Toyota World Rally Championship team principal Tommi Makinen has repeated his call for the return of run-flat style mousse inserts for WRC tyres at Rally Turkey. Tyre mousse is a ring of foam put inside a tyre before it is fitted to a rim, allowing the tyre to stay at least partially inflated even after
Month: September 2019
Gus Greensmith rebounded from rolling and changing a tyre in a ditch to give the Ford Fiesta R5 Mk II a maiden World Rally Championship class win in Turkey. Greensmith, who had completed much of the development work on the British team’s second R5 car, was comfortably in control of the WRC’s main support category
Cal Crutchlow has dubbed fellow Honda MotoGP rider Marc Marquez’s victory in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano a “miracle”, given their bike’s shortcomings. While Marquez saw off the challenge from the ascendant Yamahas to bag his seventh win of the season, Crutchlow scarcely troubled the top 10 through the weekend before crashing out
Rally Turkey winner Sebastien Ogier has urged his Citroen Racing team to push for further developments and not be distracted by its first World Rally Championship one-two in four years. The C3 WRC led for 15 out of 17 stages on the rough roads around Marmaris last weekend, with Ogier leading home team-mate Esapekka Lappi
Andrea Dovizioso says there is no point in being “p***** off” about the failings of his Ducati after a disappointing run to sixth at the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix. Having recovered from his violent first-corner crash last time out at Silverstone, Dovizioso qualified sixth and finished in the same position at Misano, a little
Kyle Busch has blasted “pathetic” backmarkers after the Las Vegas NASCAR Cup Series race, following an incident with Garrett Smithley which led to a 19th place finish. Busch’s race started badly when he hit the wall at the exit of Turn 2 early on, forcing an out of sync pitstop and causing him to plummet
Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso’s Dakar Rally preparation began with a roll during his first competitive rally-raid event with Toyota in South Africa last weekend, finishing 16th overall. Alongside new navigator Marc Coma, Alonso endured a turbulent start to his off-road career in the two-day Lichtenburg 400, a round of the South African Cross
Cal Crutchlow was among a number of MotoGP riders left baffled by the cause of their crashes during the San Marino Grand Prix. LCR rider Crutchlow, as well as his team-mate Takaaki Nakagami, Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia, Suzuki rider Alex Rins and Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro all crashed out of the 27-lap Misano race. The low-grip
Maverick Vinales says he pace drop-off early in the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix was a result of getting “disturbed a lot” by several front-end moments on his Yamaha. Vinales eased to pole position and looked the strongest on race pace, but dropped to over 2.5 seconds adrift of Petronas SRT’s Fabio Quartararo and eventual
M-Sport Ford World Rally Championship driver Elfyn Evans will be back in a rally car for the first time in more than two months this week, following a back injury. The Welshman has spent the last 10 weeks on the sidelines following the injury sustained at July’s Rally Estonia – a non-WRC event used as
Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo admits his pace in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, his second race back from injury, was “worse than I expected”. Lorenzo finished 14th, 47 seconds behind race-winning team-mate Marc Marquez, as he continues to recover from the back injury he sustained in a practice crash at Assen in
Martin Truex Jr secured his spot in the next stage of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs by winning the first race of the post-season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Toyota driver came to the fore in the second stage of the 267-lap race and was consistently the fastest car on track as
Precision Performance Motorsport’s Brandon Gdovic moved to within just six points of the lead of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America championship after a double win at Laguna Seca. Gdovic, who shared the #46 Huracan with IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly, got the better of the championship-leading Change Racing pairing of Richard Antinucci and Corey
Valentino Rossi says he is seeking a “solution” to his current acceleration deficit to fellow Yamaha MotoGP riders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo. Yamaha put four bikes in the top five in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, but while Quartararo fought Marc Marquez for victory and Vinales was a close third behind the
Fabio Quartararo has hailed his battle with Marc Marquez at the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix as the “best moment of my life”, despite it denying him a maiden victory. The Petronas SRT Yamaha rider grabbed the lead from works Yamaha counterpart Maverick Vinales on the run to the fast Curvone right kink on lap
Marc Marquez says the spat between himself and Valentino Rossi in MotoGP qualifying gave him “extra motivation” to win MotoGP’s Misano race, even though their altercation was not “necessary”. The Honda rider and Rossi tripped each other up in a controversial moment at the end of Q2 on Saturday when both were pushing for a
Sebastien Ogier secured his third World Rally Championship win of 2019 on Rally Turkey, beating Citroen team-mate Esapekka Lappi by almost 20 seconds. Ogier took the rally lead from Lappi at the end of Saturday after the Finn made a small mistake and overshot a corner, and continued to pull out time over his team-mate
Pol Espargaro has credited KTM’s “new ideas” following the Misano test for helping him to an “unbelievable” second place in MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix qualifying. Aided by a tow from Fabio Quartararo in the first half of the lap, Espargaro bagged KTM’s first-ever front row MotoGP start in the dry, lapping three tenths slower
Valentino Rossi accused MotoGP rival Marc Marquez of overtaking him at the end of San Marino Grand Prix Q2 knowing that the Italian’s lap would be ruined in the process. Rossi was running ahead of Marquez as the duo were on their last laps in qualifying, and the Honda rider pulled off a tight move
MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez says he is puzzled by rival Valentino Rossi’s “intention” in their run-in during Misano qualifying. Marquez was tucked in behind Rossi on his final lap in qualifying, and was on course for a front row spot when he overtook the Italian down the inside of the high-speed Curvone right-hander. But
Reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier edged into the lead of Rally Turkey, as his Citroen team-mate Esapekka Lappi made a mistake in the afternoon loop on Saturday. Ogier’s afternoon got off to the perfect start as he won SS11 Yesibelde for the second time, having also won the same stage in the morning loop,
Esapekka Lappi maintained his Rally Turkey lead on Saturday, ahead of team-mate Sebastien Ogier, while World Rally championship leader Ott Tanak retired with an electrical issue. Ogier had managed to close the gap to his Citroen team-mate down to 2.2s after the second stage on Saturday morning, but Lappi won Kizlan – a new stage
Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Tommi Makinen says an ECU or fuel-related failure are the most likely reasons for Ott Tanak’s retirement from day two of Rally Turkey on Saturday. The Estonian failed to start the second stage of the day after his Yaris WRC refused to fire-up ahead of the Datca test. As usual,
Valentino Rossi says he was “surprised” that all four Yamaha MotoGP riders ended Friday practice at Misano strongly, despite them using several different configurations. Rossi rode with a new carbon swingarm, brake cover and exhaust in practice for the San Marino Grand Prix, while his team-mate Maverick Vinales stuck with the old parts. Vinales ended
Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo expects his physical condition to worsen over the San Marino Grand Prix weekend as he continues to recover from a back injury. Lorenzo fractured his back in a crash at the Assen round, and missed four races as a result before returning to action last time out at Silverstone –
Citroen’s Esapekka Lappi has extended his Rally Turkey lead to 17.7 seconds after a tough afternoon, increasing his advantage over reigning World Rally Championship winner Sebastien Ogier. Lappi excelled during the rain-affected second running of the 23.6-mile Cetibeli stage in his C3 on Friday afternoon, despite being on the hard tyre which was ill-suited to
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson says he is “favouring more years” in the series if he is “forced to make a decision” by Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson has a contract until the end of 2020, but after testing a Formula 1 car alongside Fernando Alonso last year, Johnson reaffirmed his interest in contesting an
Dakar Rally icon Marc Coma will serve as Fernando Alonso’s co-driver at Toyota Gazoo Racing when the two-time Formula 1 champion takes on the legendary event. Coma, 42, won the Dakar title on two wheels five times for KTM between 2006 and 2015 in a career that spanned the event’s African and South American eras,
Maverick Vinales narrowly led fellow Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo in the second MotoGP free practice session for the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. Vinales and Quartararo ended up over three tenths clear of Honda’s Marc Marquez, who had led most of the session before being surpassed by the Yamahas late on. Marquez ran in
IndyCar plans to conduct its first on-track test with its Red Bull Advanced Technologies-developed aeroscreen cockpit protection device at Indianapolis next month. A full-day test session has been scheduled for October 2 on the oval, and driving duties will be shared between Ganassi’s five-time Indycar champion Scott Dixon and Penske driver Will Power. Dixon originally