Ex-Toyota World Rally Championship driver and Intercontinental, European champion Juho Hanninen will co-drive for privateer Jari-Matti Latvala on Rally Sweden in a Yaris WRC next month. Latvala was dropped by Toyota for 2020, and the M-Sport squad that gave him his break in the WRC elected to sign Citroen refugee Esapekka Lappi to the last
Ex-Toyota World Rally Championship driver and double Intercontinental/European champion Juho Hanninen will co-drive for privateer Jari-Matti Latvala on Rally Sweden in a Yaris WRC next month. Latvala was dropped by Toyota for 2020, and the M-Sport squad that gave him his break in the WRC elected to sign Citroen refugee Esapekka Lappi to the last
Mark Lemmer says his Barwell Motorsport team has suggested safety tweaks to Dubai 24 Hours organiser Creventic following the “deeply regrettable” pitlane incident that went viral during last weekend’s race. The British GT regular squad (pictured above at the 2019 Spa round of that series) was leading the race when it was handed a four-minute
X-raid Mini driver Stephane Peterhansel recorded his third stage win of the 2020 Dakar Rally, as Nasser Al-Attiyah closed in on rally leader Carlos Sainz Sr. The three frontrunners benefitted from an advantageous position in the running order for the near-296-mile Wadi ad-Dawasir – Haradh stage, following low-key finishes on Monday. But whereas Peterhansel and
Penske’s two-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin says his neck was “torched” after testing an IndyCar for the first time on Monday. McLaughlin, who won the 2018 and 2019 Supercars titles with DJR Team Penske, completed “around 140 laps” of the short course at Sebring with Penske’s IndyCar squad as part of the championship’s rookie testing
Hyundai will enter the World Rally Championship’s WRC 2 R5 category for manufacturers for the first time in 2020 with an upgraded i20. It has signed European Rally Championship regular Nikolay Gryazin and WRC 2 regular Ole Christian Veiby as its drivers for 2020. The squad will be formally entered as Hyundai Motorsport N in
Three-time Supercars champion Craig Lowndes will contest next month’s Bathurst 12 Hour Intercontinental GT Challenge opener with two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber’s Porsche team. Lowndes will be bidding for a third victory in the event to go with his seven wins in the Bathurst 1000 touring car classic on February 2 at
Honda team boss Alberto Puig believes world champion Marc Marquez “would worry much more” if younger brother Alex Marquez made his MotoGP debut with another squad in 2020. Reigning Moto2 champion Alex will step up to MotoGP with Honda this season, after breaking his contract with Marc VDS in Moto2 to take the seat vacated
Fernando Alonso says he has already “exceeded all kinds of personal goals” for his first Dakar Rally, after taking second place in the eighth stage of the marathon. Alonso finished four minutes behind surprise stage winner Mathieu Serradori in the 477km timed special, as the usual frontrunners Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stephane Peterhansel had
Former MotoGP rider Max Biaggi has been linked to a test role with Aprilia at next month’s first pre-season test of the year in Malaysia. Andrea Iannone was hit with a doping ban from MotoGP’s governing body the FIM over the winter after testing positive for an anabolic steroid, which he claims was ingested through
This year’s Autosport International featured one of the most original and special rally collections in the world as, from Ford to Subaru, all decades were covered. Thanks to the DirtFish Rally School and BGMsport, cars of Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Stig Blomqvist and Roger Clark all appeared in what was a rare opportunity to see
Mathieu Serradori edged Fernando Alonso to top the eighth stage of the 2020 Dakar Rally, amid a low-key showing for the marathon’s leading contenders. Serradori claimed a first-ever stage win for himself and his South African-built Century CR6 buggy in the 474km loop around Wadi ad-Dawasir. Though he was only one of several drivers with
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says he made “pretty stupid” mistakes during the team’s failed 2019 Indianapolis 500 assault, but will “do things differently” during its 2020 IndyCar campaign. Though last year’s entry was McLaren’s second Indy 500 attempt with double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso, it decided to run its own programme rather
X-raid Mini driver Carlos Sainz has picked up his third stage win of the 2020 Dakar Rally to further extend his advantage at the top of the general classification. Sainz, chasing his third Dakar win, picked up where he had left off in the first half of the marathon and delivered Mini’s sixth stage win
Veteran motorcycle rider Paulo Goncalves has passed away following a crash on Sunday’s seventh stage of the 2020 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. Goncalves was contesting his 13th Dakar for Indian manufacturer Hero, and was 46th overall when the rally resumed on Sunday following yesterday’s rest day. During Sunday’s 339-mile Riyadh to Wadi Al Dawasir
British Touring Car Championship race winner Rory Butcher was forced to miss the Dubai 24 Hours after his flight was diverted to avoid airstrikes over Iraq. The reigning BTCC Independents Trophy winner, who last contested the Creventic-organised event in 2016, was due to share the #429 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 with team owner Nathan
Stephane Peterhansel scored X-raid Mini’s fourth consecutive Dakar Rally 2020 stage win with victory on the sixth test, while Carlos Sainz heads into the rest day as the marathon’s leader. Peterhansel outpaced fellow Mini buggy driver Sainz by a minute and 21 seconds over the 296-kilometre timed special between Ha’il and Riyadh, with the day’s
Alex Marquez says his elder brother and Honda team-mate Marc “won’t tell him much” to help ease his transition to MotoGP next season. The younger Marquez brother – who replaces the retired Jorge Lorenzo in 2020 – made his first outing as a Repsol Honda rider in the Jerez post-season test last year, after riding
Mads Ostberg will contest a full schedule in WRC 2 this season in a works-supported Citroen, despite the French manufacturer’s exit from rallying’s top level. Norwegian driver Ostberg, a mainstay of the WRC from 2011 until 2018, will contest the full eight-round schedule at the wheel of a PH Sport-run Citroen C3 R5. It follows
Ex-Formula 1 test driver James Rossiter has been dropped by Nissan in Super GT, while Honda has confirmed Jenson Button’s replacement in the series. Button announced last year he would not return alongside Naoki Yamamoto – with whom he won the 2018 Super GT title – in a Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX, paving the way
Kris Meeke will spend this season considering his options after accepting his full-time career in the World Rally Championship is over following his Toyota exit. Meeke lost his Toyota seat at the end of last season, with the squad electing to sign Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera. While Meeke remains under contract with
Carlos Sainz became the first repeat stage winner of this year’s Dakar Rally as he beat Nasser Al-Attiyah to extend his advantage overall to just under six minutes. X-raid Mini Buggy driver Sainz came onto the stage with a 3m3s lead over Toyota rival Al-Attiyah and looked set to drop further time as he lost
The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team has unveiled a retro-inspired livery for its World Rally Championship-contending Ford Fiesta WRC at Autosport International. M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson said the livery, which in 2020 features a white and blue scheme instead of the predominantly blue and silver colours of last year, is inspired by the early ’90s
Former Audi LMP1 racer Oliver Jarvis will rejoin the factory M-Sport Bentley squad as part of a major reshuffle of the British manufacturer’s driver line-up. Jarvis, who races for Mazda in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, has been re-signed by Bentley for a full programme in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, two years after he was part
Stephane Peterhansel became the fourth different driver to top a stage in the 2020 Dakar Rally, as Nasser Al-Attiyah halved the gap to leader Carlos Sainz. Wednesday’s Neom – Al-‘Ula stage included the marathon’s longest timed test so far at 281 miles, which was split by an 80km neutralised zone, and was completed by Peterhansel
M-Sport is targeting a return to World Rally Championship wins this year, with the “biggest change” made to its engine since the current regulations began in 2017. The Ford Fiesta WRC was an immediate contender when the WRC’s new rules came in three years ago, as Sebastien Ogier, Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans all took
Lamborghini has announced its official factory line-up for 2020, with a graduate from its Young Drivers’ programme graduating to a works seat and opening the door for new talent. Unearthing the next generation of drivers is the lifeblood of any racing team or manufacturer programme in motorsport. In all the top categories of racing, fans
Lamborghini has announced its official factory line-up for 2020, with a graduate from its Young Drivers’ programme graduating to a works seat and opening the door for new talent. Unearthing the next generation of drivers is the lifeblood of any racing team or manufacturer programme in motorsport. In all the top categories of racing, fans
The SRT Viper GTS-R faced an uphill battle at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2013. Having only made its race debut in the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio the previous August, it was still relatively early in its gestation by the time it rolled into France, and victory in the GTE-Pro class was
The reference rider among Yamaha’s MotoGP contingent is Maverick Vinales rather than Fabio Quartararo, according to Vinales’ crew chief Esteban Garcia. Quartararo’s emergence as a MotoGP star on the Petronas SRT-run satellite Yamaha was one of the main storylines of 2019, as he became the category’s youngest-ever poleman and regularly ran at the front. But