Well done Alex Zanardi. two golds and a silver at the 2012 Paralympics.

Hamilton adds a zero to the asking price.

Well, if you want the Big Boss to sit up and listen to your demands for more money, dominating the race weekend is pretty much the best plan. And to then have your old Boss turn up and put the screws on his replacement ..... well team Hamilton must pretty happy with the Monza weekend.

Lewis was all over this race from practice numero uno. He was just loving pinning his ears back and spanking the car through the Lesmos’, Ascari and the Curva Grande. It wasn’t much faster than Button or Alonso but it was and that was all that was required.

Out of the car however, well that was a different matter. I like the happy bubbly Lewis that kisses the camera and goes to celebrate a pole or a win with the team and the fans. Not the quite introverted Lewis that pats the car after getting pole and walks off to get weighed. I don’t think he’s back to the slashing the wrists “why me” dark soul Lewis of last year. But he doesn’t look like a man who’s feeling the love round the team at the moment.

So then qualifying was pretty easy for McLaren, not a case of ‘if’ more a case of ‘which one will it be’ they were just streets ahead of the rest. But Ferrari tried to make a fist of it and we witnessed another Classic “Ferrari shooting themselves in the foot - Italian style” event. They knew they didn’t quite have the straight line grunt to overhaul the McLarens so they had been practicing the old “draught your buddy to the pole” routine all Friday. This involved sending a car out for a lap, then as the first crosses the line the other is sent out to sit in front of the first car and help punch a hole in the air for the hot lap, usually out of Lesmo two the first car gets a slipstream gaining a few tenths of a second. The second car then gets out of the way before Ascari and gets a bit of a tow down to the Parabolica and onto its hot lap. If timed right both the cars will get an advantage and lock out the front row. Get it wrong and Alonso starts in 10^th and Massa starts 3^rd.  Not what the team actually wanted.  Actually Alonso had a loose bolt on his rear roll bar which meant he couldn’t get the power down out of the corners, some of the more unkind pit lane lags suggested Ferrari needed a bit more practice with Alonso following Massa.

The result was though, that Alonso was a long way back on Sunday morning. Along with the Redbulls which looked very down on power, Webber especially who hadn’t made it out of Q2. He and Vettel looked forward to a very long race.

When the red lights went out Massa got a flyer off the line and almost took Hamilton into turn one. But perhaps being mindful of last week’s carnage and Grosjean sitting on the naughty step, he backed out and settled into second spot. Alonso managed to make up two spots off the line which does suggest there’s nothing wrong with the Ferrari launch system.

And that was pretty much it for the race for the win, Massa couldn’t live with Hamilton and Button got held up by Massa. Meanwhile Alonso and Vettel moved up through the field. The expected attack by the Mercedes never materialised, the cars where there or there abouts, but they didn’t look they could take the fight to the big boys. Eventually Vettel made the mistake of pushing Alonso on the grass on the outside of the Curva Grande and the Stewards decided they hadn’t had enough input and slapped Vettel with a drive through penalty.

Now some might say, “Well Alonso did the same to him last year, with no problems! Why ping him now?” and the answer is probably that the FIA is now wary of drivers getting too feisty and pushing competitor off the circuit. Last year in Indy cars Dan Weldon was killed by drivers taking too big a risk, Alonso was inches from losing his head or arm in Spa last week. As Indy car found out, it only takes one accident and all the fun is taken out of the sport.  More importantly the Money doesn’t want to be seen with blood all over it. So they are going to ping driver more and more for this sort of move. There is no right or wrong here, no one wants to see a driver get hurt in the name of entertainment.

So that left Alonso behind Massa who was back behind Lewis after Button had a fuel pick up problem and parked the car on the circuit, so thing all looked fine and dandy for two Ferrari drivers on the podium. Except Perez was on another one of his blinding runs, after pitting  later for his ‘soft’ tyres he was coming back through the field like a hot knife through butter. When the Italian boys realised this they quickly put Alonso ahead of Massa and told the boys to get a hustle on.  But Perez was on a charge and was looking for a win this time. He passed Massa with ease out of Ascari and despite Alonso’s best efforts who knew that points today when Vettel and Webber were doing so badly, was worth more than stopping a Sauber from getting a few points. Let him threw without too much trouble.  Which left Lewis 10 seconds up the road, with 10 laps left it was going to take some hot laps top make this work, he started to catch the McLaren at 1.5 seconds a lap until Vettel suddenly decided that he’d had enough of having a slow car and parked up just after the pit exit, yet another alternator melting under the bodywork.  The marshals threw double waved yellows into the first chicane and effectively stopped Perez’s charge. Lewis had responded anyway and controlled the lead until the flag which he passed with a pretty comfortable margin of 5 seconds to Perez.

So Hamilton won pretty comfortably and looks to have the upper hand when contract negotiations restart on Monday. Will he go to Mercedes? Well they’d love him to I'm sure, the rest of the world knows it would be for the money and Not the glory if he did.  As wrong moves go it would be akin to walking up to Bernie and resting your pint on his head. Funny, but probably the last thing you’d ever do.  

Perez gets a very well deserved second place and I am not going to say anything bad about him this time. No, he drove a storming race, overtook two Ferraris at Monza and didn’t cock it up this time.  The odds on him being in a Ferrari next year just shortened again.

Alonso salvages a third place after the disaster that was qualifying.  That is how you win championship. He is still leading the race for the chase for the cup whilst his rival trip up and drop points.  

Massa does a very good job of getting out of the way of his team mate when required and made Lewis work for the win for 250 metres. He was lucky that Vettel and Button dropped out but fourth place is a pretty fair result for the Brazilian.

Kimi was fifth in a lotus that wasn’t fast enough.

Schumacher was sixth and the best of the two stoppers. He was carving his way back to the front as the race wound down, but he was left with too much to do to make it a podium finish. Still the Merc had the grunt to do the job, just not the tyres.

Rosberg was seventh and got the fastest lap, but again as with Mikey the tyres let him down.

 Di Resta had a pretty good weekend and he needed it. The team said on Saturday that they wouldn’t stand in the way of any other team giving them a shed load of cash for any of their drivers. Which I don’t suppose is comforting for either Di Resta or the Hulk.  I suspect VJ Mally would sell his own grandmother if he thought he could get enough money for her. So anyway Paul need to deliver a result to keep the McLaren boys interested in him if Lewis does go mental and leave for Mercedes. A good qualifying result ruined by a five place penalty for a gearbox change, then a fine drive back to eighth was what was needed to keep the stock high. There is a slight feeling that the Hulk might have got the better of him during the mid season, so a few more of these runs should keep his name linked with the bigger boys.

Talking of fancied drivers being made to look ordinary by supposedly inferior team mates, Kobayashi was only ninth and didn’t really look like being anywhere near his team mate on the podium. Koby has had a bit of a lack lustre year so far and this isn’t helping him.

Finally Senna was tenth beating Maldonado out of the last point, jolly well done to him.

And as usual way back down there in last place was Karthikeyan.

And that’s your lot. The Paralympics are about to finish and I want to see the fireworks see you in two weeks for the Singapore GP. 

There is no I in team.

Right then Monza next ...




No driver wins a championship on his own. There is an army of staff sitting in the pits, on the wall and back at the factory, delivering a car, analysing data and fixing the bits the driver knocks off in practice. Any driver that forgets, that they are ultimately a very small part of a very big machine, is soon shown the door to his next team.


When drivers start to believe their own hype, take their eye off the team and the mood within the team, it usually starts to go very wrong. Because all those team members that deliver the car to the driver and help him win the adulation, the prizes and the millionaire lifestyle. Don’t get the sort of money the driver gets. They don’t get to rub shoulders with super models and spend a weekend making rap videos with American musicians of dubious reputation. No, they live in a four bed semi in Woking, an apartment in Milton Keens and a well appointed maisonette in down town Maranello.


Yes they’re doing it for the love of the sport and the chance to be part of a winning team. But mostly they’re doing it to cover the mortgage, pay off the car loan and get the kids that Doctor Who sonic screwdriver that all their mates have. The pit boys and girls still have to go to those twenty races, fix the car when it gets smeared down the wall of champions until three in the morning, then get up and get it qualified up the grid. Think about all those HRT boys who must know they’re never going to win a race, yet still there they are race after race delivering what they can with a shoe string budget. They’re not spending Friday night at the local hot spot to be seen at and parading down a fashion show runway.


So when the driver throws a tantrum and his toys out of the pram telling the press the team isn’t working for “HIM”, how do you think those teams members that were up at 2am pouring over raw data files looking for that ten tenths advantage feel ?


Now imagine the driver takes a picture of said raw data that includes his teammates’ information too. And publishes that picture to demonstrate how hard done by they have been. So not only is he showing how both the cars are being set up and how they are working. He is showing the world the sort of information the team pays a lot of money to keep very, very secure !


It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth for all those hard working people back in Wokingor Milton Keens or Maranello isn’t it. They are being accused of not caring, of not working hard enough for the multi millionaire, highly pampered racing driver who has just spent 3 weeks sunning himself on a private island with his superstar girlfriend.


Spa was not a great weekend for Lewis, let’s see how it goes at Monza shall we……..

Go team Jenson, go home Grosjean.

Well, not the most exciting of races really. But still a welcome return after five weeks off.  The problem with races where the leader disappears off into the distance and is never challenged for the lead ...is well they are kind of dull. This is mainly because you never get to see the leader out there being made to work for it.

After Friday was washed out by torrential rain, the teams had to take a bit of a punt on the set up.  Spa has three distinct sections starting with the first gear La Source hairpin into the run up the hill through the still frighteningly fast Eau Rouge and the Kemmel straight. Then it’s all a bit tippy toes through Les Combes at the top of the hill, dropping down round Pouhon and the double right at Stavelot. Before the ‘hang onto your conkers’ long sweeping Blanchimont straight to the chicane and the end of the lap.

So it’s either ‘some’ down force to make up time down the hill but lose time on the straight bits. Or balls out fast in a straight line ‘no’ down force and hope the tires hang together on the twisty bits. Too much and you be a sitting duck in a straight line, too little and you’ll chew your tires up in a handful of laps.

 Jenson got the balance just right and was all over Spa like a bad rash. Qualifying looked easy with fastest laps all over the show, Koby and Maldonardo got it right too and lined up at the front for the race with Jenson. Lewis got the balance all wrong and threw a hissy fit on twitter on Saturday night about it all. Maldonado continued to draw the ire of the FIA commandants yet again and got a three place grid penalty for apparently blocking Hulkenberg. (Which did look harsh to me).

To make up for this, Maldonado decided he was going to take back those three places before the lights went out on Sunday. As everyone else waited for the race to actually start, Maldo went early and was up the front when all the trouble began. Lewis got an average start off the line and was joined on the run to the first corner by Grosjean. You may recall that Grosjean does not have an enviable record when it comes to making it round the first corner of the race this year.    

And so it proved once again this time, like some 16 year old delinquent who has just stolen his first Renault Saxo he was pinballing up the road trying to escape the coppers, left, right, left and right bang into Lewis who was doing nothing wrong. As the Renault and McLaren became white knuckle rides for the two boys they collected first Perez and then Alonso, tagged Kobayshi who’d had a bad start and Maldonado who got held up by the carnage.

The view from Alonso’s onboard camera is chilling, as he turns into the corner and suddenly has the Renault smack into his right front wheel before pirouetting past his head. Whilst Lewis got out of his car when everything had come to a rest to explain to Grosjean just what he thought of the Renault driver, Alonso stayed in his car for several minutes as the doctor checked his head was still attached. Thankfully he was okay and walked away from the car back to the pits to watch the race.

We had a safety car for 4 laps or so as they cleared the mess away and the walking wounded got new nose wings and underwear.  When everything was ready to go, Maldonado decided he hadn’t broken enough rules already so drove into the back of Glock, broke his front wing and retired from the race.

That was the end of the fun stuff and for the next 40 odd laps Jenson led the race whilst Kimi, Vettel and Hulkenberg tried to keep up with him. Schumacher got in the way a bit and made Kimi work hard for his third and Vettel pulled the rabbit from the bag and got second.

After the race the FIA Reich command had a field day with the ban hammer and the naughty step. First they felt that Grosjean had been this week’s biggest tool and throw the book at him. He’s been slapped in the face with a white glove and told not to bother booking a hotel in Italy for next week’s race at Monza, he has to sit on the naughty step all weekend and think about what he’s done. Maldonado got a five place penalty for the jump start and another five place penalty for driving into the back of Glock.  Given Grosjean got a one race ban for being an idiot he should count himself lucky. Three penalties in one race weekend has to be some sort of record.

Caterham got a hefty fine for releasing Kovalainen into the path of a pitting HRT of Karthikeyan. The crash broke the Caterham’s nose off and something on the rear of the HRT, which subsequently pitched the Indian into the tire wall a couple of laps after being told to stop lifting off the throttle in Eau Rouge and be a proper racing driver.

The Redbull chaps got a stiff talking too for almost but not actually releasing Webber into the path of Massa in the pits, finally Schumacher got a stiff talking too for almost collecting Vettel when he went into the pits.

All in all it was a good day to be a race steward.

So then, Jenson wins and keeps the dream alive.

Vettel came second with a car that was out of puff up the hill and in a straight line.

Kimi was third at yet another race Lotus was targeting for a win.

Hulkenberg profited the most from Grosjean’s lunacy with fourth.

Massa in fifth showed the Ferrari was actually quite fast despite what Alonso says.

Webber in sixth, also struggled with a lack of top speed

 Schumacher made a fist of his 300 Grand Prix, but the tires let him down again, to seventh.

Vergne get a nose bleed climbing to eighth.

Ricciardo is still the second best Torro Rosso driver in ninth.

And finally Di Resta in tenth doesn’t profit at all from the carnage like his team mate did.

Bizarrely, Senna gets the fastest lap after a late stop for new rubber and this week its De La Rosa’s turn to be the most rubbish HRT driver in last place.  

Next up it's Monza, who do you think Maldonado will hit this time ?

It appear the FIA site is out of action this evening so results are unofficial at the moment, but i can't find anything to suggest they're going to change. 

Yes i know its been a long time, but Spa is this weekend. Hurrah

Whey and indeed hay …. Put that javelin down and pack away those hurdles. The Olympics are over and despite the Paralympics about to start; it’s back to the wonderful world of formula One and the rain-tastic Spa-Francorchamps, a proper manly circuit for big hairy chested men.

Well it’s been a quite month for the F1 circus;

Ross Brawn has complained that things are “too random” these days and the fans want to go back to the days when Schumacher would pound round and round in the lead and his team mate knew his place. I suspect this is less what Ross wants and more what the Mercedes Benz board of directors want. Everyone expects Mercedes to call a press conference any day now and call a halt to the whole sorry mess, any minute now. Much like their double DRS gizmo which will be banned from next year to try and stop other teams coming up with even more sneaky was to read the rule book.

Eric Boullier over at Lotus, has been waggling his eyebrows and telling anyone that will listen that “of course Kimi can win the championship” whether this is a case of trying to convince Kimi that he can actually beat the Ferrari and Redbull drivers or indeed whether he should stay another year at Lotus is anyone guess. There is a lot of talk about Lotus having a car to do the job, personally I’m not so sure, yes Kimi looks like the Kimi of old that would race the backside off the car then get out and have an ice cream, say four words before wondering off laughing at all the fuss. I just don’t think the team has that killer, “tell Grosjean to crash the car NOW” instinct that they used to have.

In the mean time, Dany Bahr far from getting the message about leaving Group Lotus well alone and just not being welcome anymore, has decided to sue Lotus for wrongful dismissal. Good luck with that loser.

Over at McLaren and Hamilton has been flying round the world taking picture and partying in Ghana judging by the tweets. For a man supposedly haggling over the small print of a new contract, he looks to be having the time of his life. Jenson meanwhile has been organizing a charity Triathlon for extra fit people to show off and for his underwear model girlfriend to get all sweaty flogging herself round. Personally I’d rather be on the veranda with Lewis knocking back the G&T’s, even Nicole being there would be better than a muddy field with sweaty fit people. Both drivers, of course, still believe they can win the championship.

Alonso has been spending the last few weeks with different girls around the world by the look of his twitter feed. As bizarre as it sounds I’m starting to rather like Teflonso these days. He takes great pictures, always has a stunning lady to hand and comes across as a jolly great bloke when out with his mates. None of the faux ‘Gangsta’ shtick that Hamilton seems to want these days or the bone headed iron man nonsense that Jenson comes out with.

Massa seems to think he’s going to get a new contract from Ferrari any day now. I wonder if he’s been getting advice from the same lawyers are Mr Bahar ?

The Redbull chaps have been very quite over the last few weeks. That either means they’ve all been on holiday or that they have all decamped to Adrian Neweys garage to redesign their honest to goodness, not really as such ‘blown’ diffuser.

As for the rest of them, well they all think they’ll do well at Spa, my favourite would be Alonso, just because he’s got the bit between his teeth and his Mojo cranked up to WIN. Redbull have a major redesign of their diffuser to work on and McLaren seem to either be right on the money or way off on the settings. 

But this is Spa where a hairy chested driver like Kimi, Alonso or Lewis can make the difference, or perhaps even Webber or Jenson with a bit of a tail wind and some of the forecast rain.

Here are the current standings with still lots of points to play for;

1 Fernando Alonso  164
2 Mark Webber       124
3 Sebastian Vettel  122
4 Lewis Hamilton    117
5 Kimi Räikkönen   116

Don’t forget to update you predictions before Friday .. good luck.

Hamilton wins

There we go then, not the most exciting of races but a fine result for Lewis after the trials and tribulations of last week in Germany. Lewis crossed the line this week without too much trouble chased by a pair of Lotus drivers that may well have missed their chance of glory this year. Other than that ..... it was a pretty boring race. Not even Schumacher having an old person moment and switching his engine off on the grid could liven this one up.

From the word go Hamilton seems to have the McLaren dialled into the circuit with solid fast practice sessions, with no drama and a happy smiley British lad bouncing around in the pits which is always good to see. Qualifying was a breeze with no one able to touch him for pole, two stunning laps put the matter beyond doubt that the old Hamilton was back this weekend. Only Grosjean looked like taking the fight to the leading McLaren with a fine second on the grid but still 0.413 seconds behind the McLaren.

Come Sunday afternoon and we had two goes at the start when first Schumacher parked in the wrong grid slot then switched his engine off when the yellow flags were waved. As the grid went off for a second formation lap Schumacher was pushed back to the pit lane where his engine was restarted he then sped back to the end of the pit lane to wait for the race to start without him. Unfortunately he forgot to switch on the pit lane speed limiter and once the race did start and he joined the back of the field, he got called back for a drive through penalty. Not his finest hour.

Then we were treated to two hours of drivers following each other and now and again going a bit faster when the car in front pitted. Hamilton stayed in the lead for pretty much all of it, with Grosjean and then Kimi keeping him honest for the afternoon. The Lotus looked pretty fast when not following anything else, this isn’t a track known for its overtaking chances and so it proved once again.

So then a win for Lewis just before the new contract negotiations start. It’s always good to be able to plonk a winner’s trophy on the table before you ask for a raise and this one comes after a very tough first half of the season. This performance was classic Lewis, dominating the whole weekend; he controlled the race from the front, didn’t get fazed by the lotus cars behind him and kept it on the island for the whole race. He did his job and McLaren just about did theirs. Can he pull this back to Alonso? I think he can, but it’s not going to be easy.

Kimi second with a podium winning drive in the middle of the race, as others pitted for new rubber the ice man drove fastest lap after fastest lap to haul his car from 5th up to 2nd. With a handful of laps left he told the boys on the pit wall that he was never going to be able to take Lewis unless the rear tyres on the McLaren gave up before his. He tried to force Lewis into making a mistake but in reality he just was there to watch Hamilton getting enough points to pass him on the leader board. Will Lotus win this year ... i don’t think so now.

Grosjean was third, he had a shot at second but Kimi pumped in the fast laps and then bumped him off the circuit. There is never any love lost between racing drivers on the track, especially if the other guy is a team mate. Kimi was laying a marker down to the younger team mate there, that winning is something you go and get not something you wait for.

Vettel was 4th with a run that didn’t look like too much hard work. He got jumped by Button at the start but kept at it all afternoon and did what he could with a car that the FIA appear to have taken a keen interest in. The “illegal engine map” was banned before the race and the Redbull certainly didn’t look quite to fast in those long sweeping corner this time out. It might just have been a circuit that didn’t suit the Redbulls as Horner and Vettel said, or it could be a team casting around for an edge once again.

Alonso started 6th and finished 5th after a dull points picking up race. The Ferrari didn’t look remotely fast enough here all weekend but still there he is with enough points to extend his lead over Webber in the championship. That’s the way you do it.

Button 6th after the pit wall called him in for an extra stop and put him out behind Senna who wasn’t very fast and that was the end of his podium hopes.

Senna was 7th in the end and it’s a good result for Williams and Senna when once again Maldonado hit someone and looked the liability he actually is. Senna wasn’t going to break any records this weekend, but he did what he needed to do and finished with all four wheels on the car.

Webber had a weekend to forget after starting in 11 and finishing 8th. Like Vettel he didn’t look like he was too happy with the car all weekend.

Massa 9th and another ‘not a very good weekend for the Brazilian’ type race. The word is his contract hasn’t been picked up for next year, no big surprise there.

And Rosberg rounds out the top ten; he’d started 13th and confirms that the Mercs don’t like the heat one little bit.

Vettel got the fastest lap and this weeks last man standing is De La Rosa for a change in the other HRT.

So then that’s the end of the first half of the season, the circus has a month’s layoff before Spa in September. So then Alonso, despite only coming 5th managed to extend his lead in the championship, can anyone stop this roll now ?

A mid season review of sorts.

Well there you go then, if you ever need confirmation that Alonso is the best driver on the grid, or that Ferrari need a strong driver to give them direction, this race does it in spades.  Ferrari sets down a marker that’s says “If you want to win the championship this year, you going to have to beat us.” And right now, I don’t think anyone has the where with all to stop them.

 Alonso has now won three races, been on the podium six times and never been out of the top ten finishers. Consistency and big fat Lady Luck are what is going to take the boy all the way.

Germany marks the tenth race and the midpoint of the season, so I'm going to skip the race report and just run through the entire field and look at how their season is shaping up. For the record, Alonso got pole easily on a wet Saturday and then never looked like being challenged by Vettel or Button for the win. It was a text book world championship winning drive.

So then so far this year, we’ve had six different winners from five different constructors of which two were new F1 championship winners in Rosberg and Maldonado. The racing has been close and exciting with plenty of overtaking and actual racing for positions and wins. Each race has been about the tyres and who will be able to get them to work in the race or qualifying.  A change of two degrees in track temperature can see the Lotus cars suddenly go faster and the Mercedes start to go backwards. We’ve had one driver on old hard tyres go faster than a team mate on new soft rubber, controlling the temperature and degradation of the tyre has been the key to success so far in 2012.

Alonso wins in German because he had pole, and having pole means the car isn’t sliding around behind another car. He’s only picked up two poles this year here and at Silverstone, but he makes them count, although he didn’t win in England he was still second to behind Webber and kept the score board ticking over. Here the car looked planted and it responded when Alonso needed to push, unlike the first race of the season in Australia where it looked like the car was trying to kill him. Ferrari has developed the car to be stable and predictable on its tyres and now look like they’re going to be the team to beat.

Button second in Germany and didn’t he need it. His last podium was all the way back in China eight races ago. In fact he’s only been in the top ten twice since China and he’s looked lost at times tooling around with a car that just isn’t there for him. The updates this weekend looked to have brought McLaren back into the fight but I think it’s too little too late.  Whilst Ferrari have moved the development curve on, McLaren who had a winning car at the start of the year, have struggled to stay ahead of the game. Poor pit work looks to have been turned around with a team now firing on all cylinders, they managed to turn Button around in 2.8 seconds in Germany. This, if you have ever been to Quickfit on a Saturday afternoon will know, is phenomenal.  With half a season left and 250 points on the table, it’s not beyond the bounds of reason to see McLaren back at the front, but as I say Ferrari are going to be hard to beat.

Kimi third in Germany (after Vettel is given a retrospective penalty for blatant cheating) this is his fourth podium of the year, but he should have had a win by now, and lots of people are saying that Lotus is its own worst enemy.  They’ve been conservative when fire was required and daring when caution was the way to the top step. Kimi had a bit of a moan about the steering Monaco and looked like the old Kimi of ice creams and not appearing to care what happened in Canada. He’s always been a driver that give the impression he couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about him, he is only ever there for the racing and driving flat out, if the car isn’t going flat out then he isn’t going to tool around for the points. Where Alonso can motivate the team to give him a winning car, Kimi doesn’t seem to be able to drive the development to give him what he needs. The car might be fast when the track temperature is high, but if he wants a win he’s going to need them to give a car that isn’t so sensitive to temperature changes, for the rest of the season I think they’ll still be there or there about, but the chance of a win might well have gone now.

Kobayashi is fourth for Sauber and this is something of a return to form for the likable Japanese driver.  He’s still one of the more exciting drivers to watch as you just never know if he’s going to make some desperate late breaking move up the inside or not. But too often the car or he have let the side down with drives that either see him retire or finish in the top ten. I think if the cards fell right and Lady Luck was very drunk in hospitality that Kamui could win a race but Sauber seems to stick to a conservative strategy of using the cars ability to look after its tyres, and this doesn’t seem to be the style or a driver like Kobayashi. Maybe if he was let off the leach to go and hunt down a win then maybe things could happen for him, but right now i think he’s looking for mid top ten finishes at best.

Vettel fifth and in reality lucky to get the points,  the FIA have a history of throwing the book at Drivers that overtake by cutting corners and going off the track to make the pass, just ask Hamilton.  If there had been a solid wall on the exit of the corner he would have backed out of the  pass and made the move on the next lap. But because there is just acre’s of tarmac and no gravel he headed for that and passed Button off the circuit. No it isn’t Harsh to penalise him for that, it’s called cheating. Anyway Redbull have far bigger problems with the FIA taking an interest in the software on this year’s RB8 and an engine irregularity related to off throttle blowing of the diffuser. Something that is supposedly banned this year, but Redbull have argued that the rules don’t specifically ban it or that the engine map breaches the letter of the law. (Article 5.5.3 if your interested)  there have been lots of murmurings about the Renault engine and the noise it makes going through and coming out of corners. One explanation has been that it’s the sound of the engine cutting cylinders to save fuel in the slower corners, which sounds pretty damn impressive to me. Some have pointed out that if you hold that for a fraction too long you in effect get traction control out of corners ... something else that’s banned by the way.  So the FIA have been forced into checking this and now seem have found something that if not actually blatant cheating is certainly a bit of a grey area.

 After a slow start to the season where McLaren had a diffuser solution that seemed to work out of the box, Vettel has struggled to drive the car on the limit the same way he did last year with an off throttle blown diffuser.  Second in Australia, then a win in Bahrain he’s been around the podium and the top 5 but never really looked like taking the fight to the leaders, then suddenly in Valencia he seems to have a different car and the only thing that stopped him winning was an overheating alternator.  If Redbull have found a way to get off throttle engine mapping to work than Vettel might have a way back into the championship. But if the FIA are determined to stamp it out, they may well be back to square one.

Perez sixth and it’s sort of where you’d expect him to be I'm afraid. So far his second in Malaysia and third in Canada have been the highlights of the season. Again I think its Sauber’s innate     conservatism and a reliance on a car that looks after it’s tyres. When given the chance he took the fight to Alonso in Malaysia until the team told him to stop being silly and just pick up the points. He seems to have a bit of a thing about Maldonado too with the two of them seemly continuing to have some sort of vendetta against each other. Swapping carbon fibre bits in Monaco and Silverstone and both blaming the other for the incidents. Some people think Perez is the second coming, I personally think he’s okay, maybe a good solid number two in one of the big teams, but he’s not going to win any championships unless the team Sauber cut him loose and let him just go for it.

Schumacher was seventh in Germany and he should have done better, but isn’t that the story of the year for the old man. The car is overly sensitive to changes in track temperature and Lady Luck, once his companion of choice seems to have deserted him these days. Five retirements and five top ten finishes, the best of which a third at Valancia was due more to the roll of the dice and a late tire stop than actual speed and racing speed. He tried that again in Germany but the front runners had done enough to make their tyres last this time out.  He still claims to be enjoying the whole gig, but tooling around at the bottom of the top ten or walking back to the pits from another smoky retirement can’t be fun.

Webber can only manage eighth this time after his win at Silverstone two weeks ago. He is another driver that seems to be overly sensitive to the whims of the tyres. If they’re not there for him out of the pits than he doesn’t seem to be able to get them switched on over the next few laps and either cooks then or slides around like he’s on ice. Saying that he is second in the championship with two wins and only one finish outside the top 10, the start of the season saw him pretty much nail his name to forth spot with four on the bounce. He’s picking up points when he can, but is that going to be enough against Alonso ? If the FIA do ban the off throttle mapping, then he looks better than Vettel at driving the car, with off throttle working Vettel will be team leader again, I suspect.

Hulkenberg  ninth and again about where you’d expect him to be, around the bottom of the top ten a fifth place in Valencia being his best result to date. He’s certainly doing a better Job than Sutil, who he replaced at the start of the year. But only because he hasn’t glassed anyone in a night club! When he was a Williams, lots of people hailed him as the next big thing, and he’s sort of shown the potential to be up there, but Like Rosberg he’s never really lived up to the hype. It may well be the team who, like Lotus, seem to make random decisions depending on what the tea leaves say at the bottom of Vijay Mallya’s morning cuppa. They need a Brawn or a Horner on the wall to calm it all down and direct a race for the win, not just to collect points. They appear to have the money and they have the Mercedes engine, but they’re not getting the result. The Hulk needs to up his game really.

Rosberg tenth and seems to have gone off the boil since his first ever win in China. He’s currently 6^th in the championship with the win and a second in Monaco, but there’s just no consistency in his results outside the top ten then a win then outside the top five then a second then some more podium misses and then back tot eh bottom of the top ten. Is it the car or the driver? Michael has less luck and not looked like taking the fight anywhere, so you’d have to say the just isn’t delivering for Nico any more than it is for Mickey. But the nagging feeling that he just sort of gives up persists with him and he doesn’t lead the team like he should.  Maybe the second half of the year will be better, but only if the others really mess it up.

Di Resta eleventh and again this is the car and the team failing to work for the drivers .... or is it. Last year he lost out on points when the team made bad calls on stratery. Now he’s the team leader he should be the one driving the team on. But they’re still making random dsescions and leaving Di Resta with a mountain to climb sometimes. Like Sauber Force India seem to me just looking at the cars around then and tryigfn to beat them, not taking the fight to the big boys. I think Di Resta has the making of a good solid team leading winner, but until Mercedes tire of either Nico or Micky think he’s going to be stuck here telling everyone it’s the car and not him.

Massa twelfth and how he keeps his seat is anyone’s guess! Right so far this year retired, 15^th, 13^th, 9^th, 15^th so far so normal these last few years, then 6^th, 10^th  16^th suddenly 4^th and then back to 12^th. And he was lucky to make it to turn one in Germany after tagging Grosjean at the start an losing his front wing. I think his engineer Rob Smedley deserves a sainthood for sticking with his man all these races. It has to be tough to motivate a driver that was one point away from the ultimate title and then almost killed by a spring. Whilst Alonso is looking every inch the champion this year Massa is knocking around the back of the top ten and struggling to look like a proper racing driver. I almost feel sorry for the guy, it can’t be easy with everyone pointing and laughing at him and wondering when he’ll get fired. The Italian papers especially seem to be after his blood, But as long as the likes of Vettel, Webber and Hamilton sign contract with the other big teams Ferrari don’t have anyone to replace him with mid or post season.  They kind of stuck with him until someone else steps up to the plate, and that might be some time.

Ricciardo was 13^th and continues a tradition of Torro Rosso drivers from the Redbull development program failing to deliver when given the chance. He’s alright but the results so far have been less than stellar. A passable 9^th in Australian being the highlight and then there are a lot of 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th spots. Last year the Totto Rosso was a top ten car with a bit of luck. Now, well no, not unless there is a lot of carnage up front.

Vergne 14^th and he must be thankful he has Ricciardo as a team mate to make him look just about acceptable. Hailed as the next great French racing driver and I’ll be honest here, there is a lot of French talent out there at the moment in Sports cars and GP2 who could do a proper job of delivering on the potential. Vergne has just not done anything to warrant a report other than “must try harder” an 8^th place in Malaysia when rain took out a lot of players isn’t really much to write home about. But that the story of the Redbull driver development program, money might buy you drivers but it doesn’t buy the talent.

Maldonado was 15^th and where do I start with this one. Firstly he got a win in Spain and you can’t take that away from him, in a Williams, on the day he delivered when Hamilton got bumped to the back of the grid for cheating and he did what a proper racing driver is supposed to do, win. But then there is the Monaco moment when he drove into Perez for no reason what so ever.  The crash in Australia on the final laps from a points paying position. Then the crash in Valencia when he went off the circuit trying to pass an ailing Hamilton and t boned the McLaren coming back on the circuit. Then another crash into Perez at Silverstone which was a bit less cut and dried, but it was still another crash. He doesn’t seem to be able to stop the red mist from descending and turning him into a raving maniac. There is talent there, he won and looked good doing it, but then it all got wrong and he’s the nutter you want to avoid. Giving it all the big i am and looking for trouble. He needs to calm down and stop believing his own hype and just drive like a normal proper racing driver.  Williams don’t have the money to fight with the big boys these days and the result have been what you would expect from them back of the field and not really troubling the top ten. Imagine what the boys from Didcot could do with a bit of money and triple A driver line up. Until then Maldonado is the best they have, maybe someone can calm him down and deliver on the promise. P

Petrov was 16^th, a pretty dull race and continuing a pretty dull year. He’s been over shadowed by Kovalainen all year and is proving what everyone said about him last year that he has more money than talent. Then again Caterham still haven’t really delivered a better car than the one they had last year. So i guess he’s doing the best he can do with what he has.

Senna 17^th and is delivering exactly what I said he would, the sum total of nothing at all. Maldonado is making him look ordinary and the Senna name is not saving him here. Saying that he is a bit more consistent than Maldonado and i suppose without the win he’s be ahead of his team mate. And he hasn’t driven into anyone by accident or otherwise.

Grosjean 18^th, like Kimi he just hasn’t had the luck or the race craft from the team to give him the win I think he’s deserved. He still makes too many mistakes, especially at the start, but at least he’s up there, at least he’s trying to make things happen and driving for a win. He is certainly a better driver second time around and just need to get the hang of starting and not hitting anything to become a pretty handy driver.

I’d forgotten how many drivers there were before i started this !!

Kovalainen was 19^th and is doing what he can with a car that isn’t any better than the one he had last year. He has been consistently the best of the tail end for two years now and that is to his credit. But it can’t be much fun being the best also ran week after week.

Pic 20^th I have no idea how good he is as I normally only hear about him when he’s getting in the way or hitting someone.  Slightly handicapped by being in a Marussia and that’s about all I can say about him.

De La Rosa was 21^st after complaining that it’s not an easy job being in a slow car, the big boys don’t understand and just expect him to get out of the way the moment they get within 1000 yards.  The oldest man on the grid you think he know that being in a slow car means you have to get out of the way whenever the bigger boys get within 1000 yards of his car. The HRT cars are still a bit of a joke and I can’t see that changing anytime soon with no money and to awful drivers, they are the definition of “In it for the love of the sport”.

Glock 22^nd, errrr yes, well he’s not Charles Pic is about all i can say. He’s tried to race the Caterhams when he can but again the team still has no money. Still he’ stuck to the task and has moaned about  being in a very slow car.

Karthikeyan 23^rd and that is where you will always find him, very, very last. Where’s Narain .. he’s last. But surprisingly he’s had a 15^th place, at Monaco of all places and is thusly not last in the championship. No that honour goes to his team mate De La Rosa. That must be satisfying for the Indian. 

Which leaves the only driver to not finish in Germany, Lewis Hamilton who will not be the life and soul of the party tonight.  It should be so much different, if Lotus have lost a win because of poor strategy calls, then McLaren are going to lose Hamilton a championship though poor team work and missed strategy calls. The car was the there to take to the championship at the start of the season with a string of 3rds but then a series of comedy pit stops with sticky wheels, not enough fuel in the car and just plain ineptitude and it’s the bottom of the top ten. The a win and it was all back on track until the Maldonado missile takes him out and then the race pace has gone and finally Lady Luck, never his best friend, deserts him in Germany and he’s the only one to get a puncture on Massa carbon debris. With contract negotiations starting in a few weeks time and the prospect of a substantial pay cut on the table. He has to be having second thoughts about staying. The team think it’s a done deal with just the fine detail to be worked out.  But the thought that a new team and maybe different luck could be the way to get the mojo back, must have crossed his mind. McLaren are looking for a long contract. But maybe a one year extension and the chance to put on some red overalls is the way to go. Alonso and Hamilton seem to getting on like a couple of old school chums these days. Is he opening the door and pointing the way to a new super team ? You know that Lewis will always drive the backside off the car to try and get something, So to hear him say “lets park this one up lads” is a sign, to me at least, that the fight might be going out of him.

 And who wouldn’t want to see Alonso and Hamilton in a Ferrari, how exciting would that be. I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it.

Right that’s that, there are an awful lot of drivers aren’t there. It’s been an interesting first half of the season, things might have settled down now at the moneyed teams get their juggernaut development departments into overdrive. The midfield is closer than ever but this is going to come down the Ferrari, McLaren and Redbull as normal. Right now Alonso is the driver in the hot seat and unless Redbull get the green light for the trick engine map, I think he’s going to be hard to stop on the way to his next world championship.  

The German GP - Ferrari or Redbull ?

Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles yes it’s time for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, hurrah.

This year it’s a double header with the Hungaroring next weekend before the circus shuts down for its August holiday. This is going to be a make or break race for McLaren and to a certain extent Lotus too, as things have all gone a bit wobbly for these two and they need to head into the summer break with a podium at the very least.

Ferrari and Redbull look to have cars that can win with either driver, yes even Massa could get win this year, right time, right day and a bit of luck. Alonso is firing on all cylinders whilst Webber and Vettel look to have a car that can carry the speed into the corners like the good old days last year.

 Apparently there was a crisis meeting at Woking last week with plenty of table banging and a few choice words on the state of development and pit work.  They had held off on upgrades at Silverstone and suffered for it, so this week they have a whole bunch of new bits and bobs to bolt on.  

 I don’t won’t to bandy around word like, “last roll of the dice” and “B spec car”, but that’s what it sounds like to me. With new side pods front to rear and a myriad other detail changes this is going to decide the course of the remaining season for Lewis and distantly Button.

Hamilton is 37 points behind the leader, Webber, while Button is a whopping 79 points behind. Given how well the Redbulls and Ferraris are going i personally don’t see him coming back from there.

The other worry for McLaren is, just what is Lewis going to do next year? Now Webber has signed on for another year and Vettel isn’t going anywhere that only leaves Massa’s seat at Ferrari, which Massa seems determined to hang onto now! Which is fine, but McLaren just don’t seem to be able to deliver the results Lewis is capable of getting. They must fear that another two results like Silverstone and their prodigy is going to up sticks in disgust and head to Lotus just to get away from the chaos.  I doubt he would, but more pit lane clowning around could see the threat. The contract negotiations will start after Hungary, McLaren and Lewis will be prying there’s a shiny new trophy on the shelf as they sit down.

“But what about Lotus?” You cry. Well, on a shoe string budget they have almost delivered a race win to a returning Kimi and handy number two Grosjean. And that’s the problem, ”almost” and not “actually”. All the hoo harr over the name and the lotus brand and who was in charge and Dany Behar playing fast and loose with the expenses account (allegedly) means that their eye just hasn’t been on the ball game. Yes Kimi is in 5^th place with 83 points, but he could have had so much more, they are not collecting points due to poor type choice or the wrong strategy or not giving Kimi enough space for his ice lollies.  

 At the start of the season those in the know where saying it was just going to be a matter of time before Lotus won a race, right now i don’t think they will.

 But they just might, what do you think ?

Update your predictions in before Friday and good luck

The Majesty of Motorsport.

If you like cars, watch this.

You need a Sidewaysbob picture in your life.

There are now are more of my pictures to buy at Photo4me. Click on the "Motorsport Photography" tab above for details.

Right then, back to Blighty and the wet windswept airfield in Northamptonshire known as Silverstone for the 2012 British Grand Prix.

I suspect it’s going to be appallingly wet there this year. Not just your average summer wet but a whole mother of all that is holy, check the pocket of that otter to see just how wet it is really  ... wet. If you happen to be going this weekend I heartily suggest you take all the wet weather gear you have ever owned.

So then, who’s good in the wet ?

Well Alonso won in Malaysia when it rained mid race, the Sauber of Perez wasn’t too far behind. When it rained here last year Alonso got Ferraris one and only win of the year. So you’d think there could be another win on the cards for the Spaniard. Well maybe, maybe not. I think the Redbulls and their not illegal at all blown rear diffusers are going to be the ones hunting for the win.

The only reason Vettel didn’t win in Valencia was because of an alternator that got too hot behind a safety car. As there is unlikely to be either a safety car or any likely hood of hot weather, I doubt lightning will strike twice there.

Mercedes and Lotus, might make them work for it though, with cars that are damn quick in a straight line, if not as fast as the Redbull through the corners. Silverstone Is the sort of circuit where you need the grunt rather than the finesse, but when it’s wet the top speed doesn’t really matter, they just have to keep it pointing the right way.  

The muddy punters in the banking will mostly be cheering for the home team boys; Jenson and Lewis, and the big question will be which McLaren team will turn up, the comedy “can’t get the wheel on straight clowns” or the “slick professional lads who can do the job they’re paid to do” ?

Cocking it up once a season is human nature, getting it wrong six races out of eight is unforgivable. Points are being lost here and it’s arguable that Hamilton last more than just points because of sloppy pit work in Valencia.  Jenson needs to get at least a podium here, his season is slipping away as Lewis shows what the car is capable off.  Lewis needs to put the crash with Maldonado behind him keep the points ticking over.

As the Redbulls look to have found the answer they were all looking for regarding the exhaust venting over the diffuser, i think this mid season period is going to be about keeping up with the Vettel and Webber.

Don’t forget to update your predictions before Friday

I'm back off to Le Mans for the Classic 24 hours this weekend, so the results will be late I'm afraid,

I've never met Ron dennis .. but I can report he did drive past me in his McLaren on Saturday night.

Exciting times.

Itally wins, England goes home in a huff.

Stop the clocks, silence the bells, bring out your dead but we just had an exciting race in Valencia. No i don’t actually believe it happened either, but we got a belting 57 laps around the old fish port of Spain for a change. We had drama, almost an eighth winner and heartbreak for the fancied runner.

And you have to thank Pirelli for that, tyres that give up the ghost with no warning at all, one lap they’re all fine and dandy the next Maldonado is cruising all over the back of you and unceremoniously punting you off the track in his hast to get by.  All the while the home town boy drivers a simply superb race, for the most famous team in town and wins with style and panache. You can’t write this sort of stuff.

There were lots of big losers today; Vettel looked to be off into the distance like the days of old with a car that was untouchable for a change. He nailed pole half a second faster than Hamilton with ease, and come the race was off up the road before you could say “tyre wear” to him.  He looked like he had the race in his pocket until a safety car, caused by Vergne getting a touch of sun stroke and trying to punt Kovalainen into the wall. As the Safety car pulled off Vettel managed one more lap before the alternator packed up and stranded man and car half way round the circuit.

I didn’t even now F1 cars still had alternators!!, I though they used dylithium crystals and the tears of new born children to power them, but no, it’s still a good old alternator which packed up on the Renault engine.

Which left Alonso in the lead after a bit of nifty pit stop action and a couple of lightning fast laps.. behind him though was Grosjean who is rapidly turning into the next F1 driver most likely to win his first GP.  He kept Alonso honest for a handful of laps before his alternator on the Renault engine suddenly went pop and he too rolled to a stop on the circuit.

So this left Hamilton to take it to Alonso after yet another,“incredibly awful McLaren Pit stop moment”^TM  during the safety car nonsense had lost him position.  But the McLaren hadn’t really looked all that fast during the race and didn’t make much impression on Alonso’s lead now. All the while Kimi was sitting behind the McLaren waiting to make his move.

With a handful of laps left to run the tyres on Hamilton’s car suddenly started to give up the grip. First Kimi breezed on past for second place then Maldonado who had started third and dropped to the back of the grid before climbing back through the field started to catch Lewis with his much fresher tyres. With two laps to go and canvas on Hamiltons rims it looked like Maldonado was going to breeze past too, and maybe Schumacher and Webber who were also on much newer rubber.  Into the DRS zone Lewis had a big slide onto the straight which allowed Maldonardo to get alongside as they braked for the hairpin at the end. Lewis gave the Williams room to make the first right hand corner but squeezed the Venezuelan off the circuit as they tuned left for the exit.

Maldonado, faced with a weave around the run off “baguettes” designed to stop drivers short cutting the corner, headed back towards the track and the section of track Hamilton was currently on. The white car T-boned the silver car and sent it spinning into the wall along with his front wing.

 Lewis was understandably extremely annoyed to be out of the race whilst Maldonado tooled round minus his wing for the last few laps and an eventual 10th spot. Some called it a 50/50 move, others a racing incident. I think Maldonado is a tool and ought to be banned to the back of the grid for the rest of the year. He only had to wait a few more corners before both he and Hamilton would have got the points they deserved. He was going to pass Hamilton with ease but he decided to t-bone the car off the road instead. Not the first time he’s felt direct action was the correct course either.  Post race and the Stewards felt that Maldonardo’s move was too much as well and gave him a 20 second penalty dropping him to 12^th  

So that left Alonso to take his second win of the year and a very emotional win it was in front of his adoring Spanish fans. It’s not often you hear a crowd roaring above the sound  F1 cars, but at Valencia when Alonso crossed the line first, you heard an almighty cheer from the stands. No bad thing given the previous two days had lacked any sort of spectator crowd.  It wasn’t an easy win for him once Vettel had dropped out he still need to drive the back side off the Ferrari to make it work for him. Qualifying back down in 11^th Ferrari weren’t even looking at the Podium let alone a win, you can’t pass at Valencia remember.

But give Alonso a sniff of the win and he will deliver it for you, its especially nice when the likes of Hamilton and Vettel fail to score points in what is turning into a tight championship.  There are still 12 races to go, but you have to have Alonso top of the list now, the Ferrari and him are on song and will be difficult to stop now.

Kimi Second and back where he belongs, he wasn’t as fast as his team mate all weekend, the steering still not quite to his liking. But he stuck to the task and got the points when Hamilton and the others failed.

Rubb your eyes and take a step back, yes Micheal Schumacher was 3^rd. Mickey looked well out of it at half distance, but the safety car came in at the right moment and he stayed out whilst the front runner all pitted. He stopped later and was able to pick off the cars in front as their tyres dropped off. Then Maldonado took out Hamilton and suddenly he was third.

Webber was fourth and drove the wheels off the car from the back of the grid in 19^th, which is pretty good, good enough in fact to move him to second in the championship. As his team mate suffered from mechanical woes he got on with dragging his car through the field to pick up the points. Like Mickey, he’d made his second stop late and picked off the cars ahead at the end.

Hulkenberg finally beats his team mate to fifth. Not the most stunning of drivers, he was lucky not to be caught by Rosberg at the end, but points are money and Force India could do with the readies.

Rosberg, makes it to sixth making it a good day for Mercedes.

Di Resta finishes seventh but should have got more out of this if his team had been a bit more on the ball. One stops work if you can make the tyres work consistently for the whole stint. Once they go off they need to be changed and Force India missed the change over by a lap or two, You lose far too much time trying to make worn tyres grip whilst the likes of Rosberg steam up behind you.  Still he finished, that’s to be applauded.

Button was eighth, not good, not nearly good enough.  Either Hamilton is driving the backside off a poor car or Button isn’t working a good car enough. He looked lost all weekend with never a sniff of the top of the grid. Given his quality you have to expect him to be back fighting for the wins soon, but Lewis looks the better McLaren driver at the moment, once again team Button was conspicuous by its absence. No red nosed John Button to gurn at the camera this time out.

Perez, who some people think is fantastic, was ninth. I did see him make several over taking moves during the race, But i don’t think the Sauber really worked here,  I think he was on his usual one stopper and lost out at the end as the late changing two stoppers Webber and Schumacher zipped past him.  Neither bad nor good, like Force India is was a day to pick up the points as others dropped the ball.

Finally Senna gets promoted to tenth as Maldonado incurs the wrath of the stewards for being a tool.

Rosberg got the fastest lap and our friend Karthikeyan was the last man standing again.

I’ll leave you with this though, the last time we had this podium was in France 2005, All ex world champions and all Ferrari driver at one time or another.  Will Alonso also join Kimi and Schumacher as a Ferrari world champion this year? I think today puts him firmly in the driving seat.

 Now and then.

Who cares about Valencia ?

Oh yeah .. right okay damn it ... yes .. Valencia.

Who cares, it’ll be boring, in fact it's this boring;

Here’s a picture from Le Mans instead;

Update predictions and stuff before friday .. okay.

Go out there and Spank its arse off Lewis.

I don’t know about you but I thought that was one of the most exciting races I’ve seen in a long time and now it’s seven races and seven winners. I think that’s just about it now.

I love it when drivers have to rag the backside off the car to get the win. Whilst Alonso and Vettel gambled on old rubber, Lewis went with a two stopper and then thrashed the car back to the top of the pile.

Imagine Button or Perez being told they had ten laps to make up 13 seconds? It would be painful to watch.  Okay so Hamilton came out on fresh tires and had DRS to help him. But he still had to make that time up and not stick it into the wall or lose a nose on the back of Vettel or Alonso. There were still back markers to get in the way before the chequered flag waved.

People complain that DRS and KERS makes it too easy, yet I don’t see Button climbing back through the field, or Webber taking it to the front. No, you still have to have the car and the balls to win a race, exactly the same as it’s always been.

1^st. So then Hamilton finally gets his win this year, and he deserved it. With McLaren finally getting the pit stops just about right he was told to keep pushing by the team and push he did, with fastest lap after fastest lap he drove it like he stole it. And Hamilton on the edge is just a thing of beauty, it really is. When the car is there for him he just nails it and doesn’t tool round looking after tyres and being safe and cagey.  It’s now his turn to lead the world championship, by two points and with any luck he can build on this in Valencia and Britain.  I like the happy smiley Lewis, he’s far more fun.

2^nd. Grosjean showed Ferrari and Alonso how a one stopper should work, 20 laps on the soft tyre and then 50 on the prime. And still able to take Alonso with a lap to spare, on tires that wern’t much younger than the red cars. That was a cracking drive for the French man, he had to manage the tyres and not burn them out, and it’s kind of a dull way to win in my book. But you have to give the man the credit.  I believe that Grosjean is now being linked to the Massa seat at Ferrari.

3^rd. Perez, well this is his speciality isn’t it. Drive carefully and get the thing to the line on a one stopper. He is very good at it, but again it’s not the most exciting way of going racing.  He popped it past Rosberg and Massa towards the end in a nice opportunist move, so he can race when he has to. But its all a bit ‘wait for the others to move out of the way racing’. Still as Alonso, Vettel and Kimi showed there is an art to making it work for you. Still it must have been nice to stick it past Alonso this time without being told to hold position behind the engine supplier.

4^th. Vettel got the pole and must have though the hard work was done on Saturday afternoon. But the Redbull still doesn’t have that outright straight line speed that you need here with its massive back straight and he paid the price. A late race stop for new boots bagged him the fastest lap at the end of the race, but that must be scant consolation after getting the pole with ease.

5^th. Alonso must have though he was going to cruise to an easy win as he popped out ahead of the McLaren after the first stop, but Lewis mugged him into the final chicane the next lap then drove away from him. Only to see him peel back into the pits with 15 laps to go! Rather than pit too and make the fight a fair one, the team kept him out and he was a sitting duck form there. First Hamilton then Grosjean and Perez sneaked past him, but to add insult to injury Vettel pitted and still beat him.

It was all looking so good coming into this race leading the championship, and suddenly it all goes wrong. But it’s a long season and there’s plenty of time for the boys from Italy.

6^th. Rosberg ... my tip for the top and he completely failed to live up to any of my expectation. Someone said that China was going to be his only race win, given the way this went i have a horrible feeling he may be right.

7^th. Webber didn’t really trouble the front runners all day, got stuck behind Kimi for a long time and couldn’t make the strategy work for him. Back to earth with a bump after the highs of Monaco.

8^th. Kimi tried to make it work on a one stopper as he team mate did, but never really looked like being at one with the car all weekend. I think we’re starting to see the bad old Kimi that couldn’t care less and didn’t bother trying when the car wasn’t working for him. After the blistering start to the season he’s slipping back and being over shadowed by Grosjean,  a situation that Kimi has never thrived in.  Needs to buck his ideas up and stop whinging about power steering and just thrash the car to the podium.

9^th. Kobayashi I was too busy watching the race at the front to notice him.

10^th.  Massa who looked almost like he cared for a bit at the start, then he spun and that was the end of the fun. Counting down the days now till the P45 lands on the door mat.

Finally Charles Pic is the last man standing, 3 laps back from Lewis and a whole world of talent away.

Right its a break for 2 weeks with Le Mans next week, with proper cars and by the sounds of it rain. Qualifying starts on Wednesday and carries on, on Thursday.  The race kicks off 3pm French time on Eurosport.  I shall be the again this year, so keep an eye on the blog the usual rubbish.  

Canada and Schumacher .. maybe ?

Here is a question for you;

Is Alonso dragging a terrible car to the podium, or is Massa underperforming in a great car ?

Because Alonso is now leading the world championship in what is assumed to be a terrible car, whilst his team mate is looking at getting fired any day now. But if the car is so terrible ? Why should he be facing the dole queue ?

You can’t have two brilliant drivers in a team. It NEVER works out, Senna and Prost didn’t speak for over half a season at McLaren whilst Mansell and Piquet accused each other of favouritism at Williams.

So the reality is if you want team harmony you have one driver who is brilliant and one driver who is safe and steady and picks up the points.  One is there to drive the backside off the car and the other is there to make sure when the star sticks it in the Armco the team gets some points. Hamilton and Button would be the perfect example of this ethos.  You always want to watch Lewis on a hot lap because it’s a thing of beauty, a car being spanked to places it shouldn’t go, where the angles smoke ciggies and flicks the Vs at the journey men.  Whilst Button will drive the same damn line lap after lap and never rag it or throw it around. If it is wet you just know he’s going to be up the sharp end.

This year those that should know are pointing at Alonso and saying; what a cracking job he’s doing with a terrible car that doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near the podium what so ever. So far he’s been 5^th, 1^st, 9^th, 7^th, 2^nd and 3^rd whilst the hapless Massa retired in Australia and was then 15^th, 13^th, 9^th, 15^th, and 6^th. Therefore he must be utterly rubbish and Alonso utterly brilliant.

But that’s not really the story of this year and I think the Ferrari PR machine, or more specifically the Alonso PR Machine is feeding this myth that the car is terrible. Because no one is dominating this year as the tyres are still a total mystery to all of the teams. So this year isn’t about the how good the car is as a whole it’s about how the driver uses the tyres and Alonso would rather people thought the car was rubbish and he was doing a sterling job rather than the car is pretty much on a par with the McLarens, Redbulls and Merc. Which are prone to bad days and good days as the track and the tyres change. And he has just been lucky a couple of times when the tyres and track come to him.

Right so yeah, the point is; I don’t think Massa is going to get fired anytime soon. Yeah he is a bit rubbish but the top ten in Monaco is going to keep his backside in red for a while yet. Alonso is good and he’s got a car that when it all comes together is good enough to win. But so has Webber and Button and even Hamilton, if Lady Luck stopped being in a huff with him.

Six races and six different drivers and I think anyone could win the next one. Even Massa if it all comes together at the right moment for him. Well alright maybe not Massa, but how about Schumacher ... the talk this week has been about the Mercs and how good they are in a straight line, now they seem to have a bit of a handle on the tyres, a dry track could see the once mighty old world champion get his act together an deliver Mercedes the win they’ve paid for.

Why not ? it’s just as likely as Webber winning in Monaco and Maldonado winning in Spain after all.   

Franchitti wins Indy 500

And well done to Dario for his third Indy 500 win.

Wheres the rain when you really need it ?

Monaco then ... well that was a bit dull wasn’t it ?

Someone needs to point out to the teams that just sticking your hand up from behind the banks of data screens will tell you if it is actually raining or not!  

Everyone was waiting for the rain that never came, trying to make their tyres last as long as possible and well, just sort of rumbling along in a train.  Massa, who surprisingly was in the top six for a change, was only 6.2 seconds behind the lights to flag winner Webber. This on paper would suggest a close exciting razzle dazzle finish, with cars jockeying for position right to the line wouldn’t it ?

But in truth it was all over as a race after the first turn, Hamilton got a slow start which bunched up the faster starting Ferraris, who pushed Grosjean out into Schumacher. He tried to avoid the Lotus but couldn’t avoid the rear left of the black and gold car running into his front right, which pitched Grosjean into a half spin and carnage to the back of the grid boys.  

Maldonardo, last week’s hero and next owner of Massa’s seat at Ferrari, failed to heed the mantra “Don’t believe the hype lad” and first took a swipe at Perez in free practice for allegedly blocking the Venezuelan. Then lied his face off to the stewards about it, claiming the car had “slid out” and he was “correcting it” as he drove across the track into the front left wheel of Perez. The stewards told him to shut it and gave him a 10 place penalty, and then he broke his gearbox and got another five place penalty. Which put him 23^rd one place ahead of Perez who had crashed in qualifying after his front left wheel had suddenly and mysteriously stopped working after being damaged somewhere.  

So after last weeks heroic the star of Venezuelan motor racing had a chance to redeem himself with a fine drive from the back, just like Hamilton did last time and prove he has the driving chops to play with the big boys of the upper fifth. Well that was the plan ... except he piled into the back of Pedro De La Rosa, broke the nose off the Williams, limped round after the rest of the field and eventually crashed it into the barrier at the Lowes hairpin. Classic.

That was the highlight really. Is was slow and dull and nothing really happened. But that’s what happens at Monaco there isn’t enough room to overtake if the driver in front has any talent or a healthy car. The DRS zone is too short and a goes through a big long corner and the breaking zones are all single file.

 Hamilton just whinged all day about his team not helping him, didn’t drive fast enough whilst trying to look after his tyres and did his best with what he had.  Alonso looked faster than him all day and jumped him at the pit stop, then Vettel went forever on his set of soft tires before jumping past Hamilton at his stop and pushing the feisty English lad back to 5^th place. Still it was better than Jenson “where has the balance gone guys?” Button who also made a rubbish start and ended up behind Kovalainen in 14^th for most of the race before binning it in a do or die move.  Those are the highlights ..... hmmm

So then Webber becomes the sixth different driver to win this year, a new record and jolly well done to him. He did have to work at it, he controlled the drivers behind him as they all waited for the rain, didn’t hit anyone or anything and did what he had to do.  It wasn’t the most exciting race for him but a win is a win and this year the championship is going to come down to day like this where points are saved and the likes of Button lose them.

Rosberg had a few stabs at trying to make a race of it, but couldn’t get close enough out of the final corner to trouble Webber too much. A fine job in qualifying netted 2^nd place at the start and that’s where he stayed all race.

Alonso shows that Ferrari have turned their killer car round into a beast with pedigree at last. He was faster then Hamilton for most of the race and as the track cooled he took advantage of a slow McLaren pit stop and took third from the Brit. A fine result which now means he leads the drivers championship, and that all that matters really.

Vettel tried to be clever and very nearly pulled it off, started on the prime “hard” tyres and went deep in to the race before changing, at one stage he was 22 seconds ahead of Webber and could have pitted for the super softs and kept the lead. But he would then have needed to run 40 odd laps on the very soft rubber, which would have left him in trouble at the end of the race so he held out for the rain that never came. When he did pit he came out in front of Hamilton and never looked like losing or gaining from there.

Hamilton could see the winner four seconds ahead of him for most of the last 15 laps. That must hurt, to be so close and not be able to do a damn thing about it. When , no really just when is his luck going to change ?  The gap to Alonso is now 10 points in the driver championship and he is slowly slipping further back, as Webber leapfrogs him.  He needs a win soon to reward the effort. Although he could have been a bit faster  when Vettel was leading to save 4^th really.

Massa, surprisingly said this was going to be the restart of his season and it was ... I know, I'm just as surprised. The Media are now saying that Massa should get Massa’s seat at Ferrari and put Massa out of his misery for Massa. But if everything goes to form this new owners of Massa’s seat at Ferrari will have a terrible next race out.

Di Resta was 7^th ahead of his team mate again

Hulkenburg did alright for 8^th.

Kimi was 9^th after holding most of the field up for moist of the race waiting for the first rain shower that didn’t turn up.

And Senna round out the top ten and is being linked with no one’s seat anywhere, not even his own.

Our last places driver as usual is Karthikeyan, who lest be far got out of the way in a really professional way a lot of the time and didn’t hit anyone. So well done to him.

Right it’s late, two weeks till we get back to a proper track in Canada, see you all there.