The three-time MotoGP race winner injured his left knee earlier this month during a training incident at Valentino Rossi’s VR46 ranch. Morbidelli first disclosed the injury when he fell practicing a bike swap in practice at Barcelona, when he fell as his knee gave way. The Italian has since aggravated that injury on Tuesday in
Month: June 2021
Following an emotional victory for Marc Marquez at the German MotoGP, his first win since his comeback from a career-threatening injury, the MotoGP paddock moves on to the Netherlands for a final race before five weeks off with an extended summer break due to the cancellation of the Finnish GP. After strengthening his MotoGP world
As the middle leg of an F1 triple-header, the Styrian GP returns to the F1 calendar for a second consecutive year as part of the COVID-19-enforced changes. After Max Verstappen’s victory at the French GP, as he reeled in and overtook Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap, the Red Bull driver leads the standings by
It was mid-May when IndyCar revealed that the Toronto street race around Exhibition Place would have to be scrubbed from its schedule for the second straight year, due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, IndyCar said it was “considering various scenarios” for a replacement race, with one favourite being a third
Last week’s announcement that the final stage of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown had been delayed cast serious doubts over the viability of the event with Goodwood saying it would issue an update in due course about the 8-11 July extravaganza. The delayed easing of restrictions until at least the 19 July would’ve limited
Neither Leclerc nor Carlos Sainz Jr were able to keep their tyres alive long enough to match the lap times of their rivals, and their pace drop off and need for extra stops saw them slump to outside the top ten. But while Ferrari was not alone in suffering more degradation in the French GP
The 21-year-old was set to finish third after seeing off the challenge of Team Penske’s Will Power, but moved up to second behind Alex Palou when Power’s race-leading team-mate Josef Newgarden was cruelly slowed by a late gearbox failure. The result marked Herta’s second podium of the year, after winning at St. Petersburg, and was
The pole-sitting Team Penske driver led 32 of the 55 laps and looked set to secure his and the team’s first win of a disappointing season – having also missed out on a likely victory in the previous race at Detroit by a late charge from Patricio O’Ward. But at the last of four restarts,
Larson saved enough fuel to make it to the end as Sunday’s Ally 400 ended with a 68-lap green-flag run – the longest of the race, and took the checkered flag 4.335 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain, who reached the runner-up spot in the final laps. The #5 Hendrick Motorsports driver finished third in the
Both driver and team lost out on maiden series wins in the first Mexico race on Saturday after disqualification for incorrectly declaring tyre allocation on the car’s technical passport. While Porsche has lodged an appeal against this decision, Wehrlein has now lost his second place in the Sunday encounter, with a five-second penalty dropping him
He pounced on the duel between front-row starters Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein to move for his second attack mode activation and rejoined from the effective joker lap in clean air. From there, Mortara kept Wehrlein at bay thanks in part to repeatedly finding masses of time through the banked final Turn 15 to prevent
Alex Palou reckons he had a faster car than Josef Newgarden towards the end of the Road America IndyCar race, and enjoyed his “lucky” victory despite the Penske driver’s problem. Newgarden had led the majority of the proceedings at the Elkhart Lake circuit, before an inability to find sixth gear on the final restart allowed
Newgarden had controlled the entire race through four caution periods but, on the final restart preceding a two-lap shootout to the end, the two-time champion’s car was stuck in fifth gear and left the Penske driver having to drive at a crawl. Palou could simply nip past before Turn 1, and put together a healthy
Hamilton was able to pass pole-sitter Verstappen on the opening lap of the race after a mistake from the Red Bull driver, and led the opening stint ahead of the Red Bull driver. But it was third-placed Bottas who was the first to pit at the end of Lap 17, moving from the medium to
The German combo led comfortably from pole for the first Puebla E-Prix and crossed the line with a clear 3.6s margin but were soon sent to the bottom of the timing screens. The reprimand was dealt for the team not declaring the tyres on Wehrlein’s car, which would deny both parties their first series wins
The current qualifying format puts the top six in the points at an inherent disadvantage by sending them first out onto a green track surface that does not readily offer up lap time. But the comparatively slow times of Antonio Felix da Costa (13th fastest), Mitch Evans (14th), Nyck de Vries (16th), Robin Frijns (22nd)
Colton Herta was the first driver to get below 1m47s as the teams debated over whether to run used red soft tyres which were degrading rapidly, or the primary tyres which were capable of squeezing out three rapid laps, even if the ‘peak’ lap wasn’t necessarily higher. Only Newgarden and engineer Gavin Ward, who had
Max Verstappen pulled off a surprise pole position at Paul Ricard on a track where Mercedes has been dominant in the past. The Dutchman’s form was helped by Red Bull electing to run its low downforce rear wing configuration, which helped boost its speed on the straights. But while Mercedes acknowledged that Verstappen was gaining
Making his first visit to the 4.014-mile circuit, Grosjean clocked a best time of 1m47.678s to rebound well from a difficult weekend in Detroit in which he retired from both races. His best effort was 0.124s quicker than 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport machine, while Team Penske’s two-time champion and 2018 Road America winner
As reported by Autosport last month, as part of a heavily facelifted calendar, the country’s capital city was expected to join the 2021-22 season schedule after the race was twice cancelled due to the global health crisis. The Seoul city government has now announced a 13-14 August slot in 2022 for a maiden event, with
Rossi is in his 26th season of grand prix racing in 2021, but so far it has been the worst of his career having only scored 15 points from the opening seven races and shown nothing close to podium potential on the Petronas SRT Yamaha. The Italian – who was 21st after Friday’s practice for
She died at the age of 51 after a long battle against cancer. A native of nearby Adenau, Schmitz was an immensely popular figure at the Nurburgring who became the first female winner of the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 1996 before taking a second victory the following year. She was also famous for her BMW
F1’s tyre supplier had previously been cryptic in suggesting in a statement that ‘running conditions’ had been behind the tyre failures suffered by Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll in Baku, it has now elaborated further on what triggered the blowouts. While Pirelli confirmed that both Red Bull and Aston Martin had followed the regulations with
The Red Bull Junior, who is driving for Trident this year, said he is “very thankful for the last name I have and for the benefits” but said “in one way it only gets you so far”. Doohan, 18, also said “it would be a lot more were I to take the two-wheeled route”. His
But the diverse career of Nelson Piquet Jr, who finished second to GP2 rival Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 German Grand Prix, has entered a new chapter as the Brazilian returns to GT racing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series with ANSA Motorsports. The inaugural Formula E champion in 2014-15 has focused primarily
O’Ward moved into the lead of the IndyCar drivers’ championship with victory from 16th on the grid in last Sunday’s second Detroit race, having taken pole and finished third one day earlier. The charge to victory led to praise being heaped upon the Arrow McLaren SP driver, who is set to make his Formula 1
The six-time MotoGP world champion has been struggling with a lack of muscle and power in his right shoulder since returning to action in Portugal following a nine-month injury layoff. A winner at the Sachsenring across all classes since 2010, its quirky layout of 10 left corners and just three right should mean Marquez suffers
At this year’s Indianapolis 500, Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Scott McLaughlin were asked if they would be interested in racing for Porsche Penske Motorsport at the big endurance events in 2023. All four answered with a resounding and immediate ‘yes’ and Penske has now said he hopes that will be the case.
Grosjean was set to get two outings in a Mercedes W10 car, as offered by team boss Toto Wolff, after the former Haas driver’s crash at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Grosjean was originally due to hold a demo of Mercedes’ 2019 car at the French Grand Prix on 25-27 June, but that outing had
After a year out Ocon returned to F1 last year with Alpine, when it was still racing under the Renault banner, and stayed on for 2021 alongside double F1 world champion Fernando Alonso. Ahead of Ocon’s home race, the French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, Alpine has announced it will keep the Frenchman on board