Motorsport News 13/05/21

Team chief Mark Blundell has praised Jake Hill’s maturity and talent as the British Touring Car Championship driver walked away from the opening weekend at Thruxton with three podiums and the points lead. Hill finished third three times and his final rostrum came after a stunning drive on slick tyres in changeable conditions. He sits one point clear of Josh Cook, who took his BTC Racing Honda Civic to two wins in Hampshire. Blundell, who contested the BTCC as team-mate to Hill in 2019 before forming the MB Motorsport squad in 2020, said that Hill would only get stronger as the season progresses. “There was such a level-headedness about the way Jake approached the races, there is a real maturity in his driving,” said the 1992 Le Mans winner Blundell. “Even in the…

It took only half a lap for the first radio call for a safety car in this season’s British Touring Car Championship. It was the opening chapter in what was a dramatic weekend at Thruxton in Hampshire with three barnstorming races reminding everyone just what they had been missing. There were several drivers who laid down credentials for a championship challenge, while those who might have been expected to hit the ground running were left slipping and sliding around or, in some cases, facing in the wrong direction or even connecting with the barriers. But what it also went to prove was just how hard it is to win Britain’s highest profile motor racing championship, and that is counting without the changeable UK weather. There were no option tyres to take into…

Formula 1 World champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his third win in four races in 2021 in last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix after beating rival Max Verstappen in a strategic battle. The Barcelona race continued this year’s theme of the Mercedes and Red Bull team leaders having a tight fight for victory. But this one was resolved on the pitwall, with Hamilton beating long-time leader Verstappen via an extra pitstop. Hamilton – who’d claimed his landmark 100th pole position the day before – led from the line but Verstappen ambushed him for the lead at turn one and led by 1.5 seconds at the end of the opening lap. Hamilton though gradually hauled his foe in. Verstappen pitted first, on lap 24 of 66, but his stop was slow at 4.2s, his team boss…

Monaco FE magic Reigning Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa of Techeetah claimed an exhilarating Monaco E-Prix win last Saturday with a last-lap pass of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans. The electric championship used the principality’s full grand prix layout for the first time, and the race contained six changes for the lead. Hauger’s haul Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger of Prema Racing leads the FIA Formula 3 standings after its Barcelona season-opening triple-header. Hauger dominated race three and leads his British teammate Olli Caldwell in the table by two points. Caldwell won a madcap reversed-grid race two while the opener, also with a reversed grid, was won by Russian Alexander Smolyar of ART. Carlos in hospital Twelve-time Formula 1 race-winner Carlos Reutemann has been moved to intensive care in an Argentinian hospital after suffering from…

The BTC Racing British Touring Car Championship team will have a new permanent driver in its lineup in time for the next rounds of the competition after recruiting Dan Cammish as a one-off stand in at Thruxton last weekend, Cammish joined the squad in place of Michael Crees, who parted ways with the Brackley concern in the days leading up to the opening event. The stand-in helped the team to a 1-2 result in the second race in Hampshire but he will now return to his commitments in Porsche racing. The next rounds of the BTCC are at Snetterton in the middle of June. BTC Racing boss Steve Dudman said: “There are about six people in the mix to get the seat for the rest of 2021. I am looking for…

Porsche and Penske will join up for the German marque’s forthcoming top-level sportscar racing return in the World Endurance Championship and IMSASportsCar Championship with its new LMDh prototype. Porsche with the legendary US team, under the name Porsche Penske Motorsport, will in a multi-year deal will run two LMDh prototypes competing for overall victories. Penske and Porsche have a track record of US sportscar success, Penske winning the Can-Am title with the Porsche 917 in 1972 and ’73, then with a Porsche RS Spyder claiming anAmerican Le Mans Series LMP2 title hat-trick between 2006 and ’08 and taking 11 outright victories. Porsche Motorsport head Fritz Enzinger said: “In [Penske’s] long list of victories to date, the name Le Mans has been missing. I hope that we will finally be able to chalk up…