Story by James Prostell Jr.

LEXINGTON, OHIO – Nestled in the rolling hills about an hour north of Columbus, Ohio, The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has been called “The Most Competitive in the U.S.” since the first laps were turned back in 1962. Despite setting the stage for battles among some of the best in IndyCar, Grand-AM, and for the first time this year, NASCAR’s Nationwide series, the track’s diverse calendar hosts races for regional and local drivers and The Mid Ohio School gives fans and hopefuls a shot at the circuit too. Just try not to mistake this openness for a lack of difficulty.

A challenge to any driver, Mid-Ohio is a constant test of mental endurance and physical ability. The elevation changes and snaking curves through the esses plus a a notoriously slick surface can quickly put those caught off guard into the guardrail. A winning drive here will take the patience to wait for an opportunity to advance to appear on the seemingly single-line track along with the speed and daring to take advantage of those chances the few times they appear.

Once the checkered waves in Ohio, the McLaren Turbo Challenge will have met the halfway mark. Before that, though, Team VBR driver Brad Vincent leads P1 Racing’s Marty Sponsler by a scant 5 point margin.

Practice

If track time was an issue that held Marty Sponsler back at Laguna Seca, he made absolutely sure that wouldn’t be the case at Mid-Ohio. The P1 racing driver put in over 40 laps of practice getting ready for the main event. The extra practice paid off, enabling him to put a full second between himself and the next fastest driver. Only problem was that championship leader Brad Vincent was just fast enough to best Sponsler by less than a tenth of a second. It was clear early that these two would again be the class of the field.

Pre-Race Practice Top Ten

1. Brad Vincent 1:20.974
2. Marty Sponsler 1:21.091
3. Joseph Jordan 1:22.261
4. Andrew Humphrey 1:22.269
5. Terry Daul 1:22.371
6. Cyril Roberts 1:22.523
7. James Prostell Jr. 1:22.646
8. Les Turner 1:22.679
9. Andrew Gantman 1:22.819
10. Kevin Kyle 1:23.046

Qualifying

Knowing there’s only two good passing opportunities on each lap, every team in the paddock made qualifying a high priority. Looking to improve on his practice time, Marty Sponsler was able to find some extra speed and posted a 1:20.964, his first time breaking into the 1:20 mark for the event. Much to Sponsler’s chagrin, Brad Vincent found more speed himself, landing himself on the pole for the upcoming race by just under two tenths of a second. Team TOC teammates Andrew Humphrey and Dean Moll would occupy row 2, less than a tenth separating the two. Outside of a few spins and brushes with the tire barriers, no major incidents occurred during the qualifying session.

Starting Lineup

Row 1 – Inside Brad Vincent Outside Marty Sponsler
Row 2 – Inside Andrew Humphrey Outside Dean Moll
Row 3 – Corey Wolf Outside Reed Rundell
Row 4 – Inside Joseph Jordan Outside Les Turner
Row 5 – Inside Terry Daul Outside Scott Husted
Row 6 – Inside Dennis Griffen Outside Andrew Gantman
Row 7 – Inside James Prostell Jr. Outside Cyril Roberts
Row 8 – Inside Jeff Thomas Outside Andrew Feldman
Row 9 – Inside Kevin Kyle Outside William Kabela
Row 10 – Inside Divina Galica Outside Tony Duffey (No Time – Provisional)

Race

As the fans took their seats, there was a slight grumbling that a smaller field would mean less action on the track. Any thoughts like that vanished by the time the cars hurtled into turn two for the first time, battling tooth and nail for position. Sponsler and Vincent were able to use their front row starting position to break away from the snarling pack, and the #18 pulled out front to lead the first 11 laps heading into the pit cycle. This wasn’t a dominant lead by any means as Sponsler found himself only five seconds behind halfway into the race – a bobble or two from Vincent and another story could be told.

Back in the pack, the course was ready to bite, and it did so early. Near the end of lap four, both the #07 of Andrew Gantman and #70 of James Prostell Jr. would slide coming out of turn 9, and off-camber downhill right-hander. Prostell righted his car and got back in line, Gantman wasn’t so lucky, catching the tire barrier and dropping to 20th, stopping for repairs. Two further spins kept Gantman out of contention, finishing 19th.

The same turn 9 would trip up Cyril Roberts in the #02 as well, four laps later on lap eight. Roberts would fight the spin all the way, saving the car twice before it finally went into a pirouette, staying collision-free in the process. Roberts continued without any further drama to finish 13th.

Lap 15 would find a little more drama, this time in the keyhole. Having just had their battle for 11th restart after the pit cycle, #28 Scott Husted tapped #23 Dennis Griffen into a spin, with Prostell Jr., squeaking by with a slight tap from the #28 before jumping into 11th.

Surprisingly, turn 1 would end up being the most vicious turn through the race. Having already caused trouble for #46 Andrew Feldman and #12 Joseph Jordan, the speedy left-hander sent the #70 of Prostell Jr. for a trip into the grass of his own, just two laps from the finish dropping him from 9th to 12th. “I just got too greedy trying to catch eighth, and threw away a good day out there,” lamented Prostell Jr. after the race where he’d finish 11th.

Up front, after pitting on lap 16, Vincent found himself back on track in the lead, having built up a large enough advantage over Sponsler to pit for service yet retain the point. That lead he had, though, had dwindled to three seconds, giving the #24 a nice target to chase after. This wasn’t a problem for the #18, who responded by putting down the fastest lap of the race at 1:21.010 to pull away and lead the last five laps. Sponsler finished second, with an excited Dean Moll finishing out the podium. Moll’s Team TOC teammates Reed Rundell and Andrew Humphrey finished fourth and fifth, making for a 3-4-5 finish for the team.

Sixth went to Corey Wolf, followed by Les Turner, Terry Daul, Joseph Jordan, and Scott Husted to round out the top ten. 11th through 15th would be awarded to James Prostell Jr., Dennis Griffen, Cyril Roberts, Kevin Kyle, and Tony Duffey, with Jeff Thomas, Andrew Feldman, and Divina Galica finishing on the lead lap, 16th through 18th. Andrew Gantman and William Kabela finished 19th and 20th, both one lap down.

With another flag-to-flag victory, Brad Vincent increases his lead to nine points over P1 Racing’s Marty Sponsler. Dean Moll improves to third, 37 points behind the leader. The McLaren Turbo Challenge is set to visit Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia for the Panoz 30, Round 7 of the championship series.

Awards

Deltran Battery Tender Best Start (Most positions gained lap 1)
Divina Galica was the only driver to improve their position, moving one spot up to 18th.
Allstate Vanishing Deductible Award (Incident Free Race)
Five drivers were able finish the race without any incident points. Brad Vincent, Corey Wolf, Terry Daul, Jeff Thomas, and William Kabela each earned a bonus championship point.
Optima Batteries Hard Charger (Most positions gained start position – finish position)
Tony Duffey gained 5 spots through the race, starting 20th and finishing 15th.

Competitor Post-Race Comments

Corey Wolf, Team THM – “I Can’t say I’m happy with a 6th place finish here at Mid Ohio, but it could have been worse. Unfortunately, our pit strategy for the race didn’t work out. We decided to pit early to try and get some clean air, and as a result we came out behind some slower traffic which cost us dearly on our pit out lap. I was never able to regain the time lost fighting in traffic, but hey, that’s racing for ya!”

Marty Sponsler, P1 Racing – “Mid Ohio is one of tracks that seems to give us a little bit of a problem, but this week we unloaded hoping to change our luck! With practice in the books we felt like we had fairly strong car, maybe top 5. With Brad V. posting his fast time of 1:20.7′s in Q. we did not push any harder as we felt he was out of reach, ended up 2nd on grid and were very happy with our Q session. Race went just about the way I thought it might, started very clean and the pace was quick! As the race unfolded, I thought our best chance at Brad was in the pits. As the pit window opened i darted in hoping to close the gap a little on Brad, ended up a lil closer but as his tires came up to temp he started to pull away. Then my crew chief was in my ear saying “Just bring it home!” and we ended up in second place. Great run all in all, I do have to thank the boys back at the P1 shop and to the folks that put the show on at Red Sox Racing!!! Thanks Guys!!!”

Dean Moll, Team TOC Racing – “It’s great to finally get on the podium. I’ve been consistently in the top 5 this season but keep missing out by 1 or 2 positions. Brad and Marty were the class of the field again and I did not have anything to keep up with them. Congrats to Brad on the win. I did have a great battle with my TOC teammates Andrew H. and Reed. We all swapped positions throughout the race. The entire TOC team is working well together and showing improvement from week to week. We just need to keep it up for the second half of the schedule.”

James Prostell Jr., Team HeadBlade James Prostell Motorsports – “Well, if you would have told me We’d finish 11th before the race, I’d be ecstatic, but then things change a bit when you throw away a chance at 9th, with 8th in your sights. I won’t be too down, though – 11th is my best to date and considering who was here to watch, I’m glad I was able to give them a show. We hosted a few people from Michigan CAT, my newest sponsor and I hope they had as good a time at the track as I did on it (before the spin, at least). I feel like I was in the thick of things all day fighting it out with Husted and Griffen, and I was able to barely squeeze by when they got together in the keyhole after the pit cycle. From there I was trying to catch Terry Daul for a shot at eighth, but I got greedy and caught a little too much curb at turn 1 instead and found myself sliding out in the grass. Things were a little sketchy as it was since I decided to double-stint my Michelins for the first time this year, but they held up their end of the bargain.”

“Familiarity was definitely on my side this week as I’ve been visiting the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course since 1994 in Papyrus’ original IndyCar Racing for the PC. It wasn’t until my first visit to the track in 2008 that I fell in love with the place, though and my High Performance Driving class in 2009 that cemented an already high appreciation for what racing drivers do on a daily basis.”

Loic Duval headed an all-Audi top three in a Le Mans 24 Hours practice session that was shortened due to a huge accident for GT driver Tracy Krohn.

Frenchman Duval’s 3m25.514s lap, set in the #2 R18 e-tron quattro he shares with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, came with less than an hour of the session remaining.

It bettered the previous benchmark, set by Benoit Treluyer in the #1 car, by one second.

Marcel Fassler took over from Treluyer and improved on the #1 car’s best time, but still ended up 0.645s adrift of Duval.

AUTOSPORT’S 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours special

Faster times looked likely heading into the final hour, but the session was halted when Krohn crashed his own team’s GTE Am Ferrari heavily at the downhill Dunlop Esses.

Although the American was able to walk away from the impact, the damage done to the tyre barriers could not be repaired in time to stage the final 30 minutes.

There had been an earlier red flag when Eric Lux crashed Greaves Motorsport’s #41 Zytek-Nissan at the second Mulsanne chicane. The car did not return to the track.

The factory Toyotas were fourth and fifth, Anthony Davidson’s #8 machine faster than the #7 of Kazuki Nakajima.

Nick Heidfeld was the fastest of the LMP1 drivers without hybrid machinery. The German recovered from early contact with the spun LMP2 OAK Morgan-Nissan driven by David Heinemeier Hansson.

LMP2 was topped by Bertrand Baguette, the OAK Morgan-Nissan driver nearly a second faster than Maxime Martin’s TDS ORECA-Nissan.

The lead of GTE Pro changed constantly, despite the onset of rain in the second hour. Richard Lietz ended up quickest in the factory Porsche, two tenths ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s AF Corse Ferrari.

The GTE Am class was led by the #95 Aston Martin of Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen.

The sister #96 Vantage, fifth in class, narrowly avoided a heavy collision with the oncoming Murphy Prototypes LMP2 machine of Mark Patterson as Roald Goethe recovered from a spin.

AUTOSPORT’S Live coverage of the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours

Times to follow…

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was quickest as his team and Suzuki joined Honda’s test at Aragon on Wednesday.

Honda had headed straight to Aragon while most of the teams stayed on at last weekend’s race venue Barcelona for a test on Monday.

Heavy rain on Tuesday spoilt Honda’s first day, but conditions improved for Wednesday.

Lorenzo’s benchmark 1m48.076s lap came during a qualifying simulation, and pleased the world champion as he has often struggled at the Spanish track.

The Hondas of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were next up, with Valentino Rossi an encouraged fourth having made set-up breakthroughs.

Pedrosa did nine laps on Honda’s 2014 bike during the day, but decided not to race it yet, despite the team’s willingness to bring its debut forward if requested.

Marquez will remain at Aragon to try the machine on Thursday.

Satellite Honda riders Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista completed the top six.

Randy de Puniet was 1.8 seconds off Lorenzo’s pace on the Suzuki test bike.

Pos  Rider            Team/Bike      Time       Gap

 1.  Jorge Lorenzo    Yamaha         1m48.076s

 2.  Marc Marquez     Honda          1m48.434s  + 0.358s

 3.  Dani Pedrosa     Honda          1m48.928s  + 0.852s

 4.  Valentino Rossi  Yamaha         1m49.007s  + 0.931s

 5.  Stefan Bradl     LCR Honda      1m49.553s  + 1.477s

 6.  Alvaro Bautista  Gresini Honda  1m50.080s  + 2.004s

 7.  Randy de Puniet  Suzuki         1m50.860s  + 2.784s

Dani Pedrosa does not intend to race the 2014 Honda MotoGP bike in the immediate future after testing with it for the first time at Aragon on Wednesday.

Honda brought next year’s RC213V to the test with the intention of giving it an early race debut if championship leader Pedrosa or his team-mate Marc Marquez wanted to race it.

Pedrosa only did nine laps on the bike on Wednesday, and decided it would not be right to rush it into race action.

“I did just two exits and a total of nine laps, basically to get the first impression and give to the engineers some feedback,” he said.

“The bike is OK, but at the moment we need more time to understand it, so in the short term I will not use it.”

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was fastest at the test, his 1m48.076s beating Marquez’s 1m48.434s.

Pedrosa did a 1m48.928s in third place, a tenth ahead of Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha.

Marquez will stay on to try the 2014 Honda on Thursday.

The Lotus LMP2 team will take part in this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours after overturning a court judgement that threatened its participation in the race.

The German-based team went to court in Le Mans this afternoon following the impounding of key components from its pair of Lotus-Praga T128 coupes on Tuesday evening.

The judge ruled in favour of the team, which is in the process of retrieving the impounded parts. They include gearboxes, suspension components and, crucially, the steering wheels of the two cars.

The #31 Lotus was able to take to the track in the hands of Christophe Bouchut during free practice in the immediate wake of the ruling after a supplier brought a spare steering wheel, the only component missing from the car.

The team is expecting to be able to prepare the second car using the retrieved components in time to take part in tonight’s two-hour qualifying session, which begins at 10pm.

The court case was brought by the ADESS AG engineering consultancy, which designed the T128. It followed Lotus LMP2 breaking off its relationship with the Munich-based company.

Valtteri Bottas says his third place on the Canadian Grand Prix grid changed the atmosphere in the struggling Williams team.

The multiple title-winning squad has yet to score a point in 2013, and despite Bottas’s qualifying performance, that situation remained after Montreal as he slumped to 14th in the race.

But the Finn said his Saturday speed seemed to remind Williams of its glory days.

“It’s been such a difficult start. When I came back from the press conference after qualifying, they seemed like different people,” Bottas said.

“It was very good. It reminds the team what the feeling is when you have a good result.

“That’s what we’re here for, and I hope it encourages the team to push even harder than before.

“For me motivation has never been a problem, but it was nice and I’ll definitely work very, very hard to get back there one day.”

Bottas said the race disappointment did not overshadow what he had achieved in qualifying.

“We have to take [qualifying] as a positive and it’s something I will never forget,” he said.

“You could see the mood in the team was just a different feeling after that.

“We need to remember the good bits of the weekend.”

He also said he felt much more at home among the frontrunners.

“It would have been nicer to be on pole… But yeah, it was much better like that,” said Bottas.

“You know that you have all the experienced guys around you and you know all of them are thinking about the whole race.

“It felt really comfortable there. I could get used to it.”

Indian Grand Prix organisers have dismissed “baseless and malicious” rumours that the event could be in doubt after its 2014 edition.

India joined the Formula 1 calendar in 2011 and has a contract to host the race until ’15.

Reports emerged on Tuesday suggesting promoter Jaypee Sports International was in financial trouble and that the 2015 race could be in danger.

A JPSI spokesperson, however, rubbished the speculation in a statement on Wednesday.

“Some international news organisations are trying to spread rumours that JPSI may not host 2014 Indian GP. This is totally baseless and malicious,” he said..

“Our agreement with Formula One Management is to hold F1 races at Buddh International Circuit (BIC) till 2015, and we are fully committed to do that. There is no reason for us to give up hosting F1 races.

“In fact, JPSI is keen to get some more international car and bike races to BIC, besides F1 and the World Superbike Championship which will be held this year on November 17.

“We are fully committed to promote motorsport in India in collaboration with local government and global and local motorsport organisations.”

This year’s Indian F1 race takes place on October 27.

The German Lotus LMP2 squad is going to court this afternoon in order to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend.

The team is looking to overturn a court order that resulted in key parts of its pair of Lotus-Praga T128 LMP2 prototypes being seized on Tuesday after an unnamed supplier took action against the squad.

The court case in the city of Le Mans is due at 3pm local time. Team sources are hopeful that a successful resolution would allow the two Lotuses to take to the track in free practice, which runs from 4 to 8pm.

Suspension components, gearboxes and the steering wheels were taken from the team’s pit in Le Mans by bailiffs at 5pm on Tuesday.

It is understood that the court order alleged non-payment of bills, something that team sources have denied.

A statement will be issued by the team in the wake of the hearing.

Ever since news of the Mercedes secret tyre test first emerged on the morning of the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1 has been obsessed with the details of the case.

But debate about whether it was private or secret, just how many kilometres the team did on 2013 rubber, and why its drivers ran in unbranded helmets will become largely irrelevant on Thursday.

Instead, when the FIA’s International Tribunal opens for session at 9:30 local time in Paris, Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn and Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery will be cross-examined to find out simply whether or not the rules have been breached.

MERCEDES SECRET TYRE TEST ROW

FIA sets date for Tribunal hearing

Red Bull: complaint only over Mercedes

Brawn: Mercedes tyre test my decision

How the International Tribunal works

WHAT THE RULES SAY

The Mercedes test case revolves around a three-day 1000 kilometre tyre test that the team did for Pirelli with its 2013 car in the week after the Spanish Grand Prix.

F1′s Sporting Regulations appears to be fairly clear in defining that such running of a current design is not allowed.

Article 22.1 states: “Track testing shall be considered any track running time not part of an Event undertaken by a competitor entered in the Championship, using cars which conform substantially with the current Formula One Technical Regulations in addition to those from the previous or subsequent year.”

It furthermore clarifies that no track testing can take place in a period that spans 10 days before the start of the first race of the season and December 31.

The only exception is the young driver test, four one-day aerodynamic tests at straight line or constant radius sites, or in cases where a replacement driver needs some emergency mileage to get up to speed.

While it appears that Mercedes’ running of its W04 is a straightforward breach of the rules, the matter is complicated by clauses in the supplier contract that Pirelli has with the FIA.

In it, Pirelli is allowed to conduct 1000 kilometre tests with current teams using a ‘representative’ car.

Although it is believed that there is no strict definition of what a representative car is, equally there is nothing that states a representative car cannot be from the current campaign.

The crux of Mercedes’ defence will therefore revolve around whether or not Pirelli’s right to run a representative car in its three-year old contract supersedes what is stated in the current Sporting Regulations.

Mercedes will certainly have sought permission from the FIA about running a 2013 car – and would not have been brazen enough to take a chance on such an obvious breach of the rules if it did not believe it was allowed to do so.

But believing you are within the rules, and actually being within them, are two completely separate things. For even if you do not intend to break the rules, that does not stop you being punished if you are found guilty of breaking them.

WHAT WILL THE TRIBUNAL LOOK FOR

The International Tribunal has already received written submissions from Mercedes, Pirelli and the FIA over the matter.

Its mandate to work out whether or not the rules were broken will revolve around the correspondence between the three interested parties – and questioning of the main parties in the Paris hearing.

What took place at the test is of little consequence, for it is the simple use of the 2013 car itself – not what it did – that really matters.

Predicting how deep the investigation needs to delve into the lines of communication between Mercedes, Pirelli and the FIA will ultimately depend on just how much debate there was about using a 2013 car, and how clear each party was about the others’ intentions.

Was, for example, any FIA approval on the basis that every other team had been offered such a test, so in theory unanimous support was forthcoming for a future rule change?

Or was it explicit that the FIA’s legal interpretation was Pirelli’s contract supersedes the rules, so there was no question that running a 2013 car was allowed?

Then, once the FIA’s stance has been clarified, the IT will need to look at whether Mercedes’ use of a 2013 was a blatant bid to cheat – as some of its rivals have all but suggested – or simply an unwilling transgression made in good faith.

Only then can a ruling be made on what – if any – punishment should be handed down.

Volkswagen has agreed to freeze the car development in the World Rally Championship in order to help maintain the presence of Citroen and M-Sport in the series next year.

The three factory World Rally cars reach the end of a homologation cycle at the end of this year, with new cars expected for 2014.

The £3m cost of producing a new car would likely mean the end to M-Sport’s participation in the WRC next year.

With that in mind, Volkswagen has lobbied the FIA to maintain the current specification of cars, even if that compromises its own chances of success.

Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito said: “We talked about what is best for the future and what’s the best to keep the level of entries up in the championship.

“And after talking about all of this, we found that the best way is to stay with the cars we have for this year.”

Volkswagen had already started work on the evolution of its Polo R WRC, which has been an immediate hit taking four wins from six rounds so far this season.

That car will not be seen until at least 2015 after Capito decided to put the WRC’s competitiveness first.

“It’s fair to say,” said Capito, “that we have taken away some of our potential performance advantage for the good of the sport.”

M-Sport’s Malcolm Wilson was fulsome in his praise of Capito.

“We are very grateful for this,” said Wilson. “As you can imagine for the likes of myself and Yves [Matton, Citroen team principal], it’s a real positive move.

“We know we can still be competitive next year without having to spend millions on development.

“This has kept the championship open and, to be honest, we couldn’t have done a new homologation unless Ford had come back; we wouldn’t have been in position to spend the millions needed.

“OK, Volkswagen has still got the best two, if not three, drivers in the sport, but at least, after Jost’s proposal, we know that the cars are going to be on a level playing field for next season.”

The FIA confirmed that, via a fax vote, the current homologation of World Rally Cars has been frozen until the end of next season.

Juho Hanninen has been linked with a Citroen drive on next month’s Rally Finland.

The reigning European Rally Champion, who is reckoned to be the man behind wheel of Hyundai’s i20 WRC test car, has not driven a DS3 WRC before, but his familiarity with the roads around Jyvaskyla appear to have given him the nod to take Khalid Al-Qassimi’s seat in the Citroen Abu Dhabi team.

Briton Kris Meeke and Australian driver Chris Atkinson had appeared to be in pole position for the drive on the fastest round of the world championship, but sources suggest Hanninen will be in the car.

The Finn was unavailable for comment when AUTOSPORT contacted him, but a Citroen spokesperson confirmed a decision was expected imminently.

“We don’t know yet,” said the spokesperson. “Of course, we have some names, but nothing is decided. We have to make a decision soon and we hope that will be this week, but for now there’s nothing more to say.”

Hanninen has won his class the last four times he has started in Finland, scoring a top-10 result with a Skoda Fabia S2000 in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Hanninen did not compete on his home WRC round last season.

The 31-year-old contested the first two rounds of this year’s World Rally Championship with the Qatar M-Sport Ford World Rally Team, crashing in Monte Carlo and finishing sixth in Sweden.

Honda is prepared to give its 2014 MotoGP bike an early debut if Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa request it after testing the new machine next week.

The Japanese team has brought its 2014 RC213V to this week’s test at Aragon. Poor weather prevented it from running in earnest on Tuesday, but a further attempt will be made on Wednesday.

Last year Honda introduced its 2013 bike early, allowed Pedrosa to put eventual champion Jorge Lorenzo under great pressure in the closing part of the season.

Technical director Takeo Yokoyama said Honda was poised to do the same again.

“It is a complete new bike, both in terms of engine and chassis,” he said. “Our plan is to test it now in order to be able to do, eventually, some changes before the post-race test in Valencia in November.

“Anyway, if Dani and Marc find something in the bike that they feel is a really big improvement compared to their actual RC213V, HRC will do its best to provide it already later this season as we already did last year.”

Pedrosa currently leads the world championship by seven points over Lorenzo, but the Yamaha rider has won the last two races at Mugello and Barcelona.

LCR rider Stefan Bradl did some exploratory laps on the 2014 bike in the wet on Tuesday.

Gresini Honda’s Alvaro Bautista was also present and on track.

Yamaha and Suzuki will now join Honda for the second day of running.

Related photos (click to enlarge)

Ana Beatriz will remain in the second Dale Coyne Racing entry for this weekend’s IndyCar race at Iowa.

The Brazilian, who is one of the three drivers to have raced the car in 2013, was a late confirmation for last weekend’s Milwaukee race, and her inclusion in the field for Iowa was revealed when her name appeared on the official entry list, which was released on Tuesday.

Beatriz has contested six races in the car so far this year, with a best result of 14th at Long Beach.

Mike Conway, whose availability is comprised by his sportscar commitments as well as his disinclination to race on ovals, took the car to a win and a podium in the double-header at Detroit, while Pippa Mann raced the car in Texas but dropped out early with an engine failure.

Panther Racing, the only other entrant on the grid without a permanent driver, confirmed several weeks ago that Oriol Servia will race its car in Iowa.

Reigning British GT champion Michael Caine will give Motorbase’s third NGTC Ford Focus its British Touring Car debut at Croft this weekend.

Caine appeared in two BTCC rounds in 2011, driving a Motorbase-run S2000 Focus, before winning the British GT title with the squad last year, sharing a Porsche with Daniele Perfetti.

Another GT campaign and budget issues have kept Caine from a full BTCC season this year, but the 42-year-old tested the new NGTC machine at Snetterton last month.

A deal with Autoglym means he will now race the car alongside Motorbase’s regular drivers Mat Jackson and Aaron Smith at Croft.

“We didn’t do a great deal with it in the test, but it’ll be very interesting,” Caine told AUTOSPORT.

“The cars haven’t been doing that great so far, but hopefully we’re making progress. I’m going to try and support the team and get the best finishes I can.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the BTCC the last time I did it and the NGTC should be good.”

Caine, who scored his first British GT win of the season at Snetterton last weekend, has not ruled out further appearances.

“I’d love to do more, but it’s down to money and sponsors,” he added. “I’d like to make it more than a one-off, but we’ve got to concentrate on British GT.”

Motorbase team principal David Bartrum said: “It’s great to get the opportunity to race the third Motorbase NGTC.

“We’re really looking forward to seeing what Michael can do in the Focus, especially coming off the back of such a great weekend with our first GT race win.”

Audi is not going into this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours believing that Toyota will fail to offer a challenge, according to Oliver Jarvis.

The Audi driver believes that the results of the first two rounds of the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans test day earlier this month did not produce conclusive evidence that the German manufacturer’s R18 e-tron quattro has a performance advantage.

Jarvis, who is making his third Le Mans start this year in the #3 Audi alongside Marc Gene and Lucas di Grassi, said: “Everyone else is saying that Toyota is out of it, but that’s not how we are thinking.”

AUTOSPORT’S 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours special

He suggested that the big performance differential between the solo Le Mans-spec Audi and the 2013 Toyota TS030 HYBRID in qualifying at Spa was not representative of the cars’ respective race pace.

“We have been quick in qualifying when the tyres were new, but sportscar racing has nothing to do with qualifying,” he explained.

“They appear not to be able to get the peak out of the tyre, but it looked like they were better than us in terms of wear over the race at Spa.

“The Toyota looks like it comes alive in the race.”

Jarvis also suggested that the Toyota’s ability to go further on a tank of fuel in the Silverstone and Spa WEC races could prove crucial.

“If they go one lap longer, then we have to go five or six tenths quicker a lap to make up for that,” he continued.

“If they go two laps longer, that’s 1.2 seconds.”

The results of the Le Mans Test Day the weekend before last were equally inconclusive even though the fastest Audi was five seconds quicker than the best Toyota, according to Jarvis.

He pointed out that the fastest of the Audis undertook a qualifying-lap simulation in the hands of Loic Duval.

“Loic went for a qualifying run, whereas we don’t think the Toyotas did,” said Jarvis.

“He also got a clear lap, which can be worth three or four seconds around Le Mans.”

Jenson Button has faith that he and McLaren can still give home fans something to cheer about in the British Grand Prix, despite recent struggles.

On the back of a disastrous performance in Canada, where McLaren’s long-running record of 64 consecutive points finishes came to an end, Button believes the high-speed nature of Silverstone will be a better stomping ground.

And although he is not expecting a miraculous jump to the front of the grid, he reckons the weaknesses of his current car will not be as exposed this time out.

Speaking at Silverstone on Tuesday about his prospects for the British GP, Button said: “There are many things a driver needs to be good at here, but he also needs to be working with a good team and driving a good car.

“With us, this grand prix is going to be a difficult one. But I think we’ll be stronger here than the previous races because it is a fast flowing circuit.

“I think we do have OK downforce, but the problem for us has been the ride quality of the car.

“There is a massive amount of movement of the car which really hurts the airflow and hurts the aerodynamics. Here it shouldn’t be so much of problem, except for Turn 1 [Abbey] which is going to be a little tricky for us.”

Button may be bracing himself for a tougher weekend than he would like, but he insists that he is still looking forward to the June 30 event.

“Even in the difficult times, that are much worse than now, I still love coming to Silverstone because of the support you get from the crowd,” he told AUTOSPORT.

“I remember going on stage back in 2008 when we were really poor [with Honda], and still I received massive support, which was really nice and that really helped me for the rest of the season.

“I’m looking forward to racing here and hopefully seeing a full house. We will fight and do the best we can.

“It’s going to be very difficult [to get] even a podium, but the most important thing for us is to get the best out of what we have.

“Hopefully that will be enough for the fans we want to do so well for, because they’ve been so supportive.”

Jacques Villeneuve will compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway this weekend.

The 1997 Formula 1 world champion will step into the #51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet for NASCAR’s first road course event of the season.

It will be Villeneuve’s first appearance in NASCAR’s premier series since 2010, when he finished 29th at Indianapolis.

“We wanted to put a driver in our #51 Chevrolet who would give us the best chance to win at Sonoma Raceway,” said Phoenix Racing team owner James Finch.

“When the opportunity came up to have someone like Jacques Villeneuve in our car, we were very happy to make that happen.”

Villeneuve has competed in various road course events in the Nationwide Series, but this will be his first foray into non-oval racing at Cup level.

The 42-year-old came within a whisker of winning the Nationwide race at Montreal last year, but was passed by Justin Allgaier on the final lap and dropped to third.

Phoenix Racing led two laps at Sonoma last year with Kurt Busch, who eventually finished third.

Lotus owner Genii Capital has sold a 35 per cent stake in the team to new investor Infinity Racing.

After a long-running effort to find suitable partners, Genii boss Gerard Lopez has agreed that the Infinity Racing group – made up of private investors from America, Abu Dhabi and an unidentified oil producing nation – will take a minority shareholding.

Lopez will remain chairman of the Lotus team, with Eric Lux, who is CEO of Genii Capital, continuing on the team’s Board of Directors.

Speaking about the move, Lux said: “As Lotus F1 Team results have continued to improve every year, we have been waiting for the right investor who will help make the jump to the top spot in the constructors’ championship.

“In Infinity Racing, we have found a partner with the right connections in addition to technological expertise and a global reach in major markets with key sponsors to achieve this goal.

“We look forward to working with Infinity Racing as we continue on this exciting journey.”

Karun Chandhok believes the Le Mans 24 Hours poses a more formidable challenge than racing on the streets of Monaco.

The Indian scored one of five career GP2 podiums in the principality in 2008, before equalling his best Formula 1 finish when he guided his HRT to 14th in the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix.

After switching into the World Endurance Championship, Chandhok made his Le Mans debut last year – becoming the first Indian to contest the endurance classic – and finished fifth overall for the JRM LMP1 squad. He will return this year with P2 outfit Murphy Prototypes.

“I’m very excited to be back at Le Mans,” Chandhok said.

“This race is certainly right up there [with] the Monaco F1 GP in terms of prestige but in terms of getting a result it’s much harder I think.

“It’s such a long race and certainly feels like a very long 24 hours hoping that the car runs reliably.

“Racing here last year, and being the first Indian to compete in and finish the historic 24 hours, was one of the highlights of my career.”

Chandhok said his move down to LMP2 this year will boost his chances of victory, even though 22 cars are entered in the class.

“Last year I was in the LMP1 class, but the problem is that only the two manufacturer teams have a chance of winning,” he explained.

“In LMP2, you have a real chance of fighting for a class victory as every team is a privateer outfit.”

Adrian Sutil says Force India’s strength in looking after its tyres shows there is nothing wrong with the job that Pirelli is doing.

Pirelli came under pressure earlier this year to make its products more conservative on the back of a high number of pit stops at some events.

But Sutil thinks that the responsibility for excessive degradation has to be shouldered by teams instead, because his own Force India outfit has shown what it is possible to do.

In Canada, Paul di Resta completed 54 laps on the set of medium tyres that he started the race with.

Speaking about the tyre situation, Sutil said: “Paul’s pace was good and it just shows we don’t have a tyre problem.

“Everybody talks about Pirelli tyre problems, but it is a good tyre, we saw that in Canada.

“We can do one stop if the car is working properly. I think it was a good race for different strategies.

“I was on a two-stop. I think both would have worked, two-stop and one-stop were very similar.”

Force India was one of the outfits that stood firm against a push by rivals to try and change the tyres mid-season.

Sutil fully supports his bosses’ stance, which has resulted in Pirelli giving up on plans to tweak its rubber at this stage of the campaign.

“I don’t want a compound change. This is not allowed,” said Sutil. “We have rules and you have to respect the rules. So you do not change the rules during the season.

“There is nothing more to say. It’s not allowed to have a new compound and there is no danger with the tyres.

“We have no problem with the tyres.

“It’s just some teams get on a little bit better with the tyres and some others want to change it.

“Let’s see what comes out, but I just want the rules to be respected and I don’t want a big change of tyres.”

The only tweak that Pirelli is now planning is to revise the bonding process of its tyres to minimise the chance of a repeat of the delaminations that affected a number of drivers earlier this year.

Kimi Raikkonen may insist that Lotus cannot dig any deeper, but the squad needs to address its form quickly as its Formula 1 championship challenge risks stalling.

The Finn established himself as Sebastian Vettel’s main title threat early on, as Lotus’s excellent tyre management helped him win in Australia and regularly finish on the podium.

Raikkonen held second in the standings until Spain, at which point he was only four points shy of Vettel.

But the Lotus driver has been unable to keep up his consistent form, and his cause was not helped by a collision with Sergio Perez in Monaco and then tyre struggles in Canada.

The extent of Raikkonen’s woes is highlighted by his points tally from the last four races, where he has not only been outscored by Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber, but he has also lost a whopping 41 points to Vettel in the standings.

From breathing hard down the neck of Vettel early on, Raikkonen is now 44 points adrift of his Red Bull rival.

HOW THE DRIVERS HAVE SCORED IN THE LAST FOUR RACES

Sebastian Vettel 80
Fernando Alonso 53
Nico Rosberg 45
Mark Webber 43
Kimi Raikkonen 39
Lewis Hamilton 37

A BIGGER PUSH TO WIN

With a gulf now opening up between Raikkonen and Vettel, Lotus is well aware that it will need to start producing race wins if it is to close that gap quickly enough.

Raikkonen’s laidback attitude off track may give the impression that he is as relaxed on it when it comes to results, but he is adamant Lotus is giving nothing less than 100 per cent to try to win more races.

“We always try and win,” said Raikkonen. “It is not going to just change our race result if we try to do something different.

“We have mostly had the speed, and we will keep trying, but there is not just a way to be more aggressive and you have a better chance. We always try that.

“It has just not been possible. We have been up there and been OK. Monaco was not as good as we hoped. But there is still a long way to go.”

CAR UPDATES AND TYRES NOW KEY

Lotus boss Eric Boullier told AUTOSPORT in Montreal that he expected his team to be back at the front at the British Grand Prix, thanks to a speed boost from car updates and F1′s return to more normal high-speed tracks.

“We have some good developments coming for Silverstone so that should help us keep up and close the gap to the leader,” said Boullier. “With normal tracks we should be able to get the best out of our car.”

The statistics from the last few races have highlighted, however, how essential it is for Raikkonen to do exactly that, just as his strong form earlier in the year has left rivals not ready to write him off just yet.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: “I think ultimately you cannot write off Kimi.

“If he can put together a run of race results, just as Lewis, or Mark could, he can get himself back in the championship hunt.”

Martin Tomczyk described his current run of form as “the worst time in my career,” after another dismal weekend in the DTM at Lausitz.

The 2011 series champion lay just four points behind eventual title winner Bruno Spengler halfway through last season, but endured a terrible second half to the campaign and failed to score a point in the final four races.

His 2013 campaign has started no better with a series of on-track incidents limiting the RMG BMW driver to a best finish of 13th.

“I had a very bad run in 2005, but my aims are different now; I’m trying to win races and championships,” Tomczyk told AUTOSPORT. “And it’s definitely getting desperate.

“After the way last year ended, you get to the winter, convince yourself that the bad things are over and now you’re starting from zero it will all be OK.

“And then it keeps on happening.”

Tomczyk looked likely to end a run of six straight races without a point when he qualified on pole at Brands Hatch in May.

But he was sent to the back of the grid after his car failed a post-race weight check and collided with Mercedes driver Roberto Merhi during the race, leading to his retirement.

Last weekend’s Lausitz race featured a collision with RMG team-mate Andy Priaulx that led to a spin for Tomczyk, and a 19th-placed finish.

“I really thought the run had ended after Hockenheim when we got the pole at Brands, but it just carries on.

“It’s the downside of motorsport. You never know when things will just stop and allow you to enjoy the races again.

“It is like it is at the moment and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. I just have to live with it and try to do the best I can about it.”

Tomczyk’s run of races without a point now stretches to eight. Prior to that he only failed to finish in the top 10 twice in 25 races, a run stretching over two complete seasons.

Tomczyk’s dismal run in detail

• Zandvoort, August 2012: Given five-place grid penalty for following race for spinning Gary Paffett out of third at Tarzan. Retired.

• Oschersleben, September 2012: Five-place grid penalty for Zandvoort incident turns sixth on grid into 11th. Points finish lost to overheating car.

• Valencia, September 2012: Collides with Roberto Merhi’s Mercedes at the start, putting both out.

• Hockenheim, October 2012: Finishes a lap down in 14th – behind Merhi – after more bumping and bashing during the race.

• Hockenheim, May 2013: Given drive-through penalty for jumping start and then gets into Paffett’s bad books for appearing to brake-test him on the back straight with Bruno Spengler right alongside. Finishes 13th.

• Brands Hatch, May 2013: Disqualified from pole due to underweight car and spins down to eventual 13th spot after colliding with Merhi.

• Spielberg, June 2013: Points lost as he is forced wide onto grass at Turn 3 by Paffett early on and then spun into tyres by Merhi later. Does not finish.

• Lausitz, June 2013: Starts from back after suffering holed radiator and splitter damage in Q1. Collides with team-mate Andy Priaulx in race and spins on way to 19th.

Suzuki team manager Davide Brivio says the firm’s decision to delay its MotoGP comeback until 2015 was made so it can challenge Honda and Yamaha from the outset.

Although Suzuki formally confirmed its new MotoGP programme on Monday, it put its return back to 2015 rather than the previously mooted ’14.

That choice came despite the new Suzuki MotoGP bike already being out testing, and showing promising form in its first meeting with the 2013 field at Barcelona this week.

Ex-Yamaha chief Brivio told the official MotoGP website that the 2014 rule changes, and the need to move to a standard Magneti Marelli ECU, prompted the delay.

“Suzuki thought that we need more time to develop,” he said.

“There are some quite important changes to the rules coming up: new electronics, the fuel consumption will be further restricted.

“To enter into MotoGP and to challenge such strong competitors as the two brands that are dominating now is not an easy thing.

“We’d like to be prepared for that, so one more year will be very useful to set the bike up and fix the decisions about specifications.

“So we’ve delayed one more year, but I think it’s very, very important and positive that Suzuki has decided to re-enter MotoGP.”

Test rider Randy de Puniet put the Suzuki eighth in the field on Monday, 0.772 seconds behind Yamaha’s world champion pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo.

“Of course it’s only a test but it’s nice to be in the middle of the group,” said Brivio.

“We are happy because we didn’t have any major problems on the bike and the job went very smoothly.”

JR Hildebrand is hoping for an opportunity to prove his ability on road and street courses before the end of the IndyCar season as he chases a full-time return in 2014.

The 25-year-old has been in the job market since being released by Panther Racing after the Indianapolis 500.

His best result with the team came when he finished second behind Dan Wheldon at Indy in 2011, but his next-highest career finish was fifth, which he achieved twice on ovals and twice on the street course at Long Beach. He told AUTOSPORT that he is keen to tackle his reputation as an oval specialist.

“I would like to have the opportunity to run with a team that I can go out and prove to people that I can run at street courses,” he said.

“That was one of the big questions from being with Panther Racing, because the team obviously had mixed results on those sorts of tracks a lot of the time.

“But the long and the short of it is, so have I. I’ve had some top fives, and I’ve had a lot of races where I was not consistently good. So for me, that’s something I look at as a priority.

“When I raced Indy Lights, I won the 2009 championship by winning on road and street courses. I had some poles on ovals, and a lot of podiums, but I didn’t win any oval races that year.

“But we were dominant on road and street courses, so I feel like that’s something that I want to get out and show people that I’m capable of doing at this level.”

Hildebrand attended last weekend’s Milwaukee race to investigate opportunities to get back into a car, but while he is keen to race again, he said that he is wary of taking up drives that will not help in the long-term.

The flipside, he believes, is that proving himself on road and street courses is less important if he gets a deal for an oval race that can develop into a full-time drive.

“If you’re building a sponsorship programme that is moving on towards next year then [dispelling the oval racer label] becomes a little less relevant, probably,” he said.

“But if it’s a one-off thing then the focus is probably a little more on making sure I’m in a good situation on a road and street course to show that yes, I can do this.”

My Good Humor Cadillac (#13) navigates through Turn Seven at Sonoma.

One of the questions I ask myself each week is, “How can I do better than the week before?” Many drivers would automatically give the answer that “practice makes perfect.” I would echo the same sentiment, however as the season progresses I find myself falling into the category of iRacing.com members who don’t have the time to dedicate to long practice sessions. My schedule outside of iRacing.com seems to be getting jam-packed with more activities each week. So how can I gain an advantage over my competitors with limited practice time?

Xavier Cuartero Silvente was among the top three point scorers during the first three weeks of the season. He recently posted on the iRacing.com Cadillac CTS-V forum thread, “I think [the baseline setup] is very good and you can [run] very good times with practice.” Nathan Moore, another front runner in the series championship, stated that “people have to learn that the baseline [setup] can pump out great times.” When it comes to adjustments, Dylan Sharman and Bruno Linden Muller, top series drivers in the Cadillac CTS-V class, have both stressed the importance of adjusting the rear camber towards the positive side if the rear end feels unstable. In addition, many racers only start the race with enough fuel in the car to get them past the finish line.

Why did I say all of that? If you are struggling to find time to practice extensively (like myself), those quick adjustments (rear camber and fuel load) can give you a push in the right direction towards being more competitive in this series.

“People have to learn that the baseline [setup] can pump out great times.” – Nathan Moore

The top drivers in the iRacing.com Global Challenge Series can’t be wrong when they say the baseline setup is in fact a competitive setup (with a few minor tweaks). If that doesn’t help, there are always drivers on the forum willing to share their setups, but it is still encouraged to take some time to practice with that setup before jumping into a race.

The forum is a great resource for drivers that need help improving as the second half of the season gets underway. Many of the top drivers can be seen posting often, as well as creating threads just for setup tips and setup sharing. Also, many of them are more than happy to assist a fellow racer who sends them a message asking for some help.

Week Two’s events at Laguna Seca seem like a distant memory…

As we move forward, what can be expected during the second half of the iRacing.com Global Challenge Series season? Racers will see high participation numbers at tracks like Okayama and Lime Rock Park. Summit Point is also a stop on the schedule, and is set to offer up lots of tight racing in both the Cadillac CTS-V class and the KIA Optima Class. The season then draws to a close at Interlagos (Week 11) and Virginia International Raceway (Week 12), two of the longer circuits on the schedule.

From my perspective, overall I’ve enjoyed the iRacing.com Global Challenge Series thus far. The second half of the season is set to bring more action near the top of the championship standings and I look forward to simply being on the track with some of these great racers. When I can get more practice time to really hone in on a weekly basis, watch out! In the meantime, I’ll watch the championship battles unfold in both the Cadillac CTS-V and the KIA Optima. I wouldn’t be surprised if it came down to the final races of Week 12 for some drivers to make a final push towards the top.

Jake Hill will make his British Touring Car debut at Croft this weekend, driving Motorbase’s S2000 Ford Focus.

The 19-year-old former Ginetta star tested with Motorbase last season and will now drive the car normally raced by Liam Griffin, who has business commitments this weekend.

Team boss David Bartrum said: “Jake tested with us at the end of last season along with another local lad, Tom Grainger.

“The whole idea was to give two Kent-based youngsters the opportunity to sample the S2000 touring car and for us to offer two developing young talents the experience and chance to raise their profile.

“When the opportunity came up through Liam and [sponsor] Addison Lee to put a replacement driver in the car for Croft we thought we would give Jake the chance as he was very capable and knows the TOCA package quite well.”

The drive is currently a one-off, but Hill hopes to be able to fight for Jack Sears Trophy honours.

“It’s amazing that David has kindly given me the chance to have another run in the car, and this time in an actual race,” said the son of ITV commentator Simon Hill.

“I can’t describe how thankful I am to Liam and everyone at the team for letting me have this opportunity and I intend to make the most of it and do the best job I possibly can.”

A move into the LMP2 division is the perfect fit for British sportscar manufacturer Caterham, according to company design chief Mike Gascoyne.

Gascoyne, head of the Caterham’s Technology & Innovation arm, explained that building an LMP2 for the customer market makes sound business sense for the group.

His comments follow the revelation earlier this month that Caterham was evaluating a P2 project on the launch of its first involvement in the category in next weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours as a sponsor of the Greaves Motortsport Zytek squad.

“We have the facilities, we have the design team and we have the partners, so it is a natural for us,” said Gascoyne, who was formerly chief technical officer of the Caterham (nee Team Lotus) Formula 1 team.

“The Caterham Motorsport ladder is based on the Seven and then there is a GP2 and the F1 team. LMP2 would fit in well in between.”

Gascoyne suggested that Caterham is well placed to build LMP2 chassis at a profit, something that the majority of existing constructors claim they struggle to achieve.

“For a company like Zytek, which has to put its carbon work out, it is a very difficult business in which to make money,” he explained.

“We have a design team and a composite department where the overheads are already paid for, plus it would add commercial value to the company.”

Gascoyne stressed that no decisions have been made beyond the company’s Le Mans sponsorship deal with Greaves, with which Caterham Racing GP2 driver Alexander Rossi has been placed for the 24 Hours.

“There are no firm commitments, but there is definitely an intention to move forward,” he said. “In terms of working with Zytek, providing a body update could make sense.”

That suggests that Caterham is considering a badging deal, because a new body would not be possible before the end of 2015 unless the Zytek Z11SN were renamed and rehomologated in much the same way as OAK’s LMP2 chassis when it became a Morgan for 2012.

Caterham is also looking at continuing it relationship with Greaves, which is running in both the World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series.

Gascoyne said: “We are talking to other drivers and hope the arrangement can continue this year and expand into next year.”

Jorge Lorenzo set the pace for Yamaha at a Barcelona test in which Suzuki made an impressive return to the MotoGP fold.

Lorenzo, who triumphed at the Spanish track on Sunday, moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1m41.904s – more than one second down on Dani Pedrosa’s record pole time – two hours from the end.

Even as he did so most eyes were focussed on Suzuki’s new MotoGP challenger, codenamed the XRH-1, as it made its first appearance alongside the 2013 field.

Test rider Randy de Puniet improved throughout the day and in the final hour moved to a 1m42.676s, less than eight tenths of a second down on Lorenzo.

The Frenchman, also one of the day’s busiest riders with 73 laps, was faster than the satellite machines of Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith, although the latter left the test early to have surgery on his injured left hand.

Ducati’s Nicky Hayden came close to denying Lorenzo top spot late on but eventually had to settle for second, five hundredths of a second down.

The American spent some time trialling a new rear compound developed by Bridgestone.

His late improvement demoted Stefan Bradl, the only Honda rider present at the test, to third.

Bradl will travel to Aragon, where factory riders Pedrosa and Marc Marquez are due to test on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Andrea Dovizioso edged out his old Tech 3 stablemate Cal Crutchlow in the fight for fourth, while behind them Valentino Rossi went sixth fastest, 0.609s down on Lorenzo.

The Italian brought the red flags when he crashed in the afternoon, but he was unhurt and able to resume shortly after.

Aspar Aprilia rider Pol Espargaro was the fastest CRT rider, edging out de Puniet – his 2013 team-mate – to claim seventh.

Down was in superb form at Sonoma, taking pole and romping to convincing win.

Round Six of the iRacing.com V8 Supercar Series headed to Sonoma Raceway to tackle the Cup layout.  After last week’s chaos at VIR, this week couldn’t come soon enough as the drivers championship heats-up with Justin Ruggier atop the  standings without tasting victory this season while ANZ also extended their lead over Tatts.com in the Teams Championship.

Qualifying was led by Madison Down once again as he broke the lap record in qualifying with a 1:13.027 while another strong qualifying performance by the rookie of the series Adrian Stratford saw him gain the outside of the front row alongside Down. Josh Muggleton and Ruggier started third and fourth ahead of Vail Riches and Leigh Ellis on Row Three.  Shaun Kelly led the LMR team with Jon Latham and Brad Ryan just behind and Wayne Tolley rounding out the top 10 starters.

Down led the field through Turn 1 on the start while Muggleton went around the outside of Stratford to move into second.  Ruggier also had a good start but couldn’t go anywhere . . . at least initially.  However, it all opened up when Stratford went straight off the road coming into Turn 2 and fell way down the field.

Second qualifier Stratford was unable to duplicate his impressive form in the race.

Stratford set about making his way back through the field until an error exiting Turn Two on the fourth lap saw him spin and fall back into last position . . . again.  His were not the only mistakes.  Lap 10 saw Muggleton slap the wall the exiting of Turn 4, sending his Ford Falcon into a spin.  As no substantial damage was done, he was able to get going very quickly and slot right back in behind Ruggier.  Two laps later Ellis over-shot Turn 3 and through 3A he had to slow a little.  Unfortunately a following Ryan came through at the normal speed and tapped Ellis, sending him off the track.  Worse yet, when Ryan braked after the contact and he was smacked by team mate Kelly, damaging both cars and dropping both drivers well down the order.

On Lap 16 Autridge dropped a wheel off the road at Turn 10 and spun his TT-R Falcon around on the infeld, luckily keeping it off the way but now back into the mid-pack.  Then Autridge ran wide and dropped a wheel off exiting 7A, allowing James McKnight to make the move and get the position.  A little bit of netcode added to Autridge’s misery, causing him to lose control and spin.

Ryan applies the “chrome horn” to Ellis in the final corner.

The battle between Ellis and Ryan reached a climax after multiple laps of blocking and defending by Ellis.  Into the final corner Ryan moved Ellis out of the way and, moments later, Ellis lost the rear of his bent car and put it into the fence exiting 4A. Lap 22 saw Muggleton make another mistake when he got loose exiting 7A and, subsequently, lost control entering the Esses and nearly rolled the car.  A fourth-placed Riches slowed up but had to take way too much kerb trying to pass Muggleton which allowed Muggleton to maintain his position and then pull away.

A race-long between Marlon McMullen and Leigh Day finished in spectacular fashion on the final lap when Day managed to out brake and go around the outside of his rival through the final corner.  McMullen just slightly understeered mid-corner which allowed Day to get back onto the gas and claim the position.

There was no such drama up front, as a dominating performance by Down propelled him to fourth round win, ahead of Ruggier and Muggleton with Vail Riches and Shaun Kelly finishing inside the top five.  Michael Fabian bested Jon Latham in their battle for sixth with Wayne Tolley enjoying a strong run in eighth while Leigh Day edged out Marlon McMullen to finish in ninth.

Top Five Drivers – Championship Points – Overall
1. Justin Ruggier –1483
2. Josh Muggleton – 1342
3. Madison Down – 1216
4. Leigh Day –1165
5. Marlon McMullen – 1079

Split Two Winner: Wayne C Bourke
Split Three Winner: James N Scanlan
Split Four Winner: Shane Best

Broadcast done by the crew at www.v8sonline.com.au

Felipe Massa believes Formula 1′s return to fast venues like Silverstone will help Ferrari get back on terms with Red Bull.

The recent venues of Monaco and Montreal have not played to the strengths of the Ferrari package, and Massa’s team-mate Fernando Alonso has lost ground to Sebastian Vettel in the drivers’ championship.

But rather than feel that the last two outings are an indication that Ferrari’s development push has stalled, Massa thinks that the next few races will show that the Maranello outfit can still deliver the form that has helped it win two races so far this year.

“I think Silverstone can be a bit better for us,” explained Massa. “The car was very strong in Barcelona and in China.

“Montreal was a completely different track compared to where next we are going, to Silverstone and Nurburgring, where you have a lot of lateral corners.

“There are a lot of medium and high-speed corners, so we will see. I think will be better on normal tracks.”

Massa also feels that he is due a change of fortune to lift his own performances, having lost decent results through tyre issues in Bahrain and a spate of crashes in Monaco.

“I’m not very happy for what’s happened – Bahrain for the tyre, Monaco for the two crashes and in Canada with qualifying,” he said.

“So definitely I want to get to the next race with a lot of luck and show our potential every time in qualifying and in the race. I know we have the pace, and that is important.”

A victorious Hulbert crosses the finish line ahead of Anttila.

Week Six brought the iRacing.com Skip Barber Race Series to short and tricky Lime Rock Park.   Since the track is owned by Skip Barber, mastermind of the Skip Barber Racing School and Series, the week represented a home-coming of sorts.  Only two years after the 2.41 kilometer track opened in 1957, Sunday racing was banned after the Lime Rock Protective Association took the track to the court.   Happily, the noise issues central to that LRPA’s court case have not proven problematic for iRacing and there is sim-racing aplenty at Lime Rock on Sundays!.

In this week’s 3995 Barber Series strength of field race, multiple great drivers were set to get racing. Amazingly, the difference between pole position and last place on the grid was only a second. Simon Hulbert (UK/I) started on pole with a brilliant time of 57.500 seconds. In second was Paul F Grillo (UK/I) only 0.084 seconds behind and with Simon Povey (UK/I) third at 57.624s.

After a clean first lap was completed, nearly everyone retained their starting position.  However, that clean start didn’t mean the lap was uneventful.  For instance, Rudi Reinkort (Central-Eastern Europe) nearly drifted the last corner in the grass, yet managed to save it and didn’t collect anyone. Mike McCormick (Texas) clipped the grass at The Uphill and wasn’t able to put his car back on the tarmac. As a result, he slightly touched the tire wall at the next corner and gave his race up.

Apart from these incidents, the race produced some good overtakes. Jyri Mäntylä (Finland) overtook Grillo at the first corner, as the Scottish driver took a bad racing line, and nearly touched him. Mäntylä also overtook Hulbert for the race lead after he almost spun his car out, but continued his race.  Unfortunately, he collected one driver, and that was Povey. He had to retire from the race due to his steering damage. The most shocking incident was yet to come. Mäntyla looked to have the race in the bag, but on the 14th lap, coming into the first corner, Grillo attempted to overtake him. Their wheels touched and Grillo headed straight into the fence, and out of bounds. Mäntlya was sent into a spin and almost recovered, but the resulting damage forced him to retire. It was a close race for the lead, but Hulbert managed to parry the attacks of Harri Anttila (Finland) to win the race with the Finn finishing just 0.498 seconds behind. Third place went to Klaus Rachbauer (Scandinavia) ahead of Reinkort and Jairo Via (Iberia).

Although he came up short in the SoF race, Anttila leads the standings with 1055 points.  Second is Martin Peck (UK/I) (1031) just ahead of Hulbert (1027), with Jeroen Ganzeveld (Benelux) (1017) and Victor Nandez (Iberia) (991) fourth and fifth, respectively.

Next week, the Barber Series heads to Circuit Zolder. The track hosted the Belgian Grand Prix from 1975 to 1982 and again in 1984. It also hosted a Champ Car series round in 2007 and the WTCC’s Race of Belgium in 2005 and 2010. Tune in next week to find out what happens when the Barber Series’ top drivers race there.

Since joining the iRacing.com service nearly three years ago, Casey Malone has impressed many other iRacers . . . and himself.  He has started 256 oval races and has won 41 times, the first of those coming on his first day on iRacing in the Legends car at South Boston.  If you’re looking for a consistent driver, then look no further.  Casey has finished in the top five in over half of his career races; his average start and finish is inside the top 10 and he is a fairly clean driver.  He has also won championships on iRacing, taking home the Division 2 NASCAR iRacing.com Class A championship in 2010 Season 4.

For a driver who went from a rookie license to a Class A license in just two weeks on the service, Malone has definitely done a good job of being competitive in virtually any virtual car he races. So you know his racing statistics but do you know what he considers his greatest accomplishment on iRacing? What type of degree he is going for in college? Find that out and more in this week’s edition of Get to Know…

Q:    How long have you been sim racing?
A:    I have been sim racing online since September of 2010. Prior to that I played Nr2003, but I never raced online.

Q:    How did you get started in iRacing?
A:    I was searching for a new racing game online when I came across something called iRacing.  At first I wasn’t going to click on it because I thought it was an iPhone game of some sort, but I ended up checking it out and now I am here!

Q:    Which race car driver do you dislike the most?
A:    I would have to say Kyle Busch, but only for his attitude on track.  I have heard that when he is away from the track he is a great guy, but my only experience with him is when he is on TV racing.  However, I do respect him for his driving abilities..

Malone has carried the colo(u)rs for Gerry Mercer Trucking to P18 in the NiSWC standings.

Q:    What type of hobbies do you do outside of iRacing?
A:    iRacing really is my main hobby, but I also enjoy playing other games, like World of Warcraft.  I like to spend time with friends and family, especially during the summer, and I like to doodle around with Photoshop from time to time.

Q:    What is your greatest accomplishment on iRacing?
A:    My greatest accomplishment on iRacing is making it to the NiSWC. When I started iRacing in 2010, I knew that I wanted to make it into the top tier series, and I am glad to have finally made it that far.

Q:    What car and track combination on iRacing would you like to drive in real life?
A:    I know we don’t have this track yet, but I would LOVE to drive a V8 Supercar around Bathurst. If I had to choose a track that we have right now, I would like to drive a Sprint Car at New Smyrna.

“I wasn’t going to click on (iRacing) because I thought it was an iPhone game of some sort . . .”

Q:    What type of racing do you like to watch on TV?
A:    I enjoy watching the NASCAR series, V8 Supercars, Formula 1, and many other forms of four wheel motorsports. I really wish we had more V8 Supercar coverage here in the States.  I love that series.

Q:    How do you think your fellow iRacers see you?
A:    I hope they see me as a nice guy, a clean racer, and someone who races hard but fair.

Q:    What are three things that people on iRacing probably don’t know about you?
A:    I am the President of the United States. Just kidding! Probably that I am currently going to college for an accounting degree. I am also an Eagle Scout.

Q:    If you could go back and change one race in your career what would it be?
A:    The DWC race at Daytona this year. I should have just gone for it and tried to get the win, but I rode around trying to just get a good finish.  In the end, I ran out of time to make my way to the front and finished outside the top 10.

Malone captured the D2 title in the 2010 S4 NASCAR iRacing.com Class A Series.

Q:    If there was one thing you could change about iRacing, what would it be?
A:    I would like them to focus on improving what we have, instead of only trying to bring out new content.  I totally understand why their main focus is new content, because that is how they make money, but it would be great for the people who already own a majority of the content to have an improved playing experience.

Q:    What is one thing that you love the most about iRacing?
A:    The competition. Being able to race with people from all over the world is amazing!

Q:    Overall, how do you rate your success on iRacing?
A:    When I started playing iRacing, all I wanted was to be DWC.  Now that I have achieved that, I feel like anything else from here on out is just icing on the cake.

Mark Webber thinks that Formula 1′s more experienced drivers are struggling to get much satisfaction from the state of racing at the moment.

With tyres becoming such a dominant factor in 2013, Webber believes that the way that degradation has to be managed through a race has taken away some of the pleasure of battling wheel-to-wheel.

“I think as a group, especially for the guys north of 100 grands prix, we’ve seen a different make-up of how grands prix are run these days,” said Webber, when asked by AUTOSPORT about how satisfying the racing is this year.

“It’s in our skill set to have to deal with some of these challenges, as we always have, whether its V10s, V8s, refuelling, one-lap qualifying; Q1, Q2, Q3.

“I’ve seen most of the scenarios we’ve had to play with, and it is important for a driver to deal with them.

“But you saw in Monaco I started to look after my first set of tyres when we got to Turn 3! And we could see Nico [Rosberg] doing that as well.

“It [the racing] is different. Monaco was quite an extreme case for that in terms of pace, as I think it around GP2 pace, and that’s getting quite extreme you’d say.

“It is also very strategic from the pitwall, as in this is where the tyres are, this is what we’re capable of doing, can you please get us there?”

Webber admits that there are times when drivers are able to push to the limit and fight hard for position, but thinks that is really limited to the closing stages of races.

“You see drivers racing like Lewis [Hamilton] and I did with three or four laps to go in Bahrain,” he said. “We wouldn’t race like that on lap seven, because you’re just cutting your own wrists – killing the tyres and your stint range.

“But when you’ve got three or four laps to go, you try and finish in what position you can.

“It is a really different type of racing, no doubt about it. You still have some nice moments in the car but it’s hard to put your finger on the satisfaction side of things now. It’s just different.”

Despite his reservations about the racing, Webber says that finishing at the front is still worth as much, simply because of the quality of the oppositions.

“To be successful and win at this level, they’re not going to hand results out,” he said.

“You’re going to have to beat some decent operators, and that’s always been the case in F1.

“You have to beat other teams as well, not just the drivers. That’s a hugely satisfying part of the job. You know that when you’re on the top step of the podium, generally it’s a very proud moment.”

A German-based motorsport design group has become the latest organisation to reveal that it is ready to begin building an LMP1 prototype to the 2014 rulebook.

ADESS AG, which was responsible for the new-for-2013 Lotus T128 LMP2, has announced that it is in the final stages of the design of a P1 for next season.

It is now looking for a partner team aiming to field two cars in next year’s World Endurance Championship to bring the project to fruition.

ADESS boss Stephane Chosse, who formerly worked with Ligier, Sauber, Toyota and HRT in Formula 1, said: “At the end of last year, we decided to do an LMP1 under our own name. This is a completely new car designed according to the 2014 regulations.

“We have undertaken windtunnel and CFD [computational fluid dynamics] programmes and are now close to finalising the design.”

Chosse said that the car could be up and running within eight months if a deal is struck with a team to buy two cars imminently.

“We are looking for a team to work with,” he continued. “This car has not been conceived for multiple customers; we are looking for a single partner.”

The car has been designed as a non-hybrid around a specific engine, whose identity Chosse would not reveal. He said it was still possible to integrate a hybrid system or systems if demanded by a purchaser.

The cost of the car will be “more than €1 million” [£850,000], according to Chosse.

ADESS was set up last year as a sister company to Chosse’s SCE Solutions aerodynamic consultancy with the aim of moving into the LMP field.

ADESS joins Dome, Perrin Limited, Honda Performance Development and OAK Racing in looking for customers for P1 designs ahead of next season.

Rebellion has an exclusive deal with ORECA for a bespoke car, while the German Lotus LMP2 squad is aiming to move up with its ADESS-designed chassis, which has been built to 2014 LMP1 specifications.

Elfyn Evans will make his World Rally Car debut in Sardinia this week.

The Welshman will stand in for Nasser Al-Attiyah, for whom a business meeting ruled out the possibility of making the trip to Olbia.

M-Sport had initially been granted a waiver to switch Al-Attiyah’s car from a World to a Regional Rally Car, which would have allowed Evans to score points in the WRC 2 category.

That waiver was overruled however, leaving Evans with his WRC debut. He will be co-driven by Giovanni Bernacchini (Al-Attiyah’s regular navigator) as regulations state only one element of the entry can be changed at this stage.

Evans vowed to take a sensible approach to competing in a World Rally Car for the first time.

He has tested Fiesta RS WRCs regularly during his time working with M-Sport and was shaking down the Sardinia cars at Kirkbride airfield in Cumbria last week when M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson told him one of those Fiestas was his.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Evans. “When he told me I was so shocked.

“I have to say a massive thanks to Nasser and to Malcolm for this chance. It’s incredible.

“I’m not going to do anything silly, just go there for experience. I’ve never done this rally before, so it’s going to be a steep learning curve.”

It is 17 years since Evans’ father Gwyndaf last drove a factory Ford at the highest level, when he retired a Group A Ford Escort Cosworth from the Indonesia Rally in 1996.

Pirelli has urged Formula 1 fans not to over-react if there are more four-stop races this year, after being forced to give up on plans to make its tyres more conservative.

The Italian company had hoped to be able to tweak its tyres this year on the back of unease about the high number of pitstops required in some early races, as well as a desire to eradicate the delaminations that affected some drivers.

But with a number of outfits blocking any attempt to change the tyres, amid fears it could hurt their competitive form, Pirelli is now only tweaking the bonding process used to make its rubber.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery concedes that he would have preferred being able to make bigger changes to the tyres, but says fans should brace themselves for some races where there will be more stops than usual.

“We have 19 circuits this year and that means a lot of variable conditions,” Hembery told AUTOSPORT.

“Sometimes we will be in the consecutive band, and sometimes we will be pushing it right to the end level because it is related to the circuit.

“The teams do improve their tyre management, as we have seen in the past few seasons where it tends to be lively at the start [of the season] and then by the time we get to Hungary things have levelled out a lot.

“But I think we will have tough races yet. We have Silverstone coming up – and if it is warm then that again can be a hard race from our point of view.”

He added: “So we will probably have some races with four stops, which we have said we don’t want.

“We would have needed to change the hard compound to avoid that, but to do that we would need the agreement from all the teams and we know that is not going to happen.

“We can do it if asked, but [in the event of four stops], my message would be stick with us for a few races. We talk about averages and over the course of the season we are aiming for an average of two stops.”

Tio Ellinas will become the first Cypriot to drive a Formula 1 car when he carries out straightline testing with the Marussia team.

The 21-year-old will take to the wheel of the MR02 car at the Kemble airfield tomorrow to conduct a scheduled straightline aerodynamic evaluation.

Ellinas, currently in his second GP3 season, had already secured the chance to drive a Formula 1 car when he was confirmed for this year’s young driver test at Silverstone next month.

“It goes without saying that I am thrilled to get this additional opportunity to drive the MR02 race car,” said Ellinas.

“I have been looking forward to the young driver test since last Autumn and the weeks can’t pass quickly enough.

“Being able to conduct the straight line test this week will help to bridge the gap until Silverstone and will also mean I can hit the ground running there as I will already be familiar with the car systems and the team’s procedures.”

Team boss John Booth added: “Tio has done a very impressive job for our GP3 team over one and a half seasons now.

“We were very pleased to welcome him back for a second term and even more delighted when he brought us our first victory of the season in the opening round in Spain.

“He is definitely a star of the future and deserves both of the opportunities that we are putting his way, starting with this week’s aero test at Kemble.”

Williams has vowed not to give up on its current car, despite enduring its worst start to a season in its Formula 1 history.

Ahead of its 600th F1 start at the British Grand Prix, Williams has yet to score a world championship point in 2013 on the back of struggles with its FW35.

But although the difficulties may have tempted it to switch all its resources on to the challenge of the new 2014 regulations, deputy team principal Claire Williams says the outfit is determined to get itself back in shape this year.

She insists that the team must understand exactly what went wrong with the design of its car over the winter, and is adamant another stumble next year would be unacceptable.

When asked by AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview how the team was now planning to divide its work between 2013 and 2014, she said: “It is simultaneous. You have to do both simultaneously.

“We would never give up on the current car, and you have to run in parallel with everything you do.

“We are looking at the issues we have at the moment with this car, and we are trying to resolve those.

“Then, we are looking ahead to next year to make sure that we have everything in place, so the mistakes that were made over the winter are not repeated and we come out where we want to be next year.

“To have a repeat is not acceptable, but to move forward into this season, repeating current performance is not acceptable either.

“Everyone knows that. Everyone at Williams is there to win.

“They know that is why they are there, to make sure that they work to the best of their abilities to deliver a race-winning race car. Everyone is fully aware of that.”

Although a lowly position in this year’s constructors’ championship would have implications for the team’s commercial rights income, Williams says that the team’s long-term financial situation is not a worry.

“We are a listed company so our results are there for anyone to have a look at,” she said.

“We have a really healthy budget to go racing with this year.

“Obviously costs are escalating for next year, but we have a really good commercial team in place. They do a brilliant job.

“It is still in its early days, but we have some really good conversations on the table which I am excited about.”

Suzuki will not make its return to MotoGP until 2015, despite joining the field for testing at Barcelona this week.

The Japanese firm has been developing a new 1000cc MotoGP racer for the past year, with an extensive test programme underway.

It formally announced its return to the sport on Monday, but said its comeback will be in 2015 rather than next season as had been anticipated.

Suzuki also announced that former Yamaha team chief Davide Brivio will be team manager of its test operation.

Brivio was the architect of Valentino Rossi’s move to Yamaha in 2004, and then moved with the Italian to Ducati in 2010. He did not follow Rossi back to Yamaha this season.

Randy de Puniet was also confirmed as the Suzuki development programme’s test rider.

The Frenchman, who currently races a CRT Aprilia for Aspar, has already tested the new Suzuki in Japan and is riding it for its European debut alongside the 2013 MotoGP pack at Barcelona this week.

Suzuki withdrew from MotoGP at the end of the 2011 season, but said at the time its absence would be temporary and that it intended to prepare for a ’14 return.

Suzuki has edged closer to its MotoGP comeback by joining the field for the post-race test at Barcelona.

The Japanese firm has yet to give an official green light to its new MotoGP project, but has been testing extensively in Japan.

Aspar Aprilia rider Randy de Puniet, who was close to a Suzuki move before the company pulled the plug on its programme at the end of 2011, will ride the bike for its first appearance alongside the 2013 MotoGP field. The Frenchman has already been to Japan to sample it.

Suzuki wound down its MotoGP effort to a single-bike operation by 2011 before pulling out altogether, but maintained at the time that its absence would only be temporary.

Its return would be a huge boost to a series that currently boasts just three manufacturer teams in Yamaha, Honda and Ducati, and where only half the 24-bike field is top-class prototype machinery, with the lower-spec CRTs filling the rest of the grid.

The GP2 Series will reuse its existing chassis for the fourth three-year lifecycle that begins next season as part of a cost-cutting exercise, AUTOSPORT can reveal.

GP2 chief Bruno Michel has targeted a budget reduction of “more than 10 per cent” for his teams from 2014 in reaction to the ongoing economic crisis.

Already this season, two teams – iSport and Ocean Racing Technology – were forced out of the Formula 1 feeder series citing a lack of suitably-funded drivers.

A new Dallara had been produced for the previous three lifecycles, meaning teams have traditionally had to outlay the cost of the new chassis and factor it into their budgets for drivers across the three seasons.

“Ahead of the 10th year of GP2, generally speaking the series has been going very well,” Michel told AUTOSPORT, “but the economic crisis has been hitting the industry. Everybody is feeling it.

“We understand now that it’s quite difficult to find 26 drivers with that level of budget, so we have taken some steps to lower the cost of the series for next season and beyond.

“I can’t give precise figures, because these will vary from one team to another, but these moves will allow them to decrease their costs by a significant percentage.

“We will stick with our current car, which means it no longer depreciates over three years but six.

“We will leave the option open to produce an update kit, like we did with GP3 this year, because the look of the 2014 F1 cars could change with the new engine formula, we don’t know yet. But that will be a lot less than the cost of a new car, that’s what we want to avoid.”

OTHER COST CUTS TARGETED

GP2 has worked with its respective chassis and engine suppliers Dallara and Mecachrome to reduce the cost of spare parts, and is to review its calendar to decrease its freight costs.

It currently includes four flyaway events, but with the potential of adding Moscow (which its European-based teams would not have to fly kit to) and shifting freight by boat rather than plane whenever possible.

“If we achieve that, I believe we can cut our freight costs by 50 per cent,” said Michel. “Our aim is to make sure all our teams are sustainable; we understand the market has changed.

“Between using the old car, the discounted spare parts and engines, the reduced freight costs and looking again at our calendar, at the end of the day this is a good package that teams can then pass on to the drivers in terms of the budgets they need. This will definitely make a positive impact on them.”

As with previous lifecycles, teams will be invited to tender for the 2014-16 slots in the summer. Michel says that all of his existing squads have registered their interest in staying on, as well as some from outside the series too.

Sebastien Loeb drove the complete Pikes Peak Hill Climb course for the first time at his latest test, and the Frenchman says he now feels ready for the competition.

Prior to the latest test sessions, run over the weekend, Loeb and his 208 T16 Pikes Peak had only tackled the 12.42-mile climb in sections.

“I never had a chance to drive the whole mountain before – just sections of it – so the work we did on Friday, when we could go from the very bottom all the way to the top, was a really good taste of what was to come,” said Loeb.

The nine-time world rally champion has not had to change the set-up of the Peugeot since the first test, having immediately felt comfortable with the car in Colorado.

While the Frenchman returns to Europe for the next five days, Peugeot will strip and rebuild the 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

“We’ve done two test sessions now and my feeling is that the car is ready,” said Loeb.

“But one big question mark is the fact that many of our serious rivals have skipped the two test sessions held so far. So while I’m confident that we’ve done as much as we need to do, you never know what the others have up their sleeve.”

The next test sessions run next week, culminating with race day on Sunday June 30.

Volvo will enter a factory team in next year’s V8 Supercars championship.

The Swedish manufacturer’s motorsport partner Polestar will join up with V8 squad Garry Rogers Motorsport, which currently runs Holden, to field two S60s.

Volvo will become the V8 series’ fifth brand, joining recent new arrivals Nissan and Mercedes alongside Holden and Ford.

V8 chief James Warburton described Volvo’s arrival as a vindication of the championship’s international appeal.

“To have another prestigious brand like Volvo in our sport is a red letter day for V8 Supercars,” he said.

“The strength of V8 Supercars is such that global brands, not limited to car manufacturers, are becoming increasingly aware of and directly involved in the business.

“It is my vision to build V8 Supercars into one of the strongest brands in the world with the partners to match. That is the level of untapped potential I believe this sport has.”

Volvo Australia managing director Matt Braid added: “Volvo has a rich motorsport heritage in this country, including winning Australia’s most famous race, Bathurst, 15 years ago this coming October.

“As the first luxury car brand to enter a factory team in the V8 Supercars Championship, we’re determined to add to this heritage, while strengthening the presence of the S60 model line and the Volvo brand here in Australia.”

Volvo won Bathurst when it ran to super touring regulations in 1998, with Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards taking victory.

The Roush Fenway Ford driver took control in the final round of pitstops and held firm to triumph ahead of Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr.

Jimmie Johnson looked like he would mount a last-gasp attempt for an incredible win but he hit the wall with just a handful of laps remaining, damaging the right front tyre of his Hendrick Chevrolet.

Biffle’s teammate Carl Edwards did not lead for long from pole, making contact with fellow frontrowman Kurt Busch, which knocked him back to fifth.

Busch led the early stages but spun his Furniture Row Chevrolet at Turn 2 on lap 29, before Joey Logano, Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had turns leading.

Kasey Kahne then passed Earnhardt and proceeded to pull out nearly a four second lead.

However, a blown right front tyre led to a hefty impact with the wall for Kahne at Turn 2 just after the halfway mark.

Earnhardt then assumed the lead but capped a miserable afternoon for the Hendrick squad by blowing his engine, causing the seventh caution of the race.

Johnson’s decision to fit four new tyres at the penultimate round of stops while the remainder – led by Edwards, Logano and Biffle – fitted just two would prove crucial for track position.

Biffle then set about passing the pair in front of him and a timely caution just after a green flag stop had him in front for the restart, as Logano took on four tyres and Johnson – who had recovered yet again to run at the front – lost time filling up with more fuel.

Biffle extended his lead in front as Johnson worked his way back through to second – again – and he had closed to 0.5s behind Biffle before his incident three laps from home.

That left Biffle clear to take the win – his second in a row at Michigan, and Ford’s 1,000th as a NASCAR manufacturer.

During a race in which several riders crashed out after losing front-end grip – including Cal Crutchlow from fourth position – Lorenzo spoke of the need for more durable front rubber.

“The front tyre was probably too soft,” he said when asked about the spate of crashes that took place in the early laps of the race.

“In every race we are trying to ask Bridgestone to give us harder compounds on the front but for the moment it’s not arriving.

“Hopefully for the next tracks it will arrive because in some braking zones it’s a little bit dangerous.”

Nicky Hayden and Andrea Iannone also suffered low-side crashes within a lap of Crutchlow, while Dani Pedrosa felt his ability to challenge for the win was limited by the front tyre performance.

Lorenzo’s 26th Moto GP win has moved him to within seven points of Pedrosa in the championship table.

Doran forgot to take the jokerlap in his first heat race of the day, putting him on the back foot for the weekend ahead. However, a strong set of heat times put the Citroen DS3 driver back into a qualifying position for back row of semi-final two.

An amazing start in the semi-final propelled him to the win, placing him on the front row of the grid for the final, alongside semi-final one winner (and team-mate) Andreas Bakkerud.

With another great start from the front of the grid in the final, Doran headed straight for the jokerlap at the first opportunity, and spent the rest of the race picking off those ahead when they took theirs, to become the second double event winner of the season.

“I really didn’t want to come second today,” said Doran. “We have had very good speed all weekend and it was only my own stupid mistake that put us down the order.

“I think we have been the fastest car for the last three events now, it’s great to finally get the win.”

While Doran’s final went to plan, Bakkerud’s didn’t, his DS3 picking up a puncture on the second lap, ruling him out of an almost certain podium position.

Reigning champion Timur Timerzyanov finished second, ahead of Frenchman Davy Jeanney, who passed Bakkerud on lap two to lead the race until he took the joker lap on six.

Petter Solberg had a near perfect event on Saturday, and led overnight, only for things to turn upside down for him on Sunday.

A clash with Doran in heat three was followed by suspension failure, before steering problems in heat four placed him in thirteenth overall, missing out by just one position on a semi-final place.

Pedrosa had qualified his Honda on pole with a record-setting pace on Saturday, but he was beaten by Lorenzo at the start and sat behind the Yamaha rider for the duration of the grand prix.

He shadowed his fellow Spaniard throughout – much like in the last race at Mugello – but dropped back in the closing stages and fell under attack from his team-mate Marc Marquez.

“It was not like yesterday,” said Pedrosa after the race.

“I was riding smooth but when I tried to push a little and step up the rhythm I started to feel like the front tyre was giving up almost every corner.

“I waited a little more, but so many laps after it was the same thing and I was struggling a lot in the corners.”

Pedrosa maintained losing out at the start was not crucial, claiming it was more the lack of performance that made the difference in the battle at the front.

“The start was not bad, it was good enough,” he added. “I was quite OK and just trying to let the laps come down.

“[But] I could not go very fast in the last two corners, so into the straight Jorge had a little gap on me and it was hard to make a move on him.

“Second is good for the championship, but I think today we could have done a little better.”

MW Arden racer Visoiu had Barcelona race two victor Aaro Vainio for company in the early laps, but he extended his lead to over a second by lap four. From there he pulled away inexorably, winning by 7.7s.

Vainio (Koiranen) slipped back into the clutches of Carlos Sainz Jr in the closing stages, who had been rudely shoved grasswards by the Finn off the startline.

Sainz also had to pass Tio Ellinas, who started third, to grab the last spot on the podium.

Behind fourth-placed Ellinas was Daniil Kvyat, while Kevin Korjus just held off race one runner-up Facu Regalia for sixth, despite Regalia lunging past him at Turn 1 with a couple of laps to go.

Regalia ran out of road, but just held off Conor Daly and a charging Nick Yelloly for seventh.

From second on the grid Paffett jumped into the lead at the first corner ahead of his HWA Mercedes team-mate Christian Vietoris and pulled out an advantage of nearly three seconds before his first pitstop.

When he exited, having switched from soft ‘option’ Hankook rubber to the harder ‘standard’ tyres, it was Rockenfeller on his tail, rather than Vietoris.

Rockenfeller, who had completed the first lap in sixth spot, had started on the standard tyres and changed to the options as the pit window opened on lap three.

The pace the Phoenix Audi driver and his early-race rival Robert Wickens were able to exert from their rubber allowed the pair to take second and third places by the time everybody had made a stop.

While Wickens, who stayed ahead of Rockenfeller until being demoted at Turn 1 on lap 25, completed a short middle stint and dropped back from the victory fight after switching to another set of standards, the Audi man remained quick.

Rockenfeller’s 39-lap stint on the options was in excess of any of the other victory contenders, but on standard rubber he was unable to stay with Paffett and dropped seven seconds to the Briton over the final 10 laps.

Wickens lost third to Vietoris during the final handful of laps while Jamie Green, who started third, took his best result since moving to Audi with fifth spot for the Abt team.

Daniel Juncadella was one of the stars of the race; the rookie starting 13th in his RSC Mucke Mercedes and finishing sixth, the best of his many passing moves coming late on as he passed Bruno Spengler’s Schnitzer BMW at Turn 1.

Spengler, who finished just 0.1s ahead of Mattias Ekstrom’s Abt Audi in seventh, is now level on points with Rockenfeller at the top of the championship, but drops behind his rival on countback.

Ekstrom made both of his mandatory stops within the first 10 laps, then running a 43-lap stint on a set of options. He passed Adrien Tambay, Pascal Wehrlein and Edoardo Mortara inside the final 10 laps.

Martin Tomczyk’s dismal season continued as he spun early on after colliding with his RMG BMW team-mate Andy Priaulx. He finished 19th with Priaulx 22nd.

Lorenzo sprinted off the line, almost banging into the side of polesitter Dani Pedrosa as they jostled for position into Turn 1. Meanwhile Marc Marquez was dive-bombing down the inside to take third from sixth on the grid.

For the opening five laps there was a lead pack of five bikes, with Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi tagged onto the back of the Spanish trio.

But through the tight left-hander at Turn 6 the front of Crutchlow’s Tech 3 Yamaha got away from him and he slid into the gravel and out of the race.

Just seconds later he was joined in the kitty litter by the Ducati of Nicky Hayden who retired from sixth place in almost identical fashion at Turn 10.

The lead three edged away from Rossi in fourth. There was seldom much between them, but the positions never actually changed.

With seven laps to go Lorenzo upped the pace and stretched his advantage over Pedrosa past a second.

Pedrosa had his hands full defending from Marquez rather than working on a move for the lead.

Heading into the penultimate lap there was nothing to separate the Honda pair, and they actually touched. They both kept control, and a charging final lap by Marquez took him right back to the tail of his championship-leading team-mate.

For the second race in a row Rossi had an opening lap clash with Alvaro Bautista. This time he was able to continue, while Bautista was left ruing the loss of a good result after qualifying strongly in fourth.

Rossi showed strong pace at the end of the race, but was almost six seconds behind his victorious team-mate by the flag.

Stefan Bradl had a quiet run to fifth, while in sixth Bradley Smith had his best Moto GP run to date, passing Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso with a lap to go. Aleix Espargaro was the top CRT finisher in eighth.

The American resisted the early challenge from his team-mate Facu Regalia to record a 1.2s victory.

Stewards are reviewing his post-victory celebrations, however, for “driving the wrong direction after the chequered flag”.

Koiranen GP’s Kevin Korjus finished third after front row starter Daniil Kvyat (MW Arden) ran wide at Turn 4 on the opening lap, losing his second place. He rejoined in fourth, and chased Korjus to the end, missing out by just 0.3s.

Arden’s Carlos Sainz Jr finished fifth from eighth on the grid, with points leader Tio Ellinas in sixth for Manor.

Aaro Vainio went lost ground off the startline, slipping from fourth to seventh.

Robert Visoiu grabbed the coveted eighth spot, and reversed-grid pole position, from Dino Zamaparelli with five laps remaining. Zamparelli and fellow Brit Jack Harvey rounded out the top 10.

Results - 18 laps:
Pos Driver                Team       Time/Gap
 1. Conor Daly            ART      25m54.812s
 2. Facu Regalia          ART        + 1.210s
 3. Kevin Korjus          Koiranen   + 3.401s
 4. Daniil Kyvat          MW Arden   + 3.773s
 5. Carlos Sainz          MW Arden   + 4.413s
 6. Tio Ellinas           Manor      + 6.196s
 7. Aaro Vainio           Koiranen   + 9.084s
 8. Robert Visoiu         MW Arden  + 13.504s
 9. Dino Zamparelli       Manor     + 14.145s
10. Jack Harvey           ART       + 14.547s
11. Melville McKee        Bamboo    + 20.883s
12. Nick Yelloly          Carlin    + 20.965s
13. Patric Niederhauser   Jenzer    + 21.342s
14. Alex Fontana          Jenzer    + 21.626s
15. Giovanni Venturini    Trident   + 21.927s
16. Emanuele Zonzini      Trident   + 22.070s
17. Josh Webster          Status    + 26.458s
18. Jimmy Eriksson        Status    + 26.978s
19. Lewis Williamson      Bamboo    + 27.387s
20. Ryan Cullen           Manor     + 36.843s
21. Patrick Kujala        Koiranen  + 46.218s

Retirements

     Luis Sa Silva         Carlin      2 laps
     Samin Gomez           Jenzer       1 lap
     David Fumanelli       Trident  
     Adderly Fong          Status   
     Eric Lichtenstein     Carlin   
     Carmen Jorda          Bambo    

GP3 team boss Trevor Carlin is “gutted” by his charge Nick Yelloly’s demotion to the back of the grid for race one in Valencia, and believes he would have had the pace to win from P3 on the grid.

Yelloly will start from 26th on the grid after stewards found his car’s floor to be too low after qualifying.

Carlin accepted the ruling, and series officials are happy that it wasn’t an intentional move to run the car too low but purely a mistake on the team’s part.

“I’m gutted,” said Carlin. “We tried the test maybe 20 times, but there was one part of the floor that was just too low, the gauge wouldn’t go under it.

“Maybe we ran it too close, maybe there was some accident damage, we’re not sure. We checked our other cars immediately and they were close but fine.

“I really think that Nick could have won from there. It was his best-ever qualifying performance in the series, and we’ve looked at the race pace of [main rival teams] ART and Arden and think we’re in better shape.

“All we can do now is shoot for eighth place [reversed-grid pole for race two], which is a massive ask around here.”

Lowndes jumped poleman and early race leader Dave Reynolds in the pits and fought off the late charge from race two winner Winterbottom to win a race shortened by a full restart and then punctuated by a safety car.

The first attempt at the race start barely lasted beyond Turn 1. Reynolds led Lowndes away as Garth Tander flew from 11th on the grid, diving past Will Davison for sixth. But as the pack tried to filter into Turns 2 and 3, it turned to chaos.

Scott McLaughlin found himself sandwiched between Tim Slade and Jason Bright, spearing the former into the barriers and sending the latter slewing across the grass.

As the rest tried to take avoiding action, Dean Fiore slammed into the tyre barrier on the outside and nearly rolled, while David Wall, Alexandre Premat and James Moffat were also caught up in the mayhem.

It meant the grid was seven cars light at the restart, which was much more measured. As Reynolds continued at the end of the first lap, Lowndes headed a dash to the pits, with teams eager to ditch the hard tyre and take advantage of the shorter, timed race distance to run the soft tyre to the end.

The following lap, Tander, Jamie Whincup, Davison and Shane van Gisbergen pitted and it was Whincup who jumped Tander – but the championship leader was then hit with a drive-through penalty for spinning the wheels before the car was lowered.

Reynolds lost track position to Lowndes when he made his stop on lap three, which would prove crucial as moments later James Courtney’s stranded car at the Turn 6 hairpin caused a safety car.

Lowndes eked out a one second advantage after the restart, comfortably controlling the race until the final couple of laps, when it came alive again.

Winterbottom passed Reynolds at Turn 1 and by the penultimate tour had closed Lowndes’ lead from 1.5s to absolutely nothing. He harried him into Turns 1 and 5, and closed right up into the Turn 6 hairpin, but Lowndes defended firmly to claim the win.

Reynolds held off the impressive Jonathon Webb for third with Tander fifth. Whincup eventually finished 19th, inheriting a place late on after Todd Kelly spun at Turn 14 after contact with Moffat.

Mark Winterbottom bounced back from a disappointing first V8 Supercars race at Hidden Valley to claim his first victory for more than a year in the second.

The Ford Performance Racing driver’s last success came at Phillip Island in May last year, but he drove a faultless race to head home polesitter James Courtney and a charging Craig Lowndes.

Courtney made a great start to lead from Winterbottom, who had to fend off FPR team-mate Will Davison after a sluggish getaway. Unlike the first encounter, the rest of the field navigated the first lap without incident.

Having held second, Winterbottom began to harry Courtney’s Holden for the lead, moving to the head of the pack on lap six. As he worked on building his advantage, Davison passed Courtney for second on lap 10.

The Triple 8 Holdens had quiet starts to the race, race one winner Jamie Whincup holding station from fifth on the grid with Lowndes struggling to make headway from 10th.

They were the first of the frontrunners to make their stops – and the strategy worked perfectly for Lowndes.

First, he passed the late-stopping trio of Fabian Coulthard, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander while they were still in the pits. They would be left to rue their own strategy call as they came home seventh, eighth and ninth. He then set about passing David Reynolds for sixth.

By the time Lowndes joined the podium battle, Winterbottom had established a four-second lead, but having passed his team-mate for fourth, the lead Red Bull-backed Holden would not be denied a rostrum finish.

Davison was unable to hold on in the closing stages, visibly struggling with his tyres, dropping from second to fourth in a matter of seconds as first Courtney passed into Turn 1 and then Lowndes outbraked him into Turn 5. Despite his struggles, he held off Whincup for fourth.

Lowndes was all over Courtney on the final tour but could not force his way past – the pair surviving a brief moment where Lowndes outbraked himself and nudged the back of Courtney’s car.

Further down the order, different tyre strategies had briefly allowed Dean Fiore and Scott McLaughlin to star. Both drivers temporarily ran at the front of the field as Fiore – from 17th – started on softs and McLaughlin was the first to switch.

The pair eventually tumbled down the order as the race progressed; Fiore finishing 19th and McLaughlin 27th.

Results – 35 laps

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                      Time/Gap

 1.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                   42m28.7456s

 2.  James Courtney       HRT Holden                   + 6.0119s

 3.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden              + 6.2421s

 4.  Will Davison         FPR Ford                     + 7.5922s

 5.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden              + 7.9243s

 6.  Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden                 + 9.9060s

 7.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden           + 15.2462s

 8.  Shane van Gisbergen  Tekno Holden                + 15.8637s

 9.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden                  + 21.2474s

10.  David Reynolds       Rod Nash/FPR Ford           + 25.5241s

11.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes   + 26.1153s

12.  Todd Kelly           Nissan                      + 26.6694s

13.  Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden           + 28.5117s

14.  David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden           + 29.4134s

15.  Alexandre Premat     GRM Holden                  + 31.0533s

16.  Lee Holdsworth       Erebus Mercedes             + 31.2452s

17.  Chaz Mostert         Dick Johnson Ford           + 34.9577s

18.  Tony D’Alberto       D’Alberto Holden            + 38.1337s

19.  Dean Fiore           Dumbrell Holden             + 38.1825s

20.  Alex Davison         Schwerkolt/FPR Ford         + 39.5031s

21.  Michael Caruso       Nissan                      + 44.2616s

22.  Maro Engel           Erebus Mercedes             + 44.9906s

23.  James Moffat         Nissan                      + 45.1544s

24.  Tim Blanchard        Dick Johnson Ford           + 49.9953s

25.  Rick Kelly           Nissan                      + 50.2008s

26.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw/HRT Holden       + 51.6444s

27.  Scott McLaughlin     GRM Holden                  + 55.2760s

28.  Scott Pye            Dumbrell Holden                + 1 lap

Ryan Hunter-Reay took win and moved to second in the points with a controlled performance in the IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile.

Hunter-Reay, whose 2012 championship campaign was kick-started by his victory in last year’s Milwaukee race, was a threat right from the start, although the race was given a twist when several cars took advantage of an early caution to pit under yellows and go off-sequence

Those included Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves, and for Sato, the strategy worked well enough for the Japanese driver to lead almost half of the race.

A big moment late in his penultimate stint prompted Sato to pit under greens, and when the rest of the lead group were able to pit under caution and retain the lead lap a couple of laps later, he was knocked out of contention.

Castroneves, on the other hand, was able to take advantage of the final yellow to get back onto sequence with Hunter-Reay, although he never looked fast enough in the final stint to pose a threat to the Andretti car.

In the final laps his main concern was keeping Penske team-mate Will Power behind him, and the pair had a fright late on when a speculative lunge from Power almost ended in contact.

They escaped unscathed, and Castroneves’ pleasure at climbing from the rear of the field to second was given a further boost by the fact that Marco Andretti, who came into the weekend placed second in the championship, lost a tonne of time in the pits after suffering an electrical problem and finished 74 laps down.

Power’s third place represented the Australian’s first podium finish of the season, with EJ Viso and James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top five.

First of the Honda-powered drivers was Scott Dixon, whose sixth place, coupled with an eighth for Dario Franchitti, represented a decent return for the Ganassi team on a day where both started from the rear of the field and were forced to rely on strategy rather than pace to make any headway.

Sometime Ferrari Formula 1 racer Nicola Larini will join Fabrizio Giovanardi in the Petri Porsche line-up for the next Superstars round at Zolder.

The 49-year-old Italian last raced in the series when he made a one-off appearance at Vallelunga in 2010.

“I’m going to drive [the Porsche] for the first time on Wednesday to get some more confidence with it,” said Larini.

“I’m also happy to be back together with ‘Piedone’ Giovanardi. We’re great friends and I think we’ll do a good job representing a prestigious brand like Porsche.

“In 2010 at Vallelunga I was very impressed by Superstars and that interest just grew stronger in recent years.”

Larini’s last full-time top-level campaign was with Chevrolet in the World Touring Car Championship from 2005-09.

He teamed up with Giovanardi to take a class win at last season’s Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Sage Karam survived a late restart to take the win in this weekend’s Indy Lights race at Milwaukee.

Karam started from pole, but lost the lead to Zach Veach early on. He reclaimed the advantage just after the halfway mark and opened a gap, only to lose it when Peter Dempsey spun and brushed the wall with five laps remaining.

That brought out the yellows and allowed Carlos Munoz a chance to challenge Karam at the restart, but the American reacted perfectly to the green flag and crossed the finish line one second ahead of his rival.

It was the first win of Karam’s Lights career, and moves him from fourth to second in the standings.

“It takes a lot of weight off the shoulders to take the first win,” he said.

“The whole week has been awesome for us and I had no doubt that we could take the fight to Zach. We had to take care of our tyres and stay mentally strong, and that’s what we did.”

Championship leader Munoz held on for second ahead of Veach, whose early race heroics took too much of out of his tyres for him to remain a threat during the latter stages.

The podium finishers were the only cars left on the lead lap at the finish, and Dempsey’s spin allowed Gabby Chaves to take an uncontested fourth ahead of Juan Pablo Garcia.

Results – 100 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team         Time/Gap

 1.  Sage Karam         Schmidt   44m53.5834s

 2.  Carlos Munoz       Andretti    + 1.0808s

 3.  Zach Veach         Andretti    + 9.5271s

 4.  Gabby Chaves       Schmidt       + 1 lap

 5.  Juan Pablo Garcia  Moore         + 1 lap

 6.  Peter Dempsey      Belardi       + 1 lap

 7.  Jorge Goncalvez    Belardi      + 2 laps

 8.  Jack Hawksworth    Schmidt      + 2 laps

Timo Glock has been given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s DTM race at Lausitz after the MTEK BMW driver was judged to have impeded Daniel Juncadella during qualifying.

The ex-Formula 1 driver, who took his maiden podium finish in the DTM last time out at Spielberg, had qualified 14th for the race, but will now start 17th.

After reviewing video evidence, race officials decided that Glock had breached two separate sporting regulations by impeding Juncadella’s Mercedes while he left the pitlane during the session, and imposed the penalty.

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Juncadella and Miguel Molina each move up two places on the grid to 13th and 14th respectively; the pair also benefiting from the five-place penalty imposed on Augusto Farfus for using an incorrect set of tyres during practice.

Timo Scheider is the other beneficiary, the Audi driver gaining one place and moving into 16th.

GP3 race stewards have banished third-placed qualifier Nick Yelloly and 13th-placed Lewis Williamson to the back of the Valencia grid after their cars were found to have technical irregularities.

Yelloly’s Carlin machine was ruled not to comply with the specified dimensions after qualifying, which was a breach of article 4.1 of the series’ technical regulations.

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Stewards also found that Williamson’s Bamboo Engineering car did not comply with the high roll back caliper seals, which is a breach of article 1.6 of the technical rules.

ART’s Facu Regalia has been promoted to third place for race one on Sunday morning, with points leader Tio Ellinas now up to sixth.

Petter Solberg delighted his home fans by setting the fastest time in both for the first two heats of the Norwegian round of the European Rally Championship at Hell.

Solberg did not make the best start in heat one, opting to take the joker at the first opportunity.

He returned to the main circuit in second position, from where he hunted down fellow Norwegian Alexander Hvaal until he too took his joker lap.

Heat two was more straightforward for Solberg, leading from lights to flag.

While Solberg was expected to do well, reigning Super1600 champion Andreas Bakkerud is also having a great event to hold second place behind his countryman overnight.

A brilliant start propelled Bakkerud to the first corner in front in race one, from where he left his competitors to take victory on track by a considerable margin, before finishing third in his heat two race behind Solberg and Timur Timerzyanov, who sits one place behind Bakkerud overnight in third.

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British driver Liam Doran has had good pace, winning both of his races on the road.

However, a missed joker-lap in heat one, and the 30-second penalty that it brings hampered help his cause.

“It was a big rookie mistake,” he said. “I’ve got no excuses. We would have been third or fourth. I have done all I can for now in heat two, we will try again tomorrow.”

Timmy Hansen had a race-long battle with local favourite Knut Ove Borseth in heat one that ultimately slowed the pair, before getting a puncture in heat two to compound his day, and lies 19th overnight, one place ahead of Henning Solberg, who has also picked up a puncture in heat two.

Former circuit racing star Tommy Rustad is making is return to driving a rallycross supercar this weekend, and lies fifth overnight, despite having to drive the last lap of heat two with collapsed front right suspension.

Heats three and four take place on Sunday morning, with the semi-finals and finals being following in the afternoon.

Christian Vietoris took his maiden DTM pole position in a closely-fought qualifying session at Lausitz on Saturday.

The German’s 1m17.715s lap in the single-lap Q4 shootout proved too good for HWA team-mate Gary Paffett, who was 0.2 seconds slower on his own lap minutes later.

Behind them Abt Sportsline driver Jamie Green took his best qualifying position since leaving Mercedes for Audi in third, while Robert Wickens made it three HWA cars on the front two rows despite a mistake on his final lap.

Surprisingly, none of the BMWs made it into Q4; defending champion Bruno Spengler starting fifth in his Schnitzer M3 with his biggest rival for this year’s crown, Mike Rockenfeller, alongside him on the third row in his Phoenix Audi.

Behind them the top 10 was completed by Adrien Tambay – taking his best grid spot of the year – Edoardo Mortara, Roberto Merhi and Augusto Farfus.

However, with Farfus having been given a five-place grid penalty for using a set of tyres that had not been allocated to him during practice, he will start 15th with Pascal Wehrlein instead moving into the top 10.

One place behind Farfus on the grid will be Miguel Molina, who was ninth fastest in Q1, but failed to take part in Q2 after his car ground to a halt at the end of the earlier session.

Former champions Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekstrom were both eliminated in Q1, the Abt Audi pair joining a quartet of BMW drivers at the rear of the grid.

Among these were MTEK racer Marco Wittmann – second at the last race at Spielberg – and RMG’s Martin Tomczyk, who parked his M3 early due to a broken splitter.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time       Gap

 1.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes    1m17.715s

 2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes    1m17.940s  + 0.225s

 3.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi        1m18.028s  + 0.313s

 4.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes    1m18.133s  + 0.418s

 5.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW   1m17.967s  Q3

 6.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi    1m18.134s  Q3

 7.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi        1m18.161s  Q3

 8.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi    1m18.205s  Q3

 9.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes    1m18.335s  Q3

10.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW         1m18.383s  Q3

11.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes  1m18.225s  Q2

12.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW   1m18.361s  Q2

13.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi    1m18.421s  Q2

14.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW        1m18.485s  Q2

15.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes  1m18.502s  Q2

16.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi               Q2

17.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi        1m18.596s  Q1

18.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi        1m18.742s  Q1

19.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW        1m18.777s  Q1

20.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW         1m18.909s  Q1

21.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW         1m19.065s  Q1

22.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW         1m19.137s  Q1

ART’s Conor Daly will start round two of the GP3 Series from pole position at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

The 21-year-old American timed his pole lap to perfection, just before the second red flag of the session halted his rivals from trying to beat his 1m22.329s.

Daniil Kvyat will start alongside him in his MW Arden-run machine, but was two tenths in arrears.

Carlin’s Nick Yelloly had pole with a few minutes to go, but slipped to third. He is joined on the second row by the second ART car of Facu Regalia.

Barcelona race two winner Aaro Vainio will start fifth, ahead of Koiranen team-mate Kevin Korjus.

Points leader Tio Ellinas, who set pole at Barcelona, was only seventh fastest. He had a scrappy session, and bounced across the gravel at the high-speed Turn 12 right-hander.

His Manor team-mate Ryan Cullen spun exiting Turn 1, which caused the first red flag early on. Then Adderly Fong spun to a halt at Turn 11 with two minutes remaining, causing a second red flag.

That led to a last-lap charge as the session was briefly restarted, but none of the frontrunners were able to better their times.

Pos  Driver               Team      Time       Gap

 1.  Conor Daly           ART       1m22.329s

 2.  Daniil Kvyat         MW Arden  1m22.536s  + 0.207s

 3.  Nick Yelloly         Carlin    1m22.597s  + 0.268s

 4.  Facu Regalia         ART       1m22.603s  + 0.274s

 5.  Aaro Vainio          Koiranen  1m22.616s  + 0.287s

 6.  Kevin Korjus         Koiranen  1m22.621s  + 0.292s

 7.  Tio Ellinas          Manor     1m22.761s  + 0.432s

 8.  Dino Zamparelli      Manor     1m22.861s  + 0.532s

 9.  Carlos Sainz Jr      MW Arden  1m22.891s  + 0.562s

10.  Robert Visoiu        MW Arden  1m22.893s  + 0.564s

11.  Jack Harvey          ART       1m22.925s  + 0.596s

12.  David Fumanelli      Trident   1m22.936s  + 0.607s

13.  Lewis Williamson     Bamboo    1m22.948s  + 0.619s

14.  Melville McKee       Bamboo    1m22.954s  + 0.625s

15.  Giovanni Venturini   Trident   1m22.993s  + 0.664s

16.  Patric Niederhauser  Jenzer    1m23.000s  + 0.671s

17.  Alex Fontana         Jenzer    1m23.019s  + 0.690s

18.  Adderly Fong         Status    1m23.054s  + 0.725s

19.  Patrick Kujala       Koiranen  1m23.294s  + 0.965s

20.  Eric Lichtenstein    Carlin    1m23.364s  + 1.035s

21.  Emanuele Zonzini     Trident   1m23.524s  + 1.195s

22.  Josh Webster         Status    1m23.559s  + 1.230s

23.  Luis Sa Silva        Carlin    1m23.878s  + 1.549s

24.  Samin Gomez          Jenzer    1m24.322s  + 1.993s

25.  Jimmy Eriksson       Status    1m25.044s  + 2.715s

26.  Carmen Jorda         Bamboo    1m25.103s  + 2.774s

27.  Ryan Cullen          Manor     1m41.349s  + 19.020s

The factory Honda rider went seven tenths clear of the field with his best lap on his final run.

His 1m40.893s was nearly 0.3 seconds faster than Stoner’s record, which was set when qualifying tyres were still used in MotoGP.

Pedrosa’s chasers were able to trim the gap by only another tenth of a second. Jorge Lorenzo briefly stole second place from Cal Crutchlow, but the Briton took it back seconds later.

Lorenzo’s session was not straightforward, as he abandoned his first run with a clutch problem.

After some animated discussions with his Yamaha crew he returned to the track with just enough time to put a run together and get onto the front row for Sunday’s race.

Alvaro Bautista was another to shine late in the Q2 session to take fourth, and he will lead the second row of the grid ahead of Nicky Hayden and Marc Marquez.

Valentino Rossi’s qualifying struggles continued, and he could only manage the seventh-best time.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike       Time       Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda           1m40.893s
 2.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m41.501s  +0.608s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha          1m41.566s  +0.673s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda   1m41.714s  +0.821s
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati          1m41.800s  +0.907s
 6.  Marc Marquez      Honda           1m41.842s  +0.949s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha          1m41.959s  +1.066s
 8.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati   1m41.963s  +1.070s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati          1m42.053s  +1.160s
10.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda       1m42.090s  +1.197s
11.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha   1m42.548s  +1.655s
12.  Aleix Espargaro   ART/Aprilia     1m42.878s  +1.985s
13.  Randy de Puniet   ART/Aprilia     1m43.186s  +2.293s
14.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati   1m43.330s  +2.437s
15.  Hector Barbera    FTR/Kawasaki    1m43.659s  +2.766s
16.  Colin Edwards     FTR/Kawasaki    1m43.983s  +3.090s
17.  Karel Abraham     ART/Aprilia     1m44.362s  +3.469s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter/BMW  1m44.369s  +3.476s
19.  Claudio Corti     FTR/Kawasaki    1m44.603s  +3.710s
20.  Michael Laverty   PBM/Aprilia     1m44.630s  +3.737s
21.  Yonny Hernandez   ART/Aprilia     1m44.913s  +4.020s
22.  Bryan Staring     FTR/Honda       1m45.441s  +4.548s
23.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter/BMW  1m46.302s  +5.409s
24.  Javier del Amor   FTR/Kawasaki    1m48.952s  +8.059s

Jose Froilan Gonzalez, the first man to win a world championship Formula 1 race for Ferrari, has died at the age of 90.

After racing in his native Argentina for several years, Gonzalez followed countryman Juan Manuel Fangio to European racing in 1950.

He retired from his first two F1 starts with a private Maserati, but was recruited as works Ferrari driver for 1951.

The Pampas Bull, as Gonzalez was nicknamed, duly became Ferrari’s first F1 winner as he defeated Fangio’s Alfa Romeo to win the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Ever-present on the podium in his remaining starts that year, Gonzalez finished the year third in the standings.

He switched to Maserati for the next two seasons, although his 1953 campaign was truncated by back injuries from a crash in a sportscar race in Lisbon.

Back at Ferrari for 1954, Gonzalez won the British GP for a second time, as well as a host of non-championship wins. He also triumphed alongside Maurice Trintignant in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

By the end of the year, Gonzalez had edged out Mike Hawthorn by a mere half a point to take second in the F1 championship behind Fangio.

That proved to be his final season at international level, as the then 32-year-old chose to return home to Argentina to focus on domestic racing.

Gonzalez continued to make sporadic F1 appearances until 1960, and added another podium finish with second behind Fangio in his home GP in 1955.

Gonzalez’s death means Jack Brabham is now the oldest surviving F1 race-winner.

Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner has been awarded an OBE for services to motorsport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The 39-year-old has led Red Bull Racing since it took over the Jaguar team in 2005. Horner had made his name running the Arden team in Formula 3000 after calling time on his own racing career.

Red Bull has assumed a dominant position in F1 in recent years, winning the last three constructors’ championships and taking Sebastian Vettel to three straight drivers’ titles.

“I’m naturally shocked,” said Horner. “It’s all a bit unexpected, incredible really.

“To be in the company of men and women who have achieved such great things for the country is something very, very special.

“This is right up there with what I have achieved in motorsport.”

Audi driver Jamie Green headed Gary Paffett in an all-British one-two in DTM practice at Lausitz on Saturday morning.

In what was an ultra-strong session for Audi, its drivers held the top spot on the timesheets for 80 of the 90 minutes and filled four of the top six positions by the chequered flag.

Green had run inside the top six for most of the session, and went fastest with five minutes remaining in a time of 1m18.104s; three tenths of a second outside last year’s fastest qualifying time.

That lap knocked his Abt Sportsline team-mate Timo Scheider off the top spot, and Paffett was able to squeeze his HWA Mercedes into second – 0.019s slower than Green – with a little over a minute to go.

Scheider fell to third with Robert Wickens in the second HWA car next up and Adrien Tambay in the third Abt car completing the top five.

Brands Hatch race winner Mike Rockenfeller was sixth in his Phoenix Audi. Championship leader Bruno Spengler was the best of the BMW drivers in seventh for Schnitzer.

Mattias Ekstrom, Pascal Wehrlein and Edoardo Mortara completed the top 10; the Italian having a late spin at Turn 4.

The only other significant incidents were an early spin for Timo Glock at Turn 5 and Robert Merhi running off-course at Turn 1 and negotiating his way around the tyre barriers on the Lausitz oval before resuming the track.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car        Time       Gap
 1.  Jamie Green           Abt Audi        1m18.104s
 2.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes    1m18.133s  + 0.029s
 3.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi        1m18.207s  + 0.103s
 4.  Robert Wickens        HWA Mercedes    1m18.244s  + 0.140s
 5.  Adrien Tambay         Abt Audi        1m18.324s  + 0.220s
 6.  Mike Rockenfeller     Phoenix Audi    1m18.397s  + 0.293s
 7.  Bruno Spengler        Schnitzer BMW   1m18.399s  + 0.295s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi        1m18.440s  + 0.336s
 9.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Mercedes  1m18.466s  + 0.362s
10.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi    1m18.477s  + 0.373s
11.  Christian Vietoris    HWA Mercedes    1m18.644s  + 0.540s
12.  Daniel Juncadella     Mucke Mercedes  1m18.644s  + 0.540s
13.  Timo Glock            MTEK BMW        1m18.675s  + 0.571s
14.  Miguel Molina         Phoenix Audi    1m18.690s  + 0.586s
15.  Roberto Merhi         HWA Mercedes    1m18.723s  + 0.619s
16.  Dirk Werner           Schnitzer BMW   1m18.734s  + 0.630s
17.  Marco Wittmann        MTEK BMW        1m18.800s  + 0.696s
18.  Martin Tomczyk        RMG BMW         1m18.864s  + 0.760s
19.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi    1m18.913s  + 0.809s
20.  Joey Hand             RBM BMW         1m19.108s  + 1.004s
21.  Andy Priaulx          RMG BMW         1m19.263s  + 1.159s
22.  Augusto Farfus        RBM BMW         1m19.307s  + 1.203s

Marc Marquez topped the third MotoGP free practice session at Barcelona on Saturday morning.

The Spaniard, who was not a factor at the front on Friday, put in two consecutive laps quicker than anyone else in the closing minutes, knocking Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa off the top spot.

Pedrosa had been at the front for much of the session thanks to a lap he put in early on, but he was knocked back to third as Ducati’s Nicky Hayden pulled out a lap good enough for second towards the end.

Friday pacesetter Valentino Rossi was fourth fastest ahead of Cal Crutchlow, while Jorge Lorenzo was only sixth after his session started off with a crash at Turn 5.

The Yamaha rider was quickly back to the pits and back out on his spare bike, but he did not get involved in the scrap at the top of the times after that.

At the bottom of the top 10, the CRT bike of Aleix Espargaro – which was fastest of anyone through the short first sector – prevented Bradley Smith and Michele Pirro from locking themselves into Q2.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap

 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m41.853s

 2.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m41.916s  + 0.063s

 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m41.987s  + 0.134s

 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m42.009s  + 0.156s

 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m42.064s  + 0.211s

 6.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m42.166s  + 0.313s

 7.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m42.258s  + 0.405s

 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m42.345s  + 0.492s

 9.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m42.582s  + 0.729s

10.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m42.795s  + 0.942s

11.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m42.957s  + 1.104s

12.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         1m42.970s  + 1.117s

13.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m43.106s  + 1.253s

14.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m43.260s  + 1.407s

15.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m43.652s  + 1.799s

16.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m43.942s  + 2.089s

17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m44.167s  + 2.314s

18.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       1m44.434s  + 2.581s

19.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m45.136s  + 3.283s

20.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m45.252s  + 3.399s

21.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m45.407s  + 3.554s

22.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           1m45.612s  + 3.759s

23.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m45.686s  + 3.833s

24.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m46.037s  + 4.184s

Kevin Korjus topped the 45-minute free practice session at GP3′s standalone event at Valencia.

The Koiranen racer, a podium finisher at Barcelona last time out, lapped in 1m22.058s.

He finished the session just under a quarter of a second clear of Carlin’s Nick Yelloly.

Patric Niederhauser was one of the few drivers to improve their time in the second half of the session, the Jenzer driver moving up to third, ahead of local hero Carlos Sainz Jr, Lewis Williamson and Barcelona race two winner Aaro Vainio.

Points leader Tio Ellinas was seventh fastest, ahead of Daniil Kvyat.

Jamie Whincup stretched his V8 Supercars championship lead even further by winning race one at Hidden Valley as his rivals self-distructed.

Whincup had started part one of the 60/60 format race alongside polesitter David Reynolds on the front row.

The champion’s Triple 8 Holden blasted ahead of Rod Nash/Ford Performance Racing driver Reynolds off the line, but then slid wide at the Turn 6 hairpin.

Reynolds slipped through and led to the finish of the first half.

But his day went dramatically downhill in part two.

Whincup went around the outside of Reynolds through Turn 1 and managed to squeeze into the lead through the following kinks.

Just behind them, Craig Lowndes locked up and slid into Garth Tander, shoving him into Will Davison and spinning the FPR car.

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Most of the field got caught out in the ensuing mess, which prompted a safety car to retrieve Tim Blanchard’s stranded Ford.

Davison ultimately had to retire, while Tander and Lowndes limped home 13th and 26th in mangled cars.

Reynolds lost touch with Whincup at the restart and then had to focus on fending off FPR stablemate Mark Winterbottom.

With five laps to go, Winterbottom looked down the inside at the hairpin but locked his rear brakes and slewed into Reynolds, sending him spinning.

Race control gave Winterbottom a drive-through penalty, dropping him to an eventual 22nd place, eight positions behind Reynolds.

Tekno driver Shane van Gisbergen cruised past both Fords as they tangled then charged off after Whincup, getting the gap down to 0.3 seconds by the flag.

James Courtney and Jonathon Webb came through to third and fourth.

The mayhem allowed Nissan’s Rick Kelly and Mercedes driver Tim Slade to rise to breakthrough fifth and sixth places – Slade coming through from 23rd at the break having been punted into a spin in the first half.

Recent Dick Johnson recruit Chaz Mostert also starred with seventh.

Jason Bright was eighth after getting caught in the hairpin incident.

Results – 42 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                        Time/Gap

 1.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden            1h18m55.3670s

 2.  Shane van Gisbergen  Tekno Holden                   + 0.3431s

 3.  James Courtney       HRT Holden                     + 3.6841s

 4.  Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden                   + 4.9928s

 5.  Rick Kelly           Nissan                         + 8.1464s

 6.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes      + 8.9886s

 7.  Chaz Mostert         Dick Johnson Ford             + 10.5121s

 8.  Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden             + 12.8562s

 9.  Tony D’Alberto       D’Alberto Holden              + 13.1327s

10.  Michael Caruso       Nissan                        + 13.4933s

11.  Scott McLaughlin     GRM Holden                    + 13.7379s

12.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden             + 14.6831s

13.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden                    + 19.0470s

14.  David Reynolds       Rod Nash/FPR Ford             + 19.9441s

15.  James Moffat         Nissan                        + 20.4479s

16.  Maro Engel           Erebus Mercedes               + 21.4030s

17.  Todd Kelly           Nissan                        + 21.7734s

18.  Lee Holdsworth       Erebus Mercedes               + 24.7935s

19.  David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden             + 25.0957s

20.  Alex Davison         Schwerkolt/FPR Ford           + 26.4941s

21.  Alexandre Premat     GRM Holden                    + 28.2079s

22.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                      + 35.1225s

23.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw/HRT Holden         + 37.2023s

24.  Dean Fiore           Dumbrell Holden               + 38.9614s

25.  Scott Pye            Dumbrell Holden               + 39.8042s

26.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden               + 42.6020s
Retirements:
     Will Davison         FPR Ford                         29 laps

     Tim Blanchard        Dick Johnson Ford                21 laps

Marco Andretti underlined his pace during practice by claiming pole for Saturday’s IndyCar race at Milwaukee.

Andretti, who topped both the Friday practice sessions, eclipsed the track’s previous qualifying speed record with his two-lap average of 170.515mph.

Team-mate James Hinchcliffe, who Andretti bumped from the top spot, also beat the old record with his 170.418mph effort.

“We rolled off pretty good,” Andretti said. “I knew I was going to have to go flat in Turns 1 and 2 in both laps, and I was able to pull it off.”

Hinchcliffe’s time had been the benchmark for most of the session. The Canadian was the fifth driver to set a time, and it proved good enough to see off most of the field before Andretti came out.

Aside from Helio Castroneves, who was the first car to run in the session, the only other driver to briefly occupy provisional pole was Takuma Sato, who made his run immediately before Hinchcliffe.

For a while, it looked like Andretti Autosport might secure the entire two front rows before Penske’s Will Power intervened to go third-fastest, putting himself ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and EJ Viso.

Sebastian Saavedra did a great job to finish up sixth-fastest ahead of Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, while Josef Newgarden took the honours for quickest Honda-powered driver and will start from eighth.

The Schmidt driver was the third to head out for his two-lap run and went to the top with an average speed of 146.798mph, knocking off previous pacesetter and current points leader Carlos Munoz.

“We’re not really a team that focuses much on qualifying; we’re more about race set-up,” said Karam. “So to focus on race set-up and then get pole is always a good surprise. It’s always good when you outqualify the Andretti cars, because I really respect their programme and I know that they’re strong on qualifying set-ups.

“It’s going to be a tough race; the lapped traffic is going to be interesting, and you’re going to have to conserve your tyres and yet push. So it’s going to be pretty crazy, and I think the guys who raced here last year have a little advantage in knowing when to push and when not to.”

Zach Veach also managed to better Munoz’s time with an average just 0.088mph down on Karam’s to secure himself the outside of the front row, with Peter Dempsey claiming the third-fastest speed.

Carl Edwards has taken pole position for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan.

The Roush Fenway driver set his lap of 35.564s (202.452mph) early in the session, as he was the sixth of 44 cars to run.

For a while it seemed as if Edwards would have a relatively straightforward wait to be declared the polesitter as it appeared he had enjoyed the best of the track conditions, with only Kasey Kahne getting near his time in the cars that followed.

However, Paul Menard offered a hint that the track was still quick when he went third, behind Kahne, in the closing stages, and attention then turned to Furniture Row’s Kurt Busch, who was one of the last to run.

Busch ended up missing out by one tenth of a second, but he did enough to join Edwards on the front row at the expense of Kahne.

Menard’s lap was eventually good enough for fourth, while Aric Almirola and Joey Logano will share row three on the grid.

Next up was Nationwide Series frontrunner Austin Dillon, making his fifth Cup start of the season for Richard Childress Racing, while behind him Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top 10.

Story by James Prostell Jr.

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – There’s a classic saying that “the only constant is change,” and few tracks embody that statement quite like Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In fact, the name Laguna Seca translated from Spanish means “dry lagoon,” suggesting that at one time this land that has put sports car, IndyCar and motorcycle racers to the test was submerged under water. Moreover, the current track layout has only been used since 1988 – before then drivers blasted around at breakneck speeds for about half a lap. One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the corkscrew. Known innocently on the map as turns 8 and 8A, the tight left combined with a blind right (and a sixty-foot drop!) has tested the mettle and metal of drivers and their cars since 1957 and cannot be taken lightly by any driver expecting to finish a race, let alone win one here.

Having spent the last three weeks racing on classic tracks in Belgium, Britain, and Canada, the McLaren Turbo Challenge returns to the states on the oceanside track for Round 5. Closing in on the halfway mark, it’s still anybody’s race but many signs point to a continued slugfest between championship leading P1 Racing driver Marty Sponsler and Team VBR’s Brad Vincent, with darkhorse Troy Harder lurking in third should either falter.

Practice

Those who participated in or watched the early Tuesday practice may have noticed something that was a bit of a rarity this season – Brad Vincent’s #18 not at the top of the leaderboards. With a lap time only good enough for 14th through 12 laps, he seemed to struggle to find a fast line that didn’t put him off track and lose even more time. Whatever was out of sync, though, was fixed by his 14th trip around the circuit where he set the tone for the weekend with the session’s fastest lap.

That trend would continue with Thursday’s pre-race warmup practice. Determined to regain the championship lead, Vincent was the only driver able to break into the 1:21 mark and gapped the field by nearly an entire second.

Pre-Race Practice Top Ten

1. Brad Vincent 1:21.907
2. Troy Harder 1:22.815
3. Les Turner 1:22.859
4. Andrew Humphrey 1:22.906
5. Dean Moll 1:22.996
6. David Berry 1:23.360
7. Terry Daul 1:23.779
8. James Prostell Jr. 1:23.837
9. Andrew Gantman 1:23.895
10. Corey Wolf 1:23.907

Qualifying

Team THM teammates Troy Harder and Corey Wolf did a great job finding more speed – the only problem was that Brad Vincent somehow found even more. With his first valid lap good enough to take the pole on its own, he improved the time even further a few laps later posting a blistering 1:21.672 lap, fast enough to take the pole by seven tenths of a second. Dean Moll was fast enough for fourth with Andrew Humphrey taking fifth. Citing a lack of track time as the culprit, the surprise of the day was Marty Sponsler only able to muster an eighth-place qualifying time. Maintaining his lead in the championship would be difficult from here to say the least.

There were no incidents large enough to cause a red flag, but two incidents did turn some heads. On his fourth qualifying lap, TeamDraft driver Les Turner plowed into William Kabela’s #25 car in the Andretti Hairpin (T2). “I have not reviewed the replay yet, but I drove down into turn two and there was a parked car there on the racing line,” Turner said of the accident forcing him into the backup car for the race, qualifying 6th for the race.

On his tenth lap of the qualifying session, Storm Front Racing driver Terry Daul exited turn four with a bit too much speed and went wide into the runoff area. What was likely going to be a simple scrape with the wall turned for the worse as he caught a break in the wall that allows emergency vehicles access to the track. The awkward impact pitched Daul’s McLaren into a quick spin and tumble, briefly skidding on its roof before landing right-side-up again. Outside of a few dents and scratches there was little damage to the race car but a lack of time for repairs before the green flag forced a move to the backup car.

Starting Lineup

Row 1 – Inside Brad Vincent Outside Troy Harder
Row 2 – Inside Corey Wolf Outside Dean Moll
Row 3 – Inside Andrew Humphrey Outside Les Turner
Row 4 – Inside Reed Rundell Outside Marty Sponsler
Row 5 – Inside David Berry Outside Cyril Roberts
Row 6 – Inside Terry Daul Outside Jeff Thomas
Row 7 – Inside Scott Husted Outside Andrew Gantman
Row 8 – Inside Kevin Kyle Outside James Prostell Jr.
Row 9 – Inside Dennis Griffen Outside Gerald Livingston
Row 10 – Inside Andrew Feldman Outside William Kabela
Row 11 – Inside Niels Clyde Outside David Holzwarth
Row 12 – Inside Ed Sutcliff Outside Bill Pawluckie

Race

After strong displays of speed in practice and qualifying, all the competitors and the growing crowd knew Vincent had the potential to breakaway in this race, and the #18 driver did not disappoint. The Pennsylvanian rocketed off to a seven second lead by the time he pitted on lap 15, and with help from his crew, that lead grew even further to 10 seconds a lap later. Try as he might, Troy Harder would have to settle for an incident-free second place finish as Vincent took home a flag-to-flag victory, leading all 22 laps and earning all conceivable points available in the process.

Another man on the move, though, was Marty Sponsler. A mainstay of the podium this season, the P1 Racing driver found himself in eighth place at the start, but didn’t stay there long. A couple passes on the first lap vaulted him to sixth, and after passing Humphrey on lap 5, Sponsler was able to take advantage of a dust-up between Corey Wolf and Dean Moll at the corkscrew on lap 7 to move into third, where he’d finish on the podium.

Speaking of the Wolf-Moll incident, officials were called to clear up a bit of controversy concerning a rules infraction by Moll. Already fighting hard for third position for a while, Moll caught Wolf and was able to complete a pass into the braking zone for the corkscrew on lap 7. The excess speed forced Moll to turn early, cutting both corkscrew corners in the process. Should a competitor get a Course Cutting Black Flag cutting a corner, he or she is required to slow down and give up any gained time advantage, and Moll complied – by pitting early! The move succeeded in both minimizing the penalty and surprising his pit crew that scrambled to service the unexpected vehicle on his way to finishing fourth ahead of Wolf. Asked about the move, officials stated “We already have a rule in place since 2010 at certain tracks to cover the issue of pitting to clear a Course Cutting Flag. Here at Red Sox Racing we have a tradition of fair and gentlemanly competition. We prefer to let the racing take place on the track rather than in the rule books. The Course Cutting Black Flag rule will be amended immediately prior to our next event to include all tracks and events to avoid any confusion in the future.”

With the corkscrew rightfully garnering much of the attention, turns four and six offered their own share of frustration for some of the drivers. On lap four, Andrew Gantman clipped the curbing on turn four and spun, falling to last from 12th as he pitted to change off of a set of flat-spotted tires. Gantman soldiered on to finish 16th. Turn four bit Kevin Kyle as well as he ended up colliding with the inside wall after running over the curb himself. After repairs, Kyle got going again to finish 21st. A tough season for Niels Clyde was made even tougher after two turn 6 incidents, one on lap 9 and another on lap 13 damaged his McLaren. Clyde would overcome these crashes to finish the race, however, recording a 23rd place finish.

Vincent’s dominant 12-second win helps him retake the championship lead, now leading by 4 points. Runner-up Troy Harder finished second in the race, putting him third in the championship only 13 points out. Sponler’s gutsy third place finish gives him the last spot on the podium and keeps the P1 Racing driver solidly in the championship fight. Dean Moll finished fourth, followed by Corey Wolf to round out the top five. Reed Rundell, Andrew Humphrey, David Berry, Les Turner, and Cyril Roberts finished in the top ten, while eleventh through fifteenth went to Terry Daul, Scott Husted, Jeff Thomas, James Prostell Jr., and Dennis Griffen. Andrew Gantman and Andrew Feldman finished 16th and 17th respectively on the lead lap, and 18th through 22nd went to Ed Sutcliff, David Holzwarth, William Kabela, Kevin Kyle, and Bill Pawluckie, each one lap down. Niels Clyde finished 23rd, two laps down and Gerald Livingston was classified 24th after failing to finish, retiring on lap 10.

Lexington Ohio hosts the halfway point next week when the McLaren Turbo Challenge visits the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Buckeye 30.

Awards

Deltran Battery Tender Best Start (Most positions gained lap 1)
Marty Sponsler picked up two spots on lap 1, climbing from 8th to 6th

Allstate Vanishing Deductible Award (Incident Free Race)
Eight drivers were able finish the race without any incident points. Brad Vincent, Troy Harder, David Berry, Terry Daul, Jeff Thomas, Dennis Griffen, Ed Sutcliff, and William Kabela each earned a bonus championship point.

Optima Batteries Hard Charger (Most positions gained start position – finish position)
Marty Sponsler gained 5 spots through the race, starting 8th and finishing 3rd

Competitor Post-Race Comments

James Prostell Jr., Team HeadBlade James Prostell Motorsports – “First off I want to thank Michigan CAT and Cipparone Contracting, Inc. for joining us for the rest of the year as new sponsors. Both companies have had a long history of moving asphalt, and now it’s up to me to help them move on asphalt! All kidding aside, I’m finding that a more aggressive approach to racing has really been working out so far. I’d never dare try outbraking anyone into the corkscrew before, but I picked up three spots doing just that today. And as a side note, I know it doesn’t count for anything, but I was 8th in the warm-up practice and I think I set about the 9th fastest lap during the race. Whether it counts or not, anytime I can get my name on the top ten of anything with racers of this caliber, I’m proud of it, simple as that. Really looking forward to Mid-Ohio as it’s easily one of my favorites and as close to a home race as I will find on the schedule.”

Les Turner, TeamDraft Batmobile – “We are a bit disappointed with finishing 9th at Laguna Seca. Pre-race I felt that we had a car that could have finished in the top-5. Track position is everything at this track, and the qualifying incident put us behind the 8 ball on the grid, and that translated to the final results.”

Prodrive has completed its upgrades to Liam Doran’s Mini RX – ensuring the car has more power than ever in time for the Munich X Games rallycross event at the end of the month.

The Banbury-based team had always intended to take a two-stage approach to the development of its first rallycross car and it has now saved more weight in the WRC-based car, courtesy of more carbon composite panels, while a new turbo and other mechanical changes move power output past the 450bhp mark.

The Mini underwent its first shakedown this morning, when it was driven by Prodrive WRC team principal Dave Wilcock.

“The Mini is now a completely different car,” Wilcock said. “The acceleration is phenomenal.

“Despite all this additional power, we have managed to maintain the driveability in the engine, so that it is still fully controllable on the throttle.

“When combined with the inherent balance of the Mini WRC chassis and its ability to be driven so precisely, it should give the two litre cars something to think about.”

After the June 30 Munich race, Doran will tackle the next two Global Rallycross rounds in America.

British Formula 3 championship leader Will Buller will make his Formula Renault 3.5 debut for Zeta Corse at Moscow Raceway next weekend.

The Italian team announced on Friday that Buller will take over the seat vacated by Carlos Sainz Jr, who raced in the last two rounds in Monaco and at Spa.

Buller, who is also 12th in the F3 European championship and has some FR3.5 testing experience with Comtec from 2012, will join the team’s regular driver Mihai Marinescu – who sat out the Monaco round – for the Russian event.

Team manager Claudio Corradini said: “I’ve been following Will for a while and now that he was on the market, I’m happy he accepted our offer with enthusiasm.

“We will do our best to enable him to do well on his Formula Renault 3.5 debut.”

AUTOSPORT understands that Sainz, who was a regular top 10 contender during his two weekends with the team, could return to the Zeta line-up later in the season.

Helio Castroneves says that he was shocked to learn that his car had failed a technical inspection following his win at Texas last week, and blamed the error on the demands of IndyCar’s intense mid-season schedule.

Team Penske was fined and docked entrant points after the underside of Castroneves’ car was found to be outside of the permitted dimensions, although Castroneves himself was not penalised.

The Brazilian said that the current stretch of six races in seven weekends, with the added load of the teams having to constantly swap the cars between road/street course and oval specification, was the likely cause of the problem, and argued that it should not overshadow his win.

“I was very shocked because the team did an absolutely amazing job,” he said.

“Unfortunately it was a little mistake that at times apply because the schedule has been very busy for everyone. Maybe [things] like that happen just because people are so tired from turning [the cars] from road course to oval [spec].

“I would not allow this scenario to outshine what we did because that [mistake] actually made my car go slower.”

Castroneves also reacted to criticism that the Texas race was processional, suggesting that the TV producers failed to capture a lot of the action.

“There was a lot of passing,” he said. “Unfortunately, editing on the race probably didn’t catch that.

“I mean, I watched the race afterwards. I think the producer missed a lot of passing.”

Marco Andretti opened this weekend’s IndyCar round at the Milwaukee Mile by setting the fastest time in today’s opening practice session.

Andretti moved to the top with a lap of 21.9217s just over 10 minutes before the end of the session to lower the previous marker set by team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay by just 0.0183s, and the time remained unbeaten.

Josef Newgarden finished up with the third-fastest lap ahead of Tristan Vautier and Will Power on a morning where the top nine were covered by 0.1s.

The session was interrupted by just one brief caution period when James Hinchcliffe scraped the wall at Turn 2, but the Canadian quickly returned to the pits under his own power and finished the morning with the 10th-fastest time.

Pos Driver               Team/Engine      Time     Gap         Laps

 1. Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   21.9217s              33

 2. Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   21.9400s  + 0.0183s   33

 3. Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     22.0006s  + 0.0789s   51

 4. Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    22.0603s  + 0.1386s   54

 5. Will Power           Penske/Chevy     22.0618s  + 0.1401s   58

 6. EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   22.0948s  + 0.1731s   37

 7. Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     22.1017s  + 0.1800s   33

 8. Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         22.1226s  + 0.2009s   31

 9. Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         22.2295s  + 0.3078s   59

10. James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   22.2329s  + 0.3112s   17

11. Ana Beatriz          Coyne/Honda      22.2477s  + 0.3260s   71

12. Alex Tagliani        Herta/Honda      22.2492s  + 0.3275s   46

13. Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    22.2582s  + 0.3365s   34

14. Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     22.2598s  + 0.3381s   56

15. Ryan Briscoe         Panther/Chevy    22.3122s  + 0.3905s   54

16. Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    22.3288s  + 0.4071s   61

17. Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      22.3401s  + 0.4184s   34

18. Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      22.3481s  + 0.4264s   48

19. Sebastian Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     22.3740s  + 0.4523s   51

20. Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       22.3793s  + 0.4576s   30

21. Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    22.3865s  + 0.4648s   22

22. Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    22.3915s  + 0.4698s   52

23. James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      22.4584s  + 0.5367s   46

24. Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  22.5771s  + 0.6554s   43

Spanish driver Sergio Canamasas will get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time when he carries out aero testing for the Caterham team.

Canamasas, who races with the squad’s GP2 outfit, will complete a straightline test in France on June 20.

The 27-year-old from Barcelona will be driving the CT03 all day to help the team with the development of the car.

“Taking part in the aero test with the F1 team is another step in my development and it’s good to have the chance to help the team continue the progress they’ve made so far this year,” said Canamasas.

“I’m going to the factory at Leafield before the test for a seat-fit and to go through the detailed run plan for the day with the engineers.

“With no GP2 activity until Silverstone at the end of June I can fully focus on my F1 work for the next few weeks.”

Canamasas is currently 26th in the GP2 standings and is yet to score his first points.

Brandon Trost en route to one of his nine wins at TMS.

The sixth week of the iRacing.com IndyCar Oval racing took place at Texas Motor Speedway, “The Great American Speedway.” The drivers took to the venue’s 1.5 mile oval where they would battle spinning their tires on restarts coming through the quad oval. The corners are banked at 24 degrees and provide a tremendous amount of grip for the IndyCars, allowing the leader to control the bottom lane and making for minimum passing opportunities.

The iRacing.com IndyCar Oval Open Series 3150 Strength of Field race saw 19 drivers register for the event. Home town hero Brad Sanford (Texas) blasted his #8 Dallara to the win leading 20 of 100 laps after starting from the third position. The race itself was calm and saw just three caution flags for 12 laps and only five lead changes. Second place finisher Chad Peterson (Carolina) led 63 laps and finished 0.630s behind the Texan with Eric Hunter (Canada) 5.211s off the lead in third. Michael Chinn (Ohio) finished fourth 7.05 seconds behind and Robert Blouin (Canada) rounded-out the top five.

The iRacing.com IndyCar Oval Open Series saw Randy Crossno (California) at the point lead (800) despite a poor performance in the strength of field race; likewise second position (724) Matt Cooke (Canada) who also suffered in the SoF race. Matt Lambertson (Penn.) scored the third position (693) after running strong for the past weeks. In the fourth position (670) is Georg Naujoks (DE-AT-CH) ahead of Rob Unglenieks (Michigan) with 652 points.

Top score in the iRacing.com IndyCar Oval Fixed Series went to Jonathan Goke (Mid-South) this week. The standings were drastically affected by the strength of field race as the luck of Tim Doyle (Atlantic) started to take a turn for the better as he finished well this week. Andre Castro (NY) extended his point lead (1056) over second-placed Doyle with 35 points separating the two. Third place (1002) driver Lambertson is behind the leader by 54 points. Fourth position (920) is held by Troy Eddy (Atlantic) with  Goke (873) in fifth and looking to be a title contender once again.

Tune-in next week for the seventh week of IndyCar action as the sim-racers take to The Milwaukee Mile. This venue is abrasive on the tires and will possibly be the first race to feature tire saving techniques and patient passing and optimizing opportunities as much as possible.

Valentino Rossi topped the second MotoGP practice session at Barcelona, edging out Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

Lorenzo, who led the way in the first session in the morning, set the pace for the majority of the afternoon.

The Spaniard was able to move to the top of the pile every time he crossed the line on his first run, as he and several others vied for position in the early minutes.

As the session settled down Lorenzo seemed comfortable out front, but he was pushed back to second by Rossi when the Italian switched to a soft rear tyre for his final run.

Lorenzo appeared set to respond as the chequered flag came out by going fastest of anyone through the first sector, but he abandoned that lap and toured back to the pits.

The only other significant improvement in the closing stages came from Cal Crutchlow, who went fifth fastest to push Honda rookie Marc Marquez back to sixth.

Behind the factory Yamahas at the front, Dani Pedrosa was best of the rest for Honda, while Alvaro Bautista capped off a session where he was a regular factor at the front by going fourth quickest.

There were two fallers during the 45 minutes. Stefan Bradl had a low-speed crash at Turn 10 early on, and he was able to get back out in the closing stages only to have a fast final lap ruined by traffic.

Bradley Smith was the other rider to crash. While his shunt was not picked up by TV cameras, the fact that he was limping away from the bike afterwards suggested it was a bigger incident than Bradl’s.

Pos Rider             Team/Bike              Time       Gap       Laps

 1. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                 1m42.297s             19

 2. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                 1m42.346s  + 0.049s   18

 3. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                  1m42.557s  + 0.260s   17

 4. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda          1m42.752s  + 0.455s   18

 5. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha          1m42.776s  + 0.479s   19

 6. Marc Marquez      Honda                  1m42.857s  + 0.560s   18

 7. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                 1m42.890s  + 0.593s   20

 8. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                 1m42.988s  + 0.691s   16

 9. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda              1m43.005s  + 0.708s   16

10. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia          1m43.204s  + 0.907s   17

11. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati          1m43.272s  + 0.975s   18

12. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia          1m43.644s  + 1.347s   17

13. Michele Pirro     Ducati                 1m43.648s  + 1.351s   19

14. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha          1m44.247s  + 1.950s   11

15. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki   1m44.461s  + 2.164s   17

16. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki   1m44.586s  + 2.289s   17

17. Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia        1m44.599s  + 2.302s   17

18. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW         1m44.609s  + 2.312s   20

19. Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia            1m45.337s  + 3.040s   19

20. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki   1m45.513s  + 3.216s   18

21. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki   1m45.834s  + 3.537s   19

22. Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia            1m46.216s  + 3.919s   9

23. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda      1m46.577s  + 4.280s   19

24. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW         1m47.239s  + 4.942s   17

Nico Hulkenberg says he has to be patient while he waits for a winning Formula 1 car, after a frustrating first part of the season with Sauber.

The German driver switched from Force India to the Swiss squad for this year, after the Hinwil-based team enjoyed one of its strongest seasons in 2012.

This year, however, Sauber has been unable to match the performance level of last year, and Hulkenberg has scored just five points in seven races.

While the highly-rated Hulkenberg admits the situation is frustrating, he is aware that he needs to remain calm and wait patiently to get a competitive car.

“If you see other people it’s very few guys who come in and right away are in a winning car,” said Hulkenberg.

“I know Jenson [Button] was in Honda for many years, and also not being able to show his ability because the car wasn’t good enough for him.

“Sometimes that is what happens but of course as a driver you always wish and love to have a car which allows you to show what you can do and perform really well but you have to be patient.”

Hulkenberg’s old team Force India is enjoying a strong season, having outscored Sauber by 46 points in the first seven races.

The German has not scored points since the Chinese Grand Prix in April. While he admits it is not easy to cope with the situation, he remains confident Sauber can turn its fortunes around.

“It is tough,” he added. “It didn’t work as expected but, that’s life.

“We just have to keep our heads down and focus on the current situation trying to improve the car, make it faster.

“There’s still the second half of the season then we have to get more points here and there.

“We still have to prove that we can improve the car and make the step,

“I’m pretty confident, but how much of a step and how much we can transform this season its still to be seen.”

Britain’s chances of landing a round of the European Rally Championship next season have been boosted by the news that four events are working towards a 2014 calendar slot.

Series officials want a British event included next season. The Circuit of Ireland was scheduled to run in March this year, before the event suffered the late loss of significant backing.

The Armagh-based rally is one of the four looking towards ERC next year. Rally Yorkshire, a British Rally Championship qualifier, is also in the hunt, while a Sunderland-based event and Rally of Scotland are the final two.

The Circuit and Rally Yorkshire are emerging as the favourites, with Eurosport’s Francois Ribeiro even admitting running both events could be an option.

“We have never, never had two ERC rounds in one country before,” he said, “but if Britain could come with two exceptional rallies, both of which were well-funded and with very good organisation, then I have to admit, I would be forced to scratch my head and maybe it would be possible.

“I have to say, it would be more likely to be one and I am quietly confident we will be back in the UK next year.”

Ribeiro said Circuit of Ireland chief Bobby Willis had not given up on getting his event back in the ERC.

“I know how hard he is working – I am also aware of how much his backers have missed this year; the chance to see Craig Breen on an ERC round at home would have been fantastic,” said Ribeiro.

“I also have had a good meeting with people from Yorkshire.”

In an effort to raise awareness of Sunderland’s ERC bid, a stage will be running as part of the Sunderland Festival in Herrington Country Park on Saturday.

Rally of Scotland has remained in contact with ERC promoter Eurosport since running one of the most popular rounds of the new-look ERC’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge predecessor between 2009 and ’11.

Ribeiro expects to know by the end of this month which British events will go forward for next year’s calendar.

Formula 1 is not risking a dramatic hike in costs as the result of the return of in-season testing next year, reckons McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh.

As AUTOSPORT reported at the weekend, F1′s teams have approved plans for there to be four post-race test sessions in 2014.

The matter now needs to be approved by the FIA at its next meeting of the World Motor Sport Council that takes place in Britain last this month.

Although there has been some concern that in-season testing will force teams to spend more at a time when finances are already tight, Whitmarsh thinks the structure of testing’s reintroduction will mitigate this.

“Historically I have always supported a limitation on testing, as well as a whole range of other limitations, but the compromise being struck of testing at a circuit on the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday after a race in Europe makes it a little bit more practical,” he said.

“What we have also done is take out plethora of demo runs, aero runs, and the young driver test.

“It is a balance and a compromise that has been struck, which I hope a majority of the teams support.

“We have to, nonetheless, continue to find ways we can save costs for the small teams, and be mindful of the challenges that they have as a business.”

One way for teams to recoup some of the extra costs of testing could be to find ways to better monetise the events.

However, their ability to do that is hampered by the fact that the commercial rights for testing are owned by Bernie Ecclestone.

“We have tried and done a little bit of that, and by testing together you can do a deal with the circuits,” added Whitmarsh.

“But it is more a matter for the commercial rights holder, because when we are running together he owns the rights.”

The Honda car will lose 30 kilos of ballast for the upcoming World Touring Car Championship races in Porto.

The Civics of Tiago Monteiro, Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz had been carrying 40kg of ballast since the cars locked out the podium in Slovakia.

Since then, the works duo have only taken one podium finish.

“Our car is quite reactive to the weight, specifically the distribution,” Monteiro told AUTOSPORT. “We’re struggling to find a way around it.”

The Hondas, however will be 30kg lighter in the next round in Portugal. The Lada Granta will also benefit from a weight reduction, losing 20 kilos.

The Chevrolet Cruzes will still carry the maximum compensation weight of 40kg, while the BMW 320 TC will carry 20kg more than in the last race in Russia.

Jorge Lorenzo edged out Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow in an extremely close first practice session for MotoGP’s Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Pedrosa looked like he would be the man to beat as he very quickly got to within a few tenths of lap record pace on his Honda, setting an early 1m42.6s benchmark.

But Lorenzo was able to respond, producing a 1m42.422s for Yamaha to claim the top spot.

Although Pedrosa improved, he had to settle for second, just 0.023 seconds adrift.

Tech 3 Yamaha rider Crutchlow then put himself into a contention with a lap only 0.070s slower than Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso completed the top five.

Alvaro Bautista hung on to sixth despite crashing at Turn 1 late on.

Marc Marquez had a low-key first session and was only ninth, behind Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden.

CRT pacesetter Aleix Espargaro jumped into the top 10 with his final lap, demoting Andrea Iannone.

Michele Pirro was back in 13th on the Ducati lab bike, entered in place of the injured Ben Spies at Pramac this weekend.

Pos Rider             Team/Bike                Time       Gap       Laps

 1. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   1m42.422s             17

 2. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    1m42.445s  + 0.023s   18

 3. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha            1m42.492s  + 0.070s   17

 4. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                   1m42.861s  + 0.439s   20

 5. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                   1m43.111s  + 0.689s   17

 6. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda            1m43.112s  + 0.690s   14

 7. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                1m43.196s  + 0.774s   19

 8. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                   1m43.488s  + 1.066s   19

 9. Marc Marquez      Honda                    1m43.641s  + 1.219s   19

10. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia            1m43.814s  + 1.392s   16

11. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati            1m44.069s  + 1.647s   20

12. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha            1m44.392s  + 1.970s   19

13. Michele Pirro     Ducati                   1m44.519s  + 2.097s   13

14. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia            1m44.558s  + 2.136s   16

15. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki     1m45.167s  + 2.745s   18

16. Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia          1m45.251s  + 2.829s   18

17. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW           1m45.371s  + 2.949s   20

18. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki     1m45.457s  + 3.035s   14

19. Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia              1m45.824s  + 3.402s   15

20. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki     1m45.925s  + 3.503s   17

21. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki     1m46.263s  + 3.841s   18

22. Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia              1m46.750s  + 4.328s   18

23. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda        1m47.070s  + 4.648s   20

24. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW           1m47.483s  + 5.061s   14

Audi Le Mans star Tom Kristensen is looking forward to the battle with Porsche at Le Mans next year.

The eight-time Le Mans victor will share an Audi R18 e-tron quattro with Allan McNish and Loic Duval at the 24 Hours later this month, but is already relishing the fight with the sister Volkswagen Group company in 2014.

After the as-yet unnamed new Porsche ran for the first time, Kristensen said: “Porsche coming back is wonderful. Le Mans has to be as strong as possible and [VW Group chairman] Ferdinand Piech loves family fights!

“We know [Porsche LMP1 drivers] Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas from when they were at Audi and now we have seen a little more.

“Porsche are the most successful marque at Le Mans. That’s what they are coming back to defend and hopefully we will see them in the world championship too.

“We look forward to that.”

Look out for Kristensen’s pre-Le Mans column in the June 20 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine.

Ana Beatriz will return to Dale Coyne Racing for this weekend’s IndyCar race at Milwaukee.

The Brazilian spent the first five races of the season driving the team’s second car alongside Justin Wilson before handing it over to Mike Conway in Detroit and Pippa Mann in Texas.

Her best result this year was a 14th at Long Beach.

“I am super excited for this opportunity and hope to have a great weekend for the Dale Coyne Racing team,” Beatriz wrote on her Facebook page.

It will be Beatriz’s second visit to Milwaukee. She made her debut at the track in 2011, when she finished 17th with Dreyer & Reinbold.

The paint scheme on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Sprint Cup car was designed by JD Laird, one of many artists who have used iRacing as a gateway to work in NASCAR. (Jason Lofing image)

Since iRacing.com opened its virtual doors for business in 2008, the online racing service’s meticulously modeled race cars and tracks have proven to be valuable tools for professional race drivers, be they established stars like NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Brad Keselowski, emerging talent like Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year Landon Cassill or Conor Daly, who drove for AJ Foyt Racing in this year’s Indianapolis 500.

But drivers aren’t the only iRacers using the world’s leading motorsports simulation service as a gateway to the professional arena.  Much like drivers who move-up the racing “ladder” from online to real racing, artists Guy Driggers, JD Laird, Kevin King and others are plying their craft in professional circles after serving their apprenticeships designing paint schemes for virtual cars on the iRacing service.

The results are brightly splashed across the starting grids of today’s NASCAR races on the cars and trucks of Hendrick, JRM, Richard Childress and SR2 Motorsports, BK and JJC Racing for sponsors including Mountain Dew, Taxslayer.com, Reeses, the US Navy, Dr. Pepper and the National Guard.

“iRacing’s cars are modeled so closely that what you have in the game is a good representation of how it will look on a real car.” — Kevin King

“iRacing’s cars are modeled so closely that what you have in the game is a good representation of how it will look on a real car,” says the San Diego-based King, whose clients include JRM and Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.  “iRacing has all the different packages, the different aerodynamic shapes, so you can see how a car looks on a short track, a superspeedway or road course; or how a car looks at night.  That really helps show people what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Laird (Anaheim, CA) concurs.

“iRacing lets you import the paint scheme into the game with the correct decal package and you can see how it looks on-track,” he says. “The Diet Mountain Dew (DMD) car I did for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looked decent on the flat (the layout you import into iRacing), but I didn’t know how it would look on-track. So I watched a replay and was surprised how awesome it looked. Another DMD design looked really awesome on the flat, but it was hideous on iRacing. It’s a nice advantage to be able to get an accurate representation of what you’re trying to make before you send it off to get wrapped and see the final product.”

The Bandit Chippers truck is a personal favorite of Driggers. (Guy Driggers image)

Arguably the biggest contribution iRacing has made to these designers careers has less to do with laser scans and state-of-the-art simulation, and more to do with good old fashioned networking.  Given iRacing’s widespread – and increasing – popularity among professional race drivers and teams, it’s an invaluable vehicle for the designers to showcase their work to the sport’s decision-makers.

“You get to know drivers directly, in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere rather than trying to approach them at a race track,” King says.  “It creates a level of comfort when they’ve seen your work on iRacing and your relationship is just one iRacer to another, rather than as a fan to a super star athlete.”

“There’s an advantage of having an interconnected community like iRacing’s.” — JD Laird

“You can put your work out there and get a name for yourself,” says Driggers, of Charleston, SC.  “You don’t really think about it that much, but one day you go on the site and see a personal message from Timmy Hill asking you to do his (iRacing) Daytona Prototype.  So there I am, sitting with a Nationwide Series driver, just hanging around with him getting to know him and thinking, ‘This is the big leagues . . .’”

“There’s an advantage of having an interconnected community like iRacing’s,” says Laird.  “Getting connected with Landon Cassill is a prime example. I would’ve never thought that a few friends and I helping him out with the Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge on iRacing a couple years ago would lead to me designing cars for him.”

As King’s Hellman’s Nationwide Series shows, the iRacing painters’ work is on display across the gamut of NASCAR competition. (Jason Lofing image)

What’s more, drivers and designers are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to iRacing serving as the intersection of sim-racing and professional motorsports.  Budding technical and marketing support personnel, journalists and even sponsors are blurring the distinctions between the real world and the virtual worlds of motorsports.  Witness the fact that two-time NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Champion Ray Alfalla is the proud owner of two official NASCAR championship rings.  Or that the virtual Gen6 ChevySS of Nick Ottinger, already a three time winner in the 2013 NiSWC, sports very real sponsorship from multiple sources.

“iRacing is like a microcosm for motorsports as a whole.”  — Guy Driggers

“iRacing is like a microcosm for motorsports as a whole,” says Driggers.  “You’ve got guys who are engineers, marketing people, painters . . . and then you’ve got the drivers.

“Look at NiSWC and see how real world sponsors are starting to jump in, for example Nick Ottinger with Rheem and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  It’s not just the painting community; you’re seeing fabricators with the button boxes and cockpits.  You’re seeing the creation of a miniature version of the motorsports community.  It’s a dynamic community and environment.”

Editor’s note:  As regular readers of inRacingNews have already surmised, the idea for this story came from David Ifeguni’s “Get to Know” interviews with Guy Driggers and JD Laird.  Thanks David!

Hyundai Motorsports has opened the doors to its new World Rally Championship base in Alzenau, Germany.

While work on both the factory and the i20 WRC has been continuing throughout the year, the building was formally inaugurated today (June 13).

Hyundai Motorsport team principal Michel Nandan said: “Today marks another important step forward in our thrilling task of developing a motorsport team from scratch as we inaugurate our headquarters.

“We have a challenge ahead of us and we have the perfect facility here to prepare for it.”

Under the bonnet of Hyundai’s WRC return

Hyundai invited other teams and stakeholders from the WRC to come and have a look around its factory.

Hyundai Motorsport President Gyoo-Heon Choi added: “I’m very proud to officially open Hyundai’s new home of motorsport.

“Hyundai Motorsport acts as a performance engineering platform for the global business as well as a brand platform, helping to raise expectations and perceptions of the brand in a relevant and exciting way.”

Hyundai’s i20 WRC has begun what will be a punishing test programme as it prepares for a Monte Carlo Rally debut in January.

Nissan will unveil a mock-up of its Garage 56 experimental racer for the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours next week.

The Japanese manufacturer will reveal details of the Garage 56 project, which was announced in February, on Friday ahead of this year’s 24 Hours.

It had only previously said that the car would be “a pioneering Nissan race car showcasing electric technology”.

It was also stated by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn at the announcement in Japan that the car would be a zero-emissions racer, but this is now known not to be the case.

It is understood that the Nissan Garage 56 car, which follows on from last year’s DeltaWing project (pictured), will have a small-capacity internal combustion engine that will help charge its batteries.

One solution known to have been investigated is driving each wheel with its own electric motor.

Ben Bowlby, the architect of the DeltaWing, is involved in the project, as is the British RML team, which built the direct-injection engine for last year’s car and ran the car at Le Mans.

Nissan will also talk about its hopes of joining the LMP1 division in the future using the technology it will pioneer in the Garage 56 racer.

M-Sport and Peugeot’s R5 cars will go head-to-head for the first time on this month’s Ypres Rally.

Because neither the Fiesta R5 or the 208 T16 are homologated yet, neither car will run competitively, but they will run sequentially through the Belgian stages, offering the first insight into which is the quicker of the two in the all-new category.

M-Sport’s Fiesta R5 was launched in Britain last night and is expected to be homologated at the start of next month. The 208, however, will not be homologated until the end of the season.

Could R5 help save rallying?

M-Sport’s managing director Malcolm Wilson admitted he was relishing the challenge of the next round of the European Rally Championship.

“Obviously it’s going to give us a very good insight into where the cars are at,” said Wilson.

“It’s a shame we can’t compete, the event finishes on June 30, so it’s just a day too early for us. But, to be honest, we’re very confident in what we’ve got here with the R5.”

The iRacing.com IinRacingNews Challenge mixed-class series tackled Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Week Six.

Week Six saw iRacing.com’s inRacing News Challenge mixed-class series head to sunny Monterey, California to tackle the very popular road course at Laguna Seca.  This 2.2 mile eleven turn circuit provides iRNC sim-racers with several elevation changes and the infamous “Corkscrew” proves to be the most challenging sector on track.  The best racers in the world have tackled Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway, from Formula One (demonstrations) to full-on MotoGPs and are always quick to point out how difficult this course can be.

Last week in Solstice there was a new leader after Lime Rock and in Mazda the two-time champ extended his lead.  This week there is a new leader once again in Solstice and the reigning Mazda champion continues to impress.

Pontiac Solstice
The Solstice battle has been so tight this season that there are only a handful of points separating the top five drivers.  This week Andrey Loginov (Central-Eastern Europe) — who also runs the Grand Touring Cup — qualified third with a quick 1:41.457 lap at Laguna Seca, won two races and his 161 points this week has moved him into the number one spot in the overall standings.  William Disdale (UK&I),  the overall leader in Solstice points last week, qualified fifth and ran eleven races winning five.  Disdale nipped Chris Hughson (New York) by a mere .192 seconds in the highest SOF-3719 race this week which paid 185 points, however his 134 point average is fourth best this week and moves him down one spot to second overall.  Hughson ,who is concentrating on Solstice this season in iRNC, qualified sixth best, won four of seven races and his 132 point average rounds out the top three in the overall standings.

By far the most difficult section of the circuit, “The Corkscrew” requires heavy braking.

In Time Trial Andrey Loginov’s quest for a Solstice TT title continues as he scored another perfect 100 points with a mistake free average of 1:41.664 around Laguna Seca.  Christoph Schön (DE-AT-CH), winner of last season’s Solstice championship, returned this week to race at Laguna Seca and finished second behind Loginov in TT with Rookie Kevin Binkley (Georgia) rounding-out the top three.

Notables: As mentioned Christoph Schön’s return was productive as he won two online races, led every lap and 177 points was tops this week.  The fastest driver in qualifying this week again is Jared Jewell (Michigan) with a quick 1:41.154; he won four races and is now fifth in the overall standings respectively.

Current points leader Petr Dolezal is trying to make it three consecutive Mazda championships with another class win.

Mazda MX5 Roadster
The Mazda climb to the championship has been different than the Solstice battle as Petr Dolezal (Central-Eastern-Europe) has led the points five of the six weeks this season.  Dolezal was the number one qualifier and only driver who dipped under the 1:41 mark with a blistering 1:40.966 qualifying lap around Laguna Seca.  His perfect season remains intact as he won his twelfth consecutive race with no losses this season, his 138 points was tops this week and he’s the overall points leader.  Joe Pisciotta Jr (Florida) qualified seventh; he won three of four races for 119 points which ranks second this week and is second in the overall standings.  Christopher J Smith (UK&I) qualified sixth at Laguna, won two of five races and his 89 points moves him to third in the overall standings respectively.

In Time Trial Kevin Lewis (New England) received a perfect 100 points for averaging a mistake-free 1:42.293 around Laguna Seca.  In second place this week Sebastien Bourgine (DE-AT-CH) and rounding out the top three is Juan Rodriguez (Florida).

Notables: The past two weeks saw Kevin Lewis record double digit wins and the New Englander did it once again this week, winning 14 of 15 races.  Vladimir Ozeretskovskiy (Central-Eastern Europe) finished fourth this week by winning four of five races for a 103 point average.

Fittingly, a track officially named “Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca” is visited twice a season by the IRNC series and is popular with Mazda drivers.

Here are the point standings after six weeks:

Solstice
Andrey Loginov (Div. 1) – 814
William Disdale (Div. 2) – 795
Chris Hughson (Div. 1) – 775
Jared Jewell (Div. 2) – 727
Paul Clark (Div. 1) – 716

Mazda
Petr Dolezal (Div. 1) – 885
Joe Pisciotta Jr (Div. 1) – 826
Christopher J Smith (Div. 1) – 661
Vladimir Ozeretskovskiy (Div. 2) – 616
John Unsbee (Div. 2) – 558

This marks the halfway point of the iRacing.com inRacing News Challenge mixed-class series and we are two weeks away from the point drop weeks (remember, only your eight highest point races count out of 12 races).  Please check in next week when the series heads back to Japan for Okayama’s “long” configuration.

Pirelli has confirmed the construction of its tyres will remain unchanged at least until the Hungarian Grand Prix, scrapping its initial plan.

The Italian tyre manufacturer had intended to introduce its modified tyres for the Canadian Grand Prix, but then agreed to just test them in practice before a planned introduction in the British Grand Prix.

With rain hitting practice in Montreal, the plan had to be scrapped, and the company announced it would instead use a revised bonding procedure to correct the delamination issues.

Pirelli announced on Thursday the compounds for the upcoming three races, also confirming the tyre constructions will not be changed.

“This decision is due to the fact that the new tyres, which were brought to the Friday free practice sessions in Canada, could not be tested sufficiently due to rain – and that the teams failed to agree unanimously about introducing the changes,” said Pirelli in a statement.

The Italian company will take the hard and medium tyres to the British Grand Prix, while it will use the medium and softs in Germany next month.

For Hungary, Pirelli will take the hards and the mediums once more.

Tyre compound choices in 2013

Australia         Supersoft            Medium

Malaysia                               Medium     Hard

China                          Soft    Medium

Bahrain                                Medium     Hard

Spain                                  Medium     Hard

Monaco            Supersoft    Soft

Canada            Supersoft            Medium

Great Britain                          Medium     Hard

Germany                        Soft    Medium

Hungary                                Medium     Hard

The inaugural Grand Prix of America in New Jersey will go ahead next year, according to race promoter Leo Hindery.

Hindery, a keen racer who won the GT2 class in the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours, has no doubts that the circuit will be ready in time for next year’s race even though the race was pulled from this season’s calendar.

He admitted that it was over-ambitious to attempt to put on the race in 2013 and takes full responsibility for the race not happening.

But now he is certain that funding is in place to ensure that the 2014 race, the first of a 10-year contract, will happen.

“We are on track for June 2014,” Hindery told AUTOSPORT.

“It was nobody’s fault but mine [that it didn't happen in 2013], it’s a Rubik’s cube that has had to come together.

“We knew we could design the course with [Hermann] Tilke’s help, we knew that the state would be supportive because we would be paying them for the privilege, but we didn’t have the capital structure.”

The New Jersey race is part of a mooted 21-race calendar, with the Russian GP in Sochi the other new race.

The deal is for a June race, almost certainly as the second half of a double-header with next year’s Canadian GP.

Hindery insists that he has yet to be given a final date, but is happy that his organisation has a strong relationship with the Canadian GP.

“Sometime in June following Canada, that’s what my envelope says,” he said when asked if the race would definitely follow directly after Montreal.

“Francois [Dumontier, Canadian GP president] has been a tremendous ally,

“A good race in Montreal helps to develop a good race in Port Imperial, which helps to develop a good race later in the year in Austin.”

Hindery is hoping that the race will attract plenty of interest from European visitors, in addition to drawing in local racegoers.

“We expect a lot of Europeans,” said Hindery.

“New York is an easy city to get to from Europe and it’s a fun city to be a tourist in.

“We also expect to introduce a lot of young Americans to a sport that they have never seen first-hand.”

2012 IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay believes a clear favourite is yet to emerge in this year’s title fight.

Seven different drivers, Hunter-Reay among them, have triumphed in the opening eight races of 2013.

There have also been several shocks, like Mike Conway winning at Detroit despite securing a seat just three days before the race.

Hunter-Reay says such an unpredictable opening makes it impossible to call a favourite for this weekend’s race at Milwaukee, where he expects at least 10 drivers to be in contention.

“We’re sure to have some surprises, as we have the whole season,” Hunter-Reay said when asked how competitive he thinks Milwaukee will be.

“I think you’ll see the usual players at Milwaukee, the usual teams that are quick.

“You’ll have any one of 10 or 11 drivers [that] could win at Milwaukee this weekend.

“I expect it to be just as competitive [as the early rounds].”

Hunter-Reay added that Milwaukee carries extra significance for him, with his 2012 victory sparking his title-winning run.

“There is no place like the Milwaukee Mile. It is a hard place to get right, and when you do, it’s so rewarding,” he said.

“It’s been a place in my career that has meant a lot to me. I’ve had some pretty breakthrough performances in my career there, and I’ve also been on the other side of it where we just couldn’t get it right and struggled, so I have a lot of respect for it for that reason.

“I think if you ask any other Indy car driver out there, they’ll say it’s probably one of the most fun ovals you’ll go to, and at the same time, one of the toughest to get right.”

Frank Williams has praised Valtteri Bottas for both his off-track attitude as well as his out-and-out speed.

Bottas was one of the stars of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend when he shone in the tricky wet qualifying conditions to deliver a career-best third on the grid.

Although the Finn was powerless to prevent a drop down the order during the dry race, his pace in the wet showed just why his team had faith in him in the first place.

And Williams says that he has been impressed not only with Bottas’ pace, but also with the way he is adapting to the step up to F1.

Speaking during a media event for team sponsor Wihuri in Finland, Williams said: “He clearly has magnificent car control and that’s fundamental for F1.

“He’s also very quiet and that means he’s not talking too much. And if he’s not talking too much that’s because he’s listening and he’s listening to some very good advice.”

Bottas has kept his head down during a difficult start to the season for the team, but thinks there are grounds to believe the outfit can begin delivering points soon.

“I believe it will be possible to be in the top ten in races,” he said. “We do have at least the same resources as those teams. In a way, finding faults in our car drives the development for us and hopefully it is a route that helps us catch them.”

Bottas also thinks that the ongoing issue of Pirelli tweaking its rear tyres to cure its delamination issues is not a factor for his team.

When asked if it would help if the tyres are changed, Bottas said: “I don’t think it would mean much, really. We seem to be in middle ground with regards to tyre wear.”

Casey Stoner insists he has no plans to return to MotoGP action, saying he cannot envisage ever having the urge to compete in the sport again.

The two-time world champion left MotoGP at the end of 2012 and is now competing in the Australian V8 Supercars Development Series with crack squad Triple Eight, although there has been speculation he could make a two-wheel comeback as a wildcard entry later in the season.

Stoner however insists he cannot envisage having the urge to return to grand prix racing.

Stoner’s life after MotoGP

“At this point I can’t ever see myself going back,” Stoner told AUTOSPORT.

“I’m closed, I’m done with it. I can’t see the championship going in the direction I want it to, where I think I’d enjoy riding the bikes enough again, to want to go back and deal with that.”

Stoner admitted he continues to follow the sport, particularly as he has maintained close relationships with members from his old team, but says his absence has reinforced his conviction that MotoGP is now a closed chapter of his career.

“It’s probably been more cemented,” Stoner said when asked if not competing had affected his mindset.

“My mechanics and people are still in the team and I have a lot of respect for some of the riders out there, so I’ll always watch with interest how they’re going, make sure their injuries and things like that are going OK.

“But the fact is I haven’t been dying to watch the races or find out the result straight away.

“I’m watching it as a fan now rather than being there, and it’s not hurting me.”

Stoner admitted that there were elements he missed, including the racing, but said it was not enough to compel him to consider a return.

“I miss the bike part of things,” he added. “I maybe miss the team and the people I worked with, but that’s about it.

“I miss being able to ride, but I can ride a bike anywhere, I don’t need to go out there and do it.

“Honestly the rest of it was too far out for me to want to, or think about, going back.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton was taken aback at just how quick Nico Rosberg proved to be this season.

Hamilton outqualified Rosberg for the first time in four races in Canada last week, as his team-mate’s run of three consecutive pole positions came to an end.

It was Hamilton’s supreme focus on sorting out the braking issues to help him overcome Rosberg that left him appearing to be in a downbeat mood throughout the Montreal weekend.

Wolff suspects that Hamilton has had to do some readjustment to take into account Rosberg’s pace, but says Mercedes never had any doubts about the Briton’s abilities.

“Probably, or maybe, he was surprised by Nico’s pace,” explained Wolff. “You guys [the media] have written a lot in the last few weeks, as it was not always clear how Nico’s pace was compared to Michael [Schumacher] and his days in Williams.

“Now, he [Rosberg] has proved he is really quick, and this came as a surprise to Lewis. But I don’t think it is a real problem.

“We saw him strong in Canada, and he was on track for pole position before he missed the braking point, so I think we will see great races from Lewis. I have no doubt.”

Team boss Ross Brawn reckons it is only natural that the form between his two drivers will fluctuate over the season, with neither likely to establish total dominance.

“You will naturally get this yo-yoing of form, when you have two drivers as we have who are very, very competitive and very close,” he said.

“One of them gets comfortable with the car at a race, and the other perhaps does not find the balance they want.

“That is enough to make the difference between them.”

Wolff has also rubbished suggestions that Hamilton has had difficulty coping with a new-found freedom at Mercedes, compared to his former life at McLaren.

“It is different here to McLaren and we are trying to give him the freedom, but that isn’t a reason that he didn’t perform up to his expectations. He has performed up to our expectations.

“Nico had had a great run, to justify and show that he is a top guy and a top driver, and it is the best situation for the team. Things will eventually balance out.

“I don’t think there is any reason to say that he [Hamilton] has a problem or is struggling. It is still early in the season for him. The team is just beginning for him and Nico has been here for a couple of years.”

British Touring Car title contender Andrew Jordan is eyeing a return to rallycross competition after testing a current Supercar last week.

Jordan, who was a top British rallycross driver before his switch to circuit racing, tested a Team Olsbergs Ford Fiesta at Strangnas.

The 24-year-old was impressed with the European and Global Rallycross machine and has not ruled out competing in an event.

“The car was unreal, with 550bhp and 850N/M torque,” said Jordan, who took a BTCC race victory at Oulton Park last weekend.

“It felt a lot more modern than the one [Ford Focus] I last drove in 2007. The dampers and car in general are very modern and developed.

“My pace was quick straight away so I’d like to think I could be pretty competitive.

“I’m hoping to do something with them this year as was very impressed with the team and car.”