Brilliant Alonso Wins Bizarre Malaysian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso has plenty to smile about after his triumph on Sunday

Fernando Alonso claimed a somewhat surprising victory at a rain-soaked Sepang  International Circuit. Sergio Perez took a brilliant second place to earn Sauber’s highest ever finish without BMW support ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third. A mixture of good tactical decisions from his Ferrari team and some solid driving took Alonso to the top spot of the podium and into the lead of the Formula 1 World Championship after two rounds while Perez was extremely impressive throughout the race as he pushed the Spaniard to the very limit.

The threat of rain hung over the racetrack before the start of the race and the majority of the grid started on intermediate tyres. The two McLarens held onto their 1-2 positions into the first corner while Schumacher and Grosjean’s battle for third left Schumacher spinning to the back of the field. Further back, Bruno Senna suffered another first lap crash which cost him his front wing. Eventual second place man Perez pitted at the end of the first lap to change to extreme wet tyres as the rain increased, a decision that would prove to have important consequences for the rest of the race. Grosjean’s bad luck continued as he beached his Lotus in the gravel on lap 3 meaning that the Frenchman has only completed a total of 7 racing laps this season. As the rain got even heavier, everyone darted in to change onto the full wets with the exception of Jean-Eric Vergne. With a thunderstorm in full swing and the track surface resembling a river, there was no option but to deploy the Safety Car and eventually red flag the race.

The race order was disjointed to say the least with the two McLarens ahead of Perez, Webber, Alonso, Vettel, Vergne (still on inters), Massa, Rosberg and the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan in 10th; having started on the extreme wets, he hadn’t needed to pit and was in a points scoring position to the astonishment of his team. The red flag period lasted some 45 minutes but almost immediately after the restart the pitlane was jam packed with drivers switching to intermediate tyres. Hamilton’s chances of victory were blown with a sluggish stop on lap 15 and he was passed by Perez and Alonso. Alonso himself was held up having to queue behind Massa, allowing Perez to take the lead of the race before the 2005 and 2006 World Champion powered past him on lap 16.

Sergio Perez chases down Fernando Alonso and could have easily claimed the 25 points today

The frenetic action continued as Jenson Button, trying to catch up to the leaders, collided with Karthikeyan leaving the McLaren man with a broken front wing and facing another pitstop that left him down in 22nd place. The attention now turned to the front as Alonso built up a lead of seven seconds over Perez before eroded it down to less than three seconds when Alonso pitted for dry rubber on lap 40. Perez continued on intermediates for two more laps which allowed the Ferrari to open up another 5 second lead. Perez set about eroding that margin again but a mistake on lap 51 ruined his chances of victory.

Further back, Kamui Kobayashi retired with brake issues on lap 47 while Karthikeyan again was involved in a collision, this time with World Champion Sebastian Vettel. It must be said that it was a racing incident but Vettel suffered a puncture and had to crawl back to the pits before ending up down in 11th. Pastor Maldonado was again staring a points finish in the face when he was running in 1oth but an engine failure two laps from the end meant that he’d been robbed of a good finish for the second race in a row.

Despite his mistake, Perez closed up on Alonso again but there was not enough time left to overhaul him as Fernando took his 28th career victory and one of his best at that. The Sauber mechanics were delighted with their boy’s efforts while Hamilton just didn’t have the pace to catch up to the front two. Webber took fourth for the second race on the spin ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who impressed again. Bruno Senna worked his way through the field from 22nd to 6th with a quite brilliant drive while Paul di Resta was 7th ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 9th in a boost to Force India’s morale. Jean-Eric Vergne held onto 8th to score consecutive points finishes for Toro Rosso while Schumacher recovered to score the last championship point but ultimately Mercedes will be disappointed with their weekend. Alonso won’t care about any of that though as he is the unlikely man at the top of the championship standings.

Who would've predicted that podium a few weeks ago?

Provisional Classification:

1. Fernando Alonso (Scuderia Ferrari) 2hr44:51.812
2. Sergio Perez (Sauber F1) + 2.263
3. Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) + 14.591
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) + 17.688
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus F1) + 29.456
6. Bruno Senna (Williams F1) + 37.667
7. Paul di Resta (Sahara Force India) + 44.412
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 46.985
9. Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India) + 47.892
10. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG Petronas) + 49.996
11. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) + 1:15.527
12. Daniel Ricciardo (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 1:16.826
13. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG Petronas) + 1:18.593
14. Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) + 1:19.719
15. Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) + 1:37.319
16. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham F1) + 1 Lap
17. Timo Glock (Marussia F1) + 1 Lap
18. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham F1) + 1 Lap
19. Charles Pic (Marussia F1) + 2 Laps
20. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT F1) + 2 Laps
21. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT F1) + 2 Laps

Not Classified:

• Pastor Maldonado (Williams F1) – Engine, Lap 55
• Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber F1) – Brakes, Lap 47
• Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1) – Spun off, Lap 4

Driver’s Championship Standings:

1. Fernando Alonso – 35 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton – 30 Points
3. Jenson Button – 25 Points
4. Mark Webber – 24 Points
5. Sergio Perez – 22 Points
6. Sebastian Vettel – 18 Points
7. Kimi Raikkonen – 16 Points
8. Bruno Senna – 8 Points
9. Kamui Kobayashi – 8 Points
10. Paul di Resta – 7 Points
11. Jean-Eric Vergne – 4 Points
12. Daniel Ricciardo – 2 Points
13. Nico Hulkenberg – 2 Points
14. Michael Schumacher – 1 Point

Constructors Championship Standings:

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – 55 Points
2. Red Bull Racing – 42 Points
3. Scuderia Ferrari – 35 Points
4. Sauber F1 – 30 Points
5. Lotus F1 – 16 Points
6. Sahara Force India – 9 Points
7. Williams F1 – 8 Points
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 6 Points
9. Mercedes AMG Petronas – 1 Point

Analysis and Comment

This weekend hasn't done anything to help secure Felipe Massa's future

There’s no doubt about it, this race was a great one for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso’s race win is the tonic for a poor winter testing period but they will also be greatly encouraged by Sergio Perez’s performance today too. Perez is part of the Ferrari Young Driver Programme and, if you read my post yesterday, you’ll know he is the favourite to replace Felipe Massa in the number 2 Ferrari should he continue to disappoint. Massa’s 15th place finish was certainly not where he had hoped to end up but it was punctuated even more by the fact that Alonso not only won the race but was lapping very, very strongly. Massa was given a brand new chassis for this race by the team and had promised that it would have turned around his poor run of form but if anything it has made him look weaker. Massa has now gone 23 races without a podium finish while in the same time frame his more accomplished teammate has 12 top three finishes under his belt and two race wins to his name.

Perez’s second place will do himself no end of good not only amongst his Sauber team but also in the eyes of Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo. I believe that Perez could have easily beaten Alonso today and in the same car he would have to fancy his chances. The question is are Ferrari ready to gamble on putting him in their car yet? Also, are they really going to turn their backs on Felipe Massa mid-season after the emotional bond he formed with the team after his crash at Hungary in 2009? I think that an end of season switch is more likely with Massa perhaps moving back to the Sauber team where he started his career. Interestingly, a lot of attention is being focused on the radio message Perez received just a lap before he made the mistake that cost him the race. It read “Checo (Perez’s nickname), be careful, we need this position, we need this position.” Was it a veiled team order from a Sauber team powered by Ferrari engines to essentially stand aside to let the bigger boys win? Or was it merely an attempt to get Perez to ease up and avoid a mistake? Perez, Ferrari and Sauber have all maintained that the purpose of the message was the latter but the conspiracy theorists amongst you will have your own views. Whatever the story, Perez put in another blinding performance and that Sauber is looking like a cracking little car.

McLaren simply struggled for pace and will want to move on from this weekend

Another race where McLaren have failed to convert a front row lockout into a 1-2 finish although Lewis Hamilton seemed slightly happier with 3rd place than he did last Sunday. The main issue today was a misjudgement on tyre pressures which cost the team badly under the wet conditions. Even in dry conditions, Hamilton struggled to keep pace with Perez and Alonso and there will be much head scratching down at Woking tonight. Jenson Button had a more than eventful race, going from 2nd to 22nd and ending up in 14th. He suffered high tyre degradation due to the tyre pressure problem and collided with Narain Karthikeyan when he looked on course for a big haul of points. If McLaren are going to make use of their slight advantage in pace in what looks set to be a supremely tight year then they have  to start converting their front row lockouts soon.

A very mixed weekend for Williams. Bruno Senna drove a very controlled race after losing his front wing on the first lap to come home in 6th place but once again Pastor Maldonado saw his chance of points evaporate before him. Last week he caught a ton of oversteer and chucked it into the wall and this week his engine packed up just short of the finish line. I really hope that he gets the success he deserves soon as he has been really impressing me so far this season. Nevertheless, Senna’s 8 points for 6th place are more than the team earned throughout the whole of last season and I think everyone in F1 is happy to see that.

Michael Schumacher appears through the mist on his way to 10th place.

Mercedes really need to up their game on Sunday’s. Their qualifying pace is very strong but they are simply getting swallowed up on race day. You could argue that Schumacher was going strongly before his contact with Grosjean but without Maldonado’s engine failure, he would have finished 11th and he never really looked like troubling those ahead of him too much. Rosberg continues to struggle in the W03 and a 13th place finish is definitely not what the Doctor ordered. The ‘W-Duct’ rear-wing device clearly is producing too much rear downforce for the tyres to handle and coupled with the airflow to the front wing, it is leaving the car particularly tyre hungry.

Red Bull also need to find something. They are still 2nd in the Constructors Championship by the skin of their teeth and while both their cars were on for good points finishes, this really isn’t what we expected of the Milton Keynes team this season. After their dominance over the last two seasons it seems as though they’re going to have to fight a lot harder to bring the two trophies back home with them. With such a long gap between this race and the next race in China, it’ll be interesting to see whether they decide to rush new pieces out onto the car before the traditional start of the development race when the season hits Europe.

Finally, a quick word on Kimi. He proved once again that his time away hasn’t meant that he’s lost his pace. He set the fastest lap of the race today and looked very comfortable in his Lotus. The Finn said himself that he wants to see what him and the car can do in a ‘normal’ race situation so hopefully we’ll see that in three weeks time.

Driver Reaction:

Fernando Alonso – “We were not competitive in Australia or here, our goal was to score as many points as possible and we did the job. It is an unbelievable result, a great job from the team.The team deserve this win. It’s a tough time for us at the moment, but this is a Sunday we will remember.”

Sergio Perez – “I was catching Fernando towards end of the race, I knew I had to get him soon because in all the high-speed corners I was losing my front tyres running behind him. Then I ran wide in the quick left-hander. I touched the kerb and I went onto the dirty side of the track. It was completely wet and I lost the win.”

Lewis Hamilton – “I think we can be satisfied. First of all congratulations to Fernando and Sergio, they both drove fantastically well and it was very difficult to catch them. I can’t really complain, I was on the podium for the second race in a row.”

Felipe Massa – “I’m happy for him and for his team, but [how] disturbing [is it for me]? Zero. I’m looking more for myself, my driving, my work, I’m never looking for the others and whether them doing well is a problem for me or the opposite. I’m not like that. I’m happy for him because he did a great job.”

Sebastian Vettel – “Most crucially we lost radio communication and that makes it very difficult in these conditions to know what’s going on. To then lose the race how I did is very frustrating. Some people need to look more where they are going. Today it was crucial to come in at the right time. Having no radio meant we were delayed getting the messages and I didn’t hear anything from the team at the end.”

Mark Webber – “You’ve got to take your hat off to Fernando and Perez today, there were some good calls made at the front. It was a mixed-up race and it was good to get some points. There were some great strengths to take from this weekend. The team has been working really hard, so thanks to them. We know there will be more opportunities in the future.”

Kimi Raikkonen – “It was a bit difficult today. It was my first time on the wet weather Pirellis and I didn’t know how the intermediate or wet tyres would react – I had only completed one installation lap on them before. Once I found my way I could push much harder. Overall, we seemed to have a pretty strong package again this weekend, so I’m relatively happy. A fifth today was okay, but we’re always looking for better results.”

Bruno Senna – “I am really excited about the result today. I’m so happy that I have scored points for the team after a very tough race. It’s on days like to today that you can show what you can do in difficult conditions. I knew we had to attack after the restart, so it was very satisfying to push hard, not make any mistakes and to make my way up through the field. I’m so happy for everyone in the team.”

Michael Schumacher – “From where I started the race, it’s a real shame to grab just one point at the end today, and of course I would have wished for a better finish for our team after their hard work. It’s clear from today that there is still a lot of work for us to do to take our pace from qualifying into the race, and I am sure the guys are already thinking very hard about finding a solution. But this will not be done from one race to another, it will take some time, and we need to give it that time.”

Jean-Eric Vergne – “To go from eighteenth on the grid to eighth and in the points at the end is great. I stayed out for a long time on the intermediates after the start and then the Red Flag came along to help me so I was able to switch to extreme wets on the grid. After these two opening races, the overall performance has been quite good and I feel we can make progress in China starting from this good base line.”

Fernando Alonso celebrates his victory in Malaysia

Two races down, 18 to go. There’s a bit of a break between now and the next Grand Prix so it gives us all a chance to relax from the mad season we’re having so far. The Malaysian Grand Prix was a bit of a one-off but it still left a number of questions unanswered. Will Ferrari strike lucky again in China? Will Felipe Massa still be in a race seat by then? Can Red Bull get back on the podium? Can the McLarens finally score that belated 1-2? How will Mercedes remedy their tyre problems? And is there a better national anthem than the Italian national anthem? See you in three weeks!

Malaysian Grand Prix Preview

If Hamilton gets a better start this week then he could well be the man to beat

Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole for the second successive race. The McLaren driver clocked a 1:36.219 lap-time to head his teammate Jenson Button by a shade under two tenths. It was also the McLaren team’s second front row lockout of the season, underlining how good the car appears to be. Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes will start 3rd ahead of the two Red Bulls.

Intriguingly, reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel will start the race on the harder compound tyre having set his fastest Q3 time on it. That could be an intriguing strategy aspect in tomorrow’s race as he looks to save a pitstop and challenge the McLaren boys. Here’s how the session panned out:

Qualifying 1

There was no sign of the rain that blighted the start of FP3 and a number of teams went out straightaway to get to grips with the track. Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and Schumacher were all closely matched at the head of the field before Mark Webber set a 1:37.172 to top the timesheets at the end of Q1. Of course, the real attention in the session is focused on the rear of the grid. Felipe Massa avoided a surprise elimination by jumping from 18th to 11th fastest towards the end of the session – but at a cost of a set of medium compound tyres. The usual suspects were all facing a premature end to their qualifying session but HRT can at least be happy that they got within the 107% time and WILL start tomorrow’s race and they won’t even be last as Heikki Kovalainen’s grid penalty that he earned in Australia demotes him to 24th. Bruno Senna improved to relegate Jean-Eric Vergne to 18th and knock him out in Q1.

Eliminated:

• 18th Jean-Eric Vergne (Scuderia Toro Rosso) – 1:39.077
• 19th Vitaly Petrov (Caterham F1) – 1:39.567
• 20th Timo Glock (Marussia F1) – 1:40.903
• 21st Charles Pic (Marussia F1) – 1:41.250
• 22nd Pedro de la Rosa (HRT F1) – 1:42.941
• 23rd Narain Karthikeyan (HRT F1) – 1:43.655
• 24th  Heikki Kovalainen – 1:39.306 (5 place penalty)

Qualifying 2

Q2 is shaping up this season to be a thoroughly entertaining session as the closely matched midfield teams go all out to make the Q3 shootout. Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado both made early mistakes as they ran wide on fast laps while Raikkonen set the fastest time with a 1:36.715. Maldonado appeared to have damaged his Williams with his off-track excursion while Felipe Massa continued to struggle in his Ferrari despite a new chassis this weekend which team boss Stefano Domenicalli said would remedy his problems. Schumacher and Rosberg were briefly in trouble before they flexed their muscles and moved to safety. Both Williams cars were eliminated as well as the Force Indias while Kamui Kobayashi will be left wondering how he lost so much time to Perez.

Eliminated:

• 11th Pastor Maldonado (Williams F1) – 1:37.589
• 12th Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) – 1:37.731
• 13th Bruno Senna (Williams F1) – 1:37.841
• 14th Paul di Resta (Sahara Force India) – 1:37.877
• 15th Daniel Ricciardo (Scuderia Toro Rosso) – 1:37.883
• 16th Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India) – 1:37.890
• 17th Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber F1) – 1:38.069

Qualifying 3

All eyes were on McLaren to see just how fast they could go but Kimi Raikkonen,  facing a 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change in FP2, set the initial pace. Button beat that soon after but through came Lewis Hamilton who eclipsed that Button’s time by a staggering four tenths. Schumacher went P2 while Webber and Raikkonen pushed Button down the standings. In the second Ferrari, Fernando Alonso was once again wrestling his way round to 8th on the grid and Vettel’s decision to qualify on the hard tyres caught the eye of many of the teams down the pitlane. Button came back in the last few seconds of the session to give McLaren the 1-2 that they so desired.

Top 10:

1. Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) – 1:36.219
2. Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) – 1:36.368
3. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG Petronas) – 1: 36.391
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) – 1:36.461
5. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) – 1:36.634
6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1) – 1:36.658
7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG Petronas) – 1:36.664
8. Fernando Alonso (Scuderia Ferrari) – 1:37.566
9. Sergio Perez (Sauber F1) – 1:37.698
10. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus F1) – 1:36.461 (5 place penalty)

So two qualifying sessions down in the 2012 season and McLaren have firmly established themselves as the team to beat. It’s interesting though as they’re fast but only a tiny fraction faster than the rest of the field in their leanest trim. The car isn’t as dominant as the RB7 of last season but as long as that tiny fraction of a second remains then the Woking team will be very hard to shift.

Vettel’s tyre choice was the big talking point of Q3 but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of difference between the hard and medium compound tyres – as Pirelli predicted. So, will the gamble pay off? Well, it depends on the weather. If we have a dry race then he has a chance but a wet race would put him at a disadvantage as he’s going to lose time during the first stint and the wet tyres would level the playing field in the next stint, meaning he has very little opportunity to make up the time that he will have lost. It’s a brave call but I guess that’s what champions are made of.

Will 2012 be the year we see the old Michael Schumacher back in F1?

As for Mercedes, well tyre degradation will again be their problem. If they can manage their tyres well enough then they’ll be McLaren’s biggest challengers but their attempts to save a set of tyres in Q2 nearly left them in the drop zone meaning that had to use the set anyway. Schumacher again impressed and this car is definitely more to his liking while Rosberg just can’t carry the speed through the corners. If this means that we see a revitalised Schumi then I’m all in favour.

A quick word on the fortunes of Ferrari and Lotus. Felipe Massa is a man feeling the heat more than most in Sepang as talk of his imminent replacement grows. Unbelievably recently departed Rubens Barrichello is in line for a shock return to Maranello and other names such as Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil are in the frame. The favourite remains Sergio Perez who impressed once again the Sauber today while Massa’s disappointing performance will do nothing to dampen the speculation. Alonso deserves another word of praise for dragging his unpredictable F2012 into Q3. Lotus have to be happy with the performance of their car once again. Raikkonen would have split the Red Bulls without his gearbox change and set an identical time to Mark Webber while Grosjean put in another solid time to earn himself P7. I just hope to see what Kimi can do from a decent grid slot.

My predictions last week were pretty close; I got Button to win but Hamilton and  Schumacher ruined things a bit. I did correctly predict the first three into turn 1 but that’s about as good as it got. So this week I’m going for:

1. Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)
2. Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)
3. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing)

I’m backing on Hamilton not making the same mistakes that cost him last weekend and rediscovering some of his 2008 form but the most important thing is that I can’t see beyond a McLaren victory this weekend. If it rains though, anything could happen.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Tevez helped City to a 2-1 win last night but can the events of the past really be forgotten?

What a difference a month makes. Four weeks ago and Carlos Tevez had just returned to Manchester after his lengthy AWOL period in Argentina. With his tail between his legs, he made a grovelling apology to the club, the fans and manager Roberto Mancini. Last night Tevez returned to action, ironically coming off the bench, and set up Samir Nasri for the winning goal against Chelsea. It was the final step of Tevez’s reintegration with his team and the talk is now of Tevez powering City to their first Premier League title. My question is, do they really need him?

I can’t imagine many of the City first team welcoming Tevez back with open arms after he deserted them last September. That tension permeated the club and may have cost them against Swansea a couple of weeks ago. Tevez is not a different person, he is just back because he realised that no other club could afford to take him away from the Etihad. He needs to prove that he is willing to give 100% for the club, he needs to show passion and commitment whenever he steps on the pitch. I’d still treat him as if he’s ready to throw his toys out of the pram at any second and if it does then Mancini’s big gamble will have backfired spectacularly; what’s more is that any whiff of conflict between Tevez and his manager or teammates and the momentum swings back in United’s favour. Mancini is going to have to manage a very delicate balancing act here.

Don’t get me wrong, Tevez is a great player and any team would want him on their books but City coped perfectly well without him for the last six months.  They became a solid unit and despite losing the lead in the title race, they were still favourites to be crowned Champions come May. Mario Balotelli was finally getting his head down and putting in some important performances, will he now be left to rot on the bench while Tevez steals all the glory? Will Tevez himself be happy to be used in a rotation system when that was what got him all riled up six months ago?

We’ve seen clubs throw away their title chances time and time again: Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea and even Manchester United. The most common factor in their decline was over-tinkering and Manchester City could easily find themselves going the same way. Aguero, Balotelli and Tevez could in theory fill the slots in a 4-3-3 but City have been brilliant with their fluid 4-5-1 all season and who then would Mancini drop from the midfield in order to placate Tevez? The little Argentinian (Tevez, not Aguero) isn’t even at full fitness yet and a yard of pace could be the difference between 1 point and 3; with United looking so strong at the moment, every point counts.

Expect Mancini to go greyer before the end of the season

Yet Mancini could still turn Tevez into the most important player in the team. If I was Roberto, I’d use Tevez as a distraction. Take last night for example, the cameras were focused on Tevez even if as much as coughed and no-0ne remembers Aguero’s equalising penalty as well as the number of other chances he had. If you have the threat of Tevez on the bench, teams will have to come up with a plan to stop him just in case he comes on – that removes time for them to be focusing on your actual starting XI. Let Aguero and Balotelli get the early goals and bring Tevez on as an impact sub. If he impresses, give him a start here and there. Simple.

What interested me though about last night, and gave an insight into how little Mancini trusts Tevez’s fitness right now, was when he substituted Balotelli for Gareth Barry at half-time. You’ve got a world-class striker on the bench who is raring to go and he brings on a central midfielder. Maybe it was used to show Tevez that his road to regular football won’t be an easy one to walk but clearly there is still some resentment from Mancini to Tevez. The fans won’t forget what he did and unless he starts banging in the goals, they’ll be on his back straightaway.

Tevez doesn’t really change anything in regards to where the Premier League trophy is heading at the end of this season. The deciding game will still be City vs United on Monday 30th April but he could provide that extra talent that gives City the advantage. Conversely, he could just decide that Manchester is not really his scene and head off back to Argentina again. City have to face Stoke, Arsenal and Newcastle away before the end of the season while United have a much kinder run-in. Sir Alex Ferguson will be eyeing the return of Tevez intently, looking for any sign of trouble that he can exploit. Tevez cannot expect to waltz back into first team football and the affections of the City fans and Mancini has to ensure that he stays in control, that the players do not become distracted from their goal. Like I said, Tevez is a gamble but the rewards are enormous if it pays off.

Manning, Tebow and the Broncos

The Broncos proudly unveil their new signing but at what cost?

The Denver Broncos are the team that won the Peyton Manning Lottery and boy Tim Tebow cannot be happy about it. Manning is what he is – a future Hall of Famer and an all-time great of the game who has single handedly led teams to the Playoffs and Super Bowl in the past, but that is the key phrase… the past. Manning spent the entire 2011 season on the sidelines with a well documented neck injury. His previous team, the Indianapolis Colts, had only just signed Manning to a new $90 million contract and were forced to release him from the roster to recoup some of their losses.

Several teams showed an interest in signing Manning but the Broncos were never really at the forefront of those discussions because they had Tim Tebow. Tebow, a rough-around-the-edges QB, enjoyed an extraordinary breakthrough season for the Broncos in 2011. He lacked a fluid passing game but would rush the ball himself, often for lengthy gains and had an ability to drag his team from the jaws of defeat at the end of the 3rd quarter to a breathtaking victory at the end of the 4th. He would often cite his much parodied deep Christian beliefs as the reason for his success. The Broncos seemed to be moulding into a unit around Tebow, something that every great team does. They began to trust him and compensate for his lack of passing ability while he gave them hope that no matter how bad things got, there was a way out of trouble. My concern is that Manning will disrupt that harmony.

Tebow had an internet craze of 'Tebowing' named after him, where people would recreate his famous prayer position before he took to the field

It seems like a massive gamble by the Broncos to risk their season on the hopes of someone who was on the decline as a football player even before his injury. Reports suggest that Manning will be earning $96 million over the course of his contract with the Broncos so you have to feel that Tebow will be traded out. What if Manning fails to deliver? The Broncos will be left with an under-performing QB and a team that whose illusions of greatness have been brought crashing back down to Earth. Manning said at the press conference where he was unveiled that “this is a truly special football environment, and I’m glad to be a part of it” – how much of that is down to Tim Tebow though? Would Manning have even looked at the Broncos had Tebow not led them to the Playoffs? Maybe he thought that Tebow would be easier to dislodge at starting QB than Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers.

Ironically, the Manning/Tebow partnership could work quite well. If the Broncos could work it that Manning would play the first half while Tebow played the second then Manning wouldn’t strain himself too much while Tebow could still conduct his last quarter magic. Unfortunately for the Broncos I don’t think Tim Tebow will be too keen on that idea. Inevitably, Manning will have the main QB slot but if he gets injured again and Tebow isn’t there to pick up the pieces then the Broncos can pretty much kiss goodnight to any chance of making the Playoffs. The reaction on twitter was very much of surprise but also of defence of Tebow and his record.

On bleacherreport.com, they rightly point out the Broncos’ offensive staff have been crying out for a QB who can pass the ball for a while now (well, you would seeing as half the playbook is devoted to throwing the ball) but I’m not sure Manning is the man for the job. He’s already stirred up some of the Broncos faithful by taking Frank Tripucka’s legendary number 18 jersey (the same number Peyton wore at the Colts) but his new teammates have seemingly welcomed him with open arms. “It makes you think big” said linebacker R0bert Ayers before adding “if you look at it historically, the teams that won the Super Bowl are teams with a guy like Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees and Eli (Manning) and Aaron Rodgers and all those guys. So it definitely makes you confident.” If that isn’t a clear kick in the teeth for Tebow then I don’t know what is. Yes Manning has won a Super Bowl but that was a long time ago now, many are even saying that Eli is the Manning brother you want right now which is food for thought.

Manning or Tebow - the Broncos have a difficult decision to make if they retain the latter's services

Whatever happens with Peyton and the Broncos this season it’ll be fascinating to watch. The Broncos are about the only team that could afford Manning financially but if they lose Tim Tebow I still think they’ll regret that in a few years time. Manning may put the Broncos in the frame for the Playoffs but he still lacks the firepower to drag a team over the finish line at the Super Bowl and for $96 million that is what the Broncos have to demand of their new leader.

Kauto Star: The End of the Legend?

Kauto Star powers up the hill at Cheltenham on his way to winning the 2009 Gold Cup but have we seen the last of the great chaser on that hallowed turf?

Everyone loves Kauto Star. People who never usually watch horse racing love him. Even those deeply entwined with the sport obsess over him. Why? Because he’s a tryer. He never gives less than 100% every single time he races and he has rightly become a bit of a sporting hero – which is why Friday’s events were made all the harder.

The 2012 Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup was billed as a straight showdown between a rejuvenated Kauto and the young pretender, Long Run (as it turned out, neither of them would claim the prize.) Kauto Star had seemingly returned back to his best form after a rocky past couple of years, going from being pulled up at Punchestown in May to beating a heavily favoured Long Run at the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November before winning a record fifth King George VI Chase on Boxing Day. The stage was set for a classic Gold Cup rematch between two of the best horses of their generation in their prime but sadly fate robbed us of that opportunity as Kauto fell heavily over the gallops at his yard. While he could still make the Gold Cup, it was unlikely that he would be at full fitness.

Ruby Walsh pulls up Kauto Star during the 2012 Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup

Sure enough, he made the elite field that would compete for jump racing’s greatest prize. When he made his way around the parade ring, he was given a cheer that is usually confined to the Winner’s Enclosure and was still a close second favourite in the betting despite his injury. Even in the early stages of the race, the plucky chaser looked in very good shape and was nicely positioned too but then going over the open ditch he tweaked a muscle and promptly fell back down the field. Jockey Ruby Walsh had no option but to pull him up. He was cheered even then, people were too happy to see that he was safe to care about lost money. For Kauto Star, the chance of a third Gold Cup was over.

Where does National Hunt racing turn to for its next superstar? Before this year’s race I would have said Long Run without any shadow of a doubt – he’s young, he’s fast, he’s a brilliant stayer and has at least two more Gold Cups in him. Yet the way he was beaten so convincingly by Synchronized and even The Giant Bolster suggests that his best might be behind him. If he comes back and wins it next year then hats off to him but we may be waiting a while for a new hero to step forward. Sir Des Champs and Sprinter Sacre both looked deeply impressive at the Festival this year and are well worth keeping an eye on for the future.

This was likely to be Kauto’s last Gold Cup anyway (he’s 12 years old after all) but the fragility of his race may force trainer Paul Nicholls and owner Clive Smith to retire him. Nicholls has said however that all talk of Kauto’s retirement is “very premature”. If he does choose to retire the great gelding then Kauto Star will be remembered as one of the best loved and fastest steeplechasers in history. I have fond memories of the horse myself.

The first time I saw Kauto Star in action was by accident when I saw highlights of a race at Exeter where he unseated Ruby at the second last despite having a giant lead leaving Ruby to climb back on to him minus his stirrups and chase down the new leader, falling short by a head. When I saw that he would be lining up in the 2007 Gold Cup I tuned in and witnessed the emergence of a superstar as he beat Exotic Dancer by a couple of lengths and I think that is when the public began to take Kauto Star to their hearts too. He was defeated by Denman at the 2008 running of the classic race but became the first horse to regain the Gold Cup after storming to victory by 13 lengths over Denman in 2009 in what was an absolute masterclass.

Trainer Paul Nicholls poses with Kauto Star and his stablemate Denman

My biggest personal memory of Kauto Star came when I was working at Cheltenham Racecourse during the 2010 Gold Cup week (studying in Cheltenham means that the whole town pretty much shuts down during those four days).  All week had been building up to Kauto Star vs Denman round three but in the end Imperial Commander took the spoils on a wet Friday afternoon. You could hear the cheers for Kauto reverberate around the racecourse before the start and you could sense that something quite special was in the air. I managed to time my break to coincide with the Gold Cup race itself and managed to position myself quite nicely down by the famous Cheltenham Hill. As soon as it started raining, I knew that Denman would stand more of a chance than Kauto but just seeing him in action was enough. I’ve been lucky enough to see a few sporting legends in my time – Federer, Nadal, Woods, Tom Watson, McCoy, Vettel and soon Usain Bolt but I would count Kauto amongst the best. That was the afternoon that he unseated Ruby at the start of the second lap of the course and when it happened there was no real outburst of emotion. One guy near me had put £1,000 on Kauto to win but he didn’t have a breakdown or become aggressive, he just shrugged and said that he bet with his heart. That’s what Kauto Star could do – make you feel as though the impossible could be possible, make you feel as though you HAD to support him.

This is without even mentioning his five King George triumphs. I don’t think I’ll ever see a racehorse as good as Kauto Star for a very, very long time and when I do it’ll be a struggle for it to get anywhere near the level of admiration I have for that French monster. If you still need convincing as to how good Kauto is or was here are some stats:

• Probably Kauto’s most impressive statistic is his record in Grade 1 Chases. In his first six years in Britain he competed in 18 Grade 1 races over distances from 2 miles to 3¼ miles. He completed 15, winning 14, with his solitary second place coming in the 2008 Gold Cup to his stablemate Denman.

• With his 2011 Gold Cup third place, Kauto kept his record of never finishing outside the places in any of his 27 completed races in his seven seasons in Britain.

• His official rating of 193 given after his fourth King George win was the highest ever awarded to a steeplechaser.

• He’s the only horse to have won the King George five times.

• He’s the only horse to have ever regained the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

• He’s the only horse to have ever won two separate Grade 1 (or Group 1) races over four times (Betfair Chase four times and King George VI Chase five times).

• He has won more prize money than any other National Hunt horse in the history of the sport.

• He is the only horse to win Grade 1 races in seven consecutive seasons.

• He is the only horse to have won 16 Grade 1 races in total

An incredible horse and one that I’m sure we’ll all miss when he finally does retire but this story goes beyond the record books, he will be remembered as a true great of the sport because he embodied the best of the human spirit. People will say “I was there when Kauto Star raced” – I know I will.

Jenson on the Button in Australia

Jenson Button stormed to victory in the first Grand Prix of the 2012 Formula 1 season. Button, the 2009 World Champion, rarely looked troubled after he leapfrogged his teammate Lewis Hamilton off the start line with his only cause for concern coming when his lead was wiped out during a Safety Car period. Sebastian Vettel drove a confident if slightly lucky race to finish in 2nd while Hamilton looked dejected despite taking the final podium spot. Mark Webber pushed Hamilton close but just couldn’t overhaul the McLaren while Alonso took fifth, limiting the damage to Ferrari’s reputation.

Jenson Button beams after taking top spot Down Under

The race itself was a typically thrilling Australian Grand Prix with the lack of in-season developments and the new regulations left the field closely bunched up and battles waged throughout the grid. As the two McLarens pulled away at the front, Vettel brilliantly sliced his way around the outside of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes into the Clark chicane. Romain Grosjean failed to translate a strong qualifying into a decent race performance after he crashed out following contact with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Raikkonen in the other Lotus began to make his way through the pack along with Sergio Perez who quickly made amends for his 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Felipe Massa continued to struggle in the Ferrari but Fernando Alonso finally looked to have got to grips with his troublesome challenger, suggesting that the car runs better on heavier fuel.

Michael Schumacher’s day started brightly after he moved up into 3rd off the start but a loss of hydraulics soon brought about a premature end to the German’s afternoon. Rosberg struggled with tyre degradation and an overall lack of pace and finished down in 12th after contact with Perez on the final lap. Button continued to lead as Vettel closed down Hamilton after the first stops but the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov brought out the Safety Car when his car ground to a halt down the pit straight, leaving the marshalls unable to safely remove it. McLaren had brought in Button and Hamilton the lap before, working beautifully to avoid them queuing but all that hard work was about to be undone.  When the Safety Car is deployed, the driver has to drive to a target time or ‘delta’ to ensure that he isn’t speeding under the Safety Car conditions and when Hamilton exited the pits he had to cruise around the circuit to make sure he did not exceed the delta time. Vettel meanwhile could go faster knowing that he would be pitting the next lap and his time in the pits would ensure he would not exceed the delta time. Sure enough, when Vettel rejoined he was ahead of Hamilton to the delight of his Red Bull mechanics.

They ran 1-2 in the early stages, but Hamilton was left lamenting a lost chance to claim a precious win as Button cruised to victory

Webber was also able to get the jump over Alonso thanks to the Safety Car and it was now a straight fight between the McLarens and the Red Bulls. Further back Perez was making use of his one stop strategy, the Toro Rosso’s were proving that their strong showing in testing was not just a flash in the pan and Pastor Maldonado was hounding Alonso for fifth. Hamilton struggled for pace from the restart and was gradually dropped by Vettel while Button was able to manage the gap back to 2nd place. Massa’s afternoon came to an unsavoury end when he tangled with Bruno Senna which retired both the Williams and the Ferrari. Heikki Kovalainen retired the second Caterham with a steering issue and was handed a five place grid penalty for Malaysia after he overtook two cars before the Safety Car line when he pitted while the Safety Car was out on track.

That was how it was set to finish until the final chaotic lap which saw a number of incidents and changes in position. Firstly Pastor Maldonado, who massively impressed me despite my accusation that he didn’t merit being in the race seat, threw away his chance of a big points haul when he clipped the astro turf coming out of the Lauda corner and without the aid of a blown diffuser, was catapulted into the concrete wall. Behind him, Perez was nursing badly worn tyres when Rosberg tried to lunge round the outside of turn 10; they touched and Rosberg was forced to limp home, being passed by all those around him. That allowed Kobayashi and Raikkonen through into 6th and 7th while Perez had to handle the two Toro Rosso’s and Paul di Resta’s Force India. Out of the final corner, di Resta powered past Jean-Eric Vergne to score a 10th place that had looked unlikely just a few corners before. Ricciardo took 9th and his first ever points finish while Perez held on to eighth from 22nd on the grid with a superb one stop. At the front of the field, one man was in a class of his own and for once he wasn’t driving a Red Bull as Button took the chequered flag – the 2012 season looks set to be a cracker!

Provisional Classification:

1. 1. Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)  1hr34:09.565
2. 2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) + 2.139
3. 3. Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) + 4.075
4. 4. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) + 4.547
5. 5. Fernando Alonso (Scuderia Ferrari) + 21.565
6. 6. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber F1) + 36.766
7. 7. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus F1) + 38.014
8. 8. Sergio Perez (Sauber F1) + 39.458
9. 9. Daniel Ricciardo (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 39.556
10. 10. Paul di Resta (Sahara Force India) + 39.737
11. 11. Jean-Eric Vergne (Scuderia Toro Rosso) + 39.848
12. 12. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG Petronas) + 57.642
13. 13. Pastor Maldonado (Williams F1) + 1 Lap
14. 14. Timo Glock (Marussia F1)  + 1 Lap
15. 15. Charles Pic (Marussia F1) + 5 Laps

Not Classified:

• Bruno Senna (Williams F1) – Damage, Lap 54
• Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) – Collision, Lap 47
• Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham F1) – Steering, Lap 42
• Vitaly Petrov (Caterham F1) – Hydraulics, Lap 37
• Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG Petronas) – Hydraulics, Lap 11
• Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1) – Damage, Lap 2
• Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India) – Damage, Lap 1
• Pedro de la Rosa (HRT F1) – Did Not Start
• Nahrain Karthikeyan (HRT F1) – Did Not Start

Drivers’ Championship Standings:

1. Jenson Button – 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel – 18 Points
3. Lewis Hamilton – 15 Points
4. Mark Webber – 12 Points
5. Fernando Alonso – 10 Points
6. Kamui Kobayashi – 8 Points
7. Kimi Raikkonen – 6 Points
8. Sergio Perez – 4 Points
9. Daniel Ricciardo – 2 Points
10. Paul di Resta – 1 Point

Constructors Championship Standings:

1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – 40 Points
2. Red Bull Racing – 30 Points
3. Sauber F1 – 12 Points
4. Scuderia Ferrari – 10 Points
5. Lotus F1 – 6 Points
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 2 Points
7. Sahara Force India – 1 Point

Analysis and Comment

What can we learn from the opening round of the season? Well, Red Bull have seemingly gone the opposite way in performance to last season with a much stronger race showing than in qualifying. Vettel wasn’t able to simply pull out a gap in the early stages and maintain it throughout the race but that meant that we finally got to see the true racer underneath that helmet as his sensational move on Rosberg demonstrated. Webber seems more at ease with the tyres and the car this season too and we should expect to see some stronger performances from the Australian this year. The RB8 still wasn’t looking as good as its predecessor as Vettel still ended up sliding across the run-off area on the outside of turn 1 when he was chasing Schumacher. Clearly the rear of the car is still not quite in the right area as the team seek to make up for the lost performance that the lack of a blown diffuser brings. Both drivers will have to adapt their driving style to the new regulations as I got the impression that Vettel was flinging the car in expecting the diffuser to still be aiding him when it just won’t anymore. I’m sure Mr Newey and co. will have a raft of upgrades prepared to remedy the issue but how badly will it hurt their performance over the first few flyaway races?

Sebastian Vettel has got to be satisfied with finishing 2nd after a poor qualifying session on Saturday

The McLaren MP4-27 is by far the best looking car on the grid but it also appears to be the fastest at this stage. It is very well balanced on both high and low fuel, has superb traction and most importantly a high level of downforce combined with decent straight line speed. The car seems to suit Jenson’s driving style much more than Lewis’ and I don’t think it is as twitchy as Lewis would like it to be under race conditions which is probably why he wasn’t able to match Jenson today. It is also very kind on its tyres, beaten only by the RB8 in that respect, but crucially it does warm up the Pirellis a lot faster than the Red Bull does which is something that has cost McLaren in the past couple of seasons. We all know that McLaren are the kings of in-season development but for once they are at the head of the field at the beginning of the season. Hopefully they can at least match and even exceed the rate of development at Red Bull to give us a truly thrilling title fight that goes down to the wire. With Jenson looking so smooth and in control today, Lewis will have to up his game at Malaysia this weekend before the tabloid press starts asking questions.

Sauber were the pick of the midfield after round one and sit a rather unexpected 3rd in the Constructors Championship

Sauber were by far the biggest surprise of the weekend. Starting in 13th and 22nd, few would have predicted a double points finish for the Swiss outfit but Kobayashi and Perez are a young and exciting duo who never give in. Perez again showed his prowess on the Pirelli tyres by completing a one stop strategy while Kobayashi showed Kimi Raikkonen some of the explosive overtaking that the Finn has missed from Kobayashi since he left the sport. The car never really looked in too much trouble and despite Perez having a damaged front wing endplate after contact on the first lap, he never really had to fight a great deal of understeer. Despite the talk being about Mercedes and Lotus’ possible performance, Sauber have snuck under the radar and given a few teams plenty to worry about next Sunday.

At Ferrari, there was a sense of doom about their prospects in the race. While the 2012 car is pretty handy over 1 lap, as long as the driver can wrestle it round,  it has a tendency to devour its tyres. Massa was on the radio complaining about rear degradation just 10 laps into the race and duly became the first man to pit for a fresh set of rubber while Alonso spent much of the afternoon in management mode – trying to manage the tyres, trying to manage to keep the car pointing in the right direction and trying to manage Maldonado all over his gearbox. Massa struggled all weekend and never looked like troubling the points, his retirement after contact with Senna giving the Fiorano outfit a clear illustration that they should start seeking a replacement for the number 2 seat. Alonso on the other hand is an absolute superstar of the sport in my eyes and I’m relishing seeing him outperform the car this season. Vettel, Hamilton and Button can all have their almost perfectly designed machines but Fernando’s 5th place today was one of his best drives and my respect for his abilities has grown even more. I’m sure he’d like a more balanced car but as long as he keeps dragging that thing across the line in a respectable position, his stock within the F1 world will only keep climbing.

Michael Schumacher disconsolately pushes his Mercedes W03 back to the garage after retiring from the Australian Grand Prix

Mercedes had an absolutely disastrous race. Tipped to be the surprise team of the weekend (rumours of a possible podium were widespread) yet they sacrificed too much of their race performance on ensuring a good qualifying position. They clearly wanted a front row grid slot and were running with a high top speed setting; the gear ratio pattern needed for that to work meant that they never got close to the big boys as they ran more moderate gearings. Schumacher looked strong in the early stages and I would have been fascinated to see how the battle between him and Vettel would have panned out. If nothing else, hopefully the fact that he has a strong car underneath him will inspire some of the old Schumacher back into life. Rosberg will even more unhappy tonight. The past two seasons he has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with as he outqualified and outscored his more illustrious teammate but on Saturday he was left down in 7th place in qualifying and his race today was marred by higher than expected tyre degradation and a collision with Perez that robbed him and the team of some much needed points. The W03 is the most innovative car on the grid but like the Ferrari it seems that a step forward in one area means a step back in another. They need to live up to their potential soon or they’ll be relegated back to the midfield.

Lotus too failed to live up to their billing. Grosjean had a terrible getaway and was down in 7th when he tangled with Maldonado while Kimi’s qualifying showing was nowhere near as strong as he had been in testing. His race pace was good and he fought well to finish 7th but he should have been even higher. The talk was that Lotus had the most balanced car on the grid but Raikkonen didn’t find it easy to pass the others and would have been down in 9th had Perez and Rosberg not collided. The team needs to focus on qualifying because I’m sure that the car is probably better than the Ferrari and the Sauber but it can’t live up to that billing if it’s going to be stuck behind a Toro Rosso for half the race. Oh, but Kimi deserves an award for his radio transmission of the day for his shouting and demanding to know “why am I getting the blue flags all the time?” only to be told that they are for the cars that he is trying to lap… It’s been a while eh, Kimi?

Maldonado rues his mistake after hitting the concrete wall and missing out on 6th place

Oh how different it could have been for Williams. Maldonado was absolutely superb today right up until he made the tiniest mistake on the last lap of the race.   Chasing Alonso for fifth, he momentarily took his eye off the ball and lost the backend leaving him hurtling into the wall and out of the race. His potential 8 points for 6th place would have been more than Williams scored throughout all of last season and would have given the team a much needed boost in morale. Despite that, I was impressed by both the FW34 and Maldonado. The car looks to be a very solid midfield performer and the team finally have a decent engine under them which is where they were losing a lot of time last season. Maldonado too looked very strong today, he stayed with Alonso pretty much all race and despite an early collision with Grosjean was never really troubled until the last lap incident. I may have thought he was simply there because of his sponsorship connections but today he showed everyone that he is a very talented racer and hats off to him for that. It was a different story for Bruno Senna mind you. I had high hopes that finally he would be able to prove himself in a decent race seat but he never got going this weekend. He was way down in qualifying and was t-boned at the start today and despite making up some of the time that he lost, threw it all away with a sloppy collision with fellow countryman Massa. There’s talent there but it’s very rusty and Williams need him to perform to recover some of the pride that they lost last season.

Force India were by far my biggest disappointment of the day. I had very high hopes for the team this season with an exciting driver line-up and a pretty good car but today just wasn’t their day. Hulkenberg got tagged at the start which left him out after the first lap and while di Resta scored a point, it wouldn’t have happened had Perez not been holding up the Toro Rossos. The main issue seemed to be that the tyres just weren’t working how the team expected and di Resta often seemed to be struggling to get the power down. The team can be satisfied with a point for now but Vijay Maliya has lofty ambitions and having axed the consistent Adrian Sutil, results are required sooner rather than later.

As for the rest of the teams, Toro Rosso were very consistent today. Ricciardo took two well earned points while Vergne easily could’ve taken one for himself if he hadn’t lost traction out of the final corner on the last lap and let di Resta through. The battle between those two teammates will be one to follow this season. Caterham had some clear reliability issues, as they had in testing. Both Petrov and Kovalainen retired their cars and for separate reasons – that will worry the boys back in Norfolk! The car is a step up but still not enough to bridge the gap to the more established teams and they still won’t do that until the reliability is fixed. Marussia might have finished 14th and 15th and last of the classified finishers but at least they reached the chequered flag. The car had done no real mileage before Friday practice and it actually doesn’t look too bad. Charles Pic clearly struggled to get to grips with F1 as his + 5 laps statistic shows but Glock was more at home in the new car than last year’s effort. If they finish every race until the end of the season then they will finish above Caterham in the Constructors Championship – a big incentive. The less said about HRT the better really and hopefully they’ll be able to make the grid in Sepang although they need to improve their mirrors and radio communication as Karthikeyan was blissfully unaware of both Vettel and Alonso behind him during Q1 on Saturday.

Driver Reaction:

Jenson Button – “As a team it really shows how important the winter is. We had a really strong winter and qualifying really shows that. It’s nice to come away with a win in the first race of the season. Every win means a lot to you.”

Lewis Hamilton – “It was obviously a tough race – but congratulations to Jenson, it was a great finish for him. It would have been great to have had a one-two but it just wasn’t a good day for me. I just struggled out there and got a really shocking start which was the beginning of it all.”

Sebastian Vettel – “I’m very happy with myself today – I think it was the most we could have achieved. I felt good in the car. Congratulations to McLaren and to Jenson, I think he drove a fantastic race and was unbeatable today. I think we had a better car in the race and it seems to have a lot of potential, now it’s up to us to get to it.”

Mark Webber – “There are some positives to take out of today. Qualifying was difficult for us, but the race pace was better today, it was just that we didn’t have track position. We had a bit of luck with the safety car and I was quicker than Lewis at the end, but it’s a difficult track to overtake here – in Malaysia it would have been a different story. It was a strong start.”

Fernando Alonso – “We knew it would be a very complicated race and I am happy I managed to bring home a useful number of points. Today the car was better than yesterday and we were closer to the leaders. However, we still have a lot of work to do to reach those who are ahead of us in terms of performance. We are probably a second off pole and there are seven or eight teams who are all very close to one another. In one sense, that’s good news because if we can improve by a few tenths, then we can make up a few places. Next week in Malaysia will be a trial by fire, because Sepang is a verydemanding circuit, for the cars and the tyres.”

Felipe Massa – “This has been a really poor weekend for me. Already yesterday I suffered because the car was badly balanced and today, it was probably even worse, because after a few laps I was struggling with the tyres. The car was sliding and the degradation was much greater than for the others. I would not say I was driving aggressively and I was actually trying not to be hard on the tyres, but there was nothing I could do. We must work to understand why we could not reproduce the right balance on the car, as we had for example at the Barcelona tests. As for the contact with Senna, I think we can consider it a racing incident.”

Nico Rosberg – “The race did not turn out as we had hoped. The end was particularly unfortunate with Perez when we touched on the straight, causing a puncture which took away a points scoring finish. We have a lot of work to do to understand what went wrong, and how we can use the full potential which our car definitely shows. I’m still positive as Malaysia is a completely different track so I’m looking ahead to next weekend now.”

Michael Schumacher – “It was an unfortunate end to my race when I lost drive going into turn one. I was trying different gears and occasionally the drive came back, but in the end, I had to go onto the grass to avoid the risk of the car being forced into a spin. It was especially unfortunate as we have not had this problem during the winter tests and were very reliable. I believe I could have had a good race this afternoon, and I can still take some positives out of the weekend as we have seen our car was confirming our feelings, and is definitely a clear step forward.”

Kimi Raikkonen – “I believe I could have had a good race this afternoon, and I can still take some positives out of the weekend as we have seen our car was confirming our feelings, and is definitely a clear step forward. Overall the weekend was far from ideal, but the car feels good and to come back to 7th means we at least come away with some points.”

Romain Grosjean – “I think we could have achieved a great result today. It’s frustrating as I really wanted to make the chequered flag and even the podium, but on the positive side the car is performing very well. I was keeping pace with the guys in front of me and everything was looking good. The team deserved better because they have been working very hard, but by tomorrow morning it will all be a memory.”

Kamui Kobayashi – “I am very happy – for the team and myself. Finishing sixth is a great start to the season. After the start I nearly crashed into Bruno (Senna) who spun in front of me. I was lucky to avoid hitting him, but at the same time Sergio could not avoid touching me and then I had to do the whole race with a damaged rear wing.”

Sergio Perez – “”After I had to start last on the grid because of changing the gear box I knew I had to try everything to gain positions right after the start. I managed to get into 12th behind Kamui and touched his car while he had to avoid crashing into the Williams car in front of him. My front wing was then damaged and this was only one of the difficulties I had today during the race. I also had to save tyres, also for some time fuel, and I had to fight to defend my position. It really was a tough race for me.”

Pastor Maldonado – “The car looked good today. Our pace was quick and consistent and we were looking competitive right up until the moment I had on the last lap, which is very important. Unfortunately, I just lost the back of the car while pushing Alonso and I had nowhere to go.”

Daniel Ricciardo – “I don’t really know how that happened on the last lap. I saw blue flags and a lot of cars in front and I was sure I could make up at least one place because it was chaos. I was a bit lucky to be the last one in that group because I could have a clear picture of the other cars going off in front. Then I had a chance to attack Jean-Eric. He defended into Turn 13 and I thought I could make the switch back and I did, which put me in P9. The last few laps were crazy and I was pushing like hell. It was not easy to come back, but I never gave up, pushing all the time. I’m extremely happy and it’s great to score my first F1 points here at home in Australia, where the crowd has been just fantastic all weekend long.”

Paul di Resta – “It’s always nice to start the season with a point, but it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me. Fortunately I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner, which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line for tenth. So it was a pretty exciting final lap. It’s a good way to start the season, but it’s clear we have a lot of work to do because we were struggling for pace at the start of each stint, which hurt my overall race pace. Even so, considering where I started and the weekend we’ve had, I don’t think I can be disappointed to have come away with a point.”

One of these men will be World Champion come December but who will it be?

So there we go then, race one done and dusted. But don’t think there’ll be a nice long break between now and the next one as round two takes place this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We’ll bring you the qualifying review and race preview on Saturday before the comprehensive race review on the Sunday. Hope you enjoyed reading this and see you on Saturday!

Round-Up/Australian Grand Prix Preview/Get Well Soon Fabrice Muamba

Well, what a busy few days it has been in the world of sport. We’ve seen: Synchronized win the Gold Cup in sensational style and Kauto Star bow out of Cheltenham with dignity (a blog post on him coming up in the next few days), Wales clinch a brilliant Grand Slam in the Six Nations, Sachin Tendulkar finally reach his 100th international century as well as the beginning of the 2012 Formula 1 season and tragic events in North London – more of which later. It’s been a crazy week and one that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed (not least of which because I finished £80 up on my bets at Cheltenham.)

Let’s have a more in-depth look at the Australian Grand Prix and let me announce a fairly ambitious project that The Eternal Sunshine will be undertaking for the entire F1 season. We’ll be aiming to cover every race, bringing in analysis and opinion in the form of a race preview after qualifying and a race review after the main event on the Sunday. Hopefully it’ll be a season to remember and not just a constant stream of S. Vettel at the top of the timesheets and leaderboards. Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year then you’ll know that the BBC have lost the exclusive rights to broadcast F1 until 2018 and they will now be forced to share the coverage with Sky. The BBC will broadcast 10 races live with the rest being covered by highlights later in the day while Sky will be showing every session of every race weekend live and in “High Definition with Dolby 5.1 surround sound” as the rather scary voiceover man keeps telling me everytime I switch on the new channel. Oh yeah, they’ve dedicated an entire channel to F1, GP2 and GP3 (no Le Mans?) which is a clear sign of their dedication to a sport that they have pretty much neglected to mention for the last 10 years. So for this part of the preview I’d like to discuss the Sky broadcasting effort.

Who will win the ratings war?

I’ve watched every single session on Sky so far and the coverage has actually been very good – typical Sky though, lots of shiny graphics and random features that are under the illusion that they bring the viewer closer to the sport but we all know that they are just fillers. I liked their feature on Caterham but there is very much of an ITV feel when it comes to the stats they like to feature before the ad breaks. The presenting team are by far the biggest issue so far. Simon Lazenby is still very green when it comes to F1 and has very much the look of the new boy trying to fit in – he missed a golden opportunity to make a name for himself when he didn’t try and doorstop Alonso when the Spaniard was heading back to the pits after crashing out of Q2. Martin Brundle is still Martin Brundle, very knowledgeable, quite a big ego about his credentials and wanting to be lead presenter while Damon Hill is Sky’s Eddie Jordan without any of the brashness. I loved Damon as a driver but at Sky he never seems to talk without being spoken to which is a shame because he has some good opinions and insight. Ted Kravitz is charming as ever but may face competition from the BBC which we’ll discuss in a second. The main bugbear of my time watching the channel though was the presence of the “Skypad” – basically a studio that houses a giant touchscreen and where Georgie Thompson apparently is caged during the race weekend. She offers nothing to the coverage other than going “Go on then Anthony Davidson, tell everyone what they need to know while I stand here and look pretty” – typical Sky then. As for the rest of the programming, David Croft is a decent commentator but needs to stop trying to out-Murray the great Murray Walker and the ad breaks need to be introduced better. Oh and get some decent programming on the channel, don’t just repeat the same old shows over and over!

I came away from Sky to watch the BBC’s efforts and that’s when it hit me – Sky just didn’t match up. Jake Humphrey is a much better presenter than Lazenby and has a much more natural rapport with the drivers and his co-presenter. Coulthard is much more relaxed in his role as a number 2 and Ben Edwards is perhaps the most talented commentator working at the moment. Where the BBC has really upped the game though is in the technical analysis. Ted Kravitz was very good at his job but could only go so far in his analysis but his replacement, ex-Jordan designer Gary Anderson, can be much more detailed. His reports so far have been simply superb and enlightening, check out his analysis of Ferrari’s woes for example. The BBC’s coverage was just slicker and the change in personnel has really freshened the feel of the programme up and the reduced running time has also improved the show. It wasn’t like Sky was bad but as my girlfriend put it, it was like having to adjust to Matt Smith as The Doctor after being used to David Tennant, who she loves. Round one to BBC then.

Away from the broadcasting, qualifying itself was a thrilling affair. I can’t remember a session as exciting as that for many years. The field is so tightly packed this season that anyone from McLaren, Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes or even the Williams’ could have taken pole position. Let’s go through session by session.

Qualifying 1

With 24 cars on track the biggest problem in the opening minutes was traffic with the HRT of Nahrain Karthikeyan attracting particular criticism as he held up first Alonso then Vettel. Neither HRT would set a time within 107% of the quickest time in Q1 so will not make the grid – a relief to the rest of the cars I’m sure. The usual suspects of Marussia (formerly Virgin) and Caterham were eliminated after Q1 but by far the biggest shock of the session and of the day was Kimi Raikonnen’s sloppy performance that left him down in 18th, later revised to 17th after Perez got a penalty for replacing his gearbox. Raikonnen had struggled all weekend with a steering issue and never looked like matching the pace of his less experienced teammate. A mistake coming out of the Waite chicane that put him on the grass cost him a faster time and it’ll be fascinating to see how he makes up the places tomorrow.

Qualifying 2

Q2 was always going to be a tight battle with one big team going out and that big team turned out to be Ferrari. They’ve struggled with their car all through the winter and in Melbourne it looked twitchier than ever with Massa ending up in the gravel in practice and Alonso wrestling the car almost every lap. The pull-rod front suspension seems to have not worked the way the team expected although we’re truly seeing how good a driver Alonso is and that can only be good for the neutral. Massa just couldn’t handle the imbalance of the car and ended up 16th. Alonso was just getting his eye in and looking like he could scrape into Q3 but he dropped a wheel onto the grass on the entry to turn 1 and ended up beached in the gravel, leaving him 12th. Another disappointment were the two Saubers who again failed to live up to their winter testing pace and they ended up 13th and 22nd (after Perez’s gearbox change.) Toro Rosso were very solid and their new car continued to impress with Ricciardo getting into Q3 ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in 11th. Paul di Resta was left rueing a lack of consistency on his tyres and traffic as he languished down in 15th but the big trend in Q2 was that the midfield was so tight this season.

What a way to bounce back - he has got to be happy with that

Qualifying 3

This session was all about one man – Lewis Hamilton. His lap in the early minutes of Q3 was not beaten with only Jenson Button coming close. The McLarens had looked strong all weekend but I’m not sure if that’s down to pure pace or the fact that their car is suited to this circuit. Romain Grosjean put in the performance of the day to snatch 3rd for Lotus ahead of 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher. Mercedes are the talk of the paddock after it was revealed that their DRS system has a built in F-duct within the rear wing. When the DRS is activated, the airflow is re-distributed around the rear of the car via a slot within the endplate – all very simple – but Lotus have complained the F-duct is driver operated and protested the qualifying results. Personally, I think it’s perfectly legal and the F-duct is acting as a secondary device but then so was the infamous ride-height system that Lotus and Ferrari were working on so by that basis, that should be deemed legal too. Rosberg, in the other Silver Arrow,  had two minor mistakes that cost him time and left him in 7th. As for Red Bull, they massively disappointed me today. All the talk had been of them still having to show their hand and Christian Horner even said that they hadn’t run a low fuel programme all winter before qualifying but when push came to shove, they just didn’t have the pace. Webber qualified 5th with KERS issues and Vettel could only manage 6th. The reigning World Champion looked uneasy without the backing of the blown diffuser and ended up in the gravel in FP3. Maybe they’re hiding something for the race but they’re facing a real uphill battle. Maldonado, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.

So, what awaits us in the race tomorrow? I can see McLaren being very strong if their winter testing race pace was anything to go by but don’t rule out Red Bull just yet – it’s unlike them to give up without a fight. With new tyres and less technical innovations this season it will be more about the strategists and the drivers. Schumacher could well be on for a podium while further back the Ferraris and Raikonnen won’t find carving up the field easy this season. Kimi will be given a baptism of fire on his return to the sport. My prediction is this:

1.Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)

2. Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)

3. Schumacher (Mercedes AMG Petronas)

But as those of you who follow this blog will know, my predictions are woeful!

Finally, onto a very upsetting story indeed as the FA Cup clash between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur was abandoned tonight because England U21 international and Bolton player Fabrice Muamba collapsed in the middle of the game. I was instantly reminded of Marc Vivien-Foe’s tragic death after he collapsed on the football pitch playing for Cameroon. It’s something that puts the game and sport in general into perspective and has united the entire footballing community behind one cause. I have felt for a long time that clubs should have more stringent medicals and hopefully this incident will force those responsible to recognise that fact. Close analysis of the heart and brain should be taken every few months to ensure that a player is capable of playing top level football every week. Fabrice is a wonderful talent and I would like to echo one Bolton fan’s statement: “I don’t care if he never pulls on a Bolton shirt again as long as he pulls through”. Our thoughts are with Fabrice and his family at this time.

On that sombre note, I bid you goodnight. I shall see you tomorrow after the first Grand Prix of the year with full coverage, pictures and analysis of the show at Albert Park. It will be the written equivalent of “High Definition with Dolby 5.1 surround sound”.

Villas-Boas let down by Chelsea

So the inevitable has happened: Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked as Chelsea manager. Things never really worked out for him did they? It’s a strange feeling for me because I’m not a Chelsea fan but I do have very passionate views about how that team should be playing and I also think Villas-Boas is the most talented manager to emerge in the Premier League for many many years.

Andre Villas-Boas in happier times. Have Chelsea made a fatal mistake?

Villas-Boas’ achievements at Porto are well documented: going an entire season unbeaten, winning four trophies in the same season and playing some lovely stuff while doing so. He had a squad that understood the nuances of the game; who understood that modern football is akin to a game of chess and that the manager has to be prepared to outmanoeuvre  his counterpart at all times. He had a way of explaining his notoriously complex scout reports to his players and that is what was missing at Chelsea. It seems that Villas-Boas lacked the ability to connect to his players (maybe he didn’t fancy going out and sleeping with a girl or three?) and you get the impression that he was as isolated as a teacher at the front of an unruly year 9 class. His differences of opinion with Frank Lampard have been well documented and when you alienate one member of the ‘old school’ Chelsea then you alienate them all.

I think that’s my main issue with Chelsea at the moment. They haven’t adapted since Mourinho left at all. There is the excuse that no manager has been able to settle into the job long enough to change things but seriously, it’s been five years since Mourinho left and that squad won’t win the league. Terry, Lampard, Cole, Drogba and Malouda are all past it and should have been sold last season; keeping them there prevents improvement and is the reason why Chelsea have stagnated in recent years while Man City and Spurs have leapfrogged them. Mata was a good buy but he cannot turn a team around. If he is still having to play balls to a slow and misfiring Drogba and an off-colour Torres then it just won’t work. Torres is another sore point for me. His lack of form all started when Spain rushed him back to play in the World Cup and while it’s completely understandable that he would want to play every game, he was not integral to the success of the team and should have sat out the group stages. Why pundits still debate the cause of Torres’ lack of form is a mystery to me as it was plainly obvious that he was bereft of confidence to anyone who watched the World Cup. I always felt that Torres was a player who relied on being re-assured that he was brilliant and that if he felt he wasn’t all that then his performance would drop off the cliff. When he returned to Liverpool, he wasn’t given enough time to find that confidence on the training pitch before the season began. The £50 million that Abramovich paid Liverpool for him was scandalous (mind you, the £35 million for Carroll wasn’t exactly well spent) but I’m sure part of the reason Villas-Boas took the job was that he felt he could turn Torres’ Chelsea career around. In that respect he failed.

Chelsea and Abramovich let Villas-Boas down too. A lack of support in the transfer market (probably due to Torres) meant that Chelsea could not strengthen all the positions that they needed to which meant an over-reliance on the ‘old school’ which limited Villas-Boas’ creativity. He couldn’t play a fast-paced and slick passing game because he couldn’t trust the fitness of his older players. The way Terry has capitulated this season sums it all up – never before has he looked as shaky at the back as he had in the last few months and the team lacks a defensive partnership. They should be employing a formation where one wing back and one centre back stay back at all times while the other two push forward while Meireles (potentially a superb signing) cuts out anything heading into Chelsea’s half. I think had he been able to do things his way, Villas-Boas would have employed a tactic similar to that. The major issue though is how to remove that ‘old school’. Do you wait for them to retire, rewarding their loyalty to the club by letting them see their careers out there? Or do you force them out and risk alienating the fans – imagine the reaction if Terry was sold! People may point to United bringing Scholes out of retirement successfully but the ginger maestro did have six months to have a rest… Even Giggs, the king of longevity, plays once every two or three games, not every game like the elderly Chelsea players have to. Honestly, sometimes they are eerily reminiscent of the Chelsea pensioners.

No doubt Abramovich already has someone lined up for the post. The bookies have Benitez as favourite, while the fans will clamour for Mourinho and the fact that Abramovich has hired Di Matteo until the end of the season suggests that he is prepared to wait until Mourinho has conquered Spain before making an offer. Whoever the new man in charge is has to do a spot of spring cleaning and has to be strong enough to introduce a new philosophy to the club and stick to it no matter how much the fans protest.

Will Mourinho make a triumphant return to the Premier League?

In other news, Terry Butcher has declared the search for the next England manager ‘a farce’ – a point I am inclined to agree with. I am in favour of teams taking their time over selecting a new manager but when it is the national team, there has to be a certain amount of information distributed through the media – of which there has been none. All the reports are obviously saying that Redknapp is the man for the job but there has still been no approach. I’m sure the FA are working out how they can afford to pay for him and his backroom staff but all this is doing is adding to the unease amongst the fans and the players. With the squad losing their concentration in injury time on Wednesday, strong leadership will be the priority for Euro 2012. But before we all announce the arrival of King ‘Arry are we forgetting that a successful manager who relishes working with talented, young and determined players has just become available? May I make the case for Andre Villas-Boas. He could get England playing some lovely stuff and could mould the mish-mash of young talent that we have inherited at the moment into a cohesive unit. What’s more, with no billionaire chairman telling him who to sign, who to play and who to drop he will be able to do his own thing and as we saw with Porto, that can be devastatingly successful. Something to think about…