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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018 Sport 22 MOTOGP MOTORSPORTS FOOTBALL MotoGP shortens races to help broadcasters Renault enters eSports with an eye on virtual F1 Rising cost of Premier League injuries raises fixture concerns - study MOTOGP is to shorten seven of this season's 19 grands prix to help broad- casters with race day pro- gramming, organisers Dorna said yesterday. The season-ending Va- lencia Grand Prix will be three laps shorter while the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez will lose two laps. The Americas GP in Austin, Texas, and the French, Catalan, Czech and San Marino races will all be a lap shorter than in the past. "This is to ensure that races have a similar du- ration at each venue on the World Championship calendar, enhancing event organisation and aiding television broadcasters to better structure race day programming," said Dorna. Moto2 and Moto3 races will also be shortened over the next two years. Movistar Yamaha's MotoGP riders Maverick Vinales of Spain and Valentino Rossi of Italy pose with their new bikes for the 2018 racing season RENAULT announced its entry into the world of eSports on Mon- day and said it was also targeting the virtual Formula One champi- onship. The French car manufac- turer, which has its own F1 team that last won titles in 2006, said it had joined forces with France's Team Vitality to compete in a programme of motorsport-based competitions. Renault Sport Team Vitality will participate in this year's Rocket League Championship Series Europe, which has more than 25 million players. "We are also in discussion with F1 to compete in the Formula One eSports Series," Renault said in a statement. It added that Renault Sport Rac- ing would give the eSports team's players access to its Formula One factory at Enstone, in central Eng- land, to train with racing drivers and technical staff. Formula One held its first eS- ports series finals in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2017 season, with the title won by 18-year-old British kitchen manager Bren- don Leigh after more than 63,000 contestants had entered world- wide. Renault is the first Formula One team to have an official es- ports tie-up, although McLaren's twice world champion Fernando Alonso set up his own outfit last November. McLaren also recently recruit- ed an official simulator driver through its World's Fastest Gam- er competition. Darren Cox, the man behind that, told Reuters last December he could see the current Grand Prix teams racing each other in the virtual world as well as the real one this year. "If you look at what the NBA (basketball) has done...they engaged the teams right at the beginning. So 17 of the NBA teams have got franchis- es for the virtual side of the sport and there's a draft like in the real world. "So expect something like that to come out of (Formula One owners) Liberty," added Cox. "It's happening now. Those conversa- tions are being had." Renault F1 Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul said the ties be- tween motorsport and gaming were obvious, with both demand- ing mental strength and physical fitness in a competitive environ- ment. "Last year's exciting launch by FOM (Formula One Mnagement) of the Formula One eSports Series has accelerated the convergence of these two worlds and created opportunities for collaboration," added the Frenchman. "Our drivers, and especially those who form part of the Re- nault Sport Academy programme, and Vitality's own champions will be able to trade best practices." ENGLISH Premier League clubs have paid 134.2 million pounds in wages to injured players so far this season, with Manchester United topping the list by shelling out more than 15.8 million pounds, according to a study. Insurance broker and risk consultant JLT Specialty, which compiled the study, said the cost of in- juries was on track to surpass last year's total of some 175 million pounds for the season as a whole, raising concerns about demands on players even though the number of injuries is down. "With many of the soft tissue injuries be- ing down to fatigue, these figures will raise questions about fixture pile-ups, especially with the rising costs involved," said Duncan Fraser, head of sport at JLT Specialty. A gruelling December schedule saw the average number of new injuries peak at more than 19 per week, the study found De- fenders were the most likely to get injured with 164 cases reported so far. Although Manchester United's injury count stood at 20, well below West Ham United's 41, they paid more because of the club's big salaries and the severity of inju- ries, JLT Specialty said in its latest Premier League injury index. The study, which collected data from the start of the season up to Feb. 5, added that Manchester United also had the highest average cost per injury at 869,881 pounds, while tiny Bournemouth had the lowest at 144,531 pounds. "With the average cost of injuries rising for another year, and the number of injuries ris- ing at this point last season, the overall total lost by clubs looks set to eclipse the 2016-17 total," Fraser said. Runaway league leaders Manchester City find themselves in good health with only 16 injuries and a total of 442 days out, the second-lowest behind Southampton, as well as the third-lowest average of unavailable players per match day at 2.62. Knee injuries were the costliest to clubs, with teams paying 36.7 million pounds overall, while hamstring injuries were the most common with 91 occurrences.