Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The top two in nearly every class was separated by minutes going into the fifth and final stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and the leg being an open dash to the finish meant those trailing had to give their all. Alas, the margin was too great as those who entered the day as the leader earned the victory in the end.

Nasser Al-Attiyah led Seth Quintero in the FIA overall by 9:21, and only reinforced his win as he won Stage #5 ahead of Martin Prokop, the latter enjoying a string of podium finishes after crashing out of the third day. Even if Quintero had been able to pull it off, he would have lost anyway due to a fifteen-minute time penalty for missing a waypoint. This dropped him from his original finish of third to seventh, while allowing Yazeed Al-Rajhi to leapfrog him in the overall for second.

Rokas Baciuška‘s streak of finishing second in every ADDC Challenger stage ended Saturday when he finished third behind Cristina Gutiérrez and Nicolás Cavigliasso. Although he beat Austin Jones for the final stage podium spot, he only won by 1:59 and needed to make up another four-and-a-half minutes to catch him for the overall. Nonetheless, Can-Am Factory Team still enjoyed a 1–2 overall finish.

An even closer battle took place in SSV, where Mansour Al-Helei went into Saturday leading Yasir Seaidan by a mere 1:22. Seaidan was never able to catch Al-Helei in the 206-km run back to Abu Dhabi as the former won by 1:20 to pad the margin.

Konrad Dąbrowski held off Jean-Loup Lepan for both the stage and overall victories in Rally2, beating him by 2:40. Dąbrowski had even led all bikes in the early portion of the stage before being passed by Ross Branch, who beat his team-mate Aaron Marè by eight minutes but had to make up an improbable gap of 47:55 to win in RallyGP. Despite finishing the stage fourth for bikes and behind Dąbrowski, Marè still held him off to be the top bike outright. Dąbrowski was able to narrow the gap to less than five minutes from 10:14, coming up short by 4:56.

The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) kicked off in superb style with a brilliant victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport. The #6 car looked masterful throughout the race, as indeed it did throughout the weekend. Callum Ilott claimed a magnificent second place in his debut with Hertz Team JOTA, with the #5 Porsche Penske making it an astonishing all-Porsche podium.

If that wasn’t enough, the first ever LMGT3 victory went Porsche’s way as well. Manthay PureRxing claimed victory in their Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3, leading home the two Aston Martins of Heart of Racing Team and D’Station Racing.

Speaking after the race, Kevin Estre of the #6 Porsche said “thanks a lot to the whole team. They made an amazing car for the weekend with great balance and no issues. I’m really pleased and happy where we end up today compared to last year! It feels great to be on the top of the podium and we’ll definitely enjoy it!“

The inaugural Qatar 1812km delivered a superb endurance race, with the action ebbing and flowing throughout, countless battles and changes for position, soaring excitement and genuine heartbreak. It was a fascinating race from start to finish.

Race Report

It was a great start by Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse, swinging round the outside of turn one ahead of the #7 Toyota and the pole position #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport. On the opening laps, Toyota dropped to 8th, continuing a disappointing week for the Japanese team.

The first Qualifying session of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season took place under the floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday evening, and it was Max Verstappen who took pole position for Oracle Red Bull Racing.

Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr. had topped the three free practice sessions across Friday and Saturday, but when it mattered, Red Bull found their form and took yet another pole position.  And remember, Verstappen has won each of the last sixteen times he has started from the very front of the grid.

In part two, let’s see what the remaining ten drivers had to say after the first Qualifying session of the season!

#22 – Yuki Tsunoda – Visa CashApp RB

“It’s a shame we missed out on Q3 by that little, but I’m happy with my performance. We struggled a lot yesterday, especially in FP2, but the team did a fantastic job of turning things around overnight, and the car felt good today.

The first Qualifying session of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season took place under the floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday evening, and it was Max Verstappen who took pole position for Oracle Red Bull Racing.

Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr. had topped the three free practice sessions across Friday and Saturday, but when it mattered, Red Bull found their form and took yet another pole position.  And remember, Verstappen has won each of the last sixteen times he has started from the very front of the grid.

Let’s see what the top ten drivers had to say after the first Qualifying session of the season!

#1 – Max Verstappen – Oracle Red Bull Racing

“It feels good to be back on pole today! Testing was really good and then this weekend was a bit more tricky for us; it was difficult to get the balance of the car right due to the tricky conditions with the wind being quite strong.

The first Qualifying session of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season took place on Friday evening at the Bahrain International Circuit, and it was Max Verstappen who took top spot despite not having led any of the free practice sessions prior to Qualifying hour.

Prior to Qualifying, the final free practice took place in Bahrain, and Carlos Sainz Jr. ensured Scuderia Ferrari made it three different teams to lead the way across the three practice sessions, none of which were last years’ dominant team Oracle Red Bull Racing.

Let’s take a look at what happened across Friday in Bahrain.

Sainz Heads Final Practice, Red Bull Finding Pace

After seeing Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton lead the first two practice sessions in Bahrain on Thursday, Ferrari hit the top in the final session, with Spaniard Sainz heading the field with a best time of 1:30.824.

Fernando Alonso ensured it was a Spanish one-two at the top of the time sheets, with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team driver hitting the top with a time of 1:30.965 before Sainz found a time 0.141 seconds faster.

Zhang Xue, the founder and intrepid leader of Kove Moto, has resigned from his post as CEO, citing differences in how he wants to lead the manufacturer compared to other executives. Nonetheless, he is still a stakeholder in the company and maintains good relations.

“I made this decision last Friday. If I had to give a reason why, I would say that it’s because our values differ,” Zhang explained. He had initially posted his resignation message on WeChat. “I treated Kove as if it were my own child, but I have to love myself first and find value in my own life. I believe I can do it, but it’s because I am no longer the CEO of Kove. There are many things that I can’t make a decision on, so it cannot grow according to my vision. Of course, there is nothing wrong about this.

“Our manager is also a very, very good person, and he’s now the CEO. Let him follow his own managing philosophy, which I think is not wrong, because everyone’s values are different.”

Zhang, a former motocross and enduro rider, founded Kove in 2017 with the goal of eventually fielding bikes in motorsport. In 2023, Kove became the first Chinese bike manufacturer to compete at the Dakar Rally, and enjoyed great success in their début when all three riders Deng Liansong, Fang Mingji, and Sunier reached the finish. Kove expanded their rally raid programme throughout the year, adding foreign factory riders Neels Theric and Xavier Flick who competed in other World Rally-Raid Championship events. Zhang himself also entered the Taklimakan Rally in China alongside five other Koves.

At the 2024 Dakar Rally, Kove expanded into the premier RallyGP category on a partnership with Mason Klein on the new Kove 450 Rally EX. Despite an up-and-down race as he ran as high as third but was plagued by mechanical failures, Klein’s effort won the hearts of many following the race. 2024 was the second step in Zhang’s five-year plan with the hope of placing one Kove in the top twenty, though Fang Xiangling ended up being the highest-finishing Kove in thirty-fifth in Rally2. Zhang’s plan consisted of the following: finish in the first year (2023, achieved), a top twenty in 2024, a top ten in 2025, a podium in 2026, and winning the fifth and final phase in 2027.

Aaron Marè and Abdulaziz Ahli simply need to reach the finish without problems on Saturday to win the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in their respective categories. Everyone else, on the other hand, will have to bring their A-game.

Marè and Ahli respectively top the RallyGP and Quad with comfortable advantages after Stage #4, the former ahead of Ross Branch by nearly forty-eight minutes while the latter leads Hani Al-Noumesi by an insurmountable eight hours. Branch, the first bike out on Friday, took a wrong turn just past KM 103 and ended up on local farmland; Marè, Konrad Dąbrowski, and Jean-Loup Lepan followed him off course before they worked together to rejoin the route. Once back on track, Marè took the lead following the refuel area at KM 117 and rode off to win by seven-and-a-half minutes. In order to erase the 47:55 gap separating them, Branch would both need to finish ahead of Marè and hope he has some sort of trouble, the latter of course not the most sportsman thing to pray for, especially a team-mate.

“Today I took it pretty safe, just trying to manage the race and the bike, so I could maintain the overall lead,” said Marè. “I’m happy with how things turned out today, and things look good for tomorrow. I have to open the route tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to doing that again. Ross did a really great job today opening the stage and navigating the route; watching him in the stages has been a great learning experience for me.”

On the Quad side, Ahli virtually has his fourth consecutive ADDC title secured, having won every stage while Al-Noumesi and Kamil Wiśniewski fell behind with mechanical issues. Wiśniewski, the Prologue winner, was knocked out of the race entirely on Thursday, leaving Al-Noumesi as Ahli’s only competition left.

While those two races are virtually wrapped up, things have only gotten closer in Rally2 and all three FIA categories.

The much anticipated 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is underway with the first pole position of the season going to Porsche Penske Motorsport at the Qatar 1812km.

In a thrilling session that went down to the final seconds, Matt Campbell completed his lap in the Porsche 963 in 1:39.347. After a poor showing in the free practice sessions, Toyota Gazoo Racing will be thrilled with their front row start, Nyck de Vries doing a sterling job in his first Hyperpole qualifying session to finish 0.164 seconds behind polesitter Campbell.

In a sign of the much vaunted competitiveness of the 2024 season, there are six different teams and five different teams occupying the first seven grid slots. The #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche lines up third, an excellent debut performance by Callum Ilott. Ferrari AF Corse line up alongside the gold Porsche, with Antonio Fuoco doing the honours for the Scuderia.

Kevin Estre put the other Porsche Penske Motorsport car in fifth, alongside the still wingless #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies car. The flat, open, fast circuit is proving useful for Peugeot to unlock the potential of their car. The fourth row of the grid is occupied by Cadillac Racing and the Le Mans winning #51 Ferrari 499P, and the top ten is rounded off by the sister Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and Peugeot TotalEnergies cars.

There were a couple of surprises when it came to who missed out on the Hyperpole session, a ten minute shootout for ten fastest cars on the grid. 2023 champions, the #8 Toyota, could only manage 11th fastest. However, their best position in free practice was 12th, so the team won’t be totally shocked. 12th was the best the #83 private Ferrari could manage, followed by the Proton Competition Porsche.

McKenzy Cresswell is gunning for the 2024 GB3 Championship title in his second season with Elite Motorsport.

The BRDC Rising Star who lives in Weybridge, Surrey, celebrated his 18th birthday last month and embarks on his third season in GB3 having finished 11th and fourth in the final standings over the past two years.

He accumulated nine podiums, eight last year including victory at Silverstone in July. Indeed, Cresswell headed for the final GB3 event of the season at Donington Park in title contention despite the season starting poorly at Oulton Park for McKenzy.

Prior to entering GB3 in 2022, Cresswell won more races, claimed more fastest laps, and scored more podiums than any other driver in his “rookie” British F4 season in 2021, finishing third in the final standings, just 26-points behind the title winner.

Although born in the UK, Cresswell moved to Austin, Texas, when he was four-years-old, returning to the UK just before his 12th birthday and is currently a senior at a US High School in Cobham, Surrey. This year he is balancing demands of motor racing with his Advanced Placement exams. He’s also a keen skier and relaxes by fishing in the river Thames.

The 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season got underway on Thursday at the Bahrain International Circuit, and after the belief that Oracle Red Bull Racing would dominate again, the picture on Thursday told a very different story, at least at this time.

Daniel Ricciardo and the Visa CashApp RB Team paced the opening session of the season under the sunshine in Bahrain, but the times tumbled in the second, more representative session where the soft tyre came to the fore, and Lewis Hamilton led the way this time around for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

In part two of the review, the other ten drivers from the second session share their thoughts on day one of the season!

#23 – Alexander Albon – Williams Racing

“We were relatively surprised by our pace in FP1 but by FP2, we found a good pace on the Medium tyre, however lost a little bit on the Softs. The cars around us are quicker than I’d like, especially the Haas, so we need to look at what we can do better.

The 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season got underway on Thursday at the Bahrain International Circuit, and after the belief that Oracle Red Bull Racing would dominate again, the picture on Thursday told a very different story, at least at this time.

Daniel Ricciardo and the Visa CashApp RB Team paced the opening session of the season under the sunshine in Bahrain, but the times tumbled in the second, more representative session where the soft tyre came to the fore, and Lewis Hamilton led the way this time around for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

The top ten drivers from the faster, second session, share their thoughts on day one of the season!

#44 – Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team

“It was very windy in FP1, and the track was very different to during the test. We didn’t know exactly where we would stack up against everyone else, but we had a positive FP2 session. The car was feeling good, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We know there is more to extract, and our long run pace isn’t in the fight with the Red Bulls.

The winter break finally came to an end on Thursday at the Bahrain international Circuit as the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season began with two free practice sessions that created more questions than answers.

Heading into the day, many were expecting the gap between Oracle Red Bull Racing and the rest of the pack to be big, but both Max Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez appeared to struggle for pace and were unable to break into the top five in either session.

The running in the opening session was far from representative of what could be expected across the remainder of the weekend, taking place as it did in the afternoon sunshine whereas the important Qualifying session on Friday and the race on Saturday will both take place at twilight and into darkness.

Ricciardo Tops the Opening Session after Soft Tyre Run

Daniel Ricciardo was the surprise pacesetter for the opening session on Thursday, the Australian utilising Pirelli’s soft tyre to give the newly renamed Visa CashApp RB Team an early season boost.

The majority of the runs across the field were performed on the medium C4 tyre, but the top four places were locked out by drivers using the softest rubber, and Ricciardos’ 1:32.869 just 0.032 seconds ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris.

Juan Cruz Yacopini was vying for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge overall lead on Wednesday when his hopes were dashed by a bizarre crash with Martin Prokop. To twist the knife, the FIA announced Thursday that he has been disqualified because his crew was on site to help.

Under Article 49.2.1 of the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations, crews cannot come within one kilometre of their vehicle while it is still in the Selective Section.

Yacopini entered Wednesday’s Stage #3 third overall, trailing leader Nasser Al-Attiyah by 9:38 and fellow Toyota Hilux driver Lucas Moraes by 8:31. He took the stage lead 100 kilometres into the leg when Al-Attiyah was forced to stop for twenty minutes with a mechanical issue, and probably would have ended the day with the outright lead as well had things gone to plan as Moraes retired after his car caught fire at the finish.

Unfortunately, fate did not have that in store for him as he missed a drop and rolled, losing twenty-five minutes. As he crossed the 200-km mark, he was going a dune but was unable to avoid Prokop, whose Ford Raptor was stuck in the sand with a damaged rear wheel after tangling with Denis Krotov moments prior. Yacopini t-boned Prokop in the driver’s side and narrowly grazed Prokop’s co-driver Viktor Chytka in the leg, leaving both cars ensnared with each other and Prokop stuck inside the cockpit.

The damage left the Hilux unable to proceed further, and Yacopini’s Overdrive Racing team came to the scene to provide help. One of his relatives was also present and provided “minor assistance but did not provide any tool or spare part,” as stated by the team in a hearing with the FIA. Yacopini eventually reached the finish twelfth in the Ultimate class and nearly three hours behind winner Seth Quintero, dropping him to tenth in the general ranking.

Seth Quintero caught fire on Thursday en route to his maiden stage win in the Ultimate category. His Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Lucas Moraes literally caught fire en route to being eliminated from Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge contention.

Moraes and Quintero battled for the lead for much of Stage #3, being separated by just five seconds with forty kilometres remaining. However, Moraes got stuck on a dune with five km to go which Quintero took advantage of to pass him for the win. After getting out of the jam, Moraes continued to the end of the Selective Section when the sand ladders on the back of his Toyota Hilux came loose and were ignited by the vehicle’s exhaust, triggering a massive blaze that neither he nor co-driver Armand Monleón noticed until they overheard spectators shouting at them. Both were able to escape without injury and before the Hilux was fully engulfed by the flames.

“Never got out of a rally car so fast,” Moraes remarked.

If not for the fire, he would have finished the stage in fourth behind Quintero, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and Wednesday’s winner Guerlain Chicherit. Despite the retirement, a new rule for 2024 allows Moraes to retain the six stage points he picked up during the first two days of the race, giving him some consolation in the World Rally-Raid Championship. Ordinarily, the car would need to also be in parc fermé at the end of the rally to receive the points, though the FIA deemed it unnecessary in this case for obvious reasons.

Quintero beat Al-Rajhi, the defending ADDC champion, by one-and-a-half minutes. The two and Chicherit’s finishes marked a podium sweep for the Hilux, with Al-Rajhi and Chicherit representing Overdrive Racing. Besides scoring his maiden Ultimate win, Quintero also moves from fourth into the overall lead, holding a 1:10 advantage on Nasser Al-Attiyah who finished Thursday in fourth after being stuck for twenty minutes with a mechanical issue.

After a strong start to the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge when he won the opening stage in the SSV class, João Ferreira was forced to retire from the race on Wednesday. To add insult to injury, the FIA has disqualified him as well for two rule violations while getting help from his team.

While running fifth in class, Ferreira’s Can-Am Maverick got stuck on a dune with a mechanical issue eighty kilometres into Stage #2. Unable to repair the vehicle, his co-driver Filipe Palmeiro called their Can-Am Factory Team to come to the scene and help them. However, Palmeiro used their satellite phone while still inside the car, which broke Article 9.1.3 of the FIA’s Cross-Country Sporting Regulations that states “telephones may only be used from outside the vehicle (while in a Selective Section) and must be switched off at other times.”

The crew eventually arrived to diagnose the problem, which they succeeded using parts that Ferreira and Palmeiro already had in storage on their car. Their presence alone was a violation of Article 49.2.1 stipulating teams cannot be within one kilometre of their race vehicle while it is still in the Selective Section.

Had the technical snag been resolved enough for Ferreira to rejoin the race on Thursday, he would have simply received a time penalty. Since this was not the case and he exited the rally altogether, the FIA deemed disqualification was suitable.

“Unfortunately, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge has come to an end for us,” wrote Ferreira. “Yesterday I said that this was a tricky race… today we fall from a dune and lost a lot of time repairing the car.”