Audi took a fourth victory in the Spa 24 Hours with Sainteloc drivers Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Jules Gounon. Sainteloc Racing, running as a factory-backed team for the first time, scored an 11-second victory over the M-Sport Bentley of Maxime Soulet, Andy Soucek and Vincent Abril at the end of the double-points Endurance Cup
Month: July 2017
Mercedes led the Spa 24 Hours at three-quarter distance with the Auto Sport Promotion entry shared by Raffaele Marciello, Edoardo Mortara and Michael Meadows. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Marciello at the wheel held an advantage of just under 20 seconds over the chasing WRT Audi R8 LMS of Rene Rast as the blue-riband Endurance Cup
The Ferrari shared by Giancarlo Fisichella, James Calado and Marco Cioci led the Spa 24 Hours at one-quarter distance. The AF Corse-run Kaspersky Ferrari 488 GT3 moved back to the front of the blue-riband Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series as the six-hour mark approached. Cioci held a 10-second advantage over Christian Engelhart
An endurance race planned for New Zealand in 2018 is set to link up with the Bathurst 12 Hour in a new mini-series. The new 12-hour race at Hampton Downs would join the fixtures of the same duration at Bathurst and Sepang in a series for GT3 and GT4 machinery over the European winter of
Ferrari factory driver James Calado secured pole position for the Spa 24 Hours Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series. The Briton jumped to the top spot in the times on his second lap in the ‘superpole’ qualifying session aboard the AF Corse-run Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3. His time of 2m17.390s gave him
The Honda NSX GT3 already racing in North America as an Acura will go on sale to customers ahead of the 2018 season. The Japanese manufacturer reaffirmed its commitment to offer cars for sale on the announcement of its GT3 customer programme at Spa today ahead of this weekend’s blue-riband round of the Blancpain GT
Mercedes has taken the wraps off a new GT4 car that will enter competition in 2018. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 has been unveiled ahead of this weekend’s Spa 24 Hours Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series and will go on sale at a list price of €198,850 (£176,975), excluding taxes. Mercedes has joined a
Porsche LMP1 driver Andre Lotterer will return to the wheel of an Audi in this weekend’s Spa 24 Hours. The 35-year-old, who claimed his three Le Mans 24 Hours victories with Audi, has accepted a last-minute invitation to race for the Belgian WRT squad in the blue-riband Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series.
Dean Stoneman has stepped down from his Blancpain GT Series drive with the Strakka McLaren squad ahead of next weekend’s Spa 24 Hours. The 26-year-old Briton had made the switch to GT racing at the start of this season, having contested GP3, Formula Renault 3.5 and Indy Lights since recovering from testicular cancer. Stoneman raced
Josef Newgarden believes his Toronto IndyCar victory revived a championship bid he thought had been “killed” by poor Indianapolis results. Newgarden won in only his third start with Penske in Long Beach, but fell from third to sixth in the standings with poor results from the Indy road course race and 500 in May. Winning
Alvaro Bautista will remain with the Aspar Ducati squad for the 2018 MotoGP season. The 32-year-old Spaniard, a former factory rider at Suzuki and Aprilia, joined satellite Ducati outfit Aspar at the start of 2017, riding a year-old GP16 bike. Bautista currently sits 11th in the standings, having taken four top-10 finishes and a best
NASCAR confiscated a rear suspension component from Joey Logano’s Penske Ford during Sunday’s Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Early in the final stage, Logano began falling back through the field and smoke billowed out of his left-rear wheel well. He headed to the garage for repairs to what was explained as a suspension
Private Ford Fiesta WRC driver Mads Ostberg will start Rally Finland with a new co-driver after he and Ola Floene parted ways for “sporting reasons”. Floene moved from co-driving Andreas Mikkelsen to work with Ostberg at the start of the 2016 World Rally Championship season, in a three-way co-driver reshuffle in which Mikkelsen, Ostberg and
Josef Newgarden headed a Penske 1-2-3 in the IndyCar practice session at Iowa, beating Will Power and Simon Pagenaud to the fastest time. Newgarden clocked in a 17.3397s lap (185.609mph) with seven minutes of the session to go, as the field started to run in qualifying trim in the latter stages. Power wound up just
Renault replaced the MGU-H in both Red Bulls and Nico Hulkenberg’s works car on Saturday following a problem for Daniel Ricciardo in practice for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix. Ricciardo lost most of Friday‘s second session to a technical problem that Renault Sport boss Cyril Abiteboul said was the result of an MGU-H change implemented
Max Verstappen’s late off during qualifying for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix was caused by him being too aggressive while trying to make up time lost to a yellow flag. The Red Bull driver had three runs in the 12-minute Q3 session thanks to having three sets of fresh ultra-soft Pirelli tyres available, but spun
McLaren boss Zak Brown says new Formula 1 owner Liberty Media should buy Silverstone to help secure the long-term future of the British Grand Prix. Silverstone owner the British Racing Drivers’ Club is expected to announce next week that it will activate a break clause to terminate its British GP deal beyond 2019. While that
Austrian Grand Prix pole position starter Valtteri Bottas says he will not back up Sebastian Vettel during the race in an attempt to help Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was third fastest in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, but will start eighth thanks to a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. This
Valtteri Bottas narrowly beat Sebastian Vettel to pole position for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton will start no better than eighth thanks to a grid penalty. Bottas’s Mercedes led Vettel’s Ferrari by less than a tenth after the first runs in Q3, with Hamilton’s Mercedes 0.131 seconds further back in third. All
The FIA has revealed the first official image of the ‘shield’ cockpit protection device, with a test of the development version planned for next weekend’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix. Motor racing’s governing body has been working on plans for the Halo alternative for several months, and it was originally hoped that a proper test
Sebastian Vettel set a scintillating pace to beat Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to the quickest time in third practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver posted a 1m05.092s, a new fastest lap of the 2.68-mile version of the Red Bull Ring circuit, on ultra-soft tyres to edge out Hamilton by 0.269
Fernando Alonso has reverted to the ‘spec 2’ Honda Formula 1 engine for the remainder of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend after a problem was discovered with his McLaren’s unit. Alonso’s car had been fitted with the new more-powerful ‘spec 3’ internal combustion engine for the Red Bull Ring event, and his pace looked promising
Carlos Sainz Jr believes his comment that he is unlikely to be at Toro Rosso for the 2018 Formula 1 season was misconstrued and blown out of proportion. Sainz had an offer from the works Renault F1 team for this season but Red Bull took up its option to keep him. The Spaniard has repeatedly
Aric Almirola is scheduled to test at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Tuesday with a view to returning from injury in next weekend’s New Hampshire NASCAR Cup race. Richard Petty Motorsports driver Almirola fracturered his T5 vertebra in a multi-car crash at Kansas Speedway on May 13. “Aric is progressing well,” crew chief Drew Blickensderfer told
Matt Kenseth has lost his Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR seat for 2018, amid suggestions he could be a stopgap solution for Hendrick Motorsports. The 2003 Cup champion admitted at Kentucky Speedway on Friday that his JGR stint was ending after five seasons. None of JGR’s four drivers have won a Cup race so far in
The Barcelona circuit has agreed to carry out resurfacing and track modifications in order to ensure it remains on the 2018 MotoGP calendar, its place having been under threat. The new chicane created after Moto2 rider Luis Salom was killed in a 2016 practice crash proved controversial during last month’s Catalunya Grand Prix, as did
Maverick Vinales says Yamaha’s MotoGP bike has lost power in recent rounds, and suggests the manufacturer has become “confused” by its electronics set-up. Vinales led the championship by more than a race win’s worth of points after the Mugello round at the start of June, but relinquished that advantage over the three subsequent rounds and
Citroen says Kris Meeke “needed a break” and wants judgement on its decision to bench him for Rally Poland to wait until he rejoins the World Rally Championship in Finland. The absence of Meeke – who began 2017 as Citroen’s title hope – prompted difficult questions for team principal Yves Matton in Poland last weekend,
Formula V8 3.5 championship contender Rene Binder is looking to IndyCar for a 2018 drive. The 25-year-old Austrian intends to take advantage of FV8 3.5 racing on the World Endurance Championship bill at Austin in September the day before the IndyCar finale at Sonoma to visit the American single-seater series. “I will watch the race
KTM rider Pol Espargaro says the manufacturer can be “really proud” of what it has achieved in the first half of its maiden MotoGP season. The Austrian manufacturer made its full-time debut in the premier class at the start of 2017, scoring its first points at the second round of the campaign in Argentina. It