Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/08/30/2304294/atlantas-ed-clark-fast-starts.html
Ron Hackett Gerhard Haeberle Bernard Haenggeli Philipp Hafeneger Kensuke Haga Noriyuki Haga
On the 14th of April, at the Goanna tracks in Coonabarrabran during practice for Round 2 of the Monster Energy Motocross nationals, Ben Townley sustained a severe fracture of the hip which left his US ride with Two Two Motorsports in tatters and his career at a crossroads. Since that incident we have followed Ben's progress from his surgery to rehab and now to his incredible return to the bike in Auckland, New Zealand, BT101 is back ...
Courtesy JPI Pty Ltd
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Source: http://www.supercross.com/news/former-world-mx-champ-ben-townley-back-in-action
Fumio Ito Shinichi Itoh Bill Ivy Olivier Jacque Sid Jensen Mika Kallio
First, from MX Sports: Championship Battles Take Form at Day Three of Racing at Loretta Lynn's
The second set of motos came to a close at the 2012 Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship presented by Amsoil. Thursday's race action was at an all-time high as the anticipation level continues to grow with each and every moto that gets recorded into the history book. The third and final set of motos begin Friday morning and twenty-two racers will become National champions before Saturday's grand finale at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.
Adam Cianciarulo was heavily favored to take home dual championships this year, and so far he's shown nothing less than domination in the highly competitive Super Mini classes. Cianciarulo kicked off Day 3 with yet another win in Super Mini 1, gapping the second place of Andrew Pierce by nearly 30 seconds in Moto 2. Provided that Cianciarulo executes a smooth Moto 3, the battle for the remaining two podium positions will perhaps be some of the most exciting racing of the week. Pierce currently holds a 3-2 score in the Super Mini 1 class, but Kawasaki teammates Mark Worth and Mitchell Harrison are also going to be big players heading into Friday's class finale.
Gary Haslam Leon Haslam Ron Haslam Bjorn Hasli Yasumasa Hatakeyama Mike Hawthorne
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/LbGbet6O6vt/Crutchlow+Dovizioso+finish+1+2+Brno+MotoGP
Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella M·rio de Ara˙jo Cabral
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/cAYs12dkjkA/MotoGP+Pedrosa+Honda+Score+Thrilling+Victory
Neil Hodgson Hernan Holder Francis Hollebecq Toshihiko Honma John Hopkins Karl Hoppe
Filed under: Car Buying, Sedan, Toyota
Continue reading Toyota announces new four-cylinder Camry SE Sport
Toyota announces new four-cylinder Camry SE Sport originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/31/toyota-announces-new-four-cylinder-camry-se-sport/
Daijiro Kato Ken Kavanagh John Kocinski Pentti Korhonen Tomoyoshi Koyama Ewald Kluge
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/LbGbet6O6vt/Crutchlow+Dovizioso+finish+1+2+Brno+MotoGP
Antonio Cairoli Trey Canard HÂkan Carlquist Ricky†Carmichael Danny Chandler Eric Cheney
Steven Frossard Eric Geboers Sylvain Geboers Broc Glover Rui Goncalves Josh Grant
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/TRDpHog42ql/Positive+test+Pedrosa+learning+day+Rea
Jimmy Ellis Jeff Emig Harry Everts Stefan Everts Jaroslav Falta Claudio Federici
Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/rp4eD7Unw3U/smart-fortwo-mule-spied
Claudio Federici Tim Ferry Ashley Fiolek Ernesto Fonseca Lauris Freibergs Paul Friedrichs
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/AzH8BFUbRy1/Testing+Misano+Rossi+No+Experience+New+Machine
Ryan Dungey Vic Eastwood Daryl Ecklund Erik Eggens Richard Eierstedt Jimmy Ellis
Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr
Filed under: Budget, Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Crossover, Hatchback, Kia
Continue reading Kia Hamsters return for party at the opera
Kia Hamsters return for party at the opera originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Daryl Ecklund Erik Eggens Richard Eierstedt Jimmy Ellis Jeff Emig Harry Everts
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/FF1V3XtSRXL/Marquez+wins+tense+four+way+tussle+take+sixth
Cody Copper Gordon Crockard Craig Dack Roger De Coster Ken De Dycker Yves Demaria
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/PoizsVLws3F/De+Puniet+Back+Qualify+Top+CRT
Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol
Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Porsche
Continue reading Next 911 GT3 caught on video with PDK transmission
Next 911 GT3 caught on video with PDK transmission originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Paul Cooper Josh Coppins Cody Copper Gordon Crockard Craig Dack Roger De Coster
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/nbeVtpVIDSg/Zarco+finishes+seventh+exciting+Czech+Republic
Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello
Lewis Hamilton's future was the subject of fevered discussion at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend as the driver market 'silly season' began in earnest.
Hamilton is out of contract with McLaren at the end of this season and, at 27, his career is at a crossroads, with arguably the most important decision of his life looming.
Hamilton is heading into his prime as a grand prix driver. With good reason, he regards himself as the fastest in the world and it pains him that he has won only one world title so far.
That came in 2008 and it has not escaped Hamilton's attention that since then, at least until the start of this year, McLaren had not provided him with a car that was truly competitive enough.
This season started promisingly, with McLaren locking out the front row at the first two races and Hamilton on pole in both. But since then their form has dipped, particularly in the last three races.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the Monaco GP, behind Sebastian Vettel who was fourth. Photo: Getty
Hamilton is still very much in the title race, but he left no-one under any illusions about his feelings after his fifth place in Monaco on Sunday.
It used to be the case that discussions about drivers' futures did not start until July and August. No longer. Teams and drivers will say publicly that it is far too early to discuss it. What they mean is that it is too early to talk about it to the media; behind the scenes a lot is going on.
Hamilton's future is tied up with that of Red Bull's Mark Webber and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher and also, to some extent, Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
It is widely believed that all four top teams are interested in Hamilton - at least to the point of holding talks with his management.
McLaren definitely want to keep him and have made that clear to both Hamilton himself and his management team - but no substantive negotiations have taken place and no financial offers made yet, despite reports to the contrary. Mercedes are known to have him seriously on their radar as a potential replacement for Schumacher. The picture at Ferrari and Red Bull is slightly less clear.
There was a rumour going around in Monaco that Ferrari were keen on signing Hamilton for next season in place of Felipe Massa, whose time at the team is expected to end this season.
That seems unlikely for one obvious reason - Fernando Alonso is contracted to Ferrari until the end of 2016. There is huge mutual respect between the two - each regards the other as their biggest rival - but that's very different from wanting to be team-mates again.
When they were at McLaren in Hamilton's debut year in 2007, it did not go well, to put it mildly, and Alonso ended up leaving at the end of the season - just one year into what had been a three-year contract.
Alonso's problem was far more with McLaren boss Ron Dennis than it was with Hamilton. Nevertheless, it is unlikely he would want Hamilton to be his team-mate again - and Ferrari is very much his team these days.
Equally, Hamilton would have to think carefully about moving to a team where he does not speak the language - even if the debriefs are conducted in English and there is an English ex-McLaren technical director - and where a man as clever, cunning and political as Alonso has been ensconced for three years.
Nevertheless, Hamilton would be highly attractive to Ferrari's main sponsors, the cigarette company Philip Morris and Spanish bank Santander, who could drop McLaren if they had an English driver at Ferrari. Together, they could basically afford to pay him whatever he wanted.
The problem with this is that a normally impeccable source close to Ferrari says the team only want a one-year driver in 2013, as they have a pre-contract with Vettel for 2014.
This pre-contract, the source says, is two-way - ie, either party can exercise it - and is performance-related. Ferrari need to be at least third in the constructors' championship at a specific stage of next season to bring it into effect.
However, a senior Red Bull insider says this is "nonsense", that they have Vettel under contract to the end of 2014.
The favourite for the expected vacancy at Ferrari is Webber, who is coming towards the end of his career and may well be interested in a year or two at Ferrari to finish it off.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner asked rhetorically in Monaco: "Why would he want to leave?" But there are several potential reasons.
It would vastly increase Webber's post-F1 earnings potential and he would relish the chance to test himself against Alonso, a friend whom Webber regards as the best driver in the world.
Webber would not expect to beat him - in fact, he would almost certainly have to go to Ferrari on the understanding that Alonso was number one - but he would enjoy ruffling the Spaniard's feathers from time to time, as he almost certainly would.
If Webber were to leave Red Bull, that would leave a vacancy Hamilton could potentially fill.
Horner has always sounded lukewarm about taking on Hamilton, pointing out that it would raise the tension in the team as he and Vettel went toe to toe.
But ultimately it's not his decision - it's that of Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, and the marketing value of pitting Hamilton against Vettel would be enormous.
And if Webber did leave, who else would Red Bull get? Even if Vettel is under a firm contract to the end of 2014, that's still only two years away - at which point they would still need a guaranteed top-line driver if he left.
Theoretically, Red Bull are committed to progressing their junior drivers, but Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne do not look ready for that sort of promotion yet.
Then there is Mercedes, whose decision is complicated by Schumacher.
Team boss Ross Brawn said in Monaco that he would like the seven-time champion to stay on as long as he is competitive, but there have been internal questions about whether - and how long - he will remain so.
Schumacher's commercial value to Mercedes is huge. But they have to ask themselves whether they are potentially harming their competitive position with their driver line-up - few in F1 would argue they would not improve it by recruiting Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel, who is also of long-term interest to the team.
Hamilton's decision is not just about driving, either. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes would all almost certainly be able to pay him more than McLaren can afford to offer. And McLaren's portfolio of sponsors makes it almost impossible for Hamilton's team at Simon Fuller's XIX Management to raise money from private deals.
Ultimately, though, Hamilton will surely base his decision on competitiveness.
The best way to guarantee that in the last 20 years has been to drive wherever Adrian Newey is designer, which is Red Bull. Or does Hamilton bank on Mercedes continuing to raise their competitiveness (and, for that matter, staying in F1, which is far from a foregone conclusion at the moment)? Or take a risk on joining Alonso at Ferrari, should a seat be available?
Or does he stick with what he knows and trust the team with which he has been associated since he was 11-years-old to finally get it right, but potentially reduce his earnings potential?
Hamilton has some tough decisions to make in the next few weeks.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/05/will_hamilton_stay_at_mclaren.html
Antonio Cairoli Trey Canard HÂkan Carlquist Ricky†Carmichael Danny Chandler Eric Cheney
First, from MX Sports: Championship Battles Take Form at Day Three of Racing at Loretta Lynn's
The second set of motos came to a close at the 2012 Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship presented by Amsoil. Thursday's race action was at an all-time high as the anticipation level continues to grow with each and every moto that gets recorded into the history book. The third and final set of motos begin Friday morning and twenty-two racers will become National champions before Saturday's grand finale at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.
Adam Cianciarulo was heavily favored to take home dual championships this year, and so far he's shown nothing less than domination in the highly competitive Super Mini classes. Cianciarulo kicked off Day 3 with yet another win in Super Mini 1, gapping the second place of Andrew Pierce by nearly 30 seconds in Moto 2. Provided that Cianciarulo executes a smooth Moto 3, the battle for the remaining two podium positions will perhaps be some of the most exciting racing of the week. Pierce currently holds a 3-2 score in the Super Mini 1 class, but Kawasaki teammates Mark Worth and Mitchell Harrison are also going to be big players heading into Friday's class finale.
Bill Aston Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey
This Formula 1 season has so far been a perfect storm of unpredictable results, thrilling races and a closely fought title battle.
Who would have predicted that a man who has not once had the fastest car would be leading the world championship as it neared its halfway stage?
Yet Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari started the campaign more than a second off the pace, goes into this weekend's British Grand Prix with a 20-point lead.
Who would have predicted that the defending world champion, who took 15 pole positions in 19 races last year, would fail to get into the top 10 qualifying shoot-out?
Formula 1 teams will have the opportunity to test a new hard tyre compound that Pirelli are developing for the future during the practice sessions of the British Grand Prix. Photo: Getty
Yet that is exactly what happened to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in China - and very nearly again in Monaco.
Who would have predicted that last year's runner-up, a man who is renowned for his delicacy with tyres, would struggle for pace in a season in which the fragile Pirellis are the defining characteristic? Yet there is Jenson Button having a terrible time in the McLaren.
Who would have predicted that a driver who owes his place to sponsorship money and who was previously known best for inconsistency and mistakes would win a race? Williams's Pastor Maldonado did exactly that in Spain.
Or that it would take until the eighth grand prix for the season to have its first repeat winner? Step forward Alonso again.
F1 has been maligned for years as being boring and predictable - overtaking, people said, was too hard and working out who was going to win too easy.
No longer. There has been so much action in the eight races so far this season that you almost don't know where to look.
There are concerns that F1 has now gone too far the other way, that it is too unpredictable, that too much of a random element has been introduced by the fast-wearing, hard-to-operate Pirelli tyres that are at the root of this new direction.
In essence, the fear is that F1 has been turned from an exercise in precision engineering into a lottery.
And there is unease in certain quarters that the drivers are always having to race "within themselves", with tyre life their biggest concern.
Yet through the fog of uncertainty and apparent haphazardness, a pattern has emerged.
As the competitive edge swung wildly from one team to another in the opening races, it was revealing that the positions at the top of the championship were very quickly occupied by the best drivers - Alonso, Vettel, his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber and McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Button.
The list of different winners continued, until Alonso's spectacular win in Valencia last time out, but through it all the big hitters continued to be the ones who scored most consistently.
Despite that, there has undoubtedly been a welcome element of unpredictability, and the top teams have not had it their own way.
So while Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus - the teams who have won every world title for the last 15 years - have all figured at the front, Williams and Sauber have also been up there mixing it with them. As, on occasion, have Force India.
This is partly to do with the tyres. This year's Pirellis have been deliberately designed with an unusually narrow operating-temperature window. Getting - and keeping - them there is far from easy, and the big teams do not have exclusivity on clever engineers.
The unusually great importance of the tyres has so far lessened the effect of aerodynamics - for so long the determining factor in F1.
Just as importantly, the regulations have now been pretty stable for the last four years. When that happens the field always tends to close up. Both Sauber and Williams have serious engineering resources of their own, and have clearly built very good cars.
Through all of this, one man has stood out above all others.
Alonso has long been considered within F1 as the greatest all-round talent, and this year the Spaniard has driven with a blend of precision, aggression, opportunism, consistency and pace that is close to perfection.
He has taken two stunning wins and scored consistently elsewhere. In fact, had Ferrari's strategy brains been a little sharper, he may have had four victories by now - that's half the races. And all without anything close to the best car.
Of the two wins he has taken, Alonso himself rates the wet race in Malaysia as the better.
For me, though, the one in Valencia shades it, for the skill and determination he showed in battling up to second place from 11th on the grid before Vettel's retirement from the lead handed him the win.
Some of the overtaking moves Alonso pulled on the way to that win were utterly breathtaking in their audacity, the way he balanced risk and reward and made it pay off.
Hamilton's season has been almost as good, but he has been let down by a number of operational errors from McLaren, ranging from bungled pit stops to refuelling errors in qualifying. He now faces an uphill battle to get back on terms with his old rival.
Alonso has long regarded Hamilton as the man he fears most in this title battle, but one wonders if he might change his mind following Valencia.
After two years of domination, Red Bull have stumbled a little this year. Yet operationally they have still been the best team and their car has always been among the strongest on race day.
After a difficult first three races, either Vettel or Webber have now been on pole for four of the last five.
Before retiring with alternator failure in Valencia the German put in a performance as crushing as any in his title-winning years (2010 and 2011), thanks to a major aerodynamic upgrade at the rear of his car.
Up and down the pit lane, rivals fear Red Bull have moved their car up to another level.
The confirmation - or otherwise - of that will come at Silverstone this weekend. Its blend of high-speed corners provide one of the most stringent tests of a car's quality on the calendar.
Last year, following a one-off rule change that hampered Red Bull more than anyone else, the British Grand Prix was won by Alonso.
But if the Red Bull proves as effective around the sweepers of Northamptonshire as it did at the point-and-squirt right-angles of Valencia, even Alonso at his most perfect will find it hard to fend it off.
Both this weekend and for the rest of the year.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/andrew_benson_the_season_so_fa.html
Andreas Hofmann Neil Hodgson Hernan Holder Francis Hollebecq Toshihiko Honma John Hopkins
Here is THOR's video recap of their riders at the recently completed 2012 Red Bull Loretta Lynn's National Amateur Motocross Championships, in Hurricane Hills, TN.
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Source: http://www.supercross.com/features/video-2012-thor-mx-loretta-lynns-recap
Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore Bill Aston
First, from MX Sports: Championship Battles Take Form at Day Three of Racing at Loretta Lynn's
The second set of motos came to a close at the 2012 Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship presented by Amsoil. Thursday's race action was at an all-time high as the anticipation level continues to grow with each and every moto that gets recorded into the history book. The third and final set of motos begin Friday morning and twenty-two racers will become National champions before Saturday's grand finale at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.
Adam Cianciarulo was heavily favored to take home dual championships this year, and so far he's shown nothing less than domination in the highly competitive Super Mini classes. Cianciarulo kicked off Day 3 with yet another win in Super Mini 1, gapping the second place of Andrew Pierce by nearly 30 seconds in Moto 2. Provided that Cianciarulo executes a smooth Moto 3, the battle for the remaining two podium positions will perhaps be some of the most exciting racing of the week. Pierce currently holds a 3-2 score in the Super Mini 1 class, but Kawasaki teammates Mark Worth and Mitchell Harrison are also going to be big players heading into Friday's class finale.
Alois Huber Klaus Huber Brett Hudson Keith Huewen Jaroslav Huleö Eero Hyv‰rinen
It's not often Fernando Alonso is overcome with emotion, but he only just managed to hold it together as he stood on the podium after a quite stunning victory in the European Grand Prix.
His voice had already cracked as he giggled his delight on the team radio on his slowing-down lap - and in the pits Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was in the same state as he praised a "fantastic" drive by the Spaniard.
But listening to the Spanish and Italian national anthems, the magnitude of the moment almost got the better of Alonso. He choked a bit, grinned, almost cried, gritted his teeth and then collected himself.
No wonder he was so emotional - in the previous half an hour or so, it had all come together to create a perfect weekend for him.
Fernando Alonso (centre) celebrates winning the European GP with second place Kimi Raikkonen (left) and third place Michael Schumacher (right). Photo: Getty
Alonso has driven some outstanding races in his career - he is generally regarded within F1 as the finest driver in the world - but this one has to be right up there with the very best.
Fighting up from 11th place on the grid, he pulled off some quite brilliant overtaking moves to make his way up into contention, the opportunism and skill never better than when he separated Lotus's Romain Grosjean from second place immediately after a restart following a safety car period.
That move meant Alonso inherited the lead when Sebastian Vettel's dominant Red Bull retired further around the same lap. Then, as he completed a spectacular victory, his day was made perfect when the man he regards as his main title rival, Lewis Hamilton, retired with two laps to go.
Both his main rivals out of the race, a momentous win in his home grand prix and less than 24 hours after Spain's football team made it into the semi-finals of Euro 2012. No wonder he was close to tears.
Of course, luck was involved in Alonso's win. He was not going to beat Vettel before the German's retirement - no one was - and he would not have been in a position to challenge Grosjean at the re-start had it not been for yet another pit-stop problem for McLaren.
But Alonso put himself in the position to gain from others' misfortune, and all the other positions he gained he worked for and won in a style befitting one of the greatest racing drivers the world has seen.
Ferrari's superbly quick pit crew played a part, too - one rival engineer said this weekend that they had moved the goalposts for pit stops this year.
But the fact remains that Alonso would not have had to do what he did had Ferrari's strategists not made the error that left him down in 11th on the grid - a decision for which the driver must share some blame.
Ferrari failed to realise that Alonso would need to fit a second set of the 'soft' tyres in second qualifying to be sure of progressing into the top 10 shoot-out.
Lotus had also planned to follow Ferrari's strategy of running a set of 'medium' tyres in Q2 followed by a set of 'softs'.
But when the English team saw how close it was in Q1, they realised they could not afford to take the risk, and switched to running two sets of 'softs' in Q2 and only one in the top 10 shoot-out.
It's impossible to know where Alonso would have ended up on the grid had he made it through.
Fortunately for Ferrari, their blushes were spared by his stellar performance on Sunday - on a track where it had previously been almost impossible to overtake but which came alive this year with the combination of degrading tyres and a DRS overtaking zone judged exactly right.
Ferrari took a fair bit of stick for the decision - and rightly so. It would be dangerous of them not to learn from it for this is not the first time this season that their strategy has been found wanting.
Alonso might have won in Barcelona had Ferrari not allowed Williams to get Pastor Maldonado ahead of him by making their second stop earlier.
As Alonso admitted himself, a win was also on the cards in Monaco had Ferrari reacted more quickly to his blistering pace on his in-lap and left him out to do a couple more.
And in Canada, where he fell back to fifth, he should have finished at least second - and could possibly have won - but the team failed to react to his tyres losing grip dramatically in the closing stages.
Had Ferrari got those calls right, Alonso could have been heading into the Valencia weekend on the back of two wins and a second place, rather than a second, a third and a fifth.
That's 27 points thrown away even before the error in qualifying this weekend. In a season as close as this, even if Alonso wins the title it is unlikely to be by that much.
In each case, the error has been a result of apparently not being reactive enough - being either too fixed on a specific, pre-ordained strategy, and/or too focused on one specific rival and not looking at the bigger picture.
That was exactly what happened in Abu Dhabi in 2010, when another strategy error handed the title on a plate to Vettel.
Ferrari have now got back many of those points thanks to the problems suffered by Vettel and Hamilton.
Despite Vettel's retirement, the Red Bull showed frightening pace in Valencia following the introduction of a major upgrade, as BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson detailed on Friday.
Vettel would have walked the race had his alternator not failed on lap 34 and the pace shown by Red Bull this weekend will have set alarm bells ringing in Maranello and McLaren's factory in Woking.
At McLaren, though, they have other things to worry about after yet another pit-stop problem for Hamilton.
This time it was a failure of one of the new Ferrari-style angled jacks the team designed as part of a wholesale restructure of their pit-stop operation following problems in Malaysia, China and Bahrain earlier this year.
It lost Hamilton a place to Alonso when the leaders pitted during the mid-race safety-car period - and that of course would have meant he was leading following the retirements of Vettel and Lotus's Grosjean.
Given the tyre problems Hamilton found himself in during the closing laps, it seems unlikely that he would have been able to hold off Alonso for the victory, but it would have meant he was clear of Pastor Maldonado, and therefore the incident that took him out of the race, for which Hamilton was blameless.
Interestingly, if you look back at how many points Hamilton had lost to various operational issues at McLaren this year before Valencia, it was 27 - exactly the same number as Alonso.
Add the 18 or 15 he would have got for either second or third place in Valencia (depending on whether Kimi Raikkonen would have caught him) and that is more than 40.
After Valencia, he is now 23 points behind Alonso. The McLaren has been on balance the fastest car this year, but Ferrari's form is getting better and better and, after Valencia, Red Bull look more formidable than at any time this year.
There are still 12 races to go in an already extraordinary season that clearly has many more twists and turns to come. But Hamilton should be comfortably leading the championship. Have McLaren already thrown it away?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/alonso.html
Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr
Filed under: Sedan, Mazda, Russia, Design/Style
Continue reading 2014 Mazda6 finally breaks cover in Moscow
2014 Mazda6 finally breaks cover in Moscow originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/28/2014-mazda6-mazda-6-reveal-moscow/
Ken De Dycker Yves Demaria Gilbert De Roover Clement Desalle John DeSoto Tony DiStefano
Filed under: Podcasts
Tesla Model S test, Farley vows to fix MyFord Touch, Zombie models, BMW replaces 'is' with "M Performance," Motor Trend top driver's carContinue reading Autoblog Podcast #297
Autoblog Podcast #297 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wilfred Herron Manfred Herweh Sanadori Hikita Ernst Hiller Eric Hinton Harry Hinton
Filed under: Convertible, Mazda, Rumormill
Next Mazda MX-5 Miata to get Mini-like levels of customization originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/28/next-mazda-mx-5-miata-to-get-mini-like-levels-of-customization/
Tomoyoshi Koyama Ewald Kluge Bruno Kneub¸hler Randy Krummenacher Hiroaki Kuzuhara Z Line Designs Toyota