With live coverage finally in our neck of the woods, available on YouTube rather than a suspect stream, there’s every reason to be watching Super Formula this season. And if today’s first round at Suzuka, one of the all-time great Grand Prix circuits, was anything to go by, with Nick Cassidy storming through the field to win and attrition aplenty, it’ll be worth getting into.
The race started with Tadasuke Makino, formerly of F2, cementing his lead ahead of the battling Alex Palou. The opening laps remained fairly static, with few successful moves until Lap 7, when Cassidy, who qualified 12th, pitted for soft tyres. This would turn out to be a masterstroke, as only a few laps later, both 18 year old debutant Tristan Charpentier and stalwart Ryo Hirakawa went off at 130R and into the barriers, bringing out the first safety car.
This was where the madness kicked in. Palou, who had been straining to get past Makino at the start, was slapped with a drive-through penalty and served it just before the Safety Car was deployed, but the field bunching up did alleviate some of the damage. Dan Ticktum was slow to get into his pit box due to his Mugen team double-stacking, and a mechanic even acrobatically jumped over Cassidy’s car to change the wheels as quickly as possible.
The famous Super Formula pitstop…watch the front tyre changer closely.
Yuhi Sekiguchi’s car appeared to momentarily stop in the pitlane before he was able to get it going, but a lap later he pulled back into the pits and became the third of what would turn out to be a long list of retirees. Meanwhile, Cassidy was on the charge, his perfectly-timed pitstop jumping him up into 5th before he dispatched first Makino then Yuji Kunimoto to place himself 3rd. Shortly after, the safety car was out again: Kazuki Nakajima beached his TOM’S Toyota into the Degner 1 gravel, with a distracted Harrison Newey then following him into retirement at Degner 2.
Five retirements within 15 laps just signals the frantic drama Super Formula is good for, and a second safety car three laps later when Hiroaki Ishiura pulled into the pits and Palou’s machine gave up on him only furthered that point. From then on, Cassidy was into a prime position to win a race which looked for all the world yesterday evening to be an exercise in damage limitation. Kamui Kobayashi, the on-track leader, would have to pit again to use a different compound.
A third safety car was brought out this time by Makino, who’s car suffered a right-rear wheel nut failure and sent him into the gravel beside the run up to 130R. Makino would prove, finally, to be the last of the retirements, but there were still twists and turns up the road with Kobayashi trying to find the perfect slot to pit in, Cassidy managing to keep within arms’ reach, and the others jostling for podium/lower positions. Ticktum began to fall down the field, his airbox lighting glowing red (this signals a lack of attack mode – versus green for full, and blue for halfway used) and tyres appearing to be spent.
The final laps proved to be the killer for Kobayashi’s hopes of a strong finish. The late Safety Cars prevented the ex-Sauber F1 driver from banking a good result on a happy hunting ground for him, finishing tenth. Cassidy took the on-track lead on the final lap, and Kenta Yamashita was kept at bay in the end by Naoki Yamamoto, last season’s title winner. Cassidy lost that title by a point, but already, he’s taken first blood and cemented a troubling marker for his rivals.
On the first day back at school for British F3 teams, there was more thrilling action as the season finally got underway.
Kaylen Frederick took the first pole position of the season on Saturday morning before a difficult race saw him slip out of contention, while Clement Novolak and Ayrton Simmons benefited to finish first and second in Race One.
Frederick: For sure, I’m delighted. We’ve done a lot of testing leading up to here and that shows with a 1-2 starting position this weekend.
Definitely, Carlin’s presence in the United States was something to think about but the main reason was because I wanted to come and race in a European series because everything here is quite intense so I can develop myself as a driver a little more and see what I can do. It may be that I go back to the USA with this relationship.
When you’re in a championship with a team like Carlin you know you’re getting a good car so establishing a relationship with this team because they run in so many different series. It seems to be quite a competitive series, drivers that do well in this series tend to go quite far in their careers.
I talked to Colton (Herta, IndyCar race winner) and Cameron Dawson as they’ve been here before, they all said it was a good move and it’s proving so.
Novolak: It was difficult behind the Safety Car because it was out for such a long time so it was difficult to keep the tyres warm, that means it’s easier to make mistakes. But the restart was good and there’s nothing much else to say there.
The experience we got last year in this championship helped, but only doing three or four races out of eight was probably at a disadvantage in terms of championship and wins etc, because we had good pace last year.
For Race Two, it’s going to be largely done on the first lap because it is very narrow and therefore it’s going to be very difficult to overtake, we’ve got to get a good start and keep my nose clean and maybe pick off a couple of guys. I
t’s a track where you can overtake, but there’s a lot less spots to pick people off, it’s not like a Silverstone where you’ve got a lot of long straights so it’s going to be on the brakes, but you’ve got to be following closely which is a challenge.
Simmons: I got off to a really good start, overtook Frederick on the restart and from there it was a really straightforward race. In the Safety Car period I was just trying to keep my cool, keep my tyres up to temperature and try and anticipate the Safety Car coming in, after that you just keep an eye on the leader and go flat out when you need to.
For sure, we want to make up as many places as we can. It is tough to overtake here but I made up a place already, so hopefully we can pick up pieces in Race Two.
The first British Superbike Championship qualifying session of 2019 got underway in vastly contrasting conditions to the corresponding session of 2018, with glorious sunshine baking the Northamptonshire asphalt.
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) claimed his first ever BSB pole in what was a McAMS Yamaha 1-2, with teammate Jason O’Halloran taking second. Both riders have looked evenly matched throughout the weekend and so it was not a surprise to see the pair heading up the grid, although that no doubt did not detract from the delight of both riders and team.
? NEWS: McAMS Yamaha go 1-2 in qualifying at Silverstone
Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) took his first BSB front row in his first BSB qualifying with his first competitive outing on the brand new Ducati Panigale V4R. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the multiple Grand Prix winner was aiming for pole position, but will be content enough with a front row. We have seen in WorldSBK that the V4R is able to save the tyre quite well, so if Redding can make a good start and have a clean race, the #45 could present a large threat in the closing stages.
Perhaps the star of this first BSB qualifying of the season was Josh Elliott (OMG Racing Suzuki) who set the fourth-fastest time in the first qualifying of his first full season of BSB. The 2015 National Superstock 1000 champion is joined on row two by his OMG Racing Suzuki teammate Luke Mossey and the third Yamaha of Dan Linfoot (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha).
Heading up row three tomorrow will be Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing). Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW Motorrad) is the top BMW on the grid in eighth, whilst BSB rookie Luke Stapleford impressively starts ninth tomorrow on his debut for Buildbase Suzuki.
The first rider to not make Q2 was Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing), who will start eleventh tomorrow, ahead of his Honda Racing teammate Xavi Fores and the impressive rookie, Claudio Corti (Team WD40) who was the top Kawasaki in twelfth.
Three ZX-10RRs follow Corti and make up row five, with Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki) an impressive thirteenth on his BSB debut, ahead of Danny Buchan (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) and Glenn Irwin (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki).
As Buchan and Irwin will be disappointed with their respective fourteenth and fifteenth places, Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki) will be disappointed with his sixteenth place. David Allingham (EHA Yamaha) lines up seventeenth tomorrow, whilst Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) was limited to eighteenth thanks to a mechanical problem in Q1.
Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) qualified nineteenth on his BSB debut, missing out on Q2 by just 0.007 seconds. The BMWs of Keith Farmer (Tyco BMW Motorrad) and Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing) complete the seventh row.
Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Ducati), together with Matt Truelove (Raceways Yamaha) and Joe Francis (Lloyd and Jones Bowker Motorrad) make up row eight; Shaun Winfield (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha) heads up James Ellison (Smiths Racing) – who like Brookes suffered a mechanical in Q1 – and Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Racing) on the ninth row.
Fraser Rogers (Gearlink Kawasaki) will start twenty-eighth tomorrow, ahead of Dean Hipwell (CDH Racing) and James Hillier (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) on row ten; and the final two spots on the grid on row eleven will be taken up by Sam Coventry (Team 64 Motorsports) in thirty-first and Conor Cummins (Milenco by Padgetts Motorcycles) in thirty-second.
Carlin Motorsport’s Clement Novolak converted a front row start into British F3 victory as he led almost from pillar to post on Saturday.
Novolak led home Ayrton Simmons, Johnathan Hoggard, Ulysse De Pauw and Sassakorn Chaimongkol in an incident-filled race that saw three retirements.
Hampus Ericsson was sixth ahead of Nazim Azman, Manuel Maldonado and Jewiss, with Josh Mason ahead of Kris Wright, Neil Verhagen and Frederick.
Kiern Jewiss, graduating from British F4, was adjudged to have caused the bulk of those DNFs by making contact with Maldonado force the Venezuelan into the pits and Lucas Petersson, Benjamin Pedersen and Pavan Ravishankar out.
Jewiss, recovering from a slow start, received a 10s penalty to drop from sixth to ninth in the overall classification.
Novolak bettered teammate Kaylen Frederick off the line as Simmons also bettered the American at the early stages of the race.
A lengthy Safety Car period followed, before the drivers were again let loose with eight minutes to go with various bits of British F3 car now collected.
Novolak calmly pulled away a small gap over Simmons and Hoggard, himself having recovered from a less than ideal start.
Frederick, the man to beat after qualifying, had an eventful but ultimately fruitless race as he dropped back before a puncture following contact with compatriot Verhagen effectively ended his race, Verhagen himself pitting with a broken front wing.
Race Two gets underway at 10am on Bank Holiday Monday, with no racing on Easter Sunday.
Scott Maxwell and Sebastian Priaulx took an unusual qualifying clean sweep in GT4 as the Multimatic Ford Mustangs dominated proceedings at a baking Oulton Park.
Canadian Maxwell, having previously never visited Oulton Park, took pole for the morning race on Monday ahead of teammate Jade Buford, with the HHC McLaren duo Dean MacDonald and Tom Jackson very much the best of the rest.
The TF Sport #95 entry of 16-year-old Patrick Kibble was the highest placed Aston Martin of the early session for TF Sport ahead of Tolman’s Jordan Collard and defending GT4 champions Century Motorsport with Mark Kimber.
Alex Toth-Jones in the Academy Motorsport Aston Martin was eighth, while James Dorlin was ninth for Tolman having graduated from the Renault Clio Cup last year ahead of Pro/Am category Championship contender Kelvin Fletcher in the Beechdean Aston Martin.
In Race Two qualifying, Priaulx was over a second clear of the field as he annihilated his GT4 counterparts.
Scott Malvern’s Team Parker Racing Mercedes was the next best, 1.1s behind the Ford Mustang with Michael Broadhurst third to make it an AMG 2-3.
Martin Plowman backed up teammate Fletcher’s earlier top ten starting position with fourth for Beechdean Aston Martin, with Tom Canning’s TF Sport Aston rounding out a competitive top five.
Matt George was sixth in the Invictus Racing Jaguar ahead of Luke Williams in the HHC McLaren and Lewis Proctor’s Tolman McLaren, with defending champions Century Motorsport ninth on the grid with Angus Fender and Josh Smith in the second Tolman completing the top ten.
Elsewhere, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the three Ford Mustang entries, as Sam Smelt and Aron Taylor-Smith hit strife in the Race Performance #23 to start from the back of the field on Bank Holiday Monday.
Iain Loggie will start from pole position for the first race of the British GT 2019 season after an impressive display during AM qualifying.
Loggie was over half a second clear in his first race since switching from Bentley to a Mercedes for this season at a hot Oulton Park.
The Scotsman will lead Ryan Ratcliffe’s Bentley away from the lights on Monday morning after a strong showing from the Welshman, with Sam De Haan’s Lamborghini completing the top three.
Rick Parfitt Junior will go from fourth after again teaming up with Bentley and Seb Morris, ahead of Dominic PAul and Adam Balon.
Callum Willmott and Mark Farmer complete row four as Aston Martin still try to find their feet with the new V8 Vantage ahead of Richard Neary and Graham Davidson, with the troubled Shaun Balfe McLaren and Ollie Wilkinson’s Aston Martin on the penultimate row ahead of Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston Martin.
In GT4 Pro qualifying, it was another strong RAM Racing showing as Adam Christodoulou was able to qualify third behind a stunning lap from Phil Keen in the Barwell Lamborghini and Callum Macleod’s excellent showing for Bentley.
Seb Morris’ fourth place to back the earlier result up of his teammate Parfitt suggests that Bentley are back on song after a difficult 2018 campaign for the 2017 champions.
Jonny Cocker was fifth for Barwell ahead of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen in the Aston Martins, while the Century Motorsport BMW duo of Jack Mitchell and Ben Green were eighth and ninth.
Defending champion Jonny Adam was only 10th in the TF Sport Aston Martin V8 Vantage, with Bradley Ellis and Glynn Geddie rounding off the GT3 class after Rob Bell’s McLaren failed to set a time.
Kaylen Frederik of Carlin Motorsport took the first British F3 pole position of the 2019 season at a sunny Oulton Park at the traditional Easter weekend season-opener.
A tight session that saw several drivers swap pole position times at the start settled down when Frederick took provisional pole midway through qualifying, with 13 cars covered by one second enough to illustrate that 2019 will be very tough to call.
Frederick took charge of the session midway through after teammate Clement Novolak had made all of the early running to take the initial pole position.
Ayrton Simmons will start from third behind the Carlin duo alongside Johnathon Hoggard, with Belgian Ulysse De Pauw and Kiern Jewiss completing row three.
Neil Verhagen is seventh ahead of the returning Sassakorn Chaimongkol in eighth, Lucas Petersson and Manuel Maldonado completing the top ten.
Hampus Ericsson and Nazim Azman complete row six as the top twelve cars remain covered by less than a second, with Benjamin Pedersen, Pavan Ravishankar, Kris Wright and Josh Mason rounding off a 16-car grid.
The story doesn’t end there, with the second-fastest times for the session deciding the grid for Race Three on Monday afternoon.
Simmons will take pole position for that ahead of Hoggard, Novolak, Frederick, Jewiss and Verhagen the top six for the final British F3 race of the weekend.
After a long winter break, the British Superbike Championship returns this weekend for the opening round of the 2019 season at Silverstone.
The 2018 round at the Northamptonshire track saw the national layout used, following the MotoGP fiasco a couple of weeks prior. The results were fantastic, as the racing was close and action-packed. Additionally, it is easy for a national championship to make a facility the size of Silverstone seem empty, even with a solid attendance, because certain grandstands will be shut off, and often the races can become quite spread out on a 3.6-mile circuit. The national layout combated both of those issues, although that was not the intention, with the shorter layout seeing big groups fight for the lead for the whole race, and the smaller area making the atmosphere more tangible from the television perspective.
The Silverstone National track layout left going down Wellington Straight. Image courtesy of Tom McKay/Wikipedia
The positive feedback of Silverstone’s round last year prompted the Championship to run the shorter circuit this year as well, and as such the series will likely be off to a thrilling start.
Last year’s races saw Leon Haslam claim both victories, but with both the reigning BSB champion and Jake Dixon, last year’s runner up, having moved on, there is expected to be a shake up this year, with yet more young riders coming through and big names from the World Championship arriving to mix it up with the more established names in the British championship.
Of course, one of the biggest talking points this year in the World Superbike Championship has been the domination of, in the hands of Alvaro Bautista, the new Ducati Panigale V4R. Ahead of the start of the BSB season, there is some anticipation about the performance of the new Ducati in the hands of Scott Redding, his BeWiser Ducati teammate and 2015 BSB champion Josh Brookes, as well as Tommy Bridewell (Oxford MotoRapido). The main advantage of the new Panigale is its motor, and in WorldSBK it seems that Bautista has been able to extract the maximum from the V4R’s strongest point. It will be interesting to see if any of the Ducati riders in the British series are able to do something similar, although with the lack of any real straights in British tracks, the likelihood of that is small.
Nonetheless, it is going to be interesting to see how the bike performs, and also how its pilots perform. Scott Redding is perhaps the most highly anticipated rider in BSB this year, having come from Grand Prix where he was many times a winner, many times a podium finisher and once a championship challenger. From his fairly active social media accounts, it seems Redding is looking forward to this season, and that it probably not something he has felt for a few years. Certainly, the ex-MotoGP star will be both expecting and expected to fight for the championship this year, despite his lack of knowledge of the British tracks, of Pirelli tyres and of derivative racing in general.
His teammate, Josh Brookes, however, has none of the ‘excuses’ – if that’s what you’d like to call them – that Redding has for this year. A veteran of the BSB paddock, and the 2015 champion, Brookes is sure to be a favourite this year, especially with such a strong package. Perhaps it is also worth remembering that Brookes’ title winning year was also the racing debut year of the current model Yamaha R1, much as 2019 is the debut of the Panigale V4R.
Tommy Bridewell. Image courtesy of Ducati
For the third Ducati rider this year, Tommy Bridewell, there is a sense of opportunity in 2019. Having gelled so well with the V-twin Panigale in the second half of last season, it was no surprise to see the #46 retained by the MotoRapido squad for 2019, and both he and the team will be hoping that the relationship with the new V4R will be as smooth and fruitful as the short-lived partnership between Bridewell and the V-twin at the end of last year.
In all likelihood, the V4R will not be as dominant in BSB as it has been to this point in the World Championship. The regulations in BSB have so far worked perfectly since their introduction, allowing all makes and models of Superbike to be competitive on the national scene in Britain. It would therefore be a shock to see Ducati make off with this championship as they are doing on the world stage. As well as the Borgo Panigale machines, Yamaha, Honda, BMW, Suzuki and Kawasaki should all be there fighting for race wins as well.
Yamaha, with Tarran Mackenzie and Jason O’Halloran at the McAMS Yamaha outfit, and with Dan Linfoot at the TAG Racing squad, will be hoping to reclaim the championship they last won in 2015 with Brookes. Seeing the R1 so strong in the World Championship so far in 2019 must fill the BSB riders with a lot of confidence about their chances for this season.
Despite being in only his second season of BSB, Mackenzie will be heading to Silverstone this weekend in search of the first win he so nearly clinched at the same track last year, and from there will hope to fight all the way for the title. Similarly, his teammate O’Halloran, and their stablemate Linfoot, are brand new to Yamaha this year, but will be after results from the beginning.
There are also two new faces in Honda for this season, with Andrew Irwin being joined by multiple WSBK podium finisher Xavi Fores in the factory Honda squad. Irwin made a superb adaptation to Superbike last year after his mid-season call up to the PBM Ducati squad to replace the injured Shane Byrne. That earned him the Honda ride, and he will certainly be one to watch out for this year.
Fores, on the other hand, has a similar situation to Redding. The Spaniard has zero knowledge of British tracks ahead of this season, and so will be learning every time he goes out on track. However, unlike Redding, he doesn’t have 240hp.
The new BMW this year has proven a hit on the world stage, both factory BMW riders in WSBK, Tom Sykes and Markus Reiterberger, praising the chassis of the new S1000RR. What it has in the corners, however, it certainly loses in the straights. Whilst that might not be such a problem at most British circuits, at the most wide-open track of the year – which, whilst the Hangar straight is missing, is still very fast – a lack of power is likely to be the biggest hindrance this weekend.
Those riders who were able to make the old S1000RR work so well in the past – mostly Peter Hickman (Smith’s Racing) – will be hoping they can make the new bike work in a similar way, but with such a difference in bike characteristic there will undoubtedly be some adapting to do this year. This adaptation process will carry on through much of the season, too, since neither Smith’s nor TAS Racing received their new BMWs in time for the official BSB tests in Spain, so only had the Silverstone test last week to start work on their new machines.
For the third BMW team, PR Racing, and their rider Joe Francis, this process is delayed even further as their new bike will not be race-ready until round two at Oulton Park, and so the Liverpool-based team will be running the old-spec bike at round one this weekend.
Bradley Ray at 2019 BSB testing for Buildbase Suzuki. Image courtesy of Suzuki Racing
Suzuki once more will be pinning their hopes on Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki). The Milkybar Kid has certainly impressed the factory bosses; two wins and a further podium in the first two rounds of last season were followed by an impressive performance at the Suzuka 8 Hour last summer, and in February Ray got his first taste of MotoGP with the GSX-RR in Sepang.
Whether Ray will be able to return to the form that impressed so much at the start of last season, but faded through the rest of the year, remains to be seen, but should the #28 be able to maintain form like that throughout the thirteen rounds he could be a real problem for his rivals.
Kawasaki won their first BSB crown since Shane Byrne in 2014, last year, but with Leon Haslam having moved up to the World Championship the pressure now lies with, primarily, Glenn Irwin (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) and Danny Buchan (FS-3 Kawasaki) to retain that title. Irwin’s teammate, Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) will also be looking to make his mark this year on the top class as he moves up from Supersport for his first season on a Superbike.
Featured Image courtesy of Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
After seven months of hibernation and relative silence, the British GT series returns for 2019 at Oulton Park for the traditional Easter Weekend curtain-raiser.
35 cars including 13 GT3s, 21 GT4s and one GTC will compete in two hour-long races on Easter Monday, with Easter Sunday seeing no track action.
There’s plenty of new additions to the British GT series with Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and McLaren all bringing new GT3 challengers to this year’s party, while BMW and Mercedes are also in the category.
Aston Martin have replaced their V12 Vantage, the most successful car in British GT history, with a new V8 model. Record-breaking history-making Scotsman Jonny Adam remains part of their armoury having left Optimum Motorsport for TF Sport paired with Graham Davidson, one of the most entertaining drivers on the grid. They’re joined by Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim, a pairing looking to right a few wrongs after hitting bad luck last season.
Optimum, last season’s champions, have also taken the new V8 Vantage and will have Oliver Wilkinson and 2007 champion Bradley Ellis to maintain their challenge. Beechdean AMR have retained two-time champion Andrew Howard, while Marco Sorensen has resurfaced alongside Howard after spending last season at TF Sport.
Barwell Motorsport are back into British GT battle with Lamborghini’s new Huracan GT3 Evo. Last year’s rookie Sam De Haan partners Jonny Cocker, while arrival of Adam Balon marks the only driver change from 2018 at the expense of Jon Minshaw. Phil Keen returns this season hoping to be the bride, and not the bridesmaid, in 2019.
For Bentley, it’s a new car with some old friends for 2019. The new Continental GT3 2017 champions Rick Parfitt Jnr, whose break from racing was shortlived, and Seb Morris returning to the series with newcomers JRM, while Team Parker Racing will field Ryan Ratcliffe and Glynn Geddie for 2019.
2019 marks a step up in class for 2018 GT4 champions, Century Motorsport. Jack Mitchell and Ben Green were the top dogs last year and will race alongside Adrian Willmott and Dominic Paul respectively, on a weekend where the British GT paddock will undoubtedly find out more about BMW’s M6.
McLaren’s new 720S will prove a welcome boost to Shaun Balfe and Rob Bell at Balfe Motorsport while Richard Neary and Adam Christodoulou in the Mercedes are back for a full year at ABBA Racing alongside Iain Loggie and Callum Macleod at RAM Racing.
And onto GT4…
With Ben Tuck and Jack Mitchell moving to GT3, it is all change at Century Motorsport and BMW. Three British GT debutants Mark Kimber, Angus Fender and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke make their bow this weekend while Jacob Mathiassen returns.
Stability is the key with Mercedes-AMGs GT4 entrants. Team Parker’s Nick Jones and Scott Malvern took 2018’s Pro/Am title, Mark Murfitt and Michael Broadhurst begin their second season with Fox Motorsport.
Aston Martin are well backed in GT4 for 2019, Beechdean AMR’s Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman came close to Pro/Am glory last year, Mike Robinson and Patrik Matthiesen are paired in one of Optimum’s two entries. TF Sport and Academy Motorsport also represent the marque.
McLaren’s 570S returns with Tolman Motorsport and another two-pronged assault working with McLaren Driver Development Programme members. HHC have switched from Ginettas and have Callum Pointon and Dean Macdonald amongst its ranks this term, while Balfe Motorsport are back in 2019,
Ford brings its iconic Mustang to the British GT Championship in 2019 with Multimatic Motorsports entering two, while RACE enter a third raced by ex-BTCC racers Sam Smelt and Aron Taylor-Smith. They could well be an entry to watch.
The Jaguar F-Type is also back in the familiar hands of Steve McCulley and Matthew George, Invictus Games Racing having halved their entry list for 2019 while KTM return for the first time since 2011.
The Circuit of the Americas is not famed for its fantastic ability to produce fantastic racing, nor is it famous for producing memorable races. In fact, the mood in the MotoGP paddock this weekend has been somewhat negative about COTA, primarily because of its surface. However, everybody forgot about the surface come race time for the MotoGP riders.
The expectation whilst waiting for the race to commence was that Marc Marquez(above) would reign supreme. Image courtesy of Box Repsol
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) didn’t make a great jump from pole. In fact, the best jump off the front row was that of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL), but nonetheless the front three on the grid went into turn one in the same order: Marquez from Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Crutchlow.
Marquez bolted, as you would expect, but Rossi went with him. For one lap Valentino Rossi was able to keep Marquez within striking distance, which around COTA is quite an achievement. However, Marquez’ lead soon grew, and went out to one second, then two, then three, and Rossi’s attention switched to those attacking his position from behind: Crutchlow, Jack Miller (Lamborghini Pramac) and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar).
Marc Marquez with a sizeable gap from Valentino Rossi and the rest of the field at the 2019 MotoGP Americas GP race. Image courtesy of Box Repsol
Crutchlow looked like he had the pace over Rossi, but the Italian had his YZR-M1 set so it was punching well off the bottom gear corners, and Crutchlow was not able to find a way past. The Brit’s frustration grew, and eventually he crashed in turn eleven, and all hopes of a second podium finish from the opening three races was gone.
Soon after, the unthinkable happened. Whilst the world feed visuals went to a replay, the audio remained with the live feed, and the crowd could be heard. They were in shock.
Marc Marquez had never been beaten at the Circuit of the Americas, he had not lost in America since 2009. But, at the 2019 Grand Prix of the Americas, he folded the front of the Honda RC213V in turn twelve on lap nine, and his incredible run was at an end.
Valentino Rossi with the race lead after Marc crashed. But Alex Rins was waiting to pounce upon Valentino at the 2019 MotoGP AmericasGP. Image courtesy of Yamaha Corporation
Suddenly, the race for second had become the race for the win. Valentino Rossi led, initially, from Jack Miller, but it was not long before Alex Rins passed the Aussie as the Desmosedici ran wide in turn eleven.
That released the Suzuki, and he closed on Rossi. After spending a few laps stalking his prey, Rins made his move on lap seventeen at turn seven – ironically, the same corner where Marquez made his race-winning overtake on Dani Pedrosa for his first ever MotoGP win back in 2013.
Rossi tried to respond, but running wide in turn eleven with two laps to go was a mistake he could have done without, even despite an all-or-nothing final lap which saw him close almost to within striking range.
Alex Rins, taking the lead of the 2019 Americas MotoGP race. Image courtesy of Suzuki Racing
Rins held firm, and took his first ever MotoGP win, at a track where nobody can win apart from the reigning champion. A completely unexpected result, and one which saw the Spaniard climb to third in the World Championship standings.
Whilst it was a first win for Rins, it was also a first win for Suzuki since 2016, when Maverick Vinales won at Silverstone. This is important for Suzuki, who have been knocking on the door with Rins for well over half a year, and – crucially – they did it without concessions. Now we wait to see whether the floodgates have opened for Rins and Suzuki.
Once more, Valentino Rossi was thwarted in the closing stages of a race, which seems to have happened quite a lot since his last win in Assen 2017. Nonetheless, the effort put in by The Doctor throughout the race was undoubted, and he was gracious enough to congratulate Rins on his debut win, and admit the Suzuki rider was better on the day. The positives for Rossi are that he had, like in Argentina two weeks ago, tyre left at the end of the race with which he could fight back, as well as now being second in the World Championship, three points off the top.
Jack Miller had been without a podium since his memorable win back in Assen 2016 on the Marc VDS Honda, but he put that streak to an end in Texas with a pretty tough, lonely ride to third. He chose soft tyres on both ends of his Ducati, but the front was too soft. In fact, it was front locking which sent him wide in turn eleven that allowed Rins through. Once he realised he didn’t have the grip to fight with Rossi or Rins for the race win, Miller settled into third, but a charge from Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) kept the Aussie on his toes until the end.
Andrea Dovizioso finishing 4th at the MotoGP of the Americas 2019. Image courtesy of Ducati
It was a difficult race for Dovizioso, which was always going to be the case after qualifying thirteenth. However, it was not the qualifying, in the end, which kept him from the podium, it was a lack of pace in the beginning of the race. He started well, climbing immediately to sixth, but he soon dropped to seventh behind Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT), and he stayed there for much of the race. He was eventually able to pass his compatriot, but it was too late to get near Miller for the podium. Nonetheless, it is Dovizioso who leads the standings heading into the classic European tracks, with Jerez next up in two weeks.
Morbidelli was able to hang onto fifth place which, at a track he finished last at in 2018, is a solid result for the 2017 Moto2 World Champion. He dropped nine seconds behind Dovizioso once the Ducati got past, but he managed to split the factory Ducatis, coming home three seconds ahead of Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati), who will just be glad the weekend is over after a third sixth place in as many races.
Behind Petrucci was Morbidelli’s Petronas Yamaha SRT teammate, Fabio Quartararo who took his best MotoGP finish so far with seventh. Three seconds further back was Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) whose eighth place finish is not as spectacular as his fifth place qualifying, but impressive nonetheless for the Spaniard, who was twelve seconds ahead of his teammate, Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).
Francesco Bagnaia (Lamborghini Pramac) took an impressive debut top ten finish with ninth, after his electronics-induced crashes in Q2. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) completed the top ten.
Maverick Vinales with a disappoint 2019 MotoGP AmericasGP. Image courtesy Yamaha Corporation
Maverick Vinales’ (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) race was ruined before it began, as he was given a ride through penalty for a jump start. It was more clear than Cal Crutchlow’s in Argentina, and the Spaniard has nothing he can complain about. However, there was some confusion about his penalty, as Vinales took the long lap penalty initially before completing his ride through, so cost himself an extra two or three seconds than he needed. His fight back through the pack had him recover to eleventh, just ahead of Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini).
Johann Zarco came home in thirteenth, just 1.8 seconds ahead of rookie stablemate, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira who was fourteenth. Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) took the final point in fifteenth.
The first non-points-scorer was Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) who was sixteenth, ahead of Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who also had a ride through but could only recover to seventeenth. Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech3) was the final classified finisher in eighteenth.
Before Crutchlow and Marquez went down, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) crashed the factory RSGP. The only other retirement was the third, final-standing factory Honda of Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) whose nightmare top ten drought stretching back to Austria last year will enter its ninth month after a mechanical in Texas put an end to his race.
