Valtteri Bottas says setbacks like his performance in the final Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session hurt more now he is in a Formula 1 title fight with team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Bottas spun on his first Q3 run, then had a poor lap on his second, and will start Sunday’s race sixth. Like Mercedes stablemate Hamilton
Toto Wolff believes Pirelli has been targeted by opportunistic lobbying to bring back its 2018 tyres in a bid end Mercedes’ dominant start to the Formula 1 season. During the Canadian Grand Prix weekend criticism from Mercedes’ rivals Ferrari and Red Bull has emerged over the thinner-treaded tyres introduced full-time for this season and the
Josef Newgarden jumped to the front with an inspired Penske strategy call and then fended off Alexander Rossi to win the Texas Motor Speedway IndyCar race. Championship leader Newgarden had spent the first half of the race mostly in the lower part of the top 10, but pitted to top up with fuel during the
Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen will start the Canadian Grand Prix from the pitlane as a consequence of his heavy crash in Montreal qualifying. Losing control of his car at the final chicane at the end of Q2, Magnussen brushed the wall on the exit before hurtling towards the pitwall on the opposite side
Greg Biffle took victory in his first NASCAR start since the end of the 2016 Cup season by triumphing in Friday night’s Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The 49-year-old 2005 Cup Series runner-up was making what has so far been billed as a one-off return to top-level racing with Kyle Busch’s Truck team.
Lance Stroll will revert to his previous-specification Mercedes Formula 1 engine ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix after his fiery failure in final practice. The Racing Point driver was completing his installation lap on Saturday morning in Montreal when a burst of flames emerged from the rear of his car as he approached
Sebastian Vettel believes there is still “a reasonable gap” to Mercedes in Canada despite his Ferrari Formula 1 team-mate Charles Leclerc topping Friday practice in Montreal. Leclerc led a Ferrari one-two after the first two practice sessions for the Canadian Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas heading Mercedes’ charge in third place, 0.134 seconds off the
Takuma Sato claimed his second pole position of the 2019 IndyCar Series season in qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver, who won from pole at Barber Motorsports Park two months ago, produced a two-lap average of 220.250mph. Thursday practice pacesetter and reigning champion Scott Dixon’s first lap put him on course
Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has described his Canadian Grand Prix practice crash as an “innocent mistake”, that left him feeling like he was “in the headmaster’s office”. Hamilton, who had set the pace in the opening Friday practice ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, lost control on the exit of the Turn 8/9 chicane
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed his team will take part in the next series of Netflix’s Formula 1 documentary, despite admitting he initially “didn’t like” the inaugural show. The ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ show attracted good reviews from fans when it was released earlier this year as it offered behind-the-scenes glimpses of life
M-Sport has revealed the successor to its best-selling Ford Fiesta R5 rally car. The new car is a ground-up overhaul of the original Fiesta which, launched in 2013, was the world’s first R5 car to break cover. Since then, the Cumbrian-built machine has become the world’s best-selling car in the category with close to 300
Volkswagen Motorsport is confident it has found the cause of the fires that have hit its Polo GTI R5 cars recently. Three Polos caught fire last weekend; two on the Rally Portugal round of the World Rally championship – although Volkswagen said a fire that affected Ole Christian Veiby’s car there was unrelated – and
Former MotoGP racer Jonas Folger will make his first race start in almost two years in next weekend’s Barcelona Moto2 race. Folger’s maiden MotoGP campaign with the Tech3 Yamaha squad in 2017 yielded a podium at the Sachsenring, but was cut short when he contracted the Epstein-Barr virus, which forced him to skip the final
Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari needs to turn around its form before the summer break to have any chance of getting back into the Formula 1 title battle. Vettel is 55 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton after six races, while Ferrari trails Mercedes by 118 points in the constructors’ contest. Mercedes has won all six
The FIA will strongly reinforce instructions to marshals that they must not go on track without the permission of race control, following Sergio Perez’s near-miss at the Monaco Grand Prix. Racing Point Formula 1 driver Perez was lucky to avoid hitting two marshals who ran across the track in front of him in the Monte
Multiple Formula 1 teams have redefined their rear wing designs ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in a quest to find more straightline performance at the Montreal circuit. Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Racing Point are just some of the teams to bring new rear wings to Canada, tailoring their aerodynamics to the demands of the
Citroen’s Sebastien Ogier fired strong accusations at Hyundai World Rally Championship team principal Andrea Adamo in the immediate aftermath of last weekend’s Rally Portugal. The six-time world champion accepted Hyundai ordering Dani Sordo and Sebastian Loeb to check in late to stages on Saturday and Sunday in order to give team leader Thierry Neuville a
Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb will contest a pair of upcoming national rallies in a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, starting with next week’s Rallye Vosges French Rally Championship round. Vosges was the basis of France’s WRC round for five years, with Loeb celebrating a memorable seventh title on his home roads in the Alsace
The Canadian Grand Prix often serves up a thrilling race, but will Mercedes bring a new specification engine to retain its stranglehold on Formula 1 in 2019? In this video, Julia Piquet explains three things to look out for this weekend as the F1 grid heads to North America and the city of Montreal. Ferrari
Ferrari dominated the 2004 Formula 1 season with its F2004, crushing its rivals by winning 15 of that year’s 18 races and sealing both world championships early. Such dominance seemed inevitable by the time the season was in full swing, but the F2004’s leap in performance compared to its predecessor was so big that Ferrari
The introduction of hybrid power to NASCAR is “a matter of when, not if” according to Ford Performance’s motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook. The series looks to develop a next-generation powertrain from the 2022 season, with plans to introduce a new-specification of car – labelled the Gen-7 – for the 2021 season. The Gen-7 will feature
Daniel Ricciardo says there is “some substance” to the Renault Formula 1 team’s optimism that it can make a big step forward with its French Grand Prix update. Renault has had a difficult start to 2019, which has been impacted by early season reliability concerns forcing it to hold back on engine performance. But a
Jorge Lorenzo is applying bike braking elements and dynamics that he used at Ducati to his Honda MotoGP bike in order to improve his feeling and close the gap to the fastest riders. Regardless of the changes that he considers necessary to the ergonomics of the RC213V that he will carry out this week in
The World Rally Championship will not be any less competitive or cost effective when it moves into its hybrid era in 2022, insists FIA rally director Yves Matton. Further details of the next generation of World Rally Cars will be revealed following next week’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council. Costs were a key
McLaren Formula 1 team boss Andreas Seidl says knowing the shape of the 2021 regulations is important for knowing how to adjust the structure of his squad. Most discussion of the timing of the release of the regulations has revolved around whether an early start on R&D for 2021 would favour the established top teams,
Carlin driver Max Chilton has stepped away from driving duties for the remaining oval races on this year’s IndyCar schedule. The former Marussia Formula 1 driver joined IndyCar for 2016 and has started all but one race held since then, after failing to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500. He also scored his best IndyCar
Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo has undergone surgery for arm-pump in Barcelona and is expected to be fit for the Catalan MotoGP Grand Prix next weekend. Quartararo, who finished last week’s Mugello race a distant 10th having started from second, blamed his inability to rise through the order on an overheating front tyre. The SRT
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says a shift in car philosophy away from pure straightline-speed performance has been a key factor in maintaining its status as Formula 1’s lead outfit. Mercedes’ engine held a substantial power advantage in the opening years of the V6 turbo hybrid era, but over recent seasons the manufacturers have gradually converged.
Ferrari’s Formula 1 performance this season is being hindered by the main challenge of Pirelli’s 2019 tyres being the opposite of last year’s rubber. Pirelli opted to reduce the tread thickness of all its compounds by 0.4mm after successfully running thinner-gauge tyres at three races in 2018. The objective of this change is to protect
Andrea Dovizioso says his Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci lacked self-belief earlier in his MotoGP career, and feels Petrucci has made a breakthrough since understanding his strengths. Petrucci was signed by Ducati on an initial one-year deal after a long stint as a MotoGP privateer, and took his maiden win at Mugello last Sunday, beating Marc