Vettel wins in Valencia as Webber comes close to meeting his maker
I would like to say that I was so distraught after England’s embarrassing defeat by Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday that I was unable to bring myself to comment on Sunday’s race in Valencia; but I know that anybody reading this will readily see through the lie. The truth is that I was too busy laughing at how a football association in a clever country could, yet again, be swindled with such ease. Like Sven Goran Eriksson before him, Fabio Capello must be tightly hugging himself and shaking with mirth as he goes to sleep each night. He realised pretty quickly that the English FA are about the only people in the world who do not know that England are crap at football. So, he took on an impossible job knowing fully well that he wouldn’t have to do it for very long. Before setting off for South Africa, he made sure he had signed a long term employment contract from which he could not be sacked without a payment of £12 million. Thereafter, banking his £12 million without doing any more work after June 2010 was simply a matter of waiting to see how many games into the tournament he would have to wait before England were booted out of the world cup.
Before my laughing fit, though, I watched the race in Valencia and was delighted to find myself proved wrong by events. Far from being mind-numbingly tedious, the race was quite exciting. Red Bull driver, Mark Webber, had probably the most spectacular car crash we have seen in years. Charging down the straight, he came up behind the much slower Lotus of Heikki Kovaleinen and, inexplicably decided to mount the rear of the Lotus at 180 mph. The Red Bull was flipped into the air scattering body parts and carbon fibre as it reached for the clouds, tossed around a few times, landed upside down (where the driver’s unenclosed body sits) and into the tyre wall with extreme violence. Seeing Webber climb out of that in one piece probably persuaded a few agnostics that there is a God somewhere and he is probably Australian.
Webber had started the race frustrated at himself for having failed to beat his team-mate, Sebastien Vettel, to pole position. In his mind what seemed to matter most was getting ahead of Vettel as soon as the lights went out. What he forgot was that it is sometimes more important to protect yourself from being overtaken than it is to overtake. In less time than it takes to say “what the ….!” Webber was eight cars down and fighting to remain within a point scoring position. This cannot have improved his state of mind and probably had a lot to do with the crash.
The resultant safety car episode produced the next big bit of drama. In a touch-and-go incident, Lewis Hamilton inadvertently overtook the safety car. For this he was penalised but McLaren were able to use the time allowed for serving penalties so that Hamilton came in seven laps later when the penalty made no difference to his final second position. All the teams exploit the ambiguity of the FIA rule book from time to time but none more so than the scarlet boys from Maranello. Imagine everyone’s disbelief, then when Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, took great exception to the Hamilton incident.
"It's a shame, not for us because this is racing, but for all the fans who came here to watch a manipulated race. It is the first time I have seen someone overtake the safety car," Alonso said, and repeated it for emphasis. All the kids that were in the stands know that you cannot pass [the safety car]…. I do not know what the penalty should be. I only know that when the safety car came out I was one metre behind Hamilton. I finished ninth, he finished second. I respected the rule, he didn't…I feel sorry for the public who have come here to watch this race – 70,000 fans came here to see the spectacle of Formula One and they have seen a race decided by the decisions…The attitude of the public is understandable – they were disgusted by what they were seeing and the injustices that were happening. There was a bottle on the track which is reaction that is not normal and it should not have happened."
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Ferrari complaining about manipulated races? Give me strength…As I mentioned previously, there is bad blood between the two former world champions.
That attack of verbal diarrhoea was really Alonso-speak for: “That little English bastard cheated me out of second place at my home Grand Prix and is now further ahead in the world championship. How dare he, the slimy, worthless toad!”
I enjoy these spats – they make for a more interesting championship.
The tope five after Sunday are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton 127
2. Jenson Button 121
3. Sebastian Vettel 115
4. Mark Webber 103
5. Fernando Alonso 98
The gap remains frighteningly close. So, if you have had enough of football or are English, at least there is something else to think about.
Gitau
29 June 2010
Before my laughing fit, though, I watched the race in Valencia and was delighted to find myself proved wrong by events. Far from being mind-numbingly tedious, the race was quite exciting. Red Bull driver, Mark Webber, had probably the most spectacular car crash we have seen in years. Charging down the straight, he came up behind the much slower Lotus of Heikki Kovaleinen and, inexplicably decided to mount the rear of the Lotus at 180 mph. The Red Bull was flipped into the air scattering body parts and carbon fibre as it reached for the clouds, tossed around a few times, landed upside down (where the driver’s unenclosed body sits) and into the tyre wall with extreme violence. Seeing Webber climb out of that in one piece probably persuaded a few agnostics that there is a God somewhere and he is probably Australian.
Webber had started the race frustrated at himself for having failed to beat his team-mate, Sebastien Vettel, to pole position. In his mind what seemed to matter most was getting ahead of Vettel as soon as the lights went out. What he forgot was that it is sometimes more important to protect yourself from being overtaken than it is to overtake. In less time than it takes to say “what the ….!” Webber was eight cars down and fighting to remain within a point scoring position. This cannot have improved his state of mind and probably had a lot to do with the crash.
The resultant safety car episode produced the next big bit of drama. In a touch-and-go incident, Lewis Hamilton inadvertently overtook the safety car. For this he was penalised but McLaren were able to use the time allowed for serving penalties so that Hamilton came in seven laps later when the penalty made no difference to his final second position. All the teams exploit the ambiguity of the FIA rule book from time to time but none more so than the scarlet boys from Maranello. Imagine everyone’s disbelief, then when Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, took great exception to the Hamilton incident.
"It's a shame, not for us because this is racing, but for all the fans who came here to watch a manipulated race. It is the first time I have seen someone overtake the safety car," Alonso said, and repeated it for emphasis. All the kids that were in the stands know that you cannot pass [the safety car]…. I do not know what the penalty should be. I only know that when the safety car came out I was one metre behind Hamilton. I finished ninth, he finished second. I respected the rule, he didn't…I feel sorry for the public who have come here to watch this race – 70,000 fans came here to see the spectacle of Formula One and they have seen a race decided by the decisions…The attitude of the public is understandable – they were disgusted by what they were seeing and the injustices that were happening. There was a bottle on the track which is reaction that is not normal and it should not have happened."
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Ferrari complaining about manipulated races? Give me strength…As I mentioned previously, there is bad blood between the two former world champions.
That attack of verbal diarrhoea was really Alonso-speak for: “That little English bastard cheated me out of second place at my home Grand Prix and is now further ahead in the world championship. How dare he, the slimy, worthless toad!”
I enjoy these spats – they make for a more interesting championship.
The tope five after Sunday are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton 127
2. Jenson Button 121
3. Sebastian Vettel 115
4. Mark Webber 103
5. Fernando Alonso 98
The gap remains frighteningly close. So, if you have had enough of football or are English, at least there is something else to think about.
Gitau
29 June 2010
posted by Gitau at 4:54 pm
1 Comments:
I just think the boys in maranello should just go have a crampet...thats what it feels like to be on the recieving end of things...
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