World Rally Championship crews are set to have a revised tyre at their disposal for next week’s Acropolis Rally Greece, which marks the start of seven consecutive gravel rallies. 

After receiving criticism regarding the durability of its hard compound gravel tyre following last month’s Rally Portugal, Hankook has swiftly made revisions to its tyre with the updated product set to make its debut in Greece next week. 

Thierry Neuville slams Hankook tyres at WRC Acropolis Rally

Improving the tyre’s durability has emerged as a key area which the Korean firm has focused on with its latest specification of the Dynapro hard compound gravel tyres.  

Despite facing a short validation period, WRC teams have been running the updated tyre during pre-event tests last week. This is the second updated tyre Hankook has introduced this season after debuting a new soft compound gravel tyre ahead of this year’s Safari Rally Kenya in March.

Hankook introduces new WRC tyre at Safari Rally Kenya

Hankook has now shed more light on the details changed to the hard tyre in a bid to provide a product that will cope better at upcoming hot rough gravel rallies, beginning with Greece, next week. 

“It's actually a very small tuning from Hankook's Portugal specifications, so it's more like an evolution rather than a new tyre,” said Hankook’s WRC representative Steven Cho.

Hankook tyres

“The compound, construction and profile are unchanged. We've made a small adjustment to the tread thickness, and despite the change being relatively modest, we've seen a meaningful improvement in overall performance and consistency.”

Greece’s hot and rough gravel stages will prove to be an ideal test for the new rubber that will likely be a key talking point. 

Hyundai has earmarked the return to gravel as an opportunity to take the fight to the championship’s dominant force Toyota and the South Korean manufacturer has tasted victory in Greece in three of the last four WRC visits.   

"We should have a good start position if the weather is with us that weekend,” 2024 Acropolis winner Thierry Neuville told Motorsport.com ahead of last week’s pre-event test.

"It is generally a rally where Hyundai has been successful in the past. Rough gravel rallies with lots of grip is where we are strong. There are still some unknowns as we have new tyres that Hankook are going to bring, so there are a couple of question marks." 

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Current championship leader Kimi Antonelli has earned the praise of fans after his interaction with Lewis Hamilton was captured after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. 

The seven-time champion drove from second on the grid to win his first grand prix with Ferrari, and while Antonelli was forced to retire from the race due to an electrical issue on his Mercedes machinery, he made sure he was there to congratulate the Briton after the race.

After Hamilton overtook Antonelli's team-mate George Russell in the standings at the Monaco Grand Prix, he has now reduced the gap to the Italian driver to 41 points. 

Fans were quick to praise the moment between the two championship rivals. "He is a childhood hero for most of the drivers!" one fan posted on Reddit while another added: "I just hope it stays this way even if they end up fighting for the championship."

"Class move from Kimi, especially considering how young he still is," someone else commented, while another wrote: "Class act from the young man, a wise head on young shoulders."

Further comments included: "He is sad for the DNF but genuinely happy for Lewis", "He is returning the favour, Lewis always congratulates him," and "Kimi being happy and congratulatory for Lewis despite his own DNF, he’s a sweet kid."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who finished fourth, was also seen congratulating Hamilton. "The respect across the paddock for Lewis is so amazing to see!" someone commented.

"Max going out of his way to congratulate and people will still say there's bad blood," another fan wrote, and another comment read: "It was quite amazing to see the shared respect between all of them. They all clearly know and are impressed by one another’s capabilities."

The eighth round of the season will be the Austrian Grand Prix from 26 to 28 June. 

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Christopher Bell’s finishing position doesn’t come close to telling the story of his Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was credited with a 26th-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race, but for much of the afternoon Bell looked like one of the few drivers capable of challenging eventual winner Denny Hamlin. He led 18 laps, spent significant time near the front of the field, and consistently showed top-five speed.

The remarkable part?

Bell was doing it with a broken wrist, the result of a hard crash at Michigan International Speedway one week earlier when his No. 20 Toyota was swept into an accident involving Chase Elliott.

While the final box score will simply show a disappointing finish, Bell’s performance at the “Tricky Triangle” offered another reminder of how physically demanding NASCAR can be, especially when a driver is competing through an injury.

Christopher Bell says the biggest challenge comes when things happen fast

For long stretches of Sunday’s race, Bell said the injury barely crossed his mind.

When the field spread out and he could focus on hitting his marks, everything felt relatively normal.

“Whenever the field got strung out I felt fine,” Bell said. “Running by myself I felt like it was normal.”

The problem came during the most chaotic moments of a race.

Restarts. Traffic. Sudden corrections.

Those are the situations where Bell said his wrist becomes a real limitation.

“Certainly adverse conditions. Like whenever people made quick moves on restarts … cars got loose, things like that.”

Bell explained that the injury doesn’t necessarily affect his ability to drive lap after lap. Instead, it impacts the sharp, instinctive reactions drivers rely on when cars stack up in traffic or someone loses control nearby.

That’s a significant challenge at Pocono, where drivers enter corners at high speeds and often have only fractions of a second to react.

“Under normal circumstances I think I’m fine,” Bell said. “Certainly restarts are very difficult.”

Bell had one of the fastest cars before the day unraveled

What made Bell’s performance so notable was that he wasn’t merely surviving.

He was competing.

Bell led 18 laps and repeatedly worked his way toward the front despite dealing with a wrist injury that limited some of the most important movements behind the wheel. At several points, the No. 20 Toyota looked capable of battling Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, John Hunter Nemechek, and Kyle Larson for the victory.

That reality wasn’t lost on fellow driver Brad Keselowski.

“It’s really remarkable,” Keselowski said during Prime’s post-race after show of Bell’s effort.

The comment carried weight coming from a veteran who understands just how demanding a 160-lap Cup Series race can be.

In the end, Bell’s afternoon unraveled and the finishing order won’t reflect how competitive he was. But anyone who watched the race saw a driver doing far more than managing an injury.

For much of Sunday, Bell was racing near the front, leading laps, and putting himself in position to contend for a win while effectively driving one-handed.

And that may have been one of the most impressive performances at Pocono, regardless of where he ultimately finished.

Lewis Hamilton's first Formula 1 victory for Ferrari, even before the Briton had crossed the finish line at the Barcelona Grand Prix, quickly captivated spectators and observers, temporarily pushing Mercedes' internal fight and Kimi Antonelli's retirement into the background.

But these two race incidents, important in the story of the 2026 season, were very much on the mind of Toto Wolff, the principal at the German team. The race saw Mercedes experience its first setback of the season on Sunday, along with its championship leader scoring no points for the first time his year.

F1 Barcelona GP: Lewis Hamilton takes maiden Ferrari win as Kimi Antonelli retires late

Before analysing his own team, Wolff wanted to congratulate his rivals. Hamilton's success had been built, in part, on an aggressive three-stop strategy from Ferrari, before a well-timed virtual safety car further strengthened his advantage over Mercedes.

"First of all, I'm happy for Lewis," Wolff told Canal+ in French. "He's wanted to win in a Ferrari for a long time, he worked hard, and I'm very happy for Fred [Vasseur]. Fred is a friend; sometimes we get annoyed with each other, but today he deserves it.

"It was so difficult, with so much pressure in Italy at Ferrari, and for him to take the victory today, fair and square – Lewis had excellent pace, he deserves to win – and for that, we must first congratulate them."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Toto Wolff, Mercedes

But then came the time to examine Mercedes' race. Before Antonelli's retirement, which came just after he had overtaken George Russell in the closing laps, the race had already been marked by further episodes of team-mate infighting. The accumulation of lost time and reliability issues, only weeks after Russell retired while leading in Canada, led Wolff to a harsh conclusion.

"It was a useless race for us,” he continued. “First of all, we can't keep having retirements all the time. You don't win championships if your cars keep stopping. And secondly, while we've always tried to be fair between the two drivers, now there's a third driver, with Lewis fighting for the world championship. We need to pay attention."

Hamilton's victory, after he had already inherited second place in Monaco following Russell's troubles, combined with Antonelli's failure to score, reduced the gap between them from 66 points to 41.

Team orders because of the Hamilton threat?

These strong comments from Wolff naturally raise the question of how the team will translate this into action on track. Is he considering imposing team orders?

"I'm not sure,” he told the French broadcaster. “We need to discuss it with the drivers, because if you give team orders, you can't keep changing them every race.

"But normally, if one driver has such a speed advantage – and there's a risk of losing a race – then maybe we need to think about it."

Fred Vasseur: Lewis Hamilton would have won Barcelona GP without VSC help

"Maybe the girlfriend helps" - Toto Wolff's take on Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari revival

Lewis Hamilton's emotional message on first Ferrari F1 win: "You helped me achieve this dream"

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