Indholdsfortegnelse for 12/07/18 i Autosport

Advantage Ferrari. The Italian team has a poor recent history at Silverstone, so Sebastian Vettel’s victory in last weekend’s British Grand Prix is a real warning shot for Mercedes. As Edd Straw argues in our report on p18, Vettel could now be considered title favourite. Vettel and championship rival Lewis Hamilton both put in impressive drives last Sunday. Vettel made a fine pass on Valtteri Bottas to secure his 51st Formula 1 victory, while Hamilton stormed to second after being spun around by the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen on the first lap. The different strategies of Ferrari and Mercedes following the late safety car also made the last few laps much more exciting than we expected. What is tedious is the mountain-out-of-molehill debate about penalties for clashes, such as…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1’s Strategy Group has discussed awarding points down to 20th place instead of just the top 10, with a compromise of the top 15 among the possible alternatives. F1’s new management is continuing to explore changes to the sporting regulations, some of which could be introduced before 2021, when the major package of technical changes comes on stream. One of the motivations for the change would be to give drivers outside the top 10 an extra incentive to race hard, but the alternative view is that the current system offers a greater sense of reward. “The point that was made is that there’s a certain panache at being referred to as finishing in the top 10,” Force India boss Vijay Mallya told Autosport. “That will get diluted…

FORMULA 2 Formula 2 teams have been given special dispensation to attempt practice starts before the next race weekend once they have received an updated engine, clutch and ECU. F2 recalled every powerplant from all teams after last weekend’s Silverstone round, so that they can be dyno-tested by engine supplier Mecachrome. Teams will be given all of the updates by next week, along with a set of supersoft tyres, and can attempt 100km of practice starts in a bid to perfect the procedure ahead of the Hungaroring round on July 27-29. The FIA and F2 will be able to analyse the data to ensure that the teams don’t use the mileage to lap a circuit. “The idea is to come back to a normal start for Budapest,” said series boss…

YOU COULD TELL LEWIS HAMILTON’S RECORD-SETTING SIXTH British Grand Prix pole position meant a lot by the quiver in his voice after his titanic battle with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, one in which Hamilton turned a 0.057-second deficit after the first runs in the Q3 top-10 shootout into a 0.044s advantage. “It was so close and I had to go over the limit to get that time out of the car, which is dangerous as you could easily have not pulled the lap together,” said Hamilton. “I knew that the fans were right there with me, every time I would go out I’d see them cheering so I knew they were wanting it, expecting it, hoping for it. So the pressure was huge.” Vettel, who picked up a neck strain in…

Romain Grosjean and Brendon Hartley both raced cars rebuilt around spare monocoques following crashes during free practice. Grosjean spun into the barrier at Turn 1, the fast Abbey right-hander, during Friday’s first free practice session. This was the result of failing to close the DRS at the right moment after turning in. Damage to the front-left corner, which hit the barrier, led to the chassis change. “I closed the DRS, but a bit later than the previous lap,” said Grosjean. “The aero flow didn’t recover and there was no rear downforce. It wasn’t a big impact, but the front wheel came back and removed some part of the chassis.” The damage to the monocoque is repairable, meaning it should be available to use again later in the season. Hartley’s crash…

Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly says the decision to hand his British Grand Prix 10th place to Sergio Perez was “ridiculous”, and has called for more consistency from officials. Gasly, who ran 12th early on, made contact with Perez at Club during the closing laps at Silverstone as they battled for 10th place, and after reviewing the incident the stewards gave Gasly a five-second penalty. That promoted Perez to 10th and dropped Gasly to 13th, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll also benefiting. In addition, Gasly received two penalty points. “For me it’s ridiculous, completely ridiculous,” said Gasly. “That’s racing, and honestly there was a really small contact. “It happens sometimes. We have a two-metre wide car, on a track that is probably 12 metres wide, so at some point…

MERCEDES LEWIS HAMILTON 9 Had to dig deep to bag pole position, albeit with a little time lost to an oversteer moment in Club. Poor getaway played a part in being in harm’s way, but after Raikkonen’s hit he recovered as quickly as could be expected, then seemed to preserve his tyres slightly better than his team-mate. VALTTERI BOTTAS 8 Qualifying was disappointing, and he should have been on the front row. Would have been fascinating to see if he could have pulled off a victory had the safety car not intervened. While he was a sitting duck in the final laps, he didn’t seem to make the mediums last quite as well as Hamilton. FERRARI SEBASTIAN VETTEL 9 Didn’t drive like someone with a neck problem in qualifying and…

GP3 SERIES SILVERSTONE (GB) JULY 7-8 ROUND 4/9 Anthoine Hubert’s rebound at Silverstone was almost perfect. The previous weekend in Austria, the Frenchman and ART Grand Prix team-mate Nikita Mazepin had crashed into each other. At Silverstone, as if to continue the narrative, Hubert took a vital pole position with Mazepin directly behind. These things have the capability to develop into brutal and fierce rivalries. But for fans of such theatrics, the actual tone was a lot more mellow between the pair. “I know he is clever, I think he knows I am clever as well,” said Hubert. “We were starting side by side today; I knew it was going to be a hard fight but I knew the incident that happened last week has passed.” Mazepin added: “Obviously we…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS  TOWNSVILLE (AUS) JULY 7-8  ROUND 8/16 The Triple Eight Holdens were the class of the Supercars field in Townsville. Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen shared the wins to reduce Scott McLaughlin’s points advantage. Saturday’s race was a masterclass from Townsville specialist Whincup: the 2017 champion simply stormed past polesitter McLaughlin at Turn 2 on the second lap and never looked back. He led the race by as much as 15 seconds in what was a devastatingly dominant display, and even a late safety-car restart and spirited challenge from team-mate van Gisbergen could not rattle him. Whincup’s final winning margin over van Gisbergen was 2.19s. The victory was Whincup’s 10th from the 19 races that had been staged on the hybrid street/parklands circuit up to that point. Van…

BRITISH F3 Reigning British Formula 4 champion Jamie Caroline is set to compete in BRDC British F3 later this year, after testing with the Carlin team at Pembrey last week. Caroline – who competed in four USF2000 races earlier in the season with BN Racing, with a best finish of fourth – won British F4 with Carlin last year, and the team has a vacant F3 seat. Clement Novalak, one of Carlin’s F3 regulars, is set to miss the Spa and Donington rounds as he prioritises his Formula Renault Eurocup programme. “We were quick in the test at Pembrey last week, fastest on the old tyre and a tenth off the quickest on the new tyres there,” said Caroline. “To race for a team like that is incredible. I have…

CHATEAU IMPNEY Two spectators and a competitor were treated in hospital after a vintage hot rod left the course, charged a grass bank and rolled during the second practice runs at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb last Saturday. Driver Brett Pillinger, 54, lost control of his 1922 Ford Model T Roadster on the exit of Raven’s Crest, a left-hand bend one-third of the way up the 0.54-mile course. The car then somersaulted when it climbed the bank in front of the gothic-style chateau. Pillinger, who was not strapped in to the 4.8-litre tubeframe-chassis machine (the fastest unblown flathead-engined rod at the Vintage Hot Rod Association’s Pendine Sands Races in recent years) was ejected as the car nosedived into shrubs and took out the stone balustrade as he came down beside…

LE MANS CLASSIC  PETER AUTO JULY 7-8 GT racers Stuart Hall and Patrick Simon provided some of the many highlights at the ninth Le Mans Classic, which attracted 135,000 spectators last weekend, but neither came away with the success they deserved at the biennial event. As usual, the six main groups – featuring around 70 cars each – were decided over three contests, with Group C, Porsche and Jaguar races providing support. Having narrowly missed victory at the Monaco Historique in May, Hall was again unfortunate. He led each race for the 1967-71 machines of Plateau 5 in Roald Goethe’s Lola T70 Mk3B, but safety cars kept eroding his advantage. Goethe was overcome by faster runners each time, but still the duo finished on the aggregate podium. “Every race I…

SILVERSTONE  MASTERS HISTORIC F1  JULY 7-8 There was a time when climbing into a Formula 1 car at Silverstone might have put him on a different path, but last weekend Tommy Byrne said “it’s not going to change my life”. The 60-year-old shot back into the forefront of motorsport culture a few years ago thanks to the entertaining biography Crashed and Byrned. His racing career got off to a rapid start: within four years of starting, the Irishman was testing F1 cars having excelled as British Formula 3 champion in 1982. But the partying and off-track image frightened sponsors and often got him into trouble, and he disappeared off the scene almost as quickly as he had arrived. After just two F1 starts in 1982 with Theodore Racing, Byrne ended…

FORMULA 1 The beleaguered McLaren team revamped its trackside leadership ahead of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, with racing director Eric Boullier resigning and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran appointed sporting director. The 50-year-old de Ferran, who held a similar role at BAR/Honda from 2005-08 and ran his own De Ferran Motorsports squad in the American Le Mans Series in 2008-09, had been working as an unofficial McLaren advisor in recent months, following a stint as Fernando Alonso’s driver coach at last year’s Indy 500. Boullier’s old role is now effectively split between de Ferran and Andrea Stella, who has been appointed performance director. Alonso insisted he was not consulted on the changes, although the fact that two individuals with ties to him have been put in senior…

FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton says he has accepted an apology from Kimi Raikkonen for their first-lap clash in last weekend’s British Grand Prix and wants to “move on”. Hamilton was spun around by the Ferrari driver at Village, which dropped him to 18th and necessitated a charge through the order to finish second. The collision sparked huge scrutiny over the Ferrari-v-Mercedes 2018 fight as it came just two races after Raikkonen’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel wiped out the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in France. Hamilton hinted at “interesting tactics” from Ferrari but took to Instagram on Monday to say: “Kimi said sorry and I accept it and we move on. It was a racing incident and nothing more. Sometimes we say dumb shit and we learn from it.” Mercedes team…

Volunteers’ dedication makes British GP possible After a near-perfect weekend with a record race day crowd and a heroic drive by Lewis Hamilton, it’s difficult to pick a highlight of the British Grand Prix. However, one of mine was certainly visiting the marshals’ campsite to meet some of the men and women who helped make it all happen. There were nearly 1000 volunteers at Silverstone and their dedication was evident throughout the weekend, as they kept everything running smoothly through the extraordinary heat. Whether marshals, recovery crews, scrutineers, timekeepers or medical personnel, they delivered a showpiece event that demonstrates why the British GP deserves its place on the F1 calendar for many years to come. This year Silverstone offered one volunteer a ride in the two-seater F1 car and we’re…

The high-speed spins suffered by both Williams Formula 1 drivers in British Grand Prix qualifying were caused by an aerodynamic stall and led to both drivers starting from the pitlane after switching to an older-specification rear wing. The cause has been traced to a stall developing at the floor of the FW41 after DRS has been used and then deactivated. Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe admitted this problem has an impact on the development process. “It’s a very unwanted… not delay, but it’s not quite on the track we intended,” said Lowe. “This rear wing was part of our wider programme to get back to where we wanted to be. “I’m not convinced that it’s the rear wing itself – it’s a matter of how it’s functioning together with…

The momentum behind George Russell coming into Silverstone was such that it T felt like a foregone conclusion. And while the weekend didn’t go perfectly to plan, he left having extended the Formula 2 points lead he had wrested from Lando Norris last time out in Austria. While the mechanics and team members might have been sporting haggard faces at the end of three consecutive race weekends in three different countries, and the home fans were paying as much attention to the football on the big screens as the action on track, everything went to plan for Russell on Friday. Incredibly, the Mercedes Formula 1 junior was fastest by seven tenths in practice, and he believed that his pole margin of 0.076s was unrepresentative of his pace. “When you are…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP SILVERSTONE (GB) JULY 8 ROUND 4/9 The times they are a changin’ in the Porsche Supercup, in some ways at least. And that’s not just because one of the leading contenders is called Dylan. For the third consecutive race, a driver took their first victory in the category – this time 21-year-old Florian Latorre thanks to a lights-to-flag win under pressure. But some things don’t change, for it was wily reigning champion Michael Ammermuller chasing him and taking a second place that consolidated his points lead. Latorre started from pole position, but was always going to have a fight on his hands to keep Ammermuller behind, given the German reckoned he had the pace to top qualifying. He might have done too, but his first attempt at a…

SUPER FORMULA  FUJI (J) JULY 8  ROUND 4/7 Nick Cassidy converted pole position at Fuji Speedway into his maiden Super Formula victory. As a result, he moved to just a single point behind championship leader Naoki Yamamoto. Saturday was a test of adaptability. Rain fell hard on the second sector during Q1, then it migrated over to the final part of the lap for the Q3 shootout. Kondo Racing-run New Zealander Cassidy first went out on slicks but after just one lap he returned for wets. It proved the right call and, in the dying seconds, he set the fastest time to seal only his second series pole. For the race the circuit stayed dry throughout. That allowed Cassidy, opting to run the soft-compound tyres, to make a clean getaway.…

IMSA SPORTSCAR MOSPORT PARK (CDN) JULY 8 ROUND 7/12 Despite having a dominant car at the dauntingly fast Mosport circuit last weekend, Texan Colin Braun led only eight of the 116 laps that comprised a thrilling seventh round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. But they were the important ones. Braun was quickest in each of the practice sessions, then qualified on pole ahead of Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron. For the second week in a row, however, the CORE Autosport team with its pro-am line-up elected to insert team principal Jon Bennett into its potent ORECA-Gibson 07 for the opening stint, which, under IMSA regulations, required it to start from the back of the Prototype field. Bennett did well to keep in touch with the pack until a fortuitously timed…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton will get his first experience of Super Touring when he joins the field for the Silverstone Classic later this month. The 24-year-old will tackle the Super Touring Car Trophy event at the wheel of Paul Whight’s 1996 Honda Accord after an invitation from the car’s owner. The car was raced in period by David Leslie, who took three wins on his way to fourth in the 1996 standings. It will be the first time that Sutton has driven a Super Touring car. “I jumped at the chance to race the car because I’ve seen all sorts of footage and heard all sorts of stories about just how amazing they were to race at the time,” said Sutton. “I have seen them in…

BRITISH F4 British Formula 4’s organiser has decided not to introduce a new car until the 2020 season at the earliest. Following a World Motor Sport Council meeting late last year it was announced that all of the existing FIA-backed F4 championships must switch to a new car, featuring the halo cockpit-protection device, by the 2024 season. British F4 evaluated whether to introduce a new car for next year, but with the limited time available and other significant changes to the junior single-seater ladder in the works – including International F3 replacing GP3 and a number of new Regional F3 series – organisers decided it would be best to wait until 2020. Championship promoter Sam Roach explained: “It’s a pretty tight turnaround to have new cars ready in six months’…

DEREK BELL TROPHY The Derek Bell Trophy will play a leading role in the Irish Historic Racing Festival, which marks 50 years of Mondello Park on August 18-19. As well as celebrating the Irish circuit’s half century, the event will also be a celebration of the life of entrepreneur and Mondello Park owner Martin Birrane, who died in early June, aged 82. Birrane was also the owner of Lola from 1997 until 2012, so the presence of several Lolas in the entry has an added significance. “The weekend will now be a celebration of Martin Birrane’s life as well as Mondello Park,” said HSCC chairman and Formula 5000 racer Frank Lyons. “Martin had been putting a lot of effort into the event.”…

THRUXTON  BARC JULY 7-8 Reigning champion Ryan Smith continued his domination of the BTRA British Truck Racing Championship by claiming all four Division 1 race victories at Thruxton. In the opener Smith led all the way from pole to win by five seconds, while in the other three races – all with reversed grids – he was able to move into first by mid-distance to win comfortably. “It’s tactical this weekend because at Thruxton the asphalt’s really difficult,” said Smith. “It’s about managing tyres – push hard at the beginning, mid-race have a rest, push on at the end. “No damage on the truck; it’s home safe.” Steve Powell won two of the four races in Division 2, claiming the first under pressure from championship leader Luke Garrett. The reversed-grid…

FORMULA E Until Lucas di Grassi won the first Zurich ePrix last month, only Sam Bird had achieved a win in each of Formula E’s four seasons. It’s a record that Sebastian Buemi – statistically the most successful of the electric championship’s ‘big three’ – is unlikely to match at this weekend’s New York season-four finale. DS Virgin Racing driver Bird has the opportunity to become the last of the trio to seal an FE title but, thanks to Jean-Eric Vergne holding a 23-point series lead, the odds are stacked against him. Win or bust – and Buemi’s 2016-17 Montreal implosion and FE’s unpredictability suggest the title destination is still very much up in the air, especially if Vergne suffers a repeat of his poor Zurich qualifying form – Bird…

FORMULA E Formula E’s new era will feature a revised group qualifying system and heavier grid penalties for drivers exceeding their allocation of powertrain elements on their Gen2 cars. According to the recently published FIA FE sporting regulations for the 2018-19 season, the group qualifying system will consist of four batches of a maximum of six drivers – to reflect HWA joining FE’s ranks to bring the grid up to 22 – with the running order no longer randomly drawn. Drivers will still be grouped by championship position, but the top six will always be the first out, with the remaining groups qualifying in descending standings order. For the Riyadh season opener, finishing positions from the 2017-18 championship will determine the drivers in each group. The superpole will now contain…

SILVERSTONE IS SILVER ARROWS TERRITORY. OR AT LEAST IT WAS UNTIL LAST SUNDAY’S British Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel’s victory came at a track where Ferrari was at its worst in 2016 and ’17, with the team’s pace transformed by a floor upgrade that led home hero Lewis Hamilton to quip after qualifying: “They’ve added at least three tenths to the car.” The higher-than-usual temperatures also played their part, and it was no coincidence that Hamilton and Mercedes were at their best in the coolest session on Friday morning. But what is unquestionable is that the Mercedes team, while not foolish enough to be so bullish in their public pronouncements, arrived expecting victory and were instead undone by a resurgent Ferrari. Poleman Hamilton’s wheelspin at the start allowed Vettel to take…

INDYCAR SERIES  IOWA SPEEDWAY (USA) JULY 8  ROUND 10/16 For 229 laps, Josef Newgarden looked like the probable winner of last Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300. He had wrested the lead away from polesitting Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet team-mate Will Power on lap 24 and then rapidly pulled away. The only matter of concern for the #1 team was the progress of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe, who had qualified his Honda-powered car down in 11th but had dispensed with the likes of Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay (a three-time winner at this 0.894-mile oval), Alexander Rossi and finally Power to run second – all by lap 40. That was not long past the halfway point of the first stint for all the frontrunners who’d elected to try to make it on three…

MONDELLO PARK  CKMC  JULY 7-8 Irish Formula Vee champion Colm Blackburn has had a tough season thus far, punctuated by contact and niggling mechanical issues. But all this was forgotten when he crossed the line, fist in the air, to win the Formula Vee Festival final after a great scrap with poleman Anthony Cross. Double Festival winner Kevin O’Hara had taken a heat win earlier, but was one of many to be eliminated in a scary accident in heat three, when several competitors went off on oil and hit a car that was already in the bank. Michael Fitzgerald beat class regulars to take the Fiesta Zetec opener, with series leader Owen Purcell in second. In race two, newbie Colin Murray took the win but fell foul of the weighing…

“HE’S IN A PRIME POSITION TO ASK DARING QUESTIONS OTHERS WOULDN’T” At the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, McLaren team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button tried their hand at broadcasting for a light-hearted pre-race feature aired by the BBC. Hamilton took on the role of director, while Button was handed the microphone and roamed the Formula 1 pitlane conducting interviews alongside David Coulthard. After a genuinely funny piece, but with a fair share of mishaps, Button said: “This has made me realise that I want to race for longer because [presenting] is so hard!” Six years later, his outlook seems to have changed. He was back to give punditry another crack as he joined Sky’s already sizeable presenter line-up for its coverage of the British Grand Prix last weekend. Originally, the…

“THE ADRENALIN AND EXHILARATION, EVEN TALKING ABOUT IT NOW, I CAN TASTE IT” Held on New Year’s Eve at Adelaide, the 2000 H American Le Mans Series finale, dubbed the ‘Race of a Thousand Years’, is perhaps best remembered for the ‘crocodile’ livery sported by the winning Audi R8. Although drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello swept to a 21-lap victory in the 5h45m race, securing McNish the title, the car’s Australian connection went beyond its scaly paint scheme. On the eve of his last start for Audi before moving to a Formula 1 test role with Toyota, McNish twisted his back on the Friday – reportedly while stepping out of a kilt after a media event. With the Scot in doubt for the race and no time to summon…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This eastender was no cockney, but did get to climb the apples and pears to the top of the world. Having moved a long way from home to get on the scene, his big break came from another part of the former colonies. Notoriety came after he caused a multi-car pile-up, but it was when his team knocked the opposition for six that he became ingrained in the memories of all of a certain age. A lupine adventure started like a fairytale, but lacked the happy ending. When an old man came calling he answered and got the outcome he was looking for. The descent thereafter was steep and he was soon starting a new life. He went toe to toe with stars…