dream start to life in F1

[jinshuiqian0713]

WETASKIWIN, Alberta – Andrew Ranger has plenty of mastery on road-courses. The two-time champion of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 proved once again he can figure it out on an oval, too. He showed that Friday night as he picked up the win in the Alberta Has Energy 300 in the inaugural event at Edmonton International Raceway. Ranger tied the series all-time record with his 19th career win, and won back-to-back races for the first time since August 2009 following his victory on the road course at Circuit ICAR in Quebec last week. It was also his first oval win since 2009, and fourth overall. "At the beginning of the day we didnt have a really good car, so we improved lap after lap," Ranger said "During the race my car was really fantastic." The race was stretched to 316 laps around the quarter-mile bullring following a late caution that involved early race leader Alex Tagliani, and required Ranger, who took the lead on Lap 269, to hold off LP Dumoulin and Jason Hathaway on the final restart. "The pass with Alex [Tagliani] was a little bit tough because it was almost one [racing] line here," Ranger said. "He did a little mistake and I was able to take him in [Turn] 3." Dumoulin and Hathaway waged a battle throughout the last two laps of the race for second and Dumoulin came out ahead, followed by Hathaway, J.R. Fitzpatrick and D.J. Kennington. Joey McColm, Larry Jackson, Scott Steckly, rookie Stefan Rzadzinski and Noel Dowler completed the top 10. Fitzpatrick, Kennington and Steckly were all two laps down at different points during the race and rallied back for top-10 finishes. Tagliani, who won the pole position for the race earlier in the day, finished 13th. He led a career-high 268 laps. Fitzpatrick and Dumoulin are now tied for the season points lead after four races at 162 apiece while Rangers back-to-back wins have bumped him up to third, 12 tallies behind the co-leaders. Dumoulin has finished top-five in all four races this year, two more than any other driver. "Thats our first podium on an oval, and the guys have been working really hard," Dumoulin said after finishing second. "We were within sight for the last run. I knew being in second was not a good spot for the restart at the end, obviously we had to fight for that spot, but we kept our head up and made it happen." Ranger now shares the Canadian Tire Series career wins record with Kennington. That accomplishment came one week after he tied Fitzpatrick for the series all-time poles mark at 14. The race was slowed by 11 cautions for 94 laps, including two red flags. The Alberta Has Energy 300 will air on TSN on Sunday, July 20 at 3pm et/Noon pt and on RDS2 on Saturday, July 26 at 3pm et/Noon pt. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! .C. -- Al Jefferson knows few people will be giving the Charlotte Bobcats a chance to upset the Miami Heat in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . FLIP SAUNDERS (Timberwolves): Im not the least bit surprised that he appointed himself as head coach after his search concluded. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! the week, McCoy told reporters he respected Hoyer for his intelligence, athleticism and how he conducts himself on and off the field. This wasnt an act, some attempt at psyching out Hoyer. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . Stevenson scored the first three goals of the game in the first period for Regina (35-22-6), which has won eight of its last 10 games. Patrick DAmico added two for the Pats, Braden Christoffer had a single and Morgan Klimchuk chipped in a goal and four assists. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . Tensions rose in the first period when Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik hit Bruins forward Loui Eriksson with what appeared to be a clean hit.Romain Grosjean has expressed his amazement at Haass response to their first troubled F1 race weekend - and is tipping them to be back in points contention in Russia. The sports first American team in 30 years made a dream start to life in F1 with sixth and fifth place finishes in Australia and Bahrain respectively, but then suddenly struggled throughout the Chinese GP.Grosjean, who was involved in contact on the opening lap, finished 18th in Shanghai and team-mate Esteban Gutierrez fared little better in 14th place. However, with the teams disappointing performance having required deep analysis in the week that followed, Grosjean reckons they are now actually better placed to move forward.It was a very positive weekend for us [in retrospect] because we have done much more analysis after China than we did after Bahrain, he said on Thursday in Sochi.We could see real problems and understand why we were always on the back foot and understand why [the car] wasnt reacting to the next problems, and what we did right and wrong.Im quite amazed by the reaction back at the factory with everything which has been done and put in place for here. Im looking forward to getting back in the car and after a few laps [to see] were back where we want it to be. Then we can work from there. Natalie Pinkham is joined by former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley and former Williams Senior Operations Engineer Dominic Harlow to look ahead to Russia The Frenchman admits there were quite a lot of problems for the team to resolve after returning to base, with weekend-long tyre pressure problems in Shanghai having been made worse by our set-up and the way we ran the car.ddddddddddddIt was as well the way we reacted to problems, Grosjean explained. With disrupted sessions it was hard to catch up and the way we tried to catch up, and the direction we went, was sometimes not good and actually making the problems worse.So, all of that together, its nice to now see it as a big picture and know that if it happens again we can ask the questions in a different way and react differently.Nonetheless, Grosjeans impressive 18-point haul from the opening two rounds mean Haas remain fifth in the Constructors Championship and the recently-turned 30-year-old is optimistic they can make an immediate return to top-10 contention this weekend.Back in the points is possible if we get everything back to how we want it and back to how it was initially in the season, he added.Watch the whole Russian GP weekend - LIVE ONLY on Sky Sports F1. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up from 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV. Also See: When is the Russian GP on Sky? The F1 Gossip Column ' ' '