German Grand Prix – The Race (only joking!)

No prizes for guessing who won in Germany!

Long time no blogging. And a bit like running (something that has also ground to a total halt – awaits husband to insert joke about there being no difference to my usual speed) the longer you leave it the harder it is to get going again. It has been an insanely busy time. I have moved house, been to a hen do, been a bridesmaid, helped organise lots of end of year school stuff, organised a 6 year old’s birthday party and vaguely remembered to feed the kids on the odd day. Or perhaps my multi-tasking skills are disintegrating and I have no real excuse. All bloggers are busy people but anyway I’m back!

Welcome to my world around 95% of the time!

So finally after a season and a half of blogging, I missed a race in its entirety, consequently failed to blog about the German Grand Prix but hey the earth is still turning on its axis. I finally scrubbed out the recorded highlights from Sky planner a couple of days ago after realising I wasn’t going to get any say over TV watching for the next six weeks given the obstacles of (1) the 2 year old’s obsession with cBeebies (2) the fact the 6 year old is now off from school for 6 weeks and (3) the husband’s obsession with cricket and someone called Joe Root. Nonetheless to appease my ridiculous obsession with order, I shall whack out a quick blog to insert in the filing space between ‘The British Grand Prix’ and ‘The Hungarian Grand Prix’. But I will definitely be blogging about the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix. She says temporarily blocking out the afore-mentioned summer holidays.

So what went down in Germany? Apparently it was a gripping Grand Prix despite the fact that Vettel won after pretty much leading from start to finish. I have my doubts. Admittedly he won by only a second over Kimi Raikkonen. It appears that Grosjean was reminded with 5 laps to go (when lying second) that Kimi was the number one faster driver but a double podium for Lotus definitely marks a return to form. I’m personally not bothered in the slightest about Kimi getting the nod but interestingly the press aren’t frothing at the mouth about these blatant team orders as they were with other teams earlier in the season.

Anyway barring biblical thunderbolts and flying pigs, it is hard to see anyone but vettel (and sadly Anyone But Vettel is my preferred winner in all races) winning this year’s championship. Only once before in his previous title-winning seasons was he leading the title race at this stage. In terms of season finishes, he is the Man Utd of F1.  So that’s all heartening stuff then!

Sometimes there are no words even for a triple world champion!

So what of Alonso? Well he came home in 4^th in Germany and I am guessing (as is generally the case with Fernando) that constitutes the optimum result from his car but 4^th places aren’t going to win you titles. All in all it’s a desperately disappointing season so far for Ferrari who were hoping to be at least neck and neck in the championship race with Vettel. And yet again Massa crashed out of a race making that 5 crashes over the last four race weekends. Surely Felipe cannot survive another lacklustre season. It feels like he has been at Ferrari for a billion years. Surely it has to be time for some fresh blood at Maranello?

MacLaren had better fortunes than of late with Button finishing 6^th and Perez in 8^th but still these are Dark Times for the team from Woking.

Even more exciting than the news of Bernie’s indictment by German prosecutors is the return of the Austrian Grand Prix to the 2014 calendar.  I did not see that coming although probably should have done given the Machiavellian aura of Dietrich Mateschitz (the owner of Red Bull). So we will have a race at the A1-ring next year, a track that I absolutely adore although by then it will no doubt have been renamed the Red Bull Ring and Hermann Tilke will probably have squeezed all the fun and eccentric charm out of the circuit. A Sebastian Vettel win is so nailed on that there probably isn't any point in the others turning up. Given the new Russian Grand Prix and the possible New Jersey race (but really two USA races?!), we must surely be losing a couple of races. May I humbly suggest we eject the Korean GP into the dustbin of hideous race tracks never to see the light of day ever again along with one of Bahrain, India or Singapore.

Welcome back to the Austrian Grand Prix. We have missed you!

 And so to Round 10 of the F1 championship in Hungary. You never know what to expect at the Hungaroring other than the fact it is blisteringly hot. Its not a classic overtaking track partly because the track is so narrow and twisty and it is a zillion degrees out there. But it can throw up some superb strategic battles. This is the last race before F1 shuts down for the summer. Will it more or less seal Vettel’s title prospects (he has never won in Hungary so a win for the German there would be a huge psychological blow to his rivals) or will it open the door to give the other title protagonists a glimmer of hope at the half-way stage? I am looking forward to finding out and actually just watching a race again from start to finish.

So don’t let me down Hungary. Please.