Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/07/24 i Autosport

What a brilliant British Grand Prix that was. Three teams were in contention last weekend, four drivers led the race – including the trio of home heroes – and Lewis Hamilton ended his drought with an incredible ninth Silverstone Formula 1 success. The fact that the seven-time world champion admitted to self-doubt during his barren spell says a lot about the journey Hamilton and Mercedes have been on since the end of 2021, as did the emotional response to their Silverstone victory. As Alex Kalinauckas shows on pages 11 and 16, this was a race that McLaren could, perhaps should, have won. It’s no coincidence that the two teams and drivers that have done most of the winning over the past decade came out on top in such a challenging…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff says he “likes the thought” of supplying customer engines to Alpine in 2026 in place of Honda-bound Aston Martin. Amid rumours over the state of its Renault power units for the 2026 regulations, Alpine is weighing up whether to abandon its own engine programme and become a customer team instead, with Mercedes thought to be the most likely source of engines for the Enstone-based squad. With current Mercedes customer Aston Martin set to run works Honda engines from 2026 onwards, spare capacity could be freed up at Mercedes’ HPP division in Brixworth. Wolff indicated that Mercedes would be open to supplying Alpine. “That’s a complicated situation because we like the thought of replacing Aston Martin with another team, because of the…

Bernd Schneider leads Robb Gravett?! Tin-top history buffs were in their element at the Norisring DTM round, where the DTM Classic was on the support bill. Stefan Mucke’s ex-Schneider 2005 Mercedes C-Klasse DTM leads the ex-Gravett, 1990 BTCC title-winning Ford Sierra RS500 of Ronny Scheer and Altfrid Heger’s Audi last Saturday. Mucke went on to win, while Scheer retired with tyre problems and Heger with a faulty clutch. Mucke’s father Peter took over the Merc on Sunday and finished second from Scheer, despite a clash with Heger for which the Audi took a drive-through penalty. Victory went to the Audi 200 of Anton Werner. ROVANPERA WINS AT IMOLA Can Kalle Rovanpera do no wrong? One week after winning Rally Poland for Toyota while effectively driving blind as a late call-up,…

The long wait came to an end last weekend as the IndyCar Series finally ushered in a new era with the race debut of its hybrid engine at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which stands as the midway point of the 17-race 2024 season. A collaborative effort between IndyCar, Chevrolet and Honda paired the 2.2-litre, twin-turbocharged V6 internal combustion engines – which have been in the series since 2012 – with an electrical low-voltage (48V) Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and a 320 kilojoules-per-lap supercapacitor Energy Storage System (ESS). The first-of-its-kind unit operates at a maximum of 12,000rpm and allows the driver to deploy and harvest energy for up to an additional 60bhp. When combined with push-to-pass on road courses and street circuits, the output combines to over 120bhp extra, bringing…

For Jim Clark, John Surtees and Innes Ireland at Aintree 1962, read George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris for Silverstone 2024: the two occasions on which home heroes have swept to a 1-2-3 in British Grand Prix qualifying. For this to be possible last Saturday, something really bad had to happen to Red Bull. Sergio Perez spinning off into the Copse gravel in Q1 wasn’t altogether surprising. But it was for Max Verstappen to smash his RB20’s floor at the same spot after the red flag. Both were undone by the early intermediates-to-slicks switch, with Perez’s off coming on his out-lap. Verstappen’s moment cost anywhere from 100-1000 downforce points – judging by comments from Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko and the Dutchman himself. Verstappen rallied, progressing from Q1…

Ferrari threw away a potential seventh place for Charles Leclerc with a badly timed call for the intermediate tyre as the Monegasque lamented a “worse than a nightmare” run of form since his Monaco Grand Prix win in May. Leclerc had managed to make up for a Q1 exit with a good start, rising to eighth and then passing Lance Stroll for seventh, but Ferrari overreacted to the initial belt of light rain and hauled him in on lap 19 of 52 – a point at which the rain started to ease up and the track dried. By the time that heavier rain started to pepper the Silverstone circuit, Leclerc’s intermediates were shot, and he’d lost huge chunks of time to the cars ahead tiptoeing around on wet-weather tyres on…

A dismal weekend left Pierre Gasly having to retire before the end of the formation lap after Alpine detected a gearbox issue on his car. The Frenchman had already sacrificed his own FP1 session for reserve driver Jack Doohan, and FP2 provided his only real running of his whole weekend; he got caught in the gravel during FP3, and then barely appeared in qualifying. He was also beset by grid penalties for taking a new suite of power unit components. “It’s a pity we couldn’t take part in the race to at least try and fight back for positions,” said the 2020 Italian GP winner. “With the weather being so unstable, there might have been some opportunities for us, but that just was not on the cards today.” Esteban Ocon…

The IndyCar Series’ mid-point was meant to be highlighted by the introduction of the futuristic hybrid technology, but instead it provided a truly old-school open-wheel scrap to the finish between two hard chargers around a classic American road course. Pato O’Ward finally won a race on the road for Arrow McLaren for the first time since Iowa Speedway two years ago, although he did inherit victory in this season’s St Petersburg opener after Josef Newgarden was disqualified for Team Penske’s push-to-pass scandal. It was a fantastic duel for the win, after the normally unflappable two-time champion and points leader Alex Palou squandered a six-second lead by overheating his tyres in the middle stint, before fluffing his exit from his final pitstop to allowed O’Ward ahead. It was a tough one…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP SILVERSTONE (GBR) 7 JULY ROUND 4/8 The Porsche Supercup got the worst of the British summer climate at Silverstone on Sunday morning, and Larry ten Voorde proved to be as supreme then as he had been in the dry of qualifying. Ten Voorde headed a 1-2-3 on the grid for Come Ledogar’s CLRT team ahead of Marvin Klein and Alessandro Ghiretti, and it was these three at the front when the race finally got going following a red flag at the initial attempt – conditions were just too bad – and a safety car start. Predictably, local hero Harry King was on the move from fourth on the grid, the Lechner Racing man gunning around the outside of Ghiretti at Luffield on the second lap of green-flag racing,…

WORLD RALLYCROSS HOLJES (SWE) 6-7 JULY ROUND 1/5 Internal combustion-engined cars returned to the World Rallycross Championship in Sweden last weekend (sustainably fuelled, of course) to take on the incumbent electric machinery in what is billed as the ‘Battle of Technologies’. And it was local hero and six-time champion Johan Kristoffersson who struck the first blow for good old-fashioned noisy cars by claiming a weekend double in his KMS-run, ICE-powered Volkswagen Polo. Klara Andersson won both her Saturday heats in her electric CE Dealer Team PWR RX1e, while Kristoffersson lost the second of his two heat victories when he was penalised down to third for contact that had pitched Niclas Gronholm into a spin. That put Andersson onto pole for the final. There was no stopping Kristoffersson at the start.…

MOTOGP SACHSENRING (DEU) 7 JULY ROUND 9/20 Francesco Bagnaia came away from the German Grand Prix with victory and a 10-point lead in the championship, despite title rival Jorge Martin having the upper hand over him during most of the event. After Bagnaia’s domination at Assen just a week before, Pramac Ducati man Martin had the perfect opportunity to strike back at the factory rider at the Sachsenring and cement his lead in the standings heading into the summer break. But the Spaniard binned it with two laps to go in Sunday’s race, tilting the title fight momentum back in favour of the reigning champion. Martin started the business part of the weekend by breaking the circuit lap record in qualifying to take pole position, while Bagnaia was consigned to…

BRITISH GT Reigning British GT4 champion squad Academy Motorsport is looking into adding a Ford Mustang GT3 to its all-GT4 Mustang line-up this year for either British or European competition. Academy, which took Erik Evans and Matt Cowley to last year’s British GT4 drivers’ title, has raced GT4 Mustangs in British GT since 2020, and this season runs two new-for-2024 models. The team also returned to the GT4 European Series this year, with Academy competing in partnership with Ford Performance and Multimatic. The Mustang GT3 was introduced last season and finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hours LMGT3 class this year. Academy owner Matt Nicoll-Jones said: “We’ve wanted a GT3 programme for a number of years, but we’ve just wanted to be in line with the manufacturer that we…

“Since I started racing, I said if I can win at Thruxton I’m happy, and I could have possibly done that in front of a load of friends and family.” Among the monsoon conditions that plagued the MG Owners’ Club opener at Thruxton there was some joy to be found, as Jonathan Candler found himself being crowned the winner – eventually. The MG ZR driver had been running third on the road as conditions worsened in Hampshire on Sunday, with leaders Steve McDermid and Fergus Campbell up the road following an earlier restart after Luke Boniface’s ZR had found the hedges at Goodwood, thankfully without harm. But with McDermid under increasing pressure, the MG stalwart suffered a snap of oversteer exiting Noble that pitched him hard into the side of…

HAREWOOD BRITISH HILLCLIMB 6-7 JULY Matthew Ryder was the big winner at Harewood on Sunday with an impressive double win to get his British Hillclimb Championship title bid firmly back on track. But two strong runs from Alex Summers kept him at the top of the points table at the start of a busy month for the championship. The great British summer played tricks on the title contenders, with heavy rain showers soaking the Yorkshire hill at regular intervals and turning tyre choice into a lottery. But through it all, Ryder and his team kept their heads, and he delivered with two strong runs in ever-changing conditions. In the opening run-off, Ryder just edged Wallace Menzies by 0.01s as the flying Scot bagged his best result of a challenging season…

Goodwood Festival of Speed 11-14 July National Motorsport Week gets off to a spectacular start with the motoring extravaganza in Sussex. There will be a special focus on the Red Bull Formula 1 team this year, while a host of other F1 squads will also have a presence on the famous hill. EnduroKa 24 Hours, Anglesey 12-14 July From the glitz and glamour of Goodwood to the humble Ford Ka and the beautiful Welsh Anglesey circuit. The EnduroKa 24 Hours is a great way of going endurance racing on a budget and is the perfect event to highlight how inclusive club motorsport can be. Nicky Grist Stages, Builth Wells 13 July There is a multitude of rallying events taking place during the next 10 days and the Nicky Grist Stages,…

A strong rookie season in the 2002 Formula 3000 International Championship, then Formula 1’s main supporting championship, set Bjorn Wirdheim on the path to becoming its penultimate champion the following year. And it also provided the Swede with an opportunity to work closely alongside the driver he picks as his favourite teammate from a career that encompassed 12 years in Japan and the European Le Mans Series title in 2015. At Christian Horner’s previously winless Arden team, Tomas Enge brought pedigree from past victories at the McLaren junior and Nordic teams, and in his fourth full season of F3000 was “always willing to share information that certain other drivers would hold back on”. “He was just a perfect team-mate, I couldn’t ask for anyone better,” reflects Wirdheim, now working as…

FORMULA 1 Sergio Perez’s Red Bull Formula 1 future looks increasingly under threat as details of performance-related clauses in his contract begin to emerge. The Mexican made a bright start to the 2024 season with three podiums across the first four race weekends, which helped him earn a two-year contract extension to remain as Max Verstappen’s team-mate. But since May’s Miami Grand Prix, the 34-year-old’s form has collapsed, just as a stronger challenge from McLaren and Mercedes means Red Bull is desperate for him to bank big points for the constructors’ standings. Another non-score for Perez at last weekend’s British Grand Prix means he has brought home just 15 points in the past six events, compared to 119 for Verstappen. The team remains hopeful that Perez can rediscover his early-season…

FORMULA 1 Ex-Mercedes Formula 1 engine chief Andy Cowell will replace Martin Whitmarsh as Aston Martin’s Group CEO from 1 October. Cowell is best known for overseeing Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division between 2013 and 2020, during which it built the engines that led the Silver Arrows to dominate F1 and win seven title doubles in that period. It also secured the 2021 constructors’ championship shortly after Cowell had transitioned to working as a Mercedes consultant. “I am thrilled to join Lawrence [Stroll, Aston chairman]’s exciting project and look forward to working with the talented group of people that has been assembled,” Cowell said in an Aston Martin statement. Whitmarsh will “be handing over responsibility before the end of the year” after joining in 2021 as CEO of Aston Martin…

WEC Ferrari has been given a Balance of Performance boost for the Interlagos World Endurance Championship round this weekend. The Italian manufacturer’s 499P has regained the horsepower that disappeared under the new ‘power gain’ component of the BoP introduced at the Le Mans 24 Hours last month, and then some. The Ferrari Le Mans Hypercar won the 24 Hours with a 1.7% reduction in maximum power above 250km/h (155mph), whereas around the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix it will benefit from a 1.8% increase. But it is not as straightforward as it looks, because the increase above the threshold is on a lower figure than at Le Mans. Max power below 250km/h for the 499P is now 503kW rather than 508kW (674 rather than 681bhp). What’s more, the Ferrari…

WRC Toyota will field a massive five-car Rally1 team when the World Rally Championship heads to Finland next month. It means that the Japanese manufacturer’s entry of GR Yaris Rally1 machinery will comprise 50% of the 10-car field in the top class for the 1-4 August event, which is hosted in the Toyota squad’s home city of Jyvaskyla. Regulars Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta will be joined by part-timers and multiple champions Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier, meaning that the Frenchman will be back soon following his recent injuries in a Rally Poland recce crash, even if his participation in the next round in Latvia is not confirmed. It had already been announced that Rally2 star Sami Pajari will make his Rally1 debut. The mighty Toyota line-up will take on…

Arvid Lindblad has unexpectedly joined the Formula 3 championship hunt with a surprise pair of wins at the British Grand Prix weekend, taking his tally to four in 2024, more than any other driver. “It’s pretty amazing,” reckons the Prema Racing-run Red Bull Junior. “But I’m just focused on taking it race by race and doing the best I can. We did a good job this weekend so I’m super-happy about the result. Obviously, an amazing stat doing the double here at Silverstone and being English – it’s crazy.” Second-year F3 racer Luke Browning had led the title race coming into the weekend, but added only six points to his haul for various reasons, dropping the Hitech GP driver behind both new leader Gabriele Mini and Lindblad, with seven points…

They’re racing by. Big, menacing, constant. No missing them from the Becketts grandstand. The fleeting Great British Summer has been chased away, clouds overhead at any moment set to douse Silverstone once again. Autosport is on the other side of the track, taking in the whole Maggotts/Becketts complex during FP3. The rain that lashed this place through the night has finally, briefly, abated. The minor undulation through here means there’s still a big puddle between the final part of Maggotts and the first element of Becketts – soon the cars are vengefully sending water back towards the heavens. Through Becketts in these opening minutes, the drivers are struggling to power out – Valtteri Bottas first, then Lance Stroll, not even Max Verstappen is immune from rear-end squirming. But before too…

ALEX ALBON WILLIAMS DRIVER Was there first-lap contact? I had contact in Turn 3, contact in Turn 4. I had a relatively good launch. But Fernando [Alonso] had an absolute rocketship start and got boxed in into Turn 1. I think Nico [Hulkenberg] made everyone slam the brakes on. We came out P12 on lap one but, to be honest with you, I knew it didn’t really matter too much because the race was going to come to us with the rain. When it did rain, Nico bunched up towards us and we kind of created a little group. Can you explain your tyre strategy? Once we pitted for the inter, we could adjust the front wing to rebalance some of the damage that we had from lap one. And…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES IMOLA (ITA) 7 JULY ROUND 3/6 ‘It ain’t over until the fat lady sings’, the old saying goes. In the case of the European Le Mans Series, it sometimes isn’t even over until after that, as the outcome of last Sunday’s 4 Hours of Imola proved. On the road, it was a pole-to-victory run for the Panis Racing ORECA of Arthur Leclerc, Manuel Maldonado and Charles Milesi. But the history books will record it as the first win of the season for AO by TF trio Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Jonny Edgar. The Panis squad did well to come out on top after a shorter final stop allowed Milesi to leapfrog Deletraz before going on to take the chequered flag first. Then the stewards decided…

10 1983 DUT CH GP ZANDVOORT McLAREN MP4/1C STARTED 15TH RESULT 3RD While team-mate Niki Lauda gave the new Porschebuilt TAG turbo engine its debut in the sister McLaren, Watson drove his outpowered Cosworth-propelled machine to a superb third place behind the Ferraris of Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay. With the exception of the later adjudged illegal 1984 Tyrrells, it would be the last F1 podium for the three-litre DFV unit. “Niki looked at the 1983 season as being a waste of his time and effort, because he realised you were unlikely to win the championship in a Cosworth-engined car,” says Watson. “He was pushing hard to get the turbo programme accelerated. “At that point the TAG had pretty horrendous throttle lag. I outqualified Niki, and the set-up that I…

HISTORIC Masters Historic Racing will introduce a new series next year for the spectacular Group C prototypes of the 1980s. The new Masters Le Mans 80+ category has been developed by Masters boss Frederic Fatien, who took over at the end of last year and had previously told Autosport (7 March) about his desire to assess potential additions to the historic racing organiser’s portfolio. The first of these will be dedicated to Group C machines from 1982 to 1993 as well as the similar IMSA GTP cars that raced in North America during the same period. Fatien is the driving force behind the Gulf Historic Dubai Grand Prix Revival, which also features Group C cars. He explained he had consulted with various owners of the prototypes about plans for the…

BRITISH GT British GT racer Simon Watts is set to return to the championship at Snetterton this weekend, having missed the entire season so far through a combination of injury and family reasons. Watts, who raced in British GT in 2022 aboard a Team RJN McLaren 720S, was on the 2024 full-season entry in a Pro-Am partnership with fellow championship returnee Alex Buncombe. Amateur driver Watts missed the Oulton Park season opener due to family reasons, then sustained a compression fracture in a Friday testing crash ahead of Silverstone’s second round. He has been out of action since then, and Buncombe’s older brother Chris has substituted. Buncombe Jr said: “Simon’s going to be back in for the next round. It’ll be great to have him back in the car. It’s…

THRUXTON BARC 6-7 JULY Reigning eight-time British Truck Racing champion Ryan Smith proved unbeatable at Thruxton, putting in a peerless performance to win five out of five races in a mix of conditions. The Daimler Freightliner driver started both of Saturday’s races from pole position, with the grid order determined by championship position after qualifying was cancelled due to an earlier lengthy delay (see News). He was never headed in either dry contest, charging to wins of 10.5 seconds and 13.7s as Michael Oliver and Steven Powell proved his closest competition respectively. Starting eighth for the three partially reversed-grid races on Sunday, Smith had to battle up the order each time, beginning with a pass for the lead inside four laps on David Jenkins at the Complex. After a red…

DONINGTON PARK VSCC 7 JULY Sunday’s Vintage Sports-Car Club meeting at Donington Park was a celebration of 90 years since the club’s inception, with some machines over a century old competing during the day’s races. The opening race was the inaugural Mephistopheles Trophy for Pre-1925 racing cars, named after the car that, almost 100 years earlier to the day, set a new land speed record of 146mph. It was fitting, therefore, that another land speed record breaker was present on the grid in the form of Mark Walker’s Darracq 200HP. The Darracq, which took the record in 1905, was almost 30mph slower than the time posted by the Fiat Mephistopheles in 1924. Walker qualified it sixth, but it failed to start on the grid and was pushed into the pitlane…

ANGLESEY 750MC 6-7 JULY Mixed weather and close racing featured throughout the 750 Motor Club’s traditional summer trip to Anglesey, with Chris Lawrence’s first overall victory in the Clio Sport Championship from 12th on the grid headlining the action. Lawrence won the outright title last year by picking up class victories but switched to a newer 197 model for 2024, and he put in a storming drive that included passing 10 cars on the opening lap of a wet second race. He got the better of race one winner Justin Griffiths at Church on lap three and went on to pull out a 4.6-second gap. Griffiths chased Lawrence throughout the third race of the weekend but couldn’t find a way through, and Lawrence took a second victory. Pete O’Connor secured…

BOOK REVIEW TYRRELL RACING – THE CHAMPIONSHIP YEARS AND BEYOND David Oliver RRP £15.99 Last year’s release of Tyrrell: The Story of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation by Richard Jenkins detailed the erstwhile British team’s journey through Formula 1. A weighty tome, it covered everything from its nascent years developing title-winning cars from a Surrey woodshed after a couple of years with Matra and March chassis, to its declining years and buyout by British American Tobacco. Interviews and images of collections from former personnel and drivers lent a behind-the-scenes view of Ken Tyrrell’s eponymous outfit, detailing the familial atmosphere that endured its 30-year history in F1. And there’s another literary release behind the history of Tyrrell: Tyrrell Racing – The Championship Years and Beyond written by former photographer David Oliver. As…

At the start of this year, 17-year-old American Connor Zilisch signed a multi-season development deal with NASCAR Cup team Trackhouse, adding him to the same talent stable as Supercars-turned-stock-cars star Shane van Gisbergen. “The opportunity basically landed in my lap,” Zilisch admits. “It was very hard to say no to signing a long-term contract with a Cup Series team – getting the opportunity to go NASCAR racing, and hopefully getting to race in Cup one day.” Zilisch is a former karting star from Charlotte, who’s been tearing up multiple series across America on all kind of tracks despite his tender years. A winner of several national kart titles in his youth, Zilisch notably became the first American to win the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy in 2020, which was won by…

FORMULA 1 Haas has confirmed that its reserve driver Ollie Bearman will race for the squad in Formula 1 next year. The Ferrari Driver Academy youngster had been widely tipped for the seat in the wake of his impressive seventh place on his F1 race debut for Ferrari in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, when he was called up at the eleventh hour to replace Carlos Sainz. Bearman has long been prepared for promotion to F1 by Ferrari and Haas with several FP1 outings for Ferrari’s American-owned customer team, a programme that started at last year’s Mexican GP. The 19-year-old from Chelmsford will get further FP1 outings in Hungary, Mexico and Abu Dhabi to help prepare him for his big move, dovetailing his reserve duties with his F2 campaign for…

Jenson Button wound back the years at the British Grand Prix last weekend when he demonstrated an example of the car he raced as a Formula 1 rookie in 2000. The 2009 world champion was handed the reins of the three-litre, BMW V10-powered Williams FW22 by the Williams Heritage crew, and bubbled: “It’s mad how small the car is. It looks beautiful.” Button qualified an FW22 an eye-opening sixth and raced it to fifth place in the 2000 British GP at Silverstone, equally remembered for the April quagmire than the race itself. It was his best F1 result to date in his fourth start.…

INDYCAR Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi is to split with Arrow McLaren at the end of the current IndyCar season, and is one of the drivers linked with newcomer Prema Racing for 2025, along with current Williams Formula 1 driver Logan Sargeant and sometime Arrow McLaren substitute Callum Ilott. Arrow McLaren confirmed last week that Rossi will make way for Christian Lundgaard. The highly rated Dane, who will join Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel at the squad, has spent his first three IndyCar seasons with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and has claimed one race victory, in Toronto last year. Eight-time IndyCar race winner Rossi (below), who has not scored any victories since joining Arrow McLaren at the start of 2023, said the split was “not a negative thing”, but found…

Lando Norris and McLaren are just not going to be Formula 1 title contenders until they cut out the repeated errors they’ve consistently made from potentially winning positions in 2024. As the team headed down from Silverstone to Woking last Sunday, it could rightly look back on its impressive progress since this time a year ago. But it should also be reflecting on how there are so many races where, had certain choices been made even slightly differently, it might be looking at a win tally of six, instead of solely at Norris’s Miami GP triumph. The memorable Imola climax doesn’t count. But in Monaco, had Oscar Piastri strung together all his best sectors at the end of Q3, then he would have headed eventual winner Charles Leclerc on the…

Nico Hulkenberg reckoned that Haas had firmly moved into contention to be F1’s fifth-best team after securing his second consecutive sixth-place finish at the British Grand Prix. Although the German lost ground at the start from sixth on the grid after running wide into Village, he was able to atone for that mistake and passed Lance Stroll on the 19th lap to reclaim one of his lost positions. Charles Leclerc’s badly timed stop for intermediates and George Russell’s retirement paid back the other two, allowing Hulkenberg to lock down his position. He had to ward off a threat from the Aston Martins towards the end of the race, but kept just enough life in his soft tyres to manage that. “We worked for it – we stayed clean, no mistakes,…

Aston Martin banked a double-points finish on its front lawn, with Lance Stroll taking seventh and Fernando Alonso eighth. The Spaniard now believes that the team has turned its back on a difficult period and has recaptured its pre-Imola form with a handful of updates, which included a new front wing at Silverstone. Alonso had only qualified 10th because he managed just one flying lap in Q3, getting outqualified by Stroll in eighth, and then got baulked into the opening corners by the off-road Nico Hulkenberg at Village. Regardless, he managed to keep his foot in the top 10 amid the early stages, building a gap over Yuki Tsunoda’s RB and the other points contenders. Alonso got past Stroll prior to the intermediate tyre stops but, since Stroll stopped a…

FORMULA 2 SILVERSTONE (GBR) 6-7 JULY ROUND 8/14 Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar moved to the top of the Formula 2 standings with victory last Sunday at Silverstone, while previous points leader Paul Aron endured a horror weekend. Frenchman Hadjar’s win was his third in a feature race this season, and came a day after Andrea Kimi Antonelli scored his maiden F2 success. Hadjar has been on a comeback mission since enduring a dreadful start to the campaign that featured just one points finish in the first four races. But the Campos Racing driver is making amends. He topped qualifying on Friday, but on a drying track in Sunday’s race he immediately fell behind Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) and Ollie Bearman (Prema Racing), who sliced through from fifth on…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS TOWNSVILLE (AUS) 6-7 JULY ROUND 6/12 Ford drivers bounced back into form in the Townsville round of the Supercars Championship, with Cameron Waters and Matt Payne sharing the wins. After a difficult previous round in Darwin, Tickford Racing’s Waters took pole position for Saturday’s 250km race and claimed the win. But that only tells a part of the story; the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford of Chaz Mostert took the lead when part of the track was hit by rain, and Waters had to slither his way past to prevail. After his Hidden Valley travails, Mostert was pretty pleased, but not as happy as the man behind him. Points leader Will Brown qualified a disastrous 13th and had to pick his way through the field. Aided by great strategy…

DTM NORISRING (DEU) 6-7 JULY ROUND 4/8 Silverstone wasn’t the only historic circuit where tears flowed last Sunday. After a dire start to his DTM season, Nicki Thiim had begun to ask himself uncomfortable questions: would he ever get the DTM win he’d craved since watching his father race on this very track back in the 1990s? So when the 35-year-old son of 1986 DTM champion and multiple Norisring winner Kurt Thiim took his SSR Performance Lamborghini to victory in the Nuremberg classic, the emotion was borderline Hamiltonesque. That the win made the Thiims the first father-son combination to claim DTM wins no doubt jerked a few extra tears. “I’m super-proud to have this box ticked,” said the Dane, whose win at the Spa 24 Hours a week earlier had…

NASCAR CUP CHICAGO (USA) 7 JULY ROUND 20/36 Luckily for Alex Bowman, time expired on his competitors’ chances to deny him the victory in last Sunday’s rain-delayed NASCAR Cup race at the Chicago Street Course. With a nearly two-hour rain delay in the second stage, NASCAR announced 8.20pm local time as the hard end to the originally scheduled 75-lap race. At that time, the leader would take the white flag and the race would end after the next lap. Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was among a handful of cars that had not pitted before the start of the final stage and remained on wet-weather tyres, hoping the clock would run out on those who had stopped to take on four new slicks. After a several-lap battle with sportscar star Joey…

SILVERSTONE FESTIVAL Some of the cars that will form part of the Ayrton Senna celebration at the Silverstone Festival have been revealed. The three-time Formula 1 world champion’s life will be remembered at the event on 23-25 August, where more than 20 cars raced by the Brazilian will be available to view up close. This includes the Toleman TG184 that Senna drove during his first season in F1, alongside Lotus, McLaren and Williams racers from his illustrious career. The yellow-liveried Van Diemen Formula Ford 1600 and 2000 machines with which Senna began his car racing in the UK, as well as his 1983 F3 title-winning Ralt RT3, will also be on display. “We are proud to be bringing together such a comprehensive display of cars raced by the great Ayrton…

OULTON PARK After a five-year lay-off, Stuart Pearson made a winning return in the CNC Heads Sports/Saloons Championship last weekend at Oulton Park. Aboard his AB Sabre, Pearson took the lead after Ben Roberts overshot the Knickerbrook chicane in his Locost-Honda. With the race ending in heavy rain, Roberts managed to limp home in second with broken steering after clattering the barrier at Knickerbrook on the last lap, taking the flag with Connor Modro (Westfield) closing. The second race was restarted for just three laps, with Modro taking the win from Roberts and Pearson. Richard Tarling and Callum Grant shared the victory spoils in the Heroes of FF1600 Sprint Cup. Tarling’s Reynard 89FF ousted poleman James Clarke’s Van Diemen RF90 for the early lead in race one, and Clarke’s hopes…

HISTORIC Six historic Formula 5000 racers from New Zealand have bolstered the Derek Bell Trophy entry, making it one of the largest grids at this weekend’s Historic Sports Car Club’s Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix. Multiple champion Steve Ross starts among the favourites in his 1973 McRae GM1. NZ series sponsor David Banks, veteran Russell Greer, Bruce Kett and Ian Riley bring 1974 Lola T332s and Glenn Richards his T400. Fourteen stock-block V8 monsters form almost half the pack, with DBT race winners Christian Pittard (Chevron B28) and Neil Glover (B37) joined by UK-based American debutant Gary Lapidus (Lola T400) among others. Mark Charteris and Alex Kapadia lead the F2 opposition in March 782 and 762 respectively, while recent Thruxton race winner Martin Wood (March 73B) and returnee Henry Chart…

BRITISH TRUCKS Races 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Ryan Smith (Daimler Freightliner) PICKUP TRUCKS Race 1 Dale Gent Race 2 Mark Willis Race 3 Ryan Hadfield JUNIOR SALOONS Race 1 Harry Smith Races 2 & 3 Josh Selvadorai HYUNDAI COUPE CUP Race 1 Daniel Munro Race 2 Mark Ridout (below) TRACK ACTION Race 1 Paul Roddison (VW Scirocco) Race 2 Charlotte Birch (Honda Civic) MINI CHALLENGE CLUBSPORT Races 1, 2 & 3 Ross Alexander (Mini Cooper S) MG OWNERS’ CLUB Race 1 Jonathan Candler (MG ZR) Race 2 Robb Addison (MG ZR) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

DONINGTON PARK EQUIPE 6 JULY Familiar British summer weather and classic British cars combined for a thrilling Equipe meeting at Donington Park on Saturday. Overcast and breezy conditions were prevalent for most of the event, but that didn’t stop a capacity grid of Equipe Libre cars putting on a breathless display in the pick of the day. The victory went to the polesitting Lotus Elan 26R of father/son duo Nick and Eddie Powell, but it was far from simple. Powell Sr got bogged down at the start and was quickly demoted by Brian Caudwell’s powerful AC Cobra and several other Pre-’63 machines. “I’m used to rolling starts, so I couldn’t get it right,” he admitted, while son Eddie joked: “He just didn’t give it enough revs.” With the Powells’ Lotus…

Hundreds of thousands on site, millions watching at home and more tuning in from around the globe. Of the 4000 motorsport events that take place in the UK every year, there can be no denying that the British Grand Prix is the one that gets the most attention. Especially when the previously all-conquering Red Bull is under threat. And governing body Motorsport UK is keen to capitalise on all that interest and keep the sport firmly in the spotlight afterwards with the revival of its National Motorsport Week initiative, which begins today (Thursday). Running until 21 July, the scheme is designed to showcase the diverse range of disciplines that form the UK’s motorsport scene. The 11-day celebration is part of Motorsport UK’s ongoing efforts to grow the sport and, ultimately,…

Much of the field separates the McLarens of Alain Prost (#7) and Niki Lauda (#8) at the start of the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, the season finale. And, once the Frenchman was established in the lead (he’s about to be temporarily usurped into the first turn by the Williams of Keke Rosberg and Nigel Mansell’s #12 Lotus), the Austrian had to finish in second place to secure his third world championship crown and deny Prost his first – by half a point. What followed was a mighty and ultimately successful performance from Lauda that he was to select as his ‘Race of my life’ for Autosport in 1993 – “It was a very close and difficult race; it was special because it was so close,” he stated, while…