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Race Recap: 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix follows the template of this year and last [spoilers]

The sand, the wind, the penalties, the contact and the one crash - all of them collided to make the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix a surprise affair from day to day and lap to lap. Oh, and did we mention the tires? Pirelli made a last-minute swap after the amusement park ride that the Chinese Grand Prix turned into with the soft compound tire, and brought medium and hard compounds to the desert. That didn't stop things from falling apart for some teams - literally - and that didn't stop the one team that seems to love the hard compound Pirelli tire.

Lotus suing former CEO Bahar over spending on homes, helicopters and watches

More details have come out about the legal suit and countersuit being contested between Lotus cars owner DRB-Hicom and former CEO of Lotus Dany Bahar. Bahar was brought in by Malaysian car company Proton in 2009 to turn Lotus around, and events during his tenure have made just about everyone wonder "What's going on?" That's not unusual - it can take a minute to figure things out when a new leader takes everything in a new direction - but in this case the clouds didn't clear quickly enough.
When the Malaysian government sold Proton to Malaysian auto supplier DRB-Hicom earlier this year, a forensic accounting team from Ernst & Young and The Rothschild Group started going over the books. Not long after, Bahar was suspended in June from his position and then fired. In his countersuit against DRB-Hicom, claims of lavish spending began to surface. Then the stories and leaks and rumors really began, the UK's Financial Mail reporting on more than one million pounds spent on private flights and home renovations, the New Zealand Herald talking about other executives sacked so that DRB could rearrange a 270-million-pound bank loan to Lotus, and rumors on forums about Bahar flying from his home in Norfolk to Hethel HQ and spending 30,000 pounds on motorsports books for his office.
In the latest Bloomberg report it is said that DRB-Hicom seeks 2.5 million pounds ($4 million US) from Bahar "for unauthorized expenses and overpaid salary and bonuses," including the purported expense of 3,000 pounds on watches for company managers. DRB-Hicom also says Bahar made damaging statements to the media, on top of breaching his contractual duties. Bahar's countersuit seeks $10.6 million from DRB-Hicom.

Lotus relocating US headquarters to Michigan

Lotus is planning a renewed push into the North American market. It's got the new Evora 400 coming to America in December, and it's expanding its dealer network as well. And it'll orchestrate it all from its new US headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI. The move will see the main office of Lotus Cars USA leave its current base in Lawrenceville, GA, to move in together with Lotus Engineering in Ann Arbor, putting both operations under one larger roof. The transition is earmarked to be completed by the end of next month. But that's not all. Lotus has also announced that it is expanding its dealer network across North America. The first push will see four new dealerships opening across the United States and Canada, with a pair of new showrooms in California (West Covina and Thermal), another in the car-collector mecca of Scottsdale, AZ, and a new Canadian location in Calgary, Alberta. That'll bring the showroom count up to 47 locations in North America, with more franchises planned for the near future as well. The new and improved Lotus Evora 400 is slated to arrive at US and Canadian dealers starting in December. It packs a number of upgrades over the Evora S, including more power, less weight, new bodywork, and carbon-ceramic brakes. The result is a 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds, a top speed quoted at 186 miles per hour, and Hethel test track lap time clocked at six seconds faster than its predecessor. Pricing starts at $89,900. Related Video: EXPANSION AND CO-LOCATION FOR LOTUS IN THE USA - Co-location of Lotus Cars USA. Inc, to Lotus Engineering. Inc, in Ann Arbor, MI to support growth - First deliveries of New Lotus Evora 400 in USA and Canada in December 2015 - Expansion of the Lotus dealer network The introduction of the Lotus Evora 400, as a 2017 North American Model Year, marks the start of a fresh period in Lotus' presence in this vital market. The previous model Evora already received positive acclaim from media, customers and dealers alike and reaffirmed Lotus as the maker of some of the finest, purest, most lightweight and most efficient sports cars sold today. Jean-Marc Gales, Chief Executive Officer, Group Lotus plc, explains: "The Lotus Evora 400 combines high performance with the legendary Lotus benchmark handling. It is lighter, more efficient and dynamically better than ever.