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So we saw Hamilton and Verstappen go wheel-to-wheel once again with Verstappen managing to barge his way into the lead at Turn 1, after making a better start than Hamilton. After the race Hamilton said he gave Max Verstappen room, stating he was thinking of the long game; if he hadn’t we may have seen both cars in the gravel at turn 1. We also saw Bottas lose a place to Leclerc who moved his Ferrari up to 3rd.
The BTCC returned this weekend for the start of the 2021 season, throwing the drivers in at the deep end at the quickest track on the calendar at Thruxton. Add in the mix some inclement weather and it didn’t disappoint in regards to talking points and good racing.
Bottas was starting on pole in Portugal after a great qualifying lap, a mistake from Max Verstappen gave the Mercedes 1st and 2nd on the grid and the Redbulls 3rd and 4th.
In 5th Sainz started on the softs with everyone in front on the mediums. In the opening lap, we saw Stroll move up to 16th and Norris up two 6th with Sainz passing Perez. A blistering start from Ricciardo saw him eat up 3 places into 13th. Bottas held onto 1st with Hamilton a few seconds adrift, and Max close to the gearbox of Hamilton.
There is a new season to look forward to and plenty of changes with a few departures, some old faces re-joining and new deals, drivers and cars to look forward to and hopefully spectators too.
One of the biggest departures from the series sees Matt Neal leaving the BTCC after making his debut in 1991, along with his teammate from last season Dan Cammish who makes a return to the Porsche Carrera Cup.
With another 8 stages over 121kms of competitive action, the second day of Rally Croatia was the longest leg of the event. Overnight rally leader Thierry Neuville had a far from ideal start to the mornings’ loop. Starting the day with a 7.7-second lead over Sébastien Ogier, the tyre strategy between teams would play a big part right from the off on that opening stage.
Making its debut into the FIA World Rally Championship this year and to the top level of rallying is newcomer Rally Croatia for round 3 of the Championships.
With its service park based in the capital city of Zagreb to the northwest of Croatia, this new Asphalt rally has already delivered an extremely challenging opening day for the worlds best rally drivers from the WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3, and Junior WRC.
Making its debut into the FIA World Rally Championship this year and to the top level of rallying is newcomer Rally Croatia (22nd – 25th April). First held back in 1974 as a national rally and then incorporated into the European championship in 1986; from then on the Croatians have enjoyed rallying ever since.
In what was the 2nd race of the 2021 calendar we saw a wet start to the EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND Prix at the Imola Circuit.
With qualifying showing the pace of Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and not to mention Lando Norris (Mclaren), who unfortunately lost out on his top 3 position after a track limit infringement. The wet start was sure to be an opportunity for some of these “mid-field” teams, both with strategy and the possibility of mistakes from other drivers, to make their way up the points.
Ahead of Round 3 of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championships in Croatia, Hyundai WRT despatched its squad to the Italian coastal city of Sanremo for the 68th edition of this long-standing iconic asphalt rally.
Whilst their competitors such as Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT opted for local pre-event test days in Croatia, Hyundai chose a competitive environment in addition to its preparation. With the aim of not only providing some valuable seat time on Asphalt for a number of its crews but also to gain some further experience of running the Pirelli P-Zero tyres under competition conditions.
After years in the making, the Electric Oddesy’s that is Extreme E had finally reached its first day of wheel to wheel, side by side racing.
Social media was alive and excited to see Extreme E, go racing in the DesertXPrix on the “looner-like” landscape of Alula, Saudi Arabia for the first time. But following the action-packed opening day which featured time trial qualifying, what was really on everyone’s minds was to see just how having multiple cars racing at the same time would play out on the 8.8km desert course, particularly surrounding the issue of dust.