Indholdsfortegnelse for 03/10/19 i Autosport

Unlike most of the Formula 1 races since June’s French Grand Prix, last weekend’s Russian GP was not particularly exciting. But it did have plenty of intrigue thanks to the intra-team battle at Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel has been under increasing pressure from team-mate Charles Leclerc, who scored his sixth pole of 2019 in Sochi, but is showing signs of his desire to fight back. Following his fortuitous victory in Singapore, Vettel took advantage of a pre-race agreement to take the lead in Russia, then failed to hand the place back to Leclerc. As Edd Straw argues on page 13, you might not like Vettel’s approach but it shows he is prepared to upset Leclerc and cause tension in the team to try to maintain (or should that be grab back?!)…

INTERCONTINENTAL GT Japanese Formula 3 Championship race winner Enaam Ahmed will make his sportscar debut with the R-Motorsport Aston Martin squad at next month’s Intercontinental GT Challenge finale at Kyalami. The 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award finalist will drive one of two cars confirmed by the Swiss entrant for the Kyalami 9 Hours on 23 November. Ahmed, 19, will share one of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3s with R-Motorsport regulars Maxime Martin and Jake Dennis. The line-up in the sister car will be Ricky Collard, Marvin Kirchhofer and Hugo de Sadeleer, who have raced with the Arden/Jota-run team in the Blancpain GT World Challenge this season. R-Motorsport sporting director Julian Rouse said: “As well as being successful, the team wants to create a culture of giving young drivers opportunities…

Ferrari cost itself victory in Russia What was Ferrari thinking? A potential win lost due to unnecessary shenanigans. If Sebastian Vettel agreed to give the position back if he got to Turn 2 first, then he is out of order not doing so. He has previous with bad form, and if this is the case then it’s poor sportsmanship, in my opinion. But to come up with this scenario anyway is a joke. All the drivers know it’s a long drag race to the first true corner, so to go the fastest, be on pole, be pleased with that, then say, well actually, I will probably not get to that corner in the lead on the opening lap of the race, that’s not fair. If you pass me I want…

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto insisted that both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc adhered to the terms of the start agreement that resulted in Vettel taking the lead at Turn 2. Vettel dismissed several instructions to cede the lead to Leclerc in the first 10 laps, but when asked after the race if either driver had gone against the agreement Binotto insisted: “No, no.” He was also confident the pair would have swapped positions on-track later in the race had Leclerc not conveniently been given a four-lap undercut and jumped Vettel. He was also adamant, despite Vettel suggesting he was going to pass Leclerc anyway thanks to a better start, that it was the correct call to restore the original order later in the race. “Looking at the video, the…

FIA FORMULA 3 SOCHI (RUS) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/8 Much like in Formula 2, there’s no doubt who the most impressive driver in FIA F3 has been this year: Robert Shwartzman, who sealed the title one race early, much to the delight of his Prema Racing team. He led F3 with three wins entering the weekend, and pipped his fellow Prema and Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong to pole in the Sochi finale, despite the latter looking dominant in practice and early qualifying. The title was all but done as Jehan Daruvala fell back at the start and dropped to a disappointing fifth from second on the grid. He needed to win and, for whatever reason, didn’t have the fight to contend. A sprinkling of rain led to some poor driving,…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP BARCELONA (ESP) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/10 Victor Martins claimed a dominant double Formula Renault Eurocup victory at Barcelona last weekend to carve into Oscar Piastri’s points lead heading into the final two rounds. The Renault Junior entered the weekend in a confident mood, having broken the unofficial lap record at the same circuit during pre-season testing. That translated into a pair of poles and two comfortable wins on a weekend when Piastri was again forced into damage limitation during the first race. As Martins leapt away at the front, Piastri was already facing backwards at Turn 1 after being hit in the rear by Bhaitech’s Petr Ptacek as the field got away. Piastri dropped to the rear of the pack but put in a stunning recovery drive…

SPA SIX HOURS ROADBOOK 27-29 SEPTEMBER Phillip Walker’s Ford GT40 team returned to Belgium with the same star driver line-up of Gordon Shedden and Miles Griffiths plus fresh resolve and strategy to win the 27th Spa Six Hours after finishing third last year. From sixth on the 99-car grid – with Ford Motor Co executive Jim Farley (GT40) on pole, courtesy of Belgian Formula 1 veteran Eric van de Poele – Shedden shot from sixth to second on lap one, and passed last year’s winner Nico Verdonck next time around before romping away. The Hi-Tech Motorsport-prepared car ran faultlessly over the full duration and, with Walker doing a short stint before putting historic ace Griffiths in, it was returned to double British Touring Car champion Shedden in perfect condition. Eight…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP It was always going to happen. The top five cars in the second Renault UK Clio Cup race were running so close together that contact of some sort was inevitable. And it was Max Coates who was again on the receiving end. After Jack Young passed double-polesitter Brett Lidsey at Luffield early on, he was unable to break away from the chasing pack. Matters came to a head three laps from the end when Jade Edwards attempted to pass Coates on the inside into Brooklands, made a slight contact that broke her steering, and she ploughed into Coates and Lidsey. “If she wanted to overtake me there was a gap on the inside,” said Coates. “I hit the brakes and she went into the back of…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 28-29 SEPTEMBER Dominik Jackson retained his Radical Challenge title in the most dramatic of circumstances at Donington Park. Title rival Jerome de Sadeleer dominated the first race in mixed conditions, quickly retaking the lead from Marcus Clutton and Jackson after their mandatory stops. Jac Constable pitted in fourth but a stop/go penalty put him out of the running for the race and the title. Roles were reversed in race two when Jackson led from the restart, followed by Constable and de Sadeleer. As de Sadeleer snatched second on lap 10 of 18, Jackson’s lead still looked decisive. “Then the front-right just collapsed and fired me off at the Old Hairpin at 120mph,” Jackson said. That left de Sadeleer to take victory over Constable, before a track-limits penalty…

The World Rally Championship is founded on venturing into some of the world’s most beautiful terrain, taking the sport of rallying to the people and whether it’s rain or shine, summer or winter, the stars are expected to perform at the highest level. It’s one of the reasons Wales has accepted Rally GB as its home, and has become one of the key events on the Welsh sporting calendar, a unique challenge for a group of drivers truly at the top of their game. The reason the drivers love the event so much is the reception of the fans of all ages who travel to the area from as far afield as Barbados, and the unique quality of the Welsh forest roads, many of which contained within CONWY County Borough…

There’s more reason than ever to keep your eyes on the road ahead once you’ve watched the World Rally Cars fly by in Wales this week – there are almost 30 R5 cars entered in the event’s second tier. Immediately after the WRC brigade, it’s the WRC 2 Pro class of R5 machinery coming through the stages. These are the professional drivers, all at the wheel of manufacturer-entered and run cars. Skoda’s 19-year-old prodigy Kalle Rovanpera is the top WRC 2 Pro seed and the series leader. He arrives in Wales off the back of a couple of miserable results in Germany and Turkey – Rovanpera went off the road on both events – after a run of four straight wins. His team-mate Jan Kopecky is a lovely chap, but…

There’s a little bit of pushing, a little bit of shoving, but in the end it’s Jimmy who comes out smiling. The other two look a little miffed. But there’s no shifting the father – and grandfather – of rallying’s greatest dynasty. We’re in Rheola forest in Wales and have gathered three generations of the McRae family and three cars that helped bring that family name to prominence. British Rally champions Jimmy and Alister McRae, father and brother respectively of 1995 World Rally champion Colin, are well-known in rallying circles. But what about Max? Max is McRae Jr Jr; Alister’s 15-year-old son. With the boys all out to play, Mrs McRae has come along to keep an eye on them. Margaret raises an eyebrow at the scene before her. The…

Nobody knows the route for this year’s Rally GB like the person who drew it. That’s why we’ve asked route coordinator Andrew Kellitt to give us the inside line on where’s best to watch, and why So, David Evans tells me I’ve got the next four days off. All he wants me to do is tell him where to go. That, I can definitely do… In terms of forests used this year, there’s nothing radically different from recent years. There can’t be. We’ve used every inch of every forest road available to us in the top half of Wales. We’re missing Gartheiniog (sorry Elfyn Evans!) this year due to the presence of Phytophthora Ramorum (that’s a tree disease to the rest of us – not harmful to rally fans, but…

Rally GB National is an experience like no other for the home-grown crews, since it offers them the opportunity to contest exactly the same stages as their World Rally Championship heroes. The National battle has been running directly alongside the fully fledged WRC event since 2010, and a total of 64 crews will tackle this year’s edition. The absence of 2018 winner Andrew Gallacher opens the door for John Wink and Roger Duckworth to progress from their second and third places respectively last year. But number-one seed Thomas Preston is perhaps the favourite heading into the event in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, after winning in 2017 aboard a Skoda Fabia R5. “We’re definitely going there to win – 100% that’s the aim,” says Preston. “John Wink is a quick…

FORMULA 1 After six Formula 1 seasons apart, McLaren and Mercedes will reunite in 2021. Over the Russian Grand Prix weekend, news broke that McLaren will return to its long-time engine supplier when its three-year spell with Renault comes to an end. The reunion will mark the end of an expensive period of soul-searching for McLaren. Back in 2014, when the team was preparing to part company with Mercedes after 20 years together and switch to Honda, then-McLaren boss Ron Dennis insisted it was not possible to win in F1 as a simple customer. But in confirming the McLaren-Mercedes deal that will begin in around 18 months’ time, current McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: “If we do a very good job, I think we can.” So, what’s changed? McLAREN’S YEARS…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Ginetta could come to the rescue of the Le Mans 24 Hours next June. The British constructor has aspirations to run a third car at the World Endurance Championship finale in a move that would maintain the LMP1 grid at 2019 levels. Ginetta boss Lawrence Tomlinson’s plan to field an additional Ginetta-AER G60-LT-P1 under its Team LNT banner in the French enduro potentially brings the paltry 2019-20 WEC LMP1 field up to eight cars. That’s the same number that took the start at Le Mans this year, even though the full-season entry has dropped to just five cars after the withdrawal of the ART-run SMP Racing squad. WEC rules give full-season participants in P1 the option of running a third car, and Tomlinson explained that he…

#1 BRP AND BRM British Racing Partnership was set up in the late 1950s by Stirling Moss’s manager Ken Gregory and father Alfred, and turned F1 constructor in 1963 at a time when BRM was at its zenith. BRM supplied engines, so we had BRP-BRMs… The team folded after 1964 when it was rejected as a member of the new Formula 1 Constructors’ Association, jeopardising its start money. #2 HAAS AND HAAS An American named Haas setting up an F1 team using chassis produced by a top customer constructor, and running in the midfield. For machine-tools magnate Gene Haas, Dallara and 2016, read cigar-chomping Indycar titan Carl Haas, Lola and the mid-1980s. The team lasted only one full season, but had youthful Adrian Newey and Ross Brawn on the staff.…

MOTORSPORT GAMES The clock is ticking towards the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games at Vallelunga, and predictably it’s the GT element that is attracting the best entry out of the car-racing contests in what is effectively the sport’s version of the Olympics. ‘Predictably’, because the prelude to the Games, which take place on the first weekend of November, was the GT Nations Cup held for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit in December 2018. The UK is one of the latest nations to join the GT field, which runs to a pro-am format in GT3 machinery and is currently at 17 entries. Flick Haigh, who co-drove Jonny Adam to the 2018 British GT Championship title, will partner Blancpain Endurance and International GT Open racer Chris Froggatt in a Ferrari…

All world champions are ruthless. This characteristic manifests itself in many different ways, be it in a willingness to get involved in on-track scrapes, a callous lack of regard for rivals, the single-minded focus on their own ends to the exclusion of all other, or any of the myriad ways things can get edgy in a race. All 33 world champions have this in their blood. Earlier this season, there were legitimate questions about whether Sebastian Vettel still had it in him to dig deep and do what needs to be done to be world champion ever again. What happened during last weekend’s Russian Grand Prix proved beyond doubt that he is every bit as determined as he once was, even if he can’t match upstart Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc…

“WE AGREED THE BEST WAY WAS NOT TO GIVE ANY SLIPSTREAM TO HAMILTON FIRST, AND THEREFORE CHARLES WOULD HAVE GIVEN THE SLIPSTREAM TO SEB” The Russian Grand Prix should not only have been Ferrari’s fourth consecutive victory, but perhaps the most convincing in the run of races since the August break. Instead, it descended into what the Italians like to refer to as a grande casino, with early leader Sebastian Vettel refusing to heed team orders and let his team-mate past, and Charles Leclerc quietly fuming about that instruction being disregarded. Unfortunately for Ferrari, that was the best bit of its race as Vettel’s subsequent MGU-K failure triggered a virtual safety car that cost Leclerc victory and – compounded by a failed strategic gamble – handed arch-rival Mercedes a 1-2.…

Last weekend will go a long way to defining the outcome of two title-winning campaigns. Liverpool showed it could grind out a result despite a sub-par performance, winning 1-0 over Sheffield United to maintain its 100% points haul. In contrast to that laboured performance, Colin Turkington delivered the most aggressive weekend of his year. The three-time British Touring Car champion’s credentials are without question, but he’s at the top of no one’s list when it comes to selecting the grid’s most ruthless drivers. He’s fair and calculated, but allows for a margin of error. That tactic paid dividends last season, as he relentlessly returned safe points-paying results to win the title despite only the one victory. As Tom Ingram won twice at Silverstone, though, whenever Turkington looked resigned to finish…

FIA FORMULA 2 SOCHI (RUS) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 11/12 Nyck de Vries delivered one of his best Formula 2 performances to do something even the mighty George Russell couldn’t achieve in the same ART Grand Prix-run car last year: wrap up the title one round early. While Russell certainly had greater competition in Alexander Albon and Lando Norris, he also had greater career momentum, whereas de Vries has had a rollercoaster time following a stunning karting career. His missed opportunities will always haunt him and point to the fact that he probably hasn’t earned a Formula 1 seat on merit, but his recently announced Mercedes Formula E seat is another indication that de Vries is peaking late and deserves his massive manufacturer contract for next year. Who knows after that?…

NASCAR CUP CHARLOTTE (USA) 29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 29/36 Chase Elliott secured his place in the next round of NASCAR’s playoffs by winning at the Charlotte Roval. The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet came back from a crash early in the final stage to lead home team-mate Alex Bowman, who also advances to the Round of 12. Kevin Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was third, with Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski completing the top five. Polesitter William Byron was sixth, ahead of Martin Truex Jr, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano. Truex and Harvick had already secured their spots in the next part of NASCAR’s post-season ahead of the race. They were joined by Kyle Bush, Denny Hamlin, Logano, and Keselowski at the end of stage one – all securing their places on…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Reigning Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Tio Ellinas made a last-minute return to the series at Silverstone last weekend with the frontrunning Redline squad, taking a podium from the back of the grid. Cypriot Ellinas has been competing in the Porsche Supercup this season and has earned four top-six finishes from the eight events so far. He is using the Silverstone and Brands Hatch GB season closers as extra seat time ahead of the Supercup finale in Mexico. “I just came here for some more practice for the Supercup,” said Ellinas. “They [Redline] called me up on Monday and said, ‘Can you come and do the races?’ I was in Cyprus so had to reschedule plans. My lid was in Germany with the Lechner team so…

FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL Last year’s Formula Ford Festival winner Josh Smith is to bid for a second successive victory in the event at Brands Hatch later this month – in the same Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL13 he raced to glory last year. Smith, who triumphed after a dramatic battle in the final with Niall Murray and Oliver White, has not raced in Formula Ford since reaching the final of the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone in November 2018. He subsequently joined the McLaren Automotive Driver Development Programme and has raced in the British GT Championship in a Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 this year. Smith tested with Oldfield at Brands Hatch last Friday in preparation for the Festival, which takes place on 26-27 October. “James [Oldfield], my team boss,…

NEW KARTING CHAMPIONS Two new champions were crowned at Anglesey recently as the British Superkart campaign drew to a close. After finishing second last year in the F250 National class, Andy Bird switched to the Division 1 twin-cylinder category and took the title by 42 points. In F250 National, Gareth James ended five-time champion Paul Platt’s run of success. TF SPORT ON TOP AGAIN British GT title-winning team TF Sport wrapped up the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Pro-Am championship at Barcelona last weekend, as Charlie Eastwood, Ahmad Al Harthy and Salih Yoluc finished second in class. The trio had won their class at the Spa 24 Hours with Nicki Thiim. RENAULT CLIO DEBUTS Last year’s Ginetta GT5 Challenge Am class champion Nick Halstead and former GT4 Supercup racer Paul…

GINETTA JUNIOR James Taylor hadn’t taken a Ginetta Junior win since Donington Park in April. But he grabbed two at Silverstone amid controversial circumstances. The first was achieved in race two when Taylor was part of a thrilling lead battle that also included James Hedley, Gus Burton and Lorcan Hanafin. “I lost the lead three times and managed to get it back,” said a delighted Taylor, who admitted he was starting to doubt himself after a tough middle chunk of the season. When I had them come up behind me I was just holding on for dear life.” Taylor led for much of the finale too but, as the clock ran down, Hanafin squeezed ahead at Luffield. Taylor then fought back at Woodcote to narrowly reclaim the lead. The battle…

BRITISH F4 Zane Maloney and Sebastian Alvarez will head to British Formula 4’s Brands Hatch finale in just over a week as joint points leaders after they sensationally collided in Silverstone’s third race, while Louis Foster still has an outside title shot thanks to a strong weekend. Foster took two wins and a third place at Silverstone, and was pacesetter in wet and dry. Only a race-two incident, wherein he was an innocent victim, denied him a possible perfect score. “I’m not going to focus on the negatives too much, but if we didn’t have that contact in race two we probably would have had the triple,” Foster said. “I don’t know why, but we always seem to go well [at Silverstone]. Brands Hatch is my favourite circuit so the…

The Martin Donnelly Trophy was created back in 2006 to honour Martin Donnelly Sr who, until his death a year earlier, had been one of the keenest, and probably the most vociferous, FF1600 fans ever. Since then it has been an annual affair, hotly contested, with a list of past winners that includes most of Ireland’s FF1600 talent. This year, however, was the first time the Donnelly name appeared on the entry list as well as the Trophy when Stefan Donnelly, son of former Lotus F1 star Martin Jr, turned out in a Crossle 32F. The car featured the legend ‘Donnellys for Spuds’ and was painted in the colours worn by Martin Jr when he began his racing career. And it wasn’t simply a cameo appearance in his grandfather’s race.…

Three times a runner-up, each instance on a different rung of the Caterham motorsport ladder, Irish driver Jay McCormack arrived at Brands Hatch having accrued the most points in the Caterham 7 310R Championship. He was the bridesmaid again, though, with Gordon Sawyer – who won more races than anyone in 2019 – taking the crown. McCormack’s introduction to racing came by way of an argument in a pub, which resulted in him entering the 2016 Caterham Academy. “When I came into it I had a target to get on the podium and I won the first race, so I kind of blew that out of the window,” said the Dubliner. He lost the Academy White group title to Ben Gillias that season, before missing out to Pete Walters in…

Emerson Fittipaldi gives the right-rear Firestone on his Lotus-Ford 72D a workout through the Karussell during the 1972 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Fittipaldi qualified third and was running in second place on lap 10 of 14 when his gearbox failed spectacularly. The race was dominated by Jacky Ickx (Ferrari 312B2), who took pole position, led every lap, set fastest lap and finished almost 50 seconds ahead of team-mate Clay Regazzoni. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and, it would seem, World Rally Championship protagonists don’t vote for Turkey. For the second year in succession, the Marmaris-based event shoved a stick in the spokes of two of the three men chasing the top of the table. Last year it was Ott Tanak who rose while Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier fell. Last month Ogier was in the ascendancy as the Turquoise Coast terrorised Tanak and Neuville. Therefore, as we head to this week’s Rally GB, Tanak is 17 points up on Ogier, with Neuville a further 13 back. There are three rounds – GB, Spain and Australia – remaining and a possible 90 points on the table. But let’s look into the numbers, and beyond the fact that Ogier is 5-0 up…

2002 A storming Sunday morning run through the 33-mile Resolfen stage was enough to carry Petter Solberg’s Subaru back past his former team-mate and now Ford rival Markko Martin. Once out front, he wouldn’t let it slip again. He reached the end of the Margam Park final stage, jumped out of the car and conducted the massed ranks of the Petter Solberg fan club in his own anthem. He’d done it. He was a World Rally winner for the first time. And he’d done it on a typically wet, slippery and unpredictable Rally GB. Solberg’s success went down well in Wales too, with co-driver Phil Mills becoming the first Welshman to win a WRC round at home. 2003 What’s better than taking your first WRC win in Wales? Try taking…

BRDC Ex-Formula 1 star, W Series prime mover and Channel 4 F1 co-commentator David Coulthard has been elected as president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. The Scot, who won 13 grands prix, takes over from rallying legend Paddy Hopkirk, who has been at the helm since 2017. Coulthard had been widely tipped for the presidency, which he will fulfil alongside his current broadcasting commitments for Channel 4 and his W Series role. BRDC chairman John Grant said: “I and my fellow board members are delighted to welcome David Coulthard as president of the BRDC. We are confident that we have a president who is not only a greatly talented racing driver but also a successful businessman with an enviable network of contacts, which should be of great benefit to…

The return of the McLaren-Mercedes combination in 2021 is a reunion that we never thought we’d see. But, as the Woking team taught us when it rehired Fernando Alonso, anything is possible if both parties see there’s an advantage to be gained, or favourable sporting and commercial implications. Since his arrival from Porsche’s racing programme earlier this year, team principal Andreas Seidl has reviewed every area as McLaren looks for ways to make further progress. It was logical for the German – previously a BMW F1 engineer – to consider the power unit: can we do better for 2021 and beyond? Given a mandate to take a step back from any historic political considerations, Seidl has determined that, on a balance of reliability, performance and likely progress over the next…

How do you fight Ferrari’s straightline speed advantage at a track like Sochi? The answer is, you don’t. With Charles Leclerc gaining just over 0.7 seconds on Lewis Hamilton on the straights, this track played to Ferrari’s strengths. As Hamilton put it after qualifying 0.402s slower than Leclerc – but ahead of the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari is at another level when at full throttle. “Honestly, I feel like maybe the last couple of laps have felt pole-worthy in terms of how this has come together, and optimising the car,” said Hamilton of his laps at Sochi and Singapore. “Pole-worthy, I mean in terms of putting the perfect lap together, I feel each time I’m getting as close to that as possible and then you finish the…

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen finished eighth on the road, but was relegated to ninth at the chequered flag thanks to a five-second penalty for not rejoining the track properly. Magnussen was running seventh on lap 44 when he covered the inside into Turn 2 while under attack from Racing Point’s Sergio Perez. The Dane braked too late and had to take to the runoff after rattling over the ‘dome’ kerbs, but failed to pass to the left of two polystyrene markers before rejoining the track as stipulated. Initially, it seemed Magnussen could slip to 11th because of the penalty, but his good pace in the closing stages, combined with 10th-place Nico Hulkenberg hitting engine troubles in the final two laps and therefore backing up the Racing Point of Lance Stroll,…

The safest bet in motorsport is to play to the conditions in front of you. Be on the right tyre for that precise moment, and rarely second guess the weather. In most cases, that gamble ends in bust. Jack Goff, however, doubled down and dived for the pitlane at the end of the formation lap for race three. He pulled his Volkswagen CC in for wet tyres – the only competitor to do so. Then the conditions came to him. Just as the safety car was called to collect Matt Simpson’s car from the grass at Luffield, Goff hammered in the race’s fastest lap. The conditions were now indisputably suited for grooved tyres. More and more drivers swapped for wets. But, having made his stop while the rest of the…

BLANCPAIN GT ENDURANCE CUP BARCELONA (ESP) 29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 5/5 Chinese outfit FFF Racing had never even raced in Europe ahead of the Blancpain GT Series season opener in April. Fast-forward six months and the Lamborghini squad completed the ‘triple crown’ of titles courtesy of Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli in Barcelona. Having already secured the World Challenge Europe championship at the expense of Black Falcon Mercedes duo Maro Engel and Luca Stolz in Hungary, Caldarelli and Mapelli – alongside stand-in team-mate Albert Costa – denied their rivals once more to claim overall honours with their first Endurance win of the season. Team owner Fu Songyang had dubbed this “the most important race of the year”. FFF duly began strongly, though the circuit’s characteristics supposedly favoured the Mercedes-AMG GT3. Engel…

SUPER FORMULA OKAYAMA (JPN) 29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 6/7 Kenta Yamashita scored his maiden Super Formula at Okayama, in what was the Kondo Racing driver’s 19th start. Yamashita started from second on the grid on the medium compound tyres, with polesitter Ryo Hirakawa on softs. On the quicker rubber, Hirakawa duly led for 56 of the 66 laps. But couldn’t pull out more than a two-second cushion before peeling in for his mandatory change to the medium tyres. By this time, Yamashita had been shuffled down to eighth by pitting during a safety car period following a spin for Nirei Fukuzumi, who beached himself in the gravel. As Hirakawa rejoined on cold rubber, he slid off course and down to an eventual 12th. As the rest of the field stopped to…

BRITISH F4 Sebastian Alvarez has accused his British Formula 4 title rival Zane Maloney of pushing him off the road after the pair sensationally collided at Silverstone last weekend. The duo entered Silverstone’s third race level on points at the table top, after Alvarez had made up a 15-point deficit to Maloney over the first two races. In the final race, held in damp conditions, Alvarez sought to pass Maloney for second place on the outside of Brooklands. He was offered little space by Maloney on the corner’s exit and lost control on the slippery kerb, then hit the side of Maloney at Luffield, putting both cars into the gravel and out of the race (below). “I tried overtaking him round the outside – I clearly was quicker, I think…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Former Mazda MX-5 champion Alan Henderson made a successful return to sprint racing last weekend at Silverstone, where he competed in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup to showcase his AK Motorsport team’s for-hire G55. Henderson won the Mazda MX-5 Supercup title in 2015, though stopped midway through 2016 for budget reasons. His Silverstone appearance was a rare sprint-race outing, as he has more recently contested endurance races in a Lotus Elise. “I feel like a novice again!” said Henderson. “I just want to get back in the car really – haven’t raced in a while. If it’s sitting in the garage no one knows we’ve got it!” Despite only “40 minutes’ experience” in the car, Henderson ran competitively at Silverstone, finishing fifth in all three races. Another MX-5…

HISTORIC F1 The vastly experienced Martin Byford had his first taste of Formula 1 power at Donington Park last month. The former F3 racer and 2007 Renault UK Clio Cup champion, now more regularly seen in Britcar and Creventic endurance races, was invited to drive the ex-Jodie Hemming 1997 Jordan, which was raced in period by Ralf Schumacher. Unfortunately the 3.5-litre Judd V10-powered car suffered gearchange problems after three laps. “Since Jodie raced in EuroBOSS in 2006 and 2007 it’s been in storage and this was its first time out fitted with a paddleshift,” Byford explained. “The car was tentative on old tyres and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. So I was gentle and wanted to give good feedback on the gearbox, as that’s what we…

Rather than heel-and-toe, it was Kelvin Fletcher’s gyrating hip action that was the talk of Twitter as the British GT4 pro-am champion showed off his samba skills on week one of the BBC’s long-running Strictly Come Dancing. For the record, he topped the leaderboard with 32 points out of a possible 40. Make no mistake, appearing on primetime BBC 1 every Saturday night isn’t a rite of passage for British GT title winners. Jonny Adam has four championship wins, but by a metric of Twitter followers has a comparatively low profile: 7364 followers relative to Fletcher’s 252.1k. This is in no small part because of Fletcher’s previous career: his 20-year stint playing Andy Sugden on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. That Fletcher is the first racing driver – let alone…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB When Pro-Am racer Karl Leonard qualified third overall after a dry session, it was clear that this was going to be a topsy-turvy Porsche Carrera Cup GB event. But not enough to prevent Porsche Junior Dan Harper sealing the championship with three races to spare. As at Croft earlier in the season, where Leonard took an overall race win, rain jumbled the usual running order. After four laps of race one, the returning Ross Wylie held the lead, with Am drivers Justin Sherwood (who later sealed the class title) and Peter Kyle-Henney second and third, George Gamble fourth, and debutants Aaron Mason and Lucky Khera next. All of them had chosen to use rain tyres on a track that was still far from dry – Gamble…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Harry King was the beneficiary in the three-way Ginetta GT4 Supercup championship fight at Silverstone, taking two wins and a second while his rivals, Will Burns and Tom Hibbert, had mixed weekends. It means King heads to Brands Hatch’s season-closing triple-header seven points ahead of Burns. “Of course I would have liked to have done the triple and had the stats, but two wins and a second place is really good,” King said. “He [Burns] had an unfortunate weekend but so have we in the previous races this year. We went well at Brands Hatch last year – I look forward to it.” King dominated the first two Silverstone races from pole, delighted with his handling, while in race one Burns and Hibbert finished 17th and seventh…

Chris Lulham was circumspect at the start of his debut British Formula 4 weekend with Fortec Motorsport at Silverstone. And with justification. He has a glittering karting record, but had completed just three days’ F4 running – all in the wet. Thursday pre-race testing was his first run on slicks. Plus he’s been taking a year out from racing to concentrate on GCSEs. Qualifying 14th of 15 runners apparently justified his view. “There’s still a lot to learn, it [qualifying] wasn’t that bad but I still have stuff to find,” Lulham cautioned. So what attracted him to F4? “Mainly it’s just a first step from what I was doing last year in Europe, karting,” he said, “it seemed the obvious way to go. It’s also good competition.” Lulham’s first F4…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI MARTIN DONNELLY TROPHY 28 SEPTEMBER It probably should have happened earlier. With four very determined former winners contesting the Martin Donnelly Trophy lead for lap after lap, something had to give. And eventually it did, the only real surprise being that it took 14 torrid laps of Kirkistown’s 1.5 miles before the quartet became a trio – an occurrence marked by the fluttering of red flags and a decision by the clerk of the course to declare a result. The protagonists – Ivor McCullough (winner in 2006 and 2012), his brother David (2018), Alan Davidson (2014) and Noel Robinson (2009 and 2011) – had provided a nailbiting final race of the day, which could have been won by any of them. They circulated in a slithering, squabbling pack…

BRANDS HATCH BRSCC 28-29 SEPTEMBER Lars Alexander Hoffmann took a pair of second-place finishes in the Caterham Roadsport championship at Brands Hatch to climb the standings and claim the title by a single point. Pre-event leader Stuart Bell was absent following damage sustained in a collision at Donington Park and, of those remaining, it was Will Rossetti who made the best start to the opener, before tumbling down the order ahead of a mid-race red flag and restart. Andrew Murgatroyd led the second part more or less throughout to keep himself in contention, although main rival Hoffmann was a constant threat. Rossetti could only manage sixth, which proved to be his best finish of the weekend. Importantly, Murgatroyd led Hoffmann at the start of race two to put himself in…

BOOK REVIEW SURVIVE. DRIVE. WIN. RRP £18.99 Although it was achieved with one of the most expensive Formula 1 cars of all time, Brawn GP’s 2009 world championship double is a remarkable story that still leaves many fans misty-eyed. This new book, co-written by one of the protagonists, adds several fascinating new dimensions to that narrative. Longtime F1 followers will recognise the authors’ names: Nick Fry arrived in F1 via Ford and Prodrive, and became the CEO of Brawn GP during the management buy-out of the defunct Honda team in early 2009; and Ed Gorman was the F1 correspondent of The Times in the late 2000s, having been one of that paper’s foreign correspondents. His memoir Death of a Translator is a lucid and harrowing account of his time in…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This record-breaking rocketman is still a familiar face in the paddock. From the birthplace of country, he initially learned his craft on the loose surfaces before turning his hand to the black stuff. Picked as a stand-in for a travelling superstar, he soon proved his worth, picking up wins – including one at a Kent amphitheatre. As a model of consistency he quickly added a crown to his collection, as well as bagging the first of his four big race wins. He starred for a snake in a one-off test, but the terms of the deal didn’t suit him. It was a wise choice as the wins and titles flowed, until a big one at a forgotten tricky triangle brought his…