What caused Aprilia’s Sepang MotoGP practice struggles?

Yamaha’s second wildcard outing with its new V4-powered MotoGP bike offered little fresh insight at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday, as the manufacturer opted to run the bike in a conservative “safe mode”.Yamaha’s 2026 prototype returned to action for the first time since last month’s Misano test, with Augusto Fernandez completing 26 laps of the Sepang International Circuit across ...Keep reading

Yamaha’s second wildcard outing with its new V4-powered MotoGP bike offered little fresh insight at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday, as the manufacturer opted to run the bike in a conservative “safe mode”.Yamaha’s 2026 prototype returned to action for the first time since last month’s Misano test, with Augusto Fernandez completing 26 laps of the Sepang International Circuit across ...Keep reading

Lando Norris says Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s recent resurgence is anything but surprising, and believes McLaren has made much bigger steps of its own over the past few years. After the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Verstappen trailed the championship lead by 104 points, but with five rounds remaining that deficit has shrunk to 40. The turnaround comes as Red Bull continued the ...Keep reading

Lando Norris says Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s recent resurgence is anything but surprising, and believes McLaren has made much bigger steps of its own over the past few years. After the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Verstappen trailed the championship lead by 104 points, but with five rounds remaining that deficit has shrunk to 40. The turnaround comes as Red Bull continued the ...Keep reading

Gresini Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer has hinted that he might be a dark horse for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, despite failing to make it directly into Saturday’s Q2 session.Although things went awry for the Spaniard when he couldn’t adapt to the unpredictable conditions late in Practice, Aldeguer finished Friday quietly confident after showing generally strong pace.Aldeguer ...Keep reading

Gresini Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer has hinted that he might be a dark horse for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, despite failing to make it directly into Saturday’s Q2 session.Although things went awry for the Spaniard when he couldn’t adapt to the unpredictable conditions late in Practice, Aldeguer finished Friday quietly confident after showing generally strong pace.Aldeguer ...Keep reading

Among the starkest lessons of the 2025 season has been that if you want to win grands prix, you have to adopt extreme solutions – particularly with the way you run the floor, the most important downforce-generator on the car. McLaren offers the proof: the superiority it showed in the first part of the year stemmed precisely from hidden innovations guiding the design of the MCL39. Red Bull's ...Keep reading

Among the starkest lessons of the 2025 season has been that if you want to win grands prix, you have to adopt extreme solutions – particularly with the way you run the floor, the most important downforce-generator on the car. McLaren offers the proof: the superiority it showed in the first part of the year stemmed precisely from hidden innovations guiding the design of the MCL39. Red Bull's ...Keep reading

Aprilia endured a difficult Friday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, less than a week on from its dominant victory in Australia.In a topsy-turvy practice session that was affected by a brief shower and slippery condition, the fastest RS-GP finished 14th and more than seven tenths off the pace set by KTM’s Pedro Acosta.While the changeable weather played a role in all four Aprilia bikes being ...Keep reading

The 2025 Malaysian Grand Prix is shaping up to be another wide-open affair, as the expected favourites struggled. While there are a number of hats in the ring, one world champion emerges from Friday with (at least on pace) a genuine shot at a first MotoGP win in five years…

Johann Zarco had a resurgence in Practice at the Malaysian MotoGP, finishing second-fastest on Friday.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi is at a loss to explain Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia’s ongoing problems aboard the Ducati GP25, but says he is trying to help the double world champion return to his best.Bagnaia is a graduate of Rossi’s VR46 Academy, along with VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli, factory Honda man Luca Marini and works Aprilia star Marco Bezzecchi. But, like the factory ...Keep reading

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi is at a loss to explain Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia’s ongoing problems aboard the Ducati GP25, but says he is trying to help the double world champion return to his best.Bagnaia is a graduate of Rossi’s VR46 Academy, along with VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli, factory Honda man Luca Marini and works Aprilia star Marco Bezzecchi. But, like the factory ...Keep reading

The World Endurance Championship could introduce success handicaps in the Hypercar division for its 2026 season.The new sporting rules for the series next year contain the provision to extend the use of the performance-balancing measure from LMGT3 to the top class. But the FIA, which runs the WEC together with Le Mans 24 Hours organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, has stressed that ...Keep reading

Joan Mir was fast from the beginning on Friday at the Malaysian MotoGP but he has one concern for the races.

One week on from being slapped on the wrists by Alpine for ignoring team orders, Franco Colapinto enters a crucial set of races to secure his Formula 1 future. At the end of last weekend's United States Grand Prix in Austin, Colapinto was ordered to hold station by Alpine while fighting team-mate Pierre Gasly for 17th place. Colapinto ignored the order and passed Gasly anyway, given the ...Keep reading

One week on from being slapped on the wrists by Alpine for ignoring team orders, Franco Colapinto enters a crucial set of races to secure his Formula 1 future. At the end of last weekend's United States Grand Prix in Austin, Colapinto was ordered to hold station by Alpine while fighting team-mate Pierre Gasly for 17th place. Colapinto ignored the order and passed Gasly anyway, given the ...Keep reading

Struggling lead factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia has admitted he got caught out by the tricky weather at Sepang on Friday, which resulted in him missing out on direct passage to Q2 after a promising day.Bagnaia said he left the pitlane too late to win a late battle for fast laps that had looked unlikely when rain had forced everyone into their garages a few minutes earlier.“It’s ...Keep reading