Auto News 5

From nascar.com

Driving a No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that has been the class of the field for most of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Harvick won Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup's Ford EcoBoost 400 at the 1.5-mile intermediate track and claimed his first premier series championship after a three-lap drag race against underdog title contender Ryan Newman.

After the 13th caution slowed the field on lap 263, the result of debris dripping from the No. 32 Ford of Blake Koch, Harvick led the field to green on lap 265 of 267 with Newman beside him.

Newman stayed to the inside of Harvick's car through the first corner, but Harvick, on four fresh tires to Newman's two, cleared the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and pulled away to a half-second victory.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet, leads Jeff Gordon, driver of the No.24 Chevrolet. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

In his first season with SHR, Harvick won for the first time at Homestead and for the 28th time in his career.

With the highest finisher among the Championship four contenders assured of the title, Denny Hamlin came home seventh, and Joey Logano ran 16th after a disastrous late-race pit stop.

A native of Bakersfield, California, Harvick became just the second driver to win the championship by winning the season-ending race at HMS. Fittingly perhaps, the only other driver to accomplish the feat was teammate and co-team owner Tony Stewart.

Adapted from GMM

The list of potential teammates for confirmed Caterham driver Kamui Kobayashi in Abu Dhabi is growing by the hour.

Names including Andre Lotterer, Roberto Merhi, Rubens Barrichello, new GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer and Max Chilton have all been linked with the drive, after Swedish regular Marcus Ericsson terminated his contract last week.

Italiaracing reports that Lebanese driver Khalil Beschir is another candidate, perhaps given his high profile in Abu Dhabi as a television pundit and also a manager of up-and-coming Middle Eastern drivers.

Now Max Chilton has emerged as a surprise candidate to race the second Caterham in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

Unlike Caterham, it appears Marussia has in fact missed the weekend deadline to ship its freight to Abu Dhabi.

That leaves Chilton, the well-backed 23-year-old, eyeing the race seat at Caterham vacated last week by the Sauber-bound Marcus Ericsson.

Caterham missed its crowdfunding target by last Friday's deadline, but administrator Finbarr O'Connell said the shortfall could be made up by a driver's backers.

"There's a variety of contracts but this particular one is with one of the drivers we've been talking to," he told the BBC.

Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport now reports that the identity of that driver is in fact Chilton.

From GMM

Mercedes has scheduled urgent contractual talks with Lewis Hamilton, as the team looks to keep its dominant pairing together beyond 2015.

Currently, the pair are set to race together once again next year, despite clashing on and off track at times as the intensity of their championship fight heated up.

Earlier this year, Mercedes extended its deal with Nico Rosberg, while teammate Hamilton's contract is still currently set to expire at the end of 2015.

Asked why only Rosberg's deal was extended, team boss Toto Wolff told the Austrian broadcaster ORF: "We didn't want to be in a situation where in a year's time there is the possibility we have to be filling not one but two places.

"Nico is an important part of the team, he fits in well and his performance is good so we wanted to extend at an early stage," he said during the Sport am Sonntag programme.

"With Lewis," Wolff continued, "the contract runs for another year anyway and in the summer we started to discuss (extending) it (beyond 2015).

"We have agreed that we want to continue and Lewis has said the same but at some point we decided that it was not the right time to do it. The duel was so intense so we thought it was a good idea to talk after Abu Dhabi.

"Now we have agreed that we get together on Monday in Abu Dhabi to talk about it," said Wolff.

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG. (Photo: WRi2)

If confirmed, the news looks set to lock Fernando Alonso out of Mercedes for now, following speculation the Spaniard wanted to find a stop-gap solution for 2015 in order to target Hamilton's place in silver for 2016.

But it appears Mercedes is happy with Hamilton and Rosberg, despite their run-ins this season.

Wolff was asked if he even sees the "fire" between the team's current pairing as essential to continue Mercedes' dominance into 2015 and beyond.

"I don't know if fire is important," he said. "The only thing the two are interested in is that they have the fastest race car possible. So I would say at the moment that we have a good situation.

"Clearly there are many others who would like to have this cockpit, but I hope our two see it that way as well and we can go on with this driver combination," added Wolff.

Before the future arrives, however, the eyes of the world will be on Hamilton and Rosberg this weekend in Abu Dhabi as their 2014 championship battle reaches its conclusion.

Asked who the favourite is, Wolff told ORF: "I have been asked this question time and time again in the past days.

"Mathematically, the numbers are on Lewis' side, but we (Mercedes) want to behave neutrally.

"Lewis is in the lead and a second place will be enough to be world champion, so Nico has to hope for a third place or worse (for Hamilton).

"If you look on the basis of the last few races, then everything points to another one-two," he admitted.

From GMM

Buoyed by the end of his legal troubles, Bernie Ecclestone says he is now determined to never step down as F1 chief executive.

Having turned 84 this year, the Briton admits 2014 was particularly difficult as he battled to fight off the Gerhard Gribkowsky scandal that nearly saw him not only nearly deposed, but potentially also in jail.

He won the day with a highly controversial $100 million settlement, and is now once again presiding fully over the F1 kingdom he built almost from scratch.

So Ecclestone is no longer intimating his decades-long reign may be nearing an end. Asked by the correspondent for Gulf News, the diminutive Briton replied rhetorically: "When am I going to quit?

"Sure, it's been a terrible year, one of the worst of my life but, as I have told you often enough before, and nothing has changed, I am staying put," said Ecclestone.

"The only way my job in formula one will come to an end, unless somebody with the power decrees it, is when they are carrying me away in my coffin. And then they'd better make sure the lid is nailed down," he added.

As ever with a specific position taken by Ecclestone, however, he does caution that he might change his mind under some circumstances.

For instance, he told the BBC recently that while he would like to tweak F1's income distribution, as well as the sporting and technical regulations, "The big problem is that now we run a democracy".

"You know I'm against democracies, with anything," said Ecclestone. "You have a democracy if you don't want to do anything except start a working group. We have to be able to say 'This is how it's going to be'."

Now, he told Gulf News in London: "I have always run the business the way I thought it should be organised. And it has mostly worked.

"The minute I can't do that, I will quit.

"I have often flown by the seat of my pants with nobody but myself to turn to. Sometimes I've got it wrong -- but mostly I've got it right.

"And formula one, and the thousands of people in it, and the many millions of followers worldwide, have been the beneficiaries," he added.

A reckless driver who put lives at risk when he drove onto Brands Hatch circuit last June while a VW Fun Cup race was underway has been jailed for eight months.

Jack Cottle had his girlfriend and a friend in the car when he drove onto the British road circuit during an actual race.

The friend filmed the whole scene from the back seat as Cottle laughed as he completed a lap of the track.

Cottle had pleaded guilty to a public nuisance charge at Maidstone Crown Court in October.

After being granted bail with a condition of residence, Cottle was handed his sentence today by Judge Martin Joy, who described Cottle's actions as "premeditated" and "inexcusable".

"Your deliberate behaviour endangered not only your own life but those of your passengers, the competitors, the emergency services, the marshals, stewards and anyone else who was nearby," judge Joy told Cottle.

"His conviction and prison sentence will serve to reinforce the message that this kind of antisocial behaviour is not only stupid, but will lead to prosecution," said Jonathan Palmer, Chief Executive of MSV (the owner of Brands Hatch) after the sentencing.

From GMM

Kimi Raikkonen is even looking beyond 2015 as he aims to keep his Ferrari career alive for at least two more years.

In the past days, any doubts that the Finn will be ousted by the Maranello team after Sunday's 2014 finale in Abu Dhabi have faded.

That is because Ferrari has confirmed that the 35-year-old - who already has a contract for 2015 - is collaborating with engineers on next year's car and will shortly be working on the team's pre-season preparations.

Not only that, Raikkonen's next teammate Sebastian Vettel is now openly looking forward to working with his friend in 2015, because the Finn has "thank god, zero interest in the politics within a team".

A month ago, when his future was less certain, Raikkonen told CNN he has a Ferrari contract "for next year and probably for one more year".

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari F14 T. (Photo: WRi2)

But his return to red overalls in 2014 has been difficult throughout, as he usually struggled to get close to the pace of his now-departing teammate Fernando Alonso.

After Brazil, however, team boss Marco Mattiacci hailed Raikkonen's progress, insisting the Finn is finally getting to the bottom of his problems with the F14-T car.

Raikkonen told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "The problems have come from the new tyre construction -- last year, the front tyres were much better."

Still, he is more confident about the future.

"If you cannot win, it is a season to forget. But at least we have learned a lot for next year," said Kimi Raikkonen.

And he insists that if 2015 goes well, he can even start to think about a third consecutive season wearing red.

"If I have good results next year, then why shouldn't I drive for Ferrari in 2016?" Kimi Raikkonen is quoted by the German correspondent Michael Schmidt.

From GMM

Fernando Alonso has made what might be his last PR appearance for Ferrari in the lead-in to this weekend's 2014 season finale.

The Spaniard and the Italian team are expected to shortly confirm their contractual split after a five-year partnership, as Alonso heads to McLaren-Honda.

"Fernando Alonso, the last act," read the headline at Spain's sports daily Diario Sport.

Having holidayed and cycled last week in perhaps his favourite vacation destination - Dubai, where he has a house - Alonso's next stop at the weekend was Bahrain.

There, he met up with his friend Mark Webber who was competing for Porsche in the world endurance championship race.

Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber at Bahrain. (Photo: WRi2)

Alonso, 33, was not wearing official Ferrari team gear, but he did pose for photos with the official sports car team AF Corse.

Another Spanish daily, AS, explained: "It was one of the last, if not the last public events outside of competition for Alonso as a Ferrari driver. The announcement of his move to McLaren-Honda may be imminent."

Germany's Speed Week said Alonso told reporters in Bahrain that he decided to visit Bahrain in order to catch up with his friend and former rival, Australian Webber.

Honda unveiled a sleek new concept of its upcoming hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, but promptly delayed its launch as part of a global quality review in the wake of a series of embarrassing product problems.

Honda unveiled a sleek new concept of its upcoming hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle late Sunday, but promptly delayed its launch as part of a global quality review in the wake of a series of embarrassing product problems.

Honda unveiled a near-production concept of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with space for five passengers, instead of four as in Honda's previous generation fuel-cell car. Honda plans to launch the car in 2016 in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.

Honda unveiled a sleek near-production concept of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle it aims sell by early 2016.

Ford said on Sunday night it was cooperating with federal safety regulators investigating a report the driver of a 2007 Ford Mustang was injured in August by a metal fragment from the car's airbag.

Toyota will introduce its first mass-market fuel cell car next month, hoping to replicate the success of its Prius hybrid with a vehicle that runs on hydrogen instead of gasoline.

Toyota offered more details about its long-awaited Mirai fuel cell vehicle. The Mirai will be sold in California and Europe early next year and can travel 483km (300 miles) a single tank of hydrogen and refuel in three to five minutes.

Toyota offered more details about its long-awaited Mirai fuel cell vehicle and said it plans to build a dozen hydrogen refueling stations in the Northeast United States.

To hear auto industry insiders in Japan, the country's problems with bid rigging began to spiral in the early 2000s. Or, more specifically, with the arrival of Carlos Ghosn, the cost-cutting CEO who parachuted into a nearly bankrupt Nissan Motor Co.

When Japanese auto suppliers schemed to fix prices, it was as much about protecting market share as pumping up profits, an industry insider said.

As one after another Japanese auto supplier gets snagged for price fixing, it is the unwritten rule, say insiders and lawyers, that middle managers sometimes take the fall for superiors and get rewarded for not airing the company's dirty laundry in...

More than 17 million cars with Takata airbags have been recalled worldwide, including over 11 million in the United States.

A Georgia judge ordered Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne to give a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit filed by the family of a 4-year-old child killed after the Jeep Grand Cherokee he was riding in was rear-ended and caught fire.