Until Jimmie Johnson captured his sixth career Sprint Cup victory in Fontana, California, NASCAR's low-downforce rules package had just been a qualified success. Sure, the finishes had been fantastic, but what about the three hours leading up to them? Sunday's Auto Club 400 was entertaining from start to finish. It was the genuine item. It was the real deal. Perhaps it was the two-mile track's aging, bumpy asphalt. Mostly, though, reduced downforce has made NASCAR racing, at least at its top level, perilous, pulsating and powerful again. The drivers love it, right up to the point where they lose control of their cars, and that is as it should be. "It was great racing," Denny Hamlin, who finished third, said. "Low downforce is obv...

Mercedes started their season in the best possible way with a one-two finish at the 2016 Formula One Australian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg led home Lewis Hamilton for the fourth race in a row—but this was no walk in the Albert Park for the Silver Arrows.

Poor starts for both Rosberg and Hamilton had opened the door for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari to claim a shock win. However, the mid-race red flag and a poor choice of strategy by the Scuderia tipped the balance back in Mercedes' favour, and the German team head to Bahrain with the same 28-point cushion they enjoyed at this stage last season.

But despite their perfect result, Mercedes were not the happiest team in the pit lane on Sunday night. That honour went to American...

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. formed one of the most exciting, dynamic partnerships in Formula One in 2015, but it has only taken one race of the new season for civil war to break out at Scuderia Toro Rosso. Verstappen appeared to be on course to equal or even surpass his career-best finish during the first phase of the Australian Grand Prix, but his afternoon quickly "went downhill," as he admitted via his official Twitter account, and the Dutchman ultimately finished a distant 10th. The teenager struggled to accept his fall down the pecking order and frequently criticised the pit wall and his team-mate during the race. Although Sainz tried his best to keep the peace, Verstappen has turned nasty, suggesting the Spaniard isn't fast en...

Kevin Harvick didn’t have the requisite kryptonite to bring the Man of Steel down to earth in the Auto Club 400. Jimmie Johnson took flight in the Superman Chevy on the third overtime of the season with a paint-peeling restart. He found a superhero gear and buried General Zod in the No. 4 car. “Sometimes special athletes do special things,” Fox NASCAR analyst Michael Waltrip said during the Fox broadcast. “He ran the fastest lap of the race on the last lap. He saved his best for last.” That he did, in a race with 26 lead changes and while taking down a dominant driver (Harvick) who led 142 of the 205 laps in Fontana, California. Don your cape. It’s time for a comic-book-laden edition of winners and losers...

Jimmie Johnson was Superman on Sunday.  Sporting a paint scheme recognizing the superhero’s new movie, the six-time champion powered past Kevin Harvick in overtime to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.  Johnson passed the iconic Dale Earnhardt Sr. on NASCAR’s all-time wins list with the victory, his 77th, and did so at his home track.  The driver of the No. 48 machine capitalized on a late caution with three laps to go then gained two spots on pit road when taking four fresh tires, restarting in third place for the two-lap overtime.  Sitting behind Harvick when taking the green, Johnson pushed Harvick’s bumper when getting up to speed and separated the tw...

Jorge Lorenzo got his MotoGP title defence underway by powering to victory in Sunday's 2016 season opener at the Qatar Grand Prix, where Andrea Dovizioso finished second. The Yamaha rider enjoyed a near-perfect display at Losail International Circuit, and Michelin Motorsport confirmed the No. 99 also collected a new circuit record in Doha to go along with his first-place gong: The Spaniard came under heavy pressure from Ducati duo Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, but Lorenzo ultimately carried through his momentum from the 2015 campaign to give his 2016 season a stellar push. Here's a look at the results from the 2016 Qatar Grand Prix:  And here's how the standings look following the first race of the 2016 campaign: Despite the fact th...

Jimmie Johnson drove his Superman-themed race car into Victory Lane for the second time this season in Sunday afternoon's Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.  Johnson, who led 22 laps on the day, blew past Kevin Harvick on the restart in overtime to secure the 77th Sprint Cup Series win of his career. The win moves him past the late, great Dale Earnhardt for sixth place on the all-time wins list in NASCAR's top series. Harvick, who led a race-high 142-of-200 laps, was forced to settle for a second-place finish after winning last weekend at Phoenix. He seemed well in control when Kyle Busch blew a right-front tire with two laps to go and brought out the caution flag. Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out th...

Nico Rosberg began the new Formula One season in the same fashion he ended the last by claiming victory in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit. The German and team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion, recovered from poor starts to claim Mercedes' 33rd win in the last two years, but the Silver Arrows' latest victory was one of their most hard-fought since they emerged as F1's dominant force at the beginning of the 2014 campaign. Indeed, four-time title winner Sebastian Vettel was the favourite to win in the early stages of the race, but a strategic error by his Ferrari team, who demonstrated their best and worst qualities over the course of the 57 laps, forced the German to settle for third. With a look at ...

The result of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix—a Mercedes one-two, followed by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel—will look familiar and predictable to anyone with a cursory interest in Formula One over the last couple years. As at the U.S. Grand Prix last year, though, how those familiar results came about was anything but predictable. In 2015, it took Ferrari and Vettel two races to spring a surprise on Mercedes. In Melbourne, it didn't even take two corners. Throughout the offseason, the big question was: Could Ferrari catch Mercedes and end the Silver Arrows' two-year domination of the sport? After qualifying on Saturday, it seemed the answer was no. Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, nearly a second clear of Vettel in third. Nico Ros...

Fernando Alonso endured a scary beginning to the 2016 Formula One season, as he was involved in a spectacular crash at the Australian Grand Prix. The McLaren man ran into the back of Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez as he was attempting an overtaking manoeuvre, prompting his vehicle to vault up into the air, spin and career off track. Here is a look at the incident: The crash meant the race, eventually won by Mercedes man Nico Rosberg, was temporarily suspended and, remarkably, the double world champion was able to walk away from the accident. One spectator at Albert Park in Melbourne caught the footage on camera, offering a raw insight into the accident: Not long after the smash, the McLaren team took to Twitter to confirm Alonso was fine f...