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Steve Laidlaw doubles up at Silverstone despite Newsham pressure

Steve Laidlaw came away with two victories from the TCR UK meeting at Silverstone, although it was initially Callum Newsham who looked to have taken two wins due to a penalty for Laidlaw which was later revoked.

Steve Laidlaw put his CUPRA on pole position on Saturday morning with a time of 57.616 seconds – three tenths of a second below the TCR lap record and only 0.267 seconds off the fastest-ever touring car qualifying lap record around the short circuit.

Callum Newsham was his closest contender in qualifying as well, just 0.042 seconds back, whilst Adam Shepherd had qualified in third but had to start from the back of the grid due to changing to the newer CUPRA Leon VZ car for this weekend.

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Race One

The opening race of the weekend turned out to be an especially sedate affair. The only real mover at the start was Shepherd, who gained nine places on the opening lap, although Bradley Hutchison also got ahead of Luke Sargeant on the opening tour.

Thereafter the places at the front simply did not change, despite Newsham keeping on the back of the leading CUPRA of Laidlaw throughout.

Thus Steve Laidlaw claimed his second TCR UK victory by just a quarter of a second from Newsham’s Hyundai, with Sam Laidlaw completing the podium in the second of the Area Motorsport CUPRAs.

Hutchison claimed fourth, ahead of Sargeant in fifth and Shepherd in sixth, although the latter two did swap positions several times in the second half of the race.

Will Beech was seventh in his Capture Motorsport-run CUPRA, ahead of the returning Rod McGovern in eighth.

Finn Leslie retired his Power Maxed Racing Hyundai after the opening lap due to right-rear suspension damage.

Race Two

Mark Smith started the reverse-grid race from pole position, with George Jaxon alongside, and initially held the lead through the opening corners.

Further back, Shepherd stalled on the grid and dropped to last, whilst Steve Laidlaw made a good start and was up to fifth approaching Maggots, where he made contact with Beech’s CUPRA and took third, Beech having also slid into McGovern in the process.

At Luffield, Smith was slow in the Apex and then went wide on the exit, allowing Steve Laidlaw to pass both him and Jaxon to take the lead by the end of the opening lap, with Hutchison following into second and Newsham into third by Maggots on lap two.

Newsham then took second from Hutchison with a fantastic move around the outside at Brooklands on lap four.

Racing settled down until lap 11, when Sam Laidlaw and Sargeant made contact on the exit of Copse after Sargeant had tried to defend the place from Laidlaw on the outside.

Sargeant’s Audi was sent into the barriers on the exit of the corner, and Sam Laidlaw was also out of the race with the damage, whilst the safety car was required for four laps to clear the cars.

When racing resumed for a two-lap sprint there were few changes – again Newsham was unable to pass Steve Laidlaw at the front, and the CUPRA driver took the chequered flag in first ahead of the Hyundai driver.

However, after the race Laidlaw was penalised for the incident with Beech at the start and given a time penalty to drop him to seventh, initially handing Newsham the win. However, the result was revised again later, reinstating Laidlaw as the winner after his time penalty was revoked.

Newsham and Hutchison thus completed the podium, with Jaxon in fourth having effectively only moved up, after his initial slump at the start, through the demise of Sam Laidlaw and Sargeant late in the race.

Shepherd recovered from his stall to be classified in fifth; having been in ninth before the safety car, he benefitted from the bunched up pack to gain two places on the final lap.

Race Three

For the final race, Shepherd started on pole thanks to his second-best lap in qualifying, with Newsham alongside and Steve Laidlaw in third.

At the start, Newsham got into the lead when Shepherd made a poor start, with Steve Laidlaw also following through into second.

However, Shepherd was immediately trying to re-pass, and when Steve Laidlaw got sideways at Luffield on cold tyres, Shepherd didn’t hesitate to take second.

Behind them, Beech went off into the gravel at the same corner and the race had to be neutralised for two laps behind the safety car for his CUPRA to be removed.

When the race resumed, it took until lap fifteen for Steve Laidlaw to get back by Shepherd, passing inside at Brooklands, although as he caught a slide it forced Shepherd wide in avoidance, almost allowing Sam Laidlaw through.

With only four minutes to go, Steve Laidlaw couldn’t catch Newsham, who claimed his second win of the day by over two seconds from Steve Laidlaw, with Shepherd completing the podium.

Sam Laidlaw finished where he started in fourth, whilst Hutchison was fifth, having got ahead of Sargeant on the opening lap, the latter taking sixth.

Shepherd continues to lead the drivers’ standings with 271 points ahead of Steve Laidlaw (256) and Newsham (213) etc.

Race one result

POS NO CL NAT DRIVER ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME BEST GD
1 100 Steve LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 21 20:32.580 58.094 1
2 16 Callum NEWSHAM JH Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 21 0.252 58.167 2
3 101 Sam LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 21 2.797 58.321 3
4 17 Bradley HUTCHISON Bond It with MPH Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 21 11.759 58.679 5
5 115 Luke SARGEANT Vannin Motorsport with RS Vehicle Sales Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 21 12.130 58.461 4
6 117 Adam SHEPHERD Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 21 12.996 58.451 16
7 27 Will BEECH Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 21 17.179 58.476 6
8 8 Rod MCGOVERN Power Maxed Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 21 27.344 59.086 15
9 50 George JAXON Vannin Motorsport with DW Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 21 27.663 58.787 8
10 77 Mark SMITH BSR with Richmond Fire Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 21 41.004 59.543 11
11 19 Jeffrey ALDEN Power Maxed Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR 21 51.727 1:00.225 13
12 7 Alex JONES DW Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 20 + 1 LAP 1:00.964 14
13 11 Harry BLOOR Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 19 + 2 LAPS 59.302 10
R 111 Ryan BENSLEY Motion Motorsport Lynk & Co 03 TCR 8 DNF 1:00.659 7
R 34 Gregory SAUNDERS Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 6 DNF 59.454 12
R 26 Finn LESLIE Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 1 DNF N/A 9

Revised race two result

POS NO CL NAT DRIVER ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME BEST GD
1 100 Steve LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 16 20:17.235 58.502 10
2 16 Callum NEWSHAM JH Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 16 0.267 58.284 9
3 17 Bradley HUTCHISON Bond It with MPH Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 0.658 58.472 7
4 50 George JAXON Vannin Motorsport with DW Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 16 0.941 58.689 2
5 117 Adam SHEPHERD Capture Motorsport with Shepherd Motors CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 1.286 58.127 5
6 26 Finn LESLIE Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 16 1.739 58.466 16
7 27 Will BEECH Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 2.361 58.846 4
8 8 Rod MCGOVERN Power Maxed Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 3.517 59.318 3
9 34 Gregory SAUNDERS Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 3.950 59.052 15
10 77 Mark SMITH BSR with Richmond Fire Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 16 4.510 59.698 1
11 11 Harry BLOOR Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 16 4.900 59.449 13
12 19 Jeffrey ALDEN Power Maxed Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR 16 7.990 1:00.585 11
13 7 Alex JONES DW Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 16 8.405 1:01.167 12
R 115 Luke SARGEANT Vannin Motorsport with RS Vehicle Sales Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 10 DNF 58.574 6
R 101 Sam LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 10 DNF 58.528 8
R 111 Ryan BENSLEY Motion Motorsport Lynk & Co 03 TCR 5 DNF 1:00.044 14

Race three result

POS NO CL NAT DRIVER ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME BEST GD
1 16 Callum NEWSHAM JH Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 19 20:01.770 58.212 2
2 100 Steve LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 19 2.129 58.066 3
3 117 Adam SHEPHERD Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 19 2.923 58.204 1
4 101 Sam LAIDLAW Area Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR 19 3.439 58.149 4
5 17 Bradley HUTCHISON Bond It with MPH Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 19 10.555 58.678 6
6 115 Luke SARGEANT Vannin Motorsport with RS Vehicle Sales Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 19 18.669 58.924 5
7 8 Rod MCGOVERN Power Maxed Racing CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 19 21.932 59.269 9
8 26 Finn LESLIE Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 19 21.935 58.318 10
9 50 George JAXON Vannin Motorsport with DW Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 19 22.362 59.239 11
10 111 Ryan BENSLEY Motion Motorsport Lynk & Co 03 TCR 19 22.756 58.814 8
11 34 Gregory SAUNDERS Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 19 25.361 59.032 14
12 11 Harry BLOOR Power Maxed Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR 19 25.900 59.027 12
13 77 Mark SMITH BSR with Richmond Fire Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 19 34.701 59.421 13
14 19 Jeffrey ALDEN Power Maxed Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR 19 45.035 1:00.459 15
15 7 Alex JONES DW Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR 19 48.590 1:00.613 16
R 27 Will BEECH Capture Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR 0 DNF N/A 7
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