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Two days driving for Alonso and one for Massa in Mugello




Fernando Alonso will spend two days testing for Ferrari at Mugello next week, with team-mate Felipe Massa getting one day at the wheel.

The test in Tuscany is make-or-break for Ferrari's season after a tough opening four rounds of the Championship.

The team's radical F2012 has proved to be off the pace and a handful to drive with Massa in particular struggling in the car.

The Brazilian scored his first points of the season in Bahrain with a ninth place finish whereas his team-mate has outperformed him, winning in Malaysia and scoring points at every round this season.

Alonso will drive the car on Tuesday May 1 and Thursday May 3, with Massa at the wheel on the Wednesday.

Lewis Hamilton will not be in action at next week's Mugello test after McLaren confirmed they were sticking to their original plan to run their test drivers across the three days.



The Woking squad announced last week that British pair Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey would share the workload with the MP4-27 at the test circuit in Tuscany, with race drivers Hamilton and Jenson Button not back in the car until the following week's Spanish Grand Prix.

However, in light of a disappointing Bahrain GP for the team last weekend, Hamilton suggested they might need to change their Mugello plans, saying: "I need to get back in the car. We need to figure out why the tyres are going off."

McLaren have, however, on Friday confirmed to skysports.com/formula1 that the 2008 World Champion will still not be in attendance at the test, with therefore Paffett and Turvey running as planned in the MP4-27.

The pair will share driving duties on Tuesday's opening day, with 25-year-old Turvey in the car in the morning before his elder compatriot takes over in the afternoon.

DTM veteran Paffett will then have the race-winning challenger to himself on Wednesday, before Turvey wraps up the week on Thursday.

Although Hamilton appeared keen to get back behind the wheel before the first race of the European season, team-mate Button said he was happy for McLaren's test drivers to carry out the development work.

"The reason why we're not there is because we've never been to Mugello before," Button said.

"I don't really think we will be a benefit because there aren't any massive updates to try.

"For the test drivers to put some miles on parts and try some very extreme things, then I think it's good, but it's not necessary for us to be there."

This time a year ago, the Milwaukee Brewers already knew. Their fans knew. You knew. I knew. Everyone knew slugger Prince Fielder wouldn’t be playing in Milwaukee this year.

Everyone also knew how difficult replacing one of the game's premier producers would be. Only two players, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols, hit more homers than Fielder from 2006-2011. But check the Brewers' home run totals and you could conclude they don't miss Fielder all that much. They lead the National League in homers, just as they did last year when Fielder hit 38.

They miss him, of course. Any team would miss a 300-pound slugger with a .390 career on-base percentage who played every single day.

"There's no way we weren't going to miss him," lefthanded starter Randy Wolf said.

But here's the deal: His bat isn't all they miss. His bat, in fact, might not be what they miss most. The Brewers have done a better job replacing Fielder's power than his personality.

"He's one of those overwhelming presences in every aspect," Wolf said. "In the clubhouse and on the field."

Ryan Braun was and remains the Brewers' best player, but this was Fielder's team. He set the tone by playing—and celebrating—with an uninhibited joy that didn’t always sit well with opponents. He gave the Brewers an edge. He brought the swagger.

Although Fielder was the team's largest offseason loss, the Brewers are without eight other players who finished last season with the team. Coincidentally, most of the departed brought leadership to the clubhouse that hasn’t been replaced.

"We lost more than just Prince," manager Ron Roenicke said. "It was (LaTroy) Hawkins in the bullpen. It was (Mark) Kotsay with his experience. It was (Craig) Counsell. There's a big personality change in this locker room."

Exactly what kind of change remains to be determined. From a distance, the Brewers don't look like the same bawdy bunch as a year ago, though motor-mouth center fielder Nyjer Morgan insists their swagger remains.

"It's there," Morgan said. "It's there. Don't worry about that."

A slow start shouldn’t be much of a cause for any absence of fun; the Brewers are 9-11 compared with 10-10 a year ago. They didn’t take off in 2011 until a 23-3 run early in the second half boosted them from a tie atop the NL Central to an insurmountable nine-game lead.

The Brewers insist that Braun's troubled offseason hasn't lingered into the season, but you have to wonder. Braun is booed every time he steps into the box on the road, something his teammates notice as much as he does. With a .278 average and four homers, Braun is off to a solid start but nothing like last year. After 20 games in 2011, he already was on his way to winning the MVP with a .384 average, seven homers and 18 RBIs. Fielder was doing his best to keep pace, at .368 with three homers and 21 RBIs.

Three other Brewers regulars would trade their starts this season with any of Braun's past. New third baseman Aramis Ramirez, second baseman Rickie Weeks and Morgan have spent the first three weeks trying to lift their averages to .200.

Pitching, however, has been the team's obvious problem. Yovani Gallardo is supposed to be on the cusp of being a bona fide ace, but he can't beat the St. Louis Cardinals. He already has suffered two beatings against St. Louis this season and is 0-5 with a 12.24 ERA in his past five starts against the Cardinals. The other starters haven’t picked up where they left off last season when the Brewers were the NL's most improved rotation. Brewers starters rank last in the NL with a 5.42 ERA.

Their relievers, with the exception of closer John Axford, haven’t fared much better. The Brewers are last in the NL in bullpen ERA, too, at 5.16. "We've played pretty poorly," said Wolf, who knows his team is only one game under .500 and the calendar has yet to flip to May. "To know what we're capable of doing and where we're at now, it's exciting because I know this team will play much better than we are right now."

They aren't expecting an overnight turnaround. For one reason, "We have a lot of guys here that are historically slow starters," Wolf said.

For another, they're still getting to know each other. "We lost nine guys," Roenicke said. "That's a lot."

Especially when one is as irreplaceable as Fielder—in the clubhouse and on the field.

The Oakland Raiders used to play in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Their top two quarterbacks for 2012 are set to be two Heisman Trophy winners who starred there at the University of Southern California.

ESPN reports free agent Matt Leinart will sign with the Raiders to be the backup to the man he succeeded under center at USC, Carson Palmer. The move also reunites Leinart, who played in Houston last season, with former Texans quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp—the Raiders' current offensive coordinator.

The addition of Leinart means second-year quarterback Terrelle Pryor will be demoted to third string.

Leinart made one start for the Texans last season, filling in for injured Matt Schaub. But he ended up breaking his collarbone in that Nov. 27 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and joined Schaub (foot) on the sideline for the final month of the season.

Palmer won the Heisman in 2002. Leinart won it two years later and trumped Palmer's time at USC by leading the Trojans to back-to-back national championships under Pete Carroll.

USC's current starting quarterback, Matt Barkley, is a preseason Heisman favorite for '12 and is projected to be the top quarterback prospect in next year's draft.

The Redskins pulled a surprise with their fourth-round pick (No. 102), drafting Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Robert Griffin III, the draft’s No. 2 overall pick, has been tabbed as the Redskins’ quarterback of the future. However, Cousins is an intriguing prospect. Some scouts had Cousins rated a better prospect than two quarterbacks who were taken on Day 2—Brock Osweiler (second round, Broncos) and Russell Wilson (third round, Seahawks).

If Griffin struggles early, the presence of another young quarterback with promise like Cousins could create a distraction.

Meanwhile, the Redskins finished last in the NFC East last season. They still have defensive needs at linebacker and in the secondary. At least four respected cornerback prospects were still on the board when the Redskins picked Cousins—Coastal Carolina’s Josh Norman, Georgia’s Brandon Boykin, Nebraska’s Alfonzo Dennard and Iowa State’s Leonard Johnson. Alabama safety DeQuan Menzie was also still available.

Should Griffin suffer an injury, Cousins could be a nice insurance policy for the Redskins. But they already have veteran Rex Grossman as a potential backup for Griffin.

Drafting Cousins, instead of a potential defensive starter, is a luxury the Redskins might not be able to afford—no matter how much coach Mike Shanahan likes to develop quarterbacks.

Meanwhile, NFL Network reported the Redskins cut quarterback John Beck, who started three games last season and had a 72.1 passer rating.

Ever since Mark Martin first raced at Richmond International Raceway, he has known the fastest way around the track.



Martin won the pole for the first race he ever ran at the track in September 1981, when the track was 0.542 miles long instead of its current 0.75 miles. He has won four poles at RIR since then, the latest coming Friday with a lap of 128.327 mph.

When he won that pole in 1981, his lap speed was 93.435 mph and it was his second career pole in just his fourth career race. Now on the pole for the Capital City 400 on Saturday night, he has 53 poles in 837 career starts.

“It was a pretty big deal sitting on the pole with my little Late Model team,” said Martin, 53, who is driving a part-time schedule this year for Michael Waltrip Racing. “But as far as I’m concerned this is just as big a deal.

“This is pretty cool. I can’t believe I have the opportunity to drive this car.”

Martin has won poles at Richmond in four different decades for four different teams. After winning his first pole with his Late Model team, he won poles in 1996 and 2001 for Jack Roush and 2009 for Rick Hendrick.

“I’ve been fortunate to drive fast race cars,” Martin said. “I didn’t feel like this was one of my strongest racetracks, but (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) informed me when I came into the trailer this morning that based on my record, that I must really like this place.

“When he said that, I said, ‘OK. I do.’”

Starting next to Martin Saturday night will be Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards (128.290 mph), whose lap was just 0.006 seconds slower than Martin.

Kevin Harvick, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five. Starting sixth through 10th will be Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Failing to make the race were Scott Riggs and J.J. Yeley.

After Friday qualifying; race Saturday

At Richmond International Raceway

Richmond, Va.

Lap length: .75 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

1. (55) Mark Martin, Toyota, 128.327 mph.

2. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 128.29.

3. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 128.041.

4. (22) A J Allmendinger, Dodge, 127.962.

5. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 127.956.

6. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 127.75.

7. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 127.732.

8. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 127.678.

9. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 127.593.

10. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 127.545.

11. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 127.455.

12. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 127.395.

13. (51) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 127.328.

14. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 127.28.

15. (78) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 127.208.

16. (2) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 126.993.

17. (36) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 126.963.

18. (20) Joey Logano, Toyota, 126.915.

19. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 126.892.

20. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 126.82.

21. (83) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 126.796.

22. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 126.749.

23. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 126.695.

24. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 126.683.

25. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, 126.612.

26. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, 126.487.

27. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 126.464.

28. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 126.428.

29. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 126.351.

30. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 126.121.

31. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 126.121.

32. (26) Josh Wise, Ford, 126.103.

33. (10) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, 126.033.

34. (30) David Stremme, Toyota, 125.98.

35. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 125.886.

36. (95) Scott Speed, Ford, 125.839.

37. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 125.669.

38. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 125.564.

39. (19) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 125.319.

40. (33) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, 125.151.

41. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 124.481.

42. (32) Reed Sorenson, Ford, Owner Points.

43. (74) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 124.636.

Failed to Qualify

44. (23) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet, 123.813.

45. (49) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 122.56.

Danica Patrick will take any sign of improvement she can get as she continues her stock-car education.

So she was smiling Friday afternoon after a practice session that was better than she performed at Richmond International Raceway last September. Patrick finished the 150-minute session ranked ninth among Nationwide Series drivers at the .75-mile track and qualified 16th for the race Friday night.

Last September, in her first trip to the track, Patrick was 35th in practice. The rest of her weekend didn’t get much better as she started the race 32nd and finished 18th.

“Staying inside the top 10 in practice was a really good thing for me,” Patrick said. “Hopefully we can qualify well. … It was a much better start to the day than the last time I was here.”

In her first full season in her transition from IndyCar, the 30-year-old Patrick went five races with a best finish of 12th before earning her first top-10 (eighth) of the season at Texas.

It was the fourth top-10 of her career. She had run 25 Nationwide races for JR Motorsports the previous two seasons.

Patrick is 11th in the Nationwide standings and said a key to her improvement is crew chief Tony Eury Jr.’s ability to translate her information from a past race into the setup for practice the next time at the track.

“The car felt really comfortable from the get-go,” Patrick said. “So that was a good thing. Part of it is just Tony and I learning each other and him learning what kind of characteristics I like in the car and what’s important.

“We came with a variation of what we ended up with last year when we ran here. That’s a big head start.”