Lexus locked out the podium spots in the Thailand round of SUPER GT, while Jenson Button endured his first official retirement of the season. For the most part, the race appeared to be a two-horse race between the pole-sitting LeMans Lexus and similar LC500 of #36 TOM’S pairing Kazuki Nakajima and Yuhi Sekiguchi. Although Nakajima
Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas says it is weird how Ferrari “always” seems to gain half a second on the straights no matter the circuit layout. Ferrari appears to have overtaken Mercedes as F1’s engine benchmark but also has a different aerodynamic philosophy to its rival that prioritises a higher top speed at the
The 2019 SUPER GT season is being broadcast live and for free by Motorsport.tv, and you can watch this weekend’s Buriram race live on Autosport too. Lexus locked out the front row of the grid in Thailand after Team LeMans’s new recruit Kenta Yamashita broke the lap record in a closely-fought qualifying session. Nissan topped
Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli overcame two safety car interventions and a surge from Rafaele Marciello at Misano to hand FFF Racing a maiden Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe victory. The Italian duo brought their #563 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 home just eight-tenths of a second ahead of the #88 Akka ASP Mercedes AMG, as Maro
The FIA has confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will start fourth on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix as a result of his penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying. Hamilton had qualified second behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring, but was given a three-place grid drop for the incident with Raikkonen,
The FIA has confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will start fourth on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix as a result of his penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying. Hamilton had qualified second behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring, but was given a three-place grid drop for the incident with Raikkonen,
Cal Crutchlow admits it is “worrying” he qualified 1.2 seconds slower than rookie MotoGP polesitter Fabio Quartararo as he took sixth in qualifying for the Dutch TT. Petronas SRT rider Quartararo smashed the Assen lap record with a 1m32.017s to claim his third pole of his debut premier class campaign, while Crutchlow struggled aboard his
Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi is unable to explain his poor form in Assen FP4 and qualifying, saying he was not feeling comfortable enough in those sessions. Rossi was set to make it to Q2 from FP3, but his best laptime got cancelled for a track limits infringement and in the end he was only
Fabio Quartararo obliterated the Assen lap record to top qualifying for MotoGP’s Dutch TT and take the third pole of his rookie season, with Valentino Rossi only 14th. Quartararo set a time of 1m32.017, nearly half a second faster than his FP3 time, which was also a new lap record at the end of the
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pipped the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton to set the pace in the final Formula 1 practice session before qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc was the only driver to lap below 1m04s at the Red Bull Ring as FP3 set up an enticing Ferrari versus Mercedes battle for pole position. Bahrain
Lexus locked out the front-row in qualifying for Super GT’s Thailand round, as Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto claimed the honour of being the top Honda drivers in seventh. It was TOM’S Lexus driver Kazuki Nakajima who set the first competitive lap in Q2, clocking a time of 1m23.457s to go to the top of
Fabio Quartararo led MotoGP Dutch TT third practice by 0.109 seconds with a new lap record, while fellow Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi missed Q2 after his best lap was cancelled. Rossi lifted himself into Q2 contention with a 1m32.881s to go fifth at the end of FP3 at Assen, but had that lap scrubbed for
Marc Marquez says his MotoGP team-mate Jorge Lorenzo’s Dutch TT practice crash proves this year’s Honda is not the “easiest bike on the grid”. Lorenzo lost the front of his RC213V heading through the Turn 7 left-hander of the Ruskenhoek in the closing stages of FP1, and suffered a fractured back that has ruled him
Renault will make an overnight modification to its DRS mechanism after an unusual oscillation was seen on the flaps of both its Formula 1 cars in Austrian Grand Prix practice. Although the exact cause of the problem is still being investigated, Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul told Autosport that the team has decided to make the
Carlos Sainz Jr says he feels “sour” about McLaren’s promising Friday practice showing because he will take a grid penalty for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix. Sainz will start at the back of the grid after McLaren opted to hand him Renault’s B-Spec engine that was introduced in Daniel Ricciardo’s factory-run car for the French
Cal Crutchlow says he “begged” Honda to let LCR MotoGP team-mate Takaaki Nakagami test the current RC213V in Barcelona to “confirm” its turning deficiency. Nakagami is racing last year’s Honda in his sophomore premier class campaign, but spent 20 laps on the 2019 factory bike at the post-Catalan Grand Prix test. Crutchlow has struggled so
Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo faces up to a month on the sidelines following his Dutch TT practice crash, team boss Alberto Puig has confirmed. Lorenzo was hospitalised after crashing in the opening practice session of the Assen weekend, and was quickly ruled out of further Dutch TT track action as he was diagnosed with
Three-time Sebring 12 Hours winner Pipo Derani has filled the final seat in Bentley’s expanded assault on the Spa 24 Hours next month. The IMSA SportsCar Championship regular, who is leading this year’s points with Action Express Racing, will drive one of the four factory M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3s entered for the Blancpain GT Series
Markko Martin is the latest addition to an increasingly impressive Rally Estonia entry list, with the five-time World Rally event winner making his competitive debut in a Ford Fiesta WRC. Martin was one of the original architects of Rally Estonia – as well as the inaugural winner in 2002 – and said it was an
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in opening practice for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix as Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel split the two Mercedes. Championship leader Hamilton took control of the session at the end of his running on a second set of soft tyres. His 1m04.838s eclipsed Vettel’s best by 0.144 seconds after
Toyota protege Takamoto Katsuta will make his top class World Rally Championship debut in a Yaris WRC at Rally Germany. The Japanese driver will also contest Rally Spain in the Toyota in October, and a run on Rally Japan – the November event that will be the nation’s dress rehearsal for its full WRC round
The bid to get Formula 1’s tyre specification changed mid-season centres on some teams suffering a perceived ‘double penalty’ by thinner-tread rubber they believe was wrongly introduced. F1 teams will meet with the FIA and Pirelli on Friday morning in Austria to formally discuss a return to the 0.4mm thicker tread tyres used last year.
Carlos Sainz Jr has bumped Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas from the top three in Autosport readers’ Formula 1 driver ratings after another impressive showing at the French Grand Prix. McLaren driver Sainz registered a second ‘Class B’ victory of the season by finishing sixth at Paul Ricard and was the only driver from the midfield group
Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales says Jorge Lorenzo avoiding punishment for his multi-rider crash in the Catalan Grand Prix will “open the window” for identical incidents to happen. Lorenzo tried to pass Vinales at the tight Turn 10 left-hander on the second lap of the Barcelona race, but tucked the front and collected the Yamaha
KTM MotoGP rider Johann Zarco says the similarities between his feedback and that of test rider Dani Pedrosa have come as a boost after “six months of suffering”. Beleaguered Tech3 Yamaha convert Zarco has found it difficult to get to grips with the KTM bike, and has been regularly outqualified and outraced by team-mate Pol
Stewart-Haas Racing’s winless 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season so far is due to choosing “the wrong direction to start the year”, says lead driver Kevin Harvick. While fellow Ford team Penske Racing has won five races already this year with reigning champion Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, SHR has failed to register a single regular-season
IndyCar Series championship leader Josef Newgarden says Penske made important gains in testing this week in its bid to close the gap to Andretti Autosport on road courses. At Road America last weekend, Andretti’s Alexander Rossi outqualified Penske drivers Will Power and Newgarden, then led all but one lap on the way to winning by
Alex Albon will be hit with a grid penalty at the Austrian Grand Prix for taking Honda’s upgraded Formula 1 engine, which he did not use in France. Honda introduced its Spec 3 engine last weekend but split its use across the two Toro Rosso drivers to avoid that team suffering grid drops with both
Lewis Hamilton’s critics should recognise the opportunity they have to see “maybe the best driver that has ever existed” in Formula 1, reckons the Mercedes driver’s team boss Toto Wolff. The five-time world champion’s ultra-successful move to Mercedes has earned him a place among the best drivers in F1 history by various statistical measures. Hamilton
Formula 1 testing could return to Silverstone in 2020 – but only if the British Grand Prix stays on the calendar. Over the French GP weekend teams discussed possible venues for next year’s two in-season tests, which have to take place on the Tuesday and Wednesday after a race weekend. Bahrain GP track Sakhir is