Ferrari boss pays tribute to Hamilton

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has paid tribute to Lewis Hamilton after the British star denied Brazilian Felipe Massa the Formula One world title.

McLaren's Hamilton claimed the title by a single point following a dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on Sunday, where the 23-year-old overtook Timo Glock on the very last corner of the last lap to claim the fifth position he needed to become world champion.

Ferrari's Massa won the race in front of his home fans but was left heart-broken after initially believing he had won the world title - when he finished his race, Hamilton was still in sixth place.

"I want to congratulate Lewis Hamilton, the youngest world champion in the history of Formula One," said di Montezemolo.

"He was an incredibly tough competitor and he fully deserved his victory ... Next year he will have the number 1 on his car but there's one thing we can be certain about: we'll do everything we can to have this number back on a Ferrari."

Di Montezemolo also had a word of commiseration for Massa, who came so close and whose family and mechanics had actually started to celebrate the title victory before Hamilton's late drama.

"I can't imagine to what extent that moment must have been painful for him but I want to congratulate him nonetheless, not just for what he did on the track, dominating in front of his fans and showing that he's a driver who deserves the world title, but also for his maturity and his sportsmanship.

"He's a great champion and a great man."

There was a silver lining to Ferrari's cloud, though, as they won the constructors title once again.

"To have won this title for the eighth time in 10 years is a result that has no equal in collective sport on a world level and demonstrates what an extraordinary group we are," added the president.

Source:
http://sport.id.msn.com

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Busy end of season for HM Plant Honda riders

Cal Crutchlow and Leon Haslam may have already completed their British domestic racing season, but they will have one last hurrah on their BSB spec machines at the Portimao round of the World Superbike Championship, riding as wildcard entries.

The HM Plant Honda riders have each appeared in WSB this year already, with Crutchlow finishing second in the wet at Donington. At an all-new circuit in Portugal, and with a whole season of experience on Pirelli control tyres, the HM Plant duo will be a serious threat to the existing World Superbike superpowers come November 2.

Both riders will be a permanent fixture in the WSB paddock next year, Crutchlow riding for the Yamaha World Supersport Team, while Haslam will ride for the Stiggy Motorsport Honda team, in the World Superbike class.

Exiting the WSS side of the Stiggy Honda team in 2009 will be Australian rider Josh Brookes, who will switch to HM Plant Honda in the BSB series, alongside another Australian rider, Glen Richards, the current British Supersport Champion.

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

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Nieto back to form in France

After struggling to return to the kind of form that made him a winner at the opening round at Losail, Fonsi Nieto returned to podium form for only the third time in 2008 at Magny-Cours.

The Spanish Superstar was enthused by his race one result, even if could not get himself back into contention in race two because he had to use his spare machine.

"The first race was a good result for me", said Fonsi. "Everything worked very well and the only problem I had was at the start when my fuel tank was full and the bike was not so easy to handle. After some laps, the fuel was less and I was able to push harder".

"For race two, I had to use my spare bike because the gearchange was not working properly on my number one bike. My spare bike did not feel as good or as fast, so I just had to ride as hard as I could without doing anything stupid. Eighth is not wonderful, but this weekend I have scored more points than any other weekend except the first round in Qatar and that makes me happy".

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

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WSBK champion Troy Bayliss closes Superbike career at Portimao

Three-time WSBK champion Troy Bayliss will retire from Superbike racing after this coming weekend's race, a significant moment for a man that has lived the life of a Superbike champion for the last nine years, ever since he won the British Superbike title in 1999. He then went on to win the World title in 2001, in 2006 and for a third and final time this year, having clocked up over the last nine seasons 50 race wins and 92 podium finishes over 152 Superbike races.

In celebration of his victory in the 2008 World Superbike Championship aboard the 1098 F08, and the end of a career that proudly claims three World Championships with three generations of Ducati Superbike, Troy Bayliss' bike will this weekend carry a special commemorative livery.

Having won at nearly all of the circuits at which he has raced over the years, Troy Bayliss is also now looking for a win at Portimao.

"I am a lot more relaxed now that I know that we have done what we set out to do" said Bayliss. "We've won the riders and constructors titles and can tick that off the list. Now I can go to Portimao knowing that a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm looking forward to racing there, as what we saw during the recent test days was a very impressive track! It's been a long and stressful year and I'm tired, I feel I have just enough energy left to complete these last two races... I would love to finish the season, and my career, with a win so that's my goal this weekend, to ride with no pressure and just enjoy what will be my final two Superbike races!"

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

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Dovizioso Makes Wet-Weather Debut With Repsol Honda

Cold, wet weather dominated the second day of testing at Valencia today, with most riders deciding that there was little to learn in the tricky conditions. Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was one of those who decided not to test, but his new team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was keen to evaluate Bridgestone rain tyres for the first time.

The track was neither dry nor fully wet for much of the day, so Dovizioso waited until 15.30 to begin testing, once heavier rain had made rain tyre testing worthwhile. The Italian rode his RC212V for an hour and a half, gathering plenty of useful information.

The Repsol Honda Team’s next outing will be a two-day session at Jerez in southern Spain on November 26/27. MotoGP’s seven-week winter testing moratorium begins on December 1.

Andrea Dovizioso, fastest lap 1m 48.296s (18 laps)

“I’m very happy with my second day of testing. Track conditions were not good today, the track was slippery, neither dry nor fully wet, so we had to wait for heavier rain before testing with rain tyres. We had only one set of tyres available. At the beginning grip wasn’t good, then the team made some changes to the set-up, making consistent improvements. We did four or five runs, improving each time and in the end I did my fastest time on my last lap. We gathered a lot of important data that will be very useful, even in the dry. The new Bridgestone tyres require a completely different setting compared to what’s required with Michelin tyres. I am also very happy with the team’s method of working. I am learning the new bike and new tyres and I’m very excited about this new challenge.”
LAP TIMES
1. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1.48.287
2. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) 1.48.296
3. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki) 1.48.786
4. Niccolò Canepa (Ducati) 1.49.917
5. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1.50.275
6. Toni Elias (Honda San Carlo) 1.54.057
7. Capirossi (Suzuki) 1.57.322

Source:
http://www.superbike-news.co.uk

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Stoner takes emphatic home victory heading Bridgestone 1-2

Ducati rider Casey Stoner took a tremendous home victory at Phillip Island this afternoon, claiming his and Bridgestone’s second consecutive Australian Grand Prix win. It is Stoner’s fifth win of the season and further cements his second place in the world championship with two races remaining. The popular victory also takes the total number of wins by riders using Bridgestone tyres this season to thirteen, one more than were scored last season with just the Malaysia and Valencia events still to run.

In front of a passionate crowd, Stoner led from the start and never relinquished his command over the 27-lap race, leading a hard-charging Nicky Hayden in the early stages before gradually extending his advantage in the second half of the race. Hayden was forced to settle for third at the chequered flag after an impressive run from Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi. After a qualifying crash relegated him to 12th on the grid, Rossi charged up the field and became embroiled in a close scrap for third. Passing James Toseland for the position on lap 13, Rossi then began to steadily close the gap to Hayden and managed to get past the Repsol Honda rider on the final lap to take an additional twenty points for his championship-winning tally.

The podium was filled with world champions with last year’s title holder Stoner leading this year’s champion Rossi and 2006 victor Hayden. It is the sixth time this season that Stoner and Rossi have occupied the first two spots on the podium.

San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Shinya Nakano was on the tail of the battle for fourth place throughout the 27-lap event. The Japanese rider used all the remaining grip from his Bridgestone tyres on a terrific final lap, elevating himself from seventh to fifth position, his best result since finishing fourth in Brno back in August.

Hiroshi Yamada – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Sport Unit
“That was a highly charged race and there was plenty of close and competitive racing going on. Casey did an outstanding job today to take his second home win in a row, so congratulations to him and Ducati for their fifth win of the season. It was a dominant win for Casey after early pressure from Nicky, and he truly deserved his success today. Valentino also produced an exceptional ride today from 12th on the grid. To get up to third place was already an achievement, but to steal second place on the last lap was great. Between Casey and Valentino’s results, we have seen Bridgestone-shod riders win the last nine races in a row and 13 times in total this year, which is a new record for us. A special word of congratulations must also go to Shinya for a competitive race this afternoon. His commitment in maintaining pace with such a closely-fought group helped him take a fine top five result.”

Shinji Aoki – Bridgestone Motorsport – Assistant Manager, Race Tyre Development
“Phillip Island is never an easy race for the tyre manufacturers, so I am very pleased that our tyres could contribute to today’s excellent result. We did not have a trouble-free race, but over the last few years we have shown that our tyre performance has gradually improved and I think we can say that we had our most competitive Australian GP performance today. In practice, we could get a reasonable indication of the durability of the race tyres, but it is only when we run 27 laps consecutively that we can understand exactly what the tyre degradation is like. Thankfully, most of our riders were able to push right until the flag, as we could see from Valentino and Shinya’s last lap passing moves.”

Casey Stoner – Ducati – Race Winner
"We found a good direction in warm-up this morning and were able to set a strong pace, but it was difficult to know what to expect from the race. At the start I thought there was no way I could pull away from Nicky. He looked so good riding behind me, I could hear him there every step of the way. Then my bike started feeling a little bit better as the tyres warmed up, so I went a little bit quicker and pulled a small advantage. We just kept building from there and then it was just a matter of bringing it home. This season's been a very difficult one for us, but we've given it everything. We've had a few ups and downs, and it's nice to come back up again. We've been working really hard this weekend and we managed to do it. It is always special to win in front of the Australian crowd, who have given us such a terrific support again at Phillip Island this weekend, and we’ve now managed two in a row, which is a fantastic feeling.”

Source:
http://www.bridgestonemotorsport.com

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LG U880

Specifications
LG U880

Network	2G 3G	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 UMTS 2100
Size	Dimensions Weight Display	98.8 x 49 x 18.2 mm, 80 cc (3.89 x 1.93 x 0.72 in) 99 gram TFT, 256K colors 176 x 220 pixels, 2.0 inches (~141 ppi density)
Memory	Phonebook Call records Internal Card slot	500 entries 10 dialed, 10 received, 10 missed calls 75 MB microSD
Data	GPRS EDGE 3G WLAN Bluetooth Infrared port USB	Class 10 384 kbps 1.1 Yes
Features	OS CPU Messaging Ringtones Browser Radio GPS Games Camera Video Colors Java	SMS, EMS, MMS, Email Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones WAP 2.0/xHTML Yes 1.3 MP, 180 deg rotating lens QCIF Glossy black, matt black, silver, pink MIDP 2.0 - Loudspeaker with stereo speakers - Mini-SIM - Second external TFT display, 65K colors, (96 x 96 pixels) - Downloadable wallpapers - Video-calling - Video telephony - MP3/AAC/MP4 player - Predictive text input - Organizer - Clock - Calendar - Alarm
Battery	Stand-by Talk time	Standard battery, Li-Ion 1050 mAh Up to 236 h Up to 4 h

Image: http://www.welectronics.co

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