SPA 6 HOURS LIVE

The Spa 6 Hour race at the famous Spa-Francochamps circuit in Belgium is the lead up race to the greatest race is world motorsport the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year the race is also the second round of the new World Endurance Championship. With newcomers Toyota out of the race after a testing accident, all [...]

WEBBER TO RACE WITH FERRARI CLAIMS SPANISH NEWS SITE

Spanish digital new media outlet El Confidencial has claimed that Mark Webber has all but signed with Ferrari for 2013. The site claims that the Australian will come to the Prancing Horse on the back of his good relationship with Fernando Alonso and their mutual managirial relationship with Flavio Briatore. The story claims that the Australian’s signing [...]

AUDI RULE THE ROOST IN GT1 OPENER

The Audi team of Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor secured a double victory with a win in both races for the opening round of the new look 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship at Nogaro. “I never expected, even in my best dreams, that we would achieve this result at the first race." said Vanthor after the race. "I am still quite speechless, but I think it is because we did a great job, we worked hard together, and we did a lot of testing. Audi have put a lot of effort into it, as well as Belgian Audi Club WRT, and then the co-operation with Stephane (Ortelli), everything is going the perfect way at the moment. I am really happy, this is one of the most beautiful victories I have had, so I hope we can continue in this direction.” The second WRT car, the No.33 of Frank Stippler and Oliver Jarvis finished second as they had done on Sunday to round out a perfect Easter weekend for the German manufactuer. Third was the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Mercedes SLS of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, from sixth on the grid, just ahead of their team-mates Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jager.

FERRARI ON POLE FOR GT1 OPENER

Ferrari is on pole for the opening round of the new look GT1 World Championship at Nagaro in France. Finnish driver Toni Vilander put the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia grabbed pole early ahead of the WRT Audis of Stephane Ortelli/Laurens Vanthoor and Frank Stippler/Oliver Jarvis. “First of all it is good to be in the championship,” Vilander said. “Even in the testing I found many very good drivers, great cars and great teams so I think it’s going to be a very tight year. I only got to know Filip (Salaquarda) on Monday and we started to build our confidence together. “These cars are a bit special to drive, ABS and stuff like that is completely new to me. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we have the pace to get a good result.” Mercedes will start out of fourth place with the Munnich Mercedes of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock just ahead of the second AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci and Enzo Ide.

QUIET START FOR EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES

A new era for European endurance racing kicks off this weekend as the European Le Mans Series gets underway at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. The new series will feature LMP2 as it's premier category leaving the faster (and more expensive) LMP 1 machines to the new World Championship which got underway last month at Sebring. Five separate chassis will be represented including Lola, Oreca and the revived Morgan brand. There are at this stage only two engines being used. Nissan and well know endurance race engine specialists Judd. Attracting the most attention will be the new team of eight time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb. The last minute deal to put the team together has left then short of testing time but there's plenty of driving experience to overcome any shortfall.

THE SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SEBRING

PEUGEOT ON TOP AGAIN IN ZHUHAI LE MANS FINAL

<strong>Peugeot have kept their recent edge on Audi alaive with a one, two in qulifying for tomorrow's 6 hour race at Zuhai in China.</strong> Anthony Davidson set a fast lap of 1:22;038 to edge out team-mate Stephane Sarrazin and the Audi pair of Tom Kristensen and Macel Fassler. Neel Jarni in the rebellion Toyota was the quickest of the petrol cars in fourth place just ahead of the Oak Pescarolo Judd of Neel Jarni. Stefan Mucke had a dissapointing run in the Aston Martin and will start back in seventh place.

VETTEL ON POLE AGAIN AT MONZA

Speculation that Red Bull's dominance over pole position this season would come to an end in Italy proved wrong, with Sebastian Vettel taking his least-predictable P1 of the year at Monza. The German, who almost lost his car as he slid through the Ascari chicane, recovered to bank an unbeatable lap time of 1m 22.275 seconds. 'We thought it would be much closer than that,' said Vettel. 'We are quite quick throughout all three sectors, so we just had to put it together.' The German was stuck in traffic as all cars but Senna left the pitlane at once, but mistakes by Hamilton, Button's decision to abandon his fast lap, and teammate Mark Webber unable to extract the same pace from the Red Bull meant that he kept the RBR7's 100 per cent pole record for 2011 alive. 'We were not expecting, not thinking of being on pole by that margin,' he continued. 'This year, I have to say the car is very good here. The balance is perfect.' The pace promised by McLaren in the lead up to the Italian Grand Prix was only good enough P2, with Hamilton pipping teammate Button to the front from by half a tenth. 'Sebastian was mega quick today. It looked like we'd be quite competitive in the weekend, but that last lap was untouchable for me,' elaborated Hamilton. 'I didn't have another half a second in the bag. We perhaps could have got another couple of tenths out of the car.' Button noted that despite Red Bull running a seemingly lower downforce package than McLaren, they still managed to move faster in the high speed turns.

NEW GT ENDURO FOR ABU DHABI

The growing popularity of GT endurance racing has received another boost with a new major race announced for Abu Dhabi. The new Gulf 12 Hours is an invitation-only event aimed to support the continued, sustainable growth of motorsport in the United Arab Emirates whilst attracting a wider variety of teams and drivers to the region, without [...]

AUDI ENDURANCE DOMINANCE CONTINUES AT SPA

Audi have backed up their 2011 Le Mans victory with a win in the most important endurance race for GT cars, the Spa 24 hours. The Audi R8 LMS GT3 of DTM stars Mattias Ekström (Sweden) Timo Scheider (Germany) and Belgian endurance specialist Greg Franchi led home teams from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Experts agreed before the race started that the endurance classic, held since 1924, had never fielded so many potential winners as this year. A total of 62 cars representing 13 different manufacturers joined the grid, including no less than 57 cars of the booming GT3 category. The opening stages of the endurance classic fulfilled all expectations. Spectators lining the 7.004 kilometre track and in front of television screens enjoyed tough battles for position, countless overtaking manoeuvres, retirements and small and big dramas which are typical for a 24-hour race. The Audi R8 LMS was the fastest car in the field from the very beginning. After just a few hours it was clear that the V10 powered R8 sports cars where the favourites for victory. The race of the victorious #33 R8 LMS fielded by Audi Sport Team WRT was particularly impressive. The car driven by Mattias Ekström, Greg Franchi and Timo Scheider ran like clockwork for 24 hours, while many other GT3 cars were no match for the stresses and strains of the hard fought endurance race. The brake discs and pads were changed twice as scheduled. Apart from this, the R8 LMS only entered pit lane to refuel, change tires and to swap drivers. At the start of the tenth hour Ekström/Franchi/Scheider took the lead which they duly held all the way to the checkered flag. At the finish the trio had a two-lap lead over the closest rival.