The weekend saw action from the BTCC, WRC, and MotoGP. On recent form, I would have put money on the BTCC providing the most exciting racing, but that was far from the truth.

There was a time when MotoGP practically guaranteed close, exciting racing. That’s not been the case for a while, and detractors have enjoyed pointing out that not since 2006 have we seen a rider overtake for the win on the last lap.

That drought ended in emphatic fashion on Sunday in Catalunya, with a quite stunning climax to the race, Valentino Rossi ultimately triumphing over Jorge Lorenzo after the pair fought magnificently to the line. It has to be seen.

Almost as remarkably, the result leaves Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner tied on 106 points at the top of the championship.

The World Rally Championship is looking close now too, with Mikko Hirvonen’s victory closing the gap to Sebastien Loeb to just 7 points. That’s because Loeb crashed out spectacularly. Again, it has to be seen.

I was slightly traumatised to see that the guest on Dave’s coverage of the rally was going to be Ben Shepherd. But, contrary to expectations, he was by a country mile the best guest they’ve had. He was a lot of fun and – being a presenter himself – utterly relaxed chatting away in front of the camera.

It was left to the BTCC to disappoint. The first two races were completely dominated by the Team RAC BMWs, and the third was plagued by safety car periods, thanks to cars skating off the track in the wet conditions.

A quick word about ITV4’s Le Mans 24 Hour coverage. The last half hour of the race in the middle of the BTCC broadcast was a bit dull, but the podium is always a thing of joy at Le Mans. The hour and a bit of live coverage before the BTCC, however, was surprisingly worthwhile – it managed to cover the progress of the most important entrants, and many of the issues surrounding the race. Well done to the commentators – John Hindhaugh and Graham Goodwin.

The future of Wales Rally GB has had downs and ups over the past few months. The problem is that the Welsh Assembly Government has pulled its sponsorship.

The good news is that the event will now definitely run in 2009. What will happen for 2010 may depend on the result of the legal case against the Welsh Assembly Government.

But the surprising news is that the MSA – motorsport’s governing body in the UK – is underwriting the 2009 event itself. Says MSA chairman Alan Gow:

“In recent years, the MSA has exercised prudent management of its finances to create a surplus in order to protect the sport against unforeseen circumstances.”

According to autosport.com, it costs about £2.2 million to put on the rally. That’s some pretty extreme prudence for the MSA to have that much in its back pocket.

It makes me wonder whether the MSA ought to run a circuit or two. If it had been in charge of Silverstone or Donington Park, maybe we wouldn’t have all the current faff around the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.

There’s a Q&A with British World Rally Championship driver Matthew Wilson on autosport.com. He was asked:

How difficult is it for a young British driver to follow in your footsteps?

He began:

“There is no doubt that one of the most difficult things for up and coming talent in rally is finding the funding to compete.”

And then blathered on about various initiatives. But what he meant to say was:

So unless your dad runs the works Ford team, the Stobart Ford team, and the Munchi’s Ford team: pretty bloody difficult.

After calling him useless yesterday, I’ve been thinking more about Dani Sordo. I still think Citroen could fill their second works car in the World Rally Championship with a better driver, but I’ve come to the conclusion that, actually, he’s probably adequate now.

Sordo moved up to the top Citroen team in 2006, the same year that Mikko Hirvonen was taken on by Ford. So that seems like a reasonable comparison to start with.

Sordo actually enjoyed the better start to 2006, appearing on the podium as soon as round four. Hirvonen, on the other hand, endured a more typical new driver start to the season, picking up points in only two of the first six rallies.

Sordo then went downhill, with only three points finishes in the final seven rounds. Meanwhile Hirvonen improved no end, picking up eight podiums, including six in a row, and one of them a first place.

Since then Hirvonen has maintained that consistency, with only one non-points finish in 2007 and 2008 combined, and six victories in that time. Sordo failed to take points in nine rounds, and is still yet to win a rally.

We need to look at this in context though. Hirvonen deservedly inherited the position of Ford’s number one driver when Marcus Gronholm retired at the end of 2007. The pairing of Gronholm and Hirvonen secured the manufacturers’ title for Ford in 2006 and 2007.

But Jari-Matti Latvala hasn’t been a consistent second driver for Ford, so Citroen took the 2008 manufacturers’ championship, and currently lead in 2009. So Sordo wasn’t as good a second driver as Hirvonen, but he’s better than Latvala.

Citroen are probably happy with Sordo for that reason: not because he’s exceptional, but because he’s currently adequate when paired with Sebastien Loeb.

The only problem for Citroen is that Latvala could improve beyond Sordo. With two rally wins to his name, Latvala could do just that if he can only get some consistency. His raw pace also suggests that Latvala could eventually assume first driver duties for Ford.

There’s little chance of Sordo doing the same for Citroen. But while Loeb is around, Sordo is adequate. So I’ll leave him alone.

Maybe it’s time to move on to Matthew Wilson, who is far from adequate. But that’s for another time.

It’s hard to argue that anyone had a worse weekend than Sylvain Guintoli, who suffered a broken leg after Josh Brookes ploughed into him on the warm up lap for race one of British Superbikes at Donington Park. Photos of that here.

He’s now down to fourth in the standings, but far worse than that, he’s expected to be out for longer than the initially estimated eight to ten weeks. It’s obviously a massive shame for Guintoli and the Worx Crescent Suzuki team, but also the series and its fans – because it’s a very competitive rider out of the title race.

A far more positive loser, if you like, was Sebastien Loeb, who for the first time in the six rounds of this year’s World Rally Championship so far, failed to win a rally. I’m never a fan of a driver being dominant for too long, so it’s nice to see Jari-Matti Latvala taking the victory. It’s a shame for the championship that Mikko Hirvonen didn’t take full advantage of Loeb’s moment of weakness, but Loeb’s so far in the lead that it probably doesn’t matter.

Arguably the weekend’s biggest winner was Petter Solberg, who finished Rally Italy as top Citroen in his old, but not as old as it was at the start of the season, Xsara WRC. It was close though: Loeb initially finished 3rd in the C4, but a two-minute time penalty for a seat belt rule infringement promoted Solberg to a second season podium, a shoved Loeb down to 4th.

It was all about British winners in Monaco on Sunday. Obviously Jenson Button won the Formula 1 race, but there was also Oliver Turvey in Formula Renault 3.5 or World Series by Renault depending on your nomenclature preference, and Richard Westbrook in the Porsche Supercup.

Nelson Piquet was a definite loser in Formula 1, but I almost – almost – feel sorry for him. He was shunted out of the race by Sebastien Buemi through no fault of his own. Given that Piquet really needs to start proving that he deserves his drive with Renault, it’s potentially very harsh that an opportunity to do so was taken from him.

But it happens to everyone, and all sympathy went out of the window when he started talking about Buemi as one of “these young drivers” who “need to calm down”. That’s Piquet, about whom Falvio Briatore said after the Chinese Grand Prix: “this was kind of a contest: the more you spin the more points you have”.

People in glass houses, Nelson.

It’s been kind of a dull week in motorsport, which is impressive given that there was an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

The Formula 1 news has of course been well reported, and indeed I’ve briefly opined about it on Twitter. McLaren’s suspended ban for lying, the optional £40m budget cap – mainly stuff we already knew, just being confirmed. There were details of course, but nothing really to write home about.

It wasn’t all about Formula 1 though. Drivers in the Formula Two championship this year will be able to drop their two poorest results, to reduce the impact of any unreliability of the brand new car. Sensible, but not world shaking news.

There was intriguing news concerning the World Rally Championship though. Specifically concerning the 2010 calendar, which was due to be mutually exclusive to the 2009 calendar, to form a two-year rotation system.

Not so now though, as two of the new rounds – Indonesia and Russia – have failed an FIA inspection, and will therefore not form part of the 2010 championship.

Remember the grumblings over Wales Rally GB a couple of weeks ago? Backing from the Welsh Assembly Government was in question over the event not being part of the 2010 calendar. But the event organisers were under the impression that Wales Rally GB would yet be a WRC event in 2010.

This is clearly why. The FIA has stated that the gaps in the 2010 calendar will be filled by “proven existing events that have run this year”. The clever money, therefore, is on Wales Rally GB being one of those events.

Also, bizarrely, Rally Monte Carlo “may ask to rejoin the calendar in 2011 rather than 2010″. Not sure what that’s about. Maybe it’s happy with the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which it was part of this year.

It’s a frankly ludicrous weekend for motorsport: there are rounds in no less than four world championships, but it’s the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton which I’m most interested in – and only partly because I’m going to be there, trying to tweet from trackside.

At the pre-season media day, there were four drivers notable by their absense. Louise Goodman spoke to Tom Onslow-Cole on the grid at Brands Hatch: he couldn’t bring the sponsorship VX Racing would need, and the Volvo deal didn’t materialise in time, though it could for next season.

The other three will all be on the grid at Thruxton though. James Thompson has ousted Gordon Shedden from Team Dynamics; Jason Plato continues in a Chevrolet Lacetti run by RML, now under the team name Racing Silverline; and RML will be running another Chevrolet Lacetti for Mat Jackson.

The Chevrolet Lacetti is due to go well at Thruxton: it proved to have a mighty powerful engine at Brands Hatch, and outright speed is the key at Thruxton. It’ll be interesting to see how Mat Jackson does in a front-wheel drive car after spending previous years in the BTCC in a rear-wheel drive BMW. He won the SEAT Cupra Championship prior to that though, so he’s no stranger to success in a front-wheel drive car. I think it’ll mainly be Plato challenging the Vauxhall drivers; the BMWs might struggle.

At least the ever-changing weather forecast is looking clear now – which is good for me and good for the rear-wheel drive BMWs.

Further afield, Formula 1 is in Bahrain. The Friday practice sessions have been inconclusive as ever, with a completely different top three in P1 and P2. That said, Brawn GP, Toyota, Williams and Red Bull Racing are all going well yet again. Fernando Alonso in the Renault is looking like he might be a bit handy too. It’s definitely closer than it was, in any case. Though the Ferrari drivers are still embarrassingly nowhere.

Over in Japan we find MotoGP, and so far Valentino Rossi very slightly has the edge on Casey Stoner. The other riders are once again looking largely irrelevant. Another two horse race, then.

The World Rally Championship is already under way in Argentina, and happily Sebastien Loeb isn’t having it all his way. After stage 5, Mikki Hirvonen is narrowly ahead, with the top five separated by less than ten seconds. This could be rather good!

Finally, the Superbike World Championship is in Assen. The news is we have another Brit this week, with British Superbikes rider Stuart Easton in for Broc Parkes on the Kawasaki. In first practice Leon Haslam continued his reign as top Brit, in a session topped by man of the year Ben Spies.

And that’s the how the weekend is shaping up, in a rather wordy nutshell.

We’ve arguably had some clues to the importance of Britain in the motorsport world this week.

Most emphatic was A1GP boss Tony Teixeira. The Team GBR franchise went into administration earlier this year, and Teixeira has kept the team afloat since then. He told autosport.com in no uncertain terms:

“As long as we have A1GP, Team GBR will run.”

So clearly he thinks that – at least for A1GP – Britain is pretty bloody important.

We may find out the World Rally Championship’s opinion on the matter in due course.

Under the rotation system adopted from this season, Wales Rally GB doesn’t appear on the provisional 2010 WRC calendar published some time ago. Well, the Welsh Assembly Government – which pumps a lot of money into the rally – has just noticed, and isn’t keen on supporting the 2010 event.

You can understand why: Wales Rally GB would get considerably less exposure if it ran as a non-WRC event – even if it was on the IRC calendar, for example. It would therefore represent worse value for money, so the Welsh Assembly Government is probably right to rethink its investment.

However! International Motor Sports (organiser of Wales Rally GB) is under the impression from International Sportsworld Communicators (global promotor of the WRC) that the event could yet be on the 2010 WRC calendar, which will be finalised by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council later this year.

The ridiculous thing is that all this is even threatening the 2009 running of Wales Rally GB – which is very much on the WRC calendar.

So ultimately it could be down to the FIA to decide whether Britain is special enough to be on the WRC calendar every year, knowing that the alternative might be no Rally GB every other year when it’s due to be part of the WRC calendar.

We do at least know from Formula 1 that the FIA has a soft spot for Britain, having stated that it could step in to safeguard the future of the British Grand Prix should there be problems with Donington Park’s preparations for 2010.

Indeed the FIA is due to inspect plans right about now. Circuit boss Simon Gillett is confident as always that all is super, smashing and indeed great.

Maybe it is for Formula 1 in 2010, but the British F3 meeting at Donington Park later this month has been postponed, and other events cancelled. This is all down to the work going on to upgrade the facility to Formula 1 standards, which has severely reduced run-off areas, leading to problems obtaining the licenses needed to hold races.

Still, we can always rely on the patriotism of Bernie Ecclestone. Should Donington Park not be ready, he is characteristically unwilling to even consider the possibility of the race staying at Silverstone. Or at least, that’s what he’s saying now.

Apparently Citroen revealed a hybrid rally car in October, but I didn’t notice. The C4 WRC HYbrid4 got its first proper outing recently though, and it’s quite interesting.

Dani Sordo drover it on an asphalt stage – where energy recovery can be transferred into a power boost – and on public roads – where it can operate entirely on electricity between stages. He liked it, basically.

It’s interesting in a few ways. On the most basic level, it’s just a good thing for a car company to be doing. It also shows a remarkable commitment to rallying as a sport, that a concept car has been built apropos of nothing.

But it also shows that the FIA is really lagging behind when it comes to the World Rally Championship. It took an embarrassingly long time for the sport’s Super 2000 future to be confirmed, and now manufacturers are ahead of the FIA on green technology.

Which is bizarre considering how desperate the FIA was to get energy recovery into Formula 1 – which they did this year with KERS, arguing that it’s technology that could be transferred to road cars.

Surely energy recovery in a rally car is even more easily transferred to a road car – specifically the road car on which the rally car is based in the first place. I think it just shows how preoccupied the FIA is with Formula 1, to the detriment of all else.

Dear Dave,

I do enjoy your coverage of the World Rally Championship. Paul King has relaxed as a commentator, and Neil Cole is a suitably entertaining and knowledgeable presenter.

I notice that, this year, you enjoy taking guests to the rallies. It started with the moderately informed Shane Lynch out of Boyzone; then came the Dave plug-fest of Red Dwarf’s Robert Llewellyn, who at least enthused about the science behind the WRC.

The last two guests have been stand-up comedians. It was hard to tell if Sean Hughes was being dismissive for comedy effect, or if he was genuinely disinterested. Jo Caulfield was enthusiastic, but wide-eyed amazement was all she could offer.

Are you struggling to find people with at least a passing interest in motorsport to come out to the rallies with you? If so, I am very happy to offer my services.

You’d be welcome to fly me out; put me up in a hotel; show me around the service area; introduce me to the teams, drivers and co-drivers; and drive me out to the stages.

For this, I won’t even charge an appearance fee. I know, it seems like I’m being ludicrously generous. But that’s just how I roll.

In exchange, I will do my best to engage in Dave’s trademark witty banter with Neil Cole, and perhaps even offer something as outrageous as an opinion once or twice.

Kind regards,

Jake