My roommate walked into my room on Thursday and reminded me of the exciting weekend ahead, a cricket match between Ind and Pak, Premiership returning after the International break and the Bahrain GP. To add to all this excitement, F2005 was out on the tracks and doing quite well. A perfect weekend would have been a Pak Victory, United collecting 3 points against Blackburn, Chelsea not managing anything more than a draw away to Southampton and a Ferrari 1-2 with Schumi taking the podium. I know that is asking for too much but then when exactly the opposite happens, it is a dampener.........sad :(
Cricket - Brilliant start after sending back 2 dangerous batsmen in Tendulkar and Ganguly but then those 2 stupid mistakes with Sehwag cost them dear. He was the in-form player coming into the match and he made the Pak team pay, brilliant innings. As for Pakistan's batting, when you have the 10th and 11th batsmen gettting all the glory, the less said about the team's batting performance, the better. They need a good strike bowler to partner Sami - whatever happend to the 'Gul' guy - cant remember his full name....
Football - United failed me too. Ruud really looks out of sorts and is taking far too long to get back into the mix of things. Maybe he was rushed back too early - the pressure on him to score is immense, it was very sad to see him taken off. United before Ruud's return, were flowing, on hindsight it looks like a big mistake in rushing the great man back. I dont blame Fergie because no-one in their right mind would not play Ruud provided he is available, but then his confidence seems real low and his movement seems restricted. Finally Ronaldo, one day he sets the world alight and the next weekend he just cannot create anything, he was run ragged by Blackburn, could not make any impact on the match although the referee did not gaurd him, some were real crude challenges.
Its Chelsea's title, no doubt about that, for both United and Arsenal its now, all about damage limitation and getting that second place and being guaranteed Champions League for next season. Btw, if Liverpool did go on and win the Champions League, the second placed team in the League will not qualify automatically and will have to play the Qualification matches - something my Football Manager 2005 experience had taught me
Finally, the Bahrain GP - The only positive from the race, F2005 is fast enough. The real insult of the weekend was the fact that the only cars that finished behind a Ferrari was either a Jordan or a Minardi - It was that bad! Great work by the one person I for sure know had a worse weekend than myself -Barrichello, he did great in getting that car to finish, the technical problems were very obvious and you could clearly see that he was struggling. Schumi's pursuit of Alonso during the first few laps showed that there is light at the end of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel is near. At Monza, I am very confident that the Tifosi will go home with a big smile, the extra week before the next race is a boon in disguise and am sure Ferrari will be on the podium.
Karthikeyan - it was all praise before the race on how he was the best rookie among the 4 who started this year, then he was harshly reminded that he was in a Jordan. As long as its not his mistake, I am sure we will see him back in a better car next year - my best bet is Sauber - I dont see Villenueve being around for long. I pray that Karthikeyan gets his big break, maybe even this year, with the way Villeneueve has been doing (Not any better than Schumi, I know), I see him being replaced soon. Red Bull, another team brought back down to earth, Klien - extremely unfortunate and unlucky and Coultard - extremely lucky to get to finish amongst the points for the third consecutive race.
To finish off, congratulations to Alonso, again a brilliant performance, leading from start to finish. He does not have to lap a Ferrari every race, it really hurts. De La Rosa, if there was any man-of-the-race award, it would have certainly gone to this man. I would have switched off if not for this man, I would really love to hear Montoya's thoughts on this guy's performance. I intially thought that it was a struggling Ferrari that was showing him in good light but the way he drove right to the end made me change my mind. McLaren wont be that worried with Montoya's injury right now, they have a better behind the wheel for now. Along with Hiedfeld, he had yet again proved the vast difference a good competitive car can make make to a driver's performance. So, for now lets just pray that Karthikeyan can impress enough to get a better racing seat next season.
Real bad sporting weekend, the good news is that its over and the only way is up - Predictions - United to return with a bang and take the Cup, Ferrari to return to take the podium at Monza and Pak to win atleast 2 matches. Almost forgot the highlight of the weekend, Coultard commenting on the speculation that Montoya damaged his collar bone riding a motocross bike said, "When fat people start exercising that's what happens" Waiting to hear from Montoya..... :)
Cricket - Brilliant start after sending back 2 dangerous batsmen in Tendulkar and Ganguly but then those 2 stupid mistakes with Sehwag cost them dear. He was the in-form player coming into the match and he made the Pak team pay, brilliant innings. As for Pakistan's batting, when you have the 10th and 11th batsmen gettting all the glory, the less said about the team's batting performance, the better. They need a good strike bowler to partner Sami - whatever happend to the 'Gul' guy - cant remember his full name....
Football - United failed me too. Ruud really looks out of sorts and is taking far too long to get back into the mix of things. Maybe he was rushed back too early - the pressure on him to score is immense, it was very sad to see him taken off. United before Ruud's return, were flowing, on hindsight it looks like a big mistake in rushing the great man back. I dont blame Fergie because no-one in their right mind would not play Ruud provided he is available, but then his confidence seems real low and his movement seems restricted. Finally Ronaldo, one day he sets the world alight and the next weekend he just cannot create anything, he was run ragged by Blackburn, could not make any impact on the match although the referee did not gaurd him, some were real crude challenges.
Its Chelsea's title, no doubt about that, for both United and Arsenal its now, all about damage limitation and getting that second place and being guaranteed Champions League for next season. Btw, if Liverpool did go on and win the Champions League, the second placed team in the League will not qualify automatically and will have to play the Qualification matches - something my Football Manager 2005 experience had taught me
Finally, the Bahrain GP - The only positive from the race, F2005 is fast enough. The real insult of the weekend was the fact that the only cars that finished behind a Ferrari was either a Jordan or a Minardi - It was that bad! Great work by the one person I for sure know had a worse weekend than myself -Barrichello, he did great in getting that car to finish, the technical problems were very obvious and you could clearly see that he was struggling. Schumi's pursuit of Alonso during the first few laps showed that there is light at the end of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel is near. At Monza, I am very confident that the Tifosi will go home with a big smile, the extra week before the next race is a boon in disguise and am sure Ferrari will be on the podium.
Karthikeyan - it was all praise before the race on how he was the best rookie among the 4 who started this year, then he was harshly reminded that he was in a Jordan. As long as its not his mistake, I am sure we will see him back in a better car next year - my best bet is Sauber - I dont see Villenueve being around for long. I pray that Karthikeyan gets his big break, maybe even this year, with the way Villeneueve has been doing (Not any better than Schumi, I know), I see him being replaced soon. Red Bull, another team brought back down to earth, Klien - extremely unfortunate and unlucky and Coultard - extremely lucky to get to finish amongst the points for the third consecutive race.
To finish off, congratulations to Alonso, again a brilliant performance, leading from start to finish. He does not have to lap a Ferrari every race, it really hurts. De La Rosa, if there was any man-of-the-race award, it would have certainly gone to this man. I would have switched off if not for this man, I would really love to hear Montoya's thoughts on this guy's performance. I intially thought that it was a struggling Ferrari that was showing him in good light but the way he drove right to the end made me change my mind. McLaren wont be that worried with Montoya's injury right now, they have a better behind the wheel for now. Along with Hiedfeld, he had yet again proved the vast difference a good competitive car can make make to a driver's performance. So, for now lets just pray that Karthikeyan can impress enough to get a better racing seat next season.
Real bad sporting weekend, the good news is that its over and the only way is up - Predictions - United to return with a bang and take the Cup, Ferrari to return to take the podium at Monza and Pak to win atleast 2 matches. Almost forgot the highlight of the weekend, Coultard commenting on the speculation that Montoya damaged his collar bone riding a motocross bike said, "When fat people start exercising that's what happens" Waiting to hear from Montoya..... :)
4 comments:
Wonder why u never discuss McLaren? I think they are doing a steady job and sure to improve further
:) Hate to admit, they are looking better than Ferrari and dont know where De La Rosa found that something extra to drive like that!
And Gascoyne believes F1's new rules have helped Toyota come out of nowhere to challenge the status quo.
"It's exactly what Formula One needed," said Gascoyne, whose team have spent an estimated $3 billion (£1.6bn) on the sport in the last three seasons.
"Toyota have probably come from nowhere but Renault was building up, and you've just seen the results of that.
"We were undoubtedly helped by the regulation change, there's no doubt about that.
"It levelled the playing field so that instead of having to catch up, everyone was starting from the same level.
"Michael Schumacher is still the clear favourite," Alonso told German magazine SportBild. "We have less scope for improvement than our rivals. Ferrari are going to make bigger strides than Renault this season."
"After years of Ferrari dominance it is difficult for me to imagine that it is going to change all of a sudden."
Schumacher has won the last five championships with Ferrari but Alonso admits the German was unknown to him a few years ago. "Formula One has not been televised in Spain for that long so I did not know what Michael looked like five years ago," confessed Alonso.
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