Motorsport is back in full flow again, and while there may not be a crowd at many of the race tracks, it is great to see it back on our screens. In this article, you will find a recap of the motorsport events from the past weekend, as well as a quick preview of what is to come over the next week.
Silverstone played host to the British Grand Prix last weekend, and while there may have been no fans inside the circuit, that didn’t stop the three British drivers on the grid put in some impressive drives over the weekend.
Friday played host to 90 minutes of Practice with Free Practice One being topped by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll leading the way in Free Practice Two.
This wasn’t the big talking point of the day, however, with Stroll’s team-mate Sergio Perez being ruled out of the race due to a positive COVID-19 case and he was replaced rather last minute by Nico Hulkenburg.
The German driver last drove in F1 last season for Renault and has previously raced for Racing Point when they went under the Force India name. He only received a phone call from Force India on Thursday Afternoon and was due to commentate for German TV. Perez is believed to be in good health and is asymptomatic at the time of recording.
The Mexican driver is expected to miss the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, also at Silverstone at the weekend and if he does, Hulkenburg will continue on with the team in his place.
In the final practice session on Saturday morning, it was last year’s pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas who set the fastest time, but in qualifying, he could only manage second on the grid as his team-mate Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for his home race.
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc would pick up from where they left off in last year’s race as they would start the race together on the second row of the grid, with British driver Lando Norris starting in an impressive fifth, and Lance Stroll alongside him in sixth.
Hulkenburg managed to get into Q2, starting in 13th place, after mussing what would only be three races due to the crazy season we have had so far. The final British driver on the grid, George Russell would get into Q2 again, but after setting a time to put him in 15th place for the start, he would drop to the back of the grid after failing to slow down through a yellow flagged section of track, after his team-mate Nicholas Latifi brought out the caution flags during the first part of qualifying.
There were no traffic jams on the way to Silverstone on race day for the first time in years, and with the grandstands empty, the usual magic of the British Grand Prix was missing this year.
The Hulkenburg podium fairytale story would take yet another turn when his car wasn’t ready to head out onto track by the time the pit lane closed. F1 fans still had hope that he could make the start from the pit lane, but it no wheels on the car come the formation lap, and the German driver changed out of his race suit, the dream return was over.
The race had a frantic start, with the safety car being brought out on the opening lap, after Albon and Magnussen collided at Club corner, putting the HAAS driver out of the race, but Albon was able to continue. Albon would later be handed a five-second penalty for this incident by the race stewards.
The safety car was out again on lap 13 after Kvyat went into the wall going through Maggots and Becketts, having a very heavy impact with the wall, but the Russian driver was able to get out of the car unaided.
Between the Kyvat crash and Lap 51, there wasn’t too much action, apart from Grosjean and Stroll being shown the black and white flag for moving under braking. It was on lap 51 where the race turned into pure craziness with Valtteri Bottas suffering a puncture after he just passed the pits. In response to this Max Verstappen dived into the pits, and Carlos Sainz suffered last lap heartache when his tyre suffered a puncture as well.
Out front it was a fairly easy race for Lewis Hamilton until his tyre decided to have a puncture, leaving the British driver in limp mode through most of the circuit before he finally seen the checkered flag just ahead of Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc was in the right place in the right time in his fairly uncompetitive Ferrari, with Daniel Riccardo finishing just off the podium in fourth place.
Max Verstappen made the most of his fresh tyres by setting the fastest lap and gaining an extra World Championship point, but it could have been so much more if he didn’t pit as he would have passed Hamilton a few corners from the end of the race.
Supporting the Formula One circus this weekend was Formula Two and Formula Three, and both these series lived up to the hype around them.
In the practise session for Formula Two it was Yuki Tsunoda who topped the timesheets, but in Qualifying it was Felipe Drugovich who got the four extra Championship points by setting the fastest time in the session.
Moving into Saturday and Drugovich was not able to convert his pole position into a race win, with a slow pit stop seeing him drop all the way to seventh come the end of the race. It was the Russian driver of Nikita Mazepin who found himself on the top step of the podium, alongside Guanyu Zhou and Yuki Tsunoda.
In the Sprint Race on Sunday morning, it was British driver Dan Ticktum who found himself on reverse grid pole, and also the top step of the podium after 29 laps of racing. Christian Lundgaard and Louis Delétraz joined Ticktum on the podium at Silverstone.
Théo Pourchaire topped the Formula Three Practice session last Friday before Logan Sargeant claimed pole position later in the day. Sargeant would only be able to finish in third place, with Prema team-mate Oscar Piastri finishing in second, and Liam Lawson taking the winning position on the top of the podium in Race One. Race Two saw Aleksandr Smolyar take the checkered flag but was given a post-race time penalty to drop him down the sixth place. This meant that David Beckmann inherited the winner’s trophy, with Clément Novalak and Alex Peroni making up the rest of the top three.
Porsche Supercup also supported the British Grand Prix this weekend, like it has for every other race so far this season, and it was Larry Ten Voorde for Team GP Elite.
Moving over from four wheels to two now, it was the second round of the World Superbike Championship in Jerez, Spain. Michael van der Mark was fastest in Practise when you combine the times from FP1, FP2 and FP3, with Jonathan Rea and Loris Baz just behind the Yamaha rider.
In Superpole, it was Scott Redding who claimed that pole position ahead of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes, with Redding able to convert that pole position into victory, ahead of Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu.
Moving onto Sunday and it was Jonathan Rea who found himself on top after the Superpole race, followed closely by Redding and Van der Mark. Rea wouldn’t be able to continue his form into the race, slipping to sixth place, as Redding extended his World Championship lead ahead of his team-mate Chaz Davies and Razgatlıoğlu.
Moving back to four wheels and it was Nico Müller who won Race One of the DTM round at Spa before René Rast claimed victory in Race Two.
Donnington Park played host to the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship with Dan Cammish, Colin Turkington and Ashley Sutton all taking to the top step of the podium over the three races.
Last weekend, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, with Brad Keselowski winning the race.
The Formula E season continues tonight with Round Six of the all-electric series. The remaining rounds will take place over the next week, again all in Berlin, with round seven tomorrow and rounds eight and nine this Saturday and Sunday, before the final two rounds next Wednesday and Thursday.
Formula One also makes another appearance this week in the middle of its second triple-header of the season. It is time for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix around Silverstone, with the big talking point going into the race being that the tyres are a step softer than last weekend, which may be an issue given the problems on the final laps last time out.
Formula Two, Formula Three and the Porsche Supercup all return in support of the second Silverstone race, with the British Touring Car Championship getting its second round of the season underway at Brands Hatch.
NASCAR also continues its season this weekend with the FireKeepers Casino 400 at the Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, followed by the Consumers Energy 400 on Sunday.
MotoGP and World Superbikes will be racing this weekend, with MotoGP going to the Czech Republic and World Superbikes going to Portugal.
So that brings to an end to the first The Motorsport Report here on The Apex Motorsport. If you want to find out what happened in tonight’s Formula E race or just want to see the racing in a video format, check out your Youtube video going live at 12:15 pm UK Time tomorrow (Thursday).