Indholdsfortegnelse for 05/08/21 i Autosport

The Hungarian Grand Prix provided many remarkable sights. The key ones were Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll taking out nearly half the field at the first start, while almost as memorable will be the moment Lewis Hamilton began a GP on his own (above). As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on page 14, those two moments also set the scene for a remarkable result. Esteban Ocon drove brilliantly to hold off Sebastian Vettel to win, helped by some superb racecraft from team-mate Fernando Alonso, crucially delaying a charging Hamilton. It was a glimpse of the Formula 1 battle we should have seen more of over the past decade. The contest we are seeing has taken a swing in recent weeks. Erstwhile championship leader Max Verstappen has twice lost out…

FORMULA 1 Sebastian Vettel was hit with a reprimand for wearing a pride T-shirt reading ‘Same Love’ during the Hungarian national anthem at the country’s grand prix last Sunday. Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz Jr and Lance Stroll were summoned by the stewards over a breach of the pre-race procedure outlined by race director Michael Masi. While Bottas, Sainz and Stroll had forgotten to replace their ‘We Race As One’ T-shirts, Vettel wore his rainbow version after speaking out earlier in the week against the populist right-wing Hungarian government’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws. “I’m happy if they disqualify me,” Vettel said before the ruling was announced, which in hindsight was rather tempting fate (see p6). “They can do whatever they want to me, I don’t care. I would do it again.” Earlier…

Damon Hill was reunited with the Williams-Renault FW18 in which he won the 1996 Formula 1 World Championship at the Silverstone Classic last weekend. “This car is such a special car,” said the 60-year-old 22-time grand prix winner after completing some high-speed demonstration laps in damp conditions on Sunday. Other demos included a celebration of 30 years since the Jaguar Intercontinental Challenge for XJR-15s, while the mass gathering of E-types included ‘ECD 400’, which Hill’s father Graham took to victory at Oulton Park 60 years ago on the model’s competition debut.…

DTM The historic Norisring street circuit will host the final round of the DTM season this year on the weekend of 8-10 October. The Nuremberg event was cancelled last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, and its usual mid-summer slot was postponed this year. But now it will follow one week after the penultimate round at Hockenheim. The Hockenheim track is traditionally the site of the DTM finale, and this will be the first time that the season has concluded elsewhere since 2010, when Shanghai hosted the last event. With the DTM’s move to GT3 machinery, the Norisring’s flagship race will be held for sportscars as it was from its early years in the 1960s to the late 1980s. Meanwhile, the longanticipated return of two-time DTM champion Gary Paffett to the…

Formula 1 is fond of changing its rules. They were tweaked – after a fair bit of toing and froing – for 2017 to allow for standing starts to take place if races began with exploratory laps behind the safety car in wet conditions. A year later there was an update that once again allowed for additional standing starts if a race was red-flagged (this had last been done in 2001). The 2020 Italian Grand Prix restart was the first such recurrence of the standing restart rule, and it has happened five times since then (although not at the 2021 Emilia Romagna GP, where a dry line only on the right-hand side of the grid meant the FIA used its discretion to apply a rolling safety car restart that Max…

There were plenty of iconic images created at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. The sight of Sebastian Vettel wearing an LGBTQ+-supporting rainbow T-shirt made an impact for the right reasons ahead of the start, soon after which the pile-up crashes triggered by Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll created a scene of ugly chaos. But perhaps the most bizarre pictures on the day at the Hungaroring concerned Lewis Hamilton lining up solo on the grid to restart a race that was eventually won by the irrepressible Esteban Ocon. The event ultimately broke down into three main storylines, all of which were split apart from the original narrative by some shocking driving into the first corner. The Hungaroring had been dampened by rain falling steadily in the 30 minutes before the initial…

Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll will both serve five-place grid penalties at the Belgian Grand Prix for causing the two crashes at Turn 1 in Hungary. Bottas slid into Lando Norris after misjudging his braking point in the damp conditions, sending the McLaren into Max Verstappen. Bottas’s Mercedes then ran into Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, leaving all drivers with damage. While Verstappen continued despite major bodywork parts missing, Bottas, Perez and Norris were all forced to retire as a result of the incident. “It shows it’s not so easy in those conditions to brake, but I should have braked earlier,” said Bottas. “When I started braking, I was closing in, and then I locked the wheels and I hit Lando and that caused the whole mess. It…

Martin O’Connell’s raw speed and versatility are well-known, but the double British Formula 3 National Class champion played a blinder last Saturday evening, running rings round mighty opposition to win Motor Racing Legends’ charismatic 1950s sportscar ‘night race’ in Sandy Watson’s 1460cc Lotus 11 streamliner. With pre-1956 RAC Woodcote and pre-1961 Stirling Moss Trophy contests running concurrently in a monster field sanctioned by Motorsport UK, the sensational entry included the Jaguar D-type that finished second at Le Mans in 1954 (see page 51), Maserati A6GS and Aston Martin DB2 from the Argentinian Sielecki family, and a host of famous cars and oddities spanning 15 marques. Kiwi Roger Wills (ex-Bruce McLaren Lotus 15) made the best start, drawing Chris Ward (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly) and Richard Bradley (ex-works Lotus 15) past polesitter Sam…

FIA FORMULA 3 HUNGARORING (HUN) 31 JULY-1 AUGUST ROUND 4/7 Another weekend, another victory for FIA Formula 3 championship leader Dennis Hauger. He is storming away in the race for the drivers’ title this season and left the Hungaroring with a comfortable 63-point lead. The Norwegian has now scored seven podiums from 12 races, with three wins to his name, including the feature race last weekend. He conquered wet conditions to lead a Prema Racing 1-2 ahead of polesitter Arthur Leclerc, who bagged his second podium of the season. The field struggled with tyre wear as the circuit dried after two downpours had forced a rolling start behind the safety car, with Leclerc keeping the lead out of Turn 1. Victor Martins then tried to go up the inside of…

TCR EUROPE SPA (BEL) 30-31 JULY ROUND 4/7 World Touring Car race winner and Pure ETCR convert Mikel Azcona heads into the TCR Europe Series’ five-week summer break in good stead to win a second championship crown thanks to his brace on the Spa 24 Hours support bill. The Cupra racer fell foul of the Hyundai Elantra Ns’ slick slipstreaming in qualifying to land only fourth on the grid for the opener. But the 2018 title winner pounced for the lead on the run to Eau Rouge on lap one, the Spaniard having joined Mehdi Bennani in deposing polesitter Felice Jelmini into La Source. From there, Azcona controlled the race to bag the win by 2.6 seconds. In a wet second race started behind the safety car, Volcano Motorsport driver…

BARC A trackside marshal has died after a crash at the British Automobile Racing Club event at Brands Hatch last Saturday. At the start of the second lap of the first Pre-’93/Pre-’05 Classic Touring Car Racing Club race, Simon Beament made contact with another car along the Brabham Straight before his Ford Escort veered to the left and hit the barriers on the outside. The car was launched into a series of rolls before colliding with a marshals’ post. Medical crews arrived within seconds. It was later confirmed that marshal Rob Foote – a 67-year-old former mayor of Epsom – died following the crash, while another marshal and Beament were taken to hospital. The marshal suffered a broken arm, and Beament a broken left leg and right ankle. The remainder…

HAMMOND WINS ON RETURN Reigning Classic Stock Hatch champion Pip Hammond made his first appearance of 2021 in the series last Saturday at Cadwell Park, winning both races in his Vauxhall Nova GTE. Hammond has been competing in Roadsports alongside partner Esther Quaintmere this year. “Last year, when we were trying to go for the title, I think I became quite hard to live with,” said Hammond. “It has to come in waves, just for everyone’s benefit and my own.” IN MEMORY OF HOLLYWOOD Victory for the Hollywood Racing team in the 116 Trophy at Cadwell Park last Saturday was the perfect tribute to its former driver Lee Hollywood, who died last week aged 33 from cancer. Hollywood Racing drivers Lewis Tindall and Andrew Bayliss were delighted to win in…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC Scottish Formula Ford racer Colin Turner, who had both lower legs amputated following a crash in last November’s Walter Hayes Trophy, returned to Silverstone for last weekend’s Classic event and met some of the marshals, doctors and medical centre staff who came to his rescue. The reunion was organised by Kalie Plant during Iain Rowley’s traditional marshals’ evening on Friday. “It was wonderful to be able to put faces to names and say hello and thank you for all you did,” said Turner. “I’m only sorry I couldn’t get round and see more people.” Turner, whose remarkable current mobility should be improved by new sockets due to be fitted on Friday, added: “Nigel, Janet and Callum Grant invited me down and looked after me wonderfully.” Sitting in the…

Celebrated a year late due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and rebranded Classic Silverstone, the 30th anniversary historic event at the home of British motor racing was another monster. The international contingent that has flavoured it for so long was understandably very slim this time, ever-changing travel restrictions and testing criteria having made planning impossible for most. This narrowed the focus to UK-based combatants, but the overseas entries will be back given a fair wind. As ever the cream rose to the top over an action-packed Historic Sports Car Club-run 21-race card, centred on a relentless 12-hour marathon programme on Saturday. As I arrived on Thursday afternoon, the sheer scale of the festival’s logistics was evidenced by the acreage of camping sites around the circuit. Behind the Heritage Pits at the…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Joseph Loake was a happy young bloke as he made the short trip home from Oulton Park to Macclesfield, thanks to a dominant win and a third place in the two significant British F4 races at Oulton Park. Apart from a win at Thruxton, reigning Fiesta Junior champion Loake had poor results over the opening three rounds. No one had an answer to James Hedley in a tricky qualifying session, in which wet-weather tyres narrowly had the edge over slicks, but Loake shadowed JHR team-mate Matthew Rees throughout the opener, as Rees in turn piled the pressure on series leader Hedley’s Fortec Motorsport car, but without finding an opening. Hedley had a poor start and opening lap in the finale to drop to fifth, and Loake surged…

MINI CHALLENGE Race 1 (13 laps) 1 Max Bird; 2 Dan Zelos +2.370s; 3 Jason Lockwood; 4 Max Coates; 5 Oliver Barker; 6 Jim Loukes. Fastest lap Zelos 1m32.051s (87.05mph). Pole Bird. Starters 29. Race 2 (3 laps) 1 Barker; 2 Sam Weller +0.510s; 3 Zelos; 4 Coates; 5 Lewis Brown; 6 Bird. FL Lockwood 1m32.858s (86.29mph). P Weller. S 29. Points 1 Zelos 325; 2 Bird 299; 3 Brown 287; 4 Weller 266; 5 Coates 228; 6 Jack Davidson 224. BRITISH FORMULA 4 Race 1 (all 15 laps) 1 James Hedley; 2 Matthew Rees +0.240s; 3 Joseph Loake; 4 Roman Bilinski; 5 Oliver Gray; 6 Dougie Bolger. FL Hedley 1m23.790s (95.63mph). P Hedley. S 19. Race 2 1 McKenzy Cresswell; 2 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak +4.959s; 3 Tom Ikin; 4 Abbi…

BRANDS HATCH BARC 31 JULY-1 AUGUST Tragedy overshadowed the British Automobile Racing Club meeting at Brands Hatch last weekend when a crash during the opening Pre-’93/Pre-’03 Classic Touring Car race on Saturday contributed to a trackside marshal sustaining fatal injuries (see News). The incident took place after two cars collided and one was launched into a series of violent rolls before hitting the marshal post along the Brabham Straight. The race was immediately halted and emergency services were on the scene within seconds. The remainder of Saturday’s track activity was cancelled, while a revised timetable was organised for Sunday, with the Pre-’66 Touring Car and Britcar Trophy contests among the highlights. Former British Touring Car driver Alan Greenhalgh stormed to victory in a dry opening Pre-’66 encounter in his Ford…

SANTA POD BRITISH DRAG RACING 31 JULY - 1 AUGUST Round four of the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship produced a second chapter to the Annie Wallace story. In round three a fortnight earlier, the 22-year-old had won on her championship debut, an unprecedented feat in the Pro Modified class. Her progress seemed charmed, with six straight passes in qualifying and eliminations, each quicker than before, propelling her to victory past the season’s points and performance leaders, Kevin Slyfield and Nick Davies. But last weekend her fortunes abruptly reversed. In Saturday’s rain-curtailed qualifying, Wallace veered off-line and grazed the track wall. Wallace delivered a masterful, instinctive handling job to minimise the impact and deploy the parachutes while, back in the pits, the damage proved superficial and the chassis unharmed.…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has dismissed Red Bull’s request to review the British Grand Prix accident between Formula 1 title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton after the team failed to present any new evidence. Red Bull, which was pushing for a harsher penalty for Hamilton, notified the FIA in the build-up to last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix that it would be using its right to request a review of the incident, leading to a hearing on Thursday. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claimed that the team’s new evidence would make the stewards see the case in a “slightly different light”. But the stewards quickly dismissed Red Bull’s claim after it found that the team had created evidence instead of finding it, failing to meet the criteria of a “significant…

FORMULA 1 Aston Martin has lodged a notice of intention to appeal Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from second place in last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. In scrutineering checks after the race, the FIA officials could only retrieve 0.3 litres of fuel from the car, when the rules mandate that one litre should be left in the tank for sampling. The team believes that 1.74 litres of fuel should have been in the car, and that there are still 1.44 litres in the system that the FIA could not retrieve. Vettel stopped two corners from the end of his in-lap after the race after suffering what the team believes was an issue with the lift pump. It also believes that the pump failure could explain why the fuel has not been found.…

MOTOGP Three-time MotoGP race winner Cal Crutchlow will make his return to the series at this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix on a Petronas SRT Yamaha. The Briton will stand in at the Red Bull Ring for Franco Morbidelli, who has undergone an operation on a pre-existing knee injury he aggravated ahead of June’s Dutch TT. Morbidelli was ruled out of the Assen round and will remain on the sidelines until at least September’s Aragon Grand Prix. Crutchlow retired from racing at the end of last season after 10 years in MotoGP and became Yamaha’s official test rider, replacing three-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo in the role. But he is also the designated replacement rider for Yamaha should he be needed. He wasn’t called up to replace Morbidelli at Assen because…

FORMULA E Ex-Formula 1 drivers Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat are the prime contenders to replace Oliver Rowland at the Nissan e.dams Formula E team for next season to partner 2015-16 champion Sebastien Buemi. While the Swiss is locked in for 2022, Rowland will break away and is widely expected to join Mahindra Racing. That leaves London E-Prix victor Alex Lynn to search for a fourth new team, with the Essex racer vulnerable after signing only a one-year deal to race for Dilbagh Gill’s team in 2021 compared to team-mate Alexander Sims’s more expensive two-year contract. Although Nissan e.dams enters the Berlin double-header season finale way down in 10th in the teams’ standings, having been tipped by many as the pre-season favourite, the squad can count on a high-profile shortlist…

I’m fascinated by what it takes to be successful in Formula 1. It’s one of the reasons I continue to follow the championship so closely. So when I see some of the unfair comments about Valtteri Bottas, it’s worthwhile giving some perspective based on my own experience. I know what it’s like to go up against the best driver of a generation – in my case, Ayrton Senna – and to have worked with very strong team-mates throughout my career. From Johnny Herbert to Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell to Nigel Mansell and, of course, David Coulthard. It’s very easy to talk about someone who is world champion, winning all the time, and to then criticise their team-mate. It’s an easy comparison, but one that avoids the big picture of what…

“The lap really felt beautiful. I was really happy with it. I had the song YMCA just on my mind the whole session. I’m not really sure why, I haven’t really been listening to it, but that was what was the motivator today.” Plenty of interesting words to unpick from Lewis Hamilton, who was speaking shortly after he’d claimed the 101st official pole of his Formula 1 career. Starting with the Village People reference, it’s just possible (he never specifically said it was) that Hamilton was continuing his show of support for the country’s LGBTQ+ community that had begun with an Instagram post before the grand prix weekend got under way. Hamilton’s motivation worked a treat. He’d topped FP3 by just 0.088 seconds over title rival Max Verstappen, whose Red…

The presence of three LMP1 Peugeots couldn’t stop Le Mans veteran Emmanuel Collard taking Endurance Legends pole in the LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder. The 50-year-old pipped Rob Wheldon, driving Steve Tandy’s Lola-Mazda B12/60, by 0.267 seconds in the wet, with the best of the Peugeots in sixth. Wheldon remained a big threat in the dry first race. Although Collard led for a lap, Wheldon’s LMP1 machine (above) powered past on the run to Abbey. As Collard fell back, Francois Perrodo moved forward in his Peugeot 908. The Frenchman took second just as the pitstops began around half-distance. With Wheldon and Collard having to serve longer stops due to their ‘pro’ status, Perrodo was handed a sizeable lead, but Wheldon broke the Historic GP lap record repeatedly as he closed in.…

W SERIES HUNGARORING (HUN) 31 JULY ROUND 4/8 Formula 1 might well be experiencing a close and persistent two-driver title fight, but it isn’t the only series to be so lucky. W Series racers Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell are embroiled in a championship tussle of their own. Reigning champion Chadwick claimed victory last weekend at the Hungaroring – giving the pair two wins apiece from the four races so far this season – to put her one point ahead of her fellow Briton in the drivers’ standings. The Veloce Racing star dominated every session, including snaring pole by 0.269 seconds, before taking fastest lap on her way to finishing the race more than 10s ahead of Powell. The start to the race on Saturday was delayed while barriers were…

GINETTA JUNIOR Leading Ginetta Junior team R Racing’s appeal to the National Court over series frontrunner Callum Voisin’s 70-point deduction following a technical infringement at Snetterton earlier this year has been unsuccessful. The team argued that the loss of championship points on top of disqualification from the second race was too severe, and presented a number of possible reasons why the camshaft timing was not to standard specification when Voisin’s car was checked after the race. Series regulations permit the 70-point loss to be applied for infringements of a ‘more serious nature’, but can be waived in ‘exceptional circumstances’. The court found that the evidence presented did not qualify for this exemption. Chairman of the court panel David Munro said in his report: “Various possibilities were suggested as having caused…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC The Silverstone Classic returned to the Historic Grand Prix layout last weekend and the lap record was broken. A licence problem with the Historic GP circuit, which uses a faster version of Vale/Club, arose in 2018, meaning cars built after 1971 had to use the tighter, ‘Formula 1’ Club configuration. This meant all the races at the 2019 edition and the Historic Sports Car Club’s International Trophy in May this year took place on the familiar F1 layout. But in the week ahead of the 2021 edition of the Classic, Motorsport UK issued a new track licence, allowing all the races at the event to be run on the faster configuration. “There had been a reprofiling of the safety barrier at Club and the runoff became more acceptable,”…

CADWELL PARK 750MC 31 JULY Pip Hammond made a triumphant return to Classic Stock Hatch with a pair of wins at Cadwell Park last Saturday. The 2020 champion’s Vauxhall Nova GTE was never seriously challenged in the first race, despite his rivals having a second chance due to a red flag while Terry Roughton’s Citroen AX GTI was removed from the barriers. Matthew Stubington reclaimed second place in his Peugeot 205 GTI midway through, having been passed by the similar 205 of Chris Dear. Dear then had the attentions of a charging Ryan Morgan to deal with, but couldn’t keep at bay the Ford Fiesta XR2 of the championship frontrunner, who was one of several drivers running out of their normal position due to success ballast. Stewart Place (205) was…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Tom Hibbert enjoyed a near-perfect weekend in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup at Oulton Park, while key title rival Adam Smalley had one to forget. Qualifying did not quite go the way of the Rob Boston racer as a red flag left Hibbert down in fifth. But he emerged victorious in the opener after a great start catapulted him to second out of Old Hall and he then shadowed Smalley home. But the Elite Motorsport driver picked up a combined 15 seconds of track limits penalties that dropped him to 12th in the final result and dented his title charge. Hibbert admitted he was surprised to see a huge 1.5s lead on the restart after an early safety car in race two, as Reece Somerfield was caught out.…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB For the second event in a row, pre-season Porsche Carrera Cup GB title favourites Dan Cammish and Harry King failed to win either race as once again Lorcan Hanafin and Kiern Jewiss underlined their talent with an excellent win apiece. Hanafin led throughout the opener from pole but it was far from an easy victory for the JTR youngster as he had Cammish in his shadow. The double Redline champion – whose weekend did not get off to the best of starts with him being given a four-point championship deduction following an investigation of two Brands Hatch incidents – was all over the back of Hanafin but unable to make a move. Cammish did initially look set to lose his second-placed finish due to a 10-second…

BOOK INDY SPLIT RRP £25 “A civil war and an ugly divorce, all wrapped into one” is an apt way of describing the split between the Indy Racing League and CART in 1996 – the subject of a new book from John Oreovicz. A topic of huge significance for open-wheel racing in the US, the enormously damaging period has long merited a balanced, well-researched tome, and this passion project from veteran Indianapolis journalist Oreovicz – who spent much of his professional life on the beat – is an excellent work that at times reads as a history of Indycar racing. While the majority of the 400-page book is naturally devoted to the fallout of Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George’s decision to establish the breakaway IRL, and the gradual demise…

Carlos Reutemann (Brabham-Ford BT42) yanks off his gloves as he inspects the burst left-front Goodyear that had brought his race to a close on lap 10 of the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Reutemann had qualified fifth and was running just outside the points when he was forced to park up. The race was won by Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell-Ford 006), though the event will forever be overshadowed by the heartbreaking circumstances of March-Ford 731 driver Roger Williamson’s fatal accident. Autosport remembers Reutemann with F1 contemporary John Watson – go to autosport.com/podcast For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 George Russell is “confident” that a decision about his Formula 1 future will be made during this month’s summer break, amid continuing speculation about a switch from Williams to Mercedes. Russell continues to be heavily linked to the second Mercedes seat for 2022. He has starred since he joined its junior programme for 2017, and there is a large points gap between Lewis Hamilton and current Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Russell (with Hamilton in pic) had previously said “we all want something decided either way by the summer break”, but when asked to provide an update on the situation at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, he replied: “I guess there will be a decision made over the summer break. Whether anything will be announced with regards to my…

BTCC The hybrid British Touring Car Championship development car is set to make its race debut at next month’s Silverstone round in the hands of 2013 series champion Andrew Jordan. Jordan, who has been out of BTCC action since splitting with the West Surrey Racing BMW team on the eve of the delayed 2020 season, has been undertaking most of the testing of the hybrid-equipped, Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla, including last month’s official BTCC test at Oulton Park, where it completed more laps than any other car on the second and final day. The hybrid system, which will be deployed in races as a power-boosting push-to-pass tool, has been developed by Cosworth in conjunction with World Rally Championship giant M-Sport, which will supply the BTCC’s customer TOCA engine from 2022.…

SPA 24 HOURS Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Jack Aitken sustained a fractured collarbone and vertebra in a four-car shunt at the top of Eau Rouge in the opening half-hour of last weekend’s Spa 24 Hours. Aitken was injured when he spun his Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in the second left-hander in the Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence and was collected by two cars. His injuries were assessed at the circuit medical centre before he was transferred to hospital in Liege. Aitken described the vertebra fracture in a statement as stable, while he also sustained a minor lung contusion. He was still in hospital in Liege as Autosport closed for press on Tuesday, but he had been seen on Monday by a specialist on transporting patients with back injuries,…

Punishment should fit the offence It can’t be right that Sebastian Vettel receives a worse punishment than Valtteri Bottas at last Sunday’s amazing race. Bottas causes a major crash depriving us of some leading runners including his team-mate’s rivals and gets a grid penalty of just five places for Spa. Vettel drives brilliantly, completes the race, entertains millions of people and is excluded from the race because he did not have enough fuel to get round what was an extra lap. Forever his performance battling with Esteban Ocon is deleted. Surely a fine for the team for not putting a few extra litres in the tank would have been a fairer answer. Antony Lewis-Crosby London Ludicrous penalties need a rethink The recent penalties handed out are ludicrous. Drive with the…

With Pierre Gasly starting fifth and Yuki Tsunoda 16th, it was going to take something dramatic for the AlphaTauri drivers to effectively switch places in the pecking order after lap one. But that’s exactly was happened in the Turn 1 fracas, with Tsunoda skipping through into fourth at the restart as Gasly was dropped all the way down to 13th. The two converged over the course of the race. Tsunoda was unable to clear Nicholas Latifi until undercutting ahead at his stop, but was then overcut by the rapid Carlos Sainz Jr and Fernando Alonso as the Japanese driver’s hopes of a maiden F1 podium disappeared. Gasly spent the first part of the race stuck behind the hobbled Red Bull of Max Verstappen, but was eventually released once his former…

Alfa Romeo slipped to ninth in the constructors’ championship after Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi both landed in-race penalties that ended hopes of a decent Hungary points haul. Raikkonen sat eighth under the red flag after avoiding the Turn 1 chaos, but an issue with the traffic light system in the pits meant he was released into Nikita Mazepin’s path and they made contact, Mazepin forced to retire with a broken front-right axle. Raikkonen received a 10-second penalty that he served at his first stop, dropping him out of the points until he moved into 10th in the final classification after Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification. Giovinazzi landed a 10s stop/go penalty after exceeding the pitlane speed limit by 15.9mph at his early stop. He spent the second half of his race…

“The driving standards have been bad from what I’ve seen. I’ve been lucky, because it hasn’t affected me much, and that’s great, but something needs to change. And it’s not just in touring cars. In every [TOCA] championship it’s been shit. You’d think after a marshal died yesterday there’d have been some respect.” The words are Jake Hill’s, and he is absolutely right. The BTCC held a minute’s silence on Sunday before action began, to honour the fallen marshal from the previous day’s action at Brands Hatch. And then a disgusting, deplorable day of largely avoidable accidents began. Needless banging, not leaving enough room, and that old favourite of blithely closing the door when someone’s clearly alongside you were rife. No individual incident was outrageous, but it added up to…

Britain’s unpredictable summer, coupled with Silverstone’s fabled microclimate – which made Friday qualifying a lottery, served up intermittent heavy rain on Saturday afternoon, and did not deliver a totally dry track until late on Sunday – failed to deter competitors or the Classic-starved faithful who have waited since 2019 for their fix. They witnessed some world-class driving in the trickiest of conditions. Martin O’Connell’s victory in Saturday’s 1950s sportscar race into darkness in a diminutive Lotus 11 (see right), and Ben Mitchell and Danny Winstanley’s apparent toppling of the establishment in an ultimately controversial Jaguar E-type 60th Anniversary race, were among the highlights Sunday’s Jaguar feature, with 43 starters, will live long in the memories of onlookers sheltering in trackside grandstands or watching coverage streamed worldwide. Poleman Nigel Greensall led…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP HUNGARORING (HUN) 1 AUGUST ROUND 4/8 Marvin Klein currently lies second in the French Porsche Carrera Cup standings – a performance good enough to earn a lastminute call-up to replace the CLRT team’s regular Supercup driver Steven Palette for the Hungarian Grand Prix support race. Klein finished seventh during his full season in the flagship 911 spec series last year with a best result of fourth, so he somewhat stunned the opposition by snaring pole aboard the new 992-generation Cup machine with a 0.143-second cushion over Martinet by Almeras racer Jaxon Evans at the Hungaroring. While Frenchman Klein led from pole to the flag to initially earn a controlled maiden victory, there was insufficient fuel left in the tank to provide the mandated two-kilogram sample, the indiscretion coming…

GB3 BRDC British F3 has been rebranded as the GB3 Championship with immediate effect, following a naming decision by the FIA. The news, which was announced on Monday, comes after years of discussion between MotorSport Vision – which operates the series – and the FIA over the use of the Formula 3 title. The FIA launched its Regional F3 concept in 2017, and intended to limit the use of the ‘F3’ name to championships that were within its remit. British F3 weighed up adopting Regional F3 status for 2019, but ultimately opted to retain its current Tatuus-Cosworth car instead of switching to a halo-equipped machine. MSV chief executive and 1981 British F3 champion Jonathan Palmer had battled to ensure the category retained its F3 name, having been granted dispensation to…

THUNDERSPORTS The rare Group 5 Lotus Esprit raced by Richard Jenvey in the world sportscar championship four decades ago returned to racing in the UK during the Silverstone Classic. The Lotus was built and raced internationally by Jenvey in 1979 and 1980 but struggled for reliability, and the project was eventually scrapped. It was later sold after many years in storage and acquired by Ken Baird, who handed it to Greg Caton and his team at G-Cat Racing. An extensive rebuild was finally completed in time for it to contest several Classic Endurance Racing events in Europe in 2019, but the Classic’s Thundersports race was its first in the UK for 40 years. Caton took the Esprit to an impressive GT class-winning fifth.…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC David Tomlin returned to racing his Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth at the Silverstone Classic, nearly five months after it was substantially damaged in a roll during pre-season testing at Donington Park. Prolific race and rally driver Tomlin has spent the first half of the season using his Motul Historic Formula 2 car and Lola T210 sports-racing machine, but was able to run the RS500 (below) in the Historic Touring Car counter at Silverstone. “It’s now better than ever,” said Tomlin of the RS500, which was rebuilt by Raceworks Motorsport and finished in the run-up to the Classic. Just about every panel on the car had to be replaced after the roll at the Masters test day in mid-March. Tomlin repaid the team’s work by planting the RS500 on…

MINI CHALLENGE It has to be one of the most bizarre ways of taking your maiden Mini Challenge win. Oliver Barker suffered a frightening roll after colliding with the Cascades barriers on the restart of the second race at Oulton Park, yet the result was taken from the first stoppage meaning Barker was declared the winner. Jim Loukes grabbed the lead from polesitter Sam Weller on the initial start but the pair’s battling into Island allowed Barker to dive ahead of them both. Weller then passed Loukes at Lodge before, three laps later, Loukes ran slightly wide out of Old Hall onto the grass and into the barriers, with the angle of the impact then sending him into a series of barrel rolls and leading to a red flag. Third-starting…

GINETTA JUNIOR The trip to Cheshire was not a particularly memorable one for the Ginetta Junior field as just four true racing laps were completed amid a red flag in its sole contest and multiple delays elsewhere. Rookie Josh Rowledge produced comfortably his best qualifying performance of the season to land pole – his previous highest being fifth – and he kept the lead at the start, while Callum Voisin passed the fast-starting Max Dodds to grab second from fourth on the grid in just over a lap. But the race was then neutralised with Zac Meakin off at Old Hall and, as repairs were needed to the barriers, a red flag was shown. This left a four-lap restart and Liam McNeilly was the driver on the move as he…

Kiern Jewiss’s career had been gathering impressive momentum. A late call to race in Ginetta Junior in 2017 did not stop him from challenging for outright glory, finishing fourth overall and as rookie champion. He was then the class of the field in British Formula 4 the following year, a campaign that is remembered for some brilliant overtaking moves at Donington Park and Silverstone, in particular, en route to the title. A graduation to BRDC British F3 for 2019 yielded mixed results but big things were expected of his sophomore season, yet it did not go to plan and Jewiss departed the series mid-year. After that disappointment, he sought a fresh start and that meant a switch to sportscars and driving for Team Parker Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup…

MALLORY PARK BARC 1 AUGUST Jack Wolfenden consolidated his advantage at the head of the Northern and Super Classic Formula Ford Championship’s Pro class with a victory and a second place at Mallory Park. It wasn’t a day without drama, however. In the opener, Firman driver Wolfenden tracked James Hadfield’s Van Diemen at the initial getaway, but the race was halted to recover Richard Ketterman’s broken Reynard. Wolfenden made a poor restart, falling behind the venerable Merlyn of Hadfield’s father Simon. The Firman and Merlyn made contact on Stebbe Straight, sending Hadfield Sr spinning and other cars off in avoidance, including frontrunner Peter Daly’s Van Diemen, which retired. Wolfenden continued a long way adrift of Hadfield Jr, who eventually won by seven seconds. Nigel Dolan dived ahead of Paul Mason’s…

For all of Argentina’s remarkable history in Formula 1, it has now been 20 years since the country was last represented on the grid. But had the ambitious USF1 team got off the ground in 2010, the baton would have been taken up by Toyota World Endurance Championship ace Jose Maria Lopez. A rising star in the early 2000s, he had tested F1 cars for two different teams before turning 21, but was dropped by Renault after two indifferent seasons in GP2 and seemingly destined for the career scrapheap. But to his great credit, Lopez adapted quickly to touring car racing and won back-to-back titles in Argentina’s TC2000 series in 2008-09, opening an unlikely route to F1. The addition of three new teams to the grid for 2010 created opportunities…