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Pierre Gasly scored his first points of the season at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, whilst team-mate Yuki Tsunoda failed to even make the start at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

It was a strong Grand Prix for the French Scuderia AlphaTauri driver, who after starting ninth, battled hard throughout to clinch an eighth place finish and his first points of the season. It could’ve possibly been an even better result for Gasly, had he not been caught out by the Safety Car to clear up Nicholas Latifi’s last corner crash, nevertheless eighth place is a super result.

Gasly was very pleased to leave Saudi Arabia with points, which was a miracle considering that from very early-on in the race the Frenchman suffered from intestine pain.

“I’m really happy with how today went and glad I’m coming away with points. We got really unlucky with the safety car, as we boxed around 30 seconds before it came out and so dropped down the field, which wasn’t ideal. We managed to make our way back up though to P8, so really pleased with that.

“From my side the last 15 laps were really difficult, I had some pain in my intestine and it was really difficult to race. I’m feeling good in the car though, I’m able to push the way I want to, but I think we need to just find some more downforce. We know the areas we need to improve so we just need to go away and find the solutions now.”

Haas F1 Team principal, Guenther Steiner, has said that team morale is high at the moment, following a second consecutive points finish for the American racing team. With Kevin Magnussen finishing in ninth place at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Steiner says that Haas “cannot wait” for the first grand prix at Melbourne in three years, where they are hoping to get both cars into the points.

“It was a good day again and we got some points. Obviously, we planned to have more but we’re happy with what we got and as long as we keep scoring, we’re happy,” the boss explained.

“We started on a different strategy – on the hard tire – to most of the other teams and unfortunately the safety car came out at the wrong moment. Nevertheless, Kevin and the team fought back to get into the points which was fantastic to see again.”

“Spirits are high here and we cannot wait to get to Melbourne to hopefully score some more points with both cars.”

Haas have certainly taken the world by surprise with their competitiveness in the 2022 season – especially after the miserable 2021 season the team experienced. The black, white and red-themed racing team are in a very strong position, and look to be fighting for the ‘best of the rest’ position at the end of the season.

Kevin Magnussen has scored points for the second weekend in a row at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a positive end to the weekend after a difficult Saturday afternoon for Haas F1 Team, caused by Mick Schumacher‘s terrifying accident at turn thirteen.

Despite finishing in the points, Magnussen believes that there was potential for more points, should the safety car have not come out at exactly the wrong time – “The worst thing that could happen to us did happen as we started on the opposite strategy, on the hard tire. Almost everyone else was on mediums and the worst thing that could happen was a safety car on lap 16 or 17, and it happened on lap 16.”

“To still get two points is very good and the car was phenomenal again, it’s such a joy to drive. We did get a little bit of luck back at the end with the Virtual Safety Car but had that been a safety car rather than a VSC, everyone would’ve been condensed and with new tires we would’ve scored big points again.”

“The team has done a fantastic job and we bounced back from a difficult situation on Friday, so I’m happy,” concluded Magnussen, after a ninth place finish for Haas.

Mick Schumacher – “I’m feeling good,” following high-speed qualifying crash

As a result of his scary accident in Qualifying 2 on Saturday, Schumacher was unable to compete in Sunday’s Grand Prix, but commented on his condition before the race:

Elias Adestam has recently joined the GB4 championship with Fortec Motorsport for the 2022 campaign.  

At just 15-years-old, the youngster has had an impressive racing career. Adestam started racing at just five years old in a handmade kart made by his father, Rickard, on a custom-made track in his grandfather’s potato field. 

In 2014, Adestam made his karting debut at the age of 8 and was a regular front runner back in his hometown. It wasn’t long before the Swedish driver made his single-seater debut in 2020, at the Ring Knutstorp in the Formula Nordic category. 

Looking ahead to the 2022 season, The Checkered Flag caught up with Adestam ahead of his campaign. 

“I am stoked to finally be driving in a professional team outside of the borders of Sweden. Fortec is happy with my job so far and I am very happy to be working with them. Together I think that good results will come.”

30-year-old 2020 FIA Junior World Rally Champion Tom Kristensson has revealed his 2022 rally program which contains mixed rallies on domestic and international level.

After having a rough 2021 season together with M-Sport in his WRC2 bet, the Swede will now only be focusing on doing some selected rallies in Sweden and across Europe in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 fielded by the Polish team Kowax 2Brally.

Kristensson will not focus on a single series this season. His program includes rallies in the Swedish Rally Championship and in the FIA European Rally Championship, as well as a go at the Rally Finland round of the FIA World Rally Championship in early August.

Kristensson will start his season this weekend when he enters a sprint rally in Sweden, followed by another event next weekend, where he will enter the Valasska Rally, which is part of the Czech Rally Championship and will be the only he attends outside of Scandinavia which isn’t on an international level like WRC and ERC.

BWT Alpine F1 Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer felt that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix allowed the team to demonstrate their pace and potential to compete near the sharp end of the grid, with both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso running in the points in Jeddah.

Ocon scored a solid number of points with his sixth place finish, while Alonso saw his strong race cut short by an unknown reliability issue. 

“We have mixed feelings from today’s race and, in general, it’s another strong result, which underlines our competitiveness. It’s a great result for Esteban to finish in sixth place. He’s been solid all weekend and it’s good for him to convert a strong qualifying performance into a healthy bag of points.” said Szafnauer.

“We do have a taste of disappointment that we were unable to put both of our cars into the points with Fernando unfortunately retiring from the race after driving very well all evening. We’re investigating the issue to see what exactly has occurred.”

Szafnauer allowed the teammates to race each other for position on Sunday, making for one of the day’s most exciting battles. He was pleased to see both drivers bringing out the best in the car throughout the race.

The entry list for the third round of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship has now been published where a total of 66 crews will take on the asphalt roads at Croatia Rally on 21-24 April.

Kalle Rovanperä who is leading the championship standings after winning last time out in Rally Sweden, will be the driver that is opening the roads on the Friday tests.

Joining alongside Rovanperä in the Toyota Gazoo Racing outfit is his compariot Esapekka Lappi and the British driver Elfyn Evans. Driving outside of the factory team in a similar Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 for the Toyota Gazoo Racing NG is the Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta.

The Hyundai Motorsport line-up with three Hyundai i20 N Rally1 cars will remain unchanged for the third round in a row and will consist of the Rally Sweden podium finisher Thierry Neuville from Belgium, the Estonian Ott Tänak and the Swede Oliver Solberg.

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team will be fielding four Ford Puma Rally1 cars for the Croatia Rally where Irishman Craig Breen, Britoin Gus Greensmith and Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux will be eligible to score manufacturer points for the team, meanwhile the new signing and fellow Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet will be driving outside of the factory team.

2018 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Am-class champion Peter Mangion will return to the series for the 2022 season with the Toro Verde GT squad as one of their four entries.

Mangion joins Jake Giddings, Angus Whiteside, and Peter Kyle-Henney at the team that is set for its Carrera Cup GB debut this season.

With the return of both Mangion and Kyle-Henney, the battle will resume on track for the now teammates; in 2018 Mangion claimed nine class wins in his rookie season, along with four second place finishes to take the title, twenty-two points ahead of his closest rival, Kyle-Henney.

2019 saw Mangion back in the series and looking to add to his success, opening the season with a victory and a second place, unfortunately he was forced to step away from racing due to other commitments.

For 2020 he returned to racing in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, racing in the Am class, he claimed one win and another five podium finishes that year, finishing fifth in the championship. 2021 was a lot quieter with only one race in the Ginetta at Croft.

Raphaël Lessard‘s NASCAR Xfinity Series début is off the table. On Tuesday, he revealed that SQR Development will not race in 2022, citing personal problems surrounding team owner J.C. Stout. He joined the newly formed team’s #87 Toyota GR Supra with plans to run ten to twelve races beginning this Saturday at Richmond Raceway.

Stout, a former start-and-park driver in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, founded SQR in December. The team purchased a chassis from Joe Gibbs Racing before signing Lessard a month later.

Speaking to French Canadian newspaper Le Journal de Québec, Lessard explained he had not heard back from Stout regarding his planned Richmond start. He called the owner on Saturday, to which he was told personal matters will prevent the team from seeing the track. Such issues were not specified by either party.

“Hey everyone! Due to a unfortunate personal matter SQR Development Racing’s owner JC Stout will have to cancel his plans for racing in the Xfinity Series this season,” reads a statement from Lessard’s Facebook. “Mr. Stout wishes the best for driver Raphael Lessard in the other driving opportunities he has ahead of him and appreciates all of Raphael’s fans support over the last couple of months! On my side I’m ready to take on my busy season that is starting very soon”.

The unusual nature of the situation, which included Stout previously proclaiming his intent to run for governor of New York, prompted those like Le Journal de Québec to suggest Lessard had been duped. Lessard conceded to the paper that he was “not really convinced of the seriousness of this company when I was approached,” but that he joined the team as he was running out of opportunities to stay in NASCAR. Although he won a Truck race with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2020, he lost his ride after just one season; a full-time slate with GMS Racing for 2021 only lasted seven races before funding ran out and forced him to the sidelines yet again.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s campaign at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix resulted in a sixth place finish for Esteban Ocon and an unfortunate retirement for Fernando Alonso, keeping them from achieving a double-points finish at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

“We don’t know what happened yet but we’ll investigate the issue tonight. We did lose a chunk of points today, but it’s good to see the car performing well tonight and all weekend. I think we deserved sixth place today and we were having a good race, so it’s bad luck we couldn’t get to the end,” Fernando Alonso said. 

A main talking point from the Grand Prix was the entertaining battle between the Alpine teammates in the beginning stages of the race. Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer did not step in to stop the teammates from racing, allowing for some of the most memorable on-track action during the race. 

“The battle with Esteban on track was fair, we always respect one another out there. We had some close fights in Bahrain too and always try to do the best for the team.

“I was a little bit faster during the race and so I made the overtake and I had to watch out for Bottas as well. We could have scored double points tonight, but we are still fourth in the championship and we go again in Australia,” Alonso said.

Andreas Seidl admitted McLaren F1 Team’s target in Saudi Arabia was to score points with both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and he feels they would have achieved their target had the latter not been forced into retirement with a mechanical issue.

Norris scored McLaren’s first points of 2022 by climbing from eleventh on the grid to finish seventh, while Ricciardo was on course to break into the top ten as well despite starting fourteenth.  However, a problem, possibly with his clutch, exiting the final turn on lap thirty-five saw him ground to a halt.

However, after the disappointment of their no-score in Bahrain, Seidl was pleased with how McLaren bounced back at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and he praised everyone within the team, and those within their engine suppliers Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, for their efforts.

“P7 today. Six points. We’ll take that,” said Seidl.  “Starting P11 and P14, our target was to stay in the race, make good strategic decisions and get back into the top 10 with Lando and Daniel, who did a great job all weekend of maximising the package we have at the moment.

“The entire team worked very hard to achieve that. Thanks to everyone at the track, back in the factory, and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, for a huge effort this week. P7 was a good result for Lando, and the reward everyone deserved.

Lando Norris was pleased to bring home the first points of the season for the McLaren F1 Team in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, although he was disappointed to see team-mate Daniel Ricciardo retire when on course to bring home points for the other car as well.

After qualifying outside the top ten, Norris was happy to move up the order during the evening at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and he was involved in a late race battle with BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon over sixth, which unfortunately he came out second best in.

Norris was pleased to see the MCL36 had more pace in Saudi Arabia than they were able to show in the Bahrain Grand Prix just seven days earlier, and there was some satisfaction to score points for the first time in 2022.

“I think we can be satisfied with P7 and some decent points, that was the aim for today,” said Norris. “We would have loved to have got P6, and maybe it was possible, but we’re still happy with P7.

“It’s a real shame about Daniel because we could have had two cars in the points today, which would have been a very satisfying day.

Toto Wolff reckons the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix result for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team highlighted just where the team are at this point of the season as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and tenth respectively.

Mercedes went into the race after a less than impressive performance in Bahrain, and it was equally difficult as both Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing more than had the beating of them at the Jeddah Cornice Circuit, with Russell half a minute back on race winner Max Verstappen and Hamilton over seventy seconds behind in the last of the points paying positions.

Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says the results in Saudi Arabia mean the team have a lot of work to do to play catch up to the leading two teams, both in Qualifying and in the races.

“Today’s race was the reflection of where we currently stand,” said Wolff.  “The performance gaps seemed to be similar in qualifying and the race, and clearly there is a lot of work for us to do in order to get into the fight at the front.”

Wolff was pleased with the way Russell performed in Jeddah, feeling the Briton got the maximum out of his W13, while he bemoaned the timing of the virtual safety car and the closing of the pit lane late in the day that prevented Hamilton from finishing higher up the field than he achieved.

The iconic Brumos livery will be returning to competition on a Porsche at the 2022 Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June.

David Donohue will be behind the wheel of a Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport which will be adorned with the famous Brumos 59 red, white, and blue livery, marking the return of the brand to competition for the first time since 2013.

“Racing for Brumos has been a highlight of my career that I look back on with pride,” said Donohue. “I feel humbled to play a role in bringing back the number 59 to such a special race and its milestone running.”

Donohue’s return with Brumos writes another chapter in their history together. Pikes Peak will be his one-hundred and twentieth race driving for the team, in a career that includes a win at the 24 hours of Daytona in 2009, adding to Brumos previous three victorie in 1973, 1975, and 1978.

Following the retirement of Brumos in 2013, the Jacksonville-based dealership was sold in 2016, giving way to the Brumos Collection, which opened in 2020 to the public. The collection is a a 35,000 sq. ft. interactive experience which “pays homage to to history and significance of automotive innovation, from open-wheel Indy racers to celebrating Brumos and Porsche dominance.”

Ahead of today’s test action at Donington Park, Ollie Jackson and Sam Osborne found their way through the fog to unveil their 2022 BTCC liveries under the Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan banner.

After ditching the black and green of last year, the liveries hark back similarly to the old Motorbase colours of red, white and black with Apec jumping on board alongside Beavis Morgan who have long been a main sponsor of multiple race-winner Jackson.

“Having a brand as highly regarded as Apec onboard demonstrates the pull factor that BTCC has this season,” said Team Owner and Team Principal Pete Osborne. “This is just the start of what we hope will be a fruitful partnership and we can’t wait to see how the car looks when it hits the track.”

“Our strategy this year is to solidify our position as market leaders in quality, service and support,” added Jamie Hall, Commercial Director of Apec Braking. “Sponsoring Motorbase in the British Touring Car Championship marks a milestone in this journey, increasing brand recognition at consumer level and further lead generation.”