Pastor Maldonado

After what was a sensational qualifying session at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday, there was even more drama post qualifying when Lewis Hamilton lost his pole position due to a rule infringement. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado thus starts from P1 on the grid for the first time in his F1 career and Lewis Hamilton was excluded from qualifying for not returning to the pits after setting his best lap. The result means that Maldonado will start ahead of Fernando Alonso for Sunday’s race while Hamilton will start from the back of the grid!

Hamilton’s McLaren was found to not have had enough fuel on board to comply with the rules of FIA. The car should return to the pits under its own power after qualifying with enough petrol for a one-litre sample to be provided to the FIA.

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Lewis Hamilton in the pits

Sir Lewis Hamilton grabbed the pole position in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon, overcoming the surprise of frontrunner Pastor Maldonado.

 So Ferrari might be bringing out a hybrid Enzo, but Indian automobile manufacturers aren’t too far behind in the Green race. And to the delight of Greenpeace, Tata Motors has announced that it has successfully tested two cars that run on compressed air, and the next step will be to set up manufacturing plants to build the same.

In January, 2007, Tata Motors and Motor Development International (MDI) of Luxembourg had signed a licence agreement that enables Tata Motors to produce and sell compressed air cars using MDI technology in India. Tata Motors has now confirmed it can start with phase two which includes producing and selling compressed air cars in India.

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Luca di Montezemolo, Chairman Ferrari

Ferrari has accumulated 556 million euros in revenues to generate 42.1 million euros in profit in the first quarter of this year alone – an increase of 13.2 and 17.2 percent, respectively. Those figures are driven by increased sales that amounted to 1,733 units produced and delivered in the first quarter out of an exciting model range that includes the 458 Italia and Spider, the recently revised California, the innovative FF and the brand-new F12 Berlinetta. In all this seems it seems the Enzo will never me made again. Let’s not be too sure about that, now.

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The Arrinera

Arrinera is Poland’s stint at producing a supercar exotique and has been announced at a very reasonable price of $160,060 excluding destination charges and local taxes. All this moolah gets you a mid-engine exotic powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 rated at 650 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque. That engine just so happens to be the same LS9 unit found in the Corvette ZR1 supercar but Arrinera is providing even more power should its customers desire additional thrills.

Features include a tubular steel chassis covered with lightweight carbon and Kevlar body panels, a Graziano gearbox, plus bi-xenon lights up front and LEDs at the rear. There’s also a set of light alloy wheels measuring 19 inches in the front and 20 inches in the rear. The suspension, meanwhile, is an independent, multi-link setup designed and optimized by Lee Noble.

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Hyundai Verna's rear camera displays image on the rear view mirror

Hyundai will soon start to offer the reverse camera on all the variants of the Verna, a feature which was limited to top end variants, namely the SX and SX (O). The company has also changed the name of the base variant to the Verna EX. Hyundai sells a lot of top end variants of the Verna and wants to push the lower variants too since majority of the sales are just of the top end variants.

A reason for offering the reverse camera on all variants of the Hyundai Verna could be to reduce complexities in the production of the vehicle. It is unclear how much Hyundai will increase the prices of the models that get this accessory, but we expect the prices to be hiked by Rs 17,000-20,000. Hyundai also offers the same reverse camera on the top variants of the i20. The Korean automaker is the only manufacturer to offer such a feature in this segment.

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