Brawn GP have taken their Formula One rivals by surprise with their buoyant showing in testing is Spain this week, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa one of those won over by the new team.
After Jenson Button had posted the quickest time at Barcelona on Wednesday for the former Honda F1 team bought by Ross Brawn it was the turn of Rubens Barrichello to continue the good work on Thursday.
The Brazilian sped round the Catalunya circuit leaving the likes of Massa and world champion Lewis Hamilton in his wake, posting a fastest time of 1min 18.926 seconds in a 110-lap session for the new Formula One outfit.
Barrichello was almost one second faster than Nico Rosberg in a Williams with Hamilton’s McLaren almost two seconds slower.
Massa, who clocked a best time of 1:20.677, has been impressed with the speed of the new Brawn.
“This Brawn has surprised everyone,” he said.
“Before Barcelona we [Ferrari] were one of the quickest on the circuit, we were very competitive, in the leading pack. Now we’re competitive, but behind Brawn,” he said.
“No one can do the same times [as Brawn]. Everyone was using less fuel, not only them. But their times were much faster than those that anyone else could do,” Massa said.
Barrichello, echoing Massa’s positive assessment, suggested the Brawn car was going to be “the surprise of the season”.
“I’ve waited for this moment for a long time,” he said.
“I was worried in Brazil [where he spent the winter] that I wouldn’t be able to use my skill in a good car ... but I’m very pleased to be able to say that this year will be a happy one,” Barrichello said.
“I don’t want to say that we’re made for the year, but it’s a very good start,” he said. “We’ve got a good car, a good engine, a good team. I think we’re going to be the surprise of the season!”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later