Korean Grand Prix

Hello, back with another musing on Motorsport's top tier.

This time, for the first time for me I get to look at a new circuit for the first time: The Building site looking, damp, oily, sligtly mental 3.5 mile Korean International Circuit.

To start off with the track itself is good for entertainment. Overtaking chances, places ready to catch out those not paying attention and a couple of genuinely challenging sections such as the bump on pit entry and the barrier's at turn 18. However despite the generally positive feedback we don't know what a race in the dry could end up. It could still be a good one or it could turn into a Tilke bore track which would be sad considering the spectacle we were given in this event.

Despite the stupidly delayed starting the race had many talking points, including Webber's spin:

It was unfortunate for him to have the spin, and doubly unfortunate to take up the quick looking Merc of Nico Rosberg. His momentum has gone and the last chance i think Mark Webber has of winning the world title is an Alonso DNF at either of the last two races. Then there was Button's poor race, losing all his confidence after the graceful, text book overtake of 'The Silver Baron' Michael Schumacher and was unlucky to drop to 17th after his stop but after a poor attempt to come back, via being pushed off the road by Sutil and spinning in the last few laps he has near as damnit lost his chance of retaining his championship.

Then we come to Vettel. He drove a nearly perfect race, holding of Alonso's Ferrari and Hamilton's Mclaren until a moment where there was another one of Brundle's all important game changing soundbites, 'Something sounds sick out there', and the huge failure of his Renault V10. This has saved a bit of face for Webber and now leads Red Bull (and based on Button's race Mclaren) to think about making the decison to make Vettel and Button No.2 drivers to help Webber and Hamilton in the fight against the one man team which Alonso has with Ferrari. There was a great picture of Vettel walking through the pit lane and went through Renault's pit box. I would like to think that he was saying something along the lines of this:

'OH MY GOD YOU B*******!!! WHY HAVE YOU SOLD MY TEAM THAT PIECE OF S**T YOU CALL AN ENGINE YOU HALF-WITTED W***ERS. CHRISTIAN, KILL SOMEONE AT RENAULT!!!!'

Perhaps.

Speaking of Hamilton he was never going to win the race. He was marmalising the Mclaren in order to keep up with Alonso and Vettel all race after Webber's accident and despite coming up into second at the last safety car thanks to Alonso's wheel nut he would not have won the race based on the way he lost pace towards the end of the race. However he did well overall minus that slip and brought himself back into the picture for the title. Then we move onto to my least favourite contender. Fernando Alonso drove a faultless race and was in the perfect place to capitalise on the sick Renault engine to put himself at the head of the title race with the momentum to become the favourite and maybe, in 3-4 weeks the 2010 World Formula One Champion.

Other noteable drivers (for better or worse) come from various sources:

Michael Schumacher came from under the radar on 9th on the grid to finish nicely in 4th, his joint best finish of the season and solidifying a return to form, which bodes well with Rosberg driving his best and maybe a better car to challenge for wins again. It may not be quite the full fat Michael Schumacher that dominated the sport for 12 years but it is a driver regining his mojo and thinking well (if his study of the racing lines behind the safety car while lining up Kubica and Button is anything to go by) we will have a committed, hopefully faster Schumacher taking the Silver Arrow back to the front.

Liuzzi stayed out of trouble while his teammate (more on him later) hit everything in sight. His 6th place might go some way to saving his carrear if Nick Heidfeld is on the market and problem with Williams second seat.

Kubica's 5th was lucky (much like his P2 at Australia) but then again shows his ability to keep his car on the road with pace while all around him is completely insane. BBC F1 collumist Mark Davies recently wrote an article in which he seriously put forward the idea that Robert Kubica is the best driver in F1. I agree to an extent and am one of the biggest believers of the theory that give the bumblebee (my nickname for him in the Renault) a car that has a whiff of the title he will go ahead and do it.

Sutil did a very stupid thing by not saying he had a brake issue in the race. It lead to some daring moves (largely on the Sauber's and the brutal move on Button) and a hairy accident with Kobayashi. The gird penalty and the 5 place grid drop was the best thing that could have happened and it is an unfortunate race for a driver who I rate very highly and should either join Renault with Kubica or be with Nick Heidfeld in Force India dragging that team closer to Renault and Mercedes.

Buemi did not have a great race either but the focus of his stupidity was the new teams. Accidents with both Kovalinen's Lotus and Glock's Virgin also earned him a 5 place grid drop along with Sutil which was deserved because he was being an idiot with those two moves and Kovalinen was lucky to get to the end, being taking his customary place at the head of the new teams war. In my view Kovalinen has earned a drive at a better team but he is probably going to stay at the Renault engined Lotus next year and credit to him for wanting to take the team forward along with Glock and Virgin.

Coming up is Brazil, on the Interlagos track which never fails to provide tension since Schumacher's chase in 2006. A terrible but atmospheric paddock and a track as old school as it gets we're looking to see a good race that I predict will lead to a 1 on 1 fight in the championsip between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for the world title. Which will be appropriate seeing as in the top 3 teams they are the 2 best drivers.

Next up, a review of Iron Maiden's new album, my long overdue blog on why Jeff Hardy is a better Heel than John Cena and more on the F1 title picture before the Brazlian Grand Prix but before I go i'll leave you with another one of my thoughts:

Massa is coming home, for the first time in a car since he nearly won the World Champion after a strong performance he has always been good at Interlagos and that Ferrari is genuinely a quick car.

Ciao

Nick

I'm back

Hello ladies and Gentlemen.

Yes I have a new blog. Over summer 2 festivals, becoming a godfather and gaining closure on something very prominent in my brain has sent me rather mad so right now this one is going to be about what I am thinking and how things are for me at this point in my life. Stay still as this could be a bumpy ride.

First off on the music side I went to the small 2000 trees festival in Cheltenham and saw 4 particularly great performances, Frank Turner, Sonic Boom Six, the opening band on the final day (can't remember the name) and The Subways. Considering they were acts I didn't know a lot about in terms of depth of material before I was happy to see them. Frank Turner has epic presence and is one of the best folk based acts I've ever come across. Sonic Boom Six don;t do the kind of music I normally like but I love the song 'Meanwhile in the real World' as it is catchy, groovy and at points super heavy as well. The opening act on the Saturday did not have a big crowd but did have good songs and nice presence on top of the nice touch of multiple vocalists all of which were largely quite good. The Subways started off a little slow but Girls and Boys and Rock and Roll Queen were especially awesome in a good spot in terms of being towards the front and made the set good on the whole. But the whole weekend was made by one Kate Byard who found me, helped me set my tent up and made the weekend on the whole generally better for just being there so thank you :).

Next up was Warrior Dance festival i.e the big Prodigy gig at the Milton Keynes bowl. Me and Tom went to that and had a blast. Does It Offend You Yeah opened up nicely with some nice songs but I didn't feel much presence wise but they let the music do the talking and the bassist was female and attractive and me and Lucas Murrin met her just before Chase and Status and she was cool and we got a picture and everything. Chase and Status disapointed me greatly. The only songs I really got into were the Rock Dubstep track 'Heartbeat' and the epic D'n'B number 'Pieces' which did feature Plan B.

Enter Shikari were up next and they did a set of mainly newer songs but included tracks like 'No Swwweat' and 'Stand Your Ground' which followed into their song of the day, the savagely heavy 'Enter Shikari'. Then came quite a long wait and a DJ set by Zane Lowe which did not impress me. What did impress me was Pendulum. A band who I think are better than the headliners and put on a superb set including the live debut of Immersion's 'The Vulture' and a very heavy version of 'Fasten Your Seatbelts'. One disappointment was the technical malfunctions during 'Slam'. Unfortunately we missed a lot of Prodigy's set before the journey home but not before great versions of 'Poison', 'Invaders Must Die' and 'Omen'. Overall it was a great gig but next week and then came Sonisphere, the thing I was most looking forward to.

Delain opened the festival and their brand of Operatic Metal was hit and miss with the crowd as a whole but hit a chord with me personally and they played a very good set. Gary Numan and Europe suprised me with how their set's went. After a fun and painful set by Turisas the songs. 'My Friends Are Electric' and 'Last Look at Eden in particular were stunning while the popular choices 'Cars' and 'Final Countdown' were actually really disappointing. Alice Cooper picked the pace with a great theatrical performance of classics like 'School's Out', 'Poison' 'I wanna be elected and a mega performance of recent single 'Vengence Is Mine'. Only Cooper could pull off playing a set where he dies 4 times and kills a nurse and a baby.

The first full day arrived with stand out sets by Lacuna Coil, goregeoous Cristina Scabbia in tow, Anthrax with a fun set, including the first 2 verses of 'Heaven and Hell' as a great Dio tribute. A heroes welcome for Essex based emo band INME, Apololyptica with thier cello's and a great cover of Master Of Puppets. and (perhaps the most out of place of the weekend) Placebo. Rammstein followed with their brand of epic German Industrial Metal which included a simply amazing versions of 'Sonne' and 'Kiene Lust'. That had replaced Pendulum's set last week as the best set i've ever seen.

The Sunday was however a truly stunning day. Starting with CKY playing a set based on Nostalgia with great versions of '96 Quite Bitter Beings' and 'Flesh Into Gear'. Followed by a stunning set by Skindred there was Slayer and a set of typical nostalgia and pre mid 90's songs. Most impressive of which was 'Dead Skin Mask'. Alice In Chain i have no doubt are a great band with Jerry Catrell being a legend of Alternate Music but their set left me cold as they played slower set than almost any other band of the weekend and I personally used it as an example to move forward for what was to follow.

Following them came an agonising choice of Fightstar and Pendulum, both bands i've seen live before and both whom i loved. I stuck with Pendulum and was so happy. Opening with 'Crush' gave me the idea to get on the swooping camera which made it utterly fantastic as I was on the big screen during the first chorus. 'Self vs Self' was fantastic and they even got Anders Frisk of In Flames to sing it live and it was a stunning moment. However the best moments of the set were 'Crush' and a huge performance of 'Watercolour' making this now the best show i'd ever seen. Then Iron Maiden turned up with thier modern set and just the fact they opened with 'Wickerman' was the best thing ever. A band that experienced backing their newest material is truly great and a sign there is more to come, and a better gig than the Nostalgia trips Slayer and Anthrax went on earlier in the weekend.

Ontop of the great bands there was also the great people we camped with and the sheer amount of cider, sandwiches and laughs we had with them made it the best weekend ever hope all of them are coming next year so we can camp together again :).

Then came towards the end of the Summer there was 2 big ceremonies. The Funeral for my Grandfather Anthony Alexis and the Christening of my Godson Akihiro Alexis. The old man and my immediate family had a complex relationship for a number of reasons but in the end, helping to bury the coffin and reading the bidding prayers gave me a moment of closure which i really needed. Then to the Christening where we realised that whatever happens to Akihiro personally we need to be there for the kid. He is a cute kid who has the whole world at his feet with the help of all the family, including me and my brother as Godfather's he should be absolutely fine.

Lastly as many of you know I gave up smoking recently. It's going to be tough with the cravings but with everything that happened recently and the fact that money is a bit tighter this year smoking is an irresponsible habbit for me to have as much as I enjoy the community shared by smokers, sharing cigarettes and lighters/matches in the ultimate expression of how communism should work. But now i should be healthier for stopping and I can say I enjoyed it, and the thinking time it gave me sometimes while it lasted.

Coming up next I go back to my more topical blogs with reviews of Wrestling ppv's Bound For Glory by TNA and the upcoming Bragging Rights by WWE.

Peace out yo'

Nick