During a record-breaking season of 24 Formula 1 races, there was always likely to be the odd gem of a story that had a short shelf-life before being overtaken on the news agenda.
Factor in another blockbuster year for the World Endurance Championship, several u-turns over World Rally Championship's hybrid future and a MotoGP season that featured endless twists and turns in the title race, and it's little surprise that some worthy stories struggle for air time.
With any number of fascinating tales that only fleetingly gripped the public consciousness - if at all - to pick from, here are Autosport's choices that you may have missed during the relentless racing year.
By Sam Hall, Stephen Lickorish, James Newbold and Gary Watkins
25 May and 9 June - When DTM had to change its schedule
Flexibility is not a trait often associated with championship organisers. But the ADAC twice showed a willingness to mix up the schedule of its flagship DTM series in 2024, for which it deserves great credit.
A clash between test day for the Le Mans 24 Hours and DTM's Zandvoort meeting meant its second race on Sunday was pushed back from the usual 1:30pm slot to run at 5pm local time, allowing some of the championship's biggest names to take part. Championship challengers Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde were joined in ferrying back and forth by Jack Aitken and BMW's trio of Marco Wittmann, Sheldon van der Linde and Rene Rast.
But what elevates this to my unheralded story of the year is the reason for tweaking its Lausitzring schedule. It's not often that ice hockey gets a mention in an Autosport headline, but the timing of its World Championship semi-finals in the Czech Republic appeared problematic for DTM.
That's because the semi-finals were scheduled to be broadcast by DTM’s German broadcast partner ProSieben at the same time as its first race on the Saturday. This too was moved to a later slot, ensuring maximum eyeballs on a race that started just before a massive rain shower threw a spanner in the works.
It did however allow Maro Engel to make an early stop and storm up the order to second after a difficult opening lap - perhaps the only time the Mercedes ace will ever be assisted by an ice hockey tournament... JN
15 June - Estre's Hyperpole close call
Arguably the best single lap of the World Endurance Championship almost didn’t happen. It wasn’t planned that Kevin Estre would push on for another time around the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe at the end of the Hyperpole qualifying session at the Le Mans 24 Hours. But push on he did and the Frenchman put together the near-perfect lap to snatch pole position in dramatic fashion after the chequered flag had fallen.
There were only minutes left on the clock after a red flag had briefly stopped qualifying and then Estre ran into what he calls “huge traffic” on his first lap out of the pits. There had been no time to change tyres during the stoppage and, with five quick laps on his Michelins, it was time to call it a day.
“My lap wasn’t fast,” recalls Estre of the 3m25.793s good enough only for the fourth row. “I crossed the line and my engineer, said, ‘That’s it, we’re done’. But after the Dunlop Chicane, I asked if he thought I should continue. He checked, and then he came back, ‘Push, push, push’.”
The reason for the hesitation was that the #6 Penske 963 LMDh was running short of fuel. Refuelling is not permitted during Hyperpole and Estre had completed the laps the Porsche Penske Motorsport had in the run plan.
“It wasn’t sure that I would have enough energy for the in-lap until I got to the Porsche Curves,” recounts Estre. “And even then, I had to come back to the pits on the battery from Arnage after setting the time.”
That was critical. Had he failed to make it home, his time would have been scrubbed out as per the rules and Cadillac would have taken the pole. GW
21-22 September - Thompson's remarkable determination
Some of the best, most unusual and most entertaining stories in motorsport come from the national racing world. Every year, we hear of scores of remarkable performances and unexpected stars from across club motorsport. And one that sticks in the memory from this season concerns Classic Touring Car Racing Club Pre-'66 Touring Car champion Ian Thompson.
The expression going above and beyond is overused but, as our reporter Mark Paulson discovered, Thompson really did go the extra mile to secure the title at Thruxton.
He arrived in Hampshire in with a chance of glory and, with pre-event points leader Luc Wilson forced out through illness, Thompson needed just two class wins to seal the deal.
But the CTCRC only awards full points provided there are at least three starters in a class and the sight of the fellow Lotus Cortina of Keith Wright leaving the paddock on a trailer after clutch woe, caught Thompson's attention.
Thompson recalled: “I ran after him: ‘Where are you going to? You can’t go home! Get the car off the trailer – we’ll fix it.’”
With Thompson’s spare clutch fitted, Wright was able to join the grid. “We finished five minutes before we went out,” added Thompson, who twice won the class to seal the spoils.
Just to add to the story, this was Thompson's first full season of racing since he broke his back in a Caterham crash in 2015. And that just makes his achievements all the more remarkable. SL
8 December - F2 unsung hero's overlooked victory
Joshua Durksen was a name that garnered little attention heading into the Formula 2 season with AIX. Making the same jump as Andrea Kimi Antonelli from FRECA, perhaps the media circus surrounding the future Mercedes driver left too little room for the spotlight to extend further.
The Paraguayan first caught the eye at Imola as he scored his first podium – and his first points – with a brilliant drive to third in the feature race. That meant that he actually beat Antonelli to getting onto the podium...
Durksen was on the podium again at Monza and his first win came in the Baku sprint, but his seasonal highlight came with victory in the Abu Dhabi feature race.
With the focus on Gabriel Bortoleto's coronation as champion, the 21-year-old was again the forgotten man. He'd pitted early after starting eighth and undercut ahead of the battle between Victor Martins and championship-chasing Bortoleto.
Although it was Formula E-bound Taylor Barnard who scored the team's first win with the new-for-2024 Dallara F2 chassis in Monaco, Durksen established himself as AIX's clear number one driver and his brilliance in Abu Dhabi that secured him 10th in the standings deserved more attention.
Naturally, Bortoleto’s championship victory over Isack Hadjar stole the headlines, but ahead of the 2025 season, expect to see Durksen occupying plenty more column inches as he returns to AIX. SH
