Valencia low down

As the Spanish sun beat down on the Valencia street circuit, surrounded by beaches and expensive yachts, the Formula 1 world were preparing themselves for a weekend that last year was no doubt one of the less interesting races. This year i kept getting reminded that 'Valencia was going to be boring' and although i was in doubt i was also staying optimistic. This season has been incredible and after watching GP2 i thought 'if F1 is half as exciting as this we'll already be one up on last year'
Well, F1 2012 has been a surprise for many and Valencia was no exception.

*Time Glock didn't start the race after being advised not to when he fell ill during the weekend.
The first quarter of the race it was Sebastian Vettel that led the race and built up a gap to the rest of the pack. With the likes of  Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen all fighting for a spot on the podium the race was just getting going. Fernando Alonso made up several places from starting 11th on the grid to making it up to 4th by lap 28th - when the racing picked up the pace. Jean-Eric Vergne was reminding the racing world he was still just a rookie, with a costly rookie error move on Heikki Kovalainen, JEV punctured both his own and Kovalainen's tyre's after slicing across the Finn. Like in GP2, a lot of debris from the crash was sprawled across the racing line which meant... Yup, out came the safety car and bye bye to Vettel's 20 second lead!
With a lot of drivers taking the safety car as an opportunity to pit the drama continued on in to the pit lane. The problem? McLaren pit stops, surprise, surprise. The team yet again made a mess of Hamilton's pit stop with the front jack failing. He lost time and dropped down to sixth place after Fernando Alonso passed him. Safety Car in and it was Alonso who made a swift move on Grosjean and was up to 2nd place. Meanwhile more contact as Felipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi had a get together, as a result Kobayashi retired from the race. *He'll also be facing a 5 place penalty at the next race.

The race got even more intense when race leader Sebastian Vettel started to slow down and eventually had to stop his Red Bull on the side of the track due to a mechanical failure. A frustrated and angry Vettel marched down the pit lane while Alonso took the lead.
Hamilton got pass Raikkonen, up to 2nd he looked in a strong position but was unable to challenge Alonso.
Red Bull's day didn't get any better with Mark Webber dropping down the order with Paul di Resta, Pastor Maldonado and Nico Hulkenberg all over taking him within a few laps.
A few laps later and Romain Grosjean was the next victim of a mechanical failure, he slowed to a hault on track, a big blow as he is had a great race.

With tyre's proving to be a struggle for many, Pastor Maldonado made up places and was looking like another podium was on the cards... until the calm, cool Maldonado snapped back to fiery, rookie-like Maldonado. In an attempt to take Hamilton, he went round the outside, the McLaren driver tried to shut the door on him, Maldonado ran off the track and on return t-boned Hamilton in to the barrier. That was the end of Hamilton's race, with a podium and a haul of points lost, he was no doubt very annoyed. *Maldonado got a time penalty at the end of the race, dropping him out of the points.

An emotional Alonso crossed the line to win the European GP. Joining him was Raikkonen in 2nd and Michael Schumacher in 3rd - taking his first podium since returning in 2010.
Fernando Alonso took a MotoGP and old F1 style celebration, stopping out on track in front of his home fans, punching the air and waving the Spanish flag.

So, it turns out Valencia can be very exciting!!

RESULTS:
Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg: 1:42.163

Podium:

Next Up:
Silverstoneeeee!!!! The next race is the British GP which means there will be no low down on what went on but i will be making a post of my weekend at the Grand Prix.
In the meantime action in Assen for the MotoGP has already started, with qualifying tomorrow (Friday) and the race taking place on Saturday so a low down may (or may not) be up on Sunday!

On a side note:
Congratulations to Romain Grojean and Marion Jolie on getting married yesterday, all the best to them both!!

British MotoGP

It's that time of the year again, yep umbrella's, wellies and winter coats aka the glorious British Summertime!

Silverstone was the next stop off on the MotoGP calendar. It kicked up some blustery conditions on Friday practise's with it ulternating between rain and sun throughout the first half of the weekend, by the time race day came around it was dry conditions. 

Moto3:

Moto3 was the last race of the day at Silverstone, and it did not disappoint. Throughout the race there was an intense top 10 battle, swapping and changing the order so much that any of the riders could have finished on the podium.
Jack Miller and Alex Rins were early crashes, both sustaining hefty injuries and a few broken bones.
Towards the closing laps of the race it was Maverick Vinales who pulled out a lead from the rest of the pack however Louis Salom and Sandro Cortese weren't too far behind. In a nerve wracking last lap Cortese took 2nd from Salom though the Spanish rider put in a fierce lap, Salom pipped Cortese to the finish line and took 2nd position.Vinales crossed the line as the Moto3 winner at Silverstone, his third of the season and an important one at that, he's now taken back the lead from Sandro Cortese in the championship.
It was bitter sweet for the Brits in Moto3, Danny Webb, who was sporting a late great Barry Sheene replica helmet, had to retire in front of his home crowd. Though Brit Danny Kent had a good race battling closer to the front and finished the race in 6th place.

[Sorry for the quality, or lack of. 1st-Maverick Vinales, 2nd-Louis Salom, 3rd-Sandro Cortese]

Moto2:

With controversy off track still going on between Pol Espargaro's team and Marc Marquez's about the previous race in Spain (Pol's team is appealing against the decision to drop Marquez's time penalty) that was going to stop them both racing hard against each other yet again.
They say being at your home Grand Prix, in front of you home crowd, spurs you on to do well for the fans that have come out to support you and for yourself at a track you call you home track. Well, we saw a lot of it this weekend and Scott Redding (along with every other brit rider) put in a great effort. He battled with Marquez for the majority of the race for the battle for 2nd position and at some stages looking like he could go all the way to the win. Bradley Smith also got involved, however later on in the race started to drop off the pace.
There was no stopping Espargaro's fine form this season and he crossed the line on the top spot of the podium. Joining him was Redding who held off Marquez who finished in 3rd.

 [1st-Pol Espargaro, 2nd-Scott Redding, 3rd-Marc Marquez]

MotoGP:

With rain hampering the end of Saturday's qualifying session, MotoGP was  a bit like this year's Formula 1 championship - different pole sitters. Well, it was a first for Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista who bagged himself his first pole at the circuit, a little ray of sunshine to a team that deserves it after such a hard 7 and a half months, at a circuit that was also paying tribute to Marco Simoncelli (former Honda Gresini rider) *See end of post.

Cal Crutchlow was the talking point throughout the weekend, one of a hanfdul British riders but one with the most hope of a podium in the MotoGP class. Last year he was unable to participate in the race after breaking his collarbone previously. His one aim this year was to start the race at Silverstone in front of his home crowd... what does he go and do, crash in practise the day before and dislocate/ break his ankle. Spending the day in hospital unable to qualify, a race start was in doubt. After initially failing the medical tests at the circuit on Sunday morning as well as telling porky pies to the officials Crutchlow was determined to race and so he did, and can i say he did every Brit proud! True sportsmanship for his country. 

The race:
Ben Spies was the early leader in the MotoGP race, closely followed by the likes of casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, pole sitter Alvaro Bautista and Nicky Hayden.
It didn't last long before Casey Stoner was leading the race. After dropping back to 5th Jorge Lorenzo knew he couldn't let the Australian run away with it and soon found his rhythm. Nick Hayden soon started to lose the pace as well as lose places and leaving the door open to many a rider, Lorenzo took fully advantage, he soon passed Alvaro Bautista and was the front setting fast laps to reel Stoner back in.
Meanwhile Cal Crutchlow, who started from the back of the grid had a stormer of a race. It wasn't long before he'd overtaken all of the CRT riders and was battling in the top 10. The honey badger never gave up and ended up finishing the race in 6th!! Well done Cal, you made us all very proud!
After cutting down the gap, Lorenzo found his self in a tassle with Stoner, who he then overtook to take a clear lead. He went on to win the race, both Honda riders Stoner and Pedrosa joined him on the podium. Bautista narrowly missed out on the podium in the closing stages as he Pedrosa started to build a gap.
The top CRT was a familiar face of Aleix Espargaro, it's been a good year for the brothers!

Once again, i can't say it enough of what a great race Crutchlow put in with his injury, and the crowd were right behind him cheering him on, i can imagine a lot of people were cheering at their tv's too, i know i was.

Rider of the race for sure.

[1st-Jorge Lorenzo, 2nd-Casey Stoner, 3rd-Dani Pedrosa]

*This weekend was the release of the official Marco Simoncelli foundation song by UK band The Rainband. Profits of the single go to the foundation set up by Simoncelli's family.
The single is called 'Rise Again' featuring retired MotoGP and Superbike rider James Toseland.
If you're from the UK head to this link http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/rise-again-feat.-james-toseland/id532532309 to download the single from Itunes, it's 79p and for a good cause!!

Next UP:
MotoGP will be back in a few weeks time in Assen, remember race day will be on Saturday.
F1 is back this weekend in Valencia.... let's how it's a lot more exciting than last year.

Canadian low down

Canada, Canada, Canada, it always kicks up entertainment in one way or another.
Conditions this year done a 180 on last year and the sun was beating down over the track in Montreal, the crowd were ready, the teams were ready and the drivers were ready for what could be a race adding another little bit of history in to the F1 books; a 7th different winner in 7 races.

Sebastian Vettel, who started from pole, got off to good start, building up the gap in the opening laps from Lewis Hamilton.
Felipe Massa had a good start to his race too, over taking Nico Rosberg taking 6th place... a lap later Massa was back to his familiar slip ups (unfortunately) his rear end stepping out of Turn 2, spinning the car around and rejoining down the grid.
Fernando Alonso soon joined the party, having a fierce battle with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel for the win which carried on throughout the race.
Lap 18 Hamilton took the lead from Vettel, however he pitted at the end of the lap but as per usual this season McLaren are lacking in efficient pit stops and once again Hamilton is held up. Lucky for the team he exited in front of Vettel. Meanwhile his teammate Jenson Button had a miserable race, no grip (no joke), not feeling happy with the pace of his car, Button was battling down in the middle of the grid, he finished the race it 16th and said so to Sky reporter Ted Kravitz he's leaving this race 'lost and confused'

The bad luck continued for Michael Schumacher, on his out lap from pitting for new tyres the team told him over the radio that his DRS flap was stuck, therefor he had to return to the pits (otherwise he would have been cautioned) to attempt to fix it... 20 seconds or so of pit crew banging it, the rear flap wouldn't close, Schumacher's race was over.
Jean-Eric Vergne was given a drive through on Lap 49, Toro Rosso's performance was yet again disappointing, JEV finished the race in 15th while Daniel Ricciardo finished in 14th.

A strategic call from McLaren saw Hamilton pit for new tyre's with 20 laps to go in the race. Alonso and Vettel kept going meanwhile the surprises of the race were Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez, who'd both being looking after their tyre's as well as setting competitive lap times.
It wasn't too long before both Alonso and Vettel were sliding all over the place from work tyres. Hamilton took chunks of time out of Vettel, used the DRS and swiftly passed the German, next up was Alonso, with the grippier tyre's he was able to take time out of the Spaniard and pass him on the back straight.
The McLaren driver wasn't the only one taking advantage of having new tyre's both Grosjean and Perez both passed Alonso and Vettel to make up the remaining two podium spots. After Vettel took a late pit stop in the closing laps of the race he too was able to overtake Alonso for 4th place.
Lewis Hamilton took the win in Canada, a track he's fast at and a track he either crashes or wins, followed by Grosjean and Perez, both getting their second podiums of the year, and all three drivers being graduates of GP2!

RESULTS:
Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel: 1:15.752

The Podium:

[1st-Lewis Hamilton, 2nd-Romain Grojean, 3rd-Sergio Perez]

Next up:

This weekend is MotoGP at Silverstone! To those of you going - have a fantastic weekend!

Formula 1 is back in Europe in two weeks time for European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Twitter: @Maddyyf1

Catalunya - MotoGP

Firstly, i know i've been slacking on the blog posts lately, sorry about that. This week seems to have just flown by, Catalunya seems like weeks ago not four days, i guess the Queen's Diamond Jubilee has thrown me off a bit - so if you live in Britain or any other commonwealth country (or anywhere else if you're a fan of The Queen) i hope you had a great, enjoyable few days celebration.

Here's the podium's:
Moto3:

[1st-Maverick Vinales, 2nd-Sandro Cortese, 3rd-Miguel Oliveira]

Congrats to all three of them who put in a great effort to get podium positions. 

After sustaining an injury to his wrist, Sandro Cortese finished 2nd in the race. Post race he took a trip to the Doctors it turns out he's got a hefty sprain but should be fit for Silverstone. 

Miguel Oliveira got his first podium after missing out at his home GP, he's the first portuguese rider to do so, so it must feel pretty special.

Moto2:

[1st-Andrea Iannone, 2nd-Thomas Luthi, 3rd-Marc Marquez]

A battle between these three and Pol Espargaro have been featuring a lot so far this season. It's Andrea Iannone's first win of the season and he's joined by reaccuring riders Luthi and Marquez however on the closing laps of the Moto2 race, Marquez and Espargaro were involved in a close battle for the final spot on the podium, a racing incident occurred and Espargaro had a nasty looking crash (rider is ok) however MM got the fall out and was initially handed a 1 minute time penalty - which would have put him at the back of the grid - however it later got revoked because it was just a racing incident. Most fans seemed to agree as well as riders such as Casey Stoner.

MotoGP:

[1st-Jorge Lorenzo, 2nd-Dani Pedrosa, 3rd-Andrea Dovizioso]

The surprise of the race was Casey Stoner, who was unable to keep up with Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa off the line. He dropped back behind Dovi in a Tech 3 sandwich (in front and Crutchlow) just hanging on to 4th place. Dani Pedrosa lived up to his nickname of the pocket rocket and had a fantastic start, battling with fellow Spaniard Lorenzo throughout the race. 

Ben Spies had his chance to compete for a podium spot, running near the top for the opening couple of laps, however he pushed too hard and went wide and off in to the gravel. Rejoining the race in last he ended up finishing in 10th - around the same finishing results as previous races. I really hope Silverstone is a good race for him, he needs it.

So that brings me on to the next race, which i will make sure i do a full scale blog post on because it's Silverstone!! I'm very envious of everyone going. The chances are it'll be a bit wet but whatever the weather hopefully it'll be a good one. 

I always find it strange watching Silverstone on Tv, a circuit i am very familiar with, the only circuit i've been too (for the Formula 1) and i just know it'll get me all excited for the F1 in a months time and will hopefully be an exciting MotoGP.

Talking of F1, tune in for the Canadian GP this weekend, Canada is always a good one, with the unreliable weather, varying track conditions and not forgetting the wildlife making brave appearances on track too - A fox, a squirrel and a groundhog in FP1 earlier today!

Again, sorry for the lack of a low down, i'll stop slacking :)