Innehållsförteckning för 6/2/2022 från Autosport

Being Max Verstappen’s team-mate is no easy task – just ask Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon. Just a week after Sergio Perez had to move aside for his Red Bull leader in Spain, the Mexican put in one of the finest drives of his 220-race Formula 1 career to win the Monaco Grand Prix. Perez’s third world championship race victory was well-deserved. Yes, it took some strategy errors and bad luck for Ferrari, as Alex Kalinauckas shows in our in-depth report (page 14), but Perez was strong all weekend. He outqualified Verstappen, didn’t make a serious mistake in tricky conditions, and withstood pressure from Carlos Sainz in the closing stages (surely the Spaniard will win soon…). No wonder he was re-signed until the end of 2024 as Autosport closed for…

FORMULA 1 McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown has admitted that Daniel Ricciardo’s contract with the team does not bind him to the end of its current length. Ricciardo has scored points in just one out of seven races so far this season, leading to growing speculation about his future with McLaren, particularly after Brown said in an interview last week that the Australian had not met the team’s expectations so far this year. Ricciardo is in the second year of a three-season deal with McLaren, but Brown revealed that there are “mechanisms in which we’re committed to each other and mechanisms in which we’re not. I spoke with Daniel about it. We’re not getting the results that we both hoped for, but we’re both going to continue to push.”…

IMSA M-Sport is gearing up a return to sportscar racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship this year with an eye on a Le Mans Hypercar or LMDh programme in the future. The British organisation is in the advanced stages of putting together a programme to join the North American series in LMP2 before the end of the season. A team that masterminded Bentley’s GT3 project with two generations of Continental racer – it developed the car and ran a factory team – wants to accrue some prototype experience as sportscar racing moves into its new era with the arrival of LMDh next year. It could have an ORECA-Gibson 07 up and running in IMSA as early as the Watkins Glen round at the end of this month. M-Sport is planning…

MOTOGP Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez could be sidelined for the rest of the 2022 campaign. The Spaniard announced at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix that he would be stepping away from racing for the foreseeable future to undergo a fourth major operation on his right arm. Marquez badly broke his right humerus in a crash in 2020 and has struggled with it ever since he returned to action last April. The Honda star, who had admitted that his career had maybe two more years at most in his current condition since he is not enjoying racing, will have surgery in the US this week to correct the rotation in his right humerus and stabilise his right shoulder. Marquez was informed last Friday between practice sessions at Mugello that…

“It’s a massive day for myself, for my country.” What a difference a week made for Sergio Perez. From a team-orders row in Spain and questions on him ever getting a fair crack at what is perceived to be Max Verstappen’s Red Bull squad, to the top step of the podium at the Monaco Grand Prix. Now with a new Red Bull contract until the end of 2024, he is also Mexico’s most successful world championship Formula 1 driver, heading 1960s-70s star Pedro Rodriguez with three victories to two. There was a certain ambivalence towards what Red Bull did to Perez at Barcelona. It risked wrecking his morale, but Red Bull’s choices had a cold, hard logic. Too often he has qualified down the order, allowed slower cars to slip…

Finally, he did it. After five previous failed attempts to even reach the chequered flag in races on his home streets in car racing, Charles Leclerc went the full distance from pole position in the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix. But he came home a distraught fourth, domination disappeared. The winner was Sergio Perez, triumphing once again in a race of chaos. In doing so, he became Mexico’s most successful F1 driver, fittingly while wearing a helmet livery tribute to Pedro Rodriguez (who he has now surpassed 3-2 in world championship GP wins). Carlos Sainz scored his fourth podium of 2022 in second, but was once again left stunned by how close he’d come to a maiden triumph. Max Verstappen, on a sub-par weekend for the world champion, was somewhat shocked…

Caution periods can mentally bruise or boost you, as Marcus Ericsson discovered last Sunday. Having pulled out a three-second lead in the closing stint, he was mortified to see the caution come out on lap 194 for a shunt for his team-mate Jimmie Johnson, and was maddened still further when this became a red flag. “First I was just angry because I thought I had the race won. I knew there was a big risk for a caution, but I couldn’t believe it was one of the Ganassi cars! I was like, ‘Guys, don’t we communicate and say we have a car winning the 500 here, have a big gap? No risks, right?’ I’m not trying to put the blame on Jimmie here, but it was tough to take that…

NURBURGRING 24 HOURS NURBURGRING (DEU) 28-29 MAY Spectators returned to fill the hills and forests of the Eifel mountains around the legendary Nordschleife just in time to celebrate the 50th edition of Germany’s greatest race, the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Some 230,000 onlookers witnessed a hard-fought race that eliminated a huge number of favourites predominantly in the first half, resulting in Audi Sport Team Phoenix celebrating a sixth victory in the classic both for itself and for Audi. Unusually, the race ran almost entirely in dry, if cold, conditions, with temperatures falling to as low as 4 degrees Celsius – although more typically it was decided amid the infamous Eifelwetter with two hours to go. The battle for victory came down between the local teams from Meuspath: the Phoenix Audi shared…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP MONTE CARLO (MCO) 29 MAY ROUND 2/8 Reigning champion Larry ten Voorde was streets ahead as he claimed a second successive victory in Monaco. The Dutchman’s comfortable win from pole position lifted him to the top of the standings in place of Imola race winner Dylan Pereira, who finished fourth this time ahead of British Lechner Racing team-mate Harry King. “It looked easy but it wasn’t – I had to stay completely focused over the entire distance and try to drive as clean a line as possible,” said GP Elite’s ten Voorde, before heading off in search of a dinner suit for the official winner’s gala. “I thought it might be a bad omen, so I didn’t bring one.” Dorian Boccolacci went one place better than last year…

HRDC A new series called the Gerry Marshall Trophy has been launched by the Historic Racing Drivers Club to cater for pre-1983 Group 1 Touring Cars. It is due to hold its inaugural race at Snetterton on 19 June, with 25 entries already confirmed and more expected. “Over the years when Goodwood has been running Group 1 for the Members’ Meeting I’ve had people come to me and say it’s great, they think it’s fantastic, but it’s only once a year,” said HRDC founder Julius Thurgood, who intends to have at least three rounds next year. “People don’t want to build a car for once a year, they want to build it for a regular basis. If I was going to do anything with Group 1, I wanted to make…

BRITISH GT Ex-British Formula 3 race winner Ulysse De Pauw is intent on staying with RAM Racing for the remainder of the British GT season after a promising debut last weekend at Donington Park. The Belgian, a race winner already in GT World Challenge Europe this season with the AF Corse Ferrari team, replaced Jamie Caroline alongside John Ferguson in the second RAM Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Donington, finishing seventh overall and second in Silver-Am. “It’s a one-race deal at the moment, but I’m hoping I can finish the season – that’s the goal,” said De Pauw, who drove the car for the first time in Thursday practice. De Pauw said that his working relationship with amateur driver Ferguson has started on the right foot, and would be a key factor…

SANTA POD The FIA European Drag Racing Championship returned to Santa Pod after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, which was again combined with round two of the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship. Extensive customs carnet demands imposed by the Swedish government reduced the usual heavyweight influx of Pro Mod Swedes to a single entrant. But just as his namesake and fellow Swede Marcus Ericsson was making a mark at the Indianapolis 500, Jan Ericsson was doing the same in the UK. The Swede had switched from Pro Stock to Pro Mod as recently as 2017, running a Finnish-built, supercharged, methanol-burning Camaro. The 2019 champion faced 15 drivers from Britain and five other nations. Britain’s Nick Davies, Andy Robinson and 2021 Motorsport UK champion Kevin Slyfield led with 5.9s runs after…

DONINGTON PARK BRITISH GT 28-29 MAY Enduro Motorsport’s Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton took a second British GT win in as many visits to Donington Park, as they won last weekend’s three-hour race by almost a minute. After a non-finish last time out at the Silverstone 500, Clutton admitted he was anxious heading to the East Midlands for the first of two visits this year. He immediately eased his nerves however, as the pair put their McLaren 720S on pole ahead of 2 Seas Motorsport’s Lewis Williamson and James Cottingham. Come the race it was the latter who made the better start, as Cottingham moved the Mercedes-AMG around the outside of Redgate to relegate Tillbrook into second. The squabbling pair quickly pulled away from RAM Racing’s Ian Loggie, but had…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 28-29 MAY The GB3 Championship battle intensified at Donington Park, as Joel Granfors and Luke Browning bounced back from a dramatic incident in race one to leave the weekend one point apart at the top of the standings. For the second round in a row, all three races delivered first-time winners, with a strong performance from Max Esterson bringing the Douglas Motorsport driver into title contention. Granfors topped a close qualifying session to take pole for the opening contest, but the Fortec Motorsports driver’s race lasted just half a lap. JHR Developments’ Matthew Rees tried to take the lead from the outside of the front row into Redgate, and having been run wide he made a second bid around the outside into McLeans. But contact put him…

BRITISH F4 It was just a matter of time before British Formula 4’s new era produced a truly exciting race and, sure enough, Thruxton delivered with the partially reversed-grid middle contest being a thriller. Polesitter Noah Lisle led in the early stages but the drivers on a charge were Argenti pair Daniel Guinchard and Aiden Neate. Mercedes junior Guinchard made a bad start and dropped to fourth, while Neate – who was penalised in race one for clashing with Louis Sharp when battling for a podium – started sixth. The pair soon dispatched Georgi Dimitrov and began reeling in Lisle’s 2.7-second lead at a rate of over half a second a lap. Sure enough, the inevitable happened on lap 14 of 17 when Guinchard made a fantastic move around the…

GINETTA JUNIOR The Ginetta Junior action was typically frantic at Thruxton, with Josh Rowledge and Ian Aguilera sharing the spoils for R Racing. The opener featured a brilliant battle between Rowledge and Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre. The pair swapped places numerous times, including on the final lap when Macintyre grabbed the lead at Noble. But, with his mirror dropping down at a crucial moment, he lost out to Rowledge at Club and was narrowly beaten to the flag. Further back, Aguilera was causing chaos – and was eventually disqualified. His antics meant the lead pair had a huge advantage over third and fourth place finishers Aqil Alibhai and Harri Reynolds. Aguilera’s race-two win was not without incident, either, as he tangled with Liam McNeilly at the Complex before passing Alibhai…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR MASTERS HISTORIC 28-29 MAY Multiple British Touring Car Championship race winner Sam Tordoff scored a popular victory in the Masters Pre-’66 Touring Car race around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit last weekend. At the wheel of a vivid magenta Ford Falcon, the 2016 BTCC runner-up had banked on building up a decent lead from pole position in order to accommodate a 20-second pro driver’s penalty, but the safety car came out just before half-distance in the hour-long race, triggering a mass trip to the pits. Alex Thistlethwayte and Craig Davies, both in Ford Mustangs, were elevated to the front with Thistlethwayte ahead, but Davies overhauled him as Tordoff steadily gained on them both and swept past for the win. Alex Taylor’s Mustang had challenged for the…

CROFT 750MC 28-29 MAY Robbed of Saturday’s Roadsports victory when his Lotus Elise’s sequential gearbox jammed in fourth, Will Stacey’s Rob Boston Racing crew installed the original H-pattern box for him to win Sunday’s sensational 125-minute Club Enduro finale at Croft. In a breathless four-lap sprint to the chequer after a late safety-car interlude, Stacey beat the SEAT Leon TCRs of Scot Colin Gillespie and Carl Swift by five seconds. Initial leader Andy Marston’s BMW E46 M3 survived a biff from Ryan Parkin’s Audi TT under waved yellows on lap two, which brought exclusion post-race, but retired after another collision, leaving Andy Schulz’s E46 M3 ahead until it shed a front wheel at Clervaux. The Parkin/Adam Blair TT was then clear until an intermittent problem worsened. Stacey tore ahead, carving…

OULTON PARK BARC 28 MAY The pupil upstaged the master as Richard Wheeler passed Anthony Reid’s sister Nissan Primera to win Oulton Park’s second Super Tourers race. Brisky Racing boss Wheeler had never raced at the Cheshire circuit, but a trackday run in an Abarth 500 followed by Reid showing him some lines in Friday testing culminated in his charge from fifth on the grid. Wheeler passed Tony Absolom’s Vauxhall Cavalier off the line, then dived inside John Cleland (Cavalier) and Mark Jones (Renault Laguna) on consecutive tours at Druids and Lodge. His quest was completed by outbraking Reid into Hislop’s on lap six of nine, before Reid’s fading brakes caused a last-lap Cascades spin. “To go from fifth to first, past Cleland and Reid, I don’t really know where…

In his 17-year stint as an Aston Martin factory driver, Darren Turner has by his own admission “been really lucky with team-mates” who have helped him to secure three class victories at Le Mans and a glittering array of honours across multiple championships. But, for Turner, his choice of Stefan Mucke as his favourite team-mate is determined not just by “the bit that’s in the garage – there’s so much more to it”. “We travel a lot and that’s something that’s not always recognised when the question is asked about your team-mate,” he says. And Turner was “nearly always on the same page” as Mucke, his regular co-driver between 2011 and 2015, as they had a “similar passion about old cars, how things work and optimisation”. “His logic was the…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 looks set for a row over the budget cap, with a number of teams pushing for an increase because they cannot stay under the $140million maximum for 2022. A dramatic rise in inflation and freight costs this year has put team budgets under pressure. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner suggested that the scale of the problem was serious enough for teams to have to potentially miss races if they did not want to risk a breach. “I think we need the FIA to address the inflationary issue,” said Horner. “Probably about seven of the teams need to miss the last four races to come within the cap this year, from the consensus that there has been up and down the paddock. “It’s not just about…

LE MANS HYPERCAR Toyota is evaluating building a replacement for its current Le Mans Hypercar. It is looking to take advantage of regulations that allow it to homologate an all-new car within the lifecycle of the current ruleset. Sources have revealed that the Japanese manufacturer is already well advanced with a successor to the GR010 HYBRID introduced last year. What is not known is whether it is eyeing an introduction of the new car in 2023 or 2024. Toyota is refusing to comment on its plans, as usual. It always plays its cards close to its chest when it comes to technical developments: it refused to confirm that it was switching tyre sizes on the GR010 for 2022 until February this year. “We will release details of our 2023 programme,…

RALLYCROSS Five-time World Rally winner Kris Meeke will replace 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button at three Nitro Rallycross rounds this season. Meeke, who has been on testing duty for Skoda’s WRC2 efforts this year, will contest the British, Swedish and Saudi Arabian rounds while Button is unable to compete due to prior contractual commitments. He will fill in at the opening two rounds, including Lydden Hill on 18-19 June, before Button starts his campaign at the Finnish event on 27-28 August. Meeke will join Xite Energy Racing team boss and driver Oli Bennett for the trio of rounds after testing the electric Nitro RX’s FC1-X car in Barcelona earlier this year. “When Oli contacted me, I was really interested in every aspect: the team, the car and the…

ELMS/NASCAR Nelson Piquet Jr will return to international competition in the European Le Mans Series next year with United Autosports. It will be his first major programme outside of his Brazilian homeland since being dropped by the Jaguar Formula E squad halfway through the 2018-19 season. The 36-year-old (above), who is in his fifth season in the Brazilian Stock Car Championship this year, will share an LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07 in the 2023 ELMS with Andy Meyrick and Daniel Schneider. He has raced together with 48-year-old amateur Schneider in endurance races in Brazil, but was unable to partner him when he started racing an LMP3 Ligier-Nissan JSP320 in the Le Mans Cup on the ELMS bill in 2020 because the series forbids platinum-rated drivers. As a result, Meyrick came in to…

The decision to cancel the World Touring Car Cup races last weekend on the Nurburgring Nordschleife because of Goodyear tyre safety fears, just 15 minutes before the first, couldn’t be anything other than painful, costly and humiliating for everyone with skin in the game. But it was the right call, or more accurately as Honda’s William de Braekeleer put it, “the least worst decision”. You could say this was an ‘Indianapolis 2005 moment’, but let’s keep some perspective. Back then at the US Grand Prix, on one of Formula 1’s darkest days, the ‘race’ went ahead despite Michelinshod teams feeling compelled to withdraw at the end of the warm-up lap, leaving just six Bridgestone runners to take the start. If that was the definition of travesty and farce, this fell…

“It was a great lap until then.” For the second year in a row, a Charles Leclerc Monaco Grand Prix pole was sealed by a red flag. This time around, it was someone else buried in the barrier, and Leclerc was left only to rue what he perhaps considers one of the best ‘lost’ laps in Formula 1 history. Q3 had developed rather differently. Monaco means such things aren’t unusual. Leclerc headed the queue at the end of the pitlane for the final segment and knew he’d “waited for Q3 to start and push”, which suggests he’d rather effortlessly topped Q1 (briefly halted inadvertently by a marshal after Yuki Tsunoda’s chicane wallstrike) and Q2. In comparison to what was to come, his 1m11.376s first lap was a calm affair, putting…

Fernando Alonso says it was “extremely easy” to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay and that it is “not my problem” if the seven-time champion was in any way frustrated that his race flatlined when he became stuck behind the Alpine driver. Hamilton effectively had to stare at Alonso’s gearbox for the duration of the 64 laps, after starting eighth to his former team-mate’s seventh. But their chase came to a head after Alonso took on a set of medium tyres following the Mick Schumacher-induced red flag. As Hamilton filled Alonso’s mirrors, the Spaniard fell up to 52s behind Lando Norris, who was ahead in sixth. Hamilton reckoned it was “kind of frustrating… just cruising behind him.” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said that his driver’s inability to pass, despite lapping…

To one of the greatest defensive drives of the current British Touring Car Championship era previous time out at Brands Hatch, Josh Cook last weekend at Thruxton added one of the most remarkable overtaking moves. He also claimed two more race wins, but hey, you wouldn’t expect anything else of him, would you? The West Countryman was already tied as the BTCC wins record holder at the Hampshire speedbowl on seven; he’s now clearly ahead on nine – and he’s leading the championship. It was a weekend of supremacy for the BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R star such as we rarely see in the BTCC. Following two wins at Brands, Cook was up to second in the championship, meaning he was allowed just 1.5 seconds per lap of hybrid…

FIA FORMULA 2 MONTE CARLO (MCO) 28-29 MAY ROUND 5/14 He’s won three of the past four Formula 2 races and yet Felipe Drugovich has never been signed up by a Formula 1 team’s junior academy. The Brazilian continues to independently go his own way at the top of the drivers’ standings for MP Motorsport, and has already scored more points than he did in the whole of 2021 with Virtuosi. A week on from Barcelona, where Drugovich became the first driver in F2’s modern era to win both races in one weekend, he lined up on the feature race pole position for the second time this season – his previous pole was in Jeddah – ahead of ART Grand Prix-run title rival Theo Pourchaire. Liam Lawson was initially on…

SUPER GT SUZUKA (JPN) 29 MAY ROUND 3/8 Nissan pair Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi scored a fairytale comeback Super GT win at Suzuka, delivering the marque a first victory for the new Z GT500. The win came off the back of a huge crash last month at Fuji for the NDDP Racing machine, which had to be rebuilt around a new chassis and fitted with a fresh engine. Chiyo was at the wheel for the opening stint, leaping from third on the grid into the lead on the first lap with aid from the superior warm-up of his Michelin tyres. From there, Chiyo and team-mate Takaboshi, who spent the night in hospital after his Fuji shunt, were more or less untouchable out front en route to a first GT500…

MOTOGP MUGELLO (ITA) 28-29 MAY ROUND 8/20 Ducati victory at Mugello is an expected outcome in modern MotoGP, the Italian manufacturer having stormed to successive wins in 2017, 2018 and 2019. And with nine Ducatis on the grid for last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, it was a case of which one would ascend to the top of the podium. Few would have predicted the field to have been led by Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, who snatched a shock pole position in a rain-affected qualifying, and the VR46 duo of fellow debutant Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini. Di Giannantonio’s lead lasted just three corners as Marini came through into Turn 4, with Bezzecchi competently taking over at the front from his team-mate at the start of lap two and staying…

HISTORIC TOURING CARS One of only two ex-Eggenberger Group A Ford Sierra XR4Ti cars has been put up for sale after undergoing a full restoration. This particular chassis was driven by Steve Soper and Klaus Niedzwiedz to victory at Estoril in the 1986 European Touring Car Championship, as well as finishing seventh in that year’s Spa 24 Hours. It was shipped to New Zealand for Soper and Neville Crichton to race in the Wellington Street Race, where it finished fourth. Crichton acquired the car, taking it to race in the Australian Touring Car Championship, where it was upgraded to full RS500 specification. It was later owned by Mark Petch before it went to the UK. Its restoration, completed by CNC Motorsport AWS, has included the refitting of many original parts.…

GINETTA GT5 Mazda MX-5 frontrunner Fraser Fenwick stepped up to the Ginetta GT5 Challenge for a one-off outing at Thruxton last weekend with the AB Motorsport squad. Fenwick, who has claimed five wins so far this year in the British Racing and Sports Car Club’s championship for Mk1 models of the sportscar, made his Ginetta debut as the category joined the British Touring Car support bill. Despite minimal prior experience of the car or track, Fenwick took a best result of 10th across the pair of races. “We’ve only done one trackday in the car and been on the track once, so we’ve been thrown in at the deep end!” said Fenwick, who added the GT5 Challenge is “definitely one of the options for next year” if he can raise…

COYNE TO DEBUT MGF Formula Ford legend Dave Coyne will pilot the ex-Warren Hughes MGF Cup car when it makes its MG Car Club Cockshoot Cup debut on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on 11-12 June. The two-time championship winning car has been restored by Mark Wright and Steve Elliott to its 1999 specification, when Hughes took it to the MGF Cup title a year after James Rhodes had claimed the inaugural crown. STANZL’S ‘MASSIVE STEP UP’ Historic Sports Car Club Formula Ford regular Danny Stanzl made his Masters debut at Brands Hatch at the wheel of a Ford Lotus Cortina in Sunday’s hour-long Pre-’66 Touring Car race, but did not finish due to technical problems. Although he enjoyed the event, he described the level of competition as being “a…

Academy Motorsport duo Marco Signoretti and Matt Cowley drove a faultless race at Donington Park to claim their first win of the season in the GT4 category. It looked unlikely after Saturday, though, when the pair could only qualify fourth as Steller Motorsport pairing and championship leaders Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding came to the fore and bagged pole. But just three laps into the three-hour contest, the narrative shifted dramatically as Williams rotated out of the lead at Old Hairpin after an unforced error. “It all went downhill from there,” bemoaned Fielding, as the Oulton Park-winning pair fell back and eventually finished eighth in GT4. With the Audi R8 out of contention, Academy seized upon the opportunity, knowing that the Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin that won at Silverstone would…

GB3 Race 1 (all 12 laps) 1 Callum Voisin; 2 Roberto Faria +2.262s; 3 Max Esterson; 4 Alex Connor; 5 Tom Lebbon; 6 James Hedley. Fastest lap Esterson 1m23.543s (107.18mph). Pole Joel Granfors. Starters 22. Race 2 1 Esterson; 2 Luke Browning +0.762s; 3 Granfors; 4 Hedley; 5 Faria; 6 Matthew Rees. FL Esterson 1m23.123s (107.72mph). P Esterson. S 22. Race 3 1 Bryce Aron; 2 Branden Oxley +2.359s; 3 Mikkel Grundtvig; 4 John Bennett; 5 Tommy Smith; 6 Voisin. FL Faria 1m23.810s (106.84mph). P Aron. S 22. Points 1 Granfors 168; 2 Browning 167; 3 Esterson 145; 4 Faria 143; 5 Voisin 132; 6 Lebbon 127. GB4 Race 1 Nikolas Taylor Race 2 Megan Gilkes Race 3 Logan Hannah GINETTA GT ACADEMY Races 1, 2 & 3 Marc Warren…

GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGE We may only be just over two months into the season but the Ginetta GT5 Challenge has already reached the mid-point of its campaign – and a hotly contested title race is developing after Harley Haughton became the fifth different driver to take a win this season. Both races followed a similar pattern, as the Elite Motorsport driver passed early leader Connor Grady and then pulled clear. In the opener, that came on the inside of Club on lap three and, after that, a thrilling battle for second developed with six cars in the mix. Eventually, as Grady faded down the order, ‘willpower’ told with Will Orton and Will Jenkins completing the podium. It took Haughton five laps to prise the lead from Grady in race two,…

MASTERS PRE-’66 TOURING CARS Sam Tordoff (Ford Falcon Sprint) MASTERS SPORTS CAR LEGENDS Leo Voyazides/Simon Hadfield (Lola T70 Mk3B) MASTERS RACING LEGENDS Race 1 Miles Griffiths (Fittipaldi F5A) Race 2 Steve Hartley (McLaren MP4/1, below) MASTERS ENDURANCE LEGENDS Race 1 Martin O’Connell/Steve Brooks (Lola B12/60) Race 2 Steve Tandy (Peugeot 90X) EQUIPE GTS Christian Douglas (TVR Griffith) TOURING CAR CHALLENGE Race 1 Daniel Brown (Ford Sierra Cosworth) Race 2 Glenn Dudley (Lola Wright) GENTLEMEN DRIVERS John Davison (TVR Griffith) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

SUPER TOURERS/PRE-’03 TOURING CARS Race 1 Anthony Reid (Nissan Primera GT) Race 2 Richard Wheeler (Nissan Primera GT) PRE-’66 TOURING CARS Race 1 Alan Greenhalgh (Ford Falcon Sprint) Race 2 Barry Sime (Morris Mini Cooper S) CLASSIC THUNDER/BOSS Races 1 & 2 Ric Wood (Holden Commodore) CNC HEADS SPORTS/SALOONS Jon Woolfitt (Spire GT-R, below) JAGUAR CHALLENGE Race 1 Tom Robinson (XJR6) Race 2 James Ramm (XJS) PRE-’83 & PRE-’93 TOURING CARS Dave Griffin (BMW E36 M3) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

VIDEO GAME RFACTOR 2 BTCC CONTENT PACK (AVAILABLE ON PC) RRP £26.61 Although the racing simulator rFactor 2 was first released in 2013, its progress in terms of development and content has often been disappointingly slow. In recent times, however, Studio 397 has announced a spate of new content and quality of life improvements. The driving platform’s latest additional content pack brings the Infiniti Q50 and Toyota Corolla GR Sport from the British Touring Car Championship to the game, complemented by laser-scanned versions of Donington Park and Brands Hatch. The Infiniti at Donington hits the mark immediately. The engine sound from the cockpit evokes a live onboard from an actual TV broadcast, immersing the player in the world of the popular tin-top series from the outset, with a hint of…

FORMULA 1 Charles Leclerc avoided a potential penalty that could have jeopardised his Monaco Grand Prix pole position for missing the weighbridge thanks to the quick reactions of his Ferrari team. The Monegasque had been called in for a weight check towards the end of Q2, but did not see the signal and pushed on down the pitlane. Had he gone to his Ferrari garage and the mechanics worked on the car, that would have been enough to earn him a penalty for breaching the rules. Ferrari quickly spotted that Leclerc had missed the signal and instantly ordered him to stop. The mechanics then ran up the pitlane to push him back for the checks, which were passed without problem. Leclerc confessed that the letoff had been totally down to…

BTCC The Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit will be part of the British Touring Car Championship in 2023 for the first time in 21 years. Series organiser TOCA revealed its schedule for next season on Tuesday, with Donington hosting two of the 10 rounds for the first time since 2001. The East Midlands venue has secured the ‘floating’ second date that was awarded to Thruxton for 2021 and 2022. TOCA chief Alan Gow explained that the decision to hold a round on the GP loop continues the series’ desire to use alternative track layouts when possible – a second Silverstone date was planned for 2020 using the International circuit for the first time, only for this to bite the dust in the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had the…

This season I made the move into Formula E and, I have to say, I’ve enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. There’s no shying away, I’m a petrolhead. But I’ve really been surprised with Formula E. Lots of people obviously ask why Formula 1 hasn’t happened. It’s a combination of myself, bad timing, bad luck. At the end of the day, there were two teams that wanted to put me in F1, but I didn’t have the superlicence. So, I was just sort of lingering on the side, then I open my mouth and say things and then they just think ‘we can’t use him for anything’. The positives I can take from that is I was trusted by two F1 teams and, if I had…

Mick Schumacher reckoned it was “superweird” that his Haas VF-22 racer spat him into the barriers through the Swimming Pool complex to cause a red flag. The German was running in 17th place when the car broke loose on lap 25 and hurled him into the Tecpros, with the rear end and gearbox ripping off. The lengthy repairs required a virtual then full safety car before the race was halted. Schumacher, who also snapped his car in half as part of a $1million wreck in qualifying in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, reported: “It seemed like we were like 10 centimetres further out. That triggered maybe a wet patch with the front wheel, which then translated into a rear-wheel slide. “That’s where basically the rear came around. I tried to…

Marcus Ericsson’s topline career has been pockmarked by little bobbles at high-pressure moments, but lately he’s been showing iron resolve in IndyCar races. Last year in Detroit, he held off Rinus VeeKay and Pato O’Ward to score his first IndyCar win. Later that summer, Ericsson delivered an unlikely triumph in Nashville with a damaged car after taking off from the back of a rival in the early laps. If it took some good fortune and great tactics to get him to the front of the pack that day, he was unshakeable once there and it was Colton Herta who crashed in pursuit. But if he thought that was pressure… well, last Sunday was something else again. And he responded beautifully to score Chip Ganassi Racing’s fifth Indianapolis 500 triumph 10…

Thruxton’s neatly mown grass replaced hybrid as the main topic of grumbling last weekend. Or, to be more specific, it was the cuttings blocking radiators from off-track excursions. But such is the fond regard in which the circuit management is held that it was tough to find anyone who wanted to sound off about it in public. The green stuff caused the downfall of pre-weekend points leader Tom Ingram as collateral damage from a first-lap scuffle between Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom. Cammish was delighted to qualify his Motorbase Ford Focus third, just 0.081s off pole, and felt a corner had been turned after his sour start to the season. But, as he turned in at Noble on the opening lap, he was clipped by the Team Dynamics Honda Civic…

FORMULA REGIONAL BY ALPINE MONTE CARLO (MCO) 28-29 MAY ROUND 3/10 Dino Beganovic and Hadrien David made it one-all for the respective Ferrari and Alpine junior programmes as Formula Regional by Alpine visited Monaco. With a massive 37-car field split into two qualifying groups, the solo sessions decided the grid for both races. R-ace GP ace David topped the first group but, with the track rubbered in, Beganovic’s Prema Powerteam machine went quicker on the other side of the entry. Beganovic was therefore awarded pole position for a race in front of almost empty grandstands early on Grand Prix Sunday, while David started first on Saturday. The first race was ruined by an unnecessary red flag that ate up a large proportion of the 30-minute allocation. It was triggered when…

NASCAR CUP SERIES CHARLOTTE (USA) 29 MAY ROUND 14/36 Denny Hamlin escaped with the lead in the first overtime period and the win in the second to claim a marathon Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hamlin’s improbable win came in a race that lasted five and a quarter hours, and covered 413 laps or 619.5 miles, making it the longest race in distance in NASCAR history. Although he started from pole position, Hamlin struggled with performance on his Toyota much of the race and got caught up in a wreck midway through. But as the caution-filled race wound to a close, the field went four-wide off Turn 4 on the opening lap of the first overtime, and Hamlin scooted by with the lead as a seven-car wreck erupted…

GOODWOOD Four icons from the world of IndyCar and NASCAR including Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and Jimmie Johnson will attend this year’s Goodwood Revival meeting. Dixon, Castroneves and Johnson will compete in the event, due to be held on 16-18 September, for the first time, while it will be a return for Franchitti, who raced in 2019 aboard a Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C and an AC Cobra. The quartet will race in the two-part saloon car St Mary’s Trophy for VIPs and owners, as well as the blue-riband Royal Automobile Club TT on Sunday afternoon. Castroneves is the joint-record holder for most victories at the Indianapolis 500 with four (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021), while Dixon has one to his name (2008) and six IndyCar titles. Franchitti, who retired…

SMITH BAGS TROPHY Graeme Smith’s class-winning run in the CNC Heads Sports/Saloon Championship at Oulton Park last Saturday earned him the Dave Simpson Memorial Trophy. Smith’s Mazda MX-5 won Class F, for modified cars of under 1600cc, by more than a lap from Helen Allen’s Ford Fiesta. As the most dominant class winner, he was rewarded with the trophy in recognition of one of the founders of the long-running championship. OULTON RACE CANCELLED The second Pre-’83 and Pre-’93 Touring Cars race at Oulton Park last Saturday had to be cancelled due to timetable delays following an accident for Pre-’66 Touring Car racer Roger Stanford in the preceding race. Stanford, whose Lotus Cortina rolled after hitting the barriers, was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs. The cancelled race is likely…

BRC Tyres proved to be the topic on everyone’s lips at the Jim Clark Rally, but not all for the right reasons. A surprise shift from Hankook to Pirelli rubber on his Volkswagen Polo R5 proved to be a fruitful one for four-time British Rally champion Keith Cronin. The Irishman was unbeatable over both days of the event, securing his first BRC victory since 2017 on the unforgiving Scottish Borders asphalt and with it the lead of the championship. “It feels great, it’s so nice to get a BRC win again,” said Cronin. “Last year didn’t go 100% to plan for us. So, it was encouraging to see the pace at Clacton and, after we started so well here, it was all about managing the lead.” Osian Pryce was Cronin’s…

Thruxton is a fantastic place to watch motorsport – last weekend’s British Touring Car meeting at the Hampshire speedbowl was yet another reminder of that. And the addition of the viewing area at the high-speed Noble corner, offering a panoramic overview of much of the circuit, from the Complex all the way up Woodham Hill and towards the Club chicane, means there is now yet another excellent vantage point for spectators to observe the slipstreaming action. Yet, sadly, one of the categories making a guest appearance last weekend was down on numbers and – aside from Charles Clark’s recovery from the back to a podium in race two – there was not all that much action for fans to view in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB contests. Qualifying was the…

GT3 (117 laps) 1 Morgan Tillbrook/Marcus Clutton (McLaren 720S); 2 James Cottingham/Lewis Williamson (Mercedes-AMG GT3) +59.973s; 3 Ian Loggie/Callum Macleod (Mercedes); 4 Mia Flewitt/Euan Hankey (McLaren); 5 Alex Malykhin/James Dorlin (Lamborghini Huracan EVO); 6 Michael Igoe/Phil Keen (Lamborghini). Fastest lap Clutton 1m26.309s (103.74mph). Pole Tillbrook/Morgan. Starters 17. Points 1 Loggie 65.5; 2 Igoe/Keen 50; 3 Shaun Balfe/Adam Carroll 49; 4 Malykhin/Dorlin 48; 5 Jules Gounon 43; 6 Tillbrook/Clutton 41.5. GT4 (106 laps) 1 Marco Signoretti/Matt Cowley (Ford Mustang); 2 Will Burns/Jack Brown (BMW M4) +17.956s; 3 Tom Edgar/Jordan Collard (Toyota GR Supra); 4 Jamie Orton/Seb Hopkins (Porsche 718 Cayman RS CS); 5 Jamie Day/Josh Miller (Aston Martin Vantage); 6 Ross Wylie/Matthew Graham (Porsche). FL Sennan Fielding (Audi R8 LMS) 1m34.898s (94.35mph). P Richard Williams/Fielding. S 13. Points 1 Williams/Fielding 78.5;…

Nikolas Taylor moved to the top of the GB4 Championship standings with his fourth victory of 2022 in last Saturday’s opener at Donington Park. Formula Ford 1600 graduates Megan Gilkes and Logan Hannah shared the spoils in Sunday’s two races, with Gilkes converting her first pole into her second victory of the season, and also taking the fastest lap of the weekend in the Hillspeed driver’s strongest showing so far. Gilkes narrowly missed out on a double pole in qualifying, with Taylor snatching the quickest time by 0.012 seconds late on. Alex Walker moved ahead of Gilkes at the start of race one before challenging Taylor into Redgate. But the Elite Motorsport driver ran out of space on the exit, dropping to fourth behind Hillspeed duo Max Marzorati and Gilkes.…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY It’s appropriate that Mini Challenge Trophy contender Charlie Mann is the grandson of the bass player from Thruxton’s local 1960s chart-toppers, Andover legends The Troggs. The competitors were once again the wild things of the BTCC support bill, with unruly driving and an inability to steer through the chicane their hallmark. Louie Capozzoli’s victory in race two was the highlight. He was challenging triple Pembrey winner Nelson King for the lead around the outside of the chicane when, in stark contrast to his peers, he actually bothered to stop for the second apex rather than charge blithely through the runoff. The lost momentum dropped him to fifth, while King took to the grass in what looked like a pre-emptive avoidance of Capozzoli. Capozzoli charged back to win…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Race 1 (all 17 laps) 1 Alex Dunne (above); 2 Ugo Ugochukwu +3.102s; 3 Oliver Gray; 4 Joseph Loake; 5 Georgi Dimitrov; 6 Eduardo Coseteng. Fastest lap Ugochukwu 1m11.171s (119.17mph). Pole Dunne. Starters 16. Race 2 1 Aiden Neate; 2 Daniel Guinchard +0.258s; 3 Noah Lisle; 4 Gray; 5 Dunne; 6 Ugochukwu. FL Neate 1m11.377s (118.83mph). P Lisle. S 16. Race 3 1 Dunne; 2 Ugochukwu +6.583s; 3 Louis Sharp; 4 Neate; 5 Guinchard; 6 Edward Pearson. FL Dunne 1m10.848s (119.72mph). P Dunne. S 16. Points 1 Dunne 158; 2 Ugochukwu 119; 3 Gray 108; 4 Neate 73; 5 Loake 61; 6 Michael Shin 48. PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB Race 1 (both 16 laps) 1 Harry Foster; 2 Matthew Armstrong +2.189s; 3 Steve Roberts; 4 Ben McLoughlin;…

The 90-minute Gentlemen Drivers race was won by John Davison’s TVR Griffith after an incredible fightback following a spin and then a drivethrough penalty for overtaking on the green-flag lap. His recovery was a masterclass in both patience and ruthlessness, knowing when to take the opportunity to pass his rivals, having regained the lead just three laps from the end. Long-time leader Mike Whitaker had started to lose the brakes on his Griffith having repelled a strong challenge from the Shelby American Cobra Daytona of Roy Alderslade and Andrew Jordan. The 2013 British Touring Car champion had briefly taken the lead late on but a sudden puncture meant a quick trip across the grass coming into Surtees and a second visit to the pits. A one-lap penalty for taking a…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI 28 MAY This is getting to be a habit. The five classes contesting double-headers at Kirkistown on Saturday again produced five back-to-back winners. And that could have been boring – but it wasn’t, mainly thanks to the efforts of the runners-up. In Formula Ford, while David McCullough steamed off in front, an all-Mondiale battle for second between Alan Davidson and Brandon McCaughan almost reduced the commentators to hysterics as the pair fought tooth and nail for every inch of Tarmac for lap after lap. It looked as though McCaughan had it sorted early in race one with a mighty outbraking move on his rival, only to have Davidson return the favour on the final tour. McCaughan was again in front in race two, but an audacious pass at…

GURSTON DOWN BRITISH HILLCLIMB 28-29 MAY The balance of power in the British Hillclimb Championship swung towards Alex Summers at Gurston Down after four championship run-offs. With 44 points available, it was always going to be a key weekend and it was Summers who came good at the perfect moment. He won the first three run-offs, adding an extra point in the second and third contests for bettering the year-old outright hill record. But on Sunday afternoon, it was Scott Moran who came to the fore with an attacking run to bag win number four. Erstwhile points leader Wallace Menzies was also in contention as the top three drivers eased clear of the pack, but he had to be content with three seconds and a third from his weekend. Summers…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Rally Italy World Rally Championship Round 5/13 Sardinia, Italy 2-5 June TV Live BT Sport 3, Thu 1700, Sat 1230, BT Sport 2, Sat 1500, BT Sport 3, Sun 0800, Sun 1100 TV Highlights BT Sport 3, Fri 2300, BT Sport 2, Sat 2230, BT Sport 3, Sun 2000, Red Bull TV, Fri 2100, Sat 2100, Sun 2100 Formula E Round 6/10 Jakarta, Indonesia 4 June TV Live Channel 4, Sat 0830, Eurosport 2, Sat 0830 IndyCar Series Round 7/16 Detroit Belle Isle, USA 5 June TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 2000 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Round 2/5 Paul Ricard, France 5 June GT4 European Series Round 2/6 Paul Ricard, France 4-5 June Livestream on motorsport.tv, Sat 0920, Sat 1505, Sun 1010 Formula Regional Euro…