Photo: Sacha Tisserand / Panda Studio

Alain Prost and his son Nico have now won single-seater titles as drivers in five different decades. The family’s latest success wasn’t in F1 or FE, but in one of the few remaining Renault-powered junior series

If Formula E’s sixth most successful driver ever, who is also a Le Mans 24 Hours class winner and champion of Auto GP and the Andros Trophy’s former electric class, announced he would make a full-time return to single-seater racing and in a junior series no less, you would expect quite a bit of fuss.

But Nico Prost’s surprise comeback to open-wheelers in the Ultimate Cup Series Single-Seater Challenge didn’t make headlines outside of France, and was actually only brought into the spotlight once young Dutch karter Laurens van Hoepen (who is supported by reigning FE champion Nyck de Vries) started doing Formula Regional European Championship testing and it was noted that he had raced in UCS already and against none other than Prost.

Prost’s comeback began at the end of last April, as the UCS season kicked off at Paul Ricard. He was driving a Renault-powered Tatuus T-318, just like the ones used in FREC, and there was also a class for old Formula Renault 2.0 cars.

“Just so happy to be back in a single-seater, loving every second,” Prost said after free practice, in a car that was delivered to his CMR (Classic & Modern Racing) team just a few days prior. “Solid first day topping every session. Focus, keep pushing.”

Prost was fastest by 1.868 seconds, and that pace advantage continued into qualifying and first race. He took pole for race one by 2.394s, and on second-fastest laps claimed race two pole by 3.239s.

The first one was converted into a 10.272s win in the wet on his first race in a single-seater since 2018, with conditions then getting so treacherous with fog and rain that race two had to be put back by a day.

Again he won, by a massive 35.340s in race two and 20.440s in race three ahead of Graff Racing’s gentleman driver and sportscar regular Eric Trouillet. For Prost it was a big pleasure to be back in a formula car.

There was proper opposition in round two at Dijon, as French Formula 4 race-winner and two-time Alpine Europa Cup champion Jean-Baptiste Mela joined the grid with the same Autosport GP team that runs his Alpine car.

Mela was within half a second of Prost in qualifying, and finished only 1.757s behind in race one. The next day he was able to end Prost’s run of success, passing him on lap one of race two and then holding him off to win while in race three Prost passed him for the lead on lap two but a last-lap engine misfire allowed Mela to slip back past.

UCS returned to Paul Ricard for race three, with rounds abroad cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mela pipped Prost to pole by 0.095s. On second-best laps for race two, he was ahead by the tiniest margin: 0.001s.

In third for Graff was Dylan Young, who spent eight years in the MRF Challenge series before finally winning there in 2019.

Mela held off Prost to win race one at Paul Ricard, with Prost admitting his pace was “not fantastic” as later in the day he was then beaten again by 5.547s. Mela did the triple in race three on Sunday, and Young beat Prost to second place.

After some testing through summer to get more used to the car, Prost went into round four at Le Mans in September knowing he had a big job on his hands. Mela and Young were on the grid again, but it also marked the debut of van Hoepen with Graff and he had other commitments during the weekend.

Van Hoepen has risen up the karting ranks over the last few years, being a European champion on Mini karts in 2017, then spending a year-and-a-half in junior and then senior karting. He came eighth in the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship for OK-Junior karts in 2019, and matched that position in the equivalent European championship for OK karts in 2020.

Last year he progressed into shifter karting and came seventh in the WSK Open Cup for KZ2 karts, and also made a big impression in his UCS appearances.

Photo: Davy Delien / Pro-photos-sport.com

He took pole on debut by a quarter of a second, then fought with Mela through race one. Mela managed to win, but van Hoepen did attempt a last-lap move to reclaim his lead as he finished second while Prost shadowed them in third.

Prost denied van Hoepen in race two, the latter doing an impressive job to finish second after spinning in a collision at the Dunlop chicane with Mela, and then took to his other commitments. Post-race he got on a private jet and flew to Ledenon to share an Alpine A110 with Rudy Servol in French GT4. The CMR pair won the Pro-Am class and finished second overall in race one, but didn’t meet the chequered flag in race two. It was still two wins at two circuits in one day.

In Prost’s absence at Le Mans, van Hoepen earned his first win in race three ahead of Young and Theo Vaucher.

While there was no Mela at Magny-Cours, Prost had a new team-mate in Carmen Jorda. The Spaniard is best known for her three seasons in GP3 in which she scored no points and a 50-race stint in Euroformula that peaked with two ninth places. She has been linked to a return to that series with a team that currently competes far further down the single-seater ladder.

Jorda was a 8.704s off the pace in qualifying, behind four FR2.0 runners, while van Hoepen beat Prost to pole by 0.014s in a red flag-interrupted session. Van Hoepen headed him in the first two races too, while Jorda’s tricky racing return continued, then Prost just beat van Hoepen in race three to earn his long-awaited first Magny-Cours win 16 years after first racing there.

The season finale was the one round abroad not called off, and ran at former Portuguese Grand Prix venue Estoril. It started well for van Hoepen and Jorda, as the teenager took pole by 1.211s and the latter halved her pace defecit to him.

Van Hoepen then turned his qualifying pace into three fine victories, while four-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost told his son to “take it easy and just bring back the crown” over the weekend and so a more risk-averse strategy led to two thirds and a second for Prost but enough for him to be crowned champion by 103 points over Vaucher.

A half-season full of podiums brought van Hoepen up to third ahead of gentleman driver Luis Sanjuan, while Mela ended up down in 10th in the standings. Race Motorsport’s Franck Seeman won the FR2.0 class title.

Season round-up

The post What Prost did next: FE stalwart to junior single-seater champion again appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FIA F3 European Championship

After the FIA F3 European Championship weekend at Monza was eventful for all the wrong reasons, Peter Allen takes a look back at what happened and how a repeat can be avoided.

There was every expectation that the FIA F3 European Championship’s visit to Monza last weekend would be action-packed, but this wasn’t quite what we had in mind.

Underpowered cars on the classic Italian venue are a recipe for plenty of slipstreaming and overtaking, but the F3 weekend had too much contact and incident, and it wasn’t a surprise that officials cut two races short as a result.

Despite the widespread derision of the driving standards on show, most of the incidents weren’t really dangerous (with Lance Stroll’s somersault towards the barriers a notable exception). Mostly, the contact was just clumsy, unnecessary and avoidable.

The European F3 field has been well over 30-cars this year, and that is bound to lead to more opportunities for cars to get too close to each other. But what was strange about Monza is that we hadn’t seen anything like it in the three earlier rounds at Silverstone, Hockenheim and Pau – arguably they had been surprisingly clean.

There’s little room for error in Pau, but races can often be fairly processional with few opportunities to overtake. There were incidents and several safety cars during that weekend, but nothing that would be considered unusual.

There was contact at Silverstone and Hockenheim, but again, nothing had seemed untoward. This may have been because there is more room for error there than at Monza, where incidents are more likely to require a safety car and the frequency of crashes may therefore be more noticeable.

But the incidents were usually of a different nature, too. Before, it was mostly just botched overtaking manoeuvres. At Monza, there was a lot of crowding and moving around when defending, and also a lot of instances of people just tripping over others under braking.

To me, contact stemming from failed overtakes – e.g. ambitious lunges down the inside of a competitor – is understandable and forgiveable, certainly in the junior ranks. That’s not to say that punishments shouldn’t be handed out, but rather that they are inevitable in hard racing among inexperienced drivers.

Mistakes should be penalised and lessons learnt, but it’s not something that needs to be stamped out. We want to see racing, and drivers need to get practice in actually racing rather than just following another car.

Photo: FIA F3 European Championship

If less than a third of the field scores points in any given race and a large proportion of drivers are used to winning in lesser categories, you’re going to get some do-or-die moves as most have very little to lose. I’ve got no problem with that. But to my eyes, most of the Monza incidents didn’t come into that category.

Dangerous moves when defending are never good to see and always heavily criticised. Monza appears to be particularly susceptible to it because of the long straights – defending in a corner is one thing but you have to get inventive to keep behind a driver who’s picked up a tow.

The problem here perhaps is that a driver can get away with a certain amount of it without consequence. But when things go wrong, you can get the kind of aeroplane crash that befell Stroll.

There were also smaller incidents where drivers retook the racing line too quickly when completing an overtake and ended up shutting the door on the driver behind. This comes down to the use of mirrors and judging distances, but when even Lewis Hamilton has got it wrong, it’s perhaps not a surprise to see youngsters messing up here.

A lot of what happened at Monza – particularly at the first chicane, for instance – was one driver just going into the back of another under braking when they weren’t even trying to overtake. To my untrained eye this is particularly hard to fathom – I can only imagine that it’s down to the low downforce aerodynamics used at Monza making it harder to slow a car down, particularly with the extreme high speeds.

The nature of Monza makes close racing, but other championships have managed in the past to have exciting and clean races. That said, the Italian F4 round at the weekend was also scrappy.

Most on-track incidents boil down to drivers not giving each other enough room, whether they’re overtaking or defending. Monza is certainly tight in places, but the European F3 drivers aren’t exactly used to the wide open ‘Tilkedromes’ either – those whose racing education has come in Europe will be used to narrower circuits.

That said, they don’t seem to have real respect for the track limits. Running over them to gain an advantage is a minor issue, compared to not being afraid to push other drivers over them. In the past when safety was more of a concern, drivers would naturally want to give each other more room.

Photo: FIA F3 European Championship

There’s certainly a wide spread of abilities in the European F3 field, and although it’s not uncommon for backmarkers to get into contact, at Monza some of the most talented were among the guilty. And while those fresh out of karting – Callum Ilott and Alessio Lorandi – did get into scrapes (mostly in race one before, encouragingly, learning to keep it clean thereafter), there were more experienced drivers at fault too.

There’s always a hope that poor driving standards are stamped out as racers climb the ranks, but it’s not really fair to blame the categories below F3 for errors from their graduates. If these sorts of incidents didn’t happen under their jurisdiction, they can’t be at fault for misbehaviour at higher levels.

However, with the FIA now having more influence in entry-level championships through its Formula 4 initiative, there’s a great opportunity to educate drivers in order to avoid problems with driving standards emerging further up the ladder. There’s no need to wait for accidents to happen. If drivers don’t have a natural fear of contact, it can surely be taught.

On that note, it’s good to see reports of FIA single-seater president Stefano Domenicali being strict with what happened at the weekend. This is the first real challenge of his tenure, and it’s encouraging to see him taking such a proactive approach.

His F1-trained eyes won’t see junior racing crashes as something that’s just ‘routine’, and he shouldn’t be afraid of being public about the problem because it’s an opportunity to be seen to sort it out.

This situation has reflected badly on a grid full of talented drivers, getting the championship into the mainstream racing conscience for all the wrong reasons.

Hopefully it’s just a one-off and the rest of the season will be – just like the first three rounds – nothing but positive.

Results Roundup

Formula Renault 3.5 ? Round 3/9 ? Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Oliver Rowland reclaims points lead with victory in race two, after a fifth in race one. Matthieu Vaxiviere also gets his second win of the year in race one, followed by third in race two. Erstwhile leader Jazeman Jaafar is second in race one and then sixth in race two from the back after being excluded from qualifying.

Race 1: 1 Vaxiviere; 2 Jaafar; 3 Stoneman; 4 Latifi; 5 Rowland; 6 Dillmann
Race 2: 1 Rowland; 2 de Vries; 3 Vaxiviere; 4 Stoneman; 5 Ellinas; 6 Jaafar
Standings: Rowland, 83; Vaxiviere, 77; Jaafar, 75; Stoneman, 60; de Vries, 44; Dillmann, 35
Next round: Hungaroring (13-14 June)

Photo: Frederic Le Floch/DPPI

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 – Round 2/7 – Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Ukyo Sasahara and Jake Hughes take first Eurocup victories. Hughes is on pole for race one but finishes second to Sasahara, then turns the tables in race two. Anthoine Hubert continues consistency with third and sixth to close gap to Louis Deletraz, who retires from race two after contact with rival Dennis Olsen.

Race 1: 1 Sasahara; 2 Hughes; 3 Hubert; 4 Deletraz; 5 D’Agosto; 6 Isaakyan
Race 2: 1 Hughes; 2 Sasahara; 3 Isaakyan; 4 Barnicoat; 5 D’Agosto; 6 Hubert
Standings: Deletraz, 70; Hubert, 64; Hughes, 53; Olsen, 50; Isaakyan, 49; Sasahara, 43
Next round: Hungaroring (13-14 June)

FIA F3 European Championship ? Round 4/11 ? Monza, Italy

Felix Rosenqvist stays clear of carnage to dominate, but misses out on 25 points as later two races are stopped short after incidents. Mikkel Jensen pushes him close in race one and is third in race two, while Jake Dennis follows Pau wins with three podiums. Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc‘s podium streaks end and both fail to finish race two after separate contact.

Race 1: 1 Rosenqvist; 2 Jensen; 3 Dennis; 4 Giovinazzi; 5 Leclerc; 6 Hyman
Race 2: 1 Rosenqvist; 2 Dennis; 3 Jensen; 4 Ferrucci; 5 Menezes; 6 Russell
Race 3: 1 Rosenqvist; 2 Dennis; 3 Leclerc; 4 Giovinazzi; 5 Maisano; 6 Menezes
Standings: Giovinazzi, 182; Leclerc, 166.5; Rosenqvist, 160; Dennis, 129; Russell, 68; Gunther, 64.5
Next round: Spa-Francorchamps (30-31 May)

Italian F4 – Round 2/7 – Monza, Italy

Chinese Ferrari protege Guan Yu Zhou celebrates 16th birthday with first three single-seater wins, taking championship lead from Prema team-mate Ralf Aron who has to make do with third, sixth and second. Mucke drivers Robert Shwartzman, David Beckmann and Lando Norris take a podium each, as does Joao Vieira after a race one clash with Norris.

Race 1: 1 Zhou; 2 Shwartzman; 3 Aron; 4 Beckmann; 5 Baruch; 6 Desideri
Race 2: 1 Zhou; 2 Beckmann; 3 Vieira; 4 Baruch; 5 Norris; 6 Aron
Race 3: 1 Zhou; 2 Aron; 3 Norris; 4 Shwartzman; 5 Vieira; 6 Baruch
Standings: Zhou 99; Aron 93; Shwartzman 51; Beckmann 49; Vieira 43; Baruch 37
Next round: Imola (27-28 June)

Photo: ACI Sport

BRDC F4 – Round 3/8 – Silverstone, United Kingdom

Will Palmer reclaims points lead with two commanding victories. Rodrigo Fonseca is his nearest rival despite finishing 15th in race one after damage. He then charged through to win a wet second race, and was third in race three. Erstwhile championship leader Chris Mealin has a bad weekend with a best finish of seventh.

Race 1: 1 Palmer; 2 Haggerty; 3 Albert; 4 Jackson; 5 Ngebulana; 6 Bartholomew
Race 2: 1 Fonseca; 2 Ngebulana; 3 Jackson; 4 Palmer; 5 Albert; 6 Newey
Race 3: 1 Palmer; 2 Newey; 3 Fonseca; 4 Albert; 5 Christodoulou; 6 Haggerty
Standings: Palmer, 193; Fonseca, 181; Mealin, 162; Jackson, 152; Albert, 143; Bartholomew, 141
Next round: Snetterton (11-12 July)

Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic ? Round 2/7 ? Anderstorp, Sweden

Championship leader Oliver Soderstrom notches up his third win of 2015 in the second of three races, and finishes second in the other two. Ilmari Korpivaara wins race one, while?Laurents Horr takes the third.

Race 1: 1 Korpivaara; 2 Soderstrom; 3 Horr; 4 Svensson; 5 Lundqvist; 6 Puhakka
Race 2: 1 Soderstrom; 2 Horr; 3 Korpivaara; 4 Svensson; 5 Lundqvist; 6 Fredriksson
Race 3: 1 Horr; 2 Soderstrom; 3 Kressner; 4 Korpivaara; 5 Svensson; 6 Puhakka
Standings: Soderstrom, 115; Korpivaara, 89; Horr, 85; Svensson, 50; Lundqvist, 40; Puhakka, 34
Next round: Ahvenisto (6-7 June)

The post Weekend Review: Collisions dominate F3 round at Monza appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: STCC

Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic points leader Oliver Soderstrom and rookie Laurents Horr were the winners of the two respective Sunday races at Anderstorp.

Soderstrom cruised to victory in the morning’s wet race, while Horr took his first win in single-seaters in the only dry outing of the weekend.

Poles for both races belonged to Soderstrom and the Swede’s win in the first race was as straightforward as they get, his advantage over second-placed Horr a ludicrous 14 seconds over just eight green-flag laps.

Saturday winner Ilmari Korpivara was third, with Robert Svensson holding off Linus Lundqvist for fourth.

The final race gave the weekend a third different winner, with Horr passing Soderstrom on lap two and escaping with the win despite serious late-race pressure from the Swede.

French F4 graduate Reuben Kressner denied Korpivaara a podium in third, while Svensson completed the top five.

Soderstrom’s lead over Korpivaara is now 26 points, with Horr a further four down.

Race one results

Race two results

The post Soderstrom and Horr share Sunday wins at Anderstorp appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: STCC

FinnDrive’s Ilmari Korpivaara closed in on championship leader Oliver Soderstrom by taking the win in the third Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic race of the season at Anderstorp.

Korpivaara started fifth, but mastered the wet conditions to charge to the front and take the checkered flag.

Poleman Laurents Horr kept the lead on the opening lead, while second-placed Linus Lundqvist slipped down the order, allowing Soderstrom and Korpivaara to move up to third and fourth respectively.

Soderstrom then passed Robert Svensson for P2 on the second lap and then worked his way around Horr for the lead two laps later.

But Korpivaara did not allow the Swede to escape out front, passing both Horr and Svensson in one lap and then quickly erasing Soderstrom’s two-second lead.

Despite his pace, the Finn took until the final lap to pass Soderstrom, but eventually managed to secure his first win in the category.

Horr came close to taking second off the Swede, but eventually had to do with third, as Svensson brought up the top four a second behind.

Lundqvist took fifth, ahead of Korpivaara’s teammate Juuso Puhakka, Robin Fredriksson, French F4 driver Reuben Kressner and Edward Jonasson.

Rasmus Ericsson and debutant Julia Holgersson did not make the finish.

Race results

The post Ilmari Korpivaara wins at Anderstorp from fifth on the grid appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Media Service

In a new weekly feature, PaddockScout discusses some of the big talking points from last weekend’s racing and rounds up the results from around the world.

It was more of the same in round two of the GP2 season in Barcelona, with?Stoffel Vandoorne proving himself to be a cut above the rest once more.

After stretching his record-breaking run of consecutive pole positions to six, the McLaren protege once again drove to victory in the feature race despite it looking lost at one stage – just as it had in Bahrain.

Unlike three weeks earlier, Vandoorne had started on option tyres and pitted early, but his win was threatened by the failure of DRS to work when he was trying to carve his way through the prime-starters, only for it to become available again for the benefit of those that stopped late.

Those opponents were led by Alexander Rossi – the driver Vandoorne had overhauled late in Bahrain on the opposite strategies – but no sooner had the American eliminated the gap did he then fall away again, while Vandoorne stroked it home.

Vandoorne completed an exact repeat of his Bahrain performance by coming through to second in the sprint race, and a double victory cannot be far away.

He’s looking pretty unstoppable at the moment, and easily deserving of getting his Formula 1 break.

In fact, his form is at such a point that any other outcome for 2016 would be an injustice and a crisis for F1 as alarming as any other problems it faces right now. If a dominant GP2 champion on McLaren’s books that shares management with an active former world champion (in Jenson Button) can’t graduate immediately to a race seat in the top class, something will be badly wrong.

McLaren has more obvious issues this season but with an ageing driver pairing at present, it must plan for the future and make sure that Vandoorne as well as Kevin Magnussen (who did more than enough in his debut season to warrant a sustained place on the grid) are making positive progress in their careers next season. And really, that means them both racing in F1.

The ideal solution would be a full-on Toro Rosso-style B-team, but the current climate makes that seem like a long shot, so how a seat can be found for one or both drivers is unclear right now.

This is about more than just the team – McLaren owes it to the sport to assist two of its brightest prospects while they have them under contract.

Photo: Zak Mauger/GP2 Series Media Service

The man denying Vandoorne his double in Barcelona was?Alex Lynn, with the reigning GP3 champion having built upon qualifying third on his debut in Bahrain to put it on the front row this time.

Overuse of his tyres was apparent again for the Briton in the feature race, dropping him to fifth by the finish, but he made up for that with a fantastic start to the sprint race. From fourth on the grid, he was soon into the lead and drove an intelligent race to stay out of Vandoorne’s reach and win on just his fourth start in GP2.

Tyre wear has been a barrier to a top feature race result so far, but on that sprint race performance, Lynn will have no trouble getting on top of it. As impressive as it is, his quick progress has perhaps been little surprise given that his maturity and shrewdness has been clear for some time. Perhaps less assured up to now has been his outright pace, but back-to-back qualifying performances have left no doubt.

His speed has no doubt helped by being a DAMS team that was the benchmark until ART’s Vandoorne hit his stride towards the end of last year, but Lynn is comparing very favourably to Pierre Gasly, who he was up against in the Red Bull Junior Team last year before leaving the scheme and bravely going up against the Frenchman at DAMS despite rapid winter pace.

Gasly completed the podium on Sunday, but only after squandering opportunities when he passed Lynn for P2 at the start of the feature race and when he then started in the same position on the grid for the sprint – two spots ahead of his team-mate.

Lynn and Gasly are playing catch up in the standings after failing to score in Bahrain, but although Vandoorne is already looking out of reach, turning their Barcelona speed into results will give them extremely creditable places in top three come the end of the seasons. That said, the consistency of Rio Haryanto, Rossi and Mitch Evans won’t be easy to overhaul.

The DAMS duo are both getting well deserved F1 tests in Barcelona this week, Gasly with his first ever runs for Toro Rosso and Red Bull and Lynn making his debut for Williams.

At McLaren, neither Vandoorne nor Magnussen will get to drive. It had better have something big planned for them soon.

Results Roundup

GP2 – Round 2/10 ? Barcelona, Spain

Another win and runner-up spot for the relentless Stoffel Vandoorne, holding off late attacks on fresh rubber from Mitch Evans and Alexander Rossi to win the feature. The impressive Alex Lynn denies him in the sprint race to win on just his fourth start, while fellow rookie Pierre Gasly also makes the podium.

Race 1: 1 Vandoorne; 2 Evans; 3 Rossi; 4 Haryanto; 5 Lynn; 6 Marciello
Race 2: 1 Lynn; 2 Vandoorne; 3 Gasly; 4 Rossi; 5 Markelov; 6 Haryanto
Standings: Vandoorne, 86; Haryanto, 49; Rossi, 46; Evans, 28; Lynn, 25; Berthon/Gasly, 16
Next round: Monaco (22-23 May)

GP3 – Round 1/8 ? Barcelona, Spain

F3 champion Esteban Ocon lives up to top billing to win GP3 opener, beating less-expected practice and qualifying pacesetter Luca Ghiotto. Ocon’s ART team-mate and co-favourite Marvin Kirchhofer has an off-colour start to weekend, but recovers well to win race two and sit just two points in arrears.

Race 1: 1 Ocon; 2 Ghiotto; 3 Bernstorff; 4 Mardenborough; 5 Kirchhofer; 6 Eriksson
Race 2: 1 Kirchhofer; 2 Eriksson; 3 Mardenborough; 4 Fuoco; 5 Bernstorff; 6 Ceccon
Standings: Ocon, 29; Kirchhofer, 27; Ghiotto, 23; Mardenborough, 22; Bernstorff, 21; Eriksson, 20
Next round: Spielberg (20-21 June)

Photo: Zak Mauger/GP3 Series Media Service

Euroformula Open – Round 3/8 – Estoril, Portugal

Second-year driver?Konstantin Tereshchenko extends lead with lights-to-flag win in race one. A penalty drops Vitor Baptista from second to fourth, but the Brazilian keeps the pressure on with dominant race two triumph. The promising Alessio Rovera loses ground, lacking pace and scoring just one point.

Race 1: 1 Tereshchenko; 2 Stern; 3 Kanamaru; 4 Baptista; 5 Sathienthirakul; 6 Fioravanti
Race 2: 1 Baptista; 2 Tereshchenko; 3 Sathienthirakul; 4 Kanamaru; 5 Pulcini; 6 Fioravanti
Standings: Tereshchenko, 123; Baptista, 112; Kanamaru, 75; Rovera, 67; Sathienthirakul, 58; Stern, 44
Next round: Silverstone (6-7 June)

MSA Formula – Round 3/10 – Thruxton, United Kingdom

Dan Ticktum has a nightmare weekend at Thruxton due to technical glitches, retiring twice and losing the championship lead to the consistent Ricky Collard. Sandy Mitchell stars, winning both main races and coming second in the reverse grid encounter won by Lando Norris.

Race 1: 1 Mitchell; 2 Leist; 3 Baybutt; 4 Collard; 5 Herta; 6 Martins
Race 2: 1 Norris; 2 Mitchell; 3 Martins; 4 Collard; 5 Leist; 6 Herta
Race 3: 1 Mitchell; 2 Collard; 3 Norris; 4 Leist; 5 Florescu; 6 Reddy
Standings: Collard, 130; Ticktum, 120; Norris, 115; Leist, 105; Mitchell, 86; Pull, 78
Next round: Oulton Park (6-7 June)

Indy Lights – Round 4/10 – Indianapolis GP, United States

Jack Harvey gets long-awaited first win of the season in race one and is just four points off championship leader Ed Jones, who has pole for race two but is spun around by Harvey, whose car then fails on the last lap. After his double win at Barber, Spencer Pigot slips behind both with a poor weekend while newcomer Sean Rayhall impresses and wins race two.

Race 1: 1 Harvey; 2 Rayhall; 3 Jones; 4 Chilton; 5 Enerson; 6 Anderson
Race 2: 1 Rayhall; 2 Enerson; 3 Chilton; 4 Jones, 5 Harvey; 6 Kaiser
Standings: Jones, 166; Harvey, 162; Pigot, 155; Chilton, 126; Enerson, 117; Serralles, 100
Next round: Indianapolis oval (22 May)

Photo: Andersen Promotions

Pro Mazda – Round 4/9 – Indianapolis GP, United States

Santiago Urrutia takes the standings lead with victory in the final race of a triple-header. Weiron Tan wins the first race – postponed from NOLA due to weather – while Timothe Buret gets his maiden victory in race two and two other podium finishes. After a race one podium, two poor results cost Neil Alberico his points lead.

Race 1: 1 Tan; 2 Buret; 3 Alberico; 4 Urrutia; 5 Grist; 6 O’Ward
Race 2: 1 Buret; 2 Latorre; 3 Urrutia; 4 Tan; 5 Franzoni; 6 Grist
Race 3: 1 Urrutia; 2 Owen; 3 Buret; 4 Gutierrez; 5 O’Ward; 6 Latorre
Standings: Urrutia, 194; Alberico, 170; Buret, 153; Tan, 122; O?Ward, 120; Latorre, 119
Next round: Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis (23 May)

USF2000 – 4/8 – Indianapolis GP, United States

Nico Jamin takes the USF2000 lead by winning both races. Erstwhile leader Jake Eidson finishes second in race one but suffers front wing damage in race two, leaving him back in 12th and halting his run of podiums. Aaron Telitz is third and then second to remain in the mix.

Race 1: 1 Jamin; 2 Eidson; 3 Telitz; 4 Martin; 5 Gabin; 6 Agren
Race 2: 1 Jamin; 2 Telitz; 3 Martin; 4 Gabin; 5 Luo; 6 Thompson
Standings: Jamin, 204; Eidson, 186; Telitz, 180; Martin, 145; Thompson, 110; Franzoni, 98
Next round: Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis (23 May)

Japanese F3 – Round 2/8 – Motegi, Japan

After their Suzuka collision had left them trailing Mitsunori Takaboshi, Toyota-powered TOM’s drivers Kenta Yamashita and Nick Cassidy come to the fore at Motegi. Cassidy passes his team-mate on lap one to get his second win in race one, before Yamashita takes his first two wins and moves a point clear in the standings.

Race 1: 1 Cassidy; 2 Yamashita; 3 Takaboshi; 4 Fukuzumi; 5 Takahashi; 6 Ordonez
Race 2: 1 Yamashita; 2 Takaboshi; 3 Cassidy; 4 Fukuzumi; 5 Takahashi; 6 Ordonez
Race 3: 1 Yamashita; 2 Fukuzumi; 3 Cassidy; 4 Takaboshi; 5 Takahashi; 6 Ordonez
Standings: Yamashita, 35; Cassidy, 34; Takaboshi, 34; Fukuzumi, 15; Takahashi, 14; Ishikawa/Ordonez, 8
Next round: Okayama (23-24 May)

Photo: Japanese Formula 3 Association

Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic – Round 1/7 – Skovde, Sweden

Third-year FR1.6 racer?Oliver Soderstrom wins both races at the opening round. Ilmari Korpivaara is twice second, while Robert Svensson and Laurents Horr complete the podiums.

Race 1: 1 Soderstrom; 2 Korpivaara; 3 Svensson; 4 Blomqvist; 5 Horr; 6 Puhakka
Race 2: 1 Soderstrom; 2 Korpivaara; 3 Horr; 4 Lundqvist; 5 Puhakka; 6 Tjader
Standings: Soderstrom, 51; Korpivaara, 37; Horr, 26; Puhakka, 18; Lundqvist, 17; Svensson, 15
Next round: Anderstorp (30-31 May)

Formula Ford Denmark – Round 2/8 – Ring Djursland, Denmark

After an ADAC F4 deal fell through, reigning champion Frederik Schandorff returns to the series and wins all three races. Younger brother Christian Schandorff takes the standings lead at the expense of Mathias Weinrich Smith, who retires from race two due to a faulty clutch.

Race 1: 1 F. Schandorff; 2 Smith; 3 C. Schandorff; 4 Larsen; 5 S. Mortensen; 6 Christiansen
Race 2: 1 F. Schandorff; 2 C. Schandorff; 3 Larsen; 4 Hoe; 5 Christiansen; 6 Rytter
Race 3: 1 F. Schandorff; 2 Larsen; 3 Smith; 4 C. Schandorff; 5 Christiansen; 6 Hoe
Standings: C. Schandorff, 106; Smith, 101; F. Schandorff, 75; Larsen, 71; Rytter, 52; Christiansen, 43
Next round: Spa-Francorchamps (6-7 June)

The post Weekend Review: Vandoorne marching on, but what happens next? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: STCC

PWR Junior Team’s Oliver Soderstrom swept the opening round of the 2015 Formula Renault 1.6 Nodric season at Skovde.

Soderstrom, who starts his third season in FR1.6 and previously had a win at Parnu, won the opening race from pole position, beating the rest of the field by more than ten seconds.

Ilmari Korpivaara held on to second, keeping a train of cars behind him at the checkered flag. Fellow returnees Robert Svensson and Paul Blomqvist were third and fourth respectively.

Laurents Horr, who set the top time in qualifying but was excluded for being underweight, fought his way back to fifth place.

Korpivaara held pole for race two, but was beaten by Soderstrom off the line and eventually finished four seconds down.

Horr battled his way to the podium, while newcomers Linus Lundqvist and Juuso Puhakka completed the top five.

Race one results

Race two results

The post Soderstrom starts FR1.6 Nordic season with Skovde double appeared first on Formula Scout.

Joonas Lappalainen successfully spearheaded FinnDrive’s 2014 title push (Photo: STCC)

Juuso Puhakka has been announced as Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic champion’s FinnDrive second signing for the 2015 season in the category.

Puhakka joins the previously unveiled returnee Ilmari Korpivaara, making up an all-Finnish lineup for the team.

In 2012, Puhakka finished in the KF3 class of the Bridgestone Cup. The next year, he was fifth-best in the Finnish championship, right behind his new teammate Korpivaara.

Last year, Puhakka took runner-up in the national series’ KF class and also took 19th in the same category of the CIK-FIA World Championship.

“Winning is everything and we will do what we can to rob the Swedes of the title this year as well,” teased FinnDrive boss Sami Lappalainen. “Ilmari is passionate about racing and is willing to work hard to achieve success on the track. He has all the qualities necessary to become a championship winner.”

“Juuso, meanwhile, really impressed us when he tested Formula Renault car for the first time last fall. He learned quickly and was fast right away.”

Joonas Lappalainen, who moves into the Audi TT Cup this year, won four races for FinnDrive on his way to the 1.6 Nordic 2014 title. Korpivaara was seventh with two podiums.

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Photo: Ilmari Korpivaara

Finland’s Ilmari Korpivaara will return to the Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic series in 2015.

Korpivaara, who turned 16 earlier this month, retains the support of FinnDrive.

Last year, he contested his debut season in cars in the Nordic series and finished every race but one, featuring on the podium twice – at Parnu and Mantorp.

2014 proved to be a landmark year for FinnDrive, with Joonas Lappalainen claiming the title and Korpivaara taking seventh.

In Korpivaara, the Nordic series gets its second returnee for 2015, with Oliver Soderstrom confirming his continued participation in the series earlier.

The post Korpivaara continues in Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: H?kan Linder / LinderMedia

Swedish karting graduate Edward Jonasson will race in Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic in 2015.

Jonasson, 14, will represent family-run team Trojnar Racing over the seven-round season.

The Swede spent most of his karting career in national 60 Mini championships before making his KF3 debut in late 2013.

“Given that Edward is probably the youngest in the series, 2015 will be a pure learning year,” reckoned his father and team boss Stefan Jonasson. “We expect results to come starting with the next season.”

Jonasson is the third Swedish driver to confirm his participation in the 2015 edition of the Nordic series, joining Team Tido’s Linus Lundqvist and Scuderia Nordica’s Oliver Soderstrom.

The post Edward Jonasson confirmed for 2015 Nordic season appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: STCC

Swedish karting graduate Linus Lundqvist will make the step up to cars in 2015.

Lundqvist, 15, will join the Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic championship with Team Tido.

He won the 2010 and 2011 titles in the Swedish MKR series before finishing sixth in the national Rotax Max championship.

In 2014, he combined international and local karting, winning the KF2 Swedish Kart Festival and finishing 14th in the CIK-FIA KF World Championship.

“This is a great day for me,” stated Lundqvist. “Getting the chance to compete in formula racing is a dream come true, and it hasn’t really sunk in yet. This would not have been possible without Team Tido – I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and hope I can repay their trust through good performances on the track.”

“I know I have a lot to learn and this will firstly be a learning season. I expect a steep development curve in the beginning and I would like to be fighting for the podium towards the end of the year. I will give it everything from the first to the last race.”

2015 will mark Team Tido’s return to FR1.6 Nordic after the team won the inaugural season of the championship with Erik Johansson.

“We are very pleased to welcome Linus welcome to Team Tido this season,” said David Von Schinkel. “He has made a really good impression on us in the winter. We have always been passionate about helping young, talented drivers to the extent we can, and we are now looking forward to a good and, hopefully, long association with Linus.”

“We think he has the qualities required to succeed in this sport, and it will be very interesting to follow his progress in Formula Renault 1.6.“

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