10 Things You Might Have Missed From Last Weekend's Motorsport Action

In another busy weekend of motorsport - which included MotoGP, Nascar and DTM - here are 10 things for you to catch up on:

1. Rossi wins down under

Valentino Rossi scored his 108th career victory and 82nd in the premier class at Phillip Island last weekend. The Italian started the Australian Grand Prix in eighth place but rose to the front of the field on lap 18 after taking the lead from recently-crowned 2014 MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.

The Spanish rider was one of several big names to crash out during the race. Rossi led home his Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, with Briton Bradley Smith completing the podium to score his first top three result.

2. Victorious at Zolder

The Blancpain GT Series was in action at the Zolder circuit in Belgium last weekend, with Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz taking the win for HTP Motorsport. Grasser Racing’s Hari Proczyk and Jeroen Bleekemolen finished three seconds further back. The title fight now goes down to the final race weekend in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The safety car was deployed twice in the early stages of the Blancpain Endurance Series race at Zolder. The second phase was caused by a big crash for Alexey Vasiliev into the chicane, after contact with another car. The driver was okay but his Mercedes SLS AMG certainly wasn’t.

4. ELMS season comes to a dramatic end

The 2014 European Le Mans Series season finished at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, with Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Vincent Capillaire and Jimmy Eriksson taking the team’s first win in the championship. SMP Racing’s Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin won in LMGTE, with the BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS team of Markus Paltalla, Henry Hassid and Bas Leinders triumphing in the GTC class.

All of the titles were wrapped up at the final race weekend. Signatech Alpine and drivers Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin snatched the LMP2 titles. SMP Racing and Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin secured both LMGTE championships, with the team also winning the two GTC titles with Olivier Beretta, David Markosov and Anton Ladygin.

5. Ekstrom wins DTM finale

Mattias Ekstrom took his second consecutive victory in the DTM 2014 season finale at the Hockenheimring. It was an Audi one-two-three, with Mike Rockenfeller and Jamie Green completing the podium. Four seconds separated the top three at the chequered flag. Paul di Resta was fourth, with 2014 champion Marco Wittmann in fifth.

6. An unusual penalty

DTM driver Bruno Spengler was handed a rather strange penalty after a collision with Daniel Juncadella. He will be required to do three hours of charity work, which will be carried out in consultation with the DMSB.

Carlos Sainz Jr secured the Formula Renault 3.5 series title at the Jerez circuit in Spain on Saturday, despite finishing down in ninth place. His closest rival Roberto Merhi retired on lap one after being involved in a crash at the first corner, giving Sainz Jr the championship. The race was won by Will Stevens.

Oliver Rowland dominated the final race of the season on Sunday, finishing well clear of Nicholas Latifi and Will Buller. Pierre Gasly’s fourth place helped him jump to second in the overall standings, making it a one-two for Red Bull-backed drivers.

After being part of a number of incidents and a post-race punch-up last weekend, Brad Keselowski returned to the top step of the podium at the Talladega Speedway after a chaotic Nascar Sprint Cup race. He started 39th but stormed through the field to take the win, which was just what he needed to advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne were all eliminated from the Chase.

Following this nasty crash in the Nascar Camping World Truck Series race, the hard hits kept on coming at Talladega.

2015 Toro Rosso F1 driver Max Verstappen fell to third in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship standings as the 2014 season came to a close at the Hockenheimring. The Dutch teenager won race one, but finished fifth and sixth in the final two events, which were won by Tom Blomqvist and Lucas Auer. Lotus F1 junior driver Esteban Ocon took the championship at the previous round.