As days at the office go, Sunday at Silverstone counted as one of the rougher ones for Duncan Tappy. With only minutes left in a three-hour endurance race, a near-certain podium disappeared in the split second it took an electrical fault to strike down his team’s McLaren MP4-12C.

Duncan Tappy sees a future for himself in GT and endurance racing

Watching helplessly from the ART Grand Prix garage, Tappy saw his team-mate Grégoire Demoustier suddenly fall more than 25 seconds off the pace, turning a weekend that had promised much into one of maybes and what-might-have-beens.

“It’s gutting,” he said afterwards. “I thought that was going to be a nice solid podium. We were looking very good for second in class and then there was an issue with the car, some kind of electrical problem because Greg lost the throttle. But we’ve shown we have the pace – we just have to work on a few other bits to get the full package.”

Tappy’s switch to GT racing came after several seasons hustling for drives in single-seater championships such as Superleague Formula, Auto GP and Indy Lights. These races brought podiums, a victory and a share in a team championship, but they rarely led to the sort of secure, season-long employment that allows a driver to relax and concentrate on their craft.

That’s all changed for 2012, as he settles into the well-established French team ART Grand Prix – best-known for a phenomenally successfully GP2 squad currently badged as Lotus – as part of its new GT operation in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

The single-seater veteran said the series is a strong one: “It’s the the biggest GT championship out there – everyone’s doing it, all the GT1 teams bar a few. It’s ultra-competitive, if you can be competitive here and beat these guys it’s really good.”

He sees it as a type of racing that plays to his strengths and where he can make an impression that may lead to a long-term future: “I think I’ve proven already I’ve got the pace. I’m out there out-qualifying the works drivers, and that’s what I’ve got to do. My ultimate goal is to be a factory driver and be here for a long time.”

In action at Monza for ART Grand Prix

“My thanks go to Frédéric Vasseur at ART for giving me this opportunity. I think it suits me really well – I always thought it would because it’s a case of staying out of trouble, being consistent and being a team player. All those are things I can do well. It’s proving to be a very good choice for me and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.”

That enjoyment peaked in qualifying, when he proved his speed by taking the second spot overall, beaten only by the former A1GP champion Adam Carroll in one of the pro class cars.

His pace was so strong that even when his best lap was struck out for a disputed penalty, his next-best was still good enough to start third.

However, a slow pitstop and the electrical failure meant Demoustier eventually brought the car home 13th overall and 6th in the pro-am class, not the reward the team was hoping for after he finished the opening stint in second place despite his status as the ‘am’ part of the pairing.

The Blancpain Endurance Series categorises drivers in the pro-am class according to their experience, from the ‘platinum’ drivers with F1 or equivalent experience to the amateur ‘bronze’ drivers such as Demoustier.

Tappy’s role at ART is to be the ‘pro’ driver of the pairing – as a proven race-winner, he ranks as ‘gold’ – and, in a two-driver pro-am team, that means he’s only allowed 70mins of the three-hour race while Demoustier does the rest.

Tappy qualified well at Silverstone

That makes mixing it wheel-to-wheel with the pro teams for the entire race is a near-impossible dream, but beforehand Tappy was hopeful of mounting a respectable challenge.

He said: “The cars are exactly the same spec, the difference is the drivers. We’ve gone for a two-driver line-up, which has some advantages and some disadvantages but, either way, we’re pole for our class, which is amazing. It’s hard to compete with the pro teams, however I think we can do very well in our class – a podium is realistic, and if we can go for the win then great.”

Sadly for Tappy, it was not to be – leaving him looking ahead to the next round of the championship at Paul Ricard on June 29 where hopefully the team will be able to deliver on its potential.

Duncan Tappy will drive the full season in the Blancpain Endurance Championship for leading French team ART Grand Prix.

Tappy, the 2007 Formula Renault UK champion, scored a race win and regular podiums in the now-defunct Superleague Formula championship and helped DAMS to the team title in AutoGP, finishing third in the drivers’ standings.

He partnered French driver Grégoire Demoustier in the Monza round of the Blancpain Endurance Series, the pair finishing as the leading McLaren, and the performance was strong enough to land him the drive for the rest of the season.

ART co-owner Frédéric Vasseur said: “At ART Grand Prix, we have always set the bar very high in terms of what we aim to achieve in any category we enter. Therefore, we knew that we wanted our inaugural season in GT racing to be led by a driver with pace, intelligence and full commitment to the team’s cause.

The Blancpain Endurance Series is next in action at Silverstone on the weekend of June 2-3

“I was already aware of Duncan through his titles in single-seater racing and he definitely confirmed to us that he is the right man for the job, during the first round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza. We are therefore very pleased to have signed him for the rest of the season.”

Tappy said: “I am delighted to be teaming up with two of most prestigious names in international motor sport in ART Grand Prix and McLaren. The car had a few normal teething issues at Monza but we were very competitive for most of the race and we managed to bring it home in the end.”

Alice Powell will drive for Status GP this season

The 19-year-old took part in Silverstone testing for the team last week, alongside British Formula Three National Class champion Kotaro Sakurai and second-year driver Marlon Stockinger.

A member of the BRDC’s Rising Star scheme, Powell was runner-up in last October’s MRF Delhi Championship held in support of the Formula One Indian Grand Prix.

She said: “I am delighted to join Status GP for my step up into the international motorsport arena. I liked the GP3 car immediately, and I am confident that together we will produce some strong results. I will be learning circuits and the formula this year, but the team is very experienced and we’re already working well together.”

Status GP team principle Teddy Yip added: “Alice comes to Status GP will an excellent pedigree in karting and junior single-seaters, and we’ve already seen she has real ability as well as an excellent approach and a good grounding from her past single-seater experience. She is an excellent addition to the team.”

The Irish-owned, Silverstone-based, team won the final A1GP championship with Adam Carroll and last year challenged in GP3 with, among others, Alexander Sims.

For most of her career to date, Powell has driver for Manor Racing, but will now find herself competing against the the Yorkshire-based team. One of three women on the GP3 grid, Powell will also challenge fellow Brits Alex Brundle and William Buller of Carlin.

Six seats in the 30-strong championship remain unfilled ahead of the May season opener in support of the F1 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Luciano Bacheta celebrates his double victory

Romania’s Mihai Marinescu drove flawlessly to lead most of the race, but the Essex driver stayed with him as the rest of the field fell back, and with a lap to go he made his move going into Brooklands.

With his nose finally in front, Bacheta ensured his rival was unable to use his overboost to retake the lead on the last circuit and wrapped up a maximum 50 points from the weekend.

He said: “The experience from yesterday definitely helped. I was just biding my time. I pushed a lot harder in the beginning than I wanted, to just to stay within a second of Mihai all the time. He was so quick – he didn’t put a tyre wrong and it was tough to keep up.

“I kept chipping away then the gap levelled. I was saving the boost for the final stages and used it on the last but one lap at Brooklands. Mihai was looking in the mirror knowing I had the boost. We still need to work a little bit on our qualifying pace but I’m happy with our race pace and I couldn’t have asked for a better two results.”

Marinescu said: “I was really constant through the race, from the first lap to the last one, because Bacheta was always there, always behind me with a really constant gap. The difference made was one tenth which ruined my race. I’m disappointed with the result, I was leading until the last two laps, but I know what to do in the next race.”

Further back, Alex Fontana repeated his achievement from Saturday with a third-place finish and is now tied for second place in the championship with Marinescu. He said: “The front two were too fast for me so I focused on the tyres.”

Britain’s Daniel McKenzie improved a place on his Saturday performance to take fourth while Dino Zamparelli was sixth and Hector Hurst 10th.

Rosberg gave a demonstration of how, for this race at least, Mercedes had solved its problems with tyre wear by securing a commanding victory with a two-stop strategy against rivals who mostly used three.

A possible one-two finish for the team was lost when Michael Schumacher was sent out from his pit stop with a wheel not properly attached, forcing a retirement before the lap was out.

Behind Rosberg the battle for second was fierce with, at one point, eight cars in a train contesting the place. Kimi Raikkonen looked good for most of the race but, late on, his own attempt at a two-stop collapsed when his tyres suddenly degraded on him and he lost 10 places in a lap.

Sebastian Vettel, who had qualified a poor 11th and dropped further back at the start, used strategy to work through the field and inherit second, but his tyres too faded and he was taken by Button, Hamilton and his team-mate Mark Webber.

In the end, it was the McLaren drivers who filled the minor podium places – both of them with regrets at not having been able to challenge for the win. Hamilton had suffered five-place starting penalty for a gearbox change, while Button endured a slow pitstop that brought him out in traffic and prevented a late charge.

The consolation for the pair was that they now lead the drivers’ championship, with Hamilton on 45 points, Button on 43 and previous leader Fernando Alonso on 37.

Rosberg said: “It’s an unbelievable feeling: very, very cool. I’m very happy, very excited. It’s been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it’s finally here. It’s just amazing and it’s just nice to see how quickly we are now progressing. I didn’t expect to be that fast today.”

Button said: “I had some really good battles out there and then, in my last stop, I stopped on the marks and we had a problem with the rear of the car, so I was stuck there for nine or ten seconds I think it was. It was a pity because when I exited the pits I had four cars in front of me; cars that I wouldn’t have been racing, and I would have had a nice clear track to hopefully hunt down Nico.”

Hamilton added: “I had my work cut out today. It was a fantastic race, I really enjoyed it. I just wanted to see if I could move forwards: a good start, good pit stops, good strategy, but what an incredible race with so many World Champions and so many of the great drivers all in a train, just fighting each other.”

Campana (right) and Quaife-Hobbs do battle in Morocco

In the first of the weekend’s races, the Tonbridge racer spent the last five laps battling side-by-side with Italian Formula Three champion Sergio Campana before falling less than 0.2sec short at the line.

Pitting early after starting the race on worn tyres, Quaife-Hobbs was the beneficiary when former GP2 driver and closest championship rival Pål Varhaug stalled during his pit stop and lost a probable win.

Quaife-Hobbs, who competed last season in GP3, now leads the championship with 95 points to Varhaug’s 71 ahead of tomorrow’s second Morocco round.

After the race, Campana said he had initially expected the Briton to drive cautiously and protect his championship positon. He said: “At first I thought that maybe he would have been happy with second place, as it was good for his championship aims. Anyway, I soon realised that he was going to give me a hard time. It was an hard but fair fight, I enjoyed it a lot.”

That was never an option, according to Quaife-Hobbs: “It’s too early for that, we are just into the 3rd event and still have four to go, so I just want to win races. Everybody can still be a title contender at this stage, so winning is the best thing you can do to keep your rivals at bay.”

He said the start had been vital: “We knew that from P5 on the grid a good start was needed to hope for a podium finish, and luckily I got away well. My first laps were a bit difficult: we opted for starting on very old tyres and that meant that I lost five seconds to Campana before my stop.

“Once I changed to new softs, I knew I really had to push. I did it, and if it wasn’t for [Antonio] Spavone, who made me lose at least a couple of seconds by cutting the chicane when I had already gone through, I think that I would have gone past Campana when he pitted. Instead, I was right on his gearbox when he came out of the pit-lane.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs after his victory earlier in the season at Valencia

“I tried to understand if Sergio was leaving some gaps, but when I saw that he really started to struggle with traction I decided to attack. I was trying as hard as I could without risking crashing and one time I did manage to get onto Sergio’s inside, but he had some power-boost to spare and was able to get ahead. I had used all mine in the first part of the race, and so there was nothing I could do.”

Campana added: “It was really hard, because in the last few laps my rear tyres were really gone. I had wheelspin everywhere, even on the straight, and so keeping Adrian at bay was really difficult. He had more traction than me and that meant that at each corner exit he was getting really close.

“He came alongside me more than once, but I was determined not to let him through and that’s what I did. At the last chicane he managed to get the inside line but as soon as I realised that, I decided that I was going to brake as late as possible and I kept the lead.”

Luciano Bacheta on the Silverstone podium

The Ilford driver, who competed last season in both GP3 and F2, started second on the grid but lost a couple of places at the start.

Christopher Zanella, one of three Swiss drivers to qualify in the top five, grabbed the lead from P3 as the race began and appeared on course for victory.

However Romania’s Mihai Marinescu, in his third season in the championship, closed up on him and Bacheta recovered to harry them both.

He passed Marinescu going into Brooklands and, as the race reached its climax, used his better grip to take a tighter line through Luffield and make the pass for the lead down the inside.

Zanella had one remaining use of his overboost system, an extra dose of power that operates to similar rules as Formula One’s DRS, but he was unable to take advantage of it to regain the lead and finished 0.912sec back in second place.

Bacheta said: “My heart sank when I had that start, because I dropped down to fourth by the first corner which I wasn’t very happy with. I stayed out of trouble and started to get into the rhythm of the race, as we were stepping into the unknown in the first race of the year without many long runs in practice.

“I knew it would be easier to overtake when the tyres were falling away towards the end. I would have been happy with third in the first race of the year, but I saw myself starting to catch the guys in front, so just waited and tried to force them into a mistake.”

He was pleased with the newly-introduced overboost system: “Overall I liked it, and drivers can no longer cover up mistakes like they could with the previous system. During today’s race I knew whenever I used it to get passed someone I immediately had to prepare to defend and make sure they couldn’t re-pass. You are a little vulnerable if you’re leading though like I was.”

Fifth-placed Daniel McKenzie, who raced last season in Formula Renault 3.5, added: “It’s a cracking system and possibly the best feature I’ve experienced in all previous single seaters. It doesn’t make overtaking easier as you still need to get close to the guy in front and also still time your move. It also makes overtaking safer as it stops drivers making lunges.”

A young Dan Wheldon (with Jenson Button, standing but truncated) sits on Anthony Davidson's wheel at the 1990 British cadet championsips. Photo from Davidson on Twitpic.com - click through to see full version

Of the trio, Wheldon was the only one never to race a Formula One car – but that had much to do with his success in America. By the time F1 came knocking, he was already so deeply embedded in the US open wheel scene that he was happy to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

His 2005 IndyCar Series championship was not repeated – he lost the following year on a tie-break, having matched Sam Hornish Jr for points but won fewer races.

He did, however, pick up a second victory in the Indianapolis 500, his 2005 win being topped by the astonishing finale to this year’s race. Wheldon, without a full-season contract, took part as a one-off entry for Bryan Herta’s fledgling IndyCar team and won the race on the final corner when JR Hildebrand crashed.

Fun-loving, handsome, tireless with fans, hard working with sponsors such as the American National Guard and quietly committed to good causes such as Alzheimer research and children’s hospitals, Wheldon had become one of the biggest stars in American open wheel racing.

A new deal to race in 2012 for Andretti in a car that he had helped develop and test, a joyful personal life as a husband and father and a burgeoning reputation as a broadcaster all suggested his future would be as bright as his career to date.

Instead, all that remains is memories.

Dan Wheldon, 1978 – 2011

The young Dan Wheldon in the 1996 Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship, with an earlier version of the famous smile

In the 1997 Formula Ford Championship at Brands Hatch

September 2005 brought an IndyCar Series victory in Chicago

By the end of 2005 the IndyCar Series championship trophy and the Borg-Warner were both his

Posing at Daytona for Flickr user The359: one of the first photos ever used on BritsOnPole.com

In a thoughtful mood at Indy in 2008

Victory in Iowa for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, 2008

Each year Wheldon held a helmet design contest for children in hospital: here's the 2008 victor's work

A rainy day in Toronto during the 2009 season

Wheldon always had time for fans of the sport, and they loved him for it

The four Indy 500 champions: Franchitti, Wheldon, Castroneves and Dixon before the 2010 race

The unlikely victor: Wheldon's 2011 Indy 500 victory was straight out of a storybook

Richard the Lionheart was a constant fixture on Wheldon's ever-changing helmets

The scoring pylon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway pays lonely tribute

The pitiless Nevada sun beats down as spectators and race crews watch 19 IndyCars salute Dan Wheldon

Fans gather to lay tributes beneath the memorial banner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

"Rest in peace, we love you Dan."

Dan Wheldon after his Indy500 victory in May

The 33-year-old from Emberton in Buckinghamshire was one of 15 drivers caught up in a lap 12 crash that saw cars flying through the air and bursting into flames as they hit the wall of the 220mph Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Series CEO Randy Barnard confirmed the news two hours after the race was red-flagged, announcing that the drivers with undamaged cars would do five laps of the circuit as a salute to their fallen rival and comrade.

New series champion Dario Franchitti sat sobbing in his car as he prepared for the tribute, as news emerged that he and Tony Kanaan – two of Wheldon’s closest friends in the series – had taken on the heavy task of breaking the news of his death to the other drivers.

Barnard’s announcement to the press that Wheldon had “passed away from unsurvivable injuries” came after a period when the mood at the circuit had grown grimmer and grimmer as the silence from the University Medical Centre continued.

In the immediate aftermath, veteran racer Davey Hamilton, who survived a serious accident in the series a decade ago, told American television: “All I could see was cars flying and going upside down. It’s without a doubt the worst thing I’ve seen in my racing career. It’s sad, man. It’s sad.”

Tomas Schekter, another driver caught in the crash, said on Twitter immediately after: “Leaving track, don’t want to hear news, seen enough. Walked past something I pray never to see again.”

Injured drivers included Britain’s Pippa Mann, who was driven to University Medical Centre after struggling to stand unaided when helped from her car, and championship contender Will Power who suffered back pain.

But by far the most serious fears were over Wheldon, who was competing for a $5m purse that he would share with a randomly chosen fan if he could win the race despite starting on the back row.

He had already gained 10 places in the first dozen laps when disaster struck. An impact further up the field triggered a chain reaction that sent Wheldon, Power and one other driver – reported by some to be Mann – flying high into the catch fence.

Several cars erupted into flames as the high-speed oval was reduced to what many drivers later described as looking like a scene from a war movie.

One-by-one the affected drivers climbed – or were helped – from the wreckage of their cars, eventually leaving the focus of everyone’s fears as Wheldon, who was airlifted to University Medical Centre with his family following by road.

Although Franchitti’s wife Ashley Judd raised hopes by tweeting how her husband had been told his vital signs were strong, his injuries proved too great.

Power’s retirement handed Franchitti his fourth series championship, but the Target Chip Ganassi driver was one of many who criticised the decision to hold the race at all.

He told American television: “Within five laps people were starting to do crazy stuff. I love hard racing, but that, to me, is not really what it’s about.

“I said before we tested here, having driven a stock car here, this is not a suitable track. We’ve seen it today. You can’t get away from anybody. People get frustrated and go four-wide. You saw what happens.”

Wheldon started his career in England but crossed the Atlantic in 1999, moving up to the IndyCar Series in 2002. He won the 2005 championship and that year’s Indianapolis 500, but was pipped to the following year’s title on a tiebreak.

In recent years he found drives harder to come by, but he won this year’s Indy 500 as a one-shot entry for Bryan Herta Autosports when leader JR Hildebrand crashed on the final corner.

That led to the idea of his entering the Las Vegas season finale from the back of the field – a gamble aimed at promoting the IndyCar Series that instead lead to the most tragic of outcomes.

While Lewis Hamilton struggled through another difficult race in his frustrating season, Button recovered from a start-line elbowing match with Sebastian Vettel to take a confident win ahead of Fernando Alonso.

The victory represented the only hope of delaying Vettel’s confirmation as the 2011 world champion – but the Red Bull driver’s third place finish ensured he cannot be overtaken for the crown.

“Seb has done a great job all season and he deserved the title,” said Button. “He was given the equipment and just got on and did what was required of him. But, for us, there’s still more that we can achieve this year.

“I’d love to go out and fight to win the next few races, and I think we have the car and the team to go and do that. We’ll keep pushing and hope to get some more wins this year, but we’re also in a very good place right now – and I think that’s key to success in 2012.

“This was a hard race – the last five or six laps were extremely tough, I had to really look after the tyres and try to save a bit of fuel to get the car home, but it was an amazing victory.

“Sebastian came across at me on the start – he kept coming and didn’t stop, so I got on the grass and had to back out of the throttle, otherwise there would’ve been an almighty shunt into Turn One. He said he didn’t see me until he saw me backing out, so that lost me a place.

“But fighting back was so, so satisfying: the performance has been in the car all weekend. It’s such an emotional victory for me: there’s so much history at this circuit, and the crowd here has been amazing, this is second only to a home victory for me.

“I want to thank every single person here in Japan who’s supported us – hopefully we’ve planted a happy memory in their minds, because a lot of Japan has been through difficult times this year. We did our best and we put on a fantastic show.”

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