TOYOTA RETURN TO TESTING AS AUDI DEBUT AT SPA

Although they won't be at Spa for round two of the World Endurance Championship the Toyota TS030 hybrid will be a the track this weekend. The team will complete a functionality test of its new chassis at the Magny-Cours circuit in France. Following the accident at Paul Ricard on 4 April, which damaged the monocoque of the first TS030, the team has worked hard to accelerate production of a second car. This will be completed directly before transportation to the one-day functionality test. A total of seven test days were cancelled in April as a result of the testing accident, giving the team no opportunity to validate the aerodynamic and hybrid system specifications intended for its first race. So the team had no choice but to miss the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps event, which takes place on 3-5 May. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “I would like to express my thanks to the staff members at Toyota Motorsport GmbH who have worked so hard to deliver our second monocoque ahead of schedule. Now we have a very intense testing programme to prepare for Le Mans, beginning with an initial functionality test to shakedown our systems.”

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.

FIA GT1 & EUROPEAN GT3 LIVE FROM NOGARO

It’s the opening round of the FIA GT1 and European GT3 championships. Watch the action LIVE from Nogaro in France.

THE SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF SEBRING

AUDI SAYS GOODBYE TO ONE ERA, READY FOR ANOTHER

Audi said farewell to their first generation Audi R18+ dominating the opening round of the new World Endurance Championship with a comfortable one, two finish at the Sebring 12 hour race in Florida. The experienced team of Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the Audi R18 diesel took the win to give  Kristensen a record six wins at Sebring. Co-Driver McNish registered his fourth win with Cappello now stands between them on five victories. A sister Audi R18 diesel of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Loic Duval finished a strong second albeit four laps behind the winners. Third place and the first of the petrol powered cars was the P2 HPD ARX-03b of Starworks Motorsports. Driven by ex Peugeot works driver Stephane Sarrazin, Vicente Polotlicchio and Ryan Dalziel. The trio played the fuel economy game and won although Sarrazin admitted that he was running desperately low on fuel at the finish.

NISSAN GIVES YOU DELTAWINGS

DELTAWING POWERED BY NISSAN

Nissan have announced their involvement in the revolutionary DeltaWing project for this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race. The car, which is half the weight and has half the aerodynamic drag of a conventional racer, will be powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Nissan now joins the existing group of core partners - US-domiciled British designer Ben [...]

TOYOTA TESTS TERRIFIC TS030

TOYOTA Racing has completed a successful first full test of the new TS030 HYBRID car which will compete in the LMP1 category in selected races of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team spent three days at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France for the first full test of the TS030 HYBRID, following a three-day roll-out at the same circuit earlier this month. Using the a configuration of the track which includes the complete Mistral Straight, all three race drivers - Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima - had the opportunity to test the new car, which features the THS-R (TOYOTA HYBRID System - Racing) power-train. The test programme built on the positive work already achieved during the TS030 HYBRID’s roll-out, when systems checks and basic set-up analysis was carried out.

BOWE TESTS BATHURST BEAST

Australian Touring Car Legend John Bowe has had his first taste of the Ferrari power he hopes will take him to victory in the upcoming Bathurst 12 hour race. Bowe took to the wheel of the Il Bello Rosso 458 GT3 at the Phillip Island circuit in warm and fine conditions, the multiple Aussie Champ delighted at what he'd seen so far. “It’s incredibly impressive, with massive amount of grip compared to the Mustang so really, it’s like ‘wow’!" he said. Bowe, who has previously raced an early model Ferrari in the days of The Nations Cup, said that there was considerable difference between the Italian supercars then and now. “The 458 has a much nicer gear change than the previous Ferrari, a nicer brake feel, and it’s got a lot more gizmos to work around, and so far I’ve only done a very limited amount which lends to a lot more to come."

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.