Indholdsfortegnelse for 23/06/2016 i Autosport

COMMENTATORS OFTEN USE THE CLICHE ABOUT things not being over until they’re over, but rarely are the possibilities of last-gasp failure realised. And in the long and dramatic history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, you’d be hard pushed to think of a more unbelievable storyline than Toyota’s. The company’s apparent jinx has been talked about for years, particularly since the impressive but ultimately unsuccessful GT-One of the late 1990s, but last weekend’s events took things to a whole new level. The Anthony Davidson/Sebastien Buemi/Kazuki Nakajima TS050 lost the lead with 3m21s left on the clock after an epic battle with Porsche. That has to stand as not only one of the hard-luck stories in the enduro’s history, but also one of the most dramatic moments ever in sport. When…

PORSCHE AND NEEL JANI made it two pole positions in two years in a damp squib of an affair that was qualifying. The forecast of rain turned the battle for pole into something of a lottery, but the two Porsche 919 Hybrids still came out on top as expected, the Swiss driver pipping team-mate Timo Bernhard by just under half a second. The whole affair was largely done and dusted less than an hour into the start of the opening session on Wednesday, thanks to the forecast of rain for Thursday. The two Porsches and the pair of Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs were on track immediately in the mad 20 minutes of remaining daylight, but so was much of the rest of the 60-car field. That meant it was always going…

“Merhi bolted to lead by 20 seconds at the end of hour two” LMP2 sits in a unique position in the three tiers of sportscar racing. It does not have manufacturers spending big money on emerging technologies as in LMP1, nor does it have manufacturers trying to play the Balance of Performance game as in the GT ranks. But what it does have is a relatively level playing field across a strong paddock. Its 23 cars from largely independent and savvy teams made it the biggest class at Le Mans, and all had something to play for compared to the non-hybrid LMP1 privateers. So that makes entertaining the notion of a favourite difficult when it comes to any race, let alone the biggest and longest of the year. Five different…

Bourdais: “What a script! Ferrari vs Ford, 50 years later” There were plenty of new elements to the GTE battle in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. The best part, though, was something old – something that hadn’t been seen for almost half a century: Ford versus Ferrari. From first qualifying on Wednesday night it became clear that the ultra-competitive GTE class would be the domain of two titans of yesteryear at Le Mans. That tag maybe does Ferrari, a regular protagonist in the class in recent times, a disservice. But it had been a long time since the Italian manufacturer went toe to toe with Ford for honours in the 24 Hours. Despite a GTE Pro grid that was larger than ever, with 14 entries across five manufacturers, the…

Beaumesnil: “Hydrogen is a direction we want to follow” THE INTRODUCTION OF A DRAG reduction system is one of a raft of LMP1 rule changes announced during Le Mans 24 Hours week aimed at reducing the gap between the factory teams and the privateers. Rear DRS is due to come on stream for the 2018 World Endurance Championship after an initial batch of changes in the rules for next season, including new aerodynamic freedoms, to increase the performance of non-hybrid P1 machinery. The moves follow a meeting called by rule-makers the FIA and Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organiser of the Le Mans 24 Hours, at which existing and prospective independent entrants were asked to put forward proposals. Active aerodynamics were under discussion for ’17, but the FIA and the ACO…

THE NEED TO RUN LOW DOWNFORCE in Baku caused the tyre problems that wrecked Red Bull’s European Grand Prix, reckoned team boss Christian Horner. Daniel Ricciardo started from the front row, but had to pit to swap his super-softs for softs on lap six of 51 and then returned for mediums on lap 22. That consigned him to a seventh-place finish, with team-mate Max Verstappen suffering the same issues and taking eighth. Horner admitted Ricciardo “ran into tyre-deg issues very quickly”, suggesting the high temperatures were a factor but that the need to boost straightline speed had also forced a costly compromise. “Perhaps running low downforce made the car move around a lot and grained the tyres, which the car is very sensitive to,” Horner told Autosport. “As soon as…

TORO ROSSO TEAM-MATES Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr retired from the European Grand Prix in Baku after both STR11s suffered rear-suspension failure. Kvyat retired on lap six, recovering to the pits, while Sainz pulled off track at the end of the main straight on lap 31 of the 51-lap race. “We didn’t finish because of rearsuspension problems,” confirmed Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost. “It seems the dampers got stuck, impeding the normal movement of the suspension.” Sainz said he and Kvyat “probably” suffered the same problem. He fought with the McLaren-Hondas of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso in the race, so was unlikely to score points had he finished. Sainz was disappointed to lose ground to Force India in the constructors’ championship after Sergio Perez’s podium, meaning it…

Despite being a street circuit with some incredibly tight sections, Baku’s long straights demand a low-downforce configuration to reduce drag. For most teams this meant an aero set-up that’s even leaner than in Canada, so many of them brought new wings specifically for this track. FERRARI’S LEAN MACHINE A low-downforce/drag set-up starts with the rear wing. Ferrari’s approach was typical of most teams, creating a shallower wing by downsizing the rear flap and lift ing the main plane upwards to meet it. To accommodate this flatter wing, the endplate was revised because there is less space for all the louvres and holes above the wing profile. To balance the rear wing’s lighter downforce level, the front also needs to be trimmed. Most teams reduce the angle of the flaps and,…

I’ve read the mag for more years than I care to remember. While you score the drivers and dissect their performances on a couple of pages, what about the teams? Why no scores for them? Let’s use Lewis Hamilton’s performance this weekend. I reckon you’ll score him a five or a six because of qualifying. But what about the ‘incorrect programming’ by the team? Where could he have finished? We have seen errors from Red Bull and Ferrari too, costing Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel (who scored highly in the respective week’s Autosport) probable wins. I think it’s time to score them. Although the drivers are the focal point, it’s a team game – it would be interesting to see points for teams versus their drivers. Back to Hamilton –…

AT A GLANCE RACE 1 1 Turkington Subaru 2 Plato Subaru 3 Sutton MG RACE 2 1 Collard BMW 2 Plato Subaru 3 Turkington Subaru RACE 3 1 Sutton MG 2 Tordoff BMW 3 Ingram Toyota P61 FULL RESULTS BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP CROFT (GB) JUNE 19 ROUND 5/10 Sutton: “He had a wobble and that made it easier” “WE HAD SUCH AN EASY WEEKEND AT Oulton Park and everything clicked into place, but this weekend was the complete opposite.” Those were the thoughts of Sam Tordoff come the end of a dramatic weekend of racing as the British Touring Car Championship reached the halfway point at Croft, with the BMW driver heading into the summer break having extended his advantage at the head of the standings. While the WSR-run…

FORMULA RENAULT NEC HUNGARORING (H) JUNE 19 ROUND 3/7 LANDO NORRIS TOOK AN ALL-the-way win first time out at the Hungaroring, but an error in the second race put the Brit out and dropped him to fourth in the points. Norris’s Josef Kaufmann Racing car was trailed by a flotilla of Fortec machines in race one, although second-placed Nikita Troitskiy got a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start, allowing fellow Russian Vasily Romanov up to second and Ferdinand Habsburg into third. Indian Jehan Daruvala struck to win race two from JKR team-mate Robert Shwartzman and moves to the top of the standings. Will Palmer had a best result of ninth, while Max Defourny spun out in qualifying but recovered to the top 10 in both races. RESULTS Race 1 1…

THE GT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP WILL RUN high-speed demonstrations of LMP3 machinery at each of its final rounds as the series continues to build up to the launch of its new Prototype Cup competition. United Autosports will run its LMP3 Ligiers during the lunch break at the next round at Oulton Park on July 23, as well as at the following events at Donington Park and Silverstone. The new Ave-Riley machine is also expected to feature, with Irish squad Murphy Prototypes running the car. The first round of the Prototype Cup, which is designed to be a British LMP3 series, will be held at Snetterton 300 on October 8-9, and begins a calendar that will avoid clashes with the European Le Mans Series. The Prototype Cup is the latest venture from…

20TEN RACING ABSENT FROM CROFT 20Ten Racing missed a Renault UK Clio Cup race weekend for the first time since 2010 at Croft. The team’s regular driver Sam Watkins was never scheduled to complete the North Yorkshire rounds and the squad failed to attract any other drivers. BAMBER MOTORHOME STOLEN Michael Bamber was nearly prevented from racing in the Mini Challenge at Rockingham last weekend when his motorhome was stolen from his home in Warrington. VAG Trophy racer Steve Johansen loaned Bamber replacement racing kit. Anyone with any information should call Warrington Police on 0845 458 0000. The vehicle registration is BX08 BJE. BRITISH F4 CALENDAR ANNOUNCED The 2017 British F4 calendar has been confirmed, with the series remaining part of the TOCA support bill. There will again be 30…

TWO FIRST-LAP COLLISIONS involving title protagonists Stuart Middleton and William Tregurtha mean the gap between the two in the standings remains slender, and it’s now Middleton who holds the advantage. Middleton benefited from the first of the clashes as HHC driver Tregurtha was punted off by Dave Wooder at Hawthorn in the opener, with Seb Perez also involved. From that point the order didn’t change as poleman Middleton was able to fend off the efforts of Sebastian Priaulx, with Daniel Harper third. Charlie Fagg was fourth and debutant Olli Caldwell fifth. It was a Douglas Motorsport one-two in the second race, with Middleton again leading Harper home, and Priaulx third after losing out at the start. Middleton was clearly pushing hard, regularly powersliding through the Complex. “That was absolutely awesome,”…

FREDERIC SAUSSET achieved the unthinkable at the weekend. The quadruple amputee fulfilled his dream of competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and did it in style. Not only did the 47-year-old finish the race in his specially adapted Morgan-Nissan LMP2, but he posted lap times that would have been credible for an able-bodied driver. Sausset, who shared the OAK-run SRT41 Racing Morgan with Christophe Tinseau and Jean-Bernard Bouvet, improved on his best lap of the Le Mans test day in qualifying, getting down to a 4m01.138s. It wasn’t quite within the 110% of the LMP2 pole time for which he had been aiming, but then the Morgan was neither a state-of-the-art P2 machine nor on the weight limit. In fact, it was 85kg overweight. He lowered his best time…

A CHAPTER OF LE MANS history concluded in the 84th running of the race, which was in all likelihood the last time that open-top cars will appear for the foreseeable future. Since the new-for-2014 LMP2 formula mandated closed cockpits, the writing has been on the wall, and in the last year before another new generation of cars arrive, six teams – five in LMP2 and the Frederic Sausset ‘innovation’ car – raced older, open-top offerings from Gibson, ORECA and Morgan. For Jota Sport it marked the last Le Mans with a car it has come to know as the ‘mighty 38’. Jota bought the Gibson 015S (then called a Zytek Z11SN) in 2011 and it has been central to its LMP2 programmes since. While it has its new partnership with…

COMPARED TO THE glamour of Ford’s return, its in-race squabble with Ferrari and the row about Balance of Performance in GTE Pro, the Am affair proved to be far simpler as Bill Sweedler, Jeff Segal and IndyCar journeyman Townsend Bell mastered the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 to a crushing victory. An unfancied pick, having only qualified ninth, there was little to suggest that victory was on the cards for the car during the opening couple of hours of the race as the Porsches swarmed into a 1-2-3-4 formation at the front. But the first chinks in the Porsche armour were exposed when the #89 Proton Competition car crashed on the approach to the Dunlop chicane, retiring on the spot, and as the stranglehold weakened the Ferrari worked its way into…

Vettel: “In some turns, you don’t want to think about if you get it wrong” THE INAUGURAL FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX on the streets of Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku may not have been a thriller, but the venue and track were praised by the teams and the majority of the drivers at the end of the weekend. Dubbed the fastest street track in the world, with Nico Rosberg’s pole position lap averaging 130.768mph, Baku presented an intriguing challenge for teams with its fast, sweeping corners, long straight and a narrow twisty section through the picturesque old city. On arriving in Baku, the dramatic layout, narrow runoffs and high-speed pit entry caused concern for drivers. Jenson Button claimed F1 had gone “backwards” in some aspects of safety. “I do like the…

“Rosberg glanced the wall in his own final run, but did enough” IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE LEWIS HAMILTON PERFORMED SO poorly in a Formula 1 qualifying session while unaffected by obvious technical dramas outside his control. He made a real hash of Austria 2014 – going off twice in Q3 and failing to set a time – but he didn’t crash the car. He did in Baku, clipping the inside wall at Turn 12 on his final flying lap in Q3, breaking the front suspension on his Mercedes and allowing team-mate Nico Rosberg to score a comfortable pole. Hamilton had earlier set the fastest time of all in the first sector before outbraking himself and going off at Turn 15. He regrouped and tried again, matching Rosberg’s pace in…

WILLIAMS DRIVER VALTTERI BOTTAS looked a potential podium contender after Friday practice for the European Grand Prix, but his weekend began to unravel when he lost the final practice session to an “unacceptable” incident with a drain cover in the pits. Bottas was returning to the garage after his installation lap when his Williams traversed a loose grille on the track. Bottas had to sit out the rest of the session while Williams repaired bodywork and radiator damage and examined the car’s gearbox. This latest incident comes after the drain-cover fiasco in Monaco, when a cover worked loose during practice for May’s grand prix, giving Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes a puncture and damaging Jenson Button’s McLaren-Honda. Bottas qualified a disappointing eighth, after twice almost colliding with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull while…

SERGIO PEREZ SCORED his second podium in three races at the European Grand Prix, finishing ahead of a Ferrari, both Red Bulls and the Williams pair. The Mexican was second fastest in qualifying and, although he started seventh after a gearbox penalty, he fought back up to third – without the benefit of mechanical misfortune, mixed conditions, crashes, or an alternative strategy. Deputy team principal Bob Fernley said: “It looked a bit tough after Saturday but we came through and it’s nice to be able to do it on performance – on merit. Nobody gave us anything; we fought hard for it.”…

THE WORKS RENAULT team is working on a way to the improve the one-lap speed of its car after Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer locked out the last row of the grid in Baku. Renault has usually been a marginal Q2 contender over the early part of this season, but slipped firmly behind Sauber and Manor this time to be slowest on the grid. The team’s form did improve in the race, after changing the gearbox and suspension set-up for Magnussen and starting him from the pitlane. He rose as high as 11th on a one-stop strategy, before slipping back to 14th behind Jenson Button’s McLaren, Felipe Nasr’s Sauber and Romain Grosjean’s Haas as the tyres wore out. Palmer had several excursions early on before finishing 15th. Renault technical director…

AT A GLANCE RACE 1 1 Giovinazzi Prema 2 Sirotkin ART 3 Marciello Russian Time RACE 2 1 Giovinazzi Prema 2 Gasly Prema 3 Sirotkin ART P61 FULL RESULTS GP2 SERIES BAKU (AZ) JUNE 18-19 ROUND 3/11 ANTONIO GIOVINAZZI SAID HE “would have never dreamed” of two race wins before he arrived in Azerbaijan, but the Italian completed a remarkable double on a GP2 weekend in Baku that was marred by multiple incidents and raised questions about driving standards in the category. While Prema Racing’s rookie was able to emerge from the chaos with the first GP2 double since Davide Valsecchi in Bahrain in 2012, another driver left Azerbaijan banned from the next event in Austria. In race one, the biggest talking point occurred just seconds into the race when…

FORD FIESTA JUNIOR frontrunner Carlito Miracco will switch to the Mini Challenge for the remainder of the season. Miracco, who is fourth in the BRSCC Fiesta Jr points, made his debut in the Challenge’s Cooper S Class at Rockingham last weekend, handling an R56 JCW. Miracco took a best finish of third running with Sussex Road and Race. The Surrey-based teenager has now bought Luke Caudle’s old R56 machine and will complete the season. “The Fiesta series just wasn’t for me any more,” he said. “We’d had a few bad experiences this season, so I looked elsewhere. I tested a Mini earlier this year and they’re great cars. “The Fiesta is good experience before getting into the Mini, as they have similar power levels and weight, but the Mini is…

OLLIE CHADWICK’S DOUBLE AT Croft means he can seal the Ginetta GT5 Challenge in the next round at Spa, but a photo-finish with Ryan Hadfield in the second race almost spoiled his party. Hadfield had taken advantage of a race restart that allowed him and Chadwick to pull clear of eventual third-placed man Jonathan Hadfield and the rest of the field. “The restart is a hard one at Croft,” said Chadwick. “Everyone expects you to floor it out of the hairpin; there aren’t many other options to catch people out, and Ryan had the stronger pace.” Hadfield showed that pace at half-race distance when he finally passed Chadwick at the Jim Clark Esses. Both drivers would dispute the legality of each other’s moves, but it would count for little when…

TWO AWESOME HISTORIC FORMULA Ford races, both aced by Callum Grant, wowed spectators as the HSCC honoured 1966 pioneers Ivan Sharrock and Chris Drewett at MSV’s spectacular Lincolnshire Wolds outpost. With four wins and two zero scores to discard, the Merlyn racer may not head the table, but his quest to repeat 2012’s title is strong. Triple champion Benn Simms (Jomo) beat Grant away and jousted throughout Saturday’s breathtaking opener in which Mark Shaw, points leader Rob Wainwright, Benn Tilley and Max Bartell squabbled behind. Qualifying heat winner Ben Tusting started from the back after an engine blew in practice, while 2013 champ Sam Mitchell buzzed his engine after being squeezed off track. Sunday’s final had Simms and Grant trade places again, but Simms fell to sixth with overheating and…

GIBSON LANDS LMP2 ENGINE DEAL Gibson Technology has won the contract to supply the one-make engine for the new 2017 LMP2 category. Technical details of the Gibson V8 (above), which will produce 600bhp with lower running costs than the current breed of P2 powerplant, will be announced at a later date. IMOLA POSSIBLE FOR ITALIAN GP Bernie Ecclestone says Imola would be acceptable as a replacement for Monza as Italian Grand Prix venue, if that is what the national authorities choose. There remains an impasse over the future of Monza as the Italian GP host, while Imola is ready to host F1 again and has the requisite FIA Grade 1 Licence. Discussions have already taken place. CHANDHOK GETS WILLIAMS ROLE Karun Chandhok has been named as an official driver for…

A McLAREN-HONDA RETIRED FOR THE SECOND Formula 1 race in succession because of a gearbox problem, as Fernando Alonso failed to finish the European Grand Prix. McLaren always expected to struggle on a circuit with such long straights, and Alonso failed to make Q3 for the first time since the Russian GP on May 1. He was fighting team-mate Jenson Button for 12th place when a problem with the gearbox forced him to retire the car to the pits. Last week in Canada, Button retired for the same reason. “I was stuck in fourth and it was getting worse,” explained Alonso. “We stopped so we didn’t damage the power unit. It was disappointing, but we weren’t in the points anyway so it’s a bit less painful to retire.”…

ROAD TO LE MANS LE MANS (F) JUNE 18 ON THE WEEKEND WHEN Toyota had another Le Mans 24 Hours victory slip through its fingers, one of its most famous drivers never to win the race with the marque returned to the Circuit de la Sarthe to attempt to succeed in the Road to Le Mans race. Martin Brundle’s first outing at Le Mans in four years didn’t end with the heartbreak of some of his previous endeavours, but he and United Autosports team-mate Christian England did end up a “reassuringly disappointed” second behind the Yvan Muller-run Thomas Laurent and Alexandre Cougnaud, despite having started the LMP3-and-GT3 affair from pole. Briton Brundle set pole at the circuit for the first time since his 1999 24 Hours outing with Toyota, but…

ANT WHORTON-EALES HAS BEEN reinstated as the winner of the second Renault UK Clio Cup race at Donington Park after winning an appeal against a technical exclusion. The Jam Sport driver was stripped of the victory in April after the eligibility of his car was questioned by a rival team. The legality of the brake-light wire was disputed, but the MSA National Court ruled in favour of Whorton-Eales and he got the win and the 32 points it carries back. “That was massive,” said Whorton-Eales after the decision. “We were pretty sure we were going to get it back, but it’s nice to have it recognised by the court that we did nothing wrong. We know where we stand now and what we need to do at Snetterton [in July].”…

THE RADICAL CHALLENGE PROVIDED three different winners at Rockingham, but solid finishes for Steve Burgess aided his championship cause as rival Jack Lang’s weekend fell apart. Burgess blasted into the lead from the second row, but Brian Caudwell was persistent in his attempts to get through. His repeated brake-locking proved his undoing and he ended up in the Tarzan gravel on lap eight. Lang was rewarded for biding his time with second, in what would be his only finish. For race two, Bradley Smith took over the car Evgeny Klyucharev had taken to 19th and romped home in a race truncated after Burgess and Tony Wells made contact at Yentwood, leaving Wells beached. Earlier, Caudwell had spun out after contact with Joe Stables, bringing out the safety car. Burgess and…

ZANE GODDARD HADN’T TAKEN a podium before Croft – and now he’s secured three. The Aussie Double R driver claimed his maiden win in the opener and picked up two further second places in an impressive weekend. Goddard had come close to a first victory at Oulton Park until he crashed out. There was no repeat in Yorkshire as he was able to maintain the lead at the start. He held off Devlin DeFrancesco until the safety car was deployed in the closing stages after Patrik Matthiesen and Jack Butel collided, then defended from DeFrancesco on the one-lap dash to the flag. DeFrancesco lost momentum in his attempt to get past, which led to Luis Leeds going off track in the fight for second, earning him a penalty and demotion…

ALEX COMIS WAS UNLUCKY TO suffer his first Super Mighty Mini Challenge defeat of the year after an early stoppage in race two robbed him of his unbeaten record. Race one went to plan despite Adrian Tuckley ousting him for the lead into Redgate on the opening lap – Comis was back in front a lap later. It remained like that throughout, with Tuckley having to reclaim second from Steve Maxted before chasing Comis. Tuckley also led from the start of race two, with Comis taking second from Ben Butler at Redgate a third of the way through the event. He hunted down Tuckley and had just grabbed the lead at the same spot when the race was red-flagged, dropping him to second. Mighty Minis were even closer. Paul Inch,…

EVEN WHEN ENDURANCE RACING is as entertaining as last weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours, there are times when the hardiest of sleep-deprived enthusiasts need a break. Le Mans organisers have traditionally been very good at catering for the needs of those soaking up the atmosphere trackside – after all, they’ve had enough practice. The Ford chicane Ferris wheel is one of the circuit’s most iconic sights (and in turn provides spectacular views of the track), but with live music, modern and classic sportscar exhibits and funfairs on the outside of the Esses and start/finish straight, there’s a wealth of off-track entertainment around the circuit for spectators to turn to in the depths of the race. In a world where technology is advancing faster than ever, new or emerging tech can…