Japanese GP - Button first, Seb bags number 2

Just a little question; If Mr Pointyfinger (now know as Mr DoublePointyfinger) were to bag a 3rd title next year, what will he stick in the air? Or shouldn't I go there (both championship and appendage-wise)?

As F1 landed in Japan, it seemed more definite that Seb would bag the title than the terrifying certainty that watching the X-Factor lowers your (already dangerously low) IQ. To be fair, it had seemed pretty much a forgone conclusion since about June. Still, the practice sessions seemed to suggest that he might not get to win the race, so there was cause for minor optimism.

Rosberg got to sit in the car a lot on Saturday, but without the benefit of actually being able to drive it anywhere thanks to a hydraulics problem, so his grid slot was number 23. I'm guessing he didn't know the numbers went that high.

Meanwhile, Lewis was busy turning the strength on his trouble magnet up to full and managed to go slowly enough on his last-gasp out lap at the end of Q3 that Webber and Schumi assumed he was parking up for a nap. The two them barrelled past a startled Hamilton, who then backed off to allow a gap to Schumi... and ran out of time. Cue that all too familiar smacked-arse-for-a-face look.

And so it was that Seb got pole. Again. The usual McLaren/Red Bull/Ferrari mix made up the top 6, but local hero Kobayashi wound up a surprise 7th.

It seems Herr Pointyfinger has been reading the "Fernando Alonso Big Book Of Intimidating Your Rivals", judging by the chop he pulled at the start of the race on Jenson. A look at the video by the stewards confirmed it as a legitimate bit of muscle-flexing some laps later, but Button backing off to avoid disaster allowed Hamiton to sneak by into second.

Massa seemingly let Alonso through after a few laps, and Jenson was back up to 2nd on lap 9 after passing an ailing Hamilton, who was suffering from a slow puncture. Vettel pitted before the lap count hit double-figures too, indicating a high tyre-wear race was on the cards.

Buemi didn't have to worry about that though as he became the only retirement of the race when he went all tricycle on lap 13.

After the first round of stops it was all champs at the front, with Vettel leading from Button and Alonso. Seb was struggling for tyres again by lap 20 and pitted, followed a lap later by Button, whose fast lap in between and speedy McLaren pit work saw him exit in front of the champion-elect.

Lewis and Massa continued their mutual attraction-fest with Hamilton seemingly not spotting the picked-on Brazilian, later blaming in on his mirrors. Yeah. The mirrors. Uh-huh. Get a room.

Lap 24 saw the Safety Car deployed to give the Marshalls time to scrape up bits of car, not only from the Lewis/Felipe love fest, but also a Schumi/Webbo crunch. Jenson backed 'em up real good before the restart, then legged it, pulling out a lead fairly rapidly.

Seb pitted again on Lap 34, dropping temporarily to 11th, with Jenson stopping off for fresh rubber on Lap 37, exiting comfortably in front of Vettel.

Alonso then managed to jump ahead of Seb after his final stop, but not before Schumi led a race once again, thanks to a well-timed stop under Safety Car conditions.

With Jenson's tyres seemingly starting to fade at the end, Nando began reeling him in, but the drama was short-lived, as JB had it all under control. A fine race from Jenson yet again, a good day for Fernando, but full credit to Vettel. Youngest double World Champion. And seemingly unstoppable...

Interesting to hear the conversation between JB and Seb before they stepped onto the podium. Jenson asked the new champ what he was up to at the start and Seb replied somewhat cheekily that he hadn't really seen him. Jenson's reply of "Oh, so that's how we're racing now..." was a classic.

(Yes, yes. I'm still on the letter A of the CD collection. Tonight it's B.A.S.I.C. by Alpinestars.)

A fisful of change at the shops

A recent day out reminded me how much the retail experience has altered during my lifetime – and it’s not all good. I could stop typing this, and buy a fridge, in a matter of seconds. The shops are shut and it’s 9pm, but I could still place the order and arrange delivery. I haven’t got to wander round a white-goods retail emporium trying to work out which slightly different version of something that keeps my cider cold is better. It’ll be cheaper, too. But in amongst the convenience, endless choice and bargains, we’ve lost some of the personal, human, touches that used to make a trip to the shops something more than just a daily chore. Last weekend, we visited a local coastal town. Amongst the shops selling over-priced imported home accessories (who doesn’t need another roughly-hewn wooden heart, poorly painted and a bargain at £10?) was one that looked different. It’s window allowed you to see in, rather than being plastered with stick-on graphics and special offers calling ...

Making an exhibition of yourself

Now and again, it’s good to reaffirm that you’re a (relatively) normal human being. One excellent way of doing this is to go to a business exhibition. Despite what you might have surmised from reading my previous columns, I am employable, and even capable of acting like a regular person most of the time, even joining in the Monday morning conversation about the weather over the weekend, and why (insert name of footyballs manager here) should be fired immediately. The mug! True, there are times, often involving a caffeine deficiency, where it is like having the distilled essence of ten moody teenagers in the room, but I try and get that out of the way when people I genuinely like aren’t around to see it. As part of my ongoing experiment with what others call ‘working’, my ‘job’ involves me occasionally needing to go and see what some of my colleagues get up to outside the office, and what our competitors do to try and make sure that they do whatever my colleagues do better than ...

Shouting in the social media mirror

It was always tricky to fit everything you wanted into the intentionally short character count of Twitter, especially when, like me, you tend to write ridiculously long sentences that keep going on and on, with no discernible end in sight, until you start wondering what the point was in the first place. The maximum length of a text message originally limited a tweet to 140 characters, due to it being a common way to post your ramblings in Twitter’s early days. Ten years later, we’ve largely consigned texting to the tech dustbin, and after a lot of angst, the social media platform’s bigwigs have finally opted to double your ranting capacity to 280. Responses ranged from “You’ve ruined it! Closing my account!” to the far more common “Meh” of modern disinterest. As someone rightly pointed out, just because you have twice as much capacity doesn’t mean you actually have to use it. It is, of course, and excellent opportunity to use the English language correctly and include punctuat...

grumpyf1

Search This Blog