Motorsport roundup

30 November -0001

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The weeks events in Formula 1, Rallying, and World Superbikes.

Formula One
Two thirds of the way into the FIA Formula one World Championship and of thirteen races, there have been as many drivers on the podium. It's been an eventful season, so far.

There may have been no races, this week, but things have been happening. After Barichello asked to be released from his contract with Ferrari, it's been suggested that Ferraris new number two driver will be Brazilian Felipe Massa, who's currently driving for Sauber.
The 24 year old Massa's performance has not been strong, recently, and it's been specualted that he will be a stop gap, for the next five years, until Schumacher retires as no top name will be prepared to play second fiddle to Schumacher.

It's also been revealed that the tycoon who has controlled Formula one for years has been working on a plan to effectively sell to sport to the teams. The plan is that they will buy out the three banks which own a 75% stake in the commercial rights to the sport.

Former world champion, Mika Hakkinen has dismissed rumors that he will be returning to formula one. He now races for Mercedes in the DTM series, after retiring from F1 in 2001, but has been linked with a move to Sauber, after BMW bought the team, last year.

Just 12 days to the next race in Istanbul

Rallying
WRC teams are fresh back from Finland, and Peugeot's team leader Gronholm has snatched the winning streak which Loeb and the Citroen team had, though not the championship lead. Citroen have, however, taken second place from Petter Solberg and the Subaru crew, who had a disappointing weekend, finally finishing fourth.

Meanwhile, there are plans afoot to add a new stage to the rally, as Ireland put together a bid to host an event by 2007. The Rally Ireland initiative will include a mixed surface pilot event, this october. Ireland faces opposition from Portugal, Jordan, South Africa and Poland for the event.

The next WRC event is Rallye Deutschland, 26-28 august.

World Superbikes
The World superbikes hit the UK shores for the second and final time, this weekend, with the eigth race of the season, at Brands Hatch. It was a battle between Corser and Haga, as Corse took race one, and Haga took race two The riders were inches apart for most of both the races, making for thrilling viewing. Defending champion, James Toseland was forced out of the race with technical difficulties in race one, and finished seventh in race two thanks to some tyre problems.

Meanwhile Carl Foggarty denies reports that he's set to quit superbikes for MotoGP, saying that he intends to honour his contract with Malaysian fuel giant Petronas, which runs until the end of 2006. The Former world champion, however, admits that he does no know where he'll be in 2007

The next superbikes race is in France on the 4th of September.

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