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Tag Archive | "Ferrari"

WEBBER ON POLE FOR GERMAN GP

Sunday, July 24, 2011

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WEBBER ON POLE FOR GERMAN GP

Mark Webber has taken his third pole position of the season to start from P1 for the second consecutive race at the Nurburgring. Webber set his lap within the first five minutes, which saw Alonso and Hamilton swap fastest times before the RBR-7 put four-tenths between the Australian and his nearest competitor. "The form's been getting a little bit better over the last couple of races," said Webber post-qualifying. "The boys did a great job with the car. They had some pretty late nights in the lead up to this event. "If someone was to get me, they'd deserve it because I couldn't have gotten much more." Despite starting from pole twice this season, Webber has failed to lead a single lap so far in 2011, often conceding his position off the line. "I'll be in there [tomorrow] pushing very, very hard, don't worry," he said confidently. The first stint of Q3 saw Sebastian Vettel follow him closely, slotting in behind his teammate by little more than a tenth, keeping Fernando Alonso's Ferrari at bay by a further 0.4 seconds. It was Hamilton, however, who throw his unlikely hat into the ring to compete for pole during the Q3's second stint, posting a time faster than anyone in the first sector. "It was one of the happiest and most comforting laps I've ever had, it's just incredible" commented a joyful Hamilton. The Englishman, however - who spent most of the weekend talking his chances down - fell painfully short, with less than one-tenth separating him from Webber, not that he seemed to mind. "That was a good lap," he said over team radio as qualifying finished. "That was a wicked lap." "We definitely underestimated how good the car would be when we went to light fuel," he added in the post-qualifying press conference. "A huge congratulations to my team, a fantastic effort. I'm really happy I could put it up here for them." Hamilton's last-ditch efforts meant that Vettel was relegated beyond the first row of the grid for the first time this season, breaking a fourteen race streak.

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VETTEL VICTORIOUS IN VALENCIA

Monday, June 27, 2011

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VETTEL VICTORIOUS IN VALENCIA

Sebastian Vettel led home the longest field in Formula One history to claim his sixth victory of the season in a largely uninspiring European Grand Prix. The German, now well accustomed to the sensation, dominated from pole to flag in flawless style as Red Bull's closest rivals in McLaren and Ferrari failed to make in impression on the leader. 'I tell you I enjoyed it so much,' he said. 'When it's just between you and the car... for some reason I enjoy this track.' 'We managed to put everything together for a faultless weekend. 'From beginning to the end, fantastic.' The most Vettel had to battle with was traffic as he set about lapping a full-length field, with all 24 cars finishing to make it the greatest number of drivers to complete a race. Fernando Alonso did well, however, to prove Ferrari's progress thus far this season to finish a confident second after a number of position changes with Australian Mark Webber, who managed third. 'It was an interesting race, for the fans and for the people watching on the TV, to see the fight with Webber all the way through,' reflected the home crowd favourite. 'The teams did a very good strategy by keeping the car out a few laps longer on the soft tyre. 'In the end I think the second place is the maximum we can have.' Webber held on to second place on the first lap after a spritely start from Felipe Massa, but eventually succumbed to a combination of KERS problems and Alonso's pace on the soft tyre. His gearbox would prevent him from challenging the Spaniard later in the race. 'I think we should have [been able to score a Red Bull one-two], but in the end we didn't,' conceded Webber. The fight between the two culminated in the final pit stop, which saw Webber gamble on an early switch to the prime compound. His pace on the opening few laps saw Alonso maintain his place after his stop, while a gearbox fault saw any chance of a fight back neutralised. 'It was my fault to miss second today. It was not really known how the medium tyre would perform on the out lap. '[But] I think it was my best race of the year, to be honest.'

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AUDI ON POLE AS ALENCON LOCAL WEAVES HIS MAGIC

Friday, June 10, 2011

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AUDI ON POLE AS ALENCON LOCAL WEAVES HIS MAGIC

Audi will start this weekend's Le Mans 24 hour race from pole with local driver Benoit Treluyer setting the quickest time in an exciting final qualifying session. Treluyer, from the town of Alencon, 50 minutes north of the track, took advantage of a relatively clear track to record a time of 3m25.799s to take the coveted pole. "I am very happy. I just really realise now that it is just fantastic for me." he said/ "I was born so close to here and the 24 Hours is such a challenge and I was not even thinking about the pole position and then I did and it is just fantastic." Alongside Treluyer on the front row will be his team mate Romain Dumas who held out the Peugeot of Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais and Pedro Lamy. "The car was quick" said Dumas, "but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a perfect lap. The first row for Audi - that is very nice and shows clearly that we are competitive. We were fast with new tires and old tires and that is a good sign for the race." Pagenaud looked set to challenge for the pole but traffic held him up on for several laps and he was forced to settle for third place. Wednesday's provisional pole winner Stephane Sarrazin was also hampered by traffic and could only manage fourth for and all Peugeot second row. Dindo Cappello, Alan McNish and seven time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen were next in their Audi R18 alongside the Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and Anthony Davidson Peugeot.

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FORD SUES FERRARI OVER NEW F1 CAR

Friday, February 11, 2011

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FORD SUES FERRARI OVER NEW F1 CAR

In  one of the silliest lawsuits of its kind, Ford is suing Ferrari over the name of its new F1 racer the F150. The Formula One car was named to commemorate this year's celebration of the unification of Italy 150 years ago. The US car maker is claiming that the F150 moniker is too close to its F-150 pick-up truck. According to the law suit Ford claims that Ferrari is using the F150 name “in order to capitalise on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed in the F-150 trademark, and in order to trade off of Ford's famous and winning trademark,” While Ford are not willing to comment publicly Ferrari are stunned. We are simply speechless," a Ferrari spokesman told Automotive News Europe in response to the lawsuit. He noted that the F150 is a racing-only Ferrari model, which is not for sale, either for private customers, or for racing teams.

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FERRARI DEBUT 2011 F1 CHALLENGER

Friday, January 28, 2011

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Ferrari have released the first pictures of it's 2011 Formula One challenger. The F150 is the fifty-seventh single-seater built by Ferrari specifically to compete in the Formula 1 World Championship. The company chose the name as a tribute and celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy. The project, which goes by the internal code name of 662, represents the Scuderia’s interpretation of the technical and sporting regulations that apply this year. Various factors influenced the design of the car, especially on the aerodynamic front, to the extent that the F150 can be seen as severing ties with the recent past. The innovative aspects are in part dictated by changes to the regulations and partly down to original thinking from our designers. As far as the rule changes from 2010 are concerned, the double diffuser and the blown rear wing are banned, as is the use of apertures in the front part of the floor, while the use of an hydraulically controlled adjustable rear wing has been introduced. After an unofficial agreement saw its use banned for 2010, KERS is back this year, thanks partly to the increase in the car’s minimum weight and stricter controls on weight distribution figures. The Scuderia has decided to incorporate this technology on the F150 and this has had a significant impact on the design, also taking into account that the dimensions of the fuel cell are very different to what they were in 2009.

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BMW WINS SIXTH DUBAI 24 HOURS

Sunday, January 16, 2011

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DUBAI (January 15th, 2011) The Need for Speed-Schubert team from Oschersleben, Germany has won the sixth running of the Dunlop 24H of Dubai, the first international endurance race of the year for GTs, touring cars and 24H specials. After 24 hours of racing at the 5.390 kilometres long Dubai Autodrome, Claudia Hürtgen drove the car across the finish line. The team had with Hürtgen, Augusto Farfus, Edward Sandström and Tommy Milner racked up a total of 594 laps with the BMW Z4 GT3. This success makes BMW the most successful car brand in history of the Dunlop 24H of Dubai with a total of three race wins following earlier successes in 2006 and 2007. Second place in this year’s race was taken by the Italian AF Corse team with Eppe Perazzini, Michal Broniszewski, Lorenzo Case and Marco Cioci driving the Ferrari F430 GT2. The Black Falcon team with Thomas Jäger, Kenneth Heyer, Jan Seyffarth and Sean Paul Breslin ended up third with their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

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FORTITUDE VALLEY GETS SPEED, STYLE & BEAUTY

Friday, December 24, 2010

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FORTITUDE VALLEY GETS SPEED, STYLE & BEAUTY

Some of the world’s most fascinating and desirable cars, from a 1909 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost to a 2003 model Ford GT will come together in Brisbane for the third annual SPEED+STYLE+BEAUTY staged from 12-16 January in the old Metro Ford complex in Fortitude Valley. The 40 special vehicles in the show represent “a celebration of wheels” [...]

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WEBBER FACES HIS TOUGHEST OPPONENT: HIS OWN TEAM

Saturday, November 6, 2010

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WEBBER FACES HIS TOUGHEST OPPONENT: HIS OWN TEAM

As Mark Webber goes into this weekend's penultimate round of the World Championship his chances of taking his first ever title are looking increasingly slim. After a mistake in the wet at Korea Webber now sits behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and just in front of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel is in fourth but Red Bull team bosses are still hopeful the young German can leapfrog his team mate and challenge Alonso at the final round at Abu Dhabi. Should Webber get up to win the championship it will be one of the gutsiest titles ever. Not only does the Australian face the usual challenges of F1, but also the added burden of a team that would rather lose the championship than see Webber on top. From the time of their coming together earlier this year to his comments this week, it is clear that forces at the top at Red Bull have little time for the straight shooting Aussie, and would rather see Alonso take the title than their man Webber. One Red Bull insider has said that the feeling inside the team is not good. "Our side of the garage are 100% behind Mark" he said. "But the guys at the top, they want Vettel to win more than anything. If he can't win I think they would rather see Alonso win"

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PEUGEOT SET THE PACE AT PETITE PRACTICE

Thursday, September 30, 2010

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PEUGEOT SET THE PACE AT PETITE PRACTICE

Peugeot has set the early pace for this weekend's running of the Petite Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the second round of the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup Frank Montagny set the fastest lap in Wednesday’s first official with a 1:07.652 (217.5026 kph) in the Peugeot 908 HDi that he will share with Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy. The first of the Audis – driven by Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer – set a time of 1:08.717 and was less than a half-second better than the sister car of Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. The second Peugeot of Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene – the winners at Sebring in March – were fourth just ahead of Intersport Racing’s Lola-AER of Clint Field and Jon Field. In LMP2, Muscle Milk Team CytoSport’s Sascha Maassen set the pace with a lap of 1:10.947 in the Porsche RS Spyder he is driving with Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf. The Muscle Milk squad enters the weekend still alive in the American Le Mans Series’ LMP championship. However it needs to have Patrón Highcroft Racing finish less than 70 percent of the race Saturday.

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AUDI STRIKE BACK WITH SILVERSTONE POLE

Sunday, September 12, 2010

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AUDI STRIKE BACK WITH SILVERSTONE POLE

Audi have struck back as popular Scottish driver Alan McNish takes pole for the Autosport 1000 kms at Silverstone, first round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Both Audi R15+ TDI cars will start into the 1000-kilometre race at Silverstone (Great Britain) from the front row. McNish and his Joest Racing Audi team again showed their tactical superiority over arch rivals Peugeot, timing their run at pole perfectly to take full advantage of the best conditions in Saturday's Qualifying session. “The car had a good balance and the engineers know the track well, except the new part. What can I say? That I am very happy to be on pole!” said McNish. Fellow Audi driver Timo Bernhard will start alongside McNish with the best of the Peugeots, the car of Nicolas Minassian and local hero Anthony Davidson next, over a second of the pole time. "My car was quick through the fast corners, but I lacked a little grip and suffered from understeer through the tighter turns. I span at the start of my first flying lap. My tyres didn't suffer, but then I found myself in traffic. The balance of the car isn't at all bad, though, and I am confident for the race," Minassian said.

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