Justin: It was another one of those races. One which whatever I write here cannot put into words just how damn exciting the race was frankly. Ask my friend Ian, who was watching it with me...I jumped up and down getting very excited a fair few times.
Hamilton, Alonso and Webber were a class apart throughout the race, exchanging the lead and running order throughout. Everyone seems to be congratulating Lewis for his overtake around the outside of Alonso, but let us remember he was on warm tyres whereas Alonso had just exited the pits. That aside, the front 3 were all rather glowing about each other afterwards, as lets be honest, barely a second covered all 3 of them for a period early on in the race.
It was amazing to watch these 3 go at it hammer and tongs, tooth and nail...any more of those sayings??? I hope everyone sat back and enjoyed it!
Vettel, as I commented on in my quali review, hadn't looked happy all weekend and 4th place won't have done much to put a smile on that boyish face of his.
This does add considerable fuel to the fire that Vettel doesnt have the class of others when pushing his way through a field...witness his total inability to drive past Massa for the majority of the race, and he ended up having to pass him in the pits.
Onto Hungary we go....I intend to be in a Spanish bar surrounded by Fernando fans watching this one! Co-blogger, I shall leave the Hungarian GP in your capable blogging hands.
Oh yes, and let us not forget Webber giving Alonso a lift back to the pits...utterly classic moment there and reminded everyone of Mansell and Senna all those years ago....oddly enough its a picture I used recently on this very blog!
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Sunday 24 July 2011
German GP preview and quali review
Justin: That's twice in a row now that Mark Webber has grabbed pole. One hopes he doesn't let the advantage slip as he did at the start of the British GP.
This race today could be a hell of a battle, with Mark lining up just ahead of Lewis, Seb and Fernando. As usual, it's pretty much the championship players from last year.
Quali was an interesting affair, with q3 starting off with Fernando and Lewis doing pretty similar times, with Lewis just edging ahead. Then Webber stonked in with a lap almost half a second up on that pair. Amazing. Their second runs saw Lewis do a lap just 0.05 seconds slower than webber, with Vettel popping into 3rd ahead of Alonso. Alonso was three tenths down on the pole time, so will have to show the usual better race pace to have any hope of catching those ahead.
Martin Brundle remarked during quali that Vettel was walking around with a "cloudy face" this weekend. For the first time this year, it's not all going his way and he doesnt like it. He knows Webber is much more of a very real threat now as he has gotten to grips (pardon the pun) with the new tyres. Vettel also knows that Alonso has become more of a threat. It's not panic stations at all for Vettel, as lets be clear, all he has to do for the second half of the season is turn up and collect solid points really. But, it's the first time this year he has qualified outside the front row...if we're judging him by his standards alone, that will annoy him surely.
It should be very interesting watching Vettel at the start and throughout the race, given he probably won't be leading from start to finish as usual.
My co-blogger compared Vettel to old Schumi in terms of becoming the guy in a class of his own....well, schumi led a lot from the front too...difference is even I admit Schumi had some beautiful drives through fields of cars to score wins and points finishes. Belgium 95 anyone?? Vettel has never done anything like this, so for me, he isn't the class of the field just yet.
Go Webber....Go Alonso later today.....Hamilton and Vettel to crash into each other at the first corner...woohoo! :-)
Latest from the bbc website from Germany is that its wet, windy and utterly miserable weather....an open race then! (Ferrari struggled big time though in the wet at silverstone).
This race today could be a hell of a battle, with Mark lining up just ahead of Lewis, Seb and Fernando. As usual, it's pretty much the championship players from last year.
Quali was an interesting affair, with q3 starting off with Fernando and Lewis doing pretty similar times, with Lewis just edging ahead. Then Webber stonked in with a lap almost half a second up on that pair. Amazing. Their second runs saw Lewis do a lap just 0.05 seconds slower than webber, with Vettel popping into 3rd ahead of Alonso. Alonso was three tenths down on the pole time, so will have to show the usual better race pace to have any hope of catching those ahead.
Martin Brundle remarked during quali that Vettel was walking around with a "cloudy face" this weekend. For the first time this year, it's not all going his way and he doesnt like it. He knows Webber is much more of a very real threat now as he has gotten to grips (pardon the pun) with the new tyres. Vettel also knows that Alonso has become more of a threat. It's not panic stations at all for Vettel, as lets be clear, all he has to do for the second half of the season is turn up and collect solid points really. But, it's the first time this year he has qualified outside the front row...if we're judging him by his standards alone, that will annoy him surely.
It should be very interesting watching Vettel at the start and throughout the race, given he probably won't be leading from start to finish as usual.
My co-blogger compared Vettel to old Schumi in terms of becoming the guy in a class of his own....well, schumi led a lot from the front too...difference is even I admit Schumi had some beautiful drives through fields of cars to score wins and points finishes. Belgium 95 anyone?? Vettel has never done anything like this, so for me, he isn't the class of the field just yet.
Go Webber....Go Alonso later today.....Hamilton and Vettel to crash into each other at the first corner...woohoo! :-)
Latest from the bbc website from Germany is that its wet, windy and utterly miserable weather....an open race then! (Ferrari struggled big time though in the wet at silverstone).
Friday 22 July 2011
OUR NIGE!!
Justin: To my co-blogger and f1 fans i ask you all to buy f1 racing magazine this month. It contains a fantastic interview with Nigel Mansell. He talks of Patrese grabbing his balls amongst many other things. What a legend our Nige is!!!Quick news roundup before the German gp weekend.
Webber has been told that were seb coming up behind webber with a lap to go that he also would have been told to hold station. Incidentally, check out Webbers column on the bbc website!
Not much else to report, other than that its cold and wet all weekend at the ring!
Monday 11 July 2011
Calm down, dear
Phil: I think we need to have a chat about the Red Bull team orders thing.
In my view it really ought not to be the headline: the headline should be Ferrari's first win since last autumn. Mark Webber having been told not to attempt to overtake his teammate for second place on the last lap of the race was slightly disappointing, as we missed out on what might have been an exciting last lap, but no more than that. Mark is right to try to overtake, he's right to ignore the team the first time, but I think that Red Bull were also right to try to stop him.
I really don't think anyone can condemn Red Bull yesterday and condone Ferrari at Hockenheim last year, for the following reasons.
1. Team orders were illegal then. They are legal now.
2. Massa was told to give up a position to his teammate. Webber was told not to overtake his teammate.
3. The Ferrari incident decided the win. The Red Bull incident decided second place.
Finally, and I don't think it's relevant to the comparison between the two incidents, but Vettel is dominating Webber every bit as much as, and probably more than, Alonso was dominating Massa. That's not a criticism of Webber, because Vettel is in a class of his own: as Martin Brundle said, he's becoming the benchmark, as Schumacher one was. It's almost inconceivable now that Vettel does not retain his world title. He's 80 points ahead of his teammate, and 92 points ahead of his next nearest rival (Alonso). If the ten remaining races this season finished with exactly the same result (Alonso first, Vettel second), he would still beat Alonso by 12 points.
And he's 0.4s faster than the Stig.
Can we put this one to bed now?
In my view it really ought not to be the headline: the headline should be Ferrari's first win since last autumn. Mark Webber having been told not to attempt to overtake his teammate for second place on the last lap of the race was slightly disappointing, as we missed out on what might have been an exciting last lap, but no more than that. Mark is right to try to overtake, he's right to ignore the team the first time, but I think that Red Bull were also right to try to stop him.
I really don't think anyone can condemn Red Bull yesterday and condone Ferrari at Hockenheim last year, for the following reasons.
1. Team orders were illegal then. They are legal now.
2. Massa was told to give up a position to his teammate. Webber was told not to overtake his teammate.
3. The Ferrari incident decided the win. The Red Bull incident decided second place.
Finally, and I don't think it's relevant to the comparison between the two incidents, but Vettel is dominating Webber every bit as much as, and probably more than, Alonso was dominating Massa. That's not a criticism of Webber, because Vettel is in a class of his own: as Martin Brundle said, he's becoming the benchmark, as Schumacher one was. It's almost inconceivable now that Vettel does not retain his world title. He's 80 points ahead of his teammate, and 92 points ahead of his next nearest rival (Alonso). If the ten remaining races this season finished with exactly the same result (Alonso first, Vettel second), he would still beat Alonso by 12 points.
And he's 0.4s faster than the Stig.
Can we put this one to bed now?
Sunday 10 July 2011
Silverstone blog
Justin: Well, I think that was a race that certainly lived up to the history and legend of Silverstone.
There are plenty of talking points, the first of which has to be for me the Mark Webber/ Sebastian Vettel fight that effectively ended on the last lap with the order of "maintain the gap Mark". What we didn't know then of course was that Webber had received 4 or 5 messages over the previous few laps and he of course ignored all of them.
Team orders are no longer illegal of course and time and again in the past these rules have always stirred up mixed emotions for plenty of F1 fans. I won't deny that I stood firm with Ferrari last year when they wanted to get Fernando by Massa to go chase the leader, as he was clearly faster. That day it was confirmed that Massa had effectively become Ferrari number 2. Lets be clear though, Massa was a fair way back in the title race and hadn't looked anywhere near to Alonso's pace all year. In fact in 2010, I think the average qualifying distance between them was half a second. Anyway, I digress. (last year there was nothing between Vettel and Webber, by comparison). Webber hasn't suddenly become that much worse than Vettel, or Vettel that much better, its just Webber cannot seem to manage his tyres quite as well at the moment....anyway...I digress yet again!
We've seen many times in the past instances where people like DC have been asked to hold firm for a 1-2 finish behind team leader Hakkinnen. Again, I am digressing....
What bothers me, disgusts me...about Red Bull is that they sit there and judge other teams on not being able to contain 2 world class drivers, they scoff at teams that openly say to drivers "let him by for whatever reason", they claim to always let their drivers race.....then Horner sits in the BBC f1 forum and claims that if Webber were ahead and Vettel behind then nothing would change.....ok I'll believe that when I see it....Vettel would most likely throw a Lewis-esque tantrum then stuff it up Webber's exhaust like he did in Turkey last year. Vettel would not like one bit being asked not to race Webber if the situation on the last lap of Silverstone were reversed. And it's my honest belief that if Vettel were behind, the "powers that be" would have probably asked Mark to move over.
You have to wonder...I fear for Webber...is this the day he offically becomes number 2? They have already painted him as the bad guy, saying he ignored orders etc etc. Vettel says he doesnt see what the fuss is about....well, get on the other side of it then you will jackass.
Another last lap coming together saw Lewis and Massa chasing each other down and contact happening causing Felipe to run wide on the start/finish straight seeing Lewis finish 4th just ahead.
Make no mistake, the closing laps were absolutely barnstorming, with these two tussles going on.
Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso had all but driven into the distance by this point, 20 seconds down the road. That's his 27th win and puts him level with Jackie Stewart (my colleague should correct me if I'm wrong) in the all time GP winner's list.
People will of course say that Alonso was gifted the win by Vettel's shoddy pitstop...I wouldnt say gifted as Vettel was only 5 seconds ahead as they came into the pits at almost the same time anyway. On softs that were not up to temperature earlier on Fernando struggled and was passed by Lewis, but once his tyres got warmer Fernando pumped in fastest lap after fastest lap, and it was the same for much of the race. The guy just went faster and faster.
Martin Brundle said as much when Fernando went out ahead of Vettel. He'd have loved to have seen Fernando dicing with Vettel and overtaking him as the Ferrari looked the fastest out there all day in dry conditions.
Make no mistake, this was a supreme win by a driver at the top of his game.
Brundle also said it best when, in the forum, he offered to Horner that Red Bull bases itself, its whole image, on edge of the seat extreme sports, so why not let the guys race?
Horner kept coming back to saying "they'd end up in the wall"....based on past experience Vettel has always been the one taking Webber off from behind.
As it is, Vettel didn't prove anything to me at all today......faced with not leading from the front he couldnt race his way to the front at all.
Sound like I have an axe to grind with Red Bull?
I concur with my co-bloggers earlier remarks that Webber is the only guy singing from his hymn sheet. All that BS about the mechanics working hard and wanting 2 cars to finish....I'm sure the seperate teams of mechanics would love to beat the other lot within the team...espcially Webbers guys wanting to beat Vettel. Red Bullshit once again.
Good to see Lewis being nice to his team after a race for once....4th place eh? Deep down he probably isnt happy with that at all, I guess his PR people told him to say something nice for once.
Poor JB....he looked like a dark horse for a win at one point, until some idiot forgot to screw a nut in tight. Whoops.
I'm still fuming...but onto Germany we go.
Not sure about my co-bloggers 7 stop strategy.....
There are plenty of talking points, the first of which has to be for me the Mark Webber/ Sebastian Vettel fight that effectively ended on the last lap with the order of "maintain the gap Mark". What we didn't know then of course was that Webber had received 4 or 5 messages over the previous few laps and he of course ignored all of them.
Team orders are no longer illegal of course and time and again in the past these rules have always stirred up mixed emotions for plenty of F1 fans. I won't deny that I stood firm with Ferrari last year when they wanted to get Fernando by Massa to go chase the leader, as he was clearly faster. That day it was confirmed that Massa had effectively become Ferrari number 2. Lets be clear though, Massa was a fair way back in the title race and hadn't looked anywhere near to Alonso's pace all year. In fact in 2010, I think the average qualifying distance between them was half a second. Anyway, I digress. (last year there was nothing between Vettel and Webber, by comparison). Webber hasn't suddenly become that much worse than Vettel, or Vettel that much better, its just Webber cannot seem to manage his tyres quite as well at the moment....anyway...I digress yet again!
We've seen many times in the past instances where people like DC have been asked to hold firm for a 1-2 finish behind team leader Hakkinnen. Again, I am digressing....
What bothers me, disgusts me...about Red Bull is that they sit there and judge other teams on not being able to contain 2 world class drivers, they scoff at teams that openly say to drivers "let him by for whatever reason", they claim to always let their drivers race.....then Horner sits in the BBC f1 forum and claims that if Webber were ahead and Vettel behind then nothing would change.....ok I'll believe that when I see it....Vettel would most likely throw a Lewis-esque tantrum then stuff it up Webber's exhaust like he did in Turkey last year. Vettel would not like one bit being asked not to race Webber if the situation on the last lap of Silverstone were reversed. And it's my honest belief that if Vettel were behind, the "powers that be" would have probably asked Mark to move over.
You have to wonder...I fear for Webber...is this the day he offically becomes number 2? They have already painted him as the bad guy, saying he ignored orders etc etc. Vettel says he doesnt see what the fuss is about....well, get on the other side of it then you will jackass.
Another last lap coming together saw Lewis and Massa chasing each other down and contact happening causing Felipe to run wide on the start/finish straight seeing Lewis finish 4th just ahead.
Make no mistake, the closing laps were absolutely barnstorming, with these two tussles going on.
Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso had all but driven into the distance by this point, 20 seconds down the road. That's his 27th win and puts him level with Jackie Stewart (my colleague should correct me if I'm wrong) in the all time GP winner's list.
People will of course say that Alonso was gifted the win by Vettel's shoddy pitstop...I wouldnt say gifted as Vettel was only 5 seconds ahead as they came into the pits at almost the same time anyway. On softs that were not up to temperature earlier on Fernando struggled and was passed by Lewis, but once his tyres got warmer Fernando pumped in fastest lap after fastest lap, and it was the same for much of the race. The guy just went faster and faster.
Martin Brundle said as much when Fernando went out ahead of Vettel. He'd have loved to have seen Fernando dicing with Vettel and overtaking him as the Ferrari looked the fastest out there all day in dry conditions.
Make no mistake, this was a supreme win by a driver at the top of his game.
Brundle also said it best when, in the forum, he offered to Horner that Red Bull bases itself, its whole image, on edge of the seat extreme sports, so why not let the guys race?
Horner kept coming back to saying "they'd end up in the wall"....based on past experience Vettel has always been the one taking Webber off from behind.
As it is, Vettel didn't prove anything to me at all today......faced with not leading from the front he couldnt race his way to the front at all.
Sound like I have an axe to grind with Red Bull?
I concur with my co-bloggers earlier remarks that Webber is the only guy singing from his hymn sheet. All that BS about the mechanics working hard and wanting 2 cars to finish....I'm sure the seperate teams of mechanics would love to beat the other lot within the team...espcially Webbers guys wanting to beat Vettel. Red Bullshit once again.
Good to see Lewis being nice to his team after a race for once....4th place eh? Deep down he probably isnt happy with that at all, I guess his PR people told him to say something nice for once.
Poor JB....he looked like a dark horse for a win at one point, until some idiot forgot to screw a nut in tight. Whoops.
I'm still fuming...but onto Germany we go.
Not sure about my co-bloggers 7 stop strategy.....
Not bad for a number two driver
Phil: This blogger is a little embarassed about the team's performance at this week's 'rehearsals' for today's British grand prix.
Having been overruled on the team name (we eventually went for Stig's Substitutes), I was unfortunately overruled on the pit strategy as well, and we went for a unique seven-stop strategy that more or less guaranteed that we spent half the race in the pit lane. (The thinking was we had four drivers and needed to do two stints each, because one stint of 20-25 minutes would be 'too tiring'. Bear in mind this was billed as a 'Le Mans style' endurance race, albeit lasting only an hour and a half). We eventually finished 6th out of 8, two laps behind our rivals from another of the firm's offices, who of course did the minimum three pit stops.
Anyway, another man who right now probably thinks he's the only one in his team singing from the same hymn sheet will start the British grand prix from pole in under an hour. His name's Mark Webber.
Having been overruled on the team name (we eventually went for Stig's Substitutes), I was unfortunately overruled on the pit strategy as well, and we went for a unique seven-stop strategy that more or less guaranteed that we spent half the race in the pit lane. (The thinking was we had four drivers and needed to do two stints each, because one stint of 20-25 minutes would be 'too tiring'. Bear in mind this was billed as a 'Le Mans style' endurance race, albeit lasting only an hour and a half). We eventually finished 6th out of 8, two laps behind our rivals from another of the firm's offices, who of course did the minimum three pit stops.
Anyway, another man who right now probably thinks he's the only one in his team singing from the same hymn sheet will start the British grand prix from pole in under an hour. His name's Mark Webber.
Thursday 7 July 2011
Tactics?
Justin: This karting fan is enquiring as to how my co-bloggers karting event went.
Surely the need for tactics was kept to a bare minimum?
1. Explore the limits of the kart and track.
2. Drive as fast as you can.
3. Win.
Job done.
In other news, I see Christian Horner has said that Hamilton coming to Red Bull isn't a great idea as having two world class drivers in the same team never goes well. I wonder what Mr Webber thinks about that remark.
Surely the need for tactics was kept to a bare minimum?
1. Explore the limits of the kart and track.
2. Drive as fast as you can.
3. Win.
Job done.
In other news, I see Christian Horner has said that Hamilton coming to Red Bull isn't a great idea as having two world class drivers in the same team never goes well. I wonder what Mr Webber thinks about that remark.
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Williams Renault are back in business
Phil: Renault having announced they will supply engines to Williams, in addition to the 'works' Renault team, Red Bull and Lotus.
And it's karting tonight. My team and I (sadly not known as 'Rhymes with James Hunt') are meeting for a pre-race discussion of tactics beforehand. I take my co-blogger's comments on the relative merits of Alonso and Coulthard on the chin, although I'd remind him that DC won 13 races and was runner-up to Schumacher in the 2001 title race. I fear I may be before of an Andrea de Crasheris.
We'll know soon enough.
And it's karting tonight. My team and I (sadly not known as 'Rhymes with James Hunt') are meeting for a pre-race discussion of tactics beforehand. I take my co-blogger's comments on the relative merits of Alonso and Coulthard on the chin, although I'd remind him that DC won 13 races and was runner-up to Schumacher in the 2001 title race. I fear I may be before of an Andrea de Crasheris.
We'll know soon enough.
Saturday 2 July 2011
Senna, again
Phil: They let me watch 'Senna', at last. Frankly I'd have to endorse my co-blogger's glowing review. This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. A cynic would say, being obsessed with F1 like we both are, that I would say that, wouldn't I, but I do think that the narrative is so strong and the archive footage so absolutely superb that even someone with little or no interest in F1 would enjoy it.
Although I knew the central story, of course, Senna's arrival in F1, his rivalry with Prost and finally his death at Imola in 1994, there were plenty of new things to keep me interested. I'd never heard him speak his own language, and I'd never seen Ratzenberger's crash the day before Senna's. While as my co-blogger pointed out, Rubens Barrichello's crash that fateful weekend was spectacularly bad (incidentally, not unlike Allan McNish's crash at Le Mans a few weeks ago), I was particularly shocked by Martin Donnelly's crash at the Spanish grand prix in 1990, which equally I'd never seen before. Donnelly's Lotus seemed to have just disintegrated, leaving him unconscious - dead, for all the film audience knows - and lying in the middle of the track. With the benefit of hindsight we know that Donnelly survived, but 17 years on, as I watched a helicopter take the greatest driver of his generation to the hospital, I felt close to tears.
When I was growing up with F1 in 1980s, I was aware that F1 had a history, and that it had a dark side, with not very many retired F1 drivers. I'd seen footage of the likes of Fangio driving in shirt sleeves with no seatbelt or crash helmet. But there was this conceit, or maybe it was just me, that F1 was so much safer than it had been. Imola shattered all that. Looking back now, and comparing F1 cars and tracks in 1994 to the safety measures that basically saved Sergio Perez's life at Monaco this year, there is no comparison. Cars then seemed to fall apart when they crashed (and often when they didn't crash: 24 finishers out of 24 starters at Valencia last weekend is a record, and a measure of how reliable F1 cars have become).
Anyway, that's quite enough doom and gloom. Let's have some racing. Oh, sorry, it's Valencia, there isn't any. It's Valencia, the weather is fine and Vettel is on pole. Nuff said, I think. An hour and a half of racing at Valencia somehow seemed to take longer than four hours of mainly waiting in the pit lane for it to stop raining at Montreal.
To be fair, this has been a cracking season, and we're always going to get a duff one (at least we were spared Bahrain this year). I say a cracking season, but realistically even Vettel's main rivals admit who is going to be champion this year, as my co-blogger was explaining. With six wins and two second places out of eight races so far this season, Vettel has scored 93% of the possible maximum points. A driver has only ever taken more than 80% of the possible points in a season three times: Schumacher twice in the early 2000s, and Jim Clark in 1963, who, as my dad pointed out, won 7 out of 10 races. In each case, the driver concerned won the title by a country mile. Vettel's lead at slightly under half way through the season is now 77 points over Jenson Button, and as Martin Brundle observed, Vettel could join him in the BBC commentary box for the next three races, and still arrive at Spa at the end of next month leading the championship.
A few weeks ago one of the bookies had him 4-1 on to take the title. That's £1.25 back on a £1 bet. But don't think of it as a bet. Think of it as an investment.
Although I knew the central story, of course, Senna's arrival in F1, his rivalry with Prost and finally his death at Imola in 1994, there were plenty of new things to keep me interested. I'd never heard him speak his own language, and I'd never seen Ratzenberger's crash the day before Senna's. While as my co-blogger pointed out, Rubens Barrichello's crash that fateful weekend was spectacularly bad (incidentally, not unlike Allan McNish's crash at Le Mans a few weeks ago), I was particularly shocked by Martin Donnelly's crash at the Spanish grand prix in 1990, which equally I'd never seen before. Donnelly's Lotus seemed to have just disintegrated, leaving him unconscious - dead, for all the film audience knows - and lying in the middle of the track. With the benefit of hindsight we know that Donnelly survived, but 17 years on, as I watched a helicopter take the greatest driver of his generation to the hospital, I felt close to tears.
When I was growing up with F1 in 1980s, I was aware that F1 had a history, and that it had a dark side, with not very many retired F1 drivers. I'd seen footage of the likes of Fangio driving in shirt sleeves with no seatbelt or crash helmet. But there was this conceit, or maybe it was just me, that F1 was so much safer than it had been. Imola shattered all that. Looking back now, and comparing F1 cars and tracks in 1994 to the safety measures that basically saved Sergio Perez's life at Monaco this year, there is no comparison. Cars then seemed to fall apart when they crashed (and often when they didn't crash: 24 finishers out of 24 starters at Valencia last weekend is a record, and a measure of how reliable F1 cars have become).
Anyway, that's quite enough doom and gloom. Let's have some racing. Oh, sorry, it's Valencia, there isn't any. It's Valencia, the weather is fine and Vettel is on pole. Nuff said, I think. An hour and a half of racing at Valencia somehow seemed to take longer than four hours of mainly waiting in the pit lane for it to stop raining at Montreal.
To be fair, this has been a cracking season, and we're always going to get a duff one (at least we were spared Bahrain this year). I say a cracking season, but realistically even Vettel's main rivals admit who is going to be champion this year, as my co-blogger was explaining. With six wins and two second places out of eight races so far this season, Vettel has scored 93% of the possible maximum points. A driver has only ever taken more than 80% of the possible points in a season three times: Schumacher twice in the early 2000s, and Jim Clark in 1963, who, as my dad pointed out, won 7 out of 10 races. In each case, the driver concerned won the title by a country mile. Vettel's lead at slightly under half way through the season is now 77 points over Jenson Button, and as Martin Brundle observed, Vettel could join him in the BBC commentary box for the next three races, and still arrive at Spa at the end of next month leading the championship.
A few weeks ago one of the bookies had him 4-1 on to take the title. That's £1.25 back on a £1 bet. But don't think of it as a bet. Think of it as an investment.
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