An odd editorial decision by the BBC this week led to the coverage being a
obituary of Sir Frank and the Williams team. They kept
referring to Sir Frank in the past tense and pointing out that the last win was in 2004. Very cheery. With Force India struggling again this weekend, it was actually a big opportunity for Williams, which they capitalised upon brilliantly. The BBC also, finally, used the Abba song "Fernando" to illustrate the
Massa/Alonso battle. I have waited many years for some producer to
succumb.
Qualifying was quite exciting with
Schumacher and Button struggling to get in to Q3 and
Whitmarsh commenting that, in 5
th position,
McLaren were: "the best of the fixed-wing vehicles". The genius of Adrian
Newey strikes again.
The race had it's ups and downs, where a procession had been predicted.
Alguasaumi and Hamilton both retired. Hamilton looking sadly at his car thinking: "Can I have a blue one now please?". I had to rewind the coverage to understand what was happening during the pit lane chaos during the safety car period. Then
Vettel demonstrated that not all drivers have a photographic memory and can remember every rule in that BIG rulebook. This left him very upset and even "took his hands off the wheel" during his drive-through. The climax of the race was
Barrichello's (in a Williams!) overtaking of
Schumacher. Didn't he punish the poor Brazilian enough during the Ferrari years?
Ruebens commented: "Luckily the wall finished there" in response to being drive into it. The unluckiest man in F1,
Webber, seems to be turning his fate around this year. His win: "was a gift but I haven't had many of them, so I'll take this one now".
It's very very close points-wise (20) between the top five drivers in the championship. At some point the teams are going to have to promote one driver above the other, if they haven't already. Watch this space for fireworks but in the meantime happy holidays.