2022

Ben Sulayem very sure Lewis Hamilton will race in 2022

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes Lewis Hamilton will return to Mercedes for the 2022 Formula One season. Despite Lewis Hamilton’s radio quiet since losing the 2021 Formula One World Championship on the penultimate lap of the final race, newly elected FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem is certain that the seven-time World Champion will return to racing in 2022. Since that race weekend, rumors have circulated that Hamilton may not return in 2022, rumors that Hamilton has not sought to refute. While Mercedes has stated that its star driver will take up the baton again in 2022 at the start of the new regulation cycle, it is still possible that he will choose to retire. However, Ben Sulayem, who took over as FIA President from Jean Todt a week before Christmas, is certain that F1’s most illustrious driver will return and will not simply walk away. “No, I don’t think so, they are rumours…” Ben Sulayem said in an interview at the start of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. “Has he declared that he will not return? No. When you are a driver, you speak for yourself and not what others say about you.” “I trust that this is not the case, Lewis is an important part of the sport and of F1, his achievements. Verstappen is there… I am sure we will find a very exciting F1 next season.” Ben Sulayem said he understood Hamilton’s dissatisfaction with his decision not to attend the mandated FIA Prize-Giving Gala in Paris four days after the season finale. With Hamilton potentially facing disciplinary action from the FIA for failing to attend, the President stated that after reaching out to Hamilton, he has received no response. “I sent him messages, yes, I think he is not 100 percent ready yet and I understand his position,” he explained. “But there are also rules that must be accepted by all drivers. For me, there is no particular team or driver, out of respect for the integrity of the FIA. “But I cannot judge until I have all the data and the first thing on my agenda is to thoroughly analyse what happened in Abu Dhabi. “In the end, we are all human and the stress and pressure were there, so I think it will all work out. You have to look more to the future than to the past.”

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Al Attiyah maintains lead after winning Stage 1, bad day for Audi

Kevin Peterson05 mins

Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota strolled to victory on the first stage of the 2022 Dakar Rally, while Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron competitor had a dreadful day. Al-Attiyah was under heavy pressure from the three Audis during the first half of the 333km special near Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, with the German marque’s lead runner Stephane Peterhansel only six seconds behind him after the first 120km. However, en route to the following waypoint, Audi’s issues began to unravel, with 14-time Dakar winner Peterhansel becoming the first to drop out after sustaining serious damage to his RS Q e-tron in a crash. The Frenchman had been waiting for help vehicles to arrive to repair the damage for more than four hours, with the back axle fractured and the left-rear suspension badly damaged. However, Audi’s problems did not end there, as Carlos Sainz Sr soon lost more than two hours searching for a difficult checkpoint near the finish of the stage, after falling six minutes behind the leaders due to unrelated issues earlier in the day. With Mattias Ekstrom in the third Audi slipping behind as the stage drew to a close, Al-Attiyah was able to expand his lead in the leading Toyota, finally winning by a respectable margin of 12m44s. Due to Audi’s problems, rally great Sebastien Loeb jumped to second place overall, spearheading the charge for the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team. In the later half of the stage, Loeb and Al-Attiyah were the only two frontrunners to cross the correct checkpoint on the first attempt. This allowed the duo to establish a significant lead after the first stage, with Benzina Ford’s Martin Prokop finishing over 10 minutes behind them. Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota), Vladimir Vasilyev (VRT BMW), and Sebastian Halpern (X-raid Mini) finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, while Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Factory Racing) finished seventh. The top ten was completed by Jakub Przygonski (Orlen Mini), Saudi driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota), and five-time bikes champion Cyril Despres (GPX Peugeot). Nani Roma (Prodrive), the 2014 event winner, was classified 23rd after losing a significant amount of time due to navigational troubles of his own, three places ahead of Ekstrom’s best Audi. Sainz is currently ranked 32nd overall, having finished the stage 2h07m behind winner Al-Attiyah. After a puncture at the 142km mark, Toyota driver Henk Lategan had yet to complete the stage at the time of writing. Dakar Rally 2022 Stage 1 results: Pos # Driver/co-driver Team Time Gap 1 201 N. AL-ATTIYAH (QAT)M. BAUMEL (AND) TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 03:30:53   2 211 S. LOEB (FRA)F. LURQUIN (BEL) BAHRAIN RAID XTREME 03:43:37 00:12:44 3 209 M. PROKOP (CZE)V. CHYTKA (CZE) BENZINA ORLEN TEAM 03:53:32 00:22:39 4 222 L. ALVAREZ (ARG)A. MONLEON (ESP) OVERDRIVE TOYOTA 03:58:35 00:27:42 5 208 V. VASILYEV (RAF)O. UPERENKO (LVA) VRT TEAM 03:59:51 00:28:58 6 223 S. HALPERN (ARG)B. GRAUE (ARG) X-RAID MINI JCW TEAM 04:00:30 00:29:37 7 207 G. DE VILLIERS (ZAF)D. MURPHY (ZAF) TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 04:04:26 00:33:33 8 203 J. PRZYGONSKI (POL)T. GOTTSCHALK (DEU) ORLEN TEAM 04:12:44 00:41:51 9 205 Y. AL RAJHI (SAU)M. ORR (GBR) OVERDRIVE TOYOTA 04:14:33 00:43:40 10 221 O. TERRANOVA (ARG)D. OLIVERAS CARRERAS (ESP) BAHRAIN RAID XTREME 04:20:20 00:49:27 11 218 Y. SEAIDAN (SAU)A. KUZMICH (RAF) X-RAID MINI JCW TEAM 04:22:26 00:51:33 12 204 N. ROMA (ESP)A. HARO BRAVO (ESP) BAHRAIN RAID XTREME 04:49:27 01:18:34

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Stephane Peterhansel’s hopes of Dakar win dealt a big blow after crash

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Following serious damage to his Audi on Sunday’s opening stage, reigning Dakar Rally champion Stephane Peterhansel has effectively gone out of contention for victory in 2022. Peterhansel had been running an excellent second in his electric Audi RS Q e-tron, barely six seconds behind overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota, after finishing 14th in Saturday’s Prologue. However, after hitting “something” in a patch of camel grass 153 kilometers into the stage at Ha’il, the Frenchman destroyed the rear axle of his Audi RS Q e-tron. Both Peterhansel and his co-driver, Edouard Boulanger, were unharmed in the incident, although they were detained for 6h20m while waiting for help. To make room for the technicians of their assistance vehicle, they first disassembled the entire left rear axle. The Frenchmen continued their journey through the stage after the truck arrived and replaced the broken pieces. However, after losing another half-hour on an unexplained issue 40 kilometers later, they decided to abandon the stage at the neutralisation point at 207 kilometers and return to the bivouac by road, avoiding the dangers of driving at night, arriving at 20:15 local time. These setbacks have practically killed Peterhansel’s ambitions of winning the Dakar for a record-tying 15th time in 2022, but he is set to return to the race on Monday to continue developing Audi’s sophisticated electric competitor. After three seasons with X-raid Mini, the 56-year-old is leading Audi’s comeback to cross-country rallying this year, with former teammate Carlos Sainz Sr and two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom rounding out the three-car lineup.

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Red Bull heads to court over Fallows departure

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Red Bull and exiting aero chief Dan Fallows have made their first court appearance regarding Fallows’ departure from the team. Dan Fallows was announced as Aston Martin’s new Technical Director for 2022, back in June 2021. Nonetheless, Red Bull indicated that they would not allow him to leave without serving an enforced period of notice. Fallows accepted the offer from Aston Martin, intending to start on January 1st, 2022. Fallows’ contract with Red bull states that he must serve a six-month notice period, which will only be triggered by December 31st, 2022 at the earliest. With this, he won’t be eligible to join Aston Martin until 2023, on July 1st. His appointment as Aston Martin Technical Director appears to be a breach of his contract, and given that construction on the 2022 car has already begun, Red Bull is keen to prevent the knowledge he gained while working with Adrian Newey’s technical departments from leaking to Aston Martin. According to court documents from the hearing, Fallows was removed from the F1 side of the Red Bull organization and assigned to the development of a Red Bull road car. Following the demotion Fallows subsequently gave his notice two months later, requesting an immediate termination from Red Bull. According to court records, he believes his notice period is unenforceable since it is “in restriction of trade.” Despite Fallows’ examples of other ex-Red Bull employees who left without serving their full notice period, Red Bull declined his resignation, claiming that their jobs were not comparable to his. The court hearing was set for December 17th, 2021. A decision is expected by the end of January, but Red Bull appears to be in good shape. The case will be heard in court from January 25th to January 28th, despite the fact that the judge has already denied Fallows’ application.

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Mercedes drops a hint that Lewis Hamilton will race in 2022

Kevin Peterson02 mins

The Mercedes team has hinted there is no doubt Lewis Hamilton will return to racing in 2022. Mercedes Formula 1 team shared a social media update recently suggesting that Lewis Hamilton will drive one of their cars in 2022. Since the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, rumors have swirled that Hamilton may not return in 2022, due to the nature of his title loss to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Despite being in the lead for most of the race, Hamilton was overtaken by Verstappen on the final lap after a controversial Safety Car intervened late in the race. Apart from one TV interview before the podium and a public appearance to receive his knighthood in the UK, Hamilton has remained silent since that day and even removed every follower from his own social media accounts. With the image of Hamilton, Mercedes posted a status saying, “Adversity causes some to break; others to break records.” Having said that, it is likely that Hamilton will return in 2022 in a bid to surpass the record he shares with Michael Schumacher – seven Drivers’ World Championship titles. Earlier this week, Hamilton’s brother, Nicolas, offered an update and revealed that the seven-time Champ is currently taking a break from social media. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that Hamilton was left “shell-shocked” by the title outcome, while Helmut Marko believes he will return for next season.

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Perez: Heavier 2022 F1 cars will bring challenges

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Sergio Perez has joined the list of drivers who have spoken out about the issues that the new 2022 cars will present, owing to their radically different construction. The new Formula 1 cars will look different due to wholesale regulation changes, but the change in aerodynamic construction, along with new tyres and a raft of technical adjustments, will necessitate a different approach behind the wheel – although Valtteri Bottas disagrees and believes there is little difference between the cars. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc have also mentioned the necessity to change their driving style for next season, and Perez alluded to the new machinery’s added weight as one key difference. The cars’ minimum weight will be 795kg, which is 43 kilos more than in 2021. The minimum weight was set at 775 kilograms, however the FIA recently increased it by 20 kilograms. This corresponds to a 5.7 percent weight increase, which may not seem like much, but the Red Bull guy feels it will be a substantial shift for the drivers. “Yes. I’ve driven the car and I think it’s going to be very different, of course,” Perez told reporters in an interview at the end of the season. “The cars are a lot heavier than where they are now, so definitely…. yes…. takes a lot.” Following his switch to Red Bull for the 2021 season, Perez admitted that he needed time to adjust to his new car after being chosen over Alex Albon after Racing Point dropped him. The 31-year-old typically trailed Max Verstappen in qualifying, but made up for it in races with excellent recovery drives to help his team win – most notably by picking up the pieces after Verstappen’s crash in Baku to claim his maiden win with the team. He admitted that if he wants to be more competitive in 2022, he’ll have to up his game, but given the short amount of time he had to prepare for the new season, he believes it wasn’t enough for him to hit the ground running with Red Bull. “It will sound weird, but I lacked time,” said Perez. “The limited amount of testing, the limited amount of practice in the car because every circuit is different. “It was just such a different car that I went to that it probably made it a bit harder, but I think I’m not alone here. We saw other very good drivers struggle to get on top of their cars.”

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Brivio will not be making a return to MotoGP

Kevin Peterson02 mins

Davide Brivio, the Alpine Formula 1 racing director, has ruled out a return to MotoGP team management this year. Brivio led Team Suzuki Ecstar from its comeback to MotoGP in 2014 through the end of the team’s championship-winning 2020 season, after which he joined Alpine. He was a part of a convoluted management structure there, with responsibilities shared among himself, Laurent Rossi, and Marcin Budkowski. The Italian’s return to two-wheel competition has sparked speculation, with a return to Suzuki or a seat with the VR46 Racing Team being suggested as the most likely options. On the other hand, Otmar Szafnauer was rumored to have defected from Aston Martin to Alpine, a claim the American would refute. Brivio’s return to the Hamamatsu marque in November has been ruled out by Suzuki’s project chief, Shinichi Sahara. “MotoGP is not an option for 2022 at the moment,” Brivio said in an interview. “I’m in F1 and we’re working on next season so we can sort out how to get organised with Alpine…. in fact, I hope to continue; for this very reason, I am thinking of nothing else.” This comes Despite Sahara admitting that taking on the role of squad manager was “far too much” for him. Suzuki had chosen not to immediately replace Brivio in 2021, instead delegating his tasks to a number of people, with Sahara bearing the brunt of the extra workload.

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Verstappen explains relationship with ‘uncle Michael’

Kevin Peterson03 mins

By winning his first world championship, Max Verstappen prevented Lewis Hamilton from breaking Michael Schumacher’s record of most championships. The Red Bull driver passed Lewis on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, denying him a record seventh Formula One world title. Max and Michael, on the other hand, have a bond that goes beyond Formula One. During the early 1990s, Michael and Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, were teammates at Benetton. Off the track, the two drivers developed a cordial friendship and would spend holidays together with their families. Max Verstappen refers to Schumacher as ‘Uncle Michael’ rather than a seven-time world champion. The 2021 world champion stated that hanging out with the former Ferrari legend was a completely different experience for him. Michael, he said, was really friendly and loving toward him. “I was three or four years old at the time. All I knew was that was Uncle Michael. He was very kind. He was such a wonderful family man. I never saw him as a world record-breaking champion because I didn’t realize it!” said Max. Max and Michael both have a similar outlook on life. Both drivers are tough on the race but laid-back and entertaining in their personal life. David Coulthard, a former Red Bull and McLaren driver, said that he admires Max Verstappen’s driving and that the Dutchman reminds him of Michael Schumacher. “He’s an exceptional human, an exceptional athlete. He’s brilliant and divisive. Who else do we know that’s brilliant and divisive? Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, to name but a few. So some have been able to do it.” Coulthard said.

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New FIA president Sulayem announces there will be rule changes in 2022

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Following the controversy surrounding the two F1 world championship candidates for 2021, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Mohammed ben Sulayem, Jean Todt’s replacement as FIA president, already has his hands full. The 2021 Formula One season finale in Abu Dhabi sparked outrage across the racing world. Michael Masi, the racing director, was also on the firing line. The officials appeared to have broken the rules a little to add some spice to the race, which backfired tragically. Hamilton lost the race despite being in a commanding position. “This race is manipulated,” the Brit cried on the radio. But no amount of criticism could save the 7-time world champion, as his opponent, Verstappen, won his first Formula One title. Masi’s resignation as F1 race director was demanded by fans as a result of this. Masi’s position as race director was confirmed soon after, at least until the end of the 2022 season. Talking to the media, Sulayem believes that because the rules are formed by humans rather than gods, they will need to be improvised over time. In other words, there will be regulation modifications in Formula One for the 2022 season, but the Emiratis aren’t keen on accusing the stewards of rigging the race. “I have been elected just two weeks ago, but I have studied all the facts. We have a dynamic sport and the rules also have to be dynamic…. rules should always be improved, incident or uneventful,” Ben Sulayem said. “The development of motorsport is going very fast and you have to adapt to that, but being proactive rather than reactive,” he added. “Decisions will be made to move forward, without pressure from anyone. But that does not mean that we are not going to analyze the rules and make the necessary improvements. The rules are written by humans, not by gods, so they have to be evolved by men as well.”

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Rebellion president Pesci to drive Dumas’ car after his caught fire

Kevin Peterson04 mins

After his own car caught fire during shakedown on Wednesday, Rebellion President Alexandre Pesci will compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally aboard his teammate Romain Dumas’ DXX prototype. Pesci was scheduled to compete in his third consecutive Dakar with Rebellion, a former LMP1 race winner, as part of a two-car lineup for the Saudi Arabian event. His chances of improving on a 43rd place finish were shattered, however, when his #251 DXX entry was engulfed in flames during the 10.7km shakedown near Jeddah, the rally-opening raid’s stage. Dumas, the winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, has now donated his #215 buggy to Pesci in order for the Rebellion team owner to be present on the starting grid for the 44th Dakar on Saturday. Stephan Khuni, his normal navigator, will accompany him on the two-week journey. Despite the fact that Pesci will now pilot Rebellion’s sole remaining DXX buggy, Dumas will be able to compete in Dakar thanks to a last-minute deal to race the Toyota Hilux with which Nasser Al-Attiyah won the Hail Rally in Saudi Arabia earlier this month on his way to the FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup. “Unfortunately, after the problem we had with the car, the #251, I decided to give him my car because Alexandre did not finish last year,” said Dumas. “So for him it was very important to race again and try to see the [finish] line. At the end of the day Rebellion, this is the brand [I race for], so I said, ‘okay, I give you my car’. “I decided not to drive. Thursday morning I had breakfast with Nasser Al-Attiyah, he told me I have a car I bought a car for my museum.” “We found out this car was an 11-hour drive from here [in Doha], so during the day we sent somebody there to bring the car overnight. The car came this morning. “What Nasser did is unbelievable and also his team. “We are trying to prepare the car as much as possible, put some sticker on it, adjust my driving position. For sure I never drove the car. “Now the Toyota team is here to help us a little bit because we don’t know nothing about the car. So we will try not to take time too much of them but we have to get some advice.” Rebellion isn’t sure what caused the fire that destroyed Pesci’s initial car, but it believes a shock created an oil leak near the engine, which ignited due to extreme heat. Despite the fact that the automatic extinguisher system was triggered, the fire was uncontrollable, and it engulfed the entire vehicle.

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Al Attiyah and Sanders top 2022 Dakar Rally Prologue – Results

Kevin Peterson06 mins

Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota won Saturday’s Prologue for the 2022 Dakar Rally in the cars category, while GasGas rider Daniel Sanders set the pace in the bikes class in only his second outing. Al-Attiyah completed the 19km Prologue segment between Jeddah and Ha’il in 10m56s, kicking off his campaign to win the Dakar for a fourth time on terrain identical to that which the participants will face in the first week of the rally-raid. Three-time Dakar champion Carlos Sainz finished second, just 12 seconds behind the Qatari driver, in a promising start for Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron competitor. While Sainz was able to demonstrate the new Audi’s raw speed on the first day of the rally, his colleagues fared less well, with 14-time winner Stephane Peterhansel finishing 14th and Mattias Ekstrom finishing 15th. Century Racing’s Brian Baragwanath finished third, ahead of Toyota’s Henk Lategan and WRC icon Sebastien Loeb. Following his separation with long-time navigator Daniel Elena, new co-driver Fabian Lurquin set a time of 11m33s in the heavily-revised Bahrain Raid Xtreme BRX Hunter T1+ developed by Prodrive. Yazeed Al-Rajhi, a local driver, finished sixth in an Overdrive Toyota, almost two seconds ahead of 2014 winner Nani Roma’s second BRX vehicle. Giniel de Villiers, a factory Toyota driver who was on the verge of missing the rally due to a positive COVID-19 test earlier in the year, came in ninth, ahead of Jakub Przygonski and his Orlen-sponsored Mini buggy. With a time of 11m57s, Orlando Terranova ensured that all three Prodrive cars finished in the top ten.The X-raid Mini squad did not have a single finisher inside the top 15, with Yasir Seaidan finishing 17th. Both of its previous star drivers had left for Audi. Laia Sanz, an ex-KTM rider who inked a deal with X-raid to drive a Mini All4 Racing, was tentatively rated 43rd in her debut Dakar appearance in the vehicles category. The top 10 finishers will get to choose their starting position for the 334km special stage on Sunday after the 595km liaison to Ha’il, with Al-Attiyah having the last say on his starting place. In the motorcycles category, last year’s top rookie Sanders led new Honda recruit Pablo Quintanilla for the KTM-owned GasGas label. Sanders officially finished the Prologue in 55m30s, nearly a minute ahead of his nearest challenger Quintanilla, with the finishing times multiplied by a factor of five to avoid dangerous strategies. Ross Branch placed Yamaha third at the end of stage 1A, five seconds ahead of the top KTM of reigning champion Kevin Benavides, a year after the Japanese manufacturer’s catastrophic 2021 campaign. Benavides was fourth, ahead his teammate Matthias Walkner and Adrien van Beveren’s second Yamaha. On the second GasGas, 2017 winner Sam Sunderland finished seventh, 15 seconds behind KTM’s star rider Toby Price, who is returning to the Dakar after missing last year’s event due to a fractured collarbone. Honda’s Joan Barreda and Yamaha’s Andrew Short finished ninth and tenth, just ahead of leading Hero rider Joaquim Rodrigues and 2020 Dakar winner Ricky Brabec (Honda). Former MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci, making his Dakar debut in the colors of Tech 3 KTM, finished the day 23rd fastest with a timing of 1hr03m00s, little over eight minutes behind leader Sanders. The top 15 riders from the Prologue will convene at 19:00 local time in Hai’il to determine their starting positions for the first full stage. The winner will have the last say in which place he will begin. DAKAR Rally Prologue Cars classification – Top 10 Pos. #. Name Marque Time Gap Penalty 1 201 AL-ATTIYAH NASSERBAUMEL MATTHIEU TOYOTA 00:10:56   00:00:00 2 202 SAINZ CARLOSCRUZ LUCAS AUDI 00:11:08 +00:00:12 00:00:00 3 230 BARAGWANATH BRIANCREMER LEONARD CENTURY 00:11:32 +00:00:36 00:00:00 4 225 LATEGAN HENKCUMMINGS BRETT TOYOTA 00:11:32 +00:00:36 00:00:00 5 211 LOEB SEBASTIENLURQUIN FABIAN PRODRIVE 00:11:33 +00:00:37 00:00:00 6 205 AL RAJHI YAZEEDORR MICHAEL TOYOTA 00:11:43 +00:00:47 00:00:00 7 204 ROMA NANIHARO BRAVO ALEX PRODRIVE 00:11:45 +00:00:49 00:00:00 8 207 DE VILLIERS GINIELMURPHY DENNIS TOYOTA 00:11:46 +00:00:50 00:00:00 9 203 PRZYGONSKI JAKUBGOTTSCHALK TIMO MINI 00:11:57 +00:01:01 00:00:00 10 221 TERRANOVA ORLANDOOLIVERAS CARRERAS DANIEL PRODRIVE 00:12:02 +00:01:06 00:00:00 DAKAR Rally Prologue Bikes classification – top 10 Pos. #. Name Bike Time Gap Penalty 1 4 SANDERS DANIEL GASGAS 00:55:30   00:00:00 2 7 QUINTANILLA PABLO HONDA 00:56:30 +00:01:00 00:00:00 3 16 BRANCH ROSS YAMAHA 00:57:25 +00:01:55 00:00:00 4 1 BENAVIDES KEVIN KTM 00:57:30 +00:02:00 00:00:00 5 52 WALKNER MATTHIAS KTM 00:58:05 +00:02:35 00:00:00 6 42 VAN BEVEREN ADRIEN YAMAHA 00:58:10 +00:02:40 00:00:00 7 3 SUNDERLAND SAM GASGAS 00:58:25 +00:02:55 00:00:00 8 18 PRICE TOBY KTM 00:58:25 +00:02:55 00:00:00 9 88 BARREDA BORT JOAN HONDA 00:58:30 +00:03:00 00:00:00 10 29 SHORT ANDREW YAMAHA 00:58:30 +00:03:00 00:00:00

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Mooney has taken over as the VR46 MotoGP title sponsor from Aramco

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Mooney, an Italian banking and payments company, will be the new MotoGP and Moto2 title sponsor. VR46 has announced that Italian ‘Proximity Banking & Payments business’ Mooney will be its new headline sponsor, seemingly abandoning the long-delayed Aramco deal. Mooney will support both Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi’s new MotoGP project as well as Celestino Vietti and Niccolo Antonelli’s existing Moto2 outfit. A statement from VR46 read, “Following the agreement, the new team naming will be Mooney VR46 Racing Team and will be used in all images of the Team (including bikes and rider suits) and in all official communications. Further information will be revealed on January 3rd.” The agreement appears to put an end to a long-running issue with Aramco, which began with a news release in April announcing the company’s intentions. “In 2022 the VR46 Team will debut in the MotoGP class together with Tanal Entertainment Sport & Media with Saudi Aramco, as the new Main Sponsor for the period 2022-2026.” HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced in June when VR46 sealed a deal for Ducati motorcycles. “It would be fantastic for me if Valentino Rossi could compete in the next few years as a rider in our Aramco Racing Team VR46 together with his brother Luca Marini.” Rossi, on the other hand, chose to retire, and questions about the transaction persisted, with team manager Pablo Nieto subsequently admitting “Things are moving at a snail’s pace… [With the Aramco agreement], there are certain delays, but we are on our way and must keep working.” The Aramco name was then missing from the provisional 2022 entry lists, which were released in mid-November. Marini will race 2022-spec Ducatis, while Bezzecchi will race 2021-spec Ducatis.

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Rosberg left in ‘pain’ after Hamilton defeat

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Lewis Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was devastated to miss the championship title in 2021 after his old teammate missed out. Despite Lewis Hamilton missing out on the Formula One world title in Abu Dhabi last month, Nico Rosberg said he suffered ‘incredible pain’ after his former teammate was unable to take the crown. In December, Hamilton was left heartbroken when he lost out on a record eighth world title to eventual winner Max Verstappen on the final lap of the season. Apparently, the English driver wasn’t the only one to feel despair after the dramatic finish, as his former teammate Rosberg expressed the same sentiment. “I felt pain, incredible pain. I don’t have anything to do with Mercedes now, but of course it’s my family from before, and an incredible pain,” Nico Rosberg said. “They were 99 percent sure they were going to win the World Championship until there were three laps to go.” “After losing it, and losing it in a fight like that, where they couldn’t do anything because the tyres had 50 laps on them, unbelievable pain.” After Verstappen took advantage of a contentious call by FIA director Michael Masi, the Abu Dhabi race was a dramatic one, but no doubt tainted with controversy too. With just a handful of laps to go, Masi controversially allowed only five lapped drivers to pass the safety car, eliminating the comfortable lead Hamilton had over Verstappen. A one-lap shootout was the only option open to the title rivals after the safety car and lapped racers cleared the track, and it was the fresh tyres of the Dutchman that gave him the edge late on. Rosberg regrets that the FIA made such a strange decision, which left many in the racing world bewildered. Mercedes manager Toto Wolff admitted that Hamilton ‘lost faith’ after how things played out, much like his old teammate. “He won the World Championship until the last lap, and then everything is taken away from you from one second,” the Mercedes boss said. ‘Of course you lose faith because you can’t understand what has just happened.” “’I just need to do the utmost I can to help him to overcome the feelings that he has in order for him to return strong with a love of the sport and trust in the decision-making of the sport next year.”

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Mercedes tease their 2022 Formula 1 car

Kevin Peterson02 mins

Mercedes has revealed their new car design for the 2022 Formula 1 season. In a social media post, the team used the slogan “new year, new Mercedes”, showing what appears to be an early prototype of the W13 – the car the team will enter for this year’s championship. Various new technical regulations have been introduced to F1 this year, which will drastically change the look of the cars. In the past season, it displayed a show car that offered an interpretation of the rules. There are several obvious differences between the Mercedes image and the show car. In the Mercedes, the front wing has three instead of four elements, the sidepods are considerably larger, and the rear wing is shaped differently. Last week, Mercedes shared video of the W13’s new 2022 power unit being fired up for the first time. There has been no other team that has revealed as much about their 2022 plans, and preseason testing has yet to begin. Mercedes has won the constructors’ championship eight times in a row, and led in the drivers’ championship seven times in a row until Lewis Hamilton lost to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen last year.

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