Indholdsfortegnelse for 7/28/2022 i Autosport

Charles Leclerc has been an undoubted star of the 2022 Formula 1 season and the biggest reasons behind his deficit to title rival Max Verstappen have concerned Ferrari reliability and strategy. But last weekend Leclerc made one of those fundamental errors we rarely see from the top drivers, costing him the French Grand Prix. As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on page 14, Ferrari and Leclerc had performed brilliantly to offset Red Bull’s straightline speed advantage at Paul Ricard. The race was finely poised – with both teams reckoning they could win it – when Leclerc lost the rear of his F1-75. As well as taking the sting out of the race, the moment has made the championship ‘battle’ look more mathematical than realistic. Ferrari has proved it can…

FORMULA 1 Max Verstappen has warned Formula 1 against replacing its traditional venues with a calendar of street races amid the uncertainty facing Spa. The Belgian Grand Prix at the famous track (above) is facing the axe from the F1 calendar and is one of a number of traditional events under threat as series owner Liberty Media looks to expand into new territories. In recent years, F1 has added more street venues to its calendar in Jeddah, Baku and Miami, while in 2024 a street event in Las Vegas will join the fray alongside mainstays Monaco and Singapore. Verstappen said the thought of losing Spa was “sad” given it is his favourite track, and warned F1 against pursuing only street tracks. “I don’t want to see myself in 2028 or…

The GPX Racing Porsche squad has adopted a new retro livery for its Spa 24 Hours challenger this weekend. The colours of the ART Grand Prix-run Porsche 911 GT3-R shared by Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Richard Lietz will mimic those of the Hans-Dieter Dechent’s Salzburg team’s 917LH driven by Vic Elford and Gerard Larrousse at the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours. The line-up of Estre, Christensen and Lietz has been reformed for this year’s GT World Challenge Europe blue riband three years after they won the race with a Porsche running a Gulf Oil colour scheme.…

OBITUARY Paddy Hopkirk will forever be remembered as a rally legend and the man whose Monte Carlo Rally exploits helped transform him into a household name, and the Mini into a global icon. The likeable, sharp-witted Northern Irishman, best known for his victory at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, died at Stoke Mandeville Hospital last Thursday, aged 89. Belfast-born Hopkirk quickly developed a penchant for motorsport, dropping out of an engineering degree to pursue the passion. After initially dabbling in hillclimbs driving a Volkswagen Beetle, his first big break came in 1956 when the Standard Motor Company offered him a factory drive at the prestigious RAC Rally, that he would lead briefly before suffering mechanical issues. A spell with the Rootes Group, driving a Hillman Husky and Sunbeam Rapier, followed…

The last time the World Touring Car Cup was thrown into Goodyear tyre safety turmoil, just two months ago at the Nurburgring, we were at pains to stress it was nothing like the Indianapolis 2005 Formula 1 farrago. This time, on the short circuit at Vallelunga last weekend, the parallels were admittedly closer, largely because Cyan Racing chose to withdraw its armada of five Lynk & Cos only at the end of the races’ formation laps, slinking back to the pits as the rest lined up on the grid to take the start. So, just like the Michelin runners at Indy 17 years ago? Well no, not really. Cyan knew it was in trouble from the test on Friday, at a venue new to the WTCR. Ballasted by 40kg of…

‘Noooo!” The anguish in Charles Leclerc’s scream of frustration as he switched his Ferrari off for the second time while stuck in the Beausset barriers was one of a racer knowing their big chance is slipping away. Since his Imola off chasing Sergio Perez, pretty much all of Leclerc’s shocking 2022 misfortune had been out of his hands. But his spin on lap 18 of last weekend’s French Grand Prix, ultimately won by Max Verstappen, was all his own doing. And he knew it. Leclerc was alone when everything went so horribly wrong for him at Paul Ricard. Afterwards, he typically fronted up to his own error. In the moment that mattered most, he was adapting to a suddenly changing race situation – reacting to Red Bull’s attempt to get…

Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen failed to make it to the flag after the pair came to blows at Turns 1 and 2 on lap 37 of 53. Neither driver would be apportioned blame for the shunt while battling for 14th, because the stewards reckoned both could have taken greater preventative action. The Williams driver had tucked his car on the inside of the Haas into the opening left-hander and then drifted wide through the transition to leave Magnussen running over the inside rumble strip. He was therefore pinched into the FW44’s sidepod, with Latifi having shut the door before ultimately spinning over the runoff. Magnussen would pit at the end of the tour and into retirement, while Latifi lingered on for another three laps before his early bath owing…

He didn’t take pole for either race in last weekend’s double-header at Iowa Speedway, but Josef Newgarden should have emerged with two wins. His imperiousness around the D-shaped 0.894-mile oval in Newton, Iowa, is legendary. He entered the weekend having led 1150 laps here, his closest rivals among active drivers being Will Power and Scott Dixon… on 131 and 130 respectively. Newgarden pushed his Iowa tally up to 1506 laps across the two days, but took ‘only’ one win, a comprehensive rout of the opposition on Saturday – 208 of 250 laps led after passing pole-winning team-mate Power on lap 23 following a restart. The following day, Newgarden was set to achieve something similar in the longer 300-lap race, despite waiting a whole 83 laps to find a way around…

W SERIES PAUL RICARD (FRA) 23 JULY ROUND 4/8 It was a magnificent seven for Jamie Chadwick in W Series last Saturday as she scored yet another win in her charge for a third consecutive title. Having taken the top step of the podium at every race this season, plus both at the 2021 season finale double-header at Austin, Chadwick continued her domination of the all-female championship. She lost her pole position to Beitske Visser after receiving a two-place grid drop for crossing the pit exit line, but come race day Chadwick made it past a poor-starting second-placed Nerea Marti off the line before swooping ahead of Visser around the inside of Turn 3. Marti dropped to fourth, allowing Belen Garcia to make an early move into third. The first…

NASCAR CUP  POCONO (USA) 24 JULY ROUND 21/36 Chase Elliott inherited victory at Pocono after finishing third on the road when Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were disqualified in the post-race car inspection. “There were some issues discovered that affected aero in the vehicles,” said NASCAR boss Brad Moran. “The part was the front fascia. There really was no reason why there was material somewhere where it shouldn’t have been.” It is the first time a Cup race winner has been disqualified since NASCAR implemented its new post-race inspection rules in 2019 and means Elliott is credited with a win, his fourth of the season, despite having never led a lap. On the road, Hamlin had edged his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Kyle Busch by 0.927 seconds while trying to…

Sacha Fenestraz is far from the first driver to have moved to Japan after running out of opportunities in Europe, and he won’t be the last either. But, after scoring his first win in Super Formula in June’s Sugo round, it’s safe to say that the move is working out. Just a few short years ago, Fenestraz had been placed on the Renault F1 junior scheme scrapheap, his career hanging in the balance. And now he appears well-placed to challenge for his first Super Formula title, potentially even as early as this season. Granted, Fenestraz needed until the midpoint of his third campaign to add himself to the Super Formula winners’ list. But doing so in his 14th start in Japan’s top single-seater series is broadly in line with the…

BRITISH GT The result of last weekend’s British GT race at Spa remains provisional as winners Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley’s Fox Motorsport McLaren raced under appeal following a qualifying overboosting issue. The Fox entry and Paddock Motorsport’s similar McLaren 720S GT3, which qualified second and fifth respectively, initially had their qualifying lap times removed as their turbo boost levels exceeded those allowed under the Balance of Performance. The BoP boost allowance for all GT3 McLarens had been increased shortly before qualifying, while Autosport understands the BoP of all GT3 McLarens was checked after. Both entries faced the prospect of starting from the back of the grid, but elected to race under appeal, meaning they could start in their original grid positions and that the race result is provisional until…

BARC The 110th anniversary of the formation of the forerunner to the British Automobile Racing Club will be celebrated with a 110-minute race at its season-ending Brands Hatch meeting in November. The commemorative race is open to closed-wheel production cars and these will be split into different classes based on engine size. The 12-13 November contest is open to both two- and three-driver teams and competitors do not need to be BARC members. “For more than a century, the club has been renowned for being the go-to place for national and international motor racing and we feel this is a nice way to tip our hat to reaching such a marvellous milestone,” said sporting manager Mark Turner.…

HEATHCOTE BACK TO BRX Former British Rallycross champion Nathan Heathcote will return to the category at Pembrey next month. Heathcote claimed the 2017 title and has since predominantly focused on circuit racing. But a demonstration run in a Ford RS200 at the Nitro Rallycross event at Lydden Hill reignited his interest and he will now return in a Citroen C4 he raced for part of his title-winning season. “Driving the RS200 reminded me how much I miss rallycross,” he said. BRSCC TROPHIES AWARDED The British Racing and Sports Car Club East Anglian Centre awarded two of its perpetual trophies at Snetterton last weekend. Jordan Dempsey claimed the Henry Rilett Trophy, named after the former chief scrutineer and traditionally held for local Formula Ford and single-seater races. The Barn Ruche Trophy…

If a metaphorical cloud hung over the GT3 race at Spa, the GT4 battle featured no such concern as the youthful R Racing Aston Martin Vantage pair of Josh Miller and Jamie Day claimed their second win in three races. And the result sends them right into the thick of a hectic championship fight, placing them second between long-time chief title protagonists Matt Topham/Darren Turner (Newbridge Aston) and Richard Williams/Sennan Fielding (Steller Audi R8), with just two points covering the trio. The Miller/Day Aston qualified third, confident of the car’s race pace even though they thought the track with its straights wouldn’t suit the Aston. The polestitting Marco Signoretti/Matt Cowley Academy Ford Mustang was not a race day factor due to excessive tyre wear, as Jordan Collard in the Toyota…

Pedro Rodriguez trudges back to the pits after parking his BRM P153, which had suffered ignition failure after just seven laps of the 1970 German Grand Prix, held for the first time at Hockenheim. Meanwhile, the attention of the photographer behind him is focused on the #21 Brabham BT33 of Rolf Stommelen and Emerson Fittipaldi’s #17 Lotus 49C. Come the chequered flag, the Brazilian Formula 1 rookie had gained the advantage, finishing ahead of the German in fourth place. Jochen Rindt (Lotus 72) won the race, his final F1 victory before his death a month later at Monza. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 The FIA looks set to face rebellion from half of the Formula 1 grid over its planned changes to the floor regulations next year in a bid to combat porpoising. Ahead of the French Grand Prix weekend, the FIA announced a series of steps taken on safety grounds to stop cars from porpoising, a phenomenon encountered by many teams since the return of ground-effects for 2022. This included raising the floor edges by 25mm and raising the underfloor diffuser throat, as well as introducing more stringent checks to ensure teams were complying with the regulations. But it has emerged that five teams – Red Bull, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams – are set to push back against the FIA amid doubts that it is still a genuine…

UK START TIMES Friday 29 July FP1 1300 FP2 1600 Saturday 30 July FP3 1200 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 31 July RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors RACE STATS Previous winners Hungaroring points tallies…

Sad loss announced It is with great sadness that we have to tell you that Gideon Williams passed away peacefully on 14 July. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease since 2018. Some of you will remember Gideon from his days at Richard Lloyd Racing, when he was a mechanic for several years towards the end of Group C era, and some will remember him from his karting. Gideon competed each year we held the Autosport International Celebrity kart events and was a regular at Thruxton Kart Centre or Raceworld in Exeter. When he learned of his illness he booked Raceworld and set pole position, won his heats, set fastest lap and won outright. A year later he could not steer the kart out of the pitlane! Gideon asked…

“We’ve received quite a lot of criticism on the strategy front and I think it’s a bit unfair.” So said Carlos Sainz after he’d finished ninth in French Grand Prix qualifying – that history book result doing nothing for the story of a captivating Q3. The Spaniard’s defence of his Ferrari squad’s at times shambolic race strategy calls in 2022 may have been rather misplaced, but the Scuderia nailed its Paul Ricard qualifying plan. Knowing Sainz would be dropped from wherever he ended up due to the grid penalty stemming from replacing the engine that blew so spectacularly in Austria, Ferrari established that “the plan for the whole weekend”, per Sainz, was for him to aid Charles Leclerc against the Red Bulls. It was already set to be a fascinating…

Alpine leapfrogged McLaren for fourth in the constructors’ championship as the two teams further asserted themselves at the front of the midfield. Fernando Alonso led a blue-and-papaya train when he snared sixth place ahead of Lando Norris. McLaren gave its second major upgrade package a debut, the MCL36 wearing a trimmed rear wing, engine cover, floor and brake ducts to follow from its Spanish GP update in May. Meanwhile, Alpine stuck to its evolutionary form for its home race. The A522 ran a tweaked floor only as part of more minor but consistent changes. It looked like McLaren’s tactic would pay off more handsomely when Alonso qualified seventh, two spots and 0.5s adrift of Norris. But the Brit had too much wheelspin off the line to lose out to the…

Red Bull has made a few floor changes too, with revised floor fences to “redistribute the local pressure distributions to improve load while maintaining the flow stability”. The team also added a new wing to the cascade wings adjacent to the brakes to further increase downforce in that area. Outside of the title-battling teams, McLaren and AlphaTauri introduced expansive upgrade packages at Paul Ricard. Revising its sidepods, McLaren introduced the sloping design that has become popular this season with a slight channel in the topside to direct airflow. The Woking squad also brought a new floor, rear wing tweaks to the endplate and brake duct changes – and did a back-to-back test between Lando Norris on the old specification and Daniel Ricciardo with the new parts in FP1 to understand…

WTCR VALLELUNGA (ITA) 24 JULY ROUND 6/10 Cyan Racing took a stand in Italy last weekend that likely ruled its drivers Santi Urrutia and Yann Ehrlacher out from winning the World Touring Car Cup this season. As the Lynk & Cos were dramatically pulled from competition, Munnich Motorsport Honda’s Nestor Girolami and Comtoyou Audi’s Gilles Magnus grabbed their second wins of 2022, while BRC Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona tightened his grip on a likely first world crown. From the test session on Friday, Cyan knew its five Lynk & Cos were in trouble. By far the heaviest cars thanks to their hefty compensation weight, the 03 TCRs were 80kg over Azcona’s unburdened Elantra. Yvan Muller had already been vocal about the unfairness of Balance of Performance, and his mood darkened after…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP  PAUL RICARD (FRA) 24 JULY ROUND 5/8 Porsche Supercup rookie Bastian Buus converted pole position at Paul Ricard into a maiden series victory. The Dane fended off Lechner team-mate Harry King on the run into Turn 1 off the line to take the lead, before a safety car was called for Loek Hartog’s stricken Ombra SLR car after a spin at Turn 5. When racing resumed on lap four of 13, Buus nailed the restart to build up a comfortable gap of almost a second as King came under fire from reigning champion Larry ten Voorde over second. Britain’s King broke away from the Team GP Elite driver in the latter stages and carved into team-mate Buus’s lead in the final laps, the latter almost losing the rear…

If the season so far has been a good one for Fenestraz, it’s been a nightmare for the only other non-Japanese driver on the Super Formula grid this year: Giuliano Alesi. It was last year when Alesi moved to Japan after being spat out by the Formula 1 support paddock, with TOM’S offering him a drive in the second-tier Super Formula Lights series. With COVID keeping Toyota WEC star Kazuki Nakajima away from the paddock for most of the year, Alesi also made five starts in the top category with the Toyota squad, notably winning in just his second Super Formula start in torrential conditions at Autopolis. That rain-soaked day in Kyushu must now feel like the most distant of memories given how this year has gone so far. In…

BRITISH GT Two entries were forced to withdrew from last weekend’s British GT Spa race after the paddock was hit by a sickness bug that impacted several teams. Team Abba’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 entry, which was due to start in seventh, withdrew on race day morning as driver Sam Neary was unwell. The team said in a statement that the same bug was affecting several other members in the squad and across the paddock. The Motus One McLaren 570S GT4 crew of James Wallis and Michael Broadhurst also withdrew, partly due to a sickness bug within the squad but also due to a turbo issue. Others in the paddock reported feeling unwell on race day, including reigning British GT4 champion Will Burns. His Century Motorsport team requested permission from the organisers…

PEARSON TO SIT OUT British Formula 4 racer Joel Pearson has been forced out of the races at Knockhill this weekend through injury. The Chris Dittmann Racing driver crashed out of the last F4 race at Croft at Tower and sustained a broken left thumb. This has not yet healed sufficiently for Pearson to return to the cockpit in Scotland but he is targeting a comeback at Snetterton next month. MORRIS MOVES ON Seb Morris, the 2017 British GT champion, has called time on his Porsche Carrera Cup GB campaign. He managed a best result of just fifth across the opening half of the season and his Team Parker Racing outfit says he “has withdrawn from the championship aiming to return to endurance racing”. His place at Knockhill this weekend…

DRAG RACING For the first time, Santa Pod Raceway’s giant Volkswagen festival, Bug Jam, hosted a round of the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship – bellowing Pro Modified V8s offering a vivid contrast to the chainsaw buzz of a legion of VWs. Veteran Andy Robinson had spent this season’s first two rounds running-in his new 1969 Chevrolet Camaro before snatching a win in round three. Here in round four, he delivered a demolition job. Robinson ‘ran the table’: pole, low elapsed time and top speed of the event, all topped by a dominant victory. He clocked what proved to be the event’s fastest speed, 246.35mph, straight off the trailer in Saturday’s opening qualifying session. A short field then allowed Robinson the luxury of an unopposed opening match, which proved…

While British GT is heading into its summer break with yet another race result that is only provisional (see page 62), the British Touring Car Championship and its support categories are emerging from their summer hiatus at Knockhill this weekend. And there are plenty of interesting storylines and title battles to follow over the second half of the season. The 2022 campaign has certainly been a year of change among the TOCA supports. Three of the five regular categories have introduced new cars this year (British Formula 4 also featuring a new organiser as part of wholesale changes), but the other two have also boasted rule tweaks that have helped shake up the competitive order. The closest of the title fights heading to Scotland is in the Porsche Carrera Cup…

GT3 (47 laps) 1 Nick Halstead/Jamie Stanley (McLaren 720S); 2 James Cottingham/Lewis Williamson (Mercedes-AMG) +5.236s; 3 Ian Loggie/Jules Gounon (Mercedes); 4 Adam Balon/Sandy Mitchell (Lamborghini Huracan); 5 Alex Malykhin/James Dorlin (Porsche 911); 6 John Ferguson/Ulysse De Pauw (Mercedes). Fastest lap Gounon 2m19.836s (112.04mph). Pole Balon/Mitchell. Starters 15. GT4 (44 laps) 1 Josh Miller/Jamie Day (Aston Martin Vantage); 2 Jamie Orton/Seb Hopkins (Porsche 718 Cayman) +10.713s; 3 Aaron Morgan/Bobby Trundley (McLaren 570S); 4 Richard Williams/Sennan Fielding (Audi R8 LMS); 5 Jordan Collard/Tom Edgar (Toyota GR Supra); 6 Matt Topham/Darren Turner (Aston Martin). FL Benji Hetherington (Porsche) 2m33.776s (101.88mph). P Marco Signoretti/Matt Cowley (Ford Mustang). S 13. Points 1 Topham/Turner 116.5; 2 Miller/Day 115.5 (below); 3 Williams/Fielding 114.5; 4 Signoretti/Cowley 96.5; 5 Jack Brown/Will Burns 95; 6 Edgar 77.5. For full results…

LYDDEN HILL LHMC 23 JULY Victory honours in the Pickup Truck Racing Championship double-header were shared between Paul Tompkins and George Turiccki, as the series returned to Lydden Hill for the first time since 2013. Having battled his way up to second during an exciting race one, Tompkins then relieved polesitter Allen Cooper of the lead at Pilgrims, leaving Cooper to battle for second with Mark Willis before a shunt involving Danny Hunn at Chesson’s Drift brought out a red flag. After tyre barrier repair work was completed, a five-lap sprint determined the outcome of the contest. Tompkins led away at the restart, while Willis quickly relegated Cooper to third at Paddock. The trio finished in that order come the flag as Tompkins’s son, Dean, narrowly held off Turiccki to…

“It’s old-school motorsport where you could win half the battle in the workshop before you even turn up just by using initiative and innovative ideas,” said Modified Fords racer Neil Jessop. The Eastbourne-based engineer runs his self-built Zakspeed Group 5-style Escort Mk2 in the series’ Class B, for cars with medium-sized normally aspirated engines. He took a fourth class win this season on Saturday before being sidelined by starter motor and fuel pump problems. “I like to think of it as a tribute,” said Jessop. “It’s not a replica because it’s modern spec. But the Gp5 Zakspeed cars were the ultimate Escorts in my mind so I wanted to do something that looked like that but had the pace to keep up with the quick boys now.” Jessop, who cut…

ANGLESEY FOC 23-24 JULY Despite the blustery and wet conditions, the racing spirit couldn’t be dampened at the Ferrari Club Competizione meeting at the stunning Anglesey venue last weekend. This event, organised by the Ferrari Owners Club, featured a busy paddock with an impressive 37 cars for the Darlington and District Motor Club’s Northern Saloon and Sports Car Championship alone. The five F355 Challenges were favourites for the Pirelli Ferrari Formula Classic races, and ran fastest in qualifying but, with the notable exception of three-time winner Tristan Simpson, were plagued by bad luck thereafter. Wayne Marrs took pole for the opener and, on previous form, was expected to secure most of the silverware. He managed to convert this into a win in the first race after fending off Christopher Compton-Goddard…

Spa-Francorchamps is so important in my motor racing story – I have so many great souvenirs from there. My father raced, but Spa is really where I started watching races. My grandparents had a big house in the town, and when I visited, I’d go to the track to see the cars on the old 14km (8.7-mile) track with my grandfather. We’d watch at Burnenville, Malmedy, the Masta Kink, all those crazy places. My first strong memory is from the Spa 24 Hours some time in the mid-1960s when I was maybe five or six. I remember looking up at the winners’ rostrum after the race and thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if one day I could be up there?’. All those years later when I took the first of…

LE MANS Alpine plans to hand Fernando Alonso a drive with its LMDh programme that would see him return to the Le Mans 24 Hours once his Formula 1 career is over. Alonso won Le Mans in 2018 and 2019 (above) with Toyota and has been clear about his desire to return to the French endurance classic. Alpine currently races in the World Endurance Championship with a grandfathered LMP1 car but will launch an LMDh programme from 2024. Alpine boss Laurent Rossi revealed last week that talks about a future switch to the marque’s LMDh squad were part of ongoing discussions surrounding a new F1 deal. “It’s always been part of it, last year even when we were discussing for the renewal for this year,” Rossi said. “We talked about…

FORMULA E The Andretti Formula E team is considering a replacement for Oliver Askew for next season, as owner Michael Andretti concedes that the American’s season has been “frustrating”. Askew had shown improved performance in qualifying at the Marrakech round earlier this month, when he made the duels for the first time, but a difficult New York City round continued his 11-race spell of failing to trouble the scorers. “We’re working on the second [seat] – we don’t know what we’ll do yet,” said Andretti of the 25-year-old. “It’s been a frustrating year for [Askew], I think we were all expecting a little more. I know he’s a really smart kid. He drove for us in Indy Lights and won the championship there, and he was very quick in IndyCar.…

Elite sportspeople don’t think like the rest of us. The Olympic triple jumper favourite for gold unable to look at the silver they ultimately received. The quarterback picked in the lower rounds of the NFL draft motivated more to beat teams that passed on them. Formula 1 drivers are the same. The best take it even further. Max Verstappen’s reaction to winning the French Grand Prix amid Ferrari and Charles Leclerc’s latest implosion demonstrated this well. The radio messages to/from his Red Bull squad after taking the flag were… businesslike. This is an operation for which winning is the expectation and losing is incomprehensible. It’s been like this for so long – even during Red Bull’s fallow years, it could threaten Mercedes with slick strategies and smooth race operations (2016…

Sebastian Vettel was forced into final-corner evasive action to avoid clattering into his Aston Martin team-mate, Lance Stroll having slowed at the apex seemingly to prevent the German getting a superior launch for the sprint to the flag to nick the final point. Stroll, who reckoned he “didn’t do anything reckless”, led a 10-11 result after climbing five places from 15th on the opening lap – neatly missing the Esteban Ocon-Yuki Tsunoda biff. A snap of Stroll oversteer on the last lap, however, left Vettel free to hassle his stablemate and attempt a cutback through the final right-hander to jump on the power early. The four-time champion, who had pitted for hard tyres a lap later to avoid an Aston double-stack, said: “He was obviously hitting the brakes again, before…

FIA FORMULA 2 PAUL RICARD (FRA) 23-24 JULY ROUND 9/14 It was finally Ayumu Iwasa’s day at the top at Paul Ricard, the DAMS driver taking his maiden Formula 2 victory in the feature race. Missing out on pole by just 0.006 seconds from Logan Sargeant, having been unable to make it across the line for a fourth qualifying lap, the Japanese driver lined up second for Sunday’s race. He took full advantage of a poor start from the Carlin man and, despite being briefly passed by Jack Doohan, was in control of the race by the end of the first lap, reclaiming the front spot at the North chicane before building a lead. Despite an early safety car, courtesy of contact between Marcus Armstrong and Dennis Hauger at Turn…

“It’s a different championship compared to what I was used to before,” says three-time DTM champion Rene Rast of the series’ GT3 era. “These cars have ABS, they have traction control, they have less aero, more weight, completely different driving style.” A whole new world to the prototype-esque Class 1 machines they may be, but in GT3 cars the DTM’s cream of the crop is still apparent. That was attested at Imola where Audi’s two top names from the Class 1 period, Rast and Nico Muller, lined up together on the front row and finished in that order as Rast took his first win since returning from a year in Formula E. But there’s another key difference to 2020, and that’s the teams the pair are driving for. They have…

The combination of reigning British Rally champion Matt Edwards and a Fiat 131 from Rallysport Development is reshaping the British historic rallying landscape after more than a decade of Ford Escort domination. Victory in the British Historic Rally Championship, with three events to run in the early autumn, is a real possibility. Those around rallying in the late 1970s will remember the time when co-driver Christian Geistdorfer sat in the back of the works Fiat 131 while Walter Rohrl sat up front. It was all about weight distribution and the practice was quickly outlawed after the 1978 RAC Rally. Reputedly, team manager Giorgio Pianta reckoned the move was worth a second per mile. What cannot be disputed is that in the Group 4 rallying era the 131 was a match…

CTCRC The unraced Jaguar X-type SCV8, the last car to emerge from the Rouse Hall workshops of four-time British Touring Car champion Andy Rouse, should make its race debut next year – nearly two decades after its creation. The spaceframe racer was built for Rouse’s proposed SCV8 series, which attracted manufacturer backing from Jaguar and Peugeot but failed to get off the ground. It was made available for purchase last year by CNC Motorsport AWS – owner Alan Strachan worked for Rouse in period. Supplied with a Lotus V8 used in SCV8’s initial testing, the car was due to race with a 550bhp Nicholson McLaren V8. It will be Jaguar-powered by a 4.5-litre V8 for its belated debut, after Classic Touring Car Racing Club Jaguar Challenge pacesetter Tom Robinson paired…

BRITISH GT All-disabled squad Team BRIT took its first overall British GT podium finish last Sunday at Spa after finishing third in the GT4 race with its McLaren 570S. The British GT debutant team aims to become the first all-disabled entry at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future. Its McLaren in British GT is raced by Bobby Trundley, diagnosed with severe autism as a child, and Aaron Morgan, a paraplegic following a motocross accident. Morgan ran competitively in the opening stint before Trundley held off and moved clear of three-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Darren Turner. Trundley then benefited from a Steller Audi penalty and, despite traction control problems, passed Tom Edgar’s Toyota for third and finished only 2.3s off second. “The mechanics did an incredible…

HISTORICS A very different mix of races curated by venue owner MotorSport Vision – centred on a capacity Historic Grand Prix Cars Association grid spanning 1952-65 – will feature at the revamped Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting this weekend. Having switched dates with the Silverstone Classic, the new offering reflects the Gold Cup’s heritage more accurately than in recent years. A Maserati 250F and Cooper-Bristols in the HGPCA field will transport spectators back to the Gold Cup’s non-championship Formula 1 roots, when Stirling Moss won the first two in 1954-55 driving the Italian masterpieces. Moss and world champions Jack Brabham, Jim Clark and John Surtees won Gold Cups in the HGPCA’s era. Among the stars of the Saturday/Sunday double-header are Rudi Friedrichs’s ex-Brabham Cooper T53, an ex-Clark Lotus 25 powered…

SPA (BEL) BRITISH GT 23-24 JULY That British GT’s visit to Spa ended with an empty top step of the podium for its overall victors – with the second and third-place finishers celebrating sheepishly either side – was an indication that this was no ordinary race. On one level, it was quite the good news story. Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley took their and the Fox Motorsport team’s first overall British GT race victory, and they did it with a formidable performance in their McLaren 720S that did not owe to the misfortune of others. But, even before the race, things were not as they seemed, and it all went back to before qualifying when the GT3 McLarens got a Balance of Performance benefit – less weight and more boost.…

SPA (BEL) GB3 23-24 JULY Hitech GP’s Luke Browning was almost unbeatable at Spa-Francorchamps as the second half of the GB3 Championship season commenced in the Ardennes. The British driver took pole for both of Saturday’s races with lap times almost half a second faster than his closest rivals, before going on to dominate each encounter. Browning made a good start in the first race but was passed on the long run to Les Combes on the opening lap, with championship rival Joel Granfors taking full advantage of the tow to blast past. Behind, a multi-car first lap incident exiting La Source eliminated James Hedley (racing for JHR having switched from Elite) and Nico Christodoulou (Arden), which brought out the safety car. When that pitted, Browning mirrored Granfors’s lap-one move…

SNETTERTON BRSCC 23-24 JULY Jordan Dempsey moved clear at the top of the National Formula Ford standings with a near perfect weekend at Snetterton. Pole position and three fastest laps demonstrated the Kevin Mills Racing driver’s pace in his Spectrum, and only Lucas Romanek’s last-gasp pass in the finale denied Dempsey a hat-trick of wins. Dempsey dominated the opener, winning by nine seconds. No tow left Romanek’s Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen qualifying a lowly seventh but he climbed to second, securing the place by passing Jamie Sharp and Morgan Quinn in one move at Riches. Romanek shadowed Dempsey throughout race two but couldn’t find a way past. The pair then entertained as they rose from sixth and seventh in the reversed-grid finale. Romanek demoted Sharp from the lead mid-race, while…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 23 JULY Michael Knibbs and Will Black-well-Chambers shared the spoils in the Mazda MX-5 Supercup at Oulton Park, on a day when leading championship contenders Richard Amos and Patrick Fletcher both ran into trouble. Amos arrived in Cheshire leading the standings, but the four-time winner hasn’t been victorious since April and his barren spell continued with two retirements. In both races his demise came after his Paddock Motorsport Mk3 MX-5 arrived at Hislops too fast mid-race, overshooting into the escape road. He had briefly led the opening bout, but James Cossins drove around the outside of him at Old Hall on lap two of 15. For a while, Cossins had stretched his legs but the extended half-hour race distance provided ample time for others to get on…

BOOK REVIEW BRM – RACING FOR BRITAIN Ian Wagstaff and Doug Nye RRP £120 The BRM story is a fascinating and tumultuous one, the incredible lows offset by periods when it took on and beat the best in the world. It’s 60 years since Britain’s first proper Formula 1 team took both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles, and now seems as good a time as any to celebrate the achievements of the outfit from Bourne. The Owen family, which still owns BRM, has started a number of projects to remind – or inform – people of the team’s history. “Our view is very much that we are custodians of this very significant piece of British motorsport history,” write Nick, Simon and Paul Owen – grandsons of key BRM figure Sir…

5 JARNO TRULLI Trulli forged his reputation for qualifying scalps during an impactful seven-race spell in 1997. The rookie habitually upstaged faster machinery in the year’s slowest car (the Lola not included), and never qualified on the back row. Only beaten once by team-mate Ukyo Katayama before his Prost call-up to replace the injured Olivier Panis, he beat both Tyrrells and Shinji Nakano’s Prost in the Brazilian GP. 4 CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI It’s a shame that his Minardi career is best remembered for his Monza 1993 backflip, because Fittipaldi was a prolific points-scorer with the team when that wasn’t a cert. His 1992 rookie campaign was wrecked by a neck injury after a Magny-Cours crash, but he raced Jean Alesi’s Ferrari hard for sixth at Suzuka. Two top-fives followed in a…