Motorsport Roundup: Toyota’s LeMans Win, Maini’s First DTM Points, Vinales’ Yamaha Exit, And A New Indian Racing Series

It's been a busy past week in motorsports with on-track action comprising the prestigious 24hrs of LeMans, followed by the fourth round of the 2021 DTM season. Off-track there were big announcements starting with the abrupt termination of a MotoGP rider’s contract and a new Indian racing series being officially launched. Here’s all about it:

WEC

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its winning streak at the 24hrs of LeMans, taking victory in the hypercar class with the No.7 Toyota trio of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez. Following them in second place was the sister No.8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Kazuki Nakajima, with the No.36 Alpine trio of Matthieu Vaxiviere, Nicolas Lapierre, and Andre Negrao rounding off the podium places. 

MotoGP

The Maverick Vinales and Yamaha saga has officially come to a close, as Yamaha have announced that both parties have parted ways with immediate effect.  For Silverstone, Cal Crutchlow will be occupying the vacant factory Yamaha seat, with Moto2 rider Jake Dixon debuting with Petronas SRT Yamaha as a substitute for the recovering Franco Morbidelli. Also, with Vinales now free to ride elsewhere mid-season, the Spaniard could make the switch to Aprilia earlier than his scheduled debut in the 2022 season.  

In other news, the 2021 Malaysian Grand Prix has been cancelled due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A second Misano race will slot into the vacant October 24 slot left by Sepang. 

DTM

Round 4 of the 2021 DTM season at the Nurburgring, Germany. was a positive one for Arjun Maini, as the GetSpeed Mercedes driver scored his first points in DTM with a 10th place finish in Race 1. Maini followed that up with a seventh place finish in Race 2 to cap off a strong points haul for the Indian driver. 

Indian Motorsport

After a teaser last week, the Formula Regional Indian Championship was officially launched, making it a landmark moment in Indian motorsport. An FIA-sanctioned series, it will comprise three different categories competing in a five round season, starting from February 2022. More importantly, it qualifies for FIA superlicense points. To know more about it, head here.

Formula One

Another motorsport discipline was affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this week, being forced to call off the Japanese Grand Prix scheduled for October 10, 2021. A replacement is yet to be announced but reports suggest Qatar might join the 2021 Formula One calendar.  

Next week will see  Formula One and MotoGP return with the former racing at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, and the latter at Silverstone,UK.