Motorsport Roundup: F1 And F2 At Silverstone, WEC Monza 6Hrs And WRC Rally Estonia

There wasn’t any dearth of racing action over the past seven days, amongst a variety of motorsport disciplines. They included Formula One and Formula 2 racing at Silverstone, the World Endurance Championship at Monza, as well as the WRC Estonia Rally. Here’s all about it:

Formula One 

The 2021 British Grand Prix didn’t really need the new sprint qualifying format to throw up a thriller race. It all started with a dramatic clash between the Red Bull Honda of Max Verstappen and the Mercedes of Hamilton on the opening lap. With title Verstappen taken out of the race as a result, Hamilton overcame a 10-second time penalty for the incident to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with just two laps to go and take a thrilling eighth home race win. Teammate Valtteri Bottas rounded off the podium with a third place finish. The repercussions were huge in the title race, with Hamilton only eight points off Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, and Mercedes just four points adrift of Red Bull Honda in the constructors standings. 

Off-track, Formula One unveiled the radical full-scale version of the cars that will debut in the 2022 season. This new breed of cars will come with simplified aerodynamics, ground effect, 18-inch wheels and so much more. Of course the model showcased is F1’s take on the new technical regulations, with the teams most likely taking a different design route for the 2022 cars.

Formula 2

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It was a race weekend to forget for Jehan Daruvala at the fourth round of the 2021 Formula 2 Championship at Silverstone, UK. The first couple of sprint races yielded a 12th place finish and an incident filled 19th place, with the Indian driver having some consolation in the feature race with a 10th place finish. Next up will be Monza that will host the fifth round of the season, scheduled to run from September 10-12. 

WEC

While Toyota Gazoo Racing triumphed for the third time in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season, winning the hypercar class at Monza 6Hrs, it wasn’t without drama. The No.7 Toyota trio of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez  had a technical issue during the penultimate hour, but they managed to comeback and win ahead of the no.36 Alpine trio of Mattheiu Vaxiviere, Nicolas Lapierre and Andre Negrao. Glikenhaus rounded off the podium with the no.709 car of Romain Dumas, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux. 

WRC 

The seventh round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship season in Rally Estonia saw a surprise maiden win from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Kalle Rovanpera, becoming the youngest ever WRC winner at the age of 20. Following him home in second and third place were the two Hyundais of Craig Breen, and Thierry Neuville.  The Toyota of Sebastian Ogier continues to hold the lead in the driver’s standings over teammate Elfyn Evans, with Toyota leading Hyundai in the manufacturers standings to 59 points.

Next week, will see DTM return to racing action at the Lausitzring, with Formula E having a double-header at London.