Monday Pit Stop #13
This weekend was the opening round of the Pirelli-equipped DTM at Oschersleben in Germany – and it started off brilliantly for the Emil Frey Racing team. After a terrific pole position, the Swiss team secured victory in the first DTM race with Englishman Jack Aitken, at the wheel of a Ferrari 296. Aitken, who drove for Williams in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, has won a DTM race before, but it was a maiden victory for Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler in Sunday's second race – watched by his father, touring car legend Franz Engstler, among the 42,000-strong crowd.
It's that time of year when the Monaco Grand Prix season is upon us – and we call it the ‘season' because the legendary street track is already open for business, having hosted Formula E for the seventh time last weekend. It turned out to be a Jaguar one-two, providing the perfect way for the British team to celebrate their recently-announced long-term commitment to the all-electric series. Overtaking is of course notoriously difficult at Monaco, with Jaguar's Mitch Evans making it to the front by lap 11, having got past former F1 stars Pascal Wehrlein (who set pole for Porsche and still leads the drivers' championship) as well as Stoffel Vandoorne, who qualified second for French manufacturer DS. Evans was followed home by his reigning champion team mate Nick Cassidy, with Jaguar leading the teams' standings ahead of Porsche.
The British GT Championship resumed at the legendary Silverstone 500, with the Mercedes crew of Maximilian Goetz and Kevin Tse claiming pole position for the three=hour race, contested by a record 43 crews. On Sunday, it was the Garage 59 McLaren line-up of Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley to lift the trophy, thanks to their optimal strategy in a challenging three-hour race characterised by wet conditions and neutralisations. It was a double celebration for McLaren, as Jack Brown and Zac Meakin won GT4 at Silverstone as well.
Championship promoter SRO, which is behind the majority of GT3-based championships all over the world, hasissued a global ranking of manufacturers involved in the category, based on an aggregation of international results. This shows Mercedes currently heading the standings, ahead of Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, and BMW.
Staying in England, the famous BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) got underway at Donington Park – with race day delayed by two hours thanks to the wet conditions. Tom Ingram won two races in his Hyundai to lead the provisional standings.
In Barcelona, Formula 2 completed a three-day test with Isack Hadjar going quickest for Campos Racing: a promising boost at home for the Spanish team. Kimi Antonelli, who has started his private F1 testing campaign with Mercedes, recorded the 12th best time for Prema at Barcelona. With three F2 rounds complete, Rodin Motorsport – which previously bid for a Formula 1 entry – lead the way in both the teams' and drivers' championships, courtesy of Zane Maloney from Barbados.
Although there were no rallies last weekend, two WRC teams were still in action in Sardinia, with Toyota and Hyundai running a promotional event in conjunction with Pirelli, where lucky guests got to experience what it's like to ride alongside drivers such as Thierry Neuville and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier. The next scheduled WRC event is Rally Portugal in a couple of weeks, when the FIA and WRC Promoter will host the second ‘Beyond Rally' sustainability forum, having just unveiled the sport's sustainability roadbook.
Interestingly, these initiatives for the future might not necessarily come exclusively from hybrid technology. M-Sport has announced that up-and-coming Latvian driver Martin Sesks will shortly make his debut (on the WRC round in Poland and Estonia) with the very first Rally 1 non-hybrid Ford Puma, designed to help to boost the next generation of drivers into the top level of the sport by bridging the gap from the feeder Rally 2 category.
Finally, an important name from racing in the past has put its first true sports car for decades on sale, equipped with P Zero rubber – but also powered by electricity. The new MG Cyberster generates more than 500 horsepower in four-wheel drive GT specification, as the famous brand (which is now Chinese-owned) gears up for its 100th birthday celebrations at the Goodwood Festival of speed this year.
