Indholdsfortegnelse for 29/04/21 i Autosport

Thanks to his Mercedes links and headline-grabbing drive in last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix, George Russell is probably the first name that comes to mind when considering who will follow Lewis Hamilton as Britain’s next Formula 1 world champion. We wouldn’t argue with that, but it would be wrong to overlook Lando Norris in the debate. Both scored a lot of success on their way up the single-seater ladder, both won what was then the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, and each have been part of the recovery of one of F1’s greatest teams. McLaren is further along that road than Williams and, as our cover article on page 20 shows, the Woking squad’s increasing competitiveness has allowed Norris to show what he can do against some of F1’s established frontrunners.…

FORMULA 1 George Russell has issued an apology to Valtteri Bottas following their crash at the recent Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, cooling tensions between the rivals for a Mercedes 2022 seat. Williams driver and Mercedes protege Russell and Merc incumbent Bottas crashed while fighting for ninth place at Imola when they collided at high speed on the approach to the Tamburello chicane. Both drivers were quick to point the finger – literally, in Bottas’s case – and place blame, with Russell claiming that Bottas broke a gentlemen’s agreement about late moves approaching the braking zone. Russell also claimed in his initial media interviews after the crash that Bottas might have defended differently against another driver. He is widely predicted to be a successor to either Bottas or seven-time world champion…

WRC World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Ogier received two fines totalling €7000 and a suspended one-event ban as punishment for his behaviour immediately after a road traffic accident on the final morning of last weekend’s Rally Croatia. Ogier and his Toyota team were summoned before the FIA stewards after footage of the incident began to appear on social media. According to Toyota’s evidence, Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia noticed an issue with their car that required immediate attention. As they attempted to reach a bus stop, the car was struck on the co-driver’s door by a BMW 1 Series travelling at speed. Both cars pulled over and were joined by a Toyota support vehicle while Ogier and the BMW driver swapped details. A police patrol vehicle then arrived while Toyota…

FORMULA E Tributes were paid at last weekend’s Valencia Formula E round to Adrian Campos, who died in January aged 60. Campos, from the Valencia region, was a key part of the building of the Ricardo Tormo circuit, and also ran a team in the early years of FE, hence the first-generation car being part of the assembly. The last corner of the track has also been named after Campos in his honour. WEC The Alpine ORECA LMP1 design that will take on the Le Mans Hypercars in this year’s World Endurance Championship will go to the grid for this weekend’s series opener at Spa weighing more than 100kg more than it started last season. The weight penalty is among the measures designed to bring the Alpine-Gibson A480, which raced…

WRT is pretty much the benchmark in the GT3 arena. Since the Belgian team was set up for 2010, it’s won just about everything worth winning with Audi, the Spa and Nurburgring twice-around-the-clock enduros and the Bathurst 12 Hours included. Now it has expanded full-time into prototypes after a couple of years dovetailing its GT programmes with the DTM. It’s difficult not to make the team one of the pre-season favourites in LMP2. Team boss Vincent Vosse doesn’t see it like that, even after victory for the team’s European Le Mans Series squad in April with a line-up including Robert Kubica. He only admits to much more modest aspirations. “We’re aiming by the end of the season to be the kind of team that a driver would want to join…

The WEC’s so-called ‘winter season’ schedule has been binned after a solitary season: it was an inevitable casualty of the world health crisis. Don’t forget that the current campaign was originally due to begin last September, but the 2019-20 championship didn’t actually finish until November after a COVID-enforced rejig. We’re now back to a schedule run over a calendar year with the Le Mans 24 Hours at its centre. Well, almost. The French enduro has been pushed back to August, making it the fourth of the six events rather than the third. The reduced six-round schedule – down from the previous eight races – reflects the economic uncertainties of our times. But it’s already taken a pounding as a result of restrictions on international travel. The WEC had been due…

At long last, the fortitude with which Malcolm Wilson, Rich Millener and the M-Sport team have weathered the storm of the past 12 months was rewarded in Croatia by the emergence of a new star of their own making. On his debut in the WRC’s senior category, Adrien Fourmaux came home fifth behind rallying’s current top four class acts. In many ways, watching the young Frenchman get to grips with his debut drew parallels with Sebastien Loeb’s second such outing in 2000 on the Sanremo Rally. Back then, the future nine-time world champion took a privateer Toyota Corolla to 10th place among no fewer than 18 works-prepared cars from seven manufacturers. Fourmaux’s fifth position out of nine entries from three manufacturers in Croatia is therefore comparable. Another important similarity is…

Every now and then in IndyCar, a driver, car and team’s strategy and pitstops are so close to perfection that the combination is unbeatable, and leaves the majority of opponents with no answers. Last year that happened with Scott Dixon at Texas Motor Speedway and Will Power in Mid-Ohio race one. In 2019 there was similar dominance from Alexander Rossi at Long Beach and from rookie Colton Herta at Laguna Seca. And now Herta’s done it again. Last weekend, the #26 Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda took pole by a quarter of a second, and then led 97 of the 100 laps of the 1.8-mile street/runway course at St Petersburg to score his fourth career victory. He’s 21, he’s matched the victory tally of his father Bryan who this year has become…

HISTORICS An American namesake of legendary team chief Ken Tyrrell, who guided Jackie Stewart to three Formula 1 world championships, plans to race a Tyrrell 011 next month. Florida-based Ken Tyrrell, 52, owns the car with which Michele Alboreto scored the marque’s penultimate grand prix victory at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, in late September 1982 – the final race of the season. Tyrrell acquired 011/6 – subsequently an FIA Historic F1 championship race winner – from British competitor John Wilson last summer. After several years lying dormant, it has been totally rebuilt by F1 specialist Liaz Jakhara of Zul Racing in Derby. Tyrrell’s father worked for his John Hopkins University room-mate Bill Wolf, whose Motion Systems business was a team sponsor of Tyrrell Racing in the turbo era of the…

MOTORSPORT RETURN IN NI Northern Ireland has become the second nation within the UK to allow the resumption of motorsport, almost exactly a month after England made the same move. The restart has come too late for the planned Bishopscourt meeting early next month, which has now been postponed until later in the year. The first circuit racing event is set to be at Kirkistown on 29 May. GT CUP ENTRY FOR PARKER Team Parker Racing will debut its new Porsche 911 GT3-R in the GT Cup at Brands Hatch this weekend. The car will be driven by its British GT pairing of Scott Malvern and Nick Jones, ahead of the season opener at the venue next month. The team will also field a Cayman in the GT Cup for…

RALLYING Rhys Yates and James Morgan’s M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 came out on top at Snetterton last weekend as the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship roared back into action. Former WRC2 driver Yates had been fastest on the first four stages to build a 15-second advantage on Frank Bird/Jack Morton, who were out in a Fiesta R5 for the first time. Bird pulled a second back on stage five, and was quickest on the final test, but it was Yates’s victory by 14s. The Fiesta R5 of Mark Kelly/Neil Colman settled in third from the start and retained the place all day, while Rob Swann/Steve McNulty (Subaru S12B WRC) slipped to sixth with a misfire after going fourth on the opening stage, before retiring with gearbox woe. Fiesta crew Elliot…

‘Pent-up demand’. Whether it’s people desperately booking long-overdue appointments at hairdressers or families entering a bidding war to secure holiday accommodation in the most popular UK areas, it’s an expression that has been repeated time and time again as we ease out of lockdown restrictions. And it most certainly applies in a motorsport context, too. Today (29 April) marks exactly a month since non-elite motorsport was able to resume in England, making now a good moment to take stock of how those initial few weeks have played out. And there has been endless evidence of pent-up demand from competitors, with some massive grids at those first race meetings. Twelve categories have boasted entries of 40 cars or more, a stunning achievement amid difficult financial circumstances. Leading the way has been…

After taking the Britcar Endurance crown last year, Praga returned to the series with its own class at the weekend and, as expected, the seven competing cars were mostly found at the sharp end of the overall field. Drivers of a wide variety of experience were in action in the Praga R1 machines, with race-one class winner Charlie Martin, who has competed in various endurance series, praising its high-speed performance. “It’s such a capable car,” Martin said. “On a track like Silverstone, in the faster bends – like Abbey and Farm – it just grips so well. It really is a bit of a giantkiller against the GT3 cars, which have a lot more power.” Ed Bridle who, along with twin brother Chris, was making his debut at this level…

CADWELL PARK BARC 24-25 APRIL Harvey Caton and Charlie Hand came to the fore and took their maiden victories in the Junior Saloon Car Championship at Cadwell Park amid three red flags. Hand had just taken the lead from Caton at Mansfield when the first race was halted after Jamie Goode crashed at the Gooseneck following contact with Tommy Gilham. Caton was back ahead at the restart, with Hand reclaiming second from Alfie Jeakins into the Gooseneck. But, with the tow well broken and another red flag on the third lap, Caton was home and dry, with Hand and Jeakins completing the podium. Hand made a flying start in race two to lead from Caton and Ruben Hage, while Jeakins quickly recovered to third before there was a red flag…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 24-25 APRIL Heritage Formula Ford provided some of the closest action as Donington Park hosted an entertaining MotorSport Vision Racing event last weekend. Ex-McLaren GT racer Josh Smith won the opening race in his Van Diemen from the front row, while behind him a six-car scrap raged, with Alex Walker withstanding all sorts of pressure to take second. There was more ultra-close racing in the second bout, which culminated in six cars nose-to-gearbox with just two minutes to go. The brave 17-year-old Walker took the win in his Kevin Mills-run Spectrum and retained the Champion of Donington title. “My team have done such a great job with the car,” said Walker. “I think we’re looking good for the Nationals this year.” The opening round of the EnduroKa…

PRESCOTT MIDLAND HILLCLIMB 24-25 APRIL Alex Summers and Trevor Willis shared the spoils as the opening shots of the 2021 hillclimb season were fired at Prescott over the weekend. Though not the first round of the British Championship as planned, a stellar line up of big single-seaters gathered for a pre-season warm-up at the Gloucestershire hill ahead of what promises to be a sensational season. The only notable absentee was 2019 champion Wallace Menzies, one of the main reasons for the event’s loss of British Championship status, as he was still locked down in Scotland. But the rest of the field was full of potential winners. Summers, still searching for a fix to an elusive top-end misfire on his Cosworth Champ Car engine, set a searing pace in the first…

The Lancia Delta Integrale 16v of Juha Kankkunen weathers the challenging mixed conditions – choking dust when it’s dry, cloying mud when it’s wet – of the 1991 Safari Rally to take a commanding 26-minute victory over Mikael Ericsson’s Toyota Celica GT4. Ericsson’s team-mate Carlos Sainz had led the initial stages in Kenya, but dropped out with a cracked cylinder block – one of 30 of the event’s 57 starters who failed to make the finish. This was the first of five victories for Kankkunen in 1991, culminating in his third of an eventual four World Rally Championship crowns. For classic rally DVDs head to dukevideo.com/wrc For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA E London will finally make its way back onto the Formula E calendar in 2021, with the ExCeL Centre down to host a double-header event across 24-25 July now that the full schedule for this season has at last been signed off. The Docklands venue agreed a five-year deal with the championship back in March 2019, but the pandemic forced races to be cancelled last year as the site was repurposed into the Nightingale Hospital to combat the waves of COVID-19. The exhibition centre and its 1.5-mile circuit marks the return of a British round after Battersea Park played host to the season finales in 2015 and 2016. But the leafy venue was binned off thereafter chiefly due to noise complaints from local residents, although no one wrote in…

FORMULA 1 Silverstone is set to host the first Formula 1 sprint race at the British Grand Prix after teams and series bosses finally approved plans on Monday (26 April). F1 has been engaged in talks with teams in recent months over introducing sprint races to the grand prix weekend at three rounds in 2021. Although teams were largely behind the idea, concerns were raised about the impact of crash damage from the additional race action, prompting F1 to strike a deal worth around $500,000 per team. This paved the way for the F1 Commission to unanimously approve the plan via e-vote on Monday, with F1 announcing that 100km sprint races would take place at two European events and one flyaway this year. Although the venues were not named, the…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Organisers of last weekend’s Rally Croatia have made clear that the spectators lining the majority of the stages and filling the final powerstage to pre-pandemic levels were not doing so with their blessing. In accordance with a decree from the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia, which was made on the Sunday prior to the event, the nation’s first World Rally Championship counter, the sale of tickets was prohibited. The carefully worded statement made no mention of any tickets that may have been sold prior to the final week before the event got under way, but did state: “It is imperative to abide by the COVID-19 regulations issued by the Government and the Institute of Public Health, including but not limited to maintaining a proper…

TOP 1O TIMES BTCC Three-time British Touring Car champion Gordon Shedden topped last week’s official ‘media day’ test at Silverstone on his return to the series after three years out. The Scot put in a late burst of five quick laps across two short runs, three of which were faster than the best anyone else could manage. That ensured that Shedden’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R ended the day a whopping 0.194 seconds clear. “That’s still not its ultimate performance for sure,” said Shedden. “Nobody shows their full hand on media day, and certainly we didn’t either. Some people were even running soft tyres, which there’s no point doing because we only race on the mediums at Silverstone. The set we had [for the quick runs] was quite new,…

FIA president Jean Todt sat down with a few journalists at the Rome E-Prix and told us there needed to be more collaboration between the governing body and the media to boost coverage of Formula E. That alone garnered flak when Autosport ran the story, because people thought it was an attempt to sidestep the more natural and meritocratic process of ‘build it and they will come’. Todt didn’t have to wait long to have his wish granted, just 13 days in fact, as Formula E drew all kinds of attention when 11 cars slowed to walking speed in the first Valencia E-Prix last weekend as they ran out of usable energy. Both the FIA and the championship tried to style these events out as demonstrating how critical race management…

After six years apart, most of them quite painful for McLaren, the team is once again using Mercedes power in Formula 1. The renewed partnership, a far cry from the works status McLaren had between 1995 and 2009, was announced in 2019. The date of the resumption didn’t change amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but the switch of engine suppliers for 2021 eventually became a unique challenge. The restrictions imposed when it came to the teams adapting their 2020 designs for use again this year meant that McLaren had to spend its two development tokens solely at the rear of the MCL35M, to make sure the new power unit fitted inside the chassis. This was eased, said McLaren technical director James Key, by the svelte nature of the engine itself. “The…

The LMP2s have been slowed for the new season to ensure they’re a suitable distance behind the Hypercars, which should be five to six seconds slower than an unrestricted LMP1. The one-make Gibson V8 in the back of all the LMP2 cars has been robbed of 60 or so horsepower, the cars will have to run low-downforce Le Mans aero at all tracks, and there’s a new range of, it seems, harder tyres from Goodyear, now the one-make supplier in the class. But the smart money has to be on the P2 winner making it onto the overall podium at some point during 2021. It’s only previously happened on four occasions since the WEC’s restart in 2012, but with only five full-season entrants in Hypercar, including new cars from Toyota…

Chevrolet has contested a smattering of WEC rounds away from Le Mans in the past, but never in Europe. In fact, Spa this weekend will be the first time that its Corvette Racing team has run a car on European asphalt, Le Mans excepted, since a Michelin tyre test at Misano more than a dozen years ago when it borrowed a C6.R GT1 from one of its European customers. The appearance of a solo Corvette C8.R in Belgium for Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia to drive together – a first for two great mates – is all about preparing for Le Mans, where the new mid-engined car will be racing for the first time this year after Corvette Racing’s withdrawal in 2020. There’s probably been a bit of political coercion…

Formula E has now endured its 2005 United States Grand Prix moment. That was the comparison doing the rounds in the Circuit Ricardo Tormo’s paddock last weekend. An avoidable image problem had been created and none out of the championship, the motorsport governing body or the teams, came up smelling of roses. A track littered with slowing and stopped cars on the final lap of the Valencia E-Prix opener as motors and invertors supped the last dregs of usable energy meant the Saturday race descended into farce. It did absolutely no favours for the public perception of electric vehicles. More controversy then arose when these scenes were unconvincingly defended, and the reigning champion was hung out to dry to leave officials looking more than a touch red-faced. Antonio Felix da…

NASCAR CUP TALLADEGA (USA) 25 APRIL ROUND 10/36 Brad Keselowski needed only one lap and one opening to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2021 season. In a race that featured 35 lead changes among 17 different drivers, Keselowski never led a lap of the Talladega superspeedway until the last one in a two-lap overtime. He had been following Matt DiBenedetto, but DiBenedetto went high to block a run by Ryan Blaney, and Keselowski saw daylight on the bottom lane. The Team Penske Ford man used a push from Michael McDowell to take the lead and held on for the victory, which means Keselowski becomes the ninth different winner in the first 10 races. “If you’re going to lead 187 and not lead the last one, that’s…

BRITISH GT The champion and runner-up in the 2020 Ginetta GT4 Supercup will join forces in British GT this season, with Will Burns joining the previously announced Gus Burton at Century Motorsport. Burns, who beat category rookie Burton to the title by 39 points in a closely fought campaign in which both took five wins, had been set to join the Assetto Motorsport Ginetta squad for its first season in the championship. But the 30-year-old has now switched allegiances to 2018 GT4 championship-winning squad Century and tested its BMW M4 for the first time at Donington Park last week. Burns and Burton will be joined in the second car by another GT4 Supercup graduate, Pro-Am runner-up Chris Salkeld and team regular Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke, who won the final race of last…

BRSCC The British Racing & Sports Car Club is to launch a new Supersport Endurance Cup concept catering for a variety of cars and featuring longer races. Following the success of the BRSCC’s Clubsport Trophy series, which is made up of 45-minute mini-enduros, a number of competitors have been asking the club whether it could organise longer races. The first Supersport Endurance Cup contest will take place at Snetterton in July and is due to last for 100 minutes, while a full calendar of races of varying lengths – between an hour and a half and three hours – is planned for 2022. “Our members were asking if we were going to introduce something longer,” said Greg Graham, the BRSCC’s head of formulae development. “We did plan to launch it…

MONACO GP HISTORIQUE 24-25 APRIL Michael Lyons scored a hat-trick of three-litre Formula 1 victories at the 12th Monaco Grand Prix Historique last weekend, while the major talking point from the event was a clash between Jean Alesi and Marco Werner. Lyons opened in superb style in the 1966-’72 Jackie Stewart encounter, driving the ex-John Love Surtees TS9/003. Outdragged at the start by Stuart Hall in Roald Goethe’s McLaren M19A/2, Lyons screamed past Denny Hulme’s 1972 South African GP winner on the climb to Casino Square. He resisted immense pressure thereafter to take the win by 0.722 seconds as Jamie Constable (Brabham BT37/2) completed the podium. The Niki Lauda 1973-’76 showcase was sensational, but ended controversially. For 14 glorious laps, fast-starting Alesi (Ferrari 312B3) staved off triple Le Mans victor…

SILVERSTONE BARC 24-25 APRIL John Seale and Jamie Stanley powered to two victories during the opening round of the Britcar Endurance Championship, as the Silverstone International circuit played host to some bumper grids across the weekend. The duo took pole for the first race in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3, the only car to set a sub-one-minute lap in qualifying. Seale was outdragged to the first corner by Richard Wells and Abbie Eaton, but regained the lead when the Praga duo tangled just seconds later. A hefty crash between Class 4 runners Luke Davenport (Ligier JS2-R) and George Heler (TCR) necessitated a 10-minute caution period. But Stanley cruised to victory after taking over driving duties from Seale, while last season’s championship runner-up Jack Fabby took second place alongside Charlie Martin, the…

BRANDS HATCH MGCC 24-25 APRIL A pair of hard-fought MG Cup contests were highlights of the MG Car Club’s season opener at Brands Hatch, with Mike Williams coming from behind to prevail on each occasion. Despite his Rover Metro being pegged back with a more standard VVC engine this year, Williams beat Morgan Short’s new MG ZS to pole, but it was Matt Simpson’s powerful Rover Tomcat that led them away, with Williams dropping to third. Williams passed Short at Graham Hill Bend for second, but was demoted on countback when Ian Boulton’s heavy accident caused a red flag. Short led the restart, before Williams slid inside Simpson at Druids, then dived past Short for the lead at Surtees mid-race. Williams was heading for a more comfortable success in race…

LYDDEN HILL CMMC 24 APRIL Warren Johnson may have won the first Tin Tops race from pole in the Classic and Modern Motorsport Club’s Southern branch season opener, but such a simplistic assessment disregards how hard he had to fight for the trophy. With his Peugeot 205 GTI mugged for the lead at the start by Daniel Fisher, Johnson had to keep the pressure up in order to hang on to the Honda Civic Type R’s coattails. Despite it being Fisher’s first time at Lydden Hill, he seemed to have mastered the defensive lines to hold Johnson at bay. Johnson’s dive at Paddock Bend wasn’t to stick on lap 10 of 12, but it was a committed lunge up the inside of Fisher at the hairpin with minutes to go…

HERITAGE FORMULA FORD Race 1 Josh Smith (Van Diemen JL13) Race 2 Alex Walker (Spectrum 011c) ENDUROKA Octane Junkies (Barry Ward, Martyn Smith and Adam Smith) FOCUS CUP Race 1 Scott Parkin Race 2 Spencer Fortag RACING SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Stuart Waite (BMW M3) ELISE TROPHY Jason McInulty (Elise S3) MSV SUPERCUP Nick Jackson & Ollie Pidgley (SEAT Supercopa, below) PRODUCTION GOLFS & BMWs Race 1 Jackson Goodrum (BMW E30) Race 2 Jack Watts (BMW E30) PRODUCTION GTIs Races 1 & 2 Simon Vercoe (Golf GTI) Z CARS & NEW GENERATION PRODUCTION BMWs Races 1 & 2 Edd Giddings (BMW Z4) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

VIDEO GAME MOTOGP 21 RRP £49.99 Following on from the spectacular real-life 2020 season, MotoGP 21, the newly released official game of grand prix motorcycle racing, has a lot to live up to. Created by Milanese developer Milestone, this is the first game in the series to reach the next-generation machines of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. That means 4K resolution, rapid loading times, and smooth 60 frames per second fidelity. You also get natty DualSense feedback on PS5, amplifying the feedback into your palms. These elements alone do not make a great video game, though. Engrossing gameplay elements, rewarding handling and a sense of accomplishment do. For most people, the career mode is likely where most time will be spent. You can join an existing squad, but the real…

This may come as a shock: Jamie Whincup is a four-time Bathurst 1000 winner. Widely considered as the Supercars GOAT with his seven series titles, Whincup is equally renowned as a Bathurst 1000 flop, miserably incapable of Great Race success. In fairness to the haters, Whincup’s recent Bathurst is something to behold in all the wrong ways. His last podium finish at the 1000 was in 2013, and since then there’s been a series of spectacular implosions from very strong positions. In 2014, Whincup ignored orders over the radio to save fuel while leading in the final stint and ran dry a few corners from home, gifting victory to Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris. A year later there was more selective hearing on the radio as Whincup ignored an instruction…

ELECTRIC GT Fast-charging during pitstops, scope for battery development and multiple drivetrain concepts are all part of a new electric GT category introduced by the FIA. “Groundbreaking” was the term used by the governing body last week on the release of the technical blueprint. The new category allows technical freedoms so far unseen in EV motorsport. Its regulations have been devised “to serve the manufacturers as a platform to develop road-relevant technology”, according to Leena Gade, president of the FIA’s GT Commission. “Manufacturers, especially premium brands specialised in high-performance road cars, want to build cars relevant to their DNA and design philosophy rather than rely on standardised components,” she explained. “Many simply wouldn’t be interested in a spec or semi-spec formula.” Pitstop races, likely to be in the region of…

WEC LMP2 machinery had the measure of the new Toyota GR010 HYBRID in the opening three sessions of the World Endurance Championship prologue ahead of this weekend’s series opener at Spa. The best time by one of the Japanese Le Mans Hypercars as we went to press was a 2m04.708s from Jose Maria Lopez on Tuesday morning, compared to the 2m04.168s P2 mark set by Nyck de Vries in the best of the G-Drive Racing ORECA-Gibson 07s in the same session. Filipe Albuquerque topped the times in both sessions on Monday, with the test concluding on Tuesday afternoon. PURE ETCR Hyundai has named its quartet for the new all-electric Pure ETCR series, and it includes British Touring Car Championship veteran Tom Chilton. The 36-year-old joins former factory BMW star Augusto…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Jan and Kevin Magnussen will become the latest father-and-son combination to race together in the Le Mans 24 Hours when they team up at the wheel of one of High Class Racing’s LMP2 ORECAs in August. Not only is it a dream come true for the pair, but they reckon this year’s edition of the big race was probably the last chance to make it happen. Sportscar stalwart Jan and Kevin, who has joined Peugeot’s World Endurance Championship squad for next season, will share the additional High Class ORECA-Gibson 07 entered for Le Mans with team regular Anders Fjordbach. Magnussen Sr has moved over from the team’s full-time WEC entry with which he is driving alongside Fjordbach and Dennis Andersen for the family adventure. “It feels…

TCR NEW ZEALAND Chris van der Drift led a batch of big-name Kiwi aces home to claim the inaugural TCR New Zealand title last weekend in the single-event triple-header at Highlands Motorsport Park. Ex-Formula Master champion and Superleague ace van der Drift (right) won the first two races in a Track Tec Racing Audi RS3 LMS after axle failure struck the polewinning Hyundai of World Rally Championship star Hayden Paddon. While that put Paddon out of the opener, he took the repaired car to fourth in race two. Van der Drift was on for a clean sweep in the finale, which he was leading until one-third distance when the Audi jammed in fifth gear. With Gene Rollinson – second in the opening two races – out with a blown head…

LENGTH 2.891 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 66 UK START TIMES Friday 30 April FP1 1130 FP2 1500 Saturday 1 May FP3 1200 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 2 May RACE 1500 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1930 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors RACE STATS Previous winners Best results Hamilton 1st x 1 Bottas 2nd x 1 Verstappen 3rd x 1 Leclerc 4th x 1 Gasly 5th x 1 Sainz 6th x 1 Perez 7th x 1 Ocon 8th x 1 Ricciardo 9th x 1 Vettel 10th x 1…

Too much of a soft spot for Leclerc? The love for Charles Leclerc in Autosport’s driver ratings has left me somewhat dumbfounded. With Bahrain, how on earth does a driver who qualifies fourth and then finishes sixth warrant a 10/10 rating? Your criteria for someone to achieve such a score states there should be an ‘exceptional performance, maximising the result’. In my eyes, finishing two places below your grid position is not exceptional. If he was driving an Alfa Romeo and came sixth, that would be exceptional. Again at Imola, according to your ratings he was the best driver. How can this be? His restart after the red flag was frankly appalling. Lando Norris was clear in stating Leclerc should have overtaken Max Verstappen for the lead, but the Ferrari…

A new era starts for sportscar racing this weekend, what surely will be a golden one at that. Not that you would guess it by scanning down the entry list for Saturday’s opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa. There are only three cars entered in the new Hypercar class, and one of those is an old LMP1 machine. Yet it’s who we know is coming that makes the future of top-flight prototype racing in the WEC and at the Le Mans 24 Hours such a mouthwatering prospect. Toyota’s new Le Mans Hypercar and the Signatech-run Alpine team’s ORECA-Gibson P1 design, which raced as the Rebellion R-13 over the past two seasons, will be joined by boutique manufacturer Glickenhaus sooner rather than later this season. Peugeot will arrive…

The all-female line-ups in the Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing LMP2 ORECA and the Iron Lynx Ferrari team’s ‘Iron Dames’ GTE Am entry mean there will be a record number of women racing full-time in an FIA championship this year. Alfa Romeo Formula 1 test driver Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Florsch and Beitske Visser share the Signatech ORECA, while Katherine Legge, who was originally part of the Mille team backed by the FIA’s Women in Motorsport initiative, drives with Rahel Frey and Manuela Gostner in one of the two Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.…

The old aggregate qualifying introduced back in year two of the reborn WEC in 2013 is no more. A system based on fastest laps of a pair of drivers, initially two for each and then one from 2015, has been ditched to bring the rest of the series in line with Le Mans and its new-for-2020 Hyperpole session for the fastest six cars from each class in an initial qualifying on the first day of running. What’s taken its place is hardly revolutionary. It’s now just one driver against the clock. The only twist is that in GTE Am it’s the bronze-rated driver who has to set the time.…

The debut appearance of Rally Croatia on the World Rally Championship calendar delivered a thrilling battle for victory between the Toyotas of Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier. It ended with reigning champion Ogier taking honours by the third smallest WRC margin on record: just 0.6 seconds. The Balkan state has become a tourism hotspot in recent years, although this has primarily been focused on the picturesque Mediterranean coast around Dubrovnik, which gained worldwide renown as the city of King’s Landing in TV’s Game of Thrones. In order to restore a little of the capital’s lustre, therefore, Zagreb had been pushing for its premier rally, a fixture since 1974, to join the WRC as a showcase for the city’s baroque splendour and the rustic loveliness of the landlocked north of the…

SUPER FORMULA SUZUKA (JPN) 25 APRIL ROUND 2/7 Tomoki Nojiri made it back-to-back Super Formula victories in last weekend’s second round at Suzuka. The Team Mugen driver took advantage of a puncture for poleman Nirei Fukuzumi, who had dominated the weekend up to that point, and in the early stages was looking on course for his first win in the series. That was until lap nine of 30, when the right-rear tyre of Fukuzumi‘s Dandelion Racing Dallara-Honda let go in spectacular style exiting Spoon Curve and approaching 130R. That allowed fellow Honda man Nojiri into a lead he would maintain to the finish, barring a brief spell during the pitstops. After a safety car period triggered by a crash at 130R for Yuji Kunimoto, Nojiri comfortably held off nearest challenger…

INDY LIGHTS ST PETERSBURG (USA) 24-25 APRIL ROUND 2/10 Andretti Autosport was pretty much team of the weekend in motorsport last Saturday and Sunday. A day before Jake Dennis won in Formula E at Valencia and Colton Herta in IndyCar in St Petersburg, Kyle Kirkwood triumphed on the Florida streets for the squad in Indy Lights. Combined with his second place on Sunday, that puts Kirkwood into a three-way title fight with Sunday winner David Malukas and Linus Lundqvist. Kirkwood led all the way in his home state on Saturday, but it was all action behind. Team-mate Devlin DeFrancesco held second for much of the race, but the Canadian slid off into the barriers at the final turn, causing a caution period. That promoted yet another Andretti driver, Danial Frost,…

BRITCAR TROPHY Ginetta’s new G56 GT Academy racer scored a double podium finish on its competitive debut in the Britcar Trophy at Silverstone last weekend. SVG Motorsport driver Mark Lee was in a three-way lead fight early in race one in the G56 against the pacesetting BMWs, finishing second despite tyre issues late on. Ballast added to the car for race two prevented him from repeating the performance, but he still took a comfortable third. “It’s great – you can really throw it [into the corners], it’s a bit like the G40 I’ve driven before,” said Lee about the G56 GTA. “I could outbrake [the BMWs] and get them in the corners but struggled on power.” The car forms the basis of Ginetta’s new GT Academy, which is designed to…

YORKSHIRE FESTIVAL IS ON The new Yorkshire Motorsport Festival has been given the green light to run near Holmfirth at the end of June. A main feature of the event will be a closed-roads hillclimb, which has attracted a wide range of historic machinery including an ex-works 1934 Aston Martin LM16 Ulster Le Mans car, the ex-Marsh Plant/Gerry Marshall Modsports Aston Evo4, and a Monte Carlo Rally class-winning Sunbeam Tiger. F2 RACES AT SILVERSTONE The Historic Sports Car Club has added two races for its Historic Formula 2 series to its next event at Silverstone on 22-23 May. These in effect replace the May races that were lost following the postponement of the Jim Clark Memorial Meeting at Hockenheim. The club has also announced that the F2 races planned for…

SILVERSTONE 750MC 24-25 APRIL The debut of the Type R Trophy as a fully fledged championship was both well-subscribed and explosive at the 750 Motor Club’s Silverstone meeting. Adam Shepherd was declared the first race winner after Luke Rosewell received a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage. Rosewell, who had passed Lee Deegan for the lead on the final lap when Deegan lost control of his Civic and went into a slide, had crossed the line first but dropped to third with his penalty. Up until that point, double Civic Cup champion Deegan had led the whole race while Rosewell snapped at his heels consistently, the two even trading paint at times. Shepherd kept pace with the leading pair and came close to passing Rosewell on…

BRITCAR ENDURANCE Races 1 & 2 John Seale/Jamie Stanley (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) BRITCAR TROPHY Races 1 & 2 Simon Baker/Kevin Clarke (BMW 1 Series) PRE-’66 TOURING CARS Races 1 & 2 Peter Smith (Ford Lotus Cortina) MINI MIGLIA Race 1 Endaf Owens Race 2 Nick Padmore MINI SE7EN Races 1 & 2 Joe Thompson PRE-’83 TOURING CARS/JEC SALOONS & GTs Races 1 & 2 Tom Robinson (Jaguar XJR6, below) HISTORIC THUNDER SALOONS/BOSS Races 1 & 2 Ric Wood (Holden Commodore) PRE-’93 & PRE-’03 TOURING CARS Races 1 & 2 AJ Owen (Honda Civic Type R) TOURING CAR TROPHY/VW CUP Race 1 Max Hart (Hyundai i30 N TCR) Race 2 Lewis Kent (Hyundai i30 N TCR) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

CADWELL PARK JUNIOR SALOONS Race 1 Harvey Caton Race 2 Charlie Hand 2CVs Races 1 & 2 Pete Sparrow LEGENDS Races 1 & 4 Miles Rudman (below) Race 2 Jack Parker Race 3 Stephen Whitelegg Race 5 John Mickel Race 6 Nick Bridgeman HYUNDAI COUPE CUP Race 1 Alex Cursley Race 2 Alistair Dendy MIGHTY MINIS Race 1 Neven Kirkpatrick (Super) Race 2 Ian Slark (Super) MAX5 Races 1 & 2 Paul Roddison (MX-5 Mk4) LYDDEN HILL TIN TOPS Race 1 Warren Johnson (Peugeot 205 GTI) Race 2 Dave Hutchins (Honda Civic Type R) INTERMARQUE SILHOUETTES Race 1 Colin Smith (Vauxhall Tigra) Race 2 Ray Harris (Ginetta G40R) SUPER SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Rod Birley (Ford Escort WRC, below) MODIFIED FORD SERIES Race 1 & 2 Rod Birley (Ford…

SNETTERTON MSVR 24 APRIL Matt Hammond and Lee Pearce each had a win in the Mini Challenge at Snetterton after some typically close racing. From the start of the opener, series returnee Hammond led Junior Saloon Car champion Lewis Saunders and Dominic Wheatley but, as the second-place battle grew and grew, Hammond got clear to win by over four seconds. It was up to five cars battling for second when a red flag ended proceedings. Ricky Page got the verdict, closely followed by Saunders and Wheatley, with reigning champion Harry Nunn closing from fifth. The second race came down to a wheel-to-wheel finale, with Nunn and Pearce battling it out over the final two laps. Wheatley, Hammond and Page joined in too but, as they rounded Coram for the final…