Pedrosa Dominates, Schumi Rides For Fun

Spanish fever griped Jerez as Dani Pedrosa won in front of the home crowd. The Repsol Honda rider comfortably beat the Yamaha’s of Rossi and fellow Spaniard Lorenzo.

World Champion Casey Stoner had a nightmare of a race. After a poor qualifying the Aussie looked anything but comfortable on the Ducati, getting out of shape at the top of the hill before out-breaking himself at the end of the long straight. He would, after a determined ride, get up on the back of the top ten before out-breaking himself once more at the same corner, finishing 11^th. The problems were not all down to Stoner, with the rest of the Ducati’s struggling to make an impact, all finishing behind the champion.

Pedrosa was off like a rocket and after taking the lead never looked back, leaving Lorenzo and Rossi to duck it out for second. Nicky Hayden had a much improved day on the second Respol Honda, coming home fourth.

The main interest of racing came from the end of the 250cc race. Just caught the end of it after staying up late for the IRL. The race saw Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista battle for the win. Simoncelli looked to be toying with Bautista before smacking him in the rear going through the corner on the final lap, knocking both out. While it appeared Simoncelli was to blame he would later go on to say that Bautista had an engine problem, which caused him to be slow through the corner. Still, I would leave some blame with Simoncelli. He shouldn’t have bothered toying with his rival. Just get out in front and go. If he had done that he would’ve won.

Speaking of bikes, Michael Schumacher took part in his first official competitive bike race at Misano. The German Formula One legend qualified third and eventually finished third, only five seconds off the lead. When you add the factors that they are all the same bikes and he fell down to fourteenth in the opening stages as he took it easy, it really puts his achievement in focus.
Despite how well he’s adapted to two wheels, the seven-time world champion has said this isn’t the start of a new career. It must be great to be able to go out and track and drive truly for fun. Schumi must be loving it.

Catching Up

So back to Formula One related bits! Been a bit quiet on reporting on that front. A mix of reading aplenty on a number of topics and been a little bit worse for wear!

The FIA did in fact release the full documents regarding the Spy-gate hearings. Been meaning to get around to reading them all. It's on the 'to-do' list! Hopefully I'll get the time and plenty of Headex tablets to go through it all with a fine tooth comb to see how it really went down.
I'm not going to touch on the decisions made and the penalties handed down. They have been done to death. Everyone has their view on it and at this stage, has probably let it be known!

McLaren got penalised. They accepted it. Too harsh? Too lenient? Just right? Well everyone has their view. Mosley hasn't been too shy in lashing out at those casting them, quite rightly, at those who haven't view the situation as a whole. That's why I've been careful to put my view down. His comments on Jackie Stewart, well, it will be interesting to see how they play out. Calling him a 'half wit' and taking a pop at his dress ethic. Interesting attack from Mosley. We haven't heard the last between these two!

From it we did learn more about the degradation of the Alonso-Dennis relationship. How bad things have gotten between the pair is truly shocking. Actually I'm surprised Dennis hasn't sacked him yet. He has a record of been a no bull sort of guy. Case in point, look at Montoya. Fernando must have one hefty severance payout if he was to be ditched. If you are not even on talking terms with your boss, well, you're as good as done.

McLaren promise that each driver will be treated equally throughout the title run-in. Though if Alonso's car just happens to fall to pieces in the final three I think you will hear shouts of a conspiracy.
Expect the bitter divorce over the next few months.

Where he goes is the key to the driver market. Most of the talk says Renault but this week has seen rumours of a move to Ferrari. The move logically makes sense. Alonso wants to win races and championships. Ferrari is the only team apart from McLaren that can offer that for sure in 2008. What I don't get is how he thinks he will get a better deal. Alonso's issue at McLaren stems from not getting the coveted 'number one' status at the team. Can he expect that at Ferrari? Somehow I don't think Kimi Raikkonen is going to let him have it. He would come in on equal footing which could lead to same issues again.

So all roads appear to lead to Renault. A homecoming for Alonso. While they have struggled in 2008 a return for Alonso would not be all that bad. The team has the foundations that won two world titles and by now will know how to work out most of the kinks that have lead to a struggle this year. But can they provide him with a title contender. That is a question that remains unanswered and will weigh on Alonso's mind.

Speaking of Renault, Fisichella's attempt to force the teams hand to announce their driver line-up failed. The Italian talked big for a number of weeks before Monza that he expected an announcement of his re-signing by then. Italy has come and gone. Now Renault has said that they won't announce anything until Alonso finds his home. Nothing less than what I expected. Fisichella knows he is on borrowed time. Over the past months he has been blown away, regardless of his excuses, by Kovalainen. Heikki is almost a dead cert at this stage for one of the seats. Fisichella's failing form will put him danger of losing his seat regardless of where Alonso ends up.

In an unrelated F1 news topic, congrats to Casey Stoner for winning the MotoGP title. The Aussie takes the title in only his second season and secured the first championship for Ducati and Bridgestone. Stoner has been fantastic, if sometimes mouthy during the season. Not quite as bad as Rossi who spent altogether too much time whinging that he couldn't get the 'custom-made for the conditions' tires from Michelin on the Saturday morning after Friday practice. Yes, that's not fair at all is it Michelin riders. It's a shame that, like past seasons in Formula One there is more talk about tires than there is about the performance of those involved.