Watch the top ten non-F1 races of 2016

2016 F1 season review

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This year’s whopping 21-race Formula One calendar didn’t leave an awful lot of time for following over championships. Watch up on ten great races you may have missed.

IndyCar Grand Prix of Alabama

IndyCar served up an early-season nailbiter at the sinuous Barber Motorsport Park circuit in Alabama. Graham Rahal went on the attack in the closing stages but contact was made as he forced his way inside Simon Pagenaud for the lead. The Penske driver fought back a few laps later and Rahal made contact with a backmarker, leading to a loss of grip which Pagenaud ultimately capitalised on.

Nurburgring 24 Hours

The expression ‘this race had it all’ is well-worn, but in this case it’s probably true. Snow and rain forced stoppages, a spate of engine problems hit the front-runners and the lead was still being disputed on the final lap of the monstrous Nordschleife.

BTCC Thruxton race one

The ultra-fast Thruxton circuit and the dependably entertaining British Touring Car Championship usually makes for a potent mix. This year was no exception. Following a three-way tangle at the start of the race and battles throughout the field, proceedings had to be red-flagged after a multi-car crash by the pit lane entrance.

WTCC Hungary race one

The Hungaroring doesn’t always produce the best races but the World Touring Car Championship arrived at the circuit to find a freshly laid surface which made for unpredictable grip levels. It then rained before the start of the first race, though not enough to deter a few optimistic drivers from starting on slicks. Mehdi Bennani reaped the rewards of fitting wet weather tyres to claim victory.

Formula Renault 2.0 Red Bull Ring race one

Hotly-tipped young British racer Lando Norris scooped three championships during the course of 2016, the most prestigious of which was the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup crown. Belgian Max Defourney was his closest adversary for most of the year and at the Red Bull Ring they battled thrillingly for the win, swapping the lead time and again.

Formula V8 3.5 Circuit de Catalunya race two

https://youtu.be/6su0RVhnV0g

Tom Dillmann went into the Formula V8 3.5 title-decider on the back foot. Rival Louis Deletraz held a six-point lead over him and started six places ahead on pole position. But when the lights went out Deletraz saw his title hopes unravel quickly. He slipped back into the field, Dillmann arrived on his tail and jumped ahead through the pit stops. A wayward backmarker handed Dillmann the chance to take the lead and his victory sealed a remarkable championship win.

Formula E 2015-16 Buenos Aires

Formula E’s third championship is already underway but the fourth round of the 2015-16 season remains the pick of this year’s action so far. A Safety Car aided Sebastien Buemi’s quest for victory from last on the grid, passing championship rival Lucas di Grassi on the way. But he was denied by Sam Bird.

Euroformula Open Monza race two

As the European Formula Three field dwindled, producing a mostly dreary and predictable campaign, it fell to Euroformula Open to produce the best Formula Three action of 2016. The no-holds-barred last-lap fight between eventual champion Leonardo Pulcini and Ferdinand Habsburg at Monza was the season’s highlight.

Le Mans 24 Hours

The final minutes of the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours surely rank as one of the most incredible in the history of this great race. Toyota’s decades-long pursuit of victory appeared to be at an end until, with just a few minutes remaining, Kazuki Nakajima’s TS050 hit trouble. Toyota’s heartbreaking loss was Porsche’s gain.

Indianapolis 500

If there was a more stunning moment in motor racing in 2016, it had to be this. Alexander Rossi learned a thing or two about fuel-saving during his brief time in Formula One and it served him well when he made his first start at the Indianapolis 500. A late caution period opened the door for anyone who could stretch their fuel to the end. With judicious slip-streaming of team mate Ryuan Hunter-Reay and a disciplined right foot, Rossi snatched an unbelievable victory in the 100th running of the race.

Watch more great racing from 2016

Relive the entire 2016 season from a range of championships plus a host of guest series in Weekend Racing Wrap:

With thanks to @bradley13 and @mathers.

2016 F1 season review

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Watch the top ten non-F1 races of 2016”

  1. I saw the WTCC Hungary one live, and can confirm it was excellent fun to watch :)

  2. I’d add International GT Open at Paul Ricard Race One, one hell of a race in the final few laps!

  3. Only saw a couple of races in this list but they were great. Indy Alabama was nail-biting. Indy 500 win was a true fairly tale, incredible. The crushing last few minutes of Toyota at Le Mans was a heartbreak of epic proportions. All around a great year of racing for the record books

  4. That le mans… I wonder how the wec will shape up this year. No audi and rebellion to lmp2 (which makes a lot of sense) it’s just porsche vs Toyota. Will it have a future? I really hope so, cause i love it.

  5. Since we don’t really talk about MotoGP too much here but the following MotoGP races were worth a watch especially Mugello.

    Mugello 2016
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRy3e9Rln3s

    Argentina 2016
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P1bRBs4V3M

    Catalunya 2016
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXAdwufTo-k

    If not any other, do watch Mugello as it went to the final meters of the race!

  6. Not four wheels, but three… there are some excellent sidecar races on YouTube

  7. That was moment of the year for me when Rossi won the 500. In front of a huge crowd at Indy, the 100th running of one of the worlds great sporting events and it was an outsider, a rookie, an underdog that did it. I loved the radio reaction after the race, and for his face to be on the Borg Warner trophy for ever was incredible. That and it was a really good race.

    1. It was a bit of a lottery with every other car running out of fuel. To me he wasn’t ‘the best driver on the day’ if that makes any sence and what I’ve seen from him in GP2 and F1 I don’t think too highly of his prowess.

    2. I agree with you @jeffreyj. To me the indy500 winner was a joke and didn’t deserved it. It was won by a driver that didn’t deserved to win the race and whose only good performance was that he kept the car in one piece and that he was good at saving fuel, nothing else nothing more. There was a colombian driver who really deserved the win and he only finished 2nd even after having pitted for fuel just 3 laps before the end of the race. According to some reporters, Munoz needed half a lap more in order to having caught up and passed Rossi, so basically he run out of time and laps. With all that Rossi has showed so far in Formula one and what he has shown in other places, I’m more than satisifed to see and hear that nobody will hire or give this guy a fomula one seat next year. Rossi is a mediocre driver and since he is a mediocre driver and has not sporsorship or money to buy his way into a f1 seat, then i’m happy to knkw that he will not get an f1 seat for next year or in the not so distant future.

  8. You know what is funny? All those races are avaliable on Youtube… But not F1… Impossible to see F1 in good quality these days. Hear that Liberty media? Demand is out there…

    1. it is very easy these days to find p2p sharing sites that have every single video file an f1 enthusiast could want. I never see FOM lifting the youtube ban

  9. Great collection!,

    Watching the F3 you can see exactly where Max V gets his driving from. Maybe some f1 drivers should have look back down the formulas or some new ideas 💡
    Also the FIA should see where exactly they should start enforcing track limits 😀

  10. I thought that one of the best races this year was at the very start of the year.

    The 24 Hours of Daytona was so dramatic all through the field. Pipo Derani produced a truly epic performance. Here are the highlights.

  11. What, no GP2? There were no shortage of immense races in that series last season. Made F1 look stupid most of the time.

    1. Baku sprint race and feature race were great. Monza, Hockenheim and Monaco feature races also standout.

      1. The Austrian race that was too wet for slicks but not wet enough for inters was a classic as well. And the Silverstone round was very good too.

  12. I can’t stand any series with “success ballast” or any other form of penalty weight, so I tend to avoid the touring car racing.

    As for open-wheel, I watched all the non-oval IndyCar races, and the Grand Prix of Alabama has rapidly turned into a “must watch” race for IndyCar.

    Now if we could only get IndyCar to show up at CotA, so we could find out how the two series compare– come to think of it, with Liberty talking major week-long events, perhaps there should be a combined F1 / IndyCar event at CotA (even though I know the Firestone 600 sponsors would never allow it).

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