Italians Rule Magny Cours

With Ferrari 1-2 and surprise podium finisher Jarno Trulli, it was a wonderful day for Italian fans at French GP. See the results

Kimi Räikkönen managed to secure 200th pole for Ferrari on an uneventful Saturday. He was leading the race comfortably until his F2008 lost an exhaust manifold midrace. The hot exhaust from engine burned some part of the engine cover. The situation looked dangerous, but Ferrari crew looked unworried. ( I practiced some hardcore cursing when Star Sports took a commercial break just as Kimi entered pits with a blown exhaust ) But this was Kimi’s 1st race on this engine so he has to use the same one at Silverstone two weeks later. Ultimately Kimi had to give up his position to speeding Massa, as he was losing tremendous power.

The ‘Uselessness’ of some of the FIA rules was proven here also as Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for ‘Overtaking outside racing line’. Isn’t it FIA’s job to make sure that driver loses time if he drives off racing line? Starting 13th after a 10 stop penalty because of pit lane incident in Canada, Hamilton struggled very hard to finish 10th.

According to me, Trulli was the most impressive driver. He held back a clearly faster Hekki Kovalainen for more than 20 laps. It was a classic example of Experience vs Speed. He ‘truly’ deserved his place on the podium.

BMWs lacked pace and did not look like a team that finished 1-2 in Canada. Both the Force-India cars finished the race, for a change. Nelson Piquet Jr. overtook Alonso on a very last lap to finish 7th and opened his championship points account.

Massa leads Driver’s championship by 2 points from Kubica. The championship is wide open!

Dhoom Dhadaka IPL

A lot has been speculated and said about IPL. A few things that I would like to point out-

1) BCCI has shown a severe lack of creativity while naming the franchises. Mumbai Indians is the least imaginative work in entertainment field since Main Prem Ki Diwani Hu. Again, repetition is irritating. Kings Punjab - Chennai Super Kings. Royal Challengers- Rajasthan Royals. Is that significant or just annoying?

2) Outfits-

• Kolkata- Good without the pads. Pads are really nasty
• Baglore- hLd-kuMkU combination with pink helmets…are you kidding me??
• Chennai- Cool….closer to Australian 1s.
• Mohali-Boring!!! The text at the backs is really scary.
• Rajasthan- Shri Lankan..weird to see Lehman in this outfit!!
• Delhi-Real nice!! Good combination.
• Hydrabad-not seen yet
• Mumbai- —–”—–

3) Ads of Godrej and Vodafone during the live telecast is a pathetic show of policy by BCCI and Sony.

4) At the inaugural ceremony, when Sachin was called up, he got a huge response from the crowd. They were chanting his name for next 5 min. It will be interesting to see when he comes to bat in Mumbai.

5) Vijay Mally seems to have bought another team that is going to start from the back of the grid.

6) But I was pleased to see Force India car at Chinnaswamy Stadium.

My schedule these days..

John Cleese’s “Letter to America”

A must read!

Letter To America