The number of past champions and veterans losing NASCAR Cup drives is a symptom of declining sponsor interest and drivers having been overpaid, reckons Dale Earnhardt Jr. Monday’s news that Hendrick Motorsports was dropping Kasey Kahne for 2018 with a year left on his contract followed Stewart-Haas Racing’s decision not to take up 2004 champion
Valentino Rossi topped the post-Czech Grand Prix MotoGP test at Brno on Monday, narrowly outpacing Marc Marquez at the very end. Yamaha rider Rossi set his 1m55.162s benchmark with a minute left on the clock, edging Marquez, who had held first place for the final three of the test’s eight hours, by 0.018 seconds. Rossi’s
Felipe Massa is keen to continue racing in Formula 1 next season despite having to be persuaded to come out of retirement to race for Williams in 2017. The 36-year-old, who made his debut in 2002 and has started 260 grands prix, believes he is still improving as a driver and will continue in F1
Hendrick Motorsports has dropped Kasey Kahne from its NASCAR Cup Series line-up for 2018 with a year remaining on his contract. Kahne has raced for Hendrick since 2012, in a deal signed two years before that, but went two seasons without a Cup race win prior to his victory at Indianapolis a fortnight ago. Team
Rally Turkey looks to be closing on a return to the World Rally Championship, with Croatia also tipped for a 2018 calendar spot. Though New Zealand had initially been thought the most likely addition to the 2018 WRC schedule, Autosport understands its hopes have diminished. Sources within WRC Promoter and the FIA have confirmed to
Aleix Espargaro wants a change to MotoGP’s ‘flag-to-flag’ rules following a “scary” crash with Andrea Iannone in the pits during Sunday’s Czech Grand Prix. Aprilia rider Espargaro was hit with a three-place penalty during the wet-dry Brno race for an unsafe release from his bike swap, which caused Suzuki’s Iannone to take evasive action and
Martin Truex Jr took his fourth NASCAR Cup win of the year at Watkins Glen after successfully conserving his fuel to the end of the race. Points leader Truex led much of the road course event after poleman and early leader Kyle Busch experienced delays. The timing of the final caution, after 53 of the
Kurt Busch says Stewart-Haas Racing’s decision not to take up its option on his contract for the 2018 NASCAR Cup season came as a surprise to Ford. The 2004 champion and this year’s Daytona 500 winner is free to explore opportunities after his current team let its option on his services lapse, although he could
The Red Bull and McLaren Formula 1 teams have gone very aggressive with their tyre choices for the Belgian Grand Prix, heavily favouring the ultra-soft tyre. Despite the cornering demands of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Pirelli has elected to take its three softest compounds to this month’s race as it feels this will prompt the most
Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia believe the 2018 IndyCar will be much more challenging to drive and entertaining to watch, after completing its first road course test. The two veterans are carrying out initial tests with the new aerokit on IndyCar’s behalf before it is distributed to teams, and gave the road course version
Sebastien Loeb could return to World Rally Championship competition in a Citroen C3 WRC, but not until the 2018 season at the earliest. Citroen has invited nine-time WRC champion Loeb to test its 2017 car in the coming days. It will be the first time they have worked together since Citroen dropped Loeb from its
The road-course version of IndyCar’s universal 2018 aerokit has hit the track for the first time in testing at Mid-Ohio. Following the debut of the single-specification superspeedway kit in testing last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, series veterans Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia were again on hand on Tuesday to give the road-course variant
Audi took a fourth victory in the Spa 24 Hours with Sainteloc drivers Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Jules Gounon. Sainteloc Racing, running as a factory-backed team for the first time, scored an 11-second victory over the M-Sport Bentley of Maxime Soulet, Andy Soucek and Vincent Abril at the end of the double-points Endurance Cup
Mercedes led the Spa 24 Hours at three-quarter distance with the Auto Sport Promotion entry shared by Raffaele Marciello, Edoardo Mortara and Michael Meadows. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Marciello at the wheel held an advantage of just under 20 seconds over the chasing WRT Audi R8 LMS of Rene Rast as the blue-riband Endurance Cup
The Ferrari shared by Giancarlo Fisichella, James Calado and Marco Cioci led the Spa 24 Hours at one-quarter distance. The AF Corse-run Kaspersky Ferrari 488 GT3 moved back to the front of the blue-riband Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series as the six-hour mark approached. Cioci held a 10-second advantage over Christian Engelhart
An endurance race planned for New Zealand in 2018 is set to link up with the Bathurst 12 Hour in a new mini-series. The new 12-hour race at Hampton Downs would join the fixtures of the same duration at Bathurst and Sepang in a series for GT3 and GT4 machinery over the European winter of
Ferrari factory driver James Calado secured pole position for the Spa 24 Hours Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series. The Briton jumped to the top spot in the times on his second lap in the ‘superpole’ qualifying session aboard the AF Corse-run Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3. His time of 2m17.390s gave him
The Honda NSX GT3 already racing in North America as an Acura will go on sale to customers ahead of the 2018 season. The Japanese manufacturer reaffirmed its commitment to offer cars for sale on the announcement of its GT3 customer programme at Spa today ahead of this weekend’s blue-riband round of the Blancpain GT
Mercedes has taken the wraps off a new GT4 car that will enter competition in 2018. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 has been unveiled ahead of this weekend’s Spa 24 Hours Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series and will go on sale at a list price of €198,850 (£176,975), excluding taxes. Mercedes has joined a
Porsche LMP1 driver Andre Lotterer will return to the wheel of an Audi in this weekend’s Spa 24 Hours. The 35-year-old, who claimed his three Le Mans 24 Hours victories with Audi, has accepted a last-minute invitation to race for the Belgian WRT squad in the blue-riband Endurance Cup round of the Blancpain GT Series.
Dean Stoneman has stepped down from his Blancpain GT Series drive with the Strakka McLaren squad ahead of next weekend’s Spa 24 Hours. The 26-year-old Briton had made the switch to GT racing at the start of this season, having contested GP3, Formula Renault 3.5 and Indy Lights since recovering from testicular cancer. Stoneman raced
Josef Newgarden believes his Toronto IndyCar victory revived a championship bid he thought had been “killed” by poor Indianapolis results. Newgarden won in only his third start with Penske in Long Beach, but fell from third to sixth in the standings with poor results from the Indy road course race and 500 in May. Winning
Alvaro Bautista will remain with the Aspar Ducati squad for the 2018 MotoGP season. The 32-year-old Spaniard, a former factory rider at Suzuki and Aprilia, joined satellite Ducati outfit Aspar at the start of 2017, riding a year-old GP16 bike. Bautista currently sits 11th in the standings, having taken four top-10 finishes and a best
NASCAR confiscated a rear suspension component from Joey Logano’s Penske Ford during Sunday’s Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Early in the final stage, Logano began falling back through the field and smoke billowed out of his left-rear wheel well. He headed to the garage for repairs to what was explained as a suspension
Private Ford Fiesta WRC driver Mads Ostberg will start Rally Finland with a new co-driver after he and Ola Floene parted ways for “sporting reasons”. Floene moved from co-driving Andreas Mikkelsen to work with Ostberg at the start of the 2016 World Rally Championship season, in a three-way co-driver reshuffle in which Mikkelsen, Ostberg and
Josef Newgarden headed a Penske 1-2-3 in the IndyCar practice session at Iowa, beating Will Power and Simon Pagenaud to the fastest time. Newgarden clocked in a 17.3397s lap (185.609mph) with seven minutes of the session to go, as the field started to run in qualifying trim in the latter stages. Power wound up just
Renault replaced the MGU-H in both Red Bulls and Nico Hulkenberg’s works car on Saturday following a problem for Daniel Ricciardo in practice for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix. Ricciardo lost most of Friday‘s second session to a technical problem that Renault Sport boss Cyril Abiteboul said was the result of an MGU-H change implemented
Max Verstappen’s late off during qualifying for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix was caused by him being too aggressive while trying to make up time lost to a yellow flag. The Red Bull driver had three runs in the 12-minute Q3 session thanks to having three sets of fresh ultra-soft Pirelli tyres available, but spun
McLaren boss Zak Brown says new Formula 1 owner Liberty Media should buy Silverstone to help secure the long-term future of the British Grand Prix. Silverstone owner the British Racing Drivers’ Club is expected to announce next week that it will activate a break clause to terminate its British GP deal beyond 2019. While that
Austrian Grand Prix pole position starter Valtteri Bottas says he will not back up Sebastian Vettel during the race in an attempt to help Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was third fastest in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, but will start eighth thanks to a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. This