Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

It’s been nineteen years in the making, but the Safari Rally Kenya (24-27 June) is finally here. The year’s most eagerly awaited event on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar didn’t disappoint. The rally that was famously known for its gruelling nature has lost none of what once made it great. After Thursday and Friday’s running, it is Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville who leads the way. His fortune comes in the wake of several championship protagonists succumbing to the Safari stages.

On Thursday afternoon, Safari Rally Kenya officially marked its return to the WRC circus with a Super Special Stage on the outskirts of Nairobi. The stage featured a purpose-built 4.84km track full of sweeping curves and exciting jumps in front of excitable crowds. Those crowds had the pleasure of seeing WRC stars take to the stage in a head to head style format.

The stage led to a frighteningly close result in the standings, with the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad heading the field with a 1-2-3. Championship leader Sébastien Ogier led his young Finnish teammate Kalle Rovanperä by just 0.3 seconds! Following behind the Toyota trio was Ott Tänak in fourth, Thierry Neuville in fifth and Takamoto Katsuta in sixth. 

Drama, drama, and yet more drama is what awaited the WRC’s top guns throughout Friday’s action. Several big names suffered issues, from the alarming to fatal during Friday’s running, with harsh luck seeming to befall upon everyone’s shoulders. Championship leader Ogier suffered an oil loss in a rear damper on the longest stage of the weekend (Stage 3). This setback contributed to his near 2-minute deficit to the Rally leader come to the end of the day. Welshman Elfyn Evans suffered an even worse fate, retiring for the day just 300 metres from the end of SS3, a rock hitting his front right wheel being his downfall.

Dani Sordo came a cropper in the same stage, a stone smashed a suspension arm on his Hyundai i20, sending him sideways and buried in a ditch. His Belgian teammate Neuville suffered no such issues on Friday morning, taking the first two Stage victories and an early rally lead.

Lewis Hamilton would’ve ended the opening day of the Styrian Grand Prix as the man on top, had it not been for track limits resulting in his lap time being deleted! Nevertheless the world champion ended the opening day in fourth place.

It was a good opening day for Lewis Hamilton’s side of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team garage, the British driver looked strong throughout the opening sessions of the weekend as he sets his sights on closing the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen.

Hamilton would’ve ended the day in first had he not exceeded track limits, instead he ends Friday almost +0.4s behind Verstappen. Hamilton is overall very happy with the progress made already at the Red Bull Ring, a circuit which he took one of the best pole’s of his career at last year in the pouring rain.

With rain increasingly expected across Saturday and Sunday, could Hamilton become the rain-master once again?

“Overall, a work in progress – it’s been a beautiful day, a few drops of rain at the start of the second session but the track is awesome. We’re a little bit down, particularly over a single lap, but generally the car felt relatively solid.

Esteban Ocon says the important day is Saturday despite an impressive Friday at the Red Bull Ring saw the Frenchman end an encouraging third fastest in the afternoon practice session.

The Alpine F1 Team driver started the day with the seventh fastest time in the morning session as the Styrian Grand Prix weekend got underway, but it got even better for Ocon in the afternoon as he finished behind only Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Ocon felt it was a productive day in Austria on Friday and it was nice to be as high up the field as he was, but he knows Saturday’s Qualifying will be the much more important session.

“It’s been a busy Friday for us with lots of things completed,” said Ocon. “Having both cars well into the top ten is positive but it is only Friday and we need to stay focused and keep working on the areas that we can improve.

“Nevertheless, it’s been a productive day and we look forward to tomorrow. It’s nice to be third on the timesheets and hear ‘you’re P1’ on the radio for a short moment, but it’s only FP2 and tomorrow is when it counts.”

Red Bull Racing have started their first of two home races at the Red Bull Ring in supreme fashion, with championship leader Max Verstappen leading both Free Practice One and Free Practice Two.

The opening day of the Styrian Grand Prix has been as close to perfect as it could possibly get for the championship leader, the closest competitor to Verstappen is impressively Mclaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo, but even he is just over +0.3s off!

Verstappen has certainly carried the momentum from last weekends French Grand Prix into this weekend, the Dutchman is of course eager to please the Red Bull bosses who will almost certainly be keeping a very close eye on proceedings.

The only difficulty for Verstappen across the opening day was getting stuck behind Williams Racing driver Nicholas Latifi in both of Friday’ sessions, the Canadian failed to observe the blue flag. Verstappen has possibly got more time to find therefore come Saturday, where the chances of rain are increasing by the second.

“Overall it’s been quite a good day for us and although there are a few things to look into, which is very normal for a Friday, I am quite happy with where the car is at the moment.

Andrea Stella says Friday at the Red Bull Ring was productive for the McLaren F1 Team, with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris ending inside the top ten in the afternoon session.

Neither Ricciardo nor Norris finished inside the top ten in the morning, with the Australian ending twelfth and the Briton sixteenth, although both were within one-second of the fastest time of the session set by Max Verstappen.

Changes to both cars in-between sessions saw a dramatic improvement, with Ricciardo setting the second-best time of the day with a 1:05.748, with Verstappen the only driver ahead of him.  Norris also improved to eight, just over two-tenths of a second behind his team-mate.

Stella, the Executive Director of Racing at McLaren, says the work the team was able to get a lot of work done despite the threat of rain in the area, and it appears the MCL35M appears to be competitive this weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

He hopes the team can find even more speed overnight ahead of final practice, with Qualifying on Saturday afternoon likely to be extremely close from front to back.

Daniel Ricciardo admitted it was a ‘strange’ day at the Red Bull Ring on Friday as the expected rain did not arrive in either practice session.

Despite this, the McLaren F1 Team driver had a superb afternoon to finish an encouraging second fastest behind only Max Verstappen, with Ricciardo pleased with the changes the team made in between sessions after ending only twelfth in the morning.

Ricciardo still feels there is time to find overnight, but the Australian was happy with his day as he looks to kickstart his season.

“So, a good day. I’d say strange,” said Ricciardo.  “Strange because we were expecting a lot of rain, especially this afternoon and it didn’t quite arrive. We weren’t expecting two dry sessions. Whether that’s going to stay for the weekend, we’ll see.

“I think it was a productive Friday for sure. In the morning we were a little off the pace. We made a few adjustments for the afternoon and I think that was better. Obviously, the time sheets certainly show it was better.

The Turkish Grand Prix will join the Formula 1 calendar in 2021 after all after it was announced that the Intercity Istanbul Park track will replace the already-cancelled Singapore Grand Prix.

Turkey was initially set to replace the Canadian Grand Prix but a rise in coronavirus cases in the country saw the race cancelled.  However, the Singapore Grand Prix was also cancelled, with the FIA continue to look at replacements in order to keep twenty-three races on the schedule.

However, Turkey has now come back in and will host a race on the weekend of 1-3 October, a week after the Russian Grand Prix and a week before the Japanese Grand Prix in a busy spell for Formula 1.

“We are delighted to be coming back to Turkey to Intercity Istanbul Park circuit,” said Stefano Domenicali, the President and CEO of Formula 1.  “We hope to see another fantastic race again in one of the best tracks in the world.

“We want to thank the Intercity Istanbul Park management and Mr. Vural Ak for his personal efforts to make this event to happen. We have shown that we can continue to adapt and there is huge interest in our sport and the hope from many locations to have a Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas will drop three places on the grid for this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix after stewards deemed his spin in the pit lane during practice on Friday afternoon was dangerous driving.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver lost control of his W12 as he pulled away from his pit box, with the Finn spinning and coming to a halt just outside the pit box of the McLaren F1 Team.

Luckily, no one from McLaren were in a position to get hurt, and they even assisted Bottas to get back facing the right way, although the team did radio in a message to the stewards about the incident claiming it was ‘ridiculous’.

Stewards immediately put the incident under investigation, and after the session, it was announced that Bottas would serve a three-place grid penalty and take two penalty points on his Superlicence.

It was revealed that Mercedes were attempting something different in Austria to try and make time up exiting the pit box, and as a result it was classed as ‘potentially dangerous driving’.

The BRDC British Formula 3 Championship is at Silverstone for the second round of the season, with testing taking place on Thursday and Friday at all rounds except Spa-Francorchamps.

Reece Ushijima (Hitech GP) and Frederick Lubin (Arden Motorsport) were fastest in the Thursday morning sessions, while Roberto Faria (Fortec Motorsport) topped the times in the afternoon.

Track action continued on Friday afternoon, with Lubin fastest ahead of team-mate Alex Connor in the fifth session of the test.

A dry track greeted the drivers for the first of two 35-minute sessions, with times quickly around those seen in the final session on Thursday, in which Faria set a 1:55.440 around the GP circuit.

Javier Sagrera set a 1:55.885 in the early stages, ahead of Bart Horsten and Zak O’Sullivan.

Max Verstappen kept Red Bull Racing at the top of the time sheets in the second practice for the Styrian Grand Prix on Friday, but the chasing pack this time was led by McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo!

After topping first practice earlier in the day, Verstappen was again the man to beat at the Red Bull Ring, with the current championship leader set a benchmark time of 1:05.412.

Lewis Hamilton had appeared to have beaten the time, but his 1:05.335 was struck from the record books as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver was adjudged to have exceeded track limits.  His best legal time of 1:05.796 was good enough only for fourth.

Ricciardo’s best time of 1:05.748 therefore was good enough for him to end the day an encouraging second fastest to his former team-mate Verstappen, while Esteban Ocon was an impressive third for the Alpine F1 Team, with his team-mate Fernando Alonso fifth.

Sebastian Vettel continued his good recent form with the sixth best time for the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, just ahead of the second McLaren of Lando Norris and the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.  The top ten was rounded out by Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez and Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

Max Verstappen led Pierre Gasly in the opening free practice session for the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on Friday as the top sixteen were separated by under one second.

Verstappen, the winner of last weekend’s French Grand Prix, was the only driver to dip below the sixty-six second barrier on Friday morning, with the Red Bull Racing ace setting a time of 1:05.910.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda, the sister team of Red Bull, had a great session with Gasly placing second, 0.256 seconds behind Verstappen, and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda up in fifth.

Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton ended up third for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, 0.422 seconds off the pace, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas ended fourth.  However, the Finn will likely be kicking himself as he was on course for a session-topping time only to run wide at the final corner.

The rest of the field were tightly packed, with even small mistakes severely punishable by the short nature of the Red Bull Ring.  Fernando Alonso was sixth for the Alpine F1 Team, just ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon, while Lance Stroll was an encouraging eighth for the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team.

Ryan Norman‘s ascent through the Road to Indy ladder seemed to hit a snag after 2019, but he will finally get his shot in the NTT IndyCar Series. On Thursday, Dale Coyne Racing announced Norman will make his IndyCar début in the #52 Honda at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on 4 July.

The 2016 Atlantic Championship winner, Norman spent three years in Indy Lights with Andretti Autosport. After finishing eleventh in the standings as a rookie, he improved to a pair of fourth-place points finishes with wins at Gateway (2018) and Road America (2019). 2019 also saw him nearly win the series’ famed Freedom 100 at Indianapolis, where he was edged out by Oliver Askew by .0067 seconds.

Norman switched to sports cars in 2020 when he joined the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. Driving a Hyundai Veloster N TCR for Bryan Herta Autosport, he and 2014 Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves won three races and the TCR class title. In addition to driving for BHA in the MPC for 2021 alongside Parker Chase, he débuted in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where he and his Forty7 Motorsports team finished second in the LMP3 class.

“My goal throughout my whole racing career has been to become an NTT IndyCar Series driver,” Norman stated. “So many years of hard work and sacrifices have finally paid off and I want to thank Dale Coyne for giving me a shot to show what I can do in the series.

“It’s an honour to be able to drive for DCR. They have shown over the years that they have created a great competitive programme and I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together. I’m more prepared than ever before to show that I belong in IndyCar and can fight for podiums and wins.”

Frédéric Vasseur is confident that the team can ‘bounce back’ on a special weekend for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN despite a disappointing result at the French Grand Prix that saw neither driver finish in the top ten.

Alfa Romeo are celebrating their 111th birthday this weekend, and on Thursday, it was unveiled that the team will be sporting a tribute on the livery of the C41 cars of Antonino Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

Vasseur, team principal of Alfa Romeo, hopes the team can return to scoring points, especially on such a special weekend, and believes that the pack will be close together due to how short the circuit is.

“We head to Austria with the confidence we have what it takes to get back on track after France: we had been on an upwards path and we’re aiming to bounce back immediately and get back to scoring ways, and to do so on a special weekend for Alfa Romeo would be even more important.

“On such a short track, the field will be even closer: every detail will matter and we will need to ensure we deliver our best in every aspect as this is what it will take to come away with a good result.”

Kimi Räikkönen says his attention has quickly turned to the Red Bull Ring ahead of the double-header after a disappointing weekend at French Grand Prix that saw the vastly experienced driver finish outside the points.

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s driver started seventeenth on the grid at Paul Ricard circuit, and it didn’t look any brighter once 4pm arrived on Sunday, as Räikkönen failed to make any ground and finished how he started.

However, the 41-year-old has a double-header in Austria to quickly banish that race from memory, saying that all his attention is on Styrian Grand Prix, hoping to deliver points on a momentous weekend for Alfa Romeo as they celebrate its 111th birthday.

“Our focus is fully on Austria and not on what happened in France,” Räikkönen said. “We have learnt our lessons and we are now determined to do better. Austria is one of those tracks that look easy but are not: it’s short and there are only a few corners where time can be gained or lost, which means each of them is crucial for the laptime.

“Managing the traffic, both in qualifying and in the race, will also be a key factor but, in the end, that will be the same for everyone.

After more points at the French Grand Prix, Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda now go into a double-header at their home grand prix, of course at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

AlphaTauri number one Pierre Gasly goes from racing in front of his home crowd to now racing this weekend in front of the Red Bull bosses, the Frenchman will be looking to put on a good show for the teams home crowd in a bid to get his Red Bull Racing seat back.

It has been a strong season so far for Gasly who has now finished in the points for six races in a row, a run extended at his home grand prix with a solid seventh place finish.

Gasly will be looking to extend his run this weekend.

“In Austria, I finished seventh and fifteenth at the Red Bull Ring in the two races there last year. The track is very short with quite a few straights and not many corners, so you need to optimise your car for those handful of corners. After my home race in France, now one week later it’s a home circuit for all of us as a Red Bull team. A lot will be expected of us there from Red Bull, from AlphaTauri and all the team’s partners.