Sauber pit fire was not engine problem

Sauber’s pit lane fire in Mugello on Thursday was not an engine issue, the Swiss team has confirmed to GPUpdate.net. Initially, when Sergio Pérez pulled into the pit lane, it was unknown whether the blaze was related to a major technical component.

“It was just a heat shield in the exhaust area that had caught fire and was obviously replaced,” a team spokesperson explained after Pérez ended the day in fifth place.

The Mexican concentrated mostly on aerodynamics, testing new parts and the setup which will be used in Barcelona next weekend. Struggling for balance at times, he suffered a pair of off-track moments but did not damage the car.

Stressing that lap times were of no real significance, Sauber also verified that their car was circulating with heavy fuel loads on-board.

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Schumacher not expecting too much in Spain

Michael Schumacher is typically retaining a realistic approach as Formula 1 returns to Barcelona. Although the seven-time World Champion is confident that Mercedes has made progress, he is not expecting too much, too soon in Barcelona.

During the week, the F1 circus travelled to Mugello in Italy for the first in-season test for race drivers since 2008. More updates will be rolled out next weekend.

“After completing our testing programme in Mugello, we are now heading to the start of the European season in Barcelona next week,” Schumacher begins.

“The positive thing about the test was that we could really concentrate on the developments we were aiming to work on. This should give us a good basis for further developments, even if maybe not for the next race to come.

“Barcelona is a track we have driven extensively on and this is why we know that its characteristics do not exactly play fully into our hands. But then, we will definitely go there and try our best and at the same time keep on working for the things to come.”

Schumacher won at the Circuit de Catalunya for Benetton and Ferrari six times between 1995 and 2004. In his two races at the track so far with Mercedes, he has racked up finishing positions of fourth and sixth.

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'Dead' Grandmother Comes back to Life

A woman declared dead after she suffered a massive heart attack astonished doctors and her grieving family when she suddenly came back to life.

Relatives of Lorna Baillie were devastated when a team of medics withdrew treatment after spending three hours trying to revive her. The family gathered around her hospital bed to say their goodbyes after doctors told them the 49-year-old grandmother was 'technically dead', being kept artificially alive only by a combination of adrenaline, electric shocks and CPR.

It was then, 45 minutes later, that Mrs Baillie's disabled husband John, 58, whispered 'I love you' to his wife. As John, his son and three daughters sat beside Mrs Baillie, they were surprised to see her colour gradually improve.

A nurse present in the room assured them this was a normal side effect of prolonged emergency treatment. And when Mrs Baillie's eyelids flickered and she appeared to squeeze her eldest daughter Leanne's hand, the nurse again assured the family that 'involuntary movements' were to be expected.

Unconvinced, the family demanded the nurse call in a doctor, who found a pulse and rushed Mrs Baillie to intensive care. Daughter Leanne Porteous, 31, said: 'I asked the nurse if it was normal that she squeezed my hand and that she had opened her eyes and she said it was.

'We are so close as a family and we are not the kind of people to just give up. We were telling my mum to be strong. I kept saying to her, "Come back, Mum, come back".'

'At one point my dad said, "Lorna come back, I love you," and then –just like that – she was there again.'

Two weeks later, the former auxiliary nurse from Prestonpans, East Lothian, has even managed some 'high-fives' after sitting up in bed and communicating with her family.

Mrs Baillie, a keen gardener and dog walker, collapsed at her home at 4.30pm on February 10. Paramedics battled to resuscitate her before taking her to Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary where, at 8.45pm, a doctor told the family she had died.

Leanne said: 'His words were that she was technically dead, but they had to wait until she had stopped breathing before they could pronounce her medically dead.'

Mrs Baillie's miraculous signs of recovery followed, but medics warned that her chances of survival remained slim because her kidneys had failed and she was in a coma.

The family were still so worried that her daughter Charlene, 23, asked the hospital chaplain to obtain a special licence to allow her to get married by her mother's bedside. But Mrs Baillie's condition continued to improve and last week she was moved from intensive care to a medical ward. An MRI scan yesterday revealed no obvious brain damage.

The family are now seeking an explanation from NHS Lothian and senior doctors have assured them staff will receive 'extra training' as a result of the incident. Dr David Farquharson, medical director of NHS Lothian, said: 'Mrs Baillie's family were told to prepare for the worst but when she was checked again her vital signs had returned.

'This type of recovery is extremely rare and she is continuing to make progress.

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Nasa Identifies New Asteroid Threat Which 'Could Hit Earth'

It is 460ft wide and soaring through space - on a possible collision course with Earth. Nasa has identified a new asteroid threat to our planet and calculated that it could potentially impact on February 5th 2040.

The 2011 AG5 has already attracted the concern of the UN Action Team on near-Earth objects, which has begun discussing ways to divert it. They have put the odds of it hitting us at one in 625, though that could change nearer the time.

Were the rock to land on a city it could cause millions of deaths, although mankind would live through it. The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was nine miles wide, compared to 460ft for the 2011 AG5.

Scientists have not yet been able to work out much more about it than its size as they have only been able to observe it for half its orbit. But between 2013 and 2016 they will be able to monitor from the ground and will make a more detailed assessment.

In 2023 the rock will make a ‘keyhole pass’ of Earth, which is an area it passes through on the orbit before it would hit Earth. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, this will will be within a mere 0.02 astronomical units of our planet, or 1.86 million miles.

According to NASA, amongst the ways of deflecting it are putting a probe onto the rock and using the extra gravity the craft generates to steer the asteroid away over millions of light years.

Another option would be sending a probe into it so the impact would have the same effect. Nuclear weapons have also been discussed, but this would create a shower of rocks instead of just one.

There are roughly 19,000 such 'mid-sized' asteroids within 120 million miles of Earth, according to Nasa's latest sky-scans. Mid-sized refers to asteroids in a size range between 330 and 3,300 feet wide, which could destroy a city-sized area were they to hit Earth.

NASA's latest scan used the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE and took two infrared scans of the entire celestial sky in a series of infrared photos between January 2010 and February 2011.

Much of the world’s attention on asteroids has been on the Aphophis asteroid, which is the size of two and a half football fields and is predicted to pass close to Earth in 2036. If the forecasts are true it will come within 18,300 miles of Earth’s surface and will be visible from most of Europe, Africa and Asia

In recent years it has not just been asteroids that have threatened Earth - falling satellites have also caused problems too. In October Germany's Roentgen satellite X-Ray telescope entered a 12,500mph death dive and split up into around 30 huge chunks when it was deliberated crash landed.

Experts however had no idea where it landed and could only say somewhere South of Berlin and North of Wellington in New Zealand. The odds of being hit by one of the pieces was put at 2,000 to one, more likely than getting a hole in one in golf, though no injuries were reported.

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Chris John Fights Japanese Challenger

Semarang - WBA Fly-weight Super Champion Chris John is to face Japanese boxer Shoji Kimora in a title fight at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on May 5, a spokesman of his promotor said.

Chris’s opponent is 34 years old and has an orthodox boxing style, Fathan Rangkuti, media and promotion officer of Mahkota Promotions, said here Tuesday. At the same time and venue, IBO Asia Pacific fly-weight champion Daud Yordan would be fighting Philippine boxer Ramie Laput, he said.

"Daud’s opponent is 33 years old and also has an orthodox boxing style. He descended to bantam weight," Fathan said.

The contracts on Chris John’s and Daud Yordan’s matches had already been signed and what they now had to do was preparing themselves for the upcoming fights, he said. "Late February Chris John will leave for Australia to train at Herry’s Gym in Perth under supervision of his trainer Craig Christian."

When in the ring with Shoji Kimora, Chris John who is nicknamed The Dragon would be defending his title for the 16th time. 

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De Puniet and Espargaró register points in CRT debuts

The Power Electronics Aspar riders had a difficult first race of the season, with a number of unexpected setbacks halting their progress on Sunday. Randy De Puniet and Aleix Espargaró both fought with all they had over 22 laps in order to get a positive finish in Qatar. De Puniet had been affected by two crashes in practice, but his big problem was a gearbox issue that almost caused him another fall at the end of the home straight. He gradually regained places, placing 13th at the chequered flag.

On the other side of the garage, Aleix Espargaró continued to experience chattering issues with his bike. The Spaniard would not be beaten by the problem, however, and concluded his return to the premier class in a creditable 15th place.

Randy de Puniet:
“In general, this weekend has been rather strange. I crashed twice and I ended up with a bike that didn't behave as well as in Jerez -I suppose that was due to the lack of grip on this track. These small things made me lose my confidence a little and I started the race with doubts in my mind. However, the situation turned around in the race. After the opening laps I started to make a comeback through the field and began to catch Edwards, but then we had an unfortunate issue with the gearbox and at the end of the straight I was unable to move down gears. That meant that I began to lose time again and I had to regain more positions. Right at the end I began to note the lack of grip on the rear, which probably means that we made a mistake with the suspension configuration. The positive thing is that we adapted to everything that was thrown at us and placed second out of the CRT bikes -thirteenth overall. I think that this is a good result, but we have to keep on going in the same way in order to ride as fast in Jerez as we did in the tests.”

Aleix Espargaró:
“I gave my all in the race and got a positive result, but I leave Qatar disappointed because we weren't able to solve all the chattering problems that plagued us this weekend. It is strange, but we've been here four days and we looked to have got an idea as to which direction to take things, but we weren't able to overcome our adversities. This is a situation that hurts your confidence a little, but I'm not going to get downhearted and I know that this is a long season. We are going to turn this around, we have all worked extremely hard and we will carry on doing so when we go to Jerez. We have two weeks in which to find solutions and get our motivation back up to maximum.”

Power Electronics Aspar press release

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Abraham leads Simoncelli tribute at Brno

After the success of its tribute to Marco Simoncelli at the end of 2011, the Brno Circuit held a similar event over the weekend in which 1349 bikes took to the World Championship track in remembrance of the late Italian rider.

Led by MotoGP™ rider Karel Abraham and Moto3™ talent Jakub Kornfeil, more than a thousand enthusiastic fans took their bikes onto the 5.4km layout on Sunday, setting a new circuit record for the highest number of machines on track at one time.

"I think the outcome is amazing," said Abraham. "This was one of the first opportunities for bikers to get together after the winter. The Brno Circuit is one of the best venues for such an event."

Ivana Ulmanová, Executive Director of the Brno Circuit, added: "I have to thank everyone. I am glad so many people came even though the weather was far from perfect. There were even some 

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