Audi Wins Le Mans 2010: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places!
Filed under Automotive, Sports
AUDI reclaimed the Le Mans 24 Hours crown on Sunday with Germany’s Timo Bernhard taking the chequered flag at the wheel of the first R15 car in a 1-2-3 finish at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The non-works Peugeot Oreca was fourth after the French manufacturer, who ended Audi’s five-year reign last year, saw their three works cars retire with mechanical failures.
Peugeot had looked race favourites after sweeping the front two rows of the grid in qualifying and then initially holding their positions at the start of the race.
The French team suffered a setback after three hours when their pacesetting car, which locally-born ex-Formula One driver Sebastien Bourdais had put on pole, withdrew due to suspension failure.
Audi, who had since 2000 won eight editions of the world’s oldest sportscar race which started in 1923, were meanwhile playing the long game and survived all the race incidents.
In front of more than 200,000 people, the shock of the race came 20 minutes after the 55 cars had left the grid when former Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell crashed at the entrance of the famous 6.2 km Mulsanne straight.
The winning Audi completed 397 laps over 24 hours for 3,367 miles, the fastest Le Mans ever.
Tags: Audi, Audi R15, Le Mans, Le Mans 2010
60 years of Ferrari F1!
Filed under Automotive, Sports
A picture paints a thousand words. So this picture below will tell it all, I don’t have to by thousands of words to describe the 60 glorious years of one of the most successful F1 teams ever.
Click to enlarge
via eqnxtc
Tags: Ferrari F1 60 years
Schumacher returns to race Mercedes in 2010
Filed under Automotive, Sports
What began as a wild rumour has slowly edged towards near-fact: Michael Schumacher is returning to the formula one grid. He had just signed on the agreement last week.
Mercedes Grand Prix have officially confirmed Michael Schumacher has signed a one year contract as Nico Rosberg’s team mate for 2010. He will reportedly earn approximately 7 million euros and will attempt to add more victories to his glittering career that includes 7 drivers world championships, 91 victories and 68 pole positions.
It marks the second attempt by F1′s most successful driver to return to the grid. Just last year, Schumacher had agreed to replace the injured Felipe Massa for Scuderia Ferrari, but a previously sustained neck injuring ruined his chances. But Schumacher recently underwent medical checks and is confident he is back to full fitness.
He may be getting older, but I think his return may bring Mercedes GP to glory again!
[Image from Mercedes GP via WCF]
Button is F1′s New World Champion
Filed under Automotive, Sports
I knew this was coming; his victory was inevitable from the beginning of this season anyway.
Jenson Button is F1′s new world champion, after finishing the Brazilian grand prix in fifth place.
As winner Mark Webber, as well as Robert Kubica and Lewis Hamilton, sprayed champagne on the podium, the Brawn driver celebrated in the Interlagos pitlane below.
“It’s really amazing … my voice has gone!” said the 29-year-old Briton after singing ‘We are the champions’ and screaming into his radio on the slowing-down lap.
“Twenty-one years ago I jumped in a car and I loved winning. I never expected to be world champion because you think racing drivers in Formula One are different to you but we’ve done it today.”
It’s also worth noting that Brawn GP, established from the ashes of Honda’s works team less than a year ago, also win the constructors’ world champion by at least 9.5 points over Red Bull.
Source: GMM via WCF
Malaysian F1 team? Possible…
Peter Sauber, the founder and 20 per cent owner of the Hinwil based formula one team, has this week been in Malaysia for a discussion over a new F1 team.
On Thursday, it was reported all over the media that our government, already involved with BMW-Sauber through its 35m euro per year sponsorship by the state owned oil company Petronas, might be interested in forming a national formula one team.
Through the involvement of a Malaysian consortium, it was suggested that the bid could involve either taking over Sauber in the wake of BMW’s impending withdrawal, or joining forces with Lotus, Litespeed and Mike Gascoyne in a separate start-up operation.
The new speculation is a combination of the two possibilities: a BMW-Sauber takeover with the involvement of the F3 team Litespeed, as well as the well-known F1 engineer Gascoyne and Lotus’ new CEO Dany Bahar.
Coinciding with the rumours was the confirmation that Bahar, who like Peter Sauber is Swiss, has left Ferrari and will start his new role as Lotus CEO in October.
Sounds like a good progress for Malaysia in terms of motorsports, but in this time of economy? It however looks very skeptical unfortunately.
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