Local young star takes victory at Nurburgring
THE MOTORSPORT LAP/ South African victory at the 24hr race and allegations of team orders in Monaco
We have reason to celebrate this week after a South African won the legendary Nurburgring 24hr race for the first time.
Young racing ace Kelvin van der Linde put in a great race and took the Audi R8 LMS to overall victory in spite of inclement weather conditions. Van der Linde, together with his teammates, Christopher Mies (Germany), Connor De Phillippi (US) and Markus Winkelhock (Germany), won the 45th edition of this endurance race. This if nothing else has shown the tenacity, talent and dedication of the young South African driver and his victory is likely enough to see him, at the very least, nominated as the 2017 South African Motorsportsman of the Year in our opinion.
Van der Linde’s victory even eclipsed one of the glitziest races on the Formula One (F1) calendar, the Monaco GP. It saw the Ferrari team yet again finishing trumps with its leading driver, Sebastian Vettel taking victory. He was followed in second by his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who felt he was hard done by the team as he was leading the race when he was asked to pit five laps earlier than his teammate. This meant that he rejoined the race in heavy traffic, while Vettel, who now had clean air ahead of him, managed to lead the race until the finish.
Valtteri Bottas took his Mercedes-AMG to a credible third spot with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, only mustering seventh place having started in 13th spot on the grid. As it stands Vettel has extended his championship lead with 129 points, followed by Hamilton with 104 and Bottas on 75. What we can glean from this past weekend’s race is that Ferrari has picked its number one driver in Vettel and we are likely to see team orders play out in forthcoming races. The next race will take place in Canada on June 11.
It was also the German leg of the WTCC (World Touring Car Championship) at the iconic Nurburgring track. It was a great weekend for the Volvo Polestar team with Thed Bjork winning the first race. He was followed by Mehdi Bennani (Sebastien Loeb Racing) in second and Rob Huff (Citroen C-Elysee) in third.
“This is an amazing race to win, such a demanding track. I’m happy to win,” said Bjork.
In the second race, it was Nicky Catsburg (Polestar Cyan Racing) that managed to finish ahead of the pack, followed in second position by Norbet Michelisz (Castrol Honda). Third spot, once again, went to Rob Huff who put in a consistent weekend of racing.
Catsburg currently leads the championship with 127 points, closely followed by Tiago Monteiro (Honda Racing Team JAS) on 125 and Bjork on 119.
The next race will take place in Portugal from June 23 to 25.