At night, when the freaks come out

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Motorsport

What the hell was all this? F1 racing at night? Why? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for variety, but before they start throwing a few Tyrannosaurus Rex on the track or randomly place landmines on the pit lane, let me just make one point clear: we want more exciting races, but I don’t think placing obstacles is the way to do it. What’s next? A Siberian snow circuit?

Ask somebody what they liked the most about the race and they’ll say it was the Ferrari engineers running down towards Felipe Massa’s car that looked like a foetus with the umbilical cord still attached. The similar Coulthard incident was fun, too, but I suspect neither of them was appealing for two of the engineers (one for each team) who went to the hospital with a neck brace and a broken angle, respectively.

In the end, Alonso won it. And he deserved it. He dominated the free practice sessions and probably would have qualified on a higher grid position if it wasn’t for some technical problems during the final session. Still, he made the most of the abandons and penalties and cut his way to the lead.

Raikonnen seems to make a habit out of dropping out with a few laps to go until finish, so betting on him running out into the scenery in the final lap next race might not get you very high odds. Hamilton had a quiet race and finished third, thus changing the gap between him and Massa to seven points.

Nothing is done yet, and if we weren’t so close to the end of the season I wouldn’t completely rule out Alonso either.