Innehållsförteckning för 11/3/2022 från Autosport

Retiring from two of the first three grands prix of the season and facing a strong early challenge from Ferrari is not how record-breaking campaigns normally begin. But the fact Max Verstappen has now set a new benchmark of 14 wins in one Formula 1 world championship season shows how brilliant the Dutchman and Red Bull have been. Of course, the story behind that statistic also encompasses the missteps made by Ferrari and Mercedes in 2022. If last weekend’s Mexican GP (page 12) is anything to go by, the Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes combo is the one most likely to challenge Red Bull in 2023, even if Ferrari insists its woeful showing was a one-off. As Verstappen rightly points out, F1 seasons are longer now, but even taking that into account his…

IMSA SPORTSCAR Oliver Jarvis will not defend his IMSA SportsCar Championship title next season. The Briton has confirmed that he will not remain with Meyer Shank Racing, which has maintained a wall of silence on the identity of Tom Blomqvist’s team-mate in the squad’s new Acura ARX-06 LMDh in 2023. “I’m not staying,” said Jarvis, who joined the team after four IMSA seasons with Mazda. “It was a one-year agreement and there has been a decision not to continue. For whatever reason it didn’t work out.” A move to another team for a full campaign isn’t on the cards for Jarvis, because his latest deal with the United Autosports LMP2 squad for the World Endurance Championship commits him to all the races and wouldn’t allow him to take part in…

FIA FORMULA 3 Formula Regional European champion Dino Beganovic will make his FIA Formula 3 debut with Prema in 2023. The Ferrari Academy driver, who secured his title with Prema, will join fellow Formula Regional driver Paul Aron at the reigning teams’ champion next season. Beganovic made his single-seater debut in 2020 in Italian F4 with Prema, finishing third in the standings before graduating to Formula Regional European with the team. He sealed the 2022 title 40 points clear of ART driver Gabriele Mini, scoring four wins and eight other podiums. “I am extremely happy to be racing with Prema,” said the 18-year-old. “Prema has an amazing history in Formula 3 and won at least one championship per year there.” Team principal Rene Rosin said: “We have been working with…

Sometimes I feel I’ve spent my whole professional career waiting. It seems to be an occupational hazard for the sportscar journalist. I waited nearly 20 years for the return of world championship sportscar racing and 15 for Porsche to try to add to its tally of overall Le Mans 24 Hours wins. But the wait for Ferrari to come back to the top of the sportscar tree was so long that I don’t even count it. I reported on what I call the original world championship, which in its final iteration was known as the Sportscar World Championship, in the early 1990s and was there at Le Mans in the 1990s when Porsche notched up its 14th, 15th and 16th victories in the Big One. So the arrival of the…

Instead of the typical 2022 Red Bull versus Ferrari battle for pole position, in Mexico Mercedes enjoyed its strongest qualifying showing of the season. That’s even including George Russell’s shock Hungarian Grand Prix pole. This was because the silver cars looked so strong in FP3 – dominating final practice while looking smooth and planted, while Max Verstappen struggled badly with oversteer aboard his RB18. Then, when kerb-slide struggles confined Carlos Sainz to fifth and 2022 pole king Charles Leclerc had DRS and engine issues that left him seventh behind the impressive-on-slippery-surfaces Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes’ chance was clear. Except, track temperatures rising 5C between the two Saturday sessions meant the drivers had to be extra careful to avoid stressing the tyres. This left Russell – the FP3 pacesetter – “driving terribly”…

A turned-down turbo and an unsettled chassis helped explain the almost anonymous Ferrari showing of 2022 in Mexico. Carlos Sainz crossed the line nearly a minute down on winner Max Verstappen as he clocked only fifth place, with Charles Leclerc sixth. The team consensus is that the major regression seen last weekend will be a one-off, and the brace of F1-75s will be more in the hunt come the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a fortnight. Nevertheless, team boss Mattia Binotto explained the factors that left his drivers’ race pace to sit only marginally ahead of the midfield. He said: “The ride was not great. The balance was not great. [The drivers] will tell me that the car was not turning. The reason why, I think it has to be…

The second running of the FIA Motorsport Games took place at Paul Ricard last weekend with the aim of being bigger and better than the inaugural event in Rome in 2019. And it comfortably succeeded despite the challenges that came with expanding such a format. The Circuit de Castellet played host over four days of action, all of which took place under sunny skies, proving well-equipped to host different events around the site in addition to those taking place on the circuit itself. There was an Olympic-style feel to the event throughout, as people moved around the venue to take in the various disciplines taking place, and competitors cheered on their team-mates when not in action themselves. That was evident when members of the British team, having suffered disappointment in…

Italy’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli took a dominant victory in the F4 Cup race at Paul Ricard, despite struggling with a wrist injury. The Mercedes-AMG F1 junior was the class of a fully subscribed field, with Hitech GP running 24 identical KCMG-built hybrid cars. Antonelli damaged his left wrist in a late qualifying clash, having already set a time good enough to take pole for the qualifying race. He took a lights-to-flag win in that contest, then the 16-year-old did the same in the main race, pulling clear after an early safety car period to win by 6.902s and earn Italy a third gold medal. “It was a tough race because I had hurt my wrist,” said Antonelli, who took both the Italian and German F4 titles this year. “I had…

One of the standout features of the Motorsport Games was the diversity of categories competing, with drifting proving popular among the crowds. Poland’s Jakub Przygonski recorded the highest score in the solo qualifying runs in a Toyota GR86, but was eliminated in the semi-finals of the tandems by Kristaps Bluss in a BMW E92 Eurofighter. The Latvian was joined in the final by the spectacular Ali Makhseed, who was representing Kuwait in a Nissan S13.5. The contest for gold went down to a third and deciding run, with the judges awarding victory the way of Bluss. Przygonski came out on top in the ‘small’ final to take bronze. Martin Richards gave hope of a medal for the UK by setting the second-highest score in qualifying in an iconic Nissan Skyline…

SUPER FORMULA SUZUKA (JAP) 29-30 OCTOBER ROUND 7/7 Tomoki Nojiri secured his second Super Formula title at Suzuka as Team Mugen swept the board in the final double-header of the season. Second place in the opening race on Saturday behind team-mate Ukyo Sasahara was enough for Nojiri to clinch the crown and become the first back-to-back title-winner in Japan’s top formula series since Tsugio Matsuda in 2007-08. The weekend didn’t start well for Nojiri as he toiled to the 16th-fastest time in Friday practice, offering his title rivals Sacha Fenestraz and Ryo Hirakawa a glimmer of hope. But any ambitions of a dramatic turnaround were crushed the following morning in qualifying, as Nojiri blitzed to a fifth pole in nine races while Hirakawa qualified 11th and Fenestraz struggled with tyre-pressure…

“I went to the accountant, and everyone who was working at their desks stood up and applauded me as I walked through the door! Weird stuff like that. You don’t realise what a big deal it is, but it took two hours on the Monday to reply to all the messages. You’re just in your own little bubble, cracking on, and then you realise there’s a lot of people watching it.” This isn’t 2022 British Touring Car champion Tom Ingram talking. Instead, it’s his engineer Spencer Aldridge. You see, the top end of the BTCC is all about such driver/technician double-acts, such as we continue to see with Ingram’s title-winning predecessor Ash Sutton with Antonio Carrozza. They’re like Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, Saint and Greavsie, Simon and Garfunkel, or…

TOM INGRAM 1 Everything he’d learned over all those years of being the BTCC’s ‘nearly man’ finally paid off. Had a superb car in the Excelr8 Hyundai and put together a consummate campaign, with almost no points-costing mistakes. Deserving champ. ASH SUTTON 2 His move to the Motorbase Ford squad was headline news over the winter. The Focus was far from the greatest car, but he absolutely wrung everything out of it time and again. Arguably the best, but what did Ingram have in reserve? JAKE HILL 3 Finally became a grandee of the BTCC in his first season with the West Surrey BMW operation. Tenacious racer who arguably was better than Turkington at coping when conditions didn’t suit the car – a legacy of his experience in historics. COLIN…

TOCA Legends, Caterhams and Radicals are all set to feature at British Touring Car meetings next year as a host of national racing categories will make guest appearances. Following Ginetta’s decision to end its 15-year relationship with BTCC organiser TOCA and switch all of its championships to the British GT support bill for 2023, there was space on the BTCC package next season for different classes to join. While it had already been announced that the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB will increase its BTCC presence from two to six rounds in 2023, there was also scope for club racing series to benefit from being part of the high-profile events. Leading the way is the popular Legends Cars Championship, which will appear at the May Brands Hatch, July Croft and August…

CLASSIC SPORTS CAR CLUB The Classic Sports Car Club’s season is due to have its earliest ever start next year, with the opening event planned for Silverstone in February. The 26 February fixture on the Grand Prix layout is the day after the Vintage Sports-Car Club’s annual multi-discipline Pomeroy Trophy event and is before club racing traditionally begins in March. It is designed to help those “keen to get out and blow away the cobwebs”. “It’s an unusual time of year to put on a race meeting but it works for other events, like the Plum Pudding,” said club director David Smitheram, who added the weather will be a key factor in the event’s success. “At that time of year, we’re not competing with anyone else.” The CSCC – which…

BIRKETT RELAY Sylvain Guintoli, the 2014 World Superbike champion, made a return to four-wheel action at the Birkett Six Hour Relay race at Silverstone last Saturday. The French driver’s previous car racing experience comprised Radical Challenge appearances in 2016 but, in the Birkett, he drove for the Capture Motorsport team in a VW Golf TCR shared with Andrew Shephard. “The first time I heard about the event was when my best mate [Shephard] entered the race, and we decided to go at it together,” explained the 40-year-old, who currently competes in the FIM World Endurance Championship. “It is great because you can come with your mates and have a lot of fun on-track.” Guintoli drove a stint late in the classic Silverstone endurance contest, setting the team’s fastest lap of…

CLUBMANS Ending a racing career spanning 51 years, of which 41 were in Clubmans sportscars, Pete Richings finished fifth in Saturday’s MotorSport Vision Racing championship finale at Donington in his Mallock Mk30PR. Fellow competitors marked the occasion with a surprise celebratory photo session on the grid for the 71-year-old, hooked on the racing bug by a visit to Goodwood with his father on Easter Monday, 1956. Highlights from 500+ races, alongside professional work at Jaguar Land Rover (which spawned Clubmans’ Rover K/MG X-Power engine era), were the Mineral Improvements championship in 1988 and Sports 1600 title in 2016. He was also a proud member of Chris Hart’s Hart Attacks team, which won three 750 Motor Club Birkett Six Hour Relay races, on handicap in 1996 and scratch in 1999 and…

HISTORICS Britons Andrew Haddon and Andy Wolfe (Lotus Elan) won Sunday’s two-hour GT & Sports Car Cup seasonal finale, which attracted the largest visiting grid – an impressive 28 cars – to the annual Classic Festival that showcased the Autodromo Internacional Algarve in perfect conditions last weekend. Haddon engaged in an early battle with Justin Maeers’s Cooper Monaco behind leader Chris Chiles Jr’s AC Cobra. Another Cobra roared into contention when Olivier Gallant was relayed by father Xavier in their Daytona Coupe. The Frenchmen took second, a lap behind the winners and one ahead of the Maeers/Ben Maeers/Charlie Martin Cooper, which ran out of fuel on the final tour. Sixth overall, Mark Holme/Jeremy Welch claimed GT3 honours from fellow Austin-Healey 3000 duo David Smithies/Chris Clarkson. A late splash-and-dash for Marc…

VIDEO GAME WRC GENERATIONS RRP £39.99 (available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox) WRC Generations – this year’s official World Rally Championship game – marks the end for Parisien developers Kylotonn’s involvement with the series, before the rights move elsewhere next season. To bow out in style, not only does it introduce the new Rally1 hybrid-powered cars used in the real world, but the studio has also included several older rallies and classic cars from prior seasons and added a new league system. There are 85 vehicles, 165 stages, cross-platform online leaderboards and livery creations plus more game modes than Ott Tanak has trophies. This is the most feature-rich rally game of all time. To sit alongside the vast swathes of options, the visuals have been given a suitable uplift too,…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull Racing has been hit with a £6million fine and a lower aerodynamic testing limit after reaching a settlement with the FIA for breaching the 2021 budget cap. The FIA announced after the Japanese Grand Prix that Red Bull was deemed to have exceeded the £118m budget cap last year following its audit of each team’s submission under the financial regulations. Red Bull fiercely denied that it had exceeded the budget cap, but entered talks with the FIA over an Accepted Breach Agreement that would see it accept it had broken the cap and reach a settlement. An agreement was finally reached last Wednesday, ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, prompting the FIA to hand Red Bull a £6m fine and cut its aerodynamic testing by 10%…

Sight of Ferrari Hypercar stirs excitement One look at the Ferrari 499 Hypercar on a Formula 1 weekend and I was immediately struck by the thought that this looks way more exciting and relatable than an F1 car. Imagine Leclerc versus such as Verstappen, Russell and Norris hammering through Eau Rouge in cars like this, with entries from Mercedes, Red Bull, BMW, Porsche and McLaren – just like Siffert, Rodriguez, Ickx and Andretti! The FIA is missing a trick here; especially with a manufacturer-driven F1 that badly needs to be closer to road requirements. Initially, given the few World Endurance Championship rounds, why not get Liberty Media involved with the WEC to blend with the F1 schedule, even subbing WEC events into the F1 track rotation, with the same drivers?…

The GT contests lived up to their billing as the signature events of the games, with the weekend-closing sprint race proving decisive at the top of the medal table. Belgium’s Dries Vanthoor won the qualifying race to take pole position, but it was Australia’s Matt Campbell who made the better start to grab the lead ahead of fellow Porsche 911 driver Ayhancan Guven, while Vanthoor dropped to fourth on the opening lap. Guven held second for the first 15 minutes of the hour-long encounter before Italy’s Mirko Bortolotti moved by at Turn 6, and the Turkish driver was eventually ordered to let Vanthoor through having run off the circuit during a hard-fought defence of third place. Bortolotti and Vanthoor chipped away at Campbell’s five-second lead in the second half of…

Two crucial golds for Italy came in rallying. The Historic event was dominated by the Italian duo of Andrea Zivian – nicknamed ‘Zippo’ – and co-driver Nicola Arena, as they grabbed the gold medal with victory on every stage in their mighty four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro. With 14 stages held across asphalt roads through Marseille, the pair raced into an early lead over the seven stages on Friday to put themselves out of reach, extending that cushion to two minutes and 47 seconds before the top three went into battle for gold at a superspecial stage at Circuit Paul Ricard on Saturday evening. The Audi pair again proved untouchable, while Team Czech Republic claimed silver with Vojtech Stajf and Vladimir Zelinka in their RWD Opel Kadett. They were consistently best of…

A large field of competitors took part in the maiden karting events at the Motorsport Games, and were watched by the likes of ex-Formula 1 stars Felipe Massa and Jean Alesi. Brazil’s Gabriel Koenigkan led the early stages of the Junior Karting final from Peru’s Andres Cardenas before France’s Jules Caranta moved past the pair to take the win on the road. But he was denied by a post-race penalty, handing Cardenas and Peru the gold. Koenigkan took the silver and Denmark’s Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen the bronze. The Senior final was disrupted by a chaotic opening lap, in which 11 of the starting 30 drivers crashed out. With leading contenders Nacho Tunon (Spain) and Joel Bergstrom (Sweden) among the retirees having clashed in a battle for second, Belgium’s Elie Goldstein…

NASCAR CUP MARTINSVILLE (USA) 30 OCTOBER ROUND 35/36 Christopher Bell scored his second win of the NASCAR Cup playoffs at Martinsville to give himself a shot at his first title. Bell, who could only advance to the ‘Championship 4’ next weekend at Phoenix with a win, pitted for new tyres on the final caution and lined up sixth on the restart with 24 of 500 laps remaining. He then methodically ran down and passed leader Chase Briscoe with four laps to go to reclaim the lead and held off Kyle Larson by 0.869 seconds for the win. The victory locked Bell in as one of the four drivers who will compete for the 2022 title, the first such opportunity of his career. But Bell’s stunning victory was overshadowed by Ross…

Last year, it was a nail-bitingly dramatic conclusion to the Mini Challenge season, but there was no such tension this time around as the remarkable consistency of Sam Weller meant the Hybrid Tune driver netted the crown with two races to spare. Considering the reliability woes of some of his rivals – including last year’s victor Dan Zelos – and the high chance of contact with the packed field nearing 30 cars, it was impressive of Weller to not just be one of only two drivers to finish all 20 races, but to also always be inside the top six. With such an emphatic display, it is easy to forget this was just Weller’s second full season in the JCW class – and he had yet to win prior to…

The new G56s sounded great but it was disappointing there were not more of the V8 monsters on the Ginetta GT4 Supercup grid this year – with there being just three or four in the top Pro class at times. Those low numbers contributed to the decision to make 2022 the category’s final season, but we were treated to a masterclass from James Kellett as he became the last champion in style. Kellett – a two-time GT5 Challenge title winner – had impressed on two cameo outings in a G55 at the end of last year and the Century Motorsport racer was confident coming into the season. And he was right to be. “I think the package we had was just unbeatable,” says Kellett. “We went to the first round…

The 35th edition of the Autosport Awards represents a move back to the event’s traditional date following the previous edition in February. The 2022 Awards will take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane on Sunday 4 December. Before that, we’ve got a little request for our readers. We need you to vote, and over the following pages you will see the nominees for International Racing Driver of the Year, British Competition Driver of the Year, UK National Driver of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Racing Car of the Year, Rally Driver of the Year, Rally Car of the Year, plus the Esports Driver of the Year. You can vote for the candidate you think performed best in each category during the season. The winners will be…

COOKSPORT RENAULT CUP British Touring Car driver Josh Cook’s Cooksport tuning and parts company and the British Racing & Sports Car Club have teamed up to launch a new Renault category for next season. Cook was the 2014 Renault UK Clio Cup runner-up and Cooksport has built, provided parts for and run scores of the French hatchbacks in recent years. But there is not currently a dedicated category for more modern Clios and Meganes to compete against similar cars, leading to the new Cooksport Renault Cup series being launched. Cooksport and the BRSCC already have an existing partnership having collaborated on the Mk7 Fiesta Junior car introduced this year. Initially, the Renault series is set to form part of a new Evolution Trophy grid from the BRSCC that will feature…

GEOFF WEEKS 1949-2022 The passing of ‘Gentleman Geoff’ Weeks, from throat cancer, has done far more than rob ARDS of a popular and long-serving instructor. Weeks raced in Modsports from 1974 into the 1980s with the Whitegates Service Station MG Midget. He joined the inaugural BMW Car Club Championship in 1988 with an E12 535i, and founded his successful ETA Motorsport business, specialising in BMW, near Brands Hatch in 1998. From 2002 he was partnered by stepson Matt Smith, who continues the tradition. BLAIR STILL IN THE HUNT Turismo X points leader Adam Blair was forced to make a hasty car switch ahead of the championship’s penultimate round at Donington Park. Previously, Blair had raced in a Darkside Audi TT but a change of priorities by his sponsor led to…

SILVERSTONE 750MC BIRKETT RELAY 29 OCTOBER Routec Racing’s BMW Compacts won a dramatic Birkett Six Hour Relay, taking the lead from sister team the BMW Triers in the final 30 minutes at an unseasonably warm Silverstone. The Handicap trophy, as ever, was the premier prize at the endurance classic and the Routec Compact squad was the seventh different leader to appear on the half-hourly bulletins. Not among them, however, were previous double winners The Three Amigos, which also fielded Compacts, as the crew had for their 2019 and 2020 successes. Paul Hinson had a heavy off at Copse, causing one of six safety car periods, while multiple Hot Hatch champion David Drinkwater’s version regularly overheated, leaving Adam Read to do much of the driving. The Routec squad had better fortune,…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 29 OCTOBER Porsche Club GB and the Clubmans Register enjoy histories that date back to the 1960s and, though operating within contrasting areas of the club scene, share the attributes of not only producing well-supported grids but also delivering heart and soul to the paddock. This was in evidence at the finals weekend for both last Saturday at Donington Park. The Porsche Club championship hosts a combined grid of former Cup cars, Caymans, and Boxsters, split into two classes. New to the championship this year, Colin Tester (in a Class 2 Boxster) arrived heading the overall standings, but it was the battles and rivalries at the front of the Class 1 grid that stole the show. Rain overnight meant Simon Clark (996) and Pete Morris (997) were…

The Jaguar XJR-12 shared by Davy Jones, Raul Boesel and Michel Ferte is resplendent in its cigarette-brand livery en route to runner-up spot in the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours, topping a 2-3-4 finish for TWR. While the Jaguars were at a disadvantage on pace – “The car’s run really nice,” said Jones after a stint, “but fuel’s tight and it’s definitely the most difficult year we’ve had to set a pace to the fuel” – reliability was key as first Peugeot’s then Mercedes’ efforts fell apart. The Big Cats certainly couldn’t catch the victorious rotary-engined Mazda 787B of Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

“Turks has got to be up there. If you want to win the British Touring Car Championship, you have to beat Colin in that BMW.” Andrew Jordan fought West Surrey Racing stablemate Colin Turkington throughout the 2019 BTCC and fell just two points short of a second crown, so it’s perhaps no surprise that he picks the Northern Irishman as his top team-mate. Jordan took six wins to Turkington’s five but a pointless Donington Park event following a race-one crash and his colleague’s consistency made the difference. “I felt I had the measure of him in 2019, but he always made you dig deep and his preparation was always very good,” adds 2013 title winner Jordan. “I drive a lot more on feel, he’s more analytical.” The title fight got…

FORMULA 1 Audi has confirmed that Sauber will serve as its works partner for its entry to Formula 1 from 2026, buying a stake in the Swiss team. Audi announced back in August at the Belgian Grand Prix that it would be joining the F1 grid from 2026 with a power unit under the new regulations, but fell short of confirming which team it would work with. The tie-up with Sauber was widely accepted as one of the worst-kept secrets in the F1 paddock, but the news finally went public last week as Audi named the team as its “strategic partner”. Sauber has confirmed that Audi will buy shares in the team and, while it did not explain any specifics, it is thought this could run as high as 75%.…

P38 FERRARI’S NEW LE MANS ERA Ferrari launched its new Le Mans Hypercar at Imola last weekend ahead of the marque’s return to top-flight sportscar racing in next year’s World Endurance Championship. The hybrid prototype, unveiled in a livery mimicking that in which its lead 312 PB raced in 1972-73, will be known as the 499P in reference to the capacity of one of the cylinders of its V6 twin-turbo engine. The wraps came off the car on Saturday evening at the Finali Mondiali Ferrari ‘world finals’ and then Alessandro Pier Guidi took to the track on Sunday.…

Back in the spring, with the new ground-effects cars finally revealed, Autosport wondered: what kind of champion would Max Verstappen be? Well, it’s clear Verstappen absolutely hasn’t lost drive and determination. That was obvious from his early 2022 fights with Charles Leclerc and could be heard in his public frustration with Red Bull’s early issues. The evidence suggests that Verstappen has raced Leclerc differently in 2022 compared to Lewis Hamilton last year. But clearly he hasn’t faced as stern a test this time compared to the battle of 2021. But Verstappen has showed flashes of his previous ruthlessness, specifically at Silverstone. Then there was the brief re-emergence of the haste that occasionally took over Verstappen early in his F1 career in his botched pass on Lando Norris in Singapore. But…

Expectations of a thrilling contest were high heading into Formula 1’s 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix. Dominant title winner Max Verstappen may have secured a sixth pole of his campaign of campaigns, but there was a serious threat from two rival cars in between him and team-mate Sergio Perez on the grid. Plus, this race had not been won from pole in six years, the long run to Turn 1 making things harder for the polesitter punching the first hole through the air having much to do with that stretch. The boisterous crowd and a colourful grid set-up charged the atmosphere, with Perez’s every move applauded and chanted. But it was the possibility of Mercedes taking a first 2022 victory that made this race so different to the 19 that…

Pierre Gasly will be skating on thin ice until May next season. The AlphaTauri racer is just two licence points short of a race ban after his five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while battling Lance Stroll. The 11th-place finisher was particularly frustrated he wasn’t told to drop back behind the Aston Martin. Gasly said: “If you are not happy about it, tell me to give the position back, and then I will try again. I wasn’t given any comments, so that is a shame. [The FIA] just need to say it on the radio. That is what they have done in the past. For some reason, not this time.” Stroll finished 15th, one spot behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel – the German having nursed his starting…

Veteran Tom Coronel took a controlled victory in the Touring Car race to send the Netherlands home with two gold medals. After triumphing in the qualifying race, Belgium’s Gilles Magnus led the opening lap from pole before his Audi RS3 LMS slowed with a broken driveshaft. That handed the lead to fellow Audi man Coronel, who added to the gold won by his countryman Nathan Ottink in the Cross Car Junior event. Ireland’s Jack Young lost two places on the opening lap, but soon reclaimed third from Argentina’s Ignacio Montenegro with a strong move over the kerbs. He then got his elbows out once more to muscle his way past Frenchman Teddy Clairet, who eventually retired. Young halved a 2.5s deficit to Coronel by the finish in his Honda Civic…

The expectations were high for James Baldwin, who arrived as the pre-event favourite in Esports and Team United Kingdom’s best hope of a gold medal. And he delivered emphatically, winning his quarter-final by more than half a minute before passing Brazil’s Igor Rodrigues to triumph again in the semi-finals, earning him pole for the final. The highly successful Esports star and former British GT racer prevailed in a three-wide battle at the rolling start with Chris Harteveld (Netherlands) and Martin Kadlecik (Czech Republic) to lead into Turn 1. Kadlecik spun after contact with Harteveld, and then was collected by Rodrigues. Harteveld remained on the tail of Baldwin for the first half of the hour-long contest, the front two pulling clear of Spain’s Alberto Garcia Gomez and Australia’s Philippa Boquida. Cheered…

GT CUP Gold France Eric Debard/Simon Gachet (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo) Silver Germany Valentin Pierburg/Fabian Schiller (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo) Bronze United Kingdom Ian Loggie/Sam Neary (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo) GT SPRINT Gold Australia Matt Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3-R) Silver Italy Mirko Bortolotti (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo) Bronze Belgium Dries Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS Evo II) TOURING CAR Gold Netherlands Tom Coronel (Audi RS3 LMS) Silver Spain Isidro Callejas (Cupra Leon) Bronze Ireland Jack Young (Honda Civic Type R) F4 Gold Italy Andrea Kimi Antonelli Silver Portugal Manuel Espirito Santo Bronze Spain Bruno Del Pino Ventos HISTORIC RALLY Gold Italy Andrea Zivian/Nicola Arena (Audi Quattro) Silver Czech Republic Vojtech Stajf/Frantisek Rajnoha (Opel Kadett Coupe) Bronze Spain Antonio Sainz/David de la Puente (Porsche 911SC) RALLY2 Gold France Mathieu Arzeno/Romain Roche (Skoda Fabia) Silver Spain…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SURFERS PARADISE (AUS) 29-30 OCTOBER ROUND 12/13 Shane van Gisbergen and Triple Eight sealed both Supercars titles on the streets of Surfers Paradise. Van Gisbergen went into the Gold Coast 500 needing to finish just 24th or better in one race to put a third Supercars crown beyond doubt. But there was nothing conservative about his approach to the penultimate round of the season, van Gisbergen winning both races to secure the drivers’ title for himself and the teams’ title for Triple Eight. In Saturday’s opener van Gisbergen began by shadowing David Reynolds before executing a race-winning pass on lap 16. From there he charged to a decisive victory ahead of an exhausted Reynolds, who had to battle with a faulty cool suit. Sunday’s race was rocked by…

The stars have aligned for Ferrari. It is heading back to the very pinnacle of sportscar racing after a 50-year absence in the centenary year of the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2023. Those anniversaries were not lost on the Italian manufacturer when it sat around the table as new rules began to be thrashed out back in the spring of 2018 for what we are now billing as a golden era. But it was the realisation of what was to come – just how big sportscars can become once again – that tipped Ferrari into bringing to an end its long hiatus from the big time in endurance. “All the numbers have come in a magic moment,” says Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s sportscar racing boss and the architect of its…

The arrival of hybrid in the British Touring Car Championship for 2022 may have resulted in grumbling from those who couldn’t get it to work consistently, but the side-effect of hybrid-use restrictions replacing the old system of success ballast was a definite winner. Time and again, we saw the top drivers battling it out on track, and that’s exactly as it should be. “I remember the 2018 season,” says Tom Ingram. “Colin [Turkington] and I were going for the championship, but I don’t think we raced wheel to wheel all year. You end up yo-yoing, you end up being ships in the night. You’d see each other very rarely and then in race three it would be, ‘Hi there’. But this year, most weekends, the top four of us have…

Dominant. There is no other way to describe Alex Dunne’s performances in British Formula 4 this year as he achieved results not even current/future F1 drivers Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri were able to register in the series. Having won twice and stormed from ninth to second in the partially reversed-grid race at the Donington Park opener, seemingly the only question was whether Dunne would wrap up the first title in the series’ new era in time to also contest the Italian round at Monza on the weekend of the Brands Hatch finale. The answer was sort of. Although Dunne had not officially clinched the crown with an event to spare, Oliver Gray needed the most incredible weekend in F4 history to dethrone Dunne and the Irishman therefore still headed…

Facing backwards on the approach to the Complex at Thruxton having been spun by a rival is normally the end of a driver’s victory hopes. Not for Ginetta Junior champion Josh Rowledge with this moment in the third race at the Hampshire speedbowl, when he fought back to win, encapsulating the tenacity he showed across the campaign. Whenever he faced a setback, he never let it faze him. Whether that was a disappointing qualifying – on seven occasions he was outside the top six with the new high-pressure format restricting the teenagers to just three laps to register two grid-setting times – or contact that dropped him down the order, Rowledge always seemed to find a way to bounce back. It was just one factor that helped Rowledge take the…

FF1600 Two-time Walter Hayes Trophy winner Michael Moyers will compete in this weekend’s event at the wheel of a Simon Hadfield Motorsport-run Medina. Moyers, who took back-to-back victories at the Silverstone-based contest in 2017 and 2018 with a Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum, had initially intended to step away from Formula Ford after last year’s event. But plans to move into historic racing have failed to materialise, and a discussion to race at the WHT with a view to potential further outings was too good to resist. “The main thing is it’s a foot in the door with a team that runs lots of historic cars,” said Moyers, who hasn’t raced since the WHT last year. “I spoke with James Hadfield and he explained about a project they were putting together…

SHARP TOPS BRITISH F4 TEST Race winner Louis Sharp topped the timesheets of British Formula 4’s two-day Snetterton ‘New Driver’ test last week. Carlin racer Sharp, fourth in this year’s standings, was one of five 2022 drivers taking part, also including fellow winner Daniel Guinchard – who switched from Argenti to Virtuosi. Among the notable new names were Ginetta Junior racers Freddie Slater (second fastest for Carlin), Will Macintyre and Kanato Le (both Hitech). GOLLIN BROTHERS RETURN After five years away from racing, brothers Josh and Nathaniel Gollin returned to action at Cadwell Park last weekend. The pair, Fiesta race winners, drove their dad’s Caterham Academy car to 15th in the 40-minute Magnificent Sevens race before Josh – having returned to the UK after spending three-and-a-half years in Australia –…

BIRKETT RELAY Le Mans racer Martin Short and European Le Mans Series champion Rob Garofall shared Short’s newly acquired Chevrolet Lumina V8 in the Birkett Six Hour Relay race at Silverstone last weekend, forming part of the Very Random Racers squad that finished 40th on handicap. “I saw it on Facebook two weeks ago – it has a Chevrolet engine in, like the Mosler, so it appealed to me and was a bit of a bargain,” said Short. “It raced in a one-make series in Bahrain in about 2005, and its previous owner restored it to its original condition. It needs a bit of work because it is awesome in the wet, but terrible in the dry.” Short – who previously raced in the Birkett in a Rover 216 GTI…

HISTORICS Larger grids and a wider variety of categories will shape next year’s Thruxton Historic event, to be curated by the circuit itself following the end of its multi-year partnership with Motor Racing Legends. Circuit manager Pat Blakeney – himself an ex-Historic Formula 1 racer – is committed to broadening the 17-18 June fixture’s appeal in celebrating the UK’s fastest track’s legacy since 1968. “We are only able to host six meetings a year, so the opportunity to race here doesn’t come along all the time,” said Blakeney. “As a result, we have had some really exciting approaches from championships, series and groups who would like to come here next year as a one-off. “We’re not so concerned with the ‘Historic’ label. It’s more important to get a quality retro…

CADWELL PARK CSCC 29 OCTOBER In challenging conditions at Cadwell Park, Rich Webb chased down Stephen Nuttall to snatch a Magnificent Sevens victory for himself and Dave Watson before Nuttall hit back in the sprint race. Watson led away on a greasy track but polesitter Nuttall pounced in the Hall Bends. Watson’s Spire RB7 then shadowed the leading Caterham Supersport until a spin cost him around 15 seconds. Pitstops complete, Nuttall now held a lead of 13s over Webb with less than half of the 40-minute race remaining. A series of quick laps from Webb on the drying track slashed the deficit and, as Nuttall tried in vain to respond on worn wet tyres, Webb swept ahead at Coppice on the final tour. “I didn’t have a lot left to…

CAMBRIAN RALLY BRC 28-29 OCTOBER With six rounds down of the British Rally Championship, only two drivers had taken wins during the 2022 season. But, with both victors – champion Osian Pryce and runner-up Keith Cronin – electing to skip the series finale, there would be a chance for a new generation of BRC stars to shine at the Cambrian Rally last weekend. Whoever took a maximum score in the world-class North Wales forests would be a first-time BRC winner and, while the champions had been decided in Yorkshire in September, there was plenty at stake for the BRC1 hopefuls. Axed Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Oliver Solberg would also contest the event in a Volkswagen Polo R5, giving the series contenders the perfect benchmark. Two closed-road asphalt tests in…