International Motorsport Roundup: F1 Pre-season Testing To MotoGP Cancellations, And More

The last seven days saw the final preparations come to a close before the 2020 motorsport season gets underway. It started off with Formula One’s second and final pre-season test in Spain. Meanwhile, a fan favorite is set to make his return to the WRC ahead of the Rally Guanajuato Corona Mexico. We also saw a closely fought round five of the 2019-20 FIA Formula E Championship in Marrakesh. And finally, the spread of COVID-19, which has already impacted Formula 1, has led to two MotoGP races being suspended: 

Formula 1

The second and final three-day pre-season test saw Robert Kubica from Alfa Romeo top day 1, with Sebastian Vettel fastest in day 2 for Ferrari. Valtteri Bottas topped the final day of pre-season testing for Mercedes. While we saw many teams shift towards softer rubber and representative laps, nobody came close to beating the fastest lap time of 1:15.7 seconds set by Bottas in the previous week’s test. The season kicks off at Melbourne on March 15. However, many of the opening flyaway races are under threat of postponement like China owing to Coronavirus.

MotoGP

The 2020 MotoGP World Championship calendar faced two major bombshells starting with the cancellation of the season-opening Qatar GP scheduled for March 8. However, the Moto2 and Moto3 categories will be racing there, owing to the teams already present for pre-season testing. Then came the news that the Thailand GP will be postponed as per an announcement by the country’s health minister. This means that the premier class season will tentatively commence at the Grand Prix of the Americas, which will be held from April 3-5 in Austin, Texas. 

WRC

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Ken Block of Gymkhana fame will compete in the upcoming Rally Guanajuato Corona Mexico scheduled for March 12-15. The American rally driver will represent Hoonigan Racing, piloting a Ford Escort RS Cosworth as a national entry. Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino have experienced the Guanajuato five times with a best place finish of seventh on their last attempt in 2013.

Formula E

The past week also witnessed Round 5 of the 2019/2020 ABB FIA Formula-E Championship at Marrakesh.  DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix Da Costa grabbed pole ahead of Maximilian Gunther from BMW Andretti with Porsche’s Andre Lotter bringing up the top 3. The race got underway with Da Costa and Gunther establishing an early buffer to the chasing pack. A closely fought battle saw Da Costa dominate out front with Gunther facing a strong challenge from reigning champion Jean Eric Vergne for 2nd. A final lap showdown saw Gunther take back 2nd place with Da Costa taking the win. Despite losing 2nd, it was a strong recovery from 11th for Vergne who was under the weather the entire race weekend. The race win leaves Da Costa leading the driver’s standings by 11 points and DS Techeetah leading by 8 points in the constructor’s standings.

Others

In other news, freshly signed Red Bull Junior driver Jehan Daruvala set the third fastest time in day 1 of the FIA Formula 2 pre-season test in Bahrain. His lap time put him around three tenths off the fastest time set by Pedro Piquet with Nobuharu Matsushita second fastest. The top 18 drivers were covered by barely a second. However, this is testing where teams and drivers do tend to hold back a little. Expect the true pecking order to be revealed once the season opener commences on March 20.

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