Jean Alesi will be on the grid for this weekend’s Indianapolis 500 after formally qualifying for the race on Bump Day.

Both Alesi (Fan Force United) and fellow Lotus-powered runner Simona de Silvestro (HVM) made the field after completing the formalities of Bump Day qualifying, which is reserved for the cars that missed out on the top 24 places on the previous qualifying day. Had any late entries arrived to challenge for one of the 33 places, the Lotuses could potentially have been knocked out of the event.

“Now I can breathe,” said Alesi. “It’s a big relief for me to finally get into this race. I have wanted to do this race ever since I was young.

“Of course, I am disappointed because I don’t have the car I thought I would have, but it was all we could get, and we took it. It’s frustrating to not have the same speed as the others. I am a professional, I have passion inside of me. I want to do the maximum that I can, with the car that I have.”

Alesi will start from the rear of the grid after posting the slowest time of the day; the former Formula 1 star finishing up with an average speed almost 17mph slower than that of polesitter Ryan Briscoe.

Quickest of the Bump Day runners was Dragon’s Sebastien Bourdais, whose team switched from Lotus to Chevrolet power last week.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow said the fact they were both running well and challenging for a podium finish at Le Mans provided some form of consolation following their crashes.

As has been the case for much of the season the pair proved almost inseparable, locked in battle not only with each other but also with Ducati’s Valentino Rossi and Honda’s Casey Stoner during an early four-way fight for second.

As the race progressed both found it harder to stay with Rossi however, and in trying to stick on the Italian’s tail both fell – Crutchlow 10 laps from the finish and Dovizioso seven laps later.

Dovizioso said the conditions meant that mistakes were easy to make, and that despite his fall he could still take comfort from his race pace.

“Although the conditions were far from ideal, it was a fantastic race and I really enjoyed it,” he said. It was easy to make a mistake on such a wet track but I am really satisfied that I could make such a high pace.

“The battle with Cal and Valentino was hard but a lot of fun and it is a shame that I crashed while I still had a very good chance of my first podium for Tech 3 and Yamaha.

“The last 12 laps my front tyre kept closing but Valentino couldn’t escape from me and I could see we were catching Casey. I knew that I was pushing right on the limit with the tyres but I wanted to try and go with Valentino.

“It is a pity to crash but I’m really happy with my feeling with the Yamaha now. I was fast all weekend in the wet and dry and my team did a great job, so we can look forward to the next races with a lot of confidence.”

Crutchlow echoed Dovizioso’s sentiments, saying fighting for the podium provided some form of consolation for his crash.

“I’m not happy to have crashed while I was fighting for the podium, but the consolation is that at least I was battling for the top three again. Being quickest in the warm-up this morning meant I was confident going into the race but I wasn’t really aggressive at the start,” he said.

“I seemed to miss out on a bit of speed on the straight compared to [Rossi and Dovizioso, which] meant I had to make up all my time in the corners. It was a shame I crashed because I was fighting with Valentino and he finished second.

“There was a chance of the podium today but at least I was there and I lost so much time after the crash that to still finish eighth is a bonus really.”

Both riders were able to return to the circuit following their crashes and finished seventh and eighth respectively, Dovizioso leading Crutchlow home.

Ben Spies says visibility issues caused by water leaking into his helmet were the chief culprit behind his struggles at Le Mans.

In contrast to Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who dominated from the front, Spies fared miserably, dropping down the grid after the rear of his bike got loose at the start.

He fought back to get as high as 13th, but could not break free of the surrounding CRT bikes and eventually brought his race to an effective close – even though he was able to return – by heading into the pits.

The Texan said visibility issues were to blame for his slump. He has just one top 10 finish to his credit this season, an eighth in the previous race at Estoril.

“That was a rough race,” Spies conceded. “We actually got off to a good start at the beginning then had a very big moment on the line.

“Something happened because then I had quite a lot of water coming in through my helmet and couldn’t see much on the first five laps. I hoped it would get better but I couldn’t see anything and decided to come in because I need to see where I am going.

“I knew the race was gone by then so went back out to try and get some data and get better working with the bike in the rain. Circumstances meant it wasn’t a good day.”

After hailing Lorenzo’s ‘incredible’ ride, team director Massimo Meregalli said he expected Spies to bounce back at Barcelona.

“We were expecting a different race but unfortunately this bad luck doesn’t want to disappear,” Meregalli said. “We’re looking forward to Barcelona, we won’t give up and we will get back up to where we belong with Ben.”

Jorge Lorenzo labelled his French Grand Prix triumph ‘very sweet’ after delivering a faultless ride in difficult wet conditions.

Despite missing out on the front row for the second straight race, Lorenzo was in aggressive mood from the outset and had moved into the lead before the end of the first lap.

He rapidly extended his advantage in the early stages, when no-one could live with his pace, and was ultimately untroubled en route to a victory which earned him an eight-point lead over Honda’s Casey Stoner in the 2012 championship standings.

“The flavour of this victory is very sweet. In the dry it is complicated but in the wet it’s even more,” Lorenzo said. “The race feels much longer and it’s really difficult to hold concentration.

“You have to remember where the corners are slippery every lap, and if you forget one you can crash very easily.”

Lorenzo’s lead only ever looked in jeopardy when Stoner began closing around the sixth lap, but the moment proved fleeting and he was soon extending his advantage again over his main points rival.

“When I saw Casey was catching me I didn’t lose it, I kept calm and didn’t force it too much,” Lorenzo said. “It would have been easy to push a bit more and make a mistake at that moment but I waited for a few more laps to see what happened then opened the gap again to win this fantastic race.

“A big thank you to my team who worked very hard in difficult conditions to make a set up that worked for me.”

Gianni Morbidelli completed a clean sweep at Donington Park by winning the second International Superstars Series race by more than three seconds.

With the top eight from race one reversed, Morbidelli was forced to start on the fourth row. But thanks to the clearly superior speed of the Audi Sport Italia RS5 the former series champion was easily able to force his way through the field, muscling his way past team-mate Johan Kristoffersson to take the lead with nine minutes left to run. Once in front he stayed there, cruising to his second race win of the round.

Kristoffersson led the race at mid-distance, but was unable to match his team-mate’s pace and eventually settled for second place. Tonio Liuzzi was a very lonely third in the CAAL Racing Mercedes.

Francesco Sini took an impressive fourth place in the Solaris Chevrolet, ahead of W&D BMW driver Paolo Meloni.

Sixth was Team Dinamic BMW’s Thomas Biagi, but he did it the hard way. While running second early in the race the Italian ran off the road at McLeans, putting him towards the back of the field at mid-distance. What followed was an aggressive fightback, his reward sixth place.

Johnny Herbert (Team Swiss Maserati) was seventh following a mid-race scuffle with Tom Onslow-Cole (Ferlito Motors Jaguar), the incident contributing to Onslow-Cole retiring with a flat tyre.

Andrea Larini (Romeo Ferraris Mercedes) finished eighth after an up-and-down race. Having started from pole position, Larini lost his early lead when he had to pit with an engine problem. With that quickly rectified, he returned to the track and quickly fought his way back inside the top 10.

Andrea Boffo (Roma Racing Mercedes) and Mauro Cesari (Team Swiss Maserati) were ninth and 10th respectively.

Frontrunner Max Pigoli was out of luck in race two, his Ferlito Motors Jaguar ending up beached on top of Stefano Gabellini’s BMW on the first lap after the pair clashed at the hairpin. Max Mugelli (CAAL Racing) was an innocent bystander in the crash, and was also an immediate retirement.

Audi’s third driver Thomas Schoffler did not even make the start. Like in race one, the team had problem firing his RS5 up. Attempts to start the car at the end of pitlane proved fruitless, the rookie of the year contender forced to watch from the sidelines.

Results – 15 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Gianni Morbidelli     Audi Italia         27m18.200s

 2.  Johan Kristoffersson  KMS Audi              + 3.469s

 3.  Tonio Liuzzi          CAAL Mercedes        + 13.893s

 4.  Francesco Sini        Solaris Chevrolet    + 15.341s

 5.  Paolo Meloni          W&D BMW              + 29.493s

 6.  Thomas Biagi          Dinamic BMW          + 30.688s

 7.  Johnny Herbert        Swiss Maserati       + 32.472s

 8.  Andrea Larini         Romeo Mercedes       + 36.501s

 9.  Andrea Boffo          Roma Mercedes        + 37.380s

10.  Mauro Cesari          Swiss Maserati       + 39.372s

11.  Sandro Bettini        Dinamic BMW          + 41.434s

12.  Nico Caldarola        Roma Mercedes        + 47.653s

13.  Walter Meloni         W&D BMW            + 1m10.653s
Retirements:
     Tom Onslow-Cole       Ferlito Jaguar          6 laps

     Max Mugelli           CAAL Mercedes            1 lap

     Thomas Schoffler      MTM Audi                0 laps

     Max Pigoli            Ferlito Jaguar          0 laps

     Stefano Gabellini     Dinamic BMW             0 laps

Casey Stoner said he was happy to have simply picked up a podium finish on a sodden Le Mans circuit after struggling badly with tyre issues.

The reigning MotoGP world champion admitted Honda had struggled to get on top of the conditions, afflicted by issues switching the tyres on at the start and with heavy degradation at the end.

“That was a tough race, not the best day for us,” Stoner said after finishing third behind Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha and Valentino Rossi’s Ducati. “The bikes weren’t working, and both myself and Dani [Pedrosa] had the same problems: from the start we couldn’t get heat into the tyres and get the rear to work.

“Jorge used that opportunity perfectly to pull a huge lead, and then I was just trying to stay in second, getting pressure from behind [while] just waiting to get grip.

“Then I got grip I started to push and close [on Lorenzo], and everything was looking good, and then the rain stopped, the water levels went away and we just overheated the rear tyre. We couldn’t get any traction and were spinning the rear in every gear, from first to sixth.”

As a result, Stoner said it had been almost impossible to hold Rossi at bay as the seven-time champion closed rapidly and surged into second on the final lap.

“Valentino had the pace over us at the end. I tried to hold on, to do everything I could, but he had a much higher pace and I couldn’t even stay with him on the last lap, I think he pulled 1.5 seconds on me.

“It was nice just to be on the podium, it wasn’t looking so good for us halfway through the race.”

Valentino Rossi says he and Ducati were aware they had a special chance to finish on the podium at Le Mans given the race’s wet conditions.

Rossi, who said after qualifying that he was hoping for a wet race, explained that he rode at the maximum under the knowledge that the GP12 could fare better in the adverse conditions than it would have in the dry.

“I’m so happy, this result is so important for us,” Rossi said following his second-place finish, his best MotoGP result with Ducati.

“I know we have a better chance in these conditions for the podium so I tried to ride in a better way to stay concentrated. We knew we had a special chance for [a top three], so it was very important to ride at the maximum.”

The seven-time world champion explained he dropped back in the early stages of the race – when he was passed by Tech 3′s Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso – due to his visor fogging up, but was able to start pushing again once it had cleared.

“I was behind [Casey] Stoner and I could keep up with him, but then my visor steamed up because we are using a new helmet,” he told Italia1.

“I managed to open it and little by little air came through: when I was again able to see I started pushed again and overtook the two Yamahas. I saw I was going quick and that I was closing up to Stoner, but Cal and Dovizioso came with me so I had to push at the maximum.

“Then I arrived with Stoner and it was a great battle as always. I’m happy for myself, for all the Ducati boys who work for me and my team. We needed this. Now let’s hope we can be more competitive in the dry too.”

Wiechers-Sport BMW racer Stefano D’Aste scored his maiden outright World Touring Car victory at the Salzburgring.

The 38-year-old, who has competed in the series since it was revived in 2005, negotiated a dramatic race in which many of the leading front wheel-drive runners were sidelined with front-left punctures.

All five Chevrolets, the three-car factory RML team and the two bamboo-engineering Cruzes, suffered front-left failures induced by the long, high-speed, Turn 9.

Alain Menu’s works Chevrolet was sent into a heavy impact with the Turn 9 Armco on lap eight, and the Swiss racer’s abandoned car was subsequently hit by British Touring Car graduate Alex MacDowall’s similar bamboo machine.

Following the crash, the surviving factory Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Rob Huff reduced their pace by a second a lap to start the final tour in first and second positions.

Neither Tom Coronel’s third place ROAL Motorsport BMW, nor D’Aste tucked up in his slipstream, appeared destined to challenge the Chevrolet drivers.

But victory slipped from Muller’s grasp when his tyre failed at Turn 10. The lead was handed to race one winner Huff, but the Englishman’s own left-front failed on the approach to the final chicane.

Coronel chose to negotiate the stricken Cruze on the inside of the final corner but was blocked by Huff onto the pit straight. D’Aste stole past both drivers on the outside to take a memorable win, as Huff limped home ahead of Coronel by 0.117 seconds.

Spanish teenager Pepe Oriola finished a distant fourth, ahead of BMW Independent runners Norbert Michelisz (Zengo Motorsport) and Mehdi Bennani (Proteam).

Oriola’s Tuenti Racing team-mate Tiago Monteiro retired following a trip through the Turn 9 gravel, caused by a flat front-left. Punctures also delayed the Lukoil Racing SEATs of Gabriele Tarquini and polesitter Aleksei Dudukalo.

Huff’s Salzburgring pole position, race win and second position moves him to within eight points of Muller’s 206 point championship lead. Menu remains third on 175, while Coronel’s podium lifts the Dutchman ahead of Tarquini into fourth on 116.

Results – 12 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car            Time/Gap

 1.  Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW      17m58.529s

 2.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet           + 0.377s

 3.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW            + 0.494s

 4.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT         + 4.103s

 5.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW           + 4.929s

 6.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW         + 5.432s

 7.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW            + 5.786s

 8.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet           + 6.464s

 9.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW        + 6.474s

10.  James Nash            Arena Ford          + 9.056s

11.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford         + 12.980s

12.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW          + 15.659s

13.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW       + 37.399s

14.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT          + 1 lap

15.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet     + 1 lap

16.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT          + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Alain Menu            Chevrolet             7 laps

     Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet      7 laps

     Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT           7 laps

Gary Paffett continued his near-perfect start to the 2012 DTM season with a commanding victory in front of his home crowd at Brands Hatch.

From pole position, the HWA Mercedes driver steadily built his lead up to almost three seconds over Bruno Spengler’s fast-starting Schnitzer BMW by half-distance and eventually won by nearly twice that amount to increase his championship lead to 25 points over the Canadian.

Spengler was on a charge in the second half of the race, and spurred on by the combination of slight contact for Paffett when he was lapping Adrien Tambay’s Audi and a quicker pitstop than the home hero, reduced his deficit to a little over 1s with 20 laps left.

As hard as he pushed though, Spengler could not get any closer, and instead had his mirrors full of Mike Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Audi by the finish. The German could not make his speed count and finished behind the BMW to take what was still his best finish of the year.

Last year’s Brands Hatch winner Martin Tomczyk was the chief overtaker in the opening few laps. The defending series champion passed Christian Vietoris for seventh at Clearways on the opening lap after the HWA driver fluffed his start from the outside of the front row, and he then repeated the move on Tambay’s Abt Audi a lap later, although not without first pushing the Frenchman wide mid-corner.

He latched on to the tail of Filipe Albuquerque’s Audi but could not pass until the second round of pitstops, when the Rosberg pit crew had a problem tightening his right-front wheel. That lost the Portuguese driver four seconds and the same number of places.

Other than Tomczyk, who took his best finish of the year in fourth, the chief beneficiaries of Albuquerque’s problem were Abt driver Mattias Ekstrom and Vietoris, who came home fifth and sixth.

Next up was Miguel Molina, who came out ninth after his final stop, but passed Albuquerque and Mortara in separate moves on the run up to Paddock during the final 20 laps.

The Rosberg cars both appeared to suffer from braking issues late on as both cars ran wide at Druids while under pressure from Jamie Green and ceded position to the HWA Mercedes driver.

Green finished eighth, ahead of Mortara and Albuquerque. Augusto Farfus looked set to be in the hunt as well, but spent too long bottled up behind Tambay and could not make enough of an inroad into his deficit to the Rosberg cars in the final stint.

Andy Priaulx was an early retiree after sustaining damage to his RBM BMW and making an unscheduled tyre stop, while Timo Scheider pulled out at half distance with an engine problem.

Results – 97 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1h10m01.585s

 2.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW         + 5.065s

 3.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi          + 5.579s

 4.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW               + 5.997s

 5.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             + 22.416s

 6.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         + 23.195s

 7.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         + 23.689s

 8.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes         + 24.284s

 9.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         + 25.779s

10.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi         + 29.582s

11.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW              + 30.302s

12.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi             + 33.015s

13.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW              + 35.977s

14.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes       + 36.340s

15.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes         + 1 lap

16.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW          + 1 lap

17.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes       + 1 lap

18.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi               + 1 lap

19.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes           + 1 lap

20.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes       + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Timo Scheider       Abt Audi               55 laps

     Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW                12 laps

Jorge Lorenzo moved into the MotoGP championship lead with a masterful victory at Le Mans, while Valentino Rossi defeated Casey Stoner in a thrilling last-lap duel to take his best ever finish with Ducati in second.

As Lorenzo’s Yamaha dominated from the front, a resurgent Rossi thrived in the adverse conditions and was always in the fight for the podium.

Having finally broken clear of Tech 3′s Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow, Rossi began to rapidly close down Stoner and spent the final five laps swarming over the back of the reigning world champion’s Honda. Twice he got through only for Stoner to immediately repass him, but on the final lap he dived down the inside at the first chicane and made the move stick, pulling away over the remainder of the lap to seal second.

Stoner’s loss boosted Lorenzo yet further: trailing the Australian by one point coming into Le Mans, he now leads by eight.

Lorenzo was effectively in a race of his own from the very start, as an aggressive opening lap gave him a near-two second advantage. He pulled away further as the race progressed, and – save for a small rally from Stoner, when the gap began to fall – was never troubled.

With poleman Dani Pedrosa (Honda) falling back, Stoner initially occupied second ahead of Rossi, Dovizioso and Crutchlow.

The Australian managed to edge away as the three behind him began fighting, with Crutchlow moving into third seven laps in. Dovizioso followed him through, but after biding his time for a few laps Rossi moved back into third and began hunting down Stoner.

Both Dovizioso and Crutchlow fell while trying to stay with Rossi, but were able to get back up and finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Their falls promoted Pedrosa to fourth, LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl into fifth and Rossi’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden into sixth.

Behind the Pramac Ducati of Hector Barbera and the Gresini Honda of Alvaro Bautista, Paul Bird’s James Ellison triumphed from a three-way battle with Danilo Petrucci (Ioda-Aprilia) and Mattia Pasini (Speed Master Aprilia) to finish top of the CRT pile in 11th.

As Lorenzo dominated out front, the second works Yamaha of Ben Spies endured a torrid race. A wobble at the start dropped him down the field and he never recovered, even pulling into the garage at the halfway mark before returning at the back of the pack.

Results – 28 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                    Time/Gap

 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                     49m39.743s

 2.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                       + 9.905s

 3.  Casey Stoner      Honda                       + 11.298s

 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                       + 29.361s

 5.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                   + 32.477s

 6.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                      + 32.842s

 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha               + 59.759s

 8.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             + 1m05.152s

 9.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             + 1m07.846s

10.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             + 1m13.193s

11.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         + 1m26.663s

12.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      + 1m27.633s

13.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia                 + 1 lap

14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda             + 1 lap

15.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki          + 1 lap

16.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                        + 1 lap

17.  Chris Vermeulen   Forward Suter-BMW            + 2 laps

18.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki     + 2 laps
Retirements:
     Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia                  24 laps

     Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia                 22 laps

     Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati                11 laps

Rob Huff soaked up constant pressure from works Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller at the Salzburgring to score his second victory of the season, and the 20th win of his World Touring Car Championship career.

Benefiting from a 10-12km/h slipstream, Muller edged marginally ahead of Huff on a number of occasions into the long, right-hand, Turn 9.

The triple world champion was handed a strong opportunity of taking the lead when Huff made a small mistake at the preceding chicane, but despite a short trip through the gravel, Huff maintained momentum to cover his inside lines at Turns 9, 10 and 11 and retain the lead.

Alain Menu completed a factory RML Chevrolet lock-out of the podium positions. On the final lap, Menu lost ground to the leaders on the exit of Turn 5, but the Swiss finished within a second of Huff, having played a waiting game through much of the race.

Lukoil Racing’s Gabriele Tarquini held off fellow SEAT racer Tiago Monteiro (Tuenti Racing) by half a second to claim fourth.

WTCC rookie Alex MacDowall scored the Independents’ Trophy victory, and sixth overall, aboard the bamboo-engineering Cruze.

Monteiro’s Tuenti Racing team-mate Pepe Oriola finished seventh and continues to lead the Independents’ drivers’ standings.

Russian Aleksei Dudukalo in the second Lukoil Racing entry was involved in an accident with Hungaroring podium finisher Mehdi Bennani (Proteam BMW) but will assume his race two pole spot.

Special Tuning’s Darryl O’Young suffered a troubled afternoon. Shortly after making contact with Stefano D’Aste (Wiechers-Sport), the Hong Kong racer was punted out of the race by Charles Ng (Team Engstler). O’Young was taken to the medical centre with a swollen ankle and will not start race two.

Muller leads the standings on 212 points. Huff is now second on 180, five points clear of Menu.

Results – 14 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time/Gap

 1.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet            23m26.809s

 2.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              + 0.312s

 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              + 0.739s

 4.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            + 2.919s

 5.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            + 3.483s

 6.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       + 3.774s

 7.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            + 4.741s

 8.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               + 6.923s

 9.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              + 8.419s

10.  James Nash            Arena Ford             + 8.914s

11.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           + 9.796s

12.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet      + 10.429s

13.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW              + 12.813s

14.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW          + 13.178s

15.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW             + 13.983s

16.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford            + 16.756s

17.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW           + 18.390s
Retirements:
     Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT     13 laps

     Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT             11 laps

     Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW             5 laps

     Darryl O’Young        Special Tuning SEAT      4 laps

Thomas Luthi scored his first win of the 2012 Moto2 championship with a masterful ride in wet conditions at Le Mans, moving to within three points of the championship lead in the process.

Erstwhile points leader Marc Marquez suffered his first retirement since Silverstone last year, crashing out while running fifth 10 laps into the race. A spate of late incidents allowed Pol Espargaro to finish sixth and move one point clear of Marquez.

Starting from second, Luthi (Paddock Suter) stayed near the front during the early chaos and then moved into the lead seven laps in.

The chasing pack initially stayed with him, but as the race progressed so did Luthi’s gap, extending past the three-second mark at the halfway stage.

Last year’s 125cc runner-up Johann Zarco had threatened to turn the race into a grandstand finish, closing steadily on Luthi in the final laps, but with just four to run the JIR Motobi rider high-sided out at Turn 10.

The weather kept things tense, worsening in the final laps, but with Zarco’s exit Luthi was able to come home untroubled and collect his third victory across all categories at Le Mans.

Claudio Corti (Italtrans Kalex) claimed his first grand prix podium in second, while Marc VDS’s Scott Redding claimed his first of the year in third.

Difficult conditions did not translate into the multitude of crashes seen in Moto3′s earlier race, but incidents nonetheless played their part in determining the outcome of the race – not least in Marquez’s early exit.

Tech 3′s Bradley Smith was another to suffer. Up to fourth in the opening stages, he ran wide and lost huge ground on lap eight. He fought his way back and was set to finish sixth, but lost the bike on the final turn and eventually dragged it to 10th.

His woe was Espargaro’s gain, as the Pons Kalex rider – who had been running near the front early on – claimed sixth, and with it the points lead, in his stead.

Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) and Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Kalex) finished ahead of Espargaro in fourth and fifth.

Anthony West (QMMF Moriwaki), Max Neukirchner (Kiefer Kalex) and Gresini’s Ratthapark Wilairot occupied seventh through to ninth, ahead of the returning Smith.

Results – 26 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                 Time/Gap

 1.  Thomas Luthi         Paddock Suter           50m02.816s

 2.  Claudio Corti        Italtrans Kalex           + 6.354s

 3.  Scott Redding        Marc VDS Kalex           + 12.162s

 4.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Master Speed Up    + 16.338s

 5.  Mika Kallio          Marc VDS Kalex           + 19.278s

 6.  Pol Espargaro        Pons Kalex               + 20.874s

 7.  Anthony West         QMMF Moriwaki            + 21.705s

 8.  Max Neukirchner      Kiefer Kalex             + 28.117s

 9.  Ratthapark Wilairot  Gresini Suter            + 38.317s

10.  Bradley Smith        Tech 3                   + 40.940s

11.  Esteve Rabat         Pons Kalex               + 44.077s

12.  Toni Elias           Aspar Suter              + 59.583s

13.  Julian Simon         Avintia Suter          + 1m01.785s

14.  Nico Terol           Aspar Suter            + 1m03.430s

15.  Dominique Aegerter   Technomag-CIP Suter    + 1m10.341s

16.  Roberto Rolfo        Technomag-CIP Suter    + 1m22.145s

17.  Axel Pons            Pons Kalex             + 1m46.994s

18.  Yuki Takahashi       Forward Suter              + 1 lap

19.  Marco Colandrea      SAG FTR                    + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Johann Zarco         JIR Motobi                 21 laps

     Elena Rosell         QMMF Moriwaki              18 laps

     Takaaki Nakagami     Italtrans Kalex            17 laps

     Mike di Meglio       Speed Master Speed Up      16 laps

     Ricard Cardus        Arguinano AJR              13 laps

     Marc Marquez         Monlau Suter               11 laps

     Gino Rea             Gresini Suter               7 laps

     Alexander Lundh      MZ                          7 laps

     Alex de Angelis      Forward Suter               3 laps

     Angel Rodriguez      SAG Bimota                  2 laps

     Simone Corsi         Ioda FTR                    2 laps

     Randy Krummenacher   Switzerland Kalex            1 lap

HRT team boss Luis Perez-Sala reckons his squad has little chance of leapfrogging rival Marussia in Formula 1′s backmarker battle in the short term.

The Spanish squad has kept Marussia in sight so far this season despite being in the middle of a major restructure that includes establishing a new headquarters in Madrid.

HRT driver Pedro de la Rosa suggested on Friday that his team would be better off focusing on its own improvement rather than making beating Marussia a specific target, and Perez-Sala believes John Booth’s team is likely to remain a step ahead for now.

“Hope is the last thing to die, and I hope we can finish ahead of them in a race, but we have to be realistic,” Perez-Sala told AUTOSPORT.

“They are more competitive than us. They have done a good job and I think short term we have many things to focus on in the building of the team.

“So I don’t believe we can be consistently more competitive than them in the short term.”

Perez-Sala believes that moving into the new Madrid base, which was unveiled this week, shows that HRT’s transformation is making good progress.

“It’s a big, important step for us,” he said. “Being in Formula 1 is a luxury. We have changed a lot of things since last year. Eighty-five per cent of the team is new.

“The first step was to arrive with the car in Australia, something that I had doubts about during the pre-season, and we made it. We didn’t qualify, but then the next step was to be within the 107 per cent and we have achieved that.

“Then another obstacle we overcame was getting the reliability to finish races. And the final one we just overcame is having a headquarters where we can all work under the same roof to optimise our resources. But it’s still an obstacle race and we have only jumped the first ones.

“We have the racing team more or less done. We have to grow a bit in the financial, logistical and administrative areas. We are 75 people and I would like to be able to reach 110. Then we want to bring the design section, at least the chief designer, here [to Madrid].”

Susie Wolff will start Sunday’s DTM race at Brands Hatch from the back of the grid after breaking yellow flag rules during warm-up.

The Persson Mercedes driver was adjudged to have set her fastest time in sector three under yellow flag conditions.

As a result she was handed a five-place grid penalty, which drops her from 21st to 22nd and last, behind Rahel Frey’s Audi.

Raffaele Marciello moved to within a point of the lead of the F3 Euro Series after taking his second win of the Brands Hatch weekend on Sunday morning.

The Italian teenager lay second initially, but was gifted the lead when his leading Prema team-mate Daniel Juncadella was given a drive-through penalty for lining up ahead of his pole position marking on the grid.

By the time Juncadella surrendered a three-second lead to take his penalty, Marciello was left with a 5s advantage over Carlin’s Will Buller and was able to increase it to over 15s by the end.

Marciello’s third Euro Series win of the year means he is only one point behind Juncadella in the standings, but has increased his lead over Carlos Sainz Jr in the FIA European F3 Championship, for which the race also counted, to 12 points.

Buller’s second place was the British driver’s best finish in the Euro Series and came by a comfortable margin from Prema’s Michael Lewis, who took his second podium of the weekend in third.

Carlin driver Sainz finished on Lewis’ tail in fourth, while a few seconds further back Pascal Wehrlein finished fifth for Mucke, his race being made easier when his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist retired from right behind him with a clutch problem.

Harry Tincknell was the best of the British F3 interlopers in sixth for Carlin, while ma-con driver Tom Blomqvist finished right behind him.

After dropping to 14th after his pitstop, Juncadella overtook four cars to bring himself onto the tail of Fahmi Ilyas for ninth. Diving down the inside of the Double R driver at Druids with 15 laps to go, slight contact was made, bending the Malaysian’s right-front suspension and putting him out of the race.

Juncadella finished eighth, ahead of Emil Bernstorff’s ma-con car and Prema driver Sven Muller.

Muller had dropped to the tail of the field after colliding with race two winner Jazeman Jaafar at Graham Hill bend on the opening lap. Both resumed, with a second attempt by Muller to pass at Druids 20 laps later giving his Carlin rival bent steering and forcing him out.

Results to follow…

Gianni Morbidelli dominated the first International Superstars Series race at Donington Park.

Having been fastest in every session so far across the weekend, the Audi Sport Italia driver took an emphatic lights-to-flag win in the 25-minute first race. After pulling a massive 3.79-second gap on the first lap, Morbidelli was able to cruise to his first race win of 2012.

Johan Kristoffersson made it an Audi 1-2, but he did so the hard way. The rookie of the year contender was forced to start from the back of the grid after missing qualifying due to his Swedish Touring Car Championship commitments.

Thanks to the speed advantage of the four-wheel-drive Audi, Kristoffersson was easily able to surge his way through the field, slotting into second place with 10 minutes of the race left to run.

Behind the Audis there was a frenetic battle for third place. Having lost several positions at the start, Johnny Herbert (Team Swiss Maserati) soon found himself embroiled in a battle with Max Pigoli (Ferlito Motors Jaguar), Thomas Biagi (Team Dinamic BMW) and Tonio Liuzzi (CAAL Racing Mercedes).

With just two minutes to go Pigoli made a crucial mistake, running wide at Hollywood and gifting the final podium spot to Herbert. Biagi and Liuzzi finished fourth and fifth respectively, while Pigoli was forced to settle for ninth.

Thomas Schoffler finished sixth in the third Audi, but it could have been a very different story. Having qualified second, the German stalled at the start of the formation lap. He eventually started the race, albeit from pit-lane and a long way behind the field.

Stefano Gabellini was seventh in the second BMW, ahead of Andrea Larini, who locked in a pole position start for race two by finishing eighth. Pigoli and Francesco Sini rounded out the top 10.

Meanwhile, it was a day to forget for British Touring Car Championship regular Tom Onslow-Cole. The Superstars debutant started third, but finished 18th and last after suffering a suspension failure on his Ferlito Motors Jaguar while battling for third with Herbert, Pigoli, Biagi and Liuzzi.

Results – 17 laps:


Pos  Driver               Team/Car              Time/Gap

 1.  Gianni Morbidelli    Audi Italia         27m18.823s

 2.  Johan Kristoffersson Audi Italia           + 6.971s

 3.  Johnny Herbert       Swiss Maserati        + 8.976s

 4.  Thomas Biagi         Dinamic BMW           + 9.977s

 5.  Tonio Liuzzi         CAAL Mercedes        + 13.980s

 6.  Thomas Schoffler     MTM Audi             + 14.195s

 7.  Stefano Gabellini    Dinamic BMW          + 18.012s

 8.  Andrea Larini        Romeo Mercedes       + 18.759s

 9.  Max Pigoli           Ferlito Jaguar       + 19.618s

10.  Francesco Sini       Solaris Chevrolet    + 20.886s

11.  Max Mugelli          CAAL Mercedes        + 21.783s

12.  Paolo Meloni         W&D BMW              + 35.574s

13.  Mauro Cesari         Swiss Maserati       + 39.470s

14.  Sandro Bettini       Dinamic BMW          + 48.455s

15.  Nico Caldarola       Roma Mercedes        + 50.612s

16.  Walter Meloni        W&D BMW            + 1m24.504s

17.  Andrea Boffo         Roma Mercedes         + 2 laps

18.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Ferlito Jaguar        + 3 laps

Louis Rossi took a dramatic first grand prix victory on home soil in a tense and massively attritional first wet Moto3 race at Le Mans.

Just 15 riders – from a 32-strong field – made it to the finish as extreme wet and cold conditions contributed to almost endless drama throughout the 24-lap contest.

Germany FTR-Honda’s Rossi had not even been a feature for the podium in the opening half of the race, but events took a dramatic turn 12 laps from the end when long-term leader Hector Faubel (Aspar) and Jakub Kornfeil (Ongetta) in third fell in quick succession.

One lap later and Luis Salom (RW Kalex-KTM) crashed out from fourth, promoting Miguel Oliveira (Monlau Honda), Maverick Vinales (Avintia FTR-Honda) and Rossi into the top three.

Oliveira, who had been riding on Faubel’s tail when the latter fell, initially began to stretch away but nine laps from the finish he too crashed, losing the front at the final corner.

Vinales therefore inherited the provisional lead of both the race and the championship, but it lasted all of one lap as he high-sided at exactly the same turn.

Rossi, to the delight of the crowd, therefore moved into a 22s lead which he gradually extended across the remaining distance – allowing him to back off completely in the final lap and cruise to the finish line, to the adulation of the soaked grandstands.

The drama was not complete however; championship leader Sandro Cortese (Ajo KTM), who had spent much of the early laps down in ninth and was facing a heavy points loss to main rival Vinales, fell from second three laps from the finish. He was able to keep the bike going and eventually finished sixth – extending his points lead more by default than by design.

Alberto Moncayo saved something for his Aspar squad after team-mate Faubel’s crash by finishing second, ahead of 16-year-old Alex Rins (Monlau Honda). All three podium men therefore achieved career-best finishes.

Gresini’s Niccolo Antonelli saved a last-lap crash to take fourth ahead of Arthur Sissis (Ajo KTM) and Cortese.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                    Time/Gap

 1.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda          49m12.390s

 2.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM             + 27.348s

 3.  Alex Rins            Monlau Honda                + 28.899s

 4.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini Honda               + 33.195s

 5.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                     + 36.989s

 6.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                     + 45.312s

 7.  Jasper Iwema         FGR-Honda                   + 58.645s

 8.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda   + 1m05.022s

 9.  Ivan Moreno          Laglisse FTR-Honda        + 1m09.194s

10.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Oral             + 1m45.751s

11.  Jonas Folger         Ioda                         +  1 lap

12.  Marcel Schrotter     Mahindra                     +  1 lap

13.  Kevin Hanus          Thomas Sabo Honda            +  1 lap

14.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda        +  2 laps

15.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM               +  4 laps

Retirements:
     Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                       17 laps

     Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda             16 laps

     Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Honda                  15 laps

     Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM                  13 laps

     Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM               12 laps

     Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda             12 laps

     Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda             12 laps

     Adrian Martin        Laglisse Honda                 8 laps

     Jack Miller          Caretta Honda                  8 laps

     Simone Giorgi        Amborgio Suter Honda           7 laps

     Danny Webb           Mahindra                       7 laps

     Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                        5 laps

     Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda           2 laps

     Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda                   1 lap

     Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda         1 lap

     Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM                   0 laps

     Luigi Morciano       Ioda Team Italia               0 laps
Did not start:
     Toni Finsterbusch    MZ-Honda

     Efren Vazquez        Laglisse Honda

Will Davison resisted a flying Craig Lowndes to win the second V8 Supercars race at Phillip Island and move into the championship lead.

Polesitter Lowndes stalled his Triple Eight Holden at the start and tumbled to ninth, then began a comeback charge that almost took him to victory in the 45-lap race, which saw four safety car interruptions.

Going into the final lap, Lowndes finally had long-time leader Davison (Ford Performance Racing) in sight, but Davison had enough to hand to hold his rival at bay and win by half a second.

A handful of drivers chose to conserve fuel and do the race on one rather than the more popular two pitstops, and best of these was Jason Bright, who held on for third in the Brad Jones Holden.

Bright was passed for second by Lowndes late on, but then had some breathing space as a pack behind battled hard for fourth. Stone Brothers’ Shane van Gisbergen won this fight, ahead of erstwhile championship leader Jamie Whincup in the second Triple Eight car, FPR’s Mark Winterbottom (who was delayed in the pits) and Tekno driver Jonathon Webb.

Front-row starter David Reynolds was not so rapid in the race and could only finish eighth in his Rod Nash/FPR Ford, followed by van Gisbergen’s one-stopping team-mate Lee Holdsworth and Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander.

Jimmie Johnson claimed his third career NASCAR All-Star race win by comfortably beating Penske’s Brad Keselowski at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The five-time Sprint Cup Series champion was able to carry his momentum from last week, when he gave Hendrick Motorsports its 200th Cup victory at Darlington, to dominate the decisive final 10 laps of the non-points event on Saturday night.

Johnson rose through the order during the first 20-lap segment from sixth on the grid, taking the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch on lap 16 and then pulling away to win the first portion of the event.

That gave him the key advantage of being first in the order for the final mandatory pitstop of the race, which would later be key in determining how the field would line up for the restart ahead of the last 10 laps of the fifth segment.

Having claimed that edge over his rivals, Johnson ran at the back of the field saving his machinery and avoiding any accidental contact while working on fine-tuning his car’s balance.

The Californian was then able to make the most of his lead into the pits after the fourth segment, preserving the top spot off pit road partly thanks to his strategic advantage of having the first pit-stall, which his team earned on Thursday thanks to its pit-crew challenge victory.

When the green waved for the final 15 miles of racing, Johnson pulled away from Keselowski and was never threatened by the Penske racer.

Johnson’s victory, his ninth at Charlotte, earned him US $ 1,071,340 and gave his boss Rick Hendrick a seventh All-Star win in what has been a stellar week for NASCAR’s leading organisation.

“To make the odds be in your favour, being in the front row for the final segment was going to be the key, so winning the first or second segments was the goal,” said Johnson, who now ties the late Dale Earnhardt and his team-mate Jeff Gordon for the most career All-Star wins.

“We weren’t sure we could get there starting sixth but the racecar was so amazing. I put her on the outside at the start of the first heat and let her rip around the top to get the lead.

“Then we were smart from there and worked on the car and got it right so we could be good in the end.”

Matt Kenseth was the winner of the second 20-lap segment, where his Roush Fenway team-mate Carl Edwards caused the first caution of the night following a fiery engine failure. It would be the first of two such incidents for the team, as Greg Biffle’s car succumbed to the same issue during the third segment.

Keselowski, who pitted during the second segment’s caution flag, stayed out during the optional pitstop following the second segment, and led the entire third portion of the race, just edging Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne to the line in a photo-finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Sprint Showdown to race his way into the main event, followed by Penske’s AJ Allmendinger, and eventually won the fourth segment, lining up fourth in the order ahead of the final mandatory stop, where the top five opted for a splash-and-go.

In the end Kenseth, who was second at the final restart, was third at the flag followed by Busch and Earnhardt.

Former Cup and Nationwide champion Bobby Labonte won the fan vote to get into the main event, where he finished 19th.

Craig Lowndes beat the Ford Performance Racing cars to pole position for the second race of V8 Supercars’ Phillip Island event.

A 1m32.3167s lap at the end of the session from the Triple Eight Holden driver gave Lowndes the top spot and meant David Reynolds (Rod Nash/FPR) missed out on his maiden V8 pole for a second day in a row, having been edged out by team-mate Mark Winterbottom on Saturday.

Race one winner Winterbottom qualified fourth for Sunday’s event, alongside fellow FPR man Will Davison.

Jamie Whincup will start sixth in the second Triple Eight car, sharing row three with Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright.

Michael Patrizi (Tekno), Shane van Gisbergen (Stone Brothers), Fabian Coulthard (Brad Jones) and Jonathon Webb completed the top 10.

Penske’s Ryan Briscoe will start next weekend’s Indianapolis 500 from pole position after edging out James Hinchcliffe in a tight battle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Briscoe’s time across four laps of 2m38.9514s was a scant 0.0023 seconds quicker than Andretti Autosport’s Hinchcliffe to deliver the closest qualifying gap by time in the race’s history. The Australian’s average speed was 226.464mph.

Andretti locked out positions two through to four on the grid, with Ryan Hunter-Reay just beating Marco Andretti for third, and Penske duo Will Power and Helio Castroneves just behind them.

Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Josef Newgarden was quickest of the Honda-powered runners in sixth, while Ganassi’s standard-bearers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will start from 15th and 16th respectively. Rubens Barrichello (KV) will start his first oval race a handful of places ahead of the Ganassis in 10th.

Several cars still need to make the field on Sunday’s Bump Day after missing the top 24 on Saturday, including both Lotus-powered entries (HVM’s Simona de Silvestro and Fan Force’s Jean Alesi), Dragon’s Sebastien Bourdais and Katherine Legge, AJ Foyt Racing’s Mike Conway, and Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Bryan Clauson.

Andretti Autosport’s James Hinchcliffe was fastest in the first part of Pole Day qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

The Canadian clocked a speed of 225.746mph over his four-lap run to beat Penske’s Will Power and fellow Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay to the top spot in the five-hour preliminary segment of qualifying for the IndyCar Series’ premier race.

Penske’s Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe completed the top five, while Tony Kanaan made it to sixth on his second qualifying attempt after his first run was disallowed due to a ballast issue on his KV Racing Technology Dallara-Chevrolet.

All three of Andretti Autosport’s regular entries got into the top nine, with Marco Andretti seventh quickest.

Rookie Josef Newgarden continued his excellent Indianapolis form for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing to go eighth quickest. KV’s EJ Viso completes the field for the nine-car pole shoot-out that will now decide the top three rows of the grid.

The first part of the day set the field from 10th to 24th place, with Rubens Barrichello in the third KV car the quickest of those to miss the pole cut in 10th, ahead of last year’s polesitter Alex Tagliani (Bryan Herta Autosport).

None of the Ganassi drivers made it into the top nine. Graham Rahal was the team’s fastest man in 12th, while his team-mates Charlie Kimball, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will start in 14th through 16th positions, just behind Ana Beatriz (Andretti/Conquest).

Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing), Oriol Servia (Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold) and Bryan Clauson (Fisher Hartman) all crashed during qualifying runs. The trio escaped injury and should be among the drivers fighting for the remaining nine grid spots during Sunday’s Bump Day qualifying.

AJ Foyt duo Wade Cunningham and Mike Conway, and Dragon Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais were all ‘bumped’ outside the top 24 and will also have to qualify on Bump Day. Bourdais’ team-mate Katherine Legge and the two Lotus-powered cars of Jean Alesi (Fan Force United) and Simona de Silvestro (HVM) were among those who did not try qualifying runs on Saturday.

Andrea Dovizioso says a small problem in the final five minutes of qualifying at Le Mans prevented him from challenging for a pole position he believes was a realistic goal for his Tech 3 Yamaha.

The Italian had risen to the top of the timesheets as qualifying neared its conclusion, but as Honda’s Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa improved their times he instead headed into the pits and sat out the final five minutes.

Dovizioso said his early finish had been caused by a ‘small problem’, and insisted he was therefore happy to have therefore finished third, his first front row start since moving from the works Honda squad to Tech 3 for the start of 2012.

“I am really happy to be on the front row for the first time with Tech 3 and Yamaha,” Dovizioso said. “At the home race for the team it is beautiful.

“I have been fast in every session and even in the tricky conditions at the start of qualifying I was very competitive and strong and the times were coming really easily.

“I am particularly happy to be on the front row because a small problem meant I was not able to be on track for the final five minutes of the session. That is the period when you improve your time and it was a pity that I couldn’t battle in the final stages because I’m sure I had a chance of getting pole position.

“So to be on the front row despite not riding in the last five minutes is fantastic and I am very confident for the race tomorrow. I’m sure I have the pace to stay at the front.”

Dovizioso’s team-mate Cal Crutchlow said he too had the potential to fight for pole, but struggled with set-up and a few small errors on his final laps.

“I can’t be disappointed to have qualified in fifth position but I think I could have challenged for pole position had things gone my way,” Crutchlow insisted. “I made a couple of small mistakes on my fast laps right at the end and that cost me a little bit of time.

“We didn’t have the best set-up with the bike: we made some modifications for qualifying but with the conditions wet and damp at the start, we couldn’t tell if it was an improvement and in hindsight it would have been better to stay with the setting I ran this morning.”

Gianni Morbidelli has secured pole position for the first Superstars Series race at Donington Park.

Having been comfortably fastest in both practice sessions, Morbidelli kept his stunning run alive in the 30-minute qualifying session. Despite not appearing until mid-way through the session, Morbidelli fired to the top of the time sheets on his first flying lap with a 1m33.871s.

He completed two more laps to improve to a 1m33.575s, before parking his Audi Sport Italia RS5 until there was just a few minutes of the session remaining.

Despite there being no real threat to his time, Morbidelli emerged for one final lap right at the end of the session, improving to a 1m33.264s.

Second was Morbidelli’s Audi team-mate Thomas Schoffler. The German missed most of the session due to an engine problem, but emerged in time to nab a front-row starting spot with a 1m34.004s right on the chequered flag.

British Touring Car Championship star Thomas Onslow-Cole was third fastest with a 1m34.833s, an impressive showing given today was his first in the Ferlito Motors Jaguar. Johnny Herbert made it an all British second row, taking fourth spot in the Team Swiss Maserati.

Max Pigoli (Ferlito Motors Jaguar) and Tonio Luzzi (CAAL Racing Mercedes) locked out the third row, while Thomas Biagi (Team Dinamic BMW) struggled to replicate his practice speed, settling for seventh place. His BMW team-mate Stefano Gabellini was eighth.

Francesco Sini (Solaris Chevrolet) and Rookie of the Year contender Andrea Boffo (Roma Racing Mercedes) will start ninth and 10th respectively.

Championship leader Johan Kristoffersson will start the first race from the back of the grid, having missed today’s qualifying session.

Arena’s Tom Chilton has received a post-qualifying grid penalty at round six of the championship at the Salzburgring.

Stewards handed the Briton a five-place grid drop for causing an incident during the opening qualifying session.

In the late stages of the twenty-minute leg, Chilton lost his Ford Focus at the entrance of the Nockstein hairpin and hit Franz Engstler’s BMW – sending it into a spin.

The penalty will demote Chilton to the back of the grid for tomorrow’s opening race.

Valentino Rossi reckons the wet weather which is forecast for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix could favour Ducati.

Having qualified a year-best seventh at Le Mans, Rossi said he was happy with both his showing and the competitiveness of the Ducati – but said he could potentially fare even better if Sunday’s race runs, as expected, in the wet.

“Today was a bit more positive: we put together yesterday’s settings with a few modifications and I improved,” Rossi explained. “I’m a bit sorry not to have made the second row, which was pretty close, but the fact remains that seventh place is not so bad, and that this is our best qualifying session of the season.

“The session was very difficult because the condition of the track changed so quickly, but for me we were more competitive on the wet at the beginning.

“Now the conditions are very bad, [it is] raining very hard and the forecast for tomorrow is wet. I think on the wet we can be a bit more competitive so maybe try to do a better position in the race. But anyway we have to try and I hope if it is wet it will be wet in the morning to get some laps in the warm up and better understand our potential.”

Rossi said the inclement conditions seemed to work in Ducati’s favour because it helped improve the feel of the GP12 and also eased ongoing concerns about acceleration on corner exits.

“In the wet, the bike gives a better feel, and you can ride it in a better way,” he explained. “And with less power used in the wet, we have less problem putting the horsepower on the ground.”

Rossi said that working on the settings of the GP12 had allowed the team to take another step forward in France even if major performance upgrades are still some time away.

“I think we are able to do another small step from Portugal because we can work more on the setting of the bike,” he said.

“This afternoon we did a good job of adapting to the track conditions, which changed quite quickly, and every exit I found myself on the track at the right time. We made another small step forward compared to Estoril, and we worked well.”

Casey Stoner says heavy traffic on his final two flying laps cost him the chance to seal a second straight MotoGP pole position at Le Mans.

The Australian had been top heading into the final two minutes of the session, only for works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa to move three tenths clear and seal provisional pole.

Stoner was still out on circuit and had the benefit of fresh rubber, but said being held up by traffic had prevented him from taking full advantage and responding to Pedrosa’s late effort.

“We’re really happy to be on front row, but qualifying definitely didn’t go to plan,” the reigning champion said. “We felt we were fast enough to be on pole position but every time I was on a good lap or building up to one, I got held up.

“There was always someone in the way or a bunch of riders in the way waiting for someone or waiting for a tow. And then last two laps completely screwed me: I slowed down quite a lot to get clear laps – I thought I gave a CRT rider maybe six seconds gap – but I caught him before the end of the lap and that ruined my start onto the next lap, and then I saw it was starting to rain so I backed out of it completely.

“The rain wasn’t heavy enough to upset my lap and I could have continued it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Stoner elected not to head out at the start of qualifying when the track was at its wettest, but says he is confident about his race prospects whatever the weather.

“If you went out you just destroyed another set of wet tyres, so we opted to wait for the slicks to come in,” Stoner explained.

“I think we’re looking good for the race, we’re pretty comfortable in dry conditions but we still have warm up and a chance for the others to find something extra, so we’re going to have to improve our bike a little also and wait for the race as the weather conditions are still unpredictable.”

Dani Pedrosa says the possibility of a wet French Grand Prix means that being fast in any conditions is more important than his securing of pole position for the first time in 2012.

The Spaniard said a well-timed strategy, and pushing in the right places out on track, had helped him edge out works team-mate Casey Stoner for pole.

He insists however that rather than celebrate, the unpredictable weather meant Honda must now work on its wet set-up in order to be ready for any eventuality.

“I’m not usually a pole guy, [so] it is great,” Pedrosa said. “I’m happy to be on pole, but really we must work hard to get the best bike on the grid tomorrow.

“Here at Le Mans the race is always a kind of mix, so I hope to get some good settings for dry and wet. We have to be ready to go fast in any conditions.

“It was a tough session because at the beginning you didn’t know if it was going to rain again, so it was key to choose the right moment to push and to not get out of the line.

“Let’s see what the weather does tomorrow, but the race is very long here, 28 laps, and everything can change. I hope to have a good start and to be able to keep a good pace until the end.”

Jazeman Jaafar became the first Malaysian to win an F3 Euro Series race with a lights-to-flag victory at Brands Hatch on Saturday afternoon.

The Carlin driver started from pole position on the reversed grid and almost lost the lead to the fast-starting Felix Rosenqvist at Paddock Hill bend on the first lap, but held his position on the run up to Druids and then forced the Mucke Motorsport man to take to the grass on the exit of the corner.

While that dropped Rosenqvist to fifth, Jaafar still came under intense pressure from Sven Muller, who remained within half a second for the remainder of the race.

Prema driver Muller occasionally shaped up to pass Jaafar in the hope of forcing a mistake, but the latter held firm to win by 0.3s. However, with Jaafar not registered for Euro Series points, it was the German who took the maximum score in the race for the first time in his F3 career.

Pascal Wehrlein was a lonely third for Mucke, four seconds ahead of Prema’s Michael Lewis, with Rosenqvist fifth – as he had been at the end of the first lap.

Carlos Sainz Jr (Carlin) held off race one winner Raffaele Marciello (Prema) for sixth while Fahmi Ilyas completed the top eight for Double R. Tom Blomqvist and Will Buller rounded out the top 10 for ma-con and Carlin.

Championship leader Daniel Juncadella almost stalled on the grid and dropped from seventh to 17th and last. Despite overtaking five rivals in the opening five laps, the Prema driver could make no more progress and finished right behind Emil Bernstorff’s ma-con car in 12th.

Juncadella retained his championship lead, although Sainz reduced his deficit to his Spanish countryman from 15 points to 11.

Factory Chevrolet racer Rob Huff has claimed his first World Touring Car pole position of the season on the series’ inaugural visit to the Salzburgring.

Co-operation between team-mates, in order to facilitate slipstreaming, was evident during qualifying.

In the decisive second session, Huff initially assisted in providing a tow for RML Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu, who recorded a provisional pole time of 1m26.969s.

The favour was returned at the conclusion of the session when Huff was drafted by Q1 pacesetter and championship leader Yvan Muller to record a fastest time of 1m26.791s.
Muller would also demote Menu, his closest rival in the drivers’ standings, to claim second.

Slovakia Ring victor Gabriele Tarquini left it late in Q1 to move into the top 12 and gain passage to Q2. The Italian improved two places over his Q1 performance to secure fourth in the Lukoil Racing SEAT.

BTCC graduate Alex MacDowall confirmed his strong practice form for bamboo-engineering to head the third row of race one’s grid. MacDowall, the leading Independent, lines-up ahead of Tiago Monteiro’s Tuenti Racing Leon 1.6T.

Valencia podium finisher Stefano D’Aste (Wiechers-Sport BMW) will start directly ahead of Independents’ points leader Pepe Oriola (Tuenti Racing SEAT) on row four of the grid for Sunday afternoon’s opening race.

ROAL Motorsport BMW racer Tom Coronel had appeared well-placed to gain a strong slipstream from the factory Chevrolets in Q1 and Q2. But in the first session the Dutchman’s close pursuit was cut short by a spin on the exit of the Turn 1 chicane. In Q2 Coronel appeared frustrated behind Menu, and would end the afternoon ninth.

Tarquini’s Lukoil Racing SEAT team-mate Aleksei Dudukalo gains pole for the reversed-grid race two courtesy of qualifying tenth in the second session.

Franz Engstler’s self-appointed home race didn’t bring an improvement to the 50-year-old’s recent run of racing ill-fortune. The German was punted out of Q1 when Tom Chilton locked the brakes of his Team Aon Ford Focus, sending the Team Engstler BMW into the gravel.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap

 1.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              1m26.791s

 2.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              1m26.933s   + 0.142

 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              1m26.961s   + 0.170

 4.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            1m27.490s   + 0.699

 5.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       1m27.573s   + 0.782

 6.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            1m27.808s   + 1.017

 7.  Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW           1m27.927s   + 1.136

 8.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            1m28.122s   + 1.331

 9.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               1m28.124s   + 1.333

10.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            1m28.317s   + 1.526

11.  Darryl O’Young        Special Tuning SEAT    1m28.342s   + 1.551

12.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            1m28.373s   + 1.582

13.  James Nash            Arena Ford             1m28.421s   Q1

14.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               1m28.424s   Q1

15.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              1m28.582s   Q1

16.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       1m28.858s   Q1

17.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           1m28.913s   Q1

18.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           1m29.137s   Q1

19.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             1m29.271s   Q1

20.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    1m30.057s   Q1

21.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              1m30.116s   Q1

Race two grid:
 1.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT

 2.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW

 3.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT

 4.  Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW

 5.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT

 6.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet

 7.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT

 8.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet

 9.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet

10.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet

11.  Darryl O’Young        Special Tuning SEAT

12.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW

13.  James Nash            Arena Ford

14.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW

15.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW

16.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet

17.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW

18.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW

19.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford

20.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT

21.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW          

Jorge Lorenzo admits he is not happy to have qualified on the second row for MotoGP’s French Grand Prix, but says victory is still not beyond his reach.

Having qualified on pole for the opening two races in 2012, the Spaniard has now missed out on the front row in the past two straights races – the first time he has done so since June last year.

Lorenzo said Andrea Dovizioso’s pace on board the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha meant the front row was not possible, even if he had the potential to push harder and find time in the difficult conditions.

“I’m not happy, I wanted to be at least on the front row but it was not possible,” the 2010 champion said. “Andrea was very fast today.

“I didn’t make one perfect lap, [and] maybe three or four tenths could be improved with a perfect lap but the track conditions were very difficult today and it was very easy to crash and get injured.

“We are in fourth position and tomorrow I think we can fight for the podium and the victory. I will try to make a very good start.”

Lorenzo’s Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies said those at the top of the timesheets had simply been braver than the others, explaining that his own difficult in pushing to the absolute maximum meant sixth was a good result.

“Today was a tricky session for everybody, [and] kind of risky,” Spies explained. “Finally the track started to come good but the guys who did the better lap times were a little bit more brave than others.

“With this tarmac it’s hard to see if it’s wet or dry in some places. We did the best we could and put together a decent lap to get on the second row. It was pretty hard to commit to 110 per cent when the track is like that so the result is good.”

Helio Castroneves set out his bid for a fifth Indianapolis 500 pole position by setting the best lap of the month so far in the Pole Day morning practice session.

The Penske driver produced a lap of 39.5181 seconds at an average speed of 227.744mph early in the two-hour practice, which saw the field split into two groups for half an hour of running each before all cars were allowed to take to the track for the final hour.

Chevrolet-powered cars filled the top three positions, with Ana Beatriz second in Andretti Autosport and Conquest Racing’s joint entry, followed by Castroneves’ team-mate Ryan Briscoe.

Honda’s leading contenders were Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and consistently impressive rookie Josef Newgarden (Sarah Fisher Hartman) in sixth, split by Andretti driver James Hinchcliffe.

Qualifying begins at 11am local time, with positions 10 to 24 set during the first five hours of running. The fastest nine drivers then return to the track to shoot for pole position.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                      Time      Gap

 1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy             39.5181s

 2.  Ana Beatriz          Andretti/Conquest DW12-Chevy  39.7901s  + 0.2720s

 3.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy             39.9914s  + 0.3002s

 4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            39.8640s  + 0.3321s

 5.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy           39.8611s  + 0.3430s

 6.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             39.8796s  + 0.3615s

 7.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy            39.9141s  + 0.3960s

 8.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            39.9309s  + 0.4128s

 9.  Wade Cunningham      Foyt DW12-Honda               39.9337s  + 0.4156s

10.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy             39.9354s  + 0.4173s

11.  Sebastian Saavedra   AFS/Andretti DW12-Chevy       39.9450s  + 0.4269s

12.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy                 39.9533s  + 0.4352s

13.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy                 40.0454s  + 0.5273s

14.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            40.1054s  + 0.5873s

15.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda              40.1150s  + 0.5969s

16.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            40.1400s  + 0.6219s

17.  Bryan Clauson        Fisher DW12-Honda             40.1403s  + 0.6222s

18.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy          40.1661s  + 0.6480s

19.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy                 40.1670s  + 0.6489s

20.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne DW12-Honda         40.1734s  + 0.6553s

21.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               40.1762s  + 0.6581s

22.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy             40.1814s  + 0.6633s

23.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              40.2380s  + 0.7199s

24.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Chevy             40.2684s  + 0.7503s

25.  Michel Jourdain Jr   Rahal DW12-Honda              40.3716s  + 0.8535s

26.  Townsend Bell        Schmidt DW12-Honda            40.4197s  + 0.9016s

27.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy        40.5192s  + 1.0011s

28.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            40.6647s  + 1.1466s

29.  Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne DW12-Honda         40.6655s  + 1.1474s

30.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                41.8724s  + 2.3543s

Marc Marquez claimed his third consecutive Moto2 pole position despite falling as rain effectively brought qualifying at Le Mans to an early conclusion.

The Spaniard, yet to start lower than second in 2012, rose to the top almost immediately after the session began, and soon dropped down to a 1m37.710s.

Fifteen minutes into the session he lost the front at Turn 8, sliding into the gravel, but was able to rejoin with help from marshals and returned to the pits for repairs.

With Marquez in the pits the session seemed to be building to a final shoot-out, especially when Paddock Suter’s Thomas Luthi – the only other rider to have been on pole this year – got to within 0.029 seconds of Marquez.

Any prospect of a final flurry was spoiled however as rain fell with five minutes of the session remaining, effectively freezing the order and handing Marquez his third pole in the opening four races.

“It was so difficult – we knew at the end of practice it might start raining so we tried to push in the beginning,” Marquez said. “When I crashed I braked too late, tried to go in anyway but it was too hard. I have a good feeling after going out again, and lapping well, so I think I can do a good race.”

Luthi ended second, ahead of Marquez’s nearest championship challenger Pol Espargaro (Pons Kalex) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Kalex), the latter of whom also fell in the final minute.

Redding’s stable-mate Mika Kallio was another to have a moment as conditions around the French circuit remained tricky, but he did enough to end sixth fastest behind Andrea Iannone (Speed Master).

Forward Suter’s Alex de Angelis claimed seventh ahead of Johann Zarco (JIR Motobi) and Claudio Corti (Italtrans Kalex), with the latter pair finishing just over one second down on Marquez’s best.

Toni Elias (Aspar Suter), a Moto2 racewinner at Le Mans in 2010, rounded out the top 10.

Pos  Rider                  Team/Bike              Time       Gap

 1.  Marc Marquez           Monlau Suter           1m37.710s

 2.  Thomas Luthi           Paddock Suter          1m37.739s  + 0.029s

 3.  Pol Espargaro          Pons Kalex             1m38.190s  + 0.480s

 4.  Scott Redding          Marc VDS Kalex         1m38.369s  + 0.659s

 5.  Mika Kallio            Marc VDS Kalex         1m38.399s  + 0.689s

 6.  Andrea Iannone         Speed Master Speed Up  1m38.574s  + 0.864s

 7.  Alex de Angelis        Forward Suter          1m38.662s  + 0.952s

 8.  Johann Zarco           JIR Motobi             1m38.752s  + 1.042s

 9.  Claudio Corti          Italtrans Kalex        1m38.795s  + 1.085s

10.  Toni Elias             Aspar Suter            1m38.826s  + 1.116s

11.  Julian Simon           Avintia FTR            1m38.827s  + 1.117s

12.  Dominique Aegerter     Technomag-CIP Suter    1m38.863s  + 1.153s

13.  Randy Krummenacher     Switzerland Kalex      1m38.880s  + 1.170s

14.  Simone Corsi           Ioda FTR               1m38.961s  + 1.251s

15.  Ricard Cardus          Arguinano AJR          1m39.061s  + 1.351s

16.  Axel Pons              Pons Kalex             1m39.105s  + 1.395s

17.  Nicolas Terol          Aspar Suter            1m39.229s  + 1.519s

18.  Esteve Rabat           Pons Kalex             1m39.258s  + 1.548s

19.  Bradley Smith          Tech 3                 1m39.301s  + 1.591s

20.  Yuki Takahashi         Forward Suter          1m39.315s  + 1.605s

21.  Xavier Simeon          Tech 3                 1m39.353s  + 1.643s

22.  Roberto Rolfo          Technomag-CIP Suter    1m39.414s  + 1.704s

23.  Mike di Meglio         Speed Master Speed Up  1m39.520s  + 1.810s

24.  Gino Rea               Gresini Moriwaki       1m39.796s  + 2.086s

25.  Takaaki Nakagami       Italtrans Kalex        1m39.797s  + 2.087s

26.  Alexander Lundh        MZ FTR                 1m39.924s  + 2.214s

27.  Max Neukirchner        Kiefer Kalex           1m40.120s  + 2.410s

28.  Anthony West           QMMF Moriwaki          1m40.573s  + 2.863s

29.  Ratthapark Wilairot    Gresini Moriwaki       1m40.784s  + 3.074s

30.  Angel Rodriguez        SAG FTR                1m41.443s  + 3.733s

31.  Elena Rosell           QMMF Moriwaki          1m41.634s  + 3.924s

32.  Marco Colandrea        SAG FTR                1m42.182s  + 4.472s

Gianni Morbidelli topped the second Superstars Series practice session at Donington Park.

The former Formula 1 driver led the morning’s first session by more than a second, and then backed that performance up be setting a best time of 1m33.568s in free practice two, leading home his Audi team-mate Thomas Schoffler by nine tenths.

Thomas Biagi was third fastest – albeit another four tenths adrift of Schoffler – while his BMW team-mate Stefano Gabellini was fourth.

Francesco Sini (Solaris Chevrolet) was fifth, ahead of big name stars Johnny Herbert (Team Swiss Maserati), Max Pigoli (Ferlito Motors Jaguar) and Tonio Liuzzi (CAAL Racing Mercedes).

Max Mugelli finished ninth in the second CAAL Racing entry, while British Touring Car Championship regular Tom Onslow-Cole (Ferlito Motors Jaguar) was 10th.

Pos  Driver             Team/Car           Time       Gap

 1.  Gianni Morbidelli  Audi Italia        1m33.568s

 2.  Thomas Schoffler   MTM Audi           1m34.522s  + 0.954s

 3.  Thomas Biagi       Dinamic BMW        1m34.991s  + 1.423s

 4.  Stefano Gabellini  Dinamic BMW        1m35.582s  + 2.014s

 5.  Francesco Sini     Solaris Chevrolet  1m35.721s  + 2.153s

 6.  Johnny Herbert     Swiss Maserati     1m35.774s  + 2.206s

 7.  Max Pigoli         Ferlito Jaguar     1m35.849s  + 2.281s

 8.  Tonio Liuzzi       CAAL Mercedes      1m36.059s  + 2.491s

 9.  Max Mugelli        CAAL Mercedes      1m36.090s  + 2.522s

10.  Tom Onslow-Cole    Ferlito Jaguar     1m36.500s  + 2.932s

11.  Andrea Larini      Romeo Mercedes     1m36.896s  + 3.328s

12.  Sandro Bettini     Dinamic BMW        1m37.479s  + 3.911s

13.  Mauro Cesari       Swiss Maserati     1m37.530s  + 3.962s

14.  Paolo Meloni       W&D BMW            1m37.579s  + 4.011s

15.  Andrea Boffo       Roma Mercedes      1m38.115s  + 4.547s

16.  Nico Caldarola     Roma Mercedes      1m38.390s  + 4.822s

17.  Walter Meloni      W&D BMW            1m40.298s  + 6.730s

Dani Pedrosa secured his first MotoGP pole position of 2012 at Le Mans as a drying track produced an ever-changing session which built into a spectacular last-gasp shoot-out.

Few ventured out in the early stages when the track was at its wettest, but after Mattia Pasini served notice that slicks had become the best option by going fifth, times began to tumble rapidly.

Honda’s Casey Stoner was the first to make his move, going almost two seconds clear at the top, but within five minutes he had been relegated to 11th as Tech 3′s Andrea Dovizioso led a spate of improvements.

Eight minutes from the end Dovizioso had once again displaced Stoner at the top of the timesheets, but with the track now ostensibly dry it came down to a final shoot-out in the closing five minutes.

Dovizioso improved his own benchmark and dipped into the 1m33s, but his lead was fleeting as Stoner shaved off three hundredths of a second to go top.

With Dovizioso pulling into the pits, Stoner’s main competition then came from Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and the second works Honda of Pedrosa.

Lorenzo ultimately fell short, the final sector his chief downfall as he ended the session fourth, just over one tenth down on Dovizioso.

Pedrosa however found a significant chunk in the final minute, his 1m33.638s enough to earn him pole by more than three tenths of a second.

Cal Crutchlow and Ben Spies finished fifth and sixth fastest to complete an all-Yamaha second row, while behind them the Ducatis of Valentino Rossi and Hector Barbera (Pramac) were split by Alvaro Bautista’s Gresini Honda.

The satellite Cardion Ducati of Karel Abraham then edged out Nicky Hayden’s works counterpart for 10th, while Aspar’s Randy de Puniet put his CRT machine above the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl, who suffered a high side at Museum 25 minutes into the session.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap

 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m33.638s

 2.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m33.941s  + 0.303s

 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m33.976s  + 0.338s

 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m34.104s  + 0.466s

 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.178s  + 0.540s

 6.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m34.669s  + 1.031s

 7.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m34.907s  + 1.269s

 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m34.922s  + 1.284s

 9.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m34.950s  + 1.312s

10.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m35.250s  + 1.612s

11.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m35.291s  + 1.653s

12.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m35.694s  + 2.056s

13.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m35.862s  + 2.224s

14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m36.646s  + 3.008s

15.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m37.202s  + 3.564s

16.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m37.666s  + 4.028s

17.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.760s  + 4.122s

18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m37.767s  + 4.129s

19.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m38.198s  + 4.560s

20.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m38.511s  + 4.873s

21.  Chris Vermeulen   Forward Suter-BMW         1m38.658s  + 5.020s

Gary Paffett took his first DTM pole position for almost two years at Brands Hatch to head an all-Mercedes front row.

The British driver’s single-lap Q4 time of 41.266 seconds was enough to put him on provisional pole with only Q3 pacesetter Mike Rockenfeller to come. And when the German could only lap in 41.484s, Paffett’s eighth career pole – and his first on home soil – was assured.

Christian Vietoris took a career-best second place on the grid, 0.144s slower than his HWA team-mate Paffett and just 0.052s clear of Schnitzer BMW’s Bruno Spengler, who put two wheels in the gravel at Paddock Hill bend on his way to third.

Rockenfeller’s fourth place meant that the Phoenix Audi driver maintained his status as the only driver to start inside the top five in every race this year.

Practice pacesetter Martin Tomczyk set an identical time to Vietoris in Q3, but remained fifth by virtue of having achieved it after the HWA man. He will start alongside Filipe Albuquerque, who took his best grid spot of the year in his Rosberg Audi.

Adrien Tambay was surprisingly the best of the Abt Audi drivers in a career-best seventh spot while his team-mate Mattias Ekstrom, RBM BMW man Augusto Farfus and HWA Mercedes driver Jamie Green completed the top 10.

Timo Scheider failed to make Q3 for the second event in a row, the Abt Audi man going off at Surtees and bouncing across the grass before rejoining moments later. He will start 15th.

Among the others knocked out in Q2 were Andy Priaulx – 14th in his RBM BMW – and Rosberg Audi driver Edoraro Mortara, who lost his Q3 place to Tambay by just 0.05s after the chequered flag had come out.

David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher were the highest-profile drivers to be eliminated from Q1. While Coulthard never featured inside the top-16 progression zone, Schumacher was dropped outside it thanks to quick laps from Priaulx and Vietoris late on.

Despite improving his time on his final lap, the six-time grand prix winner could not improve on 18th spot in his HWA car. Coulthard will start two places further back with Susie Wolff’s Persson Mercedes next up.

Coulthard’s Mucke Mercedes team-mate Robert Wickens was the best-placed driver to fail to make it into Q2, the Canadian agonisingly missing out by just 0.002s in a session where a little over 0.4s separated the top 21 cars.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time     Gap

 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      41.266s

 2.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      41.410s  + 0.144s

 3.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     41.462s  + 0.196s

 4.  Mike Rockenfeller   Abt Audi          41.484s  + 0.218s

 5.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           41.101s  Q3

 6.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      41.142s  Q3

 7.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          41.156s  Q3

 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          41.163s  Q3

 9.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           41.172s  Q3

10.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      41.284s  Q3

11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      41.381s  Q2

12.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      41.392s  Q2

13.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           41.399s  Q2

14.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           41.403s  Q2

15.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          41.479s  Q2

16.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  41.524s  Q2

17.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    41.584s  Q1

18.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      41.587s  Q1

19.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     41.655s  Q1

20.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    41.657s  Q1

21.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  41.677s  Q1

22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          41.956s  Q1

Maverick Vinales secured his first Moto3 pole position on a Le Mans circuit made extremely treacherous by a pre-session rain storm.

The wet, cold conditions led to a multitude of fallers including championship leader Sandro Cortese (Ajo KTM) and Monlau Honda’s Miguel Oliveira, who was on provisional pole when he lost the bike at the Turn 10 chicane halfway into the session.

Maverick Vinales (Avintia FTR-Honda) had been battling with Oliveira until the latter’s fall, but moved into a class of his own as the session progressed and conditions gradually improved.

The 17-year-old Spaniard lowered his own personal best mercilessly, dipping down into the 1m55s to eventually finish the session almost one second clear of the field.

Despite being unable to get going following his crash – and therefore missing out on the optimum conditions – Oliveira remained second right up until the chequered flag, when Laglisse Honda’s Efren Vazquez did enough to demote him to the final spot on the front row.

Jakub Kornfeil (Ongetta FTR-Honda) deprived Alexis Masbou (Caretta Honda) a fourth-place start for his home grand prix.

After his early fall, Cortese meanwhile pushed his bike back to the pits and was able to rejoin the action in the final minutes. He got himself up into sixth, finishing as the highest non-Honda rider.

Kalex KTMs locked out the third row, with Alberto Moncayo, Hector Faubel (both Aspar) and Luis Salom (RW) in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

The tough conditions impacted hard on the Mahindra team, with both Danny Webb and Marcel Schrotter falling and qualifying outside the 107 per cent mark. Ioda Team Italia’s Luigi Morciano was also outside the mark.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                Time       Gap

 1.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda        1m55.865s

 2.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse Honda           1m56.847s  + 0.982s

 3.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Honda             1m57.114s  + 1.249s

 4.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda        1m57.392s  + 1.527s

 5.  Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda            1m57.673s  + 1.808s

 6.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                  1m57.801s  + 1.936s

 7.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM          1m57.846s  + 1.981s

 8.  Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM          1m57.899s  + 2.034s

 9.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM             1m58.000s  + 2.135s

10.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                  1m58.133s  + 2.268s

11.  Jonas Folger         Ioda                     1m58.304s  + 2.439s

12.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse Honda           1m58.315s  + 2.450s

13.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM            1m58.563s  + 2.698s

14.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                  1m58.570s  + 2.705s

15.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda        1m58.576s  + 2.711s

16.  Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM             1m58.590s  + 2.725s

17.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                  1m58.673s  + 2.808s

18.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda  1m58.679s  + 2.814s

19.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Oral            1m58.932s  + 3.067s

20.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda        1m58.938s  + 3.073s

21.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m58.978s  + 3.113s

22.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda            1m59.233s  + 3.368s

23.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m59.251s  + 3.386s

24.  Simone Giorgi        Amborgio Suter Honda     1m59.335s  + 3.470s

25.  Jasper Iwema         FGR-Honda                1m59.539s  + 3.674s

26.  Alex Rins            Monlau Honda             1m59.888s  + 4.023s

27.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini Honda            2m00.129s  + 4.264s

28.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda  2m00.903s  + 5.038s

29.  Ivan Moreno          Laglisse FTR-Honda       2m02.379s  + 6.514s

30.  Toni Finsterbusch    MZ-Honda                 2m03.240s  + 7.375s

31.  Kevin Hanus          Thomas Sabo Honda        2m03.626s  + 7.761s

32.  Danny Webb           Mahindra                 2m04.144s  + 8.279s

33.  Marcel Schrotter     Mahindra                 2m05.206s  + 9.341s

34.  Luigi Morciano       Ioda Team Italia         2m05.565s  + 9.700s

Alain Menu set the fastest time in the final World Touring Car free practice session at the Salzburgring before qualifying this afternoon, repeating his form from practice one.

The dominant force in this year’s WTCC, the three factory RML Chevrolets, were separated by just 0.073 seconds. Each of the trio had taken turns in first place. Championship leader Yvan Muller led Slovakia Ring victor Rob Huff in the closing stages of the session, but pitted moments prior to the chequered flag and was unable to respond to a late effort from Menu.

As in the opening free practice session, the tight chicane at Turns 1 and 2 caught out several of the drivers, with all of the Chevrolets taking either to the escape road or, in Huff’s case, the gravel.

Italian Pasquale di Sabatino enjoyed one of his most competitive sessions of the year in fourth. The bamboo-engineering Chevrolet driver continues to acclimatise to the WTCC following his career in single-seaters.

For much of the half-hour session the five Chevrolets on the entry occupied the top-five positions, suggesting that the high-speed Salzburgring circuit flatters the qualities of the Cruze.

Lukoil Racing’s Gabriele Tarquini eventually broke up the Chevrolet stranglehold by claiming fifth in his SEAT, ahead of the second bamboo car of British Touring Car graduate Alex MacDowall.

Tarquini used the escape road on no fewer than three occasions, causing the race director to issue a warning about respecting the track limits at the chicane.

Spanish teenager Pepe Oriola has relatively recent experience of the Salzburgring, having finished second in the European Touring Car Cup at the of the Austrian venue last July. The Tuenti Racing driver took seventh in his Leon WTCC, ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro in the 1.6T-powered Leon.

The session was red-flagged twice. The first stoppage was caused when Darryl O’Young’s Special Tuning SEAT hit a tyre pile on the inside of Turn 1, forcing the Leon to stop in the middle of the chicane.

Hungaroring podium finisher Mehdi Bennani (Proteam) and fellow BMW independent runner Gábor Weber (Zengo) also suffered off-track moments, at Turns 9 and Turn 13 respectively, to cause the second appearance of the red flags.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car             Time       Gap

 1.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet            1m27.304s

 2.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet            1m27.374s  + 0.070s

 3.  Rob Huff              Chevrolet            1m27.377s  + 0.073s

 4.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet     1m27.995s  + 0.691s

 5.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT          1m28.024s  + 0.720s

 6.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet     1m28.103s  + 0.799s

 7.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT          1m28.474s  + 1.170s

 8.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT          1m28.546s  + 1.242s

 9.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         1m28.604s  + 1.300s

10.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW            1m28.662s  + 1.358s

11.  James Nash            Arena Ford           1m28.663s  + 1.359s

12.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW             1m28.837s  + 1.533s

13.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW             1m28.839s  + 1.535s

14.  Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW         1m28.963s  + 1.659s

15.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford           1m29.112s  + 1.808s

16.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT          1m29.205s  + 1.901s

17.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW          1m29.312s  + 2.008s

18.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW         1m29.314s  + 2.010s

19.  Darryl O’Young        Special Tuning SEAT  1m30.027s  + 2.723s

20.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT  1m30.043s  + 2.739s

21.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW            1m30.700s  + 3.396s

Raffaele Marciello led home a 1-2-3 finish for Prema Powerteam in the first of three F3 Euro Series races at Brands Hatch on Saturday.

Starting second, the 17-year-old Italian passed Daniel Juncadella at the start when the polesitter suffered from extreme wheelspin while trying to head him off.

He appeared to have the win sewn up when Juncadella put two wheels in the gravel at Paddock with 15 laps to go and fell almost two seconds behind.

The Spaniard dug deep though and recovered to less than 0.5s adrift, but lost time at Paddock while lapping Will Buller with a lap to go and was unable to mount a challenge in the remaining corners.

It was Marciello’s second Euro Series win and his third in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship, which he now leads by three points from Juncadella.

Michael Lewis, in the third Prema car, fell back initially, but was given a mid-race reprieve when Lucas Wolf spun his URD car at Paddock and stopped on the track, bringing out the safety car.

When racing resumed, however, the American had his hands full defending third from Carlin driver Carlos Sainz Jr. He managed, and took his maiden Euro Series podium as a result, ahead of the Spaniard.

Pascal Wehrlein was the best of the Mucke drivers in fifth after resisting extreme pressure from the fourth Prema car of Sven Muller for the final 20 laps.

Muller had earlier passed Wehrlein’s team-mate Felix Rosenqvist for sixth when the Swede suffered mid-corner oversteer at Paddock. The loss of momentum forced the Rosenqvist to concede at the Druids hairpin that followed.

Jazeman Jaafar was the best of the British F3 interlopers in eighth, which also gave the Malaysian pole for the afternoon’s reversed-grid race.

Jaafar made the move of the race as he passed his Carlin team-mate Buller for eighth spot at Paddock on lap 11. Double R’s Fahmi Ilyas also passed Buller at the same point after Jaafar’s initial move pushed the Briton wide.

Buller’s pace dropped away dramatically during the final five laps as he fell from 10th to 15th. His team-mate Harry Tincknell pulled out at half-distance after officials instructed him to pit to have a damaged front wing repaired.

Results – 56 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap

 1.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc      40m23.651s

 2.  Daniel Juncadella    Prema Dallara-Merc        + 1.782s

 3.  Michael Lewis        Prema Dallara-Merc        + 9.447s

 4.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-VW        + 10.299s

 5.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 11.217s

 6.  Sven Muller          Prema Dallara-Merc       + 11.594s

 7.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 13.788s

 8.  Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-VW        + 16.737s

 9.  Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Dallara-Merc    + 29.221s

10.  Tom Blomqvist        ma-con Dallara-VW        + 29.768s

11.  Emil Bernstorff      ma-con Dallara-VW        + 30.354s

12.  Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Dallara-Merc    + 40.983s

13.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 1 lap

14.  Andrea Roda          Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 1 lap

15.  Will Buller          Carlin Dallara-VW          + 1 lap
Retirements:
     Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc           20 laps

     Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW          16 laps

     Luis Sa Silva        Angola Dallara-Merc         0 laps

Augusto Farfus kept BMW on top in the second DTM practice session at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning.

The Brazilian, who took his maiden series podium last time out at Lausitz, set the pace in 41.312s in his RBM M3, over a second quicker than Martin Tomczyk’s Friday best.

Mattias Ekstrom served notice of Audi’s intent to recover from its poor start to the season with the second quickest time for Abt Sportsline, just 0.035s behind, while champion Tomczyk was third, 0.051s off Farfus’ time.

Championship leader Gary Paffett was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fourth, but the HWA man suffered an off identical to the one he had on Friday, the Brit going straight on at the left-hand part of Surtees and cutting across the grass as he headed towards the pit entrance.

Miguel Molina was fifth quickest in his Phoenix Audi and was within 0.1s of the best time. Fellow Audi men Timo Scheider (Abt) and Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg) were next up.

Jamie Green, who put two wheels into the gravel while exiting Paddock with a few minutes to go, was eighth for HWA while Mike Rockenfeller (Phoenix) and Adrien Tambay (Abt) completed the top 10.

Andy Priaulx was 19th in his RBM BMW, with Mercedes pair Susie Wolff (Persson) and David Coulthard (Mucke) taking the final two spots, albeit both still within 0.9s of the pace.

Pos   Driver             Team/Car           Time         Gap

 1.  Augusto Farfus      RMG BMW            41.312s

 2.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi           41.347s   + 0.035s

 3.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW            41.363s   + 0.051s

 4.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes       41.386s   + 0.074s

 5.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi       41.395s   + 0.083s

 6.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi           41.438s   + 0.126s

 7.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi       41.447s   + 0.135s

 8.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes       41.476s   + 0.164s

 9.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi       41.511s   + 0.199s

10.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi           41.533s   + 0.221s

11.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW      41.561s   + 0.249s

12.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi       41.565s   + 0.253s

13.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes       41.603s   + 0.291s

14.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes     41.614s   + 0.302s

15.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes       41.624s   + 0.312s

16.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW      41.639s   + 0.327s

17.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW            41.691s   + 0.379s

18.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes   41.715s   + 0.403s

19.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW            41.838s   + 0.526s

20.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           41.879s   + 0.567s

21.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes   41.967s   + 0.655s

22.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes     42.197s   + 0.885s

Gianni Morbidelli has comfortably topped the first Superstars Series practice session at Donington Park.

The Audi Sport Italia driver took full advantage of his RS5′s four-wheel-drive system in the damp conditions to set a best time of 1m40.456s. The next best was Team Dinamic BMW driver Thomas Biagi, who was almost exactly a second adrift after a last-gasp lap on the chequered flag.

After a flurry of late times, hometown hero Johnny Herbert finished the session third in the Team Swiss Maserati, setting his best of a 1m44.266s in final minute of the session. Fellow Brit Tom Onslow-Cole snagged fourth spot after the chequered flag with a 1m44.622s in the Ferlito Motors Jaguar.

Stefano Gabellini finished fifth in the second Team Dinamic BMW, ahead of Audi driver Thomas Schoffler, the German having been fourth fastest with less than a minute to go.

The CAAL Racing Mercedes duo of Max Mugelli and Tonio Liuzzi were seventh and eighth respectively, while Max Pigoli (Ferlito Motors Jaguar) and Domenico Caldarola (Roma Racing Mercedes) rounded out the top 10.

Pos Driver                 Team/Car           Time

 1.  Gianni Morbidelli     Audi Italia        1m40.456s

 2.  Thomas Biagi          Dinamic BMW        1m41.476s   + 1.020s

 3.  Johnny Herbert        Swiss Maserati     1m44.266s   + 3.810s

 4.  Tom Onslow-Cole       Ferlito Jaguar     1m44.622s   + 4.166s

 5.  Stefano Gabellini     Dinamic BMW        1m45.465s   + 5.009s

 6.  Thomas Schoffler      Audi Italia        1m45.874s   + 5.418s

 7.  Max Mugelli           CAAL Mercedes      1m46.324s   + 5.868s

 8.  Tonio Liuzzi          CAAL Mercedes      1m46.920s   + 6.464s

 9.  Max Pigoli            Ferlito Jaguar     1m47.983s   + 7.527s

10.  Nico Caldarola        Roma Mercedes      1m49.105s   + 8.649s

11.  Paolo Meloni          W&D BMW            1m49.406s   + 8.950s

12.  Andrea Larini         Romeo Mercedes     1m49.415s   + 8.959s

13.  Andrea Boffo          Romeo Mercedes     1m49.930s   + 9.474s

14.  Walter Meloni         W&D BMW            1m50.341s   + 9.885s

15.  Sandro Bettini        Dinamic BMW        1m51.893s  + 11.437s

16.  Mauro Cesari          Swiss Maserati     2m00.708s  + 20.252s

17.  Francesco Sini        Solaris Chevrolet  2m21.735s  + 41.279s

Carmelo Ezpeleta, chief of MotoGP’s rights holder Dorna, has shrugged off Casey Stoner’s criticism that the championship has gone backwards.

Ezpeleta said he was yet to speak directly to Stoner, but insisted the reigning champion’s view that MotoGP is no longer “the championship I fell in love with” provided no reason to rethink the sport’s future.

“We try to do the best we can, but there will always be someone who doesn’t agree,” Ezpeleta told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“In any case, that’s no reason to change. I don’t regret anything I’ve done. If Stoner has become a protagonist of this series he owes it to us too. When Alberto Puig indicated him to me after he took part in the Movistar Cup in Spain, we tried to give him a hand.

“If I was asked to do it again for a boy who will then turn out to be a protagonist and in the end he will decide to quit and even say what Casey said on the series, I would do it again anyway.”

Ezpeleta thanked Stoner for his achievements in MotoGP, but said the sport would cope with his impending departure.

“I was warned of his retirement a few days ago, even though I haven’t spoken with him directly. I can only say I thank Stoner for everything he has done,” Ezpeleta said.

“But we’ve also seen the retirements of [Mick] Doohan, [Kevin] Schwantz, yet the world championship has gone on. Many ask me what I will do when Valentino [Rossi] retires… but it’s the same for him too: it will happen sooner or later.

“The series loses a fine rider, but it has happened before and it will happen again. I have maximum respect for his decision, and I hope it’s the right one for his life.”

Casey Stoner bounced back from a crash at the halfway stage to go fastest in MotoGP’s final practice session at Le Mans.

The Australian lost the front of his bike through the second part of the Turn 10 chicane. He was unhurt and able to return to the pits for his second bike, on which he then proceeded to pull clear in the final five minutes.

As was the case in second practice, the reigning champion ended as the only man to dip under the 1m34s mark, giving him an advantage of almost half a second at the head of the field.

Until his late charge, the session had been incredibly close with the top eight riders covered by less than six tenths of a second.

Cal Crutchlow eventually claimed second fastest, fractions ahead of his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Ducati’s Valentino Rossi all ended within 0.4s of the Tech 3 duo.

Hector Barbera’s satellite Pramac Ducati beat Nicky Hayden’s works counterpart to eighth, while Karel Abraham on the Cardion Ducati beat Yamaha’s Ben Spies and LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl to 10th.

Aspar’s Randy de Puniet occupied his seemingly customary position as top CRT rider in 13th.

The cold conditions which contributed to Stoner’s fall also caught out Ioda’s Danilo Petrucci and Speed Master’s Mattia Pasini early on. Pasini was able to walk away from a heavy high side, but did not return to the track.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time             Gap

 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m33.945s

 2.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.425s   + 0.480s

 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m34.429s   + 0.484s

 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m34.456s   + 0.511s

 5.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m34.471s   + 0.526s

 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda                     1m34.636s   + 0.691s

 7.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m34.757s   + 0.812s

 8.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m35.081s   + 1.136s

 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m35.261s   + 1.316s

10.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m35.328s   + 1.383s

11.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m35.423s   + 1.478s

12.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m35.468s   + 1.523s

13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m36.389s   + 2.444s

14.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m36.666s   + 2.721s

15.  Yonni Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m37.138s   + 3.193s

16.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m37.666s   + 3.721s

17.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.692s   + 3.747s

18.  James Ellison     Forward Suter-BMW         1m37.940s   + 3.995s

19.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m38.344s   + 4.399s

20.  Chris Vermeulen   Forward Suter-BMW         1m39.507s   + 5.562s

21.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m46.663s  + 12.718s

Alain Menu led the opening practice times on the World Touring Car Championship’s maiden visit to the 4.2km Salzburgring.

Seeking his third WTCC victory of the season, Menu’s fastest lap of 1m27.008s edged out championship leader and Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller by just 0.077s.

Menu appeared to have a slight edge throughout, setting an early marker before Muller moved into top spot shortly after one-third distance. Menu returned to P1 just after the half way point, shading the Frenchman’s time by 0.003s and gradually extending his advantage on later runs.

Muller was one of several drivers who fell foul of the right-left chicane at the Austrian venue’s Turn 1. The triple-world champion was twice forced to take to the escape road and rejoin at Turn 3, while Hungaroring reversed-grid victor Norbert Michelisz (Zengo BMW) also spun at the chicane.

The third factory Cruze of Rob Huff finished almost half a second in arrears in third. The Briton was denied a final opportunity to improve his position when Alex MacDowall’s privately-entered bamboo-engineering Chevrolet brought out the red flags with two minutes of track time scheduled to run.

Demonstrating the strength of the Cruze at the noted power circuit, WTCC rookie MacDowall had impressed by holding fourth for much of the session.

Dutchman Tom Coronel would eventually demote MacDowall, but the BMW racer’s final deficit to Menu of 0.812s suggests the ROAL Motorsport crew have work to do in the final practice session ahead of qualifying.

The leading SEAT runner of Slovakia Ring front row qualifier Aleksei Dudukalo finished over a second behind Menu in sixth. Dudukalo’s Lukoil team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, the only non-Chevrolet driver to win a feature race this season, took an unaccustomed 20th.

Franz Engstler suffered unfulfilled potential at the preceding meeting at the Hungaroring, but the Team Engstler man claimed an encouraging seventh ahead of improving single-seater convert Pasquale Di Sabatino in the second bamboo entry.

MacDowall’s incident occurred when he took to the gravel at Turn 5 while avoiding a collision with the rear of team-mate Di Sabatino. The session had earlier been red-flagged when Independents’ Trophy front runner Stefano D’Aste’s Wiechers-Sport BMW went off at the entrance to Turn 10.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap

 1.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              1m27.008s

 2.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              1m27.085s   + 0.077s

 3.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              1m27.492s   + 0.484s

 4.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               1m27.820s   + 0.812s

 5.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       1m27.989s   + 0.981s

 6.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            1m28.164s   + 1.156s

 7.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           1m28.245s   + 1.237s

 8.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       1m28.338s   + 1.330s

 9.  James Nash            Arena Ford             1m28.408s   + 1.400s

10.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            1m28.469s   + 1.461s

11.  Stefano D’Aste        Wiechers BMW           1m28.488s   + 1.480s

12.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              1m28.549s   + 1.541s

13.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            1m28.710s   + 1.702s

14.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               1m28.746s   + 1.738s

15.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            1m28.763s   + 1.755s

16.  Darryl O’Young        Special Tuning SEAT    1m28.928s   + 1.920s

17.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           1m29.171s   + 2.163s

18.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             1m29.252s   + 2.244s

19.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              1m29.313s   + 2.305s

20.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            1m29.464s   + 2.456s

21.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    1m29.773s   + 2.765s

Mark Winterbottom escaped to victory in a spectacular first V8 Supercars race at Phillip Island, as his title rivals Jamie Whincup and Will Davison collided amid a wild dice for second place.

Shane van Gisbergen fought through from 11th on the grid to take second in the Stone Brothers Ford, while his team-mate Tim Slade fended off Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team) for third.

Ford filled the podium, but for much of the race it looked like it would be the Ford Performance Racing team itself that took the top three sweep. The satellite FPR/Rod Nash car of David Reynolds had led the first stint, jumping ahead from second on the grid at the start and then resisting pressure from his FPR stablemates Winterbottom and Davison as he hunted for his maiden victory.

But this would not be Reynolds’ day, as a split fuel hose ruined his race at the pitstops. The crew had to send him back out without refuelling completed, and while this dropped Reynolds to fourth, he would eventually have to come back in to take on a full fuel load when the rig was repaired, leaving him 21st at the finish.

Davison ran one lap longer than Winterbottom before pitting and emerged with a narrow lead, though it only lasted a few laps before Winterbottom got back ahead in bold style, the two team-mates running side by side through several high-speed corners until Winterbottom was able to edge decisively ahead.

A late safety car to deal with geese wandering onto the track – not for the first time in a Phillip Island V8 event – closed the pack up with six laps to go. Winterbottom made a break at the restart, while the charging van Gisbergen attacked Davison for second.

This started a ferocious multi-car battle in which Slade, Whincup and Tander also got involved, and it came to a head when contact with Slade sent Davison slewing off the road and over the grass, sliding helplessly back onto the course at the next corner and slamming into Whincup, leaving both cars with heavy damage. At the time, Triple Eight Holden driver Whincup had looked set to salvage a podium from a race in which he had been as low as 11th following an early brush with Tander. Van Gisbergen emerged safely at the head of it all, despite having been sideways on the grass at the fast first corner at one stage following a touch with Davison.

Lee Holdsworth (Stone Brothers), Rick Kelly (Kelly Holden) and Jonathon Webb (Tekno Holden) chased Slade and Tander home, while third-place qualifier Jason Bright had to settle for eighth in the Brad Jones Holden. Bright had lost a few places at the start, then fell outside the top 10 when he was nudged off the road by Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes, who was given a drive-through penalty for the incident and had to recover from 24th to 13th.

Mark Winterbottom took pole position for the first race of the V8 Supercars weekend at Phillip Island, as Ford Performance Racing outshone arch-rival Triple Eight in Saturday’s qualifying session.

In an ultra-close 20 minutes, championship leader Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight Holden led the way for the first half of the session, before FPR surged to the front, as practice pacesetter David Reynolds took provisional pole ahead of stablemates Winterbottom and Will Davison.

The Triple Eight then jumped back to the top, with Whincup and team-mate Craig Lowndes moving to first and second for a spell.

But unlike most of the other frontrunners, Whincup could not improve on his final run of the session, and the 1m32.5215s lap that had given him provisional pole was only good enough for eighth as rivals found more time.

Winterbottom did best of all to take pole with a 1m32.1320s, a tenth of a second ahead of Reynolds, who secured a career-best starting spot.

Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright prevented an all-FPR top three by putting his Holden third ahead of Davison.

Tim Slade (James Rosenberg/Stone Brothers Ford) and Rick Kelly (Kelly Holden) claimed the third row spots, in front of Lowndes and Whincup on row four.

Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and Stone Brothers’ Lee Holdsworth completed the top 10.

Marco Andretti set the fastest time of the month to claim the top spot on Fast Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – the final full day of practice before Indy 500 qualifying.

The Andretti Autosport driver produced a quickest lap of 39.5535s (227.540mph) on what was the first day that teams were allowed to run the additional 10 kPa of boost (equivalent to 40-50bhp) that will be utilised for qualifying and Bump Day.

“Today was a big day for us,” Andretti said. “I thought we were at a bit of deficit to my team-mates to start the month, but we just kept rubbing on it, we never gave up, and we kind of woke the car up. And obviously with this added boost today, it woke my car up, in particular, as well.

“But we’ve been working really hard, too, and finding that every couple of tenths of a mile an hour, and it all adds up.”

Penske’s Ryan Briscoe was best of the rest at 226.835mph, putting him just ahead of team-mate Helio Castroneves (226.716mph) and Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (226400mph).

Ganassi’s Scott Dixon was the fastest of the Honda-powered drivers in fourth with a 226.224mph lap, while the Lotus-powered drivers Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro reported small gains, but still found themselves 13mph off the frontrunning pace.

Kyle Busch claimed pole position for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star race.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and his team delivered the best combined performance under the unique qualifying format, consisting of three flying laps and including a four-tyre pitstop.

Ryan Newman and his Stewart-Haas crew had previously delivered the benchmark and stood at the top of the leaderboard for most of the session, but Busch, the last driver out on track after setting the pace in practice, bumped him from the top spot.

“We knew we’d be very quick here and I thought we had a good chance at the pole,” said Busch, who was on pole for the same event a year ago. “I think we’ve got a little bit of a system going on here for this place. That’s two in a row for us.”

Busch’s team-mate Denny Hamlin, whose crew set the fastest pitstop time, will line up third in the grid for the 90-lap, five-segment race, with Roush Fenway’s Greg Biffle starting beside him on the second row.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick, the 2007 All-Star winner, rounded out the top-five ahead of two-time event winner Jimmie Johnson, whose team won Thursday’s pit crew challenge, handing the five-time champion the strategic advantage of the first pit stall.

Kasey Kahne was on a good qualifying run, but after completing the mandatory stop he lost control of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on cold tyres between Turns 3 and 4, hitting the wall hard and being forced to switch to a back-up car.

Penske’s Brad Keselowski set the fastest first-lap time and was provisionally third after completing his run, but two loose lug nuts meant he dropped down the order. Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth and Phoenix Racing’s Kurt Busch were among those hit by penalties as well.

Penske’s AJ Allmendinger beat Michael Waltrip Racing’s Martin Truex to pole for the Sprint Showdown, a 40-lap race that gives entries for the All-Star Race to the top two finishers.

All-Star qualifying:

Qualifying format is three fast laps including pitstop

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time*       Gap

 1.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 1m59.112s

 2.  Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       1m59.821s  + 0.709s

 3.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 2m00.168s  + 1.056s

 4.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            2m00.420s  + 1.308s

 5.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          2m00.622s  + 1.510s

 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           2m01.076s  + 1.964s

 7.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          2m01.147s  + 2.035s

 8.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           2m01.297s  + 2.185s

 9.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet       2m01.482s  + 2.370s

10.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      2m01.721s  + 2.609s

11.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           2m01.861s  + 2.749s

12.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota               2m02.292s  + 3.180s

13.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            2m02.420s  + 3.308s

14.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford               2m04.183s  + 5.071s

15.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            2m05.351s  + 6.239s

16.  Mark Martin         Waltrip Toyota               2m06.624s  + 7.512s

17.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet            2m08.074s  + 8.962s

18.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   2m08.784s  + 9.672s

19.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 2m10.436s  + 11.324s

20.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet
Showdown qualifying:
Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time       Gap

 1.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                 28.057s

 2.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               28.265s  + 0.208s

 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           28.272s  + 0.215s

 4.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          28.467s  + 0.410s

 5.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                   28.609s  + 0.552s

 6.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                    28.620s  + 0.563s

 7.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganaasi Chevrolet  28.622s  + 0.565s

 8.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugtherty Toyota        28.667s  + 0.610s

 9.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                    28.727s  + 0.670s

10.  David Stremme       Inception Toyota             28.753s  + 0.696s

11.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                 28.762s  + 0.705s

12.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet            28.778s  + 0.721s

13.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 28.788s  + 0.731s

14.  Stephen Leicht      Joe Falk Chevrolet           28.922s  + 0.865s

15.  Scott Speed         Leavine Family Ford          28.927s  + 0.870s

16.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               28.928s  + 0.871s

17.  Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota        28.955s  + 0.898s

18.  JJ Yeley            Robinson-Blakeney Toyota     29.025s  + 0.968s

19.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganaasi Chevrolet  29.047s  + 0.990s

20.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 29.081s  + 1.024s

21.  Josh Wise           Front Row Ford               29.188s  + 1.131s

22.  Tony Raines         Baldwin Chevrolet            29.578s  + 1.521s

Perhaps even more than the basic skills and techniques of motorsports, iRacing provides a window into the mental game of racing.  After all, it’s one thing to turn a fast lap or two in practice or qualifying, quite another to cope with the mental pressures of running lap after lap with another sim racer breathing down your neck; or vice versa.

Club Italia’s Rocco Barone is one iRacer who was well-versed in the mental aspects of sport when he took his first sim-racing laps.  Long before he began accumulating iRacing race win and championship certificates, the 6’6” Barone had a trophy case bulging with hardware from top flight international volleyball competition: two bronze medals with his Pre-Juniore and Juniore teams in the European Championship, a gold medal from the Mediterranean Games with the Italian B squad and silver medal from the European Championship senior finals.

Unfortunately, Barone’s Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia team has been experiencing a rough patch of late, which only goes to make his success in iRacing more enjoyable.  And when it comes to iRacing, Barone has been quite a success.  After joining the service in the spring of 2011, Barone raced a variety of series including the Mazda Challenge and Star Mazda Championships before hitting his stride in the HPD ARX 01C in the iRacing.com Prototype GT Challenge. Last season he swept the virtual table Prototype GT Challenge table, scoring a dozen wins in 21 starts to capture the open set-up series and going one better – with 13 wins — to capture the fixed set-up series as well.

Obviously a man who enjoys new challenges, Barone is focusing in the iRacing.com Grand Prix Series in Season 2 and while victory has (so far) proven elusive, he currently holds-down sixth place in the Division One standings with a runner-up finishes at Spa and Road America to his credit.

Q:     How long have you been sim racing?
A:    I started my “career” of sim racing in March last year thanks to the advice of some friends who were already part of iRacing.

Q:     What attracted you to iRacing?
A:    When I was ignorant of iRacing and simply watched videos on YouTube, the thing that surprised me more was the accuracy of online racing. I did not think you could race against so many and with this great quality.

Q:     What are favorite iRacing cars/tracks?
A:    I do not have a favorite car, each of those present has its own characteristic and a quality unlike any other that I like. The same applies to the circuits, but here the preference becomes unbalanced to SPA.

Q:     What do you like most about iRacing?
A:    Here at iRacing there is always the possibility of putting yourself in comparison to most people stronger than you. That to me makes the difference.

Q:     What would you change about iRacing?
A:    From the perspective of the overall structure would change very little.  In the beginning it seemed very complicated, but now that I know I have to say is very well structured.  But I would be happy to see great improvements in the immersion of the simulation, so an increase of the NTM accuracy, better graphics (if all the tracks are going to be like Motegi will be the right direction), sounds closer to real life counterparts, climate change,endurance races with transition day / night, a damage model more and more realistic with problems such as punctures during the race, gearbox problems,engine problems, etc. but still  repairable during the stop (hate when i see the phrase “Too much damage you have done”), mechanics who work in the pits during the stop.

Barone was a dominant force in his HPD ARX01c in the 2012 S1 iRacing Prototype GT Challenge.

Q:     How many hours a week do you spend on iRacing?
A:    This is the worst question I could get! too! Seriously 5 hours at week . . . more or less!

Q:     Tell us about the paint schemes on your helmet/car(s).
A:    I do not like change often, especially the helmet, I use one for each season, with regard to the livery, we have one for each iRacing cars same for me and my teammates.

Q:     What other sim racing activities (Forza, Gran Turismo, etc.) do you do?
A:    I played and I loved when I was younger GP3 & GP4 by Geoff Crammond. I also played Forza Motorsport 2 & 3 and Gran Turismo 5 before moving to iRacing.

Q:     What are your favorite video games?
A:    When I do not race on iRacing love to do some games with Fifa12, my favorite team is AC Milan.

Q:     What is your most memorable iRacing moment?
A:    My thought is that the race more beautiful must always arrive sooner or later, this leads me to find motivation to go more and more fast.

“I’m inspired by the sacrifices made by my family to make me happy. So this gives me motivation in my career as an athlete to always fight and never give up.”

Q:     What is the iRacing moment you’d love to forget?
A:    I’d like to forget the first part of my career when I was a rookie! Surely if I could start over my career would approach the first part in a different way from how I have dealt with. So with fewer accidents and thinking first of all that to finish first, first I need to arrive at the end of the last lap!

Q:     What car/track would you like to see iRacing add to the service?
A:    As a good Italian I dream of having a Ferrari and Monza track in iRacing. Sometimes dreams do come true, so why not hope?!

Q:     What person, living or dead do you most admire?
A:    There’s not a person who inspired me. I’m inspired by the sacrifices made by my family to make me happy. So this gives me motivation in my career as an athlete to always fight and never give up.

Barone is looking for new challenges in 2012 S2, namely the Williams-Toyota FW31 and the iRacing.com Grand Prix Series.

Q:     What’s your favorite real world racing series?
A:     My favourite racing series is the F1 World Championship.

Q:     Name the title of the most recent book you read.
A:    I’m reading The Lost City of the Templars by CM Palov.

Q:     Name of your favorite movie/TV show?
A:    I do not watch much movies / shows. I like to follow all the sports, especially volleyball and football of course!

Q:     Has competing with iRacers all around the world influenced your opinions/outlook on life/world events? How?
A:    No, iRacing is a passion that does not affect in any way those who are my thoughts about what happens every day in the world.

NASCAR is to launch a new webpage in partnership with Twitter aimed at enhancing the fans’ experience through social media.

A new Twitter page condensing NASCAR tweets will be launched next month in order to provide fans with more live and inside information, selecting content through algorithmic and editorial signals.

The page, which will be accessed through twitter.com/#NASCAR, will go live on June 10 when NASCAR competes at Pocono and will be presented as a complement to the Sprint Cup series race TV broadcast.

“Twitter amplifies the excitement of live sporting events and gives NASCAR fans insider access to the drivers and teams they love,” said Dick Costolo, chief executive officer of Twitter Inc.

“When sports fans around the world see a hashtag displayed on the air during a game or race, that’s a signal to them that there is a bigger conversation happening on Twitter.

“Between the talented NASCAR personalities on Twitter and the fact that they have some of the most loyal fans in the world of sports, they were a natural choice to partner with as we experiment with ways to create the best experience on Twitter during a big event.”

NASCAR’s most celebrated tweet to date was sent in February by Cup driver Brad Keselowski, who uploaded a picture from inside his car while the race was halted due to a fiery crash involving Juan Pablo Montoya’s car and a jet-dryer truck.

Most of the top NASCAR drivers have their own Twitter accounts, some more active than others, but the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr has remained reluctant to engage in social media.

Former IndyCar star Danica Patrick is currently the most followed NASCAR driver on Twitter, followed by ex-Formula 1 race winner Montoya.

Tom Blomqvist has been given a five-place grid penalty for Saturday’s first F3 Euro Series race at Brands Hatch.

The ma-con Motorsport driver was adjudged to have broken the pitlane speed limit twice during the session by the race stewards.

The penalty drops the British driver back from ninth to 14th on the grid.

His 11th position on the grid for Sunday’s third and final race is unaffected.

Daniel Juncadella dominated F3 Euro Series qualifying at Brands Hatch to take a pair of pole positions for the weekend’s races.

The championship leader was a factor throughout the 30 minutes and put his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes into the top spot in a 41.181s lap by the time most of the field pitted for fresh tyres at the halfway point.

Afterwards he set three faster times to end up on pole for Sunday’s third race with a lap in 40.887s. Not only that, but his second best time of 40.926s was also better than anybody else could manage, meaning that he will also start Saturday’s first race from the front. The race two grid order will be based on the race one finishing order with the top eight reversed.

Pau Grand Prix winner Raffaele Marciello completed an all-Prema front row for both races with times 0.272s and 0.252s slower than his more experienced team-mate.

Carlin’s Will Buller was the best of the Volkswagen-powered drivers and will start each race from third, alongside Prema’s Michael Lewis.

Buller’s team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr will start race one from sixth, right behind Pascal Wehrlein’s Mucke car. However, it is the Spaniard who will start race three in fifth spot, with Wehrlein’s team-mate Felix Rosenqvist also ahead of the German.

The best of the British Formula 3 interlopers, who are not registered for Euro Series or FIA European F3 Championship points, was Carlin’s Jazeman Jaafar in eighth overall and for race three. He will start race one from only 11th though.

Angola Racing’s Luis Sa Silva crashed at Paddock and brought out the red flags with less than three minutes to go. By the time the car had been removed and the tyre wall repaired, it had begun to rain. Nobody was therefore able to improve on their previous lap times, although many did go out to scrub in a set of wet tyres.

Race one qualifying:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time     Gap

 1.  Daniel Juncadella    Prema Dallara-Merc      40.926s

 2.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc      41.178s  + 0.252s

 3.  Will Buller          Carlin Dallara-VW       41.270s  + 0.344s

 4.  Michael Lewis        Prema Dallara-Merc      41.281s  + 0.355s

 5.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc      41.383s  + 0.457s

 6.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-VW       41.403s  + 0.477s

 7.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc      41.454s  + 0.528s

 8.  Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW       41.487s  + 0.561s

 9.  Tom Blomqvist        ma-con Dallara-VW       41.501s  + 0.575s

10.  Sven Muller          Prema Dallara-Merc      41.508s  + 0.582s

11.  Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-VW       41.537s  + 0.611s

12.  Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Dallara-Merc   41.804s  + 0.878s

13.  Emil Bernstorff      ma-con Dallara-VW       41.896s  + 0.970s

14.  Andrea Roda          Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc  42.016s  + 1.090s

15.  Luis Sa Silva        Angola Dallara-Merc     42.047s  + 1.121s

16.  Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc        42.087s  + 1.161s

17.  Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Dallara-Merc   42.308s  + 1.382s

18.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc  42.525s  + 1.599s
Race three qualifying:
Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time     Gap

 1.  Daniel Juncadella    Prema Dallara-Merc      40.887s

 2.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc      41.159s  + 0.272s

 3.  Will Buller          Carlin Dallara-VW       41.174s  + 0.287s

 4.  Michael Lewis        Prema Dallara-Merc      41.235s  + 0.348s

 5.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-VW       41.244s  + 0.357s

 6.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc      41.338s  + 0.451s

 7.  Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-VW       41.352s  + 0.465s

 8.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc      41.369s  + 0.482s

 9.  Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW       41.387s  + 0.500s

10.  Sven Muller          Prema Dallara-Merc      41.392s  + 0.505s

11.  Tom Blomqvist        ma-con Dallara-VW       41.488s  + 0.601s

12.  Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Dallara-Merc   41.745s  + 0.858s

13.  Andrea Roda          Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc  41.806s  + 0.919s

14.  Emil Bernstorff      ma-con Dallara-VW       41.818s  + 0.931s

15.  Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc        41.965s  + 1.078s

16.  Luis Sa Silva        Angola Dallara-Merc     41.985s  + 1.098s

17.  Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Dallara-Merc   41.996s  + 1.109s

18.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc  42.345s  + 1.458s

Chris Vermeulen says he hopes he can at least help Forward Racing with its development programme on his return to MotoGP in this weekend’s French Grand Prix.

The Australian is substituting for Colin Edwards at the leading CRT squad while the latter recovers from the broken collarbone he sustained in a qualifying crash at Estoril a fortnight ago.

Vermeulen has not raced in MotoGP since losing his Suzuki seat at the end of the 2009 season, and his subsequent World Superbike career was disrupted by a knee injury.

Although he was slowest in both Friday practice sessions at Le Mans, where he won for Suzuki in 2007, Vermeulen said he was enjoying being back on a MotoGP bike and hoping to provide the team with some valuable information.

“They’re pure race bikes. I was racing Superbikes for a couple of years in between, and they’re fun but these are full-on race bikes,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“So I enjoyed it from that point of view, but on the other side, there’s a hell of a lot of work to do.

“This bike is quite un-developed at the moment and they need information. It’s not going to be an easy weekend, but hopefully I’m going to help them in the right direction.”

Vermeulen said he was not surprised that he had been off the pace on his first day back.

“They’re not easy, and I haven’t ridden a race bike in about seven or eight months,” he said. “These brakes, the tyres, the type of bike they are, they’re not easy on the body, but it was fun.

“It took me a few laps to get up to speed, which I expected, but they’re a great bunch of guys and it’s a really good motorbike. It’s definitely a race bike underneath me and I’m enjoying it so far.”

Gresini Racing believes it made a breakthrough in its so far disappointing 2012 MotoGP campaign in practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans on Friday.

Although the team’s new rider Alvaro Bautista sits sixth in the MotoGP standings and took top-six finishes in Spain and Portugal, he has yet to emulate the frontrunning form of his predecessor on the factory-spec Gresini Honda, the late Marco Simoncelli.

But after set-up changes helped him to fourth in the second Le Mans practice session, ex-Suzuki rider Bautista said he felt things were starting to come together.

“We tried some things with the setting to improve the bike from Estoril and initially they didn’t work that well but with a few tweaks to the suspension we found some interesting solutions,” he said.

“We continued to work in the same direction in the afternoon and I felt a lot better on the bike than I did at Estoril and Jerez.

“Obviously there are still some little details to work on but for now I am happy because we have taken a step forward.”

Team boss Fausto Gresini believes Bautista’s progress could allow him to challenge the Tech 3 Yamahas of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso – who have been ‘best of the rest’ behind the works Hondas and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo so far in 2012.

“I’d say we have started out on the right foot even though Alvaro is not a big fan of this track,” Gresini said. “The team have worked hard along with the Honda engineers to improve under braking and corner entry. Alvaro liked the new solutions and we have taken an important step forward.

“Our main objective is to fight with Dovizioso and Crutchlow and I think we are on the right path.”

Valentino Rossi warned that Ducati seemed to be losing ground again at Le Mans following a difficult Friday practice ahead of the French Grand Prix.

The Italian legend felt his struggling team was starting to move in the right direction after he finished seventh at the last MotoGP round in Portugal, but he was only ninth quickest at Le Mans on Friday, admitting that Ducati was having particular issues on worn tyres.

“This afternoon we tried some bike settings that were quite varied, and we’re trying to understand what the right direction is for finding more grip on corner exits,” said Rossi. “So far, particularly when the tyre starts to wear, we’re losing a lot compared to the others.

“Our gap to the front is pretty large, and although the gaps in our group are quite small, there’s more time between us and seventh place than there was in Portugal. We’ll have to try to do better. We’re trying some different things and we’re working hard, so we’ll see how we do tomorrow.”

Rossi’s team-mate Nicky Hayden was one place further back and experiencing similar problems.

“I struggled a little bit everywhere,” said the American. “Grip on the edge wasn’t very good, and any time I would get going OK, I would have a hard time stopping the bike and would run wide on entry.

“I haven’t had that problem much this year, and when you push wide, it also hurts the exit. We tried a couple of things but never really found a really good direction.

“We tried the hard tyre a little this afternoon just to check, because the soft tyre definitely feels like it’s going off a bit, but I wasn’t able to make it work that well. We’ll sit down tonight and have a good think about it and see what to do tomorrow.”

Casey Stoner said he felt relieved going into Friday practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans having made his decision to retire from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season.

The reigning world champion and current points leader stunned the motorcycle racing fraternity on Thursday when he announced that this would be his final year in the sport.

Stoner then went on to set the pace in both Friday practice sessions at Le Mans, ahead of Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

“After yesterday’s announcement, I definitely felt a weight off my shoulders when I got on the bike this morning,” said Stoner.

“The last two races I’ve had a lot of thoughts running through my mind and this weekend I already feel better knowing it’s off my chest and we can now focus on the rest of the season, and try to enjoy it.”

Although Stoner has won the last two races in Portugal and Spain, Honda has continued to have issues with chatter in races this year, and focused on resolving this in Le Mans practice.

“Believe it or not, today we were trying to create chatter, so we can make the most use of this dry time on track to understand it a little better and make some improvements for the rest of the season,” Stoner explained.

“We are happy to use some of the sessions to focus on fixing the chatter issue, and not worry about the set-up immediately.

“We started to find some chatter at the end of the day when we switched to the hard front tyre and hopefully it will stay dry tomorrow so we can continue to work on this.”

If it’s good to be busy then it’s safe to say 2012 is already a good year for iRacer Joey Hand.  The 32 year old racer from Sacramento is marrying a full-time ride with BMW in the DTM (aka German Tour Car Series) with a partial ALMS season in defense of the GT title he and co-driver Dirk Müller won with BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing last season.

That GT title was only one of Hand’s many accomplishments last year in a season that also saw him co-drive Ganassi/Sabates Racing’s winning Riley-BMW in the 24 Hours of Daytona and score a third place in the GTE class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, along with a handful of top tens in Turner Motorsports’ BMW in the GRAND-AM Continental Challenge.

Is Hand a glutton for punishment or what?

Hand is one busy racer in 2012 . . . and that's just the way he likes it.

“Doing both the ALMS and DTM series, some people think that was something I was forced to do, but I wasn’t,” he grins.  “They asked me if I wanted to do DTM.  I said, ‘Yes.’  They said would you like to continue to do the ALMS?  I said, ‘I’d love to.’  They said, ‘You’re OK with the travel?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’

“I love to race.  I really believe – and it’s the same thing I’ve taught kids all my life as a coach in karting, and even their parents – the more you race, the better you’re going to be.  The more you win, the more you know how to win.  And not a lot of people know how to race, especially young kids now, not a ton of ‘em know how to race and even less of ‘em know how to win.”

If there were any doubters about whether Hand knows how to win in a career that’s seen him atop the podium in everything from go-karts and Toyota Atlantic to GT cars and Daytona Prototypes, the final hours of this year’s Mobile 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring proved otherwise.  With the race on the line, Hand bested Olivier Beretta and his Ferrari F458 in a no-holds-barred battle to stake BMW and RLL to a convincing start in their title defense.

“Winning at Sebring was a great moral booster,” he says. “Coming off a championship last year, you always wonder ‘Do we have enough to repeat?’  The other guys are no different than us; when they got beat they went back and worked twice as hard, while we were working twice as hard knowing they were too. So to win fair and square in an outright dog-fight . . . I really loved it.

“Coming off a championship last year, you always wonder ‘Do we have enough to repeat?’”

“I feel like the competition is even stronger that it was last year, which means you’ll have a tougher time winning a race.   But I predict that we can still win two or three more races and I think if we do that it will be another great year.”

In the wake of Sebring, Hand, Müller, RLL and BMW are still looking for that second win.  They rebounded from an untimely puncture to finish second at Long Beach, then survived a rough ‘n tumble race last weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to come home fourth behind their sister RLL entry driven by  Bill Auberlein and Jörg Müller.

Despite having that lone win to their credit, Hand is confident about BMW’s chances of repeating as ALMS GT champion.

“The competition is so intense and the top cars all have different strengths, so nobody’s going to dominate every weekend,” he says.  “You just have to take what you can get when you can’t win.  And now that we’re going to tracks that have historically been good for us – Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Mosport . . .  I’m not saying that we can just show up and win, but we’ll go there knowing we don’t have to have a picture perfect weekend to challenge for the win.”

Hand already has one big win to his credit in the 2012 ALMS.

However, no matter how well Hand does at Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio and Mosport, he won’t be repeating as co-GT champion.  He’ll miss the final three rounds of the ALMS season at Road America, VIR and Road Atlanta (Petit Le Mans) due to conflicting DTM events . . . which is OK with Hand.

“DTM is my main gig, so I do all the races in the DTM and as many as I can do here,” he says.  “So that ends-up being the first seven here, and then I miss the last three.  It’s not perfect, but at least it’s not sporadic.  So I get to do seven straight, and I think at that point, we’ll either be IN the hunt or not.  Whoever comes in to replace me, it looks like it will be Jonathan Summerton, if we’re in the mix it will be up to him to hold on and be there for the drive to the finish.”

There’s little chance Hand will win the DTM title this year either.  After all, it’s his first year in the series and he’s getting accustomed to a new environment, including new tracks and a car that is very different from anything he’s driven previously – even if it is nominally named a BMW M3.

“I’ve driven so many things in my career that my adaptation skills are pretty good,” he says.  “I took to the DTM car pretty quickly, which I normally do when driving a new car.  I mean I drive a Daytona Prototype and a Continental Challenge car in the same day – so that’s a pretty big swing too!

“Places where you’d be braking at the 300 marker in the GT car, you’re braking at 100 in the DTM car . . .”

“The biggest thing with the DTM car is downforce and brakes.  In first, second and even a little bit in third gear corners, you’re still driving a GT car – a stiff, low center of gravity GT car.  But when you start getting in those higher speed corners you really recognize the aero – the faster you go the more grip you have.  If you go through a particular corner slow, you struggle; but when you go through faster it’s better.

“Then you have carbon brakes.  When they’re cold they don’t work real well, but when they get warm, they’re really good.  That takes some getting used to because the brake zone is very, very short.  Places where you’d be braking at the 300 marker in the GT car, you’re braking at 100 in the DTM car . . .

“It’s definitely different but you’re still pushing it to the limit.  It’s still a matter of ‘Is the tire sliding or is it not sliding?’  Ultimately, that’s all we do: manage the tires – in the rear and in the front.  So that never changes, but it’s a different beast.”

The BMW M3 DTM? “It’s definitely different but you’re still pushing it to the limit," says Hand.

To date, Hand’s two DTM races have been something of a mixed bag.  He’s been right on the pace in practice, but failed to nail a good qualifying time.  In his debut at Hockenheim he made a mistake on what should have been his best lap; at the Lausitzring he ran into traffic on his best lap and, again, failed to advance into the final round of knock-out qualifying.  Starting mid-field both times, he failed to make much progress.

“Hockenheim was the first race and everybody was super-aggressive, lots of banging,” he says. “I got hit a couple of times but still managed to finish, and I was happy to get a full race under my belt.  At Lausitz I made a good start and moved-up a couple of spots but it was tough to make any more headway.  I struggled on my second set of tires, lost some ground and eventually finished where I started.

“It’s so competitive.  The three seconds I lost on the second set of tires at Lausitz translated to four positions at the finish.  The races are an hour and ten minutes – heck I drive longer stints than that in ALMS – and it’s at a qualifying pace the whole time.”

This weekend sees something new for Hand in his DTM career – a track with which he is familiar:  Brands Hatch.  Not only did he race Palmer Audi open wheel cars there in Y2K as part of the Team USA Scholarship program, as an iRacer he’s been able to refresh his memory of the tricky circuit online.

“What I need to do more than anything is practice my iRacing for the next All Star race!”

“I wish iRacing had more European tracks!” he says (stay tuned Joey – Ed).  “I have iRacing locked and loaded at home and I can’t use it as much as I need to to practice.  Hockenheim, Lausitzring, Nurburgring . . . but we have Brands Hatch and Zandvoort.

“Zandvoort is one of the tougher tracks to learn, so that’s going to be something I really work on.  I’ve been trying to do whatever I do when I’m coming up to that race, instead of trying to do everything all at once, like working  on Zandvoort now when the race isn’t until August.  I’m taking it one step at a time and I will definitely use iRacing to get ready.”

There’s an ever better reason for Hand to be practicing his sim racing skills, one that has less to do with either the DTM or ALMS, more to do with something that really matters: the iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions II.  After all, he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in the inaugural event last December.

Hand renewed acquaintances with Scott Speed in the iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions last year.

“What I need to do more than anything is practice my iRacing for the next All Star race!” Hand says.  “I was definitely not as good as I could have been.  I’d never done an oval race up until that day, when I started practicing a little bit.  I had a real dog-fight in the race with Ron Capps.

‘I really enjoyed it.  Landon Cassill was on there talking to me.  It was cool to be on there with all those different guys, some of ‘ em you know, some you just recognize by name, and everybody’s talkin smack — ‘Hey get out of the way!’

“It was a lot of fun for everyone.  I hope the people watching it enjoyed it half as much as we did, and I know that event is only going to get bigger in the future.”

With all the new horizons Joey Hand is exploring this season, it’s reassuring to know he still has his priorities right be it DTM, ALMS or iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions.

Ben Spies ended Friday practice for the French Grand Prix encouraged with his form, despite crashing in the afternoon.

The American has had a poor start to his 2012 MotoGP campaign, with just two 11th places and an eighth to show from the first three rounds.

But after taking fifth place for Yamaha in Le Mans practice, Spies reckons he is getting back on course – particularly given that he was able to shrug off his fall and show strong pace on his spare bike and with old tyres.

“Today was OK, to be top five both sessions is good after Estoril, especially here where I’ve struggled in the past,” he said.

“I made a small mistake this afternoon, got into Turn 1 pretty fast and was too fast into Turn 2 so couldn’t make the corner.

“I got on the second bike and was pleased we were still able to go fast as we had a lot of laps on the front tyre. The bike seems to be working pretty well here so we’ll keep going and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Spies’ team-mate Jorge Lorenzo recovered from struggling in morning practice to go third in the afternoon, but fears it will all go to waste if the predicted rain arrives for the rest of the weekend.

“This morning we had some difficulty entering the corners, I didn’t trust the bike so much,” Lorenzo said. “This afternoon we made some changes to the rear and it improved the feeling and the lap time a lot. I did a half race simulation and we had a good pace.

“We are now ready for a dry race but everyone says it is going to rain which will completely change the conditions.”

Felipe Massa has no doubts that Ferrari remains fully behind him in his quest to find a way out of his current difficulties.

The Brazilian is under pressure to turn around his campaign, after scoring just two points in the first five races of the season.

With Ferrari well aware that it needs both of its drivers to score good points if it is to fight for the constructors’ championship, the team said earlier this week that it expected Massa to lift himself up a gear in Monaco next weekend.

Those comments prompted fresh speculation that he could be dropped if the situation does not change – but for now Massa says all he feels is support from his bosses.

“I feel the whole team stands by me,” he said in a lengthy interview posted on the official Ferrari website. “Obviously, they are not happy with the results and neither am I: we all want to get out of this and return to normal. It’s possible and for sure it’s what I want and I know that with the team’s help we will manage it.”

Massa has not won a race since being injured in a qualifying crash at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix – which has prompted suggestions that he has never been as good as he was before the accident.

Speaking about that matter himself, Massa insisted that there had been no evidence his performances had suffered – either on track or in terms of mental approach.

When asked if he had any doubts as to whether he was no longer as quick as he was before the crash, Massa said: “I have asked myself that 45,000 times and don’t think I haven’t, and why wouldn’t I?

“Having won so much over three years, 11 races, the question is obvious. And it’s not as though I only stuck to asking myself: I went looking for the answer, asking a whole host of questions and undergoing as many medical examinations.

“All the doctors I consulted are prepared to swear hand on heart that there are absolutely no traces of the impact with the spring.

“As for myself, I don’t feel in any way different to the way I was before that weekend. For example, if it was true that I no longer had the same will to win as before or the same courage, then how can one explain the fact that, at the race start, I am probably still one of the best drivers and I am not the sort to hold back when it comes to overtaking?”

Massa does admit, however, that he is struggling to get the best out of the F2012 – which explains his performances against team-mate Fernando Alonso.

“It’s definitely not a very easy car to drive and it’s hard to find a good balance. Many times I have found myself having to fight the car and, in these circumstances, it’s easy to lose a tenth here and there: with my driving style maybe I struggle a bit more, because I don’t manage to find a smooth way of driving.

“It’s well known that we don’t yet have enough aerodynamic downforce and we are lacking in traction at the exit to slow corners, which could be the biggest problem.

“In Spain, we made a significant improvement, which could clearly be seen from Fernando’s performance in the race, but I too, when I had a clear track ahead of me, had a good pace. We also made a little progress in terms of top speed, another area where we have suffered right from the start of the season.”

Jenson Button is cautious about McLaren’s chances of winning the Monaco Grand Prix, with the team’s MP4-27 not particularly suited to the demands of the famous street circuit.

The 2012 McLaren has shown itself to excel in high-speed corners – something that is lacking in Monaco – which means Button and team-mate Lewis Hamilton will have to push extra hard if they want to triumph at Formula 1′s blue riband event.

Looking ahead to the weekend, Button reckoned that there was still plenty to look forward to though.

“I remember last year having a fantastic car beneath me and feeling really confident that I could challenge for the win,” he said. “As it happened, circumstances beyond our control worked to pull that opportunity away from us, but I go back to Monte-Carlo with a little bit of unfinished business.

“This year, we’ll be running Pirelli’s Supersoft compound for the first time – which should be interesting. And while our car isn’t especially suited to the tighter confines of a track like Monaco, I’m optimistic of getting on top of the balance issues that have affected me for the past two races. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend.”

Hamilton is still chasing his first win of the season, but is equally aware that his consistency must be kept up if he wants to fight for the championship.

“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that, despite pushing for the win, consistency and scoring decent points is currently the most sensible way to tackle this world championship,” he explained.

“I’ve scored points at every race, and I’m only eight points off the lead of the championship. That’s a really encouraging statistic and it’s reassuring to see my approach is paying off.

“Nevertheless, I’m coming off the back of two relatively disappointing results and there would be no better place for the cards to fall in my favour than at Monaco.”

Brands Hatch played host to the sixth round of the iRacing.com Skip Barber Racing School Premier Series. For the first time in the series’ young history, the virtual site of the online racing was outside the United States, which may have given a competitive edge to some of the European drivers.  Indeed, many series regulars on the circuit decided to take the first round of racing overseas off, and elected to use this week as a drop week in points. However, 55 other sim-racers eagerly sought the opportunity to pick-up points at Brands Hatch and improve their positions in the overall standings.

For the past three months, Club Florida’s Christian Aranha has firmly planted his name at the top of the overall standings, making it pretty clear he has no intention at forfeiting his position at the top of the totem pole. Last week showed not even racing overseas could phase the “Flawless Floridian” as he remains atop of the leader board after continuing his winning ways at Brands Hatch.

The morning race (10:00 GMT) had the highest strength of field race of the week with 2717. The fastest qualifier and polesitter was none other than Aranha, who was thus the center of attention for the 10 drivers behind him on the grid.  Although Aranha jumped to the early lead, Lap 4 saw Jan Niesiolowski, a top 10 points contender, sneak past. Niesiolowski led the next 20 laps in succession with Aranha consistently applying pressure.  The battle heated-up during Laps 16 through 19, as the lead duo battled wheel-to-wheel and, with some incidental contact, made it clear to each other that they would not waver.

Finally, Niesiolowski gave Aranha a little too much room, enabling the series leader to retake the lead on Lap 24 and go on to the win by less than 4 tenths of a second. Wade Hayward, a driver unfamiliar with rounding-out the podium the past few weeks, enjoyed the view from third the entire race and finished eight seconds behind the winner. Aranha picked up 165 points for the win, and the small turnout (thus a chance for a higher SoF) resulted in this being the highest week’s highest points-paying race.

Ganzeveld dodges a spinning Jonathan Rex en route to a second place finish. (Jeroen Ganzeveld image)

Two splits of the afternoon races (20:00 GMT) produced higher car counts than the morning race. Niesiolowski took the first split of the afternoon was in coventional Skip Barber Series fashion, leading all 30 laps en route to victory over points contenders Marco Corti and Stuart Adcock.  Although Niesiolowski earned 157 points for his triumph in the 2522 SoF race, he lost eight points to Aranha in the overall scheme thanks to the higher SoF of the day’s first race. Corti and Adcock both earned 146 and 136 points, respectively, for rounding-out the podium positions.

The second split of the afternoon was dominated by the second place driver in the overall standings, Kurt Krumm.  Like Niesiolowski, Krumm led all 30 laps en route to his win over Jeroen Ganzeveld and Ermanno Palumbo2.  Krumm started on the pole and didn’t look back, winning by over 16 seconds — the week’s greatest margin of victory.  Nevertheless, Krumm earned just 160 points for the win and, like Niesiolowski, lost ground to Aranha in the overall standings owing the (slightly) lower SoF  rating.  Meanwhile, Ganzeveld and Palumbo earned 148 and 137 points respectively for their podium finishes.

The night race (2:00 GMT) produced one of the most exciting races of the season, one featuring four lead changes and the week’s slimmest margin of victory on a track where passing opportunities are at a minimum.  Krumm landed on the pole, but succumbed to Curtis Fung after just one lap in the lead. Fung maintained first place until Lap 11, when Jim Shedlick powered through to lead laps 12-23.  Fung regained control from Laps 24-27 only for Krumm to retake the lead on lap 27 and go on to win the final race before the halfway point of the season.

“Luckily I kept just enough of my wits about me to stay ahead and win what had to be my most exciting iRacing race ever.” — Kurt Krumm

“With five to go, I was on Jim’s tail,” Krumm explained. “I pushed like crazy and got ahead of the three car battle with three to go. Curtis closed-in and a couple nervous mistakes and lapped traffic almost gave him an opportunity to regain the lead. Luckily I kept just enough of my wits about me to stay ahead and win what had to be my most exciting iRacing race ever.”

Because of the race’s 2534 SoF, Krumm dropped the points from his win and kept the points from his win in the afternoon race (rated at 2581 SoF).  Fung, who finished a mere .2s behind in second earned 152 points for his efforts while Shedlick edged Duncan Coppedge for third place and collected 144 points.

At the halfway point of the season, Aranha holds a 46 point lead over Krumm, and 260 other sim-racers vying for the prized seats in a Skip Barber Racing School. Week Six saw Brands Hatch provide some very exciting racing given the track’s diverse technical challenges. Week Seven should be no different, as the iRacing.com Skip Barber Racing School Premier Series heads to Japan to race at the Okayama International Circuit.  With 11 turns packed into 2.3 miles, Okayama is as technical a race track as you’ll find on any side of the Pacific Ocean.

If the first half of the series wasn’t exciting enough, the intensity and excitement of the following six races should be even greater, creating an unparalleled final few stages in the drivers’ quest for the championship.

Pedro de la Rosa says his HRT team should focus on itself rather than try to concentrate on closing the gap to rival Marussia.

The Spanish squad has been fighting at the back of the grid after getting its new car ready just before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Marussia has been HRT’s closest rival since the start of the year, but rather than focusing on beating the British squad, de la Rosa reckons his team should try to continue to improve step by step.

The Spanish driver is now confident HRT has all the right ingredients to start making proper progress towards the front.

“The target is to improve race by race and forget a bit about Marussia,” de la Rosa told reporters during the unveiling of the team’s headquarters in Madrid.

“We have to think about ourselves and know where we are starting from, and improve from there without stopping, regardless of what the others are doing.

“The others will continue to move forward too, but I’m confident. We have a bigger team, we are going to grow, but we have the tools to fight. It’s going to take time. It’s not a matter of having a base and you can tell right away on track. But in the middle-term you can say that the Caja Magica will make us faster.”

He added: “We are very far and we have to focus on ourselves. We have to forget about the others because nowadays in Formula 1 you can say there is no midfield, because anybody can win.

“And that puts us further away from our closest rivals, but it also makes us realise that we need to forget about them and focus on ourselves because we have enough on our plate. Then when we are more competitive we will aim for bigger things, which is why we are always calling for patience.”

De la Rosa, however, reckons HRT has been meeting the targets set for the start of the season despite its struggles.

“I think we are on target. We are meeting our goals and we now depend on ourselves to keep this direction,” he said. “We have to keep going forward, keep improving. Each tenth is going to be harder to get because you have to be smarter and spend more hours in the windtunnel, etc, to make the car faster.”

The team introduced several updates at its home race in Spain last weekend and de la Rosa says it will have some new bits for the upcoming events too.

“Our policy is not to say we’ll have an update for a specific race like other teams can have,” he added. “We are trying to bring small things race by race. We have some updates for Monaco and for Canada too. The idea is to invent new things for the next grand prix.”

And he feels the new headquarters, where the design team will start working in the upcoming weeks, will help HRT make its car faster eventually.

“It’s a fundamental tool for any Formula 1 team, and we finally have it here. It was very important. We are starting and we still have a long way to go, but now we have the base for what a strong team needs.

“It will be a lot easier now we have everybody under the same roof. You have to keep in mind where we are coming from, and people have to understand we are a small team, because 75 people in Formula 1 means basically everybody is going to all the grands prix, and we are fighting against people with 600 or more people, so we have to start from there.

“We are new, but the ambition has no limits. We are going to grow and we have the base to grow properly, which is a basic thing.”

The Red Sox Racing League began Season Two of 2012 at the Daytona International Speedway’s road course.  Despite giving considerable thought to using the recently released Cadillac as the Class B vehicle, league officials decided to stick with the Corvette C6R for this season.  “We may switch to the Cadillac for Season Three, or add a third class if we can build both fields”, said Jeff Thomas before the race began.  “But we needed a little more time to hammer out the fixed setups and did not want to rush into this season with a car that wasn’t fully tested.”

The “RUF Automobile Presents 24 Laps of Daytona” was billed as a 24 lap race of endurance.  With eight new drivers hitting the track as members of the RSR league, it also had the potential to be a test of patience.  Pre-race testing sessions proved valuable as several drivers were able to adjust to several changes made to the HPD in iRacing’s recent update.  Less aero, increased low end torque, reduced braking performance and higher top end speed means the car has to be driven less aggressively this season.

Les Turner’s qualifying lap time of 1:35.948 just edged out Brad Vincent’s 1:35.972 to earn the defending league champion the pole.  John Koscielniak (3rd), Terry Daul (4th), Andrew Gantman (5th), and David Weiss (6th) all posted 1:36+ laps times.  Bill Hadden (7th), Ed Sutcliff (8th), Andrew Feldman (9th), Wilburn Gildersleeve Jr. (10th), Jeff Sharp (11th), David Berry (12th), Joshua Friedrichs (13th), Kevin Kyle (14th), Divina Galica (15th), and Gary Jorgensen (16th) rounded out the starting grid for the HPD Class.

Reed Rundell earned the pole in the Class B field with a lap time of 1:40.469.  Dean Moll led the outside of row two with a time of 1:40.594.  Patrick Guerin (3rd), Corey Hastings (4th), Scott Husted (5th), Casey Carpentiere (6th), Jeff Thomas (7th), Tommy Rhyne (8th), and Greg Harris (9th), completed the Corvette grid.

The problem of accidents caused by rapidly accelerating Corvettes hitting the rear of the slower starting HPD field reared its ugly head in several races during the Season One calendar, yet despite extensive off season discussions about how to prevent green flag incidents between the two classes, league officials gambled by not implementing new rules to force a gap between HPD’s and C6R’s during the pace lap at Daytona.  The gamble didn’t pay off as three cars suffered heavy damage when the lead Corvettes attempted to overtake the tail end of the HPD field in Turn One at the start of the race.

Most of the HPD field got a clean start and managed to avoid the mess caused when Rundell’s Corvette slammed into the rear of Jorgensen’s HPD at the entry of Turn One.  The contact turned Jorgensen hard to the right and into the side of Moll’s Corvette.  Jorgensen and Moll both slid off course and came to a stop while the rest of the field drove past.  Drivers are normally concentrating hard for the entry of Turn One, but the high speed corner proved to be the downfall of many drivers as seven different incidents were recorded there during the race.

The rest of the field settled into a nice rhythm on Lap One, and Gantman was sitting comfortably in fifth place when he self-spun in the Bus Stop on the back stretch on Lap Two.  Everyone else avoided his car, so Gantman rejoined the hunt with only his pride hurting from the incident.  Kyle was the next to succumb to aggressive driving when he spun exiting Turn One on Lap Three.  He tapped the inside wall, but was able to continue racing.

Having survived the Turn One incident on the start, Moll was in 23rd place when he destroyed his car on Lap Three.  The incident began when Moll’s car lost grip as he drove over the infield grass exiting the Bus Stop.  Unable to stop his forward momentum, Moll held on for a wild ride as his car slammed hard enough into the outside wall to lift all four wheels completely off the ground.  Amazingly, no one else was collected in the incident and Moll was able to walk away from the accident without injury.

Lap four saw Hadden overshoot the entry of Turn Five and give up 6th position as his car lightly tapped the tire barrier.  Jorgensen’s race ended a lap later when he failed to negotiate the exit of Turn One.  The resulting spin and hard contact with the infield wall took the front end off his car.

Things calmed down a bit for several laps before Friedrichs executed a beautiful 360 spin in Turn Three of Lap Nine.  Jeff Sharp came barreling through the corner as Friedrichs’ car was facing the wrong direction on the track, but neither driver panicked and both escaped without contact.

Kyle had a race full of mishaps, but looked like he might make it to the finish line before a final error on Lap Twenty-Three totaled his car.  Weiss had a great view of the accident and for a brief moment, looked as though he might have to drive under Kyle’s airborne car while it was flipping through the air.

In yet another demonstration of why the RSR league is considered one of the cleanest group of online drivers, there were only 64 incident points during the 519 laps completed by the 24 drivers who started the race.  Most of those were 1-off incidents which did not involve accidents.  Koscielniak, Daul, Sutcliff, Sharp, Galica, and Hastings earned bonus points for completing the race without incident.

Class A results:

Turner led the first four laps of the race before giving way to Vincent.  Vincent almost gave the lead back when he overshot the entry of Turn One on Lap Twelve, but Turner gave him room to rejoin the track and didn’t force the issue as their cars gathered speed for Turns Two and Three.

Turner hounded Vincent up until the pit cycle, but tagged the pit wall on exit. There was no visible damage but the 01 TeamDraft Batmobile lost 6 mph out on the banking, ending his chances to catch Vincent who slowly pulled away and went on to a 10 second margin of victory. Koscielniak was 26 seconds back when he crossed the line for third place.  Daul and Weiss rounded out the top five spots.

Berry (6th), Sutcliff (7th), Friedrichs (8th), Sharp (9th), Gantman (10th), Feldman (11th), Hadden (12th), Galica (13th), Kyle (14th), and Jorgensen (15th) completed the HPD scoring. Gildersleeve Jr. practiced and qualified 10th for the event but did not start the race.
 
Vincent, Koscielniak, Turner, Daul, and Weiss hold the top five spots in the Class A Championship.

Class B results:

Rundell’s lap one incident ruined his chances for a podium finish and allowed Hastings and Guerin to battle for the top spot.  Hastings held the early lead before giving way to Guerin on Lap Eight.  Guerin (83), and Hastings (86), battled hard for the C6R class lead and pitted together on Lap Fourteen.  A costly error by Hastings missing his pit stall forced the driver to come back down pit road for service the next lap.  The mistake ended any chance he had of challenging for the win. Guerin went on to take the checkers and earn his first RSR victory.

Hastings held on for second place in his first RSR start.  His incident free race also earned Hastings a bonus point which gave him a one point lead in the C6R championship after one event.

Rhyne finished third, while Husted (4th) and Thomas (5th) rounded out the top five.  Carpentiere (6th), Rundell (7th), Harris (8th), and Moll (9th) completed the Corvette scoring.

Hastings, Guerin, Rhyne, Husted, and Thomas hold the top five spots in the Class B Championship.

Next Race:

League members travel to Virginia for the “The Virginian 30 at VIR” on May 17, 2012

Race Results:
http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_event_result/Red-Sox-Racing-League/1544

League Standings:
http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_champ/Red-Sox-Racing-League/285

League Video Site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/draftin11

The defending champion sat at or near the top of the timesheets throughout the 90 minutes of track time, and lapped the 1.2-mile Indy circuit in less than 42.5 seconds on a number of occasions.

The Team RMG driver eventually got his time down to a 42.415s lap in his M3, which was enough to end the session 0.077s ahead of championship leader Gary Paffett.

Paffett had the most significant moment of the session as he ran straight on at the entrance to Surtees just after the midway point. The British driver’s HWA Mercedes slowed to a crawl on the moist grass and cut out the entire final corner before taking to the pitlane to have the greenery removed.

Paffett had been outside the top 10 at that point, but climbed to second with his final lap of the session.

His lap demoted his team-mate Christian Vietoris to third, the German having been fastest in the first half of the session in 42.495s and then failing to improve later on as the threat of rain hung over the circuit.

Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi were other Mercedes men to set quick late laps for the Mucke and Persson teams respectively, elevating the pair to fifth and sixth, ahead of Augusto Farfus’ RBM BMW.

Mattias Ekstrom was the best of the Audi drivers in eighth for the Abt team while HWA duo Ralf Schumacher and Jamie Green completed the top 10.

Grand prix winner David Coulthard was 16th quickest for Mucke, one place ahead of Andy Priaulx’s RBM BMW and three ahead of Susie Wolff’s Persson Mercedes.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time     Gap
 1.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           42.415s
 2.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      42.492s  + 0.077s
 3.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      42.495s  + 0.080s
 4.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes    42.497s  + 0.082s
 5.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  42.503s  + 0.088s
 6.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     42.510s  + 0.095s
 7.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           42.517s  + 0.102s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          42.597s  + 0.182s
 9.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      42.632s  + 0.217s
10.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      42.669s  + 0.254s
11.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      42.687s  + 0.272s
12.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      42.708s  + 0.293s
13.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          42.744s  + 0.329s
14.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          42.774s  + 0.359s
15.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           42.804s  + 0.389s
16.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    42.832s  + 0.417s
17.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           42.841s  + 0.426s
18.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      42.844s  + 0.429s
19.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes  42.876s  + 0.461s
20.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      42.877s  + 0.462s
21.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     42.970s  + 0.555s
22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          43.201s  + 0.786s

Kimi Raikkonen is upbeat that Lotus will be able to deliver a race-winning weekend this season, but he is unsure if it can do that as soon as the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Finn has finished on the podium in the last two races, and knows that the team has the pace to be able to go for victory.

But although he is one of the favourites for success on the streets of Monte Carlo, Raikkonen thinks it too early to judge whether or not his team’s E20 will have the pace to triumph.

“Monaco is a little bit different and it’s hard to say how it will go there,” he said. “The team has done a good job so far and we still have work to do and things to improve.

“So far it’s going well and I’m happy with it. OK, we’re not 100 per cent satisfied with it because we are not winning but that’s a very normal thing and I’m pleased for the team.”

He added: “To be on the podium twice already is good. Unfortunately you’re not always going to get there. If you get the chance, you should take it because it’s not every race that you will be able to fight for that position.

“Hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing now and at a certain point I’m sure that things will go exactly right and we’ll get there. So far we’ve made good steps forward and the car has been strong everywhere.”

Raikkonen’s team boss Eric Boullier is being equally cautious about the prospects for Monaco; although he is in no doubt that the outfit is ready to win.

“Our strength has been that we have been there or thereabouts at every circuit. So far we haven’t suffered the performance fluctuations that some of our rivals have seen,” he said. “If we continue like this we will be very well placed for scoring good championship points. Of course, scoring points is one thing. They’re very valuable and whoever has the most wins the championship. But we all really want to have a win.

“Historically Enstone teams have shown good pace in Monaco, but last year’s car wasn’t strong in slow speed corners so we may have some work to do. In terms of the team and our drivers, we’re all ready for a win. We’re looking at every aspect of the car and how we run it and we’re all focused tremendously on achieving our goals. A win would be a fabulous thing.”

Lotus will be introducing a high-downforce specification rear wing for Monaco, as well as updates to the sidepod and brake drums.

Formula 1 drivers will once again be banned from using DRS in the tunnel at the Monaco Grand Prix on safety grounds, AUTOSPORT can reveal.

Last season, drivers campaigned in the build-up to the race for DRS to be disabled through the Monaco tunnel because of concerns that it could put them in a dangerous situation if they were forced to use it there throughout practice and qualifying.

The right hand kink inside the tunnel is flat-out, and if anything did go wrong and a driver lost control after activating DRS, then there is very little run-off at the exit.

The decision to outlaw DRS in the tunnel was welcomed by drivers ahead of last year’s race, and there was even more relief afterwards in the wake of Sergio Perez’s horrifying qualifying crash.

The Mexican suffered concussion in his accident in Q3, after losing control of his Sauber under braking for the chicane on the exit of the tunnel. Had DRS been allowed then it is likely that Perez would have been travelling up to 10km/h faster when he crashed – which could have meant the consequences of his accident being more severe.

With the Perez accident highlighting the dangers of that section of track, sources have revealed that the FIA has again agreed to restrict use of DRS in the area that encompasses the exit of the Portier corner and all the way through to the chicane.

Last season, Jenson Button was one of many drivers backing the FIA decision to ban DRS use through there.

“It was necessary,” said Button of the decision. “The tunnel is a very slippery place with a lot less grip than the rest of the track and marbles bouncing off the barriers and coming back onto the racing line.

“The first person that tried to use DRS in the tunnel was going to put it in the wall. It’s a very good idea. It’s not going to help overtaking through the tunnel and it’s pointless having it. It’s an unnecessary danger.”

The FIA has also made no changes to the location of the DRS activation for this year – which will once again run along the start-finish straight.

Sergio Perez says he returns to the Monaco Grand Prix a much stronger driver one year on from his horrifying crash in qualifying.

The Mexican made it through to Q3 in Monaco last season, but lost control of his Sauber as he hit the brakes on the section of track of track after the tunnel. His car hit the wall on the right hand side before spinning sideways into the barriers at the famous chicane.

Perez suffered concussion in the accident, which forced him to miss the Monaco race – and also put him out of the Canadian event a fortnight later as he had not fully recovered.

Reflecting on the events of that weekend, Perez said that he learned a great deal – which is why he is more confident about his chances in Monaco this time out.

“This grand prix is the most special one for me,” he said on Friday. “I have been waiting to race in the Monaco GP all my life and, of course, after what happened last year I am looking forward to it even more.

“I strongly believe on this track the driver can make more of a difference than on any other track. As a team we are in good shape and I want to keep that momentum for Monaco. I also think our car can perform quite well on that unique city circuit.

“Of course I also think back to the accident I had in Q3 last year. To me it is like a watershed event in my career. There is a time before and a time after the accident. I learnt a lot from what I had to go through and I think it made me stronger. I really want to show what I can do in Monte Carlo.”

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner believes that consistency over the season is now ‘critical’ to winning this year’s Formula 1 world championship.

With fluctuations in form delivering unpredictable race results, Horner thinks that success in the title chase is now dependent on the long game and ensuring teams score points at every opportunity.

“I think it is not by coincidence that we have had five races now and five different winners. It is also not coincidence that we have managed to emerge from race five and we find ourselves leading both drivers’ and constructors’ championships,” explained Horner.

“These tyres are obviously the key to performance. I think there is a great deal of head scratching going on up and down the paddock, and it is a matter of whoever understands these tyre characteristics and manages to broaden the window of performance from track to track will ultimately prevail.

“I think where we have done a good job is on the days where we have not been able to win, we have managed to stage a respectable recovery. Consistency over the year is ultimately what is going to be critical.”

Horner says teams are still getting to grips with understanding the tyres and that, although individual events may fall to different teams, it is performance over the whole campaign that is much more important.

“Who knows, we might have Caterham winning the next race!” he said. “I think for the time being, performance is going to fluctuate from team to team.

“But the most important thing is to be consistent. Arguably after five races we must have been the most consistent because we find ourselves leading both championships, so the days that don’t go your way, you have still got to make sure that you optimise: that you have good strategy, good pit work and ultimately pretty reasonable pace in clear air in the race.”

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has hit back at suggestions that the 2012 Formula 1 season is now too unpredictable – and thinks the variety of winners is of huge benefit to everyone involved in the sport.

With five different winners from the first five races, there has been some criticism, including from Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, that the tyres are playing too big a role in the outcome of races and are turning F1 into a lottery, which could prove to be a turn-off for some fans.

Hembery has always insisted, however, that the tyres are not the dominant factor in deciding races, and that the best engineers, teams and drivers are coming out on top.

And he thinks that having more winners in F1 can only be a positive thing for both fans and teams.

“The vast majority of feedback we get is that people are enjoying the races,” Hembery told AUTOSPORT. “At the start of the year, if we had said five different winners and five different cars then everyone would have suggested you had been smoking something – but we have got it.

“And I think the vast majority of fans will be pleased to see exciting races. Anyone who begrudges [Pastor] Maldonado’s win in Spain with Williams is someone who needs to get out a bit more, because the whole paddock was delighted. I think for a lot of people’s views, that is what they want to see.”

Hembery thinks that F1 delivering race-winning opportunities to teams like Williams is great news, and can have positive commercial implications for the sport.

“There are a lot of teams here who have to find budgets, find sponsors and justify their presence in F1, and if they do get the profile then that is great. Spain was an excellent win for Williams, but we saw Sauber getting a great result in Malaysia and we saw Paul di Resta have a good race in Bahrain with Force India.

“These are all aspects that are important for all these teams. Over a season, you will still find the best drivers, the best cars and the best designers will win. There are 20 races, so that will happen.

“Just look at the championship. It has absolutely closed up, people have been asking for it for years. We have got it, and some people still are not happy.”

Hembery reckons that some teams are finally getting a full understanding of how to get the best out of the tyres with the 2012 cars, and he expects the season to settle down more from now on.

“We don’t want to be the major element of F1 racing. It needs to be down to the engineers and drivers and cars, so from that perspective we would not like it to get any more exciting.

“In time the engineers will master what they are doing and, give it is a few more races, things will settle down. We had some indications in Spain that three or four teams had made some progress. We felt that was borne out with some of the results we saw.”

British Touring Car race-winner Tom Onslow-Cole will join the Superstars International Series field for its UK round at Donington Park this weekend.

The 25-year-old will join Monza victor Max Pigoli in the Ferlito Motors Jaguar team.

“It’s going to be really exciting to drive these cars with so much power,” said Onslow-Cole.

“I have watched some of the races and they are spectacular. The cars make the right noises and they move at the right speeds.”

Onslow-Cole currently races for WSR’s BMW team in the BTCC, and is ninth in the 2012 standings at present.

Jacques Villeneuve will return to NASCAR action this year with Penske in the two road course races in the Nationwide Series, the team has announced.

The 1997 Formula 1 world champion contested the Road America and Montreal races for Penske last year, finishing third at the US track and taking pole position at the circuit named after his father Gilles.

“I appreciate Penske Racing giving me the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of the #22 Dodge this season,” said Villeneuve.

“Road America and Montreal are two of my favourite racetracks. I feel, after winning the pole last year at Montreal, that we can have a lot of success. A NASCAR victory is something I want.”

Penske Racing team president Tim Cindric added: “Jacques is a great road racer that brings extensive experience to the #22 team.

“He gave us two strong runs last year and we feel he can do the same this season. We would like to be the team that gives him his first NASCAR victory.”

Villeneuve took his maiden Indycar win at Road America in 1994, and he followed it up with another a year later on his way to the title before graduating to F1.

He never enjoyed particular success in Montreal during his Formula 1 career. His best finish came first time out in 1996, where he finished second to Williams team-mate Damon Hill.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg are confident that their Mercedes car will be well suited to the Monaco track as they aim for the team’s second win of the year.

Although the outfit has only had one podium finish so far this year, both drivers believe that the low speed nature of the Monte Carlo track, allied to the demands on traction, should be good for their chances at Formula 1′s blue riband event.

Rosberg said: “I have always been quick around the streets here, and I believe a good result is possible for us next weekend.

“The nature of the track should suit our car but as we have seen at every race so far this season, tyre management will be crucial. With five different winning teams so far this year, at least ten drivers have the chance to win in Monaco so this could be one of the most interesting races there for years.”

Schumacher’s chances of victory have been compromised by a five-place grid penalty that he has been handed as a result of his collision with Bruno Senna at the Spanish Grand Prix.

However, he is not seeing that as enough reason to simply give up hope – especially because good strategy calls could help him move up the order.

“Every time you go there, you just look forward to finally getting out and driving the track,” he explained. “Of course, knowing that I will lose five positions on the grid does not add to this feeling but this just means that I will have to try even harder.

“I’m actually quite confident that we should look reasonably good in Monaco due to the hard work that everybody in the team is putting into the development of our car. So let’s make the best out of the weekend.”

Valentino Rossi thinks Casey Stoner’s criticism that MotoGP should focus only on being a prototype championship is unrealistic – because the economic situation in the world makes that no longer a realistic proposition.

After announcing his retirement at the end of this season, Stoner told the media at Le Mans on Thursday that he believed MotoGP was going ‘backwards’ in considering more production-based regulations.

However, although conceding that the field was no longer as competitive at the front as it once was, Rossi said that modern realities meant MotoGP could not simply chase rules without consideration for costs.

When asked about Stoner’s feelings, Rossi said: “I agree in the sense that that’s his opinion, but unfortunately you need to keep up with the times.

“It would be nicer for everyone to race with 25 prototype bikes in the field, but nobody has the money anymore.

“For me, riding the bike is still very enjoyable, like coming here and working with my team in order to do as well as possible. Lately the races are a bit less enjoyable compared to a few years ago, but I don’t think it’s down to the riders: I think it’s more of a technical matter.”

Stoner said in a frank explanation of his feelings that he had lost his passion for MotoGP because of the direction that the series was taking.

“It is not starting again from the beginning, it is going backwards,” said Stoner, referring to the arrival of the production-based CRTs.

“For me it is not the championship I fell in love in. It is not the championship I always wanted to race in and, except for my competitors around me, they are the only ones who give respect for each other.

“Nobody else has enough respect for the people that do their jobs, working at the teams, working in the trucks, and putting this show on every week. It is not easy.”

Casey Stoner proved his surprise decision to retire at the end of the 2012 MotoGP season had done little to dim his pace or hunger by going fastest in the opening practice session at Le Mans.

Stoner went clear early on and rarely looked troubled thereafter, and for half the session was almost one second clear of the field.

When others, chiefly his Honda stable-mate Dani Pedrosa, did close in, the Australian went back out and lowered his benchmark further, ending the session 0.587 seconds clear of Pedrosa.

There was a flurry of improvements as the flag fell. Tech 3 Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso claimed third, while his team-mate Cal Crutchlow simultaneously moved into seventh.

Little more than a quarter of a second separated the pair, but that gap was still enough for three other riders: the two works Yamahas of Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo, fourth and sixth respectively, and the Pramac Ducati of Hector Barbera.

Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista finished eighth ahead of the two works Ducatis, both of which had run within the top six for much of the session before being bumped down by the late improvements.

Valentino Rossi, who scored his last MotoGP podium at the French circuit last year, finished more than 1.5s down on Stoner but did complete the most laps of any rider.

Aspar’s Randy de Puniet was once again the fastest CRT rider in 13th, while Chris Vermeulen – replacing the man de Puniet hit at Estoril, Colin Edwards – made an understandably cautious start, finishing last and outside the 107 per cent marker.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap

 1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m34.321s

 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m34.908s  + 0.587s

 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m35.065s  + 0.744s

 4.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m35.202s  + 0.881s

 5.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m35.213s  + 0.892s

 6.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m35.239s  + 0.918s

 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m35.318s  + 0.997s

 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m35.336s  + 1.015s

 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m35.403s  + 1.082s

10.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m35.829s  + 1.508s

11.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m36.291s  + 1.970s

12.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m36.500s  + 2.179s

13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m36.935s  + 2.614s

14.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m37.916s  + 3.595s

15.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m38.140s  + 3.819s

16.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m38.209s  + 3.888s

17.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m38.255s  + 3.934s

18.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m38.943s  + 4.622s

19.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m39.110s  + 4.789s

20.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m39.729s  + 5.408s

21.  Chris Vermeulen   Forward Suter-BMW         1m41.398s  + 7.077s

Three-time V8 Supercars champion Craig Lowndes reckons Casey Stoner could make a successful transition to the Australian touring car series if he chose to do so.

Stoner announced on Thursday that he would retire from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season, after just seven years at the sport’s top level. The 2007 and ’11 MotoGP title-winner tested Lowndes’ V8 series Triple Eight Holden last winter, impressing Lowndes, and acknowledged during his MotoGP retirement announcement that he was open to racing in V8s in the longer-term future.

Asked about Stoner’s V8 potential, Lowndes replied: “When he drove the car he was very good in a lot of areas. His focus and determination on trying to be fast was really good.

“In the slow sections of the track he was on par with Jamie [Whincup] and I from the outset. On the high-speed sections he took a little longer to get to grips with but eventually got to that point. His feel and his ability, knowledge and what he wants from the car is very good.

“He would crossover pretty well, it’s just a matter of what he wants to do.”

Lowndes added that Stoner’s enthusiasm for V8s was also very clear.

“If you look at his twitter he follows what we are doing every race weekend no matter where we are or he is around the world,” said Lowndes. “He follows V8s very seriously and tells Jamie and I what he thinks is wrong with the car. He is very passionate about racing and the V8 Supercars.”

In light of the rumours connecting Stoner with a V8 drive, the championship said it would welcome him with ‘open arms’.

“His unexpected retirement has brought with it increased media speculation that he will compete in Australia’s pinnacle motor sport category,” V8 Supercars said in a statement.

“V8 Supercars would welcome Stoner with open arms should he choose to make the switch from two wheels to four, following the likes of Wayne Gardner into touring car racing.”

General Motors will run the Chevrolet SS in the Sprint Cup Series from 2013, the manufacturer announced Thursday.

Chevrolet will use NASCAR’s elite series to launch its new SS model, which will only be on sale in the US until later this year.

Next season, new bodies will be introduced in the Cup as manufacturers have moved to try to make their race cars look more like their road vehicles.

The Chevy road car featuring the Super Sport badge will be a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive sedan, the first on offer in the US in 17 years. The SS has been used by the bow-tie brand since the 1960s with the Impala and has also been used in both the Corvette and Camaro models.

“As a passionate race fan and performance enthusiast, I am thrilled that Chevrolet will deliver a true rear-wheel-drive NASCAR race car in the SS that is closely linked to the performance sedan that will be available for sale,” said Mark Reuss, president of GM North America.

“The Chevrolet SS is a great example of how GM is able to leverage its global product portfolio to deliver a unique performance experience that extends beyond the track. I am personally looking forward to driving it.”

While Ford will continues to run the Fusion and Toyota the Camry model, the cars’ looks have been heavily revised relative to the current one.

Despite having yet to announce their teams for 2013 following Penske’s move to Ford, Dodge is set to run a revised Charger.

Scott Dixon has gone quickest on the sixth day of practice for the Indy 500, the Ganassi driver and 2008 Indy 500 winner setting the pace with a 40.3428s lap that was clocked at 223.088mph.

Dixon finished the day just ahead of Sarah Fisher Hartman’s Josef Newgarden and Ganassi stable-mate Graham Rahal, and said that the team had been making steady progress with the car throughout the week.

“We’ve taken this week a little slower,” said the New Zealander. “We didn’t have the speed; these speeds are all big tows, so it doesn’t really matter much.

“For us, we’re just working on the race car, and I think we’ve made big improvements on how it feels. For me, I feel happy because we made the car feel a lot nicer to drive, and especially in traffic it pulls up better.

“Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be totally different stories to see who’s got what out there by themselves, so that will be interesting.”

Teams will have their boost levels turned up for from 130 to 140 kPA for Fast Friday, Pole Day tomorrow and Bump Day on Sunday, which the series predicts will result in an extra 40 to 50 horsepower.

Boost will be reduced to its normal speedway levels for the race.

Casey Stoner believes MotoGP is ‘going backwards’ in moving away from being a prototype-only championship, after saying the series no longer holds his interest.

After announcing his plans for retirement at the end of this season, Stoner explained that there were a number of factors that had dimmed his passion for the category – one of which included the future direction of the sport.

“It is not starting again from the beginning, it is going backwards,” said Stoner, referring to the arrival of the production-based CRTs and consideration given to a more production-based future.

“For me it is not the championship I fell in love in. It is not the championship I always wanted to race in and, except for my competitors around me, they are the only ones who give respect for each other.

“Nobody else has enough respect for the people that do their jobs, working at the teams, working in the trucks, and putting this show on every week. It is not easy.

“There are many, many different reasons but it is basically me losing my patience with the racing and my enjoyment of this sport. For sure I am going to enjoy this year but if I continue [beyond that] it will be a mistake on my half. It would not be correct to Honda and everyone at the team if I did not give 110 per cent.”

Stoner also hit out of the way the media had been so critical of the racing recently – and reckons that such a stance will only serve to hurt its chances of recovering.

“My passion has slowly ebbed away from this championship,” said the Australian, who also expressed frustration at the cynicism that greeted his lactose intolerance problems that kept him away from some races in 2009.

“You yourselves, the media, have not exactly been friendly to this championship and criticised me many times, especially recently.

“[But] people don’t realise that everybody is bringing it down themselves, they are saying the racing is boring, that is boring – but if you go back some years you will find the same number of races that were close or not.

“I think people just need to appreciate what they have in front of them, and I think everybody in this room needs to realise what sort of championship they have, before it is gone.

“I think it will be really nice to see some fantastic racing again at the front. But, with only a few factory bikes out there, it is not going to happen soon.

“There needs to be more high quality bikes out there so people like Randy [de Puniet] can run where he deserves to be and not so far behind 12th position. There is no way for them to get anywhere near the factory bikes.”

Speaking about his lactose intolerance situation, Stoner said: “Everyone still to this day says it was a mystery illness – the fact that no one understands that I have a lactose intolerance, that is really critical to me.”

Former champion Valentino Rossi believes Casey Stoner’s exit from MotoGP is a big loss for the sport.

Stoner, a two-time champion, announced on Thursday ahead of the French Grand Prix that he will leave the championship at the end of the 2012 season.

The Honda rider, 26, is the reigning champion and the current points’ leader.

Ducati rival Rossi believes Stoner’s loss is a big shame for MotoGP.

“I think it’s most of all a negative thing for MotoGP, because we are losing the reigning world champion and current points leader, so from a technical point of view the series is losing out a lot,” Rossi told reporters at Le Mans.

Rossi, enduring one of his worst starts to a season with Ducati, denied he himself was thinking about quitting the sport, although he admitted he had thought about the possibility in the past.

“Yes, but I will tell you I’m not retiring, and then I’ll retire without doing this, because I don’t love goodbyes much,” he added.

“You will know when I’m at home already! Joking apart, for a rider it can be an unforgettable moment, but perhaps more for the wrong reasons rather than the good ones.

“It’s sad, because you’ll have to think about changing your lifestyle and to abandon what you have been doing for perhaps 15 years, so it’s something you surely won’t forget.”

Leading Auto GP team boss David Sears has warned the series that it must not price its teams out of the market when it introduces a new car next year.

Series boss Enzo Coloni confirmed last month that the 2013 championship would feature either an updated version of the existing Lola chassis or a completely new machine built by Coloni that will retain the current car’s gearbox and Zytek engine.

Super Nova International boss David Sears echoed many team managers’ views by expressing a wish to see the series’ current low-cost philosophy retained.

“I am sure from a popularity point of view, if the new car looks like a Formula 1 car then people will like the look,” said Sears.

“That’s fine, as long as it doesn’t whack up the budget, because we are still in a recession. If Auto GP’s new car is as good as it looks and is half the price of Formula Renault 3.5, then it is going to attract business from our end.

“For me, the risk is what happened with A1 GP,” continued Sears, who fielded A1 GP teams for New Zealand and Germany. “They spent a shed load of money on a car from Ferrari [after three seasons with the car that forms the basis of the current Auto GP model].

“Perhaps it looked a bit prettier, but it caused the downfall of the championship. Sure, change the aero package and this, that and the other, but don’t change a concept that works.”

Ombra team manager and partner Davide Mazzoleni said that his outfit’s future in Auto GP is dependent on budgetary situation in 2013, having left Formula 3 for the same reason last year.

“Auto GP is set on a budget that is very good in the market, so we are really looking to continue next year,” he said.

“Whether we do will depend on many aspects, including the organiser’s proposals and the market for this type of single-seater racing. We were involved in F3 for many, may years and then F3 came to a difficult period, so now you have to be ready each season to change your programme.”

Casey Stoner says racing in the V8 Supercar series is something he will consider in the future after announcing his retirement from MotoGP.

The 26-year-old Australian confirmed in a press conference at Le Mans on Thursday that the 2012 season will be his last in MotoGP after two titles with Ducati and Honda.

Stoner said he had lost his passion for MotoGP and admitted he will consider a future in V8 Supercars, but not right away.

“It is something I am definitely interested to do in the future, but whether I will be fast enough or not is another thing,” said Stoner.

“That will be not in the near future, the immediate future. There are many things that I would like to do with my life, and to be honest I don’t want to keep racing bikes to the point where I lose completely my passion.

“I don’t want to finish racing and then not want to ride a bike for the next five or 10 years, I love bikes, it has been my whole life and if I keep doing it I am afraid I will lose completely my passion for it and not want to go near a bike for the next 10 years and that would scare me, for many, many reasons.”

Stoner denied, however, that racing in the Supercar series had anything to do with his decision to retire from the world championship.

The Australian impressed when he drove Triple Eight’s Holden V8 Supercar in a test in December last year.

“It is by no means any reason for my decision,” he said. “This has been coming for a long time, it is not something that has just happened.

“I have tested the V8 car, and that is something we have been trying to do for the last two or three years, to be honest, and finally it happened. So there is no coincidence to it whatsoever.

“Also the birth of my little girl had nothing to do with this. It had a small part in making the decision easier but by no means is it the reason why I made this decision.”

The news comes after the the Australian, a two-time MotoGP champion, had denied speculation about his exit from the sport in the previous race.

He confirmed at Le Mans on Thursday however, that this will be his last season in MotoGP.

“After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 championship,” said Stoner.

“I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life.

“After so many years of doing this sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to at this point, this sport has changed a lot and it has changed to the point where I am not enjoying it. I don’t have the passion for it and so at this time it’s better if I retire now.

“There are a lot of things that have disappointed me, and also a lot of things I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately the balance has gone in the wrong direction. And so, basically, we won’t be continuing any more.

“It would be nice if I could say I would stay one more year, but then where does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now.”

In the previous race, the Australian had said speculation about his exit was unfounded.

“Everyone seems quite good at stories and making them up,” said Stoner at Estoril earlier this month. “I’ve said many times in the past that my career’s not going to go on much longer, I’m not going to keep going and riding until I’m in my 30s and things like this.

“For me at the moment, I haven’t decided what I’m going to be doing, and certainly no one else is going to know what I’m doing.”

The 26-year-old from New South Wales had made his MotoGP debut in 2006, after finishing runner-up in the 250cc championship the previous year.

He moved to Ducati in 2007, taking the title with 10 wins, before switching to Honda at the start of the 2011 season. Stoner won his second championship last year, also with 10 victories.

Stoner has scored a total of 35 wins in the top category.

He is currently leading the championship after having won two of the first three races.

Volkswagen motorsport director Jost Capito is confident the German firm’s presence in the World Rally Championship will help attract more global commercial interest in the series.

Capito, who had been working for Ford in America before returning to Europe to take over from Kris Nissen, admitted he had followed the WRC’s troubled time closely, but added that he was confident the championship was over the worst.

“It’s time to wake the sleeping lion,” said Capito. “Volkswagen coming [to WRC] will boost the championship a lot. Volkswagen will do everything needed for the WRC and it will help in other ways, by boosting sponsorship, bringing the media back and other partners – it will help in bringing the television back. There is an issue with the promoter, we all know about that.”

Capito added that the calendar remained key to getting the WRC’s books balanced.

“Keeping the logistcal costs [in check] are key, nobody gets anything out of that money spent, so we need to make sure that the right rally follows the right rally,” he said.

He confirmed that Volkswagen would be backing a Brazilian round of the WRC, adding: “Brazil is a very important market for VW, so it would be good to have an event in Brazil, but it has to be right too for the security side, the safety side and everything.

“But, in principle, Brazil is a very important market and it would be good if we could get Brazil to fit into the calendar.”

Dragon Racing made a belated start to its Indy 500 campaign today after IndyCar granted the team permission to change from Lotus to Chevrolet engines.

Sebastien Bourdais completed his oval refresher course in team-mate Katherine Legge’s car this morning, and then remained in the car to work on the set-up before it is handed over to Legge later. T

he Brit is still required to complete her Rookie Orientation Programme.

“We are pleased to see this issue resolved as we head into the final practice days in advance of qualifying,” said IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard. “I have to thank all parties for working together to help preserve the traditions of the Indianapolis 500.

Dragon has been on the sidelines since it issued a $4.6m lawsuit against Lotus two weeks ago over what it claims were numerous breaches of contract.

Heikki Kovalainen: “Monaco’s the race everyone in F1 wants to win, and it’s not just a famous F1 race, it’s one of the biggest annual events in the world. For drivers it’s a pretty hardcore race, in and out of the cars, but it’s a challenge I really enjoy and racing around the streets is one of the real highlights of being an F1 driver.

“On track it’s one of the races where the pack bunches up a bit and that might give us a chance to do something special. Last year I finished 14th, one of our higher finishes of the season, so hopefully we can improve on that this year. We have KERS this year and a car that has good race pace, and as our car is slightly easier on the tyres than some of the teams ahead, maybe that will help us achieve a high race finish.”

Vitaly Petrov: “I’ve raced a lot in Monaco, not just in Formula One. I had a podium there in GP2 when I finished second in 2009, which was good. In F1 I’ve raced there twice. The first time wasn’t so great but last year was pretty good, right up until the point I crashed! That was so disappointing, but I couldn’t avoid it. We had a good strategy and I’d had a good race up to that point, but that’s how racing goes sometimes. Monaco is an unbelievable place though. Normally, between Barcelona and Monaco we have just one week and I’d leave Barcelona on Sunday night and drive to Monaco, because on the Tuesday of the race week we have the football match for the F1 drivers, which is always great.

“The track itself is always a little bit dirty at the start of the weekend and it’s quite difficult to get tyre temperatures up during the lap. It’s tricky because the walls are so close. If you make one mistake or have a little bit of oversteer, you don’t even get a chance to correct it – you’re in the wall. It takes quite a bit of mental preparation and you need to be totally focused for every single lap of every session. The race itself? The atmosphere in the race is incredible. It’s just an amazing place to drive a racing car and I really love it.”

Mark Smith, Caterham F1 Team Technical Director: “Monaco is a unique challenge, for the drivers and the teams. The fact we are in very different garage conditions to normal, and in a cramped paddock, makes it a tough race for the truckies, the mechanics and the engineers, but it is a race we all look forward to and one that everyone wants to do well at.

“The short length of the lap and the limited high-speed sections means there is much less difference in lap times than at somewhere like Barcelona. We all use high downforce settings, and we have a specific aero configuration we will use in Monaco and probably Hungary, but the days of cars sprouting all sorts of special wings just for Monaco are behind us. The cars may not look hugely different to how they appeared in Spain, but we do have as much downforce as we can find for the whole weekend in Monte Carlo.

“The other challenges are managing the brake cooling and tyre wear. Even though it’s a stop – start lap, the brakes are not put under huge strain as the speeds never get as high as a normal track, but there is a real emphasis on making sure we cool the brakes as efficiently as possible, and that is something we worked on at the Mugello test, so we are happy we have a good solution for that.

“For the tyre wear we have planned as well as we can, but we have seen so far this season that until we are actually out on track it’s almost impossible to know which teams will be hard on the tyres and which teams will be able to manage the degradation levels well. We have the soft and the supersoft compounds in Monaco, and if the wear rates on the softs are anything like we saw in Spain, strategy will be critical.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal, Caterham F1 Team: “Before looking ahead to Monaco I want to talk about what happened after the race in Spain. We performed well in the race itself – both cars ran faultlessly and Heikki and Vitaly put in strong drives, managing their tyres well and getting as much performance as they could from the cars that afternoon.

“After the race I was absolutely delighted for Sir Frank and the whole Williams F1 Team that they won their first race in eight years. Williams is one of the cornerstones of F1 today and Sir Frank and Patrick have served as mentors for me in F1 so I owe them a great deal. When I saw what then happened in their garage I was obviously concerned for the safety of my team and all the people from teams up and down the grid who showed incredible bravery, putting themselves in the middle of a very dangerous situation to help a fellow team.

“Since the team returned to base I have received a very gracious communication from Jean Todt, thanking our boys for helping put the fire out on Sunday. The actions of the Williams team, people from our team and everyone else who helped out, stopped the situation escalating and it makes me incredibly proud to be part of a sport that shows such bravery and spirit. For us, teams like Williams set the standards we must reach on track, but we showed on Sunday that when faced we adversity we behave like a championship winning team. That spirit is at the heart of our team and it is what we will call on to keep progressing and keep fighting to emulate the teams ahead.”

The Austrian will partner Russell Ingall in the Holden Commodore in the Sandown 500 in September and the Bathurst 1000 in October.

Klien, 29, got his first taste of V8 Supercar machinery last year when he raced at Surfers Paradise.

“I am very excited with this opportunity, to be joining the team and Russell Ingall for the biggest V8 Supercar races of the year is an honour,” Klien said.

“After the Gold Coast I was determined to come back and do more V8 races. It is a strong championship with extremely competitive racing, massive crowds and excellent TV coverage throughout the world. Mount Panorama is one of the world’s great circuits and the Bathurst 1000 is world-famous – it’s a must-do race in any racing driver’s career.

“To be able to take part in the 50th anniversary Bathurst with one of V8′s heroes is exciting – I can’t wait to get to the mountain in October.”

Klien took part in 49 Formula 1 gands prix with Jaguar, Red Bull and Hispania between 2004 and 2010. Last year he competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Aston Martin.

He will make his debut in the Walkinshaw colours at Phillip Island on Friday when he takes part in the enduro co-driver sessions during practice for the Phillip Island 300.

Williams’s shock victory in the Spanish Grand Prix was a result of major changes made to the team over the past year, according to Pastor Maldonado.

The Venezuelan, who is in his second season with Williams, believes that the team has transformed its approach since last season under new technical director Mike Coughlan and chief operations engineer Mark Gillan.

“We took a great step forward because we changed a lot of things in the factory,” Maldonado said on Thursday.

“Part of that is that the approach when we get to the track is completely different. We put a lot of things together to make a real step forward so it’s difficult to say there is a single thing [making the difference]. We changed everything and I am really happy to be part of that.”

Maldonado admitted that the fire that engulfed the Williams pit garage around 90 minutes after the race had dampened spirits.

But despite that, the prevailing feeling was happiness about ending a Williams victory drought that stretched back to the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

“It was a difficult moment for all of the team,” said Maldonado of the fire. “But we have been so happy even after that because it has been nearly eight years that Williams has not got to the top of the podium. The win is a big motivation for everyone.”

For an in-depth analysis of how Williams rebuilt itself into a winning grand prix team, check out this week’s AUTOSPORT magazine

BMW is not expecting to continue its winning form when the DTM comes to Brands Hatch this weekend.

Bruno Spengler gave the manufacturer its 50th series win last time out at Lausitz in what was only its second race back after a 20-year absence.

But motorsport director Jens Marquardt said that he was not getting his hopes up about a repeat on Sunday and that a lack of familiarity with the 1.2-mile Indy circuit will hamper BMW’s progress.

“We are well aware that we are entering unchartered territory at this circuit,” said Marquardt. “We have yet to drive a single metre there with a DTM car and have no set-up data available.

“The first two races have shown us that the M3 DTM is competitive, but the balance of power could look completely different this weekend.”

Defending champion Martin Tomczyk, who joined the RMG BMW team during the winter, won last year’s wet Brands Hatch race on his way to a surprise title success.

He believes that any performance deficit to rivals Mercedes and Audi will be highlighted in qualifying, with the shortness of the circuit meaning that an even closer than normal gap between the cars is expected on Saturday.

“It is an extremely short circuit and this means that qualifying will be even closer than at the first two race weekends,” said the German.

“The grid positions will determine whether or not you can challenge at the front of the field during the race, and overtaking opportunities are few and far between in Brands Hatch.”

BMW’s British hopes lie with Andy Priaulx, who is eighth in the championship after a strong sixth-placed finish at the Hockenheim season-opener.

Williams has quashed speculation that Bruno Senna’s place at the team is under threat if the Brazilian does not lift his game over the next few races.

While Senna’s team-mate Pastor Maldonado delivered a brilliant victory from pole position in Spain, Senna endured a tougher weekend – spinning out of Q1 and then crashing out of the race after a collision with Michael Schumacher.

That performance prompted rumours that Williams could make a push for test driver Valtteri Bottas to make the step up, with his speed in Friday practice sessions this year having impressed his bosses.

However, Williams board member Toto Wolff says that the outfit remains totally committed to Senna – and that there is no desire to fast track Bottas in to a race seat before he is ready.

“We are not replacing anybody,” Wolff told AUTOSPORT. “We have contracts with two drivers, and we are supporting our drivers as much as we can and as well as we can.

“The decision to take on Bruno and Pastor was a very carefully taken one and we will push on – not do some knee-jerk exercise.

“With Valtteri, we are going through a development school and the decision to run him on Fridays was very carefully decided. We are not going to burn him up either by putting him in a situation that we think is not appropriate. So the rumours are rubbish.”

Pastor Maldonado believes that the driver plays a bigger part in the competitive equation under Formula 1′s current regulations.

The Spanish Grand Prix winner, speaking at the Williams factory on Thursday, likened the current situation to the GP2 series, with more drivers and cars able to be competitive and nobody having a decisive advantage.

“It has become like a GP2 championship,” said Maldonado. “The drivers can make the difference and the teams can still work on the strategy and the car.

“It’s a bit boring when you see one car winning. The season is more competitive.”

Maldonado added that despite criticism by the likes of Michael Schumacher and Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz about the tyres, it is still satisfying to win races under the current rules.

“The tyre degradation is quite big and it is true that you need to manage them,” said Maldonado.

“This is part of the race and it’s the same for everybody. There are no easy races. We need to adapt to the tyres, to the rules, to the car.”

The Venezuelan added that the Williams team’s understanding of the tyres played a key part in its success in Spain.

The way that he managed the rubber in the final stint in particular while under pressure from Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was a decisive factor in his victory.

“The Pirellis are working quite well on our car at the moment,” he said. “We have degradation, but it’s the same for everybody.

“We’ve been working on the tyres. We built the car around the tyres and developed it around them.

“We understand very well how to do it [manage the tyres] especially on the driving [style] and the engineers managing the setup of the car.”

Maldonado is confident that Williams could fight for further wins this season. He underlined that the team is getting stronger as the season goes on, although it’s difficult to predict anything because of how rapidly the competitive order is changing.

“We will do our best,” said Maldonado when asked if he could win again. “All of the teams are so close, the championship is so close and the gaps are close as well.

“But we are getting better every time. At the moment, we don’t have the quickest car on the track but we are doing our best.

“Why not [win again]? But Formula 1 is changing all of the time. It’s going to be difficult.”

Indianapolis Motor Speedway will pay tribute to reigning Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon with a series of events leading up to next weekend’s race.

Wheldon, who was fatally injured in an accident at the 2011 IndyCar season-finale at Las Vegas in October, took the lead of last year’s race at the final corner after Panther Racing’s JR Hildebrand brushed the wall. It was his second victory at the 500.

The tributes began on Wednesday with the temporary addition of the Bryan Herta Autosport car that Wheldon drove last year to the IMS Hall of Fame Museum, where it will remain on display until Saturday.

Herta will then drive the car for a lap of honour on race day shortly before the instructions are given to start engines.

Fans will be given white cardboard sunglasses mimicking those worn by Wheldon as they enter the track on race day, and will be encouraged to wear them on the parade lap and laps 26 and 98, which were the numbers of his two Indy-winning cars.

Additionally, Wheldon will appear on all of the race day technical inspection stickers, which will be attached to every car in the field.

The series also plans to include Wheldon’s widow Susie in the tributes by having her speak at the drivers’ meeting on Saturday, and having her receive the traditional winner’s ring for her husband’s 2011 success when she arrives in Indianapolis.

McLaren says it will be ultra-hard on itself to iron out the kind of mistakes that are costing it valuable points in its battle for the world championship.

After some frustrating races where the team’s form was hit by a number of pit stop errors, plus the fuel problem that cost Lewis Hamilton pole position in Spain, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh insists the outfit is not taking the situation lightly.

“One mistake can do it, and we have made some,” he explained. “It is painful, frustrating and difficult in the team, and we get a fair amount of external scrutiny and criticisms.

“But believe me, we are much harder on ourselves and it is reasonable to be criticised if you are not getting it right.”

When asked what the team could do to limit the mistakes – especially with such a premium now on delivering error-free weekends – Whitmarsh said: “It is the obvious thing.

“We have complex processes, and lots of challenges, but we must concentrate and focus to not make mistakes. It is not magic. It is doing our job and doing it correctly.”

Whitmarsh thinks the bigger challenge for the team is not in ironing out the mistakes but in increasing its understanding of how to extract the most performance from the tyres over the remainder of the campaign.

“There is no magic in F1,” he said. “You have to work hard, look at the data, understand and study it, and then try and effect control once you have got the data.

“Once you have got the understanding, then delivering what you want to ensure you get the best out of those tyres is the next part of that challenge – and we have got some views and ideas. But with every race that goes by, perhaps we are left with a few more questions than we thought we had at the beginning of the weekend.

“We are learning something, but I don’t think there is anyone here who convinces me that they understand these tyres and knows comfortably and confidently how to exploit them on a regular basis.

“It has become an incredible feature of this championship and, inadvertently or otherwise, it is creating the extraordinary season that we are seeing.”

And with five different winners from the first five races, Whitmarsh says it is not for definite that things will become more predictable over the remainder of the campaign.

“I would like to see it settle down in our favour, but I don’t think we can rely on it,” he said.

“I think this is going to run and run – and this is going to be a great season. There will be moments of extreme agony and frustration for us, but it is great for everyone out there and that is how it should be.”

Kimi Raikkonen says that too much has been made of the impact of tyres on the racing this year – and thinks that it is the ban on refuelling that is playing a huge factor in shuffling up the order as well.

The competitiveness of the F1 field this year has meant elements like tyres are playing a bigger role in the outcome of races, with Pirelli having faced criticism that its products have now become too important in defining results.

However, Raikkonen is not convinced that Pirelli should have been singled out as the key element – because he reckons that the ban on refuelling is a big contributing factor too.

“I don’t think the nature [of F1] is different because of that,” Raikkonen told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat about the impact of Pirelli.

“It’s because of the amount of the fuel on board. I don’t think there would be that much problem with these tyres, if we would race with 50 or 60 kilos, when we start.

“Previously the pitstops were made usually after every 20 laps, while we had less fuel. I think it would have been the same situation with Michelins and Bridgestones if we would have this much fuel as we have now.

“These tyres are good in qualifying: they have a good grip and all in all they are good tyres.”

Refuelling was banned at the start of the 2010 season that witnessed four different winners in the first five races, and produced a four-way championship finale in Abu Dhabi.

Kamui Kobayashi thinks Sauber could be in the hunt for a podium finish at the Monaco Grand Prix with the team having delivered a good step forward in pace with its latest update.

The Japanese driver bounced back from a hydraulic issue in qualifying for Spain, which left him ninth on the grid, to finish fifth – and he reckons the team can expect even more on the streets of Monte Carlo.

“I think our car will be better in Monaco than it was last year because it has improved in slow corners,” said Kobayashi. “In 2011 I finished fifth, so the target should be to finish higher up this year.

“However, even if you are given the best car in Monaco, in the end a lot is down to the driver to get the ultimate tenths of a second out of it.”

Kobayashi thinks the nature of the current season – which has seen five different teams winning the first five races – points to the fact that Sauber too can fight for good results if it delivers a perfect weekend.

“We have seen five different winners in five races. So you could say almost everything is possible this year,” he explained. “I believe we have a good car and good chances for good results.

“The final outcome always depends on a lot of factors. But what you have to do for success is to get every small thing perfectly right over the entire weekend. And this is what I’m aiming at.”

Speaking about the improvements to his C31 that were delivered in Spain, Kobayashi said: “I think we have improved in the areas we wanted to. The car is better balanced through the corners now. In terms of stability I would say it is about the same, but stability always depends a lot on the track conditions.”

Newgarden topped the charts with a 40.2977s lap (222.785mph), putting him just ahead of Andretti Autosport trio Marco Andretti (222.108mph), Ryan Hunter-Reay (221.763mph), and James Hinchcliffe (221.638mph).

But his day ended when he lost control of his car just 16 minutes before the end of the six hour session and spun through 720 degrees before glancing against the barriers.

“You don’t get many lucky breaks around this place, and I think I just got one,” Newgarden said. “The guys have done a great job putting together such a good car, and I don’t want to hurt the thing. I’ll try to learn what happened and why the thing got around on me.

“Everyone’s trying to figure out the race car around this place, and obviously I have a little more work to do. We were old on our tyre run and trying to run as far as possible to see how the car reacts, and I think it’s just difficult to run in the tow, and today I got bit by it a little.”

Pos Driver               Team                             Time          
 1. Josef Newgarden      Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing      40.3977s 2. Marco Andretti       Andretti Autosport               40.5208s +0.1231 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Autosport               40.5839s +0.1862 4. James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Autosport               40.6067s +0.2090 5. Dario Franchitti     Chip Ganassi Racing              40.6095s +0.2118 6. Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne Racing                40.6468s +0.2491 7. Bryan Clauson        Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing      40.7182s +0.3205 8. Charlie Kimball      Chip Ganassi Racing              40.7404s +0.3427 9. Takuma Sato          Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing   40.7506s +0.352910. Sebastian Saavedra   AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport    40.7605s +0.362811. JR Hildebrand        Panther Racing                   40.7761s +0.378412. Scott Dixon          Target Chip Ganassi Racing       40.7948s +0.397113. Tony Kanaan          KV Racing Technology             40.8525s +0.454814. Graham Rahal         Chip Ganassi Racing              40.8648s +0.467115. Alex Tagliani        Bryan Herta Autosport            40.8980s +0.500316. Wade Cunningham      A.J. Foyt Enterprises            40.9192s +0.521517. Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports     40.9459s +0.548218. Ana Beatriz          Andretti Autosport               40.9536s +0.555919. Townsend Bell        Sam Schmidt Motorsports          40.9605s +0.562820. Michel Jourdain Jr.  Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing   41.0434s +0.645721. Oriol Servia         Panther Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 41.0919s +0.694222. Ed Carpenter         Ed Carpenter Racing              41.1108s +0.713123. Helio Castroneves    Team Penske                      41.3404s +0.942724. Will Power           Team Penske                      41.3596s +0.961925. Mike Conway          A.J. Foyt Enterprises            41.4304s +1.032726. Rubens Barrichello   KV Racing Technology             41.5243s +1.126627. Ryan Briscoe         Team Penske                      41.6175s +1.219828. E.J. Viso            KV Racing Technology             41.7611s +1.363429. Jean Alesi           Fan Force United                 43.8193s +3.421630. Simona de Silvestro  HVM Racing                       43.9005s +3.5028

The two Lotus-powered drivers in the Indy 500 field have expressed concerns about their power deficit to rivals Honda and Chevrolet as preparations continue for next weekend’s race.

Neither the HVM entry of Simona de Silvestro and Indy-only Fan Force United car of former F1 star Jean Alesi were able to lap any faster than 205mph on the fifth day of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, leaving them 10mph behind the next slowest car, and more than 17mph off the pace being set by the frontrunners.

“Right now, I feel very unsafe, being quite slow in the middle of the track,” said Alesi.

“So I am quite concerned for my fellow drivers if we are not able to get the speed that we need. I am flat out, and I have reached 205 as the maximum that I can see. So it is not a comfortable position right now.”

De Silvestro, who is the sole full-time Lotus runner left in the field after the two-car Dragon Racing team broke away from the manufacturer two weeks ago, said that she was making progress with her car, but admitted that the lack of power is making things difficult.

“I think the car is getting there,” she said. “But we’re just really struggling on the engine side, and that makes it difficult to drive.

“When you do only 200 mph, you don’t have enough downforce, which makes it a little bit trickier. The good thing on the team side is that everybody is being patient and really working through the things.

“That’s what we have to do this month – just be really patient about it and try to improve every time we go out there. Hopefully for qualifying and the race we’ll have something that’s race-able.”

Fresh from his race win during the opening round of the GP3 season at Circuit Catalunya last weekend, Conor visited the team’s Silverstone headquarters on Tuesday for a seat-fit and to familiarise himself with the systems on the car. It was a chance to meet his engineering crew and run through the functions on a Formula One steering wheel.

Conor Daly gets acquainted with the Sahara Force India Formula One car.

The test program on Thursday is one of four full-size aerodynamic tests that teams are allowed to complete during the course of the season. The focus is to measure aerodynamic forces to correlate with wind tunnel data.

“I am so excited to get my first taste of a Formula One car, but more importantly, to have the opportunity to help Sahara Force India develop their aero program,” said Conor. “My career is on a great path right now and this is a significant step for me in understanding how complex a Forumula One car can be. I want all of my supporters to feel the same excitiment that I’m feeling right now.”

Drivers run close to the wall at Darlington.

Week Two’s Strength of Field (SoF) race took place at 8:30pm EST on Friday night. The race had 27 drivers and an SoF of 4222. Nascar iRacing.com Pro Series driver Jared Crawford (Michigan) dominated the race, starting from the pole and leading all 100 laps while also turning the fastest lap of the race. Crawford received 270 points for his victory. Last season’s runner up Brad Mahar (New England) finished second to Crawford after started seventh.  Mahar netted 259 points for his second place finish. Brenden Queen (Virginias) started 24^th and finished third while Brian Macklin (Atlantic) started 11^th and finished in the fourth position. For their finishes, they received 249 and 238 points respectively. Rounding out the Top Five was David Cater (Carolina). Cater started ninth and finished in the fifth position and received 228 points.

Watch the broadcast here.

The Top Five in the Weekly standings for Week Two was the same as the Top Five in the week’s SoF race. Crawford finished the week in the first position after winning one of his two races and netting 270 points. Mahar finished second with 259 points after his runner up finish in the SoF race. Queen was third with 249 points after only running one race during the week. Macklin and Cater rounded out the Top Five with 238 and 228 points.

After two weeks, Mahar leads the point’s standings with 511 points. Mahar has run three races and has one Top Five. Devan Hall (Georgia) is second in the season points standings with three starts and one Top Five. Hall has 394 points, 117 points behind Mahar. Cater sits in the third position after making five starts in the first two weeks. Cater has two wins and three Top Five’s and has 391 points. Cody Vincent (Mid-South) and Zach A Hudson (Eastern Canada) round out the Top Five in the season standings. Vincent has five starts with two Top Ten’s and 381 points while Hudson has three starts with two Top Ten’s and 377 points.

Crawford finished the week with the fastest qualifying lap after turning a 28.151 second lap. Ian Hann (Mid-South) finished the week in the second position after turning a 28.213 second lap. Jason Karlavige (Pennsylvania) was third on the week with a 28.241 while Hall finished the week fourth with a 28.265 second lap. Rounded out the Top Five in qualifying was Eric Brundles (Midwest) with a 28.279 second lap.

After Two weeks of the season the top contenders are already making their way to the top. Mahar looks to win the championship after coming up short last season while Crawford looks to dominate the season on his way to the championship. Week Three will see the NiCBS travel to Iowa Speedway. Will anyone be able to stop Jared Crawford? Find out next week at InRacingNews!

ANZ Motorsports Scott McLaughlin would take the pole with a blistering 1:10.816 getting his first pole position in the main event with Rens Broekman second, making these two sim-racers the only two into the eights. George Maris would take third with Richard Hamstead and Mitchell McLeod only .02 behind.

McLaughlin leads the field into Turn One.

When the lights went green, Broekman’s car was nowhere to be seen as Internet trouble saw his race over before it had even started. With Broekman a no show it was McLaughlin having a nice run into Turn One with everyone holding station, coming through the Esses saw McLeod touch the wall and allowing Madison Down and Justin Ruggier to take advantage until McLeod tried to hold strong and going into the Bus Stop two wide doesn’t work and saw McLeod hit the left rear of the Ruggier’s car and spinning him into the dirt and back into 16th place in the race after such a promising start.

Lap 2 coming through the last turn saw contact between Simon Black and Craig Woodhouse which would damage Woodhouse’s car enough that he wouldn’t advance and finish back in 19th. Scott McLaughlin was pulling away from the battle group behind of Maris, Hamstead and Down when at the end of lap nine, Hamstead decided to be the first to pit and jump the drivers in front. McLaughlin would re-act straight away and keep position over Hamstead while Maris and Down would stay out and hope they could catch them with the fresh rubber.

Joshua Muggleton after finishing third and on the podium in the early race, he would take on a new strategy and take no tyres and enough fuel to get home which would cost him a few positions and finished back in eight place.

Down locks the rears and hits Hamstead, with Maris scooting past to take a second place finish.

The end of lap 12 saw Maris and Down come into the lane to take on four tyres and fuel, the TTR pit crew would get Down out in front of Maris and with McLaughlin and Hamstead a few seconds up the road the chase began! A dozen laps later saw the Down and Maris catch the leaders and the fight began, but as quickly as it began it had finished when coming into the second to last corner Down covered Maris but locked the rears and in an attempt to save it, just clipped the rear of Hamstead’s Falcon and would put them both into the dirt and Down would re-address and let Hamstead go by only dropping back just outside the top five in sixth and seventh.

The battle between ANZ Motorsport drivers would resume with McLaughlin trying to hold off Maris with only five laps to go. As Maris caught up to the back of McLaughlin time ran out and it was McLaughlin who would take his second main race win and bring himself into position two in the championship just behind Maris!

An oversteering McLaughlin heads to victory at The Glen.

With the contact between Down and Hamstead, McLeod would pick up the pieces and claim a third place finish with Michael McCabe returning to the series to hold off a hard charging Mick Claridge who would take fifth place! Hamstead and Down would finish sixth and seventh with Muggleton finishing eighth with Stuart Wood finishing ninth and Omar Sòto rounding out the top ten.

Split Two Winner – Anton De Pasquale
Split Three Winner – Derek Toering
Split Four Winner – Ross Ponting
Split Five Winner – Paul Keeghan

You can watch all the race replays on www.v8sonline.com.au