12 Highlights From Last Weekend’s Brilliant Motorsport Action

One of the best overtakes from the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka was Felipe Nasr and Max Verstappen going wheel-to-wheel while both passing the underpowered McLaren Honda of Jenson Button – amazingly similar to Mika Hakkinen’s pass on Michael Schumacher at the 2000 Belgian GP while passing a backmarker.

2. Classic Ricciardo

For those who watch Sky F1 in the UK, Ted Kravitz does a ‘Notebook’ segment on Saturday and Sunday. Well, as he was interviewing a Red Bull team member, Daniel Ricciardo decided to photobomb his piece. What a legend.

Jorge Lorenzo decreased Valentino Rossi’s lead in the MotoGP standings to just 14 points after a dominant drive at the Aragon Grand Prix in Spain. He started second but moved ahead of Marc Marquez, who crashed shortly after, on lap one. From there he was unchallenged, with Dani Pedrosa winning an epic battle for second with Rossi.

Nascar was at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend for the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. A big crash for Danica Patrick brought out the red flag, after her car was collected by David Regan. When the race got back underway it was Matt Kenseth who took victory, after Kevin Harvick ran out of fuel with two laps to go.

Brian Scott and Darrell Wallace Jr were involved in a heated argument after the Nascar Xfinity race at the Kentucky Speedway. The two made contact during the race, which was won by Ryan Blaney.

6. Silverstone madness

The British Touring Car Championship was in action at the Silverstone circuit, with three typically action-packed races. Mat Jackson, Andy Priaulx and Colin Turkington shared the victories. Gordon Shedden scored three top five results and extended his lead in the standings.

The DTM series was at the Nurburgring, with two chaotic races packed full of incidents. Race one was won by BMW’s Maxime Martin, who started second but barged through into the lead on the opening lap.

The second race saw Miguel Molina start first. Despite a safety car and drama behind, the Audi driver dominated to win by over seven seconds.

FIA World Touring Car Championship qualifying was delayed to Sunday morning after this big hit in the GT Asia Series support race at the Shanghai International Circuit. Incredibly the McLaren driver, Rod Salmon, was unharmed.

As always in touring cars, the WTCC races were pretty crazy. Lap one of the first event was full of chaos but Jose Maria Lopez avoided it all to take victory, while Yvan Muller held off Gabriele Tarquini to win race two.

The Formula Renault 3.5 series was at the short version of the Le Mans track, with Andre Negrao and Yu Kanamaru providing the most dramatic moment of the weekend when contact between the two sent the former into a roll in the second race. Oliver Rowland and Egor Orudzhev took the wins.

11. Champions crowned

With the end of the motorsport season edging closer, a few championships were wrapped up last weekend. Rowland clinched the FR3.5 title, becoming the first British driver to do so, despite finishing the second Le Mans race in eighth. Meanwhile Felix Rosenqvist claimed the Formula 3 European Championship crown with a win in the final race at the Nurburgring.

Finally, this rather odd crash happened during the Porsche Carrera Cup France race. Contact caused Jules Gounon to end up on top of Joffrey De Narda’s car!