Motorsport: Schu return hit by neck injury

Michael Schumacher’s comeback to Formula One later this month has been placed into doubt because of a lingering neck injury. The seven-time world champion is due to replace stricken Ferrari driver Felipe Massa in the European Grand Prix in Valencia later this month, but his spokesperson Sabine Kehm told ZDF television in Germany that the injury could wreck his return. “He’s still not absolutely certain that his neck will hold up.

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Motorsport: Williams block Schu testing bid

Michael Schumacher will not be able to test for Ferrari ahead of his F1 comeback after the rival Williams team refused to give permission. The 40-year-old Schumacher has been drafted in as a replacement for the stricken Felipe Massa and wanted to be granted a day at the wheel of the Ferrari F60 before the European Grand Prix at Valencia in three weeks time.

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Husband, wife convicted in Mumbai blasts

An Indian court on Monday convicted a couple and another man for explosions that left 54 people dead in Mumbai in 2003. Peter Bazso, the medical director of the AEK hospital in Budapest, confirmed that Massa’s injuries had been “life-threatening” after he careered off the Hungaroring at 200kph in his Ferrari, but that his condition was now “slightly improving.” Bazso told CNN said he had watched the accident on television and his team, who specialize in brain injuries, was immediately put on standby to operate as Massa was airlifted to his hospital. Does safety need to be improved in Formula One Massa was hit on the helmet by a spring which had fallen off the rear of the Brawn GP car of compatriot Rubens Barichello

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Motorsport: Massa wakes for family

Felipe Massa has been woken successfully three times to make contact with his family, one of the surgeons who operated on the Brazilian Formula One star told CNN on Monday, after a horror crash in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix left the driver needing surgery on a fractured skull. Peter Bazso, the medical director of the AEK hospital in Budapest, confirmed that Massa’s injuries had been “life-threatening” after he careered off the Hungaroring at 200kph in his Ferrari, but that his condition was now “slightly improving.” Bazso told CNN said he had watched the accident on television and his team, who specialize in brain injuries, was immediately put on standby to operate as Massa was airlifted to his hospital

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Massa remains stable after skull operation

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa remains in a stable condition in hospital on Sunday after fracturing his skull in two places during a freak accident in Saturday’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. A Ferrari statement read: “After undergoing an operation yesterday afternoon, Felipe Massa’s condition remains stable and there were no further complications through the night.

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Are the Wheels Coming Off of Formula One?

Formula One racing is a bit like evolution governed by an appeals committee: Winning races has long been relied on engineering innovations that give a race car that extra microsecond advantage, while the teams left in the dust cry foul and demand that the sport’s governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile , rule those innovations out. FIA supremo Max Mosley had hoped to tamp down what he calls the sport’s “financial arms race” by imposing a $66 billion annual spending cap on teams, but instead he appears to have provoked a walkout that could see some of the sport’s major names, such as Ferrari and McLaren, create a rival championship with fewer restrictions — and take the sport’s lucrative TV audience with them.

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‘Chuffed’ Button snatches Monaco F1 pole

Jenson Button will start Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix from pole position while Lewis Hamilton — the man he hopes to succeed as world champion — suffered another humiliating blow. Championship leader Button made it four poles in six races in 2009 in his Brawn GP with a dramatic final lap of one minute 14.902 seconds while fellow Briton Hamilton will start from 16th on the grid.

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Report: Court rules against Ferrari in F1 dispute

Ferrari have failed in their bid to obtain an injunction against the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and their decision to introduce a budget cap into Formula One from next season. Following a one-hour hearing at the Tribunal de Grande Justice in Paris, judges sided with FIA president Max Mosley’s organization, the British Press Association reported Wednesday

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