Motorsport Roundup: Jehan Daruvala Bounces Back In F2 And The Weirdest Win For Hamilton

F2 

It was a weekend of two halves for Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala in round 4 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Silverstone. The first half was tough with a 12th place finish in the feature race. But the sprint race saw the Indian driver score a season-best 4th after a late safety car and fresh tyres saw a sublime charge through the field. Until the sprint race, Daruvala had a streak of bad starts going back to the previous round in Hungary. Issues with the clutch that appeared to have been resolved by the sprint race seemed to be hampering the 21-year old. Clutch-related issues have been reported on the current generation of F2 cars since they were introduced in 2018. As F1’s official support and feeder series, F2 will return to Silverstone next week for round 5 of the season from August 7-9. 

Formula One

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes may have continued their stranglehold on the 2020 season in round four of the F1 World Championship at Silverstone, but it ended up being anything but a straightforward win. Hamilton was one of three drivers to suffer a left-front tyre failure. Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren-Renault’s Carlos Sainz’s tyre also delaminated. However, Red Bull Racing-Honda’s Max Verstappen failed to capitalise on the tyre failure which resulted in a window of opportunity for him.  Red Bull had committed to the Dutchman stopping on the penultimate lap for a fresh set of tyres to set the fastest lap of the race and claim an extra world championship point. Verstappen finished second while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished on the podium thanks to Bottas having to pit after his tyre failure. 

MotoGP

 

While there was a week’s break for on-track action, a lot went down behind the scenes. The 2020 calendar has undergone further revisions as races at Thailand, Sepang and Argentina have been cancelled. Instead, it has been revealed that another race will join the calendar between November 20 and 22 at a European venue. Details of the host venue will be revealed on August 10, but reports suggest it may be the Algarve circuit at Portimao. 

WRC

In the world of off-road motorsports, a change was announced to the 2020 World Rally Championship. The fifth round of the season, Rally Turkey, will now run from September 18-20 instead of the original September 24-27 schedule. This date change provides an opportunity to add races to the calendar between  Rally Turkey and the sixth round at Rallye Deutschland that is scheduled for October 15-18. 

Image Source 1- James Gasperotti

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