Motorsport

Last year's Leaf overhaul delivered a huge range bump, more power and more torque than the all electric vehicle that preceded it. Nissan treated the world's best-selling electric car to a sporty makeover in July of this year, and has now revealed a powerful track variant called the Nismo RC.​

Yesterday, 21-year-old Ana Carrasco became the first female motorcycle world champion, surviving the final round of the 2018 World 300 Supersport Championship at Magny Cours in France with just three points from her 13th place, but enough to give her the title by a one-point margin.

Toyota is developing an all-new supercar with technology trickled down from its TS050 Hybrid LMP1 race car. The "next-generation racehorse" will debut as a barely tamed race car with 986 hp worth of hybrid racing technology.

Yamaha's latest electric motorcycle is an interesting one – it's a trials bike weighing less than 70 kg (154 lb). It's also one of the few electrics you'll see with a clutch, for fine control and extra punch when it's time to wheelie over a log or jump on top of a rock.

The 40th Dakar Rally (and the 10th to be run on the opposite side of the world from Dakar itself) has been run and won for 2018. As always, it left us with some utterly spectacular imagery, so here are our favourite photos of the gruelling rally from Lima to Cordoba.

​After three decades away, Alfa Romeo will return to Formula 1 in 2018 in partnership with Sauber F1. Alfa and Sauber have entered into a multi-year partnership agreement covering strategic, commercial and technological cooperation with the new team to be known as the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team.

In a different coming together of video games and real life, winner of the 2011 GT Academy, Jann Mardenborough has remotely driven an actual Nissan GT-R at speeds of up to 211 km/h (131 mph) around Silverstone using a PlayStation DualShock 4 controller.

HFK used the 2017 China International Motorcycle Fair to launch a Motorcycle Digital Video Recorder with front and rear 60 fps, 1080P video recording, three-axis collision sensor, GPS data logging, plus real-time sharing of video and still images by social media.

Minibikes offer a great gateway to motorcycling for children, and Polini Motori stands out among the specialists in this field. Its new XP line targets riders aged 4 to 10 years old, producing two fully-equipped minicross models that leave very little to be desired compared to dad’s motocrosser.

Furthering its support of Formula E electric racing, Jaguar has announced the world’s first production battery electric vehicle race series. Called the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, the series will support FIA’s Formula E championship, utilizing the same race circuits on the same weekends.

Most motoring journalists like to think of themselves as racing drivers in disguise. Truth is, many are high on confidence and low on talent. Rather than trying to learn on the fly, Ford suggested we spend some time driving a Focus RS, learning how to extract the best from a car on the track.

Honda has introduced its entry for the 2018 World Motocross Championship MX2 class. Fitted in the frame and suspension package of the 2017 CRF450R, the CRF250R's new engine promises more power at higher rotation levels, and is equipped with electric starter and selectable engine modes as standard.