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B R I T A I N ’ S B E S T M O T O R S P O R T W E E K L Y 6 AUGUST 2020

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PIT & PADDOCK4 Hulkenberg foiled on F1 comeback6 Todt ‘can’t force drivers’ to take a knee8 Merhi returns to WEC field

10 Brits win in new DTM series11 70th Anniversary GP preview13 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas15 Opinion: Matt Kew17 Feedback: your letters

RACE CENTRE18 British GP report and analysis34 Honda, BMW and Infiniti on top in BTCC40 World of Sport: Formula 2; F3; DTM;

IMSA; NASCAR Cup; Australian Supercars

CLUB AUTOSPORT 60 BTCC team o� ers CityCar prize drive62 Carlin angry with Villeneuve over F464 Six-wheeled Tyrrell to race at Brands65 Opinion: Marcus Pye66 National reports: Oulton Park;

Donington Park; Cadwell Park; Brands Hatch; Castle Combe

FINISHING STRAIGHT76 What’s on this week 79 Have-a-go hero: Rob Bell80 From the archive: 1933 Mannin Moar 82 Autosport 70: Stewart wins; W125 returns

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70th Anniversary GP Will so� er tyres make the

second Silverstone race more dramatic?

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6 A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 3

It’s amazing how late drama can change your perspective on a race. For much of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, Silverstone was the scene of a Mercedes demonstration, with Lewis Hamilton holding a narrow advantage over team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

But the tyre problems that a� icted Bottas, Carlos Sainz Jr’s McLaren and Hamilton brought the sort of drama that will be remembered for some time to come – even if there were no spectators to witness it in the fl esh.

Red Bull thought Hamilton was a “a lucky boy”. Obviously when someone wins a race by crawling across the line, there has to be an element of good fortune, but he had led the entire race so it would have been unjust, or unlucky, had he been denied on the fi nal lap.

Nevertheless, Hamilton making it to the fl ag for his 87th Formula 1 world championship win did bring to mind the driver he is set to catch in the record books. Michael Schumacher sometimes seemed to have luck on his side, surviving o� -track excursions, on his way to 91 wins and seven world titles. Even the best need some luck sometimes!

Unsurprisingly, the British Touring Car Championship provided plenty of action on its return at Donington Park. Reigning champion Colin Turkington leads the points but, as Marcus Simmons shows in his report on page 34, there’s a new threat looming.

Hamilton holds on as the finish makes

all the di� erence

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FORMULA 1

Out-of-work Formula 1 veteran Nico Hulkenberg was all set for a shock return to the starting grid of a grand prix at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, only for a whirlwind four-day period to end in him failing to take his place in the Silverstone line-up.

After being axed by Renault at the end of last year to make way for Esteban Ocon, one-time grand prix polesitter Hulkenberg was left without a drive for 2020.He was en route last Thursday to the Nurburgring for a test in a GT car, before receiving a phone call from Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer asking if he would be available to race at the British GP.

At that point, Hulkenberg’s former team-mate Sergio Perez had undergone an inconclusive test for COVID-19 as part of the regular screening of the F1 paddock. Subsequently, a second test came back positive.

“It is one of the saddest days of my career,” said Perez. “I don’t know from where [I caught it]. I have no symptoms at all. So it just shows how vulnerable we are on this.”

Perez defended a trip to Mexico between the races in Hungary and Great Britain, revealing that he visited his injured mother in hospital and travelled on a private plane, following all of the protocols set out by the FIA.

The test result forced Perez into quarantine, ruling him out of the British Grand Prix. And it paved the way for Hulkenberg to make a surprise F1 comeback with the team for which he drove in 2012 and 2014-16, when it was known as Force India.

A private plane picked Hulkenberg up from Cologne before landing in Birmingham on Thursday evening.

From there, Hulkenberg went to the Racing Point factory across the road from Silverstone for a seat fitting and to finalise all of the necessary paperwork for him to race, as well as completing an initial COVID-19 test.

After leaving the factory at 2.30am, Hulkenberg was back at Racing Point’s base after just four hours’ sleep to undergo a brief simulator session to acclimatise himself to the RP20. He was then required to conduct a second COVID-19 test at Silverstone, requiring a negative result before he was even allowed to enter the track.

Just 15 minutes before the start of FP1, Hulkenberg got the call confirming he was negative, allowing him to get into the track. He was seen running down the paddock in team kit before getting changed into a racesuit belonging to Lance Stroll – who also loaned Hulkenberg race boots and a hat – and hopped into the car just minutes before the start of the session. Once Hulkenberg got into the car, it was like he had never been away. He finished a respectable ninth in first practice before improving to seventh in the afternoon session.

“The last 24 hours have been a bit special, crazy and wild,” Hulkenberg said after Friday’s running. “The g-forces, it’s tough to train for because it’s so unique and so special, even though I’m in decent shape. Especially around here, one of the fastest high-speed tracks, in 35 degrees – I also chose the hottest day of the year in the UK so far!”

Hulkenberg qualified 13th on Saturday, missing out on the final Q3 spot, which was claimed by team-mate Stroll, by just 0.065 seconds. He rued leaving time on the table, but was upbeat of maximising the “huge potential” of the Racing Point car in the race.

Alas, Hulkenberg would never get the chance to do so.

THE BIZARRE STORY OF A FOILED F1 COMEBACK

Hulkenberg got to Silverstone

in the nick of time to replace COVID-

positive Perez at Racing Point

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“Wunderbar! That’s twonegative test results”

P I T + PA D D O C K


As the team made its final preparations to go to the grid, his car refused to fire up due to a power-unit issue. Despite the best efforts to get the issue resolved, Racing Point lost the race against time, resigning Hulkenberg to watching the start from the pitwall.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it? Somehow it fits into all these crazy days that I’ve experienced,” Hulkenberg deadpanned after the race. “But obviously disappointing for me and for the team. They tried everything, but [because of] some sort of power-unit issue, we didn’t manage to start the car and get out there.”

Racing Point ultimately identified a problem with a clutch bolt provided by engine supplier Mercedes as the cause of the problem. “It looks like a bolt sheared within the clutch housing,” said Szafnauer. “That bolt got caught and therefore wouldn’t allow the internal combustion engine to turn over. I think it’s a bit early to understand why, but it did shear off so it could be a material issue, it could be an over-torque issue, I don’t know.”

But Hulkenberg is expected to get a second chance to make his racing return at this weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, with Perez set to still be in quarantine for the second of the Silverstone races.

As we went to press, Racing Point was awaiting clarification as to whether Perez must self-isolate for seven or 10 days following a UK government update. He would also require a negative COVID-19 test result. The team has already confirmed that Hulkenberg will fill the seat if Perez is unavailable.LUKE SMITH

FORMULA 1

Four people were arrested after entering Silverstone ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix and staging a protest ahead of the race start.

Due to COVID-19 protocols implemented by F1, the 2020 British GP was run behind closed doors. But a pink banner from environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion was seen being unfurled over sponsorship hoardings at Club Corner – the last turn at Silverstone – as the F1 cars left the grid for their formation lap.

Photographs later showed the protestors, dressed in black overalls and wearing T-shirts and masks with the group’s logo, being led away from the side of the circuit.

A statement from the track said that the four individuals involved in the demonstration had been detained. “During the race, Northamptonshire Police were made aware of four people who had been detained by Silverstone security inside the venue perimeter,” said the statement. “Officers are working closely with Silverstone Circuit and conducting a full investigation. Four people have been arrested and are in police custody.”

Extinction Rebellion said the protest “was an opportunity to remind the world that the climate and ecological crisis hasn’t gone away and is intensifying every day”, but praised F1 for its commitment to become carbon-neutral within the next 10 years. “This strong leadership makes a mockery of the EU and UK governments’ own 2050 target,” the group said. ALEX KALINAUCKAS AND JONATHAN NOBLE

THE BIZARRE STORY OF A FOILED F1 COMEBACK

PROTESTERS ARRESTED AT SILVERSTONE

P18 BRITISH GP ACTION

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Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez’s 2020 title hopes look all but over after undergoing a second operation on his broken right arm on Monday.

The Honda star broke his right humerus bone in a heavy accident during last month’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, with a titanium plate and 12 screws fitted in an operation two days later.

Sensationally, Marquez tried to return to action at the following weekend’s Andalusian GP at Jerez. He seemed fine on Saturday morning, but began to suffer swelling in his arm and ultimately abandoned the weekend after qualifying as the situation became dangerous.

The Spaniard immediately began training to reach fitness for this weekend’s Czech GP at Brno – with video emerging on social media of Marquez weight- training with his right arm – but he was dealt another blow when it was discovered that he’d bent the titanium plate in his arm. He underwent a second operation, with a recovery time to be determined 48 hours from the completion of surgery.

“The first operation was successful – what was not expected was that the plate was insufficient,” said Dr Xavier Mir. “An accumulation of stress in the operated area has caused the plate to suffer some damage, so the titanium plate has been removed and replaced by a new fixation.

“The rider has not felt pain during this period, he has always followed the medical advice given and the feeling from his body. Unfortunately, an overstress has caused this issue”

Marquez – who trails double winner Fabio Quartararo by 50 points – will miss this weekend’s Czech GP and is very likely to sit out the following Austrian rounds. Honda test rider Stefan Bradl will deputise. LEWIS DUNCAN

Marquez hits arm setback

Todt: inappropriate to force drivers to take the kneeFORMULA 1

FIA president Jean Todt feels it is “completely inappropriate” to force Formula 1 drivers into gestures or activism they are uncomfortable with amid the FIA’s anti-racism messaging.

F1 staged an organised pre-race taking of the knee ahead of the opening race of the 2020 season in Austria last month, but left it to the drivers to arrange for the subsequent two races. This led to fractured, haphazard displays that drew criticism from a number of drivers, including six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who said F1’s anti-racism messaging had “gone off the agenda” and was “lacking leadership”.

Hamilton said he would talk to Todt ahead of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, where a more structured display condemning racism was arranged for the drivers ahead of the national anthem. This included a video montage with messages from the full grid expressing their support for the ongoing anti-racism movement.

Seven drivers opted against taking a knee ahead of the race, with Kevin Magnussen joining previous standers Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniil Kvyat, Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

Todt said the FIA could not force the drivers on the matter, and that it was important to respect their personal views.

“Of course, we are happy to put a special attention to the end-of-racism topic, which will be done as long as

people feel they want to do it,” said Todt. “I feel it would be completely inappropriate to push people to do something they don’t feel. I want to respect each believer. And for me, what does matter? Life does matter.

“My wife is Chinese. I think she deserves the same attention as white, black. Everybody needs attention. Colour, religion, we need everybody.”

Todt said he “admired” Hamilton’s drive to speak up on racial injustice and push to increase diversity within motorsport. “I do respect somebody who has beliefs, and tries to use his image, his voice, his leadership to protect something,” he said. “As much as we will be able to contribute, we will do it.”

While Hamilton praised F1 for doing a “much better job” in organising the pre-race display, calling it “a lot more professional”, he was still disappointed that not all drivers were willing to kneel.

“If you look at all the other sports – look at basketball, look at football, Spanish teams, Italian teams, teams all over the world, no matter what nationality or mixture, they are all doing it united,” said Hamilton. “You’ve got players from Russia, players from Spain. So I think it’s a work in progress.

“But when the reason for perhaps not doing it is how you think it would be perceived in your country, all you have to do is look at the other sports, because they are doing it. So I do hope that bit by bit we can come more and more together and more united.”LUKE SMITH

ALL PICS

JAPAN GOES REGIONAL Japan’s version of the FIA’s Regional Formula 3 concept, using Toyota-powered Dome chassis, got going last weekend at Fuji. Intended for F4 graduates, the 12-car field was predominantly composed of drivers who have been at the third tier for some time, plus some veterans such as 64-year-old Motoyoshi Yoshida. Experienced F3 racer Sena Sakaguchi (pictured) won all three races. Photograph by Ishihara/Motorsport Images



INDYCAR/IMSA

IndyCar Series owner Roger Penske and IMSA president John Doonan have stressed throughout COVID-19’s blight on US motorsport that “the situation remains fluid” whenever their schedules have been jumbled due to new spikes in the virus. Their caution has been wise.

Last week IndyCar made two announcements regarding calendar changes. The first confirmed what many had suspected for some time – that the Portland race and the Laguna Seca double-header were off for 2020. As replacements, the Mid-Ohio, Gateway and Harvest Grand Prix at Indianapolis road course would become double-headers, maintaining the calendar at 14 rounds.

But then last Saturday Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course revealed its races (set for this weekend) would be postponed. This is believed to be because promoter Green Savoree – which has already seen its Toronto and now Portland events canned – could not afford to run the popular Mid-Ohio event without spectators, and Ohio state advisories appear increasingly restrictive regarding crowd gathering. With September currently now free of any IndyCar rounds, Mid-Ohio (right) is most likely to slot in there.

As this issue was going to press, Autosport learned that IndyCar has cut

a day from Indy 500 practice so that it now starts on Wednesday (12 August), and that the pitstop competition on Carb Day (Friday 21 August) will not be held. Speculation remains rife within the series that the Indy 500 itself on 23 August may end up being run behind closed gates, IMS having recently reduced its plans for 50% capacity to 25%. But Penske has previously said he will not run the 500 without spectators, so an alternative may be to switch dates with the Harvest GP – although it’s late for such a radical schedule alteration.

Meanwhile, IMSA has had to cancel its famous 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and its GT classes-only event at Lime Rock. These have been replaced respectively by a six-hour race at Road Atlanta on the first weekend of September – and just five weeks before the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at the same venue – and a 100-minute GTLM/GTD race on the ‘roval’ at Charlotte Motor Speedway, sharing the 9-10 October event with NASCAR. DAVID MALSHER-LOPEZ

Mid-Ohio off as Indy sweats

TOYOTA’S SPA PENALTIESThe two Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs will be penalised by more than three seconds per lap on the resumption of the World Endurance Championship at Spa on 15 August under the success handicap system. The points-leading #7 Toyota has 3.52s of penalties and the #8 car 3.08s. The solo Rebellion-Gibson R-13 is penalised by 1.58s.

LMP2 RETURN FOR DENNIS Former Aston Martin DTM driver Jake Dennis will return to the prototype ranks for the first time in four years at this weekend’s Spa European Le Mans Series round. The Briton will drive for Jota Sport, which has entered one of its LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07s in the Belgian event in preparation for the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship a week later. Dennis will share the car with WEC regulars Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez in place of Antonio Felix da Costa, who has clashing commitments with the DS Techeetah Formula E squad in Berlin.

WSR IN TALKS WITH TWO Leading British Touring Car Championship team West Surrey Racing could yet fill the third seat in its BMW squad this season, but it won’t be until next month’s Thruxton round at the earliest. “It won’t be for August – that’s 100%,” said team boss Dick Bennetts. “We are in dialogue with two guys to look at doing the last three or four rounds. The main idea is to get someone to prepare for next year.” The drive has been vacant since Andrew Jordan pulled out a few weeks ago.

RENAULT PROTESTS – AGAIN Extinction Rebellion weren’t the only people protesting at Silverstone last weekend (see p5). As usual, Renault slapped in a protest – for the third time – on the legality of Racing Point’s brake ducts. This time the protest was only on Lance Stroll’s car, as Racing Point couldn’t even get Nico Hulkenberg’s car to go, let alone stop.

CALADO OUT FOR FINAL PAIR Jaguar Formula E driver James Calado looks set to miss the final two of the six races at Berlin Tempelhof due to his clashing WEC Ferrari commitments at Spa. It is understood that he is most likely to be replaced by new Jag reserve Tom Blomqvist.

IN THE HEADLINES

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WEC

Ex-Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi will make a return to the World Endurance Championship at Spa this month after an absence of three years. The Spaniard has been brought into Eurasia Motorsport’s LMP2 line-up for its warm-up event ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Merhi, who contested eight races with the Manor P2 squad across the 2016 and 2017 WEC seasons, undertook the full Asian Le Mans Series with the team last winter and has been brought in to fill a seat aboard its

Ligier-Gibson JSP217 earmarked for Nick Cassidy. The Super Formula and Super GT star has been unable to take up the drive alongside Dan Gaunt and Nobuya Yamanaka because of travel restrictions into Japan.

Eurasia boss Mark Goddard described Merhi as a “good asset to help Nobuya and Dan get to grips with a track and a car that are new to them”.

Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen had been due to race the car at Le Mans alongside Gaunt and Yamanaka, but will now be prevented from doing so by a clashing round of the Australian tin-top

series at Sandown. Goddard explained that Cassidy will fill the seat for the 24 Hours if Japanese travel restrictions are eased and that Merhi will drive if they aren’t.

Merhi is now focusing on sportscars after making a return to single-seaters in F2 in 2017-18. “Prototypes are where the opportunities are right now, and with the rule changes coming along with Le Mans Hypercars and LMDh, that seems to be the place to be,” he said. “I hope the outings I have had and will have this year in LMP2 will remind people of what I have to offer.” GARY WATKINS

BTCC

British circuit boss Jonathan Palmer says he is “maintaining a dialogue” with the government following the late move to ban spectators from last weekend’s opening British Touring Car Championship round at Donington Park.

Palmer’s MotorSport Vision company, which controls BTCC venues Donington, Brands Hatch,

Oulton Park and Snetterton, has also had to extend the ban to this month’s Brands and Oulton rounds, because the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport could not be satisfied that the BTCC was not what is classified as elite sport.

When asked whether he would lobby for a U-turn, Palmer said: “Following our consultation with DCMS last week we have accepted that BTCC will run behind

Palmer keeping up government dialogue on fansclosed doors in August. We are maintaining a dialogue with DCMS in respect of events beyond that.”

Palmer is confident that fans can be allowed to the October Snetterton round and Brands November finale. “The government intends for spectators to return to elite sport at the start of October,” he said.MARCUS SIMMONS

P34 BTCC ACTION

Merhi replaces Cassidy for Spa – and could be at Le Mans

PORTLOCK

JEP



No verdict on Carlin return date

URRUTIA IN FOR PRIAULXFormer Indy Lights runner-up Santiago Urrutia emerged from a four-driver shootout at Anderstorp to secure the seat replacing Andy Priaulx in the Cyan Performance Lynk & Co for this season’s World Touring Car Cup. The Uruguayan switched to tin-tops last year, placing third in the TCR Europe series in a WRT Audi.

BAMBER’S NASCAR CHANCETwo-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber is to make his NASCAR debut next week. The New Zealander will race a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series race on the Daytona ‘roval’, a track with which he is well acquainted a� er six outings in the Daytona 24 Hours.

EDGAR TAKES F4 LEADBritish Red Bull Junior Jonny Edgar has taken an early lead in the German Formula 4 standings thanks to two wins in the opening round at the Lausitzring. Edgar’s Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate and Red Bull stablemate Jak Crawford topped qualifying, but faded in the races to a second and a fourth. Edgar could even have won the reversed-grid finale had he not stopped for wet-weather tyres when it rained. He was scuppered when the race was red-flagged. The series had a record low field of 11 cars, thanks in part to a clashing Italian round at Misano

PITTARD SECOND AT ’RINGBritish Nurburgring specialist David Pittard continued his strong Langstrecken Serie campaign with second place in the latest round with Walkenhorst Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3. A canny strategy from Rowe Racing allowed its BMW, driven by Nicky Catsburg and Stef Dusseldorp, to overhaul Pittard’s co-driver Mikkel Jensen on fresher tyres in the final stint. The Phoenix Racing Audi due to be shared by Richard Westbrook and Vincent Kolb non-started a� er a crash in practice.

IN THE HEADLINES

ALL THE DRAMA ALL THE DRAMA READ UNMISSABLE STORIES AND EXPERT OPINION FROM OUR TEAM OF WORLD-CLASS WRITERS

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES/F3

The British Carlin squad expects to race in the prototype sportscar ranks this year, despite opting out of the opening two rounds of the 2020 European Le Mans Series. But exactly when it will be back on track with its Dallara has yet to be decided.

The withdrawal of the Dallara-Gibson P217 from the Paul Ricard series opener last month and this weekend’s Spa round is the result of what team boss Trevor Carlin described as “COVID-related issues” without further elaboration. But he stressed that the programme remains active and that the team has already been out testing with the car this summer.

Carlin explained that an exact timeframe for a return to racing for the Dallara – due to be driven for a second season by Ben Barnicoat, Jack Manchester and, when his Mazda IMSA commitments allow, Harry Tincknell – has yet to be worked out.

“It’s 100% that we will be racing this year, but when that will be isn’t clear because of COVID-19,” he said. “The programme is ongoing: we were out testing in June and did four days at Silverstone and two at Snetterton.”

Carlin said that it is “possible but unlikely” that the team will be at round

three of the ELMS scheduled for Barcelona on 29 August, and that it remains “unclear” whether it will take up its entry for what would be its Le Mans 24 Hours debut.

● Barnicoat was called up to Carlin’s FIA Formula 3 team (below) for last weekend’s Silverstone round for his fi rst single-seater races since 2016, after the squad split with Enaam Ahmed. Barnicoat scored a best result of 12th, while team-mate Clement Novalak grabbed a reversed-grid podium.

“Ben’s feedback is similar to Clem’s and all of a sudden there’s a lot more confi dence in the direction of engineering to take,” said Carlin. “I wanted someone that would fi t in and be a good professional and help with the atmosphere.” GARY WATKINS AND MARCUS SIMMONS

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DTM

Leclerc abandons shipa� er first-race snafu

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Petecof shared the wins.Vips tangled with Leclerc

and Petecof in the opener, and later spun into the gravel

during his recovery drive. He was given a two-place grid penalty for race two for causing the fi rst-race incident, before

FORMULA REGIONAL

Red Bull Junior Juri Vips’s quest to earn F1 superlicence points in the Formula Regional European Championship was foiled in the opening triple-header at Misano last weekend.

Vips, who has added a Regional campaign with Finnish team KIC Motorsport to his Super Formula programme, took a best fi nish of fourth and lies seventh in the standings. Prema Powerteam’s Oliver Rasmussen, Arthur Leclerc and Gianluca

Vips foiled as Prema trio dominates at Misano

DTM TROPHY

Former British GT Championship team-mates Ben Tuck and Ben Green became the fi rst winners in the DTM’s new GT4 support series as it staged its inaugural races at Spa last weekend.

BRDC Rising Star Tuck, driving a BMW M4 GT4 entered by Walkenhorst Motorsport (right), won the opening race of the DTM Trophy. Green, who fi nished runner-up in the GT4 class of British GT in 2018 alongside Tuck, claimed the second race in another M4 run by FK Performance Motorsport.

The series, which runs to a sprint-race format, attracted a 17-car fi eld for the fi rst two of 12 races across six weekends. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and KTM were all represented on a grid that included former Audi DTM and SEAT World Touring Car Championship racer Peter Terting.

“I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never raced in a support category before, having gone straight from club racing to British GT,” said Tuck. “But it felt like I was part of the main event. The organisation was really good and it made us feel like we were meant to be there. We have the same race director as the DTM and we report to

the same people, so I feel like I am part of the DTM, not just the Trophy.”

Tuck, 23, was familiar with both car and team after contesting VLN races at the Nurburgring last year, and his cause was aided by 1996 International Formula 3000 champion Jorg Muller, who was working as his data engineer in an agreement that will continue for the remainder of the year. Tuck topped practice and qualifying for race one, and was never headed.

“Saturday was the dream day,” he said. “It’s the fi rst time that I’ve driven solo since my last race in Caterhams in 2017, so it’s the fi rst time since then that I don’t have any excuses! I did what was expected of me once the team put a perfect car out.

That gave me a confi dence boost.” Green was an early retirement in race

one, but took the lead from race-two poleman Tim Heinemann’s Mercedes after a safety car period and ran away unchallenged to win.

Tuck qualifi ed and fi nished sixth, having risen as high as fourth in what was e� ectively a “damage-limitation” exercise due to a car problem hampering his corner exits. The result put him second in the points behind Heinemann, and Tuck has the championship fi rmly in his sights.

“You always want to be a little bit careful with your expectations,” he said. “But that’s our focus – we want to win this.” JAMES NEWBOLD

British Bens in BMW bonanza

fading from fourth to sixth. And the Estonian couldn’t fi nd a way past Rasmussen in the fi nal race to breach the podium positions.

Rasmussen added two podiums to his win in the opener, meaning the Dane leads Ferrari juniors Petecof and Leclerc – younger brother of Ferrari F1 star Charles – in the points. The fourth Prema driver, Jamie Chadwick, was third in race one, before adding a sixth and an eighth place to her tally.MARCUS SIMMONS

LENGTH 3.661 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 52

RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m27.097s (2020)

2020 BRITISH GP POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m24.303s

POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m24.303s (2020)

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Prost took dominant winfor McLaren in 1985

Leclerc moved up pointstable at British GP


UK START TIMES TYRE ALLOCATION

RACE STATS

6 A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 1

Top 10 points scorers for grands prix at Silverstone. All races converted to current points system.

L Hamilton 258M Schumacher 188K Raikkonen 186R Barrichello 153F Alonso 143A Prost 142N Mansell 128S Vettel 125D Coulthard 114M Webber 107

Silverstone mastersPrevious Silverstone winners 2020 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2019 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2018 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari2017 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2016 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2015 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes2013 Nico Rosberg Mercedes2012 Mark Webber Red Bull2011 Fernando Alonso Ferrari

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 INTERMEDIATE WET

Friday 7 AugustFP1 1100 FP2 1500

Saturday 8 AugustFP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400

Sunday 9 AugustRACE 1410

CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1830

F1 70TH ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX PREVIEW

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY

MEDIUMHARDSOFT

Constructors1 Mercedes................ 1462 Red Bull ...................... 783 McLaren ..................... 514 Ferrari .......................... 435 Racing Point ......... 42

Drivers1 Hamilton .............................. 882 Bottas ...................................... 583 Verstappen ........................ 524 Norris ....................................... 365 Leclerc .................................... 33

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS

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ilverstone’s expanse is flat, wide, spacious – it’s what made it an ideal spot for an airfield. The track is famously flat too, and the circuit’s wide and spacious nature is the reason it’s one of the few venues in the UK that can actually

accommodate everything required to host a Formula 1 grand prix. Wide and spacious apply to the Wing complex also. In the

summer of 2020, the pit building-cum-exhibition space (in ‘normal’ times) is strictly organised as per the track’s COVID-secure protocols. It’s a warren of one-way paths to follow to a destination – team and crew catering, a coronavirus testing area, the media centre. Of those examples, the final terminus had the feel of an exam hall: wide and spacious, with individual desks spaced out, generally quiet and calm.

But it had something intriguingly flat in it as well: a data visualisation section on the timing screens, which represented the 3.661-mile, 18-turn track as a flat line, with the cars’ GPS loggers showing where each driver was on the course. This is nothing new in F1 – McLaren’s Mission Control room at Woking represents the track as a circle. It’s a tool the teams use to keep the drivers informed when it comes to the positioning of other cars nearby.

During last weekend’s British Grand Prix, the positioning line graphic rammed home two things: just how devastatingly fast the Mercedes W11 is compared to its opposition and how brilliantly

Max Verstappen is performing this season, to barely hang on to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as they go to work.

Verstappen is a clear third in the standings on 52 points, just six behind Bottas after the late tyre drama in last Sunday’s race dropped the Finn out of the points. Red Bull feels he could have been a victory threat in the season opener had he not retired with a power problem, which figures given he was running second on a better tyre strategy, and the Mercedes drivers ran into reliability concerns that arose from the track’s gearbox-pounding kerbs.

A week later, Verstappen was third as Mercedes exploited its pace advantage and the absence of a Red Bull rear-gunner to recover a 1-2 after Bottas qualified fourth. In Hungary, he banished his pre-race crash with a brilliant drive to second behind the dominant Hamilton, defying Bottas’s attempt to recreate

Hamilton’s race-winning move at the Hungaroring in 2019. Right now, Verstappen is the only thorn anywhere near

Mercedes’ side, which was visualised on the Silverstone positioning line. The Mercedes duo edged clear of Verstappen to the tune of 0.359s per lap, which left him a lonely third. But the rest were a very long way adrift. At the end of lap 49, Verstappen was 14.1s off the lead – and at the end of that tour Bottas’s left-front tyre had started deflating. Charles Leclerc, in fourth, was 43.508s adrift.

It seems Verstappen can cope with the recalcitrant RB16 in a way team-mate Alex Albon cannot. This ultimately presents Red Bull with a slight headache when it comes to fixing the aerodynamic anomalies it admits it must address, and the team felt it made progress last weekend. But a driver coping and delivering with a tricky car is a good problem to have, so the cliche goes.

Verstappen’s current performance level meant he came so close to winning the British GP when Hamilton hit tyre disaster on the final lap. Had he not stopped to switch tyres after passing Bottas (debating the merits of this is ultimately pointless) he would have done. Leclerc had no chance given the gap, even though the Ferrari driver’s race was also exceptional.

The tyre dramas were the only talking point of a race that for so long had been a bit dull. This interest was intensified because, as we explained in the 30 July issue, F1 is staying put for another Silverstone race this weekend. And, the tyres will be a step softer.

The results of Pirelli’s investigation into the failures will be known before then, but in any case the drivers were already expecting the 70th Anniversary GP to be a two-stop affair rather than the typical Silverstone one-stopper.

Given the events at the climax of the race last weekend, that offers a glimmer of hope to Mercedes’ rivals, but Verstappen – the best placed to comment – doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think it will change a lot,” he says. “[The gap to Mercedes] it’s so big, c’mon! Maybe you find 0.1s or 0.15s. OK, we are a bit closer [in the British GP] – but it’s not close enough. I’m trying but it’s not possible at the moment.”

Verstappen’s frankness is a delight among the usually safe messaging drivers deliver week in, week out. It shows his status at the team too – he can speak in a way no other young Red Bull driver can. But it reveals the scale of the task he and Red Bull face. They can be honest about it because it can’t hurt their position. Mercedes is a second to the good in qualifying and will edge away in the race no matter how brilliant Verstappen is.

“I don’t think there will be a lot of changes to the way I will be driving [next weekend],” he says. “So I’ll probably be counting some sheep next to the track.”

Despite the late glimmer of hope that Lewis Hamilton’s puncture offered his rivals, don’t expect anyone to run Mercedes close at Silverstone this weekend

A L E X K A L I N A U C K A S

A bleak data reality

“The gap to Mercedes is so big, c’mon! I’ll probably be counting some sheep next to the track”

S


P18 BRITISH GP REPORT

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t the time of writing, the Formula E season is yet to resume for its six-race, nine-day finale in Germany. But as you’re reading this issue on Thursday, you’ll already know who won at Tempelhof Airport last night. You’re like Biff

Tannen in Back to the Future Part 2 with your hands on a copy of Grays Sports Almanac. Oh, and cancel your plans for this evening as there’s another race on in a couple of hours.

As it stands, though, there are still 180 points up for grabs (pre-Berlin leader Antonio Felix da Costa has 67) and there’s more than half of the season’s E-Prixs to go. Therefore, tipping an eventual champion is no easy task – one only made more difficult by the sheer unpredictability that’s rife in FE. After five races, there’s yet to be a repeat winner.

But it’s more than da Costa’s place atop the standings that makes him the closest thing to a title favourite. The DS Techeetah car is level-pegging with the Jaguar machine in terms of sheer race pace, giving the Portuguese pilot the mount needed to convert his current 11-point advantage over Mitch Evans into the crown.

There have been issues adapting to his new home at DS Techeetah after leaving BMW Andretti, and these have been particularly prevalent during qualifying. Da Costa blamed the initially subdued one-lap performances on his unfamiliarity with the new car, but his progress come the races has been astounding.

In Santiago (round three in January) he climbed from 10th to second, and in Mexico City (round four in February) he was up from ninth to another second. Finally, in Marrakech he snared pole by 0.07 seconds and duly converted it into a consummate 11.4s victory.

There have also been teething problems with his on-track relationship with double-champion team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who set the wheels in motion to get da Costa in the door. Although the duo are good friends – even holidaying together – in Santiago and Mexico they tripped over one another to cost time, positions, points, even wins and podiums. Team boss Mark Preston admitted the similar pace of the drivers had proved hard to manage.

Da Costa also didn’t hold back after the Chilean race, which he likely should have won before slowing down and conceding victory to his BMW replacement Maximilian Guenther. He demanded

Formula E’s well-founded reputation for unpredictability makes the result of this season’s multi-race finale hard to call – but utterly compelling to witness

M AT T K E W

All to play for in Berlin

“There’s a likely set of circumstances where the title fight goes down to the final race”

Amore from his engineers after he said he was fed “not the complete or slightly wrong information” concerning battery temperatures.

Evans, second in the table, has been let down by his team also. A software glitch that sapped pace in Santiago cost him a probable victory and dropped him to an eventual third, but he responded magnificently in Mexico City to qualify second and score a totally controlled victory after a near-immediate pass on polesitter Andre Lotterer on the run to Turn 1.

The chance for successive wins was then spurned by Jaguar in Marrakech after the team released Evans late from the garage in qualifying, and he circulated slowly with the belief that he had time to spare. The group run ended 0.268s before he crossed the line and meant he would start the race plumb last.

But in a sign of the potency of the car, he scythed through the pack to deliver a stunning recovery to sixth. If such errors go unrepeated in Berlin, the 2012 GP3 champion should be in position to continue his sterling form to really breathe down da Costa’s neck.

This is a team-and-driver combination that has evolved together – Evans has been a Jaguar ever-present in FE; meanwhile Sam Bird will become the fifth different driver to occupy the second seat when he joins for next season. But as Marrakech shows, there’s still learning to be done in the new position at the top of the field.

DS Techeetah and da Costa, by contrast, got the lion’s share of their learning over and done with early doors. The Moroccan race proved that da Costa could string together a qualifying lap, and since then he’s been on a sharp upward trajectory that eclipses Evans’s arguably more consistent form.

If that carries over, da Costa will have no time for any further intra-team clumsiness. Double champion Vergne, only eighth in the points after his own qualifying issues and Chilean retirement, might not feature prominently in the title race as a leading protagonist, but he could well decide who gets the crown. There’s a likely set of circumstances where the FE title fight goes down to the final race on 13 August. Given the DS Techeetahs’ pace, it’s also probable that it will be Evans harrying da Costa and Vergne for the spoils.

Vergne has reinvented himself as a leading light of electric racing since he dropped out of Formula 1 not long after missing out on the 2014 Red Bull seat to Daniel Ricciardo. For the past two seasons he’s grabbed much of the FE attention, but now it might well be his turn to hand the baton to da Costa. If he sees a black-and-gold car in his mirrors, he’ll need to wave it by to ensure his DS Techeetah team retains the title and to put his pal at the top of the tree.

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British Touring Cars makes a very welcome return I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the return of the BTCC. Close and (mostly) clean racing throughout the field. Looks like we are going to have a great three-way title battle between Colin Turkington, Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton.

Hats off to the ITV4 team as well who continue to do an excellent job with the TV coverage each year.

I wonder if Jason Plato and PMR still think they have done the right thing in deciding to give 2020 a miss?!Tim ParrettBy email

F1 needs a swift swap of grand prix dates Tell Formula 1 to swap the Spanish and Eifel grands prix, sharpish! Spain is still a coronavirus risk and should still be mild enough in October, and would be convenient to be next to Portugal in the calendar.

The Nurburgring has a risk of snow (!) in October, so it makes logical sense to make it the height of summer. F1 needs to get a wriggle on if it’s to avoid the risk of two cancelled grands prix. Jim TannerBy email

Should punctures be a safety wake-up call? I enjoyed the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday. It was generally a Mercedes snoozefest, enlivened at the end by an assortment of random punctures. Lewis Hamilton managed to win on three wheels thanks to his skill and good fortune.

A few of points to raise…Winners are often lucky. Unlucky ones are losers!

Lewis is always lucky. After races the cars go into parc ferme to be checked,

to ensure all parts of the car conform. F1 cars have to be four-wheelers. With a non-functioning wheel/tyre, does the car comply?

Within the pits, penalties are given out for unsafe

Looks like we are going to have a great three-way title battle between Colin Turkington, Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton

T I M PA R R E T T

release of cars. On the track, are cars with punctures safe? Should the stewards apply consistency with the rules both on entering the track and also on the track? Stuart BalmerBy e-mail

Motorsport movie recommendation I have just watched (twice) the documentary film Uppity, which tells the story of Willy T Ribbs. What a character. If you are a motorsport fan and haven’t yet seen it (you’ll need a Netflix subscription – ed), then do, it is an enthralling 1h45m.Graeme Innes-JohnstoneElland, West Yorks

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The Mercedes star appeared to have a record-extending seventh British GP win in the bag. Then his left-front tyre cried enough…

A L E X K A L I N A U C K A S

PHOTOGRAPHY

HOW HAMILTON SURVIVED A

DRAMATIC FINISH


S E A S O NR E V I E WS E A S O NR E V I E W

B R I T I S H G P R A C E C E N T R E

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R A C E C E N T R E B R I T I S H G P


or so long, the ending of the 2020 British Grand Prix story seemed obvious: Lewis Hamilton triumphs for the seventh time. The on-the-flag reports were written, post-event columns planned, questions ready: how did Mercedes’ world champion feel about taking a comfortable, record-extending win at Silverstone without the usual support from the fans?

But that ending ultimately never came into existence, even though it had been foreshadowed for 49 largely insipid tours of last Sunday’s 52-lap race. It was replaced, instantly, when Valtteri Bottas’s left-front tyre gave way just as he approached the final corner on that 49th lap. And

that second new ending was replaced by the third and finally real one, as Hamilton too had a left-front blowout – in his case on the final tour.

Hamilton crawled to the line, race engineer Peter Bonnington calmly telling him the ever-decreasing gap to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull: “30 seconds behind”, then “25s”, “20s”, “16s” at Chapel, “10s” at Stowe, “nine” and then “seven” at the final, desperately slow final corner. But he did it, victory by 5.856s, agonising and brilliant all at once.

The final three laps may be the story of the 2020 British GP, but there were several significant factors in the largely lifeless majority that came before, which all led to the last-gasp drama –and inevitable accompanying cliches.

1 THE SECOND SAFETY CARThe story of the opening phase of the race was dominated by two

heavy crashes. The first was that of Kevin Magnussen, who slammed his Haas into the wall on the outside of the final corner after a clash with Red Bull’s Alex Albon. The approach to the final corner had been giving the drivers headaches all through the weekend, and Magnussen made a mistake by hitting the kerb at the first apex. He slid and lost momentum, which meant Albon took a look to the inside. He went for the gap, then tried to back out and hit the kerb at the second apex, striking the car of Magnussen, who went off to his accident.

The safety car was brought out – and Albon was later penalised five seconds – but this neutralisation did not have an impact on the late-race drama. It was the second safety-car period that did that, after Daniil Kvyat had suffered a frightening accident going through Maggotts. The AlphaTauri driver lost the rear of his car as he shot through the rapid left turn – he said later that “something happened out of my control”, possibly a right-rear puncture – and he slammed into the barriers beyond Becketts.

As the wreckage was removed and the track cleared, the field piled into the pits on lap 12 (for those who had time to react, led by Daniel Ricciardo in sixth), and lap 13 for the leaders. Crucially, everyone apart from Romain Grosjean (and Albon, who had already stopped for hard tyres on lap six) moved onto the white-walled rubber

F

Hamilton’s already out of shot – and soon DRS range too – but

Bottas never let up the pressure


“BOTTAS MADE A PRETTY GOOD FIST OF THIS RACE, BUT THIS ARGUABLY CONTRIBUTED TO HIS TYRE FAILURE”

– the C1, the hardest in Pirelli’s range. Pirelli had estimated before the race that pitting on lap 18 would

be far enough in to run to the flag on one stop. This meant the teams felt they could try to get to the end. “Nobody wanted to stop for the last two or three laps with a risk of losing positions,” explained Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola. “Doing these laps with the hard was not something that was completely unusual, so we didn’t take [weren’t taking] any risks,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said later.

2 THE PACE OF BOTTAS “Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard,” Hamilton said

after he’d climbed from his car, put his head in his hands and then inspected the tyre damage in parc ferme. “I was doing some management of that tyre; he looked like he wasn’t doing any.”

Bottas made a pretty good fist of this race, but this arguably contributed to his tyre failure. After Hamilton had made a

stunning turnaround in the final stage of qualifying, it looked as if things just weren’t falling right for Bottas. He’d done his best, but Hamilton had found another level when it mattered, and that story has already been written so many times before.

But Bottas started strongly, getting away better than his team-mate from their shared front row, even if Hamilton did sweep pretty imperiously across at Abbey to seal a lead he would actually never lose. Hamilton did indeed scamper out of DRS range, but Bottas was an ever-present threat until the very final laps.

After the restart from the second safety car at the start of lap 19, the gap between them fluctuated ever so slightly (with a low of 1.185s on lap 22), but it did not go beyond 2.310s (on lap 26) until lap 40. Here it had extended to 2.743s and then didn’t get much worse until four more laps were done, by which time it was out to 3.395s. This is when Bottas’s tyre troubles – evident by visible blisters on both Mercedes cars – really started to bite as his pace finally dropped off considerably relative to Hamilton.

For so long they’d each been pressing on, their lap times gradually going from the 1m30s bracket and into a relentless series of 1m29s, which for Hamilton was laps 30-48, and Bottas 30-46. Wolff acknowledged that the cars “had a little bit left” in terms of pure engine performance, but not much: “You would always hold back a little bit, because there isn’t simply so much allowance for the spicy modes.”

Kvyat’s shunt left carbonfibre debrison the track

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“Certainly they were pushing each other maybe a little bit beyond what we would have wanted as a team, but I guess you need to let them race,” Wolff said later. “We warned them that the tyres need to make it to the end. They were both aware that they could lose P1 or P2 with a failure and they are very experienced, so it’s then down to their decision once they get all the input from us. I don’t want to interfere in the racing. We can’t say to Valtteri, ‘Back off, let’s cruise home’, and we didn’t do that.

“So whatever the reason for the failure was, certainly the front- left was hammered and under heavy duty cycle, but ultimately the debris didn’t help either.”

3 DID DEBRIS CAUSE TYRE DISASTERS? Kvyat’s crash had left carbonfibre detritus across the track at

Maggotts/Becketts. But there was another incident at that famous complex late in the race that may have been a major factor in what went wrong for the Mercedes drivers – and Carlos Sainz Jr, who was cruelly denied what would have been a fourth-place finish by his own blowout on the Hangar Straight on the penultimate lap.

After running wide onto the kerbs at Copse on lap 47, Kimi Raikkonen damaged the left-hand side of his Alfa Romeo’s front wing. The wing carved into his left-front, giving him a puncture and showering the track with sparks and likely more pieces, and a large chunk of wing fell off and came to rest in the runoff beyond Becketts. For Hamilton, this was the reason his tyre failed, as he felt he had enough performance left at the end as “my tyre management was spot-on”.

“I am convinced it was debris,” he said. “There was a lot of debris on the track. There was one car – I think it might have been Kimi – that lost his wing, came off right in front of me. From the [second] safety car, there was debris all the way through into Maggotts and Becketts and I don’t think that was cleaned up.”

Isola insisted the failures “are not related to the blister” that was evident on the front-right of both Mercedes cars, with Verstappen also

feeling his tyres were far from being in great shape come the final laps. But it seems that the pace of the race at the front of the field, on tyres that were very close to being completely used up thanks to the early timing of the second safety car, left the rubber with little protection from debris. At the time of writing, Pirelli is in the early stages of a “360-degree” investigation, according to Isola, to discover if debris was indeed the clinching factor or if the tyres were just taken past their limit.

“What is clear now is that the tyres were quite worn and we had some debris on track, that was a fact that was visible to everybody,” said Isola. “When you have a tyre that is completely worn the protection of the tread on the construction is less. So, if there is any debris, any small piece of carbon on track, it is easier to damage the tyre, because you don’t have any rubber on the tyre that is protecting the cord, and some cords are visible on the tyres. So, that’s why I’m saying that the level of wear is close to 100%.”

Hamilton swears debris

was to blame – but wear makes a tyre

more vulnerable to damage

Verstappen more thanhappy to come awaywith second place

Mercedes may have wished for their drivers not to have

pushed quite so hard

Hamilton turned it around after spin

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4 THE VERSTAPPEN FACTOR It may have looked for so long that the Mercedes duo were

comfortable at the front, and they were in another league on pace, but Verstappen didn’t actually let them escape as much as the lack of time the three cars spent in the same TV shots suggested.

From lap 20, the lap after the restart from the second safety car, until lap 49, the lap before Verstappen and Bottas pitted for the final time, the Red Bull driver averaged 1m30.116s. This compares to 1m29.757s for Hamilton – a difference of 0.359s per lap on average, which is pretty impressive given the clear performance advantage of the Mercedes W11 and clear challenge the RB16 presents to its drivers, as evidenced by Albon’s various struggles last weekend.

Verstappen’s pace meant that at the end of lap 49, with Bottas’s puncture happening as he ran through the final corners of that lap, he was just 14.1s behind Hamilton. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was 29.4s behind Verstappen – the Monegasque had reaped the benefit of Grosjean not pitting under the second safety car, thereby creating a gap to the rest of the midfield that allowed Leclerc to run clear once he’d cleared a post-safety-car tyre-warm-up issue.

In short, Verstappen’s proximity meant Mercedes couldn’t easily bring its drivers in for a simple second stop, and in any case doing so may have interfered in their battle, which Wolff was so keen to avoid.

THE FINALE QUESTIONS OVER FINAL STOPS Bottas unquestionably needed to pit at the end of lap 50, but things are less simple regarding Verstappen’s stop on the same tour, and why Mercedes didn’t then in turn bring Hamilton in one lap later

When you think about it, it’s really quite rare to see Lewis Hamilton spinning a Formula 1 car. But that’s exactly what happened on his first run in Q2 at Silverstone, where he and team-mate Valtteri Bottas were attempting to get through to the final segment on the slower, but much more durable, medium-compound rubber.

In a cloud of tyre smoke and gravel dust he whirled around at Luffield, struggling with the balance of his W11. The red flags flew as a result of the gravel Hamilton had brought onto the circuit, and he was able to return to the pits to pick up fresh mediums.

But Bottas was still on top after Q2, as he had been in Q1 and Saturday morning’s FP3 session, which followed another challenging Friday practice day when the heat caused Mercedes handling problems, and Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll led the way. “So,” Autosport thought, “is this one of those weekends where Hamilton can’t come back from a slow start and Bottas gains the upper hand?” No, is the simple answer, because Hamilton magnificently turned it around just minutes later in Q3.

“Qualifying is a lot about confidence building, and damn, I had that spin,” he said after the session. “I was already down, I was struggling through the first section every lap and I don’t know how but with some deep breaths I managed to compose myself and Q3 started off the right way.”

That meant seizing pole on his first Q3 run on the soft tyre, suddenly finding a 0.150s advantage over his team-mate. Bottas then set an identical time on the final run, but Hamilton had already moved a further 0.313s clear with a 1m24.303s to seal his seventh F1 pole at Silverstone.

“It still wasn’t perfect, the first lap, but still a really clean lap and the second one even better,” said Hamilton. “It never gets old for sure.”

Behind the Mercedes pair came Verstappen and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, but it was McLaren’s Lando Norris in fifth who made it two brilliant qualifying performances for the home drivers. Sporting a charming helmet design submitted by a young fan, Norris had nearly been knocked out in Q1 after “overdriving slightly”, which caused him to make “too many mistakes, not putting it together”.

“I was trying too much in Q1 and Q2,” he said. “I felt like the more you tried hard to nail everything, the worse it got because you’d have a little bit of wind that would just push you over the limit. So I almost drove a bit more under the limit.”

“QUALIFYING IS ALL ABOUT CONFIDENCE BUILDING, AND DAMN, I HAD THAT SPIN”

QUALIFYING

“I DON’T WANT TO INTERFERE IN THE RACING. WE CAN’T SAY TO VALTTERI, ‘BACK OFF, LET’S CRUISE HOME’”

TRACKSIDE VIEW

Hulkenberg’s return received a socially distanced welcome

Sun’s out, but the crowds have had to stay at home



extended to at least 178 races (or so we thought).

A� er Antonio Giovinazzi had brought out the red flags with a spot of spinning and rubber shedding, Autosport ventured

outside. Following a lengthy walk through the one-way system implemented for the media ‘bubble’ in Silverstone’s cavernous Wing, we stepped out above the final corners. Usually

packed with paddock guests, they were practically deserted, which allowed for socially distanced trackside observations.

Despite the roasting, 30C sunshine, Autosport was cooled by the significant breeze bu� eting from the direction of Stowe to our le� . This appeared to be giving the drivers problems through the various sections of Club, particularly halfway through the long swoop that runs between the two apexes of the last corner (beyond which sat a structure that will eventually form a bridge connecting the under-construction pit-straight hotel with the Wing). Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes looked rather twitchy here, especially compared

with team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s, although the world champion did have his own moment as the session ended.

Further up to the exit of Stowe, the drivers flirted with track-limits violations on their push laps, before heading to the final braking zone at the 90-degree le� that starts Club, where Charles Leclerc, Nicholas Latifi, Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat locked up in the final minutes.

A lull with 40 minutes to go rammed home the emptiness of the place. Otherwise pristine, the empty and silent grandstands made for a post-apocalyptic feel. Roll on 2021, and the hoped-for return to festival normality. ALEX KALINAUCKAS

“It’s a festival atmosphere, normally.” Haas team boss Guenther Steiner succinctly summed up what was glaringly missing from the British Grand Prix – Formula 1 fans.

Everything looked perfect. The advertising boards brought garish colour splashes, LED screens glittered, the paddock structures (albeit reduced as per F1’s COVID-secure protocols) were situated correctly. Marshals and security guards stood at their posts, marker boards and track lines were laid out flawlessly. And yet the absence of the usual hubbub of humanity stood out above all else.

The pitlane was at least as busy as ever, particularly during FP1 outside the Racing Point garage. A� er Nico Hulkenberg’s last-minute participation in the session was confirmed, due to Sergio Perez’s positive COVID-19 test result, there was much interest in his return to the track a� er an absence of… three races.

From Autosport’s media centre vantage point directly above the Racing Point garage, we spotted team boss Otmar Szafnauer watch his returning charge get strapped into Perez’s RP20, and then as he moved to the pitwall, FOM camera operators, marshals and pitlane scrutineers gathered (socially distanced) with no other cars on track. The arrival of the team photographer – clad in team kit and embedded in the squad per the coronavirus ‘bubble’ rules – signalled it was time. Hulkenberg pulled away, his F1 career suddenly

“IT LOOKED PERFECT. BUT THE ABSENCE OF THE USUAL HUBBUB OF HUMANITY STOOD OUT ABOVE ALL ELSE”

Heart-in-mouth moment for Hamilton on the race’s final lap

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to avoid any risk of his last-gasp drama. Red Bull acted quickly. It brought Verstappen in as soon as he had

passed the punctured Bottas, switching him to used softs because he was so far ahead of Leclerc and free to chase the bonus point for fastest lap, which he duly took. But the stop left him too far adrift of Hamilton to capitalise when the leader was hobbled at the end, because Hamilton was 34.243s ahead going into the final lap.

But Red Bull refused to be downbeat about this after the race, with Verstappen saying, “I’m actually not disappointed at all”, and team boss Christian Horner saying his driver was at risk of his own puncture.

“The tyre that came off the car had about 50 little cuts in it, so it had been through debris,” he explained. “If we had stayed out, we could have lost a second position with the same failure as Lewis, Carlos Sainz and Bottas. It was right on the limit. We’ll be grateful for what

we’ve got rather than what we’ve potentially lost.” Wolff said Mercedes had a discussion on the pitwall – “Are we

pitting or not?” – over whether to bring in Hamilton ahead of the final lap. It opted not to because “we saw that Lewis’s front-left was in a better state than Valtteri’s, and then it still looked a little bit random [what had happened to Bottas].” He added: “In hindsight a pitstop would have probably been better, but at the end we don’t know the root cause of the failure. As well it could have been debris.”

ONE CLEAR WINNER, ONE CLEAR LOSER After the race, both Verstappen and Leclerc were asked if anyone other than Hamilton can win the 2020 title, and both were pretty unequivocal that they cannot. “I think the guy that has some chances is Valtteri,” said Leclerc. “But that’s it.”

But Bottas is now 30 points behind his team-mate after coming home 11th, unable to clear Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to rescue the final point at the end despite a 38-lap tyre advantage on softs (which were admittedly used before the race).

“Overall our pace was not that dissimilar,” said Bottas when asked if different tyre-management approaches had caused his rubber to fail before Hamilton’s. “But of course being the car behind another one means that in the corners you lose a bit of downforce. You slide a bit more, that can easily have an effect of a couple of laps of tyre life.

“But otherwise, I was trying to manage the tyres, at the same time trying to put a bit of pressure to Lewis, because otherwise there would be no chance for me to win the race. So, I was trying to do it in the right places at the right time, but still that happened.”

What happened for Hamilton was that, despite all the late drama, he held on to take a third victory in a row, coming away victorious after “the most dramatic ending [to a race] I definitely remember having”.

He has the chance to take an eighth Silverstone win this weekend, where again F1 fans must be absent. How they would have roared for those fantastic final laps of the ending that ultimately came to be…

N E X T F 1 R E P O R T

70TH ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX13 AUGUST ISSUEAs Silverstone hosts its second grand prix in a row, can Valtteri Bottas turn up the wick and rediscover his winning form?

“IT WAS RIGHT ON THE LIMIT. WE’LL BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT WE’VE GOT RATHER THAN POTENTIALLY LOST”

Royal Automobile

Club’s trophy (right) adds a dash of

old-school pomp to podium

“IF I STRUGGLED FOR SO MANY LAPS IN THE RACE, AND IT WAS FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END, THEN THERE’S SOMETHING THAT PROBABLY DOESN’T STACK UP”Sebastian Vettel reflects on a difficult British GP in which he came home in 10th place – and his team-mate made it onto the podium. He reckoned his inability to match the pace of those around him suggested something out of the ordinary had come into play.

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Any suggestions – and there were a few – that Mercedes’ tyre dramas were related to its DAS system were blown out of the water given that the same thing happened to McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr on the penultimate lap.

As the Spaniard approached Maggotts, his front-left tyre deflated and he was sent shooting across the runoff and into the pits for an emergency stop that dropped him from fourth to 13th the end.

“I’m a bit lost for words to be honest – I think the images spoke for themselves,” he said after a charging drive that included leaping from seventh to fifth on the first lap. “It’s a very frustrating end to an otherwise very strong race.

“I had a great start, gaining a couple of positions, and had solid pace throughout the whole race, managing the tyres and the gap to the cars behind. Everything was working well, we were on for a very strong P4 and 12 points, but then the

tyre failed and I had to box on the last lap. Very disappointing, frustrating and unfortunate. Nothing we could do about it though.”

Team-mate Lando Norris benefited from the tyre problems that ruined things for Valtteri Bottas and Sainz, helping him recover to his sensational starting position of fifth. A locked brake into Brooklands had dropped him behind Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo and, although he battled back past the Renault, he lost out again at Stowe with four laps to run.

“I made a bit of a mistake by pushing too hard on the first lap of the race,” said Norris. “I locked up and lost a position, but the rest of the race was pretty good. I don’t think we had the fastest car on track compared to the teams around us. We were suffering a little bit with the tyre degradation, having to push more than I wanted for the majority but, apart from that, we were on for a good result.”

Sainz denied ‘strong P4’ by tyre-deflation drama

Gasly avoids the drama for strong seventhAlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly had shone at the Hungaroring, despite being plagued by power-unit gremlins, so he may have been a little worried after practice at Silverstone when he reported similar drops in Honda power over the radio. But this time the signs of trouble came to nothing.

The Frenchman was unlucky not to scrape into Q3, having set an identical time to Lance Stroll during Q2. The Racing Point driver made it through by dint of setting the time first, leaving Gasly 11th on the grid.

He held station early on, keeping tabs on a below-par Sebastian Vettel, but could be forgiven for a heart flutter when team-mate Daniil Kvyat speared into the wall at Maggotts, having come up behind his AlphaTauri team-mate.

Gasly deduced that Kvyat was fine and that there was no suspected problem with the car, then dropped out of the top 10 after his pitstop, but soon carved his way back into points contention. He cleared Vettel to compound the Ferrari driver’s misery, and then passed a struggling Stroll in retaliation for missing out in qualifying. Benefiting from the late flurry of tyre-related dramas at the end, Gasly weathered the storm to finish an impressive seventh.

“We didn’t expect to have the pace to fight with these guys, with Seb, with Racing Point,” Gasly reflected.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY

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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says Alex Albon just needs a “straightforward, boring weekend” to recover his form after another disappointing display.

Albon was rapid in the fierce heat of FP2, but undid all of his good work with a crash at Stowe. After being knocked out in Q2 for the second race in a row, he then tangled with

Kevin Magnussen on lap one and had to fight his way back on a two-stopper when his rivals were trying to get to the end with just one stop.

“Then I thought his recovery from there was excellent,” Horner said of Albon’s drive back to eighth. “We’ve seen it on numerous occasions, his ability to come back through the field. His pace in the race was very good.”

Horner: Albon just needs a straightforward weekend

Grosjean gets warning for late movesHaas veteran Romain Grosjean was on the naughty step after the British Grand Prix, following dubious moves while defending position – particularly on the two main straights.

Grosjean took a gamble in staying out after the rest of the field pitted following Daniil Kvyat’s accident, and found himself up to fifth. But he caught Carlos Sainz Jr’s ire on the Hangar Straight, as he made an extra move at the McLaren driver as Sainz went to make his way past at Stowe. Grosjean held the position, and Sainz immediately took to the radio to express his dismay at the Frenchman’s “dangerous driving”, before getting past on the following lap at the same corner.

Despite earning the black-and-white flag, Grosjean remained undeterred, and when Daniel Ricciardo launched an assault into Brooklands later in the race, the Haas driver jinked to the inside of the corner at the last moment. Ricciardo was having none of it and steamed through regardless, commenting that Grosjean’s late defensive move was “sketchy”. Arguably, Grosjean was lucky to get away with a warning.

“I think in both cases I moved a little bit late,” said Grosjean, “but I always left the car width. I used the limit but I was just trying to defend as hard as I could.”

Q & A

O T M A R S Z A F N A U E R R A C I N G P O I N TT E A M P R I N C I PA L What happened to Nico Hulkenberg, and why was Lance Stroll’s race pace worse than qualifying? Nico’s car, it looks like a bolt sheared within the clutch housing and that bolt got caught and therefore wouldn’t allow the internal combustion engine to turn over. So, where the bolt fell off, it got jammed. We’re looking into [why the race pace was so bad]. It could be a combination of both car aerodynamic set-up and things we could have done differently as well as the tyre we went to. We never really got to use the advantage we had in qualifying on the option [medium] tyre, not the quali [soft] tyre, due

to the safety car. Everybody came in and then went to the prime [hard] tyre, so we’re still investigating. With the bolt, why would something like that happen? No idea. I think it’s a bit early to understand why, but it did shear off so it could be a material issue, it could be an over-torque issue, I don’t know. I’m sure all of those bolts are torqued to a certain specification, so say the

torque ratio isn’t set right and you over-torque it, it could shear it. It could be a material issue in manufacturing, but until you look into all of those things – was the bolt brittle for example, I don’t know – we’ll have to understand the root cause and make sure we fix it. After a promising Friday, how do you stomach a missed opportunity? It’s definitely disappointing. It was much more promising on Friday, and we’ve got to retrospectively now look at the race, what we could have done differently. The nice thing is, we’ve got another one coming up soon and we’ll make those changes because I think the pace is there. We just have to learn, adjust and do better next time.

DUN

BAR

“THE TRACK IS MY CANVAS, THE CAR

IS MY BRUSH” GRAHAM HILL

SOMETIMES ALL YOU NEED IS A GOOD QUOTE.

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There are two key flaws with Ferrari’s 2020 package. First, the power unit is too down on power a� er the FIA’s technical directives at the tail end of last year stripped it of performance. Second, the SF1000 has a surplus of drag, which hinders its straightline speed even further.

It seems to have a solid level

of downforce, however, which helped its drivers – in particular, Charles Leclerc – to perform admirably in the first sector at Silverstone before losing time on the faster parts. To reduce the disadvantage on both the Wellington and Hangar straights, Ferrari ran a

particularly shallow rear wing to grasp an extra couple of klicks on the speedometer.

For the most part, it worked. Leclerc qualified fourth and held his own in the race, having enough legs in the car to stay ahead of the chasing McLarens and Renaults. Thanks to Valtteri Bottas’s front-

le� tyre giving up spectacularly in the closing stages of the race, Leclerc was in a position to scoop a surprise podium. Sebastian Vettel also had the lower-drag wing, but was mired in the midfield to compound a miserable weekend for the four-time champion. JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

FERRARI COMPROMISES ON DOWNFORCE

RED BULL WINGS THE CHANGES

A common theme among the opening quartet of races has been Red Bull’s willingness to experiment with new parts for its RB16 in its bid to close the gaping chasm between itself and Mercedes. Frustratingly for the Milton Keynes-based squad, a lot of those parts haven’t worked out, and the nose brought to the first round in Austria hasn’t reappeared in race trim as it doesn’t seem to have tacked on the performance gains Red Bull had hoped for at the front end. But at the rear, the team’s new-for-Silverstone rear wing certainly helped Max Verstappen cement his place between the Mercedes drivers and the rest of the field.

For Silverstone, the team turned up the outboard ends of the mainplane to slash the drag

produced. This is a common approach, and uses the central section to produce the majority of downforce while removing a little bit of downforce from the less-e� icient parts of the wing to reduce some of the car’s drag penalty. The team also ditched the

louvred endplates it used in the previous two races, presumably having found that arrangementa little more draggy than the standard design.JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

L O U V R E D E N D P L AT E S W E R E D I T C H E D F O R S I LV E R S T O N E

I N A B I D T O R E D U C E D R A G

S H A L L O W R E A R W I N G H E L P E D C L A W B A C K S O M E O F F E R R A R I ’ S

S T R A I G H T L I N E S P E E D D E F I C I T

D R A W I N G B O A R DG I O R G I O P I O L A


up the outboard ends of the mainplane to slash the drag

to reduce some of the car’s drag penalty. The team also ditched the

standard design.JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

S H A L L O W R E A R W I N G H E L P E D C L A W B A C K S O M E O F F E R R A R I ’ S

S T R A I G H T L I N E S P E E D D E F I C I T

11 Gasly #101m26.501s

12 Albon #231m26.545s

13 Hulkenberg #271m26.566s

15 Giovinazzi #991m27.164s

17 Grosjean #81m27.643s

19 Kvyat #261m26.744s

14 Magnussen #201m27.158s

16 Raikkonen #71m27.366s

18 Latifi #61m27.705s

20 Russell #631m27.092s

QUALIFYING 1 QUALIFYING 2 QUALIFYING 3

FREE PRACTICE 1

SPEED TRAP (QUALIFYING)

FREE PRACTICE 2 FREE PRACTICE 3



S E A S O N S T AT S

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Bottas 1m25.801s2 Hamilton 1m25.900s3 Verstappen 1m26.115s4 Stroll 1m26.243s5 Hulkenberg 1m26.327s6 Gasly 1m26.343s7 Ocon 1m26.396s8 Vettel 1m26.469s9 Leclerc 1m26.550s

10 Albon 1m26.565s11 Ricciardo 1m26.677s12 Sainz 1m26.715s13 Russell 1m26.732s14 Kvyat 1m26.774s15 Norris 1m26.855s16 Magnussen 1m27.158s17 Giovinazzi 1m27.164s18 Raikkonen 1m27.366s19 Grosjean 1m27.643s20 Latifi 1m27.705s

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Verstappen 1m27.422s2 Hamilton 1m27.896s3 Stroll 1m28.004s4 Albon 1m28.129s5 Leclerc 1m28.221s6 Bottas 1m28.519s7 Ocon 1m28.559s8 Ricciardo 1m28.575s9 Hulkenberg 1m28.592s

10 Kvyat 1m28.868s11 Gasly 1m28.909s12 Sainz 1m28.988s13 Norris 1m28.990s14 Magnussen 1m29.532s15 Grosjean 1m29.576s16 Raikkonen 1m29.746s17 Russell 1m29.899s18 Giovinazzi 1m29.925s19 Latifi 1m30.703s20 Vettel no time

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Stroll 1m27.274s2 Albon 1m27.364s3 Bottas 1m27.431s4 Leclerc 1m27.570s5 Hamilton 1m27.581s6 Sainz 1m27.820s7 Hulkenberg 1m27.910s8 Gasly 1m27.997s9 Ricciardo 1m28.112s

10 Raikkonen 1m28.159s11 Norris 1m28.169s12 Ocon 1m28.219s13 Giovinazzi 1m28.256s14 Verstappen 1m28.390s15 Kvyat 1m28.426s16 Grosjean 1m28.564s17 Russell 1m28.771s18 Vettel 1m28.860s19 Magnussen 1m28.898s20 Latifi 1m29.958s

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Bottas 1m25.873s2 Hamilton 1m26.011s3 Verstappen 1m26.173s4 Stroll 1m26.576s5 Sainz 1m26.664s6 Leclerc 1m26.771s7 Norris 1m26.798s8 Ricciardo 1m26.841s9 Hulkenberg 1m26.872s

10 Gasly 1m27.046s11 Kvyat 1m27.076s12 Ocon 1m27.158s13 Albon 1m27.178s14 Vettel 1m27.251s15 Grosjean 1m27.537s16 Russell 1m27.738s17 Giovinazzi 1m27.825s18 Magnussen 1m27.860s19 Raikkonen 1m27.976s20 Latifi 1m28.112s

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Bottas 1m25.015s2 Hamilton 1m25.347s3 Verstappen 1m26.144s4 Sainz 1m26.149s5 Leclerc 1m26.203s6 Ocon 1m26.252s7 Ricciardo 1m26.339s8 Norris 1m26.420s9 Vettel 1m26.455s

10 Stroll 1m26.501s11 Gasly 1m26.501s12 Albon 1m26.545s13 Hulkenberg 1m26.566s14 Kvyat 1m26.744s15 Russell 1m27.092s

POS DRIVER TIME

1 Hamilton 1m24.303s2 Bottas 1m24.616s3 Verstappen 1m25.325s4 Leclerc 1m25.427s5 Norris 1m25.782s6 Stroll 1m25.839s7 Sainz 1m25.965s8 Ricciardo 1m26.009s9 Ocon 1m26.209s

10 Vettel 1m26.339s

WEATHER Sunny, air 29-33C track 38-46C


WEATHER Sunny, air 35-36C track 46-50C WEATHER Overcast, air 19C track 30C

N E X T R A C E

9 A U G U S T70TH ANNIVERSARY GP

Silverstone

MercedesRenault

Racing PointAlphaTauri

FerrariWilliamsRed Bull

HaasMcLaren

Alfa Romeo

196.1mph196.5mph

196.9mph197.0mph

197.3mph197.8mph

197.9mph198.3mph

198.7mph

194.6mph

#27

#20

13

14

CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

QUALIFYING BATTLE

Scores ignore sessions if a driver didn’t participate in qualifying or had a serious technical problem

WINS FASTEST LAPS

POLE POSITIONS

Hamilton 3Bottas 1

Hamilton 3Bottas 1

Hamilton 1Norris 1Sainz 1Verstappen 1

Hamilton 3 1 BottasVettel 2 2 LeclercAlbon 0 4 VerstappenNorris 3 1 SainzRicciardo 3 1 OconGasly 4 0 KvyatStroll 1 0 HulkenbergPerez 1 2 StrollRaikkonen 1 3 GiovinazziGrosjean 1 3 MagnussenLatifi 0 4 Russell

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP PTS BEST

FINISHBESTQUAL

1 Hamilton 88 1 1

2 Bottas 58 1 1

3 Verstappen 52 2 24 Norris 36 3 45 Leclerc 33 2 46 Albon 26 4 57 Perez 22 6 48 Stroll 20 4 39 Ricciardo 20 4 8

10 Sainz 15 5 311 Ocon 12 6 512 Gasly 12 7 813 Vettel 10 6 514 Giovinazzi 2 9 1715 Kvyat 1 10 1316 Magnussen 1 10 1517 Latifi 0 11 1518 Raikkonen 0 11 1619 Russell 0 12 1220 Grosjean 0 13 15

Hulkenberg 0 - 13

1 Mercedes 1462 Red Bull 783 McLaren 514 Ferrari 435 Racing Point 426 Renault 327 AlphaTauri 138 Alfa Romeo 29 Haas 1

10 Williams 0

Hamilton

Bottas

Verstappen

Leclerc

Norris

Stroll

Sainz

Ricciardo

Ocon

Vettel

Gasly

Albon

Hulkenberg

Magnussen

Giovinazzi

Raikkonen

Grosjean

Latifi

Kvyat

Russell

1 Hamilton #441m24.303s

2 Bottas #771m24.616s

3 Verstappen #331m25.325s

5 Norris #41m25.782s

7 Sainz #551m25.965s

9 Ocon #311m26.209s

4 Leclerc #161m25.427s

6 Stroll #181m25.839s

8 Ricciardo #31m26.009s

10 Vettel #51m26.339s

LAP CHART What happened, when

STARTING GRID

Pitstop Crash Mechanical failure Spin Penalty Car lapped Safety car

FASTEST LAPS

TYRES

Motorsport Stats is the pre-eminent provider of motorsport data to media owners, rights-holders, bookmakers and sponsors. Its data services are founded on the world’s largest repository of racing results dating back to 1897. For more information contact [email protected]

POWERED BY


FASTEST LAPS

RACE BRIEFING

POS DRIVER TEAM FINISH TIME LED TYRES

1 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes 1h28m01.283s 52 Mu, Hn2 Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull-Honda +5.856s Mu, Hn, Su3 Charles Leclerc (MCO) Ferrari +18.474s Mu, Hn4 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Renault +19.650s Su, Hn5 Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren-Renault +22.277s Su, Hn6 Esteban Ocon (FRA) Renault +26.937s Su, Hn7 Pierre Gasly (FRA) AlphaTauri-Honda +31.188s Mn, Hn8 Alexander Albon (THA) Red Bull-Honda +32.670s Mn, Hn, Mu9 Lance Stroll (CAN) Racing Point-Mercedes +37.311s Mu, Hn

10 Sebastian Vettel (DEU) Ferrari +41.857s Su, Hn11 Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Mercedes +42.167s Mu, Hn, Su12 George Russell (GBR) Williams-Mercedes +52.004s Mn, Hn13 Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) McLaren-Renault +53.370s Su, Hn, Mn14 Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +54.205s Mn, Hn15 Nicholas Latifi (CAN) Williams-Mercedes +54.549s Mn, Hn16 Romain Grosjean (FRA) Haas-Ferrari +55.050s Mn, Hn17 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Alfa Romeo-Ferrari -1 lap Mn, Hn, SnR Daniil Kvyat (RUS) AlphaTauri-Honda 11 laps-puncture/accident MnR Kevin Magnussen (DNK) Haas-Ferrari 1 lap-accident Mn

NS Nico Hulkenberg (DEU) Racing Point-Mercedes clutch Hn

POS DRIVER TIME GAP LAP

1 Verstappen 1m27.097s - 522 Albon 1m28.689s +1.592s 523 Hamilton 1m29.238s +2.141s 454 Bottas 1m29.265s +2.168s 415 Ricciardo 1m29.482s +2.385s 496 Ocon 1m29.491s +2.394s 507 Gasly 1m29.603s +2.506s 528 Grosjean 1m29.782s +2.685s 499 Leclerc 1m29.813s +2.716s 49

10 Sainz 1m29.948s +2.851s 4711 Raikkonen 1m29.973s +2.876s 4912 Norris 1m30.058s +2.961s 4113 Stroll 1m30.475s +3.378s 4414 Latifi 1m30.501s +3.404s 4415 Vettel 1m30.537s +3.440s 4416 Russell 1m30.862s +3.765s 4117 Giovinazzi 1m30.977s +3.880s 4918 Kvyat 1m32.443s +5.346s 1119 Magnussen no time - -20 Hulkenberg no time - -

RACE RESULTS ROUND 4 52 LAPS – 190.27 MILES


WINNER’S AVERAGE SPEED 129.70mph FASTEST LAP AVERAGE SPEED 151.31mph.

GRID PENALTIES

KVYAT Five-place penalty for replacement gearboxRUSSELL Five-place penalty and three licence points for failure to respect double yellow flags in qualifying

RACE PENALTIES

ALBON Five-second penalty and two licence points for causing a collision with MagnussenGIOVINAZZI Five-second penalty and one licence point for failing to slow under the safety car

LAP 10 LAP 15 LAP 20 LAP 25 LAP 30 LAP 35 LAP 40 LAP 45 LAP 50LAP 5

KEY: H - Hard M - Medium S - So� I - Intermediate W - Wet n - New set u - Used set

C1

HARD

C2

MEDIUM

C3

SOFT

C4 C5 INTERMEDIATE WET

L E WIS HAMILTON SEBA STI A N VETTEL A LEXA ND ER A LBO N

LA NDO NORRIS DA NI EL R I CC I A R D O PI ER R E GA SLY

VALTTERI BOTTAS C HA R LES LEC LER C M AX VE RSTAPPE N

CARLOS SAINZ JR ESTEBA N O CO N DAN IIL KVYAT

MERCEDES FERRARI RED BULL

MCLAREN RENAULT ALPHATAURI



Didn’t do a whole lot wrong this weekend, but

no matter what he tried he couldn’t get ahead of Hamilton when it mattered, and then his strong chase actually contributed to his tyre disaster at the end. Didn’t deserve the points swing his puncture caused.

It’s hard to find too much wrong with Sainz’s race performance

given his strong start to seize fifth, and being so unlucky with his late-race puncture, but he probably should’ve passed Grosjean sooner. Loses marks for that and being beaten by Norris in qualifying, but there wasn’t that much in it.

After two difficult weekends he returned to

his best with a brilliant performance. Was only 0.102s away from taking a sensational third on the grid, and then held on to fourth when Friday’s long runs had suggested that Ferrari would struggle massively. Leclerc was masterful.

Score is down on Ricciardo’s because he was beaten by the

Australian in both qualifying and the race. He had been the faster Renault driver in Q1 and Q2 before losing out in Q3, but he played his part in the race to give his team its best result since last year’s Italian GP.

It’s difficult to accurately judge the Red Bull RB16’s

performance because the lead driver is delivering come what may, while his team-mate seems very much at sea. Delivered the maximum in qualifying and in the race. So in control that he could tease his engineer.

Kvyat’s score is largely down to qualifying defeat to Gasly. Made a

fine start from (new-gearbox-induced) back-row slot, stealing several places to rise to 14th on lap one. Initially blamed himself for Maggotts/Becketts crash, but later suspected something had happened to his car.

This could be considered harsh given his last-lap heroics and

magnificent pole lap, but for two reasons he just misses a perfect score. The first is his Q2 spin, which caused a red flag and could have been disastrous; the second is how close Bottas stayed for most of the race – it wasn’t a drubbing.

Is boosted by another sublime performance in qualifying,

where he stopped overdriving in Q1 and Q2 to beat all of the faster cars Ricciardo did, plus his McLaren team-mate and Stroll’s Racing Point. Was running strongly at the end against Sainz and earned his fortunate fifth.

Rather similar to the season opener, as he was outclassed

by Leclerc when he had no confidence in the car. He’s marked down for infringing track limits in Q3, which cost him ninth on the grid, and he ran wide there attacking Ocon on the opening lap. Gets a point back for defying Bottas on the last lap.

Beat three much faster cars in Vettel’s Ferrari,

Albon’s Red Bull and Hulkenberg’s Racing Point in qualifying, and was relentless in the race to take fourth after outdragging Norris first time into Copse. Got everything he deservedly could and nearly caught Leclerc late on too.

Gets a mark back for his late-race recovery to go from 14th to

eighth in the final 10 laps, but he’s already scored far down because of his earlier woes. Crashed heavily in FP2, was then knocked out in Q2, and got involved in the lap-one clash with Magnussen – although that’s probably 50-50.

One of the stars of the season so far. Only

missed out on a third consecutive Q3 appearance because Stroll set his Q2 1m26.501s first. Rose up the order in the race, avenging himself on the Racing Point and putting in a brilliant move up the inside of Vettel.

9

8

6

10

5

10

8

8

10

8

10

7

FOUR TOP-SCORERS AND HAMILTON ISN’T ONE OF THEM

The home hero just misses out after blotting his copybook in qualifying, while it’s maximum points for Leclerc, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Gasly

AL EX KAL INAUC KAS

TOP 10 AVERAGE RATIN GS

Gasly pulls o� a superbpass on Vettel’s Ferrari

NICO HULKENBERG

NIC HOLAS LATIFI

R O MA I N GR O SJEA NKI MI RA I KKO NENLANCE STROLL

GEORGE RUSSELL

KE VIN M AG N USSE NA NTO NI O GI OVI NA ZZ I

RACING POINT

WILLIAMS

HAASALFA ROMEO



A really poor weekend, when it could have been everything

the pace of the Racing Point deserved, given that a free podium place was provided by Mercedes. Was beaten by Leclerc and Norris in qualifying when he should have been bothering Verstappen, and then faded to ninth in the race.

Stood out for strong pace relative to the faster

Alfa Romeos. Beat Raikkonen on merit and was close enough to benefit from Giovinazzi’s penalty. Put in more brilliant pace to reach Q2, but didn’t slow sufficiently for yellows and was demoted five places on the grid – his fault.

Is saved a mark because he had enough pace to finish ahead of

Russell on the road, but driving too fast under the safety car left him with a 5s penalty. This was his second infraction of the weekend given the stewards formally warned him for driving “without due caution” after a spin in FP1.

Hard to judge given early exit. Was strong in qualifying but

was beaten by Russell’s slower Williams in Q1. Made a good start but must take significant shared blame for the clash with Albon. He’d clattered a kerb and should probably have left more room inside, although it was really a racing incident.

From only being let

into the paddock minutes before FP1 after awaiting a COVID test result, he was always playing catch-up. Qualifying 13th wasn’t too shabby given that the team initially tried to send him through on medium tyres. A clutch bolt shearing stopped him starting.

Loses a mark compared to Russell because of his Q1 spin,

which ended up being so costly for his team as it was the yellow flags this caused that his team-mate missed. Still, drove well in the race, putting a nice move on the outside of Raikkonen into Stowe for his “first, real, legit F1 overtake”.

Was beaten by his team-mate in qualifying and then was battling

the Williams drivers early in the race after falling off on lap one, eventually finishing behind two essentially slower cars. Was already last when he ran wide and picked up wing damage, which meant an extra stop.

Didn’t seem to mind what seemed a curious strategy

to leave him out under the second safety car, presumably gambling on another appearing, and he showed fine pace relative to much faster opposition. But his defence against Sainz was dubious at best and his qualifying was poor.

N/A

7

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9

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Lecl

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6.9

Vers

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Ham

ilton

9.0

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SUTTON

GIVE YOUR DRIVER

RATINGS

A U T O S P O R T. C O M / F 1 /D R I V E R - R AT I N G S

AUTO SPO RT’ S RATI NG AFTER R O UND 4

R EA D ERS’ RATI NG A F TER R O UND 4 *


* Excluding Hulkenberg


Colin Turkington leads the standings after Donington. But he knows he’s got his work cut out after a sensational day for Ash Sutton’s new baby

M A R C U S S I M M O N S

PHOTOGRAPHY JEP

Infiniti takes it to BMW inthe rear-wheel-drive war

R A C E C E N T R E B T C C D O N I N G T O N PA R K

B T C CR E P O R T

B T C CR E V I E W


B T C C D O N I N G T O N PA R K R A C E C E N T R E

olin Turkington leads the British Touring Car Championship after its belated kick-off at Donington Park last weekend, thanks mainly to a supremely classy and dominant win in the second of the trio of races. So far, so BTCC. After all, the

four-time champion, the ever-strong West Surrey Racing team and their rear-wheel-drive BMW 330i M Sport weapon are the acknowledged standard of BTCC excellence.

But Turkington, WSR and BMW are going to have their work cut out, because Donington brought an alternative rear-driven interloper into the mix. The original version of the Infiniti Q50 clogged the back of the grid in 2015, but since the middle of last year the project has been rehomed, rethought, revamped, re-engineered and newly built as a collaboration between former midfield minnow Laser Tools Racing and ex-Subaru official team BMR. With BMR has come Ash Sutton, one of the fastest and feistiest touring car drivers of his generation. And in his hands, the Infiniti was spellbindingly fast at Donington. Sutton’s win came ‘only’ in the reversed-grid finale, but was the result of him sledgehammering

his way up the field throughout the day from 26th and last in the opening race after he’d been spun around by… Turkington.

The threat from Sutton, LTR and their version of an ageing model from Nissan’s luxury marque caused furrowed brows at WSR. Turkington and the BMW may have taken pole in the most significant BTCC qualifying session of the year – the one where no one carries any success ballast. They may have crushed everyone in race two, finished a close second in the opener, and scored solid reversed-grid points with 10th in the finale. But with the BTCC schedule relentless – Brands Hatch is coming up this weekend – and Turkington and team boss Dick Bennetts arguably the series’ record-setters for ‘most studious ever combo’, the debrief lasted long into Sunday evening at Donington. No spontaneous celebrations of success for them. As Bennetts emerged from the WSR truck, he was still muttering as to whether Sutton and LTR had hit upon a “strange set-up” that happened to work on the day.

The pattern of the day took shape on lap four of the opening race. The LTR Infiniti was an unknown quantity going into Donington, but there were few doubts that the Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic

C

Sutton made a greatfist of his Infiniti debut



Type Rs and the Speedworks Motorsport-operated Toyota Corolla would be a threat to Turkington, and sure enough they were in the mix in the hands of Dan Cammish and Tom Ingram respectively.

Ingram’s pace through the fi rst speed trap – on the left-handed bend of the Craner Curves – had been eye-watering in qualifying: 135.2mph for a boxy, not-very-powerful, two-litre tin-top… Ingram had been fl at-out all the way through the Craners, “for the fi rst time ever in a touring car!”. But Sutton wasn’t too far away, on 134.4mph.

Cammish, who’d qualifi ed alongside Turkington on the front row, had lost out to Sutton at the start as rear-wheel drive predictably overcame his front-driven Civic, and now Sutton was probing to fi nd a way past the leading BMW. On the fourth lap, he did just that with an audacious move around the outside of the left-handed Schwantz Curve, which put the Infi niti on the inside line for McLeans. As Sutton moved across to allow himself at least some turn-in arc for McLeans, there was light contact with the BMW, which unsettled both cars and left a Civic-sized chink of light for Cammish to dart into in an instant.

Cammish had the inside line for the following Coppice, but as the cars concertinaed there was a bump from Ingram on the rear of the BMW of Turkington, who in turn nerfed Sutton into a spin. “I went for a switcheroo and then Colin slowed on the brakes, and I had nowhere to go but into the back of him,” said Ingram. “When you’re a foot o� someone when he brakes you have no reaction time whatsoever.” Sutton explained: “At the time I thought it was on Colin, but you can’t jump out of the car and start blaming people. Colin was an innocent passenger.”

And with Sutton’s Infi niti revolving its way to the back of the fi eld, that set up the story of the day.

From 26th, Sutton stormed his way up to 14th in that opening race, his fastest lap a clear 0.350 seconds quicker than anyone else’s. From 14th on the grid for race two, his best lap put the rest in the shade by 0.338s as he carved his way up to fi fth. Now he had ballast

Cammish, here fending o� Ingram and Neal, won the opener

B T C C D O N I N G T O N PA R K R A C E C E N T R E


on the Infi niti – 36kg – for the reversed-grid fi nale, which he would start from eighth. But Sutton was quickest here by 0.411s as he sliced his way up the order to grab the lead with seven laps remaining.

“It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster,” sighed Sutton as he basked in the glow of knowing his career has landed in the right place for 2020. “It was the best qualifying ever for the Infi niti, so that was a tick yesterday, and in race one we felt we could have had a win. It was just an unlucky racing incident. But to turn it from stone cold last to a win is perfect. Laser Tools Racing and BMR Engineering have worked many hours behind the scenes, stupid hours if I’m honest, and it’s the best race car I’ve ever driven.”

And you know that speed trap on the Craners? That totally belonged to Sutton on Sunday. He was approximately 1.5mph quicker than the next best in every race, topping out at 135mph. It’s not just the Ingram Corolla that can go down there without lifting… “I can go confi dently fl at there,” added Sutton. “That’s purely what it comes down to. The pace is coming from the corners, the handling, the way it responds to things.”

While the Sutton storm was brewing, Turkington was making hay in the way he always does. The pace of the BMW looked a little shaky early in race one, when it was vulnerable to Sutton’s attack and was defeated by Cammish’s Honda. “The early laps were di� cult,” said Turkington. “We didn’t have the pace I’d have liked, and it was leaning on the front axle a little bit, and it’s never easy leading under pressure. But we changed it in race two and the car was electric from Redgate onwards. We made a step forward with the chassis, and the circuit’s always evolving so you don’t always land in the sweet spot. We did then.” And, sure enough, Turkington landed himself one of the most comfortable wins you’ll ever see in modern-day BTCC.

By this point, Cammish and Honda were going backwards since ballast had been added following his fi rst-race triumph. For Cammish, that win removed a burden from his shoulders that had been sitting there since last October, and his late-race title-losing heartbreak at the 2019 Brands fi nale. Talking of his opportunist move to take the lead from the Turkington/Sutton battle, he said: “I stopped at the apex [hence the concertina that removed Sutton from contention] and went. I scarpered from there, ‘see you later’, then got down the Craners to the Old Hairpin and nearly dropped it o� the road! Thankfully I caught it before I got to the grass. Then I controlled it from there – it’s great to bounce back.”

But the Civic, as Cammish mentor and BTCC ITV pundit Tim Harvey alluded in last week’s Autosport preview, can be a ‘diva’ car. With 60kg on board, Cammish tumbled from pole to sixth in the

“I scarpered, ‘see you later’, then nearly dropped it o� the road! Luckily I caught it”

Empty banksoverlooking theBTCC action

Two podiums forButcher prove newFord is a threat



second race, just ahead of team-mate Matt Neal, whose best result from the day was a fi fth. “We’re pretty much where we thought we’d be with the weight in,” confessed Neal. “It’s just that the BMW’s got stronger.” To add insult to injury, that pesky Infi niti that had seemed banished from contention in the Cammish-won opener steamrollered past both Hondas in the late stages: “Ash came up behind me and Dan, and I got on the radio and said, ‘That kid’s playing Mario Kart coming through the fi eld!’”

Other front-driven cars did seem to hang on OK, albeit without quite as much ballast. Rory Butcher in the brand-new fourth-generation Ford Focus ST of Motorbase Performance claimed third in the opener, and second in the follow-up. A great start for his return to the team, on which he was also involved in that titanic fi rst-race battle. “I thought, ‘I’ll set this up,’” he said of his pass on Ingram. “I didn’t expect Ash to come across the front of me though! I’m just so pleased for the team. They put so much e� ort into these new cars, and I knew they had the potential to be frontrunners from the word go.” It could have been even better for Butcher, had he not speared across the grass at the Craner Curves on what he felt could have been a pole lap in qualifying.

Butcher’s team-mate Ollie Jackson led the reversed-grid race until Chris Smiley swooped past at the Old Hairpin, precipitating a Jackson plunge to fi fth. Smiley was powerless to stop Sutton, but claimed second from the BTC Racing Honda of Josh Cook in what was another heartwarming story: a podium on the competition debut for the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai. The car showed strong pace, and will be a contender.

But perhaps the most consistent front-driven car was that Speedworks Toyota of Ingram. “I said to Christian [Dick, Speedworks boss] it feels we should be higher in the championship than we are,” he said. “You’d think with fourth, fourth, sixth we’d be in the top three, but we’re fi fth… But that’s good because we’ll be carrying less weight at Brands. And we’ve been fairly strong with ballast. It makes it exciting that I don’t fear putting weight in the car.”

Ten points ahead of Ingram is series leader and would-be fi ve-time champion Turkington, who did seem to struggle with ballast in that fi nal race, trailing in 10th behind team-mate Tom Oliphant (who made a step forward at Donington, claimed his best qualifying position and put in a strong drive to third in race two). “I had 54kg in race two and when you’re in clear air you can manage things better,” said Turkington. “But 60kg in the pack is a lot more di� cult, with aero wash from the cars in front and the brakes having a harder time. I’m more than happy. We know we have to work hard to keep fi nding more pace, but it’s a dream start.”

But is there an Infi niti nightmare around the corner?

When the cars at Donington Park were burbling around on the far side of the circuit behind the safety car, that’s when the e� ect of having no spectators and limited team numbers really hit home. None of the excited background hubbub, no gossiping in the pit garages among families and guests of the competitors, and very limited trackside commentary – impossibly cheerful long-time BTCC Master of Ceremonies Alan Hyde couldn’t even see the track for his updates.

So when the safety car led the field down the Craner Curves, Dan Cammish’s Honda in front of Colin Turkington’s BMW, some West Surrey Racing folk were amused to hear that staple of drunken wedding discos, Come on Eileenby Dexy’s Midnight Runners, blaring out from the Team Dynamics garage next door. Well, at least Dynamics were showing some solidarity with their fellow West Midlanders.

You have to feel for Donington operating company MotorSport Vision (whose chief Jonathan Palmer was reigning British F3 champion when Dexy’s topped the charts, incidentally, although it is unrecorded whether he identified himself as a ‘young soul rebel’). It was only on Wednesday evening that the message went out that the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport had deemed the BTCC as ‘Elite Sport’, and therefore no spectators could be admitted. And on Friday that was extended to MSV’s other August BTCC rounds at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park.

Meanwhile, up at MSV’s Oulton Park, spectators were allowed in for the British GT Championship, which usually has more professional drivers than the BTCC…

“My understanding of how the government define Elite Sport is it’s the top category of any sport, and there’s got to be an element of professional drivers and teams, and we tick both those boxes,” said BTCC supremo Alan Gow, who added that it’s the circuits and Motorsport UK that are responsible for commercial matters, such as the presence of crowds. “We can all quote a million anomalies in the government guidelines,” he continued. “If you can have 10,000 people walking around Alton Towers, you can have 5000 here.”

As we’re upholding the interests of motorsport fans here, let’s continue bashing the government. Will Gow support any lobbying of the secretary of state on behalf of the circuits and MSUK? “We’ll support them as much as we can with any information and lobbying. It’s venues that are responsible for their spectators, but we’ll give them every support for reasons rather than the one-size-fits-all the government are doing.”MARCUS SIMMONS

“If you can have 10,000 people walking around Alton Towers, you can have 5000 here”

W H EN T H ER E’ S NO CROWD ,T H ER E’ S NOT MUCH NOIS E

“I got on the radio and said, ‘That kid’s playing Mario Kartcoming through the field!’”

Hamilton caused safety-car episodesin two races by going off

Smiley brought Hyundaito reversed-grid second

on its debut weekend


POS DRIVER TEAM / CAR TIME

1 Dan Cammish (GBR) Team Dynamics / Honda Civic Type R 25m13.779s

2 Colin Turkington (GBR) West Surrey Racing / BMW 330i M Sport +0.707s

3 Rory Butcher (GBR) Motorbase Performance / Ford Focus ST +1.144s

4 Tom Ingram (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport / Toyota Corolla GT +1.941s

5 Matt Neal (GBR) Team Dynamics / Honda Civic Type R +2.817s

6 Tom Oliphant (GBR) West Surrey Racing / BMW 330i M Sport +3.722s

7 Sam Osborne (GBR) MB Motorsport / Honda Civic Type R +4.855s

8 Chris Smiley (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport / Hyundai i30 N +5.492s

9 Stephen Jelley (GBR) Team Parker Racing / BMW 125i M Sport +7.322s

10 Tom Chilton (GBR) BTC Racing / Honda Civic Type R +7.623s

11 Bobby Thompson (GBR) Trade Price Cars Racing / Audi S3 +7.936s

12 Adam Morgan (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport / Mercedes A-Class +8.249s

13 Josh Cook (GBR) BTC Racing / Honda Civic Type R +9.498s

14 Ash Sutton (GBR) Laser Tools Racing / Infiniti Q50 +9.595s

15 Aiden Moffat (GBR) Laser Tools Racing / Infiniti Q50 +11.457s

16 Michael Crees (GBR) BTC Racing / Honda Civic Type R +13.075s

17 Ollie Jackson (GBR) Motorbase Performance / Ford Focus ST +13.398s

18 Jack Goff (GBR) Team Hard / Volkswagen CC +13.837s

19 Carl Boardley (GBR) Team Hard / BMW 125i M Sport +14.266s

20 Andy Neate (GBR) Motorbase Performance / Ford Focus ST +14.599s

21 Ollie Brown (GBR) Team Hard / Volkswagen CC +15.050s

22 Jack Butel (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport / Mercedes A-Class +19.350s

R James Gornall (GBR) Trade Price Cars Racing / Audi S3 17 laps-engine

R Senna Proctor (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport / Hyundai i30 N 10 laps-stone in oil cooler

R Nicolas Hamilton (GBR) Team Hard / Volkswagen CC 9 laps-spun off

R Jake Hill (GBR) MB Motorsport / Honda Civic Type R 6 laps-engine

RESULTS ROUND 1/9, DONINGTON PARK (GBR), 2 AUGUST RACE 1 (19 LAPS – 37.563 MILES)

Winner’s average speed 89.33mph. Fastest lap Sutton 1m09.483s, 102.53mph.

QUALIFYING 1 Turkington 1m08.998s; 2 Cammish 1m09.085s; 3 Sutton 1m09.095s; 4 Ingram 1m09.210s; 5 Oliphant 1m09.309s; 6 Butcher 1m09.329s; 7 Hill 1m09.387s; 8 Cook 1m09.411s; 9 Neal 1m09.563s; 10 Morgan 1m09.567s; 11 Proctor 1m09.588s; 12 Osborne 1m09.631s; 13 Jackson 1m09.723s; 14 Smiley 1m09.724s; 15 Jelley 1m09.818s; 16 Chilton 1m09.819s; 17 Thompson 1m10.118s; 18 Crees 1m10.200s; 19 Gornall 1m10.218s; 20 Moffat 1m10.432s; 21 Neate 1m10.692s; 22 Boardley 1m10.758s; 23 Brown 1m11.049s; 24 Butel 1m11.508s; 25 Goff 1m11.538s; 26 Hamilton no time.

RACE 2 (19 LAPS – 37.563 MILES)1 Turkington (54kg) 24m44.051s; 2 Butcher (48kg) +2.199s; 3 Oliphant (30kg) +2.610s; 4 Ingram (42kg) +2.935s; 5 Sutton +3.046s; 6 Cammish (60kg) +5.839s; 7 Neal (36kg) +6.271s; 8 Morgan +6.576s; 9 Jelley (12kg) +7.949s; 10 Cook +8.320s; 11 Jackson +11.171s; 12 Smiley (18kg) +11.650s; 13 Chilton (6kg) +12.003s; 14 Crees +14.610s; 15 Boardley +17.384s; 16 Goff +18.538s; 17 Thompson +19.000s; 18 Neate +20.635s; 19 Butel +21.528s; 20 Moffat +26.555s; R Hill 16 laps-engine; R Osborne (24kg) 15 laps-overboosting; R Hamilton 7 laps-spun off; R Brown 1 lap-clutch; NS Gornall; NS Proctor.Winner’s average speed 91.12mph. Fastest lap Sutton 1m09.642s, 102.30mph.

GRID RACE 2 Decided by result of Race 1.

RACE 3 (17 LAPS – 33.605 MILES)1 Sutton (36kg) 20m38.798s; 2 Smiley +2.280s; 3 Cook (6kg) +2.556s; 4 Morgan (18kg) +3.524s; 5 Jackson +4.890s; 6 Ingram (42kg) +5.161s; 7 Cammish (30kg) +6.247s; 8 Neal (24kg) +7.112s; 9 Oliphant (48kg) +7.629s; 10 Turkington (60kg) +7.993s; 11 Butcher (54kg) +12.317s; 12 Chilton +14.635s; 13 Crees +17.127s; 14 Boardley +17.239s; 15 Thompson +21.984s; 16 Gornall +22.478s; 17 Moffat +26.247s; 18 Jelley (12kg) +26.512s; 19 Neate +31.712s; 20 Butel +43.719s; 21 Hamilton +46.015s; 22 Brown -1 lap; R Proctor 16 laps-damage; NC Hill 14 laps; R Osborne 10 laps-suspension/damage; R Goff 4 laps-toe link.Winner’s average speed 97.66mph. Fastest lap Sutton 1m09.628s, 102.32mph.

GRID RACE 3 Decided by result of Race 2, with top 12 reversed.

CHAMPIONSHIP1 Turkington 46; 2 Cammish 40; 3 Sutton 37; 4 Butcher 37; 5 Ingram 36; 6 Oliphant 32; 7 Smiley 30; 8 Neal 28; 9 Morgan 25; 10 Cook 24.

N E X T R E P O R T

BRANDS HATCH13 AUGUST ISSUEIt’s straight on to the Brands GP Circuit this weekend. Will the themes of Donington be maintained, or will forecast hot weather mix it up?

POWERED BY

Success has had tobe savoured duringMazepin’s career

Schumacher leads into T1 but would fall

to ninth after pitting

SUTT

ON

SUTT

ON

W O R L D O F S P O R T

SUTTON


Hitech Grand Prix. While the British outfit claimed its first win in Hungary courtesy of Luca Ghiotto in nail-biting fashion, Mazepin’s Saturday Silverstone triumph quickly became more clear cut.

He qualified fifth but was already up to fourth before the lights even went out after Ilott stalled from the front row at the start of the formation lap.

Mazepin confidently emerged in third on the run to Turn 1 on the opening lap after easing around the outside of Renault junior Christian Lundgaard. He soon dispatched first-time polesitter Felipe Drugovich and then confidently swooped around the outside of Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher at Stowe on the third lap.

Mazepin and Schumacher stopped for fresh rubber at the end of lap eight, and left the pits separated by very little. But this is where Mazepin demonstrated a supreme

level of traffic management to carve his way through those yet to pit, while Schumacher went backwards. From the outside, Mazepin was seemingly cruising to his first win, but he later admitted how stressful it was inside the cockpit as he feared the threat from the drivers on the alternative strategy.

Mazepin gained his first podium in Hungary from 16th on the grid thanks in major part to a far superior strategy, but his victory at Silverstone was a testament to a supreme level of speed and racecraft, which has only occasionally shone through in his career thus far.

Renault junior Guanyu Zhou was the lead driver to switch to the medium tyres late in the race, and the Virtuosi Racing pilot was able to charge through to second ahead of Red Bull Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda. Lundgaard was a solid fourth – much needed after a pointless weekend in Hungary

FIA FORMULA 2SILVERSTONE (GBR)1-2 AUGUSTROUND 4

Nikita Mazepin has endured something of a rollercoaster career so far. That might well be a term often over-attributed to drivers, but considering Mazepin earned a race ban for assaulting Callum Ilott in the paddock during the first of two middling European Formula 3 seasons, finished a surprise runner-up to Anthoine Hubert in the final year of GP3, and struggled to 18th in his rookie F2 season with the team that took Nyck de Vries to the title, ‘rollercoaster’ couldn’t be more appropriate.

The latest twist had erstwhile Force India Formula 1 tester Mazepin claim his maiden F2 win with a dominant drive in the feature race at Silverstone for series newcomer

Mazepin hits the top hat as Ticktum doffs his cap

Ticktum celebratessprint-race spoils – his maiden F2 win

COAT

ES


POWERED BY

– with Ilott recovering superbly to go from the pitlane to fifth ahead of Louis Deletraz. Drugovich slipped back to seventh but deserves credit for earning MP Motorsport’s first pole position in the championship.

Dan Ticktum secured his second partially reversed-grid pole with an eighth-place finish. Last month the two-time Macau Grand Prix winner had started the Styrian GP-supporting sprint race from pole, but was thoroughly beaten by Lundgaard. On Sunday at Silverstone, Ticktum was able to turn the tables on the Danish ace with a calm, measured drive that was tested by a late safety car period. This was to clear Ilott’s car, which had spun out of second at Club. The British Ferrari junior was racing to the front of the field in a bid to nullify the effects of the five-second time penalty picked up from tipping Tsunoda into a spin at Village on the opening lap.

These were costly errors in the context of the championship, as points leader Robert Shwartzman struggled for pace and failed to register a single point. With Ilott’s car blocking the track, the pack drove through the pitlane and Lundgaard used this chance to bolt on a new set of tyres. He blitzed from fifth to second in the final three laps, but fell 0.4s short of denying dropped Red Bull junior Ticktum a maiden F2 win.

“It sort of proves his doubt in me wrong,” said a delighted Ticktum. No prizes for guessing which F1 driver academy boss he was referring to… JOSH SUTTILL

Mazepin hits the top hat as Ticktum doffs his cap

RESULTS ROUND 4, SILVERSTONE, 1-2 AUGUST RACE 1 (29 LAPS – 106.071 MILES)POS DRIVER TEAM TIME

1 Nikita Mazepin (RUS) Hitech GP 51m17.953s

2 Guanyu Zhou (CHN) Virtuosi Racing +5.323s

3 Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) Carlin +7.406s

4 Christian Lundgaard (DNK) ART Grand Prix +8.094s

5 Callum Ilott (GBR) Virtuosi Racing +10.764s

6 Louis Deletraz (CHE) Charouz Racing System +16.121s

7 Felipe Drugovich (BRA) MP Motorsport +18.136s

8 Dan Ticktum (GBR) DAMS +20.580s

9 Mick Schumacher (DEU) Prema Racing +24.742s

10 Nobuharu Matsushita (JPN) MP Motorsport +25.319s

11 Pedro Piquet (BRA) Charouz Racing System +26.230s

12 Jehan Daruvala (IND) Carlin +26.527s

13 Jack Aitken (GBR) Campos Racing +26.744s

14 Robert Shwartzman (RUS) Prema Racing +30.767s

15 Sean Gelael (IDN) DAMS +31.585s

16 Marcus Armstrong (NZL) ART Grand Prix +37.827s

17 Luca Ghiotto (ITA) Hitech GP +45.263s

18 Artem Markelov (RUS) HWA Racelab +53.528s

19 Giuliano Alesi (FRA) HWA Racelab +1m00.579s

20 Marino Sato (JPN) Trident +1m12.128s

21 Guilherme Samaia (BRA) Campos Racing +1m27.775s

R Roy Nissany (ISR) Trident 4 laps-suspension

Winner’s average speed 124.061mph. Fastest lap Zhou 1m42.676s, 128.343mph.

QUALIFYING 1 Drugovich 1m39.527s; 2 Ilott 1m39.666s; 3 Schumacher 1m39.761s; 4 Lundgaard 1m39.846s; 5 Mazepin 1m39.963s; 6 Aitken 1m40.082s; 7 Daruvala 1m40.140s; 8 Zhou 1m40.180s; 9 Tsunoda 1m40.216s; 10 Deletraz 1m40.324s; 11 Matsushita 1m40.347s; 12 Ticktum 1m40.396s; 13 Ghiotto 1m40.421s; 14 Piquet 1m40.443s; 15 Armstrong 1m40.448s; 16 Gelael 1m40.476s; 17 Sato 1m40.958s; 18 Shwartzman 1m41.047s; 19 Nissany 1m41.052s; 20 Alesi 1m41.274s; 21 Markelov 1m41.342s; 22 Samaia 1m42.204s.

RACE 2 (21 LAPS – 76.787 MILES)GRID FOR RACE 2 Decided by result of Race 1, with top eight finishers reversed.

1 Ticktum 39m50.019s; 2 Lundgaard +0.376s; 3 Deletraz +2.697s; 4 Daruvala +6.257s; 5 Mazepin +6.483s; 6 Drugovich +8.459s; 7 Matsushita +8.956s; 8 Aitken +9.782s; 9 Zhou +10.848s; 10 Armstrong +10.995s; 11 Markelov +17.417s; 12 Sato +18.643s; 13 Shwartzman +22.320s; 14 Schumacher +26.230s; 15 Samaia +28.531s; 16 Nissany +31.974s; 17 Piquet +41.395s; 18 Alesi -1 lap; 19 Ghiotto -2 laps; R Gelael 16 laps-loose wheel; R Ilott 14 laps-spin; R Tsunoda 0 laps-accident.Winner’s average speed 115.661mph. Fastest lap Lundgaard 1m41.337s, 130.039mph.

CHAMPIONSHIP 1 Shwartzman 81; 2 Ilott 73; 3 Lundgaard 69; 4 Mazepin 58; 5 Ticktum 57; 6 Zhou 51; 7 Deletraz 46; 8 Drugovich 45; 9 Schumacher 41; 10 Tsunoda 39.

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Lawson bagged his first feature-race FIA F3 win

Beckmann (l) wouldinherit win from Smolyar

W O R L D O F S P O R T R A C E C E N T R E


FIA FORMULA 3SILVERSTONE (GBR)Race 1 Liam Lawson

Hitech Grand PrixRace 2 David Beckmann

Trident

WEEKEND WINNERS

For full results visit motorsportstats.com

POWERED BY

Sargeant stood in the way of a first non-reversed-grid FIA F3 win. The 18-year-old New Zealander only waited until the end of the opening lap to dance his way around the outside of Sargeant at Stowe. Sargeant was unable to respond, and it was his points-leading team-mate Oscar Piastri who soon emerged as Lawson’s biggest threat.

Piastri had fended off a spirited but ultimately vain effort from Frederik Vesti through the high-speed Maggotts and Becketts corners. On lap six, reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion Piastri replicated Lawson’s move on Sargeant at Stowe and set about chasing Lawson. Five laps later Piastri made his move, once again around the outside of Stowe, but Lawson was far bolder than Sargeant had been and pushed the Renault junior wide on the exit of the corner and the front of Piastri’s car was briefly airborne. Piastri kept his foot planted and was narrowly denied the lead.

With eight of the 20 laps remaining, Piastri was about to mount another assault when another Red Bull junior, Jack Doohan, ran into the sidepod of MP Motorsport’s Bent Viscaal and brought out the safety car and some much-needed respite for Lawson.

When racing resumed, Trident’s Olli Caldwell was immediately spun around by Max Fewtrell and the safety car returned to the track until the chequered flag. This handed Lawson a slightly fortuitous win, but one that he had earned with a brilliant

Lawson ends run of bad luck with Stowe-ic defence

move on Sargeant and an even better defence of Piastri’s charge.

On Sunday, ART Grand Prix’s Alexander Smolyar took what appeared to be a perfectly managed lights-to-flag maiden win before he was handed a post-race penalty for excessive weaving. Smolyar had tried to break the tow of the chasing David Beckmann, but the stewards deemed him to have made “abnormal changes of direction” that breached the regulations. This handed Beckmann his second successive reversed-grid race win, despite having not taken the chequered flag first in either. JOSH SUTTILL

FIA FORMULA 3SILVERSTONE (GBR)1-2 AUGUSTROUND 4

After a torrid run of luck, Red Bull junior Liam Lawson deserved the break that came his way during the first FIA Formula 3 race at Silverstone.

He had collided with series veteran Jake Hughes while fighting for the lead in the Styrian Grand Prix-supporting sprint race, then his engine blew in dramatic fashion at a wet Hungaroring. But the Hitech GP driver hit back in style last weekend with second in qualifying, to better his season’s previous best by eight places.

Lawson is used to charging through the field after a disappointing qualifying session, but this time only Prema’s Logan

Piastri (1) was denied by the bold

defensive driving of victor Lawson

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DTM

AUDI

Muller gives Rast asoziale distanzierungchampagne shower

Muller was on top on DTM’sfirst visit to Spa since 2005,

when Mika Hakkinen won



DTMSPA (BEL)Race 1 Nico Muller

Abt Sportsline (Audi RS5 DTM)

Race 2 Rene Rast Team Rosberg (Audi RS5 DTM)

WEEKEND WINNERS


POWERED BY

in the second race, breezing past the Swiss at Les Combes in the final 10 minutes to claim his 18th career win. The result marked a massive turnaround in tyre management for the two-time champion, who was forced to switch to a two-stop strategy on Saturday after suffering from heavy degradation in his second stint, and had finished fifth.

The Spa weekend provided a return of form for veteran Jamie Green, who is still searching for a maiden title in his 16th consecutive DTM season. Green was exquisite with tyre management, particularly in the first race, when most drivers struggled

due to the absence of any long-run data in the dry, allowing him to leap from 11th to a brilliant second at the flag.

Robert Kubica endured a difficult start to his DTM career at Spa as he spent the two races at the back of the pack, scoring a pair of 14th-place finishes. Kubica started the weekend on a high note, shining in wet conditions to set the fourth fastest time in practice on Saturday. But as the track dried out, it became clear that the ART-run customer BMW was no match to the six factory M4s – or even WRT’s private Audis.RACHIT THUKRAL

DTMSPA (BEL)1-2 AUGUSTROUND 1/9

After Audi walked away with the 2019 titles, many DTM insiders had expected BMW to close the gap to the Ingolstadt manufacturer in the second year of the Class 1 era. That assumption seemed to have merit, as Audi and BMW were comparable in the pre-season test at the Nurburgring in June, while BMW was quicker in the manufacturer test at Spa last month.

Then came the return to Belgium for the competition to begin in earnest, and… Audi swept the top five in both races, with a win apiece for Nico Muller and Rene Rast, the 2019 runner-up and champion respectively.

In qualifying for Saturday’s race, Audi locked out the first two rows on the grid, while the top BMW of Sheldon van der Linde was fifth – more than half a second off the pace of polesitter Robin Frijns. Van der Linde, in fact, would be the only BMW driver to finish within half a minute of the leading Audi in any of the two races.

While BMW’s sluggish pace denied the DTM a two-horse manufacturer battle, Audi duo Rast and Muller did reasonably enough to deliver an exciting contest out front. Abt Sportsline star Muller drew the first blood on Saturday, claiming a dominant 19-second victory after a combative drive from second on the grid. That included a bold pass on Team Rosberg hero Rast on the outside of Eau Rouge on the opening lap – a move the two-time champion felt could have ended in a crash had he not backed out.

Following Saturday’s crushing defeat, Rast managed to get revenge on Muller

Muller ahead as Audi utterly dominates Spa

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Garcia was switchedto wets quickly whenthe rain arrived

Castroneves/Taylorscored first Acurawin of the season



IMSA SPORTSCARROAD AMERICA (USA)DPi Helio Castroneves/Ricky Taylor

Team Penske (Acura ARX-05)LMP2 Henrik Hedman/Ben Hanley

DragonSpeed (ORECA-Gibson 07)GTLM Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor

Corvette Racing (Chevrolet Corvette C8.R)

GTD Frankie Montecalvo/Townsend Bell AIM Vasser Sullivan (Lexus RC F GT3)

WEEKEND WINNERS


POWERED BY

Castroneves. On the final scheduled pitstop, Nunez/Jarvis went a lap longer than the Acura and the Tincknell/Jonathan Bomarito Mazda. But whereas the latter pair returned to the pitlane, Jarvis remained out on slicks when the pits were closed for the caution caused by Earl Bamber’s shunted GTLM Porsche. The torrential conditions prompted a red flag stoppage, but the #77 Mazda was still hobbled on slicks for the restart and so Jarvis peeled into the pits.

Wayne Taylor Racing stopped Renger van der Zande late enough for his final scheduled stop that – unlike rivals that had to return to the pits for wets – the Cadillac DPi-V.R he shares with Ryan Briscoe was able to go straight onto the grooved tyres in its fourth stop and so assumed the lead.

However, following the restart, Castroneves was all over the #10 WTR machine. They made slight contact and then van der Zande ran wide at the final turn to allow Castroneves to slip through and away.

In the GT Le Mans class, Corvette Racing scored another 1-2, this one the result of team and driver smarts after finding the softer Michelins used in qualifying degraded too quickly. Jordan Taylor, who started second, pitted early and the team decided on a three-stop strategy. It meant when the rain arrived, co-driver Antonio Garcia was in and out of the pitlane and on wets long before the full-course caution caused by Bamber’s leading 911 RSR skating off at

Turn 1 while still running slicks. In the dry, Bamber’s co-driver and polesitter Laurens Vanthoor had led by some 15 seconds but this dropped them two laps down.

John Edwards’ BMW M8 looked set to battle for the lead over the final two laps with Nick Tandy’s Porsche and Garcia, but Edwards and Tandy aquaplaned off at The Kink, and instead Garcia and team-mate Tommy Milner ducked through.

Despite losing 9bhp to Balance of Performance adjustments, the Lexus RC Fs dominated GT Daytona until the final restart, when Mario Farnbacher sent his Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX around the outside of leader Townsend Bell at Canada Corner… only to then drop it at Turn 11. Bell/Frankie Montecalvo thus claimed Lexus’s third straight win. DAVID MALSHER-LOPEZ

IMSA SPORTSCARROAD AMERICA (USA)2 AUGUSTROUND 4/11

Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor scored Acura Team Penske’s first win of the year from pole position – days after the news that the two parties will split at the end of the season – but it was far from straightforward.

Dane Cameron in the sister ARX-05 applied the pressure in the early stages until he misguidedly tried to block Harry Tincknell’s Mazda on the short uphill squirt from Turn 5 to 6, clipped the front of the RT24-P and sustained a puncture. Also receiving a drivethrough penalty for poor driving standards, he and Juan Pablo Montoya fell out of contention.

Tincknell and his Mazda team-mates Tristan Nunez/Oliver Jarvis then harried

BURKE

Castroneves and Taylor ignite the Acura-Penske swansong

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After an Abbey defence,ten Voorde streaked clear

That’s dinner sorted for the

Keselowski family

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Dominant ten Voorde earns a runaway Supercup triumph

Mustang driver would pass with top marks.Stages one and two brought the race to

185 laps of 301, and in this period Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota man Hamlin (officially) exchanged the lead 12 times – each, on occasion, nudging the other wide.

After a flurry of caution periods and the stage-three start, Keselowski nipped by Hamlin on lap 221 and gradually pulled away, although Hamlin kept him honest to the tune of 1.6s at the flag. Career win number

33 for Keselowski was secure – plus one unfortunate live lobster as his trophy.

Martin Truex Jr made it a JGR 2-3, as Joey Logano took fourth ahead of series leader Kevin Harvick, who was not in contention this time due to fuel strategy. On a poor afternoon for Chevrolet, the lead finisher was Chase Elliott in ninth, while Kyle Busch’s miserable title defence continued as he whacked the barrier to end his race early on. JAKE NICHOL

NASCAR CUPNEW HAMPSHIRE SPEEDWAY (USA)2 AUGUSTROUND 20/36

While Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin have been lauded on an almost-weekly basis for their outstanding performances since NASCAR Cup returned from its COVID-19 hiatus, Brad Keselowski had flown under the radar.

Of the 16 races since the restart, 11 have fallen to the trio. Harvick and Hamlin have four wins apiece but, despite claiming his third win of the campaign in New Hampshire on Sunday, Keselowski is rarely spoken about in the same breath. His season has more been built on a solid and consistent accumulation of points.

For the first two stages at the Loudon oval, Hamlin put Keselowski and his title credentials under the firmest of examinations, one the Team Penske Ford

Keselowski shares the limelight

PORSCHE SUPERCUPSILVERSTONE (GBR)2 AUGUSTROUND 4/8

You’ll need to wind as far back as May 2013 to find a Porsche Supercup result more dominant than Larry ten Voorde’s 11.7-second triumph at Silverstone last weekend.

Back then, as Manchester United were preparing for life without Sir Alex Ferguson, it was Sean Edwards who was busy claiming the spoils in Monaco by 20.3s. He would end the

year as runner-up to Nicki Thiim. Seven years later, ten Voorde’s

Towcester imperiousness means he leapfrogs Ayhancan Guven to go second in the points behind Dylan Pereira at the halfway point of the season.

The 23-year-old Dutchman edged Team GP Elite team-mate Max van Splunteren to pole by 0.3s, but had to pull to the inside line on the run to Abbey to hold position. From then on, he had everything his own way.

“I’ve never had such a well set-up car, it was so easy today,” reckoned ten Voorde, who sprinted off into the distance as van Splunteren delayed a chasing pack led by Lechner Racing’s Jaxon Evans – winner of the opening race of the season at the Red Bull Ring – in a race where rivals would struggle to pass.

That meant seventh-starting Pereira, who had troubles finding the right suspension settings, could only climb one place to sixth during the 13 laps.

Thanks to two wins, split between Austria and Hungary, Pereira retains a seven-point lead heading into the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix support race.

NASCAR CUPNEW HAMPSHIRE SPEEDWAY (USA)Brad Keselowski (above)Team Penske (Ford Mustang)

PORSCHE SUPERCUPSILVERSTONE (GBR)Larry ten VoordeTeam GP Elite

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEANMISANO (ITA)Race 1 Oliver Rasmussen

Prema PowerteamRace 2 Arthur Leclerc

Prema PowerteamRace 3 Gianluca Petecof

Prema Powerteam

WEEKEND WINNERS


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Pattern Shop CNC Machinist - Late Shift

We have a new opportunity to be part of the Pattern Shop team in the role of Pattern Shop Night Shift CNC Machinist.

The successful candidate must be enthusiastic, hardworking, knowledgeable of Pattern Shop practices and standards, flexible, proactive and have a ‘can do’ attitude.

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• Operating 5 Axis CNC machines using both Heidenhain and Fanuc controls to produce tooling block patterns, moulds and Rohacell components

• Assisting within other areas of the department as required

• Ability to deal with technical challenges as they arise and know when to ask if unsure

• Meeting challenging and demanding deadlines

• Maintaining consistent high standards

• Being proactively aware of Health and Safety requirements


Production Controller

Williams is one of the world’s most established Formula 1 teams. It exists purely to race in the top echelon of motor racing, where it has been winning Grands Prix for more than three decades. The Williams name has been synonymous with top-level Motorsport since the 1960s. We are seeking a Production Control Scheduler to schedule, coordinate and control the manufacture of Composites Production components from release to manufacturing through until completion, to the agreed timescales. This would include engaging, developing and improving the finite capacity scheduling system, shop floor data collection software and any supporting systems used within manufacturing. Another part of the role would be advising, forecasting and reporting to others within the business. This role will ensure that all scheduling for manufacture is kept up to date and that all relevant departments are kept informed of any changes as well as ensuring that all scheduling for manufacture is as effective/efficient as possible on a day to day basis whilst taking an active part in strategizing for future improvements. The role will also have elements of working closely with I.T. support functions to drive both software and hardware forward to continually improve the functionality and support needed for the business. The Williams Group is based in Grove, Oxfordshire. Aside from the benefits which can be found at the bottom of this job description, we can also offer free onsite parking and large open green spaces to unwind during breaks. We are a short 5 minutes from Wantage, our closest town centre. We have an on-site gym which is free to use for all staff and contractors and we also have a subsidised restaurant on site.


Design Engineer

Race Winning Brands (RWB) is an accumulation of independent businesses, each with market leading brand recognition that sells primarily pistons, and other engine related components into the Automotive and Powersports markets (high-performance racing, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, etc.). We have an immediate need for a Design Engineer to work in our engineering department in our Mentor, Ohio world headquarters location.

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• Excellent written & oral communication skills in English.

• Demonstrated knowledge of engineering principles & concepts through previous work & educational experience.

• High level of self-initiative with the ability to conceptualize, implement, manage, & execute multiple projects & tasks with minimum supervision.

• Must be able to work within cross-functional teams to identify and address quality issues.

• Must have a strong passion for personal growth and a commitment to continuous improvement.

• Understanding of lean principles, FMEA, and GD&T is a plus.

• Motorsports enthusiast is a plus.

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CITYCAR CUP

The British Racing & Sports Car Club’s CityCar Cup has secured a tie-up with a British Touring Car Championship team to create a fully funded prize drive in the new series for 2021.

The entry-level series, which held its inaugural race at Cadwell Park last weekend, is open to one- litre 2005-13 models of the Citroen C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo, and has been created to be a relatively undaunting first step into racing compared to other one-make series.

Drivers can either buy an inexpensive donor car and purchase an upgrade kit, or can buy a ready-to-go car for £6995 that features a range of modifications for the series, including a remapped ECU, adjustable suspension and rollover protection structure.

BTCC team Trade Price Cars Racing is among the organisations to approach organisers about getting involved with the series, and has created a competition that will allow a member of the public to be coached, provided with all equipment and entered into the CityCar Cup in 2021.

“A person will be pulled out of the fanbase – the

condition is that they can never have previously held a competition licence,” explained BRSCC race operations and general manager Paul McErlean. “They will go off and do some driver coaching and media and sponsor training. Then they’ll do some testing and have a fully financed season in the CityCar Cup for 2021.”

The series is running as a class within the BRSCC’s Clubsport Trophy this year before getting a standalone grid next season. Ten cars were entered for the first race at Cadwell and the cars were praised by drivers.

“They’re great,” said Nic Grindrod, who won the race from pole. “They’ve got more grip than they’ve got power – they go round the corners on rails.”

Richard Brunning, who finished second, agreed: “It’s amazing fun. It sticks [in the corners] and it’s surprising how fast you can go around them.”

Brunning added that the series’ relatively low cost was a big part of its appeal. “The gist of it was: how can you actually have a motorsport experience with less than the price of a simulator experience?” he said. “This fits the bill perfectly. It’s entry level, but if you look at the cars lined up, nothing about it looks entry level – it looks proper.”STEVE WHITFIELD

BTCC SQUAD OFFERS PRIZE AS CITYCAR CUP BEGINS

CityCar Cup has been created to be the ideal starting place for racing

rookies

O’Brien didn’t expect to be leading pointsa� er opener

Smelt put the Suprasecond on GT4 grid

N AT I O N A L N E W S C L U B A U T O S P O R T


BRITISH GT

British GT championship leader Michael O’Brien says the Jenson Team Rocket RJN squad “surprised itself” by winning on its fi rst race appearance with the McLaren 720S GT3 at Oulton Park last weekend.

GT4 graduate O’Brien and car-racing rookie James Baldwin were a late addition to the championship after the team abandoned plans to contest the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup.

Esports ace Baldwin qualifi ed fourth and held position in the opening stint, and the RJN crew gained a place during the stops. O’Brien moved

up to second and inherited the lead when Jack Mitchell was penalised for a pit infringement.

“We want to fi ght for the championship, but we didn’t expect in that fi rst weekend to be fi ghting for the win against a strong GT3 fi eld,” O’Brien told Autosport. “I think we surprised ourselves and a lot of other people as well.”

O’Brien praised the Bob Neville-run team’s engineers for making changes after every session to improve the car’s set-up. “Every bit of feedback that we give them, they’re able to deliver a change that actually makes the di� erence,” he said. JAMES NEWBOLD

BRITISH GT

The Toyota GR Supra GT4 made an impressive British GT debut at Oulton Park last weekend, despite missing out on a podium fi nish in both races.

The Speedworks Motorsport-run machine was qualifi ed second in the nine-car GT4 fi eld for race one by Sam Smelt, while team-mate James Kell was sixth on the grid for race two.

Smelt held second during his stint in the fi rst race, and Kell was still second after the stops when the Toyota was handed a stop/go penalty for its pit visit being 0.3 seconds faster than the mandatory time, demoting the car to fourth in GT4.

Kell was running fi fth in race two when he clashed with Matt Gri� n’s AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 at Knickerbrook, subsequently retiring with damage.

Nevertheless, team boss Christian Dick told Autosport that he was “over the moon” with the car’s performance.

New Toyota GT4 impresses on British GT debut

Button team ‘surprised’ by pace

“The car is working very well from the get-go and the rest of the season should be really exciting,” he said. “It was always going to be a big ask to put a new team together to try to get some results with a new GT car and two drivers that have not worked together before, so while there were some frustrations, for a fi rst weekend overall I’m immensely happy.

“Without a doubt there is more to come; we’ve only scratched the surface with the car. We’ve done a handful of test days before the season started and those are obviously shared between two drivers that are both getting used to the team as well, so we will only get stronger.”JAMES NEWBOLD & KEVIN TURNER

ADAM’S NEW BRITISH GT ROLEFour-time British GT champion Jonny Adam is without a ride this season, but was back in the paddock at Oulton Park last weekend supporting TF Sport’s GT4 drivers, as regular driver coach Charlie Eastwood was becoming a father to a baby girl, Layla. “He’s Mr British GT so it was great having him, there’s nobody more experienced and he was a real helping hand to them all over the weekend,” said TF boss Tom Ferrier.

SUNOCO PRIZES ON HOLDThe Sunoco Whelen Challenge and 240 Challenge prize schemes that o� er drives at the Daytona 24 Hours event have been paused this season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Both are set to return next season, and the 240 Challenge will feature new rules. Organiser Anders Hildebrand said: “This is not a decision we have taken lightly but, with championships having to compromise to ensure they fit a season of racing in, we decided it was the right thing to postpone the Sunoco Challenges for this year.”

LOTUS ACADEMY TO REOPENThe Lotus Driver Academy plans to reopen its driver training programme from tomorrow (7 August). A number of protocols have been put in place at the Hethel facility following the COVID-19 outbreak. All drivers will be given new gloves and a balaclava to keep and, now that all customers and instructors must wear a helmet at all times when in the car, an intercom system has been adopted.

MIDDLETON TO US LAMBOSFormer British GT4 champion Stuart Middleton has struck a late deal to race in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, which begins this weekend. The 2017 GT4 champion, who was expecting to spend 2020 on the sidelines, was a race winner in the European Lamborghini series last year and will now partner Stevan McAleer in a Wayne Taylor Racing-run car (below) in the US version.

IN THE HEADLINESJEP

JEP

JEP

Kremers was due tocompete with Carlin

Olsen had tested withthe squad pre-season

JEP

C L U B A U T O S P O R T N AT I O N A L N E W S


F3 this year but Dutton says the Dane has opted to concentrate on his studies during the condensed 2020 season, leaving Fortec without any drivers entered for the first time since 1991.

But Dutton says his team remains fully committed to the series and believes its absence will only be temporary.

“It was a shame – he was on

the pace in testing but didn’t feel he could give it his best,” he added. “We had another driver we were talking to and he got locked down in Melbourne.

“We intend to be back in British F3 before very long. We’ve got three cars there ready to go with the new engines.”

Fortec is also currently without any drivers for

No Fortec cars in British F3 for first time since 1991

accepted that. And then much to my disgust they just decided to relaunch the whole thing and say they’re offering a prize with another F4 team in another F4 championship.

“I’ve tried to contact Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Lemarie to discuss it with them, and I can’t get any response from them. It’s like someone winning a lottery, the lottery decide they’re going to cancel the prize, and then launch another lottery.”

Feed has stated that it “is going to launch its own F4 team, in collaboration with an experienced structure” to participate in a European F4 championship.

Carlin added: “I’m happy to run three cars now, but if someone wants to come and race I’d be happy to run them. It would be a good opportunity for someone who wants to prepare for next year.”MARCUS SIMMONS

Carlin slams Villeneuve’s FeedRacing programme after split

BRDC BR IT IS H F3

Fortec Motorsport was absent from a British F3 grid for the first time in almost 30 years at Oulton Park last weekend.

Richard Dutton’s squad has contested the series throughout its MotorSport Vision-run guise and was a mainstay in its International Series predecessor.

Last season it ran Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award winner Johnathan Hoggard to second in the standings on his way to securing the most wins in the campaign.

Fortec had been due to run former European Le Mans Series racer Christian Olsen in British

Euroformula Open, as American Kris Wright is unable to contest the opening races, and the team is therefore concentrating on its British F4 campaign this season. It is running race winner Luke Browning alongside second-year driver Roberto Faria and rookie Rafael Villagomez and all three finished on the podium during the opening round at Donington Park last weekend.

“The plan is to really work hard with F4 and hopefully the drivers can stay with us in F3 next year,” said Dutton, who added the squad is in talks about running a fourth F4 car later in the season.STEPHEN LICKORISH

BRITIS H FO RMULA 4

The boss of top British Formula 4 team Carlin has slated the Feed Racing programme of Jacques Villeneuve following their split on the eve of the 2020 season.

A Carlin statement issued in the build-up to last weekend’s Donington Park opener said that “Feed Racing have decided not to fulfil their contractual obligations with the team”, meaning that Feed scholarship winner Marijn Kremers did not take up his seat alongside Zak O’Sullivan, Christian Mansell and Matias Zagazeta.

While Feed says that Kremers’s alternative plans will be announced shortly, the scheme – run by 1997 world champion Villeneuve and former BAR F1 test driver Patrick Lemarie – has already started its 2020 scholarship.

Trevor Carlin said: “They told me some time ago they couldn’t proceed because of coronavirus, and being the nice chap I am I

KNIG

HTS

Kakad drove his Audi RS3LMS at Castle Combe

JON

ES

N AT I O N A L N E W S C L U B A U T O S P O R T


HUGHES DRIVES EX-PLATO CARFormer British Touring Car racer Jason Hughes gave his ex-Jason Plato Vauxhall Vectra a post-rebuild run at Brands Hatch, where he took two class wins in the Classic Thunder races. Hughes, who drove in the BTCC from 2003-08, has more recently raced his MG ZS. He was also Ford Fiesta champion in 1999. “We rebuilt the car over the winter and wanted to give it a run before the Oulton Park Gold Cup Super Touring race,” he said.

EXTRA CADWELL PARK RACEThe Historic Formula Ford Championship will feature an extra race at its Cadwell Park meeting next month. A 20-minute race will be held at the 19-20 September meeting to account for the race that was lost at Brands Hatch last month due to a condensed schedule. All three Cadwell rounds will count towards the championship, but only the 29 drivers who qualified at Brands will be admitted into the extra race.

BEVAN BECOMES HSCC CHAIR Historic Formula 2 coodinator Roger Bevan has been elected as chairman of the Historic Sports Car Club. Bevan, who recently retired from racing his ex-Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus 69 F2 car, has competed with the club for more than two decades. He takes over from Frank Lyons, who stepped down from the role after having his racing licence suspended for one year by the National Court after he made “abusive, derogatory and homophobic” comments online.

MORTON MOVES INTO RACINGEx-SAS soldier and star of TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins Jay Morton will make his racing debut next season at the wheel of a Praga R1 run by VR Motorsport. The news was revealed at Praga racer Martyn Compton’s Alive Day last Saturday – which marks 14 years since he suffered third degree burns to 75% of his body in an IED explosion in Afghanistan – where a special camouflage livery was unveiled on the car (below).

IN THE HEADLINES

BRITCAR

Rallying stalwart Sacha Kakad is set tojoin the Britcar field at Spa later this month aboard his newly acquired TCR-spec Audi RS3 LMS.

Kakad, a former competitor in Rally GB aboard both Group N and R5 Ford Fiestas, competed in his new machine – which is an ex-CadSpeed/Team Dynamics car last raced by British Touring Car driver Matt Neal’s sons – at Castle Combe last weekend.

In the circuit’s GT encounters he took a brace of third-place finishes, following a shakedown at the Wiltshire venue and a day at Snetterton, having only contested four races prior to the weekend.

Kakad to compete in Spa Britcar round after Combe Audi outing

He will look to compete with the machine at Britcar’s delayed trip to Belgium on 13-15 August.

“TCR cars are great value, I know the Dynamics guys and that they’d looked after it,” said preparer Julian Smith of Simpson Motorsport.

“It came with a huge spares package, including engines, gearboxes and suspension parts, which was attractive.

“We were taking Steve Tandy’s new 4.4-litre Judd-engined Lola B12 LMP1 car to Spa [for the Masters Endurance Legends race]. With space in the truck it made sense to take the Audi now that Sacha’s got this weekend behind him.”MARCUS PYE

GINETTA G4 0 CUP

Former Ginetta G40 Cup champion Tom Golding will compete in the category again this season having taken two wins from the opening round last weekend.

The 2018 G40 champion made his return at Oulton Park, where he followed his wins with second in the finale.

He previously competed in the opening rounds of the Ginetta GT5 Challenge last season, but a limited budget meant he couldn’t complete the full season and, as a result, has come down a tier.

“We’ve stepped up and up and didn’t want to do it [G40]

again, we wanted to move up to GT5, even knowing we couldn’t afford it, so we did three rounds,” Golding said of last season.

“There was no plan for 2020 but you start getting some sponsors and things come together.

“It would be great to win this [G40 title] and as many races as possible along the way.”

Golding lost the chance to make it a hat-trick of wins last weekend due to a controversial penalty in the third race.

He was forced to start from the back of the grid after a loose exhaust was discovered prior to the start – which was hastily repaired.

This placed him behind the GRDC cars that also shared the grid, but had a staggered start to the faster class ahead.

Golding weaved his way through the stationary GRDC runners when the lights went out, only to be handed a 10-second penalty for a false start, but still did enough to keep his second on the road.

Ginetta motorsport manager Ash Gallagher said there are currently no plans to change the staggered starts and pointed out it can be beneficial to have a delay if a car near the front of the grid stalls, to give a chance for it to get out of the way.STEFAN MACKLEY

Golding stars on his G40 Cup return

JEP

An eclectic mix of carswill be able to competeW

ALKE

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C L U B A U T O S P O R T NATIONAL NEWS


New Open Sports/Saloon Car series launched

Championship, commissioned Warrington-based CGA Engineering to create an exact copy using the original drawings.

The car recently had a test at Pembrey and is now ready to make its race debut at Brands on 22-23 August, which will be the fi rst time a 1976-specifi cation P34 car has raced for over 40 years.

The last a time P34 six-wheeler – in 1977 specifi cation – raced in Historic F1 was in 2012 with Roger Wills.

Bob Tyrrell, son of renowned team owner Ken, said: “This is an exciting development

to the Tyrrell P34 story. We are looking forward to seeing a P34, built to the original specifi cation, back on track and making its race debut at the Masters Historic Festival. We wish Jonathan well.”

Ron Maydon, founder of Masters Historic Racing, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to see the return of a P34 to our races.

“I applaud Jonathan for having the guts to have it recreated from scratch, and all credit to Colin and Alistair Bennett at CGA for doing such a splendid job.”PAUL LAWRENCE

HISTOR ICS

A recreation of the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 Formula 1 car from the mid-1970s will make its race debut at Brands Hatch in the hands of American owner Jonathan Holtzman.

The car is a replica of the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix-winning machine and has been built in co-operation with the Tyrrell family, who supplied the original design drawings.

The P34 continuation car is the result of Holtzman unsuccessfully trying to source one of the fi ve remaining cars.

In period, seven chassis were built and fi ve of them are now in museums or private collections. The other two tubs were destroyed in period. Instead, Holtzman, who has raced a Lotus 87B in the FIA Masters Historic Formula 1

The BARC believes the condensed nature of the 2020 schedule and some drivers being unable to commit to full championship campaigns means now is the time to launch the series.

Four events are expected to take place this year, with

the fi rst at Donington Park on 22-23 August.

“We are really excited to launch this brand-new format of class racing, under a set of regulations we are calling ‘BARC Red’ – the word ‘Red’ is a nod to Derek, whose idea this was

Tyrrell P34 six-wheeler replica to race at Brands

BARC

The British Automobile Racing Club is launching a new series of Open Sports/Saloon Car races this season, inspired by an idea from former Autosport special projects director Derek Redfern.

The 20-minute contests will be open to a variety of machinery and drivers from other clubs. Competitors will state an expected minimum lap time that will determine their class but, if they exceed this more than once, they will be retrospectively moved up a class.

originally,” said BARC Group chief executive Ben Taylor.

“We believe that it has the potential to deliver really exciting racing for the club competitor and allow pretty much any car to compete in our races, irrespective of engine size, power-to-weight ratio, experience of driver or their budget.

“It should bring more variety to the grids. There are loads of cars out there not currently competing, but the joy of this series is that there is no need for eligibility scrutineering – if your car is in line with the Blue Book, it is welcome to race.”

65 AUTOSPORT.COM X X X X X X 2 0 1 9

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O P I N I O N C L U B A U T O S P O R T

P74 CASTLE COMBE REPORT

he very late government-led volte-face that prevented spectators attending last weekend’s British Touring Car Championship opener at Donington Park – close to the COVID-19 hotspot in re-locked down Leicester – left circuit group

MotorSport Vision in an invidious position having prepared to welcome racing-starved enthusiasts in controlled numbers, then had the devastating news midweek. This alone would not have affected the grids for the televised feature races or supports, but at racing’s grassroots it’s a very different story at some venues.

Having worked at Thruxton and Castle Combe over the past two weekends, I have observed at first hand what might be telling trends. The Classic Sports Car Club attracted a sensational record entry – more than 400 cars, plus extra drivers for longer races – for its season opener at Hampshire’s cathedral of speed, a most welcome surprise given the uncertain climate the UK is not alone in finding itself in. That said, it is promoting race meetings at eight venues around the country (four now lost) and hopefully Le Mans Bugatti in France this shortened term, thus its circus is peripatetic, with a nucleus of regular performers and others joining the fray at local tracks or their favourites.

It’s a different ballgame for the Castle Combe Racing Club, the vast majority of whose members traditionally commit to racing there exclusively, or venture further afield occasionally. Many are

West Country born, bred and based and therein lies the reason why grids in the resident Saloon Car Championship in particular are half the 30 or so they were last year. For the hardcore Combe racer, every meeting is a family day out, one in which partners, kids, relatives, friends and neighbours turn up and party in the paddock or on spectator banks. Racing is a focal point, but the social aspect is every bit as important. With only two extra passes allocated per entry on Saturday (up from one at 4 July’s belated opener) that’s not going to happen. So they don’t enter, even though investment and effort has now been made to stream events on Castle Combe TV.

Entering the paddock at CSCC Thruxton, the magnitude and sheer variety of racing cars whisked me back to my early visits to the British Automobile Racing Club’s home base through the 1970s. It’s a much bigger area that it was, doubled by the grass

areas each side of the old runway, which used to be pretty rough and inhospitable but is now properly surfaced to match the super facilities in place outside the modern pavilion for corporate events. These are Thruxton’s lifeblood with so few race days on its planning permission, therefore, like Combe, it’s really feeling the pinch. The small staff, headed by Pat Blakeney and Lorne Mitchener, are working overtime against the inevitable backdrop that much of the fully-booked midweek calendar cannot now happen, although the kart centre is back on stream.

At Combe, with just the three resident championships – Formula Ford, Saloons and GTs, plus the popular Hot Hatch series – the paddock was missing its usual buzz and bustle. Inevitably it looked sparse without the moving feast of ‘guest races’ that build each programme, bringing welcome new footfall and spend to Cafe Bar H and Merlin Motorsport. On Saturday, the schedule was bolstered by the eighth annual Dave Allan Trophy race, a mini-enduro in memory of the respected Honda test driver, killed at Millbrook proving ground in 2012. For the second time in as many meetings there was a big GT shunt, this time within seconds of the start of the day’s opening race. Thankfully, Keith Butcher escaped from his battered left-hand-drive Audi R8 LMS (my favourite car there) with just a bruising after a 115mph impact with the barriers at Folly. After an hour’s delay, officials and circuit maintenance crews did a brilliant job getting the event restarted with the Motorsport UK steward’s blessing, let alone finished before the 1830 curfew with race one becoming race nine.

Accidents anywhere are regrettable but this is motor racing. While huge thought and effort is aimed at reducing inherent risks – from Motorsport UK licensing circuit improvements and better driver safety equipment standards, to organising clubs training their officials – cars have always veered off track and hit the scenery. Recticel-protected guardrails soften the blows, as seen at Combe, but at Thruxton something extraordinary has happened from April to June when no events were permitted. In response to the massive BTCC shunts at the ultra-fast Church corner in previous years, some 200,000 cubic metres of earth from construction sites off-campus has been trucked in to make an imposing high-banked ‘run off’ on the outside of the downhill approach to the notorious right-hander, blending into the foot of Woodham Hill.

By the time it’s grassed (this autumn or next spring?) novice drivers will be able to contrast the track against a sea of green deterrent and no longer be quite so terrified of the corner I first took flat in a Formula Ford in November 1981, to avoid my rolling team-mate landing on top of me! After that it was a doddle. Relatively speaking.

Crowds being limited during the pandemic may be having an impact on club racing, but work has also been carried out to protect drivers from more regular motorsport dangers

M A R C U S P Y E

Safe spectating, safer racing

“After an hour’s delay, o� icials and circuit crews did a brilliant job getting the event restarted”

T

C L U B A U T O S P O R T N AT I O N A L R E P O R T S


A NOT H ER O’BRIEN STARS AS TF ASTON S L EAD GT4

TF Sport may not be able to defend the GT3 drivers’ title it took last year with Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson, but the Oulton Park season opener showed that the Aston Martin team will once again be a force in GT4.

TF’s Jamie Caroline and Daniel Vaughan left Cheshire tied at the top of the points with HHC McLaren duo Patrik Matthiesen and Jordan Collard, but it was arguably Connor O’Brien who impressed the most.

Three of the four qualifying sessions across the two classes were incredibly close – the exception was O’Brien recording two laps good enough for pole in the GT4 Am group. His best

would have put him third in the GT4 Pro session, indicating how strong the combination of O’Brien and Patrick Kibble could be this season.

O’Brien drove a brilliant first lap in race one too, and continued pulling away from Sam Smelt, in Speedworks Motorsport’s new Toyota GR Supra, in the early stages. O’Brien stayed out for 35 minutes and handed Kibble a comfortable lead, which he extended further. When Matt Cowley went off at Island in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang and brought out the safety car, Kibble was handed a bonus advantage and took the class win by a lap.

The Toyota should have been second (see

News) but its pitstop penalty promoted Collard into the runner-up spot. Matthiesen, Jordan Albert (in the Mustang) and Vaughan had battled mightily in the early stages, the Ford and Aston swapping places several times.

Collard built a gap during the second half of the race, but Cowley and Caroline remained locked together. Only when the Mustang went off did Caroline secure TF’s 1-3.

After an eventful first race that included an off-track excursion and a pitstop penalty, Euan Hankey started the second encounter from pole in Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren. He was jumped at the start by Caroline, who edged away while

OULTON PARKMSVR BRITISH GT1-2 AUGUST

The Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren squad hadn’t intended to enter the British GT Championship in 2020. But disruption following the coronavirus pandemic meant the team, co-owned by 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, switched its focus from the GT World Challenge Europe and last weekend scored a sensational British GT victory first time out.

The win by James Baldwin and Michael O’Brien not only underlined the pace of the McLaren 720S, but also showed that the Silver-Silver driver line-ups will be right in the championship mix against the Pro-Am

Fender throughout the opening stint and his change to O’Brien was quicker than Dean Macdonald’s takeover from Fender, which gave the JTR/RJN car third.

A mistake by Wilkinson then allowed O’Brien into second, but Mitchell looked comfortable with an 8s lead. That was until he was handed a 10s stop/go penalty for a pitstop infringement by one of the crew. He came in, was caught speeding, and had to serve another stop/go.

That left O’Brien with a small advantage over Wilkinson, who had a queue of cars behind him that included Macdonald, Sandy Mitchell (in the Barwell Lamborghini started by Rob Collard) and Patrick Kujala.

This pack demonstrated the problems the Pro-Am combinations will face in 2020 –

crews that traditionally dominate GT3.Esports convert and World’s Fastest

Gamer winner Baldwin fired a warning shot in GT3 Am qualifying, which set the grid for the first one-hour encounter, by apparently snatching a late pole position. That time was disallowed for a track-limits infraction, but he still lined up fourth.

Lewis Proctor led the early stages in his Optimum Motorsport 720S, chased by the 2 Seas McLarens of Jordan Witt and Angus Fender, and Baldwin. Proctor had pipped Witt to pole by just 0.001 seconds, but gradually edged away, only to lose his advantage in traffic just before the handover to Ollie Wilkinson. Witt came in two laps later and co-driver Jack Mitchell rejoined ahead of Wilkinson. Baldwin had hounded

Jenson’s new team buttons up a McLaren win

ALL PICS: JEP


N AT I O N A L R E P O R T S C L U B A U T O S P O R T

Keen and Balon took topspot in second GT3 race

Race one win slippedfrom the grasp of 2 Seas

Aston Martin, McLaren,Ford and Toyota were

all closely matched

Hankey defended from Kibble, but former TF driver Hankey knew that both Astons would have to serve longer stops in the pits thanks to their success penalties, and his Pro-Am partnership with Mia Flewitt meant they would stop for 14s less regardless of the success penalties.

Co-driver Flewitt found herself in the lead after the stops and, when Nick Jones’s GT3 Mercedes clumsily hit O’Brien, the race finished behind the safety car, giving the Balfe McLaren victory.

Caroline/Vaughan were forced to settle for second, with Matthiesen/Collard also taking their second podium finish of the day.KEVIN TURNER

the top five Silver cars had track position. Not only is Oulton Park tough to pass on, but the pace of the quintet was such that the Pros could make little impression, despite the Silvers having to run heavier. Yelmer Buurman got himself onto the back of the group in the RAM Racing Mercedes started by Ian Loggie but never looked like making places, while Phil Keen could only chip away at the 9.5s deficit he had to the top six.

There was a late test for O’Brien when the Academy Motorsport GT4 Ford Mustang brought out the safety car. There was enough time for two laps, but O’Brien’s fine restart meant victory was his. Macdonald completed a McLaren 1-2-3.

It was the Pro-Am line-ups’ turn to head the field in race two, which was sadly ruined by a bizarre accident just after half-distance.

Keen led Barwell Motorsport team-mate Mitchell from pole as the two Lambos disappeared down the road. They were helped by a feisty Marcus Clutton, who hurled his JMH Huracan down the inside of Buurman at Old Hall and around the outside of Kujala’s RAM Mercedes at Cascades. Buurman followed Clutton through, but could not overcome the 2011 British GT4 champion until lap 12. He started matching the leading duo, butthe gap to Keen was 15s.

Keen stayed out until the last possible moment before handing over to Adam Balon, who completed his out-lap 4.3s

ahead of Collard. The ex-British Touring Car racer had been quicker than Balon in qualifying, so the chase was on – until the safety car was called.

Contact between Connor O’Brien’s GT4 Aston and the GT3 Mercedes of Nick Jones on the run to Cascades sent both off. In the ensuing accident, the Aston lost a wheel, which struck Fender’s McLaren. All three cars ended up at different parts of the circuit, bringing out the full-course caution.

There were still more than 20 minutes to go, raising the prospect of Collard attacking Balon, but the restart never came. Problems moving the stricken 2 Seas McLaren meant the race finished under yellows.

Behind the Lambos, Loggie lost third thanks to a 30s penalty for a pitstop time infringement, handing the spot to Kujala/Sam de Haan.

“The plan was not to score too many points here because normally when we do well at Oulton we don’t do well at the end of the year,” joked perennial nearly-champion Keen. “But we need to take the points we can.”

Baldwin and O’Brien provided a fine example of that. They had survived, and recovered from, a lap-one off at Island by O’Brien to finish sixth. They lead the championship but, with five crews – four of them all-Silver – covered by eight points, the fight really has only just begun. KEVIN TURNER

GT3 Race 1 (36 laps) 1 James Baldwin/Michael O’Brien (McLaren 720S); 2 Lewis Proctor/Ollie Wilkinson (McLaren) +1.987s; 3 Angus Fender/Dean Macdonald (McLaren); 4 Rob Collard/Sandy Mitchell (Lamborghini Huracan Evo); 5 Sam de Haan/Patrick Kujala (Mercedes-AMG GT3); 6 Ian Loggie/Yelmer Buurman (Mercedes). Fastest lap Matt Griffin (Ferrari 488) 1m35.379s (101.60mph). Pole Proctor. Starters 13.Race 2 (31 laps) 1 Phil Keen/Adam Balon (Lamborghini); 2 S Mitchell/Collard +0.297s; 3 Kujala/de Haan; 4 Jack Mitchell/Jordan Witt (McLaren); 5 Wilkinson/Proctor; 6 O’Brien/Baldwin. FL Keen 1m34.829s (102.19mph). P Keen. S 13.Points 1 Baldwin/O’Brien 33; 2 Balon/Keen 31; 3 Collard/S Mitchell 30; 4 Wilkinson/Proctor 28; 5 de Haan/Kujala 25; 6 Macdonald/Fender 15.

GT4Race 1 (34 laps) 1 Connor O’Brien/Patrick Kibble (Aston Martin Vantage GT4); 2 Patrik Matthiesen/Jordan Collard (McLaren 570S) -1 lap; 3 Daniel Vaughan/Jamie Caroline (Aston Martin Vantage); 4 Sam Smelt/James Kell (Toyota GR Supra); 5 Chris Wesemael/Gus Bowers (McLaren); 6 Ben Hurst/Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke (BMW M4). FL O’Brien 1m44.021s (93.16mph). P O’Brien. S 9.Race 2 (29 laps) 1 Euan Hankey/Mia Flewitt (McLaren); 2 Caroline/Vaughan +2.371s; 3 Collard/Matthiesen; 4 Gordon-Colebrooke/Hurst; 5 Bowers/Wesemael; 6 Luke Sedzikowski/David Whitmore (BMW). FL Caroline 1m44.140s (93.06mph). P Hankey. S 9.Points 1= Collard/Matthiesen & Caroline/Vaughan 33; 3 Flewitt/Hankey 31; 4 O’Brien/Kibble 25; 5= Wesemael/Bowers & Gordon-Colebrooke/Hurst 20.

For full results visit: tsl-timing.com

WEEKEND WINNERS



Golding (l) was the class of the field inthe G40 Cup, taking a brace of winsand a second even with a penalty

The American took two wins – anda third on the road – to stamp

his authority in the series

said Frederick. “It was my bad, it wasn’t like I was focused on him but he was just in my peripheral vision.

“The rest of the race though was just amazing, it’s a shame it was taken away but without that safety car [to retrieve Josh Mason’s stricken car] we could have won the race even with that penalty.”

Winning with a 10s penalty in a one-make category as close as British F3 might seem almost laughable, but Frederick showed his true pace in race three on Sunday. In an uninterrupted race, he won by 8.65s – the third largest race-winning margin of the series in its current guise – having again got the jump on polesitter Foster, only this time both starts were judged legal.

Azman finished second, with Foster completing the podium after a poor getaway – but only after De Pauw had been disqualified for setting his fastest lap while yellow flags were waved at

Knickerbrook for the beached car of Nico Varrone.

The winning gap may not have been as large in the fourth race of the weekend – where the grid was determined by a driver’s two fastest race laps from two of the three previous races – but it was the same result as Frederick secured a lights-to-flag victory as Hitech GP’s Kush Maini, third in the 2018 British F3 standings, and Lanan’s Piers Prior completed the podium.

Prior had already had his moment in the sun on Saturday having taken the full-reversed grid win from pole, ahead of Maini and Lanan team-mate Bart Horsten.

But it was Frederick who had set down the marker ahead of the next round at Donington Park, with the American eight points clear of Jewiss in the standings and Azman a further point behind.

Tom Golding took two impressive victories in the G40 Cup – both times

OULTON PARK MSVR1-2 AUGUST

Kaylen Frederick was living the American Dream after leaving Oulton Park last Sunday, having secured a brace of victories in the opening round of the 2020 BRDC British F3 Championship.

The Carlin driver – back for a second season in the category – may have been the man to beat across the weekend’s four processional races, but it was series debutant Louis Foster who claimed pole for the opening encounter.

The British F4 race winner proved too quick for his own good, however, initially jumping the race-one start before coming to a halt several feet in front of his box. Once the lights went out, it was fellow front-row starter Frederick who got the jump and duly led home Double R’s Foster – awarded a 10-second penalty for his transgression – and Douglas Motorsport drivers Kiern Jewiss and Ulysse De Pauw on the road.

But Frederick was also judged to have jumped the start and was handed a 10s post-race penalty, which dropped him to eighth. Jewiss, another sophomore driver, thus took the win from De Pauw and Carlin racer Nazim Azman.

“I saw him [Foster] jump and my knee-jerk reaction was to lift the clutch slightly and I jumped out of the box,”

Frederick puts down a marker in British F3

ALL PICS: JEP



BRDC BRITISH F3Race 1 (11 laps) 1 Kiern Jewiss; 2 Ulysse De Pauw +1.247s; 3 Nazim Azman; 4 Josh Skelton; 5 Sasakorn Chaimongkol; 6 Guilherme Peixoto. Fastest lap Kaylen Frederick 1m31.369s (106.06mph). Pole Louis Foster. Starters 17.Race 2 (13 laps) 1 Piers Prior; 2 Kush Maini +0.639s; 3 Bart Horsten; 4 Benjamin Pedersen; 5 Nico Varrone; 6 Reece Ushijima. FL Horsten 1m31.522s (105.89mph). P Prior. S 17.Race 3 (13 laps) 1 Frederick; 2 Azman +8.650s; 3 Foster; 4 Jewiss; 5 Horsten; 6 Oliver Clarke. FL Frederick 1m31.074s (106.41mph). P Foster. S 17.Race 4 (13 laps) 1 Frederick; 2 Maini +2.280s; 3 Prior; 4 Azman; 5 Jewiss; 6 Skelton. FL Frederick 1m30.812s (106.71mph). P Frederick. S 17.Points 1 Frederick 87; 2 Jewiss 79; 3 Azman 78; 4 Maini 64; 5 Prior 60; 6 Skelton 60.

GINETTA G40 CUPRaces 1 & 2 Tom GoldingRace 3 Giles Dawson

RADICAL SR1 CUPRace 1 Will HuntRace 2 James Pinkerton

GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGERace 1 Josh MalinRace 2 Jonny WilkinsonRace 3 James Taylor


OULTON PARKWEEKEND WINNERS

Malin leads Wilkinson, Mutchand Garlick at Oulton Park

Taylor charged from 10thto win final race

beating Giles Dawson – but it was during race three where he really flourished.

A loose exhaust prior to forming up on the grid meant he was forced to start from the back instead of pole after a hasty repair, which placed him behind the concurrent GRDC grid that had a staggered start to the G40 runners ahead.

Golding weaved his way through the stationary GRDC runners when the lights went out, only to be handed a 10s penalty for a false start.

Even with the penalty, he made his way up to second behind race winner Dawson and had built enough of a gap to hold the position with the penalty applied.

In the Radical SR1 Cup, James Pinkerton left Oulton with the lead of the standings after a victory and second place.

Despite taking pole for the opener, the 2018 champion had to settle for second after being jumped into Old Hall by fellow front-row starter Will Hunt.

Both were beaten into Turn 1 in race two by former Ginetta GT5 Challenge driver Nick Zapolski, who took the lead with a breathtaking move around the outside from fourth at the rolling start.

He was denied victory, however, due to a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping him to second. Pinkerton had pipped Hunt on the line – only for the latter to also be handed a 15s penalty for track limits abuses, relegating him to sixth.STEFAN MACKLEY

The Ginetta GT5 Challenge proved to be as competitive and unpredictable as ever – despite its delayed start to the season – as three races produced three different winners and plenty of action.

It was a familiar face who graced the top step of the podium in the opening contest, however, as Josh Malin continued in the series having finished fifth in the standings last season with one win to his name.

Starting from pole – and using a loaned engine from Ginetta after his own broke in Friday testing – Malin lost the lead to former Ginetta Junior driver James Taylor heading into Old Hall prior to a prolonged safety car period to clear away several damaged cars. With just one racing lap on which to retake the lead, Malin made his move around the outside of Island Bend to secure the win ahead of Taylor.

“I got an awful start – we had a replacement engine and there was still a bit of air in the clutch system so when I was revving it was juddering forward and then I stopped and got a really bogged down start,” said Malin.

“I was worried it [the loaned engine] was not going to be competitive, we were not sure if it was going to be good or not.

“But I can’t tell the difference and that’s the great thing about Ginettas, everything is sealed and as fair as can be.”

Malin doubled-up on the road in the

FREN ETIC AFFAIR FOR GT5 CHAL L EN GE OPENER

second race but was demoted to seventh after being given a 10-second post-race penalty for a collision with Taylor at Lodge when challenging for the lead.

It meant that Jonny Wilkinson was able to take his first win in the series, ahead of Conner Garlick and David Ellesley, while Taylor could only recover to 10th after being turned around.

It would also be the Elite Motorsport driver’s starting position for the final race but, despite beginning in the midfield, the 2018 Ginetta Scholarship winner was determined to leave the Cheshire venue with a victory. By the end of the opening lap, he had moved into fourth as Garlick led from Gordie Mutch and Wilkinson.

Taylor found his way into second just three laps later behind new race leader Mutch, while Malin’s hopes of a similar recovery – after starting seventh – were dashed by a trip through the Druids gravel on lap five.

Moments later it was Mutch’s turn to have a moment as Taylor dived for the lead at Old Hall. Mutch left space but, as he turned in, his right-front tyre touched Taylor’s left-rear, which sent the young Scot spinning.

Taylor held on for the win, followed by Wilkinson and Ellesley. Mutch – who finished third in the standings last season – recovered to eighth but it was a bitter way to end the weekend, having only been given the call to compete on the Tuesday before the meeting and uncertain if he will compete in the remaining races.

“COVID has actually made things a lot more ideal for us, it’s a more condensed calendar so there’s less money to find because looking at it initially we were not going to be able to do it,” he said.STEFAN MACKLEY

TOCA SUPPORTS DONINGTON PARK 1-2 AUGUST

ALL PICS: JEPArden driver Connor took animpressive win in the openerbut it went downhill from there



MINI CHALLENGE

Three-time Mini Challenge runner-up Nathan Harrison will have made the trip home to Oxford blessing the dropped-scores ruling after the JCW class made its maiden Clio Cup-replacing appearance as a staple of the TOCA package. Gearbox dramas in the final Donington race meant, after a win and a second, Harrison could only watch from the pits as 2018 champion Ant Whorton-Eales seized the initiative.

Whorton-Eales’s win in the opener was a masterpiece of defensive driving. The Jamsport racer had the Excelr8 Motorsport Mini of Harrison crawling all over his back throughout, but Whorton-Eales prevented a proper attack from Harrison. Harrison was, in turn, under pressure from Dan Zelos for much of the distance before Lewis Brown, who had dropped to sixth

BRITISH FORMULA 4

Alex Connor endured a weekend of wildly contrasting fortunes at Donington Park, but it was the consistency of Zak O’Sullivan that enabled him to take the early British Formula 4 points lead.

Saturday ended on a positive note for Arden driver Connor. Despite qualifying fifth among the incredibly close F4 grid – the top 13 were

Connor’s contrasting weekend as O’Sullivan grabs early lead

Harrison’s finale woe leaves Whorton-Eales clear

Connor charged on to a comfortable win as Luke Browning passed Fortec team-mate Faria late on, while Hedley slipped behind O’Sullivan to fifth.

“I think the warm-up lap was really good – it helped me a lot on the first couple of laps,” said Connor about his strong start. “Hedley defended at Turn 4 so that helped me all the way up the hill and I got a better run and went round the outside.”

But that proved to be the highpoint of Connor’s weekend. Sunday’s first race began with him colliding with Faria out of Coppice, leaving the duo’s cars stranded in the road and necessitating a red flag. To compound Connor’s misery, he was given a five-place grid penalty for the finale and that left him only eighth at the finish.

Polesitter Casper Stevenson led for the first half of the restarted race two until the impressive O’Sullivan grabbed the lead on the inside at Redgate.

Having already seen Faria and Connor go out – along with Hedley, who had been hit by Roman Bilinski – Stevenson admitted he didn’t defend the place too hard. “There are a few aggressive people out there so trying to avoid that – second is better than last!” he said.

Browning was another to lose out after he ran wide at Old Hairpin, meaning Rafael Villagomez completed the podium.

Hedley bounced back in the final race to lead throughout – although he was aided by a late call to end a safety car period, which caught out Browning and allowed O’Sullivan to briefly sneak ahead.STEPHEN LICKORISH

separated by less than a second in qualifying – he won the opening race.

Polesitter James Hedley kept the lead at the start while Connor instantly began to make progress. He was up to third by the end of the first tour and then despatched Roberto Faria into Redgate on lap two. Connor soon had Hedley in his sights and, as the JHR driver was defending heavily, his rival went around the outside at McLeans to take the lead. From there,

at the start, picked his way through to wrest third from Zelos on the penultimate lap.

Harrison finally imposed himself on Whorton-Eales with a superb manoeuvre around the outside of Redgate on lap four of the second race, but already the first-race victor was suffering with a failing front-right damper, from which all the oil leaked as he tumbled to sixth. Zelos this time

held on from Brown as they fought over second, while Tom Rawlings passed Max Coates for fourth on the final lap.

TOCA-package veteran Coates got revenge with a terrific drive in the reversed-grid finale, from sixth to the lead within two laps. He had to defend mightily thereafter from Kyle Reid, as Whorton-Eales was third.MARCUS SIMMONS

Whorton-Eales defendedbrilliantly in the opener

Gearbox trouble putHarrison out of the finale


Debutant Burton defeatedBurns and Hibbert in finale



GINETTA JUNIOR

A lot was very different to normal at Donington Park for the first TOCA event since the coronavirus pandemic struck. But, while no fans, social distancing and face masks were all new, some things never change as Ginetta Junior again produced some frenetic action.

Race three was the pick of the bunch as Georgi Dimitrov and Joel Pearson had a cracking battle for the lead. The pair were regularly side-by-side, but it was Dimitrov who eventually prevailed as Zak Taylor narrowly completed the podium.

“I knew I had the pace to win but it

was difficult to try to break the tow,” said Pearson. “He just found that gap! It was a great race and an exciting welcome back to racing.”

Pearson also had a spell leading the opener, but it was his R Racing team-mate Bailey Voisin who triumphed.

Dimitrov controlled race two, while Tom Lebbon – who admitted it was tricky adjusting to Ginetta Junior racing from karting – recovered to second after earlier dropping back. Aston Millar completed an all-rookie podium for the first time since the 2014 finale when a certain Lando Norris headed the trio of first-year drivers. STEPHEN LICKORISH

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP

Will Burns and Tom Hibbert are regular Ginetta GT4 Supercup frontrunners, boasting 181 series starts between them. But, despite all of their experience behind the wheel of a Ginetta G55, it was category debutant Gus Burton who starred to take pole for the opener.

Burton had shown flashes of speed in Ginetta Junior last year but had never been able to convert that into strong results. That changed with his step up to the GT4 Supercup.

However, the greater experience

of Burns and Hibbert showed in the opener as Burton made a poor start and the duo both passed him. But Burton closed right in on Hibbert late on, nearly grabbing second.

He did manage to achieve that in race two, however. Burns and Hibbert were the top two throughout until, on the final lap, Burton passed Hibbert on the inside at McLeans.

Burton then completed a brilliant first weekend in the series with victory in the finale. He initially lost out to Hibbert but, when Hibbert ran slightly wide at Coppice on lap three, Burton pounced approaching the chicane. STEPHEN LICKORISH

Ginetta Junior races still thrill

Burton stars on G55 debut

WEEKEND WINNERS

BRITISH FORMULA 4Race 1 (18 laps) 1 Alex Connor; 2 Luke Browning +1.669s; 3 Roberto Faria; 4 Zak O’Sullivan; 5 James Hedley; 6 Rafael Villagomez. Fastest lap Browning 1m08.340s (104.25mph). Pole Hedley. Starters 15. Race 2 (14 laps) 1 O’Sullivan; 2 Casper Stevenson +1.925s; 3 Villagomez; 4 Frederick Lubin; 5 Christian Mansell; 6 Abbi Pulling. FL O’Sullivan 1m08.266s (104.36mph). P Stevenson. S 15. Race 3 (16 laps) 1 Hedley; 2 Browning +1.060s; 3 O’Sullivan; 4 Faria; 5 Matias Zagazeta; 6 Stevenson. FL Browning 1m08.438s (104.10mph). P Faria. S 15.Points 1 O’Sullivan 52; 2 Browning 36; 3 Hedley 35; 4 Stevenson 32; 5 Connor 29; 6 Faria 27.

MINI CHALLENGERace 1 (15 laps) 1 Ant Whorton-Eales; 2 Nathan Harrison +0.322s; 3 Lewis Brown; 4 Dan Zelos; 5 Jack Davidson; 6 Max Coates. FL Brown 1m13.841s (96.48mph). P Whorton-Eales. S 28. Race 2 (16 laps) 1 Harrison; 2 Zelos +2.563s; 3 Brown; 4 Tom Rawlings; 5 Coates; 6 Whorton- Eales. FL Whorton-Eales 1m14.041s (96.22mph). P Whorton-Eales. S 28. Race 3 (16 laps) 1 Coates; 2 Kyle Reid +0.391s; 3 Whorton-Eales; 4 Rawlings; 5 Brown; 6 Zelos. FL Reid 1m14.407s (95.75mph). P Callum Newsham. S 27. Points 1 Whorton-Eales 134; 2 Brown 120; 3 Coates 116; 4 Zelos 113; 5 Reid 108; 6 Rawlings 99.

GINETTA JUNIORRace 1 (10 laps) 1 Bailey Voisin; 2 Georgi Dimitrov +0.665s; 3 Joshua Rattican; 4 Joel Pearson; 5 Tom Lebbon; 6 William Vincent. FL Pearson 1m26.094s (82.75mph). P Lebbon. S 20. Race 2 (12 laps) 1 Dimitrov; 2 Lebbon +1.016s; 3 Aston Millar; 4 Rattican; 5 Pearson; 6 Zak Taylor. FL Lebbon 1m25.436s (83.39mph). P Lebbon. S 20. Race 3 (13 laps) 1 Dimitrov; 2 Pearson +2.045s; 3 Taylor; 4 Tommy Pintos; 5 Millar; 6 Voisin. FL Millar 1m25.799s (83.03mph). P Dimitrov. S 20.Points 1 Dimitrov 100; 2 Pearson 73; 3 Lebbon 64; 4 Millar 63; 5 Voisin 55; 6 Rattican 54.

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUPRace 1 (12 laps) 1 Will Burns; 2 Tom Hibbert +1.634s; 3 Gus Burton; 4 Adam Smalley; 5 Fin Green; 6 Jamie Falvey. FL Burns 1m09.462s (102.56mph). P Burton. S 17.Race 2 (19 laps) 1 Burns; 2 Burton +2.777s; 3 Hibbert; 4 Smalley; 5 Reece Somerfield; 6 Falvey. FL Burton 1m09.815s (102.05mph). P Burns. S 17.Race 3 (19 laps) 1 Burton; 2 Burns +3.979s; 3 Hibbert; 4 Somerfield; 5 Falvey; 6 Green. FL Burton 1m10.064s (101.68mph). P Somerfield. S 17.Points 1 Burns 101; 2 Burton 94; 3 Hibbert 82; 4 Smalley 58; 5 Somerfield 58; 6 Falvey 56.

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Race 1 (both 23 laps) 1 Josh Webster; 2 Harry King +0.779s; 3 Esmee Hawkey; 4 Scott McKenna; 5 Lorcan Hanafin; 6 Matthew Graham. FL King 1m06.740s (106.75mph). P King. S 20.Race 2 1 King; 2 McKenna +6.152s; 3 Webster; 4 Graham; 5 Sam MacLeod; 6 Ross Wylie. FL Hanafin 1m06.929s (106.45mph). P McKenna. S 20.Points 1 King 23; 2 Webster 18; 3 McKenna 16; 4 Graham 9; 5 Hanafin 7; 6 MacLeod 6.

Rookie Dimitrovbagged two wins

Pearson narrowly leadsthe squabbling pack


Webster won the openerafter King struckRecticel barrier

JEP

/MO

TORS

PORT

IMAG

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The last three Porsche GB juniors have all enjoyed significant success during their two-year stints in the Carrera Cup, all emerging as champions. But none of them enjoyed quite such an impressive debut weekend as Harry King did at Donington Park.

While 2014-15 scholar Josh Webster managed a podium in his first race, 2016-17 incumbent Charlie Eastwood claimed a best result of fourth, and last year’s runaway champion Dan Harper left his first event with a points deduction after causing a collision, King claimed a win on his very first weekend in Porsches.

It is widely acknowledged that the Type 991 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car is not the easiest beast for rookies to master. But that was not the case for King as he qualified on pole by a quarter of a second.

He could so easily have converted that into a maiden win too, had he not made an error and struck the Recticel barrier, but he more

whoever it is, they’re going to be very good,” he said. “He’s going to be a force to reckon with. We get on really well and bounce ideas off each other.”

It may still be very early in the season, but already it seems like the Team Parker duo will be battling for the title – a major achievement for Porsche’s latest star.STEPHEN LICKORISH

P O R S C H E H A S A N O T H E R I M P R E S S I V E S T A R O N I T S H A N D S

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB

There was no disputing which of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB squads was team of the weekend at Donington Park. With Josh Webster, Harry King and Esmee Hawkey completing a podium lockout for Team Parker Racing in race one, it was a great start to the season for the veteran Carrera Cup squad.

It was new Porsche GB Junior King who starred in qualifying as the reigning Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion claimed

Sure enough, Webster instantly zoomed in on his team-mate and King was regularly locking a wheel as he struggled with his ill-handling Porsche. Inevitably, four laps after making his error, King lost the lead as Webster dived ahead on the inside at the chicane, but King was still able to take second at the flag.

Completing the TPR podium trio was Hawkey who, despite coming under increasing pressure from Ginetta GT5 champion Scott McKenna and defeated Porsche Junior finalist Lorcan Hanafin, took a surprise third overall.

“No, I definitely didn’t expect that!” said a delighted Hawkey. “I was trying to manage the gap [to McKenna and Hanafin], but it was a tough last lap as there was a backmarker!”

King was able to make amends for his race-one mistake by winning the finale. Starting third on the partially reversed grid, he jumped Hawkey off the line and passed McKenna too further round the opening lap. From there, he was never troubled as he took the win, while a queue of cars formed behind McKenna. Webster was at the front of those but, having damaged his splitter early in the race, was struggling with understeer.

“I was pleased to catch Scott and with one more lap maybe I would’ve passed him,” said Webster. “I have to thank Darren and Patrick, my mechanic and engineer, for doing a great job.” STEPHEN LICKORISH

a debut Carrera Cup pole. But even more surprising was the identity of the driver who lined up alongside him, as Pro-Am contender Hawkey produced a very impressive time to qualify second.

Hawkey lost out to the fast-starting Webster in the opener, but King had already built a decent margin at the front. That was until he clouted the Recticel barrier at the chicane. It was a hefty whack and left King with a slightly wounded Porsche. “That made things very difficult,” admitted King. “It meant I was carrying a lot of understeer.”

Parker delight as Webster, King and Hawkey lock out podium

JEP

King took race-twoglory in strong debut event

than made up for it with an accomplished display in race two as he grabbed the lead on the first lap.

“My first race, despite finishing second, it was still a little bit disappointing,” said King. “In race two I knew I had to get a good start. I passed Esmee [Hawkey] at the start and I got Scott [McKenna] up the hill [to McLeans]. I had to take a little risk but it paid off.

“I didn’t really expect it [to be right at the front straight away], but after the first official test I knew I was in the ballpark.”

After such an encouraging first weekend, it’s no wonder King’s goals have already shifted from it being a learning year to aiming for a championship challenge. Yes, he benefited from the majority of the Pro line-up being new to the series this year, and therefore having to go through that same process of mastering the Porsche, but that takes nothing away from his achievement.

Team-mate Webster was certainly impressed. “Harry is very, very good – the way that Porsche goes about choosing the Junior, you know

WAL

KER

There was no stoppingreigning 420R championByrne at Cadwell Park

Samuel Watkins had an eventfulweekend, as he crashed out of thelead before later winning Fiesta finale

WAL

KER


CADWELL PARKBRSCC1-2 AUGUST

The Caterham Seven 420R category may have been rebranded as the Caterham Seven UK Championship for 2020 to reflect its new national status, but there was no change at the top of the order, with reigning champion John Byrne dominating the season opener at Cadwell Park.

While Byrne took a comfortable double victory, the battle for second proved less predictable. In race one, a poor start dropped Henry Heaton down to sixth from the front row, but he recovered to take second ahead of reigning Caterham 310R champion Gordon Sawyer. Heaton briefly led the second race before conceding to Byrne on the lap two, and then lost second to Sawyer midway through the contest. Heaton attempted to fight back on the final tour but, in a photo finish, Sawyer held off Heaton by just 0.001 seconds.

The 310R championship shared the track with the top Caterham category. Despite qualifying on pole position, 270R graduate James Murphy was unable to claim victory, finishing runner-up in both encounters. In race one, Gregory Monks came out on top

Byrne scorches to double victory

Blake-Baldwin to win the first Mazda MX-5 Supercup encounter, but an ECU infringement resulted in Blake-Baldwin being disqualified from second place, with Samuel Smith inheriting the position.

Smith won race two after passing Jack Sycamore just before the race was red-flagged due to an incident further down the field. Early leader Patrick Fletcher finished fourth after an off, while poleman Herbert was taken off on the opening lap.

British GT racer Martin Plowman took part in the races for his newly created Paddock Promotions Motorsport team. A clutch issue in race one and then a first-lap incident put paid to his chances of a good result, but he hinted at further outings after enjoying the club-racing experience.STEVE WHITFIELD

in a late three-way battle to grab the spoils. Tom Grensinger won the second race, leading all the way after making a great start from the second row and holding off Murphy by a quarter of a second at the finish.

The spoils were shared across the three Fiesta races. Luke Pinder won the opener in dramatic fashion after Samuel Watkins crashed out of the lead on the final lap at Barn Corner with a suspected brake issue. Watkins’s brother Joshua inherited second.

Samuel Watkins bounced back in fine style with second place in race two – behind his sibling in a race shortened due to poor weather conditions – and then took victory in a dry race three ahead of Spencer Stevenson. Fiesta Junior champion Oliver Turner went on to grab a brace of third- place finishes after pulling off from pole position before the start of the first race.

These races also featured the first appearance of the new-generation Fiesta ST180, which is being developed this year ahead of its official introduction in 2021. David Nye and John Cooper ran the cars in an invitational class, and were comfortably the fastest in the field. A one-lap handicap given to them at the start of each race prevented them from taking overall honours.

Luke Herbert passed polesitter James

CATERHAM SEVEN UK & 310RRaces 1 & 2 John Byrne

FIESTAS AND ST-XR CHALLENGERace 1 Luke Pinder (ST) Race 2 Joshua Watkins (ST)Race 3 Samuel Watkins (ST)

MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUPRace 1 Luke HerbertRace 2 Samuel Smith

CLUBSPORT TROPHY & CITYCAR CUPBrian Chandler (Lotus Exige)

CATERHAM SEVEN 270RRaces 1 & 2 Harry Cook

CATERHAM ACADEMYGreen group Chris Skillicorn White group Taylor O’Flanagan

CATERHAM GRADUATESRace 1 Jamie EllwoodRace 2 Harry Senior

FIESTA JUNIORS Races 1 & 2 Joseph Loake

MAZDA MX-5SRaces 1 & 2 Joe WigginRace 3 Oliver Allwood

WEEKEND WINNERS


JON

ES

Cooper (right) beatFisher (left) each time

HAW

KIN

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BRANDS HATCH BARC1-2 AUGUST

James Janicki charged through from eighth on the grid to claim victory in an opening combined Classic Thunder and Blue Oval Saloon Series race that boasted plenty of action and an impressive 31 starters.

A rapid start initially propelled the BMW E46 of Jasver Sapra into the lead, but the intervention of traffic soon meant he was reeled in by Janicki’s Nissan Skyline R32, the

Alfa Romeo 33 of Adrian Hawkins and the Holden Monaro of poleman Andrew Wilson. After Janicki hit the front and pulled clear, the battle for second between Sapra and Hawkins ended in a clash where both hit the pitwall, bringing the race to a premature end.

James Card won race two in his E46 M3 after early leader Wilson retired. Andy Robinson (Ford Falcon) took second, while former British Touring Car driver Jason Hughes stormed through to third in his ex-BTCC Vauxhall Vectra after starting from the pitlane.

Cooper doubles up after intense pressure from Fisher

Janicki and Card share Classic Thunder spoils

CASTLE COMBECCRC1 AUGUST

If the opening Castle Combe meeting of the season last month appeared to set

Danny Harrison and Jem Hepworth claimed a double success in the two Britcar Endurance contests in their Praga R1T, albeit under different circumstances. The pair cantered to a lights-to-flag win in race one ahead of the similar car of Jack Fabby and Garry Townsend. In the second contest, a clash involving Hepworth and the BMW 1M of backmarker Charlie Lamb caused the race to be red-flagged. With the Praga undamaged, Harrison charged through from the back to claim the win in the restarted event from Fabby/Townsend and the Ferrari

Healthy grid of 31 cars took

part in the Classic Thunder Saloons and BOSS races at

Brands Hatch

up a Luke Cooper-and-Felix Fisher duel for the circuit’s Formula Ford 1600 championship this year, then last Saturday’s two races confirmed that.

Fisher in a Ray GR06 was the early leader in race one, but 2018 Combe FF1600

champion Cooper in his Swift SC18 was not to be denied, setting up the decisive pass at Quarry on the second lap before making the move stick down Farm Straight.American Bryce Aron held on to the pair, finally passing Fisher on the penultimate lap with a majestic sweep around the outside of Avon Rise.

Race two was a masterclass by Cooper in absorbing race-long pressure as he spent eight laps eyeballing his mirrors for any attempt by either Fisher or Aron behind. It came to a head on the last tour, with Fisher pulling side-by-side at Camp Corner, but Cooper held on to win. Second was still a good result for Fisher, who almost didn’t make the grid but was handed a lifeline when a delayed start meant the marshals allowed him to take up his pole position grid slot.

Adam Prebble got a better start than polesitting older brother Gary in the Saloon Car Championship’s first race to take the lead. The pair traded the top spot until a rattling front bonnet for the younger Prebble’s Vauxhall Astra meant a meatball flag was deployed, effectively handing his

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A loose bonnet for Adam Prebble letbrother Gary (left) through to win

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Pre ’83 victories

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brother’s SEAT Leon Cupra the win. Prebble Jr left the pits in sixth having secured the bonnet, and did well to pump in times good enough to recover to third behind the Volkswagen Golf of Chris Rawlings.

Simon Thornton-Norris suffered condensation in the crank-sensor plug of his Mitsubishi Colt in race one. He started from the front row in race two, but had to cede to the faster Adam Prebble. Reigning champion Thornton-Norris collected himself well and stalked the Astra throughout, but had to settle for second.Gary Prebble, who was due to line up on pole, suffered a split turbo pipe and was unable to start.

Jeremy Cooke and Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird took their BMW M3 to the top step of the podium in the 45-minute Dave Allan Trophy by a healthy 42s from Honda Civic Type R driver Alyn James. The race had looked to be a straight duel between James and the Mazda RX-7 of Steve Putt, but two key moments handed the BMW crew the win.

First was a safety car at the end of lap seven, which gave Cooke enough of

Janicki and Card share Classic Thunder spoils

488 Challenge of reigning Britcar champions Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz.

In the Britcar Trophy category, Barry McMahon took a dominant race-one win but, when his Alfa Romeo 156 T hit trouble in the second event, a five-car battle for the lead ensued. Ex-BTCC racer Rob Smith, sharing a Peugeot RCZ with Charlie Campbell, snatched victory from James Colburn’s Renault Clio in the closing stages of a safety-car-interrupted contest.

Driving the new Revolution A-One car, Alex Kapadia won the first Sports Prototype Cup race after passing Scott Mansell’s Revolution at Druids on lap 10 of 39. Fuel-consumption concerns dropped Kapadia back into Mansell’s reach as the race neared its end, but he held on. The pair resumed their personal duel again in race two until Kapadia spun off at Paddock Hill Bend at mid-distance. Mansell was left to reel off the remaining laps out front, although Bradley Ellis kept him honest.

The first Classic Touring Car Pre ’83 race also featured a two-way battle for

honours in the early stages, but neither David Howard in his Jaguar XJ12 nor the Ford Escort Mk1 of Stephen Primett would claim the spoils. A collision between the pair at Druids opened up an opportunity for Mike Luck to snatch the win in his BMW E21 320, which he gratefully accepted. Primett took just two laps to move into second from the rear of the race-two grid, but he was unable to deny Luck a double victory.

Lewis Saunders kept cool under intense pressure from Charlie Hand in both Junior Saloon encounters to maintain his unbeaten start to the season, as Alex Solley claimed a pair of thirds despite taking a trip into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel in race one.

Fergus Campbell was never headed in either of the well-supported MG Owners’ Club Championship contests in his ZR 170, despite the best efforts of David Mellor in his similar car. Reigning champion Steve McDermid recovered to third in the second event after being delayed in race one by the spinning MG F of Martin Wills. MARK LIBBETER

Kapadia won openingSports Prototype Cup

race but spun in the second

a reason to head into the pits for the driver change, while James opted to go longer, not making the most of the reduced laptime loss under the safety car and instead being the last of the leaders to pit for the mandatory one-minute stop at two-thirds distance.

That gave Putt the net lead again after enjoying clean air out front from the off. But, shortly after James’s stop, Putt’s Mazda started issuing smoke, prompting a retirement that handed the BMW the lead. JASON NOBLE

WEEKEND WINNERS

BRANDS HATCHCLASSIC THUNDER AND BOSSRace 1 James Janicki (Nissan Skyline R32)Race 2 James Card (BMW E46 M3)

BRITCAR ENDURANCERaces 1 & 2 Jem Hepworth/Danny Harrison (Praga R1T, above)

BRITCAR TROPHYRace 1 Barry McMahon (Alfa Romeo 156 T)Race 2 Charlie Campbell/Rob Smith (Peugeot RCZ)

SPORTS PROTOTYPE CUPRace 1 Alex Kapadia (Revolution A-One)Race 2 Scott Mansell (Revolution A-One)

PRE ’83 TOURING CARSRaces 1 & 2 Mike Luck (BMW E21)

JUNIOR SALOONSRaces 1 & 2 Lewis Saunders

MG OWNERS’ CLUBRaces 1 & 2 Fergus Campbell (ZR 170)

PRE ’66 TOURING CARSRaces 1 & 2 Alan Greenhalgh (Ford Falcon)

PRE ’93 AND PRE ’03 TOURING CARSRaces 1 & 2 Rod Birley (Honda Integra)

KUMHO BMWSRaces 1 & 2 James Card (E46 M3)

CASTLE COMBEFORMULA FORD 1600Races 1 & 2 Luke Cooper (Swift SC18)

SALOONSRace 1 Gary Prebble (SEAT Leon Cupra)Race 2 Adam Prebble (Vauxhall Astra)

DAVE ALLAN TROPHYJeremy Cooke/Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird (BMW M3 E92)

HOT HATCH Races 1 & 2 Josh Harvey (Honda Civic)

GTsRaces 1 & 2 Oliver Bull (Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette, below)


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Lotus 76 before retiringfrom 1974 Belgian GP

THE DAD WHO COULD DANCEF I L M R E V I E WS U P E R S W E D E

Jackie Stewart calls them the “halcyon years of Formula 1”, and Autosport readers similarly voted for 1974-82 as their favourite era of grand prix racing. When we celebrated those nine seasons in the 2 January issue

earlier this year, five-time F1 race winner John Watson compiled his top 10 drivers of the time. Ranking in fifth place was Ronnie Peterson for his “huge natural talent, embodied in a really lovely person”. The exact same sentiment is what viewers of Superswede will take away most after watching the near-90-minute documentary that’s now available on demand via Sky.

The film is framed around the 2016 travels of Peterson’s daughter, Nina Kennedy, who was just two years old when her father died owing to surgical complications following his fiery crash in the 1978 Italian GP. Nine short years later, grief-stricken widow Barbro Peterson would take her own life too.

Kennedy had never been to Monza prior to the making of Superswede, and in the contemporary footage edited to black-and-white, she also meets Clive Chapman – son of Lotus founder Colin – and Peterson’s former team-mate Emerson Fittipaldi to recall various sportscar incidents as she tries to learn more about a master of on-the-limit car control.

The dangerous nature of the era means brutal crashes, and the deaths of Francois Cevert, Roger Williamson and Jochen Rindt register heavily, even before the film returns to Peterson’s own demise. But the presence of these grim clips has a clear purpose: it hits home to viewers that these losses were all the more tragic owing to the far more congenial atmosphere that existed in the paddock 50 years ago.

On track the drivers were indeed rivals, but away from the circuit they would dine with one another, drive to hotels together; Peterson even taught Niki Lauda how to left-foot brake on the public roads. Likewise, they would go on holidays as couples and play with their children in the grounds of George Harrison’s mansion. And it’s here that this documentary celebrating Peterson’s life is arguably at its strongest.

While it will always be spectacular to watch archive footage of Peterson on the lockstops through Woodcote as he made his Lotus 72 dance, and to listen to anecdotes from engineers about over-fuelling his car to ensure he didn’t outqualify ‘number one’ team-mate and eventual champion Mario Andretti in 1978, it’s the wealth of home video and personal photographs that stands out.

From tractor racing in the snow with his brother when they were kids, Peterson’s first foray into Swedish national karting after he finally turned 18, and to his dad building a Brabham BT15 copy as a first Formula 3 car, this ensemble of private-life recollections is both staggering and emotional. The film truly gets under the skin of a family man and a husband – it’s not centred entirely on Peterson’s racing exploits. Superswede is all the better for it.

Particularly for younger viewers who have might have a firm baseline knowledge of champions Fittipaldi, Andretti, Lauda, Stewart and Jody Scheckter – all of whom are present as talking heads in this film, alongside the exceptionally poignant words of Watson and David Brodie – perhaps Peterson presents more of an understandable blind spot.

Superswede serves to fill in these gaps and ensure you’re left with a new-found or renewed appreciation for a 10-time GP winner – one who could and likely should have been a world title winner, and who was simply magical to watch when plying his trade. MATT KEW

Peterson wrestles hisLotus 76 before retiring

from 1974 Belgian GP

F I N I S H I N G S T R A I G H T


INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORTFormula ERounds 6-7/7Berlin, Germany8-9, 12-13 AugustTV Live Eurosport 2, Sat 1800, Sun 1800, Wed 1800, Thurs 1745Livestream on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website

Jaguar I-PACE eTrophyRounds 4-5/5Berlin, Germany8-9, 12-13 AugustLivestream on Eurosport

Euroformula OpenRound 1/8Hungaroring, Hungary8-9 August

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint CupRound 1/4Misano, Italy8-9 August

Livestream on Motorsport.tv, Sat 1220, 1800, Sun 0800, 1000, 1330

Super GTRound 2/8Fuji, Japan9 August

European Le Mans SeriesRound 2/5Spa, Belgium9 August

Livestream on Motorsport.tv, Sat 1330, Sun 0940

NASCAR CupRounds 21-22/36Michigan, USA8-9 AugustTV Live Premier Sports 1, Sat 2030, Sun 2100

Australian SupercarsRound 5/11

Hidden Valley, Australia8-9 AugustTV Live BT Sport 3, Sat 0645, Sun 0430, 0645

MotoGPRound 3/14Brno, Czech Republic9 AugustTV Live BT Sport 2, Sun 1230TV Highlights BT Sport 2, Sun 1900

UK MOTORSPORT70th Anniversary Grand PrixFormula 1 World ChampionshipRound 5Silverstone9 AugustTV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1230TV Highlights Sky Sports F1, Sun 2300. Channel 4, 1830

FIA Formula 2Round 5Silverstone8-9 AugustTV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 1535, Sun 1000

FIA Formula 3Round 5Silverstone8-9 AugustTV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 0920, Sun 0835

Porsche SupercupRound 5Silverstone9 AugustTV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1120

Snetterton BRSCC8 AugustFun Cup, CMMC

Oulton Park MSVR8 AugustTrackday Trophy, Trackday Championship, EnduroKA

Brands Hatch BARC8-9 AugustBTCC, F4, Carrera Cup, Mini Miglia/Sevens, Ginetta GT4, Ginetta JuniorTV Live ITV4, Sun 1020

W H AT ’ S O N

The dramatic start to the 2020 Formula 1 season continued at Silverstone last weekend as a flurry of late punctures threatened to turn the British Grand Prix on its head. The expert Autosport grand prix team dissect the goings on in the latest F1 race review podcast.

autosport.com/podcast

Autosport takes a look at what led to the invention of the double di� user for the 2009 grand prix season, how it changed Formula 1 forever, and how various teams decided to both protest and build their own versions behind the scenes. Go to bit.ly/doubledi�

youtube.com/AUTOSPORTdotcom

W H AT ’ S O N

FORMULA E – BERLIN

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“It wasn’t the perfectdebut in an LMP1 car”

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W H E N D R I V E R S C R O P U P I N U N E X P E C T E D P L A C E S

A GT stalwart’s eventful LMP1 cameo J A M E S N E W B O L D

ROB BELL

ver since he won on his sportscar debut at the Nurburgring in 2005, Rob Bell has been one of the foremost names in

international GT racing. The McLaren factory driver, twice a Le Mans Series GT2 champion, in 2007-08, and the winner of the 2016 Blancpain Endurance Series, has driven just about every type of GT from Panoz to Ferrari, Aston Martin to Porsche and even in the short-lived SRT Viper programme.

But where most sportscar drivers of similar standing also have some history in prototype racing, Bell’s sole experience of LMP1 is a rather forgettable one-off outing at the 2009 Petit Le Mans in Paul Drayson’s Lola-Judd B08/60 coupe.

Bell describes it as “a fantastic experience” and recalls the Lola as

“a phenomenal piece of kit”, but the weekend didn’t exactly run to plan. And not just because of the torrential rain, which meant that only 467.3 of the planned 1000-mile distance was completed.

Bell had originally been signed up for the Sebring 12 Hours and 10-hour PLM enduro at Road Atlanta in a GT2 Aston Martin alongside Drayson and Jonny Cocker. But Drayson, the Minister of State for Science and Innovation under the then-Labour government, soon had a change of plans for Road Atlanta.

“[Team manager] Dale White called me up and said, ‘We’re not doing the Aston anymore, we’re going to do P1, is that alright with you?’ So, I said, ‘Yeah, of course it’s alright with me!’”

However, the team’s foray into the top class was beset by problems that did little to help circuit debutant Bell.

“Everything was late, everything was last-minute,” he recalls. “We did a bit of testing, but I didn’t get many laps.”

That theme continued during the race when, after taking over from Drayson, on his outlap Bell’s left-front tyre parted company with the car at the Turn 7 right- hander, sending him straight into the wall. The problem was later attributed to loose screws on the brake disc, which meant the wheel hadn’t seated properly, but that was of little consolation to the driver.

“It was something to do with the disc bell set-up,” he says. “When they gunned the wheel on, it felt tight but it wasn’t. I went to turn right and it buggered off left!”

Bell dug the car out and crawled back to the pits for repairs. He was sent out again

“THE WHEEL FELT TIGHT BUT IT WASN’T. I WENT TO TURN RIGHT AND IT BUGGERED OFF LEFT!”

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for another five laps when the heavens opened and the race was red-flagged.

“It wasn’t the perfect debut in an LMP1 car,” he concedes. “It was one to forget for everybody actually.”

Thereafter, Bell took the pragmatic view that there were more career opportunities to be had in GT racing and has no regrets.

“It might not be as glamorous,” he says, “but we all have mortgages to pay and I’d argue it’s always better racing anyway.”


For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com

F R O M THE AR CHI VEOh for the days when a liberal application of Brilliantine was considered in some quarters to be the only adornment required for a driver’s head! Here, Charles Brackenbury (Bugatti T51) leads George Eyston (Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza) and the similar car of Brian Lewis during the opening laps of the Mannin Moar, held on the Isle of Man’s 4.6-mile Douglas street circuit on 14 July 1933. Lewis went on to win the 50-lap race in a time of 3h34m52s; the Bugatti of Tim Rose-Richards was second, two minutes adri� , with Eyston in third a further two minutes down the road. Halfway through the race Brackenbury had handed his Bugatti over to Richard Shuttleworth, who later came in to the pits far too hot, lost control and wrecked the car.

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Stewart dominates as a legend returns5 August 1971

SUBSCRIPTIONSUK +44 (0) 344 848 8817 Overseas +44 (0) 1604 251451Email [email protected] Back issues 0344 8488817

Jackie Stewart scored one of his most dominant victories this week in 1971 in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. The Tyrrell driver fought o� an early challenge from Jacky Ickx, who then crashed out on lap two in his Ferrari, leaving Stewart to add to his 1968 German GP success.

Francois Cevert underlined the pace of the Tyrrells by taking second, though it was Clay Regazzoni’s third-placed Ferrari that made Autosport’s cover!

“This was Stewart’s 17th GP victory, which betters Stirling Moss’s score but is still a long way o� the records amassed by Jim Clark (25 victories) and Juan Manuel Fangio (24),” noted our report. “Stewart now has an almost unbeatable position in the world championship.”

Stewart duly wrapped up the title next time out in Austria and would surpass Clark’s and Fangio’s wins tallies in 1973, leaving the benchmark at 27.

In an eclectic 5 August 1971 issue, Autosport took a look at the history of Colin Crabbe’s Mercedes W125. The supercharged 5.7-litre, 646bhp machine was part of the Silver Arrows squad that had dominated the 1937 GP season.

Crabbe rescued 125/3 in the 1960s and had it rebuilt before taking it back on track. At Oulton Park in June 1971, Crabbe had won the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy on the car’s return to competition, and the W125 would make more appearances during the 1970s. “The patron drives it well, and is a brave man to drive it so competitively,” wrote Doug Nye.

Editor Simon Taylor showed courage of a di� erent sort by taking on drivers such as Gerry Marshall and Jody Scheckter in a Ford Escort Mexico race at Mallory Park. Taylor acquitted himself well, qualifying on the third row, but su� ered damage thanks to someone else’s incident in the race.

I N N E X T W E E K ’ S I S S U E

Silverstone, take twoW H O W I L L W I N T H E 7 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y G P ?

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LYDDEN HILL ‘HRDC HISTORICS ON THE HILL’ 13 SEPTEMBER

CASTLE COMBE ‘AUTUMN CLASSIC’ 4 OCTOBER

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THRUXTON ‘HISTORIC’ MEETING 15/16 AUGUST

LYDDEN HILL ‘HRDC HISTORICS ON THE HILL’ 13 SEPTEMBER

CASTLE COMBE ‘AUTUMN CLASSIC’ 4 OCTOBER

ALL EVENTS INCLUDE:HRDC ‘JACK SEARS TROPHY’ for Touring Cars 1958 – 1966

HRDC ‘THERMEX ALLSTAR’S TROPHY’ for pre-66 Sports, GT & Touring Cars

HRDC ‘CLASSIC ALFA CHALLENGE’ for 750 – 116 Alfa Romeos

PLUS: THE INAUGURAL HRDC ‘TRANS-AM GB’ RACE!THRUXTON 25 OCTOBER

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