corse's Davide Rigon was fourth, then Cairoli.
- World of Outlaws NOS Energy
Drink Sprint Car Series teams are in Chico, Calif. for the first night of the 68th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. Kyle Larson, who is the co-promoter of Silver Dollar Speedway these days, spent the race dueling with Ryan Timms. He finally got in front of the 16-year-old racer for good on lap 25 and held on to take the victory.
Timms ended up second, while James McFadden drove up from 11th to finish third. Co-promoter Brad Sweet was fourth, while Kalib Henry was fifth.
