Double MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has said he will boycott the season finale if it goes ahead in flood-hit Valencia as planned.

The factory Ducati rider, who is currently trying to reel in Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin as he chases a third straight title, is one of several to have voiced ethical concerns about sticking to the planned Valencia venue given the current flooding and loss of life in the region.

Despite the concerns of these riders and others in the paddock at this weekend’s penultimate event in Malaysia, Autosport understands that staging the race in Valencia remains the priority for MotoGP organisers – even if this means postponing the date from the originally planned November 15-17 weekend.

Having already outlined his moral issue with a Valencia race in the pre-Malaysian Grand Prix press conference on Thursday, Bagnaia dropped the bombshell on the first day of track action at Sepang. 

Circuit Ricardo Tormo after flooding

Photo by: Paco Alcobendas

“Even at the cost of losing the ultimate goal for me, which is to win the title, I am not willing to race in Valencia,” said the Italian, who trails Martin by 17 points ahead of the Malaysian GP.

“I very much hope that they will take into consideration the fact that on an ethical level and with what is happening it is not the right thing to do.” 

Bagnaia got his weekend in Malaysia off to a perfect start on Friday by going fastest in FP1 and then ensuring his passage into Q2 by topping the times in Practice.

Martin was second-fastest in the latter session after falling in an attempt to respond to Bagnaia’s late time.

The points leader’s best lap was however just 0.050s slower than that of the man pursuing him for the title.

“All year long we’ve been neck and neck with Jorge,” reflected Bagnaia. “We are used to these fights.”

Bagnaia was then asked if leading both sessions was intended as a psychological strategy.

“It’s difficult to go out looking to finish first in both sessions on Friday,” he said. “I’ve only done it before at Assen.

“Jorge ended up crashing, but I don’t think it was because of this. There is always a bit of pressure, it’s normal. But our goal is to win, not to intimidate anyone.”

Photos from Malaysian GP Practice

It would be all too easy for Armin Schwarz to pick the Toyota Celica GT-Four as his favourite car. After all, from a career that graced the World Rally Championship podium with four different manufacturers, it was in the Group A weapon that he claimed his only WRC victory in Catalunya in 1991.

Yet the machine the German selects instead never won a WRC event. Finishing third on the Safari Rally in 2001 may have been the second-generation Skoda Octavia’s best WRC result, but Schwarz enjoyed rallying it more regardless.

Schwarz, who joined Hyundai for 2002 to develop its MSD-built Accent WRC, believes the underpowered Octavia was underrated. Certainly, as the 61-year-old acknowledges, “the Octavia never was highly rated a potential winning car from all the other teams and drivers”. But in 2001, despite a persistent lack of torque, it did muster a few giant-killing results and on occasion challenged for podiums.

“It was close in Monte Carlo, but it happened in Safari,” says Schwarz, whose co-driver throughout his time at Skoda, Manfred Hiemer, died aged 62 in 2023. “It also would have been possible in Greece [where Schwarz finished seventh despite a largely trouble-free event, power the main complaint]; the tough rallies, the car was really good.”

At Toyota, Schwarz had been cast in a supporting role to Carlos Sainz, its WRC champion in 1990. But when he joined Skoda in 1999 to drive the first iteration of the bulky Octavia, ending a hiatus that followed being abruptly dropped by Ford in 1997, Schwarz was the clear number one. Although it isn’t always reflected in the results, Schwarz reckons he reached a competitive peak from having regular seat time that he’d often lacked in stints with Toyota and Mitsubishi.

“I did all the development tests,” he says. “I was the first driver in the Octavia and so there was a lot of trust on my shoulder. It was for me a chance that I took in 2001 because I knew I can set-up the car like I need it and get all the support from the team.”

Schwarz only managed one podium in the Octavia, but has fond memories of the underdog challenger

Photo by: Sutton Images

That counted for little initially as the car’s debut in Monte Carlo was an embarrassment due to problems with its engine management software. Schwarz suffered a clutch failure on his approach to the official start ramp in Casino Square, while team-mate Pavel Sibera didn’t make the start of the first stage proper either.

A distant fifth on the Acropolis in 2000, suffering from a fever, was Schwarz’s only points score, although there were signs of progress. Bruno Thiry had placed fourth on the 1999 Rally GB, while Schwarz delivered the Czech marque’s first-ever fastest stage time on Rally Catalunya in 2000.

“It was really bad weather,” recalls Schwarz. “And I think bad weather, always the cars showed their behaviour. It was giving you a lot of trust in difficult conditions.”

“If it would not dry up on the last two stages on Sunday in Monte Carlo, still today I’m pretty confident we would be on the podium, not Francois” Armin Schwarz

It was a different story when the Evo2 edition arrived, which coincided with “developments in all the respects of the team” run by Javel Paneba. Following a few toe-in-the-water outings in 2000, Schwarz went toe-to-toe with Monte Carlo specialist Francois Delecour in a Ford Focus for the final spot on the podium in 2001’s season opener, the eventual 20.7s gap belying how close it had been for much of the final leg. Autosport noted that the performance “has to go down as one of the bravest drives of the year”.

And following his Safari heroics, setting the fastest time on the opening stage to give Skoda the lead of a WRC event for the first time and its first-ever podium, fifth on Rally GB ensured Skoda finished level on points with Hyundai – but ahead on countback.

For Schwarz, one of the Octavia’s best traits was its handling resulting from its long wheelbase. “Compared to a Peugeot, a Citroen or a Subaru, it was a quite easy car to drive,” he observes.

This was especially important in the mixed conditions of the 2001 Monte. Schwarz believes on a fully dry rally, he would have faced an uphill task to reach the points, but his prospects were transformed when snow hit. Where rival manufacturers “have been very good on full snow, or full dry”, he recognised that the Octavia could work well in conditions where compromises were necessary.

Schwarz came close to beating Delecour to the rostrum on the snowy Monte Carlo

Photo by: Ralph Hardwick

“If it would not dry up on the last two stages on Sunday in Monte Carlo, still today I’m pretty confident we would be on the podium, not Francois,” he states.

Durability was its other key upside. Schwarz’s team-mate Thiry had cause to be especially grateful for this after the farcical events of Rally Argentina. A fire engine responding to a blaze started accidentally by a spectators’ barbeque overturned and crashed into the two parked Octavias in parc ferme, with Thiry still inside his car. Skoda director Jens Pohlmann was seriously injured, and both cars were withdrawn.

Third place on the Safari was the product of extensive testing, which Schwarz says reminded him of days with Toyota – the marque having long regarded Kenya as an important priority.

“You need to have a proper testing, a good development,” he explains. “Durability is the key for success in Kenya. So the strength what we had in 2001, the car was able maybe even to win.”

Schwarz says his ploy of pushing from the 117-kilometre first stage with a time of 55m05.0s was a deliberate strategy to put rivals under pressure. “Because nobody expects to be that fast in Safari,” he says. And it worked a treat, despite a puncture on stage three that dropped him to sixth at the end of the first day.

“That was the key to speed everybody up and more or less almost everybody ran into a big problem,” Schwarz remembers. “We didn’t run into any big problem. We had a couple of smaller [problems], but we kept it very linear until the end.”

Third on the Safari was the pinnacle of Schwarz’s tenure with Skoda

Photo by: Sutton Images

Francesco Bagnaia continued his fine form on Friday by topping the second practice session at MotoGP’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati rider scored a psychological victory over points leader Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) by putting in a 1m57.679s lap at the end of the session, to which the Spaniard fell trying to respond.

Martin holds a 17-point lead in the championship, but Bagnaia’s Friday performance sets him up well to cut that gap over the weekend as he tries to snatch a third straight world championship. The Italian was quickest in both sessions on the opening day at Sepang, having also topped FP1 in the morning.

Martin led the way for much of the session and looked the favourite after setting the initial pace in the final push for times, but Bagnaia delivered when it really counted in the final minutes.

Despite his fall at Turn 1 immediately after Bagnaia had set his time, Martin ended up second-fastest, meaning both can safely focus on qualifying after booking their spots in Q2.

Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini was third-fastest as the GP24s looked rapid at Sepang, while his rival for third place in the championship, Marc Marquez, only just snuck into Q2 with the 10th-fastest time.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales’s late effort was enough to put him fourth-fastest, with Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez fifth-quickest.

Yamaha was able to celebrate both its riders making it through to Q2, despite Fabio Quartararo having lost an engine in the morning. The 2021 world champion was sixth-fastest, with team-mate Alex Rins eighth.

Splitting the pair was Pramac Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli, whilst Jack Miller was sole KTM representative in the top 10 with ninth-fastest time.

The Austrian manufacturer’s rookie star Pedro Acosta will have to try to get into Q2 via the back door in Q1, as the Tech3 rider could only manage 11th-fastest behind Gresini’s Marc Marquez. Miller’s factory team-mate Brad Binder was always playing catch-up after a fall at the start of the session, and placed 14th.

Marco Bezzecchi was another to fall, dropping his VR46 at the final corner midway through the session. He wound up 12th-fastest for VR46, with Johann Zarco (LCR) the best of the Hondas in 13th.

Fabio di Giannantonio’s stand-in at VR46 Ducati, Andrea Iannone, was 1.939s off the ultimate pace in practice. He was ahead of only Miguel Oliveira’s substitute at Trackhouse Aprilia, Lorenzo Savadori in 21st place.

Photos from Malaysian GP Practice

Max Verstappen showed his most defiant side ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, dishing out an acerbic comeback to those who criticised his driving.

Following a clash with title rival Lando Norris in Austin, which ended with a penalty for the McLaren driver, Verstappen took matters further in Mexico with two shoves in the space of four corners, racing his title rival about as hard as he raced Lewis Hamilton in 2021 to safeguard his championship lead with an inferior Red Bull.

Verstappen’s moves on Norris in Austin and particularly Mexico drew plenty of criticism from colleagues, fans and pundits alike, and inevitably he faced a barrage of questions on the subject on Thursday as the paddock gathered for its third consecutive race weekend, the events from Austin and Mexico still fresh and rumbling on.

His initial response in the FIA’s official press conference was one of acerbic wit mixed with indifference, clapping back that he had plenty of friends and family to the question whether he felt alone in F1, what with his uncompromising views on what hard racing should be. And he echoed prime Kimi Raikkonen – ‘Leave me alone, I know what to do’ – with his rebuttal of criticism from 1996 world champion Damon Hill on whether he knew what fair racing looked like.

Afterwards, in the less formal atmosphere of his session with Dutch-language journalists, Verstappen was even more defiant – ebullient even – cracking jokes over how he feels he has been treated. But while he delivered his own version of the facts with a wry smile, the undercurrent of the Dutchman feeling it was him against the rest of the world cut through.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

And for all his indifference to outside opinions and the media blackout he said he had imposed, he seemed pretty aware of what the likes of Hill and Johnny Herbert had said. He suggested pundits – predominantly British – had come out of the woodwork now that, following a near-flawless 2023 campaign, there was finally another stick to beat him with.

Not without merit, Verstappen labelled FIA steward Herbert airing his views through a gambling website as “pretty abnormal”. And he took offence to the former F1 driver’s suggestion that he elbowed Norris out of the way on purpose in Mexico so Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc could come through and deny Norris important championship points. Herbert is far from the only observer holding that opinion inside the F1 paddock. 

When jokingly asked if he should check if he had any British ancestry to escape the scrutiny, he grinned: “No… I don’t think I have that! I’m very happy with my passport, it’s just the wrong passport in this paddock. But it is what it is.”

An F1 veteran of 10 years now, at no point did Verstappen appear particularly agitated by the latest media storm, reiterating his desire to focus on Red Bull fixing its performance issues so he doesn’t have to be forcefully battling people in the first place. 

When asked if he took more satisfaction out of edging towards his fourth world title the hard way, he said: “No, last year was a lot better. My challenge last year was to try and win everything, now I’m just trying to win once. This isn’t as fun because our car isn’t as competitive.”

Verstappen’s relations with Norris also came up, with the pair’s friendship tested over their first clash in Austria. Norris and Verstappen said they hadn’t spoken to each other after disagreeing over their Mexican lucha libre bout, but according to Verstappen there is no need to.

Nothing personal. Just business.

“No, because we already cleared the air properly [in Silverstone, days after the Austria collision]” he said. “We both understand we’re fighting for the championship; we’re not going for a lap around the church. We always told each other we need to race each other hard, so not much has changed in that regard.

“You know what it is? Everyone on the circuit knows that even if you’re the best friends, if you’re fighting for the championship you are both going to go for it. You can either be best friends or hate each other, but what you do on the circuit stays the same.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, congratulates Pole man Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

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That’s why Verstappen also saw no bones in Norris calling him a dangerous driver over the team radio, labelling it as an adrenaline-fuelled message aimed at his team and at race control more than anything else because drivers are “always trying to influence the stewards a little bit”.

Norris agreed there was no need to clear the air: “No, we’ve not spoken. I don’t think we need to. I’ve got nothing to say. I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does, not respect for what he did last weekend, but respect for him as a person, also what he’s achieved.

“But it’s not for me to speak to him. I’m not his teacher, I’m not his mentor or anything like that. Max knows what he has to do. He knows that he did wrong, deep down he does.”

Does he though? Verstappen still had issues with his first 10-second penalty for pushing Norris off at Turn 4, but he did agree he deserved his second 10-second penalty at Turn 7, brushing off his opportunistic lunge on Norris as “you win some, you lose some”.

But he has little time for the pile-on that followed, and what he perceived as bias against him. “Some people are just being very annoying, and I know who these people are. I don’t pay a lot of attention to them anyway, and I think I’ve got to this stage in my career with the right people supporting me and making my own decisions.

“Some people are just a bit biased – I get it. It’s fine. But it’s not my problem at the end of the day, I just continue with my life and keep performing.”

When asked if he felt like he had his back against the wall in the face of the intense scrutiny on him, Verstappen gave the most Max Verstappen answer possible.

“No. It there had been a wall I would have torn it down.”

MotoGP organisers remain keen on staging the 2024 season finale at Valencia but the date of the race could be pushed back, Motorsport.com understands.

Most of the paddock in Sepang at this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix is waiting to see how the rescue effort in Valencia evolves after the devastating flooding that had already left at least 158 dead by Friday morning, with a large number of people still missing.  

Dorna’s executive leadership is working on various scenarios for the 20th and final stop on the calendar. The race was initially scheduled for Sunday 17 November at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, a venue located in an area badly affected by the storm. 

So far, the only statement that can be considered official was given by Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna, to the AS newspaper on Thursday. 

“In principle the original date [of the event] will be maintained. They are working to fix access and services. The track has not been damaged,” he said. 

FIM president Jorge Viegas spoke briefly on this matter on Thursday, telling Sky Italia: “If we don’t race in Valencia, it will be worse for the Valencian Community and its economy.”

Circuit Ricardo Tormo after flooding

Photo by: Paco Alcobendas

Motorsport.com understands that the priority is to keep the race that would close the season in Valencia, although it is still not clear when the event would take place. 

This is despite the fact that a wide range of alternatives have been rumoured in the last few days, many of them not taking into account important conditions required for hosting the event.

During the first official Moto2 practice on Friday morning, a delegation from the Teams’ Association (IRTA) met with the Ezpeleta to draw up a roadmap, with Valencia as the venue. 

They are not ruling out running the event on the scheduled weekend, although they are also considering delaying the race by seven days, until Sunday 24 November, when, on paper, the track is due to host the final round of the FIM CEV Repsol World Championship. 

MotoGP stakeholders are also not ruling out further postponing the title decider between Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia. 

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Whatever option they decide on, it is clear that several initiatives will be organised with the intention of helping the victims of the tragedy. 

There are those within the company itself who believe that postponing the grand prix but keeping its original location will not make much of a difference in terms of the image. 

It is important to note that the final event is not limited to just a grand prix. Among other things, Valencia is due to host the annual awards gala, while a new corporate identity of MotoGP is also scheduled to be unveiled.  

Both the FIM and Dorna are expected to make statements later on Friday. 

During the weekend so far, many of the championship’s most famous riders were not keen on hosting the finale in Valencia, so as not to compromise any resources that could be used for emergency work. 

The most explicit was Marc Marquez, who said: “Ethically speaking, I don’t think the Valencia Grand Prix should be held.”

F1’s Brazillian Grand Prix is here, and with it comes a sprint weekend, a new track surface, the tension between many drivers, and more. With the new track surface bringing the extra heat, can the F1 teams, and their Pirelli tyres, cope with the additional sprint race laps? What about Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ title fight? Or Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez’s on-track repercussions? Jon Noble and Filip Cleeren chat in Interlagos’ lively paddock to find out all they can leading into the Brazil GP weekend.