Stroll at home at the Canadian Grand Prix
MONTREAL — If Lance Stroll felt any jitters during his first laps around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, they didn’t show on the 18-year-old Formula 1 rookie.
Stroll, a Montreal native driving for the Williams team, posted the 17th-best time in a pair of 90-minute practice sessions on Friday that were dominated by the leading Ferrari and Mercedes AMG teams.
“There are always a bit of nerves but not on Friday, just on Saturday (in qualifying) and Sunday (in the race),” said Stroll. “But it’s positive nerves.
“Those are the nerves that get me going, so it’s good.”
Ferrari veteran Kimi Raikkonen, coming off a second-place finish behind teammate Sebastian Vettel two weeks ago in Monaco, posted the fastest lap of one minute 12.935 seconds on the 4.361-km track. The Finn was 0.215 seconds better than twotime defending champion Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Formula 1 leader Vettel was third at 1:13.200, with Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes AMG fourth at 1:13.310.
Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was best among the rest at 1:13.338, even though his car stopped on the track with 17 minutes left.
Stroll is gunning for a top-10 finish, which would bring his first F1 points. He was able to finish only two of six races so far, with his best result an 11th at the Russian GP.
Ferrari has a slight edge on Mercedes AMG so far in both the constructors standings and the drivers table, where Vettel leads Hamilton by 25 points.
Hamilton has won five Canadian Grand Prix, starting in 2007, which is second only to Michael Schumacher’s seven titles.
Kyle Busch turns fastest lap at Pocono for 2nd straight pole
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch turned a lap of 179.151 mph to win the pole at Pocono Raceway.
Busch had the fastest lap Friday to win a NASCAR Cup pole for the second straight week. Busch also won the pole at Dover International Speedway.
Busch’s run at Dover was derailed when a tire came off the No. 18 Toyota during a pit stop. Busch crew chief Adams Stevens, tire carrier Kenny Barber and tire changer Jake Seminara were suspended four races for the infraction and will not be at Pocono. Race engineer Ben Beshore is the interim crew chief.
Busch has won races at every active Cup track except Pocono and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Martin Truex Jr. starts second and Matt Kenseth third for a 1-2-3 start for Toyota. Ryan Blaney was fourth, followed by Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski, all Ford drivers.
Darrell Wallace Jr. starts 16th in the No. 43 Ford. He’s the first black driver in a Cup race since 2006.
Kimball’s 1st IndyCar pole comes with record run at Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas — Charlie Kimball earned his first IndyCar Series pole with a two-lap average speed of 222.556 mph at the repaved and reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway.
Kimball’s run Friday was more than 3 mph faster than the previous two-lap qualifying record at Texas. Will Power averaged 219.182 mph four years ago. Kimball’s first pole comes in his 109th career start.