t"as vu l'heure !!

Moto GP ; Marc Marquez wins Indianapolis GP and is the king of the US

Marc Marquez has been officially crowned the King of the USA after winning the Austin, Laguna Seca and now the Indianapolis GP and took a stronger grip on the standings lead.

The MotoGP rookie took his his third consecutive race victory, - his fourth of the season - with Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo completing the all Spanish podium

The MotoGP rookie was highly tipped to win the race and that he did, even if he didn’t dominate it from start to finish as everyone expected, considering the devastating race pace that he showed all weekend long.

Jorge Lorenzo got the holeshot and kept the lead for almost half the race distance as the two Repsol Honda riders, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez closely shadowed him. Marquez made his first move on his team mate after six laps, in an aggressive outside pass and then began to hound the Yamaha rider and five laps later repeated another outside pass on Lorenzo.

With the just nine laps left Marquez whacked open the throttle and began to hammer out four blistering laps in 1.39.0 that would safely put him out of reach from his rivals, and he would cross over the finish line with a comfortable +3.495 margin.

Dani Pedrosa looked like he would end up third as he had started to fade, but with three laps left in the race, the suffering Honda rider decided that he couldn’t let Lorenzo take second and turned up the speed and caught him with just two laps remaining, once past the Yamaha rider he would began to distance him and take the second spot, while Lorenzo had to be content with third.

Valentino Rossi took a fantastic fourth. The Italian after lingering down in seventh for more than half the race suddenly began lowering his lap times. He chased down Stefan Bradl who was riding in 6th, and more than five seconds ahead of him, passed him and then set his sights on the battling Alvaro Bautista and Cal Cruthlow who were bashing fairings and exchanging positions.

With just three laps left Rossi caught them and the three were riding on each other tails, Rossi first passed Bautista and then began nosing around the Tech3 rider and on the final lap made his move only to run wide letting Crutchlow retake the position, but on the final corner Rossi dived in to take fourth ahead of Crutchlow and Bautista.

Stefan Bradl would ride to a lonely seventh, something he didn’t expect after a very competitive weekend, despite three crashes.

If Rossi excited the finale of the race, what happened between the Ducati factory riders was just as exciting even if surreal.

On the final corner Hayden put a very hard pass on team mate Dovizioso - it isn’t the first time - to try to take 8th, and the pass made them jump over the kerb onto the outside banking but as they returned to track, Bradley Smith snuck through and finished ahead the fueding pair by 0.011s.

There were numerous retirements by the CRT riders, Randy de Puniet was forced to retire with electronic issues, Lukas Pesek also had to return to his pit and Yonny Hernandez had to park his PBM machine, while Blake Young’s wildcard MotoGP adventure finished on the first lap.

2013 MotoGP Indianapolis race results:

01- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 27 laps in 44’52.463
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 3.495
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 5.704
04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 19.895
05- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 19.955
06- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 20.061
07- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 24.842
08- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 40.690
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 40.701
10- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 40.823

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

LE SÉBASTIEN LOEB RACING VEUT LE TITRE EQUIPES.

A la veille de la seconde moitié de la saison de FIA GT Series, le premier bilan du Sébastien Loeb Racing est honorable. Victoire, pole, première ligne et niveau de performance général sont autant d'éléments qui compensent les embuches supportées depuis le coup d'envoi de l'exercice 2013. D'ailleurs avec sa deuxième place au classement provisoire du classement «Team Pro», la toute jeune équipe alsacienne démontre qu'elle fait déjà partie des candidates au titre...

Un objectif clairement visé, distant de 25 points, et vers lequel le team de Soultz-Sous-Forêts veut faire un pas franc dès le prochain meeting sur le Slovakia Ring où ses pilotes se sont illustrés par le passé. « J'apprécie ce tracé » confirme Mike Parisy pilote de la McLaren #10 du team Sébastien Loeb Racing aux côtés d'Andy Zuber. « C'est un circuit complexe qui m'évoque de bons souvenirs. J'y ai gagné en 2011 et c'est sur cette piste qu'Andy et moi nous nous sommes rencontrés et avons entamé notre collaboration l'an dernier ! Bien logiquement, dans ces conditions, nous sommes assez impatients de revenir marquer cet anniversaire. Depuis le début de la saison, nous sommes parmi les plus rapides en piste mais nous avons manqué de réussite. Nous voulons boucler cette seconde moitié de championnat en beauté... et nous visons les plus hautes places, au moins un podium sur le Slovakia Ring. Encore une fois, nous avons la pointe de vitesse nécessaire pour y parvenir ! »

Associé au détenteur du record de cette piste slovaque (en GP2), le Palois apportera une attention particulière aux réglages de la McLaren MP4-12C pour l'adapter aux caractéristiques particulières de cette piste comme l'explique Alvaro Parente, pilote de la voiture sœur, la #9 qu'il partage avec Sébastien Loeb : « Cette piste est un mélange de parties très rapides qui contrastent avec des enchainements plus lents. La clé viendra certainement de l'aérodynamique, mais il est bien difficile de faire des prédictions sur les réglages à adopter. Je ne doute pas que nous trouverons, avec l'équipe, le meilleur set up pour nous battre aux avant-postes ! Le Sébastien Loeb Racing est définitivement en lice pour le titre par équipe ! » renchérit le Portugais. « Nous sommes deuxièmes au classement provisoire à une poignée de points des leaders malgré tous ces nombreux résultats qui nous ont échappés. Espérons seulement que nous serons plus heureux dans cette seconde partie de saison et que nous ne verrons plus des unités s'évaporer dans des concours de circonstances bien agaçants. »

Premiers éléments de réponse samedi 17 août pour les essais. Les qualifications sont prévues le samedi à 16h15 et détermineront la grille de la course qualificative dont le départ sera donné dimanche à 10h15. La course de Championnat sera lancée ensuite à 14h15. Ces deux courses seront diffusées en live sur le site du team.

Quelques mots sur le circuit ...

Situé à une cinquante de kilomètres de Bratislava, le tout jeune circuit de Slovakia Ring profite de la plaine du Danube au pied des Carpates pour dérouler ses 5 km 922 soit l'une des plus longues pistes d'Europe. Achevé en 2009, tout juste cinq ans après l'intégration de la Slovakie dans l'Union Européenne, le circuit, exactement situé à Orechová Potôň, présente d'autres caractéristiques qui plaisent aux pilotes dont une largeur de 12 mètres et une ligne droite de plus de 900 mètres. Les trajectoires possibles sont donc diverses et les possibilités de dépassement ne manquent pas.

Source : Sébastien Loeb Racing

via Endurance-Info

Guy Martin claims cool treble at the 2013 Ulster GP

Just a few hours after the renewal of his contract with the Tyco Suzuki team for another year, Briton Guy Martin clinched a sensational hat-trick at the 2013 Ulster Grand Prix, historically one of the most important events in the Road Racing. Martin won both Superbike Races and Race-1 of the Supersport class to become the undisputed hero of the day, while brothers Michael and William Dunlop got themselves one win each.

On the 7.401 mile Dundrod (approximately 12 km) of the mighty Dundrod Circuit, near Belfast, the 31 year old Lincolnshire rider begun his day winnign Race-1 of the Supersport class ahead of Bruce Anstey of New Zealand (HM Plant Honda by Padgetts) and Brit Lee Johnston (Honda East Coast Racing). The first race of the Superbike class instead was a close one, with Martin winning it by just 39 thousandths of a second over Michael Dunlop (Honda TT Legends), with the latter’s brother, William (Milwaukee Yamaha), completing the podum in third place and a gap of more than 10 seconds. In the second Superbike race, a technical problem immediately put Michael Dunlop out of action, thus paving the way for the third win for Martin. The Suzuki man in fact did not miss out on the chance, winning the race with a 4-second margin on very regular Bruce Anstey and almost 8 seconds on Conor Cummins (Milwaukee Yamaha), who jumped on the last step of the podium.

The Superstock race was won by Michael Dunlop, who took advantage of Martin’s technical issues - he was force to retire when he was in the lead - to win with a good margin on Gary Johnson (Kawasaki Lincs Lifting Ltd) and - again - Anstey, while Race-2 of the Supersport class saw the triumph of William Dunlop, who got the best of Anstey by just 73 thousandths of a second, and was joined on the podium by teammate Conor Cummins, third once gain 11 seconds behind the winner. See what the man of the day had to say about his treble right after the jump.

Here’s how Guy Martin commented his three wins at the 2012 Ulster Grand Prix:

“I’m over the moon with that today. What a way to seal the deal for next year with the Tyco Suzuki boys and well deserved for everyone involved. The Superbike was quick in the Ulster Grand Prix race but just started moving about a little towards the end, so we made a few changes and yeah… it was peachy, just peachy. The little 600 was flying and we again proved how good a little bike she is and those Metzeler tyres, top job boy, top job. Great racing and well done to the organisers for getting it off well, and I’m pleased to win the Darran Lindsay Man of the Meeting Award. Now it’s time for the boat home!”

from TWOWHEELSBLOG