Indholdsfortegnelse for 09/05/24 i Autosport

Congratulations to Lando Norris and McLaren. Norris has been good enough to be a grand prix winner for a long time, but Red Bull’s race pace and reliability have meant few opportunities for anyone else. In Miami, a chance came along and Norris grabbed it. Everyone seemed pleased, too – even Max Verstappen! Lando is also the fourth winner of our Autosport BRDC Award to win a points-paying GP. Some will argue that the win was lucky due to the timing of the safety car that gave Norris track position. But, as Alex Kalinauckas shows in our in-depth race analysis on page 16, Norris was already becoming a contender thanks to his impressive pace in the upgraded MCL38. It’s likely that, without the safety car intervention, Norris would have been…

Briton Tom Fleming took a class win on his GT3 debut at Brands Hatch last Sunday – without anti-lock brakes! The winner of the Ferrari Challenge world finals at Mugello last year took Silver Cup honours in race two on the opening weekend of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup with Eliseo Donno. “I was completely blind going into it,” said the 21-year-old of jumping into his AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 without ABS mid-race. “It was a learning weekend, but it has been mega.” → P32 BRANDS HATCH REPORT NO CHANGES FOR BTCC The British Touring Car Championship has kept to tradition by a) getting its calendar for next year out early, and b) keeping it exactly the same as before. The dates for 2025 were announced last…

Twelve months is a long time in motorsport, and plenty has changed since the World Endurance Championship’s last visit to Spa a little over a year ago. Although its Porsche 963 LMDh hasn’t undergone the same kind of dramatic revamp as Peugeot’s 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar, the same applies in the Jota camp. One year on from the debut of its Hertz-liveried customer 963, it has expanded to run two cars and achieved the programme’s first outright podium in Qatar. With five new faces to bed in, the significance of Jota’s sole remaining driver from its first season in Hypercar has grown too. Certainly, the continuity provided by retaining Will Stevens has no doubt helped Jota’s bid to add outright Le Mans glory to its three previous class successes. But…

He stank of champagne. Lando Norris, bouncing into the press conference room in the bowels of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, was soaked in Formula 1 glory. After taking a famous first grand prix win in Miami’s third race weekend, he’d wanted “to keep all my champagne on me”. A quick Lewis Hamilton-style change to a more glamorous outfit was eschewed, Norris resplendent in the already sweat-steeped overalls he’d worn for 57 boiling laps last Sunday. For 31 of those, he led. As he crossed the line to finally take the chequered flag at the head of an F1 pack after 124 attempts – sprints and all – he clinched McLaren’s first GP win since that famous day he had backed off behind Daniel Ricciardo at Monza in 2021. His Sochi…

The view hides the delight to come. Basically underneath a sprawling grandstand, the end of the Miami International Autodromo unfurls before us. Across the track, screens hide the back straight’s end, where the drivers arrive at 200mph. Thus, you hear them first – before they burst out at Turn 17’s apex. It’s a low-key setting on the Formula 1 calendar, but we’re not going to be moving for FP1’s duration. There’s simply too much to see. First up, line variety piques our interest. Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton are going deep past the apex, then sweeping left late and so hugging the wall beneath our feet. On the two times he comes by before a spin at the other end of the track’s main straight caps his session, Charles Leclerc…

FERNANDO ALONSO ASTON MARTIN DRIVER Did starting on the hard tyre pay off? Definitely. I think we were lucky with a safety car today, that really helped our race. Starting on the hard, maybe we were thinking to stop a little bit later, but the safety car came in that lap and we took the opportunity. The full safety car bunched everyone else, and we were with the mediums, the others were with a hard. We had a little advantage there. All in all, we were lucky with the strategy and with the safety car. A little bit better in the race, compared to quali, but we still need to improve our pace. Did you enjoy fighting your way through? Yeah, good battles. Esteban [Ocon], very hard fighting as well.…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES PAUL RICARD (FRA) 5 MAY ROUND 2/6 After a dramatic final hour of racing, Inter Europol Competition emerged victorious in the second round of the European Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard. But a seemingly picture-perfect day came with a bittersweet aftertaste since a 1-2 had been on the cards until trouble struck the sister car. The Polish-flagged squad’s #43 ORECAGibson already led the race in the opening half, but it was a plot twist with under an hour remaining that set Tom Dillmann on course to claim the first ELMS victory for Inter Europol, the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2-winning squad. Malthe Jakobsen, at that point comfortably leading in Cool Racing’s ORECA, pulled over with car troubles with 43 minutes on the clock. After…

TCR WORLD TOUR MARRAKECH (MAR) 4 MAY ROUND 2/7 Yann Ehrlacher turned pole to victory in the FIA TCR World Tour at the super-short 1.1-mile Circuit Moulay El Hassan street track in Marrakech, before he and title rival Norbert Michelisz collided at the start of race two and both lost valuable points while Ma Qing Hua scored a strategically earned victory. In qualifying, Ehrlacher and his Lynk & Co team-mate Santi Urrutia comfortably locked out the front row, while Michelisz, despite carrying the maximum 40kg of success ballast on his Hyundai, did well to secure third on the grid. In the race, the two Lynk & Cos managed the pace to take an easy 1-2. Michelisz looked after his tyres to finish third, with team-mate Nestor Girolami serving as rear…

If Josef Newgarden rocked up at Silverstone and used his Team Penske-run Dallara-Chevrolet to break Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Formula 1 lap record, it would be a sensation. Given that Colton Herta’s best time in IndyCar’s 2019 visit to Circuit of The Americas was more than 12 seconds slower than Charles Leclerc’s fastest lap from that year’s United States Grand Prix, that would never happen. But there was a time when an American invasion broke records at the home of the British GP. Thanks to a chance meeting between Brands Hatch impresario John Webb and United States Automobile Club president Dick King, a plan was formed to bring Indycars, then under the auspices of USAC, to the UK. Webb, who died earlier this year aged 92, was a visionary always…

CMMCS Drivers escaped serious injury after a major crash at Brands Hatch last weekend resulted in the GT World Challenge Europe support race action ending early amid extensive barrier damage. The collision occurred during the Classic and Modern Motorsport Club Southern contest, which featured a combined field for its Intermarque, Super Saloons and Tin Tops divisions on the Grand Prix circuit. Third-placed Rod Birley in his BMW E36 was attempting to lap the Ford Fiesta of Andrew Stenning out of Stirling’s when the pair made contact, sending both cars hard into the barriers, which in turn caused them both to roll. The Fiesta was then collected by Keith White’s Intermarque BMW Z4, while several other cars also collided in the aftermath. “Everything was going pretty well – at that stage,…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB The British Hillclimb Championship was once again forced to abandon its opening round of the season due to “adverse weather”, this time at Craigantlet. The championship had been due to get under way at Prescott on 20-21 April but the event was pushed back to later in the season due to heavy rain in the lead-up to the meeting. Last weekend in Northern Ireland, proceedings came to a halt for around two hours after a fast-section off for reigning champion Wallace Menzies, prior to what was to be two scheduled run-offs. Despite the British championship calling a halt to proceedings, the NI Hillclimb Championship runners continued, and Tim Woodside matched his Croft result with victory.…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR DONINGTON HISTORIC FESTIVAL 4-5 MAY The spectacular sight of David Dickenson and Josh Cook battling away in Lotus Cortinas, making it four abreast on the pit straight as they simultaneously lapped two cars during the Historic Racing Drivers Club Jack Sears Trophy contest, was one of the most memorable moments from the Donington Historic Festival last weekend. The misery of the deluge of rain at the British Touring Car opener a week before was banished and replaced by glorious sunshine for much of the event, and the best action was saved until last with the JST race proving a thriller. A quality cast of drivers – including two Le Mans winners, a British Touring Car champion and some of the top names from the historic racing world…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 4-5 MAY A truly ‘classic’ battle brought the early stages of the first Equipe Classic race to life on a GT World Challenge undercard featuring some huge grids on the full Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. No fewer than 45 cars lined up for this one, and spectators were treated to a fascinating contest between the brute force of David Methley’s Cobra and Ben Adams’s Jaguar E-type, and the nimble handling of Tom Smith’s Lotus Elan. Chris Beighton’s Le Mans Sunbeam Tiger shadowed this trio, and he was rewarded with third place after the Elan stopped when its differential failed. Adams broke clear to head Methley, who lost second gear, and best of the rest behind Beighton was Robin Ellis, a distant fourth in his Shapecraft Elan.…

Jordan King has sampled Formula 1, Formula E, IndyCar and World Endurance Championship machinery, putting him in a small sect of drivers to have experienced such a plethora of motorsport disciplines. Although the 30-year-old Briton hasn’t raced much in recent years, his knowledge has meant that King is a man in demand, dovetailing reserve driver duties for Mahindra in Formula E with his role as Alpine’s simulator and development driver in F1. It’s the Enstone squad’s A521 that the two-time GP2 race winner picks as his favourite car, after he was given a full day in the 2021 racer last season at the Hungaroring. It included more than 250 miles of running during which he was subjected to g-forces he had never experienced. “Obviously, I know what it’s capable of…

FORMULA 1 The Red Bull Formula 1 team is confident of retaining key personnel amid reports that talismanic designer Adrian Newey could be followed out of the door by other senior colleagues, including sporting director Jonathan Wheatley. Last week it was announced that Newey would step away from Red Bull’s F1 activities before becoming available for rival squads from March 2025. In the meantime, his focus will shift to finalising the RB17 hypercar. Newey leaves after an extremely successful 18-year stint at the Milton Keynes-based team, including four drivers’ titles with Sebastian Vettel, three with Max Verstappen, and six constructors’ crowns. Newey has been heavily linked with a move to Ferrari, where he would be able to work together with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for the first time in…

FORMULA 1 Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso feels that his nationality is influencing the way his on-track actions are being judged, and is speaking to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem about the matter. The Spanish Aston Martin star was handed a penalty after the Australian Grand Prix in March after his driving was determined to have led to an accident for the chasing Mercedes of George Russell. He was penalised again at last month’s Chinese GP for contact with Carlos Sainz in the sprint race. And in last Saturday’s sprint race in Miami, Alonso was on the receiving end of Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive move at the start, which led to a four-car melee also involving Aston team-mate Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with the stewards not apportioning…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Aston Martin Formula 1 test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich will race for Cadillac at the Le Mans 24 Hours next month. The Brazilian’s signing for the vacant seat at the Action Express Racing Hypercar squad was the surprise of a flurry of announcements ahead of the release on Monday of the completed entry list for the French enduro. Drugovich has been brought in to race the Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R alongside full-season IMSA SportsCar Championship regulars Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken for the blue riband round of the World Endurance Championship on 15-16 June. The 2022 Formula 2 Championship title winner makes the move to Hypercar after taking his first steps in sportscar racing this year in the European Le Mans Series with the Vector…

FORMULA REGIONAL The race to succeed Andrea Kimi Antonelli as king of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine begins this weekend at Hockenheim, with the first of 10 double-headers across 2024. The series has once again attracted a quality field, with 33 drivers registered, among them plenty of F1-backed talent. One of them, McLaren-affiliated Brando Badoer (pictured), emerged as the unofficial ‘champion’ across the trio of two-day pre-season tests. The Italian F4 graduate, son of ex-F1 racer Luca Badoer, was second fastest overall at Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Hockenheim as he steps up with Van Amersfoort Racing. Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen, another to race in Italian F4 last season, was quickest at Ricard. The exciting Finn has already won the FRegional Middle East crown this year with R-ace GP,…

With the F1 Academy now two events into its seven-round second season, a pecking order is beginning to appear, and this means one of the biggest questions will begin to be asked for title contenders – what next? For inaugural champion Marta Garcia, the reward was a fully funded Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine drive with Prema Racing, the team with which she had completed her victorious campaign (although she has now transferred into the sister Iron Dames operation). But given that FRECA is officially recognised by the FIA as a regional Formula 3 category, questions were inevitably asked as to why the Spaniard would be competing in that series and not FIA F3. After all, it would surely be in Formula 1’s best interest to have kept her…

Qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix was all about anti-climax – on both days. On Friday, the surprise pace of McLaren disappeared as sprint Q3 began. On Saturday, it became obvious that everyone had peaked before their final fliers. Max Verstappen had led on a 1m27.241s after the first runs, the world champion feeling that his car was “more connected, more predictable” with Red Bull’s set-up tweaks after his (relative) handling woe in the sprint race. Just 0.141 seconds behind sat Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver continuing his impressive turnaround from his gaffe in FP1. They were followed by Carlos Sainz. On the final runs, Verstappen led the frontrunners around. He shot to a 0.084s improvement in the first sector, which would stand as the session’s best. But by the…

Carlos Sainz was hit with a five-second penalty after the race for his lap-39 contact with Oscar Piastri at Turn 17, when he went deep into the corner to pass the Australian. The Ferrari driver had already been frustrated by an earlier attempt to pass Piastri around the outside at Turn 11, a move the Australian repelled to leave Sainz to take to the run-off, which the Spaniard felt was befitting of a penalty if Piastri did not return the position. Instead, his eventual pass was punished after the front wing of Piastri’s McLaren was broken by the Ferrari’s sliding rear, forcing a nose change. Lance Stroll also earned a trip to the stewards’ office for his pass of Alex Albon off-track at Turn 2, which was considered worthy of…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS SPEEDWAY (USA) 5 MAY ROUND 12/36 One week after losing a tough battle to Denny Hamlin at Dover, Kyle Larson took his turn in Victory Lane thanks to a timely caution and video review of the finish. Hamlin appeared in good position to earn his second consecutive NASCAR Cup victory when a caution in the final laps of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway sent the race into overtime. All the lead-lap cars pitted, with most taking just two new tyres and fuel. Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was first off pitroad, but Buescher (RFK Racing Ford) quickly rocketed to the lead on the restart ahead of Larson (Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet). Larson quickly caught back up with him, but Buescher pulled back ahead briefly exiting Turn 2 on…

SUPER GT FUJI (JPN) 4 MAY ROUND 2/8 Nissan is off the mark for the 2024 Super GT season after a dominant 1-2 for the two NISMO Zs at Fuji. The traditional Golden Week classic, run as a three-hour timed race for the first time, was won by the #3 car of Mitsunori Takaboshi and Atsushi Miyake ahead of the sister #23 machine of Katsumasa Chiyo and Ronnie Quintarelli. Two factors were key to the #3 car getting the edge on the more senior #23 crew. The first was a blistering start from Takaboshi from second on the grid, which allowed him to build a margin out front while Chiyo got stuck behind the polesitting Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi. The second was a difficult middle stint for Quintarelli on an…

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar refurbishment, and Silverstone Museum saw an opportunity. In partnership with the impressive IMS collection, it has brought four Indycars to the UK for a new exhibition, dubbed The Indy 500: A British Success Story. Highlight of the exhibition, which will remain open throughout the summer, is likely to be the Newman/Haas Lola T93/00 in which Nigel Mansell famously won the 1993 crown as a rookie. In what is believed to be a world exclusive, the Lola is on display alongside the Williams FW14B in which Mansell stormed to the 1992 F1 world title (bottom). Aside from some memorabilia and AJ Foyt’s 1978 Coyote, which finished seventh in that year’s Indianapolis 500, here’s what you’ll see if you head to Silverstone… 1922…

HISTORICS Experienced historics racer Shaun Lynn has bought the Motor Racing Legends organisation from its founder Duncan Wiltshire. MRL runs a variety of historic series, primarily focused on tin-tops and sportscars from the pre-1966 era, but does also cater for pre-war sportscars and slightly more modern saloons in its Historic Touring Car Challenge. While Lynn and his Aythorpe Promotions concern have acquired the business, Wiltshire will remain in charge until the end of this year. Lynn believes the time is right to give a “fresh look and feel” to MRL with new investment, and will seek to add more international events to its calendar after it opted to focus primarily on the UK following the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’ve been racing for many years, mostly in historics, and I love the…

GT CUP Former US Formula 4 racer Matthew Higgins is targeting a GT Cup class title bid this season after scoring two wins on his sportscar racing debut at Donington Park last month. Higgins, the son of 2004 British Rally champion David, took a best result of seventh from the two US F4 events he contested last year, but is now partnering British GT4 frontrunner Mikey Porter in a Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Higgins topped the GTH division in the second sprint race at the season-opening Donington GT Cup round, while the pair also won the second enduro of the weekend. Higgins explained that the Forsetti drive came about through his karting. “The driver manager of my team-mate Mikey approached us and said that was what they were…

HISTORICS Former British Touring Car frontrunner Mat Jackson’s planned debut in a Lotus 11 at last weekend’s Donington Historic Festival was thwarted by a first-lap crash. Jackson has been a historic racing regular since departing the BTCC for 2018, but has primarily focused on classic tin-tops, so the open-cockpit Lotus sports-racer (below), owned by Richard Postins, presented a new challenge. “Richard lives in the same town as me and, over a pint, the plan was hatched,” said Jackson, who only drove the Lotus for a couple of laps in testing beforehand. “It’s a good little car – completely different for me, especially with no roof!” Jackson and Postins qualified 10th for the Stirling Moss Trophy but Postins was eliminated at the start, when an overly aggressive move from Mark Cole…

BRANDS HATCH A 40th anniversary celebration of the RML Group will be held at Super Touring Power this year at Brands Hatch, including a special display of memorabilia. The motorsport and engineering organisation was founded by Ray Mallock in 1984 and became associated with touring car racing, notably the British and World Touring Car championships. It ran Vauxhall Cavalier machinery in the former, claiming the 1995 title with John Cleland before switching to Nissan, which culminated in the 1999 crown with Laurent Aiello in a Primera. Thereafter, it ran SEATs and brought Chevrolet to the UK alongside its successful WTCC campaigns with the American manufacturer, which included title wins with Yvan Muller and Rob Huff. The display at Brands on 29-30 June will include a team transporter and a selection…

HRDC JACK SEARS TROPHY Guy Smith (Lotus Cortina) HRDC ALLSTARS & CLASSIC ALFA CHALLENGE Mike Whitaker Sr (TVR Griffith) HRDC GERRY MARSHALL TROPHY John Young/Jack Young (Chevrolet Camaro, below) FERRARI CLUB CLASSIC Races 1 & 3 Wayne Marrs (F355) Race 2 Tristan Simpson (F355) PRE-’63 GT Harvey Stanley/James Cottingham (Jaguar E-type) STIRLING MOSS & WOODCOTE TROPHIES Gary Pearson (Jaguar D-type) HISTORIC TOURING CAR CHALLENGE Andy Middlehurst/Jonathan Bailey (Nissan Skyline) PALL MALL CUP Kyle Tilley/Jake Hill (TVR Griffith) ‘MAD JACK’ PRE-WAR SPORTS CARS Rudiger Friedrichs (Alvis Firefly Special) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

THRUXTON 750MC 4 MAY “I had to take Church flat,” beamed double Sport Specials victor Andy Hiley, who staved off Clive Hudson as they unlocked unprecedented speed from self-designed Ford Duratec-powered Chronos and Eclipse cars on the UK’s fastest circuit. Seven years after the 750 Motor Club’s last Thruxton visit – when Hudson twice finished second to teammate Paul Boyd – the Eclipse driver hacked almost four seconds from his lap record, leaving it at 1m19.578s (106.58mph). “I missed Donington to save my tyres for here, but couldn’t believe the times,” said Hudson, as the road-legal Avon ZZRs he and Hiley use are unavailable. Having finished a second apart after a gripping duel in the opener, a repeat was denied when Hudson spun at 120mph through Church in the sequel.…

British Hillclimb Championship coordinator Tim Wilson admits he is not someone who likes to be overly dramatic. But he was genuinely fearful for the future of the discipline when the shock news emerged in October 2022 that Goodyear was planning to close Avon Tyres’ Melksham factory and the brand – synonymous with the world of hillclimbing – would disappear. “I was very worried – I don’t think a lot of people realised the effect it could’ve had,” says Wilson, who adds the lack of suitable and competitive alternatives to the Avons was alarming. “I was worried for the health of the sport, not just the championship. The concern was it looked like there weren’t going to be any tyres for 2024.” Wilson was far from alone in being worried. Given…

FORMULA 1 A dozen US Congress members have formally demanded answers from Liberty Media on why Formula 1 has blocked Andretti-GM’s entry for 2026, while questioning the decision’s antitrust legality. Andretti’s efforts to join F1 for 2026 were approved by the FIA, but F1 itself blocked its entry because it was not convinced that the American powerhouse could be competitive or add value to the series. But even as F1 kept the door ajar for a new bid in 2028, when GM marque Cadillac would be in a position to provide works engines, Michael Andretti’s squad is not taking no for an answer and remains committed to its 2026 target. Andretti’s father, 1978 world champion and US racing legend Mario Andretti, appeared last week alongside Congress members on Washington’s Capitol…

WEC Ferrari has received the biggest Balance of Performance hit in the Hypercar class ahead of this weekend’s Spa round of the World Endurance Championship. The car that should have won at Imola last month will race with less power and more weight than three weeks ago. The Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar has had 12kg added to its minimum weight and its maximum power reduced by 4kW (5bhp) for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours. A minimum weight of 1060kg has been set for the car and maximum power of 506kW (678bhp). The BoP adjustment follows Ferrari’s dominant performance on home ground in the second round of the WEC. Its dominance failed to yield race victory after tactical errors when it rained with two hours remaining. It compares with 4kg gains…

“I could still see Max. And when you can see Max, there’s hope.” Lando Norris – the world championship’s 114th race winner, excluding sprints – has a very engaging style. That comment came early in the post-race press conference at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris fresh from another podium appearance alongside Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. But on this occasion it was the first time he had visited the top spot in F1. So, of course he threw his first winner’s trophy high in the air. Of course he refused to change out of his champagne-soaked overalls. Of course he delayed the presser by giving lengthy and effusive answers to the TV crews nestled outside within one of the Hard Rock Stadium’s gigantic helix ramps. When he did finally bounce…

The best of British motorsport Wow. What a day at Donington Park. Action, excitement, drama… and that was just me trying to park my car. Jokes aside, the racing was as entertaining as ever (BTCC report, 2 May). From Tom Ingram’s double win to Aiden Moffat’s defensive drive to victory in the final race. The support series were equally impressive, with the final Legends race being the perfect way to conclude the day. More importantly, I want to thank all involved for adapting to the adverse conditions. Excellent crowd and traffic control. Trenches dug in double-quick time to manage excess water flow. There was clearly a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We were kept up to date on everything through the circuit’s social media channels and their…

Max Verstappen was unhappy with the car balance Red Bull had arrived at with its set-up choices for sprint qualifying, finding the handling was “too much oversteer”. Indeed, he was surprised to top that session ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was rather more impressive in qualifying 0.1 seconds off pole than he had been in spinning early in FP1 and getting stranded on track with an overheated clutch. Both should have been headed by Lando Norris, but McLaren’s session-leading pace disappeared in SQ3 with overheating soft tyres (the previous sessions Norris topped were completed on the medium rubber). Verstappen didn’t have good clutch “engagement” off the line at the start of the 19-lap contest, and so had to cover off Leclerc into the right-hand Turn 1. Leclerc “didn’t want…

Four time penalties in the Miami sprint set the tone for Kevin Magnussen’s weekend, which he felt were “well deserved” in his aggressive defence against Lewis Hamilton in a bid to help protect team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s points-scoring efforts. The Dane cut a chicane and went off-track to keep Hamilton behind, which he admitted were “stupid tactics” in Haas’s pursuit of valuable championship points, but nonetheless helped Hulkenberg seal seventh in the 19-lap Saturday race. Through those excursions, he earned a trio of 10-second penalties, with a further five added for avoidable contact, but more followed in the grand prix after his lap-28 crash with Logan Sargeant. In attempting to pass the Williams driver at Turns 2-3, Magnussen hooked Sargeant’s right-rear wheel with his left-front and posted the Floridian into the…

The RB team took a decisive step forward in the constructors’ championship in Miami, scoring 12 points to pull clear of Haas in the battle for sixth overall – half of which came from Yuki Tsunoda’s star turn to score seventh in the 57-lap GP. Tsunoda was a key beneficiary of the lap-28 safety car, because he had been able to extend his medium tyre stint up to that time and took the free stop for the hard compound to sit seventh at the restart. He was unable to resist Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton for much longer than a lap and dropped to eighth, but was soon promoted a position when Oscar Piastri pitted with damage. He subsequently maintained strong race pace to ensure George Russell never had a chance…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP BRANDS HATCH (GBR) 5 MAY ROUND 1/5 BMW and Mercedes shared out the victories on the opening weekend of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch. Yet it would be wrong to say that their machinery was dominant on the 10th visit of the series to the British circuit. The Ferrari and McLaren were at least their equal on a day when they were also big underachievers. Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts took the opening race aboard their WRT BMW M4 GT3, as they began their bid for a fourth Sprint title in five seasons. The victory owed much to an impressive qualifying performance from Vanthoor that put the car third on the grid – probably much higher than it had…

F1 ACADEMY MIAMI (USA) 4-5 MAY ROUND 2/7 Alpine junior Abbi Pulling dominated the F1 Academy weekend at the Miami Grand Prix to establish a commanding 34-point lead in the title race over Doriane Pin. The Rodin Motorsport-run Briton took pole position for each race, led every lap and secured fastest lap in race two for an impressive 55-point haul from the event. Bianca Bustamante emerged as Pulling’s nearest rival. But a stall from row two in the first encounter left Pin to run second, and Pulling was never challenged en route to a comfortable victory. Hamda Al Qubaisi had seemed to be in control of the final podium spot as Maya Weug, Nerea Marti and Chloe Chambers fought between themselves for fourth before Chambers emerged ahead after they went…

HISTORICS Renault UK Clio Cup race winner Paul Streather made a return to car racing at last weekend’s Donington Historic Festival, driving a freshly prepared Lotus Cortina alongside Jake Giddings. Streather has focused on kart racing in recent years and has also acted as Giddings’s mechanic in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB. But, when Giddings’s father Neil decided to enter historic racing, he asked whether Streather wanted to drive the Cortina. “We wanted to go racing for a bit of fun,” said Streather. “We got the car and are very new to it – it’s all a massive learning curve.” The duo opted to enter the Historic Touring Car Challenge race on Saturday as preparation for the Jack Sears Trophy contest the following day but suffered a curtailed qualifying session.…

HISTORICS Two-time Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford winner Michael Moyers plans to race an F5000 Trojan later this season after testing the car at Silverstone last week. Moyers jumped at the opportunity to sample Simon Hadfield Motorsports’ ex-John Watson T101 on the Grand Prix circuit last Friday and enjoyed the experience, despite the wet conditions. “Since I stopped competing in FF1600s regularly in 2018, historic racing has been my goal,” said Moyers, 39, who has built his successful Alpha Fabrications business in the interim. “I established a good working relationship with Simon and James [Hadfield] when we developed their Medina, and I see this as the key step on that journey. “I was cautious of the [Chevrolet V8] power initially but was keen to get this test under my belt.…

THRUXTON Organisers could run further events at Thruxton with free entry for spectators after more than 3000 attended the 750 Motor Club’s one-day meeting last weekend. Instead of charging approximately £20 per entry into the circuit, the British Automobile Racing Club, which operates the Hampshire venue, decided to waive any cost in a bid to attract more spectators. The idea was originally suggested at the start of the season for the one-day meeting, which, unlike sellout events such as the British Touring Car Championship or British Superbikes, would bring in marginal income at best. “Club motorsport is really important at Thruxton but the reality of club motorsport is you’ve got be a particularly passionate supporter of low-cost clubman racing to spend a huge amount of money to go and watch…

SILVERSTONE Two mighty Classic Formula Ford encounters proved the highlight of a low-key day on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit last Saturday for the Historic Sports Car Club meeting. Wins were shared between Benn Simms and Andy Gosling after some typically frenetic FF1600 battling throughout a bumper 30-car grid. Simms won the opener to make it a hat-trick of early season victories in his Jomo JMR7, but had to work hard to fend off a pack that was headed by Gosling’s Van Diemen RF79. Later in the day, a mighty six-way battle raged for much of the race until a skirmish delayed Simms and allowed Gosling to inch clear for his first win, with Matt Wrigley and Tom McArthur on his tail. In the opener, Henry Chart fired his Van…

The frenetic first half-a-dozen laps of the Pall Mall Cup race gave no indication that this was a three-hour marathon rather than a short sprint contest. The top six were squabbling continually, and Rob Huff was the driver on the move in Richard Meins’s Jaguar E-type. The British Touring Car returnee charged from fifth on the grid into the lead by lap four and continued to hold the advantage until the first round of pitstops, when a brake problem developed that sadly dropped the duo out of overall contention. “The first 10 laps were brilliant, racing against Daytona Cobras and going down the Craner Curves side by side,” said Huff. “We then lost the brakes a little and had to top up the reservoirs.” With Huff’s woes, it was seemingly…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 6 MAY Ross Parker’s storming drive from 29th to Hot Hatch victory in his Honda Civic, following fuel pump failure in qualifying, highlighted Monday’s May Madness event at Castle Combe. Lapping 15 seconds quicker than anybody else at one point in a deluge, he overhauled novice Crofton Woodhatch (Mini Cooper S) on the last lap of the opener. Geoff Ryall (Peugeot 106 GTI) and spinner Shaun Goverd (Citroen AX) were third and fourth. A leaking brake caliper forced Parker to miss the sequel, in which Matthew Johnston’s Peugeot 205 shadowed winner Goverd. Despite damaging a front corner on his Kevin Mills-run Spectrum 011C at Bobbies on his final qualifying lap, South African rising star Andrew Rackstraw won the Formula Ford opener brilliantly from fourth. Rory Smith spun…

An eclectic grid lines up for the final (following three thrilling heats) of the 1958 British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park, the 3.9-litre Aston Martin DBR2s of Stirling Moss (#76) and Tony Brooks facing off on the front row against the 2.0 and 1.5-litre Climax-powered Lotus 15s piloted by Cliff Allison and Roy Salvadori respectively. The trio of Moss, Allison and Brooks led the early laps – “the Lotus sandwich hurtled on at a velocity which was quite terrifying from the pit area,” according to Autosport’s man on the spot – until the Lotus retired with a loss of oil pressure, leaving Moss with an easy run to the flag. He was followed home by Brooks, who had been hampered throughout the meeting by an over-geared set-up after breaking a…