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Robin Frijns heads into this weekend’s Berlin E-Prix double header just six points behind Nyck de Vries in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Drivers’ standings, and the Dutchman is hopeful he can walk away as the 2020-21 champion on Sunday evening.

The Envision Virgin Racing driver has yet to win a race this season, but he has twice finished as runner-up, while he has another five finishes inside the top six.

Frijns is expecting an intense weekend at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, and although he will be in group one for Qualifying for Saturday’s opening race, he believes he has what it takes to have a strong race and put himself in firm contention for the title.

“It is going to be a pretty intense weekend,” said Frijns. “It is great to be second in the Drivers’ championship with only the two races to go, but it is so close that anything could happen in Berlin.

“I enjoy the circuit and have done well in the past there, but a lot will depend on qualifying and how we get on going out again in Q1 for the first race. If I can get some big points, we will be looking good.

Ian James says the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team go into this weekend’s Berlin E-Prix with the target of clinching both the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Drivers’ and Teams’ titles.

Nyck de Vries heads to the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit with a six-point advantage in the Drivers’ Championship over Robin Frijns, while Mercedes are just seven points behind Envision Virgin Racing in the Teams’ battle.  Stoffel Vandoorne also retains a mathematical chance of taking the Drivers’ crown despite sitting thirteenth in the standings.

James, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says everyone will be doing their hardest this weekend to take both titles, but in such a close championship – eighteen drivers are mathematically in with a chance of taking the Drivers’ title with two races remaining – he knows it will not be plain sailing for the team.

“Just one race weekend to go, and the championship fight is still very much in full swing,” said James.  “This season has already been an extremely close fight in both the teams’ and drivers’ championships, and we’ve managed to carry that into the last race of the season.

“It’s going to be a very exciting championship finale, with virtually any outcome possible in the championships.”

Nyck de Vries goes into the finale of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season in Berlin on top of the Drivers’ Championship, and the Dutchman is aiming to do everything he can to clinch the title.

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver enjoyed a strong London E-Prix weekend, with de Vries taking two runners-up spots, finishing second to Jake Dennis in race one and then to Alex Lynn in race two.  It ended a torrid run of results for the Dutchman, who had scored only two points across the previous six E-Prix.

De Vries knows it will be a tough proposition to keep himself on top of the championship this weekend at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, but he knows Mercedes will be doing everything they can to take both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships in Berlin.

“I’m really looking forward to this weekend,” said de Vries.  “We’ve obviously had a lot of races so far this season with plenty of moments full of highs and lows that stick in your mind.

“We’re off now to the season finale in Berlin where we are about to discover who’s going to be crowned champion in the end. I can’t wait to see whether we can come out on top in the world championship ultimately.

Jake Dennis says he has come a long way during his rookie season in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with two victories and a couple of pole positions seeing him sitting fourth in the standings heading into the Berlin E-Prix.

The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver scored his first points in his fifth Formula E race, but the Briton has shown himself to be a fierce competitor throughout the year, and he remains firmly involved in the Drivers’ Championship battle heading to the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit.

Dennis hopes the momentum from winning in the London E-Prix last time out will carry into this weekend, where two races will determine the 2020-21 Formula E champion.

“It feels like it was just yesterday that I contest my first Formula E race in Diriyah,” said Dennis. “We’ve come a long way since then, won two races in my rookie season and are right in the middle of the battle for the world championship.

“I’m really excited for Berlin and will give it my all to make use of the momentum and drive for the title. But we can already be very proud of what we have achieved as a team this season.”

BMW will pull out of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as a works team after this weekend’s Berlin E-Prix, but the German marque have everything crossed both Jake Dennis and Maximilian Günther will have strong weekend’s at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit.

Dennis sits fourth in the standings after a victory and a ninth-place finish in the London E-Prix, and although Günther is down in fifteenth position in the standings, he still has a mathematical chance of taking the title, albeit a small chance.  BMW i Andretti Motorsport sit fifth in the Teams’ Championship, only twenty-two points off Envision Virgin Racing at the top.

Stefan Ponikva, the Vice President Brand Communication and Brand Experience BMW Group, has thanked everyone within Formula E for allowing them to be a part of the exciting championship, and he is pleased that BMW are giving their name to the finale of the season, the BMW i Berlin E-Prix.

“BMW i has been a partner of Formula E from the outset, and we are delighted to conclude this unique partnership, after seven successful years, with another highlight, the title sponsorship at our home event in Berlin,” said Ponikva.

“I would like to thank Formula E and, on behalf of the whole organisation, Alejandro Agag, Alberto Longo and Jamie Reigle. The BMW i Berlin E-Prix will be the highlight of the season for us. 

Dilbagh Gill, the CEO and Team Principal of Mahindra Racing, is hoping for another strong weekend in Berlin this weekend to cap off what has been a strong season for the team in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season.

Alex Lynn took Mahindra’s first victory of the season in the London E-Prix, while both Lynn and team-mate Alexander Sims have stood on the podium during the 2020-21 season.  Lynn sits sixth in the standings heading to the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, while Sims is a lowly eighteenth. 

However, Lynn sits only seventeen points behind championship leader Nyck de Vries, while Sims is mathematically still in the hunt, though he would need a minor miracle to take the title.  Mahindra are seventh in the Teams’ Championship but only thirty-three points off leaders Envision Virgin Racing.

Gill was delighted Mahindra were able to take their first victory since Jérôme d’Ambrosio took the chequered flag first in the Marrakesh E-Prix back in the 2018-19 season, and he hopes the team can build on the London result this weekend across the two races to end the season in Berlin.

“After an incredible ‘home race’ weekend in London our attention turns to the season finale in Berlin,” said Gill.  “We are looking forward to returning to Berlin after last season’s epic six races in nine days finale where the team came away with five SuperPole appearances and five points securing finishes.

Alex Lynn goes into the season finale in Berlin this weekend high on confidence after moving himself into championship contention with a podium and a victory in the London E-Prix last time out.

The Mahindra Racing driver finished second on the road to Lucas di Grassi at the Exhibition Centre London circuit but was promoted to victory when the Brazilian was penalised for an illegal pit stop.  It meant the former GP3 Series champion took his maiden ABB FIA Formula E World Championship victory in his fortieth start to move up to sixth place in the standings.

Lynn says the weekend in London was ‘incredible’, and the British racer is eager to continue that momentum this weekend at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit in Berlin.

“London was incredible, and a very special result for the whole team,” said Lynn, who is only seventeen points behind championship leader Nyck de Vries heading into Berlin.

“I’ll be giving my everything in Berlin to give the team something to smile about when the flag drops.”

Sebastian Vettel will remain disqualified from the Hungarian Grand Prix, after the FIA denied the review requested by the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team after they presented new evidence to support their case.

Vettel who initially finished second at the exhilarating Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, was disqualified after the race as the FIA were unable to take a one litre fuel sample from Vettel’s AMR21. This is a requirement set out in the Formula 1 technical regulations.

However Aston Martin asked the FIA to review their decision, after the team found evidence in their data that Vettel did in fact have more than a litre of fuel remaining. The review took place on Monday but unfortunately for Aston Martin it was to no avail.

The FIA deemed the evidence provided by Aston Martin wasn’t relevant to the regulation which was broken, as a result the right of review was denied.

Aston Martin Team Principal and CEO Otmar Szafnauer is disappointed by the FIA’s decision but that it won’t stop the team from appealing Vettel’s disqualification.

Bob Jenkins, a legend in the motorsports world for his announcing prowess on radio and television, has died after an eight-month battle with brain cancer. He was 73 years old.

Jenkins is a name that defined racing broadcasts for many fans through the 1980s and 1990s in both IndyCar and NASCAR. Working for ABC and ESPN, the latter of whom hired him as one of its first employees in 1979, he served as the play-by-play announcer for the networks’ coverage of NASCAR alongside Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett, a trio that aligned with the nationwide boom in stock car racing’s popularity and thus served as the voices for many fans’ childhoods. Jenkins was also the announcer in the first EA Sports NASCAR games, including the acclaimed début edition NASCAR 98.

From 1990 to 1998, he was the lead announcer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, and also worked as lap-by-lap commentator for ABC on the Indianapolis 500. He first worked for the IMS Radio Network in 1979 as the backstretch announcer. Jenkins remained involved with the network for later editions as public address announcer, a position he held until 2020.

He announced in February that he was diagnosed with tumours in his right temple. His wife Pam had died in 2012 of cancer herself. Although he did not return to the broadcast team for the 2021 Indy 500 in May, he visited the track and received the Robin Miller Award, given to a racing figure who “brings unbridled passion and unrelenting work ethic to enrich the sport.”

“I am a race fan who got lucky,” Jenkins said upon receiving the award. “I got lucky because there were jobs in radio and TV available, and I took them. Because of public exposure, people think it’s a big deal.

With the FIA Formula 2 Championship‘s next round at Monza not until September, Christian Lundgaard will dabble in the NTT IndyCar Series. On Monday, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced Lundgaard will make his IndyCar début in the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday, 14 August. He will drive the #45 Honda.

“I’m super excited to try IndyCar next week,” said Lundgaard. “I’ve been very fortunate so far in my career to drive some incredible race cars and I’m looking forward to officially adding IndyCar to that list. In preparation for this race, I tested the car and it felt pretty awesome and I’m sure it will feel even better at a race weekend in race conditions alongside all the hugely talented drivers in the field. There’s been a lot of work to make this happen and prepare as best as possible and I’m feeling ready for the challenge.”

Lundgaard is currently in his second full season of Formula 2 competition for ART Grand Prix. After four rounds, he is twelfth in points with two podiums in sprint races (second in Sprint 2 at Bahrain and third in Sprint 1 at Silverstone). His first year saw him win two sprints at Austria and Mugello as he finished seventh in the standings.

Since 2017, he has been a member of the Alpine Academy. In his first year with the Alpine F1-led junior programme, he won the SMP F4 and F4 Spanish Championships, which he followed with a runner-up in the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup standings. He finished sixth in his lone FIA Formula 3 season in 2019 with a feature win at Hungary.

In July, Lundgaard participated in a private IndyCar test with RLL at Barber Motorsports Park. Although the academy is intended to breed future Alpine F1 drivers, Lundgaard and the programme’s members have considered looking elsewhere for racing opportunities as the F1 side’s lineup of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso appear set for the immediate future.

The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team will say goodbye to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship after this weekend’s Berlin E-Prix, and Allan McNish is hoping the team go out on a high.

Audi have been a part of Formula E since its inception but will bow out after Sunday’s second race at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit having taken thirteen wins, the last of which came earlier this season in the Puebla E-Prix for Lucas di Grassi.

Di Grassi has been an ever present at Audi since the 2014-15 season and took their one and only Drivers’ Championship in season three, while the Team won the Teams’ Championship in season four.

McNish, the Team Principal at Audi, says di Grassi and current team-mate René Rast are aiming to end the year with two positive results in Berlin, with both drivers still in contention for the championship.

“We’re coming to Berlin to say goodbye to Formula E and to our fans with our heads held high,” said McNish. “Lucas and René have competed in many races in Berlin and have both been on the podium.

James Barclay, the Team Director of Jaguar Racing, says he is proud that the team are still fighting for both ABB FIA Formula E World Championship titles heading into the season finale at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit this weekend.

Sam Bird currently sits third in the Drivers’ standings after the opening thirteen races of the season, with team-mate Mitch Evans only six points but five places back in eighth.  As a team, Jaguar are sitting third, only nine points behind championship leaders Envision Virgin Racing. 

They have taken two wins during the 2020-21 season with Bird being victorious in the Diriyah and New York City E-Prix weekends, while Jaguar as a team have taken five additional podium finishes this year.

Barclay says the team has continue to improve year after year in Formula E and it is pleasing to see them still in the fight for the titles, but he knows the unpredictability of the championship means that anything could happen this weekend in Berlin that could cause an upset or two.

“I’m very proud of the progress we have made together as a team this season,” said Barclay.  “Year on year we have improved and we have established ourselves as a title contending team down to the expertise, dedication and hunger of the whole team.

Sam Bird says he will head to Berlin for the final two races of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship focused on clean races after retiring from both of his home E-Prix in London last month.

The Jaguar Racing driver comes into the final two races of the season at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit sitting third in the Drivers’ Championship standings, just fourteen points behind current leader Nyck de Vries of Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team.  He will also be in group one of Qualifying for Saturday’s first race.

Bird, the only driver in Formula E history to win a race in every season, admits going off in that first group on Saturday will make for a difficult weekend, but he will be eyeing up two strong results as he bids to become champion for the first time.

“Entering the final weekend of a Formula E season sitting third in the teams’ and drivers’ championship with Jaguar Racing is a great place to be,” said Bird.  “Saturday will be tough from group one and with the penalty so I will be focused on a clean race.

“After the intensity of London, I am just going to enjoy my racing and take each session as it comes. It has been a great first year with Jaguar and we are all aiming to end on a positive.”

After his tear in June in which he won three straight points races, fans wondered when Kyle Larson would finally take the NASCAR Cup Series championship lead. This question became reality on Sunday when he dominated the final stretch of the Go Bowling at The Glen for his fifth win of the year and a share of the points lead with Denny Hamlin, with Larson’s victories giving him the tiebreaker over his winless rival. It is his first win at Watkins Glen International and second of 2021 on a road course.

Brad Keselowski started on the pole in the first race in two weeks alongside Team Penske team-mate Joey Logano, though both drivers would experience misfortunes throughout their day beginning with Keselowski spinning from the lead on lap nine. Although Logano won the opening stage, Keselowski accidentally took him out in a spin in turn one during the final stage.

Larson finished second in the first stage ahead of Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, and Erik Jones. Elliott, who won the last Watkins Glen event in 2019, and Christopher Bell, who won at the Daytona Road Course in February, had started the race at the rear due to inspection failures.

James Davison produced the lone caution of the second half when his car stopped on track due to electrical issues. Martin Truex Jr. dominated the stage en route to the win ahead of Bell, Kevin Harvick, Larson, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Matt DiBenedetto, Hamlin, Logano, and Busch.

Truex continued to lead as the final stage began. Hamlin took the lead on lap 57 before Kurt Busch led a lap of his own. Larson assumed the top spot on lap 65 and would have pulled away had it not been for lapped traffic. Larson navigating through such cars enabled Elliott to narrow the margin on his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate, but Elliott could not make up enough ground as Larson drove off to his fifth win of the year and second on a road course. He is the first driver to win at Sonoma and Watkins Glen—long the only road courses on the Cup schedule until 2018—since Kyle Busch in 2008.

The NTT IndyCar Series descended upon Nashville for the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, but chaos in turn descended upon Sunday’s race. Nine cautions and much confusion took place over the eighty-lap race as drivers battled through the tight confines of downtown Nashville, with Marcus Ericsson having an especially tumultuous experience as he went from flying through the air to winning for the second time in his career.

The first quarter was marred by numerous incidents almost immediately. Dalton Kellett‘s car stalled after just one lap to produce the first caution, while lap 13 saw Ericsson hit Sébastien Bourdais in the rear and briefly go airbourne; despite the hang time and landing, Ericsson remained in the race while Bourdais’ day came to an end, though Ericsson received a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact. Josef Newgarden also made contact with Graham Rahal and suffered toe damage, beginning a stroke of misfortune for Team Penske.

Penske would be involved in the next two yellow flags beginning with Scott McLaughlin getting spun by Ed Jones on lap 16. Further compounding the organisation’s woes was a wreck on lap 20 in which Will Power collided with team-mate Simon Pagenaud and sent him into the tyre barrier, causing as many as ten drivers including Jimmie Johnson to come to a stop. A red flag was deployed to facilitate cleanup, during which Johnson was disqualified for working on his car during the delay.

Rinus VeeKay‘s crash on lap 31 resulted in another caution but also further chaos on pit road as pole winner Colton Herta, who had dominated the event up to this point, exited pit road in second due to the pace car being slowed down but restarted fourth as Ericsson had beaten him to the blend line that determines the leaders. Ericsson therefore became the leader for the restart with an Andretti Autosport quartet of Herta, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchliffe, and Alexander Rossi in tow.

As the race finally reached the halfway point, Power once again collided with a team-mate as he sent McLaughlin into the wall and Kellett was unable to avoid him. Adding to the calamity was a tyre barrier springing a leak, lengthening the delay.