Marco Andretti’s startling morning speed was enough to keep him in top spot as drivers and engineers spent a tough and hot afternoon struggling to get a strong four-lap average. While Takuma Sato has said the IMS track surface has been surprisingly kind to the Firestones over race stints, the track conditions on Friday threw
Month: August 2020
MotoGP has set up camp at the Red Bull Ring for a double-header starting this weekend with the Austrian Grand Prix. Here’s how to watch qualifying. Marc Marquez remains out of action after his second surgery to fix the plate in his broken right arm, with Honda test rider Stefan Bradl stepping in again, but
Maverick Vinales admits he and Yamaha are “a little bit lost” at the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix and can’t explain why his form has dipped so much since Jerez. The Yamaha rider was 0.020 seconds outside of the top 10 in 11th at the end of Friday’s practice sessions following a scrappy FP1 in which
Yamaha has made a request to all MotoGP manufacturers to unseal its engines on safety grounds following a series of mechanical issues, Autosport has learned. Autosport first revealed last month that Yamaha had sent an engine from Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales’ allocation back to Japan following the Spanish Grand Prix for inspection after the
Chip Ganassi racer Scott Dixon topped the speed charts on the second day of Indy 500 practice, while double Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso became the first driver to crash. Five-time IndyCar champion Dixon clocked a 226.102mph lap in the final hour of the day’s running, around 0.4mph ahead of Takuma Sato’s top time from
Leading MotoGP riders have expressed concern about riding in the wet during this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring, with forecasts predicting thunderstorms. This weekend marks the first of two races to be held at the Red Bull Ring, with MotoGP returning next week for the Styrian GP. Since it returned to the
KTM’s Pol Espargaro says his motivation is “in the clouds” for this weekend’s MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix after the team’s first premier-class victory in the Czech GP. Rookie Brad Binder guided the RC16 to his and KTM’s first MotoGP victory at Brno last weekend just four years after the Austrian brand came into the premier
Aleix Espargaro was “very disappointed” to be 15 seconds away from KTM winner Brad Binder in the Czech Grand Prix, as Aprilia has been in MotoGP two years longer. Rookie Binder took a sensational maiden victory for himself and KTM last weekend at Brno, while Espargaro was 15s back in 10th having run as high
James Hinchcliffe led an Andretti Autosport 1-2-4 on the opening day of practice for the 104th Indianapolis 500 as Fernando Alonso clocked the fifth fastest time. Making only his third IndyCar Series outing of the year, 2016 pole-winner Hinchcliffe turned a 224.526mph average on his 35th of 80 laps in the afternoon session to edge
KTM Motorsport boss Pit Beirer says Pol Espargaro “deserved” to take the brand’s first MotoGP win for the “pure heart” he put into the project since 2017. Espargaro joined KTM for its first season in MotoGP back in 2017 and has been the constant in its line-up since then, taking the marque’s first podium in
MotoGP heads on to the Red Bull Ring and the first of two consecutive races starting with the Austrian Grand Prix. Following a shock victory for Brad Binder and KTM at the Czech GP last time out, all predictions are off for the fourth round of the reshuffled 2020 MotoGP season. Despite being one of
The race to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoff is hotting up, with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson currently at risk of missing out on a spot in his final season. Johnson sits 26 points outside the playoff positions with four races remaining – the Daytona road course, a doubleheader at Dover and the regular season
Fernando Alonso has said next week’s Indianapolis 500 will be his last attempt at the triple crown for at least two years, as he returns to Formula 1 with Renault. In 2017, McLaren’s F1 prospects were so poor that Alonso was able to skip the Monaco Grand Prix with the team’s blessing in order to
Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud says the condensed practice schedule for this year’s race leaves far less leeway for experimenting with set up. The Team Penske ace conquered last year’s Indy 500 after a thrilling duel with 2016 winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport, and can expect to be one of the pre-race favourites
Leading MotoGP riders have reacted to the “super difficult” Algarve circuit in Portugal coming onto the 2020 calendar as the season finale. Last week Autosport revealed that the Algarve circuit at Portimao was set to join the 2020 calendar as the 14thand final round, with Dorna Sports confirming this on Monday. Frequently used for the
Johann Zarco says he was “right to have doubts” about the Avintia MotoGP squad at the end of 2019, after scoring pole and a third-place in the Czech Grand Prix. Zarco took the team’s first pole on Saturday at Brno by over three tenths, before fending off Suzuki’s Alex Rins on the last lap to
Aleix Espargaro says the traction of Brad Binder’s race-winning KTM relative to his Aprilia made him feel like “I was in the Moto2 class” during MotoGP’s Czech Grand Prix. Espargaro started from fourth on the factory 2020 Aprilia RS-GP and ran second on the opening lap after overtaking championship leader Fabio Quartararo’s SRT Petronas Yamaha
IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have released the entry list for next week’s Indianapolis 500, confirming the final two entries following a three-month delay for the race. With 2011 Indy runner-up JR Hildebrand at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing again, alongside Sage Karam, and one of last year’s underdog stars DragonSpeed USA running Ben Hanley
Christopher Bell will move over to Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, replacing the departing Erik Jones at the team. Bell, who drove for JGR in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (winning 16 races), has spent his rookie Cup Series campaign with the Gibbs-affiliated Leavine Family Racing, placing third overall in 2019.
KTM boss Pit Beirer says the Austrian marque’s debut MotoGP win courtesy of Brad Binder at the Czech Grand Prix “didn’t come by accident”. Binder dominated the Brno race on Sunday by 5.2 seconds to take a sensational debut victory for himself and KTM in MotoGP. The Austrian manufacturer came into the premier class in
Andrea Dovizioso says he and Ducati have struggled to adapt to Michelin’s new rear tyre because past MotoGP set-up solutions aren’t working like they did before. Dovizioso has had a tough start to the 2020 season, with a surprise third in the Spanish GP followed by a sixth in the Andalusian GP and a distant
The MotoGP Czech Grand Prix was an historic day for KTM, as rookie Brad Binder took his and the marque’s first premier class victory. Binder came from seventh on the grid to lead the Brno race by lap 13, before dominating to the chequered flag to claim a maiden win by 5.2 seconds. Behind, Franco
The Algarve circuit in Portugal has been confirmed as the final round of the 2020 MotoGP season, with the track hoping to be able to host fans. Last week MotoGP promoters Dorna Sports announced the three remaining flyaway races on the provisional schedule in Malaysia, Thailand and Argentina had been cancelled for 2020 due to
Kevin Harvick resisted a late challenge from Denny Hamlin to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series win of the Michigan double-header. Harvick, who had swept all three stages to claim victory in overtime in Saturday’s first 161-lap race at the 2.0-mile Michigan oval, started in 18th place after NASCAR flipped the top 20 finishers and
Team WRT Audi duo Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts recorded two out of three race wins as the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup kicked off at Misano. With the original Sprint calendar reduced by one weekend due to the outbreak of COVID-19, three races were held in a single weekend for the first in
Johann Zarco says Brad Binder is “doing the job that I was not able to do” at KTM, after he took his maiden MotoGP win at the Czech Grand Prix. Rookie Binder dominated the race at Brno on Sunday to score his and KTM’s first ever MotoGP victory in just his third race, which he
Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales says he was “very lucky” to even finish 14th in the MotoGP Czech Grand Prix having battled an “impossible” lack of grip from the first lap. Vinales started from fifth on the grid, but slipped to eighth after the opening lap and continued to tumble down the order at Brno, eventually taking
MotoGP Czech Grand Prix winner Brad Binder says his dream of scoring a premier class victory coming in just his third race is “scary”. Binder stunned on Sunday at Brno by charging to the front of the Czech GP on lap 13 to dominate by 5.2 seconds to score his and KTM’s first MotoGP victory.
This week in 1998 Colin McRae decided to leave Subaru, the team that had made him a World Rally champion, to join Ford. In two pieces, published in the 13 August 1998 and 1 October 1998 issues of the magazine, Autosport found out why “I could stay with Subaru and possibly be there for the
Kevin Harvick fended off an attack from Brad Keselowski in overtime to seal victory in the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series double-header at Michigan. Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing machine was dominant throughout the eventual 161-lap encounter around the 2.0-mile Michigan oval, scooping all three stages in his Ford Mustang after a flurry of late