Motorsport: Flames and Lames Wed Jul 13

Race winner Shane Van Gisbergen celebrates after race 2 for the Townsville 400. Photo / Getty Images

Flames

Shane Van Gisbergen
The Kiwi V8 Supercars driver just keeps on winning - three successive race weekends he has stood on top of the podium. The Red Bull Racing driver became the first driver to record three separate race wins on Sunday and he showed maturity and poise to overtake reigning series champion Mark Winterbottom early in the race and then strategically hold him off for the rest of the race. Van Gisbergen moved to second in the championship after the Townsville round and he's warming as the title favourite with every round.

Lewis Hamilton
Another week and the Brit Formula 1 star finds himself on this list once again. His win at his home event at Silverstone marks the fourth win in five races for the two-time defending world champion. He has eaten away teammate Nico Rosberg's early season lead in the standings and appears to be the driver to beat now that he has some momentum. He had a big hole to dig himself out of after watching the German claim the first four races of the season but Hamilton is back in a big way.

David Reynolds
Every now and then you get a rogue result in V8 Supercars. James Courtney rocketed through the field in the dying stages of Sunday's race at Townsville after a late safety car allowed drivers towards the back of the field to take a punt on pitting and having a crack on fresh tyres. Courtney's second place made for great spectator viewing but involved a significant amount of luck. That can't be said for Erebus driver David Reynolds, who looked likely for a podium until the safety car handed an advantage to his rivals. His ** place finish might not sound amazing but on the back of switching manufacturers, the team moving its base to Melbourne and Reynolds' off-season arrival at the team it showcased the huge strides the organization has made.

Lames

Nico Rosberg
After a dream start to the season Rosberg has slowly watched Hamilton whittle away his big championship lead. He came out on the wrong side of their tangle last week in Austria - both in finishing position and in the eyes of the stewards - and was out-driven by Hamilton at Silverstone. To make matters worse, Rosberg was handed a time penalty that relegated the Mercedes driver to third behind Max Verstappen for illegal use of his team radio.

Kurt Kostecki
The teenager was handed a spot start at the Townsville V8 Supercars round after the injury to championship regular Lee Holdsworth but he got a rude awakening. With very limited time behind the wheel Kostecki struggled to match the speed of his rivals. He suffered from set-up issues on Saturday and had some pain in his feet with a car designed for Holdsworth. In Sunday's race he suffered a steering problem and his Holden cannoned into the wall at high speed, shaking the talented youngster up. He gets another opportunity at Queensland Raceway in a fortnight.

Dani Sordo
The Hyundai driver was hospitalized over the weekend after a crash in testing ahead of WRC Finland. Sordo spent the best part of two days in hospital and was lucky not to have suffered anything worse than fractured vertebrae from the accident. Lying fifth in the championship standings and without a contract for 2017 the Spaniard will be super keen to get himself fit enough to compete at Rally Finland at the end of the month.

Best of both worlds
The Townsville track used at the weekend's V8 Supercars round is one of the best in the championship - mixing together part street circuit and part race track. The layout sees cars contend with some of the streets of downtown Townsville while also circulating around the beautiful Reid Park and crossing the Ross River. It makes for a pleasant spectator experience, the best of both worlds for the drivers and a unique set-up challenge for the team as they figure out the right balance for the car.

Finally some luck
Kiwi IndyCar driver Scott Dixon finally enjoyed a day where bad luck didn't seriously impact on his championship. The Target Chip Ganassi driver finished third at Monday's Iowa Corn 300 to remain fourth in the standings. After a horror run of poor results on the back of some bad luck, Dixon will be happy just to finish let alone stand on the podium.

A mile in their shoes
A handful of Kiwi motorsport media will get to see what it's like racing against the best in the V8 Supercars championship this week. The series holds a launch of the Pukekohe round at a karting track in south Auckland this week. Selected media will get to jump behind the wheel and see how they go racing against stars Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds.