SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 , 2013 SPORTS

Marquez clocks Photo of the day fastest in Malaysia

SEPANG: Championship leader Marc just three more races left in the season Marquez continued his brilliant MotoGP after Malaysia. rookie season by claiming pole position for Defending champion Lorenzo will line the Malaysian Grand Prix while his main up in the second row, alongside Marquez’s rivals were consigned to the second row at team mate Dani Pedrosa, after setting the a wet Sepang yesterday. fourth fastest time. The 20-year-old Honda rider’s time of “Tomorrow will be a different story two minutes 0.011 seconds on his seventh because Lorenzo and Dani both have great and final lap was the quickest ever at the pace so we shall see if we have a bit of circuit and gave him his eighth pole of the good fortune and the conditions remain season and a fourth in a row. dry,” Marquez added. “I’m really happy with this pole position Pedrosa, runner up in the title race last particularly as earning it was a little differ- year and 59 points behind Marquez coming ent to my previous poles,” Marquez told to Malaysia, had dominated the practice MotoGP.com. sessions over the weekend but was unable “At the start of qualifying there were to maintain his advantage over his rivals in two completely wet corners which made it the decisive qualifying shootout. hard to put in a hot lap as we had to calcu- “A couple of corners were wet and so it late the amount of risk whilst still maintain- wasn’t easy for qualifying,” Pedrosa said. “I ing our speed. managed to do a great lap. It wasn’t “I knew the final lap of the session enough today but overall I am happy with would be definitive because the surface the performance.” was drying out and conditions were get- The 28-year-old’s mood was completely ting better by the minute,” said Marquez. different to last week when he was left “Things worked out for us and I set a fuming at Marquez after his young team time I really wasn’t expecting.” The Spaniard mate made contact with his bike at the will be joined on the front row by the Aragon Grand Prix, which Pedrosa blamed Yamahas of Italy’s seven-times champion for his retirement from the race. Valentino Rossi (2.00.336) and Briton Cal Marquez was handed a third penalty Crutchlow (2.00.359). Marquez is looking point of the season for his part in a col- for his seventh win of the year on Sunday lision, one point shy of automatic rele- and to extend his 39-point championship gation to the back of the grid for one lead over compatriot Jorge Lorenzo with race. —Reuters

Competitor performs at Mini Drome in Seoul, South Korea.— www.redbull.com Webber on pole in Japan

SUZUKA: Australian led a Red Bull front row sweep yesterday and denied team mate and championship leader a fifth successive Japanese Grand Prix pole position. Vettel, who can clinch his fourth succes- sive world title at the age of 26 today if he wins and Ferrari’s finishes lower than eighth, had problems with his car’s kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and had to settle for sec- ond. The German, out-qualified by Webber for the first time this season, will still be favourite to win given the championship situation, and the likeli- hood of team orders. Alonso, 77 points behind Vettel with five races remaining, qualified only eighth on a sunny after- noon at the Honda-owned figure-of-eight Suzuka SEPANG: Repsol Honda Team rider Marc Marquez of Spain steers his bike during the circuit. “It was pretty good. Sebastian had a prob- fourth practice session at the Malaysian Grand Prix MotoGP motorcycling race. —AFP lem in qualifying so it’s a little bit of a hollow pole position if you like,” said Webber of his first pole position since South Korea in October last year. His time of one minute 30.915 seconds was Edinburgh end 0.174 quicker than Vettel’s best effort. “I’m happy to be on pole and you’ve got to grab that opportunity when you can. We did the laps when they counted, SUZUKA: Red Bull driver Mark Webber of Australia drives his car during the qualifying session Munster jinx and it’s a very nice farewell for me on my final time ahead of the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix. Webber clocked the fastest time to get the here at Suzuka and on a phenomenal circuit,” pole position.—AFP added the Australian, who is leaving Formula One PARIS: Edinburgh ended a run of six suc- from a metre out and hurled himself across at the end of the season. “It was a real highlight for gled with KERS problems on Saturday morning, here, he’ll win in India or in Abu Dhabi,” the cessive defeats by two-time European Cup the line-Keatley converted for 17-13. me. I think in general we’ve got a good car for the when he sat out the end of final practice while the Spaniard told reporters. “We will not race to try to winners Munster in style yesterday with a However, more ill discipline by Munster race.” , for Mercedes, and Romain team changed the battery. finish in the first eight to keep alive the champi- 29-23 victory over the Irish province in their saw Laidlaw knock over another two penal- Grosjean in a Lotus, share the second row while The problem then returned for the final phase onship. “We will race to try to score as many points opening European Cup Pool Five clash. ties to give the hosts the lead once again at Ferrari’s Brazilian starts fifth at a circuit of qualifying, even if the KERS was re-set and work- as possible to try and finish in front of the Scotland scrum-half Greig Laidlaw was the 19-17. Keatley slotted over a penalty from where he was runner-up last year. ing on his second run. Mercedes. That is a very important goal for us. If we driving force, kicking 19 points including wide out on the left in the 53rd minute to qualified sixth for Mercedes with “I think we have a little bit more time after quali- can keep the championship open to India it will be converting the two Edinburgh tries as they give the visitors a one point lead, 20-19. fellow-German Nico Hulkenberg seventh for fying now to have a look and see whether there is OK but it will not change too much for us.” made an impressive start to their cam- Just over 10 minutes later, as Munster Sauber. Webber’s 12th career pole also ended a run something else broken or damaged,” said the Qualifying was halted in the first phase for five paign. poured on the pressure, Keatley converted of three poles in three races for Vettel, who has German, who refused to use the problems as an minutes when Jean-Eric Vergne pulled over at the Munster, who also lost their opening another penalty after an Edinburgh won at Suzuka three times in the last four years. excuse. “We tried everything, it worked sometimes.” exit to the hairpin with his Toro Rosso’s brakes on pool match last term, took the consolation infringement, to give them a 23-19 lead. Yesterday might be as good as it gets for the Alonso hoped to be able to make up places on fire, with a cloud of smoke billowing up as marshals of a defensive bonus point. In a pool that However, the hosts went back in front Australian but he was not about to roll over with- Sunday, as he has done all season, but had no illu- put out the flames. also contains Perpignan and Gloucester, with a fine try by Scotland’s Dutch-born out a fight. “He’ll do his race tomorrow and I’ll do sions about the championship. Germany’s Adrian Sutil, who crashed in final Edinburgh can have realistic hopes of wing Tim Visser, whose electric pace my race,” said Webber. “It’s not like it’s the last race He told reporters the main focus would be on practice and picked up a five place grid penalty for reaching the last eight like they did two proved too much for the two Munster cov- of the championship... he can’t qualify on pole in scoring more points than Mercedes, who are only a a gearbox change, failed to progress beyond the years ago. ering defenders. every race. “Let’s see how it’s looking at the end of point behind second placed Ferrari in the construc- first stage. Mexican Sergio Perez, whose McLaren Edinburgh burst out of the blocks Laidlaw continued his faultless day as he the race... but in general we’ll be there for ourselves tors’ standings. seat remains uncertain for 2014, qualified 11th against Munster, opening up a 10-0 lead converted for 26-23 and Munster’s after- tomorrow.” Vettel was fastest on Friday but strug- “If Sebastian doesn’t win the championship with team mate Jenson Button 10th. —Reuters after just 12 minutes. A fine try by Matt noon got worse as their Irish win Simon Scott which was converted by Laidlaw and Zebo was forced off with what looked like a then a penalty from the kicker had the hamstring injury. Irishmen rattled. However, the European Laidlaw made it seven kicks from seven Busch clinches Nationwide race heavyweights hit back to level at 10-10 in attempts with just over four minutes the 20th minute as Kiwi centre Casey remaining, as he harried Munster into CONCORD: Kyle Busch proved he’s still the man to mutual respect and they expect clean racing mov- Vickers and Elliott Sadler, who crashed on lap 52. The Laulala scored, only his second try in the another infringement, to leave Munster beat on the Nationwide Series - particularly when it ing forward. incident began when got into the competition in 24 games. requiring a converted try to win. comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch raced to “I feel like we’re going to run hard for the champi- grass causing him to slide up the track into the wall Donnacha Ryan blocked Laidlaw’s clear- Munster’s fellow Irish provinces Ulster his 11th Nationwide victory of the year Friday night, onship and we’re going to race each other with on the front stretch. As Sorenson slid back down the ing kick from a line-out and the ball got and Connacht had enjoyed mixed fortunes giving him a season sweep on the 11/2-mile track. respect and see how the points stack up at the end,” track Vickers tried to avoid him and slammed into moved along to Laulala who burst over the on Friday. Ulster recorded a splendid 22-16 Busch edged Nationwide title contenders Austin Hornish said. Sadler, who was coming off pit row, taking out both line to touch down from five metres out-it victory over English giants and two-time Dillon and Sam Hornish Jr. to win for the eighth time Dillon is hoping for more races like this one, call- JGR cars. was converted by Ian Keatley, who had got European champions Leicester in Pool 5 in the series at his favorite track. Coupled with his ing it the best race he’s been a part of this year. “We The crash knocked Vickers and Sorenson out of them off the mark with a penalty. while Connacht, traditionally the weakest five Truck Series wins at track, he broke the track vic- had three guys fighting it out until the end and it the race. Sadler returned to the track after getting Munster conceded a penalty immedi- of the four provinces, went down to a 23-17 tory record with 13. was a heck of a race,” Dillon said. some done, but that temporary fix only lasted only a ately after equalising, which Laidlaw grate- defeat at home to English side Saracens in “I feel like I’ve really taken to this place over the With the victory, ’s No. 54 Toyota dozen laps before he crashed and was forced to join fully accepted to give the hosts a 13-10 Pool 3. France’s four-time winners Toulouse years,” Busch said. “I have it figured out in Camping took the lead in the owners’ standings, four points the others behind the wall. lead, only for Munster to reply with another top that pool after predictably whopping Truck and Nationwide but I seem to have a little bit ahead of Penske Racing’s No. 22. was Sadler said it was a frustrating night with a lot of try through Mike Sherry, who picked up Italian outfit Zebre 38-5. —AFP of a struggle on the Cup side. We’ll see if we can’t seventh in the Penske ride. The No. 22 has 11 victo- “weird luck.” “We had a rocket tonight and we were change that around late yesterday. I’d like to score ries this year, five by Brad Keselowski, three by coming up through the pack,” Sadler said. “My spot- my first Cup Series win here.” Busch and wife Logano, two by AJ Allmendinger and one by Ryan ter was telling me to ‘Go, go,’ I had no idea they were Samantha donated the winnings from the race to Blaney. Busch started on the pole but dropped back going to hit me.” the Pretty in Pink Foundation that provides financial to sixth in the first half of the race. His crew made Sorenson said he was looking to make a pass assistance and support to underinsured and unin- adjustments around lap 115 and he started climbing when his left front tire hit the grass. “When I hit the sured North Carolinians with breast cancer. The vic- back toward the front. grass my car went right, so I don’t really have an tory pushed Busch’s series record to 62. He has 19 It was a tough night for Gibbs teammates Brian explanation for it,” Sorenson said. —AP victories this year in NASCAR’s three national series, also winning four times each in Cup and Truck. Overall, he has 124 victories in the three series, win- ning 28 times in Cup and 34 in the Truck circuit. The win wasn’t quite as easy as his Nationwide victory at the track in May when he led 186 of the 200 laps. Busch, who started from the pole, only led 36 laps this time after struggling during the first half of the race. He took the lead from Hornish with eight laps to go and pulled away. “It’s very frustrating to be leading with 10 laps to go and to get blown away by the 54 car,” Hornish said. Busch said he stole a page from Kyle Larson, who ran well at the top of the track for most of the night before nicking the wall late and finishing 13th. “It’s good to be young and dumb,” Busch said with a laugh. “He taught us old wily veterans some- thing. He drove past me and I said, ‘I better try that.’” The night ended the same way it began in the points standings- with Dillon holding an eight-point lead over Hornish. Hornish finished a spot behind Dillon in third, but received bonus points for leading the most laps essentially making Friday night’s race a push. The final three races will determine who’ll CONCORD: Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, poses in Victory Lane after win the championship but both drivers said there’s a Greig Laidlaw winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. —AFP