R-Motorsport has unveiled the new Aston Martin Vantage Cup one-make series beginning in 2020, while also reiterating its commitment to the DTM and hinting at a World Endurance Championship future. The outfit, which holds the Aston Martin license in the DTM and races in the Blancpain GT Series, will first launch its one-make series in
Month: September 2019
Citroen World Rally Championship driver Esapekka Lappi has taken the lead of Rally Turkey by nine seconds after Friday morning’s loop. Lappi set the fastest time in the Cetibeli stage – 5.6 seconds quicker than second-placed Andreas Mikkelsen – and fifth fastest in the final stage of the morning was enough to hold off the
World Rally Championship title hopeful Thierry Neuville shared the joint-fastest time on the opening stage of Rally Turkey with team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen as Hyundai set the pace. Mikkelsen and Neuville – who is 33 points behind Ott Tanak in the drivers’ standings – both completed the stage in 2m2.6s, going 1.6 seconds faster than M-Sport
Jorge Lorenzo responded to the recent criticism of Honda MotoGP team boss Alberto Puig by stating no one can say that “I didn’t try and didn’t risk with this bike”. Puig told the official MotoGP podcast in the lead-up to the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano that Lorenzo’s Honda woes were down to a
Aprilia MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone and his brother Angelo will manage the career of controversial Moto3 rider Romano Fenati from the San Marino Grand Prix. Fenati was banned from racing until the end of last year after controversially grabbing the brake lever of Forward Racing’s Stefan Manzi during the 2019 edition of the San Marino
Defending World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier has admitted he needs a big score at this week’s Rally Turkey to keep his hopes of a seventh straight title alive. The six-time WRC champion is 40 points behind series leader Ott Tanak with four rallies remaining, going into an event he’s described as a lottery. “I need
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Clint Bowyer says he still regrets not pushing Martin Truex Jr out of the way to win the Richmond NASCAR Cup Series round five months ago. Bowyer just made it into the 2019 playoffs with his fifth place finish at Indianapolis last weekend, and has not won a race so far this
Honda MotoGP team boss Alberto Puig believes Jorge Lorenzo’s struggles with the Japanese marque are not down to technique, but a lack of “courage and willingness”. Lorenzo has endured a nightmare first campaign on the RC213V after two seasons as a works Ducati rider, having not scored a top 10 finish this year. He has
World Rally Championship leader Ott Tanak looks near certain to remain at Toyota next season after negotiations with Hyundai have broken down. Hyundai Motorsport’s Andrea Adamo has confirmed his talks with the Estonian are finished, meaning the Estonian’s only remaining option is a return to M-Sport. Asked about his discussions with Hyundai, Tanak said: “We
As the search for Johann Zarco’s KTM replacement for the 2020 MotoGP season continues, the Tank Slappers podcast digs into the rumour that Alvaro Bautista could fill the KTM void. Bautista moved to World Superbikes for this year after losing his place in MotoGP at the end of last season, and dominated the opening rounds
The Toyota World Rally Championship team says it has eliminated the weakness on rough surfaces that slowed it on last year’s Rally Turkey ahead of the 2019 event this week. Toyota still won in Turkey after its rivals hit trouble, but victor Ott Tanak was quick to admit that it had not been quick enough.
In a U-turn for the manufacturer, Honda has revealed a new front-engined layout for its 2019 SUPER GT car, as Toyota and Nissan also unveiled its cars for next season. The SUPER GT version of the NSX has always had the same mid-engined layout of its road-going sibling, with the series using weight adjustments to
Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo says the biggest pressure he comes under in the race for this year’s World Rally Championship is from himself. The Italian has kept Hyundai at the top of the WRC manufacturers’ title race for much of the 2019 season since being installed as team director for the 2019 season. But
Former World Rally Championship star and current Dakar Rally driver Mikko Hirvonen will enter the penultimate round of this year’s European Rally Championship, the Cyprus Rally. Hirvonen who finished as runner-up to Sebastien Loeb in the WRC standings four times in his career, will drive a Ford Fiesta R5 run by fellow former Ford factory
Matt DiBenedetto has secured a place on the NASCAR Cup Series grid for 2020, signing for Wood Brothers Racing to replace the retiring Paul Menard. DiBenedetto has enjoyed a breakthrough season in the Cup series with the one-car Leavine Family Racing outfit in 2019, lifting the team out of the struggles it had when running
MotoGP’s Aragon Grand Prix will start one hour earlier than usual next weekend to avoid a direct clash with Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix. The final round of the European leg of the 2019 campaign at the Motorland circuit in Spain will take place at 13.00 local time, instead of 14.00. It ensures no overlap
Hayden Paddon says he could not let the disappointment of his Rally Finland testing crash be the end of his World Rally Championship arrangement with M-Sport. The one-time WRC rally winner will drive an M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 MkII on Rally GB next month before making an outing in a Fiesta World Rally Car on
Darrell Wallace Jr believes he reminded his critics that he “can drive” with his third place in the Indianapolis NASCAR Cup Series round. Richard Petty Motorsports driver Wallace famously came close to Daytona 500 victory last year at the start of his first full season at NASCAR’s top level. But he has taken just two
Jimmie Johnson blamed his first-ever failure to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs on ’25 bad races’ rather than the Indianapolis crash that ended his chance of being a Cup title contender. The seven-time champion has not won a championship race since Dover in June 2017, and his hopes of making it into the playoffs via his
Petronas Yamaha MotoGP rider Franco Morbidelli will contest the inaugural running of the Sepang 8 Hours in December this year. Morbidelli will ride a Yamaha YZF-R1 entered by the Sepang Racing team, which has received backing from full-season Endurance World Championship squad YART for its home event. He will race alongside Yamaha World Superbike rider
Hyundai has added two test events to its October schedule, creating a run of four rallies in four weekends, as the debate over World Rally Championship testing continues. The manufacturer has filled the two weekends between Rally GB and Rally Spain with Rallylegend for Thierry Neuville, and the Spanish Gravel Championship qualifier Rally Ciudad de
Brad Keselowski hit out at the “atrocious angle” of the Indianapolis barrier that he hit in his massive NASCAR Cup crash. Penske Ford driver Keselowski tangled with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones just before one-third distance in Sunday’s race. Both cars were sent into the outside wall at the exit of Turn 2 before Keselowski’s
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick dominated to win at Indianapolis, the final race before the start of the 2019 NASCAR Cup playoffs. Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his career, after being pitched into a spin and hitting the wall on lap 105 of the
FFF Racing’s Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli claimed the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe title on countback after finishing tied on points with Black Falcon Mercedes at the Hungaroring. The Lamborghini duo beat the pairing of Maro Engel and Luca Stolz to the championship after recording two wins to Engel/Stolz’s one. Raffaele Marciello and Vincent
Chris van der Drift and Evan Chen moved to within two points of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia points lead after recording a fifth win of the year in Shanghai. The Gama Racing pair came into the weekend four points adrift of FFF Racing’s Juuso Puhakka and Takashi Kasai, a gap which stretched to seven
SARD Lexus duo Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama took an unlikely SUPER GT victory at Autopolis after gambling on wet tyres just before the midpoint of the race. Koudai Tsukakoshi had led by the best part of 10 seconds in the polesitting Real Racing Honda ahead of the Kondo Nissan of Jann Mardenborough in the
The 2019 SUPER GT season is being broadcast live and for free by Motorsport.tv, and you can watch this weekend’s Autopolis round live on Autosport too. Honda swept the front row of the grid after a dominant showing in qualifying, but a first victory since the Okayama opener in April is anything but guaranteed due
Honda locked out the front row at Autopolis for the second year running as Real Racing led last year’s polesitting ARTA team in SUPER GT qualifying. Koudai Tsukakoshi underlined the chart-topping pace shown by Real Racing in both practice and Q1, clocking a time of 1m33.262s in the #17 NSX he shares with Bertrand Baguette.
Erik Jones has signed a new deal with his Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series team, with Autosport sources suggesting his new contract is a one-year extension. Jones earned his first win of the 2019 season last time out at Darlington, and he is in his second season with the team after a debut campaign
The M-Sport Ford World Rally Championship team will field a third Fiesta WRC for Pontus Tidemand on Rally GB. Tidemand, 28, is already returning to M-Sport for next week’s Rally Turkey, having tackled the first two rallies of the season in one of its factory Fords. The WRC 2 and Asia Pacific Rally champion has