Moto2 ; Zarco triomphe devant les Catalans à Montmeló / Zarco victorious in epic Moto2™ last lap battle

Johann Zarco a décroché sa seconde victoire de la saison en s’imposant devant les Barcelonais Álex Rins et Tito Rabat chez eux à Montmeló.

Passé de la pole position à la sixième place dès le premier tour, Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) a dû mener un travail de longue haleine pour rattraper un à un ses adversaires et revenir au niveau de Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) et d’Álex Rins (Páginas Amarillas HP 40) juste avant la fin de la course.

Passé devant Rins au début d’un excellent dernier tour, le Français a fini par s’emparer de la première place devant Rabat sans laisser aucune chance de contre-attaquer à ce dernier, qui est plus tard parti à la faute et a concédé la deuxième place à Rins. 

La petite erreur de Rabat faisait les affaires de Zarco puisque sa victoire, combinée à la troisième place du Champion en titre, lui permet de compter 40 points d’avance sur Rabat à l’issue des sept premières manches de la saison 2015. 

Après un bon début de course, Sam Lowes (Speed Up Racing) a perdu en rythme et a dû se contenter de finir quatrième, avec une confortable avance sur Luis Salom (Páginas Amarillas HP 40), Tom Lüthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten) et Jonas Folger (AGR Team), qui était descendu en quatorzième position dans le premier tour. 

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Johann Zarco mounts a spectacular comeback to take his second win of the season on the very last lap at the Catalan GP.

Zarco bounced back superbly from a close incident at the first corner involving Dominique Aegerter and Jonas Folger to deny reigning World Champion Tito Rabat a second successive victory in front of his passionate home crowd.

The Frenchman, who led Rabat in the Moto2™ World Championship standings by 31-points before the race, fought his way through the pack before catching the leading group and making a block pass on Rabat at turn 5 on the last lap to snatch victory.

With glorious sunshine and track temperatures reaching 46°C it was Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Rabat that led the race into the first corner. Sam Lowes and Aegerter joined Rabat in the leading trio, and it did not take long for Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins to join fight his way into victory contention.  Both Rins and Lowes took it in turn to lead, but Lowes was unable to maintain his pace and he eventually finished fourth for a third race in succession.

All the time Zarco was hunting down the lead group, eventually overtaking Lowes and catching Rabat and Rins with three laps to go. Rins ran wide at turn 4 with just two laps to go, leaving Rabat and Zarco to battle it out on the final lap.

Zarco made his decisive move at turn 5, and while pushing to regain the lead, Rabat ran wide at turn 10 to see his hopes of a 12th Moto2 win disappear.

Zarco crossed the line unchallenged to take his second race win of the season and extend his championship lead over Rabat to 40 points.

Rabat’s late mistake let Rins through to take his third podium of the season in second.

Lowes took fourth, ahead of Rins’ teammate Luis Salom in fifth and Derendinger Racing Interwetten’s Thomas Luthi in sixth. Folger, (AGR Team) who was also involved in the incident at the first corner, mounted a brilliant recovery from 14th to take seventh.

Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten) and Lorenzo Baldassari (Athina Forward Racing) completed the top ten.

There were crashes for Ricard Cardus, Robin Mulhauser, and Ratthapark Wilairot on his return to the Moto2™ class. Sandro Cortese and Xavier Simeon crashed out at turn 4 on the first lap, with an incident involving Morbidelli and Axel Pons (AGR Team) at the same corner was under investigation by Race Direction.

Check out the full Moto2™ race results, and the latest World Championship standings.

MotoGP : Lorenzo encore intouchable à Montmeló et à un point de Rossi / The Lorenzo Effect

Jorge Lorenzo est revenu à un point de son coéquipier Valentino Rossi en s’imposant devant l’Italien à Barcelona-Catalunya.

Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a battu l’un de ses records personnels en s’imposant pour la quatrième fois de suite en MotoGP™ au Grand Prix Monster Energy de Catalogne et demeure invaincu en Europe cette année. Après avoir été absent du podium lors des trois premières manches au Qatar, au Texas puis en Argentine, le Majorquin avait conquis l’Espagne, la France et l’Italie avant d’à nouveau s’imposer en solitaire à Montmeló, où il compte désormais quatre victoires en MotoGP™.

Qualifié en première ligne derrière Aleix Espargaró et Maverick Viñales du Team Suzuki Ecstar, le double Champion du Monde MotoGP™ est passé en tête dès le départ et a vite creusé l’écart. Parti septième, Rossi a lui aussi bien réussi son début de course et était déjà remonté jusqu’à la deuxième place au bout de quatre tours. Lorenzo était cependant déjà loin devant et malgré tous ses efforts, Rossi n’a jamais suffisamment réduit l’écart pour rivaliser avec son coéquipier pour la victoire. 

En finissant deuxième et sur le podium pour onzième course consécutive en comptant les quatre dernières de la saison 2014, Rossi ne concédait cependant que cinq points à son coéquipier et conservait la tête du classement général, qu’il occupe depuis le début de l’année, avec une petite longueur d’avance sur Lorenzo. 

À dix-huit secondes de Rossi, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) a pris la troisième place et accédait au podium pour la première fois de l’année. Opéré de l’avant-bras droit peu après la première course au Qatar, le Catalan avait manqué trois épreuves avant de reprendre la compétition et obtenait donc un résultat extrêmement important pour sa carrière mais aussi pour Honda, qui n’avait qu’une seule moto dans le Top 10 à l’arrivée.

Tombé quinze jours plus tôt au Mugello, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) a de nouveau chuté, dans le troisième tour, alors qu’il était très bien parti de la deuxième ligne et occupait la seconde position. Suite à son troisième abandon de la saison, le Champion en titre, qui n’avait jamais manqué le podium trois fois de suite en MotoGP™, se retrouve à 69 points de Rossi et n’a qu’un point d’avance sur le premier pilote satellite, Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3).

Márquez n’est que l’un des nombreux pilotes à être tombé puisque Cal Crutchlow (CWM LCR Honda) avait chuté avant lui, dès le premier tour, tandis que Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) est tombé trois tours après l’Espagnol et n’a lui non plus pas pu repartir. 

La chute de l’Italien avait permis à Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar) de remonter à la troisième position suite à un départ très décevant. Le Catalan n’a cependant pas pu résister face à Pedrosa et a malheureusement fini par lui aussi chuter, à quelques tours de l’arrivée, alors qu’il était quatrième et allait obtenir un résultat important pour Suzuki après avoir signé la toute première pole position de la GSX-RR. 

Andrea Iannone (Ducati), désormais troisième du classement général, et Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) en ont profité pour prendre les quatrième et cinquième places, devant Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar), qui avait, comme son coéquipier, manqué son départ mais finissait avec son meilleur résultat depuis son arrivée en MotoGP™.

Complétaient le Top 10 Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Stefan Bradl (Athinà Forward Racing), qui s’imposait pour la première fois en catégorie Open, Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) et Álvaro Bautista (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), pour la première fois dans le Top 10 avec la RS-GP.

Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team), Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team), Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3) et Yonny Hernández (Octo Pramac Racing) ayant abandonné, Jack Miller (CWM LCR Honda), Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team), Loris Baz (Athinà Forward Racing), Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) et Alex De Angelis (E-Motion IodaRacing Team) ont pris les points de la onzième à la quinzième places, les premiers de l’année pour Di Meglio comme pour De Angelis.

Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing) était le dernier pilote à l’arrivée et était seizième.

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A dominant Jorge Lorenzo works his magic to match Mike Hailwood’s record of 37 premier class victories at the Catalan GP.

Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo has been simply unstoppable in the last four races. After an awful start to the season that saw him plagued by issues for the first three races, no one has had an answer to the Spaniards pace since.

At the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, local hero Lorenzo made it four consecutive race wins and equalled Mike Hailwood’s record of 37 premier class victories in front of 97,000 partisan fans.

This is the first time Lorenzo has managed to win four races in a row, and in achieving this feat he also broke Casey Stoner's record for the most laps led consecutively in a race (83), with Lorenzo having now managed to lead the last 103 laps across the line.

Although Lorenzo appeared to be in complete control, he revealed afterwards that was not the case: “To be honest, the last ten laps of today‘s race were probably one of the most hard and intense laps of my career. Valentino was very fast and knowing that the track was really hot and there was less grip than yesterday, I‘m happy with the results.”

The only person who could get anywhere near Lorenzo during the race was his teammate Rossi. Lorenzo must have experienced Déjà vu when his pit board told him Rossi was closing on him during the latter stages in a scene reminiscent of the 2009 race, when the Italian beat him at the very last corner: “When he reduced the gap from 2.0s to 1.4s I was really worried that I would lose this race. I needed to push and risk more while the bike was already moving a lot, which is what I did in the last ten laps.”

Rossi himself admitted he had, once again, given Lorenzo too much of a head start: “I was good in the beginning of the race when I was overtaking and I was fast, but it was not enough, because when I arrived to the second position Jorge already had a 1.5s gap. It‘s a great shame because I had the pace to fight with him and I could have been very strong in a battle, because I was very strong in braking.

Rossi, however, does appear to be getting closer to his teammate’s pace: “I am happy as I had a good pace, good setting, my speed is equal in the race today to Jorge, that is a good target. After seven races, we have one point difference and a similar pace, so it will be interesting I think!”

Lorenzo now trails Rossi by just one point in the Championship standings, in what appears to be turning into a two horse race. The problem is, unless Rossi can find a solution to his Qualifying woes, he will find it hard to catch Lorenzo come race day.

Someone who felt the full effect of Lorenzo’s race-pace was Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez. Marquez was the one rider who had looked like he might be able to stick with Lorenzo during the race. The Spanish rider, however, crashed out on just the third lap as he tried to keep up: “I tried to give 100% at my home race but I made a mistake trying to push too much, as I wanted to do well – at all costs – and these things can happen.”

The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion’s hopes of a third consecutive title now seem in tatters, as he is currently fifth in the standings, 69 points behind Rossi with just 11 races remaining.

To emphasise the apparent gulf in class between the Factory Yamaha’s and the rest of the field, Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa crossed the line in third over 18.5s behind the duo. Pedrosa took his first podium of the season, matching Mick Doohan’s record of 95 premier podiums in the process, as he continues his comeback from arm pump surgery: “I am very happy because it has been a very long process, we struggle a lot, suffer a lot in the last months, everything looked against me. I followed my heart and this was the right thing to do. I have made positive progress with each round. But finally some good results, especially in front of the home crowd was great.”

Although the former 125cc and 250cc World Champion is under no illusions about the task at hand: “It was impossible to follow Jorge and Valentino, because they were far ahead in terms of performance. We will try to pull back the gap a little for the coming races and see if in testing tomorrow we can find something positive – and understand the situation better.”

The rest of the paddock will have a chance to try to close the gap on the Factory Yamaha team at the official test on Monday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Check out the full MotoGP™ race results, next up is the Motul TT Assen on the 27th June.

24H du Mans : Un nouveau triomphe pour Porsche et Michelin / a resounding triumph for Porsche/Michelin!

Quinze mois environ après son retour en Endurance, Porsche Team a renoué avec son glorieux passé aux 24 Heures du Mans. Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber et Nick Tandy ont conduit leur Porsche 919 Hybrid sur la plus haute marche du podium, alors que la N°17 (Bernhard/Webber/Hartler) a assuré le doublé pour le constructeur allemand. Porsche met un terme à cinq années de domination Audi au Mans, mais la firme d’Ingolstadt monte tout de même sur le podium avec l’Audi R18 e-tron quattro N°7. Victoire de Corvette/Michelin en LM GTE Pro, de Ferrari/Michelin en LM GTE Am, et de KCMG en LM P2.

Hulkenberg, Bamber et Tandy étaient peut-être les moins expérimentés des équipages Porsche cette année aux 24 Heures du Mans (avec deux rookies), mais ils ont livré une course parfaite pour remporter la 83^e édition des 24 Heures du Mans.

Leur Porsche 919 Hybrid N°19 fut pratiquement le seul prototype d’usine à ne pas avoir connu le moindre souci technique au cours des 395 tours (5383,45 km) parcourus. Cette 17^e victoire de Porsche arrive… 17 ans après le dernier succès de Porsche au Mans en 1998.

Bernhard/Webber/Hartley ont assuré le 12^e doublé de Porsche sur la course mancelle. La marque avait même monopolisé les huit premières places lors de l’édition 1983.

Alors que Toyota, et surtout Nissan, ont eu du mal à trouver le rythme, la course s’est très vite résumée en un duel Audi/Porsche, et bien malin celui qui pouvait livrer un pronostic tandis que la course s’enfonçait dans la nuit. Après une série de quadruples relais, la Porsche N°19 a pris définitivement la tête de la course dimanche matin à 6h30. Elle a ensuite maintenu sa position jusqu’au drapeau à damier.

« C’est beaucoup d’émotions de gagner au Mans avec Porsche Team. Je suis extrêmement heureux », a déclaré Hulkenberg sur la ligne d’arrivée. « Nous avons fourni un très gros travail avant cette course et on n’a pas laissé échapper l’opportunité de gagner. »

Pour la première fois depuis 2009, Audi doit se contenter du podium avec la N°7 (Fässler/Tréluyer/Lotterer) qui termine 3^e à 2 tours. Les trois R18 e-tron quattro ont rencontré des soucis mécaniques. Rien de sérieux, mais suffisant pour ruiner leurs chances de victoire. Audi peut se consoler avec le nouveau record du tour établi en course réalisé par André Lotterer en 3min17s475. L’Audi N°8 et la Porsche N°18 complètent le top-five à 3 et 4 tours.

En LMGTE Pro et Am, la course a tenu en haleine les 263 500 spectateurs présents sur le circuit. Après avoir perdu une Corvette C7/R aux essais qualificatifs jeudi, Corvette Racing a signé une superbe victoire avec la N°64 de Gavin/Milner/Taylor, à l’issue d’un long duel avec la Ferrari N°51 AF Corse, laquelle a conclu à la 3^e place derrière la Ferrari N°71. Les Aston Martin Vantage ont animé le début de course.

En LMGTE Am, l’Aston Martin N°98 a mené pratiquement de bout en bout jusqu’à quelques minutes de l’arrivée où elle fut victime d’une sortie de piste. La victoire est revenue à la Ferrari N°72 (Shaytar/Bertolini/Basov) devant la Porsche N°77 de l’acteur américain Patrick Dempsey !

Enfin, l’équipe KCMG, basée à Hong-Kong, a dominé la semaine mancelle avec l’Oreca05-Nissan N°47 (Howson/Bradley/Lapierre). Après une série d’incidents dimanche matin, la Gibson-Nissan N°38 Jota Sport et la Ligier JS P2 G-Drive Racing montent sur le podium qui accueille trois constructeurs différents.

La 84^e édition des 24 Heures du Mans se déroulera les 18/19 juin 2016.

Barely 15 months after its return to world class endurance racing, Porsche Team has returned to its former winning ways at Le Mans. Nico Hülkenberg (DE), Earl Bamber (NZ) and Nick Tandy (GB) steered their N°19 Michelin-equipped 919 Hybrid to an emphatic victory, while the N°17 sister car made it a one-two success for the German make. The result breaks Audi’s recent sequence of five wins and the Ingolstadt firm had to settle for third place. There were class wins for Corvette/Michelin (LM GTE Pro), Ferrari/Michelin (Am) and KCMG (LM P2).

Hülkenberg, Bamber and Tandy may well have formed Porsche Team’s least experienced trio at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours (the first two were even ‘rookies’), but they produced a near-flawless performance to take the laurels at the Circuit de La Sarthe today.

Their N°19 Porsche 919 Hybrid was the only factory prototype to enjoy an essentially trouble-free race and they pushed home their reliability advantage to win by a margin of one lap after completing 395 laps (5,383,455km) in total. This is the make’s 17^th victory at Le Mans and comes 17 years after its last in 1998.

                             

Bernhard/Webber/Hartley (+1 lap) were second over the line, and that’s the 12^th time Porsches have monopolised at least the top two places in the French classic. The brand’s cars even filled the top eight slots back in 1983.

While Toyota and, notably, newcomers Nissan struggled for pace, the race rapidly turned into a tense Audi/Porsche battle and it was anybody’s guess which one would triumph as they diced throughout the hours of darkness. In the end, it was the N°19 car that emerged from the night in the fittest form to appear in front at 6:30am today. It then defended its advantage to the flag where its three drivers were greeted by a typical Le Mans hero’s welcome.

“It’s very, very nice to be here today with this great Porsche team. I’m very happy,” beamed Hülkenberg at the finish. “We had a lot of work to do coming here but we saw an opportunity to win and we took it!”

For the first time since 2009, Audi had to make do with podium honours, this time with its N°7 car (3^rd, +2 laps) after all three R18 e-tron quattros collected problems – nothing serious but enough to put them out of contention. Three-time past winner Lotterer (N°7 Audi) can take some comfort from his fastest race lap (3m17.476s, Lap 337) which establishes a new record for the circuit in its current form.

The top five was rounded out by the N°8 Audi (+3 laps) and the N°18 Porsche (+4 laps).

The LM GTE Pro and Am battles provided plenty of entertainment for the 263,500 spectators, too. The top prize in the former ended up in the hands of the N°64 Corvette of Gavin/Milner/Taylor after a long, long duel with the N°51 Ferrari which eventually came 3^rd (+7 laps) after a late mechanical problem. Second was the N°71 Ferrari (+5 laps), while the early pace-setting Aston Martins retired or fell back with a variety of issues.

This class win is a nice reward for the Americans at Corvette Racing GM who lost their N°63 car in a big qualifying smash on Thursday.

There was a dramatic finale to the Am contest which seemed to be heading to the N°98 Aston Martin/Michelin. Cruelly, it crashed into a tyre wall with the chequered flag in sight. The victory was scooped by the N°72 Ferrari (Shaytar/Bertolini/Basov), while American heartthrob Patrick Dempsey came second in the N°77 Porsche (+1 lap).

Finally, hats off to Hong Kong-based KCMG which seemed destined to pick up the LM P2 trophy all week. Its pole-winning Oreca05-Nissan (Howson/Bradley/Lapierre) topped the class’s leaderboard practically from start to finish, although the suspense was maintained by a couple of off-track excursions on Sunday morning. It survived these scares to head home the N°38 Gibson (Jota Sport, +48s) and the N°26 Ligier (G-Drive Racing, +1m47s) which made it three different constructors on today’s podium.

WRC, Sardaigne : Hat-trick sarde pour Ogier / a Sardinian hat-trick for Ogier

Sébastien Ogier et Volkswagen/Michelin ont remporté leur troisième Rallye d’Italie-Sardaigne consécutif. L’équipe Hyundai Motorsports a marqué cette édition 2015 en plaçant deux pilotes – Hayden Paddon (2e) et Thierry Neuville (3e) – sur le podium.

Hormis le doublé historique réalisé en Allemagne l’an passé, l’équipe Hyundai Motorsports a peut-être vécu son plus beau rallye WRC ce week-end, sur l’Ile de Sardaigne.

Le constructeur coréen a dominé le Shakedown avec Dani Sordo, plus de la moitié du rallye avec Hayden Paddon, et a placé deux i20 WRC sur le podium final.

L’homme fort de cette 6^e manche 2015 fut sans conteste le Néo-Zélandais Hayden Paddon, leader de l’ES2 à l’ES17. Le Kiwi était certes avantagé par sa position sur la route, mais il a signé trois meilleurs consécutifs et tenu tête au double champion du monde Sébastien Ogier jusqu’à samedi après-midi.

Hayden Paddon s’est finalement agenouillé dans l’ES17 après un tête-à-queue, puis sa boîte de vitesses lui a fait perdre tout espoir de remporter une première victoire mondiale. Le Néo-Zélandais doit se satisfaire d’un premier podium WRC amplement mérité.

Son équipier Thierry Neuville a connu des hauts et des bas sur ce rallye, à l’image de son début de saison 2015. Il conclut sur la 3^e marche du podium devant Elfyn Evans (Ford), qui signe un de ses meilleurs résultats après avoir perdu plusieurs minutes en début d’épreuve (transmission).

Son équipier Ott Tanak, qui pointait sur le podium provisoire, a lui aussi connu un problème de transmission en fin de 2^e étape. Jari-Matti Latvala (VW) était également sur le podium provisoire avant de commettre une erreur samedi et de terminer à la 6^e place, derrière Mads Ostberg (5^e, Citroën), qui semblait promis au podium avant une erreur de trajectoire dimanche matin

Ce rallye, sans doute l’un des plus cassants de la saison, a très vite piégé et éliminé de nombreux pilotes officiels : Kris Meeke (Citroën), Andreas Mikkelsen (VW), Robert Kubica (Ford)…

Sébastien Ogier, qui a remporté la Power Stage, marque les 28 points maximum et augmente son avance au championnat à mi-saison.

En WRC-2, Yuri Protasov (Ford) s’est imposé avec 5s6 d’avance sur le multiple champion italien Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot) et Jan Kopecky (Skoda) de retour en WRC. Le champion sortant Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford) est sorti de la route avant de remonter à la 5^e place et d’échouer à quelques secondes de son compatriote Al-Kuwari (4^e, Ford).

Le champion du monde Junior en titre Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën) s’est fait piéger vendredi avant de connaître des soucis électriques samedi. Le terrain cassant a évidemment dévasté les rangs du WRC-2.

Sébastien Ogier and Volkswagen/Michelin collected their third straight Rally Italia Sardegna victory this afternoon. It was a happy event, too, for Hyundai Motorsports which saw Hayden Paddon (2nd) and Thierry Neuville (3rd) both finish on the podium.

With the obvious exception of its landmark one-two finish in Germany last season, the week in Sardinia was clearly Hyundai Motorsports’ best all-round performance since the make’s return to world class rallying in January 2014.

The Korean make won Thursday’s shakedown with Dani Sordo, and then dominated more than half of the event proper thanks to Hayden Paddon. It ended up with two Michelin-equipped i20 WRCs on the final podium.

The star of the 2015 WRC’s sixth round was undeniably Hayden Paddon who led from SS2 until SS16. True, the New Zealander was helped by his running order, but that shouldn’t be allowed to detract from his three consecutive fastest times on Friday, nor from the fact that he managed to ward off the charging two-time world champion Sébastien Ogier until Saturday afternoon.

The Kiwi was finally passed after a spin on SS17, followed by a gearbox problem that deprived him of his final hopes of claiming his maiden world class victory. For the moment, he will have to settle for the first, fully-deserved WRC podium of his career.

His team-mate Neuville had a week of ups and downs which mirrored his 2015 season to date. He ended up on the third step of the podium ahead of Elfyn Evans (Ford) who obtained one of his best ever results despite falling back with early transmission trouble.

The Welshman’s team-mate Ott Tanak had figured in the provisional top-three before he too picked up transmission gremlins at the end of Day 2.

Jari-Matti Latvala (VW) was another driver who appeared on the podium before a mistake on Saturday relegated him to sixth overall. That was one place behind Mads Ostberg (Citroën) who had been heading for a top-three finish until a mistake on Sunday morning.

The event turned out to be one of the roughest of the season and its hazards caught out a number of factory drivers early on, namely Kris Meeke (Citroën), Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) and Robert Kubica (Ford)…

Sébastien Ogier also won the Power Stage to pocket a maximum haul of 28 points and consolidate his domination of the 2015 standings at the year’s midpoint.

The WRC2 victor was Yuri Protasov (Ford) who ended up 5.6s clear of the multiple Italian champion Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot). Third was Jan Kopecky (Skoda) who was making his return to the WRC. The class’s defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford) crashed before fighting back to fifth spot, just seconds short of compatriot Al-Kuwari (4^th, Ford).

The 2014 Junior champion Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën) made a mistake on Friday before complaining of electrical trouble on Saturday. The WRC2 runners unsurprisingly suffered in the rough conditions.

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FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

Midnight ride with The Parisians.

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE from Joris B. on Vimeo.

Classic Driver awards Iso Grifo 'Best Classic in Show' at Wilton House

At last weekend’s Wilton Classic & Supercar, the ‘Best Classic in Show’ trophy – judged by the editorial team here at Classic Driver – was awarded to a 1967 Iso Grifo…

As an official media partner, Classic Driver was given the responsibility of awarding the ‘Best Classic in Show’ trophy, which, as Lord Pembroke was keen to point out, wasn’t strictly reserved for a concours queen. With this in mind (and after much, much deliberation), we chose Andrew Yaras’ elegant dark green Iso Grifo, for a variety of reasons…

King’s Road carriage

“The first owner had a famous restaurant on the King's Road in the ’60s, frequented by celebrities, including the Rolling Stones. It would have been a common sight cruising up and down there in 1967,” explains Yaras, who bought the car at auction 25 years ago. “Apparently he disappeared while on a business trip in America. Someone I know can actually remember the car being left on the King’s Road, half on the pavement, before eventually disappearing.” Regardless of its truth value, it’s a great sub-story from the car’s infant years.  

Furthermore, this is the sole right-hand-drive Iso Grifo (of which there are believed to have been fewer than 30 built) with a factory sunroof that, given the beautiful weather at Wilton House on Saturday, was duly left open.

Understated and original

The Grifo – Italian for ‘Griffin’, a mythical creature part eagle, part lion, that would devour men andtheir (prancing?) horses – is a lavish Italian ’60s Grand Tourer with a powerful American V8 hiding under the bonnet. One of few remaining cars with the two-speed Powerglide gearbox, the driving experience, according to Yaras, is ‘completely effortless’, making it great for long-distance driving. “We’ve been to Le Mans a couple of times, and I drove it to Northern Italy, too,” he says. “If you kick down at anything above 50 or 60mph, the acceleration is phenomenal.”

Often seen in brighter colours, we particularly loved the understated dark green hue of this car, resplendent after a bare-metal respray two years ago. Its originality, something Yaras is keen to preserve, is otherwise especially evident; those beautifully patinated cast-alloy wheels, for example (much nicer than wires, in our eyes). Look closely, and you’ll see that one of the switches reads ‘Ejector Seat’ – “someone with a sense of humour,” quips Yaras. That’ll be something to do with the sunroof, we suspect.

A worthy winner?

With stiff competition (our shortlist included a Porsche 2.7 Carrera RS, a Bugatti 73C and a Le Mans-finishing Mclaren F1 GTR), the decision certainly wasn’t an easy one to make. But chatting with the car’s owner only confirmed we’d chosen the right one – it’s a seldom-seen, well-used classic, in an unusual colour and with a brilliant story to tell. 

Photos: Amy Shore for Classic Driver © 2015

You can find an original competition-spec Iso Grifo offered for sale in the Classic Driver Market.