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Ingram claims third win of the season with Race Three triumph at Knockhill

Tom Ingram has kept up with Ash Sutton to conclude proceedings at Knockhill as the 2021 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) title fight continues to heat up.

One of the best passing moves of the season saw Ingram surge past pole sitter Stephen Jelley after previously being frustrated in the early running by Jason Plato and the Hyundai i30N Fastback driver did not look back from there finishing ahead of Senna Proctor and the aforementioned Team BMW driver in the podium spots.

Off the line, Jelley made a good start as he was followed by Plato, while Ingram went into third place ahead of Proctor but after Cook had an opening lap incident with Jack Goff, he stopped at the side of the road meaning a safety car had to be deployed.

It was a short safety car though with a restart forthcoming on Lap Four with Jelley leading once more heading into Duffers Dip despite having Plato again seeking him out. In third place, Ingram joined the leading group also due to the safety car as the pack began to gain.

Ingram made his move on the start finish straight but Plato kept him at bay but this allowed Jelley to get further away as he looked to take advantage.

Zagazeta takes second win of the weekend at Knockhill as Rees takes championship lead

Phinsys by Argenti’s Matias Zagazeta claimed his third win of 2021 to move into third in the championship and just 23 points behind new leader Matthew Rees, with James Hedley leaving the Knockhill weekend pointless after three disappointing results.

Zagazeta got the whole shot at the start to lead Granfors away and managed to maintain a healthy gap to the Swede to lead commandingly, albeit with the fastest lap from Granfors and sustaining some mid race pressure from the Fortec first year driver.

Matthew Rees came home in third place and secured enough points to take the overall championship lead and further bolster his rookie cup lead for JHR Developments. Abbi Pulling finished fourth after chasing Bolger all the way through the race, eventually managing to pass the Japanese rookie on the final lap, but Bolger managing to take another rookie podium in what is becoming an ever improving debut season at Carlin.

Aiden Neate equalled his best overall finish of 2021 in sixth, and most importantly scored his first rookie podium in what has been an outstanding introduction to single seater racing for the promising Argenti driver.

Eduardo Coseteng fended off Kai Askey for seventh in the other Argenti car, with Mckenzy Cresswell creeping into the points in ninth and building on a race two win earlier in the day.

O’Sullivan takes GB3 reverse-grid win at Silverstone, Faria and Bilinski tangle

Zak O’Sullivan took his fourth win of the GB3 Championship season at Silverstone on Sunday, profiting from a collision that eliminated an emerging Championship rival.

Roman Bilinski started from pole, with Carlin‘s Bryce Aron alongside, the American taking his highest grid position of the season to date.

Roberto Faria and Branden Lee Oxley moved past Aron on Lap 1 as he fell to fourth, while Zak O’Sullivan and Bart Horsten found a way past Fortec Motorsport‘s Mikkel Grundtvig, who had started third.

Reece Ushijima shot up six places into ninth in the early running, while Race 2 podium-finisher Jonathan Browne and double race-winner Ayrton Simmons slipped back.

O’Sullivan soon moved past his team-mate Aron to go fourth, while the final Carlin of Christian Mansell sat 12th after two laps.

Sutton edges Turkington in last lap thriller to take third win of 2021 BTCC campaign

Ash Sutton has claimed his third win of the 2021 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) to gain further ground on his rivals after a last lap capitalisation on Colin Turkington who lead for most of the race.

The duo battled it out for most of the race at Knockhill with a few safety cars not allowing Sutton through but a mistake handed him the race win as Turkington went out wide into the gravel on the final lap allowing the Infiniti Q50 to surge through.

This ahead of Jake Hill, Josh Cook, Gordon Shedden, Tom Ingram, Senna Proctor, Jason Plato, Stephen Jelley and Carl Boardley who round out the top ten after another drama filled race.

Turkington got off the line well as Smiley had a nightmare start as the rest of the grid had to dodge the stranded Hyundai i30N which meant Hamilton went into the wall and the safety car came out.

At the time, the Team BMW driver led Cook and Sutton but the latter was putting pressure on the ballast laden Honda Civic of Cook as they restarted and got past into second as he set his sights on Turkington.

Cresswell takes delayed reverse grid race win to close gap in title battle

Mckenzy Cresswell took his second reverse grid victory in succession at Knockhill after taking the lead on the opening lap as he did in Oulton Park last time out, managing to build a comfortable lead on the way to a second win of 2021 and sixth podium overall for the JHR rookie.

Very similar to his opening lap at Oulton Park two week ago, Cresswell bolted off the line, dispatching Marcos Flack before getting past David Morales with a brave move around the outside at the hairpin. He would build a 2.5 second lead from there and take a commanding victory.

The win also brings Cresswell back into third in the championship fight, just 33 points back from leader Hedley who didn’t manage to start the race and with team mate Matthew Rees not scoring.

Zak Taylor finished in second place for Arden Motorsport, claiming the young Brit’s fist podium since his race one triumph at Brands Hatch. Rookie Kai Askey shot up into the top ten of the overall championship standings with another impressive podium for the lead Carlin runner.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak followed home team mate Askey in fourth, gaining four places in the process and showing much more promise this weekend at Knockhill for the Thai driver. David Morales managed to hold onto fifth place with a close battle behind between Joseph Loake and Oliver Gray for sixth and seventh respectively, with just five tenths of a second separating them at the line.

Turkington continues BTCC title revival with dominant Race One win at Knockhill

Colin Turkington has claimed his 58th career win in a dominant display at Knockhill during Race One to continue his BTCC title revival after starting on pole.

It was also a milestone for WSR (West Surrey Racing) who have their 100th win as the four-time champion finished ahead of a BTC Racing 2-3 in Senna Proctor and Josh Cook.

With the latter holding off the advances of championship leader, Ash Sutton who will be dangerous in Race Two combatting Turkington’s maximum success ballast and the hard tyre with ballast shedded and the soft tyre, an intriguing battle is set.

Turkington made a great start as he held the lead with Proctor and Smiley also holding their position off the line. It was the latter though who was on the attack heading after Proctor but a safety car halted all momentum as Lloyd went off into the gravel.

But as they went back racing, Turkington got away from the pack once more and the battles as a result were further down the round with the former and Proctor seemingly nailed on for the top two.

Simmons takes Race 2 win in GB3’s second visit to Silverstone

Ayrton Simmons backed up his Race 1 win at Silverstone by winning Race 2 as the GB3 Championship made its second visit to the Northamptonshire circuit this season.

The Elite Motorsport car of José Garfias was withdrawn before the start on Sunday morning, as Mikkel Grundtvig and Christian Mansell both slipped four places in the early exchanges.

Roman Bilinski, Javier Sagrera and Sebastian Alvarez were the big winners, though, both gaining several positions early as Mansell moved back past Fortec Motorsport‘s Grundtvig for 15th.

Mansell’s Carlin team-mate Bryce Aron fell five places behind Bilinski, Sagrera, Alvarez, Reece Ushijima and Mansell.

Series debutant Jonathan Browne took a maiden podium with third on Saturday, but fell back in the Hillspeed entry around the halfway stage.

Power Dominates Spiked Coolers Grand Prix, Wins 40th IndyCar Race

Will Power proved once again why he is the master of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, winning the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix for his fifth win on the circuit and fortieth victory in the NTT IndyCar Series.

After strategy put him out front, Power survived two late restarts from Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta to take the win, Roger Penske‘s first at IMS since purchasing the facility in 2020. Behind him, Grosjean finished in a less disappointing second place than his last here in May, with Herta finishing third.

Patricio O’Ward led the field to green and dominated the opening stint on the alternate red-wall tyres, one of two drivers starting in the top ten on the reds, gaining a gap of about ten seconds. Scott Dixon was the first to hit pit lane and go off-strategy on lap nine, switching to the red tyres from blacks, and others began to make their pit stops a few laps later.

Power came in on lap 13 to switch to the reds while O’Ward stayed out until lap 16 for his mandatory black tyre stint. On faster tyres, Power was able to disintegrate the gap to O’Ward and make his pass for the lead in turn 12 on lap 20. O’Ward also fell behind Herta and Grosjean as he got his tyres up to temperature and fell to fourth place.

Power cruised in the lead during the second stint, which was highlighted by an electric battle for fifth place. Alexander Rossi was tasked with defending his position from Jack Harvey, Alex Palou and a hard-charging Graham Rahal. Rossi successfully defended from every Harvey challenge, but that soon opened the door for Palou who took sixth on lap 33 and fifth the very next lap going into turn seven.

Zagazeta claims race one win in red-flagged Knockhill bout

Matias Zagazeta converted a rapid pole position into a second victory of 2021 for Phinsys by Argenti at a red-flagged opening race at Knockhill, making a lightning start ahead of Joel Granfors and Matthew Rees to move within 50 points of championship leader James Hedley.

The Peruvian had to manage a mid-race restart following his team mate Marcos Flack’s car becoming stranded at Clarks corner, but showed composure and experience in taking a stronghold on the race lead which he never surrendered.

Granfors held on to second ahead of Matthew Rees, who reduced his deficit to Hedley in the championship fight to just ten points, with the Fortec title leader only managing to move up as far as tenth in a frenetic race.

Eduardo Coseteng equalled his best race result of the season so far with an assured drive to fourth place, with JHR Developments’ Joseph Loake finishing just over a second behind in fifth. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak brought home his Carlin machine in sixth, with his race being marred by a tangle with Aiden Neate at MacIntyre, which would leave the Argenti rookie out of the race.

Kai Askey finished behind his Thai team mate in seventh, with Mckenzy Cresswell fighting back to eighth but ultimately losing ground to team mate Matthew Rees in the rookie cup championship battle, now trailing behind by 33 points.

Nyck de Vries: “When you start from the back, there’s always the risk of contact”

Nyck de Vries will go into Sunday’s final race of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season still at the top of the Drivers’ Championship despite failing to score a point in Saturday’s first race of the Berlin E-Prix weekend.

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver had a troubled day that began in Qualifying, with the Dutchman starting the first race around the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit from nineteenth on the grid.

He made up a few places and was closing in on the top ten when he made contact with Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn, with the incident causing a puncture that required a trip to the pits for repair.  This meant he fell away from the points and ended a lap down in twenty-second place at the chequered flag.

Despite this, he still holds top spot in the standings, but the gaps behind him have closed up, with de Vries only three points ahead of ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara, four ahead of BMW i Andretti Motorsport and five ahead of Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans.  Fourteen drivers are still mathematically in with a chance of the title heading into Sunday’s race.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to score any points today,” said de Vries.  “We made life difficult for ourselves in qualifying because we qualified at the rear of the field, which affected our entire day.

Lucas di Grassi: “It wasn’t easy and I had to fight until the last corner, but we made it”

Lucas di Grassi moved himself firmly into championship contention after taking a superb victory in the opening race of the Berlin E-Prix on Saturday, his second triumph of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season.

The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler driver started third after impressing in Qualifying earlier in the day, and he shadowed the DS Techeetah duo of Jean-Éric Vergne and António Félix da Costa in the early laps before passing them both to take over the lead.

He lost the lead when Edoardo Mortara took advantage of using his attack mode, but the Brazilian bided his time and retook the ROKiT Venturi Racing driver for the lead when he used his own attack mode.  From there on in, it was a case of holding off the charge from the Swiss racer, and he did so, albeit by just 0.141 seconds at the chequered flag!

Di Grassi says the performance of his Audi improved significantly overnight after he struggled when he took part in practice on Friday, and although he found it difficult to keep Mortara behind him, he was delighted to take the chequered flag first for yet another Formula E victory, his twelfth overall. 

“The first free practice on Friday was difficult,” said di Grassi, who moves up to sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship thanks to his victory, just eight points behind leader Nyck de Vries. “But the team did a great job overnight. The car felt fantastic today. Thanks for that!

Mitch Evans: “We’re in a good place for tomorrow but we take nothing for granted”

Mitch Evans felt he had strong pace throughout the opening race of the Berlin E-Prix on Saturday, but it was difficult to judge just when to attack his rivals, particularly with only one use of attack mode allowed.

The Jaguar Racing driver started seventh and worked his way up to third by the chequered flag, although he was more than five seconds behind the leading duo of Lucas di Grassi and Edoardo Mortara.

Evans finished just ahead of ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Norman Nato and BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Jake Dennis at the chequered flag, but his third-place finish – his fifth of the season – ensures he goes into the final race of the season on Sunday sitting fourth in the standings and only five points off Nyck de Vries at the top.

Despite the strategy concerns, he felt they did as much as they could at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit to keep himself involved in the battle for the title going into the season finale.

“It was a good race – we had strong pace throughout but it was a challenge to find the best time to attack,” said Evans.  “The strategy worked well and I’m glad it paid off as we needed to score big today.

Zagazeta bags maiden pole position at Knockhill with flawless lap

Phinsys by Argenti’s Matias Zagazeta scored his first British F4 pole positions, setting the fastest and second fastest laps in a textbook performance to secure a spot at the very front of the grid for race and three this weekend at Knockhill.

The Peruvian pipped Fortec Motorsport’s Joel Granfors with a 49.353 lap and just a 0.013s gap to continue the trend of extremely close times around the undulating track. It was a very impressive performance by the Swede nonetheless, who’s definitely been the fastest Fortec runner this weekend, ahead of rookie Oliver Gray and championship leader James Hedley.

But the most undeniable talking point of the session was rookie Matthew Rees claiming third on the grid, with championship leader Hedley starting at the back for race one and three, the JHR sensation will be looking to claw back the 24-point deficit at the sharp end of the standings and could very well be ahead at the close of play tomorrow.

Eduardo Coseteng and Aiden Neate proved Argenti’s pace with laps that were good enough to round out the top five, with Abbi Pulling in sixth and less than three tenths off the ultimate pace set by Zagazeta.

Dougie Bolger continued his recent forward momentum with a seventh place finish and being the leading Carlin runner once again. JHR’s Joseph Loake lines up eighth and will be looking for more solid points after taking two wins already in 2021.

Edoardo Mortara: “Being in championship contention on Sunday was the always the goal”

Edoardo Mortara came within 0.141 seconds of a second victory of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season on Saturday, but the Swiss racer was forced to concede the win to Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi.

The ROKiT Venturi Racing driver led midway through the race at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit after capitalising on his attack mode, but he was unable to hold off di Grassi when the Brazilian took his own attack mode a little bit later than the Swiss racer.

Mortara kept the former Formula E champion honest until the chequered flag, but he was unable to find a way back ahead of di Grassi.  However, the podium finish moves him up to second place in the Drivers’ Championship, just three points behind leader Nyck de Vries.

“Heading into this weekend, being in championship contention on Sunday was the always the goal and because of today’s result, we’re now in that position,” said Mortara.  “P2 is a great result not only for me but also the team and we’ve continued to show just how strong our race pace can be this season.

“Going into the final laps, I knew that it was going to be difficult to overtake Lucas [di Grassi]. I tried to put him under pressure, but unfortunately he didn’t put a foot wrong.”

Jake Dennis: “I’ll just enjoy the race tomorrow and have no pressure”

Jake Dennis is very much in contention for the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship title after a fifth-place finish in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix on Saturday afternoon.

The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver lost a couple of places at the start but was always involved in the battle for the big points, with the Briton only missing out on a podium by less than half a second.

Dennis does not believe he had the pace to take the podium in the closing laps, even when he ended up so close behind the battle for third between Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans and ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Norman Nato.

“My aim before the race was to finish fifth but then we had a really bad start and lost some positions,” said Dennis.  “After that we came back strong and the car behaved very well.

“At the end we didn’t quite have the pace anymore to fight for the podium to be honest.”


RaceScene.com