Felix Rosenqvist has revealed he was effectively driving one-armed for much of his impressive IndyCar debut for Ganassi in St Petersburg due to a trapped nerve. Rosenqvist finished fourth in the season opener, having outqualified his reigning champion team-mate Scott Dixon to take third on the grid and then led after a restart pass on
Cal Crutchlow says his third place in MotoGP’s season-opening Qatar Grand Prix is a “dream” result after the huge crash in Australia last year that curtailed his 2018 season. LCR Honda rider Crutchlow was forced to skip the final three races of 2018, as well as post-season tests at Valencia and Jerez, after a heavy
The protest lodged by Ducati’s MotoGP rivals following Andrea Dovizioso’s Qatar Grand Prix victory was made largely for “political” reasons, believes team sporting director Paolo Ciabatti. Four manufacturers – Honda, Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia – challenged the legality of the rear winglet seen on the Ducati bikes of Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller in
The boss of Mexico’s World Rally Championship round has promised to take the event “back to basics” for 2020 after this year’s troubled event. The Leon-based rally, now in its 15th year in the championship, had become a standard-bearer in terms of layout and spectator education. But this year it was heavily criticised, starting with
Kyle Busch says his domination of the Phoenix NASCAR weekend has left him kicking himself even more for a penalty at Las Vegas a week earlier. Busch is now on 199 wins across NASCAR’s top three divisions, having won in all three series – Trucks, Xfinity and Cup – at Phoenix. At Vegas, he swept
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says rival Andrea Dovizioso answered his prayers by setting a slow pace out front in the Qatar season opener. Dovizioso beat Marquez in a photo-finish in Qatar for the second year running. The Ducati rider led 18 of the 22 laps and kept the lap times at around 1m56s –
Toyota World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke has issued a public apology to Citroen for allegations that it had influenced a stage stoppage on Rally Mexico. Meeke briefly took the lead of the event on Saturday when Citroen’s Sebastien Ogier slowed with a puncture. But Ogier’s time loss was minimised because the stage was red
Kyle Busch moved to within one victory of Richard Petty’s record of 200 NASCAR wins by claiming his 52nd Cup Series win and 199th overall at Phoenix. The win, which keeps him unbeaten at Cup level at the track since it was reconfigured, came after a dominant display in which he led 176 of the
IndyCar Series racer Ed Jones has been diagnosed with a broken bone in his hand following a heavy crash in the season opening St Petersburg race on Sunday. Jones clipped the inside wall at Turn 9 in his Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet early in the race. That flicked the car across the track, where it
MotoGP stewards have thrown out a protest against Ducati following Sunday evening’s 2019 season-opening Qatar Grand Prix, meaning Andrea Dovizioso keeps his victory. Dovizioso’s narrow win over Honda’s Marc Marquez was thrown into doubt when it emerged that Suzuki, Honda, KTM and Aprilia had lodged a protest against Ducati’s newly-introduced rear tyre winglet. The component
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won the IndyCar season-opener in St Petersburg, beating reigning champion Scott Dixon. Newgarden began the race from the front row but dropped behind rookie sensation Felix Rosenqvist into third at the start. The critical moment came around half-distance, where Newgarden stayed out longer than team-mate and race leader Will Power and
Sebastien Ogier secured Rally Mexico victory with fastest time on the Las Minas powerstage, though second placed Ott Tanak remains the World Rally Championship leader. It was Ogier and Citroen’s second win of the season after a tense finale against Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai on the Monte Carlo Rally, though the reigning WRC champion faced less
The Ducati MotoGP team is facing an investigation following its Qatar Grand Prix victory with Andrea Dovizioso, regarding a rear tyre winglet it used during the race. Ducati introduced a new winglet positioned right in front of the rear tyre for the season opener at Losail. Four of Ducati’s five rival manufacturers – Honda, Suzuki,
Two stages wins on Sunday morning have propelled Toyota’s Ott Tanak to second place on Rally Mexico, with Sebastien Ogier now only one stage away from victory for Citroen. Elfyn Evans had started the morning’s rally-closing loop in second place, only 2.2 seconds up on the chasing Tanak after struggling to keep pace with rally
Trevor Carlin believes his team’s new IndyCar signing Patricio O’Ward is as good as McLaren Formula 1 rookie Lando Norris. Indy Lights champion O’Ward has secured 13 IndyCar races with Carlin, having terminated his contract with Harding Steinbrenner Racing when he discovered it only had the funding to run him for the three races he
Formula 1 is now on course to reduce the impact of dirty air on performance by up to five times with its 2021 regulations, sporting director Ross Brawn has revealed. F1’s switch to higher-downforce cars in 2017 triggered a reduction in overtaking and wheel-to-wheel action, as drivers struggled to run close behind other cars due
Phoenix NASCAR Cup Series polesitter Ryan Blaney admits he needs to “clean some stuff up” to match his Penske team-mates’ early season success. Penske has won the last two Cup rounds with Brad Keselowski at Atlanta and then Joey Logano at Las Vegas. But Blaney was involved in a crash at the Daytona 500, then
IndyCar rookie Felix Rosenqvist says his third-place on the St Petersburg grid felt like “a gift” not a result on merit. Rosenqvist has looked close to his reigning champion Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon’s pace throughout pre-season testing and practice at the season-opener. He went on to beat Dixon to third on the grid
Formula 1 sporting chief Ross Brawn says the championship is determined to keep the British Grand Prix on the calendar despite there being “no certainty” over its future at Silverstone. Britain’s F1 event is one of five, along with Spain, Germany, Italy and Mexico, whose contracts are up for renewal for 2020. F1 and Silverstone
Valentino Rossi says there is very little chance of making progress from his disappointing 14th on grid for the MotoGP season-opening Qatar Grand Prix. The Yamaha rider was fastest in opening practice at Losail on Friday, but has struggled in sessions run in the evening – which is when Sunday’s race will be held. He
Sebastien Ogier increased his Rally Mexico lead further on Saturday afternoon, with second-placed Elfyn Evans coming under intense pressure from a charging Ott Tanak behind. Citroen’s sole remaining driver Ogier pulled further ahead of M-Sport’s Evans through the loop of three gravel stages and three superspecials, pushing his lead advantage up to 27 seconds going
Danilo Petrucci says he was frustrated to have lost what he described as a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with Marc Marquez in Qatar Grand Prix MotoGP qualifying. Honda man Marquez positioned himself to get a tow from the Ducati of Petrucci in both runs during Saturday night’s pole position shootout, and in doing so
Citroen World Rally team principal Pierre Budar has denied allegations his squad manipulated red flag rules to force a stage cancellation to protect Sebastien Ogier’s Rally Mexico victory bid. Rally leader Ogier suffered a puncture on the Saturday morning running of the Guanajuatito stage and dropped one minute. His team-mate Esapekka Lappi went off the
Team Penske’s Will Power took his eighth St Petersburg pole position ahead of the IndyCar season opener, edging team-mate Josef Newgarden in the closing stages. The Penske duo left it late into the six-minute final segment to take the top times away from Chip Ganassi Racing duo Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon. Power’s time of
New Honda MotoGP recruit Jorge Lorenzo says he is “in pain everywhere” after suffering two crashes during Saturday’s Qatar Grand Prix sessions, including one in qualifying. Lorenzo, still not fully recovered from a wrist injury sustained during training in the winter, had a hefty crash in Saturday morning’s third practice session, high-siding off his bike
IndyCar Series team boss Trevor Carlin says his squad’s deal to assist McLaren’s Indianapolis 500 assault with Fernando Alonso “should be a win-win” for all concerned. Carlin confirmed the long-mooted deal in St Petersburg on Saturday morning. McLaren personnel, including Gil de Ferran and Bob Fernley, are following his team this weekend during the IndyCar
Sebastien Ogier survived a chaotic morning to emerge in the lead of Rally Mexico, the Citroen man retaking first place after briefly falling behind Kris Meeke. World Rally champion Ogier’s team-mate Esapekka Lappi triggered a red flag on the morning’s opening Guanajuatito stage when he ran wide and went backwards off the road, his Citroen
With two wins in a row and now a commanding start to the Phoenix weekend, Penske is making a good case for being labelled the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series favourite. Amid the upheaval of the new Ford Mustang making its debut and the plethora of new aero rules – with elements that vary from race-to-race
Crack touring car squad Triple Eight Race Engineering will field a Mercedes in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia in its first major GT programme. Triple Eight will run all six rounds of the championship with a driver line-up consisting of Prince Jefri Ibrahim and LMP2 regular Jazeman Jaafar, while its Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen
MotoGP has announced a new date for its 2019 in-season test at the Finland-based KymiRing track ahead of its planned addition to the calendar the following year. The announcement comes shortly after news had emerged that the series had cancelled a two-day test scheduled for August 29-30 at the track, which is currently under construction.