FIA WEC: Audi on top again during the second free practice session in China

By Johan Laubscher

The second free practice session at Shanghai concluded with an Audi topping the time sheets once again. Round seven of the FIA World Endurance Championship is taking place at Shanghai this weekend.

During the first session it was the #2 Audi that led the way in front of the #8 Toyota, #1 Audi and #7 Toyota.

The second session saw the #1 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer setting the fastest time in what was a red flag affected session. They placed first ahead of the two Toyotas, #8 leading #7. Audi #2 with Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loïc Duval placed fourth. The Rebellion Racing Lola rounded out the LMP1 runners in fifth.

The qualifying session will be up next at Shanghai, taking place later today. We wish the best of luck to Audi Sport Team Joest and their six drivers. 

Original LMP1 second free practice results:

1 #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1:48.655
2 #8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1:49.302
3 #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1:49.549

4 #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1:50.037

5 #12 Lola B12/60 Coupé - Toyota - 1:53.008

Update: 

Shortly after the conclusion of the second free practice session the news emerged that the fastest time for Audi #1 was disallowed, due to a pitlane speeding violation, similar to what happened to Toyota at Fuji. Thus the amended finishing order featured a Toyota 1-2 result, with the #8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid ahead of the #7. Audi #1 dropped to third, followed by the fourth placed #2 Audi.

Updated LMP1 second free practice results:

1 #8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1:49.302
2 #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1:49.549
1 #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1:50.009

4 #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1:50.037

5 #12 Lola B12/60 Coupé - Toyota - 1:53.008

Photo credit: Audi Sport Communication / Media

Australian GT: Victory for Salmon/Talbot MPC Audi in race one at Highlands NZ

By Johan Laubscher

The Australian GT Championship is hosting its season finale in New Zealand this weekend. The finale is being hosted at the new Highlands Motorsport Park circuit with two Audi cars on the grid.

Two Audi entries have been entered at this final round. Melbourne Performance Centre are fielding the two cars for their customers. The #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra is being driven by car-owner, Rod Salmon, and his co-driver, Liam Talbot. The #71 Equity-One Motorsport Audi R8 LMS has Dean Koustoumidis and Andrew McInnes behind the wheel.

The weekend began with practice, qualifying and race one on Friday, followed by race two on Saturday and the Highlands 101 on Sunday, a special non-championship endurance race.

Qualifying for the first race saw the highest Audi placing fifth, the #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra, followed by the #71 R8 LMS in seventh. 

Race one concluded with overall victory for Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot with their #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra. Dean Koustoumidis and Andrew McInnes finished seventh in the #71 Audi R8 LMS.

The second race will be taking place tomorrow. We wish the best of luck to the MPC squad and their two cars.

Highlights from race one can be watched below. Video produced by Other Side Productions:

Photo credit: Melbourne Performance Centre

FIA GT: Belgian Audi Club Team WRT completed their rollout at Zolder

By Johan Laubscher

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT took part in a very wet test day at Zolder on Thursday.

They took part in the general Thursday Zolder test day in order to rollout three of their cars ahead of the FIA GT Series finale in Baku. The #11, #13 and #17 WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were on site. The cars were driven by Gregoire Demoustier, Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof and Laurens Vanthoor. 

WRT will be entering four Audi R8 LMS ultra cars at the FIA GT Series finale in Baku later in November, as well as one single car entry in the GT Open finale this weekend, which will be driven by Filipe Albuquerque and Yves Weerts.

We have included an embedded YouTube video featuring the WRT Audis at the test day - from BelgiumCarChannel.

Photo credit: Laurens Vanthoor on twitter

FIA WEC: Audi leads the way in first free practice session in China

By Johan Laubscher

The FIA World Endurance Championship is in China this weekend, hosting round seven at Shanghai. Free practice one got the weekend’s proceedings underway on Friday morning.

The first free practice session got underway at 08h00 local time. Five LMP1 cars have once again been entered, following the addition of the second Toyota at Fuji last time out. Two Audi R18 e-tron cars will face off against two Toyota TS030 Hybrid cars and the Rebellion Racing Lola.

It was the #2 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loïc Duval that led the way during the first session. They were followed by the first of the Toyotas, with the #8 TS030 Hybrid in second, ahead of the #1 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer in third. The #7 Toyota was fourth and the Rebellion Racing Lola was fifth.

The second free practice session and qualifying will be taking place later today.

LMP1 first free practice results:

1 #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1.47.442
2 #8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1.47.849

3 #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - 1.48.548

4 #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid - 1.48.566
5 #12 Lola B12/60 Coupé - Toyota - 1.52.227

Photo credit: Audi Sport Communication / Media

Fitness Friday | How I prepare my meals

 

This week my diet has not been good.. at all! And I know exactly why… because I did not prepare my meals for the week. Instead I have skipped breakfast a couple of days, ate too many sandwiches for my lunches and made poor decisions for my dinner; as I result I feel pretty rubbish this week. It’s amazing that filling yourself with rubbish food actually makes you feel rubbish!

I have written a post previously about the importance of preparing your meals to aid in weight-loss and health gain, so I won’t lecture you as I already have. However this post’s purpose is to share with you how I prepare my meals. It’s kind of a step by step guide to show you how easy it is to find healthy recipes and use them in your everyday diet.

1. Find healthy recipes! I assume that a lot of you are bloggers, or like to read blogs… so read some food blogs! Use Google, trawl through some sites and favourite those that you enjoy. I use Google and tumblr to find healthy recipes and food blogs. When I find a recipe I enjoy I take a picture of it on my phone, or bookmark it, so when I am later making my meal plan I know what I need to buy. Some of my favourite food blogs are-
•  A life Of Geekery,                        The Gracious Pantry
• The Londoner,                              I Wash…You Dry,
• Nics Nutrition,                             SuperFood Babe
• An Edible Mosaic,                      The Skinny Confidential,
• Eat Yourself Skinny
2. Make a Meal Plan! Now you should have a wide range of recipes to fill your week with, so organise which one’s you want to have this week. I don’t actually say which day I’m going to have which recipe as sometimes I really don’t feel like eating a certain dish. But I make sure I have 6 recipes for dinner, a couple of healthy breakfast options, a couple of lunch dishes, and some healthy snacks.
3. Buy your food! Your meal plan will have given you a list of ingredients you need for that week, so now go to the supermarket and buy ONLY what is on your shopping list! The majority of your food with be from the fruit and vegetable aisle, followed by the meat aisle. Stay away from the confectionary aisles… these things should not be on your list so there is no need to go anywhere near that aisle. Why test your will power, make it easy for yourself!
4. Find a spare few hours in your schedule! I’m a very busy person, as I imagine most of you are. I work full time, blog part time, workout daily and spend time with my boyfriend, among all that I still manage to find a coupe of spare hours so I can prepare my food. Be it a Sunday afternoon, Saturday morning or weekday evening… dedicate a few hours a week to cooking!
5. Figure out what will keep for the week! Pull out your meal plan and recipes and figure out what you can prepare now that will keep for the week (I say week, my food usually lasts about 4-5 days, depending on what it is). I don’t prepare salads as like mine fresh, but am happy to prepare carrots, peppers, eggs, tuna, quinoa to go in the salad. At the moment I have soup for lunch, so always make a huge batch of soup for the week and keep it in the fridge. The same with smoothies or juices… I prepare a batch of them so I don’t have to make them first thing in the morning, I can grab and go! Things like mince can be cooked and kept in the fridge for a couple of days, chicken dishes not so much.. but they are pretty quick to make. I precook my two ingredient pancakes and muffins for quick breakfast. For snacks I chop carrot for vegetable crudité and keep them in a Tupperware, I hard boil eggs for grab and go protein and bake bars or healthy cookies, for sweet treats; all of which keep very well in Tupperware.
6. Cook! Now you know what you can prepare in advance on your meal plan, get cooking! It will only take a couple of hours to prepare your meals for the week! Just think of the time you will save in the morning, the money will you save from taking a packed lunch to work, and the easy dinners you can heat up in the evening!
7. Store in the fridge! Invest in plenty of Tupperware so you have plenty to put your food into. My fridge is always stacked high with various sized Tupperware.. but it mean that I save so much time when I have meals later in the week!

Do you prepare your meals in advance? How much preparation do you do? Do you have any tips on storage to maximise shelf life?

Go check out Kim’s lovely blog full of beauty, fashion and lifestyle – PeachyPowderPuff.co.uk I love her frequent and great mix of posts.