Ford takes first blood

This weekend's motor racing round-up by Brett Ramsey

Holden dominated practice and qualifying with the Holden Racing Team cars of Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly on pole but in the race it was the Falcons of Whincup and Craig Lowndes who took the honours with one race win each.

After starting so strongly it was a nightmare weekend for Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife who suffered two big accidents on both days. He hit the wall hard on Saturday at the notorious Turn Eight after an apparent front-end failure while on Sunday he was eliminated after he was caught up in a crash that took out Greg Murphy. Murphy went too wide after an attempted pass on Paul Dumbrell and skated off into the Turn Eight wall at high speed, leaving Skaife nowhere to escape.

Newcomer James Courtney, Cameron McConville and race one winner Lowndes were also involved in major incidents, leaving teams with a massive rebuilding programme before next week's non-championship support race to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Rick Kelly was the best of the Holden runners, second overall after second and third place finishes in the Toll/HSV Dealer Team car. Kelly fought back from 21st place after being given a drive-through penalty for allegedly jumping the start from the front row of the grid, although numerous television replays failed to show any transgression.

"I had difficulty seeing the (start) lights... so I couldn't see if I moved or not," he said after the race.

The other member of the Kelly Clan, Todd was third overall after recovering from sixth place on Saturday to take a strong second on Sunday.

But the weekend belonged to Whincup giving the 23-year-old Melbourne driver the biggest victory of his short career.

"To not only win, but also lead the championship has far exceeded my aim before this weekend." he said.

After next week's Formula One Grand Prix support races the Supercar Championship will move to New Zealand's Pukekohe circuit on April 22 - 23.

International

Bastuck was changing a wheel on the Citroen C2, driven by compatriot Aaron Burkart, when he was struck by the Ford Fiesta of Britain's Barry Clark and Scott Martin during Friday's second stage. He was flown to hospital by helicopter in a serious condition but later died as a result of his injuries.

The rally was won by champion Sebastien Loeb in a Citroen to extend his lead over Marcus Gronholm in the drivers' championship, to nine points.

Fellow Citroen driver Dani Sordo took second, while Gronholm finished in third place in his Ford Focus. Australian Chris Atkinson finished 11th.

Rossi's Yamaha appeared to receive contact by newcomer Toni Elias, sending the multiple world title holder crashing to the track. He was narrowly missed by several other riders. Rossi recovered but failed to make it back into the top ten.

Loris Capirossi held off a determined late-race challenge by MotoGP newcomer Daniel Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) to take the win for Ducati. Nicky Hayden on a Honda finished third from another debutante Toni Elias (Fortuna Honda), Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda) and Australian Casey Stoner (Honda LCR) in sixth.