World champ Fernando...

World champ Fernando Alonso has made an electric start to his new life at McLaren. The Spaniard has been setting the pace as most of the F1 teams rev up for the forthcoming season in Spain. “At the moment the car is fast and seems to be reliable,” stated Alonso. But he’s aware it’s still early days yet. “No one knows who is going to be fast when the real racing begins,” he added.

GERMANY continues to rule the A1 World Cup of Motorsport.Nico Hulkenberg completed back-to-back clean sweeps by winning the sprint and feature races in Australia, extending his lead in the series to 25 points. Brit Robbie Kerr made a fast start to the sprint event, but dropped back with a puncture and could only muster one point from each race.

THE World Rally Championship goes sub-zero for the next two weekends, with back-to-back rounds in Sweden and Norway. Citroen’s new C4 dominated last month’s Monte Carlo opener, with reigning champion Sebastien Loeb and team-mate Dani Sordo posting an impressive one-two finish.

But Ford is predicting a fightback in Scandinavia, not least as its two Finnish drivers, Marcus Gronholm and Miko Hirvonnen, are well suited to the wintry conditions. “To be honest, we always expected Citroen to be strong in Monte Carlo, but we are confident that the Focus will be more competitive in Sweden and Norway,” admitted Ford rally boss Malcolm Wilson, who believes the events will be better indicators to the season ahead. “If Citroen continues winning, then we’ve got a problem. But I’m optimistic that won’t be the case.”

ALAIN Prost has won his first motorsport championship since capturing his fourth F1 world title in 1993. The Frenchman clinched this year’s Andros Trophy ice racing title from behind the wheel of a four-wheel-drive Toyota Auris. Although Prost’s progress was helped by the absence of ice king Yvan Muller, he overcame a strong field including former GP winner Olivier Panis.

MOTO GP ace Valentino Rossi has ruled out an imminent switch to four wheels by extending his contract with Yamaha until the end of 2008.

The Italian has shown an interest in F1 and rallying after testing for Ferrari and competing in last year’s Rally New Zealand. But for the time being, he’ll be trying to regain the MotoGP crown he lost to Nicky Hayden last season.

“Now I can concentrate on racing,” stated the London-based 27-year-old. “This agreement gives us the chance to launch a challenge for the next two years.”