The 2014 Formula 1 season gets underway this weekend in Australia, marking the beginning of a new era in the history of the sport. Gone are the old V8 engines, and in come turbocharged V6 power units, whilst a number of other technical and sporting changes are set to shake up the pecking order. However, this means that the predictions for this weekend’s race are perhaps the hardest the team at MotorSportsTalk has ever had to make…
Race winner: Nico Rosberg. Judging by testing, it has to be a Mercedes, doesn’t it? Lewis Hamilton will storm to pole on Saturday, but I can’t see him continuing this into Sunday. 2014 suits the ‘thinking’ driver: this is Rosberg’s race for the taking.
Surprising finish:Felipe Massa. After a few bad years with Ferrari, Felipe Massa looks like a changed man at Williams. Once again, the team was quick in testing, and he’s my pick to push the Mercedes drivers hard in Australia. He’ll reach the podium.
Most to prove:Sebastian Vettel. I can’t believe I’m actually putting this… but Seb has a lot to prove this weekend. The Red Bull RB10 has been blighted with problems throughout the winter. All of the sport’s greats have proven themselves in a rubbish car – maybe it’s finally Vettel’s turn to do so?
Race winner: Lewis Hamilton. Translate the Mercedes’ reliability with Hamilton’s raw pace and record in Melbourne, and you have the ingredients for the guy who was the last non-Sebastian Vettel winner last July to break the four-time world champion’s streak.
Surprising finish: Kevin Magnussen. A sneaky podium contender if the McLaren is there. Has been seriously impressive in preseason testing and could well back it up on debut.
Most to prove: Daniel Ricciardo. With Red Bull’s miserable preseason and the pressure of his home race facing him in his Red Bull debut, “Aussie Dan’s” smile may not make too many appearances this weekend. But if he and the team make a leap this weekend, good on them.
Race winner: Nico Rosberg. A lot of people are making his teammate the favorite, which is understandable. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosberg seizes the opportunity and makes them go: “Oh yeah, Nico’s pretty decent, too…”
Surprising finish: Kevin Magnussen. McLaren appears to have picked up a decent young colt in Magnussen to pair up with their ex-World Champion, Jenson Button. It won’t be easy but I think the son of sports car ace Jan will turn in a solid result in his inaugural GP.
Most to prove: Every team with a Renault engine! Single out four-time world champions Red Bull (Sebastian Vettel/Daniel Ricciardo) if you want, but Lotus, Toro Rosso and Caterham are behind the 8-Ball on reliability as well.
Race winner: Sebastian Vettel. After winning the last nine races of the 2013 season, and 13 overall, how can you pick against Vettel. If anything, he’s gotten stronger. The key is to get a big jump at the start of the race. If he does that, Vettel takes this one with ease.
Surprising finish:Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean. The Lotus drivers enter this season like the Rodney Dangerfields of F1, getting very little respect. Now is their time to show that they’re not going to be also-rans in 2014.
Most to prove: Lewis Hamilton. Most oddsmakers are picking Hamilton to win this race, not Vettel, who is around an 18-1 longshot (Hamilton is around 5-2). Does Hamilton deserve to be ranked that high coming into the season opener? We’ll find out Sunday.
It was not the first time it has been done, but a rider winning in his Motocross debut is rare as the results show Jett Lawrence swept the motos at Fox Raceway in Pala, California and took the early points lead.Dylan Ferrandis may not be quite 100 percent yet, but he was good enough to finish on the podium at Fox Raceway – Align Media
Lawrence became the 16th rider to win in his Motocross debut and was the 10th rider to do so in the season opener, At 19, he wasn’t the youngest to perform the feat; Rick Johnson was 17 in 1982 when he won the lidlifter at Hangtown, the site of next week’s race, but Lawrence’s inaugural win bodes well. The last time a rider performed this feat, Dylan Ferrandis went on to win the 2021 Motocross championship as a rookie in 2021.
Ferrandis did not sweep the motos that season while Lawrence’s performance on Saturday was perfect. He paced both practice sessions, earned the holeshot in each race and finished first in both motos after leading every lap to score maximum points. Lawrence started the weekend needing 85 points to climb into 20th in the combined SuperMotocross standings for the 450 class. Earning 50 with his perfect Motocross results at Fox Raceway, he is nearly 60 percent of the way to his goal.
Chase Sexton was second across the board. He qualified in the second position and finished 2-2 in his motos. In the first race, he was a relatively distant runner-up behind Lawrence, crossing the finish line a little more than 10 seconds ahead. He got a great start in Moto 2 and pushed Lawrence for the entire race, never getting further back than three seconds. He tried to pressure Lawrence into making a mistake, but both riders hardly put a wheel wrong and they finished within a second of one another.
Returning from a concussion suffered in the Houston Supercross race earlier this season and exacerbated at Daytona, Ferrandis finished third in both motos to take third overall. His most important task at hand this week was to avoid trouble and start the Motocross season healthy at Fox Raceway so he can begin to accumulate strong results and move up in SuperMotocross points.
Ferrandis entered this round 25th in the standings and left Pala in 19th. With that position, he has an automatic invitation to the feature starting grid in the SuperMotocross World Championship as long as he does not fall back.
Aaron Plessinger and Cooper Webb both ended the race with 34 points, but Plessinger had the tiebreaker with a better finish in the second race. Notably, both riders sustained injury sometime during the season, but Plessinger had an advantage by coming back a week sooner in Salt Lak City for the Supercross finale. He finished second in that race.
Webb was cleared late in the week by doctors after being on concussion protocol from a vicious strike to his helmet in a Nashville Supercross heat race late in the season. He made a beeline to the track to run the Motocross opener. After missing last year’s outdoor season, he wanted to make certain that did not happen again. He still has a solid opportunity to catch Sexton for the No. 1 overall seed in the SuperMotocross standings., but he will need to make up 78 points.
For the first time in history, Pro Motocross results from Fox Raceway show brothers as winners on the same day.
Battling a rib injury suffered practicing earlier in the week, Hunter Lawrence got a poor start to Moto 1 and had to overcome his 10th-place standing at the end of Lap 1. He methodically worked his way toward the front but might have settled for a position off the podium if not for heavy traffic in the closing laps. Lawrence was able to get through the field quicker than Justin Cooper and Jo Shimoda to finish third.
Hunter Lawrence overcame sore ribs to score the overall 250 win at Fox Raceway – Align Media
Lawrence’s second moto was much stronger. He earned the holeshot and led all 15 laps of the race to win by a more than eight seconds.
Haiden Deegan didn’t feel any pressure heading into this round. No one expected much in his third Motocross National and he would have been happy with anything in the top five. At least that’s what he said in the post-race news conference. Deegan said similar things after finishing fourth in his first Supercross race this season. In a stacked field of 40 riders at Fox Raceway, “Danger Boy” finished sixth in Moto 1 and second in Moto 2 for the second-place finish overall.
In only his third Pro Motocross National, Haiden Deegan finished second overall. – Align Media
RJ Hampshire had an eventful weekend. He dominated Moto 1 and won by a healthy margin, making a statement about how he will race now that Jett Lawrence is no longer in the field. He was a victim of mayhem in Turn 2 of Moto 2, which forced him to the ground. Another crash on an uphill portion of the track later that same lap put him in 39th. Hampshire salvaged as many points as he could and finished 11th in the second race to stand on the final box of the podium.
Tom Vialle came within a lap of scoring his first career podium. He had the position based on a tiebreaker over Justin Cooper and Maximus Vohland until Hampshire passed two riders on the final lap and earned one point more than that threesome. Instead, Vialle settled for his first podium in an individual moto with a 7-3 in the two races. More accustomed to this style of racing, Vialle will be a factor in the coming rounds.
Cooper finished with a 5-4 in the two motos to sweep the top five and take fourth-place overall. Cooper started five rounds in the 450 class in Supercross this season and none on a 250, so he is starting with zero points in the SuperMotocross seeding, but with runs like this it won’t take long to make up the 89 he needs to climb to 20th.
One of the best performances of the weekend was put in by Vohland. He finished second in Moto 1 and had to withstand pressure from Lawrence in the closing lap. A poor start of 16th in the second race forced him to play catchup and he could only climb to ninth at the checkers.