Indholdsfortegnelse for 04/07/24 i Autosport

It didn’t take very long for good friends Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to fall out now that McLaren has established itself as a genuine threat to Red Bull. Norris always said that he’d fight Verstappen hard if the situation demanded it, and that’s what happened at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend. Aside from his track-limits transgressions (not including the one that was part of an attempted pass on-track, which should surely be treated differently), Norris was hard but fair. Verstappen was probably a little over the line at times and really should have been able to avoid the contact that meant both lost the race. As Alex Kalinauckas argues on page 13, it does suggest that Verstappen will still revert to type when under real pressure. While Autosport…

FORMULA 1 Audi has offered a first proper update of the progress it is making with its new Formula 1 engine for 2026, saying it is already covering race distances in dyno tests. The German manufacturer is gearing up for a works entry in 2026, when it will officially replace the Sauber team on the grid. It had previously kept low-key in revealing how far advanced work was at its Neuburg headquarters. In an interview it published with Audi Formula Racing CEO Adam Baker and chief technical officer Stefan Dreyer, Audi made it clear that work was on schedule. “After just two years, our power unit, consisting of a combustion engine, electric motor, battery and control electronics, is running dynamically on the test bench,” said Baker. “The Audi power unit…

French tin-top racing legend Laurent Aiello was reunited with the RML Nissan Primera in which he won the 1999 British Touring Car title at Brands Hatch’s Super Touring Power event last weekend. He also signed a Tamiya model of the Peugeot 406 ST he used to win the 1997 Super Tourenwagen Cup – made by current BTCC points leader Jake Hill! “I was disappointed I only did one year in Britain and I thought people would forget, but the people are so passionate,” said Aiello. “It’s great to see.”…

WRC A date for Sebastien Ogier’s return to the World Rally Championship was yet to be confirmed as we went to press, after he was ruled out of last weekend’s Rally Poland following a road traffic accident in the lead-up to the event. The eight-time world champion and co-driver Vincent Landais were involved in a head-on collision with another car while preparing pacenotes. Ogier and Landais, along with the driver and passenger of the other vehicle, were taken to hospital – the Toyota crew by air ambulance – for medical checks. It was confirmed that all had escaped serious injury, with Ogier discharged after spending a night under observation. The 40-year-old was pictured returning home wearing a neck brace and has since undergone further medical checks. Ogier was expected to…

What’s stopped a Silverstone sell-out? It’s been reported that Toto Wolff thinks “it’s a shame” tickets for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone haven’t sold out, but Max Verstappen is not to blame, adding that “we need to look at what can be done better from the promoter’s side, I think the racing is exciting”. Stuart Pringle from Silverstone has suggested that it’s not the ticket prices or dynamic costing either. I do think it’s less to do with the racing – this year it is a lot better – but the cost is the bigger factor, and when you look at the ticket prices I’m surprised how well the ticket sales have gone. The dynamic pricing model is awful and Silverstone should be ashamed of using that. The other…

Self-flagellation from Lando Norris is never in short supply. As the gap between Red Bull and McLaren erodes ever further in the battle for victories, Norris has been his harshest critic in his pursuit of perfection: a state he believes is the only way to beat Max Verstappen. And there he slumped on the press conference sofa, weighed down by a mix of malaise and defeat. A chance of victory, however fleeting, had become warped into a third-place finish behind team-mate Oscar Piastri in just two corners. “I did something pretty stupid and silly,” Norris reflected after he felt he’d left the door open at Turn 4, seconds after his bold Turn 3 dive on Verstappen for the lead. After maintaining a presence within a second of Verstappen during the…

Charles Leclerc declared himself “very happy the race is finished” after his damage-filled run to 11th in Austria capped a disastrous weekend for the Ferrari driver. While team-mate Carlos Sainz had a smoother run, the 2022 Red Bull Ring winner endured a weekend of misfortune, with only one element of his own making. It all started to go wrong for Leclerc in SQ3, when the anti-stall system on his car “switched everything off” as he queued to leave the pits. He fired the car up again but ran out of time to start a timed lap and so ended up 10th. Leclerc made a brilliant sprint start to leap to seventh and score points after dropping Sergio Perez, but he couldn’t make an impression on the leading pack ahead. In…

DANIEL RICCIARDO RB DRIVER You started 11th and finished ninth, so how happy are you with the Austrian GP? I would say I don’t remember all of the race, so I need to probably watch it again to kind of rate how happy I am, but I’m definitely more happy than sad. Obviously, Haas outscored us, but we weren’t quick enough and I think also that Alpine was quicker so hard to hang on. I think the team helped. We had the two hard tyres, so we could pit a little bit earlier. And then I just had to watch the mirrors and try not to f*** up, basically. So, I did a clean race. There was a mix and match with the upgrades this weekend. Did that provide answers?…

Age 39 Silverstone GP starts 18 Silverstone GP wins 8 2024 championship pos 8th (85 points) It’s hard to describe Lewis Hamilton’s start to 2024, although ‘inauspicious’ might cover it best. With a highest finish of sixth after the first eight races of the season it was, in some quarters, termed as the highly decorated Briton’s worst start to a Formula 1 season. One that even surpassed the nadir of 2009’s opening rounds. But the tide is turning, as Mercedes has started to get on terms with the demands of its W15 package. A decision to dispense with the previous philosophy exhibited by the W13 and W14 was lauded, given the team’s dramatic downturn in fortunes, but there were still very clear weaknesses in the new car that had to…

Sami Pajari outlined why Toyota will hand him an opportunity in a GR Yaris Rally1 car in Finland in August by claiming a dominant victory to boost his WRC2 title hopes. The Finn and co-driver Enni Malkonen backed up a triumph in Sardinia with an impressive drive to victory by 22 seconds from Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson on Poland’s high-speed gravel stages. Pajari stormed into the lead on Friday, with his main challenge coming from local hero Kajetan Kajetanowicz before the Pole ran off the road in stage 11, causing significant damage to the Skoda Fabia’s rear suspension. This handed Pajari a 32s buffer, which the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver managed to the finish to move to second in the championship, three points behind Yohan Rossel, who was…

Mercedes, a two-time winner of the Spa enduro in the GT3 era and always a consistent frontrunner, could finish no better than seventh with the GetSpeed team’s #777 entry that took Gold Cup class honours with Mikael Grenier, Philip Ellis, Dominik Baumann and Al Faisal Al Zubair. It was a disappointing result for a manufacturer that looked to be in the game with the best two of its Pro Cup class entries. The #48 Winward Racing Merc in which Lucas Auer qualified second and led early on endured a topsy-turvy race before retiring in the 13th hour. Auer, who shared the car with Maro Engel and Daniel Morad, was five seconds up the road when he sustained a puncture late in his opening stint. It set the tone for the…

NASCAR CUP NASHVILLE (USA) 30 JUNE ROUND 19/36 What looked like a battle of tyre strategies last Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway turned into a wild race into who could stretch their fuel to the finish, with Joey Logano emerging the surprise winner. It appeared that Denny Hamlin, who took four tyres on his final pitstop, and Ross Chastain, who took just two, were set to decide the outcome of Sunday’s race until a caution came out with one of the originally scheduled 300 laps remaining. That sent the race into the first of what would be a record five overtimes covering 31 additional laps. The extra distance proved too much for several drivers, who were already close on fuel. Logano’s Team Penske Ford inherited the lead to start the third…

SUPER TOURING POWER Historic racing brothers Jon and Rob Payne are targeting a track return for their ex-Alain Menu 1992 BMW 318is. The Prodrive-built car made its first UK public appearance since 1993 when it was displayed at Brands Hatch’s Super Touring Power event last weekend. It was used by future British Touring Car champion Menu for his first full-time tin-top programme, including a podium at Snetterton. Privateer David Pinkney drove the car in 1993 before it went to Europe to be used on hillclimbs. The Payne brothers found the car a decade ago, still carrying Pinkney’s distinctive pink-and-white colours under later paintwork. They have since conducted a full restoration and aimed to demonstrate – and possibly race – the car at Brands but were thwarted by trouble with its…

DRAG RACING The British Drag Racing Championship’s six-round Pro Modified series reached its halfway point at Santa Pod Raceway’s Summer Nationals last weekend. The early-season points leader, Estonia’s Andres Arnover, had decamped to the continent to pursue the FIA European title leaving Bobby Wallace, Andy Robinson and Jean Dulamon as the prime title contenders. Robinson was eager to improve on a dismal 2023 season. A month ago, the eight-time champion had marginally lifted the British-best terminal speed mark to 249.07mph. Here, he opened his Summer Nationals account straight out of the trailer with a British-best elapsed time of 5.8207s, only for the time to be dealt a rare rejection when the mid-track incremental timings cast doubt on the final figure. Robinson’s second qualifying shot launched well but turned wayward, slowing…

BRSCC The Citroen C1 24 Hours will return to Silverstone next year after this season’s planned Anglesey event was cancelled. A lack of entries led to the C1 Racing Club and British Racing & Sports Car Club axing the Welsh event, but the contest will now return to Northamptonshire after a year away on 2-4 May 2025. “I was 100% determined to keep the race on the calendar – after I competed in the early races, it continued to be a passion to do 24-hour races,” said C1 boss Robin Welsh. “It was my reason for taking over the series, while the three-hour races are to give teams more of a racing season.” Adam Willis, part of last year’s winning Alpha Trojon team, is delighted it is back. “I was…

Super Touring in the 1990s may be among the most fondly remembered eras of British Touring Cars, but there are many fans of the Group A period that preceded it, too. Alongside the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s Pre-’93 category, a field of Group A cars were invited to contest non-championship races, while more took part in high-speed demonstration runs. Tony Hart’s ex-Michael Bleekemolen Renault 21 – which also contested multiple Willhire 24-hour races at Snetterton in Group N spec – was among the most unusual, while Hart also fielded a Renault 5 GT Turbo in Sunday’s races for David Clark. Patrick Watts’s MG Metro Turbo and Paul Linfoot’s ex-Steve Soper Ford Sierra RS500 remain crowd favourites. Undoubtedly the loudest was Jason Minshaw’s ex-Roland Ratzenberger BMW M3 E30. The races…

Through the 1920s, Basil Davenport terrorised bigger and more expensive cars in his GN Spider special and, 100 years later, current owner Jim Edwards is continuing that tradition. Having accepted the challenge of rebuilding Spider’s Frazer Nash V-twin engine for previous owner David Leigh, Edwards was the obvious candidate to take over Spider when Leigh decided to sell it around four years ago. Based in an old mill building in Middlewich in Cheshire, Edwards is something of a throwback to another time. He is a gifted and intuitive engineer who has built an enviable reputation for his work on pre-war cars and engines and is the ideal enthusiast to be the latest custodian of this outstanding piece of speed event history. The car is still road legal and Edwards has…

WEC/IMSA Hyundai looks on course to become the next manufacturer to sign up to compete at the highest level of sportscar racing on the world stage and in North America. The South Korean marque is either close to or has already given the green light to a programme that would straddle the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship with an LMDh prototype. There has been no confirmation as yet of a plan that would take Hyundai to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time, but Hyundai Motorsport team principal Cyril Abiteboul has suggested that an announcement about the marque’s future is likely as early as September. He suggested it would lay out its plans for the World Rally Championship and its future ambitions. “There will be…

FORMULA 1 Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas have moved back into the frame for a seat at Williams in 2025 as Carlos Sainz continues to stall over his plans. The Spaniard has been weighing up for weeks clear offers from both the Sauber/Audi team and Williams for next season. But just as the Ferrari driver appeared to be on the verge of making a final decision around last month’s Spanish Grand Prix, Alpine made a last-ditch bid to get him on board. It is understood that Sainz asked for a further delay from Williams so he could weigh up what Alpine could offer. While Sainz’s third option of Sauber/Audi is willing to hold fire for a little bit longer, Williams has decided that it needs to get a team-mate for…

IMSA Meyer Shank Racing will return to the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTP class next season to run a two-car GTP Acura assault. The move comes after its contract wasn’t renewed for 2024 in the wake of its manipulation of tyre pressure data on the way to victory at last year’s season-opening Daytona 24 Hours. Shank has been brought back into the Acura IMSA fold to replace Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, which will be returning to Cadillac for next season. But there is a twist to the new deal with the IMSA champion team of 2022: Honda Racing Corporation USA will be more involved in the running of the two ARX-06 LMDhs and will race engineer one of them. HRC USA, the organisation formerly known as Honda Performance Development that…

SUZUKA 1000KM The Suzuka 1000Km sportscar fixture will be revived next year after an absence of eight years. The Intercontinental GT Challenge will return to the home of the Japanese Grand Prix, not as a 10-hour race as in 2018 and 2019 (pictured), but running to the traditional distance of the summer event that has been held as a round of the world sportscar championship and domestic Japanese series, most recently Super GT, in a history dating back to 1966. IGTC boss Stephane Ratel has made no secret of his desire to take a series built around the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Spa 24 Hours back to Suzuka after its COVID-enforced disappearance from the calendar in 2020. Reviving it as a 1000km race rather than a 10-hour marathon reflects…

The end of last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix was horribly familiar for motorsport purists – those who feel that the world’s best drivers really shouldn’t be driving into each other. But it was thrilling again for so many other observers, because it was Formula 1 2021 all over again. There are similarities between Red Bull racer Max Verstappen clashing with McLaren’s Lando Norris at the Red Bull Ring’s Turn 3 and so many moments from Verstappen’s campaign against Lewis Hamilton three years ago. That year ended with a distinct focus on unacceptable defending, after Verstappen’s Brazil Turn 4 moves went unpunished and led directly to his actions in the race of disgrace that was F1’s first visit to Saudi Arabia. Last Sunday in Austria, it was a Verstappen defensive move…

A Hans Zimmer score and a cinematic masterpiece are often intertwined among some of the most venerated productions in the world of film. The highly revered composer has lent a sprinkling of gold dust to each, enveloping them in a sheen of electronic music-influenced orchestral soundscapes, and has won two Oscars for ‘best original score’ in his distinguished and distinctive career. Zimmer opened the Austrian Grand Prix with his own energetic rendition of the national anthem Land der Berge, Land am Strome that broke away from the usually staid pre-race formalities. Wielding a James Trussart custom Steelcaster, his involvement ought to have been a harbinger of things to come over the 71 laps of the Red Bull Ring. And the final 20 laps? Pure cinema. The plot lured people into…

Compared to some of the glorified car parks in which Formula 1 finds itself over the course of a season, the Red Bull Ring is a lovely change of scene. Pick your spot somewhere among the verdancy and you can pretty much see the entire circuit, compactly enclosed among the Austrian Alps’ firs, pines and spruces. It’s an uphill walk to Turns 6 and 7, but we’ve got to work off last night’s schnitzel somehow. The Red Bull Ring is a popular venue. Even those who remember the Osterreichring, which this writer certainly doesn’t, largely enjoy the modern-day evocation – even without the faster and arguably more perilous long-radius corners. As the practice session opens, we’re treated to a consistent cadence of cars cascading down the hill. Even in the…

Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, small gravel traps were installed at the Red Bull Ring’s final two corners – the scene of problems that amounted to 1200 potential track limits violations in the 2023 main race at the venue. The kerbs at these corners were also partially painted to match the track surface and had the track-defining white line painted over them, which reduced the overall gap from the gravel to the track to 1.5 metres since F1 cars are 2m wide. The measure can be adjusted for motorcycle racing here. The only track limits saga prior to the closing stages of the GP was Oscar Piastri losing his best Q3 lap and third place for being too wide at the exit of Turn 6. Here, the kerb was…

Age 24 Silverstone GP starts 6 Best Silverstone GP finish 2nd 2024 championship pos 2nd (156 points) You can still hear the roar; so many voices screaming in unison. McLaren’s Lando Norris had just taken the lead of the 2023 British Grand Prix and the Silverstone crowd was in raptures. His first Formula 1 victory wasn’t to come that day – Max Verstappen and Red Bull were just too strong. But, following on from his Miami triumph and near-victory at F1’s only visit to a track with high-speed corners so far in 2024 (Barcelona), there’s a tantalising possibility of Norris becoming the first British winner at Silverstone since Lewis Hamilton in 2021. “We’re closer now than we were [at Silverstone in 2023],” Norris reflects. “So, you’d hope it’s that little…

Silverstone Length 3.660 miles Number of laps 52 UK START TIMES Friday 5 July FP1 1230 FP2 1600 Saturday 6 July FP3 1130 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 7 July RACE 1500 CATCH THE RACE LIVE CHANNEL 4 SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors SILVERSTONE STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m26.720s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m24.303s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m27.097s (2020) Silverstone podiums Lewis Hamilton 14 Michael Schumacher 7 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Alain Prost 6 Fernando Alonso 6 Rubens Barrichello 6 Nigel Mansell 5 Mark Webber 5 Sebastian Vettel 5 Mika Hakkinen 5…

“I was one lap away from winning the championship this weekend.” Mistakes have been few and far between for Nick Cassidy this term on his quest for a maiden Formula E title, but a critical error within sight of that first crown has blown the championship battle wide open. Instead of walking away with his hands on the trophy, the Kiwi went scoreless at the Portland E-Prix double-header, and a 25-point lead prior to the event has been whittled down to just 12 ahead of the season finale in London later this month. The late catastrophe for Cassidy and Jaguar in the USA opened the door for Porsche and Antonio Felix da Costa, and this potent combination scored a remarkable double that has propelled both into the championship mix with…

FORMULA 2 RED BULL RING (AUT) 29-30 JUNE ROUND 7/14 Just when it looked as though Ollie Bearman had kickstarted his Formula 2 campaign with victory in the reversed-grid sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix, the latest disaster struck in the feature event on Sunday. Instead, it was reigning Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto who ended the weekend on top with his maiden F2 win. Prema Racing driver Bearman has endured a miserable sophomore campaign since earning acclaim for his performance on his Formula 1 debut with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. The Briton started second to Kush Maini on Saturday, and took full advantage of a poor getaway for the Invicta Racing car to take the lead into Turn 1 and deliver a commanding performance without any real challenge.…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP RED BULL RING (AUT) 30 JUNE ROUND 3/8 In a reversal of what was to come later, the Austrian Grand Prix’s Porsche Supercup support race featured a consummate drive to victory from the series’ Dutch talisman as wars broke out behind him. Larry ten Voorde had to give best to CLRT team-mate Marvin Klein in qualifying. But, when the Frenchman locked up into Turn 3 and ran wide, ten Voorde slipped past. Klein’s efforts to get back ahead brought Harry King into play, before he squeezed Klein too much at the Turn 8 kink. After contact, the Lechner Racing machine went sideways and King somehow controlled it, but Klein and he were now down to fifth and sixth by the end of the opening lap. Keagan Masters had…

BRITISH GT The opening British GT Championship round will move from Oulton Park to Donington Park next year in a bid to avoid the chaos that marred this year’s Easter Monday curtain-raiser. The Donington event, a two-hour race, will take place on 6 April, two weeks ahead of Easter, with the Oulton fixture run to the 60-minute doubleheader format moving back to 26 May, the late Spring Bank Holiday. Aside from the pandemic-disrupted 2021 season, Oulton has hosted the opening round each year from 2017. Series boss Stephane Ratel explained the calendar reshuffle has been driven by an attempt to avoid the bad weather that caused problems this year and a desire not to host the season-opener on what he described as “the most challenging circuit on the calendar”. “Oulton…

HISTORICS Gary Ward was reunited with the Formula Ford Lola T644E he raced with SDC sponsorship 40 years ago when he tackled the inaugural Heroes of FF1600 Sprint Cup races at Thruxton last month. “When owner Andrew Crighton researched chassis 23’s history and discovered it was mine, he offered me the opportunity to race it here,” said Ward, 60, who also restored the car to his customary immaculate standard. Having not driven it prior to qualifying, a last-minute ride-height change limited lappery, but the handling was more to his liking by race two, in which he finished 14th, with a best lap quicker than three drivers ahead of him. Ward, who graduated to F3 with a Ralt RT30/85 in 1986, was already committed to the Thruxton Historic event’s Jochen Rindt…

KARTING A new driver development academy is being launched by Buckmore Park kart circuit as part of commemorations of 60 years since its former owner John Surtees won the Formula 1 title. It is intended that the scheme will help uncover a future champion, and 15 young drivers will be selected to participate in an initial intensive week-long programme in August. They will benefit from guidance from a range of experts including F1 test driver Oliver Turvey and Dean Fouache, former performance coach to Jenson Button. “As this will mark 60 years since my father became Formula 1 world champion, we wanted to try and kickstart other successful careers in elite motorsport, something he was incredibly passionate about doing,” said Leonora Martell-Surtees, Buckmore co-owner and daughter of Surtees.…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR SUPER TOURING POWER 29-30 JUNE With 1999 British Touring Car champion Laurent Aiello watching on, Jake Hill took the Frenchman’s title-winning Nissan Primera to a pair of Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit wins at the second edition of Super Touring Power last weekend. The current BTCC points leader qualified the Primera on pole by 2.9 seconds from period great Steve Soper, at the wheel of a 1997 BMW 320i, going 0.6s faster than his best at last year’s event in the process. The pair then entertained an appreciative crowd, trading the lead of Saturday’s first race on multiple occasions. Their tussle allowed Richard Wheeler to close in, his ex-David Leslie sister Primera having climbed from sixth on the grid, passing Anthony Reid’s 1998 example in the process.…

SNETTERTON MSVR SNETTERTON CLASSIC 29-30 JUNE John Davison made up for the disappointment of dropping out of the Snetterton Classic’s RAC Pall Mall Cup enduro on the fourth lap with a commanding win in the following day’s Historic Racing Drivers Club Allstars race. Davison’s TVR Griffith was fitted with a new differential and he made a phenomenal start, spying gaps on the inside to propel himself from 10th to second in two corners, then taking advantage of Mike Whitaker’s Griffith outbraking itself at the chicane to grab the lead. He then pulled away to enjoy an 11-second victory. Whitaker was second, securely in front of Jake Giddings’s Lotus Cortina. James Colburn (Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT) won the concurrent Classic Alfa Challenge; he was fifth overall after a long tussle…

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya had already pulled off an impressive overtaking manoeuvre at Spa’s Bus Stop chicane on the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher during the thrilling, incident-packed 2004 Belgian Grand Prix – a move he had initially not even considered possible following changes to the layout – but when he tried the same ploy on Jarno Trulli’s Renault, things didn’t go quite to plan and the two collided, the Colombian opining in his Autosport column that “no one was really to blame”. Both were able to rejoin, although the drop-off in pace that polesitter and early leader Trulli’s car had suffered after the first pitstop – “I had no rear grip at all” – meant he could finish no higher than ninth, and Montoya had to retire while running…

Ex-IndyCar and DTM star Robert Wickens drove a single-seater last Friday for the first time since the 2018 Pocono crash that left him paralysed, when he completed 11 laps at Portland in a Formula E car prior to the Oregon circuit’s race weekend. Wickens, who became a champion in TCR touring car machinery last season, is targeting a return to leading echelons of racing. “For me it’s not a matter of single-seaters, it’s elite level of motorsport, whether it’s IMSA, if it’s the World Endurance Championship or Formula E,” he said. “I think it’s just racing against the best drivers in the world like I was doing in IndyCar and DTM prior to my accident. For me, that’s what I need to get back to.”…

INDYCAR Briton Toby Sowery will make his IndyCar debut at Mid-Ohio this weekend, when he becomes the sixth driver to pilot Dale Coyne Racing’s #51 entry this year. The 28-year-old made his name in the US as an Indy Lights race winner, and got his first taste of IndyCar machinery in a test with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing last year at Sebring. He has been racing this year in the LMP2 category of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. “Dale Coyne has been fundamental to IndyCar in giving drivers opportunities to prove themselves and I am eager for this challenge,” said Sowery, a two-time McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist when he was a leading runner in BRDC F3. “It’ll be a difficult step…

GT4 EUROPEAN SERIES British youngsters Tom Lebbon and Josh Rattican extended their lead in the GT4 European Series by winning both Spa 24 Hours support races last weekend. The Elite Motorsport pair hadn’t yet taken a victory in 2024 before last Friday’s opener, for which Rattican put their McLaren Artura GT4 on pole and led the first stint, with the Audi of Benjamin Lariche breathing down his neck. They pitted together, and Lebbon could not prevent Robert Consani – now in the Audi – passing on their out-lap. But the ex-GB3 ace dived back in front at Les Combes and pulled away to beat the Audi into second place. Lebbon claimed pole for Saturday’s race, but dropped to third early on behind Consani and the Toyota of Etienne Cheli. Following…

A new series was formally launched last Thursday aboard a ship upon the River Thames in London – as you do! Extreme H, the hydrogen replacement for Extreme E from 2025, got the green light aboard the St Helena, the vessel on which the entire ‘race without a trace’ circus floats around the world. The new Pioneer 25 machine, powered by hydrogen fuel-cell technology and developed by XE/Formula E chassis supplier Spark, was unveiled in the livery of new series backer Red Bull. Those in attendance including driver/team boss Carlos Sainz Sr, and fellow drivers Catie Munnings and Hedda Hosas – the Norwegian who has acted as a test pilot. ALBUQUERQUE: DI RESTA SUB Filipe Albuquerque will race for the United Autosports LMP2 squad in the Mosport round of the…

This has been a season of two halves. The Formula 1 side of things has been going really well with the free practice sessions and, of course, Jeddah with Ferrari. Every time I’ve been in an F1 car, even in private testing, I felt like my performances have been really strong, that I’m improving every time, and that I’m really starting to get comfortable. On the other hand, F2 has been difficult so far. We’re really struggling to find consistency and to always find the correct feeling in the car. We still have some work to do at Prema to be the team we were last year. I think the outright performance is very similar between the old and new F2 cars. We see it in qualifying, and even in…

If there was any indication of how much qualifying at the Red Bull Ring had evolved into a Max Verstappen benefit concert, it’s this: the Dutch driver completed four laps – two in Q2, two in Q3 – good enough for pole position. Even setting two laps in Q2, despite being overwhelmingly safe from his opening effort, seemed like nothing more than a bid to flex his advantage and deliver a parting shot to his rivals on the grid. By Q3, it was very apparent that nobody was going to beat Verstappen. The odds were too insurmountable for Lando Norris to make a play for pole, and he closed out his lap four tenths down on the championship leader. It was as if Verstappen had punched in his 1m04.314s effort,…

Haas scored its first double points finish since the Australian Grand Prix in March, with Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finishing sixth and eighth respectively in the Austrian GP, either side of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull. After Magnussen had shown strong pace in Saturday’s sprint race on his way to a point-less ninth – where Hulkenberg botched a pass on Fernando Alonso – Haas continued what team boss Ayao Komatsu called “the best consistent run we’ve had this season”. Magnussen made his customary positive start from 12th to run in the top 10 from the start of the GP, while Hulkenberg needed to recover past Esteban Ocon’s Alpine before he could capitalise on Charles Leclerc’s latest woe. Magnussen pitted on lap 10 to change his medium tyres for hards, which…

Pierre Gasly scored the final point in the Austrian GP for Alpine, after prevailing in another brutal scrap with his team-mate Esteban Ocon in the middle phase of the race. Ocon started as the lead Alpine driver after impressively making Q3, then battled Nico Hulkenberg in the early stages, where Gasly had made a good start to run 11th, up from 13th. Both Alpines then dropped back because of the aggressive undercut tactics of the Haases and Daniel Ricciardo, which left them both chasing Fernando Alonso, with Gasly directly behind Ocon. After the Aston Martin had pitted, Gasly finally overtook his team-mate. They’d engaged in a fight at Turn 3 that had Gasly off in the run-off area. He finally overtook at Turn 4 with a bold around-the-outside move, where…

Age 26 Silverstone GP starts 6 Best Silverstone GP finish 5th 2024 championship pos 7th (111 points) If Lewis Hamilton has struggled to get the best out of the Mercedes W15, even in its slightly less rapid early form, then George Russell has managed to hit the high notes more often than not. After all, the younger Briton leads the qualifying battle (9-2) and perhaps has shown more willingness to work with the car, even in the more trying races this season. Now that Mercedes is on the up, Russell reckons that the growing confidence in the car should stand him in good stead for his home grand prix. After all, Silverstone’s array of high and medium-speed corners requires full commitment from a driver; with a well-balanced car underneath them,…

Kalle Rovanpera has rewritten the World Rally Championship record books in becoming the youngest event winner, world champion and back-to-back title winner, and now he’s won a rally he wasn’t even supposed to contest. Is there anything the flying Finn can’t do in a rally car? It’s a valid question, because Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen defied the odds to take victory in Poland after receiving a last-minute call up to act as the perfect supersub for Toyota in its hour of need. “I wasn’t really expecting much and of course every time you put the helmet on you try to do your best,” admitted Rovanpera. “You always have a chance and have to count on yourself, but I knew it would be difficult. You need to keep going and…

Three years ago Alessandro Pier Guidi sealed a dramatic Spa 24 Hours victory with 10 minutes to go with an around-the-outside manoeuvre at Blanchimont. This time the Italian’s heroics had long since set Ferrari on course for the win in the blue-riband round of the GT World Challenge Europe before some more last-hour drama. This time it ripped the win from Ferrari’s grasp and handed it straight to Aston Martin. Pier Guidi and team-mates Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera looked pretty much home and dry in the centenary running of the Spa endurance classic with just under an hour to go when he came into the pits for his final stop. His misfortune was to find the narrow entry from the Bus Stop to the start of the Formula 1…

FORMULA 3 RED BULL RING (AUT) 29-30 JUNE ROUND 6/10 Luke Browning regained the lead of the Formula 3 standings thanks to a superb second win of the season in the feature race at the Austrian Grand Prix round. While Hitech GP’s Williams F1 junior has been superb in the Sunday races, it’s his form in the reversed-grid sprints that has prevented him stretching a lead in the title race. And Browning’s grand total of three points on Saturdays was not added to at the Red Bull Ring either… This time he finished one place outside the scorers in 11th, although this was tempered by the fact that, of those in the top four in the championship, it was only Gabriele Mini who got points, in sixth place. Browning’s Hitech…

MOTOGP ASSEN (NLD) 30 JUNE ROUND 8/20 Perfection is a near-unattainable concept that athletes constantly strive for throughout their careers. And Francesco Bagnaia’s Dutch Grand Prix masterclass is about as close to it as anyone could hope for. After topping both Friday practice sessions for the first time in his MotoGP career, the Italian went on to take pole position with a new all-time lap record for the Assen circuit, before leading every lap of the sprint and grand prix to register his second successive double victory. It was a statement weekend after weeks of media discussion about the dynamics within Ducati following its decision to promote Marc Marquez to its factory team in 2025. It is known that the Bagnaia/Valentino Rossi camp is not happy with Ducati’s actions, so…

SUPER TOURING POWER Former British Touring Car stars John Cleland and Patrick Watts are planning to race at the Super Touring Power event in 2025. Ex-Mazda and Peugeot works driver Watts and 1995 champion Cleland attended the second running of the tin-top celebration at Brands Hatch last weekend, where they appeared on the Autosport live stage. They now intend to prepare the Super Tourers they own to contest next year’s edition, which has not yet been confirmed but is likely. Cleland will race the 1997 Vauxhall Vectra he has campaigned sporadically, while Watts plans to drive his 1998 Peugeot 406. “We wanted to bring the Vectra this year but had too many work commitments,” said Cleland, now 71. “We’re ready to go. I think we’d be on the podium. “It’s…

BRITISH F4 Jess Edgar has become the second F1 Academy driver to reveal plans to join the British Formula 4 grid with Chris Dittmann Racing for the British series’ maiden overseas event at Zandvoort next weekend. After Carrie Schreiner joined the squad for last month’s previous round at Silverstone, as well as the upcoming Dutch event, F1 Academy race winner Edgar is now doing likewise to help build seat time ahead of the all-female series’ own trip to Zandvoort next month. “I’m pleased to announce that I will be racing at Zandvoort with Chris Dittmann Racing as it’s my favourite track, so I’m super-excited to be competing there twice this year,” said Edgar, who is currently eighth in the F1 Academy standings with Rodin Motorsport. “Entering British F4 is a…

GINETTA JUNIOR Rookie talent Ethan Jeff-Hall has moved into the Ginetta Junior points lead after scoring three wins during Ginetta’s G Fest event at Anglesey last weekend. On the category’s first visit to the Welsh circuit in 17 years, Jeff-Hall set the tone in race one with a comfortable lights-to-flag victory. Behind, a close scrap for second between Marcus Saeter, Henry Joslyn and Charlie Hart eventually went Saeter’s way. Saeter dropped to fourth initially in race two, but quickly fought back to second and set his sights on polesitter Jeff-Hall. The Norwegian racer successfully made a move on lap seven of 10 to secure his second victory of the season. Jeff-Hall was back to dominating proceedings on Sunday. In dry conditions, after persistent rain the previous day, he converted a…

HRDC ALLSTARS & CLASSIC ALFA CHALLENGE John Davison (TVR Griffith) HRDC JACK SEARS TROPHY Jake Giddings/Paul Streather (Ford Lotus Cortina, below) MRL WOODCOTE & STIRLING MOSS TROPHIES Andrew Guy Smith (Cooper Monaco) HRDC GERRY MARSHALL TROPHY Jack Moody (Rover SD1) MRL PRE-WAR SPORTS CARS Jonathan Bailey (Bugatti T35C) MRL RAC PALL MALL CUP Jeremy Cottingham/Harvey Stanley (Shelby Daytona Cobra) MRL PRE ’63 GT Matt Walton/Nigel Greensall (Jaguar E-type) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

In the latest of James Allen’s JA on F1 Podcast series, 1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill talks about the two drivers most likely to become Britain’s next title winner: Lando Norris and George Russell. Hill explains how getting that breakthrough win, as Norris did in Miami, can open up the next level of performance to become a championship challenger. Hill also looks ahead to the British GP this weekend, even though he will be taking on a gruelling stage of the Tour de France to raise money and awareness for the Neuro UK charity. youtube.com/AUTOSPORTdotcom…

It takes something truly special for long-time Porsche factory ace Marc Lieb to overlook the 911 GT3-RSR as his favourite car. He now co-owns the ex-GruppeM chassis in which he and Mike Rockenfeller dominated the FIA GT Championship’s GT2 class in 2005, and in which he took his first of four Le Mans 24 Hours class wins that year, when he and Rockenfeller were joined in their Alex Job Racing RSR by 57-year-old gentleman driver Leo Hindery. Yet Lieb, now managing the sports communication of Porsche, has very good reason for selecting the previous GT3-RS model from the same 996 family. Winning the Spa 24 Hours outright in 2003, despite being entered in the secondary N-GT category against the faster GT1 machinery, is one of motorsport’s great shocks. “In the…