Canadian GP: Phenomenal victory for Button at a rain-hit race!

What an eventful race we saw at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve yesterday! It was legendary in many ways: I guess never before has a Formula 1 race lasted over 4 hours! And there was a new record of most laps driven behind safety car during a race... And crashes! Phenomenal driving by some drivers and mistakes that cost dearly by some others... So hugely entertaining race indeed!

Excitement was missing from the start because the drivers started behind the safety car due to wet conditions. Many laps driven without a possibility to race or overtake your rivals... And Hamilton managed to crash himself out of the race on the lap7 when he collided with his team-mate Button! Hard to call who was at fault in the incident but Button said after the race that he just wasn´t able to see Hamilton next to him... Sounds reasonable, I mean the amount of water on the track was quite unbelievable at that point of the race! So no points for Hamilton in Canada which was bad news for the McLaren driver considering the championship battle. It certainly seems that Hamilton´s chances for the world title this year are slipping through his fingers... He´s continuously over-trying and being way too aggressive! If he can´t change this he´ll difinitely lose his chances to win the title!

After 24 laps there was red flag because of the heavy rain that took a bit over 2 hours to stop!! Must have been very frustrating for the drivers as well as the spectators watching the race live! But luckily the rain finally stopped and the race got underway. Also Alonso got out of the race after colliding with Jenson Button so a very disappointing result for the Ferrari driver, too. After the safety car was out of the way we saw an absolutely thrilling and mindblowing rest of the race!! As a former Michael Schumacher fan I was absolutely delighted to see him fight for the podium finish! Schumi did a fantastic job although he finally couldn´t hold back either Button or Webber and finished 4th. But the best race for him for a looong time!

Where did Jenson Button come from?? By the closing laps he had already pitted 6 times! He had collided with his team-mate and had to come to the pits to get the nose changed and he had also got a drive through penalty due to speeding behind the safety car... He had been back in 21st and somehow he made his way through to 2nd after overtaking both Webber and Schumi! And he was closing the gap to Vettel who was leading -and that happened frightenly fast... Vettel had been leading throughout the whole race and then there was the final lap when he made a small mistake that cost him the victory!

I have to say Button totally deserved to win. He drove a phenomenal race and managed to grab the win despite all the difficulties. Vettel looked very disappointed at the press conference after the race although it was a good day for Red Bull aswell Vettel taking the 2nd place and his team-mate Webber finishing 3rd. But the way the victory slipped through Vettel´s fingers on the very last lap because of his own mistake... I have to admit I was disappointed, too. Of course my common sense keeps telling me that not even Sebastian Vettel can win every race but still... It was so close! He was leading all the other laps except the crucial one!

But if I have to find something positive about the result I would say this keeps Vettel´s feet even more firmly on the ground and this will help him maintain his down-to-Earth attitude towards the championship battle. It´s only human to make mistakes and Vettel knows that he can´t take victories for granted. And I´m sure he´ll turn these mistakes into success when he gets to Valencia next week...! And what we mustn´t forget is that Vettel still has a 60-point lead and Button just made himself the number one contender in the championship battle!

Canadian GP / Qualifying: Sebastian on pole again -against all odds?

When the teams arrived in Canada there was a lot of talk about the Gilles Villeneuve circuit not suiting the Red Bulls as well as some other tracks in the calendar. The Red Bulls are very quick at tracks with many high speed corners but there aren´t many of those at Canada! And the weekend didn´t start in the best possible way for Sebastian Vettel as he crashed into "the wall of champions" already on Friday morning in P1... But I was very confident anyway, I kept thinking that Sebi just wanted to get the crash over with so that he could concentrate on the serious racing... ;)

Q1 and Q2 held no surprises at all. If you don´t count Pedro De La Rosa´s performance. The man replacing Perez in Sauber did actually amazingly well knowing that he was informed only 10 minutes before the P2 got underway that he was expected to drive the other Sauber car! And he had no experience of using the DRS so getting into Q2 can be considered a very reasonable achievement.

Q3 was the most surprising of the three sessions I would say. What has happened to the McLarens? Their pace seemed to have faded away since the Monaco grand prix. Hamilton qualified 5th and Button was 7th behind Rosberg. On the other hand the Ferraris proved to be very competitive indeed! At certain point it seemed that Massa was going to beat his team-mate but in the final standings Alonso qualified 2nd and Massa 3rd. And against all odds, the young German conquered the pole once again! At the track that wasn´t supposed to be Red Bull´s strongest ground... Vettel is just amazing, isn´t he?? I mean his team-mate Webber did an outstanding job finishing 4th, considering that he missed the entire P3 due to a KERS issue and in the qualifying he had to drive without KERS aswell! But Sebastian Vettel... No matter where in the world the man drives, he always manages to get the best out of his car when it matters the most... There´s something absolutely magical about his driving!

Rescheduling Bahrain GP: where is this world going to...??

The World Motorsport Council agreed to reinstate Bahrain GP in the 2011 championship and it will take place on October 30. Reading this statement left me with one thought and one thought only: where is this world going to...? I was totally devostated! I almost had to pinch myself so that I knew I wasn´t dreaming! I didn´t believe at all that it was actually possible to make the decision to reinstate Bahrain GP! I was so certain it wasn´t going to be an option at all. All the teams had been so strongly against the idea of bringing back Bahrain GP and extending the season till December. The teams are the ones that make the sport -F1 racing. How on Earth is it possible that the teams´opinion didn´t get heard? It´s such a howling injustice that it´s up to one man to decide whether they race in Bahrain or not. Of course I wasn´t there to witness the meeting and all the conversation that took place there but the decision really gives the image of only one man making the crucial decision as the teams publicly protested against bringing back Bahrain GP... 

On the FIA document it said: "The WMSC feels that reinstating the grand prix is a means of helping to unite people as the country looks to move forward." Am I the only one who thinks this sounds crazy? I mean F1 racing isn´t supposed to be a means to unite people! Formula 1 racing is -at least to me- exciting sports and entertainment. For the drivers F1 racing means battling for the world championship: who will be crowned as the best driver in the world and which team wins the constructors´championship. For the fans and spectators F1 racing means enjoying thrilling action on the track and cheering for your favourite driver. F1 isn´t about politics -at least it absolutely shouldn´t be related to any country´s political situation! Like it now has been related on the FIA document. If the country is politically unstable we can´t trust the F1 race to make the people live in harmony! 

The statement on the FIA document goes on: "It also recognises the commitment made by the Formula One teams, their employees and families, and personnel associated with the championship, including the local team of volunteers who are so vital to the event." Isn´t this even a bit contradictory? Back to the teams: weren´t they the teams who opposed the idea of extending the season due to it making the season unacceptably long for their staff? Hardly any vacation before Christmas and then back to work in January again? So talking about commitment that the teams weren´t willing to make...! I´d have loved to hear the conversation. Were the teams even represented there or could they even express their opinion? Just wondering...

Enough about the FIA document. I was touched by Mark Webber´s comment on Twitter: "When people in a country are being hurt, the issues are bigger than sport. Let´s hope the right decision is made." But obviously that wasn´t the case. As a former human rights activist I was devostated that the World Motor Sport Council agreed that it was ok to bring back the GP into a country where incommunicado detention, killings, torture and other human rights violations still take place! No matter the FIA officials visited Bahrain to assess the situation in the country -would anyone even have expected them to "find" something suspicious? Watching from the human rights point of view I find it morally utterly wrong to bring Bahrain GP back in the calendar! This gives me remotely a flashback of the apartheid policy in South Africa... The world wide known sporting events shouldn´t be brought to countries where people are being hurt on the basis of religion, political opinion or race! Bringing the F1 race into Bahrain in an unrest situation like today gives the world a message that it´s okay to treat people like this... Or it isn´t at least wrong enough to prevent these events before the true change is made in the political regime!

Monaco GP: Beyond all excitement you can possibly imagine...!

Monaco GP 2011 was absolutely beyond all excitement you can possibly imagine...! Sebastian Vettel said recently:" I´m not a god. I´m just a normal person." I agree with the first sentence but definitely not with the second one! I mean Monaco GP was really action-filled and somebody could say it took a bit of luck, too... But Sebastian´s performance was just mesmerising today, him taking his maiden win in Monaco!

Obviously Sebastian had a great start and managed to maintain his lead going to the first corner. Alonso in the 4th place took a perfect start aswell and passed Webber. Vettel´s pace looked very promising until he pitted the first time on lap 16. What happened at the pit stop? It seemed the tyres weren´t ready and it cost Vettel some crucial seconds before he got back to the track. And his team-mate suffered even more dearly at his pit stop! The team principal Horner stated there was some kind of a radio communication problem... Due to this pit stop incident Button managed to take the lead! Though Red Bull wasn´t the only team having problems at the pit stop. At this stage I was almost sure that Vettel had lost his chances to win the race...

The last 20 laps were hair-raisingly thrilling! Vettel had pitted only once, Alonso behind him twice and Button 3 times. It meant that Vettel´s tyres were the oldest and Button instead had the freshest tyres. They were all within a second from each other and every time the drivers came to the DRS zone I could hear my heart pounding... I was sure Alonso was going to try overtake Vettel and I was so afraid that he would crash Vettel´s car and destroy his race! But then there came the collision involving Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari; Lewis Hamilton and Vitali Petrov causing the red flag when there were only 6 laps to go.

And another injury following Perez´s crash yesterday! Vitali Petrov hit the barrier and couldn´t get out of his car without medical staff´s help. Luckily it´s been reported him getting only an ankle injury but still... These things shouldn´t happen!! But I was also so relieved that the red flag came out because it meant that Vettel was able to get fresh super soft tyres and at that point I was sure that either Alonso or Button couldn´t overtake the reigning world champion on the closing laps!

It took courage from the Red Bull team to make the decision to try the 1 stop strategy. Without the safety car and the red flag the battle for the win between the three rivals would have been absolutely thrilling and the outcome could have been different. But sometimes also a little luck is needed :)

I´m kind of running out of words when writing about Sebastian Vettel and his mesmerising performance... I guess 5 wins in 6 races and the 58-point lead says it all. But Sebastian Vettel being "just a normal person"... I don´t know about his private life but on the track he´s everything but "just a normal person"! His triumph on the track is purely amazing, undescribable really. And the way he´s able to maintain his concentration in difficult situations like the red flag incident yesterday at the qualifying and today after the collision... It´s something extraordinary.

Monaco GP / Qualifying: Frightening crash by Sergio Perez!

I guess after what we´ve seen during this season so far everybody expected to see Sebastian Vettel on pole again. And the dominant Red Bull driver didn´t let us down this time, either! After the practices I was convinced that Red Bull wouldn´t have such an advantage at the qualifying because Ferrari, especially Alonso, seemed to be very competitive this weekend... Before the qualifying I would have bet Alonso was going to qualify among the top three! But so was not the case.

There were a couple of pleasant surprises in Q2. I was so happy to see both Perez in his Sauber and Maldonado in his Williams making their way through to Q3 :) Both rookies managed to beat their team-mates! I´ve always considered Kobayashi a hugely talented and promising driver so Perez impressed me greatly by beating his team-mate!

However, as far as Perez is concerned, my joy was very short-term! In Q3 Sergio Perez lost the control of his car at the tunnel exit and crashed into the barrier in high speed! The crash looked very frightening indeed. I sort of got a flashback of Karl Wendlinger crashing at the very same place in 1994... That crash had severe consequences leading to Wendlinger lying in a coma for several weeks. Perez was very fortunate to suffer "only" a concussion after the scary looking accident! Although safety issues have improved a lot since 1994 a crash like this reminds of the fact that at the end of the day Formula 1 racing is still dangerous! Bad things can still happen. I still can´t avoid thinking that maybe Formula 1 races shouldn´t be driven at Monaco. Of course we´re talking about the most legendary grand prix of all times but still... Safety should come first. All the glory will lose its meaning if (or maybe it´s only a matter of time when...) something truly tragic happens. Just my thoughts but Perez´s crash made me forget the glory of Monaco and shifted my attention to serious matters...

Perez´s crash caused red flags to come out when there were only about two and a half minutes left on the clock. Vettel had made his flying lap on the super softs just before the incident. And what a perfect lap it was!! I was also happy to see Button on the 2nd place ahead of Vettel´s team-mate Webber. And Hamilton had no lap time at that point... When the Q3 was restarted the top drivers couldn´t improve their lap times leaving Hamilton 7th on the grid. So Vettel snatched his first ever pole at Monaco! The most perfect place to start the race tomorrow...

Spanish GP: Ring-ding-ding-ding-a-ling, what a race!

My expectation after yesterday´s qualifying was that the race was going to be a battle between Seb and Mark - and those two only. So I was positively surprised when the red lights went off. First of all, what an amazing start from Fernando Alonso in front of his home crowd!! He made his way to the lead before the first corner! And very soon it turned out that the McLarens wouldn´t give the victory to Sebi easily... Once again Button had a different pit stop strategy compared to other top drivers, him making only 3 pit stops while the others made 4.

Overtaking didn´t seem to be as easy as it was in Turkey two weeks ago. But the race was certainly entertaining, the battle between Alonso and Webber was very enjoyable to watch! Despite the phenomenal start Alonso´s pace sort of faded away during the race and he finally finished in the very familiar 5th place.

Usually you know who is going to be the race winner already several laps before the chequered flag but today it was different. The last 10 laps there was absolutely thrilling and intense battle for the victory between Vettel and Hamilton. What made the battle even more exciting was the fact that once again the young Red Bull driver had some problems with the KERS system in his car. After the race Vettel told that the KERS had been going on and off during the race... My heart was pounding when I sat on the couch and watched the closing laps! I mean Hamilton was so close! I just kept on hoping that due to Hamilton´s more aggressive driving style he would have had less life left in his tyres than Sebi.... I was soooo relieved to see the chequered flag, with more laps to go I would certainly have had a nerval breakdown!!!

So what was obvious, in race pace there isn´t a second splitting the McLarens and the Bulls like we saw in the qualifying yesterday. Hamilton finishing 2nd and his team-mate Button 3rd McLaren managed to get some valuable points in chasing the Bulls. But Sebastian Vettel.... He has won 4 of the 5 races and has a 41-point lead to his closest rival Hamilton in the championship standings! Quite an overwhelming difference you could say! Before going to Monaco in a week there´s only one question to be asked: Can anyone stop Vettel? My answer to that would be: Hopefully not :)

Spanish GP / Qualifying: Webber broke Vettel´s pole streak!

I have been on a sick leave for the whole week so knowing that it was going to be a Formula 1 weekend just absolutely made my week! I had an awful stomach flu but I guess there´s no bug that watching thrilling Formula 1 action wouldn´t make go away for good... ;D And knowing the race was going to be at Circuit de Catalynya in Spain made me wait for the weekend with a special feeling because I had been there personally in February following the winter tests... So I knew it´s going to be a different feeling to watch it on TV when I could recognise all the curves and straights on the track. And all those wonderful memories!!

After the three practices there was hardly any doubt which team would conquer the pole! Red Bull seems to have increased their pace even more though McLaren has also brought some updates to their car for this weekend. There was close battle for pole between Vettel and Webber and surprisingly -at least for me- it was Webber who snatched the pole this time and with a clear 2-tenth margin to his team-mate! But to Hamilton in 3rd place the gap was almost a second!

At the press conference Vettel told he had had a KERS problem during Q2 and Q3 so he was unable to use the system in his final run. What made a positive impression on me was that he didn´t want to explain his defeat to Webber by accusing the lack of KERS but just said that his team-mate had done a better job this time. I appreciate the German´s words, it gives an image of fair sportsman spirit :) The team-mates may not be good friends but they respect each other on the track.

As a Finn I was absolutely delighted to see Heikki Kovalainen making his way through to Q2 for the first time this season! Team Lotus has brought some promising upgrades to their car this weekend and Lotus´ pace seems to have improved. No matter that Heidfeld was unable to go out due to the fire he suffered in his car in P3 and no matter both Force Indias did their run on the hard tyre Heikki´s achievement is still impressive. He has beaten his team-mate Trulli in every qualifying this year and he always drives flat out and on the very limit! So P15 is a genuinely impressive achievement. The lack of KERS will make the start a real challenge tomorrow but Heikki has the fighting spirit that it needs to even fight for some points maybe :)