Thanksgiving is behind us and a handful of season finales are in front of us this weekend. Two championships are still to be decided and two have already been claimed. Meanwhile, one series is about to get started.
Newcastle 500
This weekend marks the final round of the Supercars season and it is a two-horse, all-New Zealander battle between DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin and Triple Eight Race Engineering's Shane Van Gisbergen.
McLaughlin enters with a 14-point lead over Van Gisbergen. The drivers split the most recent round at Pukekohe and each driver had a second-place finish in their home country. McLaughlin has eight victories to Van Gisbergen's seven and McLaughlin holds the advantage in podium finishes with 19 to Van Gisbergen's 17.
This is the second Newcastle round. In last year's inaugural race, McLaughlin took the race victory and championship lead from Jamie Whincup after Whincup finished 13 laps down in 21st. In the second race, McLaughlin would be handed three penalties and finish 18th while Whincup won the race and the victory vaulted him back to the top and Whincup's final margin in the championship being 21 points. Van Gisbergen finished 16th in the first race last year from Newcastle but he bounced back in race two and was runner-up to Whincup.
McLaughlin is attempt to get DJR Team Penske its eighth drivers' championship and its first since 2010 with James Courtney and it would only be the second drivers' title to a Ford driver since 2010. He would also be the 25th different champion in series history and he could be the fourth New Zealander champion. Van Gisbergen could become the 13th driver with multiple Supercars championships and he could join Jim Richards as the only New Zealanders with multiple championships. It would be Triple Eight Race Engineering's ninth drivers' title and all coming since 2008.
Whincup is back and he is third in the championship and 58 points ahead of teammate Craig Lowndes. This will be Lowndes' final round as a full-time driver. The 44-year-old driver won three championships while he has made 650 starts, with 107 victories. David Reynolds rounds out the top five of the championship ahead of Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard.
The 30th race of the Supercars season will be held at 11:45 p.m. ET on Friday November 23rd and the finale is scheduled for 11:0 p.m. ET on Saturday November 24th.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton will look to close his world championship season with his 11th victory of the season. He and 2018 vice-champion Sebastian Vettel are the only drivers with multiple victories at Abu Dhabi with each having won three of the previous nine editions of this race. Hamilton is one podium finish away from matching his single season high of 17. Vettel is looking for his sixth victory of the season. The only other times Vettel has won more than five races in a season was when he won 11 races in 2011 and 13 races in 2013.
Kimi Räikkönen's three consecutive podium finishes have him third in the championship on 251 points and 14 points ahead of Valterri Bottas. Bottas has finished fifth in three consecutive races. Bottas is the defending Abu Dhabi race winner. He won from pole position and scored fastest lap while leading 52 of 55 laps.
Max Verstappen's fourth consecutive podium finishes has him three points behind Bottas for fourth in the world championship. If he finishes fourth in the world championship it would be Verstappen's best championship result. Regardless of what happens Sunday, Daniel Ricciardo will finish sixth in the championship. This will be Ricciardo's 100th and final grand prix with Red Bull Racing.
Nico Hülkenberg sits on 69 points, 11 points ahead of Sergio Pérez and 14 points ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Fernando Alonso rounds on the top ten on 50 points with Esteban Ocon one point outside the top ten. Carlos Sainz, Jr. is on 45 points, ten ahead of Romain Grosjean and 12 ahead of Charles Leclerc. Pierre Gasly is 15th on 29 points.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson enter their final grand prix with 12 points and nine points respectively. Lance Stroll is on four points, Brendon Hartley on two points and Sergey Sirotkin will enter his final grand prix on one point.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will finish first, second and third in the World Constructors' Championship. Renault has 114 points and a 24-point cushion over Haas. McLaren is on 62 points. Force India sits on 48 points and has a six-point gap over Sauber. Toro Rosso sits on 33 points with Williams on seven points.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place at 8:05 a.m. ET on Sunday November 25th.
Formula Two at Yas Marina
This is the final round of the Formula Two season takes place this weekend.
Future Williams F1 driver George Russell has clinched the championship and he has won six races this season. The ART Grand Prix driver has won six races this year. DAMS driver Alexander Albon is second in the championship and he has a 14-point gap over Carlin and future McLaren driver Lando Norris. Albon has won four races but Norris has not won since the first race of the season. Albania has been linked to Toro Rosso for 2019.
Nyck De Vries is fourth on 184 points and he is 18 points ahead of Artem Markelov and Sérgio Sette Câmara is two points behind Markelov. Antonio Fuoco is on 120 points with Luca Ghiotto on 94 points and Nicholas Latifi on 91 points. Jake Aitken and Louis Delétraz are tied on 62 points.
In the Teams' Championship, the Carlin duo of Norris and Câmara are on top with 361 points with ART Grand Prix's Russell and Aitken on 310 points and DAMS drivers Albon and Latifi have combined for 302 points.
The first race will take place at 9:40 a.m. ET on Saturday November 24th and the final race of the season will be at 4:35 a.m. ET on Sunday November 25th.
GP3 Series at Yas Marina
The GP3 Series championship is still up for grabs but it is in the hands of ART Grand Prix's Anthoine Hubert.
The Frenchman has scored 199 points and he has a 32-point lead over teammate Nikita Mazepin with 48 points left on the table. Hubert has won twice and he has ten podium finishes while Mazepin has three victories and seven podium finishes. Callum Ilott makes it three Carlin drivers in the top three with 147 points. Ilott has won twice but has not scored points in the last three races. Leonardo Pulcini is fourth on 131 points and David Beckmann rounds out the top five on 119 points.
Pedro Piquet sits on 106 points with Giuliano Alesi on 92 points. Jakes Hughes has scored 67 points and American Ryan Tveter is ninth on 61 points.
The GP3 races will take place at 3:30 a.m. ET on Saturday November 24th and 3:10 a.m. ET on Sunday November 25th.
4 Hours of Shanghai
While four series are closing out, one is starting this weekend with the Asian Le Mans Series back in business for the first of four rounds this season. Eight cars are entered in LMP2 with ten LMP3 entries and nine GT entries.
Harrison Newey is back to defend his championship in LMP2 but he has moved to Algarve Pro Racing and he will drive a Ligier-Judd with Ate de Jong and Andrea Pizzitola. Algarve Pro Racing will have a Ligier-Nissan entered for Mark Patterson, Anders Fjordbach and Chris McMurry. Jackie Chan Racing x Jota is back as the defending championship winning team and it will run its all-Malaysian World Endurance Championship lineup of Jazeman Jaafar, Nabil Jeffri and Weiron Tan in a Oreca-Nissan.
United Autosports has two Ligier-Nissans entered with one drive lineup featuring Patrick Byrne, Guy Cosmo and Salih Yoluç and the other will be an all-British lineup with Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta.
Pipo Derani leads an effort for Spirit of Race in a Ligier-Nissan with Côme Ledogar and Alexander West.
United Autosports has two Ligiers entered in LMP3. Matt Bell, Jim McGuire and Kay Van Berlo will be in one car with Garett Grist, Wayne Boyd and Chris Buncombe in the other. Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota has one LMP3 entry with Hugo de Sadeleer, Josh Burdon and Neric Wei. Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Racing has two entries. Colin Noble and Anthony Wells will be in one car and Nick Adcok will share the second car with Christian Stubbe Olsen. Inter Europol will have Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe in its entry.
Spirit of Race will have a Ferrari for Alessandro Pier Guidi, Oswaldo Negri and Francesco Piovanetti and James Calado will drive a Ferrari for CarGuy Racing with Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura. Two Audis have been entered with Dries Vanthoor leading one effort with Chinese drivers Chen David Weian and Dennis Zhang and Rob Huff will lead the other with Max Wiser and Xu Wei. TF Sport have entered an Aston Martin with Johnny Mowlem and Bonamy Grimes.
The race will start at midnight on Sunday November 25th.
Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 6.5 average finish for Craig Lowndes at Newcastle?
2. Over or Under: 49.5 laps led by the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
3. Over or Under: 1.5 podium finishes for non-European drivers in Formula Two?
4. Over or Under: 3.5 drivers ending the season with more than 150 points?
5. Over or Under: 2.5 British drivers winning a class at Shanghai?
Last Thursday's Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 4.5 average finish at the end of the stages for champion? (Under: Logano's average finish after the stages was 2.667).
2. Over or Under: 301 miles completed at the time of the checkered flag? (Under: 300 miles were completed).
3. Over or Under: 144.5 combined age of the top five finishers? (Under: The combined age was 135).
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 188.5 laps completed by the 6 Hours of Shanghai overall winner? (Under: 113 laps were completed).
2. Over or Under: 3.5 riders in the top ten of the championship improving their championship position after Sunday's race? (Under: Only Jorge Lorenzo improved a championship position).
3. Over or Under: 15.5 points for Brad Binder this weekend? (Under: Binder retired).
4. Over or Under: 3.5 seconds covering the top five of the Moto3 race? (Over: 14.375 seconds covered the top five finishers).
5. Over or Under: 0.5 Australians scoring points in Rally Australia? (Over: Steve Glenney finished ninth).
6. Over or Under: 2.5 total championships between WTCC/TCR for this year's World Touring Car Cup champion after Sunday? (Under: This was Gabriele Tarquini's second WTCC/WTCR/TCR title).
7. Over or Under: 1.5 teams on the podium of the Macau Grand Prix? (Over: Motopark and Carlin had podium finishers).
8. Over or Under: 1.5 manufactures on the podium of the FIA GT World Cup? (Over: BMW and Mercedes-AMG had podium finishers).
Last Week: 7 Unders; 4 Overs. Overall: Unders 33; Overs 25
Predictions
1. At least one of the championship contenders finishes behind a teammate in one of the two Newcastle races.
2. Lewis Hamilton finishes at least four positions better than his starting position.
3. No driver has two podium finishes this weekend in Formula Two.
4. There is a first time winner this weekend in GP3.
5. Three different teams finish on the overall podium at Shanghai.
Last Thursday's Predictions
1. There is one caution that involves one of the championship-eligible drivers (Wrong! There were no such cautions).
2. Cole Custer does not win the championship and leads fewer than 75 laps (Half-Correct! Custer was not champion but led over 75 laps).
3. The champion wins the Truck race (Correct! Brett Moffitt won the race and championship).
Last Week's Predictions
1. Nothing controversial, such as a disqualification from a session, happens to a Toyota entry (Correct! The Toyotas had a 1-2 finish).
2. Jorge Lorenzo gains at least one position in the championship (Correct! Jorge Lorenzo moved up to ninth in the championship).
3. A ride that is not heading to MotoGP in 2019 wins the Moto2 race (Wrong! Miguel Oliveira won the Moto2 race).
4. An Italian wins the Moto3 race (Wrong! Turkish rider Can Oncu won the race).
5. The WRC champion does not win Rally Australia (Correct! Jari-Matti Latvala won the race and Sébastien Ogier won the championship).
6. Rob Huff wins a race but only one race from Macau (Wrong! Huff did not win a race).
7. Dan Ticktum does not repeat in the Macau Grand Prix but he finishes in the top five (Wrong! Ticktum did repeat).
8. A new manufacture wins the FIA GT World Cup (Correct! BMW's Augusto Farfus won there race).
Last Week: 5.5/11. Overall: 30/53
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