Table of contents for 25/07/24 in Autosport

Another great race and another new grand prix victor. The 2024 Formula 1 season is certainly turning out to be more interesting than anyone expected. We haven’t had this number of different winners since that remarkable 2012 campaign! Last weekend’s Hungarian GP had many interesting storylines and dramatic moments, which Alex Kalinauckas covers in our in-depth report from page 16. He explains why McLaren pitted Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the ‘wrong’ order, creating tension in the closing laps. Was Norris right to move aside for his Australian colleague? We’re also beginning to see how the pressure of a fast McLaren – and perhaps internal machinations at Red Bull – is affecting Max Verstappen. His unwillingness to accept second best can be a strength but, with such a comfortable…

OBITUARY No crew chief tried harder or loved racing more across a six-decade career than Colin Bennett, who died of cancer last week at the age of 81. Despite constantly battling to keep his Warrington-based teams afloat, particularly in fickle F3000, he remained defiantly positive. Richard Dean’s 1990 Oulton Park Gold Cup victory on home soil delighted rivals. “We had a fifth in the International Championship at Donington too, but Colin was passionate and believed in giving people chances,” said Dean. “He taught me so much. His approach was very direct, no bullshit, but we had fun.” Oldham-born Bennett built a V8 stock car and raced it at Manchester’s Belle Vue Stadium and elsewhere in the 1960s. He subsequently joined Lotus, spannering a 51 in the first Formula Ford race…

A maiden Formula E title after eight years and the first world championship success for Jaguar since 1991, when it achieved victory in the sportscar world, should have been the headlines from last weekend’s London E-Prix season finale. Instead, the Big Cat ended the season with its tail somewhat between its legs after throwing away its chance of the drivers’ championship, with both Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans coming up short. Before going any further, it’s worth pointing out that Pascal Wehrlein’s and Porsche’s success was completely on merit, the German taking three wins over a campaign that included only two non-scores across 16 races. A win and a second place at a London venue that suited the Jaguars and when the pressure was at its highest means Wehrlein was…

The Hungaroring’s compact nature and short, 2.7-mile length make this the perfect place to stretch your legs when enjoying the luxury of Formula 1 trackside visits. Just not in FP1, when scorching temperatures (track heat will peak at 59.7C) and a persistent humidity will leave you as ragged and wrecked as the set of medium Pirellis Lewis Hamilton has been torturing for some time at the end of the opening one-hour practice last Friday. Autosport has just made it down to the foot of the Turn 3 compression point near the end of sector one with 15 minutes of FP1 remaining. Our late arrival is owing to discovering and reporting that, at the upcoming Dutch Grand Prix, the FIA will test a simplified air conditioning system in F1 car cockpits.…

Alpine’s decision not to run in the final part of Q1, following the red flag caused by Sergio Perez, consigned the team to the back of the grid because the circuit improved demonstrably in the final stages of the session. The team therefore used that as an excuse to change Pierre Gasly’s battery for a pitlane start, and his initial pace on the hard tyre rewarded him with a rise into the top 10 prior to his pitstop. But just four laps into his next stint on the medium compound, the Frenchman fell victim to a hydraulics leak that forced a second retirement in as many races. “It’s been a frustrating weekend,” he rued. “It feels like we missed a real opportunity; we just have to be better, and we…

When Sebastien Ogier says a driver is “untouchable”, it’s a statement that carries serious weight. But that is exactly how the eight-time world champion described Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera, who romped to victory as the World Rally Championship visited Latvia for the first time. The odds were seemingly short on a Rovanpera victory in Latvia, given this Baltic nation was where he made his rally debut at the age of 12 driving a Citroen C2 R2. These gravel roads are where he cut his teeth, and the Finn even calls Latvia a third home behind Finland and Estonia. So it was no surprise that Rovanpera claimed his 14th WRC win to match fellow two-time champion Walter Rohrl and surpass the milestone of 200 stage wins in 50 top-flight starts. Last…

The streets of Toronto have hosted Indycar racing since 1986, and the winner that day as a driver – series legend Bobby Rahal – was a victor here last year too, as a team owner. After some false starts, the city signed off on the track around Exhibition Place – highlighted by the spectacular Princes’ Gate – for 1986. Rahal won the race in his Adrian Newey-designed Truesports March 86C, which kickstarted a charge to that year’s title. “Molson [Canadian beer company] really made this event, they papered the town with race tickets,” said Rahal last weekend. “Did a hell of a job downtown, they were effectively the promoter of the weekend. It just got bigger every year, and the Canadians are great open-wheel fans. “It was really exciting back…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP HOCKENHEIM (DEU) 20-21 JULY ROUND 3/5 Wins for Maro Engel in a GT3 Mercedes aren’t exactly unusual, so his victory at Hockenheim last Saturday with Lucas Auer was rather eclipsed the following day by the maiden success for Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen, their first in GT World Challenge Europe and the first in the championship for the Ferrari 296 GT3. Saturday’s race was headed by Eliseo Donno (AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3), who had stolen pole in the 10-minute qualifying session. The Italian led Green’s Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, Auer in the Winward Racing Mercedes, and the Team Engstler Lamborghini Huracan of Max Hofer. Behind the leading gaggle, Balance of Performance changes were manifesting themselves: after a poor qualifying showing, all the BMW…

NASCAR CUP INDIANAPOLIS (USA) 21 JULY ROUND 22/36 Kyle Larson made good on his second attempt this year to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Larson, who ran his first Indianapolis 500 in May in an aborted attempt to contest that race and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, won Sunday’s Brickyard 400 when he was the leader as a caution came out on the final lap of the second overtime. Larson gained the lead at the start of the first overtime, when his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet moved up to the front row as race leader Brad Keselowski peeled off at the last moment to pitroad and ran out of fuel. Larson passed Ryan Blaney’s Team Penske Ford for the lead on the restart, just before a multi-car wreck behind…

BRITISH GT The British GT paddock has unanimously supported the calendar changes for 2025, though a debate still rages over the future of Oulton Park. The Cheshire circuit has regularly opened the season, but there were just 23 minutes of green-flag running in the wet hour-long race two this year. This caused series bosses to make Donington Park its 2025 opener after feedback from teams, with Oulton now the third event. “I think it’s a good compromise,” said Paddock Motorsport’s Martin Plowman. “Oulton was always chaotic for the opening round with it being very tight – so have we outgrown it with GT3 cars? Maybe. “People are always a bit like caged animals ready to get going. So, it’d be telling to see if Oulton next year will be better…

CTCRC Former British Touring Car runner-up Sam Tordoff will race at a BTCC event for the first time since departing the series in the middle of 2019 when he tackles the Pre-’66 Touring Car contests at Croft this weekend. Tordoff has been a regular historics racer in recent seasons and is due to tackle the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s guest appearance on the BTCC bill at his local track in a Ford Falcon. He is one of several drivers to have achieved success in contemporary categories to be taking part in the non-championship event, with Autosport reporting last week (18 July) that Max Chilton will drive a Team Dynamics-run Lotus Cortina. Also at the wheel of a Cortina will be 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours victor Guy Smith, with…

BRITISH RALLYCROSS Lydden Hill, the birthplace of rallycross, threw back the years last weekend as the Kent circuit once again sang to the roar of Group B machines at the inaugural Lydden Legend Festival. Not for decades had a field of Group B cars lined up on the grid of a British venue and, while it was only demonstration runs, drivers including World Rally star Francois Delecour and 14-time European Rallycross champion Kenneth Hansen put on a spirited show. Hansen, driving the Peugeot 306 that British rallycross legend and 1992 European champion Will Gollop introduced for the 1994 season, led a driver parade lap during the Saturday lunch break with Gollop in the passenger seat of the car. In addition to the period rallycross and rally car runs, the weekend…

CADWELL PARK 750MC 20-21 JULY Victories for Tom Gadd, Dan Gore and Craig Pollard at Cadwell Park last weekend left the F1000 title race even more finely poised at halfway. The top-value Jedi single-seater contest, in the marque’s 40th anniversary season, now features 2022 conqueror Rob Welham leading Pollard into next month’s Silverstone doubleheader by two points, with reigning champion Gadd up to third ahead of Matt Higginson, who crashed out of the finale. Only Mark Betts, Gore, Adam Walker and Welham from F1000’s last visit – exactly five years ago – were on a 20-strong entry relishing the Hoosier-shod contest’s third venue. Lincolnshire man Gadd’s 1m21.454s (96.65mph) qualifying best was 0.316 seconds outside Richard Mitcham’s outright car lap record, set in 2010, when the Avon-tyred Formula Jedi specs permitted…

C1 ENDURANCE Team Alpha Trojon (Chris Freeman/Adam Willis) FUN CUP ENDURANCE Team Olympian-GRD (Simon Rudd/Chris Dovell/Riley Phillips, above) CITYCAR CUP Races 1 & 2 Stuart Bliss (Toyota Aygo) BMW COMPACT CUP Races 1 & 2 Joseph Doble Race 3 Gordon Macmillan SUPER SALOONS, TIN TOPS & INTERMARQUE SILHOUETTES Races 1 & 2 Ray Harris (Ginetta G40, below) MODIFIED FORDS Races 1 & 2 Tommy Field (Escort Mk1 RSR) CLUBSPORT TROPHY Jamie Hadley (VW Golf GTI) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

There are few finer places to celebrate motorsport history than at Shelsley Walsh, and this year’s Classic Nostalgia did it in style as the Worcestershire hillclimb venue heads towards its 120th anniversary. Classic Nostalgia is the big event of the season at the famous hill and, alongside a paddock full of pre-1975 competition cars, a raft of celebrations and demonstrations added to a real sense of occasion at a venue that oozes atmosphere. Despite unpredictable July weather, a bumper crowd came along to enjoy a fine spectacle along with an array of off-hill displays and attractions. A central theme was 40 years of engineering organisation Prodrive, and four special cars from the company story were demonstrated across the weekend, with technical director David Lapworth driving several of them. “I’ve not…

Gerhard Berger hot-foots it from his beached McLaren during the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez (round 14 of 16), after coming off worse in his bid to take fourth place from the Williams of Thierry Boutsen. Berger had lined up fifth on the grid, 1.231 seconds behind polesitting teammate Ayrton Senna, and the unfortunate byproduct of his immediate attempt to improve position was the elimination of Jean Alesi’s Tyrrell. Berger’s own exit from the race on lap 57 of 73, involving an airborne demi-pirouette, came just three tours after Senna’s retirement with a punctured radiator. Casting a cloud over the event was the horrific practice crash suffered by Lotus driver Martin Donnelly that ended his Formula 1 career, just weeks after Autosport had run the cover line ‘Is Donnelly…

WEC/IMSA Aston Martin’s new Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar has broken cover at the start of a test programme ahead of its race debut in 2025, in which it will race in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship. The British manufacturer’s first challenger for outright honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours since 2011 successfully came through runs on home ground at Silverstone and Donington Park last week. The pair of one-day tests, on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, were billed by Aston and the US-headquartered Heart of Racing squad, which will mount the campaigns in both series, as “a shakedown and initial evaluation testing” for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH. They followed an initial systems check of the car running without bodywork on the Silverstone Stowe school circuit earlier in the…

WEC/IMSA Ferrari has ruled out an expansion of its 499P Le Mans Hypercar programme into North America in the short term. The focus for 2025 will be a continued threecar assault on the World Endurance Championship with the AF Corse team, but an IMSA SportsCar Championship attack remains a possibility for the future. Antonello Coletta, head of sportscar racing at Ferrari, has revealed that the Italian manufacturer “prefers to consolidate our programme” rather than looking to expand onto a second front in IMSA. “Next year we will be involved only in WEC and not IMSA,” he said. “Now we concentrate on the WEC with three cars.” That will mean two factory 499Ps run by AF Corse in the Hypercar class and the third customer – or satellite – entry that…

WEC/FORMULA E Nico Muller will leave Peugeot’s Hypercar line-up at the end of this season – and, it seems, the World Endurance Championship for the foreseeable future. Last weekend’s London E-Prix was also his last outing with the Abt Cupra team in Formula E, the only series in which it appears he will race next year. The 32-year-old Swiss said on his departure from Abt that he is looking for “new challenges”, and it seems increasingly certain that this will be a tie-up with Porsche and an FE-only programme with Andretti, which uses the German manufacturer’s powertrain, for the 2024-25 season. That could be a prelude to a switch to the Porsche factory squad for the following season. Porsche gave Muller a try-out in one of its 99Xs at the…

Spa Length 4.352 miles Number of laps 44 UK START TIMES Friday 26 July FP1 1230 FP2 1600 Saturday 27 July FP3 1130 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 28 July RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors SPA STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Charles Leclerc 1m46.988s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m41.252s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m46.286s (2018) Spa podiums…

The Hungaroring had held 38 Formula 1 races. Some had been utter stinkers; others total thrillers. And, although McLaren scored a 1-2 in the 39th from a front row lockout – Oscar Piastri leading home Lando Norris to score his first grand prix victory – this one was certainly in the latter bracket. It was a contest bursting with narratives. That’s what made it so compelling. Here we present the 10 key factors that made the 2024 Hungarian GP so good. 1 Start saga transforms Piastri’s and Verstappen’s races The McLaren drivers had Max Verstappen starting behind them in third. When the lights went out, Norris reacted well enough, but then “something happened on my second shift and I lost all my momentum”. As a result, Piastri came steaming up…

Daniel Ricciardo castigated the RB team for his Hungarian Grand Prix strategy after the squad short-stopped him during his opening medium-tyre stint in response to the other midfield runners. Ricciardo, who qualified ninth, dropped two positions at the start to the soft-shod Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen, but expected to make up for it in clear air once this duo pitted at the end of the sixth lap. Instead, RB decided to counter them directly by stopping on the next tour, putting Ricciardo behind them once again – and all in lockstep with the hard tyre. “It’s a late call, ‘Box box box’ and you pit, but as soon as I’m pulling in the pits, I’m questioning,” Ricciardo vented. “But you get called in Turn 13, and you have to…

Oliver Solberg (above) moved into the lead of the WRC2 title race after scoring a dominant second win of the season in Latvia. Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson won 12 of the 20 stages to take the win by 37.4 seconds from Finnish Toyota pairing Mikko Heikkila (below) and Kristian Temonen. After struggling to extract pace from his Toksport WRT Skoda Fabia in Poland, Solberg admitted he was “a little nervous” heading into Latvia’s roads despite knowing the surroundings well, being a two-time Latvia winner. While not feeling totally at one with the car, Solberg rattled off seven consecutive fastest stage times to move into a 31.1s lead over Heikkila at the end of Friday. Once ahead, the Swede was in control to claim a first win since Sweden in…

FORMULA 2 HUNGARORING (HUN) 20-21 JULY ROUND 9/14 Andrea Kimi Antonelli found the soft Pirelli very much the wrong tyre to be on during the first race of the Formula 2 weekend at the Hungaroring, but it was absolutely the correct rubber to help the Italian Mercedes F1 prodigy secure his first feature race win in the series on Sunday. Saturday’s sprint race featured the rare intrigue of a split in tyre choice between the hard Pirelli and the soft. While reversed-grid poleman Richard Verschoor and fellow front-row starter Kush Maini lined up on the conventional hard rubber, second-row starter Antonelli was the highest placed of those gambling on softs. This yielded immediate results, with Antonelli’s Prema Racing car taking the lead off the Trident machine of Verschoor on the…

TCR WORLD TOUR INTERLAGOS (BRA) 21 JULY ROUND 4/7 A maiden TCR World Tour victory for Esteban Guerrieri and for Honda team GOAT Racing in Brazil has propelled the Argentinian into a title battle against Hyundai’s reigning champion Norbert Michelisz, who prevailed in race two. Santiago Urrutia’s Cyan Racing Lynk & Co had taken pole, but the Uruguayan was beaten off the line by Guerrieri, who was able to pull away and claim the win. Urrutia finished second, chased across the line by Guerrieri’s 19-year-old Italian team-mate Marco Butti. The race ended behind the safety car following an incident when the Hyundai of Nestor Girolami, who was fighting a technical issue and slowly slipping down the order, had been caught by the TCR South America pair of Matias Rossi and…

SUPER FORMULA FUJI (JPN) 21 JULY ROUND 4/7 Sho Tsuboi put an end to a Super Formula victory drought dating back to 2020 with a crushing win in the fourth round of the season at Fuji. TOM’S driver Tsuboi took advantage of having fresher tyres than his rivals for the second stint courtesy of a later mandatory pitstop, his Toyota-powered car moving up from fourth to second in short order before passing Toshiki Oyu for the lead on lap 34 of 41. From there Tsuboi opened up a seven-second gap to register his first win since joining TOM’S and his third in total, igniting his championship bid in the process. It had been KCMG driver Nirei Fukuzumi who led the opening part of the race after scoring a surprise pole…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK (AUS) 20-21 JULY ROUND 7/12 Chaz Mostert put himself right into the fight for the Supercars crown with two come-from-behind wins in Sydney. Under lights on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon, Mostert’s Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang had to chase down another black Ford that was on a one-stop strategy. In both races Mostert pursued a more conventional two stops, leaving him to run down the leader late in the 51-lap races. In both cases, he managed the task with laps to spare, winning by 2.6 seconds and 7.4s respectively. On Saturday it was Matt Payne who he had to chase, the Grove Racing Ford team leaving the 21-year-old out on the track while everyone around him pitted. Payne has looked sharp but set his…

BARC A new Welsh Motorsport and Supercar Festival will be held at Pembrey later this year that organisers hope will become an annual event and attract a new crowd to the venue. The inaugural 22 September event falls 31 years to the day since Ayrton Senna clocked the fastest-ever lap around the Welsh circuit when testing there for McLaren in a Lamborghini-powered MP4/8B. Historic Formula 1 cars, rallying machines and performance vehicles are among a huge number due to be on display at the festival. Ben Taylor, group CEO of circuit operator the British Automobile Racing Club, explained that the event will not feature any racing, giving organisers far more freedom to offer the likes of passenger rides in aid of charity. “We’ve done quite a bit down at Pembrey…

HISTORIC RALLYING Mark Higgins and Carl Williamson were the stars of the British Historic Rally Championship as they won last weekend’s Tour of Epynt in the David Appleby Engineering Triumph TR7 V8. Remarkably, this was Higgins’s first ever rally over the notorious military ranges in mid-Wales, but he quickly got to grips with wet conditions on Saturday afternoon to take a lead he would hold through a dry Sunday. After 80 flat-out special stage miles, Higgins was 1m20s up on Seb Perez and Dale Bowen in their Porsche 911 Carrera RS, while locals Neil Williams and Eurig Davies completed the BHRC podium in their Ford Escort Mk2. Belying the myth that previous experience of Epynt is everything, Higgins and Perez were both tackling these asphalt roads for the first time…

There have been a number of Modified Ford categories over the years but, having attracted grids of over 40 cars this season, the current British Racing & Sports Car Club series is proving to be considerably more popular than many of its predecessors. “We started the series just before the pandemic in 2020,” said coordinator Paul Nevill. “It was fairly healthy from the start, but it’s really grown over the last two years, with people now building new cars for the series. “We want to include more circuits too and we revisited Knockhill this year for the first time in years, and go to Navarra too later in the year. We have done Spa and are planning to go to Mondello next season, as we want an away day every…

BOULEY BAY & VAL DES TERRES BRITISH HILLCLIMB 17 & 20 JULY When the final reckoning is done in the British Hillclimb Championship, Alex Summers may well look back on his late decision to travel to the Channel Islands and see it as a very good call. He won three of the four run-offs in Jersey and Guernsey to build his points lead. Bouley Bay has always been good to Trevor Willis – and he made the absolute most of that with a storming performance in the first of the Island double-headers. At a hill that rewards controlled pace rather than outright power, Willis is the longstanding hill record-holder and drove a peach of a first run, aided by a new set of rubber, to win the opening run-off last…

F1 IN WORCESTERSHIRE Formula 1 cars on static display included two Tyrrells from Martin Stretton’s squad, while the ex-James Hunt Hesketh 308 of James Hagan took to the hill. The Tyrrell 011 was the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix winner with Michele Alboreto and was the last Tyrrell to win an F1 race. The 012 was the car that Stretton has used in Historic F1. In period, it was raced by Stefan Bellof, Stefan Johansson and Martin Brundle. Stretton, who has driven in Historic F1 for 29 seasons, was back at the venue where he first competed in 1979 in his uncle’s Frazer Nash. SPEDDING’S E-TYPE Father and son Haydn and Rob Spedding ran their Jaguar E-type at Shelsley as Spedding Sr celebrates 46 years of owning and competing in the…

When the late tin-top specialist Richard Lloyd was racing Volkswagen’s new hot hatch in the British Touring Car Championship in the late 1970s, the German manufacturer used to place adverts in Autosport proclaiming: ‘If you want to succeed in motor racing, take up Golf ’. But in the case of 2024 BTCC Jack Sears Trophy leader Mikey Doble, it’s a case of giving golf up. The Surrey up-and-comer left school at 16, and ended a promising karting career in order to go to golf college to try to make it as a pro. “I got to a level where I was very good at golf, but not good enough to earn money at it,” says Doble. “So I went to work for the family business [a motorcycle shop], and go…

Despite having to use a wheelchair after his life-changing IndyCar crash at Pocono in 2018, Robert Wickens remains active in touring car racing, which completes a circle for the Canadian. His chance in American single-seater racing’s top tier came via a six-year spell in the DTM where, as a Mercedes driver, he found himself learning from one of the championship’s very best in Gary Paffett, who Wickens picks as his favourite team-mate. “Gary and I just got on really well, and then my final four years there we were team-mates,” says Wickens, now 35. “We would always share the same driver room, and we just got really close outside of the track on a personal level.” Paffett, now team manager at McLaren in Formula E, would subsequently add a second…

FORMULA 1 Kevin Magnussen will leave the Haas Formula 1 team at the end of the 2024 season, with Esteban Ocon poised to replace him in a switch from Alpine. The American-owned squad announced Magnussen’s departure in the build-up to last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. The Dane holds the record for most F1 races started for Haas – 136, out of a career total of 176 including McLaren and Renault. Magnussen was initially let go by Haas after the 2020 season, before being brought back for 2022 when the team dropped Nikita Mazepin and his sponsor Uralkali on the eve of that season due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His strong showings alongside Mick Schumacher contributed to the German being replaced by Nico Hulkenberg for 2023, but since then fellow…

WEC Toyota is planning to race its proposed hydrogen combustion Hypercar class contender alongside its existing GR010 HYBRID in the 2028 World Endurance Championship. It is expecting to undertake a short programme of events around the Le Mans 24 Hours with the new contender that will be developed out of the GR HY Concept revealed last year. John Litjens, project leader of Hypercar development at Toyota Gazoo Racing, explained that the project is still at an embryonic stage but stressed that Toyota will continue to compete for the championship with the GR010 Le Mans Hypercar on the delayed introduction of hydrogen machinery in 2028. It is expected that the alternative fuel will only be allowed at three WEC races, Le Mans included, in its inaugural year. “What we have planned…

MOTORSPORT GAMES Leading rally drivers could compete at this year’s FIA Motorsport Games thanks to a new All-Stars category. Rallying was already part of the Olympics-style event, with Rally2 (for four-wheel-drive machinery), Rally4 (2WD) and Historic (1970-81) elements. Those three categories will be expanded – each split into mixed-surface, gravel and asphalt contests – while Rally All-Stars will award a single set of medals across a mixed-surface competition using Rally2 cars. Organisers hope the move will attract World Rally Championship drivers to the third running of the biannual Motorsport Games, to be held in Valencia, Spain across 23-27 October on a non-WRC weekend. Double World Rally champion Carlos Sainz (left) said: “Rallying can be a little different depending on the country. Tarmac, for example, is not the most usual surface…

“They can all f*** off.” Well, we know exactly how Max Verstappen would respond to criticism. He said those words at the end of his pen duties with print media after the Hungarian Grand Prix, having endured a torrid afternoon. He’d then gone back to Red Bull’s hospitality behemoth against post-race protocols, cooled, headed back to face the media, answered everything else rather reasonably, then left with one more spit of ire towards any critics he was perceiving at the time. Throughout Verstappen’s Formula 1 career, the Hungaroring has been the scene of magic and misery. Sunday was certainly more of the latter. But what stood out most were his spectacularly public responses to his various tribulations. This is a driver that remains 76 points clear in the drivers’ championship.…

It seemed that no one was really happy after Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured McLaren’s first GP front row lockout since 2012 in Brazil, but seemed determined not to get carried away given the team’s recent struggles. Max Verstappen hit out at Red Bull’s upgrade not delivering enough performance to topple the McLarens, and Sergio Perez crashed the other RB20 out – again – in Q1. That session had taken placed in mixed conditions, a pre-qualifying shower wetting the track, but the intense humidity last weekend not letting it settle. The drivers therefore headed out straight away on slick tyres. More light rain featured at various points either side of Perez’s crash, where the Mexican had braked from too far wide on the slippery Turn…

Sergio Perez recovered from his qualifying shunt to clinch seventh place with a well-worked strategy, going long on his opening stint on hard tyres. The under-pressure Red Bull driver had looked much more comfortable during free practice, the highlight being his run to fourth in FP2, but his slip on the kerb at Turn 8 during a period of light rain in Q1 put him straight into the wall. He therefore lined up 16th, crucially avoiding damage to his gearbox, but insisted that he was “not worried” about the crash affecting his prospects. “I’m fully determined to turn my season around and focus on my performance,” said the Mexican. “It hurts a lot as a driver when you let your team down, but I will not give up. I will…

Lance Stroll rescued a point for Aston Martin, helped in part by Fernando Alonso taking an early pitstop to help clear a space for the Canadian to pit into. The two were slightly hurt in the long term with the decision to start on soft tyres, and Alonso’s early stop was not viewed favourably by the Spanish veteran, who felt that the following stints were ultimately too long. Stroll had enough in reserve to put pressure on the one-stopping Yuki Tsunoda at the end, but ran out of time to double his points haul and the RB driver held on. “The strategy, I don’t think it was optimal,” said Alonso, who finished 11th. “Obviously, easy to say after the race. Probably the team felt it was a good one. I…

Formula E is no stranger to championship-deciding final rounds, but last weekend’s title showdown in London may have been the most dramatic in the championship’s 10-year history. Pascal Wehrlein defied the odds and the best efforts of Jaguar drivers Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans to claim the crown. On paper, Wehrlein was always the underdog heading into the final two races of the season, not only because he was 12 points behind Cassidy at the head of the table. The tight, twisty confines of the London ExCeL circuit, with its unique indoor/outdoor configuration, have always favoured Jaguar’s powertrain as evidenced by both Cassidy – then with customer team Envision – and Evans taking a win apiece last season. Unlike last term, though, Porsche’s vastly improved pace over one lap offered…

FORMULA 3 HUNGARORING (HUN) 20-21 JULY ROUND 8/10 The Formula 3 glory last weekend at the Hungaroring did not go to the main title contenders. But while Nikita Bedrin took the chequered flag on Saturday for his first F3 victory, and Nikola Tsolov did so on Sunday for his maiden feature race success, the championship hotted up so that there is a thrilling final dash for glory to come. The drama began in qualifying when Luke Browning crashed and fell foul of a new rule for 2024, which states that any driver who causes a red flag in the session “may” have their best time deleted. As a result, the Hitech GP-run Williams junior dropped from seventh to 15th, and could not benefit from the partially reversed grid in the…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP HUNGARORING (HUN) 21 JULY ROUND 5/8 Harry King broke Larry ten Voorde’s 100% domination of the 2024 Porsche Supercup to date with a consummate victory in Hungary to slash the Dutch veteran’s points advantage to just 10. A nightmare qualifying session for ten Voorde, in which his best lap was deleted due to a track limits offence, left his CLRT machine down in 11th on the grid. His team-mate Marvin Klein was quickest, but a three-place grid penalty for impeding promoted Lechner Racing star King onto pole ahead of Dutch rookie Kas Haverkort. Ex-Formula Regional ace Haverkort tried to brave it out with King at Turn 1 after the start, but that merely left him vulnerable to attack from Team GP Elite stablemate and compatriot Huub van Eijndhoven,…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN PAUL RICARD (FRA) 20-21 JULY ROUND 6/10 Rafael Camara turned the tide on fellow Ferrari F1 protege Tuukka Taponen by stemming the Finn’s recent charge and reopening a healthy points lead in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine thanks to a consummate victory in France. The Brazilian was dominant in the opening race, his Prema Racing car pulling away from Michael Belov (Trident), with Brando Badoer in third. Taponen had lost a front-row starting position at the last gasp in qualifying when Belov dipped below his time, and couldn’t even keep his starting position of fourth. The 17-year-old lost out to Ivan Domingues on the opening lap and, despite Taponen’s best efforts, he couldn’t prevent the Portuguese completing a Van Amersfoort Racing 3-4. Things got worse…

BRITISH GT British GT squad RAM Racing has apologised for the actions that led to its disqualification from the Snetterton round earlier this month, saying it regrets the “abusive” behaviour towards officials that cost the team a podium. RAM’s BMW GT3 pairing John Ferguson and Max Hesse finished third in race two in Norfolk, but moved up to second when Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin lost their win for lapping GT4 traffic during a late safety-car period. Their 30-second penalty handed victory to 2 Seas Mercedes pair Maximilian Gotz and Kevin Tse, but Ferguson argued to the race director that Gotz and Tse should have been penalised for the same offence. He did so “in a manner that was considered abusive and threatening”, so the RAM BMW was disqualified from…

GT CUP Beechdean AMR will tackle this weekend’s rounds of the GT Cup at Silverstone to give Andrew Howard some extra seat time during the British GT summer break. A “clashing commitment” meant Howard and Beechdean were forced to miss the recent Snetterton British GT event, while the previous round at Spa was a very short one for their GT3 Aston Martin. Now Howard will reunite with Darren Turner – the pair having previously won the 2016 European Le Mans Series GTE title, but have not shared a car since 2018. “Being taken out at Spa at the first corner and then missing Snetterton means we’d have gone three months without actually racing when British GT resumes at Donington,” explained Howard. “Taking part in the GT Cup at Silverstone –…

TOCA The new TOCA Junior championship will be officially launched next month, while organisers have also confirmed that the cars used in the series will be badged as Chevrons. Ever since the announcement that Ginetta and its popular Junior category would depart the British Touring Car bill in 2022, TOCA boss Alan Gow made it clear he wanted a new series for teenagers to take its place. A tender was launched and a bid submitted by Junior Saloons chief Dave Beecroft was chosen. A bespoke rear-wheel-drive chassis has since been developed and this will be revealed for the first time at an invite-only launch event on 13 August in Daventry that will be open to prospective teams and drivers. The car will then make its first public outing just under…

AUDI TT CUP Mazda MX-5 Supercup race winner Sam Heading impressed on his debut in the Audi TT Cup at Croft earlier this month, after making a mid-season switch to the category. A successful first season in cars last year included a win at Cadwell Park and four further podium finishes. But, after recording only a single podium in the opening three weekends of 2024, Heading decided to make the move to front-wheel-drive racing. Driving Rob Boston Racing’s third TT, the Sussex youngster qualified eighth in tricky conditions and finished both wet races inside the top seven. “I just didn’t enjoy the Mazda in the end,” said the former karter. “I thought I wanted to do something different and these are quicker. “I fancied a go at front-wheel drive. It’s…

SNETTERTON BRSCC 20-21 JULY The Team Alpha Trojon duo of Chris Freeman and Adam Willis took the C1 Endurance victory spoils at Snetterton last weekend after a dramatic finale to the three-hour contest. Freeman had initially duelled with Baycon’s Sandro Proietti, before they were both among several of the expected frontrunners to make early stops. After one hour, 2022 British Touring Car champion Tom Ingram led Proietti but, as individual strategies came into play, some crews made all of their mandatory stops early on, which then resulted in them climbing the leaderboard in the closing stages. Oscar Proietti had taken over from father Sandro for the second half, but Willis was chipping away at his lead. Then, with time for just five more laps, Proietti headed pitwards for fuel, leaving…

ANGLESEY CSCC 20-21 JULY The Midget & Sprite Challenge put on a fine display of racing that would have made recently deceased championship coordinator Mike Parker proud at the Classic Sports Car Club’s Anglesey event last weekend. On a weekend when many wins and podiums were clinched by fractions of a second, the 32-strong Midget & Sprite field was dominated by Paul Sibley, who converted pole into a double win. Pippa Cow jumped five places on the first lap of race one, pressuring James Hughes in second, before executing an audacious pass at Rocket. The pair then swapped places more than once, with Ian Burgin enjoying a front-row seat from fourth. When the Collinson Midget retired to the infield, it triggered an early chequer and yellows at the Bus Stop,…

VIDEO GAME REVIEW F1 MANAGER 2024 PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S Release date 23 July RRP £29.99 (Standard Edition); £35.99 (Deluxe Edition) After F1 Manager 2022’s encouraging start, F1 Manager 2023 was the musical equivalent of the ‘difficult second album’, lacking genuine innovation to justify its price tag. With F1 Manager 2024 promising more new features and a more polished experience, Frontier Developments’ third attempt at simulating the work of a Formula 1 team principal has to deliver on its early promise. Playing for the first time, you can immediately see 2024’s resemblance to ’22: it features similar music, menu graphics and layout. Its UI is clean and simple to navigate and remains one of the series’ strengths: as the adage goes,…