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Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier has finished the opening day of the Rally of Portugal with a marginal 4.4 second lead over Citroen's Dani Sordo and teammate Jari-Matti Latvala in third.

Ogier inherited the rally lead after Mads Ostberg, who had built a lead of 3.9s, rolled his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC into retirement after mishearing a pacenote on SS3. The Norwegian's retirement promoted Ogier to the head of the field, with Sordo and Latvala in second and third where they remained after the day's final SS5 Lisbon stage.

Despite Sordo's reputation as a tarmac expert, the Spaniard headed Citroen's assault and managed to consistently challenge the championship leader on the dusty and narrow Algarve stages by taking stage wins on SSs 3 and 4, at one point trimming the rally leader's advantage to 2.4s.

SS5 saw the VW man push his lead back up to 4.4s, despite Sordo's teammate, Mikko Hirvonen winning the stage by a slim 0.9s from Ogier.

Hirvonen lies in fourth overall, just 4.8s from Latvala but 16.2s from the rally lead after suffering setup issues once again with his DS3 despite “driving on the limit”. The Finn was unable to make any changes given Friday's loop of stages are without a full service.

The M-Sport trio of Thierry Neuville, Evgeny Novikov and Nasser Al-Attiyah lie fifth, sixth and seventh with Czech Ford's Martin Prokop in eighth. The Czech managed to leapfrog Italia Mini's Michal Kosciuszko after the Pole suffered a loose bonnet due to a hard landing after one of SS5s jumps.

M-Sport's Denis Kuipers rounds out the top-10 in his debut for the team.

Andreas Mikkelsen, another of the WRC's debutantes suffered a torrid time on his first outing with the Volkswagen Motorsport II team after losing more than two minutes due to a loss of power steering on SS3. The Norwegian now lies in 16th overall.

Sébastien Ogier, Volkswagen Polo (Photo: VW Motorsport)

Day 1 results - Rally Portugal
1. Ogier-Ingrassia (VW Polo Wrc) in 49'33”0
2. Sordo-Del Barrio (Citroen DS3 Wrc) - 4”4
3. Latvala-Anttila (VW Polo Wrc) - 11”4
4. Hirvonen-Lehtinen (Citroen DS3 Wrc) - 16”2
5. Neuville-Gilsoul (Ford Fiesta RS Wrc) - 30”7
6. Novikov-Minor (Ford Fiesta RS Wrc) - 1'17”0
7. Al Attiyah-Bernacchini (Ford Fiesta RS Wrc) - 2'16”4
8. Prokop-Ernst (Ford Fiesta RS Wrc) - 2'27”9
9. Kosciuszko-Szczepaniak (Mini Cooper Wrc) - 2'37”1
10. Kuipers-Bysmans (Ford Fiesta RS Wrc) - 2'48”7

Take one viral video producer, a basketball player and four race drivers and what do you have? It's the Dude Perfect trick shot challenge.

NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Travis Pastrana and James Buescher take on Canada's James Hinchcliffe of IndyCar in this stunt video.

Listed by Advertising Age as one of YouTube's hottest brands, Dude Perfect has used its crazy basketball shots to inspire hundreds of millions with their contagious Go Big philosophy.

In the four short years since they exploded onto the scene, Dude Perfect has filmed basketball videos all over the world and worked with Fortune 500 brands such as GMC, ESPN, AT&T, and Southwest Airlines. With over 775,000 subscribers & 113 million views across their online content, Dude Perfect is now the 5th largest sports channel on YouTube.

Hinchcliffe scored his debut victory in the IndyCar series earlier this year for Andretti Autosport. Sprint Cup driver Stenhouse jr. is the two-time reigning Nationwide series champion.

Extreme sports star Travis Pastrana is getting his first full-time ride in NASCAR, while 23-year-old James Buescher races in the NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series.

Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen believes his team is still missing downforce, despite qualifying on the front row for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The 2007 world champion lines up second behind pole-sitter Hamilton, who has described the Finn as his biggest threat in the race, but Raikkonen has played down his chances in the race due to the E21 car's lack of downforce in the middle sector.

“I knew the gap was quite big still and we don't have that speed right now,” Raikkonen said.

Kimi Raikkonen, Shanghai International Circuit (Photo: WRi2)

“Second is not too bad, it is the best I can gain with the team. I'd rather be in first place, but we didn't have the speed.

“We're missing downforce in the middle sector so we will see what we can do tomorrow.”

Despite being unsure whether Lotus can challenge for victory in tomorrow's race, he believes setting a fastest lap on soft tyres was the correct decision despite their short shelf life.

“We believe our strategy is the best one, that is why we did it,” he said. “If qualifying was better on primes, then you would do it.”

McLaren's Jenson Button has tipped Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel for victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The two drivers will line up eighth and ninth as they elected to sacrifice grid position to save their more durable medium compound tyres, whilst their immediate rivals will start on the softer compound which is expected to last around four to six laps.

"We have a very fast car next to us [Vettel]. He is starting just behind me on slightly newer tyres,” said Button to the BBC.

“"He is the guy who is really going to challenge at the front for the win."

Jenson Button's money is on Sebastian Vettel (Photo: WRi2)

Whilst Button ruled himself and McLaren out of contention for outright victory tomorrow, the 2009 world champion is pleased with the team's improved performance this weekend.

“I think we should be very happy with our qualifying performance: we don't really have the pace of the front-running cars yet, but finishing seventh in Q2 was really satisfying,” he said. “[And] to out-qualify both Red Bulls in Q3, and with a two-minute lap, was amazing!

“This was the best we could do with what we have.”

The Briton also expects his and McLaren's decision to conserve tires to pay off in the race due to the high levels of wear seen during the practice sessions.

“I've looked at a few of the tires of the soft runners and they looked grained,” he commented. “It's going to be cooler so we're going to see the graining we saw yesterday on high fuel.”

"They're going to struggle with that at the start of the race. Hopefully we can get a good start and at some point we should find some clear air in front of us.
“It's going to be an extremely interesting race.”

Teammate Sergio Perez continued to endure a difficult weekend and will line up 12th behind the Force India of Paul di Resta, but remained confident he can add to his two points for McLaren tomorrow.

“It's been a difficult weekend so far,” commented the young Mexican. “That was frustrating; the warm-up of my tyres before my quick-lap wasn't ideal, and I struggled to really pull everything together on the lap.”

“I've got a great team behind me and I know they'll do a fantastic job to give me the best possible strategy for the race tomorrow,” he continued.

“We can definitely do a good job and score some good points.”

Toyota has taken an almost assured pole position at the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Six Hours of Silverstone.

The team's lap is still surrounded in uncertainty, despite the #7 TS030 Hybrid driven by Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre setting the fastest qualifying time in damp conditions as the session was characterised by a timing glitch which saw no times recorded.

However, the team remains confident it will keep its grid slot ahead of tomorrow's race.

Lapierre believes he and Wurz were ahead ‘by miles' from the sister car and reigning champion Audi's R18 E-Tron due to gauging the changeable British spring weather conditions correctly.

Toyota has started the 2013 WEC season on the right foot (Photo: Toyota Motorsport)

"We are on pole by miles for sure, because we got the conditions right,” he told Autosport.

"We went from intermediates to slicks, whereas our other car went inters-inters and the Audis, we think, wets to slicks.

In the other categories taking part at this weekend's race, the G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 03 driven by Antonio Pizzonia and James Walker is expected to take pole in LMP2, with the fastest GTE Pro time being set by the Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy and Frederic Makowiecki.

UPDATE: Toyota has had its pole position at the Six Hours of Silverstone confirmed some four and a half hours after the qualifying session finished, with the sister car shared between Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazine and Sebastien Buemi lining up alongside in second.


Qualifying results - Six Hours of Silverstone
1.Lapierre-Wurz (Toyota TS030 Hybrid) - Toyota - 1'48"021
2.Davidson-Buemi-Sarrazin (Toyota TS030 Hybrid) - Toyota - 1'49"995
3.Kristensen-Duval-McNish (Audi R18 e-tron) - Audi - 1'51"283
4.Prost-Jani-Heidfeld (Lola B12/60-Toyota) - Rebellion - 1'52"124
5.Treluyer-Lotterer-Fassler (Audi R18 e-tron) - Audi - 1'53"488
6.Belicchi-Beche-Cheng (Lola B12/60-Toyota) - Rebellion - 1'53"835
7.Graves-Pizzonia-Walker (Oreca03-Nissan) - ADR Delta - 1'55"148
8.Pla-Heinemeier Hansson-Brundle (Morgan-Nissan) - Oak - 1'57"629
9.Rusinov-Martin-Conway (Oreca03-Nissan) - G drive - 1'57"697
10.Baguette-Gonzales-Plowman (Morgan-Nissan) - Oak - 1'58"729
11.Turner-Mucke-Senna (Aston Martin Vantage) - Aston Martin - 2'00"566
12.Dalla Lana-Makowiecki-Lamy (Aston Martin Vantage) - Aston Martin - 2'00"772
13.Goethe-Hall-Campbell Walter (Aston Martin Vantage) - Aston Martin - 2'01"158
14.Bergmeister-Pilet-Bernhard (Porsche 911 RSR) - Manthey - 2'01"308
15.Lieb-Lietz-Dumas (Porsche 911 RSR) - Manthey - 2'01"452
16.Bruni-Fisichella (Ferrari F458) - AF Corse - 2'01"512
17.Nygaard-Poulsen-Simonsen (Aston Martin Vantage) - Aston Martin - 2'01"544
18.Holzer-Kraihamer-Charouz (Lotus T128) - Lotus - 2'01"555
19.Kobayashi-Vilander (Ferrari F458) - AF Corse - 2'01"803
20.Weeda-Liuzzi-Bouchut (Lotus T128) - Lotus - 2'02"144
21.Gerber-Griffin-Cioci (Ferrari F458) - AF Corse - 2'02"396
22.Perez Companc-Minassian-Kaffer (Oreca03-Nissan) - Pecom - 2'02"454
23.Potolicchio-Aguas-Peter (Ferrari F458) - 8 Star - 2'02"513
24.Bornhauser-Canal-Rees (Chevrolet Corvette C6) - Larbre - 2'02"862
25.Imperatori-Howson-Ka To (Morgan-Nissan) - KCMG - 2'02"991
26.Narac-Bourret-Vernay (Porsche 911 RSR) - IMSA - 2'04"176
27.Dyson-Marsal-Kimber-Smith (Zytek Z11SN-Nissan) - Greaves - 2'04"491
28.Krohn-Jonson-Mediani (Ferrari F458) - Krohn - 2'05"482
29.Nicolet-Merlin (Morgan-Nissan) - Oak - 2'10"475
30.Leventis-Watts-Kane (HPD ARX 03a-Honda) - Strakka - no average time

Fernando Alonso is still confident of Ferrari's chances in tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix despite both cars qualifying third and fifth

The double world champion comfortably set the fastest time in FP3 ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, who recorded the quickest lap of FP2 on Friday. The team's pace seemed to fade slightly during Saturday's qualifying session with Alonso and Massa dropping to third and fifth, despite many considering Ferrari to be the favourites for pole.

However, Alonso refused to be downbeat following qualifying and believes Ferrari's traditionally strong Sunday pace will allow both cars to fight for the podium come the race.

"I think the race pace is normally better so I don't see any change here compared to any other race," Alonso said.

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F138 (Photo: WRi2)

"I expect tomorrow to have a good position in the race fighting for the podium and hopefully for the win.

“The car felt competitive from Friday, this morning we made some changes and the car was responding well,” he continued.

“I think we have a good setup for the race as well - which is always more important than qualifying - and I think tomorrow if everything goes well I think we should be able to fight for the podium and hopefully with both cars, so this is good news for the team.”

Despite his optimism, the Spaniard expects strategy and Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus - a car notoriously soft on its tires - to be decisive factors in the outcome of tomorrow's race.

“Tomorrow we know the tires are going to be the key factor,” he said.  “Pitting first is obviously going to be an advantage in terms of pace but it's going to be a disadvantage in terms of traffic.

You'll be in the middle of many cars that will probably be going longer; cars that are starting in 11th will go longer with the prime, also people like [Sebastian] Vettel and [Jenson] Button will be longer with the prime so it's something that we need to be very flexible in the strategy and very clever and hopefully take the best chance.

I think especially with Kimi we will have a strong opponent because normally Lotus and him is one of the best at taking care of the tires.”

Oh brother! It took a track record to spoil Kurt Busch's day as his younger brother, Kyle, had a record qualifying run of 27.509 seconds 196.299mph in a Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway.

“Not too shabby of a day,” Kyle said.  “It certainly didn't start out as good as we expected to -- but we made the most of the day.  We used the whole tool box today.

“I can't say enough about everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing -- everyone at the shop that work so hard to give us great equipment to come to the race track with.

“I appreciate that Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys dug in and worked hard today to give us a good piece for qualifying and I feel like we have a good piece for the race tomorrow night too

Brian Vickers set the track record of 196.235mph in 2006.

Kurt, the former Sprint Cup champ, lapped the mile-and-a-half oval in 27.595 seconds or 195.688mph in a Chevrolet. How did he feel about losing the pole to his brother?

“Track record is a small feather in the cap.  The fact that it's Kyle I wouldn't want to lose to anybody other than him, but it is bitter because I did lose to him.”

This is the second time since the Busch brothers will start one-two. The first time was in 2009 at Las Vegas their home track.

A pair of Richard Petty Motorsports Fords, Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose were third and fourth respectively at 195.009 mph and 194.946 mph.

Rain fell all week at One Autoweek Tower, and the breaking news didn't let up, either.

Nissan North America, in the midst of dealing with a UAW organizing drive, said it will boost hourly wages for U.S. factory workers later this year for the first time since 2006.

Volvo Cars of North America is teaming up with Costco to allow the warehouse club's members to purchase or lease models from the automaker's 2013-14 lineup at prearranged pricing.

Senior motorsports editor Mac Morrison gives us a preview of this weekend's competitions in NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway and Formula One from Shanghai.

There's more to your Costco membership than piling bulk paper towels on a flat-bed cart and filling up on free food samples. Through July 31, registered Costco members can get deals on all 2013 and 2014 Volvos.

A General Motors powertrain plant in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Mich., was evacuated for a short time this morning after a worker threatened to shoot himself with what turned out to be a starter pistol.

Nissan Motor Co. today named Fred Diaz, head of Chrysler Group's Ram brand and Mexico operations, divisional vice president of Nissan Division sales and marketing.

The city that boasts the world's tallest building is equipping its police with $400,000 Lamborghini sports cars that Dubai's deputy police chief says are in keeping with the Gulf capital's image.

The city that boasts the world's tallest building is equipping its police with $400,000 Lamborghini sports cars that Dubai's deputy police chief says are in keeping with the Gulf capital's image.

We're learning more about the Cadillac ELR, which is set to hit showrooms in limited quantities early next year.

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