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Rally Raid Estonia will inject some, well, Estonian flavour into the 2023 Dakar Rally when they make their début in the legendary rally raid with a pair of countrymen and newcomers. Urvo Männama will race in the T1 category in a Toyota Hilux while Toomas Triisa is in a Can-Am in T4. Risto Lepik serves as the former’s co-driver and Mart Meeru works with the latter. The team revealed their Dakar lineup on Saturday at the T1 Tallinn shopping mall in the country’s capital.

Männama’s Hilux was acquired from Benediktas Vanagas, who has upgraded to a Hilux T1+ for the 2023 Rally. While Vanagas is from Lithuania, his co-driver Kuldar Sikk is Estonian.

Although Männama did not run any of the World Rally-Raid Championship legs in 2022, he is heavily involved in domestic and Eastern European rally raids. He and Lepik won their class at the Rallye Breslau in Poland in July.

Off the track, he is the director of corporate development for Foxway Recommerce, a company that provides resale services for electronic devices.

“The idea of ​​the Dakar Rally came to me a long time ago,” Männama told ERR Sport. “Once at school, I told a teacher that I would be the first Estonian to drive a car in the Dakar Rally. Another big idea was that I would be the first Estonian to drive a car to the top of Mount Everest, but this is a slightly more complicated plan.

Josef Macháček has raced in the Dakar Rally on a regular basis since 1999, but the 64-year-old will take 2023 off in favour of tutoring Buggyra Racing‘s drivers Aliyyah and Yasmeen Koloc.

Macháček won the 2009 Dakar Rally in the Quad category followed by the 2021 edition in a Light Prototype (T3), being the inaugural class winner in both. The 2021 win came with Buggyra. His 2022 Rally, was tumultuous due to a pair of incidents that dropped him outside the top twenty in the overall; despite finishing eleventh in the final stage, he was twenty-fifth in the general classification.

For the 2023 Rally, Buggyra will field Can-Ams for the 18-year-old Koloc twins, whose father Martin owns the team. Nicknamed the “Dakar Sistaz”, both are new to the race though Aliyyah has proven her meddle by leading the FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas standings with a pair of wins in the Jordan Baja and Saudi Baja. The latter, which took place last weekend, is especially crucial as Saudi Arabia also hosts the Dakar Rally.

“The vehicle is developed on a very good level,” said Macháček. “We confirmed it in 2021 when we won our category. The new generation can step in and set the first result that will be used as a benchmark in the future. I am going to the Dakar as a mentor, but surely the Dakar has the best media coverage and everyone has some expectations.

“I have been connected with the Dakar for 20 years, it’s a big number, but it will be my first year as a mentor. It will surely be interesting. I am looking forward to seeing it from the other side, even though I won’t see much because when one is on the stage, they see fantastic things. For me, cooperation with Buggyra prolonged my sport career on the top level, so it was something that every driver with a rich career wishes for.”

McLaren F1 Team Executive Technical Director James Key said that the team’s precise approach to car set-up allowed them to make up crucial time in a Qualifying of tight margins, with Lando Norris taking seventh place and Daniel Ricciardo taking tenth at the session’s end. 

“It was a case of looking for marginal gains in FP3, after some good work on set-up and balance during Friday, together with further steps overnight, we took an approach of fine tuning and working out best approach to qualifying. 

Key was pleased with the pace the team found in qualifying as well as their long runs during Friday practice, and hopes to see this performance continue on race day, where they will look to battle for hotly-contested positions in the points.

“It was good to get both cars through to Q3, the margins were tight in all three sessions but both drivers had the pace to make the top 10.

“The long run pace looked reasonable yesterday, so we look forward to making good use of that tomorrow in the final race of the season.”

Laurent Mekies is expecting a six-car battle at the front of the field during Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season draws to a close at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Scuderia Ferrari will line-up with both cars on the second row on Sunday, with Charles Leclerc third just ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr.  Both were behind the two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, but ahead of both the two Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Ferrari’s Racing Director felt the team did the best they could in Qualifying trim, with Mekies praising the work those track side and back at their Maranello factory did overnight to improve the F1-75.

“We’re reasonably pleased with how qualifying went,” said Mekies.  “I think the team has made a step forward since yesterday, when we weren’t completely happy with the car’s handling.

“Here at the track and back in Maranello, we worked on fine tuning the set-up and on extracting a touch more performance from the car.

Charles Leclerc reckoned third place on the grid for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the best result Scuderia Ferrari could have hoped for on Saturday, with Oracle Red Bull Racing just too far ahead of them over a single lap.

Leclerc jumped up to second late in Q3 but was relegated back to third when Sergio Pérez jumped up to join his team-mate Max Verstappen on the front row, with the Monegasque driver struggling with overheating tyres in the final sector that cost him valuable lap time.

Nevertheless, with Ferrari locking out the second row of the grid, Leclerc hopes they will be able to put pressure on Red Bull and end the year with a victory, something that has been hard to come by in the second half of the season.

“P3 is the best we could do today,” said Leclerc.  “It was quite a tricky qualifying, especially in terms of tyre management, as is usually the case in Abu Dhabi, with the rear tyres overheating in the final sector.

“With Carlos starting right behind me, we will work together to put pressure on our competitors ahead and aim to finish the season on a high.”

McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris sailed through to the top ten shootout and qualified in seventh place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Norris said that he was able to extract maximum performance out of his MCL36 at Yas Marina Circuit, and ultimately qualified as high up the grid as he could.

“A good quali. I think I got everything out of the car today, so I’m happy. I struggled a bit, not having enough confidence to push the car, but at the same time, we secured the best position we could.”

Norris’ solid starting position puts him one position ahead of both BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, McLaren’s nearest rivals in the constructors standings. Nineteen points behind Alpine, McLaren will need to pull together a large number of points to overtake them in the standings. 

Overall, Norris aims to take his starting position and turn it into a points finish to finish off the 2022 season. 

“We’ve got a good starting place, let’s convert it into some good points tomorrow.” 

Christian Horner was delighted with the performance of his Oracle Red Bull Racing team during Qualifying for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez locking out the front row of the grid.

It is the first time since the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season that Red Bull have locked out the first two places on the grid, and Horner, the Team Principal of the Milton Keynes-based team says it gives them a good starting place to end their most successful ever season on another high.

Horner knows there is still a lot of work to do, particularly if they want to ensure Pérez finishes second to Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, but a near perfect Saturday has given them a good shot at ensuring their first ever one-two in the Drivers’ standings.

“It was a great qualifying from the Team, our first front row lockout of the year and first since 2018,” said Horner.  “We are tremendously happy with the performance as it gives us an opportunity to end our most successful season in the best possible way.

“Max secured the twentieth pole position of his career with a stellar last lap. On top of that, he gave Checo the tow in the second sector to help him secure the second grid slot – locking out the front row for the Team.

Max Verstappen said it was an ‘almost perfect’ Qualifying session for Oracle Red Bull Racing at the Yas Marina Circuit, with the Dutchman claiming pole position just ahead of team-mate Sergio Pérez.

The Dutchman, who clinched his second World Drivers’ Championship earlier this year after a dominant 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season that has seen him take a record-breaking fourteen victories in the opening twenty-one races, and he will be looking for number fifteen on Sunday.

However, he says it is important the team finish first and second in the Drivers’ Championship, with Pérez and Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc locked together heading into Sunday’s season finale.

“It couldn’t have been better today, the tow worked out well as we managed to lock out the front row,” said Verstappen.  “We went out there and did our thing.

“As a Team we had an almost perfect qualifying and we are very excited for tomorrow, The most important thing is that Checo stays ahead of Charles so we’ll do what we can to make that happen.”

Mike Krack says the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team will do everything they can to beat Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship this Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Aston Martin currently sit seventh, five points behind Alfa Romeo, with just the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to go, and they will be looking to end the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on a high by beating their rivals to sixth.

Sebastian Vettel will start his final Grand Prix before retirement from ninth on the grid for Aston Martin, while team-mate Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q2 and will start fourteenth.  However, both drivers are ahead of both Alfa Romeo drivers, with Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas fifteenth and eighteenth respectively.

Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin, says the starting positions for Sunday’s season finale offer the team a shot at beating Alfa Romeo, although he knows it will be a tough challenge if they are to outscore their rivals by more than five points.

“It was hot today in Abu Dhabi – but, as usual, given the 6.00pm start time, the track cooled during the qualifying hour,” said Krack after Qualifying concluded under the floodlights in Abu Dhabi on Saturday evening.

Sebastian Vettel has just one day left of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career on Sunday after Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday saw him end ninth on the grid.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team driver says his motivation has not lessened despite his imminent retirement from Formula 1, and it showed on Saturday as he got through into the top ten in Qualifying.

Traffic played a part in the first two segments of Qualifying, but Vettel was able to get through both, and his best time of 1:24.961 was good enough for a place on the fifth row of the grid ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo.

“Overall, my final qualifying in Formula 1 was a good session,” said Vettel. “The car is doing what I want this weekend and this has contributed to this decent result.

“I have been very motivated and it felt as if there was a bit extra in me today. We did have some traffic in Q1 and Q2 with a Red Bull at the last corner, but the lap in Q3 was clean.”

Dave Robson admits the Williams Racing team did not execute Qualifying as well as they should have, and it meant that Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi will share the back row of the grid for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Traffic at the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of his final flying lap meant Albon was unable to generate the heat needed in his tyres to start the lap strongly, while Latifi was also compromised as the duo finished nineteenth and twentieth on the grid, just 0.026 seconds apart. 

For Latifi, it was his final Qualifying session with Williams before he ends his three year stint with the team after this weekend.

Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, says the hard work the team had done ahead of Qualifying kind of went to waste, and they will be looking now to look to rebound on Sunday and try and make progress forward towards the top ten.

“Qualifying was a frustrating session, which we didn’t execute as well as we needed to,” said Robson.  “We knew how to get a good lap out of the car, but we didn’t give Alex a good chance to achieve it as he had too much traffic on his final outlap.

Nicholas Latifi concluded his final Qualifying session with the Williams Racing team on Saturday, and the Canadian was ‘pretty happy’ with his lap despite ending the day as the slowest qualifier at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Latifi will leave Williams after three years after Sunday’s race, and although he did not complete the perfect lap on Saturday, he was still content with his session, ending just 0.024 seconds behind team-mate Alexander Albon.

Despite his future beyond 2022 being unclear, Latifi will be looking to enjoy his final event, even if it is likely to be difficult to contend for a top ten finish.

“I’m pretty happy with the last lap in Qualifying,” said Latifi.  “It wasn’t the perfect lap, but it was clean. We just didn’t have the pace today.

“I made sure to use all the tyres I had and left nothing on the rack. It’s not where I want to be in my last Qualifying session, but I’m satisfied. I think the main difficulty was trying to find the right space for the outlaps.

Max Verstappen found the time when he needed to secure pole position for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday evening under the floodlights at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver is looking for a record-extending fifteenth victory of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on Sunday, and he will be joined on the front row by team-mate Sergio Pérez, the Mexican looking to secure second place in the standings.

Both Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team did as much as they could during the hour-long Qualifying session but could only find themselves locking out rows two and three respectively.

Q1 – Brazil Polesitter Magnussen Eliminated

What a difference a week makes for Kevin Magnussen, with the Danish driver finding himself on the wrong side of the cut-off point to advance out of Q1 in Abu Dhabi, the Haas F1 Team driver having taken his maiden pole position in São Paulo last weekend.

A late flying lap from his team-mate Mick Schumacher relegated him into the bottom five, while Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also struggled, the Frenchman finishing seventeenth in his final outing for the team before he moves to the BWT Alpine F1 Team in 2023.

Lewis Hamilton will not face any sanction from the FIA after being cleared of any wrongdoing during final practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after an investigation for passing another car under red flag conditions on Saturday.

A puncture for Pierre Gasly left debris on the track which needed clearing up, and the FIA opted to stop the session with a red flag as a result.

Hamilton was on a fast lap and was heading towards turn four at speed when the red flags flew.  However, in the moment he slowed down, because he was at top speed and Kevin Magnussen was on a slow lap, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver passed the Haas F1 Team driver on track.

However, the stewards found that Hamilton had followed the rules of a red flag, slowing down immediately when notified, and it was unavoidable for him to pass Magnussen.

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton) and the team representative,” read the FIA statement.  “The stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, telemetry, team radio and in-car video.

Liam Lawson secured victory in what is likely to be his final FIA Formula 2 championship sprint race at the Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday in a race delayed by an hour after a red flag caused by a first lap crash between Jehan Daruvala and Enzo Fittipaldi at turn two.

From pole position, Richard Verschoor held onto the lead at the initial start, but a collision at turn two between Prema Racing’s Daruvala and Charouz Racing System’s Fittipaldi saw the race neutralised by a red flag due to damage to the barriers.

Both drivers emerged seemingly unscathed from the incident, which will be reviewed by the stewards after the race.

Almost an hour later and with the light fading at the Yas Marina Circuit, the race resumed, this time with a rolling start, and Verschoor again got the jump ahead of Lawson and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Amaury Cordeel and Prema Racing’s Dennis Hauger.

The top three pulled a small gap on Hauger early on, with the Norwegian driver forced to look back at the challenge 2022 series champion Felipe Drugovich in fifth, while Carlin’s Logan Sargeant played a watchful role in sixth ahead of Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan.