Photo: Sky Sports Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) came into the race weekend with momentum, having won two of the three previous races. But in order to take the top step on the podium again he was going to have to overcome recent history at Circuit de Catalunya, where the last 12 race winners have come from the front row of the field. Mercedes locked down positions 1 and 2 (Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton respectively), the second time the manufacturer has done so since its return in 2010. Vettel...
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Photo: Getty Images Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) took pole position, the second of his career and the first back-to-back Mercedes P1 starts since 1956, Lewis Hamilton having started from the front in China. Force India, meanwhile, acquitted itself very well by locking down Row 3 (Paul di Resta P5, Adrian Sutil P6), its best-ever qualifying effort. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Ferrari teammates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were sandwiched between in P2, 3, and 4 respectively. Massa was the sol...
Qualifying for the Rolex Series race was rained out, with the field set by team points. Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett started at the front of the grid in the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates No. 01 BMW/Riley, with Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the No. 99 Gainsco Corvette DP starting P2. The GT field was led by John Potter and Andy Lally in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche, followed by Jeff Westphal and Alessandro Balzan in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 and Emil Assantato with Antho...
Photo: AFP Lewis Hamilton won his first pole since moving to Mercedes during the off-season, joined on the front row by Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus). Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) qualified third and fourth respectively. Tire wear was a theme throughout practice and qualifying, with the soft option tires degrading in as quickly as 3 laps but being substantially faster when new. This wear rate saw both Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, P9) and Jenson Button (McLaren, P8) go o...
Max Angelelli (Wayne Taylor Racing – Corvette DP) took the lead with 45 minutes remaining in the race and was still there with 7:30 min left, over the Gainsco Corvette DP driven by Alex Gurney. Alessandro Balzan’s Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 chasing Robin Liddell’s Stevenson Motorsport Camaro for the lead in GT. When the white flag waved Angelelli led by 1.3 sec and was pulling away. Angelelli (with Wayne’s son Jordan Taylor as co-driver) won by 4 sec. The victory was Ta...
On March 14, 2013, United SportsCar Racing was introduced as the new premier North American sports car racing series beginning in 2014, combining the current GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron. The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) will be the sole sanctioning body moving into 2014. Originally created in 1969 by John Bishop and NASCAR’s Bill France Sr., to produce high-level, professional sports car racing in Nort...
Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) won the season’s opening round in Australia, and starts seventh on the grid in Malaysia today for Race 2. Defending 3-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) won his second straight pole, followed by the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. In the run up the race both rain and rapid tire degradation featured prominently in conversation. Most teams took to the track on intermediate tires, with rain on parts of the course and sunshine on o...
Paul Dalla Lana: “Turn 1’s pretty iconic as you’re going down the front straight, staring up into the sky and wondering what’s going to happen once you go off the ramp.” Bill Auberlen: “There’re 20 turns that have to be done perfect. And it allows a chance for someone who’s very precise and very accurate to excel lap after lap. Somebody that makes a mistake, usually going into the esses, they mess one turn up and it screws up five. A guy who&rsquo...
Photo: Chris Smith/GonzoGeek Media Inc. Even the pole sitter gets work done.after qualifying. Jon Fogarty drove the #99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP to the pole at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Tex., site of the inaugural Grand-Am of the Americas. The pole, Fogarty’s 24th, extended his Rolex Series record. 1 – Jon Fogarty, #99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP, 2:00.179 2 – Jordan Taylor, #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, 2:00.239 3 &ndash...
Andy Lally is ready to compete in Grand-Am’s first visit to Circuit of The Americas, co-driving the Magnus Racing Porsche with John Potter. Last year, the pair combined to win the GT class in Grand-Am’s first visit to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in addition to winning the division in the 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona and inaugural North American Endurance Championship presented by VisitFlorida.com. “We need to work on Grand-Am to allow us to adapt the Porsche splitter for racing i...