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Sutton takes early BTCC lead after Donington Park opener

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BTCC
Donington Park (National Circuit)
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IndyCar
Long Beach
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WEC
Imola
How "making no mistakes" was pivotal in Toyota pipping Ferrari at WEC 2026 opener

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Formula 1
Miami GP
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BTCC Donington Park: Sutton storms to final victory of opening weekend

BTCC
Donington Park (National Circuit)
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WEC
Imola
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Horner insists RBR not unbeatable

Red Bull Racing thinks it is far too early for anyone to claim it is unbeatable this year, despite another dominant victory for Sebastian Vettel in the Turkish Grand Prix

Vettel took his third win of the season with a comfortable triumph at Istanbul that further extends his lead at the head of the world championship standings.

And although Red Bull's rivals are scratching their heads about what they can do to catch up with the pacesetter quick enough to keep their title hopes alive, the Milton Keynes-based outfit does not think its advantage is as big as others are making out.

"The bottom line is that things can change so quickly," said team principal Christian Horner. "Fernando [Alonso] gave us a hard time in Turkey and nobody else seemed to be in the same ballpark. But two weeks or three weeks ago it was McLaren and then it looked like Mercedes had made a step.

"So once you hit the sweet spot there is quite a big performance return from that, and I think we cannot afford to be complacent. We will just keep our heads down, keep trying to optimise and keep trying to learn and get performance to the car.

"This was our 18th win in two and a bit years, so we have come a long way and we are building on that experience."

He added: "It is fantastic to be heading to Barcelona with a 43-point lead in the constructors' championship, and Sebastian is 34 points clear in the drivers'. That is fantastic.

"But as we all know, those points can vanish pretty quickly. We gave away 43 points pretty easily in Turkey last year, so this was a very sweet victory here to achieve a one-two 12 months on."

Horner believes that Red Bull Racing's form this year is being helped in a large part by Vettel's increasing maturity - as the young German has ironed out the mistakes that proved so costly at times throughout 2010.

"I think that Sebastian has just got the benefit of experience now," he explained. "He is the reigning world champion, but he doesn't see that as a pressure, he is enjoying that and he is in phenomenal form. He has a good understanding of how the tyres work, what he needs from them and what they need, and here he was really very, very impressive."

Horner is also confident that Red Bull Racing has almost got on top of all the KERS problems that proved its Achilles Heel in the opening races of the season.

"We have made a good step forward this weekend," he said. "We had a trouble free run with Seb here and we had one small issue with Mark [Webber] because he was pushing the system pretty hard when he was racing Fernando.

"But definitely modifications have been made as we have learned more about the technology, and it has definitely paid dividends this weekend."

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