Magazine: F1 Azerbaijan GP and Le Mans 24 Hours reviews

A Red Bull victory around Baku and Toyota dominating the 90th Le Mans 24 Hours weren’t surprising results, but there were unexpected moments along the way.

In Azerbaijan, Ferrari’s pace was strong around the high-speed street circuit and, as Matt Kew reports in our analysis, a strategy gamble gave Charles Leclerc an opportunity to snatch a win against the run of play.

Max Verstappen probably would have won anyway, but a fighting second place (and 18 points) on a track that was expected to favour Red Bull wouldn’t have been bad for Ferrari. Another failure, so soon after Leclerc’s Spanish GP retirement and Ferrari’s Monaco GP strategy blunder, is quite another matter…

All of Toyota’s rivals fell away early at Le Mans, but at least the battle between the two GR010 HYBRIDs raged fiercely for much of the distance. Gary Watkins was there to see how Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa took Toyota’s fifth Le Mans success, putting it ahead of Alfa Romeo and Ford.

There was unforeseen drama, too, including a bizarre LMP2 crash involving several leading drivers, plus the final GTE Pro battle at Le Mans. Jamie Klein reports on a contest Corvette could have won, only for misfortune to hand success to Porsche.

There was plenty of action elsewhere and, also covered within our 56 pages of reports, Marcus Simmons covers the British Touring Car Championship round at Oulton Park. Tom Ingram banished his Oulton jinx with two wins, but perhaps the most memorable part of his weekend was an incredible avoidance as a nasty multi-car crash took out several rivals.

It was a big weekend for UK motorsport. News and reports from events at Oulton Park, Knockhill, Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Thruxton, Castle Combe, Snetterton and Mondello Park are included in our 19-page National section, while Marcus Pye argues that it’s time for clubs to work together to amalgamate grids and put on fewer, better meetings.

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