Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Championship leader Max Verstappen overcame the odds to take victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, having started from tenth place after suffering a power issue during qualifying. He praised his team for their efforts and solid strategy calls that helped him achieve the impressive result for Red Bull Racing. 

“It feels crazy to have won the race today from P10, especially on a track like this where it’s very hard to pass. We made all the right calls today, there were some good undercuts and overall we did a great job today as a Team.”

Having been able to charge through the grid and create a solid lead by the race’s end, Verstappen said that the race was one of his top performances, and fans tended to agree, as the Dutch driver took the title of Driver of the Day with thirty-four percent of the vote. 

It was a race that appeared to be in Scuderia Ferrari’s favour, but as the Italian outfit struggled to maintain their position near the front, Verstappen was able to extend his lead over Charles Leclerc with this weekend’s result. He is now sitting at 258 points to Leclerc’s 178 in the Drivers’ standings. 

“This was definitely one of my best races, despite the little 360-degree spin! I’m very happy with the lead that we have, but of course we have to keep pushing and win more races.”

Stoffel Vandoorne is one-step closer to becoming the 2022 ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers’ Champion, after a remarkable comeback drive saw the Belgian driver extend his lead to thirty-six points. Vandoorne goes to the season finale in Seoul with one hand virtually on the championship trophy.

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver had a disastrous Sunday morning, where he qualified in thirteenth-place after failing to make it to the duels. However, luck was clearly on the Vandoorne’s side, as all three of his championship rivals also failed to make it past the qualifying groups.

In the race, Vandoorne calved his way through the field behind main-title rival Mitch Evans, who was in need of strong points to reduce his deficit to the Mercedes driver. The duo looked set to finish fourth and fifth, with Vandoorne in the latter position. With two minutes two go, though, Evans’ car suddenly shut-off! Vandoorne watched on as his main title threat pulled off the circuit at the Custom House chicane, meaning that the Belgian driver inherited an incredible fourth-place finish.

There was yet further outstanding news for Vandoorne, as the other two title challengers, Jean-Éric Vergne and Edoardo Mortara, also both failed to finish in the points. It was a champions drive from Vandoorne, who told The Checkered Flag after the race that he actually had to overcome a “little bit of damage” during the E-Prix.

“Yeah, it was a fun race, to be honest. Although my car was a little bit damaged after the race and the mechanics have a little bit of work to do. But it was a good race considering where I started. Made my life a little bit more difficult after qualifying, to be fair. But yeah, on a day like today, when there was so much carnage in the first couple of laps, I managed to avoid everything and I managed to make some great overtakings as well to come through the field. So it’s been a good day.”

George Gamble‘s superb rookie season in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) reached another milestone on Sunday evening taking his first race win in a lights to flag victory in Race Three at Knockhill.

After some time away from motorsport, Gamble wasn’t expected to produce what he has so far in his debut in Touring Cars for Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport but the promise was immediately shown at Donington Park with a podium and now has been capped off with a win as the second half of the season begins and for the Nottingham based driver, he goes from strength to strength.

ROKiT MB Motorsport‘s Jake Hill fought back to complete an impressive day with a second placed effort after Rory Butcher battled with Gamble at the start of the race but the battle that ensued that also included Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington allowed nearly a five second gap in the end for Gamble with the main action coming from the chasing pack.

Gordon Shedden was initially towards the front of the grid alongside his brother-in-law Butcher but was tangled in a lap one incident with Tom Ingram who has not left Knockhill as the championship leader.

A title which is bestowed upon Turkington but only just ahead by five points to Ingram and six points ahead of Ash Sutton with Jake Hill also coming back from a near 40 point gap to reduce that to 14 points.

It was heartbreak for Mitch Evans at the second race of the London E-Prix, as after making his way from fourteenth to fourth, his car failed with only two minutes remaining. It’s put a severe dent in the New Zealander’s title hopes, as he slipped to thirty-six points behind Stoffel Vandoorne.

Evans put on a blistering display during the race, at a circuit that was supposedly impossible to overtake at. He was looking all but certain to finish in fourth-place, until he dramatically pulled-off the circuit with just a couple minutes remaining.

The Kiwi spoke to The Checkered Flag after the race, where he explained what happened with the car.

“Yeah, I mean it seems like well a few laps before I stopped, I had started having some strange behavior on the brakes and the car was yeah, I could tell that something was not right. We tried to dissect it quick and try and fix the problem fast but unfortunately, I thought I had with cured it. But then as soon as I thought we could just press on to the end of the race, the car shut down and I had to stop the car.

“Obviously the team will look into it, but it looks like an inverter failure, which is horrible.There’s still some positives. Obviously there’s some question marks. Like with our one that qualifying pace just wasn’t really there this weekend. I would say we’ve not been the strongest in qualifying the whole year, but we’ve been still really good.

Alexander Smolyar won the FIA Formula 3 Championship‘s Feature Race in mixed conditions at the Hungaroring on Sunday morning.

After starting on pole, he was able to build a gap back to Zane Maloney and Oliver Bearman who made it a photo-finish for second place.

Maloney made the best start but Smolyar anticipated it and moved across to block him, with Bearman trying to get past Maloney into Turn 3 but running wide.

Kush Maini got up to fourth, chased by Jak Crawford who got up to fourth ahead of Gregoire Saucy.

Reece Ushijima made up ten places on Lap 1, having started P19.

Marcos Flack romped to his first GB3 Championship win in Race 3 at Silverstone on Sunday, but there was chaos behind him.

Tom Lebbon, Roberto Faria and Nick Gilkes were disqualified from Race 2 for setting a fastest sector time under yellow flags, while Branden Oxley and James Hedley were disqualified for causing collisions which took Zak Taylor and McKenzy Cresswell out of the race respectively.

Oxley was tagged and spun around by Tommy Smith at Becketts at the start, while later in the lap James Hedley and Cian Shields ran wide at Club and ran across the wet gravel to rejoin.

Joel Granfors got around the outside of David Morales at Luffield and Woodcote on Lap 2, while Callum Voisin did the same to Luke Browning.

Nick Gilkes sent one down the inside of Alex Connor for third at Vale, but the pair made contact and Gilkes spun to fall to the back.

Lucas Di Grassi claimed a staggering victory at the second race of the London E-Prix, with Jake Dennis finishing second and Nyck de Vries in third. The big story of the race was Stoffel Vandoorne finishing in fourth-place, whilst none of his title rivals scored any points. The Belgian driver looks all but certain to win the Drivers’ Championship.

As the lights went out all twenty-two drivers’ managed to get away cleanly, although, Antonio Giovinazzi and António Félix Da Costa almost came together. Only a few corners later and everything got too tight for comfort, as Oliver Rowland was squeezed against the wall by Oliver Askew and launched slightly into the air. The Brit hit Jean-Éric Vergne when his front-wheels made contact back on the ground, yet somehow everyone continued driving.

Turn Sixteen saw absolute carnage on the first lap, with a cutback move by Mitch Evans resulting in bumper cars behind. Rowland pulled into the pits at the end of the opening lap and unfortunately retired from the race. Dan Ticktum retired just a lap later after hitting the wall heavily at Turn Twenty, meaning two Brits were out of their home race by the end of Lap One.

The drama didn’t end there, as Vergne retired on the following lap, potentially due to damage caused by the impact with Rowland on Lap One. The retirement realistically ended the Frenchman’s hopes of claiming another ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. With carbon fibre scattered across the ExCeL Centre, a full Safety Car was deployed.

It wasn’t long until the racing was underway again, with Askew pulling off a huge divebomb on Maximilian Günther at Turn Sixteen. Da Costa fell from fourth to fifth, after Giovinazzi forced the Portuguese driver wide whilst defending his place. De Vries was on hand to overtake Da Costa, and then Giovinazzi on the following lap having activated his first of three attack modes.

Ash Sutton has sealed his first win of the season and also under the NAPA Racing UK banner in the BTCC in another superb tussle between the reigning champion and Jake Hill in Race Two at Knockhill.

Sutton has continued to get better and better after switching back to front-wheel drive at the turn of the year and has plugged away despite at times not getting the results out of the Ford Focus ST. But this has now paid dividends.

Hill held on in the early running before a mistake handed Sutton the advantage and a route through and it was another error which allowed Sutton to get further up the road as he battled with Colin Turkington who himself ran wide into turn one to allow his teammate back through.

But after the errors, Hill fought hard making his last move on the final chicane as he aimed to go side by side with Sutton but the latter just pinched the win by just 0.141s.

Turkington in a usual display battled hard to seal vital points claiming a podium back-to-back ahead of Tom Ingram, the current championship leader who picked off places of George Gamble and Stephen Jelley among others.

In a battle between two of the must watch drivers on the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), Jake Hill and Ash Sutton produced a modern day classic in Race One at Knockhill.

Hill battled back after losing out on the second lap to Sutton who produced a superb move to pass the BMW. They remained inseparable throughout the opening laps until contact on the final hairpin on lap five.

Sutton was heavy on the breaks and Hill misjudged the move slightly and hit the Ford Focus before further contact on the next lap but a clean fight ensued on lap eight as they swapped places twice, but as the rear wheel drive BMW’s got stronger as did Hill as he got the job done to seal his second win of the season.

The Ford Focus ST held on from Colin Turkington in the end who finished on the podium ahead of Stephen Jelley with George Gamble in a return to form after a superb start to BTCC life finishing in the top five holding off championship leader Tom Ingram. Gordon Shedden, Rory Butcher, Dan Cammish and Ricky Collard finalised the top 10.

2022 British Touring Car Championship – Race 1 – Knockhill

1.       Jake HILL (GBR) ROKiT MB Motorsport 24 laps
2.       Ash SUTTON (GBR) NAPA Racing UK +3.640s
3.       Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +3.784s
4.       Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +5.979s
5.       George GAMBLE (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +6.363s
6.       Tom INGRAM (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +6.933s
7.       Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +13.008s
8.       Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +13.984s
9.       Dan CAMMISH (GBR) NAPA Racing UK +14.242s
10.     Ricky COLLARD (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +14.381s
11.     Tom CHILTON (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +15.296s
12.     Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +16.210s
13.     Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +17.124s
14.     Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +18.220s
15.     Josh COOK (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +21.591s
16.     Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +23.599s
17.     Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +34.493s
18.     Rick PARFITT (GBR) Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing +34.803s
19.     Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +36.371s
20.     Dexter PATTERSON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +37.039s
21.     Will POWELL (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +41.723s
22.     Jade EDWARDS (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +42.293s
23.     Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +43.259s
24.     Nic HAMILTON (GBR) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +48.873s  
25.     Ash HAND (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +2 laps
26.     Michael CREES (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +2 laps
27.     Jason PLATO (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +2 laps
28.     Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +3 laps
29.     Jack BUTEL (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +19 laps

Jake Dennis sealed another London E-Prix pole position, to make it back-to-back pole positions at the ExCeL Centre. The Brit was met by an eruption of applause from the British crowd, as the experienced Lucas Di Grassi qualified alongside him. Antonio Giovinazzi was the big shock of the duels, the Italian managed to qualify in third.

However, whilst there was delight for Dennis, there was severe disappointment for all four title contenders. All four failed to make it to the duels and will start from the mid-pack, putting all at risk of opening lap carnage.

Group A

Group A saw championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne and his team-mate Nyck de Vries, Race One winner Dennis also featured in the first group. Sérgio Sette Câmara, Oliver Askew, Maximilian Günther, title challenger Edoardo Mortara, António Félix Da Costa, Oliver Rowland, Sam Bird and André Lotterer all featured in Group A.

After the first runs it was Dennis who yet again sat top of the timesheets on a mid 1:13, with Bird, Askew and Vandoorne all very close behind. After two collisions in Free Practice 3, Mortara was clearly suffering from confidence, he was last after his first run.

Mortara led the pack out for their final push-lap, knowing that he needed to put in a performance. The Swiss failed once again to make it to the duels in London; however, championship leader Vandoorne also failed to make it into the duels after a big lock-up at Turn One!

Since my last column, there’s been good and bad news on the racing front so let’s get the negative stuff out of the way first! My GT Cup Championship team-mate, Paul Bailey, has decided to withdraw from this year’s remaining races and I can fully understand his reasoning.

We suffered engine issues with his “customer” Brabham BT62 Competition at Brands Hatch a month or so back, the car’s first outing since a new engine was fitted. We had to switch to his 10-year-old and very rare McLaren MP4-12C Can Am for Race 2 and although we won the GTO class, the McLaren is uncompetitive compared to the more modern cars we’re up against.

Not surprisingly, Paul is very disappointed with the Brabham’s unreliability and so believing that we’d struggle for the remaining races, he’s pulled the plug on the entry. After that Brands event, we were placed sixth overall in the championship standings and second in GTO but I have to agree with Paul that continuing would have been a massive uphill battle.   

I feel really sorry for Paul who has spent a lot of his own money on this car. We twice made history in it last year, having achieved the first-ever class victory for a “customer” Brabham BT62 Competition in June, we went on to achieve a first outright race victory in the world for a “customer” BT62 at Silverstone in August. 

My next race was with Matty Graham when we claimed sixth place in the Valluga Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport in the British GT Championship at Donington Park at the end of May. 

Tom Lebbon took his second GB3 Championship win at Silverstone on Sunday morning, at the same venue where he took his first earlier in the season.

He tangled with Callum Voisin at the end of the race, but survived a puncture to hold onto the lead.

Voisin lost the lead off the line to Lebbon, with Joel Granfors also making his way through at Maggotts, while Javier Sagrera and Roberto Faria also got past the British-Swiss driver.

McKenzy Cresswell went off at Abbey, rolling his Chris Dittmann Racing car twice, but was able to get out of the car under his own steam.

Meanwhile, Bryce Aron slowed and pitted as the safety car came out, but rejoined the back of the field.

Envision Racing‘s Nick Cassidy topped Sunday’s opening session of the London E-Prix, where the New Zealander set the fastest-lap of the weekend so far. António Félix Da Costa and Robin Frijns rounded-off the top three.

Edoardo Mortara was the day’s early-pacesetter, before Jake Dennis who completely dominated Saturday made his way to the top of the timesheets. With ten minutes remaining, Dennis set a 1:13.092, the fastest time of the weekend so far. The morning session was very overcast, with some of the drivers complaining of a few drops of rain.

Mortara brought out a brief yellow-flag at Turn Nine, after spinning and coming into slight contact with the wall. When rejoining the circuit, the ROKIT Venturi Racing driver almost made contact with one of the DS Techeetah drivers, in what would’ve been a heavy collision.

With eight minutes left, the top five were separated by under a tenth of a second, highlighting that the day will be incredibly close. In the final five minutes Sérgio Sette Câmara and Frijns almost broke into the 1:12s, both set 1:13.0s. With three minutes remaining, Cassidy became the first driver to break into the 1:12s, setting a 1:12.933.

Elsewhere, Mortara continued to push too hard, following a disastrous Saturday. The Swiss driver found himself in the wall again, this time at the Custom House chicane.

It was a Saturday to forget for ROKIT Venturi Racing, after championship contender Edoardo Mortara failed to score a point, seriously hampering his title bid. However, nobody was more furious than Lucas Di Grassi who managed to finish in the points despite starting from the back.

The Brazilian driver could’ve been a podium contender in Race One on Saturday; however, Di Grassi had all of his Qualifying laps staggeringly deleted. Di Grassi had managed to qualify for the duels, but was slapped with a ridiculous penalty for supposedly impeding Mitch Evans.

An anger-driven Di Grassi fought his way through to finish tenth-place, recovering at least something from the horrific day.

The Venturi driver said that it was the “hardest” he’d ever fought for a points finish, with “every point” being “worth fighting for”.

“Today’s race was very hard and because the circuit is not the most energy sensitive, we knew that it would be very difficult to pass. Despite starting from the back of the grid, we managed to gain 13 positions, which averages around one overtake every three laps. This result comes down to a good strategy and an even better car. It is probably the hardest I have ever fought to score two points in my career.

Mitch Evans faced a mix Saturday at the London E-Prix, where the New Zealander recovered well from a difficult qualifying. The TCS Jaguar Racing driver failed to make it into the duels, resulting in a fourteenth-place start.

Despite virtually all the drivers’ explaining how it would be impossible to overtake at the ExCeL Centre, Evans pulled off eight moves. The Jaguar driver managed to recover a sixth-place finish, moving him to second in the Drivers’ Championship.

However, he slipped further behind championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne, who finished second behind Jake Dennis. Evans clearly had strong pace in London, but was unable to utilise it all after making a mistake in qualifying.

Evans blames his mistake for having to come through the field, but is determined to “bounce back” in the second race on Sunday.

“After my mistake in qualifying we were on the backfoot, starting from P14, but we finished a solid P6 with eight points. It was a really hard race, very physical, and hard to manage because of the kind of track we have here in London. We managed to make a lot of overtakes, the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 felt really good and has a lot of pace, so hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow. We’ll bounce back, have a strong quali and start towards the front to have a good result.”