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  • Rea rides to victory in Aragon despite pressure from Davies

    Rea rides to victory in Aragon despite pressure from Davies

    Day 2 of Round 4 of the WorldSBK Superpole and Race 2 took place on Sunday from MotorLand Aragon with the reigning Champion, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) continuing his streak of victories in the Superpole races for this 2020 season followed by Championship leader Scott Redding on the (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) and Michael van der Mark (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team) making up the rest of the front row.

    The starting grid for Race 2 looked like this:

    Row 1 : Rea : Redding : van der Mark Row 2: Bautista : Davies : Lowes

    Row 3 : Raz : Rinaldi : Baz Row 4 : Haslam : Gerloff : Scheib

    Row 5 : Fores : Sykes : Caricasulo Row 6 : Ponsson : Laverty : Melandri

    Row 7 : Barrier : Ramos : Takahashi Row 8 : Gabellini

    With 18 laps of racing, Race 2 gets underway with Redding getting a great start off the line but by Turn 1, Rea sweeps back round the outside to take 1st position with van der Mark keeping the third position he started with on the grid.

    It’s all change further down the pack by the second lap with Davies, who started in 5th down to 6th, Razgatlioglu up to 5th and Haslam up to 8th having started in 10th place. Lowes has had a terrible start and is down in 12th having started 6th on the grid. Van der Mark is having a peek round the side of Redding but didn’t quite have the pace to get past but then Redding runs wide and van der Mark gets through, with Bautista is right on the tail of Redding. Redding runs wide again allowing Bautista to sweep past. Redding is running a different compound tyre to many of the other riders, perhaps this is having an effect when he is cornering and causing him to run wide.

    Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding at Aragon Round 4 WSBK 2020. Image courtesy of Honda Racing

    By Lap 3 Rea has put in the fastest lap and pulled out a lead. Davies is right on the tail of his teammate and goes down the inside of Redding and although Redding is looking to get the place back, Davies makes the overtake stick and is now hot on the heels of his former teammate, Bautista and at Turn 13, Davies sweeps cleanly past and then swiftly past van der Mark and is now up in 2nd place.

    At Turn 15 on the following lap, Baz hits trouble and crashes out into the gravel ending his race early. Davies is now bearing down on Rea looking to close the gap and by lap 7 the gap is down to 1.3 seconds but by the end of the lap it’s back up to 1.6 seconds. Fores and Lowes have passed Haslam and they in turn now have their sights set on Razgatlioglu.

    Redding, on lap 8, finds himself in a Rinaldi and van der Mark sandwich with Rinaldi looking to get past the championship leader which he does with a clean overtake. Bautista is all over Davies desperately looking for a way to get past and by Lap 10 Lowes has lost 3 places and is down in 11th.

    The following lap Rinaldi goes down the inside of van der Mark into Turn 1 and cleanly takes the place, van der Mark is immediately trying to get the place back but Rinaldi makes the overtake stick. Melandri is off the bike, he tries to rejoin the race but is unable to.

    The gap is now down to 1.2 seconds between Rea and Davies on Lap 12 and although Rea runs wide he manages to gather himself and the bike but the gap has just got shorter. Fores passes Baz up into 7th place and Lowes runs really wide and is now down in 12th.

    Turn 16 on the following lap, Rea runs wide again allowing Davies to go down on the inside and sweep past but by Turn 4 Rea passes Davies to take the lead but Davies is all over Rea, he is not giving up and Bautista has both Davies and Rea in his sights and is waiting for one or both of them to make a mistake so he can sweep past.

    The gap between Rea and Davies is now half a second. Lowes has managed to fight his way up the grid again and passes Haslam and Razgatlioglu is up into 7th.

    Although Davies is doing all he can to get past Rea on the last lap, Rea is managing to hold him off and takes the chequered flag closely followed by Davies and Bautista.

    A fantastic end to another great weekend of WorldSBK racing with Rea now the championship leader again.

    Looking forward to Round 5 next weekend when we are back at Aragon.

    BK

    The Driver’s / Team Standings so far at the end of Round 4 at Aragon on the 29th/30th August looked like this:

     

    Pos

    		 Rider

    Points

    Pos

    		 Team

    Points

    1

    		 Jonathan Rea

    189

    1

    		 Kawasaki

    215

    2

    		 Scott Redding

    179

    2

    		 Ducati

    188

    3

    		 Toprak Razgatlioglu

    124

    3

    		 Yamaha

    159

    4

    		 Chaz Davies

    120

    4

    		 Honda

    88

    5

    		 Michael van der Mark

    110

    5

    		 BMW

    52

    6

    		 Alex Lowes

    102

    6

    		 Aprilia

    4

    7

    		 Michael Ruben Rinaldi

    79

    8

    		 Alvaro Bautista

    77

    9

    		 Loris Baz

    64

    10

    		 Leon Haslam

    51

    11

    		 Tom Sykes

    51

    12

    		 Garrett Gerloff

    28

    13

    		 Xavi Fores

    27

    14

    		 Federico Caricasulo

    22

    15

    		 Marco Melandri

    19

    16

    		 Eugene Laverty

    18

    17

    		 Sandro Cortese

    14

    18

    		 Leandro Mercado

    12

    19

    		 Maximillan Scheib

    11

    20

    		 Sylvain Barrier

    5

    21

    		 Christophe Ponsson

    4

    22

    		 Roman Ramos

    3

    23

    		 Takumi Takahashi

    1

    Featured image courtesy of Ducati

     

     

  • Josef Newgarden wins at Gateway race 2 to keep championship hopes alive.

    image courtesy of IndyCar

    Defending series champion Josef Newgarden closed the points gap to Scott Dixon in the championship with a victory at Worldwide Technology Raceway at Gateway. His second at the famous ‘egg-shaped’ circuit

    The Penske driver had been firmly in the hunt behind both pole sitter Takuma Sato and Arrow McLaren SP driver Patricio O’Ward. However, the American seized first position after the final pit stop window with 43 laps remaining after teammate Will Power was caught in traffic while entering the pits.

    Josef and Pato both came into the pits on lap 151, the Mexican narrowly ahead. However, a slick pit stop by the Penske crew allowed the two time series champion to beat the Mexican to the pit lane exit. It was smooth sailing from there, leading rhe rest of the way to the chequered flag.

    O’Ward eventually settled for second after finishing third yesterday in race one. Missing out on race victories is becoming something of a trademark for the young driver in his sophomore year. It seems like a matter of not if, but when O’Ward will experience the top step of the podium this season as he consolidates third in the championship.

    This win will be Josef Newgarden’s 16th in his career and second this season. His first since at the Iowa Speedway and his first at Gateway since 2017.

    Pole sitter Takuma Sato was running well until a failed overcut pit stop denied him a top five position. Sato was caught in traffic while trying to overtake backmarkers which inevitable slowed him down on his in lap, allowing the likes of Power, O’Ward and Newgarden through. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there for the two-time Indy 500 winner, bringing out the caution with less than five laps to go by running into the wall. An unfortunate end for what looked set to be magnificent weekend for the Japanese driver.

    Dutch rookie Rinus VeeKay had an incredible race from 18th to fourth. He pitted earlier than the rest of the top ten and was able to slice his way through the field. Scott Dixon would round up the top five.

    Some honourable mentions include Colton Herta who finished in a solid sixth position and Conor Daly in eight. Herta, who finished in an incredible fourth in yesterdays race starting in tenth for today’s running. It was a masterful drive and even saved a massive ‘tank slapper’ at half distance which could have easily ended the young American’s day.  Daly likewise put on an overtaking masterclass from his starting position of fifteenth. Both drivers have enjoyed a lot of success at this circuit in recent years and it was no exception this weekend.

    However, more poignantly, as the racing drew to a close, so too did a certain Brazilians time in the sport. Sadly, today was Tony Kanaan’s last scheduled race in the IndyCar series. Though he finished in 19th position, it will be his 2004 series championship, his 2013 Indy 500 win, his 16 other career wins and 15 pole positions that he will be remembered for. Liked by the entire paddock it is a sad day to see a great close a chapter in a remarkable career that has spanned over twenty years.

    We look forward to seeing Tony Kanaan again in a potential future Indy 500 guest appearance. But until then, we at the PitCrew Online wish ‘TK’ a happy retirement.

    Alongside Kanaan the IndyCar circuits will take a five week break before we return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for another double header weekend.

  • BTCC Knockhill Roundup – Sutton double boosts title credentials

    BTCC Knockhill Roundup – Sutton double boosts title credentials

    Race One

    Ash Sutton pulled off the line from pole and never surrendered the lead. Turkington was close behind and was fighting the 2017 champion all the way to the line.

    Josh Cook had a big off on the run into the uphill chicane, spinning and going backwards into the tyre wall.

    The fight for the podium was a great one as Jake Hill and Tom Ingram fought for third with Hill prevailing from the Toyota driver.

    Sutton took his third win of the season and only strengthened his title credentials, with Turkington and Hill following close behind.

    Race Two

    After a great effort from the BTC Racing team to fix Josh Cook’s car. He was put into a spin on the first corner and was out of the race. The torrid season for Cook continued.

    It was more of the same for Sutton and Turkington, as they took first and second with the BMW driver only seven tenths behind the winner. Ingram this time took third.

    After race two Senna Proctor was drawn to start race three on pole position, with Rory Butcher alongside

    Race Three

    Rory Butcher got the best start off the line to take the lead from Proctor. He pulled out a one second lead before his team mate Ollie Jackson was involved in a crash on lap two.

    Jackson was spinning through the uphill chicane and ended up on the apex. Mike Bushell had nowhere to go and hit Jackson, with Sam Osborne picking up damage too, prompting a red flag.

    On the restart Butcher got away fastest again, so quick in fact that the stewards investigated it. Tom Chilton rocketed off the line into third. Tom Oliphant pulled off a fine move into turn one, passing the Hyundai of Chris Smiley on two wheels.

    Butcher pulled out a commanding lead and took his second win of the season, with Proctor finishing a fine second and Chilton rounded off the podium.

    Driver Car R1 R2 R3
    Colin Turkington BMW 330i M Sport 2 2 9
    Tom Oliphant BMW 330i M Sport 8 6 4
    Matt Neal Honda Civic Type R FK8 7 15 12
    Dan Cammish Honda Civic Type R FK8 6 4 6
    Tom Ingram Toyota Corolla 4 3 10
    Ash Sutton Infiniti Q50 1 1 11
    Aiden Moffat Infiniti Q50 9 5 8
    Josh Cook Honda Civic Type R FK8 DNF DNF 15
    Tom Chilton Honda Civic Type R FK8 11 7 3
    Michael Crees Honda Civic Type R FK8 17 17 16
    Senna Proctor Hyundai i30N 13 11 2
    Chris Smiley Hyundai i30N 14 9 7
    Jake Hill Honda Civic Type R FK2 3 8 5
    Sam Osborne Honda Civic Type R FK2 19 18 DNF
    Rory Butcher Ford Focus ST 5 10 1
    Ollie Jackson Ford Focus ST 16 13 DNF
    Andy Neate Ford Focus ST DNF DNF 20
    Adam Morgan Mercedes Benz A Class 12 14 14
    Jack Butel Mercedes Benz A Class 20 21 22
    Bobby Thompson Audi S3 Saloon 18 DSQ 19
    James Gornall Audi S3 Saloon DNF 20 18
    Carl Boardley BMW 125i M Sport 15 12 17
    Jack Goff VW CC DNS 19 21
    Stephen Jelley BMW 125i M Sport 10 DNF 13
    Mike Bushell Vauxhall Astra 21 16 DNF

    Image Credit: BTCC Media

  • Belgian GP Review: Hamilton takes 89th career win

    image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

    Lewis Hamilton took his 5th win of the season and 89th win of his career on Sunday afternoon in Spa on a day that called for very high tyre management. The Englishman started on pole and had to fend off an early challenge on lap one from his teammate and Max Verstappen. Once he was out in front, it was rarely any challenge apart from managing the tyres which were falling off at the end.

    Both him and his teammate Bottas pitted under the safety car around lap ten during a safety car brought on due to Giovinazzi losing his rear and ending up in the barriers while collecting George Russell in the process. The Mercedes duo put on hard tyres like pretty much the rest of the field and limped to the end to finish 1-2.

    Max Verstappen of Redbull failed to mount a challenge to the Mercedes after he was put on the same hard compound tyres following the safety car and he had to go into management mode as well. The outright winners of the race apart from the top 3 has to be the Renault sport team after Daniel Ricciardo drove a mega race to finish P4 and take the fastest lap in the process while finishing only 3 seconds behind Verstappen.

    His teammate Ocon pulled off a last lap overtake on Red bull’s Albon to finish 5th and the team will be very much looking forward to Monza given the similar characteristics of the Italian circuit. Albon has to be content with 6th after a different strategy call from his team saw him finish the race on mediums which put him at a disadvantage towards the end.

    McLaren had a mixed raceday after Carlos Sainz’s bad luck followed him to Spa this weekend. The Spaniard failed to even make it to the grid following an exhaust failure while bringing the car on to the track and will be hoping for something to go his way during next week. The other McLaren of Lando Norris put on a decent show after he finished 7th towards the end passing Lance Stroll on the way and putting up a fight with Albon and Ocon for 5th.

    Pierre Gasly certainly put in a driver of the day performance after starting the race on the hard tyres and choosing not to stop under the safety car which enabled him to be on fresher tyres towards the end of the race. The Frenchman definitely made most of this strategy and put in some brilliant moves, especially one up the Eau Rouge onto Radillon on the inside vs Sergio Perez. This saw him finish 8th despite starting outside the top 10 and earned him some well deserved points. His teammate Kvyat in the other Alpha Tauri finished 11th after a quiet race.

    Racing Point had a very average race following a similar qualifying and they will be left pondering on the loss of the really good pace that they have been showing so far in the season. Sergio Perez finished in the final points spot at 10th despite trying a different strategy to his teammate Lance Stroll who finished 9th.

    Ferrari had a similar, if not worse race compared to qualifying after both the drivers swapped their qualifying positions with Vettel finishing 13th and Leclerc finishing 14th. Leclerc got off to a great start and put himself in 9th place before eventually losing places lap after lap. His pitstop under the safety car did not go according to the plan as well and he had to spend more than 30 seconds in the pitlane. As if this wasnn’t enough, he was then called in for an unexplained pitstop which left him visibly disgruntled on the radio, akin to his teammate.

    It was not a completely bad day for the ferrari powered cars after Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo finished 12th ahead of both the works Ferraris while passing one of them on the track in a straight fight. Both the Haas cars finished with Grosjean at 15th and Magnussen at 17th after another very underwhelming weekend for the American team. Latifi finished 16th in the only remaining Williams after his teammate was taken out by a crashing Giovinazzi much earlier in the race.

    With the promise of rain yet again not being fulfilled, Spa did not deliver the quite the race every F1 fan had hoped for. Mercedes and Hamilton would not be complaining to much after finishing 1-2 yet again and hamilton extending his lead at the top to 47 points over Verstappen. Renault will be the ones looking forward to another power hungry track in Monza while Ferrari might not be missing the Tifosi too much given how they have been performing so far this season.

  • F2 Spa: Shwartzman wins after Ticktum and Nissany collide

    F2 Spa: Shwartzman wins after Ticktum and Nissany collide

    Robert Shwartzman led home a Prema 1-2 in the Spa sprint race, assuming the lead after Roy Nissany and Dan Ticktum collided ahead of him.

    Starting from fourth on the reverse grid, Shwartzman jumped to third immediately as Guanyu Zhou was slow off the line. Meanwhile Ticktum got a much better start from second than polesitter Nissany and took the lead into the first corner.

    Ticktum and Nissany continued fighting through the opening sequence of corners with Nissany managing to get back ahead of the DAMS. But while they fought at the front, there was drama further down the pack as title contender Callum Ilott was hit from behind by Yuki Tsunoda and spun out of the race.

    The safety car was deployed to recover Ilott’s car. At the restart on lap 4 Ticktum stuck close to the back of Nissany to harry the Trident through Eau Rouge and down the Kemmel Straight. Ticktum then went to the outside going into Les Combes and ran wide as Nissany held the corner, but didn’t back out and the two collided as Ticktum bounced off the kerb and back onto the track.

    Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

    Nissany was spun into the wall and retired immediately. Ticktum was able to continue albeit with a damaged car, but dropped to second as Shwartzman came through the collision to assume first before the safety car was redeployed.

    When the race resumed again on lap 7, the damage to Ticktum’s car became clear as Shwartzman immediately pulled out a 2.8s gap over him. But despite a train forming behind the struggling DAMS, Ticktum was able to defend second place for several laps.

    Louis Deletraz initially took the position at the restart but Ticktum repassed him on lap 8. This turned out worse for Deletraz, as he was then passed by Schumacher and Zhou on the same lap and dropped to fifth.

    However, Ticktum was unable to keep defending when Schumacher caught him on lap 12. Zhou also got past the DAMS on the following lap, and from there Ticktum started to fall back through the top eight.

    Guanyu Zhou, UNI-Virtuosi (Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

    The train caused by Ticktum’s damaged car meant that Shwartzman was able to run away in first place and reach the chequered flag unchallenged. The Russian managed to build a nine-second gap over the rest of the field by lap 14, and kept this gap over the remaining five laps to take a dominant win.

    Schumacher and Zhou completed the podium in second and third, with Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto finishing in formation behind them. Deletraz eventually finished in sixth ahead of Christian Lundgaard. Artem Markelov took the final point in eighth, after a penalty awarded to Tsunoda for hitting Ilott dropped the Carlin out of the points into ninth. Ticktum eventually finished tenth after his late struggles, just ahead of teammate Juri Vips.

    Shwartzman’s win and Ilott’s retirement means Shwartzman has retaken the lead of the championship with 132 points to Ilott’s 122. Tsunoda is 11 points back in third, although Schumacher’s sixth podium of the year has moved him to within five points of the Japanese driver.

    In the teams’ standings, Prema now has a 24-point lead over UNI-Virtuosi, while third-placed Hitech is 62 points behind.

    FIA Formula 2 returns next weekend at Monza, in support of the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

    Full race result:

    Pos. Driver Team Points
    1 Robert Shwartzman (FL) Prema Racing 17
    2 Mick Schumacher Prema Racing 12
    3 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi Racing 10
    4 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix 8
    5 Luca Ghiotto Hitech Grand Prix 6
    6 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 4
    7 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 2
    8 Artem Markelov BWT HWA Racelab 1
    9 Yuki Tsunoda Carlin
    10 Dan Ticktum DAMS
    11 Juri Vips DAMS
    12 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System
    13 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport
    14 Giuliano Alesi BWT HWA Racelab
    15 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing
    16 Jehan Daruvala Carlin
    17 Jack Aitken Campos Racing
    Ret. Marino Sato Trident
    Ret. Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix
    Ret. Roy Nissany Trident
    Ret. Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi
    DNS Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport
  • F3 Spa: Sargeant bounces back with sprint race win

    F3 Spa: Sargeant bounces back with sprint race win

    Title contender Logan Sargeant bounced back after engine problems in yesterday’s feature race to take victory in the Formula 3 sprint race at Spa.

    Reverse grid polesitter Richard Verschoor held the lead into the first corner, while Sargeant rose to second ahead of Olli Caldwell due to Liam Lawson having a slow start and dropping back to fifth.

    But despite getting off the line well, Verschoor was unable to drop Sargeant in the opening laps as he struggled again with straight line speed for his MP Motorsport car. Sargeant stayed within a few tenths of Verschoor until lap 3, when he made the move for first and took the lead of the race.

    Meanwhile, Sargeant’s teammate Frederik Vesti was moving up through the order from fifth on the grid. After taking third from Caldwell while Sargeant was passing Verschoor, Vesti then overtook Verschoor himself for second on lap 4.

    Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

    The race was neutralised shortly after when Hitech’s Pierre-Louis Chovet went into the barriers and brought out the virtual safety car for two laps. When the caution was withdrawn on lap 6, Verschoor continued to fall down the order. The Dutchman lost third to Theo Pourchaire on lap 9, then dropped behind Lawson, Aleksandr Smolyar and Oscar Piastri in quick succession.

    Meanwhile, Vesti was making strong progress to catch Sargeant. After being 2.1 seconds behind his teammate after the virtual safety car restart, Vesti cut the gap down to four tenths by lap 14 as Sargeant complained of fading tyres on the radio.

    However, Sargeant was able to regroup in the final few laps and opened the gap back up to a second. Vesti made one final charge on the final lap, but couldn’t close up enough to make a move for the lead and finished runner-up across the line.

    Lawson recovered from his poor start to finish third behind the Premas. After passing Verschoor for fourth, the Hitech driver put significant pressure on Pourchaire who was struggling with his tyres, and took third away on lap 12.

    Theo Pourchaire, ART (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

    Pourchaire lost another place to his ART teammate Aleksandr Smolyar, who finished fourth for the second race in succession. On lap 15 Pourchaire was also passed for fifth by Oscar Piastri, who was charging forward from his own slow start to minimise the damage done by Sargeant’s win.

    But just after moving into fifth, Piastri was given a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when passing Pourchaire, dropping him to sixth behind the Frenchman in the final order.

    Verschoor stabilised in seventh place by the chequered flag, finishing ahead of yesterday’s race winner Lirim Zendelli. His Trident teammate Caldwell had been running eighth, but fell out of the points after colliding with Alex Peroni. David Beckmann took ninth, and Sebastian Fernandez benefitted from the collision ahead to finish tenth.

    After taking 17 points for victory and the fastest lap, Sargeant returns to the top of the drivers’ standings by seven points from Piastri, while Beckmann stays third ahead of Lawson by just half a point. Find the full F3 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

    FIA Formula 3 returns next week at Monza for the penultimate round of the season.

    Full race result:

    Pos. Driver Team Points
    1 Logan Sargeant (FL) Prema Racing 17
    2 Frederik Vesti Prema Racing 12
    3 Liam Lawson Hitech Grand Prix 10
    4 Aleksandr Smolyar ART Grand Prix 8
    5 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 6
    6 Oscar Piastri Prema Racing 5
    7 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 4
    8 Lirim Zendelli Trident 3
    9 David Beckmann Trident 2
    10 Sebastian Fernandez ART Grand Prix 1
    11 Olli Caldwell Trident
    12 Enzo Fittipaldi HWA Racelab
    13 Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport
    14 David Schumacher Carlin Buzz Racing
    15 Clement Novalak Carlin Buzz Racing
    16 Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport
    17 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab
    18 Dennis Hauger Hitech Grand Prix
    19 Roman Stanek Charouz Racing System
    20 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport
    21 Andreas Estner Campos Racing
    22 Alex Peroni Campos Racing
    23 Cameron Das Carlin Buzz Racing
    24 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing
    25 Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport
    26 Matteo Nannini Jenzer Motorsport
    27 Igor Fraga Charouz Racing System
    Ret. Michael Belov Charouz Racing System
    Ret. Pierre-Louis Chovet Hitech Grand Prix
    Ret. Jack Doohan HWA Racelab

  • Scott Dixon defends from Sato to win at Gateway

    image courtesy of IndyCar

    Scott Dixon continued where he left off during the closing stages of the Indianapolis 500, defending from a late charging Takuma Sato to take his 50th career IndyCar win at the World Wide Technology Speedway – his fourth win this season.

    Patricio O’Ward had led over 100 laps of the Gateway, only to be beaten out of the pits by a quick and efficient stop by Dixon and the number nine Chip Ganassi crew. The five-time world champion had played the long game, sufficiently saving fuel behind the Mexican McLaren driver meaning that he only required a short refuel to get him out across the pit exit line comfortably ahead.

    Further drama ensued when two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato had a slow right rear tyre change, which may well have cost him the net lead of the race. Instead, he was shifted out just behind Patricio O’Ward and firmly in the hunt for the race win.

    On fresh rubber, the Japanese driver was able to make quick work of O’Ward with an ‘Evel Knieval’ inspired move around the outside. O’Ward nearly lost control of the car as Sato swept across the front of the Arrow McLaren SP but was able to stabilise the car to finish in third. It will be a bitter pill to swallow as it is the third time the Mexican has had a race win snatched from him in the closing stages following Road America and Iowa.

    Sato was then able to set out to close the gap to Dixon. It would eventually come down to as much as two tenths of a second, however Dixon was able to just hang on to achieve the third most wins in IndyCar history behind A.J Foyt and Mario Andretti. He had never before won at the Gateway and has now won at 23 different tracks.

    It was certainly a memorable race that began in spectacular fashion. As the race got underway, Alex Palou had to pull out to the left of the rolling start to avoid the car in front. Those behind took this to be a signal for the start of the race. Unfortunately, this resulted in a massive pileup involving Simon Pagenaud, Oliver Askew, Zack Veach and Alexander Rossi among others.

    Colton Herta finished in a magnificent fourth position, continuing his strong run of form this season. After being benefited by a late caution, Colton was able to  jump the Husky Chcolcoate Chip Ganassi of Marcus Ericsson who finished in a strong P5.

    Rinus VeeKay was affected by the early collision and decided to pit only a few laps in. He continued to undercut the entire field making plenty of positions after every pit window. From a starting position of 14th he finished in a magnificent P6. A deserved result for a rookie that has been plagued by pit stop issues and bad luck.

    Ryan Hunter-Reay and Felix Rosenqvist finished in P7 and P8 respectively. The Swede benefited massively after a late caution brought on by bad weather meant that those who pitted would lose out massively. By staying out longer he was able to shuffle further up the order and was potentially looking at a top five finish. Unfortunately, he almost lost the rear of the car on the restart and plummeted down to ninth were he stayed for the remainder of the race.

    Rounding out the top ten was Tony Kanaan and a magnificent performance from Conor Daly. The American put in an incredible display to make it into the top ten during the first half of the race. However, after pitting early the late caution disadvantaged him sending him tumbling down the order to P13. To regain lost ground the way Conor did shows skills, composure and determination.

    Scott Dixon’s win now moves him to 386 points in the championship, now 117 clear of Josef Newgarden who bagged just 18 with his 12 place finish.

    IndyCar now moves on to a second race at Gateway on Sunday where Takuma Sato will be looking for redemption starting on pole position.

     

  • Redding now back in the Championship lead after Race 1

    Redding now back in the Championship lead after Race 1

    Round 4 of the WorldSBK Superpole and Race 1 took place at MotorLand Aragon with the reigning Champion, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) taking his 25th pole position of his WorldSBK career and smashing the lap record in doing so. Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) will start second on the grid followed by Scott Redding on the (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati)

    The starting grid for Race 1 looked like this:

    Row 1 : Rea : Baz : Redding Row 2: Lowes : Rinaldi : Haslam

    Row 3 : Bautista : van der Mark : Davies Row 4 : Scheib : Razgatlioglu : Gerloff

    Row 5 : Fores : Sykes : Mercado Row 6 : Caricasulo : Ponsson : Laverty

    Row 7 : Melandri : Barrier : Ramos Row 8 : Takahashi : Gabellini

    With 18 laps of racing, Race 1 gets underway with Rea not getting off to a great start as Baz is in the lead by the first corner followed by Rea, Lowes and Redding but by the end of the first lap, Baz is down into fourth having had Rea, Lowes and Redding all pass him.

    Bautista, who started off in 7th has not had a good start to the race and went backwards to 12th with Razgatlioglu and Haslam swapping places.

    Rea sets the fastest lap on Lap 3 but Lowes is hot on his heels closely followed by Redding who is piling on the pressure. Redding passes on the inside of Lowes, Lowes tries to duck back past but doesn’t manage to get past and now Redding has his sights on Rea.

    Exiting out of Turn 3 on Lap 4, Lowes’ bike highsides throwing him off into the middle of the track but luckily he quickly gets to his feet and off the track having thankfully been missed by the other riders behind him. An unfortunate end to his race.

    Davies has passed van der Mark up into 3rd which means that at the moment both Ducati’s are in for a podium position. Rea and Redding are starting to pull out a lead but meanwhile Laverty, who is in 15th place, has received a ride through penalty as his mechanics were working on his bike on the grid before the start of the race and he has now dropped to 18th place.

    Scott Redding and Jonathan Rea during Race One at Aragon WSBK 2020. Image courtesy of Ducati

    Gerloff hits trouble on Lap 7 and is now running in last place whilst Redding is putting pressure on Rea and on the start/finish line going into lap 8, Redding neatly pulls past Rea, Rea is looking to get straight back past but can’t match the power of the Ducati on the straights. Razgatlioglu passes Bautista up into 6th place with Baz, who started 3rd on the grid, now down in 8th place.

    By Lap 11, Davies, who is still in 3rd place has pulled out a gap between 4th place and has his sights set on Rea. Rea doesn’t seem to have an answer to the speed of the Ducati on the straights but is up with Redding on the corners.

    Lap 13 we see Scheib rejoin the track down in 18th place, Bautista crashes out at Turn 5 ending his race and Rinaldi is up into 5th place. The following lap Rea, so very nearly gets past Redding on a left hander but he then runs wide meaning the gap between him and Davies just got a lot shorter.

    Davies passes Rea on lap 16 up into 2nd place with Rea doing all he can to get the place back but to no avail, Davies makes the overtake stick and is now catching up with his teammate and is pushing to close the gap.

    The last lap sees Davies reeling Redding in but he doesn’t have enough time left to catch him, Davies must be desperately hoping Redding will make a mistake but Redding keeps his cool and passes the chequered flag first closely followed by Davies and Rea in 3rd place.

    A fantastic top two finish for Ducati and Redding is now at the top of the Championship leaderboard.

    What will Race 2 on sunday, bring us? I can’t wait to find out.

    BK

    Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

  • F2 Spa: Tsunoda wins feature race after Mazepin penalty

    F2 Spa: Tsunoda wins feature race after Mazepin penalty

    Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda took victory in the Spa feature race after on-track winner Nikita Mazepin was penalised for forcing Tsunoda off track.

    Tsunoda got a near-perfect launch from pole position to head off the pack into the first corner, while Nobuharu Matsushita jumped Mazepin for second. Behind them, Mick Schumacher got a good start from seventh on the grid to jump up to fourth, while title protagonist Robert Shwartzman dropped from fourth down into the pack.

    At the end of the first lap Tsunoda had already opened up a second over Matsushita, as Mazepin closed back in on the MP Motorsport to retake second. Mazepin took the position back on lap 3 while setting the fastest lap of the race, by which point Tsunoda had pulled almost three seconds clear of the pair.

    After losing second to Mazepin, Matsushita then started to drop back through the field. Schumacher demoted him to third at the end of lap 3, then on the following lap Matsushita was passed by Louis Deletraz, Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou.

    At Blanchimont Matsushita was set to lose another position as teammate Felipe Drugovich drew level around the outside. But the two made contact instead, breaking Drugovich’s front wing and sending Matsushita into the wall with a puncture, resulting in the virtual safety car being deployed.

    Nobuharu Matsushita, MP Motorsport (Lars Baron / Getty Images)

    The virtual safety car was withdrawn on lap 6, with Mazepin being quicker than Tsunoda on the restart to gain six tenths on the Carlin. Tsunoda responded over the following laps as Mazepin’s soft tyres started to fade, and the gap returned to over two seconds by the time Mazepin made his pit stop on lap 9.

    Tsunoda stayed out a lap longer than Mazepin, but when he came into the pits his own stop was slow and he rejoined the track behind the Russian in 14th place. However, race control then announced Mazepin was under investigation for an unsafe release, as he came close to hitting several of Trident’s pit crew on leaving his box.

    With the Mazepin incident to be decided after the race, Tsunoda stuck close to the back of the Hitech as they made their progress through the alternative strategy runners ahead of them. By lap 16 they were back up to the front of the field with a second between them, which Tsunoda then reduced to half a second by lap 19.

    Over the next few laps Tsunoda made two moves for the lead around the outside going into Turn 5, but Mazepin headed both off and Tsunoda ran wide as he bailed out. On the penultimate lap Tsunoda tried the move a third time and once again ran wide as Mazepin defended the position. Unable to get close enough to try another pass, Tsunoda ended up crossing the line in second behind Mazepin.

    However, shortly after the chequered flag Mazepin was given a five-second time penalty for forcing Tsunoda off track at Turn 5, reversing their positions and giving Tsunoda his second win of the season.

    Nikita Mazepin, Hitech (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

    Schumacher completed the podium in third, the German having a relatively quiet race with five seconds separating him from fourth-placed Deletraz. Shwartzman managed to recover to fifth after his poor first lap, and Dan Ticktum finished sixth for DAMS as the highest alternate strategy driver.

    Zhou briefly led the race on the same strategy as Ticktum, but the Chinese driver stayed out later than anyone and wasn’t able to make the places back after his stop, coming home in seventh.

    Roy Nissany also ran the alternate strategy and was second behind Zhou for a while, but was likewise unable to carve back through the field on the soft tyres later. However he did manage to pass Luca Ghiotto and Callum Ilott to take reverse grid pole for tomorrow. Ghiotto and Ilott took the final points positions, just keeping DAMS stand-in Juri Vips out of the top ten on his F2 debut.

    Post-race penalties:

    Mazepin has been given a five-place grid drop for the Monza feature race for “potentially dangerous and unsportsmanlike conduct”, after the stewards judged him to have entered parc-ferme too fast.

    Hitech were reprimanded for Mazepin’s pit stop, which was investigated as an unsafe release, while Trident have been fined for their mechanics standing too far forward in the pitlane and thus being in Mazepin’s path.

    Matsushita has been given a three-place grid drop for the sprint race for causing his collision with Drugovich on lap 3. Drugovich himself, who finished in P20, was disqualified for making his mandatory pit stop on the final lap, which is a breach of the sporting regulations.

    Finally, Marcus Armstrong was given a five-second penalty for overtaking Jack Aitken off-track and drops from P13 to P15.

    Full race result:

    Pos. Driver Team Points
    1 Yuki Tsunoda Carlin 25
    2 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix 18
    3 Mick Schumacher Prema Racing 15
    4 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 12
    5 Robert Shwartzman (FL) Prema Racing 12
    6 Dan Ticktum DAMS 8
    7 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi Racing 6
    8 Roy Nissany Trident 4
    9 Luca Ghiotto Hitech Grand Prix 2
    10 Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi Racing 1
    11 Juri Vips DAMS
    12 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System
    13 Jack Aitken Campos Racing
    14 Marino Sato Trident
    15 Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix
    16 Artem Markelov BWT HWA Racelab
    17 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix
    18 Giuliano Alesi BWT HWA Racelab
    19 Jehan Daruvala Carlin
    20 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing
    Ret. Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport
    DSQ Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport

  • Belgian GP qualifying: Hamilton takes his 6th pole at Spa

    image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

    Lewis Hamilton took pole position on Saturday afternoon after beating his teammate Valtteri Bottas by nearly half a second. The six time world champion put in one of the best laps of his career, just like he has been doing for all this season so far. The Englishman dedicated the pole position to actor Chadwick Boseman who passed away earlier today following a battle with cancer. Bottas will be looking to make up for a sub-par Saturday outing tomorrow by trying to get an early jump on his teammate on a track that very much is set up for it.

    Max Verstappen missed out on the front row by one tenth of a second despite putting in a stellar lap in the second run of Q3. The Dutch driver looked to have been running with extra downforce given the chance of rain for the race tomorrow. Daniel Ricciardo is the surprise entrant in the second row after the Aussie driver put in a great lap during the first runs of Q3. His teammate Ocon managed a lap that put him at 6th place for tomorrow’s race alongside Alex Albon who would presumably be happy with a 5th place on the grid following his effort in Q3.

    McLaren had a change of fortunes for Spa following the below average qualifying result in Catalunya last time around. The British team lines up with Carlos Sainz at 7th and Lando Norris in 10th and will be hoping for a strong double points finish tomorrow. Racing Point will be looking to go back to the drawing board after lining up with Perez at 8th and Stroll at 9th. They will certainly be wanting a better race tomorrow given the strong car they have had with them all season long.Image courtesy of Racing Point

    Ferrari’s woes worsened following today’s qualifying after both the drivers barely scraping out of Q1 and ended up with Leclerc at 13th and Vettel at 14th on the grid. It will be yet another long day of thinking back at Mugello wondering what they can do to salvage the season and also what can be done to put on a better show in the coming few races in Italy.

    Alpha Tauri are set to line up 11th and 12th with Danil Kvyat finally out-qualifying his teammate Pierre Gasly this season. With the tyre choice set to be in their favour, the team can hope to put up a challenge for a good points finish tomorrow. George Russell of Williams is slowly but surely establishing himself as a regular in Q2 after putting in yet another good lap in Q1 and maintaining his perfect record against his teammate which will see him start 15th tomorrow. His teammate Latifi is all set to line up at 19th on the last row of the grid.

    The bad weekend for the Ferrari powered cars continued after Kimi Raikkonen and Giovinazzi failed to make it out of Q1 and will line up 16th and 18th on the grid. Both the Haas cars are set to line up with Grosjean at 17th and Magnussen at 20th after Magnussen’s error at the end of Q1 that put him on the gravel and dead last on the grid.

    With the possibility of rain at 60% for tomorrow’s race, it could be a lot to play for in the midfield which could even mean Ferrari scoring points or Renault challenging for an unlikely podium. Mercedes will be wary of an ever present Verstappen threat from the 2nd row which could become much bigger given the rain forecast as Spa promises to be a cracker like it always is.