Verstappen goes from fast to furious to the winner
Mexican Grand Prix is wild ride for Red Bull
Verstappen goes from fast to furious to winner in Mexico
MEXICO CITY – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went from fast to furious to winner. Daniel Ricciardo went from pole position to yet another disaster as engine failure doomed his car yet again.
The Mexican Grand Prix was a wild ride for Red Bull.
The team came to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez expecting to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari for the win in the high altitude of Mexico City.
The 21-year-old Verstappen had dominated practice and looked set to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to win pole position until Ricciardo snatched it away on his final lap. Infuriated, Verstappen returned to the track determined to get the win and defend his 2017 race victory.
“Amazing,” said Verstappen. “To be honest with you, I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
The Dutch driver has two wins this season and five podium finishes in the last seven races. It’s strong run in a season that began with mistakes that cost him potential victories and drew a reprimand for dangerous driving moves.
He slammed the door on the victory in Mexico at the start. A furious jump off the line beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to the first corner, and Verstappen was off and running toward an easy race for his fifth career victory.
Hamilton secured his fifth career championship with a fourth-place finish.
Steve Torrence wraps up NHRA Top Fuel season title
Steve Torrence won his first Top Fuel season championship Sunday during eliminations and won the NHRA Toyota Nationals for his fifth straight victory and 10th of the year.
Torrence beat Leah Pritchett in the final with a 3.751-second run at 326.32 mph in the fifth of six playoff events in the Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship.
“This is a lifelong goal right here,” Torrence said. “All the glory goes to God, my mom and dad, because without them none of this would be even be possible. Every one of those Capco boys on that race team because they put their heart in it and it is hard to beat people with heart. All the boys back home at Capco, we got it done guys. This is unreal. To all those people who said we couldn’t do it, we are here.”
J.R. Todd won in Funny Car, Bo Butner in Pro Stock, and Hector Arana Jr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Todd powered to his fifth victory of the year, topping Matt Hagan with a 3.921 at 318.39.
Butner raced to his second Pro Stock win of the year, beating Erica Enders at 6.657 and 207.43. Arana took his third victory of the year, edhing Eddie Krawiec with a 6.885 at 193.35.
The season will end Nov. 8-11 at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, California.