Innehållsförteckning för December 28, 2017 från Autosport

@Nauckas It’s been an astonishing year for Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque sensation followed up his GP3 title success of 2016 with a runaway win in the Formula 2 championship, which had rebranded from GP2 ahead of the campaign. His year featured seven race wins, eight pole positions, two high-profile disqualifications, tests for Ferrari in its SF70H car, grand prix FP1 running with Sauber, speculation that he would replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, Autosport and FIA award wins, and, finally, confirmation that he would race for Sauber as a Formula 1 rookie in 2018. Leclerc hit the ground running with two wins from the first three races of the 2017 F2 season and the expectation and excitement around his year only increased from there. And, after sealing the title with three…

@nauckas RUSSELL: THE VICTOR WITH THE SPOILS GEORGE RUSSELL VINDICATED his switch from the Formula 3 European Championship with his first international-level title, which he took by 79 points and with four wins. He had to make up ground after a low-key start to the year at Barcelona, where a pair of poor starts, caused by him being unfamiliar with the GP3 car’s hand-operated clutch, led to his finishing fourth and fifth. But Russell studied hard and put things right from Austria, where he won from pole – a feat he repeated at Silverstone and Spa – and he also took the single-race honours at Monza. “I set myself the goal that I could put it on pole every single race from [Austria] until the end of the season,” he…

1 GEORGE RUSSELL Russell made a low-key start to the year at Barcelona, losing places off the line before he adapted to GP3’s hand-operated clutch. His season really sparked into life in Austria, with pole and the race-one win there, and he repeated that feat at Silverstone and at Spa, and won the only race of the disrupted weekend at Monza. Russell’s late-season points advantage meant he could afford to get aggressive at Jerez, and two forceful moves gained the places he needed to seal the title with a round to spare. 2 JACK AITKEN Aitken just shades Nirei Fukuzumi for second place due to his performances in the morecrucial race one events across 2017, as, taking DNFs for the pair out of the equation, Aitken comes out on top.…

MRF CHALLENGE Felipe Drugovich became the first driver to top all sessions in an MRF Challenge weekend after he was fastest in practice and qualifying and won all four races at Yas Marina. He won from pole in races one and four, stormed up the order in the reversed-grid second event, and beat 2017 GP3 regular Julien Falchero in race three. ANDROS TROPHY Victory in Andorra propelled Jean-Baptiste Dubourg above Benjamin Riviere to the top of the points table. Dubourg and his Renault Captur were dominant on day one, dropping only one point when he was beaten in the Super Pole shootout by Nathanael Berthon (Audi). Berthon beat Franck Lagorce’s BMW to second. Second-day honours went to Mazda 3 racer Evens Stievenart, who headed Dubourg and Berthon. Rallycross star Andreas…

FIESTA CHAMPIONSHIP race winner Lewis Kent will graduate to the new TCR UK series next year and has become the first British driver to opt for the Hyundai i30. Kent sampled Hyundai and Honda machinery at the series’ taster day before opting for the South Korean car, which he will collect from Hyundai Motorsport’s German base in January. He is yet to decide on a team but may run with his family’s squad. “It’s a special bit of kit,” said Kent. “It’s a lot different to what I’m used to driving – it’s so direct. Through the corners you can feel everything, it’s brilliant.” In his first season of senior racing 18-year-old Kent scored two wins on his way to second in Class C of the BRSCC Fiesta Championship, but…

THE 750 MOTOR CLUB WILL visit Pembrey for the first time since 2013 next year, as the venue replaces Anglesey. The circuit has gone through major work in the past two years, increasing the number of layouts it can use for race meetings. “It’s important to offer our members the opportunity to try different circuits,” said 750MC competitions boss Giles Groombridge. “We’ve not been to Pembrey since 2013. Lots of drivers haven’t raced there. They’ve made changes to the circuit, so hopefully the racing will be more interesting.” He added that owing to the club’s prominent national status, the 750MC is obliged to visit multiple venues. “As one of the major clubs it’s important to try and support all the venues around the UK,” he said. “Unfortunately we can’t go…

@autosport OVER THE 40 YEARS THAT I HAVE BEEN REPORTING events for Autosport, the national-racing scene has been through wholesale metamorphoses. The British Touring Car Championship-centred TOCA package changed its landscape dramatically in the early 1990s, replete with the manufacturer-backed sideshows (from Ford, Renault and Vauxhall), which would filter down the food chain, reshaping the clubbie arena. Grassroots club racing built steadily through the 1950s and ’60s, becoming increasingly vibrant with myriad classes over the subsequent couple of decades. The days of enterprising village garagistes tweaking Minis, Ford Anglias and more with bigger carburettors and ‘hotter’ cams – for circuit racing, sprints and hillclimbs, autocross and rallies, as well as the daily trip to work – brought excitement for many weekend warriors. The 1970s and ’80s were a heyday of…

MONTREAL’S FORMULA E double-header season closer in July has been cancelled. The move, announced in a press conference before Christmas by the city’s new mayor Valerie Plante, follows the postponement of FE’s inaugural race in Sao Paulo until the 2018-19 season. While Sao Paulo has been replaced by a revival of the Punta del Este event in Uruguay – on the Brazilian event’s projected date of March 17 – it is unclear whether an alternative event can be found for the Montreal date. Series CEO Alejandro Agag told Autosport that racing in another Canadian city was not out of the question, but with only seven months before the planned finale it leaves the series with little time to source and execute a replacement. It is understood that the promoter –…

Bahrain R1 Markelov R2 Leclerc Markelov artfully overturns a 10-second deficit to beat Nato and Leclerc to the featurerace win with a well judged tyre-management effort. In race two, Leclerc and Prema make their own bold strategy call – to stop in the sprint event. The Monegasque makes it work, though, gaining 13 places in just nine laps to win ahead of Ghiotto and Rowland. Barcelona R1 Leclerc R2 Matsushita Leclerc defies a radio problem on his way to his first of five featurerace wins and shows he has made tyremanagement progress since round one, with Ghiotto second ahead of Rowland. Latifi looks set to win race two until he spots his wing mirror is missing and goes off late on, handing Matsushita the win and Rowland second. Monte Carlo…

Barcelona R1 Fukuzumi R2 Maini Fukuzumi beats polesitter Aitken off the line and comfortably takes his first GP3 win ahead of Pulcini when his team-mate retires with a sensor problem. Russell takes fourth and fifth after start problems on his debut weekend, with Maini winning the second race ahead of Boccolacci after the pair clash wheels at Turn 2. Lorandi picks up a pair of third places. Red Bull Ring R1 Russell R2 Hyman Russell’s title charge takes off as he claims his first GP3 pole and win in race one ahead of Aitken. Hubert triggers a crash with Arden’s Pulcini and Schothorst on lap one, which costs him third place to Fukuzumi after a penalty. Hyman wins a dull race two that is enlivened by Boccolacci crashing into Lorandi…

CNC HEADS SPORTS/SALOONS CHAMPION Joe Spencer will compete in the 750 Motor Club’s Bikesports Championship in a newly acquired Spire GT3 in 2018. Spencer headed Class C in every race he finished in 2017 in an impressive campaign in the northern-based series. He now plans to defend his Sports/Saloons title in the new Spire, while dovetailing commitments with Bikesports. “Danny Bird bought one [a Spire] halfway through the year, and we didn’t know they were eligible [for the CNC series],” said Spencer, who has driven a Stuart Taylor Locosaki this year. “We’ve always wanted a Radical-type car. Still being eligible for the CNC is a big plus for us. “In Bikesports, I like the competitiveness. The way the classes are structured keeps costs down.”…

@sdlickorish Inspirational. That’s a word that has been used a lot to describe Billy Monger this year – and rightly so. But it’s an adjective that Monger himself struggles to understand. “Everyone keeps saying that word to me, that I’m an inspiration, but it’s difficult to get my head around,” he reflects. “Going from a 17-year-old kid just doing normal things and going racing at weekends, in a space of less than a year so much has changed.” Monger is, of course, referring to the horrific crash at Donington Park this April that changed his life forever. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary for the third British Formula 4 race of the Donington weekend – apart from the sight of Jamie Caroline at the rear of the field,…

In our Formula 1 season review earlier this month we presented the year’s 10 most popular stories from the category, which dominates our online figures. So, limited to one story from each series, here are the most-read articles from the rest of motorsport. See you in 2018. 1 MASSA SORRY AFTER KART RACE ENDS IN A BRAWL Ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa apologising for one of his team-mates brawling with a rival karter at the 500 Milhas de Kart event shot straight to the top of this list despite only going up one day before we compiled it! The story was accompanied by a video of the incident between Rodrigo Dantas and Tuka Rocha, which no doubt added to the clicks it gained as readers and viewers saw Dantas repeatedly…

MASSA TEAM IN PUNCH-UP A punch-up resulted in Felipe Massa’s team being excluded from Brazil’s 500 Milhas de Kart event, allowing Rubens Barrichello’s squad to win. Tuka Rocha was lying second, trying to catch leader Massa, when he was held up by the sister kart to Massa’s, driven by Rodrigo Dantas. Rocha punted Dantas off, before Dantas pinned Rocha to the ground, repeatedly punching his helmet. Barrichello inherited the win, with his son Dudu among his co-drivers. Massa apologised for the fracas. “This is very sad, and sadder still to see my team within that,” he said. HARVEY’S INDYCAR DEAL Ex-British Formula 3 champion Jack Harvey has secured himself at least four IndyCar Series races in 2018 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in a programme run in conjunction with Michael Shank…

1 CHARLES LECLERC Leclerc was the story in 2017. He took five feature-race wins, losing another to a disqualification in Belgium, and possibly two more at Monaco and Monza. But his qualifying was even more impressive – eight poles equalled the category record in just one year, with his Hungaroring qualifying DSQ preventing him taking the record for most consecutive. A misjudged move on Nato in Monaco race two was his only major mistake in wheel-towheel racing, while his clash with Albon in Abu Dhabi was a little unfortunate. 2 OLIVER ROWLAND If things had worked out differently for Rowland, then he’d have finished as the F2 runner-up. A lack of early-season qualifying pace (it was Silverstone before he qualified in the top two) meant he was often playing catch-up…

Anthoine Hubert finished fourth, in the end just 11 points behind Fukuzumi despite not picking up a win. He kept his standings haul ticking over throughout the season and only missed on points in two races – the Spa and Abu Dhabi feature races, where he retired with a blocked radiator and finished 11th. He caught the eye with some feisty drives at Silverstone and Monza, but lost a podium in Austria due to some uncharacteristically clumsy driving that caused a crash at Turn 3. Giuliano Alesi had a breakthrough year with three wins, with his Trident team-mate Dorian Boccolacci shining in qualifying and winning the season finale. Alessio Lorandi started with a fine double podium at Barcelona and joined the maiden-winners’ list at Jerez. yan Tveter brought home a…