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Venezuelan Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado had been quick throughout final practice and qualifying of the Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona, but few seriously expected him to win the race on Sunday.

But Maldonado defied his critics - of whom there have been plenty since he entered Formula 1 - with a faultless maiden victory. In a superbly balanced Renault-powered Williams FW34, Maldonado kept his cool after losing the lead to Fernando Alonso at the start of the race and then withstanding huge pressure from the Ferrari near its end.

Photos: WRi2

Maldonado became Sunday the fifth different race winner of the season, driving for the fifth different constructor.

For a while it looked as if Alonso had it made after his lightning start, but tire wear got him in the end after a valiant chase after Maldonado and he had to settle for second. The local hero was under serious pressure from Kimi Raikkonen in the closing laps and would likely have been overtaken had the race been over 67 laps.

Lotus had indeed great pace during the race - enough for the two fastest laps of the race for Romain Grosjean and Raikkonen - but it came far too late.

From GMM

The day after marking its first win for eight years, the once-great Williams team is counting its losses.

(Photo WRI2)

"Everything in our garage is totally destroyed," said team manager Dickie Stanford, who mere hours after holding aloft the constructors' trophy on the podium found himself wielding a fire extinguisher.

It is believed rival teams have already offered to help Williams to get up to speed for Monaco by loaning the Oxfordshire based team any critical equipment.

It could have been worse. Although one fuel rig mechanic was pulled from the garage with his legs on fire, and airlifted to hospital, no one was critically injured in the biggest pit fire anybody had seen in F1 in recent memory.

In a press release, the team said the fire originated from the fuel area.

(Photo: WRI2)

Dozens of those who helped to put out the fire, wearing the shirts of teams up and down the smoke-filled pitlane, received treatment in the medical centre, and seven were in hospital overnight.

"We will have everything we need to run operationally at Monaco, » said Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan to Autosport.

Initial inspections of Bruno Senna's car, which was in the garage when the fire erupted as it had not finished the race, suggest that the chassis is undamaged. However, team Williams will not be certain of that until it has examined the car more closely back at its U.K. base.

From GMM

Felipe Massa needs to relax and focus on getting his formula one career back on track.

That is the advice of Jaime Alguersuari, the former Toro Rosso driver who is now trying to rebuild his own career by testing tyres for Pirelli and working as a co-commentator on British radio.

Asked about Massa's continuing crisis, Spaniard Alguersuari acknowledged it is a "difficult time" in the Brazilian's career.

"Right now the most important thing for him is to stop thinking about the external pressure and just focus on his work and his problems. Sometimes you're not competitive, something has happened and you don't know what it is," Alguersuari told the Spanish newspaper AS.

"But the worst thing you can do is doubt, hesitate, get nervous and start looking at your teammate, because all that will happen is it will get worse," he added.

"Being in elite sport does not, as many believe, depend just on your skills, it's about managing the psychological, physical and technical elements. I am convinced that Massa is not now a slow driver, he can get back to being like Fernando (Alonso) and some days - why not? - faster. The only difference between the two is in the head; that's the difference between good and best," said Alguersuari.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari F2012. (Photo: Ferrari)

Livio Oricchio, the respected F1 correspondent for O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, fears the sport's last Brazilian drivers - Massa and Bruno Senna - could soon lose their seats.

"As a driver, your main reference is always the work of your teammate, so in the sense that (for Massa and Senna) they are Fernando Alonso and Pastor Maldonado, it's going very badly. At this point, only a miracle will keep Massa at Ferrari. He would have to do what he has failed to do in the last two championships, which is to qualify close to Alonso and score points regularly. Neither is what a Ferrari driver is really about," admitted Oricchio, "but it's a huge challenge given Massa's loss of confidence and an unbalanced car."

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Chevrolet launched today a brand new small SUV called the Trax. Official debuts are scheduled for September at the Paris auto show.

Canada and Mexico are among the first countries the Chevrolet's newest car will go on sale in, starting in 2012's last quarter. A total of 140 countries should eventually greet it.

Photo: General Motors

Furthermore, on top of the Cruze, Sonic, Orlando and now Trax models, Chevrolet is expected to bring out as soon as this summer a replacement for the sub-compact Spark, a new Malibu and, this fall, the 2013 Traverse.

The Trax is aimed at consumers looking for a utility vehicle with lots of loading space but cheap on gas. Most importantly, it opens up the small SUV segment to Chevrolet.

No other information about it has filtered through so far.

Latest pictures from race day in Barcelona, following Pastor Maldonado's win in the Spanish Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado has won the Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Alonso and Raikkonen

More than 100 racing drivers and their cars will be blasting up Goodwood hill at this year's Festival of Speed

Opel has offered to build the Citroen's C5 sedan in Ruesselsheim, Germany, to compensate workers for lost production of the Astra, a German newspaper said.

Luiz Razia took advantage of his pole position to secure his second win this season in race 2 in Barcelona.

Razia inherited the pole position after he took eighth position in race 1.

The Brazilian driver maintained his lead from start to finish, and won his second race of the year, the first beign his victory in the opening round in Malaysia, which put him second in the overall standings behind championship leader Davide Valsecchi, who took third position on Sunday in Barcelona.

Nathanael Berthon had the pressure on Razia in the first part of the race, but the frenchman lost ground over the Brazilian driver, and finally had to concentrate on third place Davide Valsecchi. The Frenchman took his first GP2 podium finish.



Race 2 results - GP2 (Barcelona)

1 - Luiz Razia - Arden - 25 laps in 40min08.411s

2 - Nathanael Berthon - Racing Engineering - 5.256s

3 - Davide Valsecchi - Dams - 5.897s

4 - James Calado - Lotus - 6.575s

5 - Max Chilton - Carlin - 13.117s

6 - Giedo Van der Garde - Caterham - 14.362s

7 - Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus - 14.874s
8 - Stefano Coletti - Coloni - 19.223s
Etc.

Championship :

1.Valsecchi 129 points ; 2.Razia 104; 3.Calado 69; 4.Van der Garde 60; 5.Gutierrez 59; 6.Chilton 57; 7.Leimer 41; 8.Nasr 28; 9.Dillmann 27; 10.Coletti 26, etc.

Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr made it two wins in two races for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing at Laguna Seca.

ALMS.com

But the race at the front between Muscle Milk Pickett and Dyson Racing was overshadowed by a multi-way fight in the GT class - which saw Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner overcome a bad pitstop to emerge as winners of the six-hour race -.

Milner and Gavin's Corvette teammates Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia were also in the fight, so were BMW Team RLL's two BMW M3s and Porsche's Flying Lizard and Team Falken Tire teams.

ALMS.com

"It was so tight in our class. You could never let off and think 'I'm alright now'," Gavin noted.

In the end, Magnussen and Garcia came home second, despite an even worse pitstop than what Gavin and Milner experience. Bill Auberlen and Jörg Müller won the fight for the last step of the podium.

ALMS.com

In P2, Level 5 Motorsports had such a good run, they even stole second place overall away from Dyson Racing's P1 team. Franck Montagny, in his debut ALMS race, Scott Tucker and Luis Diaz drove the class-winning HPD ARX-03b.

"The team is very prepared to fight for overall wins," Diaz confirmed.

Amusingly, or rather sadly, Montagny - who was driving both the team's cars - crashed No.055 prototype. Thanks to the work of the Level 5 mechanics, it still came home third behind Conquest's Morgan-Nissan, driven by Martin Plowman, David Heinemeier Hansson and Antonio Pizzonia.

ALMS.com

Patrick Dempsey finished fourth aboard his team's brand-new Lola-Judd P2 prototype.

Colin Braun and Jon Bennet celebrated an in extremis win in the LMPC class, while Jeroen Bleekemolen, Bret Curtis and Emilio Di Guida won the GTC race.

ALMS.com

Race results - Laguna Seca (ALMS)

1 - Luhr/Graf (HPD ARX-03a) - Pickett - 242 laps in 6h00min38.425s

2 - Tucker/Diaz (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 239

3 - Bennett/Braun (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 236

4 - Junqueira/Drissi (Oreca FLM09) - RSR - 236

5 - Popow/Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 236

6 - Guasch/Gidley/Hamilton (Oreca FLM09) - Pickett - 236
7 - Marcelli/Downs/Stirling (Oreca FLM09) - Merchant - 234
8 - Leitzinger/Dobson (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 232
9 - Gavin/Milner (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 232

10 - Magnussen/Garcia (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 232
11 - Mueller/Auberlen (BMW M3) - Rahal - 232
12 - Hand/Mueller (BMW M3) - Rahal - 232

13 - Sharp/Van Overbeek (Ferrari 458) - Extreme Speed - 232

14 - Bergmeister/Long/Lietz (Porsche 997) - Flying Lizard - 232
15 - Henzler/Sellers (Porsche 997) - Falken - 232

16 - Richard/Ende/Lewis (Oreca FLM09) - Dempsey - 231
17 - Fernandez/Turner/Mucke (Aston Martin Vantage) - Aston Martin - 230
18 - Neiman/Holzer (Porsche 997) - Flying Lizard - 230
19 - Miller/Maassen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Miller - 229
20 - Plowman/Hansson-Pizzonia (Morgan-Judd) - Conquest - 227

21 - Nicolosi/Vera (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 225
22 - Brown/Cosmo (Ferrari 458) - Extreme Speed - 224
23 - Dyson/Smith/Mowlem (Lola B12/60-Mazda) - Dyson - 222
24 - Curtis/Bleekemolen/DI Guida - 219
25 - Sofronas/Welch/Villeneuve (Porsche 997 Cup) - GMG - 219

26 - Faieta/Avenatti/Wagner (Porsche 997 Cup) - Competition - 219
27 - MacNeil/Lazzaro (Porsche 997 Cup) - Alex Job - 216
28 - LeSaffre/Faulkner/Bleekemolen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Green Hornet - 211
29 - Tucker/Bouchut (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 207

30 - Dempsey/Cocker/Foster (Lola B12/87-Mazda) - Dempsey - 202
31 - Prendeville/Mitchell/Da Costa (Radical SR10) - Libra - 185
32 - Hedlund/Krohn/Tandy (Porsche 997 Cup) - 178
33 - Cumming/Marsh (Porsche 997 Cup) - JDX - 119
34 - Ducote/Downs/Burgess (Oreca FLM09) - Merchant - 100

35 - Sweedler/Bell (Lotus Evora) - Alex Job - 67

From GMM

Former F1 driver Mika Salo believes his Finnish countryman Valtteri Bottas is being groomed by Williams for a race seat -- in 2012.

When the Toto Wolff-managed Bottas, 22, was announced as the British team's 2012 reserve, Sir Frank Williams said he would practice on 15 Friday mornings and then "most likely" be replaced with a "more experienced driver" for the rest of those race weekends.

That more experienced driver would ultimately turn out to be Bruno Senna.

So with Brazilian Senna struggling so far in 2012, Salo has revealed he senses things could be about to change.

"Bottas is incredibly respected by the team," Salo, now a commentator for the Finnish broadcaster MTV3, said. "When I spoke with Frank Williams, he praised Valtteri to the skies, and said that he belongs in the races.

"I asked him when and he said it wouldn't be long[.] I read between the lines that he means this season," added Salo.

One major spanner in the works, however, is that Senna brings crucial sponsorship to Williams. "It is a difficult situation for Williams, where both drivers bring money," Salo acknowledged.

"But the good thing is that Frank Williams is not a businessman first, he is an old racing driver. He thinks about nothing else but how to make his team successful.

"Although Senna is a nice guy, he is not able to drive at the level that he needs to be at."

Marc-Antoine Camirand crashed out of race 2 at the Grand Prix Électrique de Pau.

Racing in Europe for the first time of his career - thanks to the support of the GP3R -, Camirand took fourth in race 1 and was gunning for a podium finish on Sunday.

Sadly, he crashed his all-electric Andros Car Evo 2 out of the race.

"Going into turn 1, I gave the inside line to Franck Lagorce [with whom he was fighting in the early stages of the race], and heading for 2, he turned in on me," Camirand said.

The all-electric Andros Car Evo 2 (Photo: Grand Prix de Pau)

"The Andros Car's suspension is somewhat fragile and the impact was enough to put me out of the race. It's frustrating, but that's the way it goes in racing."

Camirand, a nine-time winner in the streets of Trois-Rivières, wasn't the only one to retire. Only five out of the total 12 cars crossed the finish line. In the end, it was local hero Mike Parisy who won.

"I'm very glad I could keep up the way I did," Camirand added.

"The Grand Prix de Pau is a lot like the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières. So now we know those electric Andros Car would work well at home."

Source: Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières

From GMM

Bernie Ecclestone claims he is close to reaching an agreement with Mercedes over the future of the German marque's involvement in formula one.

The parties have been at loggerheads over the F1 chief executive's refusal to offer to Mercedes the same Concorde Agreement deal reached with other top teams Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull.

In response, it has been suggested not only that the situation threatened the sport's floatation plans, but that Mercedes could sensationally quit F1 at the end of this year.

"We are now 80 per cent there," Ecclestone told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag in Barcelona.

"The other 20 per cent, we will get there soon," he added.

"We have spoken with several Mercedes managers. I am sure we will see more of Mercedes in formula one."

Bild said the deal being discussed between Ecclestone and the Stuttgart based carmaker will see Mercedes in F1 at least through 2020.

Norbert Haug, however, sounded surprised.

"I have to apologise, but we don't want to give any information at the moment about the state of the negotiations," Mercedes' motor racing vice-president insisted.

Dani Sordo (MINI) won on Saturday the Tour de Corse ahead of Skoda Fabia driver Jan Kopecky.

The Spaniard, who was making a one-off in Intercontinental Rally Challenge on a MINI prepared by french team SMG, concluded the event 17 seconds ahead of Jan Kopecky's Skoda Fabia, and more than 30 seconds ahead of local hero Pierre Campana aboard his Peugeot 207.

During the first day, Sordo was under pressure from Giandomenico Basso (Ford Fiesta) and championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda Fabia). But Basso was forced to retire after an incident in a road section on Thursday, then Mikkelsen lost more than three minutes when he went off on Friday morning, which let Dani Sordo alone in the lead.

It was Sordo's first major win on the international rally scene.



Tour de Corse - Final classification :

1. Dani Sordo (MINI) en 3h22min01.6s
2. Jan Kopecky (Skoda) + 17.9s
3. Pierre Campana (Peugeot) +32.4s
4. Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot) +53.5s
5. Mikkelsen (Skoda) +4min19.0s
6. Craig Breen (Peugeot) +5min28.7s
7. Jean-Marc Manzagol (Peugeot) +6min22.1s
8. Sepp Wiegand (Skoda) + 6min54.8s
Etc.

From GMM

Dietrich Mateschitz has announced that he will join F1's board of directors once the sport is floated in Singapore.

It has been reported that, as part of Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren's new Concorde Agreement deals, the three top teams have been promised places on F1's decision-making executive board.

"If that is the case, I would go myself," energy drink mogul and billionaire Mateschitz said in an interview with Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

"And I would suppose that for Ferrari it would be Luca di Montezemolo himself," he added. "But it's still in the deliberation phase."

According to the Reuters news agency, that phase might continue for some time, due to volatility in the financial markets.

"If the next two weeks are as bad as the last three, it will be unlikely it (the floatation) will go ahead this summer," an unnamed source said at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"If markets are on a negative trend every day, it's hard to sell an IPO," he added.

More confident is Toto Wolff, the minor shareholder of the Williams team, who is tipped to one day replace team boss Sir Frank Williams.

Asked about F1's planned IPO, the Austrian told Kleine Zeitung newspaper: "I would buy straight away.

It was hard to tell whether Jimmie Johnson was happier for his boss, Rick Hendrick, for Hendrick Motorsports 200th victory or ending a 16-race winless drought on Saturday night in Darlington.

Since Johnson won in Kansas, last October, neither the five-time champion nor his team owner had been to victory lane.

"I can't believe we've won 200 of these things. I can't believe it took this long after 199," said Mr. Hendrick.

Johnson led a race-high 134 laps, pulling away from Denny Hamlin on a restart with three laps to go. It was his 56th Sprint Cup win putting him eighth on the all-time list.

"That guy's something," Johnson said about Hendrick in Victory Lane. "He said, 'We won 200. Let's get 250.' So glad to have it behind us and glad for this moment to be here for Rick, the company, all the people that have contributed to the 200th win. It's a special day," added Johnson.

But his biggest nemesis earlier was Tony Stewart. Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, gambled at an earlier caution to stay on the track to keep his number one position. Johnson was told to save gas.

"In a fuel mileage race, when you see that No. 14, (Stewart) you always second guess yourself because he's so good at it. I was really concerned. I was just pacing myself in the mirror on what he was doing. Hoped that I had saved enough."

Stewart himself admitted he had fuel issues on the last stint allowing Hamlin to finish second. Kyle Busch was fourth.

Danica Patrick finished 31st in her second Cup race.

The race was caution free for the first 172-laps the longest green flag period, at the track known as "too tough to tame," since NASCAR has kept records.

After the race there was an incident in the pits involving members of the Kurt Busch's team and Ryan Newman's. NASCAR is investigating the facts leading up to that incident. No immediate action was taken.

Hendrick Motorsports first victory goes back to Martinsville, VA. with Geoff Bodine at the wheel in April of 1984. While that paper clip-shaped track has seen the most HMS victories - 18 -, sadly, it was on the way to a race there in 2004 that ten family members and HMS team members perished in a plane crash.

Hendrick dedicated the win to lose lost in that accident. After the race he was presented with a helmet autographed by all of his drivers (or family members) in HMS' 28-year history.

Michael Schumacher was penalized for his clash with Williams' Bruno Senna during the Spanish Grand Prix.

As Schumacher was trying an overtaking manoeuvre on Senna, he found himself ramming the back of the Brazilian's car under braking for turn one.

The stewards judged he was responsible for the collision and handed him a five-place grid penalty ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, in two weeks time.

"Obviously I am not happy with the outcome of the race as I think we could have achieved some nice points today," said Schumacher, who disagreed with the officials, in his team's press release.

"But then this is sometimes what you have to go through in racing. It is not easy to see from the TV replays but what happened from my viewpoint was that he went to the right to defend the inside line, and then suddenly, shortly before the braking point, went to the left."

From GMM

F1's astonishing season continues to live up to the hype, as a fifth driver and constructor on Sunday won the fifth grand prix of 2012.

Not only is the victory Pastor Maldonado's first, his walk up the steps at the Circuit de Catalunya was the first taste of the podium in his two-season F1 career.

It's also the first Venezuelan triumph in the sport's history, and a hugely popular victory for Williams, the once-great British team headed by Sir Frank Williams, whose 70th birthday was warmly celebrated in the paddock on Saturday.

"Boy did we need that," said Williams on BBC television.

And asked how he feels on Sky television, he smiled: "Relief."

"Some said Maldonado was a pay driver and he didn't deserve his place in formula one but they'll be eating their words now," commented former team driver David Coulthard.

"That was a fantastic drive," added Coulthard, referring to Williams' first win since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2004.

Williams enthused: "I didn't see him (Maldonado) make one single mistake."

"You can't really fault him," agreed Williams' 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

Amazingly, however, away from the champagne, Sebastian Vettel's sixth place leaves him at the top of the drivers' championship, and he is now neck-and-neck with Fernando Alonso, who finished second on Sunday in the improving Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, who started dead last on Sunday and finished eighth, is third in the points classification, ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen.

Finn Raikkonen finished third on Sunday, and is the favourite to become F1's sixth different winner of 2012 in Monaco in a fortnight.

"We showed we still have the speed," the Lotus driver said after the Spanish grand prix. "If we had a few more laps, we could have fought for a victory."



Race results - Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)

1 - Pastor Maldonado (Williams FW34-Renault) - 66 laps in 1h39min09.145s
2 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F2012) - 3.195s

3 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus E20-Renault) - 3.884s
4 - Romain Grosjean (Lotus E20-Renault) - 14.799s
5 - Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber C31-Ferrari) - 1min14.641s
6 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB8-Renault) - 1min17.576s

7 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes MGP W03) - 1min27.919s

8 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/27-Mercedes) - 1min28.100s

9 - Jenson Button (McLaren MP4/27-Mercedes) - 1min25.200s

10 - Nico Hulkenberg (Force India VJM05-Mercedes) - 1 lap

11 - Mark Webber (Red Bull RB8-Renault) - 1 lap

12 - Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso STR7-Ferrari) - 1 lap
13 - Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso STR7-Ferrari) - 1 lap

14 - Paul Di Resta (Force India VJM05-Mercedes) - 1 lap
15 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari F2012) - 1 lap
16 - Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham CT01-Renault) - 1 lap
17 - Vitaly Petrov (Caterham CT01-Renault) - 1 lap
18 - Timo Glock (Marussia MR01-Cosworth) - 2 laps
19 - Pedro De La Rosa (HRT F112-Cosworth) - 3 laps



Fastest lap by Romain Grosjean in 1min26.150s



Retirements

Lap 38 - Sergio Perez
Lap 36 - Charles Pic
Lap 23 - Narain Karthikeyan
Lap 13 - Michael Schumacher

Lap 13 - Bruno Senna




Drivers' championship


1. Vettel e Alonso 61; 3. Hamilton 53; 4. Raikkonen 49; 5. Webber 48; 6. Button 45; 7. Rosberg 41; 8. Grosjean 35; 9. Maldonado 29; 10. Perez 22; 11. Kobayashi 19; 12. Di Resta 15; 13. Senna 14; 14. Vergne 4; 15. Hulkenberg 3; 16. Ricciardo, Massa, Schumacher 2



Constructors' championship

1. Red Bull 109; 2. McLaren 98; 3. Lotus 84; 4. Ferrari 63; 5. Mercedes e Williams 43; 7. Sauber 41; 8. Force India 18; 9. Toro Rosso 6

From GMM

The drama stepped up a notch even after the chequered flag in Barcelona.

A couple of hours after Williams' first win since 2004, something exploded in the British team's garage, triggering a major fire.

Team members and fire crews battled the blaze as paddock regulars scrambled away from the heavy smoke and police arrived on the scene.

The Telegraph's Tom Cary said on Twitter there are "multiple injuries".

It is believed Williams, Force India and Caterham staff - some of whom bravely fought the fire - are being treated in the medical centre, some for smoke inhalation.

An emergency helicopter will ferry others to hospital.

"Couple of our guys got injuries, burns and maybe one broken wrist, no news on Williams guys I hope they're ok," wrote Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen on Twitter.

Rumours indicated the fire could have been caused by a KERS explosion, or possibly fuel, as a burned fuel rig was pulled from the gutted garage.