I’m no fan of NASCAR and I thought Franchitti’s decision to switch in the first place was poor timing. He won the Indianapolis 500 and Indy Car title last year, but turned his back on the series just months before it sealed an historic reunion with Champ Car.

Surely it would be best for all concerned if Ganassi now brought Franchitti back to what he does best - racing single seater Indy Cars?

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Paffett was disqualified from the final results. Did the stewards get the wrong British driver?

Paffett’s disqualification was for finishing the race with an underweight car - something which cost him victory at the Laustizring a few years ago.

But Green was expected to get an penalty after he left the pit lane with the refuelling can still attached to his Mercedes C-Class. Drivers have usually received a drive-through penalty for that.

The organisers left Green alone, however. This was surprising but ceratinly satisfying - Green ran away with the race and it would have been a shame had he been stripped of the win - especially as he was so cruelly taken out of the lead by Christian Abt at this track before.

Mercedes’ resurgence means the championship has closed up very nicely indeed:

1 Timo Scheider 32
2 Jamie Green 31
3 Paul Di Resta 27
4 Mattias Ekström 25
5 Bruno Spengler 22

But this latest nonsense is surely further evidence, if it were needed, that these silly compulsory pit stops are doing nothing for the sport.

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He was able to stretch out his final stint thanks in part to a length caution period after Tony Kanaan crashed out of third on lap 212 of 250.

Wheldon had fallen back in the pack early in the race and made contact with John Andretti after Andretti squeezed him high. Wheldon’s Ganassi car left a doughnut ring of rubber on Andretti’s white sidepods after the contact.

Hideki Mutoh followed Wheldon home with Marco Andretti slipping back on the late laps after a final attacked.

Championship leader Scott Dixon had a low-key performance but still finished fourth, AJ Foyt IV had a strong run to fifth and Danica Patrick took sixth.

Milwaukee winner Ryan Briscoe was seventh while his Penske team mate Helio Castroneves dropped back to 14th after late contact with Ernesto Viso. Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth ahead of two ex-Champ Car drivers, Will Power and Graham Rahal.

Dixon retains his lead in the championship with 316 points, 48 ahead of Castroneves who is now a single point ahead of Wheldon.

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A damp race track made for a thrilling GP2 sprint race at Magny-Cours. The race came to those who had the courage to start on slick tyres - and the Arden team took best advantage to score a one-two finish.

Mike Conway led the early, tentative laps on wet weather tyres while Jerom d’Ambrosio had a rapid start from the second row to pass Karun Chandok. Chandhok, predictably, threw his car off the track halfway around the first lap.

Alberto Valerio supplied the second unsurprising crash of the race, going off on the run towars the Adelaide hairpin, smashing a polystyrene corner marker and scattering debris across the track.

With a few laps the leaders were heading for the pits to switch to slick tyres. But they lost out to those who had began the race on dry weather rubber.

The first of those was Yelmer Buurman who had started 12th and now headed a three-car train including his team mate Sebastien Buemi and Super Nova’s Alvaro Parente. Buurman, who showed his skill on slick tyres in the wet in F3 last year, inherited the lead as Conway, Petrov, Pastor Maldonado, Giorgio Pantano and the remaining leaders all pitted.

Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna had both started towards the back of the pack after their problems in yesterday’s race, and each took different approaches.

Grosjean started from 19th on wet-weather tyres and made a terrific start, cutting through the pack on the first lap in stunning fashion. But after switching to slick tyres he spun off at Estoril and got stuck. He took no points away from his home race.

Senna started even further back in 23rd and gambled on slick tyres - which proved the right choice. Despite a brief spin he rose as high as third, passing Parente. But straight away he ran into more technical problems, and fell back down the order to finish fifth. It was a remarkable drive once again thwarted by bad luck.

Up front the battle for the lead had turned into an all-Arden affair. Buemi reeled in Buurman and got a run on his team mate when the Dutchman ran wide at Estoril. The two ran the length of the back straight side by side, before Buemi claimed the inside line for Adelaide. You could almost hear the Arden pitwall breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Parente, like Senna, dropped back with car problems. That allowed Luca Filippi to inherited third and Lucas di Grassi fourth while Senna fell to fifth. Pole sitter Conway recovered to sixth having fallen half a minute behind the leaders following his pit stop.

Pantano failed to add to his championship lead after making a poorly-timed lunge at Petrov and breaking his suspension. However he remains top of the table ahead of Senna, with Buemi moving up to third ahead of Grosjean after a poor weekend at home for the French driver.

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GP2’s most experiened driver was gifted an easy victory at Magny-Cours after the two drivers in front him - and his two princiapl championship rivals - retired.

Bruno Senna converted pole position into the lead at the start while Pantano took advantage of starting on the clean side to pass Romain Grosjean for second.

Grosjean tried to attack him back but twitched wide at the Nürburgring chicane halfway around the opening lap and had to settle for third.

Pantano followed Senna closesly around the opening half of the race but Grosjean came back into the equation following his mandatory pit stop. Pantano and Senna’s team were slow to react to ART’s stop by covering it, and so when the pair stopped together Grosjean was able to split them.

He also made a bid to pass Senna on the outside of the Adelaide hairpin but the Brazilian was having nothing of it. But the next time around Grosjean lunged at the iSport from long range and made it through on the inside.

But a few laps later Senna came crawling into the pits with a broken clutch, It has developed several laps earlier and made have played a role in Grosjean’s surprising pass.

Grosjean would not make the chequered flag either. Under terrific pressure from Pantano he stayed cool, despite running wide on one lap on the entry to 180. But he too suffered a transmission problem after losing hydraulic pressure, and he crept into the pits and retirement.

That left Pantano in an unchallenged lead with series returnee Lucas di Grassi several laps further back. Pastor Maldonado completed the podium with third. Di Grassi and Maldonado’s respective team mates were in the next two places - Vitaly Petrov ahead of Andreas Zuber.

Jerome d’Ambrosio was sixth ahead of Karun Chandhok, with Mike Conway eighth for the second feature race in a row, giving him pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race.

The result plays into Pantano’s hands in the championship twice over - for not only does it allow him to open up a gap over Senna, but with Senna and Grosjean starting way down the grid tomorrow Pantano can extend his advantage even further.

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He later insisted the crash was not intentional, although it brought out the red flags and cemented his position at the top of the times sheets. But it was strangely similar to how his uncle Ayrton Senna scored pole position at the same circuit in 1991 by spinning at the end of his lap.

When F1 first went to Magny-Cours in 1991 the configuration of the final corners was different to how it is today. Insitead of a right-left chicane leading onto the start/finish straight, there was a sharp right-hander.

But, just as today, the timing beam for the lap was positioned shortly after the corner. Senna reasoned if he threw his car at the final corner on his last lap he could cut the timing beam more quickly, regardless of whether or not he was still in control of the car. And that’s exactly what he did, although it only got him third on the grid.

Bruno Senna today claimed this similar accident was not intentional:

I honestly prefer to complete my laps in the classic way, with four wheels attached. I’m certain it would have been quicker to complete the lap in the proper way too. But it’s quite easy to go off here.

Although it gave him pole position, with the chasing Romain Grosjean and Giorgio Pantano just 0.037s and 0.051s behind him respectively, his car will need repairs ahead of tomorrow’s feature race.

Earlier this year Bruno Senna won at Monte-Carlo in GP2 as Ayrton Senna did a record six times during his F1 career.

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Audi’s three-car team of Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen was victorious in the Le Mans 24 Hours after a thrilling race-long duel with Peugeot.

For McNish it is his second victory in the classic French event . He first won it in 1998 but lost a second win cruelly in the late stages of last year’s race. Team mate Kristensen extended his record of Le Mans wins to eight.

Peugeot’s team of three 908s led convincingly in the opening stages, lapping several seconds quicker than the Audis. But the French cars hit overheating problems forcing a series of pit stops, and wet weather conditions played into Audi’s hands as their R10s thrived on the slippery track.

McNish was the first Audi driver to lead as he ran a long opening stint but Peugeot regained the initiative. Pole sitter Stephane Sarrazin set a scorching pace early on that the R10s simply couldn’t match but his 908 - number eight - was delayed for six laps by a gearbox failure.

The race was interrupted by the safety car when Marcel Fassler crashed his Courage Oreca in the Porsche Curves. As night closed in Franck Montangy impressed with a long and consistently quick stint. But Audi rapidly overhauled the Peugeot as rain fell overnight - the 908 drivers struggling for visibility in their closed-cockpit cars.

Further sporadic rainfall in the morning allowed Audi to maintain their advantage over Peugeot with McNish doing the running early in the morning.

The track remained greasy until the chequered flag fell and the No.2 McNish/Kristensen/Capello car won by a lap.

The Merksteijn/Verstappen/Bleekemolen Porsche RS Spyder won the LMP2 category and LMGT1 was won for the second year in a row by the Aston Martin DBR9 of Darren Turner, David Brabham and Antonio Garcia. Victory in LMGT2 went to the Ferrari F430 GT of Mika Salo, Jame Melo and Gianmari Bruni.

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It’s the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend and all eyes are on what will surely be the the Audi-Peugeot battle for overall honours.

I was particularly interested to see that Peugeot’s line up is almost entirely comprised of ex-F1 drivers, including one former world champion. Of their nine drivers only Nicolas Minassian doesn’t have an F1 start to his name. Audi, on the other hand, have just two former Formula 1 pilots.

Who else on the Le Mans starting grid has been in F1? Here’s a quick run-down:

Emanuele Pirro
Audi Sport North America / Audi R10 TDI

Replaced Johnny Herbert at Benetton in 1989 but had to make way for Nelson Piquet the following year. Didn’t spend long in F1 but has had a successful career in sports cars.

Allan McNish
Audi Sport North America / Audi R10 TDI

Along with Mika Salo (below) was dropped by Toyota after the Japanese team’s maiden season in 2002. Given his subsequent excellent career in sports cars and Toyota’s dismal F1 history, perhaps they got that one wrong.

Olivier Panis
Team ORECA Matmut / Courage-ORECA LC70 Judd

Bright French prospect whose leg-breaking crash at Montreal in 1997 seemed to blunt his edge. A succession of increasingly poor Prost F1 cars didn’t help. Later at BAR and Toyota.

Marc Gene
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Spaniard who got Minardi in the points and later drove for Williams and tested for Ferrari.

Jacques Villeneuve
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

1997 F1 world champion who squandered his career on the dismal BAR project. Then drove for Renault, Sauber and BMW before being dropped.

Pedro Lamy
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Portuguese who suffered a huge crash in testing at Silverstone in 1994, landing in a spectator enclosure.

Stephane Sarrazin
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Made one F1 start for Minardi in 1999 at Interlagos, where he crashed out spectacularly with a stuck throttle.

Alexander Wurz
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

After driving for Benetton spent several years as McLaren tester. A return to racing for Williams last year didn’t go so well and he quit before the end of the season, but still tests for Honda.

Christian Klien
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Another active F1 tester on the Peugeot roster, Klien arguably got his F1 break before he was really ready and was dropped by Red Bull in 2006.

Franck Montagny
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Talented Frenchman who made a handful of starts for Super Aguri in 2006 while they scrabbled around looking for a Japanese driver to replace him with.

Ricardo Zonta
Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Peugeot’s eighth F1 driver in their nine-man squad drove for BAR in 1999 and 2000, and later appeared for Jordan and Toyota as a substitute.

Tomas Enge
Charouz Racing System / Lola B08/60 Aston Martin

Made a couple of F1 starts for Prost in 2001 as the team headed towards bankruptcy.

Jan Lammers
Charouz Racing System / Lola B07/10 Judd

Had a record 12 years between consecutive F1 starts in 1980 and 1992.

Jean-Christophe Boullion
Pescarolo Sport / Pescarolo-Judd

Williams tester who replaced Karl Wendlinger at Sauber in 1995.

Toshio Suzuki
Tokai University – YGK Power / Courage-ORECA LC70 YGK

Made a brief appearance in F1 in 1993.

Jos Verstappen
Van Merksteijn Motorsport / Porsche RS Spyder

Michael Schumacher’s number two in 1994 who famously was doused in flames during the German Grand Prix. Later drove for Simtek, Arrows and Minardi.

Hideki Noda
Kruse Schiller Motorsport / Lola B05/40 Mazda

Just three races for Larrousse in 1994.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Aston Martin Racing / Aston Martin DBR9

Drove for Sauber before taking Damon Hill’s place at Williams for 1997-8. However he came closest to winning the title in 1999 with Jordan, though he was dropped from the team in 2001. After driving for Prost he turned to Arrows before the team collapsed.

Karl Wendlinger
Aston Martin Racing / Aston Martin DBR9

Like Frentzen a Mercedes protégé who was schooled in sports cars alongside Michael Schumacher. His F1 career was cut short by a horrific crash at Monaco that left him in a coma. He returned in 1995 but only for a few races.

David Brabham
Aston Martin Racing / Aston Martin DBR9

Son of three-times champion Jack Brabham. Drove for his father’s former team in 1990, then returned to F1 with Simtek in 1994.

Christian Fittipaldi
Team Modena / Aston Martin DBR9

Nephew of 1972 and 1974 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. His brief F1 career peaked with a fourth place for Minardi in 1993.He survived an astonishing somersault at the Italian Grand Prix that year as he tagged team mate Pierluigi Martini as the pair crossed the start/finish line.

Jan Magnussen
Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R

Made one start for McLaren in 1995 before doing a season and a half with Stewart in 1997-8. Showed immense talent in junior categories but never realised it in F1.

Olivier Beretta
Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R

Along with Noda, only drove for Larrousse in 1994, for ten races.

Massimiliano Papis
Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R

Did six races for Arrows in 1996

Mika Salo
Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT

Along with McNish was dropped by Toyota in 2002 in one of F1’s most unfathomable decisions. Showed promise with Lotus and Tyrrell before being edged out of F1 in 1999, only to return for Ferrari as Michael Schumacher’s substitute. A year with Sauber took him to Toyota, and after being dumped by them he left F1.

Gianmaria Bruni
Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT

Bruni had a hectic time with Minardi in 2004 including being involved in a pit fire.

Eric van de Poele
Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT

Belgian driver who never got a chance to drive anything even halfway decent in F1. Was team mate to Damon Hill at Brabham in their final season, 1992.

Andrea Chiesa
Speedy Racing / Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R

Swiss driver Chiesa suffered the same curse of miserable equipment as van de Poele did.

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A little over a month after Stephane Ortelli’s horrific crash at Monza another sports car has been destroyed in an accident where the car flipped.

Ex-F1 driver Marc Gene flipped his Peugeot 908 HDi in a practice session for the Le Mans 24 Hours race next week. He suffered a hairline fracture of his toe.

It’s not yet known what caused the crash but it’s clear from the video that the car had flipped into the air in a manner similar to Ortelli’s crash at Monza. The large undersides of sports cars makes this a hazard.

After the crash Gene said:

The truth is that I didn’t think I would survive the accident. This has been, without a doubt, the biggest crash of my career and it was a miracle that I walked away.

Cars flipping has been a problem at Le Mans before. Most famously Mercedes had to withdraw its CLK-GTRs from the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours after similar accidents befell Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck.

It first happened to Webber in qualifying at Le Mans and then the same thing happened again in warm up:

And this is Dumbreck’s crash which occured during the race, forcing Mercedes to withdraw. Both drivers were unhurt:

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Racing first came to a halt as the rain got heavier and two cars crashed separately at Tower bend. One of the marshals that attended the first car to spin was then struck by the second and was briefly trapped underneath it, but luckily this horrific scenario resulted in only light injuries for the marshal.

Shortly afterwards the race was restarted but by then the rain had grown even heavier. Colin Turkington was leading when it was red-flagged for a second time, but with only three laps of green flag running completed it remains to be seen whether full points will be awarded for the race.

Jason Plato had started from the pit lane and only got as far as 12th. His eighth in race two would be the best result of the weekend for Seat.

Turkington claimed a rather more satisfying win in race two but had the race lasted one more lap he surely would have lost to Mat Jackson. Jackson, who threw his car off the road while leading in race one, battled brilliantly from 18th to chase Turkington down on the final lap. When Turkington got his BMW hugely sideways on the final tour it looked like Jackson would clinch an improbably victory, but he was held back by just one tenth of a second.

Fabrizio Giovanardi took advantage of the reverse grid to take an easy win in the last race while Adam Jones picked up an excellent second in the Team Air Cool Seat.

It bolstered Giovanardi’s title opes as Plato lost damage following a collision with Turkington and finished 12th. His team mate Darren Turner, who qualified on pole position for the first race, retired after clashing with Mat Jackson at turn one. Third place for Matt Neal means he has taken over as Giovanardi’s closest championship rival, althoug it remains to be seen whether the points will be adjusted following that chaotic first race.

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