Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Charles Leclerc expects Scuderia Ferrari to be more competitive this weekend in the São Paulo Grand Prix than they were two weeks ago in Mexico City, as the Monegasque driver looks to regain second place in the Drivers’ Championship.

The Scuderia Ferrari team had a very below par weekend in Mexico, finishing well adrift of both Oracle Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, and Leclerc fell behind Sergio Pérez again in the Drivers’ Championship.

Leclerc feels Ferrari should be back showing the kind of pace they did in the United States Grand Prix this weekend and fighting at the front of the field rather than where they were in Mexico, and he hopes the sprint race format offers them the chance of maximising their points tally.

“I think we will be in the running, just as we were in Austin where, if it hadn’t been for a penalty because of a power unit change, we would have had an all Ferrari front row,” said Leclerc.

“I really like this system because it forces you to use a good dose of instinct when it comes to preparing for qualifying. This puts a premium on the team’s planning work at home and usually, over a single flying lap, the quality of the driver is even more to the fore than when you have three hours of free practice.

Fernando Alonso heads into his penultimate race weekend with the BWT Alpine F1 Team with aims to extend the points gap the team current has over the McLaren F1 Team in the Constructors’ Championship.

Alpine currently hold a seven-point advantage over McLaren as the two teams battle over fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, and this weekend will see the third of three sprint races in 2022 as the FIA Formula 1 World Championship arrives in Brazil for the São Paulo Grand Prix.

Alonso, who will join the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in 2023, is expecting a weekend of mixed weather conditions in Brazil, with rain forecast across the weekend, but he knows it is important to score points both in Saturday’s Sprint race as well as Sunday’s main race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

“There is always an element of the unknown heading to Brazil,” said Alonso.  “It tends to throw up some interesting races and results.

“The weather is difficult to predict and we’ve seen some absolute classic races in the past because of this unpredictability. We will probably see some mixed weather conditions in either qualifying, the Sprint or the race.

Max Verstappen says the target now for Oracle Red Bull Racing with two rounds of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season remaining is to ensure team-mate Sergio Pérez finishes second in the Drivers’ Championship.

Verstappen has already clinched the Drivers’ title and has also broken the record for the most race victories in a single season, while Red Bull have also confirmed themselves as Constructors’ Champions.

Heading to this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix, the Dutchman is going all out to make it fifteen victories in the season – and four in a row and nine in the past ten races – all while keeping an eye on what he can do to ensure his team-mate beats Charles Leclerc to second in the standings.

“It’s always nice to be back in Brazil, it’s beautiful here and so rich in culture,” said Verstappen.  “Interlagos is a short track and with all the elevation changes and cambered corners, it’s a really cool track to drive.

“There’s obviously a lot of history at the track too, which I love. The Sprint race set up this weekend means we only have a short practice window, so that always makes it a slightly more difficult, ensuring that the car is perfect and that we set up the car well with limited time.

For the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, the fortunate one-point from Mexico last week seems to have motivated and given the team a well-needed boost of confidence after a dismal few races. Finnish driver, Valtteri Bottas, was particularly pleased with the results from the last race after the C42 picked up the pace in Mexico City, allowing the car to be pushed into the top ten.

Ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Bottas is keeping an open mind and heading to South America in good spirits after taking time to reflect on the season so far. The Alfa Romeo driver seems to have high hopes for the race results this year, as bagging a podium was fresh on his mind.

“As a Formula One driver, the Brazilian Grand Prix is one of those races everyone wants to experience: the fans’ passion for the sport is incredible, and to be on the podium is an incredible thing to do.

“It was good to get back to scoring points in Mexico, especially after the difficult races we had in the second part of the season. I’m getting there in good spirits: I spent the past week in Argentina, exploring wonderful places and immersing myself in South American culture, and I feel rested and ready for the final two races of the season.”

After recentering himself and spending long periods of time in the South American culture, Bottas is staying focused and keeping his head down to make sure the team completes the job at hand, scoring points. After avoiding the threat of falling behind, the team is eager to build on the pace and maintain impressive performances.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur hopes that the team will score points in Sao Paulo this weekend after a pleasing performance in Mexico City where the team added a single point to its tally after Finnish driver Valterri Bottas finished in tenth, Zhou Guanyu a few places behind in thirteenth.

The Swiss-based team will head into the Brazilian Grand Prix sixth in the Constructors Championship, four points ahead of Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, despite the big prizes already being taken by Oracle Red Bull Racing, the fight to remain in sixth remains a priority for the team.

After scoring in Mexico, Vasseur is hopeful that the team can carry its good luck to Brazil and add points to the team’s tally as the season nears its finale at the Yas Marina. Remaining confident in the team’s ability, Vasseur is looking forward to showcasing the new updated package at the upcoming Grand Prix.

“Going back to scoring points in Mexico was a good reward for the job done in the last few weeks, and a chance to increase our gap on our championship rivals; it also gave us further confidence in our updated package ahead of the new race week – the second to last this season.”

With numerous historical moments unfolding at the Interlagos circuit, the Brazil Grand Prix always promises a good race and is a favourite amongst drivers, team principals and adoring fans.

Jaanus Ree of Red Bull Content Pool has captured some breathtaking images at the infamous Isegami’s Tunnel which was featured as part of the second and fifth stages of 2022 Rally Japan on Friday and we have selected some of the finest images to show off his wonderful work.

The first stage of the Rally Japan on Friday turned out to be the last for the 2022 WRC2 title contender Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland. the Polish driver with co-driver Maciej Szczepaniak had a serious crash after exiting the tunnel and was unable to continue the rally.

On the first morning loop of the rally, the three-time European rally champion crashed on the special stage of Isegami’s Tunnel 1, which is a 23.3 kilometers long stage that was opened the Friday. He misjudged the breaking exiting the infamous Isegami’s Tunnel and on the loose gravel, he lost control and hit the wall with some force with the rear-left of his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo.

The Orlen Rally Team crew has not suffered any serious injuries, but both are as reported by the driver on Twitter, a bit bruised. However, they will not be able to continue driving because the roll cage has been damaged in the car.

The battle for the WRC2 title took an unexpected twist, at the moment the only remaining contender is Emil Lindholm who is currently running third in the class, the Finn who claimed the WRC2 Junior title days before Spain, needs to only finish the rally in fifth or higher to be able to claim the crown over Andreas Mikkelsen, who is sitting out the rally.

The Spaniard Dani Sordo who was running eight in Rally Japan was forced to bring his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 to a sudden stop around 16 kilometers into the Isegami’s Tunnel stage on Friday morning when smoke started billowing from the rear of the car.

Sordo and co-driver Cándido Carrera managed to escape the car uninjured before he attempted to douse the flames with a handheld extinguisher but the car couldn´t be saved.

A short time later, organizers confirmed the stage had been canceled on safety grounds for the remaining crews, with the delays caused by the fire also leading to the following stage three being canceled as well from the itinerary.

Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT deputy team principal Julien Moncet says at the moment it is hard to know what was causing the fire but the accident will be investigated.

“The crew is okay and that is the main thing, it is a sight that nobody wants to see – a huge drama, huge disappointment. At the moment, we have no further information other than what we have seen from the videos. Unfortunately, I think it will be difficult to find out the real cause of this because I think there will be nothing left of the car.”

The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Dani Sordo was forced to end the final rally of the year in Rally Japan quite early on as his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 caught fire during the opening stage of Friday.

Sordo has explained he has smelled fuel already during the Thursday but the issue was not solved before heading out on the Friday stage, just around 16 kilometres in to the stage smoke started to pour in to the cockpit, the fire started in the rear of the car but quite soon the whole car was up in flame.

He and co-driver Cándido Carrera escaped unharmed from the fire, the crew did assist the fire marshals to extinguish the fire but they couldn´t save the car.

In an article published by DirtFish.com, Sordo explained what happened: “I’ve never seen something like this. Yesterday already there was smoke a lot but we didn’t know and also in the stage now we smell a lot and I was a little bit crying because of the smoke inside because it was really like petrol, like fuel.”

“After it was going more and more and more and now at one point we see the fire inside the car. When we brake for this corner we just see the smoke coming in the front so it was total, really fast the car was completely smoking so I just went to put the handbrake and tried to take the fire out.”

After sharing the top spot during the morning, the Rally Japan lead went to Elfyn Evans after completing the two afternoon stages around the technical mountain roads of Aichi, it is now only 3 seconds separating him and Thierry Neuville as they head for an overnight rest.

Japan is back on the calendar for the first time since 2010 and the new all-asphalt rally has already claimed a handful of frontrunners throughout the day with Dani Sordo being the first victim as his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 got burned down to bare chassis. The accident caused a shortened morning loop with the first pass of Inuba Dam being canceled due to delays. The second run through Shitara Town which was set to be the last stage of the day also got canceled as the barriers where Craig Breen went off on stage four got damaged.

Kalle Rovanperä was briefly leading the rally in the morning despite smoke pouring into the cockpit, however, the pace began to go down as he had to tackle understeer on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 which caused the front tires to overheat but he is still holding on to third with 2.1 seconds behind Neuville. Ott Tänak suffered a differential problem in the morning and got fixed during the midday service, he ended the first day 8.8 seconds behind Rovanperä in fourth.

Home hero Takamoto Katsuta has struggled with understeering also throughout the day, the Japanese driver is currently in fifth overnight with 20.6 seconds down on the rally leader. Two minutes down on the rally lead is Gus Greensmith who nursed a broken driveshaft throughout the morning.

WRC2 cars dominated the latter half of the leaderboard with WRC2 rookie Sami Pajari heading up WRC2 in seventh overall despite near collision with a civilian car on stage four, he is ahead of Teemu Suninen while Emil Lindholm dropped down and holds ninth overall. Thursday night leader Sébastien Ogier was also in trouble and was two minutes off the pace after stopping to change a wheel in stage two. the Frenchman rounds up the top 10.

Since NASCAR Championship Weekend moved to Phoenix Raceway in 2020, drivers who have piloted a Stadium Super Truck seem to enjoy success. This trend continued in 2022 as three drivers had solid performances and one went beyond that to win a title.

After finishing runner-up in back-to-back years, Zane Smith finally broke through last Friday to take the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crown after holding off Chandler Smith and reigning champion Ben Rhodes in overtime.

“Another driver with SST seat time wins the @nascar truck series championship. Congratulations,” posted SST on Twitter.

His second-place finish in the 2020 Truck title race came after losing out two-time SST champion Sheldon Creed. The two were team-mates at GMS Racing at the time and raced together in the SST weekend at Road America in August. Said round came just a day after Smith scored his first career Truck Series victory at Michigan. Smith finished sixth and fifth in two races while Creed notched a pair of podiums in second and third. A third GMS driver with SST ties also made the 2020 Truck Championship Round as Brett Moffitt, who has yet to run SST raace but has occasionally tested, dominated before a late wreck set up overtime and dropped him to tenth.

Creed holds the most wins in SST history with thirty-nine and had competed in the series every year since the inaugural season in 2013. This streak ended for 2022 as he graduated to the Xfinity Series full-time. His rookie season proved to be challenging as he struggled with up-and-down finishes and poor luck, but he ended the year on a strong note by finishing sixth for his thirteenth top ten a week after placing second at Martinsville.

The driver shuffle for the Energy X Prix on 26/27 November continued as Chip Ganassi Racing has signed RJ Anderson to share the #99 with Sara Price. Regular driver Kyle LeDuc is unavailable due to a scheduling clash. It will be Anderson’s first time competing in Extreme E.

Anderson and LeDuc have gone toe-to-toe in short course off-road racing, particularly in Pro 4. In June, Anderson capitalised on LeDuc’s late spin to win the Championship Off-Road Pro 4 Brush Run round at Crandon for his first points win in the class since 2019 in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. The Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 Crandon World Cup three months later featured three Extreme E faces as Anderson finished third ahead of McLaren’s Tanner Foust (sixth) and LeDuc (retired with mechanical failure).

Other short course achievements include four LOORRS titles (2011 Unlimited UTV, 2012 and 2015 Pro Lite, 2018 Pro 4), a pair of Crandon World Championships in 2019 and 2020. He also saw success in Championship Off-Road’s spiritual predecessor TORC, finishing runner-up in Pro Lite as a 17-year-old rookie in 2011. Anderson is a factory driver for Polaris, with whom he broke into racing in his youth.

His racing also extends beyond closed circuits, competing in SCORE International events like the Baja 500 and legendary Baja 1000, winning Class 1 at the latter in 2019 alongside Brendan Gaughan and Bud Feldkamp. In June, he returned to the Baja 500 for the first time in six years in a Class 1 with Adam Lunn but retired with a mechanical issue. His desert and short course excursions even overlapped in 2015 when he won the inaugural LOORRS Pro Lite round in Ensenada, where SCORE is headquartered.

“It’s an honour to fill in for Chip Ganassi Racing and race the GMC Hummer EV in Uruguay for the final round of Extreme E’s second season,” said Anderson. “I’ve been watching Extreme E since the inception and am excited to line up against such a world-class list of drivers.”

After Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans were posting similar times on the Shakedown yesterday the duo is once again sharing identical times on the top after the shortened Friday morning loop of Rally Japan.

After a 12-year hiatus, the rally has returned to the FIA World Rally Championship for this season but the rally has seen some changes since it was run last time with asphalt roads only being used now. The rally has already claimed some victims and it has been proved to be the most technical rally of the year.

Dani Sordo came out worst of them all as his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car was set ablaze on the opening stage of the day, he and co-driver Cándido Carrera escaped unharmed but the car was completely burned down. Due to the fire, the stage got red-flagged and the following third stage got canceled due to the delays of the accident.

Neuville was second to Kalle Rovanperä at Isegami’s Tunnel 1 but came out better on Shitara Town R 1. The Belgian looked to settle the lead but then the storming Welshman Evans outpaced the entire field by 4.3 seconds which lead to the duo sharing the rally lead while Rovanperä dropped down to third with just seven-tenths back.

Ott Tänak who suffered a transmission failure is trailing the frontrunners with 9.7 seconds and further six seconds back in fifth is Takamoto Katsuta who has problems with understeer on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

As one of the best racing tracks of the season returns this season, Nitro Rallycross has debuted its first double header of the season featuring night racing under the lights on Friday. Fresh new faces make their appearance to the Valley of Sun this weekend as the field grows to its largest size of the season.

2022 NASCAR top contender Chase Elliot returns for his second go at rallycross after competing in the final round last season. 2022 NASCAR Rookie of the year Austin Cindric finds his way back to rallycross after last competing in the defunct Global Rallycross series. Offroad extraordinaire BJ Baldwin and fitness influencer Demi Bagby will make appearances in the Side-by-Side class. Kris Meeke will also take place for Jenson Button at XITE Energy Racing this weekend.

Beyond the new attendees, the series regulars return for a crack at double the points available this weekend. 

RX Cartel leads the championship as Robin Larsson remains atop the standings at 208 points followed closely by his teammate Andreas Bakkerud at 185 points. Larsson and Bakkerud have both had a stellar season so far managing to top the podiums each round, excluding Bakkerud’s finish in Minneapolis where he finished fourth. They will look to push on this weekend for their most competitive event yet.

Under the same Dreyer and Reinbold Racing umbrella is Fraser McConnell fresh off his win at Glen Helen. The Jamaican driver is now third in the standings with 172 points to make a DRR top three standings. He will look for gold again amongst a sea of high-level competitors.

Jaroslav Valtr will be in a familiar vehicle for the 2023 Dakar Rally as he rejoins Tatra Buggyra Racing. He last raced with the team in 2016, where he finished eighth in the Truck catgory. René Kilián and Tomáš Šikola will serve as his team-mates.

“I would like to try a better and more powerful truck. I was mainly looking for a truck with an automatic transmission,” said Valtr. “After the experience with the Tatra in 2016, I agreed with Martin Koloc (Buggyra owner) to try the Dakar again with the Buggyra team, and I am glad that I got this opportunity. We would like to establish a longer cooperation regarding the development of trucks, or the joint construction of a new special.”

Valtr has raced at Dakar for multiple teams, particularly those from his native Czech Republic, including an IVECO for MM Technology and a MAN for KM Racing. In July, competing as a privateer, he piloted an IVECO PowerStar to the Truck victory at the Baja Aragón in Spain.

The reunion with Buggyra first took place at the Baja Poland in September, where he drove a Tatra Phoenix against his son Michal.

“I have already driven six Dakars in four teams, so I have a general overview of Czech teams and trucks,” he continued. “Each has its pros and cons, and I returned to the Buggyra team precisely because the automat and the huge power of the engine fascinate me, and the stages in Saudi Arabia demand exactly that.