Indholdsfortegnelse for 21/09/23 i Autosport

Many have suggested that, without Red Bull, we’d have a tight and exciting battle at the front in Formula 1 this year. And last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix proved it. Just 1.3 seconds covered the top three teams and the result was still in doubt on the final lap. Congratulations to Ferrari and, in particular, Carlos Sainz for a beautifully managed race. As Jake Boxall-Legge explains in our report on page 20, Sainz’s tactic to keep Lando Norris in DRS range so that the McLaren acted as a buffer to the charging Mercedes was crucial – and smart in a way reminiscent of Jackie Stewart or Alain Prost. There were some murmurings that the recent technical directives have hurt Red Bull (p4), but that seems rather unlikely. Singapore has often…

FORMULA 1 The FIA will experiment with more aggressive spray guards that completely cover the wheels on a Formula 1 car in the next step of its quest to improve wet-weather visibility. A trial of smaller wheel fairings was carried out at Silverstone in July, but the design proved largely ineffective. Nevertheless, the governing body will persist with the idea, even though 60% of the spray is kicked up by the fully exposed diffuser. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis explained: “The spray guards covered too little of the wheel. I was quite sceptical and imagined that we wouldn’t see important results. In the next tests we will carry out, we will test complete coverage of the wheel, going even beyond what would be needed to understand what the threshold is…

FORMULA 1 ROKiT intends to persist with its $149million legal action against the Williams Formula 1 team despite its case in Florida being dismissed because the technology company hired a lawyer who was suspended from practising in the state’s District Court. The whole dispute relates to a title sponsorship deal. ROKiT paid the Grove squad $19m in 2019 before COVID hit. Then Williams dropped the stickers, having also supposedly made “fraudulent statements” about its potential competitiveness. The case will restart in California after it was thrown out by Judge Beth Blood on the grounds that ROKiT’s chosen lawyer, Larry Klayman, is unable to operate in the Southern Florida District Court. Klayman says this restriction, which he is challenging, is because of a 15-year-old matter from when he “took on [President…

BTCC Former World Touring Car champion Rob Huff has decided not to return to the Team Hard Cupra squad for the final two rounds of the British Touring Car Championship, but is eyeing a full-time seat in the series for 2024. Huff, whose only full BTCC season came in 2004, occupied the ex-Nic Hamilton Cupra for last month’s round at Knockhill (left) in between his Audi commitments in the TCR World Tour, and was expected to compete this weekend at Silverstone and in next month’s finale at Brands Hatch. “It was great for Tony [Gilham, Hard boss] to get me in the car at Knockhill, but unfortunately the stars haven’t aligned for the rest of the season,” said 43-year-old Huff. “I will be attending Silverstone to speak to teams about…

WRC The World Rally Championship is set to change its control tyre supplier for 2025 after Pirelli announced that it will leave the series at the end of next season. Pirelli has supplied control rubber to all WRC categories since 2021, after winning the 2019 FIA tender for a contract that expires at the end of 2024. The Italian company elected not to submit a bid for the 2025-27 contract, although there were indications in an interview with Autosport last month that it had been contemplating a continuation of its involvement. Following the decision, Pirelli boss Mario Isola (below) explained: “No, [cost saving was] not really [part of the decision] because we have a team dedicated to WRC and we believe in this period we got what we wanted in…

NASCAR CUP Denny Hamlin was finally able to translate a strong performance in a NASCAR Cup playoff race into a victory at Bristol last Saturday. In a race that battled to find a rhythm due to continued inclement weather, Hamlin took control after he grabbed the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team-mate Ty Gibbs with 141 of 500 laps remaining. With the race remaining caution-free, Hamlin was not seriously challenged and cruised to a 2.437-second win over Kyle Larson. Hamlin’s only hiccup was a pitroad speeding penalty in the first stage. His win came after he had a car capable of winning the first two playoff races, but the best he had come away with was a second place at Kansas Speedway. Christopher Bell, who started on the pole…

UK START TIMES Friday 22 September FP1 0330 FP2 0700 Saturday 23 September  FP3 0330 QUALIFYING 0700 Sunday 24 September  RACE 0600 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1230 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors SUZUKA STATS Previous winners 2022 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m29.304s POLE LAP RECORD Sebastian Vettel 1m27.064s (2019) RACE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m30.983s (2019) Laps led Michael Schumacher 309 Sebastian Vettel 188 Lewis Hamilton 181 Mika Hakkinen 135 Ayrton Senna 112 Damon Hill 83 Alain Prost 76 Nico Rosberg 74 Gerhard Berger 69 Nigel Mansell 60…

It’s around 10am on Saturday 22 April at Donington Park. The first British Touring Car Championship free practice session of the season is nearing its end. The rhythm of rasping BTCC cars bombing downhill through the Craner Curves to the Old Hairpin is becoming almost hypnotic. Suddenly, a blue-and-yellow projectile comes into view, carrying what must be impossible speed into the right-hander at the bottom of the hill. There’s no way it can make it through… It does. Comfortably. Ash Sutton and his newly massively developed Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST end that session nearly half a second clear of the opposition. The progress of what is, let’s not forget, a front-wheel-drive machine carrying a base weight of 1340kg has been extraordinary. So too is the three-time champion behind the…

In retrospect, perhaps braving the warm conditions would have been an easier pursuit during the night-time FP2 session. Perambulating along the barriers is sweaty work in Singapore, and the mandated photographer’s tabard adds an extra layer of insulation you’re hardly crying out for. But we shall endure, and meander down towards a deceptively fast Turn 5 to watch some cars. It’s a curious corner; the cars pull out of Turn 3 and wind down a slight incline, before darting left after the Turn 4 kink. They do so aggressively and try to straighten the car up, while dropping down three gears. The inertia bites as they make a sharp right-hand turn, but every car complies as they navigate the corner. One of the Williams drivers, sporting the special-edition Gulf livery…

LIAM LAWSON ALPHATAURI DRIVER How tough was your first Singapore race physically? It was tough. Obviously, this place is extremely tough on the body, especially when you’re fighting the car a lot. It makes it that extra bit difficult. But yeah, happy to survive the race. Did anything go wrong on your drive to ninth? The start. I need to get on top of that because it’s now two weekends in a row that I’ve botched the start basically and lost a couple of positions. It’s just making our life more difficult. That’s really the biggest loss of the race and that’s on my part. For the rest, I think we extracted everything out of the car. We didn’t quite have the race pace. When did you realise points were…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SANDOWN (AUS) 17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 9/12 Broc Feeney scored his first Sandown 500 win and Jamie Whincup his sixth as the Supercars endurance season burst into life last Sunday. The Triple Eight Chevrolet duo were near the front all weekend, although it was the Erebus-run Camaros of Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki that led the way in the qualifying Top 10 Shootout. Come race day, though, the pairing proved too potent, Whincup overhauling Erebus co-drivers Jack Perkins (in Brown’s car) and David Russell (Kostecki’s) in the first two stints to put the Red Bull entry on course for victory. Feeney was then mistake-free and looked set to cruise to the finish with a healthy margin over the Erebus cars, only for a late safety car to change the…

SUPER GT SUGO (JPN) 17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 6/8 Honda scored another Super GT victory at Sugo, but only after one of its cars was stripped of victory and another involved in a serious crash. At the end of a tumultuous 300km race, it was the Real Racing Honda NSX-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Nobuharu Matsushita that won on the road after a thrilling battle with the ARTA machine driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Toshiki Oyu. But post-race technical inspection revealed that the Real car’s skid block was too worn, leading to exclusion for Tsukakoshi and Matsushita. Polesitters Nojiri and Oyu therefore picked up their first win as a pairing, giving ARTA back-to-back victories after the sister Honda of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu triumphed at Suzuka. The NISMO Nissan Z…

Noise. A blessing or a curse. A delight or an irritation. For many race and rally fans, it’s one part of the essence of what makes motorsport so appealing. You can count Toyota’s chairman and former CEO for the past 13 years among their number. “She said noise, but to my ears it is more like a lullaby!” laughs Akio Toyoda, great-grandson of the company’s founder and inspiration behind the multi-championship-winning Gazoo Racing, as he picks up the misplaced nuance of his translator’s words when asked about the prospects of battery electric motorsport in the vein of Formula E and Extreme E doing away with one of the sport’s more visceral appeals. “In my view sound is a critical part of motorsport,” he continues. “In the case of Le Mans,…

MINI CHALLENGE A new scholarship has been launched by Mini Challenge organisers, with one person getting the chance to win a prize drive next year worth over £50,000. The selection process will feature several stages, beginning with a karting event at Capital Karts in Canary Wharf on 30 October. Not only driving ability will be examined during the day; there will also be a mock interview to assess the driver’s media skills, a pitstop challenge to test their teamworking and a simulator session using Puresims equipment – the company operated by British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton. The next stage is due to be held at Croft early next year, when on-track performance will be assessed in more detail, along with a fitness test, before the top 20 progress to…

GT CUP Century Motorsport added to its recent British GT win with a double success during a one-off GT Cup outing at Donington Park last weekend. Darren Leung and Dan Harper entered the event in their BMW M4 to prepare for next month’s British GT decider at the East Midlands venue, where they will need to overcome a maximum success penalty and a 13-point deficit to 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes duo James Cottingham and Jonny Adam to take the crown. “It’s prep for us for the British GT finale,” said Leung. “We’ve got to really pull out a big result against a maximum pitstop penalty, so we’ve got to really squeeze absolutely everything both out of the car and out of me. We go into it being the underdogs, so…

HISTORICS The streets of Angouleme, the ‘balcony of south-west France’, hosted the 51st edition of its Circuit des Remparts historic racing event last Sunday with six entertaining races on an afternoon featuring both sun and heavy rain. Kicking off with the Plateau Maurice Trintignant (each race is named after a famous French driver), the pre-war grid was headed by three British competitors: Christian Pedersen in his 1936 Austin 7, Simon Gallon in a 1936 Austin Pigsty Special and Mark Elder in his 1930 Austin 7 Ulster. Pedersen romped away and won by a near 29-second margin from Gallon. The Plateau Jean-Pierre Beltoise for pre-1965 GT cars provided an incredibly close contest. Last year’s winner Damien Kohler triumphed again in his Diva F10 from a Lotus Elan, this time driven by…

OBITUARY One of speed events’ best loved and omnipresent characters for more than half a century, Pembrokeshire potato farmer Billy Morris died earlier this month. He had suffered from dementia in recent times. From Wales’ far south-western corner, Billy and brother David campaigned a potent self-developed Mallock-FVA U2 in the early 1970s, supporting Swansea Motor Club hillclimbs at Penrice on the Gower peninsula – a happy hunting ground – and travelling the length and breadth of Britain’s mainland on the championship trail. David was the quicker driver, Billy the clever and resourceful engineer who honed their equipment and squirrelled away ex-military quality fixings, which he shared with fellow competitors. They graduated to an ex-Formula 3 Ensign – in which David scored British championship points from 1974-76 – ultimately running it…

ANGLESEY 750MC 16-17 SEPTEMBER Clive Hudson and Andy Hiley shared the Sport Specials victory spoils during an eventful 750 Motor Club fixture at Anglesey last weekend. The Eclipse of Paul Collingwood had led from the start of the opener, but the top four soon paired off with Hiley’s Chronos joining Collingwood, while Paul Boyd and Hudson duelled for third. It wasn’t long before Hudson ‘eclipsed’ the similar car of Boyd at Rocket on lap two and soon closed on the lead pair. Two laps later, it was all change and Hiley led from Hudson, while Collingwood lost ground in third. Hudson then closed in to challenge Hiley for the lead, making the decisive move into Rocket on lap 11 of 13, leaving Collingwood in a solitary third after Boyd retired…

Callum Davies has already enjoyed plenty of success in his first season of car racing, and he continued to impress last weekend by narrowly missing out on a clean sweep of GTH class wins on his GT Cup debut. The 16-year-old, who has been a regular podium finisher in the Ginetta GT Championship this year, teamed up with his driving coach Jon Lancaster in a Race Lab-run McLaren Artura GT4 and was immediately on the pace. After taking class pole for Saturday’s opening sprint race by over 0.6 seconds, Davies led until two laps from the end before losing out to Chris Hart’s Mercedes-AMG, which edged him by 0.241s in a drag race to the chequered flag. “It’s the first rolling start I’ve ever done,” said Davies. “But I had…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 16-17 SEPTEMBER Rory Smith made the ideal preparation for next month’s Formula Ford Festival by claiming a pair of race wins in the combined United Formula Ford and Champion of Brands double-header at Brands Hatch last weekend. The 2020 Festival winner, who also won both races at last year’s equivalent Ford Power Live event in his Medina Sport JL18, was never headed in either race and not even a late caution in the second – after Tom Hawkins spun – could thwart him. Jeremy Fairbairn was second both times in his Ray GR20 after he came out on top in two close battles with the Van Diemen JL13 of Lucas Romanek. In the opener, Romanek was briefly second until running wide on a damp track at Graham…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull is adamant that correlation does not equal causation. The team’s perfect 2023 win record came to a grinding halt last weekend in the Singapore Grand Prix, which happened to be the first round for one new and one revised Technical Directive from the FIA coming into force. New TD18 seeks to expel flexible wings, with teams having worked masterfully to conceal moveable mechanisms that rotated around the nose cone. The governing body also tightened up TD39, which was introduced for the 2022 Canadian GP in a push to eliminate porpoising. The original wording was aimed at outlawing the flexibility of the floor around the skid block holes amid suspicion that some teams were running moveable skid-block designs that retreated into the plank area. This sucked their…

WEC Ousted AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver Nyck de Vries is poised to slip straight into the Toyota World Endurance Championship seat that was earmarked for him in 2023. The team’s reserve and tester in 2022 is in line to replace Jose Maria Lopez for the new season. De Vries was signed and sealed to race for Toyota in 2023 in place of Lopez alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, before taking up a get-out clause in his contract when F1 came knocking. Now a seat aboard the #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar is back on following his replacement in the AlphaTauri line-up by Daniel Ricciardo ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in July. Toyota isn’t talking about drivers yet; it never does ahead of the announcement of its motorsport…

WEC Gustavo Menezes will be leaving Peugeot at the conclusion of this season’s World Endurance Championship. The American announced his departure last week without divulging his plans for the future, except to say “it will be fast”. Menezes (below), on Instagram, described working with Peugeot over the past two years as “an absolute pleasure” and that he has made “memories that will last a lifetime”. He followed it up by saying, “as one door closes, new doors open, but it is too soon to share with you all my plans for 2024”. A concurrent Instagram post from Peugeot thanked Menezes for his “hard work, collaboration and good vibes”. There was no mention of a replacement for the 29-year-old in the 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar line-up, but the smart money is…

YOUNG DRIVER OF THE YEAR The four finalists who will contest the 2023 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award have been selected. Formula 3 race winner Taylor Barnard, GB3 championship protagonists Callum Voisin and Joseph Loake, and Italian F4 points leader Arvid Lindblad will battle it out for prizes that include a test in Aston Martin F1 machinery. None of the four have been finalists before. The Award, which aims to find and assist the best junior British racing drivers, will include fitness and simulator elements before a two-day test at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in MotorSport Vision Formula 2, United Autosports-run Ligier LMP3 and Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 cars. Aside from the F1 test, prizes for the winner – who will be…

Carlos Sainz’s victory in the Singapore Grand Prix last Sunday was utterly brilliant. He and Ferrari nailed every important call and stressful moment, backed up beautifully by Charles Leclerc. But there was another equally important theme in the story of the Singapore event: what happened to Red Bull? Now, as Formula 1 heads to its next race in Japan, the key question is: will that happen again at Suzuka? As was covered in these pages last week, Red Bull knew it was in danger of losing its 2023 victory streak based on what it had already calculated from its pre-Singapore simulator preparation. The tyre warm-up issue we highlighted indeed came to pass. But the much bigger factor in Red Bull’s defeat was revealed through the practice sessions: it simply couldn’t…

At last, we have our answer to the almost-season-old question: will Red Bull win every race this season? If you’ve somehow missed the headline and the cover, here it is for the avoidance of doubt – it’s a definitive ‘no’. Even the ardent Max Verstappenites in the Netherlands were beginning to struggle to muster the requisite enthusiasm for the Dutchman’s continued spell of dominance. Many had spent the Italian Grand Prix two weeks prior hoping for parallels to the last time a seemingly unbeatable Formula 1 team was felled in its efforts to win every race in a season: the 1988 edition of the race at Monza looked to be another occasion where McLaren’s allconquering MP4/4 continued its streak, before Ayrton Senna’s victory was derailed by a clash with Williams…

Kevin Magnussen finished the Singapore Grand Prix with his first point since Miami in May, as he led Haas’s charge ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. For only the fourth time in 2023, Magnussen was the lead Haas driver in qualifying and, although he lost places on lap one, he still ran in the points up to the safety car. There, the following Hulkenberg lost out in Haas’s double-stack to go from medium tyres to hards, which Hulkenberg took to the finish, struggling against drivers who stopped later or a second time. This included Magnussen, who stopped under the VSC after an apparent brake problem finally ended his occasionally borderline defence against Pierre Gasly when he fell off at Turn 1 and then got passed by five more drivers. Magnussen took…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN MONZA (ITA) 16-17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/10 The repetitive Monza junior single-seater script of shunts, safety cars, red flags, penalties and very few actual racing laps was tediously adhered to in last weekend’s Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine round. Mercedes F1 protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli didn’t win the race in which he finished first, and did claim the one where he wasn’t in front at the end… From fourth on the grid, Prema star Antonelli beat away second-row partner Alessandro Giusti, beautifully passed polesitting team-mate Rafael Camara at the Roggia chicane, and then dispatched surprise leader Marcus Amand second time into the Rettifilo. He’d done that last move with help from his push-to-pass, which can’t be activated until the second lap, but the trigger-happy Antonelli had pressed…

Akio Toyoda’s decision to get behind the wheel on race tracks and rally stages came relatively late in life when, aged 40 and as a senior official at Toyota, already destined for the top job as much through talent as birth, he encountered the firm’s fiery chief test driver. “It’s annoying that someone at the top like you doesn’t know the basics of driving, but just gets into the car and comments on this and that!” said Hiromu Naruse, when confronted by some feedback on his latest settings. “Test drivers put everything on the line in the name of creating better cars. To talk about this and that without knowing anything just causes trouble.” “MY STARTING POINT WAS THE NURBURGRING. I DIDN’T REALLY HAVE ANY SKILLS. I WAS AFRAID!” Ouch.…

EURO 4 Ginetta Junior champion Freddie Slater continued to impress on his second weekend of single-seater racing, taking a pole at Monza in the Euro 4 category following a promising British Formula 4 debut last month. Slater linked up with leading squad Prema Racing for the second of three events for the new series and laid down a marker by qualifying two tenths quicker than the rest of the 30-car field, which included the Italian F4 stars. He made a poor start to the opener but fought back to regain the lead before suffering damage in a clash with 2022 British F4 race winner Ugo Ugochukwu. Slater won a chaotic second race on the road but no official result has yet been declared after a marshal incorrectly displayed a safety…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB An intriguing mix of single-seater champions and budding sportscar stars are on the shortlist of drivers making it to the next stage of the 2024-25 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior selection process. Twelve drivers have been chosen from the initial batch of applicants, who will be interviewed by Carrera Cup organisers next week. They will then be whittled down to four who will take part in the final shootout at Silverstone in November. Among the single-seater drivers progressing to the interviews are GB3 race winner Matthew Rees and newly crowned GB4 champion Tom Mills, while fellow GB4 racer – and 2021 Ginetta Junior runner-up – Liam McNeilly is another. Formula Regional European competitor and 2020 Ginetta Junior champion Tom Lebbon has also been selected. The rest…

JSCC The Junior Saloon Car Championship enjoyed a record grid at Silverstone last weekend, with 31 drivers taking to the track. The Citroen Saxo-based series has attracted larger fields in recent seasons after growing from a small base and, despite the big entry around the short National layout, only a couple of incidents needed post-race investigation. “It’s a massive achievement for us as organisers to have a grid of 31 cars,” said the JSCC’s Vickie MacClinton. “We’ve had three clean races and that goes to show the education we’re doing within the championship and how mature and how much respect there is between the drivers.” Organisers believe there is the potential for further additions to the grid at the remaining two 2023 events.…

CASTLE COMBE A mix of old favourites, grids on rotation and a new Ferrari spectacle comprise this weekend’s Castle Combe Autumn Classic. The event will also celebrate 75 years of Lotus, with a large turnout of the British machines expected, including a demo run ofaType49Formula1car. The 12th running of the popular Wiltshire fixture will feature large fields across the eight-race meeting. The 90-minute GT & Sports Car Cup pitstop race boasts a strong entry of 33 cars, with a trio of AC Cobras taking on Jaguar E-types, Austin-Healey 3000s and Lotus Elans at the sharp end. Back for the first time since 2020, Historic Formula Junior is this year’s single-seater race. Fresh from his Chichester Cup victory at Goodwood, Horatio Fitz-Simon starts odds-on favourite on his Combe debut. The FiSCaR…

SPORT SPECIALS Race 1 Clive Hudson (Eclipse SM1) Race 2 Andy Hiley (Chronos HR1S) FORMULA VEE Races 1 & 2 Matthew Hyde (AHS Dominator) HOT HATCH Race 1 Dan Silvester (Honda Civic) Race 2 Jack Ashton (Rover Metro GTI) Race 3 Dan Brown (Honda Civic) CNC HEADS SPORTS/SALOONS Races 1 & 3 Andrew Southcott (MG Midget Lenham) Race 2 Paul Rose (Saker S1-500) SPORTS 1000 Races 1 & 3 Matthew Higginson (Mittell MC-53) Race 2 Richard Miles (Spire GT3) MONOPOSTO F3/1800/MOTO 1400/CLASSIC Races 1 & 2 George Line (Dallara-VW F308) MONOPOSTO MOTO 1000/2000/1600 Race 1 Tom Wheatley (Van Diemen RF99) Race 2 Codey Keogh (Leastone 1000) 750 FORMULA Races 1 & 2 Peter Bove (Darvi 88P, below) Race 3 Andrew Kemp (Racekits Falcon) TOYOTA MR2s Races 1 & 2 Shaun…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 16-17 SEPTEMBER The GT Cup delivered two contrasting days of action during its penultimate round at Donington Park last weekend, with Cook Racing and G-Cat Racing taking hard-fought triumphs on Saturday before Century Motorsport dominated on Sunday. Saturday’s sprint race featured a close tussle between Hugo Cook’s Audi R8 and Tom Roche’s McLaren 720S Evo. The gap ebbed and flowed, with Roche running wide while lapping another car before Cook also lost time in traffic. Roche tried to snatch victory on the final lap but missed out by 0.6 seconds. Darren Leung finished third in his Century BMW M4, after sweeping around the outside of Iain Campbell’s McLaren early on. The following pitstop race was equally enthralling. Simon Orange led away from pole in the McLaren he…

SNETTERTON BARC 16-17 SEPTEMBER After knocking on the door all season, Jonathan Corker finally claimed his first Pre-’83 Touring Car wins of 2023 at Snetterton, topping a three-way tussle in each race. Corker’s Datsun 510 passed the Ford Escort Mk1 of polesitter Stephen Primett at Agostini on lap three of seven in Saturday’s opener. As Corker escaped, Mark Cholerton pressured Primett into a Turn 3 mistake that allowed his Escort Mk2 to snatch second. Cholerton kept Corker on his toes in Sunday’s rematch, despite a poor start dropping the Norfolk local to fifth. He quickly picked off Don Hughes (Volkswagen Golf) and got underneath Jason Christie’s Escort at the Wilson hairpin. Cholerton then forced Primett to defend into Agostini before dispatching the multi-champion at Oggies. After reeling in next target…

SILVERSTONE BARC 16-17 SEPTEMBER Nathan Edwards had been waiting 18 Mini Challenge Trophy events for a maiden victory. Now he has made it three wins from two weekends after a successful Silverstone appearance followed up on his breakthrough result at Donington Park last time out. “I’m wishing the season had started at Donington as I would be right up there in the championship!” joked Edwards, who, prior to the Leicestershire fixture, had not stood on the podium this year. Yet he proved his Donington success was no fluke by taking pole for the Silverstone opener and was in the thick of a frantic battle at the front, eventually getting the better of first-time podium finisher Sam Gornall and Harry Hickton with a move at Copse on the penultimate tour. Edwards…

BOOK OVERTAKE MY HEART Anita Driver RRP £10.99 We can put it off no longer. It’s time to swoon over ‘Thicc Ric’ with Anita Driver’s Overtake my Heart ode to all things Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian is one of the most well-loved drivers in the Formula 1 paddock, but in this instance things are taken to the extreme with a swathe of double entendres and innuendoes that are enough to make anyone blush. If there is an F1 pun that can be interpreted in a less-than-innocent fashion, Driver is sure to have found a way to include it in the short 40-page offering. The entirely fictional story follows F1 and Daniel Ricciardo fan Emily Jensen, who stalks and – ahem – ‘meets’ Ricciardo in a satirical alternative future, where Nicholas…

Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell 007) stops for the slick rubber required by the Zandvoort track’s drying conditions during the early stages of the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. The South African had made a great start, vaulting from his fourth-place grid slot to initially run second behind polesitter Niki Lauda (Ferrari 312T). Then once the field’s switch to slicks had shaken out he was looking good for the final podium position behind the epic lead battle between James Hunt (Hesketh 308) and Lauda – settled, of course, in the Englishman’s favour – when his engine failed eight laps from home and he was classified 16th and last. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull Formula 1 advisor Helmut Marko received a written warning over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend from the FIA following his remarks about Sergio Perez. Amid the Mexican’s fluctuating form, Marko told Red Bull’s own ServusTV channel: “He is South American [sic] and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel].” Aside from the fact that Mexico is not in South America, the stereotyping drew significant backlash. Marko did apologise to his driver over the phone and publicly via the same TV channel. The FIA governing body also commented: “We can confirm that Helmut Marko has received a written warning and been reminded of his responsibilities as a public figure in motor sport in line with the…

FORMULA 1 The FIA is expected to announce imminently that Andretti Global has been successful in the first stage of its bid to join the Formula 1 grid in time for the 2025 or 2026 season. The recently rebranded American organisation has backing from General Motors in the form of its Cadillac marque, and is expected to get the green light to create an 11th team. But this acceptance is on a technical basis only, for the time being. While Andretti’s entry process has satisfied the requirements of the FIA, the matter will then go to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali for further debate. At this stage, the current teams are expected to maintain their cold stance towards a new entry amid fears that it could impact their business models. While…

WEC Mick Schumacher is in talks to drive for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship next season. The German could race sportscars alongside a continuing test and reserve role in Formula 1 with Mercedes. Speculation about the 24-year-old son of Formula 1 legend Michael, a race winner in the old world sportscar championship in 1990-91 as a Mercedes junior, joining the Renault marque was fuelled by Toto Wolff last weekend in Singapore. The Merc F1 team boss suggested that a dual role for Schumacher was a real possibility for 2024. “Mick has a place here as our reserve driver and is part of the family,” said Wolff. “We hope that he stays with us in that role. We will give him time in the car, and if he can get…

EXTREME E Carlos Sainz’s Singapore Grand Prix victory wasn’t the only piece of joy last weekend for the royal family of Spanish motorsport. His dad’s Acciona Sainz team (below) had already triumphed in Saturday’s Extreme E Grand Final in Sardinia courtesy of Mattias Ekstrom and Laia Sanz. A brave round-the-outside move at the first corner put Ekstrom in front, and Sanz was able to control the race once she took over to finish comfortably ahead. The Abt Cupra machine started by Sebastien Loeb finished second, despite Klara Andersson suffering damage to the rear. With the windscreen wipers broken, Molly Taylor struggled in the Veloce Racing entry started by Kevin Hansen but still reached the finish in third, while Rosberg RXR pair Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky fought broken power steering…

TAYLOR BARNARD Aged 19 10th in Formula 3 with Jenzer, 2nd in FRegional ME with PHM “The jump is big from F4 to F3 and we struggled a bit to start with at the high-downforce tracks. When we went to lower downforce we got better as a team and I got more experienced. It was good to finish the season on a high. I’m pretty good at jumping into different cars and getting up to speed so hopefully that will put me in good stead.” ARVID LINDBLAD Aged 16 Currently leading Italian F4 and 2nd in Euro 4 with Prema Racing “Going into the season I didn’t have too many expectations. I struggled a bit in testing, but when we got to the races I improved and it’s been a…

“In the moment, you just want to curl up in a ball and be with nobody,” George Russell mourned moments after his race-ending trip to the wall on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix. A first Formula 1 victory of the season had been tantalisingly close to his grasp in the dying stages of a breathless encounter, and he had been unwavering in his pursuit of eventual winner Carlos Sainz. It was, according to Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff, a “99.9% fantastic weekend” – but that final 0.1% tainted his otherwise stellar performance at the end. With a front-row start, Russell knew he was on for a potential victory in Singapore. It didn’t matter that Sainz had got pole, and neither did it matter if he wasn’t able to…

Before the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, only Max Verstappen had managed to clinch two successive poles this season. That Carlos Sainz became the second driver to achieve that feat in 2023, while Verstappen faltered in Q2, underlined the growing confidence that the Spanish Ferrari ace has found since the summer break. Sainz threw down the gauntlet at the start of the top-10 shootout and sat atop the order a quarter of a second clear of team-mate Charles Leclerc after the opening set of laps, as Ferrari hoped to capture a first front-row lock-out of the season. The Madrid-born racer’s second effort was even better, and he punched in a 1m30.984s to become the first driver all weekend to dip below the 1m31s barrier. Amid some surprise that Ferrari had found…

Red Bull’s sensational 2023 Formula 1 victory streak was finally ended in Singapore, where Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez rose from qualifying a shock 11th and 13th to finishing fifth and eighth. But their recovery paths were very different: one good and one bad. Verstappen made the most of Liam Lawson’s start struggles to immediately gain ground. He then muscled past the Haas pair before settling down adrift of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, waiting for his contra-strategy of starting on the hard tyres to pay off. Perez, on the same strategy, made no progress from his starting spot in the first stint, which was notable for the Mexican’s part in Yuki Tsunoda’s retirement when they clashed at Turn 1 on the opening lap. After the safety car, under which…

Pierre Gasly took sixth for Alpine in Singapore, finishing in the best-of-the-rest spot behind the leading teams that likely would have gone to his team-mate Esteban Ocon before a gearbox problem ended the other Frenchman’s promising race. Gasly gained a spot from starting 12th in the early stages, as did Ocon further ahead from eighth on the grid. As Ocon chased Fernando Alonso, and Max Verstappen progressed to sit behind them before they stopped under the safety car, Gasly chased the Haas pair in the long DRS train. After the restart, Alonso’s inability to pass the yet-to-stop Sergio Perez – unlike the leaders with Verstappen further up the order – meant that Ocon could pounce brilliantly on his former team-mate before they demoted the second Red Bull, which then pitted.…

IMSA SPORTSCAR INDIANAPOLIS (USA) 17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 10/11 An emphatic victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport pair Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy in last Sunday’s inaugural Battle on The Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course sets up what promises to be an enthralling Petit Le Mans IMSA SportsCar Championship finale next month at Road Atlanta. Incredibly, after eight races for the new-for-2023 GTP category, just five points separate the top three title protagonists and manufacturers, with a fourth only 38 points adrift. A maximum of 385 remain on the table. Cadillac held a slender advantage over Acura prior to this past weekend, with Porsche and BMW not far behind. In truth, there has been little to choose between any of them for the majority of the season.…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP VALENCIA (ESP) 16-17 SEPTEMBER ROUND 4/5 Twelve months ago, Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor snatched a dramatic last-lap victory in the GT World Challenge Europe finale. A year later, the Team WRT duo finally claimed their first victory aboard BMW machinery at Valencia last weekend. It had been long overdue. The series dominators of recent years have not had things their own way in 2023 to say the least, but they came up trumps on Sunday amid stifling heat and a spirited assault from Attempto Racing Audi pair Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi. “The strategy was on point, and I think it’s also one of the best starts I’ve had in GT racing,” said Vanthoor. “It was all-in, and it worked out.” Drudi and…

GT CUP Formula Woman is aiming for more GT Cup appearances after giving the Lotus Emira GT4 its UK racing debut at Donington Park last weekend. Revived in 2021, Formula Woman has held competitions across the world with the aim of finding the next female racing champion. Canadian Alana Carter and Jamaican Sara Misir were chosen to drive the Emira at Donington for 24-7 Motorsport and are also planning to compete in the final round at Snetterton. It was the first outing together for the winners, after previous difficulties in securing appropriate cars and sponsorship by Formula Woman organisers. “We started to deal with Lotus two weeks ago,” said Formula Woman CEO Graeme Glew. “They had the Emira, which had never raced before. They have this philosophy of women in…

BEC Japanese Superbike champion Takuma Aoki will join Team Brit for the final round of the British Endurance Championship at Donington Park next month. Aoki competed in the World Superbike Championship in the 1990s before winning the All Japan Superbike Championship in 1996. Two years later, he was left paralysed below the waist following a crash, but has since worked with Honda, helping them develop cars for disabled drivers and a racing school for people with disabilities. He will join Aaron Morgan for the two-hour BEC finale on 14 October, and will use hand controls at the wheel of the McLaren 570S GT4 in order to race. “I’m really looking forward to racing with the team next month,” said Aoki, who also contested the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2021.…

HILLCLIMB British Hillclimb champion Wallace Menzies will bid for a record-breaking fifth straight title in 2024. Menzies has now won four BHC titles in a row, which matches the number taken by Ken Wharton between 1951 and 1954. However, both Scott Moran and Tony Marsh have a total of six championships to their credit while David Grace and Martyn Griffiths each took five. Menzies said: “You just think about one season at a time. You first off dream about a class win and then to get in a run-off, then a run-off win. To win one title was amazing and fantastic. And it’ll take a while to sink in that it’s now four.” With the title secure, Menzies will miss this weekend’s season finale at Loton Park as his Gould…

BRSCC TCR UK will feature a largely permanent support package in 2024, with four other championships administered by the British Racing & Sports Car Club set to feature at all of its race meetings. Since returning to the BRSCC fold this year, TCR UK has been joined by its Civic Cup sister series and the Fiesta Junior Championship at most rounds. Both will feature at all seven events in 2024, beginning at Brands Hatch on 13-14 April. Fiesta Junior will have one additional round, kicking off at Silverstone on 16-17 March. Joining the bill on a permanent basis for the first time are the Fiesta ST240 and Audi TT Cup categories. A revolving cast of other BRSCC championships will fill the one or two remaining timetable slots at most meetings.…

CROFT BRSCC 16-17 SEPTEMBER After a challenging time at Goodwood earlier this month, Mike and Andrew Jordan travelled to Croft last weekend and delivered a clear reminder that, when it comes to Mini racing, each is simply in a class of their own. Both qualified on pole for their respective opening races but, for Jordan Sr, what should have been a dominant run into the first corner descended into chaos. With the Mini Se7en grid seemingly formed, the gantry displayed two orange lights and not the six reds expected. One car had come to a halt at the pit entry, and Jordan assumed that officials were signalling an aborted start while the stranded vehicle was recovered. Instead, the lights went out and everyone else took that as the signal to…

GT CUP Race 1 Hugo Cook (Audi R8 GT3 Evo) Race 2 Shamus Jennings/Greg Caton (Porsche 911 GT3-R) Race 3 Darren Leung (BMW M4 GT3) Race 4 Darren Leung/Dan Harper (BMW M4 GT3) RADICAL CUP UK Race 1 Haydn Chance Race 2 James Lay Race 3 Tommi Gore 7 RACE SERIES - 420R Race 1 Jay McCormack Race 2 Anthony Barnes (below, left) 7 RACE SERIES - 310R Race 1 Stephen Clark Race 2 Caroline Everett SPORTS 2000 - HISTORIC Races 1 & 2 Nik Johnson (Lola T592S) SPORTS 2000 - DURATEC Races 1 & 2 Michael Gibbins (MCR S2n) BELL SPORT CHALLENGE Race 1 Andy Christopher (Ferrari 488) Race 2 Peter Smith (Ferrari 488) BERNIE’S V8s & HISTORIC OUTLAWS Races 1 & 2 Stewart Robb (TVR Tuscan) For full…

BRANDS HATCH UNITED FORMULA FORD/CHAMPION OF BRANDS Races 1 & 2 Rory Smith (Medina Sport JL18) MODIFIED FORDS – GROUP A Race 1 Lea Wood (RSR Escort) Race 2 Tommy Field (RSR Escort) MODIFIED FORDS – GROUP B Race 1 Oliver Bullion (Fiesta ST150) Race 2 Mike Thurley (Escort Mk1 Zakspeed) CLUBMANS SPORTS PROTOTYPES Races 1, 2 & 3 Mark Charteris (Mallock Mk20/21) FOCUS CUP Race 1 Simon Warr Race 2 Jon Baker Race 3 Lewis Clark Race 4 Greg Saunders CMMC SUPER SALOONS & TIN TOPS Races 1 & 2 Alex Sidwell (Holden VF Commodore) PRODUCTION GTI & Z CARS Races 1 & 2 Edd Giddings (BMW Z4) INTERMARQUE SILHOUETTES Races 1 & 2 Daniel Smith (Mercedes SLK) SILVERSTONE MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Races 1 & 2 Nathan Edwards Race…

It speaks volumes for the premium Christian Danner places on honesty that the drivers he immediately considers for his favourite team-mate were willing to go beyond the racing norm of looking after number one. His choice of Martin Brundle, his Zakspeed partner during the 1987 Formula 1 season, is despite the former Tyrrell driver having number one status negotiated in his contract. “He was quick, he was straight, he was uncomplicated and he was honest, which is a very uncommon attitude as far as team-mates are concerned,” relates Danner. The only point-scorer for Arrows in 1986 had a contract guaranteeing equal status but, at a small team operating on a fraction of the leading squads’ budgets, this was always going to be difficult to realise. It led to a frank…