Remembering Roland Ratzenberger

RichardsF1    Formula 1     RIP, Roland Ratzenberger, Simtek

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The unassuming Austrian stood no chance when his Simtek ploughed nearly head-on into an unprotected concrete wall at close to 320km/h at the Villeneuve kink, just a few hundred metres beyond the Tamburello corner that would claim Ayrton Senna’s life the very next day.

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DTM Hockenheim: Spengler on pole for season-opening race

RichardsF1    DTM, Results    

Bruno Spengler has helped reverse the form book by getting a Mercedes-Benz pole position for Sunday’s season-opening race of the DTM championship when he qualified fastest in the final shoot-out at Hockenheim today.

After rival Audi had locked out the top three positions in each of the opening practice sessions held to-date, Spengler used his new front splitter to good effect, going a confidence-boosting fastest in the third phase of qualifying to head into the final, single-lap stage of the session.

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V8s Perth: Whincup takes victory in Race 1

RichardsF1    Results, V8    

Jamie Whincup has headed home a Tem Vodafone 1-2 in the opening V8 Supercars race of this weekend’s Trading Post Perth Challenge at Barbagallo Raceway.

The former champion converted his pole position into a race lead at the start of the 50-lap race, but he was to find himself coming under pressure from team-mate Craig Lowndes in the second half of the race.

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DTM: Hockenheim Preview

RichardsF1    DTM    

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) becomes the last of the major international touring car championships to kick off its 2011 championship season, with Hockenheim playing host as the season-opener in the longstanding Mercedes-Benz vs Audi battle.

And of course Richard’s F1 will be providing you with the latest results and analysis from what will be an entertaining weekend in Germany – let’s have a look at the form guide…

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V8s Perth: Whincup takes Race 1 pole

RichardsF1    Results, V8    

Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup has secured pole position for the first race of this weekend’s Trading Post Perth Challenge at Barbagallo Raceway.

The former V8 Supercars champion led the way with a scintillating lap time of 56.0734 seconds in this morning’s 20-minute qualifying session, while Will Davison hauled his Ford Falcon around the circuit just 0.2 seconds slower to deny Team Vodafone a 1-2 on the grid for this afternoon’s race – Craig Lowndes was bumped to third place, but over half a second slower than his team-mate.

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Reanimating the corpse…

RichardsF1    F1 2011, Formula 1     Bernie Ecclestone, Circuit News, FIA

With the deadline to decide on a possible reschedule of the Bahrain Grand Prix set to come and go in two days, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has now come out and said that the sport should give the politically strife-torn nation a further extension on the deadline in the hopes it can salvage what is left of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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More news on Turkey’s F1 future…

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Bernie Ecclestone, Circuit News

Despite earlier reports indicating that the woefully-patronised Turkish Grand Prix – in spite of its outstanding circuit design – staging its swansong F1 race next weekend, event officials seemingly have not completely ruled out being able to sort out a solution to keep the race in Istanbul.

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WTCC: Ibrahim Okyay to make Monza return

RichardsF1    News, WTCC    

Five-time Turkish Touring Car champion Ibrahim Okyay will make a return to the World Touring Car Championship for the first time since 2008, where he will compete at the upcoming Races of Italy and Germany.

The Turk will compete in a normally-aspirated BMW 320si run by Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport.

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IndyCars: Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 Preview

RichardsF1    IndyCar, Previews    

While generally not a long-distance flyaway series, the IndyCar Series understands the number-one rule of running a profitable business – keep your fans happy. With a massive fan base in Brazil, not to mention several household names and compatriots competing, Brazil will again turn on its best as Sao Paulo hosts Round 4 of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series. Our IndyCar correspondent Matt Lennon takes a look at the action at this weekend’s Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300…

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Schumacher reaffirms commitment to F1

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Mercedes GP, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Paul di Resta

And the rumblings of an early Schumacher retirement never seem to go away…

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher has again been called upon to rubbish suggestions that he might not see out the full three-year deal for his Formula 1 comeback.

The German endured an up-and-down return season to the sport last year – a pair of fourth places being his best results – and there were suggestions that a third year with Mercedes GP would very much depend on the form he shows in 2011.

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