As MotoGP’s July start at Jerez draws ever closer, last week promoters Dorna Sports revealed the full revised calendar for the coronavirus-delayed 2020 season. Dorna has put together a sensible 13-round calendar all based in Europe, with Jerez, Red Bull Ring, Misano, Aragon and Valencia holding two events. The door has been left ajar for
Month: June 2020
Denny Hamlin fended off a late charge from Chase Elliott to record his third win of the season in the heavily delayed NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead. Lightning in the area of the 1.5-mile Homestead circuit forced a two-hour suspension of the race after just five laps of green-flag running, and subsequent lightning strikes
Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano have backed Bubba Wallace’s efforts in publicising the Black Lives Matter movement, and say he should be “proud” to highlight racial issues via NASCAR. Wallace – the only African American in NASCAR’s top level – ran a #BlackLivesMatter scheme on his Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet at Martinsville on Wednesday night,
Future factory Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo says reigning world champion Marc Marquez has forced the entire championship to train harder, and has prompted the Frenchman to rethink his approach. Marquez stepped up to MotoGP in 2013 as reigning Moto2 champion, and has since won the title six times in the last seven years and
The ASO has announced the Dakar Rally will run entirely in Saudi Arabia for a second successive year in 2021, but on a route that is “100% new”. The Dakar moved from South America to the Middle East last year, marking the start of the third chapter in the illustrious history of the rally-raid. Saudi
MotoGP has unveiled a 13-round European calendar for the coronavirus-delayed 2020 season, with options for overseas races at the end of the year tentatively outlined. The outbreak of coronavirus has forced the current MotoGP campaign into a hiatus dating back to the aborted Qatar Grand Prix at the start of March, with all rounds since
Felix Rosenqvist has attributed his breakthrough oval performance at IndyCar’s season opener to a visit he made to see three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti over the winter break. Rosenqvist was running in second place behind his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon in last weekend’s belated IndyCar opener at the Texas Motor Speedway, before
Martin Truex Jr recovered from a pitlane infringement penalty to dominate the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville and score his first victory of the 2020 season. Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry was sent to the back of the field, after he incorrectly cut across the line marking when drivers have to commit to
NASCAR has banned the display of the Confederate flag at all race tracks and properties, effective immediately, due to its racist symbolism. The flag – historically the emblem of the Confederate South, who opposed the abolition of slavery, during the American Civil War in the 19th Century – was already banned from being displayed in
Bubba Wallace will sport a “Black Lives Matter” paint scheme in Wednesday night’s NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville Speedway in support of the campaign against racial injustice. Wallace is the only full-time black driver in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series and has taken a far more vocal stance in recent weeks on racial injustice and the
MotoGP has announced it will not race at Mugello in a revised 2020 season, with the news coming amid rumours the circuit could host a Formula 1 round this year. The outbreak of COVID-19 forced MotoGP to cancel the Qatar Grand Prix back at the start of March, with the subsequent 10 events scheduled to
Retired MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner has suggested that Marc Marquez “squeezed” him out of his test role with Honda in 2015 as he “didn’t want me around”. Stoner made his MotoGP debut in 2006 with LCR Honda, before moving to Ducati where he won the Italian marque’s only premier class title to date in
The World Anti-Doping Agency wants Aprilia MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone’s competition ban extended from 18 months to four years, as the appeals process begins. Iannone tested positive for a banned steroid he’d ingested through contaminated meat during last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. Though his defence was upheld by judges in the FIM hearing back
Aprilia has announced it has secured the services of Aleix Espargaro for at least two more years, beginning with the 2021 MotoGP season. The elder Espargaro brother joined the Italian manufacturer in 2017 after losing his Suzuki ride to Andrea Iannone, and scored Aprilia’s joint-best ever result of sixth on his debut on the RS-GP
Fresh doubts have been cast over the viability of this season’s World Rally Championship following confirmation Wales Rally GB won’t take place for the first time in over 40 years. The Deeside-based event has become the third round in less than a week to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last Wednesday Rally Finland
Fabio Quartararo doubts Petronas SRT is any less professional than the works Yamaha outfit he will join in 2021, which should sway Valentino Rossi’s decision to extend his MotoGP career. Last year’s breakout star Quartararo will replace nine-time grand prix motorcycle world champion Rossi at the factory Yamaha squad next year, following a debut 2019
After the bombshell report from Autosport last week that Pol Espargaro is set to join Honda in 2021, KTM faces an uncertain MotoGP future. Just as it looked to be heading towards the front of the MotoGP field, KTM has been dealt a blow by the impending loss of its spearhead, as well as the
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick eased to his second victory of the NASCAR Cup Series season at Atlanta after dominating the final stage of the race. Harvick’s #4 Ford Mustang re-started the final segment of the 325-lap race in third position, but quickly passed Joe Gibbs Racing duo Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr to assume
Felix Rosenqvist doesn’t blame James Hinchcliffe for the final-stint shunt that cost him a shot at victory in the IndyCar season-opener at Texas Motor Speedway. The IndyCar sophomore had closed up on Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon throughout the penultimate stint after disposing of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud, on what was a
Outgoing factory Ducati MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci says he would “like to go to KTM” in 2021, which is set to lose Pol Espargaro to Honda next year. As reported by Autosport on Thursday, 2013 Moto2 world champion Espargaro has agreed a deal to join Marc Marquez at the works Honda squad for 2021. Petrucci
Called into replace an injured Casey Stoner for two rounds in 2012, Jonathan Rea made a splash, but never dived full-time into MotoGP. Achieving legendary status in World Superbikes in the years since, what Rea did on the factory Honda more than warranted a permanent stay in MotoGP… Many riders have made the World Superbike/MotoGP
Defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden says he felt “like we won the race with how bad we were”, after the Penske driver finished third in the Texas season-opener. The polesitter led 41 of the race’s 200 laps, but consistently fought with tire problems that left him easy prey for the dominant Chip Ganassi car of
Scott Dixon won the opening race of the delayed 2020 IndyCar Series season at the Texas Motor Speedway as Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Felix Rosenqvist crashed out late on. Dixon was leading a comfortable one-two for Chip Ganassi with Rosenqvist set for his first-ever podium finish in an oval race, before the Swede hit trouble
Reigning IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden has claimed pole position for the first race of the delayed 2020 season at Texas Motor Speedway. After the COVID-19 pandemic postponements to the new IndyCar campaign, action belatedly begins in Texas this weekend with Team Penske’s Newgarden edging five-time champion Scott Dixon with his two-lap average speed of
When reigning Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew secured his step up to IndyCar with Arrow McLaren SP, he never expected to wait until the middle of 2020 to make his debut. But as he and the rest of the grid get ready for action in Texas this weekend, it will test how good his extra
Outgoing World Rally Championship chief Oliver Ciesla believes his series must return to key markets in the United States and China if it is to attract more manufacturer participation in the future. The WRC has been absent from the world’s two biggest car markets this millennium, after a planned event near Beijing in 2016 was
Newly-promoted factory Ducati rider Jack Miller “looked like he was in his first or second year” of MotoGP when he first joined the Pramac squad in 2018, according to team boss Francesco Guidotti. Last week, Ducati announced it would be promoting Miller to its works line-up in 2021 off the back of an impressive 2019
With IndyCar roaring back into action at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, David Malsher-Lopez looks ahead to what is currently set to be a 14-race season, analyses Alexander Rossi’s chances of winning his first IndyCar title and checks out his competition So there will be no Dallas Fort Worth faithful in the Texas Motor Speedway
With Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez set to become Honda MotoGP team-mates in 2021, a clash dating back eight years hints towards simmering tensions coming to a boil next year As reported by Autosport on Thursday night, Pol Espargaro is set to leave KTM at the end of the year after agreeing a deal –
In the first of a series of articles focusing on Brits who went in search of the American Dream, Martin Plowman recalls how help from an IndyCar legend and friend paved the way for an enlightening but short-lived career in the States Martin Plowman is no stranger to success in the world of GT racing