Red Bull home run

Last weekend Red Bull Racing and Milton Keynes council came together to create a celebratory event in the teams home turf of MK to celebrate a very successful year in Formula 1.

This season Red Bull were comfortably at the top from start to finish, Sebastian Vettel claimed the most poles in a season (15) and won the majority of the races and was a feature on the podium regularly, with only one retirement in Abu Dhabi due to a puncture.
Mark Webber picked up a handful of podiums himself and not forgetting the last race of the season where he won in Brazil joining Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to be the only drivers to beat Vettel on the top step.
In Korea Red Bull Racing clinched the Constructors title and the race before Sebastian Vettel won the drivers championship in Japan. 
So... not much to celebrate then eh!

The event also showcased talented stunt bike rider Chris Pfeiffer and David Coulthard driving in a Red Bull NASCAR as well as both Formula 1 cars, drivers and the team.

Being one of roughly 66,000 fans/spectators i can say both myself and my family had an amazing day out. For me, i got lucky and happened to be in the rights places at the right time (and waiting over two hours outside the make-shift garage to see Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber along with Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, DC and Jake Humphrey!)

Thank you to Milton Keynes and to RBR for a fantastic show run, to help with the off season blues!!

It's official

The least shocking announcement on who'd have a drive at Sahara Force India next season has now officially been confirmed.

Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta will pair up next season while Adrian Sutil is out of a contract.
Paul Di Resta, who won 'Autosport Rookie of the year 2011' made a lasting impression during his debut Formula 1 season at the team. He repeatedly out-qualified his now ex teammate Adrian Sutil and managed to score a decent amount of points for the team. His calm and collective approach to the media, always offering an in depth analysis during interviews and generally being fan-friendly has made his fan base increase while his obvious talent has shone to the team who are keeping him for the 2012 season. Let's hope next year is even better for him.

Nico Hulkenberg made his debut in 2010 for Williams, and like Di Resta he gained a solid fan base that would support him from then on, even during the 2011 season while he's been a reserve driver for Force India.
His amazing first pole position in Brazil 2010 showed us just a glimpse of his racing talent, something which hopefully the Force India will help shine and he can now start to show the Motorsport world what the Hulk has been holding back while being out for this past season.  

Now there is only two seats left that need to be filled on the grid, although it's unknown if Ruben Barrichello will be staying at Williams there's a possibility that now redundant Adrian Sutil could replace the Brazilian.
HRT could now change it's plans and opt for Jaime Alguersuari in the teams bid to be completely Spanish. 
We'll have to patiently wait and see!

In with the new

It was announced a few hours ago that Lotus Renault isn't the only one making bold moves in their driver line up.
Toro Rosso have signed TWO new drivers Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne who was Renault 3.5 runner up and Australian Daniel Ricciardo who's most recently been racing for HRT in a deal cut by Red Bull; both being Red Bull young drivers.

The upside? My last post talking about fresh talent on the grid, seems to be turning around. Daniel Ricciardo race from Silverstone onwards this past season for HRT, an uncompetitive team that helped him get experience under his belt. It's been rumoured for a while that he might have replaced one of the former Toro Rosso drivers and Red Bull have pushed for him to be in Formula 1.
Jean-Eric Vergne set his 2011 sights on becoming champion in the Renault 3.5 season, he showed Red Bull he was fast but only managed runner up, in a tense battle to the end with Robert Wickens, a championship he could taste and then fell at the last hurdle. He also tested on Fridays with Scuderia Toro Rosso which was a promising sign.

The downside? We lose two very talented and passionate drivers. This is the cut throat world of F1 - your position is never safe. This has been proved throughout the whole season where Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari have pushed each other and motivated each other in an attempt to come out on top, the better driver, the driver who most deserves his seat with STR. The battle so closely fought helped Toro Rosso develop as a team with more positive results and higher grid finishes. 
I did believe that one of them would stay at the team and help continue this positive growth but now seeing as they've signed two rookies, this may be doubtful. 
I hope to see both Buemi and Alguersuari stay positive and continue racing in F1 sometime soon, talent shouldn't be wasted, there could be a surprise for us yet.

Good luck to them both and i hope they both have very successful seasons and most of all enjoy the racing!

Sh-sh-sh-shake up!

So i know i'm late on the news front but i've been away for the weekend (post coming soon) but the fight for the remaining Lotus Renault seat has being signed.

After weeks, or even months of speculation of who was going to be sat in a Lotus next year has come to a close. Kimi Raikkonen won't be the only newbie at the team as LRGP have officially done the deal with GP2 winner Romain Grosjean. A slightly shocking surprise for Vitaly Petrov who had a contract for 2012 but turns out it was on a 2011 race seat with a 2012 option.
While it's great news for Grosjean who get's to make a go of Formula 1 again, Petrov is now out of a seat along with Bruno Senna, who has reportedly said he'd be happy with a reserve role. The lack of seats and ever growing young talent means It's got to the point where the young guns are now happy for reserve roles whereas the verging on retiring drivers are still keeping seats?!

I can't help but think it's time for a lot more fresh faces in Formula 1, not just for a single season and then for another rookie to be snapped up, i mean for more drivers to enter F1 and stay, build a solid fan base and grow within the sport, to watch them climb the ranks to the top. We've recently seen Sebastian Vettel grow overt he past few years to become World Champion and now once the older drivers have moved on we need to see new young Sebastian's arising.

A rumour, which i will reiterate  is just a rumour at the moment, is that Kamui Kobayashi could be replaced by Jules Bianchi, whom is on the Ferrari young driver programme, like Sergio Perez, so it would make sense for him to make his debut with the Sauber team, however this is one move i am unsure of. I'm a big fan of Kobayashi's driving style, he's showed us he has got determination, he's proved he can have an agressive driving style if he needs to, he's won the hearts of many and it would be sad to see him out of a seat, he's one of the promising drivers that you know is just going to get better and better and if i'm honest i think this year he's learnt a lot more with having Perez as a team mate, someone whose evenly matched and to me, i think they make a great team.
On the other hand i've been following Jules Bianchi's career for about two years now, i get excited when i see him race, he's talented and someday he will end up winning in a Ferrari, races and even Championships. He wouldn't be on the Ferrari young driver programme if they didn't believe in him so if he did go to Sauber a part of me would be very happy but the other would be sad that Kamui wasn't there.

Familiar faces.

When it was announced months ago that for the 2012 season onwards was no longer going to be solely on the BBC and that they'd only be showing 10 races live, the news of Formula 1 shift to Sky Sports was sketchy, fans were unaware of what this Sky deal consisted of and in recent months, slowly but surely the pieces are being put together and we now have a clearer understanding of what awaits us next year. 

At first, i was sceptical, but now i feel more positive that Sky will up BBC's game and put everything in to bringing us closer to the Grand Prix weekend. 
The only downside is that people who can't afford or don't want Sky Sports or the HD package that they will be unable to watch every race live, instead will be watching it delayed on the BBC with limited coverage - a bit like taking a step back when we should all be taking a step forward. 
If you do have Sky Sports, then the channel will be included, the same goes if you are a Sky HD subscriber.

So, after the brilliant 'banter' at the Autosport Awards between the BBC and Sky, Sky announced their official team line up and well it looks very familiar...

Say hello to Sky Sports F1's familiar faces...

(From left-right) Anthony Davidson, David Croft, Nathalie Pinkham, Martin Brundle, Simon Lazenby, Georgie Thompson and Ted Kravitz.

Yep, that right, it's the BBC team, apart from Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. 

For the Commentary throughout every Grand Prix weekend Martin Brundle, like this year for the BBC, will lead Sky's comms during qualifying and the race along with co-commentator David Croft. Joining Crofty for practise sessions is ex-Formula 1 driver Anthony Davidson. Ant and Crofty, who have commentated for the past three years together for BBC 5live are joining forces again to bring us top notch commentating (nice to see you both sticking together.)
Down in the pitlane is Nathalie Pinkham and Ted kravitz who will continue to get the inside knowledge of what's going on during all the sessions.
Ted Kravitz will also present a Tv magazine show on Sky F1 with Steve Rider.
The main presenter will be Sky Sports own, Georgie Thompson and Simon Lazemby. 

It has to be said, well done Sky for giving us a near perfect line up of presenters and commentators! 

So with Sky feeling like a home from home, next year doesn't look too bad after all, i just hope this positive hype of making it bigger and better get's put into practise.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the line up? Will you be watching Sky if you can? Or sticking to BBC?

Autosport Awards 2011

If you didn't watch the Autosports award on Sunday evening then watch then you should really watch Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel's speeches, the are both A* comedians...

Jenson Button collecting Best British Driver award 2011 (watch this one first)

Sebastian Vettel collecting International Driver of the year

Sebastian Vettel : Winner of the racing driver that can talk the longest and make witty jokes in his second language.

This was definitely the most entertaining part of the evening. The most touching was the Dan Wheldon piece with his dad and Dario Franchitti who both said a little bit on Dan.

Highlights of who won what:

Done deal.

At an odd time of the evening it was confirmed that Pastor Maldonado will keep his seat at Williams. Let's hope he's learnt from this year, improved and will return next season with a more experienced head.

There's still no indication as to who his teammate will be but let's cross our fingers for it to be Rubens Barrichello again.

Other news:

If you didn't already know then this weekend is the Race Of Champions (ROC) held in Dusseldorf, Germany. 

The name is self-explanatory - it's a series or races in various cars, teams are split into 'Team GB', 'Team Germany' etc these teams are made up of champions (race drivers, rally drivers, x-fighters) such as Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean, Vitaly Petrov, Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Ogier, Travis Pastrana and last years winner Filipe Albuquerque, and many more. On Saturday they compete for the nation's and Sunday individually for the driver Champion of Champions.

It's just what everyone needs a week after the Formula 1 season has finished!!

If you live in the UK then coverage starts live at 6pm tonight on MotorsTV and tomorrow at 1pm.
You can also follow it live on Twitter ... @MotorsTV  and  @RaceOfChampions


[Don't forget you can also follow me on Twitter @MaddyyF1]

Guess who's back?!

Like you didn't know already. Yep, that's right Iceman himself is back in Formula 1!

Kimi Raikkonen is back in 2012, he'll be racing in the newly named  Lotus (Renault) team.

Kimi in his new 'get up' i bet he'd like some ice-cream and coke to celebrate?

Click here to watch Kimi's first interview about why he signed for Lotus Renault. 

The question now is, who will be his team mate? 
No one really knows if Robert Kubica will be be fit enough to race next year and as far as i'm aware he's yet to test an F1 car but it's always going to be a possibility until LRGP make a decision on who they are going to pair with Kimi.
The options? Well now there's a choice! The most obvious being Vitaly Petrov, who did sign a contract with the team covering his 2012 race seat, however in true F1 style they can always let him go for a better offer.  
The better offer? Bruno Senna is on the list after proving himself in the latter half of this season, replacing Nick Heidfeld, has he done enough but more importantly has he got more sponsors and money than Vitaly has?! 
Other choices for the team to consider is Romain Grosjean, GP2 and GP2 Asia series 2011 champion, who is reserve driver for the team and ready to prove he's got what it takes for his second stint in Formula 1 after a fairly dismal effort in 2009. 
Of course they could always spring a surprise on everyone and sign one of the many talented young guns but the likely hood of that is very small.

Recent signings:

On Sunday, after a few weeks of speculation, Marussia Virgin Racing confirmed they had signed GP2 driver Charles Pic, letting go of Jerome D'Ambrosio.
Jerome coming into the season as a rookie for MVR, a young team that stays mostly at the back of the grid, showed the world his talent and his competitiveness against experienced team mate Timo Glock. 
I hope we get to see more of him in the future and that he get's snapped up for a seat because i think he has, like most of the younger generation drivers, a lot of talent that needs to be showcased.

It was also announced last week that experienced driver Pedro de la Rosa will drive for HRT next year for yet another return to Formula 1 for the 40 year old whose first race was in 1999 for Arrows.

Future signings:

There's a limited number of race seats that are currently be negotiated, this is where it get's a bit confusing.
Although Team Lotus (Caterham) signed a deal with Jarno Trulli, it has come to light that that may not have included racing, so there's a possibility that Red Bull young driver, Daniel Ricciardo could move out from his HRT seat to the newly named Caterham due to the Red Bull Racing KERS deal with the young team for next season, it's already known that staying at the team is Heikki Kovalainen.
This would mean there's a seat at HRT or the Spanish National Team, where they look set to make it a full Spanish team which means they could sign GP2 racer Dani Clos.

So, apart from Lotus (Caterham) and HRT, there's still Williams and Force India to decide on their driver line up for 2012. 
In Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado was classed as the 'money bag' for the team, he didn't have the greatest season with the team, in fact Williams had their worst season to date.
Rubens Barichello would like to retain his seat with Williams and make it his 20th season in Formula 1.
As much as i want to see younger drivers with fresh talent making it onto the grid, i'm with every other fan and would love to see Rubens race for a 20th season! 
Over at Force India there's two seats that could possibly be up for grabs, although rookie Paul di Resta did a brilliant job this season, it would be stupid to see the team give him up. Adrian Sutil, who had a very impressive drive at the weekend in Brazil is in doubt as to whether he'll still be at the team in 2012, he's had links to Williams in recent weeks. Force India have a tough decision as reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg is also fighting for a seat with the team, he's got talent we saw that last year when he at Williams so it's down to the team who offers the best bet.


Toro Rosso is also up in air however they are most likely to either keep Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi, or replace one of them with either Formula Renault 3.5 runner up Jean Eric Vergne or Daniel Ricciardo. 
Both Jaime and Sebastien have had an all mighty inter-team battle to prove they have the talent to stay with the team for next season, they've pushed themselves and each other hard and in my own opinion i'd like to see them both stay at the team and continuing helping improve the team as a whole.

As far as i'm aware teams like Sauber who haven't officially confirmed but are set to keep their drivers.

And that's it, all the other seats have been snapped up by the same drivers as this season!

Brazil low down...

Sao Paulo; a place of history, a place where everyone feels that little bit closer to the legendary racer Ayrton Senna, a place where dreams become reality, championships are decided, tears are shed and excitement is felt.

The last Grand Prix of the season has been and gone.

Although the championship was ultimately over in Japan, there were battles still to be fought for constructor’s points.

Sunday morning’s main focus was on whether it was going to rain, at what time and deciding what setup and strategy was going to work best for the race.

The race started in the warm Brazilian sunshine, everyone started on the quicker soft tyres and the race was go!

Lap 1, both Ferrari’s got off to a good start along with Vettel who started like he has started every race this season - instant pace, something he’s perfected.

Home racer Rubens Barichello had a very poor start falling from 10^th to 19^th, a sad sight for fans to see as it’s in doubt as to whether he has a race seat next year or not.

All 24 cars managed to get to Lap 9 with no need of a safety car all race, it was Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna that had a racing incident on Lap 10 causing Schumacher to pit after a puncture for another lot of soft tyres.

Fernando Alonso pulled out another almighty over take on Lap 11 - when he overtakes he does it in impressive style, meanwhile Sebastian Vettel is made aware of a gearbox problem over his team radio and Bruno Senna get’s given a driving through for his incident earlier, not the sight any of the Brazilian fans wanted to see.

After several messages over the radio to Vettel about his “serious” gear box problem, on Lap 30 his team mate Mark Webber takes 1^st place, where he stayed for the rest of the race to claim his first (and what will be the last) win of the season for the Red Bull team.

With gear box issues being a reoccurring feature during the length of the race, eventually Lewis Hamilton’s gave up the ghost and he retired on Lap 48, joining retirees Timo Glock on Lap 21 due to a failed pit stop and unsafe release, with the team later being fined, and Pastor Maldonado who unfortunately summed up his season by crashing into the barrier on Lap 26. Tonio Liuzzi was the last retirement on Lap 61.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil had a belter of a race, making impressive over takes past Nico Rosberg for the 6^th place battle, while team mate Paul di Resta finished best of the rookies in 8^th.

The ultimate pass from Jenson Button on Lap 62 saw him take 2^nd from Fernando Alonso, where they both remained for the rest of the race. As the GP came to an end, Mark Webber was on the podium in 1^st - a well-deserved win by the Australian, joining him was Sebastian Vettel in 2^nd and Jenson in 3^rd. 

FASTEST LAP : Mark Webber: 1:15.324

Results: 

The podium:

Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button (from @redbullracing) 

Apart fron the Ayrton Senna tribute helmets, Sebastian Vettel's was my favourite helmet of the weekend,  "Cheers Maz" you mysterious RBR employee!

And a last thanks to the class of 2011 for giving us a great season of racing... (including Nick Heidfeld, Karun Chandhok and the other reserves) along with all the teams and everyone who works in F1!

The curtains have no been drawn and focus turns to 2012. 

If, like me, you can't wait till March for you F1 fix, then Red Bull are hosting a 'Red Bull home run' event in Milton Keynes on December 10th. Welcoming home Kinky Kylie after her last ever race, oh and Sebastian, Mark, DC and all the team will be there too! 

As the sun set's the cars come out

In the hazy Abu Dhabi sunset the engines began to roar up and the nervous wait for the five red lights began. 

It started with a shocker on Lap 1 as Sebastian Vettel suffered a puncture coming out of Turn 1 as Lewis Hamilton then lead the way Vettel looked on as the pack drove away. His race was over before it really began, very different from last year’s celebration scenes and his first retirement since Korea 2010.

From then on the battle for 1^st was between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, while Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button suffered KERS problems throughout the race, making way for Mark Webber to battle with the 2009 champion for 3^rd position.

Lap 18, Jerome D’Ambrosio was the second driver to retire the pits because of a mechanical failure, shortly followed by Sebastien Buemi on Lap 19 due to hydraulic problems.

McLaren continued to be on top form with pit stops compared to Red Bull and a bad stop for Webber cost him the fight for the front.

Lap 33 and Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado served a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags and was under investigation again after ignoring them for a second time.

Lap 48 and Daniel Ricciardo was the last of the retirements while Heikki Kovalainen takes over a second out of Renault driver Bruno Senna’s time, who ended the race in 16^th - not the results the team are looking for.

Webber pitted at the last opportunity possible for Hard compound tyres and took 4^th place ahead of Felipe Massa while the podium saw Fernando Alonso in a McLaren sandwich - 1^st place went to Lewis Hamilton, 2^nd Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button 3^rd.

 Fastest Lap: Mark Webber: 1: 42.612

Lewis Hamilton crosses the finish line.

The podium (L-R) Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button.

The cars under the flood lit lights and Abu Dhabi sunset. 

Last but not least, Jenson and his Movember making it's F1 appearance...

See you for the last race of the season at a track that holds so many great, exciting memories - Interlagos, Brazil!!

(Side Note: Sorry for the lack of updates and briefness of this post, have been ill and no focus to write blog posts)

Emotional farewell

I'll start by saying what i am about to write will do today's and indeed this weekends MotoGP only a fraction of justice, and it might be a little lengthy.

Everyone entered the Valencia paddock this weekend with a heavy heart, a hole in the family. Marco Simoncelli had a big personality, a feisty riding style but most of all he touched everyone in the MotoGP community. Whether you support a particular rider or not MotoGP riders deserve respect, it's dangerous, they push the limits, they risk their lives but as most of the riders said 'we wouldn't live without it'. 

If there was one thing Super Sic would have wanted it would be to continue racing and that's exactly what they did. 

The Honda Gresini team set up Marco's box with his bike and helmet one last time.

In tribute to Sic, his father Paolo Simoncelli suggested earlier in the week that instead of a minutes silence that there should be a minutes noise of revving engines as that's what Marco would have liked. 

After warm up's had finished 125's, Moto2 and the MotoGP bikes took a tribute lap around the circuit all following the 58 bike which good friend and '93 champion Kevin Schwantz was riding. 

Kevin Schwatz lining up after the tribute lap.

Following the lap the MotoGP bikes lined up behind Marco Simoncelli's bike along with the 125's and Moto2's staying on their bikes behind. The MotoGP riders all lined up facing the 58 with two minutes of firecrackers being let off.

A beautiful moment for everyone involved and if you missed it you can watch it on motogp.com

125's

In the last ever 125 race it was the only title decider race of the day which was resolved early on when Johann Zarco of France crashed out the race in tricky, drizzly conditions on Lap 3, handing the 125 title over to rival Nico Terol.

Terol took the race fairly easy from there until gaining places with a battle between fellow Spaniards Marverick Vinales and Hector Faubel. 

The young rookie Vinales scored his fourth win of his debut season with Terol in second and Faubel in 3rd.

Congratulations Nico Terol!

Moto2

After suffering a high impact crash last time out in Sepang, Marc Marquez was deemed unfit to race after suffering double vision, and unless short of a miracle wasn't going to race. 

Inevitably this meant that the Moto2 crown was handed over to Stefan Bradl which he won during qualifying when Marquez was officially unable to put in a fast lap to qualify for the race. 

With unpredictable and wet conditions the qualifying was wrapped up in the first 15 minutes or so and Stefan Bradl began celebrating with his team and congratulating Marc Marquez and his team on a great championship battle, although we would have all loved to have seen the last battle. 

Qualifying on pole was Michele Pirro and second was Gresini team mate Yuki Takahashi - a fitting tribute for the team in memory of Marco.

The race started under doubtful conditions with patches of rain making a lot of riders crash out, including  most of the brits. 

Those who went down including freshly crowned champion Stefan Bradl, shorty after Yuki Takahashi also crashed out, a sight nobody wanted to see, he's ok but under observation in Hospital. 

Meanwhile at the front Pirro lead his Gresini bike to his first victory, followed by Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing) and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) 

Not the usual's we see on the podium but a deserved win for Pirro and the team, for Marco. 

The Moto2 Gresini bike with "Race You Life" tribute to Marco.

 Pirro pointing to Marco in the sky - this one's for you.

The Moto2 new World Champion on the podium with his own tribute to Super Sic. 

MotoGP

A very tough weekend for all the riders, Jorge Lorenzo (who did attend the race) and Colin Edwards (resting at home in Texas after the Sepang crash where he was heavily injured) were unable to race.

The race started with a Turn 1 crash where Bautista went down and 'skittled' Randy De Puniet, Nick Hayden and Valentino Rossi and himself into the gravel trap. 

A disappointing result for Rossi who was a close friend to Simoncelli and i imagine would have loved to tribute him by pushing for his first podium of the season. 

It wasn't to be and Casey Stoner rode of into the distance leaving Dovi, Pedrosa and Spies to battle it out for 2nd. 

Battling right through till the last laps when rain started and Pedrosa backed right off, Stoner going wide, leaving Spies to bring back top spot. It looked like he was going to cross the line in first when Stoner (running in 2nd) gained speed and good a good exit on to the finish straight and took first from Spies with half a wheels length between them. 

Behind Spies was Dovizioso and on the last lap rookie of the year Cal Crutchlow took 4th from Pedrosa, the best result for the Brit all season. 

How close it was between Ben Spies and Casey Stoner.

The rookie battle - Karel Abraham and Cal Crutchlow 

 The podium - Ben Spies, Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso

This weekend was the last MotoGP weekend for Honda Gresini rider Hiroshi Aoyama  and MotoGP legend Loris Capirossi

 Good luck in World Superbikes Hiro, it ended on the hardest weekend for MotoGP and the Honda Gresini team but everyone wishes you well in you next bike adventure!

And a very happy retirement for Loris! Grazie for the memories, 22 seasons of MotoGP and i'm not sure it's going to be quite the same without you on the grid, you're a legend on an off the track. Spend time with your family and enjoy but don't forget to pop back to say hi!!

Finally a final farewell to Marco Simoncelli, i hope you enjoyed this weekend after all it was all about you, we'll miss you so so much and you will never be forgotten.

Ride in Paradise Super Sic #58

Ciao Marco

"Incredible India"

I haven't been able to write about the Grand Prix but a little low down...
There was lot's of these moments...

Not forgetting the 'bring your handbags to work day'

Sorry for the GIF heavy post but these three sum up the race. 

Of course it wouldn't have been a Vettel win if we hadn't seen at least one of these...

However the weekend was over-shadowed and India fell silent for a minute to remember Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli.

One last note, All the grid wore 58's and DW stickers along with other tribute's but this has to be my favourite helmet of the weekend: Jarno Trulli's Marco Simoncelli 58 

See you in the Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

'Super Sic'

This weekend saw another Motorsport tragedy. After a weekend filled with a worrying amount of accidents and injuries to riders in all MotoGP classes, during the Malaysian GP Marco Simoncelli suffered a fatal accident. 

I can't say i was his biggest fan because otherwise i would be lying but i can say i respected him and was happy for his success this season. At the start of the season, yes i was a little harsh on him but throughout the season i think he's the rider that's grown and learnt the most. He tasted his first drop of success in the MotoGP class when he came 3rd in Brno, his celebrations that day were lovely to watch, him struggling to get and keep his Bridgestone cap on was entertaining, the wild hair jokes kept on coming. 
His progress from there on has been brilliant, he kept it solid and full focus and i think he even got a trim (sorry :) hah) 
Last week, 7 days ago, he got the sweet taste of champagne again, he stood on the podium, this time in second, his best result yet. Everyone was waiting for him to win a Grand Prix, that was only a matter of time. 

Earlier this morning i was excited for the race and also worried, serious accidents took place in Moto2 (luckily everyone is ok) and this weekend has seen a lot of crashes and injured riders, which i hate to see but this made me slightly nervous, after everything  that happened last weekend.
The first lap i forgot everything and was enjoying watching Marco and Alvaro Bautista battling it out, in a way it was fitting that they were only showing the battle between them for the first two laps before the accident but as soon as i saw the crash, my heart sunk. 

Some people don't understand that every rider or driver in the sport you love becomes like family, you follow them every race if you can, every move they make in their career, celebrating good results with them, supporting them, even if they aren't your favourite, you still care about them, hope they stay safe.

I can't imagine what his family/girlfriend are going through or any of his friends thoughts are with them, everyone in the MotoGP paddock and to Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi who were involved. It is like a family and no matter what's happened in the past everyone pulls together to support each other, fans and riders alike. 

Race in peace Marco, hope Shoya Tomizawa and all the other greats are racing with you.

#58