Indholdsfortegnelse for 11/05/23 i Autosport

That’s more like the Max Verstappen we expected in 2023. After Sergio Perez twice managed to hold on out front as Verstappen came through the pack in Jeddah and Baku, the reigning double world champion proved unstoppable in Miami last weekend. On this occasion it was a minor Verstappen error that put him back on the grid, but he more than made up for that in the race. His pace while making the hard tyre last was particularly impressive. Jake Boxall-Legge outlines the key events of the race in our in-depth report (page 14), while Alex Kalinauckas argues that the events of Miami show just what Perez is up against this year (p12). Formula 1 will be heading to Monaco at the end of the month, but Formula E got…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has introduced new protocols to prevent a repeat of the late scare in the recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon had to avoid photographers, local marshals and personnel from the governing body in the pits erecting parc ferme conditions. To avoid disqualification, Ocon sought to make his sole pitstop to ditch his hard tyres on the final lap in Baku. But people were prematurely released into the pits before the race had ended. As such, from now on, Formula 1 teams must ensure VIP guests and mechanics stay clear of the pitlane until the final car has taken the chequered flag and when they are certain there will be no more pitstops. Failure to do so will result in guilty teams losing paddock access…

SPORTSCARS Audi could be on the way out of sportscar racing. Full stop! The German manufacturer axed its return to the Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship with a new LMDh prototype early last year, and now it appears that the writing is on the wall for the R8 GT3 racer. Audi appears set to close its customer racing department as its focus shifts to its Formula 1 entry in 2026. It is understood that the Audi board has issued instructions for the division that masterminds programmes not only with the R8 LMS GT3, but also the GT2 and GT4 versions of the V10-engined sportscar as well as the RS3 LMS TCR touring car, to be wound down. Audi’s frontline participation in the GT3 arena, which includes factory…

WRC The late Craig Breen’s former co-driver James Fulton is returning to action alongside former World Rally Championship event winner Kris Meeke on Rally Portugal this week. Irishman Fulton teamed up with Breen at M-Sport for the final WRC round in Japan last year ahead of their partial 2023 campaign with Hyundai. They finished second on Rally Sweden before the crash that claimed the life of Breen in testing ahead of last month’s WRC round in Croatia. Fulton was unharmed. Alongside the WRC campaign, Fulton (below) had committed to partnering Breen in the Portuguese Rally Championship, competing for the Team Hyundai Portugal squad in a Rally2 i20 N. This seat has now been filled by five-time WRC rally winner Meeke, who was a team-mate and close friend of Breen’s. Running…

Max Verstappen stands on the edge of his own piece of Red Bull history. He’s now level with Sebastian Vettel on 38 wins for the squad owned by the energy drinks giant and is the heavy favourite to take the record for himself as soon as the next 2023 Formula 1 race at Imola. Given the size of Red Bull’s advantage at the head of the pack, and with Verstappen’s current contract running to the end of 2028, at the rate he’s going he could put that record well out of sight for any successor. Only one driver has a chance to stop him, and he’s sitting 33 wins back in the Red Bull victory stakes: Sergio Perez, double Baku winner, second in the standings with two victories to Verstappen’s…

After the drivers had taken their first steps up to the oche in Q3, Sergio Perez was sitting pretty. His two major rivals in the hunt for pole, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, had both made minor and innocuous errors on their first laps and were pinning their hopes on the second bite at the cherry. Verstappen was the odds-on favourite for pole, having headed Q1 and Q2, but a wide moment through Turn 5 cost him his rhythm through the sweepers and forced him to abandon his lap. Leclerc’s first run was strong until a lock-up at Turn 17, and yielded a time good enough only for seventh. Conversely, Perez had nailed the first run, chalking up a 1m26.841s to sit over three tenths clear of Fernando Alonso. The…

Haas featured prominently at the first of its three home 2023 Formula 1 events, with Kevin Magnussen a qualifying star and bagging a point, while Nico Hulkenberg recovered from an FP1 crash to battle Lewis Hamilton early in the race. Much like in the circumstances that secured his 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix pole, Magnussen benefited from getting on with it early in Q3, then striking gold when Charles Leclerc’s crash prevented any subsequent improvements. Magnussen then made a rare poor start, losing three spots, before getting into a lengthy scrap with Leclerc after the Ferrari had failed to stay within DRS range of George Russell’s Mercedes when the system was activated. The pair engaged in a series of skirmishes, including Magnussen battling back past Leclerc as both were overcome in…

Formula E began the second half of its 2023 campaign in Monaco, and the event firmly signified the emergence of new title favourites in the championship battle. Nick Cassidy and Envision Racing arrived in the Principality on a high thanks to victory last time out in Berlin, but their success in Monte Carlo was even sweeter and has launched the combination into the lead of the drivers’ and teams’ championships. Cassidy’s maiden Monaco success was the culmination of a remarkable turnaround over the course of the day. The Kiwi had struggled in both of Saturday morning’s practice sessions, finishing as the second-slowest runner in each and complaining of a vibration under braking. Changes were made ahead of qualifying and, while there was a significant improvement in the Jaguar’s performance, Cassidy…

Reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion Bobby Thompson is making a habit of reversed-grid podiums at Brands Indy. His third place in 2022 made him ineligible for JST honours in subsequent seasons, and he was third on the road again last weekend – elevated to second with Ricky Collard’s penalty. But Thompson is much more than an occasional fluky reversed-grid guy. His Team Hard Cupra Leon finished just 0.948 seconds adrift of winner Ash Sutton last Sunday, his car control is superb, and remember that he was battling with the title contenders on pace at last season’s Brands GP finale. What’s more, he now has former Team Dynamics technical chief Barry Plowman in his corner, with ex-Triple Eight, West Surrey Racing and Team BMR wizard Kevin Berry in overall engineering charge.…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS SPEEDWAY (USA) 7 MAY ROUND 12/36 Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson tangled on the final lap at Kansas Speedway before Hamlin came away with his first NASCAR Cup win of the 2023 season. In one of the most competitive races of the year – it featured 37 lead changes among 12 different drivers – Larson and Hamlin separated themselves into a one-on-one battle in the final 25 of 267 laps. With five laps to go and Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet holding onto a tenuous lead, the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Hamlin got alongside Larson at one point but couldn’t complete the pass and was forced to back off. On the final lap, Hamlin again got near Larson off Turn 2 and nudged the Chevy in the…

This is the third coming of Peugeot in top-line sportscar racing. The 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar that arrived in the World Endurance Championship in July last year is making its first Le Mans 24 Hours appearance in 2023, and follows the 905 3.5-litre Group C and the 908 turbodiesel LMP1 projects that upheld the honour of France at the big race with a trio of victories between them. Yet neither won at the first attempt. The 2023 WEC formbook would need to be ripped up and then pushed through the shredder for Peugeot to make it number four next month. There’s a parallel between the 905 programme that began nigh on 35 years ago and today’s 9X8, though it’s not quite what it seems. The company stylists had a big…

The Ford FE V8 was much more than the engine that powered the Ford Galaxies that revolutionised touring car racing in the United Kingdom. A strong case can be made for it being one of the great competition engines of all time, not bad for a unit designed to power trucks and big road cars – and even used in boats. Introduced in 1958, the Y-block FE stayed in production until 1976, but its biggest successes came during Ford’s motorsport push during the 1960s. The smallest version(!) was 5.4 litres, but it was the seven-litre variant that grabbed racing success. Competition in NASCAR was fierce, with the Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Plymouth and Pontiac marques all getting in on the act at various points as power outputs got…

BRITISH GT Darren Burke praised the efforts of his Enduro Motorsport squad after they completed an overnight engine and gearbox change on its McLaren Artura following a spectacular failure in the first practice session ahead of last weekend’s British GT Silverstone 500 event. After working through the night to complete the repairs, the team was rewarded for its efforts when Burke – confirmed for the full season in place of Harry Nunn – and Harry George finished 11th in GT4 from the back of the grid. “The team had the car in the garage and stripped down so quickly, we didn’t even know they’d done it to be honest with you,” said Burke. “We’ve gone to bed on Saturday night and come back to a fresh car. “It may have…

CIVIC CUP One-time MG Trophy champion Sam Kirkpatrick is weighing up a Civic Cup campaign in 2024 after a strong showing when he sampled the Honda series at Croft last weekend. The 22-year-old joined Area Motorsport to drive the EP3 that Matt Luff took to last year’s title. He qualified fourth in the 27-car field and had a best finish of fourth in the opening race. “We’re just doing this as a guest round to see if we want to do it next year, because we’d have to build a car,” he explained. “It’s more competitive, with a lot of good drivers, and it’s all one class, which I like.” Kirkpatrick was a dominant force in the MG Trophy, taking his ZR 190 to the title in 2021 and winning…

Legends racer Connor Mills was able to escape serious injury in this dramatic crash during last weekend’s finale at Brands Hatch. There was a concertina effect heading into Paddock Hill Bend on lap five when Mills clipped Jack Parker’s machine ahead, which speared Mills into a frightening series of rolls and his car briefly caught fire. Championship owner Phil Cooper said it was testament to the strength of the Legends cars that Mills was able to avoid injury. The race was red-flagged and, with the circuit curfew approaching, it was not restarted.…

SPECIAL SALOONS Danny Morris’s plan for Welshman Karl Jones to contest the Classic Sports Car Club’s Special Saloons and Modsports race at Thruxton last weekend came undone. Jones was due to race the Spirit of RPM Peugeot-Cosworth 309 turbocar in Sunday’s second race, but he was thwarted by engine failure before he could drive it in qualifying. “I did 49.3s on a Brands Hatch Indy circuit test day four years ago and there’s certainly 48s in it,” said Jones, the 1983 Formula Ford 1600 Champion of Brands. Ironically, Jones’s best British Saloon Car Championship results were seconds at Thruxton in 1988 and 1989 in the Duckhams Ford Sierra RS500, powered by a similar YB turbo engine. Meanwhile, synonymous with white and yellow Fords carrying the number 27, Martin Reynolds shocked…

SUPERKARTS Reigning champion Lee Harpham made a convincing winning return in Superkarts at Cadwell Park last weekend following a huge accident at the Lincolnshire circuit just three weeks earlier. The 41-year-old from Grimsby was thrown from his MS Kart when a tyre valve failed at 130mph entering Coppice Corner in April. But, using his spare chassis, he was able to win all three races at the Historic Sports Car Club’s meeting. “We’ve seen 3am a few times leading up to this weekend trying to get it ready,” Harpham explained. “My neck’s been a bit sore and in race two I had a good lead so backed off to nurse it but, on the penultimate lap into Hall Bends, I realised Jack [Tritton] was suddenly right behind so had to step…

SILVERSTONE BRITISH GT 6-7 MAY Century Motorsport’s Dan Harper and Darren Leung were crowned British GT winners at the Silverstone 500 after a meteoric recovery drive from 18th. On the weekend Britain crowned a new king, a 43-car grid was British GT’s largest in a decade, although stereotypical British weather left qualifying a deluge. Four incidents and a brace of red flags later, the sessions were abandoned with combined times from second free practice making up Sunday’s grid. One of the biggest losers was therefore Century Motorsport as teething troubles in FP2 left its BMW M4 pairing in an unrepresentative position on the grid. “We had a few issues,” said Harper, “but it was bad luck how it went. Even in warm-up we had a misfire and were wondering when…

SILVERSTONE GB3 6-7 MAY Joseph Loake extended his GB3 Championship lead during a chaotic weekend at Silverstone dominated by penalties. The JHR Developments driver picked up two more victories to add to his opening Oulton Park triumph last month, but only after Rodin Carlin’s John Bennett had his first two single-seater wins taken away by officials. Tymek Kucharczyk had looked a likely victory contender at the beginning of the weekend, having taken a double pole in a wet qualifying. But the Polish ace had his times disallowed minutes before the opening contest as he was excluded from qualifying – along with Douglas Motorsport team-mate Lucas Staico – after tape on his car’s halo was deemed to not be compliant with the regulations. Bennett was promoted to pole for both races,…

MINI CHALLENGE There may have only been two rounds of the Mini Challenge season but the battle to be crowned champion is already starting to look like a two-horse race as Dan Zelos and Will Orton continued to share the glory at Brands Hatch. While Zelos was always likely to be a contender this year, former Ginetta GT5 Challenge frontrunner Orton admits he has “exceeded my expectations” to be leading the championship. “It was a late decision to do this [Minis] – I’d only done four days in the car,” added Orton. There was certainly no disputing who was the class of the field in the opener, however, as Excelr8 Motorsport’s Zelos powered to a dominant seven-second win from pole on an increasingly wet track. Joe Tanner was running second…

BRITISH F4 There was no disputing that Louis Sharp was the standout star of British Formula 4 at Donington Park. But plenty of his rivals were vying for that tag at Brands Hatch as the Rodin Carlin driver was on the back foot after struggling in the tricky wet qualifying and being sent crashing out of the opener. There was Fortec’s James Higgins, who grabbed an impressive double pole and claimed a maiden win with a lights-to-flag lead of race three. Then there was Kanato Le, the Hitech racer who profited from Higgins’ slow start to race one and Daniel Guinchard’s Surtees slide to take the opening spoils. Another contender was JHR Developments’ Deagen Fairclough. He rocketed up 15 places on the first lap of race one – even if…

TCR UK Race 1 Jac Constable (Audi RS3 LMS Gen II, below) Race 2 Jenson Brickley (Cupra Leon Competicion) CIVIC CUP Race 1 Ryan Bensley Race 2 Dan Thackeray FIESTA JUNIORS Races 1 & 2 Ben Mulryan (Zetec S Mk7) MAZDA MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Steve Foden Race 3 Adam Sparrow MAZDA MX-5 CLUBMAN Race 1 Paul Bateman Race 2 Matt Fletcher MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP Race 1 Patrick Fletcher Races 2 & 3 Aidan Hills CITYCAR CUP Races 1, 2 & 3 Elliot Lettis (Peugeot 107) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is clear that any “hostage exchange” between his team and Ferrari to expedite the release of the Italian squad’s racing director Laurent Mekies to AlphaTauri will not involve letting go of senior staff at the Milton Keynes operation. Mekies has agreed to swap Maranello for Faenza to join AlphaTauri as its new team principal in place of 67-year-old Franz Tost, who is stepping down at the end of the season. But no date has been set for Mekies’s arrival because he remains under a long-term contract; his release needs to be agreed. Sources suggest that Ferrari could be willing to let Mekies go early if it can gain advanced access to some of the Red Bull personnel it has signed but who…

WEC The revived Isotta Fraschini marque has set back its proposed debut in the World Endurance Championship with its new Le Mans Hypercar. Rather than racing the Tipo 6 LMH Competizione for the first time at Monza in July, it is now looking to make the series finale at Bahrain in November. Isotta and partner team Vector Sport have changed their focus to testing through the summer with the car developed by Michelotto Engineering. They are aiming to compete 10-15,000km wth the Tipo 6 LMH prior to its homologation and then a race debut on an invitational basis at the Bahrain 8 Hours. “We want to develop the car properly on the track, because once we homologate the car for racing we freeze the specification,” said Isotta motorsport boss Claudio…

Sixteen-year-old Mercedes F1 protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli, of whom we raved couple of weeks ago, scored a victory on his GT debut in the opening Italian GT Sprint round at Misano last Saturday. Driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by father Marco’s Antonelli Motorsport team, the reigning Italian F4, German F4 and Formula Regional Middle East champion won by 23 seconds, despite serving a 5s pitstop penalty for being a solo driver. Second were Lamborghini pair Edoardo Liberti and Mattia Michelotto, and third were ex-DTM champion Bruno Spengler and Jens Klingmann in a BMW. An additional 15s penalty for winning the first race proved too much for Antonelli to overcome on Sunday, but he still ambushed Klingmann at the final corner for third.…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship racer Ricky Collard lost his maiden victory in the series at Brands Hatch last Sunday to a track-limits time penalty and has stated that “the worst thing for me is that the fans got robbed”. The 26-year-old prevailed on track by 0.200 seconds after an enthralling battle with three-time champion Ash Sutton, only for a 10s penalty for “multiple” track-limits breaches to relegate his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport to eighth position in the results. “I feel like I drove one of the best races of my life to keep Ash behind me in a superior package to what we’ve got at the minute, although we’re working hard to make ours better,” said former BMW Junior Collard. “He actually overtook me on the grass,…

The folly of removing tyre warmers Gary Watkins makes excellent points about the folly of removing tyre warmers from the World Endurance Championship and especially at Le Mans (Opinion, 4 May). Having gone to Le Mans since 1979, although not in recent times, I remember too many fatal accidents at the circuit, often due to deflating tyres. Of course, tyre technology has moved on tremendously since those days and the teams monitor tyre pressures at all times on the circuit, so it seems to be a backward step to impinge on tyre safety for the sake of saving a minimal amount of diesel usage. Anyone who’s visited Le Mans will fully appreciate the huge temperature differences that can occur between day and night driving, especially under cloudless weather. Cars leaving…

The Miami weekend ended up with rather familiar feelings at AlphaTauri, as Yuki Tsunoda raced superbly to climb to 11th for the third time in 2023, while Nyck de Vries wrecked his own chances early. The rookie AlphaTauri racer had led Tsunoda in qualifying for the first time this season, with de Vries making Q2 impressively given the challenges of getting the soft tyres working well on the slippery new surface. But he locked up at Turn 1 and clattered into McLaren’s Lando Norris, causing flat spots and being among the first to stop for hard tyres. He ran a rather lonely race thereafter to 18th, ahead of Logan Sargeant and only passing the hobbled Oscar Piastri. Tsunoda, however, got stuck in on the opening lap and again later in…

SUPER GT FUJI (JPN) 4 MAY ROUND 2/8 TOM’S pair Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata delivered Toyota’s first win of the 2023 Super GT season on the marque’s home turf at Fuji. After a wild opening race at Okayama, the 450km Golden Week fixture proved a surprisingly tame affair, with not a single caution period interrupting a dominant display by the #36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra. Tsuboi climbed from sixth on the grid to second in the first stint, and by the time of his first pitstop was challenging the pole-winning Team Kunimitsu Honda of Tadasuke Makino for the lead. A faster pitstop and out-lap put Tsuboi ahead, with Miyata taking over at the second stop for the final stint and beating the Kunimitsu NSX-GT of Makino and Naoki Yamamoto…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Dominant Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion James Kellett says he is still getting to grips with his new Porsche machinery in the dry, despite claiming his maiden Carrera Cup GB win at Brands Hatch last weekend. Kellett stayed with Century Motorsport – the team that guided him to Ginetta GT5 Challenge and GT4 Supercup glory – for his move to Porsches but had a difficult first weekend in the series at Donington Park. He tangled with Charles Rainford at Coppice when fighting for fifth, which forced Kellett into retirement and meant he had to charge from 22nd to finish seventh in race two. But Kellett enjoyed a stronger event at Brands, starting by claiming pole by just 0.001 seconds in wet conditions. Although he fell back to…

DUBAI F1 CARS REVEALED Two Williams FW07Cs that Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann used to take 1981 Formula 1 constructors’ title glory are among some of the first cars to be confirmed for December’s Historic Dubai GP Revival event. Another F1 victor already announced as part of the entry is a Tyrrell 011 (above), the last of Ken Tyrrell’s cars to win, in 1983. SMITH MOVES TEAM ALREADY Brands Hatch may have only been the second round of the British Formula 4 season but Sonny Smith has already changed teams. The ex-Ginetta Junior frontrunner struck a late deal with Argenti Motorsport for Donington Park but was with JHR Developments in Kent. His best finish was 14th on an eventful weekend. WILMOT’S LATE TCR RETURN Andy Wilmot was a late addition…

HISTORIC F3 Samuel Harrison gave Speedsport’s Brabham BT21B a pair of wins first time out in Cadwell Park’s Historic Formula 3 races last weekend. The car, raced in period by Peter Westbury, has undergone restoration by Mike O’Brien’s concern, with which Harrison won last year’s Historic Formula Ford 1600 crown. He was also a frontrunner in Historic F3 with a Chevron B15 and topped Autosport’s National Driver Rankings. Gearbox problems prevented Harrison setting a qualifying time in the Brabham, but he still comfortably won the opening Lincolnshire race from the back of the grid in pouring wet conditions. “We’ve had a few gremlins with the ’box over the weekend and were really late to the assembly area for race two because of some more fixes, but a big thank you…

RANDACCIO’S CSCC DEBUT Second in Sunday’s Classic K finale at Thruxton, first time out in a TVR Griffith, was a fine Classic Sports Car Club debut for sometime Group C2 and Britcar GT racer Fabio Randaccio. Post-event he revealed that the 4.7-litre Ford V8-engined beast was built by Derbyshire legend Willie Green in 2007, but had not previously raced. It is now for sale. STAG MISSING IN ACTION Missing from the Historic Sports Car Club’s Cadwell Park meeting last weekend was ’70s Road Sports race winner William Leverett, who was absent due to being on his stag weekend! The 30-year-old will also miss the club’s Donington Park June fixture – it clashes with his wedding. KIVLOCHAN’S COBRA CRASH Kevin Kivlochan hopes to have his Shelby Cobra repaired in time for…

HAREWOOD BRITISH HILLCLIMB 7 MAY For the second time in three weekends, Wallace Menzies and Scott Moran shared the victories in the British Hillclimb Championship after another day of ferocious competition at Harewood. But there was a major twist in the plot of the 2023 BHC in Yorkshire and this time it was Alex Summers who lost out. His DJ Firestorm came to a stop on the opening class run with a fuel issue and his day was over. Instead, it is Menzies who narrowly heads the standings after the opening salvo of six run-offs in three weekends, but only by two points from young Matthew Ryder, who was superb as he made it five second places from six rounds. Moran, meanwhile, was left to rue what could have been…

Jack Brown and Charles Clark sealed their first GT4 class win in commanding fashion after the pair played the strategy game to perfection and avoided the pitfalls that befell their frontrunning rivals. Starting the Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura from the outside of the front row, a better first lap for Clark propelled him into the lead ahead of polesitter Zac Meakin in the Team Parker Racing Porsche. Electing to pit under the first safety car dropped him to third but in a prime position to inherit the lead when Stuart Middleton and Harry George eventually took their first stops, having been the only two in class not to take advantage of the early caution. While George slipped down the order in the Enduro McLaren, which had a new engine and…

LEGENDS The Legends drivers produced some frenetic action on the first of their three 2023 appearances alongside British Touring Cars at Brands Hatch last weekend. But, sadly, it was all too brief as several red flags shortened their outings. From the racing that did take place, Jack Parker was one of the star performers as he stood in for five-time champion John Mickel, who was unable to compete due to Motorsport UK concussion rules following his Cadwell Park roll last month. Parker signalled his intent on a damp first lap of the weekend, rising from 23rd to 14th in the opening heat. His rapid progression continued to an eventual third, behind Will Gibson and Oli Schlup. Gibson grabbed the lead from polesitter Schlup at Paddock Hill Bend, Schlup having just…

Aidan Hills, riding high in the early-season Autosport National Driver Rankings, scored his eighth and ninth wins of the year in Croft’s Mazda MX-5 Supercup races. The former Ginetta GT5 Challenge driver, who is combining his return to racing in the Supercup with a campaign in MotorSport Vision Racing’s new Miata Trophy, has started the season in blistering form, dominating on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and both Brands Hatch layouts ahead of last weekend. It’s come while running a fleet of cars alongside dad Daren through their Hills Motorsport operation. His customers might not be getting much chance to win, but Hills’s preparation and coaching has inspired multiple podiums for the likes of James Cossins, who was his first customer at the end of 2019. The team is now…

BISHOPSCOURT BARC 6-7 MAY First used for racing in the early 1960s when it was still an active RAF base, Bishopscourt has featured a lot of change over the years. For a while after the RAF departed it was left derelict, but more recently has become predominantly a motorcycle track, with a lap length rather shorter than the original three miles. Car activity these days is somewhat restricted, partly due to local planning regulations. And the circuit hosts just one two-day car race meeting per year, overseen by the British Automobile Racing Club and featuring a mixture of classes more normally in action at Mondello Park and Kirkistown. There was qualifying and just one race for cars on Saturday, with Formula Sheane getting things under way late in the afternoon,…

BISHOPSCOURT FORMULA SHEANE Races 1 & 2 Keith Hogg FORMULA VEE Race 1 Ronan Doherty (Sheane FV94) Race 2 Colm Blackburn (Leastone JH002) SEAT SUPERCUP Race 1 Harry McGovern Race 2 Shane Murphy GLOBAL GT LIGHTS Races 1 & 2 Peter Drennan STRYKER SPORTSCARS Races 1 & 2 Michael Cullen HRCA HISTORICS & FUTURE CLASSICS Races 1 & 2 Jackie Cochrane (Sunbeam Tiger) NI SEVENS & MAZDA MODI5 CUP Races 1 & 2 Graham Moore (GMS Honda) IRISH TOURING CARS & NI SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Robert Savage (Honda Accord) For full results visit: speedhive.mylaps.com CADWELL PARK FORMULA JUNIOR (REAR-ENGINED) Tim Child (Lotus 22) FORMULA JUNIOR (FRONT & REAR-ENGINED) Races 1 & 2 Nick Fennell (Lotus 27) FORMULA JUNIOR (FRONT-ENGINED) Nic Carlton-Smith (Kieft FJ, below) HISTORIC F3 Races 1…

Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F2005) congratulates 2005 San Marino Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso (Renault R25) following a scintillating battle between the pair over the final dozen laps. After polesitter and early pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren-Mercedes MP4-20) retired with a broken driveshaft, second-place qualifier Alonso settled into the lead. A mistake by Schumacher had consigned him to 13th on the grid, but a typical demonstration of tactical nous meant that by the time he made his first stop he was running second, albeit more than half a minute behind Alonso. Schumacher’s pace, described by third-place finisher Jenson Button (BAR-Honda 007) as “just staggering”, meant that once the final stops were completed he was only 1.327s adrift, but every effort he made was rebuffed by Alonso in a nailbiting finale, the winning…

FORMULA 1 McLaren has rehired its former sporting director, 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran, as a consultant. After an overhaul of the Formula 1 team’s technical department that led to the ousting of director James Key, the wider leadership structure has been under review. This has prompted team principal Andrea Stella to recall double Champ Car title winner de Ferran, who worked with the Italian at Woking between 2018 and 2020. In that time, McLaren climbed from ninth to third in the constructors’ championship. Explaining the appointment to Autosport, Stella said: “Gil is essentially a consultant, so non-operational, non-executive, and that’s a role as a consultant to myself and to Piers [Thynne, the newly appointed McLaren Racing chief operating officer]… “He will add horsepower from a leadership point…

ROAD TO LE MANS Motorcycle racing legend Valentino Rossi will get his first taste of the Circuit de la Sarthe next month as he looks towards fulfilling his ambition to race in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The BMW factory driver will take part in the Road to Le Mans supports on the bill of the French enduro on the Thursday evening and Friday lunchtime of race week in June. The seven-time MotoGP champion will drive a BMW M4 GT3 in the two 55-minute races in which GT3 and LMP3 machinery come together, as they do in the Michelin-sponsored Le Mans Cup on the European Le Mans Series undercard. The car will be run by the Belgian factory WRT squad with which he is again racing in this year’s GT…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Former grand prix driver Esteban Gutierrez will race for Glickenhaus at the Le Mans 24 Hours next month. The Mexican and experienced prototype racer Nathanael Berthon have filled the two remaining seats aboard the US entrant’s extra Hypercar class car entered for the double-points round of the World Endurance Championship on 10-11 June. Gutierrez and Berthon will share the #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 with Franck Mailleux. The team regular moves back to the additional entry in which he has been listed since February after driving the team’s full-season WEC car at Spa last month, while Ryan Briscoe will return to take up his seat in #708 alongside Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla. Gutierrez, who remains an ambassador for the Mercedes squad, moves up to the Hypercar ranks…

WRC Rally USA’s demonstration event has been declared a success, with the FIA encouraged by feedback received as it stepped up its bid to join the 2024 World Rally Championship. The country is a contender to join the WRC schedule for the first time since the Olympus Rally in 1988, with a brand-new event planned in Chattanooga in south-east Tennessee, using gravel roads located in the Cherokee National Forest and around the Ocoee River region in Polk County. Last month the organisers held a rally demonstration to showcase the discipline and test a couple of proposed stages, ahead of a full candidate rally expected to take place in September, which will determine whether it will join the WRC calendar. The demonstration included a traditional ceremonial start before seven crews tackled…

EUROFORMULA OPEN Formula 3-level cars will not compete for this weekend’s prestigious Pau Grand Prix following an eleventh-hour cancellation. The Euroformula Open series last week called off its races on the French street circuit because its cars could not meet the event organiser’s stipulation that they run on a high percentage mix of biofuel. Last year the event included the electric eTouring Car World Cup and an electric single-seater demo, and the organiser advertised its vision that for 2023 – the 80th running of the Pau GP – all series on the bill would source power from biofuel or electricity. EFO is one of few open-engine junior series, with HWA and Spiess its two current suppliers, so a biofuel meeting Pau’s target standard had to be suitable for both. It…

Mathematically speaking, the odds weren’t quite on Max Verstappen’s side to win the Miami Grand Prix. Of the 1083 world championship races held prior to the Floridian event’s second edition, only four had been won from ninth place on the grid – the most recent 39 years ago courtesy of Niki Lauda at the 1984 French Grand Prix. Yet seven have been won from 14th on the starting line-up. Thankfully for Red Bull, it appears to have a car that defies all mathematical principles. Verstappen has already converted lowly grid positions into big results so far this year. He turned 15th on the grid in Saudi Arabia, following his driveshaft issue in qualifying, into second position as he executed a combative drive towards the front. Taking a win from ninth…

After its new floor had delivered a performance step in Baku, McLaren had a “reality check” in Miami, according to team principal Andrea Stella. Following both drivers’ elimination in Q1 – hampered by the MCL60’s ongoing drag problem, the longer corners here not suiting the car, plus “everyone else was pretty quick” according to Lando Norris – McLaren’s race never really got going. Both Norris (who started 16th) and Oscar Piastri (19th) began on the softs, Stella explaining that his squad required “some events in the race, a safety car or so”. That never came, and in any case both Norris and Piastri were grappling with early issues. Norris was losing 0.2-0.3 seconds per lap with floor damage after being rear-ended by Nyck de Vries at Turn 1. He stopped…

F1 ACADEMY VALENCIA (ESP) 6-7 MAY ROUND 2/7 Marta Garcia retained her position at the top of the all-female F1 Academy thanks to victory in the final race at Valencia, but it had been a tough weekend up until then for the Prema Racing-run local driver. It was another Spaniard, Nerea Marti, who took pole for the opening race, but the Campos Racing driver could not prevent Hamda Al Qubaisi bursting through at the start to put her MP Motorsport car in front. The Emirati held on all the way to win, and her team-mate and big sister Amna finished third behind Marti, only to be hit with two track-limits penalties. That promoted Lena Buhler to third. Garcia, meanwhile, lost her pole position due to her own track-limits offences, but…

Six decades since Ford ended Jaguar’s domination of British saloon car racing – with two very different racers – it was time to put together a track test. With the help of Silverstone and Historic Racing Drivers Club founder Julius Thurgood, Autosport brought three special cars together. Historic ace Grant Williams brought his family’s Jaguar Mk2‘JAG 400’, Matt Moore provided his recently restored Ford Galaxie, and Mike Jordan was on hand to run the Jordan Racing Team-prepared Ford Lotus Cortina campaigned by Pete Chambers. And to give the three rear-wheel-drive tin-tops a workout around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, we brought in British Touring Car ace Jake Hill. Not only is the 29-year-old one of the best tin-top racers in the country – now plying his trade with a West…

BRITISH GT One-off entries at British GT’s Silverstone 500 event will look to make further appearances in the championship later this year after strong performances last weekend. James Wallis and fellow GT Cup racer Chris Hart made up Drivetac with Track Focused’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 line-up after switching from its GT4 car, finishing ninth overall and second in the Silver-Am class. After a trophy-clinching debut, the team intends to run in the GT3 division for the remainder of the 2023 British GT season. “It’s a great challenge,” said Wallis. “At the start of the year, I was looking up to [Jules] Gounon and [Raffaele] Marciello. Don’t get me wrong, I still am, but to be on the grid with them is just over my head, I can’t believe it. I’m very…

MINI CHALLENGE Mini Challenge star Dan Zelos has paid tribute to his Excelr8 Motorsport team after it readied a new car in time for him to win at Brands Hatch last weekend, following his hefty crash at Donington Park a fortnight earlier. Zelos’s original Mini, which he had used for four years, was written off after it was speared into by Sam Smith at Redgate. But he was instantly on the pace in his new steed, claiming pole and a win in the Brands opener, and he was leading race two when he suffered a puncture. “It’s been really good – I can hardly tell the difference compared to my car,” said Zelos. “The team did a great job getting it ready as it hadn’t raced for six/seven months. They…

HISTORICS Peter de la Roche enjoyed a sequence of top results when he contested four races in the Historic Sports Car Club’s Cadwell Park meeting across both single-seater and tin-top categories. The 25-year-old from Sandbach qualified on pole position on his Historic Formula 3 debut in Ian Phillips’s Alexis Mk17 – raced in period by Ken Sedgley – before taking it to two runner-up finishes. Double Historic Formula Junior champion de la Roche also won in the wet on his debut in Historic Touring Cars in an Austin Mini Cooper (above) that, along with the Alexis F3, has been prepared by his father Richard. “I’ve not had a problem hopping in and out of the two cars despite the driving style being different,” said de la Roche. “The plan is…

PROTOTYPES Several Praga teams have committed to entering events in the next few weeks where the Sports Prototype Cup and Zeo Prototype Series are collaborating to share a grid. Both Idola Motorsport and the University of Wolverhampton Racing squads have pledged to enter the fixtures at Silverstone (next weekend) and Donington Park (18 June) amid struggles for the Britcar Prototype Cup. Sports Prototype Cup – which was originally created to offer a place for Revolutions and Radicals to race and now runs a number of European events, as well as an ‘Open’ division – and the UK-focused Zeo Prototype Series are continuing their partnership from last year and are aiming to attract a diverse range of machinery. “Prototype racing in the UK is a fickle market, but has immense potential,”…

ROUND 5 1 Scott Moran (4.0 Gould-Judd GR59J) 47.71s; 2 Matthew Ryder (4.0 Gould-Judd GR59JB) 48.02s; 3 Wallace Menzies (3.3 Gould-Cosworth GR59M) 48.21s; 4 Trevor Willis (3.2 OMS 28-RTE) 48.65s; 5 David Uren (3.5 Gould-NME GR55B) 49.05s; 6 Sean Gould (4.0 Gould-Judd GR59JB) 49.20s; 7 Will Hall (4.0 Gould-Judd GR59) 49.30s; 8 Richard Spedding (1.6 GWR-Hayabusa Raptor 2) 49.32s; 9 Johnathen Varley (2.0 GWR-TKD V8 Predator) 50.07s; 10 David Warburton (1.6 Gould-Suzuki GR59) 50.18s. ROUND 6 1 Menzies 48.18s; 2 Ryder 48.21s; 3 Hall 49.14s; 4 Moran 49.18s; 5 Willis 49.28s; 6 Gould 49.68s; 7 Uren 50.17s; 8 Warburton 50.19s; 9 Spedding 50.23s; 10 David Tatham (1.1 DJ-Suzuki Firehawk) 52.69s. POINTS 1 Menzies 54; 2 Ryder (below) 52; 3 Moran 46; 4 Willis 35; 5 Hall and Alex Summers (2.7…

GT3 (78 laps) 1 Darren Leung/Dan Harper (BMW M4); 2 Shaun Balfe/Sandy Mitchell (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2) +1.289s; 3 Mark Radcliffe/Rob Bell (McLaren 720S); 4 Andrew Howard/Ross Gunn (Aston Martin Vantage); 5 John Ferguson/Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes-AMG GT3); 6 Mark Sansom/Will Tregurtha (Lamborghini). Fastest lap Gunn 1m58.689s (111.02mph). Pole Richard & Sam Neary (Mercedes). Starters 24. Points 1 Leung/Harper 53.5; 2= Ian Loggie/Jules Gounon (Mercedes) 46; 2= Howard/Gunn 46; 4 Ferguson/Marciello 43; 5 James Cottingham/Jonny Adam (Mercedes) 38.5; 6 Balfe/Mitchell 33. GT4 (73 laps) 1 Jack Brown/Charles Clark (McLaren Artura, below); 2 Ed McDermott/Michael Broadhurst (Mercedes-AMG GT4) -1 lap; 3 Erik Evans/Matt Cowley (Ford Mustang); 4 David Holloway/Bradley Ellis (Aston Martin Vantage); 5 Josh Rowledge/Aston Millar (McLaren); 6 Carl Cavers/Lewis Plato (BMW M4). FL Plato 2m10.476s (100.99mph). P Zac Meakin/Dan Vaughan…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 6-7 MAY Freddie Slater’s dominant start to the Ginetta Junior season continued at Silverstone, with only a penalty denying him a second clean sweep of victories. The R Racing driver won from pole in a rain-shortened opener ahead of Elite Motorsport pair Alisha Palmowski and Charlie Hart. Palmowski edged ahead of Slater at the start of race two, but then lost control at Becketts and dropped down the field. Slater pulled out a four-second lead following an early safety car period until being handed a 5s penalty for exceeding track limits in the closing stages. But a thrilling battle for second in the final two laps enabled Slater to overcome it and take his fifth consecutive triumph by 0.6s from Elite’s Hugo Schwarze and R Racing team-mate Reza…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Robert de Haan continued his sensational 2023 Porsche performances into Brands Hatch but was denied a double when he was penalised for passing Charles Rainford as safety car boards were being displayed. De Haan quickly banished the disappointment of being pipped to pole by one thousandth of a second by James Kellett as he grabbed an early lead when Kellett faltered off the line. Things went from bad to worse for Kellett as he then tipped Century team-mate Gus Burton into the Paddock Hill Bend tyres. Upon the safety car restart, de Haan charged to a processional 5s win from Adam Smalley and Rainford. There was no startline trouble for Kellett second time around from the partially reversed-grid pole. But, as SC boards appeared for David…

CROFT BRSCC 6-7 MAY Two closely fought contests at Croft typified the competitiveness of this year’s TCR UK championship as Jac Constable and Jenson Brickley became its third and fourth different winners in as many races. Constable banished any memories of a troubled opening round by placing his Rob Boston Racing Audi RS3 LMS at the head of the field, with six cars covered by just 0.27 seconds in qualifying. But, from the slightly damp side of the grid, Constable was beaten away by Carl Boardley, now running his own Cupra Leon Competicion with the help of Hart GT. The two broke clear and Boardley rebuffed Constable’s challenge through Tower. Then, as Constable fought a grassy moment, Boardley escaped, but it wasn’t long before the Audi closed back in, only…

THRUXTON CSCC 6-7 MAY Tyres and bravado decided a battle of 340bhp TCR cars as Silverstone-based Warren Tattersall defeated Thruxton neighbour Jamie Sturges by 0.229 seconds in Saturday’s scintillating Open Series race, the first and closest on the Classic Sports Car Club’s Coronation Meeting bill. Poleman Tattersall’s Uniroyal-shod SEAT made the running on a hideously wet circuit, which came back to Sturges’s Yokohama-equipped VW Golf as the 30-minute pitstop contest – started behind a safety car and punctuated when David Harvey’s Lotus 340R aquaplaned into the inside wall at Allard – evolved. Topping 140mph up Woodham Hill for the final time, Sturges probed outside Tattersall into the chicane. Tattersall braved it out and, in catching a vicious tailslide, forced Sturges to lift, compromising his exit. Sturges leapt back on the…

CADWELL PARK HSCC 6-7 MAY Formula Junior stole the show at the Historic Sports Car Club’s Wolds Trophy meeting at Cadwell Park, with two thrilling races won by Tim Child and Nick Fennell. Child (Lotus 22) needed to fend off the relentless Mark Carter (Brabham BT6) to achieve his maiden win in Saturday’s wet opening race (for rear-engined cars only). Sunday’s damp points-scoring race went the way of Fennell (Lotus 27) but only after he first rebutted Michael Hibberd (Lotus 20) and then Child, who threatened to pass him on numerous occasions. This allowed Nic Carlton-Smith (Kieft FJ), up from ninth and with the fastest lap, to close right in before settling for third after winning Saturday’s front-engined race with ease. Fennell won again later ahead of early leader Child…

VIDEO GAME FORMULA RETRO RACING: WORLD TOUR (available on PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox) RRP £15.99 So often the term ‘arcade’ is misattributed to a video game. If you believe some sim racing commentors, anything that isn’t ultra-realistic should classified as an arcade title. That’s simply not true. In the purest sense, an ‘arcade’ title is just that, something designed with a physical cabinet in mind, with gameplay mechanics built around limited-time sessions and being compelling enough for you to insert coin after coin. Think Sega Rally or Cruis’n Blast. With that in mind, it’s hard to find a truer example of a modern arcade racing game than Formula Retro Racing: World Tour – and it’s all the better for it. A vivid and approachable driving title, World Tour is…

Richard Westbrook is no stranger to success at Watkins Glen. He won three IMSA SportsCar Championship races on the trot at the circuit between 2014 and 2016, including twice outright. But the Cadillac World Endurance Championship racer’s affiliation with the famed sportscar racing venue in upper New York state stretches back to a childhood Panini sticker album. “Like the football teams, you’d collect the drivers and stick them in,” he recalls. “It had all the tracks, and one of them was Watkins Glen.” Westbrook was sufficiently inspired by the circuit that hosted 20 consecutive US Grands Prix between 1961 and 1980 that “I always made my Scalextric track into the shape of Watkins Glen”, although “didn’t know what made it special until I got there for the first time” in…