Category: Open Wheel Racing

Posted on

F2 Spain preview: Ferrari junior royale in Barcelona

Formula 2 returns this weekend for round 6 of the championship at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The last two rounds at the British and 70th Anniversary Grands Prix set up a battle royale for the title between Ferrari academy drivers Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman. Shwartzman had looked to be building up to a dominant run at the title coming into the Silverstone double header, as the only repeat winner of the season thus far and with an 18-point lead over Ilott in the standings.

But over the four races that followed, Shwartzman’s campaign was blighted by incidents and poor qualifying performances, scoring only four points with eighth place in the second feature race, and losing victory in the second sprint race after a collision with Mick Schumacher.

Robert Shwartzman, Prema (Scuderia Ferrari Press Office)

Meanwhile, Ilott scored well in three of the four races and took his second pole and win of the season in the second feature race. As a result, he’s regained the lead of the championship with a 21-point buffer back to Shwartzman.

Coming into Spain, Shwartzman will get a boost of confidence from his previous record at the circuit, as in Formula 3 last year he took pole position and victory in Barcelona to set up his title challenge. However, with such a difference between him and Ilott he’ll need a remarkable bounce back to form, not to mention trouble for Ilott, to recover that deficit.

But Ilott has his own reasons to be confident about heading to Barcelona. The Briton took his first F2 podium in Spain last year, with third in the sprint race. On top of that, his UNI-Virtuosi team were in contention for victory in both races, with Luca Ghiotto and Guanyu Zhou both on the podium across the weekend and Ghiotto taking pole for the feature race.

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

And it’s not just Ilott that Shwartzman needs to catch this weekend. The Russian’s disastrous run at Silverstone has also allowed Christian Lundgaard to jump him for second in the standings. There are only two points between Shwartzman and Lundgaard, but as Ilott showed last weekend a small gap can grow rapidly in F2.

What’s more, Lundgaard also has great form in Barcelona, as he actually beat Shwartzman on the road in last year’s F3 feature race but lost the win to a five-second penalty for a virtual safety car infringement. Knowing he can go well on this track, Lundgaard will be one to watch this weekend as he aims to remind Ilott and Shwartzman that the title fight isn’t a two-horse race yet.

And not far behind Shwartzman is his countryman Nikita Mazepin, who comes to Spain on a run of seven consecutive points finishes—the longest of anyone so far this year. After taking his maiden win at the first Silverstone round, Mazepin is in the ascendency, and is only another strong weekend away from closing the 14-point gap to Shwartzman.

Posted on

F2 Great Britain: Tsunoda wins after Premas collide

Yuki Tsunoda took victory in the Silverstone sprint race after Prema teammates Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman collided in the closing laps.

Shwartzman and Schumacher started from the front row of the reverse grid and rapidly pulled away from the rest of the field at the start. After the first few laps they were already two seconds clear of Tsunoda in third, while only half a second separated the two Premas themselves.

Schumacher made a move on Shwartzman into Brooklands on lap 5, but ran wide and dropped a second to his teammate. However the German made the time back up as Shwartzman started struggling with rear tyre grip, and by lap 10 was back in DRS range of his teammate.

After chipping away at the gap despite his own tyres losing grip, Schumacher closed to a few tenths of Shwartzman on lap 19 and tried another overtake at Brooklands. But after getting partially ahead on the outside, Schumacher turned in too early and clipped Shwartzman’s front wing, allowing Tsunoda through into the lead as a result.

Mick Schumacher, Prema (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

Schumacher was able to continue and took second place behind Tsunoda, albeit a long way adrift. Shwartzman initially stayed out on track in third despite the damage to his front wing, but on the penultimate lap he was caught by a pack led by Jack Aitken. Shwartzman was prompted swamped by the cars behind and dropped down to 13th by the chequered flag.

The stewards investigated the Prema collision, but ultimately deemed it a racing incident.

Aitken came through in third for his second consecutive podium of the weekend. Louis Deletraz finished fourth ahead of Guanyu Zhou, Callum Ilott, Dan Ticktum and Nikita Mazepin. Christian Lundgaard had been set to finish among this pack having run with Aitken and Deletraz for most of the race, but suffered a front left tyre blowout on lap 16 that dropped him to the back of the field.

Shwartzman’s finish outside the points caps off another troubled round at Silverstone, as title rival Ilott has extended his new championship lead to 21 points. In the teams’ standings, Ilott’s UNI-Virtuosi team has the same lead over Prema. Find the full F2 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

Formula 2 returns next weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in support of the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Full race result:

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

F3 Great Britain: Viscaal snatches win from Zendelli in frantic sprint race

Bent Viscaal took victory for MP Motorsport in the Silverstone sprint race, passing long-time leader Lirim Zendelli on the final lap.

Zendelli and Viscaal started second and third on the reverse grid and got a much better start than polesitter Ben Barnicoat to jump into the lead into Turn 1. While Zendelli and Viscaal pulled away in front, Barnicoat found himself under pressure to hold third from David Beckmann, Theo Pourchaire and Liam Lawson, who had all leapt past Oscar Piastri off the line.

The battles for first and third were halted on lap 2 when Lukas Dunner and Calan Williams came together to bring out the safety car. When the race resumed on lap 6, Zendelli and Viscaal once again moved clear of the pack with several seconds back to Barnicoat.

Despite being separated by just half a second for most of the remaining 15 laps, Zendelli held the lead from Viscaal without challenge until the final lap. After setting successive fastest laps and bringing the gap down to just a few tenths, Viscaal made a late dive to the inside of Copse on the final lap, catching Zendelli by surprise and taking the lead.

Zendelli fought back and the two ran side by side through the final corners. But although Zendelli briefly managed to get ahead, Viscaal hung on around the outside of the final corner and came across the line to win by just one tenth over the Trident.

Lirim Zendelli, Trident (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

As Viscaal and Zendelli fought over the lead, a fierce battle raged behind them for third place. Barnicoat put in an impressive performance to hold the position early on from the more experienced drivers behind him. But on lap 11, the British driver pulled off the track with a mechanical problem with his Carlin, elevating Pourchaire into third.

Pourchaire was immediately forced into defending from Beckmann. On lap 16 Beckmann made a move for third but ran wide and dropped back to fifth behind Lawson, while Pourchaire was shown the black and white flag for weaving in his defence.

Lawson then took up the pursuit of third place but was also unable to find a way past Pourchaire in the closing stages. On the final lap, after losing time attacking Pourchaire and running wide out of the last corner, Lawson was then repassed for fourth by Beckmann in a drag race to the line.

Pourchaire took third for his third podium of the season, ahead of Beckmann and Lawson. Piastri took sixth place after a tight battle late in the race with Jake Hughes and Frederik Vesti, who finished seventh and eighth respectively. Clement Novalak finished ninth, and Enzo Fittipaldi took the final point in tenth.

Theo Pourchaire, ART (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

New championship leader Logan Sargeant retired with damage after contact with Cameron Das on lap 10, meaning he now has only a single point in hand over Piastri with four rounds remaining in the championship. Viscaal’s victory elevates him from 14th in the standings to 10th.

In the teams’ standings Prema has 281.5 points, while second-placed Trident has extended its gap over ART to 18.5 points. Find the full F3 drivers’ and teams’ standings here.

Update: Fittipaldi was given a post-race penalty of five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when passing Das. The Brazilian drops from 10th to 17th, and Igor Fraga is promoted up to the points.

Full race result:

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

Super Max! : Guenther wins in Berlin to move him back into championship contention

We’re at the halfway point in the Formula E’s super season finale in Berlin, and although the championship fight seems to have fallen by the wayside with Antonio Da Costa still holding an impressive lead, race three certainly was filled with fireworks. However, as the cars took to the original circuit layout, qualifying was not dominated by Da Costa but his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne. He’s been somewhat of the supporter to Da Costa’s heroics this season but he certainly showed otherwise by taking pole position by half a second from BMW’s Max Guenther who put in an impressive lap to line up second on the grid.

Mahindra seemed to be a team reborn as the Indian-based manufacturer managed to get both cars into Superpole, however, Jerome D’Ambrosio struggled with his overall pace to start P3, whilst Alex Lynn managed a scrappy lap to snatch P5. Stoffel Vandoorne continued his impeccable qualifying form, but his Mercedes struggled with grip in the hot conditions, leaving the Belgian P4 whilst Robin Frijns rounded out the top six, helped by the momentum of almost scoring a podium position in the last race.

Credit: Formula E

Vergne lead from the start, whilst Guenther became embroiled in a battle with the two Mahindras for the podium positions and he was passed by D’Ambrosio into turn one. However, Guenther soon reclaimed second place back from the Mahindra and began to cut into Vergne’s two second buffer.

Vandoorne was another big loser in the opening stages, dropping behind Lynn and Frijns but after the first round of attack mode was deployed, the Mercedes man managed to get back into P4 before his race ended prematurely due to a puncture. Compatriots Luca Di Grassi and Felipe Massa came together in the latter stages of the race, with Di Grassi trying to squeeze the Venturi into the hairpin at turn 1 but the move backfired and the former champion was left out of the points. Massa picked up a late penalty for the incident dropping him too out of the points.

Frijns continued his momentum by making quick work of Lynn before taking P3 from D’Ambrosio before the safety car was brought out for an incident in the mid pack which left Sergio Sette Camara and Neel Jani stranded in the middle of the track and the safety car deployed.

Credit: Formula E

As racing resumed, Guenther closed the gap on Vergne but when the second round of attack modes were deployed, Vergne managed to stay ahead of the chasing BMW but not for long as Guenther managed to get the Techeetah into turn seven with five minutes remaining.

Vergne lost momentum after the move, and struggling with energy management, he was forced to yield P2 to Frijns who began to chase the race leader Guenther in the dying stages of the race but it was too little, too late.

Guenther picked up his second win of the season to move to second in the championship standings ahead of Frijns and Vergne, whilst Da Costa had to settle for P4 with a stunning drive up through the order to add another glut of points to his own championship tally.

Posted on

F2 Great Britain: Ilott takes title lead with feature race win

Callum Ilott took his second win of the season in the Silverstone feature race, taking advantage of a low finish for title rival Robert Shwartzman to assume the lead of the championship.

Ilott started the race from pole and got away well to hold the lead into Turn 1. Behind him, Dan Ticktum also got a good launch from fourth to jump both Jack Aitken and Christian Lundgaard into second.

Ticktum pressured Ilott for the lead over the opening laps, but a mistake on lap 3 sent him wide and dropped the DAMS back behind Lundgaard and Aitken. Two laps later Ticktum then lost another three positions, to Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Louis Deletraz respectively.

Jack Aitken, Campos (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

On lap 6 Lundgaard and Aitken both pitted from the podium positions to change to hard tyres, and Ilott made his own stop a lap later and came out in P12. Schumacher, running the alternative strategy having started on hards, assumed the lead ahead of Mazepin and teammate Shwartzman, who started outside the points.

While Ilott and the former leaders cut their way through the traffic, Schumacher and Mazepin engaged in a fierce battle at the front of the field. Mazepin looked to be faster at first but couldn’t find a way through, and after a few laps stuck behind the Prema his tyres began to blister and he dropped to over a second behind Schumacher on lap 11.

Schumacher became the first of the alternate runners to pit on lap 19, handing the lead to Mazepin who stayed out for another three laps. When Mazepin did come in his longer stint looked to have paid off as he rejoined the track ahead of Schumacher in sixth, but Schumacher was able to get back ahead of Mazepin while the Russian was on cold tyres.

Louis Deletraz, Charouz (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

After all the pit stops had been completed, Ilott was back in the lead ahead of Lundgaard and Aitken, with Deletraz and Yuki Tsunoda in fourth and fifth having passed Ticktum as they made their way through the traffic.

The top three remained the same for the rest of the race, despite Lundgaard running off track on lap 26 and dropping back towards Aitken. However, Deletraz and Tsunoda came under pressure in the closing laps from Mazepin on fresh soft tyres. Having already taken sixth place back from Schumacher on lap 25, Mazepin then passed Tsunoda two laps later and caught and passed Deletraz for fourth on the final lap.

Deletraz just about hung on to keep fifth place from Tsunoda. Schumacher was unable to find the same late-race speed as Mazepin despite running on the same strategy and stayed in seventh, and will share the front row of tomorrow’s sprint race with eighth-place finisher Shwartzman. Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the points, while Ticktum finished in P15 after plummeting down the order in the closing stages.

Ilott’s victory with Shwartzman only eighth means the UNI-Virtuosi driver retakes the lead of the championship with 102 points.

Callum Ilott, UNI-Virtuosi (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Full race result:

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

Posted on

F3 Great Britain: Sargeant controls feature race for first F3 win

Prema’s Logan Sargeant took his first Formula 3 win in the Silverstone feature race, controlling from the front after breaking away early.

Sargeant got a good launch from pole position to hold the lead into the first corner. Behind him, second-placed starter Liam Lawson was slow away and was passed by Jake Hughes starting from third.

While Hughes was occupied with getting past Lawson, Sargeant immediately set about opening a gap in front. By lap 7 the American was already 2.5 seconds ahead of Hughes, and managed to maintain the same distance for the majority of the race.

The gap only increased in the closing stages as Hughes’ tyres started to lose grip, with Sargeant running more than three seconds clear in the final four laps. Hughes eventually fell back to within half a second of Lawson, although he just managed to hold off the Hitech to take his first podium of the year in second.

Jake Hughes, HWA Racelab (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Lawson crossed the line in third, having held the position throughout a race-long battle with Frederik Vesti. Lawson appeared to struggle with his tyres all through the race and after the opening laps a train was already forming behind him including Vesti, Theo Pourchaire, David Beckmann and Bent Viscaal.

But despite Vesti’s pace advantage, Lawson was able to successfully defend against the Dane’s attempts at overtaking him. The time lost trying to pass Lawson then left Vesti vulnerable to Pourchaire behind, and on lap 9 the Frenchman tried a move through Vale. Pourchaire briefly got ahead into fourth, but Vesti was able to retake the place and Pourchaire ended up losing out to Beckmann as well.

After being told by his engineer to get after Lawson and commit to a move, Vesti set successive fastest laps and caught the Hitech again in the second half of the race. However, he was still unable to make a move stick and had to settle for fourth ahead of Beckmann.

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

Pourchaire finished sixth in the end, just holding off Oscar Piastri through the final corners with help from yellow flags for a collision between Sebastian Fernandez and Matteo Nannini at the back of the field. Piastri managed to recover back into the points after trouble in qualifying yesterday, although he ran out of laps to make the most of a late-race turn of speed.

Viscaal finished in eighth place, with Clement Novalak ninth and Lirim Zendelli taking reverse grid pole for tomorrow in tenth. Lawson scored the additional two points for fastest lap.

Sargeant’s victory and Piastri’s finish in the lower half of the points means Sargeant now takes over the lead of the championship by six points from his teammate.

Update: Novalak received a post-race five-second penalty for running off track and gaining an advantage, dropping him out of the points to P13. Zendelli was promoted to P9 and Ben Barnicoat to P10 for his first point of the season and reverse grid pole. Nannini also received a grid penalty for tomorrow’s sprint race for hitting Fernandez.

Full race result:

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

One Hand on the Title? Da Costa impresses with another masterclass in Berlin

Is there any stopping Antonio Felix da Costa on his charge to his first Formula E title? After the first two races in Berlin, it’s beginning to certainly look that way.  There was a sense of deja vu in Formula E’s second race of the season finale as da Costa continued his assault on the title with a stunning performance to put himself squarely in title contention.

The Techeetah man dominated qualifying again, pipping Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi to the pole position by three tenths. It was another masterclass from the Portuguese driver to hand himself another three points and secure his second pole position in two races. A surprise addition to superpole was Alex Lynn. Returning for the third time to the electric series into the seat vacated by Pascal Wehrlein, Lynn scored bragging rights over teammate Jerome D’Ambrosio and again highlighted the exceptional pace of the Mahindra over one lap. De Vries again featured in superpole but was only able to manage P4 after struggling with oversteer on his flying lap. However, it was a better day for Audi power with both Robin Frijns and Lucas di Grassi managing to slide into superpole, but ultimately, both drivers had scrappy laps and had to settle for P5 and P6 respectively.

Credit: Formula E

Da Costa led the race from pole and again looked unbothered by his competitors, with only a slight wobble when he took his first attack mode,  just managing to stay clear of Buemi in P2. He held off the Nissan man to take his third win of the season and extend his advantage on his title rivals, opening up the gap to a massive 41 points. On the other side of the garage, reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne struggled again with Max Gunther and Sam Bird both managing to jump him at the start. After scoring no points in the first round of the first race, he eventually had to settle for P10 after struggling with tyre degradation in the latter stages of the race, allowing both Edo Mortara and ex-teammate Andre Lotterer to get the jump on him.

Robin Frijns had a reversal in fortune as the Envision Virgin Racing driver managed to send it up the inside of Alex Lynn to snatch P4 in the opening stages of the race, before pouncing on de Vries for the final podium position a few laps later. However, his hopes of a podium were dashed by Lucas di Grassi who pounced during the first round of attack mode, taking advantage of Nyck de Vries’ stricken Mercedes who came to a halt, bringing out the full course yellow.

Frijns began to fight back in the dying stages of the race, but it was to no avail and the former champion held out for the final podium position. Vandoorne was also brought into the podium fight as he executed a stunning move, sweeping past both Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird. However, despite using his fanboost, he was not able to get past Frijns and di Grassi to record his first podium finish of the season, leaving Buemi and di Grassi to reap the benefits.

Posted on

DAC is back! Da Costa reigns supreme for first race of FE finale

Driving a Techeetah, winner of Formula E’s constructors championship last year, Antonio Felix da Costa was always expected to achieve great things at the Chinese-based team. The Portuguese driver has had somewhat of an interesting journey in Formula E, starting out from the doldrums of Aguri, a team that couldn’t keep up with the financial demands of the electric series and folded in the second season. Da Costa settled at Amlin Andretti, but it wasn’t until the fifth season when BMW entered the fray full-time that the team began to really challenge for race wins. It wasn’t a shock last year when Da Costa was announced to be filling the seat alongside double world champion Jean-Eric Vergne. His previous season with BMW i Andretti had been one of his strongest showings and he had claimed victory in the first race at Riyadh before trailing off towards the latter end of the season. Da Costa entered this season, hungry and eager to prove himself – and he has so far. Before the covid-20 pandemic put the season on pause, Da Costa had taken his first win with the team in Marrakesh and had two second place finishes in Santiago and Mexico.

Credit: Formula E

It was critical that he kept the momentum going and pressure on his other title rivals after a lengthy break as Formula E returned to Berlin for a blockbuster six race season finale to be held over the next nine days. The Techeetah man did his job by taking a dominant pole position, beating out his teammate and defending champion Jean-Eric Vergne by a margin of three tenths. Andre Lotterer put in a decent first two sectors to slot into P3, whilst Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi too held promise but fell just short in the final sector, having to settle for P4. Nyck de Vries had to settle for P5 after a costly mistake in sector 2, a disappointing result for the Dutchman who had been the quickest in the final practise session and Jerome D’Ambrosio was finally able to lift his struggling Mahindra into P6.

Da Costa held his position at the start of the race, whilst Lotterer made a poor start and was immediately pressured by Buemi. The Nissan man was forced to yield, but after a few laps, the train of cars behind Lotterer became difficult to ignore as the two Techeetahs of Da Costa and Vergne began to build a gap. However, it was soon wiped away as Robin Frijns was punted into the wall by Max Gunther, bringing out the safety car to erase the time the two Techeetahs had carved out.

Credit: Formula E

As the race restarted, Da Costa got away with no problems as Sam Bird managed to pounce on D’Ambrosio for P6 and began to pressurise fifth placed de Vries as Lotterer began to mount a challenge on his ex-teammate Vergne for P2. His hard work was undone as he missed the attack mode marker and fell victim to de Vries, before snatching the final podium position back a few laps later by pressurising the Dutchman into a mistake. Massa was the second casualty of the race, the Brazilian locked up on the approach to turn one, stranding for Venturi at the corner and bringing out a full course yellow as the time ticked down. The racing soon got underway once again and Da Costa just held onto the lead when deploying his final attack mode to stay ahead of teammate Vergne, as Lotterer and Bird battled for the final podium position, it was a fight that would continue into the latter stages. Vergne soon began to drop down the order in the final stages of the race, presumably struggling with energy consumption issues before any hope of points was wiped out as Audi’s Lucas di Grassi hit him on the penultimate lap, sending the reigning champion back to the garage to lick his wounds.

Da Costa cemented his status as championship leader and looked relatively unbothered for the majority of the race, despite a nervy last half lap where he looked in danger of running out of energy, claiming his second win of the season, ahead of Andre Lotterer and Sam Bird who finally got his championship hopes back on track. However, despite this seemingly easy win, Berlin threw some sparks out in the form of the building pressure between Da Costa and teammate Vergne, the Frenchman not impressed by what he felt was overconsumption of energy needed to make sure he kept up with his teammate. Only time will tell in the next nine days as Formula E will return tomorrow.

 

 

Posted on

F2 Great Britain preview: Silverstone reset for Shwartzman and Ilott

Formula 2 is back this weekend for the fifth round of the 2020 championship, returning to Silverstone in support of the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

For title protagonists Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott, revisiting Silverstone will provide a much-needed second chance at the circuit after a trying round for them both last weekend.

For Shwartzman, who had previously only finished outside the top four once this year, the British Grand Prix weekend was little short of a nightmare. What began with a lowly qualifying position of 18th for the feature race ended with a best finish of 13th in the sprint race and no points scored for the championship leader.

Shwartzman’s pain was lessened somewhat by Ilott stalling on the feature race grid and spinning out of contention for the sprint race victory, meaning the UNI-Virtuosi driver was unable to capitalise on Shwartzman’s struggles and snatch away the championship lead. However, Ilott’s recovery to fifth in the feature race moved him to within eight points of Shwartzman.

Robert Shwartzman, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)

Shwartzman and Ilott’s struggles mean they’ll now be driving with renewed focus on the chasing pack behind them.

In particular, Christian Lundgaard underlined the pace he’s been showing all season with fourth place in the feature race and second in the sprint race last weekend, putting him just four points behind Ilott and twelve behind Shwartzman. Another strong finish ahead of his rivals this weekend could well see Lundgaard leave Silverstone as the new championship leader.

The top two will also be keenly aware of Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin. The Russian came alive at Silverstone last weekend, taking his first F2 win in the feature race and battling up to fifth in race two, and certainly has the pace to be a threat again this time out.

What’s more, Dan Ticktum is lurking just one point behind Mazepin after taking his own maiden victory in the last sprint race. However, Ticktum’s three podium visits so far have all come in sprint races, so he’ll need to translate that clear speed to a top three in the feature races if he’s going to start troubling the title contenders.

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

Just behind the top five, a kind of “Class B” is forming between Guanyu Zhou, Louis Deletraz, Felipe Drugovich, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. While their results over the season so far haven’t kept them in touch with the title battle, they’re all still formidable over a race weekend and each proved this last time out in Silverstone.

Zhou, Deletraz and Tsunoda were all on the podium across last weekend, while Drugovich took pole for the feature race and Schumacher was in contention for the victory before his tyres gave up on him in the final stages.

All of them bar Drugovich are still looking for their first win this season, and given the pace they’ve already shown around Silverstone, that could come for any of them this weekend.

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

Indianapolis 500 U-turn, closes doors to fans

The 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 will take place without fans for the first time in its history. This will arguably be the biggest impact “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” has seen since the series of cancellations between 1942 and 1945 during America’s intervention in World War Two.

The US has been significantly effected by the Coronavirus pandemic, and while federal laws try their best to limit the spread of the disease, state laws can take matters into their own hands. It seems this is what has happened.

A few weeks ago, it had been reported that the 500 was to happen with spectator capacity capped at 50%. The speedway then lowered that number to 25%, releasing an 88-page document detailing the safety procedures that were to be implemented.

The seating capacity of the speedway holds upward of 250,000 people. Given this, the upward trajectory of fans would have been close to 62,500 people, not including staff, teams, media and drivers.

The Indiana State Department of Health on Tuesday reported an additional 836 cases and 14 deaths from Coronavirus, bringing the state’s totals to 69,255 cases and 2,794 deaths.

Indiana’s seven-day moving average positivity rate was 7.3% compared to earlier averages of 5%. Therefore, discussions were held between local and state governments and the speedway took the decision to remove the prospect of fans in the speedway so as to mitigate the risk of transmission.

Chris Owens / IndyCar Media

Roger Penske, owner of the circuit, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the U-turn was:

“The toughest business decision I’ve ever made in my life.” “We didn’t buy the Speedway for one year, we bought it for generations to come, and it’s important to our reputation to do the right thing,”

This will be financially devastating, as the circuit makes most of its revenue from the 500 and will inevitably come under economic pressure as a consequence.

Penske continued by saying: “We need to be safe and smart about this, obviously we want full attendance, but we don’t want to jeopardize the health and safety of our fans and the community. We also don’t want to jeopardize the ability to hold a successful race.”

It was clear how the situation would unfold when IU Health, the state’s largest health care system and a partner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, publicly criticised the attendance of fans at the raceway.

“Until we sustain better control of this virus and its spread,” IU iterated, “we strongly encourage IMS to consider an alternative to running the Indy 500 with fans in August.”

This follows a wave of schedule alterations, including the cancellation of Portland, Laguna Seca and the postponement of the Mid-Ohio race scheduled for the weekend of the 8th August, with many races including at Road America and Iowa already holding races with fans in attendance, but at a reduced capacity.

Tim Holle / IndyCar MediaThe 500 is still scheduled to take place from Memorial weekend to August 23rd.

Feature image courtesy of Joe Skibinksi / IndyCar Media

©2014-2024 ThePitCrewOnline