Innholdsfortegnelse for 24/10/24 i Autosport

Let’s start with the positives. Ferrari’s form in last weekend’s United States Grand Prix showed that there are three teams currently in contention at the front of Formula 1, a situation nobody but the most optimistic fan would have predicted back in March. Charles Leclerc’s eighth GP win was well taken (see page 12). And now for the not-so-positive. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, it is very disappointing that we can no longer enjoy an F1 title fight in which the main protagonists race each other fairly and don’t end up off the road. We didn’t get satisfactory on-track battles in 2021 and we aren’t in 2024, either. As Alex Kalinauckas argues on p9, Max Verstappen appears to have perfected the art of running deep into a…

WEC Sauber Formula 1 reserve Theo Pourchaire will be given an outing in Peugeot’s Le Mans Hypercar at the World Endurance Championship rookie test in Bahrain next month. A first chance in a sportscar comes at the end of a season in which he has raced in Super Formula and IndyCar with Impul and Arrow McLaren respectively. The 2023 Formula 2 champion will drive a Peugeot 9X8 2024 on 3 November along with former F2 sparring partner Clement Novalak. Novalak has been given the opportunity after a first season in sportscars with Inter Europol in LMP2, which included a second in class at the Le Mans 24 Hours. They will share the two LMHs with Paul di Resta and Malthe Jakobsen, who took part in the rookie test with Peugeot…

Tyler Reddick became the first NASCAR stock car racer to flip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 24 years during last weekend’s Cup contest. The 23XI Racing Toyota driver escaped unscathed but risks being eliminated from the playoffs. Penske Ford’s Joey Logano gambled on making his fuel last as others stopped to win the race and become the first driver to make it into the Championship 4. FINE FOR CROWD INVASION Organisers of Austin’s United States Grand Prix have been fined €500,000 by the FIA for an early track invasion by spectators, of which €350,000 is suspended. At the end of the race at the Circuit of The Americas, throngs of spectators entered the track on the start/finish straight while cars were still coming on their cooldown laps after taking…

If you want to understand how brilliant – genius, even – a Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen is, watch exactly how he attacked Lando Norris at the start of the 2024 United States Grand Prix. And then ‘defended’ against him late in the race. Both the Turn 1 and Turn 12 Verstappen vs Norris battles were essentially the same cynical tactic from the world champion. Here rises the spectre of the 2021 Brazilian round. And how heading into Interlagos’s Turn 4, with Lewis Hamilton bearing down in arguably the Briton’s greatest ever F1 win, Verstappen steamed on with the inside line he’d taken in defence. Both flew into the run-off and the Red Bull remained ahead. There are differences here to Brazil 2021 – but they matter. At Austin, Norris…

It’s clear why Lando Norris reckoned the lap that netted him pole position at Austin was “the best of my career”. The McLaren hadn’t been the happy package of Singapore. Team principal Andrea Stella had feared the significant wind factor of this place was putting the MCL38s on edge, but his squad’s efforts “to adapt to the wind” paid off come Q3 and the setting sun of last Saturday evening. Ride heights had been lowered across the grid post-sprint, which in McLaren’s case meant Norris was in for a very bumpy ride in the weekend’s second qualifying session. Having been encouraged by engineer Will Joseph to “trust the car and don’t overload the combined” – which meant not going too aggressive on the requirements to brake and turn at several…

George Russell rescued a solid sixth place for Mercedes after starting from the pitlane following his Turn 18 qualifying crash, as the Brackley team’s inconsistency again reared its head. Russell and Lewis Hamilton both showed pace in sprint qualifying that suggested Mercedes could contend for pole, but Hamilton’s sole flying lap was hindered by a yellow flag prompted by Franco Colapinto’s Turn 12 off. Russell dropped behind the Ferraris in the sprint owing to tyre degradation, falling from second to fifth, while Hamilton suffered with rear graining. But qualifying for the GP was even worse; Hamilton failed to clear the Q1 hurdle, blaming a set-up issue encountered after fixing a front suspension problem that lingered through the sprint. Russell made Q3, but his crash meant that he had to take…

Alex Albon thought Williams would retire his car after damage sustained in his Turn 1 clash with Esteban Ocon, as the two coalesced at the uphill pinch-point. During the contact, Valtteri Bottas knocked Albon’s diffuser as the field closed up, which Albon explained made the car “really bad, particularly through left-handers. I’m not too sure why we didn’t [retire].” A spin in sprint qualifying cost Albon the chance to join team-mate Franco Colapinto in SQ3, and the Anglo-Thai ended up using it as an extended test session to trial set-ups for Sunday’s grand prix – although he at least managed to interlope on the ill-tempered battle between Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso. In the other car, Colapinto was the master of his own fate in pushing for a hard-tyre start…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES ALGARVE CIRCUIT (PRT) 19 OCTOBER ROUND 6/6 Lorenzo Fluxa, Ritomo Miyata and Malthe Jakobsen stood tall in the 4 Hours of Portimao, the European Le Mans Series season finale. In a grandstand conclusion to a tightly contested season, two of the championship battles were decided on the very last lap of the race. It says much about the unpredictable nature of LMP2 this season that the Cool Racing trio became the first repeat overall winners, having also claimed the Barcelona season opener back in April. Here, a United Autosports drive-through penalty for contact with Panis Racing gifted them the lead. Miyata and then Jakobsen did not relinquish it, the car finishing 2.5 seconds up on the AO by TF ORECA of Jonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and…

SUPER GT AUTOPOLIS (JPN) 20 OCTOBER ROUND 6/8 The SARD Toyota team ended a four-year win drought as Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama took advantage of a well-timed safety car period to win at Autopolis. In an eventful three-hour race featuring four caution periods, the Toyota GR Supra rose from 10th on the grid to score an unlikely victory. Sekiguchi charged up to fourth in the opening stint, but the key to SARD’s win was the third safety car interlude that came just as Nakayama exited the pits after his final stop. Sekiguchi had handed over to Nakayama at the first stops, while main rivals, led by the #23 NISMO Nissan, all had driver changes to complete in the second stops. Ronnie Quintarelli had just taken over the #23 Nissan…

To win the British Touring Car Championship, you don’t have to drive at ten tenths all the time. For Jake Hill in 2024, it was all about driving at eight fifths. Confused? Well, let’s explain… Hill had a reputation as a naturally gifted driver who could sometimes overreach in his bid to attain the unattainable, who was always on the limit. This season he banished that to the extent where, remarkably, he finished in fifth position in eight of the 30 races. When that result offers you 11 points to the 20 of the race winner, those points soon stack up: eight fifths equal more than four wins. “I just needed to try and cut out a couple of little mistakes,” Hill admits as he basks in the afterglow of…

The storming drive that clinched George Gamble the Porsche Carrera Cup GB title was certainly a memorable one. He was simply unstoppable in tricky wet conditions for the Brands Hatch finale as he passed a succession of rivals to charge towards a title he eventually won quite comfortably by seven points, despite virtually nothing separating the top four heading to Kent. Yet that impressive display was far from the only example of Gamble blasting through the field – a feat that proved key to his title success. The first recovery job came at Brands earlier in the year. Clutch failure in the first race put Gamble on the back foot but he surged up the order from 13th to fourth to salvage five vital points in race two. There was…

Deagen Fairclough was not lacking any confidence heading into the British Formula 4 season. Ahead of the first round, he made it clear the title was his target and told Autosport: “We’re here to break records.” Well, Fairclough is a teenager of his word and sure enough produced a campaign of unprecedented domination to secure the championship with five races to spare. Some of the statistics surrounding the Hitech driver’s season are just staggering. Winning 14 of the 20 non-reversed-grid races is impressive, as is starting on pole for 15 of the 20 races where the order was based on qualifying, and he only once finished outside of the top five. Record after record tumbled and the title never looked like it was going anywhere else. Although, by his very…

CIRCUIT GT In the GT class teams of two will take to the track in hour-long races. Drivers will use GT3 machinery and conduct a driver swap midway through the race. Team UK scored one of its two medals in the class in 2022, with Sam Neary and Ian Loggie behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3. This time Chris Froggatt and James Cottingham will represent the UK, driving a Ferrari 296 GT3. GT SPRINT Single drivers will take to the track in a GT3 car for the sprint, which will last at least 40 minutes. Eight drivers, including Spaniard Daniel Juncadella and Turkey’s Ayhancan Guven, will compete, while 2023 British GT champion Darren Leung represents the UK. SINGLE MAKE GT New for 2024, Single Make GT is essentially the…

BRITISH GT Speedworks Motorsport boss Danny Buxton has revealed he is keen to continue a partnership with the British Army first formed ahead of this season’s final British GT round at Brands Hatch. Speedworks, which competes as Toyota Gazoo Racing, collaborated with the Army for the two-hour season finale last month where the GR Supra GT4 was run in a camouflage livery. Historics racer Benjamin Tusting was running seventh after 40 minutes, but an unscheduled pitstop due to a holed radiator caused the car to finish 10 laps down despite series veteran Michael O’Brien claiming fastest lap. “To have the British Army involved for next year would be a dream come true,” said Buxton. “The combination has been brilliant and the crew have been faultless. “We’ll do a deep dive…

FERRARI An inspired tactical decision helped Briton James Owen to victory in the Ferrari Challenge world finals at Imola last Sunday. Owen, who races in the Am class with the Meridien Motorsport - Engstler team and will represent Team UK in this year’s FIA Motorsport Games, crossed the line first in his 296 Challenge in a dramatic, rain-affected race interrupted by a red flag. The 38-year-old Briton was crowned Am champion for the event that brings together cars from Ferrari’s one-make challenge series, while Bence Valint took the Pro title with third. Owen, who is in his second year of racing, called for wet tyres shortly before the reds. He persuaded his team to make the change during the stoppage before progressing rapidly up the leaderboard. He moved to the…

BARC Caterham Motorsport and the Caterham Graduates Racing Club brought their respective seasons to a close at Donington Park last weekend, with 19 races taking place and champions being crowned. The destiny of the 310R Championship went down to the wire, with Harry Cook claiming the title against season-long rival Taylor O’Flanagan. The latter led after dropped scores heading into the meeting, but a hat-trick of wins for Cook gave him the glory. Paul Goldstein claimed a brace of titles over the weekend, first in Roadsport before a recovery drive from the back of the grid in the Graduates Sigma 135 category secured another. Bruno van Dyke, an Academy frontrunner, moved up to Roadsport for the season finale and romped to a pair of wins. Victory in the Autumn Trophy,…

Two-time Festival winner Rory Smith was left to rue a combination of bad luck and costly mistakes as he ultimately failed to become the first driver to win back-to-back events despite being one of the favourites. The Medina Sport JL18 driver claimed pole for the opening heat in dominant fashion but disaster struck as he approached the grid before the race even began. “I was just getting some heat in the rear tyres and pulling up to the box on my last burnout when the driveshaft failed,” he said. “It’s never happened before, it was just a freak failure.” It meant he had no option but to pull off to the side of the track and watch as the other cars began the race without him, and he was forced…

Eight Mazda MX-5 races spanning three different categories formed the bulk of the supporting programme at this year’s Formula Ford Festival, with the outcome of all the championship titles still to be decided. The hardest fought was for the original Mk1 cars, and a final race showdown ended with Thomas Langford clinching both race and title. The first of the championships to be settled was the Clubman class, which was secured by Jonathan Greensmith in a last-race turnaround. He triumphed on a bad day for Paul Bateman, who brought a narrow points lead to Brands Hatch. The first race was a chaotic affair on a damp track and helped second-place finisher Greensmith to close the gap to Bateman. Restarted after a crash, it also marked Jamie Turner’s first race win.…

OULTON PARK CSCC 19 OCTOBER The Swinging Sixties contest came down to a fascinating scrabble for position between Stephen Pickering’s Sunbeam Tiger and Malcolm Johnson’s Lotus Europa as the Classic Sports Car Club season concluded at Oulton Park last weekend. Pickering managed to overcome a 20-second pitstop penalty by stopping during a safety car period for the retrieval of Nicholas King’s Aston Martin DB4. Johnson, who was in the faster car overall and feeling confident, had already pitted when the incident occurred. He fought hard to regain the lead he earned before the stops and also had to contend with obstruction by a backmarker, gaining over 7s on the final lap to close the gap to Pickering to under 2s, but had to settle for the runner-up spot. Connor Kay…

It would be all too easy for Armin Schwarz to pick the Toyota Celica GT-Four as his favourite car. After all, from a career that graced the World Rally Championship podium with four different manufacturers, it was in the Group A car on the 1991 Rally Catalunya that he scored his only WRC victory. Yet the machine the German selects instead never won a WRC event. A third place on the 2001 Safari Rally may have been the Skoda Octavia’s best WRC result, but Schwarz enjoyed rallying it more regardless. He’s adamant that a podium would have been possible on the Monte Carlo Rally too, had it not been for the snowy conditions that had blighted much of the event giving way to increasingly dry asphalt on the final day.…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 will scrap the fastest lap point for 2025 and has given the 2026 cars more downforce to ease performance concerns. The fastest lap point was introduced in 2019 to spice up the action and give drivers who finish in the top 10 something extra to race for. It also unlocked some strategy options for teams to try to deny their direct rivals the extra point. But the fastest lap point never really delivered on its promise to improve the spectacle, and usually fell prey to drivers who happened to have a large gap to the car behind them, so they could make a late pitstop for fresh tyres to collect the point. The rule was further put under the spotlight at last month’s Singapore Grand Prix,…

MACAU Three Formula 3 race winners are among a raft of drivers from the series to effectively step down a level of the single-seater ladder to contest next month’s Macau Grand Prix, while Italian F4 conqueror Freddie Slater is among the stars to graduate upwards. F3 cars have traditionally contested the Macau World Cup event, but organisers revealed earlier this year that they would swap to Formula Regional machinery for the 2024 edition on 17 November, saying it was “a natural consequence of the evolution of the junior single-seater landscape”. However, the change has not stopped a host of this year’s F3 racers from appearing on the 27-strong entry list announced this week, and these drivers include championship frontrunners Oliver Goethe and Dino Beganovic. Red Bull junior Goethe finished an…

WRC The World Rally Championship technical rules for next year could face yet another U-turn, with the prospect of hybrid power being removed from Rally1 cars. This latest twist in a long-running saga over the regulations has been triggered by a change to the hybrid unit user guide from control supplier Compact Dynamics. Hybrid power was set to remain in place until the end of 2026 before the FIA proposed a raft of changes to the cars for 2025 in February, including the removal of hybrid. WRC teams pushed back against the changes, resulting in the current Rally1 regulations staying put in what was seen as a U-turn from the FIA. However, Compact Dynamics’ new safety guidelines stipulate that if the 130kW hybrid unit suffers three shock errors over 15G…

“I wouldn’t put it in as a TBD with the date secured if I wasn’t highly confident that we’re over the line already, at least technically over the line if not contractually over the line. I have high confidence that it will go ahead.” As comments go, those made by Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds back in June have perhaps not aged well. Particularly after last week’s revised calendar announcement. When the original 2024-25 Formula E calendar was revealed, this writer asked why a TBD remained on the calendar and just how confident Dodds was that a venue would in fact be announced for the proposed 8 March date, thus creating a 17-race schedule for the first time. Fast-forward four months and the latest World Motor Sport Council meeting held…

The sprint race for the 2024 United States Grand Prix was all very familiar. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen started on pole having produced a confident SQ3 final lap the night before and won by a chunk in front of the bumper Austin crowd. The RB20 even looked to be back to its predictable, smooth and connected best. But there were critical differences in the second time in two years that Verstappen led every lap of this 19-tour contest – particularly his 3.9-second victory margin versus 9.5s in 2023. The others were right with him. “Norris had just enough momentum to reach the start of the Esses ahead of the Mercedes” At the start, Verstappen easily covered the inside line of the sharply uphill Turn 1 left, but the main action…

Liam Lawson celebrated his return to F1 with ninth – and a new rivalry, as he managed to earn the ire of Fernando Alonso over the course of the weekend. Their spat kicked off in Saturday’s sprint race. In their battle over 15th, Lawson saw Alonso looming large in his mirrors and moved across to cover the line before moving back into the usual position for the Turn 12 braking zone. This forced Alonso to drop deep while passing, which allowed Lawson to achieve a switchback into the next corner and park his car on the apex to ensure the Aston Martin could not throw its nose down the inside. “The AlphaTauri [sic] is such an idiot,” Alonso exclaimed of the RB driver, audibly upset at the robustness of Lawson’s…

PIERRE GASLY ALPINE DRIVER Are you disappointed to finish 12th? Yeah, it wasn’t good enough. We haven’t executed in the best way. We made a good start. I was in P6, managing the tyre, where everything was looking good. Then Haas played their cars and decided to put the pressure on with one [Kevin Magnussen]. We just fell for it and reacted when the medium was the better compound for the race. We had a slow pitstop, lost four or five seconds in the pits, exited in the traffic and struggled massively on the hard. What do you think of the penalty for passing Alex Albon off-track? I don’t agree with it, but I accept it. The FIA always has the last word, but I’m sure we’re going to talk…

In tennis terms the Central European Rally represented the first real match point moment for Thierry Neuville in his relentless 12-year quest to lift the World Rally Championship title. The scene was set perfectly. An asphalt rally where being first on the road is an advantage, featuring stages in Germany not a million miles from his and his Hyundai team’s home. But one thing that the WRC can guarantee in spades this season is unpredictability. As has often been the case for Neuville – a five-time championship runner-up – the Belgian was made to wait for glory again as fate intervened while on course for a career-defining moment. Neuville only needed to outscore team-mate Ott Tanak by two points to seal rallying’s ultimate prize. But after a wild Sunday, during…

DTM HOCKENHEIM (DEU) 19-20 OCTOBER ROUND 8/8 Factory Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti clinched his maiden DTM title with a fifth and a second-place finish in the Hockenheim decider. Having missed out on the crown in both 2022 and 2023, the Italian finally claimed the big prize at the third time of asking after outgunning Kelvin van der Linde and Maro Engel in a three-way fight. Bortolotti arrived at the former German Grand Prix venue with a healthy 15-point lead in the standings, but his advantage was overturned by van der Linde in the opening leg. The South African, representing Abt Sportsline on its final weekend with Audi, claimed pole position by two tenths of a second and then set about converting that into a third race win of the season.…

TCR WORLD TOUR ZHUZHOU (CHN) 19-20 OCTOBER ROUND 6/7 Mikel Azcona claimed his first win of the season in the first TCR World Tour race held in China at the Zhuzhou circuit, while Ma Qing Hua claimed a crowd-pleasing first victory on home soil with a last-lap pass on Nestor Girolami. The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team looked set to dominate after Santiago Urrutia led a 1-2-3 lockout in qualifying, with team-mates Thed Bjork and Yann Ehrlacher right behind. The weather changed before the race, with rain arriving and then getting heavier throughout. Urrutia, who is not in title contention, immediately let his team-mates past, but it was soon clear the Hyundai of Azcona had better pace in the wet. Azcona overtook all three Lynk & Cos and built…

While four drivers arrived at the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Brands Hatch finale separated by as many points, it was actually the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB that had the closest finish. Seb Hopkins prevailed over Max Coates by just a solitary point at the end of a season that boasted plenty of close races. Ultimately, a couple more fastest laps for Coates or fewer poles for Hopkins could have made all the difference. The introduction of the more powerful, more aerodynamic and more exciting RS version of the Cayman added a new dimension to the series for this year. But it was Team Parker’s Hopkins, who had previous Porsche experience in British GT, that stole the early advantage and his pole at the Snetterton opener was a sign of things…

BRSCC Recently crowned British Touring Car champion Jake Hill will tackle this weekend’s Fun Cup finale alongside Ginetta Junior frontrunner Charlie Hart. Rookie pairings who win on their Fun Cup debut receive a £10,000 prize, and that is the target for Hill and Hart, who was third in this year’s Ginetta standings, at Oulton Park. “I helped coach Charlie for Elite over the last three years,” explained Hill. “His dad Chris [a past Fun Cup champion] said, ‘Look, Fun Cup have put on a prize of 10 grand if a new pair come in and win a race’. So he was like, ‘Do you want to do it with Charlie?’ And I said I’ve always wanted to have a go at one. “We’re just going to go and have fun.…

FF1600 Historic Formula Ford champion Spencer Shinner would like to tackle more events in modern machinery next year, despite a difficult Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch last weekend. The 21-year-old retired after 21 laps during Sunday’s grand final after a tough Saturday meant he had to compete in the Last Chance race having failed to break out of his semi-final. “I just didn’t get into the flow,” said Shinner following his semi-final performance, where he finished 14th, just outside of the automatic qualification spots for the final. The Cornwall-born driver was full of praise for the 2013 Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL13 that he drove at the weekend, adding: “I would like to do more in modern cars next year, it’s nice to keep a challenge.” Having landed the…

There’s a unique atmosphere in the paddock immediately following any Formula Ford Festival, one that consists of disappointment, hard luck stories and no shortage of ‘what if’ scenarios. Drivers and teams that have spent days testing, battling through heats and semi-finals to come within reach of the ultimate prize and a place in history leave empty-handed as there can only be one winner. This year, for the time being at least, Josh Smith added to his triumph in 2018 with Oldfield Motorsport and, in many ways, it was perhaps fitting that it was his car that should win. The triumphant Van Diemen sported a tribute livery and the same ‘200’ number with which Gerrit van Kouwen had claimed his own Festival victory 40 years ago. The likeable Dutchman was an…

Darwin Smith produced an incredible defensive display in treacherous conditions to claim victory in the Historic Final, beating Tom Hawkins by just over half a second after a race-long tussle. As the lights blinked out, Smith shot off the line, jumping from third to first before the braking point of Paddock Hill Bend. Polesitter Tom McArthur looked to redeem himself after a poor start and positioned himself on the outside but a lapse in concentration led to him skating off into the gravel, dropping down the order and eventually retiring later in the race. After his storming start, Smith began to come under pressure from Hawkins, who had also charged up from fourth on the grid to slot into second by the end of the opening lap. Hawkins began to…

SILVERSTONE MSVR/MRL 19-20 OCTOBER The pilot race for the new GT3 Legends series and a remarkable winning streak shared top billing as Motor Racing Legends signed off its 2024 season in style on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit last weekend. Matt Holme and Andrew Jordan in an ex-Callaway Chevrolet Corvette took the maiden victory for a series that next year will cater for the earliest generations of GT3 machinery, from 2006 to 2015. Yes, such cars are now rightly considered ‘historic’. Jordan’s charge in the second half of the 50-minute race on Saturday afternoon proved decisive, his ’Vette demoting the Lamborghini Gallardo shared by Jack Tetley and Nick Maton in the final minutes before sprinting away to a comfortable victory. A soloing Marcus Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff in an Audi R8 was third…

MONDELLO PARK MPSC 19-20 OCTOBER A week after his father Alastair won the UK Ford Fiesta ST240 title, William Kellett clinched the ultra-competitive Fiesta Zetec crown in the best possible fashion, by winning both races at the Mondello Park finale. Kellett fought off a series of opponents to take the flag in an exciting opening contest by half a second. The second race, if anything, was even more of a thriller. Starting sixth, Kellett forged his way to the front and managed to hold off a strong challenge from championship rival Sean McGovern to take an impressive double win and, with it, his second Zetec title. Driving his father’s Dallara World Series machine, Darragh Daly charged to the front of a small BOSS Ireland grid to take a popular victory.…

BOOK REVIEW GUENTHER STEINER – UNFILTERED Guenther Steiner RRP £22.00 Unfiltered by name, unfiltered by nature. Guenther Steiner concedes he has never been one to do things the traditional way and this memoir of his time with Haas follows that methodology, spilling more beans than is polite and using more colourful language than a Mike Bassett team talk. From the formation of his initial idea for Haas to the conclusion of his time with the team – via a brief stroking of Eddie Irvine’s ego – Steiner is his inimitable self throughout as he tells a story that seems fresh despite it being one that fans have watched play out in the very recent past. For fans who have joined the F1 party in recent years, Steiner is simply the…

WEC/IMSA Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer has been dropped from Porsche’s factory World Endurance Championship squad as part of a revamp of its 2025 LMDh line-up. The German is leaving the Porsche Penske Motorsport team along with fellow WEC driver Frederic Makowiecki and new IMSA SportsCar Championship title winner Dane Cameron. What was described by Porsche as a “tweak” of its roster across its WEC and IMSA programmes involves reducing the full-time line-up from three to two drivers in the former series. Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, who lead the WEC points with Lotterer, will drive the #6 963 LMDh as a duo, while Michael Christensen, who shares this year with Makowiecki and Matt Campbell, will race #5 with Julien Andlauer. The Frenchman has been promoted to…

IMSA Increased involvement of the Honda Racing Corporation USA in the Acura IMSA SportsCar Championship helped persuade Briton Nick Yelloly to join the Honda brand for next season. It was “one of the pieces of the puzzle” that led him to leave BMW after six years as a factory driver. “The GTP programme has taken a big hike with HRC coming more on board, with more personnel from HRC working with Meyer Shank Racing,” said Yelloly (below), who was announced as part of the MSR line-up with Renger van der Zande as his team-mate last week. “That was something I felt was quite exciting. I know how good a team MSR is after racing against them in 2023, so a lot of things came together to sway my decision. “It…

Mexico City Length 2.674 miles Number of laps 71 UK START TIMES Friday 25 October FP1 1930 FP2 2300 Saturday 26 October FP3 1830 QUALIFYING 2200 Sunday 27 October RACE 2000 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 2300 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors MEXICO CITY STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Charles Leclerc 1m17.166s POLE LAP RECORD Daniel Ricciardo 1m14.759s (2018) RACE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m17.774s (2021) Podiums…

Just past the halfway stage of Formula 1’s 2024 United States Grand Prix, Will Joseph told his McLaren charge Lando Norris that they were facing a “Germany Situation”. But, given how he went on to win last Sunday for Ferrari, the Austin story was in fact about how Charles Leclerc pulled off another successful ‘Austria Situation’ for the Scuderia. For Austin 2024, read Austria 2022. Both included sprint events, where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the shorter contest and Leclerc triumphed in the pukka GP race. At the Red Bull Ring two years ago, Leclerc and his team-mate Carlos Sainz diced hard early on in the sprint, which allowed Verstappen precious time to escape and win. In the Austin sprint edition, they engaged in an even more brutal battle. Quizzed…

You can’t miss the giant US and Texan flags at the Circuit of The Americas. The former flies gigantically above the already towering Turn 1 left-hand hairpin. It’s here Autosport heads for the sole practice offering of the United States Grand Prix weekend, because there’s even more elevation to be found. Specifically, a photographer’s tower that overlooks the Austin track’s opening corner and provides a stunning vista across the rolling plains that lead up to south of Texas’s capital city. We’ve repeated our trip here from 2023, where the slow-speed oscillations on the bad bumps across Turn 1’s apex had left the ground-effect cars bouncing comically. But for this year at Austin, the section running from Turn 16-Turn 3 and the Esses’ commencement had been resurfaced to remove this issue…

The WRC2 title will either be won by Sami Pajari or Oliver Solberg after Yohan Rossel’s hopes faded away in dramatic fashion at the Central European Rally. Rossel required a victory to keep his title bid alive, but only after last month’s Chile win was finally rubber-stamped following a stewards’ hearing on the eve of the rally. An FIA petition led by the world motorsport governing body’s road sport director Andrew Wheatley prompted Rally Chile stewards to review a protest from Solberg’s Toksport Skoda team over a notional time issued to Rossel that helped him to victory. Although new evidence, not available for the original hearing, was examined, the petition was dismissed. While the stewards’ hearing went in Rossel’s favour, the start of the rally didn’t as his victory bid…

MOTOGP PHILLIP ISLAND (AUS) 20 OCTOBER ROUND 17/20 By his own admission, Marc Marquez is a master of making his life difficult. But if he can still win despite the obstacles he threw into his own path – literally – in Australia, then heaven help his rivals when he steps up from a year-old Gresini Ducati to the factory bike in 2025. After exploring various methods for missing out on the front row of late, the Spaniard finally nailed qualifying. That there was zero dry practice outside the timed sessions played right into his hands. That’s because Marquez, like Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, can find the limit right out of the box – a decisive factor as FP1 was cancelled for rain and FP2 was damp. Martin grabbed a stunning…

JAKE HILL 1 While the WSR brains trust unlocked what they could from the BMW, Hill tapped into his own skills to finally become the complete BTCC driver. Generally nailed the vagaries of tyre strategy. His speed and racing skills did the rest. TOM INGRAM 2 Had it not rained in the aft ernoon of 6 October, he’d likely be a two-time BTCC champion. The Hyundai was monster quick, except in a certain window of wetness. Fantastic season-long performance and superb racecraft as ever. ASH SUTTON 3 Seems a bit wrong to put him here, but Hill and Ingram were both superb. Sutton did what he could with an ageing Ford Focus and, when it allowed him to, he put in some staggering performances to remind us of his class. COLIN TURKINGTON…

More Mini Challenge glory for Dan Zelos always looked the most likely result heading into the season. With two titles already to his name and the field lacking established frontrunners and instead mainly comprising young drivers still learning the ropes, further Zelos domination was on the cards. And, while Zelos did indeed end up taking the spoils, there were several surprising elements to the year for the Excelr8 Motorsport driver. “We never expected to win the title with a round to spare and never expected to get an opportunity to race in British Touring Cars,” he says. Zelos sealed the spoils at the penultimate Knockhill event after a super consistent campaign during which his worst finish was fifth. But the early coronation only arrived after team-mate Max Hall suffered driveshaft…

Following an expanded 2022 event, the FIA Motorsport Games is being scaled up again for the 2024 edition, which kicks off this week. It will be the third iteration of what’s colloquially known as the ‘Olympics for motorsport’ – an FIA-run competition in which teams compete for their country in a diverse mix of motorsport events. Much of the 2024 event will take place at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo. It’s a track that’s perhaps better known for motorcycling than cars – it has hosted MotoGP annually since 1999 – but until 27 October it’ll play host to many of the 26 categories (up from just six in the first iteration and 16 for the second). Among the regulars, such as Formula 4, GT and TCR, new events include Single Make…

MRL The new GT3 Legends series due for launch next year looks set to fly, judging by the success of a pilot race run at Silverstone last Saturday. A total of 23 early-generation GT3s, run across three classes covering 2006-15, lined up as promotor Motor Racing Legends signed off its 2024 season. The series is the creation of Shaun Lynn – historics racer, car collector and father to Hypercar ace Alex – who bought MRL earlier this year. After a transitional season, Lynn has now fully taken the reins from Duncan Wiltshire, who has already stepped into a new role as chairman of the Royal Automobile Club. “There’s a lot of interest, and people have told me they’ve already sold cars,” Lynn told Autosport. “We’re bringing new blood to the…

750MC Colin Turkington will team up with fellow BMW British Touring Car racer Adam Morgan to contest this weekend’s Birkett Relay at Silverstone. Turkington and Morgan will be joined by BMW Car Club committee member Paul Laramy in a trio of BMW 325ti machines for the six-hour contest, which has scratch and handicap prizes. Four-time BTCC champion Turkington has previously driven a 325 on trackdays and is looking forward to a rare outing on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and the chance to sample endurance racing. “I’m good friends with Neil McDonald, who runs the BMW Car Club GB race series,” explained Turkington of the Team BMW entry. “Neil’s been asking me for a few years if I would like to do the Birkett but, for some reason, it hasn’t…

RALLYING The outcome of the British Rally Championship will be settled in a spectacular four-way contest on Saturday’s Cambrian Rally in the forests of North Wales. William Creighton, Chris Ingram, Osian Pryce and Keith Cronin are all in contention over 60 stage miles, which will be held in Clocaenog and Alwen. Ford Fiesta Rally2 drivers Creighton, Pryce and Cronin will take on Ingram’s Toyota Yaris Rally2 (above). Creighton and Ingram head the points, and victory for either would clinch the title. However, Pryce and Cronin are still in contention and the format of normal points scores being multiplied by 1.5 for the finale leaves the contest open. If Pryce wins with Creighton second, Pryce would be champion, while Cronin needs Creighton and Ingram to finish lower down the order for…

BRANDS HATCH BRSCC FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL 19-20 OCTOBER Torrential rain, controversial collisions, off-track feuds and a provisional winner characterised the 2024 edition of the Formula Ford Festival last weekend at Brands Hatch. The annual blue-riband event, which this year was named in honour of Gerrit van Kouwen to mark the 40th anniversary of his own Festival victory after the Dutchman passed away earlier this year, provided plenty of drama that is set to rumble on for several more weeks. For now, at least, Josh Smith added to his Festival success in 2018 after claiming the spoils for Oldfield Motorsport ahead of reigning Walter Hayes Trophy victor Chris Middlehurst, but with the latter likely to appeal the result. Smith’s path to the final had been one of controversy as early as…

FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL Heat 1 Jordan Kelly (Van Diemen RF06, above) Heat 2 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) Heat 3 Josh Smith (Van Diemen JL13) Progression race Rory Smith (Medina Sport JL18) Semi-final 1 Jordan Kelly (Van Diemen RF06) Semi-final 2 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) Last Chance race Rory Smith (Medina Sport JL18) Historic final Darwin Smith (Van Diemen RF90) Final (25 laps) 1 Josh Smith (Van Diemen JL13, below); 2 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) +0.143s; 3 Luke Cooper (Swift SC20); 4 Hugh Esterson (Ray GR); 5 Morgan Quinn (Van Diemen RF99); 6 Rory Smith (Medina Sport JL18). Fastest lap Joey Foster (Firman) 1m01.491s (70.71mph). Pole Middlehurst. Starters 30. MAZDA MX-5 CLUBMAN Race 1 Jamie Turner Race 2 Chris Dawkins MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP Races 1, 2 & 3…

GT3 LEGENDS Matt Holme/Andrew Jordan (Chevrolet Corvette) HISTORIC TOURING CAR CHALLENGE Andy Middlehurst/Jonathan Bailey (Nissan Skyline GT-R) RAC PALL MALL CUP Harry Barton/Oliver Reuben (TVR Griffith, below) HRDC ALLSTARS & CLASSIC ALFA CHALLENGE Richard Colburn (Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint) PRE-’63 GT John Spiers/Nigel Greensall (Shelby Cobra) HRDC GERRY MARSHALL TROPHY John Spiers/Nigel Greensall (Ford Capri) RAC STIRLING MOSS AND WOODCOTE TROPHY John Spiers/Nigel Greensall (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly) HRDC JACK SEARS TROPHY John Spiers/Nigel Greensall (Ford Mustang) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

OULTON PARK SWINGING SIXTIES Stephen Pickering (Sunbeam Tiger) RAMAIR BMW/SLICKS SERIES/OPEN SERIES Race 1 Nathan Wells (BMW M3 E46 GTR) Race 2 Stephen Nuttall (Caterham Seven) NEW MILLENNIUM & TURBO TIN TOPS Nathan Wells (BMW M3 E46 GTR) MODERN CLASSICS & FUTURE CLASSICS Aidan Farrell/Richard Chamberlain (Porsche 911, above) TIN TOPS Steve Simpson (Peugeot 206 RC) MAGNIFICENT SEVENS John Cutmore (Spire RB7) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com MONDELLO PARK FIESTA ZETEC Races 1 & 2 William Kellett FORMULA BOSS IRELAND Race 1 Darragh Daly (Renault World Series) Race 2 Michael Connolly (Renault World Series) JUNIOR MINI CHALLENGE Race 1 Leo Richardson Race 2 Joshua Henry IRISH STRYKERS Races 1 & 2 Michael Cullen FIESTA ST Race 1 Michael Cullen Race 2 Derek Graham IRISH LEGENDS Races 1 & 2 Scott…

World championship leader Graham Hill awaits the start of the 1968 French Grand Prix from his ninth-place grid slot at Rouen-les-Essarts, the spots of rain visible on his Lotus indicating that the dry running enjoyed by the earlier support races was definitely not going to extend to the day’s main event. Hill and teammate Jackie Oliver had spent much of practice trimming back their rear wings, which at one point were exerting so much pressure that they were almost lifting the front wheels off the ground. After trying the car with and without its aerodynamic appendage in Sunday morning’s impromptu, untimed practice session, Hill picked the former option for the race, and was in a comfortable fourth position when a broken driveshaft forced him to retire. A particular beneficiary of…