Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/625693
22 maltatoday, Wednesday, 13 January 2016 Sport motorsports motogp 'Rossi ruined his own championship' - Stoner Casey stoner says Valen- tino Rossi has only himself to blame for missing out on a 10th world title last year, claiming that the yamaha rider uncharacteristically "lost his cool". Rossi approached the final two rounds of 2015 ahead of team-mate and title rival Jorge Lorenzo, but tensions with Honda's Marc Márquez boiled over in the form of a clash in Malaysia. Following the incident, in which Márquez fell off his bike, the stewards inflicted a back-of-the-grid penalty on Rossi for the Valencia finale, with Lorenzo overturning the points deficit. stoner, champion in 2007 and 2011, told MCN: "I un- derstand why Valentino was frustrated at sepang but he lost his cool. I expected to see a wiser head on his expe- rienced shoulders. He added: "Valentino ru- ined his own champion- ship." stoner described Rossi's ef- forts outside the sepang race as "fantastic", but nonethe- less reckons that Lorenzo, now a three-time champion, deserved to take the crown. "I don't think anyone ex- pected [Rossi] to ride at that level from the first race, but there's no doubt that Jorge was a worthy champion – Jorge rode better and won more races," he said. "There is only one stat that counts. Valentino has only been pushed to the last round of the championship twice and he has lost it twice, under pressure at Valencia in 2006 and in 2015. "Valentino always won his championships with a big points margin or with at least one race to go, but this year Jorge had the momentum going to the final rounds. "even without Valentino's penalty I still think Jorge would have won the title." galea wins in Autocross as gauci wins the gozo Enduro ON sunday 17 January 2016 as- socjazzjoni sport Muturi u Karozzi will continue its events this time at the Ta' Qali sporting Complex with Motocross and autocross. The autocross cars will be com- peting in their sixth Championship event by asMK PasTa-POIaTTI 2015/2016. The program starts at 10: 30 am. The storm during the Christmas special event forced the asMK Or- ganizers to cancel the autocross Rides which were planned to hap- pen in the afternoon. Neverthe- less the Committee again decided to make another attempt during the sunday 17th January event in which there will be enough time to do the rides where a passenger can ride in an autocross car on track to experience some of the feelings normally experienced by the auto- cross drivers. One can have his turn to ride for a few laps on track to ex- perience a once a year chance of such rides. The association states that these rides already happened in other years where spectators were taken around the track driven by experienced drivers under strict rules during the rides. Meanwhile on saturday 9th January asMK organized the Race Finals a and B and that of the autocross standard Class. all started at 3.00pm. The young driv- ers in this class were seen taking positions on the start Line. These were Karl scicluna on a Peugeot 206, Johann Vella on an Opel Nova, Melvin Buttigieg on a Citroen aX, Traydon Bailey on a Ford Ka and Ian Fenech on a Citroen aX. The launch of this final race witnessed an accident between scicluna and Bailey where the race was stopped. Before the second start the two drivers who created the incident were each Warned for bad practice by the autocross Committee. In the 2nd start Vella was seen steal- ing the lead while he was followed by Buttigieg and scicluna. During this final we had no changes in po- sitions and the final result showed Vella winning the class followed close by Buttgieg and scicluna. Fourth and fifth place finished Bai- ley and Fenech respectively. The Class B Final saw the start Line composed by Matthew Borg on a Vauxhall Nova, Jonathan Camilleri on an Opel Corsa, Karl Micallef, Ryan scicluna and Chris- tian apap all on Ford Fiesta cars and Joseph Micallef on an Opel Corsa. The start demonstrated a good launch by J. Micallef and by J. Camilleri. Micallef took the helm of the race followed by Camilleri and Borg. The attention was drawn by the second and third placed drivers when Borg started adding pressure on Camilleri until on the sixth lap Borg found the opportunity to ad- vance one place ahead. The final ended with Joseph Micallef com- fortably winning ahead of Borg and Camilleri respectively. Fourth place was won by Karl Micallef while sci- cluna finished in fifth place. The Class a Finalist was com- posed by Christian Mark Galea on his Fiat RITMO, Malcom Borg and Patrick Cassar both on Opel Corsa cars, Ivan Birmingham on a suzuki swift, Jurgen Mallia on a Honda Civic and Josef Grech on Ford Fi- esta. From the start we saw Galea and Borg making a very good start and ahead of Cassar on another Opel Corsa. While Galea took the lead Cassar battled with Borg for a chance to overtake and it was until the sixth Lap that Cassar outraced Borg. In no time Galea took the Finish Flag ahead of Cassar fol- lowed by Borg and Birmingham finished in fourth place. Grech and Mallia withdrew from the race. Meanwhile on sunday morning of the 10th January the association was committed in Gozo where the 3rd enduro asMK – Pasta Poi- atti Championship was organized at Hondoq ir-Rummien in Qala. 32 competitors registered in this event in the three classes. Class a is for the small cylinder capacity of 'Under 250cc', Class B is for motor- cycles 'Over 250cc' and a Class C is for Trials bikers. In Class a scicluna andrea and Nigel anastasi both on KTM mo- torcycles dominated this class with anastasi being the best competi- tor in his first Heat with 4 minutes 17.38 seconds. scicluna made his best time of 4mins 8:26 to fin- ish winning this class followed by anastasi. Third place finisher was Roger Grima on a yamaha with his best at 4 minutes 27.58 seconds. Fourth place finisher was Daniel Caruana on a Honda with 4 min- utes 50.93 seconds. In Class B which is the most dif- ficult class to win it was Matthew Gauci this time on sherco motor- cycle who continued to dominate the classification result gained in Malta. The ability to beat the timing of Gauci is a difficult task. Gauci registered best overall time in his first Heat and continued to improve on his time in the sec- ond Heat by registering 3 minutes 22.58 seconds. Gauci was followed in the classification list by brothers Joseph and Ian scicluna both on KTM Motorcycles with Joseph fin- ishing in second place with his best time of 3 minutes 35.55 seconds while Ian finished in third place with his time of 3 minutes 41.75 seconds. Fourth place finisher was John attard on KTM motor with 3 minutes 44 seconds. In Class C which is for the Trials bikers we saw two Gozitan riders dominating this class. Renato Miz- zi on a Beta motorcycle won this class with a best time of 4 minutes 23.06 seconds. Mizzi was always followed by Gas Gas rider Josmar Mizzi who registered his best time of 8 minutes 25.04 seconds. The Day's Overall winner was the third time winner Matthew Gauci with a best time of 3 minutes 22.58 seconds. The Runner-Up Joseph scicluna on a KTM regis- tered 3 minutes 35.55 seconds on track. The association would like to thank the Qala Local Council, Malta Transport, the Minister for Gozo, the Gozo Police and Gozo sports Board for their continued support towards asMK in organ- izing motorsport events in Gozo. Further information one can found on the Official Website of the Association www.asmk.org.mt and Facebook pages named 'ASMK Malta' or 'Association Sport Muturi u Karozzi. One can also make con- tact by email info@asmk.org.mt Johann Vella in his Opel Nova followed by Melvin Buttigieg in a Citroen PHOTOGRAPHY BY Mario Micallef