March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
It’s true that nothing is original and fashion is cyclic but when it comes to metalflake that’s no bad thing. Invented in the 1930’s by painting innovator John Morton (who created the finish by adapting aluminium roof coating paint) Commercial…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
The only MCNLive! in 2010 has just confirmed that 80’s punk legend Toyah Willcox will be one of the headline live acts, performing her classic hits. 15% off tickets if you book now On the bill for the weekend you…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
It’s not often you can look at a new 1000cc superbike from an aftermarket tuner and realise they have made it more comfortable and a little more practical, but that’s exactly what German BMW tuning masters AC Schnitzer has done….
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
This is Aiden. We can see where his future is going to be! It won’t be long before he has a biker chick on the back!
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
A woman “almost died” after crashing while attempting the new motorcycle test, according to witnesses. The 18-year-old stopped breathing and was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken neck after crashing at Chester Multi-Purpose Test Centre last Tuesday. She survived…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
MCN readers can help halt a dramatic decline in people taking the bike test by backing our plans for shaking-up the exam. Test bookings were down 62% in the eight months following the introduction of a new bike test last…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
Harley-Davidson is extending an incentive to anyone who trades in a motorcycle over 500cc which will give them an extra £900 over the value of the part exchange price of their bike. The offer is only open to anyone buying…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:56am Under Motorbikes
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Friday’s top internet stories for the week. Here’s what I’ve been reading over the last 7 days.
- Fuel Efficiency Tips For The Long Run
- World’s Fastest Velocette
- How to Have a Safe and Happy Solo Motorcycle Trip
- 10 Reasons Motorcycles Are Better Than Cars
- How To Get Your Motorcycle Out Of Storage And Back On The Road
…
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:55am Under Racing
The 107% rule would make life even harder for teams like HRT
FIA President Jean Todt has hinted strongly that the 107% rule could be revived in the near future.
Neither HRT car would have qualified for last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix had the rule been in place (see below). But why bring back a rule which would only serve to make life even harder for the sport’s most vulnerable teams?
The 107% rule, which prevented any driver who failed to qualify within 107% of the pole sitter’s time from starting the race, was dropped at the end of 2002.
Since Bahrain it’s been suggested that having cars that are more than 7% slower than the quickest runners on-track at the same time isn’t safe.
This is clearly not the case. The slowest qualifier for last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours was 29% slower than the pole sitter.
The Circuit de la Sarthe is narrower than most F1 circuits and they race at night – so I’m not buying any claim that F1 drivers can’t cope with lapping cars that are 7% slower than them.
The 107% rule is a bad rule. It harms the sport and it harms small teams like HRT for which every minute of track running and every second of television exposure they can get is precious.
Throwing them out of a race weekend when they’ve already gone to the huge expense of flying to Bahrain or Malaysia only makes it even harder for them to compete in the future.
If the FIA really wants to stop cars that are too slow from competing then it should be done without forcing the teams to fly their cars halfway around the world first. They could hold a pre-season qualification test to make sure all the cars can lap within a certain time of each other – but with a cut-off closer to 29% than 7%.
A snobbish attitude to new teams which aren’t on the pace yet does F1 no favours. An important part of racing is having to share a track with other cars and finding ways to get around them. It’s an area where F1 is hardly excelling at the moment.
Having to deal with slower cars and lapped traffic is the down-side of being the race leader. In series like IndyCar, where backmarkers aren’t given the blue flag ordering them to get out of the leaders’ way, it helps keep the front runners within sight of each other, encouraging closer racing.
And isn’t that something we’d all like to see?
| Pos. | # | Driver | Car | Q1 | |
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1′55.029 | |
| 2 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1′55.313 | |
| 3 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1′54.612 | |
| 4 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1′55.341 | |
| 5 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1′55.463 | |
| 6 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1′55.298 | |
| 7 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1′55.593 | |
| 8 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1′55.715 | |
| 9 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1′55.511 | |
| 10 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1′55.213 | |
| 11 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1′55.969 | |
| 12 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1′55.628 | |
| 13 | 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1′56.375 | |
| 14 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1′56.428 | |
| 15 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1′56.189 | |
| 16 | 23 | Kamui Kobyashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1′56.541 | |
| 17 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1′56.167 | |
| 18 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1′57.071 | |
| 19 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1′59.728 | |
| 20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1′59.852 | |
| 21 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 2′00.313 | |
| 22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 2′00.587 | |
| 107% time | 2′03.081 | ||||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 2′03.240 | |
| 24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 2′04.904 |
Read more: 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic review
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March 20th, 2010 at 07:55am Under Racing
The two teams on the outside looking in on the 2010 Formula 1 season are reportedly talking about joining forces, a growing number of news outlets are reporting.
USF1 and Stefan GP seem to each have something key the other is missing. USF1 has an entry slot in F1 and Zoran Stefanovic, Stefan…
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