MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Aragon

Marc Marquez has ended MotoGP streak of eight different winners and moved a big step closer to taking his third world title with victory at Spain’s MotorLand Aragon circuit. The Spaniard started on pole but almost crashed on the third lap before coming back through the field from fifth.

Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha reigning World Champion, finished second Valentino Rossi had to settle for third place after leading until Marc Marquez passed him 12 laps from the end. The victory moves Marquez career tally to 54 across 125cc, Moto 2 and MotoGP classes, equal to the number Mick Doohan scored on his way to five consecutive premier classes world titles. Marquez now has a 52 point advantage over Rossi with four races remaining.

With 25 points for a victory, the 23 year old is on course to wrap up the championship with two races to spare at Australian Philip Island track on October 23. The past eight MotoGP races had been won by different riders, a first in the top category of Grand Prix motorcycling, and Marquez victory, his fourth of the campaign, was his first since Germany in July.

Fourth place at Aragon went to Ecstar Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales, while LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow finished fifth. Marquez’s team-mate, Dani Pedrosa claimed sixth place. The second Ecstar Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro finished seventh, while brother Pol Espargaro finished eighth astride the Tech3 Yamaha. Gresini Aprilia’s Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl rounded off the top 10. Nicky Hayden scored one point, finishing 15th, as he completed his MotoGP comeback as a replacement rider for Jack Miller.

Nico Rosberg wins Singapore Grand Prix

A superb drive saw Nico Rosberg win 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix after holding off a late charge from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.4s. With Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton finishing third. Rosberg now heads his team mate in the standings by eight points.

Kimi Raikkonen narrowly missed out on a podium for Ferrari, while team mate Sebastian Vettel – voted Driver of the Day by Fans followed him home a strong fifth after starting from the back of the grid. Max Verstappen was sixth for Red Bull, ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, with Force India’s Sergio Perez, Toro Rosso Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen completing the top ten. It was a race book-ended by drama.

As Rosberg headed Ricciardo, Hamilton and Raikkonen into the first corner, Max Verstappen made a slow start. And as Carlos Sainz took his Toro Rosso to the right of the Red Bull, he came into contract with Nico Hulkenberg Force India which was spun across the Dutchman bows and hard into the pit wall. Rosberg easily maintained an advantage over Ricciardo, to whom Hamilton could offer no challenge as he struggled throughout with brake temperatures.

Rosberg eighth victory of the season makes him the first non-champion to win in Singapore and puts him on 273 points, to Hamilton 265. The reigning champion was 7.5s second behind Ricciardo, but crucially 2.1s ahead of Raikkonen, whose ultrasofts were fading. Fernando Alonso brought his McLaren home seventh, having at one stage run as high as fifth, as Perez just held off Kvyat by four tenths for eighth. 

US Open 2016

Stan Wawrinka’s US Open triumph over world number one Novak Djokovic gave him a third Grand Slam title in as many finals. Wawrinka did shaking off the loss of the first set to post a 6-7 (1/7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 victory over 12 times Grand Slam Champion Djokovic. He denied Djokovic a second straight US Open Title, and for the third time beat a reigning number one in a major final.

Wawrinka had already been pushed to the limit in reaching the final. Wawrinka has now won all three Grand Slam finals he has played and his last 11 finals in a row, and has become the oldest male winner of the US Open since 35 years old Ken Rosewall in 1970. Djokovic, 29, was the defending champion and trying to win his third Grand Slam title of 2016 and 13^th of his career.

Angelique Kerber won the Women’s singles title of US Open 2016. This was Kerber second Grand Slam title win of this year after Australian Open 2016. She also reached this year’s Wimbledon Final, where she lost to Williams, and she also secured a silver medal in Singles at the Summer Olympics in Rio.

Men’s Double section is won by James Murray and B. Soares. Women’s double section is won by B. Mattek and L. Safarova. Mixed double title is won by L. Siegemund and M. Pavic. It was the 136^th edition of the US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam event of the year. 

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of San Marino

Dani Pedrosa ended his five-race MotoGP podium drought with a stunning victory at Misano as the Repsol Honda rider denied home hero Valentino Rossi a dream result in front of his passionate fans.

Rossi took the lead from his Movistar Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on the second lap and set his pace for much of the race, but it was Pedrosa who emerged as the surprise threat as the 30 year old Spaniard set a series of record laps to reel in the top three of Rossi, Lorenzo and championship leader Marc Marquez. Pedrosa snatched third place from team-mate Marquez with a clinical pass at turn 14, and three laps later he made the same move on Lorenzo, quickly pulling away from the Yamaha rider as he set off in pursuit of Rossi.

The Italian advantage at the front was visibly reducing as Pedrosa maintained his relentless charge, slashing Rossi lead from one second to 0.4 seconds with a few laps. Pedrosa continued to apply the pressure and with six laps remaining, he was now right on Rossi’s tail and the inevitable overtake came at the beginning of lap 22, with Pedrosa making a block pass on the brakes.

The difference between them at the finish was 2.8 seconds as Pedrosa returned to the premier class rostrum after a run of five races without a top three finish – his longest spell without a podium since its 125cc GP days. It was also Pedrosa first MotoGP win since Sepang in 2015. Pole men Lorenzo consolidated third place on the second of the Movistar Yamaha machines, 4.3 seconds behind Pedrosa, while championship leader Marquez was a lonely fourth, his lead in the standings reduced by seven points to 43 points by nine-time world Champion Rossi.

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Great Britain

Maverick Vinales has claimed his first MotoGP Victory and the first for Suzuki since 2007 with a dominant performance in the British MotoGP at Silverstone. The Spaniard broke away early in the restarted race and never looked back, pulling a near five second lead as a thrilling fight developed behind him.

Suzuki hasn’t won a race since Chris Vermeulen at Le Mans in 2007, with its last pure dry win back in 2000 with Kenny Roberts Jr. rising star Vinales is the fourth new race winner of the season and different winner so far. Home star Cal Crutchlow eventually finished 3.5s from Vinales to be best of the rest in second place, having got the better of Marc Marquez in the closing stages.

The world championship leader ran wide while trying to re-pass Crutchlow LCR Honda after a close moment at the end of the Hangar Straight, initially dropping Marquez back to fifth. The Repsol Honda rider had earlier been involved in an equally close duel with Valentino Rossi who completed the podium after he made his late mistake.

Ducati Andrea Lannone slid out of second as the race entered its closing stages, with Dani Pedrosa completing the lead group. Marquez overtook his team-mate after rejoining the track following the near miss with Crutchlow. Marquez now takes a slightly reduced 50 point advantage over Rossi into next weekend Misano round. Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile lost further ground in the championship with a forgettable eighth place. 

Nico Rosberg wins Italian Grand Prix

A poor getaway scuppered Lewis Hamilton chances of winning Formula 1 Gran Premio Heineken d’Italia 2016 and left the way clear for an untouchable Nico Rosberg to take victory and with it cut his title deficit to his Mercedes team mate to just two points. Sebastian Vettel consoled the tifosi with third place for Ferrari at their home race.

Hamilton fell to sixth by turn 1, but clawed his way back up the order to finish 15 seconds adrift of Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile followed Ferrari team mate Vettel home in fourth, ahead of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas was Williams lead runner in sixth, split from team mate Felipe Massa by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Force India of Sergio Perez, whose team mate Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

Mercedes strategy of single-stopping both cars, starting them on softs and finishing them on mediums eventually paid out handsomely. Ferrari went for two-stoppers, running supersoft- supersoft-soft and though Vettel was catching up bit by bit at the end, it was never going to be enough to dislodge Hamilton as the Englishmen trailed home second, 15s down on his team mate.

Rosberg seventh of the year was perhaps his easiest since Baku, and brings him within two points of Hamilton 250 to 248. Mercedes remain well ahead in the constructor stake with 488 points, but Ferrari has edged closer to Red Bull with 279 to their 290. Williams move back to fourth on 111, with Force India on 108.