That’s what happened to Jenson Button’s chances of getting any points from the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The Briton put in a stunning lap yesterday to claim pole position for today’s race, but thing’s soon went wrong for Jenson when the first of four safety car periods ended as his car washed wide because of low front end grip and world champion Fernando Alonso swept past easily. The same thing happened at the end of the second safety car period; when Kimi Raikkonen got a run on Jenson and out-braked the Englishman into turn one. Button lost out again after his second pit stop again because of low grip on the car, it seems that there is a problem with the Honda design that doesn’t use the tyres properly, taking several laps to get up to racing temperature. Jenson rounded the final corner of the race when his engine blew up in spectacular fashion while sitting in 5th position. But his team ordered him to stop before the finish line so that he doesn’t get penalised in the next race for an engine change after the race has finished. But I don’t see the logic, why give up three points on what could be in the next race, what happens if he has another engine failure, or crashes out, then that’ll be three points squandered for nothing, you would think that they’d grab all the points they could get. It’s safe to say that Jenson wasn’t too happy about the decision; I wonder if he is wishing that he went to Williams this year as he was contracted to until he bought his way out of his Williams contract. I just think that Jenson doesn’t have the car underneath him to win a race this season, at least not as things stand at the moment, Honda are probably only the 3rd quickest team on the grid at the moment, with Renault leading the way followed by McLaren. I see all the predictions that have been made by various pundits coming true, with Renault and Fernando Alonso running away with the championship(s) much like Ferrari did for several years. Renault has won all three races so far, with Alonso winning two races in Bahrain and Australia and Fisichella winning in Malaysia. I still hope that Jenson can take the first win of his career, but it’s unlikely unless his Renault and McLaren rivals slip up at some point in the season, unless Honda can make some major revisions to the car to make it more competitive.
Yesterday was a better day for football, Plymouth Argyle avenged their 1 – 0 defeat away at Molineux by beating Wolves 2 – 0 at Home Park. It’s about time Plymouth’s luck has changed after going four games without scoring. Hasney Aljofree put Argyle ahead in the 8th minute getting on the end of a Tony Capaldi corner. The win was sealed just before the 80th minute when former Manchester United and England international Paul Ince mis-timed a headed clearance past his own keeper. The score line could have been even better if Argyle’s finishing was better with Pericard and Chadwick going close in the opening exchanges. This result means that Argyle have leapfrogged QPR again to regain 14th position in the league still only 8 points of a top 8 finish, but that is a little bit of wishful thinking at the moment, but if Argyle can win their next game away at highflying Leeds United, that could mean a move upto a season high position of 11th if other results go our way. My second team Liverpool managed yet another good win away from home, not quite the 0 – 7 drubbing of Birmingham City, but a solid 0 – 2 win against West Bromwich Albion. It doesn’t really help their position in overhauling Manchester United as United also won yesterday, so maintain their 5 point lead over the Merseyside team. Robbie Fowler scored his second goal since rejoining the reds, and Djibril Cisse doubled the lead in the 38th minute. The home side never looked like beating Liverpool, and Liverpool cruised to their fifth consecutive win. But unless Manchester United slip up in the closing stages of the league, I think Liverpool will have to settle for the bronze medal in the league and will have to qualify for the Champions League next season, which shouldn’t be a problem if they can carry their current form over to next season, but that remains to be seen at the moment!