Petit Le Mans derniers essais libres PLM, ESSAIS 5 : REBELLION RACING PREND LES CHOSES EN MAIN.

Une dernière séance d'essais libres était au programme des concurrents de l'American Le Mans Series sur le tracé de Road Atlanta. Après la pluie matinale d'hier, les pilotes ont eu droit à une piste complètement sèche pour une session longue d'une heure. La Lola-Toyota/Rebellion Racing de Neel Jani s'est montrée à son avantage en 1.10.565 avec 402 millièmes d'avance sur la HPD ARX-03a/Muscle Milk Pickett Racing de Lucas Luhr. Les deux autos trustent les positions de tête depuis les premiers essais. On trouve en troisième position la Lola-Mazda/Dyson Racing pilotée par Mark Patterson, la #20 étant reléguée à près de deux secondes. La seconde Lola-Mazda/Dyson Racing de Dyson/Smith/Kane s'est retrouvée plus loin dans la hiérarchie au 7ème rang, derrière la HPD ARX-03b/Level 5 Motorsports de Marino Franchitti, leader en P2. La concurrence n'est pas en reste avec la Morgan 2012 LMP2/OAK Racing d'Olivier Pla et la Zytek Z11SN/Greaves Motorsport d'Alex Brundle, les trois étant groupées en 98 millièmes. La Morgan 2012 LMP2/Conquest Endurance a aussi bouclé la session dans le bon wagon. Onze tours couverts pour la Nissan DeltaWing avec le 9ème temps à la clé. Les autres équipes européennes sont groupées avec dans l'ordre Thiriet by TDS Racing et Murphy Prototypes. Le Dempsey Racing a dominé en PC, devant Merchant Services Racing et PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.

Pour la première fois depuis le début de la semaine, une Ferrari F458 Italia a terminé en haut de la hiérarchie avec la #01 du team Extreme Speed Motorsports de Toni Vilander. Le Finlandais a pris l'ascendant sur la Corvette C6.R du champion en titre Antonio Garcia, la BMW M3 GT/BMW Team RLL de Dirk Müller et la Porsche 911 GT3-RSR/Lizards de Jörg Bergmeister. Les deux SRT Viper GTS-R ont bouclé à elles deux 64 tours en terminant toutes deux dans le Top Ten. En GTE-Am, la Porsche 911 GT3-RSR/IMSA Performance Matmut s'est défaite de la Ferrari F458 Italia/AF Corse. Alex Job Racing a terminé en tête des GTC, la Porsche 911 GT3 Cup/TRG de Manu prenant pour sa part la 6ème place de la catégorie.

Les chronos sont ici.

BY Laurent Mercier(Endurance-info.com)

Dani Pedrosa dominates FP1 at Sepang

With Twowheelsblog

Despite the Sepang International circuit historically not being a Honda winning track, Dani Pedrosa continued his excellent form (two consecutive wins) was the fastest rider on track setting the benchmark with a best lap of 2.01.621 to top the timesheets.

He was closely followed by his team mate recovering Casey Stoner who seems to be in better shape this weekend and the Australian inserted himself in second and was 0.152s adrift and ahead of standings leader Jorge Lorenzo who was third but was losing time in the T4 sector on the slippery Malaysian track.

Yamaha Tech3 riders Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow were fourth and fifth ahead of Ben Spies. Stefan Bradl after testing the official RC213V at Motegi last Monday was seventh and last rider within one second of Pedrosa.

The fastest Ducati rider was Nicky Hayden in 8th who is recovering from his radius fracture, while Motegi podium finisher Alvaro Bautista was 9th ahead of Hector Barbera. Valentino Rossi had another disappointing start as he finished the session in 11th and a massive 1″654 off pace and he also ran off track at the final turn.

Karel Abraham was 12th and the last of the prototype riders and three seconds from Pedrosa, while top CRT rider was Randy de Puniet who just 0.048s ahead of his team mate Aleix Espargaro. Yonny Hernandez who is riding with a left collarbone and right foot injury was 19th.

MotoGP Sepang FP1 results:

01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 2’01.621
02- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.152
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.313
04- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.615
05- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.645
06- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.737
07- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.996
08- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.133
09- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.251
10- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.600
11- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.653

Super-Rare Hawker Hurricane takes to the skies

Last week, we brought you news that an ultra-rare Hawker Hurricane from World War II is to be auctioned by Bonhams this December. This week, we’ve gone one better: take a look at our exclusive video of the deadly fighter in action with a serving RAF pilot at the controls.

One of just a dozen still in commission, the Hurricane will go under the hammer as part of Bonhams’ auction at Mercedes-Benz World on 3 December 2012, with an estimate of £1.4 - 1.7 million.

Sardaigne Day 2 (Loeb and Neuville crashes) - 2012 WRC Rally d'Italia

What a day, this is definitely turning into a rally of attrition... Today we have lost Sebastien Loeb and Thierry Neuville, both Citroen drivers. We have also lost both Ford drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg. All of these drivers should be re-starting tomorrow morning, but the end result is an unexpected overnight podium. Overnight leader is Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen-Michelin), this is not unexpected as he was pushing Loeb and matching his pace. The surprise is that the Ford young-guns of Evgeny Novikov and Ott Tanak go into the overnight 2nd and 3rd overall.