Indholdsfortegnelse for 27/10/2016 i Autosport

LEWIS HAMILTON REALLY HAD TO START ERODING Nico Rosberg’s points advantage at Austin, and he did so consummately. The reigning world champion clearly loves the United States – last weekend marked his fifth win there, as well as his 50th career success in Formula 1. Hamilton has achieved that feat in 185 races, a strike rate of 27%. That puts him marginally ahead of his hero Ayrton Senna (25.5%) and Alain Prost (25.6%), who is now just one win ahead in the all-time list. Hamilton’s percentage is also almost identical to that of the other Briton with three world titles, Jackie Stewart. To surpass that championship tally, Hamilton will need more than three similar performances in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. As Ben Anderson points out in our grand prix…

FORCE INDIA BLAMED Sebastian Vettel’s “aggressive” approach to Turn 1 for the collision that took Nico Hulkenberg out of the US Grand Prix and also ruined Valtteri Bottas’s race. Hulkenberg starred in qualifying and started seventh alongside Bottas. They headed into Turn 1 side by side. But Hulkenberg was sandwiched as Vettel turned in from a wide line and Bottas tried to pass Hulkenberg on the inside. The contact broke Hulkenberg’s steering and gave Bottas’s Williams a puncture and damaged floor. Hulkenberg retired to the pits and Bottas rejoined the race but struggled home to 16th. “It’s really disappointing to have another first-lap retirement,” said Hulkenberg. “Sebastian turned in quite aggressively, made contact with me, and that pushed me into Valtteri. “I think it could have been avoided if…

MCLAREN’S NEW WING LOOKS AHEAD McLaren has gone from its own left -field design ideas to following the fashions of the top teams in some areas, but last weekend at Austin it proved it is not afraid to try its own ideas. In practice, the team ran a new front wing that eschews the current ‘outwash’ design trend, most likely with an eye on the new aero regulations for 2017. Rather than a wing shape that is narrow and arched at the front, then diverges outwards towards the front tyre, the new wing has a near-straight profile that meets the endplate with a 90-degree joint and features nearly no outward curvature at all. With this shape, McLaren isn’t able to create the ‘outwash’ of airflow out around the front…

1 CANADIAN GP 2007 CAR McLaren MP4-22 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 4.343s (2nd: Nick Heidfeld) 2 UNITED STATES GP 2007 CAR McLaren MP4-22 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 1.518s (Fernando Alonso) 3 HUNGARIAN GP 2007 CAR McLaren MP4-22 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 0.715s (Kimi Raikkonen) 4 JAPANESE GP 2007 CAR McLaren MP4-22 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 8.377s (Heikki Kovalainen) 5 AUSTRALIAN GP 2008 CAR McLaren MP4-23 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 5.478s (Nick Heidfeld) 6 MONACO GP 2008 CAR McLaren MP4-23 STARTED 3rd WINNING MARGIN 3.064s (Robert Kubica) 7 BRITISH GP 2008 CAR McLaren MP4-23 STARTED 4th WINNING MARGIN 1m08.577s (Nick Heidfeld) 8 GERMAN GP 2008 CAR McLaren MP4-23 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 5.586s (Nelson Piquet Jr) 9 CHINESE GP 2008 CAR McLaren MP4-23 STARTED 1st WINNING MARGIN 14.925s (Felipe Massa) 10…

THE LOOK OF RELIEF ON DANIIL Kvyat’s face over the weekend of the United States Grand Prix in the wake of his new deal with Toro Rosso spoke volumes as to the weight that has been lifted from his shoulders. Prior to the new deal, Kvyat had come across as a tortured soul desperate for one more chance after losing his seat at Red Bull earlier in the season to Max Verstappen and being demoted to Toro Rosso. Going into the summer break he appeared all at sea, with seemingly no hope of salvaging his place, but an improvement in form and fortune since then has led to Kvyat retaining his seat ahead of GP2 title contender Pierre Gasly. While Kvyat was naturally delighted, Gasly was left stunned by the…

I’ve just got back from my first visit to the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch for many years. Why did I stay away so long?! Sixteen races, mostly very entertaining, and a slickly run operation by the organisers. Congratulations to all the winners and to the marshals and snatch teams who kept everything running ahead of time and avoided the onset of darkness. One question: where were all the other fans? They missed a treat. Rob Weighill Sevenoaks, Kent See the Festival report on page 64 – ed Thanks, MSV, for best Brands I’m sure the Best Club Circuits feature (October 13) will have triggered many discussions up and down the country. I won’t dispute any of the results (I have much more limited experience of the circuits), but…

SCOTT PRUETT WAS the master of Daytona Prototype. His name dominates the record books for the class. He claimed a total of 44 victories from the category’s 172 races, took the overall Grand-Am title on five occasions and won the Daytona 24 Hours series blue riband four times. Not bad for a driver who didn’t get behind the wheel of a DP until he was into his mid-40s! So… what made him so good behind the wheel of a DP? “I really don’t know, but what I can say is that I was with a really good team in Chip Ganassi Racing and I felt at home in those cars,” he says. “I loved doing IndyCar and had success there with Patrick Racing. But when people say Scott Pruett in…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES ESTORIL (P) OCTOBER 23 ROUND 6/6 HAVING COME SO CLOSE ON SO many occasions to winning the European Le Mans Series, Jota Sport could be forgiven for thinking it had missed the boat. The Jota guys had been the kings of qualifying, chalking up 12 out of 15 pole positions from 2013-15, but too often stumbled when it counted on race days and only managed to convert three wins. With the Gibson 015S showing its age this season against significantly newer and more-sophisticated opposition, Harry Tincknell, Simon Dolan and F1 refugee Giedo van der Garde couldn’t muster a single pole between them, but a second win of the year at Estoril – combined with starter-motor problems for the TDS Racing by Thiriet ORECA – was enough…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SURFERS PARADISE (AUS) OCTOBER 22-23 ROUND 12/14 RED BULL RACING AUSTRALIA’S Triple Eight-run Holdens completely dominated both Gold Coast races. Shane van Gisbergen and co-driver Alex Premat dominated the Saturday race, while team-mates Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell won on Sunday, and the two entries also split qualifying honours. But the races themselves were complete opposites. After starting in the first race, Premat messed up a restart and earned himself a 10-second penalty. His driving and van Gisbergen’s made sure they erased the disadvantage, the duo earning the rare distinction of setting the two fastest laps of the race. If race one was a thriller, Sunday’s was rather less so. Dumbrell won the start; he handed the car over to Whincup in the lead and, when Premat lost…

REIGNING MINI CHALLENGE champion Charlie Butler-Henderson has secured a new car in time for this weekend’s season finale at Snetterton after a crash wrecked his original car. Butler-Henderson’s F56 JCW machine was written off during an accident on the first lap of the first race at Oulton Park in August. He has since secured funding to have a new car built by Excelr8 Motorsport in time to try to defend his crown. Butler-Henderson trails David Grady by 12 points, but leads the class by a single point on dropped scores. “I’ve had to beg, borrow and call in every favour I’ve ever been owed to get the car ready,” he said. “About the only salvageable bit from the old car was my name sticker on the dash! “The…

LEADING IRISH CLUB DRIVER BARRY RABBITT has been left counting the cost of repairs to his Formula Renault machine after it was badly damaged in a freak road accident last week. Rabbitt was transporting the two-litre car he races in the Irish Formula Libre class to a test day at Kirkistown when the machine broke free from its trailer straps and slid into the road, where it was hit by an oncoming van. “I have no idea how the car got loose from its straps, and I’d even stopped mid-journey to check the straps and they were fine,” said Rabbitt. “One theory is that a tyre was flat and, as it deflated on the journey, its circumference reduced and that had the effect of slackening the straps.” The car was…

THE FUTURE OF RALLY TELEVISION. Crack that one and you’ll be the richest and most popular person in rallying. Much has been made of the battles that the WRC faces with television. Slowly, the coverage available to WRC fans has eroded to a point where there’s half as much as there was in the 1990s. The most enjoyable part of the season used to be picking up the season review before Christmas. Do they even make those anymore? Anyway, the future direction of where rally TV lies is a long and probably unanswerable question. What you can do is get better at using what’s out there right now. The number of people who don’t know what WRC plus is and how to use it is baffling. WRC plus (plus.wrc.com)…

I HAVE TO SAY THIS IS A BIT OF a first for me. I’ve never been an editor before. Trust me, the pay’s not as good as you might think! I’ve been reading Autosport and Motorsport News for as long as I’ve been competing, so it’s nice to have the chance to have some input into this Network Q guide. Especially as I’m competing this week in what’s a fairly special car for me. Forty years (can it really be that long?) after I drove a Vauxhall Magnum for the first time on the RAC Rally, I’m doing the same again – thanks to the help of Network Q, Pirelli and, of course, MIX Motorsport, which has built the car and will run it. I’ve been fortunate enough to compete…

SEBASTIAN VETTEL backed off in his chase of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull towards the end of the US Grand Prix after his Ferrari’s handling suddenly became violent through the high-speed esses. Vettel suffered what the team called “rear-wing dropouts” as the wind picked up at Austin, costing the car downforce. Vettel almost lost control at speed through the esses, so backed off and settled for fourth, knowing there was little threat from behind following retirements for Max Verstappen and Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari pitted Vettel with a few laps to go as a precaution, fitting super-soft tyres as well as cleaning the rear wing. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said there was some rubber stuck on the rear wing, which was causing it to stall. “It was quite violent,”…

DA COSTA TO MAKE MACAU RETURN… Antonio Felix da Costa has become the third Macau Grand Prix winner to be added to the entry list for the 2016 running of the blue-riband Formula 3 race. The BMWcontracted Portuguese rejoins British team Carlin, with which he won the 2012 running of the race. …AS CARLIN GRABS RED BULL JUNIOR Carlin has also added Sergio Sette Camara to its Macau squad, the Brazilian switching from Motopark. He and da Costa will join Jake Hughes and Lando Norris in Carlin’s squad of VW-powered Dallaras. CHICKEN TRIO TO REUNITE IN LMP2 BMW DTM driver Tom Blomqvist will make his World Endurance debut with the Extreme Speed Motorsports LMP2 squad at Shanghai. The Briton will replace Giedo van der Garde in the Indonesian KFC-backed Ligier-Nissan…

MOTOGP PHILLIP ISLAND (AUS) OCTOBER 23 ROUND 16/18 STARTING WITH THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND Prix, the end of the 2016 MotoGP season was supposed to be Marc Marquez’s victory lap after wrapping up a third premier-class title in Japan one week earlier. The shackles would supposedly be released. The ‘old Marquez’ – hitherto hidden by his new, more conservative approach – was set to return as he chased wins. But the weekend at Phillip Island was ultimately about another Honda rider: Britain’s Cal Crutchlow. After a rain-hit start to proceedings, Marquez basically invented dry running in qualifying, successfully rolling the dice on slicks to take his seventh pole of the year, with Crutchlow securing second despite having to navigate the first phase of the session. Sunday was genuinely dry and, after…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP ESTORIL (P) OCTOBER 22-23 ROUND 7/7 WILL PALMER TOOK ADVANTAGE OF a final-lap clash between Lando Norris and Max Defourny to score his first Eurocup victory at Estoril, but would suffer the ignominy of finishing last in race two when a tyre gamble backfired. Palmer was unable to match poleman Norris in the opening laps of race one, but ran a comfortable second until the appearance of the safety car allowed his R-ace GP team-mate Defourny to get on terms. The Belgian had carved his way through from 11th on the grid and made short work of Palmer at the restart, before closing relentlessly on the Josef Kaufmann Racing machine of Norris. A small mistake by Norris at the Parabolica Ayrton Senna presented Defourny with his chance.…

SUPER TC2000 SAN JUAN (RA) OCTOBER 23 ROUND 10/12 ESTEBAN GUERRIERI RETURNED TO THE winner’s circle with a hard-fought victory aboard his TTA Toyota Corolla. Guerrieri and team-mate Matias Rossi had won the morning heats, so lined up side by side on the front row of the final. Guerrieri outsprinted Rossi, but Rossi would pressure Guerrieri all the way, with Peugeot’s Facundo Chapur awaiting a possible mistake from the two leading Toyotas. The final lap was a race apart, as Rossi attempted to grab the lead from Guerrieri and both of them lost time, allowing the irrepressible Chapur into second. Not content with the runner-up placing, in the final metres Chapur also had a go at Guerrieri’s lead and fell short by a mere 0.031s as the chequered flag fell,…

GERMAN FORMULA 4 CHAMPION Joey Mawson heads the entry list for this weekend’s BRDC British Formula 3 Autumn Trophy at Snetterton. Australian Mawson beat the son of seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, Mick, to the ADAC-run F4 crown this year with Van Amersfoort Racing. Mawson will race for Douglas Motorsport in the one-round event, and will have the chance to test one of the team’s Tatuus F3-016s for the first time today (Thursday) as part of an exclusive test session at Snetterton. Jamie Caroline, who finished 10th in British F4 this year with one victory, will join Mawson in Douglas’s line-up. “It’s a great opportunity for us and for Joey,” said Douglas Motorsport team owner Wayne Douglas. “It’s a bit of a step up in machinery for him…

NIALL MURRAY’S NAME WAS ON THE lips of almost every person in the Formula Ford Festival paddock last weekend. Anyone who could win 12 races in the FF1600 National Championship was likely to be a favourite for the final, but the way in which Murray blitzed the field en route to victory in the first semi-final meant he was almost universally tipped as the man to beat. The Irishman had already laid down a marker with the fastest time of anyone in qualifying before emerging victorious from heat two. But it was his foursecond winning margin in his semi that really turned heads. “Coming into the weekend, I knew I would have a pretty good chance, but it was very close between four or five cars in qualifying,” said Murray,…

Georges Boillot fits new Dunlops to his Peugeot EX5 during one of the eight stops he was obliged to make due to excessive tyre wear during the 1914 French Grand Prix at Lyon. It won’t have helped with the workload of those tasked with keeping that extraordinary lap chart up to date. Despite Boillot’s efforts, he failed to make the finish, dropping out on the final lap. This was the last grand prix held before the start of the First World War – indeed, it took place only days after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. www.latphoto.co.uk @latphotographic…

For reasons best known to himself, Off a felt the time had come to draw the line between Wales and England. From the River Dee in the north to the River Severn in the south, Off a’s men dug a 150-mile dyke. Little did he know, 1250 years later, that his boundary would contain Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship for a decade and a half. OK, we can’t be entirely certain what Off a was thinking when he dug his ditch, but the Mercian monarch probably wasn’t thinking that it would keep the WRC off his patch for a long period from 1999 onwards. It’s been a long 17 years for those on the eastern side of the Dyke. When Terry Colley’s tail-ending Mini crossed the finish line…

TECH SPEC VAUXHALL ADAM Engine 1.6-litre ECOTEC 16v Power 185bhp at 7750rpm Torque 140lb ft at 6200rpm Transmission sequential Sadev five-speed gearbox, limited-slip differential Suspension Reiger Racing, three-way adjustable, McPherson struts with Uniball mounts Steering electro-hydraulic power-steering Wheels EVO Corse aluminum, 6x15 Brakes hydraulic fly-off handbrake, pressure regulation for rear axle; AP Brakes, four-piston front calipers; 278mm ventilated discs (gravel, front), 264mm discs (asphalt and gravel, rear) Tyres DMACK Length 3698mm Width 1720mm Swap Dungannon for Manchester, Waterford for Killarney. Most eyes may be focused up front, to where Citroen team-mates Kris Meeke and Craig Breen are hoping to finish on Wales Rally GB, but there’s another UK-Irish battle going on between two of the most talented drivers from their respective regions further down the order. The European two-wheel-drive champion,…

“I’ve worked all weekend to get the first sector spot on, and I did” UNTIL THE FINAL RUNS IN Q3 THIS WAS AN INCREDIBLY CLOSE fight for pole position between the two Mercedes drivers. Lewis Hamilton was just over a tenth quicker than Nico Rosberg in Q1 (0.101 seconds to be exact); Rosberg enjoyed a 0.099s advantage over Hamilton when Mercedes bolted on soft tyres for Q2 (Daniel Ricciardo was fractionally fastest of all on the super-soft); and Hamilton moved back ahead of Rosberg by just 0.072s after the initial runs in Q3. Collectively that represented an advantage of just 0.074s in Hamilton’s favour heading into the pole showdown. Rosberg ran wide over the kerb at Turn 1 on his first Q3 run, and did so to a lesser extent…

FERRARI WAS FINED €5000 FOR RELEASING Kimi Raikkonen’s car unsafely from his final pitstop during the United States Grand Prix. Raikkonen pitted for soft tyres at the end of lap 38 of 56, but pulled away before the right-rear wheelgun had been released, after receiving a green light to go from Ferrari’s pitstop control system. The Finn began to climb the hill after emerging from the pitlane, but he was told by the team to stop the car, as it was unclear whether or not the wheel had been securely fitted. Raikkonen rolled his Ferrari back down the slope, eventually stopping in the pits and retiring. He had been running fourth, ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but was likely to finish behind him on account of a difficult second stint…

NASCAR SPRINT CUP TALLADEGA (USA) OCTOBER 23 ROUND 32/36 JOEY LOGANO TOOK THE WIN TO secure himself a spot in the Sprint Cup Chase’s ‘Round of 8’. Logano overcame two late cautions to defend his position at the restarts and into overtime, as well as surviving a penalty for driving an entire lap with a front jack attached to his Penske Ford following the first round of pitstops. Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon battled race long for the eighth and final spot in the next stage of the Chase. At the chequered flag the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Hamlin secured third behind Brian Scott, ending Dillon’s title hopes. Hamlin’s team-mates Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch dropped back early in a strategic move to avoid any potential wrecks,…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP AUSTIN (USA) OCTOBER 22-23 ROUND 9/9 THINGS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN GOING much better for Matteo Cairoli. The 20-year-old Italian was leading the first race of the titledeciding double-header at Austin after squeezing past poleman Mathieu Jaminet at the start and then holding off the Frenchman during a fraught first lap, aided by a liberal interpretation of track-limits rules. What’s more, fellow Porsche Junior Sven Muller, who had a two-point advantage going into the race, was down in third. Then just after half distance, Cairoli’s Fach Auto Tech-run machine, which had been hastily rebuilt following a heavy shunt into the pitwall during qualifying a few hours earlier, began to stutter. The cause was a failing fuel pump, and the devastated Carioli could only limp back to the…

MOTORSPORT VISION RACING WILL launch a new series dedicated to BMW roadsters for 2017 after joining forces with saloon car squad Gary Feakins Racing. The new Z Cars series will consist of six rounds in 2017, and will cater for the Z3 and Z4 BMW sportscars. The series will run a two-class format, with the first category running for the 1.9-litre Z3 and the top tier for the more powerful and more modern three-litre Z4. MSVR plans to run double-header races at each round, with all sessions to be held in one day, where possible, to help cap costs. GFR has built the first two cars – one of each class – and has already begun work on the second wave ahead of a winter testing programme. Feakins, the 2015…

VAN UITERT STARS ON FESTIVAL DEBUT Dutch teenager Job van Uitert hasn’t ruled out having another shot at the Formula Ford Festival next season after an impressive debut last weekend. He is currently fourth in Italian F4 and raced a Geva Racing Van Diemen RF89 at Brands Hatch. He put in a strong drive to finish second in the Historic Festival Final, having been elbowed down to 11th on the first lap. He was 12th in the main final. DRIVERS TRY OUT GINETTA G57 Ginetta hosted a try-out day for its new G57 prototype at Donington Park last week. HHC Motorsport boss Charlie Kemp, McLaren GT man Andrew Watson and Ginetta GT4 Supercup regular Ben Green were among the drivers interested in trying the car. JEDI COORDINATOR AND RACER UNITE…

SPIRE SPORTS CARS IS BUILDING a run of seven new chassis this winter in response to customer demand for its latest GT3S. The car has dominated this year’s 750 Motor Club Road-Going Bike-engined [RGB] Class R Championship. Factory drivers John Cutmore and Billy Albone won 11 of the 12 races run, finishing one-two in the rear-engined division. Cutmore, who snatched the class title with victory over his team-mate Albone in a dramatic finale at Donington Park this month, was only beaten overall by 2013-14 champion Matt Higginson, who was undefeated in the frontengined class with his works-tended AB Arion. Suffolk builder Cutmore has accrued 27 class and outright RGB victories since switching from a Westfield to a Spire chassis in 2009. He has been second overall in the title…

“WE MADE A STATEMENT,” SAID TEAM USA Scholarship driver Oliver Askew after the final. He certainly had. He was third in qualifying for his heat, finished third and took an excellent second in his semi. But then came his best performance of them all. He was running fourth in the final when disaster struck and he picked up a puncture after running over the Druids kerb while part of the tight battle for second. It was a bitterly disappointing end to an excellent Festival debut – especially when you consider it was only his fourth ever car-racing weekend. “We had the car to win – the guys provided me with a great car,” said the Floridian. “But sometimes these things happen.” Askew estimated that he has completed around 500 laps…

NARROWLY BEATEN LAST YEAR, gobsmacked Hyundai returnee Alex Cursley and event rookies Will Taylforth and Simon Miles landed a breathless one-lap victory over the closest four of 69 team rivals in Saturday’s gripping 750 Motor Club Birkett Six Hour Relay race at Silverstone, where the hallowed event was inaugurated in 1951. Awarded two fewer credit laps than their sister team, which finished fourth, the Jon Winter-managed Carbon 8 Coupe Cup B squad pulled clear of the baying pack in the final hour, having been strong victory contenders in the diverse field, ranging from Fabulous Fiat (750) Formula Cars to a Mini 7 Racing Club 50th-anniversary team. Red Rascals, one of two supercompetitive BMW E46 Cup teams that battled throughout, emerged runners-up. They also got the better of the Tegiwa M3…

There is no headline title to shout about on Harrison Scott’s CV, but the Essex driver has proved his worth in everything he’s raced, and has done so with teams who lack the clout of the big junior-single-seater hitters. Twice a runner-up in British Formula Ford with Falcon Motorsport in 2013 and ’14 (he only lost the second of those in an MSA appeal regarding the driving of eventual champion Jayde Kruger), Scott has for the past two seasons raced in the Formula Renault Eurocup with the AVF squad of Adrian Valles, finishing fourth this year with three wins. He’s also been competitive in a bit-part BRDC F3 campaign and the preceding F4 Autumn Trophy in the past 12 months, has been a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist, and qualified…

Jimmy McRae competed on his first RAC Rally 40 years ago. At this week’s Dayinsure Wales Rally GB, the five-time British Rally champion is going back to where it all began: a Vauxhall Magnum. With the help of Network Q, the superstar Scot and head of the world’s greatest rallying dynasty will return to the woods four decades down the road from where his great adventure began. As well as scoring podium finishes, he’s picked up some incredible memories from his time on Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship. Here, in chronological order, are Jimmy’s top 10 RAC and Wales Rally GB memories. 01 1976 Vauxhall Magnum, 12th I had been rallying for a couple of years when I did my first RAC. Earlier in 1976 I’d done the…

AN IMPRESSIVE LINE-UP JOINS THE ENTRY LIST FOR THE WRGB NATIONAL EVENT THIS WEEK One of the fastest drivers in national rallying joins the fray for this year’s Wales Rally GB National rally. Luke Francis missed the event in 2015, but returns to battle with last year’s frontrunners Jock Armstrong and Mike Faulkner. Armstrong (above) gets a free entry through winning the Scottish Rally Championship, and he hopes to gain redemption aft er last year’s drama. A broken ball joint on his Subaru Impreza cost him a comfortable win, on the last stage. He and co-driver Paula Swinscoe will be tough to beat on the event they dominated in 2015. If anyone can be a match, though, it’s Francis. He won more BTRDA events than anyone this year but an…

Wales Rally GB only happens once a year, so you’d better make sure you’ve planned where you’re heading to watch. To help out, Autosport enlisted World Rally Championship co-driver Seb Marshall, who kindly gave up putting up a fence the week before the big event to tell us where he’s sending his mum and dad to watch him co-drive with Hyundai’s Kevin Abbring. Make sure you say hello to them when you're there… 27 THURSDAY Shakedown There is only one car park. There’s a sequence of really heavily cambered bends around 400m before the finish. They turn square right towards the end and then it goes right-left-right. They’re hanging the back end around the edge there. That’s probably one of the coolest places to watch on shakedown. Obviously you see…