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Oracle Red Bull Racing have denied any wrongdoing after the FIA’s cost cap investigations concluded with a ‘Minor Financial Overspend’ during the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship campaign.

Red Bull were also deemed to have committed a ‘Procedural Breach’ to the regulations, as did the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, and both teams are awaiting news over their potential punishments, which could be either financial or a possible deduction in championship points.

A ‘Minor’ Breach means they exceeded the budget cap by less than five per cent, meaning the more harsher penalties, such as exclusion from the championship, will not be enforced.

Red Bull have released a statement admitting ‘surprise’ at the result, and they are currently looking into their options as they believe their submissions were below the level of the cost cap, which for the 2021 season was $145 million.

“We note the findings by the FIA of ‘Minor Overspend Breaches of the Financial Regulations’ with surprise and disappointment,” read the statement from Red Bull.

After weeks of speculation and intrigue, the results of the FIA’s investigations into the FIA Formula 1 World Championship budget cap for the 2021 season have been released, and Oracle Red Bull Racing have been found guilty of exceeding the maximum spending allowed.

Red Bull have been found to have overspent by less than five per cent of the allowed $145 million budget, meaning it has committed a minor breach, while they have also found guilty of a Procedural Breach, as have the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team.

The rumours of major overspending have been dismissed, but the punishments for the two teams have yet to be determined, and it could result in some kind of financial penalty or even points deductions, which theoretically could see Max Verstappen concede last years’ Drivers’ title to Lewis Hamilton, although this is thought to be unrealistic.

“The review of the Reporting Documentation submitted has been an intensive and thorough process, and all Competitors gave their full support in providing the required information to assess their financial situation during this first year of the Financial Regulations,” read the statement from the FIA.  “The FIA Cost Cap Administration notes that all Competitors acted at all times in a spirit of good faith and cooperation throughout the process.

“The FIA would also note that with respect to this first year of the application of the Financial Regulations the intervention of the FIA Cost Cap Administration has been limited to reviewing the submissions made by the Competitors and that no full formal investigations were launched.

The inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship does not end until the Andalucía Rally on 18–23 October, but with the T5 category not on the card, Kees Koolen is the first driver to win a W2RC class championship.

Koolen, driving an IVECO Powerstar for Project 2030, ends the 2022 season with 186 points. Martin Macík Jr. was second with 160. His co-driver Wouter de Graaff won his respective title alongside Paolo Ceci.

While the trucks of T5 generall usually see decent turnouts, only three drivers raced for W2RC points with Tomas Vratny being the third. Macík finished ahead of Koolen at the season-opening Dakar Rally with a seventh in class versus Koolen’s thirteenth. Dmitry Sotnikov of KAMAZ-master won the Trucks at Dakar but was not competing for the W2RC; even if KAMAZ had declared their intention to do so, they would not have been able to continue due to international penalties stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Howveer, Macík failed to finish the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge due to a gearbox failure whereas Koolen was thirteenth among all FIA entries. Macík rebounded at the Rallye du Maroc last week by winning three of six legs and the overall, edging out non-championship driver Gert Huzink for the latter by nearly two minutes. Koolen was third ahead of Vratny with victories in Stages #3 and #4.

Macík’s Abu Dhabi retirement proved to be the difference maker as he finished the season with 160 points. Had Andalucía been on the T5 calendar, he would have another chance to overtake Koolen as the winner receives thirty points. Vratny only recorded points in Morocco and ends with 37 total.

Daniel Hemric‘s hopes of defending his NASCAR Xfinity Series championship may have fallen short, but Kaulig Racing is eager to retain him for 2023. On Sunday, the team announced he has signed a contract extension to stay in the #11 Chevrolet Camaro next year.

“We are so excited to have Daniel back next year in the car that started all of this, our No. 11 Chevrolet,” team owner Matt Kaulig stated. “Over the past year, Daniel has embraced what it is like to be a part of the Kaulig Racing family and has been instrumental in growing our team. We can’t wait for another great season together next year.”

After winning the 2021 Xfinity championship (and his first NASCAR race) with Joe Gibbs Racing, Hemric moved to Kaulig for 2022 and his tenure began on a strong note when he won the pole in the season opener at Daytona. He made the playoffs as the tenth seed after notching seven top tens, but was eliminated after Saturday’s Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval.

“Daniel Hemric has played such a vital role in growing our Xfinity Series team,” said team president Chris Rice. “He and his team-mates, A.J. (Allmendinger) and Landon (Cassill), work together so well and lean on each other in a way that no other team does. We are really excited to continuing that success with Daniel as part of this family.”

Besides driving for Kaulig’s Xfinity programme, he is splitting the team’s #16 Cup Series car with Allmendinger and Chevrolet ally Noah Gragson. Despite finishing twelfth in the Daytona 500 and scoring a ninth at Las Vegas, he hailed to finish four of his last five starts due to mechanical issues or being caught in superspeedway crashes.

After years of coming so close as the nearly man, Tom Ingram has finally been crowned the British Touring Car Champion bookending a sensational weekend at Brands Hatch during the season finale to achieve destiny.

Sealing a double victory in the first two races, he followed it up with a fifth placed finish with drama till the very end as Ash Sutton and Jake Hill failed to make a dent in the aspirations of the EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com driver.

The race itself was a footnote with Ingram’s teammate, Dan Lloyd ending what has been an up and down season from his double win at Croft to nearly being out due to Oulton Park where he suffered a horror crash and had to appeal to sponsors and fans for potential funding but in the end, he left it on a high.

Josh Cook and Rory Butcher finalized the podium but all eyes were on the battle behind as they ran nose-to-tail with Ingram continuing to hold position while Sutton and Hill squabbled. The moment of truth occurred on the last lap as Hill made one last lunge on Sutton in a move that Ingram benefitted from to seal the title as the ROKiT MB Motorsport driver fell back.

George Gamble completed a superb debut campaign which saw a first win followed up by bad luck in sixth ahead of Hill, whilst Dan Cammish, Stephen Jelley and Aiden Moffat rounded out the top ten but all eyes were on Ingram as he sealed the title and fulfilled a lifelong ambition.

Sergio Pérez backed up his victory at the damp Singapore Grand Prix with a second place finish at the first Japanese Grand Prix since 2019, which claimed team-mate Max Verstappen his second World Drivers’ Championship.

It was looking for all the world that the Mexican was going to finish third, having gotten past Carlos Sainz Jr. on the opening lap after the Spaniard crashed out of the race. The race was red-flagged for an hour following an increase in the intensity of the rain; however, even when the race restarted it still looked like the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was going to have to settle for the bottom step of the rostrum.

However, Pérez found strong pace in the closing minutes of the race, which like Singapore resorted to the time limit, rather than the set number of laps. Only twenty-eight laps were completed in the end, with the Mexican having spent the final few of them on the gearbox of Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc suffered from worn-out Intermediate tyres, which he pushed too hard on whilst trying to keep up with the imperious Verstappen. Leclerc had defended well, but made his only error at the final few corners of the race. At the Turn Sixteen/Seventeen chicane, Leclerc ran across it and still crossed the line in second, despite Pérez being less than a tenth behind.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver was therefore awarded a five-second time penalty, which demoted him to third and promoted Pérez to second, gifting Verstappen the title. It also means that the Mexican now leads Leclerc by one point in the fight for second in the standings.

The FIA have more questions to ask about their decision making than ever before in the modern history of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, after Pierre Gasly came within “metres of death” at the rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix.

At a time when trust and faith in the governing body is at an all-time low between themselves and the drivers, they certainly didn’t help themselves at the Suzuka International Racing Course on the second lap.

The incident in question arose following Carlos Sainz Jr‘s, crash at Turn Twelve, which resulted in Gasly hitting a piece of advertising boarding, breaking his front-wing in the process. A Safety Car was released for the second lap, which had behind it everybody except Gasly, who was some distance behind the field following his opening lap stop.

The Frenchman was arguably driving too quickly in a bid to catch the pack; however, what he came across was “unacceptable”. The FIA allowed a recovery vehicle and a marshal onto the circuit whilst cars were going past, albeit behind the Safety Car.

Gasly, though, wasn’t behind the Safety Car and approached the tractor at much higher speed, which resulted in the Frenchman not seeing the vehicle until the last moment. He nearly hit both the tractor and the marshal, who jumped out of the way.

Tom Ingram has made it two from two today at Brands Hatch as he held off title rival, Jake Hill to seal back-to-back rounds at the final round of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) action as he puts himself into pole position.

Back-to-back lights-to-flag triumphs sealed it for the 29-year-old who had to contend in Race Two with pressure from Jake Hill who is seemingly his biggest rival going into the final round sitting 11 points behind.

This after the ROKiT MB Motorsport driver squeezed by reigning champion, Ash Sutton and Toyota Gazoo Racing UK ace Rory Butcher who at the start of the day was seen as the cork in the bottle behind the main protagonists.

Sutton has seemingly struggled for pace on the final day and he slipped behind Colin Turkington in the latter stages of Race Two who completed the podium after getting by Butcher but is now out of contention leaving Ingram, Hill and Sutton to do battle in one final push for the title in Race Three.

In the Reverse Grid finale, Dan Lloyd will start on pole ahead of Bobby Thompson and Dan Cammish with Ash Sutton sixth and Hill and Ingram together in ninth and 10th with Sutton seemingly having to win the race and hope that the leading duo don’t make it up the order.

Two laps into the Japanese Grand Prix, a red flag was flown for a handful of first lap incidents that occurred under the difficult, rainy conditions of Suzuka International Racing Course. Carlos Sainz had crashed out on the exit of the hairpin, ending his race.

The drivers made their way back to the pits, with Pierre Gasly at the tail end of the grid. On-board footage showed the French driver passing a stationary tractor on the edge of the track, which was deployed to recover Sainz’s car. Upon his return to the garage, Gasly was visibly irritated by the situation. 

The situation was reminiscent of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, where Jules Bianchi crashed into a tractor standing on track in similarly wet conditions. Bianchi passed away nine months later on account of his injuries. 

Gasly would share his thoughts on Twitter, stating that there should never be recovery vehicles or race marshals out on a live track under such conditions out of respect for Bianchi and the safety of everyone involved. 

“Glad to go home safe tonight. For the respect of Jules, all his family and for our safety and the one of the marshals, there should never be any tractor nor marshals on track in such conditions with such poor visibility. Period.”

Max Verstappen won a shortened action-packed FIA Formula 1 Grand Prix, with only twenty-eight racing laps being completed. It wasn’t a classic race, marred by rain and tricky conditions, but it saw Verstappen secure the 2022 Drivers’ World Championship.

It was the second wet Formula 1 race in a row and in usual Formula 1 fashion, the first lap saw the first safety car of the day. Carlos Sainz Jr. found himself in the wall, and he wasn’t the only one who spun around, with Sebastian Vettel and Zhou Guanyu also having moments; they managed to keep it out of the barriers. The red flag was brought out due to the rain intensifying, leading to outrage from drivers and fans questioning why the race even started, on top of that all the action saw the race only reach twenty-eight laps but the drivers were still awarded full points.

The Podium

Verstappen led the race throughout and handled it in a professional manner. The Dutchman was caught out of the start by Leclerc but he managed to keep his place going into turn one. Sergio Perez finished second after Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, giving Red Bull another 1-2 finish in the 2022 season. Leclerc rounded out the podium, and despite keeping Perez behind the penalty means that his Championship hopes are now mathematically over.

It was a thirty-second win for Verstappen, equalling Fernando Alonso’s amount of wins and also equaling Alonso’s two titles. Leclerc picked up another podium, helping Scuderia Ferrari in their battle for second place in the Championship with Mercedes.

What Happened Behind?

Esteban Ocon picked up big points for BWT Alpine F1 Team with a fourth-placed finish coupled with a seventh-place finish for Alonso, which helped Alpine move back above McLaren F1 Team in the Constructors Championship by thirteen points. Alonso found himself in the lead after everyone pitted in front of him, and picked up a free stop under Safety Car conditions.

It has been a great seven days for A.J. Allmendinger. Last Saturday, he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega for his first superspeedway victory. Four days later, Kaulig Racing elevated him to a full-time Cup Series schedule in 2023.

Three days after that, he became the first driver to win double-digit road courses at the Xfinity level when he held off Ty Gibbs for the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval triumph. He has never lost an Xfinity race at the Roval since making his first start there in 2019, having gone four-for-four since. When combined with his two in the Cup Series, he now has twelve total national series road course wins, including three others in 2022 at COTA, Portland, and Indianapolis.

Allmendinger started on the pole and was the obvious favourite as he led twenty-five of seventy-two laps and won Stage #1. Gibbs provided his best challenge alongside Sheldon Creed until the latter was spun by Sage Karam on lap 60. Riley Herbst brought out the caution on the penultimate lap to set up overtime before spinning again to force a second restart, both of which resulted in his elimination from the playoffs.

“We got in the wall a little bit there on both of the restarts and never could get back to the #16 (Allmendinger),” said Gibbs. “We had great speed. I just want to thank my team. I had a great time in the race today and happy that we’re moving onto the round of eight.”

Ryan Sieg (finished ninth), Jeremy Clements (fourteenth), and defending champion Daniel Hemric (seventeenth) were also eliminated.

Gerard Farrés Guell has competed in every Dakar Rally since 2009 and the streak will continue in 2023 when he returns to South Racing Can-Am in the SSV category. It will be his fourth time running the class after racing Bikes. To prepare for Dakar, he and co-driver Diego Ortega Gil will take part in the Andalucía Rally on 18–23 October.

Farrés made his Dakar début in 2006, where he was the highest-finishing rookie in sixteenth. His best performance on two wheels came in 2017 when he finished third, the peak in a three-year stretch from 2016 to 2018 where he score top tens. He switched to SSVs in 2019 and immediately made an impact by placing runner-up in class. While he dropped to eleventh in 2020, he was able to score three stage wins.

With Ortega Gil by his side for the 2022 race, he finished second once again, this time to Austin Jones. Farrés notched another win in Stage #7 and had led the class overall after finishing second in the penultimate leg before his sixth and Jones’ third in the finale swapped their positions.

“Very happy to compete again in the next Dakar Rally together with Diego Ortega and of course, with the South Racing Can-Am team,” Farrés posted on social media Friday. “We salute you from Zuera where we have been training and preparing for the Andalucía Rally which will take place this October. Thank you to all the sponsors Scott Abraham and Oscar Lanza for making it possible!”

While Farrés did not compete in the other two World Rally-Raid Championship legs in Abu Dhabi and Morocco, it makes sense for him to pursue Andalucía as it takes place in his native Spain. At the inaugural rally in 2020, he finished runner-up in the T4 category to Can-Am team-mate Aron Domżala. He is a three-time Moto winner of the Baja Aragón Span in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

Johan Kristoffersson was back on the top step of the podium for round six of the 2022 FIA World Rallycross Championship at Spa-Francorchamps after yet another heart-breaking final for Timmy Hansen. Contact at the Radillon Hairpin on lap one of the final dropped Hansen down the order, allowing Kristoffersson to run unchallenged to the flag, with Kevin Hansen taking the runner up spot, and teenage superstar Gustav Bergström taking his first ever podium in WorldRX.

Timmy Hansen will be devasted; he had been consistently showing winning pace all day. Both he and Kristoffersson got excellent starts in the final, with Hansen just edging out Kristoffersson who had managed to slip his Volkswagen Polo RX1e up the inside of everybody else. Further back, a chain reaction had already begun. Niclas Grönholm drifted wide coming out of turn one and nudged the outside wall, causing him to drop back. He therefore charged into the Radillon hairpin too fast, causing a concertina effect which ultimately led to Timmy Hansen being spun around and out of contention for the win. Grönholm received a five second penalty for the incident, but that will be of little solace to Hansen, who looked on the verge of breaking his winless streak in 2022.

Kristoffersson acknowledged that Hansen was unlucky in the race, saying “I feel sorry for Timmy – he was in a winning position in the final and really didn’t deserve that. Going up to the hairpin, there was a bit of a train from behind and he got spun round. It wasn’t his day. It turned out to be my day, but obviously it’s a bit bittersweet.”

The KMS driver is making a habit of winning in unexpected circumstances this year. After achieving his traditional number one spot in the superpole, the four-time world champion struggled for pace in all the races prior to the final. The Hansen brothers were the ones setting the pace setting the pace, with Timmy edging out his brother but both of them winning their respective progression races. The Hansen World RX Team will be pleased with Kevin’s second place, but ultimately today will be marked as another day of “what might have been.”

Elsewhere down the field, a notable absentee from the final was the third KMS driver, Ole Christian Veiby. The Norwegian driver had a day to forget, as consistent car issues ruled him out of the final for the first time in the new RX1e category. Meanwhile, CE Dealer Team had a day to forget. Both of their drivers were found at fault for causing collisions which resulted in Grönholm being given a time penalty, and Klara Andersson being disqualified altogether for an incident in the semi-final. She drifted across the track, causing a collision that took out both Bergström and René Muennich.

Otmar Szafnauer revealed that he spoke to Esteban Ocon about the possibility of Pierre Gasly becoming his team-mate at the BWT Alpine F1 Team in 2023, and he said he was supportive of bringing his countryman to the team.

Gasly was announced as an Alpine driver on Saturday, with the Frenchman becoming the final replacement for Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team-bound Fernando Alonso after Oscar Piastri rejected the chance to drive for them in favour of a move to the McLaren F1 Team.

Szafnauer, the Team Principal at Alpine, said it was important to gauge the reaction of everyone within the Enstone-based outfit before committing to bringing in Gasly, and that included current driver Ocon, who had seen his relationship with his fellow Frenchman sour during their years coming through the junior ranks due to their on-track rivalry and the desire not to lose to the other driver.

“We made an informed decision,” Szafnauer is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.com.  “That means talking to the entire team, including Esteban beforehand, to make sure that if we did make a decision, it’s a team sport and we have to be able to work together and optimise.

“Esteban was very supportive, Pierre as well. They are professionals and they have no issue working together.”

Pierre Gasly says he hopes the relationship that had soured with Esteban Ocon in recent years can be rebuilt as the two Frenchmen become team-mates at the BWT Alpine F1 Team for the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Gasly was announced as an Alpine driver on Saturday to end a nine-year stay as part of the Red Bull family, which has included racing in Formula 1 since 2017.  He has taken one race victory – the 2020 Italian Grand Prix – and two further podiums in that time and has been highly rated by many for several years, especially during his time with Scuderia AlphaTauri.

Ocon and Gasly have known each other for twenty years having grown up less than twenty minutes from each other, but their relationship has not been strong in recent years, something that Gasly would like to rectify if they are to maximise their potential as team-mates.

“We have known each other for the past 20 years – and we are only 26!” said Gasly to Formula1.com. “It just shows how long we have known each other. He was there when I did my first laps on the karting track.

“Our relationship has been going up and down since, it’s not new to anyone. I would say since we arrived in F1, it got better. We both achieved one of our dreams but went through different stages. [There is no point] comparing Esteban when we were six, 12, 18 and now 26 – we grew up a lot.