Indholdsfortegnelse for 03/08/23 i Autosport

Jake Dennis has shared podiums with Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon, but he never got the chance to join them on the Formula 1 grid. He has, however, just become a world champion following the Formula E finale in London last weekend (see page 28). Dennis, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans have been outstanding as they’ve fought for the title this season. Dennis’s consistency in a category that can be notoriously unpredictable has stood out, and his team boss Michael Andretti was full of praise for the 28-year-old when Stefan Mackley spoke to him at London’s double-header (p10). Dennis is the third Autosport BRDC Award winner to become an FIA world champion, following Jenson Button’s 2009 Formula 1 title and Anthony Davidson’s 2014 World…

FORMULA 1 Sauber managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi insists that 2026 Formula 1 engine and chassis partner Audi is on the “right route” despite rumours that its programme is behind schedule. The German manufacturer recently dismissed CEO Markus Duesmann, who fronted the F1 interest and commitment. There’s also speculation that its powertrain development is lagging behind Red Bull and Mercedes. Clarifying the state of the project, Alunni Bravi said: “The programme is on the right route… The Audi project is based not on a single individual but is a project for all the company. I think that there is no change. We work as a team, all together, to be ready for 2026. “This doesn’t mean that the challenge is easy. We have such strong competitors; we need to be…

OBITUARY Roger Dorchy was pretty much a fixture on the Le Mans 24 Hours grid for much of the 1970s and 1980s, though not at the chequered flag. He only saw the finish on three occasions in 13 starts and never in anything better than fourth position. Yet his place in the history of the great race was assured when the chicanes went in on the Mulsanne Straight in 1990. Two years before that, he had hit the highest speed ever recorded on the unbroken four-mile drag of public road. Dorchy, who has died aged 78 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, clocked 407km/h (253mph) at around 9pm during the 1988 race aboard his WM-Peugeot P88 Group C car (above). The official mark was declared at 405km/h for no other…

Lewis Hamilton taking on Sergio Perez through Spa’s Stavelot sequence in last Saturday’s sprint race was exactly what Formula 1 wanted. It was Mercedes versus Red Bull once again, even as just the appetiser for the main event still to come in the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. That the GP turned out to be yet another lead battle snoozefest is irrelevant, albeit unfortunate and the biggest problem facing F1. The day before, the sprint race focus turned to Hamilton and Perez, once Max Verstappen had demoted Oscar Piastri back to second. Perez had gone from harrying Pierre Gasly’s Alpine after the safety car restart to being attacked by Hamilton. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff argued that the second Red Bull driver was going “massively backwards” at this stage, but that’s only…

“I was surprised it took him so long to get to the front to be honest with you,” joked Red Bull boss Christian Horner in the aftermath of Max Verstappen’s second crushing Spa comeback drive in two years, his victory in the 2023 edition of the Belgian Grand Prix again coming ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. He may have started sixth on this occasion rather than row seven – his lowly grid spot thanks this time to a gearbox change penalty, not stemming from an engine replacement – but this was surely just as impressive as Verstappen’s 2022 Spa steamrollering. The description might be similar, but there is plenty to explain following Verstappen’s 10th GP victory of 2023, plus his second sprint sweep of this campaign. That concerns not only…

Oh, the fickle Ardennes weather, still pursuing the Belgian Grand Prix on its jump across the Formula 1 summer break. Raincoats and sunglasses packed. During FP1, Autosport takes a trackside wander and only the former is required. It has been steadily drizzling since we woke up in nearby Malmedy on Thursday morning – at no point has the precipitation, no matter how light, held off. Where once the prospect of a wet Belgian race might have dangled happy memories of legendary Michael Schumacher drives, now the mind immediately goes back to the 2021 washout farce here. Then, sadly, the realisation that Dilano van’t Hoff lost his life here in such conditions only four weeks ago. He had been honoured along with Anthoine Hubert on the Thursday during a track run,…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Ash Sutton crawled towards the Croft pitlane entry before his Ford Focus ST shuddered to a halt, the deranged left-front suspension at least making it across the white line, the rest of the British Touring Car Championship’s dominant machine marooned on the track. A day of potentially making a big stride towards his fourth title had ended in disaster, just as it did last time out, on the eve of the summer break, at Oulton Park. Sutton abandoned ship, stalked towards the Motorbase Performance pit garage, and chirpy Tom Ingram sailed on to second place. The reigning champion and his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N were, relative to those NAPA-liveried Fords, nowhere on pace last weekend. Yet here was Ingram, completing another of the weekends he so…

FORMULA 3 SPA (BEL) 29-30 JULY ROUND 8/9 The Formula 3 title battle will go down to the wire after a chaotic weekend at Spa meant Gabriel Bortoleto missed out on sealing the championship a round early. A tricky qualifying, where he ended up 15th, meant the Trident driver’s chances would be slim. And although he gained four places in Sunday’s race, after being eliminated from the opener due to a puncture, Bortoleto missed out on points. Fellow Brazilian Caio Collet scored his first win of the season in Saturday’s incident-strewn reversed-grid race. On a damp track, the safety car headed the field for much of the 12-lap duration and the race ultimately finished under caution. This led to confusion over whether points would be awarded, given fewer than two…

F1 ACADEMY PAUL RICARD (FRA) 30 JULY ROUND 6/7 Marta Garcia put herself on the brink of the inaugural F1 Academy title with two wins from three races at Paul Ricard. The Prema driver carries a 48-point advantage to the Formula 1-supporting season finale at Austin over ART rival Lena Buhler with a maximum of 67 available. The title protagonists had to take a back seat for the first race as Nerea Marti avenged her 0.032s qualifying defeat to Rodin Carlin’s Abbi Pulling by acing the start and taking a lead she held to the flag. The Spaniard became F1 Academy’s eighth different winner by 1.125s over Pulling, as Campos team-mate Lola Lovinfosse edged out Buhler to complete the podium. Garcia had only managed sixth in the opener, but in…

TOCA British Touring Car Championship promoter TOCA has firmed up its new replacement series for Ginetta Junior, but it won’t begin until 2025. Ginetta left the TOCA package last winter, bringing to an end a 15-year stint supporting the BTCC for the Yorkshire sportscar manufacturer’s Junior series for 14 to 17-year-old drivers. But TOCA chief Alan Gow likes the concept of junior racing, and immediately sought a replacement. “We want an announcement this side of Christmas,” said Gow, who would not be drawn on any details of the new series. “And we want a release of the car in the spring, so that it can be at a few of our rounds. Then the car builds will happen during next year. “It was always my desire to have a strong…

MINI FESTIVAL The Mini 7 Racing Club will again run two separate standalone races for its Se7en S-Class at this weekend’s Brands Hatch Mini Festival after the machines competed on their own for the first time last year. As Autosport closed for press, 18 drivers had signed up for the S-Class contests, including three newcomers. Former Miglia champion Andrew Jordan’s brother Bradley is among those joining the fray to make his debut, alongside Dan Bell, the son of 1997 Miglia conqueror Steve, who was killed in a crash at Silverstone 20 years ago. The M7RC’s Colin Peacock said the separate grids allow organisers to “shine a light on the class”, while a huge field is expected for the more powerful Miglia machines. Regular frontrunners Andrew Jordan, Nick Padmore, Endaf Owens,…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB The Wallace Menzies steamroller faltered for the first time this season as the British Hillclimb Championship headed to Wiscombe Park in Devon last weekend. Menzies was peerless on Saturday in dry conditions when he took his Gould GR59 to his 12th run-off victory of the campaign as he shaved 0.01 seconds from the year-old hill record set by Alex Summers. It was Summers who led the chase, 0.3s adrift in his Cosworth-powered DJ Firestorm, with Matthew Ryder and Scott Moran close behind. A damp and slippery track delivered another challenge on Sunday, when Summers set the mark at 39.81s. It was left to Menzies, as the last runner, to attack and he was up on split times at the Esses. But he pushed just too hard into Martini…

OULTON PARK HSCC GOLD CUP 28-30 JULY Oulton Park’s 70th anniversary year provided a perfect opportunity to reflect on the Cheshire venue’s illustrious past, with a colourful three-day retrospective showcasing its most famous contemporary event. First run in 1954, the Gold Cup was principally a non-championship Formula 1 race through the pre-1966 era covered by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association’s members, who turned out in force and raced their heroes’ steeds hard, making the celebration memorable for spectators. The spectacle of John Spiers and Guillermo Fierro Eleta four-wheel-drifting their priceless Maserati 250Fs, twitching their shapely tails just beyond the limit of adhesion through the corners – particularly on Sunday when rain anointed the surface – was a treat for the throng. Few onlookers would have witnessed Stirling Moss’s Gold…

CADWELL PARK MGCC 30 JULY Both MG Cup races at MG Car Club’s Cadwell Park meeting last Sunday had a very private and very intense battle for victory between Iain Dowler and Dan Ludlow as they were glued together in the first two places and left their rivals behind. Dowler led race one from pole, then – at half-distance – after Dowler understeered entering the start/finish straight, Ludlow dummied Dowler to pass on the outside of Coppice in a brave move for a lead he kept. The second race was almost an exact role reversal as Ludlow led from pole, but just before halfway Dowler got past when his rival was baulked by a Morgan they were sharing the track with for non-championship Morgan Challenge races. Dowler won, despite both…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Another category to display some Legends-style racing was the Mini Challenge Trophy and both Croft contests culminated in close scraps for the win. Polesitter Tom Ovenden looked set to claim a second victory of the year in the opener but Graves Motorsport duo Jack Byrne and Nicky Taylor reeled him in during the closing stages and were frantically trying to find a way by. Taylor looked to have snatched it with a dive down the inside of the hairpin on the penultimate tour only for the Excelr8 Motorsport driver to bravely retaliate through the Esses to triumph. It took two attempts to get the reversed-grid second race under way, with four drivers involved in a clash exiting the chicane as the field concertinaed together at the initial…

SILVERSTONE GB3 29-30 JULY Callum Voisin reclaimed the lead of the GB3 Championship from Alex Dunne, but the title rivals were put in the shade by Matthew Rees and McKenzy Cresswell during the latest round at Silverstone last weekend. Rees took a double pole in qualifying ahead of Cresswell and Tymek Kucharczyk, with the championship’s top three of Voisin, Joseph Loake and Dunne directly behind. JHR Developments driver Rees maintained his advantage at the start of Saturday’s opening contest and had already built a one-second advantage over Cresswell at the end of the first lap, and continued to pull clear to take his second GB3 victory – his first of 2023 – by 4.4s. “I just got off the line well and I controlled the race, we had the pace…

SNETTERTON 750MC 29-30 JULY A high-speed air demo from a passing RAF Typhoon inspired some strong competition during last weekend’s 750 Motor Club event at Snetterton. The first F1000 race was a straight battle between eventual winner Matthew Higginson and Dan Gore. Championship leader Thomas Gadd, meanwhile, was lucky to finish after tangling with Murfie Aldridge and did well to recover to seventh. This misfortune stood Gadd in good stead for the partially reversed-grid race, which he won from pole. Both Higginson and Craig Pollard attempted to catch him, with second-placed Higginson coming closest. Pollard’s Jedi developed a radiator problem late on and he dropped back slightly, but was still an impressive third despite his car leaking fluid. The third race was another two-way battle between winner Higginson and Gadd,…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI 28-29 JULY A trio of excellent races featuring the combined efforts of the British Racing & Sports Car Club National contenders and most of the local stars topped last weekend’s Kirkistown bill, and represented the return of Formula Ford 1600 to the limelight at the Northern Ireland circuit. The National Championship provided the much-needed shot in the arm, and the FFords opened proceedings on Friday evening after qualifying with a close-fought battle involving Brandon McCaughan, Jordan Kelly and Lucas Romanek. They stayed together for a while before McCaughan managed to pull out a smallish lead as the other two squabbled. Towards the end they closed in again, but McCaughan held on to take his first win since April at Oulton Park. It was Kelly’s turn to take the…

FORMULA 1 It may well be the Formula 1 summer shutdown, but the HR department at Alpine can’t jet off on holiday just yet. They need to start hiring fast because, alongside the removal of CEO Laurent Rossi last month, team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane have left by mutual consent, and chief technical officer Pat Fry is on his way to Williams. Alpine had targeted holding onto fourth place in the 2023 constructors’ championship while aggressively upgrading its car to close the gap to Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. But it now resides sixth, and has slipped behind Aston Martin and McLaren. That sluggish start to the campaign prompted Rossi to arrange an interview with French broadcaster Canal+ to label his team as “amateurish”, a move…

F1 ACADEMY The all-female F1 Academy series, which launched this year to criticism over a lack of live TV coverage, will strengthen its relationship with Formula 1 for 2024. Next season, the 10 top-flight teams must each back one driver in the Formula 4-based series and have their livery decorate a car. Each of ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, Prema Racing and Rodin Carlin run three entries in the F1 Academy. As such, two thirds of the grid will be F1-supported. The remaining five drivers will be backed by other partners that are yet to be announced. Series managing director Susie Wolff (below) said: “This landmark moment not only demonstrates the depth of support for F1 Academy from across the F1 community but will inspire a whole generation…

“To become world champion is something we all dream of.” For Jake Dennis, that dream became a reality in the London E-Prix as he sealed the 2022-2023 Formula E title in front of his home crowd. It certainly wasn’t easy, with wheel-to-wheel battles and two red flags putting Dennis’s crowning in doubt until the very final moments. In fact, it has been far from easy all season for the Briton, even if his campaign did start in almost perfect fashion with a win at the opening round in Mexico City and runner-up finishes in the Diriyah E-Prix double-header. Incredibly, between Diriyah and the second race in Berlin – a period of nearly three months – he failed to score a single point across four races. But Dennis dug deep and…

There were three main themes to ‘normal’ qualifying at Spa. Two were redemption arcs, one the latest Max Verstappen radio rant and what followed. Charles Leclerc was the main hero, valiantly splitting the Red Bull pair, as Sergio Perez finally made it back to the sharp end of a non-sprint Q3 session, the Mexican recording his best result over the typical Q1-Q2-Q3 format since early May in Miami. Ferrari star Leclerc excelling against the clock is nothing new, but in Spain, Canada and Austria this year he’d had a surprise weakness exposed; he couldn’t bring things together in mixed conditions. The evening session started wet enough for intermediate tyres to be required in Q1 and, although it dried sufficiently for slicks by the end of Q2, the track was still…

A late lower-midfield battle for supremacy was won by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who moved up to 12th after Alex Albon’s rapidly degrading tyres prompted a third stop for the Williams driver. Bottas had battled with Albon and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, ultimately winning the bout when the Anglo-Thai stopped and the Dane’s tyres began to fade. Alfa team-mate Zhou Guanyu then made his way from the back through the rearguard rank and file, dispatching the Haas pair and Daniel Ricciardo, as Albon followed him through on a fresh set of soft tyres. While Albon homed into DRS range of Zhou by the end, he had run out of time to put a move on the Chinese racer for 13th. “Today has been a solid race, I was happy with our…

From glory at Oulton Park, where he claimed the season’s equal highest points tally of any race weekend, Jake Hill fell back to earth with a bump at Croft. He was a contender for a good grid position in qualifying, and indeed set a time second only to Cammish on theoretical bests – not including a lap that would have hoisted him up the order if not for an ill-timed red flag. Sixth was his reward, pipped by WSR BMW team-mate Colin Turkington. “I’m just not putting my sectors together – there’s the truth of it,” he said. Hill led the BMW brigade in race one with fifth place, and in the sequel he was running sixth – again ahead of Turkington – while pressuring Josh Cook when he spun…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE ENDURANCE CUP NURBURGRING (DEU) 30 JULY ROUND 4/5 Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon once again proved that they are the crew to beat in GT World Challenge Europe, as the ASP Mercedes trio converted pole position to victory at the Nurburgring. As chaos often reigned behind, the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sat serenely at the top of the pile until the final hour but still had enough in the tank to beat the sister Merc of Team AlManar’s Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller. ASP’s second Endurance Cup victory of 2023 could not have been better timed. Marciello, Boguslavskiy and Gounon moved ahead of Rowe Racing in the points as BMW largely struggled in the Eifel region. The best it could manage was seventh…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP SPA (BEL) 30 JULY ROUND 5/7 Morris Schuring stunned the established frontrunners of the Porsche Supercup to take his first series victory at Spa. The 18-year-old Fach Auto Tech-run Dutchman had never finished higher than sixth (in Monaco), but led the entirety of the race from pole, fending off points leader Bastian Buus before rain prompted the red flags to be shown during the penultimate of 11 scheduled laps. A measure of Schuring’s control on the race was the fact that Buus had only one meaningful attempt at passing. The Dane dived down the inside at La Source on lap eight but, as Buus ran wide, Schuring reclaimed the position on corner exit. Harry King finished fourth to cement himself as Lechner Racing team-mate Buus’s main championship rival.…

RADICAL CUP UK Austin Riley made his Radical Cup UK debut at Silverstone last weekend with Tim Gray Motorsport as part of his prize for becoming the 1340 and overall champion in Radical’s North American series last year. Competing in the SR3 class at the wheel of a brand-new car provided by Radical Motorsport, the Canadian bounced back from a non-finish in the opener to take 10th and 13th positions in the other two contests. “I’m happy to be a part of the Radical UK Cup,” he said. “I love this track. This has always been a bucket list track for me to drive. “Drivers are a lot more competitive here and aggressive. It takes a while to get used to and especially driving on the other side of the…

GB3/GB4 Heavy rain led to the third GB3 and GB4 races at Silverstone being abandoned last weekend. The final GB3 encounter was initially run for three laps behind the safety car before being red-flagged due to heavy standing water and poor visibility, with the race pushed back on the timetable in the hope of conditions improving. But persistent rain eventually led to its cancellation, as well as the subsequent GB4 race. It is the second time this year that a GB4 Silverstone contest has been cancelled due to rain after the same happened at the May event. Drivers from both series supported the decision, with the amount of spray and lack of visibility a concern. “Of course safety is always the priority,” said John Bennett, who was running second in…

BARC The opening Junior Saloon Car Championship race at Thruxton last weekend was decided in the officals’ room after contact between Daire Flock and CJ Morgan. Morgan took the win on the road but was handed a five-second penalty for the incident, which relegated him back behind championship leader Flock. Cameron Pratt-Thompson won the other two bouts to reduce Flock’s points advantage. Tommy Field had his first race since 2016 in the ex-Wayne Crabtree Ford Escort RSR and managed to take victory in the second of the Classic & Modern Motorsport Club’s saloon races. He trailed home Nigel Mustill’s Volvo S60 in the opener. Some of the closest Caterham action came in the 310R division, with Taylor O’Flanagan taking the second win by just 0.19s from race-one victor Tom Wyllys.…

HGPCA HISTORIC GOLD CUP Races 1 & 2 Justin Maeers (Brabham BT11A) JIM CLARK CUP: HISTORIC FORMULA JUNIOR Races 1 & 2 Horatio Fitz-Simon (Lotus 22) SIR JACKIE STEWART TROPHY: HISTORIC F3 Races 1 & 2 Samuel Harrison (Brabham BT21B) MRL RAC WOODCOTE & STIRLING MOSS TROPHIES John Spiers/Nigel Greensall (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly) VSCC EGERTON CUP Race 1 Andrew Smith (Frazer Nash Super Sports) Race 2 Joshua Beebee (Frazer Nash TT Replica) MRL HISTORIC TOURING CAR CHALLENGE Paul Mensley/Michael Lyons (Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500, below) HRDC GERRY MARSHALL TROPHY: PRE-’83 TOURING CARS Michael Whitaker (Rover SD1) HRDC JACK SEARS TROPHY: PRE-’66 TOURING CARS Mike Gardiner/Dan Cox (Ford Lotus Cortina) CSCC TONY SUGDEN TROPHY: SPECIAL SALOONS & MODSPORTS Race 1 Chris Southcott (MG Lenham Midget-Vauxhall) Race 2 Martin Reynolds (Ford Escort-Millington Mk2)…

LEGENDS ELITE CUP Bump-drafting down the straight from the chicane to Tower, multiple cars running side-by-side through the Esses and unpredictability to the final corner. The combination of a packed field of Legends Cars and Croft circuit is certainly an entertaining one as the series returned to the British Touring Car support bill in style last weekend. The second heat was particularly thrilling. Frontrunners Matt Isherwood, Robert Barrable and Jack Parker – the star of the previous Elite Cup BTCC-supporting round at Brands Hatch – were all drawn towards the head of the field and put on a magnificent display. The lead changed on most of the six frenetic laps but it all came down to the final tour. Parker had a great run into Tower and dived inside Isherwood,…

BRITISH F4 After his remarkable win from 20th on the grid at the Donington Park opener, Louis Sharp went five British Formula 4 weekends without a victory. But the Kiwi was back on form at Croft, taking a double win and almost reclaiming the points lead. The Rodin Carlin driver did the hard work in qualifying by securing a double pole and proceeded to take lights-to-flag triumphs in races one and three. He benefited from the absence of front-row starter James Higgins when the finale was restarted – following a spectacular off for Pat Heuzenroeder at the chicane when he was launched into the air having clipped a kerb – with the Fortec driver having also been tipped into a spin at Clervaux by championship leader Will Macintyre. Yet it…

SILVERSTONE MSVR 29-30 JULY Hugo Cook scored a GT Cup brace during a weekend of mixed weather at Silverstone. Tom Roche jumped the start to lead Cook’s Audi R8 in Saturday’s sprint contest, eventually incurring a 10-second penalty, and spun the McLaren from first place after colliding with Orange Racing team-mate Russ Lindsay’s Porsche. Cook profited to win by 8.8s from James Wallis in the 7TSIX McLaren, while GTC honours went to FF Corse Ferrari driver James Owen, who edged the RAM Racing Mercedes of Adam Knight to third overall. Roche made amends in the pitstop race with a comfortable victory alongside Simon Orange, who built a 7s lead following an early safety-car period before handing over the 720S GT3. Cook, sharing with Sacha Kakad, finished second, while Wallis and…

F1000 Races 1 & 3 Matthew Higginson Race 2 Thomas Gadd FORMULA VEE Races 1 & 2 Matthew Hyde (AHS Dominator) LOCOST Races 1 & 2 Craig Land 116 SPRINT TROPHY & 120 COUPE CUP Races 1 & 2 Louis Woodward (120i) 116 TROPHY Mack Priestwood ARMED FORCES RACE CHALLENGE Race 1 Paul Cook (BMW E46 M3) Race 2 Mark White (Honda Civic Type R) BMW CAR CLUB RACING Race 1 Niall Bradley (E46 M3) Race 2 Graham Crowhurst (E46 M3) TOYOTA MR2s Race 1 Karl Johnston (Roadster) Race 2 Shaun Traynor (Roadster) MX-5 CUP Races 1 & 2 Ben Short Race 3 George King BIKESPORTS Races 1 & 2 Charles Hall (Mittell MC-41R) RENAULT CLIO SPORT CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Jack Dwane (197, below) For full results visit:…

FORMULA FORD 1600 Race 1 Brandon McCaughan (Van Diemen JL13) Race 2 Jordan Kelly (Van Diemen RF06) Race 3 Lucas Romanek (Van Diemen JL13) FORMULA SHEANE Races 1 & 2 Richard Kearney MINI COOPERS Races 1 & 2 Kian O’Brien MAZDA MODI-5-CUP/FIESTA ZETECS Races 1 & 2 Francis Allen (MX-5, below) ROADSPORTS/GLOBAL GT/NI SEVENS Races 1 & 2 Jim Larkham (Radical PR6) HRCA HISTORIC SPORTS CARS Race 1 David Kelly (Crossle BMW 9S) Race 2 Gareth Thompson (MGB GT V8) LIBRE SALOONS Gavin Stanfield (Subaru Impreza) For full results visit: speedhive.mylaps.com…

Johnny Herbert sits in the cockpit of his Lotus 102D during the 1992 Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. The Brentwood-born racer qualified 26th and last in a car originally introduced at the start of the 1990 season (it was replaced next time out, round five at Imola, by the 107). After an entertaining fightback, he spun off the wet track into retirement on lap 14. During a season blighted by bad luck and reliability issues – he was classified in just five of the 16 rounds – Herbert had some moments in the sun, scoring two sixth places and starting from the third row of the grid twice. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Williams has signed veteran Formula 1 engineer Pat Fry from Alpine. He will start on 1 November as chief technical officer, a role that has been vacant since the December exit of Francois-Xavier Demaison, who left alongside former team principal Jost Capito. New Williams boss James Vowles singled out Fry back in January but it took three months to convince him. Then, amid media outbursts from ousted Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, Fry was finally convinced to end a second Enstone stint that began in 2020. Fry previously served as a consultant for Manor, which ran a Mercedes customer engine. That meant he rubbed shoulders with ex-Silver Arrows strategy head Vowles throughout 2016. Williams reckons this statement signing will enable it to tempt other F1 figureheads, although a new…

WEC Manthey Racing will be Porsche’s representative in the World Endurance Championship’s new LMGT3 class next year. The Nurburgring-based team has been chosen to run the two entries the German manufacturer will be awarded for next year courtesy of its presence in the Hypercar ranks. Porsche has picked a team in which it has had a majority shareholding since 2013, the season in which the two organisations joined forces for a GTE Pro attack in the WEC. They remained ever present in the class with the exception of 2016 until it was phased out at the end of last season, winning the 2015 and 2018-19 titles and taking Le Mans victories in 2013, 2018 and 2022 along the way. “Besides the fact that it is a subsidiary, several other factors…

NASCAR Three-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has confirmed his intention to make a permanent switch to NASCAR next season. A Stateside move has been in the works since the New Zealander’s sensational win on his debut in the Cup Series on the streets of Chicago last month. Van Gisbergen is under contract with Triple Eight in Supercars for next year, but the team has been clear that it will release him if needed. An early exit is now all but a certainty, the 34-year-old confirming that he is on the hunt for a NASCAR programme next year. When asked it if it will be a full-time deal he said he wasn’t sure, although that appeared to be reference to a full Cup programme. He then clarified that there…

Big grids of GT3 machinery may be nothing out of the ordinary in Europe, but the sight of 36 cars assembling for June’s GTWorld Challenge Asia round at Fuji represented an important achievement for a championship that was forced into hibernation for two seasons during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. With cross-border travel in Asia made impossible, GT Asia ground to a halt in 2020-21 before relaunching last year with a new ‘Japan Cup’ element. The idea was simple: four of that year’s six planned races were held in Japan, and teams could opt to enter those races and have their own classification. The decision to anchor the SRO-run series’ relaunch in Japan was made in late 2021, when countries such as China and Thailand were still in the…

Max Verstappen may have secured a second Formula 1 sprint race win of 2023 last weekend at Spa, but there was no doubting the real star of the show: McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The Australian had already been impressing when he qualified just 0.011 seconds behind Verstappen in the condensed Q1-Q2-Q3 session. Piastri had actually been up on the Dutchman from Stavelot 1, only losing his time going wide out of the final corner. The other incidents of note in that session were Charles Leclerc’s slow middle sector, featuring a big save at Turn 9 that cost him a shot at getting among the front row battle and let Carlos Sainz slip in ahead to start third, plus Lance Stroll crashing while attempting a run on slicks in Q2. That stopped…

Oscar Piastri’s second place during the Spa sprint had the shine taken off it through his first-corner clash with Carlos Sainz, with both drivers adjudged to have been at fault as the FIA waved away a possible penalty. On the run to La Source, Sainz locked a wheel and pulled right in a bid to pass Lewis Hamilton, while Piastri attempted to take to the inside line. The Australian was left with limited space, and the McLaren’s right-front wheel crunched into the wall as his left side gouged a hole out of Sainz’s sidepod. Piastri pulled up at the end of the lap to retire ahead of Stavelot, while the Ferrari eventually fell to the back and limped around with floor damage before Sainz retired his “undriveable” car on lap…

If Formula E wanted a blockbuster film made about the championship in a similar fashion to the coming Formula 1 movie, it wouldn’t have to look beyond the season-ending London E-Prix double-header for the perfect narrative: Championship protagonists starting together on the front row, the favourite racing in front of his home crowd, and the other dramatically colliding with his team-mate. Add in an outsider for the championship taking victory to put the destination of the title on a knife-edge, sprinkle in a few red flags to heighten the drama before the home hero proves triumphant, and you have the perfect script. In fact, the only element missing was that all this took place during the penultimate round of the season rather than the very last race. But that suited…

FORMULA 2 SPA (BEL) 29-30 JULY ROUND 10/13 Theo Pourchaire reclaimed the Formula 2 championship lead in dramatic style at Spa, with title rival Frederik Vesti crashing out before the start of the feature race. The ART driver moved 12 points clear of his Prema rival on Sunday after the Dane, due to start second, spun off on the Kemmel straight on his way to the grid, suffering terminal damage. Pourchaire went on to finish second behind Virtuosi ace Jack Doohan, and reclaimed the points lead with three rounds remaining. The feature race victory for Alpine F1 protege Doohan was his second in as many weeks, the culmination of a stunning drive from 11th on the grid. After starting on the medium-compound tyres, he ran the alternative strategy as the…

NASCAR CUP RICHMOND (USA) 30 JULY ROUND 22/36 RFK Racing had its best performance of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season at Richmond Raceway, but Chris Buescher ended up much happier than team co-owner Brad Keselowski. The Ford pair combined to lead 190 of the 400 laps and both took turns in the lead, but it was Buescher who came away with the team’s first win of the year. Buescher emerged as the leader following the final round of green flag pitstops but saw his big lead over Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota disappear when a late-race caution set up a restart with three laps remaining. Hamlin initially stayed close to Buescher but drifted up the track in Turn 2 with two laps to go and lost momentum, allowing Buescher…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK (AUS) 29-30 JULY ROUND 7/12 The see-sawing Supercars battle between Chevrolet teams Triple Eight and Erebus Motorsport continued at Sydney Motorsport Park, where Erebus’s Brodie Kostecki regained the series lead with victory in the calendar’s only night race on Saturday. Triple Eight made a meal of qualifying, Broc Feeney lacking pace to end up 16th, while Shane van Gisbergen copped a track limits infringement on his critical final run, leaving him 20th on the grid. That made life easy for Kostecki, who got the early jump on Andre Heimgartner’s pole-starting Brad Jones Chevy Camaro and put in a flawless drive to victory. The battle for the remaining podiums spots was thrilling. At one point in the closing laps, Cam Waters (Tickford Ford Mustang), the Walkinshaw…

CSCC Globetrotting Ford fanatic Martin Reynolds was a surprise winner of the Tony Sugden Trophy for Special Saloons and Modsports at Oulton Park last weekend as racers braved horrendous conditions at the Gold Cup meeting. After broadening his horizons this season by competing at Assen in the Netherlands, Hockenheim and the Lausitzring in Germany and Austria’s Red Bull Ring to date, Reynolds took the 2.5-litre Millington-engined Ford Escort Mk2 from his Blue Oval fleet to Cheshire. Fourth in the dry opener behind Andy Southcott (Lenham Midget-Vauxhall), Simon Allaway (Lotus Esprit-Chevrolet) and Danny Morris (Peugeot-Cosworth 309 turbo), Reynolds was one of 13 intrepid challengers for the Classic Sports Car Club series’ finale. “I was fortunate to find myself on the front row [the previous winner gets a 10-place grid drop, while…

From the moment it was first announced that the Legends Cars would be making three guest appearances on the British Touring Car support bill this year, there was plenty of excitement. The five-eighths scale imitations of 1930s American machines have a reputation for producing some dramatic racing and seemed like the perfect fit for BTCC events, particularly in the absence of the action-packed Ginetta Junior contests. Interest built further when it was confirmed a mini Elite Cup championship would be fought over the three BTCC meetings. Yet the Brands Hatch opener in May was a little disappointing. Tricky wet conditions and a stop/start weekend did not truly showcase what the Legends were capable of. But the brilliant sight of Jack Parker, Robert Barrable and Matt Isherwood circulating as one in…

Superlative driving shone elsewhere too. Richard Wilson’s Lotus 15 fell before qualifying, precluding a reprise of Roy Salvadori’s 1958 Gold Cup victory in Sunday’s horribly wet Motor Racing Legends pre-1961 sportscar race. After rear hub failure stopped Shane Brereton’s ex-Stirling Moss Cooper Monaco, the ability of Nigel Greensall (Lister-Jaguar) and Chris Ward (Jaguar C-type) to walk on water in John Spiers and the on-form Nigel Webb’s cars was awesome to behold on each side of the equation. They finished clear of Dion Kremer, who flew from St Kitts in the Caribbean to get wet in his Lotus 17. Daniel Smith, finishing father Andrew’s Monaco, did well to repel Chris Clarkson (Lister) for fourth. The Vintage Sports-Car Club races entertained royally. Andrew Smith, returning to his roots, beat fellow Frazer Nash…

PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB The Porsche Sprint Challenge GB drivers had clearly taken some inspiration from the Legends battles. After two fairly tame races at Croft, the Cayman closer had a real bite to it, with ferocious action throughout. Right from the start, Graves Motorsport driver Max Coates was all over the back of polesitter Matthew Armstrong. He made an attempt into Clervaux on the second lap but this proved unsuccessful and instead let Joe Warhurst through at the chicane. However, the driver on the charge was Redline’s Toby Trice. With Armstrong then slowing with a puncture, Trice pounced and dived inside Warhurst at Tower, clipping the Team Parker car in the process, to grab the lead. “It was insane – I don’t think they saw me and I thought,…

LEGENDS ELITE CUP Race 1 (6 laps) 1 Marcus Pett; 2 Ben Higgins +0.359s; 3 Connor Mills; 4 Chris Needham; 5 Peter Barrable; 6 Tyler Read. Fastest lap Needham 1m35.182s (79.43mph). Pole Mills. Starters 30. Race 2 (6 laps) 1 Jack Parker; 2 Robert Barrable +0.350s; 3 Matt Isherwood; 4 Oli Schlup; 5 Stephen Treherne; 6 Gareth Sheridan. FL Will Gibson 1m35.226s (79.39mph). P Isherwood. S 30. Race 3 (8 laps) 1 Gibson; 2 Simon Griffiths +0.524s; 3 Nathan Anthony; 4 Kieran Beaty; 5 Andy Bird; 6 Declan Burke. FL Gibson 1m36.608s (78.26mph). P Paul Musselle. S 30. Race 4 (6 laps) 1 Mills; 2 Gibson +4.156s; 3 R Barrable; 4 Bird; 5 Nick Bridgeman; 6 Beaty. FL Higgins 1m35.685s (79.01mph). P Bridgeman. S 30. Race 5 (3 laps) 1…

GAME F1 MANAGER 2023 PC, PlayStation, Xbox RRP £44.99 Last year, we enjoyed our time with F1 Manager 2022. It had all the sheen of an officially licenced Formula 1 product, combining approachability for the Drive to Survive generation with just enough depth to satisfy veteran F1 fans. Was it a perfect game? Far from it, but ’22 represented an encouraging first outing for Frontier Developments, building a solid foundation for this year’s entry. The question is, is F1 Manager 2023 a big enough improvement to justify another purchase? The latest derivation sees you assume the role of an F1 team principal responsible for recruitment, facility management and car research and development. You’re also tasked with overseeing the team’s race day performance, making strategy calls that can shape your team’s…

Despite his 17 starts in the Bathurst 1000, yielding a pair of second places, many of Paul Radisich’s fondest memories are rooted in the British Touring Car Championship’s 1990s Super Touring era. A couple of massive accidents in Australia’s Great Race, where the Kiwi sustained multiple injuries in 2006 and 2008 that ended his professional career, probably don’t help the fearsome Mount Panorama circuit’s cause. Instead, it is the venue where Radisich claimed a second consecutive Touring Car World Cup triumph in 1994 that he selects as his favourite. “For challenging tracks, I would say Donington,” he says. “But not just for that [win]. It was always a delight to run there.” Four wins and four second places from nine starts across the BTCC, World Cup and non-championship TOCA Shootout…