QUICK LAPSTHE FASTEST NEWS ROUND-UP

Scott Mclaughlin took his maiden Australian Supercars title in the final race of the season in Newcastle last weekend. With title rival Shane van Gisbergen not quick enough to mount a challenge, Mclaughlin let the lingering David Reynolds through with four laps to go to finish second. Van Gisbergen initially won Saturday’s race, pipping Mclaughlin just two corners from the chequered flag, but was handed a 25-second post-race penalty for a pitstop breach, dropping him to fifth… Valtteri Bottas’s Formula 1 race engineer Tony Ross, who worked with Nico Rosberg, will switch to Mercedes’ ABB FIA Formula E programme as chief race engineer. Mercedes will enter the 2019/20 FE season as a full works operation after quitting the DTM… An Aucklandbased consortium has formally launched a bid to bring the ABB FIA Formula E Championship to the New Zealand city in either 2019 or 2020. The consortium, led by Vector Energy, the New Zealand International Convention Centre, the Auckland University of Technology and Drive Electric, will look to stage a race on a yet-to-be-confirmed downtown site... German Formula 3 racer Sophia Florsch flew home on Monday, eight days after her horrific crash in the Macau Grand Prix. The 17-year old has been recuperating following a long operation last Monday to mend a spinal fracture sustained in the shunt, in which she flew over the barriers and fence.