Innehållsförteckning för 17/05/18 från Autosport

Although he was leading the Formula 1 World Championship before last weekend, Lewis Hamilton had looked a bit out of sorts in 2018. By his own admission, he didn’t feel comfortable in the Mercedes W09, knew there was pace he was failing to unlock, and could see Valtteri Bottas doing a better job when things weren’t going right. But at the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton felt in the zone with the car and the result was a crushing display of how to win. At no point did Hamilton look like losing the race. And he didn’t leave the door open for any strategic blunders – of the sort that robbed him in Australia – to get in the way, because he just kept pulling away from Sebastian Vettel throughout the…

FORMULA 1 Proteges of Formula 1’s biggest teams were due out in force in Spain this week, with Mercedes’ George Russell, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Renault’s Jack Aitken among the talent set to be on display in Barcelona’s post-Spanish Grand Prix test. Another driver – Britain’s next big thing long before the likes of Russell and Norris were on F1’s radar – also had a crucial opportunity. And it’s hard to believe that Oliver Rowland had to wait so long for the chance. The 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 champion has won races against Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr, Stoffel Vandoorne, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon. After finishing third in Formula 2 last season, he moved from his Renault development-driver role to the position of Williams’s official young…

FORMULA E HWA will enter the 2018-19 Formula E season as a customer entry with powertrains provided by Venturi. The Mercedes specialist’s move into FE – it was founded as an offshoot of the manufacturer’s high-performance division, AMG, and has taken all seven of its DTM drivers’ titles – brings the total number of FE teams up to 11 for next season. HWA has already partnered Venturi for the current campaign, with Merc DTM drivers Edoardo Mortara and Maro Engel, engineering personnel embedded in the Monaco-based manufacturer’s team, and the company providing additional technical support. The two teams will run identical machinery for the 2018-19 championship. “Formula E is a completely new motorsport discipline with extremely tough competition,” said HWA CEO Ulrich Fritz. “It’s a challenge that we’re very happy…

‘Safety measures’ spoiling the view I was surprised by Matt Kew’s response (Opinion, May 10, page 69) to what appears to be universal hatred of the new catch fencing on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix loop. His suggestion that the loss of the GP loop for spectator viewing (for that is effectively the result) is a price worth paying to attract the DTM was certainly at odds with every fan I spoke to. Yes, the DTM meeting may attract new fans, but how many of those will become regular racegoers? In ruining the GP loop, MSV could lose more fans than it gains. As a fan of 30-plus years, I have seen ‘safety measures’ gradually strangle the enjoyment as favourite viewing spots have been ruined. Take Brands as an example.…

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has rubbished the suggestion that Pirelli’s decision to bring tyres with treads that were 0.4mm thinner to Barcelona was influenced by his team. The modified tyres were specified by Pirelli after F1 squads experienced blistering problems on the resurfaced Barcelona track in winter testing. Wolff was asked about rival teams allegedly suggesting that the change, which will also apply at the resurfaced Silverstone and Paul Ricard circuits, was made to help Mercedes as the German manufacturer had suffered more than most in testing. Ferrari’s drivers hinted that the change had worked against them, although stopped short of suggesting that this was deliberate. “Is bollocks a bad word in English?” asked Wolff. “Rubbish. All teams had very heavy blistering at the test in Barcelona. Red Bull,…

Charles Leclerc and Sauber headed to Barcelona expecting a difficult weekend, but the Ferrari junior showed why he is tipped as a future Maranello driver with a strong drive to 10th. Leclerc went toe-to-toe with Fernando Alonso on his way to a second successive points finish, having started 14th and run ninth in the early stages. Although he benefited from the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen, he was passed by Alonso at the restart after the VSC, and later by Sergio Perez, who was on fresher rubber while Leclerc was struggling with his front-left Pirelli. “This is definitely the biggest surprise of the year in terms of performance,” said Leclerc. “We expected to be very far off and in the end it has been a lot better. Q2 again and another…

Good racing drivers are often honest and selfcritical. But the great ones are also self-analytical to the nth degree, so that just as they pore over data, dissecting sector times and describing their car’s handling traits to their race engineers in lucid detail, so they also look at their own performances: “What could I have done to better my contribution to the performance this weekend?” Will Power is one such driver and his Team Penske race engineer Dave Faustino loves him for it because it means he doesn’t rush off chasing his tail to find a performance tweak when the majority of the improvement can come from the driver. The first four races of the season weren’t an entire disaster for the #12 Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet – Power fought the…

It’s a long way from BRDC British F3 at Snetterton to being asked to have your photo taken with a beret-clad spectator at the Pau Grand Prix, but Ben Hingeley took it all on his stride and was one of the surprises of the weekend in the shadow of the Pyrenees. The whole Hitech GP team performed well – few had expected Enaam Ahmed and Alex Palou to lock out the front row for the Pau GP, or Hingeley to take a third-row slot for race two. Even fewer expected this after free practice. Ahmed lost a lot of running with a battery problem, Palou with a downshift glitch. And then all three tore off their left-front corners in FP2 shunts – Ahmed while on an in-lap. They bounced back,…

GP3 BARCELONA (E) MAY 12 - 13 ROUND 1/9 It was a strong weekend in Spain for Anthoine Hubert. OK, he didn’t win a race, but a series of small victories added up to the championship lead, as ART Grand Prix’s domination of GP3 continued. On Friday afternoon it appeared change was afoot. Leonardo Pulcini got the best lap of the later runners in qualifying and stuck his Campos Racing car on pole, the first non-ART driver at the head of the order since Barcelona in 2016. That wasn’t in the script. Could France’s superteam be beaten? No, of course not. It was false hope for inter-team battles. Pulcini squandered his start, and Russian ART driver Nikita Mazepin stormed to an early lead. Behind, Ferrari junior Callum Ilott and Hubert…

WTCR NURBURGRING (D) MAY 10 - 12 ROUND 3/10 Thed Bjork’s third-race WTCR world cup win gave the 2017 World Touring Car champion the victory his dominance at the Nurburgring Nordschleife deserved, and Esteban Guerrieri’s triumph in the reversed-grid encounter provided the Argentinian foundations to kickstart his season, but it was the weekend’s first winner whose performance in Germany fired the most ominous of warning shots. Three podiums from the first two rounds of 2018 could hardly have been considered an underachievement, but Yvan Muller’s display on the Nordschleife was at another level. Whether it was his determined charge off the line in the first race to take the lead at Turn 1, his ‘brake-testing’ of Frederic Vervisch in race two or the way he brusquely muscled aside Norbert Michelisz…

NURBURGRING 24 HOURS MAY 12 - 13 Although Porsche scored its 12th Nurburgring 24 Hours victory on a weekend where it clearly had the measure of its opposition, the eventual triumph of the #912 Manthey Racing 911 GT3-R was anything but straightforward. Nick Tandy, Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki seemed to have a mountain to climb virtually from the start when they suffered a puncture that forced Pilet to do an extra lap of the Grand Prix loop and left them three minutes down. But as several other frontrunners came a cropper – including the sister #911 Manthey machine, which dropped out in the night when Romain Dumas slid on oil into the barriers – the speed of the #912 crew steadily brought them back into the fray.…

NATIONAL FF 1600 The British Racing & Sports Car Club has issued an apology to National Formula Ford 1600 drivers after the safety car was left stationary beyond a blind crest during the latest round of the championship. The safety car was scrambled on the first lap of the third race at Knockhill last weekend after Matt Round-Garrido stopped on the inside of the first corner. Drivers reported seeing no yellow flags or safety car boards until they encountered the pace car. Its location – out of the drivers’ eyeline until they had passed over the crest – prompted the field to take evasive action and chaos ensued. Championship leader Niall Murray launched over the top of Michael Eastwell’s Spectrum before spearing back across the track. Clerk of the course…

OULTON PARK AMCR MAY 12 Declan Jones was the class of the Jack Fairman Cup field as he romped to victory in the AMOC opener at Oulton Park in a Turner Climax. A slipping clutch made it tougher for the former Ginetta racer. He was swamped at the start from pole position as Rob Newall took the lead in his Jaguar XK120. Jones fell back to fifth by the first corner, but he made a rapid recovery to run second by the end of lap one. The next time around he crossed the line in the lead. A dominant 29-second victory would be the reward for ‘Tatty Turner’, the name given to the diminutive car in its heyday for famously “carrying taped-up battle scars”, according to Jones. The battle for…

FORMULA 1 The “pressure” and “responsibility” of supplying Red Bull with a Formula 1 engine is at the heart of Honda’s considerations during its discussions with the team for next season. Red Bull and Honda continued their formal negotiations at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where the Japanese company’s motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto met with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko. Although Red Bull has used its junior team Toro Rosso’s supply deal to monitor Honda more closely this season, formal talks only started last month in Azerbaijan. The FIA’s notional deadline for declaring an engine supply deal is next week, but an agreement can be reached beyond this date if both parties agree. Red Bull’s long-time engine supplier Renault has outlined its concerns about the team’s desire to wait until…

FORMUL A 1 Ferrari became the first team to introduced halomounted rear-view mirrors at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but will have to remove the winglet used to mount them for the next race in Monaco. A technical directive issued last month confirmed that this was allowed, but Ferrari’s interpretation of the way this can be mounted has led to the FIA ordering the change. The upper mounting cannot continue to be used and the lower mounting must be strengthened to support the mirrors. “It’s a liberal interpretation of the word ‘mounting’ because that’s how they become legal,” said FIA race director Charlie Whiting. “The interpretation hinges on whether we think that’s a mounting or not. We somehow think not. They think it contributes to the rigidity of the mirror.…

OBITUARY A double Formula 3 champion, F1 entrant and entrepreneur for whom the romance of racing never paled, Harry Stiller died on Sunday of lung cancer. He was 79. South London-born Stiller was an ambitious hustler who started racing in a Lotus Elite in 1958. Single-seaters were his forte, though. A race winner in ’65, he starred in the maelstrom of 1000cc F3, winning national titles in ’66 and ’67 in Brabhams. Stiller finished second to Charles Lucas team-mate Roy Pike in one of history’s closest F3 races, the Sicilian slipstreamer around Enna’s Lake Pergusa in ’67, with the top six within 0.8 seconds! After some F2 appearances – including saddling a Gerard Racing Cooper in the ’67 Oulton Park Gold Cup F1 race – Stiller hung up his helmet…

McLAREN REVEALS DEFINITIVE NOSE JOB McLaren introduced what it is calling its definitive 2018 car, the most obvious part being the new nose section. The previous nose was the same width as the front of the chassis, using very long wing-mounting vanes with vertical slots to help pull as much airflow as possible under the nose and chassis central section. The new nose is narrower and has small turning vanes (4) running up the top outer corners of the nose. These will help turn the airflow and keep it attached to the sides of the nose. The leading-edge inlet section (1) is very similar to Red Bull’s and the side inlets (2) very similar to Force India’s. They exit under the nose along a horizontal slot that is divided into…

LEWIS HAMILTON’S SECOND CONSECUTIVE VICTORY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE different from its predecessor. While his latest triumph in the Spanish Grand Prix was worth the same 25 points as his Azerbaijan win, the Mercedes driver placed a much greater value on it. And rightly so, for last Sunday he was at his imperious best. This was vintage Hamilton of the kind we did not see in Bahrain, China or Azerbaijan. The man himself was delighted with being back on form, a very different feeling from the Baku “lottery” win that made him feel sheepish on the podium. And the reason for this return to form? Confidence. That’s not the confidence that the driver brings to the car, but the kind that flows in the other direction. And while it…

After crashing under the safety car in the last race in Baku and throwing away a top-six finish, the last thing Romain Grosjean needed was another shunt. But that’s exactly what happened at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix when he spun, then fired his Haas across the track on the throttle, also wiping out Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. Grosjean started 10th and briefly climbed to eighth, but lost the rear and spun after team-mate Kevin Magnussen had a rear-end wobble and slid across the track in front of him. While Grosjean’s loss of control was at least partly excused by reacting to Magnussen, and the fact that this compromised the airflow to his car, he tried to hang on to it for too…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP BARCELONA (E) MAY 13 ROUND 1/9 The Porsche Supercup is not often the most action-packed part of the Formula 1 bill, and safety cars can go one way or another. They can punctuate what entertainment there is on show, or they can ignite a procession. The mid-race safety car in the season opener at Barcelona (sort of) did the latter. Poleman Michael Ammermuller, the reigning champion, held the lead at the start as Jaap van Lagen leapt from fourth to second, displacing the slow-moving Florian Latorre off the line and boldly toughing it out around the outside of Julien Andlauer at Turn 1. The safety car came out immediately, thanks to Philipp Sager’s car getting beached in the gravel, but a lap later it disappeared. Van Lagen kept…

WORLD RALLYCROSS METTET (B) MAY 12 - 13 ROUND 3/12 Sebastien Loeb ended a 19-month winless run in the World Rallycross Championship for himself and the Peugeot team by claiming his second career victory at Mettet. Loeb took advantage of the grippier side of the Belgian circuit as polesitter Johan Kristoffersson, on the slippery asphalt, had a slower getaway and fell into the clutches of those behind. While Loeb took the lead, points leader Kristoffersson was forced into the inside barrier at the entry to Turn 1, his PSRX Volkswagen Polo getting pitched onto two wheels. The only thing that kept the reigning champion’s car the right way up was leaning on team-mate Petter Solberg’s sister VW, and he exited the first corner behind the Peugeots of Loeb and Timmy…

There’s a slight pause before Stefan Johansson answers. This is a man who raced for Ferrari and McLaren, who won at Le Mans and Sebring, and who ran his own teams in the States. In 1989, though, he joined Onyx for its debut season in Formula 1, and that meant being plunged into the unforgiving, unpredictable world of pre-qualifying. “I’m getting shivers just thinking about it,” he says. “Nothing that I’ve done in motor racing comes close to the pressure, not even qualifying for the Indy 500. You’d arrive at 6.30am and you’d just be growling at everyone. You were like a caged animal waiting to go out.” It was a brutal system: one hour on Friday morning to determine not whether you’d be allowed into the race, but simply…

TCR UK TCR UK driver Carl Swift was forced to miss the Knockhill races last weekend after delays in receiving a sequential gearbox. Swift was one of two entries in the DSG Trophy, for those with a direct-shift gearbox, in the season opener at Silverstone, but wanted to upgrade his SEAT Cupra. “It’s a shame, the new gearbox just arrived too late,” said Swift, who will now compete with the Maximum Motorsport squad. “It was supposed to be here from Spain last week [over a week before Knockhill] but we didn’t get it until Tuesday.” Swift said the choice was made for him because the only other DSG entrant, Stewart Lines, is converting to the sequential ’box. “The DSG Trophy is all well and good if there’s five or so…

GT CUP Mike Saunders is hopeful that his TVR Cerbera GT will make a return to racing next month despite suffering extensive damage in a 120mph shunt. A brake-master-cylinder failure during the opening GT Cup race of the season at Donington Park caused Saunders to crash into the barriers at McLeans. The 31-year old suffered heavy concussion and bruising, while damage to the car included a twisted chassis and cracked gearbox. “It wasn’t the opening round we were hoping for,” said Saunders, who was returning to the GT Cup in his TVR for the first time since 2013, having recently raced in Bernie’s V8s. “We lost the brakes in qualifying which had never been an issue before, so we changed everything. Then in the race coming into McLeans the brakes…

KNOCKHILL BRSCC MAY 12?13 As much as the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s first meeting using Knockhill’s reversed configuration presented “new” and “different” challenges for the National Formula Ford 1600 drivers, it was an old hand of sorts who came up trumps in Scotland. Trundling his Van Diemen through the gravel exiting the hairpin on the opening lap of a pulsating second race of the weekend, 2016 champion Niall Murray surely thought his victory chances were slipping away. His sensational recovery to claim the unlikeliest of wins, however, was one that will live in his memory for years to come. “Typical Formula Ford race really – it was as frantic as it can be,” said Murray. “When I was in the gravel trap on the first lap, I was…

BRANDS HATCH BARC MAY 12-13 Reigning champion Malcolm Blackman won both of Sunday’s races in the Intermarque Championship, but had to work probably harder than ever before against an inspired Lewis Smith. Smith headed the triple title winner in race one until a total electrical failure stopped him after the hairpin, but clawed his way back from 20th in race two and sat on Blackman’s tail from lap six in an all-Vauxhall Tigra battle. Blackman also had to work hard after starting 10th on a partially reversed grid, and resisted a brave effort by Smith to swoop around the outside on the last corner despite overheated tyres resulting from the early charge. Reuben Taylor (Peugeot) and Ian Hales (Tigra) each scored a third place. Missing out on pole position in…

SNET TERTON MSVR MAY 12-13 Kyle Reid continued his clean sweep of this season’s Mini Challenge Cooper Pro races by taking all three wins at Snetterton’s Mini Festival. Reid won the opener in wet conditions after a late pass on Robbie Dalgleish, who had started with rain tyres all-round compared to Reid, who had slicks on the front. Despite gear-selection problems, Reid held off Dalgleish to win the dry second race. He then took the final victory after a long fight with Simon Walton, who spun down to eighth on the last lap after contact with Richard Newman. “It’s a long year – I just need to go out there and do my best. The team are doing an awesome job,” said Reid. Alex Nevill likewise continued an unbeaten season…

FORMUL A 2 The FIA is set to launch an investigation into the Barcelona Formula 2 crash last Sunday between Tadasuke Makino and Nirei Fukuzumi, in which Makino claimed the new-for-2018 halo saved his life. Fukuzumi attacked fellow Honda protege Makino up the inside at Turn 4, but struggled for grip and moved left into Makino. The duo touched wheels and Fukuzumi went airborne, his left-rear wheel grazing the sidepod and engine cover of Makino’s car and hitting the halo (right). When asked by Autosport if he thought the halo had saved his life, Russian Time driver Makino said: “I think so, yeah. “The first time I tested this car I didn’t think the halo was good, because it’s difficult to see anything, but today the halo helped me. It’s…

WRC The end appears to be in sight for Sebastien Loeb’s stellar World Rally Championship career after Citroen team principal Pierre Budar admitted he wouldn’t want a repeat of this year’s part-programme for the French star. After quitting full-time rallying in 2012, nine-time world champion Loeb stunned the WRC when he returned this season in Mexico and came close to winning. He repeated that performance with a string of fastest times in Corsica, and will return to the Citroen squad for October’s Rally Spain, with the mixed-surface Tarragona event set to bring the curtain down on his time at rallying’s top level. Loeb couldn’t have been clearer on his intentions for his WRC effort this season: it was to enjoy the new generation of World Rally Cars with a team…

“MAGNUSSEN CELEBRATED POLE OF A KIND, BEST OF THE REST IN SEVENTH” LEWIS HAMILTON PIPPED VALTTERI BOTTAS BY 0.040 seconds and Mercedes secured its first front-row lockout of 2018. The question that was being asked after the session was whether Pirelli’s decision to reduce the tread thickness of its tyres by 0.4mm for this race (and also for the French and British Grands Prix) had played into the hands of Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel, third for Ferrari and 0.132s off, suggested that was the case. He declared himself happy with his lap, having opted for softs for his final Q3 run rather than the supersofts the Mercedes drivers used. He suggested the thinning of the gauge had made the tyre compounds harder. Mercedes, generally, has less of a problem with the…

Brendon Hartley missed qualifying thanks to an accident during Saturday practice that he considers one of the biggest of his career. The 28-year-old Toro Rosso driver spun backwards into the barriers at the high-speed Campsa right-hander after putting a wheel on the grass on the outside before turning into the corner. “Such a big impact like that, it’s potentially the biggest impact I’ve had,” he said. “I actually don’t remember, and that’s not because I just had an impact. “I had a reasonably big crash in the first round of WEC in 2016 [at Silverstone, after contact with a GT car], but it wasn’t such a big impact in the end. This was definitely the biggest I’ve had in a long time. “Often I’m using this kerb on the entry…

The delightful quirkiness of the Pau Grand Prix continues. For last weekend’s 77th running, the press conferences were moved into the side room of a shop selling household ornaments and furniture, conservative clothing and plant-pot holders. On the wall next to the stage? A pear-shaped mirror – yours for €395. Which was appropriate, for the weekend went pear-shaped for nearly every driver, and then it did so for the race itself. The opening round of the final Formula 3 European Championship climaxed with Estonian talent Ralf Aron winning the historic Pau GP, a result that should have propelled him into the points lead. That it didn’t is because a downpour of rain resulted in the truncation of the race after just eight laps of competitive action. Only half-points were awarded,…

FORMUL A 2 BARCELONA (E) MAY 12 - 13 ROUND 3/12 George Russell is on fire, and neither an errant water bottle nor the consequent investigation and fine from the stewards for his ART Grand Prix team could douse the Mercedes Formula 1 junior’s heat. A fourth in the reversed-grid race was “as good as it could have been” starting from eighth, but his first feature-race victory was masterful. It edges him closer to a genuine title showdown with early frontrunners Lando Norris and Alexander Albon. For Albon, now confirmed with DAMS for the rest of the season after completing the first two races without a long-term deal, a second pole position in as many qualifying sessions promised much for the feature encounter. But even a clutch-software upgrade for the…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS (USA) MAY 12 ROUND 12/36 “It’s pretty evident that the Fords have an unfair advantage this year, so I’ll just throw that out there,” said Toyota’s reigning champion Martin Truex Jr after defeat in the NASCAR Cup series race at Kansas. Penske Ford man Joey Logano, who finished third, looked across and couldn’t resist a dig: “Boy, how the tides have turned and you don’t like it.” “How does it feel?” retorted Truex. “How does it feel? Not as good as the #4 [of winner Kevin Harvick], I can tell you that much,” was Logano’s final barb. Once again the topic of manufacturer dominance returned to NASCAR, but this time it’s Ford, not Toyota, getting the criticism as Harvick took his fifth, and Ford’s seventh, of the…

“IN 1989, AGURI SUZUKI FAILED TO PRE - QUALIFY AT ALL 16 RACES” For every pre-qualifier who was capable of running in the top six come Sunday afternoon, there was always at least one who never had a chance of progressing further than Friday. In 1989, Aguri Suzuki failed to pre-qualify at all 16 races. By Hockenheim, the ninth round, the desperation was starting to show. In a few memorable seconds, Suzuki clipped Piercarlo Ghinzani’s Osella while overtaking it on the pit straight, then buried his Zakspeed into the barriers at the first corner, narrowly missing team-mate Bernd Schneider as he did so. But surely the most memorable also-rans were the 1990 Life and the 1992 Andrea Moda. The former used a ridiculously complex W12 engine that produced a maximum…

CITROEN C1 Leading figures in British motorsport have praised the Citroen C1 Challenge following the success of its first UK 24-hour race at Rockingham. Forty-nine cars started the round-the-clock marathon, with the Team C’est La Vie line-up of Robin Welsh, James MacIntyre-Ure, Paul Dickinson, Chris Chadwick and Matt Maxted taking victory. Demand outweighed grid space for the 24 hours, so 32 cars competed in a three-hour, 91-lap ‘overspill’ race, won by the Poorboys Racing team. Among the entries for the main event were British Touring Car Championship boss Alan Gow, World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx and his FIA Formula 4-racing son Seb, and BTCC race winner Rob Austin. Gow said: “This event really appealed to me from the moment I found out about it. It is a no-pressure weekend…

MONACO HISTORIQUE ACM MAY 13 For the 11th running of its magnificent series of biennial Historic Grands Prix, the Automobile Club of Monaco opted for a trio of races for three-litre Formula 1 cars, and some superb racing resulted. Also on the agenda were races for GP cars from the 1920s to the early ’60s, and sports-racing cars, all of which meant that for once Formula Junior and Classic F3 were squeezed out. The sight of grids comprising well over 20 cars, all in period liveries, was breathtaking. Picking the race of the day is an impossibility but one that certainly left a lasting impression was for the 1973 to ’76 F1 cars. Stuart Hall, in the ex-Peter Revson 1973 Canadian GP-winning McLaren M23, had been outstanding in qualifying to…

Daniel Lloyd continued his unbeaten start to the TCR UK championship by recording his second double victory in a row at Knockhill. The WestCoast Racing driver was virtually untouchable all weekend, converting pole position into two routine wins in his Volkswagen Golf GTI. Indeed, Swedish squad WestCoast was the team to beat as early as Friday afternoon in the pre-event test session on the reversed layout. Lloyd was quickest in three of the four sessions, with only team-mate Andreas Backman denying the Huddersfield local a clean sweep. Come the race meeting, Lloyd showcased his TCR expertise, topping qualifying by an impressive 0.3 seconds over Aiden Moffat’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Lloyd was made to sweat on race morning, though, as a near-farcical scrutineering mix-up threatened to derail the opening race. Four…

On demand. It’s become an inescapable fact of life for media providers and something to which consumers have developed a sense of entitlement. No longer are evenings centred around, ‘Oh, I’ll just watch this.’ We’re now in a position to say: ‘I want to watch this.’ So you could say it was inevitable that the new, digitally focused Formula 1 would try to embrace Netflixification with the launch of F1 TV Pro and F1 TV Access. In layman’s terms F1 TV Pro is a full English breakfast – albeit one that’s not available in the UK owing to Sky’s exclusive TV deal. It features live races, live onboard cameras, unedited team radio, plus a whole host of other extras. F1 TV Access, the only option available in the UK, is…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This second-generation superstar would ultimately surpass his father’s achievements, but there was a tragic similarity in the way their lives ended. Hailing from a northern powerhouse, initially he took to the track on two wheels, but it was when an old friend of his father’s gave him a break that things took off on four. It took a while for him to make his mark, but when it clicked he was literally unbeatable – in fact it was only his decision to chase a bigger prize that interrupted his streak. A dispute over his pay prompted him to switch to another racing family, but despite a promising start it would be a disappointing campaign. Things were on the up before he took a…