Indholdsfortegnelse for 27/06/19 i Autosport

Given Ferrari’s pace in Bahrain and Canada, Mercedes really shouldn’t have made it this far through 2019 undefeated, but there was no doubt about who was on top last weekend. Even team-mate Valtteri Bottas couldn’t keep Lewis Hamilton in sight as the five-time champion scored his 79th Formula 1 victory. Hamilton now has a 36-point lead in the world championship, after eight rounds. To put that into perspective, he was 29 behind Nico Rosberg at this stage in 2014 (the year of his first Mercedes title), 10 ahead on his way to the 2015 crown, 24 behind Rosberg during his failed 2016 campaign, 14 behind Sebastian Vettel in 2017 and 14 ahead last year. In other words, nobody has outscored Hamilton from this stage of the season during the hybrid…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Craig Breen will join Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen to drive a third Hyundai World Rally Car in Finland. Ahead of the 1-4 August event, Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle join Hyundai’s pre-event test and will also compete on Rally Estonia, a fast and jump-filled loosener for Jyvaskyla. Breen, who lost his Citroen seat (above) at the end of last season, has competed in Finland nine times and finished third in a DS 3 WRC in 2016. “I am chuffed to be given this chance to join Hyundai Motorsport for Rally Finland, and to get back in a World Rally Car,” said Breen. “It’s been a long and patient wait, having to watch everyone else drive this year. “Finland is the rally I’ve done most in the…

FORMULA 2 The FIA will investigate a rule that allowed banned Formula 2 driver Mahaveer Raghunathan to see out the Paul Ricard round. MP Motorsport driver Raghunathan amassed his 12th penalty point of the F2 season during last weekend’s feature race for infringements during three virtual safety car periods. The penalty points system was introduced in Formula 1 in 2014, and was also adopted by its feeder series. The regulation states that the ban will be in force for the next round, and not the next race – a stipulation F1 did not need to make because it races once per weekend. That meant Raghunathan was allowed to contest Sunday’s race, in which he finished 18th. Until now, no driver had accrued the 12 points that would lead to a…

Neither Honda nor Red Bull has been shy to admit that more engine performance is needed to fight Mercedes for wins and titles. The high of Max Verstappen’s podium on the first start for a Red Bull-Honda back in Australia in March has faded a bit, as the partnership grapples with the reality that the goalposts have been moved. Again. Honda has made undeniable progress since Toyoharu Tanabe (trackside) and Yasuaki Asaki (at Sakura) took charge of the project at the end of 2017, following the collapse of the manufacturer’s relationship with McLaren. The quest for further gains will not cease, as evidenced by the curious story that emerged ahead of the French Grand Prix weekend. Honda’s latest upgrade has its roots in the company’s jet-engine technology. Honda has not…

Heading into Q3, Valtteri Bottas was a slender favourite for pole position, having outpaced Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton through the first two stages of qualifying and enjoyed the edge on performance runs in free practice. But come the first runs in the crucial top-10 shootout, Hamilton banged in a lap 0.157 seconds quicker than Bottas to take first blood. Bottas, under pressure, responded with a scrappy second lap slower than his first, allowing Hamilton to consolidate and extend his advantage to 0.286s. But it could have been so much more, had Hamilton not been caught by a gust of wind at the penultimate corner. “The second run, I was on for one of the best laps I have done for a long time,” said Hamilton. “I was up four and…

Carlos Sainz Jr took his second ‘Class B’ victory of the season with a strong drive to sixth place as McLaren led the midfield pack at Paul Ricard. Sainz struggled on Friday and qualified a tenth of a second behind team-mate Lando Norris, but made a great start and challenged Max Verstappen for fourth place through the opening sector of the first lap. He then settled into fifth, rightly avoiding losing time when Sebastian Vettel demoted him to sixth on the run to the chicane on lap seven. From there, he held sixth place to the end, as initial pressure from Norris faded when the second McLaren picked up a worsening hydraulic problem. “I did what I had to do at the start, which was gain a couple of positions,…

Formula E is used to squeezing itself into the confines of a city, but the new track at Bern was special and challenging in its own unique ways. For a start, there was an indoor paddock at the BernExpo complex, but this was 800m from the pitlane. To get the cars to the track for each session, the teams either had their drivers trundle down to the remote pitlane – which featured smaller satellite tent garages to house engineering and repair equipment – at a reduced speed or they were pushed by the mechanics. DS Techeetah was the sole team to take this latter approach ahead of the race, “because every bit of energy you can save, you try to”, explained team boss Mark Preston. Once out of the BernExpo…

For now, Alexander Rossi is set to become a free agent at season’s end, and he had attracted the attention of Roger Penske long before The Captain hired him as third driver in his IMSA programme for the endurance races. Originally the assumption was that he would replace Simon Pagenaud, who had disappointed for 14 months, but then the Frenchman won the Indianapolis 500 by a nanosecond – from Rossi. That probably saved Pagenaud from being released or consigned to Acura sportscars, and therefore should Penske still wish to grab Rossi, it will mean running four cars next year. His current boss Michael Andretti is eager to retain Rossi, but the NAPA sponsorship on the #27 car is the least lucrative of the primary backers on the four Andretti cars,…

WTCR NURBURGRING (DEU) 21-22 JUNE ROUND 5/10 Expanding to a four-car set-up with Sebastien Loeb Racing, which included bringing in Johan Kristoffersson and some of the might behind his two World Rallycross titles, inevitably meant big things were expected of Volkswagen and its 2019 World Touring Car Cup programme. So insipid showings at the opening three rounds, partly as a consequence of struggles with TCR’s common ECU and subsequent compensation-weight changes after ditching the control part, made the brand’s return on the first half of the season an underwhelming one. Back at the scene of a record-breaking run with its I.D.R electric car, VW finally had cause for WTCR celebration. It was fitting, too, not only that its first 2019 win should be scored by its star driver Kristoffersson, but…

NASCAR CUP SONOMA (USA) 23 JUNE ROUND 16/36 Martin Truex Jr’s triumph at Sonoma meant that he not only equalled Kyle Busch’s tally of four NASCAR Cup victories in 2019, but also matched his career sum of road course wins. And it was none other than Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Busch who posed the greatest threat to his chances. The race became a duel between the two in the closing stages, with Busch’s Toyota – battle-scarred with nose damage after an earlier clash with Ryan Blaney – running three-lap younger tyres in the closing stages as he aimed to close an eight-second gap to leader Truex. Busch rapidly reduced the margin to two seconds, before his progress stalled and Truex held on for victory. The pair were in a…

HGPCA Reigning Classic Formula Ford 1600 champion Benn Tilley is to race a Formula 1 car for the first time at this weekend’s annual Historic Sports Car Club Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix event. The 19-year-old will race Paul Smeeth’s ex-Team Lotus 18 in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association’s Pre-’66 double-header, among the best fields of the meeting. Chassis ‘373’ is the car in which then six-time world motorcycle champion John Surtees – who had made his four-wheeled racing debut at Goodwood five months previously – led the 1960 Portuguese GP. Tilley, who has raced a Lotus 23B sportscar to date this season, enjoyed a short acclimatisation run in the 2.5-litre Climax FPF-powered 18 at Blyton Park, close to his Lincolnshire home, earlier this month. The offer from Smeeth,…

FORMULA FORD 1600 Leading Formula Ford team boss Kevin Mills has called for Knockhill to return to the National FF1600 calendar after his squad attended the Scottish round last weekend. Mills’s drivers Neil Maclennan and Michael Macpherson scored three podiums – and Maclennan won both races. Knockhill was removed from the National calendar following complaints about last year’s meeting, which used the circuit’s reversed configuration. In the third race there was an incident where the safety car was stationary on the other side of a blind crest on the pit straight, with the field approaching unsighted at full speed. But Mills thinks that the Scottish track’s regular layout is perfect for FFord. “I honestly believe we should’ve been here for the National this year,” he said. “The two boys wanted…

DONINGTON PARK BRITISH GT 22-23 JUNE TF Sport pair Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson became the fifth different British GT winners this season in the championship’s first of two visits to Donington Park, finally scoring a maiden series win for the new Aston Martin Vantage after their near miss at Silverstone. Adam’s tangle with a GT4 car just three minutes from the end a fortnight ago – which resulted in a DNF and the loss of at least 27 points – still weighed heavily on both Scots, but they managed the perfect response to double their seasonal points tally in one hit. A second pole in as many rounds, with Davidson topping the Am session, was converted into an early lead that never seriously came under threat in the race,…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 22-23 JUNE “Mainly good” was Johnathan Hoggard’s apt summary of his BRDC British F3 Donington Park weekend as he took assured lights-to-flag wins in two of the three races. But he didn’t finish the reversed-grid affair after a clash with Ayrton Simmons. The upshot is he has trimmed the gap to Clement Novalak at the top of the table, from 36 points to 28, when he might have torn a chunk from it. Still, he was satisfied with his meeting’s work wherein he put his Snetterton clash-related slump behind him. “There was nothing I could really do [in the Simmons clash] – scoring no points was a bit hard,” said Hoggard. “We had it all to make up in race three, which we managed to do and…

OULTON PARK BARC 22 JUNE “When the more experienced drivers are out in the first stint, you open yourself up if there’s an early safety car.” Those were the musings of Britcar Endurance race one winners Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz following their 44-second victory over the Praga R1T drivers Tim Gray and Grant Williams. The team, as always, opted to send the less experienced Bailey out in the Ferrari 488 Challenge first. Despite losing places to the more experienced drivers early on, once Bailey handed over the reins to Schulz, it was order restored as the Ferrari comfortably earned its first win since Brands Hatch. But the pair’s earlier observation turned out to be disappointingly accurate, in race two as an early safety car – combined with pit strategy…

While we all love motorsport, there’s no denying that it’s become full of over-regulation, stewards’ enquiries and talk about ‘the show’. But what if ‘the show’ was the sport itself? Monster truck events have been a staple in the US for decades, with regular stadium shows across the country drawing in crowds of tens of thousands. What’s more, 70% of the audiences are millennials, tapping into a market where mainstream motorsport is arguably floundering. Until relatively recently, it’s been treated by Brits as an odd colonial import. This year, leading monster truck show Monster Jam undertook its first UK ‘tour’, taking in Manchester and Coventry alongside its now regular Cardiff event at the Principality Stadium. The mere thought of a monster truck show being regarded as a genuine motorsport might…

Imagine if, at this year’s US Grand Prix, McLaren gave a test to IndyCar’s most popular driver in full view of the world media. In 2002, that actually happened. Looking back on her three laps of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Kimi Raikkonen’s back-up McLaren MP4-17, Indiana native Sarah Fisher admits she never got close to sampling the full potential of a car “that was capable of things beyond my imagination at that time”, and is at pains to point out that it “wasn’t a test, I can tell you that much”. She had never raced a road course in her career, so the former dirt-track racer with one IRL pole and two podiums to her name – both on ovals – was an unlikely candidate to become the USA’s…

FORMULA 1 Renault is looking beyond current driver Nico Hulkenberg as it mulls over its 2020 Formula 1 driver line-up. Hulkenberg has raced for the works team since 2017 and played a key role in its rise up the grid, beating his team-mates over the two full seasons completed so far and finishing seventh in the drivers’ championship last year. He has scored 128 of the 211 points Renault has managed since he joined in 2017 and those efforts have been key to Renault finishing sixth and fourth in the constructors’ championship in the seasons Hulkenberg has raced for the team. Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul said: “We need to give credit to that, but also we need to look at the options, like everyone is doing, like I’m sure…

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Is Ford dropping hints that it is about to jump into the hypercar concept class of the World Endurance Championship? The release of a teaser image of what Ford is describing as an “ultra-high-performance supercar”, and talk from its Multimatic team about new challenges that lie ahead, might suggest so. The news that the American manufacturer will unveil a new car, which is clearly based on the Ford GT, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next month and buoyant talk from Multimatic about its future follows Ford’s admission that it is evaluating turning its GTE Pro contender into a hypercar. Back in April, Ford global motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook admitted that the shift in the hypercar regulations to allow road-based machinery might open the door to its…

FORMULA E The FIA’s ban on twin-motor powertrains in ABB FIA Formula E is to try to ensure competitive parity between the teams in the future, according to Nissan e.dams bosses Jean-Paul Driot and Michael Carcamo. The ban was announced at the recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting and was only expected to impact on the Nissan squad, which was widely assumed to be the only FE team using such a set-up. At the Swiss E-Prix in Bern last weekend, the team publicly acknowledged for the first time that this was the case. “For competitive reasons, we wanted to hold as much information [back before],” said Carcamo. “But it’s true, I believe we have one of the most innovative packages on the grid today, which uses a twin-motor solution.”…

Riders should be penalised for spoiling a race I find myself in disagreement with Paul De Neys (Your Say, 20 June) in regard to Jorge Lorenzo not being given a penalty for the pile-up he caused at Catalunya. Lorenzo spoiled the race for the fans, who were denied an exciting battle for the win, and likely ended any remaining championship hopes Andrea Dovizioso had for this year. While I accept it was an honest mistake, there should be a penalty when you’ve ruined three other riders’ races, to act as a deterrent against future reckless moves. After all, not every yellow card awarded in football is for deliberately dangerous tackles – often it’s just a case of poor judgement, but it’s still a yellow card. In this case, Lorenzo should…

Racing Point driver Sergio Perez was left baffled by a five-second penalty for going off-track at the start of the French Grand Prix. Perez was punished for seemngly gaining an advantage on the opening lap, despite going around the outside of the Turn 3 bollard as instructed by the officials. The Mexican, who started 14th, said “I don’t understand” why the penalty was applied, because he felt “I did what I’m supposed to do”. However, the key indiscretion was that Perez rejoined ahead of cars that had been in front of him when he entered the corner. “That was part of a discussion that was actually had following Monaco at a drivers’ meeting”, explained FIA race director Michael Masi. “The drivers requested that they need to be behind effectively who…

MERCEDES 9 It wasn’t until Q3 that Hamilton hit his stride, demolishing Bottas with two laps good enough for pole – but it could’ve been even better had he not lost the rear end at the penultimate corner to a gust of wind. Exemplary in the race, he had the advantage on Bottas for pace and tyre management. 7 Was favourite for pole heading into Q3 before Hamilton found a new turn of pace, and struggled to adapt to the conditions on his second run. Fell out of touch with Hamilton in the race as he struggled to make the mediums last as well in the first stint, but did well to keep Leclerc at bay. RENAULT 8 With the Renault engine upgrade, led the line for Renault and did…

DA COSTA GETS REAL Another driver having “to be realistic” about their title prospects is Antonio Felix da Costa. The BMW Andretti driver (above) qualified 20th, and felt Lucas di Grassi backing up the group one pack meant he wasn’t fully prepared for his 250kW flying effort. From the back, he raced well to 12th, but is now looking towards securing third in the championship instead of a maiden title. UNLUCKY 13 FOR ROWLAND Oliver Rowland failed to finish after he ran wide and clipped a barrier late-on, damaging the suspension on his Nissan e.dams car and forcing his retirement. The British driver had been running 13th, where he had qualified. BIRD’S UPBEAT Sam Bird’s late slip may have cost him fourth on the road, but the Envision Virgin Racing…

FORMULA 2 PAUL RICARD (FRA) 22-23 JUNE ROUND 5/12 Who would have thought that a set of accidentally discarded overalls might have such a profound effect on the shape of the Formula 2 championship? After the second round of the season in Baku, ART Grand Prix driver Nyck de Vries learned that his laundry bag had inadvertently been deposited in the bin. For Barcelona and Monaco he had to borrow FIA Formula 3 racer David Beckmann’s overalls, bedecked in different sponsors and the wrong national flag (Beckmann’s German flag as opposed to de Vries’s Dutch colours), making for an unusual podium ceremony – more than once, as it turned out. A fifth place, back-to-back wins and a seventh since that wardrobe malfunction had enabled de Vries to start a title…

NURBURGRING 24 HOURS 22-23 JUNE One slow zone. That was the turning point of the Nurburgring 24 Hours when, at around 0900 last Sunday, race leader Laurens Vanthoor failed to reduce speed for a Code 120 area approaching a Code 60 zone. Clocked at 172km/h (107mph), he copped a penalty of 5m32s and cost Manthey Racing a second win in a row. Instead, the Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS of Dries Vanthoor/Frank Stippler/Frederic Vervisch/Pierre Kaffer took the win in a car that seemed to find new pace in the last 90 minutes. Vanthoor, along with team-mates Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Earl Bamber, looked impregnable for most of the race. Estre was a hero early on, relieving Black Falcon Mercedes gun Dirk Muller of the race lead in hour six,…

When Jean Todt stated in his manifesto for a second term of FIA presidency that he wanted a MotoGP-style ladder of single-seater racing at Formula 1 events, he changed the course of junior motorsport in Europe. Back then, in 2013, there was a neat equilibrium. GP2 and GP3 supported F1, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship ran with the DTM as a parallel series to GP3, both feeding into GP2. Renault had its successful Formula Renault 3.5 category, plus its FR 2.0 pyramid of Eurocup, ALPS and Northern European Cup, and these in turn fed drivers into F1. There were some renegade series, but these generally had the less-well-financed drivers and weren’t really taking drivers away from the major categories. GP2 was renamed FIA Formula 2 for 2017, GP3 was…

Olly Bryant gave an ex-Trans-Am/IMSA Ford Mustang a run out at Donington Park last week, following its arrival in the UK. “It’s a Roush 750bhp V8 GTS1 and I’m taking it up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed,” he said. The car had a demo run recently at Dijon and raced in the Daytona 24 Hours in 1995 with Puerto Ricans Wally Castro, Roly Falgueras, Axel Rivera, Manolo Villa and Biagio Parisi, finishing 16th. The car is also eligible for the Masters Legends series.…

CLIO CUP Renault UK Clio Cup points leader Jack Young dominated the two Clio Cup Open races that supported the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard last weekend, winning each one by more than 20 seconds. The 17-year-old MRM driver repeated last year’s success at the French circuit, when he won November’s Clio International Final. Young started both contests from pole and escaped clear as the rest of the 44-car field squabbled behind. “We got penalised last week [in the UK Clio Cup race at Croft] for a jump start, so I made sure not to do it this week!” said a delighted Young after the opening win. “I just did a Colin McRae-style start, got away and then they started battling. From then on it was quite an easy…

JRM APPEAL DROPPED JRM has decided not to contest its disqualification from the Silverstone 500 British GT round earlier this month, after initially announcing its intention to appeal. Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt lost their third-place finish after their Bentley Continental was found to be underweight. WALKER TO JOIN F4 FIELD British karting graduate Alex Walker has joined the JHR Developments squad to contest the remainder of the British Formula 4 season, with the exception of the Knockhill round. Walker, a finalist in last year’s Ginetta Junior scholarship, intends to use the races as a learning experience ahead of a full season in 2020. RODDISON STAYS UNBEATEN Paul Roddison maintained his 100% winning record in Mazda MaX5 at Brands Hatch last weekend. Ian Loversidge put the favourite under pressure but…

Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell reclaimed the GT4 championship lead, becoming the season’s first double winners on a day when their Multimatic Motorsport Ford Mustang was seemingly impervious to the woes happening all around them. Pole starter Maxwell lost out on the first lap to the McLarens of Josh Smith (Tolman Motorsport) and pre-event points leader Callum Pointon (HHC), but soon repassed Pointon and was right on the tail of Smith when contact with “a yellow Lambo” at the Esses broke the McLaren’s left-front suspension. With Smith and James Dorlin retiring from the lead for the second successive race, Maxwell inherited top spot from Jacob Mathiassen’s Century Motorsport BMW, which then emerged from the pits ahead in the hands of Mark Kimber. But, despite his best efforts, karting graduate Kimber…

KNOCKHILL SMRC 23 JUNE Jordan Gronkowski extended his championship lead in Scottish Formula Ford at Knockhill, but was edged to both race victories by guest entrant Neil Maclennan. Gronkowski qualified just 0.018 seconds behind Maclennan, but was mugged by Maclennan’s Kevin Mills Racing team-mate Michael Macpherson off the line and then harried by Neil Broome as 2016 champion Maclennan stretched his legs. After fending off Broome’s challenge, Gronkowski began to hunt down Macpherson and latched himself onto his gearbox with just a couple of laps remaining, nosing his Van Diemen up the inside at the hairpin. But Macpherson used the cutback and pulled alongside Gronkowski down the main straight, only for Gronkowski to copy the opening-lap move that Macpherson had pulled on him around the outside of Duffus Dip to…

Just north of Perugia, Carlos Sainz backs his patched-up Toyota Celica GT4 out of service on the 1990 Sanremo Rally. The Spaniard’s roll on the St Martino in Colle test – the last gravel road before the event headed back around the coast to Sanremo – cost him two minutes, but it wouldn’t stop him from clinching third and celebrating a maiden World Rally Championship title a day later, with two rounds of the series to spare. Sainz concluded his successful 1990 campaign with a first Lombard RAC Rally win. For classic rally DVDs head to dukevideo.com/WRC…

FORMULA 1 McLaren does not intend to put Fernando Alonso back in its 2019 Formula 1 car, even though he is now free of other commitments. Alonso is a McLaren ambassador and took part in a Pirelli tyre test with the team in Bahrain earlier this year. However, although he is available now that his Indy 500 project has finished and his Toyota World Endurance Championship stint is at an end, McLaren said it is not considering Alonso for Friday running at races or a future tyre test. “We have no plan to put Fernando back in the Formula 1 car at McLaren,” said team principal Andreas Seidl. “We are very happy with Lando [Norris] and Carlos [Sainz Jr]. They are doing a great job and they’re the future for…

WTCR TCR regulations look set to remain in use in World Touring Cars after WTCR promoter Eurosport Events and the WSC Group behind the rules concept agreed provisionally to extend the series’ current lifespan. A statement announced Eurosport would “remain promoter of the flagship global TCR category”, which succeeded the ailing World Touring Car Championship last year. Eurosport said it will now approach the FIA to begin discussions about formally prolonging the WTCR agreement, which was initially limited to the 2018 and 2019 seasons. The length of the new agreement has not been disclosed, but FIA circuit championships director Frederic Bertrand said earlier this year the governing body’s preferred option was to make the series – which prohibits the direct involvement of manufacturers – sustainable for a five-to-10-year period. Eurosport’s…

2018 POLE POSITION Valtteri Bottas 1m03.130s POLE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m03.130s (2018) RACE LAP RECORD Kimi Raikkonen 1m06.957s (2018) UK START TIMES Friday 28 June FP1 1000 FP2 1400 Saturday 29 June FP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 30 June RACE 1410 LENGTH 2.683 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 71 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1900 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Hamilton……………………….187 2 Bottas………………………………151 3 Vettel………………………………..111 4 Verstappen………………….100 5 Leclerc………………………………. 87 Constructors 1 Mercedes…………….338 2 Ferrari……………………198 3 Red Bull………………..137 4 McLaren…………………. 40 5 Renault…………………… 32 RACE STATS Previous winners 2018 Max Verstappen Red Bull 2017 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 2016 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2015 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2014 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2003 M Schumacher Ferrari 2002 M Schumacher Ferrari 2001 David Coulthard McLaren…

Last year’s French Grand Prix was a nadir for McLaren. It had the second-slowest car at Paul Ricard, while off track it was on the brink of a reshuffle of personnel in an attempt to get back on the right path. New low points followed as the season went from bad to worse, with ‘baked in’ aerodynamic limitations rendering development attempts largely futile. This year’s French GP was a high point. Lando Norris was only 0.009 seconds slower than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in qualifying, and McLaren would have taken a‘1-2’ in the midfield battle but for him being shuffled back from seventh thanks to Daniel Ricciardo’s last-lap move at the chicane. It’s the third time in eight races that McLaren has prevailed in ‘Class B’ and, while its points…

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton reigned supreme in the French Grand Prix, a race that was ostensibly straightforward and fitted in with the pattern that we’ve seen almost continuously since the start of 2014. But sometimes the less obvious trends are the more important ones, and what was exposed in the beating Paul Ricard sunshine were some subtle, but significant, storylines. As a race, the French Grand Prix was not a thriller, with Hamilton dominating and only denied a sixth ‘grand slam’ of his career by the narrowest of margins thanks to Sebastian Vettel taking a free pitstop late on and nabbing fastest lap. So it’s legitimate to ask why anyone should do anything beyond shrugging their shoulders at another Mercedes victory parade? But as always, in the detail there are…

The battle for the final four points positions in the French Grand Prix was shaken up by a dramatic last lap, as well as twin five-second penalties for Daniel Ricciardo that led to him being relegated from seventh on the road to 11th, behind Pierre Gasly. Lando Norris had control of seventh place throughout the race after slipping behind McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr at the start, but came under pressure in the second stint as a hydraulics problem set in. This allowed Ricciardo, Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen and the second Renault of Nico Hulkenberg to close in and start the last lap just behind him. Ricciardo used the DRS to get a run on Norris into the chicane and attempted to outbrake him around the outside. He ran…

George Russell finished last in a Formula 1 race for the first time despite pulling off a superb unseen pass on Robert Kubica, after damaging his front wing following a wheel-to-wheel fight with his team-mate earlier on. Russell outqualified Kubica again but started at the back because Williams had to fit a new Mercedes energy store and control electronics to his car after a problem in final practice. Kubica led the back-of-the-field battle early on but Russell mounted a major attack to the outside into the fast right-hand Signes sweep. He ran wide after a side-by-side moment and hit a polystyrene board with the left side of his front wing. Russell continued to hassle Kubica after that incident, and got ahead with a second “hairy” attempt on the outside at…

It wasn’t meant to be this way. After eight different drivers had won the first eight races of the 2018-19 ABB FIA Formula E championship, there was supposed to be a host of hopefuls heading to New York and the season finale with a shout of winning the title, the first of the electric championship’s Gen2 era. But now, there is an overwhelming favourite. Even with the usual caveats and cliches – ‘anything can happen in Formula E!’ – DS Techeetah driver Jean-Eric Vergne has one hand on the championship trophy after his win in the inaugural Swiss E-Prix, held in Bern last weekend. Vergne has now amassed 130 points after taking his third win of the campaign. His nearest rival, Audi’s Lucas di Grassi, is on 98, with just…

Team Penske is testing at Mid-Ohio next week – and it’s just as well, because it appears there is much work to be done by the team on both its road and street-course packages. While Will Power deserved to win at Austin in March but lost out to Colton Herta, his pole and dominance of the first two thirds of that race may now be seen as a genius driver at work, rather than a sign of strength by the team. The Penske Dallara-Chevrolets weren’t on the pace at Barber Motorsports Park in April, were thoroughly trounced at Long Beach a week later by Alexander Rossi and Andretti Autosport – and then the same thing happened again last weekend at Road America. In a race with no yellows, Rossi’s advantage…

FIA FORMULA 3 PAUL RICARD (FRA) 22-23 JUNE ROUND 2/8 “Spit! Spit!” Failing the weigh-in because of a glass of water would have been a bizarre way to lose a race but, as has been the case with every FIA Formula 3 race so far this season, Prema Racing was on hand to guide its driver to the correct result. After entering the ‘green room’ following his first feature race win of the season, Jehan Daruvala took a swig before he had been weighed. Team boss Rene Rosin was there to command him to expel it and ensure the win was safe and secure. Prema would maintain its 100% record of F3 wins after two rounds, but it was HWA that nailed qualifying and took its first single-seater pole position…

SUPER FORMULA SUGO (JPN) 23 JUNE ROUND 3/7 Reigning Super Formula champion Naoki Yamamoto stretched his championship lead with a crushing weekend-long performance on the fast and scenic sweeps of Sugo. Dandelion Racing star Yamamoto took a stunning pole position, and started the race on the soft red tyre. This was capable of doing the whole race distance at Sugo, with the harder Yokohama even more durable – but slower. Yamamoto was one of seven to start on the red, and stretched out an advantage over the weekend’s surprise package, Red Bull Junior Lucas Auer in his B-Max with Motopark car. Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) led a sextet who pitted at the end of lap one to get off the harder tyres, and now the race became a time battle…

HISTORICS Former single-seater and Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer Tom Bradshaw hopes to be a frontrunner in the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship in a Chevron B19 recently restored by former Chevron engineers. Bradshaw’s father John bought the two-litre sports-racing car last November and it was rebuilt by Steve Sheldon and Neil Bailey at Red Rose Racing. A recent shakedown race at Brands Hatch was hampered by brake issues but the FVC-engined car showed great promise and Bradshaw hopes to be a contender at the Silverstone Classic in late July. “It went to Jo Siffert when it was new in 1970. It came to us from Sweden and hadn’t been run since the early 1990s,” said Bradshaw Sr, who has always wanted to own a B19. “For a man…

HISTORICS Two famous Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths will go head-to-head in the Dunlop Saloon Car Cup at Brands Hatch this weekend. Michael Lyons will have his first race in the ex-Eggenberger 1989 Spa-winning car (above) now owned by Peter Sturgeon, while Carey McMahon has brought his ex-Tony Longhurst Bathurst car (below) to Europe. The Eggenberger car has been raced recently by period driver Gianfranco Brancatelli, but now Lyons will race the car after a shakedown test at Silverstone. The Longhurst car, starting a mini European tour, was built to win the 1990 Bathurst 1000 but retired with engine failure. Joining them will be a third RS500, Mark Wright’s example. However, the series is expected to feature a very small entry since the event clashes with a number of other historic…

BRITISH GT Optimum Motorsport is investigating the cause of a pit fire that forced Bradley Ellis and Oliver Wilkinson’s Aston Martin Vantage into an early exit at Donington Park. The Silver Cup frontrunners had been third in the outright standings heading into the weekend, and were running third after Wilkinson’s opening stint prior to the pitstops, when the team put out a flash fire before sending Ellis on his way. However, the flames reignited and, with Optimum’s garage near the pit entry, Ellis had to drive almost the full length of the pitlane before stopping at the pit exit. “There’s a lot of equipment under the rear of the car, like the fuel and oil lines, so we need to investigate exactly what happened,” said Ellis. “I just know I…

Launching a new championship into what is already a crowded marketplace isn’t easy. For this year, 13 fresh series were announced to join the over 170 already in existence. And the contrasting fortunes of some of these categories last weekend makes it a perfect time to assess how their first few months have been. But before doing that, there’s a very important point to be made. Autosport has long argued there are too many championships in UK club racing, but that certainly doesn’t mean we are opposed to new ideas. In fact, it’s crucial that clubs keep their offerings updated and continually explore different options rather than becoming set in their ways with the same portfolio of championships year after year. And some clubs are doing that very well. Take…

GT3 (79 laps) 1 Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson (Aston Martin Vantage); 2 Rob Bell/Shaun Balfe (McLaren 720S) + 3.417s; 3 Jonny Cocker/Sam De Haan (Lamborghini Huracan EVO); 4 Dennis Lind/Michael Igoe (Lamborghini); 5 Phil Keen/Adam Balon (Lamborghini); 6 Ross Gunn/Andrew Howard (Aston Martin). Fastest lap Nicki Thiim (Aston Martin) 1m27.948s (101.81mph). Pole Adam/Davidson. Starters 15. Points 1 Keen/Balon 104; 2 Cocker/De Haan 95.5; 3 Adam/Davidson 72.5; 4 Bradley Ellis/Oliver Wilkinson (Aston Martin) 51; 5 Igoe 49.5; 6 Thiim/Mark Farmer (Aston Martin) 47. GT4 (73 laps) 1 Sebastian Priaulx/Scott Maxwell (Ford Mustang); 2 Dean Macdonald/Callum Pointon (McLaren 570S) +28.853s; 3 Lewis Proctor/Jordan Collard (McLaren); 4 Billy Johnson/Chris Hoy (Ford); 5 Tom Canning/Ash Hand (Aston Martin Vantage); 6 Martin Plowman/Kelvin Fletcher (Aston Martin). FL Johnson 1m36.181s. (93.10mph). P Priaulx/Maxwell. S 25. Points 1…

Max Coates is most commonly spotted on the British Touring Car Championship support bill, as a Renault UK Clio Cup frontrunner. But since last year he’s also driven a Cupra TCR in the Britcar Endurance Championship, paired with Guy Colclough for DAT Racing. However, last weekend at Donington Park he added another category when, again with the Cupra, he joined the TCR UK grid for the first time. And he won both races. What’s more, Coates and Colclough had driven the car in Britcar the previous day – at Oulton Park, winning their class in the opening race in Cheshire too. “A mega weekend,” Coates enthused. “You couldn’t ask for any more.” To make matters even more frantic, they had extra work from dropping out of Oulton’s second race with…

OULTON PARK BRITCAR ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Paul Bailey/Andy Schulz (Ferrari 488 Challenge) Race 2 Ian Humphries (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, above) MG OWNERS CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Adam Jackson (ZR) Race 2 Simon Kendrick (F VVC) CNC HEADS SPORTS/SALOONS Danny Winstanley (Caterham Superlight) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com KNOCKHILL SCOTTISH FORMULA FORD 1600 Races 1 & 2 Neil Maclennan (Spectrum) SCOTTISH CITROEN C1 CUP Race 1 Kieren Preedy Race 2 Lewis Grant SCOTTISH MINI COOPER CUP Races 1 & 3 Robbie Dalgleish Race 2 Michael Weddell SCOTTISH LEGENDS Heats 1, 2 & Final John Paterson SCOTTISH CLASSIC SPORTS & SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Alastair Baptie (MGB GT) SCOTTISH SPORTS & SALOONS Race 1 Ron Cumming (Nemesis Kitcar) Race 2 Paul Brydon (Solution F BMW M3) SCOTTISH MINI COOPER…

WHO IS THIS? This fun-loving racer had a brief stint at the top table but probably should have enjoyed even greater success. From a famous wine region, he was a national star in his early days but a huge accident curtailed his progress. He returned as part of a world-famous academy and mastered the opposition when it mattered. A disappointing stint in the second tier prompted a change of fortune in a burgeoning new rival. There was a small positive of infinitesimal quantity, and when he doubled up he was discovered as a diamond in the rough and helped to develop the next generation of star maker. He was given a chance as a super-sub, but it was a temporary shot, and his true calling would come over a greater…