10 Things You Might Have Missed From Last Weekend’s Motorsport Spectacular

It was another busy weekend of motorsport with Formula 1, IndyCar, GP2, WTCC, Formula Renault 3.5 and Nascar all in action. Here are 10 things you might have missed:

1. One-off designs

The Monaco Grand Prix, F1’s most glamorous and prestigious race, saw several drivers wear one-off helmet designs. Marcus Ericsson went for a Ronnie Peterson tribute helmet, 40 years after the Swedish driver’s Monaco win. Here are several other special lids:

GP2 was one of several F1 support series in Monaco. The feature race was eventually won by Jolyon Palmer, who finished just ahead of Mitch Evans and Felipe Nasr. It featured a red flag after the two Arden drivers made contact at the Fairmont hairpin and blocked the track.

The rest of the field was forced to stop and wait for the circuit to be cleared. Once it was, the engines in several cars went into “safe” mode and they had to be bump-started. Stephane Richelmi won the sprint race on home soil from Sergio Canamasas and Rio Haryanto.

3. Nato takes maiden FR3.5 victory

The Formula Renault 3.5 series was also on the F1 support bill, for the only time in 2014. Norman Nato impressed to score his maiden win in the championship. In fact, it was his first time on the FR3.5 podium. Marco Sorensen finished just behind, with Jazeman Jaafar holding off Carlos Sainz Jr and Oliver Rowland to take third.

4. Joy for Johnson

Jimmie Johnson secured his first win of the 2014 Nascar Sprint Cup season on Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He led 165 laps, holding off late runs by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth, who finished second and third. It was Johnson’s 67th triumph in the series and his seventh at the circuit, setting a new record.

5. Double Duty

Kurt Busch attempted to become only the second driver in motorsport history to complete Double Duty – complete all 1,100 miles of the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. He was the top rookie and finished sixth in the former, which was won by Ryan Hunter-Reay, but retired from the latter after a total of 906 miles of racing on Sunday due to a blown engine.

6. A long-standing tradition

If you are new to the Indianapolis 500, which took place on the weekend, then you may not know about the post-race tradition where the winning driver drinks a bottle of milk – supplied by the American Dairy Association of Indiana – and pours the rest over their head. The drivers are even asked for their preferences.

Louis Meyer is regarded as the driver who started the tradition after requesting a glass of buttermilk following his 1933 Indy 500 win. He did the same thing in 1936, which led to a local dairy company getting involved after realising the marking opportunity. It has taken place each year since then, excluding 1947 and 1955.

7. Muller and Lopez take WTCC wins

The WTCC series headed to the Salzburgring in Austria for round five of the 2014 season. Yvan Muller started from pole and eventually took the win, with Tom Coronel impressively holding on to second after passing José María López when the Citroen driver – who finished third – made a mistake.

López stormed to victory in the heavily disrupted second race, which was red flagged and restarted after a chaotic first lap. Honda drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro finished second and third.

Incredibly, someone decided to start a Formula Renault 2.0 NEC race at Silverstone while there was a recovery truck on the circuit. Just as the field of cars got to the location, there were still marshals running to get to the vehicle, and spray from earlier rain didn’t help matters.

Kimi Raikkonen was at his best in the pre-Monaco Grand Prix press conference. He also had a bit of trouble entering the F1 paddock on Friday, which you can see in the video below.

Ford Olsbergs MSE driver Andreas Bakkerud won round two of the FIA World Rallycross championship, which took place at Lydden Hill in the UK. Robin Larsson was second in his Audi A1 Supercar, with 2013 BTCC champion Andrew Jordan in third. Round one winner Petter Solberg finished sixth in the final after a spin due to contact.