Weekend round-up: MotoGP, Daruvala podium, Mahindra

Marc Marquez extended his advantage in the 2018 MotoGP standings with a comfortable win in the German GP, his ninth successive triumph at Zandvoort.

Jorge Lorenzo shot into the lead with his traditional rocket start, but his pace started to fade with lack of rear grip towards the second half of the race.

That allowed Marquez to sweep through and take the win, with Yamaha duo also passing Lorenzo to grab the other two spots on the podium and enjoy one of its strongest finishes of the season.

Privateers Danilo Petrucci and Alvaro Bautista impressed en route to fourth and fifth respectively, while Lorenzo eventually slipped down to sixth, just ahead of Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

Jean-Eric Vergne was crowned the Formula E drivers’ champion in New York, while Audi which claimed the teams’ crown.

Vergne was disqualified from Saturday qualifying for exceeding power usage, but managed to scythe his way through the field to finish fifth, grabbing enough points to seal the title with one race to spare.

He then went on to win the final race of the New York double header on Sunday, resisting Saturday victor Lucas di Grassi.

Di Grassi’s teammate Daniel Abt claimed the final podium spot in third, allowing Audi to overhaul Techeetah in the teams’ standings.

Mahindra enjoyed a resurgent showing in the US, with Nick Heidfeld finishing sixth and eighth in the two races and Felix Rosenqvist charging up to fifth in Race 2.

With that result, Mahindra finished fourth in the teams’ championship, behind Audi, Techeetah and DS Virgin.

Jehan Daruvala’s Carlin team struggled with setup on Friday, leaving him outside the top 10 grid spots for the first two races of the weekend,

He was unable to make much progress in Race 1 and was unlucky to be tapped by Enaam Ahmed in the second race, missing out on points in both the events.

Daruvala was left with a swollen hand from the accident with Ahmed, but he nevertheless took part in the final race of the weekend for which he had qualified sixth.

A quick getaway allowed him to jump past staller Juri Vips and Fabio Scherer to quickly move up to fourth place.

When polesitter Dan Ticktum was slapped with a drive through penalty for a jump start, Daruvala was promoted to third and the final spot on the podium.

Akash Gowda competed in the first round of the newly-launched FIA Asian F3 series in Malaysia for Armaan Ebrahim’s MSport team.

He finished on the cusp of points, crossing the line 11th in all three races of the weekend.

Birel ART India’s Ruhaan Alva charged his way from 17th on the grid to finish fifth in the sixth round of the Easykart Italia Championship at the Adria International Raceway.

His teammates Mihir Avalakki andVivan Chiripal finished ninth and 14th respectively, while Rishon Magehalli was forced to retire after a collision.