Lewis Hamilton got his second Formula One championship campaign off to the perfect start leading from start to finish to claim the first 10 points of the season. With the exception of Robert Kubica’s challenge to Hamilton in the first few corners; his McLaren scampered off into the distance. But he couldn’t maintain that lead as numerous safety periods cut his lead to nothing! McLaren’s chief rivals Ferrari only scored one point despite not finishing the race; courtesy of Rubens Barrichello’s disqualification because he was forced to refuel while the pit lane was closed during the safety car period with Raikkonen retiring five laps from the end but was classified in 8th. Sebastien Bourdais performed excellently looking like claiming 4th place on his debut for Squadro Toro Rosso but his Ferrari engine let go with three laps to go and was classified in 7th place benefiting from Barrichello’s exclusion. Kazuki Nakajima was the final finisher in 6th place but will be penalised for the next race for ploughing into the back of BMW’s Robert Kubica during the restart after the final safety car period. Heikki Kovalainen finished in 5th after the safety car completely ruined his race as he had to pit for fuel during the time the safety was out demoting him to the back of the crocodile. Former world champion Fernando Alonso brought his Renault home in 4th courtesy of other drivers falling off the track and technical failures. Williams enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence this race finishing in 3rd, Nico Rosberg finishing 8 seconds behind Hamilton and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld finishing 5 seconds behind the Briton. So in conclusion I enjoyed this race, the new technical regulations have certainly spiced things up, lots of thrills and spills, only seven out of 22 cars finishing the race. Still not quite up there with 80s/early 90s but definitely getting there. The lack of TC has made the biggest impact making drivers earn their millions, lots of sliding around, powerslides and contact, so in my humble opinion, the new technical requirements have been a great success!
Bernie Ecclestone has come up with another madcap idea. He is pushing for championships to be decided by race victories, so the driver with the most race victories would take the crown. There is one rather huge problem I see; and that would be that eight of the eleven teams would effectively be ruled out of the championship and gives lower order teams no incentive to race. At the end of the season eight of the eleven teams wouldn’t be classified as there will not be an points system to decide the best of the rest. Ecclestone seems completely detached from the real world reality of F1 saying that drivers don’t have enough incentive to go for the win. More than half the drivers on the grid don’t have the equipment underneath them to win races unless all the top teams/drivers fall off the road which is unlikely at best. This year only three teams are likely to win races and the third team [BMW] can only win if McLaren and Ferrari fall off the road and/or have technical failures.
England have won the second test against New Zealand in Wellington beating the home team by 126 runs after setting the Kiwi’s a total of 445 to win after England’s second innings. Tim Ambrose was star of England’s first innings scoring his maiden test century backed up by Paul Collingwood’s 65. Unfortunately Ambrose couldn’t do the same in the second innings being clean bowled for only five runs. But Mr dependable Collingwood hit another fine 59 while opener Alistair Cook hit 60. James Anderson was hero with the ball in the first innings taking five wickets for 73 runs while Collingwood cleared up the tail taking three for 23 runs. It was Ryan Sidebottom’s turn to take five wickets in the second inning claiming five Kiwi scalps for 103 runs including danger man Daniel Vettori for a duck , and Anderson claimed another two wickets for 57 runs. A much better peformance from England after dropping Harmison from the bowling attack since the last test. Now can England salvage something from this tour by winning the third and final test in Napier starting on Friday?