Indholdsfortegnelse for 03/11/2016 i Autosport

WELL, HE DID IT AGAIN. NICO ROSBERG MAY NOT BE matching Lewis Hamilton at the moment, but he is getting the results he needs. In Mexico, he once again pulled a second place out of the bag when it seemed he might be under threat. Having Max Verstappen behind him is probably the last thing Rosberg wants over the past few races. The Red Bull star always tries something, which is one of the characteristics that make him exciting to watch. And a nightmare for the other drivers. His move on Rosberg at Turn 4 last weekend was bold, but fair, and didn’t work. Verstappen damaged his car too, which led to him being sucked back towards Sebastian Vettel. That meant Rosberg was out of range when things got dramatic…

LEWIS HAMILTON SAID HE WAS lucky not to crash when he suffered his front-right brake lockup at the start of the race. The Mercedes driver cut across the runoff area and rejoined still in the lead ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg, but said he could easily have crashed. “On the formation lap I had a glazed right-front brake, I just couldn’t wake it up,” said Hamilton “I had 500C in the left-front and 150-200C in the right-front. So I went into Turn 1 and the rightfront just locked. “I was carrying so much speed there I was lucky I didn’t go into the wall or something.” He was then worried about the damage caused by the locked wheel. “After that I had the biggest vibration, I didn’t know if I…

PASCAL WEHRLEIN HELD HAAS driver Esteban Gutierrez responsible for the first-lap collision that eliminated him from the race. Wehrlein started 16th after putting in a stellar lap to reach Q2, with no fresh rubber left, but did not make it past the third corner. The German was on the outside going into the Turn 2 left-hander, with Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson on the inside and Gutierrez in-between the pair. Gutierrez’s front-right made contact with the rear of Wehrlein, pitching the Manor into a spin that fired it into the Sauber. The damage put Wehrlein out, while Ericsson was able to finish 11th after pitting for a new nosecone. “He just braked too late,” said Wehrlein. “He was locking up his tyres and he touched me. “There was a car inside…

FERRARI TRIES RED BULL-STYLE BAT WING Ferrari continues to investigate the area under the raised portion of its chassis, having made two previous updates in this area since Silverstone. First it was with a pair of simple fins, then a Mercedes-style, hanging bat wing. For Mexico the team introduced another bat wing, more like Red Bull’s idea. The concept remains the same – an upturned wing profile under the chassis that produces vortices at its wing tips to part the airflow around the car. But this time the bat wing sits lower and mounts to the T-tray splitter underneath. The revised mounting strut may be merely pragmatic, due to the lower position, but equally the lift the wing creates may help increase ground clearance of the leading edge of the…

MERCEDES HAS SIGNED TOP AUDI STAR Edoardo Mortara for the 2017 DTM season. Mortara narrowly missed out on the title for Audi this year, finishing four points adrift of BMW’s champion Marco Wittmann. The Italian’s deal to switch to Mercedes was signed long before the end of the season. “We are delighted to finally announce Edo as one of the team’s race drivers for 2017,” said Mercedes DTM boss Ulrich Fritz. “Edo and Mercedes came to an agreement some time ago, but due to respect to Audi we didn’t announce the signing of their title contender earlier. “He is the perfect fit for our team – he is not only an experienced race driver but also a great character. We’re looking forward to a successful partnership with him.” His Audi…

THE BRITISH TOURING CAR Championship regulations will be tweaked next season, and the alteration could remove one of the key strengths of the Team BMR Subaru Levorg machines. The change means that all machines will be examined to make sure that the centre of gravity of each model does not give it a substantial advantage over other competitors in the category. The move is designed to level the playing field between different configurations of car. Team BMR built four of the estateshaped Levorg machines for the BTCC this season. The factory-backed cars were driven by former champions Colin Turkington and Jason Plato, together with James Cole and BMR team principal Warren Scott. The two-litre turbocharged cars have a flat-four boxer-configuration engine, which means that the weight in the powerplant is…

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse with this latest driverpenalties debacle and the farcical ‘which three are on the podium?’ palaver… First we had Verstappen in third place, then we see him being taken away to be replaced by a hurried Vettel, only to find out he was later replaced after the podium celebrations by Ricciardo. The majority of the capacity crowd in Mexico wanted to see a competitive race, with the correct three drivers on the podium at the end of it. Drivers who are not just there because they didn’t race each other, defend their position, or speak out for fear of being penalised! I’m old enough to remember the great times of F1, including the Villeneuve/Arnoux battle at Dijon, which would never have happened…

MULTIPLE GOLD MEDAL-WINNING Olympians Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny were reunited as a team for the first time since the 2012 Olympics when the two cycling legends shared a Radical RXC Spyder in the final Radical European Masters round at Jerez last weekend. The duo finished third in class in the first two races and were fourth in the finale. They teamed up at Jerez after Radical contacted them both before this summer’s Rio Olympics. “Radical got in touch before the Olympics and said that if Jason got a gold medal in Rio, it would be good to put us in a car together,” said Hoy, who started racing in Radicals after retiring from cycling, and has since competed in British GT, the European Le Mans Series and…

EVER-ENCROACHING FOG MEANT Enaam Ahmed took the BRDC British Formula 3 Autumn Trophy crown one race early as the adverse weather meant the finale was cancelled. Ahmed, who switched from Douglas Motorsport to Carlin for the event, won two of the races, with Double R Racingrun Dan Ticktum taking the other. With visibility making even the safety car impossible to spot just hours before, Ahmed made a superb start from pole in what turned out to be the last race to retain the lead ahead of Ticktum. Ticktum, who was making his UK motorsport return following his 12-month sinbinning from the Motor Sports Association, entered the finale just five points adrift in the standings. Knowing how difficult it is to pass on the Snetterton 300 in perfect conditions, let alone…

LAST SATURDAY EVENING’S riveting Motor Racing Legends ’50s sportscar enduro – in which Miles Griffiths (in Philip Walker’s Lotus 15) denied virtuoso soloist Greg Caton a debut victory – took some beating, yet Sunday’s sensational GT & Sports Car Cup 10th season finale arguably trumped it at the eighth Algarve Classic Festival. Griffiths and Caton had duelled for pole on Friday, Griffiths’s 2m08.554s shot prevailing over Caton in the Dragon Racing 15. A sticking throttle interrupted Caton’s final charge, but he bolted clear on race day and led for almost two hours. Walker double-stinted and served a drivethrough for exceeding the rigidly enforced 60km/h (37mph) pitlane speed limit before installing Griffiths. Miles set about eroding a 30-second deficit with relish and swept past Caton on lap 49 of 53. Caton’s…

LEWIS HAMILTON DOESN’T NEED REMINDING ABOUT THE IMPACT THAT circumstances outside his control can have on his world championship hopes. While his imperious victory from pole position in the Mexican Grand Prix could not have been more different from the disastrous engine failure he suffered while dominating in Malaysia four weeks earlier, once again serendipity was against him, just in a more subtle way. In the build-up to the race, Hamilton was asked for an explanation of Nico Rosberg’s form this year. Perhaps there was something different about his team-mate that shifted the balance in their previously one-sided competitive relationship. “Nope,” shot back Hamilton. “But I’ve had a lot of failures, that’s the only difference.” Rosberg came close to failure of a sort – in fact several sorts – in…

WILLIAMS MAKING ‘STEADY’ RECOVERY Sir Frank Williams is making a “slow and steady” recovery from pneumonia in hospital, says Williams F1 CEO Mike O’Driscoll. Deputy team principal Claire Williams has been absent from recent grands prix to be close to her 74-year-old father, but the team hopes she will return for the season-closing Abu Dhabi GP. RAST BABY GIVES STEVENS JOTA SHOT Ex-Formula 1 driver Will Stevens is remaining with the G-Drive LMP2 squad for this weekend’s Shanghai World Endurance Championship round. The Briton, who helped the Jota-run team to its first class victory at Fuji, will again drive the team’s ORECA-Nissan 05 alongside Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov in place of Rene Rast, who is absent because his partner is expecting their first child. Alex Lynn has switched cars…

LE MANS 24 HOURS United Autosports will make its entry to the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series in 2017 with a new Ligier JSP217 with which it will also contest the Le Mans 24 Hours, for which the British-based team has gained an entry for winning this year_s ELMS LMP3 title. The team, which is the UK agent for Ligier constructor Onroak_s LMP3 and CN cars, will also continue in LMP3, for which it has already confirmed Sean Rayhall, Enzo Potolicchio and John Falb in one car for next year_s ELMS. Team co-owner Zak Brown said: “We see it as great potential for the team and so we are working on getting a programme together and will be testing drivers in the coming weeks and months.” JUAN…

MOTOGP SEPANG (MAL) OCTOBER 30 ROUND 17/18 ANDREA DOVIZIOSO IS WELL-LIKED within the MotoGP paddock, as a quality racer on-track and a respected, sensible figure off it. But even he would have had to be tiring of talk of becoming the ‘next’ winner in an unpredictable 2016 season, before breaking through in last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix. From the time when the streak of different winners emerged mid-year, Ducati’s Dovizioso was viewed as a prime candidate to extend it. It reached a peak at Motorland Aragon in September, by which time the Italian really was the most-likely ‘ninth in nine’, but that event ended in frustration. The attention shifted somewhat thereafter, replaced by Marc Marquez winning the title, but the consensus was still that if there were to be a…

NASCAR SPRINT CUP MARTINSVILLE (USA) OCTOBER 30 ROUND 33/36 JIMMIE JOHNSON BECAME THE FIRST DRIVER to qualify for the NASCAR Sprint Cup shootout at Homestead by an astonishing win after overcoming fuel issues at Martinsville. The six-time champion suffered minor bodywork damage in the first half in a dice with Denny Hamlin, although he remained in the top 10. But a caution after Chase contender Carl Edwards seared into the wall caused confusion throughout the field, thanks to a handful of leaders having been in the pits when the yellows came out. Crew chiefs were scratching their heads over who was leading, made all the more baffling by Johnson and AJ Allmendinger running out of fuel. It was the Joe Gibbs Racing pair of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, who…

LEADING BRITISH ENGINEERING FIRM RML will return to sportscar racing for the first time since 2014 with a dual campaign in LMP3 competition next year, which will include an entry in the inaugural Prototype Cup season. The team is set to run a multi-car programme in the new Prototype Cup series – which held a pilot round at Snetterton last month – and has taken delivery of its first Ligier JSP3 chassis. RML (Ray Mallock Limited) will also field Mectech Radical drivers Bradley Smith and Evgeny Klyucharev in the European Le Mans Series alongside its UK commitments. The deal marks the first time RML has entered a traditional category of sportscar racing since 2011. The squad took Thomas Erdos and Mike Newton to ELMS LMP2 drivers’ titles in 2007 and…

BRADSHAW WINS HENRY SURTEES RACE Callum Bradshaw won the seventh annual Henry Surtees Challenge event at Buckmore Park last week. He beat drivers such as Euro F3 man Ben Barnicoat, GP3 driver Jake Dennis and Ginetta Junior champion Will Tregurtha, and was presented with the winner’s trophy by 1964 F1 world champion John Surtees. All proceeds from the event went to the Henry Surtees Foundation. SMALLEY WINS JUNIOR SCHOLARSHIP Adam Smalley has secured a fully funded season in Ginetta Juniors next year after winning the Junior Scholarship. The 15-year-old took part in driving, media and fitness assessments in a three-day shootout at Blyton Park, and emerged on top after making it through to the final with Matt Luff and Toby Goodman. BILL HENDERSON 1924-2016 Bill Henderson was, until his death…

MINI CHALLENGE SQUAD Excelr8 will expand into the Creventic 24 Hour Series next year with a bespoke endurance John Cooper Works machine. The new car is based upon the standard F56 JCW Challenge car, but with heavy modification to adapt the car to long-distance racing. It features the same turbocharged two-litre BMW engine as in the Challenge cars, but has been boosted from 255 to 345bhp with forged internals, a gas-flowed head, Garrett turbo and custom manifold. The car will go through an intensive testing programme over the winter ahead of a full campaign in the pan-European Creventic class next year. Excelr8’s Oliver Shepherd said: “We wanted to make the most extreme version of the JCW, and where better to prove it than endurance racing?” “We had to think…

TWO RACES DECIDED THE destination of the Mini Challenge JCW title at Snetterton, with foggy weather forcing the cancellation of the third event while the second ran mainly under safety-car conditions. Coping with all that could be thrown at him, David Grady claimed the title he was unlucky not to secure last year at the same venue. “Unbelievable; it’s the biggest achievement in my 20 years of racing,” said an overwhelmed Grady. “I did the hard work yesterday in qualifying and winning the race.” Poleman Luke Caudle led the opening race away but was followed by Grady, who was gifted first place when Caudle outbraked himself at Riches and hit the safety barrier on lap three. Title challenger Nathan Harrison followed in second while Charlie Butler-Henderson, who held a massive…

CHARLOTTE, 1997. I REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I SAW A NASCAR RACE like it was yesterday. Jeff Gordon brought a Jurassic Park-liveried rocket that was so far ahead of the rules that it dominated, and NASCAR politely asked Hendrick Motorsports to never bring the car back again. It only ran once. Almost 19 years on, the chance arose to head up to Corby, get into a real-life NASCAR and drive it, alone, around Rockingham Motor Speedway. Driving on an oval in a heavy stock car is something everyone should get the chance to experience. The secret to it all is weight transfer, loading the car up at the front end through the corners to get the benefit of the downforce. The g-force is incredible – through the turns, you can…

SO, WAS THE POLE POSITION LAP “BRILLIANT”, WHICH IS WHAT second-placed Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg called it, or was it the “worst session of the whole weekend so far”, as pacesetter Lewis Hamilton claimed? Well, it was a bit of both. Hamilton was always the favourite for pole, and the fact that Rosberg had to dig deep to deliver a lap 0.254s slower than his team-mate’s to secure second on the grid tells its own story. On the first runs in Q3, Rosberg was behind the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, and it was only a gain of 0.305s on his second run that redressed the situation. Hamilton’s pace was certainly outstanding. From the o. in practice he looked to have the measure of Rosberg. In Q3…

SEBASTIAN VETTEL’S PENALTY for illegal defending while trying to hold off Daniel Ricciardo on the penultimate lap of the race is the first punishment for infringing new rules brought in at the United States Grand Prix a week earlier. The new rule prohibits late moves under braking that force another driver to take evasive action, with Vettel clearly changing his line into the left-hander and coming close to causing a collision with Ricciardo. Vettel crossed the line fourth. But he moved up to third after Max Verstappen was given a penalty for gaining an advantage by cutting the track at the first corner while defending from the Ferrari driver. Vettel’s 10-second penalty then relegated him to fifth, with Ricciardo taking the final podium slot ahead of Verstappen. The stewards’ decision…

AUDI’S WITHDRAWAL FROM TOP-FLIGHT sports-prototype racing will leave a gaping hole that will be difficult to fill. The decision to end its involvement in the World Endurance Championship – and with it participation at the Le Mans 24 Hours after an 18-year run – closes a unique chapter in sportscar racing. Audi isn’t the most successful marque in the history of the French enduro, an honour held by sister brand Porsche, but the rate at which it notched up its successes was far shorter and nothing short of phenomenal. Audi’s roll of honour in the 18 seasons of its sportscar programme, which included three years in 2003-05 when there were no true factory cars, includes 13 Le Mans victories, 11 at the Sebring 12 Hours and nine at the Petit…

THERE WAS A LOT OF CONFIDENCE BEING EXUDED in the paddock at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix from a number of drivers when it came to their futures. But as with any game of musical chairs, it appears that someone somewhere is going to be left standing, looking in on Formula 1 from the outside. Esteban Gutierrez is one of those who is convinced that he will be in F1 next season, even though Haas is taking its time over a decision as to who will partner Romain Grosjean in 2017. There is no doubt that Gutierrez is on a shortlist team principal Gunther Steiner claims is “down to two or three, not 10 anymore”. One other high-profile name on that list is that of Kevin Magnussen, who was on…

FORMULA V8 3.5 JEREZ (E) OCTOBER 29-30 ROUND 8/9 JEREZ’S FORMULA V8 3.5 ROUND SET up a tough-to-call seven-way shootout ahead of this weekend’s Barcelona decider. After riding out a turbulent weekend, Fortec Motorsport’s standout rookie Louis Deletraz left Andalusia with a slender, three-point championship lead. The Swiss racer was involved in a controversial clash with chief title rival – and long-time series leader – Tom Dillmann. Left dismayed at the imposition of a penalty for his role in the accident, Deletraz bounced back with a strong second on Sunday. Isolated from the boiling title fight, GP3 race winner Jack Aitken made a stunning debut for RP Motorsport. The Briton set pole for race one and, although the result was contested owing to a bodywork dispute, Aitken underlined his speed…

SUPER FORMULA SUZUKA (J) OCTOBER 30 ROUND 7/7 YUJI KUNIMOTO WAS CROWNED SUPER Formula champion for the first time as Stoffel Vandoorne bowed out of Japan by winning the final race of his pre-Formula 1 career. Kunimoto won the first encounter, after getting the jump on the sister Cerumo-Inging Dallara-Toyota of polesitter Hiroaki Ishiura at the start. Andre Lotterer also got a strong start from fourth on the grid to take second in his TOM’S Dallara-Toyota, with Ishiura finishing third. Ishiura got pole again for race two, but he could not stop Vandoorne from thrusting the Dandelion Dallara-Honda into the lead at Turn 1. The Belgian led Ishiura and Lotterer up to the mandatory pitstops, before the German made a relatively early stop. Vandoorne and Ishiura pitted together and rejoined…

UNITED STATES FORMULA 4 CHAMPION Cameron Das is in talks to contest the full BRDC British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin next year. The 16-year-old from Brooklandville, Maryland won the inaugural Honda-powered US F4 title last month and joined Carlin for last weekend’s Autumn Trophy at Snetterton as he assesses his options for 2017. Das (pictured) finished seventh in the Autumn Trophy points with a best placing of fifth on his first visit to the Norfolk track. “I’m in talks with teams, but I’m mainly focusing on trying to get a seat with Carlin,” said Das, who took eight consecutive wins at the end of the US F4 season. “British F3 is a very good starting step as a platform towards European F3, and the strength of coaching and…

SSANGYONG CHALLENGE A SsangYong Korando made a brief appearance at Brands Hatch last Saturday. The pickup truck – which will be raced in the one-make SsangYong Racing Challenge that is scheduled to launch in 2017 – was entered in the Allcomers event, but driver Ash Slights lost control at Paddock Hill Bend on his first qualifying lap and the Korando finished on its side in the gravel trap. TWO NEW-GENERATION AUDI TTs will be campaigned in the Volkswagen Racing Cup for the first time next year. Simon Walton, who competes in the Cooper Class of the Mini Challenge, has bought two brand-new two-litre TFSi TTs that he and son Owen will race in the 2017 championship. The cars were delivered last month and have already been tested at Cro. They…

SCOTTISH FORMULA FORD ACE GRAHAM CARROLL is hoping that a new engine supplier will help him to take a second successive Walter Hayes Trophy victory in this weekend’s Formula Ford 1600 event at Silverstone. Carroll returned to the Trophy last year after a lengthy spell away, and took honours in a brand-new Medina Sport Van Diemen run by BM Racing. This year the Scot has helped with the development of Ralph Firman’s new RF160o, but has experienced a trying teething period. This included a frustrating performance in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, while team-mate Luke Williams ran strongly. Carroll cited engine problems as the main influence behind his Festival showing, but has now enlisted the help of Steven Paton, whose powerplants helped Carroll to the 2008 national FF1600…

A DECISIVE WIN IN THE LAST RACE of the season secured Philip House the Volkswagen Racing Cup crown after a tense triple-header that featured four drivers with a chance of taking the title. Two were effectively ruled out in race one. Trouble started when poleman Jamie Bond was nudged sideways at Paddock Hill Bend. Three cars then got together at the foot of the hill and guest driver Shaun Hollamby was pitched into a roll. Potential champion Bobby Thompson was also involved, and fellow contender Kenan Dole’s car was pushed off the reformed grid with a fuel pump problem. Bond won the rerun with House second, two places ahead of surviving title rival Tom Witts. The top five were reversed on the race two grid, and Witts took full advantage,…

NOT MANY RACING DRIVERS HAVE television programmes dedicated to them, making Johnny Mowlem’s Racing Travels, which was first broadcast 18 years ago, an anomaly. More so when you consider that Mowlem, whose long professional career came to a close at the end of the 2016 season, is one of the lower-profile British drivers who are paid to race. “It started way back at the end of 1997, after I won all of the races in the British Porsche Cup,” says Mowlem. “I used that as a springboard to do Porsche Supercup in 1998. The launch was at the AFN Park Lane dealership and one of the people invited was Roger Moody, then head of programming at Sky Sports. I was the only British driver in the Supercup and he thought…