My Sports News Digest

BAHRAIN (F1/Wire) – Practice One for this weekend’s 2012 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix got off to a relatively low-key start here in Sakhir on Friday morning, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton shading Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel by three-tenths of a second on a track that was still very green and slippery. Hamilton lapped in 1m 33.572s, beating Vettel’s 1m 33.877s. Third, after a soft-tyre run for Force India, was Paul di Resta on 1m 34.150s, with Chinese winner Nico Rosberg fourth on 1m 34.249s for Mercedes from Jenson Button on 1m 34.277s in the second Mclaren. Force India’s [...]

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McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa are among the six drivers facing the media on Thursday, whilst team management from Lotus, Ferrari, Force India, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren take to the stage on Friday. The line-up in full… Thursday, April 19, 1500 hours local time (1200 GMT)Timo Glock (Marussia), Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes). Friday, April 20, 1600 hours local time (1300 GMT)Eric Boullier (Lotus), Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari), Bob Fernley (Force India), Norbert Haug (Mercedes), Christian Horner (Red Bull) and Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren). The qualifying and post-race [...]

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Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Jenson Button will take part in next month’s in-season group test at Mugello, McLaren have revealed. Instead the championship leaders are to field test drivers Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey. The three-day session at the Italian circuit, which all 12 teams are expected to attend, has been added to this year’s official test schedule following a change to the regulations for 2012. Previously, in-season testing was forbidden. Both Paffett’s and Turvey’s last official McLaren outing was at the Yas Marina young driver test back in November. DTM star Paffett, 31, joined the team in 2005. Fellow [...]

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Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA Drivers: 1 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 2 – Jenson Button (McLaren), 3 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) Q: Nico, well done. You join an exclusive club of drivers who’ve turned their maiden pole into their maiden win. How do you feel?Nico Rosberg: Thank you very much. Well, it’s an unbelievable feeling: very, very cool. I’m very happy, very excited. It’s been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it’s finally here. It’s just amazing and it’s just nice to see [...]

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Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA Drivers: 1 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 2 – Jenson Button (McLaren), 3 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) Q: Nico, well done. You join an exclusive club of drivers who’ve turned their maiden pole into their maiden win. How do you feel?Nico Rosberg: Thank you very much. Well, it’s an unbelievable feeling: very, very cool. I’m very happy, very excited. It’s been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it’s finally here. It’s just amazing and it’s just nice to see [...]

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WIRE/F1 – Lotus are looking into the potential benefits of developing their own version of Mercedes’ ‘double DRS’ system, after their protest against the solution in China failed, effectively rubber-stamping it and similar designs as legal. However, Lotus insist it will not be a question of simply aping Mercedes’ system, which uses airflow channelled from the DRS rear wing to stall the front wing, but rather of exploring all the possibilities opened up by the stewards’ ruling. “We are at the point of making estimates of how big the gain might be and assessing the difficulty in actually realising that [...]

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With its searing temperatures, occasionally sandy track surface and high braking demands, the Bahrain International Circuit presents both drivers and engineers with a unique challenge. Despite its absence from the 2011 calendar, most of the 2012 grid have driven there before, either in Formula One or GP2, and those that have are eager to go racing again… Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus2010 Qualifying – n/a, 2010 Race – n/a“I don’t think the Bahrain International Circuit will present any particular problems for us. It’s likely to be quite hot and our car didn’t like the cold so much when we were in China [...]

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How ironic was it that in a race that depended on tyre wear and strategy, it should all come right for Mercedes and Nico Rosberg as the young German scored his maiden Grand Prix victory by 20.6s as a fantastic war raged a long way behind him? Rosberg was in charge all the way, proving convincingly that Mercedes have solved their tyre degradation issues. It was their first ‘works’ victory since Juan Manuel Fangio won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza back in 1955, prior to their withdrawal from the sport. To begin with Rosberg was chased off the grid [...]

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