The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Motorcycling: Stoner dominates practice ahead of qualifying
- UCI unveil Pinocchio as mascot for road race champs
- Vettel rejects suggestion of Red Bull duel
| Motorcycling: Stoner dominates practice ahead of qualifying Posted: 26 Oct 2012 07:33 PM PDT PHILLIP ISLAND, Australia: Casey Stoner again led the way as he clocked the fastest lap time in third practice ahead of Saturday's qualifying for the Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island. The home hero on a Repsol Honda posted a best lap time of one minute 29.665seconds. Also quickest in both sessions on Friday, he is the only rider to go under 1min30sec ahead of Sunday's race. Stoner, who is chasing a sixth consecutive Australian MotoGP victory this weekend in his farewell season, was 1.019sec quicker than world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo. The Aussie rider Stoner was 1.3sec faster than his Honda teammate and championship contender Dani Pedrosa, indicating his mastery of the Phillip Island circuit. Lorenzo leads Pedrosa by 23 points in the championship and can take his second MotoGP world title with victory on Sunday. Stoner is battling the effects of recent surgery on torn ligaments and fractures to his ankle, tibia and fibula he suffered in a crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis MotoGP in mid-August. The Aussie's hopes of defending his world title were ruined by the track mishap and he is out of contention, well back in third spot on the championship standings with two races left this season. Yamaha's British rider Cal Crutchlow was fourth fastest ahead of teammate Andrea Dovizioso, but nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi was struggling in ninth spot, some 2.3secs behind Stoner. Qualifying for grid position takes place later Saturday. - AFP |
| UCI unveil Pinocchio as mascot for road race champs Posted: 26 Oct 2012 06:36 PM PDT ROME: With world cycling chiefs reeling from the fall-out of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, an unlikely mascot has been unveiled for next year's UCI World Road Race Championships in Italy - Pinocchio. The International Cycling Union (UCI) have come under increasing scrutiny over their handling of the Armstrong affair, and the choice of the wooden, fictional character whose nose grows when he lies could be seen as highly unfortunate. "Ours is a Pinocchio connected to his origins, happy, athletic and attentive," organisers said on the official toscana2013.it website. "He is looking at the horizon, expressing an optimistic attitude versus the future. The expression of his face is smiling, happy, positive and at the same time astonished." They added: "Our Pinocchio is happy that his land, Tuscany, has been chosen to host the World Championships of Cycling. The outline is athletic and slim like a real rider." - AFP |
| Vettel rejects suggestion of Red Bull duel Posted: 26 Oct 2012 06:31 PM PDT NEW DELHI: Defending champion Sebastian Vettel rejected all suggestions that the Indian Grand Prix will be a private duel between him and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber after the pair dominated practice Friday. The two drivers were six-tenths of a second clear of the field after both sessions with Webber close enough to justify his defence of his right to fight his German team-mate for victory in his own bid to win the world championship. The Australian may lie fifth in the standings, 63 points behind Vettel, but, with 100 points still up for grabs in the remaining four races, he retains a chance of wrecking Vettel's dream of delivering a hat trick of titles. "This weekend if I have the chance to win the Grand Prix, I'll go for it," said Webber. "Mathematically I have a chance [to be champion]. So, if I'm in the lead, I'm not pulling over for anyone." Knowing this, and aware of the heat of their intra-team rivalry, Vettel was deliberately circumspect in his comments after dominating in practice on Friday. He was 0.118sec faster than Webber in second practice but focused his thoughts on the bigger picture and his other championship rivals. "It's not between Mark and myself, I think it's between all of us," said Vettel. "I think Friday is always difficult on a day like this and on a circuit like that because when you are out doing your new tyre run, track improvement is quite big. "I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow looks a little bit different, but we've had worse Fridays so I'm quite happy." He added: "I think we can be quite happy that we didn't have any major issues. We were able to test a few things and now we need to see whether we made progress and hope we make more tomorrow." Lap times dropped significantly as the track conditions improved and Vettel said that meant the timing of a driver's fast lap was often more important than the time itself. "The track improvement is massive, at least that's what we found," he said. "I don't know how the others did because I usually switch off the timing screens on a Friday, but the circuit kept improving and there was quite a lot of grip at the end as the circuit just got better. "I was quite surprised on the long run and I think it was the same for everyone as lap times just kept getting better." - AFP |
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