Butler-Henderson back in charge of Pirelli MINI series
Charlie Butler-Henderson rejoined the title fight for the Pirelli-backed Power Maxed MINI Challenge with a victory and a second place at last weekend’s MINI Festival at Oulton Park in Cheshire.
Butler-Henderson, who missed the last round at Brands Hatch in June, qualilfied his car on pole in the leading Gen 3 F56 class before going on to win race one ahead of William Phillips and Lee Pattison, while erstwhile series leader David Grady was fourth. From third on the grid Pattison then won race two from Butler-Henderson with Grady making the podium this time in third.
Title rivals Neil Newstead and Hamish Brandon continued their battle in the secondary JCW class. Brandon got ahead of Newstead for the race one win with Kevin O’Connor third, before Newstead turned the tables in race two to win from O’Connor with Brandon third.
The festival also included races for the separate MINI Cooper class, where Nathan Harrison was able to pull out an advantage over one-time points leader Ricky Page. Harrison won race one ahead of poleman Simon Walton and title contender Mark Wakefield, while Page was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding the track limits and finished fifth. Worse was to come when Page was excluded from race two, with Wakefield winning ahead of Henry Neal and Harrison.
The next races for all three classes will be held at Donington Park on September 19-20.
Steele heads Pirelli runners in MSVR F3 Cup
Grays Motorsport driver Aaron Steele has a healthy lead in the Pirelli-supported MSVR F3 Cup heading to this weekend’s penultimate round at Brands Hatch.
The Rochester-based racer holds a 78-point advantage in the standings over Chris Dittmann Racing’s (CDR) Stuart Wiltshire following two second-place finishes behind dominant guest driver Zach Claman de Melo in the last round at Snetterton. Steele has not finished off the podium so far this season and won twice when the series last visited the Kent circuit in May.
In the team standings CDR has a huge lead over second-placed Omicron Motorsport, with Adrian Holey the runaway leader in the Trophy class. This weekend’s races will be run on the full Grand Prix circuit as oppose to the Indy circuit used earlier this season.
Q&A: Paul Hembery
Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery on the company’s role in Formula One and how its Didcot-based ‘centre of excellence’ plays a key part in hundreds of motorsport championships worldwide.
How has the Formula One season gone so far, now that we’re at the traditional mid-season break? PH: “It’s been very good. I think you only have to look at the last two grands prix to see how exciting and unpredictable the sport can be. Mercedes have certainly been very strong, but it would be wrong to suggest that they’re going to have it all their own way this year.”
Have you been happy with the performance of the tyres? PH: “Generally yes. As is always the case there are one or two things that you might do a bit differently, but we’re talking about detail changes. There’s been a step up in performance with the cars this year, but that step has perhaps been slightly less than we anticipated, which has led to a few one-stop races. We’d prefer between two and three stops per race, but I think you’ll see this happening on a more regular basis in the second half of the season.”
Pirelli is an Italian team but a lot of the race personnel are based in Didcot in the UK. Does that make things complicated? PH: “Not at all. Our Didcot operation is a vital part of the Formula One programme, but we also service plenty of other motorsport championships from there, which is why we call it our ‘centre of excellence’. As a company, we actually supply nearly 300 motorsport championships worldwide. With motorsport expertise being a calling card of the UK, and seven of the Formula One teams currently based there, it made sense to have a UK home.”
What would you do to improve Formula One for the future? PH: “I honestly don’t think there’s a huge amount that needs to be changed with the actual formula, but as a general point it would be good for fans have better access to the drivers and for the drivers to be able to show their personalities more and become real global superstars. It’s also always worth having a discussion about the format of a race weekend – this might be something that the sport would want to change in the future.”
