Three Toyota drivers, one first-time champion: the WRC title is settled on Sardinian gravel on 1-4 October. Photo: Valdemars Magone / Unsplash
Welcome to the daily motorsport briefing for Tuesday, 29 September 2026. Nobody is on track today, which is exactly when the paddocks do their loudest talking. Ferrari spent the morning insisting its team principal isn’t going anywhere, Formula 1 is shipping the Bahrain Grand Prix to Malaysia, MotoGP is bound for Motegi with a substitute Honda rider, NASCAR’s Chase has a new leader, IMSA crowns its champions on Saturday, and the World Rally Championship is about to hand somebody their first title. All times below are Eastern unless marked local.
The Storyline That Matters Most: Somebody Becomes a First-Time WRC Champion This Weekend
Rally Italia Sardegna (1-4 October) is no longer the penultimate round. The FIA and WRC Promoter confirmed on 17 September that the WRC element of Rally Saudi Arabia will not run in 2026, citing regional uncertainty and its effect on logistics. The Saudi event survives only as a Middle East Rally Championship round in November. That made Sardinia the finale, and it left three Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers, none of whom has won a world title, fighting for the crown. We covered the calendar fallout when the Saudi decision landed.
- Elfyn Evans: 230 points
- Sami Pajari: 213 points (-17)
- Oliver Solberg: 209 points (-21)
Here is the part worth understanding. A driver can take 35 points from the weekend: 25 for the win, up to 5 for the Super Sunday classification and up to 5 more on the Wolf Power Stage. Evans is champion if he scores 19, whatever the others do. Why 19 and not 18? Because if Pajari takes the full 35 he reaches 248, and Evans on 18 would also sit on 248. A tie goes to wins, and a Pajari maximum would give him a fourth victory against Evans’ two. That one-point cushion is the difference between Evans cruising for a safe podium and having to actually race. Solberg needs Evans to score 15 or fewer while he takes the lot.
Sardinia is a poor place for cruising. The stages are fast and narrow, the roads are abrasive and the heat punishes tyres, so “manage the gap” can quietly turn into “manage a puncture.” The manufacturers’ title is already done, with Toyota having secured a record-equalling sixth straight crown in Chile, and the event is also the last outing for the GR Yaris Rally1, which Toyota credits with 47 victories across five seasons.
- Thursday 1 October: Shakedown at Monte Baranta, 09:01 local (3:01 a.m.). Show stage at the Ittiri Arena, 16:05 local (10:05 a.m.)
- Friday 2 October: Six stages, 119.52 km
- Saturday 3 October: Six stages, 99.64 km
- Sunday 4 October: Four stages, 61.62 km, finishing with the Sassari-Argentiera Power Stage
Confirmed Today
- Ferrari: The Scuderia moved on Tuesday morning to shut down speculation about Fred Vasseur’s future. Chief communication officer Maria Conti told a media briefing that “Ferrari has made its choices already” and that the team has full confidence in Vasseur. No contract terms were disclosed. For context, Ferrari has two wins this season (Hamilton in Barcelona, Leclerc at Silverstone) and sits behind a Mercedes team that has won 11 of 15 races.
- Formula 1: The Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia runs this weekend at Sepang. The switch was confirmed on 26 July, subject to World Motor Sport Council approval, as the only way to keep the Bahrain Grand Prix on the 2026 calendar.
- NASCAR: Kyle Larson leaves Kansas with the Cup Series points lead, 26 clear of Denny Hamlin, after leading 235 of 267 laps, sweeping both stages and taking the fastest-lap bonus for a 76-point day.
- FIA WEC: The No. 8 Toyota crew of Ryo Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley leads the Drivers’ World Championship after winning at Fuji by 0.591s over the No. 36 Alpine. The series calls it the closest top-class finish between two different manufacturers in WEC history. Next up is the 6 Hours of Barcelona, 16-18 October.
Race and Session Schedule
Formula 1: Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit
Sepang runs on Malaysia time (UTC+8), 12 hours ahead of the East Coast, so the whole weekend lands overnight in the US.
- Friday 2 October: Practice 1 at 12:30 local (12:30 a.m. ET Friday), Practice 2 at 16:00 local (4:00 a.m.)
- Saturday 3 October: Practice 3 at 12:30 local (12:30 a.m. ET Saturday), Qualifying at 16:00 local (4:00 a.m.)
- Sunday 4 October: Grand Prix at 15:00 local (3:00 a.m. ET Sunday), 56 laps
MotoGP: Motul Grand Prix of Japan, Mobility Resort Motegi
- Friday 2 October: FP1 at 10:45 local (9:45 p.m. ET Thursday), Practice at 15:00 local (2:00 a.m. ET Friday)
- Saturday 3 October: FP2 at 10:10 local, Qualifying at 10:50 local (9:50 p.m. ET Friday), Sprint at 15:00 local (2:00 a.m. ET Saturday)
- Sunday 4 October: Warm-up at 09:40 local, Grand Prix at 14:00 local (1:00 a.m. ET Sunday)
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Motul Petit Le Mans, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
- Saturday 3 October: 10-hour season finale, green flag at 12:10 p.m. ET. NBC from noon to 3 p.m., then NBCSN, with Peacock streaming throughout
NASCAR Cup Series: South Point 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
- Saturday 3 October: Cup practice at 4:30 p.m. ET, qualifying at 5:35 p.m.
- Sunday 4 October: South Point 400 at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network
WRC: Rally Italia Sardegna
- Thursday 1 October to Sunday 4 October. Full itinerary in the storyline section above
Driver and Personnel Changes
- Honda HRC Castrol (MotoGP): Somkiat Chantra replaces Joan Mir at Motegi. Chantra raced a full MotoGP season with LCR Honda in 2025 and has spent 2026 on Honda’s WorldSBK program, scoring points seven times. Motegi is where he won in Moto2 in 2023. Honda says an update on Mir’s condition will follow the Indonesian Grand Prix, so the seat beyond Japan is not settled.
- Petit Le Mans guest drivers: The endurance finale requires three drivers per car for the first time since Sebring, and IndyCar champions Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Sebastien Bourdais are among the returning names on a 54-car grid. Reigning GTP champions Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell are back in separate Porsches.
- Ferrari: No change. See Official Announcements below.
Penalties and Stewards’ Decisions
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine), five-place grid drop at Sepang: The stewards found him wholly or predominantly to blame for the lap-36 Turn 1 restart crash in Baku, where he braked too late, hit team-mate Pierre Gasly and pushed him into Lando Norris. The usual sanction is a 10-second time penalty, but you cannot serve a time penalty from the garage, so it was converted into a grid drop for the next race. Norris has since apologised to Colapinto for post-race comments questioning whether some drivers belong in F1.
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi): A 10-second time penalty for overtaking under yellow flags in Baku.
Official Announcements
- Ferrari on Vasseur: The statement came through a hastily arranged briefing rather than a formal release, and it said the team “remains united and cohesive.” Teams rarely comment on their principal’s future at all, so the fact that Ferrari felt it had to is the real news. It follows a rough Baku for the team, whose engine situation we unpacked when Leclerc took his grid penalty there.
- FIA and WRC Promoter: Sardinia is confirmed as round 13 and the final round of the 2026 World Rally Championship.
- IMSA: Petit Le Mans is the last scheduled IMSA appearance for the Lexus RC F GT3 and the Lamborghini Huracan, and Ferrari is chasing a third consecutive GTD victory. It is also Acura’s final GTP race with the ARX-06, which we looked at earlier today.
Championship Check
- Formula 1: Kimi Antonelli 302, George Russell 236, Lewis Hamilton 199, Lando Norris 186, Charles Leclerc 179. Russell’s Baku win trimmed the gap to 66 points with eight Grands Prix left, including Sepang. That is a big number, but Antonelli finished fifth in Baku, so it is no longer a lead that defends itself.
- MotoGP: Jorge Martin leads Marc Marquez by 12 points after Austria, where Pedro Acosta took his first premier-class win at KTM’s home round. Marquez clinched the 2025 title at Motegi, so the venue will not feel neutral to either of them.
- NASCAR Cup Series: Larson leads Hamlin by 26 points with six Chase races left after Kansas. The Chase is a 10-race format in 2026, and Las Vegas is race five.
- IMSA: Jack Aitken carries a 147-point GTP lead in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac. The drama is further down: LMP2 is split by four points and GTD by six. In GTD Pro, Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg lead by 47.
- WRC: Evans 230, Pajari 213, Solberg 209. Title decided Sunday.
What to Watch Next
- Thursday morning ET: WRC shakedown in Sardinia. Watch Evans’ tyre choices and body language. A driver who needs 19 points does not need to win shakedown.
- Thursday night ET: MotoGP FP1 at Motegi, and Chantra’s first laps back on the RC213V.
- Saturday 4:00 a.m. ET: F1 qualifying at Sepang. Colapinto starts five places back from wherever he lands, and Sepang’s long straights and heavy braking zones will show which Baku form was car and which was circuit.
- Saturday 12:10 p.m. ET: Petit Le Mans green flag. With LMP2 and GTD separated by single-digit margins, the class titles could come down to one pit-stop call after dark.
- Sunday: One title settled and three title fights on track. MotoGP at Motegi at 1:00 a.m. ET, F1 at Sepang at 3:00 a.m., the WRC Power Stage later that morning ET, and NASCAR at Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m.
Missed the weekend just gone? Our Monday roundup covers Baku, Kansas and the Fuji photo finish.
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