WORLD WRAP: BTCC title race wide open

The British Touring Car Championship title race has taken another twist with Mat Jackson, Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato all visiting the top step of the podium at Rockingham.

After scoring a maiden pole position for Motorbase Performance, Jackson produced a faultless drive to take victory in opening heat with Honda’s Shedden coming home in second, while Team BMR’s Aron Smith finished third.

Title rivals Plato and Matt Neal encountered dramas which saw the pair finish 27th and eighth respectively.

Shedden produced a lights-to-flag drive in Race 2 with Jackson continuing his run of form to finish second. Josh Cook (Chevrolet) emerged in third after winning a thrilling battle with Adam Morgan (Mercedes).

The final race saw Plato come through a titanic scrap with Tom Ingram to score his 93rd BTCC win.

The pair diced for the lead throughout before Plato finally got the better of Ingram, with Colin Turkington in third.

Shedden leads the championship by six points from Plato ahead of the penultimate round at Silverstone on September 26-27.

FIA World Rallycross Championship

Timmy Hansen closed the gap to FIA World Rallycross Championship leader Petter Solberg after recording a comfortable win at Loheac in France.

The Peugeot driver topped the intermediate classification before cruising his way to the six lap final.

Hansen made the most of his pole position to slot into the lead in front of Solberg and Robin Larsson on the opening lap of the final.

Once in front the Swede opened up a healthy lead which he maintained after his joker lap to claim his second consecutive victory.

Solberg managed to bring his Citroen home in second just 0.5s in front of Jean-Baptise Dubourg and the Volkswagen of Johan Kristoffersson.

Mattias Ekstrom recovered from a spin to come hime in fifth while Larson retired on the second lap.

Touring car star Yvan Muller made his world rallycross debut at the event but was unable to progress to the semi finals.

Solberg leads Hansen by 37 points ahead of the championship’s visit to Barcelona on September 18.

GP3 Series

Emil Bernstorff and Marvin Kirchhofer shared the spoils in the latest round of the GP3 Series at Monza.

Bernstorff surged from fifth on the grid to take the victory in Race 1 after completing a pass on leader Esteban Ocon on the penultimate lap.

A margin of 0.9s separated the pair at the flag with Kevin Ceccon claiming the final podium position.

Championship leader Luca Ghiotto stalled from pole position at the start and was unable to rejoin the race.

Kirchhofer inherited the victory in Race 2 after long time leader Jimmy Eriksson suffered a mechanical problem in the closing laps.

Ocon came through in second with Ghiotto third after a stunning drive from 19th on the grid.

Ghiotto’s championship lead has been cut to 14 points with the next round at Russia on October 10-11.

Formula Renault 3.5

Oliver Rowland extended his Formula Renault 3.5 Championship lead after recording a victory and a second place finish at Silverstone.

The British driver was embroiled in a race long battle with title rival Matthieu Vaxiviere in both encounters at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Rowland managed to fend off the Lotus F1 protege in Race 1 to secure second place behind Cypriot Tio Elinas, who scored a comfortable maiden Formula Renault 3.5 win.

The second race saw Rowland and Vaxiviere continue their battle with the former coming out on top by 1.2s, while Pietro Fantin brought his Draco Racing entry home in third.

The series travels to the Nurburgring this weekend with Rowland leading Vaxiviere by 36 points.

Formula Renault 2.0

Kevin Jorg closed to within a point of Formula Renault 2.0 championship leader Louis Deletraz after a strong weekend at Silverstone.

The Swiss driver began his weekend with a fourth place finish in Race 1 which he followed up with a victory and second place finish in the remaining two races.

His strong points haul has opened up the title race as Deletraz failed to break into the top five in the three encounters.

Brit Jack Aitken took the honours in Race 1 while Anthoine Hubert clinched the win in Race 3.

Australians Anton De Pasquale and James Allen endured a difficult weekend.

De Pasquale’s best finish of 17th came in Race 1 as Allen finished all three races in 22nd spot.

Blancpain GT Sprint Series    

Laurens Vanthoor and Robin Frijns claimed victory in the Blancpain GT Sprint Series main race at Portugal’s Portimao circuit.

The Audi pairing had stalked the Bentley duo of Maxi Buhk and Vincent Abril for much of the race until a slow stop gifted Vanthoor and Frijns the lead.

Once in the lead the pair made no mistakes to take the chequered flag for their third main race win of the season from Phoenix Racing’s Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr-Melnhof.

The Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 458 of Marco Seefried and Norbert Siedler held off the recovering Bentley of Buhk and Abril for third.

Buhk and Abril did manage to defeat Vanthoor and Frijns to win the earlier qualifying race.

FIA European Formula 3 

Felix Rosenqvist boosted his FIA European Formula 3 hopes by securing a double victory at Portimao.

The Swede assumed the lead in the championship standings from Antonio Giovinazzi with wins in Race 2 and Race 3 as he led home a Prema Powerteam clean sweep of the podium places.

Rosenqvist held off Dennis and Lance Stroll in the second and third heats.

Team-mate Dennis won the opener from Alexander Albon and Rosenqvist, who now leads the championship by 34.5 points from Giovinazzi.

New Zealander Nick Cassidy endured a weekend of mixed results on his return to the series which saw him record a best finish of ninth in the final race.

Barcelona 24 Hours  

The HP Racing Mercedes SLS of Bernd Schneider/Hari Proczyk/Reinhold Renger/Sean Johnston emerged victorious at the Barcelona 24 Hours.

The quartet finished three laps ahead of the Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer Hofor Racing Mercedes.

Mereced completed the podium with the Ram Racing entry of Tom Onslow-Cole/Jeroen Bleekemolen/Paul White/Thomas Jaeger in third.       

MARC Cars Australia picked up a third place finish in the SP2 class with the #91 Focus entry of Keith Kassulke/Ben Gersekowski/James Kaye/Ryan McLeod coming home in 20th overall.

The #93 MARC Mazda of Jake Camilleri/Beric Lynton/Garry Jacobson/Duvashen Padayache finished fourth in class.