Author: Ian Dobson

02 Apr 2021

Aprilia’s Espargaro tops FP1 as Morbidelli suffers technical woes

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the Argentine and US GPs to be postponed, MotoGP remains in Qatar for a second week for the first ever Doha GP. Morbidelli’s Qatar GP last Sunday was wrecked by a technical issue that he admitted on Thursday hasn’t fully been diagnosed by Petronas SRT and Yamaha. He set the […]

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02 Apr 2021

Mazepin “beating himself up” over Bahrain woes, says Steiner

Mazepin’s F1 debut weekend went from bad to worse when he lost control on the Turn 2 kerbs at the start, veering into the barriers and ending his first race after less than a mile. Mazepin took full responsibility for his mistake, saying his team “deserved better”. Team principal Steiner said Mazepin was “pretty beat […]

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02 Apr 2021

Vinales “pissed off” over Yamaha’s starts to MotoGP races

Vinales qualified second for last weekend’s season-opener at Losail, but dropped to sixth at the end of the first lap after four Ducatis and Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo jumped him. Race starts were a prominent feature of Vinales’ Qatar test and practice programme, and though his launch wasn’t bad it simply wasn’t enough to counteract […]

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02 Apr 2021

F1 podium still far away despite Bahrain GP progress

After a disastrous 2020 season in which Ferrari dropped down to sixth in the constructors’ championship, Charles Leclerc qualified an impressive fourth and finished sixth in the season opener. Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr also qualified in the top 10 and wound up eighth in the race to give Ferrari its first double points finish since […]

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02 Apr 2021

Doha GP ‘not a must-win’ for Ducati MotoGP rider Miller

Ducati won the previous two Qatar GPs in 2018 and 2019 with Andrea Dovizioso, while the Italian managed runner-up spot on his works team Desmosedici from 2015-2017. Having topped the Qatar test outright, Miller was expected to continue Ducati’s run last weekend, but tyre issues dropped him to ninth while Pramac’s Johann Zarco ended up […]

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02 Apr 2021

Verstappen won’t make Turn 4 mistake again

Hamilton beat Verstappen to victory in F1’s 2021 opener despite the Red Bull driver’s pace advantage, by hanging on after Mercedes’ aggressive strategy calls got the world champion ahead and Verstappen went too wide at the Bahrain track’s controversial Turn 4 right-hander as the pair went wheel-to-wheel in the closing stages. … Continue Reading on […]

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02 Apr 2021

KTM has “taken a hard blow” by Qatar MotoGP tyre allocation

The entire MotoGP field were forced into running the soft front tyre during last weekend’s season-opener at Losail due to the dropping temperatures of the evening race. This is a compound KTM has typically struggled on in the past, with its preferred hard option not viable for the conditions. Binder’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira took a […]

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02 Apr 2021

Alfa Romeo has reclaimed its spot in the F1 midfield

The team endured a poor 2020 season, scoring just eight points on its way to eighth place in the constructors’ championship, with its best result coming in the Emilia Romagna GP, where Kimi Raikkonen was ninth. But, in pre-season testing, Alfa emerged as one of the surprises with its C41 car, which hinted at being […]

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01 Apr 2021

Rossi questions “respect” of some MotoGP riders

The Petronas SRT rider was nudged slightly wide by Binder in the latter stages of last Sunday’s 2021 season-opener at Turn 1 – though Rossi ended up two spots ahead of the KTM in 12th at the chequered flag. The incident required no intervention from Race Direction, while Binder doesn’t believe there was any contact. […]

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01 Apr 2021

Ricciardo promised ride in Earnhardt Chevrolet in new F1 podium bet

Ricciardo jumped ship from Renault to McLaren during the off-season, hoping to do better than the two podiums he achieved in two years with the Enstone team.  After not being able to finish in the top three in his first season with Renault, Ricciardo got team boss Cyril Abiteboul to agree on getting a tattoo […]

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