Innehållsförteckning för 26/09/19 från Autosport

On the face of it, Ferrari did Sebastian Vettel a huge favour in the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend at the expense of Charles Leclerc, its new star. But, as Edd Straw shows on page 16, the strategy that swapped the two red cars at the front of the field was forced on the team by circumstances and nobody expected the pace gain on fresh rubber to be quite that significant. While the result will be frustrating to Leclerc and his fans, it’s probably good for Formula 1. With any luck, the victory will finally arrest Vettel’s slide into a supporting-cast role, which seemed to be gaining momentum. Having two competitive Ferraris can only be a good thing. And now just six points cover Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Vettel in…

FORMULA 2 The cars involved in Anthoine Hubert’s fatal Formula 2 accident at Spa last month have been received by the FIA following Belgian police investigations, allowing the governing body to begin its examination. Arden driver Hubert spun trying to avoid an accident triggered by Giuliano Alesi losing the rear end of his Trident-run car at Eau Rouge. Hubert hit the barriers at the exit of Raidillon and cannoned back towards the track, and Sauber Junior Team racer Juan Manuel Correa was unable to avoid him. Correa suffered serious leg injuries in the impact and has breathing issues. He came off a life-support machine last week but faces extensive surgery on his legs in what was described in a statement released last week as a “race against time” to be…

SCHUMACHER’S FIA F3 DEBUT David Schumacher, the son of Formula 1 race winner Ralf, will make his FIA Formula 3 debut this weekend at the Sochi finale. Schumacher, a race winner in Formula Regional this season, replaces the injured Alex Peroni at Campos Racing. Also on the grid in Russia will be Macanese teenager Charles Leong. The Asian F3 racer will pilot a Jenzer Motorsport car and hopes to contest the Macau Grand Prix. Two-time Macau GP winner Dan Ticktum, dropped by the Red Bull Junior programme in June, is also seeking a return to the Far East classic after making his comeback in FRegional last weekend at Barcelona. TORDOFF, HAMILTON OUT British Touring Car Championship star Sam Tordoff has relinquished his AmD Tuning Honda Civic for the final two…

UK START TIMES Friday 27 September FP1 0900 FP2 1300 Saturday 28 September FP3 1000 QUALIFYING 1300 Sunday 29 September RACE 1210 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1800 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Hamilton………………………296 2 Bottas………………………………231 3 Leclerc……………………………200 4 Verstappen…………………200 5 Vettel………………………………194 Constructors 1 Mercedes……………527 2 Ferrari……………………394 3 Red Bull………………289 4 McLaren………………… 89 5 Renault…………………… 67 RACE STATS Previous winners 2018 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2017 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 2016 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2015 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1914 Willy Scholl Benz 1913 Georgy Suvorin Benz Sochi masters Average points per race Sochi from the current F1 drivers. Hamilton 21.00 Bottas 14.00 Vettel 11.00 Raikkonen 9.60 Leclerc 6.00 Perez 5.40 Verstappen 5.25 Magnussen 5.00 Ricciardo 2.80 Kvyat 2.50…

Charles Leclerc called it “the most unexpected pole”. His delighted reaction after claiming his fifth pole position of the season backed this up as he yelled incredulously that he had survived losing control three times during the lap. His big moment was through the Turn 11 right-hander, which took some sorting out and did cost him time. There was also a big opposite-lock slide for the Ferrari out of Turn 3, with a couple of lesser moments elsewhere that didn’t cost him much. But the upside of the aggression was that he was quick over enough of the lap to preserve most of the 0.231-second advantage that he had built in the first sector. “It was a very good lap, but there were some moments where I thought I’d lost…

Carlos Sainz Jr’s hopes of taking another ‘Class B’ victory at the front of the midfield were ruined by a collision with Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap of the race. McLaren star Sainz held seventh place and was chasing Alex Albon’s Red Bull into the Turn 5 right-hander that leads onto the back straight. He had to take a conservative approach into the corner, which allowed Hulkenberg to dive up the inside. Hulkenberg’s front-left wheel made contact with Sainz’s right-rear. Sainz suffered bodywork damage in the clash but was able to recover to the pits and come home 12th. Hulkenberg picked up a puncture and also headed to the pits, then raced through to ninth place. The stewards took no action over the incident, although Sainz felt…

Daniel Ricciardo was excluded from qualifying after setting the eighth-fastest time because his MGU-K put out more than the power limit of 120kW during Q1. Renault claimed the power spike offered just one microsecond of lap-time benefit and argued it was not on the lap that he set to reach Q2. “Disgracefully,” said Ricciardo when asked how he took it. “I had a very restless night’s sleep trying to [understand] why a penalty would be so harsh. It happened on one occurrence on one lap; we didn’t even gain an advantage from this yet they delete the whole session.” FIA stewards accepted there was no real gain, but cited previous technical infringements as the precedent for the penalty. Renault took action to prevent a repeat of the overrev, which was…

The statistical reason for Josef Newgarden falling to fifth in the 2018 IndyCar standings, following his hard-earned 2017 title, was that despite three wins – the same as champion Scott Dixon, runner-up Alexander Rossi and third-placed Will Power – he scored no other podiums. That wasn’t entirely down to him, but silly mistakes and pitlane errors crippled his title bid. This season a more mature Newgarden has emerged and, aside from two attempted passes that were never going to work in Detroit and at Mid-Ohio – “Sometimes I just can’t help myself!” he honestly admitted – he has been largely flawless. He scored four wins (more than anyone else) but also secured runner-up placings at Austin and Long Beach, a third at Road America and five other top-five finishes. Was…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIESSPA (BEL)22 SEPTEMBERROUND 5/6 United Autosports took its first win since switching from Ligier to ORECA, as Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque profited from a late drivethrough penalty for the Graff ORECA of Tristan Gommendy. Hanson, who led the opening stint from pole, had reduced the gap from 12 seconds to five before Gommendy’s unscheduled pit visit for improper full-course-yellow procedure, while co-driver Jonathan Hirschi also spun behind the safety car. After resuming in second, Gommendy lost out on the final lap to the Cool Racing ORECA Nicolas Lapierre shared with Antonin Borga. Borga was initially given a 10s penalty and demoted to third for his forceful move at the Bus Stop, but the stewards later rescinded their decision. G-Drive Racing’s Roman Rusinov and Job van Uitert…

BRITCAR ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP BMW Compact Cup racer Aaron Morgan is looking at a move to Britcar next year after testing Team BRIT’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4 earlier this month. Morgan, who uses a wheelchair after being paralysed from the waist down in a motocross crash when he was 15, was invited to test the Aston at Donington Park by Team BRIT founder Dave Player. “The plan is to race in Britcar but, as with everything in motorsport, it’s all down to money,” said Morgan. “I’ve known Dave Player for a while and earlier this year he was like, ‘Aaron, let’s get serious now, I’ve been following your progress and I would love you to be a part of it [Team BRIT].’ “The car was amazing – it just had so…

CLUBMANS SPORTS PROTOTYPES Multiple Clubmans champion Dan Gibson says people questioning whether his Nemesis GK18 still had the pace to compete in the Clubmans Sports Prototype Championship was the reason behind his category return at Croft last weekend. The car, built by the Gibson Motorsport team run by Dan and father Paul, last competed in the series when Phil Weaver drove it to the title in 2016. Since then, a slight change in the regulations meant the team had to alter the front suspension to fit the new, smaller Hankook tyre as well as detune the engine from 225 to 200bhp. “I had a few people say we’d be a bit slower now with the new regulations, so I brought the Nemesis out of retirement just to show what the…

Variety is among the elements I have always enjoyed most about my work as a motorsport journalist and commentator. Certainly no two days are the same. September is a frantic month, with the big historic racing events at Zandvoort, Goodwood and Spa – the finest of their genre packed into four weeks. Amid them though, last weekend, was an unmissable opportunity to witness a great club event. The hard-working and customer-focused Classic Sports Car Club’s ‘Thruxton Thriller’ has delivered for its members annually since 2016. I’ve commentated and reported at every Goodwood Revival Meeting since the sensational inaugural edition in 1998, immortalised by Ray Hanna flying his Spitfire beneath our sightline in the pit-top box. This year’s 22nd was without doubt among the very best. That the Duke of Richmond…

THRUXTON CSCC 21-22 SEPTEMBER “That was quite something,” reflected circuit neighbour Jamie Sturges, having won the New Millennium climax to the Classic Sports Car Club’s fourth ‘Thruxton Thriller’ against the odds in his SEAT Leon TCR. Sturges was unexpectedly victorious over zippy Caterhams in the earlier Open Series race, and then he relentlessly hounded down Peter Challis (Porsche 997 Cup) after the mandatory pitstops and “threw one down the inside” decisively into Campbell on the final lap. “After the first race I was praying for rain, but it stayed dry,” said Sturges, whose 1m28.202s (96.16mph) charge on a drying track had earned pole by 2.154s from Michael Vitulli (BMW E46 M3) with Challis third. “The rear-wheel-drive cars all mugged me at the start, as expected, and I found myself sixth…

ANGLESEY BARC 21-22 SEPTEMBER Scott McIntyre took another step towards the Junior Saloon Car Championship title with a hard-fought double win at Anglesey. After an initial skirmish with outgoing champion Lewis Saunders, McIntyre was locked into a duel with double Mallory Park winner Alex Jay. They remained inches apart for the duration, but McIntyre got home 0.067 seconds before Jay, with Owen Hizzey snatching third from an ailing Saunders at Peel on the last lap. The same cast duelled for the lead in race two, and McIntyre again kept his nose ahead. Jay made a late challenge out of the final turn, missing out on this occasion by 0.064s. Behind, Harry Ashley fended off Charlie Hand and Saunders to take third. Danny Bird (Spire GTR) won all three CNC Heads…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This journeyman racer took any old port in a storm as a means of finding a berth at the top table. There were signs of promise at the start, as he became a domestic star of a fledgling series, before moving to a more established version among old allies. He made it a new home, and became the top man in its fastest series, driving for a national hero. He made the step up to international competition with minor success, but it was probably a step too soon for the big time. There were a lot of early starts, and a lot of quick departures too, in a forgettable campaign. He stepped back but found results just as hard to come…

FORMULA 1 Two more pieces of the driver-market puzzle slotted into place at last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, with Haas announcing that Romain Grosjean will remain at the team in 2020 alongside Kevin Magnussen, and Robert Kubica revealing he will not continue with Williams. The Haas decision means that the Formula 1 future of Nico Hulkenberg, who will be replaced by Esteban Ocon at Renault next year and missed out to Grosjean for the Haas drive, is in doubt. Only four teams have yet to confirm their line-ups – Williams, Alfa Romeo and the two Red Bull squads – meaning the 32-year-old German has few opportunities. Red Bull wants to run its current quartet, with its driver-programme boss Helmut Marko saying that Daniil Kyvat will stay at Toro Rosso, and…

DTM The DTM has announced a new-look calendar for 2020 that includes first visits to Monza and Anderstorp, with one “exciting” addition still to be confirmed. The two new venues will host races in June, with 1970s Swedish Grand Prix track Anderstorp’s round on 13-14 June and Monza’s two weeks later. Brands Hatch stays on the schedule on 22-23 August, while the series hosts its opening round on 25-26 April at 2019 returnee Zolder – the first time the curtain raiser has not been at Hockenheim since the DTM was revived in 2000. DTM boss Gerhard Berger said: “I’m delighted that DTM will be racing in Sweden for the very first time. It’s an exciting addition for us. And, personally, I have some very fond memories of Anderstorp: I raced…

YOUNG DRIVER OF THE YEAR The four finalists who will contest the 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award have been selected. Japanese Formula 3 Championship race winner Enaam Ahmed, W Series and MRF Challenge champion Jamie Chadwick, and BRDC Formula 3 frontrunners Johnathan Hoggard and Ayrton Simmons are the finalists. Only Ahmed has been selected before, in 2017. There will be fitness and simulator elements at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing before a two-day test at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in MotorSport Vision Formula 2, Ligier LMP3 and Garage 59-run Aston Martin Vantage GT3 machinery. Prizes for the winner, who will be announced at the Autosport Awards on 8 December, include a test in a Red Bull Formula 1 car, £200,000, a run in…

SINGAPORE’S CAPED CRUSADERS The image of a caped vigilante keeping watch over a city at night is one usually reserved for the silver screen. But at last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Ferrari became the latest team to install a ‘cape’ on its nose as it sought to add more downforce to its SF90. The addition of ‘nostrils’ continued the most obvious part of Ferrari’s new updates in Singapore, which included a new floor and a diffuser that draws air inwards along the cape section fitted to the underside. Pioneered by Mercedes, the cape has been used by a number of teams this season in their efforts to increase the overall front-end downforce, and Ferrari has now followed suit. The inclination of the nostrils’ leading edge forces airflow passing underneath to…

Singapore GP should have been Leclerc’s race I wish Sebastian Vettel’s grin had been a little more subdued than it was in Singapore. Can you imagine what he would have been saying ‘on the phone’ if positions were the other way round with Charles Leclerc? It should have been Charles setting a record-equalling first three wins in a row with Damon Hill and Mika Hakkinen. Charles must have been gutted and his maturity in this situation was outstanding and truly telling. Watch out Seb, because you won’t beat Charles much anymore. Don’t be surprised to see ‘shock news’ at end of season with Seb retiring. Brian McCauslandPortishead Vettel’s not done winning yet Time for Vettel to call it a day (Your Say, 19 September)? After winning in Singapore, I don’t…

MOTOGPMOTORLAND ARAGON (ESP)22 SEPTEMBERROUND 14/19 The most fondly remembered races of a rider’s career tend to be the ones where they engaged and prevailed in pulsating battles. Seldom recalled are the races where a rider devastated the field, dominating from lights to flag in a borderline embarrassing display of their talent. But except for a few, those events tend to be won by the truly exceptional. For five-time 500cc world champion Mick Doohan, it’s his march to victory in Austria in 1997 by 22 seconds. For Jorge Lorenzo, it’s his romp to French GP victory in 2016 by over 10s. When the dust settles on his career, Marc Marquez’s utter domination of the 2019 Aragon Grand Prix could well fall into that same category. Regardless of his ‘bigger picture’ comments…

SUPER GTSUGO (JPN)22 SEPTEMBERROUND 7/8 Frederic Makowiecki and Kohei Hirate scored their first win as a Super GT partnership in yet another rain-marred race, as a typhoon loomed closer to Japan. The B-Max-run pair gave Nissan its first victory of 2019 in a race where Michelin tyres came into their own. The French manufacturer’s rubber is only used by two of the GT500 field, and the other Michelinshod Nissan of NISMO pair Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda was third. It was a Honda 1-2 on the grid, with Real Racing’s Kodai Tsukakoshi claiming pole from Team Kunimitsu driver Naoki Yamamoto. Tsukakoshi struggled from the start as Real gambled on slicks, allowing Jenson Button to move into the lead in the Kunimitsu NSX from the TOM’S Lexus of Nick Cassidy. Button…

S5000SANDOWN (AUS)22 SEPTEMBERROUND 1/2 A frightening crash for Alex Davison marred the first feature race for the new V8-powered S5000 series. Davison smashed into both sides of the wall midway up the long back straight, after being hit from behind by Matt Brabham. He walked away from the shunt, but damage to the barriers meant the race was never restarted. That left James Golding as the somewhat surprising winner, the Supercars regular having inherited the lead when polesitter Tim Macrow fired off the road at Turn 1 after a safety car restart. It was Golding’s second win for the weekend, his first having come in the second qualifying race after early leader Brabham ran wide and hit the wall at Turn 9. Rubens Barrichello, who was flown in from Brazil…

BRDC BRITISH F3 The BRDC British Formula 3 Championship will keep its existing car for next season after weighing up a switch to a halo-equipped machine. MotorSport Vision, which operates the championship, has looked at trying to gain FIA Regional F3 status for the past two seasons. This would mean a change to a halo-fitted car but, after consultation with teams, the series will continue to use the machine that first came into use in 2016. The Tatuus-Cosworth cars will undergo small upgrades to increase performance and create a slightly different look for next year. “We are doing an upgrade package to improve the aerodynamics a little bit,” said MSV chief executive Jonathan Palmer. “The key thing is we were working in coordination with the teams to understand what they…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Ginetta Junior race winner Tom Emson will switch to the GT4 Supercup for the final two events of the season as he prepares for 2020. Emson won the second race of the Ginetta Junior campaign at Brands Hatch (below), but has struggled to replicate that form and has only taken one top-six finish since then. As he plans to graduate to the GT4 category next season, Emson and his Elite Motorsport squad have decided to make the switch early, starting this weekend at Silverstone. “He’s going to prepare for next year – we’ve bought a car and he’s pretty committed to that,” explained Elite team boss Eddie Ives. “The Ginetta Junior season hasn’t gone as planned for all sorts of reasons and he was going, ‘Next year…

FF1600 Formula Ford racer Ted Pearson completed a cross country double as he raced at both Brands Hatch and Croft last weekend. The Merlyn racer (right) took a pair of fifth-place finishes in the Historic Sports Car Club’s Historic Formula Ford Championship before making the five-hour drive north to join Nigel Grant Motorsport team-mate Callum Grant in the British Automobile Racing Club Classic Formula Ford Championship. “I got here [to Croft] at 2230 last night,” Pearson explained. “I don’t normally sleep too well after races because of all the adrenalin but, I tell you what, after a five-hour drive I ended up sleeping pretty well!” In the first race, the Merlyn Mk11A/19 racer charged through from the back of the grid to finish fourth, before improving to second in the…

BRANDS HATCH HSCC 21 SEPTEMBER Championship titles for Cameron Jackson and Adrian Langridge topped an entertaining day of Historic Sports Car Club action on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit. While Langridge bagged his first Classic Formula 3 crown with a brace of wins, Jackson retained his Historic Formula Ford 1600 title, even though his view for the two races largely comprised the gearbox of Richard Tarling’s Jamun. Not to be outdone, the 70s Road Sports turned in two barnstorming races topped by Will Leverett winning from the back of the grid. Langridge arrived at Brands with one hand on the CF3 title and a fresh engine in the family March 803. But he didn’t want to cruise around and take safe points – he wanted to try to win races.…

CROFT BARC 21-22 SEPTEMBER A hat-trick of second places was enough for Malcolm Blackman to secure his fourth Super Silhouettes title with a round to spare after a weekend of battling through mixed conditions at Croft. Blackman needed to collect just 300 points from the three races at Croft (with 220 available for a win and pole) and the two at the Brands Hatch finale, so elected to take a cautious strategy in his Vauxhall Tigra to avoid a potential non-finish. In the sunny first race, the Tigra of title rival Chris Brockhurst proved too quick to catch, while in Sunday’s two encounters, peppered by intermittent showers, Mazda RX-8 racer Danny Hunn mastered racing on slicks in the wet to take his first series win in the opening event. Brockhurst…

The adage that ‘points make prizes’ is perhaps the most fitting way to describe how Clement Novalak won the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship. The Carlin driver secured the title with a race to spare and eventually by a handy 23 points, but he took only two wins during the season – five fewer than the season’s best – and scored just a further six podiums in a 24-race season. Perhaps even more startling is that after scoring 81 points in the opening round at Oulton Park – courtesy of a win and second place – Novalak’s average continually decreased every weekend to the point where he picked up just 42 points at the final round. You have to dig much deeper to assess how Novalak’s ability came to…

FORMULA E Mitch Evans has recommitted to the Jaguar ABB FIA Formula E Championship squad and hopes a “whole new package” for the 2019-20 season can land him and the manufacturer a first FE title in the electric single-seater category. New Zealander Evans has opted to stay with the squad where he made his FE debut in the 2016-17 championship after a race-winning stint in GP2 despite having “a lot of interest” from other teams for the upcoming campaign. He says it was a “no-brainer” decision to stay with Jaguar, where he will be on a rolling season-by-season deal. Since its disastrous FE debut in 2016-17, Jaguar has made steps in performance in each subsequent season. It scored a podium and a pole during the 2017-18 campaign and then took…

IMSA SPORTSCAR Scott Atherton, a calming hand on the tiller of North American sportscar racing for 20 years, is standing down at the end of this year. He is relinquishing the presidency of IMSA with the series that bears its name in good health. It’s difficult to disagree with Atherton’s claim that helping to steer sportscar racing through the takeover of the American Le Mans Series by the France family has been his biggest achievement. What emerged, the series we now know as the IMSA SportsCar Championship, truly is a merger between the ALMS and the Frances’ Grand-American Road Racing Series. Atherton had been at the helm of the ALMS as CEO of the Panoz Motor Sports Group, always the good cop to the bad cop that late series owner…

ENAAM AHMED Aged 19 3rd in Japanese F3 with B-Max with Motopark It’s been a familiar car for Ahmed this year, but a different culture. After a race-winning F3 European Championship campaign, he has switched to Japan and is third in points – with two wins – with one round left. Also made a Euroformula Open cameo at Silverstone, taking second in both races. JAMIE CHADWICK Aged 21 1st in W Series; 1st in MRF Challenge An impressive victory in the Indian-run MRF Challenge upgraded Chadwick from a likely frontrunner in W Series to surefire title contender. She lived up to this by bursting out of the blocks with a win in the inaugural Hockenheim race, also topped the podium at Misano, and was never headed in the points. JOHNATHAN…

Romain Grosjean is one of the most infuriatingly brilliant drivers in the history of grand prix racing. Brilliant because he’s as fast as anyone when things are right and has produced some scintillating drives during his decade in Formula 1; infuriating because he is an erratic, mercurial performer whose average performance level falls short of the sum of his parts. The 33-year-old is unlikely ever to perform at the top end of his ability day-in, day-out. If that were possible he’d have reached that promised land by now and therefore emerged as one of the best drivers in F1. Instead, he’s a curate’s egg of a driver. Judge him by his best days and he’s outstanding; use his worst days and he is poor. He evens out at somewhere in…

Drivers grasping for a cliche to fill the Saturday silence often remind the world that the race is on Sunday and not decided in qualifying. Sebastian Vettel proved that this is not always true by apparently losing his shot at victory with a poor, and ultimately aborted, final lap in Q3 that perversely proved to be the foundation stone of his victory. By inadvertently hiding in plain sight in third on the grid, and holding that position at the start, Vettel was perfectly placed to capitalise on the surprisingly potent advantage of the undercut on race night. Inevitably, some with an overly sensitive nose for conspiracy smelled a rat, but the reality was that the Ferrari pitwall didn’t realise that Vettel was going to gain such a big advantage –…

Kevin Magnussen was in contention to take the Haas team’s first points finish in four races before a plastic bag became wrapped around the left side of his front wing. He scraped into Q2 and climbed from 13th to ninth on the first lap, aided by the collision between Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr, then undercut his way past Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who opted for a long first stint. Magnussen held the position when the flurry of safety cars began, but lost places to Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg after the second restart. He then collected the bag, causing him to lose places after the third restart and plummet out of the points. After making a stop five laps from home to remove the bag, Magnussen went on…

There were several great performances in the 2019 IndyCar Series finale at Laguna Seca last Sunday. One of them came from Colton Herta, who took the second win of his rookie season. None of them came from Josef Newgarden, who nevertheless did enough to be crowned champion for the second time. But perhaps the most surprising star turn was the 2.238-mile course itself. Top-rank US open-wheel racing hadn’t raced here since 2004 and, ever since the track was confirmed as a replacement for Sonoma Raceway, there had been several doom merchants stating that IndyCar was swapping like for like – a beautiful California setting and a wonderfully challenging track, but one where wheel-to-wheel dicing would be at a premium. But just as the Dallara aerokits introduced in 2018 have improved…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEANBARCELONA (ESP)21-22 SEPTEMBERROUND 6/8 Runaway Formula Regional European Championship leader Frederik Vesti didn’t have things all his own way at Barcelona last weekend, but a 10th win of the season and a further podium maintained a healthy points advantage over Prema team-mate Enzo Fittipaldi with two rounds to go. Indeed, it was something of a missed opportunity for Fittipaldi who, after taking pole for Saturday’s wet-dry opening race, failed to capitalise on what was an off weekend by the lofty standards of Vesti. The Brazilian fended off the attentions of the weekend’s double race winner David Schumacher into Turn 1, but threw away any chance of significantly reducing the deficit to Vesti by slewing off track at Turn 4. Vesti initially lost ground at the start and fell…

Toyota and Aston Martin are coming for 2020-21, we know that. But if the World Endurance Championship’s new hypercar era is going to become a golden age for sportscar racing, it’s going to need more manufacturers. They are most definitely circling, but will they come? Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon is sure they will. He’s an enthusiast for a set of rules in which the Japanese manufacturer played a central role in shaping, and is confident about the prospects of the hypercar category. “At the moment it looks like the new hypercar format is attracting a lot of interest,” he says. “It seems that many manufacturers who were not considering racing in endurance are now looking at it. It was important to get started with two manufacturers, but…

GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGE Newly crowned Ginetta GT5 Challenge champions Scott McKenna and Dale Albutt have their sights set on a British GT drive next season. McKenna, 18, took the overall title at the final round at Donington Park earlier this month with second place in the opener. It was his first full season in car racing, having run a part-time GT5 campaign in 2018. He now intends to race GT4 machinery next year and has tested with several teams. “British GT4, that’s the plan,” he said. “That’s what we’re looking to do and hopefully that’s where you will see me next year. It’s quite a jump, but we think it’s the best series to go to to aid my career. “I’m not saying I’m going to smash it from the…

YOUNG IMPRESSES IN TCR Renault UK Clio Cup title contender Jack Young made an impressive TCR Europe debut at Barcelona last weekend, bagging a pair of fourth places in the two races. Young had only previously tested his Renault Megane TCR once before his first race outing. SWR PLOTS MINI ENTRY Former single-seater squad SWR is set to return from a sabbatical next year as it plans to enter two cars in the Mini Challenge. The team previously raced in BRDC British Formula 3 and was most recently competing in the inaugural season of TCR UK with a Honda Civic, prior to interest in the series collapsing. ANOTHER MARSHAL SHORTAGE The MotorSport Vision Racing event at Donington Park last weekend was affected by a shortage of marshals, leading to a…

Cameron Jackson claimed his second Historic Formula Ford title on Saturday on the back of a remarkable run of 10 wins and three second places from 13 races. Only former champion Richard Tarling has topped Jackson – at Brands Hatch – this season, and Jackson was able to miss four rounds and still seal the honours with two races to run. His 2018 crown was won in a Lola T200, but this year, working again with Neil Fowler’s team, he opted to run the unfashionable Winkelmann, the US brand for the UK-built Pallisers. Never before had a Palliser or a Winkelmann won the title in 24 years of the series, although Jamun and Macon have both enjoyed more success in historics than they did in period. “It was a really…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 21-22 SEPTEMBER There were many reasons to be unsure what to expect from the Ferrari Challenge UK in 2019. This was its inaugural season, and it’s the only single-country Ferrari Challenge championship. It also cast a wide net: it’s open to all UK Ferrari clients who own a 488 Challenge, and around half its field began as novices. Quickly there appeared to be clarity about who would be the championship winner. Ex-Ginetta GT4 Supercup and Lotus racer Jason Baker won the first four races of what was slated as an eight-race schedule, albeit with a consistently close challenger. Jamie Clarke – a former Legends racer who has competed only intermittently in the past 12 years – was next home every time. But at Croft, the third two-race meeting…

1 JOHNATHAN HOGGARD The fastest driver over the course of the season, recording the most wins, poles, fastest laps and laps led. He was mighty at Donington Park and Brands Hatch, but retirements at Snetterton and Donington, plus a lacklustre weekend at Spa, ultimately cost him the 2019 title. 2 CLEMENT NOVALAK Novalak arguably didn’t put a foot wrong all year and despite only scoring two wins (Oulton Park and Silverstone) was a worthy champion. He ironed out the mistakes of 2018 and showed great maturity by finishing every race and making up the most positions in reversed-grid outings. 3 AYRTON SIMMONS Simmons could be the fastest thing around in his rookie full F3 season – after a handful of outings in 2018, and the Essex driver was a star…

Juan Manuel Fangio (Maserati 250F) is the image of relaxed mastery as he powers out of the then Station hairpin en route to victory in the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix. Polesitter Fangio had been demoted to second place at the start by Stirling Moss (Vanwall VW3), then third by Peter Collins (Ferrari D50) on lap two, but the loss of Moss, Collins and Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari) in a crash at the chicane a couple of laps later left him unchallenged. He finished 25.2 seconds ahead of Tony Brooks’s Vanwall VW7; Masten Gregory (Maserati) was two laps adrift in third. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…