The usual problem qualifying. Throughout the season, Valentino Rossi has encountered more problems than usual in “Time Attack” and are found today in Sepang back to earth for a slip. Shared with the second Ducati Desmosedici GP11.1 available, 9 times World Champion has remedied a place in the third row with reference to the 9 th fastest time: better than yesterday, but the problems are always the same …

” Compared to yesterday, today went a little better , “admitted Rossi. ” The main problem that has ruined our qualifications is always the same fall. The other dynamic is the same slide, we need to understand what leads to this error because it causes us to lose precious time.

After the fall are shared with the second bike with which I had the same feeling, but I managed to get a place on the third row. In the first areas where there are more challenging corners that we lose less than in T4, where, just there, leave 6 of the 9 / 10 than their opponents. We lose a lot out of the two hairpins, we need to understand why.

Thinking about our race pace has improved, but problems remain the choice of tires, everything will depend on the weather. No doubt it will be a tough race, difficult, but we did better than yesterday managed to make some progress . “

News that formula one is coming to New York is back in the headlines.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on Saturday that the sport will announce next week that a street race in Weehawken and West New York, against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline, will take place in June 2013.

The report cited “two people familiar with the matter”, adding that the press conference will take place in Weehawken, a New Jersey township, at the Hudson River waterside Port Imperial, on Tuesday.

If confirmed, it will mean the United States has two annual grands prix, with Texas set to join the schedule next year at a purpose-built circuit outside Austin.

In August, the Wall Street Journal said the mayors of Weehawken and West New York were in talks with private investors about a 2013 F1 street race.

HRT on Saturday announced that it will be Vitantonio Liuzzi who sits out next weekend’s Indian grand prix.
The Spanish team had already said Indian Narain Karthikeyan would return to the grid for his country’s inaugural formula one race.

It was believed that Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who earlier this year replaced Karthikeyan due to a deal struck between HRT and Red Bull, would sit out India.

Liuzzi’s manager said in September that the Italian has a firm contract for every race in 2011, with Ricciardo conceding that “at least I will be driving in the practice session”.

But HRT announced on Saturday: “Daniel Ricciardo will pair with the 34-year-old Indian driver for this single event.”

Team boss Colin Kolles explained: “I have asked Tonio Liuzzi to step aside for the Indian GP in order to allow driving programmes with Ricciardo and Karthikeyan to be completed.

“I have to thank Tonio for his professional approach and attitude.”

Daniel Ricciardo is not relaxed about his future in formula one.
Recently seen as the natural successor to his countryman Mark Webber at Red Bull, the 22-year-old Australian has struggled to get up to speed with Vitantonio Liuzzi after replacing Narain Karthikeyan at HRT earlier this year.

The move was funded by his backers Red Bull but Ricciardo is contracted to the energy drinks company only to the end of 2011.

With Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari and Jean-Eric Vergne all also in the running for Red Bull’s junior seats at Toro Rosso, the West Australian newspaper concludes that Ricciardo’s future is clouded.

“I’ve got the next few races,” said the upbeat Ricciardo on Saturday, when it was announced his teammate Liuzzi will sit out India next weekend to make way for Karthikeyan’s one-off return.

“They (the last three races) still play a part for next year, so for me it’s important to stay focused on those and not watch what the other guys are doing and what I’m doing too much off the track.

“I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t have a place next year, but it’s one of those things,” he continued.

“There’s only limited space. I think obviously having Red Bull and hopefully impressing them enough this year, they’ll continue and put me in somewhere.”

Paul di Resta’s formula one career almost got off to a flying start a few years ago.
Actually, the 25-year-old Scot is only a rookie in 2011, and hoping to be given the green light to stay with Force India next season.

His career however seemed on a fast track at the end of 2006, when he beat his teammate Sebastian Vettel to the coveted F3 Euroseries title.

It was then that di Resta caught the attention of former Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger.

“Franz Tost and I considered signing him years ago,” the Austrian great revealed to Sportmagazin. “He has great potential.”

That is not Berger’s only regret from his days with Toro Rosso — another is signing the multiple Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais.

“I was wrong about him,” said the former Ferrari and McLaren driver. “He came from America where he had won everything, but formula one was just too fast for him.

“The late braking was too much for him,” added Berger.

Lewis Hamilton has split with his long-term girlfriend, according to British tabloid reports.
The news could explain the 2008 world champion’s uncharacteristically bad mood last weekend in Korea, where he vowed to begin to “redeem” himself after the worst period in terms of form and incidents in his career.

The Daily Mail says 26-year-old Hamilton’s split after four years with American pop singer Nicole Scherzinger, 33, is because of their “conflicting work schedules”.

Separate spokesmen for Hamilton and Scherzinger did not comment.

But the news was also reported by the Daily Mirror and the Sun, with a source saying the pair have “agreed there’s no point as they never see each other”.

Red Bull could hold back some development parts for the 2012 season, designer Adrian Newey has revealed.
Ferrari attracted great attention last weekend in Korea when a radical new wing specification, whose philosophy is destined for next year’s car, was debuted.

With the titles now wrapped up, other teams are also pushing ahead with testing new parts in the remaining few races of 2011.

But Newey has admitted he is cautious.

“All of our research and development is now focused on next year’s car,” he is quoted by the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

“If there is anything new that we can apply to this year’s car, we may choose to do so.

“But it also depends on whether that would give away any clues as to what we are doing in 2012,” added the Briton.

 Luiz Razia is pushing to secure a one-off race seat with Team Lotus for his native Brazilian grand prix.
The 22-year-old Brazilian is already an occasional Friday practice and reserve driver with the Tony Fernandes-led team.

And according to Agencia Gazeta Press, he is working hard to find the money to replace either Jarno Trulli or Heikki Kovalainen for his home event at Interlagos late next month.

“For months I’ve been talking with sponsors to get the support needed to compete in this race,” said Razia, who in 2011 raced for Fernandes’ GP2 team.

Previously, the biggest hope was that he will get the green light to practice on Friday ahead of the 2011 season finale.

“For Brazil, it is much more interesting to have a driver on the grid, representing new blood,” he now insists.

“The country is in a period of great economic growth and it would be interesting for companies to have their names linked to an event of first-class technology and global exposure,” added Razia.

Robert Kubica is unlikely to meet Renault’s deadline as the team looks to finalise its driver lineup for 2012.
Boss Eric Boullier recently imposed a mid-October deadline for the Pole, who is under contract only to the end of 2011, to say whether he will definitely recover from horror injuries sustained in a February rally crash.

He has agreed to extend that deadline a little further, but Kubica’s doctor this week admitted that the 26-year-old is still “a few months” from the end of his rehabilitation.

“Our goal is to get him back in F1,” Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli told Tuscan television Lucca.

“But he will still need a few more months of rehabilitation. The cuts were so bad that many colleagues and specialists had ruled out a return to the wheel for Robert.

“But, clinically, little by little everything has improved and the hope to see him driving as soon as 2012 is becoming more and more concrete.”

Nico Hulkenberg signed a contract this week to race with the Force India team in 2012, according to reports.
The 24-year-old made a promising grand prix debut in 2010, culminating in pole position in Brazil, but he was replaced by Williams with the well-backed Pastor Maldonado ostensibly for financial reasons.

Germany’s motorsport-total.com reports that the German, who has been Force India’s reserve and Friday practice driver in 2011, will make his return to racing in 2012, replacing his experienced countryman Adrian Sutil.

The report said Hulkenberg has inked a one-year deal with an option for 2013.

“We will make no comment on the driver issue until the team makes a statement,” his manager Timo Gans is quoted by SID news agency.

“Already the current contract includes an option, so either way a new contract does not need to be signed,” he added.

Team boss Vijay Mallya has said he will not announce Force India’s next driver lineup until December.

Sutil’s manager Manfred Zimmermann therefore denies that Hulkenberg will definitely be Paul di Resta’s new teammate in 2012.

“That is not right. The team – Vijay Mallya and Rob Fernley – confirmed yesterday that this is a rumour in the press and not the truth,” he insisted.

“We are in negotiations with the team,” added Sutil’s manager. “When they are concluded I cannot say, but we certainly will not wait until December the fifteenth.”

 Mercedes regards Michael Schumacher as an integral part of its push for success in formula one, boss Norbert Haug said this week.
Currently, the seven time world champion is committed to the German marque – and his return to F1 – only until the end of next season.

2012 will be the third year since Mercedes took over Brawn GP, with motor sport director Haug insisting that a push to the top of the sport takes longer than that.

“We are going to keep establishing our new Silver Arrows works team in formula one,” he told Eurosport Deutschland.

“Our development and our learning will bring as upwards gradually, step by step, from the fourth power at the moment to third, second and ultimately to position number one,” added Haug.

“This can be achieved only through years of hard and focused work. The current world champions (Red Bull) took five years before their first success.”

And Haug insisted that Mercedes has the right drivers – Schumacher and his German countryman Nico Rosberg – for the project.

“We are completely satisfied with them, as once we give our drivers a winning car, they will win with it,” he said.

“Michael is a motivator through and through. He has a plan just as he had one at Ferrari, where he fought for five years for his first (Ferrari) title.

“He has the same bite as ever and remains one of the very best drivers in the field,” added Haug.

Maria de Villota insists “there are real possibilities” she will be a regular in the formula one paddock next year.
The 31-year-old Spanish female driver tested a 2009 Renault at Paul Ricard in August, and earlier this month she re-appeared in the car during the World Series race weekend at Barcelona.

She told the Spanish news agency Europa Press that she is getting “closer” to securing a job in formula one for 2012.

“The first test we did in August went so well that it helped to accelerate more possibilities,” said de Villota.

She said her short-term objective is to “be in formula one in 2012″.

De Villota, the daughter of former F1 driver Emilio de Villota, said her Superleague races alongside former F1 drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Enrique Bernoldi had convinced her she is capable of contesting grands prix.

“While I have great respect for them, I do not see an uneven playing field,” she said.

“Physically – yes I know – I have to work harder, but as an athlete and a driver I feel that with proper training and with the experience that I need, I think I can do it very well.”

Sebastian Vettel has hinted he might be willing to give up a race victory to help his team perform a perfect score in 2011.
Red Bull and the 24-year-old German have already secured the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships, but Mark Webber currently lies in only fourth place behind Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button with three races left to run.

Webber has failed to win a single race in 2011 compared with Vettel’s ten so far, so the Australian might need some help to curb the 13-point gap to second place.

“With three races left, we hope for the best results possible for ourselves but also for the team,” Vettel is quoted by the AFP news agency.

Agreed team boss Christian Horner: “He (Webber) has had a very strong year and we want to get him second in the drivers’ championship.

“That’s our remaining target for the remainder of the year — to get him a race win and finish the season in style.”

When asked if that might involve him giving up a win so that Webber can reach the top step of the podium, Vettel answered: “Yeah, definitely.”

Contrary to some team bosses earlier remarks, ‘Delhi belly’ is a concern for formula one teams as they head to India next week.
‘Delhi belly’ is a colloquial term for the sort of sickness often picked up by travellers to India as they sample local foods and drink the tap water.

But McLaren and FOTA boss Martin Whitmarsh warned the media not to “overstate” the risks of racing and eating in Delhi.

“I don’t think we should single out India as a particular challenge in that regard,” he insisted.

Fellow boss Christian Horner added that Red Bull has had a crew running a show car in India recently and there was only “one incident of an upset tummy”.

“No, we’re not taking any additional precautions,” he revealed.

But that’s not the case with some of the other teams. A spokesperson for Swiss team Sauber said stomach bugs “could seriously compromise the team’s performance if team personnel fall ill”.

“This is why so many precautions are being taken,” the spokesperson is quoted by the Indian Express.

Added a Toro Rosso spokesperson: “It is a fact that Europeans often pick up stomach bugs when in India”.

And a Mercedes spokesperson said its catering team had been deployed to India ahead of time to “source local produce in a new destination”.

 Dan Wheldon’s death could have sped up efforts to end the long era of open-cockpit racing.
F1′s governing body earlier this year, in response to the F1 and F2 incidents in 2009 involving Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees, tested screens and fighter jet-style canopies for possible use in the future.

Now, days after Briton Wheldon was killed when his Indycar overturned and struck catch-fencing in Las Vegas, former FIA president Max Mosley said of the canopy idea: “I think it could work.

“You’re always in danger, in an open cockpit, of objects striking the driver. It (the canopy) might also help if it’s reinforced with another roll bar, in things like the Dan Wheldon accident,” he told CNN.

“But that’s something that needs careful investigation.”

Mosley admitted that an unwanted side-effect of a cockpit canopy would be its aerodynamic effect.

“One of the troubles is that it would probably make the car quicker, which is just what we don’t want. But there are other means of slowing them down,” he said.

Yet more problems are that dirty canopies will affect driver visibility, while in severe accidents the cover might prevent marshals and doctors from extricating injured drivers.

“All of that will be looked at by a technical working group if it turns out the thing would protect the driver better,” insisted Mosley.

“What I do know is we’ve got some very clever people, looking full-time at these problems.”