Formula 2 frontrunner Luca Ghiotto will make a switch to sportscar racing next season with the R-Motorsport Aston Martin squad. The 24-year Italian, who lies third in the F2 points this season heading into the Abu Dhabi finale at the end of this month, will contest both the endurance and sprint segments of the 2020
Month: November 2019
Marc Marquez’s Moto2 champion brother Alex is among the contenders for a 2020 Honda MotoGP ride after Jorge Lorenzo’s retirement. The younger Marquez had already agreed a deal to continue with Marc VDS to defend his Moto2 title, while being linked to a 2021 MotoGP chance with Pramac Ducati. Lorenzo’s decision to retire at the
Fabio Quartararo held onto top spot in FP2 to end Friday’s MotoGP practice for the Valencia Grand Prix fastest of all, while Yamaha stablemate Valentino Rossi crashed again. Petronas SRT rider Quartararo snatched first place away from works Yamaha man Maverick Vinales in the closing stages to lead the field on Friday by 0.148 seconds.
Raffaele Marciello stormed to pole position for the FIA GT World Cup qualification race with a stunning late lap in his GruppeM Mercedes. The Italian couldn’t have left his run any later, charging to top spot right at the flag after failing to get a clean lap in between stoppages earlier in the session. The
Spencer Pigot has been released by IndyCar squad Ed Carpenter Racing after three and a half seasons, amid speculation Nico Hulkenberg could race for the team in 2020. Team owner Carpenter said in August he was keen to retain Pigot for 2020 and the two shook hands on a deal after the Laguna Seca season
Citroen’s parent company PSA Motorsport insists it is still discussing the 2020 World Rally Championship with lead driver Sebastien Ogier. A spokesperson from the firm would not discuss speculation regarding Citroen’s potential withdrawal from the WRC. It emerged this week that Citroen’s WRC participation is under review, while a World Endurance Championship entry has just
In the space of three days, the World Rally Championship lost its 2019 season finale and potentially its most successful team of this century – Citroen – too. While WRC personnel were still making their way back from Australia following the cancellation of the event due to the horrendous bush fires that had raged in
Stewart-Haas Racing will promote its Xfinity Series driver Cole Custer to replace Daniel Suarez in its NASCAR Cup Series line-up for 2020, Autosport has learned. Sources have suggested the 21-year-old’s deal will be officially announced within the coming week. A request for comment from a SHR spokesperson was not immediately returned. Custer is one of
Johann Zarco says a 2020 factory Honda MotoGP call-up in light of Jorge Lorenzo’s retirement would be “an exceptional dream”, but insists he would be happy with an LCR ride as well. Zarco, who has impressed as LCR’s stand-in for Takaaki Nakagami in the last two races following an ignominious end to his short tenure
Retiring three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo says he is “very sorry” to have “disappointed” Honda and team boss Alberto Puig with his poor form in 2019. Faced with a likely exit from Ducati, Lorenzo contacted Honda during the 2018 season and agreed a shock switch to become Marc Marquez’s team-mate from this year onwards. But
Three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has called time on his glittering career at the end of his worst season in grand prix racing. Lorenzo joined Honda for 2019, but a season plagued by injury and difficulties in adapting to the RC213V meant he has not even scored a top 10 finish so far. After
Elfyn Evans will be announced as a 2020 Toyota World Rally Championship driver – potentially with Sebastien Ogier alongside him – as early as the end of next week. Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen has dismissed speculation he has already signed both drivers, but said his line-up could be completed imminently. His squad has been
Citroen’s future in the World Rally Championship is under review, with an immediate departure from the series reckoned to be a strong possibility. Citroen returned to the WRC in 2017 after a year away from the series was spent developing the C3 WRC. Its latest car has been, by some distance, the least successful of
Until a late-race caution set up a three-lap dash to the finish, last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup playoffs semi-final race at Phoenix was short on drama. And that’s a problem for NASCAR, because in 2020 Phoenix will be hosting the championship decider. The need for clean air appeared to dominate and left overtaking at a premium,
MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports has announced a preliminary agreement to bring a Hungarian Grand Prix to the calendar from 2022. The announcement comes nine years after the country’s previous attempt to hold a MotoGP race collapsed. The series was meant to make its first visit to Hungary since 1992 in 2010 at the proposed new
NASCAR Cup title contender Martin Truex Jr said he effectively raced with “half a team and an old car” at Phoenix last weekend as he prepared for the championship decider. Truex, the 2017 champion, became the first driver to cement a place in the ‘championship four’ field for Homestead when he won the opening race
World Rally Championship teams will distribute unused food to the local Coffs Harbour community before returning to Europe following the cancellation of Rally Australia. The event was cancelled on Tuesday due to bush fires spreading through New South Wales, having initially had its route dramatically shortened in a bit to to hold the event. The
The recent Malaysian MotoGP served up a significant statistic for Yamaha, as Maverick Vinales’ dominant win marked its first brace of victories in one season since 2017. After crashing out of the fight for the win in Australia, Vinales led from start to finish at Sepang in a dominant display, which harked back to the
The 2019 World Rally Championship finale Rally Australia has been cancelled amid concerns about the rapidly spreading fires closing in on the event’s Coffs Harbour base. Official confirmation of the decision from rally organisers is expected imminently. Autosport has seen email confirmation from rally officials to the FIA and WRC Promoter declaring the cancellation, with
There is increasing anger in the World Rally Championship service park that Rally Australia has not yet been cancelled, with its Coffs Harbour base in the path of intensifying bushfires. Rally Australia organisers are set to meet with the FIA, WRC Promoter and the teams at 1600 Australian time on Tuesday (5am in London) to
Reigning NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano was left completely perplexed by the Phoenix race slump that ended his title defence. During much of the first two stages of Sunday’s penultimate round of the season, Penske Ford driver Logano looked almost unbeatable. He led 93 of the first 176 laps and took the stage two victory
This year’s title-winning Super GT outfit Team LeMans will not continue in the Toyota stable in 2020, Autosport has learned. Team LeMans won the GT500 title earlier this month at Motegi with Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita, adding to the All-Japan GT Championship success it earned back in 2002 with Akira Iida and now-team boss
Rally Australia organisers have revealed a heavily revised schedule as a proposal to keep this week’s World Rally Championship finale running. The route for the Coffs Harbour-based event has been hit by bushfires raging up and down the east coast of New South Wales. A bulletin issued by clerk of the course Wayne Kenny outlines
World Rally champion Ott Tanak’s sensational move from Toyota to Hyundai – sealed just before his title – is only the start of the 2020 driver market machinations. In a special rallying edition of the Autosport Podcast, David Evans joins Edd Straw to consider what happens next in the WRC. Will Sebastien Ogier walk out
Denny Hamlin survived a late restart in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix to claim his sixth win of the season and secure a spot in the championship shootout. He will go up against Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr and Kevin Harvick for the title at Homestead next weekend, with reigning champion Joey Logano
Chris Ingram has become the first British driver to win the European Rally Championship title since Vic Elford in 1967 after finishing fourth on the season-closing Rally Hungary. Ingram, driving a Toksport WRT-prepared Skoda Fabia R5 with Ross Whittock as co-driver, overcame two punctures and a spin on the final day to edge home on
The identity of the four drivers who will fight for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series title will be settled at Phoenix on Sunday, with an early favourite in jeopardy. Martin Truex Jr and Kevin Harvick have guaranteed the first two slots in the ‘championship four’ with their wins at Martinsville and Texas. Behind them, Kyle
Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has outlined what changes he wants made to the 2020 Honda in a bid to find more performance. Marquez eased to his sixth premier class world title this season with four races to spare, and won 11 grands prix while finishing inside the top two in 17 of the
Double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso achieved his first podium finish in cross-country rallying in the third of his Dakar Rally preparatory outings with Toyota. Alonso and co-driver Marc Coma contested this week’s Al Ula-Neom Cross-Country Rally in Saudi Arabia, where the Dakar is being held for the first time in 2020. They were
World Rally Championship finale Rally Australia will have a “significantly shortened” route – if it goes ahead at all – due to a worsening fire situation in the area. Bush fires have been burning for days in New South Wales and worsening weather conditions – including strengthening winds set to run into Tuesday – are