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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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Motorsports Mondial - May 1, 2012

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f1weekly @ 8:52 AM

 

FRENCH F4 CHAMPIONSHIP 2012 A GREAT START TO THE SEASON FOR SIMON GACHET

Serious business got underway last weekend on the Ledenon circuit with the first challenge of the French F4 Championship. After some very good winter trials, which saw him constantly holding his own in the lead positions, Simon Gachet is one of the favourites.

He held his rank from the first practice where the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2011 put himself forward when he made the second best time of the session. A performance he confirmed when he did it again with the second best time in the qualifiers: 0,010 seconds behind the first, raising high hopes for many victories!

From the start of race 1, Simon Gachet grabbed first place and kept it until the half mark of the race when he unfortunately span out. Back in fourth position, the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” was determined to climb back but a small collision two laps later forced him to retire.

Avid fan of Fernando Alonso, Simon Gachet was not going to give up because he knows he has what it takes to climb onto the podium for race 2. That’s exactly what he does crossing the line in second place of a race he had livened up throughout, just ahead of Victor SENDIN, the brilliant finalist of the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2011.

The outcome of the weekend in Nimes was very positive overall even though his abandon in the first race left him with a few regrets.

Simon Gachet: “I am happy with my meeting as far as the level of performance is concerned but I am disappointed that I did a 360° in the first race when I was in the lead, I lost some big points. I got the situation back under control in race 2 and that’s the most important part because I know now that I can fight for the championship and I will do all in my power to confirm that in the next race. I am really happy to be a part of the AUTOSPORT ACADEMY because I know I am going to learn a lot.”

Laurent Fradon, the director of the EUROFORMULA School, is also satisfied: “Simon has always been in the front ranks and has shown his skill at speed. His slip up in the first race is one of those normal things but he livened up both races of this meeting and we are very happy with his performance. Simon also showed he has the mental strength, he has proven that he should be among the big favourites of the French F4 2012.”

The date for the next challenge of the French F4 championship which will take place on the urban circuit of Pau is for the 12 and 13 May. Simon Gachet’s aggressive style should allow him to get into the fight for first place!


Motorsports Mondial - April 30, 2012

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f1weekly @ 9:39 AM

Photo: btccmedia

WINS FOR JACKSON & SHEDDEN AT WET & WILD THRUXTON AS PLATO HOLDS ON TO POINTS LEAD

Warwickshire’s Mat Jackson and Fife’s Gordon Shedden, the latter with a victory double, shared the wins in today’s three rain-soaked Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the high-speed Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.

Oxford’s Jason Plato continues to lead the points table but only just from new second-placed man Shedden as Britain’s premier motor racing championship now heads to the spectacular Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire for its next three races on the weekend of 9/10 June.

Staffordshire’s Andrew Jordan had headed Saturday’s qualifying session to line up on pole position for the first of today’s races. But it all went wrong for the Pirtek Racing driver at the first bend as his Honda Civic tangled with Plato’s MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 and crashed.

This left the way clear for Jackson to reel off his second win of the season in his Redstone Racing Ford Focus ahead of Inverness’s Dave Newsham in his Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra and Plato. Newsham’s second place was the best of his career so far. Having started from lowly 18th and 19th spots after a disastrous qualifying session, Shedden and team-mate Matt Neal, the reigning Champion, were sixth and tenth.

Shedden was unstoppable in race two as he quickly made up positions to pass Jackson for the lead and a comfortable win. Plato took second ahead of Jackson in third. Neal was fifth. In race three Shedden and Neal then simply romped clear of the opposition to give Honda a dream 1-2 result. Third, adding to earlier fifth and fourth place results, was the impressive Frank Wrathall in his Dynojet Toyota Avensis. Plato was fourth.

As a result, Plato leaves Thruxton holding a four-point lead from the charging Shedden. Next up are Neal, Jackson and Hampshire’s Robert Collard who, on his home track, took a fourth and two seventh places today in his eBay Motors BMW.

Plato enthused: “We’ve had zero running in the wet before with the MG so to take away a big points haul on a rainy day is very pleasing. We’ve got a big test programme planned between now and Oulton which should really enable us to make big gains with the car.”

Dalgety Bay’s Shedden, who also set the fastest lap in all three races at Thruxton, added: “Two wins at Donington a fortnight ago and another two wins today… it’s been a mega weekend, even if qualifying didn’t go our way. The Civic’s chassis really came into its own today in the wet and round the fast corners but it’s still early days.”

And commented Droitwich Spa’s Neal: “It’s been a bit of a scruffy day for me so to get on the podium in the third race was a good way to finish – and of course it’s another great result for Honda. The main thing is I’ve come away still in the hunt but it’s extremely competitive out there.”

Jackson, from Henley in Arden, said: “The conditions today haven’t been ideal for the Focus which runs a slightly smaller tyre compared to the Honda and MG so I’m delighted by what we’ve achieved today. It’s all about consistent scoring and not letting the others escape at this stage.”

Meanwhile, Honda/Dynamics and the Honda Yuasa Racing Team have extended their respective leads in the Manufacturers/Constructors and HiQ Teams championships respectively. Jackson and Redstone Racing have taken over at the top of the Independent Drivers and Teams standings.

Elsewhere, two drivers were today penalised for on-track incidents. Redstone Racing’s Liam Griffin was handed a time penalty in race three which relegated him from 11th to 12th place while team-mate Aron Smith was officially reprimanded and had two penalty points added to his competition licence for an incident in the previous round at Donington Park.


Motorsports Mondial - April 29, 2012

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f1weekly @ 9:47 AM

Photo: f3euroseries

Third Hockenheim success for Prema Powerteam

In the third race of the Formula 3 Euro Series at the 4.574 kilometres long Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, that counts towards the newly-founded FIA Formula 3 European Championship, just like the first race, a Prema Powerteam driver claimed victory. Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) crossed the finish line in first place, followed by Carlos Sainz (Carlin) and Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport). After the first Formula 3 Euro Series race weekend, that was also attended by FIA president Jean Todt as a guest, Juncadella is first in the drivers’ standings.

Carlos Sainz wasn’t able to convert his pole position into the race lead, he had to let Daniel Juncadella and Felix Rosenqvist pull away. Once in the lead, the Prema driver immediately pulled clear from the rest of the field while Sainz initially had to make his way past Rosenqvist, who was second after the start. After that, Juncadella’s lead was already too big for Sainz to jeopardize the second victory of the weekend for his compatriot.

Guest driver Alex Lynn (Fortec Motorsport) claimed fourth place ahead of the best-placed rookie Sven Müller (Prema Powerteam) and William Buller (Carlin).

Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam): “Apart from the second race, the weekend could hardly have been better, I am really happy. I was particularly quick in the early stage of the race and I was able to pull a nice gap over Carlos. Eventually, I had some problems with traction and Carlos closed up again.”

Carlos Sainz (Carlin): “Generally, I hadn’t expected that we would be this good over here, because compared to most of the other teams, we don’t have a lot of experience with the Hankook tyres. Unfortunately, I had problems at the start again. Now, we have to investigate what the reason for that was.”

Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport): “Like all weekend, I wasn’t able to match the pace that Daniel and Carlos had. Third place was the maximum for me. In spite of the problems, I was on the podium in all the races and I have scored many points. Given these circumstances, I can be happy with that.


Motorsports Mondial - April 28, 2012

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f1weekly @ 9:01 AM

Photo: gp2media

Dillmann defeats Razia to take maiden GP2 win

Rapax rookie victorious in Sprint Race at the Bahrain International Circuit

Victory never tasted so good for Tom Dillmann: the French rookie took a lights-to-flags win in today’s Sprint Race after having to hold off a charging Luiz Razia in the final laps. He took the chequered flag 0.1s ahead of the Arden man and thus pocketed his first ever GP2 win.

When the lights went off, polesitter Dillmann had to defend his position at Turn 1 to keep the lead ahead of Marcus Ericsson. Further down the pack, Esteban Gutierrez and Felipe Nasr took a blazing start. The Mexican entered Turn 1 from the inside slightly came together with Giedo van der Garde. The Dutchman spun but was able to rejoin safely. By then, Razia had made his way to P3 from fifth on the grid.

At the front, Dillmann started to pull away from Ericsson who was himself busy with trying to keep Razia at bay, but the Brazilian prove to be too strong a rival for the Swede today and overtook him to take P2. A lap later, the iSport man’s race went from bad to worse when Rio Haryanto passed him for P3. Series leader Davide Valsecchi was next on the list of Ericsson’s torturers, but their battle was interrupted when Gutierrez attacked Valsecchi and passed him at Turn 1.

Dillmann was 4.2s ahead of Razia by then. Gutierrez continued to slice through the field when he overtook Ericsson and then targeted Haryanto. The Indonesian defended well his position but had to surrender a lap later. Behind this pair, Valsecchi passed Ericsson who later was also overtaken by Nasr. Haryanto could not resist for too long when Valsecchi started to put pressure on him. The Italian closed in on Gutierrez for P3 and he was soon close enough to make a move on the Mexican. If the first two attempts did not work, the third one stuck and Valsecchi was back on the podium.

Meanwhile, the race leader had managed to build up a gap of 5.5s to Razia, but the Brazilian started to pick up the pace and what was a comfortable cushion between the two men slowly but surely disappeared. Dillmann lost four seconds over two laps and with three laps to go, Razia had reduced the gap to 0.9s. The Arden man started to try and find a way past the Rapax rookie who defended his position the best he could although he seemed to be struggling on his tyres. Razia came even closer and attacked the Frenchman from all parts, but he made a small mistake on a curb which gave Dillmann a tiny room to breathe. On the final lap, Razia was back in Dillmann’s mirrors and pushed hard to find a way past, but the Frenchman made no mistakes and crossed the finish line with the smallest of margins.

Behind the leading duo, Valsecchi took another podium finish in third ahead of Gutierrez. In the final corners, Nasr took P5 from Haryanto. Ericsson and Fabio Leimer pocketed the final points. Valsecchi is now more than ever the clear leader of the Series with 107 points after a fabulous Bahraini campaign, 24 points in front of Razia. Gutierrez is third with 54 points, nine points ahead of Max Chilton. Leimer lies in fifth place with 41 points.

The fourth round of the 2012 GP2 Series season will take place in Barcelona, Spain in two weeks alongside the Formula One Grand Prix.


Motorsports Mondial - April 27, 2012

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f1weekly @ 6:24 PM

 

Despite an early contact, Esteban reaches a point in Bahrain

After a difficult qualifying session, Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez finished 10th in the Feature race of the GP2 Series´ round 3, which took place at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Gutierrez started from 13th on the grid, but a contact at the start of the race damaged his front wing, making him fall down to place 21 and forcing him to make his mandatory pit stop earlier than planned.

“It was a difficult day because there was a lot of traffic in qualifying, and in a category as competitive as this is, a small problem can have a big effect on your performance, we knew we were not as bad as it looked but that obviously was not the result we were looking for.

“During the race we were trying to gain a few positions, from the start and with a good strategy, which was really working for us and we were happy with the balance of the car and with every other aspect really”, expressed the driver.

Team Lotus GP quickly replaced the damaged front wing and Esteban rejoined the race and started gaining positions to eventually finish 11th, however, the Mexican moved up one more place to finish 10th after DAMS driver Felipe Nasr was penalized for disobeying a yellow flag; he had finished 7th but fell down to 11th after the penalty.

“A contact on the first corner greatly affected us as I did five laps with the damaged wing and had to stop to change it, taking more time than usual, and with that I lost several places.

“We finished eleventh and I just learned that some drivers were penalized and that we are officially tenth, reaching the final point. In the end, this is not the way we want to earn points but at least we are still gaining points and that has a value to us”, he added.

Esteban remains third in the standings with 46 points. Davide Valsecchi won the race and is first with 97 points, followed by Luiz Razia, with 69.

“There are a few positives; I am happy with the balance of the car and the tire performance as compared to last weekend and that is something really good; maybe this day was far from ideal but I think we must have the ability to accept things and just move on because it is a long season”, he said.

Lotus GP driver will be looking to climb up the field during the Sprint race that is scheduled for this Saturday at the same circuit in Bahrain.

“Our objective is to reach the points, there is not much of a strategy, we basically have to start and finish the race, trying to do a good start and avoid contacts in the first corners.

“We have a good car to try and gain positions in the final laps, thus reaching the points paying zone”, he concluded.


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