Hyundai has joined the race to sign Ott Tanak for the 2020 World Rally Championship, with team boss Andrea Adamo declaring he has no qualms about chasing a ‘superteam’ line-up. Adamo’s opposite number at Toyota, Tommi Makinen, has always talked of the need for each of the four WRC manufacturers to have a top-line driver
Marc Marquez says the Dutch TT was the “best race” for his MotoGP championship hopes, as the Honda rider increased his points lead to 44 after finishing second. Despite qualifying off the front row for the first time this season amid a “difficult weekend” at Assen, Marquez battled with eventual winner Maverick Vinales and third-placed
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl says teams and drivers cannot complain that there are too many rules in Formula 1, because they pushed for them in the first place. For the third time in three races, F1 had a penalty controversy in Austria after Max Verstappen’s race-winning move on Charles Leclerc in Austria prompted an investigation
Scott Dixon says the Red Bull Advanced Technologies aeroscreen will have no impact on the vision of IndyCar drivers after taking part in an intensive test of the device. IndyCar formed a partnership with the technology arm of the Red Bull Formula 1 team to evolve its cockpit protection system following the introduction of the
McLaren engineering director Pat Fry is understood to have been put on gardening leave after indicating that he wants to leave the Formula 1 team. Fry had rejoined McLaren after eight years away on a short-term contract while it awaited the arrival James Key, who had been recruited from Toro Rosso as technical director but
Formula 1 race director Michael Masi says the FIA is trying to avoid bogging the championship down with pedantic punishments. Masi took on the FIA F1 race director role following the shock death of Charlie Whiting on the eve of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Stewards’ decisions have been in the spotlight lately following the
An FIA World Motor Sport Council vote on the 2020 World Rally Championship calendar is expected later this week and could lead to the Safari Rally being officially added. The result of the vote is likely to come on Friday but it could be pushed back until early next week. Sources close to the governing
Carlin will bring Sage Karam into its IndyCar line-up to replace Red Bull junior Patricio O’Ward in Toronto next weekend. Karam’s appearance will be his first IndyCar start on a road or street course since his season with Ganassi in 2015. O’Ward is competing in the Fuji Super Formula round for Team Mugen, having been
Martin Truex Jr believes Hendrick Motorsports’ strong performance at Chicagoland Speedway could have been a one-off in the NASCAR Cup Series. Hendrick’s Alex Bowman earned his first career win in the Cup Series on Sunday as all four of the team’s drivers finished 11th or higher in the 400-mile race in Chicago. Three of Hendrick’s
A full-factory Ferrari is among the 72 cars on the entry for the Spa 24 Hours Blancpain GT Series blue riband event later this month. The AF Corse works squad has entered a Ferrari 488 GT3 to be driven by World Endurance Championship regulars James Calado, Sam Bird and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Belgian
Red Bull’s victory in the Austrian Grand Prix could be decisive in determining Honda’s Formula 1 future, amid ongoing high-level talks over whether the manufacturer will continue beyond 2020. Max Verstappen’s triumph at the Red Bull Ring ended a Honda victory drought that stretches back to 2006, and is its first win since it returned
Honda test rider Stefan Bradl will replace the injured Jorge Lorenzo at MotoGP’s Sachsenring round. Bradl has made three wildcard appearances on Honda’s RC213V bike since the start of his current role with the manufacturer and also raced for satellite outfits LCR and Marc VDS as a stand-in last year. He will now contest his
Cal Crutchlow says people cannot understand how hard fellow Honda rider Marc Marquez is riding to extract the most from his bike in pursuit of his sixth MotoGP title. Marquez has finished all bar the Americas Grand Prix inside the top two, with four victories and a second-place finish at the Dutch TT helping him
World Endurance Championship GTE Pro title winners Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen will race together in this month’s Spa 24 Hours. The Porsche factory pairing, who sealed the WEC GTE crown at the Le Mans 24 Hours last month, will race one of the German manufacturer’s 911 GT3-Rs for the Dubai-based GPX Racing team in
Toyota World Endurance Championship driver Jose Maria Lopez will make his Spa 24 Hours debut in an Audi later this month. Lopez, who is also racing in Formula E with the Dragon team in 2018/19, will race an Audi R8 LMS for the Land Motorsport squad in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup double-points round
Max Verstappen suspects “a few doubts are going away” after Red Bull claimed its first Formula 1 win with a Honda engine in the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen qualified third-fastest at the Red Bull Ring and started second, but dropped to eighth on the opening lap after his anti-stall kicked in as the race began.
Lando Norris says he could take more risks than Formula 1 title challenger Lewis Hamilton when he went around the outside at the first corner of the Austrian Grand Prix. After lining up fifth on the grid, Norris moved up one place at the start after Max Verstappen nearly stalled, and then he muscled his
Danilo Petrucci feels his decision not to make a “risky” move on Ducati MotoGP team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the Dutch TT ultimately cost him a position to Franco Morbidelli. Petrucci and Dovizioso were fighting for fourth during the race alongside Joan Mir, but their battle allowed Morbidelli to close in. Both started the final lap
Mercedes Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff says it was “painful” to see Valtteri Bottas’s and Lewis Hamilton’s cars handicapped by cooling issues in the Austrian Grand Prix. Both cars ran Mercedes’ most extreme cooling set-up available in Austria, but were still forced to run at restricted power. Bottas and Hamilton, who finished third and
Maverick Vinales admitted that “a lot of pressure went out” after he crossed the finish line first in MotoGP’s Dutch TT and scored Yamaha’s first win of 2019. Vinales emerged victorious in a three-way fight, which included Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, to win at Assen for his sixth career MotoGP top-class win and his
Jenson Button says the “terrible” crash that ended his SUPER GT race in Thailand was a racing incident, with the 2009 Formula 1 champion now 24-points adrift in the championship. Kunimitsu Honda driver Button collided side-on with Daisuke Nakajima heading into Turn 7, pitching his former team-mate’s NSX-GT into a spin and immediately out of
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman beat Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson in a late-race duel to clinch his maiden NASCAR Cup Series victory at Chicagoland. In his 134th Cup start, Bowman emerged as a contender for victory during a second stage in which he climbed from the periphery of the top 10 to battle with
The long wait to learn whether Max Verstappen had kept his Austrian Grand Prix victory was a result of various influencing factors, says FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi. Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to win the race at the Red Bull Ring but his race-winning move was placed under investigation as the two drivers
Ferrari will not appeal the outcome of the Formula 1 stewards’ investigation into Max Verstappen’s Austrian Grand Prix-winning move, despite believing the “wrong decision” was made. Red Bull driver Verstappen made contact with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc while overtaking him for the lead at Turn 3 on the 69th lap of the 71-lap event, and went
Imperiale Racing duo Vito Postiglione and Kikko Galbiati extended their lead in the Super Trofeo Europe standings after a clean sweep of wins at Misano. Galbiati made the most of a late-race slip-up from Polish team-mate Bartosz Paziewski to win Saturday evening’s opening encounter. Postiglione then withstood a fierce charge from Basz in the afternoon
Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi has apologised for his crash with LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in the Dutch TT, saying the incident was “my mistake”. Rossi was challenging Nakagami for 10th place at the fast Turn 8 right-hander in the early stages, but hit the deck as he lunged down the inside. He collected Nakagami
Suzuki’s Alex Rins is “convinced” he could have fought for MotoGP Dutch TT victory if not for the “strange” crash he had at Turn 9 while leading on the third lap. Rins jumped to the front off the line and led a Suzuki one-two from team-mate Joan Mir, before losing the front under braking for
Dutch TT podium finisher Fabio Quartararo did not think he would finish the race, as he woke “from the pain” in his arm the night before the Assen MotoGP event. Quartararo underwent arm-pump surgery on his right arm prior to the Barcelona race to be fit for the physical Assen circuit, but says his arm
Audi’s Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor made amends for their race one retirement by taking their first Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe win of 2019 in race two at Misano. The pair qualified second on the grid and Vanthoor held that position behind the leading Akka ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 of Raffaele Marciello in the
Maverick Vinales scored his and Yamaha’s first win of 2019 after emerging victorious in a thrilling three-way fight with Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo in the MotoGP Dutch TT. It was a Suzuki one-two after the start, with Alex Rins leading his rookie team-mate Joan Mir, but the team’s strong run quickly ended when Rins