Tiny car, huge win: Grande Panda wins Best Small Car Award
The T-Gen3 hybrid powertrain comprises a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine that's linked to a 48V battery and a six-speed e-DCT dual-clutch automatic transmission. A 29bhp electric motor is integrated into the e-DCT system, along with an inverter and central control unit.
Fiat claims the unit enables the car to run on electric power alone during low-speed manoeuvres, with up to 0.6 miles of EV-only driving at speeds below 18mph. So we're talking a pretty mild system here, basically.
The hybrid clearly can't match the EV when it comes to smooth power delivery or instant pick-up, but it's closer than you might expect for a small three-cylinder unit. In fact, it's actually quicker than the Electric version on the 0-62mph sprint, although we're talking 10sec rather than 11sec here.
Still, the engine delivers its 109bhp pretty smoothly, with the hybrid unit working nicely to both smooth the gaps in power delivery and for a bit of electric-only running at lower speeds. The e-DCT box syncs reasonably well with the powertrain and it'll rarely feel short of shove in real-world use, and it doesn't feel out of its depth at motorway speeds.
The powertrain isn't the last word in refinement and, like Shaggy, it can get a little raspy and gruff if you ask too much of it. Hard acceleration can leave the wheels scrabbling for traction, especially in wet conditions, but for untroubled daily use, it's a decent package.
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Times
38 minutes ago
- Times
Oscar Piastri profits to extend title lead as Lando Norris blows pole
Oscar Piastri had watched Max Verstappen breeze past him on the Kemmel Straight in the sprint race and had feared the worst would happen again in the main event on Sunday. Instead, it was his team-mate who had that same helpless feeling, Lando Norris losing the lead in the first proper racing lap of the grand prix — after an 80-minute rain delay — Piastri nursing his medium tyres to the end of a dull race in a gloomy Spa. Piastri extended his championship lead to 16 points, so won't mind the lack of activity, barely even given a fright by his team-mate on the harder compound who again made mistakes running wide, in his eagerness to close the gap. The new normal for Red Bull without Christian Horner, their long-serving former team principal and CEO, was rather similar to the old one; Verstappen did not have the pace to challenge the McLarens and was stuck behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc eventually finishing fourth. The most notable difference was perhaps on the grid, with Jos Verstappen, who had been openly critical of Horner, relaxed and stood alongside new team principal Laurent Mekies. Horner was watching from home, the first grand prix in 405 events (and Red Bull's entire race history) that he had not attended. Lewis Hamilton produced an excellent recovery drive to finish seventh, having started in 18th. Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli and Fernando Alonso started from the pitlane having opted for new power unit elements which were not permitted within their allocation. This meant they were able to make set-up changes with view of the conditions, whereas the rest of the grid were left with the decision they made ahead of qualifying. Carlos Sainz joined them at the back of the field, having also made setup changes. Yet, as the cars lined up on the grid, teams were erecting gazebos as a sudden shower hit the track. Drivers reported poor visibility on the formation lap behind the safety car, so the race start was delayed. It is the spray from the cars which is the main issue, rather than the standing water or grip itself from the intermediate or wet tyres. Nonetheless, frustration remains at the idea of wet tyres essentially being made redundant because of the spray. There is hope that next year's new regulations could mean slightly less spray is produced from the back of the cars. It was not an afternoon which produced great interest for the television fan, or those that had braved the weather in Belgium. Drivers spent an hour and 20 minutes twiddling their thumbs in the garage, as a heavier rain shower on the radar prevented the FIA starting the race in a brief dry period. Eventually it stopped by 4.20pm local time with the race resuming behind the safety car. On lap five, racing began in earnest with a rolling start after pole sitter Norris was one of those to report on the radio that one side of the grid was drier than the other, suggesting a standing start would not be fair. It did him little favour though — as having used much of his battery pack on the restart, he was easily passed by his team-mate on the Kemmel Straight. Hamilton had very little to lose after what he described a 'weekend to forget', after spinning in sprint qualifying, finishing 15th in that short format race, and then exiting in 16th of main qualifying after exceeding track limits at Raidillon. He called it an 'unacceptable' individual error. He carved through the field to reach 13th by lap ten, and then was the first driver to make the crucial decision to pit for slick tyres on the drying track. That dropped him to 17th, but as soon as he navigated the first corners, it was evident it was the correct decision. He moved up to seventh, while the rest of the grid came into the pits. He still apologised to his team at the end of the race, for his error on Saturday. The leaders, apart from Norris, pitted for mediums on lap 13. Norris was asked by his engineer Will Joseph whether he would prefer the hard tyre, which could last until the end of the race — and having already lost time to his team-mate, the British driver took the risk. That began a slow and steady race to close the gap to Piastri, which gave the race a slight sense of jeopardy — in the end, the gap was simply too large to bridge.
Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Lando Norris blinked to hand advantage to Oscar Piastri in race for the F1 title - it's back to the drawing board for the Brit after Belgian Grand Prix, writes JONATHAN MCEVOY
It's back to the future for Lando Norris. A return to the psychologist's couch. And those championship-denting facts became clear out of the spray at 170mph when he lost the Belgian Grand Prix to Oscar Piastri. Just when you detect a smidgeon of a stiffening to his approach, as with his emphatic win in Austria last month, another reminder comes around the corner that McLaren have a Jackal in their team and that man exploding watermelons is Piastri, not the Briton. In a race delayed for 1hr 20min, for which the dangerous Spa-Francorchamps track was as culpable as cautious FIA officials, Norris's chance of victory lasted a handful of corners and half the Kemmel Straight. The safety car, under which the race finally started, withdrew. Norris, leading after taking pole, made a mistake at La Source, the opening corner. His wheelspin was seized on by Piastri, lying second, and he was all over his quarry as they steeplejacked the famous Eau Rouge corner and then into Raidillon. On to the straight, a fantail of water sprung from Norris's car into Piastri's face. But the Australian, seemingly unhampered by this potential disadvantage, pulled out left and made the pass stick. It was an exhibition of supreme guts. 'Lively,' smiled Piastri afterwards. 'He committed a bit more than me at Eau Rouge,' admitted Norris, the doomed runner-up. 'There was nothing I could do beyond that point.' The outcome was settled there and then, Piastri extending his championship lead to 16 points. Norris talked over the radio of a battery recharging problem. Perhaps, but it sounded too easy an excuse, a possible fact beside the point. At the deciding moment, he had blinked. Piastri had shown pluck in excelsis, and the disparity was all too predictable. On Thursday, in Norris's press dealings, you did not need to be Freud to read a vulnerability in him. That was not evident when he was in charge in Austria. His mind was laser focused then. This time he eschewed the value of 'momentum', as if running scared of it, or at least pushing it out of his mind. Well, momentum is a useful friend as Max Verstappen discovered when he won 22 of 23 races three years ago. It adds up to points at the very least. Piastri's heist gave him the right to go from intermediate tyres to slicks before Norris. Needing to try something different, Norris, alone of all the field opted for hard tyres. Piastri and the rest were on mediums. The cunning plan was that Norris could go to the end and that Piastri would need to stop. Baldrick might have dreamt it up for all it came to pass. Neither stopped again. The difference between tyre compounds is among the most overrated, over-analysed, wrongly read hokum in Formula One. Nobody knows for certain what tyre will be fastest or last longest. Most expert predictions as useful as a manifesto pledge. Anyway, Norris now has to pick himself up for Budapest next Sunday, the last stanza before the summer break. As it stands, it hard to resist the belief Piastri will claim his maiden title. His record of six wins to Norris' four buttresses this expectation. For the record, Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, a place ahead of Max Verstappen, Red Bull's winner of the sprint race on Saturday. Elsewhere, a day of restoration for Lewis Hamilton. The rest of his weekend was dispiriting: he spun in sprint qualifying, finished it 15th, had a time deleted in qualifying proper, and started from the pits in 18th place. But, hurrah, he managed a fine seventh place, his performance echoing old virtuosities. Yes, he was powered by a new Ferrari engine, but in wet conditions he was quicksilver. He was first on to slicks and made immediate good use of them. At one point, he was one second faster than the next man. He pulled off overtakes with dexterity and looked an outside bet for a podium, which would have been his first in red. But his pace was blunted as the track dried and the race lengthened, but still an afternoon in the sun for him. As for the delay, Portuguese race director Rui Marques was, in a harsh assessment, something of a Nervous Nellie. The race could have started earlier than it did, and he deployed a safety car for too long when it eventually crawled into action. But, in fairness, Spa, an especially Eau Rouge, is a hazardous conundrum. Forty-nine fatalities in 100 years at this track attest to this. And then you add in the Ardennes' capricious weather. Not easy. In fact, Spa is the most overrated circuit in the world whatever its many disciples may contend. But that's a debate for another day. For now, all hail Oscar the brave.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Piastri wins rain-delayed Belgian GP after Norris overtake
Oscar Piastri passed McLaren team-mate Lando Norris on the first racing lap of a wet-dry Belgian Grand Prix to take his sixth victory of the year and extend his championship Australian swept past Norris as the race started after an hour-and-a-half delay for heavy rain and two laps behind the safety car and controlled the race from side of the McLaren team chose a divergent tyre strategy when the drivers pitted to switch to slick, dry-weather tyres as the track hope was that Norris would be able to go to the end on the hard tyres chosen while Piastri, who stopped one lap earlier, would have to make a pit stop for a second set of his Piastri, despite expressing initial misgivings about whether his rubber would last, made it to the end without stopping impressive win, mixing keen racing instinct with calm tyre management, moves him 16 points clear in the championship heading to the Hungarian Grand Prix next Charles Leclerc hung on ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the tricky opening laps on a wet track despite using a lower-downforce set-up, and was able to consolidate the final podium place in the dry part of the took fourth in a largely static race and is now 81 points behind Piastri in the championship, his hopes all but George Russell took fifth after passing Williams' Alex Albon in the wet early stages, while Lewis Hamilton drove an excellent race to take seventh from his pit lane start. Another decisive move from Piastri Piastri sealed his win with a trademark committed, decisive move on Norris when the conditions were at their most treacherous when the race finally original start was abandoned because of heavy rain and poor visibility after formation lap behind the safety drivers then sat in the pit lane for an hour and 20 minutes, followed by four laps behind the safety car before the race was finally allowed to start 90 minutes later than tracked Norris closely through the first corner and through the high-speed swerves at East Rouge before diving around the outside into the les Combes chicane at the end of the long Kemmel complained over the radio that he was down on battery power, but was told he had used it up at the start behind the safety after the race he admitted that Piastri had simply done a better first lap by pushing harder through Eau Rouge, where in the wet drivers have to choose how much to lift off, when it is flat in the dry."Oscar did a good job, nothing more to say," Norris said. "Committed a bit more through Eau Rouge and had the slipstream and got the run and that was it. Love to be up top but Oscar deserved it today."Piastri said: "I knew that lap one was going to be probably my best chance of winning the race."I got a good exit out of Turn One and then lifted as little as ai dared through Eau Rouge and it worked out pretty well. We had it mostly under control after that."I was a bit disappointed it was a rolling start because I thought that would take away some opportunity but when I was that close I knew I was going to lift a little bit less than Lando did. A bit lively over the hill but then the slipstream helped me out."Once in front, Piastri inched away in the lead until he was just under two seconds in front when he chose to stop for slick tyres on lap 12, his position in front giving him priority on stop timing and forcing Norris into a difficult fitted the medium tyres while Norris had to do an extra lap on a drying track on highly worn intermediate engineer asked him if he would like hard tyres and try to run to the end, a decision Norris agreed with, and he rejoined 9.1 seconds back from Piastri after his around lap 20, Piastri told his engineer that he thought it would be "tough" to get his intermediates to the end but for a long time he held the lead at about eight seconds or so, and it slowly became apparent that he had decided not to stop the final few laps, Norris began to make significant inroads into Piastri's lead, and was within four seconds of the leader with three laps to Piastri managed the gap expertly to win by 3.4 the leaders, the drivers were stuck in their positions after the pit stops, even if there was some tension for Leclerc as Verstappen pushed him hard in the closing of the excitement in the race was provided by Hamilton. The seven-time champion started from the pit lane after Ferrari decided to change his set-up after his error in exceeding track limits in qualifying left him down in 16th on the Hamilton justified the decision with a series of excellent, improvisational overtaking moves to move up to 13th place before becoming the first driver to stop for slicks on lap 11, one before won him a chunk more places, and Hamilton was promoted to seventh by the pit-stop period, which he held to the end of the closed to within a second of Albon on the final lap but was unable to pass.
