Motorsport News

India's Arjun Maini made his debut in the European Le Mans series with the RLR Msport team. The race took place at the Paul racetrack in France and was run for a duration of four hours with over 40 cars present on the grid. The 21-year-old debuted alongside Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton Senna and John Ferano. The RLR Msport team entered Le Mans in the hotly contested LMP2 class and managed to qualify 11th despite a damper issue. The team eventually finished the race in eighth place overall with Arjun setting the second fastest lap time of the race, just 0.3s slower than the fastest lap time overall.

Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motorsport team of Hero MotoCorp, has announced the addition of a new rider to its profile. Hero MotoSports has signed Portuguese champion Paulo Goncalves as its fourth rider who joins the team alongside Portuguese rider Joaquim Rodrigues, Spanish rider Oriol Mena and India's CS Santosh. The announcement comes fresh off the team's podium finish at the 2019 Merzouga Rally earlier this month, while Goncalves brings with him over 12 years of rally-racing experience across a host of rallies, which will further push the team's position in racing.

Suzuki rider Alex Rins took his first MotoGP victory in the 2019 MotoGP Austin Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The rider showed incredible pace in the closing stages of the race as he battled for the top spot with Yamaha's Valentino Rossi in what was a thrilling duel between the riders over the last 10 laps. Coming in third was Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati picking up his first podium finish of the season as well. The race, however, ended up in a disaster for Honda which lost both of its riders Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, the former crashed while in the lead.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton won the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Chinese GP marks the 1000th Formula 1 race and saw the Mercedes drivers dominate the weekend, as the Ferrari drivers faded as the race progressed. Coming in a lonely third was Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel who completed the race 13.744s behind the race leader. This is the Mercedes' second consecutive 1-2 race finish this season, and Ferrari's second consecutive podium finish too.

Jaguar Racing secured its first ever victory in Formula E as driver Mitch Evans passed pole-sitter Andre Lotterer of Techeetah to win the 2019 Rome e-Prix. The latter finished a close second completing the race 0.979s behind. With the Rome e-Prix, the British team becomes the seventh different marque to win a race this season. Meanwhile, finishing on the podium was Stoffel Vandoorne of HWA AG, while both the Mahindra drivers managed to complete the race in the top 10 positions.

The JK Tyre Women's Rally to the Valley was organised last weekend in Mumbai and seasoned rallyist Deepa Damodaran took home the win once again in the Time Speed Distance (TSD) based event. Damodaran along with navigator Priyanka Videsh took the top spot in the rally, managing to log a bare minimum of three penalty points to annex the crown and win a cash prize of Rs. 100,000. The 2019 edition of the Rally to the Valley event saw over 600 ladies in participation in about 130 cars to promote women empowerment, creating a new record of sorts.

he 2019 Merzouga Rally concluded with Indian teams Hero MotoSports Team Rally and Sherco TVS Rally Team taking the top spots. The gruelling rally saw riders traverse through the challenging terrains of Morroco while keeping up with navigation issues to complete the five day run. Sherco TVS rider Abdul Wahid Tanveer bagged the top spot in the Enduro category having won two out of five stages. Hero's Oriol Mena, meanwhile, took the first podium of his career finishing third overall.

Oriol Mena and Joaquim Rodrigues continue their strong show at the 2019 Merzouga Rally on the penultimate day of the rally. Now the riders will move on to the final stage in the dunes.