IMOLA, Italy – Jonathan Rea kept his World Superbike rally going on Sunday by topping the 10-lap Superpole race at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for his second win of the season.

Sunday’s full-distance event was cancelled due to heavy rain, leaving only two of the three scheduled events complete during the Imola weekend, just as in Assen earlier on.

Rea, who had already snapped Alvaro Bautista’s 11-race win streak to open the season on Saturday, had a run for the lead right off the start on polesitter Chaz Davies, though he couldn’t capitalize after running wide at the left-hand Tosa corner.

However, Davies overshot the final chicane at the end of the opening lap, losing both the lead to Rea and second to Bautista as a result.

Rea began to escape into clean air on lap four, with Davies eventually re-passing Bautista for second when the latter ran wide at the Rivazza corner.

That was of no consequence to Rea, however, as he drove off to a two-second victory over the two Ducatis of Davies and Bautista.

Michael van der Mark crossed fourth for Yamaha, with the second Yamaha of Alex Lowes completing the top five.

Leon Haslam, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Tom Sykes, Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Sunday’s win was the record-extending 71st of Rea’s World Superbike career.

BARCELONA, Spain – Lewis Hamilton was not going to be denied on Sunday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, leading all 66 laps en route to victory in the Formula One Emirates Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton blistered Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas on the initial start, sweeping into the race lead at turn one and never looking back.

Despite a late restart with 14 laps to go, after a turn-two collision between Lando Norris and Lance Stroll necessitated a safety-car period, Hamilton raced away from Bottas down the stretch for his third win in five races this year and the 76th of his Formula One career.

It was the fifth time that Mercedes has finished first and second to open the season.

Sunday’s win was Hamilton’s third in a row in Barcelona, making him the first driver since Michael Schumacher to earn a hat trick of Spanish Grand Prix victories.

Schumacher won four straight from 2001 to 2004.

Hamilton also retook the lead in the F-1 driver’s championship from Bottas by virtue of his dominant performance.

“This is history in the making, to have five (Mercedes) one-twos, and I’m really proud to be a part of that,” said Hamilton. “It’s definitely been a bit of a hard first four races, because while we’ve had a great car, we haven’t always gotten along. It was nice to settle our differences in the race and get away well.

“It was an interesting start. … I saw the red car get around the back of both of us, and I had no idea whether they were further ahead, but I assumed they were,” Hamilton added. “I knew that Valtteri would be braking super deep, but it wasn’t a replay of Baku, at least.”

Hamilton never ceded the point once getting out front, starting on Pirelli’s soft tires and making his lone green-flag pit stop on lap 28, taking a set of medium-compound tires at that juncture.

A potentially-delaminating tire was a cause for concern for Hamilton in the second half of the race, but when Norris tagged Stroll around at turn two with 20 to go and brought out the yellow, Hamilton was able to make another pit stop for fresh rubber without giving up control of the race.

From there, the Briton nailed the final restart on lap 53 of 66 and took off, setting the fastest lap of the race as well on the final run and picking up a bonus point toward the championship for his efforts.

“I’ve not had a fastest lap all year, so that feels good too,” Hamilton noted. “It’s about time.”

Though Bottas took the pole position on Saturday during qualifying, he simply couldn’t match his teammate’s pace when it mattered and came home 4.074 seconds adrift at the checkered flag.

“I lost that race at the start,” lamented Bottas. “It was like … biting and releasing, biting and releasing, which I’d never felt before. As a team, this is incredible … and I got some good points. Every single point is going to count this year, but I’m keen to find out why the start was so bad and what the issue was.”

Max Verstappen completed the podium, moving to third in points as a result after outpacing the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for most of the afternoon.

“It was a hectic first corner, so I backed out of it, and that actually gave me good positioning after the first three corners,” reflected Verstappen. “From there on, the Mercedes cars were too quick, but I could do my own pace and we were competitive. I’m happy to be on the podium after this one.”

Vettel and Leclerc’s positions were up in the air for most of the day, with Leclerc let through on team orders early after Vettel picked up a flat spot on the opening lap. Vettel was later allowed to repass Leclerc when the latter was moved to a one-stop strategy and was slower on hard tires.

The four-time F-1 champion ended up fourth in the final rundown, with Leclerc finishing fifth.

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly, Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and the second Haas entry of Romain Grosjean completed the points-scoring drivers in the top 10.

The finish:

Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat, Romain Grosjean, Alexander Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez, Antonio Giovinazzi, George Russell, Robert Kubica, Lance Stroll, Lando Norris.

CONCORD, N.C. — Michael Self is no fool.

The ARCA Menards Series regular and the driver of the No. 25 Toyota for Venturini Motorsports has been around racing for a long time. At 28 years old, he’s pretty sure he won’t be racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series anytime soon.

In fact, Self doubts he’ll ever make it that far, and he’s OK with that.

“That would be a great goal to have, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you that is a goal of mine because I know how unrealistic it is,” Self said. “I don’t want to be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.”

Self has had his fair share of success at the lower levels of NASCAR. From late 2010 through the 2013 season, Self drove for Jim Offenbach in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and was a Richard Childress Racing developmental driver.

He earned six victories in three full seasons of racing for Offenbach, but his career stalled after the 2013 season and he was left rideless due to a lack of sponsorship.

“I’ll sit here and tell you honestly that I was never slated to go up the Richard Childress ladder by any means, because we didn’t have the financial resources to do it,” Self acknowledged. “Even though I was technically an RCR development driver, that didn’t mean the money was just there.

“After the 2013 season, we didn’t have any sponsorship because I had been funded by my dad up until that point and we didn’t have the money to go on any further,” Self added. “In 2014, I knew I still wanted to race. I’d only known racing up until that point. I didn’t know what else I would do.”

The next few years were rough for Self. He moved to Charlotte, N.C., in 2014 and began knocking on doors in search of a job. He was a spotter and driver coach at Turner Scott Motorsports, working with Kaz Grala and Justin Haley.

From 2014 through ’16, Self was rarely on the race track. In 2014, he ran a pair of ARCA Menards Series races. In 2015, he raced in seven NASCAR Xfinity Series events for JD Motorsports.

In 2016, he ran just one race — the ARCA finale at Kansas Speedway. It was the turning point in his career. However, in the months leading up to that race, Self admits he nearly gave up racing.

“I kind of had … I don’t want to say given up, but I had succumbed to the fact that you know, I’m probably not going to race again,” Self said. “I’d been searching for sponsors and trying to do my own thing. I’d kind of just gotten sick of it.

“I went back to school that year,” Self continued. “I decided I wanted to go to college and get a degree and focus on that.”

Everything changed for Self after his father cold-called someone with the Sinclair Oil Corp.

“My dad called up and basically was like ‘my son races cars, and we’d like to talk to you about sponsorship,’” Self recalled. “We have a platform that could generate a couple million dollars for you guys in business-to-business relationships. They took that really seriously and invited us in for a meeting.”

That meeting led to a sponsorship deal for Self to compete in the ARCA finale that season at Kansas. Driving for MDM Motorsports, Self finished third in his return to racing.

“I think we kind of knocked it out of the park that weekend,” Self said. “We put in what I felt was a really solid showing for Sinclair on and off the race track.

“That kind of kick-started that sponsorship agreement going forward.”

Since then Self’s driving career has continued to grow. He ran all but one of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West races in 2017, winning two races while driving for Bob Bruncati. He also was back in the ARCA Menards Series with sponsorship from Sinclair, running six races and winning the season finale at Kansas Speedway.

He upped the ante last year, running 10 ARCA events and winning twice, including a marquee victory in the opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

This season, Self and Sinclair are all-in, teaming with Venturini Motorsports to chase the ARCA Menards Series championship. After a rough outing in the opener at Daytona, Self scored his fourth ARCA victory at Florida’s Five Flags Speedway in March.

With all these good things going on, you’d think he’d be chomping at the bit to move up the ladder. Not Self.

“I’m really proud of every opportunity I get to race because of what I’ve done with Sinclair,” Self said. “Because of what I’ve done with them, I think my long-term goal is to race. Selfishly, that’s what I want to do. It’s what I have fun doing.

“More specifically, my long-term goal is to continue building a program that is beneficial to them and continue being the guy who has brought this oil and petroleum company into auto racing and successfully built a sponsorship.

“If I can do that, then my realistic goal may be outside of a race car. My realistic goal may be working for Sinclair or maybe working in sports marketing.”

Even if he never makes it to the upper levels of NASCAR, it appears Self is already comfortable with his place in the sport and what he’s accomplished.

You can’t fault him for that.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – While Brad Keselowski was celebrating in victory lane Saturday night at Kansas Speedway, Clint Bowyer was fuming on pit road after a late clash with Erik Jones in the Digital Ally 400.

Bowyer had a big run coming to the white flag during an overtime restart at the 1.5-mile oval, but found Jones’ No. 20 Toyota Camry in the way of his No. 14 Ford Mustang as he tried to make a move for third.

The Kansas native, who had pitted for fresh tires before the final restart and was clawing forward from eighth, looked to the bottom on the frontstretch as Jones sliced down two lanes to throw the block.

When Bowyer went back up the track, Jones went with him, further stymieing the Stewart-Haas Racing driver.

Bowyer gave a final shot to the rear bumper of the Toyota in question, before falling back due to a loss of momentum and ending up fifth, while Jones crossed third at the checkered flag.

From the moment he climbed out of his race car on pit road, Bowyer had no shortage of frustration to aim at Jones for his actions on the final lap.

“What are you going to do? Turn him right in front of the field and hurt him?” quipped Bowyer. “He put me in a bad situation. I lifted for him, and it cost me three spots right there. We should’ve finished second, and I think everybody knows that. That was dumb on his part. I guess that’s what he wants is to just go down and wreck in front of the field. If you’re going to run like that, you just don’t move up.

“I should’ve just wrecked him, I guess. That pisses me off,” Bowyer added. “It was a struggle; it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be at home. We were fast yesterday in practice and qualifying. This was just a chaotic evening.”

Unsurprisingly, Jones had a different view of the late battle between himself and Bowyer afterward.

“I think it was just racing,” noted Jones. “We were racing hard, and this package really kind of leads into a lot of blocking and protecting your position. We’re taking the white flag; I’m not going to give up a lane to give up two, three or four spots if he would’ve gotten to the inside. Besides that, we had a car that could’ve won. We just got in the wrong spot at the end of the race and weren’t able to capitalize on it.

“We’ll keep moving forward. It’s been two good weeks,” Jones continued. “This the best car we’ve had since Texas and it’s just nice to be up in contention and have a shot.”

However, Jones admitted he understood Bowyer’s frustration after the race, as well.

“I’d be mad if I was him, but it’s just racing,” said Jones. “I’ve been blocked a lot, especially with this package … and I haven’t done a lot of blocking. You have to get aggressive and fight for every position.

“That’s all I was doing at the end of the race.”

BARGNANA, Italy — Alon Day became a 19-time winner in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and a five-time winner at Autodromo di Franciacorta on Sunday with a clean sweep of the NASCAR GP Italy.

The CAAL Racing driver led the final race of the weekend from flag to flag, allowing the reigning series champion to reinforce his lead in the ELITE 1 Division point standings.

In the early stages of the race, Day had to fend off the attacks brought by Loris Hezemans. The Israeli defended the lead, and then benefited from an intense battle between the Dutchman and former Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Day took the checkered flag with a seven-second advantage over Hezemans.

“It was much harder than yesterday because Loris was there the whole time,” said Day. “Luckily Villeneuve was very strong today, so they slowed each other. I saw that battle and I tried to open the gap as much as I could. Hezemans was catching up very fast as soon as he was alone. He would have probably caught me. I’m very happy to be in victory lane again. I wanted to catch Vilarino in the point standings and I did it.”

Hezemans finished second by winning the heated duel with Villeneuve. In the middle of the race, the two made contact, sending body parts of the Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang flying through the air.

However, Hezemans resisted every attack and crossed the finish line ahead of Villeneuve, who grabbed his second consecutive Euro Series podium in Italy.

“I’m happy but also a little disappointed,” said Hezemans, who won the Junior Trophy classification. “The race was a little bit too exciting for me. In the beginning I made a mistake and over-drove the car. I damaged my left side. From then on I was just trying to survive and protect my position from Jacques.”

“With Loris, we had a really intense battle,” added Villeneuve, who leaves Italy with two third-place finishes. “My car was really good in the corners. There was too much blocking going on, though. In the (United) States, he would have been in the wall in two corners. Apart from that, the racing was a lot of fun.”

Stienes Longin was fourth in his PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro, while Nicolo Rocca completed the top five. Ander Vilarino finished sixth.

The Spaniard, who won both races during the season opener at Valencia, had to focus on limiting damage in Italy after contact on Saturday.

Francesco Sini put together a strong comeback after starting 11th, managing to climb up to seventh, with Lucas Lasserre also showing his climbing skills by carving forward from 19th to finish eighth.

“It was a competitive race,” said Lasserre, who won at the Italian track in 2018. “It was a great and clean race. The team worked really hard each day. In Franciacorta it’s difficult to overtake, but I was able to gain a lot of positions. I like this track, the Autodromo is fantastic. But I’m also a little bit frustrated, because I always want more. Now it’s important to understand why our qualifying and the first race were so tough for us.”

Romain Iannetta and Alexander Graff rounded out the top 10.

Ellen Lohr grabbed her first ever Challenger Trophy win at the Autodromo di Franciacorta. The only woman to win a DTM race started 25th, but in the end the Dexwet-df1 Racing driver gained 11 positions to finish 14th.

Real Madrid slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Real Sociedad on Sunday as Zinedine Zidane's men confirmed third position in La Liga with their 11th loss of the campaign.

Zidane returned as manager in March after a nightmare run of form that resulted in Madrid's title challenge falling away as well as elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Ajax. But Sunday's defeat was the club's third in Zidane's second spell as manager, with the club having one more match to play, at home to Real Betis, in what has been a testing season.

Brahim Diaz gave Madrid the perfect start with a sensational solo strike on six minutes but Mikel Merino equalised with a left-footed effort that arrowed into the net.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Jesus Vallejo was sent off for handling the ball on the goal line, but Thibaut Courtois saved the resulting penalty from Willian Jose.

Madrid fell behind on 57 minutes when Joseba Zaldua headed home as Courtois lost his footing and Ander Barrenetxea made it 3-1 on 67 minutes.

Madrid started their penultimate match of the season off the back of a 3-2 win over Villarreal last time out and they were soon ahead thanks to former Manchester City man Diaz. After some neat skill down the left, Diaz cut in and finished superbly from an acute angle to put Madrid in front.

Sociedad were level on 25 minutes when Willian Jose found Merino, and he drove his effort past Courtois to peg Madrid back, before Zidane's side went down to 10 men. Willian Jose met Mikel Oyarzabal's pass and looked certain to make it 2-1, but Vallejo blocked his effort on the line.

Replays showed Vallejo handled the ball and the referee pointed to the spot before brandishing a red card but Sociedad could not capitalise. Willian Jose blasted the ball but Courtois guessed the right way and saved his spot kick.

Madrid were stretched with a man light in the second half and the home side went in search of a second, with Igor Zubeldia forcing Courtois into a smart stop six minutes after the re-start. Aihen Munoz was next to go close, but his effort whistled past the post.

Zidane responded by taking off Isco for Luka Modric but soon after the change, his side fell behind. Zaldua planted a header into the corner but it should have been routine for Courtois, who slipped at the crucial moment and saw the ball bounce in.

Courtois was again at fault when Barrenetxea's effort squirmed underneath his grasp to deepen the gloom on Zidane's men.

Barcelona bounced back from a midweek Champions League loss to Liverpool with a 2-0 win against Getafe at the Camp Nou on Sunday.

Arturo Vidal opened the scoring for the hosts before half-time, knocking home a rebound from a Gerard Pique header to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead at the break.

Dakonam Djene's own goal for the visitors padded the lead for La Liga champions Barcelona, who were playing their last home match of the season, while Getafe will have all to play for in the final weekend of the season to hold on to the final UCL spot ahead of Valencia.