Paddon must fly in Finland
Two Kiwi drivers will take to the fast gravel roads of Rally Finland this weekend at the latest round of both the Junior and World Rally Championship.
WRC driver Hayden Paddon will pilot his Hyundai WRC i20 car with co-driver Seb Marshall from Britain. Dave Holder gets back into his Ford Fiesta with Jason Farmer to tackle the fourth and penultimate round of the JWRC.
Both Paddon and Holder are capable of a podium performance, as Finland’s roads are similar to what they are used to back home in New Zealand.
Paddon and Marshall arrive in Finland fresh from a hard-fought second place at Rally Estonia, which they used as a pre-Finland test.
Finland presents a mix of fast wide roads with narrower technical sections and impressive jumps. With such high speeds, it is one of the hardest rallies for codrivers with a demand on the accurate delivery of pace notes. Time differences are small and there is little opportunity to regain vital seconds if a mistake is made.
Hartley hungry
Brendon Hartley will head to this weekend’s Hungarian F1 Grand Prix satisfied with a sound result in the German Grand Prix on Sunday. It was Hartley’s best performance since starting his F1 career at the US Grand Prix late last season.
Both he and his Scuderia Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly qualified at the back of the field in Germany.
Hartley quietly and efficiently went about his business, taking advantage of the ever-changing weather conditions finishing a credible 10th and scoring his second and very valuable championship point.
Many forget that he is a twice World Endurance Champion and has the talent required to perform as he did in Germany.
Bamber at Spa
The Spa 24-Hour race gets under way this weekend with two Kiwi drivers taking part in the racing activities at the SpaFrancochamps circuit in Belgium.
While Earl Bamber will drive a factory-backed Porsche 911 GT3 R in the feature race, Marcus Armstrong will compete in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship as part of the supporting race programme.
Bamber teams up with Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) to contest the 70th running of the Spa 24-Hour, regarded as one of Europe’s major long-distance classics.
First contested in 1924, the Spa 24-hour race is just one year younger than the most famous classic, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are 68 cars from 13 marques entered with the race getting under way at 16:30 local time on Saturday.
At the halfway stage of the F3 season, Armstrong currently leads the European Formula 3 Championship from his teammate and fellow Toyota Racing Series driver Guanyu Zhou by just one point.
After 12 races, Armstrong has been a consistent performer, standing on the podium six times including his first race win. It is a very closely fought series which boasts six former TRS drivers amongst the field of 24.