For with it well entrenched in that ultra-close midfield pack, any small pace advantage that rivals gained as they pushed on with their current cars risked shuffling the Hinwil-based operation down the order. Sure enough, with most of the grid bringing at least some major developments early in the campaign, it’s been perhaps a tougher
Month: August 2021
Autosport has learned that Ray Mallock Limited is working on a Continental development car for Bentley built to the eGT regulations, which were released to interested parties by the FIA as early as last December. The Bentley test car exploits a route into eGT allowing a manufacturer to take an existing GT3 contender and fit
Pierson, who lies fourth in the 2021 USF2000 Championship on the Road to Indy ladder, is on course to beat the record set by fellow American Matt McMurry in 2014 should he make the grid in one of United’s LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07s at Le Mans on June 11/12 2022. He will be 16 and 117
Porsche locked out the top three places in the GTE Pro class on Sunday, with works driver Kevin Estre laying down the benchmark of 3m52.901s in the #92 car in the morning session – just 0.003s up on team-mate Gianmaria Bruni’s #91 RSR-19. The afternoon session was headed by WeatherTech’s Earl Bamber, whose 3m52.938s lap
Espargaro was one of a handful of riders – including eventual race-winner Brad Binder – who gambled on staying out on slicks when the rain intensified in the closing stages of last Sunday’s Red Bull Ring contest. The Aprilia rider found himself in second as he started lap 26 of 28, but tumbled back to
Stoker’s ‘Motor Sport for All’ paper has been overseen by nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner and FIA Drivers Commission president Tom Kristensen, who is the candidate for FIA deputy president for sport. It covers all areas of motorsport development from safety and education to diversity and access. Its objectives include: Prioritising safety in the
The 20-year-old Dane caused a huge stir in qualifying on Friday when he finished fourth, on a day when the top five was covered by just 0.05s. After being passed by Colton Herta on the opening lap, Lundgaard ran fifth, briefly assumed the lead as the first round of pitstops started, ran 10th in the
As rainfall intensified in the closing stages of last Sunday’s 28-lap Austrian GP, Binder was the only rider of the leading six to stay out on lap 25 as conditions worsened. This proved to be an inspired decision as he managed to keep his KTM upright to take a stunning victory on his team’s home
Albon, who scored two F1 podium finishes for Red Bull Racing last year before being replaced by Sergio Perez, is currently in DTM. He made a name for himself in the junior formulae, where he finished second only to current Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc in GP3, while in Formula 2 he was third in the
All-new car rules will be introduced in the sport in 2022, the goal being to have closer racing and increase overtaking through simpler aerodynamics revolving around ground effect. Although the DRS didn’t feature on the full-scale model of a 2022 car revealed last month at Silverstone, F1 bosses have decided to retain it at least
Denny Hamlin led the way entering the second, two-lap overtime but Chase Briscoe ran off course and cut the track and was immediately handed a penalty by NASCAR. Briscoe, however, continued racing on the track and battled Hamlin hard for the lead, hitting him in the right-rear corner and spinning him. Allmendinger, running third at
The Swiss-Italian entered the season finale second in the drivers’ table with a three-point deficit to Nyck de Vries, but Mortara and Evans were eliminated in a major early crash. Evans suffered a suspected driveshaft failure and lurched forward off the line but then sat prone, with cars parting around him to leave Mortara unsighted
Alpine, then called Renault, and McLaren were embroiled in a tense three-way fight for third in the 2020 constructors’ championship, a battle which also included Racing Point, now Aston Martin. While McLaren continued its upward trajectory in 2021 and now has to contend with a resurgent Ferrari for third place, Alpine and Aston Martin have
Power narrowly missed out on pole, before starting his Team Penske machine on the harder Firestone rubber in the race and staying within 3.5 seconds of the alternate-tyred polesitter Pato O’Ward. After O’Ward switched to the harder rubber and Power to the softer compound, the Penske driver swiftly closed in and snatched the lead at
Palou, who had qualified sixth, was compromised with an engine mapping issue from the drop of the green flag, but had picked his way forward once the team allowed him to use three of his engine map settings. He had just eased his way past one of his prime title rivals, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward
Team Penske driver Power, having opened the race on the hard tyre, was able to clear polesitter Pato O’Ward following the opening pit phase. With O’Ward then taking on the hard tyre, he posed little threat to the soft-shod Power, who opened up a seemingly unassailable lead over Colton Herta – the Andretti Autosport driver having
The Brazilian driver overhauled the front-row starting DS Techeetahs of Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa and then fended off Venturi driver Edoardo Mortara to claim his second win of the 2020-21 season. The result comes ahead of Audi’s departure from Formula E following Sunday’s finale at the same venue, having announced in December
The Northern Irishman whisked his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N around 0.125 seconds clear of the BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R of Josh Cook. Cook’s team-mate, Senna Proctor, sat on top of the times for most of what was the only dry session at the Scottish circuit. But in the 39th minute of 40,
Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s one-off hire was a strong factor in the hour-long practice session, and appeared completely unfazed by exploring the extra grip provided by the softer-compound Firestone ‘red’ tires. The Formula 2 race-winner breezed through his Q1 Group 2 session, beaten only by Alexander Rossi, and in the Fast 12 qualifying shootout for pole
O’Ward claimed his third pole of the season in an incredibly tight session, lapping just 0.006 seconds faster than Team Penske driver Will Power. Although O’Ward slipped to third in the standings following last weekend’s Nashville race, where he finished a lowly 13th, the Mexican remains only 48 points behind series leader Alex Palou (Chip
Arrow McLaren SP driver O’Ward, who enters the weekend third in the standings, pipped Team Penske driver Will Power by just 0.006s in a remarkably tight Firestone Fast 12 session. The polesitter in IndyCar’s last visit to the track in May, Romain Grosjean took third for Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware as Rahal Letterman
May’s GP of Indy winner Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet was the first driver to duck into the 71sec bracket, with a 1min11.8641sec effort on his fourth lap, with Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda – traditionally fast around here – his nearest competitor, 0.155sec behind. With 20mins to go, Lundgaard, Formula 2 race winner, jumped
The local hero produced a masterclass, dominating the evening loop of stages as the sun began to set in Belgium, winning all three tarmac tests to open up a 7.6s lead over Breen. Neuville and Breen proved the class of the field making the the most of their knowledge of Rally Ypres’ peculiar tarmac roads
For the second straight race, Penske’s two-time champion Newgarden will suffer a grid penalty, this time for running his fifth engine of the season. In the streets of his home city of Nashville, Newgarden crashed in the dying moments of the second stage of qualifying, which automatically incurs a loss of fastest lap for disrupting
A heavy thundery downpour at the end of the Moto3 session left the Red Bull Ring soaked for the start of the second MotoGP practice of the Austrian GP weekend. Tech3 KTM rider Lecuona was first out on track in the conditions followed by factory KTM counterpart Brad Binder and Tech3 team-mate Danilo Petrucci. Lecuona
The Sepang Racing Team made its grand prix debut in 2015 in the Moto3 class before expanding to the Moto2 class. In 2019 it stepped up to MotoGP as Yamaha’s new satellite partner with backing from Petronas, bringing up Fabio Quartararo from Moto2 and signing 2017 Moto2 world champion Franco Morbidelli. The squad was a
The 20-year-old will appear in a third Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry at the Indianapolis road course, having impressed team co-owner Bobby Rahal in a test at Barber Motorsports Park. He becomes the second Danish driver to appear in the series this year, after ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen made his debut in place of Felix
On Thursday ahead of this weekend’s 11th round of the 2021 season, Yamaha announced it had suspended Vinales and withdrawn him from the Austrian GP for “irregular operation” of his M1 in the Styrian GP. Autosport understands that Vinales was deliberately trying to blow up his bike’s engine in the Styrian GP by over-revving it.
The race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval once boasted the largest crowd of the season, with over 250,000 attending at its peak, but in recent pre-pandemic years has struggled to attract 50,000 fans in the stands. Ever since the 2008 race – which featured NASCAR throwing competition cautions every 10 laps or so to
On Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Yamaha announced it had suspended Vinales and withdrawn him from the 11th round of the championship. It stated in its press release that Vinales was suspended for “unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle” in last weekend’s Styrian GP which could have seriously damaged his engine. Autosport