Kush Maini and Linus Lundqvist took the spoils in Rounds five and six of the British F3 Championship at Rockingham Motor Speedway, after Tom Gamble’s victory in Round four on Saturday.
Maini’s win was dominant after good work in the opening laps after starting from fifth in the reverse grid race, eventually taking the chequered flag ahead of Nicolai Kjaergaard.
And the young Indian was keen to point out the potential of the car given to him by Lanan Racing.
“It was a really good race from us, we knew from pre-season running that we were going to be quick in the dry as we were P1 every session. Unfortunately last weekend and the start of this weekend has been very wet.
From the first lap I knew we could push it and at least get the fastest lap to start from pole. Thanks to the team for giving me a great car.”
Kush Maini and his Lanan team had been waiting for a dry race after pre-season pace. Image: Jakob Ebery
After dropping backwards at the start, Maini was keen to stay out of trouble before attacking on the first lap after tight opening three corners.
“I fell to seventh at turn one trying to keep my nose clean, Jamie (Chadwick) had a slow start and I got boxed in by Maldonado from the right, there were four or five close calls with my front wing on the first lap!
“ I’m not sure whether they had less confidence or hadn’t prepared as well as we had, but they seemed to lose their braking points, I kept to my braking points and got a couple of them around the outside, from there it was about keeping it on the black stuff.
The Lanan driver is in his first season in the British F3 championship after a spell in Italy, and says the traditional British weather was a factor in his decision to enter the series, and has high hopes for his debut season.
“I want to get more experience in the rain and (The climate) is actually one of the reasons I came here, to improve in the rain. To become the best you must practice in all conditions.
“We’ve shown that we are one of the best in the dry, so we’re aiming to win the Championship.”
Maini was left to rue a slow start to the final British F3 race of the day from pole position.
“We must improve and I need to improve at the starts because that was not the best. If you lose out at the start to guys that are on the pace, it’s difficult to get the positions back.
“They got better heat into their tyres after the Safety Car, had to defend from behind. Overall I’m satisfied with P3. It’s a lot of points towards the Championship.”
(L-R) Kjaergaard, Lundqvist and Maini are all smiles after Race three Credit: British F3/Jakob Ebrey
Lundqvist’s victory came under more trying circumstances, as he got ahead of Maini and Kjaergaard at the start of an incident-filled Race three.
The race saw Saturday victor Gamble, Clement Novolak and Chia Wing Hoong disqualified for causing collisions, while Billy Monger, Jamie Chadwick, Jusuf Owega, Arvin Esmaeli and Pavan Ravishankar all retired due to contact.
“It was a tough race, I’ll tell you that much but it was also a really enjoyable one too”, Lundqvist began.
“Maybe the Safety Car helped us out a little, it may have helped me hold them off but we had good pace anyway so I could defend from Nicolai and Kush to the end.”
The Swede took pride in taking victory under difficult circumstances as Kjaergaard was rarely more than half a second behind throughout the 14 lap distance.
“I’m very pleased with this one, it makes you feel better about the win if you’ve really had to work for it. It was a bunched up field, Nicolai at one stage had a really good run on me but I held him off, he really put a lot of pressure on me in the last two or three laps.
Lundqvist was quick to place importance on consistency in a season that has seen plenty of twists and turns already after just two race meetings.
“As you say it’s been a really strong weekend for us, we had a podium in every race this weekend and I’m very pleased about that. It’s a real confidence boost for me as a driver and us as a team. The target is to do more race weekends like this, this championship is about consistency and making sure the lowest score isn’t that low.
We want to have every weekend like this one, fighting for podiums and race wins in each race and we’ll be in a really good position come the end of the season.”
The next three rounds of the British F3 Championship take place at the Snetterton 300 circuit in four weeks’ time.
Speedworks Motorsports’ Tom Ingram became the first double winner of the season, winning after starting 12th on the grid in race two at Donington Park
He was joined on the podium by Chris Smiley, a first time podium finisher, and Jack Goff of Eurotech.
Josh Cook started on pole following his first race win in race one. There was drama before the race even started as Colin Turkington and James Nash both ran into mechanical issues on the way to the grid.
Nash retired and Turkington started from the pits but never recovered, retiring with just a few laps remaining.
At the start Dan Cammish made the best start from the front row and took the lead from Cook, who was suffering from the maximum success ballast of 75kg in his car. Cammish stormed into the lead with Smiley and Aiden Moffat following.
Cammish was hunting his first win in only his fifth BTCC start in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic, but he was caught by Smiley who managed to get through and into the lead. Ingram charged through the field and found himself in the top five.
Ingram’s charge through the field was impressive, but Shredded Wheat’s Tom Chilton made 17 places as he finished tenth in his Ford Focus RS. The veteran made up for lost time after finishing 29th in race one.
Rory Butcher came home in ninth in his MG following a steady drive, just behind resigning champion Ash Sutton in his Subaru. The champ hasn’t had the greatest start to his title defence but made good ground to finish eighth.
Cook struggled to the finish with a heavier Vauxhall Astra than usual, he managed seventh place with 75kg of ballast on his car. James Cole in the other Shredded Wheat Focus finished sixth after starting fifth, which is no mean feat in this ever-competitive BTCC field.
Adam Morgan in the Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes finished in fifth while stalemates Tom Oliphant and Aden Moffat finished 12th and 15th respectively.
Cammish finished fourth with team mate Matt Neal falling down the grid to finish 16th. Goff made the podium following some excellent racing with Smiley ahead of him taking his maiden podium finish.
But Ingram managed to pass everyone and storm to the win, his second of the season. The Speedworks racer drove phenomenally to take the win and extend his lead at the top of the early championship standings.
Yelmer Buurman’s stunning recovery earned the #116 ERC Sport team victory in Round Three of the British GT Championship ahead of the #17 Aston Martin team piloted by Derek Johnston and Marco Sorensen and the #7 Bentley duo of Callum Macleod and Ian Loggie, although #17 team would later receive a 30s penalty to drop them back to seventh. Darren Turner and Andrew Howard in the #99 Beechdean Aston Martin inherited the podium.
Callum Pointon and Patrik Matthiesen were top of the GT4 class in the #55 Ginetta with Jesse Anttila and Stephen Johansen second in the #54 Nissan 370Z and Will Moore and Matt Nicoll-Jones’ Aston Martin Vantage #62.
John Minshaw had initially looked like building up the 20s gap that the #33 Barwell Motorsport needed, the gap as high as five seconds ahead of Flick Haigh’s #75 Aston Martin, who eventually lost out to Sam De Haan’s #69 Lamborghini before the race’s first Safety Car, triggered by Shaun Balfe’s McLaren GT3 entry hitting the wall after contact with an Invictus Jaguar in GT4.
Minshaw again stretched his lead and was again pegged back through no fault of his own as he lost a 9.5 second advantage to a second Safety Car, and was reeled in by Graham Davidson in the #47 Jetstream Aston Martin, who had quietly worked his way up as others hit strife.
Once the handovers were complete during the pit stop window, Phil Keen in the #33 was 15s behind Maxime Martin in #47 after serving the 20s success penalty, but this deficit was closed after a third Safety Car thrown to recover the stricken #22 Invictus Racing Jaguar driven by Ben Norfolk at the Deene Hairpin.
Martin was then penalised for exceeding track limits but Keen was passed by the charging Buurman before himself receiving a penalty, after the #75 Optimum Aston Martin hit gremlins in the pits while the #69 Barwell Lamborghini failed to leave the pits altogether.
Buurman had a clear run to the flag after that with Macleod and Turner quietly guiding their Bentley and Aston Martin to the GT3 podium. Adam in the #75 Aston was classified fourth, Keen recovered to sixth behind Davidson and Martin, while Rick Parfitt Jnr and Ryan Ratcliffe endured an awful race after strong early pace was hampered when Johnston spun Parfitt Jnr’s Bentley.
In GT4, Callum Pointon was able to cruise home in his #55 HHC Ginetta after teammate Patrik Matthiesen had hounded the #4 Tolman McLaren of Charlie Fagg throughout the first hour of the race.
While Fagg pitted early in the window, Matthiesen stayed out an extra ten minutes and the Ginetta leapfrogged the McLaren now driven by Michael O’Brien, who quickly fell behind.
O’Brien was to prove a mobile roadblock for much of the second hour, before succumbing to the advances of a fast charging Jesse Anttila in the #54 UltraTek Nissan – Anttila and Stephen Johansen winning the GT4 Pro-Am class in the process.
Matt Nicoll-Jones took third in the #62 Academy Motorsport Aston Martin also piloted by Will Moore after passing O’Brien and the #10 Equipe Verschuur McLaren driven by Dan McKay and Finlay Hutchison, with the #53 UltraTek Nissan of Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman was fourth in GT4.
Images Courtesy of Spacesuit Media (Nic Redhead & Jamie Sheldrick)
ccPower Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook became the fourth different winner of the season with a win in round four of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.
The Vauxhall Astra driver led from lights to flag as Dan Cammish of Team Dynamics came second and Laser Tools’ Aden Moffat rounding off the podium.
Cook led from the start with Chris Smiley of BTC Norlin and Grad-x’s Sam Tordoff in tow. Into Redgate Cook held his nerve and kept ahead of the pack. Cammish flew past Smiley and Tordoff into the Craner Curves to take second place and hunt down Cook.
Meanwhile further back there were tussles throughout the field, Colin Turkington was sent sideways after a coming together with Brands race winner Senna Proctor. The BMW man recovered well to finish tenth.
Proctor managed to finish eighth ahead of Ciceley Motorsports’ Tom Oliphant, but couldn’t keep up with the power of the Honda’s ahead of him. Smiley slowly fell down the order and was overtaken by the resurgent Matt Neal in the Team Dynamics Honda to finish sixth with Smiley seventh.
James Cole kept his nose clean to bring his Shredded Wheat Ford Focus RS home in fifth, picking up the only points for his team. Team mate Tom Chilton was in the wars and finished low down the order, with Tordoff unable to maintain his push as an electrical fault saw him retire.
Rookie Brett Smith came home fourth after fighting with team mate Jack Goff Smiley to take fourth place and finish just off the podium.
The Laser Tools Mercedes of Aiden Moffat came third after a great repair effort from the Laser Tools team following his crash in qualifying yesterday.
Dan Cammish kept on Cook’s tail throughout the race, and was on a charge during the middle phases, but couldn’t find his way past Matt Simpson, who tucked in between the top two.
But the first race belonged to Cook, who masterfully led from start to finish, with the Power Maxed Racing team having won two of the four races so far this season.
Robert Kubica – many fans were waiting for his comeback to F1. The winner of 2008 Canadian Grand Prix is the reserve & development driver for Williams. After qualifications of Azerbejian GP, the polish driver answered some questions asked by Julia Paradowska.
Julia Paradowska:The Chinese GP was much better for Williams than Bahrain and Australia. Do you think it’s possible to get their first points of the season for the team in the upcoming races? Robert Kubica: Well, Formula 1 is a fantastic sport because it is changing very quickly. Of course we are beginning the season not where we expected. In the initial races we did face more issues than we had hoped so generally we are working on trying to improve areas where we face issues. We will be on tracks where we could be performing better. As I think all of the cars in the paddock have better tracks and worse tracks so there is time for our car. But this doesn’t exclude that generally we have to keep working and keep focusing on as we think we have an issue.
JP: How does a non-race week look for you as the reserve & development driver? RK: For sure it is completely different to a race driver’s weekend. Nonetheless it’s still very exciting for me to be back in the paddock. Ok, it is a different role than I have been used to but still this gives me an opportunity to stay close in the team, stay close to the sport to which I have a lot of passion. It gives me the opportunity to see a Grand Prix weekend from a different perspective and a different point of view so it is a good opportunity for me. It isn’t easy to see and hear what I was racing but still as I said I am enjoying it and I am trying to help the team as much as I can.
World Copyright: Mark Sutton/Williams F1
JP: What’s your part in solving team problems? RK: My part as a driver is to try to give the best feel as it is possible when I get to drive a car. As a part of my role I am doing a lot of simulation work so we are trying to improve our simulator, to improve our correlation between the simulator and reality. As part of our development, I am doing a part of our development programme which is involving me doing some internal technical meetings so as you can see I am a bit more than just a reserve driver and this is very nice from the team. I am really keen to play a part and also trying to help the team but also to learn from other people.
JP: Before the 2018 season there was much speculation about your comeback to F1. Did these rumours sometimes get you tired? RK: Well, it is a part of the game and I think the media got very excited about the possibility for me to comeback as a race driver. I think everybody was trying to get their opinion around. I think this was the normal approach from the media. It looks like during November-December my name appeared and was quite popular and I think media had some speculations to talk so they used it.
World Copyright: Glenn Dunbar/Williams F1
JP: F1 is a sport that is constantly evolving, changing. What do you miss the most when compared to the beginning of your career? RK: Driving, very simple and being younger. But on the other side I have much more experience so actually experience is helping a lot.
Generally, I think the sound was making F1 races very exciting which we are missing. It is easier for media commitments – in the past it wasn’t as easy, you were travelling to do interviews as well. The Season was running and we can do it (the interview) so there is always pros and negatives.
Robert Kubica – na jego powrót czekało wielu fanów. Zwycięzca GP Kanady teraz jest kierowcą testowym i rozwojowym dla zespołu Williams. Po kwalifikacjach przed GP Azerbejdżanu, polski kierowca odpowiedział na kilka pytań zadanych przez Julię Paradowską.
Julia Paradowska: GP Chin było znacznie lepsze dla Williamsa niż GP Bahrajnu i GP Australii. Czy uważasz, że możliwe jest zdobycie pierwszych punktów w sezonie dla zespołu w nadchodzących wyścigach? Robert Kubica: Formuła 1 to cudowny sport, bo zmiany zachodzą bardzo szybko. Oczywiście na początku sezonu nie spodziewaliśmy się, że znajdziemy się w takiej sytuacji. W pierwszych wyścigach musieliśmy zmierzyć się z problemami, których wcześniej nie przewidzieliśmy. Nasza praca obecnie skupia się na polepszeniu obszarów, z którymi mieliśmy kłopoty. Niedługo starty na torach, gdzie nasz samochód powinien prezentować się lepiej. Jak mniemam, każdy z samochodów w paddocku ma tory, na których sprawują się lepiej, więc teraz nasza kolej. Oczywiście nie zmienia to faktu, że wciąż musimy pracować nad ulepszeniami naszego samochodu, ponieważ zauważamy problem.
JP: Jak wygląda tydzień poza wyścigiem dla ciebie jako kierowcy rezerwowego i rozwojowego? RK: Na pewno inaczej, niż tydzień kierowców wyścigowych. Mimo tego powrót na paddock jest dla mnie bardzo ekscytujący. Ok, jest to inna rola niż ta, do której byłem przyzwyczajony, ale wciąż pozwala mi na bycie blisko z zespołem i sportem, do którego mam tak wiele pasji. Ponadto daje mi szansę zobaczenia weekendu wyścigowego, weekendu Grand Prix z innej perspektywy i innego punktu widzenia, więc jest to dla mnie dobra okazja. Nie jest łatwo zauważyć i usłyszeć, że ścigałem się, ale wciąż tak, jak powiedziałem, cieszę i staram się pomóc zespołowi tak bardzo, jak tylko potrafię.
World Copyright: Mark Sutton/Williams F1
JP: Jaka jest Twoja rola w rozwiązywaniu problemów zespołu? RK: Moją rolą jest bycie kierowcą, który stara się zrobić jak najlepszą robotę, gdy prowadzę samochód. W ramach moich zajęć przeprowadzam wiele symulacji. Staramy się poprawić przełożenie symulatora na rzeczywistość. Jako cześć zespołu biorę udział w programie rozwojowym, który angażuje mnie w wewnętrzne spotkania techniczne, ponieważ jestem kimś więcej, niż tylko klasycznym kierowcą rezerwowym. Jest to bardzo miłe, że zespół zaoferował mi taką możliwość. Naprawdę bardzo się cieszę z bycia częścią tego zespołu oraz okazji do pracy nad samochodem. Co ważne, mam również szansę nauczyć się kilku rzeczy od innych.
JP: Przed sezonem 2018 było wiele spekulacji o powrocie do F1. Czy te pogłoski czasami cię męczyły? RK: Cóż, jest to część gry i myślę, że media bardzo się ucieszyły z możliwości mojego powrotu do roli kierowcy wyścigowego. Myślę, że każdy próbował mieć swoje zdanie. Sądzę, że to był typowy proces w klasycznym zbliżaniu się do mediów. Wygląda na to, że w okresie od listopada do grudnia moje nazwisko było bardzo popularne, media zaczęły przedstawiać różne spekulacje.
World Copyright: Glenn Dunbar/Williams F1
JP: F1 to sport, który ciągle ewoluuje, zmienia się. Czego najbardziej brakuje w porównaniu do początków kariery? RK: Bardzo prosta jazda i bycie młodszym. Ale z drugiej strony mam o wiele więcej doświadczenia, tak więc to bardzo pomaga.
Ogólnie rzecz biorąc, trochę dźwięku. Myślę, że dźwięk sprawiał, że wyścigi F1 były bardzo ekscytujące, czego nam brakuje. Jest to łatwiejsze dla mediów – w przeszłości podróżowałeś, aby udzielać wywiadów. Sesja był w toku i mogliśmy przeprowadzić wywiad, więc zawsze są plusy i minusy.
Tom Gamble announced himself on the single-seaters circuit with a stunning Saturday in the British F3 championship at Rockingham, with a last-ditch pole position followed by a faultless drive to victory later in the afternoon.
Gamble was one of the last across the line qualifying as others including series leader Nicolai Kjaergaard toiled in the rain in Northamptonshire.
The victory takes Gamble to the top of the standings after four races, at only his second single-seaters meeting.
Having not taken pole last year despite winning the British Ginetta Junior series last year, Gamble was relieved to have broken his qualifying duck early in the F3 season.
“The car felt mega in qualifying, Fortec have given me a really good car.
“I’m really happy to have got pole position in British F3 because I didn’t get one in the Ginettas (Juniors) last year which was pretty annoying.
The 16-year-old from Nottinghamshire isn’t putting any pressure on himself for the rest of the season but is still confident of success.
“I’m just going to do the best I can this year and as far as the future goes, we’ll go from there. Ideally I’d like to be right up there and I think we can be this year.
Gamble was delighted to go on to win the race in the afternoon, gapping Linus Lundqvist early in the race after an early Safety Car.
“To go on and win the race is mega. I’m happy I was able to pull away from him (Lundqvist) It’s a great way to start the weekend. In the race it was a damp track and had stopped raining so it was just greasy.
“It was great to get a gap on him because we’ve seen that he’s been quick all season. It’s just a shame we haven’t yet seen anyone’s dry pace.
The grid for tomorrow’s racing is reversed meaning that Gamble, except for a handful of retirees, will be starting well down the order.
“With the reverse grid tomorrow, I would like to think I could get some overtaking done but it’s difficult to say where we’ll end up.
It will be a case of damage limitation, taking as many places as possible and trying to get as close to the front as I can.”
A late charge from Barwell Motorsport’s Phil Keen ensured that the Optimum Motorsport Aston Martin duo of Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam were forced to settle for second in the British GT series GT3 class.
Keen was the only man to go below the 1:30s with a 1:29.235 in his Lamborghini Huracan during GT3 Pro qualifying after Haigh had put Aston Martin in top spot with a 1:32.844 in GT3 Am qualifying to go a second clear of Barwell’s John Minshaw.
Adam could not respond after poor luck with traffic at the end of the session to go only seventh in the Pro section of qualifying.
Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer were third in their TF Sport Aston Martin, with experienced Dane Thiim third in pro qualifying while Yelmer Buurman was the only driver within a second of Keen.
Sadly for Buurman his ERC Sport Mercedes will start from the back of the 12 car GT3 grid after Lee Mowle spun at the final corner before even setting a time during Pro AM qualifying, although they will be encouraged by strong early running in practice.
Meanwhile in GT4 it was a 1-2 for Tolman Motorsport as the #4 McLaren 570s driven by Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg led teammates Lewis Proctor and Jordan Albert in the #5 McLaren, while the other Tolman operated McLaren of Joe Osbourne and David Pattison ended up fifth after losing time early on.
The Century Motorsport duo of Ben Tuck and Ben Green were the only non-McLaren operation in the top five, ending the GT4 qualifying session in third ahead of the Track Club #72 team of Ben Barnicoat and Adam Balon.
Tom Sykes finished fourth in the first race of the Dutch World Superbike round, and as such started the second race from pole position on the #66 Kawasaki and alongside Xavi Fores on the Barni Racing Ducati and the factory 1199 Panigale of Marco Melandri. Row two had Loris Baz in fourth, Leandro Mercado in fifth and Jordi Torres lining up sixth. The third row was of course the podium finishers from Saturday’s race in reverse order, with Chaz Davies going off seventh, Michael van der Mark from eighth and Jonathan Rea starting ninth.
Sykes made a great start from pole, but still had to out-brake the Barni Ducati of Fores around the outside at turn one. He did so successfully, and after being fastest by 0.6 seconds in warm-up on Sunday morning it was an ominous sign for the opposition.
Both Van der Mark and Rea made it past Marco Melandri at the final chicane at the end of the first lap, with the Italian on the outside of the three, and having little choice but to cut the second part of the chicane. He importantly did not gain time, though, and actually lost two further positions to Mercado and Alex Lowes down the pit straight.
Marco Melandri. Image courtesy of ducati.com
Melandri then proceeded to run wide at turn one at the beginning of lap two, which allowed Baz, Torres and then Davies through, and that finalised what had been an awful two minutes for the Italian, who had dropped from third on the grid to tenth in one lap. Meanwhile, Sykes was steaming away at the front, and had already extended his gap to over one second from Fores.
The first lap had not been so good for Davies, who ran wide at the first turn which dropped him quite far back, and his progress only started midway through lap two when he passed Torres for eighth at the Ruskenhoek, and then Baz at Stekenvaal. Perhaps having a bad first lap does not sound so bad, but when the two others who started from row three are third and fourth, and the leader already has about five seconds on you, it can ruin your race, and it took him until the end of the third lap for the Welshman to move past Mercado into sixth.
By lap four the race was starting to take shape, and Xavi Fores’ stay in second position looked severely more limited once he left De Strubben, as Rea had moved past Van der Mark. Sykes was still steaming away at the front, but there was still a question mark about the duration of Sykes’ rear tyre, but we could only find out the importance of the rear tyre in the fortunes of Sykes until the end.
With 16 laps to go, Rea and Van der Mark had caught Fores, and with fifteen to go they had passed Fores – Rea’s move was a stunner, around the outside of Hoge Heide. Now we would see whether they had the pace to catch Sykes for the lead. In the first laps, there were no gains from the Kawasaki-Yamaha pair in second and third, and the gap remained at around 3.5 seconds, and by lap nine it had started to extend, out to almost four seconds.
Furthermore, it looked like Rea was trying a reasonable amount more than Sykes to make the lap time – it looked much more difficult for the Northern Irishman than for his teammate – and he was still losing time to Sykes.
From there, not much changed. Sykes continued to extend the lead over Rea behind, but the order between the front runners remained unchanged in the final twelve laps, apart from Van der Mark passing Rea when the reigning World Champion made a mistake at the chicane with ten laps to go, and a crash for the second Pata Yamaha at the final chicane with nine to go. The British rider got back on to finish fourteenth, but it was not a pair of results that he would have hoped for after starting race one from pole. Rea then passed Van der Mark back at De Strubben and, although he could not drop the Dutchman, he was able keep the home rider at bay until the flag.
The victory of Sykes was remarkable, a return to his World Championship year for the 2013 World Superbike Champion. He got to turn one first, and that was the last anyone saw of him. This performance and result was just what Sykes needed after such a disappointing opening few races, in which he had failed to make the podium on all but one occasion – the first race of the season at Phillip Island. Imola is next up, a good circuit for the Briton, and one where he has a lot of support, typically – a pair of performances akin to the one he put in for Assen race two could throw him back into championship contention.
The win for Sykes also ended Rea’s 100% record at the Dutch circuit since he moved to Kawasaki. The Northern Irishman’s second place, though, was enough to extend his gap in the World Championship to over one race win for the first time in 2018, which could be crucial with Imola next up – Ducati’s back garden and, as mentioned, a good circuit for Sykes.
Xavi Fores behind Marco Melandri. Image Courtesy of Ducati
Michael van der Mark was not particularly content with his third place, saying he simply did not have the grip from the Pirelli tyres to go after Rea and Sykes. Still, his second podium of his home WorldSBK round and third of the 2018 season represents a positive weekend for the Dutch rider and, combined with the potential shown by Alex Lowes, shows the progress made in recent races by Pata Yamaha.
Xavi Fores was the first of the Ducati riders over the line on a difficult day for the Italian marque. It was a decent ride from Fores but he will be disappointed as Assen is the first round of the season at which he has not managed to take a podium.
The second Ducati was Chaz Davies in fifth place. There were changes to the bike made in warm-up, but they cost him side grip in the beginning of the race, and a “strange vibration on the rear” that they still need to determine the cause of. Without the vibration he may have been able to fight for the podium, but dropping eighteen points across the two races was presumably not what the number seven had in mind for this weekend, and he will be hoping to bounce back in Imola, where he did the double back in 2016.
Jordi Torres took yet another good result for MV with sixth place, and ahead of Marco Melandri, who suffered yet again with the Panigale this weekend. Whilst he knows the pace in the bike is there, and that is also evidenced by the results of Fores and Davies, Melandri admits that he, the team and Ducati are still working to resolve the instability issues which have been plaguing the Italian since the start of the season. He is looking forward to a private test at Brno, saying it will be “very important” and that “the solution is within reach” as he hopes to be able to make better results in Imola.
Loris Baz took eighth place on the Althea BMW, ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Lorenzo Savadori who rounded out the top ten.
Eleventh place went to Davide Giugliano (replacing Eugene Laverty) on the second Aprilia, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi who “thought [he] could do better” but a problem at the start limited him to twelfth place. PJ Jacobsen on the sole Honda was thirteenth, ahead of Alex Lowes in fourteenth after his crash, and Ondrej Jezek who was the final points scorer.
Yonny Hernandez was the final rider over the line in sixteenth, whilst Leandro Mercado and Roman Ramos were the only retirements.
From here, the 2018 Superbike World Championship heads to Imola for round five. It is the true home round of Ducati, so they will be particularly focussed to recover from their subpar performances in Holland, and close down the gap to Jonathan Rea in the championship. But, for now, the man of the moment is Tom Sykes, who barely put a foot wrong in Assen race two, and looked back to his title-winning self.
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Argentina (ARG) – WRC 26/04/2017 to 30/04/2017 – PHOTO : @World
The WRC heads to Argentina for the fifth round of this year’s championship. Seb Ogier increased his lead over Thierry Neuville last time out with a dominant victory on the tricky roads that make the Tour de Corse. This year’s event features 18 stages and a very interesting twist at the end. El Condor, which is the Power Stage and is one of the most famous stages in the world will be tackled uphill this year.
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 -WRC Argentina (ARG) – WRC 26/04/2017 to 30/04/2017 – PHOTO : @World
Here’s the full stage schedule.
RALLY ARGENTINA SCHEDULE (GMT-3)
THURSDAY 26 APRIL
8.00am: Shakedown (Villa Carlos Paz – Cabalango)
6.30pm: Start (Villa Carlos Paz)
6.45pm: Regrouping (Villa Carlos Paz – 20 min)
7.08pm: SS 1 – Villa Carlos Paz (1,90 km)
7.33pm: Parc fermé (Villa Carlos Paz)
FRIDAY 27 APRIL
6.25am: Start and Service A (Villa Carlos Paz – 15 min)
8.10am: SS 2 – Las Bajadas – Villa Del Dique 1 (16,65 km)
9.00am: SS 3 – Amboy – Yacanto 1 (33,58 km)
10.13am: SS 4 – Santa Rosa – San Agustin 1 (23,85 km)
12.08pm: SS 5 – Super Especial Fernet Branca 1 (6,04 km)
12.48pm: Service B (Villa Carlos Paz – 30 min)
2.51pm: SS 6 – Las Bajadas – Villa Del Dique 2 (16,65 km)
3.38pm: SS 7 – Amboy – Yacanto 2 (33,58 km)
4.51pm: SS 8 – Santa Rosa – San Agustin 2 (23,85 km)
6.41pm: Flexi service C (Villa Carlos Paz – 45 min)
SATURDAY 28 APRIL
7.30am: Start and Service D (Villa Carlos Paz – 15 min)
8.23am: SS 9 – Tanti – Mataderos 1 (13,92 km)
9.08am: SS 10 – Los Gigantes – Cuchilla Nevada 1 (16,02 km)
9.35am: SS 11 – Cuchilla Nevada – Rio Pintos 1 (40,48 km)
11.38am: SS 12 – Super Especial Fernet Branca 2 (6,04 km)
12.15pm: Service E (Villa Carlos Paz – 30 min)
1.23pm: SS 13 – Tanti – Mataderos 2 (13,92 km)
2.08pm: SS 14 – Los Gigantes – Cuchilla Nevada 2 (16,02 km)
2.35pm: SS 15 – Cuchilla Nevada – Rio Pintos 2 (40,8 km)
4.35pm: Flexi service F (Villa Carlos Paz – 45 min)
SUNDAY 29 APRIL
7.45am: Start and Service G (Villa Carlos Paz – 15 min)
9.08am: SS 16 – Copina – El Condor (16,43 km)
9.55am: SS 17 – Giulio Cesare – Mina Clavero (22,41 km)
12.18pm: SS 18 – Copina – El Condor Power Stage (16,43 km)
2.21pm: Service H (Villa Carlos Paz – 10 min)
2.31pm: Finish
There’s 358km of stages this year. Last year, we saw welsh wizard Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt drive brilliantly throughout the event, only to be denied victory after some technical problems by Thierry Neuville who won by just seven tenths of a second.
Here’s the views from the drivers then.
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“Rally Argentina is a famous event and one that attracts an incredible crowd of passionate rally fans. It creates a fantastic atmosphere that we appreciate during the stages. We have good memories of last year’s rally, which we won in dramatic style in the Power Stage. I hope we can pull off a similar result this time around. It is a highly demanding event, very tough on the car and the crew, so it’s not one that we can take lightly.”
2017 FIA World Rally Championship Round 05, Rally Argentina 27-30 April 2017 Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Austral Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Andreas Mikkelsen
“Rally Argentina is probably one of my favourite rallies of the entire season. It is a very special type of gravel event because the roads are sandier which suits my driving style a bit more; you can really create an angle, which helps to attack the corner. The stages can get quite rough on the second pass so it’s important to take care of the car, but all in all it is a beautiful rally. El Condor and Mina Clavero are two stages I particularly look forward to.”
Dani Sordo
“The huge number of spectators really makes this a special rally for everyone. It is always nice to see so many people lining the routes and cheering us on. It gives us a real boost regardless of how we are performing. Of course, our aim is to be fighting towards the front. We have had a couple of solid results in a row, so we want to use the momentum to add another gravel podium to the one we scored in Mexico.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Jari-Matti Latvala
“Argentina is a place where I have had some very enjoyable moments in the past, including my win there in 2014. It is a really challenging event and that makes it very satisfying when things are going well. There is a nice mixture of different stages over the weekend, from the fast and sandy roads in the valley on Friday to the rougher mountain stages on Sunday, including the famous El Condor, which is the Power Stage again this year. It is always a very spectacular stage with all of the fans up on the hillsides cheering us on. Argentina is a very demanding rally for the cars, and we learned a lot there as a team last year. Together, we are working hard to constantly improve the car, and hopefully we can show some good progress. It would be good to get some more points on the board.”
Jari-Matti Latvala, Miikka Antilla. Photo credit – Toyota Gazoo Racing
Ott Tanak
“Rally Argentina has always been a tough event. There are some nice smooth and fast stages but also some pretty technical roads, so it’s a rally where you get a bit of everything in one weekend. It’s also really demanding on the cars, as the stages can get pretty rough. I finished third there last year, and that gives me confidence that I can perform well this time. I’m also feeling good after our pre-event test in Sardinia: the roads went from wet to dry during the test and the surface can be just as rough there, so I think that we got just the right conditions that we needed for a good test for Argentina. I am pretty happy with the improvements that we were able to make to the car and now I am eager to see how we are going to compare against the others.”
Esapekka Lappi
“Although I haven’t competed in Argentina before, I have done the recce twice, so I have some picture of what the rally is like. I have heard that it can be the toughest round of the championship: the surface can get very rough in places, and there are a lot of rocks, so you need to take care sometimes. It looks as though on Friday the roads are going to be a little bit softer than on Saturday, and then on Sunday in the mountains there will be more loose gravel and rocks. I am really confident that we can do much better in Argentina than in our last gravel rally in Mexico, where I think I learnt quite a lot. It is usually a rally where a lot of things can happen, so it might be that my main target will be to just try and stay out of trouble, but let’s see how it goes.”
Citroen Abu Dhabi WRT
Kris Meeke
“I come into this fifth round very determined to move back up the championship standings, but this rally is such a challenge, you have to treat it with respect it deserves. I’ll do my very best, as always, but the weather may be a factor. The condition of the roads is often determined by how much rainfall there has been over the previous six months. In any case, it’s a rally that I really love, both for the wide range of difficulties involved and the warm, very enthusiastic welcome we get from the local fans. Added to which, I have always been comfortable here: I’ve finished on the podium twice in my four appearances, including my first WRC win.”
Craig Breen
“Having only raced here once before, and even then, only for part of the rally, when the other guys have been driving on these stages for years, I fear that my lack of knowledge may hamper me a bit. But I really enjoyed the brief glimpse of the rally that I got here last season and I can’t wait to get started. Testing went really well. It had been a little while since I had last driven the C3 WRC on gravel and the car has clearly improved on this surface. So, my confidence has been given a serious boost coming into this rally, which is set to be pretty demanding.”
Craig Breen, Scott Martin. Photo credit Citroen Racing.
Khalid Al Qassimi
“I think this rally is going to be a real challenge for me because it has been some time since I last competed here, but I am very much looking forward to it. I’ll have to get my bearings again, review and revise the pace notes for the stages. My sole aim is to make it to the finish and enjoy myself, whilst also supporting the team.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Sébastien Ogier
“We’ve made a great start to the season and come to Argentina with the ambition of continuing this positive start. It’s the only event Julien and I are yet to win and, even though I won’t be fixated on a win this week, I would also love to stand on the top step of the podium in Argentina!
“We know that the win won’t be easy, but we have made a lot of progress this year and will certainly give it our best. The competition is strong, but if we can limit the time loss on Friday, which will be the key, I’m sure we’ll be in with a chance.
“The car felt great last time out on gravel, but the surface in Argentina is completely different. The roads are much softer and sandier here, but also quite rough in places meaning that a good result is dependent on a compromise between speed and endurance.
“We completed a development test in Portugal last week and everything continues to go in the right direction. We’re keen to see what we can do next week, and optimistic of delivering another strong result.”
FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 -WRC Mexico (MEX) – WRC 08/03/2018 to 11/03/2018 – PHOTO : @World
Elfyn Evans
“It’s great to see Dan fully recovered and back at an event that holds a lot of special memories for the both of us. It’s where we secured our first podium in 2015, and where we came so close to victory last year. That was a hard defeat to take at the time, but it made us stronger and we’ll be hoping to challenge for the top results again this year.
“It’s fair to say that I’ve not had the best start to the season, but we’re determined to turn that around this week. With a solid result in Corsica, and Dan back by my side in Argentina, we’re looking forward to the challenge and focused on delivering a strong result.
“You have to take a fairly measured approach to an event like this as there is very little margin for error. There’s the potential for something to catch you out around practically every corner – so you have to have a clean rally and keep mistakes to a minimum.
“We completed some development testing in the lead-up to this event where we were able to get a feel for driving on gravel again. We will have a fairly good road position for the opening day and the car feels good – so let’s see what we can do.”
Teemu Suninen
“Argentina will be an interesting event in that sense that I have not competed here before. We did the recce in 2016 and from what I can remember there are quite a few rhythm changes on the stages – high-speed roads often turning into very narrow tracks with no room to run wide.
“The rhythm change is the biggest challenge, but the roads are also soft in places and the risk of punctures is increased by small stones bordering the road.
“We completed a development test in Portugal and got some good kilometres under our belt on gravel. It was really important to have that test. We have trust in the car but I know that the conditions will be a little different in Argentina.
“My aim this week is to continue to learn, continue to gain experience and continue developing my driving. If we can do that, the good results will come too.”
Well, we are set for a very good rally. All the ingredients are there, with Kris and Thierry who have conquered these very challenging stages in recent years. Also, let’s not forget that Elfyn and Dan led a large portion last year, only to miss out by such a small amount in the end. Perhaps Seb will take his first win here this weekend. He’s come pretty close before, but with him opening the road throughout Friday, he’ll need to ensure that the time loss to the leaders is kept small.
One driver missing, which is a shame, is 2016 winner Hayden Paddon. I’m surprised that Hyundai didn’t have him in the third i20 this weekend. Still, we’ll see him next time in Rally Portugal.
