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IndyCar Harvest GP Race 2: Will Power wins from pole, survives pressure from Herta

Penske’s Will Power fended off a charging Colton Herta to claim his 39^th career IndyCar win from pole position at the Harvest GP, now tied 5^th on the all-time IndyCar wins list with the legendary Al Unser. Further down the order, Josef Newgarden finished in 4th to cut the championship deficit to Scott Dixon to just 32 points.

Power pulled a healthy 5-second gap from the rest of the field at the start before pitting from the sticker reds onto the slower, but more durable sticker black tyres.

Alexander Rossi was able to reel Power in during the second stint, coming out just two seconds behind the Australian on the blacks while Power had switched back to the reds.

Rossi slowly caught up to the back of Will Power only to be caught up by Colton Herta – also on the sticker reds – who made short work of his Andretti teammate round the outside of turn 1.

Herta, having never finished second or third, was chasing his fourth IndyCar win, staying within a second of Will Power for the last 10 laps. Unfortunately for Herta, Power was able to use his ‘Push to Pass’ effectively to get a good run out of the final corner. That, alongside having a healthy slipstream from a few backmarkers, was enough to make sure Colton could not have a good enough opportunity into turn 1. This gifted Power his second win of the season and moved him into 4^th position in the championship standings.

Alexander Rossi rounded out the top three, taking his 24^th career podium, ending in style what has been a miserable season for the most part.

Defending champion Josef Newgarden fell from 9^th to 11^th on the opening laps, only one spot ahead of his championship rival Scott Dixon. However, he was able to make short work of Ryan Hunter-Reay in front and proceeded to work his way up the grid. He made it up to 5^th before the first pit stops, and then was able to undercut the Arrow McLaren SP driver Patricio O’Ward for 4^th.

Unfortunately for Newgarden, 4^th was where he stayed, unable to make any ground on Alexander Rossi, who remained 10 seconds ahead during the final stages of the race.

His 4^th place cuts the deficit to Scott Dixon for the 5^th race in a row. What was a 117-point lead leaving race 1 of Gateway has now crumbled to just a 32-point lead going to St Petersburg in 3 weeks’ time. It is staggering to think that in just 5 races Newgarden has carved 85 points out of the points lead, an average of 17 points per pace.

With 54 points on offer, Scott Dixon must finish in 9^th place (excluding bonus points) at St Petersburg to secure his 6^th championship title.

Scott Dixon is inches away from his 6th IndyCar title – Courtesy of IndyCar Media

Pato O’Ward took 4th ahead of Jack Harvey, he and his Meyer Shank Racing team an ever-present challenger at this circuit and buoyed by the recent investment of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media in its squad.

Behind Harvey, Graham Rahal turned a 10th-placed start into seventh, ahead of a typically methodical if not rapid drive from Dixon.

Making up places in the early phases of the race, he came up short against Ryan Hunter-Reay who contacted the Kiwi going into turn 1, putting a hole into the right-side underwing of his car.

Seemingly unphased by this damage, Dixon claimed 9^th by passing Santino Ferrucci and by benefitting from positions gained during the first pit stops.

He ran eighth for the last stint but was unable to overturn Rahal.

Rookie Alex Palou of Dale Coyne and 19th-place starter Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top 10.

The final race of the season at the Firestone Grand Prix of St.Petersburg will crown another champion in either Dixon or Newgarden on October 25.

RACE CLASSIFICATION

1	Will Power	Team Penske
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding
3	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske
5	Patricio O’Ward	Arrow McLaren SP
6	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing
7	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
8	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	Alex Palou	Dale Coyne Racing
10	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske
11	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
13	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport
14	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
15	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing
16	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport
17	Rinus Van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing
18	Sebastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
19	Max Chilton	Carlin
20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	Helio Castroneves	Arrow McLaren SP
22	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport
23	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
24	Sage Karam	Dreyer & Reinbold
25	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises

Feature Image Courtesy of IndyCar Media

4th October 2020

The F3 conundrum and the fall of Formula Regional

Formula Three racing has existed in many guises throughout the years. Whether international or domestic, it is a proven means of finding F1 worthy talent. The championship we think of as Formula Three now started out in 2010 as GP3 and runs as a support series to F1, however it ran in opposition with the FIA F3 European Championship that mainly ran in support of DTM up until 2018 when they ‘merged’. What that really meant was the FIA jumped ship to GP3 and there were efforts to have their own standalone series called Formula European Masters but it failed to get off the ground.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but there is a point, I promise. The F3 title in motorsport is a bit of a confusing cesspool of championships, and to explain it clearly I am attaching a video made by a guy who is one of the moderators on the r/F1FeederSeries sub-Reddit named Jacob Bosley.

As you can see, there’s plenty of pies you have to put your fingers in when trying to discuss Formula Three as a whole. However the major confusing part was only further muddled by the inception of the Formula Regional European Championship which began in 2019. A part-Italian part-European series ran by the Automobil Club D’Italia of which its first champion Frederik Vesti has since graduated to FIA Formula 3 and finished fourth.

The series was created out of necessity since it was quite rightfully believed that expecting a driver fresh out of a national championship with a 160 horsepower F4 car and putting them into a nearly 400 horsepower F3 car on F1 tracks would not be a good idea. The FIA motorsport single-seater commission designated a five pillar system dubbed the ‘Global Pathway’ that starts out in F4 at a national level; following that is a ‘Regional F3’ championship that are based in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Then comes FIA F3 and FIA F2 before getting to Formula One.

So Formula Regional Europe is part of that second step in the system, however it is a flawed one.

When the concept first began to be discussed for licensing, the bid was between the ACI and also Renault Sport, who were looking to transition their Formula Renault EuroCup series into a full blown F3 championship. However when the single-seater commission favoured the ACI bid, Renault Sport decided to adopt the same Tatuus chassis that the Formula Regional series use.

Formula Renault has proven over the last two years to be a way more attractive option to budding F1 drivers due to visiting more F1-relevant circuits such as Silverstone, Spa and Monaco. By contrast, Formula Regional was split between Italian circuits (don’t get me wrong though, Italy has some of the best circuits in the world, such as Monza, Imola, Mugello, Misano and Vallelunga) but did branch out to a couple of circuits on the F1 calendar like Paul Ricard, Red Bull Ring, Hungaroring and Barcelona.

In an effort to bolster up the grid numbers and compel more drivers to compete, the FIA declared that 25 Super License points would be handed to the eventual champion . F1 hopefuls need 40 to be able to compete so getting a huge boost of 25 would be surely very enticing for these young drivers. In order to further encouurage drivers into Formula Regional from Formula Renault, the FIA capped the maximum Super License points for the champion of Formula Renault to 18, but it didn’t work.

Over the first two seasons, grid numbers for Formula Regional Europe have been struggling to fit the capacity that the FIA requires it would need to meet the full Super License points payout. In the meantime, Formula Renault has only gone from strength to strength, and the FIA seemed to not want to admit it didn’t have its priorities in order when they picked ACI’s bid.

Of course there are probably a lot of factors involved in that decision; I can’t claim to know exactly what was going through their heads but from my perspective, they were definitely attempting to plug a non-existent hole in the market. It seems now however, that the FIA and Single-Seater Commission have seen sense as it has been reported that the higher-ups are meeting with the organisers of both championships in order to discuss a merging of the two series.

This is something that shouldn’t have needed to happen – the Formula Renault EuroCup already had a solid foundation to fill this slot and it did it so much better than Formula Regional, so I’m glad it’s happening. I know the single-seater ladder will be much better off because of it, with hopeful Europe-based drivers already having a lot of choice at this level with the likes of EuroFormula Open, BRDC British F3 and for the women hoping to climb up the junior formulae ladder, there’s the W Series.

This Formula Regional Europe concept didn’t need to happen but it did and has just unnecessarily overcomplicated the oversaturated market that is European F3 championships. I for one will be happy to see the back of it, even if a few of my favourite drivers have competed in it.

FDA’s Enzo Fittipaldi raced in Formula Regional Europe in 2019, finishing as runner-up in the championship – Courtesy of Ferrari Media

Whilst I’m here, can we please drop the Formula Regional tag? It is such a dreadful name. I know the championships are called that in order to distinguish them from the Grand Prix-supporting FIA Formula 3. It could just be a case of actually calling the entry level formulae Formula 5 and then allowing this level to be called Formula 4, but we are too far forward with the existence of this category to start calling it that.

We can’t call it Formula 3.5 either because of the series Renault Sport managed between 2005 and 2015 which had the 3.5 moniker to distinguish the cubic capacity of the engine, but was more an alternative to GP2 (now FIA Formula 2). The series ran an extra two years without Renault Sport’s support before folding at the end of 2017, then dubbed Formula V8 3.5.

I’m obviously not paid to name these championships but Formula Regional does sound like a name that was conjured up at quarter to pub. In any case, I hope they see sense and call it by its apt name: the F3 European Championship. It would be much like the F3 Asian Championship, and rename the ‘Formula Regional’ championships in the Americas and Japan to F3 Americas Championship and F3 Japanese Championship.

This move to finally get rid of unnecessary bumps in the road to F1 can only be a good thing. If a deal is reached, expect an announcement alongside the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on the weekend of November 1st when Formula Renault EuroCup and the ACI’s Italian F4 are expected to run in support of the F1 race.

3rd October 2020

IndyCar Harvest GP: Newgarden victory keeps title fight alive. Maiden podium for Rinus VeeKay.

image courtesy of IndyCar & Chris Owens

Josef Newgarden landed a crushing blow to Scott Dixon’s championship lead, gaining his 20^th career IndyCar victory at the IMS, his 3^rd this season. The New Zealander would eventually finish down in ninth after a late and costly mistake.

Dutchman Rinus VeeKay led from pole position from Colton Herta, and managed to pull a healthy gap on the rest of the field after starting on the faster sticker red tyres.

However, Herta started on the sticker blacks, going further on his first stint, looking to make up the time with the faster tyre on the second stint. This tactic proved to be successful, passing the Dutchman after the first pit stop with an audacious dummy move down the inside of turn 7.

Josef Newgarden also chose to start on the sticker blacks. Managing to go 10 laps longer than his rivals, he was able to come out ahead of Colton Herta after the pit stops into the lead of the race.

But came back fighting did Herta. Using up all his push to pash to catch Newgarden, diving to the inside of Turn 1 to take the race lead back from the two-time champion.

Following the second pit stop all of the top three chose to go onto the sticker reds, emerging with Herta in front, followed by Newgarden and VeeKay. Herta would unfortunately struggle with his rear tyres, prompting a lock up on lap 60, gifting the lead back to Newgarden before putting again.

Newgarden would follow, both opting for the sticker blacks. However, the two time champion was able to magnificently pull away from the rest of the field, enough to seal his first career win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This win cuts the championship gap to 40 points with 108 remaining over the next two races, one of which comes tomorrow with the second of the doubleheader weekend. What was seemingly an unassailable championship fight going into Mid-Ohio in September, now seems like a mouth-watering prospect as Newgarden chases his third and what would be his most incredible championship.

Colton Herta on the other hand, would fall under the pressure of a charging Felix Rosenqvist, who had dropped as low as 10^th before fighting back to the podium. Although, an unsuccessful pass on Herta would drop him into the clutches of Alexander Rossi who would steamroll through both Rosenqvist and Herta for a second-place finish. Rossi was visibly irritated following the race due to a penalty brought on by exceeding track limits. It marks another string of penalties at the IMS for Rossi who is starting to make something of a habit of it at this circuit.

Image courtesy of IndyCar by Doug Matthews

Rinus VeeKay, who had done so well to put that Ed Carpenter Racing car on pole position, had to make up for lost ground during the pit stops, but saved the majority of his push to pass to overtake both Herta in fourth and Roseqnvist in fifth to take his first IndyCar podium in style.

Behind them, a titanic battle ensued with Will Power who suffered due to a stuck front-right wheel during his first pit stop as well as experiencing a huge slide going into turn 1 that could have easily ended his race. Behind him was Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey who were able to capitalise on a unusual late mistake from Scott Dixon who ran wide onto the grass, to finish in a disappointing ninth. Rounded out the top ten was Marcus Ericsson marking a solid day for Chip Ganassi who featured every car in the top ten.

The race ran without a caution period but Marco Andretti was forced to retire with a handful of laps remaining after the rear caught fire. Andretti was able to bring the car back to the pits for his pit crew to put it out.

RACE CLASSIFICATION

1	Josef Newgarden
2	Alexander Rossi
3	Rinus VeeKay (R)
4	Colton Herta
5	Felix Rosenqvist
6	Will Power
7	Graham Rahal
8	Jack Harvey
9	Scott Dixon
10	Marcus Ericsson
11	Max Chilton
12	Conor Daly
13	Charlie Kimball
14	James Hinchcliffe
15	Santino Ferrucci
16	Simon Pagenaud
17	Alex Palou (R)
18	Takuma Sato
19	Ryan Hunter-Reay
20	Helio Castroneves
21	Sebastien Bourdais
22	Pato O’Ward
23	Sage Karam
24	Dalton Kellett (R)
25	Marco Andretti

2nd October 2020

Honda to leave F1 at the end of 2021

Honda has announced that it will be withdrawing from Formula 1 as a power unit supplier at the end of the 2021 season.

The Japanese manufacturer stated its desire to realise “carbon neutrality by 2050” as its reason for withdrawing.

“Honda needs to funnel its corporate resources in research and development into the areas of future power unit and energy technologies,” a statement read, “including fuel cell vehicle (FCV) and battery EV (BEV) technologies, which will be the core of carbon-free technologies.”

Honda only returned to F1 back in 2015 as a supplier for McLaren. This relationship – which lasted until 2017 – was fraught with unreliability and performance issues.

They have, however, since made improvements. They joined forces with Alpha Tauri (then named Toro Rosso) in 2018 and Red Bull in 2019 and have powered them to a combined five race victories, making them the only power unit supplier to win races with more than one team since the start of the hybrid era in 2014.

Their withdrawal, though, now leaves both Red Bull and Alpha Tauri in something of a limbo and with not much time to find a new supplier.

If they are unable to find an alternative, then Renault are bound by the regulations to supply them. This is because Renault currently supply the least number of teams, with Mercedes and Ferrari already at the maximum permissible number of three.

However, Red Bull’s split from Renault in 2018 was acrimonious to say the least and it would no doubt be with great reluctance that both parties rekindle that relationship.

Honda’s withdrawal might also have implications for Japanese F2 racer Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda is a Honda-backed driver and there were rumours that he was set to be promoted to Alpha Tauri in the near future. However, with Honda now out of the picture that promotion is uncertain.

Red Bull have said that they “acknowledge” Honda’s decision, and have thanked the manufacturer for “its exceptional efforts as power unit supplier”.

2nd October 2020
IndyCar Harvest GP Preview

image courtesy of IndyCar

The first Indy Harvest Classic was held way back in 1916, so here we are in 2020, about to witness the next running, now called the Indy Harvest GP, to be run in two parts on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course Friday and Saturday, October 2-3. Races 12/13 of the NTT IndyCar Series were a somewhat late addition to the often-altered season schedule and will precede Sunday’s 8-Hour GT World Challenge America endurance race.

The previous IMS road course race (the GMR GP) was held during July’s Brickyard weekend after its traditional May running was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Honda ran away with the race after a full-course caution shuffled the field on lap 36/80. Dixon had stopped three laps earlier while the leaders at the time pitted under caution after Oliver Askew’s crash. Following the green flag, Dixon chased down then leader Graham Rahal on Lap 48 and cruised to a 19.9-second victory after leading 26 laps; his first GMR win after three runner-up finishes. Rahal was second with Jack Harvey taking his first podium finish in third.

This event will mark the eighth and ninth times that the IMS road course has hosted an IndyCar race. So far, only Simon Pagenaud (three times), Will Power (also three times) and Scott Dixon have won here. Power has started from pole position here four times, with the other three poles going to Sebastian Saavedra, Pagenaud and Felix Rosenqvist.

Seven drivers are still mathematically eligible for the 2020 IndyCar championship. Dixon on 456 points, Josef Newgarden -72, Pato O’Ward -118, Colton Herta -129, Will Power -150, Graham Rahal -155 and Takuma Sato -156. There will be no double-points available at the St. Petersburg finale, however. So with a maximum of 54 points available from any race (50 for the win, 1 for pole, 2 for leading most laps, 1 for leading a lap), drivers emerging from Friday’s race more than 108 points behind Dixon will be out of the title running. Dixon will clinch his sixth championship a race early if he is more than 54 points ahead of his nearest pursuer come Saturday evening.

DRIVER CHANGES

Helio Castroneves will be temporarily replacing Oliver Askew in the Arrow McLaren SP after he was deemed not medically fit to race. It marks the third time in three years that the Indianapolis 500 winner has taken part in the Indy Road Course since his retirement from full-time racing.

Sebastien Bourdais returns this weekend taking the third A.J Foyt Racing entry, joining with Charlie Kimball and Dalton Kellett for the final three races.

Conor Daly is back with Ed Carpenter for his usual road course duties while Dryer & Reinbold will extend its schedule, entering Sage Karam for the weekend.

Finally, Zach Veach has permanently stepped out of the Andretti Autosport No. 26, making way for James Hinchcliffe for the remaining races and perhaps next season. Hinchliffe had driven for Andretti up until the 2015 season when he moved to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

OUTLOOK FOR THE WIN

In my opinion you cannot overlook the Penske drivers for this race, who have won a staggering five out of the last six iterations of this race. Will Power has won here three out of six in that time and will be looking to improve on his race winning performance at Mid-Ohio.

Remember it was Power who led from pole position this time back in July when a poorly timed caution cycled him back into the pack. He will have the ‘bit between his teeth’ to right that wrong and push for a top three championship position.

OTHERS TO LOOK OUT FOR

As we go into this race Rinus VeeKay still leads the coveted ‘Rookie of the Year’ title 39 points ahead of his nearest challenger Alex Palou. With Askew withdrawn, there is very little competition going this weekend. Rinus has been consistent and has pulled off some staggering overtakes this year. I expect him to carry on in a similar fashion this weekend.

Also, I fully expect Colton Herta to do what he has been doing all season. In his sophomore season, he is currently fourth in the standings with both a win and a pole position to his name. His win last weekend was a just-reward for his performances lately, and I expect, with a few improvements here and there, that he will be a fully fledged title contender in the years to come.

WHAT TIME IS THE RACE?

There are two!

THURSDAY 01 OCTOBER

14:15 EST / 19:15 GMT – Practice

18:20 EST / 23:20 GMT – Qualifying

FRIDAY 02 OCTOBER

15:30 EST / 20:30 GMT – Race 1

SATURDAY 03 OCTOBER

10:20 EST / 15:20 GMT – Qualifying

14:30 EST / 19:30 GMT – Race 2

WHERE CAN I WATCH THE RACE?

Coverage in the UK for the races will be on Sky Sports F1. However, you can also read our session reports right here, on ThePitCrewOnline.

1st October 2020

BTCC Silverstone – Jackson takes maiden win in shortened race

Ollie Jackson took his maiden BTCC win in a shortened race three at Silverstone following a horror smash from Jackson’s team mate Rory Butcher.

The Ford Focus crashed on lap six of the original race and brought out the red flag. Jackson held his nerve despite pressure from Tom Oliphant and a resurgent Ash Sutton to take the win.

Jackson took the lead into Copse. Butcher had the best start and flew up to ninth by the end of lap one.

Andy Neate and Jade Edwards continued their on track scrap as Neate didn’t give Edwards enough room. Neate was put into the wall as Edwards drove away.

Tom Ingram also went off as he was squeezed at Luffield and span off.

On lap six the red flag was brought out as Butcher was spun and hit the wall in a massive shunt. His car was destroyed and thankfully Rory was okay and walked away.

On the restart Jackson led again, with Oliphant fighting hard, with the pair colliding into Brooklands, but thankfully no damage was done.

Sutton was flying, starting 14th on the restarted grid, he was up into sixth by lap six, fighting the top five in what was a frenetic race.

Oliphant made a move into Copse and briefly held the lead but Jackson maintained his composure and took it back again.

Senna Proctor had another solid race, and made an impressive triple pass into Becketts. He passed former team mates Tom Chilton and Josh Cook, as well as Aiden Moffat.

On the penultimate lap Sutton was on the tail of Jackson and Oliphant. He managed to pass the BMW but Jackson was just beyond his reach.

But Sutton now leads the championship again as the teams leave Silverstone. Another three brilliant races, and the championship battle is wide open.

Pos	Grid	Driver	Car	Interval
1	1	Ollie Jackson	Ford Focus ST
2	14	Ash Sutton	Infiniti Q50	+0.312
3	2	Tom Oliphant	BMW 330i M Sport	+0.576
4	9	Dan Cammish	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+1.130
5	6	Adam Morgan	Mercedes Benz A Class	+3.827
6	10	Senna Proctor	Hyundai i30N	+3.947
7	4	Josh Cook	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+4.238
8	5	Aiden Moffat	Infiniti Q50	+4.472
9	11	Tom Chilton	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+4.599
10	8	Colin Turkington	BMW 330i M Sport	+4.911
11	7	Matt Neal	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+5.453
12	12	Bobby Thompson	Audi S3 Saloon	+6.191
13	16	Chris Smiley	Hyundai i30N	+7.178
14	18	Carl Boardley	BMW 125i M Sport	+7.241
15	3	Jake Hill	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+10.661
16	17	Jack Goff	VW CC	+10.838
17	22	Jack Butel	Mercedes Benz A Class	+11.030
18	15	Stephen Jelley	BMW 125i M Sport	+11.328
19	20	Tom Onslow-Cole	VW CC	+12.921
20	13	Sam Osborne	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+14.645
21	23	Nicolas Hamilton	VW CC	+23.487
DNF	24	Jade Edwards	Vauxhall Astra	Mechanical
DNF	19	James Gornall	Audi S3 Saloon	Mechanical
DNF	21	Michael Crees	Honda Civic Type R FK8	Mechanical
DNF	N/A	Andy Neate	Ford Focus ST	Crash
DNF	N/A	Rory Butcher	Ford Focus ST	Crash
DNF	N/A	Tom Ingram	Toyota Corolla	Crash

Image Credit: BTCC Media

27th September 2020

BTCC Silverstone – Turkington profits from Ingram and Sutton punctures to take championship lead

Colin Turkington profited from the misfortune of others to take the win in the second race at Silverstone to retake the British Touring Car Championship lead.

Punctures to title rivals Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton late in the race saw Turkington take the win and open up a six point lead at the top.

Race one winner Dan Cammish was fastest off the line but lost the lead to Ingram at Luffield. Sutton passed Turkington at Copse but fell down the order after a small collision with Rory Butcher, who spun to the back of the grid.

Sutton was tenth and seemed to be struggling, but his Infiniti team mate Aiden Moffat was storming through the field in his 200th BTCC race. He was stuck behind Sutton but finally made a move.

The top three of Ingram, Turkington and Cammish were all close, fighting hard for the win. Turkington’s team mate Tom Oliphant retired from race one with a suspension issue, but he made up for it by flying through the field to finish ninth.

On lap 17 Sutton suffered a puncture, ruining his race and putting him at the back for race three. Ingram then suffered a puncture a lap later, with Turkington the big winner, inheriting the lead and seeing his two title rivals fall to the back of the grid.

He guided his BMW home to take the win and his 150th BTCC podium, with Cammish and Adam Morgan rounding off the podium.

Matt Neal was fourth, with Moffat’s storming drive being rewarded with fifth. Josh Cook, Jake Hill and Ollie Jackson all had strong finishes, with Tom Oliphant going from 25th to ninth at the chequered flag, with Hyundai’s Senna Proctor rounding out the top ten.

Pos	Grid	Driver	Car	Interval
1	4	Colin Turkington	BMW 330i M Sport
2	1	Dan Cammish	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+1.245
3	6	Adam Morgan	Mercedes Benz A Class	+3.172
4	8	Matt Neal	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+7.876
5	11	Aiden Moffat	Infiniti Q50	+12.576
6	10	Josh Cook	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+13.804
7	7	Jake Hill	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+14.500
8	13	Ollie Jackson	Ford Focus ST	+14.910
9	25	Tom Oliphant	BMW 330i M Sport	+15.102
10	14	Senna Proctor	Hyundai i30N	+16.911
11	15	Tom Chilton	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+17.115
12	17	Sam Osborne	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+17.831
13	18	Bobby Thompson	Audi S3 Saloon	+18.380
14	3	Rory Butcher	Ford Focus ST	+18.559
15	16	Chris Smiley	Hyundai i30N	+20.016
16	22	James Gornall	Audi S3 Saloon	+20.404
17	20	Jack Butel	Mercedes Benz A Class	+21.098
18	19	Tom Onslow-Cole	VW CC	+21.446
19	27	Jack Goff	VW CC	+21.913
20	9	Stephen Jelley	BMW 125i M Sport	+22.858
21	23	Jade Edwards	Vauxhall Astra	+25.507
22	21	Andy Neate	Ford Focus ST	+26.205
23	12	Carl Boardley	BMW 125i M Sport	+43.244
24	24	Nicolas Hamilton	VW CC	+1 Lap
25	2	Tom Ingram	Toyota Corolla	+1 Lap
26	5	Ash Sutton	Infiniti Q50	+2 Laps
Retirements
DNF	26	Michael Crees	Honda Civic Type R FK8	Mechanical

Image Credit: BTCC Media

27th September 2020

Russian GP: Bottas reigns supreme in Sochi

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

In a race that was decided pretty much by the events happening before the lights going out, Valtteri Bottas took his 2nd victory of the year, long after the win in the first race of the season. His teammate Lewis Hamilton was awarded two different 5-second penalties for two practice start violations that he committed prior to the race start, in the locations where he was not supposed to.

This made the race very difficult for the record chasing English driver as he dropped well down the order after he had to serve the penalty in a pitstop. He recovered well to be able to finish on a podium but will be gutted to miss out on a win. Bottas on the other hand would welcome this victory at a track where he is supposedly at his strongest.

It was a lonely Sunday afternoon drive for Max Verstappen, which pretty much sums up his season so far barring the last couple of races. The Dutchman dropped to as low as 4th on the race start but recovered immediately to 3rd place and Lewis’ penalty meant that he would comfortably finish 2nd. It was a similar race for Sergio Perez in the racing Point at 4th place after he too recovered from a poor start.

It was a chaotic start to the grandprix after many incidents unfolded one after the other. McLaren lost the most out of all the teams at the start after Carlos Sainz crashed into the wall in an attempt to try and go around the bollards and his teammate Norris ran over the debris left by Sainz and only managed to finish 15th at the end of the race after a forced pitstop. Racing Point also lost one car on the opening lap after Lance Stroll got tagged on the right rear tyre by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc which sent the former spinning into the barriers. The effect of the new upgrades was not to be seen today and will have to wait until the Nurburgring at the earliest.

A couple of mini battles unfolded in the midfield between Ferrari and Renault followed by another between the Alpha Tauris and Albon’s redbull. Renault’s bid to swap their cars and catch Perez ended in a way they would not have wanted after Ricciardo was handed a 5-second time penalty for not following race director guidelines. It did not quite help Ocon’s case after the Frenchman was stuck behind the Ferrari of Vettel and could not catch Leclerc towards the end of the race. Ricciardo’s penalty did not hurt him much after he managed to pull ahead of Leclerc and finish 5th. For Ferrari, it was a mixed result as Leclerc managed to finish 6th and Vettel paid the price for staying out long and could only manage P13 on his 250th GP start.

Both the Alpha Tauris managed a double points finish with home driver Kvyat at 8th and Gasly at 9th following their battle with Albon in the other RedBull. Kvyat could have finished ahead of Ocon at 7th after the Russian battled the Renault driver almost towards the end of the race but it just wouldn’t happen for him thanks to the superior straight line speed of the Renault.

Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 14th in his record equaling 322nd race start but his teammate Giovinazzi in the other Alfa Romeo would be very happy with his race result at P11, just missing out on the points. Haas also registered one decent result with Magnussen at P12, ahead of a works Ferrari but they would quickly want to forget the P17 salvaged by Romain Grosjean. Both the Williams finished with Latifi at P16 and Russell at P18, with what was an unusual 3-stop race for the English driver, with the last stop seemingly an ambitious attempt for a fastest lap. It was however not there for the taking as Bottas eventually ended up with the point on offer.

In what was expected to be the 91st win for Lewis Hamilton, the race win went out of the window thanks to the pre-race events. His teammate jumped in at the chance to take maximum advantage to cut the gap in the championship standings to 44 points with a handful of races to go. Hamilton will now have to be careful for the next 4 races as he has picked up 2 penalty points today and two more would mean that a race ban would be handed to him, which could seriously dent his championship hopes.

Pirelli Motorsports info-graphics

27th September 2020

BTCC Silverstone – Cammish takes win after fascinating fight with Ingram

Dan Cammish took the seventh win of his British Touring Car Championship career after holding off the Toyota of Tom Ingram in a thrilling race at Silverstone.

Cammish made a good start with Ingram close behind. The pair traded the lead a few times, with Ingram passing on the exit of Becketts and Cammish taking it back into Brooklands.

The Safety Car was brought out on lap five as Michael Crees was tipped into a spin and collided with James Gornall, with Crees beaching his Honda Civic in the gravel. Cammish and Ingram were fighting hard to be ahead for the SC period, with the pair separated by just nine thousandths of a second.

On the restart Cammish and Ingram continued to fight, with the battle for third being the more intriguing. Rory Butcher was holding off Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton while Tom Oliphant retired as his BMW went over a kerb and broke his suspension.

With Sutton breathing down his neck, Turkington had to be careful when plotting a move on Butcher ahead. The Scotsman in his Motorbase Ford Focus held off the hard charging duo to take third, with Turkington and Sutton fourth and fifth.

Cammish pulled away to take his seventh BTCC win with Ingram behind, who makes further inroads into the championship lead.

Adam Morgan, Jake HIll, Matt Neal, Stephen Jelley and Josh Cook rounded off the top ten. Jade Edwards, the first female driver to race in the BTCC since Fiona Leggate in 2007, finished 23rd after being pushed off track by Andy Neate.

Sutton still leads the championship but his lead has been cut down by Turkington and Ingram.

Pos	Grid	Driver	Car	Interval
1	1	Dan Cammish	Honda Civic Type R FK8
2	2	Tom Ingram	Toyota Corolla	+1.081
3	3	Rory Butcher	Ford Focus ST	+4.468
4	4	Colin Turkington	BMW 330i M Sport	+4.815
5	7	Ash Sutton	Infiniti Q50	+5.049
6	8	Adam Morgan	Mercedes Benz A Class	+7.516
7	10	Jake Hill	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+8.957
8	6	Matt Neal	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+9.368
9	14	Stephen Jelley	BMW 125i M Sport	+10.856
10	12	Josh Cook	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+14.030
11	15	Aiden Moffat	Infiniti Q50	+17.706
12	13	Carl Boardley	BMW 125i M Sport	+18.898
13	11	Ollie Jackson	Ford Focus ST	+18.915
14	16	Senna Proctor	Hyundai i30N	+19.500
15	9	Tom Chilton	Honda Civic Type R FK8	+19.713
16	21	Chris Smiley	Hyundai i30N	+20.870
17	17	Sam Osborne	Honda Civic Type R FK2	+22.368
18	19	Bobby Thompson	Audi S3 Saloon	+22.812
19	20	Tom Onslow-Cole	VW CC	+23.639
20	27	Jack Butel	Mercedes Benz A Class	+24.784
21	23	Andy Neate	Ford Focus ST	+25.131
22	26	James Gornall	Audi S3 Saloon	+25.412
23	25	Jade Edwards	Vauxhall Astra	+27.430
24	24	Nicolas Hamilton	VW CC	+29.812
Retirements
DNF	5	Tom Oliphant	BMW 330i M Sport	Suspension
DNF	22	Michael Crees	Honda Civic Type R FK8	Crash
DNF	18	Jack Goff	VW CC	Mechanical

Image Credit: BTCC Media

27th September 2020

F2 Sochi: Zhou takes maiden win under red flag

Renault junior Guanyu Zhou was awarded his first Formula 2 win at Sochi, after the sprint race was ended early under the red flag following a heavy crash for Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken at Turn 3.

Zhou got a good start from reverse grid pole to hold the lead into the first corner, helped by Nikita Mazepin dropping back from second to third behind Aitken. Championship leader Mick Schumacher shot up from eighth on the grid, passing Jehan Daruvala through Turn 2 to get up into fourth.

Mazepin retook second from Aitken on lap 2, and a lap later Schumacher overtook the Campos for third. Aitken briefly lost fourth as well to Daruvala at the start of lap four, but he retook the place when Daruvala ran wide at Turn 2 and earned himself a time penalty for not rejoining the track correctly.

On lap 6 Ghiotto got past Daruvala and started reeling in Aitken for fourth. But on lap 7 the two made contact as they went wheel-to-wheel through Turn 3 and shot into the TecPro barriers. Both cars ended up between the layers of the barriers with Ghiotto’s car catching fire, but thankfully Aitken and Ghiotto were both unharmed.

Luca Ghiotto, Hitech (Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

The race was immediately red-flagged, and the extent of the repairs needed to fix the barriers meant there wasn’t time for it to resume. As a result Zhou was declared the winner, albeit with half points, with Mazepin second and Schumacher third.

Aitken and Ghiotto were able to take the points for fourth and fifth as per red flag rules the race result was counted back to lap 5. Tsunoda, Ilott and Ticktum took the final points, while Mazepin claimed the two bonus points for fastest lap.

Guilherme Samaia and HWA rookie Jake Hughes also retired from the race after making contact on lap one.

After Sochi, Schumacher’s championship lead has extended as he holds 191 points over Ilott’s 169. Schumacher’s Prema team also extends its lead over Ilott’s UNI-Virtuosi with 331 points to 288.5.

Formula 2 returns on 28^th November for the first of the double header finale in Bahrain.

Nikita Mazepin, Hitech (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	7.5
2	Nikita Mazepin (FL)	Hitech Grand Prix	7
3	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	5
4	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	4
5	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	3
6	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	2
7	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	1
8	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	0.5
9	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System
10	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing
11	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin
12	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab
13	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix
14	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix
15	Marino Sato	Trident
16	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport
17	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System
18	Juri Vips	DAMS
19	Roy Nissany	Trident
20	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport
Ret.	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing
Ret.	Jake Hughes	BWT HWA Racelab

27th September 2020