Baku GP – Syndication Server

‘Tipped it over the edge’: Verstappen says setup error cost him front row chance

Max Verstappen admitted his lackluster sixth-place qualification in Baku is down to ill-advised setup changes made before qualifying. Sixth is Verstappen’s second-worst qualifying result of the season, equaling the same result in Monaco and better …

Max Verstappen admitted his lackluster sixth-place qualification in Baku is down to ill-advised setup changes made before qualifying.

Sixth is Verstappen’s second-worst qualifying result of the season, equaling the same result in Monaco and better than only his seventh in Italy two weeks ago. It’s also the first grand prix since Miami last year that Verstappen has been outqualified by teammate Sergio Perez.

A positive practice campaign had many expecting Red Bull Racing to be a protagonist in the battle for pole, but the RB20’s forecast speed never materialized, leaving Verstappen 0.658s off the pace, albeit with Perez 0.21s further up the road. The defending champion said some setup tweaks made for qualifying were to blame for the turnaround, having rendered the car almost undrivable.

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“As soon as I went out in Q1, the first lap, I just felt the car took a step back,” he said. “I was not happy with the car already from lap 1, Q1, so it was going to be a tough qualifying regardless.

“We made some changes. The car became incredibly unpredictable, difficult, just because of the changes that we made. We changed some things around and the car started jumping around a lot and you lose the contact patch with the tarmac.”

Verstappen said he never felt confident enough in the car to chase a more competitive lap time.

“My first run in Q3, I lost it into the last corner; otherwise you’re fighting for P2, P3,” he said. “You still have a run, you can still improve the lap time. I just didn’t have the feeling in the car. I never felt comfortable, as the car was difficult. When you’re not comfortable, you can’t attack corners.”

Despite the poorly judged changes and the underwhelming result, the Dutchman was buoyed by the fact the team at least had made progress with its car since its season-worst performance in Italy.

“We did improve the car,” he said. “I think the balance disconnect [improved]. Naturally, it’s to do with the track of course. We’re still working on fine-tuning that from now on, trying to get the balance disconnect more together.

“But now with the setup, we tried to perfect it, make a few things better, but unfortunately it went the other way. I’m a bit disappointed with that, as you always try to optimize things and make it better. Unfortunately I think we just tipped it over the edge. A shame that happened into qualifying.”

If there’s a silver lining for the title leader, it’s that championship rival Lando Norris qualified a disastrous 17th. The McLaren driver needs to outscore Verstappen by just under eight points per round to pinch the championship in the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Continuing that trend with Verstappen finishing where he starts in sixth would require Norris to recover 15 places to second.

The circumstances therefore allow Verstappen to deal Norris’s fledgling title ambitions a major blow without needing a headline result for himself, although the Dutchman insisted he remained focused on getting the most out of himself rather than on a potential title challenge.

“I still want to do well myself, and today was a bad day,” he said.

McLaren expecting FIA talks over flag fracas that KO’d Norris

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes trackside marshals made a mistake in showing Lando Norris yellow flags on his final flying lap in Q1 that resulted in him being knocked out of qualifying and in 17th place on the starting grid. Norris …

Norris had slipped into the drop zone in a surprisingly competitive opening segment to qualifying but was on course to comfortably progress to Q3 as he exited Turn 15. A small mistake at the final braking zone, Turn 16, had him sail wide over the exit curbs, costing him considerable time launching onto the 1.4-mile front straight.

Onboard footage then shows Norris lifting through the flat-out Turn 17-18 chicane as he passes the slow-moving Esteban Ocon, who was travelling well off the race line with a puncture.

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Ordinarily, cars returning to pit lane off the race line are covered with waved white flags, notifying drivers of a slow-moving vehicle but not requiring them to take avoiding action.

“Lando had a little mistake out of the last corner, but above all we found in the high-speed chicane a yellow flag and he decided to abort the lap,” Stella told SiriusXM. “The yellow flag is due to Ocon going slowly, but for such a situation we don’t think that a yellow flag is required, because he is going at a slow pace but there is no risk for anybody. It is like when someone is on an in-lap and they are going slowly.

“I think for this kind of situation a yellow flag is not required.”

Stella said he expected the FIA upon reflection to agree that yellows had been shown to Norris in error.

“In terms of what we can do, we can have a discussion with the FIA, we can review it together and support the FIA,” he said. “Here everyone is trying their best, and we are not upset with anybody; it’s just unfortunate.

“I’m pretty sure the FIA may acknowledge that the yellow flag wasn’t required and maybe there was a marshal that was too eager. It’s a bit unfortunate that we had this yellow flag deployed, and this caught Lando in his important lap to go through Q1.

“I don’t think we can do anything about it. We just have to accept it, reprogram and go on a mission tomorrow to score as many points as possible with Lando — and obviously capitalize on the good and strong qualifying of Oscar [Piastri] today.”

The strange confluence of events that dumped Norris out in the bottom five was particularly costly in his pursuit of Max Verstappen’s 62-point championship lead. Piastri qualified second behind pole-getter Charles Leclerc, while Verstappen endured another forgettable qualifying session that left him sixth and outqualified by teammate Sergio Perez for the first time this season.

Stella said Norris’s focus would be on sneaking into the top 10 to minimize Verstappen’s chance of doing serious damage to the Briton’s title chances.

“It looked like Red Bull were going to be pretty strong, but in qualifying somehow they didn’t capitalize on the hints of very strong performance they saw yesterday,” he said. “They are Red Bull, and when we talk about Red Bull we can never assume they will be an easy target. They can race at a very high level, and I think potentially it could just be exploitation of the new tires and they surely will have a very strong race pace.

“With Lando, if we get within the radar of a Red Bull, it means the race has gone very well. I would above all think of trying to score some points — and then here in Azerbaijan you have red flags, you have safety cars, and definitely you need to enter the race with the mindset that all is possible, and we want to take the opportunities that come to us.”

Leclerc wins Baku pole, Norris 17th after Q1 miscue

Charles Leclerc beat Oscar Piastri to pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after title contender Lando Norris was shockingly knocked out of qualifying in 17th. McLaren’s admission earlier this week that it would bias its operations to benefit …

Charles Leclerc beat Oscar Piastri to pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after title contender Lando Norris was shockingly knocked out of qualifying in 17th.

McLaren’s admission earlier this week that it would bias its operations to benefit Norris’s bid to close his 62-point deficit to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship was thrown for a loop by a bizarre case of confusion over yellow flags on the Briton’s final flying lap.

A rapidly evolving track meant earlier laps were quickly rendered obsolete, dumping Norris into the drop zone as the checkered flag fell. He was on track to improve enough to make it through to Q2, but a wide moment exiting Turn 16 coincided with what Norris appeared to think was a yellow flag, only for television replays to reveal it was a white flag warning of a slow-moving Esteban Ocon far off the racing line.

Norris nonetheless boxed rather than completing his lap, condemning him to 17th on the grid.

“Mate, I’m sorry,” his engineer, Will Joseph, radioed as he entered the lane.

It was a particularly costly mistake given Verstappen and Red Bull Racing again failed to fire in the battle for pole, with the Dutchman no match for the pole-bound Leclerc. The Ferrari driver was peerless over a single lap, building progressively through the hour before unleashing in Q3 to set the benchmark at an unassailable 1m41.365s, gapping the field by 0.321s to claim his fourth successive Baku pole.

“It’s one of my favorite tracks of the season,” he said of the unusual street circuit. “I really like it.

“The pace was always there, and then in qualifying and Q3 it was all about trying to stay as far as possible out of the walls. The last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came really nicely. The car felt really good and everything felt great. It’s amazing to be on pole.”

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Piastri in second demonstrated what could have been for Norris had he made it through to Q3, setting himself up on the front row.

“I just tried to really get the most out of it,” he said. “This track really rewards commitment. The last laps in Q3 I knew I had a lot less to lose, so I just tried to maximize the car.

“I was feeling good all the way through. I’m very happy with Q3.”

Carlos Sainz made it a Ferrari one-three result, lapping 0.44s slower than Leclerc but crucially earning the team what could be a critical strategic advantage against Piastri in the race.

“I think we had a solid quali day in general with two cars,” he said. “We’ve put ourselves in a very good position for tomorrow. To be P3 is a good position for tomorrow, as also my race pace yesterday seemed strong, so all to play for.”

Sergio Perez outqualified teammate Verstappen for the first time this season, putting his car fourth and 0.448s off the pace on another difficult afternoon for Red Bull Racing, which never looked in the battle for pole.

Verstappen, who complained early in qualifying of a bouncing rear axle, was sixth fastest and 0.21s slower than Perez, with George Russell splitting the teammates for Mercedes in fifth. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, followed in seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso in eighth.

Franco Colapinto was superb in his second appearance for Williams, qualifying ninth and handing teammate Alex Albon his first grand prix qualifying defeat of the year. Albon, however, failed to set his final lap after his team bizarrely forgot to remove the fan from his roll hoop airbox before sending him out onto the track.

Albon was forced to stop at pit exit, where he removed the fan himself and discarded it by the side of the road, but by the time he got going again he’d missed his chance to start his lap before the session ended, leaving him 10th and under post-session investigation for an unsafe release.

Oliver Bearman was enormously impressive in his second-ever F1 qualifying session and first for Haas to put himself 11th on the grid and 0.223s ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who was three places further back. There could have been more on the table for the Briton too, with a lock-up on his final lap costing him a better time.

Yuki Tsunoda qualified 12th for RB ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg, with Lance Stroll ending Q2 slowest in 15th.

Daniel Ricciardo was pipped for a spot in Q2, leaving him 16th ahead of Norris.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu qualified 18th and 19th respectively, though Zhou will be demoted to 20th behind Esteban Ocon with a power unit penalty.

Perez feeling ‘definitely in the mix’ for Baku pole

Sergio Perez thinks he could be in contention for his first pole position since last year’s Miami Grand Prix after one of his strongest Friday showings in months. The Red Bull Racing driver finished just 0.006s behind FP2 leader Charles Leclerc, …

Perez is the Baku City Circuit’s most prolific performer, being the only driver to have won the race twice. He’s also the reigning winner, having won the Sprint and grand prix at least year’s event. But his form this year has fallen well short of that standard, having yet to look close to challenging for poles or victories.

His Friday times were also a marked turnaround from the team’s woeful performance at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago, which precipitated dire predictions for a difficult weekend in Azerbaijan. The Mexican, who has always claimed his struggles are more down to the car than himself, said he was pleased that the team’s work in the days since Monza appeared to be paying off.

“It was definitely a good, solid day,” he said. “I think there is some good pace. We did good progress from FP1 to FP2.

“I think we are heading in the right direction. We’re finding that we can put a little bit more together the car. It’s still a long way to go I think, but it’s promising what we’ve seen so far. We just have to make sure we are able to progress. I think we can definitely be in the mix for tomorrow.

“Tomorrow, anything can happen really. We just have to keep our heads down and hopefully deliver a great couple of laps — well, we only need one really in Q3.”

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Team principal Christian Horner said the RB20’s struggles in Italy had revealed underlying problems the team had been able to address in the lead-up to Azerbaijan, generating optimism that it can perform better than expected this weekend.

“I think [the mood] is pretty positive,” he said. “Monza was a tough weekend for us, but I think out of every negative comes a positive, and the negativity of that weekend exposed some key areas of the car that we’ve been grappling with for some time.

“I think it’s given a clear direction, and so the whole team — from the drivers putting in large amounts of time on the simulator all the way through every single department — are really determined and pushing as hard as possible.

Downcast Norris says McLaren ‘quite a long way off’ in Baku

Lando Norris says McLaren is “quite a long way off” the pace after ending FP2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix without a representative time. Norris was 17th in the final reckoning after having his single attempt at a flying lap balked by Pierre Gasly …

Lando Norris says McLaren is “quite a long way off” the pace after ending FP2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix without a representative time.

Norris was 17th in the final reckoning after having his single attempt at a flying lap balked by Pierre Gasly through the super-fast Turn 18-19 kink leading onto the front straight, forcing him to back out.

Though his time wasn’t representative, the Briton said he’d seen enough from his first two sectors to know that McLaren hadn’t started the weekend in a competitive position.

“We’re quite a long way off,” he said. “I’m having to push way too much to try and get a lap time out of it.

“I think we have quite a lot to find, honestly, compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They’re all very similar, then there’s a 0.4s gap back to us — a lot of work for us to do.”

Norris pointed to teammate Oscar Piastri’s best lap being 0.499s off the pace as corroborating evidence on an afternoon Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes were split by just 0.066s in the top three positions.

“Clearly where Oscar was is kind of more where we are,” he said. “I think if we nail it, we’re just about there, but I’m sure [the other teams are] not even close to nailing it yet.

“People just love to believe that we’re the best everywhere, but we’re not. We’ve been doing a very good job so far, and I think other teams haven’t. We’ve been doing a better job than other teams.

“We’ve always known Ferrari are very quick here. I think with these kinds of track conditions Mercedes are going to be very quick — it’s just very slidy out there; I think we perform well at the higher-grip circuits.

“I’m just finding it difficult at the minute, but we’ll work hard tonight. The car’s still not bad. I’m sure we’ll still get a lap time out of it, but we’re not as clearly ahead as we have been at other races.”

Piastri was less bothered by his deficit to the front-runners, however, seeing promise in his long-run pace and his car’s potential over one lap.

“I think it’s been a decent day,” he said. “It’s a bit hard to know at the moment with the track evolving so much still, but our pace seems in the ball park, I would say.

“Ferrari look pretty strong. Red Bull look quick. Mercedes as well. I think at the moment anyone in the top four teams looks good.

Leclerc rebounds to lead second Baku GP practice

Charles Leclerc bounced back from his FP1 crash to top the timesheet in second practice at the end of an eventful Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Leclerc wrecked his Ferrari less than halfway through the first hour of practice, and though his …

Charles Leclerc bounced back from his FP1 crash to top the timesheet in second practice at the end of an eventful Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc wrecked his Ferrari less than halfway through the first hour of practice, and though his car was repaired and ready to go in time for the start of FP2, the Monegasque reported steering problems as soon as he took to the track.

At first Leclerc asked if any problem was visible in the data, but after four laps he was convinced that the car was undrivable, returning to pit lane in frustration. It took him until the final 25 minutes to rejoin the session, now lacking significant mileage, and switched to the soft tire in the last quarter-hour for his first performance run of the day.

With the dusty track in an improved condition relative to when most of the rest of the field completed their qualifying simulations, Leclerc rocketed straight to top spot with a fastest time of 1m43.484s. It was enough to eclipse erstwhile leader Sergio Perez, the reigning Baku winner, by 0.006s.

The closely matched Leclerc and Perez were joined by Lewis Hamilton, who put Mercedes within 0.066s of top spot, making it three teams within less than 0.1s at the end of the first day of running.

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Carlos Sainz was fourth, but the Spaniard was 0.466s slower than his session-topping teammate, while Oscar Piastri’s best-placed representative in fifth and 0.499s off the pace.

Max Verstappen completed the top six as the last of the front-runners with representative laps, the Dutchman 0.545s slower than Leclerc after complaining of poor visibility in sunset conditions.

Neither Lando Norris nor George Russell figured among the leaders. Norris had looked set for a competitive time but was dangerously balked by Pierre Gasly through the flat-out Turn 18-19 kink in the final sector, the Frenchman slowing suddenly and forcing Norris to check up. Team radio suggested Gasly was suffering a battery issue at the time, though he remained on track to complete another lap, while Norris ended the session 17th without a representative time.

Russell, meanwhile, ended the day with only 16 laps under his belt after the first half-hour of the session to a precautionary power unit change and the last few minutes to a technical problem requiring the car to be withdrawn.

The Briton was ninth, sandwiched between Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg in seventh and eighth respectively while Oliver Bearman — looking comfortable in his first-ever FP2 session — completing the top 10 for Haas.

Yuki Tsunoda was 11th for RB ahead of Fernando Alonso and Williams teammates Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, the latter having lost the first quarter-hour of the session to repairs following his heavy FP1 crash. The Argentine rookie came perilously close to forcing his mechanics back to the tools with another heavy hit against the barriers, this time at Turn 8 at the bottom of the climb alongside the castle, but he was able to complete the session.

Valtteri Bottas was 15th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, the out-of-position Norris, Alpine teammates Gasly and Esteban Ocon — the latter having completed a power unit change after missing almost all FP1 with an MGU-H problem — and Zhou Guanyu at the bottom of the order.

Technical updates: 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Red Bull is one of just three teams to bring new parts to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as it looks to recover from its recent handling difficulties. A change to the floor body features “floor tunnel geometry [that has been] subtly revised by locally …

Red Bull is one of just three teams to bring new parts to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as it looks to recover from its recent handling difficulties.

A change to the floor body features “floor tunnel geometry [that has been] subtly revised by locally raising or lowering the surfaces,” according to the team, which seeks a better balance after being off the pace in Monza two weeks ago. That is the only new part submitted to the FIA by any of the top four teams, with McLaren having updated its car in Zandvoort and Ferrari at Monza.

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Aston Martin has made a minor adjustment to its rear corner, trimming the bottom edge of the lower deflector. The team says the change modifies airflow around the rear part of the floor, helping to extract more performance from that part of the car.

The only other team to bring a new part to Baku is RB, where there is a tweak to the front wing. RB has reduced the camber of the front flap, in turn reducing overall load for balance purposes on a track that is low drag. Baku features a 1.3-mile flat-out section out of Turn 16 until braking for Turn 1, emphasizing the need to reduce drag and maximize top speed.

The low number of new parts is partly due to the race schedule, with back-to-back flyaway races in Baku and Singapore being followed by a three-week gap before a tripleheader of Austin, Mexico and Brazil. Targeting the latter trio of races gives teams significantly more time to develop parts and still get good value out of them with a quarter of the season remaining.

Verstappen leads crash-strewn first Baku GP practice

Max Verstappen topped a disrupted first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out less than halfway through the session. Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two …

Max Verstappen topped a disrupted first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out less than halfway through the session.

Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two laps earlier, when he carried too much speed into the rapid Turn 15. His Ferrari sailed past the apex of the downhill left-hander and speared directly into the barriers, doing most damage to his front-right corner.

“I took the dirt on the outside,” Leclerc radioed, referring to the dusty street surface that greeted the sport on its return to Baku.

The session was suspended for around seven minutes to collect the car, but running had resumed for less than 10 minutes when rookie Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams at Turn 4. The Argentine, starting his second race weekend, turned late into the right-hander and ended up on the dust, which sent him sliding into the outside barrier. His car whacked his rear-left corner and then its front-left before coming to rest in what could amount to a sizable repair job ahead of second practice later today.

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Combined with an earlier red flag to collect metal debris from the circuit, drivers lost almost 20 minutes of the hour to suspensions.

Through the carnage and delays emerged Verstappen, who lowered the benchmark to 1m45.546s with an after-the-flag lap on used soft tires. His lap was constructed on purple times in the opening two sectors; intriguingly the Dutchman was well off the pace in the flat-out final split.

Lewis Hamilton had topped the time sheet from shortly before Colapinto’s red flag until Verstappen’s knockout punch, the Mercedes driver’s time 0.313s slower than the Red Bull Racing man’s headline lap.

Sergio Perez completed the top three, also with a time set after the flag, to lap 0.376s slower than his session-leading teammate.

Lando Norris was 0.481s off the pace in fourth, 0.145s ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.255s quicker than McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

“Bottoming level is quite high through the high speed,” Piastri reported early in the session. “It’s not exactly straightforward.”

Fernando Alonso was quickest in the final sector but 0.906s off the pace overall in seventh ahead of George Russell and Leclerc, who held onto ninth despite his crash.

Daniel Ricciardo crept into the top 10 for RB, complete with the team’s latest upgrade package after forgoing the new bits in Italy.

Oliver Bearman, replacing the suspended Kevin Magnussen this weekend, was 11th and 0.162s quicker than Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 12th.
Lance Stroll was 13th and 0.732s slower than teammate Alonso.

“This is not a car,” the Canadian blasted over team radio. “This is not a car right now.”

Valtteri Bottas was 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda — “My car is bouncing like hell,” said the Japanese driver late in the session — and the smashed-up Colapinto.

Alex Albon narrowly avoided Colapinto’s fate at Turn 4 to take his Williams to 17th ahead of Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu down to 19th.

Esteban Ocon completed only three laps before suffering a power unit issue that forced him back to garage for analysis.

Bearman to sub for banned Magnussen in Baku

Oliver Bearman will race for Haas in next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in place of the banned Kevin Magnussen, the team has confirmed. Magnussen picked up the final two penalty points that took him to 12 on his Super License and picked up an …

Oliver Bearman will race for Haas in next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in place of the banned Kevin Magnussen, the team has confirmed.

Magnussen picked up the final two penalty points that took him to 12 on his Super License and picked up an automatic one-race suspension, ruling him out of the Baku weekend. Bearman is one of the Haas reserve drivers and made an impressive substitute appearance for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, and has now been officially confirmed to be racing again in Azerbaijan.

“I’m excited that Ollie will be driving the VF-24 alongside Nico [Hulkenberg] in Baku,” team principal Ayao Komatsu said. “He’s already shown great promise in his FP1 outings and post-season test, and he performed very well when he drove for Scuderia Ferrari in Saudi Arabia, picking up points in the process.

“This is another excellent opportunity for both Ollie and the team to work together, this time throughout an entire race weekend, and he couldn’t ask for better teammate than Nico to provide him with a reference.”

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Bearman will step up to a full-time race seat with Haas in 2025, and believes the work he’s already done with the team this season will help him get the most out of his opportunity in Baku.

“It’s definitely more of a challenge stepping in to race as a reserve driver, with limited prep time and so on, but I’m in the fortunate position of having done it earlier in the year with Scuderia Ferrari, so I can at least call on that experience,” Bearman said.

“I’ve also had four FP1 sessions with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team in the VF-24 already this season, so undoubtedly that will also prove to be valuable in tackling the full race weekend in Baku. The team is in good form at the moment and I’ll do my best to be prepared with the time we have available. The aim is to get out there and have a solid weekend in Azerbaijan.”

Magnussen’s 12 penalty points will be removed from his Super License after his one-race suspension, allowing him to return with a clean license at the following race in Singapore.

TV ratings: Barber, Baku and Dover

Rain force postponement of last Sunday’s scheduled NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover to Monday, where the FS1 telecast averaged 1.067 million viewers per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com (the rating number was not yet available). While not bad for a …

Rain force postponement of last Sunday’s scheduled NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover to Monday, where the FS1 telecast averaged 1.067 million viewers per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com (the rating number was not yet available). While not bad for a Monday, that was down from 1.487m for last year’s Sunday telecast on FS1, which was also hit by rain.

The NTT IndyCar Series race from Barber Motorsports Park on NBC Sunday averaged an 0.57 and 930,000 viewers, nearly unchanged from a 0.59/920K last year. However, NBC Sports reports that Total Audience Delivery counting streaming was 972,000, making it the most watched Barber race on record.

Formula 1 warmed up for this weekend’s return to ABC with a a strong audience for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which averaged an 0.53 Nielsen rating and 958,000 viewers on ESPN, up 15% over last year’s race which ran in June. Saturday’s F1 sprint race also did well, drawing 883,000 viewers.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover ran as scheduled on Saturday and averaged 0.41/674,000, a big drop from 0.59/926K in 2022.

Monster Energy Supercross was on NBC Saturday afternoon from Nashville and averaged 0.31/494,000.

Coverage of the Camping World Drag Racing Series finals from Charlotte on Sunday averaged 0.28/472,000 on FS1.