Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Charles Leclerc finally finished a Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Monegasque racer was left frustrated by the strategy calls that left him down in fourth having started from pole position.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver dominated the initial stages of the race when conditions were tricky due to the weather, but he found himself overtaken by Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez when he made the switch from the full wet tyre to the intermediates.

It would get worse for Leclerc as a few laps later he was to pit again for slick tyres as the track continued to dry, and he ended up behind his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. and the second Red Bull of title rival Max Verstappen.

With overtaking nearly impossible in Monaco, Leclerc was forced to settle for fourth, a position he was sure he did not deserve as Ferrari made too many wrong calls when it came to strategy.

“I’m disappointed to have lost this win and it’s a tough one to take, especially at home,” said Leclerc. “It will be important to understand exactly what happened to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Fresh off the back of his Monaco Grand Prix victory, Sergio Pérez has signed a two-year extension to his contract with the Oracle Red Bull Racing team until the end of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Pérez became the winningest Mexican driver in Formula 1 history when he took the chequered flag first for the third time in his career in Sunday’s encounter at the Circuit de Monaco, and he has been rewarded for his improved performances throughout 2022 with a new deal.

Red Bull’s line-up has now been confirmed for the next two seasons at least, with Max Verstappen already signed to a long-term contract with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

“For me, this has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the Team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy,” said Pérez.

“I am so proud to be a member of this Team and I feel completely at home here now. We are working very well together and my relationship with Max, on and off the track, is definitely helping drive us forward even more.

The World Rally-Raid Championship cannot catch a break in 2022. Already on a three-month hiatus after the cancellation of Rally Kazakhstan in April, the upcoming Andalucía Rally is the newest victim of ongoing circumstance as a heat wave and drought, both of which carry the danger of causing wildfires, have resulted in its postponement. A new date has not been immediately revealed, though series officials expect it to be in the fall.

Held in Spain since 2020, the Andalucía Rally is billed as a prelude to the Dakar Rally in January. Had the event taken place as scheduled, 5/6 June would have seen private testing followed by qualifying on 7 June and five days of racing beginning in Dos Hermanas. The second stage would take place in the Sierra Sur, with the next three respectively at Comarca de Antequera Valle Del Guadalhorce, Condado de Huelva, and the Bay of Cádiz. The rally’s bivouac would be located at the Gran Hipodromo de Andalucía.

2022 is also supposed to see the début of the Andalucía Classic, a regularity rally whose format has been used at Dakar since 2021. The Classic is one stage shorter than the primary Rally as it has a prologue and just four stages to end on 11 June.

While a formal replacement date has not been finalised, the series hopes to retain the original course layout.

“These extreme weather conditions have considerably increased the risk of fires in the region, leading the local authorities to raise the level of fire alert to its maximum,” reads a W2RC statement. “To preserve this already fragile ecosystem and despite the full support of the local authorities, all the parties involved have decided that continuing with the rally is not possible at this time.

XITE Energy Racing announced Monday that Kris Meeke will enter the world of rallycross, serving as a replacement driver for Jenson Button in the Nitro Rallycross season opener at Lydden Hill on 18/19 June, followed by dates in Sweden (30/31 July) and Saudi Arabia (10/11 December). The news comes due to scheduling conflicts that prevent Button from taking part.

Meeke competed in the World Rally Championship from 2002 to 2019, during which he won five times with ninety-four stage victories. He also won the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2009 and finished third in the Junior WRC in 2005.

His World Rally career came to a close after the 2019 season, though he continued rallying on a sporadic basis. In 2021, he added rally raid to his résumé when he entered the Dakar Rally, competing in the T3 class but struggled with mechanical issues; nevertheless, he described the experience as “simply incredible”. Meeke was placed on standby for Giniel de Villiers at the 2022 Rally after he tested positive for COVID-19, but de Villiers ultimately ran the race. Despite missing out on another Dakar run, the Briton continued his rally raid adventures by competing in the FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and won the T3 category.

In addition to the Button/Meeke entry, XITE Energy Racing fields the #42 for owner Oliver Bennett, both in the new Group E class.

“I’m really excited to join the team,” said Meeke. “When Oli contacted me and was speaking about the car and the amount of power it’s putting out with this full electric machine, it definitely makes you intrigued. Being asked to join the XITE Energy Racing team with Oli is something nice to be part of. I’m really happy to be able to come and hopefully give some helpful input into their programme.”

A pair of Aussies will cross the Pacific Ocean to take on North American deserts later this year. On Monday, Toby Price and Paul Weel announced they will run three major desert events in the continent: the Best In The Desert‘s Vegas to Reno on 10–13 August, SCORE International‘s Baja 400 on 13/14 September, and the legendary Baja 1000 on 15–20 November. The effort, under the Team Australia name, will see them compete in the Trophy Truck class in Weel’s Geiser Brothers truck.

“Very excited to be able to announce I’ll be driving with Paul Weel for Team Australia in Baja 400, Vegas to Reno and Baja 1000 this year,” Price posted on social media. “Weely has put a heap of work into setting up this program so I’m looking forward to getting over there to show everyone what the Aussies can do…”

Price is one of the biggest names in Australian off-road racing, winning the Dakar Rally‘s Bikes category in 2016 and 2019 and the Finke Desert Race seven times. He is the only person to win the latter’s overall in both the Bikes and Cars divisions. For his accomplishments, he received the Order of Australia in 2021.

While Price has predominantly been on dirt his whole life, Weel is a longtime veteran of pavement racing as he competed in the Supercars Championship from 1998 to 2008, though he enjoyed success in the Australian Stadium Off Road Championship before moving to Supercars. Serious injuries in a practice crash leading up to the 2008 Bathurst 1000 ended his driving career and he shifted towards focusing on his family business for the next decade.

In 2020, Weel made his racing return in the Boost Mobile Super Trucks (the Australian counterpart of the Stadium Super Trucks) as well as desert racing in Australia and America like the Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship and Best In The Desert. Weel acquired his trophy truck from Price for his rally raid adventures. He overcame mechanical issues to finish tenth in class in his Mint 400 début, while his maiden Finke start saw him place twelfth.

Reaume Brothers Racing continues to provide opportunities for regional drivers, this time signing Mason Maggio for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Saturday, 4 June. He will drive the #33 with sponsorship from HMY Yachts.

The 17-year-old Maggio mainly competes in late models. In 2021, he won four limited late model races at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, which led to him joining NASCAR Cup Series operation Rick Ware Racing and Ford Performance for the 2022 Carolina Pro Late Model Series. So far, he has three victories in the CPLMS including this past weekend at Motor Mile Speedway.

“I am beyond excited to be making my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début,” said Maggio. “During my time with Leicht Motorsports at Hickory in 2021, along with E33 Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing in 2022, the success that stemmed from 2021 has only progressed into 2022, leading me to an amazing opportunity with Reaume Brothers Racing.

Looking back throughout my career, I never would have imagined I would be making my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début in 2022. It’s still crazy hearing myself say it. I am beyond grateful for Josh Reaume and the entire Reaume Brothers Racing organisation for the opportunity to debut at such a technical and demanding track as is Word Wide Technology Raceway. I am excited to not only make the team proud, but my fans and partners as well.”

Of the fourteen drivers who have made a start for RBR ten races into the 2022 season, all but three made their Truck débuts with the team (exceptions being Reaume, Akinori Ogata, Will Rodgers). Series newcomers in 2022 include Loris Hezemans, Chase Janes, Blake Lothian, Thad Moffitt (in alliance with GMS Racing), Brad Pérez, and Armani Williams. Brayton Laster‘s maiden NASCAR race will come with the team at Knoxville in mid-June.

A new Extreme E team will join the championship for its third season in 2023 as XE Sports Group becomes the series’ first operation based in the Asia-Pacific region. The team is the impact sports arm of EVDirect.com, which serves as a distributor for BYD‘s electric cars in Australia and New Zealand. Leadership comes via a proprietary company directed by Luke Todd with backing from former footballer Tim Cahill.

Cahill is perhaps best known for his eight seasons in the Premier League for Everton and participation in the FIFA World Cup for Australia from 2006 to 2018. Considered one of the greatest players in Australian history, he was the first player to score a World Cup goal for the country and has five career goals in the tournament. He retired from football in 2019, but remained in the public spotlight by investing in various businesses and being a board member for Belgian club K.A.S. Eupen.

The 42-year-old is a racing enthusiast, having attended Formula One and MotoGP races and participating in track days. In 2017, he piloted a Nissan NISMO GT-R around Bathurst’s Mount Panorama Circuit with guidance from Supercars Championship veteran Alex Davison, who even proclaimed Cahill was capable of pursuing his own driving career.

“I’m really excited to be a part of this team,” said Cahill. “The combination of thrilling, competitive racing and leaving a lasting, positive impact makes the sport totally unique. We look to bringing a significant new audience to Extreme E from within the millions of football fans across the world.”

Todd has served as EVDirect’s managing director and CEO since 2021 and was previously an advisor for BYD’s Asia-Pacific operations. His link to BYD also extended to his founding of Nexport, which also distributes the Chinese manufacturer’s cars in Oceania, in 2018. From 2003 to 2014, he was the general manager of Australian airport busser Carbridge and was its CEO during his final five years with the company. In a statement, Todd commented EVDirect’s “investment and participation in Extreme E will enable them to showcase BYD’s high quality, affordable luxury vehicles and raise awareness within Australia and wider Asia Pacific Region of the benefits of electric vehicle technology.”

Denny Hamlin held off Kyle Busch in double overtime to win his first Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the longest NASCAR race ever at a distance of 619.5 miles.

Hamlin and Ross Chastain started on the front row for the second overtime, with Busch following his teammate past the damaged car of Chastain and into a battle for the win. In turn two on the final lap, Busch tried to make the move stick on the high side but got loose, sealing the win for Hamlin.

“It’s so special,” Hamlin said post-race. “It’s the last big one that’s not on my résumé. It meant so much. … I’ve been a Coke family driver for 18 years. Never won the Coke 600 before. This means a lot. Man, we weren’t very good all day. Just got ourselves in the right place at the right time.“

The first attempt at overtime ended with a crash involving the leaders. Austin Dillon got a huge run on leader Kyle Larson headed into turn four while Chastain tried to make a pass on the outside. Dillon and Larson lost control and crashed, collecting Chastain and Joey Logano while Hamlin and Busch snuck through to put themselves in position for the win.

Overtime was brought out when Chase Briscoe lost control of his Stewart Haas Racing Ford trying to pass low with two laps to go in regulation.

After some phenomenal late-race defending, a good strategy and a mistake on the Scuderia Ferrari pit-wall, Sergio Pérez has taken victory for the first time around the streets of Monte Carlo, and for a third win of his career.

Following an end-of-session crash in Qualifying Three on Saturday, Pérez started behind the two Ferrari cars in third place, ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen in fourth. The Mexican stayed composed and now finds himself just six points shy of Charles Leclerc in the drivers championship standings, while Verstappen extends his lead.

The number eleven driver says that is is “very special” to take victory at the Monaco Grand Prix – and says that his victory was inspired by his mother who was feeling unwell last week.

“It was really hard for me to think straight after the race, I was full of adrenaline and so much energy going through the race. Once I heard my national anthem on the podium here it hit me, it is a dream come true for any driver in the world to tick that box in Monaco and I can just be extremely happy,” explains the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver.

“We were quick all weekend, we kept our heads down and knew today with the right strategy we could make things happen. This win was for my mum and all my family, she was very sick last week so I had very good motivation going into this race to get her a victory.”

Sergio Pérez has taken victory around the streets of Monte Carlo for Oracle Red Bull Racing, and Team Principal, Christian Horner, is very happy that the team were able to leapfrog Scuderia Ferrari at a circuit they didn’t have an advantage at.

Championship leader, Max Verstappen, has extended his lead at the top of the standings after finishing third, ahead of title rival Charles Leclerc, who was dominating the earlier portion of the race but finished fourth after a strategy error.

Pérez has now closed the gap between himself and Leclerc in the standings to just six points, meaning Red Bull are on the right path to secure the top two positions of the drivers standings in the run up to the midway point of the season.

“It has been an amazing day for us and an amazing day for Checo, he’s been on it all weekend so it’s a well deserved victory,” Horner says.

“The teamwork and for both of our drivers to pick off a Ferrari was fantastic. Checo is doing a great job this year, in Jeddah he had that amazing pole and the time delta between him and Max has been a lot closer this year.

Enduring a red-flag with four laps to go and a thrilling two-lap shootout, Marcus Ericsson has won the 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500, only the second Swede in history to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

The Swede took the lead with 17 laps to go into turn one past Pato O’Ward, and easily made his way through lap traffic to build a massive gap. Just when it seemed he was going to cruise to victory his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmie Johnson crashed in turn two, bringing out a caution with five laps to go. The race was red-flagged one lap later to give a final shootout to the end, and after a brief caution period Ericsson led O’Ward, Tony Kanaan, Felix Rosenqvist, and Alexander Rossi to green.

Ericsson swerved dramatically to try and break the slipstream to O’Ward, and he succesfully defended from O’Ward coming to the white flag. The young Mexican had one last massive push on Ericsson, daring to make his move on the outside of turn one, but it wasn’t enough to get the move done. As the leaders swerved down the backstretch, the caution flag flew again for Sage Karam, another victim of turn two, ensuring Ericsson a drink of some ice-cold milk (whole was his choice) in victory lane.

“I can’t believe it,” Ericsson said, draped in the winner’s wreath. “I’m so happy.”

Thanks to the Indy 500 being worth double points, this victory catapults Ericsson from eighth place in the championship to the lead.

After by their own admission a poor start to the weekend, Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport have a win to celebrate in Sunday’s Thruxton finale with Adam Morgan sealing Round Nine of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

Morgan who reached 300 race starts earlier in the day sealed his first win of the season in a superb race featuring for the most part three of the likely title protagonists in Morgan, Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton battling it out.

Starting the reverse grid race from second on the grid, he jumped ahead of a slow starting Jason Plato who dropped down behind Sutton into fourth and battled with his former teammate and rival albeit it was the NAPA Racing UK driver who had the last laugh as Plato went off and with grass filling the front of the car, he had to pit which effectively ended his race.

Sutton ramped up pressure on Turkington and this allowed Morgan to get away while the two title rivals for the past few seasons squabbled albeit the Team BMW driver came out on top with the former ending the weekend second in the drivers’ standings after a trio of podiums.

Josh Cook finished behind Dan Rowbottom in fifth after his double win and sits 23 points ahead of the pack with Sutton and Turkington following behind. Finishing the top ten was Tom Ingram as he recovered from his race one woes, his teammate Dan Lloyd, the impressive Power Maxed Racing duo of Michael Crees and Ash Hand and finally Rory Butcher.

Sergio Pérez’ victory at the Monaco Grand Prix has been thrown into turmoil, as Scuderia Ferrari have lodged a protest to the FIA against Red Bull Racing, for both drivers appearing to cross the pit-lane exit line too early.

The Mexican claimed victory at what was a chaotic Monaco race, with Carlos Sainz Jr in second and Max Verstappen in third. A penalty for both Red Bull drivers would change all of this, as Sainz would become the race winner with Charles Leclerc in second, and Pérez dropping to third.

The incident was noted by the race stewards during the race, however, it wasn’t taken any further. Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto was furious after the race, and believes a penalty must be awarded.

“I think it was not close – he was on the line,” Binotto told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

“If you look at the International Sporting Code, it’s the wording. It says crossing, but then we had a clarification in Turkey 2020 to avoid any discussions. And, if you look at the Race Director’s notes, it’s indicated staying to the right.

Sergio Pérez scripted a famous win at the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix with a fine drive in mixed conditions. The Mexican driver who is a master of tyre management got through the graining phase of his medium compound tyres and kept Carlos Sainz at bay to take a well-deserved win.

Sainz stayed out on the wet tyres for a long first stint and this strategy helped him clinch second position. Max Verstappen took the final podium spot ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc lost track position during the frantic pit stops as the drivers went from the intermediate tyres to the slick tyres and had to be content with fourth position. George Russell with another well-crafted race finished in fifth position.

The race start was delayed because of the wet track. As the cars were on the grid, Race Control decided the cars would start the formation laps behind the Safety Car (SC) as more rain was expected.

The rain was spitting down on and off and all the teams scrambled to change to full wet tyres for all the drivers. The cars went around a few laps behind the Safety Car before the red flag was thrown as the rain came down even more heavily.

Bryce Aron took his first GB3 Championship win at long last in the reverse-grid encounter at Donington Park, following his first podium in the same race at Silverstone last time out.

Everyone made it through Redgate cleanly, with polesitter Aron managing to make a slight gap by the time the field got to the Old Hairpin, while Roberto Faria lost his front wing in traffic on the way down to the Esses.

Luke Browning was forced onto the grass on the inside of Shwantz Curve, and ran across the gravel at the Esses on Lap 2 in what was a relatively messy start to the race.

Faria’s front wing gave him a puncture as it exited stage left on Lap 1, which only became apparent on the lap after he replaced it, so he had to box again on Lap 2.

Faria’s Carlin team-mate Javier Sagrera also fell to the back of the order with front wing damage on Lap 3, while Max Esterson clipped Callum Voisin‘s diffuser at the Melbourne Hairpin, the weekend’s first two race winners coming to blows.