Paddon flies to second in Scandinavia, a Townsville comedown for SVG and McLaren claims second in home Grand Prix: your week in motorsport

Hayden Paddon finishes second in Scandinavia to extend ERC lead

Hayden Paddon and his co-driver John Kennard have gone well in the Royal Rally of Scandinavia in Sweden. They finished second in the event, with hometown hero Oliver Solberg taking the win, in the process Paddon extended his lead in the championship standings over Mārtiņš Sesks to 36 points.

Throughout the rally, Paddon and Solberg dominated the competition, winning all 16 stages between them. Paddon won six stages, while Solberg won 12. On the opening day, Paddon initially held a narrow lead but eventually lost it to Solberg, who built a 10.2-second advantage by the end of the day. Paddon couldn't close the gap significantly on the second day.

Meanwhile, Sesks, the closest rival to Paddon in the championship, made progress up the leaderboard to limit his losses. On the Power Stage, Paddon was able to preserve his tires and secure valuable championship points by finishing ahead of Sesks. Solberg also scored points in third place.

Paddon has consistently finished in second place in the past four European Rally Championship events, following his victory at Rally Serras de Fafe in Portugal at the beginning of the season. Despite his second-place finishes, Paddon remains optimistic but was also quick to acknowledge Solberg's excellent performance in his home rally.

“So far, so good, we have to keep building on it, can’t say I’m the biggest fan of being 2nd all the time, but it’s working well and fair play to Oliver. He’s done an excellent job. We’ve picked up some Power Stage points so that’s good.” Said Paddon.

Highs and lows for van Gisbergen

What a roller coaster week for Shane van Gsibergen. Coming off a career highlight in Chicago and competing in his 500^th Supercars race to qualifying dead last in the Supercars series from Townsville. Red Bull Ampol’s race debrief list is going to be long with plenty of things not going their way.

Despite the clear car speed issues, the team did nail their strategy, and SVG would claim fourth and firth place respectively in the weekend’s two races. The later due to being ordered to relinquish a position to team mate Broc Feeney in the last hundred metres of the race, so the team could ensure maximum round points. As a team, it was a necessary decision, but one that stung for van Gisbergen who had driven hard to recover strongly.

Team boss Jaimie Whincup admits, Shane still has his gremlins with his car that were there in Darwin.

“The team hunted for those all weekend and we’ll continue to hunt when we get back to the workshop so that Shane is much happier in the car. We also got the round win, and it’s not every day you can say that especially when the category is so competitive.”

Shane is clearly frustrated with his car “The biggest credit for this weekend goes to our mechanics. They busted their asses all weekend to try and make the car go better, but we keep finding so many problems. It’s a shame that they’re parts that we can’t go back to the workshop and make better – we have to deal with these things, it’s tough. I had a lot of car troubles in today’s race. The steering had a mind of its own, my throttle was jamming and cutting out, and my brakes weren’t working. At every brake zone, I was hoping my throttle was going to return and had my foot hovering over the clutch in case that happened. We were really lucky to end up where we did and we obviously got a decent points haul, but overall it was a really tough day.” Said van Gisbergen.

Mixed results at home Grand Prix for McLaren and Aston Martin

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone provided an action-packed race with changing weather conditions and intense battles on the track. It was an outstanding home track performance by McLaren, with Lando Norris of McLaren thrilling the crowd by taking the lead from Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing at the start of the race. Verstappen fought back and regained the lead a few laps later, while Norris defended his position against Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. As the race progressed, pit stop strategies and the deployment of the Safety Car shuffled the order. Verstappen maintained his lead and crossed the finish line first, securing his eighth win of the season. Norris finished second, followed by Hamilton in third.

The race also saw an impressive performance by Oscar Piastri, Norris's teammate at McLaren who narrowly missed out on a podium in fourth.

It appears the early season gap Aston Martin had over McLaren and others has diminished somewhat, with Alonso Fernando finishing in seventh. Much further down the field than he has been of late.

The Spaniard feels the team needs to reset during the summer break to keep in the fight. But they are clearly up to that challenge and the 2023 car has been a standout performer. It would be great to see Alonso on more podiums in the back half of 2023.