Calm Before The Storm

Just less than 24 hours till the season comes to an end. As expected we have all three rivals up on the front two rows what will make to be an interesting race.

Many seemed to be caught off guard with the rising temperatures on track but by the end of the session it was status quo amongst the grid with the exception of Webber sticking his Red Bull in front of the BMW pair. Likely to see him peel off into the pits early on.

Yet another session was ruined on ITV by the ignorance of James Allen. It’s easy to see why he has earned the nickname ‘The Cock’ in many fan forums. While we were shown scenes of Hamilton’s final lap (note to James, the yellow bopping of the helmet into screen is a pretty good indicator that it was Lewis) which showed his second sector that he raved about and then turned around and complained that we hadn’t seen it. As per usual with Allen’s inept commentary skills I found myself cursing once more at the television.
This was followed up by Blundell’s claims that we had seen Hamilton’s best ever qualifying lap. I’d personally wait till tomorrow evening and see how much longer he runs than Massa before judging the lap. I had to laugh hard at Blundell’s claims that he was sure that Hamilton had more fuel on board. If memory serves me correct Blundell is hardly the best one to be judging fuel loads as I recall seeing him run out of fuel when at the front of a Champ Car race back in his US racing stint.

Reading up after it, a French journo gave Lewis a harsh time for not giving Kimi the easiest of ways by. I don’t think he obstructed Kimi at all. Well okay, if he really wanted to he could’ve slowed up more prior to turn three when he came out into Kimi’s final run. While he didn’t hold the Finn up, having a car there as we have seen time and time again can draw ones concentration which may be the reason for Kimi’s scruffy corner. But he didn’t do it intentional and didn’t impede him. Fair juice to Lewis for actually apologising to Kimi for it though. From a journalistic point of view it’s great to see someone not be pampered in their questions towards him. I am getting well sick of the British easy pampering propaganda questions we get from ITV.

On the note of the tire infringement, good job by the stewards. While some might have been braying for a penalty, it wasn’t his fault in the slightest. A team mistake, albeit uncharacteristic of McLaren. I’m sure they and Lewis will be happy to have the mistake out of the way now and have no issues come the race. Naturally the fact that both Button and Sato did it was easily dismissed and it was all about that Hamilton had done it. Wonder how Button likes not having the glaring spotlight on him. Must be a breath of fresh air that he can breathe some now.

So predictions for tomorrow – Lewis looks in a very handy position to take the title. I would be concerned for his ‘I want to win the race’ to take the title. It cost him at China. But I completely respect the Ricky Bobby like mentality ‘If you ain’t first, you’re last’ view to it. (If you haven’t seen Talladega Nights, shame on you.)
Alonso is already talking himself down. Seems every day he has something new to whinge about. Such a defeatist attitude. Many of talked about how he has the experience but I have to say ‘where is it?’ In both his title run-in’s he was in front. When you look at both his title runs Alonso was nearly always in front. He hasn’t been in the position of chasing a world title so his experience doesn’t really count for much.
Kimi is the rank outsider with nothing to lose in this situation. While I’d like to see him in win it’s going to take the McLaren’s having car issues (or the pair going wheel to wheel – that would be a sight) if he is to win. The best realistically Ferrari can hope for is a strong finish to the year.

But hey, it ain’t over till the chequered flag comes down on it. As Murray used to say, anything can happen in Formula One and it usually does. England expected to qualify for Euro 08 and failed on Wednesday and they lost the Rugby World Cup tonight against South Africa. It’s up to Hamilton to try to salvage something from the self-proclaimed ‘greatest week in British sporting history’.

Let’s hope we get a good race and send off to F1 2007. We have our finale to be fought on the track between three excellent drivers. Nothing more left to do than wait for the red lights to go out.