The old ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ adage was always something of an oversimplification for car makers to go motor racing, but the ethos does still stand. Will BMW really sell more of its new 3 Series because Andrew Jordan scored a win first time out in the British Touring Car Championship? Unlikely. But it sure doesn’t hurt BMW’s cause to re-establish the model as the totem for saloon-car excellence. 

It’s heartening that motorsport is still of value to car makers in these fast-evolving times, and beyond the BTCC, there’s a great example on the global stage of a rising Chinese brand using racing to introduce itself to the world. 

We’ve yet to see Geely’s Lynk&Co on European roads, but that hasn’t stopped it showcasing the 03 TCR in the FIA World Touring Car Cup – and like BMW’s 3 Series in the UK, it’s already a winner. 

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A four-car super-team has joined the burgeoning series, headed by a trio of drivers who share eight World Touring Car Championships between them: 49-year-old French legend Yvan Muller, Guernsey’s Andy Priaulx, who is making a tin-top return this year at the age of 44, and Sweden’s Thed Björk. Muller’s promising nephew, 22-year-old Yann Ehrlacher, is in the other 03.