Innholdsfortegnelse for 23/11/23 i Autosport

The new-look Las Vegas Grand Prix was a mixed bag. The event was always going to struggle to live up to the pre-weekend hype, and the on-track problems that led to the damage of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, the delay of FP2 and ejection of fans (see pages 4 and 13) was a bad start. But when the proper action got going, the high-speed street circuit provided one of the better contests of 2023. What the event could really have done with was a shock winner, which by this season’s standards simply means a non-Red Bull. And, as Alex Kalinauckas explains in our in-depth report on p16, Charles Leclerc really should have won this one. Max Verstappen hasn’t needed much luck to take win after win this season but, just like…

FORMULA 1 The 2013 Mercedes Formula 1 car guided by Lewis Hamilton to his first race win for the team was sold in Las Vegas last weekend for £15.1million, a record price for modern-day grand prix machinery. The chassis in question was W04-04, aboard which Hamilton contested 14 of the 19 rounds and most notably won the Hungarian Grand Prix. He also drove it to third place in Malaysia, China and Belgium. In an event at Wynn’s Awakening Theater hosted by TV presenter James Corden, auction house RM Sotheby’s brought the hammer down at a touch under £14m, leaving the new owner with seven figures of tax and sale charges to cough up. That total comfortably exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £8-12m and surpassed the £10.7m paid this time last…

Many star names and key figures from McLaren’s history gathered in Hampshire earlier this month to celebrate 60 years of Britain’s most successful F1 team. Among those who attended the event organised by long-term McLaren employee Matthew Jeffreys and the team’s former sponsorship coordinator Richard West were Ron Dennis, who was guest of honour, Viviane and Bianca Senna, designers Gordon Coppuck, Steve Nichols, John Barnard and Adrian Newey, double world champion Mika Hakkinen, and Jo Ramirez. Poignantly, Hakkinen was introduced on-stage to Dr Jerome Cockings, credited as the principal first responder who saved the Finn’s life following his 1995 Australian Grand Prix qualifying crash.…

WRC Two-time and reigning World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera is to scale back to a part-time programme with Toyota for 2024. The 23-year-old Finn has penned a new multi-season deal with the Japanese manufacturer, but is set to drive only half the WRC rallies next year alongside co-driver Jonne Halttunen before a return to full-time competition in 2025. Rovanpera started driving rally cars when he was eight years old and rapidly rose up the lower categories before joining the WRC’s top flight with Toyota in 2020. The demands of the past few years have prompted the call to scale back his commitments for a season. “The past few years have been really good and we have been really successful so I’m really happy to continue with the team,” said Rovanpera.…

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was, really, the best race of the 2023 Formula 1 season so far. And with just the Abu Dhabi finale to go, that mantle is already nailed on. The key ingredients for last Saturday night’s engaging contest were these: an exciting track layout that favoured overtaking; controversy from the first-corner clash between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc; and a multi-team scrap for the first F1 victory in Vegas in 41 years. The setting was also key. The TV shots of cars running down the Vegas Strip were as spectacular as F1 had hoped, and very much hyped. But to be leaving Las Vegas on such a note stands in stark contrast to the feeling pervading the track at 8.49pm last Thursday. There was then instead…

Qualifying in Las Vegas had all of Charles Leclerc’s greatest hits. Stunning speed, the odd mistake, brutal self-assessment. In the end, though, the Ferrari driver was dominant. He’d led Q1 and Q2 convincingly, but Q3 was a rather different challenge. The opening segments had featured the drivers doing multiple laps to build temperature on the cool, slippery track surface, which was gripping up significantly as what was only the second live session of the day went on. The leaders were traversing the first two parts across both fresh and used soft tyres, which for Ferrari left them with two new sets for the finale. This had been building to a crescendo – particularly with last-gasp improvements down the order in Q1 and Q2 suggesting track position (to be last to…

Carlos Sainz labelled his efforts in Las Vegas as “a good comeback and damage limitation” after the Ferrari star was demoted to 12th on the grid following power unit penalties in the wake of his water valve cover incident in FP1. Sainz’s Turn 1 spin on cold tyres after tagging Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap made the recovery effort that much more difficult overall. Sainz reckoned that “he’d touched the brake, not even hit it, and the tyres were locked”, and likened the opening corner to “driving on ice”. Pitting early under the safety car undid much of the first-lap damage, and Sainz was in the ascendancy as others began to make their visits to the pitlane. That progress topped out while running fourth. George Russell stole a slipstream…

Lance Stroll matched his Brazilian Grand Prix result with a second successive fifth place, the Aston Martin driver making up 10 positions at the start to avoid the chaos ahead. Stroll took the opportunity to pit during the early safety car at the cost of five of those 10 positions, but moved through the order when others took their scheduled visits to the pitlane later on. He pitted again when the second safety car emerged to accept a similarly cheap stop, although a slightly slow tyre change cost him a place to Max Verstappen, and he was jumped by Alex Albon on the restart, but Stroll regrouped and fought his way back up to fifth. He was overtaken late on by George Russell, but got fifth back when the Mercedes…

Japan threw the proverbial kitchen sink at World Rally Championship crews as extreme changeable weather added to the already demanding rally of 10,000 corners. But the ‘four-seasons-in-one-day’ conditions failed to derail Elfyn Evans from delivering Toyota the home win it so craved. With Kalle Rovanpera and Toyota having wrapped up the respective drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in October, you could be forgiven for thinking that the WRC season finale in the land of the rising sun would be a relaxed dead rubber affair. It was anything but. After Toyota had suffered defeat to rival Hyundai on home soil last year, the pressure for the marque to win a rally held in its own back yard, Toyota City, was palpable. But the rally gods seemingly didn’t want to give in to…

MOTOGP LOSAIL (QAT) 19 NOVEMBER ROUND 19/20 One way or another, tyres are threatening to have a massive bearing on the outcome of the 2023 MotoGP world title. And that is a bad thing. If it’s not the threat of both Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin being hit with a time penalty for riding underneath the mandated minimum tyre pressures, it’s the possibility that one of them could be lumbered with a duff option. In the sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix, Bagnaia saw his first match point slip away from him when problems with his rear tyre meant he struggled to fifth, while Martin put in an imperious display for his eighth half-distance race win of the season. That cut the championship gap between them down to seven points…

Peugeot began the season with an abject performance at the Sebring 1000 Miles and ended it with the announcement over the weekend of the Bahrain finale that it was giving up on the avant-garde concept of the 9X8 LMH. In between times there were flashes of promise – a starring performance at Le Mans and a podium at Monza – but the conclusion reached by the French manufacturer was that the car as it stood couldn’t be competitive on a consistent basis. The near-50/50 weight distribution and the same size wheels and tyres all round that allowed it to opt against running a conventional rear wing put the traction-limited car at a disadvantage at all but the quickest circuits. The Balance of Performance never fully came to its rescue, even…

OBITUARY Tributes have been paid to Jake Cook, a former star of junior single-seater racing and later a leading driver coach, who has died aged 30. Cook’s family has a long history in the motoring and motorsport world. His grandfather, car dealership king Derek, raced single-seaters, including a Formula 1 Hesketh in the 1977 Shellsport series, while his aunt Paula competed in the British Touring Car Championship and his uncle David won the 1996 Formula Renault UK title. Cook Jr made an instant impression in his own car racing career, finishing second to Sarah Moore in the 2009 Ginetta Junior standings before making the move to single-seaters in British Formula Ford with Getem Racing. He also won governing body Motor Sports Association’s inaugural Young Driver of the Year award for…

MAGNIFICENT SEVENS The Classic Sports Car Club is making several tweaks to the regulations and format of its Magnificent Sevens series for next year in an attempt to boost its grids, including outlawing more expensive, softer tyres. Amid the majority of Caterham-based championships either moving or continuing to use Toyo R888R rubber ahead of the closure of the Avon factory, the CSCC has decided to follow suit and prevent drivers from using the Avon ZZR Extreme, ZZS RT7, Kumho V70 Soft and Supersoft tyres in Magnificent Sevens. This means drivers will not need to buy or run grippier tyres to challenge those at the front of the category. “Now, if you’ve got Toyos, you’ll be up against other cars on Toyos,” explained CSCC director Hugo Holder. “Anything that opens it…

WRL Two third places in the eight-hour enduros that comprised the World Racing League’s eastern championship finale at Sebring earlier this month marked a successful transition to modern racing by ambitious British historic team Barton Racing’s young protege Harry Barton. Fresh from victory in last month’s RAC Pall Mall Cup race at Silverstone in the team’s TVR Griffith, 2022 Historic Touring Car champion Barton, 21, and coach/mentor Nigel Greensall finished on the lead lap both days in Barton’s new Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo. “It’s an absolutely glorious machine,” said Greensall after the three-litre, 430bhp car (below) ran faultlessly over 492 laps of the brutal concrete WW2 airfield track in four days, the first two featuring testing and acclimatisation for Sebring debutant Barton. Tended by UK-based Geoff Steel Racing’s travelling…

GT4 An evolution of Ginetta’s G56 GT4 has been unveiled ahead of next season, with 20 cars set to be produced in 2024. Key changes include improvements to the cooling with a redesigned bonnet, as well as greater aerodynamic efficiency with a revised rear wing. Adjustments have also been made to the suspension, roll development, a higher platform height, and larger wheels and tyres on both axles. The car has been homologated for use in SRO series, including British GT, with half of the 20 cars set to be produced already reserved by existing customers. Ginetta director of motorsport Mike Simpson said: “The 2024 G56 GT4 Evo is an upgrade in every possible area. We have had many cars circulating in endurance racing in tough climates over the last few…

CIRCUIT RALLYING British Rallycross champion Patrick O’Donovan was a dominant winner of last weekend’s Cadwell Park Rally as he switched disciplines to make his rally debut on the second round of the Circuit Rally Championship. Partnered by Jack Morton, the pair guided their Hyundai i20 R5 to the quickest time on seven of the eight stages to take victory by 33 seconds. Paul Murro/Craig Simkiss led the initial pursuit with their Ford Fiesta R5, before reigning champions John Griffiths/Emma Morrison, also in a Fiesta R5, overcame a wrong tyre choice on the first two tests to consolidate second place from stage three, surviving a grassy run down the Gooseneck one stage from home. Despite an excursion onto the grass on stage six and hitting a bale chicane on the final…

Until Ryan Champion blended speed and consistency to win the 2021 event in a Porsche 911 from the Tuthill stable, the Roger Albert Clark Rally had been dominated by Ford Escorts, mainly Mk2s, across its 20-year history. And although Chris Ingram in the Triumph TR7 V8 and Seb Perez in a glorious Lancia Stratos will wow the fans, there is every probability that overall victory will return to the firm grasp of the Escort Mk2 hordes this year. With international stars Kris Meeke, Oliver Solberg and Osian Pryce all lining up in full-spec historic Mk2s alongside established Mk2 aces such as Martin McCormack, Jason Pritchard, Roger Chilman, Paul Barrett and Matthew Robinson, the Escort onslaught is ferocious. The ubiquitous BDG-engined Mk2 remains the weapon of choice in historic rallying, and…

FORMULA 1 In a Formula 1 season where the frequency of Max Verstappen scampering away from pole position has hurt the spectacle, last weekend’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix earned strong reviews for the on-track action. There was a protracted battle between Red Bull and Ferrari for the win, which inspired divergent strategies and a Turn 1 controversy, several changes for the lead, and a fine last-lap overtake. Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said: “When I look back: a spectacular race, great audiences, a mega event and some good racing at the front. That’s what I will remember of the inaugural Las Vegas race that ticked all of the boxes.” But it was Verstappen’s impassioned post-qualifying monologue that garnered more attention and praise. The three-time champion entered the Vegas weekend…

FORMULA 2 Toyota left observers of Japanese motorsport stunned on Monday when it revealed that Super Formula champion Ritomo Miyata will race in Formula 2 next season. Miyata, who at the age of 24 this year became the youngest driver to complete the Japanese ‘double’ when he added the Super GT title, will also contest the European Le Mans Series in the LMP2 class and serve as Toyota’s reserve in the World Endurance Championship. Toyota’s announcement confounded expectations that Miyata would be part of the new ASP Lexus LMGT3 effort in the WEC (see story below), while also revealing that he will not defend his Super Formula title with TOM’S next season. It is understood that the chance for Miyata to race in F2 came up shortly after he beat…

Jack Young missed out on the TCR China title last weekend in a bruising finale in Macau. The Northern Irishman held a six-point lead, but in the first race he picked up a puncture when he was forced into the wall while passing the stalled car of Honda team-mate Andre Couto. Ex-British F3 champion Martin Cao (above) won the race in his Hyundai to move into the series lead. Cao nearly undid all his good work in race two when he tried to pass both Couto and Yang Xiao Wei for third at Lisboa, and took himself and Couto out. Young was caught up in the traffic jam and fell to 12th, recovered to ninth, but went out in another incident. Max Hart went on to take his maiden series…

IMSA Sportscar stalwart Richard Westbrook has left the Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing World Endurance Championship squad to return to JDC-Miller Motorsports in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The move will put him back at the wheel of a Porsche, a decade and a half after he took his first steps in endurance racing with the German marque. Westbrook will team up in the JDC-Miller Porsche 963 LMDh for a full-season attack on IMSA’s GTP class with Tijmen van der Helm. They will be joined for the long-distance races that make up the Michelin-sponsored IMSA Endurance Cup by Phil Hanson, while two-time WEC GTE Am champion Ben Keating will join them at the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours in January. The move takes Westbrook back to JDC-Miller after an absence of only one season:…

“I will always have full respect for Honda. But now my mind is only on coming back to the top with Honda. Then of course if I cannot, because I feel like I don’t have the tools, I will try to find the best for me. And this is something that I already said to them.” On the eve of the 2022 Valencia Grand Prix, Marc Marquez sat down with Autosport to speak about the season just gone and his hopes of returning to the front of the MotoGP grid now he was fully recovered from his badly broken right arm in 2020. The above quote (published in the 22-29 December 2022 issue) was his response when asked, should Honda’s ongoing struggles not be resolved, whether he was already looking…

Formula 1 really doesn’t help itself at times. No, not the track breaking up in FP1. No, not the fans being booted out ahead of the delayed FP2. No, not the lack of an apology for the shambolic opening day. They are all bad – much worse, in fact – than what happens at the start of FP3. But it’s just typical. The clock finally ticks down to 8.30pm local time… and no cars leave the pits. It isn’t long before the McLaren pair are circulating. But a queue of drivers eager to get going wouldn’t go amiss. No wonder the crowd to Autosport’s back on the outside of Turn 7 cheers Oscar Piastri’s arrival heartily. It’s a mixture of ironic welcoming and escaping frustration turning to joy. Finally, the…

Lando Norris had to visit hospital following his bump-induced accident on lap three, but was discharged after a quick check-up. This left McLaren’s fortunes on the shoulders of Oscar Piastri, who produced an impressive run to 10th place to turn around a dismal qualifying performance for the Woking squad. Piastri managed to overcome a clash with Lewis Hamilton to soar into the upper reaches of the points, but the decision to start on the hard tyres had hurt the Australian, and progress throughout the race was stunted by the need to stop again for medium rubber. A late push resulted in fastest lap and a pass on Pierre Gasly to get into the top 10. “It’s a shame [to only finish 10th] as Oscar was absolutely brilliant,” said McLaren boss…

FIA GT WORLD CUP MACAU (CHN) 18-19 NOVEMBER Raffaele Marciello signed off on his seven-year tenure as a Mercedes driver in the finest possible style in Macau by becoming the first-ever repeat winner of the FIA GT World Cup. The Swiss-born Italian was unstoppable throughout both the 12-lap qualifying race and the 16-lap finale at the wheel of his Landgraf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, delivering the marque its fifth Macau GT triumph in a row (including the three non-FIA status races held during the COVID-19 pandemic) by 2.5 seconds ahead of Audi’s Edoardo Mortara. It was the perfect way for Marciello to conclude his time as a Mercedes driver ahead of his widely anticipated move to BMW in 2024. “We won so many things, the Macau wins, Spa [24 Hours], ADAC…

Humility. That was a word oft on the lips of the newcomers to the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class as the much-vaunted golden era of sportscar racing began in earnest. They would stay humble, insisted Ferrari, Porsche et al as they took on Toyota, the acknowledged king of the series. Prescient words they were, because the Japanese manufacturer swept all before it, winning six out of seven rounds. The one exception, however, was the race that truly mattered. Ferrari’s victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours was the story of the season. It wasn’t just that the most prestigious sportscar marque of them all triumphed in the centenary running of the French enduro on its comeback with a factory prototype after 50 years, nor that it was a thrilling race…

BRITISH F4 Nina Pothof, a gold medal winner in the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games, has become the latest driver announced as competing in British Formula 4 next year after signing a deal with Fortec Motorsport. The Dutch driver was previously an accomplished karter and took gold in the karting slalom event in the 2019 Games. She subsequently contested various European endurance races in a Citroen C1 and BMW 325i, but is now ready for the move to single-seaters and has already begun testing. “Nina is a talented young racer who has shone when she has been given opportunities, so we’re excited to see what we can achieve together throughout the season,” said Fortec team manager Ollie Dutton. “In particular, we will be focusing on her development and, while it will…

CCRC Shaun Deacon (W-A-S Racing Peugeot 106 GTI) collected the Driver of the Year trophy at the Castle Combe Racing Club’s annual awards dinner at Bristol’s Future Inn last Saturday. Deacon was the most successful Hot Hatch competitor in the category’s final year as a series before becoming a championship for 2024. Combe champions Jamie Sturges (GT, VW Golf TCR), Mike Good (Saloons, Vauxhall Corsa) and Felix Fisher (TM Racing Ray, Formula Ford 1600) were also honoured, along with Olly Samways and Neven Kirkpatrick, who won the CCRC-badged Mighty and Super Mighty Minis titles respectively. Meanwhile, Mini Cooper S racer George Walker was named Sporting Billy Young Driver of the Year for his promising Saloon campaign. Castle Combe Formula Ford stalwarts Alicia Hamlen and double champion Luke Cooper were also…

MINI CHALLENGE More details have been revealed about the new JCW Sport class that will be introduced to the Mini Challenge next season. The new sub-division is designed to help bridge the gap in terms of cost and performance between the Coopers of the Mini Challenge Trophy and the JCWs in the British Touring Car-supporting top-tier championship, as well as helping to boost grid numbers in the latter series. The JCW Sport division will feature an F56 Mini with a two-litre engine that produces 225bhp compared to the 255bhp of the headline class. A six-speed OE H-pattern gearbox will also be used, in contrast to the Quaife sequential box in the JCWs. In addition, there will be tighter restrictions on testing and tyres to reduce budgets, while entry fees will…

BRITISH GT James Cottingham says he has “unfinished business” in the British GT championship after missing out on the title this season, but may not be around to attack it next year. The 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG driver entered the Donington Park finale last month leading the standings, but a poor weekend and second place for Dan Harper/Darren Leung handed the Century Motorsport duo the crown. Cottingham was the benchmark Am driver for much of the season, taking three wins alongside Jonny Adam at Oulton Park, the May Donington round and Portimao. He is intent on returning to the series to mount another title challenge, but admits that it may not be in 2024. “Absolutely it’s unfinished business, I have to come back and have a go at the championship,”…

I would say that 2023 has been the best season of my life for numerous reasons. Being the Porsche GB Junior driver for the past two years has been a real privilege and, without that, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I had a fantastic first season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, finishing runner-up in 2022, and that left one clear goal in mind for the second season, which was to go one step higher and win the championship. This season, with Porsche and Team Parker Racing, I’ve had the right people around me to mature and develop as a person and as a driver. Winning the championship a round early at Silverstone was a dream come true, and to finish off the year with a win signed…

BOOK REVIEW CHARLES LECLERC AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD MONACO GRAND PRIX Author Anita Driver RRP: £11.99 Charles Leclerc has now failed to convert any of his past 12 Formula 1 pole positions into a race win. But if this wasn’t enough to pile on the misery for Leclerc, Anita Driver takes a satirical view of the Ferrari man’s record at his home race. Charles Leclerc and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Monaco Grand Prix is a bizarre yet compelling “book of sadness and disappointment for children”, which follows the journey of the titular driver from a child watching from his window, to the race winning F1 competitor of the modern day. While, obviously, based on real world events and the fabled ‘Monaco Curse’ that…

5 WATKINS GLEN F1 racing at Watkins Glen will forever be associated with the accidents that claimed Francois Cevert and Helmuth Koinigg. And only in 1974, when Emerson Fittipaldi defeated Clay Regazzoni, was the world title up for grabs in the eight occasions it hosted the finale between 1961 and 1980. But what it lacks there, the undulating upstate New York track makes up for in character. 4 MEXICO CITY In a seven-year run hosting the final round, none could match the drama of the 1964 Mexican Grand Prix that ended with John Surtees claiming the spoils thanks to Jim Clark’s late engine woe and astute Ferrari tactics. Graham Hill had entered that race leading the points, but a fine victory in 1968 to clinch his second title over Jackie…

FORMULA 1 The Aston Martin Formula 1 team has sold a minority stake to private equity firm Arctos Partners. This investment is expected to close by the end of this year and, according to the Financial Times, values the Silverstone squad at £1billion. Arctos, also working to buy into top French football club Paris Saint-Germain, will provide “deep sports industry knowledge, and a robust network of influential relationships to support its continued growth”. The future of the Aston Martin F1 team has been the subject of speculation, with rumours suggesting that owner Lawrence Stroll is exploring a total sale of the squad he purchased in 2018. But Arctos sees this as the start of a “long-term partnership” with the Canadian, who reckons he and his new associates share a “collective…

WEC Nyck de Vries has slotted straight back into the seat earmarked for him for 2023 at Toyota’s World Endurance Championship squad. The Japanese manufacturer has confirmed that the Dutchman will replace Jose Maria Lopez in its line-up for next season. De Vries will race the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar (right) alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway. It was intended that he would move up from his role as test and reserve driver to join them this year prior to what turned out to be a short-lived stint as a full-time Formula 1 driver with AlphaTauri. The reshuffle is the first since Kazuki Nakajima was moved upstairs at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe and was replaced by Ryo Hirakawa. Predicted by Autosport as long ago as early September,…

DAYTONA 24 HOURS Jenson Button will contest the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship opener with the WTRAndretti Acura squad in January. It will be the next in a line of sportscar outings for the Formula 1 world champion that have included two Le Mans 24 Hours starts, plus a first IMSA appearance at the Petit Le Mans enduro at Road Atlanta last month. He will team up in the #40 Acura ARX-06 GTP class contender with full-season drivers Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz plus Colton Herta, who will be contesting the long-distance IMSA races. The Briton is one of two star names to have come into the line-up for Daytona – 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson will share the #10 entry with Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and endurance…

WEC/IMSA Porsche has put a hold on the build of further customer 963 LMDhs for the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship until next summer. The decision means that there will be five cars racing across the two series in 2024 alongside the four Penske factory entries. The second 963 for the British Jota team’s (right) expanded two-car assault on the 2024 WEC will be the last car completed before production is temporarily halted, the German manufacturer has revealed. Porsche has changed its original plan to make two cars available for each series in both 2023 and 2024, meaning eight cars in total. Porsche LMDh project boss Urs Kuratle explained that the reasons for the decision are twofold. “We would simply overload our supply chain, that is one…

UK START TIMES Friday 24 November FP1 0930 FP2 1300 Saturday 25 November FP3 1030 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 26 November RACE 1300 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1730 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors YAS MARINA STATS Previous winners 2022 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m23.824s POLE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m22.109s (2021) RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m26.103s (2021) Laps led…

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, sitting alongside winner Max Verstappen in the post-race press conference for Formula 1’s returning event in Las Vegas, was clearly buzzing from the adrenalin surges of battling the Red Bulls in a genuine multi-car victory fight for the first time in forever. But under the surface, he knew something much better had slipped through his fingers. The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix ultimately swung on a series of race neutralisation calls. The last was the single biggest element in yet another swashbuckling, wild, thrilling Leclerc defeat. Ever since Carlos Sainz had secured pole for the Italian GP and battled Verstappen so brilliantly at Monza, it was obvious that Vegas would present Ferrari another opportunity. The 3.9-mile track with its 1.4-mile blast along Las Vegas Boulevard – the…

Esteban Ocon clinched his best F1 result since his Monaco podium, snaring fourth place in Las Vegas in an impressive showing. Ocon appeared to defy an instruction from his Alpine team not to pass team-mate Pierre Gasly on lap 34, but it very much proved to be the right call; Gasly fell down the order with tyre graining and battery issues over the race’s second half. Ocon had produced a series of strong moves to rise from his lowly 16th-place grid berth, and was up to eighth by the end of the first lap after escaping the chaos ahead. Although Kevin Magnussen got back ahead after the early safety car, Ocon got past the Dane once again and then put a brave move on Logan Sargeant at Turns 6/7 to…

The 70th edition of the Macau Grand Prix provided a unique opportunity for a new star to be born, as the FIA F3 World Cup retook its rightful place at the top of the bill following a COVID-enforced three-year hiatus. And after a thrilling encounter that lasted almost as long as the ‘other’ street race going on in Las Vegas, it was Luke Browning who proved the class of the field, the Williams junior adding his name to the illustrious roll call of Macau winners. Few would have identified Hitech GP driver Browning as the one to watch heading into first practice. After all, the 21-year-old from Cheshire had finished way down in 15th in the FIA F3 standings driving for the same team, with just a single visit to…

MACAU GUIA MACAU (CHN) 18-19 NOVEMBER TCR WORLD TOUR ROUND 9/9 Norbert Michelisz secured the inaugural TCR World Tour title in the Macau Guia season finale. The Hyundai driver cruised from pole to victory in race one, while rivals Yann Ehrlacher and Rob Huff both hit trouble over the two races. The Hyundai Elantras showed incredible pace in qualifying, with Mikel Azcona topping the first session, before Michelisz broke the TCR lap record in the top 12 Q2 shootout. The drama started at the end of qualifying: Azcona went second quickest before cruising back to the pitlane, and Huff, behind him on his fast lap, lost time when he caught the Spaniard at the Melco hairpin. A frustrated Huff aborted his lap and vented at Azcona, who later received a…

HISTORICS Historics racer Neil Glover is teaming up with mountaineer Jason Black to tackle the Atlantic Dash rowing challenge in January as they bid to raise money for Sir Jackie Stewart’s Race Against Dementia charity. Glover, who has competed in a wide range of historic machinery and enjoyed success in the Aurora Trophy at the wheel of a Formula 5000 Chevron B37 in 2023, has been keen to enter the rowing race after stumbling across a YouTube video of the finish nearly five years ago. After previous plans to compete fell through, event organisers introduced him to Black, and the pair have since been training for the 3000-mile contest that lasts seven weeks. They will start in Lanzarote before travelling south towards Africa, then west to the finish line in…

GB4 Formula Ford racer Brandon McCaughan has won the end-of-season GB4 Championship Shootout and £20,000 to use towards a season in the single-seater series next year. The 19-year-old, a race winner in National FF1600 over the past two years, was competing in the shootout for the second time, after missing out on last year’s prize. The Irishman went up against 17-year-old Canadian Nathan Yu, as both got behind the wheel of Fortec Motorsport’s GB4 machinery earlier this month. “I’ve always had one goal, which is to progress up the single-seater ladder, whether that be in America and going the IndyCar route, or staying in Europe and continuing through to GB3 maybe in the following years,” said McCaughan. “Winning the Shootout has definitely helped me to get that foot up.”…

Adam Morgan won the British Touring Car Challenge Trophy at Skegness Raceway on Saturday night as he went up against 11 other current or former BTCC stars that included Josh Cook, Jade Edwards, Aiden Moffat and Paul O’Neill. In a thrilling four-way battle for the lead in the closing stages, Morgan – who had never even seen a BriSCA F1 stock car before he sat in one on the night – came out on top to take the chequered flag, with long-time leader Ricky Collard second, Ryan Bensley third and Dan Rowbottom fourth. “It was my first time in these cars, my first time at the track, I just was smiling from ear to ear for the whole race,” said Morgan. “I’m hooked. We will all be back next year.”…

A week ago, dressed in a period correct British Leyland rally jacket and sporting the beginnings of a Tony Pond-style moustache, Chris Ingram – one of Britain’s best young rally drivers of a generation – stood quietly at a deserted Sweet Lamb test venue looking at the Triumph TR7 V8. Almost in awe of the machine, Ingram was about to step back 40 years to a different time and a different type of rally car. Minutes later, after barely five miles of gravel running, he returned with a big smile. That first test was the initial step towards the five-day Roger Albert Clark Rally adventure through the forests of Wales, Scotland and England that is due to finish in Carlisle next Monday afternoon. Alongside the 156 other starters, Ingram more…

Francois Cevert adopts a sublime angle of drift in his Tyrrell 006 during the 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Somewhat off the pace of team-mate Jackie Stewart, the Frenchman qualified seventh, one place behind the McLaren M23 of Jody Scheckter, who at the end of the race’s opening lap triggered one of Formula 1’s most infamous incidents, his loss of control, resulting spin and the crash that followed eliminating nine cars. Cevert managed to evade the chaos, and in the restarted race finished a lonely fifth, the depleted field nevertheless helping to bolster his third place in the points. For classic downloads and DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

The careers of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger feel entwined, given their five Formula 1 seasons as team-mates and simultaneous moves from Ferrari to Benetton for 1996. After three years at McLaren, Berger rejoined Ferrari in 1993 as an eight-time grand prix winner, scoring four of those successes during three previous seasons at Maranello. Ironically, given the genial relationship that lay ahead, Alesi immediately viewed Berger’s arrival as a big threat. “I was shocked about this very bad season we had in 1992,” says Alesi. “But I was giving my maximum as always, to keep [morale in] the team up. When they signed Gerhard for 1993, he arrived as a doctor, you know, an experienced driver to fix the team. That annoyed me a lot. “Gazzetta dello Sport reported all…