Ai Ogura beat his own Trackhouse team-mate by 2.004 seconds at Assen for the first Japanese premier-class win since 2004. The nationality is the headline; the satellite squad sweeping both days over the factory it leases its bikes from is the part the paddock kept circling.

Thierry Neuville led the Acropolis by 4.1 seconds into the final day, then lost 53.5 seconds to two rear punctures on a single stage. Ogier won by 58.3 for his 69th victory, and the line that survived the weekend was Neuville's, not bitter at all.

The No. 31 Cadillac led 143 of 182 laps and won the Six Hours of The Glen from pole. Four thousand miles east, both Cadillac Formula 1 cars retired inside five laps of the Austrian Grand Prix with overheating brakes. One marque, two programmes, opposite ends of the maturity curve.

In three days the 2027 grid went from frozen to half decided. Ducati signed Pedro Acosta alongside Marquez through 2028, Aprilia took the double champion Ducati let go, and two factory superteams locked while three manufacturers and a row of seats did not.

Lewis Hamilton qualified the upgraded SF-26 on the second row and finished fifth, 26.3 seconds behind George Russell, two weeks after winning in Barcelona. The Red Bull Ring's heat surfaced a rear-tyre weakness no power-unit update was ever going to reach.

The GEN4 car arrives 87kg heavier, 90mm wider and with all-wheel drive, and London's ExCeL was judged too cramped to hold it. The series' answer is its largest calendar yet, 21 races across 13 cities, two of them in the United States for the first time since 2015.