Tag: Sebastien Buemi

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain

Toyota capped off a weekend of mixed results with champagne for both cars at the WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain yesterday. The #7 TS040 driven by Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz won the race. It’s the first win for the #7 car this year and Toyota’s fifth race win for the season.

However, the glory went to Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi in the #8 car, who finished well down in P11 after suffering alternator problems. Despite this they’ve done enough to wrap up the WEC drivers’ championship. With just one round to go Toyota Racing remains favourites to secure the manufacturers’ title for the first time as well.

Porsche also enjoyed a first this season, by seeing its two cars finish on the podium. The #14 919 once again started from pole position and enjoyed a reasonably smooth run. The #20 car had a scrappy day but the lack of major dramas meant they could get a valuable third place.

Audi had a pretty horrible weekend with major work required before taking the track aftrer discovering damage to the monocoques of both cars. In that respect they did very well to get out and compete and remain relatively competitive.

Yet, for the first time in the short history of the new World Endurance Championship format Audi is in danger of losing its world championship status. The team is 40 points behind Toyota with only one race left on the calendar, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo later this month.

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain – top 6

  1. Conway/Sarrazin/Wurz (#7 Toyota) – 195 laps in 6h 00m 18.056s
  2. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (#14 Porsche) + 50.460s
  3. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (#20 Porsche) + 57.268s
  4. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (#2 Audi) – 1 lap
  5. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (#1 Audi) – 2 laps
  6. Belicchi/Kraihamer/Leimer (#13 Rebellion-Toyota) – 7 laps
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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai

Strap yourself into the AUSmotive time machine and tavel to China with us to look back at the WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai.

Held across the first weekend in November Toyota’s late season form continued securing a one-two victory and edging closer to drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship success.

Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi consolidated their lead in the drivers’ championship by winning the race in the #8 TSo40 and enjoyed a comfortable 72 second margin ahead of their teammates in the #7  sister car.

Porsche had to make do with P3 and might have hoped for more after the #14 919 started from pole and early on both cars headed the field until tyre dramas cost the #20 car any chance of a decent result. In the end Webber and his mates had to make do with sixth.

That means the Audis filled positions four and five. The R18 hasn’t enjoyed much success since winning Le Mans and you sense Audi will have to come up with a great car in 2015 to maintain its recent dominace.

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai – top 6

  1. Buemi/Davidson (#8 Toyota) – 188 laps in 6h 01m 15.319s
  2. Nakajima/Sarrazin/Wurz (#7 Toyota) + 1m 12.564s
  3. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (#14 Porsche) – 1 lap
  4. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (#2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro) – 1 lap
  5. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (#1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro) – 1 lap
  6. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (#20 Porsche) – 2 laps

Now, get ready for our time machine to bring you back to the present where we’ll have a 6 Hours of Bahrain up date for you real soon!

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Fuji in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Fuji

Toyota won its home round of the World Endurance Championship—the 6 Hours of Fuji—a couple of weeks back, leaving Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi with broad grins on their faces. It was a one-two finish for Toyota and Porsche filled the final podium spot with Mark Webber’s crew tasting the champagne.

We’ve had five of eight rounds in the WEC now and Audi still looks the goods for the overall championship. With three races in November we’ll have to be much sharper in getting these updates to you!

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Motorsports Video

Formula E wraps up first official test

Nicolas Prost, e.dams Renault Formula E, Donington Park

The first Formula E race takes place in Beijing in just under two months (13 September) and last weekend we got our first taste of what a full grid of electric open wheel racecars will look and sound like.

Donington Park in the UK was the location for four days of testing and Sebastien Buemi from e.dams Renault team set the fastest lap. Just one more day of testing in mid-August remains before the championship kicks off in China.

After the break you’ll see a series of videos from the Donington test. Some of the names taking to the track are well known, with a host of former F1 drivers on the grid.

If the cars can actually handle the rigours of racing Formula E could be a very interesting series to follow. There will be a novelty factor to overcome, the cars do sound a bit daft, inasmuch as they don’t sound anything like a racing car in terms of what we know and understand. But that’s precisely what makes the potential of Formula E so great.

It could be awesome, or it could be a total flop!

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Formula 1

The wheels have fallen off

Sebastien Buemi, Chinese GP practice 2010

Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi got the shock of his life during Free Practice 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday. As you can see from the image above the wheels literally fell off his Formula One car in a spectacular incident. Luckily the only damage was to the car and Buemi did not suffer any injuries.

Speaking after the crash he said, “There’s not much to say about what happened in FP1. I braked, the wheels came off and that was it. Physically, I was fine though.”

Fine, yes, but not happy, “But I have to say, I am extremely disappointed that, once again, through no fault of my own, I have been unable to run for almost all of the three hours available. I will have to try and catch up on Saturday morning and we will be relying on Jaime’s data from today to see which way to go.”

A bit surly perhaps? The team’s Technical Director, Giorgio Ascanelli, explained fixing the cause of Buemi’s accident was straightforward, “Sebastien’s accident this morning was down to a technical problem on the right hand upright, which proved simple to identify once we got the car back. We have resolved the problem, which the many laps completed by Jaime this afternoon confirms.”

If you have not seen any vision of the incident, you can see a video clip below. Like the cat, I expect you will be amazed, too.

Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing duo have once again hogged the front row all to themselves with Sebastien Vettel snatching a last gasp pole position from Australia’s Mark Webber in yesterday’s final qualifying session. Best of luck to both for this afternoon’s race.

[Thanks to Chris for the tip]

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