Pirelli UK Motorsport Newsletter
More rally success in Carlisle for Pirelli
Pirelli celebrated more rallying success in Kielder Forest as Paul Bird and Matt Edwards finished one-two in the ATL Carlisle Stages Rally. Fresh from a podium on Pirelli tyres at Rally Barbados, Bird and co-driver Jack Morton won by 21 seconds after eight stages in their Ford Focus WRC. Edwards, who won the Carlisle-based Pirelli International Rally at the end of April, took second place in his R5-specification Ford Fiesta. Michael Binnie made it a Pirelli lockout of the podium with third overall in his Mitsubishi Evo 9. Sacha Kakad came fifth in his Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta, completing the BTRDA Rally Series podium. Peter Stephenson, Stephen Simpson, Russ Thompson and Ian Bainbridge also made the top 10 on Pirelli tyres. Matthew Robinson won the two-wheel drive event and claimed a first British Historic Rally Championship win in his Pirelli-equipped Ford Escort. Stuart Egglestone and Rudi Lancaster completed the podium.
Farmer credits strategy for Silverstone 500 win with Pirelli
Mark Farmer has credited his TF Sport Aston Martin squad for “playing a blinder” with strategy to help he and Nicki Thiim win the three-hour British GT race at Silverstone on Sunday. Farmer and Thiim scored their second win in three races, and the third consecutive victory for the TF Sport team, after recovering from an early spin caused by contact. “I’m not sure how we did that,” said Farmer afterwards. “The race pace was good, we weren’t making any mistakes and the car was behaving itself, but the main thing was TF Sport playing a blinder on the strategy. “We knew we had good pace, but we also knew it would be tough to overcome our success penalty without factoring in the shunt as well! I’d written it off after the first stint! It’ll be even more difficult at Spa with the 20-second [success] penalty.” Farmer and Thiim have moved up to second in the drivers’ standings, 2.5 points behind Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini duo Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen.
Lundqvist stretches ahead at Silverstone in Pirelli-supplied F3
Linus Lundqvist added to his BRDC British Formula 3 Championship lead at Silverstone with his fourth win in as many rounds. The 19-year-old Swedish driver led the opening race of the weekend from lights to flag, just holding off the late challenge of Kush Maini by 0.392 seconds at the finish. Jordan Cane was also close behind in third. Lundqvist’s team-mate Pavan Ravishankar made it a double win for the Double R Racing outfit as he took out race two from reversed-grid pole. Carlin’s Renault Sport Academy driver Sun Yue Yang was second ahead of Tom Gamble, with Lundqvist making up 11 places to finish sixth. Gamble took his second win of the season in the third and final race after a good getaway from second on the grid. Lundqvist beat Maini once more to finish second, and was pleased again with his weekend’s work. “It's been another very good weekend for us, which is just great,” he said. “Pole position, winning Race 1, a solid Race 2, and then a further podium to cap it off - I couldn't be happier. Our aim was to go away from here with a bigger lead in the championship, and that's exactly what we achieved.”
BMW squad’s delight at Pirelli-equipped British GT success
The BMW M4 GT4 took its second consecutive British GT Championship class win at Silverstone thanks to the Century Motorsport team. Aleksander Schjerpen and Jack Mitchell triumphed in the three-hour Silverstone 500 race after team-mates Ben Tuck and Ben Green had won the second of the two sprint races at Snetterton. “What another amazing result for Century Motorsport and BMW this weekend,” said team boss Nathan Freke. “Silverstone is a track that really suits the BMW and we had high hopes ahead of the race. We had a plan and thought out the strategy very well in preparation. “Being a tree-hour race it’s a very different approach, and one that rewards thinking outside the box a bit. All the drivers had great stints, the team did a fantastic job in the pits and the car was fast and reliable. I’m so pleased and proud of everyone involved to be winning the most prestigious race on the GT calendar. “We’ve got a nice break until Spa now and we will be working hard to make sure we maximise everything and keep the pressure on for results on the top step.”