Apart from Alonso putting in another great drive to back up his Singapore Grand Prix win, one thing was clear in Japan – both Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton are “sloppy” championship contenders.

Fernando Alonso – I can only imagine what Fernando could have done this year in a McLaren, Ferrari or even a BMW Sauber…

Lewis Hamilton – He talked a lot about how he was going to drive a smart race and not take any unnecessary risks. WTF!? I actually agree with the first corner penalty because it did screw up the races of many of his competitors. The fact that there was no contact is irrelevant – they all had to go off track to avoid his wild move up the inside.

Felipe Massa – Again, I agree with the penalty given here. I don’t understand why Felipe didn’t close the door while entering the corner instead of going crazy after Lewis passed him. Sloppy work. In many ways I think neither Felipe nor Lewis deserve the championship. Let’s give it to Vettel or Kubica or even Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen – Hopefully this is the start of Kimi returning to form. He’s been sorely missed.

Robert Kubica – Great drive. Shame BMW didn’t develop this year’s car. He might have been leading the championship with Lewis and Felipe dropping the ball so much.

Nelson Piquet Jr – This guy seems to come out of nowhere to be in the points all the time. Great result for Renault. Will it be enough to keep his seat next year? Probably not..

Jarno Trulli – Showed he can still mix it with the youngins

Sebastian Vettel -Still solid. Let’s hope Toro Rosso can keep it up next year.

Sebastien Bourdais – It’s hard to tell whether his contact with Felipe Massa as he exited the pits was Massa’s fault or his. Massa did seem to have the racing line, but may have been able to give him a little bit of room…

Fernando Alonso – What a devastating show of composure and speed under huge pressure. Apart from a thrilling powerslide near the swimming pool he looked like he was ruby on rails.

Lewis Hamilton – Lived up to the hype of performing well in Monaco, although did look very ragged at times. Seemed frustrated and quite disappointed for the first time this season. The media wants to point to McLaren strategy for ‘ruining’ Lewis’ race, but in reflection did Alonso ever really look at threat on the track?

Giancarlo Fisichella – What a great result from the Italian! Renault is struggling big-time, so these are well-earned points. 

Kimi Raikkonen – Establishing himself well as Ferrari’s new number 2 driver…

Felipe Massa – While the car was no match for McLaren, Felipe continues to do a good job in taking the no.1 Ferrari driver mantle for himself. Could be leading the championship if it wasn’t for his bad luck in Australia and over-driving in Malaysia.

Mark Webber – Even those who didn’t watch the race would know this result.

BMW – Not bad, but..

• Michael Schumacher – Controlled the race. Didn’t really seem to be under threat from Kimi Raikkonen at all. A great job, especially considering how much pressure he would have put on himself to win.
• Kimi Raikkonen – Did a great job for McLaren. Shame the one engine per 2 race rule probably meant he didn’t really want to push toward the end of the race. Plus, he wouldn’t want to upset his future employer would he?
• Fernando Alonso – Turned all his anger at the stewards into a brilliant drive, only to be robbed at the last minute. You have to feel for him. It must feel like the whole world is against him, especially in Italy.
• Robert Kubica – Wow! I wasn’t sure about this guy but now I am! Welcome to F1!!
• Felipe Massa – He’s either on or he’s off. Over the balance of a season, I think Kimi’s going to blow him away next season..
• Italian TV directors – Thank you for showing Felipe Massa with no-one around him when we could have watched Alonso pass Jenson Button

While the race wasn’t quite as exciting as the last 2 in terms of passing, it was just as exciting in terms of championship drama! It really has been a great season of F1 this year, and next year promises to be even better..

Despite many many safety car periods it was a really great day. Much better than I ever expected. The things that surprised me were:

• The number of people carrying their national flags. People really love the nation versus nation idea.
• Nice weather makes for a much better race day. Most races I’ve been too have been very hot, but today was still very sunny, but nice and mild. Not too humid either – would hate to experience the heat in Malaysia.
• Good organisation makes for a much better race day. The parking officers and officials really did well. You could even park inside the track compound – so yes, you could drive your car almost up to the barrier and be around 20m away from the action.. in your car!
• For a race without much passing, it was still great to watch! The hope for a pass can be enthralling.. especially when these guys lock up so much!
• There were more people wearing McLaren merchandise than there were people wearing Ferrari. It’s great to see, even if it is just people jumping on the bandwagon (from the perspective of a long-time McLaren fan)..

So if you get a chance to go see an A1GP you’re in for a good show.

For those who haven’t checked it out yet, Windows Live appears to be Microsoft’s delivery platform for web applications. Eventually this will mean you will be able to run web-based Messenger, web-based Office and various other products. They currently have web-based email running, presumably piggy-backing off Hotmail..

Anyway, before I get too off topic the basic use for Windows Live at the moment is to put feeds from all the web sites you love up there (especially this one! ) and be able to see the latest news you’re interested in at a glance. There are plenty of other sites that do this, but you can bet now that Microsoft is on the bandwagon it will get big very quickly.

• the best picture of the mclaren of the world – yes.. McLaren of the world!
• leonardo di caprio – This term along with other Leonardo searches brought almost 10% of the traffic to the web site! WFT!?
• flying of ferrari champion of the world year 2001 – Flying of Ferrari?? Hmm.. maybe this is what they meant?

  

Zanardi won the 7th round of the World Touring Car Championship in a BMW320i. He walks and drives with the help of two prostheses.