MotoGP Season Starts With A Nail Biter; Hamilton Dominates In Hungary: Motorsport News Roundup

MotoGP 

The 2020 MotoGP finally kicked off at Jerez and it was filled with drama all throughout the weekend. Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo had a difficult start from pole but with consistent pace, he recovered to third quickly and benefitted from race leader Marc Marquez nearly crashing out after an off at Turn 4 to be second on the road. Shortly after, Quartararo got past the works Yamaha of Maverick Vinales and never looked back to take his first win in the premier class. Joining  him on the podium was Maverick Vinales and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

 

While Fabio may have statistically been the hero of the weekend, Marc Marquez could have easily taken that spot after a miraculous save and then going on a mesmerising charge from 16th to third. But his luck ran out as he had a heavy shunt at Turn 3 that took him out of the race. The bad news got worse as the crash resulted in Marquez suffering a broken right humerus. After the race, MotoGP Traumatology Specialist Dr Mir said Marquez suffered a complete fracture and added that his injury has been immobilised for now and the rider will be moved to Barcelona to carry out a definitive treatment.

Formula One

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ strong momentum continued in round three of the F1 world championship at the Hungaroring circuit. Hamilton qualified on pole and despite the tricky start conditions, the Brit dominated the race and lapped everyone upto fifth to take his eighth win at Hungary. Most of the action was behind him as Red Bull Honda’s Max Verstappen recovered from a poor qualifying and a crash on the way to the grid to finish a close second. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas recovered from a poor start to finish third and only a few tenths away from snatching second from Verstappen.

Get latest updates on
the automobile community

Login Now

With two wins on the trot, Hamilton leads the drivers’ standings by five points over teammate Bottas, with Verstappen upto third. In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes seems to be on course to claiming its seventh consecutive constructors’ title with Red Bull and McLaren rounding off the top three.

Formula 2 

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala had a much better outing in the third round of the Formula 2 championship. The Indian driver’s weekend didn’t start out very well though as an off track moment put him 15th on the grid for the feature race. Despite losing out on the start, Jehan executed a long strategy game to finish sixth in the end. Starting third for the sprint race due to the reverse grid order of the feature race, Jehan had another poor start, but strategy saw him benefit yet again and finish seventh to cap off two consecutive points scoring races while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda walked away with none. This puts him 13th overall in the drivers standings heading into Silverstone for round four that will be held from July 31 to August 2.

Formula E

The driver market for Formula E continues to shift as Sam Bird will be shifting from Envision Virgin Racing to join Mitch Evans at Jaguar for the 2020/21 season. Bird has been a veteran of the series, with all his 63 race starts being with Envision Virgin Racing and has amassed a total of nine wins. He remains the only driver to have won a race at every Formula E season. Super Formula champion Nick Cassidy will be taking Bird’s spot at the Envision Virgin Racing team. 

Another shock driver transfer moment has come from former F1 driver Brendon Hartley as he will exit Dragon Racing with immediate effect with six races at Berlin still left for the 2019/20 season. A replacement is yet to be announced.  

Image Source 1

Image Source 2