Innholdsfortegnelse for 02/11/23 i Autosport

It doesn’t seem that long ago (but is actually 20 years) that the length of a Formula 1 season was firmly 16 grands prix. But that’s now the record for victories in a championship campaign thanks to Max Verstappen’s latest success in the Mexican GP. As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on (appropriately enough) page 16, there were a number of potential challengers to Verstappen, but each found a different problem that proved too difficult to overcome. Although the likelihood of any of them actually having the pace to beat the #1 Red Bull is highly questionable… In such a season of domination, it’s common to look to the second driver of the best car to provide some opposition. The fact that Sergio Perez has failed to do that…

FORMULA 1 Formula 2 star Ollie Bearman “didn’t put a foot wrong” as he led the five rookies taking part in FP1 at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix. That was the glowing verdict from Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner, who added that he was “very happy” with the Ferrari junior and 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award finalist for cleanly guiding Kevin Magnussen’s car to 15th, 0.345 seconds slower than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. The rising stars were assigned varied tyre run plans – disguising their true pace – as teams minimise the risk while they fulfil the FIA rule to run a rookie in both cars during a season. Isack Hadjar was next-best and clocked 17th for AlphaTauri. Jack Doohan ran the Alpine to 18th ahead…

FORMULA E Mitch Evans and Jaguar set the pace in Formula E pre-season testing at Valencia last week before a battery fire put the rest of the event in doubt. The Kiwi had gone quickest in the opening three-hour session on Tuesday morning at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo when a small explosion and subsequent fire occurred in the garage of battery supplier WAE (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering). The paddock was evacuated, with one person taken to hospital for precautionary checks, while an investigation was carried out by the FIA and WAE. This meant no running took place on Wednesday. The FIA explained that “there was an arc flash and some sparking” from the battery, removed from the DS Penske of Robert Shwartzman, who had come to a stop on track.…

UK START TIMES Friday 3 November FP 1430 QUALIFYING 1800 Saturday 4 November SPRINT QUALIFYING 1400 SPRINT RACE 1830 Sunday 5 November RACE 1700 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 2235 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors INTERLAGOS STATS Previous winners 2022 POLE POSITION Kevin Magnussen 1m11.674s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m07.281s (2018) RACE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m10.540s (2018) Laps led…

Another Mexican Grand Prix is in the books, another Max Verstappen victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and, for the second year in succession, the Mexico City track has played host to the Dutchman securing a new record for victories in a single Formula 1 season. Really, Verstappen won two races last Sunday – the 71-lap GP effectively split in two almost equal parts by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen’s big crash. Once again, Verstappen looked effortlessly better than the rest. But is there a case to be made that Verstappen might have had to work harder had just a few things gone differently in what ultimately turned out to be his fifth Mexican F1 win? Was there a rival who could have beaten him on the day? Well, at least…

Damage to Fernando Alonso’s car hampered an already off-colour Aston Martin in Mexico as the British squad endured a miserable weekend that resulted in a double retirement. Indications from the team were that Alonso’s machine had been afflicted by debris from the Turn 1 clash between Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc, which relegated the two-time champion into a bit-part role before retiring on lap 47. “It is hard; we are working as much as we can,” Alonso pondered after the race. “It’s not that we are just happy with the situation, and it’s not the position we wish we were, but at the same time we are working very hard to reverse the situation.” Alonso had allowed team-mate Lance Stroll to go past as the Canadian sought to make up…

Alfa Romeo got both its cars into the top 10 in qualifying, but fell out of the points when the red flag dented a one-stop strategy with both cars. Zhou Guanyu remained in the points beyond the first lap, although Valtteri Bottas went wide in the opening corners and dropped from ninth to 12th. Although Bottas made up ground when he went long on his opening set of medium tyres, a pitstop on lap 31 cost track position by the time the red flag for Kevin Magnussen’s crash had emerged. He moved up to 13th on the restart to join the Alpines in battling Nico Hulkenberg, putting pressure on Pierre Gasly ahead, but towards the end of the race came under fire from the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll. Bottas…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SURFERS PARADISE (AUS) 28-29 OCTOBER ROUND 11/12 It may have taken 10 rounds and two parity adjustments, but Ford fans finally got to enjoy a double 2023 Supercars success after two hard-fought battles on the streets of the Gold Coast. After taking pole position, Cameron Waters prevailed in Saturday’s 300km race in his Tickford Mustang GT, while on Sunday it was the turn of Grove Racing’s David Reynolds to fight off a Chevrolet Camaro all the way to the flag. Both wins came after intense late-race battles. Waters just held out a charging Shane van Gisbergen (Triple Eight), while Reynolds fought a lengthy battle with points leader Brodie Kostecki to repass the Erebus Motorsport driver in the closing laps. The Mustang’s third and fourth wins of the season…

MOTOGP BURIRAM (THA) 29 OCTOBER ROUND 17/20 Three points separated Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin at the top of the standings at the beginning of MotoGP’s October triple-weekender. At its conclusion, the gap is 13, but the story goes much deeper. Pramac Ducati rider Martin arrived at last weekend’s Thai Grand Prix under scrutiny. In Indonesia, he’d crashed out while leading the Sunday race comfortably. In Australia, an unnecessary tyre gamble meant he fell from an easy lead to fifth on the final lap. Reigning champion Bagnaia capitalised on both occasions to pull his lead out to 27 points before Buriram. But the pendulum would swing again on Saturday in the sprint race. Martin converted pole to victory, his fifth sprint success in a row, while Bagnaia could do no…

The Autosport Awards are back next month for the 36th time, with the ceremony taking place at its usual venue of the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane on Sunday 3 December. But we can’t do it without our readers. By now you’ll know our opinions on the stars of 2023, but this time we’re listening to you. So 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, International Competition Car of the Year, and Rally Driver of the Year. You can vote for the candidate you think performed best in each category during the season. The winners will be…

GINETTA JUNIOR Sim racer Jude Peters has been named as the winner of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship for 2024 and has secured a fully funded season. Sixty drivers took part across last month’s three-day event, which included driving, fitness and media assessments. Judges included 2017 scholarship winner and two-time Ginetta champion Adam Smalley, plus fellow Junior alumni Jack Mitchell, Max Coates, Ben Green and Scott McKenna. “I really wasn’t expecting to win the Scholarship,” said Peters. “We came along thinking it would be a good opportunity for me to gain experience in the car, with the media and the fitness, but we never thought about winning it. I’m so happy to have won. “I will be looking to represent Ginetta in a professional way, do the best I can through…

BIKESPORTS Tim Harmer’s Revelation LF2R sports-racer made a dream race debut at Silverstone last Sunday, finishing fourth overall in the opening 750 Motor Club Bikesports race and winning class A for cars with modified engines. Lessons learned from Harmer’s cost-effective Revelation single-seaters – of which a dozen have been made since 2005 – have shaped the prototype, which was started six years ago although other priorities delayed its completion. A devastating battery fire during testing at Blyton, where Harmer is a leading driver coach, set the project back, but the former 750MC Kit Car champion from Bradford has bounced back stronger. “I wanted to be out regularly this year but the LF2R is evolving,” he said. “We have moved away from the [Honda] Fireblade engines and are now using DayTuner…

HSCC The Historic Sports Car Club has revealed its provisional 2024 calendar. This features an earlier August date for the Croft Historic Race Weekend (to avoid clashes) but does not have a spring Silverstone Grand Prix visit. While staple meetings such as the Brands Hatch Super Prix and Oulton Park Historic Gold Cup are part of the schedule, the club has opted not to run an event on the Silverstone GP layout, as it traditionally does for the International Trophy, amid rising circuit hire costs. It will, however, still hold its October finals on the National circuit. “We’ve got some good events, starting off with Snetterton [on 20-21 April],” said HSCC CEO Andy Dee-Crowne. “The disappointment is we’re not going to the Silverstone GP circuit, but we have to look…

HISTORICS The Algarve Classic weekend started in glorious sunshine at the Portimao circuit, although by Sunday the weather was more familiar for the large contingent of British drivers in action. Crowd favourites, the Formula 1 Legends, were among three Masters Historic Racing grids in action and raced twice on Saturday. Werner d’Ansembourg took his first pole in a Brabham BT49 and, after initially dropping a few places, he fought back to finish second behind the Ligier JS21 of Soheil Ayari in the opener. Nick Padmore topped the pre-1978 class in a Lotus 77. Ken Tyrrell won the sequel in his Tyrrell 011, with d’Ansembourg finishing second again despite starting seventh. Pre-1978 was won by Marco Werner (Lotus 76), in third overall. The Endurance Legends also had two races on Saturday.…

SILVERSTONE 750MC 29 OCTOBER Of several title races that went to the wire on Sunday, the 750 Motor Club’s 35th and final 2023 race day, Hot Hatch’s was closest. Six aspirants had a chance of glory, but it was BMW Compact maestro David Drinkwater who denied Martyn Paget Class C and secured the overall crown for a fifth successive year! Missing Brands Hatch in May left Drinkwater playing catch-up, without the safety of another slip in the contest in which each driver counts 14 of 16 results. Dan Silvester beat Dan Brown – in similar Honda K24-powered Civic EGs – to both victories and seasonal Class A honours. Silvester carved through the Alfa Romeo grid in the wet morning race, which finished behind a safety car after Adam Chafer’s Peugeot…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 28 OCTOBER Ted Bradbury, joined by Ginetta Junior frontrunners Reza Seewooruthun and Mikey Porter, made Fun Cup history as they became the youngest winners in the category with a combined age of 49. The trio took victory in the one-hour sprint race, from MJ Tec’s Scott Jeffs/Will Abraham and Team Olympian’s Chris Dovell/Kristian Rose/Riley Phillips. But it was the three-hour enduro that finally settled the title. It came down to a five-lap sprint after a safety car, as Scott Fitzgerald led for UVio/Hofmann’s from JPR’s Porter, Team Viking/Ursus Capital’s Jonny Hoad, Axiametrics’s Neil Burroughs and Signature RV’s Marcus Clutton. Three abreast through Shell four laps from home, Hoad had the lead from Clutton and Porter, after Burroughs received a stop/go penalty and Fitzgerald lost his power steering.…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner has maintained throughout this protracted period of poor form for Sergio Perez that the team will honour all contracts and retain the Mexican for 2024. But speculation surrounding Perez’s future has only intensified following his first-corner tangle with Charles Leclerc on home ground last weekend, when he attempted to immediately recover from fifth on the grid to vie for victory. Perez positioned his car on the outside of the polesitting Ferrari of Leclerc, who had the rapid-launching Max Verstappen to his inside. As Perez turned into the righthander, he clipped Leclerc’s front-left wheel and was vaulted into the air. He recovered to the pits for inspection and wanted to resume, but the car was swiftly retired due to extensive damage. Perez’s…

SUPER FORMULA Ukyo Sasahara escaped one of Japanese racing’s scariest-looking crashes of recent years with no more than a concussion in last weekend’s Super Formula finale at Suzuka. TOM’S driver Sasahara was involved in a terrifying high-speed collision with the Nakajima Racing car of Hiroki Otsu at 130R as the pair diced over 17th place on the fourth lap of the first race of the weekend on Saturday. Such was the ferocity of Sasahara’s impact with the barriers at the famous left-hander that his car was launched up and over the catchfencing before tumbling all the way down to the start of the Degner Curves, near the lower part of Suzuka’s crossover. The race was immediately red-flagged and had to be abandoned due to the damage to the catchfencing, which…

Ferrari has taken the wraps off a trackday version of its Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Le Mans Hypercar. The 499P Modificata boasts a combined output of 830bhp from its hybrid powertrain, compared with the 700 of the race version. No price has so far been released for a car that will be run on behalf of its owners by the Italian manufacturer’s Corse Clienti department. MULLER BACK IN PEUGEOT Nico Muller will return to the Peugeot line-up at the Bahrain World Endurance Championship round this weekend after recovering from the undisclosed injuries that ruled him out of Fuji in September. The Swiss takes up his place alongside Loic Duval and Gustavo Menezes in the #94 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar. ILOTT SPLITS WITH JHR British IndyCar racer Callum Ilott has parted…

“I had a very good start and I was only thinking of winning the race. I didn’t want to be on the podium.” Sergio Perez’s attitude after his Turn 1 crash with Charles Leclerc in last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix was excellent. His thinking was clear and engaging, his move not to blame Leclerc on a weekend where there was significant tension around driver rivalry and ensuing fan response was classy. Going for the lead from fifth on the grid with a lightning start, allied to a win-or-bust desire, is exactly what we want from a driver racing in one of F1’s few top seats. That it happened at that driver’s home race, with hundreds of thousands of adoring fans packing in over the weekend, adds a wonderful romantic tinge…

No one knew quite what was going on. After Max Verstappen had swept all three practice sessions in Mexico City, topped Q1, and been so confident in Q2 that he’d needed only one run to progress just behind Lewis Hamilton, the Dutchman was the clear favourite for pole position. Then came Q3 and Ferrari’s miraculous turnaround. The red pair had been sixth and ninth in Q2, Carlos Sainz only just squeaking through after a Turn 4 lock-up, but they shot to the front on the first Q3 runs. Suddenly, Leclerc led with a 1m17.166s, up on Hamilton’s Q2 1m17.571s and Verstappen’s Q1 1m18.099s. Sainz was just 0.067 seconds in arrears and Verstappen 0.12s back. What was going on? Well, the temperatures had dipped, the heat diminishing steadily as late afternoon…

The two clashes between Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda in the Mexican Grand Prix were adjudged to be racing incidents, with Piastri shrugging off floor damage while Tsunoda was tipped into a spin. The Japanese AlphaTauri driver’s effort to pass Piastri’s McLaren for seventh through Turns 1-2-3 on lap 48 of 71 ended with a smidgen of contact between the two, and the Australian ultimately held the position. Tsunoda hit back on the following lap and chopped across Piastri, precipitating further contact to leave the AlphaTauri in the weeds. “I’m not really sure what happened; I was just braking and then we touched wheels, so nothing really more than that,” Piastri reckoned. It put a dampener on Tsunoda’s initially impressive run from the back of the grid. He became the…

NASCAR CUP MARTINSVILLE (USA) 29 OCTOBER ROUND 35/36 Ryan Blaney pulled off a surprise win at Martinsville Speedway to provide him with the opportunity to race for the NASCAR Cup title for the first time. Blaney and several other lead-lap contenders played it safe by waiting to make their final pitstop well within their fuel window, while Aric Almirola was among those who pitted earlier, hoping there would be one or more late cautions. Instead, the race ended with an unusual 168-lap green-flag run and Blaney, with fresher tyres on his Team Penske Ford, eventually ran down Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to take the lead for the final time with 22 of 500 laps to go. Blaney easily held Almirola at bay the rest of the way, and cleared him…

LEGENDS Legends will again support the British Touring Car Championship at three events next season as the category celebrates its 30th anniversary. While there will continue to be awards for the BTCC-only three-round Elite Cup contest, these events will also count towards the main Legends championship. The Legends are due to feature at the first two BTCC events of the campaign – Donington Park on 27-28 April and Brands Hatch on 11-12 May – alongside again visiting Knockhill in August. Outside of these fixtures, there will be four other meetings for the Legends, which includes the popular American SpeedFest at Brands Hatch in June, and the season will culminate at Oulton Park at the end of September. “This season seemed to go well,” said Legends championship owner Phil Cooper of…

HISTORICS Gregor Marshall was reunited with his late father Gerry’s Triumph Dolomite Sprint production saloon car in the recent Historic Racing Drivers Club Gerry Marshall Trophy race at Silverstone. Gerry Marshall raced the distinctive Triplex-liveried car to two production titles in 1978 before selling it to David Yates. It was then acquired by Irish racer Reg Tuthill, who placed it in storage in 1986. “Reg and his son Jason decided about five years ago to restore it and Ken Clarke [ex-TWR] got involved to check it was the original,” said Marshall Jr. “He rubbed the bodywork right back to find it was blue underneath. Only when we found the original Autosport article [of when Marshall Sr bought the car], which showed it was blue when dad bought it just after…

BIRKETT RELAY HANDICAP 1 RAF Motor Sport: Alexander Smith (Honda Integra Type R), Alex Waldeck (Peugeot 306 S16), James Flint (Ford Fiesta ST150), David Russell (BMW 328i), Simon Frowen (Ginetta G20) 156 laps (128+28 credit); 2 Area Motorsport: Josh Files, Cameron Elder, Rob Baker (Honda Civic Type Rs), Bradley Burns (Renault Clio Cup), Luke Handley (Audi TT) 156 (135+21); 3 The 3 Amigos: Paul Hinson, David Drinkwater, Adam Read (BMW Compacts) 155 (129+26); 4 Team 348: Simon Hopcroft-Lopez, Freddie Tatham, Matthew Highcock (BMW 116is) 155 (119+36); 5 Mazda Misfits: David Brown, James McCann, Stephen Reed (Mazda MX-5s); Stephen Reece (Lotus Elise 111R) 155 (122+33); 6 Ashgood Porsche Specialists with CAP: Andrew Duce, Richard Neall, William and Mike Curtler, John Westbrook (Porsche Boxster Ss) 155 (122+33). SCRATCH 1 RSR Motorsport: John…

CAMBRIAN RALLY BRC 27-28 OCTOBER With the newly crowned British Rally champion Adrien Fourmaux away on World Rally Championship duties, the Cambrian Rally was the perfect opportunity for Garry Pearson to take his maiden BRC win. Tom Cave claimed overall bragging rights on the Cambrian but, not being registered, the top BRC score went to Pearson. Cave had made his rallying return in fine style to take victory by 21.5 seconds over Pearson’s similar VW Polo GTI R5. Leading from the outset, Cave proved to dominate the timesheets aside from a scratch time from Pearson on the last test. “It’s been a really enjoyable day, it feels good,” said Cave. “I was really nervous this morning, more than I have ever been, so I’m thrilled to get the win.” Pearson…

On an autumnal Sunday a few weeks ago at Loton Park, Scott Moran climbed out of a top-flight hillclimb car for perhaps the final time to end his career at the top of the sport. Though this is far from retirement for the Ludlow driver, it signalled the end of an era that took him to six British Hillclimb Championship titles, and run-off victory stats that will go unbeaten for a long time. Now 47 years old, Moran had decided that the time demands of chasing a full British championship campaign were just too much to balance with family and business commitments. There is every chance that the younger Moran, 13-year-old Ollie, will soon make his first steps in the sport, following his father and grandad Roger in extending the…

VIDEO GAME EA SPORTS WRC PC, PlayStation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S RRP £44.99 Release date: 3 November 2023 EA Sports WRC sees Codemasters leaning on its previous rally game, DiRT Rally 2.0, (DR 2.0) to bring an all-encompassing World Rally Championship experience to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. All of the 2023 WRC season’s rallies are represented – last weekend’s Central European Rally arrives as a free, post-release DLC. The drivers, teams and liveries of the WRC, WRC2 and Junior WRC classes are all included – that’s an impressive 78 cars and 200+ stages. There are online modes such as Clubs, where you can set up and enter online rallies using EA’s companion Racenet app, and Moments, where you take on curated rally scenarios aiming for…

A nattily dressed official looks on as the Delage 15 S 8 shared by Robert Senechal and Louis Wagner is worked on in the pits during the inaugural RAC Grand Prix at Brooklands on 7 August 1926. The pair took victory despite intense heat causing them both problems. In the closing stages Wagner, in significant pain, was forced to stop frequently to dip his feet into water. Just three cars completed the full distance, the winning duo completing 110 laps in just over four hours. Malcolm Campbell was second in a Bugatti ahead of another Delage shared by Robert Benoist and Andre Dubonnet. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Alfa Romeo is prioritising a Super Formula seat in 2024 for its Formula 1 reserve Theo Pourchaire. The team will retain Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu next year, and establishing an expensive private test programme for Pourchaire, who will likely win the F2 title this month in Abu Dhabi, is not viewed as the best use of limited funds. As such, the Japanese flagship series is the target, although a World Endurance Championship programme is a fallback option for the Frenchman. Alfa F1 boss Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who placed Stoffel Vandoorne in Super Formula, said: “He needs to race… Super Formula is very competitive – we have seen different experiences with Stoffel in 2016, Pierre Gasly in 2017, and Liam Lawson this year. For me, it’s not important…

WEC The Porsche and Cadillac LMDhs have been given a weight break for the World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain this weekend. Their respective 963 and V-Series.R contenders will go to the grid 7kg lighter than originally anticipated. Series organisers have implemented a so-called ‘platform change’ to the Balance of Performance after the post-Le Mans 24 Hours Monza and Fuji rounds in July and September respectively, as per the new rules introduced for this year. This is designed to level the playing field between LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar machinery on the WEC grid. A Hypercar class BoP table was published for the Bahrain 8 Hours back in July after wholesale or ‘manufacturer’ revisions in the wake of Le Mans. Different values were assigned to the cars for each of…

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship’s autumn rule-changing spree has continued this week with a doubling of the turbo-hybrid boost allowance for 2024. The move comes after accusations that the racing had become more processional since the introduction of the Cosworth-supplied hybrid system in 2022. The old method of performance-balancing success ballast was jettisoned in favour of hybrid use restrictions for the leading drivers in the championship or preceding races. Autosport understands that the boost from use of the turbo-hybrid system has amounted to 30bhp during 2022 and 2023, meaning it will now increase to 60bhp on cars with an estimated base power output of 375bhp; in other words, a 16% boost. The change to the hybrid boost regulations comes on the back of last week’s revelation that the BTCC…

FORMULA 3 British Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad will make the leap up from Formula 4 to the FIA Formula 3 Championship next season with leading team Prema Racing. The 16-year-old (right) claimed third place in Italian F4 with Prema this year, his first full season of car racing. He joins Alpine Formula 1 protege Gabriele Mini and Ferrari Driver Academy prospect Dino Beganovic at the team. Mini topped both days of last week’s official post-season test at Imola. The Sicilian, runner-up in last year’s Formula Regional European rankings, competed with Hitech in his rookie season of F3. Swede Beganovic beat Mini to the Regional crown and remains on board at Prema for 2024. Mini set the fastest time at Imola on the first afternoon, eclipsing Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe…

My second season racing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship was probably not as good as I’d hoped at some points, but in the end second in the championship is not a bad result. I clawed back quite a few points on the leader [Gabriel Bortoleto], which was a nice way to end, so I can’t complain too much. I’d say in general the weekend in Hungary was a highlight as we had strong pace throughout. I was fastest in free practice and qualifying, and I won the feature race. It was a pretty enjoyable weekend and it’s a track that I really enjoy. We finished the season with the most wins – two feature races and two sprint races. I wouldn’t say it was one of my best seasons,…

There’s no doubting who the crowd packing the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is here to see. The huge cheers Sergio Perez receives in the Foro Sol stadium on his first lap out of the pits are repeated each time the home hero passes in FP1. Autosport arrives early on the outer edge of the former baseball complex for the one-hour session. As the drivers venture out, and Perez is getting the welcome he has no chance of hearing, we’re initially covered in a deluge of track surface mess. Whereas the new asphalt surfaces in Miami and Qatar have left Autosport faces silently streaked with grime in 2023, here we feel the various bits float down and cover our arms and notebook. “Zhou Guanyu and Lewis Hamilton are among the many having…

Alex Albon reckoned that the ground he made up at the standing restart was crucial to his points-scoring efforts in Mexico, because it meant he avoided the train stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg. Williams had kicked off the weekend strongly, with Albon claiming the second-fastest times in FP1 and FP3, but the hotter temperatures in qualifying and the race had affected the FW45 and put a premium on tyre management. Albon rocketed up to ninth on the restart. He later lost a place to Lando Norris, but gained one from Yuki Tsunoda’s clash with Oscar Piastri, and was not troubled over the final laps when the cars behind lost ground. “I don’t think I remember the last time I scored points and not had to defend from my position,” Albon said…

SUPER FORMULA SUZUKA (JPN) 28-29 OCTOBER ROUND 7/7 Toyota’s Ritomo Miyata was crowned Super Formula champion at the end of an eventful double-header finale at Suzuka. Second place in a shortened opening race on Saturday and third in the decider on Sunday was enough for him to claim the title ahead of Red Bull junior Liam Lawson by eight points. Saturday’s action was overshadowed by a huge crash at 130R involving Miyata’s TOM’S team-mate Ukyo Sasahara, who made contact with Nakajima Racing’s Hiroki Otsu. Sasahara’s car was launched up into the catchfencing, whereupon the monocoque (now separated from the engine and gearbox) cleared the fence and landed near the Degner Curves, plunging from the upper part of the famous Suzuka crossover to the lower part. The race was red-flagged and…

BRITISH GT FIA Formula 3 race winner Jonny Edgar has his sights set firmly on a future in GT3 and endurance racing after making his British GT Championship debut last month. The 19-year-old received a last-minute call-up on the Friday before the Donington Park season finale to race Garage 59’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo alongside Miguel Ramos. “The main thing for me was making sure that I got through the race and gained experience,” said Edgar, who finished 13th. “In general, when battling with cars, I was a being a little bit safe just because I wanted to make sure that I got through and obviously was still learning how big the car was and how you race in them. “You don’t want to get in the way of someone’s…

LYDDEN HILL A new event will be held at Lydden Hill next year celebrating the glory days of rallycross and rally machinery. Lydden Legend Festival will take place on 19-21 July and will follow in the footsteps of the Loheac Legend Festival held in France earlier this year and run in collaboration with the Rallycross Legends Show. Star names and international cars are set to appear at the event, while machinery and drivers from the Retro Rallycross Championship will be in action on both the circuit’s rallycross and Tarmac layouts. Lydden managing director Hannah Bennett said: “We had a fantastic taste of international period rallycross cars in action during our round of the World Rallycross Championship this year and, coupled with the success of other events elsewhere, especially Loheac Legends…

FF1600 Colin Turner is set to make a return to competing in the Walter Hayes Trophy this weekend, three years after he lost both legs following an accident in the Silverstone Formula Ford event. The indomitable Scot, who turns 73 on Sunday, has attended both WHTs in the interim, essentially to thank the marshals and medics who tended to him in the aftermath of the shunt, then supported him during his remarkable recovery. Having helped his pal and compatriot Neil Broome run his Ray GR17 at the 2021 WHT, then demonstrated Callum Grant’s Merlyn Mk20A to a fine reception from marshals during the Sunday lunch break last year, it’s a poignant step for Turner to be competing again this time around. “It’s a big weekend and I’m looking forward to…

HISTORIC RALLYING Former World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke completed a successful warm-up for the Roger Albert Clark Rally by tackling the Carlisle Stages at the end of last month in a Ford Escort Mk2 from Wales Motorsport. Meeke and co-driver Noel O’Sullivan contested the Kielder event as practice for the five-day marathon and as a chance to get accustomed to using organisers’ notes rather than making their own pacenotes. Meeke ended the day 14 seconds up on the next historic crew of Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke. “It’s been a useful day to be honest and I really enjoyed it,” said Meeke. “It was useful for many aspects and it gave us a lot of information to chew on. It was nice to be back in Kielder because it’s…

SILVERSTONE 750MC BIRKETT RELAY 28 OCTOBER The calmness under pressure, fastidious preparation and laser focus exemplified in their day jobs underpinned Royal Air Force personnel’s coveted handicap victory – their sixth since Ian Fletcher’s Team Flywheel hit its target in 2007 – over 69 rivals in last Saturday’s 750 Motor Club Birkett Six Hour Relay race at Silverstone. Three members of 2021’s winning squadron – Alexander Smith, David Russell (on a mission to prove sustainable fuel in his reliveried BMW 328i) and Simon Frowen (now in a Ginetta G20) – brought experience. Alex Waldeck and James Flint joined them on previous competitor Brian Watson’s watch as they also strove to defeat strong Army and Royal Navy teams. Although BMWs have superseded Caterhams as weapons of choice for many, the event…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 28-29 OCTOBER The most successful team in this year’s EnduroKa series, Pro-Am Racing, snatched a last-gasp victory in Sunday’s IndyKa 500 at Brands Hatch after more than eight hours of action in conditions that ranged from damp to torrential rain. For many laps, Nick Tandy’s JTR crew seemed on course for victory and to add to their success from 2019 but, with the Le Mans 24 Hours victor driving, their car shed a wheel just 15 minutes from the end. Tandy had been put under pressure after a late safety car – the 22nd intervention of the day by MotorSport Vision’s electric BMW – which brought Scott Thompson into contention for Pro-Am. Supporting roles by Lewis Selby and Elliot Mason built on the foundations established by Tandy…

There is no one who had quite the impact on the career of Helio Castroneves that Gil de Ferran did. The two Brazilians first met in the mid-1990s. Castroneves joined Paul Stewart Racing for British F3 in 1995 just as de Ferran left the squad’s F3000 operation for his rookie CART season, and they became team-mates in 2000 for a struggling Team Penske, which had failed to produce a win or pole in either of the previous two seasons in CART. At the time, de Ferran was already an accomplished race winner, while Castroneves was still seeking his maiden victory at that level. “When I was young, I never won a race and he sort of was battling for championships,” recalls Castroneves. “Finally I said, ‘I’ve got to follow this…