The racing weekend that was

In MotoGP, at Qatar:

Vale leading Marc - epic Yamaha vs Honda

The season opener got off with a bang yesterday with Valentino Rossi and rookie Marc Marquez providing loads of entertainment, whilst fighting for second place. First went to reigning double world champion Jorge Lorenzo, who's long sessions of winter testing paid off handsomely.

"Half an hour before he race I felt nervous. I had to concentrate a lot to relax on the grid because I knew the start was important," explained Lorenzo after the race. "I knew it would be hard to open up a gap but I had to try. I made a good start, pushed more than 100 per cent."

The Factory Yamaha star not only retained his pole position after the start, but also pounded out consistent hot laps to wear down the competition. By the midway point, he had opened up a four second gap which grew to almost six seconds in the end. Dani Pedrosa had ried to keep up with Lorenzo but after six laps could not keep up with the champion's relentless pace.

A familiar sight

After two difficult years racing for Ducatti, multiple world champion Valentino Rossi returned to Yamaha to secure his first podium position right of the bat.

After the race, a very happy Rossi commented: "I am so happy because my target was to arrive on the podium in the first race. After the warm-up I knew I had a good chance. However, I needed to do a good start and risk a bit to overtake the bikes in front that were a bit slower than me.....then when I had some free track I had a great pace and got closer and closer. At the end it was a great battle all three - but especially Marc, until the last lap. I was maybe a little faster but we were very close."

Congrats Vale and happy to see you back on a competitive bike!


NASCAR, at Martinsville:
Basically in control for 347 laps out of the 500, Jimmie Johnson drove to another win at Martinsville Speedway, his eight win at the .526-mile short track. At no point during the race was his position higher that fifth on the track.

The first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson now regains the points lead over defending champion Brad Keselowski.

On lap 487, the race got red flagged when Kurt Busch's brakes failed and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall. As the car slid along the fence fire spew from underneath the hood, but when the car came to a standstill Busch triggered the onboard fire extinguisher before exiting the car. Cool, calm and collected, that's how race car drivers do it.

Jr. after being bumped by Patrick #10

Dale Earnhardt Jr got bumped by the No 10 who got a push from No 55. Trading paint even after the checkered dropped were Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers. Things are definitely heating up in NASCAR!


More to follow soon. Thanks for reading.

Source: MotoGP, Crashnet
Photo credit: Crashnet