Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/453115
22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 28 JANUARY 2015 Sport FORMULA 1 POOL The Twistees Blackball Tournament THIS is the first ever major black- ball pool tournament in Malta, taking place between Friday 6th February 2015 and Sunday 8th February 2015 at the Juventus Club Vero Amore, Birkirkara. This event is being held in association with the Malta Eight Ball Federation, which is Malta's official Blackball pool representative across the globe. Following four successful local pool tournaments stretched over a span of seven months, Green Baize Events decided to up the bar and organize a tournament that will be remembered amongst local admir- ers for years to come. In collaboration with one of Mal- ta's most popular snacks, TWIS- TEES, this pool tournament will host only eight of the very best local talent. They will go head to head to win the biggest prize there ever was in the local game, that being, the most coveted THREE BALLS CUP and a €3,000 cheque for the winner. Players will be split into two groups of four, enabling each player to play three matches in the group stage. The group stage matches will be on a Best of 29 frames for- mat, meaning that the first player to reach 15 frames wins. The even- tual group winners will then face the other group's runners up in the semi-final stage. The semi's will be Best of 33 frames, or a Race to 17 frames; and the Final will be Best of 39 frames, or a Race to 20 frames. The first three group stage matches will take place on Friday 4pm, Saturday 9pm and 2pm re- spectively, on four professional pool tables. The Semi Final session will take place on Sunday at 10am, with the Main Event Final being played on Sunday at 8pm. A match from each session will be shown live via www.twitch.tv/ mebfmalta for viewers to enjoy, al- though everyone is encouraged to come and watch these highly an- ticipated matches at the Juventus Club Vero Amore. The eight players in conten- tion for the big prize are Mario Brincat, Clint Azzopardi, Kevin Schembri, Clayton Castaldi, Chris Galea, Philip Ciantar, Ivan Rizzo, and current World Blackball Pool Champion, Claudio Cassar. Match- es will be officiated by Joseph Fit- eni, Carlo McKay, Clayton Pace and Johnathan Bonett. This event is being supported by Strand Pal- ace Agencies, Twistees, Country Products, and the Malta Eight Ball Federation. Lotus releases first images of E23 Hybrid LOTUS has revealed the first im- ages of its Mercedes-powered E23 Hybrid, which it hopes will propel the Enstone-based squad back up the Formula 1 grid on the back of a challenging 2014 campaign. Lotus scored just 10 points on its way to eighth place in last year's Constructors' Championship but has since switched power unit sup- pliers from Renault to Mercedes. The squad has retained Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado to pilot the E23 Hybrid, with GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer joining as reserve driver. "The E23 Hybrid represents a new era for Lotus F1 Team, not only in the change to a Mercedes Benz Power Unit, but also it is the fruition of a busy winter behind the scenes. Improvements within our Design, Aero and Simulation departments have all contributed to the development of a car which is a huge step forward. As a team we are confident that the new car coupled with additions to the Race team will enable a huge leap for- ward and we are full of optimism going into the new season. It is time to put the disappointment of last season behind us and benefit from 12 months of hard work; we are ready to return to our rightful place at the pinnacle of the sport," said Matthew Carter, Lotus F1 Team CEO "The E23 Hybrid represents a massive step forward for us. It's no secret that we struggled with last year's car so we've targeted every area that caused us an issue.," said Nick Chester, Lotus F1 Team Tech- nical Director. "We've made strong progress in the wind tunnel as well as in areas such as packaging and cooling. We expect the E23 to per- form far, far better than its pred- ecessor. In terms of what's new, obviously a massive change for us is a new Power Unit supplier. We made this change as it looked and looks to be the one area of the car which could bring us the greatest performance gain. It's not just per- formance, but reliability and drive- ability as well as packaging and cooling too." "The E22 did deliver good figures in the wind tunnel, even if it was difficult to unlock its potential, so we've paid more attention to mak- ing the characteristics of the car more adaptable. In terms of the sus- pension, we were delivered some- thing of a blow last year when the front-rear interconnected suspen- sion was outlawed mid-season. The E23's suspension design is specific to the updated regulations so we're not trying to update a system origi- nally intended to work a different way. We learnt a lot in many areas of the car over the course of 2014 so there are many lessons which have been applied. We know we've made a big step. We won't know how our car will fare in relative terms until we're out in action at a Grand Prix, but we certainly expect to be much more competitive than last year," concluded Chester The Lotus E23 Hybrid