Innholdsfortegnelse for 13/06/24 i Autosport

There’s nothing like a bit of rain to spice things up, and last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix was probably one of the best races of the ground-effect era so far, even if we were denied a fifth different race winner of the season thanks to Max Verstappen. As Jake Boxall-Legge shows in our report from page 16, McLaren narrowly missed a couple of chances to beat Red Bull after a stellar performance from Lando Norris. George Russell also had a chance in a rejuvenated Mercedes, but got involved in a little too much drama. While we wait to see if a genuine 2024 championship fight is really about to ignite, the F1 regulations for 2026 were revealed last week. There have been mixed reviews, so we dive into the ideas…

INDYCAR IndyCar driver David Malukas will return from injury to replace Tom Blomqvist at Meyer Shank Racing for the remainder of the season, starting with next week’s round at Laguna Seca. Malukas has been declared fit to return to the cockpit after surgery to his left wrist, which was injured in a mountain bike accident in February that thwarted the 22-year-old’s dream deal with Arrow McLaren for 2024. Arrow McLaren subsequently called upon Callum Ilott and Theo Pourchaire to race in his absence, then terminated his contract. MSR started the season with its sportscar star Blomqvist alongside Felix Rosenqvist, but the 30-year-old Briton was benched after the Indianapolis 500, where he crashed at the first corner. Team co-owner Helio Castroneves drove the #66 car at Detroit and Road America, with…

TCR WORLD TOUR The boss of Honda’s FIA TCR World Tour team has called for Lynk & Co star Santiago Urrutia to be banned after the Uruguayan deliberately rammed one of his Civic Type Rs on the cooldown lap at Mid-Ohio last weekend – and it turned out to be the wrong one… Urrutia was excluded from the entire event for crashing into Esteban Guerrieri’s GOAT Racing Honda in frustration after the second race had finished, the Uruguayan incensed after multiple in-race contacts with Guerrieri’s teammate Marco Butti had cost both drivers a potential finish on the podium. One of these clashes allowed Guerrieri to pass on his way to claiming third position, and Urrutia then crashed his Lynk & Co into the Argentinian after the chequered flag in frustration,…

The good thing about social media is that it gives a voice to many who have gone previously unheard; the bad thing about social media is it gives a voice to many who have gone unheard for good reason… Following one of many collisions at the shambles known as IndyCar’s recent Detroit Grand Prix, Arrow McLaren’s Theo Pourchaire revealed that he’d received online abuse, including death threats, for his clash with Agustin Canapino. “I’m sad I received so much hate and death threats in the last 24 hours for such a small incident in the Detroit GP,” wrote the Frenchman, who was penalised for avoidable contact, on his social channels. “I hope people can understand that we are all humans and we can make mistakes. But it’s not normal to…

Going trackside for the opening free practice session at Montreal had looked ever so slightly in doubt about 45 minutes earlier. A hailstorm had bombarded the paddock in the lead-up to F1’s opening hour of running, leaving icy crystals the size of marbles around the Ile Notre-Dame. Most had thankfully melted when the rain came, although it made for a sodden circuit and a quagmire of gravelly muck in the trackside access pathways. White trainers clearly weren’t considered sensible footwear… FP1 wasn’t delayed as such, although the pitlane remained shut when the clock started to allow the circuit to dry out a little more. Two Aston Martins had vacated the pitlane, albeit not the ‘right’ ones; the safety and medical cars emerged to break up the puddles and prepare the…

After his successful double-winning weekend at Snetterton, Jake Hill was up to third equal in the points and on the appropriate punitive levels of hybrid use at Thruxton. So the last thing he expected was to guide his West Surrey Racing BMW to a convincing win in race one, an inherited victory in race two, and even a brief points lead before the finale. Even in free practice one, the ‘Laser Beamer’ was planted at Noble, Hill revelling in the rear-wheel-drive 3 Series’ front end as he took the front-drive line, skimming close to the grass on the exit and barely bothering to steer the car left in order to prepare for the arc right into the hops and squirms of Goodwood, the engine hammering against its rev limiter. Conditions…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN ZANDVOORT (NLD) 8-9 JUNE ROUND 3/10 Rafael Camara continued his domination of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine by taking a victory and runner-up finish at Zandvoort last weekend. The Brazilian was second behind fellow Ferrari protege Tuukka Taponen in the Saturday half-hour race, before taking a comfortable win on Sunday. It leaves the Prema Racing driver 73 points clear of R-ace GP’s Finnish ace Taponen, with four wins and two seconds from six races. A sudden downpour caused a safety car start for race one. After 12 minutes the green flags flew, and Prema-run polesitter James Wharton built a two-second gap on Taponen during the first racing lap, before the Australian suddenly lost his lead by spinning at Hugenholtzbocht. Moments later, a collision between Valerio…

TCR WORLD TOUR MID-OHIO (USA) 8 JUNE ROUND 3/7 Lynk & Co Cyan Racing pair Thed Bjork and Yann Ehrlacher won the FIA TCR World Tour races at Mid-Ohio last Saturday, but the results were overshadowed by a post-race incident that led to the exclusion of the team’s Santiago Urrutia. Mikel Azcona dominated qualifying in his Hyundai, outqualifying teammate Norbert Michelisz by half a second as the majority of the field struggled with challenging grip levels at the resurfaced circuit. Bjork stole second off the start from Michelisz, and Azcona led before his pace dropped off significantly at the end after suffering a broken front anti-roll bar. Bjork dived down the inside at Turn 9 with three laps to go, and the Swedish veteran went on to win. Azcona fell…

Tom Kristensen was hot property as the 1997 season drew to a close. And for good reason, after his starring performance on the way to victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours aboard the Joest Porsche WSC95 that year. He had offers galore on the table, Nissan and Mercedes included, but he chose BMW. There were equally good reasons for that, too. The German manufacturer was headed back to Formula 1, and tied up with that programme was a firm commitment to win the French enduro. That was just as important as the F1 angle to a driver just setting out on the sportscar career that would make him one of the all-time greats: “They told me they were going to Le Mans to win and would keep going until…

BRITISH F4 British Formula 4 driver Jack Sherwood went from hospital to the podium at Thruxton last Sunday as he bounced back from a heavy crash in the second contest. The Rodin racer was caught up in a multiple-car incident on the first lap of race two at the Complex, and was sent hard into the barriers. He felt pain in his leg after the crash and was taken to hospital for precautionary checks but was given the all-clear and dashed back to Thruxton to take part in race three. Sherwood’s cause was helped by multiple incidents leaving the F4 race pushed back from its scheduled 1630 start time to be the final race of the day. He was therefore able to take up his front row grid slot and…

FORD VS CHEVY American SpeedFest organisers are looking to host Ford vs Chevy races again next year as a support category at Brands Hatch following the praise it received across the weekend on its debut. Series organiser and driver Simeone Chodosh confirmed that there had been discussions with MotorSport Vision Racing about hosting the category again next year, but added that “he didn’t want to overdo it” by expanding the series and racing at more than one circuit. “I want to keep it at a level where everyone will want to see it; if you do it all the time it can become too much,” said Chodosh, who at the wheel of his Corvette captained the Chevrolet team to victory overall, with the marque locking out the podium in both…

FORMULA JUNIOR Nathan Metcalfe marked himself out as a young driver of potential by finishing a brilliant second in class in a fiercely competitive Historic Formula Junior race at Donington Park last Saturday. Driving the 1961 Lotus 20 raced by F1-bound Lorenzo Bandini for Scuderia Centro-Sud, Metcalfe finished on the tail of triple champion Nic Carlton-Smith’s similar car with a best lap just 0.004s slower in sixth overall. Metcalfe – FJHRA’s Driver of the Day – completed his first full race, having been sidelined by a broken gear linkage on lap two at Snetterton’s UK championship-opener in April and thwarted by gearbox failure in qualifying at Cadwell Park. “I spend too much time on a simulator at home, but my previous circuit driving experience was 12 laps of Snetterton’s 300…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY The Mini Challenge Trophy contenders are notorious for disgracing themselves at Thruxton, so the Hampshire faithful were shocked to see fine victories taken by Rhys Hurd and Alex Solley in two safety-carfree Saturday races. On Sunday came the climax: a head-to-head between Hurd and Solley – only for a lengthy caution to ensue when Mick Fitzgerald was fired off by contact and into the Church barriers. Once green flags flew, Hurd soaked up pressure from Solley, with James Black and Alex Keens also firmly in the mix, and it was Chandler Motorsport’s bearded Surrey youngster who completed a superb double. Hurd’s win in the opener came despite a grid penalty carried over from last time out at Pembrey relegating him to sixth. Within three laps he was…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB For a series boasting so many potential frontrunners, Will Martin enjoyed a remarkably easy triumph in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB opener at Thruxton. The Race Drive pilot prevailed by eight seconds, and arguably his greatest moment of jeopardy came on the final lap when he lit up the rear wheels in celebration out of the Club chicane and got a little more sideways than he would have liked! Martin’s mighty winning margin was aided by a squabble behind as his title rival George Gamble’s Century Motorsport machine came under ever-increasing pressure from Harry Foster, the local driver enjoying his strongest outing of the season to date. There was then a new winner in race two when Andrew Rackstraw delivered on the promise displayed with a…

Equipe Classic Racing celebrated the Lotus Elan 26R’s 60th birthday at Silverstone on Saturday with 33 of the revered cars taking to the track for a 60-minute race, and it was David Pittard who took the spoils. Pittard, last year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours conqueror, took provisional pole early in a qualifying session that was quickly halted by a red flag after the scarlet 26R of Andrew Tate and Rob Griffiths ended up on its roof out of Club. It restarted with under 10 minutes to go, and several tried to challenge Pittard’s early lap time of 2m22.611s, but all fell short. Ex-British Touring Car competitor Rory Butcher and his co-driver, Ben Tinkler, joined Pittard on the front row, while Miles Griffiths took third. Asked what makes the 26R so special,…

LEGO REVIEW Lego Speed Champions 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Car RRP £20.99 Lego Technic Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 Pull-Back RRP £20.99 Father’s Day is almost here, and what better gift could there be to mark the occasion than some Lego? There can be no escaping it, collecting Lego is a far more expensive hobby than you will likely have noticed – or cared about – when you were a child, with some choice kits costing well in excess of £300. Fortunately, the most expensive F1 offering at present stands only at £189.99 but, even though we love our dads, this price point is beyond a significant number of people. With this in mind, we’re casting our eyes across two kits that could be described as budget options, with both coming in…

COLOMBO Rene Arnoux (Martini-Renault) turns into the Poeymirau right-hander en route to victory in the 36th Pau Grand Prix, round five of the 1976 European Formula 2 Championship. Arnoux and polesitting team-mate Patrick Tambay weren’t challenged for their front-row lock-out – the former described in Autosport’s report as “Elf’s young lion”, “tramping on and off the accelerator as he willed the car around each corner in a series of do-or-die slides”. Tambay led the race from the start but after he was held up by a backmarker, the looming presence of Arnoux precipitated a loss of composure that resulted in a rear-wing-bending impact with the barrier and retirement. Arnoux was chased home by Jacques Laffite (Chevron-BMW), whose tenacious challenge in the closing stages was twice curtailed by right-foot cramp. For…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours is Porsche’s to lose. That was the verdict of Toyota after the German manufacturer blocked out the top two times at last Sunday’s official Test Day that led into race week. Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury made the suggestion ahead of this weekend’s double-points round of the World Endurance Championship after the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries finished 1-2-4 on the Test Day, the best of them with a 0.708-second margin over the third-placed Toyota, as the 963 LMDh continued its vein of strong form from both the WEC and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. “I think it’s clear: I would think if Porsche doesn’t win they have done a pretty bad job,” said Floury after the…

FORMULA 1 Jack Doohan saw an early chance to help stake his claim for an Alpine Formula 1 seat in 2025 scuppered by the weather conditions during his free practice run at last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. The six-time Formula 2 race winner is on the radar at the Enstone-based team to replace Esteban Ocon, who is leaving at the end of his contract amid a tense relationship with the squad. But the adverse weather in Montreal, which led to FP1 lasting 39 minutes in which Doohan was only able to log three exploration laps, meant the Australian will have to wait for his second FP1 session this year for further running in the team’s 2024 car. The timing of Doohan’s FP1 run was curious, just days after Ocon’s departure…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship star Tom Ingram has said that he did the right thing in passing Dan Cammish off-track in last weekend’s second race at Thruxton, even though it resulted in the 2022 title winner being stripped of his race victory. Ingram passed Cammish for third place on the opening lap at the chicane, but his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N went the wrong side of the tyre stack at the second apex to complete the manoeuvre. He was held to have “shortcut the chicane and gained an advantage”, and given a two-place penalty to drop him behind Cammish. Jake Hill inherited the race win. “I stand by it,” said Ingram. “It was a case of Dan had rolled out of the brakes to roll more speed in,…

INDYCAR Jamie Chadwick has played down her chances of moving into the IndyCar Series next season after claiming her maiden Indy NXT victory at Road America last weekend. Chadwick’s win (below) made it three in a row for the Andretti Global squad following fellow Brit Louis Foster’s successes at Indianapolis and Detroit, and has lifted her to ninth in the points, seven positions behind Foster. “One race win isn’t going to guarantee anything, so I need to keep performing and keep focusing on that,” she said. “I’d love to be able to go to IndyCar next year. It’s tough though. You look at the grid and there are not that many drivers leaving and there’s such a high level there now, and there are a lot of drivers knocking on…

OBITUARY Rufus Parnell Jones carved a new groove at Indianapolis. Sifting advice from wise old ’yardbirds, he smoothed his approach – without entirely shunning his brakes. Still carrying more speed, more deeply, into turns, he harnessed energy stored in a right-rear Firestone deformed by increased load to slingshot down straights as the tyre ‘popped’ back into shape. A risk worth a half-second was his calculation. Though he would win one 500 – a 1963 performance of nine-tenths’ domination, one part controversy – with better luck Jones, who died last week aged 90, might have won four, or five. He was leading as a rookie in 1961 when debris gashed his forehead. Emptying blood from his goggles, he slipped to 12th when the Offenhauser in his front-engined roadster – nicknamed ‘Ol’…

“We should have won the race today and we didn’t,” Lando Norris opined when he eventually turned up to the Canadian Grand Prix post-race press conference, perhaps having lost track of time in the TV pen. Before the Briton’s arrival, race winner Max Verstappen had suggested that he was now “1-1” with Norris in terms of safety car misfortune, referencing the Miami race he’d lost to the McLaren driver through the timing of the caution. It seemed, at the time at least, that karmic retribution apportioned by the cosmos had rewarded Verstappen and punished Norris. Logan Sargeant’s Turn 5 crash on the 25th lap had proved to be terminal for the under-pressure American and, once it was clear that he couldn’t get going again, the safety car had poked its…

Sergio Perez will carry a three-place grid drop to the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix after his Montreal race ended in disaster and a penalty for driving a damaged car to retire in the pits. Perez, who signed a new Red Bull deal just before the weekend, failed to make it out of Q1 for the second event in a row. He blamed “a car issue in qualifying” leaving him gripless. But Red Bull did not further disclose the issue, bar team boss Christian Horner saying Perez had “an issue in qualifying that contributed a little to [his Q1 exit]”. In the race, Perez collided with Pierre Gasly on the exit of Turn 2, where the Alpine was sandwiched with Logan Sargeant on its outside. That left Perez with front wing…

Haas pair Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg starred in the race’s soaking wet early stages, after they were the only drivers to start on Pirelli’s extreme wet tyres. Magnussen gained 10 positions in three laps from his 14th-place grid spot. Behind, Hulkenberg rose from 17th to run seventh. Magnussen was called in to change to the intermediates on lap seven, when Haas didn’t have the new tyres ready in time. He rejoined 14th, his gamble of starting on wets completely negated. Haas left Hulkenberg out for five more laps, with a huge train building behind as he slowed on the drying track. Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon all got ahead within a lap of the German pitting. Hulkenberg rejoined 19th but battled back to…

INDYCAR ROAD AMERICA (USA) 9 JUNE ROUND 7/15 At the age of 43, Will Power snapped a 34-race win drought at Road America, coming out on top of a Team Penske sweep of the podium positions that owed much to his strategy to beat his whippersnapper stablemates. A week on from the chaos of Detroit, there was more of the same in the opening laps around America’s National Park of Speed, a majestic four-mile road course set among the rolling hills of Wisconsin. After taking a shock pole position, Chip Ganassi Racing’s rookie Linus Lundqvist went from hero to zero barely 10 seconds into the race, when his team-mate Marcus Armstrong pushed him into a spin at the opening corner. Behind them, Penske’s Josef Newgarden – in a spare car…

INDY NXT ROAD AMERICA (USA) 9 JUNE ROUND 5/12 Jamie Chadwick delivered a breakthrough performance en route to capturing her maiden Indy NXT victory at Road America. After starting on pole, the Briton was thrust into defending a trio of restarts, including a final one with three laps to go. Despite the pressure from Andretti Global team-mate Louis Foster, she remained poised and won by 0.8203 seconds on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn road course. “Oh, my word,” said Chadwick, who led all 20 laps. “Honestly, a bit emotional. We’ve had an unbelievable car this year and just haven’t been able to really do anything about it, so I’m just so happy. Louis had a look, and I just knew I had to be aggressive. I know they have a championship to…

There was a frisson of excitement among fans when Formula 1 and the FIA revealed plans for the drastic 2026 rules overhaul. It came in a palpably understated fashion when compared to the 2022 revolution, which was marked by a return to ground-effect aerodynamics and visually different cars; the extravagant launch of F1’s now-ubiquitous showcar daubed in a holographic livery was not repeated this time. Instead, renders were shuffled out on social media displaying a blue car heavy in FIA logos, giving a very different impression – that F1 had been responsible for much of 2022’s layout, and the 2026 changes were very much an FIA-led project. And there was a step into the familiar with the reveal, particularly with the design of the front and rear wings; the smooth…

LEGENDS Three-time British Rally champion Mark Higgins has had his first taste of racing a new prototype engine in Legends that championship organisers hope will be used next season. Higgins sampled the three-cylinder water-cooled engine at Brands Hatch last weekend, running the new unit through its paces after starting from the pits in all six races, although not as a classified competitor. “The old engines are getting old and are not overly reliable,” said Higgins. “It’s a six-speed rather than a five-speed and it’s not got quite as much torque as the older engine, but it has a bit more top speed. “The whole package feels very similar but the new engine is quite a bit lighter, maybe 10kg, and it’s going to have better fuel economy.” The test car…

SUPER TOURING POWER Rob Huff, the 2012 World Touring Car champion, will attend the second running of Super Touring Power at Brands Hatch later this month behind the wheel of his title-winning car. The 44-year-old Briton will join the RML Group 40th anniversary celebrations with a guest demo drive in a Chevrolet Cruze on 29-30 June. Huff was part of RML’s superstar Chevrolet line-up from 2005 to 2012, where he raced alongside Alain Menu and Yvan Muller in what developed into an all-conquering squad. Prior to that, Huff made his top-flight tin-top debut as part of the RML-run SEAT squad in the 2004 British Touring Car Championship. “I am incredibly excited to be reunited with my 2012 world championship-winning car, a car that changed my racing career forever,” said Huff,…

TOURING CAR LEGENDS Two podiums in the inaugural Historic Sports Car Club Touring Car Legends races at Donington Park last weekend were beyond Mike Manning’s wildest dreams, after badly damaging his Ford Sierra RS500 in a shunt at Castle Combe last month. “I thought I was going over,” said Manning, while showing photos of the Texaco tribute car becoming airborne and heading backwards above the Recticel barriers lining Folly in the Modified Ford encounter. All four corners and both sides were damaged, but garagiste Manning and his crew immediately set about repairing it over five weeks. “We took it to Llandow on Thursday, to make sure it worked, then brought it here,” he added. “In qualifying it turned one way but not the other, which put us at the back,…

MINI MIGLIA Race 1 (11 laps) 1 Andrew Jordan; 2 Jeff Smith +0.263s; 3 Rupert Deeth; 4 Aaron Smith; 5 Scott Kendall; 6 Kane Astin. Fastest lap Deeth 1m28.431s (95.91mph). Pole Jordan. Starters 32. Race 2 (4 laps) 1 Jordan; 2 A Smith +0.330s; 3 Deeth; 4 J Smith; 5 Martin Wager; 6 Astin. FL Deeth 1m27.914s (96.47mph). P Deeth. S 30. MINI SE7ENS Race 1 (12 laps) 1 Mike Jordan; 2 Joe Thompson +0.242s; 3 Ross Billison; 4 Damien Harrington; 5 Aaron Smith; 6 Spencer Wanstall. FL Thompson 1m35.731s (88.59mph). P Jordan. S 33. Race 2 (13 laps) 1 Jordan; 2 Billison +7.288s; 3 Wanstall; 4 Smith; 5 Darren Thomas; 6 Jamie Payne. FL Thompson 1m35.471s (88.83mph). P Thompson. S 33. MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Race 1 (13 laps) 1…

It was redemption day for Tim Davis in the inaugural Ford vs Chevy races as he returned to Brands Hatch one year after suffering a fiery crash in his Chevrolet Corvette C3, claiming a dominant victory aboard the same repaired machine. Having had a “senior moment with the gears” at the start, which ultimately cost him a shot at victory in an opener that featured 23 cars, Davis dominated race two, claiming the lead on the 10th lap and never looking in doubt thereafter. He was lucky to avoid being collected by early leader Nik Baatz, though, when the Corvette driver spun heading up the hill into Druids under a yellow flag. Dropping to fourth, Baatz managed to recover up to second, capitalising on the retirement of Simeon Chodosh and…

SILVERSTONE EQUIPE 8-9 JUNE Father-son duo Graeme and James Dodd came home victorious in the two-hour GT & Sports Car Cup race at the first Equipe Summer Classic at Silverstone last weekend after starting sixth in their Jaguar E-type. Although polesitters and fellow E-type drivers Richard Kent and Gary Pearson tried to keep pace, a 10-second penalty for a false start and consistently slower pace than the Dodds slammed the door on their hopes of a win. “The race was amazing,” smiled Dodd Jr. “Obviously a lot can happen in two hours, and to try and pace the car at the start was very difficult. We were staying with the front of the pack quite happily and I stayed with him [Kent] and he made a few mistakes locking up…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 8 JUNE On an incident-filled day at Oulton Park, Carl Boardley ignited his bid for a second successive TCR UK title with a win and second behind chief rival Adam Shepherd. With the gremlins that hampered his Cupra Leon’s pace over the previous two weekends banished, Boardley secured pole position in wet early-morning conditions. Third behind Callum Newsham (Hyundai i30 N), Shepherd’s Cupra was just 0.074s back after encountering red flags as he approached Lodge on a quicker lap. Shepherd jumped Newsham at lights-out on a dry track and tried rounding Boardley at Cascades, but Boardley held on as a mid-corner twitch on cold tyres caused contact. A better exit from Druids brought Shepherd alongside again and they banged doorhandles through Lodge and Deer Leap, before Boardley…

Two-time Formula 1 champion and double Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi was no stranger to racing against the very best during a motorsport career spanning more than three decades. This included competing in the same team as Jochen Rindt and Denny Hulme, as well as Indy 500 winners Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan. But the Brazilian picks ‘SuperSwede’ Ronnie Peterson as his favourite team-mate due to their close friendship. “The best team-mate I had was Ronnie because we started racing together in Europe, F3, F2 and F1 – he was a dear friend,” says the 77-year-old. “I stayed at his home in England, he stayed at my house in Switzerland and then we raced together, it was so much fun. We were team-mates but very good friends. At that time…

The new ‘power gain’ component of the Hypercar World Endurance Championship Balance of Performance introduced for the Le Mans 24 Hours has been broadly welcomed by the manufacturers. Power gain adjusts the maximum power allowed to the drivetrain in each car above a pre-determined speed, with the aim of balancing their acceleration and top speed profiles in the name of further levelling the playing field. An introduction at round two of the WEC at Imola in April had looked on the cards after power gain was trialled during the pre-season Prologue test in Qatar, but its introduction was delayed for reasons that have not been divulged publicly or privately to the manufacturers. “It is definitely positive,” said BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos. “It helps balance the cars even more.…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Jose Maria Lopez transitioned seamlessly back into Toyota’s Hypercar squad after Mike Conway was ruled out of this week’s Le Mans 24 Hours through injury. The Argentinian was straight on the pace at Sunday’s Test Day when recalled to the Japanese manufacturer’s #7 GR010 HYBRID. Lopez’s performance on his return to the line-up after being replaced by Nyck de Vries for 2024 was praised by Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury. “By the look of the laptimes it was like he drove the car yesterday,” said Floury. “He was up to speed immediately. He worked hard to get on top of all the systems. We are confident there will be no issues in the race.” Lopez posted a best lap at the Test Day…

BTCC After starring on his debut with the West Surrey Racing BMW team in the previous British Touring Car Championship round at Snetterton, Bobby Thompson was forced back onto the sidelines last weekend at Thruxton. While the Sunbury team’s additional 330e M Sport sat forlornly under wraps at the back of the awning, a statement explained that the absence was “due to financial complexities outside of WSR’s and Bobby Thompson’s control”. Thompson impressed in a Brands Hatch test with WSR in April, and the team worked hard on pulling together a commercial deal for the highly rated Essex racer. While neither party is able to comment on the record, it is understood that the backing for Thompson’s drive at Snetterton, in which he finished the weekend as second highest points…

FORMULA E Formula E has unveiled its calendar for the 2024-25 season, which includes a new venue in Miami, a Monaco E-Prix double-header and the opening round being held in December this year. The proposed 17-race schedule was approved at a meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council on Tuesday, with 11 destinations set to be visited by the championship. The Homestead-Miami Speedway, which has hosted IndyCar, NASCAR and IMSA races, will become the fifth different venue used for a Formula E race in the US. It replaces the Portland IndyCar track, used in 2023 and again later this month. The event on 12 April will take place on the majority of Homestead’s infield road course section as well as potentially part of the oval. “We think it’s a…

The ominousness was intense when Red Bull opened the 2024 Formula 1 campaign with double 1-2s. Looking back, we know how gloomy predictions of another repetitive season were arrested at the next race, in Carlos Sainz’s Melbourne win. And yet, as good as the Spaniard was that day, deeper digging showed Max Verstappen still would have won had his brake problem not struck. But what has occurred since demonstrates the statistical noteworthiness of 2024 compared to last year’s banality. After nine races, there have been three non-Red Bull wins, compared to last year’s sole aberration. Had just a few things gone differently at Imola and in Montreal, it might have been five. Stacked against that is how Red Bull has still racked up the other six wins – all via…

A tie for pole was something that had only happened once in Formula 1 since lap times were measured to three decimal places, back when Jerez’s 1997 finale produced a three-way draw at the front of the grid. This time 27 years on, the tie was ‘only’ contested between two drivers, but the lap time in question was a much more pleasing on-the-second number. And, this time, the championship leader missed out by dint of setting their identical time second. It was unclear whether rain was about to fall in Q3, having just about held off throughout the two previous stages, but Mercedes took a bit of a punt by sending its cars out last among the opening runs. And it did so on used tyres, which Russell pressed back…

Ferrari was left to rue what team boss Fred Vasseur described as a Montreal event where “everything went wrong”, after both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz retired in the pits. Both missed the Q3 cut after Ferrari sent them out on new soft tyres at the start of Q2 believing rain would soon fall. When it didn’t, the pair had to complete the segment on used softs and so missed out on the track evolution exploited by their rivals. That left Leclerc starting 11th and Sainz 12th. Both struggled on the outside line at the opening corners of the soaking start, and Leclerc’s race was soon compromised by an engine problem robbing him of 80bhp and up to 1.5 seconds per lap. Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda passed Leclerc before…

The British Touring Car Championship charged around the country’s fastest circuit last weekend, and provided far more entertainment and talking points than we’re used to at Thruxton. Series organiser TOCA moved the goalposts on sporting regulations substantially over the winter, partially in order to bring a halt to the recent trend of the same driver winning the first two races each Sunday. In this, it has a 100% failure rate so far, but few would have predicted that, this time, it would be because of a lead change that happened after the second race. To sum up, Jake Hill was victorious in a race that he never thought would be possible to win at the wheel of his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport. He then won another race,…

DTM ZANDVOORT (NLD) 8-9 JUNE ROUND 3/8 Jack Aitken took his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari to victory at Zandvoort last Saturday to become the first two-time winner of the DTM season, before BMW star Marco Wittmann claimed a shock win on Sunday. The two-time DTM champion started 14th, but Wittmann’s pitstop strategy enabled him to take the lead and claim his first success since the 2022 season finale. Aitken’s win was more plain-sailing. The Briton converted pole into the lead in the first one-hour race, and gained 2.1 seconds over the Dorr Motorsport McLaren of second-placed Clemens Schmid in the early stages. The Austrian attempted the undercut by pitting after 21 minutes, but this proved costly; Aitken extended his gap over Schmid to 9s after switching tyres the following lap.…

NASCAR CUP SONOMA (USA) 9 JUNE ROUND 16/36 Kyle Larson had to be patient and fast in a chaotic race to come away with the NASCAR Cup victory at Sonoma. The expected pit strategies all got turned upside-down when Sunday’s 110-lap race on the California road course was marred by seven cautions in the first 41 laps. That prompted Larson’s crew chief on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Cliff Daniels, to run Larson as long as possible in the final stage before making his final pitstop. With the race ending on a 51-lap green-flag run, Larson was among the last to pit but had the newest tyres when he cycled back into the line-up in eighth. With eight laps to go, Larson powered around Martin Truex Jr, who had just passed…

REAR WING The looping transition between wing elements and endplates has been ditched for a more conventional design, now featuring a three-element rear wing aimed at reducing drag. The beam wing reintroduced in the 2022 regulations has also been disposed of. The remainder of the changes all feed into the active aerodynamics rules, since DRS has been removed from the overall formula. The aero changes have contributed to a 30% cut in downforce. ENGINE The tried-and-tested 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine remains in place, underpinning the turbocharger and MGU-K once more. As was forecast long ago, the MGU-H is now gone, but the electrical power of the hybrid has been increased almost threefold, while the internal combustion engine has been reduced in potency. The ICE is now rated at around 400kW…

GB3 The GB3 Championship has unveiled a new car that will compete in the 2025 season, featuring greater performance than its predecessor as well as the Drag Reduction System (DRS) for the first time. The Tatuus MSV GB3-025 features a completely revised chassis, improved aerodynamics offering an estimated 35% more downforce and a new Mountune engine that produces 30bhp more at 280. The Pirelli tyres are also bigger, with the front rubber moving from eight to 10 inches wide and the rear tyres sizing up from 10 inches to 12, while the weight of the new car is expected to be approximately 560kg minus fuel and driver. It means that lap times compared with the current Tatuus MSV-022 car, introduced by championship organiser MotorSport Vision for the 2022 season, are…

PICKUPS Ex-British Touring Car Championship driver Matt Simpson has explained the mix-up that cost him a chance of victory in the opening Pickup race at Brands Hatch last weekend. The 42-year-old was battling Dale Gent in the first race and managed to move ahead of his rival heading onto the final lap at the Kent venue. But Simpson slowed immediately after the start-finish line and cruised back to the pits, meaning he was not classified since one lap remained. “Sonny [Howard, championship organiser] called over the radio and said it was the last lap coming out of Clearways,” said Simpson, who won race two. “I beat Dale to the line and backed off but Sonny called it wrong. He did the same in the second race, saying there was one…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB Matthew Ryder aims to return to the British Hillclimb Championship at Doune this weekend, despite his recent high-speed accident at Shelsley Walsh. Ryder, who topped the BHC standings heading to Shelsley, was fortunate to escape injury when his Gould GR59 went off at speed on the run up to Bottom Ess. Now his family team, working with car builder Sean Gould, hopes to have the car ready for this weekend’s double-header at the famous Scottish hill. “It’s testament to the strength of the Gould that I was able to walk away from the accident,” said Ryder. “There was quite a bit of damage to fix, but the plan is to get to Doune this weekend – it will be touch and go.” The car, which he shares with…

MINI MIGLIA The combination of the Mini 7 Racing Club and Thruxton is magical. Add in a talented pair of Jordans to the mix and there really is a spectacle to behold. But, while the Jordans repeated their quadruple win of last year (see right), they did not have things all their own way. One of the most memorable moments of the weekend had to be Andrew Jordan’s opening lap of the second Miglia contest. Having won the opener after leading throughout, he never had the benefit of the tow and therefore started the sequel down in 13th place because the grid was determined by fastest laps. Yet he had charged into the lead by the end of the opening tour! Jordan was up to fifth out of the Complex,…

BRITISH F4 It was all looking so good for Deagen Fairclough. The British Formula 4 dominator was nearly seven seconds clear in the Thruxton finale and appeared on course to add a fifth win of the season, after leading throughout the opener. But motorsport has a habit of producing unexpected twists and Fairclough was on the receiving end of one of those in Hampshire when his Hitech machine suddenly ground to a halt with four laps to go. “The car just died,” said the devastated points leader, who added that he had no warning of the mystery problem. It was Fairclough’s team-mate Reza Seewooruthun who profited from the woe to take his maiden win, after squeezing ahead of Rodin pair Alex Ninovic and Jack Sherwood. His win was assured by…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR AMERICAN SPEEDFEST 8-9 JUNE Jack Davidson became the first British winner of a NASCAR Euro Series race as the Chevrolet Camaro driver benefited from a multi-car tangle ahead to take victory in front of a home crowd at Brands Hatch’s annual American SpeedFest event. Davidson, the 2017 Junior Saloon Car champion and a race winner in the JCW Mini Challenge, started fourth for the second of the weekend’s Euro Series 2 races but found himself leading as early as lap two. This was after Martin Doubek, who had taken victory in Saturday’s prequel, made contact with polesitter and leader Thomas Krasonis into Druids, with the latter sent into a spin. As Doubek tried to regain the racing line, he was hit by the chasing Claudio Remigio Cappelli,…

DONINGTON PARK HSCC 8-9 JUNE Spencer Shinner’s mature victory in Saturday’s thrilling Historic Formula Ford opener proved the weekend’s highlight as Donington Park’s spectacular contours showed the Historic Sports Car Club’s series off at their best. Scot Neil Hose snared pole, but veered off into a wishbone-buckling impact with the McLeans barrier on lap one. Shinner, in his distinctive Merlyn, Chris Porritt, Matt Wrigley and Christian Goller all subsequently led, with Ross Drybrough buzzing between them. Wrigley pulled two outside passes on Shinner at Redgate, but his Merlyn ran wide exiting the final chicane on the last lap, whereupon Shinner and Goller’s Lola outdragged him to the chequered with just 0.099 seconds splitting them. Hose triggered a short caution when he skated into the Redgate gravel on Sunday, before Wrigley…

GT & SPORTS CAR CUP Graeme Dodd/James Dodd (Jaguar E-type) MG CUP Races 1 & 2 Jake Fraser-Burns (ZR 190, below) MONOPOSTO Races 1 & 2 George Line (Dallara F308) EQUIPE ELAN 60 David Pittard EQUIPE LIBRE Races 1 & 2 Mike Whitaker (TVR Griffith) EQUIPE GTS Race 1 Chris Ryan (TVR Grantura MkIII) Race 2 David Wenman (Morgan +4) EQUIPE 70s WITH EQUIPE BCV8 Race 1 Neil Fowler (MGB GT) Race 2 Ian Guest (Ford Escort Mk2) EQUIPE PRE ’63 WITH 50s Races 1 & 2 Joseph Willmott (Austin-Healey 3000) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…