Motorsport Roundup: Verstappen, Quartararo And Rovanpera Win In F1, MotoGP And WRC

There was plenty of racing action the last seven days to satiate our thirst for motorsport. We had Formula One at Emilia Romagna, F2 and F3 at Imola, MotoGP at Portimao, and WRC in Croatia. We also had some big news back home from TVS Racing, announcing a dedicated one-make championship. Here’s a lowdown on everything that transpired:

Formula One

 

The 2022 Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw wet weather spice things up, and like in 2021, reigning champion Max Verstappen took top honours for Red Bull Racing. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez finished second, with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking his first podium of the season in third place.  

With Ferrari having a nightmare weekend, Verstappen is only 27 points off championship leader Leclerc in the driver’s standings, with Red Bull Racing 11 points behind Ferrari in the constructor’s table.

MotoGP

The fifth round of the 2022 MotoGP season saw reigning champion Fabio Quartararo finally take his first win of the season at Portimao. The factory Yamaha rider dominated the race ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco in second place, with the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro finishing third. This result leaves Quartararo at the top of the standings, level on points with Suzuki’s Alex Rinz. Aleix Espargaro is just three points back in third position.

Formula 2

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Prema Racing’s Jehan Daruvala had another consistent weekend at Imola, with the Indian driver scoring a podium in second place at the sprint race. While an unfortunate safety car period relegated Daruvala to ninth in the feature race, the Indian driver is now third in the drivers standings.

Formula 3

 

Kush Maini had a mixed bag of results at the second round of the season in Imola. In the first race, he was on for a top-five finish, but a post-race penalty dropped him down the field. In the second race, the Indian driver managed to finish a strong fifth to score his first points of the season.

WRC

The third round of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship saw a late-stage downpour serve up an intense finale at Rally Croatia.  In the end, it was Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Kalle Ravenpora snatching the win from Hyundai Motorsport’s Ott Tanak by just 4.3 seconds. Tanak’s teammate Thierry Neuville finished in third place. This leaves Rovanpera further cementing his lead in the driver standings at 76 points.

Indian Motorsport 

TVS Racing will be enhancing its international motorsport footprint by announcing its first ever TVS Asia One Make Championship. It’ll utilise a race-spec Apache RR 310 that has the same 312cc, four-valve, liquid-cooled engine as the road-going bike. But it’ll get more grunt, a ram-air intake system, carbon fibre elements on the body, a sixth element to reduce weight, custom-built adjustable Ohlins suspension and Dunlop soft compound radial racing tyres.

The four-round season kicks off in Malaysia on May 27, and will end in Thailand on November 20. There’ll be sixteen participants, of which eight riders will be from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Australia and Philippines, while the other eight will be nominated independently by the TVS Racing team. The rider selection will commence at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia on April 27, 2022. .

Next week will see MotoGP head to Spain for the sixth round of the season, with Formula E returning to racing action at Monaco.