Age, 3rd child not slowing Dixon yet
Ferrari’s unaffected by heat in German GP
Scott Dixon just turned 39 and he and his wife are expecting their third child in December. There are no plans, however, to slow his pursuit of another title.
“You’ll get to a point when you find you’re competitive or not, or the small things start annoying, then it’s probably time to move on,” Dixon said Friday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. “Right now, I feel like I really enjoy the sport. I love it still. I hope it continues for a while longer. I love it, that’s all I can say.”
The defending IndyCar Series champion loves the Honda Indy 200 at MidOhio. He has won it five times, most recently in 2014.
Qualifying is Saturday on the 13-turn, 2.58-mile permanent road course. The 90lap, 203-mile race is Sunday.
The driver of the No. 9 Honda could use a victory to close the gap in the chase for another championship.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske drove his No. 2 Chevrolet to victory July 20 at the Iowa Speedway and has a 29point lead (487-458) over second-place Alexander Ross in the standings. Simon Pagenaud is third (429) while Dixon, second at Iowa, is fourth (389) with 12 of the 17 races completed.
Newgarden, the 2017 Mid-Ohio winner, looks forward to the race.
“I’m definitely a fan of road courses like Mid-Ohio, especially because of all of the fans that show up there,” he said. “There’s always a really great crowd that gets us all really pumped up for the race.”
Dixon, the winningest IndyCar driver with 45 victories, is intent on halting Newgarden’s momentum.
“It’s definitely been a long time but Chip Ganassi Racing has had success here in the past so we’re confident in our team and our car,” Dixon said.
Ganassi has 10 wins at the course, including seven of the 12 sanctioned by IndyCar, beginning with Dixon’s first Mid-Ohio win in 2007.
Formula One
With track temperatures uncomfortably high Friday at the sweltering German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, Ferrari made the best of the conditions by topping both practice sessions.
Charles Leclerc finished ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel in the afternoon, when the Hockenheimring track thermometer hit 124 degrees, reversing their positions from the already scorching morning session.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was third in both sessions, while teammate Valtteri Bottas could improve from fifth to fourth.
“It was extremely hot. I can’t remember the last time I drove in these conditions,” said Bottas, who is Finnish. “The weather is going to be completely different tomorrow and on Sunday, with lower temperatures and a chance of rain. I actually hope for rain — it would be nice to drive in the wet.”
Hamilton won the race in pouring rain last year, profiting after Vettel crashed while comfortably leading.
On Friday, five-time F1 champion Hamilton also struggled to get the best out of his Mercedes.
“These tires don’t like the temperature. They were always overheating, so that’s been the main issue,” the British driver said. “We’re hoping the weather won’t be like this for the rest of the weekend. If it’s cooler and it’s dry, nothing from today really applies and everyone will be quicker.”
Hamilton has won five of the past six races to take his career tally to 80 and he leads the championship by 39 points, with Bottas in second place overall.
Vettel, a four-time F1 champion but runner-up to Hamilton in the past two F1 championships, already trails Hamilton by 100 points and is in fourth overall. He needs a long run of wins to stand any realistic chance of catching Hamilton, but Vettel has not won for the past 18 races.
Another driver with a point to prove heading into qualifying Saturday and the race Sunday is Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly.
The second practice was briefly suspended near the end after Gasly went off the track and smacked into the barriers, mangling both tires on the left side of his Red Bull car.
“We need to get the chassis back and have a proper look. Thankfully it’s not the race engine but it is frustrating to lose a car at that point of the session,” team principal Christian Horner said. “It’s an annoying accident. ... ”