Roger Diez
It was an interesting weekend in the top levels of motorsport, with a pair of 1-2 team finishes, the second season win for a pair of drivers, and a season sweep for another team.
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The Formula 1 Grand Prix of Bahrain was first up last Sunday, and 2025 is shaping up far differently than the last few seasons. McLaren seems to be the ascendant team this year with three wins out of four races. Oscar Piastri took his second victory, while teammate Lando Norris won the season opener in Australia.
The only other win going to another team was Max Verstappen’s victory for Red Bull in Japan. Norris took third in Bahrain and leads the drivers’ points standings, 77 to Piastri’s 74 with Verstappen third at 69.
McLaren has a solid lead in the constructors’ championship, 151 to Mercedes’ 93 and Red Bull’s 71.
This weekend is the fifth annual Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on the 4.863-mile, 27-turn Jeddah Corniche circuit. Red Bull has three wins and Mercedes won in 2021.
Qualifying airs Saturday at 10 a.m. on ESPNews and Sunday’s race on ESPN2 also at 10 a.m.
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Last spring’s Bristol tire wear disaster was very much on the minds of NASCAR and the Cup teams during Saturday’s practice and qualifying. Maximum tire life appeared to end around 40 laps, around 21 miles.
But warmer weather on Sunday proved the fears unwarranted, with tires lasting much as they did in last fall’s race.
Kyle Larson started third but dominated the race, leading 411 of the 500 laps. It was his second win of the season and his 31st career Cup victory, making him 30th on the all-time winners’ list. Unfortunately, his bid for a weekend sweep came to a halt when he finished second April 11 in the Craftsman Truck race before recovering to win in both Xfinity and Cup.
With Sunday’s Food City 500 win, he joins Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin as multiple 2025 winners. Hamlin’s second place finish moved him to second in the point standings behind William Byron and ahead of Bell in third. Larson is now fourth in points with Chase Elliott fifth. NASCAR is taking Easter off, so the next race will be on the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega on April 27.
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The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was a doubleheader with the IMSA Weathertech series’ first “sprint” race (100 minutes) of the season on Saturday and the NTT IndyCar series on Sunday.
The Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 GTP prototypes started behind a pair of BMW GTP machines, but when the checkered flag flew the Penske’s were 1-2 with Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy scoring their third win of the season. Their No. 7 Porsche also won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Sebring 12-Hour for a perfect 2025 season thus far.
And Long Beach was a double victory for Porsche, as Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar took the no. 177 Porsche 911 GT3R to victory in the GTD class.
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Kyle Kirkwood won Sunday’s IndyCar race from the pole for Andretti Autosport, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou trying in vain to overtake him in the closing laps. Kirkwood’s win, his second at Long Beach, thwarted Palou’s attempt at a hat trick after he won at both St. Petersburg and Thermal. Kirkwood’s first Long Beach win was in 2023.
Team Penske’s Will Power advanced from 13th to fifth, the largest gain in the field from qualifying position to race result.
The series is now on hiatus until the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park on May 4.