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Flavio Briatore legal challenge to FIA ban

Flavio Briatore is launching legal action to get his lifetime ban overturned Flavio Briatore will start legal proceedings in the Paris Tribunal de Grande tomorrow in an attempt to overturn the lifetime ban he received from the FIA for his part in the ‘Singapore-Gate’ race fixing episode, which saw Nelson Piquet Jnr intentionally crashing his car to allow team mate Fernando Alonso to take victory in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Briatore is claiming the life time ban from involvement in any FIA sanctioned Motor Sport – including driver management – is a legal absurdity. And he probably has a point.

Mercedes launch new 9G-Tronic gearbox on E350 BlueTec

New Mercedes E350 BlueTec (pictured) gets 9-speed 9G-TRONIC auto It’s not exactly a million years ago that automatic gearboxes offered poorer performance and economy than manual gearboxes, and came as standard with just three gears. But now, automatic gearboxes are so good they can  change quicker than any driver and, with the proliferation of eight-speed auto ‘boxes, offer improved economy and performance too. The next logical step is even more ratios in an auto ‘box, and Land Rover has already revealed they’ll be fitting the Evoque with a 9-speed ZF ‘box from 2014, and the new Jeep Grand Cherokee gets a nine-speed auto ‘box too.

Living with a Jaguar XF: a CAR reader's long-term test

I was definitely an XF ‘early adopter’. My S-Type had been reliable, relaxing transport with excellent ergonomics but the styling teetered nervously on the border between distinguished and frumpy. Then I saw the C-XF concept and was blown away with Ian Callum’s sleek, aggressively modern design.