Ott Tanak continues to lead his World Rally Championship rivals on Rally Chile, though his Toyota team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala retired from third and moved Sebastien Loeb into the podium places. Second-placed Sebastien Ogier gained 4.3s on Tanak over the afternoon loop by taking a different tyre strategy from the rest of the field. Ogier used
George Russell says the fact he qualified closer to the rest of the Formula 1 field than Williams has managed all season at the Spanish Grand Prix bodes well. In every other 2019 qualifying session so far, Williams has been at least one second behind the next slowest car. At Barcelona, Russell was just over
Photo credit: @World World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville has explained the accident that wrecked his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC and ruled him out of Rally Chile. Neuville injured his left leg in the Saturday morning crash and arrived back in the service park on crutches, having been told to keep pressure off his left
Charles Leclerc said he was surprised by how much his Ferrari Formula 1 car was damaged when he ran wide in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying. A trip over the kerbs at the fast Campsa right-hander in Q2 sent debris flying from Leclerc’s car, and Ferrari made multiple attempts to get it fully fixed as qualifying
Hyundai initially feared World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville might have broken a leg in his high speed Rally Chile crash. The Belgian’s i20 Coupe WRC went off the road halfway through the Maria Las Cruces stage on Saturday morning, rolling six times. Neuville and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul emerged from the car unaided, but team
Toyota’s Ott Tanak edged further ahead of reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier on Rally Chile’s Saturday morning stages, while Thierry Neuville escaped unhurt from his massive crash. Though Tanak only won one stage from three on Saturday morning, the loop-ending Pelun test, he gained more than 10 seconds over Ogier in all, extending his
Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel hopes Ferrari’s “daring” race set-up for the Spanish Grand Prix will revive the team’s fortunes and admits he was surprised at Mercedes’ dominance in qualifying. The four-time champion qualified only third as title rivals Mercedes earned another front row lock out at Barcelona, and trailed polesitter Valtteri Bottas by 0.866
World Rally Championship points leader Thierry Neuville has suffered a dramatic accident on stage eight of Rally Chile, forcing the Hyundai driver to retire. Neuville won the opening stage on Saturday morning, Rio Lia, and had climbed from fourth to third at the expense of Jari-Matti Latvala. He was only 1.4 seconds behind reigning six-time
Toyota’s Ott Tanak has taken command of the World Rally Championship’s inaugural Rally Chile, extending his lead over Citroen rival Sebastien Ogier by dominating Friday afternoon’s two long stages. Tanak ended the opening day 22.4 seconds clear of second-placed Ogier, as well as 29.5 clear of points leader Thierry Neuville of Hyundai, extending his advantage
Felix Rosenqvist grabbed his first IndyCar pole by edging five-time champion Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon in a very cold Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course qualifying. Rosenqvist’s decisive lap was 0.0194 seconds faster than Dixon’s, earning the rookie pole with a 1m08.278s. The surprise of the 53 degrees fahrenheit session was part-time competitor Jack Harvey, who
World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville was given the green light to start a stage too early, forcing Rally Chile organisers to red flag the Belgian’s SS2 attempt on Friday. FIA rally director Yves Matton declined to comment on the situation, telling Autosport he wanted to wait for WRC safety delegate Michele Mouton’s comments first.
Sergio Perez says “everything looks bad” after struggling to optimise Racing Point’s Formula 1 update package in Spanish Grand Prix practice, which he finished faster only than the Williams drivers. Perez’s struggles – the Mexican finished 17th in FP1 – compounded a challenging day for Racing Point, as Lance Stroll’s crash in first practice meant
More new Formula 1 technical developments emerged in the Barcelona pitlane at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, with big updates from Red Bull and McLaren catching the eye. Red Bull decided to run its new and previous packages back-to-back, with Max Verstappen trialling a number of new parts including a more complex bargeboard as
Colton Herta went fastest for Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda in second free practice for the IndyCar Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Herta was 0.378 seconds clear of the field on the primary tyres and was also comfortably quickest on Firestone’s alternate compound. Ultimately, he was 0.2078sec faster than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix
Toyota’s Ott Tanak leads the way after the opening three stages of the World Rally Championship’s inaugural Rally Chile, while third-placed Thierry Neuville was affected by a red flag. The trio are separated by just 6.6 seconds overall after the first morning of the new rally, and moved well clear of the rest on the
Valtteri Bottas topped the second Formula 1 free practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, outpacing Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.049 seconds. Bottas, who also set the pace in the morning session, was fastest in the early stages when using medium-compound Pirellis, seven-tenths faster than Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel. Vettel and team-mate Charles Leclerc
An unusual incident during Thursday’s shakedown test for the World Rally Championship’s inaugural Rally Chile left a policeman in hospital overnight after crashing his motorbike on the stage. The organisers of the Concepcion-based event have explained the incident to Autosport, stating the police officer responded to what he thought was an accident for a competitor
Andrea Dovizioso has warned that finishing fourth in tracks like Jerez, which don’t suit Ducati’s bike, will not be enough to topple Marc Marquez in the 2019 MotoGP title fight. Dovizioso’s fourth-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix extended his streak of no MotoGP podiums at Jerez to 12 consecutive years. Honda rider Marquez has
Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey says it could take another year to address all the bugs in the F1 TV ‘over the top’ streaming service. He called problems that stuck F1 TV during the recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend “unexpected”. OTT is regarded by Liberty Media as a significant future source of revenue, as it
Sebastian Vettel says it is a “shock” the Brazilian Grand Prix could move to Rio de Janeiro in 2020, while Nico Hulkenberg would “drop a tear” over losing Interlagos. Controversial Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed the race will move from the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, which has hosted the grand prix since 1990,
Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Andreas Mikkelsen continued his promising form from Argentina into Thursday’s shakedown for Rally Chile, posting the fastest time in his i20 Coupe WRC. The Norwegian was a second per mile faster than anybody through the four-mile stage south of the new rally’s host city of Concepcion. Benched for the Tour
Renault will introduce an upgraded Formula 1 engine for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in a bid to boost both performance and reliability. Although the new internal combustion engine is not being tagged as an official ‘spec 2’, it is understood the changes have been deemed promising enough to elect to race it now. In
The route for the inaugural Rally Chile has drawn universal praise from the drivers in the World Rally Championship. The crews completed their pre-event recce on Wednesday and said that the organisers had done a good job in finding the right roads. Championship leader Thierry Neuville said: “We have discovered some interesting stages which are
IndyCar rookie Patricio O’Ward has been added to Red Bull’s junior driver scheme. Indy Lights champion O’Ward joined Carlin for the 2019 IndyCar campaign shortly after parting ways with previous squad Harding-Steinbrenner Racing on the eve of the season, when it became clear the team could not offer him a full-year drive. The 20-year-old Mexican
The factory Ducati MotoGP will not run its controversial ‘Mission Winnow’ branding in next weekend’s French Grand Prix at Le Mans. The Italian manufacturer follows in the footsteps of the Ferrari Formula 1 team – with which it shares the same title sponsor, Philip Morris International – scrapping the branding for the season-opening Australian Grand
Valentino Rossi says Fabio Quartararo’s star showing during MotoGP’s Jerez weekend was down to the rookie, stating Quartararo “made the difference” compared to his fellow Yamaha riders. Frenchman Quartararo led a one-two for new Yamaha satellite team Petronas SRT in qualifying, and was running second in the race when he retired with a gearshift load
NASCAR has decided to alter the Cup Series aero package for three upcoming tracks after reviewing the performance of its new rules in 2019 so far. Originally, the year’s Pocono Raceway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway events were slated for the use of the baseline new aero package plus a smaller tapered
The Brazilian Grand Prix will move next year to a new purpose-built circuit in Rio de Janeiro that could be named after Ayrton Senna, the country’s president has revealed. Amid uncertainty over the long-term future of the current Formula 1 event at Interlagos in Sao Paulo, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has said that a switch
After a clean sweep of Mercedes 1-2s in the opening four rounds of the Formula 1 season, Ferrari has brought forward its engine upgrade to the Spanish Grand Prix. Originally planned for the Canadian GP in two races’ time, as Edd Straw and Jake Boxall-Legge discuss in our latest video, introducing the package early is
Martin Truex Jr says attending to “little details” has been the key to turning around his first NASCAR Cup Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing. The 2017 champion joined JGR this winter when former team Furniture Row closed down. Though Truex achieved early second places at Atlanta and Phoenix, he led just 14 laps across