Silverstone MotoGP, Nurburgring WEC, Moscow DTM, Sonoma IndyCar
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Yellow flag
WEC - Nurburgring: A slow-zone has been called to cover the recovery of the Rebellion.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Everyone is shooting into the pitlane at the end of the warm-up lap, we're going to have an empty grid and a pit exit queue.
Yellow flag
WEC - Nurburgring: Rebellion has had a disastrous race, the #12 car has just ground to a halt and Heidfeld has jumped out and over the barrier. The sister machine has managed a grand total of one lap.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Incredibly cautious warm-up lap as riders try not to risk a slicks-on-damp-track tumble.
WEC - Nurburgring: So after the first round of pitstops in LMP1, here's the order:
1 #18 Porsche (Lieb)
2 #7 Audi (Fassler)
3 #17 Porsche (Webber)
4 #8 Audi (Duval)
5 #1 Toyota (Davidson)
6 #2 Toyota (Wurz)
1 #18 Porsche (Lieb)
2 #7 Audi (Fassler)
3 #17 Porsche (Webber)
4 #8 Audi (Duval)
5 #1 Toyota (Davidson)
6 #2 Toyota (Wurz)
#18 Porsche 919, Marc Lieb, Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, WEC Nurburgring 2015
Rain
MotoGP - Silverstone: Lots of activity in the pitlane as teams prepare the wet-spec spare bikes. Will we see everyone dive in?
Green flag
MotoGP - Silverstone: Off on the warm-up lap, still so much rubber debris from the Moto2 field's shredding Dunlop wets littering the track.
Rain is now heavier and heavier.
Rain is now heavier and heavier.
WEC - Nurburgring: The leading Porsche's pitstop was the quickest of the P1s. A time of 1m08s put it at least 4s ahead of everyone else
Breaking news
MotoGP - Silverstone: Uniform tyre choice of soft fronts and medium rears for the frontrunners, but will those be ditched for the wet-shod bikes before too long?
WEC - Nurburgring: Both Toyotas have come into the pits having momentarily run first and second thanks to the pit-stop sequence. Wurz takes over the #2 car from Conway and Nakajima jumps out of the #1 car with Davidson taking over.
WEC - Nurburgring: And the leading #18 Porsche comes in for fuel and tyres. Jani jumps out and Lieb takes over, rejoining in the de facto lead.
WEC - Nurburgring: The LMP2-leading KCMG ORECA pits. Tandy stays aboard and just takes fuel.
WEC - Nurburgring: Duval rejoins in fourth place again, behind the #7 Audi of Fassler and Webber's Porsche.
Rain
MotoGP - Silverstone: The drizzle is getting heavier...
WEC - Nurburgring: The #8 Audi pits from second place. Duval stays in the car and takes fuel and tyres.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Scott Redding qualified seventh on the Marc VDS Honda, one of his best starting spots of the season. But he emphasised that wouldn't sway his decision about where to go for 2016 - and this morning news broke that he was off to Pramac Ducati.
While Redding's relationship with Marc VDS - which nearly took him to the 2013 Moto2 title - is great, his relationship with the factory-spec Honda is less happy. He's been on Ducati's radar since a test in 2012 and will see how he gets on with the Desmosedici next season instead.
While Redding's relationship with Marc VDS - which nearly took him to the 2013 Moto2 title - is great, his relationship with the factory-spec Honda is less happy. He's been on Ducati's radar since a test in 2012 and will see how he gets on with the Desmosedici next season instead.
WEC- Nurburgring: Fassler's early stop - coincidently at the same time as Bernhard's - was the result of a slow puncture.
WEC - Nurburgring: The LMP2 midfield has all pitted together. Panciatici in the #36 ORECA, Kane in the #42 Gibson and Webb in the #43 Morgan are all in. Webb is turned around quickest by the Morand team and jumps two positions.
WEC - Nurburgring: The #4 CLM makes its first pit-stop. It's in seventh overall.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Smith was one of several riders pleased that Ducati had a rough qualifying session, as he feels the Desmosedici - very quick in a straight line - is almost impossible to pass if it gets in front of a Yamaha here. Andrea Iannone rued a mistake and starts ninth, Andrea Dovizioso was disrupted by clutch problems in final practice and is 12th.
Iannone Ducati Silverstone MotoGP 2015
WEC - Nurburgring: The second and third-placed LMP2 machines of Bird and Derani are both in the pits.
Rain
MotoGP - Silverstone: Don't try to second-guess the weather today, it's one for judging your tyres based on what's falling out of the sky or on the asphalt at that moment.
Forecasts have suggested everything from heavy rain to niggly rain to no rain, and as usual Silverstone is windy enough to switch between those situations pretty quickly.
It was certainly damp and drizzly for the warm-up this morning, where Valentino Rossi was a popular pacesetter, but the likes of Danilo Petrucci and Cal Crutchlow showed great pace.
It shouldn't get as bad as conditions for the event's BT Sport-organised launch in London on Wednesday, when Jorge Lorenzo and the British riders put a brave face on some pretty ferocious downpours in central London.
Right now: the track is dry. The skies are very cloudy. There's definitely specks of drizzle in the air. It's colder than it was in all the practice sessions. We predict that it's impossible to predict.
Forecasts have suggested everything from heavy rain to niggly rain to no rain, and as usual Silverstone is windy enough to switch between those situations pretty quickly.
It was certainly damp and drizzly for the warm-up this morning, where Valentino Rossi was a popular pacesetter, but the likes of Danilo Petrucci and Cal Crutchlow showed great pace.
It shouldn't get as bad as conditions for the event's BT Sport-organised launch in London on Wednesday, when Jorge Lorenzo and the British riders put a brave face on some pretty ferocious downpours in central London.
Right now: the track is dry. The skies are very cloudy. There's definitely specks of drizzle in the air. It's colder than it was in all the practice sessions. We predict that it's impossible to predict.
WEC - Nurburgring: Lamy passes Shaytar for second in GTE Am with a few buts of contact - and both cars taking liberties with track limits.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Bradley Smith set some extraordinary times in Friday practice, but didn't expect to be able to replicate his top-three form on Saturday, admitting that his Tech 3 Yamaha hits a "limit" that the factory bikes do not. He declined to go into too much detail, but suffice to say that both team-mate Pol Espargaro and works men Rossi and Lorenzo are allowed more to play with than Smith.
He starts sixth, just behind Espargaro, who burst into contention with his top-five qualifying slot having been working with the electronics and traction control settings to find more smoothness in his riding, which he didn't think would be possible through a style adjustment or the mechanical set-up.
He starts sixth, just behind Espargaro, who burst into contention with his top-five qualifying slot having been working with the electronics and traction control settings to find more smoothness in his riding, which he didn't think would be possible through a style adjustment or the mechanical set-up.
DTM - Moscow Raceway: Gary Paffett will start seventh this afternoon, where he finished yesterday after a strong run from a lowly 20th on the grid.
“I’ve had a few races where I’ve started P20 and finished P16 and it’s a pretty terrible day,” the Mercedes driver told AUTOSPORT on Saturday evening.
“Today, I knew we hadn’t gotten everything out of it in qualifying.
“We tried something on Friday and it didn’t quite work. I wasn’t really happy with the set-up in qualifying, and also I didn’t get the most out of it, I didn’t improve on the second run.
“So starting P20, we knew we could go forward, but with this field as close as it always is, I was hoping for points but not expecting them.
“As the race panned out, I had a good start, stayed out of the accidents at Turn 1 and 2, and just worked my way through from there.
“I was P17 at the first safety car, by the second safety car I was up to P11 and then I had great fun.”
“I’ve had a few races where I’ve started P20 and finished P16 and it’s a pretty terrible day,” the Mercedes driver told AUTOSPORT on Saturday evening.
“Today, I knew we hadn’t gotten everything out of it in qualifying.
“We tried something on Friday and it didn’t quite work. I wasn’t really happy with the set-up in qualifying, and also I didn’t get the most out of it, I didn’t improve on the second run.
“So starting P20, we knew we could go forward, but with this field as close as it always is, I was hoping for points but not expecting them.
“As the race panned out, I had a good start, stayed out of the accidents at Turn 1 and 2, and just worked my way through from there.
“I was P17 at the first safety car, by the second safety car I was up to P11 and then I had great fun.”
WEC - Nurburgring: Webber is taking over from Bernhard. The nose is taken off the #17 Porsche with the replacement bolted on. The #7 Audi has jumped ahead.
MotoGP - Silverstone: It's been a typically stealthy start to the weekend for Valentino Rossi. Not massively happy with the Yamaha on Friday, he made progress yesterday and was satisfied enough with fourth on the grid given his race pace and comfort on older tyres, though he suspects his fight will be with Dani Pedrosa for third rather then Lorenzo and Marquez for victory.
WEC - Nurburgring: Bernhard brings the second-placed #17 Porsche into the pits. The #7 Audi of Fassler also comes in.
WEC - Nurburgring: There's a frantic battle for second in GTE Am, with Shaytar, Lamy, Ruberti, Collard and Castellacci all together.
MotoGP - Silverstone: While the four-wheeled motorsport world has been mourning Justin Wilson this week, there's been sadness in the motorcycle racing community too.
After the warm-ups, riders gathered in the pitlane for a minute's silence in memory of Jonas Hahle, a 14-year-old killed in an ADAC Junior Cup race at Oschersleben in Germany last weekend, and Joan Garriga, an early 1990s 500cc frontrunner who died in a road accident in Barcelona this week.
After the warm-ups, riders gathered in the pitlane for a minute's silence in memory of Jonas Hahle, a 14-year-old killed in an ADAC Junior Cup race at Oschersleben in Germany last weekend, and Joan Garriga, an early 1990s 500cc frontrunner who died in a road accident in Barcelona this week.
WEC - Nurburgring: Bernhard complains of understeer and is told that he has a damaged splitter. Not clear what the cause of that is, but it would explain why he's struggling for pace in second place.
MotoGP - Silverstone: This is one of Lorenzo's favourite tracks, and until yesterday lunchtime it looked like he'd be running away with the race.
Then in practice four, Marquez burst to the front - lapping 0.8s quicker than everyone else. Indeed every single one of his flying laps was faster than anyone else could manage.
He then opened Q2 with a new lap record, improved it by three tenths at the second attempt, and reckoned he could've gone faster still (into the 1m59s) had he not missed a gear.
Was Lorenzo worried? Not really. He put his lack of practice four speed down to a set-up experiment that didn't work and focusing on running on old tyres, and felt he was close enough in qualifying given that Marquez and Honda have a habit of being "explosive on a single lap".
Then in practice four, Marquez burst to the front - lapping 0.8s quicker than everyone else. Indeed every single one of his flying laps was faster than anyone else could manage.
He then opened Q2 with a new lap record, improved it by three tenths at the second attempt, and reckoned he could've gone faster still (into the 1m59s) had he not missed a gear.
Was Lorenzo worried? Not really. He put his lack of practice four speed down to a set-up experiment that didn't work and focusing on running on old tyres, and felt he was close enough in qualifying given that Marquez and Honda have a habit of being "explosive on a single lap".
WEC - Nurburgring: Bernhard is told over the radio that the #17 Porsche will be brought in early.
WEC - Nurburgring: The #51 Ferrari heads back out of the pit but any chance of a good GTE Pro result has gone.
WEC - Nurburgring: Bernhard in second is under pressure from the two Audis of Duval and Fassler. Meanwhile, Jani's lead is now 27 seconds.
WEC - Nurburgring: Kane holds fifth in LMP2 for Strakka and is pressuring Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine ORECA. This is the Strakka team's first race with a Gibson chassis after dropping the Strakka Dome it used previously this year.
MotoGP - Silverstone: For the past two years this race has been an absolutely outstanding close-fought dice between Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. Lorenzo won in 2013 (when Marquez was hampered by dislocating his shoulder in a nasty warm-up crash), Marquez last year (pictured below).
When asked what they'd learned from those battles in yesterday's press conference, Marquez simply beamed (as usual), turned to Lorenzo and said "so Jorge, what have you learned?"
Lorenzo just grinned back, but later added that there wasn't a lot you could learn here - it's hard to take a sufficiently defensive line in the crucial places because you compromise your corner exit speed too much and just create a chance at the next turn instead.
When asked what they'd learned from those battles in yesterday's press conference, Marquez simply beamed (as usual), turned to Lorenzo and said "so Jorge, what have you learned?"
Lorenzo just grinned back, but later added that there wasn't a lot you could learn here - it's hard to take a sufficiently defensive line in the crucial places because you compromise your corner exit speed too much and just create a chance at the next turn instead.
Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, 2014 MotoGP Silverstone race
WEC - Nurburgring: Jani's lead is now 21 seconds over Bernhard.
MotoGP - Silverstone: Rossi has a rival in the showbiz stakes in the pitlane (and indeed the Yamaha garage) right now: actor Brad Pitt is here today, part of the launch celebrations for the new MotoGP film Hitting the Apex, which he narrated.
WEC - Nurburgring: In GTE Pro, the #91 Porsche of Christensen leads from the #99 Aston Martin of Stanaway. But the #71 Ferari of Calado is third having taken a splash of fuel under the full-course yellow.
By: AUTOSPORT staff, Mitchell Adam, Edd Straw, Gary Watkins, Mark Glendenning
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