In the first place I have to say I mostly really enjoyed the race which doesn’t happen very often to me. I am quite a demanding/difficult fan (which you surely realized by now) so I would say me thoroughly enjoying a race is something quite rare. And my two top moments:

• Firstly it was that awesome 3 (or even four) way fight between Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso lurking behind them. And what makes me even more happy is that Romain didn’t crash out in these fights because I half expected it - well, it’s him. Also I am happy that Pastor didn’t ruin Romain’s race as in the 1st round of this season because I like them both and well, you can imagine.
• Secondly I also like that fight between Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Yes, Kimi didn’t pass him in it but what I enjoyed was that there can be a great fight with two sensible drivers who don’t crash into each other necessarily. Hat off to Mark for defending his line without totally closing Kimi and hat off to Kimi for being intellingent enough to realize he cannot pass (say hello to Gandalf) and thus not doing a Lewis but rather temporarily giving in.

Also looking at the results…

• Firstly I have to congratulate Britney to his first ever win (and pole-position too). I expected him to lose some positions on the start and then also later in the race but he did brilliantly. Shame about that stupid thing with Michael Schumacher and his mechanics, I believe he would be able to fight at least for a podium and I would like to see him there. He has quite some bad luck this season..
• Jenson Button has beaten Lewis Hamilton once again but Lewis is leading the championship and as a bonus (for him at least) he didn’t crash into Massa even though he had an opportunity. Strange. Very strange.
• As much as it pains me I have to say that also Sebastian Vettel who totally fucked up his qualification did quite a good job. Even though he was beaten by his teammate in the end. Also, he is moaning this season even more than Casey Stoner in his best form. I admit that I like seeing that he is not that cute and nice and everything little boy everybody thought he is. He doesn’t have a superior car this year so he is under big pressure to deliver even under this circumstances and so far he and his results look quite dubious. At least for me.
• Romain Grosjean finally finishing the race and scoring (good) points! I am so happy for him! But I guess he is even more happy because he looked even more happy than he usually does. Yes, that’s possible. On the other hand big shame for Kimi Raikkonen. I don’t exactly know why Lotus did this strategy but my wild guess is that when they saw him on such a good position they just risked everything and tried.. and it didn’t work out.
• I am also happy about Pastor Maldonado and him scoring some points even though I would be more happy if he had also beaten his teammate Bruno not-really-a-Senna. But one cannot have everything. Also good job by Bruno I must add even though I don’t like to. And also yay for Jean Eric Vergne for beating his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Shame he was not on points though.

Next round is Bahrain GP and I am not going to watch it. It’s my personal protest about the situation in the country and about the way how F1 management is looking at it. I am anyway curious about the results of this GP so I will probably read everything around etc.

tagged: f1, romain grosjean, pastor maldonado, sergio perez, fernando alonso, kimi raikkonen, mark webber, nico rosberg, michael schumacher, jenson button, lewis hamilton, sebastian vettel, casey stoner, bruno senna, jean-eric vergne, daniel ricciardo, my opinions

Btw, I am starting to like Michael more and more recently.

tagged: f1, michael schumacher, wrc, jarmo lehtinen, irc, mikko markkula

I personally would prefer to have Kimi Raikkonen in WRC. He was quite a nice addition and I was always laughing at “And where is Kimi?” “In a ditch.” joke. Also he had nice car livery and was nice to watch him live on the stages. I am not going to say anything about his 2 years waste of time in WRC but I would very much rather wonder how he think he will squeeze his moobs into that tiny F1 car. And him having moobs is a fact. Also I wonder how he will do after being away from F1 for two years because we all have seen how Michael Schumacher’s comeback was.

Then there is 2nd driver of Renault/Lotus/whatever. There were many people speaking about Robert Kubica. I personally think that even if he will come back to F1 at some point (which is quite questionable according to me) I very much doubt he will be the same. Again there will be that time he spent away not only from F1 car and also from racing itself so I cannot see his F1 future very brightly.

There are 3 drivers who could drive alongside Kimi in Renault/Lotus/whatever. Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean. I guess Vitaly has the highest chances from this trio because of money + he wasn’t so bad this season. Then there is Romain Grosjean who proved he has speed and awesome hair in GP2. And then there is Bruno not really Senna who is F1 only because of his name and I do hope Renault/Lotus/whatever will ditch him.

Really shame about that Kimi news because I was hoping for awesome Vitaly Petrov, Romain Grosjean team.

tagged: f1, kimi raikkonen,michael schumacher, robert kubica, vitaly petrov, bruno senna, romain grosjean

The lastest two drivers confirmed for Race of Champions are SWRC 2011 and IRC 2010 champion Juho Hänninen and Jan Kopecký who is a multiple champion in losing the IRC title despite the fact Škoda factory team is doing everything to help him to win it. So, the current line-up looks like this:

Team Germany:

• Sebastian Vettel - 2010 and 2011 F1 champion.
• Michael Schumacher - 7 times F1 champion (don’t want the years from me).

Team Great Britain:

• Jenson Button - 2009 F1 champion.
• Andy Priaulx - 3 times WTCC champion.

Team USA:

• Travis Pastrana - I don’t know exactly everything he has won and where he starts (I know about X-Games and rallying in USA) but he is awesome.
• Brian Deegan - according to wikipedia some X-Games ace.

Team France:

• Sébastien Ogier - 2008 JWRC champion and world champion in tantrum throwing and in the best accent ever competition.
• Romain Grosjean - 2011 GP2 champion, 2008 and 2011 GP2 Asia champion, 2010 auto GP champion, he also have Sideshow Bob hair.

Team Slavic:

• Vitaly Petrov - Russian champion in some races with Lada.
• Jan Kopecký - probably Czech champion in something but for me he is that thing I have written at the beginning of this article - multiple champion in losing the IRC title despite the fact Škoda factory team is doing everything to help him to win it.

Team Nordic:

• Tom Kristensen - multiple Le Mans winner.
• Juho Hänninen - 2011 SWRC champion and 2010 IRC champion.

Team Germany 2:

• Timo Glock - 2007 GP2 champion.
• Timo Scheider - 2008 and 2009 DTM champion.

Then there are also Matthias Ekstrom (two times DTM champion and also 3 times Race of Champions champion), David Coulthard (who may raced in F1 for centuries but he is no champion anyway but okay - if we can have Jan Kopecký and Vitaly Petrov..) and the last (so far) name is Martin Tomczyk (2011 DTM champion).

Considering there is so far 17 drivers I guess they have to quickly add at least another one so they will be able to form two teams from those three remaining drivers.

Being Slavic I shoud probably cheer for Team Slavic but no one will ever force me to cheer for any team with Jan Kopecký in it, no matter how much I love Vitaly Petrov. The chocie is clear for me - it’s Team France as every year, usually there is Sébastien Loeb and Alain Prost and his nose in it but this year they have little Seb and Sideshow Bob and I am certainly not complaining (but shame they didn’t invite Jean-Eric Vergne instead of Romain Grosjean, with little Seb they could form Team Arrogant).

Btw, I am suprised there is no Team Finland this year. Maybe the organisers grew tired of watching Finnish rally drivers being crap struggling on tarmac and never winning anything. And they probably didn’t invite Heikki Kovalainen because he would set something on fire.

tagged: race of champions, sebastian vettel, michael schumacher, jenson button, sébastien ogier, romain grosjean, vitaly petrov, jan kopecký, juho hänninen, timo glock,david coulthard, sébastien loeb, alain prost, jean-eric vergne, heikki kovalainen