Weekend round-up (June 15-17): Le Mans, MotoGP

Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi scored Toyota’s first ever win in the Le Mans 24 Hours, leading a 1-2 finish for the Japanese manufacturer.

The #8 car and the sister #7 machine of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez ran neck-to-neck until Buemi was found to have overspeeded in a slow zone, incurring a 60-second stop/go penalty.

However, Alonso drove impressively during his night stint to make up for the deficit, bringing the gap down from two minutes to just 45 seconds.

Nakajima carried on Alonso’s good work, passing the #7 car in the 14th hour to take the lead.

The victory was sealed in the #8 car’s favour when Kobayashi missed his pit call and earned two subsequent penalties for exceeding the stint light.

In the LMP2 class, the G-Drive entry of Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola took top honours, while Porsche triumphed in both GTE classes.

Honda-bound Jorge Lorenzo scored his second straight MotoGP win at Barcelona, beating his future teammate and championship leader Marc Marquez.

Lorenzo initially slipped behind Marquez at the start of the race, but reclaimed the lead with the extra grunt of his Ducati on the following lap.

Marquez initially stayed on the tail of Lorenzo, before the latter started edging away, building a two-second cushion for himself.

He eventually won the race by 4.479s, with Yamaha MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi finishing behind Marquez to claim the final spot on the podium.

Lorenzo’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso suffered a crash for the second time in three races - and the two factory Ducati riders are now level on points in the standings.