Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were two standout performers at the United States Grand Prix, with Leclerc taking an unlikely pole position on Friday and Hamilton coming close to overhauling Max Verstappen for victory on Sunday.

By Sunday night they were notable for a completely different reason: both were disqualified from the race.

Disqualifications are rare, reserved largely for technical breaches and the most serious sporting breaches relating to the fairness of competition.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Lewis Hamilton has been stripped of second place at the United States Grand Prix after a post-race technical inspection revealed his Mercedes car was set up to run lower than allowed according to the regulations.

Charles Leclerc has also been disqualified from sixth place after Ferrari was found to have committed the same breach.

A random post-race technical check found both cars suffered excessive wear to their rear titanium skid blocks.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

The United States Grand Prix was going to be all about Mercedes’s late-season renaissance, with upgrades brought to Austin powering Lewis Hamilton to within a couple of seconds of Max Verstappen and an unlikely victory.

Then Hamilton was disqualified.

Both Hamilton and pole-getter Charles Leclerc were thrown out of the race for failing post-race technical inspections. Neither driver was at fault and the breaches will have had a limited effect on performance, but there’s zero tolerance when it comes to the technical rules.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

MotoGP race director Mike Webb expects negotiations to move the date of the Australian Grand Prix to avoid weather disruptions at future races.

Sunday running at Phillip Island was declared with only the Moto3 race and half the Moto2 race completed. MotoGP riders never took to the circuit, with wind speed too extreme for track action.

The Bureau of Meteorology observed gusts of more than 50 kilometres per hour on Sunday, though the circuit’s location overlooking Bass Strait means it was likely battered by more extreme winds, with gales of up to 87 kilometres per hour having been forecast for the surrounding waters.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

The MotoGP sprint at the Australian Grand Prix has been called off on safety grounds due to extreme weather at Phillip Island.

Team managers were spotted in a meeting with race organisers in the paddock around 40 minutes before the short race’s scheduled 1:00pm start, with confirmation coming at 12:30pm that the rest of the weekend would be abandoned due to high winds and rain.

“I think it was a great call yesterday to have the main race on Saturday,” RNF team manager Wilco Zeelenberg said. “We see clearly there is a lot of wind and a lot of rain.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Aussie ace Joel Kelso has secured a third season in Moto3 with a switch to the Boé Motorsports team for 2024.

Darwin-born Kelso made his full-time debut in the lightweight class in 2022 with CIP before switching to the CFMoto-backed PrĂŒstel GP team this season, but the team told him earlier this season that he wouldn’t be retained for a second season.

While Kelso has been making progress in his second campaign, he has struggled to convert his qualifying speed into regular points.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

The first Saturday Grand Prix in eight years didn’t disappoint. But then Phillip Island rarely does.

The time-shifted Australian Grand Prix was an afternoon of motorcycle racing’s greatest hits.

It started as a demonstration of pure pace, with Jorge Martin dominating off the lined and putting what seemed to be an insurmountable 3.5 seconds on the rest of the field.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

First-time MotoGP winner Johann Zarco has admitted to doubting whether he had what it takes to win in the premier class in the lead-up to his maiden victory in a corking Australian Grand Prix.

French veteran Zarco snatched the lead from Pramac teammate Jorge Martin in a thrilling five-rider last-lap duel with eight corners remaining to take the chequered flag for the first time.

Zarco had been searching for his maiden victory for the better part of seven seasons in MotoGP, a prospect that would have seemed unthinkable when he debuted in the sport as a double Moto2 champion.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Francesco Bagnaia has twisted the knife into fumbling title challenger Jorge Martin with some veiled criticism after yet again stretching his points advantage thanks to his rival’s mistake.

Martin led all but the last eight corners of the Australian Grand Prix after gambling his pole position on a soft rear tyre. It gave him a massive 3.5-second lead in the middle of the race but pulled itself apart before the end of the afternoon, dropping him from first to fifth on the last lap.

Bagnaia had been mired in a battle for third for much of that time but stormed home thanks to his superior tyre strategy to finish second, adding nine points to his title lead.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Johann Zarco has passed teammate Jorge Martin to claim a thrilling first MotoGP victory in his 120th premier-class start.

Martin led every lap but the last in what was close to a perfect performance, but the Spaniard gambled his victory chances on the soft rear tyre that let him down in the final 10 laps.

The Pramac rider was a sitting duck as his seemingly insurmountable 3.5-second lead in the middle of the race was whittled down to nothing by a four-rider pack that smelt blood.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Title leader Francesco Bagnaia has failed to directly qualify for the top 10 on the grid for the second week in a row in a crucial timed practice session headed by KTM teammates Brad Binder and Aussie Jack Miller.

Bagnaia had been off the pace all session and found himself needing to set a competitive time in the last three minutes of the hour.

Championship rival Jorge Martin, among a gaggle of other riders, disrupted his rhythm by picking up his slipstream on his first lap. Bagnaia attempted to shake the pack but in doing so compromised his first lap, which ended with an unrepresentative time.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

It was a funny atmosphere on Phillip Island on Friday night.

Nothing had really changed, but at the same time everything had changed.

Practice had gone ahead without a hitch, the circuit basked in glorious sunshine. But the forecast was close at hand for every team and rider, with brows furrowed about the viability of holding a grand prix in the high winds predicted for Sunday.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Daniel Ricciardo returns to the cockpit for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix with little on the line but much to prove.

Ricciardo’s grand plan to find himself a place at a race-winning team is coming together. He spent the months after being axed from McLaren deconstructing and rebuilding himself in the Red Bull simulator as a reserve driver, and after just 10 rounds he got the nod to replace the ousted Nyck de Vries at sister team AlphaTauri.

His first two races were promising, but the run ended suddenly with a practice crash in the Netherlands that broke his left hand and left him unable to drive until this weekend.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

MotoGP has brought forward the Australian Grand Prix to Saturday afternoon in a bid to avoid inclement weather forecast for Sunday.

The 27-lap grand prix will now take place at 3:10pm tomorrow instead of the sprint, less than three hours after the conclusion of qualifying.

The sprint will be moved to 2:00pm on Sunday in the feature race’s original slot.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Jack Miller is hopeful his upgraded KTM can take the fight to dominant Ducati at his home Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Miller has had a roller-coaster of a first season with the Austrian brand, bursting from the blocks with a podium in the fourth round but losing his way through the middle of the campaign.

Ducati, meanwhile, has won all but three of 15 races so far this season, with Miller’s former factory team taking six of those via title leader Francesco Bagnaia.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Reigning Australian Grand Prix winner Álex Rins has cast doubt on the running of this year’s race, with high winds forecast to disrupt Sunday running.

Phillips Island has basked in warm and sunny weather on Thursday, but conditions are set to deteriorate over the weekend.

Fresh winds and light showers and will arrive for qualifying and the sprint on Saturday, while Sunday’s radar predicts up to 6 millimetres of rain and strong winds of up to 45 kilometres per hour. Gusts could be as strong as 70 kilometres per hour.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner has denied reports that he’s attempting to oust Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko from Formula 1.

Reports in the Brazilian and German media during the week suggested Horner has spent the last year making a play for total control of the energy drink brand’s F1 operations, which include both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri.

But Auto Bild has reported that three-time champion Max Verstappen has thrown his weight behind Marko, tying his future at the team to the Austrian retaining his place in the garage.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi won’t rule out a reunion with Oscar Piastri despite the spectacular breakdown in relations between the French team and its former Australian junior star.

Piastri’s split with Alpine was one of last year’s major storylines. The Melburnian had been brought through the junior formulae with Enstone and was handed a reserve position with the squad last season, but he unexpectedly defected to McLaren when it became clear Woking had lost patience with Daniel Ricciardo.

Alpine attempted to hold onto Piastri, but the FIA Contract Recognition Board found that it had failed to offer him a valid deal to keep him in 2023 and unanimously sided with McLaren.

Continue reading on FOX SPORTS