MotoGP ; Márquez retrouve les sommets à Silverstone / Marquez on top again in Friday practice

Marc Márquez a survolé les essais libres de vendredi au Grand Prix Hertz de Grande-Bretagne et fini avec plus d’une demi-seconde d’avance sur Stefan Bradl et Andrea Dovizioso.

Après avoir été battu pour la première fois de l’année au GP de République Tchèque, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) était de retour en première position vendredi à Silverstone pour les deux premières séances d’essais du Grand Prix Hertz de Grande-Bretagne, qu’il a largement dominées. 

Le Champion du Monde en titre comptait plus d’une demi-seconde d’avance sur ses poursuivants à l’issue de chacune des deux séances d’essais et n’a donc laissé aucun doute planer quant à sa détermination à renouer avec la victoire.

Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) a conclu en seconde position, à 0.509s du leader, tandis que Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) s’est emparé de la troisième place au dernier moment, en battant de 0,059s le Britannique Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3), seul autre pilote à moins d’une seconde de Márquez et seul pilote sur YZR-M1 Factory dans le Top 10.

Sur gommes tendres, Yonny Hernández (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing), Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) et Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) se sont classés de la cinquième à la septième places, devant Álvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) et Áleix Espargaró (NGM Forward Racing). 

Onzième à 1.374s de Márquez, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), vainqueur de l’épreuve devant son compatriote l’an dernier, cherchera à rattraper son retard samedi, à l’instar de Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3) et de Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), qui a fini à 1.826s du meilleur temps. 

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati) était lui aussi en difficulté et a pris la quatorzième place, devant Alex de Angelis (NGM Forward Racing). 

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

As the premier class riders enjoyed their second Friday practice session at the Hertz British Grand Prix, Marc Marquez was the top man, followed by Stefan Bradl and Andrea Dovizioso.

Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was fastest in the morning session too with a 2’03.208 to lead by 0.661s and he improved in the afternoon to 2’02.126, again leading the practice by more than half a second. The World Champion has a point to prove this weekend at Silverstone having not won at Brno, his first race of the year which has not resulted in victory.

Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) showed his FP2 pace with a 2’02.635, whilst Dovizioso (Ducati Team) put in a late best time for third – lapping 0.885s behind Marquez.

Local rider Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) looked good in fourth and Yonny Hernandez (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing) impressed by making it into the top five. Likewise Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) was well up the timesheet in sixth place, striving to please the crowd at his home GP.

Italian Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Spanish trio Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) rounded out the top ten.

Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) will aim to improve on Saturday after lapping 11^th and 13^th respectively, whilst Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) was down in 14^th. Lorenzo (+1.374s) and Rossi (+1.826s) were well off the pace of Marquez.

Leon Camier (Drive M7 Aspar) had a crash with five minutes to go in FP2 and ended up 17^thoverall.

For full MotoGP Friday times from Silverstone click here.

Le premier champion n’est plus…/ RIP: rallying’s first world champion

Le Suédois Björn Waldegard, premier Champion du monde des Rallyes FIA en 1979, est décédé à l’âge de 71 ans des suites d’une longue maladie.

Depuis son retrait du WRC en 1992, Björn était le « chasse-neige » officiel du Rallye de Suède. Cette année encore, il était au volant d’une VW ouvreuse, faisant la trace pour les pilotes WRC, des minots qui auraient pu être ses petits-enfants…

Aussi surprenant que cela puisse paraître, Björn Waldegard n’a pas construit son palmarès mondial uniquement dans la neige suédoise. Depuis 1973, il n’a d’ailleurs disputé que six Rallye de Suède et s’y est imposé deux fois. Non, c’est sur les pistes africaines – Safari Rally, Côte d’Ivoire – que le colosse suédois s’exprimait le mieux, au volant de Ford Escort, Mercedes-Benz et autres Toyota Celica…

Né à Rö, sur les rives du Golfe de Botnie, en 1943, Björn Waldegard a débuté en rallye en 1962 sur une Volkswagen 1200 avant de décrocher le titre national en 1967. Ses deux succès consécutifs au Rallye Monte-Carlo (1969, 1970) au volant d’une Porsche 911 S lui ont ouvert les portes d’une carrière mondiale riche de 95 épreuves, 16 victoires et d’un titre conquis en 1979, année de création du championnat Pilotes. A ce jour, il est le plus vieux pilote vainqueur d’un Rallye WRC (Safari Rally 1990 à 46 ans).

Björn Waldegard fut pilote officiel Fiat, Lancia, Ford et surtout Toyota pour lequel il a disputé 41 rallyes. Sa carrière s’est terminée au Safari Rally 1992 sur une Lancia Delta de l’équipe Martini Racing. Depuis, Björn brillait régulièrement sur les rallyes historiques, au volant de Porsche, Mercedes-Benz 500 SL ou encore Ferrari 308 GTB, des voitures « d’homme » ! Malgré sa maladie, il avait participé au Goodwood Festival of Speed en juin dernier.

Sweden’s Björn Waldegard, winner of the first ever FIA WRC Drivers’ crown in 1979, has passed away at the age of 71.

Since his retirement from the world championship in 1992, Björn has been the resident driver of the official ‘zero’ car for Rally Sweden and this year again he could be seen in a VW, serving as snow plough for competitors, some of whom were young enough to have been his grandchildren.

The Swede’s world class record wasn’t restricted to his home event. After the championship’s creation in 1973, he actually only contested the Swedish Rally six times, winning twice. It was in Africa, on events like the Safari Rally and the Côte d’Ivoire, that the gentle giant felt especially in his element, in cars as different as the Ford Escort, Mercedes and Toyota Celica…

Born in Rö, on the shore of the Bothnian Gulf, in 1943, Björn Waldegard made his competitive debut in 1962 driving a Volkswagen 1200. In 1967, he clinched the Swedish title, and Monte Carlo victories in 1969 and 1970 in a Porsche 911 S paved the way for a world championship career that included 95 starts, 16 wins and the inaugural Drivers’ title in 1979. He remains the oldest driver to have won a WRC rally: the 1990 Safari Rally, at the age of 46.

He drove for the Fiat, Lancia and Ford works teams, and also contested 41 rallies in the employment of Toyota. His last outing was the 1992 Safari in a Martini Racing Lancia Delta. Since then, he has been successful on the Historic scene, in Porsches, Mercedes 500 SLs and even a Ferrari 308 GTB… real men’s’ cars! In spite of his illness, he took part in last June’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Desafío Inca: German facturer battle - X-Raid Mini All4 vs SAM Mercedes CC.

The second edition of the DESAFIO INCA RALLY, third and last leg of the 2014 Dakar Series, will be a who's who of elite rally raids, with the leading specialists in each category going head-to-head in the Ica region from September 11 to 14.

Chief among them, the big winner of the 2014 Dakar, Spain's Nani Roma, driving his X-raid Mini All4 Racing. As he gears up for his title defence as the champion of the biggest marathonrally, exactly ten years after winning the rally on a motorcycle, the Catalan has chosen to test his Mini on the roughly 930 km long Desafío Inca.

The Mini driver will be on the hunt for another Dakar Series triumph to go with the Desafío Ruta 40 he won in 2013, when he also took part to prepare for the Dakar.

It will be a battle between German rallyraid manufacturers: Roma´s X-raid Mini (manufactured near Frankfurt) will come up against the stiff opposition of rivals such as Chile's "Team Tamarugal" and their sparkling-new German SAM Mercedes CC (manufatured near Leipzig), which have already proved their reliability and potential for several seasons with Germany's Matthias Kahle at the wheel.

More than enough to light up the car race, which will also see the rally raid debut of Peruvian motor sports star Nicolás Fuchs. The 31-year-old driver from Lima, who took the production category WRC 2 World Championship in 2013, has already shown his ability to adapt and spring a surprise or two, or even become the kingmaker of the category.

The quad race should also go down to the wire, with defending champion and 2014 Dakar winner Ignacio Casale as the man to beat. He's back at a race which, in his own words, gave him the confidence he needed to finish on the top step of the podium in Valparaíso last January. The Chilean rider has no doubt set his sights on a repeat win.

Some of his great rivals, all of them Dakar stage winners, will be out to thwart him, including Uruguay's Sergio Lafuente, Argentina's Sebastián Halpern, Chile's Víctor Manuel Gallegos and the other crowd favourite, Peru's Ignacio Flores. Another home boy, Alexis Hernández, will also strive to please his fans.

Eduardo "Tato" Heinrich and Felipe Ríos will fly the Peruvian colours in what is yet another star-studded field, including "official" riders like Olivier Pain and Javier Pizzolito.

The Frenchman and the Argentinean, ready to test themselves and fine-tune their preparations for the Dakar, are clear favourites to win the last leg of the 2014 Dakar Series, which will also decide whether Chile's Pablo Quintanilla or France's David Casteu takes home the 2014 Dakar Series overall title.

The stellar cast in all categories could still pick up a few other big names and last-minute surprises before registration closes at midnight on September 1. 
via http://www.marathonrally.com

Defender Challenge: Rd 5 of the series by Bowler takes place this weekend.

Motorsport fans will see six teams compete for top honours, as the inaugural "Defender Challenge by Bowler" rally series will form an integral part of the Woodpecker Stages event in the United Kingdom for the first time.

Teams will be based at Ludlow Racecourse, where scrutineering will take place as well as the official start and finish of the race and awards presentations activity. The all gravel rally course will test the teams and their Bowler-prepared Land Rover Defender 90 vehicles across 43 stage miles and some of the best forest stages in the country.

Heading into Round 5, father and son team Rob and Jonny Harford lead the Championship by just one point from Edd Cobley, who recorded his third victory of the season in the previous round at the Welsh Hill Rally.

"With just three stages to go, it’s exciting to be in contention for the Championship. It’s been a fantastic debut series for the Defender Challenge and with a great sense of camaraderie between all the drivers; we’re looking forward to another race weekend," Cobley said.

"Weather conditions made the previous round in Wales incredibly tough, but the Defender handled everything that was thrown its way and we were delighted to top the podium. I’m expecting another tough test at the Woodpecker Stages, but come rain or shine we will be ready to race and looking to top the podium again."

Well known from the Dakar, the "Race2Recovery" Team also head to Shropshire in good spirits as they push for a fourth consecutive podium finish. The team is comprised of a number of people with disabilities and received backing from long-term partner Land Rover to enable them to compete in the series.

Race2Recovery team member Ben Gott said: "We are continuing to grow as a team and are learning a lot from taking part in our first race series. It’s great to see co-driver Stephanie Boddez gaining more experience and confidence with every round. We’re looking forward to the challenge of securing another podium finish in Ludlow, and the final stages of the Defender Challenge."

2014 is the inaugural year of the Defender Challenge by Bowler race series, which features seven rounds, held across the UK. The series has been created to offer competitors a clear pathway to progress to further international rally raid competition such as the Africa Race and Dakar Rally.

Drew Bowler, Managing Director of Bowler Motorsport will make his rally debut when competing in this weekend’s stage. "With just three rounds to go, the Defender Challenge by Bowler series is really hotting up. The first four rounds have provided some great rallying and we looking forward to seeing six teams tackle the testing all-gravel course in Ludlow," he said.

People wishing to find out more information about the Defender Challenge by Bowler should visit BOWLER MOTORSPORT.
via www.marathonrally.com