Leading From Pole To the Chequered Flag
July 1, 2011It looked like a walk in the park for Sebastian Vettel, in the current season it is a feeling that if Vettel decides to race the first question which comes to everyone’s mind is ‘Who will come 2nd today….????.’ That’s exactly what Vettel has done in 6 out of eight races this season and it is good enough to give him 77 points lead on his nearest rivals.
European Grand Prix 2011 may not have been as eventful as Canadian Grand Prix 2 week but none of the drivers were complaining. It was one of those races where all 24 drivers started and finished the race successfully, even Narain Karthikeyan also finished his race, albeit 3 laps down from the leader. It was a good solid race for Force India drivers as well and Sutil finished amongst the points at 9th place.
Red Bull team is dominating the current season of Formula One like no other team and seems to have all aspects of racing together. They have a great team of drivers in Vettel & Webber who are 1 & 2 in current standing and together they make Red Bull number 1 in Constructor’s rating with a lead of whopping 89 points to their nearest rival McLaren. McLaren on the other hand have their share of moments of glory and controversies this season. Jenson Button’s fantastic come from behind victory at Canadian Grand Prix was McLaren’s moment of glory and antics of Hamilton have been their reasons for being in news for all the wrong reasons. Incidentally Valencia was one of those places this season where Hamilton did not get into any trouble with any of the race officials or stewards.
McLaren are so devastated by their car’s performance at Valencia that they have called on their technical team to give them a better and faster machine for their home race in Silverstone. McLaren drivers believe that the machine they had at Valencia was not match to Red Bull’s car and there was no way they could have overtaken Red Bull. Button & Hamilton should not lose heart at the way they performed in at Valencia as this circuit seems to be designed by a committee which wanted no overtaking throughout the race. In fact Valencia has hosted on of those rare races in Formula One history in 2009 which had ZERO overtakes. At times it seems that Valencia circuit is designed for beautiful TV viewership and where the rich and famous can enjoy the race while sipping wine in their yachts.
There are many people who have already started asking that what is making Vettel perform so well, is it to do with the machine, or with the man, or with the inability of other cars to match up to Red Bull, or something else…………and the answer is it is the Right Man in the Right Car. The experts have already started seeing one of the best Formula One drivers of all time in Vettel. To be honest Vettel has it in him to be counted amongst the best already. He won his first Championship while he was only 22 and is on way to defend his title in emphatic fashion. In the current season even the competing drivers have started debating on who will be second, though not in as many words, and the first position competition is all but over. What makes Vettel’s dominance even more significant is the presence of Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Massa & even Schummacher on the circuit as all these drivers are highly talented and Champions in their own right.
It is indeed a One Tea Show in the current season of Formula One and will be an uphill task for McLaren or Ferrari to challenge Red Bull from this point onwards. Vettel in particular seems unstoppable and does not want this season to be as close as the last one and wants to shut down the title race by mid season. It has been a great season for Vettel & Red Bull so far and they look forward to continue
On the Other Turf in Europe we are witnessing some engrossing tennis battles at The Wimbledon where every player is trying his best to outdo other and reach the next round. Both Man & Woman competition has had their share of upsets with latest being Roger Federer who has been once again defeated in Quarterfinal at his favourite hunting ground. Williams sisters also lost before Quarterfinals and No1 seed Wozniacki is also out of the competition. Nadal & Sharapova can be termed as favourites at last 4 stage of the competition though Englishmen are once again pinning their hopes on Andy Murray to win Wimbledon after a very long wait.
In the meantime India is battling it out with West Indies in test cricket after beating them with virtually the bench strength in One Dayers. The rising stars of India cricket like Virat Kohli and Abhinav Mukund are finding it tough to in International Test Cricket. India somehow managed to win the first test on the shoulders of old warhorse Rahul Dravid and will again look forward to Dravid and Laxman in remaining tests to see them through and win the Test series in West Indies.
A very exciting couple of weekends await the sports fan with all the Wimbledon action on coming big Sunday followed by Silverstone Grand Prix on 10th July, so fasten your seat belts and be ready to be taken on an exciting ride of high adrenaline action.
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