Race red flagged in Sepang

Jenson Button sealed his 2nd victory with Brawn GP in Sepang amidst utter chaos and drama, when the race had to be stopped due to torrential rain after 32 laps. The race never started again and ‘finishers’ got half points according to FIA rules. Heidfeld, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg were declared as the points scorers.  Trulli, Webber and Rosberg received their tallies in fractions. And considering the fiercely aggressive competitiveness shown by teams this season, these half points may well decide the champion this year.

This is not a new affair in Formula-1. Here is a list of races that were red flagged. Out of these races, half points were offered at 4 races.

1. Spanish GP, 1975
2. Austrian GP, 1975
3. Monaco GP, 1984
4. Australian GP, 1991

The most significant 1 was Monaco GP, 1984 which changed the whole picture of the season. Mclaren star Alain Prost was declared the winner but got 4.5 points. Interestingly, he lost the season to his teammate  Niki Lauda by only half point!

Back to Malaysia. Before the rain, we witnessed some excellent racing action. Rosberg jumped to the pole from 4th position because of slow start by Button. Alonso found a weirdly empty passage on the grid and he was 5th from his original 9th position by turn 1. Kimi also showed some nerve by making some bold overtaking moves, but subsequently managed to settle down on 6th, gaining only 1 spot. For the first time this season, Brwan cars were struggling for pace. In the middle, Alonso was defending a convoy of Kimi, Glock and Webber for almost 8 laps, before conceading. As nobody was losing time, they were moving like a train as if an imaginary string was attached to them.

Then came the deciding moment; the pit stops. The rain delayed a bit from the initial prediction. As the first batch of cars tooks their first stops, nobody bothered to switch to intermediates. A few laps later, Ferrari brought in their lead driver for the race, Kimi and in a shocking move, put him on not even intermediates but directly on wet weather tyres. All the other drivers being on slicks, Kimi was losing 20s a lap to the race leaders. Ferrari desperately needed rain (I was picturing Stefano Domenicali and Michael Schumacher doing a rain dance in the pits!) Ultimately when the rain finally hit the track and everybody had taken their 2nd stop for tyre change, the classification showed Kimi with only 1 stop but on 16th spot! As always, a bold move by Ferrari ended up in disaster. In this chaos though, Massa surprisingly entered point scoring zone but again caved and ended up 9th.

Brawn GP were criticized for their slow and lazy pit stops in Australia. But here in Sepang, they showed perfection both in strategy and implementation which put Button back on the lead. The rain persisted long enough to summon safety car and finally when the drivers started feeling like swimming with a blindfold in their cars, the race was stopped. The long wait eventually ended with a completely different classification from what we expected.

2009 Formula 1 season Hamilton vs FIA update: FIA 1- Hamilton 0

In addition to the F1 season, I am now following yet another sport which turns out to be highly entertaining. The clash between Hamilton vs FIA is getting yummier. Last season, Hamilton won this game on sudden death by winning the title, which made all the initial troubles irrelevant. Its only been a week this season, and Hamilton already took his 1st blow from FIA. Although this time, it was altogether caused by his constructor.

We got a dramatic start to the season with 1st FIA hearing in 1st week. FIA, which has been trying to confuse itself with self made laws, ruled in favor of Toyota driver Trulli and excluded Hamilton along with its constructor. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a logical and fair judgement! (How often do you see that with FIA!) The stewards took into consideration the tape of team radio instructions to the Mclaren driver and ruled that Mclaren tried to  mislead them. How dumb are these stewards to get disoriented so easily? It takes them 2 hearings to reach such a simple  judgement. Apparently they did not have access to  the team radio tape during the 1st hearing. How convenient! I have started to imagine FIA office like administrative section of my college now. Nobody is accountable and nobody cares about the person on the other end.

Brawn GP creates a history at Melbourne

Ross Brawn is arguably the happiest man on the earth right now and he should be. He managed to put both of his drivers on top in first ever race under his own title, Brawn GP. Button and Barichello were ecstatic as they walked to the podium and the crowd in Melbourne was loving it. Another person who will be as happy as team Brawn is Bernie Eccleston. He got what he wanted; F1 is alive again with a new spirit. (It would be impetuous to claim that the whole season would be as exciting as this race, being that this race was in Melbourne. But the quality of overtaking maneuvers and overall competitiveness was excellent)

The turning point of the race was a crash between Kubica and Vettel. Fighting for 2nd place, Vettel was defending his position with all his might when an idiotic overtaking maneuver by Kubica on a turn kicked them both out of the race. The safety car was summoned and Vettel tried to limp behind it for a couple of laps on 3 wheels, but eventually gave up. This changed the whole picture. Barichello, who suffered an initial blow due to a poor start, jumped right on top with Button and Trulli came 3rd. Hamilton was at right place at right time and manged to score valuable championship points due to his ability to keep cool when others were on a rampage; unlike reckless Ferrari drivers. Both Kimi and Massa had an excellent start thanks to KERS but lost the positions due to poor tyre and fuelling strategies by Ferrari. In addition to that, the amazing skill of both the drivers to go off track without anyone’s ‘Help’ made sure that the team was well out of scoring zone. Just like last year, Ferrari got a start they didn’t want. Newbie Buemi also took advantage of last minute confusion to grab a few extras, along with Alonso.

P.S- Thanks to adamant BCQC Abhimanyu organizers, I had to miss the live telecast of the race. So I planned a media blackout, just like in How I Met Your Mother (The SuperBowl Sunday episode). And it was successful!

Australian GP Qualifying: How did this happen?

I am tempted to compare Brawn GP with a phoenix bird, very much rising through the ashes. A team which didn’t even exist a month ago managed to put both of the drivers on the front row of the grid for the start of the season at Australian GP, 2009. The relentless efforts put by team chief Ross Brawn seemed to have worked perfectly fine. Jenson Button grabbed the pole position followed by team mate Rubens Barichello (And the team managed to get sponsorship from Virgin group) Vettel manged to go 3rd fastest in Q3 to prove that he is worth the trust put on him by Red Bull management.

The biggest disappointment of the day would have to be Alonso and Hamilton, former and reigning world champion. Hamilton barely made it into top 15 but never came on track for Q2. He will start the race from that poition. Alonso failed to make it to the top 10 after all the speculation. He is 12th on the grid. It was a mixed day for BMW. While Kubica will start the race from 4th position on the grid, his teammate Nick Heidfeld managed only 11th spot. Interestingly, Heidfeld was using the new KERS while Kubica was not. Apparently, Kubica’s weight was a problem while accommodating KERS. But it meant better weight balance and that seemed to have worked.Next surprise was Nico Rosberg. He is 5th but he could well end up on the podium tomorrow.

The qualifying started under speculations over the performance of the tricky new rear diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. Their design is able to generate more downforce leading to better car control and cornering speeds. Though FIA has cleared those designs for this weekend, they are still under the scanner and decision to an appeal made by few other teams is under consideration. Whatever the outcome is, it seemed to have worked well for the teams as except for Nakajima, rest 5 finished in top 10.

Ferrari had a rough day. Both the drivers managed to squeeze as much as possible out of a dull F60. Massa will start 7th and Kimi 9th. The car was not tuned properly. At a particular moment in Q3, Massa actually felt that a tyre was punctured! Looks like they will have to witness the others ‘Blitz’ past them tomorrow. Mclaren have already decided to let this race go without even thinking about the points. Force India, well, lets just say this shouldn’t be how a team has to start a season.

One thing is for sure; new rules have rejuvenated the sport like never before. All the teams look extremely competitive and there is hardly anything to seperate between the top 5. This will definitely make the season more interesting.

2009 Formula 1 season Preview

Minor changes in rules each year are common in Formula-1. But this year though, the magnitude of the change is quite large. FIA had a challenge of maintaining a delicate balance between cutting cost and increasing the competitive nature of the sport. They faced an immediate challenge of garrisoning 20 cars on the starting grid. The dilemma posed by exit of Team Honda was later resolved with Team Brawn GP under the same chief Ross Brawn. The chief maintained the same loyal driving crew (damn, no Sato!) Inspite of very very late start, Brawn GP has shown astounding pace on the track at testing in Jerez. This came as a huge surprise for Ferrari and BMW, the previous time chart leaders and were forced into recalculating the strategies.

Ferrari looks well preped with its new F60. In the earlier stage of testing, they faced few problems with cooling of KERS but looks like they are all set to use it in Melbourne. Both the drivers are happy about the progress. It is being said that though KERS will provide a huge boost in power  (85 hp for 6.6 sec), it has put forward a major problem of balancing the weight of vehicle which is a very delicate matter.

I believe that the real match for Ferrari’s pace this season is going to be BMW. They had an excellent run last season. Mid-season, they declared that their target for 2008 season was achived and that they will concentrate on development for season 2009. They started working on KERS way earlier than any other team and it worked. BMW is the only team that is confident about its KERS.

Mclaren is struggling. They are struggling at a very bad time of the season and the worst part is that its not the KERS, but the aerodynamics. The lack of pace is causing troubles for the new chief Martin Whitmarsh. They are working hard for Melbourne and I hope they catch up soon. The season needs to be competitive. Another potential front runner is Renault. Though R29 is slower than most of the cars, its Alonso’s skill that has been putting its name on top. So, for a more solid result, they need a better engineered car. Toyota and Williams desperately need more podium finishes this season with the caliber of their lead drivers, Trulli and Rosberg.

Toro Rosso and Red Bull are all set to rule the middle order. And now the big question- Force India. VJM02 is radically different than VJM01, primarily because it has a Mercedez-Benz engine instead of Ferrari. I hope it works as good as it has been working for Team Brawn. No need to stress on the need of scoring points!

FIA took a bold decision about the new scoring system. New medal system is need of F1 after what happened last year. Hamilton aiming at 5th place in a neck to neck fight for title was really disturbing. These Olympic style rules will make sure that drivers will aim at winning more than scoring. Somewhere, that will be a stimulus that the drivers require. But after protests from many teams, the decision was changed.

The season kick starts on 29th March and what better place to do it than the most dangerous circuit! I am planning to put Google Earth Images of all the tracks this season. Lets see how it goes. They all look beautiful from above. 2 for starters. Here is Albert Park for you with a beautiful lake in the middle (not distinctive being a street circuit)-

And now Sepang, Malaysia (This 1 looks awesome)-

Hope for a great season folks!

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On a different note I would like to mention Gadre’s this post here about loyalty towards your favourite teams. Its a really amazing article and it has given me a chance to answer my critics. I have always been accused of ‘Blindly jumping the Bandwagon’ in supporting ManU and Ferrari. I have to agree that I started supporting them during their glorious days. But both of these red giants faced major troubles during 2005-06 and I never stopped supporting them. Thats what supporting your team is all about. I don’t think I am quite there yet with football or ManU, but I will definitely walk anywhere to see Ferrari even if they start 20th and finish 20th. I stand by them no matter what. Even if they hire Fernando Alonso. (I believe Gadre will do the same if Ferguson hires Drogba!)

Formula-1 2009 season schedule

FIA has done a cruel job of starting the season so late this time around. We will have to wait till 29th of March for the action to start. This year there are 17 races scheduled as against 18 during last season. No Canadian and French GP this year, but Abu Dhabi has been added.

• Australian GP: Albert Park (29th March)- After lot of protests and pressure during last year, the organizers have decided to start the race at 5pm local time for the benefit of viewers in Europe and Asia. After a disastrous race last time around with barely 8 cars finishing the race, we can look forward to an interesting start of season.
• Malaysian GP: Sepang (5 April)- This race was supposed to be a night race, but due to various reasons including budget it won’t this time around.
• Chinese GP:Shanghai (19 April)- The race has been shifted to the start of the season to adjust the timetable after French GP got cancelled.
• Bahrain GP: Sakhir(26 April)– It should be interesting to see Massa on this track, wonder if he can manage a hat-trick here.
• Spanish GP: Catalunya(10 May)- Ferrari should manage to hold on to this one.
• Monaco GP: (24 May)- No rain please! Let the sky be clear this time.
• Turkish GP: Istanbul (7 June)- Hope for Ferrari.
• British GP: Silverstone (21 June)- Interesting to see how people support their champion here.
• German GP: Nürburgring (12 July)- Hockenheim makes way for Nürburgring this time around. Its good to have two equally competent circuits in your country isn’t it?
• Hungarian GP: Hungaroring (26 July)
• European GP: Valencia Street Circuit (23 August)- Last year, this was the most boring race of the season. Need some excitement here this time.
• Belgian GP: Spa (30 August)- My personal favourite!
• Italian GP: Monza (13 September)- Ferrari need to be a bit more cautious here. Also looking forward to Vettel.
• Singapore GP: (27 September)- No Alonso please!
• Japanese GP: (4 October)- Fuji makes way for Suzuka this time. Again, no Alonso please!
• Brazilian GP: Interlagos (18 October)- What an epic finale we had here last time around!
• Abu Dhabi GP: (1 November)- This should turn out to be an amazing race. The circuit looks fabulous and there is supposed to be a section called Ferrari world on the circuit!

I am planning to see at least one race of this season (i mean by actually going to the circuit and watching it LIVE!) no matter where I go after my engineering. I am feeling the rush already.

The Glory continues for ManUtd

Another job well-done. ManU has added another trophy to its bulging collection: Carling Cup (league cup), defeating Tottenham 4-1 in penalty shootouts. I could not see the match thanks to my own ignorance (match was on Zee sports, I get Zee sports but didn’t know match was on in and ended up watching Aston Villa vs Stoke City instead). But caught the highlights and it was a terrific match. Alex Ferguson should be praised for selecting Foster for this particular match, who ended up as the match-winner. How he manages to juggle his players through such a packed schedule is really amazing. Kudos!

Now ManU faces NewCastle Utd in an away mid-week clash to be followed by 2nd leg of Champions league and an important home match against Liverpool next week. Though they are still in run for all 3 trophies (EPL, FA and CL), Ferguson said its not all that easy and that they are focusing on 1 game at a time. Still it is exciting to see them well on their way to secure all 5 trophies this year and make a history!

Another despicable act by Pakistan

Pakistan continues its streak of getting embarrassed internationally. But this one has hurt the world first and then humiliated Pak. Our beloved game of cricket has come under fire, literally. Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked on their way to Gaddafi stadium in Lahore by 12 ‘UNIDENTIFIED’ men carrying AK-47s, rocket launchers and grenades. Half the team was injured along with assistant coach and 4th umpire for the ongoing match. Injured players are: Thilan Samaraweera (in hospital), Tharanga Paranavitana (in hospital), Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Suranga Lakmal, Chaminda Vaas.

Though this came as a shock, I can’t stop wondering, what the hell were they doing in Pak in the first place. Apart from India (26/11 incident), there was a very good reason why other countries canceled their tours and that is security. That was the only reason why Champions Trophy was to be taken out of Pak. Sri Lankan cricket board should have taken a hint and should have focused on safety first. With the recent developments in Swat Valley, Pak was not exactly an ideal place to be in. I am tempted to put the blame on their board and their government (for allowing the tour). Lankan president said that the tour was meant to be a sign of goodwill. Now who is paying the price?

No doubt, this incident is going to force ICC to ban tours in Pak for a few years. BCCI has already speculated a 4 to 5 years ban. Other boards and governments have also strongly condemned the act and are demanding action. Thats the amusing part. All 12 attackers escaped unharmed and 5 security personnel were killed. There have been a few arrests but going by the history of investigation of terror attacks in Pak, we all know what the end result is going to be. The root cause, that is terrorism still wanders freely on the streets of Pakistan and has shown its ugly face once again in such a ghastly way.

With IPL approaching and 2011 world cup in sight, there are now questions being asked about security not only in Pakistan but in the entire Indian subcontinent. As far as World Cup goes, I believe Pakistan is now way out of question. The other subcontinental countries now face a monumental task of reestablishing the trust into cricket playing nations.

Amusing Menu Card

This is menu card from a conference lunch that I recently attended. I have marked the most amusing bit, but the rest of it turns out to be entertaining as well:

From the taste, I assume that it was Gobi Manchurian.

How stuff works: Part 2

I wrote the part 1 a long time ago, so here is a refresher

I have been forced to write the second part by two incidents in the past few days.

1) The Board Office: Kolhapur

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Thats the board I am talking about. I am applying to a few German universities, which demand certified copies of 12th std passing certificate. The certification has to be done either by a German consulate or the authority issuing certificate (the board). The procedure at the german embassy takes 4 weeks which was not possible for me because of deadlines. First I went to the Pune board office as it is the head office. I was shocked to see the treatment I got there. For the first time in my life I was not treated like a piece of crap in a government office. But sadly I was told that I will get such copies from Kolhapur, as I passed my exam from Kolhapur board. Fair enough, I thought. The guy explaned the whole procedure- 1 simple application and, xerox copies, 200 Rs for verification of records and I would get my copies in half an hour. I was truly ecstatic. High on spirit, I reached Kolhapur. But as you might have guessed, it was not meant to be. Otherwise I would have not written this post!

After convincing the watchman for 10 min that I had a genuine case and had no intention of stealing a paper or anything, he let me in. I entered the record section at 11.15 am. There was (obviously) not a single soul to be found. A 10 min wait and a peon walks in. I am told ‘Saheb busy ahet!’. Around noon, ‘Saheb’ walks in. I put my case in front of him and now I am told “This is handled by xyz madam”. Peon tells me that she is sitting in the next room. I try to eavesdrop and there I could hear a conversation among 3-4 ladies about how their boss is an ***hole. To be fair, it was rather entertaining, but I was pissed off at that moment. Madam returns to her desk after a while and I repeat the whole deal. She tells me to write an application, attach a copy of my I-card(??) and the bombshell… get my original passing certificate Notarized!!! I am literally stunned. I try to tell her ‘Uh, mam, actually this is the original certificate provided by board, so..’ She gives me a dirty look and takes out a circular from a file and shows requirements for certification. I tried again ‘But mam, the guy in Pune office…”THIS IS NOT PUNE, THIS IS KOLHAPUR!!! (reminded me of 300, Gerhard Butler’s dialogue ‘This is SPARTA’) Do as I tell you!’

I am in a city which I barely know and I have now been asked to get my original Certificate notarized! I approach a Rickshaw-wala who took me to some court house. I told notary to do the honours and he laughs at my face! Obviously I mean, but I had no other choice. I explained the situation and he agrees. He gave me an inside scoop, that in case a fraud takes place, the board can blame it on notaty. I return, and now I am told that I can get only 1 copy that too after a week by post and I had to submit the original! Desperate, I submit the things. Today I received an envelop containing damaged and tarnished certificate and… thats it. No copy that I was looking for. So I call them up and I get a standard ‘We will look into the matter’!

To all the lawyers out there, I have a question. Can I sue these blood-sucking anthropomorphic insects?

2)Pune railway station

I am using my online reservation account on IRCTC these days to book tickets. During my last trip to Chennai, I experienced the horrors of traveling on waiting list ticket in a region where people barely understand your language. This next journey is 30 hr long, to a town in Tamilnadu, Kovilpatti. Someone suggested me to book the ticket from Lonavala and change the boarding station to Pune later. A star that I am, forgot to put boarding Pune, while reserving. I tried to change it later, but the online portal does not have that facility. I learned that I can do that on station. Went there. I am told to write an application (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!: I shouted in my head), get it signed from Chief Station Superintendent, attach copy of ID and stand in queue of window no. 2. And the whole purpose of my online reservation was now lost! Why not 1 teeny-tiny additional feature on web-portal??