1 June 2009

British Formula 3, Rockingham.

Mercedes powered teams redressed the victory count in this year’s championship by winning both races this weekend. Nick Tandy claimed an emotional victory in race one for his family run JTR whilst Marcus Ericsson took the spoils in race 2 driving his Mercedes powered Double R Dallara.
Top Volkswagen powered driver in race 1 was Carlin driver Max Chilton who finished 5, race two was better for VW poered teams with both Carlin and T-Sport getting drivers on the podium. T-sport driver Adriano Buzaid claimed 3rd overall with Henry Arundel finishing 2nd in his Carlin prepared Dallara.
Volkswagen powered driver Daniel Ricciardo still leads the championship despite crashing out of the first race at Rockingham.

DTM, Lausitz.

Gary Paffett won last weekend’s DTM race in his Mercedes giving the Stuttgart manufacturer a much needed win after the first round drubbing they suffered at the hands of Audi. Lausitz proved to be a far better venue for Mercedes teams as Audi only managed to fill 3 of the top 11 places. Highest placed Audi driver was Mattias Ekstrom who finished 3rd overall.

FIA GT2, Adria.


Prospeed drivers effectively carried on from where they left off at Silverstone by winning the GT2 class in the FIA GT championship at Adria. The pair in their Porsche were able to counter all challenges and now have a healthy lead in the championship as the teams head to Oschersleben.

British Touring Cars, Oulton Park.

In the heat of Oulton BMW teams enjoyed a successful 3 races as Colin Turkington took his Team RAC car to 2 victories and a disappointing 11th in the final race. Turkington’s BMW team mate Stephen Jelley enjoyed more limited success finishing 5th in the first race of the weekend before ending race 2 down in 14th and retiring from race 3.
Rob Collard and Jonathan Adam battled away all weekend in the Airwaves BMWs with good results coming to both drivers; Collard grabbed a hard fought 9th in race 1, retired in race 2 but drove brilliantly to take 4th in race 3 after having started from the pit lane! Adam finished 3rd, 5th and 13th as he continues to impress with his speed and determination is his first season of BTCC.

FIA GT3, Adria.

Adria was not as kind to the new Audi R8 LMS as Silverstone had been and the Ingolstadt racer didn’t feature in either of the 2 races, a highest finish of 9th overall being somewhat disappointing.
Porsche’s fortunes had gone the other way since Silverstone with the 911 GT3 Cup S showing ever greater pace. The number 12 car Prospeed car of Niki Lanik and Geoffroy Horion claimed a hard fought 4th overall in the first race of the weekend with the Trackspeed GT3 Cup S of Tim Sugden and David Ashburn claiming 4th in race 2. Lanik and Horion kept up their strong performance and finished 6th in race 2.
Alpina also saw an improved performance from their B6 GT3 with Claudia Hürtgen and Csaba Walter claiming an impressive 5th overall in race 1. Their race 2 result was not quite what the team would have wanted as they struggled home in 12th place.

FIA GT4, Adria.


BMW and Porsche teams showed increased pace in Adria. Pierre Brice Mena claimed 2nd in race 1 in his Espace Bienvenue BMW M3 with Kevin Veltman in his Genpact prepared similar car finishing an impressive 4th.
Mena enjoyed even greater success in race 2 as he claimed victory from the Walter Selles prepared Porsche 997 GT3 of Mauro Casadei with Veltman finishing down in 5th.

FIA Supersports, Adria.

Audi power remains the only choice for the Supersports class of the FIA GT4 championship with both Donkervoort and KTM using Audi engines.
Stephane Wintenberger won race 1 in his Donkervoort D8 GT from Denis Donkervoort (Donkervoort D8 GT) Augustin Eder (KTM X Bow) and Nico Pronk (Donkervoort D8 GT).
Race 2 saw Eder and his KTM X Bow emerge victorious, in fact Eder was the only Supersports finisher such was the rate of attrition!

ADAC Zurich 24 Hours, Nürburgring.


This year’s Nürburgring 24 hour race saw a historical achievement as the Manthey Porsche {link} team claimed its 4th successive victory.
After a race long battle with the Abt Audi R8 LMS the Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann Porsche 911 GT3 RSR came home with a winning margin of 1 lap.
Behind the Christian Abt, Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Pierre Kaffer, Lucas Luhr Audi R8 LMS of came another Manthey prepared car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S car of Emmanuel Collard, Wolf Henzler, Richard Lietz and Dirk Werner. Uwe Alzen, Sascha Bert, Lance David Arnold and Christopher Mies finished 4th in their Porsche 997 GT3 Cup with the Phoenix Racing Audi A8 LMS of Marc Basseng, Marcel Fässler, Mike Rockenfeller and Frank Stippler rounding out the top 5.
Volkswagen scored an impressive 17th overall with their natural gas powered Scirocco as well as a class win and 15th overall with their petrol powered version.

WTCC, Valencia.

The first race of last weekend’s World Touring Car Championship at Valencia, Spain saw BMW continue their resurgence with 3 cars in the top 6 at the finish. Augusto Farfus lead home Andy Priaulx and fast starting Jorg Muller in 4th, 5th and 6th. BMW drivers Sergio Hernandez, Stefano D'Aste and Felix Porteiro completed the top 10 finishers and helped keep the Bavarian manufacturer’s team happy with events.
Race 2 proved to be even better for BMW with 5 out of the top 6 positions falling to their drivers. More importantly BMW were able to claim their first victory of the season thanks to a measured drive by Augusto Farfus who finished half a second clear of fellow BMW driver Jorg Muller. Andy Priaulx, Alex Zanardi and Sergio Hernandez completed the top 6 finishers in their BMWs with Stefano D'Aste finishing 9th overall to cap a successful race and a return to the top step of the podium for BMW.

Monaco Grand Prix

Jenson Button used Mercedes power to dominate the Monaco Grand Prix in his Brawn GP formula one car. Starting from pole Button claimed an impressive win adding his name to the list of great drivers who have won round the tight and twisty confines of the historic track. Team mate Rubens Barrichello followed Button home in second place capping an excellent race for Brawn GP.
Other Mercedes powered teams were less successful with the McLaren Mercedes team enduring a torrid race weekend which started when Lewis Hamilton crashed in qualifying and ended with Hamilton languishing down in 12th and Heikki Kovalainen retiring after a spin.
Force India enjoyed a more competitive race with Ginacarlo Fisichella just missing out on 8th overall and the important point that goes with it. Team mate Adrian Sutil showed bursts of speed on his way to 14th overall.
BMW had yet another awful weekend with neither car being competitive all weekend. The final result was that nick Heidfeld scrapped and struggled his way to 11th and Robert Kubica retired after just 31 laps ensuring that the German Swiss team were deeply disappointed. The messages of “Happy Birthday to the Mini” on the cars were all that was happy in the team!

1. Button Brawn GP / Mercedes
2. Barrichello Brawn GP / Mercedes
3. Raikkonen Ferrari
4. Massa Ferrari
5. Webber Red Bull / Renault
6. Rosberg Williams / Toyota
7. Alonso Renault
8. Bourdais Toro Rosso / Ferrari
9. Fisichella Force India / Mercedes
10. Glock Toyota
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber
12. Hamilton McLaren Mercedes
13. Trulli Toyota
14. Sutil Force India/Mercedes
15. Nakajima Williams / Toyota
Retired Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes
Retired Kubica BMW Sauber
Retired Vettel Red Bull / Renault
Retired Piquet Renault
Retired Buemi Toro Rosso / Ferrari