Valentino Rossi says the factory MotoGP Yamaha he could only qualify 13th at Jerez and the Petronas versions Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli put on row one are “very similar”. Both the works M1s had to go through Q1 in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying after struggling in practice, and only Maverick Vinales made it into
Black Falcon’s Luca Stolz and Akka ASP’s Fabian Schiller – both in Mercedes – took the pole positions for tomorrow’s Brands Hatch Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe races after rain-impacted qualifying sessions. The opening round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe season, which also kicks off a new era for what was formerly the
Jorge Lorenzo insists he is “closer than ever” to making a breakthrough with his Honda MotoGP bike, despite being “frustrated and disappointed” at qualifying 11th at Jerez. The three-time MotoGP champion, who counts Jerez among his stronger tracks on the calendar, narrowly advanced to Q2 directly from practice but crashed on his decisive qualifying run.
Christian Horner is “totally confident” Max Verstappen will remain at Red Bull team beyond this season, following recent speculation Mercedes is interested in Formula 1’s youngest race winner. Last month Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff laughed off rumours he had been calling Verstappen and the young Dutchman’s father Jos in a bid to lure him
Defending Super GT champions Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button recovered from a sluggish start to grab the final podium spot in the Fuji 500km race, as the Cerumo Lexus won. Yamamoto was in the driving seat of the #1 Kunimitsu Honda for the first part of the race but struggled on a wet track, dropping
Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci set the pace in a frantic third MotoGP practice of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at Jerez, as the works Yamaha bikes were consigned to Q1. Sixteen riders were quicker than Petrucci’s own benchmark from Friday, meaning that automatic Q2 spots were decided on practice three alone – and both factory
Carlos Sainz Jr has revealed he has learned “a few interesting bits” about McLaren that used to leave him “puzzled” when racing for its Formula 1 rival Renault last year. After losing his drive for the works Renault team, which finished fourth in the championship last year, Sainz moved to McLaren to try to help
Leading NASCAR Cup Series drivers expressed concerns after nearly two dozen cars went faster than the Dover qualifying record in Friday afternoon practice. Kurt Busch posted the fastest average lap speed in practice at 168.445 mph, which is nearly 4mph faster than the track qualifying record of 164.444mph set in 2014 by Brad Keselowski. This
Valentino Rossi said the Yamaha MotoGP team is “in trouble” at the Spanish Grand Prix after ending Jerez Friday practice only 16th fastest overall. Rossi was 18th and 14th in the two Friday practices and was nearly eight tenths of a second slower than pacesetter Danilo Petrucci’s Ducati. Jerez has been a difficult circuit for
Red Bull Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly says he made a step forward with the RB15 in Baku, even though his improved pace went unrewarded. The Frenchman, promoted from Toro Rosso to replace Daniel Ricciardo at the main Red Bull outfit, had struggled to get the most out of the car at the start of
Azerbaijan Grand Prix officials have confirmed that Williams will get compensation for the damage caused to George Russell’s car when it hit a loose drain cover in Baku. Russell’s chassis had to be sent back to the Williams factory after it ran over the grid cover, which dislodged as the Williams went over it and
Danilo Petrucci led his factory Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in a second MotoGP practice session at Jerez that was red-flagged shortly before the end. As he had done in FP1, Honda rider Marc Marquez controlled the majority of the session, with a 1m38.154s keeping him on top for most of the 45-minute running. Marquez was
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says he sees similarities in the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton’s fight with former team-mate Nico Rosberg from 2014-16. Bottas and Hamilton have two victories each from the opening four races of the 2019 season, with Bottas leading the drivers’ standings by dint of earning
If you thought that Grand Prix racing started in 1950, then you’d be mistaken. If you thought that the pre-war dominations of Mercedes and Auto Union was the real start, then again you’d be wide of the mark. In fact, the first ever Grand Prix took place in 1906 and the name has stuck ever
The Haas Formula 1 car’s lack of race pace is caused by the inability to “get out of the graining phase” with its tyres, according to team principal Gunther Steiner. The American outfit has had both cars in the final qualifying segment in the first three races of the season, but picked up just a
Honda rider Marc Marquez beat his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo to top the opening MotoGP practice session at Jerez, while Valentino Rossi was only 18th. Marquez led nearly the entire 45-minute session after taking the session lead with his second flying lap, and stayed in front until just two minutes remained on the clock. Lorenzo was
Valtteri Bottas’s form at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season has already prompted concerns at Mercedes about the emergence of another intra-team rivalry. Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend to match team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s early tally of two victories, a result that also promoted him back into the lead of the
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says his Honda team has resolved an issue that contributed to his costly crash from the lead in the Austin race. Marquez was en route to a dominant victory at the American venue, but his perfect record of consecutive wins at the track was tarnished when he fell at the
Jacques Villeneuve says Ferrari promoted Charles Leclerc one year too early because it is not ready to manage the competition between the Formula 1 driver and his team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Leclerc came close to victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix and has been subjected to team orders in favour of Vettel three times this season.
KTM rider Johann Zarco says an in-season test at Le Mans was a boost to his confidence because it allowed him to work away from the “stress” of a MotoGP race weekend. The Frenchman has had a challenging start to life as a KTM works rider, scoring just five points in his first three races
Dissatisfied defending World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier is pushing his Citroen team for what he sees as overdue changes to the C3 WRC. Ogier scraped onto the bottom step of the podium after an inspired five-point powerstage win at last week’s Rally Argentina – but stressed that improvements are required. Ogier’s efforts ensured he contained
The first look at the new permanent facility for the Vietnam Grand Prix, set to make its debut on the Formula 1 calendar in 2020, has been revealed by F1 Racing. Computer generated images of the pit building – exclusively revealed in the latest issue of F1 Racing that is on sale on Thursday –
Single-car qualifying is returning to the NASCAR Cup, beginning this weekend at Dover International Speedway. For remainder of the season, qualifying for the Cup, as well as in the Xfinity and Truck championships’, will move to a single-car, single-round format at all race tracks except road courses. At oval tracks measuring 1.25 miles in length
Mercedes will make changes to Lewis Hamilton’s dash layout after he lost time to his Formula 1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas during the virtual safety car in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Hamilton said immediately after the race that he would be requesting changes, but did not go into detail on why they might be necessary. In
Daniil Kvyat says Toro Rosso must investigate its loss of pace in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after it had shown promise in practice and qualifying. Kvyat and team-mate Alex Albon both managed season-best grid positions in sixth and 11th respectively after the Russian put together the fourth fastest lap across the first two practice
Red Bull’s innovative suspension solution and Ferrari’s first upgrade of 2019 are the focus of our round-up of the latest Formula 1 technical developments. While Red Bull’s suspension has been in play all season, Ferrari finally gave us something to talk about by introducing updates for last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Using our exclusive 3D
KTM test rider Dani Pedrosa’s return aboard the RC16 MotoGP bike has been postponed further, as he will skip the post-Spanish Grand Prix test at Jerez. Pedrosa, who joined the Austrian manufacturer in a testing role after concluding his full-time premier-class career at the end of last year, rode the KTM for the first time
M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson is working on a deal to put Toyota’s Ott Tanak back in one of his Ford Fiesta WRCs for next season’s World Rally Championship. Tanak drove a factory Fiesta in 2012, 2015 and 2017 before moving to Toyota, where he took four wins and six podiums while narrowly missing out
Ayrton Senna won three Formula 1 world championships and 41 races, and while his talent was prodigious, the cars he drove played a huge part in his success. Starting with the Toleman TG184, through a pair of Lotus and a host of McLarens, Senna’s career was tragically cut short while driving the Williams FW16. Ahead
KTM has exercised an option to retain Tech 3 rider Miguel Oliveira for the 2020 MotoGP season. Last year’s Moto2 runner-up Oliveira has scored points twice in the opening three races of his premier class career, scoring 11th place at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina before finishing 14th last time out at the Circuit