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F1 all in one day

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It rained so much at the Japanese Grand Prix, I started thinking it was Cumbria. Whilst we struggled on when there was that drop of rain last year, F1 didn't, and qualifying was postponed until Sunday morning.

Lewis Hamilton seemed to have run over a fairy, broken a couple of mirrors and offended God (it was probably those sodding earstuds) so unlucky was he this weekend. Before he even got to quali, his gearbox needed changing, meaning he would drop 5 places on the grid. Then there was the small matter of an ear infection.

Still, with some damp patches remaining out on track, quali got underway and it all went fairly to plan until Massa managed to drop out in Q2. If he thought that was bad, he wasn't even going to manage a lap in the race. Button chose an interesting tyre strategy, gambling on starting with hard tyres, then reaping the rewards later in the race when the track was rubbered in and he would be on softs. Good plan. Plans don't always work though.

Red Bull locked out the front row with Vettel ahead of Webber, and Kubica promoted to a surprise 3rd following Lewis's pixie-murdering penalty.

Lucas di Grassi managed to total his car before he'd even made the grid, in a bizarre looking incident that saw him fly off into a wall. His explanation was suitably vague - I'm guessing he ran out of talent.

As soon as the race kicked off, things got broken very fast. Petrov seemed to have forgotten that other cars were also on the track and took Hulkenberg out whilst Massa found out that grass reduces your grip and you have an accident. Unfortunately for one of the Force India's, they got in his way as he crashed out. Safety Car out, Kubica got bored with having 4 wheels and downsized to 3 ending the chance of him mixing it with the title contenders.

Once all that was cleared up, the race settled down a bit with Seb out front, followed by Mark, canyouhearthedrums Fernando, and Lewis and Jenson all at the sharp end. Lewis's bad-luck magnet fired up again as 3rd gear called it a day early, meaning he had to complete the race in 4th and above. Struggling somewhat, he didn't battle Jenson when he came by.

Regrettably, Alguersauras wasn't quite that mature and decided to retaliate for Kobayashi's cunning buffalo gals* move by deliberately banging wheels with him. Twice. Berk.

Dunno when you watched the race, but I watched the 6am live broadcast on the BBC (and I'll try to stay calm about Lee McKenzie getting nearly everything wrong) and was a bit concerned when the picture broke up with 5 laps to go. It came back, with the novelty of no commentary for a lap or so. I did my own - I thought I was very good. We then got a few laps with the 5Live team before Brundle popped back in mid sentence. Weird. Whilst all this was going on, Rosberg crashed out in spectacular style after a wheel failed.

And so it came to pass that Vettel won, with Webber 2nd and Alonso 3rd.  Button, Hamilton, an on-form Schumi, an overtakingfest Kobayashi, Heidfeld (see - he's good!), Barrichello and Buemi rounded out the points finishers.

Good race again - but whilst the top 3 are still within a win of each other, Unluckilton and Button can't get the lead in Korea. If it's finished...

(* round the outside!)

(In the cassettogram tonight - Don Henley's "The End Of Innocence" from 1989)
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