Motorsport Roundup: F1 2021 Grid Takes Shape, Porsche’s Return To WEC, Gaurav Gill Dominates INRC Season Opener And More

F1

It was a week full of future announcements especially for the 2021 driver market. The first announcement was one of the worst kept secrets in the paddock, as Yuki Tsunoda makes the step up from Formula 2 to Formula One with Alpha Tauri. He replaces Daniil Kvyat and joins Pierre Gasly for Alpha Tauri’s 2021 innings. The other announcement was a win for underrated drivers as Sergio Perez will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing for the 2021 season. Alex Albon on the other hand will remain at Red Bull as a test and reserve driver. This leaves only the sole remaining Mercedes seat open, which is set to be retained by 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

INRC 2020 

 

At long last, the 2020 Indian National Rally Championship season finally kicked off with the opening couple of rounds at Itanagar. It was Gaurav Gill in top form in taking overall stage wins in both the opening rounds. In round 1, Gill finished 4:25.700 minutes ahead of Karna Kadur running a VW Polo with MRF Tyres, and Dean Mascarenhas rounding off the podium in a VW Polo running with JK Tyres. The second round saw a JK Tyre 1-2 with Gill winning by a margin of 1:33.100 minutes over teammate Amitrajit Ghosh and Karna Kadur rounding off the podium. Racing action will resume in 2021 at Coimbatore from January 9-10.

Indian Motorsport

It was an action packed week of motorsports in India starting with the season finale of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at MMRT in Chennai. In the Pro Stock 165cc category, it was Jagan Kumar who sealed the title for TVS Racing and his ninth national championship overall.  Heading into the final race of the weekend, he was only four points ahead of  team-mate KY Ahamed, but a 4th place finish for Jagan Kumar was enough to take the title by just one point. The Novice Stock 165cc category saw Mohan Babu take top honors after his championship rival Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) squandered a 3-point lead and scored no points in the final two races. 

WEC

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It's been another positive set of news when it comes to returning manufacturer outfits as Porsche has announced its return to the FIA World Endurance Championship starting from 2023. The German marque will compete in the LMP2-based LMDh hybrid category. This makes four manufacturer teams committed to 2023 with Audi running in the LMDh hybrid category and Toyota and Peugeot competing in the LeMans hypercar category.

WRC 

The future announcements this week weren’t all rosy as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to rear its ugly head. Unfortunately, Rally Sweden, the second round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship season has been called off due to increased restrictions for health security reasons. It was scheduled to take place on February 11-14 2021.

MotoGP

 

With the rider market for the 2021 MotoGP season pretty much sorted, KTM announced that it has retained 31-time MotoGP race winner Dani Pedrosa and Mika Kallio as their test rider lineup for the 2021 season. Pedrosa has been an instrumental figure behind the scenes in KTM’s rise to race wins in 2020, with hopes that 2021 could be a proper push for the title.