Al Attiyah triumphant step after Leb's new problems - Sportish
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Al Attiyah triumphant step after Leb’s new problems

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Al Attiyah triumphant step after Leb’s new problems

After the end of the 6th Special Route, Nasser Al Attiyah has a clear advantage in the Dakar Rally for the first time.

Dakar rally champion Nasser Al Attiyah extended his lead to 49 minutes, although he completed his 10th year in the 6th race on Friday because a navigation error cost Sebastian Leb 25 minutes.

In the 348-kilometer race around Riyadh, Toyota was initially in charge of Nasser Al Attiyah, but inexplicably lost control in the second third of the special. Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Orlando Teranova took the lead and took the opportunity.

Yazd Al Razi from Overdrive Toyota took advantage of Leb’s wrong orientation. In his third year he overtook the nine-time French WRC world champion in second place in the overall standings. Razi is now 48:54 minutes behind Al Attiyah, Leb 50:25 minutes.

Behind Teranova, the Argentine with the Prodrive buggy, who took his first victory in the Special after 2015, Matthias Ekstrom succeeded in the second year with the third Audi RS Q e-tron. With his best result in Dakar, the Swede is now hoping to make it into the top ten in the second week of the match, while Carlos Sainth and Stefan Petrancell were eliminated after the numerous problems of the previous days. In fact, the Spaniard lost another 40 minutes with unconfirmed problems.

On the motorcycles, Sam Sunderland from GasGas slightly increased his lead over Matthias Walkner from KTM to 2:39 minutes. The day wouldn’t change the differences much anyway, because the 421 special trip around Riyadh was drastically shortened to 101 kilometers.

This was because cars had made this route on Thursday, leaving the crossings of the wild Arabian terrain quite damaged, making it dangerous for motorbikes. The heavy rain that followed that night made it worse and so the organization closed the ED on 101st kilometer.

The first year of the day was scored by Daniel Saunders, with the other factory GasGas with a difference of 2:26 minutes to Sunderland, while the Briton was 10 seconds faster than Walkner.

With this achievement, the Australian finally entered the battle for victory after passing into 3rd place for General Adrien van Beveren of Yamaha. The Frenchman celebrated his eighth year on Friday, losing 4 minutes on Saunders and about a minute and a half on Sunderland and Welkner. With a difference of 7:23 minutes to the top, the quartet of drivers with realistic hopes for victory next week will remain.

Van Beveren’s Yamaha factory colleague Ross Brands had a much more unfortunate day because he fell early and had to be transported by road to the camp’s medical center in Riyadh. This year’s Revelation driver, Danilo Petrucci from Tech3 KTM, also had an accident. But the Italian made it through and finished in the 40th year.

The Greek crew Vangelis Bersis and Fotis Koutsoumbou started the day from 79th place in the classification of the Classic category, in which they had climbed the previous one. However, since the special for motorcycles and the Classic class was significantly reduced on Thursday because a sandstorm prevented rescue helicopters from flying, they had no chance of winning more seats – although everything is going very well for them in terms of navigation and driving style.

Source: sport24

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Red Bull finally decides on Verstappen’s team

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Red Bull finally decides on Verstappen’s team

After several significant personnel changes in the team, Max Verstappen has finally learned who he will be working with in the Red Bull pits for the new season.

At the end of last year, it became known that three key members of the four-time world champion’s headquarters had left. According to De Telegraaf, Jeff Ayton replaced Verstappen’s vehicle control engineer Michael Manning, who left the team after the 2025 season. He has previously worked with other Red Bull drivers and worked temporarily with Verstappen in Manning’s absence last year.

Verstappen’s former engine mechanic David Mart has moved to Audi and his replacement at Red Bull has not yet been determined. Performance engineer Tom Hart is also leaving the team; He will join Williams but will continue to work with the Milton Keynes-based team for a while.

Changes also occurred among mechanics. After Matt Culler moved to the position of Audi’s chief mechanic, Verstappen was replaced as his first mechanic by his twin brother John Culler. He is well known to Max, who has previously held a similar position on the other side of the Red Bull pits, working alongside Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.

Despite rumors about the winter break, Gianpiero Lambiase will remain Verstappen’s race engineer for another season.

Source: Sport UA

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Ferrari will have a red-white livery. Images of the Scuderia jersey have been revealed

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Ferrari will have a red-white livery. Images of the Scuderia jersey have been revealed

Photos of the allegedly leaked Ferrari F1 team jerseys for the 2026 season have appeared on the internet.

The published photos show a red T-shirt with white inserts.

Ferrari will officially announce its color on January 23. At the same time, some sources reported that the design of the 2026 car should be “pleasantly surprising”.

Given that Ferrari and other teams have used darker shades of their primary colors (red in the Scuderia’s case) in recent years, the introduction of red and white team uniforms could signal a move towards a lighter color scheme.

The same idea is put forward in a video published on the Scuderia’s official account.

Source: Sport UA

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F1 champion: “We may see a complete surprise in the championship fight this year”

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F1 champion: “We may see a complete surprise in the championship fight this year”

Former Formula 1 champion Damon Hill has warned fans that the winner of the 2026 season could be a real surprise.

The current large-scale changes to the regulations are among the biggest in the history of the sport. They are expected to change the balance of power in the starting grid for a long time.

Hill is confident that the pundits have no idea who will start the new season with the best cars because the cars will be completely different, even in terms of handling.

Particular attention of the expert is drawn to Aston Martin, which was able to make a leap from the middle of the table after signing Adrian Newey from Red Bull.

Hill noted the following about Lando Norris’ chances of defending his title:

“All bets are off for this year. We don’t know who will be in uniform. You can’t automatically assume that pilots who performed well under previous regulations can now do it again.”

The cars are completely different. “50% of engine power is now provided by the electric battery, and this affects the way cars are controlled, their aerodynamics and their design.”

Hill added that the season could be a complete surprise:

“Yes, you can [ожидать смену эпохи в Ф1 в этом году]. We may see a complete surprise. It’s like Jenson Button beating Brown; Everyone was surprised because they understood the rules better.

“And the master of understanding the rules is Adrian Newey, who went to Aston Martin. He left Red Bull and Max Verstappen, Christian Horner also left that team. But he went to Aston Martin.”

“So we’re waiting for him to wave his magic wand over Aston Martin. And it could happen.”

Source: Sport UA

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