Motorsport

Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was left confused by his spin during second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix and suggested it may have been caused by a gust of wind. 
The Aston Martin driver lost control at the entry to Suzuka's Turn 8 and spun across the gravel resulting in his AMR25 becoming beached, with FP2's second red-flag period subsequently happening. 
Alonso was the ...Keep reading

Alpine driver Jack Doohan has said he was "caught by surprise" by his heavy crash in Formula 1's Japanese Grand Prix second practice, with team boss Oliver Oakes labelling it a "misjudgement".
The rookie spun off entering the high-speed Turn 1 in the opening stages of the one-hour session, smashing heavily into the barriers. Due to the severity of the impact, Doohan was checked at the medical ...Keep reading

The FIA is attempting to prevent a repeat of the grass fires that derailed the second practice outing at Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Friday’s session was thrown into disarray by four red flags, two for offs by Jack Doohan and Fernando Alonso and another two for grass patches lining the Suzuka track catching fire.
The dry grass approaching Turn 8 first caught fire with 13 minutes ...Keep reading

Liam Lawson said he has enjoyed his return to Racing Bulls at Suzuka despite his harsh demotion from Red Bull, feeling at ease in the team's vastly different Formula 1 car.
After two difficult race weekends Lawson's Red Bull stint was cut short by the team's management, which opted to try his former Racing Bulls team-mate Yuki Tsunoda instead.
Having felt he needed more time to get used to ...Keep reading

After the expectation comes the reality. Yuki Tsunoda’s first day actually driving Red Bull's diva-ish RB21 Formula 1 machine, as opposed to piloting an ersatz version of it in a simulator, answered some questions while leaving others hanging.
Very few of those matters outstanding were Tsunoda’s fault, though, owing to the second practice session being punctuated by four red-flag periods ...Keep reading

McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri believe Mercedes will be their biggest opponent in this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
After winning one race apiece in Australia and China, Norris and Piastri are the favourites to win in Japan and Friday's practice running did little to suggest otherwise - Norris topped FP1 and Piastri headed a disjointed FP2 punctuated by ...Keep reading

The FIA has scheduled a meeting with Formula 1’s engine manufacturers to discuss the potential return of the V10 power unit, sources have confirmed to Motorsport.com.
What initially seemed like a far-fetched idea is increasingly being discussed as a serious option, following FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s recent remarks about introducing V10 engines running on sustainable fuels in ...Keep reading

Oscar Piastri was fastest in second practice at the Japanese Grand Prix as four red flags led to a truncated session.
After Lando Norris led the way in the morning, McLaren team-mate Piastri had the upper hand later in the day as his time of 1m28.114s was 0.048s faster than Norris.
Four red flags led to plenty of running time being lost, the first of which occurred following a huge accident ...Keep reading

Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies insists Liam Lawson’s talent has not “disappeared” after the New Zealander was demoted back to the team following two poor outings for Red Bull.
Lawson is back behind the wheel of a Racing Bull for the Japanese Grand Prix after his promotion to the senior team was cut short, with Yuki Tsunoda swapped in to take his place.
While he might not ...Keep reading

Sauber has been prolific with its upgrade cycle in the opening races of Formula 1's 2025 season, and the Swiss team has aimed to show Audi "a positive trend" and simultaneously improve its processes back at base.
The Hinwil team has introduced a revised floor and rear wing assembly for the Japanese Grand Prix, having previously trialled a new front wing in Australia and new sidepods in China ...Keep reading

The FIA has added a new circuit map from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards in a bid to reduce the need for safety car interventions after Formula 1 drivers need to abandon their cars on track, Motorsport.com has learned.
After conducting a thorough analysis of safety car deployments during the 2024 season, the FIA concluded there were a surprising amount of instances where a safety car could be ...Keep reading

Lando Norris headlined the opening practice session of Formula 1's Japanese Grand Prix, as Yuki Tsunoda was just a tenth behind Max Verstappen in his first official run for Red Bull.
Norris overcame a series of scrappy moments earlier in the session, particularly as his aggressive approach to the Casio Triangle ended in a near spin and, later, a brief off on the gravel on the corner ...Keep reading

NASCAR's 'Throwback Weekend' at Darlington has been an annual tradition since 2015, with drivers and teams taking time to honor the history of the sport at one of its most historic tracks. While not as closely followed by every team, it's still celebrated throughout the field with several commemorative paint schemes.
We compiled all of the special Cup schemes here for you in numerical order to ...Keep reading

Reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin says input from rival Marc Marquez was significant in helping him not to rush his recovery or his return to action.
Having missed most of pre-season testing due to an accident in Sepang, Martin has also been absent from the first three rounds of the 2025 season following a training crash he described as “nasty”. Ahead of the Aprilia rider’s ...Keep reading

Connor Zilisch, who is just 18 years old, made his Cup debut earlier this year at the Circuit of the Americas. Trackhouse Racing Team, who signed the Red Bull athlete last year, put Zilisch in a fourth car for COTA.
He qualified 14th and showed impressive pace, but crashed out of the race when he collided with his spinning teammate, Daniel Suarez. He finished 37th, completing 49 of 95 ...Keep reading

Lewis Hamilton believes it was “pretty tough” on Liam Lawson to be dropped by Red Bull after just two races – but said he was not surprised to see the team act so swiftly.
Lawson struggled to get to grips with the RB21 in both the Australian and Chinese grands prix and was ultimately demoted back to Racing Bulls as a result, with Yuki Tsunoda swapped in to replace the New ...Keep reading

Williams driver Carlos Sainz says he is expecting to adapt to his new Formula 1 car within "five to 10" races while he tweaks his driving style.
Sainz joined Alex Albon at Williams after four years at Ferrari and has thus far had two low-key weekends for his new team in Australia and China, grabbing his first point of the campaign in Shanghai after others were disqualified.
A large part of ...Keep reading

‘Spoon’, ‘130R’, ‘Hairpin’, ‘S Curves’. The corner names at Suzuka have prescriptive, unembellished quality. Except for… Degner.
For a brief time in the 1960s, Ernst Degner was a proverbial thorn in Honda’s side, helping Suzuki develop a series of 50cc racing motorcycle engines capable of screaming beyond 17,000rpm, and enabling Mitsuo Itoh to become the first (and so far ...Keep reading

Ever since Oscar Piastri made his Formula 1 debut for McLaren two seasons ago, it’s become almost a cliche to say that the main factor separating him from team-mate Lando Norris is his qualifying performance. A bald view of the statistics would appear to bear that out: in 2023 Norris outqualified Piastri for grands prix 15-7, in 2024 that gap widened to 20-4 – with the result that, barring a ...Keep reading

“Nonsense”, “random” and “crap” – the three words Lando Norris used to describe recent comments made about McLaren by its rivals as the squad adjusts to life as the hunted rather than the hunter.
After ending a 26-year wait for a constructors’ championship last season, McLaren has continued where it left off – Norris winning in Australia before team-mate Oscar Piastri took ...Keep reading