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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Audi wins 2014 6hrs of COTA

2014 6 Hours of COTA

In dreadful conditions across the weekend Audi won a rain soaked 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas. It was a race where all three major LMP1 teams enjoyed time in the spotlight, but the experience of Audi was shining when it mattered most.

The #8 Toyota TS040 started the race on pole, with the two Porsche 919s behind. Sebastien Buemi was in the lead Toyota and built up a strong lead early. Then, about 100 minutes into the race, chaos ensued after a massive downpour saw cars sliding everywhere except on the racing line.

Race organisers had little choice but to bring a halt to proceedings and the race was red flagged for around 45 minutes. Heavy rain had been experienced during practice and qualifying sessions prior to race day as well. So the teams at least had some idea of how the track would react in the wet.

Although, the rain during the race was torrential and both Toyotas ended up off track losing a lap to the field while they recovered. The #20 Porsche 919 also lost time after an unwanted excursion.

After the restart it became a race between the two Audis and the #14 Porsche, which was leading during the latter stages of the race until a loss of power saw the car drop to fourth. From there a one-two victory was Audi’s for the taking and they didn’t falter.

2014 6 hours of COTA (top six)

  1. #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) – 157 laps
  2. #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen) – +53,016s
  3. #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi) – +1:03,945m
  4. #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) – +1 lap
  5. #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Bernhard/Hartley/Webber) – +2 laps
  6. #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Wurz/Sarrazin/Conway) – +2 laps
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Citroen Ford Hyundai Video Volkswagen WRC

2014 Rally Australia video highlights

2014 Rally Australia video highlights

If you missed any of the TV footage from Rally Australia fear not, because here’s just under four minutes of all the best bits. Follow this link to the Best of Rally Live YouTube account if you’d like to see more.

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Holden Video

When Barry met Cameron

Cameron Smith and Greg Murphy

Cameron Smith has just been appointed to a new role as an HSV ambassador. To help him get into his new gig HSV sent him along to Sandown to a drive day where members of the public could pay for a few fast laps behind the wheel.

The rugby league legend shared his car with some bloke called Barry Ford. Watch the clip below to see what happened next.

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Motorsports News Video

Things are not over yet

Alex Zanardi

It’s not news to tell you how much of an inspiration Alex Zanardi can be to us all. But every now and then we may need a reminder. So, when you’re next feeling a bit crap about things, watch this video. Not only will it give you some perspective, it will help you prepare to tackle whatever challenges you face with humility and grace.

Thanks also to filmmaker Tim Hahne for bringing us yet another excellent motorsport-related short film.

[via Tim Hahne]

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WRC

Rally Australia fighting for last place

2014 WRC Rally Australia

Rally Australia organisers are planning to bump Rally GB from the last event on the WRC calendar from 2016 onwards. The 2015 calendar has Rally Australia in the same September slot as this year, with Rally GB in its traditional finale position.

However, Rally Australia boss Ben Rainsford, who is negotiating with the FIA to secure the event until 2018, reckons a warm Aussie summer would make the perfect send off for the WRC year.

“We’re pretty open about wanting to be the last event in the championship and we’ll push hard for it, very hard,” Rainsford said. “We’re looking at putting on a gala dinner, an end-of-season party in Sydney. The city’s ripe for it and Sydney’s good at that kind of thing.

“An Australian summer is a very good place to be, especially when you’re in a European winter. We’ve run as the final round in Perth a few times and it was very popular.”

Rally GB has hosted the final event of the WRC season 33 times since the series began in 1973 and organisers are keen to maintain that spot.

“Rally GB has always presented a unique and demanding challenge to the teams and a fitting climax to the championship,” said Ben Taylor, Rally GB managing director. “Over the years it has thrown up some thrilling finishes and it makes sense for the key WRC markets for those to be played out in a European time zone.

“We certainly don’t presume the right to hold the final event, but Wales Rally GB is on an upward curve and we are committed to working with our partners, the FIA and the promoter to deliver the best possible rally with which to end the next two seasons and beyond.”

[Source: Autosport]

Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Singapore GP post-race press conference

2014 Singapore Grand Prix

It’s always good to read the post-race press conference, you get a chance to see the thoughts of the drivers without any spin. The transcript from the Singapore Grand Prix presser is available for you after the break.

Of course, there’s a lot of talk with race winner Lewis Hamilton, but it’s also interesting to hear Daniel Ricciardo discuss some issues he had during the race.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Singapore GP

2014 Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has put himself back atop the drivers’ championship tree with a dominant win at the Singapore Grand Prix. It follows his victory in the last outing in Italy and is the 2008 world champion’s seventh win of the year.

Hamilton’s day started brilliantly when his teammate Nico Rosberg was wheeled off the grid before the parade lap with technical problems relating to his steering wheel and gear selection. Rosberg eventually started from pit lane but had a horrid race, unable to make any serious progress through the back markers, and retired after 13 laps with a faulty wiring loom. Hamilton’s maximum points haul in Singapore now gives him a 3 point lead in the championship with five races to go.

Fighting over the scraps in the wake of Lewis were the Red Bull pairing and Fernando Alonso. The order ended up with Sebastian Vettel in second, his best result for the year, followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Alonso. It’s the first time this season two Red Bull drivers have been on the podium.

Vettel enjoyed a brief moment in the sun leading the race with under 10 laps to go, but this only came about due to Hamilton’s tyre strategy and the fancied Briton was easily able to reclaim his lead on fresh rubber. Second was the best Vettel could hope for and despite losing the place to Alonso earlier in the race he was able to regain his position during the pit stop rounds under the customary safety car period, which came midway through the race to clean up debris on track after a kerfuffle between Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez.

Ricciardo had to fight hard late following a long stint on increasingly fading tyres to save P3 from Alonso, but was able to prove his mettle again to add yet another trophy to his increasing stash.

Felipe Massa managed to avoid most everyone else to claim a seemingly untroubled P5 while the soon to be unemployed Jean-Eric Vergne reminded everyone he’s actually not that bad by employing an aggressive tyre strategy and rounding up a few drivers late in the race to charge to P6. This was despite incurring the wrath of the stewards for exceeding track limits.

The top 10 was rounded out by Perez, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. Hulkenberg’s points for Force India were enough to demote the once mighty McLaren down to sixth in the constructors’ standings.

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Motorsports Video Volkswagen

An inside look at the Volkswagen GRC Beetle

Volkswagen GRC Beetle

The Volkswagen GRC Beetle will make its Rallycross debut this weekend. Drift maestro Tanner Foust, who will race the GRC Beetle, has already given us a teaser, and now it’s the official trailer from Volkswagen.

It’s a pretty mad car and while we’re yet to really sink our teeth into Rallycross, it looks like a stack of fun!

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Volkswagen

Volkswagen updates 6R Polo GTI

2015 Volkswagen Polo GTI

Volkswagen has given us a pictorial update for its facelifted Polo GTI. We already think it’s the little hot hatch that could, but it’s now even better; for two reasons: 1. it has more power, and 2. you can buy it with a proper 6-speed manual gearbox!

Power is only up by 9kW to a new peak of 141kW but it has been achieved by ditching the technical and sometimes troublesome 1.4 litre twincharged engine for a 1.8 litre turbo unit usually seen in the Audi range.

Details for the new Polo GTI are thin on the ground at the moment but we know torque has also been given a boost and it’s now up to 320Nm, a pretty healthy nudge from the previous model’s 250Nm.

It’s okay, Playstation nerds can still get their fix through the option of a 7-speed DSG transmission, but the fact the Pogo is now available with a proper manual box is a great score for trad hot hatch fans.

We’re expecting full details once the Paris Motor Show is underway and we’ll update you when we can. Meanwhile there’s a few more pics for you after the break. It’s always been a nice looking car the 6R Polo, and this facelifted GTI is perhaps the best looking iteration yet.

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Formula 1 Video

Choppy sees

Martin Brundle in F1 helicopter

Hopefully the content of this video will make up for that dreadful pun in the headline. What you’re looking at here is a behind the scenes ride by Sky Sports F1 presenter Martin Brundle in the FOM chopper which brings us spectacular television footage from grands prix around the world.

As the image above indicates Brundle took his joy ride during the Italian Grand Prix. These guys would pull come serious Gs as they move around trying to keep in touch with the F1 rockets at ground level. This is definitely not a job for those with a squeamish tummy!

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Citroen Ford Hyundai Volkswagen WRC

2014 Rally Australia in pictures

2014 WRC Rally Australia

In our biggest WRC gallery yet—there’s 88 photos in all—here’s your chance to relive Rally Australia. If you’re a Volkswagen fan this might be one to bookmark becuase for the first time in their WRC existence the German juggernaut claimed a clean sweep of all three podium positions.

Also taking a clean sweep were the photographers plying their trade down under. These are some of the best rally pics we’ve seen all year and we’re chuffed to be able to share them with you all.

Categories
MINI

Schadenfreude isn’t supposed to be ironic

MINI Cooper S (F56)

Here at AUSmotive, despite generally being big fans of all things MINI, we think the F56 is, well, a little bit ugly. Over time we expect our dissatisfaction with its design will fade, but right now, we think those lower air intakes at the front of the Cooper S are just ghastly.

Over in Germany, though, readers of Auto Motor und Sport have voted the MINI as the best looking car in its class. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. Even so, we’re amazed those crazy Germans could come up with such a result.

“We at MINI Design are particularly proud to have won this award. Positive feedback from customers and fans is very encouraging to us in our day-to-day design work for the MINI brand,” explains Anders Warming, Head of MINI Design. “We very much look forward to pursuing this work further.”

So just sign-off on the bloody Rocketman, then, Anders. Now, that is cool!