Renault Alpine A110-50's Run at the Monaco GP

Aside from Mark Webber's stunning win, Renault had another reason to celebrate in Monaco this past weekend as the French firm introduced the new Alpine A110-50 Concept to mark the 50th anniversary of its legendary mid-engined sports car. The presentation took place on the eve of the Monaco Grand Prix, with Renault's Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares wearing his race suit to drive the 400-horsepower, mid-engined racer around the Circuit de Monaco.
Speaking to French journalists during the media presentation, Tavares admitted that Renault is indeed considering to revive the Alpine brand with a final decision to be taken "before the end of the year".
"There's at least a 50 percent chance of that happening [the re-launch of Alpine] with the introduction of a single model to begin with, priced between 30,000 and 100,000 euros (US$37,000 to US$125,000)," said Tavares, according to the AFP.
The Renault boss added that if the Alpine sub-brand gets the green light, it will have a new model ready in "three to five years".

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F 1: Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Immediately after the 2012 season opener in Australia, the Formula 1 circus moved to Malaysia for the second race of the year. In contrast to Albert Park, which uses public roads that are closed in order for the Grand Prix to take place and is a relatively easy track, the Sepang Circuit features an unusual layout, with a tight hairpin leading from the very long back straight to the pits.
In Australia, we got a first taste of each team’s pace during tge race. Apparently, the Malaysian GP qualifying session proved that the picture it painted was an accurate one.
Both McLarens will once again start from the front row of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton beating his teammate to claim his second pole position in as many races.
Jenson Button, however, commented that Hamilton is not his only concern for Sunday’s race. That’s because a resurgent Michael Schumacher brought his Mercedes in third place, the best result since his 2010 return. “The Mercedes is renowned, especially Michael, for getting good starts so it’s going to be a fun Turn One I think”, said Button.
For the second race in a row, Lotus was also very strong. This time it wasn’t Romain Grosjean but Kimi Raikkonen who looked like he never left the F1 tracks.
In fact, the “Iceman” said that even though he made a couple of mistakes on his fastest lap, it was good enough for fifth place: “Without that, we were in with a shout for pole today”, he added. Unfortunately for him, a gearbox replacement meant that he got a five-place penalty, so he’ll start from 10th place.
That was good news for Sebastian Vettel. The 2010 and 2011 world champion complained that he was “struggling to find a balance” with either the medium or the harder compound tires, but after Raikkonen’s penalty he gained one place on the grid and will start fifth, right behind the other Red Bull of Mark Webber.
Ferrari’s qualifying session was a mixed bag. The F2012 is clearly inferior to the front-runners, struggling to beat both Williams and Sauber, and Felipe Massa didn’t even make it to Q3. Fernando Alonso will start from eighth place after Raikkonen’s penalty.
The Scuderia’s technical director Pat Fry was full of praise for Alonso, despite his lap time being 1.34 seconds slower than Hamilton’s pole. “As usual, he squeezed every drop of performance out of the F2012”, said Fry. “We had a KERS problem right in the final stages of the session, when Fernando set out for his last timed lap in Q3, but I don’t think without it he would have got a different position on the grid.”

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F 1: Australian GP Qualifying Results

At the inaugural race of every Formula 1 season you never really know where each team stands in terms of performance. Sure, there are the favorites, the also-runs, the back markers and oftentimes, the wild cards. Well, the qualifying race of the Australian Grand Prix that kicked off this year's F1 season certainly had all of the above. But not necessarily in the way most seasoned F1 fans might have expected.
Lewis Hamilton claimed the 20th pole position of his career and Jenson Button lined up right beside him, making it an all-McLaren front row. Not too surprising, as despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel took most pole positions last year, the McLarens had proved to be very fast during testing.
“It’s an incredible feeling to get off to such a good start”, said Hamilton. His team-mate Button added, “Obviously, this is only the beginning, but I think we have done a good job this winter and we have proved that today.”
For the rest of the official qualifying session, it’s hard to say which was the biggest surprise.
Romain Grosjean, who many mistake as a rookie, has in fact raced in F1 with Renault, albeit his last event was in 2009. Nevertheless, he brought Lotus to third position, justifying many like Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner who believe that Lotus could be this year’s outsider.
Unfortunately, Horner’s own drivers were clearly off the pace compared to the McLarens. Mark Webber recorded the fifth fastest lap, despite facing a KERS malfunction, while reigning champion Sebastian Vetell was sixth.
Michael Schumacher posted his best qualifying result since his 2011 return to Formula 1 by claiming fourth place. The seven-time world champion was happy with the performance of the Mercedes W03: “Our performance is a huge step forward, considering where we were in qualifying here last year”, said the German referring to his 2011 start from 11th place.
If Ferrari thought that last year’s performance was a fluke and 2012 will signal a return to form, they might have to reconsider. Fernando Alonso spun on Q2 and did not make it to Q3! So he will start from 12th place, while Felipe Massa was a second slower than his teammate and ended up 17th.
Apparently, Scuderia’s technical director Pat Fry was simply being candid when he said that the Ferrari’s performance is way off the pace setters.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali commented: “I understand that at the moment our fans are disappointed but I would urge them to be cautious before making any definitive judgment. We have a lot of work to do and our engineers are well aware of that, as indeed they were before even leaving for Melbourne.”
With the two HRT’s being disqualified for failing, for the second year in a row in Melbourne to achieve a lap time within 107 percent of pole position, as mandated by the rules, 22 drivers will start tomorrow’s race.

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