Vietnam’s abandoned F1 circuit finally hosts first racing action

In brief

Vietnam’s abandoned F1 circuit hosts first racing action

The Hanoi circuit was intended to be a 5.6-kilometre circuit that ran through a mixture of city streets and a permanent sequence of corners in the final sector. However, the inaugural race in 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic and then failed to return to the calendar following a series of problems, including the arrest of Hanoi People’s Committee chairman Duc Chung, who was closely involved in the running of the race.

Construction of the permanent section of the track was completed but remained unused. That is until Honda Vietnam hosted its Honda Thanks Day new year’s celebration event at the venue yesterday. A series of motorcycle races were held around an abridged version of the circuit, with the first corner cutting across to the S-bends in what would have made up the third sector of the grand prix circuit.

Ekstrom leads Loeb as Dakar Rally begins

Ekstrom was fastest in the 13km prologue, a second faster than nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb. Reigning World Rally Raid champion and 2022 Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was fourth-fastest, with Carlos Sainz Snr taking sixth place in the stage.

The first actual stage will take place today with a 367km loop which passes the city of Yanbu.

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Coulthard unsure about Red Bull's chances of launching era of F1 dominance (Mirror)

"It feels like, if Ferrari get on top of their reliability and operational mistakes, then they're there. The transition of what these cars are going to become next year will be a lot easier. Mercedes clearly have a quick car and look like they're going to be there. When Mercedes arrived at the beginning of the Hybrid Era, they had such a pace advantage. They really unleashed a great power unit and that allowed them to run more dirty downforce – the car didn't need to be so efficient in the beginning because they could just power their way through."

F1 in Africa: South Africa's own F1 Championship (BBC)

"The final F1 race of 2022 was back in November at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - but 59 years ago, the South Africa Grand Prix ended not just the F1 season but the sporting calendar as a whole, taking place on 28 December 1963. It was at a time when excitement for the sport in the country was at fever pitch. This is the story of both that race and the separate domestic F1 championship that sustained it."

The story behind Alex Albon’s support for the Wat Sakraeo Orphanage (Williams)

"Although Alex's connection to the country is obvious – he races under the Thai flag – there's a further link, thanks to his former Williams Racing Team Principal, Jost Capito. Jost's brother, Volker Capito, has lived in Bangkok since the early 2000s, and he made it his life's mission to help the children of the Wat Sakraeo Orphanage by founding the Iceman Charity. Alex took the opportunity to visit the orphanage that thousands of children call home to see Volker's hard work for himself."

No. 1 of 2022: Power Charts Steady Course to Second Title (IndyCar)

"The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet won only one race this year – on June 5 in Detroit – but he seemed to always be in the frame. He opened the season with five consecutive top-four finishes and finished out of the top six only four times in 17 races. Power ended the season with a pair of podium finishes to edge teammate Josef Newgarden by 16 points in the final standings. But proof of his consistency was the fact there were no blemishes. He completed every lap of every race. He called it 'playing the long game.'"

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

One final message from the Boss before we race into 2023. 😎 pic.twitter.com/hv4uAG2qYO

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 31, 2022

Happy New Year!#VB77 📷 @tiffanycromwell pic.twitter.com/kCLJ7CxWZs

— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) December 31, 2022

The class of '22. 💚

As 2022 begins to disappear in the rear-view mirror, we want to take this chance to say thank you to all of our team members, partners, and of course our fans for all your incredible work and support this year.

2023: Here we come. pic.twitter.com/pMQH2xKFQ3

— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) December 31, 2022

Williams fans, thank you for your incredible support throughout 2022 👏💙#WeAreWilliams pic.twitter.com/AjfHKfeK8P

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) December 31, 2022

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• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

With McLaren CEO Zak Brown stating that the team will be targeting fourth place in the constructors’ championship this year, Leroy (@g-funk) believes that’s a realistic goal for McLaren to aim for in modern Formula 1…

In modern F1 it is near impossible to go from fifth to first without a major change in technical regulations to reset the field. Because we just had that and McLaren didn’t take full advantage of it, they will have to make incremental improvements to their position and hope teams above them head down the wrong developmental path. Moving from fifth to third would be the absolute best they could hope for next year if Merc don’t come with a better package or Ferrari continue their end of season performances. But the likelihood of both happening are very slim.
Leroy

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Dsob and Michael Hu!

On this day in motorsport

• 55 years ago today Jim Clark scored what turned out to be the final victory of his Formula 1 career in the season-opening race at Kyalami, leading a one-two for Lotus with new team mate Graham Hill. He died before the next race, held four months later.