MOTORSPORTS

Photo Credit: Darron Cummings

Michael McDowell knelt down at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s yard of bricks and delivered the sweetest kisses of his racing career Sunday.

The 38-year-old Arizona driver became a Brickyard champ — and a member of an elite club.

McDowell inherited the lead on Lap 53 and never trailed again as he drove the most dominant race of his career, beating Chase Elliott to the yard of bricks by 0.937 seconds for his second NASCAR crown jewel victory while securing a playoff spot. Pole-winner Daniel Suarez was third.

Photo Credit: Geert Vanden Wijngaer

Just when it looked like the sun was shining for Sergio Perez and he was aiming for the podium, it all came crashing down and he had to retire from the Sprint Race of the Belgian GP.

Rain was the main protagonist in the session, which had to be delayed this day for more than an hour and began behind Safety Car and with heavy rain tyres (blue).

If the Formula 1 schedule had scheduled 15 laps for the Sprint Race, the third of the 2023 season, the reality is that only five laps were run at maximum competition.

Photo Credit: AP

Along with beating his rivals during qualifying for the Belgian GP, Max Verstappen also made waves after getting into a heated argument with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Max made it clear over the radio that he was annoyed after Q2, when he only just made it through to Q3 in 10th place, resulting in him blowing up.

"I should have just ****ing pushed two laps in a row, like I said," Verstappen told Lambiase, who responded: "So you are through Max."

That wasn't good enough for Verstappen, who said: "Yeah, I don't give a ****... it's just **** execution."

Photo Credit: Derik Hamilton

Denny Hamlin slid out of his winning Toyota and was instantly booed by a packed Pocono crowd unhappy with how the driver shoved Kyle Larson’s car into the wall over the final laps.

The boos were so loud because the crowd was so large — Pocono sold out the NASCAR race and boasted its largest crowd since 2010.

The increase was attributed in large part to the track losing one race weekend and a series of fan-friendly upgrades to a track that hosted its first NASCAR race in 1974.

NASCAR tracks do not usually release attendance numbers.

Photo Credit:AP

Lewis Hamilton broke Max Verstappen's pole position streak at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, beating the Dutchman by just three thousandths of a second at the Hungaroring.

The Mercedes has never been close to the top this season, but Hamilton makes history with its ninth pole position in Budapest and extends the all-time pole record to 104.

It's been 33 races since Hamilton was last on pole - Saudi Arabia 2021 - when he was fighting for the championship with Verstappen in Jeddah, but the Englishman returns to front of the grid in style.