Audi R8 makes comeback win

Motor racing round-up...

ALMS
The Audi R8, widely considered one of the greatest sports racing cars of all time, returned to the winners list with a win in the American Le Mans Series race at Houston.

The team of Dindo Capello and Allan McNish took the win after both the LMP2 Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyders retired late in the race, after leading early.

The demise of the Porsches gave second overall to the Corvette C6-R of Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin. The runner-up finish overall is the highest finish in the series' history for a GT1 car.

The second C6-R of Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell finished third giving Chevrolet the honours of the Aston Martins.

The German team of Mike Rockenfeller and Klaus Graf in a Porsche 911 T3 RSR won the GT2 class.

V8 Supercars
Two wins from three races wasn't enough to give Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife the win at last Sunday's third round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Barbagello Raceway.

Despite not winning a single race a consistent Steven Richards took two second places and a seventh place to win the round outright ahead of Skaife and Triple Eight Ford driver Craig Lowndes.

If the controversial reverse grid format had conspired to manufacture a few new names on the winners list then it worked. Dean Canto in Garry Rogers Motorsport's Commodore won after early race leader Paul Radisich spun coming on to the main straight for the final time.

Russell Ingall has extended his lead in the series in spite of his sixth-place finish. Commodore drivers Garth Tander and Richards make up the top three.

The next Supercar round will be held at Victoria's Winton Motor Raceway, June 2-4.

F1
World champion Fernando Alonso delighted a huge crowd of over 130,000 partisan Spaniards with a total domination of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalyuna.

Starting from pole Alonso was never troubled in a race almost totally devoid of any passing. Michael Schumacher was second in the Ferrari but he was never really in contention. Alonso's Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was third ahead of Schumacher's team mate Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes was fifth the Finnish driver faring much better than Juan Pablo Montoya who spun out of contention and found himself stranded on a high kerb.

Australian Mark Webber finished back in ninth place, just missing out on a championship point.

MotoGP
Spanish rider Daniel Pedrosa has become the youngest-ever winner of a MotoGP race after winning the Chinese Moto Grand Prix at Shanghai.

In only his fourth MotoGP start, the 20-year-old Pedrosa led home fellow-Honda rider Nicky Hayden and Yamaha rider Colin Edwards.

Defending champion Valentino Rossi had a miserable weekend. After qualifying back in 13th place, Rossi's Yamaha had engine problems and retired only four laps from the finish while running fifth.

Australian Casey Stoner finished in fifth place while fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen crashed out early in the race but was not injured.

It was a big day for Spain as Hector Barbera rode his Aprilia to a hard fought victory over Italy's Andrea Dovizioso to take his first win in the 250cc class. Japanese rider Shuhei Aoyama was third.

Finland's Mika Kallio on a KTM won the 125cc race from pole position, with Italian Aprilia rider Mattia Pasini second, ahead of his Spanish team-mate Alvaro Bautista.

Champ Car
Sebastian Bourdais continued his domination of this year's Champ Car World Series winning Saturday night's Grand Prix of Houston under lights at the temporary Reliant Park street circuit.

The win was the second straight for Bourdais as he crossed the finish line only 1.238 seconds ahead of Paul Tracy.

Mario Dominguez, who led for most of the race moved into second place in the championship standings with his third-place finish.

NASCAR
Greg Biffle drove his Ford to a win over Chevy driver Jeff Gordon in the Darlington round of the NASCAR Nextel Cup. It was Biffle's first win of the season who had led the most laps in three other races without once greeting the chequered flag.

Matt Kenseth, also driving a Ford finished in third place.