Kia Motors America has signed up Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima to convert US football fans to futbol fans during the FIFA World Cup. Any excuse, we suppose.
The TV spots are aimed at NFL fans, but a similar approach could easily be taken here in Australia with AFL and NRL fans.
You can check out the videos after the break.
Hey, guess what Australia, Daniel Ricciardo just won the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix! His first ever F1 victory—how cool is that.
Here’s what he said after being asked what it was like to join the small but elite club of Australian drivers who have won a grand prix:
Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s still sinking in a bit. I’m just really pleased that I was able to – as I said – to really capitalise today on the opportunity. I could see it in front, when Nico was there and Perez was in between us. I was – like – if we can just get Perez, I think we’ll be able to make a charge on Nico. Really pleased. Yeah. It’s going to take a little bit to sink in but OK, so very proud, great to hear the Aussie anthem. It’s been a few years since I won a race, I think 2011, Monaco in World Series or something, so like three years, it’s a long time, standing on a top step. It’s a feeling I missed a lot.
You can read a lot more from Daniel, as well as Nico and Sebastian, after the break.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden grand prix win this morning with a thrilling victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Australian overtook Nico Rosberg’s failing Mercedes AMG with just two laps to run before taking the chequered flag behind the Safety Car.
While dicing for P4 in the closing stages Felipe Massa (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Force India) came together and crashed out in spectacular style, flying into the crash barriers either side of a fortunate Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). The incident brought out the Safety Car and secured Ricciardo’s win.
Vettel escaped that late drama to finish the race in third. Jenson Button (McLaren) put in a late charge to claim fourth after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) on the last flying lap.
Earlier, it was looking like the usual Mercedes procession we’ve come to expect in 2014. It wasn’t always perfect, Vettel got past Hamilton to briefly hold P2, but could not defend that position when DRS became available. Rosberg and Hamilton soon resumed their position at the head of the pack and cleared off into the distance.
The lead changed in Hamilton’s favour thanks to some scrappy work during Rosberg’s second pit-stop, only to see Rosberg regain P1 shortly after when Hamilton ran wide at the hairpin allowing his teammate to get by.
The Mercedes 1–2 result was scuppered, with 24 laps remaining, when Hamilton’s rear brakes faded badly forcing him into the pits to retire. Rosberg was plagued by the same problem but drove a masterful race thereafter under instructions to simply get to the flag. The chasing group, headed by Perez, closed in quickly on Rosberg but the German was able to do enough to maintain a lead of around one second.
Ricciardo made a race-defining move with six laps to run when he was able to force his way past Perez. His timing couldn’t have been better, as he soon overtook a backmarker in Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) and set about chasing Rosberg. Gutierrez did his best to get out of the way of the group behind but stalled them enough to give Ricciardo some respite.
Rosberg still appeared to have enough to in the kitty to hold Ricciardo at bay, but on Lap 68 of 70 the Australian was able to get by the failing Mercedes with DRS on the back straight. The Perez-Vettel-Massa grouping had dropped back a little to give Rosberg some relief.
However, Vettel bullocked his way by Perez to take P3 and might have had reason to believe he could also chase Rosberg down. Any such thoughts were brought to an abrupt end when Massa clipped the left rear of Perez’s car, shooting both cars off track and out of the race. Fortunately both men appeared to escape injury and a necessary Safety Car brought an end to some chaotic and breathtaking racing.
After taking the chequered flag Daniel seemed to be in a state of disbelief and shock, such was the drama and speed with which the fortunes of his race changed. Once he stood on the podium’s top step for the first time, though, his trademark beaming smile was there for all to see.
Ricciardo was a popular winner and hearing Advance Australia Fair brought an equally broad smile to thousands of race fans down under who were rewarded for braving the 4am (AEST) race start.
Daniel becomes the fourth Australian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, joining Sir Jack Brabham (14), Alan Jones (12) and Mark Webber (9). He also moves to third in the drivers’ championship, behind Rosberg and Hamilton.
My name is Liam and I like it when companies involved in top level motorsport fund video productions to bring us closer to the action. But sometimes, with respect, these companies totally balls it up. Watch this opening episode from Michelin, titled We are racers, and see what you think.
When Subaru presented the world with the WRX Concept in New York last year the world responded with admiration and desire.
When Subaru presented the world with the production WRX in LA last year the world responded with a giant facepalm.
But, word on the street says the good WRX, the concept, may replace the bad WRX, the ugly-ish one you can actually buy right now, when the next generation Impreza comes around.
Speaking to motoring.com.au at the launch of the WRX STI, Subaru’s design boss Mamoru Ishii hinted that the WRX Concept may inspire the 2016-model Impreza.
“Yes, we have taken the next-generation Impreza’s design in a new direction that we are sure will excite the marketplace,†Ishii said. “We are planning to give the lower section below the hip line a wider, more substantial stance and narrow up the roof section.â€
Still, this is Subaru, and going on its recent record they’ll probably find a way to cock it up. Let’s hope they don’t because that WRX Concept is damn sexy and why it is proving so hard to press the production button on that design is anybody’s guess.
[Source: Motoring]
Nico Rosberg’s battle to wrest championship momentum from Lewis Hamilton took another step this morning when he claimed pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Rosberg’s time of 1:14.874 was less than a hundreth of a second quicker than Hamilton’ best lap (1:14.953) and the Mercedes pair enjoyed a gap of almost half a second back to the rest of the field.
Sebastien Vettel (1:15.548) heads the chasing pack after pulling out a great final lap to elevate him ahead of the more fancied Williams duo and into P3. The Mercedes-powered Williams was expected to have the pace on the Montreal layout to claim the lockout the second row, but they have to be content with Valtteri Bottas (1:15.550) in P4, with Felipe Massa (1:15.578) in P5.
For only the second time this year Daniel Ricciardo (1:15.589) has been out qualified by his teammate and he finds himself starting from sixth. Amazingly, just 0.041 seconds separated P3 from P6 and Daniel says he could have gone faster.
“It was a bit scrappy on the final run, we made a couple of adjustments and it didn’t quite work out” he said. “We’ve made progress throughout the weekend and we were not too far off, but it’s disappointing to just miss out. The times were close, but it could have been better. Hopefully we can get a good start tomorrow and see how we go, the strategy will be interesting.”
The top 10 was rounded out by Fernando Alonso (1:15.814), Jean-Eric Vergne (1:16.162), Jenson Button (1:16.182) and Kimi Raikkonen (1:16.214).
The full starting grid, along with the post-quali press conference transcript can be viewed after the break.
A classic Mini Cooper made from Lego. Isn’t this just the coolest thing you’ve ever seen! And wait until you cop a load of some of the finer details, as presented in the video below.
Of course, you can buy it for yourself from 1 August and it’ll cost you AU$149.99—we think that’s a pretty small price to pay for something that has been scientifically proven* to make your life better.
[via MotoringFile]
It would appear Audi is very happy to have Porsche back chasing outright success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To illustrate that fact they sent an Audi R18 e-tron quattro on a drive from Ingolstadt to Stuttgart to deliver a special message. It’s pretty cool.
With 27 race wins between them they are the most successful marques in the race’s long and proud history. And yet, we reckon it’s Toyota both need to be watching ahead of next weekend’s race.
Mikko Hirvonen’s Rally Italia came to an abrupt and fiery end last night after his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC became engulfed in flames during a liaison stage.
The Finn started the rally well, leading the event after Thursday night’s special stage. He had slipped just out of the top five the following day as the rally began to hit its straps and it was between SS3 and SS4 where things really went south for Hirvonen.
“I have no idea what happened and I don’t think we are ever going to find out,” a bemused Hirvonen explained. “It was really strange. Straight after the stage [SS3] everything was OK and operating as it should. We stopped, took our HANS and helmet off, checked all the tyre pressures, had the usual look around the car and everything was fine.
“After we set off again, the car caught fire. We smelt the smoke and as I looked back the rear-right corner was covered in flames. We stopped straight away but they were already over the roof. I managed to empty three fire extinguishers but it didn’t do anything to calm the blaze. There was nothing we could do to save the car.”
Thankfully, Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen were able to escape without injury. Team boss Malcolm Wilson says he is keen to find the cause of the fire.
“Obviously we’re all relieved that Mikko and Jarmo are both OK after today,” Wilson said. “The car has been completely destroyed and there is nothing to be rescued which is a big blow to the team.
“We’re still waiting to get the car back, but having spoken with Mikko it seems to have started somewhere towards the right-rear wheel which is something we do not really understand.
“There’ll be a thorough investigation back at Dovenby Hall to work out exactly what happened.”
A short video can be seen after the break.
[Pics: @carlrue & @andrespocoyo]
The latest batch of BMW M2 spy pics have hit the interwebs and as you can see they brought a new M3 along for the ride.
Despite the use of BMW’s noted camouflage vinyl it’s expected the M2 will get a more aggressive body kit than what we are seeing here, which is basically M235i styling. What we do see for the first time on an F87 M2 test mule are quad exhaust pipes, which are standard fare for M cars these days.
At this stage the expected timeline for the M2 sees production starting in the latter half of next year with a sales launch to follow late in 2015 or early 2016.
There’s been no change to the predicted power source, which means you can pencil in around 370–380PS (272–280kW) being offered from an N55B30T0 3.0 litre inline six cylinder turbo.
[Source: Bimmerpost]
Having a supercar and being able to push its high speed limits is not something you can easily do on public roads. That’s why the Vmax 200 event at Bruntingthorpe in England attracts some of the country’s best cars each year.
Evo magazine went along to the 2014 event and filed this video for us all to enjoy. The star of the day was a Koenigsegg CCX. Although, that V12 screaming its lungs out in the Lamborghini Aventador sounded very special indeed.
We’re now up to Part 3 of the Mark Webber: Return to Le Mans series and, finally, we see him at the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid. This episode takes us behind the scenes for Mark’s first test at Portimao in December last year.