Crank it up one last time

Hurrah, it's the last race of the season. The longest in living memory, you though Mao took a long time to march from one end of china to the other, well that's nothing compared to how long this season has been going on. I was a young, vibrant man in the first flush of 44, my prime years many would argue when this started. And here now this interminable season is almost finally over as I begin my 45th year. This season has literally aged me one whole year. A year I will never get back ... thank you Bernie .. Thanks for nothing !!!

"Come on lads, almost there "

By the holy  beard of Jenson Button I can't wait for this season to end so I can spend Sunday afternoon asleep on the sofa rather than dragging out this raw passionate (often badly spelt I'll grant you) prose, for you my dear an loyal readers. Without who, this would only be read by my brother (possibly) and maybe one or two people stumbling around the back reaches of Blogger late on a Sunday evening.... They say man is the sum of the things he leaves behind. I think I add up to a damaged liver and a vented spleen. 

But passionate prose, yes if nothing it's passionate prose, I've meant every word of this too. I hope I have entertained you this year, and helped to cast some light on those at the back of the grid.  It has been fun to watch Sainz and Verstappen rock up and impress with their grit and determination.  It's been sad too with the utter failure of McLaren, who have gamely got on with things and never stopped trying.  Drivers with lesser metal would have packed up and walked away complaining to anyone who would listen, and to be fair to Alonso here, he only really let it all spill out by Japan, when everyone had realised how much of a mess it all was. By the time they got to Japan, we all knew the engine wasn't up to it, no point denying it anymore.

I hope I have encouraged some of you to follow Webber and Hulkenberg to Le Mans. Maybe catch a bit of the Australian V8's and perhaps look beyond the jaded horizon of Formula One. The WEC had possibly one of the best years of racing I've ever seen.  If you went looking for good racing it was out there, Bernie didn't kill everything off.

But yes we have one more race this year in Abu Dhabi and the Yas Marina circuit. It's the day night race, round the harbour and that building that lights up .. yeah you know the one. It was quite dramatic last year with Nico losing the title to Hamilton. You're not going to get that much drama this year. There is nothing left to race for now; I think all the pride might have been raced for too.  

But F1 cars do look pretty nice under a gazillion watts of street lighting, even if the track does look somewhat empty at times during the race. And the sun going down makes things a little bit more dramatic. 

So it'll all be worth watching, come on, one last go. See if you can get your highest score this week.

ooooh is it my turn again !?!

Good luck.

This is a plea for my liver .. has anyone got a spare ??

Okay, not the most exciting race I've ever got up at some ungodly hour for, especially one I spent the previous night watching England being beaten by Wales, for. I was particularly bleary of eye and in fact I missed the only interesting bit, the first 200 yards of the race, as I managed to sleep through the alarm.

Musshed get up ... the race will be amazing.. mush get....up ....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So yeah, I missed Hamilton motor past Nico when the lights went out. Much the same as I slept through the first 40 minutes of qualifying. Don't get me wrong I really love Suzuka it's one of the world's great tracks and the fans are up there with their Italian and British brethren. But it starts at six in the morning and there was a lot of Rugby on Saturday night and a bottle of Port might have been opened.

Well done Wales by the way, you beat the English fair and square, I can't really complain. But don't expect me to wake up early the next morning and have a ready supply of bon mots for you. I'm getting too old for all of this I'm afraid.

Errrre yeah good point, motor racing.

From what I remember .. I missed the start, Hamilton over took Nico and some people banged into each other. Okay .. And I joined the race as Nico went into the pits in third or possibly fourth.  Then I think some other people went into the pits and Nico was second and Vettel was third.

I might have drifted off for a bit, then Alonso was making everyone in the entire world aware that he thought the Honda engine was a pile of dung and just about good enough for a GP2 car, which seems about right, if a little tactless at Hondas home circuit, maybe.

Then the race was over and Hamilton had got the same number of wins as Senna (41, one less than Vettel stat fans) which seemed to make him quite happy.

Then I watched Big Ron turn up on Sky to play down Alonso getting all angry about the rubbish Honda engine and the media's ongoing attempts to crucify McLaren for getting things very wrong.

I got up to go and walk the dog at that point. Watching red faced loon's texting in to "Crofty" to stick the knife into McLaren was too much, a company makes a mistake and some of the more unhinged members of society seem to feel like it was some sort of personal insult to the fans or something. The only thing more baffling is the FIA website. I really urge you to go and see just how appalling it is, just try and find the current drivers championship standings  .. I defy you to do it in less than 20 minutes.

Ho and indeed hum. Yay, Lewis won, anyone think Hamilton isn't going to win the title now? Thought not! Sure there are five races to go, but barring some sort of season ending injury he's pretty much home and dry now, Nico hasn't got his game face on at all.  He didn't get pole though, Nico managed that before Kvyat smeared his car down the road in the dying minutes of qualifying.  Hamilton was going faster (I think as I say I was kind of bleary eyed for that too). But it meant nothing as Lewis just steamed past when the lights went out and then he drove round really quickly and won. Easy peasy.

Nico was second, again, because he's a number two driver.

Vettel was third because he has the next best thing to a factory Merc engine.

Kimi was forth because even he can get the next best thing to a Merc engine past the best customer Merc engine.

Bottas was fifth with the best customer Merc engine.

Hulkenberg managed to avoid hitting Massa this time and made a much better start than his team mate, he was sixth.

Grosjean was seventh and has announced he's off to new boys Hass F1 (Ferrari number 2 factory squad) next year. Because he knows that if Lotus are quite prepared to give Maldonado a new contract then winning isn't what they're racing for anymore.

Maldonado eighth blahdy blah blah. Imagine what a good driver could do with that lotus!

Ninth for Verstappen who could be amazing in a well funded  Merc engined car, I imagine when Redbull do finally throw their toys out of the pram and flounce off because no one want to give spoilt attention seeking children an engine next year. There is going to be more than an unseemly fight by the big boys for Verstappen's signature. There's going to be a blood bath. Maybe that's why Big Ron was all smiles despite Alonso, maybe he's already got the kid signed and Honda are ready to unveil an almighty engine any minute now.

Yeah Sainz was tenth and he isn't Verstappen, he's the guy Verstappen doesn't get out of the way for.

Oh Hamilton got the fastest lap and Stevens got beaten by Rossi again, so he was last. Imagine (once again) you are Will Stevens and you have been beating your rubbish team mate for 6 month, then an upstart Yank gets parachuted in with a massive pay-check and whip yer ass two races running. That's got to hurt, hasn't it?

Two weeks to Sotchi, a race I am really looking forward too ... (no, no I'm not)

Love and hugs.

Julian.