Lewis Hamilton claimed his second win of the season leading his team mate Jenson Button home. Lewis started on pole so always had the advantage over Jenson but the man from Frome did well to move from fourth to second. Although Jenson looked like he didn’t have the pace early on losing his fourth place to Mark Webber on lap 8. Mark Webber who qualified in second was demoted to seventh after a gearbox change, which of course reignited the conspiracy theories but it seems that it was genuine as Sebastian Vettel was suffering from gearbox issues in the last third of the race. Jenson seemed to get better and better as the race went on, moving into second in the closing laps of the race overtaking Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. Mark Webber eventually finished in fifth after leading the race before having to pit for new tyres as he was losing massive amounts of time to the McLarens. Webber’s team mate Vettel finished in fourth nursing his car home with gearbox issues. Michael Schumacher had a shocking race, running Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa off the road; almost putting the Brazilian in the wall at 200mph going into the final corner. Schumacher’s team mate Nico Rosberg had a solid finish in sixth, Kubica brought his Renault home in seventh after his altercation with Schumacher. Sebastien Buemi who briefly lead the race crossed the line in eighth place followed by the Force India duo of Vitantonio Luizzi and Adrian Sutil in ninth and tenth respectively. What this race shows is that the classic tracks, Montreal, Spa Francorchamps, Brazil, Silverstone and Suzuka produce the goods as opposed to the snore fest that is the many Hermann Tilke designed tracks with the exception of Turkey which is likely to be leaving the F1 calendar with the huge price hike for hosting the race. It really seems that Bernie Ecclestone’s greed is destroying the spectacle of F1, more and more dull Tilke designed tracks in rich countries like Russia, USA, middle east and Asian countries.
In the World Cup, Slovenia beat Algeria 1 – 0 to go top of England’s group after England’s disappointing 1 – 1 draw with the USA. Germany look like a force to beat after their 4 – 0 victory over Australia in Group D. Japan beat Cameroon 1 – 0 in what is considered a shock win but I am not surprised, the Japanese have a solid team and work hard, it may not be the most attractive football but they grind out results which ultimately is all that counts. The Netherlands beat neighbours Denmark 2 – 0 with both goals being scored by Liverpool players, Dane Daniel Agger scoring an own goal, although he didn’t know much about it. A misfired clearance from Simon Poulsen hit Agger on the back leaving keeper Sorensen watching the ball fly past him into the back of the net. Dirk Kuyt made sure of the result in the last five minutes while other big names were found lacking in front of goal, Robin van Persie is a name that springs to mind!