danimus world

Raikkonen victorious in dramatic Spanish Grand Prix

2008-04-27T23:17:00.001+07:00

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen became the eighth consecutive man to win the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position, when he dominated Sunday's race at the Circuit de Catalunya.The Finn shrugged off two safety car periods - the second when compatriot Heikki Kovalainen crashed his McLaren heavily after a front-end failure pitched him off the road in Turn Nine at an estimated 180 mph - and led home team mate Felipe Massa, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica. They finished 3.2s, 0.9s, and 1.5s apart respectively.It may not have been a classic race, but it increased Raikkonen's championship score to 29 points and his lead to nine over Hamilton (20), while Massa jumps up to fourth on 18, one behind Kubica (19).The Kovalainen incident occurred on the 22nd lap, possibly as a result of something causing the front-left tyre and rim to separate. It took a while to stabilise the Finn at the accident scene, but he gave a thumbs up as he was taken by stretcher to the medical centre. Later he was flown to hospital for precautionary checks, and his condition was described as stable.The incident ruined Nick Heidfeld's race for BMW Sauber, since he was on a longer refuelling strategy and had just taken the lead after the first round of pit stops. He had to come in when the pit lane was still closed, and thus had to serve a stop-go penalty later on. That dropped him to a ninth-place finish.Mark Webber brought his Red Bull home fifth ahead of Jenson Button's Honda, Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and Jarno Trulli's Toyota. The Italian was hampered by a long second stop and an unecessary third one after a communications mix up.Giancarlo Fisichella was unable to resist the charging Heidfeld, so brought his Force India home 10th, ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock, who delayed himself running into the rear of David Coulthard. The Scot's left-rear tyre was cut as a result, so he also dropped back but managed to repass Super Aguri's Takuma Sato before the finish to claim 12th.William's Nico Rosberg was headed for seventh place until his Toyota engine broke; Renault's Fernando Alonso was running fifth when his engine also blew up; Honda's Rubens Barrichello had a collision in the pit lane with Fisichella, which led to his subsequent retirement, and a clash on the opening lap also accounted for Force India's Adrian Sutil and, yet again, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel. Team mate Sebastien Bourdais retired after being clobbered by Renault's Nelson Piquet as the Brazilian attempted to overtake. Piquet also failed to finish as a result. Finally, Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson went out with mechanical problems.

Incredible Hulk Movie

2008-04-27T22:54:00.001+07:00

The Spanish Grand Prix Preview

2008-04-25T10:08:00.003+07:00

If you were hoping that the times set during the recent test session at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya were going to provide a meaningful index to performance in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, you no doubt you came away disappointed.Felipe Massa was fastest for Ferrari on the first day, but ran on 2009-specification slicks. Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello each had a day atop the timesheets, for Renault and Honda respectively, and Mark Webber dominated the wet final day for Red Bull.What did it all mean in the end? Only that everyone had a chance to do what they wanted, and in some cases that was not to set fast lap times.Ferrari had a ‘new’ nose, with an air release slot not dissimilar to that pioneered on Formula One cars in 1968 as designers sought to exhaust hot air from front-mounted radiators, and very close to the purely aerodynamic function of the 1980 Lotus 80. Whether it will make a dramatic difference is currently open to debate, but the team’s aerodynamicist Nicholas Tombazis was careful not to let people get over-excited about it.“The influence on car performance of the slotted nose has been greatly over emphasised,” Tombazis told reporters. “You cannot measure the effect of one component in isolation and the nose is just one part of a bigger package and in fact, its effect is not that big. Overall, we expect the new aero package to produce some improvement in performance, but it would be wrong to call it a race-winning item.”Everyone nevertheless hopes that their upgraded mechanical and aerodynamic packages will make them more competitive here. McLaren were cautious, after what appeared to be an inconclusive test. Lewis Hamilton did not set particularly quick lap times, but said he remains buoyant ahead of the start of the European season despite the errors that made Bahrain his worst-ever showing in Formula One racing and cost him his lead in the world championship as he failed to score.“For sure, you learn something in every race, even if you win,” he said as he prepares to bounce back. “I think we have come a long way and looking into the next race I feel very confident that we can do a better job.”Referring to the updates on his McLaren MP4-23, he said: “There were a few but not a lot, but we definitely made some steps forward and I think at this test everyone is doing something different. Some people are running slick tyres and some people are running grooves. We just focused on our job and I think the car feels a little better and I feel a little bit more comfortable in it. We feel quite strong here.”BMW Sauber are riding the crest of a wave of unexpected success right now, and lead the constructors’ championship, but boss Mario Theissen isn’t getting carried away just yet."The next race in Barcelona will be pretty interesting for two reasons,” he explained. "The track is very relevant to what we see for the rest of the year, and on the other hand, every team will have a development package for Barcelona. So after Barcelona we will be able to say where we really are.”Honda and Williams made encouraging noises about their performance, as did Red Bull, Toyota look quietly effective yet again, but Renault frankly admitted that the performance of the updated R28 disappointed, Alonso’s fastest time notwithstanding.Ferrari may be the current pacesetters, but they say they are expecting a tough fight. “We come to Spain with every reason to be optimistic, after wins in Malaysia and Bahrain,” said team principal Stefano Domenicali. “Testing here went well and we hope to keep our momentum moving forward. However, our rivals have not been twiddling their thumbs either, so we can expect a tough fight which we will tackle as usual with maximum concentration at every stage of the weekend.”Kimi Raikkonen relishes coming to Europe as championship leader for the first time in his career, and is keen to repeat is 2005 victory. “We have all the components in place to be very competitive,” he says but, echoing his team boss, he adds: “It will be a very tough weekend.”Back in Australia, and again in Malaysia, McLaren boss Ron Dennis stressed that the true picture of the 2008 world championship would not become apparent until the start of the European leg. “We don't really know what our pace is at the moment,” he said in Melbourne. “We won't really know how competitive our car is until after Barcelona. Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain are very different circuits and do not reflect the true pace of the car. Barcelona will be where it is all at.”

ASUS G70 Gaming Notebook

2008-04-25T10:02:00.003+07:00

"CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, LAS VEGAS, NV (JANUARY 7, 2008) – ASUS, worldwide leader in component and notebook design and manufacturing, today unveiled its new ASUS G70 notebook featuring powerful dual-graphics based on the highly acclaimed NVIDIA® SLI™ technology, as well as the support of dual hard drives and 8GB of system memory for optimal transfer rates. The new G70 delivers a new level of immersive cinematic graphics with an unprecedented combination of computing power and gaming performance.Powerful Performance On-the-goThe ASUS G70 is designed for the serious computer enthusiast, and is also aimed at users who want to enjoy high-definition video on their notebooks. Armed with a stunning 17" diagonal widescreen display with a native resolution of 1920x1200 and a pair of powerful NVIDIA GeForce™ 8700M GT graphics processing units (GPUs) with 1GB of dedicated memory, the ASUS G70 is able to maximize long-term entertainment value and advanced visual quality to provide an uninterrupted thrill-packed adventure. Gamers will be able to play the most system-resource demanding games while running multiple applications in the background seamlessly.Covered in brushed aluminum, the G70 looks and feels like a suit of armor. The gently curved edges lend it designer appeal, and this design is continued throughout the keyboard and the touch pad areas.The G70 is designed to be more than a mobile gaming powerhouse. Preloaded with a robust array of multimedia features including a pair of built-in Altec Lansing® stereo speakers, a subwoofer, an embedded TV tuner, a remote control, and an integrated webcam. These features ensure that the G70 is capable of performing flawlessly to any tasks regardless of media type. In addition, the G70 sports a DVD super multi drive to allow users to take high definition theater experiences on the go using the integrated HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) connection."