Motorsport News May 26, 2022

Elfyn Evans was back on the podium in the Word Rally Championship in Portugal last weekend but is facing a losing battle in his bid to avoid suffering WRC title heartache for the third season running. His Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera is now 70 points clear of the Welshman in the WRC rankings after he notched up his third victory in as many starts. Evans had led up until the closing stages of leg two but had no answer to Rovanpera’s pace on the final day and settled for second. “Kalle was very strong and his speed allowed him to win,” said Evans, who is 12 years Rovanpera’s senior. WRC legends Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier were making their second starts of the season for M-Sport Ford and Toyota respectively but neither went the…

It has been hard not to feel a bit of sympathy for George Russell this season. Finally, after plugging away in an uncompetitive Williams, his promotion to the top table this season should, by rights, have put him in the hunt for race wins. However, given Merc’s difficulty in getting a handle on the new-spec F1 cars this term, it has been something of a thankless task to drive one of the Brackley-built machines. He has, though, kept his head down and outperformed Lewis Hamilton. But it was his drive in Barcelona last weekend that really opened people’s eyes to his latent ability. His car did not have the pace of either the Ferraris or the Red Bulls, but his car positioning and his defensive driving in Spain was something to behold.…

Six years after he scored his first win in F1, Max Verstappen claimed the 24th victory of his career in Spain last Sunday. He needed to keep a cool head on a day when temperatures in Barcelona exceeded a scorching 37 degrees. The relentless Catalan heat caused the track to reach nearly 50 degrees and that necessitated multiple pitstops as drivers nursed their tyres, brakes and engines throughout punishing 66 laps. Verstappen’s victory was aided by reliability trouble for Charles Leclerc. After beating the Dutchman away from pole, the Ferrari driver pulled out a comfortable lead and his afternoon was aided when Verstappen made a mistake at Turn 4 and slid wide through the gravel trap on lap nine. When it came to the first round of pitstops, Leclerc enjoyed such a margin…

11 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin-Mercedes) -1lap; 12 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren-Mercedes) -1lap; 13 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) -1lap; 14 Mick Schumacher (Haas-Ferrari) -1lap; 15 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes) -1lap; 16 Nicholas Latifi (Williams-Mercedes) -2laps; 17 Kevin Magnussen (Haas-Ferrari) -2laps; 18 Alexander Albon (Williams-Mercedes) -2laps; 19 Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) 28laps/engine; 20 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 27laps/engine. Drivers’ Championship: 1 Verstappen 110; 2 Leclerc 104; 3 Perez 85; 4 Russell 74; 5 Sainz 65; 6 Hamilton 46. Constructors’ Championship: 1 Red Bull 195; 2 Ferrari 169; 3 Mercedes 120; 4 McLaren 50; 5 Alfa Romeo 39; 6 Alpine 34.…

The Red Bull team has accused Aston Martin of copying its car, although the sport’s governors have cleared the machine for competition. Aston Martin featured an extensive upgrade ahead of the race in Barcelona, but Red Bull’s Christian Horner said the reworked machine showed a strong resemblance to its own car. Aston Martin said the FIA had confirmed it was “legitimate independent work”. “Copying is the biggest form of flattery,” Horner said. “It is quite a thing to instruct your team to come up with a very close-looking clone of our car and of course a few people have moved over the winter period, and what you can’t control is what they take in their heads. “But what would be of grave concern to us would be if any IP had in any way…

Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc is remaining upbeat despite losing out on a near-certain win at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend with a car failure on his Ferrari. The Monaco-based driver was leading from pole position but his power unit failed after 27 laps and he was forced to pull into the pits. His demise handed top spot to Dutchman Max Verstappen, who went on to claim the lead in the World championship as a result Leclerc said: “Let’s say that I feel better after this weekend than I felt after the last two weekends. Of course, there is this issue we had on the car and I am very disappointed, but on the other hand there were plenty of positive signs other than that throughout the whole weekend. “Our qualifying pace,…