Weekend Motorsports Preview: To the 'Ring One Last Time

It is another fairly light weekend of international racing, but Formula 1 has a race for a second weekend in a row, this time at the Nürburgring. Outside of the major national and international series, the American Le Mans Series has a race at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, and the IndyCar Series has a race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

Formula 1

Formula 1 has its second race in two weekends. This weekend the racers head to the Nürburgring Grand Prix Circuit for the German Grand Prix. Enjoy it while you can because it is possible given that the track is for sale, there might not be a German Grand Prix at the ‘Ring in two years.

To avoid the fiasco that was the British Grand Prix, Pirelli is supply rear tires fitted with Kevlar belts for added strength. It hopes that it will prevent the blowouts that hampered the race at Silverstone.

In the first practice session, Lewis Hamilton led, and Nico Rosberg was second. Mark Webber was third fastest.

Despite retiring from the British GP, Sebastian Vettel still leads the World Drivers’ Championship with a 21-point lead over Fernando Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen remains in third place with 13 points less than Alonso.

The race and qualifying will both be held at 2:00pm local time (8:00am ET or 12:00pm GMT). The race will be 60 laps.

NASCAR

NASCAR heads back to Daytona International Speedway for a 400-mile, 160-lap race on Saturday, July 6, at 7:30am ET (11:30 GMT).

Jimmie Johnson continues his lead in the series with 38 points over Carl Edwards in second place.

V8 Supercars

The V8 Supercars are in Queensland, Australia, for two races around the 2.85km Townsville Street Circuit. The first race is at 3:35pm local time (5:35am GMT) on Saturday, and the second race is at the same time on Sunday.

Jamie Whincup leads the series by 159 points over Craig Lowndes.