Motorsport

Defending car champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi faces an uphill battle at the 2026 Dakar Rally after a troubled opening stage, in which he lost significant time and incurred a heavy penalty.
Shortly after his Dakar victory in 2025, Al-Rajhi and navigator Timo Gottschalk suffered injuries that forced them to miss several rounds of the World Rally-Raid Championship. The Saudi driver and his German ...Keep reading

X-raid Mini’s Guillaume de Mevius topped the opening stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday, overhauling long-time leader Mattias Ekstrom in a dramatic late turnaround.
Ford driver Ekstrom controlled much of the day’s 305km stage around Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, grabbing the lead at the second checkpoint on 70km before stretching out an advantage of over a minute in his Ford Raptor.
De Mevius ...Keep reading

Marc Marquez could achieve two major milestones during the 2026 MotoGP season as he looks to further cement his place among motorsport’s all-time greats.
At last year’s San Marino Grand Prix on 14 September, he clinched his 73rd victory in MotoGP and 99th across all three classes. With six grands prix left in the season at that stage, no one doubted his chances of securing his 100th world ...Keep reading

Max Verstappen has emerged as the best Formula 1 driver from the 2025 season, according to team principals, drivers themselves, as well as Motorsport, Autosport and their readers.
All current team bosses and racers were asked by F1 to submit their top 10s, applying the 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 points system to create separate standings. No representative from Red Bull and Ferrari took part in ...Keep reading

Major regulation changes usually lead to bigger gaps in Formula 1. Both the teams and the FIA expect a bigger field spread than last year, although the governing body has introduced several measures to prevent a repeat of 2014.
At the start of the hybrid era, Mercedes arrived with a superior power unit, after which dominance was effectively locked in for years. With the 2026 reset, such a ...Keep reading

Francesco Bagnaia and Michele Pirro believe Ducati’s rivals made effective use of MotoGP’s concession system to close the gap over the course of the 2025 season.
Although Ducati swept all three world championships in 2025, helped by Marc Marquez’s arrival in the factory team, its dominance was challenged more frequently than in previous years.
After losing just one grand prix in ...Keep reading

Factory Ford driver Mattias Ekstrom drew first blood in the 2026 Dakar Rally, edging out team-mate Mitch Guthrie in Saturday’s Prologue.
The 48th edition of Dakar kicked off in earnest on 3 January, with a total of 72 cars taking the start in the Ultimate class. The Prologue featured a 95km route around the Saudi Arabian port city of Yanbu, though only 22km were timed, resulting in minimal ...Keep reading

Land Rover's Defender has been a familiar sight in the Dakar Rally for many years, but the British brand has never before lined up with a full factory team. That will change in 2026: the Defender will foray into the world's biggest rally-raid with three factory entries, with 14-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel spearheading the team's line-up.
Notably, the British manufacturer has opted ...Keep reading

Four-time Dakar Rally-winning navigator Mathieu Baumel has returned to the event this year, just 11 months after a serious accident and the amputation of his right leg.
Baumel was on his way to Rally Monte Carlo at the beginning of 2025 when he was struck by a vehicle after stopping to help stranded motorists.
The crash caused such severe injuries to his right leg that it had to be ...Keep reading

Oscar Piastri has reflected on the contractual saga that occurred in mid-2022, when he signed a McLaren Formula 1 deal as an Alpine junior.
Piastri joined the Renault Sport Academy, as it was then called, for the 2020 season after narrowly clinching the Formula Renault Eurocup title.
The Australian went on to win the F3 and F2 championships as a rookie, but had to spend 2022 on the sidelines ...Keep reading