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Malaysian driver Jazeman Jaafar tested Mercedes' 2011-spec car, Friday at Silverstone.

Jaafar, who finished 17th in the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 standings, is part of a driver development programme run by Mercedes' title sponsor Petronas.

"I have always known I want to reach the height of F1 but, if I had any doubts, after today I just want it even more," he is quoted saying by TheMalayMailonline.com

Mercedes W02 (Photo: Mercedes GP)

It was the 21-year-old's third time driving an F1 car, as he had already taken the wheel of the W02 at a demonstration run in the streets of Kuala Lampur in March and for a filming day in June.

Earlier this month, Kuala Lampur native finished sixth at the Macau F3 Grand Prix.

From press release

The Race Of Champions is set to feature its fastest ever competitor as ‘Space Dive' record-breaker Felix Baumgartner has signed up to race in ROC 2013 at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium on December 14-15.

A live YouTube audience of eight million people held its breath as Baumgartner jumped to Earth from 39km up in the highest ever manned balloon flight. Along the way he set a record for the fastest ever freefall and became the first man to accelerate through the sound barrier without a vehicle.

Felix Baugmartner (Photo: felixbaumgartner.com)

The achievement marked the end of a five-year planning process with the Red Bull Stratos team, not to mention a 25-year skydiving career for Baumgartner in which he completed over 2,500 parachute jumps. The Austrian also set a world record for the lowest BASE jump from Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue in 1999 and he has a string of other firsts to his name.

Now he's safely back on solid ground, Baumgartner has officially quit the daredevil business but his need for speed hasn't quite evaporated. Armed with a vehicle for a change, he recently raced in a VW Scirocco Cup event supporting Germany's DTM series.

He now looks forward to racing the world class field of motor sport greats assembling in Bangkok for ROC 2013.

One of Sébastien Loeb's former World Rally Championship (WRC) teammates at Citroën, François Duval, has offered to come back from retirement to help the French manufacturer get over the nine-time champion's departure.

Duval's last WRC appearance dates back to 2010, where he entered the German Rally with Ford. More recently, he was seen at the Legend Boucles de Spa and Rallye de Wallonie, in his native Belgium.

François Duval, Ford Focus RS WRC (Photo: WRC.com)

The 2005 Rally Australia winner says he is at least willing to help Citroën: "I'd be very happy to test the DS3 WRC to show what I can still do," he is quoted saying by Belgium's RTBF.

Citroën Racing's boss, Yves Matton, has not commented the latest Duval rumours, but confirmed he would announce his driver line-up on December 16th.

The candidates' list features the names of Mikko Hirvonen, Dani Sordo, Kris Meeke, Mads Ostberg and Robert Kubica.

Jenson Button promised to shine again next year, as he performed a demo run in the streets of Frome, his hometown.

"(2013) hasn't been our best season," the 33-year-old recapped in front of the crowd, as he lit the town's Christmas lights with mayor Dickon Moore.

"But next year I promise we will be winning races," the Daily Mail quotes him adding.

Button then proceeded with the demo run, admitting afterwards the experience of driving a Formula One car through the streets of his hometown was "surreal".

The former Formula Ford champion capped off 2013 with a season-best fourth-place finish, last week at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Everyone expects his team McLaren to be back at the front in 2014, as the Woking based outfit enters its last season with Mercedes, before switching to Honda power in 2015.

From press release

Toyota Racing locked out the front row ahead of Six Hours of Bahrain, the Japanese manufacturer claiming its second consecutive pole position.

The use of a different Michelin compound in qualifying compared to the morning's third and final practice session was, according to Kazuki Nakajima, key to the No.7 TS 030 Hybrid's claim on pole position.  The Japanese driver and his team mate Alex Wurz set a combined fastest average time of 1:42.449 to put them ahead of the No.8 Toyota of Sarrazin-Davidson by 0.332 seconds. 

Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota TS030 Hybrid (Photo: Toyota)

Two tenths of a second behind the Toyotas was the first of the two Audi R18 e-tron quattros, the No.1 of Lotterer-Fassler with a combined time of 1:42.976.  In fourth place was the No.2 Audi, the World Champions Elect just 0.169 seconds behind their team mates, while in fifth overall was the No.12 LMP1 Privateer entry of Rebellion Racing, Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche having completed qualifying duties.

Pecom Racing's No.49 ORECA 03 Nissan, driven by Nicolas Minassian and Pierre Kaffer, claimed its first pole position since the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps earlier this season, with a best average lap time of 1:50.941.  This put the only Michelin-shod car in the LMP2 class ahead of all its competitors by the tiny margin of 0.062 seconds, the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA Nissan of Martin-Conway taking second place in the category. 

The No. 92 Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb took the team's first pole position of the season but it nearly all went wrong at the start of the session when Lietz had to pit when the gearbox got stuck in 3rd gear.  A quick fix by the Porsche mechanics soon had the Austrian back in the fray.    

Joining the no92 Porsche on the front row is the sister car of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet, finishing the 25-minute session just 0.123 seconds behind the pole car with an average lap time of 1m58.960.

The championship leading Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke moved to the head of row two when Turner put in a last gasp flying lap to move up from 6th place at the chequered flag.  This means they start Saturday's race alongside their nearest rival for the title, the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni, who is joined by Toni Vilander for this weekend.

The No. 99 Aston Martin Vantage of Bruno Senna, Ritchie Stanaway and Pedro Lamy with start from 5th on the grid, alongside the nr71 AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella and Kamui Kobayashi.

In LMGTE Am the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of Christoffer Nygaard, Nicki Thiim and Kristian Poulsen took their 6th class pole by the narrowest of margins.  Nygaard and Thiim's average was a 2m00.303s, just 0.034s ahead of the No. 81 8 Star Motorsports Ferrari of Rui Aguas, Davide Rigon and Enzo Potolicchio.

Six years ago on this day, motorcycle stunt rider Robert Craig Knievel Jr., better known as Evel Knievel, died of pulmonary disease at the age of 69. Lasting this long is basically a miracle given the multiple fractures and nearly fatal crashes that marked his career.

Knievel gained worldwide fame after jumping 43 metres over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it across and remained in a coma at the hospital for a month.

Evel Knievel's accomplishments:

• 75 successful jumps, most of them using his Harley-Davidson XR-750;
• 35 fractures (Guinness record for ''most bones broken in a lifetime");
• Record 19-car jump (Bubba Blackwell hit 20 in 1998).

Despite his daredevil actions, Evel Knievel proved to be a huge safety advocate. In fact, he supported a mandatory helmet bill in the State of California.

Source : wikipedia.org

Photo: Wikipedia

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