Indholdsfortegnelse for 16/05/24 i Autosport

Lando Norris’s recent victory in the Miami Grand Prix wasn’t just about one of Formula 1’s best performers of recent years getting his long overdue first win. It was also about the faith that he has shown in McLaren and vice versa, as well as the constant push to improve that Norris has possessed since he was a teenager in the junior ranks. In this week’s issue, Alex Kalinauckas hears from Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella about the work that, in just 12 months, has taken them from failing to make Q2 in Miami last year to beating Max Verstappen (page 14). They know there is still work to do, which is why Norris has no intention of changing his approach, even if the pressure is now slightly…

FORMULA 1 The chairman of the United States’ House Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into Liberty Media’s denial of Andretti Global’s entry into Formula 1 in an escalation of political interest. Committee chairman Jim Jordan has written a letter – acquired by American TV network NBC – to Liberty CEO Greg Maffei and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, demanding explanations for the decision-making process that has blocked Andretti’s hopes. Jordan says he wants answers to ensure that no illegal anti-competitive behaviour has taken place. He has demanded all documents and communications relating to the process for evaluating the new team entries and Andretti, and any communications related to the new team entry or anti-dilution fees in the Concorde Agreement. Last week, several US Congress members wrote to F1 asking whether…

WEC/IMSA Porsche looks set to abandon plans to introduce a revised version of the twin-turbo V8 that powers its 963 LMDh World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship contender. A reliable run at the Le Mans 24 Hours is likely to lead to a decision to leave the engine upgrade on the shelf. The German manufacturer is increasingly confident that the need for the engine has disappeared and is waiting for final proof at the French enduro. The revisions centred on a switch from a 180-degree or flat-plane crank to one of 90-degree configuration in order to reduce vibration in the name of hybrid system reliability. But developments of the off-the-shelf LMDh hybrid system, particularly the Bosch motor generator unit (MGU), since the back end of last have resulted in…

BTCC Highly rated British Touring Car Championship talent Bobby Thompson will be on the grid from next week’s third round at Snetterton until the end of the season. The 27-year-old Essex talent has secured the commercial support to fill the vacant seat at BMW team West Surrey Racing. Thompson drove WSR’s 330e M Sport in last month’s official test at Brands Hatch while he and the team worked on a deal, but it could not be sorted out in time for the opening two rounds of the BTCC. He was then present in the WSR garage at last weekend’s Brands round, where new team-mate Colin Turkington won twice to briefly move into the series lead. “I still don’t believe it at the moment,” said Thompson, who like Jake Hill will…

Imola Length 3.050 miles Number of laps 63 UK START TIMES Friday 17 May FP1 1230 FP2 1600 Saturday 18 May FP3 1130 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 19 May RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors IMOLA STATS Previous winners 2022 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m27.999s POLE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m13.609s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m15.484s (2020) Imola podiums…

Zak O’Sullivan Age 19 Series Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix Highlights 2021 GB3 champion, 2nd in 2023 FIA F3 The winner of 2021’s Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award, O’Sullivan was duly signed to the Williams Driver Academy in early 2022 on the back of his GB3 Championship title. The Cheltenham native stepped up to F3 that year, joining Carlin for an impressive debut season before moving to Prema for his second year and finished second overall in a hotly contested championship – notably above fellow Williams junior Franco Colapinto. Williams handed O’Sullivan his first outing in an official F1 session with an FP1 drive at the 2023 Abu Dhabi finale, and he got behind the wheel of its FW45 again in the Yas Marina end-of-season test. Like Lando Norris,…

While the decision to resume the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Spa last Saturday dramatically altered the order of the Hypercar race, the eventual LMGT3 winner would have been celebrating regardless. But victory for the Manthey EMA Porsche driven by Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin appeared far from certain even beginning the final lap of a race Shahin fittingly called “a rollercoaster ride” that paid homage to the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix. Once he’d taken over from fellow WEC rookie Shahin, who drove “a very disciplined first couple of stints” to pit from third, Schuring demonstrated the benefits of a recent test at Interlagos in showing impressive pace to surge into the lead. The Dutch teenager was set to follow the rivals he’d overtaken in diving into…

The Berlin E-Prix double-header kicked off the second half of the 2024 campaign and, while the destination of the championship had hitherto remained wide open given the unpredictable nature of Formula E, Nick Cassidy put down a marker for the title last weekend. The Jaguar driver enjoyed almost the perfect event in Germany, taking victory and a further podium, as well as the points for both fastest laps, which allowed him to come away with a relatively healthy lead in the standings. What made Cassidy’s performances so impressive was the manner in which he claimed those results. A victory could not have looked less likely midway through the opening race at the Tempelhof Airport circuit, which for the 2024 edition featured a new 15-turn layout. After initially losing a few…

INDYCAR INDIANAPOLIS (USA) 11 MAY ROUND 4/15 It will never be mistaken as the sharpest drive of Alex Palou’s career, but the Spaniard’s performance proved enough to take victory in the Indy Grand Prix on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course layout last Saturday. The reigning and two-time IndyCar champion started on pole but faltered out of the gate when he went wide in Turn 1 and lost the lead to front-row mate Christian Lundgaard. The Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Palou remained in the rear view of Lundgaard, even fading to third behind Will Power at one point, before making the most of a stout overcut strategy just before half-distance in the 85-lap contest to vault back to the front of the field. Everything appeared to be…

OBITUARY For seven decades, the voice of Neville Hay, who died last Wednesday aged 85, was one of the most recognisable in motorsport commentary globally, alongside those of Murray Walker and Raymond Baxter. Born into a timber merchant’s family in Worcestershire, home to the hallowed Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, Hay’s mellifluous honeyed tones graced public address systems at speed events, circuit racing and rallying from the late 1950s. From the mid 1970s, Neville pioneered an unprecedented breadth of motorsport TV broadcasts, which blossomed in a golden age of manufacturer investment, sowing the seeds of today’s superb network coverage. A well-travelled lifelong petrolhead, Hay was the aficionado on the career of Roy Salvadori, Aston Martin’s 1959 Le Mans winner with Carroll Shelby, and genially imparted this knowledge to new generations of fans…

HILLCLIMB Theo Hunt enjoyed a successful day at Sunday’s annual Vintage Sports-Car Club Wiscombe Park hillclimb, setting a superb fastest time in his 1932/38 two-litre BMW 328-engined Frazer Nash TT Replica, and winning the pre-1956 sportscar class in father Martin’s FN Le Mans Replica. “I competed here for the first time last year,” said the 26-year-old. “It’s my favourite hill, very beautiful and very scary. It takes a lot of commitment through The Esses to go quickly.” Having reset the class 10 record to 49.80s last May, Hunt climbed inside it in practice, then reduced the target to a stunning 48.69s in the official runs. With Ian Baxter’s ex-Philip Jucker supercharged Alta 61 IS – a 45s car – unusually recalcitrant, Michael James took up the BTD challenge in two…

MONACO HISTORIQUE ACM 10-12 MAY Jim Clark never won the Monaco Grand Prix. But Andy Middlehurst has done his bit to redress that anomaly – now on five occasions. Wearing his Clark lookalike helmet, Middlehurst drove the Classic Team Lotus Type 25 to another Grand Prix de Monaco Historique victory in the rear-engined 1961-65 Formula 1 race on Sunday. But 2022 race winner Joe Colasacco sure made him work for it, the American’s glorious Ferrari 1512 hounding the Lotus from start to finish in the best and cleanest duel for victory at this 14th edition of the historic racing jewel. On one lap Colasacco was badly baulked at Portier while lapping 81-year-old Sid Hoole in a Rob Walker Cooper T66, but quickly closed back up despite slight contact. The Ferrari…

TV SPECIAL Michelob ULTRA Lap of Legends There are so many great eras of Formula 1, yet it’s tricky to compare them as time and technology have marched ever onwards. Take a great team such as Williams for example; all those fantastic cars and legendary drivers have graced its illustrious history, with no fewer than 16 world championship titles to its name. But how do you compare alumni Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button with its current racer, Logan Sargeant? Well, thanks to advances in virtual gaming, artificial intelligence and the big-budget backing of sponsor Michelob Ultra, a made-for-television special called Lap of Legends attempts to do exactly that. But how? Williams used one of its filming days to put Sargeant on track…

LE MANS 24 HOUR S Multiple manufacturers will be competing for outright honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours with hydrogen-fuelled prototypes by the end of the decade. The claim was made by race organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest as Alpine launched what it is calling a “rolling lab” to test the fuel for use on the road and race track. ACO president Pierre Fillon predicted after the launch of Alpine’s Alpenglow Hy4 at the Spa World Endurance Championship round last weekend that there would be one manufacturer on the grid with a hydrogen prototype in 2028 and “two, three or maybe more” the year after. “We have been working on hydrogen since 2018 and the interest from the manufacturers is real,” he said. “Initially we were a little…

Reigning Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire, seen here in action on his third IndyCar start at Indianapolis last weekend, has been confirmed by the Arrow McLaren team for the rest of the season in place of the injured David Malukas – except for this month’s Indy 500, where Callum Ilott will return to the #6 seat. Pourchaire has stood down from his drive with the Toyota-powered Team Impul in Japan’s Super Formula series. Brit Ben Barnicoat, the reigning IMSA GTD Pro champion with Toyota sub-marque Lexus, will fill in at Autopolis this weekend. He tested last December with top Toyota SF team TOM’S. BERNHARD AT PORSCHE Two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard has joined the Porsche Penske Motorsport race programme in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA as…

2021 Belgian GP Surely not how Norris would have wanted to take his first F1 win but, had he been able to stay on the brilliant streak he’d started in a soaking Spa qualifying when he trounced 2021 championship contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, he’d have scooped up a controversial ‘win’ in the washout farce. Norris had been the initial star of qualifying when most of the field switched from full wet tyres to intermediates in Q1, then kept that up in Q2. When the rain returned ahead of Q3, Norris led the pack on the extreme wets again, but crashed hard the first time up Eau Rouge and so qualified 10th. Sebastian Vettel famously drove his Aston Martin close to the wreckage to check on Norris. The McLaren…

Porsche made it two out of three in the World Endurance Championship this year at Spa last Saturday, but the significance of the victory was the identity of the winning car. It wasn’t one of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries but a customer 963 LMDh fielded by the British Jota squad. Will Stevens and Callum Ilott needed a significant slice of luck to pull off the win, though they did it on a day when the privateers, the Proton Competition car included, had the edge over the factory. Stevens and Ilott, driving as a duo courtesy of regular team-mate Norman Nato’s presence at the Berlin Formula E round, came out on top over the final 100 minutes after a not uncontroversial restart – that’s the decision to get going…

Fourteen years ago, a fresh-faced Sebastien Ogier announced himself on the World Rally Championship stage by becoming a winner for the first time in Portugal. So it was perhaps written in the stars that the nation played host to the Frenchman’s 60th triumph. Back in 2010, Ogier had to see o€ the WRC’s most successful driver, Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb, to join the winner’s circle. Last weekend the now eight-time world champion, competing part-time, defeated Ott Tanak, the only driver other than Loeb and Ogier to lift a world title during the last-named’s glittering full-time career. It was a win delivered in a manner that, according to Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, showcased the attributes that have made Ogier a multiple world champion. This victory followed a triumph in Croatia…

The cracks were appearing in the cheery bonhomie and mutual respect that has characterised the British Touring Car Championship’s leading contenders in recent seasons. Tom Ingram had just prevailed in a thrilling battle with Ash Sutton for second place in race two of the Brands Hatch weekend thanks to an audacious dive at Paddock Hill Bend, two wheels of his Hyundai on the grass, a bash against the side of the Ford as he went through. The scrapping alley cat of the BTCC had been beaten by a guy who comes across out of the car as the series’ tail-wagging golden labrador – and does actually own one – but who on the track is just as ruthless as Sutton. The grumbling began. And way up ahead, the BTCC equivalent…

IMSA SPORTSCAR LAGUNA SECA (USA) 12 MAY ROUND 4/11 Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy combined last Sunday to score a memorable IMSA victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport at Laguna Seca Raceway. Such a result seemed unlikely for the majority of the two-hour-and-40-minute race, during which Cadillac once again had demonstrably the faster car. But a variety of factors came into play and ultimately provided Roger Penske’s team with its landmark 100th sportscar victory as well as the 600th for Porsche in all IMSA competitions. The treasured Northern California venue had been resurfaced since last year’s race and provided an entirely different challenge for the teams and drivers. Tyre wear was no longer a limiting factor, and lap times tumbled. As was the case 12 months ago, however, the pair of…

HISTORICS Formula 1 veterans Thierry Boutsen, Stefan Johansson and Eddie Irvine played their part in an emotional tribute to Ayrton Senna at the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique last Saturday, as a selection of the Brazilian’s cars put on a demonstration. Boutsen, a close friend of the record six-time Monaco GP winner, drove a 1985 Lotus 97T in formation with Bruno Senna, who was in his uncle’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B. Johansson was driving a Toleman TG184, the model in which Senna came so close to winning at Monaco in his rookie F1 season. But the Swede – who replaced Senna at Toleman when the team benched him for the 1984 Italian GP in punishment for his impending defection to Lotus – only made it as far as the tunnel before…

MINI FESTIVAL Organisers of the Fastest Mini in the World race are targeting a large grid this August for the contest’s 30th anniversary. The inaugural race was run at Silverstone in August 1994 and featured the late Peter Baldwin – a name synonymous with Minis – and Martin Short. Bill Sollis, another prolific Mini racer, was victorious. From there, it has grown to become an annual staple of the club calendar and attracts a diverse range of Minis, some highly modified creations, others more standard. The cars were powered by sustainable fuel for the first time in 2023. This year’s race is due to be held at the Mini Festival at Brands Hatch on 4 August, and organiser Nigel Death is optimistic of a strong turnout. “We’ve got lots of…

HISTORIC RALLYING Will Rowlands and Emyr Hall were the toast of the historic crews competing on the Manx Rally, a double-header British Historic Rally round. Though not registered for the BHRC, Rowlands claimed another asphalt victory in his Ford Escort Mk2 as top points were shared between Mark Higgins (Triumph TR7) and Michael McDaid (Escort). Higgins and Carl Williamson overcame gear selector problems on Friday to set an astonishing pace and were third fastest overall on the day’s final stage. They were only beaten by the modern Rally2 cars of Callum Black and James Williams, who was the overall winner. A detached wire after a heavy landing on Saturday halted Higgins, and Rowlands swept ahead, despite having damaged suspension for the final stages, which forced him to ease off to…

DRIVER RANKINGS Two months of the 2024 national racing campaign have now already been completed and that means it’s time to launch this season’s Autosport National Driver Rankings, which are this year being supported by Ryan Motorsport Insurance. The specialist insurer – which provides comprehensive cover for race and rally cars on events, alongside offering policies for the storage and transit of vehicles – has lent its backing to the rankings, which are based upon a driver’s race wins over the season. “Every single club driver in the UK and Ireland can potentially be part of the rankings, and we’re therefore very happy to be supporting a competition that has such a wide remit,” said managing director Ryan Mone. The premise of the rankings is simple. Autosport compiles a table…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB A bumper weekend of Porsche Carrera Cup GB action at Brands Hatch – that also featured the rained-off Donington Park contest – produced some different winners and plenty of talking points but, through it all, Will Martin is starting to build a points lead over a quality field. Pro-Am competitor Angus Whiteside turned heads with an overall podium last time out, but the Century driver was even more impressive in Kent. He was on a charge at the start of the rearranged race, passing Andrew Rackstraw at Graham Hill Bend, before taking the lead from Charles Rainford at Druids two tours later. “I really concentrated on the start,” said Whiteside. “I go mental on the green-flag laps [warming the tyres] and it’s paid dividends.” But Whiteside…

BRITISH F4 Two more wins for Deagen Fairclough have cemented the Hitech racer as early British Formula 4 title favourite, while Abbi Pulling made history at Brands Hatch by becoming the first female driver to take a series victory. Fairclough was untroubled from pole in the opener – which featured a safety car period following a startline crash – as he led Alex Ninovic and Rowan Campbell-Pilling. But Fairclough did not have things all his own way in the finale. He made an uncharacteristic poor start and dropped behind Ninovic, before spending the next 23 laps shadowing his Rodin rival, who was getting more ragged as the race wore on. Then, on the penultimate lap, Ninovic ran wide at McLaren and Fairclough pounced. The pair made contact, as Ninovic tried…

Dealer Team Vauxhall under the helm of Bill Blydenstein is synonymous with Gerry Marshall and the Special and Super Saloon machinery he piloted in the 1970s. From Viva GTs, through Vauxhall Firenza ‘Old Nail’ and Ventora ‘Big Bertha’, to Firenza-based ‘Baby Bertha’, all are part of British racing folklore. But, while those cars’ nicknames helped earn them almost mythical status, Old Nail in particular was not entirely unique. A handful of similar chassis were created in Blydenstein’s Shepreth workshops. One, like Baby Bertha under Joe Ward’s guardianship, continues racing regularly to this day, half a century later. It became known as the Transpeed Firenza, a. er the Davies family’s Hove motor accessories business, and was a frontrunner in Special Saloons and Thundersaloons. Long-time pilot Tony Davies now campaigns it in…

FORMULA 1 The Ferrari Formula 1 team has trialled a more aggressive spray-guard system in an FIA test at its Fiorano track. Last Thursday’s test was part of an ongoing effort by F1’s governing body to reduce spray thrown up by cars in the rain, improving visibility and safety. Photos from the test showed Charles Leclerc’s brother Arthur driving the 2023 Ferrari SF-75 with fully covered full-wet tyres. The guards include two holes in front but are fully covered at the back. The squad’s reserve driver Ollie Bearman ran behind Leclerc in a 2024 car to check the visibility. The FIA had run the first version of the spray guards at a Silverstone test last year, but that was not considered a success. Ferrari also used a filming day on…

Very welcome over here As Nigel Roebuck said: “If you weren’t there to see it, you only had yourselves to blame.” Well, I was there at Silverstone, and again the following weekend at Brands Hatch (‘When Indycar (briefly) ruled Silverstone’, 9 May). Both meetings live strongly in my memory. Having followed Indycar racing from the mid-1960s I was familiar with the names of all the drivers, and with the cars that each one drove. The fact that there was such diversity of machinery made it easy to identify the individual drivers. There was quite a range of ages among the drivers, from the younger ones such as Rick Mears to the older ones such as Dick Simon, who was 45 then. I remember only one accident. At Brands Hatch, Steve…

Rear wing The changes to the rear wing were more track-specific, as McLaren sought to capitalise on the lengthy back straight and improve its DRS effect. As such, the beam wing was ‘depowered’ – load was taken out of it to not only cut drag out of the car in its standard stage, but also to ensure that the main rear wing elements could shed more drag when DRS was applied. The upper wing elements were consistent with its medium-downforce package, complete with exposed upper element tips. Sidepods McLaren had already started the 2024 season with a divergence from the underbitten sidepod inlet geometry that had become in vogue last year. It had opted to move the crash structure further north and encase it in a winglet that sits upon…

Alpine and Peugeot rounded out the points behind the satellite Ferrari run by AF Corse. But they left Spa with entirely different opinions of their performances on the way to respective ninth and 10th positions. One French manufacturer was encouraged, the other disappointed. Ninth for the Alpine A424 LMDh shared by Charles Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin and Jules Gounon didn’t match its seventh position on its debut in Qatar. But that one owed more to strategy than outright performance. Alpine was closer to the pace at Spa – Milesi notched up a first by getting through into Hyperpole – and might have picked up an even better result but for a few hundred metres of track position. The sister car shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Mick Schumacher ended up…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN HOCKENHEIM (DEU) 11-12 MAY ROUND 1/10 The Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season began at Hockenheim with plenty of track-limits violations and laps led by the safety car, but most importantly an ultra-competitive grid from which Ferrari junior Rafael Camara and Evan Giltaire emerged as winners. In past seasons there has often been a dominant force, but in this year’s 33-car field there are four teams harbouring title ambitions. ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti led pre-event testing, with 0.889 seconds covering the top 20, before Prema Racing’s Camara was fastest overall in Q1 to claim race one pole, while R-ace GP’s Red Bull Junior Enzo Deligny topped the other group to complete the front row. Deligny got ahead at the start, but Camara reclaimed the lead…

MOTOGP LE MANS (FRA) 12 MAY ROUND 5/21 Jorge Martin bounced back from his crash out of the lead at the Spanish Grand Prix to complete a perfect French GP weekend at Le Mans and extend his championship lead. The Pramac Ducati rider believes that there isn’t anything left for him to do to prove that he deserves a seat in the factory seat next season. But Martin, the 2023 championship runner-up and current table topper by 38 points, is having to contend with the possibility that Marc Marquez could jump him in the queue to replace Enea Bastianini in 2025. With Ducati looking to make its final decision come the end of this month at the Italian GP, Martin has made a convincing case for himself already, and that…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Pro-Am Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer Angus Whiteside escaped injury in a frightening series of rolls at Brands Hatch on a weekend of literal “highs and lows”, after he had won the previous race outright. Relatively minor contact from former British Touring Car racer Dan Lloyd at Druids tipped the Century Motorsport driver into the air at the start of the second Porsche race. The clash was viewed as a racing incident and Whiteside was able to walk away unhurt, just a little bruised. He was forced out of the third race and is now targeting a fightback for the next round at Thruxton in June. “I got a nudge in the back and then I was facing towards the Tarmac,” said Whiteside of the clash.…

SUPERKARTS There is excitement in the Superkart paddock following news that governing body Motorsport UK has sanctioned the running of a Superkart Grand Prix this year, after months of discussions. The race is due to be held at Donington Park on 2 June as part of the planned British Superkart Racing Club Super Series event. While the GP will only be contested in the Division 1 class, Motorsport UK has also confirmed that the F250 Mono category can compete for the 0 plate (previously known as the UK Cup). The BSRC will also run a Super Cup for the F450 and F125 classes at the meeting. Ian Rushforth of the BSRC advised that entries are coming in fast for this prestigious event, which was last held in 2022. Division 1…

HAREWOOD BRITISH HILLCLIMB 12 MAY Matthew Ryder opened his British Hillclimb Championship account in fine form with a double victory at Harewood last Sunday. His Gould GR59 topped both run-offs as Trevor Willis led the pursuit with two tremendous runs in his OMS 28 to record one of his best days for some time. After two aborted events, the BHC finally got under way in Yorkshire, but the notable absentee was reigning champion Wallace Menzies after a hefty accident in wet qualifying at Craigantlet a week earlier. He will soon be back, but Ryder knew that he needed to take as much profit as he could at Harewood to get an early advantage over the category pacesetter. Ryder said: “It was a bit of a scrappy second run and I…

LEGENDS ELITE CUP Legends racing has a reputation for being close, but last weekend’s sextet of Brands Hatch contests took that to a whole new level. Some categories can only dream of a winning margin of 0.264 seconds, but that was the combined figure across all six thrilling thrashes. Jack Parker continued his strong form from Donington Park and was the top performer on Saturday as he bagged three podiums. He passed Oli Schlup on the inside at Druids with three laps left to claim the opening spoils, before just resisting Schlup’s charge across the line. Roles were reversed in race two, with Schlup demoting Parker around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend to score a first win. Robert Barrable then headed the final, having benefited from the lapped cars…

Jean Alesi raises a hand to acknowledge his gaffe – “I should have stayed in bed; I wasn’t concentrating” – after colliding with Sauber team-mate Johnny Herbert on their first lap of Friday practice for the 1998 Argentinian Grand Prix at Buenos Aires. Damage to Herbert’s car meant he suffered brake issues throughout the following day, but still managed to qualify 12th, one spot behind Alesi. The Frenchman redeemed himself with a spirited race performance, his superb start vaulting him to seventh. After losing a winglet which got tangled with an airgun on his second pitstop [thankfully these aero eyesores were soon banned – ed], he came home fifth. One-stopper Herbert was running in ninth place when he was forced to retire following a thump from Damon Hill’s Jordan. For…

Five Le Mans wins and three national touring car titles for Audi mean Emanuele Pirro is most closely associated with that marque. But it’s from his prior spell racing on and off for BMW between 1985 and 1993 that Pirro chooses his favourite team-mate. Roberto Ravaglia, his old karting and junior single-seater rival, was established in tin-tops with the Schnitzer-run BMW Motorsport team when Pirro first dipped a toe into the water aboard a 635CSi, and the Italian duo went on to forge a successful partnership. Pirro supported Ravaglia’s 1986 European Touring Car and 1987 World Touring Car Championship title bids, occasionally partnered him to a second ETCC crown in 1988, and they won the 1989 Nurburgring 24 Hours together with Fabien Giroix. Shared nationality with Venetian Ravaglia is irrelevant…