WORLD SPORT 30

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WORLD SPORT
Hamilton fastest
in US practice
Gulf Daily News Saturday, 1st November 2014
AUSTIN, Texas: Formula One championship leader Lewis
Hamilton and his title rival team
mate Nico Rosberg were separated
by mere fumes yesterday in a familiar Mercedes one-two in U.S. Grand
Prix practice.
Email: [email protected]
US GRAND PRIX FREE PRACTICE TIMES
2nd session: 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes 1:39.085, 2. Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes
1:39.088, 3. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Ferrari 1:40.189, 4. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull
1:40.390, 5. Felipe Massa (BRA) Williams 1:40.457, 6. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1:40.543,
7. Daniil Kvyat (RUS) Toro Rosso 1:40.631, 8. Kevin Magnussen (DEN) McLaren 1:40.641, 9.
Jenson Button (GBR) McLaren 1:40.698, 10. Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India 1:40.800,
11. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Williams 1:40.828, 12. Romain Grosjean (FRA) Lotus 1:41.054, 13.
Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) Toro Rosso 1:41.110, 14. Sergio Perez (MEX) Force India 1:41.123, 15.
Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Lotus 1:41.158, 16. Adrian Sutil (GER) Sauber 1:41.332, 17. Esteban
Gutierrez (MEX) Sauber 1:41.420, 18. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 1:43.980.
Just three thousandths of a second
separated the two at the end of the day,
even if Hamilton ended up top of the
timesheets in both sessions despite an
apparent gearbox problem that sidelined
him towards the end of the second.
1st session: 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes 1:39.941, 2. Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes
The Briton, chasing his fifth win in
1:40.233, 3. Jenson Button (GBR) McLaren 1:40.319, 4. Daniil Kvyat (RUS) Toro Rosso
a row and 10th of the season, set the
1:40.887, 5. Kevin Magnussen (DEN) McLaren 1:40.987, 6. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Ferrari
morning pace with a time of one minute
1:41.065, 7. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 1:41.463, 8. Felipe Nasr (BRA) Williams 1:41.545,
39.941 seconds at the undulating Circuit
9. Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Force India 1:41.722, 10. Max Verstappen (NED) Toro Rosso
of the Americas.
1:41.785, 11. Felipe Massa (BRA) Williams 1:41.907, 12. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1:41.965,
Rosberg, 17 points behind his team
13. Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Lotus 1:42.329, 14. Adrian Sutil (GER) Sauber 1:42.333, 15. Sermate with three races to come worth
gio Perez (MEX) Force India 1:42.359, 16. Esteban Gutierrez (MEX) Sauber 1:42.516, 17. Dana maximum 100 points, was 0.292
iel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull 1:42.598, 18. Romain Grosjean (FRA) Lotus 1:43.229.
seconds slower than the 2008 world
champion.
Hamilton then produced a 1:39.085
in the afternoon, a massive 1.1 seconds
quicker than third placed Ferrari driver
Fernando Alonso. The difference between
the two was the same as that between
Alonso and 16th placed Adrian Sutil.
McLaren’s Jenson Button had been
third fastest in the opening session with
just 18 cars on track after Caterham and
Marussia went into administration and
failed to make the journey to Texas.
Mercedes, who have already wrapped
up the constructors’ title, can equal McLaren’s 1988 record,
set by Alain Prost
US GP TIMETABLE
and the late Ayrton
Senna, of 10 one-two
(All Bahrain time)
finishes in a season
TODAY
in Sunday’s race.
Practice 3
6pm - 7pm
Back then there Qualifying
9pm
were only 16 races,
compared to the curTOMORROW
rent 19.
Race
11pm
Toro Rosso’s Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat, who graduates
to the main Red Bull team next year in
place of departing four times champion
Sebastian Vettel, was fourth fastest in
the morning ahead of Denmark’s Kevin
Magnussen in the other McLaren.
n Ferrari mechanics run to retrieve the stalled car of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in the pits during the first practice sesThe order shifted after lunch however,
sion. Inset, Mercedes driver Hamilton waits for the start of the first practice session
with Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo fourth after a power unit problem Horner assured the fans that the Ger- to be very careful with our mileage, he gave Dutch teenager Max Verstappen anhampered him earlier in the day and Bra- man, who was seventh fastest on Friday has to get through three race weekends other run. He was 10th fastest.
zilian Felipe Massa fifth for Williams.
morning and then 18th after doing only with this unit.”
Drivers also trialled a new ‘virtual safeVettel will start tomorrow’s race from 13 laps in the afternoon, would not sit
Williams’ Brazilian reserve Felipe Nasr ty car’ system, being tested as a means of
the pitlane after exceeding his allocation out qualifying.
completed 19 laps in the car Valtteri Bottas reducing speeds electronically across the
of power units.
“We’ll certainly be taking part in qual- will race on Sunday and was eighth fastest field when yellow flags are waved withHowever Red Bull principal Christian ifying,” he told the BBC. “But we have in the morning session while Toro Rosso out introducing the real vehicle.
Navarro beats
Pironkova to
reach semis
SOFIA,
Bulgaria:
Carla Suarez Navarro advanced to
the semifinals of the
season-ending Tournament of
Champions by beating Tsvetana Pironkova 7-6 (2), 6-1 yesterday.
The fifth-seeded Spanish
player was under pressure
knowing that only a straightset victory would secure her
spot in the semis.
Home favorite Pironkova
tried hard but failed to convert two set points at 6-5 in
the tiebreaker. Suarez Navarro took a quick 5-0 lead
in the second set and allowed
Pironkova just one game before clinching the set and her
required victory.
“I knew, for sure, it would
be tough here because the
players are strong and whoever I play in the semifinals
it will be difficult, but I’m
ready,” Suarez Navarro said.
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic is the second player from
the Sredets group to advance
to the semifinals today when
she will play Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Nervous
In her last group match,
the 21-year old Spaniard defeated Alize Cornet 6-3, 7-5
to become the only player at
the tournament with 3 wins in
the round robin. Cornet had a
4-1 lead in the second set, but
was unable to stop Muguruza
recovering before winning in
straight sets.
“In the second set, I was
more nervous because I
thought: “I am so close to
win.”
In the Serdika group’s last
match, Italy’s Flavia Pennetta whipped Karolina Pliskova
from the Czech Republic 6-1,
6-3 and will face Suarez Navarro in the semifinals.
The more experienced Pennetta needed 65 minutes to
edge the 22-year-old Pliskova
who replaced top-seeded Ekaterina Makarova. The Russian
pulled out of the tournament on
Thursday due to a back injury.
This
eight-player
season-ending tournament is for
players who have won one or
more of the WTA International events during the year but
failed to qualify for the WTA
Finals, which was staged in
Singapore last week.
This six-year-old tournament will move to Zhuhai,
China, next year after a threeyear run in Sofia.
Formula One urged to tackle cost crisis
AUSTIN, Texas: Sauber
principal Monisha Kaltenborn has
urged Formula One’s decision makers
to act in the sport’s best interests and
tackle a looming crisis after two teams
went into administration in the space
of a week.
Speaking after the governing FIA
said the predicament of Marussia and
Caterham showed the need for cost-cutting measures, Kaltenborn said she was
‘beyond frustration’ with how the situation had developed.
“It’s one thing to just talk about this
terrible scenario that some teams are
not going to be there but for the sport
and the people responsible for the sport
to have let it come that far is extremely
disturbing,” she said at the US Grand
Prix on Thursday.
“Some stakeholders and people are
just not willing to understand where
the problem lies,” added the Indian-born principal, whose own Swissbased team is facing considerable financial challenges.
“What we really need to look at, and
we as a team have been saying for so
long, is you have to get the figures right
in the sport. I think it’s a real shame
that we have turnovers of billions of
dollars and as a sport, as a community,
we are not capable of making sure that
11 teams survive.”
Formula One has annual turnover in
excess of $1.5-billion but more than
half that goes to the commercial rights
holder, with private equity group CVC
the largest shareholder.
The teams share some 47.5 percent
but only the top 10 get a share of the
prize money and payments are based
on performance and vary considerably.
Warned
Former FIA president Max Mosley
warned this week that more teams
could go bust unless the revenues
were shared more equally to ensure all
could compete.
The FIA issued a statement on
Thursday questioning the “economic balance” of the championship and
pointing out that it had warned repeatedly of the need to cut costs.
Caterham and Marussia, both tail-end
teams, are absent from this weekend’s
race in Austin and in danger of folding
completely due to considerable debts.
That leaves just nine teams and 18
cars, the lowest at a race weekend
since 2005.
The FIA announced last year that
it wanted to introduce a cost cap in
2015, but in April the governing
body’s president Jean Todt said the
plan had been scrapped because the
leading six teams, who form part
of the decision-making F1 strategy
group, were opposed.
Todt said then that the governing
body could not impose a cost cap and
measures would have to be introduced
instead through the sporting regulations.
Commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has given both teams dispensation to miss races while they try to
find buyers. The Brazilian Grand Prix
is the weekend after Austin, with Abu
Dhabi the final race later in November.
Teams that miss races are, however,
in breach of contractual obligations to
compete in the entire championship
and also forfeit prize money payments.