Jane and Serge: Lovers in Paris

The relationship of actress Jane Birkin and musician Serge Gainsbourg captivated an entire generation. Jane’s brother Andrew Birkin documented the love story of the dream pair in photographs, some of which now appear in a book: ‘Jane & Serge. A Family Album’…

The British acting talent and the French singer-songwriter met in 1968 during the filming of ‘Slogan’. Both were facing a crisis in their lives: the French, chain-smoking enfant terrible had separated from Brigitte Bardot - or rather BB from him; and Jane Birkin had been left by the father of her babies and James Bond theme composer John Barry. But, as fate would have it, the two fell in love and became the dream couple of their generation.

Love story

From the beginning of the famous liaison of Birkin and Gainsbourg, to its end in 1980, Jane’s brother Andrew Birkin was regularly present with his camera and hence the book ‘Jane & Serge. A Family Album’, now published by Taschen, is unrivalled as an illustrated chronology of a love affair. The 176 pages are an invitation to travel through time, following the story of the beautiful young woman and the unshaven man with the ever-present Gitanes.

Photos: Andrew Birkin / Taschen

The book ‘Jane & Serge. A Family Album’ is available for 39,99 euros from good bookshops or the Taschen web shop. 

casquée !

Marquez ahead of rivals as first Sepang test concludes

Repeating his dominance of the first two days, Marc Marquez concluded the first Sepang test of the 2014 preseason ahead of his rivals, thanks to a rapid early best time.

The MotoGP™ World Champion Marquez wasted no time on the final test day at the Malaysian venue, laying down a superb 1’59.533 marker in the cooler temperatures of the morning. His pace-setting lap was marginally quicker than the previous best Sepang test time of 1'59.607, registered by Casey Stoner also on the Honda prototype in 2012.

Marquez later produced a strong performance in a race simulation with 15 consecutive laps under the 2’01 mark.

The early running had seemed more like a qualifying practice than a test session with the top riders battling each other for top spot in a time attack.

Nine-times World Champion Valentino Rossi set his own personal best Sepang test time of 1’59.727, whilst Jorge Lorenzo clocked the third best time of the day with a notably quick 1’59.866 effort on just his second lap.

Like Marquez, both Yamaha Factory riders later produced longer runs as they too worked on tyre durability and fuel consumption in preparation for their battles this year with the incoming ‘Open’ class machines – which will have a 24 litre fuel limit compared to the 20 litre capacity of the Factory entries.

Showing the potential of the new ‘Open’ bikes was the consistently impressive Aleix Espargaro on the FTR Yamaha of NGM Mobile Forward Racing, with his 1’59.998 best time coming on the seventh of 43 laps. The older Espargaro brother’s pace is one of the talking points of the week and he was able to lap nearly two seconds quicker than his teammate Colin Edwards who concluded Thursday’s session 14th.

LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl (+0.579) was close behind Forward Racing’s Espargaro in fifth, despite falling at turn one early on Thursday. That was of course the corner where he fractured his ankle in October’s Grand Prix, but on this occasion he was unhurt and immediately remounted.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa made a slower start and also had an off track excursion early in the morning, but later moved towards the business end of the timesheet, going up to sixth place with a 2’00.223 lap in the afternoon.

A decent time for Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso (2’00.370) put him seventh on Thursday, the Italian producing one of Ducati’s best ever Sepang test times. Indeed Dovizioso’s time was a 0.776s improvement on his Wednesday best and was 0.7s faster than his new teammate Cal Crutchlow’s final time, as the Englishman ended up 12th.

Both Ducati riders expect machine upgrades for the second Sepang test later this month.

Like his older brother Aleix, rookie Pol Espargaro also impressed, finishing as the faster of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 riders in eighth place, 1.122s down on Marquez’ best time.

Fellow Tech 3 man Bradley Smith was 11th overall, though he may not have been shooting for out and out pace on Thursday and will hope to improve his competitiveness if the team can secure access to the Yamaha seamless shift gearbox early in 2014.

The top ten was completed by Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, with both riders just over a second off the pace. Drive M7 Aspar’s Nicky Hayden and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Scott Redding were 13th and 21st respectively and will both hope to go faster on the new RCV1000R before the season starts.

Suzuki Test Team rider Randy de Puniet will also continue his work throughout the year in testing as he looks to close a three second gap to the front with the evolving Suzuki machine. He was 17th on the timesheet.

The majority of riders broke for lunch shortly before 2pm local time as the heat increased, with more race simulations and longer runs a key focus after the initial morning runs. The data from those longer runs are crucial for fuel economy calculations for the ‘Factory’ bikes in particular, as they have one litre of race fuel less than 2013.

A new Bridgestone tyre was also tested by the riders this week - a similar construction to that used in Valencia testing in November, with a compound slightly adapted to suit the Sepang heat. The Japanese tyre supplier will therefore hoped to have gathered useful data for improved performance in 2014.

For full lap times of all the riders see the Sepang 1 test results page. The premier class riders will be back in action at the Sepang International Circuit for further testing from 26th to 28th February.

Rossi highly positive whilst Lorenzo misses ‘perfect’ lap / Rossi et Lorenzo repartent de Sepang avec un bilan satisfaisant

Yamaha Factory Racing colleagues Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo completed the third and final day of the first official test of the 2014 MotoGP™ preseason second and third respectively on the Sepang timesheets.

The test proved to be successful for both riders, with Rossi especially happy at the end of the workout. The nine-time World Champion was able to record his best ever time at the Sepang circuit, dropping under the 2’00 minute mark to finish in second place less than two tenths from front man Marc Marquez.

Rossi and Lorenzo both undertook a race simulation in the stifling Malaysian heat this afternoon to shake the 2014 M1 down over race distance.

Rossi enthused, “The test has been very good, I’m very happy, especially for the second position and more than that for the lap time which is the best of my career in Sepang. It’s the first time under 2’00 for me and just one tenth from Marc and the overall record of the track.”

“I found a good feeling with the bike, we found some good solutions and it’s been very positive,” he added. “We tried a simulation in the afternoon that was very good to understand any problems. We suffered a bit to keep a good pace but it wasn't so bad. For the first test the balance was good.”

Four–time World Champion Lorenzo was also happy having completed the three days, even if he felt there was a missed opportunity to go faster.

The Mallorcan made good progress during the sessions, managing to closely replicate the feeling of the 2013 bike whilst making the big reductions in fuel required for the 2014 season. Lorenzo completed the final day in third position, just 0.333 seconds from the front.

“I think we improved a lot the lap time from yesterday but I didn't make a perfect lap. Maybe with softer tyres we could make a 1’59.5 or a 1’59.6,” he commented. “The goal was not to improve the one lap time but to improve the race pace which we did. When we tried a race simulation in hot conditions we found some problems where we didn't expect it, so the pace wasn't as good as we wanted.”

“We’ve only practised in one track though which isn’t a Yamaha track historically, so let’s see what happens at the next Malaysia test and the other tracks. The evolution and the improvement is big so I’m quite satisfied. To have a similar feeling to last year with less fuel is a big thing.”

Les pilotes du team Yamaha Factory Racing ont conclu leurs essais en Malaisie aux seconde et troisième positions, non loin derrière un très impressionnant Marc Márquez.

Valentino Rossi s'est dit particulièrement satisfait de ses trois journées passées sur la piste de Sepang puisque l'Italien a résolu la plupart des problèmes dont il avait souffert tout au long de la saison 2013 mais a aussi affiché un rythme très rapide et terminé à seulement 0.194s de Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), le Champion du Monde en titre.

« Le test s'est très bien passé, je suis très content, surtout que je finis en seconde position et que je n'avais jamais été aussi rapide sur ce circuit. C'est la première fois que je passe sous les 2'00 et je suis en plus à seulement un dixième de Marc et du record du circuit. »

« J'ai trouvé un bon feeling avec la moto, nous avons trouvé de bonnes solutions et tout est très positif. Nous avons essayé de faire une simulation de course cet après-midi et ça nous a permis de mieux comprendre certains problèmes. Nous avons un peu souffert lorsqu'il fallait maintenir le rythme de course mais ça ne s'est pas mal passé. C'est en tout cas positif pour un premier test. »

Le vice-Champion du Monde Jorge Lorenzo était lui aussi satisfait de ses essais, bien qu'il n'ait pas réussi à boucler le tour parfait qu'il espérait faire jeudi matin. Le Majorquin a, comme son coéquipier, travaillé sur distance de course l'après-midi et a conclu en troisième position, à 0.333s du temps de référence.

« Je crois que nous avons bien amélioré notre chrono par rapport à celui d'hier mais je n'ai pas fait de tour parfait. J'aurais peut-être pu tourner en 1'59.5 ou 1'59.6 avec les pneus tendres, » a expliqué Lorenzo. « L'objectif n'était cependant pas de faire un seul chrono mais de plutôt progresser sur le rythme de course. Nous avons fait une simulation lorsqu'il faisait très chaud et nous avons eu des problèmes auxquels nous ne nous attendions pas, si bien que notre rythme n'était pas celui que nous espérions. »

« Nous n'avons cependant travaillé que sur un circuit jusqu'ici et c'est en général un circuit qui ne réussit pas à Yamaha. Nous verrons comment ça se passera lors du prochain test puis sur les autres circuits. Au niveau de l'évolution de notre moto, les améliorations sont importantes et je suis donc assez satisfait. Retrouver le même feeling que l'an dernier avec moins de carburant était quelque chose d'important. »