Indholdsfortegnelse for 29/08/24 i Autosport

Since Zandvoort returned to the Formula 1 schedule in 2021, Max Verstappen’s domination on home soil had been complete until last weekend: three poles and three wins. But, as we’ve started to expect in 2024, Lando Norris and McLaren made things difficult for Red Bull and the reigning world champion this time around. More than that, the way in which Norris dominated the event despite a sluggish getaway – and won by 22.9 seconds – increased the murmurs about a possible fightback in this year’s title race. It’s never quite as simple as that, of course. As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on page 14, Red Bull’s set-up gamble left Verstappen vulnerable in the Dutch Grand Prix, while McLaren’s tech upgrade (p29) is likely to have less of an…

FORMULA 1 Mick Schumacher and Liam Lawson have emerged as leading contenders for Williams if the Grove-based squad elects to make an imminent driver change. Williams team boss James Vowles is understood to be evaluating his options in the wake of another big accident for Logan Sargeant at Zandvoort last weekend. The American crashed heavily in Saturday morning’s wet final free practice session and missed qualifying as a result. It is understood that Vowles has sounded out rival team bosses over options to partner Alex Albon for the rest of the season. One option is Schumacher, who is reserve driver for Mercedes, whose engines Williams run. Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said he would like to see Schumacher get another opportunity in F1. “I would very much hope that Mick gets…

Formula 3 racer Joseph Loake had his first taste of F1 machinery on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit last week as part of his prize for winning the 2023 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award. The 19-year-old Rodin Motorsport driver climbed aboard a 2022 Aston Martin AMR22, the first time a ground effect F1 car has been used for the prize. “Words don’t really describe how crazy a machine this is,” said Loake. “It’s just such a special day for me. Obviously, I hope to drive a car like this again, but the first time is always the most special and it’s a day that I’ll never forget.”…

WEC Toyota appears to be big loser under the Balance of Performance for this weekend’s Austin round of the World Endurance Championship. Its GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercars will go into the US round of the series with less power and more weight after winning last time out at Interlagos in July. The Japanese machines (below) have lost 9kW or 12bhp in base power and gained 5kg in minimum weight for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race on Sunday. But the Toyotas have received an upward adjustment under the power gain feature of the BoP introduced for the Le Mans 24 Hours round in June: above 250km/h (155mph), the Toyota will be allowed 4.6% more power, an increase of 1.8% over Interlagos. The Toyotas will race at 497kW (666bhp)…

Monza Length 3.600 miles Number of laps 53 UK START TIMES Friday 30 August FP1 1230 FP2 1600 Saturday 31 August FP3 1130 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 1 September RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC SPORT WEBSITE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1730 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors MONZA STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Carlos Sainz 1m20.294s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m18.887s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Rubens Barrichello 1m21.046s (2004) Monza podiums…

“Foot to the floor, the lights are out.” There’s no chance Lando Norris thought this at the start of Formula 1’s 2024 Dutch Grand Prix he won for McLaren. Not in 0.28 seconds. Home hero Max Verstappen clocked the exact same time reacting to the start lights extinguishing at Zandvoort. And with his impressive pole position lap the day before, that should have been enough for Norris. With overtaking at such a premium on this narrow, brilliantly brutal, old-school, seaside track, the pressure had been ratcheted up on this moment as soon as qualifying ended. The statistics did the rest: Norris had secured a fourth F1 career pole but, considering he’d not managed to lead at the end of the opening lap from the previous three (plus when he’d headed…

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez finished fifth and sixth and well adrift of the podium battles at Formula 1’s 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, but each had reasons to be optimistic leaving Zandvoort. Ferrari turned its weekend around after a horror show in qualifying, where Sainz was dumped out in Q2. The Spaniard had also not been able to complete a single sighter lap on the soft tyres due to a gearbox problem in FP2. In the first stint on the mediums, Sainz battled from 10th to seventh – including passing Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at Turn 2 following a close, side-by-side scrap. After stopping six laps later than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc ahead, he caught and passed Perez around the outside at Tarzan on the hards a third of the way…

ADRIAN FLUX TROPHY FOR MRL HISTORIC TOURING CAR CHALLENGE (10 LAPS) 1 Darren Fielding (BMW E30 M3); 2 Ric Wood (Nissan Skyline GT-R) +27.527s; 3 David Tomlin (Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500); 4 Paul Mensley/Michael Lyons (RS500); 5 Mike Manning (RS500); 6 Howard Spooner (BMW 635i). Fastest lap Julian Thomas (RS500) 2m32.972s (85.64mph). Pole Thomas. Starters 48. RAC WOODCOTE TROPHY/STIRLING MOSS TROPHY (12 LAPS) 1 Nigel Greensall (Lister-Jaguar Costin); 2 David Hart (Lister-Jaguar Costin) +15.343s; 3 Roger Wills (Lotus 15); 4 John Spiers (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly); 5 Bonamy Grimes/Johnny Mowlem (Lotus 15); 6 Lukas Halusa/Alex Ames (Jaguar D-type). Woodcote winners Halusa/Ames. FL Greensall 2m51.520s (76.38mph). P Mowlem. S 39. MASTERS RACING LEGENDS (F1 1966-85) (8 LAPS) 1 Stuart Hall (March 821); 2 Matthew Wrigley (Tyrrell 011) +0.365s; 3 Jamie Constable (Tyrrell 011B);…

INDYCAR PORTLAND (USA) 25 AUGUST ROUND 13/15 After two frustrating rounds, which included being involved in the controversial restart incident last time out at St Louis, Penske’s Will Power was untouchable en route to a dominant victory at Portland International Raceway last weekend. The closest anyone got to the 43-year-old Aussie was at the start when he overtook the AJ Foyt Racing Dallara-Chevrolet of polesitter Santino Ferrucci with an inside pass going into Turn 1 just seconds after taking the green flag. Although championship leader Alex Palou, who started third, was able to apply some pressure on Power in the early and middle stages, his usual overcut antics during pit cycles weren’t enough to prevail from his less-favoured strategy of three runs on the harder primary tyres compared to the…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (JPN) 25 AUGUST ROUND 5/7 Tadasuke Makino reignited his Super Formula title hopes with a second win of the season at Motegi, but only after team-mate Kakunoshin Ohta spun out. The two Dandelion Racing drivers ran nose-to-tail in the battle for the win in the closing stages, having adopted different strategies to get there. Ohta had run second behind poleman Kenta Yamashita early on, but seized the initiative by pitting at the minimum cut-off of lap 10 of 37, while both Yamashita and Makino stayed out. Makino held on until lap 22 to make his mandatory tyre change, jumping Yamashita in the process, and then carving into Ohta’s advantage at a rate of over a second per lap with the benefit of his fresher rubber. Makino arrived…

INDY NXT PORTLAND (USA) 25 AUGUST ROUND 10/12 Jacob Abel scored a sensational Indy NXT victory at Portland International Raceway to keep his title hopes alive. While Andretti Global’s championship leader Louis Foster started on pole, it was Abel’s move from the outside of the front row to the inside that took the lead into Turn 1. Despite sporadic pressure through the early and middle parts of the contest, Abel held firm at the front for all 35 laps to win by 0.4 seconds over Foster. Andretti’s Bryce Aron, Foster’s team-mate, finished third to match his best result of the season. “It was kind of like an over-under type of move,” said Abel after his third victory of the campaign. “He [Foster] got a good run out of the last…

ERC TITLE BATTLE SET FOR PIVOTAL CHAPTER Ceredigion could be crucial in deciding the outcome of this year’s European Rally Championship. The top three in the standings head to Wales for the penultimate round split by 24 points, with Hyundai driver and reigning champion Hayden Paddon holding a 14-point lead over Skoda driver Mathieu Franceschi. Poland’s Miko Marczyk is only 10 points further back, waiting to pounce. One-time WRC rally winner Paddon (right) will have the advantage of being a previous Rali Ceredigion conqueror, although the New Zealander has struggled to extract performance from his i20 N. With only one podium from six events to date, his lead is very much based on consistency. “It has definitely got character, it is unique and that’s why it’s great that it’s part…

BRITISH GT British GT frontrunners Phil Keen and Ian Loggie will switch to a Porsche 911 GT3-R for the final two rounds of the 2024 season after previously driving a Mercedes-AMG. This will be the first time the 992-spec version has appeared in the series since the third round of 2023, when one was used by Team Parker Racing at Silverstone. One of the models will now return for the Donington Park event next weekend and it is hoped the Porsche may help propel the 2 Seas pair to championship glory, as they sit 38 points behind leaders Rob and Ricky Collard with 75 left available. “It’s nigh on impossible to source a new Porsche GT3 so, when the opportunity arose to acquire a low-mileage example, I jumped at the…

TOCA JUNIOR Graves Motorsport has become the first team to officially confirm it will enter the new TOCA Junior category next year. The squad has enjoyed success in an array of different series in recent years and currently fields drivers in the Mini Challenge Trophy and Clio Cup GB, as well as powering Max Coates to the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB points lead. It will now move into the junior racing scene with an entry into British Touring Car-supporting TOCA Junior and plans to run up to four of the category’s Chevron B1417 cars. “We’ve been looking for a junior championship to compete in for a while now and TOCA Junior has arrived at the perfect time,” said team owner Karl Graves. “As a team, drivers will be able to…

750MC Daniel Garrett secured the 750 Motor Club Locost Championship title with three races to spare after the first of his two Brands Hatch victories last Saturday. Lee Emm burst through from row two to lead the wet opener but spun at Druids to hand the advantage back to Garrett, who took his sixth win of the year. Emm retained his lead for much longer in race two, only relinquishing it at Surtees on the final lap of a truncated race. Soaking conditions for the first Bikesports race mitigated an intermittent issue on victor Shane Stoney’s Radical PR6, but in the drier rerun he couldn’t keep pace with the Mittell of Pedro Oliveira, who took his first win. Having won his class in race one, Leon Morrell needed just a…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Harry Hickton bounced back from a disastrous qualifying to hold onto his championship lead during a wild weekend in the Mini Challenge Trophy at Donington Park. An ABS failure left the Westbourne driver towards the back of the grid for the first and third contests, but stunning recovery drives and mixed fortunes for his main rivals helped him limit the damage. Rhys Hurd (Chandler Motorsport) prevailed in a three-way fight to take his third win of the season in the opener, while Sam Gornall snatched second from Reece Lycett after a side-by-side battle that lasted for half a lap. Fifth for Alex Solley initially drew him level at the top of the standings with Hickton, who climbed up the order to ninth and secured reversed-grid pole for…

PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB Graves Motorsport’s Max Coates replaced Seb Hopkins at the top of the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB standings during a weekend where the title contenders were put in the shade by double victor Joe Marshall. In only his second weekend in the series, Marshall led from lights to flag in the opener despite a late charge from Thomas Bradshaw, who had prevailed in a battle for second with Will Jenkins. Hopkins just missed out on a podium spot to his Team Parker Racing stablemate, while Coates passed his own team-mate Ethan Hammerton to finish fifth. Marshall was chased again by Bradshaw in race two, but the Rob Boston Racing driver ran wide at the halfway stage while under pressure into the Melbourne hairpin, allowing Bradshaw to sneak…

JAGUAR CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Colin Philpott (XJS) SPECIAL SALOONS & MODSPORTS Race 1 Thomas Carey (Honda-BDG CRX) Race 2 Andy Southcott (MG Lenham-Millington Midget) MIDGET & SPRITE CHALLENGE Race 1 Pippa Cow (Austin-Healey Sprite) Race 2 James Hughes (Austin-Healey Sprite) CLASSIC K Paul Tooms (Lotus Elan GTS) SWINGING SIXTIES Group 1 Stephen Pickering (Sunbeam Tiger) Group 2 Steve Hodges (Lotus 7 Series 2) TIN TOPS Nigel Ainge/Danny Cassar (Honda Integra Type R) BMW CHAMPIONSHIP/SLICKS Races 1 & 2 Niall Bradley (BMW M3 E46) MODERN CLASSICS/MG TROPHY Tom Mensley (BMW M3 E36 Evo, below) FUTURE CLASSICS/MG TROPHY Tom Butler (BMW E30) OPEN SERIES/MAGNIFICENT SEVENS John Cutmore (Spire RB7) MORGAN CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 Andrew Thompson (+8) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

He only raced it once, but Pedro de la Rosa doesn’t need even a second to come up with the answer. “McLaren MP4-20, definitely the fastest car I’ve ever driven,” says the Aston Martin ambassador and former McLaren test and race driver, almost two decades after he set a record at the wheel of that car that still stands. Hard to believe, but true: the Sakhir circuit lap record – 1m31.447s set by de la Rosa during the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix – is still unbeaten. It was de la Rosa’s only race of the season, as he replaced Juan Pablo Montoya – the Colombian sidelined with a shoulder injury which, according to the official version, was sustained on the tennis court. And, while it was Alex Wurz who was…

FORMULA 1 The Haas Formula 1 team was under threat of having its equipment seized at the Dutch Grand Prix amid a row with former sponsor Uralkali but will race at Monza this weekend. Uralkali, the Russian fertiliser company that sponsored Haas in 2021 and 2022 through driver Nikita Mazepin, saw its deal terminated in early 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Swiss arbitration court ruled in June that Haas should refund Uralkali part of its sponsorship payment that had already been made for the 2022 season, plus an F1 car also promised to the company. While the court stated that Haas was within its rights to terminate the deal, it also said that the American-owned squad could only keep a portion of the $13million sponsorship…

FORMULA 1 Renault Formula 1 engine staff have urged the French manufacturer not to go ahead with a plan for its Alpine team to become a customer squad, suggesting the decision is a ‘betrayal’. Alpine is poised to commit to becoming a Mercedes customer team from 2026 onwards to improve its fortunes. But with Renault engine staff already understood to have voiced dismay to bosses and Renault CEO Luca de Meo over the decision to abandon its F1 engine project, which originally began in 1977, representatives of its personnel have now gone public with their concerns. A statement issued by the Social and Economic Council of Alpine employees in Viry, sent to Autosport, outlined that the technical promise already shown by its 2026 engine more than justified Renault continuing with…

Andrew Watson admitted his “confidence took a hit” after this dramatic crash into the Esses tyre stack during the opening British Touring Car race at Donington Park last weekend. The Toyota driver was disappointed by the damage from the “freak accident” but was glad the tyre stack moved and did not remain in place, which would have caused a greater impact. “I’m not sure what happened – the car was sideways without any warning,” he said. “I tried to save it, then it was made worse with the tyre barrier – but I get why they’re there.” SVG GOES FULL-TIME Triple Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will make the full-time move to the NASCAR Cup in 2025 as Trackhouse Racing expands to three cars. Van Gisbergen, who has won three…

They were delivered with his trademark smile and gushing style, but there was a biting note to much of what Lando Norris had to say at Formula 1’s 2024 Dutch Grand Prix. The memory of his stunning pole lap and even better overall race performance will be what this event goes down for. After all, Norris’s winning margin last Sunday was the biggest clocked so far in 2024 (albeit ahead of the Max Verstappen-led Red Bull 1-2 in Bahrain, where the next non-RB20 came in 25.1 seconds down). But the underlying message in Norris’s attitude last weekend mattered too. Particularly if this is a true sign of things to come in the 2024 title run-in – where McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said his squad is aiming to do what…

Lando Norris’s fourth Formula 1 pole position was built on two key elements. The first was his excellent first sector in his second run in Q3. The second was home hero Max Verstappen’s slide at the Turns 11-12 combination at the end of Zandvoort’s back straight on his own last effort. The session – despite Storm Lilian threatening – was dry throughout. But, with FP3 having been wet again, the track reset and qualifying took place amid a big track evolution factor. Also at play was the low surface and tyre temperature combination, plus the wind. The drivers wanted to start a lap with their rubber cold enough that the softs were still providing good grip at the end, but warm enough to not have horrible understeer and mid-corner sliding…

Alex Albon had a headline-grabbing weekend in the Netherlands, as he was disqualified from qualifying for his Williams failing post-session scrutineering checks that cost an eighth-place grid spot, then in the race he was highly critical of the “dangerous” tactics deployed by Haas’s Kevin Magnussen. The pivotal moment of Albon’s weekend came when the FIA scanned his FW46 after he’d been impressive in reaching Q3. The scan showed Albon’s new floor to be too wide – beyond the 1600mm width permissible by the regulations. The part was a piece of Williams’s upgrade package unleashed at this race, which the team had scanned multiple times at its factory and believed to be in conformity. It did not dispute the FIA’s measurement, however, and Albon had to start 19th. Having had his…

Mercedes went from finishing 1-2 on the road pre-summer break at Spa, to leaving Zandvoort after a “poor weekend” – per team trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. George Russell fell back from starting fourth to finish seventh, one spot ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion had been a shock Q2 faller and was then shuffled back to start 14th after being penalised for impeding Sergio Perez in Q1. Hamilton began on the soft tyre from there and got stuck in at the start. He eventually rose to ninth before stopping for the hards. Mercedes thought about converting his two-stopper to a one, but a mid-stint lock-up meant it went back to his original plan and he was stopped again for softs for a 24-lap run to the…

A tale of two race meetings. That was the sense at the 2024 edition of the Silverstone Festival as good old British summertime weather at first played havoc, then bequeathed its favour to allow the world’s biggest monster of a historic race meet to end in triumph. The 180-degree turnaround in mood and emotion befitted the life-affirming tone set by the magnificent Ayrton Senna collection of the great Brazilian’s associated racing cars displayed with care and pride in the paddock behind The Wing. Following dry qualifying on Friday, the weather really couldn’t have been much worse as the Festival’s opening race day barely dawned in a thick murk. The 9am start time for the Formula Junior opener came and went, the 1960s single-seaters then retreating from the National paddock assembly…

Should you want evidence of how quickly fortunes can change in motorsport, just ask any of the British Touring Car Championship’s leading quintet of drivers about their Donington Park weekend. Take Tom Ingram, who went from a race-two retirement with a stone through his radiator to a storming drive from 19th to second in the finale. Or Ash Sutton, who landed just his second win of the season in the middle contest but then failed to be a classified finisher in race three after suffering damage in a collision. Then there was Colin Turkington, who went from two strong results to facing the wrong way at the hairpin to recovering strongly. And Dan Cammish, who rebounded from being speared off onto the Redgate grass in the second encounter to land…

ELMS SPA (BEL) 25 AUGUST ROUND 4/6 Louis Deletraz held off a charging Tom Dillmann in a nail-biting finish to take AO by TF’s first European Le Mans Series victory in last Sunday’s 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – a race that finished on a positive note after a chaotic and, at times, perplexing opening two hours. Only 1.1 seconds separated Deletraz and Dillmann at the flag as the Frenchman did his best to chip away at a lead that Deletraz’s co-driver Robert Kubica had masterfully built during the middle phase of the fourth round of the ELMS season. Prior to that, the race had been frequently interrupted by incidents that required four separate appearances by the safety car and that took out many of the top LMGT3 contenders, including points…

IMSA SPORTSCAR VIRGINIA (USA) 25 AUGUST ROUND 9/11 One year ago, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers combined to take Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4 GT3 to a commanding GTD victory in IMSA’s GT showcase event at the glorious Virginia International Raceway road course. On that occasion, however, they had to be content with a third-place overall finish in a two-hour-and-40-minute race that was won by the GTD Pro Chevrolet Corvette team. This time around they went even better. After having graduated to GTD Pro, last year’s GTD champions took charge of last weekend’s race from the get-go and ended up with a convincing overall win – the first for Snow and Sellers in the senior category. In fact, their domination was complete. Snow eclipsed the old qualifying lap record and…

F1 ACADEMY ZANDVOORT (NLD) 24-25 AUGUST ROUND 4/7 Abbi Pulling extended her F1 Academy lead to 71 points at Zandvoort after fellow race winner Doriane Pin was denied a race-one podium thanks to a jump-start penalty. The early stages of the weekend took place in wet and windy conditions, a storm that hit as the cars lined up on the grid for Saturday’s race eventually resulting in the outing being postponed to Sunday morning. With the two races separated by 90 minutes on the revised schedule, race one was a comparatively timid affair. Pulling dominated from Pin, who was denied second after receiving a 5s penalty for a hard-to-spot jump start. Nerea Marti and Maya Weug thus completed the podium. The action was largely limited to the opening lap, with…

Ever since Wales Rally GB dropped off the World Rally Championship calendar in 2020, the UK rally scene has been bereft of a global event. But the wait is finally over as this weekend marks the return of international-level rallying in Britain with the European Rally Championship hosting its penultimate round of the season in Wales. While the rally-mad nation’s famous gravel forest WRC stages continue to lie dormant, the emergence of Rali Ceredigion offers a new breed of high-speed asphalt tests, where the best from the European continent and Britain will do battle. Perhaps more importantly, the 14-stage event is seen as a beacon of hope for British rallying and an opportunity to showcase itself on the international stage once again. “I think it’s hugely important for UK rallying,”…

GINETTA GT ACADEMY PalmerSport and Ginetta will again link up to run a scholarship to secure a fully funded drive in the Ginetta GT Academy next season. The scholarship was held for the first time earlier this year. It is open to PalmerSport customers aged over 25 who have never previously held a race licence, with a range of assessments taking place at Bedford Autodrome. James Nicholas was selected as the inaugural winner and was victorious on his debut car racing weekend at Oulton Park. He currently sits second in the GT Academy rookie class standings. A broadly similar format will be retained for the second running of the scholarship, with entrants paying £1500+VAT to sample PalmerSport’s Caterham, Palmer JP-LM prototype and Ginetta G56 GTA machinery before two drivers are…

CLUBMANS Phantom Racing Cars constructor Alex Champkin impressed on his Suzuki Hayabusa-powered PR24’s debut in the Clubmans Sports Prototype series at Castle Combe on Monday. The combo won twice and recorded a best race lap of 1m05.199s, a phenomenal average speed of 102.14mph and the circuit’s fastest of the season. Built in just three and a half weeks by the Bidford-on-Avon constructor around a bespoke frame fabricated by Ashley Pearce, the motorcycle-engined machine, with its six-speed sequential gearbox, weighs 485kg, a whopping 80kg less than its conventional predecessor. Delivering 180bhp at the wheels, the RLM-prepared Hayabusa provided a different driving experience when Champkin shook it down at Combe on Thursday. “The paddleshift and rev range – 10,500rpm through the gears and 11,500 in top – takes some getting used to,”…

BRITISH F4 James Higgins ended his British Formula 4 victory drought in style with back-to-back wins, while runaway championship leader Deagen Fairclough just missed out on sealing the crown with two rounds to spare at Donington Park last weekend. Alex Ninovic won a slippery opening contest after sweeping past both Rowan Campbell-Pilling and Fairclough exiting Redgate for the first time before leading home the latter in a four-lap dash to the finish following a red-flag stoppage. Ninovic led again in Saturday’s second race, a rescheduled contest from round one, but the Australian tumbled down the order on lap two after running wide, with his Rodin Motorsport team-mate Higgins then resisting relentless pressure from Fairclough to score his first victory of the season. Jack Sherwood edged Reza Seewooruthun and Leo Robinson…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Race 1 (11 laps) 1 Rhys Hurd; 2 Sam Gornall +0.488s; 3 Reece Lycett; 4 Alex Keens; 5 Alex Solley; 6 Ronnie Smith. Fastest lap Solley 1m54.713s (78.05mph). Pole Solley. Starters 24. Race 2 (10 laps) 1 Harry Hickton; 2 James Black +1.439s; 3 Lycett; 4 Luca Marinoni Osborne; 5 Gabe Fairbrother; 6 Smith. FL Lycett 1m54.425s (78.25mph). P Hickton. S 24. Race 3 (11 laps) 1 Gornall; 2 Fairbrother +1.068s; 3 Hickton; 4 Hurd; 5 Black; 6 Harvey Riby. FL Hickton 1m54.219s (78.39mph). P Keens. S 24. Points 1 Hickton 493; 2 Gornall 470; 3 Black 422; 4 Solley 416; 5 Fairbrother 394; 6 Keens 361. BRITISH FORMULA 4 Race 1 (4 laps) 1 Alex Ninovic; 2 Deagen Fairclough +1.712s; 3 Leo Robinson; 4 Kai Daryanani;…

SNETTERTON BARC 2CV 24 HOURS 23-25 AUGUST Pete Sparrow led 2CV Team Lion to another victory in the 2CV 24 Hours at Snetterton last weekend alongside David O’Keeffe and Gary Adnitt. Heavy rain began almost on cue for the start of the race, with standing water soon causing problems for a field of 29 runners. Sparrow and KT Racing’s Kris Tovey began battling for supremacy, with Crisis@Tete Rouge’s Andrew Bull heading the chase, before Sparrow had an early excursion. “I was passed by a C1 and couldn’t see the corner in the spray,” he said. “When I did, I was heading for the grass.” 2CV Lion made its first stop early, during the first safety car intervention, but most crews ran until the two-hour mark, with the skies brightening after…

EXHIBITION THE FORMULA 1 EXHIBITION ExCeL London £25-33 The F1 Exhibition has landed in London. After opening its doors in Madrid last year, the travelling exhibition has made its way to Vienna, Toronto and now welcomes visitors at ExCeL London. If you’ve already been to the exhibition, you’ll notice plenty of upgrades, including contributions from all 10 Formula 1 teams. New to London, a partnership with the Silverstone Museum helps to share the history of the British Grand Prix. Visitors are given the opportunity to channel their inner Lewis Hamilton on state-of-the-art racing simulators. Not only will you get an idea of what it’s like to sit behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, but all racers (even the learner drivers) will be entered into a monthly prize draw…

FORMULA 1 Alpine has finally confirmed that Jack Doohan will race for its Formula 1 team in 2025. The French manufacturer has been evaluating options for a replacement for the Haasbound Esteban Ocon for several months. And with its efforts to lure Carlos Sainz on board having failed, it has elected to hand its young driver Doohan the opportunity to partner Pierre Gasly. Doohan, who has acted as reserve for the past two seasons, will be the first Alpine Academy driver to step up to a race seat with the F1 squad. “I am so happy to secure promotion into a full-time race seat in 2025 with Alpine,” said the 21-year-old. “I am very grateful for the trust and belief by the team’s management. There is so much work ahead…

WRC The World Rally Championship has selected 15 aspiring female drivers that will compete to win a fully funded drive in the Junior WRC next year. The WRC launched its women’s driver development programme in the hope of unearthing new talent and increasing female participation in rallying. In recent years women have enjoyed success in co-driving with Reeta Hamalainen and Enni Malkonen winning world titles in WRC2 and WRC3 respectively in 2022, but 1982 title runner-up Michele Mouton remains the last woman to win a WRC round as a driver. Applications from drivers aged 27 or under from around the world have been received, resulting in the championship organisers forming a group of 15 finalists. They are: Lyssia Baudet (Belgium), Emma Chalvin (France), Ann Felke (Germany), Joanna Hassoun (Lebanon), Mako…

WEC Revived Italian manufacturer Isotta Fraschini has called time on its World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class attack for the remainder of the season. It announced last week that its Tipo 6 LMH Competizione run in conjunction with the French Duqueine team will be absent from the final three rounds of the 2024 campaign. The move follows a breakdown in its relationship with Team Duqueine, which stepped up from the LMP2 ranks in the European Le Mans Series to run the Isotta Le Mans Hypercar developed by longtime Ferrari GT partner Michelotto Engineering. It stated that “there are no longer any conditions to continue the partnership” without any further explanation. Isotta outlined an ambition to return to the WEC with the Tipo 6 in 2025 when it would be forced to…

My season has gone well so far. We’re going into the last round six points from the lead and well within a shout of winning it. So, it should be exciting. It’s a 10-round championship, and I think Formula 3 is well known to be possibly one of the hardest championships out there now. It really is at the peak and it’s arguably tighter than F2 – it’s difficult to be at the top. I think what we’ve done a really good job of this year is just being consistent and nailing the points in the feature races. Compared to last year, when we turned up just in time for the final test, this year we were prepared. When you have the benefit of a season, you’ve had all the…

Apart from constant refrains of ‘Super Max’ and ‘Tu-tu-du-du… Max Verstappen’ Zandvoort has specific things to offer on a trackside experience. It’s an old-school race track with modern elements to increase overtaking opportunities. The most eye-catching corners are the banked Hugenholtzbocht (Turn 3) and Arie Luyendykbocht (Turn 14). When the track was rebuilt, the final corner attracted most attention as drivers can open DRS in it, but for trackside observations and overall lap time the Hugenholtzbocht is more interesting. Autosport heads there for a rainy and windy FP1, where back in 2021 the drivers tried different lines before understanding that staying high in the banking is the best way to get on the throttle quickly. A good exit is crucial as then it’s flat-out all the way to Scheivlak (Turn…

FERNANDO ALONSO ASTON MARTIN DRIVER How do you assess your weekend, after starting seventh and finishing 10th? Probably even one point is a bit too much for the pace we had, but we did a good qualifying and starting P7 obviously that gave us the possibility to score this point. We need to get better. There were a couple of races already that we were struggling to keep up with some of the midfield teams and we need to understand why and we need to get better. But is this at least a good way to start back after the summer break? I think it didn’t change much after the break. Budapest, we were fighting with Yuki [Tsunoda’s RB] until the last lap. In Spa, Williams and Alpine, they were…

Dan Zelos had been expecting to perform his regular role coaching Excelr8 Motorsport’s battalion of Mini Challenge Trophy drivers at Donington Park last weekend. That was until a few days beforehand, when he was given the chance to finally make his British Touring Car debut in one of the squad’s Hyundai i30 N Fastbacks, following Excelr8’s “amicable split” with Ronan Pearson post-Knockhill. It had been quite a few weeks for Zelos as he wrapped up a third Mini JCW title a fortnight earlier and was now being given the BTCC opportunity he had long craved. But it was not the easiest of starts for the 26-year-old as wet weather created tricky and unrepresentative track conditions in the two practice sessions. Nevertheless, he qualified a respectable 16th and acquitted himself well…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP MAGNY-COURS (FRA) 24-25 AUGUST ROUND 4/5 The battle at the top of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup standings remains too close to call as it was honours even between Team WRT BMW and Winward Racing Mercedes in the penultimate round at Magny-Cours. Returning to the French circuit after a year away, the crews were split by just two points coming into the weekend, and that margin was unchanged come Sunday afternoon as the pair of title protagonists enjoyed a win and a second apiece. That said, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts may well have faced a points deficit had they not inherited race one victory from on-the-road winners, Rutronik Racing’s Patric Niederhauser and Sven Muller – who were penalised five seconds for…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP ZANDVOORT (NLD) 25 AUGUST ROUND 7/8 Larry ten Voorde put himself on the brink of a third Porsche Supercup title with victory at Zandvoort that left Briton Harry King as his sole remaining rival. Having started from pole, the Schumacher CLRT driver was composed at the front despite never establishing a big margin over surprise podium finisher Jaap van Lagen, who stood on the rostrum for the first time since the Hungarian round in 2018. A typically frenetic start featured multiple instances of contact, with Francesco Braschi (Dinamic Motorsport) the final victim as he ended up in the gravel at Turn 10. The following safety car period allowed King (Lechner Racing) to cool off slightly, after getting involved in two quickfire incidents with Mathys Jaubert at Turns 11…

NASCAR CUP DAYTONA (USA) 24 AUGUST ROUND 25/36 Harrison Burton delivered a dramatic and shock victory in the penultimate round of the regular NASCAR Cup season at Daytona International Speedway. Driving the iconic Wood Brothers #21 Mustang, he surged ahead of two-time champion Kyle Busch to earn his first career win on Saturday night. In his 98th start, Burton was pushed ahead by Parker Retzlaff and blocked aggressively to win the race by 0.047 seconds. He also earned the honour of collecting the Wood Brothers team its 100th victory in the series. Established in 1953, the organisation’s previous win came at Pocono just over seven years ago. Burton entered the race 34th and last among full-time drivers in the standings, but will now compete in the playoffs for the first…

GB3 The GB3 Championship will race at Monza for the first time next season, as well as three other destinations outside the UK, after its 2025 calendar was revealed. The UK’s top single-seater championship will compete on five circuits used by Formula 1, including the famous Italian venue, Zandvoort, Hungaroring, Spa and Silverstone as part of an eight-round calendar. The Silverstone Grand Prix layout will be used twice: as the season-opener on 26-27 April, replacing the traditional Oulton Park round, and 2-3 August. GB3 will support British GT both times. The series will visit Zandvoort on 17-18 May alongside GT World Challenge Europe, before racing in Belgium (31 May-1 June) and Hungary (5-6 July), the latter supporting International GT Open. Two further UK outings will take place at Brands Hatch…

BRITISH GT Multiple Ginetta title-winning team Xentek Motorsport will make its British GT debut by contesting this season’s penultimate round at Donington Park next weekend. Bal Sidhu and Josh Steed will drive a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport after their first season of competition together for the Sheffield-based squad. They claimed this year’s British Endurance Championship GT4 crown, which made it consecutive titles for Sidhu, who won the 2023 Ginetta GT5 Challenge Am class with Xentek. “We’re delighted to be making our debut in the British GT Championship,” said team boss Christopher Richards. “Bal and Josh deserve this opportunity after their brilliant performances in BEC and we’re excited to see how they get on in British GT.” Xentek took four class wins in five to seal the BEC title…

REVOLUTION Revolution Race Cars has announced that it has secured substantial investment that will allow it to “introduce exciting new models and push the boundaries of performance”. Phil Abbott and Nigel Redwood have been joined by long-time customers Marc Russell and Terry Thompson, who along with Zac Moseley from Cabotage Corporation, an investment company formed by Classic Car Club, have acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Abbott Automotive Limited, trading as Revolution Race Cars. Moseley will assume the role of chairman, with Redwood as managing director, while James Abbott will continue as head of product development alongside his father, Phil, who will serve as operations director. Phil Abbott, co-founder of Revolution Race Cars, said: “James and I are thrilled to witness the evolution of our next phase. With…

“I’m just going to check your neck for any soreness.” Stood at the side of a race track with a medic gently massaging my neck was not what this writer had on his bingo card last weekend, but then neither was having my first proper ‘crash’ in a racing car. I say ‘crash’ because, although I did hit the barrier, it was perhaps the most uneventful collision there’s ever been, the left-front wheel of my Ma7da just glancing the Armco along Cooper Straight at Brands Hatch, which was enough to bend the wishbones and leave me stranded in a wet qualifying session. On the flip side, it gave me a first-hand glimpse at the response from the marshals, medics and recovery crew – and it was exemplary. The medical crew…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB A dramatic weekend in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB ended with the in-form Hugo Ellis snatching the championship advantage from Will Martin. Matthew Rees led race one on the road throughout, despite huge pressure from behind, but the single-seater convert was denied his second victory of the campaign by a five-second track-limits penalty. His Team Parker Racing team-mate Ellis therefore inherited a third victory of the season ahead of Century’s Angus Whiteside and Will Burns, with Harry Foster moving up to fourth. Martin initially finished fifth but was later demoted to 10th behind fellow title contender Charles Rainford due to an early skirmish. Despite suffering a broken radiator in a qualifying clash, George Gamble recovered from the back of the grid to beat the pair to…

BRANDS HATCH CSCC 25-26 AUGUST As the Brands Britannia event celebrated the best of British, Colin Philpott proved to be top cat in the Jaguar Championship with a pair of wins that take his XJS closer towards a maiden title. Philpott led the opener from start to finish but came under increasing pressure from Jack Robinson’s XK as they negotiated traffic, while a rebuilt V12 in his XJS helped James Ramm into third. From a partially reversed grid, Philpott hit the front within two laps of the sequel but had both Ramm and Robinson looming in his mirrors as he managed a tired gearbox. Robinson couldn’t make a move stick on Ramm as the pair reversed their previous positions. A terrific drive from Andy Southcott took him from the rear…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 26 AUGUST Rory Smith’s Castle Combe Formula Ford double on Monday came too late to bring him back into the circuit championship’s running with only October’s double-header decider to come. Felix Fisher, twice second, and Alex Walker, who shared thirds and fourths with Luke Cooper, will take the title fight all the way as the quartet raced clear. Nathan Ward completed his Class B crown defence with trademark wins but, in David Cobbold’s absence, Australian Will Liston claimed C golds, besting at seventh overall, and beating 1995-97 champion Kevin Mills in a swansong outing. Despite the small field, the top four United Formula Ford runners provided two scintillating races. Championship leader Morgan Quinn, Tom Nippers, Charlie Mann and local hero Alex Kite finished 0.586 seconds apart in…

Peter Collins on his way to his third and final Formula 1 world championship win, the 1958 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Seen here leading Harry Schell’s BRM, the Ferrari driver sadly had only a couple of weeks to live. He would fall victim to the Nurburgring at the following round in Germany… but this was a day for celebration as British drivers swept the podium at home. Team-mate Mike Hawthorn was second, with Roy Salvadori third for Cooper. Fourth was fellow Brit Stuart Lewis-Evans, another who would lose his life later that grisly season. This race was also noteworthy as one of only two Bernie Ecclestone entered as a driver. As in his other appearance at Monaco the same year, he didn’t set a representative lap time. It was…