WRC Poland, Assen MotoGP, Norisring DTM and more
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WRC - Poland: Kris Meeke is 6s slower than team-mate Ostberg, our current SS5 pacesetter, and is going to fall behind the other Citroen in the overall standings.
He says he was taken aback by how deep the ruts were, saying it was more like the second pass of a stage than running down the order, such was the damage from the cars ahead.
He says he was taken aback by how deep the ruts were, saying it was more like the second pass of a stage than running down the order, such was the damage from the cars ahead.
WRC - Poland: Hirvonen was only ninth overall going into that stage and could well come under pressure from his M-Sport team-mate Kubica.
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WRC - Poland: Hirvonen's summary of his performance is pretty blunt: "we're really ****ing slow. It's really bad."
He's not at all happy with his pace notes.
He's not at all happy with his pace notes.
WRC - Poland: Not good at all for our 2009 Poland winner Mikko Hirvonen, he's 11s off the pace on this 12.92km stage.
WRC - Poland: Mikkelsen is three tenths slower than Ogier, and that's going to cut his rally lead to just one tenth of a second.
The Norwegian admits he was a bit too cautious early on, and a bit too scruffy later.
The Norwegian admits he was a bit too cautious early on, and a bit too scruffy later.
Stopwatch
WRC - Poland: Ostberg is quickest so far, but he's only half a second faster than Ogier.
"We need more than that," he admits.
His early advantage on the splits was lost when he made some small mistakes later on the stage.
"We need more than that," he admits.
His early advantage on the splits was lost when he made some small mistakes later on the stage.
WRC - Poland: Latvala doesn't think running behind Ogier is helping him much:
"It's so soft that there's not really a clean line."
He was 1.7s slower than Ogier and nodded in approval at his team-mate's time.
"It's so soft that there's not really a clean line."
He was 1.7s slower than Ogier and nodded in approval at his team-mate's time.
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WRC - Poland: Ogier is through, and he's pleased with conditions considering he's first on the road.
"In the forest it's not so bad, but at the end in the section where it's more open there was a lot of loose gravel."
Mikkelsen - the man Ogier is currently chasing for first place - is slightly faster on the splits. But our current pacesetter on the stage is Ostberg, who runs fifth overall.
"In the forest it's not so bad, but at the end in the section where it's more open there was a lot of loose gravel."
Mikkelsen - the man Ogier is currently chasing for first place - is slightly faster on the splits. But our current pacesetter on the stage is Ostberg, who runs fifth overall.
WRC - Poland: It's been a muted rally for Jari-Matti Latvala so far and he's only eighth. He's slightly slower than Ogier so far on the current Kapciamiestis stage's splits.
WRC - Poland: If you weren't with us yesterday, you might not be aware that Kubica has already had a roll this weekend - but there were so many spectators on hand to immediately pop him back up the right way that he was able to continue with only a half-minute time loss.
WRC - Poland: We're about to begin stage five, and we still have an extremely close lead battle - five cars within 9.5s:
1 Mikkelsen
2 Ogier +0.4s
3 Meeke +5.7s
4 Hanninen +6.7s
5 Ostberg +9.5s.
Kubica, who is very much the centre of attention this weekend, is 10th, but even back there he's only 35.6s off the lead, and he was third quickest on today's first stage.
1 Mikkelsen
2 Ogier +0.4s
3 Meeke +5.7s
4 Hanninen +6.7s
5 Ostberg +9.5s.
Kubica, who is very much the centre of attention this weekend, is 10th, but even back there he's only 35.6s off the lead, and he was third quickest on today's first stage.
Checkered flag
Moto2 - Assen: And he goes quicker still, having managed to sneak in an extra lap as the chequered flag fell! The times at the end of that session:
1 Lowes 1m38.339s; 2 Vinales +0.664s; 3 Argerter +0.847s; 4 Rabat +0.863s; 5 Luthi +0.915s; 6 Corsi +0.990s.
1 Lowes 1m38.339s; 2 Vinales +0.664s; 3 Argerter +0.847s; 4 Rabat +0.863s; 5 Luthi +0.915s; 6 Corsi +0.990s.
Moto2 - Assen: A last-gasp lap by Lowes sends him to the top of the pile. His 1m38.897s is very impressive given the conditions.
WRC - Poland: We're back in action on Rally Poland, but no longer in Poland.
Hello from Lithuania.
Hello from Lithuania.
Rain
Moto2 - Assen: Marshals are now waving their rain flags with less than three minutes remaining. The Moto2 riders are not phased, however, as Vinales, Lowes and Aegertar continue to battle for the top spot.
Stopwatch
Moto2 - Assen: Maverick Vinales is close to breaking into the 1m38s. He's just gone quickest with a time of 1m39.003s and leads ahead of Lowes and Dominique Aegerter.
Stopwatch
Moto2 - Assen: Times are tumbling now! Thomas Luthi has a go at the top of the timeshe... Oh, looks like Lowes has regained the top spot! His fastest time now is 1m39.183s.
Stopwatch
Moto2 - Assen: All change at the top as Sam Lowes goes quickest of all with a 1m39.437s.
Stopwatch
Moto2 - Assen: Just under 15 minutes left of this third practice session and Tito Rabat has just posted the quickest time of the morning with a 1m40.308s. His time in FP2 yesterday was 1m37.869s, which gives you some idea what the conditions are like at the moment.
Breaking news
Rain
Moto2 - Assen: Moto2 practice is currently happening at the moment. Well, we say 'happening', but it's actually tipping it down with rain at present and the only action is people wandering around the pitlane.
MotoGP - Assen: Nobody made any further improvements in that session. The combined timesheet remains:
1 Aleix Espargaro 1m33.653s; 2 Marquez +0.211s; 3 Pedrosa +0.416s; 4 Lorenzo +0.495s; 5 Iannone +0.624s; 6 Smith +0.633s; 7 Rossi +0.633s; 8 Pol Espargaro +0.755s; 9 Bradl +0.804s; 10 Dovizioso +0.807s.
1 Aleix Espargaro 1m33.653s; 2 Marquez +0.211s; 3 Pedrosa +0.416s; 4 Lorenzo +0.495s; 5 Iannone +0.624s; 6 Smith +0.633s; 7 Rossi +0.633s; 8 Pol Espargaro +0.755s; 9 Bradl +0.804s; 10 Dovizioso +0.807s.
Checkered flag
MotoGP - Assen: Good attempt by Bautista, but not good enough. He'll have to participate in Q1 later on this afternoon.
MotoGP - Assen: Final minute of the session and Bautista is pushing incredibly hard to try and make it into Q2. Will he demote Dovizoso in the dying seconds?
MotoGP - Assen: And here comes a late flurry of activty as everyone bar Aleix Espargaro, Marqez, Pedrosa and Lorenzo take to the circuit.
Stopwatch
MotoGP - Assen: Rossi sets the fastest time of the session which is 1m35.970s. No improvement on yesterday, of course.
MotoGP - Assen: Bautista pits with no further improvements and less than six minutes left on the clock.
MotoGP - Assen: The medium compound rear on Bautista's Gresini Honda doesn't look suited to the conditions. His best time so far is 1m37.517s.
MotoGP - Assen: Another reason for Bautista to go out is to try and gain automatic promotion to Q2. He needs improve upon his currently best time of 1m34.466s by 0.007s.
MotoGP - Assen: Just under 13 minutes to go and Bautista is the first to go out on slicks. There'll be enormous interest on his lap times.
MotoGP - Assen: And as we say that, the Yahama rider comes into the pits, leaving Aoyama and Hayden to provide any entertainment.
MotoGP - Assen: The only on-track action at the moment comes courtesy of Jorge Lorenzo, who is the only frontrunner experiencing these mixed conditions.
MotoGP - Assen: Just about everybody has returned to the pits as the riders look to be preparing to go back out on slicks.
MotoGP - Assen: The rain has now stopped and there are 25 minutes left on the clock. Riders are still tiptoeing their way around the circuit to test the conditions.
MotoGP - Assen: Many riders are embarking upon single laps to gauge the current grip levels. Dani Pedrosa is visibly unhappy as he leaves the pitlane, shaking his head in disbelief.
MotoGP - Assen: Hector Barbera and Valentino Rossi make it three riders out on the track.
MotoGP - Assen: Hark! We hear a motorbike firing up, and it's Bradley Smith who goes out to see what the conditions are like.
MotoGP - Assen: A frustrating situation now as the track isn't wet enough for riders to go out on a wet set-up, while running on slicks would be rather tricky.
Kimiya Sato
Auto GP - Imola: Also coming up during the morning will be updates from Imola, where the latest Auto GP rounds as taking place.
Kimiya Sato is clinging on to his championship lead despite only contesting a part-season as he focuses on GP2. Taki Inoue's protege is back for this weekend's race though and will be trying to pull out a bit more breathing space over the chasing Markus Pommer and Tamas Pal Kiss.
Here's how they stand right now:
Auto GP championship standings after eight of 16 rounds:
1 Kimiya Sato 114
2 Markus Pommer 105
3 Tamas Pal Kiss 101
4 Kevin Giovesi 82
5 Andrea Roda 80
6 Michela Cerruti 55
(25 points for race one win, 15 for race two)
Full 2014 Auto GP data on FORIX
Today's schedule is a pair of practice sessions, with qualifying tomorrow morning.
WRC - Poland: Worth noting as well that within that 5m48s, the rally leaders covered 12.89 kilometres... this is a fast event.
We're now off to nearby Lithuania for the Kapciamiestis and Margionys stages, and unsurprisingly as there's a national border to cross, there will be a bit of a pause in the action before then.
Here's the schedule for the next part of Rally Poland in UK time:
SS5: 10.43
SS6: 11.30
(service break)
SS7: 13.58
SS8: 14.45
We'll be covering all those stages as they happen on Race Centre Live, then you can follow the evening re-runs of Wieliczki and the Mikolajki Arena superspecial with WRC Live's radio commentary.
We're now off to nearby Lithuania for the Kapciamiestis and Margionys stages, and unsurprisingly as there's a national border to cross, there will be a bit of a pause in the action before then.
Here's the schedule for the next part of Rally Poland in UK time:
SS5: 10.43
SS6: 11.30
(service break)
SS7: 13.58
SS8: 14.45
We'll be covering all those stages as they happen on Race Centre Live, then you can follow the evening re-runs of Wieliczki and the Mikolajki Arena superspecial with WRC Live's radio commentary.
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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