Motorsports

Having lost its sister #7 car to a turbo failure in the early stages of the race, Barnicoat helped to steer the car to a single-lap advantage over the nearest competition, with the #3 RAM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3, and Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 all at one stage leading the chasing pack. The #72 Inception Racing with Optimum McLaren 720S GT3 was also within this field in the early stages, as Brendan Iribe battled fiercely with the #46 Monster VR46 Kessel car of Valentino Rossi. The Porsche’s lead was short-lived, however, as Roberto Pampinini was unable to prevent the advances of Andy Meyrick’s Team Parker Bentley who eased past into Turn One with 30 minutes remaining. The GT4 class was led by the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 570S, having taken advantage of a 25-second Stop-and-Go penalty to long-time leader #90 Scuderia Villorba Corse Mercedes AMG for crossing the white line at pit exit on two occasions.

Joan Barreda, the fourth Honda biker, sits in seventh place despite a string of navigation errors and has taken three stage wins so far, bringing his career tally to 27 and making him the third most prolific Dakar biker of all time, behind Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres, tied with 33. X-Raid and Toyota could only look on helplessly as Jakub Przygoński sank to fourth overall at 1 h 11 (although he remains in contention for a podium spot), Orlando Terranova threw in the towel in stage 5 due to an electrical problem, rising star Henk Lategan tumbled out of the Dakar after two stellar performances in a row, Bahrain Raid Extreme is still banking on Nani Roma (fifth at 1 h 37) to catch up with the leading trio, but Sébastien Loeb is out of the running after making several blunders and breaking a wishbone, which meant an unscheduled night in the desert for the French driver and sent him plummeting to 45th place overall, 11 h 34 behind his old stablemate at Peugeot. Following the withdrawal of Siarhei Viazovich, who finished third last year, Karginov may well end up wondering who needs enemies with friends like his, as Andrey Karginov tries to stage an epic comeback, Ayrat Mardeev seeks to follow up on his first stage win since 2018 on the road to Ha’il, and Anton Shibalov attempts to build on his four podium finishes in six stages and second place overall

Some of the best photos from the first half Dakar always produces amazing photos. Take a look at some of the best. If you want to see read about the action, you can do so here Dakar: Some of the best photos from the first half Dakar as it stands at the half way point McLaren keep lead at half way point of Gulf 12 Hours McLaren and Barnicoat take pole at Gulf 12 Hours Ypres Rally to feature in the 2021 WRC calendar This website uses cookies to improve your experience.

Two months after Club Superstage had to cancel the penultimate round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship with a heavy heart due to the second wave of the Covid pandemic, the joint efforts of the many volunteers have not been in vain. Initially, the Renties Ypres Rally Belgium was nominated as a reserve round for 2021, but today Belgium’s top rally has definitively gained a place on the 2021 FIA WRC Calendar. Following the cancellation of the rally at the end of October, we remained in close contact with the FIA and WRC Promoter, emphasising that our event was ready to take its place on the WRC calendar,” said Alain Penasse, President of Club Superstage. The Renties Ypres Rally Belgium is traditionally held at the end of June, but the 2021 World Championship fixture will be held on August 12 – 15 (TBC).

The #31 Team Parker Bentley Continental GT3 Pro-Am entry of Euan McKay impressed in third place overall and top in class, ahead of the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Nicola Cadei, and #46 VR46 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 of Luca Marini, which was making steady progress. On his opening quick lap, Barnicoat set a best of 1m59.107s, four-tenths of a second quicker than the impressive lap set by David Fuminelli in the #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 AM car, and seven-tenths of a second quicker than Pereira who was experiencing his first race in McLaren machinery, and on new tyres for the first time. Fuminelli’s outstanding drive ensured the #27 Ferrari would start from third place with the #67 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 alongside on the second row of the grid and topping the Pro-Am class, after Stefano Monaco set that car’s quickest lap of the session in the final stages. The earlier hard work done by Jean Luc D’Auria in the second session, backed up by team-mate Benedetto Strignano in the third part, ensured that the #90 Mercedes would start on pole in the GT4 class ahead of the #77 Optimum McLaren.

The 28-year-old is one of five drivers selected by the Pole Promotion driver management agency for 2021 and will undertake a full ERC campaign with the German company Competing under the Škoda Auto Deutschland banner, Kreim fought for the FIA ERC1 Junior Championship in 2018 and scored an outright ERC podium on Rally Islas Canarias that season. When a one-off ERC return on Rally di Roma Capitale last July ended in frustration with a broken wheel after he’d set top-three stage times on two out of six stages and was fifth at the completion of the opening leg, Kreim made undertaking a full European programme his priority for 2021. After 2018 I can hardly wait to be able to fight for top times on the special stages of the FIA ERC,” said Kreim, who has nine ERC starts and three ERC stage wins to his name.

Teemu Suninen, Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux will form the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team squad in 2021 as the Cumbrians continue to champion young talent with the ambition of a successful future in the FIA World Rally Championship. I’m really proud to represent M-Sport Ford, and incredibly grateful for the opportunity of a full season in the FIA World Rally Championship. Sharing the Ford Fiesta WRC with Suninen on selected events, Adrien Fourmaux will also contest a full WRC 2 campaign with the EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta Rally2 – starting with the classic opener at Rallye Monte-Carlo. Continuing with Belgian co-driver Renaud Jamoul, the pairing are keen to continue their development with further experience in the FIA World Rally Championship’s premier support series, as well as further opportunities at the sport’s highest level.

In 2021, a PSA Motorsport Rally Cup Belux will see the light of day, reserved for Peugeot 208 Rally4 and Opel Corsa Rally4! Concretely, the cars bearing the lion and lightning logos will compete in a Cup scheduled over 6 rallies – 5 events of the Belgian Rally Championship + the Rallye de Luxembourg. The current health situation does not presently allow to officialise the full programme of this PSA Motorsport Rally Cup Belux, but as from the moment the promoters of the BRC release the programme of the national competition for 2021, the organisers of this new cup will fall into step behind. Any person wishing to obtain additional information regarding the PSA Motorsport Rally Cup Belux 2021 can as from now contact the organiser via an email to press@poleposition.lu, or telephone +352 23 62 31 98.

Being allowed or being able to organize ‘normal’ events again in February 2021 does not seem feasible at the moment. RACB Sport is also aware of this and starting the BRC championship 2021 in February does not seem feasible. Since our organization consists entirely of volunteers, it is practically not feasible to organize 2 competitions in as many weeks. In the meantime, we are not sitting still and will continue to work for our competitions and hope to welcome you en masse for the one-off autumn edition of the Rally van Haspengouw!

’s two best-placed nominated drivers finishing in the top five of the rally-closing live TV stage on a Sunday lunchtime will receive the extra points in a move to add additional excitement to the manufacturers’ championship. Power Stage points will also be awarded to drivers in the WRC2 and WRC3 support categories next season. WRC2 drivers and teams must nominate a scoring rally when they enter the event and the best six scores from seven nominated rallies will count. In the support championships, the FIA can adjust the minimum number of participations and number of events taken into account, should the number of qualifying events be less than scheduled initially.