MOTOGP: Marquez undergoes nasal surgery

By Pablo Elizalde

Monday, December 2nd 2013, 17:10 GMT

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has undergone successful surgery to improve breathing through his nose.

The Honda rider had surgery to correct his nasal bridge, as a deviated septum was producing a respiratory obstruction preventing him from breathing properly.

Marquez will now have to rest and be inactive for one week.

The Spaniard clinched the MotoGP title in his first season in the category, becoming the first man to do so in 35 years.

Marquez picked up his world champion's trophy at the FIM Gala in Monte Carlo on Sunday night.

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BTCC: Depper back to BTCC with Eurotech

Ecclestone disappointed in Alonso Dec 02 Brawn exit leaves 'big hole' at Mercedes Dec 02 New F1 rules leave Newey anxious Dec 02 Vettel: F1 cannot lose thrill factor Dec 02 Moss's manager Ken Gregory dies Dec 01 Rivalries resume at AUTOSPORT Awards Dec 01 Quantum still working on Lotus deal Nov 30 Mercedes gives Jaafar evaluation test Nov 30 Comment: is Maldonado really that bad? Nov 29 Maldonado joins Grosjean at Lotus Nov 29 Schumacher: Vettel vs Webber shocking Nov 29 Mandatory pitstops proposed for 2014 Nov 29 Maldonado: fresh start chance exciting Nov 29 Bahrain confirms 2014 night race Nov 29 FIA proposes 'pole trophy' for F1 Nov 28 Insight: Formula 1's iconic numbers Nov 28 F1 teams in permanent numbers push Nov 28 Mercedes confident in new structure Nov 28 Brawn: new F1 rules right time to go Nov 28 Mercedes to announce Brawn departure Nov 28 McLaren will have 'no excuses' in 2014 Nov 27 Montezemolo: Massa penalty ridiculous Nov 27 Vettel's best yet to come - Red Bull Nov 27 Rosberg: beating Hamilton a 2014 goal Nov 27 Grosjean: no need to lament '13 run-in Nov 27 Force India: tyres settled McLaren duel Nov 27 Webber judged exit perfectly - Red Bull Nov 26 Mercedes not disrupted by small fire Nov 26 Marussia must wait for big pay day Nov 26 McLaren: our fate a warning to Red Bull Nov 26 Ferrari: groundwork laid for 2014 Nov 26 Marussia feared 2012 heartache repeat Nov 25 McLaren thinks it let podium chance slip Nov 25

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BTCC: Depper back to BTCC with Eurotech

By Kevin Turner

Monday, December 2nd 2013, 17:46 GMT

British Touring Car title-winning squad Eurotech will run Martin Depper in one of its Honda Civics next season.

Eurotech took the overall drivers' championship with Andrew Jordan this season, as well as both Independents' titles.

Jordan will defend his crown in the Civic hatchback, but former team-mate Jeff Smith has now sold his car to Depper, who drove a Forster Motorsport BMW 320si in the 2010 BTCC.

Team boss Mike Jordan ran Depper in the car at Donington Park last week and believes he can improve on his difficult debut season.

"He tested the Honda to get a feel for the NGTC car," said Jordan Sr.

"He drove really well. He's a nice guy and listened to what we suggested.

"If he can carry that approach into next season I think he could do well."

AUTOSPORT understands Smith is unlikely to be racing in the BTCC next year as he focuses on his business commitments.

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AWARD: International Racing Driver: Vettel

By Sam Tremayne

Sunday, December 1st 2013, 23:40 GMT

Sebastian Vettel has been named International Racing Driver of the Year for the fourth consecutive year at the AUTOSPORT Awards in London.

Vettel broke all manner of records in an emphatic 2013 campaign, becoming the youngest ever quadruple Formula 1 world champion and the first driver in history to win nine straight races in one season.

He also equalled seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher's record of 13 wins in a single year.

Opinion: Give Vettel the credit he is due

Vettel collected his award from Sir Stirling Moss.

"It is still very special for me walking down those steps; it is absolutely humbling," Vettel said.

"It has been four years coming here to a room full of motorsport people, I wouldn't mind another four.

"I know how much work goes into achieving that, and I get to pick this nice trophy up at the end every time.

"I think there is always a threat that if you have such a run as we have had you get used to it; that you fall into the expectation and so when you start second, third or fourth or you don't win it's a disappointment.

"It shouldn't be: finishing second doesn't mean you had a bad race, it depends how it unfolded. You can still be very proud of what you get out of the day.

"That's why it is important to appreciate the run we have had; you never know how long it will last."

Vettel's journey to title number four

Vettel started 2013 as the heavy title favourite and lived up to the billing early on, capturing pole for the first two grands prix and triumphing in Malaysia to take an early lead in the championship.

Further victories in Bahrain, Canada, on home soil in Germany and in Belgium helped him extend that advantage, and by F1's summer break he was 48 points clear of the field.

While that early form was impressive, his 2013 run-in was breathtaking: six poles, two further front-row starts, and eight victories constituted an unprecedented streak in F1 and helped him to a fourth straight crown.

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AWARD: McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC: Matt Parry

By Sam Tremayne

Sunday, December 1st 2013, 23:52 GMT

Formula Renault NEC champion Matt Parry won a Formula 1 test with McLaren after being named the 25th winner of the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award.

Parry, who also gets £100,000, full membership of the British Racing Drivers' Club, and an Arai GP-6 RC carbon helmet, was revealed as the winner at the 2013 AUTOSPORT Awards in London on Sunday night.

The 19-year-old Briton was presented with the Award by McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale, BRDC president Derek Warwick and AUTOSPORT publishing director Peter Higham.

How the Award winner is chosen

"It's fantastic," Parry said. "Absolutely amazing - I don't know what to say.

"I feel I did the best I could [in the shootout] and obviously the last couple of months I've been thinking about what I can do better, and I just thought I couldn't have.

"It's massive. From here we're hoping to do Formula Renault Eurocup with Fortec again, they've been fantastic for me."

Parry beat Formula Renault NEC runner-up Jack Aitken, BRDC Formula 4 champion Jake Hughes and his rivals Seb Morris and Charlie Robertson, and Formula Renault BARC champion Chris Middlehurst to the prize.

The six drivers were put through a rigorous two-day test which included driving a Formula 2 machine, a DTM Mercedes and a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 at Silverstone last month.

Former recipients of the award include 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button, nine-time grand prix winner David Coulthard and three-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti.

Parry in AUTOSPORT's Stars of Tomorrow - May 2013

Parry, a member of Caterham Racing Academy and the 2012 Intersteps champion, stormed to this year's FRenault NEC title with Fortec Motorsport.

He took a double pole for the first round of the season at Hockenheim, and then claimed a clean sweep of victories in the next two rounds at the Nurburgring and Silverstone.

Parry won again at Spa and took his ninth podium of the campaign at Assen, beating fellow finalist Aitken to the title by 59 points.

He also made selected appearances in the Formula Renault Eurocup and Formula Renault ALPS, in which he claimed a podium at the first attempt at Imola.

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AWARD: Matt Parry's career so far

By Kevin Turner

Sunday, December 1st 2013, 23:56 GMT

Matt Parry is only 19, but he has already taken two car racing titles and has connections with a Formula 1 team. And now he's added the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award to his CV.

After an impressive karting career, which included the Super 1 National Rotax Max Junior title, Parry stepped up to the British Formula Ford Championship in 2011.

It proved a tough baptism and the man himself now admits he underestimated the challenge. Occasional flashes of pace were as good as it got as his Fluid Motorsport-run works Van Diemen was overwhelmed by the Mygale hordes. Parry could only manage eighth in the standings.

He rallied though and bounced back to clinch the 2012 InterSteps Championship with Fortec, winning more than half the races in the series for ex-Formula BMW machines.

Along the way Parry was picked up by Caterham's driver development programme, which later became the Caterham Racing Academy.

With the F1 team's support, Parry stepped into Europe as part of Fortec's multi-car Formula Renault NEC attack for 2013.

He made a great start, with five wins in the first nine races. Things did not go his way thereafter, but Parry still took the title comfortably from Fortec team-mate Jack Aitken.

That was enough to get him selected as one of the six finalists for the prestigious McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award.

After two days of running at Silverstone in Formula 2, Mercedes DTM and McLaren GT machinery - not to mention fitness, simulation and interview tests - Parry emerged to win £100,000, a McLaren F1 test, BRDC membership and an Arai GP-6 RC carbon helmet.

Parry's plans are not yet confirmed for 2014, but a campaign in the Formula Renault Eurocup, in which fellow Award winner Oliver Rowland was runner-up this season, seems likely.

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LEMANS: Toyota wins WEC finale in Bahrain

By Gary Watkins

Saturday, November 30th 2013, 18:24 GMT

Toyota claimed its first World Endurance Championship victory of the season in a full-distance race in Bahrain.

The Japanese manufacturer followed up on its win the rain-shorted Fuji round in October with a victory in the season finale for Sebastien Buemi, Stephane Sarrazin and Anthony Davidson.

Toyota was never headed over the course of the Bahrain 6 Hours and the winning TS030 HYBRID crossed the line 70s ahead of the second-placed Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer.

Buemi, who had to contend with a vibration during the final stages of the event, said: "We are delighted. We came into the season expecting more victories, but we only got one and a half, so it is good to end the season on a high."

The winning Toyota took the lead from its sister car, which was shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Alex Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima, early in the second hour when the first-named was at the wheel.

Sarrazin and Wurz, who took over the two TS030s at the second round of stops, were separated by just half a second when the chasing car pulled off the circuit with engine failure late in the second hour.

That left Loic Duval approximately 15s behind Sarrazin, which remained more or less constant before the Audi stopped out on the track when the car lost drive shortly before the halfway mark.

Fassler took up the chase of the remaining Toyota, but an attempt to double stint the Audi's tyres resulted in the Swiss driver's deficit to the leader nearly doubling.

A drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags subsequently ended the challenge of Fassler and his team-mates.

The retirement of two factory cars and the lone privateer LMP1 from Rebellion Racing with engine failure promoted LMP2 winners John Martin, Mike Conway and Roman Rusinov to third place overall.

Their G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 03 could not match the similar car of AF/Pecom early on, but was already established in the lead when their rival hit problems.

Fourth place for the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan LMP2 shared by Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzalez was enough to win them the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 drivers.

Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander triumphed in GTE Pro for the AF Corse Ferrari team (pictured), which won Bruni the World Cup title.

The Italian, who was split from season-long team-mate Giancarolo Fisichella for this race, was on course for the title when the Aston Martin Vantage GTE of erstwhile championship leaders Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke retired in the fourth hour with engine failure.

Aston Martin did, however, take class victory and the drivers' title in GTE Am.

Nicki Thiim, Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen took a third win of the season, but fourth position gave Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall, who were rejoined by car owner Roald Goethe for this race, the end-of-season crown.

8Star Motorsports won the teams' title in GTE Am courtesy of second place in class for Davide Rigon, Rui Aguas and Enzo Potolicchio.

  Results - 199 laps:    Pos  Cl     Drivers                         Team/Car                    Time/Gap   1.  P1     Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin         Toyota                  6h01m15.303s   2.  P1     Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       Audi                      +1m10.585s   3.  P2     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan      +15 laps   4.  P2     Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle  OAK Morgan-Nissan           +15 laps   5.  P2     Wirdheim/Reip/Lancaster         Greaves Zytek-Nissan        +15 laps   6.  P2     Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman       OAK Morgan-Nissan           +17 laps   7.  P2     Nicolet/Ihara/Cheng             OAK Morgan-Nissan           +19 laps   8.  P2     Giroix/Kerr/Dolby               Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan      +21 laps   9.  GTE P  Bruni/Vilander                  AF Ferrari                  +24 laps  10.  GTE P  Bergmeister/Pilet               Manthey Porsche             +24 laps  11.  GTE P  Kobayashi/Fisichella            AF Ferrari                  +25 laps  12.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                      Manthey Porsche             +25 laps  13.  GTE A  Nygaard/Poulsen/Thiim           Aston Martin                +26 laps  14.  P2     Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer  Pecom ORECA-Nissan          +27 laps  15.  GTE A  Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon         8Star Ferrari               +27 laps  16.  GTE A  Perrodo/Collard/Griffin         AF Ferrari                  +27 laps  17.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees           Larbre Corvette             +28 laps  18.  GTE A  Hall/Goethe/Campbell-Walter     Aston Martin                +30 laps  19.  GTE A  Narac/Vernay/Palttala           Imsa Porsche                +37 laps    Retirements:         GTE P  Lamy/Senna/Stanaway             Aston Martin                145 laps       GTE P  Turner/Mucke                    Aston Martin                109 laps       P1     Kristensen/Duval/McNish         Audi                         93 laps       GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti               Proton Porsche               86 laps       GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           Krohn Ferrari                83 laps       P1     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          Toyota                       64 laps       P1     Belicchi/Beche/Prost            Rebellion Lola-Toyota        44 laps       P2     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        Lotus                         5 laps       P2     Weeda/Liuzzi/Auer               Lotus                         0 laps  

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WRC: Duval on Citroen's 2014 shortlist

By David Evans

Saturday, November 30th 2013, 14:53 GMT

Former Citroen driver Francois Duval is in the running for a return to the team in the World Rally Championship next season.

The Belgian, who scored his only world rally victory with Citroen in 2005 (pictured), is one of six drivers under consideration for a 2014 seat with the French outfit.

Team boss Yves Matton said: "I'm already well advanced [in selecting drivers].

"You don't need to convince me of his [Duval's] talent, but I do not know of any rally driver who came back with success after so many years absence. Maybe Francois is the exception.

"Anyway, I'm interested to discuss with him. He can call me. I want to see if he's motivated before we would give it a test."

Duval said he would be interested in a full-time return to the WRC for the first time since 2010 would appeal to him if it was with the right team.

"There's a bit of a lack of good drivers in the WRC and I'm still young," said the 33-year-old.

"The idea is to drive with Citroen. I don't see myself coming back to driving with one of the cars that are lower down the scale.

"I'm not interested in doing one-shots anymore, when you come in with no experience and don't know the car or the rally."

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MOTOGP: Romboni killed in Supermoto crash

Saturday, November 30th 2013, 17:50 GMT

Former grand prix motorcycle racer Doriano Romboni has been killed in a Supermoto accident in Italy.

The 125cc and 250cc race winner, who raced in the top 500cc class from 1996-98, was taking part in the 'Sic Supermoto Day' in memory of the late Marco Simoncelli at the Latina circuit in Italy.

Romboni was struck by another rider after crashing during one of the practice sessions for the event on Saturday.

The 44-year-old was taken to the Santa Maria Goretti hospital in the Latina area, but he succumbed to his injuries from the incident.

Romboni managed to finish fourth in the 125cc and 250cc world championships during his career, taking wins at both levels before graduating to the 500cc class with Aprilia for 1996.

However, his time at the top level was not as successful as the Italian manufacturer struggled, and he took a best finish of third in the 1997 Dutch TT at Assen.

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F1: Comment: is Maldonado really that bad?

By Edd Straw

Friday, November 29th 2013, 16:11 GMT

Pastor Maldonado is at times a seriously fast racing driver, and while that doesn't make him a great, some critics of his Formula 1 switch to Lotus have gone way too far

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