Motorsport Reviews

It is battle royale as the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) enters its final stretch, with its Round 4, the K-1000 Rally, set to begin from Bangalore on November 22, 2019. INRC Championship leader Fabid Ahmed and INRC 4 topper Vaibhav Mararte continue to lead their respective categories and end the season on a high note. Team Champions' Fabid with co-driver Sanath G leads the INRC 3 class, but not without competition comes from Dean Mascarenhas with co-driver Shruptha Padival, who are trailing just seven points behind.

Team Aston Martin Red Bull Racing had an incredible year in Formula 1 this season and the team did go on to secure several wins and podiums across the season including the manic Brazilian GP last weekend. However, that wasn't the only highlight for the team on Sunday, the Red Bull's crew serviced Max Verstappen's car in a new world record time of 1.82s. That is 0.06s faster than the previous record of 1.88s, also set by Red Bull. Now taking its skills out of the world quite literally, the team has completed the world's first zero-gravity pit stop.

The FIA Formula E Season 6 is all set to kick off this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the only Indian team on the grid - Mahindra Racing - is all set for a flying start in the electric racing series. The factory team caught up with the media in Mumbai before leaving for Riyadh with Team Principal and CEO Dilbagh Gill and driver Jerome d'Ambrosio talking about the strategy for the 2019/20 Formula E season, new technologies, new recruitments and consolidating the team effort under one roof. The team finished sixth in the overall standings during Season 5, and is looking to better its position even as new factory racing teams like Mercedes and Porsche join the series.

Squashing all rumours and speculations, Repsol Honda has announced that Moto2 champion Alex Marquez will be joining the MotoGP team in 2020. Marquez Junior is none other than eight-time world champion Marc Marquez's brother and steps in place of the now-retired Jorge Lorenzo. The three-time MotoGP world champion announced his retirement last week ahead of the Valencia Grand Prix, bringing the curtains down on his racing career. With Lorenzo moving out, speculations were rife about who would replace him at Honda with rider Johann Zarco also said to be in contention, given his promising run in the last three races as part of the LCR Honda team.

It was a mad weekend at the Interlagos circuit in Brazil as Red Bull's Max Verstappen converted a pole position start into a victory. Bt it was Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly, who managed to steal the show in a last-lap battle with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton for a second-place finish. While Hamilton did take the final spot on the podium, a five-second penalty post a collision with Alex Albon resulted in McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr being promoted to third. Both Gasly and Sainz took their respective career's first-ever podium finish in F1 in a big push for the teams. It was a disaster of a race for Scuderia Ferrari with the team looking at a podium finish but ended with a double DNF as both its drivers collided with each other.

Marc Marquez bagged his 12th win of the 2019 MotoGP season with the Valencia Grand Prix, collecting a total of 420 points, the highest by any rider in a single season. The win also helped team Repsol Honda secure the 2019 MotoGP Constructors' title. Following Marquez was pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo who finished second on the podium, followed by Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati taking the final spot. The podium finish also helped Quartararo take fifth place in overall standings ahead of Danilo Petrucci of Ducati with a total 192 points, behind factory riders Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati, Maverick Vinales of Yamaha and Alex Rins of Suzuki.

Three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has decided to hang his racing boots, as he announced his retirement from the grand prix racing at the end of this season. The announcement came ahead of the season finale Valencia GP this weekend, and amidst the worst season for the Honda rider plagued by multiple injuries. Furthermore, the difficulty to adapt to the Honda RC213V further made things complicated, which meant he hasn't had a top-10 finish this season. This definitely comes as a surprise to Lorenzo's fans who still thought he had a couple of seasons left behind before calling it quits.

The final round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) scheduled for this weekend, has now been cancelled due to serious bushfires that affect the northern NSW. The decision to cancel the Kennards Hire Rally Australia was taken after extensive consultation with the NSW Government, the FIA, emergency services and the local community, the organised said in a statement. The state is experiencing its worst-ever bushfire conditions, which have resulted in the declaration of a State of Emergency, a statewide total fire ban and conditions in some regions.