Monday Pit Stop #17

Over in Germany, the DTM hosted its second round of the season at the Lausitzring in Germany. It was a challenging weekend of racing in mixed conditions, with heavy rain even bringing the safety car out. The chaotic opening race on Saturday was won by Kelvin Van dear Linde for ABT Audi, who fought through two neutralisations, while Porsche driver Thomas Preining, who had dominated the free practice sessions, triumphed on Sunday. Preining came out on top of a three-way battle with the Audi drivers to claim his sixth career DTM victory, and his first of the season. Van der Linde now leads Preining in the drivers' classification by eight points, with 12 races left to run.

British GT at Donington Park enjoyed a record 38 entries. Lamborghini was on pole with the Barwell Motorsport crew of factory driver Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin, going on to win the race from the McLaren crew of Mark Radcliffe and Tom Gamble.

In the recently-published SRO global rankings, which is based on aggregate results from all the GT races around the world, Porsche has moved to the top of the manufacturers' standings thanks to a strong run of results, with a narrow lead over Mercedes and BMW getting closer in third.

A total of 64 contenders for the 2024 Spa 24 Hours came to the Ardennes track last week for two days of running in preparation for the iconic round-the-clock event at the end of June. Fabian Schiller posted the fastest time of the official prologue for Mercedes-AMG, with a best time of 2m17.405s.

While all eyes were on the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1 cars of a different vintage were in action at the latest round of BOSS Formula at the Nurburgring in Germany: an experience similar to travelling back in time, including some stunning cars from the heyday of the 1990s, all on Pirelli tyres.

In Formula Regional, there will be a support race at the prestigious Macau Grand Prix in November for the first time. Formula Regional, involving around 92 drivers from five championships, is designed to bridge the gap between Formula 4 and international Formula 3 – making it a perfect fit for the premier Formula 3 race in the world. The Macau Grand Prix is scheduled to take place between November 14-17, incorporating the GT World Cup as well.

The Jim Clark Rally, part of the British Rally Championship, is located in the two-time champion's home town of Duns, just over the border from England in Scotland. Five-time British Rally Champion Keith Cronin, driving a Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta Rally 2, claimed his first victory of the year after two intense days on asphalt.

“I really didn't think this win would be possible after the first loop last night as we'd made a wrong tyre choice, but we went out on the wet tyres for the last two last night and made some real good time back,” said Cronin, who moved into the top spot after former European Rally Champion Chris Ingram went off in his Volkswagen Polo.

This was perhaps the biggest weekend in the whole of international motorsport, as alongside the Monaco Grand Prix, there was also the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. America's most famous race had a four-hour delay due to a predicted storm, which was judged to be so intense that fans as well as drivers were evacuated from the venue to wait it out.

Once they returned, with the race getting underway just before 5pm local time, they were treated to a thriller, with Team Penske's Josef Newgarden (who started third on the grid) pulling off a last-lap pass on Team Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward to become the sixth back-to-back winner in Indy 500 history. “I just wish we could have this race all over again!” said Newgarden at the finish. “Hats off to Pato, he could have won this too, and it was an incredibly clean fight.”

Scott Dixon (who won the Indy 500 in 2008) managed to climb from 20th to third for Chip Ganassi Racing, claiming the final place on the podium. There was a record 18 different leaders throughout the 200-lap race, proving that it was well worth the wait.

Over to the other side of the world. The Shanghai circuit is immense, with the paddock alone being the size of a small airport, so the track was chopped down to size with a shortened lap for Formula E's first visit to the venue (which last visited China in 2019). Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans sealed the first race of the double-header with an audacious move on the final lap, while Porsche driver (and former Macau Grand Prix winner) Antonio Felix da Costa claimed Race 2. Porsche also recently announced its long-term commitment to Formula E for another four years, into Gen4 of the championship. Nick Cassidy and his Jaguar Racing team now lead the drivers' and teams' championships, with two-double headers still to run before the series concludes in July.