Kimi Comes Through

Kimi Raikkonen kept his title hopes alive with a strong victory in China today. Kimi came through when Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes cut a tie while leading, and Hamilton beached the car in a gravel trap on Lap 31. Like Japan last week, the race started in the wet, but the promised heavy showers never came, and the racers finished on dry tires.

Fernando Alonso held off a challenge by Fleipe Massa's Ferrari to claim second. Sebastien Vettel shocked everyone with a 4th place finish for Toro Rosso. Jensen Button showed again he's stronger than the Honda chassis with a 5th place, followed by Tonio Liuzzi in the other Toro Rosso. To say this was a great day for STR would be an understatement. Vettel and the team were going nuts when he crossed the finish line. Good for 'em!

Rounding out the points-paying positions were Nick Heidfeld's BMW and David Couthard in the Red Bull.

Trackside gossip centered on why McLaren kept Hamilton out on worn tires; he had not changed tires on his pit stop, and they were visibly worn when he stopped. By risking a tire failure, McLaren took too great a chance. had they changed tires and Hamilton finished in 4th place, he would have 111 points, and would have eliminated Raikkonen.

More troubling for Raikkonen, Massa failed to get past Alonso and gave Fernando an additional 2 points, which could be the deciding difference for the two-time defending champion.

Hamilton's retirement today was his first of the season. It couldn't have come at a worse time, as he gave Alonso and Raikkonen a chance to pull out the Championship in Brazil. Hamilton leads Alonso by 4 points, and Raikkonen by 7 points.

To win, Alonso must win and have Hamilton finish no better than 4th; for Raikknen to win, he must win the race and have Hamilton finish no better than 5th, and Alonso no better than 4th.

The racer of the day? Vettel, without a doubt. He ran strong all day in changing conditions, and took maximum advantage of his Ferrari power to come through the field and finish 4th, the best result for Toro Rosso ever, and looking back to the Minardi days, their best finish since 1983.

It's still Hamilton's championship to lose, but as we saw in China, anything can happen. We go to Brazil with three drivers in the hunt. It looks to be an exciting race.

Non-F1 Rant

OK, I sat by when Toyota used The Damned's "What Do I Get".

I remained silent when AT&T used The Ramones' "Blitkrieg Bop".

I even let Jag get by with using The Clash's "London Calling". (They were selling Jags. Why an apocalyptic song about London after a nuclear war is appropriate to sell Jags, I'll never know.)

But now Nissan is using The Clash's cover of the Toots Hibbert classic "Pressure Drop" to sell the new Rogue CUV.

All the cool songs of my youth are being co-opted as marketing jingles.

If they start using The Replacements, somebody's getting hurt.

Silly Season V1.0

Here is my first prediction of the 2008 grid:

Ferrari:
Kimi Raikkonen
Felipe Massa

McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg

Renault:
Heikki Kovalainen
Fernando Alonso

BMW:
Robert Kubica
Anthony Davison?

Honda:
Jensen Button
Rubens Barrichello

Toyota:
Adrian Sutil
Jarno Trulli

Red Bull:
David Coulthard
Mark Webber

Toro Rosso:
Sebastien Vettel
Sebastien Bourdais

Super Aguri:
Anthony Davidson?
Takuma Sato

Spyker:
Whoever pays them

Schumacher Out at Toyota

Ralf Schumacher announced on his website that he was leaving Toyota at the end of the season.

Captain Obvious was unavailable for comment.

Ralf announced he was leaving Toyota so he can concentrate on other ways to make money off his brother's fame.

Hamilton Rules The Rain

Lewis Hamilton took a giant step closer to becoming the first rookie to win the Formula One World Driver’s Championship Sunday with a convincing victory in a downpour at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso saw his title hopes fade to dark, dark gray when he crashed out on Lap 41. He hydroplaned out of a turn and slammed the wall, destroying his McLaren.

Hamilton easily led home Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari for his 4 th victory of the season, all coming from pole position. Felipe Massa let Raikkonen through with 5 laps to go when he was called in for a pit stop so as not to offend the FIA with team orders. Wow, we all believed that one…

As always in the rain, the rest of the points-paying positions were also surprising. David Couthard’s Red Bull finished 4th, followed by Fisi’s Renault, then Massa, Robert Kubica’s BMW, and finally, Adrian Sutil’s Spyker, scoring their first points of the season. Sutil was elevated to 8th when Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi was demoted a place for passing Sutil under the yellow flag.

It was a terrible ending for what could have been a glorious day for the Red Bull A and B teams. Mark Webber was in second place behind Hamilton during the second safety car period when the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Vettel unbelievable plowed into the back of his car, taking Webber out of a probable podium finish. Scratch one Red Bull and one Toro Rosso. Coulthard finished a great 4th place, but Liuzzi lost Toro Rosso’s first point of the season when he was demoted for passing Sutil under yellow. At one point in the race, Vettel led for Toro Rosso when the leaders pitted. He was still running a strong third when he took out Webber. Vettel was seen in the pits later with his head buried in his hands, for he knew he had blown his greatest chance yet in F1, and he had taken out Webber’s car for no reason.

Felipe Massa dropped from 3rd to 6th when he pitted to let Raikkonen through. Why Ferrari didn’t just have him make a show of holding up Kimi is unknown , but they gave away 4th place for Felipe when they called him in.

As always, the rain shows off the best drivers, and Japan was no exception. Hamilton, of course, was impressive, but then again, he was leading and didn’t have to bother with the spray. Webber, Vettel, Couthard, and Massa all showed strong, and Raikkonen’s charge through the field was impressive. Also getting noticed was Sutil in the Spyker, who drove a fast, disciplined race. He earned his point.

The Japanese teams fared poorly in their home GP, with the factory Hondas finishing 10th and 11th, and the Toyotas in 13th and 16th. Ralf Schumacher parked his car on lap 55, apparently giving up while running at the back of the pack.

The other strange event of the day also involved Ferrari. The FIA had declared a “wet race”, requiring the teams to start on full wet tires, but apparently, no one bothered to tell Ferrari except via e-mail. It seems Jean Todt’s Blackberry didn’t recognize the FIA’s address, because the Ferraris started on intermediates. They were later called in for drive-through penalties, which may have hurt their chances in the race. Ferrari is complaining, but the fact remains that it was raining heavily, and why they wanted to start on the intermediates is beyond me. They were sliding all over the track, and needed the full wets. Sorry, but I have little sympathy for Ferrari on this one. Every other team seemed to read the e-mail. The FIA has instant communications with the team managers via e-mail directly to their team stands on pit row. No way Ferrari should have missed this one.

Lewis Hamilton’s going to be the next World Champion.