Photo: Andrew Ferraro/GP2 Media Service

Sam Bird recovered from a difficult start to the weekend at Marina Bay to win the sprint race and keep the gap to Fabio Leimer at seven points heading to Abu Dhabi…

GP2 Series

Palmer dominates Friday and Saturday, Bird wins on Sunday to keep up with Leimer

Fabio Leimer and Sam Bird are separated by seven points at the head of the GP2 standings with one weekend remaining. They went to Singapore with the same gap. The weekend started better for the Swiss driver though, qualifying third as Bird could only manage tenth after being impeded by traffic.

As the first of the drivers to run an option-prime tyre strategy in the feature race in order to preserve a prime set for Sunday, Leimer slipped to fifth. Bird recovered from a bad first lap and a poor pitstop to claim eighth and the crucial reverse grid pole position for Sunday. The Briton duly converted pole into an uncontested victory while Leimer moved up from fourth to third to limit his losses.

Jolyon Palmer was the driver to beat for the first part of the weekend, topping practice, qualifying and then taking the feature race win. He had to work for his second victory of the season though, going backwards at the start and having to fight his way back through, catching and overhauling his Carlin team-mate?Felipe Nasr with stronger tyre performance during the latter part of the race. Still win-less in GP2, Nasr finished second with James Calado in third.

A prime-prime strategy left all three drivers struggling on Sunday, finishing down the order after being forced to change tyres mid-race. Nasr and Calado still have a mathematical chance of winning the title in Abu Dhabi at 31 and 45 points adrift, together with Stefano Coletti who is 44 points away after extending his incredible point-less run to 11 of the last 12 races. All three would need disaster to hit both Leimer and Bird at Yas Marina to stand a chance.

After finishing seventh ahead of Bird in the feature race, Marcus Ericsson followed his former iSport team-mate home in the sprint race to claim his fourth top two finish from five weekends. Fellow DAMS driver Stephane Richelmi maintained his impressive consistency with two fourth places, passing Leimer near the end on Saturday and finishing close behind on Sunday.

Report: Palmer overhauls Nasr to secure Singapore win

Report: Bird boosts title hopes with Singapore sprint win

Next round: Yas Marina, 2-3 November

British F3

King wins twice and wraps up title

Carlin celebrate their sixth consecutive British F3 title, courtesy of King (Photo: British F3)

Jordan King had something to celebrate after all three British F3 races in the finale of the shortened series at the Nurburgring. He won race one and race three, in between which he secured the title with a fifth place in race two as chief rival William Buller crashed out.

Buller had finished the first race three laps down after his engine went up in smoke on the grid before managing to join the race. King took a dominant win ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi and Felipe Guimaraes, who then stole the race two win from Spike Goddard at the very last corner. Tatiana Calderon completed the podium that time around.

King proved himself a worthy champion by seeing off the challenge of Buller in race three. Rookie Giovinazzi took third place to secure second spot in the standings by just one point ahead of category veteran Buller.

Report: King dominates first race of Nurburgring finale

Report: King crowned champion as Guimaraes wins race two

Report: King keeps Buller at bay to win final British F3 race of 2013

Formula Abarth

Rovera secures crown after Iaquinta and Roda also win

Having been the dominant force in Formula Abarth this season in his rookie season of cars, Alessio Rovera had a difficult start to the weekend in Misano. He began the first race from pole but fell back to tenth in race one with an apparent mechanical problem. He recovered to fifth in race two before winning the final race after nearest rival Simone Iaquinta was black flagged for forcing a rival onto the grass at the start of the race. The result was enough for Rovera to seal his title with a weekend to spare.

Iaquinta had won race one ahead of Michele Beretta and Dario Orsini, while third year driver Giorgio Roda claimed a maiden win in race two ahead of Sergey Trofimov and Orsini. Orsini was second again in race three with Vitaly Larionov completing the podium.

Report: Iaquinta wins race one at Misano amidst problems for poleman Rovera

Report: Roda takes maiden win at Misano

Report: Rovera claims Abarth title with Misano win

Next round: Monza, 19-20 October

Formula Renault 1.6 NEC

Rump turns up and wins to retain joint points lead

Rump claimed a last-gasp race two win (Photo: Chris Schotanus)

Clashing Formula Renault 1.6 races at Zolder and Mantorp Park affected a number of drivers who have contested races in both categories this season including Martin Rump, a title contender in both. With Rump absent from the NEC qualifying while he contested the Sweden round, nearest rival Roy Geerts took full advantage with pole position. He was beaten to the race one win by Janneau Esmeijer?but was still able to take the championship lead with Rump arriving in Belgium to finish sixth.

Rump fought his way up the order in race two to become a factor in the lead battle between Geerts and Esmeijer, snatching the victory at the end of the very last lap. With Geerts finishing second, he and Rump are now tied for the points lead on 149 points with Esmeijer on 119.

Report: Esmeijer beats Geerts to race one victory at Zolder

Report: Rump wins race two at Zolder from last on the grid

Next round: Nurburgring, 28-29 September

Formula Renault 1.6 Sweden

Rump wins here too but Johansson holds on

Rump headed to Zolder after failing in his bid to claim the Swedish title at Mantorp Park. He took the championship lead away from rival Erik Johansson with a dominant win in race one and led the second encounter early on. However, an error saw him finish up fifth, two places behind Johansson who did enough to secure the title by four points.

After his Formula BMW Talent Cup success the previous weekend, Robin Hansson scored a debut victory in race two.

Report: Johansson secures FR1.6 title in close season finale at Mantorp

Formula Renault Argentina

Santero secures title

Julian Santero wrapped up the Formula Renault Argentina title by taking his ninth win of the season in race 12 at General Roca. The 19-year-old’s closest rival Manuel Luque finished second with Felipe Schmauk completing the podium.

Next round: To be confirmed

PaddockScout Driver of the Weekend

Jordan King

The F3 rookie proved himself to be a deserving champion with two wins at the Nurburgring.

The post Roundup: Status quo in GP2 title fight at Singapore appeared first on Formula Scout.

Cram Motorsport’s Alessio Rovera became the first Italian to take the Formula Abarth title, which he secured with his sixth victory of the season at Misano.

The start of the race was marked with two incidents. Firstly, polesitter Simone Iaquinta forced Dario Orsini off the track, sending the latter into a spin. Meanwhile, further down the grid, a similar accident a collision between Michele Beretta?and?Giorgio Roda, which resulted in both exiting the race.

Iaquinta maintained the lead, but was subsequently black-flagged due to the earlier incident. As a result of Iaquinta’s disqualification, Rovera inherited first and was well on his way to securing the title.

Although Orsini, who managed a magnificent recovery drive after his early spin, was closing in on him quickly over the final laps, Rovera didn’t crack under pressure and crossed the line in first.

Orsini brought the car home in second, while the Russian duo of National Trophy runners – Vitaly Larionov and Sergey Trofimov – took third and fourth. Lukas Moraes, Alessandro Perullo and Sabino de Castro rounded out the finishers.

After race three, Rovera has amassed got a 76-point lead over Iaquinta, mathematically securing him the title. Meanwhile, the National Trophy champion has also been decided early, with Trofimov leading main rival Larionov by 79 points.

Race results

Championship standings

National Trophy standings (top 3)

The post Rovera claims Abarth title with Misano win appeared first on Formula Scout.

19-year-old Giorgio Roda has taken his first single-seater victory after in an eventful reverse-grid race at Misano.

National Trophy driver Alessandro Perullo?started the race from pole and kept the lead for the majority of the race. However, race one winner Simone Iaquinta was able to pass him in the closing stages after fighting his way through the field, only to receive a 25-second penalty for damaging the car of Michele Beretta earlier on.

This penalty meant that Perullo was still leading the race, but he soon found himself under pressure from Roda. The fight went on until the very last lap, when Roda finally made a move on Perullo, who subsequently dropped to the fourth place in a couple of corners, also passed by Sergey Trofimov and Dario Orsini.

Championship leader Alessio Rovera started from last place, and made his way up to fifth. Lukas Moraes and Vitaly Larionov finished sixth and seventh respectively, in front of the penalized Iaquinta, Sabino de Castro, and Beretta, who was forced to pit after the earlier-mentioned contact with Iaquinta.

Race results

The post Roda takes maiden win at Misano appeared first on Formula Scout.

Simone Iaquinta took his fourth victory of the season in race one of the penultimate event of the championship at Misano.

Iaquinta, who started from the front row, took advantage of an early mistake by poleman Alessio Rovera and kept his lead during the whole race.

Iaquinta wasn’t the only one to pass Rovera, as the championship leader was dropping lap after lap due to a seeming mechanical problem, eventually finishing in last. Despite Michele Beretta putting pressure on Iaquinta, he had to settle for second, closely followed by Dario Orsini in third.

Giorgio Roda finished fourth right in front of National Trophy winner Sergey Trofimov. Series returnee Alessandro Perullo came home sixth despite a spin during the race, while?Lukas Moraes, Vitaly Larionov, Sabino de Casto and Rovera rounded out the field.

Should Rovera get four points more than Iaquinta over the remainder of the Misano round, he will be crowned champion this weekend, provided both aren’t severely outscored by Beretta.

Race results

Championship standings

The post Iaquinta wins race one at Misano amidst problems for poleman Rovera appeared first on Formula Scout.

Simone Iaquinta became the first driver capable of beating Alessio Rovera in qualifying in Formula Abarth’s 2013 season – doing so in the second session at Misano.

In the first session, however, it was Rovera who narrowly edged out Iaquinta and Dario Orsini by 0.053s and 0.106s respectively to take pole for race one, his ninth such achievement this year.

Michele Beretta, who is second in the championship, was unable to match the pace of the top three, settling for fourth in front of Giorgio Roda,?while Vitaly Larionov beat his countryman Sergey Trofimov and series returnee Alessandro Perullo for the National Trophy pole. Lukas Moraes wound up only ninth after a difficult qualifying as Sabino de Castro rounded out the field.

In the second qualifying, Rovera’s dominance finally came to an end. Iaquinta ended up improving the most on his time from session one and, as such, secured his maiden pole position in the category. Rovera was only third as race-winner Orsini also cleared the championship leader.

Roda and Beretta ended up completing the top five, with the Cram driver ahead of the Euronova man. Trofimov took National Trophy pole position, with Perullo, Moraes, Larionov and de Castro rounding out the top ten.

Qualifying one

Qualifying two

The post Iaquinta ends Rovera’s perfect qualifying streak at Misano appeared first on Formula Scout.

A standout performance and some major luck allowed Ghirelli to take the series lead (Photo: Auto GP)

The Auto GP round at Donington marks a crucial point in the title fight, while, over at Lausitz, both leaders of German championships suffer drawbacks…

Auto GP

Super Nova dominance sees Ghirelli take the championship lead

While two drivers have almost exclusively fought for the lead in the standings for all of the Auto GP season pre-Donington, the British round, which marked the penultimate outing of this year’s championship, saw a third contestant take the initiative. The man in question is Super Nova’s Vittorio Ghirelli, who went from third into first in the points table during one weekend.

The British squad was, once again, the quickest in qualifying, with Ghirelli taking yet another front row grid spot, as teammate Narain Karthikeyan lined up on pole. The Italian’s start was far from perfect, with him losing a spot on the opening lap, but after Ghirelli took back second, he found himself in prime position to challenge for the race win. As Karthikeyan stopped early and went through a severe drop in pace, Ghirelli took to the pits in the closing stages of the race and emerged comfortably in the lead, taking his first feature race victory in Auto GP. In race two, he’s made another bad start, but an early stop allowed him to cruise to fourth place.

Ghirelli’s points lead was made possible by the two usual leaders, Kimiya Sato and Sergio Campana, having rather disappointing weekends. Campana was off the pace for both of the races, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Meanwhile, Sato, despite a muted qualifying, looked rather strong in race one due to a distinct strategy, but made a mistake mid-race, putting his car into the gravel, which marked the end of his drive. Having recovered some positions in race two, Sato now sits 11 points behind Ghirelli, with Campana a further six down.

Narain Karthikeyan secured his fourth victory in Auto GP (Photo: Auto GP)

However, the list of potential title contenders for the final round at Brno doesn’t run out with Ghirelli, Sato and Campana. Karthikeyan, having taken his fourth pole position since joining Super Nova, would later clinch his fourth victory of the year in the reverse-grid race. His stellar weekend sees him in fourth in the standings, just four points down on Campana and 21 behind Ghirelli.

As usual, part-timer Kevin Giovesi was the best of the rest, finishing third in both races, with the Italian still seeking his first victory in the series. Meanwhile, Manor MP’s Meindert van Buuren converted his reverse-grid pole into his first podium in the Auto GP series.

Next round: Brno, October 5-6

German F3

Kirchhofer and Markelov secure three more wins for Motopark

After 15 podium finishes in 2013, Markelov finally took his first win of the year (Photo: German F3)

Championship leader Marvin Kirchhofer might not have gotten the weekend he’d hoped for at Lausitzring, but, despite the setbacks, the Motopark driver still managed to have a stellar round, getting him one step closer to sealing the series title.

As usual, Kirchhofer was the quickest man on-track in qualifying, putting in two laps good enough for pole position. However, his car failed post-race inspection, and the German was demoted to the back of the grid for both races one and three. Despite that, the Motopark car was good enough for him to make it to the podium in race one, while, in the reverse-grid race, he took victory after the leading duo ahead of him took each other out of the race. Starting from last in race three, he went one better than the weekend opener, methodically picking off the opponents to take second, only narrowly missing out on the race win.

However, despite Kirchhofer’s best efforts, his lead over nearest rival Artem Markelov decreased. The Russian himself put in the best weekend of his German F3 career, which started off with him converting a front row start into his long-anticipated first victory of 2013. He benefited from incidents up the road to finish second in race two, and narrowly held off Kirchhofer for victory in race three. He now trails the German by 96 points, but, with 69 available per weekend and two rounds left, it seems the next round will still end up being the title decider.

Finally, Emil Bernstorff was the only man from the Motopark trio to have a rather terrible weekend at Lausitz. He’s inherited double pole after Kirchhofer’s exclusion, but, when it came to the races, everything seemed to go wrong. He lost out to Markelov off the start in race one, leading the Brit to settle for second. In the reverse-grid race, he was fighting John Bryant-Meisner for the lead when the Swede ended up running wide out of a corner, emerging on track sideways and slamming into Bernstorff. Finally, in race three, the Brit was sabotaged by traffic, which cost him several positions and, ultimately, a podium finish. As a result of all that, Bernstorff is now 30 points adrift of Markelov.

The usual suspects reigned among the rest of the field. Bryant-Meisner picked up a podium finish in race three, Gustavo Menezes recorded three fourth-place results and Matteo Cairoli made the most out of a reverse-grid pole position to take his first top three finish in the series. In the Trophy class, Sebastian Balthasar made another step to securing the title with two wins, but his retirement in race two gave his teammate Freddy Killensberger the chance to claw back some points.

Report: Markelov secures first victory of 2013 at Lausitz

Report: Kirchhofer cruises to Lausitz race two victory after leaders collide

Report: Markelov keeps Kirchhofer behind to win race three at Lausitz

Next round: Oschersleben, September 14-15

ADAC Formel Masters

Gunther, Schiller take their first ADAC FM victories

Despite his rookie status, Gunther’s first victory was long overdue (Photo: ADAC Formel Masters)

Mucke driver Maximilian Gunther was once again the top man in ADAC Formel Masters qualifying, taking double pole at Lausitzring, yet this time he’s managed to convert both of those into a race victory.

In race one, the German ascended the top spot of the podium for the first time in 2013, narrowly beating out championship leader Alessio Picariello. Jason Kremer came out victorious in a fight for third, with Nicolas Beer taking fourth and Red Bull junior driver Beitske Visser rounding out the top five.

Gunther went through the same basic motions in race two, keeping Picariello at bay until the checkered flag. Neuhauser drivers Marvin Dienst and Beer took third and fourth respectively, with Ralph Boschung securing fifth.

While Gunther fared great from pole, he couldn’t make much headway from the reverse-grid eighth place, unlike his teammate Picariello. While reverse-grid poleman Stefan Riener slipped behind Fabian Schiller at the start and tailed him for the majority of the race, Picariello started picking off opponents one-by-one, before coming to a stop behind Boschung. A collision into the final corner followed between the duo and led to the race being red-flagged. The results were rolled back a lap – Schiller took his first victory, Riener was second, Boschung got to keep third, Picariello was denied fourth with a post-race penalty and Gunther was only seventh.

Still, despite ending up beaten by his teammate at Lausitz, Picariello looks rather comfortable in the title fight, with two rounds to go and a 72-point cushion over Gunther. Only 65 points are available in a given round, so the title could be called next time around at Slovakia Ring.

Report: Maximilian Gunther scores first ADAC Formel Masters victory at Lausitz

Report: Gunther takes another victory at Lausitz

Report: Schiller holds on to Lausitzring reverse-grid win

Next round: Slovakia Ring, September 14-15

Formula Renault 2.0 NEC

Rowland takes double victory on guest appearance as Parry fails to secure title

A brilliant weekend from Rowland upstaged the NEC title fight (Photo: Chris Schotanus)

Caterham junior Matt Parry was poised to finally wrap up the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC during the penultimate round at Most, but, as main championship rival Jack Aitken scored well and Parry himself had a nightmare of a time, the official coronation will have to wait until Zandvoort.

Indeed, Lady Luck was not on Parry’s side at Most, as he failed to finish any of the three races of the weekend in the points. In race one, he didn’t complete one lap; in race two, he made a false start and was subsequently penalized; in race three, his charge up the field was undone by a puncture.

On the contrary, Aitken had one of his best weekends in the series, driving on-pace with a number of Eurocup regulars that attended the Most round. He took fourth after a great start in race one and went one better in race two, climbing the podium for the fifth time this year. The reverse-grid race saw Aitken lose lots of track position, but he managed to recover to 12th, ensuring that he leaves Most with a theoretical, if unrealistically slim, shot at the title.

The aforementioned Eurocup regulars were the ones who ran the show this weekend. Manor MP’s Oliver Rowland starred, taking double pole and then cruising to two race victories, with third in the reverse-grid race to round out a great weekend. Lotus juniors Esteban Ocon, Oscar Tunjo and Alex Albon all finished second at some point in the weekend, while Josef Kaufmann Racing drivers Steijn Schothorst and Gustav Malja delivered the team a reverse-grid victory and a podium finish respectively.

Report: Rowland wins first Most race as Parry fails to finish

Report: Rowland doubles up at Most in second NEC race

Report: Schothorst wins race three at Most

Next round: Zandvoort, October 12-13

Formula Abarth

Orsini takes double victory while Rovera extends points lead

A great weekend from Orsini saw him outscore the championship leader over three races (Photo: CSAI-ACI)

The Imola weekend of Formula Abarth racing saw Alessio Rovera take yet another step towards securing the championship title.

Having maintained his perfect qualifying record (with another double pole), the Italian cruised to race one victory as his main rivals, Simone Iaquinta and Michele Beretta, were both severely impeded by on-track incidents. With the duo absent from the top six, it was Dario Orsini who picked up second with National Trophy driver Sergey Trofimov securing third.

Orsini and Rovera continued to star in the reverse-grid race, with the NBC Group driver taking just one lap to take the lead from fifth on the grid. Orsini then eased to victory, Rovera fought his way up to second, while his teammate Giorgio Roda completed the podium. Iaquinta took fourth, as Beretta recorded another retirement.

Rovera’s excellent weekend was a bit undermined by him stalling from pole in race three, which allowed Orsini to snatch the lead and record his second victory in one day. Beretta made up for a terrible weekend up to that point by taking second, keeping a recovering Rovera at bay for the closing stages of the race. Iaquinta, having picked up a drive through, was only seventh yet again.

Rovera leads Beretta by 79 points in the standings, with Iaquinta one point behind the latter. With 58 points available in a given weekend, the championship leader could seal the deal in the upcoming penultimate round of the series.

Report: Rovera dominates first race at Imola

Report: Orsini wins reverse-grid race at Imola

Report: Orsini completes perfect Sunday at Imola

Next round: Misano, September 22

PaddockScout Driver of the Weekend

Maxmilian Gunther

There were lots of standout performances across different categories from the likes of Rowland, Kirchhofer, Markelov and others, but the Mucke driver deserves a special mention. Maximilian Gunther has truly emerged as a brilliant qualifier in ADAC Formel Masters this year, but now he finally has a much-deserved race win to show for it. His reverse-grid performance was a little muted, but a double victory in the feature runs more than makes up for that.

The post Roundup: Ghirelli takes Auto GP lead with Donington victory appeared first on Formula Scout.

Dario Orsini clinched his second Formula Abarth victory in race three at Imola.

The race start was a disaster for polesitter Alessio Rovera as he stalled on the grid. With the fight for the race lead wide open, Orsini overtook both Simone Iaquinta and Michele Beretta, and found himself leading the race.

As the race went on, Rovera quickly recovered to third, and spent the second most of the race trying to pass Beretta. Although he had several opportunities to make the move, he settled for third place, preserving his podium finish.

16-year-old National Trophy driver Sergey Trofimov finished behind the all-Italian top three after making a move on Giorgio Roda in the closing stages of the race. Lukas Moraes took sixth, as Simone Iaquinta only managed seventh because of a drive-through penalty. Vitaly Larionov and Sabino de Castro were the only retirements.

Race results

The post Orsini completes perfect Sunday at Imola appeared first on Formula Scout.

17-year-old Dario Orsini took his maiden win in Formula Abarth after a faultless drive in the reverse-grid second race at Imola.

Starting from fifth, Orsini led the race by the end of the first lap. After a short safety car period, which was caused by an incident involving polesitter Sabino de Castro, Orsini was able to build a healthy gap and was never under threat for the race victory.

Behind the winner, huge fight developed for second, however, mistakes from Sergey Trofimov and Simone Iaquinta let championship leader Alessio Rovera and his teammate Giorgio Roda move into podium positions.

Iaquinta finished fourth, as Vitaly Larionov got away with his third National Trophy victory with finishing narrowly in front of compatriot Trofimov. Lukas Moraes finished seventh, with Michele Beretta being another retirement in the classification.

Race two

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Alessio Rovera converted his seventh pole position into a commanding victory in the first Formula Abarth race of the Imola weekend.

The 18-year-old rookie was consistently quicker than the rest of the field and, unchallenged for the duration of the race, ended up beating second-placed Dario Orsini by 19 seconds to the finish line.

Rovera’s victory became one of his most important wins of this season, as his main rivals, Simone Iaquinta and Michele Beretta, endured races to forget. Beretta stalled on the grid and then ended up in the gravel during his recovery drive, while Iaquinta collided with Giorgio Roda.

National Trophy leader Sergey Trofimov celebrated his second podium in Formula Abarth, as well as his fifth National race victory with his overall third-place finish.

Brazilian Lukas Moraes finished fourth, while Vitaly Larionov passed Sabino De Castro in the late stages of the race for fifth place. Iaquinta and Roda managed to finish the race in seventh and eighth respectively.

Race results

The post Rovera dominates first race at Imola appeared first on Formula Scout.

Championship leader Alessio Rovera collected his seventh and eighth pole position in the seventh and eighth qualiying sessions of the Formula Abarth 2013 season at Imola.

In the first session, Rovera beat Dario Orsini and Michele Beretta by 0.2s and 0.5s respectively. In the second one, it was Beretta who secured a front row start, with Orsini lining up in third.

Outside the top three, the resulting classification wound up identical for both sessions. Simone Iaquinta and Giorgio Roda completed the all-Italian top five in both cases, while Sergey Trofimov maintained his stellar pace from Friday, remaining the best National Trophy class driver. Brazilian Lukas Moraes took seventh, with the grid for both races completed by Sabino de Castro and Vitaly Larionov.

Session one

Session two

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