And then there were four...

In F1 terms, Brazil is usually good value for money.

For starters, it has held the championship showdown for the last 5 years. Would it manage in again in 2010 with 5 drivers still in the hunt?

Qualifying was that entertaining thing of a wet, but slowly drying, track. Things went roughly as you would expect, which regrettably included Button struggling for grip and seeing him fail to make Q3. The biggest surprise came in the last 4 minutes, when everyone decided it was time to switch to slicks and see if they could hang on. Whilst most drivers (including the championship rivals) all slithered here and there, one man kept it all together - a surprising (and probably surprised) Incredible Hulkenberg. But not only did he manage to be ahead of everyone, he then put in another lap a whole second faster. Awesome. Somehow you knew that was likely to be the highlight of his weekend...

Button's crap day got worse when some armed neer-do-wells attempted to get at his armoured motor on the way out of the track. Still, whilst scary, he fared better than some Sauber mechanics who were held up and had their gear stolen. You don't get that at Silverstone. Mind you, you get robbed when buying a burger instead.

Race day saw Red Bull with another opportunity to become constructor's champs (if they could manage not to balls it up this time) and they got off to a fine start, with both drivers past Hulky on the first lap. Alonso couldn't manage the same until L7 and Button once again seemed to be struggling with tyres.

Hamilton seemed to spend most of the race grumbling about his tyres, the F duct (asking if it was working seemed a bit odd - it's a bloody hole. Did he think it had healed up or something?), tyres again and probably the price of fish too.

Jenson opted to pit early for tyres (what had he got to lose?) on L12 to try and get himself out of the Hulkenqueue which had formed, and Massa did the same. A dodgy wheel nut meant he was back in next lap, knackering him home GP big time, and any chance of him helping his team-"mate".

Up front, Vettel led from Webber by roughly 2 seconds for ages, the gap ebbing and flowing as they lapped endless cars, a low-attrition race (unless you were Tonio Liuzzi) meaning nearly everyone was still running at the end. Alonso, comfortable in the knowledge that he just needs podiums to bag another title, kept a comfortable distance back in 3rd.

Liuzzi failed to spot a corner (how come he's still got a drive?) on lap 51 and the Safety Car was deployed. As everyone had already taken their mandatory tyre stop, it was surprise to see Hamiton and Button pit, but as it turned out, they remained in the same positions, albeit with a bunch of lapped cars in front of them.

Button needed a miracle for his title chances to stay alive but, unlike armed gunmen*, it didn't arrive. Whilst Koyayashi did his usual late-race banzai business and Rubens had his usual crap luck at home with a puncture, Vettel won with Webber 2nd, Alonso 3rd, Hamilton 4th and Button 5th. Credit to Hulky - 8th was pretty respectable in the end, with only the title protagonists and 2 Mercs in front of him.

It was enough for Red Bull to take their first Constructor's title too. And so we head off to to the final race of the season, with the top 3 closed-up further, but Hamilton out of it, unless he wins and the rest don't score in Abu Shabi. Sorry, Dhabi.

Damn, this season is exciting...

(* Why do we say "armed gunmen"? If they weren't armed, they wouldn't be gunmen, just men. It's like saying wet water. I really shouldn't let this sort of thing annoy me so much, should I? *long pause* But it does. Grrrrr.)

(Playing tonight, Marillion's 88 album "Radiation")

Faking it for real

As Donald “I’m really great, everybody says so” Trump is so fond of pointing out, there is a lot of fake news around nowadays. Honest. Your friends at Facebook think so too, and have recently been publishing their top tips for spotting false news – by placing them as ads in newspapers. Considering they came in for considerable criticism themselves, that’s like shouting “Squirrel!” and pointing at a tree whilst you hastily kick away the prize begonias you just trampled. To help you make sense of this (and because I’m a caring person), I thought I’d run you through their suggestions and help to explain them for you. I know. I’m lovely. 1. Be sceptical of headlines READING THIS ARTICLE WILL IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE!!! And explain that catchy headlines, or stuff all in capitals might be a bit iffy. 2. Look closely at the URL You can find out more about this at www.wowyouregullible.com if you want to understand how phony web addresses are a sure sign of dodgyness. 3. Investigate...

Going Underground

The US presidential election and Brexit must have made me more nervous than I’d realised. It seems I’ve created an underground bunker without realising I was doing it. Still – we’ve all done that at some point, right? No? Ah... In that case, the fact that I have inadvertently turned my cellar into a rudimentary survival shelter, just in case it all kicks off, demonstrates a severe case of bunker mentality. Fretting about Donald and his wall, and Hillary and her emails, clearly made me more paranoid that I thought about the possibility of WW3 kicking off. Whilst attempting to find a specific size of imperial washer the other day (turns out I’d mis-filed it in the nut cabinet – Tsk!) I was struck by what a lot of jam and chutney we have in the cellar. And I do mean a LOT. There are boxes of boiled-up sugar and fruit and more boxes of boiled up vinegar and fruit. We’re still only part way through 2015’s output too. Then there’s the plastic containers holding pasta in various for...

Is it cold? Snow way...

Lunch out? Not unless you want snow balls... I’ve got a confession to make. Lean in a bit, because I’m going to whisper it. Bit more. Did you have curry for tea? OK, good. I’m a weather nerd. There, I said it. When I was growing up, I didn’t want to be an astronaut or a fireman – I wanted to present the weather on the TV. I was lining myself up for a career at the Met Office when, at about 18 years of age, I discovered I was allergic to studying. Anyway, despite a jam-packed and varied career over the subsequent years, I still have a fascination for the world of meteorology. I even have one of those clocks that projects the time and the external temperature onto the ceiling at night, so I can see how cold it is outside whilst lying awake worrying that I might have wasted my life and been more successful with girls if I’d been more into cars than clouds. So far this year, I’ve gazed at a chilly reading of -5C a couple of times, and been grateful for previous sensible ch...

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