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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TZmBkG2P-50/@barrettWhich F1 driver was the best performer during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend?
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.
Mark Webber – Webber hasn’t always been close enough to Vettel this year to take advantage when his team mate has a problem but he was at Suzuka and pushed his team mate hard for the victory. Said he was “surprised” to be switched to a three-stop strategy[1] but was able to use his superior speed in the final stint to pass Grosjean. Had he done so more quickly he could have gone after his team mate.
Fernando Alonso – Held his hands up after being beaten by Massa in qualifying and admitted he hadn’t been quick enough[2]. His race pace was better but he spent the first stint stuck behind Massa. He took advantage of traffic in the second stint to get past Massa, then later demoted Hulkenberg when the Sauber driver’s tyres began to drop off. That gave him fourth place, and he felt no more was possible under the circumstances[3].
Felipe Massa – Would Massa “drive for himself”, as he told Brazilian media after being dropped by Ferrari, or would he “definitely help” his team mate[4] as Luca di Montezemolo insisted? That was answered in the first stint when Massa repeatedly ignored Ferrari’s instructions to let Alonso through, delivered through the radio code “Multifunction strategy A”. Hulkenberg took advantage of the situation to jump both Ferraris, then Alonso finally found a way past his team mate, after which Massa picked up a penalty for speeding in the pits and fell to tenth.
Jenson Button – Set the same time to within a tenth of a second on three separate occasions in qualifying and felt he’d wrung all there was from the MP4-28. Driving to the grid he chose to reduce the front wing angle on the car but quickly regretted the decision, suffering understeer which wasn’t cured until the last stint. Held off Massa for ninth.
Sergio Perez – Crashed at Spoon during second practice, which he said was his mistake as he’d touched the artificial grass on entry to the corner. Narrowly missed Q3 but started well, only to lose time when Rosberg came out of the pits immediately in front of him. Like Button he had a slow pit stop as well. His left-rear tyre was punctured in slight contact with Rosberg, which killed his chances of scoring points.
Romain Grosjean – Surely his best F1 performance to date with a solid qualifying effort followed by an outrageous start from which he emerged as an unlikely threat to Red Bull. Led comfortably for almost half of the race and did well to hold off Webber as long as he did before taking another podium finish.
Nico Rosberg – An unsafe release from the pits dropped him back into the pack where he ended up scrapping with Perez. Like his team mate in Korea he spent the latter part of the race stuck behind a Sauber, Gutierrez limiting him to eighth.
Lewis Hamilton – The merest touch of his right-rear tyre against Vettel’s front wing was enough to give him a puncture as he dived between the Red Bulls off the line. From looking likely to take second at the start he was soon out of the race.
Esteban Gutierrez – Points looked unlikely when he lined up 14th on the grid but a superb start, gaining five places, brought him into contention. Gave away a position to Raikkonen though it was one he was always going to struggle to keep.
Paul di Resta – Ended his strong of retirements and took 11th, unable to resist Button in the latter part of the race. Still he was happy with the improved balance of the Force India.
Adrian Sutil – A crash in final practice forced him to change his gearbox, and after failing to escape Q1 he started last. Up to 16th by lap one, he gained two more places by the end of the race despite being passed by both Toro Rossos in one lap later on.
Pastor Maldonado – Went off twice in practice, but the first spin in Q1 was due to a wheel which hadn’t been attached properly and fell off[5]. The stand-out moment of Maldonado’s race was his desperate lunge down the inside of Bottas on his final lap, signalling his eagerness not to finish behind his team mate.
Valtteri Bottas – Impressively out-qualified Maldonado on his first race at a real drivers’ circuit. But his tyres went off badly in the final stint, losing four places in the last three laps.
Daniel Ricciardo – Tried to make an alternative strategy work, starting on the hard tyres. But he became the latest driver to be penalised for completing a pass by going off the track on the outside of the corner, which he was deeply unimpressed with[7]. His drive-through penalty confined him to 13th place.
Charles Pic – Already carrying a ten-place penalty into the race weekend, Pic committed much the same infraction he had in Korea – passing a red light without stopping – and earned an unprecedented drive-through penalty which was declared before the race had begun[8]. Despite that he was quick enough to beat the sole surviving Marussia home.
Giedo van der Garde – Collided with Bianchi at the start, putting both out. “I was squeezed between both the Marussia cars and had nowhere to go,” he said. “I lost my front wing in contact with Bianchi and then the car went straight off and into the wall.”
Jules Bianchi – Hit the barrier at Degner 2 in first practice when his arm got caught against the side of the cockpit. Unfortunately that ruled him out of second practice as well[9]. Beaten in a straight fight by his team mate in qualifying for the first time, he was taken out on lap one of the race. “As I turned into the first corner on the opening lap, van der Garde hit my rear wing which pushed me off track and into the gravel.” A wasted weekend in which he completed just 32 laps, most of which in Saturday’s hour of practice.
Max Chilton – Out-qualified Bianchi on merit for the first time the year. But despite Pic having a drive-through penalty he was caught and passed by the Marussia seven laps from home after his tyres began to go off.
Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?
Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.
Who was the best driver of the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix weekend?
Total Voters: 552
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Images © Red Bull/Getty, Lotus/LAT, Sauber
Gaga unveils her 'Aura,' and MTV News is here to analyze her latest lyrics.
By James Montgomery
This article is the latest in a series that aims to help novice investors with the stock market. To enjoy past articles in the series, please visit our full archive.
The Beginners' Portfolio is a virtual portfolio, which is run as if based on real money with all costs, spreads and dividends accounted for.
It's a little while since we've caught up with news and taken a look at our portfolio valuation, so let's start with a quick look at how much cash we'd have in the kitty if we sold up, before we take a look at the latest from Tesco (Other OTC: TSCDF - news) .
As of 11 October, the portfolio has broken the 50% profit mark:
Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) | 289 | 168.5p | £499.51 | 218.7p | £622.04 | £122.53 | 24.5% |
Tesco | 159 | 305.5p | £498.23 | 357.9p | £559.06 | £60.83 | 12.2% |
GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) | 34 | 1,440.5p | £502.22 | 1,554p | £518.36 | £16.14 | 3.2% |
Persimmon | 79 | 617.9p | £500.55 | 1,195p | £934.05 | £433.50 | 86.6% |
Blinkx (Other OTC: BLNKF - news) | 1,319 | 36.9p | £499.68 | 151.8p | £1,992.24 | £1,492.56 | 298.7% |
BP (LSE: BP.L - news) | 112 | 434.5p | £499.01 | 437.8p | £480.34 | -£18.67 | -3.7% |
Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) | 16 | 3,048.4p | £500.18 | 3,043p | £476.88 | -£23.30 | -4.7% |
BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L - news) | 146 | 332.3p | £497.59 | 437.6p | £628.90 | £131.31 | 26.4% |
Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) | 2 | $458.4 | £605.98 | $487.2 | £591.50 | -£14.48 | -2.4% |
Aviva (LSE: AV.L - news) | 146 | 321.4p | £499.71 | 427.0p | £613.42 | £115.71 | 23.2% |
Dividends |
|
|
|
| £281.08 | £281.08 |
|
Total |
|
| £5,100.66 |
| £7,697.87 | £2,597.21 | 50.9% |
That includes the latest dividends -- £7.36 from a 4.63p-per-share interim payment from Tesco, and £8.18 from Aviva's 5.6p interim.
One interesting thing to note is that our investment in Apple has fallen into loss, purely because of exchange rate movements -- which is one extra source of risk when buying non-UK shares.
I'll catch up on the rest next week, but for today, here's what's been happening at Tesco:
Britain's top supermarket
Firstly, we passed Tesco's ex-dividend date on 9 October, so that gets us the interim payment I've already mentioned -- the cash isn't actually paid on ex-dividend date, but as that's the guarantee then it's the most convenient date to use for our accounting.
More importantly, we had the actual first-half figures on 2 October, and they were a bit downbeat. For the 26 weeks to 24 August, trading profit fell 8% from £1,718m to £1,588m.
Europe was tough, with a 68% fall, and profit from Asian markets dropped 7% after opening hours were hit by new Korean regulatory restrictions.
But the UK was robust, with sales excluding petrol up 1.7%, like-for-like food up 1% in the second quarter, and margins stable. Clothing sales in Q2 were up 8.6%, and online sales picked up very nicely -- up 13% in the UK and 54% overseas.
The share price took a bit of a dip as a result, but with a P/E of 11 based on full-year forecasts and a dividend yield of better than 4% expected, I still see today's price of 359p as undervalued.
China looking good
Developments in China, which has the potential to be a lucrative market, are going well as Tesco's deal with China Resources Enterprise (HKSE: 0291.HK - news) (CRE) progresses. The two firms have entered into definitive agreements for a merger of their retail operations in the country.
The joint venture, in which Tesco will have a 20% stake, will have sales approaching £10bn and will be China's biggest multi-format retailer.
I find this development pretty exciting, and it shows Tesco learning how best to approach individual markets. Going it alone in China was not working, but the next approach holds great potential.
Overall, then, I still rate Tesco as a 'Buy' and I'm happy to hold.
Finally, if you're looking for investments that should take you all the way from beginner to wealthy pensioner, I recommend the Fool's special report detailing five blue-chip shares. They'll be familiar names to many, and they've already provided investors with decades of profits.
But the report will only be available for a limited period, so click here to get your hands on these great ideas -- they could set you on the road to long-term riches.
> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares in Tesco and Apple.
A postponed high-stakes meeting at the White House. A rescheduled closed-door gathering of Republican senators. Leaders of the bitterly divided Congress ducking into each others' offices. President Barack Obama, behind a table of bologna sandwiches, pressing lawmakers to forge an 11th-hour deal to spare the fragile economy from a potentially catastrophic debt default.
And from the chaos, growing optimism about a possible deal — even though it may just set the weary country up for another confrontation in only a few short months.
With the partial government shutdown entering its third week and the United States due to slam into the congressionally set debt ceiling in just days, top lawmakers and Obama sounded uncharacteristically hopeful Monday about an agreement to get back to business and avert a default.
Two Democratic Senate aides cautiously described the emerging deal as including a debt-ceiling hike that would last until Feb. 7 or 15, 2014, providing enough money to keep the government open until mid-January, and securing a commitment from all sides to launch comprehensive negotiations on the nation's finances.
Those broader budget discussions would not take the form of a supercommittee. (That ship has sailed — and sank.) Instead, negotiators from the Senate and House would meet to hash out differences on the budget — a “conference,” as called for under regular congressional procedure when the two chambers disagree. The conference would target an agreement by mid-December.
Democrats hoped those broader discussions would lead to some sort of compromise that would avert the next round of automatic, across-the-board “sequestration” spending cuts due to take effect in January.
Amid the frantic negotiations, the White House scheduled a 3 p.m. ET Oval Office meeting between Obama and the top GOP and Democratic leaders in Congress — then postponed it indefinitely, saying the president hoped to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal.
Senate Republicans encountered their own scheduling snafu, first calling a 5:45 p.m. ET closed-door conference to discuss the possible agreement, and then putting it off until Tuesday to accommodate lawmakers not yet returned from their district.
Obama staged a photo-op visit to a local food bank, posing in a green apron with kids and furloughed government employees — and facing a symbolic struggle of his own, as polarized Washington leaders struggled to seal the deal.
“The Ziplock’s not zipping,” the president said, wrestling a sandwich into a plastic bag.
Obama told reporters that he hoped to use the White House talks to gauge “whether this progress is real.”
“And you know, my hope is that a spirit of cooperation will move us forward over the next few hours,” he said. The meeting was postponed not long afterward.
The postponed meeting would have included Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Vice President Joe Biden was also due to attend.
The U.S. Treasury says the government will hit its debt ceiling Thursday, running out of the authority to borrow money to pay for existing programs and risking a debt default that experts warn will send shock waves through the fragile global economy.
“Not only is it untenable for us to continue this shutdown — this week if we don't start making some real progress both in the House and the Senate, and if Republicans aren't willing to set aside some of their partisan concerns in order to do what's right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting,” Obama warned. “And defaulting would have a potentially devastating effect on our economy, sending interest rates shooting up, [and] people — whether Social Security recipients or people with disabilities or small-business people who are vendors to government — not getting paid on time.”
“We've already had a damaging effect on our economy because of the shutdown,” the president added. “That damage would be greatly magnified if we don't make sure that the government's paying its bills, and that has to be decided this week.”
Reid and McConnell have been working behind the scenes to cobble together a deal, and a bipartisan group of 12 senators has been doing the same. Ultimately, though, the question is: How will the House GOP respond, with time already running short?
"We're getting closer," Reid told reporters after he met privately with McConnell.
The Republican leader agreed: "We’ve had an opportunity to have some constructive exchanges of views on how to move forward. I share his optimism — we will get a result that will be acceptable to both sides."
Several other lawmakers have sounded optimistic notes about getting a deal done quickly.
“I think we'll solve this problem over the next few days. I think today may be a very good day,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."
But Obama said he would keep pushing Congress “until the details are done.”
And the president appeared to refer to public opinion polls that have shown Republicans bearing the brunt of the blame for a shutdown that their tea party-affiliated rank and file triggered by demanding that the president accept some rolling back of his signature health care law, Obamacare.
“There's been some progress on the Senate side, with Republicans recognizing it's not tenable, it's not smart, it's not good for the American people to let America default,” he said.
Unconvincing micro-biopic holds appeal for only the most ardent Liz & Dick fans.
Hamptons International Film Festival
Dominic West, Helena Bonham Carter
Richard Laxton
Compared to the train wreck it chronicles -- the final collaboration of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, on 1983's critically reviled Broadway production of Noel Coward's Private Lives -- Richard Laxton's Burton and Taylor isn't so bad. Neither of its stars, Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West, appear to be soused or stoned; both deliver their lines without mugging to the audience.
On the other hand, Private Lives at least gave enormous pleasure to some of the actors' fans -- star-worshiping rubes, it seems, who'd guffaw and applaud at anything La Liz said or did, and happily imagined that the play (about a divorced couple who accidentally reconnect) signaled an offstage reunion for the pair. It's hard to imagine Burton and Taylor offering that kind of gratification to any fan, except perhaps those who respond to its depiction of their on/off relationship (they were married and divorced twice) as a kind of unbreakable bond, a volcano-strength love that could neither live happily nor die. Presented here on the big screen, the BBC production is a TV movie at best, and should fade quickly from memory after its debut this Wednesday on BBC America.
The staging of Private Lives, their last collaboration before Burton's 1984 death, was produced by Taylor. William Ivory's script suggests it was largely a ploy -- Taylor's attempt to rekindle a romance with her favorite leading man. While Burton approaches it as a legitimate gig, showing up promptly to rehearsals and going home to girlfriend Sally Hay, Taylor keeps a diva's schedule, is high when she does show, and hasn't even read the play when rehearsals begin. This remains the template when the play starts its run, with Taylor trusting fans to forgive her missed performances and late arrivals while expecting her increasingly irate costar to eventually declare his undying love.
Given the many liberties taken by the script (it imagines, for instance, a grand farewell at the end of the play's New York run, when in fact the production toured to other cities afterward), it would take a biographer or two to decide how much of the film's backstage shenanigans we should believe. What's easier to assess is its ability to convince us it's Burton and Taylor onscreen, and here it fails completely. Though West and Bonham Carter perform admirably (the former earning most of the viewer's sympathy), both are overshadowed by the many hours of screen time we've shared with the stars; only in a few fleeting moments -- a camera angle here, an emphasized syllable there -- is it possible to go along with the illusion.
Production Company: BBC
Cast: Dominic West, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Richard Laxton
Screenwriter: William Ivory
Producers: Lachlan MacKinnon
Executive producers: Jessica Pope
Director of photography: David Katznelson
Music: John Lunn
Editor: Stuart Gazzard
No rating, 82 minutes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The debut of the government's health insurance marketplaces drew a huge audience — and underwhelming reviews.
Just 7 percent of Americans say the rollout of the health exchanges has gone extremely well or very well, according to an AP-GfK poll.
The reaction was somewhat better among supporters of the new health care law, but still middling: 19 percent said the rollout went extremely well or very well.
Among the uninsured — a key audience for the health exchanges — 42 percent said they didn't know enough to judge how well the rollout had gone, suggesting an ongoing lack of awareness about the program in its early days.
Despite the bumpy rollout, plenty of Americans are giving the system a try.
Seven percent of Americans reported that somebody in their household has tried to sign up for insurance through the health care exchanges, according to the poll.
While that's a small percentage, it could represent more than 20 million people.
Three-fourths of those who tried to sign up reported problems, though, and that's reflected in the poor reviews.
George Spinner, 60, a retired government worker from Ruther Glen, Va., said he managed to create an online account and password before he got stuck.
"It kept telling me there was an error," he said.
Reynol Rodriguez, a computer technician from San Antonio, said he was able to do some comparison shopping online but computer glitches kept him from signing up.
"I was very much looking forward to it," said Rodriguez, 51. "That's what this country needs — affordable health care."
Rodriguez pledged to keep trying — just what President Barack Obama has been recommending to those who've run into trouble.
Count Janice Brown, a semiretired travel agent from Prather, Calif., among those who had a positive experience.
After some initial trouble on the website, she got through to a help line and downloaded an application to buy a plan for $1,500 a month for herself and her husband. That's $1,000 less than her current private plan.
"I'm thrilled," said Brown, 61. "The coverage is better. It's fantastic."
Among those who've actually tested out the system, only about 1 in 10 succeeded in buying health insurance, the poll found. A quarter of those who tried to buy coverage weren't sure whether they'd succeeded.
Overall, 40 percent of Americans said the launch of the insurance markets hasn't gone well, 20 percent said it's gone somewhat well and 30 percent didn't know what to say. Just 7 percent said the launch had gone "very well" or "somewhat well."
Even among those who support the president's health care overhaul law, just 19 percent think the rollout has gone extremely well or very well. Forty percent say it's gone somewhat well, and 18 percent think not too well or not well at all.
The survey offers an early snapshot on use of the new health insurance exchanges set up by states and the federal government under Obama's Affordable Care Act. Thirty-six states are using the federal government's site, HealthCare.gov, which the Obama administration says has had millions of unique visitors. The administration has declined to release enrollment statistics, saying that will be done monthly.
White House senior communications adviser Tara McGuinness said the administration is working around the clock "to improve the consumer experience," and she stressed that the poll was taken just six days into a campaign over the coming months to educate people about their options.
She added, "The overwhelming attention from millions of Americans checking out HealthCare.gov during the first few days is a good testament to the interest of Americans in new affordable health options."
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 7 million uninsured people will gain coverage through the online insurance marketplaces next year, but the role of the markets is actually much bigger than that.
They were intended to be a 21st century portal to coverage for people who do not have access to health insurance on the job. And that includes insured people as well as the uninsured.
There are three big groups of potential customers for the markets: uninsured middle-class people who now will be able to get government-subsidized private coverage; people who currently purchase their own individual policies and are looking for better deals; and low-income people who will be steered by the marketplace to an expanded version of Medicaid in states that agree to expand that safety net program.
The Census Bureau has estimated that about 48 million Americans lacked coverage in 2012, or more than 15 percent of the population.
Starting next year, the law requires virtually all Americans to have insurance or face a tax penalty after a coverage gap of three months.
Opinions are sharply divided on the overall framework of the law: 28 percent of Americans support it, 38 percent are opposed, and 32 percent don't have an opinion either way, the poll found. When asked specifically whether the government should be able to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a fine, only about 3 in 10 Americans agreed, and 68 percent were opposed.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel. It involved online interviews with 1,227 adults. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents. For results among the 76 respondents who attempted to use health insurance markets, the margin of error is plus or minus 13.5 percentage points.
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Associated Press writers Andrew Miga and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
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