We at theCheckeredFlag.co.uk try our best to bring as much motorsport from around the world as we can together in one place, and this weekend was no exception as the busy summer of racing begins to dawn. While F1’s new era reached Europe and Spain, WRC was in South America and weather made it’s usual impact upon races with the GP3, WTCC, Indycar and Britcar Endurance weekends all experiencing some of the wet stuff over the weekend. Through the round up of the weekend’s action below click on the boldened phrases to follow links through to the reports of the weekend’s events.
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With the season starting fly-aways completed it was Formula One’s curtain raiser to the European Season, the Spanish Grand Prix, that topped the bill in the world of motorsport on the May 10-11 weekend.
The race at the Circuit de Catalunya was another dominated by the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, the Briton taking his fourth consecutive race win and the championship lead for the first time after having to hold off his teammate in the closing laps. Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, salvaged a fourth place finish from a troubled weekend and a race he started from 15th. You can read all the news and reports from the Barcelona weekend here.
The start of F1’s European tour also brought the GP2 series back into action and hosted the start of the GP3 Series season.
In the upper series the wins were shared between series veteran Johnny Cecotto Jr. and Felipe Nasr. For Nasr – Williams’ reserve driver – his Sprint Race success was his first win in GP2. It was British drivers who dominated the first GP3 races of the year with Red Bull backed Alex Lynn winning race one on his series debut. Dean Stoneman was then victorious in the second race of the weekend, mastering the damp Sunday morning conditions.
The weather had a bigger impact upon the World Touring Car Championship meeting at the Slovakiaring. Normally a double-header weekend the WTCC was forced to cancel their second race of the weekend due to torrential rain. In the one race that did go ahead the Citroen team reasserted their dominance as Sebastien Loeb won after Jose Maria Lopez had claimed pole position.
In the WRC’s Rally Argentina the battle for victory was a duel between the Volkswagen teammates Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala. Ogier led after the opening day before Latvala overhauled him to take his second win of the season. tCF covered the event with reports of each day of the rally, charting the change in leadership.
Both NASCAR and Indycar were in action in the US. NASCAR raced under the Saturday night lights at Kansas Motor Speedway where Jeff Gordon booked his place in the season ending Chase with his first win of the 2014 Sprint Cup campaign.
As part of a new look Month of May Indycar racers took on the first Grand Prix of Indianapolis, racing on the famous facility’s road course. After a wet qualifying and chaotic race marred by a multi-car startline crash Simon Pagenaud took the victory. The race is also the subject of this week’s Monday Editorial as we discuss whether the race rasies a new round of safety concerns for the series.
Back in Europe both the FIA European F3 Championship and French Formula 4 were racing on the streets of Pau. Denis Bulatov and Dorian Boccolacci shared the three F4 races – Boccolacci winning both the first and last races of the weekend. Esteban Ocon won both poles on offer from F3’s qualifying session, then won the first race of the weekend. Tom Blomqvist and Felix Rosenqvist won the second and third races respectively.
Jonathan Rea dominated both of the World Superbike races at Imola to take the championship lead.
Closer to home Donington Park hosted the second weekend of the Britcar Endurance Championship. Neil Garner Motorsport’s Mosler team won the first race of the weekend as attrition tore through the premier class. The all-Spanish line-up were the denied double victory after being caught out by a downpour late in Sunday’s 90 minute race.
