Innehållsförteckning för 19/09/19 från Autosport

For those who want close competition between different machines, sideways racing cars and lots of noise, the Goodwood Revival is one of the highlights of any season. Last weekend’s 22nd edition was no exception and had some added spice. As Goodwood aficionado Marcus Pye reports on page 16, a range of modern sportscar stars, led by Andre Lotterer, put on a superb display. Lotterer’s chase of fellow Le Mans winner Romain Dumas, both in rumbling Cobras, was classy and resulted in RAC TT (above) success, while ex-F1 and sportscar racer Karl Wendlinger looked very much at home wielding Patrick Watts’s mighty Studebaker Silver Hawk. Nevertheless, Goodwood regular Sam Hancock provided the most memorable moments, with his incredible effort just failing to secure a victory for Ferrari in the 1950s sportscar…

FORMULA 1 Imola and Mugello are weighing up bids to host a Formula 1 grand prix, following Monza’s new multi-year deal that secured the future of the Italian Grand Prix. Former San Marino GP host Imola has the FIA Grade 1 status it needs to host F1 again after undergoing development work – which included cutting the final chicane – since holding the last of its 27 grands prix in 2006. MotoGP venue Mugello has never held an F1 race, but testing has taken place there, most recently in 2012. Imola bosses have tasked track-design company Dromo with revamping its paddock hospitality offerings and a statement from the track said it is “ready to accept the challenge” of trying to bring F1 back to the circuit. “The great work done…

LENGTH 3.146 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 61 2018 POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m36.015s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m36.015s (2018) RACE LAP RECORD Kevin Magnussen 1m41.905s (2018) UK START TIMES Friday 20 September FP1 0930 FP2 1330 Saturday 21 September FP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 22 September RACE 1310 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1900 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Lewis Hamilton……….284 2 Valtteri Bottas………….221 3 Max Verstappen………185 4 Charles Leclerc………..182 5 Sebastian Vettel……..169 Constructors 1 Mercedes…………….505 2 Ferrari……………………351 3 Red Bull………………..266 4 McLaren…………………. 83 5 Renault…………………… 65 RACE STATS Previous winners 2018 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2017 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2016 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2015 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2013 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2012 Sebastian…

Time for Vettel to call it a day? There has been much talk of Sebastian Vettel’s lack of form this year. Perhaps the most telling record of this can be found in the Autosport top 10 average ratings. In both the Autosport rating and the readers’ rating, Vettel does not appear at all. In fact, Ferrari’s ex-driver Kimi Raikkonen is in both lists at number 10. This surely has to be a telling sign that Vettel’s spark and desire are long gone. He always seems to be the type of character who does not recover well when his head goes down. I cannot see him ever being comfortable with a young gun like Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari favourite, or dropping back to another team. Perhaps he really should just…

FERRARI WINS IN GT HEAVEN Ferrari’s 250 GTO became the class of the field in the pre-1963 era. Giotto Bizzarrini’s design was evolved from the magnificent three-litre V12-engined 250 GT Berlinetta (or SWB) in which Stirling Moss won Goodwood’s RAC Tourist Trophy races for Rob Walker and Dick Wilkins in 1960 and 1961. Clothed by Scaglietti with longer prow and Kamm tail, the GTO won the next two TTs at the West Sussex venue, driven by Innes Ireland and Graham Hill for UDT/Laystall and Colonel Ronnie Hoare’s Maranello Concessionaires respectively. No surprise, therefore, that a well-driven GTO was untouchable on a balmy Friday evening in Sussex. Gary Pearson started Carlos Monteverde’s from pole and howled clear of factory Aston Martin ace Darren Turner in Wolfgang Friedrichs’s DB4 GT and James…

The one word that sums up Mercedes’ time in Formula 1 since it returned to single-seater motorsport as a works entry in 2010 is ‘domination’. True, it did take a few years for the team to return to winning ways in the grand prix sphere but, since 2014 and the introduction of the V6-turbo-hybrid power units, it has simply been all-conquering. Five world title doubles will surely become six by the end of 2019. The cornerstone of that success is the march that Mercedes stole on its F1 rivals when it came to developing a hybrid engine ahead of 2014. Even if Ferrari has now overhauled it in the power stakes, Mercedes has arguably developed the best aerodynamics package on the current grid. Different domination. This success is important when…

Last month on Rally Germany, Sebastien Ogier bemoaned an ‘undriveable’ Citroen C3 WRC. But ‘uncatchable’ replaced ‘undriveable’ for the reigning World Rally champion in Turkey last week. For the second year in succession, the hard-baked roads around Marmaris wreaked havoc with the drivers’ championship. Twelve months ago, Ott Tanak was the chief beneficiary as his Toyota tortoise laughed in the face of a pair of hares named Ogier and Thierry Neuville. It was the other way around this time. Except for Neuville, whose title aspirations were tripped up once again. Wednesday evenings ahead of WRC rounds have always been an ideal opportunity to catch the drivers in a more relaxed mood. Post-recce, pre-shakedown, there’s chat to be had, fat to be chewed. That changed last Wednesday. Nearing the business end…

Andrew Jordan declared it was time to “really roll up his sleeves” in the fight for this season’s British Touring Car Championship crown after three dramatic races at Knockhill that had a huge impact on the points chase. Jordan’s race-two win in his WSR-run BMW 330i M Sport was bookended by a sensational home-town victory for Rory Butcher in the AmD Tuning Honda Civic in the opener and an emotional first win for Jake Hill in the Trade Price Cars Racing Audi S3 in the finale. But the big talking point was the swing in the title hunt. Jordan’s WSR team-mate Colin Turkington came into the weekend with a 30-point margin at the top of the table. He left with his advantage cut to just 10, and the top three…

WORLD TOURING CAR CUP NINGBO (CHN) 14-15 SEPTEMBER ROUND 7/10 After falling just three points short of beating Gabriele Tarquini to the inaugural World Touring Car Cup last year, Yvan Muller had something of a quiet first half of 2019. Cue, then, two pole positions and a double victory at Ningbo to thrust the Cyan Racing driver into title contention. The blue of the cars tells you all you need to know about the Swedish part of Cyan’s identity but, despite the team’s status as a private operation, its historic links to the Geely Group and its (so far) exclusive supply of Lynk & Co 03 customer cars meant success in the Chinese brand’s home country was imperative. Muller was alone in flying the flag in Saturday’s opening race but…

SUNOCO CHALLENGE BRDC British Formula 3 runner-up Johnathan Hoggard will race in the Daytona 24 Hours next year after winning the Sunoco Whelen Challenge – a prize worth $250,000. The Fortec driver took the most wins, podiums, pole positions and fastest laps during the 2019 British F3 campaign, which helped him secure the coveted prize at the final round of the season last weekend at Donington Park. The annual award is open to drivers from a number of categories, including British GT and British F3, with points given based on performance. “I think I was as low as fifth or sixth at one stage, so I wasn’t really thinking that I would be able to win in the end,” said Hoggard. “I’m not sure what car I’ll be in but…

GOODWOOD REVIVAL Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti returned to racing at the Goodwood Revival last weekend, six years after the Houston IndyCar crash that ended his contemporary career. Franchitti had to retire from professional motorsport on medical grounds in 2013, but was finally able to compete again in Friday’s Kinrara Trophy for pre-1964 GT cars and Sunday’s RAC TT Celebration. Practice problems with the Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C (right) he shared with John Hugenholtz meant Franchitti started on row nine of the Kinrara field. Franchitti fought his way into the top 10 before handing over to Hugenholtz, who finished eighth. “My first lap in the car was the first lap of the race so I didn’t know what it was going to do into the first corner, but it’s…

Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell came up 1.5s short of the GT4 title as third proved just enough for Tom Canning and Ash Hand to claim the spoils in a double success for TF Sport and Aston Martin. Having not scored any points since winning on its debut at Snetterton, Steller Performance Audi pairing Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams went some way to making up for the fuel problem that robbed them of a podium in June’s Donington race by converting pole into victory. This was despite Priaulx’s valiant efforts in the closing laps to snatch the place that would have secured Multimatic Motorsport the title. Williams led for most of the first stint, until impressive 17-year-old Canning pounced on a small mistake at the Old Hairpin. But the pre-event…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Sebastian Alvarez made crucial inroads into Zane Maloney’s British Formula 4 points lead with a trio of podiums at Knockhill. Carlin driver Maloney extended what had been a 37-point cushion over Alvarez coming into the weekend with victory in Saturday’s opening encounter, but left Scotland just 15 ahead following a broken driveshaft ahead of the final race. Despite not being fastest in qualifying, Maloney lined up on pole as all four Arden cars, both Fortec drivers and Luke Browning’s Richardson Racing machine were penalised, each for having mechanics work on the cars during a red-flag stoppage. Maloney led off the line into Duffus for the first time but had to defend against Double R’s Louis Foster as the pair braked for McIntyre’s. Foster kept the pressure on…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP Race 1 (17 laps) 1 Max Coates; 2 Jack Young +0.669s; 3 Brett Lidsey; 4 Jamie Bond; 5 Ethan Hammerton; 6 Luke Warr. Fastest lap Young 56.068s (81.34mph). Pole Coates. Starters 9. Race 2 (19 laps) 1 Young; 2 Coates +4.005s; 3 Bond; 4 Lidsey; 5 Hammerton; 6 Ben Colburn. FL Bond 56.128s (81.26mph). P Young. S 9. Points 1 Coates 288; 2 Young 284; 3 Bond 248; 4 Lidsey 235; 5 Hammerton 196; 6 Colburn 185. BRITISH FORMULA 4 Race 1 (19 laps) 1 Zane Maloney; 2 Josh Skelton +0.678s; 3 Sebastian Alvarez; 4 Carter Williams; 5 Roberto Faria; 6 Bart Horsten. FL Skelton 49.702s (91.76mph). P Maloney. S 13. Race 2 (24 laps) 1 Williams; 2 Alvarez +0.626s; 3 Skelton; 4 Luke Browning; 5…

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL FORMULA FORD 1600 Race 1 Michael Eastwell (Spectrum 011C) Race 2 Joey Foster (Firman RFR17) Race 3 Rory Smith (Medina JL18) FUN CUP 2 Rent Dominos (Chris Hart/Henry Dawes) MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP Race 1 Aidan Hills Races 2 & 3 Luke Herbert BMW COMPACT CUP Race 1 Tom Griffiths Race 2 Steven Dailly CIVIC CUP Races 1 & 2 Lee Deegan (EP3) OSS CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1, 2 & 3 Mike Jenvey (Jenvey-Gunn TS6) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com OULTON PARK LOCOST CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Louis Wall Race 2 Thomas Gadd BIKESPORTS Race 1 Scott Mittell (Mittell MC 41R) Race 2 Josh Smith (Radical PR6) CLUB ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP Carl Swift/Robert Baker (SEAT Leon Eurocup) BMW CAR CLUB RACING CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Michael Cutt (E36 M3) Race 2 Michael Pensavalle…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This free spirit never quite lived up to expectations. Brought up around speed – and a long way from his original home – he had started competing on two wheels before he made the successful switch to four. A move to even further shores saw him quick-step up the ladder. A famous talent scout brought him along for the ride, which put him in the right place at the right time for a shot at the big time, but it was a false dawn. Circumstances conspired against him again and he took a step back to eventually claim the title. He rammed his way back into the limelight, only for it to dim once more. He was the first winner in…

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Two teams will represent Aston Martin with the new Valkyrie racer in the first season of the hypercar category in the World Endurance Championship. The British manufacturer is still playing its cards close to its chest, but it can be taken as read that Multimatic and R-Motorsport will field cars over the course of the 2020-21 WEC. It appears certain that the UK-based Multimatic team, fresh from three seasons masterminding Ford’s GTE Pro assault on the WEC, will be the works operation. The involvement of the Canadian-based automotive multinational in the wider Valkyrie programme is no secret. Multimatic vice-president of engineering and motorsport boss Larry Holt sits on the steering committee for the project, while Aston chief Andy Palmer described an organisation that undertook much of the…

FORMULA 1 Williams and Mercedes have agreed to a five-year extension of their Formula 1 engine-supply deal, to take their partnership to 2025. Williams, which has used Mercedes power since the start of F1’s turbo-hybrid era in 2014, will continue to make its own gearbox rather than join Racing Point and take a supply from Mercedes. “We have enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Mercedes-Benz over the past six years of what was originally a seven-year agreement, and so we are delighted to be continuing working with them for a further five years from 2021,” said Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams. Williams has enjoyed a good relationship with its current engine supplier for a long time, in part because Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff was previously a shareholder and director…

FORMULA 3 Japan is to get its own FIA Regional Formula 3 championship in 2020 with a new car built by Dome. Super GT driver Hiroki Katoh and ex-Formula Renault 3.5 racer Yu Kanamaru shared driving duties of the Dome F111/3 on a shakedown at Okayama last week (below). The F111/3 has been built to the FIA’s new Regional F3 concept, fulfilling the minimum weight criteria of 650kg and fitted with the halo device. It is the first single-seater produced by Dome – best known outside Japan for its Le Mans 24 Hours cars and its unsuccessful bid to enter Formula 1 in 1997 – since the F110, which has been in use in the Japanese F4 Championship since 2015. “I was called for the purpose of finding any niggles…

Nico Hulkenberg’s tagline might as well be ‘The driver with the most starts without a podium finish’, so often is that statistic referenced. Often it’s used against him, with his 170 races without cracking the top three ‘proof’ of his inadequacies as a driver. No wonder Renault dropped him, right? It’s not as simple as that. Hulkenberg’s lack of podium finishes cannot just be shrugged off, given that he has missed several opportunities through his own mistakes. But such chances have been rare, and he’s never been in a car that has been more than an outsider for the top three except in unusual circumstances. His F1 career represents a far wider body of work, much of it very effective. There are better ways to evaluate Hulkenberg than to judge…

AMAZED BY HIS GOODWOOD REVIVAL DEBUT LAST YEAR, AND GAGGING TO IMPROVE ON fourth in the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration race, three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer returned with former Audi team-mates Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler. With the British Touring Car posse at Knockhill, more sportscar legends changed last Sunday’s GT feature’s dynamic. The cleanest race in the event’s history was a classic, and a bona fide pro-am team rode out victorious. AC Cobra owner Chris Wilson’s opening stint in ‘21 GUN’, quick but conservative, set up Lotterer to win a thriller. Lotterer’s sub-record 1m24.073s (101.91mph) pole shot on Saturday trumped Nicolas Minassian’s Friday best in David Hart’s Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro, powered by a similar 4.7-litre Ford V8 engine. Goodwood hillclimb record holder Romain Dumas…

Aston Martin’s 1959 world sportscar title was celebrated in typical Goodwood style with a special on-track demonstration. Goodwood hosted the 1959 season finale, with Ferrari and Porsche also arriving with a chance of the crown. The lead DBR1 of Stirling Moss and Roy Salvadori led from pole, but a fire in the Aston Martin pit forced the car out. Moss was switched to the Carroll Shelby/Jack Fairman DBR1 and charged through to win, beating the Wolfgang von Trips/Jo Bonnier Porsche 718 RSK to clinch the championship for Aston Martin. Several of the cars from the race, along with others of a similar type to those that competed 60 years ago, joined the celebration (right). As well as Aston Martin, Porsche (including the second-placed 718 RSK) and Ferrari representation, there were…

KEEPING A TIGHT LEASH The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is often cited as a cost-effective way for manufacturers to go motor racing. It’s high-profile, being the FIA’s designated electric single-seater championship, can reach new audiences and markets in major cities, and teams generally spend modestly compared to what it would take to compete successfully in Formula 1 or the LMP1 high-water mark days of the World Endurance Championship. It’s easy to see why manufacturers have flocked to the series. But there’s a double edge to that attraction. All those manufacturers want to win, but it’s against the series’ ethos for one of them to dominate. This is why FE and the FIA work hard to control the racing through regulation, and keep power away from the teams. But if…

POINTS FOR HYUNDAI PAIR For the second time in as many rough gravel rallies, Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo was grateful to Andreas Mikkelsen and Dani Sordo for bringing the points home. The i20 Coupe WRC pair stemmed the flow of manufacturer points to Toyota for the first time since Rally Italy in June. BACK TO DRAWING BOARD Despite Toyota’s confidence that it had taken a step forward for Rally Turkey after last year’s struggle for pace, the Yaris still found the going tough. It was quicker than last year, but – as chief engineer Tom Fowler feared – the others had moved further forward. The suspension will need another look, given how the drivers struggled to find confidence with the car at its highest setting to avoid rocks on…

IMSA SPORTSCAR LAGUNA SECA (USA) 15 SEPTEMBER ROUND 11/12 Acura Team Penske took another step towards this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship with a convincing performance last weekend at the challenging Laguna Seca in Northern California. Ricky Taylor was the first to shine, claiming his first pole for the team in the Acura ARX-05 he shares with Helio Castroneves. Juan Pablo Montoya started second in the championship-leading sister car and was content to shadow Taylor until the first round of pitstops, which came on lap 25, just over half an hour into the 160-minute contest held in picture-perfect conditions. While Taylor remained aboard the leading car, Montoya handed over to Dane Cameron, who was quickly into his stride and seeking to edge clear of the third-placed Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac with…

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MOTOGP MISANO (ITA) 15 SEPTEMBER ROUND 13/19 MotoGP’s immediate future looks certain. Victory in the San Marino Grand Prix for Marc Marquez puts him 93 points clear in the standings, and he will almost certainly wrap up a sixth title in seven years in two races’ time in Thailand. But this exciting, tense, 27-lap Misano race also offered up a glimpse into MotoGP’s longer-term future, as the long-awaited duel between Honda hero Marquez and Petronas SRT Yamaha wonderboy Fabio Quartararo finally came to pass. Quartararo came to Misano as a favourite after topping a recent test at the circuit, where he focused exclusively on race preparations. Both he, works Yamaha counterpart Maverick Vinales and Marquez displayed pace in practice that suggested they would be the breakaway bunch, and so it…

FORMULA FORD The Formula Ford Festival will be fully livestreamed for the first time in the event’s history this year. The British Racing and Sports Car Club has decided to invest more in the event in a bid to try and restore it to former glories. Last year there were 69 entries, some way down on the 180-200 of its heyday. BRSCC competitions director Dominic Ostrowski says the format of the event – with heats followed by semi-finals and the grand final – makes it perfect to be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook. “The do-or-die nature of the Festival and the knockout format lends itself to it and should make for some great viewing,” he said. “It’s the club’s blue-riband event and we want to give it the investment it…

John Haugland racked up more than 100 rallying class wins and drove for Skoda in the World Rally Championship. But sharing a track with 28 other cars in the first St Mary’s Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival last weekend proved more difficult. He qualified 16th in a Volvo PV544 but failed to see out the opening lap. Haugland dropped it on his own, spun and then shunted into the tyre wall on the approach to St Mary’s corner. It sent the front-left wheel back into the engine bay, while the rear-left was pincered in the wheelarch. The car’s new-found immovability forced a lengthy red-flag stoppage.…

GT3 (75 laps) 1 Shaun Balfe/Rob Bell (McLaren 720S); 2 Ian Loggie/Callum Macleod (Mercedes-AMG GT3) +2.728s; 3 Angus Fender/Jack Mitchell (BMW M6); 4 Sam De Haan/Jonny Cocker (Lamborghini Huracan Evo); 5 Graham Davidson/Jonny Adam (Aston Martin Vantage GT3); 6 Michael Igoe/Dennis Lind (Lamborghini). Fastest lap Nicki Thiim (Aston Martin) 1m27.896s (101.87mph). Pole Balfe/Bell. Starters 15. Points 1 Adam/Davidson 131; 2 De Haan/Cocker 128.5; 3 Bell/Balfe 126; 4 Adam Balon/Phil Keen 122; 5 Macleod/Loggie 100.5; 6 Bradley Ellis/Ollie Wilkinson 91.5. GT4 (70 laps) 1 Richard Williams/Sennan Fielding (Audi R8 LMS); 2 Scott Maxwell/Seb Priaulx (Ford Mustang) +1.543s; 3 Tom Canning/Ash Hand (Aston Martin Vantage GT4); 4 Kelvin Fletcher/Martin Plowman (Aston Martin); 5 Patrik Matthiesen/Mike Robinson (Aston Martin); 6 Patrick Kibble/Josh Price (Aston Martin). FL Canning 1m35.886s (93.38mph). P Williams/Fielding. S 23.…

Two championship protagonists going into the final race tied on points. An outside contender in with a shot of the title. A last-lap pass and then repass deciding where the accolade would go. The only way the 2019 Ginetta G40 Cup script could have been even more dramatic is if the final pass had taken place on the last corner instead of the penultimate one. Not that it mattered, since it was still a highly fitting end to an incredible season. Come the podium celebrations, the embrace between Chris Salkeld and Rob Keogh was testament to a hard-fought and respectful championship battle. “This means the world to me,” said an emotional Salkeld after claiming the title. “At the beginning of the year, after Oulton Park and Snetterton, I never thought…

GINETTA JUNIOR James Hedley has been the driver to beat in Ginetta Junior this season. And Knockhill was a perfect demonstration of that as he just missed out on taking a hat-trick of wins. Hedley’s first triumph was fortunate since he profited from an engine failure for title rival Will Martin, before he then left it late to claim the spoils in race two. Casper Stevenson led for much of the way after passing Martin at the hairpin, until the penultimate lap when Hedley pounced. “I saw they [Stevenson and Zak O’Sullivan] were backing each other up and I tried the switchback and luckily it worked,” said a delighted Hedley. Hedley led throughout the finale but was penalised after edging O’Sullivan off the track as he defended from a stream…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 14-15 SEPTEMBER Team Dolan’s Ross Martin won National Formula Ford 1600’s Triple Crown title at Silverstone National in the finale of three typically dramatic races. Michael Eastwell (Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum 011C) continued his successful series return with victory from pole in race one. He lost the lead at the start to the Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray GR19 of Jonathan Browne, but reclaimed it at Brooklands on the first lap. Eastwell’s KMR team-mate Michael Moyers, racing as a warm-up for November’s Walter Hayes Trophy, kept the pressure on and finished just 0.066s short. Spike Kohlbecker (CDR Ray) prevailed over Browne in a five-way fight for third. Also racing in preparation for the Walter Hayes Trophy was Joey Foster. His race-one effort lasted three laps before a radiator-cap failure…

MONDELLO PARK LEINSTER TROPHY 14-15 SEPTEMBER Barry Rabbitt is ever the opportunist and when Stephen Daly, poleman for the Leinster Trophy race, stalled his Dallara F308 on the line, Rabbitt aimed his Tatuus FRenault through the gap. From row three, Rabbitt emerged from the cloud of spray at Turn 1 in second and drove around the outside of Paul O’Connell’s World Series Dallara for the lead at Turn 4. Paul Dagg (Dallara F308) climbed to second but couldn’t make any impression on the leader. Daly then scythed through the pack to second and chased down Rabbitt before a late safety car neutralised the race. That’s how it finished, with a delighted Rabbitt becoming a two-time winner of one of the most famous trophies in Irish Motorsport. In the other contests,…

FORMULA E Another two pieces of the 2019-20 ABB FIA Formula E Championship driver-market jigsaw fell into place this week with the announcements that Antonio Felix da Costa will join DS Techeetah and Nico Muller will drive for Dragon Racing. Ex-BMW pilot da Costa will race for the reigning champion squad – where he completed FE’s first two seasons in the team’s Aguri guise – alongside double title winner Jean-Eric Vergne, but can only start working with the team from 1 October as he remains on gardening leave after exiting his BMW contract. The 28-year-old Portuguese is expected to sample DS Techeetah’s new package in a private test ahead of the Valencia group running. “If I was going to do a change then it was an easy choice to join…

RALLY RAIDS Fernando Alonso experienced an eventful introduction to cross-country rallying in South Africa last weekend, as he suffered a roll and two broken windscreens in the Lichtenburg 400 in South Africa. Toyota had identified the penultimate round of the South African Cross Country Series (SACCS) as the scene of Alonso’s competitive rally-raid debut when it announced in August that the two-time Formula 1 champion was preparing for an assault on January’s Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. In the run-up to the event – moved from its original location of Harrismith due to drought – Toyota announced that none other than Marc Coma, a five-time winner of the Dakar on two wheels, would serve as Alonso’s navigator. The all-Spanish partnership got off to an auspicious start, with Alonso setting the…

We can’t unlearn the last half-century. Of course the GT cars in last weekend’s Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy at the Goodwood Revival will be faster than their 1964 counterparts. The march of technology entails better engine oils and brake-pad materials. The modernisation of manufacturing processes means greater precision and fewer discrepancies. Even since 1998, when the first Revival was held at the Goodwood Motor Circuit, lap times have fallen. The fastest race lap in that year’s RAC TT was a 1m30.958s, set by a Jaguar E-type. Last weekend, Olivier Hart lapped his Tojeiro-Ford in 1m25.521s. That’s just one example from the event’s blue-riband race, but across the board it’s difficult to escape the trend that historic race cars are getting faster. And, naturally, it’s led to criticism. The most…

WILLS DEFIES FEISTY HANCOCK An immensely hard-fought victory in Saturday’s Sussex Trophy contest for world championship sportscars and production sports-racers of the 1950s meant so much to New Zealander Roger Wills, on several levels. Principal among them was that the two-litre Lotus-Climax 15 he drove, chassis 609, was raced by his countrymen Bruce McLaren and Syd Jensen in the 1958 RAC Tourist Trophy event at Goodwood. In fact, Friday’s official practice session, in which Wills beat a quality field to pole position, was 61 years to the day after McLaren ran fourth behind the works Aston Martins in the four-hour race. Gearbox failure at one-third distance forced fabled private entrant John ‘Noddy’ Coombs to withdraw it. Outgunned by Lister-Jaguars, or outhandled by the NART Ferrari 246S Dino, a Lotus 15…

PORSCHE FOLLOWS ITS OWN PATH FOR ELECTRIC-RACING BAPTISM There’s another German motorsport giant joining Mercedes, Audi and BMW in ABB FIA Formula E for the 2019-20 season: Porsche. While Mercedes dominates Formula 1, Porsche arrives from an ultra-successful stint at the head of the World Endurance Championship’s LMP1 class. It scored three Le Mans 24 Hours wins and three LMP1 title doubles between 2015 and 2017 before leaving at the end of 2017 in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal. The two Formula E newcomers have gone about their preparations in different ways. Mercedes had its HWA vanguard, but Porsche is coming in completely fresh and will be doing its learning in public. And, intriguingly, where Mercedes has Ian James heading up its FE squad as team principal, Porsche…

DTM NURBURGRING (DEU) 14-15 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/9 If anything sums up Rene Rast, it’s the fact that he spent Saturday night after winning the Nurburgring opener studying his data through to 2am. Nine hours later he was on pole for Sunday’s race, and by the end of the weekend he was celebrating his second DTM title in just three years in the series. That’s just the tip of the iceberg – the stats make for frightening reading for anyone not representing Audi in the DTM paddock. Rast has taken 12 wins from the past 22 races, starting with six in a row at the end of 2018 as he nearly grabbed the title in an incredible comeback with inferior machinery. Those underdog heroics – remember, he upstaged Mattias Ekstrom against…

WORLD RALLYCROSS RIGA (LVA) 14-15 SEPTEMBER ROUND 9/10 As Timmy Hansen sat stationary, his Peugeot pointing directly at the Turn 2 wall of the Bikernieki circuit after the start of his second qualifying race, his World Rallycross Championship title aspirations appeared to be in tatters. Hansen had arrived in Latvia tied for second in the standings with brother Kevin, just two points behind leader Andreas Bakkerud. It was Bakkerud’s Audi that was fastest of the trio in Q1, second overall behind Renault driver Rokas Baciuska and with Kevin Hansen just behind. Timmy Hansen’s side-by-side race to the finish line with newly crowned European champion Robin Larsson had cost him time. They clashed again in Q2, through the Turns ½ chicane. Hansen ended up with broken rear suspension, while Larsson was…

RENAULT CLIO CUP There will still be a Clio Cup in the UK next season after it was confirmed a heavily revised series featuring the new fifth-generation car will support British GT. At the end of last year it was revealed that the current Renault UK Clio Cup would be axed after the 2019 season. But Autosport reported in July that Renault Sport Racing was looking at ways of keeping the series running in a new format, separate from the British Touring Car Championship support package. This has now been confirmed and a seven-event schedule for the 2020 Clio Cup UK season was announced last weekend. Five of those events will be in support of British GT, while the other two will be at European circuits – one at Magny-Cours,…

DONINGTON PARK BRITISH GT 14-15 SEPTEMBER Aside from McLaren-mounted race winners Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe, nobody knew whether they should be celebrating as British GT’s 300th race drew to a close. Jonny Cocker crossed the line fourth in his Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini to, on paper, crown himself and Sam De Haan as the provisional 2019 champions. But with an investigation hanging over contact between Jonny Adam and Dennis Lind at the Old Hairpin, the post-race celebrations were conspicuous by their absence. Tension on the track gave way to a cagey waiting game outside the stewards’ office, where it was eventually decided that Lind had gained an unfair advantage and would be docked five seconds, promoting TF Sport pairing Adam and Graham Davidson to fifth position. After an appeal from…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 14-15 SEPTEMBER A championship campaign without a single retirement proved to be the key to Clement Novalak clinching the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 title at the Donington Park finale last weekend. The Carlin driver came into the meeting with a comfortable 52-point buffer over his nearest challenger Johnathan Hoggard, courtesy of two wins and a further six podiums. Although he hadn’t won a race since Silverstone in June, Novalak had consistency on his side – he’d finished every race inside the top 10, and more of the same would guarantee him the title. Hoggard did all he could to prevent that, though. The Fortec Motorsports man qualified on pole for races one and three while Novalak could only manage sixth and ninth respectively. In the opener,…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP After 14 races, four points is all that separates Max Coates and Jack Young in this year’s Renault UK Clio Cup title fight. While the Clio Cup may have the smallest entry of the British Touring Car Championship’s support series, it also has the smallest gap between the top two in the standings. Coates and Young again shared the spoils at Knockhill but, unusually, they didn’t come to blows on track this time. There was, however, a red flag that may well have proved critical to the outcome of the opening contest. Coates led throughout but Young was soon on his tail. Despite starting sixth after a penalty that lingered from his last-lap tangle with his arch-rival at Thruxton, Young was up to second within two…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Despite not being the fastest over the course of the weekend, Will Burns left Knockhill with his Ginetta GT4 Supercup points lead largely intact. The form man was Elite Motorsport’s Harry King, but a combination of error and bad luck meant the teenager was unable to reclaim the championship advantage. King took Saturday’s first race at a relative canter, either side of a safety-car intervention after a scary pitwall crash for Dan Kirby. Burns finished second and looked likely to trail home King in race two until King received a 10-second jump-start penalty. King’s pace brought him up to second on corrected time, before another safety-car period after Nathan Heathcote hit the back of Reece Somerfield put paid to any prospect of scoring major points. The bunching…

OULTON PARK 750MC 14 SEPTEMBER Louis Wall and Thomas Gadd shared the honours in the Locost championship at Oulton Park. Karl Ruijsenaars took his first pole in the series but it was second-on-the-grid Wall who initially led off the line and then became embroiled in a tight three-way fight for the win with Murray Shepherd and Gadd. Wall came through to take victory in the final moments of the last lap, a mere eight hundredths of a second ahead of Gadd. But Gadd was to find success in the second race, despite the best efforts of Wall and Mark Burton. Burton had dropped down from his starting position of third at the beginning of the race but quickly made his way back up the field, sweeping from fourth to second…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 14 SEPTEMBER Simon Thornton-Norris knew a finish plus fastest lap in the Castle Combe Saloon Championship season-closer would wrap up the overall title. He duly got these, but in bizarre circumstances. At one-third distance Thornton-Norris felt something let go on his Mitsubishi Colt’s front-right. “Driveshaft, suspension, steering arm – something broke on the rumble strip on the exit of the chicane,” he said. “My heart sank at that point. Every time I steered right it went left; every time I hit the brakes it ground like you were grinding them against the floor.” He soldiered on at much-reduced pace, finishing four laps down in the 15-lap contest. But, since his two Class B rivals (Neil Greenland and Mark Wyatt) retired with driveshaft failures, it was enough. “Very…

FILM REVIEW HURLEY Hurley is available via Amazon Prime Video and Sky Store Five outright wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona, three at Le Mans and two in the 12 Hours of Sebring provide the backdrop for Hurley, which on the surface celebrates the career of sportscar ace Hurley Haywood. But it’s not a straightforward biopic, instead it’s the platform for which the now 71-year-old used to publicly come out as gay earlier this year. Having enjoyed the peak of his success during the 1970s and 1980s, where sexuality remained a taboo subject, Haywood has long kept his private life well separate from his on-track success. For this, Hurley is an often sad reflection of motorsport. While we might like to feel that it’s a meritocratic sporting arena, instead…

All eyes on the flag as front-row starters Lorenzo Bandini (#20 Ferrari 312), John Surtees (#10 Cooper-Maserati T81) and Mike Parkes (#22 Ferrari 312) prepare to bury the throttle at the start of the 1966 French Grand Prix at Reims. Parkes, making his world championship Formula 1 debut in place of Surtees at Ferrari, was the only one of this trio to make it to the finish, crossing the line in second, 9.5s behind the victorious Brabham-Repco BT19 of Jack Brabham, who became the first driver to win a points-paying GP in one of his own cars. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…