Porsche Carrera Cup North America
Tom Sargent found himself on the podium once again during the third round of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America over the weekend, as the series featured as a sub-category at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
After qualifying in fourth place, the first race of the weekend saw the former Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia winner drop back to fifth after slight contact with the wall on the opening lap.
Sargent then made a move on lap three where a podium finish was back in sights, before a couple of on-track incidents resulted in a full course yellow-flag, moving the New South Welshman up into second place on the restart.
The leader, Riley Dickenson had damage from an earlier incident but was able to hold on ahead of Sargent as the Aussie crossed the line in second.
A run of five consecutive runner-up finishes came to an end in race two, after the Australian was rear-ended towards the back-end of the race which saw him fall right back down to P21.
The next round of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America will take place at Watkins Glen International in New York on 22-25 June.
GB3
Costa Toparis came away from the GB3 second round with a handful of points after taking the track at the world-famous Silverstone Circuit.
After claiming fourth place in a wet and slippery qualifying session, Toparis was unable to move up the grid during the opening race as he fell back to sixth on the track, but a five second penalty dropped him even further down to eighth.
The 16-year-old was able to improve to sixth place in the second race of the weekend, before his third race saw him finish in 14th after the grid was reversed.
At the conclusion of the weekend, Toparis sits in ninth in the standings, but is well in the thick of it with 18 races still remaining in the season. The GB3 Championship will now make its way to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on 3-4 June.
British F4
Jimmy Piszcyk and Patrick Heuzenroeder were both in action during the British Formula 4 Championship’s second round at Brands Hatch with the former enjoying a better run across the weekend.
A strong field of 20 drivers were racing across the weekend as Piszcyk ended the round with a pair of top 10 finishes to move up the standings.
The New South Welshman started off with a seventh place in the opening race but finished outside of the points in the reverse grid race, making up just one place to cross the line in 10th.
In the final outing, Piszcyk made up a place from his race one finish and crossed the line in sixth place and just three tenths of a second off the fifth placed Jaden Pariat.
As for Heuzenroeder, the youngster came remarkably close to scoring championship points with 11th place finishes in both race one and three, while ending up 18th in the reverse grid race.
His opener was his best result of the weekend as he missed out on a top 10 finish by just two tenths of a second, while he was eight tenths off in the final race.
The British F4 Championship continues later this month at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit on 20-21 May.
Spanish F4
British F4 round one winner Noah Lisle switched championships for the weekend as the West Australian led a three-pronged Aussie charge in the Spanish F4 Championship.
With the round held at the famous Spa-Francorchamps, Lisle ended up the season-opening round with a pair of top 10 finishes before an unfortunate DNF in the final race lost him valuable ground on the early championship contenders.
In the opening race, Lisle actually crossed the line in fourth place, but a red-flag interrupted ending saw the race officially classified two laps earlier – pushing Lisle back down to sixth.
In the second race, Lisle finished where he started in fifth before the DNF in the final race left him sitting eighth in the championship standings.
Finishing the weekend two spots behind the 16-year-old was his Rodin Carlin teammate in Alex Ninovic – the two-time Australian Karting champion enjoying an impressive single-seater debut.
Starting off with the high of finishing P5 and a rookie podium in the opening race, Ninovic then had a DNF in the reverse-grid race after contact with another driver saw him getting turned around just a few laps from the chequered flag.
The youngster then bounced back in style, climbing from P22 to P10 in the final race of the weekend to grab a point towards his championship charge.
Griffin Peebles was the final Aussie in action and the rookie had a bit of a harder time during the round, finishing all three races in P17.
The Spanish F4 Championship resumes later this month at MotorLand Aragón on 27-28 May.
Italian F4
It’s been a mixed weekend for the Aussies competing in the Italian F4 Championship, with James Wharton enjoying the best pool of results of the trio.
The Ferrari Driver Academy driver had a solid start to the round at Misano World Circuit, having picked up second row starts in both qualifying sessions.
The Victorian then enjoyed two podiums in races one and two, with a third place in the opener and a runner-up finish in the second.
Sitting fourth in the third and final race, Wharton got a puncture after being hit by another driver which sent him to the back of the field – the P28 finish leaving him eighth on the championship standings.
Gianmarco Pradel and Jack Beeton were the other drivers racing across the weekend and it was Pradel who enjoyed the better run of results with two top-10s.
A P9 in race one and a P10 in race two made it three consecutive point-scoring races for Pradel, however the young New South Welshman’s run came to an end in the final after finishing 12th.
It was still a highly decent weekend for him as he made up six places in race two and seven in race three.
Unfortunately, Beeton had the toughest run of the lot with a pair of P17s and a DNF rounding out his weekend.
The Italian F4 Championship continues at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on 26-28 May.
