Motorsport
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The Frenchman is supreme on gravel, ice, snow and asphalt.
After local star Dani Sordi led the opening day for Hyundai, Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier powered home strongly to win the Rally de España, also securing his fourth consecutive world rally title.
Ogier will start the next round in Great Britain and the season-ending Kennards Hire Rally Australia next month having clinched the title again . He has shown his dominance on every surface.
After a day of competition in the slop, mechanics had to on convert the cars from a gravel to an asphalt set-up in just 75 minutes. In the case of VW, they had to replace roughly 1400 individual parts in 13 modules per each Polo R WRC car.
Andreas Mikkelsen, second in the series, crashed on Saturday to leave Ogier with one hand on the crown. The Frenchman wrapped it up with a strong run on Sunday, edging away to a 15.6sec advantage over Sordo. Thierry Neuville of Belgium, also driving a Hyundai, claimed the final podium place, a further 59.4sec behind.
Ogier is only the third driver, alongside Finnish legends Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Mäkinen, to win four championships since the competition started in 1977.
Marc Marquez wins race and 2016 championship in Japan
Youngest rider to win three premier class titles
The Spanish rider took the lead on the fourth lap, and though challenged at different times was never headed.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finished second and Maverick Vinales on a factory Suzuki was third.
Lorenzo had a good start to the 24-lap race when he launched from third on the grid to arrive at the first corner in second place, passing Rossi. Immediately he also overtook Marquez in turn two, to take over the lead.
At 23-years old, Marquez is now the youngest ever to win three premier-class world titles and five world crowns across all classes during a period of only nine years at the world championship level.
So far this season, Marquez has had more wins than any other rider in the MotoGP class (five), most podiums (11) and most pole positions.
Toyota takes a WEC thriller at in 6 Hours of Fuji
Audi led for much of the enduro but Toyota gamble pays off
Audi led for much of the race but in a thriller that came down to a tight three-way fight in the last hour, Toyota opted to not take new rubber, instead gambling on gaining track position and eventually taking a memorable win by just 1.439s
In the #1 Porsche 919 he shares with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, Australia’s Mark Webber took third position after being in contention throughout the race.
