Ducati motorsport boss Paolo Ciabatti believes it is “just a coincidence” that Danilo Petrucci’s form tailed off dramatically once he was handed a contract extension for the 2020 MotoGP season. Petrucci joined the works Ducati outfit on an initial one-year deal in 2019 and he was confirmed for a further season in July after a
Month: January 2020
Formula 2 race winner Tadasuke Makino has emerged as the leading candidate to take Jenson Button’s seat at the Kunimitsu Honda Super GT outfit, Autosport has learned. Button announced his Super GT exit in October last year, ending a two-year stint in the series that included winning the 2018 GT500 title with Naoki Yamamoto. Takuya
Fernando Alonso learned a hard Dakar Rally lesson on Monday, when his Toyota Hilux lost a wheel after he hit a ditch while blinded by dust from competitors. The double Formula 1 world champion started Monday’s second stage 11th overall and was close to the frontrunning pace on the Al Wajh – Neom test when
Double Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso has blamed “zero visibility” caused by dust for his Dakar Rally crash, which cost him over two hours repairing his Toyota Hilux. Alonso lost 2h34m to the winner of the second stage, Giniel de Villiers, after damaging the suspension on his Hilux following an accident some 160km into the
The Penske Corporation has completed its purchase of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar and IMS Productions. It was revealed last November that Penske – which competes in IndyCar and at the Indianapolis 500 with its own team – had agreed to buy the three businesses, and the deal has now been completed. Penske Corporation becomes
Ex-Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan will step down from his Honda Super GT seat in 2020 to “continue his racing pursuits in other series”. Karthikeyan joined the Japanese series at the start of the 2019 season with Nakajima Racing, marking a major shift to sportscars after a career largely based in single-seaters. He and Nakajima
X-raid Mini driver Orlando Terranova leads the 2020 Dakar Rally after the second stage, on which star debutant Fernando Alonso has already lost more than two hours due to damage. Two-time Formula 1 world champion Alonso was close to the frontrunners’ pace over the first 100 miles of the test, but his Toyota Hilux was
The Bathurst 12 Hour is expected to go ahead as planned, with organisers confirming there is currently no threat from the wildfires ravaging the Australian bushland. According to a statement from the event, officials are “monitoring the situation daily” as the state of New South Wales – on the eastern coast of the country –
Double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso lost over two hours working to repair his Toyota Hilux around 100 miles into the second stage of the 2020 Dakar Rally after picking up damage. Alonso and his co-driver Marc Coma suffered their first major setback of the event on the second test, of which 228 miles
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso drove “on tiptoes” on his first Dakar Rally stage, and plans to keep pacing himself until the event’s traffic “jungle” clears up. Alonso, who is partnered by co-driver Marc Coma in a Toyota Hilux, finished 11th-fastest on the near-200-mile opening stage of the Saudi Arabia-based rally. He was
Mini driver Vaidotas Zala claimed a shock maiden stage win on the first test of the 2020 Dakar Rally, as two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso placed 11th. Toyota’s defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah led the way for most of the near-200-mile timed special on the coastal stage from Jeddah to Al Wajh that kicked
World Rally Championship exile Kris Meeke says he would “love to explore” a Dakar Rally entry in the future, having attended the event as a back-up for Cyril Despres’s co-driver. Meeke is without a full-time drive in the WRC for 2020 after Toyota went for a fresh line-up of Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle
Valentino Rossi says he would be open to a move to satellite Yamaha MotoGP squad Petronas SRT if it meant he could prolong his top-line career. Yamaha will field Rossi and Maverick Vinales again in 2020, but the form of last year’s standout rookie Fabio Quartararo is likely to put him in contention for a
Lin Jarvis says there was no “consensus” within Yamaha that continuing with Jonas Folger as its MotoGP test rider was the “right solution”, despite Folger’s claims he had a contract. Ex-Tech3 rider Folger (pictured below) joined Yamaha’s new European test team at the start of this year, but only took part in a handful of
Toyota’s Fernando Alonso says finishing is the priority on his Dakar Rally debut and that he needs to avoid any ‘stupid mistakes’ in the event that begins this weekend. The two-time Formula 1 champion has undergone an extensive test programme in his Hilux – the car that Nasser Al-Attiyah used to win last year’s event
Suzuki’s Joan Mir admits his huge Brno test crash in August led to him having problems breathing in some MotoGP races later in the 2019 season. Mir was forced to miss the Austrian and British Grands Prix after suffering lung contusions in a violent 186mph accident during the post-race Brno test. He returned at Misano
After Citroen’s World Rally Championship exit left him without a seat, Esapekka Lappi has joined the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team for 2020 alongside Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith. Finnish drivers Lappi and Suninen will tackle all 13 rounds of this year’s WRC, while Greensmith gets nine rounds aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC. The team’s
The organisers of the Dakar Rally have taken measures to crack down on illegal navigational aids and practices ahead of the 2020 edition of the marathon. The initiative, spearheaded by new rally director David Castera, comes as a result of continued suspicions that teams have been able to circumvent the regulations in the last few
Enzo Ide, the 2016 Blancpain GT Sprint champion, is now recovering at home after spending five months in an artificial coma. Ide was placed in the coma in August 2019 after being found in a confused state at home by his wife. He underwent several surgeries to treat a suspected head injury, and now that