Indholdsfortegnelse for 08/08/19 i Autosport

It’s been clear to anyone paying attention to Formula 1 for the past three years that Max Verstappen is a future world champion. We’ve been waiting for him to have the machinery to take on Lewis Hamilton at the front of the grid and now it is starting to happen. Both Verstappen and Hamilton love a good wheel-to-wheel scrap and we finally got one between them at the Hungaroring last weekend. Both came out with honour intact – Verstappen withstood the pressure early in the race, while Hamilton delivered victory when Mercedes put him on an alternative strategy. Verstappen believes Mercedes still has the edge, while Hamilton and Toto Wolff think that Honda’s recent gains are helping turn Red Bull into a real championship contender (see page 4). It would…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1’s calendar is all set to expand to a record-breaking 22 grands prix next year, with teams having given their support in principle to including an extra race. With the Spanish GP (above) edging closer to a one-year deal that will keep it on the schedule for next season, F1’s owner Liberty Media has opened discussions with teams to secure their support for an expanded calendar. During a meeting between team bosses and F1 CEO Chase Carey at the Hungaroring last weekend, teams agreed that, as long as there was no change to the limit of three power units per driver for the season, then they would be happy to commit to 22 races. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained: “In a nutshell, we basically agreed to have…

INDYCAR The IndyCar Series has delayed its next engine formula until 2022 so it can integrate a hybrid system in a bid to attract more manufacturers. The hybrid system will work in parallel with the Honda and Ilmor-built Chevrolet engines to produce more than “900 horsepower”. IndyCar’s new hybrid technology will consist of a multi-phase motor, an inverter and an electric storage device providing energy recovery from the car’s braking system. The hybrid technology is set to be used from 2022 through to the 2027 season, with IndyCar having already admitted a delay was in mind to entice manufacturers. “It’s an exciting time for IndyCar with the forthcoming evolution of the cars and innovations like the hybrid powertrain being incorporated into the new engine,” said IndyCar president Jay Frye (below…

W SERIES In what seems like a flash, the inaugural W Series season is already set to draw to a close this weekend at Brands Hatch. Launched last autumn to divided opinion, the all-female Formula 3-spec racing championship has so far contested five races alongside the DTM calendar in a little over three months. It heads to its finale with a two-way championship battle between Jamie Chadwick and Beitske Visser, a margin of just 13 points separating them in the fight for the $500,000 prize fund. Chadwick, who has also become a development driver for the Williams Formula 1 team this year, made her championship intentions clear at the season opener at Hockenheim. Despite admitting she could feel the added pressure of the media lens on W Series, she topped…

Embrace team orders as a sporting fundamental For years, we have had a constant debate in Formula 1 as to whether or not team orders should be allowed. Generally speaking, any differences between the wishes of a driver and that of their team are bound to attract attention. But what we don’t need is for driver X to be told they need to race driver Y, only for them to be up in arms when such racing happens and, inevitably, collisions occur. While fans don’t in the main wish to see manipulated results, they are able to recognise when the interests of the team need to take precedence. It is impossible for team orders to be banned as there are always ways round it, short of a ban on all…

Under-pressure Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly endured another poor weekend in Hungary, qualifying 0.878 seconds off team-mate Max Verstappen, and struggling to sixth in the race. Gasly started sixth but dropped behind the two McLarens at the start. He was then passed by Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 6 to run ninth. Valtteri Bottas’s early stop promoted Gasly to eighth and he was able to undercut his way past Raikkonen and Lando Norris thanks to the McLaren driver’s slow pitstop. He spent the final part of the race fruitlessly chasing Sainz. “Things started pretty well during the weekend and then from FP3 onwards I just lost a lot of pace and struggled with grip,” said Gasly. “Qualifying was difficult. It wasn’t maximised but we clearly didn’t have pace to fight at…

Every extra steering input that Tom Ingram fed in to control the new Toyota Corolla’s unstable rear during the first part of the season cost him time. Whether he had to straighten the car mid-corner or correct a slide on exit, with each movement he was extending how far the car had to travel inch-by-inch. The reigning independents drivers’ champion was comfortably one of the top five performers across the opening rounds, but that was because of his superlative car control rather than a lofty points haul. The July break couldn’t come soon enough for Speedworks, offering the respite the team needed to press the reset button and finally begin to dial-in the Corolla’s skittish nature. Initial plans to hoist the car up onto a four-poster rig to refine the…

FIA FORMULA 3 HUNGARORING (HUN) 3-4 AUGUST ROUND 5/8 There’s no doubt that the FIA Formula 3 Championship is going to go down to the wire, such is the nature of competition – the top 21 were within a second of pole in qualifying in Hungary. One squad not currently fighting for the title is reigning GP3 Series teams’ champion ART Grand Prix, having endured a rollercoaster season after losing Christian Lundgaard’s victory in the first race of the year due to a virtual safety car infringement. However, a pre-Budapest ART team meeting seemed to work wonders as Renault junior Lundgaard took pole, and then converted that into an easy race one win. He led every lap and set the fastest lap on the last tour of the race. His…

SUPER GT FUJI (JPN) 4 AUGUST ROUND 5/8 Team Le Mans duo Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita scored their second Super GT victory in a row in the 500-mile Fuji Speedway bout. Taking the spoils last time out in Thailand to move into the points lead meant their Lexus LC 500 had to carry a 70kg weight handicap. Starting from a lowly 11th spot, their consistency and a call to pit when the safety car came out turned the race on its head, as they entered the pits just before the entrance closed. They proceeded to pull out almost a one-lap gap over the rest, finishing 31s clear. Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto in the Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX GT started from 10th spot and were another to rise up…

The Bentley Drivers Club held a special vintage car parade as part of its Silverstone race meeting last weekend, including three significant cars that have never run on track together before. Called the ‘Cavalcade of Titans’, the parade formed the latest part of Bentley’s centenary celebrations, and included the Barnato-Hassan Special, Napier-Railton (above) and Napier-Bentley machines. The Barnato-Hassan Special was built in 1934 by Walter Hassan for famous Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato. In 1935, the car set a Brooklands lap record of 142.6mph, a mark that was only ever bettered by the 24-litre Napier-Railton. The 1968 Napier-Bentley was a one-off special created by BDC members Peter Morley and David Llewellyn. A total of 12 historically significant cars took part in the parade.…

BRANDS HATCH BRITISH GT 3-4 AUGUST Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson were 54 points off the British GT championship lead and seemingly out of contention following a disastrous late retirement at Silverstone in June. But the TF Sport Aston Martin pairing’s victory at Brands Hatch, their second in the last three races, has thrust them right back into the equation. They now sit just six points behind Barwell Motorsport’s Phil Keen and Adam Balon heading to Donington Park, three times the scene of triple champion Adam’s coronation and the track where he and Davidson launched their fightback by converting pole position in June. Although Spa winner Ollie Wilkinson made the best start, swooping around the outside of polesitter Shaun Balfe’s McLaren 720S into Paddock Hill Bend, it was Davidson’s move…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 3-4 AUGUST Johnathan Hoggard proved a point and asserted himself as a genuine title contender after reducing Clement Novalak’s BRDC British F3 points lead last weekend. After a difficult previous round at Spa which failed to yield a podium, Hoggard looked imperious at Brands Hatch, taking pole for the first and third races by an impressive margin. The Fortec Motorsports driver made no mistake in the opener, taking a lights-to-flag victory after stretching out a comfortable lead before backing off to save his tyres. Douglas Motorsport driver Kiern Jewiss – who had taken his first front-row start of the year – took second while Novalak finished third in a processional affair. “It was important to just prove a point and show that Spa was a one-off,” said…

GINETTA JUNIOR Four Ginetta Junior races around Snetterton had the potential to significantly alter the title battle after the summer break. But, despite the addition of the rearranged Croft contest, scoring his worst result of the season and his closest rivals each taking two wins, James Hedley still emerged with only a slightly reduced 74-point advantage. Will Martin was the form driver heading to Norfolk and extended his victory sequence to five with two very different wins in the first two races. In the opener he was in the thick of the lead battle with Hedley and Zak O’Sullivan. The race was then turned on its head when O’Sullivan and Martin made contact at Turn 3 in what O’Sullivan described as a “50/50” incident but left Martin leading and O’Sullivan…

GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGE Scott McKenna’s purple patch continued at Snetterton to extend his Ginetta GT5 Challenge title lead, sharing spoils with Geri Nicosia. Victorious in Saturday’s opener, McKenna touted a tactical tyre gamble earlier in the season as key. The Yorkshireman was among the few frontrunners still with fresh tyres to play with – 18 sets are allocated per driver for the year – and he utilised that fresh rubber to overpower a fast-starting Josh Malin in the disrupted opener. “It was a risky, but smart overtake,” said Xentek’s McKenna after squeezing through on lap three. The feisty Malin succumbed to Nicosia’s pressure at Nelson and fell behind Adam Smalley, but came agonisingly within half a lap of winning the second contest. Nicosia, having charged to second in a five-car…

70s ROAD SPORTS Race 1 Jeremy Clark (Lotus Elan) Race 2 Will Leverett (Lotus Europa) HISTORIC ROAD SPORTS Races 1 & 2 Kevin Kivlochan (AC Cobra) HISTORIC FORMULA FORD Races 1 & 2 Cameron Jackson (Winkelmann WDF2) CLASSIC CLUBMANS Races 1 & 2 Mark Charteris (Mallock Mk20/21) HISTORIC FORMULA FORD 2000/CLASSIC FF2000 Races 1 & 2 Andrew Park (Reynard SF81) HISTORIC FORMULA 3/CLASSIC RACING CARS/FORMULA JUNIOR Races 1 & 2 Jonathan Hughes (Merlyn Mk14A) GUARDS TROPHY Benn Tilley (Lotus 23B) HISTORIC TOURING CARS Races 1 & 2 Richard Belcher (Ford Lotus Cortina Mk1, below) JAGUAR CLASSIC CHALLENGE Mark Donnor (E-type) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

SILVERSTONE MORGAN CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 Oliver Bryant (Morgan +8) ALLCOMERS Simon Ray (ADR Sport 2) ALLCOMERS SEALED HANDICAP Michael Blake (TVR Griffith) FISCAR & CMMC PRE 64 CHALLENGE Richard Tyzack (Kellison J4R) BDC SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE Richard Plant (Morgan +8) BENTLEY SCRATCH RACE Michael Higginbotham (Bentley MkVI Special) BENTLEY SCRATCH RACE SEALED HANDICAP Paul Carter (Bentley) BENTLEY HANDICAP Tim Llewellyn (Bentley 4½, below) OULTON PARK BRSCC MAZDA MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1A & 3A Joe Wiggin Race 2A Ben Short Race 1B Michael Knibbs Race 2B William Hayden Race 3B Dave Turton BRSCC MAZDA MX-5 SUPER SERIES Races 1 & 2 Joe Marshall-Birks Race 3 James Kell NORTHERN FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Tom McArthur (Medina Sport JL18) ST-XR CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 William Heslop (XR2,…

With five hours to go in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, Job van Uitert was on course for a dream class victory on his debut at the Circuit de la Sarthe with the G-Drive Racing squad in LMP2. The ORECA-Gibson 07 he shared with Jean-Eric Vergne and Roman Rusinov had led continuously from the seventh hour and had over a minute in hand when a problem with the starter motor at a routine pitstop cost the crew four laps and left van Uitert a disappointed sixth at the flag. But for a driver who never raced a kart and started out in Mazda MX-5s, it was a mightily impressive performance that points to a very bright future in sportscar racing. Based on an average of his 10 fastest laps,…

FORMULA 1 Honda’s progress with its Formula 1 engine has reached a point where it is now more powerful than the Mercedes unit in some areas and has in turn launched Max Verstappen into title contention, according to the world championship leaders. Lewis Hamilton and his team boss Toto Wolff believe that Verstappen and his Red Bull-Honda team are serious threats for the remaining grands prix in 2019. Wolff also suggested over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend that this could mean a championship challenge, although Verstappen now trails Hamilton by 69 points after the Englishman’s come-from-behind win at the Hungaroring. Hamilton thinks Honda has helped Red Bull recover from its “slump” with an underpowered Renault engine and its own chassis deficiencies. Verstappen has won two of the last four races,…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Sebastien Ogier has made clear he will depart the World Rally Championship at the end of the 2020 season. The six-time world champion said he was looking forward to the next stage in his career, involving the all-new Extreme E series in 2021. Asked about next season being his last in the WRC, Ogier said: “It was never my plan to stay after next year – the deal with Citroen was always a straight two-year agreement.” Ogier’s ambassadorial role with Extreme E was announced last month. He will test the car in the near future, but it remains to be seen if he will compete in the all-electric off-road series. “I’m happy to be involved because I like the idea of the project and that could become…

EVANS TO MISS GERMANY Elfyn Evans will miss Rally Germany while he recovers from a back injury sustained on Rally Estonia. The M-Sport Ford driver is nearing full fitness, but there is concern about the nature of the roads aggravating his injury again. The team is now assessing options for a replacement. HWA FE DU0 EYE MERC SEATS Gary Paffett and Stoffel Vandoorne hope HWA’s 2018-19 Formula E line-up is carried over to the Mercedes team next season. The marque will enter the 2019-20 campaign in its highest-profile motorsport programme outside of F1 following its DTM exit. Mercedes will take over HWA’s entry, although HWA will continue to run the race team. IMSA ISSUES 2020 CALENDAR The IMSA SportsCar Championship has released its calendar for 2020, featuring the same 12…

FERRARI’S BOOMERANG SEEKS RETURN OF SUCCESS How do you solve a problem like Ferrari? Although the team now seems to have embarked on an upgrade path to iron out its low-speed woes and turn-in issues, Hungary still proved that the Maranello team has a way to go with its SF90. Ferrari became the next in a long line of teams to fit a ‘boomerang’ on the car, forming part of the bargeboard structure. The design originally cropped up on last year’s Red Bull, but the lower bargeboards for this season have coincided with a popularisation of the concept. Part of the rationale behind it seems to be to assist the bargeboards with ‘downwashing’ the airflow emerging from the front of the car. That’s quite important, as that air has to…

Sometimes, a race is won or lost long before victory and defeat manifest themselves on track. Lewis Hamilton’s Hungarian Grand Prix victory was ostensibly secured when he passed Max Verstappen for the lead with just under four laps remaining after brilliantly chasing down the Red Bull driver. But the decisive moment really came on lap 47 of the 70 as Hamilton rounded the Turn 13 left-hander and was instructed to close on leader Verstappen. The request to narrow the gap, which then stood at a second, was the moment Mercedes committed to making a pitstop that put Verstappen and Red Bull in check and with only two possible moves to make. Both were losing choices; checkmate in one move. A lap later, Hamilton was told to pit but warned to…

One drivers’ point between two cars is all that the Infiniti Q50 could muster in its sole BTCC season back in 2015 – hardly a stellar record. Now, four years behind the development curve, the saloon has returned. Laser Tools Racing has benched its Mercedes A-Class and bought the ex-Support Our Paras team cars, upgrading one to current RML parts. For driver Aiden Moffat – a three-time victor – things were far from rosy at the end of Saturday. The car’s long wheelbase made it look cumbersome through the tighter bends. In turn, Moffat qualified 29th – only ahead of Stephen Jelley who, as the cause of a red flag prior to setting a banker lap, was there by default. Seventeenth place in race one showed a promising upturn, however.…

IMSA SPORTSCAR ROAD AMERICA (USA) 4 AUGUST ROUND 9/12 Elkhart Lake’s Road America has a knack of providing some spectacular sportscar action. That was certainly the case last Sunday, when a 2h40m, all-green IMSA thriller held in perfect weather on one of the world’s iconic road courses was decided in favour of Mazda Team Joest’s Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell by a scant 0.227 seconds. The team’s third successive victory was hard-earned after a race-long battle with Acura Team Penske. The North American juggernaut appeared to have the upper hand throughout practice and qualifying, with Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya heading all three practice sessions before Cameron edged Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves to pole by just 0.016s. His time of 1m48.715s, an average speed of 134.065mph, smashed the existing…

NASCAR CUP WATKINS GLEN (USA) 4 AUGUST ROUND 22/36 For the second year running, NASCAR Cup victory at Watkins Glen was decided in a late-race duel between Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. At the scene of his maiden Cup win, Hendrick Motorsports driver Elliott once again prevailed – only this time without the final lap wheel-hop at Turn 1 that nearly proved costly in 2018. Elliott was instead faultless at the front of the field, leading 80 of the 90 laps and seamlessly absorbing considerable pressure throughout the final stage from Truex. A restart halfway through stage three provided Truex with his only opportunity to pass. The lead duo, who had shown pace as much as 1s per lap faster than the chasing pack, banged wheels on route to…

MOTOGP BRNO (CZE) 4 AUGUST ROUND 10/19 Riders were forced to wait for racing to resume at Brno after the four-week summer break, as a sudden downpour before the Czech Grand Prix led to unsafe track conditions. Having demolished the field by over 2.5 seconds with a pole lap set using slick tyres on a damp track, Marc Marquez was early favourite to romp away as the riders were all set to race dry rubber on a partially wet surface before a 40-minute delay was called. This, not unlike how the championship has shaped up in recent rounds, only served to delay the inevitable. Marquez was coy about his chances at the start of the weekend, and was quick to pin Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso as the rider to beat come…

BRITISH GT Century Motorsport boss Nathan Freke made a surprise return to action in British GT at Brands Hatch last weekend and claimed his GT4 team’s best finish of the year in fourth, alongside Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke. Freke last raced in British GT in 2017 and was filling in for Angus Fender, who stepped up to the team’s M6 GT3 squad alongside Jack Mitchell and scored the team’s first GT3 podium of the season. Freke’s only previous experience with the team’s BMW M4 GT4 came at the Dubai 24 Hours but he only lost out on a Brands podium with a small mistake at Druids. “I loved it, it was good getting back out there,” said the 2006 British Formula Ford champion. “I’m definitely too heavy, definitely too unfit, and definitely…

BENTLEY CREW’S PENALTY Team Parker Racing’s Glynn Geddie and Ryan Ratcliffe will have to serve a 25-second penalty at their pitstop in the British GT finale, after Geddie was found culpable for a crash with Ben Hurst’s Academy Motorsport Aston Martin GT4 that ended both their races. Geddie lapped Hurst at Westfield, but took his normal racing line on the exit and left Hurst with nowhere to go. Geddie was speared into the barriers, while Hurst was forced out with broken suspension. MORE JUNIOR TEAM CHANGES The Ginetta Junior team/driver merry-go-round continued at Snetterton. Top rookie Zak O’Sullivan is now on his third different team of the season. After departing Douglas Motorsport he moved to In2Racing, but in Norfolk last weekend he was with the R Racing squad. TCR driver…

The last three British GT rounds had followed a similar pattern for James Dorlin and Josh Smith. By rights, the Tolman Motorsport McLaren duo should be in the thick of the GT4 title fight, but at each of the last three rounds they have been forced to retire while leading. So when Dorlin, complaining of a “severe vibration” on his right front, inherited the lead with 20 minutes to go, it was almost too much for Smith to bear. “I was trying to keep out of the way as much as I could,” he said. “I was just sat there with my fingers crossed. I didn’t want to know because it’s been a hard time the last few months.” But with lapped Tolman stablemate Jordan Collard acting as a buffer…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Somebody needed to step up to the plate to prevent Zane Maloney from running away with the British F4 title. And, at Snetterton, Sebastian Alvarez took centre stage. The Mexican halted Maloney’s winning streak at four, taking two victories that sandwiched Tommy Foster’s maiden triumph for Arden in a wild encounter. “Our pace was mega,” said Double R’s Alvarez, who also grabbed pole position on a weekend where title rival Maloney faltered. The first of two lights-to-flag Alvarez victories came with brief pressure from Carter Williams, who secured a personal best result. Alvarez’s race three win was more emphatic, romping 14 seconds clear. The single blot on Alvarez’s copybook came in a lurid second race, the title contenders all slipping up. Josh Skelton fought a determined rearguard…

GINETTA JUNIOR Race 1 (8 laps) 1 Will Martin; 2 Casper Stevenson +1.767s; 3 Gus Burton; 4 Zak O’Sullivan; 5 Lorcan Hanafin; 6 James Hedley. Fastest lap Martin 2m21.059s (75.77mph). Pole Martin. Starters 25. Race 2 (6 laps) 1 Martin; 2 Hedley +0.136s; 3 Stevenson; 4 O’Sullivan; 5 Burton; 6 Roman Bilinski. FL O’Sullivan 2m20.260s (76.20mph). P Hedley. S 22. Race 3 (9 laps) 1 O’Sullivan; 2 Stevenson +5.438s; 3 Hedley; 4 Burton; 5 Martin; 6 Josh Rattican. FL Martin 2m20.509s (76.06mph). P O’Sullivan. S 23. Race 4 (9 laps) 1 O’Sullivan; 2 Hedley +5.922s; 3 Bilinski; 4 Martin; 5 Rattican; 6 Ethan Hawkey. FL O’Sullivan 2m20.886s (75.86mph). P O’Sullivan. S 23. Points 1 Hedley 407; 2 O’Sullivan 333; 3 Martin 313; 4 Stevenson 253; 5 Burton 221; 6 Hanafin…

SILVERSTONE BDC 3 AUGUST Both Morgan Challenge races, guesting at the Bentley Drivers Club’s long-running annual Silverstone meeting, were won by Oliver Bryant making a one-off appearance, triumphing after battles with Keith Ahlers in his similar +8. Bryant led all of race one, holding former co-driver Ahlers at arm’s length to win by 3.9 seconds. Race two was less straightforward. Bryant dropped to fourth at the start after feeling his clutch “wasn’t great” on the warm-up lap. He then had his progress checked by a lengthy safety car period caused by Richard Fearn’s crashed +4 Club Sport at Woodcote. Bryant quickly took the lead from Ahlers after racing resumed but Ahlers stayed close, including taking the lead back briefly late on. “Most years, if it doesn’t clash, I try and…

EXHIBITION THE JIM CLARK MOTORSPORT MUSEUM The new Jim Clark Motorsport Museum is proof that £1.6million can be put to extraordinary use if deployed in the right hands: those of the Jim Clark Trust and Live Borders. Built as an extension to the outgoing Jim Clark Room, the museum opened last month and is quite simply a pilgrimage that any motorsport fan must make. Entering through what used to just be an abandoned garage, you immediately walk into a modern museum space and see the iconic green and yellow of one the Lotus 25s in which Clark scored some of his 25 world championship F1 wins. Once you’ve paid your £5 to explore the museum, you happen to notice a 1960s F1 simulator in the corner, but that’s for later.…

We couldn’t immediately recall too much about this image of Petter Solberg and Phil Mills in their Subaru Impreza, so we asked the 2003 world champion to remind us: “This was Corsica, 2002. I remember this picture being taken – it’s quite cool. For the event, there was not so much to say – I set a fastest time, but I was really still learning to drive on asphalt a little bit. This was my first year working with Tommi Makinen as my team-mate – he helped me so much through that season.” For classic rallying DVDs head to dukevideo.com/WRC…

FORMULA 1 Representatives of Renault Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo have laid out an emphatic defence against a claim of over £10million from his former advisor. Glenn Beavis claims he is owed 20% of Ricciardo’s Renault salary and various elements of the deal, including commission on all parts of the second year of Ricciardo’s contract. But Ricciardo emphatically denies any agreement breach and his formal defence, lodged with London’s High Court and seen by Autosport, dismisses multiple elements of the alleged entitlement. The defence argues that the £10m+ sum is “expressly contradicted by a number of emailed exchanges” before and after establishing the most recent agreement between the parties, made in mid-2015. In a 16-page document, the defence makes 41 references to elements of Beavis’s claim being “denied” and three…

OBITUARY More than 30 drivers who passed through the DAMS single-seater squad have gone on to Formula 1. That statistic is a tribute to team owner Jean-Paul Driot, who has died at the age of 68 after a long illness. But when it comes to listing successful alumni of the French team based near Le Mans, the engineers and team managers who made an impact away from DAMS shouldn’t be forgotten. To Olivier Panis, Sebastien Bourdais and Romain Grosjean should be added the likes of Eric Boullier and Vincent Beaumesnil. Driot made it his job to employ good people, on whatever side of the pitwall. And that has been the foundation stone of the successes of a team that dates back to 1987 when it was founded as GDBA Motorsport…

DTM A British brand competing in the DTM’s Brands Hatch round appeared unthinkable just 12 months ago when the series was left reeling by the impending exit of Mercedes. Aston Martin’s arrival through R-Motorsport even led DTM boss Gerhard Berger to describe it as similar to what Ferrari is to Formula 1 after it helped to keep the series on track. It’s a phrase that “honoured” R-Motorsport boss Florian Kamelger, as did the fanfare from Aston Martin at Hockenheim for its debut – even if it still insists it’s not a factory programme. But that Ferrari analogy begins to come apart when you put the DTM newcomer under scrutiny. Its early season reliability problems certainly echoed this year’s Ferrari woes, but those have been consigned to the past since a…

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff faces a conundrum. In Hungary last weekend, he confirmed it’s a toss-up between incumbent Valtteri Bottas and reserve driver Esteban Ocon as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate next year. Either way it will have a profound impact on Mercedes, not just next year but beyond. Both Bottas and Ocon are proven performers and would at worst do a decent job next year. But they are at different stages of their careers, with varying skill sets, and by drilling down into their strengths and weaknesses – and how compatible they are with the team’s wider objectives – we can understand the complexity of the decision Wolff faces. On raw pace, while Bottas’s season has gone off the rails in the last two races, his qualifying performances remain strong.…

Max Verstappen finally ended the 93-race wait for his first Formula 1 pole position with a virtuoso performance at the Hungaroring, combining speed with mastery of the capricious Pirelli rubber to beat a potentially faster pair of Mercedes. There could not have been a more worthy effort to become the 100th driver to claim a pole in world championship history. Verstappen carried a little understeer early in the lap and was actually slower than Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas for much of the lap – but crucially had protected the rear tyres. Come the final sector, a 21-second snake of slow corners followed by a blast to the line, he turned a 0.079s deficit to Bottas into a 0.018s advantage. That was primarily thanks to the speed Verstappen carried through the…

Carlos Sainz led the midfield pack in the Hungarian Grand Prix, claiming his second consecutive fifth place as McLaren consolidated its fourth place in the constructors’ championship. McLaren has been the best-placed team outside the Big Three in four of the last six races and now has a 39-point lead over Toro Rosso in the battle for fourth in the constructors’ table. Sainz held sixth place at the start after jumping ahead of both Pierre Gasly and team-mate Lando Norris and was promoted to fifth when Bottas pitted for a new front wing. He remained there to the end of the race. “Maybe the Hungaroring has become a medium-speed track with modern F1 cars because it feels fast out there and that suited us a bit better,” said Sainz. “The…

This is meant to be about the best of the rest. I’m supposed to use this space to tell you how sick Sebastien Ogier was on Friday night; how Kris Meeke crashed. Twice. How Andreas Mikkelsen drove to save his career with a superb fourth place, edging Ogier in a final-day scrap. And how Thierry Neuville – and M-Sport – looked to have lost the plot a little bit in Finland. But I’m not going to do any of that. Instead, I’m going to focus on the biggest positive of them all. I’m going to focus on what Craig Breen did. Drafted in to contest the rally nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb didn’t fancy, the Irishman slotted straight into the i20 Coupe WRC and looked like he’d been there all…

FORMULA 2 HUNGARORING (HUN) 3-4 AUGUST ROUND 8/12 It’s been a below-par season for arguably the most anticipated and watched junior single-seater driver in the history of motorsport, Mick Schumacher. With the surname has come a gilded path, which almost certainly will end in a fairytale seat in Formula 1, where his father Michael dominated for so many years. But for every break he’s had, Schumacher Jr has also been met with the prying eyes of the fans, media and those who work in motorsport insistent that the reigning European Formula 3 champion must deliver instant results and live up to the performances of his father. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. His first F2 podium almost came at round two in Baku before a costly spin. He’s had…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP HUNGARORING (HUN) 4 AUGUST ROUND 6/9 Lechner Racing team-mates Michael Ammermuller and Julien Andlauer dominated the sixth round of the Porsche Supercup at the Hungaroring from the front row as Larry ten Voorde prevailed in a four-car battle for third place. Andlauer, leading Ammermuller by 67 points to 64 going into the weekend, was gifted pole position after provisional polesitter Tio Ellinas had his time scratched because it was set while yellow flags were being displayed in sector three. The deletion promoted ten Voorde to third on the grid, but both he and Ammermuller had to deal with flying fifth-place starter Dylan Pereira as Andlauer asserted himself in the lead. Pereira, winner last time out at Hockenheim, passed ten Voorde and was almost level with Ammermuller on the…

WORLD RALLYCROSS TROIS-RIVIERES (CAN) 4 AUGUST ROUND 7/10 The Canadian round of the World Rallycross season was a critical fixture in the fight to become the 2019 champion. Had either Hansen brother, Kevin or Timmy – who were 1-2 heading into the meeting – taken a maximum points haul, then it would have set them up for a sure-fire shot at a first crown. But both struggled at the Trois-Rivieres circuit, while rival Andreas Bakkerud capitalised on a track that, on paper at least, shouldn’t have favoured the Audi S1. With victory, he moved to within five points of the standings lead. Niclas Gronholm headed the order after qualifying, but a slow start in the semi-finals was compounded by losing out at the joker lap. His GRX Hyundai team-mate Timur…

GINETTA G40 CUP Rob Keogh had a race to remember for the wrong reason in the first outing of the Ginetta G40 Cup at Brands Hatch last weekend after his wheel fell off. The 2015 GRDC+ champion had come into the weekend with a 25-point lead over Chris Salkeld, and started the opening race from pole. But his problem soon began to manifest itself as Salkeld took the lead at the end of the opening lap, and Keogh (below) continued to drop further down the field before his front-left wheel sheared off and went into the catch fencing on the approach to Paddock Hill Bend at the start of lap five. “There was play [in the steering wheel] and it was just shaking,” he said. “It was driveable for the…

GINETTA JUNIOR Ginetta Junior rookie Roman Bilinski claimed his first podium at Snetterton despite being handed 12 licence points before the weekend. The Alastair Rushforth Motorsport driver picked up the points through a series of incidents in the first half of the season. But, as some of these were awarded on the same day, he escaped the usual automatic three-month ban. “It’s down to the way Motorsport UK tot the licence points up,” explained Ginetta motorsport manager Ash Gallagher, who added that the decision was out of the manufacturer’s hands. “What they’re saying is, with points that are accrued on the same date, they only count the highest set of points. There’s two incidents where he had two sets of licence points on the same date.” According to this rule,…

No matter the track or the conditions, Formula Ford racing never fails to entertain. It might not be the fastest form of motorsport and the machines are not the most advanced, but what you get are slipstreaming thrillers decided by the driver’s skill with mechanical grip and racecraft. The latest BRSCC National Formula Ford meeting at Brands Hatch last month proved to be no exception as the racing was as good as ever, and off track things are potentially hotting up as well. As you can read on page 62, talk among the teams and BRSCC has been centred around trying to move the series onto the British GT support package at some point in the future. Behind TOCA’s British Touring Car Championship meetings, British GT is arguably the second…

GT3 (75 laps) 1 Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson (Aston Martin Vantage GT3); 2 Rob Bell/Shaun Balfe (McLaren 720S) +6.268s; 3 Jack Mitchell/Angus Fender (BMW M6); 4 Phil Keen/Adam Balon (Lamborghini Huracan Evo); 5 Dennis Lind/Michael Igoe (Lamborghini); 6 Tom Onslow-Cole/Richard Neary (Mercedes-AMG GT3). Fastest lap Callum Macleod (Mercedes) 1m26.525s (101.24mph). Pole position Bell/Balfe. Starters 14. Points (after 8/9 rounds) 1 Keen/Balon 122; 2 Adam/Davidson 116; 3 Jonny Cocker/Sam De Haan (Lamborghini) 110.5; 4 Bradley Ellis/Ollie Wilkinson (Aston Martin) 88.5; 5 Bell/Balfe 88.5; 6 Callum Macleod/Ian Loggie (Mercedes) 73.5. GT4 (71 laps) 1 James Dorlin/Josh Smith (McLaren 570S); 2 Dean Macdonald/Callum Pointon (McLaren) +0.463s; 3 Tom Canning/Ash Hand (Aston Martin Vantage GT4); 4 Nathan Freke/Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke (BMW M4 GT4); 5 Martin Plowman/Kelvin Fletcher (Aston Martin); 6 Michael Broadhurst/Mark Murfitt (Mercedes-AMG GT4). FL…

Third in the championship and with seven podiums across 11 races heading to last weekend’s second Brands Hatch trip of the season for the JCW Mini Challenge, it was astonishing to think that Dan Zelos hadn’t won a race. But the 21-year-old finally shrugged that monkey off his back with a maiden win on the GP loop. The former Renault UK Clio Cup driver blasted away from pole ahead of championship leader Nathan Harrison, building up a healthy gap before William Hardy went off into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend and prompted a safety car. Zelos had the legs in the first stint but, once the race went green two laps later, it was Harrison who was in control. Zelos wasn’t able to build a buffer, and one mistake…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP Three penalties decided the outcome of a pair of hard-fought Renault UK Clio Cup races at Snetterton. Penalty one came after a thrilling opener, with winner Jack Young docked 10 seconds for contact. Jamie Bond initially grabbed the lead around the outside of Young at Riches before Young attempted to fight back at the hairpin a couple of laps later, but succeeded in just letting Max Coates through. Young then robustly passed Bond at Agostini before making contact with Coates at Brundle to grab the lead. That contact caused severe damage to Coates’s Clio as he limped home sixth with a puncture, meaning Bond inherited his maiden win and Ethan Hammerton his first podium. Penalty two came during race two as runaway winner Bond had 10s…

CROFT HSCC 3-4 AUGUST The 70s Road Sports series was easily the star of the Croft Retro and Classic Weekend. The inherent variety of roadgoing 1970s cars makes for a high degree of unpredictability and there were two different winners. Defending champion Jeremy Clark won the first race in his Lotus Elan, ahead of Kevin Kivlochan’s Morgan and Will Leverett’s Martini-liveried Lotus Europa. Leverett’s father Mark was also in the mix at the start, overtaking his polesitting son, who had a slide at the chicane. Leverett Sr’s supremacy was shortlived as he ran straight on onto the rallycross course in the early stages. It later transpired the Elan’s steering wheel had come off. Leverett Jr won the second race, taking the lead from Clark early on and managing the advances…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 3 AUGUST Joe Wiggin took two Mazda MX-5 Championship victories out of three at Oulton Park but, despite going without a win, John Langridge moved into the points lead. Will Blackwell-Chambers, champion for the past two seasons, headed the standings going into the meeting and, even though he finished no lower than fourth during the trio of races, his six-point advantage was converted into a four-point deficit by the end of the day. Compact Cup convert Wiggin opened up by taking the lead of race one at Shell on lap five of 10, thereby extending his winning streak – started at Snetterton – to four. Ben Short ended that run in race two, coming out on top of the early skirmishes with Wiggin, who also lost out…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This popular racer had to be patient, but finally got his just dessert. A late convert from two wheels to four, he quickly made his mark at the local level before finding the means to move further afield. Having shown well on limited funds it required the help of a legendary countryman to keep him on track. His grit was soon noticed and he was given a starring role on the world scene. He tasted the nectar of the top flight and kept it close to home as he sealed a dream start to his big chance. He wasn’t quite the king of the jungle, while a former great gave him a chance to shine, but not to win. A return to a…