Hamilton, Ogier, Winterbottom and Palmer Victorious

It has been a busy Sunday with four major races in three countries, here is a look at the results.

Hamilton Goes Back-to-Back
For the second consecutive race Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 as he and his teammate Nico Rosberg pulled away from the rest of the field and had their own battle over the 57 lap Bahrain Grand Prix. It is Hamilton's 24th Grand Prix victory as he ties Juan Manuel Fangio for tenth all-time.

Sergio Pérez finished third, handing Force India their second podium in team history and first since Giancarlo Fisichella finished second in the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo put pressure on the Mexican but had to settle for fourth. Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the top five just ahead of fellow German Sebastian Vettel.

Felipe Massa finished seventh ahead of Williams teammate Valterri Bottas and Fernando Alonso finished ninth just ahead of Ferrari teammate Kimi Räikkönen.

Rosberg's championship lead is down to eleven points over Hamilton. Hülkenberg moves to third in the championship with 28 points. Alonso is fourth with 26 points. Vettel and Jenson Button are tied for fifth with 23 points with tiebreaker to Button. Kevin Magnussen has 20 points. Both he and Button's raced end early. Bottas has 18 points with Pérez up to 16 after his podium and after two scoreless weekends, Daniel Ricciardo finally has points, 12 of them and enough to be tenth in the championship.

Massa also has 12 points but Ricciardo owns the tiebreaker. Kimi Räikkönen has seven points with Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat rounding out the standings on four and three points respectively.

Mercedes is pulling away in the Constructors' championship. They have 111 points while Force India is second with 44. McLaren is a point behind Force India in third. Red Bull has 35 points, two ahead of Ferrari and five ahead of Williams. Scuderia Toro Rosso has 7 points. Lotus, Sauber, Marussia and Caterham have yet to score.

Formula One's next race is in a fortnight on April 20th, Easter Sunday when the teams head to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Ogier Wins Rally de Portugal

Sébastien Ogier picked up his third victory of the 2014 World Rally Championship season in Portugal by 43.2 seconds over MSport Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen. Ogier won the final power stage and picked up the three bonus points. Mads Østberg finished third, a minute and twelve seconds back of Ogier. Østberg finished third on the power stage picking up one bonus point. Andreas Mikkelsen and Henning Solberg made it three Norwegians in the top five. 

Martin Prokop finished sixth ahead of the Hyundais of Thierry Neuville and Juho Hänninen. WRC2 drivers Nasser Al-Attiyah and Jari Ketomaa rounded out the top ten. 

Jari-Matti Latvala won stage fourteen and finished second on the power stage, picking up two bonus points. Latvala finished fourteenth overall. 

Dani Sordo crashed out while fourth overall. The Spaniard won two stages on day two. 

Ogier has 91 points and leads Volkswagen teammate Latvala by 29 points. Østberg is in third, 43 points back. Mikkelsen makes it three Volkswagens in the top four and two Norwegians. He is 55 back of Ogier. Hirvonen is fifth, 55 points back but loses the tiebreaker to Mikkelsen on more seventh-place finishes. Neuville moves up to sixth with 23 points ahead of Elfyn Evans who failed to score in Portugal and stays on 20 points.

The next round of the World Rally Championship will be Rally Argentina May 8-11th. 

Winterbottom Wins Winton

Ford's Mark Winterbottom won the third V8 Supercars race from Winton Motor Raceway, winning by over nine seconds over Holden driver James Courtney. Fellow Holden drivers Tim Slade and Jason Bright finished third and fourth. Ford's David Reynolds rounded out the top five. 

Winterbottom's teammate Chaz Mostert finished sixth ahead of championship leader Craig Lowndes. The Nissans of Michael Caruso and James Moffat finished eighth and ninth with defending V8SC champion Jamie Whincup rounding out the top ten. 

Winton Race one winner Fabian Coulthard finished eleventh ahead of runner-up from race one Shane van Gisbergen. The Nissans of Todd and Rick Kelly finished thirteenth and fourteenth with Winton race two winner, Mercedes-Benz driver Lee Holdsworth rounding out the top fifteen. Scott McLaughlin won Volvo it's first V8SC pole for the third Winton race but finished sixteenth. 

Lowndes' championship lead is down to 28 points as Winterbottom moves up to second with his victory at Winton. Coulthard is 43 points back in third. Courtney is fourth, 92 points back and Whincup rounds out the top five, 95 points back of his teammate. Van Gisbergen is 152 points back in sixth with Slade in seventh, 228 points back. Reynolds is 20 points behind Slade in eighth. Holdsworth is ninth, 261 points back with McLaughlin 295 points back of Lowndes and rounding out the top ten. 

The next round of the 2014 V8 Supercar season takes place in New Zealand at Pukekohe Park Raceway April 25-27th. 

Palmer Wins, Leaves Bahrain With GP2 Points Lead

Jolyon Palmer won from sixth on the grid in the GP2 sprint race and swept the fastest lap bonus points. In doing so the DAMS driver leaves Bahrain with 38 points and the GP2 championship lead. Swiss driver Simon Trummer started second and finished second while Colombia Julián Leal made it two podiums on the weekend by finishing third. 

Felipe Nasr and Stéphane Richelmi rounded out the top five. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs finished sixth with Mitch Evans and René Binder rounding out the points. 

Race one winner Stoffel Vandoorne had contact front wing damage derail his chances in race two and finished twenty-second. Americans Alexander Rossi and Conor Daly had disastrous days as Rossi had an early tire puncture drop him to 25th and Conor Daly was the lone retirement of race two. 

Palmer leads Leal by ten points with Vandoorne in third, 13 back of the Brit. Trummer is 20 points back in fourth while Nasr and Stefano Coletti are tied with 12 points but Nasr holds in the tiebreaker. Arthur Pic and Takuya Izawa scored in race one only and are seventh and eighth in the championship, 28 and 30 points back of Palmer respectively. Richelmi and Quaife-Hobbs round out the top ten with six and five points respectively. Binder has three points and Evans has two. 

DAMS leads the team championship with 44 points to Carlin's 40. ART has 33, Rapax has 23, Racing Engineering has 12, Campos 10, Arden 3 and RT Russian Time has 2. 

GP2 joins Formula One at the Spanish Grand Prix weekend May 9-11th.

Two Year Anniversary

Two years ago today I started writing this blog on a whim, thinking "why not?" Two years on, I am glad I made the decision. It has become a place to purge my mind of ideas, thoughts, passion for motorsport and burn off frustration that can come along the way and do it all with those other motorsport fans.

My following may be small but I am thankful to all those who take their time to follow me on Twitter, read my posts and participate in the never-ending discussion about motorsports. Here is to an even better third year and I hope you all continue to enjoy my posts.

With that said, I think we should talk about some racing and let's start in Australia.

The third round of the V8 Supercar season takes place at Winton Motor Raceway and we saw a few firsts. Race one saw a Holden sweep of the podium and a New Zealand 1-2 with Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen leading the way. Dale Wood finished third scoring his first career V8SC podium. Jason Bright made it four Holdens in the top four with the Mercedes of Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison taking fifth and sixth. Mark Winterbottom was the top Ford finishing seventh ahead of the Red Bull Racing Australia Holdens of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup. Russel Ingall rounded out the top ten after being black flagged with three laps to go while in third.

In race two, Lee Holdsworth broke through for Mercedes-Benz's first V8SC victory. Mark Winterbottom finished second and Fabian Coulthard made it three different manufactures on the podium in third. It's Holdsworth third career win and first since the 2010 season finale on the streets of Sydney Olympic Park. David Reynolds and David Wall made it three Fords in the top five and James Moffat was the top Nissan in sixth. Jason Bright finished seventh ahead of the second Mercedes of Will Davison. James Courtney was ninth and Chaz Mostert rounded out the top ten.

The Red Bull Holdens started twenty-first and twenty-third with Lowndes gaining seven positions and finishing sixteenth while Whincup could only pick up two positions and finish nineteenth. Scott McLaughlin started second and was leading early for Volvo but had to pit for a battery change and finished twenty-fifth. Shane van Gisbergen started third and fell to twentieth.

Still one race to go from Winton. Lowndes has 605 points and leads Coulthard by nineteen. Whincup is third, 77 points back. Winterbottom is the top Ford, 82 points backs in fourth. Van Gisbergen is fifth, 125 points back of Lowndes with Courtney 134 points back in sixth. Holdsworth's victory jumps him up to seventh, just ahead of his teammate Will Davison. McLaughlin and Tim Slade round out the top ten in the standings.

Race three from Winton takes place at 12:30 a.m. ET Sunday.

Vandoorne Wins On Debut
Escaping a grid penalty, McLaren development driver and ART Grand Prix's Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium won on debut in the GP2 from Bahrain. Colombian Julián Leal finished second driving from Carlin while pole-sitter Jolyon Palmer finished third driving for DAMS and picked up the two bonus points for fastest lap. Stefano Coletti finished fourth for Racing Engineering with Campos' Arthur Pic rounding out the top five.

Takuya Izawa finished sixth on debut driving for ART. He started twenty-third. Simon Trummer started from the pit lane and finished seventh. Carlin's Felipe Nasr finished eighth and will start on pole in the sprint race Sunday as the top eight are inverted. Rounding out the points were René Binder of Arden and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs for Rapax.

Daniël de Jong finished eleventh with Conor Daly in twelfth. Daniel Abt started third and dropped to thirteenth. RT Russian Time drivers Mitch Evans and Artem Markelov rounded out the top fifteen. Alexander Rossi finished twenty-second.

The Bahrain sprint races takes place at 7:15 a.m. ET Sunday.

Mercedes Dominates Formula One Qualifying
Nico Rosberg won his second consecutive pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix while his teammate Lewis Hamilton ended up second after being fastest in each practice session this weekend. Daniel Ricciardo qualified third, 0.866 seconds back of the German. Ricciardo will have to serve a ten-grid spot penalty and drop to thirteenth after an unsafe pit release last week in Malaysia.

The Williams-Mercedes of Valterri Bottas qualified fourth and the Force India-Mercedes of Sergio Pérez made it four Mercedes powered cars in the top five. Over a second back in sixth was the top Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen. Jenson Button qualified seventh ahead of Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.

The surprise of qualifying were German drivers Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hülkenberg failing to advance to Q3 while their teammates did make it to the final round. Vettel had an accident in third practice while Hülkenberg was the fastest driver in Q1. Toro Rosso drivers Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Éric Vergne will start on row seven ahead of the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez and Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.

Pastor Maldonado starts 17th after failing to advance to Q2 by 0.009 seconds. Adrian Sutil was 18th. Kamui Kobayashi and Jules Bianchi will start on row ten with Marcus Ericsson and Max Chilton rounding out the field. After an investigation of an incident involving Sutil and Grosjean from Q1, Sutil has been handed a five-spot grid penalty and start last in tomorrow's race.

Tomorrow's Bahrain Grand Prix will be on NBCSN. Coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. ET with the lights going out at 11:00 a.m. ET.

IndyCar's Off-Weekend
Seeing as how this is the two year anniversary for For the Love of Indy and IndyCar is the main series that is covered, we mind as well take a moment to talk IndyCar. The series off before heading to Long Beach ned weekend for the 40th anniversary of the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

A few thoughts:

1. I am looking forward to the standing start at Long Beach. It will be much better than five rows getting the green with another half dozen cars single file and the last third of the grid still not through the hairpin.

2. IndyCar reportedly has a three-year extension with Long Beach going to 2018. The reports are Chris Pook and Bernie Eccelstone are interested in Formula One returning to Long Beach for the first time since 1983. As great as the glitz and glamour of Formula One is, it can be a deathly blow. First, the infrastructure updates in Long Beach would cost millions of dollars and undoubtedly ticket prices would nearly triple (most expensive ticket currently is 3 days at $185 with Sunday general admission #55). Formula One has been trying to get New Jersey on the calendar for three years now, they should accomplish that first and if they want a third race in the United States invest in a permanent road course such as Road America, Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta, not street circuits.

3. A lot of talk over the removal of double-file restarts from road and street circuits this year. There have been mixed reviews but mostly it sounds like people are disappointed they are no more. I liked double-file restarts. I wasn't disappointed that they were removed but I wouldn't be against double-file restarts being reinstated.

Races such as Baltimore last year where pile up after pile up occurred in turn one were one of the reasons for the removal of double-file restarts. However, tight turn ones are few are far between on the schedule. Baltimore is gone and the only circuits where double-file restarts could be in question are Belle Isle, Toronto and maybe Houston depending on what improvements they do on the circuit before IndyCar returns. The permanent road courses (Barber, Indianapolis, Mid-Ohio and Sonoma), St. Petersburg and even Long Beach this weekend could accommodate double-file restarts.

More importantly, the pile ups are on the driver's shoulders. They have to be responsible when entering turn one and make sure they don't take themselves or anyone else out. Sure, it's easy to alleviate that problem by just getting rid of double-file restarts but if anything, the onus should be on the drivers to be professional enough to get through turn one.

Oh and one other thing, are we really doing double-file restarts on all ovals except Indianapolis? Really? We're going to act like Indianapolis shouldn't be molested with double-file restarts even though they were done at Indianapolis in 2011? Come on.

I could understand IndyCar not doing double-file restarts at the doubleheaders to preserve and protect equipment but they should be considered for the other twelve races of the season.

4. Still no title sponsor for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Wasn't this suppose to be a money grab for the Speedway? Wasn't the plan for this race to sell the naming rights at a healthy price? We are a little more than a month away from the event and nothing. If I was running the Speedway I would already be disappointed naming rights haven't been sold and would be livid if the race happens without a title sponsor.

I already support selling naming rights to the Indianapolis 500 because, if done correctly, sponsors will promote the race with their name on it. They will spread the word, give out free tickets to fans and people who are going to a race for the first time and IndyCar needs help spreading the word and getting people through the turnstiles.

Maybe the sponsor will be announced in the coming days but we are at the eleventh hour and when the road course race was announced, I was expecting a title sponsor announcement over the winter.

Ogier Retakes Rally de Portugal Lead
Defending World Rally champion Sébastien Ogier swept day three of Rally de Portugal, winning all five completed stages and holds a 38.1 second lead over Mikko Hirvonen entering the final three stages on Sunday. The victory by Ogier on stage eleven gave Volkswagen their 200th stage victory since entering WRC last season.

Citroën's Mads Østberg is third, nearly a minute and a half back of Ogier with the Hyundai of Dani Sordo in fourth, just over a minute and forty-six seconds back. Henning Solberg is fifth, just under four and a half minutes back. Ogier's Volkswagen teammate Andreas Mikkelsen is sixth, Martin Prokop is seventh and Hyundai drivers Juho Hänninen and Thierry Neuville are eighth and ninth. Tenth place is WRC2 leader and 2011 Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah.

It has been a physical Rally de Portugal. Neuville suffered a broken suspension that cost the Belgian a  lot of time on day three. Ott Tänak was running third when he crashed on stage ten. He has dropped to twenty-sixth, just ahead of Elfyn Evans who restarted after a roll on day two. Other drivers coming back after set backs on day two are Jari-Matti Latvala and Robert Kubica. Latvala is seventeenth, just sixteen minutes back of his teammate Ogier and around six and a half minutes back of Al-Attiyah in the final points paying position.

The final day of Rally de Portugal starts tomorrow at 2:35 a.m. ET.

Wrecks in Portugal, Night Moves in Bahrain and Racing in the Lone Star State

The fourth round of the 2014 World Rally Championship season has seen four notable factory drivers crash out before making it through the first full day of Rally de Portugal.

MSport Ford drivers Robert Kubica and Elfyn Evans both had their weekends end on stage four. Kubica hit a tree and blocked the road, impeding fellow competitors while Evans rolled several times. Stage four was cancelled after the incidents.

Entering stage five, Jari-Matti Latvala was only 0.4 seconds back of Volkswagen teammate Sébastien Ogier but the Finn had a roll and his rally is over. Latvala turned 29 on Thursday and this is his third retirement in seven Portugal starts.

On stage six, Citroën driver Kris Meeke retired while in tenth position after going off the road in the same position Evans went off earlier in the day. This was Meeke's first start in Rally de Portugal.

Through the first seven stages of Rally de Portugal, four different drivers have won a stage. Ogier won the first stage on Thursday and Hyundai picked up their first stage victories in their return season to WRC when Dani Sordo won stages two and three. Ogier won stage five with Hyundai picking up their third stage victory of the day when Thierry Neuville won his first stage of the season.

Mikko Hirvonen won stage seven, his first of the season and took the overall lead in Rally de Portugal by 3.7 seconds over MSport Ford teammate Ott Tänak. Despite the two stage victories, Ogier is third, 6.5 seconds back of Hirvonen. Citroën driver Mads Østberg is fourth, 25.6 seconds back. Sordo rounds out the top five, a tenth of a second back of the Norwegian. Sordo's Hyundai teammate Neuville is 16.3 seconds back in sixth.

A minute back of Neuville is Henning Solberg in seventh driving a privateer Ford. Juho Hänninen is eighth, making it all three Hyundais in the points. Andreas Mikkelsen is ninth with Martin Prokop rounding out the top ten, 2 minutes and 59.2 seconds back.

Hirvonen's last World Rally victory came at the 2012 Rally d'Italia Sardegna. Aside from a disqualification in the 2011 Rally de Portugal, Hirvonen's average finish in his other five appearances is 3.4.

Bahrain's First Night Race
Bahrain hosts it's first Formula One weekend under the lights. It is the third Formula One venue to host a night round joining Singapore and Abu Dhabi to have that distinction.

Mercedes-Benz led the way with Lewis Hamilton being fastest at the end of second practice with a lap of 1:34.325. His teammate Nico Rosberg was second, 0.365 seconds back. The Mercedes drivers had a struggle hold over the rest of the grid with three-time Bahrain Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso in third, 1.035 seconds back. Daniel Ricciardo was fourth ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth.

Jenson Button was sixth ahead of Sebastian Vettel. The German has won the last two Bahrain Grand Prix. Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat was eighth ahead of fellow rookie Kevin Magnussen. Sergio Pérez rounded out the top ten.

Valtertti Bottas was eleventh ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne. Nico Hülkenberg was thirteenth. Kimi Räikkönen was a second back of his Ferrari teammate in fourteenth. The final eight positions are driver pairs back-to-back with Sauber (Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutiérrez) leading Lotus (Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean), Marussia (Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton) and Caterham (Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson) rounding out the time sheet. The difference between Hamilton and Ericsson was 4.811 seconds.

Bahrain hosts the opening round of the 2014 GP2 Series championship. British driver Jolyon Palmer won pole driving for DAMS. ART Grand Prix and McLaren junior driver Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne qualified second but is under investigation and could face a grid penalty. Daniel Abt starts third with Palmer's DAMS teammate Stéphane Richelmi in fourth.

Americans Alexander Rossi and Conor Daly qualified fifteenth and eighteenth respectively. The first GP2 race of the weekend takes place at 6:10 a.m. ET.

Racing in the States
NASCAR heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. The Nationwide Series race takes place tonight. Ty Dillon was fastest in practice yesterday. Points leader Regan Smith was second quickest. Rookies Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott were third and fourth. Championship ineligible drivers took the next four times on the time sheet with Kyle Busch leading Ryan Blaney, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick. Brendan Gaughan was ninth with Ryan Reed rounding out the top ten. Most recent  winner in the Nationwide Series, Kyle Larson was eleventh with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in twelfth.

In the Cup Series, not only has their been six different winners but six different pole winners. Jimmie Johnson has yet to win in 2014 and is tied for the most NASCAR Cup series wins at Texas Motor Speedway with three but all have been fall races. Johnson has won the last two Texas fall races. Carl Edwards is the other driver with three wins at Texas but he has not won at the track since sweeping the Texas races in 2008. Roush Fenway Racing has won seven of the seventeen spring Texas races and Ford has won nine of seventeen.