Castroneves on Long Beach pole
Helio Castroneves won the pole at Long Beach for the third consecutive year.
The Team Penske driver held off five Hondas to secure the top starting spot Sunday on the temporary street course through Long Beach, Calif. He had the only Chevrolet in the final round of qualifying, and needed a track record lap of 1 minute, 06.22 seconds to win the pole.
Penske drivers have won seven of the past nine poles at Long Beach, and the run Saturday was the 48th career pole for Castroneves. He’s seeking his first IndyCar Series victory since 20014.
Scott Dixon qualified second for Chip Ganassi Racing and was followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport and James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports.
Alexander Rossi was fifth for Andretti, and Graham Rahal from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing rounded out the top six. Honda drivers took spots two through six in qualifying.
Formula One
Faced with a spirited challenge at the start of the F1 season from a resurgent Ferrari, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton showed Saturday that he’s still the driver to beat. Hamilton captured his sixth pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix, edging Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by less than two-tenths of a second.
For the second race in a row, Hamilton also did it in record time. His lap of 1 minute, 31.678 seconds broke the 13-year-old circuit mark held by Michael Schumacher by more than half a second.
Xfinity Series
Erik Jones led 112 of 200 laps to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Jones, 20, got his seventh career win in the second-tier series, getting this one at the 1½-mile track where he first got to Victory Lane two years ago. Jones finished the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing a halfsecond ahead of Ryan Blaney, another full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver. Blaney led 43 laps before Jones took the lead for good on lap 156.
Elsewhere
Mario Andretti will get back into a race car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to go head-to-head in semi-autonomous vehicles against paralyzed former driver Sam Schmidt. The race is May 13 on the Indy road course.