10 Things You Might Have Missed From Last Weekend's Motorsport Action
In another busy and exciting weekend of motorsport - which included IndyCar, Moto GP and Nascar - here are 10 things you might have missed:
The MotoGP domination of Marc Marquez continued at the weekend, with the Spaniard making it nine wins out of nine races at the Sachsenring in Germany. He also maintained his perfect 2014 points record. Rain before the start meant 14 riders, including Marquez, lined up in the pit lane.
Stefan Bradl led early on after being the only rider on the front row to take the actual start. However, as the track dried out, his wet-weather set-up meant he couldn’t hold on to his advantage, with Marquez and team-mate Dani Pedrosa soon moving ahead. The Repsol Honda rider eventually took the chequered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, with Jorge Lorenzo in third.
Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay made a late pit stop gamble during last weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 300 to take his third victory of 2014. Tony Kanaan led the most laps, 247 of 300, but he couldn’t hold off his rival’s late charge from 10th at the final restart.
Hunter-Reay eventually finished 0.581 seconds clear of Josef Newgarden, who secured his first podium of the year. He started 21st and was running 11th at the restart after also pitting for new tyres, overtaking Kanaan – who finished third – on the final lap.
Brad Keselowski secured the clean sweep at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday after taking the Nascar Sprint Cup victory in style. The Team Penske driver took the Nationwide series win on the previous day.
He led 138 of the 305 laps, finishing ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch and rookie Kyle Larson. Several drivers fell down the order in the closing laps after running out of fuel, including Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick.
Joey Logano was far from happy after being taken out by the “slowest car on the track” during the Nascar round at New Hampshire. He was running in the top five when he was smashed into the wall on lap 211 by Morgan Shephard, whom at 72-years-old is the oldest driver in the field (and to ever start a Sprint Cup race).
Paul Menard hit the wall during last weekend’s Nascar Nationwide race after he attempted to pay back Chase Elliott for earlier contact.
6. Fight, fight!
After Dutch riders Bryan Schouten and Scott Deroue collided during Sunday’s Moto3 race in Germany, they decided to settle their differences with a fight, as the pictures above show.
7. Heikkinen wins in Belgium
Topi Heikkinen won the World RX of Belgium last weekend, becoming the sixth different victor of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship season. Timmy Hansen was second, with Johan Kristofferson in third. After finishing fourth, Petter Solberg has now moved to the top of the standings.
The DTM series headed to Russia and Moscow for the fifth round of the 2014 season. Maxime Martin scored his first win in the series after dominating the event, with fellow BMW driver Bruno Spengler in second. Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom was third.
9. Sainz Jr and Merhi share FR3.5 wins
The Formula Renault 3.5 series visited the Nurburgring at the weekend, with Carlos Sainz Jr surviving a late rain storm in race one to take the victory and extend his lead in the championship.
However, it didn’t go his way on Sunday with the Spaniard retiring on lap one after contact at the first turn. Roberto Merhi went on to take his second win of 2014 from Matthieu Vaxiviere, who made his return to the championship after injuring his back in Monaco earlier in the year.
10. Rumour has it
We are only half way through the 2014 Formula 1 season and already rumours are suggesting that some drivers could be replaced before the year is out. Carlos Sainz Jr has been linked to either Kamui Kobayashi or Marcus Ericsson’s seat at Caterham, while Adrian Sutil being replaced mid-season by Sauber’s reserve driver Giedo van der Garde could also be on the cards.
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