WRC Poland, Assen MotoGP, Norisring DTM and more
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IndyCar - Houston: Meanwhile, Tony Kanaan has made good progress from 22nd, and is currently running 16th. Power is two places further back.
Stopwatch
WRC - Poland: Neuville is fastest of the early runners, and the fact he's among the first group of cars is a reminder of how far behind he was at the start of the day. He began Saturday in 10th, he'll end it in third.
IndyCar - Houston: Hinchcliffe has passed Pagenaud for second. That will cheer Andretti Autosport up, which they could do with at the moment - a moment ago, Marco Andretti was turned around by team-mate Carlos Munoz, prompting a trip into the pits to replace a punctured left-rear tyre.
IndyCar - Houston: Sato has already disappeared, and Pagenaud is under real pressure from Hinchcliffe. Pagenaud looks really vulnerable under braking.
BES - Paul Ricard: Traffic at Turns 5 and 6 haven't helped Lapierre's charge. He's lost a couple of seconds and Kane's Bentley is now 3.366s ahead with less than 10 minutes to go.
IndyCar - Houston: All sorts of exitement in the battle for P2 between Castroneves, Hinchcliffe and Sato. A flurry of passing between that lot resulted in Sato making a great move to pass the both of them and move into second. The Japanese driver has already caught Pagenaud ... and passes him for the lead.
IndyCar - Houston: Leader Pagenaud has cut the same corner in two consecutive laps. He's being told to give back 1.2s, which will still leave him 0.6s ahead of Castroneves.
Breaking news
WRC - Poland: Confirmation that Ostberg won't be back out tomorrow under Rally2 as there's rollcage damage on the Citroen. He would've been too far down the field to make that really worthwhile anyway.
BES - Paul Ricard: Lapierre's McLaren MP4-12C is now within 0.989s of taking the lead. We're in for a great scrap during these last 15 minutes!
IndyCar - Houston: Pagenaud already has a 1.5s lead over Castroneves. The Frenchman has a huge advantage in that he's the only guy on the track who can see anything - there is so much spray.
Green flag
IndyCar - Houston: Green flag! Light contact as Sato tried to go between Hinchcliffe and Filippi off the line, but they all got away with it.
Mixed news for RLL: Rahal has failed to get off the line, but Filippi is looking good up towards the front.
Mixed news for RLL: Rahal has failed to get off the line, but Filippi is looking good up towards the front.
IndyCar - Houston: The cars are forming up for the start ...
IndyCar - Houston: IndyCar obviously has the same idea: it has just announced that this will be a timed race of 1h50m.
BES - Paul Ricard: Just under 20 minutes remain and Lapierre is gaining on Kane, who doesn't have traffic as an excuse this time around. Just 1.212s separates them at present.
IndyCar - Houston: We're going to have a few extra installation laps to give the drivers more chance to get a handle on the track conditions. Rain + street courses usually = yellows, so we're settling in for what might be a long afternoon.
WRC - Poland: The Rally Poland field is getting set to finally wrap up its long Saturday with another crack at the superspecial.
There's a higher-than-usual chance of a position change on this one too: Hanninen's wonky steering isn't going to be much fun on a superspecial and with Latvala just 1.5s behind, the VW could easily end tonight in fifth.
There's a higher-than-usual chance of a position change on this one too: Hanninen's wonky steering isn't going to be much fun on a superspecial and with Latvala just 1.5s behind, the VW could easily end tonight in fifth.
BES - Paul Ricard: The gap between Kane and Lapierre continues to ebb and flow as the leaders encounter traffic. The lowest it has been is 2.2s, but it's back up to 4.4s with 25 minutes to go.
Rain
NASCAR - Kentucky: It's also pouring at Kentucky now, but the race start is still four hours away and the forecast for later is better.
IndyCar - Houston: Command given to start engines.
Nose
IndyCar - Houston: A final lap of the dummy grid by AUTOSPORT revealed that Bourdais has dumped the grill-equipped front wing, meaning that the only driver in the field who will use it (as far as we could see) will be Saavedra.
Meanwhile, the prospect of a wet race on an already slippery surface is a slightly daunting one, but it brings one benefit: the cloud cover has caused the temperature to drop. It's not 'cool', per se. It's just not hot. At least, not right now.
NASCAR - Kentucky: During the European night, after Race Centre Live has gone for a nap, the NASCAR Sprint Cup field will be racing at Kentucky Speedway.
It's an all-Penske front row with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, but there are a lot of eyes on Jeff Gordon in third. The Hendrick cars have been very fast of late on medium and large tracks, and Kentucky is the one remaining venue on the current Cup calendar where Gordon has never won.
Two men in the field have already got a win this weekend: Kyle Busch continued his Truck winning streak on Thursday night, and last night Kevin Harvick beat Busch on a late restart to win the Nationwide round.
It's an all-Penske front row with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, but there are a lot of eyes on Jeff Gordon in third. The Hendrick cars have been very fast of late on medium and large tracks, and Kentucky is the one remaining venue on the current Cup calendar where Gordon has never won.
Two men in the field have already got a win this weekend: Kyle Busch continued his Truck winning streak on Thursday night, and last night Kevin Harvick beat Busch on a late restart to win the Nationwide round.
BES - Paul Ricard: Verndonck in third is still fending off Wolf in the sister HTP Mercedes. Guilvert in the #26 Sainteloc Audi is also in the hunt and just 1.6s covers the trio at present.
BES - Paul Ricard: Darkness has descended upon Paul Ricard and Kane continues to lead the way. His advantage has been reduced to 4.097s as the Brit filtered the Bentley through traffic.
IndyCar - Houston: The rain has returned, and IndyCar has declared a wet start. All cars will start on rain tyres. This will be IndyCar's first standing start on a wet track.
BES - Paul Ricard: Lapierre is dropping away from Kane. The #7 M-Sport Bentley is now 5.849s ahead of the rest of the field. Closest battle is between the two HTP Mercedes cars as Verdonck and Wolf are fighting for the final spot on the podium.
BES - Paul Ricard: Getting interesting up front as Lapierre is now 2.986s behind Kane. The leading duo are a comfortable 27.5s ahead of the #84 HTP Mercedes that Verdonck is driving to the finish.
IndyCar - Houston: IndyCar and Dallara sanctioned a specially-modified nosecone for this weekend's race, with a tiny grill tucked into the tip in the hope of offering some additional airflow during what is expected to be a very uncomfortable race for the drivers.
Surprisingly, almost nobody has opted to use it. The only team that ran it yesterday was KV, and Sebastien Bourdais told AUTOSPORT that he wasn't even sure whether it helped.
"I don't know. We've been using it all day so it’s hard to say. I can't feel anything from it – but it can't hurt."
Surprisingly, almost nobody has opted to use it. The only team that ran it yesterday was KV, and Sebastien Bourdais told AUTOSPORT that he wasn't even sure whether it helped.
"I don't know. We've been using it all day so it’s hard to say. I can't feel anything from it – but it can't hurt."
Just under half an hour to go until the first Houston IndyCar race kicks off, here's a quick round-up of today's headlines so far...
* Marc Marquez remains unbeaten in the 2014 MotoGP season after a wild wet/dry Assen race in which Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso was his main rival, and which Jorge Lorenzo described as his worst ever performance
* A chaotic day of Rally Poland includes incidents for Ostberg, Latvala, Kubica, Meeke and Evans, but Ogier rises above it all and pulls clear
* Max Verstappen's star continues to rise - he notches up one hard-fought victory and two pole positions in European Formula 3 at the Norisring
* A circuit with no fast corners is good news for Mercedes in the DTM - Robert Wickens and Paul di Resta sweep the Norisring front row
* Sauber F1 protege Sergey Sirotkin takes his first Formula Renault 3.5 win on home ground at Moscow as the title contenders all have disasters, including a tangle between Oliver Rowland and Carlos Sainz Jr that means a penalty for the points leader
* Will the BTCC rear-wheel-drive controversy continue? Colin Turkington is on pole again at Croft...
* Kimiya Sato's bid to become Auto GP champion without contesting the full season gets a boost as he wins at Imola while main rival Markus Pommer retires
* Marc Marquez remains unbeaten in the 2014 MotoGP season after a wild wet/dry Assen race in which Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso was his main rival, and which Jorge Lorenzo described as his worst ever performance
* A chaotic day of Rally Poland includes incidents for Ostberg, Latvala, Kubica, Meeke and Evans, but Ogier rises above it all and pulls clear
* Max Verstappen's star continues to rise - he notches up one hard-fought victory and two pole positions in European Formula 3 at the Norisring
* A circuit with no fast corners is good news for Mercedes in the DTM - Robert Wickens and Paul di Resta sweep the Norisring front row
* Sauber F1 protege Sergey Sirotkin takes his first Formula Renault 3.5 win on home ground at Moscow as the title contenders all have disasters, including a tangle between Oliver Rowland and Carlos Sainz Jr that means a penalty for the points leader
* Will the BTCC rear-wheel-drive controversy continue? Colin Turkington is on pole again at Croft...
* Kimiya Sato's bid to become Auto GP champion without contesting the full season gets a boost as he wins at Imola while main rival Markus Pommer retires
BES - Paul Ricard: And the aforementioned car trundles down the pitlane, meaning Kane's #7 M-Sport Bentley goes back into the lead.
BES - Paul Ricard: The #12 TDS BMW continues to lead having not made its final pitstop yet.
IndyCar - Houston: We've just watched Scott Hargrove win a downpour-affected Pro Mazda race, and the pre-race stuff is now underway for the main show.
Not surprisingly, the rain has done little to lessen the humidity here. It's standard at this point to write something about the atmosphere of the event, so here goes: the atmosphere in Houston is conducive to growing equatorial plants.
Not surprisingly, the rain has done little to lessen the humidity here. It's standard at this point to write something about the atmosphere of the event, so here goes: the atmosphere in Houston is conducive to growing equatorial plants.
BES - Paul Ricard: The #7 M-Sport Bentley is now lapping in the low 1m59s and Kane is managing to pull away from Lappiere's ART McLaren.
BES - Paul Ricard: We're into the final hour and Kane leads Lapierre by only a couple of tenths.
BES - Paul Ricard: Not the quickest of stops by the M-Sport mob, but Kane should continue to lead once all the pitstops have played out.
BES - Paul Ricard: Race leader Meyrick pits and Steven Kane will drive the #7 M-Sport Bentley for the final 65 minutes.
BES - Paul Ricard: Wolf pits from third with 70 minutes left to run. Sergei Afanasiev will take over at the wheel of the #85 HTP Mercedes.
BES - Paul Ricard: Meyrick, meanwhile, continues to lead in the #7 M-Sport Bentley. He's 6.704s ahead of the #98 ART McLaren that's being driven by Demoustier.
BES - Paul Ricard: Catsburg is using every inch of the circuit, including the massive run-off areas. A good two-car lengths in places! No warning to respect the track limits yet...
BES - Paul Ricard: Catsburg is on a mission as the sun sets on Paul Ricard. His next target is Wolf in the #84 HTP Mercedes having just demoted Primat to claim fourth.
BES - Paul Ricard: Catsburg comfortably leads the Pro-Am category as well at the moment. His nearest rival is Stefano Gai in the #90 Villorba Ferrari and he's 26s away.
By: Dan Cross, Matt Beer, Marcus Simmons, Glenn Freeman, Andrew van Leeuwen, Sam Smith, Kevin Turner, David Evans, Mark Glendenning, Charles Bradley, AUTOSPORT staff
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