Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/14/lewis-hamilton-it-was-the-best-i-could-do/
Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen Alex Blignaut Trevor Blokdyk
Wednesday
Lewis Hamilton: ?It was the best I could do??
Lewis Hamilton put his qualifying frustrations behind him with a charging drive in Spain, one that saw him the only driver to make it to the flag on two pit stops. He finished the race with a marathon 31-lap third … Continue reading
Vettel Believes The Bahrain Circuit Very Demanding On The Pilots
Sebastian Vettel, who won the Formula 1 world the past two years, believes the Bahrain circuit, which will be played this weekend, the fourth grand prix of the season, “requires a lot of pilots” because “the constant change of curves means that you can not accommodate, “the agency EFE. “Furthermore, as the track is built [...]
Tuesday
Massa under pressure to raise his game
A seemingly routine story on Ferrari?s website has underlined the fact that Felipe Massa is coming under ever increasing pressure to perform. The Scuderia?s post-Barcelona report spoke of Massa?s ?drop-off? and said that the team is ?expecting a change of … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/14/massa-under-pressure-to-raise-his-game/
Hamilton put to back of grid in Spain
Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from qualifying in Spain and put to the back of the grid. Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso thus start on the front row. Drivers are obliged to get back to the pits after the end … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/12/hamilton-put-to-back-of-grid-in-spain/
Monday
What went wrong for the back of the grid?
It was another frustrating season at the back of the grid for F1?s relative new boys. Lotus, HRT and Virgin all in their sophomore seasons in Formula One all failed, again, to score points in 2011. So what went wrong last season and what does 2012 have in store. Lotus They?ve arguably been the best [...]
Mini-Racing: Get the best of the Darlington weekend right here
It was a fine weekend of racing at the Lady in Black, and Jimmie Johnson brought home the long-awaited 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports. But that wasn't the only highlight of Saturday night's events; skip 15 minutes of work and watch the race breakdown above.
And if that's too much time, we've got an even more distilled version of the weekend's events below:
Fine stuff all the way around, and we're setting up well for some lovely drama heading into this weekend's All-Star Race. Think there'll be a few scores to be settled?
Danica Patrick?s first dance with the Lady in Black was a rocky one
Well, it's a start.
Danica Patrick has met the Lady in Black, and the first round goes to Darlington. In the first practice, Patrick recorded the slowest time of any driver, 167.997, nearly 10 mph slower than leader Kevin Harvick.
Now, before the freakouts begin: Patrick knows exactly where she belongs in the Sprint Cup pecking order. "I'm not coming in thinking I should be anywhere in particular based on my extreme lack of experience and knowledge of this place," she said after the practice. "Darlington was chosen as a track to come to in a Cup car because of how difficult it is and because of how much track time it takes to get comfortable."
Patrick earned her first Darlington stripe, hitting the wall once in the Nationwide car and four times in the Cup car. "I definitely think getting through the night with a respectable night is what I'm hoping for in the Nationwide car," she said. "And as far as the Cup car, I just want to finish.� I just want to finish, which is going to be a challenge I think."
[Jay Busbee: Danica Patrick deserved punishment for wrecking Hornish Jr.]
Other drivers have sympathy for Patrick in her initial run at Darlington, which Dale Earnhardt Jr. called "one of the toughest tracks that we run on.� I think it's great for her to come here and get that experience early for a full season next year ... Only a very few drivers come in here for their first time and really walk away with a successful weekend.� Most drivers that come here for the first time do struggle, so I wouldn't be too concerned if I was her if she didn't get the results that she was expecting.� This is a place that you have to learn the ropes and pay your dues or it will jump out and get you when you least expect it."
Patrick's lessons begin Friday night in the Nationwide race. Any bets on how long she'll last?
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Plenea Build A Volkswagen Assembly Plant in Northwestern China
Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture of the German auto giant Volkswagen AG in China, this year plans to build an assembly plant in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to explore the markets of North-West and Central Asia, a source said Thursday authorities local trade. The plant, located in Urumqi, the regional capital, will become operational in [...]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/222-plenea-build-a-volkswagen-assembly-plant-in-northwestern-china.html
Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder
Hamilton?s pole under threat from FIA
Lewis Hamilton?s Barcelona pole is under threat after he stopped on his slowing down lap at the end of Q3. Hamilton did the same after getting pole in Montreal in 2010 because the team was concerned that would not have … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/12/hamiltons-pole-under-threat-from-fia/
Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever Andrea Chiesa
Sunday
Travis Pastrana finishes 22nd in NASCAR Nationwide Series debut
Travis Pastrana's race wasn't perfect, but he'll take it.
The motocross and X-Games star finished 22nd in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut Friday night at Richmond International Raceway. While he was disappointed at a pit road speeding penalty under green that relegated him two laps down, he said he was happy about the finish.
"I think the lowlight was having to go through pit road twice," Pastrana said after the race about his pass-through penalty as a result of that speeding violation. "It was my first pit under green and I definitely got a little excited."
"But I expected to do worse. I hoped to do better. I think we can run top 20, I believe we were in the top 20 for a bit of the race in the middle until I messed up the pit area, but I'm happy."
Pastrana was locked into the race by virtue of Pastrana Waltrip Racing's alliance with RAB Racing, which had previously fielded cars for Kenny Wallace and Ryan Truex this season. He started 25th.
His next race is at Darlington in two weeks. Wallace will be behind the wheel at Talladega.
Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman Karl Gunther Bechem
Power Rankings: Through the first 10 races, the Biff is at the pinnacle
The race is done, and that means it's time for Power Rankings. Each week throughout the season, we'll size up who's rising and who's falling, based on current standings, behind-the-scenes changes, expected staying power, recent history and general gut feelings. It is not scientific, nor is it meant to be. And remember, whoever your favorite driver is, we're biased against him and like someone else better. We continue with a guy who is consistent at being consistent, which isn't what he was consistent at last year...
1. Greg Biffle: You got any other ideas here? The Biff was up near the front at Talladega, but it was d�j� vu all over again when he couldn't get to Matt Kenseth's bumper over the last two laps. But the consistency that he lacked last year is back this year. Will it be there for the final 10 races?. Last week: 4.
2. Matt Kenseth: Did Flatline just find out how it feels to lose when your car is too good? No one could get to his bumper all day on Sunday, and that was his undoing at the end. Or was it the fact that his car was falling apart like Best Buy's stock? Last week: 6.
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Here is where we will write another post saying that Junior is really, really, really, really close to winning. Honest. Promise. Swear it on his beard. What's that? His beard is gone? Well, we're standing by our word. Until we get tired and have to sit down. Last week: 3.
4. Brad Keselowski: Believe it or not, @Kes is 12th in the points standings despite the two wins. And, perhaps even more surprising, he made it through an entire restrictor plate race without tweeting from the car. Of course, we didn't have any jet dryers explode either. Last week: NR.
5. Kyle Busch: Sunday was the perfect opportunity for Busch to do what Joey Logano did to him on Saturday. Thing is, Brad Keselowski knew it too. Next time, Kyle, make your move on Lap 1. No one will be expecting that. Last week: 10.
6. Tony Stewart: Maybe NASCAR will secretly fine Tony Stewart for his sarcastic comments about racing at Talladega. Alas, all fines are public knowledge. Maybe instead, NASCAR will force Stewart to race with a restrictor plate for the next five races. Or just fine him and not tell him about it, thus keeping it super-duper secret. Last week: 1.
7
. Martin Truex Jr.: Looked like Other Junior's plan was to be just another driver for most of the race before coming to the front at the end. But he didn't make it to the end, getting caught up in The Big One 1.0. At least by being caught up in a big crash he made his race airtime roughly equivalent to that of his sponsor's commercials. Last week: 7.
8. Jimmie Johnson: Sunday was the second time that five-time has suffered an engine malfunction with oil copiously leaking from the car. This time, he didn't have a golden horseshoe of a red flag for rain to save him. Last week: 2.
9. Clint Bowyer. Clint rolled with the Tide all day at Talladega and finished sixth. Bowyer didn't have any conflict of interest running that Alabama paint scheme all weekend because, last we checked, the university that Bowyer usually cheers for doesn't have a football team. Last week: 12.
10. Kasey Kahne: Carnage! Crashes! Hendrick engines going sour! And Kahne wasn't involved in any of it. Maybe Talladega was the truest sign that Kahne's trend of bad luck is ending. Last week: 11.
11. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin had a strong car and was a staple at the front of the field until he went a lap down because of an extended green-flag pit stop. And then he got his lap back and got back to the front and got crashed. That's so Hamlin. Last week: 2.
12. Kevin Harvick: Cupcake was content to play the waiting game too, until the Spirits of Talladega struck and he had a mysterious fuel problem. Like Hamlin, he too was able to get back on the lead lap, but also got crashed. All this crash talk is making Tony Stewart excited.Last week: 9.
Dropping out: Carl Edwards
Lucky Dog: Danica Patrick. Yeah, she didn't race in the Sprint Cup Series last weekend but she escaped a post-race hauler visit after crashing Sam Hornish Jr. on the cool-down lap and is locked into the field for her first Cup start at Darlington on Saturday. Plus, we'd like to use this space to stop any and all "Lady in Black" references to Patrick's race at Darlington before they begin.
DNF: Poor, poor Jeff Gordon. This kind of feels like piling on at this point, but the dude started first, didn't lead a lap, saw his gauges start flashing all like Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" and then got crashed right as it looked like he was going to snake through the carnage. At this rate, Gordon could go win the last 13 races of the year and the Cup and we'd view it as progression back to the mean.
Juan Pablo Montoya has a much better life than you
Juan Pablo Montoya was at Homestead Speedway a few months early, taking the nine contestants on Univision's Nuestra Belleza Latina for a spin around the track. Or, as the show's website puts it, "Las 9 finalistas estuvieron con el reconocido corredor de autos, el colombiano Juan Pablo Montoya, quien las dirigi� en una aventura de m�xima velocidad. Esto es un adelanto de lo que ver�n el pr�ximo domingo 22 de abril en la s�ptima gala." Whatever that means. A little translation help?
Taking nine beautiful women for a high-speed drive in Miami. Yeah, Montoya really doesn't much care what you think of his performance this season.
Ferrari 599XX Evolution
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There’s no better way to mark the end of production for the most extreme Ferrari 599 ever built then to give it a kickass special edition, and Ferrari is doing just that with the 599XX Evolution. The new Evolution package boasts of aerodynamic advancements, as well as a boost in power, and will be available to clients participating in the track-based research and development program for the 2012-2013 seasons.
The new 599XX Evolution features improved chassis dynamics thanks to an active aerodynamic package integrated with the vehicles’ electronic control systems and the adoption of new Pirelli tires. The new aero package uses an active rear wing that features two flaps, with profiles similar to those used in Formula 1, which rotate electronically to adjust the downforce between the front and rear axles in function of vehicle speed and the maneuver being effected.
The most impressive feature, however, is the addition of an extra 50 HP for the 599XX’s 6.3L V12 engine. This addition brings the 599XX’s total power up to 750 HP at 7000 rpm and 516 lb-ft of torque. Helping the engine along is a weight reduction of 77 lbs compared to the standard model.
UPDATE 12/02/2011: Thanks to Marchettino, we now have a video of the 599XX Evo when it debuted at the 2011 Bologna Motor Show. Hit the jump to check it out!
UPDATE 05/11/2012: Ferrari has just dropped a new set of images featuring the 599XX at the opening round to the European Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli at Monza. Its next stop will be at California?s Laguna Seca circuit, a few miles from the attractions of Monterey, which will host the third Ferrari Racing Days of the season on May 20, 2012.
Ferrari 599XX Evolution originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 2 December 2011 15:30 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/ferrari/2012-ferrari-599xx-evolution-ar120799.html
Asphalt! Drivers talk track surfaces and impending Kansas repave
KANSAS CITY, Kan. ? With the track changes at Bristol Motor Speedway underway and the imminent repaving of Kansas Speedway scheduled to start moments after the conclusion of Sunday's STP 400, repaving and track surface discussion dominated Friday's driver media sessions at Kansas Speedway.
Here are the comments from some drivers about repaving. And spoiler alert: old pavement is preferred, though Jimmie Johnson says that he views track repaves as an opportunity for he and his team to gain an advantage.
"No, it might be that mindset for some drivers, but for me I look at it as an opportunity," Johnson said. "The tracks are going to change, and it's going to be different. Whoever figures it out first will have the advantage and win. So, I'm excited about the new surfaces that go down. Some of them are very challenging, and I hope people pay attention to the tracks that have instant success and the others that take a long time to come around, and we can learn from that as well. I'm excited for the opportunity, and I love to test. I love to be at the race track learning, and am excited to have testing at tracks we race at. We can really get data files on tracks other than Milwaukee or Nashville, and these tracks that we don't race at anymore. I'm happy we have some testing at the real tracks on the correct tire."
Jeff Gordon says that the track surface looks good from a driver's perspective. However, track officials and engineers say that the repave at Kansas is absolutely necessary because of a combination of weather and environmental factors.
"I don't really understand why they are paving this race track," Gordon said. "It looks great out there. This place is awesome. I wish they wouldn't touch it. I'm not the business person. I'm not an engineer that looks at the construction, foundation, all the things that they feel like why they need to do it. Whatever they put in front of us we will just go about it the best way that we can. I feel like ISC has gotten enough information and experience paving race tracks that I have faith they can do the right thing. I think Homestead is a perfect example. They did a great job at Homestead. That was one of the only race tracks I can remember being repaved where we came there and raced the first race and it was a fun race. Of course, what they had before was so bad, it was easy to improve. What they have here is going to be hard to improve."
Carl Edwards said he'd love to race on a track that would never be repaved.
"I would not resurface this track ever. I wouldn't resurface tracks ever if it were up to me," Edwards said. "I'd patch the holes and keep on running."
Kansas Speedway is moving to progressive banking, which is it what is currently installed at Homestead, Bristol and Las Vegas. Bristol is concrete, a surface that Dale Earnhardt Jr. says doesn't respond as well to progressive banking as asphalt does.
"When you're using concrete, concrete has a lot of limitations for our cars," Junior said. "We only have a few tracks that are concrete or have been concrete in the series or the sport. None of them truly became multi-groove race tracks. Dover is the closest thing that we have to a multi-groove track, but to be honest with you, the majority of the racing is done on the bottom of that race track as ell. In a perfect world, in m opinion, if I owned the race track and had all the money that [SMI president Bruton Smith] has or the technology that we have today, I would pave the track with the configuration that they currently have with the progressive banking with asphalt. But its not my decision and I think what they're doing is going to be fun and I like that they're making a change. Even though when you pave a race track, it typically doesn't put on the best races after a few years of weather and wear on the surface, it tends to work out okay and the track really comes into its own again. As much as we'd like to have a lot of the tracks stay with the older asphalt, it's just some of them are deteriorating so bad that it's just not an option.
"I think progressive banking has done wonders at a lot of race tracks and been a real plus at a lot of places. It's just the combination of progressive banking and the limitations of that concrete is what's challenging to Bristol."
Jeff Gordon?s miserable luck continues at Darlington
Jeff Gordon's 2012 keeps getting more and more unbelievable.
Once again, Gordon had a competitive car during Saturday night's race at Darlington despite an early Darlington Stripe. And, fleetingly, anyway, there were glimmers of hope that the black cloud that has hovered over his season would start to lift. But those glimmers vanished as soon as his left-rear tire started to go flat on Lap 194.
As Gordon made his way to pit road, it looked like he would catch a relative break, no pun intended, as the caution flag flew for debris from his tire right as he entered the pits. That meant that instead of potentially two laps down under green, the four-time champion would be able to line up just one lap down.
Alas, when you're in Jeff Gordon's 2012, when things go south, they really go south. Just a few laps after the restart, his tire went down again, and the team was forced to take the car to the garage for repairs. He ended up 35th, 29 laps down.
A week after falling six spots in the standings to 23rd, Gordon's continued issues dropped him another spot to 24th, 170 points behind points leader Greg Biffle. The man that passed Gordon in the standings? Mark Martin, who did so despite running only eight of the season's 11 events. That's how crazy of a season it's been for Gordon. For the Chase, wins are now imperative. But so is getting into the top 20.
2012 Donington World Superbikes QP1 - Smrz returns to form
Jakub Smrz returns to his familiar place at the top of the timing sheets ahead of Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa. Rain threatened the session, but luckily didn't stay around for long enough to be too much of a problem.
Results:
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd
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