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Kvyat: Worst case scenario helped AlphaTauri F1 team-mate Gasly win – F1

Daniil Kvyat says the safety car and red flag timing at the Italian Grand Prix presented a “worst case” scenario for him, helping AlphaTauri Formula 1 team-mate Pierre Gasly win.

The Russian eventually finished ninth in the Italian GP, while his team mate scored a spectacular victory after a fortunately-timed pit stop propelled him to the front of the field.

Having qualified outside the top 10 Kvyat started on the hard tyres with the plan to run a long first stint, while Gasly – who qualified 10th – was on the softs.

The pair ran together in the opening stint of the race, and Kvyat felt he had the better pace as Gasly’s tyres lost their edge, and thus should have been allowed through.

He told the team: “I’m in dirty air all the time, so help me with that,” and referencing Gasly, added: “He’s making mistakes.”

AlphaTauri duly pitted

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Gasly “ready” for Red Bull return after maiden F1 win at Italian GP – F1

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly feels he is “ready” to return to Red Bull Racing should the team wish to recall him following his shock win at the Italian Grand Prix.

Gasly scored the first victory of his Formula 1 career at Monza on Sunday after capitalising on a red flag stoppage and a penalty for Lewis Hamilton, before fending off Carlos Sainz Jr. in the closing stages.

The win came just 13 months after Red Bull demoted Gasly back to Toro Rosso following a difficult 12-race spell at the start of the 2019 season, and marks Gasly’s second podium finish after his second-place finish behind Max Verstappen at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

The result also comes amid ongoing struggles for Gasly’s Red Bull replacement, Alexander Albon, so far this season. Gasly sits just five points behind Albon, who finished 15th at Monza, in the drivers’ standings.

Red Bull has repeatedly

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MotoGP Styria: Oliveira takes shock maiden win with last-corner move – MotoGP

Miguel Oliveira took a shock maiden MotoGP victory on the last corner of a red-flagged Styrian Grand Prix after Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro ran wide on the final lap.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir grabbed the holeshot for the first start, though had to relinquish his lead to Pramac’s Jack Miller for running off at Turn 1 and gaining an advantage.

Mir was then demoted by Takaaki Nakagami on lap four, though the Suzuki soon rallied and by the end of the tour was once again in the lead.

He was able to open up a lead of over two seconds by the end of lap 16 before the red flag brought the race to a halt after Maverick Vinales suffered a scary crash at Turn 1.

Having seemingly been battling brake issues all race, Vinales was forced to jump off his Yamaha at 130mph when it wouldn’t slow, with the

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Frijns: Maiden DTM win a “relief” after years of “frustrating” team orders – DTM

Robin Frijns was relieved to score his maiden DTM win at his home round at Assen, having felt “frustrating” Audi team orders in the past had masked his true potential.

Frijns qualified on the front row for the first of the two Dutch races on Saturday, and overhauled polesitter Loic Duval after the pitstops to secure his first victory since joining the category in 2018.

The Dutch driver has been one of the star performers of the 2020 season so far, scoring four pole positions and six podium finishes, including his victory, in the opening eight races of the season.

Frijns’ upturn in performance has coincided with a ban on team orders in 2020, allowing all drivers within both the Audi and BMW stables to challenge for victories without the threat of being asked to concede positions to aid their employers’ title bids.

Asked by Autosport if the Assen victory

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Sato: Indy 500 win for Rahal “mission completed” after 2012 near-miss – IndyCar

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato says his victory in this year’s race with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was “mission completed” after his near-miss with the same team in 2012.

The ex-Formula 1 driver, who previously won the Indy 500 with Andretti Autosport in 2017, was running ahead of Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing car and team-mate Graham Rahal – son of team founder Bobby – when a heavy crash for the third RLL entry driven by Spencer Pigot exiting Turn 4 caused the race to finish under caution.

Sato admitted afterwards that while his “personal ambition was achieved in 2017”, it didn’t wholly make up for the ending to the 2012 race when his attempt to pass Dario Franchitti on the final lap at Turn 1 ended in a crash.

Sato felt he had “disappointed” team co-owners Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Mike Lanigan, and was satisfied that he

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Tanak: WRC Rally Estonia was “one I had to win” – WRC

Rally Estonia winner Ott Tanak says the first World Rally Championship event in his home country was “one that I had to win”.

The reigning WRC champion duly took victory on home soil last weekend, which was also his first win for the Hyundai team since joining at the start of 2020.

His first win since Wales Rally GB last year also narrowed the gap to championship leader Sebastien Ogier, with the difference standing at just 13 points.

It was not all plain sailing for Tanak, however, as he endured a heart-in-mouth moment on the penultimate stage when his car reacted badly through a rutted section of ‘Kaagvere’.

The Hyundai driver also picked up a puncture on Saturday morning’s first test – the longest of the rally – but he recovered to live up to his pre-event favourite billing to lead home fellow Hyundai driver Craig Breen by 22.2 seconds.

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Espargaro: Miller and I wanted Styrian MotoGP win “too hard” – MotoGP

Pol Espargaro says he and Jack Miller wanted MotoGP Styrian Grand Prix victory “too hard” in their last-lap duel and “gave it” to Miguel Oliveira.

The KTM rider led from lap seven to the final tour, but an overly defensive line at Turn 3 allowed Pramac’s Miller to overtake him on the run into the corner.

Espargaro scythed up the inside of Miller at the penultimate corner, with the latter attempting a move up the inside into the last turn – though both ended up going wide and allowing Tech3’s Oliveira to sneak through to claim a shock maiden win.

Commenting on his race, Espargaro says he was forced into defending hard on the last lap owing to the Ducati’s strength in braking and on acceleration.

“When I crossed the line, I saw on my pit board ‘plus zero’, so I didn’t know how much distance I had to Jack,”

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Gasly “struggling to realise” maiden F1 win at Italian GP – F1

Pierre Gasly was left “struggling to realise” his maiden Formula 1 victory after taking a shock win for AlphaTauri in the Italian Grand Prix.

Gasly capitalised on a red flag stoppage to rise from 10th in the first stint to line up third on the grid for the restart behind Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll.

Gasly was able to pass Stroll at the start before inheriting the lead when Hamilton was forced to serve a stop/go penalty after entering the pit lane when it was closed during the first safety car period.

A late charge from McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr meant Gasly came under pressure entering the final lap, running less than one second ahead, but he was able to hold on and take the win by just 0.4 seconds.

“It’s unbelievable,” Gasly said after the race. “It was such a crazy race. We capitalised on the red flag. The

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F1 Italian GP: Gasly holds off Sainz to score maiden win in red-flagged race – F1

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly won a dramatic and disrupted 2020 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr, with early leader Lewis Hamilton penalised for a safety car infraction.

Sainz chased Gasly relentlessly over the second half of the race at Monza, which was red flagged when Charles Leclerc crashed heavily at the Parabolica, but he could not find a way by and finished a close second ahead of Lance Stroll’s Racing Point.

Hamilton dominated the early stages only for a 10-second stop/go penalty for pitting when the pitlane was closed, following a safety car to recover Kevin Magnussen’s stranded Haas on the exit of the Parabolica, to drop him to last and require a charge back to seventh.

At the start, Valtteri Bottas appeared to react slower than Hamilton on the front row and he was quickly passed by Sainz on the run down to Turn 1, where

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WRC Rally Estonia: Tanak takes home win and leads Hyundai 1-2 – WRC

Ott Tanak took a relatively untroubled home victory on Rally Estonia to record his first World Rally Championship win for Hyundai since joining this season – ahead of team-mate Craig Breen.

Tanak and Breen merely had to minimise the risks in the six final stages as they held first and second respectively overnight, but there was one heart-stopping moment for Tanak when a rut almost sent him into a ditch.

Disaster was averted at the cost of only a couple of tenths of a second and Tanak kept his stranglehold even as the pursuing Toyotas were able to win every stage of the day.

Elfyn Evans took the first stage of the morning, Sebastien Ogier would claim two and Kalle Rovanpera ended up winning three, including the points-scoring Power Stage.

The only fly in Toyota’s ointment on the closing day was the loss of its fourth car, driven by Japanese

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