Updates from the Rest of the Racing World
Atlas F1 Magazine Writers
Advice: The points tables for most series covered by Elsewhere In Racing are available here. Individual series are linked to their corresponding points table after each report.
Monte Sebi
The changes from 2003 to 2004 to the field were dramatic; near traumatic in effect, and almost caused a driver's revolt at one point. At Rally New Zealand last year there were seventeen factory supported cars. Because of the new two car rule and withdrawals from some teams, just ten led the field away at Monte Carlo. Eleven if you count the year, nay two year old supported Focus of Anthony Warmbold. Could Formula One cope with a regulator-inspired 41% reduction of the field?
The drama of the off-season carried over into the first stage of the season when Stage 1 was cancelled due to concerns over spectator control. Marcus Gronholm made a flying start to the rally in the brand new but extensively tested Peugeot 307, winning the second stage and still led after Stage 4, despite breaking a windscreen and damaging a gearbox in Stage 4, necessitating a replacement of both. Stage 5 however brought the Finn undone. Poor tyre choice for the conditions saw Gronholm dump around 30 seconds and drop behind both Sebastien Loeb and Markko Martin. Overnight Loeb led by 18 seconds with Gronholm less than half a second from Martin's Focus. Carlos Sainz was fourth, 28 seconds from Gronholm, but 14 ahead of Duval.
But Leg 1 was not a true indication of rally pace. Loeb won all four fog bound stages that were run on Saturday's Leg 2, sprinting away from a suddenly breathless pursuit. Two stages were lost, Stage 10 to spectator crowding, while earlier Stage 7 was eventually cancelled after the stage was almost completely blocked by the dead Peugeot 206 of the then tenth placed Nicolas Vouillaz. Martin and Gronholm could do nothing as Loeb motored away with Duval the only pursuer, climbing to second by day's end. Loeb's lead had blown out to 88 seconds. Duval led teammate Martin by 13 seconds with Gronholm now almost two minutes from Loeb. The Monte though is notoriously unpredictable and Loeb took little comfort in his lead.
"The best option was the dry weather tyre, which we chose," explained Loeb. "That meant that we had to negotiate, without making any mistakes, the slippery five kilometre section around the Turini Pass, as well as the patches of ice on the St. Roch Pass. Most of this had melted since our gravel crews went through, but I was still careful. The second pass through was less tricky, so the situation was easier to manage. I have a special feeling for this event. This rally is legendary, and to win it for a second time gets our season off to the best start possible!"
Loeb lost sixteen seconds during the day but still had over a minute at the end to hand Citroen an excellent first-up result. It would not be a perfect result though for the French team however. Carlos Sainz was pushing hard on Leg 2 after being caught out by Duval's burst of pace on Stage 8, when he came across a muddy snow patch on Stage 9 and slid hard into the cliff face. The patch was not in Sainz's pacenotes, and the former World Champ speculated that spectators had inadvertently caused it. The right front corner of the Xsara was wrecked and Sainz was unable to continue.
There was much speculation at the end of Leg Two that Ford might impose team orders to put Martin, the senior of the team's two drivers, back in front of Duval early on Sunday. While all thought about it, Martin solved the problem himself when he blitzed Stage 14 to move back into second. However Martin was not as quick on the final stage and team orders were imposed. With only a few corners to go, the flying Duval stalled his car at a hairpin, ensuring he finished behind Martin, the FIA's anti-team order regulations unsubtly called into ridicule. Regardless of the order, Ford now leads the manufacturers standings. Ford's third entry, the WRC2 Focus of Anthony Warmbold climbed as high as eighth before crashing out on Stage 14.
For Peugeot it was an encouraging and yet disappointing start for the new car. While fourth would have met most expectations, Gronholm's pace on Leg 1 suggested, at least initially, that keeping pace with Citroen and Ford might have been achievable. Gronholm ran second in the middle of Leg 2 as Martin faded. But he slid gently into a hairpin barrier and was stuck for half a minute, dropping behind the Fords. In the end Gronholm finished seven seconds behind Duval, but Duval's final stage shenanigans flattered the margin.
"I'm glad it's all over!" said Gronholm. "I've always found the changing weather conditions of this event very difficult, so fourth place is not a bad result at all. Maybe we could have been higher up if we had not slid off the road yesterday for 40 seconds, but I can't complain about anything else. The most important thing is that the new 307 WRC has been both fast and reliable, so I feel very positive about the rest of the season."
On paper Freddy Loix ably backed up his teammate, bringing his 307 home in fifth place. However that position was flattered by the lack of cars in the outright bracket, as the Belgian's conservative run saw him finish a gaping six minutes fifty seconds behind his team leader. Last year a third Citroen, Peugeot, Ford and a Subaru might have finished in that gap.
"What can I say?" said a frustrated Solberg. "I just hit a patch of snow, braked a little too late and slid into a wall. It's a shame as I wasn't really driving to risk anything, but these things just happen sometimes. Perhaps I was a little unlucky, but at least we didn't drop out of the points altogether. Luckily, we're taking two points away this year, which is two more than last year! Overall, it's not such a bad result especially when you consider that there are fifteen more rallies still to go."
New team mate Mikko Hirvonen held eighth until Stage 9 on Saturday when he inexplicably slid off the road and into retirement.
Mitsubishi also collected points on the first running of their new car. Team leader Gilles Panizzi drove conservatively but consistently, with just enough pace to be able to capitalise on Solberg's Sunday slip. The end result was sixth place and valuable points, but more importantly, a full rally's worth of testing. The team's second car did not provide that after sliding off the road on Stage 5, an unhappy debut for Gigi Galli.
Privateers thrust their way into the top ten as the thin field bit on the result sheet as Hyundai Accents and Peugeot 206s made their points. Subaru driver Olivier Burri claimed the final drivers point in his Subaru Impreza with Josef Beres also into the top ten. The final indignity for the state of the field though was in tenth place was a Super 1600 Junior World Championship car. Nicolas Bernardi got the JWRC off to the best start by putting his Renault Clio at the top of the timesheets.
Result of World Rally Championship, Round 1 of 16, Monte Carlo, Monaco:
Standings: Sebastien Loeb 10, Markko Martin 8, Francois Duval 6, Marcus Gronholm 5, Freddy Loix 4, Gilles Panizzi 3, Petter Solberg 2, Olivier Burri 1
Manufacturers: Ford 14, Citroen 10, Peugeot 9, Mitsubishi 3, Subaru 2
Drivers Will Find More At Stake Next Year
By Alan Baldwin
Citroen's Sebastien Loeb banked a perfect ten points in Monte Carlo on Sunday to take the early lead in the rally world championship. Next year however, there could be far more at stake and the winner of the prestigious season-opening event cannot be sure of coming out on top.
Rallying's governing body has outlined a plan, due to be rubber-stamped in March, to award points after each of the three legs of a rally in the existing 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 format.
International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley, talking to reporters in Monaco, backed the plan even if some drivers were opposed. "Everybody agrees that if there is a bonus for winning on a day, then that is good," he said.
"You don't get a situation where the rally is building up to a climax and somebody may have a big lead and he's keeping his lead and the man in second place is not going to risk anything. The thing becomes a little bit dull."
That happened on Sunday as Loeb, heading for his second successive Monte Carlo win with a comfortable lead, eased off on the treacherous mountain roads.
"If it's day by day, then you've got a flat out competition each day and I think most people agree that that's good," said Mosley. "After a lot of discussion, we came to the view that the thing to do was to consider each rally of the world championship as two separate competitions.
"The world championship then becomes 48 days of competition with the points adding up all the way through."
The man spraying the champagne as winner remains the driver who has completed all the stages in the least time, even if he may not necessarily be the one with most points.
"It could happen that someone comes away from a rally with more points in the world championship than the person who won the rally," said Mosley. "But if you think about it that doesn't really matter because each day there will be a new world championship classification.
"We get this huge bonus that we've got 48 competitions instead of 16 and you've got everybody trying every single day.
"It will favour the fastest drivers because those who are prepared to risk it and go for the win each day are the people who over 48 days will end up with more points."
Heavy Hand Of Law Could Hit Wales, Warns Mosley
Wales could see its round of the World Rally Championship held elsewhere in Britain because of 'intimidatory' policing, the head of the sport's governing body warned on Saturday.
International Automobile Federation president Max Mosley said he was concerned by reports after last year's British event.
"There are other places in Britain where that doesn't happen," he told reporters at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally. "One can imagine that it (the rally) might be held in another part of the U.K. where the attitude of the local police was different."
Mosley said drivers in Monte Carlo had also spoken of an 'intimidatory atmosphere' and that made him more concerned.
"It sounds as though there was a really unpleasant atmosphere with the police," he said.
"The impression that has been made on the international rally community has been very negative.
"It was as though the police in Wales did not want the rally to be there and were doing everything they could to make competitors unwelcome and uncomfortable.
"If there were a sufficient number of fatalities to justify the number of cameras that were there, then those roads must have been extraordinarily dangerous," he added.
This year's British round, run entirely in Wales and backed by the Welsh Development Agency with a contract to 2007, has been scheduled for September 19 instead of its previous slot as the last rally of the season in November.
The rally headquarters, now in Cardiff, have previously been in the English towns of Chester and Cheltenham.
Championship Needs Japan And Mexico, Says Mosley
By Alan Baldwin
Controversial new rallies in Mexico and Japan this year have made the sport a more genuine World Championship, International Automobile Federation head Max Mosley said on Saturday.
"Adding Japan and Mexico makes it a more ...credible World Championship, probably for the first time as far as the geography is concerned," the FIA president told reporters at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
Mosley insisted the move was necessary however, saying the success of the championship depended on manufacturers.
"I think quite rightly that we should have done it and I really believe that should be a top priority," he said. "The rush was to give justification for the far Eastern manufacturers either to come in or to stay in. The chance of getting new Japanese and possibly the odd Korean manufacturer in is now much better.
"Japan after all is the second biggest economy in the world, (and) it's one of the three great car manufacturer areas. Not to have a World Championship rally in Japan, if you can have one, is clearly wrong.
"Just pottering about in Europe is not the way to have a World Championship."
Europe still hosts the majority of events in the championship, and while it was likely to shed some events in future, there were no immediate plans to do so.
"Probably in the medium to long term, we are likely to see a greater spread of rallies and at the moment that's been achieved by increasing the number," he said. "In the future if we want to be more spread out around the world...we are going to have to re-distribute at some point.
"There are some rallies where the promoter is starting to question whether it is viable. Some of them have financial problems.
"A budget now for a World Championship rally is several million euros and...there are some that may be in difficulties.
"But there is no immediate pressure to do anything."
All reports except Monte Carlo Rally report provided by Reuters
OWRS Prepared To Fight For CART Assets
By Lewis Franck
The Open Wheel Racing Series (OWRS) "will do whatever it takes to save the Champ Car Series", the group said on Friday in response to a bid from the Indy Racing League (IRL) for the assets of CART.
IRL made the offer to purchase the assets of its bankrupt rival on Thursday, countering OWRS, a group led by former CART team owners. The CART bankruptcy proceedings are scheduled for a final hearing on January 28.
In the United States a bankruptcy judge can take whatever necessary action to preserve the rights and assets of the shareholders of the corporation in question so OWRS could be asked to make a counter offer to the IRL's leading to a virtual auction.
"We will do whatever it takes to save the Champ Car series and ensure its success into the future," one of the partners in OWRS, Paul Gentilozzi, said in a prepared statement.
"Last-minute posturing and provocation by (Tony) George and his organisation only serve to strengthen our commitment and dedication to do what's right for motorsports. To coin a phase, 'failure is not an option.'
The IRL started its own series in 1995, which includes the prestigious Indianapolis 500, and since then CART have suffered from the defection of major teams and manufacturers to their rivals.
CART declared bankruptcy in 2003 and OWRS submitted a bid to take over all the assets and liabilities with a view to continuing the series. The first race is scheduled to be the Long Beach Grand Prix on April 18.
"It's clear what the IRL's intentions are when you look at which assets they want to purchase," said Gentilozzi referring to the Long Beach contract and the CART engines, among other equipment. "They want to kill the series, yet they hide that fact under the pretext of 'unification.' They're not fooling anyone."
IRL officials declined to say what their bid consisted of, other than that it was "a substantial bid" for certain assets.
Jim Michaelian, president and chief executive officer of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, said no matter what the outcome of the hearing there would be a race.
"Our preference would be to continue on with our existing relationship and run the Champ Car race as the headline event. However, if that does not prove possible, then we will schedule the next best available alternative as a replacement."
Indy Racing League Bids For CART Assets
The Indy Racing League has made a substantial offer to purchase the assets of bankrupt rival CART on Thursday, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star newspaper.
A group of businessmen and racers - Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkoven - had earlier made a bid in an Indianapolis federal court to purchase the assets and run the series under a new title, the Open Wheel Racing Series (OWRS).
Alternate bids are due on Friday and District Judge Frank Otte is scheduled to hand down a final decision on the buyout on January 28.
While the OWRS bid wishes to continue the series, the all oval racing IRL has stated it had no desire to run a primarily road racing championship, so if their offer was accepted it would spell the end of the CART series which started in 1979.
In 1994 Tony George, the CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced that he was starting the IRL to be an alternative to CART and commenced racing in 1996.
Reports provided by Reuters
24 Hours Of Daytona Approaches
Last year the newly created Daytona Prototype Class was embarassed by the Porsche-supported 996 GT3-RS fielded by Kevin Buckler's The Racers Group. With a year's development behind them, the Daytona Prototypes, created by NASCAR, the Grand-Am series owners, as a cost effective prototype Sports Car, have become a more reliable and raceable package.
Gone forever are the big sports cars of Daytonas' past, as of the four major sports car classes, only the lowest class of the four, GT, are allowed to race against the Daytona cars. 22 GTs face off against 18 Daytona Protoypes, with the field bolstered by 15 Carrera Cup Porsches.
The two car Howard-Boss Motorsports team of Crawford-Chevrolets is also well staffed, and CART team owner and veteran actor Paul Newman is listed alongside Gunnar Jeannette and Kyle Petty in a Fabcar-Porsche. But it's a pair of Fabcar-Porsches from Brumos Racing that look to carry the fight to Doran Lista with ALMS GT Champions Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen sharing the lead car with David Donohue and Darren Law, while in the second are open wheel veterans Scott Sharp and Scott Goodyear, the France family's representative, JC France, and US Sportscar's living legend, Le Mans winner Hurley Haywood.
The defending champions The Racers Group lead the GT class with their team of three 996 GT3-RSs. The lead car boasts Maassen & Luhr's Alex Job Racing teammates Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister, along with Patrick Long and the boss, Kevin Buckler. Beyond them the field thins quickly, but BE Racing, one of the stars of last year's Bathurst 24 Hour are there with an almost identical crew of Klaus Engelhorn, Phillip Peter and Andrea Montermini with Dieter Quester subbing for David Brabham. Risi Competizione have entered a Maserati rather than their usual Ferrari 360, and developing the new car may well strike this well credentialed team down over such a long distance, while Bill Auberlen and Boris Said lead a two car team of BMW M3s from Prototype Technology Group.
The GT cars are better suited to the race distance, and many have experience at Le Mans. They will be more reliable and have better economy. The DP cars however are faster, and well at home on the banking on which they race all year. It should be a fascinating battle of racing philosophies.
Leading entries for Daytona 24 Hours:
Rossi 'Happy' With Yamaha After First Test
MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi declared himself happy after his first testing session with Yamaha ended after three days on Monday. The Italian, who defected to Yamaha last November after dominating the top class of grand prix motorcycling for three years with Honda, blazed around the track in blistering heat on Monday in a best time of 2:02.75.
His fastest time on Monday was inside his previous lap record at Sepang of 2:03.82, but slightly slower than that set at the track last week by arch-rival Max Biaggi, who clocked 2:02.58 on the Honda RCV.
Rossi, who was prevented from testing with Yamaha until his contract with Honda expired at the end of last year, said the M1 was better in comparison with the RCV than he had been led to expect.
"During winter testing in Valencia, (former 500cc rider) Randy Mamola told me that the Yamaha bike was not as good as the Honda," said Rossi. "Randy rode both bikes and he did not give me a good impression of the M1. But since testing from Saturday, I don't think that there is a big gap between the two bikes."
Rossi completed 59 laps on the circuit on Monday and was almost a second faster than Spanish teammate Carlos Checa, whose best time was 2:03.72.
Ahead of Rossi lie two months of testing in the lead up to the opening race in the 16 round MotoGP championship, which starts in South Africa on April 18.
Yamaha Won't Be An Easy Ride, Says Rossi
World MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi is under no illusion it will be another easy season this year, following his move from Honda to Yamaha.
The Italian, who took his second MotoGP crown and third in the 500cc category last year, said he would need at least six months to be competitive after testing his new Yamaha YZR-M1 at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
"Basically, we worked on finding a good riding position -- adjusting the brake lever, foot peg, seating, tank and the amount of information on the dashboard," Rossi told reporters. "I find the bike has too much information and I would need to work with the engineers as all I want to know is how much fuel I have left and how fast I am going."
The 24-year-old said he was still making adjustments to his new life with Yamaha following the decision to part with Honda in November, adding that he was not under any pressure to deliver the world championship to his new team just yet.
"I was under more pressure when I was with Honda. There, it was expected of me to be first. If I was second, it was a disaster," he said. "I hope it will not be the same with Yamaha as I'm still finding my feet with the team. Although most of my crew are the same, the surroundings are different."
Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki join Yamaha in putting their testing their bikes at the Sepang circuit this week.
Rossi Plays Down Title Chances With Yamaha
World champion Valentino Rossi expects to win a race this year but has played down his chances of retaining his MotoGP crown after switching from Honda to Yamaha.
"To win the championship in the first year will be hard," the Italian said in an interview released by his new team on Friday before testing in Malaysia. "We need time to become competitive and win races. We will aim at being at the top level by mid-season and then try to win some grands prix."
Asked whether failure to win a race on the Yamaha M1 this season would prove that technology had become more important than the rider, he agreed. Rossi, who tests at Sepang on Saturday more than two months since he last rode a grand prix machine, looked forward to the new challenge.
"Everything's completely new, so it's almost starting from zero. I'll need one day just to get used to riding again, just to recalculate the speed and the braking," he said. "And the bike will feel different to what I have been used to."
"There was nothing to prove," he said of his decision not to stay at Honda.
"It was just that the motivation riding for Honda had finished, we won three world championships in a row, we won at favourite tracks, at my least favourite tracks, and in all conditions -- so what was left to do?" Rossi expected his main rivals this year would be similar to last season, singling out compatriot Max Biaggi, Spain's Sete Gibernau and American Nicky Hayden.
"In 2002 the Yamaha was at more or less the same level as the Honda, better in some ways, worse in others," he added. "But in the winter of last year between 2002 and 2003, Honda made a big step forward and it seemed as if Yamaha couldn't quite match that improvement."
"I'm very excited, I really am," he said of the Sepang test. "I've been waiting for this for two months. Tomorrow is not a job, I'm really excited about it."
Rossi To Ride With Tobacco Sponsorship
"Valentino Rossi will ride in the blue of ... (the) Gauloises brand," his Yamaha team said last Wednesday.
The Italian had always said he would not ride with tobacco sponsorship in grand prix racing, which made his switch from Honda to Yamaha at the end of last season all the more surprising.
Rossi will get his first chance to test the Yamaha M1 bike at Sepang, Malaysia this weekend.
Reports provided by Reuters
Rally
Sebastien Loeb was perhaps unlucky in not winning the World Championship last year. He got his 2004 campaign under way in the same strong manner that would see him in touch all season, by winning, and not by a little bit, the Monte Carlo Rally, leading home the squabbling Ford pairing of Markko Martin and Francois Duval.
With time in hand however, Loeb did not have to push as hard on Leg 3, and while the Fords and Gronholm raced each other for the two podium positions, the win was always going to rely on the Citroen driver striking major difficulties. The most critical aspect of the day was going to be tyre choice, as Gronholm's Leg 1 difficulties suggested.
"It's been an incredibly tough rally," said Martin. "We've had snow, ice and fog and these Monte-type conditions are quite new to me so to finish second is much more than I expected. This weekend has been playing on my nerves for a long time. I was close to leading on Friday but on Saturday morning I lost so much time in the fog. Perhaps I need to eat more carrots! I set out to get second place back and managed to do so but I've been counting down the stages and I'm glad it's over. It's a great start to the season for Ford and now we've got to keep this up for the rest of the year."
A Subaru should have finished in that gap. After hitting a fence post on Leg 1, Petter Solberg had battled his way back past Loix to be fifth on Leg 2 and held the position until Stage 14 when he clouted the rock face, damaging the front left corner of the car. The time lost saw Loix and Gilles Panizzi slip past, leaving the Norwegian seventh.
Pos Driver/Co-driver Car
1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Citroen Xsara WRC
2. Markko Martin/Michael Park Ford Focus RS WRC 3
3. Francois Duval/Stephan Prevot Ford Focus RS WRC 3
4. Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen Peugeot 307 WRC
5. Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets Peugeot 307 WRC
6. Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi Mitsubishi Lancer WRC04
7. Petter Solberg/Phillip Mills Subaru Impreza WRC 2003
8. Olivier Burri/Jean-Philippe Patthey Subaru Impreza WRC
9. Josef Beres/Petr stary Hyundai Accent WRC
10. Nicolas Bernardi/Denis Giraudet Renault Clio (Super 1600)
The change would allow drivers who have crashed out or retired to start the next day's leg and take a healthy haul of points while the winner on all three can secure 30.
Top drivers, including several champions, were fined this year for speeding during the 2002 event as they drove to the initial shakedown and between stages. The fines and driving bans led to an angry response from the FIA, who listed the event as provisional on the race calendar pending an official report to the FIA's World Motor Sport Council meeting in March.
The world rally calendar has been expanded from 14 to 16 rounds this year, a situation that coincides with a drive by teams to cut costs. Some people have questioned the timing, given the financial constraints faced by many teams in a sport with just five manufacturers competing for the title after Skoda and Hyundai pulled out last year.
US Open Wheel
Sportscars
In the prototypes, several cars look promising, with entries being fielded by some of US racing's major sports car teams. Doran Lista Racing, better known for their Dallara sports car, have developed their own chassis under the DP regulations and have a Toyota-powered car for themselves with sportscar veterans Jan Lammers, Didier Theys, Marc Goosens and Fredy Lienhard on board. They have also supplied chassis for two other teams with Michael Shank Racing's Toyota-engined example (#6) strongly teamed, while the Bell Motorsports Pontiac-powered car boasts one of the best line-ups in the field with Christian Fittipaldi, Andy Pilgrim, Terry Borchellar and Forest Barber.
Daytona Class
No Drivers Car
01 Scott Pruett/Max Papis/TBA Riley-Lexus
2 Andy Wallace/Tony Stewart/ Crawford-Chevrolet
Davidson/Dale Earnhardt Jr
4 Butch Leitzinger/David Brule/ Crawford-Chevrolet
Elliot Forbes-Robinson/Jimmie Johnson
6 Brent Martini/Cort Wagner/Mike Newton/ Doran-Lexus
Thomas Erdos
9 Paul Mears Jr/Mike Borkowski/ Multimatic-Ford
Arie Luyendyk Jr/Nick Ham
10 Wayne Taylor/Max Angelelli/Emmanuel Collard Riley-Pontiac
27 Didier Theys/Fredy Lienhard/Jan Lammers/ Doran-Lexus
Marc Goosens
45 Gunnar Jeannette/Kyle Petty Paul Newman/ Fabcar-Porsche
Michael Brockman
54 Forest Barber/Terry Borchellar/ Doran-Pontiac
Andy Pilgrim/Christian Fittipaldi
58 David Donohue/Darren Law/Sascha Maassen/ Fabcar-Porsche
Lucas Luhr
59 Hurley Haywood/JC France/Scott Sharp/ Fabcar-Porsche
Scott Goodyear
GT Class
No Drivers Car
11 Iradj Alexander/Edi Gay/Diego Alessi/ Ferrari 360 GT
Paul Dana
21 Bill Auberlen/Boris Said/Justin Marks/ BMW M3
Joey Hand
30 Ralf Kelleners/Anthony Lazzaro/Greg Ray Maserati Light GT
44 Mike Fitzgerald/Joe & Jay Policastro/ Porsche 996 GT3 RS
Robin Liddell/Johnny Mowlem
66 Kevin Buckler/Timo Bernhard/ Porsche 996 GT3 RS
Jorg Bergmeister/Patrick Long
67 Pierre Ehret/Jim Matthews/Lars Nielsen/ Porsche 996 GT3 RS
Robert Nearn
68 RJ Valentine/Chris Gleason/Abraham Zimroth/ Porsche 996 GT3 RS
Bohdan Kroczek/Ian James
73 Klaus Engelhorn/Dieter Quester/ Ferrari 360 GT
Philipp Peter/Andrea Montermini
MotoGP
"It was more exhaustive today when compared with the last two days but I'm happy with the results," said the 24-year-old. "The engine needs more character and with more horsepower we should be alright."
"Today was the first day I had the opportunity to ride the bike and, while I am quite pleased with it, there are still many areas we can improve on," Rossi said after completing 15 laps at the challenging circuit in morning and afternoon sessions.
MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi's race bike will carry tobacco sponsorship for the first time next season.
Upcoming Events Calendar
Please Contact Us for permission to republish this or any other material from Atlas F1.
 Email to Friend
Volume 10, Issue 4
Articles
The Alchemist
Interview with Rubens Barrichello
Technical Analysis: Ferrari F2004
A Visit to the Cat-House
2004 Countdown: Facts & Stats
Columns
Rear View Mirror
Bookworm Critique
Elsewhere in Racing
> Homepage |
