MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi won the Pro-Am class for Ferrari in the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi and finished third overall. Rossi was behind the wheel of the #46 Monster VR46 Kessel Ferrari 488 GT3 for the final stint, and took the chequered flag in third position, four laps down on the winning car
Month: December 2019
Five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon will make his Bathurst 12 Hours debut next year with the R-Motorsport Aston Martin squad. The New Zealander is joining the Swiss entrant for the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge on February 2 as part of a deal that will also result in him sharing a car with
Reigning Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin will test a Penske-run Indycar at Sebring next month, driving a top-line single-seater for the first time. The DJR Team Penske driver has been continually linked to a NASCAR future with Penske, with team owner Roger Penske stating that any switch to NASCAR would be done gradually and through the
Takamoto Katsuta will tackle eight rounds of next year’s World Rally Championship in a Toyota Yaris WRC, including his home event – the season-closing Rally Japan. The 26-year-old drove a Yaris during his top-class WRC debut in Germany this year – where he took a top 10 finish – and also contested Spain in the
Fabio Quartararo says his “amazing” rookie MotoGP season was spurred on by the “bad comments” made about his suitability for the Petronas SRT Yamaha ride last year. Eyebrows were raised when the new Yamaha satellite team signed Quartararo for his premier-class debut, as the young Frenchman scored just a single win in a mixed four-year
Oliver Solberg has been linked to a Skoda Motorsport deal next season – even though the team will not run a factory squad in the 2020 World Rally Championship. After being introduced in 2015, the Skoda Fabia R5 has won the WRC 2 championship in each year it has competed, catapulting 2016, ’17 and ’19
Red Bull will field a host of young drivers in the 2020 Dakar Rally as part of its motorsport junior programme’s expansion to rally raids. The new initiative, which will follow in the footsteps of the circuit racing Red Bull Junior Team that produced Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and grand prix winners Daniel Ricciardo
An open secret for some time, Johann Zarco’s move to Avintia Ducati for the 2020 MotoGP season was finally confirmed this week. Passed over for the works Honda seat vacated by the retired Jorge Lorenzo, Zarco became linked to the customer Ducati squad – though he initially rejected Avintia as “not a top team”. However,
Ott Tanak has played down any threat of a potentially damaging rivalry between himself and new team-mate Thierry Neuville inside the Hyundai World Rally Championship team for next season. Tanak has joined one of his closest rivals of the last three seasons in Neuville at the Hyundai squad, having just won the WRC title with
This week’s on-track test of NASCAR’s new ‘Gen-7’ Cup Series machine has offered the best opportunity yet to see the car up close on track. While the two-day test is closed to fans and media, NASCAR published numerous pictures of the car on Monday via its social media channels. They offer a better look at
Hyundai Motorsport could field a second team in the World Rally Championship next season, in a bid to keep Craig Breen and Andreas Mikkelsen in its squad. Breen impressed the team with his first WRC outing of 2019 in Finland where he was sixth until he ceded the spot for his team-mate Thierry Neuville’s title
Johann Zarco’s place at the Avintia Ducati squad for the 2020 MotoGP season has been officially confirmed after he revealed last week that the deal was signed. The double Moto2 world champion endured a torrid half-season aboard the factory KTM, which forced him to end his two-year contract early before KTM dropped him outright following
Johann Zarco’s MotoGP season has been a turbulent affair after his KTM dream shattered before a shock return with Avintia for 2020 was secured. Zarco came into MotoGP in 2017 as reigning double Moto2 world champion and impressed on his debut on the Tech3 Yamaha in Qatar when he led for the first six laps
Conor Daly will compete in IndyCar road and street course races for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2020, and will also drive a third car in the Indianapolis 500. It means Daly will race in all but four races of the 2020 IndyCar season, handing over the car to team owner Ed Carpenter for the Texas,
Sebastien Ogier says he is not interested in speculating about the breakdown of Ott Tanak’s relationship with the Toyota World Rally Championship team, following Tanak’s 2020 switch to Hyundai. Ogier admitted that Tanak’s decision to move was a surprise. Autosport first revealed Tanak would leave Toyota for Hyundai after failing to agree terms to extend
Suzuki MotoGP team boss Davide Brivio says having a satellite team fielding GSX-RRs “would help”, but admits “it’s not essential”. Brivio has made no secret of his desire for Suzuki to expand its presence on the grid in the same way Honda, Ducati, Yamaha and KTM have in recent years by providing factory support to
Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas claimed his first win in rallying in the Paul Ricard-based Rallycircuit Cote d’Azur. Bottas, driving a Citroen DS3 World Rally Car as one of five entrants in WRC-spec machinery, topped five of the nine stages and finished the event 50 seconds clear of his nearest rival, sometime European Rally
MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo didn’t “deserve” to have had such a difficult season as his final year in grand prix racing. Lorenzo announced on the eve of the Valencia finale last month that he would be calling time on his MotoGP career, as recent injuries – including a back fracture
BMW has announced it will introduce a new GT3 model for the 2022 season, based on the upcoming next-generation M4 road car, to replace the ageing M6 GT3. The M6 GT3 has been in action since the 2016 season, and in that time it has taken two wins in the Spa 24 Hours and victory
Yamaha MotoGP boss Lin Jarvis says he would be happy for Maverick Vinales to remain part of the manufacturer’s line-up “for 2021 and beyond”. Vinales is responsible for six of Yamaha’s seven premier-class wins since his arrival in 2017, and finished as the team’s highest-placed rider in the standings this past season. Yet as he
Ousted KTM MotoGP rider Johann Zarco has revealed he has signed a deal with Ducati to race for the satellite Avintia squad in 2020. Zarco was linked to the Avintia team during the Valencia weekend after it became clear he would not be getting the works Honda seat vacated by the retired Jorge Lorenzo. The
Kris Meeke’s future in the World Rally Championship remains unclear, and rumour indicates he could be close to announcing his retirement from rallying’s top level. Meeke joined Toyota for the 2019 WRC season alongside Jari-Matti Latvala and Ott Tanak, after Citroen had dropped Meeke part-way through the 2018 season, blaming too many crashes, after nearly
Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso says he was “surprised” to have beaten “a lot of champions with good bikes” to second place in the 2019 standings. While dominant Honda rider Marc Marquez won the title by a mammoth 151 points, Dovizioso himself ended up 58 points clear of third place. This was despite two retirements
Aleix Espargaro says ex-Ferrari Formula 1 sporting director Massimo Rivola has ‘changed the image’ of the struggling MotoGP team following his arrival as CEO. Rivola spent 20 years in F1, working with Minardi before moving to Toro Rosso and then to Ferrari as its sporting director in 2009, where he oversaw the development of the
The FIA is considering a revised plan for the World Rally Championship’s future if the manufacturers fail to sign up for 2022 when hybrid technology is set to be introduced. Regulations governing the introduction of hybrid technology will be delivered in December and gives the teams the first quarter of 2020 as to whether they
Double MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has revealed a fresh battle with chronic fatigue that has left him unable to stay fit enough to do any meaningful riding. Stoner appeared on the latest episode of the Rusty’s Garage podcast, and said that he’s currently on medication to deal with a serious bout of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Citroen’s C3 WRC will be available to buyers and the car could yet compete in the 2020 World Rally Championship, even though the manufacturer has withdrawn its works team. Citroen Racing has told Autosport it won’t run the cars itself – the Versailles team’s only rally commitment moving forward is with its customer programme C3
Dale Coyne has confirmed that James Hinchcliffe, Super Formula’s Alex Palou and Formula 2’s Sergio Sette Camara are on his shortlist of drivers to replace Sebastien Bourdais for 2020. Hinchcliffe, a six-time IndyCar race winner and 2016 Indy 500 polesitter, found himself dropped by Arrow McLaren SP in October as the team elected to replace
Blancpain GT Series champion Mirko Bortolotti has departed the Lamborghini factory setup after five years to join sister brand Audi’s works roster. The 2017 Endurance Cup and overall Blancpain GT champion – alongside Christian Engelhart – joined Lamborghini after impressing in its single-make Trofeo Series. He won the Lamborghini World Finals in 2014 and proved