Monday Pit Stop #14
The action in Miami over the weekend was spellbinding, with McLaren making the headlines as Lando Norris celebrated his first win. Amid all the excitement, you would be forgiven for not noticing that it was a momentous performance from Alpine as well, with Esteban Ocon claiming the team's first points this year.
That's not the only reason why Miami was the French squad's most successful weekend of the season so far – thanks to their F1 Academy driver Abbi Pulling, who claimed both wins. As a result, she now has a hefty lead of 34 points after the two events in Saudi Arabia and the United States: an almost Verstappen-level of championship dominance. You'll be hearing a lot more about F1 Academy soon, as it was also announced that as of next year, it gets its own Drive to Survive style Netflix series.
Away from Florida, it was a reasonably quiet weekend in the world of motorsport.
The European Rally Championship resumed on the Rally Islas Canarias, with Frenchman Yoann Bonato claiming back-to-back wins, after triumphing last year as well.
The Citroen driver finished less than three seconds ahead of Skoda's Mathieu Franceschini, who now leads the drivers' standings by virtue of his two second places from two rallies. Alejandro Cachon was third in a Toyota Yaris, having led in the early stages, while Pirelli's reigning champion Hayden Paddon had to settle for sixth after encountering understeer issues on his Hyundai. This event was particularly significant as from next year it joins the World Rally Championship – so there were plenty of top teams keeping an eye on it.
M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux, currently third in the WRC standings, won the Canarias event in 2020 and said: “It's a proper tarmac rally: high grip and good fun but really challenging. It will be a great addition to the championship.”
Another M-Sport driver, Keith Cronin, maintained his lead of the Irish Tarmac Championship with fourth place on the legendary Rally of the Lakes in Ireland, having won 10 of the 14 stages in his Pirelli-equipped M-Sport Ford Fiesta. Cronin, a four-time British Rally Champion, leads something of a double life – as he also has a considerably less exciting day job as an accountant.
The first sprint round of the FIA GT Challenge was held at Brands Hatch in England, with the opening round won by Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts for BMW. The duo is bidding for a fourth Sprint Cup title this year – but the standings are currently led by the Mercedes duo of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, who took a lights-to-flag win in the second race, in front of 18,000 fans. It was a debut pole position for Ben Green in the Emil Frey Lamborghini.
Back home in Italy, the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Europe got underway at Mugello, with a variety of different class winners across the many races held during the weekend. One interested spectator was Ferrari's reserve driver Oliver Bearman, who starred at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year. The big news from the Ferrari Challenge was also that it will be joining the FIA Motorsport Games this year, which will be held in the Spanish city of Valencia from October 23-27
The Pirelli-backed Ferrari Challenge includes two international series – Europe and North America – and additional national series in the UK and Japan, with all the action broadcast to 90 countries worldwide. It is also the first championship to achieve continent-wide ISO 20121 certification for its sustainable event management system.
And finally, one of the most famous names at the Macau Grand Prix – Theodore Racing, which counts Ayrton Senna among its former drivers – made its debut in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, and immediately scored a double podium in Sepang. You could call this a weekend of spectacular debuts.
