Motorsport Roundup: Vinales Shines At MotoGP Misano, Toyota Takes LeMans Hat-Trick, Evans Wins Rally Turkey And More

MotoGP 

MotoGP’s return to Misano for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw further twists and turns in the 2020 championship and a sixth different winner in the form of Maverick Vinales. The Spainiard took his long-awaited first win of the season for Yamaha. But that wasn’t the case for the majority of the race as Vinales was closely following  Francesco Bagnaia in the Pragmac Ducati until Bagnia crashed out of the race, robbing us of a late race battle for the win.  

Nonetheless, we did have a close fight for the remaining spots on the podium which led to Suzuki’s  Joan Mir taking 2nd and KTM’s Pol Espargaro in 3rd. It would have been Fabio Quartarao in 3rd but he incurred a 3-second time penalty for track limit infringements. Despite Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finishing a low key 8th, he still holds a one point lead in the standings with Quartararo and Vinales tied in 2nd and 3rd. Joan Mir’s consistency keeps him just four points off the lead in 4th despite not winning a race this season. In other news, Valentino Rossi’s Petronas Yamaha SRT deal is all but confirmed with an announcement expected next week.

WEC

Toyota Gazoo Racing achieved a hat-trick of wins at the 24hrs of LeMans with car no.8  piloted by Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley taking the top honors. Following them in 2nd and 5 laps down was the Rebellion Racing crew of Gustavo Menezes, Bruno Senna and Norman Nato. The sister Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez limped home to 3rd after a myriad of technical issues all throughout the race. 

WRC

Off-road racing action resumed at Rally Turkey for round five of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship with Elfyn Evans taking the win for Toyota, 35.2 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville in 2nd. Sebastian Loeb rounded off the podium for Hyundai. The win puts Evans in the lead of the drivers standings, 18 points ahead of teammate Sebastian Ogier with Hyundai’s Ott Tanak 3rd overall. Toyota Gazoo Racing extended their constructor’s championship lead to 9 points over Hyundai Motorsport. Next up for WRC is Sardinia next month for the Rally Italia Sardegna, which is the sixth and penultimate round of the 2020 season. It is scheduled for the period of 8 - 11 October.

Formula One 

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While there was no F1 racing action over the last seven days, there was some positive anticipation for the sport’s return to Turkey as organisers announced that over 40,000 tickets were sold in just six hours after they went on sale.  The race is scheduled to take place at the Istanbul Park circuit on November 15.

Formula E 

The ABB FIA Formula E Championship has reached an important milestone by becoming the first global sport to achieve a net zero carbon footprint since its inception back in 2014. Formula E went through a variety of steps to achieve this, including investing in certified climate-protecting projects and working with carbon footprint experts Quantis to carry out a life cycle assessment which is used to monitor and calculate the championship’s carbon footprint.  Formula E claims that over five seasons, the largest contributor to CO2 emissions has been from freight and transportation between race locations. Season 6 couldn’t be counted due to the coronavirus pandemic and half the season being conducted at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. 

BRDC British F3

Kush Maini’s 2020 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship campaign goes from strength to strength with another consistent run of results at round twelve, thirteen, and fourteen at Donnington Park. Qualifying 2nd for round twelve, the Indian driver finished  3rd at the line with a 10th place finish in round thirteen and then rounding off with a race win in round fourteen for Hitech GP. Maini continues to hold a 54 points championship lead in standings over Kaylen Frederick with another 10 rounds to go.

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