KLM

The start and the finish of the 2012 SLARDAR 1000 Rally will also be at the Motor Show, on Friday and Sunday respectively.

Really disturbing video. Not sure it should be up here.

I think it's because SLARDAR declares the car division SuperFox based on the results of SL 'GT' Race 2. Can somebody who knows for sure confirm? The championship era has been a great thing for racing in Sri Lanka and all, but I miss the mixed grids of the 'Fastest 15' event they used to conduct back in the day - the winner of this race would be declared the SuperFox for cars. Its not a huge difference as the GT cars would invariably win, but it was nice to see some other entries mixing it up as well.

Smart move taking the gearbox change at this race as the impact won't be that bad. It seems he has been the recipient of ALL the bad luck at Mercedes this year. Having outqualified Rosberg at the opening two races he had gearbox failure and was hit from behind while running in 3rd both times. Then in China his wheel fell off, again while effectively running in 2nd. Now this. Poor bastard. I still think he'll out do Nico by season's end, but Mercedes need to give him a stronger car as well!

I think the Australian GT Championship or somesuch also runs in support of the GP weekend. Great pix Duncan, such a fantastic racing series. Can't wait for Nissan (and possibly Chrysler) to join Ford and Holden. Glad Nissan is coming back to the ATCC/V8SC after they were unceremoniously dumped for the R32 GTR being TOO strong.

Unbelievable race, after 5000 km of racing they were only 13 seconds apart and that is a testament to how endurance racing has now become a 24-hour sprint format. Audi are battle-tested, and literally their third-string team was able to hold off the might of 4 Peugeot crews and for the first time in a closed-cockpit car. Between the LMPs and the GTs, sportscar racing is almost better than F1. Its a shame it doesn't have a more global following though, because the purity of the racing is unmatched. The McNish and Rockenfeller accidents were downright scary - YoutTube them with caution.

Well done Sanjaya, first win if I am not mistaken. Hopefully the first of many more to come.

LOL.

I can't say I agree with a single stage giving so many points, but Chris Patterson driving the car on the final stage was a brilliant moment. He was slowest overall but didn't lose a position in the standings, so well done to him.

A limo rental company? Well, props to the proprietors for taking a punt on something very different. LOL @ how AL went off on the supposed owner's tastes, ego etc. Classic.

Forget hybrids, I'd love to see some motorhomes parked in the paddock at Fox Hill.

Teams plan for the finish well in advance. But if you must, feel free to think that RBR intentionally did that to give Vettel a chance at passing Webber.

A. They have yet to ask Webber to concede to Vettel. B. If they didn't ask Webber to change engine settings they risked running low towards the finish. Nobody is denying that RBR will probably lose the title because their drivers took points away from each other, but under trying circumstances, they've stuck to their policy of letting them fight it out for better or for worse. Its not difficult to see that.

Double post...

I think it was established at the time that Vettel had saved one lap worth of fuel so he could run rich in order to attempt a pass while at the same time Webber couldn't do the same because he was marginally short. As much as Webber has whinged this season and Vettel is the definite future of RBR, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey have in all probability been as fair as possible with the two under very challenging circumstances. Even the Silverstone incident - what do you do when you have 1 new-spec wing and 2 drivers? Of course one party will feel aggrieved but that's just human nature.

That's the sad part about top-level motorsport - all drivers need to pay for their drives or bring sponsorship when running in the junior series' and although ability still counts for a lot, deep pockets help.

LOL, Putin is such a stud and also such a bastard at the same time. He actually had nothing to do with Petrov - his dad coughed up the money himself and hoped that some Russian corporates would help 'buy back' the sponsorship space he had with Renault. Putin only got involved with inking with Sochi GP deal. Yamamoto's mum is apparently paying about USD 450K a race for his seat but for Chandhok, his 'sponsors' the Jaypee Group only showed up on the side of the HRT after he had been dropped. However, its understood that Bernie backed his drive for the first half of the year. Alonso/Hamilton/Kobayashi - NONE of them were pay-drivers. Alonso was a Briatore protege and was placed at Minardi before Renault hired him, Hamilton was a McLaren Young Driver and had been groomed to take a race-seat from the time he was 11 and Kobayashi was Toyota test driver before he was promoted to the race-team at the end of last year. Sure, he had that role because Toyota wanted a Japanese but he wasn't exactly a pay-driver just because Toyota put him in the car for 2 races. Sure, Mercedes paid USD 150K for Michael's first Jordan drive at Spa in '91 but that was because they were evaluating him for their impending F1 return with Sauber (later changed to McLaren). Little did they that it would take 19 years for that deal to come to fruition.

That's pretty uncharitable considering that Petrov was runner-up in GP2 last year and Chandhok has won at Spa in GP2 and last year was leading the Monaco GP2 race by a country mile when a suspension component collapsed. You don't run well at classic tracks like Spa and Monaco unless you have considerable talent. Even Yamamoto hasn't been off the pace set by Bruno Senna, an acknowledged qualifying lap master and another GP2 star who would have driven last year's championship winning car had Honda not pulled the plug. Unfortunately, with the increases in costs of running F1 teams, sponsorship is going to play an unfairly large part even at the sharp end - didn't Alonso's Ferrari deal hinge on Santander paying for him, much like Marlboro did with Michael? But I think over the next few years as the costs of operation are decreased you'll find that teams will be less likely to ask drivers to bring sponsorship. Also, Petrov's accident was caused by an F-duct failure robbing him of downforce, so it wasn't his fault he crashed.

Seriously. Sounds epic.

Not bad, second time this year PP has won 4 events in a day.

I thought it was made pretty clear that the Aston was brought down by another enthusiast and not one of the Rajapakses.

Surely nothing will change. Its pretty narrow-minded to think that just because the ownership is now Chinese, all future Volvos will be poorly-made made like Geelys. Its a business decision, Volvo will run as its own business unit with most of its old management team and if at all there is technology transfer, it'll be from Volvo to Geely, which is a good thing.

True.

Yes, it looks like a 2+2 260.

I think that pink EG8 lost it under braking at the Library end and shunted really badly. That kid was lucky to escape with his life.