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Atlas F1 Magazine Writers
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Solberg Hangs On
In the end Solberg took a hard fought 6.3 second victory over Loeb in a rally that went down to the wire. Ford's Markko Martin was almost three minutes behind to record third place. As with this time last year, the leading two cars were that much better than the field.
Rain, ever a potential problem in Wales, had already had its effect with the early stages already muddy. Francois Duval in the Ford Focus won the spectator stage on Thursday evening, but into Friday morning Loeb stepped up to take the lead with some blistering times with Marcus Gronholm's Peugeot leading the pursuit.
As the day wore on Loeb faded and Gronholm pushed harder but by Stage 5 it was Solberg making the running. Two long stages on Friday afternoon and Solberg gobbled up Loeb's lead to be just eight seconds at day's close, half of what it had been at one point. Gronholm was hanging on in third but Martin was fading, already 30 seconds back. Beyond that the gap was measured in minutes, except for Daniel Carlsson. The new Peugeot driver was out after sliding off the track. The car was recoverable, but a lack of outside assistance saw the inexperienced Carlsson wreck the clutch trying to return to the Stage.
Into the final day and Solberg faltered on first stage and the lead stretched to over eight seconds, but from there the Norwegian was on fire. He won Stage 17 but what followed was what made the difference. With the roads turned to a quagmire and rain still falling, Solberg danced a merry jig across the stages, pushing harder than Loeb regarded as safe, to undercut the Citroen by ten seconds on the stage and take a five second lead into the final stage. With the last being a Super Speical, all Solberg had to do was not make a mistake.
And he did not, winning after chasing the Citroen virtually the entire rally. Martin consolidated on the final Leg, to pull away from Sainz in their battle for third position. Duval's pace on Leg Two in particular saw him a lonely fifth. Harri Rovanpera was Peugeot's only joy in sixth position while Mikko Hirvonen was just 15 seconds behind in the second Subaru adding a crucial two points in their chase of Ford for the teams' prize.
Loeb leads Solberg by 28 points with four rallies to run. An insurmountable task on the face of it. A retirement or two from the Citroen driver are likely to be needed for Solberg to recover the gap. The win has pushed Solberg five points clear of Martin and nine ahead of Sainz, while Gronholm is now mathematically out of the title, 45 points from Loeb with Duval snapping at his heels. While a win for Loeb in Sardinia won't quite put the title beyond question, if Solberg doesn't finish second and Loeb wins, then France has the champion they have waited eleven months for.
Result of World Rally Championship, Round 12 of 16, Wales Rally GB, Great Britain:
Standings: Sebastien Loeb 92, Petter Solberg 64, Markko Martin 59, Carlos Sainz 55, Marcus Gronholm 47, Francois Duval 43, Mikko Hirvonen 23, Harri Rovanpera 20, Janne Tuohino 16, Freddy Loix 7 etc
Manufacturers: Citroen 150, Ford 112, Subaru 91, Peugeot 76, Mitsubishi 17
Tamada Holds Off Rossi For Home Victory
By Fred Varcoe
Championship leader Valentino Rossi of Italy had to settle for second place on his Yamaha as Tamada pulled away in the second half of the race. Shinya Nakano of Japan was third on a Kawasaki followed by Brazil's Alex Barros on a Honda and Yamaha rider Marco Melandri.
The race started in mayhem as six riders, including all four Americans Kenny Roberts, John Hopkins, Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden, collided on the first corner. Max Biaggi walked away unscathed, but fellow Italian Loris Capirossi was taken to hospital.
Rossi and Tamada left the carnage in their wake as they set about their personal duel. With thousands of Japanese fans urging him on Tamada took the lead on the fifth lap, and after shaking off the Italian, he cruised home well clear of the championship leader.
"I would like to thank the wonderful fans here at Motegi today," Tamada said. "They were great throughout the race and I wanted to win for them.
"The team also did a great job. It's a fantastic result for myself, Honda and Bridgestone."
Rossi will not be too disappointed with the result as his nearest rivals Sete Gibernau and Biaggi failed to make any ground on the Italian in the standings. Gibernau, who started 13th on the grid, failed to make an impression and ended up sixth, while Biaggi's race was over in the crash at the first corner.
Rossi now stands on 229 points, 39 ahead of Gibernau. Honda lead the constructors standings with 270 points to Yamaha's 244.
Italian teenager Andrea Dovizioso rode his Honda to victory in the 125cc race and boosted his lead in the championship over rivals Hector Barbera of Spain and Italy's Roberto Locatelli after a crash-marred race. Officials pulled out the red flag on lap nine after Imre Toth of Hungary flew over the bike of Andrea Ballerini, who had crashed moments earlier.
The race was reduced to 13 laps and restarted, but Barbera had engine problems with his Aprilia during the break and had to pull out of the race eight laps after the restart, leaving him on 163 points in the championship to Dovizioso's 208. Locatelli put pressure on his compatriot both before and after the restart, but in an echo of events at Estoril two weeks ago, a lapse of concentration on the final lap saw him slide into the gravel and he could only finish in 14th place. Gilera rider Fabrizio Lai finished second with Honda's Simone Corsi third.
Result of World Motorcycle Championship, Round 12 of 16, Motegi, Japan:
Standings: Valentino Rossi 229, Sete Gibernau 190, Max Biaggi 158, Alex Barros 115, Makoto Tamada 114, Colin Edwards 111, Carlos Checa 102, Loris Capirossi 84, Nicky Hayden 83, Marco Melandri 75 etc.
Report provided by Reuters
Busch Benefit
A couple of months ago Kurt Busch won at New Hampshire, and on the weekend he showed it was no fluke, taking the double at the track for the season with a dominant win. By doing so (and leading the most laps) he is now tied in points for the lead with Dale Earnhardt Jr (though Dale Earnhardt Jr has more wins), with Jeff Gordon nine points behind and Matt Kenseth one behind Gordon. Meanwhile early damage in a multi-car incident for Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield and a blown engine for Ryan Newman see them almost out of the title chase almost before it has begun.
Back to green on lap 22, Stewart leading Gordon, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Jeremy Mayfield. Gordon was soon back in the lead, moving past Stewart on lap 28, and that was how it was when NASCAR threw the 'competition' caution on lap 37. This time fifteen cars stayed out, while those who stayed out the last time came in, while some of those who had stopped earlier visited again. This shook up the order and now Kasey Kahne was the new leader ahead of Elliott Sadler, Sterling Marlin, Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin.
Back to racing on lap 41, Kahne maintaining his place at the front, while those who had pitted made their way back up the order. The caution was back out on lap 65 after Robby Gordon tapped Biffle into a spin in what appeared to be payback for the earlier incident, a radio message from Gordon not helping his cause to the point where NASCAR parked him for two laps. Spinning Biffle would have been bad enough but Biffle's car made contact with Jeremy Mayfield before Tony Stewart slammed into the side of it, Mayfield and Stewart suffering damage that put them behind the wall for several laps and effectively ended their day (and possibly their title hopes).
The whole field pitted (well, almost), but a variety of strategies shuffled the order. Michael Waltrip was the lone driver not to pit and he led Harvick, Newman, Jamie McMurray and Sadler as the race restarted on lap 71. Remarkably, considering his earlier apparent lack of pace, he was still showing the way when the next caution came out on lap 104 when Scott Wimmer hit the wall in turns three and four. More pit stops except for Casey Mears who took over the lead, while those who did pit again chose various strategies, Kahne leading Sadler, Busch and Gordon in the race off pit lane.
Once in front, Busch began to run away, and so the caution on lap 177 for debris was what everyone else needed. The field made stops once more, Busch leading Harvick, Earnhardt Jr, Newman and Joe Nemechek off of pit lane. Racing resumed on lap 182, Earnhardt taking second from Harvick later that lap before taking the lead from Busch on lap 184. However, two laps later Busch was back in front as he raced off into the distance again.
Green flag stops for the field took place around laps 250-255. These went fairly uneventfully except for Ryan Newman, who pitted with a car that was smoking and off-song, retiring a few laps later with a blown engine, having been running second to Busch before the stops. Debris brought out another caution on lap 277 as the race looked set to go the rest of the way under green.
The race went back to green on lap 281, Busch leading Kenseth, McMurray, Earnhardt Jr and Waltrip. Earnhardt Jr took third from McMurray on lap 288, while Kahne demoted McMurray another place six laps later. But no-one could do anything about Kurt Busch, who took the win ahead of teammate Matt Kenseth, with Dale Earnhardt Jr third, Kasey Kahne fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth.
Result of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 27 of 36, New Hampshire International Speedway, New Hampshire, United States:
Standings: Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kurt Busch 5210, Jeff Gordon 5201, Matt Kenseth 5200, Jimmie Johnson 5180, Elliott Sadler 5172, Mark Martin 5139, Tony Stewart 5086, Ryan Newman 5074, Jeremy Mayfield 5068 etc.
Champion!
With an emphatic display at the Czech circuit of Brno, Sweden has a new champion to herald as Mattias Ekstrom won the ninth round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, clinching the title and returning the champion's trophy to the Abt Sportsline Audi team that they lost last year to German Mercedes veteran Bernd Schneider. Ekstrom launched from pole and raced away to win by two seconds from Abt teammate Tom Kristensen with Mercedes sensation Gary Paffett third.
Off the start and Albers was swamped while Ekstrom sprinted away with a perfect start to lead from Tomczyk and Kristensen. Albers was quickly back up to third but Ekstrom was fleeing like a scalded cat. Ekstrom led Albers, Kristensen and others into the pits on lap six with Tomczyk staying out another lap before pitting from the lead. When Albers left the pits he collided with Christian Abt, with Abt sent spinning. A lap later and a seemingly desperate Albers had made contact with another Audi, leaving it spinning as Tomczyk lost second place. Tomczyk pulled into the pits to retire while a drive through penalty was assigned for Albers.
Albers' race was effectively run, the Dutchman continuing until lap 15 when damage from the incident with Tomczyk forced him to retire. Meanwhile the race was effectively over. By this time Ekstrom was long gone with just Kristensen for pursuit. Paffett moved into third but was not close enough to threaten. Fassler held the flag high for Opel, taking fourth place. There was a long gap back to Emanuele Pirro in a Joest A4 with Frentzen taking sixth in his best result since joining the DTM. Timo Scheider and Jean Alesi completed the points finishers.
With the championship gone, Albers has some ground to recover just to finish second, as Paffett's third place has given the young Briton a three point advantage going into the Hockenheim finale. Kristensen is next, but at ten points behind, demoting the Ducth driver will not be possible.
Result of Deutsch Tourenwagen Masters, Round 9 of 10, Brno, Czech Republic:
Standings: Mattias Ekstrom 71, Gary Paffett 51, Christijan Albers 48, Tom Kristensen 38, Martin Tomczyk 31, Bernd Schneider 26, Jean Alesi and Timo Scheider 15, Marcel Fassler 13, Laurent Aiello 12 etc
WRC
Successfully defending his World Rally Championship is inexorably sliding towards an impossible task for Petter Solberg. If the Norwegian is to lose the title to his French Citroen mounted rival Sebastien Loeb, then Solberg will make him work for it as the excitable Subaru driver took his second straight victory after a winner-takes-all drive on the penultimate stage of the rally, along the way successfully defending the Rally GB crown he and home town hero, Solberg's Welsh co-driver Philip Mills, so emotionally won their world crowns at last year.
If anything the rain was worse come Saturday morning. Loeb started pulling away again in the morning stages but Solberg no longer had to worry about pursuit after Gronholm slid off the road into retirment on Stage 9. A stage later and the lead was out to 17 seconds. Then Solberg started to peg the lead back. Francois Duval was the pace maker in the conditions though, the Ford driver, presently uncontracted for 2005 was reminding all why Ford gave him the keys to the second Focus. The day ended with Loeb leading by just seven seconds. Martin was over two minutes behind and coming under threat from the second Citroen of Carlos Sainz.
Privateers filled the remainder of the top ten, with Manfred Stohl being awarded a point for his consistency over the rally. Skoda were present with three of their Fabia WRCs but a top ten finish was denied them when Toni Gardemeister slid off the track on Saturday afternoon and lost a lot of time recovering. They were classified 22nd. Mechanical difficulties removed Jani Paasonen while a rollover on Friday afternoon ended Armin Schwarz's run.
Pos Driver/Co-driver Car
1. Petter Solberg/Philip Mills Subaru Impreza WRC 2004
2. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Citroen Xsara WRC
3. Markko Martin/Michael Park Ford Focus RS WRC 04
4. Carlos Sainz/Marc Marti Citroen Xsara WRC
5. Francois Duval/Stephan Prevot Ford Focus RS WRC 04
6. Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen Peugeot 307 WRC
7. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen Subaru Impreza WRC 2004
8. Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor Peugeot 206 WRC
9. Nicolas Vouilloz/Denis Giraudet Peugeot 206 WRC
10. Antony Warmbold/Gemma Price Ford Focus RS WRC 04
MotoGP
Makoto Tamada gave Honda a clean sweep on their home circuit on Sunday as he cruised to victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi Twin Ring Circuit on Sunday. Honda also triumphed in the 250cc and 125cc races.
Daniel Pedrosa of Spain boosted his lead in the 250cc championship after a two-man battle with fellow Spaniard Tony Elias, winner of the Portuguese Grand Prix two weeks ago. Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama finished third on another Honda.
Pos Rider Motorcycle
1. Makoto Tamada Honda RC211V
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha M1
3. Shinya Nakano Kawasaki ZX-RR
4. Alex Barros Honda RC211V
5. Marco Melandri Yamaha M1
6. Sete Gibernau Honda RC211V
7. Carlos Checa Yamaha M1
8. Neil Hodgson Ducati Desmosedici
9. Ruben Xaus Ducati Desmosedici
10. Alex Hofmann Kawasaki ZX-RR
NASCAR
A rain-out in qualifying meant the field was set by owners' points, and so Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and sat on the front row. At the start Gordon grabbed the lead, but his time in front was short-lived, with Tony Stewart taking over on lap twelve. The first caution wasn't far away, coming out on lap 18 after Greg Biffle just clipped the rear of Robby Gordon, sending Gordon spinning after Gordon dived down the inside and popped up in front of Biffle. All except nine runners pit, with the knowledge that NASCAR would throw a caution around lap 40 due to the rain-affected weekend.
The race returned to green on lap 108 but was back under caution on lap 114 after Marlin sent Robby Gordon into a spin coming off turn two. Sadler now led Kahne, Busch, Gordon and Harvick as the race went back to green on lap 117. Having been passed by Sadler in the few laps before the last caution, Kahne was eager to take the place back, doing so to take the lead on lap 132. His time in front was short-lived however, as Busch took the lead from Kahne just three laps later, something Busch had been working towards all race.
Pos Driver Car
1. Kurt Busch Ford Taurus
2. Matt Kenseth Ford Taurus
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Monte Carlo
4. Kasey Kahne Dodge Intrepid
5. Jamie McMurray Dodge Intrepid
6. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Monte Carlo
7. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Monte Carlo
8. Elliott Sadler Ford Taurus
9. Michael Waltrip Chevrolet Monte Carlo
10. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Monte Carlo
DTM
Christijan Albers was the only man who was realistically keeping the title race alive when the series reached the Czech Republic. The margin was thirteen points. If Ekstrom was fast then Albers had to win. Both comfortably into Superpole, it was Heinz-Harald Frentzen, at long last competitive in the struggling Opel, who was the quickest of the early lappers. Albers undercut Frentzen by two tenths as the sixth car out. Martin Tomczyk out next was close, Marcel Fassler was not. Ekstrom then took two more tenths and smashed pole position with a near 1:53 neat. Last out, Kristensen would start fourth beside Tomczyk.
Pos Driver Team
1. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Sportsline Audi A4 DTM
2. Tom Kristensen Abt Sportsline Audi A4 DTM
3. Gary Paffett AMG Mercedes-Benz C Class
4. Marcel Fassler Team Phoenix Opel Vectra GTS V8
5. Emanuele Pirro Team Joest Audi A4 DTM
6. Heinz-Harald Frentzen Team Holzer Opel Vectra GTS V8
7. Timo Scheider Team Holzer Opel Vectra GTS V8
8. Jean Alesi AMG Mercedes-Benz C Class
9. Peter Dumbreck Team Phoenix Opel Vectra GTS V8
10. Bernd Schneider AMG Mercedes-Benz C Class
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Volume 10, Issue 38
Atlas F1 Special
Jaguar: All Out of Lives
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