Race wrap: Hyundai on top in Sweden

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took victory in challenging conditions at Rally Sweden, seizing the World Rally Championship lead with a mature drive in difficult conditions.

Neuville shepherded his i20 WRC home ahead of Citroen’s Craig Breen and Hyundai teammate Andreas Mikkelsen, setting aside the raw and risky driving style that saw him crash out of the lead at Sweden 12 months ago.

Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi finished fourth, ahead of New Zealand’s Haydon Paddon, who was in contention for a podium result earlier in the weekend.

Neuville leads the championship standings from M-Sport Ford driver (and 2017 champion) Sebastien Ogier and Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala.

MotoGP

Australia’s Jack Miller impressed in pre-season MotoGP testing, proving the fastest Ducati rider ahead of his race debut for the Italian marque. Miller, riding a superseded model for Pramac Ducati, finished sixth in testing at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand ahead of factory-backed stars Andrea Dovizioso (7th) and Jorge Lorenzo (16th).

Lorenzo (pictured) signed a lucrative deal with Ducati for 2017 after winning three world titles for Yamaha. The Spaniard struggled to extract the best from Ducati machinery in Thailand, switching back and forth between 2017 and 2018 models after he had “a few doubts” about the new machine’s performance.

Honda’s Dani Pedrosa finished fastest after three days of testing, leading Yamaha’s Johann Zarco and 2017 champion Marc Marquez.

Formula One

Williams F1 boss Claire Williams says ‘pay drivers’ bringing multi-million dollar budgets to secure grand prix seats are worthy of their place on the grid.

Speaking with Reuters following the presentation of the Williams FW41 grand prix machine, the team principal defended a decision to back well-funded drivers in Russia’s Sergey Sirotkin and Canada’s Lance Stroll by saying “we would only put talented drivers in our car”.

“This is a dangerous business and we’re not going to put someone in a car just because they come with money,” she said.

“Our decision-making process is so much more complex than just deciding to put a driver into the race seat because they have some cash.

“Yes, we are an independent team and yes, sponsorship is really difficult to come by these days... so clearly if a driver has some financial backing then that is an added bonus, but it’s not the foundation for a decision-making process at Williams.”

F1 teams will roll out their new cars over the next week ahead of official pre-season testing in Barcelona on February 26. The Formula One season opens with the Australian Grand Prix on March 25.

NASCAR

Austin Dillon took first blood in the 2018 NASCAR championship, winning the season-opening Daytona 500 in controversial fashion.

The young American led the only lap that mattered, taking the chequered flag moments after nudging race leader Aric Almirola into a spin following a frantic sprint to the end as a result of a late-race caution that took out 11 of the fastest front runners and sent the race into overtime.

Another major pile-up earlier in the race took out leading contenders Brad Kesolowski, Chase Elliot, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick as well as prematurely ending Danica Patrick's last NASCAR race.