Motorsport News 27/05/21

One of the important tools in any driver’s armoury is the ability to bounce back. After missing out on victory on Rally Croatia by less than one second Elfyn Evans needed something special in Portugal to get his title trajectory back on track. He delivered in spades in Matosinhos and powered to an unassailable lead on Sunday morning with some expert driving that even left his decorated team-mate Sebastien Ogier trailing in his wake. It has pushed Evans to just two points away from the top of the points chase for the 2021 crown. The Toyota Gazoo Racing man showed no ill effects of his near miss in Croatia, and has also laid to rest any ghosts that might have been lurking after his narrow defeat to Ogier in last season’s…

Victory in the Monaco Grand Prix has given Max Verstappen the lead in the Formula 1 drivers’table for the first time in his career. It was a commanding performance from the Red Bull star who benefited when his closest challenger was eliminated before the start. The Dutchman now has a four-point margin over Lewis Hamilton after five races this year. While Verstappen was in second place on the dirtier side of the road, there was no-one in front of him at 1500hrs on Sunday, as pole position holder Charles Leclerc failed to make it onto the grid. After crashing in the dying moments of qualifying the previous day, Leclerc’s red-flag inducing accident meant no other driver – including a furious Verstappen – could beat his time. Despite a check of the Ferrari on…

Mercedes considers an off-form Monaco weekend to be an exception rather than a continuing trend as the team slipped from the top of the team standings for the first time since July 2018. Lewis Hamilton could only manage seventh and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire, which has given Red Bull a one point advantage in the constructors’ championship. The unique nature of the circuit also gave Ferrari a significant upturn in performance too. “Monaco has never been a happy place for us,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “It’s somehow ingrained in the DNA where our car goes well or not and the answers are not always easy to find.” Mercedes struggled to get its tyres into the correct operating window – a problem which has blighted the squad at…

Monaco podium finisher Lando Norris is targeting race wins and titles with McLaren after signing a new long-term deal. The Woking team has acted fast to snap up the 21-year-old until the end of the 2023 season. Norris secured third place at Monaco, which was his second podium of the year. It was a sweet race for the Brit as he lapped his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and moved to third place overall in the drivers’ championship. “I’m happy to stay with McLaren and for them to have faith in me and vice versa. We want to continue this story we are writing but also I want to achieve that end goal of winning races and championships with them,” said Norris. “We’ve had a good few years together and have progressed a lot.…

Ferrari bosses have said that Charles Leclerc’s driveshaft problem at Monaco, which meant he was not able to take up pole position for the race in the principality, was not related to his sizeable crash at the end of the qualifying session. Arejuvenated Ferrari set the pace in the latter stages of the timed session in Monte Carlo. Several drivers had taken to the track for a final run to improve their times but were thwarted by a red flag following the Monegasque driver’s spill at the Swimming Pool section. “We need to fully understand what happened,” Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports F1. “The failure is on the driveshaft into the hub on the left-hand side. So it’s not a gearbox problem we had. The gearbox had been inspected [on…

Bosses of Formula E are in talks with the UK government over the size of the crowd when the electric-only category returns to London on July 24-25. The category has run behind closed doors since the pandemic hit but organisers are now hopeful of opening up the gates once more. Formula E co-founder Alberto Longo says that the next four meetings, beginning with Puebla in Mexico on June 19-20, should all have fans in attendance. He said: “Mexico to start with, we are going to have public, that’s for sure. In New York, we are going to have public as well – up to a 33% of the total capacity of the event. Hopefully in Berlin as well. I was even speaking with the mayor, he asked me for a little bit…