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Bastianini is set to step up to MotoGP next season with the Avintia squad after confirming last weekend he has signed a deal with Ducati.The original race only ran for six full laps when spots of rain forced the red flag to be flown, with Bastianini having taken the lead the tour before. The second start had to be abandoned owing to worsening rain with the entire field on slicks, and a delay of around 15 minutes was had before a 10-lap restart got underway just after 1:10pm local time. Bastianini was jumped by Marini off the line, though the Italtrans rider aggressively tried to take the lead back at Turn 4 and forced both wide – allowing Xavi Vierge on the Petronas Sprinta bike to hit the front. Vierge was overhauled by Bastianini through the fast Curvone right-hander at Turn 11, with world championship leader Marini losing spots as his decision to stick with the harder rubber he used for the original start looked to be backfiring.Bastianini immediately put a second between … [Read more...] about Misano Moto2: Bastianini wins red-flagged race

Bautista won each of his first 11 WSBK races after signing a one-year deal to represent Ducati in the category, although a recent string of setbacks has seen him slump to 81 points behind Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea.The Spaniard had been negotiating an extension to his current deal but has also had talks with Honda’s World Superbike outfit – and while Bautista said last month that he was edging closer a Ducati stay, the situation appears to have changed dramatically.Bautista’s manager Simone Battistella will be present at the Red Bull Ring MotoGP round this weekend, and Ciabatti says Ducati will have to go through with alternative options to fill the seat if a Bautista hasn’t signed a new deal by next week. “Unless there are last-minute developments, I believe that the chances that Alvaro remains with us are reduced to a flicker,” Ciabatti has told Motorsport.com. “We made an important two-year offer, putting the best terms we could on the … [Read more...] about Ducati admits chances of keeping Bautista now minimal

Prototype There was a shunt at the start when Misha Goikhberg’s JDC-Miller Motorsport Oreca clipped the back of Joao Barbosa’s Action Express Racing Cadillac, spinning it broadside.Dirk Muller’s #66 Ford GT swerved but still caught the tail of the stricken DPi-V.R, while Nick Tandy’s Porsche 911 RSR T-boned it and shot it across the track into the pitwall. Fortunately, all drivers escaped injury.Mean time, up front, Dane Cameron and Helio Castroneves had taken their Acura ARX-05s around polesitter Jordan Taylor’s Cadillac, while Jonathan Bomarito and Oliver Jarvis were up to fourth and fifth in the Mazda RT24-Ps. Sebastian Saavedra was sixth for AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (in the team’s first race since switching from Ligier to Oreca), ahead of the #2 ESM Nissan piloted by Scott Sharp and Eric Curran in the second AXR Cadillac. They remained in this order for the second restart, aside from Goikhberg getting around Sharp, and Curran pitting and … [Read more...] about Laguna Seca IMSA: Victory for ESM Nissan, heartbreak for Mazda

The #55 Mazda of Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito, which will start sixth on the grid, set a best time of 1min17.266sec around the 2.238-mile course to beat Juan Pablo Montoya’s Acura ARX-05 by 0.462sec.Action Express Racing’s Cadillac DPi-V.Rs occupied third and fourth in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque and Felipe Nasr, while Oliver Jarvis in the second Mazda beat Ricky Taylor tin the second Acura.Top LMP2 car was the AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Gustavo Yacaman, in ninth. As per qualifying, Ford and Chevrolet were the dominant cars in GT Le Mans, but this time it was Richard Westbrook – a former winner here with Ford – who nabbed fastest time from the pole-winning #4 Corvette C7.R, today driven by Tommy Milner. Their teammates Antonio Garcia and Joey Hand were third and fourth, while Connor de Phillippi got his BMW M8 ahead of the two Porsches. Ozz Negri’s Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari 488 led GT Daytona, with Patrick Lindsey’s Park … [Read more...] about Laguna Seca IMSA: Tincknell puts Mazda on top in warm-up

Prototype Acura Team Penske's Ricky Taylor pulled out a 10sec lead following the third restart, chased by Ryan Briscoe’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and Pipo Derani’s AXR Caddy. With 4hr15min remaining, Taylor then pitted to hand over to Helio Castroneves who spent his two stints holding off the #31 car, now with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel. At a distance ran the third-placed #6 Acura with Simon Pagenaud at the wheel. Briscoe had an off at Turn 10, but survived it and the car regained its lost ground when a GTD car caused a yellow, so that Renger van der Zande kept the pressure on Pagenaud, while chased Sebastien Bourdais in the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac. With three hours to go, the two Penske cars pitted together, Castroneves staying aboard the leading car, and Juan Pablo Montoya taking over from Pagenaud. However, when Castroneves handed over to Alexander Rossi, the Andretti Autosport IndyCar driver emerged well behind the AXR Cadillac with Nasr at the wheel. … [Read more...] about Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillac leads with two hours to go