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Dan Cammish wins first BTCC round at Donington Park

Dan Cammish struck first blood as he won the first round of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.

The Team Dynamics driver won by just seven tenths from reigning champion Colin Turkington in his WSR BMW. Rory Butcher grabbed a fantastic third place finish to round off the podium.

Turkington led off the grid, with Sutton moving up into second passing Dan Cammish at Redgate. The first lap wasn’t without its drama however as Jake Hill and Josh Cook collided, with the BTC Racing Civic of Cook falling to the back.

Sutton was taking the fight to Turkington’s BMW, and crept up the inside at Coppice, but couldn’t quite make the move stick. A lap later on lap four Sutton took the lead, albeit briefly as an initial nudge by Turkington was met with a second tap which spun Sutton’s Infiniti round. Cammish profited most from the impact as he took the lead.

Cammish was controlling the race, holding off Turkington with a lead of just under a second. However on lap 11 a safety car was called as Senna Proctor suffered an unfortunate failure while battling for tenth. This was coupled with Nicolas Hamilton going off at the final chicane.

After a four lap safety car break the green flag waved and the fights up and down the field continued. Sutton had a fantastic recovery from his early spin as he moved back up to finish 14th. Setting the fastest lap in the process.

Cammish took the chequered flag with Turkington close behind. A star drive from Rory Butcher who finished third. Tom Ingram took fourth in his Toyota before Matt Neal in the second Dynamics Honda Civic came fifth. Tom Oliphant was sixth in his WSR BMW, with Sam Osborne grabbing his best ever finish in his new MB Motorsport Honda Civic. Chris Smiley gave the new Excelr8 Hyundai i30N an eighth place finish on its debut, with Stephen Jelley and Tom Chilton rounding off the top ten.

A brilliant beginning to the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season.

Pos Driver Car Interval
1 Dan Cammish Honda Civic Type R FK8
2 Colin Turkington BMW 330i M Sport +0.707
3 Rory Butcher Ford Focus ST +1.144
4 Tom Ingram Toyota Corolla +1.941
5 Matt Neal Honda Civic Type R FK8 +2.817
6 Tom Oliphant BMW 330i M Sport +3.722
7 Sam Osborne Honda Civic Type R FK2 +4.855
8 Chris Smiley Hyundai i30N +5.492
9 Stephen Jelley BMW 125i M Sport +7.322
10 Tom Chilton Honda Civic Type R FK8 +7.623
11 Bobby Thompson Audi S3 Saloon +7.936
12 Adam Morgan Mercedes A Class +8.249
13 Josh Cook Honda Civic Type R FK8 +9.498
14 Ash Sutton Infiniti Q50 +9.595
15 Aiden Moffat Infiniti Q50 +11.457
16 Michael Crees Honda Civic Type R FK8 +13.075
17 Ollie Jackson Ford Focus ST +13.398
18 Jack Goff VW CC +13.837
19 Carl Boardley BMW 125i M Sport +14.266
20 Andy Neate Ford Focus ST +14.599
21 Ollie Brown VW CC +15.050
22 Jack Butel Mercedes A Class +19.350
Retirements
RET James Gornall Audi S3 Saloon Mechanical
RET Senna Proctor Hyundai i30N Mechanical
RET Nicolas Hamilton VW CC Crash
RET Jake Hill Honda Civic Type R FK2 Mechanical

Image Credit: BTCC Media

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F2 Great Britain: Ticktum controls Silverstone sprint race

Dan Ticktum took his first Formula 2 victory with a measured drive in the Silverstone sprint race.

Ticktum started the reverse grid race from pole. As he got away well, second-placed starter Felipe Drugovich was swamped off the line and dropped to fourth behind Christian Lundgaard and Louis Deletraz. Further back, Callum Ilott made contact with Yuki Tsunoda and spun the Carlin out of the race, earning himself a five second penalty.

Ticktum managed the opening phase of the race by breaking out of DRS range of Lundgaard by lap 4, then opening that to two seconds by lap 10.

Callum Ilott / Scuderia Ferrari Press Office

Further back, Ilott was making rapid progress through the field as he tried to overcome his penalty. On lap 7 he passed Drugovich for fourth, then drove past both Deletraz and Lundgaard on lap 13 to get up into second.

Ilott then set about on a series of fast laps to overcome the two-second gap to Ticktum. But on lap 16, Ilott’s push resulted in him spinning out of the race at the final corner.

The safety car was brought out to recover Ilott’s car, and ART took the opportunity to pit Lundgaard from second for mediums. Although the stop dropped Lundgaard down to fifth, his faster tyres allowed him to get back up to third at the restart by passing Nikita Mazepin and Guanyu Zhou.

Christian Lundgaard, ART (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

On the final lap Lundgaard then passed Deletraz to regain second, with only half a second separating him from Ticktum. But Lundgaard ultimately didn’t have enough time to catch the DAMS, and Ticktum led him and Deletraz across the line.

Zhou looked set to finish fourth but ran out of grip on the final lap and span out of the points. Jehan Daruvala inherited fourth place with Mazepin fifth and Drugovich sixth. Nobuharu Matsushita and Jack Aitken rounded out the points in seventh and eighth respectively.

Championship leader Robert Shwartzman finished the sprint race outside the points in P13, capping off a troubled weekend at Silverstone. However, he remains in the lead of the championship over Ilott after the Briton’s retirement. Lundgaard’s podium moves him four points behind Ilott in third, while Ticktum’s win elevates him above Zhou to fifth in the standings.

The top two in the teams’ championship remain unchanged, with UNI-Virtuosi and Prema both failing to score in the sprint race and staying on 124 and 122 points respectively. ART have closed the gap in third with 103 points. Find the full Formula 2 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

Formula 2 returns to Silverstone next week in support of the Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

(Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Full race result:

Pos. Driver Team Points
1 Dan Ticktum DAMS 15
2 Christian Lundgaard (FL) ART Grand Prix 14
3 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 10
4 Jehan Daruvala Carlin 8
5 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix 6
6 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport 4
7 Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport 2
8 Jack Aitken Campos Racing 1
9 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi
10 Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix
11 Artem Markelov HWA Racelab
12 Marino Sato Trident
13 Robert Shwartzman Prema Racing
14 Mick Schumacher Prema Racing
15 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing
16 Roy Nissany Trident
17 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System
18 Giuliano Alesi HWA Racelab
19 Luca Ghiotto Hitech Grand Prix
Ret. Sean Gelael DAMS
Ret. Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi
Ret. Yuki Tsunoda Carlin
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F3 Great Britain: Smolyar fights off Beckmann for first F3 win

Aleksandr Smolyar took his first Formula 3 win in the Silverstone sprint race, fighting off a rapid David Beckmann in the closing laps.

Smolyar got a good start from his reverse grid pole to hold the lead from Beckmann on the first lap. By lap 4 the Russian was able to just break out of DRS range of Beckmann, but this gap was lost on the following lap when Igor Fraga stopped on track and brought out the safety car.

At the restart Smolyar and Beckmann again held position, but Beckmann was able to stick with the ART and prevent Smolyar breaking more than a second away. After setting the fastest lap, Beckmann made his first move for the lead on lap 14, diving to the inside at Stowe. Beckmann momentarily took first, but Smolyar was able to repass him immediately.

Beckmann tried the same move on the following lap, but was again unsuccessful and fell back from Smolyar into the clutches of third-placed Clement Novalak. Beckmann managed to recover and get within two tenths of Smolyar in the final laps, but ultimately was unable to find a way around the ART. Smolyar eventually crossed the line with just half a second in hand over Beckmann, with Novalak close behind in third.

David Beckmann, Trident (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

Alex Peroni finished fourth, capping off a strong weekend at Silverstone. Frederik Vesti and Logan Sargeant took fifth and sixth for Prema, with Sargeant also taking the points for fastest lap. Vesti and Sargeant were able to take advantage of technical woes for their championship rival and teammate Oscar Piastri, who was forced to retire on lap 11 when his DRS flap stuck open.

Saturday’s feature race winner Liam Lawson finished seventh after a fierce battle with the Premas ahead. Theo Pourchaire, Richard Verschoor and Jake Hughes rounded out the top ten.

Despite logging his first retirement of the year, Piastri still leads the championship after round four with 94 points over Sargeant’s 76. Beckmann’s podium keeps him in third place ahead of Lawson. Smolyar’s sprint race win moves him up to ninth.

In the teams’ standings, Prema have extended their lead over ART to 117.5 points. Trident remain in third with only 8.5 points between them and ART, while Hitech move up to fourth following Lawson’s win this weekend. Find the full Formula 3 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

Formula 3 returns to Silverstone next weekend in support of the Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Full race result:

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

Colin Turkington’s British Touring Car Championship title defence began in the best way possible as he took pole position for the season opening round at Donington Park. The top three were separated by just a tenth of a second.

The West Surrey Racing driver broke the lap record with a 1:08:998. Team Dynamics’ Dan Cammish was just 0.087 seconds behind with Ash Sutton in his new Laser Tools Infiniti 0.097 seconds behind Turkington’s BMW.

The track was greasy which played into the hands of some drivers. Rory Butcher had a lucky escape into the Auld Hairpin as the rear of his Ford Focus stepped out. The scot recovered after an off track excursion. Nicholas Hamilton was next to catch the eye as the pins holding down his bonnet failed, resulting in the bonnet flying up and hanging off. The Team HARD driver failed to set a time in the session.

The Toyota of Tom Ingram set the early pace, with Butcher and Turkington close behind. With 12 minutes left in the session Turkington set his fastest time and he claimed pole position.

After a stoppage due to a red flag, the cars came out for ten more minutes of fighting for position for tomorrow’s opening race.

After dominating the two practice sessions, Turkington and his BMW were fastest in qualifying, with Cammish and Sutton close behind.

Ingram finished fourth two tenths behind Turkington, with the second BMW of Tom Oliphant fifth. Butcher recovered from his off to claim sixth on the grid, with Jake Hill in the MB Motorsport Honda Civic sitting seventh for tomorrow.

The top ten was rounded off by BTC’s Josh Cook, the second Team Dynamics car of Matt Neal, and Adam Morgan in his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes A Class.

Pos Driver Car Time Defecit
1 Colin Turkington BMW 330i M Sport 1:08:998
2 Dan Cammish Honda Civic Type R FK8 1:09:085 +0:087
3 Ash Sutton Infiniti Q50 1:09:095 +0.097
4 Tom Ingram Toyota Corolla 1:09:210 +0.212
5 Tom Oliphant BMW 330i M Sport 1:09:309 +0.311
6 Rory Butcher Ford Focus ST 1:09:329 +0.331
7 Jake Hill Honda Civic Type R FK2 1:09:387 +0.389
8 Josh Cook Honda Civic Type R FK8 1:09:411 +0.413
9 Matt Neal Honda Civic Type R FK8 1:09:563 +0.564
10 Adam Morgan Mercedes Benz A Class 1:09:567 +0.569
11 Senna Proctor Hyundai i30N 1:09:588 +0.590
12 Sam Osborne Honda Civic Type R FK2 1:09:631 +0.633
13 Ollie Jackson Ford Focus RS 1:09:723 +0.725
14 Chris Smiley Hyundai i30N 1:09:724 +0.726
15 Stephen Jelley BMW 125i M Sport 1:09:818 +0.820
16 Tom Chilton Honda Civic Type R FK8 1:09:819 +0.821
17 Bobby Thompson Audi S3 Saloon 1:10:118 +1.120
18 Michael Crees Honda Civic Type R FK8 1:10:200 +1.202
19 James Gornall Audi S3 Saloon 1:10:218 +1.220
20 Aiden Moffat Infiniti Q50 1:10:432 +1.434
21 Andy Neate Ford Focus ST 1:10:692 +1.694
22 Carl Boardley BMW 125i M Sport 1:10:758 +1.760
23 Ollie Brown VW CC 1:11:049 +2.051
24 Jack Butel Mercedes Benz A Class 1:11:508 +2.510
25 Jack Goff VW CC 1:11:538 +2.540
26 Nicolas Hamilton VW CC No Time

Image Credit: BTCC Media

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WorldSBK Race 1 Gets Off to a Fantastic Start in Jerez

What a great restart to to the WorldSBK championship at Jerez this weekend (31 Jul-02 Aug) for Round 2 in Spain at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalusia after a five month break.

Superpole took place earlier in the day with the Championship leader Lowes crashing at Turn 13 in the first phase of the session and was unable to set a lap time but was able to get back on the track with 15 minutes left of the session and will start the race down in 14th place.

Leandro ‘Tati’ Mercado took a tumble at Turn 4. He will start the race in 20th place.

After a tense session rookie Scott Redding took pole position by just 0.034s over Rea closely followed by Sykes.

The starting grid looked like this:

Row 1 : Redding : Rea : Sykes

Row 2: van der Mark : Razgatlioglu : Baz

Row 3 : Davies : Bautista : Haslam

Row 4 : Rinaldi : Laverty : Cortese

Row 5 : Caricasulo : Lowes : Gerloff

Row 6 : Fores : Scheib : Ponsson

Row 7 : Melandri : Mercado : Barrier

Row 8 : Gabellini : Takahashi

Before the start of Race 1, a minute’s silence was held in memory of those who lost their lives to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

With 20 laps of racing and the air temperature at 36 degrees, Race 1 gets underway but Redding does not have a good start at all but manages to cling onto 3rd place by the first corner, Rea goes up into first place whilst Razgatlioglu makes an incredible start and is up into 2nd place from starting 5th.

On Lap 3 Caricasulo crashes at Turn 4 and although he manages to get the bike going again, unfortunately this is only to the pits.

Lap 4 sees firth place man Tom Sykes slowing down and pulling over to the side of the track as he approached Turn 1. It looked like some kind of technical issue as he does manage to get the bike going again and back to the pits. He was able to rejoin the race on Lap 12.

By Lap 5 Rea is pulling out a lead and Razgatlioglu and Redding are squabbling for 3rd place with Razgatlioglu managing to hold off the rookie for now.

Lap 8, a very unhappy van der Mark, suffers engine problems with lots of smoke coming from his bike. He manages to pull over and park the bike before getting a lift back to the pits on the back of a marshal’s scooter.

By Lap 9 although Rea is still holding the lead, the gap between Rea and Razgatlioglu is getting smaller and Lap 10 sees Redding having a look to get past Razgatlioglu whilst Davies, who is in fourth place is lapping half a second quicker than race leader Rea.

Chaz Davis, weaving through the pack at WSBK Jerez 2020. Image courtesy of Dudcati

On Lap 11  Redding passes Razgatlioglu in a very smooth overtake as he now sets his sights on the leader, Rea.

Mercado suffered a crash at Turn 6 on Lap 12 ending his race. Lap 14 sees Redding going down into Turn 6 getting alongside Rea before forcing him wide to claim the lead and although Rea nearly gets back past Redding on Lap 15, it wasn’t to be and Redding starts to pull out a lead.

Rinaldi puts in a fastest lap on Lap 16 and Davies is now up to 5th place but he soon passes Baz on Lap 17 into 4th place and has his sights set on Razgatlioglu. A few times on the last two laps Davies nearly gets past Razgatlioglu but then on the last lap he runs wide effectively ending his hunt for third place.

Redding crosses the finish line 1st followed by Rea in 2nd and Razgatlioglu in 3rd.

A fantastic Race 1 and restart to the season. Looking forward to Race 2 tomorrow.

BK

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

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Jump Starts Galore in the Opening Two Rounds of British F3

Images courtesy of BRDC British Formula 3 Championship.

By John Whittaker

Today the British F3 season kicked off in a strange fashion after the first race was decided by penalties. Saturday saw the opening two rounds of the series, with two more scheduled for tomorrow.

Race One:

Kaylen Frederick looked set to take an emphatic win in the first British F3 race at Oulton Park this weekend before a post-race penalty saw him demoted.

Louis Foster looked in a good position starting from pole after qualifying but a jump start and a subsequent ten second time penalty saw him cross the line second, before the penalty dropping him down to 14th.

Part way through the race Josh Mason found the barrier causing a rather lengthy safety car whilst they recovered the car and set about repairs. Whilst the ambulance was called out, Josh Mason walked away unhurt.

The safety car came in and Frederick completed his dominant display leading to the flag, setting multiple fastest laps in the process. An impressive drive from the young American. Or it would have been had he not also received a ten second time penalty (along with Manaf Hijawi) for a false start.

The post-race penalties saw Kiern Jewiss win the first British F3 of the year, with Ulysse De Pauw and Nazim Azman also on the podium.

Race 2:

In the second and final race of the day Piers Prior took a well managed victory leading from lights to flag.

It appears all the action was used up in the first race as the second was a rather dull affair with minimal overtaking around the technical track.

The main talking points from this race were the two retirements: first race pole man Foster and Manaf Hijawi, both mechanical DNFs on Lap 1 and Lap 7 respectively.

Other than that, the race left a lot to be desired with Prior taking his maiden British F3 victory, followed by Kush Maini, and Bart Horsten rounding out the podium.

Overall a decent first day of racing for the BRDC British F3 drivers.

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F2 Great Britain: Mazepin storms to maiden feature race win

Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin took his maiden Formula 2 win in the Silverstone feature race, prevailing over a rotation of challengers behind.

The race started with a slow launch for polesitter Felipe Drugovich, allowing Mick Schumacher to take the lead into Turn 1 while Mazepin jumped Christian Lundgaard for third. Drugovich, starting on the hard tyres compared to the medium runners around him, continued to struggle for pace through lap 1 and dropped to fourth behind Mazepin and Lundgaard.

Mazepin quickly got his own tyres up to temperature, closing up to Schumacher on lap 3 and then passing the Prema for the lead shortly after. By lap 5, Mazepin had already broken the DRS range to Schumacher, while Schumacher himself seemed to drop back towards Lundgaard.

Mick Schumacher, Prema (Clive Mason / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Mazepin and Schumacher made their stops for hard tyres on lap 8, followed by Lundgaard a lap later. Although Schumacher gained time on Mazepin in the pitlane, he struggled more than the Russian when making his way through traffic.

On lap 12 Schumacher lost half a second passing Guilherme Samaia, then got stuck behind Artem Markelov. On lap 15 Lundgaard overtook Schumacher for net second, while Louis Deletraz closed to four tenths behind him.

Deletraz eventually passed Schumacher on lap 24, which prompted a fall through the order as the German lost out to Guanyu Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda and Callum Ilott over the next two laps.

Yuki Tsunoda, Carlin (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

Deletraz didn’t stay in third for long, being passed himself by Zhou and Tsunoda on lap 25. Zhou and Tsunoda were running the alternate strategy with hard tyres, and lapping much faster than those on mediums. On lap 27 Zhou quickly caught and passed Lundgaard for second, while Tsunoda demoted the ART off the podium on the final lap.

But despite their pace advantage, Zhou and Tsunoda ran out of laps to catch Mazepin and had to settle for second and third respectively behind the Hitech.

Lundgaard finished fourth, while Ilott recovered from stalling on the formation lap and starting from the pitlane to take fifth ahead of Deletraz. Polesitter Drugovich suffered a slow pit stop and eventually finished down in seventh ahead of Dan Ticktum. Schumacher finished ninth, and Nobuharu Matsushita took the final point in tenth after passing Jehan Daruvala through the final corner of the last lap.

Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Full race result:

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

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Hamilton takes 91st pole position ahead of British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has taken the 91st pole position of his career ahead of tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, three tenths in front of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and over a second clear of third-placed Max Verstappen. It makes Mercedes the first team in F1’s history to take eight consecutive pole positions at the same circuit.

Hamilton suffered a spin at Luffield on his first run in Q3 but recovered to post two laps good enough for pole, the quickest being a new track record of a 1:24.303.

Charles Leclerc got to within a tenth of Verstappen in what is Ferrari’s first second-row start of the season. McLaren’s Lando Norris will line up a very respectable P5.

Lance Stroll only just made it through to Q3 and qualified P6 ahead of Sainz and the two Renaults of Ricciardo and Ocon.

Having struggled all weekend, Vettel will line up only tenth for tomorrow’s race. What’s more, he will be starting the race on the soft tyres rather than the more favourable mediums.

Alex Albon failed to make it through to Q3 for the second race in a row and only managed P12 behind the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly. He suffered a hefty crash during free practice on Friday and was plagued by an electrical issue on Saturday morning.

Nico Hulkenberg, drafted in at the last possible moment to replace Sergio Perez after Perez tested positive for COVID-19, qualified P13.

Daniil Kvyat will start P14 ahead of George Russell, who made it through to Q2 for the third consecutive time in his Williams. He was, however, investigated for failing to slow for yellow flags after his team-mate span at Luffield in Q1.

Both Alfa Romeo cars failed to make it through to Q2 yet again, as did both Haas cars. Nicholas Latifi will line up P20 after his aforementioned spin.

 

[Featured image – Steve Etherington]

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F3 Great Britain: Lawson holds off Premas for feature race win

Liam Lawson took his second win of the Formula 3 season at the Silverstone feature race, seeing off the Premas of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant in a race fraught with incidents.

Lawson started from second behind polesitter Sargeant. Although Sargeant held first off the line, Lawson was close enough to harry him throughout the opening lap and make a lunge around the outside of Stowe to steal the lead.

After a brief interruption on lap 4, when Matteo Nannini slowed on track and brought out a Virtual Safety Car, Lawson began pulling away from Sargeant. The American driver then dropped back into the clutches of teammate Piastri, who demoted Sargeant to third on lap 7.

Piastri was better able to keep pace with Lawson than Sargeant, closing to within half a second by lap 9. On lap 11 Piastri drew alongside Lawson under DRS and looked set to take first place, but the Australian ran wide over the kerbs and couldn’t complete the move.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

With Piastri right on his tail, Lawson was handed a saving grace shortly after when the safety car was deployed for Bent Viscaal, who spun after contact with Ben Barnicoat through Luffield and collected Jack Doohan’s HWA.

The safety car remained out for four laps, but was then redeployed almost immediately when Olli Caldwell spun in the middle of the pack and was hit heavily by Lukas Dunner and Max Fewtrell.

With Caldwell’s rear wing and suspension across the track, the race went on to end under the safety car, preserving Lawson’s first place over Piastri and Sargeant.

Jake Hughes finished fourth ahead of the third Prema of Frederik Vesti, with Alex Peroni climbing up from 18th on the grid to take sixth. Sebastian Fernandez finished seventh, Clement Novalak took eighth and the fastest lap, David Beckmann was ninth, and Aleksandr Smolyar took the reverse grid pole for the tomorrow in tenth.

Logan Sargeant, Prema (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Full race result:

Pos. Driver Team Points
1 Liam Lawson Hitech 25
2 Oscar Piastri Prema 18
3 Logan Sargeant Prema 15
4 Jake Hughes HWA 12
5 Frederik Vesti Prema 10
6 Alex Peroni Campos 8
7 Sebastian Fernandez ART 6
8 Clement Novalak (FL) Carlin 6
9 David Beckmann Trident 2
10 Aleksandr Smolyar ART 1
11 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport
12 Theo Pourchaire ART
13 Lirim Zendelli Trident
14 Calan Williams Jenzer
15 Igor Fraga Charouz
16 Dennis Hauger Hitech
17 Roman Stanek Charouz
18 Enzo Fittipaldi HWA
19 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer
20 Ben Barnicoat Carlin
21 Cameron Das Carlin
22 Sophia Floersch Campos
23 Matteo Nannini Jenzer
24 Alessio Deledda Campos
25 David Schumacher Charouz
Ret. Olli Caldwell Trident
Ret. Max Fewtrell Hitech
Ret. Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport
Ret. Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport
Ret. Jack Doohan HWA
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Hulk is back – The German driver impresses on his F1 return with Racing Point

With news that Sergio Perez had tested positive for COVID-19 breaking on Thursday evening, Racing Point had a decision to make as to who would come in and effectively replace him for at least this weekend’s British Grand Prix and even possibly for the 70th anniversary race weekend the next week. Well, it was all to perfect for a certain German driver who’s last race came some 243 days ago.

After losing his seat at Renault at the end of last season, Nico Hulkenberg was most likely wondering how he could get himself back in a seat. However, what he probably wasn’t expecting was how it would come about and how much earlier an opportunity for him to return to the grid would arise. With that said, news broke hours before the start of Free Practice 1 that Racing Point had opted to replace Checo with Nico, who had already spent three-quarters of an hour of Friday morning in the Racing Point simulator ahead of his scheduled return.

With 177 Grand Prix’s to his name, it absolutely makes sense for both Nico and the Pink Panthers for him to take the drive, replacing his former Force India teammate and he did not disappoint!

Glen Dunbarr / Racing Point F1 Team

Free Practice 1:

Nico’s initial lap of the historic Silverstone track was slightly delayed due to the fact we were still awaiting the result of his own COVID test, however, it wasn’t too long of a wait and before you knew it, Nico was taking to the track in the RP20 and was actually the first out.

After a couple of bedding in laps and a could of stops into the pits, Nico went on to complete an impressive 24 laps and subsequently posted a best lap time of 1:28.592 which was good enough to see him end FP1 in 9th just +1.170 behind the fastest man of the session – Max Verstappen (1:27.422).

What was more impressive was the fact that while he was just over one second off Verstappen, Nico was only +0.591 off his teammate Lance Stroll, who ended up finishing the first session third fastest posting a 1:28.004 (+0.582 behind Verstappen).

Post FP1 thoughts had you thinking that given Nico hasn’t taken to the track whatsoever this season let alone jumping into a car which has a serious chance of challenging this weekend, he could only get fast. Excitement building for FP2? Absolutely.

Final Session Times:

Free Practice 2:

FP2 got underway and Nico took his time in the garage before heading out to put an initial lap time of 1:29.906 for 13th with almost 20 minutes of the session gone. The following lap, Nico got himself into the top 10 with a much more improved 1:29.041 (9th), pace was starting to gather for the 32-year-old German.

With just under an hour of practice left, Nico saw teammate Stroll set a session fastest 1:27.274 during a qualifying simulation run. Nico’s answer? Well, it was 1:27.910 to go 5th fastest and move to within +0.636 of Stroll.

With just three quarters of an hour left in the session though, Red Bull’s Alex Albon went off the track at Stow in a big way after losing the rear end and spinning in barriers. The session was red flagged and all car’s returned to the pits for around 15 minutes.

With restart of the session and around 30 minutes to go, Nico went on to complete a further 25 laps and ultimately ended up in P7 at the checkered flag. As for his teammate Stroll, well.. he ended up being the fastest man of the session with his before mentioned lap of 1:27.274 which was +0.090 fastest than second quickest Alex Albon, who after his crash at Stow, didn’t return for the rest of the session.

Final Session Times:

 

What Nico Had To Say:

“The 24 hours has been a bit special. Crazy and wild. 16:30pm yesterday afternoon I got the call took a plane here and then seat fitted until 2am last night. Then into the simulator at 8am for an hour with a bit of prep work. It was a short night, but all worthwhile.”

Mark Sutton / Racing Point F1 Team

Overall Assessment:

Nico’s return to the track after 243 days was a very impressive one giving the circumstances. With as much notice as he had, I don’t think you could have asked much more from him. Yes, we all know that the car he was in control of could and should have been up with Stroll’s timing but let’s be honest, 24 hours on from being told he was coming in, Nico did an excellent job in staying within six hundred tenths of his teammate.

The rest of the weekend will now be an opportunity for Nico to repay Racing Point’s trust in giving him to replace Checo. You can well imagine that with the data collected from his laps today and the debriefing to follow, Nico’s confidence will have grown massively and could show not only in tomorrow’s FP3 but also in what is expected to be a much cooler Qualifying.

It’s fair to say that despite the circumstances that surround his return, it’s great to see the man that they call Hulk back in a Formula One car. Welcome back, Nico!

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