Bagnaia dominates sprint as Quartararo crashes
Taking the inaugural sprint victory in Portugal last month, Bagnaia had to fend off a hard-charging Alex Rins on the LCR Honda on the opening lap to hold onto his pole position. Once he’d successfully retaken the lead from Rins at Turn 12 on the first lap, Bagnaia steadily built up an unassailable advantage to […]
Prema keeps maiden WEC pole, handed fine after Portimao pit infringement
Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti claimed Prema’s first WEC pole at the Algarve International Circuit after beating Vector Sport’s Gabriel Aubry to the top spot by 0.001s, but was immediately placed under investigation after the session. An as-yet-unexplained mechanical issue while cars were queuing at pit exit required the attention of Prema mechanics, who removed […]
Toyota put new focus on WEC qualifying after losing out at Sebring
Hartley explained that the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad had worked hard on getting the most out of its two GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercars in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. “We focussed more on getting the potential out of the car in qualifying than we normally do,” Hartley told Motorsport.com after taking the pole by nearly […]
Bagnaia expects Alex Marquez to be “a great rival” in COTA MotoGP sprint race
Bagnaia spent much of the Q2 session in Texas battling with Gresini Ducati counterpart Marquez, with the pair setting identical 2m02.242s laps with around eight minutes left on the clock. As both began their final run, Marquez followed Bagnaia out of pitlane, which prompted the latter to stop in order to prevent the Spaniard from […]
Maiden WEC podium for Cadillac possible with perfect Portimao race
The new Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh finished fourth on its WEC debut at last month’s Sebring 1000 Miles and will start tomorrow’s six-hour race from eighth on the grid. Richard Westbrook qualified the solo Cadillac Hypercar entry he shares with Lynn and Earl Bamber 2.411s down on polesitter Brendon Hartley’s #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID at the […]
Albuquerque explains Acura’s Long Beach turnaround
Albuquerque turned around a big deficit from last year’s Long Beach qualifying session to lead an Acura 1-2 on Friday afternoon, at a track that’s been historically dominated by Cadillac. In 2022, Sebastien Bourdais took pole in his Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac with a laptime of 1m09.472s. The first Acura, the #60 Meyer Shank-run ARX-05, […]
Bagnaia smashes COTA lap record for pole
Front row in the opening two rounds, factory Ducati rider Bagnaia had so far come up short in the battle for MotoGP pole in 2023. But a final flying lap of 2m01.892s, the first ever sub 2m02s lap of the Circuit of the Americas, secured Bagnaia top spot on the grid for this afternoon’s sprint […]
Hartley leads Toyota 1-2 in qualifying; Ferrari third
Brendon Hartley led a qualifying 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer, outpacing team-mate and team principal Kamui Kobayashi by nearly three tenths of a second. Hartley’s 1m30.171s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar compared with Kobayashi’s 1m30.444s in #7. Toyota had a clear margin over Ferrari, which took pole in the Sebring season-opener […]
WEC title proves Alonso hasn’t been in «darkest tunnel for decades»
The double F1 champion has chalked a hat-trick of podiums to kick off the new F1 season. This follows his switch from Alpine to in-form Aston Martin, who Max Verstappen reckons will win grands prix this year. Verstappen has also noted that Alonso should have more than his current tally of 32 F1 victories. This is a […]