Ronaldo travels with United - Champions League

Eurosport - Mon, 24 Nov 17:04:00 2008

Cristiano Ronaldo has travelled out with the rest of the Manchester United squad to Spain ahead of the Champions League match against Villarreal.

The Portugal winger was considered doubtful after suffering a leg injury in the draw at Aston Villa on Saturday.

However, he trained with the group on Monday morning and showed no ill effects from his knock and looks likely to feature at some stage in the match.

Darren Fletcher also trained after missing the game against Villa because of a knee problem.

But goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar stayed in Manchester - it was understood he was rested and either Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak will play instead.

United will be without Dimitar Berbatov (hamstring) and Wes Brown (ankle) as well as long-term injury victims Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves.

Villarreal's top scorer Joseba Llorente has joined Turkey striker Nihat Kahveci on the injury list which leaves former United frontman Giuseppe Rossi and Guillermo Franco to lead the line.

At the back Uruguay's Diego Godin is also out injured.

Carter: Will Rossi stay or will he go?

Eurosport - Fri, 21 Nov 17:31:00 2008

If you've never seen the excellent World Rally Championship before, preferring instead to concentrate on two-wheeled motorsport, would the defection from one to the other by Valentino Rossi make you switch?

Or at least, have a passing interest in an arena you might not have had a look at before?

I ask because, this week, Valentino himself has dropped some pretty big hints at what might be next for him, career-wise.

The eight-times world champion has been putting a Ford Focus rally car through its paces in a test in Cumbria, part of his preparation for the Rally of Wales next month.

He's also been out in the Monza Rally, where he finished second. Considerably higher up the ranking than the rest of his motorcycle peers managed (and quite a few of them took part too, like Loris Capirossi and Marco Simoncelli>).

Second place would indicate, it is fairly safe to assume, that the still-youthful Italian is taking the matter of sliding around the dirt on four wheels very seriously indeed.

So when, whilst talking to La Gazetta dello Sport, Rossi said: "Yes, I like rallies very much. I think it is possible when I finish with bikes. I have another two years, after that we will see," it sparked a bit of interest around the world.

Is this the clearest indication yet that we've got another couple of years of watching Rossi on the bikes? Is he really going to switch to four wheels for good at the end of 2010?

If he does, what will happen to the MotoGP world? Will Rossi's departure mean that Casey Stoner becomes a results machine, rolling off World Championship after World Championship in a similarly devastating way to that which we last saw at the hands of Mick Doohan and his five crowns?

Or will it spur the others in the MotoGP pack on? Seeing the Alpha male leave suddenly encouraging them all to try and move into the vacant spot of all-time number one?

It is another two years before we know what will happen. Will Valentino find enough interest to carry on with motorcycle racing at all at the end of these next two years? We know he switched from Honda to Yamaha because he needed a fresh challenge and that the arrival of the 800s further sparked the grey matter too.

Two more years isn't a very long time at all, certainly not in racing terms and if all we do have is 36 more races to enjoy Rossi at this, the very top of his game, then we'd better relish it while we can.

And then take note of the WRC calendar, set the video and see how well our boy does in that world.

World champion in two seasons there too, I reckon.

Webber "back for start of season"

Eurosport - Mon, 24 Nov 15:38:00 2008

Surgery to pin the broken right leg of Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber has been a success, his spokesman said on Sunday.

Red Bull driver Webber, 32, was riding a mountain bike when he collided with a four-wheel drive while competing in his own multi-sport charity event in Tasmania on Saturday.

Geoff Donohue, spokesman for the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, said Hobart Private Hospital doctors had inserted rods to mend the breaks in his lower right tibia and fibula.

It was not known at this stage when Webber would be able to leave hospital, he added.

"He's feeling sharp and spritely, all things considered," Donohue said.

Police said no charges would be filed over the accident.

Donohue said Webber was expected to fully recover in time for the start of the Formula One season in Melbourne on March 29 but he is likely to miss the start of the testing in Europe.

"He may miss some early testing in the car - it's a setback but it's a minor setback," Donohue said.

Rossi: I could have been F1 star

Eurosport - Fri, 21 Nov 11:20:00 2008

MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi has said he could have been a good Formula One driver if he had made the switch three years ago.

Rossi tried out Ferrari's 2008 F1 car at the Mugello circuit as a gift from the Italian team after his eighth motorcycling world title.

He had serious tests for Ferrari in 2005 and 2006 but decided to stick with two wheels.

"With a lot of work I could have become a good F1 driver. It is hard to say if I would have become a winner or not, but the potential was there," he said after a strong test.

Rossi managed a fastest lap of one minute and 22.5 seconds, less than two seconds behind recent times recorded by Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen on the same track.

Wearing his distinctively-coloured helmet, he was roared on by around 1,000 fans and could have gone faster had his 51-lap run not been cut short by an approaching thunderstorm.

The chances of Rossi ending up in Formula One look to have gone but the 29-year-old has talked about the possibility of moving into rallying permanently when he finishes with MotoGP.

The Italian was second in the Monza rally last weekend and is due to race in the British round of the World Championship next month.

Ferrari's seven-times champion Michael Schumacher has entered occasional motorcycle races since retiring in 2006 while rally champion Sebastien Loeb tested for the Red Bull Formula One team in Spain this week.

Lorenzo plays down title talk

Eurosport - Sun, 16 Nov 17:49:00 2008

Jorge Lorenzo insists he is under no pressure to win the 2009 MotoGP title despite a stunning maiden season in the top flight that saw him briefly lead the championship.

The Spaniard enjoyed a stellar start to his career in the top flight, finishing on the podium in his first race and winning on only his third outing in Portugal. However, he would go on to be hampered by injuries sustained in a series of accidents over the season.

Nonetheless, Lorenzo was still able to secure fourth position in the standings, ahead of fellow rookie Andrea Dovizioso, the Yamaha rider supplementing his year with further podiums at Le Mans, Misano and the Indianapolis.

Attention now turns to whether Lorenzo can discover the consistency to mount a challenge on the 2009 title, although it isn't an objective he is necessarily chasing.

"There have been no objectives set out, and nobody is demanding that we win the title," the 21-year-old told the official MotoGP website. "I think that if I can improve my results then it will be an extraordinary season."

Lorenzo's first challenge will be to get acquainted with the new Bridgestone control tyre having spent his season adapting to Michelin rubber. With only a few outings coming up in which to settle himself on the new Yamaha M1, Lorenzo is eager to learn quickly.

"I have only had the chance to try the new bike for a day, with the intention of adjusting to the new regulations,´ said the Spaniard of his first run with Bridgestone tyres after a year with Michelin.

"The bike isn't working perfectly, so in Jerez we will be working above all with the chassis, now that we won´t have the engine until Sepang."

Glock excited about 2009

Eurosport - Sun, 16 Nov 17:39:00 2008

After impressing many over the course of his maiden full season of Formula one competition, Timo Glock has promised to do even better in 2009 - when he hopes Toyota will suffer fewer 'cold spells'.

The German overcame a trying start to the campaign - failing to register any points at all for the first six races, whilst team-mate Jarno Trulli tallied nine - to get his challenge firmly on-track in the Canadian Grand Prix with a strong fourth place finish, and indeed over the second half of the campaign he actually out-scored the experienced Italian 18 points to 11.

That saw Glock end proceedings with 25 points to his name - beating his pre-season goal by a quarter - just one spot behind Trulli in the drivers' standings in tenth, and with former triple F1 World Champion Niki Lauda enthusiastically singing his praises as the 'best rookie so far'.

"I am really happy," acknowledged the 26-year-old in an interview with the official Formula 1 website. Glock had previously participated in four races for Jordan back in 2004, becoming one of the elite group of drivers to have scored on their grand prix debut, also in Montreal.

"To exceed my target of 20 points and finish on the podium in my first full season of Formula One is a great achievement. I have worked well with the engineers, with the mechanics and with Jarno, so I have a very positive feeling in the team.

"The first four races were quite difficult and I wasn't sure if I could make my target. In F1 it is difficult to change the car from one race to another; it takes some time until you get the car working in your direction, and that was even tougher because it was my first full season of racing in F1.

"I had to develop myself a bit as well and that takes a bit of time, but after Canada things turned around for me. I got even more integrated into the team, we developed the car together and we were quite strong. I made a good step at Hockenheim, where our race pace was strong, and from then on I was competitive everywhere."

Indeed he was, and Glock made full use of his increased confidence to qualify five times inside the top ten over the final eight outings, with the undoubted highlight fifth spot in the grid in the Hungarian Grand Prix - what he would superbly convert into his first-ever rostrum finish. From that point onwards, he proved to be every bit a match for Trulli, particularly on race day.

"Budapest was really special," the 2007 GP2 Series Champion reflected, "and to finish on the podium in my first full season of Formula One was just great. Of course I [had] hoped to do that, but it was an incredible feeling when I achieved it, so I will always remember that day.

"Jarno is so experienced in Formula One and it was just my first season, so I expected to be playing catch-up in the first few races. The important thing for me is that in the second half of the season we were evenly-matched and from Hungary onwards I actually scored more points than him, so I am very pleased. We have worked really well together and have a great relationship, so I think we have helped the team improve quite a lot this season."

That much is indisputable, and even if the big-budget Japanese outfit ultimately came up short in its bid to resist Renault's threat for the coveted fourth spot in the constructors' rankings - one that for much of the campaign Toyota had made its own, but which it surrendered late on, partly as a legacy of the TF108's poor performance in cold and damp conditions - Glock is adamant that the Cologne-based outfit is now firmly back on-track again following its 2006-07 slump.

"The TF108 has been very competitive pretty much everywhere," he underlined, "but the one issue we had was in cold conditions, when we couldn't get the best out of the tyres. This hurt us in Italy and Belgium in particular. Our reliability has been pretty good, but we aim for 100 per cent reliability and we know that we lost points on a few occasions because of technical problems that led to retirements.

"During the season it was clear we had a good chance to finish fourth in the constructors' championship - and that became our target for the final races. We were beaten by Renault who were really strong at the end, so we are not happy with that aspect of our season, but you will see happy faces in Cologne, firstly because we are always optimistic and secondly because the results this season have been such a significant improvement on 2007.

"In general, I think our development was pretty good throughout the season, especially when you consider the package we introduced at Magny-Cours. From that moment we moved up a level and we were fighting with the top teams regularly, scoring podiums and a lot of points. We made a good step with our last upgrades towards the end of the season, but so did Renault.

"The target was to return to the podium and score a significant number of points. Considering our 2007 results, these were quite high targets, but we achieved them and that is thanks to the hard work of everyone at the team.

"Formula 1 never stops, so we are already thinking about 2009. The team has been working hard developing the TF109 and I am really excited to see how that turns out. We have some winter testing coming up so there is not a long break, but we are pushing as hard as possible - we won't be relaxing just because we have finished this season.

"There is such huge potential at this team. We have a competitive budget and we have a lot of really good people, so I really believe we can achieve great things."

Loeb wins record fifth world title

Eurosport - Sun, 02 Nov 14:05:00 2008

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb clinched a record fifth world title in a row after surviving a late spin to finish third in the Japan Rally.

Rival Mikko Hirvonen led Jari-Matti Latvala in a Ford one-two but it was not enough to keep the title race alive.

"It's incredible," Loeb said. "But that was a terrible rally -- it couldn't have been more tricky. There was a lot of pressure but now it's a great moment. It's perfect.

"I'm so relieved this weekend is over now. Last year (co-driver) Daniel (Elena) and I equalled the record with four wins, so being the only ones with five is nice."

A spin on the penultimate stage almost cost the Frenchman third place and his hopes of glory in Sapporo as torrential rain made conditions treacherous.

"I spun a few hundred metres before the finish," said Loeb. "I was doing about 50kph in a straight line and then 'Bang!' -- it just went.

"We had to reverse and get going again. I lost the electronic differential control because of the water everywhere."

However, Loeb recovered to finish more than a minute clear of Subaru's Chris Atkinson in fourth.

Hirvonen won by 31.1 seconds from fellow Finn Latvala but paid tribute to the 34-year-old Loeb for another dominant season.

"He definitely deserved it," said Hirvonen. "Everybody can see he won 10 rallies this year. I did all I could. I will just have to try again next year."

Loeb had wanted to secure the title in Japan in order to drive flat-out in the last race in Britain later this month in a bid to break his own record of 10 wins in a season.

"I wanted to go to Wales with a totally free mind," he said.

"That made the weekend very long and very frustrating, and I have to say that it wasn't much fun.

"We did what we could to keep any thoughts about the championship out of our minds but it wasn't easy. The title just seemed to loom larger after every stage - it was well worth the wait in the end."

Friday's first leg began frustratingly for Loeb until a high-speed crash involving Ford driver Francois Duval gave the Frenchman third spot.

Duval's accident left his co-driver Patrick Pivato badly injured and needing surgery for a fractured pelvis and tibia, and caused the afternoon's stages to be cancelled.

Loeb, dubbed the "Michael Schumacher of rallying" for his stranglehold over the sport, has won a record 46 races during a career that began in 1999.

"We have achieved half the target we set ourselves this season," said Citroen team boss Olivier Quesnel. "Now we must refocus with a view to wrapping up the manufacturers' title.

Factbox on Sebastien Loeb:

* The 34-year-old Frenchman (born February 26, 1974) surpasses retired Finnish great Tommi Makinen as the only driver to win five titles in a row. Makinen was champion from 1996-99.

* Loeb, with co-driver Daniel Elena, has won a record 46 rallies in a world championship career that started in 1999. All his wins have been with Citroen.

* A gymnast before taking up rally driving, he is only the second Frenchman to have won the world title after 1994 champion Didier Auriol.

* Loeb broke his arm in a mountain-biking accident with four races left and while 35 points ahead of the field in the 2006 season. He won that title when his nearest rival, Marcus Gronholm, could only finish fifth in Australia.

* The Citroen driver has been dubbed the 'Michael Schumacher of Rallying', his stranglehold on the sport comparable to that exerted by the German seven-times world champion at his peak in Formula One.

* Has already matched his 10 victories in 2005 this season with one race remaining. He has won at least three races in every year since 2003, when he almost took the title in his first full season.

* He took his first win in Germany in 2002 after joining Citroen as French rally champion in 2001.

What the drivers said

Eurosport - Sun, 02 Nov 21:27:00 2008

Reaction from the drivers following Lewis Hamilton's world-title winning performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

"Honestly, I did not know if we had when I crossed the line. I was thinking 'shoot!' I am just not sure - have I done enough? Did we get it?

"And they told me and I felt just ecstatic. We had made it. You can forget everything else that has happened before now. This is the best and it was the toughest race of my life.

"I have to thank everyone, my Dad, my family, my fans and supporters back home and the team. It would be great to do it again in the future, but I am not sure if my heart can take that final lap all over again."

Felipe Massa (Ferrari - pictured)

"It has been such an emotional day for me, I drove a perfect race and everything went to well.

"Then the rain came at the end again and I knew what was happening. We thought it was going to happen and it almost did, then I saw Lewis passing Timo Glock and I suddenly had such a lot of emotions.

"I was so emotional, but I am proud of the team, of my team, my family, the people here today and the whole season and the championship. It is one more day of my life, Lewis has won it and I am going to learn from this."

Timo Glock (Toyota)

"I was on dry tyres at the end of the race when it was raining quite badly and it was just impossible on the last lap. I was fighting as hard as I could but it was so difficult to just keep the car on the track and I lost positions right at the end of the lap. Finishing in the top six is a decent result for me because I'd been struggling with the car earlier in the weekend but we were very close to fourth place so I am a bit disappointed."

"It's the end of my first season with Toyota and I'm happy with it as a whole. It was not easy for me early on but we improved the car a lot and I also improved myself during the year. Since Hockenheim it's been positive for me; beating my target of 20 points and finishing on the podium as well is a good achievement. Now we have to work even harder for next year to make another step forward."

Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso)

"It was a difficult and chaotic race and it's great to end the season on a high with this fourth place," he said. "I didn't make any mistakes and I feel we deserved this result, even if I was hoping for a podium. It was great to be racing against Massa, Alonso and Hamilton. Great fun!

"Towards the end, I was concentrating on staying on the track and I didn't know where I was in terms of position and I just tried to pass Lewis like any other guy and I succeeded. I passed Timo just at the last corner, as he was struggling on dry tyres. Lewis was behind me at that moment, but as I wasn't sure where I was after the final pit stop for rain tyres, I was definitely not aware that I might be influencing the world championship.

"It was hard to know who was a backmarker or not and as it got darker and darker it was even difficult to know who the cars in front of you were. The important thing is that I scored five points. It's been a fantastic season."

"I am very happy with this second place. The conditions were difficult but we were able to take advantage of them. We did our maximum, the team made the right decisions at the right times, and I managed to keep Raikkonen behind me until the finish. It's a fantastic result for the team and a great way to end the season.

Nelson Piquet (Renault)

"I don't really know what happened: if I was touched or if I simply lost control of the car, but I couldn't see that much and I lost the rear of my car in turn 3. It's really frustrating not to complete my home Grand Prix because a lot of things happened in the race and we could probably have taken advantage of them. But we should not look back and I want to thank the team for their support this weekend."

Adrian Sutil (Force India)

"I think it was a good finish for this season - at least we could see the chequered flag. We had two cars behind us too, which was a good effort. It was quite difficult at the beginning to get the strategy right with the tyre choice. We started on the intermediates and then went back to drys and it worked out quite well for us. On the first set we had a lot of graining but the second was quite alright. We gambled at the end with the extreme wets as it was very dark and looked like it would rain very heavily. The rain didn't come soon enough though and we struggled, but overall we did the maximum we could."

Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India)

"It was an exciting race, with so many things happening. It was a good decision to go to the dry tyres after the Safety Car came out and then it was looking very good. This part of the race was fantastic, even though it was very difficult through the first part of the circuit. Turns one and two were particularly bad, almost undriveable, but the rest of the circuit wasn't too bad as there was a dry line. The lap time was getting much better, then for a while I was in the first three and was keeping a good pace."

"Unfortunately in the first pit stop I had a problem with the clutch and dropped right back. In both stops there was no clutch and I lost a lot. In the rain at the end we tried to gamble with the extreme tyres as there was nothing to lose. Despite the result though it was an incredible start to the race and we can be pleased with the performance."

Mark Webber (Red Bull)

"The car was pretty difficult to drive today. We had a long middle stint, but the pace wasn't there and I struggled. We knew some of the problems we had from practice and we tried to cater for those in the race, but in the end most of them were still there. It's disappointing to finish ninth."

David Coulthard (Red Bull)

"I'm pretty gutted, it's not how I wanted to end my career. I took a cautious approach into Turn one and left plenty of space for the car on the inside, but unfortunately I think Rosberg hit me though Turn two, which spun me round. I thought it would be okay, but then Nakajima ran into the front of my car and took off the front corner. I felt good on the warm up laps going to the grid, I had no problem with it being wet and I wanted to get to the chequered flag. I was going to do some doughnuts for the crowd, which is something you normally get fined for, but it didn't work out."

"I can't complain though, I've had a good career, so thank you to everyone who has supported me. Thank you also to the efforts of every member of the Red Bull Racing team for the last four years, which have been a lot of fun, I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future. I've been overwhelmed by the level of support I've had from the paddock this weekend, it means a great deal to me that so many people have taken the time to say 'nice career and good luck with the future'. And, in the absence of a World Championship, I think if I can leave with that, then that's a good ending."

Hamilton wins Formula One crown

Eurosport - Sun, 02 Nov 20:47:00 2008

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton roared into the record books as Formula One's youngest champion when he snatched the title in last lap drama at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old, needing only a fifth place finish in the season-ending race to become Britain's first champion since Damon Hill in 1996, was seconds from failure for the second year in a row as Ferrari rival Felipe Massa swept to victory.

Hamilton entered the last lap in sixth place after a late shower forced a change to wet weather tyres and saw Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso overtake the McLaren.

With the title disappearing as fast as Massa's Ferrari approached the chequered flag, Hamilton had Toyota's Timo Glock to thank after the German stayed out on dry tyres and was unable to hold on to his fifth place.

Hamilton powered past as the final corner approached.

"Amazing, I can't even get my breath back," said the astonished Briton, who embraced his father and brother before being mobbed by the team.

Massa, Hamilton's sole title rival, won his home race for the second time in three years to chalk up a record 16th constructors' title for the Italian team.

Hamilton, who missed out by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in Brazil last season, ended the 18-race season one point clear of Massa.

"He scored more points than me, he deserves to win the title," said the disappointed race winner. "I know how to win, I know how to lose.

"This is another day of my life that I'm going to learn a lot from."

At 23 years and 301 days old, Hamilton broke the age record set by former McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who won the first of his two titles with Renault in Brazil at the age of 24, one month and 27 days.

Hamilton's title was the first for Mercedes-powered McLaren since Finland's Mika Hakkinen in 1999.

Massa, the first driver since Ayrton Senna in 1989 to miss out on the title after winning more races than anyone else, led from pole position after a start delayed for 10 minutes by a sudden downpour while the cars were waiting on the grid.

The safety car was then deployed for two laps after a collision that sent Britain's David Coulthard crashing into retirement after 15 seasons in Formula One.

The Scot's Red Bull tangled with the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima and Renault's Nelson Piquet, who was also eliminated from the race.

Alonso took second place in the race, with Raikkonen joining him on the podium to seize third place overall from BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica on race wins.