Indholdsfortegnelse for 21/11/19 i Autosport

We’re starting to build a handful of examples of the Lewis Hamilton versus-Max Verstappen battle that everyone has been anticipating. Hamilton came out on top in the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, but Verstappen turned the tables in Brazil last weekend (see page 18). Passing Hamilton twice in a race is no mean feat, and the fact that Verstappen didn’t lose his cool after being baulked by Robert Kubica’s Williams indicates the Red Bull ace is becoming a more mature driver. That Verstappen can defeat Hamilton in a wheel-t0-wheel fight is not in doubt; the question is whether he can beat the Mercedes star over a full season. Losing pole in Mexico thanks to needlessly ignoring a yellow flag (and then ranting about it) suggests he could still give away…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP The World Rally Championship driver market is about to be turned upside down, with Elfyn Evans due to be announced with Toyota Gazoo Racing this Monday, Citroen set to pull out, and Sebastien Ogier poised to be wearing his fourth different colour of overalls in five years in 2020. As we went to press, Evans’s departure from the M-Sport Ford line-up and Citroen’s pullout – at least in the medium term – were the only certainties. In the wake of Peugeot’s return to a hybrid World Endurance Championship and a continuation of DS’s participation in Formula E, parent company PSA has confirmed that Citroen won’t be present in the WRC from 2022 onwards. But service-park speculation insists that Citroen will be gone long before then, and some…

FORMULA 1 Brazilian Grand Prix promoter Tamas Rohonyi is ‘99%’ confident the race will stay at Interlagos, despite a mooted switch to a new Rio track for 2021. Sao Paulo’s current contract runs out at the end of 2020 and the fate of the race after that date has not yet been decided. F1 chiefs have been in discussions with representatives from a new track in Rio, with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro supporting that project and declaring earlier this year that it was “99%” likely to happen. But Rohonyi is sceptical about the Rio plan and said his confidence in keeping the race at Interlagos was “the same percentage that the president mentioned”. He sees Interlagos as the only realistic option for a Brazilian GP. “Either F1 remains here or…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE Luca Ghiotto may have a chance to seal the runner-up spot in this year’s Formula 2 standings, but he’s already decided that his future lies beyond single-seaters. The Italian will race for the R-Motorsport Aston Martin sportscar sqaud squad next season. Ghiotto, 24, has signed up for a full programme across the GT World Challenge Europe and will drive an R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in both the endurance and sprint segments of the contest formerly known as the Blancpain GT Series. After four seasons of GP2/F2, he has decided that the time has come to “be a proper professional driver, to make money from my racing”. “The change from single-seater racing into a professional GT3 team is an important career step for me and offers a…

Given the quality and strength – particularly in resource terms – of its opposition on the Formula E grid, it’s hard not to be impressed by Envision Virgin Racing. Sure, there are other smaller-scale teams that get results and shine occasionally, but, as it was the only customer squad in the last FE campaign, what it achieved was remarkable. Without works status, the team lost the 15-day private testing programme it had enjoyed when previously partnered with DS, and it spent the 2018-19 pre-season rapidly learning about its new Audi technology before struggling to get a satisfactory set-up together in the few days of testing (three from Audi’s allocation and the three-day official pre-season test) it did get. From there, though, the team scored three race wins (keeping alive its…

Whether or not you consider this to be Max Verstappen’s second pole position, as the record books suggest, or third, as he emphatically insists (given he counts the one in Mexico last month that never was), it’s remarkable a driver who is regarded by many as the fastest in F1 – and is unquestionably one of the two quickest – has such a poor strike rate in 101 attempts. Given the Red Bull is so rarely a threat, he has to nail it when he has the chance, and Verstappen did exactly that at Interlagos. While Ferrari had a significant advantage on the straights on Friday, it was much reduced in qualifying to the point where Verstappen lost only a tenth and a half. That, combined with his pace in…

Ferrari planned to meet Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc at Maranello this week to deal with the fallout from the “silly” crash between its drivers in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Leclerc passed Vettel for fourth place at the first corner towards the end of the race and the two made contact on the run to Turn 4 moments later, when Vettel tried to repass on the outside. Though Vettel moved over on his team-mate and triggered the clash, neither driver was punished as the stewards determined nobody was wholly at fault. Team principal Mattia Binotto said an internal review would be held this week in private but would not be about establishing blame or whether to punish either driver: “Today they were free to fight. They knew that. But ‘free…

The Macau Grand Prix is renowned for creating drama, but last weekend it excelled itself by producing one of the genuine giantkilling stories of the past motorsport decade, as the Dutch combination of Richard Verschoor and MP Motorsport won Formula 3’s biggest race at their first attempt on the Guia track. The nature of the street circuit means that drivers with bucketloads of commitment, bravery and sheer skill can make the difference by taking big risks, brushing up against the barriers and leaving their braking until the last moment in a bid to defeat allcomers. Luckily, none of that had altered for 2019 despite heavy changes to the track. With seven improvements to help safety (see panel, p35), there was potential to ruin the charm and adversity this venue offers,…

WORLD TOURING CAR CUP MACAU (MAC) 16-17 NOVEMBER ROUND 9/10 A collective sigh may well have spread from the Guia circuit to Guernsey last Saturday, such was the frustration over Channel Islander Andy Priaulx giving up what would have been a first podium since returning to World Touring Cars in order to elevate team-mate Thed Bjork in the race-one order. Priaulx’s season with the Cyan Performance Lynk & Co has been a trying one at times, but his pace has been nowhere near as bad as suggested by the 20th place in the points in which he started the weekend, and his form during the Asian leg of the season has been among the best. So to see that come so close to being rewarded, only to be taken away…

MOTOGP VALENCIA (ESP) 17 NOVEMBER ROUND 19/19 The final round of MotoGP’s longest season ended in familiar fashion, with Marc Marquez overcoming a challenge from 2019’s rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo to win his 12th race of his sixth title-winning campaign in the premier class. Though the riders’ championship was sewn up in October in Thailand, and the manufacturers’ crown sealed for Honda in Japan, Marquez still had one final task: to secure the teams’ title to complete Honda’s second successive triple-crown success. Marquez has almost single-handedly carried the Repsol Honda Team this year, with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo struggling with injuries and difficulties adapting to the RC213V, and only able to score 28 points to Marquez’s 420. The reigning champion had strong pace throughout practice, but was once more expected to…

Audi’s DTM season was one of utter domination as Rene Rast swept to a commanding drivers’ title – his second in three years – and the Four Rings also took the manufacturers’ and teams’ titles with relative ease. And its success was made all the more impressive by the fact that it was achieved during a period of regulatory uncertainty as the full switch to Class One rules threw up continued headaches for Audi, BMW and the R-Motorsport Aston Martin squad. In celebration of Audi’s superb 2019 season, Autosport was offered the chance to drive Rast’s RS5 DTM at Hockenheim, just days after the DTM season wrapped up. The 2018 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner, Tom Gamble, was the man chosen to get behind the wheel after his season racing…

MOTORSPORT UK Motorsport UK has unveiled a new strategy for the 2020 season and beyond in a bid to promote the sport more, but clubs are concerned by a significant increase to event permit fees. British motorsport’s governing body has revealed a raft of changes for next year as it tries to simplify its structure and raise additional income to allow it to reinvest more into the sport. It is aiming to increase income in order to not only fund more promotion but also offer more education and training initiatives, as well as pay for future innovation projects. By investing in these key areas, Motorsport UK hopes to try to secure the future of motorsport in this country against a backdrop of reducing numbers of licence holders and an ageing…

BRITISH F4 Dutch karting champion Marijn Kremers has secured a funded seat with Carlin in British Formula 4 next season after winning a shootout co-organised by 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve. Dutch driver Kremers, 21, triumphed in the competition held by racing school FEED Racing France at Magny-Cours last week. Villeneuve founded the school alongside Patrick Lemarie, a test driver for the BAR F1 squad while Villeneuve was at the team, and the duo were part of a judging panel for the shootout that also featured 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis. Nearly 100 drivers registered for the scholarship, and these were whittled down to a final six who contested the shootout in Mygale F4 cars. “It feels great!” said Kremers, who this year won the CIK-FIA KZ…

“Sitting on your hands and doing nothing is not really helping anybody,” says Motorsport UK CEO Hugh Chambers. Certainly no one can claim Chambers and David Richards have sat on their hands since taking over at what was then the Motor Sports Association nearly two years ago. Ever since Richards became chairman of the governing body, there has been a noticeable focus on the grassroots and an acknowledgement that more needed to be done to promote the sport in this country. And he and Chambers have acted on that. In the rallying world, they’ve extended the life of belts and seats to help bring costs down. They’ve brought in a wide-ranging benefits scheme for members that gives discounts at a whole host of relevant companies. They’ve even changed the name…

When five-time Australian Supercars champion Mark Skaife looks back on his career, there isn’t much that he regrets. As well as his title success, his stats include six Bathurst 1000 victories and a further three crowns in Australia’s premier single-seater series, Formula Brabham. In 1992 he won all three – a feat unlikely ever to be repeated. But 1992 wasn’t entirely rosy for Skaife, as a failed foray into European F3000 left him licking his wounds. Then 25, he was riding high when, with support from the Winfield cigarette brand, he joined Mike Earle’s 3001 International squad for the final two rounds at Nogaro and Magny-Cours in place of Allan McNish, who was struggling for budget. “It was a little toe-in-the-water exercise to hopefully do the full year in 1993,”…

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Peugeot almost pulled the rug from under the World Endurance Championship on the eve of its rebirth back in 2012. Seven years on, the French manufacturer has gone a long way to securing the WEC’s future with the announcement last week that it will be entering the new top class for hypercars in 2022. It means that the hypercar division now has a commitment from a third major car manufacturer to go with those of Toyota and Aston Martin, though admittedly Peugeot will not be joining its ranks until the start of the 2022-23 campaign. That may be only season three of the category, but Peugeot’s news is still a major fillip for the WEC. That’s because the hypercar entry will be the third sportscar coming from…

FORMULA 1 Ferrari insists that it has changed ‘nothing’ on its power unit following the latest Formula 1 engine-rules technical directives, despite rivals suspecting its straightline speed advantage has been reduced. Rival teams had been querying how Ferrari was achieving its power advantage in recent months, before the FIA issued technical directives regarding fuel-flow rules and the use of liquids as combustion. Ferrari started on pole for six straight grands prix, but has not done so at the past two races. Team principal Mattia Binotto is adamant that the shift in performance has nothing to do with its engine. “No, no, we didn’t change nothing,” Binotto said in an interview with Sky. “What we did is to read carefully the TDs because you need to meet up with whatever is…

JAGUAR ETROPHY Ex-Champ Car racer Mario Haberfeld will make his first racing appearance in more than a decade when he takes part in this weekend’s Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy Formula E support races in Riyadh. The 43-year-old Brazilian, who now devotes his life to saving wild jaguars, will replace Caca Bueno, who is away on V8 Stock Car duty, at Jaguar Brazil Racing. It will be 1998 British Formula 3 champion Haberfeld’s first international racing appearance since he drove in the Le Mans Series at Monza in 2008. “When I got the invitation from the Brazilian team to replace Caca Bueno it was quite a surprise as I haven’t raced for over 10 years, but I’m sure it will be a really fun weekend,” said Haberfeld. “I’m inquisitive to drive the…

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES Single-seater powerhouse Carlin is four races away from a Le Mans 24 Hours slot as it spearheads the entry list for the new season of the Asian Le Mans Series, which gets under way at Shanghai this weekend with its strongest grid yet in its top LMP2 category. Seven of the current-generation LMP2 cars, which are permitted for the first time, make up an 11-car field in the class. This division, plus the LMP3 and GT classes, carries the prize of a guaranteed Le Mans entry for the champions. Carlin branched out into sportscars this year, campaigning the unloved Dallara P217 in the European Le Mans Series, but has endured a trying season that has featured two heavy crashes. The best finish was ninth at Barcelona…

Great race, shame about the blame game I simply couldn’t believe the collision between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc last Sunday, but what was predictable was Vettel blaming Leclerc. It was clear from the head-on pictures that Vettel had turned in, much the same as the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix with Mark Webber. Mattia Binotto was diplomatic in the extreme, not wishing to blame either driver until he had spoken to them, but again he only had to watch the head-on TV shots rather than study telemetry and talk to the drivers. Beyond that, a terrific race; plenty of drama and good racing. It was a pity that Alex Albon lost his podium place, but at least Lewis Hamilton held his hand up and took the rap, a lesson probably…

PIERRE GASLY TORO ROSSO DRIVER Can you describe your emotions? It’s just the best day of my life. As a kid you dream about being in Formula 1, and then when it happens it becomes the best day of your life and then you dream about your first podium. To be fair, I didn’t think this would happen, coming back with Toro Rosso during the second part of the season. I just kept working on myself, tried to push the team as much as I could, telling them, ‘OK, we need to make the best out of all the opportunities we have until the end of the year.’ And today it just came to us. We had a really strong race before that in P7, behind the top teams, and…

Alfa Romeo pairing Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi delivered the team’s best results of the season with fourth and fifth after running in the points for much of the race. Raikkonen started eighth and held the position on the first lap, running an orthodox two-stop strategy. This meant he was behind Carlos Sainz, on aged medium tyres, at the final restart, but a combination of understeer in the turbulent air and not having as much battery charge as hoped thwarted Raikkonen’s effort to overtake. He did briefly nose ahead out of Turn 5, only to slip back behind Sainz. Giovinazzi spun on his final Q2 run so started 12th, but jumped to 10th at the start. He mirrored Raikkonen’s strategy and was rewarded with a career-best fifth place. Alfa Romeo…

Macau Grand Prix organisers moved the inside barrier at the Lisboa corner inwards for this year’s running of the event in response to Sophia Florsch’s 2018 crash. Florsch skated along the barrier after hitting the back of Jehan Daruvala’s car on the long run to Lisboa, and was then launched over the apex kerb, into Sho Tsuboi’s car, through the catch fencing and into a photographers’ box. The car was allowed to launch because there was a gap between the inside wall and the kerb on the approach to the corner, but this was significantly reduced for the 2019 race weekend. The idea was to direct cars away from the apex kerb and towards the runoff area beyond the corner, which has been widened. The fencing behind the corner remained…

GT WORLD CUP MACAU (MAC) 16-17 NOVEMBER Raffaele Marciello soaked up a weekend’s worth of pressure from Porsche drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber to win the FIA GT World Cup for Mercedes in Macau. Early signs were that the Rowe Racing-run Porsches would be unstoppable, Bamber leading Vanthoor in comprehensive 1-2s in both free practice sessions. But it was Marciello who triumphed in qualifying, the GruppeM driver banking what Mercedes-AMG customer boss Stefan Wendl would later describe as a “perfect” lap to steal pole from the Porsche drivers. That track-position advantage would prove to be crucial. The Porsches were quick across the mountain section, but the Mercedes had the edge through the final sector. And that made Marciello hard to catch on the run to Lisboa. That’s precisely how…

If 2018-19 was the season Formula E grew up with its Gen2 car, 2019-20 is when it gets serious. While not to denigrate what came before, Mercedes and Porsche don’t mess around. These motorsport giants are about to take their electric-racing bow, and will join Audi and BMW in the FE whirlwind. All four luxury German OEMs racing in the same series – it’s another achievement for FE to savour, and the championship is understandably keen to promote this battle throughout the upcoming campaign. It feels historic, but is it actually so significant in terms of previous motorsport competition? “I reckon GT3 blows that as a first out of the water,” says one Autosport sage. With all four German giants effectively sending factory squads to major sportscar races – the…

Audi’s DTM champion Rene Rast was on hand to provide support to those getting a run in the RS5 DTM, and explained the key points for Tom Gamble to get to grips with before the Brit climbed aboard. “You have a two-lap peak of the tyre which you need to extract, and then after those two laps maybe the lap time will drop off by one-point-something seconds at Hockenheim,” said Rast. “Obviously managing the brakes, getting them in the right temperature window, is important. “Getting the power down is not that easy with the 600 horsepower we have nowadays. He will have a lot of wheelspin out of the slower-speed corners, so you have to be very careful on corner exit to not get too much oversteer. I think that…

ENDUROKA 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Nick Tandy wants to contest more EnduroKa races after his JTR team’s victorious debut in the IndyKa 500 at Brands Hatch last weekend. JTR entered two cars in the event, with Porsche factory driver Tandy joined by Lewis Selby, Elliot Mason and early-1990s Formula Renault UK ace James Rhodes in the winning machine. “We could have done with a bit more practice with four drivers, but the cars are fun to drive and a pleasure to build and race,” said Tandy. “Co-driver Lewis Selby is our front-wheel-drive expert for set-up and driving. What I like is the whole team aspect in long-distance racing. You can get a buzz from the short stuff, but here your team-mates become friends and the motivation is not…

MAZDA MX-5s The British Racing and Sports Car Club plans to introduce a new series for the Mk4 version of the Mazda MX-5 next year. The club runs a very successful series for the Mk1 model of the sportscar, and will amalgamate its two series for the Mk3 edition – the MX-5 Supercup and Super Series – for next season. “We very much plan to run this as a series and it would come along with the [existing] Mazda package, but probably not at all of them – we will probably have four standalone events for the Mk4s,” said BRSCC competitions director Dominic Ostrowski, who added the cars could also compete in the new Clubsport Trophy. “It probably won’t be until May, just as a way of introducing it and…

MSVR BRANDS HATCH 16-17 NOVEMBER A colourful and incident-packed IndyKa 500 race brought the Brands Hatch season to a close in darkness on Sunday and gave victory after 432 laps in 500 minutes – or eight hours 20 minutes – to JTR’s Nick Tandy and co-drivers James Rhodes, Elliot Mason and Lewis Selby. Tandy ended a short opening stint by stopping early to refuel and swap drivers during a safety-car period. This helped the JTR team to overcome a two-lap penalty for a refuelling infringement to finish four laps in front on the road, reduced to a two-lap victory margin. The Le Mans winner completed more than 100 laps in darkness on his dash to victory, setting the race’s fastest lap on the 365th tour. Second was taken by Octane…

Juan Manuel Fangio drops the starting flag – and, even taking into account the compressed perspective of a long-lens shot, appears to place himself in mortal peril – at the commencement of the 1969 Zeltweg 1000km. Heading his way is the #29 Porsche 917 of Jo Siffert/Kurt Ahrens Jr, which went on to win the race, completing 170 laps of the Osterreichring in 5h23m36.98s, just over a minute ahead of the #33 Lola-Chevrolet T70 Mk3B of Jo Bonnier/Herbert Muller. The #9 Mirage-Ford M3/300 of Jacky Ickx/Jackie Oliver retired after 99 laps with a steering issue. For classic motorsport DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

WEC Gordon Murray was adamant that the McLaren F1 would never race, but it didn’t end up doing too badly on the track. Nearly a quarter of a century after the F1 GTR’s 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours victory, he has revealed that his latest sportscar, the T.50, could have a future in the World Endurance Championship’s hypercar division. The Formula 1 design legend has admitted that a dialogue with WEC promoter and Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest about the Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 opened some time ago. He also explained that there has been interest from customers wanting to race the car after the unveiling in June of the car’s specification, including a bespoke four-litre normally aspirated V12 developed in conjunction with Cosworth. “The people who…

BATHURST INTERNATIONAL Australia’s famed Mount Panorama circuit is to host a new endurance touring car race at the end of the 2020 season, with the aim of attracting a 55-car international field. The 500km Bathurst International will be held in late November or early December and will be run for the TCR category, which has exploded across the world in the past half-decade and was successfully introduced to Australia in 2019 (right). If the plans reach fruition, it will be the most international field assembled since the Bathurst 1000 ran to Super Touring rules in 1997 and 1998. The organising Australian Racing Group is also planning support races for Australia’s new big-banger S5000 single-seater category, which would almost certainly mean an obliteration of the track’s lap record, plus LMP3 sports-prototypes…

FORMULA 3 Richard Verschoor is hoping his shock Macau Grand Prix victory will help “open doors” for his future, following a two-year struggle after being dropped by Red Bull. The 18-year-old Dutchman toiled in the 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup with MP Motorsport and was let go at the end of it by the energy-drinks giant. MP offered him a lifeline with a half-season in GP3 in 2018 and a full year of FIA Formula 3 this term. Verschoor failed to score a podium in FIA F3 with MP, which is regarded as a relative minnow. But he beat one of the category’s hottest prospects – Red Bull junior Juri Vips – to win F3’s biggest race. “I feel like for the first time in a long time I did everything…

INDYCAR SERIES Ed Carpenter Racing has dismissed speculation that it could field Renault Formula 1 refugee Nico Hulkenberg at the road and street tracks in next season’s IndyCar Series, and was instead set to confirm 2019 Indy Lights runner-up Rinus van Kalmthout as replacement for Spencer Pigot, who was let go last week, as Autosport closed for press. As recently as late August, team owner Ed Carpenter told Autosport that he intended to retain 2015 Indy Lights champion Pigot (above) as his full-time driver, while obliquely inferring that 2016 Lights champ Ed Jones – who shares the #20 car with oval specialist Carpenter – would be dumped after a very disappointing season. But Carpenter has decided to get rid of both drivers, and van Kalmthout – who races under the…

WORLD RALLYCROSS The British round of the World Rallycross Championship at Silverstone has been dropped from the 2020 schedule, just two years after moving from Lydden Hill. For the first event at Silverstone in 2018, the circuit and WRX promoter IMG jointly promoted the Speedmachine Festival, which included live music and street food. IMG promoted the second Festival itself, but says it will not run the event next year. “One of the reasons we went to Silverstone was to utilise the whole facility, not just the rallycross track,” said WRX boss Paul Bellamy. “What we found is, as the whole car industry moves to electrification, there was less budget for car manufacturers to put people in their ICE [internal combustion engine] cars to test them. Subsequently it meant that the…

Is Pierre Gasly the hard charger who has excelled during the second half of the Formula 1 season with Toro Rosso, or the struggler who failed to perform for Red Bull’s A-team in the first half? The answer is both, and neither. F1 is a complicated business, and evaluating performance is a tricky task given the multitude of contributing factors. What is clear is that Gasly is very much at home in the Toro Rosso environment, with the style demanded by the car, and has responded to a potentially career-breaking relegation brilliantly. To put some numbers on it, he’s scored points in five of his eight starts back at Toro Rosso and outperformed team-mate Daniil Kvyat both on qualifying and race performances. While Kvyat has endured some misfortune, there’s no…

“VERSTAPPEN HAD TO WORK FOR IT, EVEN THOUGH HE COMFORTABLY TOOK UP THE LEAD AT THE START” Max Verstappen and Red Bull were the class of the field at Interlagos, assisted by a Honda engine package that thrives at altitude and a car that flew in the twisty middle sector. Early on, he was on target to control the race from start to finish, but this was not a straightforward Brazilian Grand Prix. Instead, he had to make two passes for the lead and negotiate a couple of late-race safety cars to prevail. On Friday, the talk was of the apparent return of Ferrari’s straightline supremacy. But come qualifying Verstappen only gave away a tenth and a half to the red machines on the straights and seized pole by 0.123…

Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a five-second penalty after a collision with Kevin Magnussen to finish sixth. The Renault driver attempted to pass Magnussen for 13th place on lap seven into the Turn 4 left-hander. He had the inside line – and the Haas driver left room – but Ricciardo clipped the inside kerb and locked up. This tapped Magnussen into a spin and gave Ricciardo damage, sending him to the pits. “I tried to avoid it,” said Ricciardo. “I got onto the inside kerb to create as much space as possible and I skipped into him. As soon as I hit him I was like, ‘Please don’t spin’, and he spun. I don’t want that because obviously it’s not nice for him, it doesn’t make me look the best and…

ILOTT RETURNS… Ferrari junior Callum Ilott missed his simulator session before making his F3 return with the Sauber Junior Team in Macau. Despite that, he was immediately on the pace, but it didn’t all go to plan. The Formula 2 racer (above) set the sixth quickest time in the first practice session, but not before he had turned the brake bias the wrong way as the system is the opposite way around in the F3 car from the F2. In his fifth attempt at the event, he finished sixth. Ilott is expected to remain in F2 next year. …AND FLORSCH RETURNS… Sophia Florsch’s return to the site of her spectacular crash in 2018 did not go to plan. Florsch, who has been competing in Formula Regional this season, made her…

NASCAR CUP HOMESTEAD (USA) 17 NOVEMBER ROUND 36/36 Kyle Busch won the final race of the NASCAR Cup series season at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim his second title and end a 21-race winless streak. The Toyota driver (below), one of three Joe Gibbs Racing entrants with a shot at the crown in the finale, beat team-mate Martin Truex Jr to add to his 2015 success. Truex dominated the early part of the race, winning the first stage and leading a total of 103 laps, but ultimately had to settle for second place in both the race and the championship for the second year in a row. After a pitstop blunder, which led to the wrong tyres being fitted to the front of his car, 2017 champion Truex’s hopes of a…

That was Jean-Eric Vergne’s prediction of his DS Techeetah team’s chances against Mercedes and Porsche in 2019-20, days before he sealed his second crown last season. But, now he’s seen them on track – and ‘raced’ them – at Valencia, does he still feel the same? “Yeah,” says Vergne at his squad’s official season launch as part of the promotional E-DS Week at the luxurious Molitor hotel in Paris last week. “Because if somebody had come with something revolutionary we would have seen it.” Vergne is certainly confident that Porsche has not found a magic bullet thanks to his strong friendship with former team-mate Andre Lotterer, who left DS Techeetah with a year left on his contract. “I know if he thinks they have something amazing I would feel it,”…

RENAULT CLIO CUP UK The final round of the relaunched Clio Cup UK has been confirmed, with the series joining up with its French and Spanish equivalents at Barcelona at the end of next year. The series will move to the British GT support package for 2020, having previously raced alongside the British Touring Car Championship, and will be supported by Renault Sport Racing France after Renault UK withdrew its funding. It had already been confirmed that the Clio Cup would appear at five of the British GT events and with Clio Cup France at Magny-Cours in September. The Barcelona finale will run on 7-8 November. Prospective teams and drivers had a first chance to look at the new fifth-generation Clio at Renault’s Formula 1 base in Enstone last weekend…

TRIBUTE FOR MARTIN DOWN The last Champion of Brands FF1600 event of the year was contested for the Martin Down memorial trophy as a tribute to the late Getem builder Martin Down, who died a week before the Brands finale. Down built his first FF1600 Getem in the 1970s with Alan Brunning and challenged the establishment for 40 years. Down’s son Jason scored two fourth places in his Getem Mygale on Saturday and was sent out first in qualifying with a gentlemen’s agreement that nobody would pass for a lap. VSCC CALENDAR ANNOUNCED The Vintage Sports-Car Club has confirmed a reduced programme of race meetings for 2020, with a four-event schedule concluding with a return to Mallory Park on 23 August. The season starts at Silverstone, as usual, on 18-19…

FORMULA 5000 McRae GM1 racer Michael Collins made a perfect start to his New Zealand Formula 5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series campaign last weekend, winning all three races in the opening round at the Circuit Chris Amon Manfeild. The Christchurch driver, who gave five-time champion-elect Ken Smith a run for his money last year, qualified on pole, heading off Grant Martin (Talon MR1A) by 0.92s. Aucklander Martin ran him closest in Saturday’s race, and repeated in Sunday’s pair. Behind them, David Banks (Talon MR1) and Aaron Burson (McRae GM1) shared the third places. Lola trio Brett Willis (T330), Glenn Richards (T400) and local Kevin Ingram (T332) jostled with them on Sunday. Ex-hillclimb king Ingram – 1983-84 national Formula Ford champion in his self-built Keram – bested at fifth. Period F5000…

Few cars blur the aesthetic lines quite so much as the Formula Ford Prowess. A Perspex windscreen wraps around its scuttle and sweeps over the driver’s head, but it doesn’t form a complete roof, so the car is neither a true open or closed-cockpit racer. It only adds to the Prowess’s divisive charm and popularity, and some might say the bizarre creation has looks only a mother could love. Others would argue that particularly the second-generation example still looks futuristic some three decades on. The car takes its name from its creator, only not in the conventional Ferrari or Lamborghini sense. Hugo Spowers – Prowess being an anagram of his surname – studied engineering at the University of Oxford and during that time co-founded the Dangerous Sports Club. Naturally, getting…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Formula E Round 1/12 Diriyah, Saudi Arabia 22-23 November TV Live Eurosport 2, BBC Online, Fri 1200, Eurosport 2, BBC Online, Sat 1200 Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY Round 1/8 Diriyah, Saudi Arabia 22-23 November DTM/Super GT Dream Race Fuji, Japan 23-24 November Livestream Motorsport.tv, Sat 0020, 0515, 2355, Sun 0515 MRF Challenge Round 1/3 Dubai, United Arab Emirates 22-23 November Brazilian Stock Cars Round 11/12 Goiania, Brazil 24 November Australian Supercars Round 15/15 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 23-24 November TV Live BT Sport 1, Sat 0415, BT Sport 3, Sun 0415 Asian Le Mans Series Round 1/4 Shanghai, China 24 November…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This inventive character drove himself to explore new boundaries and beyond. He started off running up the hill before finding his feet on the flat. He used his ingenuity to make his own mark and soon became a national champion. The flightless bird took to the wing in a great migration that was whipping up a storm. He beat the green hell to serve notice of his intent, before defying his age to claim the spoils down the runway. He followed the trend by going it alone and instilled national pride a long way from home. With a bow tie providing a big bang, he had the best of both worlds. As he pushed the envelope he paid the ultimate price.…