MotoGP: Valencia '06

So the Title decider went without a hitch, unless you're a Valentino Rossi fan! The Italian Rider falling of his Yamaha early on, he got back on and rejoined in 19th and managed to finish 13th. But with Nicky Hayden finishing third he got enough points to take the Title that he had led up until the last race two weeks ago. It must be said that I don't think it's natural for a Racing Driver/Rider to cry as much as Hayden did this afternoon as he was lighting the fire crackers after the race, it really was too much!

To be honest I wasn't paying much attention, as I have decided to learn to ride a motorbike, I was doing some research on the Laptop - I managed to pass the practice theory test for motorcycles first time with no prior reading!

I did notice in the 125cc race a young lad called Bradley Smith, a 15year old who hails from Cowley who managed to get four points today and won the rookie of the year title - so now I have someone to support in the lower regions!

F1: Brazil 2006

Well the (Michael) Schumacher era is now over, and while everyone moans about how boring it has been I feel somewhat honoured to have been able to watch one of the all time greats of Formula 1 ply his trade. To be fair, only Raikkonen and Fisichella actually put up a fight against him today, but it was still a storming drive to get back up to fourth after dropping to 17th, and last, due to a puncture.

Button had a great race, coming up from 14th on the grid to finish third, makes you wonder why he can't drive like that when he qualifies in the top ten! Even so that was arguably his second best ever race - after Hungary of this year, obviously.

The two Williams cars managed to collide into each other, causing them both to retire from the race. I can only hope that the engine deal with Toyota and the new title sponsors AT&T can turn around the team's fortunes. On a connected note, both of the Toyota's retired too, although thankfully for Williams it was suspension problems rather than engine reliability that claimed the Japanese manufacturer's cars.

Massa was, as predicted, untouchable. He's always been a fast, if erratic, driver and good things will surely come his way in the near future. If only someone could do with Sato, what Ferrari have done with Massa. Sato having a solid race, this guy has a lot of potential - it just needs to be tamed!

Compton GP Star Drive Jenson Button [Honda]

F1: Brazil Qualifying

First I have to comment on the quality of the pictures coming from Brazil, I don't know if it's all in my head but it seemed so much clearer and the colours more vibrant today, and there was a much better feeling of speed from the cars. Of course my interpretation of this could just be because I watched my VHS of 'Mansell And Williams 1992' yesterday!

Onto the action at hand, and obviously first topic is the failure of Michael Schumacher to finish Q3 due to a drop in fuel pressure - according to Ferrari. He will now start 10th at best and if they have to change his engine he will have to start from the back of the grid - NOT 20th as ITV claimed, as if an Engine is changed after Qualifying the driver must start the race from last place. The thing that shocked me about this error from ITV is the fact it came from Martin Brundle, he's the reliable, knowledgeable one! You expect it of James Allen as he seemingly knows nothing about Formula 1, and the sooner ITV get rid of him, the better.

Button didn't make Q3 as he struggled with his Traction Control to start way down the grid, and Coulthard apparently couldn't find a decent set up and failed to get through Q1.

Felipe Massa absolutely stormed the session and acted like he'd won the race when he pulled his car into Parc Ferme. Unfortunately spoiling it by complaining about being held up by Heidfeld - despite the fact that was on his Pole setting lap and he blatently got a tow off the German!

Somewhat related is the news that Juan Pablo Montoya will start his first NASCAR Busch Series race a week today at Memphis. As far as I can make out this race is not being shown live by MotorsTV, but highlights will be shown on Monday 30th at 2300hrs (11pm) on MotorsTV

MotoGP: Portugal '06

What a magnificent race! Dani Pedrosa was unfortunate to lose control and take out his Championship leading Teammate Nicky Hayden within the first couple of laps. After that, frankly I expected Valentino Rossi to waltz off to a commanding victory. Thankfully Kenny Roberts Jr. and Toni Elias had other ideas! Elias pulled off some amazing overtaking maneuvers, often with his bike going sideways.

Rossi, Roberts Jr. and Elias immense battle saw all three riders lead, and eventually Toni Elias got his maiden MotoGP victory, beating Rossi into second by a margin of 0.002 seconds. An interesting race with an amazing finish!

The Ilmor team made their MotoGP debut today. Ilmor are the people that build the Mercedes Engines for the McLaren F1 team, and their 15th place finish and 1 championship point may not seem that impressive on the face of it, but the Team made history by being the first team to run under next year's regulations, which means that they were using an 800cc V4 engine against everyone else's 990cc motors. They even managed to overtake one of the Ducati bikes during the race, and had to pit several times. This is a team that are rumoured to be trying to get Leon Haslam - runner up in this year's British Superbike Championship for Ducati - to ride for them next season, presumably alongside Garry McCoy, who rode for the team today.

F1: Suzuka Bows Out In Style

Wow! What a great result! Not just because Michael had his first engine failure since Indy 200, but because it redresses the balance, brings everything back in line - even if only a little bit.

The race was somewhat eventful, but never exactly exciting, whether that's done to me watching the Bathurst 1000 overnight, who knows!

The Toyotas unsurprisingly faltered during the race, Button ran a solid, if uneventful, drive up to a fourth place finish from seventh on the grid.

We were watching the ITV coverage on DVD, when they said they'll be back after the break, and in that split second before they said it and actually went, we saw the smoke pouring out of a car at the top of the screen. We got excited "Who was it, did you notice?!" "No!" came back the reply. so we fast forwarded the ads and when it cme back and we saw the car was red, we held our breath, and then the caption at the bottom "M Schumacher" We screamed and laughed!! Because it was Schumacher. Because it was Ferrari. Because it handed the race to the man who had been cheated out of the last few months.

I respect Michael, you'd be a fool not to. I like to see Ferrari do well - I don't like to see the FIA interfering to make it happen though.

All this has set us up for a great Brazil, unfortunately ITV are not showing the Qualifying live again, this is crap. I shall yet again be emailing them with a complaint if this does not change.

Bathurst 1000 Commentary

Time is ticking.......

So after a hugely disappointing display by the England 'Football' Team, I'm sat here drinking Stella Artois waiting for 10pm and the start of the Bathurst 1000 coverage on MotorsTV - I may be very tired tomorrow!

posted by Leo @ 8:59 PM

2006 Bathurst 1000 is Go!!

After only the first couple of corners we're under caution! Mark Skaife into the wall after being hit from behind whilst cruising back to the pits withan apparent clutch problem. The car that hit him - driven by Jack Perkins - is driving back to the pits with a huge flame coming from the dragging front left wheel!

Only 159 laps and about six more hours to go!

posted by Leo @ 1:12 AM

Quarter Race Distance

Roughly, we're on lap 40 of 161, and have already had three safety car periods. Not as exciting as last year's race so far, but still enjoyable!

If I continue with the plan to watch the entire race live, I'll miss the Japanese GP and I'm not sure I want to do that! I suppose that this is one of the great races of the year and I should follow it to it's conclusion, afterall I'll be watching the DVD of the full ITV live coverage - recorded by me for my own personal use from Sky Digital - from about midday with my Dad anyway, so as long as I can keep from hearing the result, it should be ok!

posted by Leo @ 2:47 AM

Three Hours Gone

We are under the sixth safety car period, as former BTCC Racer Paul Radisich has run out of road and piled head on at speed into a tyre wall, the car went pretty much through the tryes and rode up the armco finishing up on it's side. They are not showing us any more pics of the New Zealander's car, but the reports say that he is talking to the marshalls, but he is stuck in the car. we could be behind the safety car for a while , until Radisich is safely out of his Ford Falcon.

We have yet to reach half distance!

posted by Leo @ 4:14 AM

He's Out!

Paul Radisich has just been removed from his car and is being taken away by ambulance, over twenty minutes since he hit the wall, they had to cut the roof off of his race car - which they are now removing from the side of the track before we go back to green flag conditions.

We've just reached half distance - hopefully it won't take as long to do the last 80 laps as it took us to get to lap 80!

posted by Leo @ 4:37 AM

Back Behind The Safety Car!

Yep, we had nearly ten laps of green flag racing, but then we had a spinner in turn 4 - who said a naughty word live on TV!

We've had so many yellow flag laps that the Race Director is apparently concerned about the amount of fuel left in the Chrsler 300C Safety Car!

There's about 60 laps, or three hours, left to run - whichever comes first!

posted by Leo @ 5:33 AM

Big Hit!

McConville has just destroyed the right hand side of his car to bring out the 8th Safety Car period of the race!!

The Australian Commentators keep mentioning the F1 race in Japan - I hope they don't spoil it for me once it gets underway!

We don't seem to be getting much racing today, it just seems to be a few racing laps, then a caution, a few racing laps, then a caution!

Still, it's different I suppose!

By the way, Paul Radisich - who had to be cut out of his car earlier - is in a serious but stable condition.

posted by Leo @ 5:51 AM

Stunned!

The number 7 car, driven by Dumbrell, was in the pits having an oil leak fixed when Mark Marshall spun out to bring the safety car out once again. The bit that stunned me was that they released Dumbrell and he was driving down the pitlane, when out of nowhere the Safety Car pulled out and almost rammed him in pitlane! As soon as they got out onto the cicuit, the Safety Car Driver waved him passed - why didn't the Safety Car just wait until Dumbrell had left the pitlane BEFORE trying to get out on the circuit?

So much for being a Saftey Car!

posted by Leo @ 6:20 AM

Tiredness Is Trying To Capture Me

We are a maximum of two hours away from the end of this race, and I'm needing to keep the laptop in my lap or I will fall asleep, it's almost happened a few times now.

The final round of pit stops has just started, and we still seem to be under green flag conditions - that must be over ten laps by now!!!

Still a battle between the 888 Ford, and the Kelly Brothers in a Holden, obviously I'm cheering for the Holden as my resentment of Ford permeates into motorsport, plus the Holden Commodore is reminiscent of the Vauxhall Omega and I loved my Omega - even if it did only have a 2.5 V6 as opposed to the Australian car's 5.0 V8!

posted by Leo @ 6:58 AM

14 LapsTo Go

And we're still under green! Lowndes in the 888 Ford has pulled out quite a lead, but he is being caught by Rick Kelly in the Holden - I don't think there's enough time now though.

posted by Leo @ 7:38 AM

SAFETY CAR!!!!

This is going to close up the field, and with only ten laps left it's set us up for a great finish! Kelly was six seconds behind Lowndes and now there's nothing. Of course, it means that everyone else gets back into it - and when you consider they were all at least 30 seconds back, it's gonna be so exciting!

Waiting for the Green Flag...............

posted by Leo @ 7:48 AM

Bathurst 1000 Conclusion

Jason Richards caused the Safety Car with ten laps to go with steering problems, his team sent him back out, and he went into the wall with only two laps to go - Race Control said race on with local yellows!!

But at the end, Rick Kelly just didn't have enough to take the win. Craig Lowndes takes the chequered flag after seven hours of racing!

See you next year, I'm off for a nap!

RIP Peter Brock

posted by Leo @ 8:03 AM

compiled from L33CPT.co.uk

F1: Qualifying from Suzuka

Sorry this is late, I had to make sure that Felipe Massa's Pole Position still stood after he held up Alonso during Q3. Of course it did, the Stewards not even bothering to investigate it, after all he's in a red car. Flavio Briatore plans to lodge a complaint with Charlie Whiting and the stewards, but added

"Nothing will happen. We already know what the answer will be. If you are fighting with McLaren, it is fine, but if you fight with these guys (Ferrari) it is impossible."

Ironically, the incident comes after Ross Brawn said this on friday

"I think what we mustn't have is, let's say, the number two drivers blocking or intentionally slowing one of the championship contenders, I think that would be a bit unfortunate and unacceptable."

Other than that it was quite an exciting Qualifying, with the Toyota cars doing very well to take the second row of the grid - expecting an early first stop to their three stop strategy.

Coulthard - and indeed his Red Bull Teammate - failed to get out of Q1, and this time it wasn't anyone else's fault! He actually said that the car wasn't quick enough - something I've been wanting to hear (as opposed to his normal excuses) for a long time! He also made the comment that it was not good enough to be out qualified by the Toro Rosso team, who use last year's Red Bull Racing car. Well done DC, but is it too little too late? Hopfully the recent slowness of the RBR means that the team are concentrating on next year's Adrian Newey designed RB3.

Neither McLaren's made Q3, and how I laughed!! I know that sounds mean, and I should point out that I have a lot of respect for Ron Dennis and the McLaren team, but as a long time Williams boy it was nice to out qualify the McLarens for a change!

So, unless something bizarre happens, the Ferrari team should dominate tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be watching live as it's the Bathurst 1000 tonight, and that continues until 8am tomorrow. However, I will be recording the F1 race and will watch it as soon as I can - although I may leave it until the extended highlights at 3:30pm, so the race report will be late tomorrow too!

F1: Latest News...

Fernando Alonso has attacked the Renault Team and his Teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, after the result in China. According to the Spanish Driver Renault are now concentrating on the constructor's title and don't want Alonso to take the number 1 to McLaren, he added that Massa would never have been allowed to overtake Michael Schumacher if the Ferrari's were in the same situation as the Renaults in China.

Sir Frank Williams has told Ron Dennis that he should have no doubts about putting GP2 Champion Lewis Hamilton in the Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes next year, adding that he has no regrets about signing Nico Rosberg, he commented that Hamilton was an "outstanding" driver.

As Predicted by Compton GP in August Jaques Villenueve has reportedly signed to drive for the Roush NASCAR Team next season, where he will drive a Ford. If truee, he joins former McLaren racer Juan Pablo Montoya who is driving for Chip Ganassi next year. No further news on the rumour that Mika Hakkinen will race in NASCAR too.

A1GP: Netherlands 2006

Race 1 was boring, a twelve lap sprint race, that has a time limit of 20 minutes, that is barely worth mentioning - in fact it's barely worth running - apart from the fact that Switzerland had their fastest qualifying time removed for a technical infringement, moving Great Britain up to fifth on the grid - where they would stay for the entire race.

So, they didn't explain anything about how the grid is decided for the feature race other than it's derived from your qualifying performance, your sprint race performance and the sprint race fastest laps. All I know is the top five places on the grid were as they finished in race one, and the rest of the grid being somewhat random!

The Feature race has a standing start - as opposed to the rolling start of the sprint race - and each Nation has to make one compulsory pit stop between laps 8 and 20. The race lasts for 45 laps or 70 minutes, whichever comes first. Today it was the 70 minutes - in which Sky Sports did not go for any advert breaks - due to rain coming mid race. The safety car came out just as teamGB were coming out from their pit stop, bollocks, thought I, that's stopped any chance of a good finish. But then A1GP pulled a master stroke, no pit stops allowed whilst the Safety Car is on the track! This obviously bunched the feild back up, leaving Great Britain the first of the cars that had stopped, theoretically meaning that when all of the cars in front went for a stop , teamGB would lead! Unfortunately, Pakistan made a hash of the restart, allowing France to pull out a huge lead by the first corner! Then it started to rain and that really put that cat amongst the pigeons, and the gremlins in Sky's satellite feed and we lost pictures! When we got them back, everyone had pitted for wet weather tyres except for USA who stayed out on slicks for the entire race. The US were gradually overtaken by five cars - including the Netherlands who at this point lead, but it all came together when they suddenly came to be six seconds faster a lap when the track dried, then everyone except the Netherlands dived back in the pits for slicks! The Netherlands still lead, but the US, France and Germany catch up eventually and overtake. Germany win in front of the US and Australia, teamGB rolled in eighth.

I do have one problem with the Sky coverage - John Watson. He was crap when Sky had the interactive F1, and he's crap now. He can't read the race, he can't tell the difference between the cars, and he shouldn't bloody commentate! However, I think it's more to do with ex-drivers becoming commentators. Just because James Hunt could, and Martin Brundle can, do it, they all think they can - but they can't!

Compton GP Star Drive Phil Giebler [teamUSA]

F1: Chinese GP 2006

Well, an eventful race to say the least! Renault throwing the race away, not once but twice, handing the ten points - and the lead in the Driver's Championship - to Michael Schumacher. Renault's first problem came at the first pit stop, with Alonso apparently having to change his front tyres at his first stop leading to reduced grip and performance in his second stint. Eventually he had to give way to his Renault teammate, Fisichella, and a few minutes later to Schumacher. Then Renault made a huge tactical error by calling Fisico into the pits a lap after Schumacher for the crucial second stop and the change to dry tryes, unfortunately for Fisico, this meant that, with Schumacher bearing down on him with warm tyres, he had no grip through the still wet turns 1 and 2 - Schumacher taking the lead by diving up the inside.

Curiously, Renault's Pit Wall had a power cut mid-race, I wonder when the conspiracy theories on this will start!

I'm amazed that Coulthard didn't get a drive through penalty for his turning in on, and hitting, Felipe Massa - which put the young Brazilian out of the race with suspension damage. Massa was very forgiving, saying it was just a racing incident brought about by the damp conditions, but DC knew he was there and shouldn't have turned in when he did. Juan Pablo Montoya has been penalised for far less!

You have to feel for Kubica, he was on a one stop strategy and was looking good for a strong points finish, unfortunately his stop for dry tyres was just too early and the next lap of sliding of the track at nearly every corner, meant he had to pit again to go back to intermediates, killing all hope for the promising Polish driver.

Jenson Button's chances for the win were finished almost before they began, with his Honda eating it's rear tyres in the first stint, forcing the Honda team to change the rears at the first stop, which as with Renault was the downfall of the race. Jenson's 4th place finish came about thanks to another Honda powered Driver - Takuma Sato - who, whilst being lapped at the second to last corner of the last lap, pulled out of Jenson's way straight into the path of Heidfeld's BMW that Jenson was trying to overtake! Barrichello at this point went into the back of Heidfeld, allowing De la Rosa to overtake them both! Sato has since been disqualified from the race for ignoring blue flags, Albers had 25 seconds added to his race time for the same offence.

Webber drove a solid Race for Williams, finishing in 8th after starting 14th. He took the last points paying position from Coulthard, who had steering problems following his collision with Massa.

Once again, a little bit of rain improves the race spectacle for the fans, and with both Schumacher and Alonso on 116pts, it's set up nicely for the next two races at Japan and Brazil - I'm still hoping that Alonso retains the Title.

Compton GP Star Drive Michael Schumacher [Ferrari]

edit@1450

As I sit here watching the ITV 're-run' of the race a few more thoughts are coming my way, first of all is that I can't believe how much they have edited out of what is supposed to be an 'as live' replay. It's disgusting.

Secondly, I remember thinking during the live show about DC (again!) having communication problems during qualifying causing him to stay out too long, apparently. Why can't they just admit that they aren't quick enough?! Anyway, I forgot to post that last time, so I thought I'd put it out there now!