Bayliss wins Brno Superpole

Eurosport - Sun, 20 Jul 16:05:00 2008

Series leader Troy Bayliss produced a fine lap to take pole position for Sunday's World Superbikes round at Brno.

The 39-year-old had not topped the timesheets all weekend in the Czech Republic but produced a lap of one minute 58.345 seconds in superpole to put his Xerox Ducati at the head of the field.

Fellow Australian Troy Corser was second on his Yamaha Italia with Bayliss' team-mate Michel Fabrizio in third.

Home favourite Jakub Smrz was fastest on Friday but could only manage eighth in superpole with Max Neukirchner - Bayliss' nearest challenger in the championship - down in ninth on his Alstare Suzuki.

Bayliss is 49 points ahead of the German as he searches for his third title but he has not won a race since April.

Corser admitted that he was struggling for grip at times and predicted a difficult day for the pack if the weather turns.

He said: "Today was not so bad and we did a lot of work on the bike from the first to second sessions. We tried different gearing and changed the front fork springs to improve the feel of the bike in the afternoon. Initially, the bike felt a bit like it felt at Miller in America a few rounds ago, so we will alter the balance and see if that improves it.

"The track feels a bit dirty and probably needs more (bike) rubber down on it to improve the grip.

"The new asphalt is giving us all a different feeling to last year and we need to understand what is happening with the grip in order to set up the bike properly.

"It's not ideal but it's the same for everyone. I think it'll be OK for raceday as long as it doesn't rain."

SUPERBIKES

1-Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 1:58.345

2-Troy Corser (Yamaha) 1:58.451

3-Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1:58.853

4-Max Biaggi (Ducati) 1:59.069

5-Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 1:59.318

6-Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) 1:59.324

7-Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki) 1:59.360

8-Jakub Smrz (Ducati) 1:59.451

9-Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1:59.497

10-Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 1:59.537

11-Ruben Xaus (Ducati) 1:59.545

12-Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) 1:59.571

13-Carlos Checa (Honda) 1:59.587

14-Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 1:59.639

15-Karl Muggeridge (Honda) 2:00.306

Brilliant Hamilton wins in Germany

Eurosport - Mon, 21 Jul 09:58:00 2008

Lewis Hamilton overtook Heikki Kovalainen, Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet in the closing stages to win a thrilling German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

The British McLaren driver won his second successive race to take sole possession of the lead in the drivers' championship, four points ahead of Ferrari's Massa.

Renault's Piquet, operating a one-stop strategy, claimed his first podium finish in Formula One in second, with Massa third and Kimi Raikkonen sixth.

Despite setting a blistering pace throughout, Hamilton nearly lost the race thanks to a tactical blunder by his team.

A big crash involving Timo Glock brought the safety car out but Hamilton, who was leading, opted not to take a pit stop and as a consequence was relegated to fourth after he pitted later in the race.

However, Hamilton used his superior pace to overtake Heikki Kovalained, Massa and Piquet, all at the same hairpin, to secure a magnificent victory.

"I didn't plan on doing that. I'd have much preferred an easy, comfortable afternoon out front," he said.

"Overall it was a very, very good weekend. It's got to be the best weekend up to now," added Hamilton. "I think that we're really on top of our game right now."

Polesitter Hamilton led from pole position and immediately built a commanding advantage over Massa, while world champion Raikkonen continued to struggle with his set up and languished in the lower points positions.

The 23-year-old seemed set for a routine win before Glock's crash just after half distance changed everything.

The German's Toyota suffered suspension failure entering the start-finish straight and smashed into the pit wall. Glock was taken to hospital, although Toyota said he had no visible injuries, and his retirement prompted the safety car to come out.

While the other front-runners all pitted at the first opportunity, McLaren bizarrely decided to keep Hamilton out. Massa emerged from his stop and caught up with the safety car, just 50 metres off the leader who still had to come in.

Hamilton proved unable to build a sufficient gap and emerged from his stop in fourth behind Piquet, Massa and team-mate Kovalainen with 16 laps remaining.

The Briton proved to be a myth the claim that there is no overtaking in Formula One, streaking past all three men and taking a huge step towards a first world championship.

Hamilton moves on to 58 championship points, four clear of Massa, seven ahead of Raikkonen and 10 ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica, who was seventh.

Kubica's BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld was fourth, while Sebastian Vettel took the final points position for Toro Rosso.

David Coulthard had to settle for 13th following a collision with Honda's Rubens Barrichello, who retired after the incident. Jenson Button was the last finisher in 17th.

Rossi extends lead after dramatic US win

Eurosport - Mon, 21 Jul 15:05:00 2008

Italy's Valentino Rossi stretched his lead atop the MotoGP standings with a triumph in the US Grand Prix

The Yamaha rider, a seven-time world champion, emerged victorious after a fierce duel with reigning world champ Casey Stoner, who finished second aboard a Ducati, with Stoner's fellow Australian Chris Vermeulen third on a Suzuki.

Britain's James Toseland on his Tech 3 Yamaha finished ninth.
Stoner, winner on the challenging, hilly Laguna Seca layout last year, had dominated all of the free practice and qualifying this week, and had won the last three races from pole position to thrust himself into the title picture.

With the victory, however, Rossi took his total atop the standings to 212 points, 25 points in front of Stoner (187).

The two riders had separated themselves from the field when the deciding moment of the race occurred at the end of the 23rd of 32 laps.

As Rossi and Stoner prepared to enter the home straight, having battled at each corner, Stoner went wide into the gravel and his attempt to push himself back with his foot saw him fall. He resumed in second place, and couldn't catch his Italian rival, finishing 13 seconds adrift.

The runner-up finish did allow the 22-year-old to take over second place in the standings.

Spain's Dani Pedrosa, who was lying second overall coming into the race, withdrew before Saturday's qualifying after his practice runs showed his broken left wrist and injured ankle - suffered in a fall in the German Grand Prix - just wouldn't allow him to compete.

Rossi's victory brought an end to Stoner's storming run of victories at Britain, the Netherlands and Germany.

The Italian, whose seven world titles include five in the premier MotoGP category, added a first career win at Laguna Seca to titles in China, France and Italy already this season.

However, it was not all good news for Yamaha, with Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo thought to have broken a bone in his foot after coming off in dramatic crash in the first lap of the race.

Unusually, the US stop includes only the premier world championship category. The 125cc and 250cc series will resume alongside the MotoGP at the Czech Grand Prix in Brno on August 17.

Hamilton brings it home at Silverstone

Eurosport - Mon, 07 Jul 13:54:00 2008

Lewis Hamilton streaked to British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone, delivering a masterful drive in wet conditions to delight a vociferous home crowd and reignite his world title challenge.

Consistent rain saw nearly all the drivers spin at some stage of the race and though BMW's Nick Heidfeld produced a good drive to finish second and Rubens Barrichello was third, no one could come close to Hamilton who won his home race by a staggering 68.5 seconds.

The McLaren driver produced an excellent start and a superbly aggressive opening stint to take the lead early on, before going on to close the race out maturely.

The victory brings 23-year-old Hamilton his first points since winning at Monaco back in May and moves him up into a three-way tie at the top of the world championship.

Hamilton now shares top spot with the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen who finished fourth at Silverstone and Felipe Massa who took no points from a nightmare race.

Heikki Kovalainen was fifth in the other McLaren, Fernando Alonso took sixth and Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima were the others to pick up points.

After solid rain throughout the morning, conditions brightened up somewhat for the race but a wet track and gusting winds still made for troublesome start conditions.

Hamilton made the best start of all, shooting around the outside to squeeze into second from fourth on the grid and briefly touching wheels with pole-sitter Kovalainen.

Mark Webber, his Red Bull starting from second, suffered an early spin and ended up right at the back of the field.

Kovalainen led his teammate and Raikkonen after the first lap but Hamilton immediately began to apply serious pressure on the leader, forcing him to defend desperately over the next four laps.

Such a sustained attack proved impossible to repel and Hamilton slipped past Kovalainen to take the lead on lap five.

As the home crowd cheered their hero another Brit, David Coulthard, collided with Sebastien Vettel's Toro Rosso and both drivers ended up in the gravel and out of the race.

It was an unfortunate way for Coulthard to finish his final British Grand Prix - the Red Bull veteran having announced his retirement earlier this week.

Kovalainen slid into a spin on his tenth lap and allowed Raikkonen through into second where he would steadily cut the gap to Hamilton until the first round of pit stops.

On lap 21 of the 60 lap race Hamilton and Raikkonen entered the pits together with the Briton emerging, by a whisker, with his lead intact.

Raikkonen's pit crew controversially decided not to change tyres, a decision that saw the world champion lose significant time to the leader and also to those behind.

As Raikkonen's tyres continued to deteriorate he fell further and further off the pace and after finally cutting his losses and taking new tyres he had fallen to 11th place.

The rain began to fall solidly just after the halfway point of the race and Hamilton, Raikkonen and Renault's Nelson Piquet each aquaplaned off the track - the first two temporarily and Piquet for good.

As havoc reigned, BMW's Robert Kubica span off and out of the race and was soon joined by Jenson Button.

Honda's Barrichello was now fitted with the extreme wet tyres and lapping way faster than anyone else, he worked his way up into third place behind Hamilton and Heidfeld who had steadily manoeuvred into second.

The leader stopped for a second time on lap 37 but, with the rain beginning to clear, prudently not opted for extreme wet tyres.

With 10 laps to go Hamilton had opened up a lead of over a minute and he went on to lap everyone behind third placed Barrichello in a supreme display of dominance.

Raikkonen staged a late charge to take fourth while Heidfeld and Barrichello cruised to welcome podium finishes.

Stoner continues top form in Dutch MotoGP

ASSEN, Netherlands (AFP) - Australian world champion Casey Stoner continued his excellent form on Saturday to win the Dutch motorcycling Grand Prix here ahead of Spaniard Dani Pedrosa and American Colin Edwards.

It is now two races out of two for the 22-year-old Ducati rider, after an imperious showing last weekend in the British GP at Donington.

"I was a bit nervous and tentative at the start but soon settled down. It's a pleasure to ride this bike and it's been really enjoyable," said Stoner, who clocked up his 20th career win.

The consecutive victories mean Stoner has bounced back into championship contention after a dismal first half of the season, which saw him go six races without a win.

The Australian, on pole, was never troubled after he made an electrifying breakaway, finishing over 11 seconds ahead of a field lead by Pedrosa, Edwards and 2006 world champion Nicky Hayden.

Stoner made up more points than was expected on championship leader Valentino Rossi, who crashed in the opening lap, but returned to finish the race in 11th place.

"I had no clue what happened, I noticed later on he (Rossi) was down the field and that there was some grass on the track which suggested there had been some sort of accident," said Stoner.
"I don't want anybody to crash so that I can win points that way, but I've had some bad luck too this year. The team have done a great job this weekend."

Pedrosa's second-placing and Rossi's bad luck now means the Spaniard assumes the lead in the championship standings on 171 points.

"It was important to finish in front, and second is a very good result. We had struggled a little, and in the race it was impossible to follow Casey," said the Spaniard, winner of the Catalunya GP.
"He was so fast, so I just tried my best to push. I am happy with this result, with returning to the podium and with the championship position."

Edwards, who started in the second row on his Yamaha, was on excellent form to claim third spot and his second podium of the championship.

"I had to almost stop when Rossi crashed, but somehow I have got on the podium," said the American.

Spain's Alvaro Bautista, riding an Aprilia, won the 250cc class race, finishing ahead of Swiss teammate Thomas Luthi and Italian Marco Simoncelli, on a Gilera.

Simoncelli's fifth successive podium finish means he closes the world championship gap between himself and Finnish leader Mika Kallio, who came home in seventh, almost 13sec off the pace.
In the 125cc, Hungary's reigning world champion Gabor Talmacsi, on an Aprilia, put in an excellent performance to win after starting on 13th on the grid.

That victory sees him gain three places in the overall standings, up to fourth on 93 points.
Frenchman Mike Di Meglio remains atop the standings on 141 points despite finishing seventh. Italy's Simone Corsi is just 16 points adrift of Di Meglio in second.

Stoner cruises as Toseland falls

Eurosport - Mon, 23 Jun 16:15:00 2008

Casey Stoner claimed a crushing victory in the British MotoGP at Donington Park while James Toseland suffered his fourth fall in two days.

Stoner, who started on pole for only the second time this season, crossed the line ahead of championship leader Valentino Rossi. The Italian's nearest rival, Dani Pedrosa of Spain, climbed from ninth on the grid to finish third.

The Australian, riding a Ducati, never looked in danger of surrendering his advantage and finished 5.789 seconds ahead of Rossi to take his first chequered flag since the season opener in Qatar.

Toseland, making his first MotoGP appearance on home soil, slid off the track on the first corner, losing control and making contact with John Hopkins' Kawasaki.

He remounted his Tech3 Yamaha, but trailed in a distant last place over a lap down and appeared to damage his right hand in the accident.

It completed a miserable weekend for the double World Superbike champion, who drew thousands of supporters to the East Midlands track.

Toseland fell three times on Saturday, twice during qualifying, and started just 16th on the grid.
Rossi extended his overall lead over Pedrosa to 11 points while Stoner moved ahead of Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo into third place, 45 points behind the four-times champion after eight races.

Earlier, Briton Scott Redding became the youngest Grand Prix race winner when he won the British 125cc race at the age of 15.

The rookie also recorded the first home win at the Donington Park circuit and ended his country's 451-race wait for a 125cc winner since Chas Mortimer won in Spain in 1973. Mike di Meglio of France retained the overall lead after finishing second.

Finland's Mika Kallio edged out Marco Simoncelli to win the 250cc section and stretch his championship lead over the Italian to eight points. Spain's Alex Debon finished third.

Youngster Redding wins for Britain

Eurosport - Mon, 23 Jun 13:01:00 2008

Fifteen-year-old Scott Redding became the first Briton since 1986 to win a MotoGP race on home tarmac, claiming a thrilling 125cc victory.

The Blusens Aprilia Junior rider, taking part in just his eighth race, brought Donington Park to its feet, leading the field home by a 5.3-second margin.
Redding spent most of the race in second place behind Italy's Andrea Iannone, but as the Briton closed in Iannone fell on Craner curves.

The last British rider to triumph in a Grand Prix race of any class was Ian McConnachie, who won the 80cc race at Silverstone 22 years ago.

Redding also becomes the youngest rider to win a race at 15 and 170 days, beating the previous record of 15 and 324 days set by Marco Melandri in 1998.

As he is under-age, Redding was not allowed to spray champagne on the podium - with Mike Di Meglio, 20, the only podium finisher old enough to be let loose with the bubbly.

"Unbelievable," said Redding, who was making his first appearance at Donington.

"It's my first podium and I get to stand on the top step. I don't know how it feels yet because it hasn't sunk in but I hope it's going to feel great."

Championship leader Di Meglio claimed a distant second place with Marc Marquez third for KTM.

Frenchman Di Meglio extends his points lead to 23 seconds over Simone Corsi, who finished fifth.
Mechanical trouble put paid to Stefan Bradl's hopes, although the German remains third in the title race.

Redding goes ninth in the overall standings, overtaking Bradley Smith who had to make do with a battling 10th place.

Britain's other 125cc regular Danny Webb failed to complete the first lap.

Massa leads Ferrari one-two in France

Eurosport - Mon, 23 Jun 14:48:00 2008

Ferrari secured a one-two in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, Felipe Massa winning from Kimi Raikkonen.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli finished third, claiming his first podium of the season.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton suffered a terrible race after incurring a 10-place grid penalty for running into Raikkonen in the pitlane during the last GP in Canada, eventually finishing in 11th.

Massa now leads the world championship with 48 points from former leader Robert Kubica (46), who finished in fifth in the BMW Sauber behind McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, with Raikkonen third on 43 and Hamilton still on 38.

Mark Webber took sixth in the Red Bull ahead of Renault pair Nelson Piquet Jr and Fernando Alonso, Piquet snatching a position from his tam-mate on the penultimate lap as he recorded his first points of the season.

Briton David Coulthard, team-mate of Webber, ended in ninth ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock.
Hamilton was ordered to perform a drive-through penalty after 12 laps when stewards adjudged his first-lap pass on Sebastien Vettel at the chicane to have been illegal and that dropped him down towards the back of the field after he had battled up to 10th from 13th.

Pole-sitter Raikkonen led away Massa and the pair was some distance clear after the initial laps, with Trulli nicely tucked into third after passing Alonso, who suffered a slow start.

Hamilton touched the back of his team-mate Kovalainen but the cars were not damaged; he then displeased Alonso with an aggressive pass 18 laps in that shoved the Spaniard over to the outside as Hamilton pulled out of his slipstream and went wheel-to-wheel.

Englishman Jenson Button was forced out of the race with a damaged front wing after running his Honda into the back of Sebastien Bourdais, the sole retiree on the day.

Piquet, desperate to impress after taking a long time to adapt to F1 from GP2, encountered a problem with his pitlane speed limiter and was passed by Kovalainen on the exit, dropping him to 12th after 25 laps.

Trulli had to fight off Kubica - who knew that a podium finish would maintain his lead in the championship - in the middle stint as he began to lose seven-tenths of a second a lap to the Polish driver.

Raikkonen lost a gap of seven seconds on Massa as he suffered an exhaust problem that persisted until the end of the race, costing him small amounts of time - with 32 laps remaining he let the Brazilian past.

When the Finn came in for his final stop the mechanics left the exhaust alone, a gamble that paid off as they fuelled him to the end of the race and allowed him to coast home in second.

There was a brief scare for the field when it began to rain with fourteen laps remaining, but it did not last. Hamilton, over 10 seconds and two positions behind the points, could have done with the chaos that a downpour would have initiated, but it was not to be.

Trulli was caught late on by Kovalainen - who had passed Kubica after the final pitstops - with the latter also hanging around, but he defended his third to finish 52 seconds behind the winner.
Raikkonen was 13 seconds off Massa's pace at the chequered flag.

Torres ends Spanish wait for glory

Eurosport - Mon, 30 Jun 13:23:00 2008

A first-half goal by Fernando Torres gave Spain their first major trophy in 44 years after a 1-0 Euro 2008 final win over Germany.

The Liverpool striker beat the hesitant Philipp Lahm to a Xavi through ball on 33 minutes and prodded it beyond Jens Lehmann.

Although a dominant Spain side never delivered a knock-out blow, it mattered little as Germany never seriously looked like mounting a comeback.

The victory at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna rounded off a superb tournament for the Spanish, for whom it was a second European triumph in addition to their 1964 win.

It vindicated the decision to keep faith with veteran coach Luis Aragones who came under fire for his results, team selection and an embarrassing racist outburst about France striker Thierry Henry in 2004. Aragones has set the bar high for incoming Spain boss Vicente del Bosque
There can be no doubt that Spain deserved to win the cup as - despite the excitement provided by Russia, Turkey, Netherlands and Portugal - they scored more goals and conceded fewer than any other team.

After a relatively cagey opening 10 minutes that saw Germany make most of the running, Spain slowly took control of the match with their calm possession and quick counter-attacks.

Sergio Ramos had his obligatory lapse of concentration as early as the third minute, although Miroslav Klose's terrible touch spared Spain and Ramos.

The Spaniards had the first effort on target when Lehmann was forced to save from Christoph Metzelder, who almost put Andres Iniesta's low cross past his own keeper.

Spain gained confidence and, with Iniesta in particular able to find space on the left, the single-pronged attack allowed them to break in numbers from midfield, with Torres and David Silva also profiting from great delivery by Xavi and Cesc Fabregas.

Germany, on the other hand, started to regress. Per Mertesacker looked particularly uncomfortable as Torres and Iniesta exploited his positional and decision-making frailties.

Aside from giving them the run of the penalty area and the occasional loose pass to latch onto, the tall Werder Bremen defender's trademark aerial ability was left in the dressing room as the much smaller Torres managed to beat him to crosses on three occasions, one of which saw the ball strike the inside of the post on 22 minutes.

Spain took the lead just after the half-hour when Torres snuck between Lahm and Lehmann to chip the ball home from the edge of the box.

Lahm was culpable as he seemed to let Torres get past when he appeared to have the ball covered. It was a sweet finish though, and no more than Spain deserved as they attacked from deep with pace and flair.

The Bayern Munich full-back paid for his error and was replaced by club team-mate Marce'l Jansen at half-time. It had little immediate effect though, as Spain continued to boss the match after the restart.

Lehmann saved from Xavi, Ramos was agonisingly close to backheeling Silva's low drive into goal, and Lehmann prevented a carbon-copy of Torres's opener when he rushed out to block the Liverpool man.

Germany had a chance when Ballack shot just wide, but that was a short blip and Spain continued to create opportunities - although they could have gone down to 10 men when a confrontation between Lukas Podolski and Silva saw the Valencia winger aim a headbutt at the Bayern striker.

Ramos should have scored but headed straight at Lehmann after shocking Germany marking from a Xavi free-kick, and Torsten Frings then cleared Iniesta's low drive off the line after a short corner.

Germany looked short of ideas and energy, so boss Joachim Loew gambled by bringing on target man Kevin Kuranyi.

It had little effect though as the three-time winners huffed and puffed while Spain sat back and picked their breaks at leisure.

There was a moment of controversy when Lehmann appeared to handle outside the area, while Brazilian-born Spain midfielder Marcos Senna almost capped off a dream tournament with a goal but was unable to connect with substitute Dani Guiza's excellent cushioned header back across goal.

Germany pressed late on, using long balls and throwing on misfiring striker Mario Gomez, but Spain held on for a comfortable win to finally break their run of underachievement.