Castrol EDGE Australia Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 7

VOLUME 2 - ISSUE 7

it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au

16th MAY 2012

FPR continue winning ways Rea takes victory in SBK thriller

Audi claim 1-2-3-4 victory at Spa

d PR F d e k c a b l o Castr t r e P in s r a c r e p V8 Su Castrol-sponsored Ford Performance Racing (FPR) won all three races across the fourth round of the V8 Supercars Championship – the Tradingpost Perth Challenge. Will Davison bounced back from Saturday’s disappointing result to win both races on Sunday and arguably one of the most exciting last lap battles in recent V8 Supercars history to secure FPR its third 1-2 finish this year. Teammate Mark Winterbottom continued his fine form by finishing third and second respectively in Sunday’s two races to add to his race win on Saturday.

Supercheap Auto Racing’s Russell Ingall produced a great drive to charge from 22nd and finish 11th in Saturday’s first race but was denied a chance of a podium when The Enforcer was penalised for a minor post-qualifying infringement when the front of his SCAR Commodore crossed into the team’s

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garage rather than stay fully on pit lane – ‘parc ferme’.

Castrol-backed Kelly Racing’s Rick and Todd Kelly were tested on a challenging Sunday of V8 Supercar racing at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway. With two separate 120km races and qualifying sessions for the day, the Jack Daniel’s Racing crew had aimed to score results inside the top-10. Although both Rick and Todd showed pace at times, car balance issues and incidents on the track combined to see the duo finish down the order. Despite the tough day, Rick Kelly is sitting 10th in the championship with Todd Kelly just two spots further back.

The weekend’s event proved a pure spectacle for racing fans with the mixed tyre-compound, race format spicing-up proceedings and producing one of the greatest shows in V8 Supercars history.

With Davison striding ahead on the soft tyre after an early pit stop in race nine, due to a safety car, Winterbottom and Whincup began hunting the Tradingpost Ford down as the soft tyre degraded late in the race. With a lap remaining Whincup was sandwiched by Davison and Winterbottom as the trio traded paint for the entire 2.42km lap. Holding on with all his will, Davison turned the final bend in front as Winterbottom dived down the inside of Whincup to claim second place by mere inches as the duo crossed 1-2 to the resounding roar of an ecstatic FPR team and proud Ford fans.

The day was not as fortunate for the third Castrol-backed FPR Ford of David Reynolds who was struck down by a faulty starter motor as he set to take off for his formation lap from an impressive sixth on the grid. Earlier in the day

dominates th

V8 Supercars head to Phillip Island for the Championship’s latest round

Reynolds finished ninth for race eight of the Championship despite being handed a 10 second penalty for a jump-start off the line. Round five of the International V8 Supercars Championship takes crews to Victoria for the Phillip Island 300 this weekend - May 18-20.

2012 V8 Supercars Championship Standings: 1

Jamie Whincup

1095

2 Will Davison

1066

3 Mark Winterbottom

935

4 Craig Lowndes

779

5 Lee Holdsworth

737

6 Shane Van Gisbergen

695

7

694

Fabian Coulthard

8 Tim Slade

681

9 Garth Tander

618

10 Rick Kelly

571

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Round five of the International V8 Supercars Championship takes crews to Phillip Island for a double race, sprint event this weekend. Running as an endurance round for the last four years the Phillip Island race returns to a sprint format covering 300 kilometers of racing action. Saturday’s race will be over 140-kilometres (32 laps), while Sunday’s will be over 200-kilometres (45 laps).

Sunday’s race will be the longest single driver race at Phillip Island since 2003.

Castrol-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall will line up for his 209th Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship event start at Phillip Island. He draws level with former series champion Glenn Seton for fourth on the all-time list of event starts in ATCC/V8SC history. Only John Bowe (225), Mark Skaife (220) and Peter Brock (212) have started more events than Ingall. From the 208 events in which he has competed, Ingall has lined up for an amazing 484 individual races.

TELEVISION SCHEDULE *Times subject to amendment, please check local guides:

Seven Network & 7Mate Saturday, May 19: 2.00pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 10 (Sydney, Brisbane) Channel 7 2.00pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 10 (Melbourne) 7Mate Sunday, May 20: 2.00pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 10 (Sydney, Brisbane) Channel 7 2.00pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 10 (Melbourne) 7Mate

Two wheel act his CBR1000RR, but a set-up change for race one did not bring the expected result and the Japanese rider finished in 17th place. A setting reversal for race two, improved his machine’s handling and gave Aoyama the opportunity to battle to tenth place at the flag.

Castrol-backed Honda rider Rea wins Donington thriller Jonathan Rea took a breathtaking victory in race two of the fifth round World Superbike championship event at Donington Park in the UK, following a solid fourth place finish in race one.

The 25-year-old Castrol-backed Honda World Superbike Team rider worked with his crew all weekend on setting up his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade for the harder rear tyre on offer at Donington and, in the latter stages of race one, a podium finish even looked possible, as Italian Marco Melandri took victory.

A small set-up change for race two allowed Rea to join a gripping, five-way battle at the front, but it wasn’t until the final corner that he saw a chance for victory. As Melandri forced himself and team-mate Leon Haslam wide, Rea went for the resulting gap but came together with Haslam, who crashed out, allowing Rea to take his first podium at Donington Park and his second win of the season – his tenth SBK win in total.

As a result he moves up to third place in the championship table, 20.5 points off the lead. Rea’s Castrol-backed Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, continued to make progress on

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Jonathan Rea – 4th and 1st: It’s nice to win and, in that second race, everybody wanted to win so bad. It was a crazy race and I made it hard work because I dropped off the group again in the middle stage and then, when I caught the group, I made a big mistake and ran wide at the last corner. To catch up with five laps to go and make up some places and then cap it off with the win was unbelievable. I was quite happy with the fourth in race one as well – the guys gave me a great bike and Chris [Pike – crew chief] and his team were on it all weekend. It’s nice to come here and get a good result because it’s never happened in the past with Superbike.

I got on the podium in Supersport but this is nice for the British fans and there were quite a lot of guys out there. On the slowing-down lap everyone was clapping and it’s nice to have a British winner at a British round.

After a rain affected opening race of the third round in Monza, Italy the weekend prior, Rea finished sixth for race two.

The race, red-flagged after eight of a re-scheduled 16 laps, was won by British rider, Tom Sykes, while Rea’s Castrolbacked Honda World Superbike teammate, Hiroshi Aoyama, was eleventh.

Race one had been stopped earlier in the day due to wet weather, and it was subsequently cancelled for safety reasons, due primarily to concerns over the durability of rain tyres. Rea had opted for a hard slick tyre in the initially dry conditions and was comfortably placed

when the red flags came out. Race two was declared dry as it looked like it might start in dry conditions, but after a delayed start, the riders were asked to complete two warm-up laps on the still damp Monza track. During these warm-up laps, light rain was falling at the back of the circuit, but the race finally got underway after another short delay.

When rain began to fall once again at half race distance, the race was stopped and half-points awarded. Round six of the World Superbike championship takes crews to Miller Motorsports Park in the United States - May 28.

WSBK Riders’ Standings Pos Driver Points 1. Max Biaggi 128.5 2. Tom Sykes 123.5 3. Jonathan Rea 108 4. Carlos Checa 105.5 5. Marco Melandri 97.5

Castrol-backed Team San Carlo Honda rider Álvaro Bautista sixth in MotoGP Consistent sunshine and warm temperatures finally washed away all the weather worries the MotoGP riders might have had for Sunday’s race at Estoril and the final Portuguese Grand Prix got underway in fully dry, but slightly colder conditions than Saturday’s qualifying.

Castrol-backed Team San Carlo Honda rider Álvaro Bautista got off to a firm start, losing one position in the first corner to finish the first lap in 7th. Just like at Jerez one week earlier, Bautista posted very similar laptimes to the man in front of him, in this case Cal Crutchlow and kept the gap very consistent, showing that he would have been able to

tion with Castrol fight with the satellite Yamahas had he not been held up in the first few laps. In the end Bautista made up over a second in the final lap in what was another lonely race for him, the positions almost all being settled throughout the field after ten laps. A top six finish for the Spaniard give the team a timely morale boost ahead of the next race at Le Mans in two weeks’ time.

Alvaro Bautista (6th): “It was a tough race. After practice I thought I had the pace to be fighting for fourth place, but I didn’t have a good feeling for the front and was struggling to turn the bike.

It cost me a few valuable tenths that made me lose touch with Dovizioso and Crutchlow. Now we will have a close look at the data and try to understand why this happened, as well as working on our weak point which is braking.

Sixth place isn’t a bad result but we should have been much closer to the two Yamaha Tech3 bikes. We have a test tomorrow and that will be very useful to us. ”

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MotoGP Riders’ Standings Pos Driver Points 1. Casey Stoner 66 2. Jorge Lorenzo 65 3. Dani Pedrosa 52 4. Cal Crutchlow 37 5. Andrea Dovizioso 35 6. Alvaro Bautista 29

Castrol-backed crews finish one-two at Rally Corsica

Dani Sordo has claimed victory on Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse, round four of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, following a faultless performance in his Castrol-backed MINI John Cooper Works S2000 on debut in the allaction series. Castrol-backed Skoda Motorsport driver Jan Kopecký scored a valuable second place as four Skoda Fabia Super 2000s finished in the Top10. Sordo’s success was aided when rivals Giandomenico Basso and Andreas Mikkelsen both hit trouble earlier in the rally, the Spaniard admitted maintaining his advantage on the tricky Corsican stages was by no means a foregone conclusion.

“I’m really happy to win this rally but it was really hard,” said Sordo. “The competition was very strong and even though I was leading I had to keep pushing to keep the concentration up and not make any mistakes. I really like this IRC series; it’s competitive and is at a high level. And my MINI is also a very, very good car.”

Kopecký’s performance was gradually

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getting better as the event progressed – he was fifth after Day 1 but climbed up the standings to second place on Day 2 and then put in his best performance in Corsica on Saturday when he won five stages to reduce the gap behind Sordo who, however, showed enough experience to defend his position until the end. Kopecký, thus repeated his 2011 performance with a second place result in Corsica.

“This rally was one of the most difficult events in my career so far,” Kopecký said. “We did not make the best of starts but then we had some good luck, too.

We did very well on both Friday and Saturday, and we only made a mistake in one of the stages. Coming second behind a top-class driver who has vast World Championship experience and beating a number of excellent drivers is a reason to be satisfied. We did our best to win here, putting in all we could.”

Round five of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series takes crews to the world famous Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia - June 14-16.

IRC drivers after round four of 13 1 Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway) 71 2 Jan Kopecký (Czech Republic) 58 3 Juho Hänninen (Finland) 43 4 Sepp Wiegand (Germany) 34 5 Bryan Bouffier (France) 27 6 Dani Sordo (Spain) 25 7 Craig Breen (Ireland) 18 8 Pierre Campana (France) 15 = Luis Monzón (Spain) 15 10 Mathieu Arzeno (France) 12 = Hermann Gassner Jr (Germany) 12 IRC manufacturers after round four of 13 1 ŠKODA 166 2 Peugeot 102 3 Renault 37 4 Subaru 28 5 M-Sport 24 6 Honda 18

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Castrol-backed Audi claim 1-2-3-4 victory at Spa on premiere Castrol-backed Audi Motorsport delivered a thrilling premiere of two new vehicle models when Romain Dumas/ Loïc Duval/Marc Gené won the Spa 6 Hours, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC, in an open battle of the vehicle concepts.

Crossing the finish line behind the Audi R18 ultra was the trio of Marcel Fässler/ André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer. They had dominated the race in the early phase with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro, the first diesel hybrid sports car in history.

In the end, they had to admit defeat though. The other two Audi driver teams completed the perfect 1-2-3-4 victory for the brand. The successful racing debut of the Audi R18 ultra and the R18 e-tron quattro marked an important milestone

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for Audi. In their first competition, the two vehicle concepts, in addition to their reliability, demonstrated a very balanced overall performance..

On the wet track at Spa-Francorchamps the two hybrid sports cars initially dominated the action. André Lotterer in the number “1” R18 e-tron quattro took the lead from Tom Kristensen in the number “2” hybrid sister car after only a few laps. Lotterer gained an almost one-minute advantage over the best conventionally powered Audi R18 ultra, car number “3” driven by Marc Gené.

At the end of the race’s first hour, two factors caused a preliminary decision.

On a drying track, Marc Gené at the first pit stop was the only Audi to switch to

slicks while the other drivers received intermediates. Consequently, Audi’s new Spanish signing was up to four seconds quicker than the rest on the 7.004kilometre track. At the same time, the number “2” Audi R18 e-tron quattro was forced to have the hood exchanged due to a defect on the front lighting system.

Tom Kristensen lost almost a minute in the process. Thanks to the bold tire choice Marc Gené and Loïc Duval converted a gap of around one minute into an advantage during the course of 37 race laps. On lap 63, Duval took the lead – and car number “3” would not relinquish it again through to the finish.

Gené, who is standing in for the injured Timo Bernhard as a reserve driver, thus managed a brilliant debut at Audi. After

his successes in 2008 and 2011, the Spaniard is celebrating his third sports car victory at Spa. Following behind Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer in second place were Marco Bonanomi/Oliver Jarvis in the second Audi R18 ultra.

Both finished their sports car debut in the Audi factory team with a podium place. Capello/Kristensen/McNish had to settle for an unfortunate fourth place but are not leaving Spa empty-handed.

Allan McNish achieved the best time in qualifying on Friday and in the World Endurance Championship standings the Sebring winners are now ranking as the runners-up with 38 points. The new front runners are Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval with 43 points. With the 1-23-4 victory at Spa, four reliably working race cars, a solid driver line-up and an efficiently operating Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi managed a successful dress rehearsal for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The endurance classic will be held for the 80th time on June 16 and 17. Audi is aiming for its eleventh overall victory there.

Quotes after the race Dieter Gass (Head of Racing Commitments): “We’re very happy

with this result. On the whole, it couldn’t have gone any better, even though the situation became a bit unpredictable toward the end. We suffered punctures on two cars because obviously after the numerous accidents some sharp debris was on the track. Technically, the cars ran without any problems throughout the six hours. That was an important step in our preparation for Le Mans. I want to thank the squad after a very tough preparation period. This is the nicest reward one could wish for.”

Romain Dumas (Audi R18 ultra #3): “We had a perfect race. My teammates and our squad showed a brilliant performance. Our strategy was right on the mark and our fuel consumption was low. That paid off. That way, we increased our advantage. The tires were very good, that’s why I opted not to change tires in the end. That was another reason for our success.”

Loïc Duval (Audi R18 ultra #3): “Today, we experienced a surprise. This was only my second race with Audi but already my first victory. As always, there wasn’t a single problem when I’m sitting in an Audi. The conditions were very difficult in the beginning but the car was fantastic. We had no problems whatsoever. It’s a nice result for Audi to

finish on positions one, two, three and four. I’m very happy to be on the very top of the podium.”

Marc Gené (Audi R18 ultra #3): “That was incredible. More was not possible today. Life is full of surprises.

On my debut with Audi I clinched my third personal victory at Spa. It was an honest win in difficult conditions. As a driver team, we were well matched; the engineers, the team and the car were perfect. I never believed in taking victory.

My goal had been a podium finish.”

Marcel Fässler (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #1): “Sincere congratulations to Audi and car number “3” on taking victory. They did a perfect job and made their decisions at exactly the right moment. We had the pace for winning.

A key point in time was a safety car period that separated us from the cars in front and caused us to lose ground from a 15 to a 50 second gap. It was difficult to make up such a gap. After my pit stop a wheel locked once when I hit the brakes. Afterward there were heavy vibrations and I was no longer in contention for victory. I secured second place in order to score important points for the World Championship. To avoid a puncture I had new wheels fitted just to be on the safe side.”

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>> Continuation from page 9

André Lotterer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #1): “A fantastic race for Audi with a 1-2-3-4 victory. When I was sitting in the car at the beginning of the race in the rain I particularly enjoyed the technology of the R18 e-tron quattro. Even though the technology is brand new it functioned superbly. Unfortunately, we didn’t keep the lead but we’re still in a learning phase. On the whole, though, it was a nice beginning before the really big challenge, the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Benoît Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #1): “Second place on the debut of the hybrid vehicle is a good result. The car was running absolutely perfectly – a good sign for the future.

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Our Audi R18 e-tron quattro was really very good in the rain. When track was drying off and I was in the cockpit the car developed a tendency to understeer.

That cost us a lot of time in the battle with car number “3.” But we’re only at the beginning with this new concept.”

Marco Bonanomi (Audi R18 ultra #4): “It was really a great race. This was my first one in an Audi sports prototype, so I can’t expect any more than this.

Yesterday, we were second in qualifying and today we finished in third place. The race was very difficult. In the beginning it was pretty wet and then the tarmac dried off more and more. Oliver and I were very quick in all conditions. The pit crew did tremendous stops. Unfortunately, we struck by misfortune during the first

safety car period and lost one lap at the red lights at the end of the pit lane.”

Oliver Jarvis (Audi R18 ultra #4): “A great day. The most important thing was to not make any mistakes and to complete as many kilometres as possible. We may be inexperienced but the pace was there. Now the wish remains to finish on the podium at Le Mans as well – maybe we’ll even move up a bit more.”

Dindo Capello (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): “A tremendous result on the whole. For the first time, Audi occupied the top four places. Sincere congratulations to the winners, but I’m hoping that it won’t be too long before an Audi R18 e-tron quattro wins for

the first time. Audi did a superb job of competing here with four cars and clinching a 1-2-3-4 victory. In our car, my task was to drive three stints with the tires to test them for Le Mans. But after my last stop the tires heavily degraded and I had increasingly heavy understeer – which caused me to lose more and more speed. This phenomenon increased further in traffic. When I was driving alone it was okay. I think that the cause is not to be found in the tires but in our set-up.”

Tom Kristensen (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): “This was an outstanding race for Audi with four new cars.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go optimally for our driver team. But particularly in the rain our performance was remarkable.

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Things were going well on a dry track too but a few minor things caused us to lose ground. We had to change the front hood because the left headlight wasn’t working. Then we received a stopand-go penalty. Our tire strategy was relatively conservative. But on the way to the finish we gathered a lot of valuable data and findings. ‘Well done’ to the three cars in front of us on the podium.

Coming up next, in June, will be the pretest for the Le Mans 24 Hours. We’ve been looking forward to the big race two weeks later for a long time.”

Allan McNish (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): “A very sincere ‘well done’ to our victorious team-mates. They were very good today. Spa is always unpredictable and so the weather today

was critical again. It was also clear that we’re experiencing a learning curve with the R18 e-tron quattro and at the moment we’re just at the beginning of it.

We’ve still got to improve balance and thus the consistency of the tires. Two or three minor changes in the race didn’t help us either. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Today was totally different from yesterday when we managed to set the fastest time in qualifying.”

Will Power takes Castrol Ed Rankings Performer of the title for April 2012 Which driver was the star performer in the Castrol EDGE Rankings in April – why did they score so strongly?

Indycar’s Will Power (6th) claimed the Castrol EDGE Performer of the Month Award for April, although he won it by a whisker with both Sebastian Vettel (1st) and Nico Rosberg (15th) within five per cent of his overall score. Power was always likely to be in contention following a fantastic run in April. It kicked off at Barber, Alabama, as Power took his first victory of the year. A fortnight later he won again, this time at Long Beach.

Power then sealed the top spot with a third straight win at the end of the month on the streets of Sao Paulo. The victories not only gave him a hat-trick of wins at the Brazilian circuit, but were enough to edge him past Vettel and Rosberg and seal the Performer of the Month award.

Sebastien Loeb made it seven wins in succession on Philips Rally Argentina,

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extending his lead at the top of the Castrol EDGE Race for 2012. Has anyone ever dominated a race series quite like the outstanding Frenchman?

Looking at the statistics, it is hard to argue against Loeb (7th) being one of the most dominant forces in world motorsport today after an unbroken spell of eight titles in the past eight years, including 70 wins, 106 podiums and 831 stage victories. While it is undeniable therefore that Loeb represents a major tour de force, analysing whether his domination transcends that of anyone else is far harder to analyse. What the statistics show is that Loeb’s dominance is no unique thing: it can be matched in several other series, and indeed other drivers have had more emphatic seasons. His longevity, however, is something not even Michael Schumacher (32nd), with seven titles, can compare to. Gary Paffett won the first DTM race of the season at

Hokenheim. Who are the drivers to watch in this season’s Championship?

This year’s DTM field has been shaken up considerably by the return of the Castrol EDGE sponsored BMW team.

Last year’s champion Martin Tomczyk (58th) finds himself in the RMG BMW squad whilst three-time WTCC champion Andy Priaulx, and his former WTCC team-mate Augusto Farfus, will pilot the RBM M3 in 2012.

Maldonado on a charge as top four all lose ground Pastor Maldonado scored his maiden Formula 1 victory – and the first for Williams in more than seven years – as the season’s absorbing and unpredictable start continued in Spain. The changeable order of 2012 was reflected not only by Maldonado becoming the fifth different driver to win in the opening fives races, but also in the fates of least year’s main

dge e Month protagonists. Of the last year’s top quintet – also the top five in the Castrol EDGE Rankings – only Fernando Alonso gained ground.

Maldonado meanwhile moved to an all-time high following his win. The Spaniard had been in contention for victory throughout the race and late on it seemed inevitable he would find a way passed Maldonado.

The Venezuelan hung on however, and Alonso was forced to defend his own position as a charging Kimi Raikkonen gained ferociously in the final laps. In contrast to Alonso, both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button fared badly. Like Webber, Vettel had to pit for a new nose and was also hit with a drive-through penalty. A late recovery, aided by fresher rubber, helped him to finish sixth and keep one hand on

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the championship lead, which he now shares with Alonso. There was no such damage limitation in the Rankings however, as Vettel counted the cost once again of his 2011 dominance – the German dropping more than 1,000 points from his overall tally. The true damage of that slide was negated somewhat as Webber (2), Button (3) and Hamilton (4) also lost ground. Webber’s slide was the most severe after Vettel, the Australian having finished second to his team-mate at last year’s Turkish grand prix, the round dropped under the rollover system. Button therefore moved to within a race victory of Webber in the Rankings despite his own fall, prompted by a lowly ninth-place finish. Hamilton at least had the caveat of a bizarre qualifying exclusion – and the subsequent replacing of pole with a back-of-the-grid start – to explain his lower position. The Briton fought his way through to eighth, right on the tail

of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes in seventh, to salvage valuable points after his Saturday disaster.

In the Rankings however he too lost ground, and is now within easy reach of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. The struggles of the two Red Bull and McLaren men were in direct contrast to Maldonado and his fellow Catalunya podium man Kimi Raikkonen, both of whom made huge gains. Victory was always going to boost the Venezuelan, but the effects were exaggerated by a poor performance in Turkey (dropped under the rollover system). The combined effect was a 30-place rise to 56th, his highest ever Rankings spot. There were similar gains for Raikkonen, who – like Maldonado – profited not just from the result in Spain but also from the lack of results in the previous year. The Finn jumped 26 places to 109th, the closest he has been to the top 100 since late 2010.

Castrol EDGE Rankings - Standings Pos Driver Points 1. Sebastian Vettel 27,970 2. Mark Webber 20,325 3.

Jenson Button 19,588 4. Lewis Hamilton 19,247 5.

Fernando Alonso 18,910 6. Will Power 17,201 7. Sébastien Loeb 15,944 8. Scott Dixon 15,147 9. Carl Edwards 14,887 10. Dario Franchitti 14,444

Richo’s

safety tips #4 Electricity Safety Electricity is something that is central to our lives, but it has the potential to be one of the most lethal things that we encounter on a daily basis. So often you see people disrespecting electricity around the home and whilst a lot of people adopt the “it won’t happen to me” mindset, the truth is – it can, and does. Keep an eye on your appliances whether in the shed, the kitchen or the bathroom and make sure they don’t have any frayed edges or the cord doesn’t show signs of damage. With most cords these days made from plastic for safety, it’s easier to spot a potentially dangerous cord. If your cord’s damaged and you can’t replace it – throw the item out. Don’t keep it for the sake of it or just in case – chuck it.

Never mix water and electricity. Make sure all appliances are well away from sinks, baths and basins to avoid them falling in. If an appliance falls into a sink or bath it can electrify the whole area and be fatal. Keep sinks, vanities, cupboards and floors dry as well. Water conducts electricity and therefore these areas can become potential hazards. When you’re using electrical appliances ensure your hands are properly dried before plugging it in. You can be shocked from when you plug the appliance in. Each night, it’s a good habit to go around and make sure any non-essential electrical items are turned off. Similarly, if you’re away for any period of time, turn anything off that isn’t required. Not only will it save you money, but it may also save your house should there be an electrical problem while you’re away.

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Qantas men’s sevens close series with Plate win The Qantas Men’s Sevens have concluded the 2011-2012 HSBC Sevens World Series as Plate champions, following a 14-12 win over England in London. The result cements the Australians in sixth place at the close of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the same rank they finished the 20102011 season with. The team’s hopes of claiming a second Cup championship, following their tournament victory in Tokyo last month, looked promising after the Qantas Men’s Sevens went 3-0 on Day 1 of the London Sevens.

However, Cup quarter-final opponents Argentina, ranked seventh, had a different outcome in mind as they staged a 12-7 coup to send Australia to the Plate playoffs. Ed Stubbs scored Australia’s only try in the Cup quarter, with Allan Faalavaau adding the extras. The Qantas Men’s Sevens then met Spain in the Plate semifinal and reignited their attacking flair, with tries to Jesse Parahi, Faalavaau and Lindsay Crook securing a 17-12

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victory. Faalavaau kicked his side’s only conversion in the match.

A spirited Plate final with familiar opponents England, who finished the series ranked third, saw the Qantas Men’s Sevens off to a tense start, after Faalavaau received a yellow card less than two minutes in. Being shorthanded didn’t appear to effect the Australian’s though, as captain Ed Jenkins crossed over for a try, converting his own effort to take an early 7-0 lead. A try to England’s Matt Turner saw the sides locked at 7-7 by half time. Stubbs

scored early in the second half for the Qantas Men’s Sevens and Faalavaau’s conversion took his side to a 14-7 lead.

England fought back with a try to Jeff Williams late in the contest but Dan Bibby was unable to hit the conversion and send the game into extra time.

Bibby also missed a penalty attempt with less than one minute remaining in the contest.

Coverage of the London Sevens will appear on Fox Sports 3HD and 3 on Tuesday, 15 May from 5pm. The Qantas Men’s Sevens will resume competition in the 2012-2013 season, which kicks off 13-14 October, 2012, with the return of Gold Coast Sevens – Fever Pitch.

THE

POWER BEHIND THE

PACK BEHIND THE

PACK!