Monday, December 2, 2024

#Russia - Ukraine ceasefire may be too late to save Putin from economic collapse: Times Radio

2 December 2024

"The way that Trump has been talking up until this point is that he can just force it through an agreement, whether Putin likes it or not." Without the lifting of sanctions and the isolation of Russia from the world economy, ending the war in Ukraine won't do much to lift the economic and political pressure from Putin's regimes,

The Times' Maxim Tucker tells Frontline on #timesradio

Sunday, December 1, 2024

#F1 - 2024 Qatar Grand Prix - Sunday "Challenging evening at the Lusail Circuit" Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

 

Press Information
1 December 2024


 
F1: Session Report 2024 Qatar Grand Prix - Sunday Challenging evening at the Lusail Circuit
 


 
  • George Russell finished P4 while Lewis Hamilton crossed the line P12.
  • Both cars unfortunately lost positions at the start with George dropping from P1 to P3 and Lewis losing out from P6 to P9.
  • Unfortunately, a slow stop for George on lap 24 resulted in him losing an additional three places and from there he struggled to make gains due to the shortened DRS zone despite pushing hard.
  • Lap 35 saw a front left puncture for Lewis after running over debris on the main straight. This forced him to box on lap 36 when he also served his five second penalty for a false start.
  • A drive through penalty was also handed to Lewis following a failure to activate the pitlane speed limiter behind the Safety Car. He served this on lap 48.
  • Additionally, George landed a five second time penalty at the end of the race for a safety car delta infringement. This didn't impact his P4 result.
  • The Team's attention now turns to the final race of the season next weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Driver
Grid
Result
Fastest Lap
 
George Russell
P1
P4
1:23.355
 
Lewis Hamilton
P6
P12

 


Strategy
Start
Stop 1
Stop 2
 
No.63
Medium
Hard (L24)
Hard (L36)
 
No.44
Medium
Hard (L36)
 
 



George Russell
It was a very strange race because our pace has been so strong all weekend, but it just didn't seem to be there today. Overall, my race wasn't great, I had a bad start then poor pace and finally a penalty at the end of the race. We ultimately didn't have the pace on the hard tire that we thought we would and they were not quick enough compared to those around us. Max and Lando managed to pass by at the start and I didn't have the speed to catch them again. Even after the pit stop I struggled to try and make it back through to regain my position. The car was great all day Friday and yesterday so we need to understand where that peace went for us today. Both Lewis and I made bad starts and we have some idea why, but we need to fully understand how we lost the performance that we showed in the Sprint. I think ultimately you can see how you only need to gain two tenths or lose two tenths and you go from being a front runner to being down in P6 or P7 so I hope we can have the car from yesterday and Vegas next week in Abu Dhabi . It would be great if we can hopefully have a better weekend together as a Team. 

Lewis Hamilton It was a pretty bad race for me overall, but these things happen. It started off badly with my false start which was my fault and resulted in a penalty which I served during my stop. Then I had the puncture which was just unfortunate, followed by the pitlane speeding which was on me, too. The car had a lot of understeer today because we didn't have enough front wing in the setup. I gave it my best shot, but it all seemed to go downhill from the start. This race weekend hasn't been great but we have another week next week where we can try and finish a bit better and I hope we do have a better result. These last races don't have an impact on all of the great things we have done together as a Team. Races are a rollercoaster ride of emotions, I've had great races in my life and bad races too. Ultimately, it's not how you fall it's how you get back up and we will try again next week. 

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO Today we ultimately didn't have the peace. Our car is a handful to drive on its worst days and today was one of those days and both drivers had a similar experience. I think if the race had been yesterday then we would have had a shot at winning but today we just didn't have the speed behind Lando and Max. The car was supper difficult for both Lewis and George to drive, we had a lot of understeer and both of them suffered from that. We started to lose ground from those ahead of us and that's when we decided to box George and hopefully put us in a better situation. Unfortunately, we suffered a slow stop, then ended up in traffic and struggled to make it back through. Then with Lewis we had the false start and pit lane speeding which impacted further on his race along with the lack of pace.
 
We have one more to go and we will continue to give it our utmost. We will celebrate the relationship and partnership we have had with Lewis and these difficult races will be quickly forgotten. We have had an amazing partnership with Lewis that's spanned over twelve years with six driver titles and eight builders' titles won together, and these are the things which we will hold dearly. 

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director That was a difficult evening for the team. The underlying picture was that the car balance was very different from yesterday's Sprint - and both drivers were limited with severe understeer in the opening stint, and lacking pace relative to the cars around us. However, we made too many other errors to earn strong finishing positions, and we were ultimately fortunate to salvage P4 with George thanks to retirements or problems for cars ahead of him. It's a valuable lesson in how quickly things can turn from a week ago in Las Vegas, and we have seen these kinds of performance oscillations for all teams at various points this season. There's plenty for us to learn in order to improve, and we will be focused on doing so as we prepare for the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi - and what we hope will be a fitting farewell for Lewis.
 





#Fullmovie - "The Lost Battalion" (2021) Directed by Russell Mulcahy Starring Rick Schroder Michael Brandon

x

Directed by Russell Mulcahy Starring Rick Schroder Michael Brandon

The Lost Battalion is a true 2001 made-for-television war drama film about the Lost Battalion of World War I, which was cut off and surrounded by German forces in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive the of 1918.

Later the Versailles treaty put an end to the Great War.

The film was shot in Luxembourg.

It is an A&E Original Movie, premiering on the network in 2001. It is also played on A&E's sister networks such as The History Channel. It was released on home video in January 2002.


The Meuse–Argonne offensive was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million French, Siamese, and American soldiers.

The Lost Battalion is a 2001 American war drama television film about the US 77th Division's Lost Battalion during World War I, which was cut off and ...

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive

#Africa - The scale of the humanitarian crisis in war-torn Sudan | DW News

1 December 2024

Almost two years into the civil war in Sudan, NGOs warn the scale of the impact is catastrophic. We speak to the German Minister for Economic Cooperation & Development Svenja Schulze who has just returned from the region.

And, women's groups in Kenya demand femicide to be declared a national disaster. Plus: we meet the first woman to curate the Dakar Biennale. Salimata Diop gives DW News Africa a tour of the exhibition.

#Georgia - President Salome Zourabichvili slams Georgia's government as 'illegitimate': Euro News

1 December 2024

In an interview with Euronews, Salome Zourabichvili talks about the current wave of unrest happening across Georgia and what could happen next.

READ MORE: https://www.euronews.com/2024/11/30/p...


Russian-Georgian conflict explained (Abkhazia & South Ossetia)

Crowds have clashed with police for a third consecutive night in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. They accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of pulling the country into Russia's orbit. Earlier Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the state would not allow a revolution to take place. The wave of unrest was sparked when the government froze talks to join the European Union.

#Gaza - Israel ‘ethnically cleansing’ north Gaza says former Israeli defence minister: Middle East Eye

1 December 2024

In an interview with Democra TV, former Israeli chief of staff and defence minister Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon accused Israel of engaging in "ethnic cleansing" in the northern Gaza Strip. Ya’alon, who was dismissed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016, has since emerged as one of Netanyahu’s most vocal critics. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Saturday that the death toll in Gaza has risen to at least 44,382, with more than 105,142 Palestinians injured since the beginning of Israel's military offensive on 7 October 2023.

#F1 - Why Verstappen lost his pole start at the Qatar GP: Autosport

1 December 2024

Jonathan Noble and Stuart Codling sit down to review all the action from Saturday's Sprint Race and Grand Prix Qualifying from Qatar. There's an immediate reaction to the news that Max Verstappen's pole position was removed; with the Dutchman demoted to second via a controversial penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly with George Russell in Q3, with the British driver now inheriting pole as a result. There's also an analysis of Lewis Hamilton's continued criticism of his poor qualifying form, Lando Norris giving up a Sprint victory to teammate Oscar Piastri on the run to the line, and Sergio Perez's losing a position in the pitlane to Franco Colapinto after the Mexican driver missed the green light at the start of the Sprint.


and



webmaster       John Nichols      @itcracing      @Linkedin

Saturday, November 30, 2024

#F1 - 024 Qatar Grand Prix - Saturday Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS TEAM

 

Press Information
30 November 2024


 
F1: Session Report
 
2024 Qatar Grand Prix - Saturday



  • After a positive Friday for the Team this continued into Saturday, first with the Sprint Race followed by Qualifying later in the evening.
  • Lining up P2 and P7 for the Sprint, George finished P3 after being passed by the McLaren of Oscar Piastri on the first lap and Lewis was P6, having run P5 for the first half of the race.
  • Qualifying took place later in the evening and proved to again be a very close session between the top four Teams.
  • Both Lewis and George continued to make progress throughout the sessions on the soft compound with George securing P2 and Lewis taking P6.
  • George was unable to improve on his final lap and missed out on securing pole by just 0.055s.

F1 Sprint
 
Driver
Grid
Result
Tyres
George Russell
P2
P3
Medium
Lewis Hamilton
P7
P6
Medium


Qualifying
 
Driver
 
Q1
Q2
Q3
George Russell
 
11 Laps
1:21.241
P1
Medium, Soft, Soft
9 Laps
1:21.069
P4
Soft, Soft
8 Laps
1:20.575
P2
Soft, Soft
Lewis Hamilton
 
10 Laps
1:21.637
P7
Soft, Soft
9 Laps
1:21.095
P5
Soft, Soft
8 Laps
1:21.011
P6
Soft, Soft


George Russell
Today has been a great day, it's good to be in this groove at the moment with four front row starts. My first Q3 lap was really strong and I was pleased with it but unfortunately I wasn't able to improve on my final lap. This was mainly due to the scrappy out lap I had with the near miss with Max that meant I ended up in the gravel so that didn't help prep wise ahead of my final push lap. I'm still really pleased with P2, I'm taking all the positives and I'm feeling great in the car.
 
It's going to be exciting tomorrow as the top four teams are very close. Starting on the right side of the track does seem to have a slight disadvantage, which we saw earlier on in the Sprint Race for the majority starting on this side of the track, which meant I couldn't fight with Lando. I'm hoping tomorrow we'll be able to fight with Max and stay ahead of those behind us, our race pace this morning looked good and the tyres seem resilient so I'm hoping we don't end up in another DRS train and we can have some fun. There's a lot of possibilities to do something different, I'm looking forward to it.
 
Lewis Hamilton
It was a pretty straight forward session for us in qualifying, the car was feeling decent and we were able to fix the bouncing. The tyres and the grip of the track was feeling great, this track is amazing. My last lap in qualifying unfortunately wasn't great, I had the car snapping away from me which meant I lost time and couldn't improve higher than P6. I was giving it everything and was generally feeling good but didn't improve when I crossed the line.
 
Tomorrow I'm hoping for a good race, this track is great to drive so it should be an exciting race. I'm hoping the car will be in a better place tomorrow and we'll be able to make some improvements. Unfortunately, today in the sprint all of the top Teams were really quick and it was hard to overtake but 'll be giving it my all in the race tomorrow.
 
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO
Overall, we are happy with the results we have seen today as a Team. The car seems to function well in these conditions as we can run the car low and stiff on a smooth track which ultimately suits the characteristics of our car and George seems to like the way it drives. We've seen this over the last couple of qualifying sessions and races. George was performing well in Q3 but was just lacking half a tenth to secure pole against Max.
 
For Lewis this generation of cars aren't always suiting his driving style, he likes to be aggressive on corner entries and unfortunately this car at the moment can't quite take it, especially on qualifying laps when it's right on the edge. Lewis in the race, however, usually manages to turn it around like last week where he was overtaking car after car and coming through the pack. We'll see what tomorrow brings and hopefully we can deliver another good result with both cars for the Team.
 
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
The Sprint Race was a bit frustrating, George lost a place into turn 1, he couldn't quite tuck in and lost a bit of ground to Piastri by not having a tow. It felt like we were close to getting a pass on a couple of occasions but once Lando was helping him out with DRS it was impossible to get through. Lewis had a good start, getting up to P5 but took a bit too much out of the tyres and dropped a place from there. It's a shame that the DRS zone was shortened for this year as it's always difficult to pass on the sprint races with everyone on the same age tyres, this has just made it even harder.
 
Qualifying was reasonable but frustrating for George to end up less than 60ms off pole for the second day in a row. The car was working well. It felt like George had a good shot at pole with a strong first lap but our second run wasn't clean and he failed to improve. Lewis was lacking a bit of rear stability in places which was preventing him going any quicker but P6 will still put us in the fight at the front. From the Sprint this morning it looks like the long run performance is very similar between all the cars so it should make for an interesting race.