Fabio Quartararo completed a clean sweep of the Sepang MotoGP pre-season test after topping the third day, while Marc Marquez crashed again. Quartararo took delivery of Yamaha’s 2020-spec YZR-M1 on Saturday, setting the pace immediately, and used the bike to once more end up fastest on Sunday. The Petronas SRT rider guided the bike to
Marc Marquez says his late crash during Saturday’s second MotoGP test day in Malaysia came after he had strayed off line on his way back to his garage. The reigning world champion is riding below peak physical fitness due to a recent operation on a shoulder injury he picked up at last year’s Malaysian Grand
LCR’s Cal Crutchlow says Honda’s 2020-specification MotoGP bike is “maybe even a little worse than last year” at turning after the second day of testing in Malaysia. Crutchlow, who was the only Honda rider other than world champion Marc Marquez to achieve a podium on the 2019 bike, was one of the most vocal critics
Johann Zarco says the “great things” he could do on the LCR Honda late last season led him to believe he would be quicker on Avintia’s Ducati in MotoGP testing. Zarco contested the final three races of the 2018 season on Takaaki Nakagami’s 2018-spec LRC Honda after losing his ride with KTM following the Misano
Four-time Rally Sweden winner Jari-Matti Latvala hopes his return to top-flight competition in a privately entered Toyota on next weekend’s event will trigger more 2020 World Rally Championship outings. Latvala lost his full-time Toyota seat for 2020, as the marque elected to field an all-new line-up of Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera. It
Fabio Quartararo led the second day of pre-season MotoGP testing in Malaysia, while reigning world champion Marc Marquez crashed late in the session. Petronas SRT rider Quartararo was fastest on Friday aboard the 2019-spec Yamaha, but finally took delivery of the new 2020 M1 and spent most of the day on that. He was once
Former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton will race for Carlin at all 12 road and street courses and the Indianapolis 500 during the 2020 IndyCar season. After failing to qualify for last year’s Indy 500, a race where he finished fourth and led more laps than any other driver in 2017, Chilton elected to stand
Aleix Espargaro says his 2020 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP bike reminds him of the Open class Forward Yamaha he rode to a podium in 2014 owing to its “unbelievable” smoothness. Aprilia enters 2020 with a completely overhauled machine, which Espargaro has spent the past week testing for the first time at Sepang at the shakedown and
McLaren has revealed the livery in which its cars will run in on its return to IndyCar. The design features prominent use of McLaren’s traditional papaya orange, which is complimented by black paint on the nose, wings and sidepods. McLaren withdrew from US open-wheel racing at the end of 1979 when the Ron Dennis/John Barnard
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says he felt “worse than expected” returning to his Honda bike after surgery. Marquez, who romped to the 2019 title despite having his preparations for the season compromised by recovery from surgery on his left shoulder, has had his right shoulder operated on in November. Though he is in less
The GR Yaris that Toyota will use in the 2021 World Rally Championship has commenced testing, with long term development driver Juho Hanninen behind the wheel. A video released by the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team on Friday reveals the car being tested on heavy snow, with a selection of onboard and action shots
Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo topped the first day of 2020 MotoGP pre-season testing in Malaysia, while his factory Yamaha counterpart Maverick Vinales crashed. Last season’s top rookie Quartararo was the first out on track at Sepang on Friday morning, though it was Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro who set the initial pace in the opening hour.
Team Penske’s three-time IndyCar champion and four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears believes Supercars racer Scott McLaughlin has the talent to succeed in an IndyCar. Penske confirmed earlier this week that double Supercars champion McLaughlin – who races for DJR Team Penske in Australia – will make his IndyCar debut in the Indianapolis road course
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi says he “pushed a lot” for Yamaha to sign his former arch rival Jorge Lorenzo, who he thinks is “perfect” for the team as test rider. Lorenzo, who won three titles during his nine-year stint as a Yamaha MotoGP rider, retired from full-time competition last year after a troubled stint with
The factory Yamaha team has become the latest MotoGP squad to reveal the colours it will race in the 2020 season at its official launch event in Malaysia. Yamaha stole the headlines last week when it firmed up its line up for the two years beyond 2020, with Maverick Vinales staying put, and Fabio Quartararo
The Suzuki MotoGP team has unveiled a new livery for its 2020 campaign ahead of the first pre-season test of the year at the Sepang International Circuit. The 2020 MotoGP season will be Suzuki’s sixth since it returned to grand prix racing in 2015, and enters the campaign with an unchanged line-up of double race
GT World Challenge series promoter SRO Motorsports has has donated fines incurred during the 2019 season to a selection of charitable causes. Six projects including a movement to continue the legacy of the late Maria de Villota and the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris will benefit from support from SRO, which organises series
Double Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin will make his IndyCar debut with Penske on the Indianapolis road course. The DJR Team Penske Supercars driver – who tested for Penske at Sebring last month – will campaign the #2 Team Penske-Chevrolet as reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden takes over the #1 for 2020. “This is an amazing
World Rally Championship-winning outfit Prodrive has entered into a joint venture with the Kingdom of Bahrain to develop a new car to contest the Dakar Rally in 2021. The British engineering firm, which claimed drivers’ titles with Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg and a run of three straight manufacturers’ titles between 1995 and
Rally Sweden will go ahead next week albeit eight stages shorter, despite the World Rally Championship event suffering from “unreasonably warm weather” and a lack of snow in the build-up. Event organisers had set a deadline of February 3 for making a decision on whether the rally would go ahead after a lack of snow
Four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais will contest a limited IndyCar schedule with AJ Foyt Racing in 2020, sharing a car with outgoing veteran Tony Kanaan and rookie Dalton Kellett. Bourdais, whose main campaign this year is in the IMSA SportsCar Championship with JDC-Miller Motorsports after he lost his IndyCar drive at Dale Coyne Racing,
Aprilia MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone’s doping case was heard by the International Disciplinary Court on Tuesday, but no verdict has yet been reached. Iannone tested positive for a steroid during the Sepang weekend of the 2019 MotoGP season, and a provisional suspension was announced the following month, on December 17. Iannone said the finding had
Rally Sweden officials are carrying out further inspections ahead of making a final decision on whether the World Rally Championship event will go ahead. A lack of snowfall and warmer than usual conditions in Sweden have meant the usual thick layer of snow has not formed on the surface of the stages. A decision on
Jorge Lorenzo turned his first laps on a Yamaha MotoGP bike since 2016 on Tuesday as the three-day shakedown session at Sepang came to an end. The three-time MotoGP champion, who was announced as a Yamaha tester last week, recorded 46 laps aboard the 2020-spec M1 bike, setting a best time of 2m05.506s. That left
The Repsol Honda team has unveiled the 2020 livery for its MotoGP bike, which will be campaigned by brothers Marc and Alex Marquez. In a season launch presentation taking place in Indonesian capital Jakarta where title sponsor Repsol is based, the Honda factory team showed off a pair of bikes sporting a largely identical colour
Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali says it is not important for the MotoGP manufacturer to field an all-Italian line-up as the paddock prepares for a frenzied silly season. The majority of factory contracts are up for renewal at the end of this season, including those of Ducati’s all-Italian line-up Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci. Speaking at
Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet co-owner Sam Schmidt says IndyCar ‘deserves and needs’ Fernando Alonso to contest the Indianapolis 500, after rumours suggested Honda rejected plans for Andretti Autosport to run Alonso. Andretti ran the two-time Formula 1 world champion’s entry with McLaren in the 2017 edition of the race, at which Alonso qualified fifth and was
Reigning World Rally champion Ott Tanak crashed spectacularly out of the Rally Monte Carlo, but can the Hyundai driver bounce back immediately on Rally Sweden? That’s the main focus of discussion on this edition of the Gravel Notes podcast, as David Evans believes the accident won’t slow the Estonian down, despite crashing so early into
Fabio Quartararo says Yamaha’s offer of a factory-spec bike in Petronas SRT colours for the 2020 MotoGP season “weighed heavily” on his decision to stay with the marque for 2021. Rookie sensation Quartararo was announced last week as a factory Yamaha rider for 2021 and ’22 alongside Maverick Vinales, replacing team stalwart Valentino Rossi. Before
Jules Gounon survived a late puncture to take a first Bathurst 12 Hour win for Bentley amid an ongoing threat of rain, alongside Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper. The #7 Continental was in the fight all afternoon, leading at both the race’s half and three-quarter marks during a see-sawing battle with the #999 GruppeM Mercedes.