Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Christine Giampaoli Zonca or Christine GZ as she is known as will make her international rallycross debut at the World RX of Spa-Benelux next weekend as she joins the grid in the new all-electric series FIA RX2e Championship.

Christine GZ, who is currently competing in another all-electric series – Extreme E, competing for XITE ENERGY HS run by former World RX regular driver Oliver Bennett. She will utilise her expertise from off-roading as the first-ever RX2e race will happen in Belgium.

While the rallycross will be her maiden event but the 27-year-old Italian-Canary driver has plenty of transferable experience in rallying. In her first full season in the front-wheel-drive class of the Canaries rally series in 2014, she secured the title behind the wheel of a home-built Toyota Corolla AE92 and continued to compete in the local events before she took her motorsport engineering degree.

Two years after her first rally title, she made her FIA World Rally Championship debut at the Spanish round of Rally de Catalunya, winning the women’s category of the Spanish Gravel Rally Championship as a member of the first all-female rally team.

After her rally career, she focused on off-road racing in North America and has finished top-five finish in the Baja 1000 in the Pro UTV Turbo class and last year she was the main driver for Avatel Racing Team in the Dakar Rally.

Rising Swedish rallycross star Filip Thoren is the next driver to be taking a step-up in their career as he makes his four-wheel-drive international debut in the FIA RX2e Championship at the World RX of Spa-Benelux on 9-10 October.

Thoren will be one of many fresh new faces that are entered for the weekend to have a shot in the new all-electric rallycross series, he started his racing career in karting at the age of seven until he was fifteen when he took a break from the motorsport scene.

He returned in 2018 when he entered a selection of Folkrace events, after a promising showing in the grassroots series he decided to take a step-up to rallycross in 2019. In 2020 he had a full-time entry in the Junior 2150 class of the Swedish Rallycross Championship in a BMW E36 which resulted in a sixth-place finish in the championship. Thoren made a return to the class this season and started off with a podium finish at Höljes before differing fortunes ultimately made him finish the season with eighth place.

Now the Swedish youngster is looking to utilise his previous Folkrace background in Belgium.

“I am very much looking forward to my RX2e debut at Spa. It is a great challenge for me to go from my rear-wheel drive BMW to electric four-wheel drive, with all that power and torque available. My target for the weekend is to make step-by-step progress each time I am out on track, and then we will see what the results will bring after that!” Thoren said.

For the Rally Finland round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship this weekend, there are a total of seven local drivers that are looking to take home the win in the WRC3 class as the current title protagonists Yohan Rossel and Kajetan Kajetanowicz both missing from the entry list.

Mikko Heikkilä has entered with a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo is one of the leading names that are joining the field for the gravel grand prix; at Arctic Rally Finland earlier this year he took a podium finish and followed up with one more at Rally Estonia but now he is looking strong to take a step-up on the podium.

Emil Lindholm, son of the former WRC driver Sebastian Lindholm who is currently fifth in the WRC3 standings, managed to secure his first-ever Finnish Rally Championship title last weekend at the SM KokUA 60-v Juhlaralli and he will also be one of the drivers to watch out for, he is entered in one the TGS Worldwide´s Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo.

The 2018 class winner Eerik Pietarinen will debut his new Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 at the rally after switching away from the Skoda he previously used.

Riku Tahko, the former FIA European Rallycross Championship regular, made his step back in to rally from rallycross about two years ago and he is the sole Finn driving a Hyundai i20 R5.

Steve Arpin and GRX Loenbro brought home a successful result concluding the first round of Nitro Rallycross. Arpin had only received the car as early as Tuesday and was not yet up to speed with the car, especially after switching platforms. He now pilots a Hyundai instead of the Ford he’s grown accustomed to the last few years.

“The GRX Loenbro HempFusion #00 has been like a rocket since the guys pulled it out of the shipping container”, Arpin said. “It’s been 2 years since I’ve raced in rallycross and it took me a little bit to get used to the differences between this new platform and the Fiesta, but I think we are in a great spot!”

The privateer team started the weekend strong after making it all the way to the semifinals in the bracket heats following day one. Arpin was able to beat the big-name drivers of Tanner Foust and Robin Larsson only to fall short when faced with Travis Pastrana in the third round. This placed him third in the overnight standings and easily into the final for the next day.

With Arpin easily into the final, he had nothing to do but focus on the task ahead, finishing on the podium. Focusing on his driving and avoiding incidents, he managed to pilot the i20 to a solid second-place finish for the first race of the season.

Team principal Jussi Pinomaki commented on the event saying, “Obviously, we are really really happy. We started from a blank sheet and managed to continuously improve over the two days. We managed to stay out of trouble and have a decent pace on track and together that brought us a great result.”

George Megennis won his first Nitro Rallycross event this past weekend in Salt Lake City. The 16-year-old showed a strong start to his NRX career as he topped the likes of Saturday’s winner, Casper Jansson, and the runner-up, Martin Enlund. Although Megennis couldn’t do it alone without help from some friends throughout the weekend.

“Eric Färén was a huge help as ever, giving me great calls over the radio and keeping the car running nicely. A big thanks to DirtFish for coming onboard for my NRX campaign too and of course the Hansens for their help throughout the weekend – it was an amazing experience to work so closely with Timmy and Kevin, sharing information between us on track conditions and so forth“, Megennis said at the end of the weekend.

Megennis was suspected to be a top runner with his racing knowledge and family history, namely his brother Robert being an Indycar Lights driver. He had previously tested an RX2 car a few years ago at America’s Rallycross in Mid Ohio. The young American has only developed more in his short time with the car becoming quicker and more confident in his abilities throughout the weekend.

“I felt quick the entire weekend! The key to winning on Saturday was a mix of speed and caution; I focused on ensuring we didn’t pick up any punctures or damage in the berms and that consistency paid off.”

George now sits third overall in the standings with a total of 80 points after the first two rounds. The NRX NEXT driver will need more solid results and help from his rallycross compatriots if he wants to remain in form as he did this weekend.

Jack Doohan won the final FIA Formula 3 race of the year to clinch the team’s championship for Trident – ending the long rule by PREMA in that particular championship. As usual, there was a dramatic and exciting battle right to the end the Australian coming out on top of an intense battle with teammate Clément Novalak, who would end up in third behind Frederik Vesti.

Having already been named title-winner, Hauger was taken out by Oliver Rasmussen and had to stop for repairs, but the Norwegian made his way back out and still managed to take home with him the fastest lap of the race.

Desperate to keep PREMA’s run going in the championship Olli Caldwell and Arthur Leclerc battled to tenth and seventh but it would not be enough to take a third title in succession for the Italian team.

In the closing stages, Vesti found a way past Novalak who’s tyres had taken a battering after his race-long battle with team-mate Doohan. Logan Sargeant – finishing off a strong weekend would finish fourth having started in eleventh place in turn securing Charouz Racing System’s highest placing in the series and Jak Crawford secured his best feature race result with a top five.

Race Re-Cap

Doohan and Novalak remained one and two heading into the first corner of the season’s final race. With Hauger stuck in ninth, and Leclerc and Caldwell both out of the points, it was looking great for Trident who had provisionally jumped PREMA in the Teams’ title race.

2021 Swedish Rallycross Championship, 2150 class champion, Klara Andersson will become the first female driver to enter the all-new FIA RX2e Championship, joining the series at the fourth round of the championship at World RX of Spa-Benelux on 9/10 October.

The 21-year-old Löberöd native will now be taking her step-up in the career and she sees the RX2e to be a viable route on her way to the top of rallycross. After racing in the Swedish Rallycross Championship for in a few seasons in a rear-wheel-drive BMW 120 hatchback, this will be her first time racing competitively in a four-wheel-drive machine. She follows her sister Magda (former European Supercar driver) to become the next Andersson to put the family name out in Europe.

Klara began her racing career in karting as a seven-year-old and spent six years in the category – mostly racing on home soil in Sweden with many regional wins but also racing in Norway and Italy. It was in 2018 she switched focus over to rallycross and she really fell in love with the sport when she had a wildcard appearance at the 2019 RallyX Nordic final at Tierp Arena in the RX Academy class, and now she is a proud member of the Swedish Junior National Team of Motorsport that she will be representing in Spa.

“After winning the Swedish Rallycross Championship this year, I began to look into the future of Rallycross. RX2e seems like a fun new class which gives you an insight into the direction the sport is heading, which looks to be mainly electric.” Andersson said.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to drive the RX2e car at Spa in October, and to get a perception of what might be the next step in my career. This event only became possible through the support from Svensk Bilsport, Sweden National Team and my partners, and I’m beyond grateful and excited for this opportunity.”

The former M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver Esapekka Lappi will be returning to the top level class of WRC for Rally Finland next weekend in a fifth Toyota Yaris WRC rented by his team RTE-Motorsport in hopes to get promising results.

Lappi has only competed in two rounds of WRC2 so far this season after stepping out from WRC come at the end of last season, and won both of the rounds, first the Finnish winter round of Arctic Lapland Rally in February and later Rally de Portugal in May.

Now he will be back in a Toyota Yaris WRC and will be run by his private team but with support by Toyota personnel, in a car that he won the Finnish gravel grand prix as it was nicknamed back in 2017.

“The car feels really nice. There have been some changes, but basically it is the same car which I drove – so I was able to feel comfortable in it.” Lappi said after his first tests with the car.

“The speed is incredible though. It was so fast. The speed you can take through the corners is amazing and this is what takes the time – to build that confidence. The speed was good from the test road, but that’s not the same as the first stage. This is the trick, to take the confidence and the speed from the test to the stage.”

Scott McLaughlin clinched the 2021 Rookie of the Year title thanks to an eleventh-place finish in the Grand Prix of Long Beach, with Romain Grosjean’s early retirement opening the door for the Team Penske driver to finish the job.

Following his switch from the Supercars Championship in Australia where he was a dominant force for a number of years and a triple champion between 2018 and 2020, McLaughlin has been using 2021 to acclimatise himself to the NTT IndyCar Series, and he put in a number of strong performances along the way.

He took five top-ten finishes in his rookie season, including a memorable second place finish for his maiden podium in his very first oval at Texas Motor Speedway.  His eleventh place in Long Beach ultimately helped him finish fourteenth in the overall standings, but he had done enough to edge out Grosjean by thirty-three points to clinch the rookie crown.

“I’m really proud of everyone on the PPG Chevy,” said McLaughlin.  “I think the car has been awesome, and I finally got it to my liking the last six or seven races. So, I’m really proud of everyone at Team Penske and I’m really excited for next year.

“This year was a foundation year; all about building and I feel like I’ve done that. Hopefully I can be a little bit further up next year.”

Alex Palou became the first Spaniard to win the NTT IndyCar Series title on Sunday with a fourth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Long Beach, with the twenty-four-year-old following in the footsteps of some legendary names to take the crown for Chip Ganassi Racing.

The quintet of Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon have secured thirteen Drivers’ titles between them, and Palou’s triumph in 2021 makes it fourteen for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou made the surprise switch to Ganassi from Dale Coyne Racing for his sophomore season in IndyCar, and he did not disappoint in the #10 car, winning three races and finishing a close second to Helio Castroneves in the Indianapolis 500.

And Palou is already looking to the future and securing another championship for the team in 2022 as well as going one better at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next May.

“What a race, what a year, what a season,” said Palou on Indycar.com.  “This team is amazing. I’m super proud to be a part of Chip Ganassi Racing, all our partners. I’m super proud to be a champion and for the opportunity these guys gave me.

Mario Isola says Pirelli Motorsport’s medium and hard compound tyre worked extremely well during Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, but the race was ultimately decided by the timing of the drivers’ final stop to switch to the intermediate compound when the rain came.

Rain during Qualifying meant all twenty drivers had a free choice of starting tyre on Sunday, and seven drivers opted to start on the hard tyre and thirteen on the medium compound.  Both tyres gave good longevity and performance, with a little bit of graining often coming and then going.

Fernando Alonso, Sergio Pérez and Antonio Giovinazzi all started on the hard compound and completed thirty-six laps before switching to the mediums, while Lando Norris got twenty-eight laps out of his starting set of medium tyres before pitting for the hard compound.

However, it was the decision of when to switch to the intermediate tyre when the rain began to fall that decided the race, with those who pitted slightly earlier getting the advantage on those who delayed their own stops for a lap or two more.

“After yesterday’s wet conditions, the rain held off until the final few laps – and it decided the race,” said Isola.  “Up until then, the drivers had made the most of dry conditions with maximum tyre freedom, as they could choose their starting tyres and they all had a full unused allocation of slicks.

Nikita Mazepin enjoyed his first Russian Grand Prix, with the Russian making a super start to move up to thirteenth before falling back as the faster runners found a way passed.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver was embroiled in a good battle in the early laps with a number of drivers, but when he pitted and after a lock-up, he fell to the back of the pack, ultimately finishing eighteenth and last of those to see the chequered flag.

Mazepin enjoyed his time on the intermediate tyres at the end of the race, with the Haas driver one of the early stoppers for them.  However, such was the gap to his rivals, he was unable to benefit and gain any positions despite being on the correct tyre at the right moment.

“It was a long race – loads of things happening,” said Mazepin.  “I had a very good first opening lap and then did my best to hold the faster cars behind using the battery cleverly, which I think I did well.

“Then after we boxed, came out on hard tyres, I still tried to keep the cars behind and obviously one overtook me, and then I had a lock-up and unfortunately for us when the hard tyres lock-up, they don’t ever come back.

Claudio Balestri says Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda did not achieve any of their targets during Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix as both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda ended pointless at the Sochi Autodrom.

With both drivers starting outside the top ten after a poor performance in Saturday’s Qualifying session, AlphaTauri were looking forward on Sunday, but the day did not start too well for either Gasly or Tsunoda as they lost positions on lap one.

The two drivers ran a different strategy, with Gasly starting on the hard tyres before switching to the mediums and Tsunoda vice versa, but the end of race rain put paid to AlphaTauri’s chances of points as the team opted to delay Gasly’s stop while switching Tsunoda to softs rather than intermediates as they believed the rain was not going to be as hard as it was.

Balestri, the Chief Engineer of Vehicle Performance at AlphaTauri, says the team will now go away and analyse just what went wrong in Russia to prevent a repeat should the same scenario play out again in the future.

“Today the target was to score points and we didn’t,” said Balestri.  “In the first lap we immediately lost positions with both cars but for the rest of the race, when we were free of traffic, the pace of the car was quite good.

Pierre Gasly admitted it was a weekend to forget for Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda at the Sochi Autodrom after the Frenchman ended the Russian Grand Prix outside the points in thirteenth.

After getting the tactics wrong during Saturday’s Qualifying session in Russia, Gasly was hoping to make gains and score points on Sunday, but another tactical error not to pit early when the rain begun to fall late in the race cost him a shot at the top ten.

Gasly also found himself spun around by Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Lance Stroll during the rain shower, but all in all it was not the weekend the Frenchman was after, and he is hoping and expecting a better weekend in Turkey in two weeks time.

“It’s not been a great weekend for us really, we missed a big opportunity yesterday in Qualifying and again today we made the wrong decision with the slicks, which unfortunately means we finished out of the points,” said Gasly.

“The pace was strong here and I think we had a good first stint, but we just didn’t utilise all the opportunities given to us this weekend, which is a real shame. We need to review everything from today and work out how we make the most out of these conditions in the future.

Liam Doran and Robin Larsson had one tricky weekend after coming short of the final. Each driver was prepared to be on pace but mistakes on the starting grid and a mid-race roll stopped them short in the LCQ.

“There’s no doubt, this first round has been a tough one. We knew with these tracks and these jumps that it was going to be extreme with some challenging racing and that’s what we’ve got. But, you know, that’s what we came for. That’s what we want”, Doran stated after the event.

After struggles in the bracket heats the drivers found themselves in the highly entertaining LCQ race. With a bad launch from Liam, it dropped him further on the grid than anticipated. Doran later caught a puncture that sent him into the wall retiring the car and red flagging the session.

“I had some issues getting the car off the line and we need to work on that; if you can’t make a clean start and see where you’re going once you’ve got off the line, you’re going to find it hard to win a race.”

Meanwhile, Larsson got away decent but the track state had worn so much that it caused him massive issues. Namely, he rolled the car coming out of the gap jump into the berm but the swede couldn’t be stopped as he got the car on all fours and continued to drive until the session was stopped.