Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will get a new crew chief starting at this weekend’s Cup series race at Watkins Glen. After Johnson, who is without a win in 2019, finished 15th on Sunday’s Pocono race his Hendrick Motorsports team decided to make a change, with Cliff Daniels becoming his crew chief. Daniels was
Hayden Paddon says he was powerless to stop the testing crash that ruined his planned World Rally Championship return in Finland this week. The New Zealander hit a rock and went off the road in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC on Monday. This video shows the moment of impact with the rock – which tore
Felix Rosenqvist says racing his IndyCar team-mate Scott Dixon is like “playing with fire” and he would have been more aggressive against a non-Chip Ganassi Racing-run car at Mid-Ohio. The Chip Ganassi team-mates fought for victory as Rosenqvist closed in rapidly during the closing stages as he had better tyre life than Dixon. Most drivers
A crash in sixth gear while testing has ruled Hayden Paddon out of his return to the World Rally Championship with M-Sport on Rally Finland. The Kiwi was halfway through his pre-event test in the Ford Fiesta WRC when he hit a rock in a blind corner, sending him off the road at high speed.
Denny Hamlin believes he and his Toyota-powered Joe Gibbs Racing team “can win anywhere” after a third victory in 2019 at Pocono in the NASCAR Cup Series last weekend. Hamlin scored his first two NASCAR Cup wins at the Pennsylvania track in 2005-’06, and Sunday’s triumph was his fifth at the circuit after he stretched
Valentino Rossi has gone more than two years without a victory, and the nine-time world champion’s opening half of the 2019 campaign has been his worst in the MotoGP era. Difficulties finding a comfortable feeling with the 2019 Yamaha have led to a run of results devoid of any podiums since the third round and
Denny Hamlin prevailed despite fuel worries in a tense overtime period to lead home a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 in the NASCAR Cup race at Pocono. Hamlin and his team-mates Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr were leading the race with a handful of laps of the scheduled 160 to run, while deploying the lift
Scott Dixon used an alternative strategy to claim his second victory of the 2019 IndyCar season, leading a Ganassi one-two ahead of Felix Rosenqvist at Mid-Ohio. Dixon was one of only two drivers – the other was polesitter Will Power – to utilise a two-stop strategy during the 90-lap contest, while most of his competitors
Porsche secured its first victory in the Spa 24 Hours since 2010 thanks to the GPX Racing squad at the end of a disrupted, rain-affected race. Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, Richard Lietz took honours in the Gulf-liveried #20 Porsche 911 GT3-R, leading a one-two for the Weissach marque ahead of the #998 ROWE Racing car
The Grasser Lamborghini squad led the Spa 24 Hours when the race was red-flagged shortly after the 13-hour mark as the weather conditions deteriorated. Heavy rain resulted in the stoppage at approximately 5:40am local time after a lengthy full-course yellow virtual safety car period, with Christian Engelhart out front in the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3
The Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup points-leading SMP Racing Ferrari held a narrow advantage in the Spa 24 Hours after six hours. SMP trio Mikhail Aleshin, Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina had cycled into the lead in the #72 Ferrari 488 GT3 at the one-quarter mark at Spa, with Aleshin staying out on slick tyres
Penske’s Will Power stormed to pole position at Mid-Ohio with a late flying lap that proved nearly four tenths quicker than Andretti Autosport IndyCar rival Alexander Rossi’s best effort. Rossi looked set to secure the top spot in the closing seconds of the Fast Six session, having shaved two tenths from his prior session-leading benchmark,
Alexander Rossi has signed a new “multi-year” deal with Andretti Autosport, after months of speculation that he could move to another IndyCar team such as Penske. The announcement also coincided with team boss Michael Andretti confirming that his outfit will continue with Honda engines and Rossi is seen as a key driver for the manufacturer.
Bonaldi Motorsport’s Danny Kroes and Sergey Afanasiev moved into the lead of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe standings after claiming a win and second place at Spa. Having taken over from Afanasiev following the mandatory pitstop, Kroes made two decisive overtakes at Les Combes on team-mate and race one winner Jack Bartholomew and the polesitting
Bentley has hit out at the Balance of Performance for this weekend’s Spa 24 Hours after none of its four factory cars qualified in the top 20. Bentley motorsport boss Brian Gush questioned a 20kg swing in minimum weight for this weekend’s blue-riband round of the Blancpain GT Series between the marque’s Continental GT3, the
Colton Herta topped IndyCar practice at Mid-Ohio for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, while championship leader Josef Newgarden crashed. In the second session, Newgarden was lying 11th fastest when he headed out on Firestone red tyres, but when he dropped a wheel off the curb exiting Turn 9, the car spun through 180-degrees and went backwards the
Black Falcon Mercedes driver Maro Engel secured pole for the Spa 24 Hours after edging out Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor by just 0.017 seconds in Friday’s superpole session. As Black Falcon’s #4 Mercedes AMG-GT3 had topped Thursday night’s first qualifying session, Engel was the 20th and final driver to head out and set his two
Indianapolis will host the American round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2020. The eight-hour event is moving to the 2.61-mile road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, used for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix in 2000-07 and an IndyCar round since 2014, from Laguna Seca. The event will take place on October 4
With pretty much all factory MotoGP contracts through to the end of 2020 secured last year, it was initially expected this year’s ‘silly season’ would be a tame affair. Until recently, it seemed all there would be to talk about would be a few midfield names potentially making team moves and a handful of Moto2
The Black Falcon Mercedes squad topped the times in first qualifying for the Spa 24 Hours ahead of the superpole session that determines the first 20 places on the grid. Factory drivers Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz claimed the provisional pole for the blue-riband Blancpain GT Series round in the aggregate session on
Yamaha MotoGP boss team boss Lin Jarvis says he expects no “conflict” with Valentino Rossi over the timing of Italian legend’s eventual retirement. Rossi is under contract at Yamaha until the end of 2020, but has gone more than two years without winning a race and has suffered a poor run of recent form. The
The DragonSpeed team looks set to miss this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio as the team has encountered an issue with visas. The squad’s original schedule for its inaugural season in the series – with IndyCar rookie Ben Hanley its sole driver – included St Petersburg, Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis 500, Mid-Ohio and
The DragonSpeed team looks set to miss this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio as the team has encountered an issue with visas. The squad’s original schedule for its inaugural season in the series – with IndyCar rookie Ben Hanley its sole driver – included St. Petersburg, Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis 500, Mid-Ohio and
Andrea Dovizioso believes Ducati’s MotoGP rivals have made more progress with their bikes in 2019 than his manufacturer has. Dovizioso, who scored four wins on his way to second place in the standings in 2018, sits 58 points behind Honda’s points leader Marc Marquez at the midpoint of the ’19 campaign. The Ducati rider took
Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo will miss the next two races in the Czech Republic and Austria after the back injury he sustained in the Netherlands failed to heal sufficiently. Lorenzo suffered a fracture to his back in a crash during the first practice session for the Dutch TT weekend, which ruled him out of
Petter and Oliver Solberg will enter October’s Wales Rally GB as a two-car team to start one World Rally Championship career and bring another to a close. The Llandudno-based event is part of Petter’s farewell tour, having announced his retirement from top level motorsport in April, and he believes it is the perfect place to
Strakka Racing GT driver Nick Leventis has been banned from motorsport for four years by the FIA for an anti-doping violation, but has confirmed that he has “retired from motorsport”. Following the California 8 Hours in 2018, where Leventis had scored eighth overall in a Strakka Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Laguna Seca (pictured below), Leventis tested
Sometime IndyCar driver RC Enerson will make his return to the series at Mid-Ohio round, competing for Carlin in a race that was originally part of Patricio O’Ward’s deal. Enerson made three IndyCar outings with Dale Coyne Racing in 2016 and took a best finish of ninth at Watkins Glen and has since competed in
Hyundai and M-Sport Ford are trying to prise Ott Tanak away from Toyota, and the Estonian could be tempted away despite leading the World Rally Championship points’ standings. The 31-year-old has won three rallies so far this year in his Yaris WRC, but the occasional fragility of the car has fuelled rumours that he could
Schmidt Peterson Motorsport’s driver James Hinchcliffe says it is “kind of shocking” that it took him 12 IndyCar races to secure a podium in 2019, after finishing third at Iowa. The 2018 Iowa winner started fifth and remained in contention throughout the race and prevailed in a battle with Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, pictured