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Scuderia Ferrari displaces relatives of missing passengers at Malaysian hotel

The action and glamor of a Formula One race coming to town is usually more than enough to shine an international spotlight on a host country, but Malaysia has made headlines recently for another reason entirely. That, of course, would be the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370. But with the two events coming together, something's going to have to give, and unfortunately in this case, it's the grieving families of the flight's passengers.
The clash came to a head when the Scuderia Ferrari came to town to set up for next weekend's race. Team members were booked to stay at the Cyberview Hotel in the capital of Kuala Lumpur, arrangements which F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone points out were likely to have been made long ago. The trouble is that over a dozen relatives of MH370 passengers who had come in from China were still staying at that hotel while awaiting word on their loved ones' fates, and with the hotel apparently filling up fast ahead of the grand prix weekend, those family members were forced to leave.
Just where they've gone, we don't know, but while the development may not look good for Ferrari or for F1, it strikes us as one of those unfortunate situations where no one is really to blame. The race has been booked for months, the team likely made their reservations long before the flight went missing, the hotel is obliged to honor the reservations and the grieving families need somewhere to stay. The tendency to point fingers often prevails, but in this situation we're afraid no one is to blame but the circumstances. That, and the still as-yet unknown cause of the flight's mysterious disappearance.

2016 Canadian Grand Prix: A tale of 3 starts and 2 stops

The first curve in the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix happened before Turn 1. Lewis Hamilton sat on pole in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas, Sebastian Vettel in a Ferrari behind. That order changed as soon as the lights went out. Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg started well enough, but Vettel flew off the line, passing Hamilton in just a few meters. Vettel led through Turn 1 while Hamilton defended against Rosberg trying to pass on the outside by using the entire track. Hamilton bumped his teammate, sending Rosberg into the concrete runoff with an " infuriating but fair" maneuver Hamilton blamed on understeer. The Brit stayed second, his teammate fell to ninth by the time he rejoined the circuit and got back on the gas. The Ferrari finally looked an even match for the Mercedes, Vettel slowly building a gap out front. On Lap 11 the Honda in Jenson Button's McLaren self-ignited just after the hairpin, forcing Button to pull over on the Casino Straight. A Virtual Safety Car slowed the field, convincing Ferrari to pit its drivers. Vettel came in, handing the lead to Hamilton. The marshals cleared Button's car more quickly than expected, so the scuderia didn't get the full time advantage it expected, sending Vettel back on track seven seconds behind the Mercedes. Button's and Ferrari's unplanned stops decided the race. Ferrari had always planned to run a two-stopper, but the early pit didn't give the team a chance to gauge the ultra-soft Pirelli. The ultra-softs lasted longer than anyone expected. Hamilton only pitted once, Vettel had to pit again, and the Ferrari simply couldn't close the gap to the Mercedes even with newer tires. Post-race commentary accused Ferrari of two blunders: giving up track position, and not taking advantage of Mercedes' only known weakness of not being nearly as good in dirty air. If the ultra-softs had fallen off a performance cliff, however, Ferrari's play would have been considered daring and brilliant. Hamilton took his second win of the season, followed by a hard-driving Vettel five seconds later. Valtteri Bottas and Williams got everything right, the Finn taking advantage of a one-stop strategy, a perfectly-timed pit stop, and more unusual Red Bull issues to finish third. It's Williams' first podium of the year. Max Verstappen claimed fourth after two pit stops, holding off a frustrated Rosberg who had to make an unscheduled stop to remedy a slow puncture.

Supercar 'Holy Trinity' raced at the track, drag strip, and to 186 mph

There was a time when we weren't sure if we'd ever get the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918 Spyder on the track together. Now, we've have a multi-part series dissecting how each supercar approaches all kinds of go-fast tasks. Supercar Driver (SCD) looks at their performances around the track, on the drag strip, and on a runway. SCD didn't get any help from the automakers, it used three cars all owned by one British gentleman, Paul Bailey. The first video has British Touring Car Championship driver Mat Jackson running all three around Silverstone. The second video takes the coupes to Santa Pod Raceway to run the quarter-mile. The third video runs them out to Bruntingthorpe Airfield for a drag race to 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph). We found that latter video especially interesting because SCD shows a graph of how fast each car hit speed marks, and it's interesting to see where the winner made up all of its time and the where the third-place getter lost its time. Nota bene, the McLaren is using its fly-paper sticky Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires. You'll find the first video in the series above, the second two videos below. If you still haven't had enough, then check out the Hyper 5 three-part series by Alejandro Solomon filmed at California's Thermal Raceway, starting with the Holy Trinity and adding the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and Pagani Huayra. Chris Harris also did fantastic work around Portimao with the help of Marino Franchitti and Tiff Needell, with assistance from the factories. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Ferrari McLaren Porsche Convertible Coupe Hybrid Luxury Special and Limited Editions Performance Supercars Videos porsche 918 spyder mclaren p1 ferrari laferrari