Open Wheel Racing

2nd September 2020

F3 Monza preview: no room for error in penultimate round

Formula 3 is back in action this weekend at Monza for the penultimate round of the 2020 championship.

What stands out most of all as the F3 field heads to Italy’s Temple of Speed is how tight several of the key championship battles are this late in the season.

Obviously the first of those battles to look at is the one between Prema’s Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri for the F3 title itself. After Piastri retook the title lead with a sprint race win in Barcelona, Sargeant returned the favour at Spa with his second win of the season, and the American now has the lead over his teammate again.

Logan Sargeant, Prema (Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

It is mathematically possible for Sargeant to win the championship this weekend. However, with only seven points currently separating them, he’d need everything to align perfectly and to outscore Piastri by 42 points across the two races.

It’s not impossible, but given Piastri has only failed to score in one race this season (and aside from that, hasn’t finished lower than eighth), it’s much more likely that Monza will set up a title showdown next week in Mugello instead.

Of the two, Sargeant has had the better track record at Monza so far in his career. He won there in his 2018 Formula Renault NEC campaign, and last year in F3 he finished in the top ten in both races for the uncompetitive Carlin team.

But although Piastri has yet to reach the podium at Monza, Prema will surely give him a car as capable of winning as Robert Shwartzman’s was in last year’s feature race, meaning he’ll be more than ready to take the fight to Sargeant on Saturday.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Just behind the top two is the tightest battle in the field, between David Beckmann and Liam Lawson for third in the standings. Beckmann currently holds the place but only by half a point, with Lawson on a much better run of form with podiums in every round since Silverstone.

Lawson ran well in Monza last year as well, taking second in the sprint race. However, Beckmann has experience of winning at the Temple of Speed as recently as 2018, having taken the GP3 feature race for Trident.

For Lawson, taking third place in the championship is all about recovering from the disastrous run of retirements that derailed his title campaign early in the year, and also convincing Red Bull to move him up the F1 feeder series ladder next year.

For Beckmann, he’ll be thinking of helping Trident to beat ART in their battle for second in the teams’ standings.

David Beckmann, Trident (Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Further back again, just 5.5 points cover Jake Hughes, Richard Verschoor and Alex Peroni in the lower positions of the championship top ten.

The three drivers have had wildly different seasons so far. Peroni has the most podiums of the trio with three, but Hughes’ feature race win in Barcelona means he’s currently the one on top, while Verschoor has only had the one podium but scored more consistently across the year.

Monza is sure to be a significant race for Peroni, as it was in last year’s feature race that a frightening crash at the Parabolica left the Australian with a fractured vertebrae.

Since then he’s come back much stronger to lead Campos this year, and it would be a great result for him to move on from last year with another good result this weekend.

Alex Peroni, Campos (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

31st August 202031st August 2020

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 16^th 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 18^th 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 19^th 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.

30th August 202030th August 2020

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

30th August 202030th August 2020

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.

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

29th August 202030th August 2020

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 50^th 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 14^th 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.

29th August 202030th August 2020

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 14^th 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

29th August 202029th August 2020

F3 Spa: maiden win for Zendelli as Piastri retakes title lead

Trident’s Lirim Zendelli controlled the F3 feature race at Spa for his first win in the series, as Oscar Piastri capitalised on problems for title rival Logan Sargeant to retake the championship lead.

Zendelli got a clean start from pole to keep the lead at the start ahead of ART’s Theo Pourchaire and Aleksandr Smolyar. Two rows back, Zendelli’s teammate David Beckmann passed Sargeant to move up from fifth to fourth, and started targeting Smolyar’s podium position.

The early battles were neutralised by a virtual safety car on lap 3, following a series of punctures for Clement Novalak, Andreas Estner and Enzo Fittipaldi that left debris on track, and Alessio Deledda spinning into the gravel.

When the VSC was withdrawn on lap 5, Beckmann pounced on Smolyar to take third. Smolyar briefly retook the position, but Beckmann repassed the ART definitively on lap 7 and pulled out a gap to hold his place on the podium.

At the same time, Zendelli broke out of DRS range from Pourchaire and proceeded to pull away more with each lap. After adding another second over Pourchaire by lap 10, Zendelli continued pushing until the chequered flag, crossing the line almost five seconds clear of the ART in second and Beckmann in third.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

Behind the leading trio, Piastri finished fifth behind Smolyar in a potentially crucial result for his championship campaign.

Sargeant had stayed in fifth early on after being passed by Beckmann, and was gaining on Smolyar to move up to fourth. Meanwhile, Piastri was making his way up from the lower half of the top 10, passing Richard Verschoor and Liam Lawson to get up to sixth by lap 10.

With four seconds separating the two Premas, Sargeant then suddenly slowed on lap 13, losing two seconds with a suspected engine problem. Piastri closed up to within a second two laps later, before he breezed past Sargeant for fifth on the run to Eau Rouge.

Sargeant continued to nurse his car through the final laps despite saying on team radio that he didn’t think he could make it to the end. However, he lost another two positions to teammate Frederik Vesti and Trident’s Olli Caldwell before the chequered flag, and eventually finished in eighth. The result has given Piastri the lead of the championship again with five points in hand over Sargeant.

Lawson finished in ninth place after struggling with his tyres for much of the race, and Verschoor will start from reverse grid pole tomorrow after taking tenth place. Finally, Pourchaire gained the extra two points for setting the fastest lap within the top ten.

The two rookies making their debuts this weekend, Michael Belov and Pierre-Louis Chovet, finished 20th and 22nd respectively, while Estner finished 27th after his puncture on his return to F3.

Full race result:

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

28th August 202029th August 2020

Outside contenders at the IndyCar Bommarito Automotive 500

Following the dramatic conclusion of the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar relentlessly ploughs on with frightening momentum into a double header weekend at the World-Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Illinois.

Now two-time Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato brings massive confidence to the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, a race he won last year after holding off a late-charging Ed Carpenter in the closing stages to win by a narrow lead of 0.0339 seconds. It was the closest finish in IndyCar history.

He will get the opportunity not once, but twice to win at Gateway again. It is a sight we have almost become accustomed to, with doubleheaders at Iowa, Road America and of course over in Formula 1 with double-headers at Austria and Silverstone.

Looking at the championship standings it is a grim picture for anyone who is not Scott Dixon. The New Zealander holds a commanding lead of 84 points over his next closest rival, Josef Newgarden. It paints a clearer picture of how dominant the five-time world champion has been this season when noticing third placed Patricio O’Ward is a further 33 points behind Newgarden. Can anyone stop the brilliance of Scott Dixon?

Frankly, outside Newgarden, O’Ward and Sato, you may think the chances are slim.

But alas, there are many other drivers looking to prove themselves at the famous ‘egg-shaped’ circuit. Here are my surprise candidates to achieve a good result this weekend:

Santino Ferrucci

However infamous this young driver may be, you can’t argue with the results he has been putting in this season.

A pair of sixth place finishes in the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America road course doubleheader was certainly a standout. More recently, a fantastic fourth at the Indianapolis 500 following a late charge which saw him finish three tenths behind leader Takuma Sato and within touching distance of podium finisher Graham Rahal.

In three out of the last five races he has finished in the top six. You could therefore argue that the young gun is finding his feet comfortably in IndyCar, vehemently charged to change his reputation in global motorsport.

While the likes of VeeKay, Palou, Askew and O’Ward may be stealing most of the headlines, Santino will be looking to upset the status-quo. You only have to look back a year when he finished fourth at Gateway after leading almost one hundred laps of the famous egg-shaped circuit.

Conor Daly

Weeks have elapsed since a hilarious prank war between Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi, where the Andretti driver awoke to find his golf cart dismantled and relieved of its wheels. Since then, you could say Daly would have gladly swapped that same golf cart in place of his actual IndyCar over the last few races.

He has not finished in the top ten since the first race at Iowa and will be looking to bounce back in spectacular fashion.

Luckily for Conor, it seems he has a knack at Gateway. In his two race starts at the Bommarito 500 he has never finished outside the top six, a statistic that may give him confidence going into the weekend.

Bouncing between Carlin and Ed Carpenter Racing this year certainly will not have helped to form any sort of consistency needed for a title challenge. However, out of all his teammates he is currently tied with the most points alongside hotshot rookie Rinus VeeKay. If you were looking for a dramatic teammate battle, this one would be the one to watch.

Colton Herta

The young American has had something of a roller-coaster of a season. While he is win-less this year, a seventh, fourth and a pair of fifths in the opening four rounds of the campaign proves he has consistency as well as raw speed. He comes radiating confidence after finishing a tremendous eight at the Brickyard.

What has been most impressive this year has been his qualifying form. Since the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway his qualifying results have been as follows: Indianapolis (3^rd), Road America Race 1 (7^th), Road America Race 2 (2^nd), Iowa Speedway Race 1 (4^th), Iowa Speedway Race 2 (5^th). He only barely missed out on the ‘Fast Nine’ shootout at the Indy500. In such a competitive field, such consistent qualifying pace is a solid indicator that Colton has the speed to match anyone in the series. I expect a similar solid qualifying run to occur, and with that, a potential for a good result.

If you need any more evidence, the Californian has made two Indy Lights starts at Worldwide Technology Raceway leading 69 of 75 laps in 2018 before settling for second. Herta finished one spot lower in his first race at the 1.25-mile oval.

28th August 2020

Ranking the F1 chances of F2’s top five hopefuls

This year the Formula 2 grid is full of drivers from F1 junior academies, with the top spots in the standings locked out by proteges from Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault.

With plenty of 2021 F1 seats still up for grabs, we’re taking a look at the chances of these young hopefuls stepping up to the top tier next season.

Yuki Tsunoda, Carlin (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

1. Yuki Tsunoda

Of all the young academy drivers on the 2020 F2 grid, joint Red Bull/ Honda talent Yuki Tsunoda looks the most likely to join F1 next year. Not only is he already racking up wins, poles and podiums in an impressive debut season, but Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost has said it’s only a matter of time before Tsunoda is promoted to the team.

At almost 40 points adrift of the championship leader Callum Ilott, Tsunoda is an outside contender for the F2 title at best. But given Red Bull’s comments, so long as he can remain within the top four of the standings to secure the necessary super licence points, it seems almost a sure bet that Tsunoda will be a 2021 Alpha Tauri driver.

Robert Shwartzman, Prema (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

2. Robert Shwartzman

If Tsunoda is the most likely F2 driver to get an F1 promotion for next year, then Ferrari protege Robert Shwartzman isn’t far behind. After a dominant run to last year’s F3 title, Shwartzman immediately staked his claim to this year’s F2 crown with two wins early in the campaign.

Shwartzman may have lost the F2 lead to fellow Ferrari junior Callum Ilott, but that doesn’t seem to have harmed the Russian’s status as the FDA’s golden boy. And as well as his formidable talent, Shwartzman comes with additional backing from SMP Racing, which would be an excellent sweetener for Alfa Romeo should he be lined up to replace Antonio Giovinazzi.

Mick Schumacher, Prema (Courtesy of Ferrari Media)

3. Mick Schumacher

Ahead of the season Mick Schumacher was touted as one of the favourites for the F2 title. But although he’s scored more points and podiums than he did in his 2019 debut, a mix of incidents and mistakes means Schumacher’s campaign is still without a win.

However, Schumacher’s chances of an F1 promotion still remain relatively high for two reasons. Firstly, because there’s still half the F2 season left to run, meaning he has another 12 races to break his winless run and move up from fifth in the standings. And secondly, because if he can get in a position to earn his super licence, there’s every chance Ferrari will want to take the opportunity at getting a Schumacher back into F1 as soon as possible.

Callum Ilott, UNI-Virtuosi (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

4. Callum Ilott

It may seem odd or even unfair putting Callum Ilott behind his fellow FDA members Shwartzman and Schumacher, considering he is currently leading both in the F2 standings and should therefore be Ferrari’s F1 priority. But although Ilott’s every bit their match on track, Shwartzman and Schumacher both have a certain extra “superstar” quality that has left Ilott somewhat in their shade.

However, being F2 champion brings plenty of its own superstar quality. If Ilott can see off Shwartzman in the second half of the season and take the crown himself, he’ll give Ferrari no choice but to take notice of him instead.

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

5. Christian Lundgaard

As F2 debuts go, Christian Lundgaard’s has been excellent so far. With a win and two further podiums to his name, the Renault junior has not just performed well on his step up from F3, but is currently third in the championship behind Ilott and Shwartzman.

However, even if Lundgaard were to march forward in the rest of the year and snatch the F2 title, the chances of it leading to an F1 seat are very slim at best. Renault have none available, having signed Fernando Alonso to partner Esteban Ocon for the next two years. And with no customer team to place him at either, Lundgaard’s F1 hopes probably depend on waiting for a gap at the works team to open up in 2022.

27th August 2020

F3 Spa preview: title fight resumes for final triple header

Formula 3 returns this weekend at Belgium’s legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, kicking off the final leg of the 2020 championship.

In three weeks’ time, F3 will conclude its season at Mugello and crown a new champion. At the moment that champion looks set to be either Logan Sargeant or Oscar Piastri, who are separated by only a single point at the top of the standings and 31 points clear of the next-best driver.

Predicting who will come out on top of the standings this weekend is almost impossible, as Sargeant and Piastri have mostly matched up well against each other’s weaknesses this year. Piastri has had the more “higher” results of the pair, with two wins and three second places, and has been in the points in all but one race.

But on the other hand, Sargeant has had the upper hand in qualifying, taking the last three pole positions in a row while Piastri is yet to take one at all. And while incidents have dropped Sargeant out of the points on two occasions this year, when he has scored it’s always been inside the top six.

Liam Lawson, Hitech (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

The trouble for Sargeant and Piastri is that while they’re largely on their own in the title battle, they can’t afford to just focus on each other.

Liam Lawson is currently third in the standings with two race wins to his name—the same as Piastri, and one more than points leader Sargeant. Although the Hitech driver’s title bid was hamstrung early on with three retirements in Austria and Hungary, Lawson was actually the second-best scoring driver over the last three rounds.

With a feature race win and two podiums, Lawson scored 74 points in the Silverstone and Barcelona triple header, 20 more than Piastri and only seven fewer than Sargeant. It would take an even bigger swing for Lawson to get amongst the title battle in the final three rounds, but if he can deliver should trouble hit the Prema duo we could be looking at a surprise three-horse race by the time we reach Mugello.

Sophia Floersch, Campos (Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)

Finally, there have been several lineup changes ahead of this weekend. Sophia Floersch will miss Spa as it clashes with the ELMS round at Paul Ricard, and she will be deputised for at Campos by Andreas Estner, who returns to F3 after racing for Jenzer last year.

Last week it was announced that David Schumacher was leaving Charouz as a result of the team’s lack of results. He’s now joined Carlin for the remainder of the season, driving the #27 car previously piloted by Enaam Ahmed, Ben Barnicoat and Leonardo Pulcini.

Schumacher’s replacement at Charouz is Formula Renault Eurocup driver Michael Belov. He will be the second F3 rookie making his debut this weekend, as Max Fewtrell left Hitech after Spain and has been replaced by Formula Regional European driver Pierre-Louis Chovet.