Tag Archives: fernando alonso

Ferrari rule in Monza and the title closes up – again

If you’re driving a Ferrari, Monza is the place you want to win, the Tifosi will celebrate you like a King – it doesn’t matter who you are, they may have cheered so loudly a few years ago when your engine expired when driving for a rival but all that is forgotten if your Ferrari takes the chequered flag first.
So Alonso gets another of the jewels for any Ferrari driver and it was all down to about 5 metres out of the pit lane, the team won the race not just Alonso, Buttons stop was about half a second slower than Alonso’s and that made all the difference. That’s not to say that the Spaniard couldn’t have overtaken Button on the track but I don’t see any reason to believe that he’d have been able to do something he hadn’t managed for the first two thirds of the race. But [...]

McLaren rise back to the top at Spa, but what was Vettel doing?

McLaren came back to winning ways in Spa after Red Bull had dominated the last few races, how much of that is to do with the new load tests and how much is to do with McLaren’s improvement is unclear but it does make the championship more interesting. With Hamilton and Webber scoring heavy points and Button, Vettel and Alonso not scoring it puts the Championship into a new light too, it won’t take much to make it a two horse race.
The race itself showed why the drivers love Spa, and why as spectators it can be interesting due to the rain. When it rains at the track is always causes problems as it only gets part of the circuit. This leads to difficult tyre choices and turns drivers into heroes, or makes them look stupid, of course managing to T-bone another car whilst on a straight is still quite [...]

Germany and the Ferrari farce

The German GP was a good one apart from a single corner that has overshadowed the whole weekend. Qualifying showed that the Ferraris are back on form and that it’s a six car race each time out. Hopefully that also means that the championship will stay tight at the front as Red Bull seem insistent on throwing away all the advantages that they get. McLaren also need Ferrari to take these points away from Red Bull at a point in the season when their challenge has faded a little. With the top few in title so close and all in competitive cars it should be a great run in.
The race itself was won (more on that later) in the first corner, Vettel was too concerned with Alonso that Massa drove clean past them both and with that distraction Alonso took second place too. The Ferraris also had the form of [...]

So Vettel is back to the top and Alonso was livid

The European race was nothing that spectacular really, dry, an accident – more on that later, a safety car and some racing. The end result wasn’t really that interesting given the form of the teams so far this season. What was apparent was how frustrated Alonso is getting inside that Ferrari and that a Lotus and Red Bull have very different braking points. Oh and that 5sec penalties actually exist.
The race itself wasn’t actually that great once the first few corners were done. Each of the cars was just slightly faster than the ones behind and it was spreading out, except that it for Mark Webber who had managed to find himself in ninth at one point. A few laps down the road Red Bull brought him in for his stop so that he could run in clear air and make up some time of the cars around him. That [...]