12 Highlights From Last Weekend’s Motorsport Action

Nico Rosberg suffered a very scary tyre failure on the run to Blanchimont during Belgian Grand Prix practice. He was lucky to keep it out of the wall, and it wasn’t the only tyre problem during the weekend…

2. Picking up the penalties

105 penalties. That is no joke. A new record set by McLaren, and that was even before the race start. The team took advantage of a rule change, meaning instead of mid-race penalties for not using up grid drop positions, drivers would simply go to the back of the grid.

So McLaren changed engines and other components on Friday and Saturday. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button therefore had 55 and 50-place grid penalties. Wow.

Charlie Kimball was on a qualifying lap at Pocono when he lost control of his IndyCar and hit the wall hard. Fortunately he was okay, but the fence was not and caused a delay.

The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono was an accident-filled IndyCar race. Title contender Graham Rahal and Tristan Vautier made contact mid-way through and had a big crash. Rahal wasn’t pleased and so made his feelings clear to Vautier.

Ryan Hunter-Reay won, but it was a muted victory after a horrible accident for Justin Wilson. He was hit in the head by a large piece of debris and is in a critical condition.

During the chaotic IndyCar race, there was also some spectacular racing to report on, like going seven-wide into a corner, or this epic four-car pass by Juan Pablo Montoya.

The World Rally Championship was in Germany last weekend, with Sebastien Ogier winning and edging closer to his third WRC title. Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen made it a VW 1-2-3. Meanwhile WRC treated us to epic SS11 onboard footage from fifth-place man Thierry Neuville’s car. Sit back and enjoy!

Joey Logano won at the Bristol Nascar Sprint Cup series. There was plenty of side-by-side action, as you would expect, but David Ragan found out that three wide doesn’t always work…

Chris Buescher looked on course to win the Nascar Xfinity race at Bristol, but he ran out of fuel on the last lap, giving Kyle Busch an easy run to the flag.

Yes, that really was the name of the Norwegian round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, which took place in the village of Hell. A dominant performance in the finale saw Timmy Hansen take a great win.

10. BTCC at Knockhill

The British Touring Car Championship returned to action at Knockhill in Scotland. It was a dramatic day of racing, with Rob Collard, Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal picking up the victories.

The V8 Supercars were in Sydney, with Chaz Mostert winning the first and third races, and Jamie Whincup victorious in the second event. In wet conditions after Mostert’s second win of the weekend, the drivers put on a pretty epic drift show for the fans!

Rosberg was fortunate to avoid the wall at Blanchimont, but Daniel de Jong was not so lucky after he was squeezed off track in the GP2 feature race.

The huge shunt fractured a vertebrae and de Jong was transferred to hospital, where he underwent surgery. Get well soon! The GP3 races were just as manic…