Korea-ing into view!
This weekend sees another new addition to the Hermann Tilke tour, sorry, F1 World Championship. Bernie's circus will be setting up shop in a newly built, specially for F1, race track in South Korea. It looked as though the track would not be completed in time and up to standard, but miraculously it was passed last week. Expect cars to career off into nearby vans and nissen huts...
I won't pass judgement on the track, but from the aerial pictures that are flying around the 'net, it is a familiar Tilke template. You know the score, long straights, slow corners, chicanes etc. However the potentially daftest thing about the track is the 'street circuit' section. Apparently this track will turn off the main track and go around a loop in the nearby town.
Except that the town hasn't been built yet.
The town is being built especially for the Grand Prix. Talk about artificial environments! I often wonder whether the F1 circus is aware of how ridiculous it looks to the outside world sometimes. Mind you, they probably don't care!
Lorenzo and Elias victorious for Spain!
The Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend was the scene of a dual triumph for Spain, with Jorge Lorenzo and Tony Elias taking the MotoGP and Moto2 championships respectively. We only now need to know who will win the 125cc world championship, which is now a fight between Spaniards (surprise, surprise) Marc Marquez and Nico Terol. Phillip Island should prove be another top race this weekend. If one of them wins, it will top off what has been an amazing sporting year for Spain, after their successes with the World Cup, Tour De France and in Tennis.
Sweeping the board back in '75
We are now about to see Spain make a clean sweep of the board, something that hasn't been seen since 1975 when Italy took most of the prizes on offer that year. In the 125cc category that year, Paolo Pileri won the title for Morbidelli, beating team mate Pier-Paolo Bianchi and reigning world champion Kent Andersson. Walter Villa, a highly underrated world class rider, took the second of his three 250cc world championships for Harley Davidson. In the premier class, the great Giacomo Agostini won the final 500cc title of his career, beating nail-hard competition from Phil Read, Barry Sheene, Teppi Lansivouri and Hideo Kanaya. To top it off, 'Ago' came second in the 350cc championship too!
Some would argue that these feats were more impressive in the days of men risking life and limb on terrifying road track such as Spa and Imatra, or facing their opponents down on the daunting Nurburgring, but beating the best of the best in any era is a superb achievement.
Tony takes all
Tony Elias and Team Gresini took the first Moto2 title with a fighting fourth place in a place that saw Robbie Rolfo win his first Grand Prix since returning from World Superbikes. Although initially in the hunt for the win with a pack consisting of Rolfo, Andrea Iannone and Alex De Angelis; however Elias eventually chose to hold back and get that fourth place to secure his championship.
The oppressive heat of Sepang hit riders in all the classes and several fell by the wayside. Britain's Scott Redding had to retire due to exhaustion, nearly collapsing after getting off his bike. Elias's big rival for the title, Julian Simon, dropped out of the fight after crashing on lap 7. In the latter stages of the race, Tony Elias pressured a flagging Iannone to the line, with experience staying his hand from trying anything daft to gain a position when the championship title was waiting.
Once across the line, the new world champion was engulfed in his team and a huge wraparound flag, from which Elias emerged in a silver set of leathers and special helmet in which he undertook his victory lap. I can't see that happening in F1, can you?
Lorenzo hits the jackpot
23 year old Jorge Lorenzo claimed the MotoGP World Championship with a fine third place, keeping his nose clean while everyone else gunned for glory. Casey Stoner managed to sling his bike into the weeds on the opening lap, echoing his warm-up lap mistake at Valencia last year. Valentino Rossi had a bad start and dropped to 17th on the first lap. This left Andrea Dovisioso and Lorenzo fighting it out at the front, with 'Dovi' giving it his all to keep with the champion-elect.
However, Rossi had worked his way up to fourth by the third lap and was soon in third, homing in on Dovisioso. The Honda rider took Lorenzo at the midway point, but was then taken by Rossi, who went on to win (which no doubt pleased Ducati as they watched their new financial investment) . Throughout all this, Jorge Lorenzo kept his head, knowing that a third was all he needed to claim the championship.
What wasn't so mature was the childish posturing of Rossi and Lorenzo in Park Fermé. The Spaniard tried to park his bike in the No1 spot reserved for the race winner and Rossi ran around waving a '46 wins for Yamaha' placard. Grow up, boys.
Stoner storms to Aragon victory
Casey Stoner won the inaugural Aragon Grand Prix yesterday in a pole-to-chequered flag show of dominance that harked back to his championship winning year of 2007. Dani Pedrosa continued his hot streak with a strong second place and Nicky Hayden made a superb last-lap overtaking manoeuvre to deprive Jorge Lorenzo of a podium place. Ben Spies continued filling out his application form to join the MotoGP aliens club with an excellent fifth. Valentino Rossi, struggling with that shoulder injury, came home in sixth.
Jorge Lorenzo still leads the championship by 56 points, but Dani Pedrosa is coming on very strong. The Honda has increased massively in competitiveness, especially compared with the start of the season. How Lorenzo will respond in Motegi, we have yet to see.
Moto2
Andrea Iannone took his third win of the season in front of Júlian Simone and Galbor Talmasci. The Italian celebrated riding his victory lap holding a flag emblazoned with Shoya Tomizawa's image and number 48. Championship leader Toni Elias finished in fourth.
125cc
Pol Espargaro took a thrilling win in the 125cc class, beating Nicol Terol. Championship leader Marc Marquez was taken out by the gloriously named Randy Krummenacher at the first corner. Before the start of the race, the Spaniard was nine points in the lead, but his DNF and Terol's second place puts him behind the Aspar rider. Bradley Smith came home in third.
Spain host yet another MotoGP round (and it’s a Tilkedrome)!
Spain hosts another round of the MotoGP championship this weekend, due to the failure of Hungary's Balatonring to be completed on time. Instead, the race will be held at a new track, called Motorland Aragon situated in the Spanish region of er..Aragon. If you were wondering who designed the track (no prizes for guessing though), it was penned by Mr Hermann Tilke, as his influence appears to also be seeping into MotoGP.
Before condemning the track to hell simply because of its creator's previous form, I shall reserve my judgement until after Sunday's races. David Emmett's excellent blog MotoMatters has this photo tour of the circuit for you to get a feel of it. This collection of photo's give a far better idea of Motorland that the stiff and tedious press release on the MotoGP website.
However, I do find it amusing at the contrasts between the choice of venues in the Motorcycle World Championship and that of the Formula 1 World Championship. Whereas Bernie and his boys will go to any country where the government will cough up millions to satisfy his demands, Dorna don't seem to want to leave the house. Despite the fact that motorcycle racing is massively popular in Spain (with much financial investment in teams such as Apsar), the championship currently has four rounds there and I feel this is too much.
I don't know about you, but there are plenty of decent tracks in Europe and South America where extra Grand Prix could be held. Who else? Well, just off the top of my head: Interlagos, Salzburgring, Monza, Brands Hatch, Donington, Paul Ricard, Portimao, Istanbul circuit and Zandvoort are all capable of hosting a round.
That's it, mild rant over.
The Stig takes on a Caterham
Take a look at this fun clip containing a certain tame racing driver at the wheel of a Caterham:
A world painted red (well, Monza anyway)
Italy is probably waking up from a massive hangover today as Ferrari won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza yesterday. Fernando Alonso came out on top in a race that restored the five way fight for the championship, something that looked out of the picture after the last round at Spa. Jensen Button scored a fine second place that may have been a win if he hadn't picked up rear wing damage on the first lap and Philipe Massa signalled a return to form with a well deserved third.
The winners from last time around appeared to be the losers at Monza. Lewis Hamilton found himself out of the race on lap one after a collision with Massa. Marc Webber was stuck behind a slightly unruly Nikko Hulkenburg after a poor start and was critical of the tactics the young German used to keep in front. The Australian eventually managed to get by to claim sixth place, salvaging something from the afternoon.
Jensen Button lead over half the race but damage to his rear wing and strategy problems meant that he was unable to pull away from the Ferrari's. The Englishman was brought in a lap early for his pit-stop, allowing Alonso to put the quick laps in so he could leap-frog him. In the end, a slightly disappointing race for Button, however he did make a big points haul whereas his team mate was left standing with the track marshals.
As for Fernando Alonso, he was able to tick the box that says 'win at Monza in a Ferrari' on his racing CV. All season he has said that he is still a contender for the World Championship and by winning yesterday, he scrawled his intentions across the championship table with thick red pen. Which way this rather exciting season will twist next, I have no idea.
Tragedy hits MotoGP
The San Marino Grand Prix at Misano was marred by the death of nineteen year old Shoya Tomizawa in the Moto2 class. The Japanese rider was thrown off his Seuter and instantly hit by Alex De Angelis and Scot Redding. He suffered massive injuries and died later in a hospital in Riccone. Both De Angelis and Redding were injured, but should make a full recovery for the next race. Neither rider could have avoided the collision.
Daniel Pedrosa won the MotoGP race, Toni Elias took the Moto2 race and Mark Marquez was the victor in the 125cc race.
My condolences to the Tomizawa family.
Flying Scot Di Resta takes Brands DTM win
Scot Paul Di Resta won the Brand Hatch round of the German Touring Car Championship yesterday for the second year running. The Mercedes driver led practically from start to finish in a pretty dominant performance. Bruno Spengler came second with reigning champ Timo Scheider behind him. Gary Paffett finished in fourth, just behind the leadrs. David Coulthard suffered a drive through penalty early on, placing himself practically last, but he was able to fight back in style. The former F1 star fought hard back up through the field to finish 12th.
Di Resta now has a firm second place in the championship standings with 43 points, just ahead of Gary Paffett, who has 39. Bruno Spengler is leading with nine points in hand with four rounds left to go.
From the trackside...
From a personal point of view, I felt Brands Hatch put on another good show and it was a real pleasure to see those fire-breathing DTM machines once more. The circuit really is one of the jewels in the crown of British Motorsport, a classic track that is still more or less in it's original configuration. We were sat in one of the grandstands on the main straight and got to experience the rush of all those powerful saloons flying into Paddock Hill Bend. You also get to see 95% of the Indy circuit from there, another reason why Brands is loved so much by race goers.
On the negative side, the Formula 3 Euroseries was absolutely dire. I really mean it. We were all stunned by the lack of racing, instead all we got was a high speed formation parade of mainly Italian and German youngsters who probably fail to appreciate the irony of the job title 'Race Driver'.
On the plus side we got to see some real tin top touring car action with the VW Sirocco race, which also included former F1 drivers Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Johnny Herbert. Blundell managed third with a very spirited drive, not bad for someone who hadn't raced in seven years! In fact on a pure racing level it was the best event of the weekend.
Weekly round-up 03/09/2010
This is a quick round up of the week and a look forward to this weekends action:
MotoGP
It's the San Marino Grand Prix (or Adriatic Grand Prix) or whatever else they call it this weekend, a race that every Italian in every class will want to do well in. Jorge Lorenzo, on the other hand, will be looking to consolidate his championship lead to keep ahead of the resurgent Dani Pedrosa and Honda. Valentino Rossi will also be hoping for a good result at home in front of his fans.
DTM
It's the Brand Hatch round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft this weekend and I will be making my annual trek to see it with my brother. The big draw this year will be former Grand Prix star David Coulthard, who is racing for Mercedes this season in addition to his BBC duties. However, the real sharp end of the racing will be proved by Championship leader Bruno Spengler, McLaren test driver Gary Paffett and last years winner Paul DiResta.
I'll write a up a report of my weekend on Monday, telling you stories of sitting in the back of the van waiting for practice to begin, fry-ups in the Kentagon and the roar of those Mercedes and Audi's battling their way around the track. See you later!
Hamilton triumphs at Spa
Lewis Hamilton took victory at the fearsome Spa Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium yesterday,with Marc Webber second and Robert Kubica third. The race was a classic Spa event with rain showers and a track that was dry in one area and wet in another. We saw many drivers caught out by both the circuit and the conditions, leaving plenty of smashed cars at the side of the track.
Sebastien Vettel has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, crashing into Button and putting him out of the race, then getting involved in two further incidents. This has highlighted his often quoted lack of ability in overtaking, something that his main rivals seem to do so well (even in an age of aerodynamic over efficiency). He is superb when driving on the edge, blasting out fast lap after fast lap, yet when in close quarters with an opponent, contact often ensues leaving either himself or the other car left by the roadside.
Marc Webber's car stalled on the grid, always a potentially dangerous occurrence, but managed to get his car into gear and claimed second place at the end of the race. Robert Kubica took full advantage of an excellent Renault, proving once more that the Pole is the real deal.
Michael Schumacher was also very impressive, showing glimpses of his old form as he worked his way up from the back of the grid to finish a fine seventh. I think I'm not alone in saying that this is the type of racing we want to see from him, not the dangerous antics he undertook at the Hungaroring.