On The Record

IndyCar: Australian Will Power takes victory at Barber Motorsports Park

Indy Car, On The Record

Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au/?p=2127

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Australian IndyCar driver Will Power claimed his first win of the season to take the win in Sunday’s IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

The Australian driver started from ninth on the grid, but a mixture of misfortune and forceful tactics from Scott Dixon in the final cycle of pitstops helped Power to first place.

Before the final round of stops, Dixon had the lead on Power.

After losing time behind Simona de Silvestro, Dixon suffered a slow pitstop, having to wait for EJ Viso’s car to move before he could be released back into pit lane.

The time lost was enough for Power to take the lead.

With Dixon’s tyres fading away, Power’s chances looked promising from then on.

Scott Dixon ended up finishing second, with Helio Castroneves rounding out the top three.

This race was a good demonstration of the strategic elements of IndyCar racing, with the combination of overtaking, passing and pit stops making for constant position changes throughout the 90-lap race.

The biggest mover of the race was Dario Franchitti, who managed to cross the line in tenth place after starting eighteenth.

Rubens Barrichello also took a step forward in his adaptation from Formula 1 to IndyCar by finishing in eighth position.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                           Time/Gap

1.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevrolet         2h01m40.1127s

2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda                + 3.3709s

3.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevrolet            + 19.1150s

4.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda               + 19.3395s

5.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt-Hamilton DW12-Honda      + 20.1050s

6.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevrolet          + 23.3093s

7.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda                  + 24.5552s

8.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevrolet                + 25.4023s

9.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Lotus                + 27.1815s

10.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda               + 32.7377s

11.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevrolet          + 33.5038s

12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevrolet          + 35.8730s

13.  Oriol Servia         Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus     + 37.8944s

14.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevrolet            + 41.6742s

15.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevrolet           + 44.5059s

16.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda                 + 54.5343s

17.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda              + 1m00.6182s

18.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevrolet                   + 1 lap

19.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda                    + 1 lap

20.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                      + 1 lap

21.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevrolet                   + 1 lap

22.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevrolet           + 2 laps

23.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Lotus                  + 5 laps

DNF (Did Not Finish):

Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda                    52 laps

Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda                45 laps

Alex Tagliani        BHA DW12-Lotus                       0 laps

Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix: Full Race Report

Formula 1, On The Record

Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au/?p=1859

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The atmosphere was growing for the start of the season, with 22 drivers starting on the grid for the first official race for the 2012 season.

For the first time ever, the Australian Grand Prix had two Australian drivers on the grid; Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

It was Webber’s tenth time since debuting at the Australian Grand Prix in 2002.

As for Ricciardo it was his debut for the Australian Grand Prix, after competing throughout the second half of the 2011 Formula 1™ Championship.

The race was action packed, starting from the first corner.

Jenson Button gained first position from McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton, as carnage further back in the pack caused Australian Mark Webber to fall from fifth to ninth, Daniel Ricciardo tenth to nineteenth and damage to Romain Grosjean’s car, later taking Grosjean out of contention for the race.

After the first lap, the top five positions were McLaren’s Jensen Button in first, Lewis Hamilton second, Michael Schumacher third, Sebastian Vettel in fourth and Nico Rosberg in fifth.

On lap 14, Michael Schumacher’s race came to an end after a gearbox failure heading into turn one, which caused Schumacher to drive off the circuit.

This incident enabled Sebastian Vettel slide into third position.

Later on during the race on lap 37, Vitali Petrov’s car came to a stop on the main straight of the circuit, leaving the marshals to incur a safety car.

While the safety car was deployed, Vettel took the advantage and went in for his compulsory pit stop, with Vettel leaving the pits in second position and overtaking Hamilton.

Jensen Button then led the rest of the race, securing first position at the Australian Grand Prix to reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Button’s team mate Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top three, with Australian’s Mark Webber finishing in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo in ninth position.

This was the first Formula One™ in history where two Australian drivers have finished inside the top ten of a grand prix, both gaining championship points.

Final Race Positions:
1 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
2 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
3 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
4 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
5 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
6 – Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
7 – Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
8 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
9 – Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
10 – Paul Di Resta (Force India)
11 – Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
12 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
13 – Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
14 – Timo Glock (Marussia)

DNF (Did Not Finish)
Charles Pic (Marussia)
Bruno Senna (Williams)
Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)

Clipsal 500 Wrap-up

Australian V8 Supercars, On The Record

Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au

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Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom finished first and second place at the opening round of the championship at the all popular South Australian event Clipsal 500, held at Adelaide’s intrepid street circuit.

This was Ford’s first victory in the streets of Adelaide since Jamie Whincup led them to victory in 2009, but also Will Davison’s first victory within the Ford factory team.

Davison was very unfortunate during Saturday’s race, running low on fuel while in first position on the final lap, causing him to drive ‘conservatively’.

Davison then came in second, handing the win over to Jamie Whincup with just six corners to go.

Mark Winterbottom also suffered the same issue, but called into the pits with just one lap to go to refuel.

But Ford Performance Racing ensured this wouldn’t happen again during Sunday’s final race.

This time it was triple eight’s Jamie Whincup who suffered from a slight engineering error with the fuel mapping, which caused him to hand over the race lead to Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander.

As the race continued, the Ford Performance Racing team mates became the fastest cars on the circuit.

In the second stint of the race, Davison passed Tander to take the lead for the final Sunday race, with team mate Winterbottom also taking advantage of Davison’s passing manoeuvre on Tander, slipping into second position.

Later in the race, Ford’s two FG Falcons led the race with, for the first time ever on Adelaide’s street circuit, no safety cars interfering with the final race of the Clipsal 500.

The top five positions for Sunday’s race saw Will Davison in first, Mark Winterbottom second, Garth Tander in third, Jamie Whincup in fourth and Craig Lowndes completing the top five.

Will Davison currently leads the V8 Supercar’s driving championship by 18 points to Holden’s Jamie Whincup, with the next round being held at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, at Albert Park in Melbourne.