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Issue #1749
Nov 15 to Nov 28, 2018
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HISTORIC SANDOWN LIVING HISTORY
F1 GP – BRAZIL
HAMILTON HANDED VICTORY World Champion Lewis Hamilton took another victory but this time it was handed to him after Max Verstappen clashed with a lapped Esteban Ocon. The result also sealed the Constructors’ title for Mercedes Report: DAN KNUTSON
MERCEDES CLINCHED its fifth consecutive constructors’ world championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton sealed it with another race victory, just two weeks after he wrapped up his fifth drivers’ world championship in Mexico. Max Verstappen, who ended up second in Brazil, was heading for the win in his Red Bull only to spin it away after a controversial clash with Esteban Ocon. The clash continued after the race as a livid Verstappen had an altercation with Ocon in the FIA scrutineering area. Both were called to the stewards later. The FIA punished Verstappen, stating that he will have to do two days of public service at its direction during the next six months. Kimi Räikkönen kept his cool in the closing stages of the race to finish third in his Ferrari, just staying ahead of a charging Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. Earlier in the race Räikkönen had challenged Valtteri Bottas but could not get close enough “After we had our stop, we had a lot of speed,” Räikkönen said, “and I was pretty sure I would get past him (Bottas) at some point, but it took a bit longer than I hoped. The car was working very well. We could follow but we couldn’t get close enough, as then we’d lose the front tyres. Then I had a Red Bull closing up on me. I think we got the maximum today.” Hamilton started on the pole, his 81st and the 100th for Team Mercedes. He took the lead ahead of teammate Bottas, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Räikkönen and Verstappen. Verstappen charged while the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers struggled a bit with their tyres. And he passed them on track to get up to second and then moved into first when
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Hamilton pitted. Verstappen pitted much later, but eventually got back in front. Then, at the start of lap 43 of 71, he passed Ocon, who on fresher tyres then attempted to repass and un-lap himself. They hit and it sent Verstappen spinning. Both continued, but Hamilton had retaken the lead by that stage and would not lose it again. Ocon got a 10 second stop and go penalty for the clash. “The race was better than expected for us,” Verstappen said. “The car worked well. The strategy worked well. I’m happy with second, but we should have won today. “Once I got by Lewis, I was just saving my tyres to bring it to the end. Of course, they have the right to overtake you; of course, you
have to be cautious. The amount of risk he (Ocon) was talking I don’t think was correct. They gave him a penalty and I guess that says enough anyway. Of course, afterwards you can always say ‘Max, you should have given him more room’ but it’s not like that. We are racing and you don’t expect a back marker to take you out.” Ocon’s view: “I was two laps behind Max, on the first lap (I) was a lot faster, second lap was a lot faster, I had really fresh tyres basically. The rules say you are allowed to unlap yourself if you are faster, so that’s what I did. On the second lap I saw I had massive pace, I went around the outside, the same move I’d done on Fernando (Alonso) and
many other drivers coming from last in the first lap. It didn’t happen the same way in the corner after that. “What really surprised me is the behavior of Max coming into the scales. The FIA having to stop him from being violent; he wanted to push me, punch me. That is not professional.” Did Verstappen have any regrets about shoving Ocon? “No! I’m a winner and if you get taken out of that and get a stupid response from his side as well,” Verstappen said. “I was not happy about that.” Hamilton could not believe his luck. “When that crash happened at Turn 2,” he said, “and I came through the middle of these two guys who were both facing me and I was like ‘ahh nice, this is great!’ I wanted to hold on to that and after that I heard he (Verstappen) came back on track and was still quite close behind, so I pushed as hard as I could to try to manage the gap. But I couldn’t match his times with the power loss that I was having. “I was trying to be perfect every lap, boom, boom, boom, to bang out the times. I didn’t want to give up the race. It was crazy because I have been racing so many years and it is quite an incredible thing to have the spirit of a racer and to never lose that. I’ve had it since I was five years old. I had that fight like I was a kid today.” Ricciardo’s car needed a new turbo after the one he used in Mexico briefly caught fire and received a dose of extinguisher powder from a marshal. That resulted in a five-place grid penalty in Brazil for Ricciardo, who lined up in 11th on the grid. He charged up to fourth but ran out of time to mount a full challenge on Räikkönen. “I finished, let’s start on a positive,” said the Aussie who has had eight DNFs this season.
Haas pair Grosjean and Magnussen drove their cars into the points.
Ferrari’s tyre strategy didn’t play out the way it was expected.
“It I am honest, as soon as I crossed the line at the end, I was actually disappointed because the podium was so close. We had the pace. I don’t have any regrets. I don’t feel I lost a podium or the team lost it for me. We did everything we could. So, I am not upset about that. I just feel like every time we start out of position or at the back, we have a fast car. So it is just a bit of built up frustration. “But the race was fun. The battles with Seb (Vette), Valtteri (Bottas), I enjoyed them all. We surprisingly had a very fast car today. I know we were better than fourth but anyway I get one more chance with the team to get up there (on the podium). So, onto Abu Dhabi! Give it our best!” And that is the general feeling of the entire Formula 1 circus – give it their best in the final race of what has been a very long season.
Ricciardo stormed through the field to fourth in a strong drive.
BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX – SAO PAULO NOV 11 2018 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 -
Mercedes won a fifth Constructor’s title
Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Kimi Raikkonen Daniel Ricciardo Valtteri Bottas Sebastian Vettel Charles Leclerc Romain Grosjean Kevin Magnussen Sergio Perez Brendon Hartley Carlos Sainz Pierre Gasly Stoffel Vandoorne Esteban Ocon Sergey Sirotkin Fernando Alonso Lance Stroll Nico Hulkenberg Marcus Ericsson
Mercedes Red Bull/Renault Ferrari Red Bull/Renault Mercedes Ferrari Sauber/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Force India/Mercedes Toro Rosso/Honda Renault Toro Rosso/Honda McLaren/Renault Force India/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes McLaren/Renault Williams/Mercedes Renault Sauber/Ferrari
71 71 71 71 71 71 71 71 71 70 70 70 70 70 70 69 69 69 32 20
1h27m09.066s 1.469s 4.764s 5.193s 22.943s 26.997s 44.199s 51.230s 52.857s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps 2 Laps 2 Laps Retirement Retirement
Points: Hamilton 383, Vettel 302, Raikkonen 251, Bottas 237, Verstappen 234, Ricciardo 158, Hulkenberg 69, Perez 58, Magnussen 55, Alonso 50, Ocon 49, Sainz 45, Grosjean 35, Leclerc 33, Gasly 29, Vandoorne 12 Ericsson 9 Stroll 6, Hartley 4, Sirotkin 1 Constructors: Mercedes 620, Ferrari 553, Red Bull-TAG Heuer 392, Renault 114, Haas-Ferrari 90, McLaren-Renault 62, Force India-Mercedes 48, Sauber-Ferrari 42, Toro Rosso-Honda 33, Williams-Mercedes 7
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RACE REPORT
Pukekohe Race 27
“We had five kiwis in the Top Ten Shootout today as well, I watched the first two of them and saw Andre (Heimgartner) go through and the crowd went nuts. Then I even did a little fist pump when Richie (Stanaway) went to the top of the board.” - Shane van Gisbergen said after Sunday’s Shootout. RACE RESULTS RACE 28 70 LAPS
Whincup was the leader from Pole Pole, while in the background De Pasquale is spun out of a top 10 position (above left). Teammate Reynolds had better fortunes as he cemented a top five position in the championship standings. Overnight a mega job from the DJR Team Penske squad amid much distraction meant Coulthard’s car was repaired and sat on sixth grid position for Race 29. However, McLaughlin was second, in a RBHRT sandwich, as Whincup took Pole and van Gisbergen third. McLaughlin was smart off the start as he moved to cover van Gisbergen straight away and trailed Whincup through the opening sequence of corners. The two Kiwi title combatants continued to battle at the hairpin, but this time McLaughlin was awake to it. Whincup pushed on, but pitted on lap 6 leaving the lead to McLaughlin, though just like the previous day he encountered traffic meaning he lost almost 1s to van Gisbergen. McLaughlin’s engineer Ludo Lacroix bit the bullet and pitted his charger on lap 13, with RBHRT doing the same with van Gisbergen on lap 15. There was another mistake as a jack was left under the car after a change was made to the rear anti-roll bar, meaning the car needed to be lifted again losing precious time. DJR Team Penske had brought Coulthard in at the same time to jump van Gisbergen and hamper his challenge to McLaughlin, but that wasn’t the case despite the Triple Eight mistake.
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The next crucial battle was when McLaughlin emerged from his final pit stop on lap 38. Just as the red, white and yellow Falcon exited the lane, Whincup rounded the turn one with the title leader alongside. But Whincup was unable to hold him off as with newer tyres McLaughlin soon opened a comfortable gap. On the other hand, van Gisbergen had emerged in fifth and was on the charge. First was Lowndes and as expected, the veteran moved aside for his teammate. But Reynolds was next and what followed was a clean, hard battle, in contrast to the pair’s history. The hairpin again was where van Gisbergen made his move,
which was crucial as next on the road was Whincup, who had saved his tyres and was having a second run at McLaughlin. But it wasn’t to be as Whincup was told to “save fuel”, which conveniently let van Gisbergen past for second right on the finish line. Lowndes followed after a brave move on Reynolds, while Mostert, Coulthard, Andre Heimgartner, Winterbottom and Nick Percat rounded out the top 10. Incredibly, all this meant that the Championship points margin went unchanged across the weekend. Newcastle will now once again host a nail-biting title battle, the margin just 14-points between the Kiwi pair. hxxxxxxxx
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NC
Shane van Gisbergen Scott McLaughlin Chaz Mostert David Reynolds Jamie Whincup Scott Pye Cameron Waters Nick Percat James Courtney Michael Caruso Craig Lowndes Tim Blanchard Mark Winterbottom James Golding Lee Holdsworth Rick Kelly Tim Slade Andre Heimgartner Anton De Pasquale Will Davison Simona De Silvestro Jack Le Brocq Richie Stanaway Todd Hazelwood Garth Tander Fabian Coulthard
FASTEST LAP
70 laps ▲1 +0.512s ▼1 +5.634s ▲1 +13.430s ▼ 1 +13.787s 0 +21.452s ▲ 10 +22.428s ▲ 1 +23.090s ▼ 2 +25.622s ▲ 6 +26.981s ▲ 7 +28.197s ▲ 7 +32.358s ▲ 9 +35.291s ▲ 1 +38.022s ▲ 10 +38.704s ▼ 2 +39.246s ▼ 7 +39.539s ▼ 10 +40.945s ▼ 7 +46.954s ▼ 9 +49.919s ▲ 2 +50.821s ▲ 5 +1m 02.057s▼ 1 69 laps ▼ 11 68 laps ▲1 59 laps ▼5 6 laps ▼7 Scott McLaughlin 1m 03.2734s
RACE RESULTS RACE 29 70 LAPS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Scott McLaughlin Shane van Gisbergen Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes David Reynolds Chaz Mostert Fabian Coulthard Andre Heimgartner Mark Winterbottom Nick Percat Tim Slade Cameron Waters Garth Tander Lee Holdsworth Scott Pye James Courtney Michael Caruso Simona De Silvestro Will Davison Richie Stanaway James Golding Rick Kelly Jack Le Brocq Anton De Pasquale Todd Hazelwood Tim Blanchard
70 laps ▲1 +12.065s ▲ 1 +12.455s ▼ 2 +13.497s ▲ 7 +16.319s 0 +19.955s ▼ 2 +20.460s ▲ 1 +33.288s ▲ 2 +33.925s ▲ 5 +36.559s ▲ 3 +39.278s ▲ 1 +48.162s ▼ 3 +48.962s ▲ 10 +49.433s ▲ 4 +51.013s ▲ 5 +52.715s ▲ 5 +53.272s ▲ 2 +56.654s ▼ 2 +57.290s ▲ 3 +59.877s ▼ 12 +1m 00.281s▲ 3 69 laps ▼5 69 laps ▲2 69 laps ▼ 16 69 laps ▲1 50 laps ▼ 11
FASTEST LAP Jamie Whincup 1m 03.4030s POINTS: McLaughlin 3656, van Gisbergen 3642, Whincup 3175, Lowndes 3117, Reynolds 2918, Mostert 2669, Coulthard 2450, Pye 2410, Kelly 2377, Percat 2221, Slade 2138, Winterbottom 2024, Tander 2010, Courtney 1866, Davison 1825, Waters 1747, Caruso 1657, Heimgartner 1583, Le Brocq 1574, De Pasquale 1395, Golding 1343, Holdsworth 1290, Blanchard 1238, De Silvestro 1212, Stanaway 1124, Hazelwood 1093
SUPPORTS
ADAM HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
THE OPENING round of the 2018-2019 New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship supported the Supercars at Pukekohe, with Connor Adam the victor. In three closely contested races, Adam took away two race victories and a second, to lead the standings ahead of Jordan Baldwin and Jaden Ransley. Baldwin was the early pacesetter, despite missing Friday’s action. He scored Pole Position for the opening two encounters. Adam took the lead on the opening tour and held on, despite strong pressure from the trailing trio of Baldwin, Ransley and rookie Callum Hedge, who were ensconced in a battle for the podium. Rookie Hedge was the surprise packet as he battled with the much more established drivers and just failed to reach the podium by a mere 0.130s. Race 2 was a convincing victory for Adam as he headed Baldwin, Hedge, Ransley and Australian Toyota 86 frontrunner Jake Klein, who was undertaking his debut at Pukekohe. Adam was able to take advantage of the battling quartet
Photo: Dirk Klynsmith behind, to take a 2s victory. The final race provided a bit of everything as Ransley dominated the race from lap two, once he had passed Adam on the opening lap. However, his start was deemed to be too good and he was handed a 5s penalty, which dropped him to third. This handed Hedge a dream first up win and a large lead in the rookie standings, but in the battle with Adam he just failed to overhaul him by 0.136s. Behind, Baldwin and
Klein had their only private battle for the final positions in the top five, around 3s away from the lead trio. “I would have loved another win in that last race,” said Adam. “But regardless it was a great weekend for us and a great start to the season. We’ll go on from here and try and win the championship.” Adam heads rookie Hedge by 28-points heading into the second round of the championship, on the Pukekohe short circuit on December 7-9.
Photo: Dirk Klynsmith
ROSS TAKES OPENING ROUND Photo: Insyde Media
OJEDA CROWNED CHAMPION IT WAS a successful trip across the ditch for Jayden Ojeda, as he sealed the 2018 CAMS Australian Formula 4 Championship by taking out the final round at Pukekohe. Ojeda held a comfortable title margin heading into the final round, with AGI Sport teammate Ryan Suhle the only other contender for the championship. Suhle started the weekend off perfectly by taking Pole and the opening race win after a torrid battle with Ojeda, the pair separated by 0.089s as they crossed the line, the closest margin in Formula 4 history. Aaron Love rounded out the podium, 5s behind the leading pair and in a career best fourth was Thomas Smith after climbing from ninth and holding off Lochie Hughes during the latter stages of the race. From then on it was Ojeda’s weekend as he went onto collect the Race 2 win, this despite dropping to third after taking evasive action when Thomas Smith spun, leaving Hughes in command. Ojeda made swift work of Suhle and caught Hughes with a handful of laps to spare. Hughes was able to hang onto third
behind Suhle, while Smith repeated his fourth position from the first race, while Love dropped to fifth in the fracas. No one was able to stop Ojeda in the final race as he ended his championship winning season with victory by 0.93s over Suhle, while the battle for third between Jackson Walls and Love ended in favour of the former by the slim margin of 0.03s. “Yeah it’s a good feeling, still hasn’t sunk in yet it’s hard to take in right now but I think it will set in as I think about it,” said Ojeda post-race. “There were a few people into a little bit of water so the cars were going all over the place. All I was thinking about was just making sure I didn’t collect someone or get collected. A few times I saw cars coming close but we got through it all and it just came down to qualifying laps between Ryan and myself to keep the gap.” Ojeda will test a Toyota Racing Series car in December after taking the most points from the Sydney and New Zealand rounds, while a test in a Brad Jones Racing Supercar beckons as part of the championship prize.
IT WAS joy for Nick Ross as he won the opening round of the NZ V8s Championship, taking two wins and a second, but it could have been a cleansweep if not for a mistake during the first encounter. Australian Super2 driver Jack Smith started from Pole, but it was Ross in the Concept Motorsport Nissan Altima that made the best getaway leaving Smith and Hamilton Motorsports teammate Lance Hughes to play catch up. Fellow Super2 driver Brenton Grove was having a tough introduction to his Richards Team Motorsport Toyota Camry as he attempted to pass Brad Lathrope, but went off the road dropping behind teammate Chelsea Herbert. The Toyota pair moved through on Lathrope, but the battle up front was heating up. A Safety Car bunched the field up with Smith pressuring the back of the Altima, which succeeded when Ross locked up at Turn 5, allowing Smith through. This was all the Australian needed as he gapped his pursuers to win from Ross, Hughes and Grove. The tables turned in Race 2 when Smith had a wild run through Turn 3, which forced him off track and allowed the Altima through to take a comfortable victory, while Smith’s teammate Hughes continued a consistent run to third. The final race of the weekend was
incident filled with the field inverted meaning Australian GT driver Scott Taylor started from Pole and led the initial running before Ross charged through. Smith struggled in the traffic and contacted Taylor’s Camry, which then hit the Commodore of Matt Tubbs. Smith was able to recover and soon caught Ross, but a clash with Matt Clark in another Commodore forced him off road and meant Ross cruised to victory. “A good way to start the season. We actually could have had three wins, but we had a brake issue which hampered us, and let Jack by into the lead in that first race,” said Ross. “I have to give credit to the Hamilton Motorsports team, those two cars are hooked up and are fast. We had to fight all the way to keep in front of them, especially Jack. He’s very fast this year. “Jack was pretty aggressive in that last race, which is fine, that’s how you want it to be – hard close racing. “I’m not totally happy with the car, we seem to have lost a bit of the balance that we had towards the end of last season. So, we’ll work on that ahead of the next round.” Class 2 honours went to Brock Timperley. The next round of the NZ V8s will be held on Pukekohe’s short circuit on December 7-9.
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BIG BAD SANDOWN
THE CAREER of open-wheel great and three times Australian Gold Star winner Alfredo Costanzo was celebrated at this year’s Historic Sandown event on November 9-11. Splendid weather provided a perfect backdrop to an excellent weekend of racing with highlights including the Formula 5000s, which celebrated its 50th year since its first season in 1968, the Group A and C Heritage Touring Cars, two divisions of Group N, a big field of Group S production sports cars, plus a vast array of sports car and open-wheel machinery. Costanzo was patron of the event after confirming that he is now stepping away from driving after competing most recently in historic F5000, having won the last national championship for the category worldwide in 1981. The Italian-born racer didn’t race at the event, but was a very popular attraction with the fans that attended. Winners at Sandown included GT3 Cup Challenge frontrunner Jimmy Vernon, driving an ex-Tony Longhurst Benson and Hedges Ford Sierra RS500, Bryan Sala who dominated the F5000 class in a Matich A50/51, Andrew McInnes and Johnathan Miles shared the spoils in Formula Ford, while Darryl Hanson, Aldo De Paoli and Craig Allen each took a victory in Group N.
There was plenty of action throughout the large historic racing fields at Sandown.
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HISTORIC SANDOWN CLASS-BY-CLASS RESULTS F5000
RACE 1 Bryan Sala (Matich A50/A51), Andrew Robson (Lola T330/2), Bill Hemming (Elfin MR8) RACE 2 Sala, Dean Camm (Chevron B24), Hemming RACE 3 Sala, Camm, Hemming
HERITAGE TOURING CARS
RACE 1 Jimmy Vernon (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth), Tony Karanfilovski (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth), David Holc (Holden VN Commodore Group A) RACE 2 Vernon, Adrian Allisey (Holden VL Commodore Group A), Holc RACE 3 Vernon, Allisey, Holc
FORMULA FORD
Bryan Sala was too good for the F5000 fi Matich A50 Repco. fiel eeld el ld in in tthe hhee ssuperb upeerrb Ma up M atich titich ch A 50 R 50 epco. ep co. co
RACE 1 Jonathan Miles (Van Diemen RF89), Richard Davison (Van Diemen RF89), Andrew McInnes (Van Diemen RF89) RACE 2 McInnes, Miles, Neil Richardson (Van Diemen RF89) RACE 3 Miles, Davison, McInnes GROUP N DIVISION 1 RACE 1 Darryl Hanson (Ford Mustang), Darrin Davies (Ford Mustang), Craig Allen (Holden Torana GTR XU-1) RACE 2 Aldo De Paoli (Chevrolet Camaro), Les Walmsley (Chrysler R/T Charger), Daniel Van Stokrom (Holden Torana GTR XU-1) RACE 3 Allen, Walmsley, Van Stokrom
DIVISION 2
RACE 1 NO RESULT RACE 2 Stephen Hoade (Mini Cooper S), Brock Green (Jaguar MK2, Ian Pringle (Mini Cooper S) RACE 3 Green, Stephen Jeffs (Holden EH), Claude Ciccotelli (Holden EH)
GROUP S Paul Blackie’s lovely Corvette Stingray leads the similar machine of Joe DiBartolo.
RACE 1 Rusty French (De Tomaso Pantera), Paul Blackie (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray), Ross Jackson (De Tomaso Pantera) RACE 2 Blackie, French, Joseph DiBartolo (Chevrolet Corvette) RACE 3 French, Blackie, DiBartolo P, Q & R RACING AND Q & R SPORTS RACE 1 Andrew Makin (March 73B), Robert Harborow (McLaren M6B), David Hardman (Hardman JH-1) RACE 2 Hardman, Makin, Sean Whelan (Ralt RT4) RACE 3 Hardman, Whelan, Perry Spiridis (Lola T70 Coupe) GROUP M & O SPORTS AND RACING RACE 1 Laurie Bennett (McLaren M1B), Nicholas Bennett (Elfin 600), Peter Strauss (Brabham BT31) RACE 2 L Bennett, N Bennett, Strauss RACE 3 L Bennett, N Bennett, Keith Simpson (Brabham BT16)
Graeme Hayles’ pretty Royale RP37 was much admired.
J, K, Lb, Sa AND INVITED FORMULA VEE RACE 1 Graeme Raper (George Reed Ford Special), David Reid (Faux Pas), Nick McDonald (Repco Holden Monopost) RACE 2 Reid, McDonald, Charlie Mitchell (TS Special Monopost) RACE 3 Reid, McDonald, Mitchell
MG AND INVITED BRITISH SPORTS CARS
RACE 1 Phillip Chester (MG BGT V8), Robin Bailey (MG BGT V8), Richard Milligan (MG V8 Roadster) RACE 2 Chester, Bailey, Paul Vernall (MG ZR) RACE 3 Chester, Bailey, Milligan
HYUNDAI EXCELS
Sandown’s weather proved ideal for the large variety of racers in attendance.
RACE 1 Nathan Blight, Jordyn Sinni, David Musgrave RACE 2 Blight, Sinni, Matthew Horne RACE 3 Sinni, Blight, Musgrave
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