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GP3
Australian Joey Mawson bagged a maiden podium in Race 2 of the GP3 Series at Paul Ricard, while Anthoine Hubert won the opener after a disqualification for Dorian Boccolacci.
Boccolacci had taken the chequered flag in first position but was stripped of a home victory for failing to provide an adequate fuel sample.
In the second race, Callum Ilott took his maiden GP3 from the reverse grid pole after a duel in the early stages with Pedro Piquet.
Ilott scampered home 3.4s clear of Piquet, with the Brit moving up the order in the championship standings.
Arden driver Mawson, who finished the opener in seventh, started Race 2 from second as a result and lost just the one position despite a Lap 1 off.
Hubert leads the series heading to the Red Bull Ring for Round 3 this weekend (June 29-July 1).
European Formula 3
New Zealander Marcus Armstrong claimed a breakthrough victory in the European Formula 3 Championship at the Norisring.
The Ferrari junior led from pole position right to the chequered flag following a strong start.
A Lap 2 safety car was all that stood in the Kiwi’s way, but a clean getaway on the restart saw Armstrong scamper up the road, crossing the line almost three seconds ahead of the competition.
Juri Vips took out a red-flag marred Race 2 after an enormous start-line crash involving Dan Ticktum and Ameya Vaidyanathan.
Both drivers emerged under their own steam, with Armstrong inheriting second when another competitor received a post-race penalty.
Ticktum then went on to win a safety car riddled final hit out ahead of Vips, while Armstrong completed the weekend’s running in third.
Armstrong’s performance across the Norisring event elevate him into the championship points lead as the European Formula 3 now treks to Zandvoort for Round 3 from July 14-15.
British F4 Championship
Australian Jack Doohan recovered from a tough start to his British Formula 4 weekend in Croft to finish a best position of third.
Technical issues impeded Doohan’s chances for pole before he was forced to limp back to the pits at the end of the opening lap of Race 1 with further problems.
The Arden driver recovered to fourth in the second Race 2 before improving to third in the final race of the Croft weekend.
Dennis Hauger took out two of the three race wins on offer while Kiern Jewiss claimed the Race 2 victory.
British F4 now goes on its summer break before returning in five weeks at Snetterton from July 28-29.
DTM
Mercedes and BMW shared spoils in Round 4 of DTM at the Norisring.
Edoardo Mortara turned pole position into a race win during the opening hit-out after emerging from the pit stop sequence out front.
The Italian led home Brit and fellow Mercedes driver Gary Paffett, with Marco Wittmann taking third for BMW after the latter pair took turns at challenging Mortara but could not find a way by.
Jamie Green was the best of the Audis in 11th.
Wittmann was able to carve his way from 7th on the grid in Race 2 to secure victory once the pit stops had cycled through.
Mortara managed second from Spaniard Daniel Juncadella in third.
Audis woes continued meanwhile, with the best placed car in the form of Nico Müller finishing seventh.
Paffett leads the championship, which continues at Zandvoort on July 13-15.
British Touring Car Championship
Ash Sutton has taken two wins and Daniel Lloyd the first of his career in the fifth event of BTCC at Croft.
Sutton won the opener in lights-to-flag fashion from pole position, with Jason Plato making it a one-two for Adrian Flux Subaru Racing after eventually passing Andrew Jordan (BMW Pirtek Racing).
In the second race, Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota) won three-wide stoush to the first corner from the aforementioned Subarus.
While Plato was handed a drive-through penalty for a jumpstart, Sutton decisively nabbed Ingram on Lap 2, who finished ahead of third-placed Colin Turkington (Team BMW).
Lloyd led all the way in the reverse grid finale, making for his and BTC Norlin Racing’s first race win in BTCC.
Turkington leads the championship by 19 points from Ingram, with the next meeting at Snetterton on July 28-29.
Blancpain GT
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT’s Christopher Mies and Alex Riberas swept Round 3 of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in Misano.
Mies managed to hold off a late race charge from Mercedes-AMG driver Raffaele Marciello in the closing stages of Race 1 on Saturday evening to win by 0.6s.
Grasser Racing Team finished third and fourth with their #63 and #19 Lamborghini Huracans respectively.
In Race 2, Riberas led home a WRT 1-2 following issues for a number of other front running cars, leaving the #1 WRT squad to extend its lead at the top of the Blancpain GT Series championship standings.
The Will Stevens/Dries Vanthoor driven Audi claimed second, while Sainteloc Racing and Attempto Racing made it four Audis in the top four.
Blancpain GT teams will now prepare for the Total 24 Hours of Spa, with a test day set to take place on July 3, before the race weekend later in the month.
FIA Formula 2 Championship
George Russell won the Formula 2 feature race at Paul Ricard while Nyck de Vries proved supreme in Sunday’s sprint race.
Russell fended off Sergio Sette Camara in the closing stages of the feature race to cross the line first in mixed conditions.
Roberto Merhi initially took third but was disqualified post-race as a result of a tyre infringement, therefore promoting Luca Ghiotto to the podium.
A pass on Louis Deletraz halfway through the sprint race saw de Vries take the lead, with the McLaren junior not letting it up for the remainder of the hit-out.
Deletraz came home second, with Ghiotto once again claiming third.
Techincal problems at the start of the formation lap saw title protagonist Russell finish two laps down in the sprint, while rival Lando Norris struck drama in the feature race when he stalled at the start and went on to finish 16th.
Norris, who recovered to fifth in the sprint race, still holds the championship points lead over Russell, as F2 now heads to the Red Bull Ring this weekend for Round 6.
Indy Lights
Colton Herta has extended his Indy Lights series lead with a win and second placing at Road America.
Herta (Andretti Autosport) started the opener from third but passed Santi Urrutia (Belardi Auto Racing) as they went through Turn 5 for the first time.
He repeated the feat five laps later to take the lead off Victor Franzoni (Juncos Racing) and drive away with the race.
Pato O’Ward (Andretti Autosport) and Franzoni rounded out the podium.
Franzoni achieved his first win in Race 2, profiting from contact between Urrutia and O’Ward as the former tried a move for first position on Lap 3.
Herta ended up taking the chequered flag 8.9s adrift, with Aaron Telitz (Belardi Auto Racing) third having passed O’Ward late in the piece.
Next up is Iowa Speedway on July 7-8.
Superbike World Championship
Jonathan Rea has taken two more wins in the United States round of the Superbike World Championship at Laguna Seca.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) led the field away in Race 1 before Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) made an unsuccessful attempt to pass at the end of Lap 1.
When Davies outbraked himself at the Corkscrew on Lap 7, however, Rea nipped past and went on to win by nearly three seconds.
The quinella was the same in Race 2 despite the grid inversion, with Rea moving from ninth to fifth on Lap 1 before taking over second position on Lap 4.
He passed Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) at Turn 3 on Lap 8 and again rode away with the race.
Davies made the pass for second in the final 10 laps, while Laverty held on to third due to a battle between the Pata Yamahas of Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark behind him.
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Ducati) crashed out on Lap 4, after finishing Race 1 in fifth.
In the Supersport World Championship race, Ant West finished seventh.
Rea’s championship lead over Davies in World SBK sits at 75 points, the equivalent of three race wins, ahead of Round 9 in San Marino on July 6-8.
New Zealand Rally Championship
Hayden Paddon made a winning return to his domestic championship in Stadium Finance Rally South Canterbury.
After missing the last round due to WRC commitments, Paddon (Hyundai i20 AP4) won 10 of the 11 stages in South Canterbury and took an overall victory of 4:51.3s.
Andrew Hawkeswood (Mazda2) finished runner-up after Brendon Reeves (Mazda2 AP4) suffered an electrical problem on the final stage and slumped to eighth overall.
Ben Hunt (Subaru WRX) ended Paddon’s unbeaten run this season in terms of stages during an icy morning.
However, he but had little to show for it at the end of the one-day event when his Subaru WRX developed a mechanical problem which left him 59th overall.
Paddon leads the championship by 33 points from last-start winner Josh Marston (Holden Barina AP4), who finished sixth in Rally South Canterbury.
Round 5 is the Gold Rush Rally of Coromandel on Saturday August 18.
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Romain Dumas has won the 2018 running of Pikes Peak in record time in an electric Volkswagen.
The Frenchman completed the climb in 7:57.148s in the I.D. R, breaking Sebastien Loeb’s five-year-old record by over 16 seconds.
Simone Faggioli finished second in a Norma M20 SF, 40 seconds slower, and Peter Cunningham third in an Acura TLX GT.
Tony Quinn was seventh outright and fourth in the unlimited class.
