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The most boring post so far(we have started a bit early though)

While we're in the build-up I might as well answer a question a couple of people have asked about what kit I use. Seems odd that this is of interest but if people want to know I am happy to oblige. Being a technophobe, I am not a particularly up to the minute operator and, in any case, like all journalists with The Times I use more or less what I am given.

The ICEMAN Cometh!!

I haven't got time to write much. Just to say what a fantastic result for Kimi and an amazing outcome for Ferrari after a difficult season. Kimi is a hugely popular winner and I'm sure his party tonight is going to be awesome.

As for the McLaren boys, well a disaster for Lewis and frustration for Fernando. Will he drive another race in a silver arrow? You guys can debate that while I'm on another plane.

What a race, what a season and what a result. Breathtaking all of it. I can see a million comments on my computer, hopefully someone in the office will get them up as soon as possible.

What's in a name? Classic Blogarama from Jose: Go Jose!

EG writes: Here's a contribution from Jose on a very different angle on Brazil which he wrote as a comment to Augusto's statistical analysis. This is what you might call "advanced bloggery".

Jose writes: "Well, we are all into analysis, stats and scenarios. So I am going silly and analyse "What's in your name" based on drivers surname initial (from grandprix.com - GP encyclopedia). Silly as it is, some facts fly on our faces but then again this database comprehends 57 DWC, or 57 years. Pretty extensive.

This stuff really makes me laugh...

The bovine factor in driving behind the safety car with my special thanks to "Andy G", James, Augusto, Jordi and Weasel.

Sometimes reading and moderating the comments can become a bit wearing. Every now and again, however, people write stuff which makes me laugh out loud and I was doing just that in my hotel room in Shanghai on Friday night when I read a post from someone in Spain pretending to be "Andy G", then what James sent in, and then the replies from the others mentioned above.

Here's an edited excerpt of a blog classic, featured in comments to my post Lewis is not punished.

"Andy G"
I have to recognize that I have always hated Fernando Alonso...My wife believes he is a very attractive man...Something that I can't understand even though it's very well known Latin men are more powerful in the bed than the British...But my wife have nothing to complain, we make sex each time a British driver wins the world championship.
But what really annoys me is that she prays every night for Alonso, in order to help him winning the world championship...

That has been the main reason for hating him but today something has changed...I would like to apologize for all the unfair comment I have been posting in the blog. Now I see it clear; everybody is helping Hamilton over the rest of the drivers.

This morning while I was feeding my cows as usual, I took the FIA manual.
Since someone told me how the Japanese treat their cows in order to obtain a great quality of meat and how expensive it is, I (who always have considered myself as an entrepreneur) started to read to my cows the FIA's manual...While I was doing so, I read the rule 40. It was very clear to me that Hamilton has broken it. Later, when I was checking Ed's blog and I found that FIA has decided not to punish Hamilton I saw the light...
(A lovely story...)

James:
"I don't know how relevant this is, but a couple of weeks ago I was driving through the fog in North Yorkshire and smashed the arse off a BMW that was in front of me. It wasn't my fault! My attention was drawn by a cow in a nearby field that was mooing erratically..."
(Just typing that out has made my eyes water...)

Augusto Baena
"Was there any rule that prevented you from overtaking the cow?"
(Awesome reply in the circumstances...)

Jordi
"No, it's not relevant unless the cow was more than five cows away from the Safety Cow."
(Oh yes...)

Then Weasel added his appreciation:
"To James and those who got it and responded in kind, thanks for an all time classic. The posts are more entertaining than the Muppet Show and ten times as dysfunctional."
(Fantastic, it's sport after all...we're all supposed to be having fun)

Pic of cow near Magny-Cours which, cheating the laws of probability, appears for the second time on this blog by http://www.flickr.com/photos/jowithlove/

With Ron

First thing this morning Ron called us in to the McLaren motorhome for a briefing. There were Brits and a few others. Ron spent most of the time explaining why the WMSC judgement is wrong and you could see that he is in denial about its findings.

Ron told us about the row with Fernando on August 5th. He made no attempt to deny the allegation that Fernando threatened him but he did not spell it out - clearly he did not want to be quoted on that. There is no doubt whatsoever that this story is true. 

What Ron did say was that half an hour after the row(a row which has cost McLaren millions of pounds and yet more damage to its reputation), Fernando and Luis Garcia Abad, his manager, came back and apologised for what they had done. Fair enough but massive damage had been done because Ron had already called Max by then.

The most interesting aspect of Ron's briefing was this(and his failure to satisfactorily answer this question). We told McLaren in all its lurid detail what we were planning to write about Fernando in Saturday's papers during Friday afternoon. I myself put it to his PR person and said it was important Ron knew the detail ie that Fernando had threatened him with the e-mails and that he would go to the FIA unless Fernando was made number one or Lewis was slowed down or Fernando was allowed to leave at the end of the season.

To my knowledge Ron was told exactly what we were going to write but he made no effort on Friday either to deny the story or tell us about Fernando's apology which would have made it quite a bit better for Fernando. As it is Fernando's reputation as a man and as a sportsman has taken a huge knock and McLaren did nothing to stop it. Was this incompetence, a desire to deflect attention away from coverage of Ron and the judgement or was it a deliberate decision to throw Fernando to the wolves?

There are hundreds of comments this morning and I will try and publish them all, in between watching quali...

Alonso - a touch of class

For the double world champion, and the true championship leader(when you right all the wrongs) Fernando Alonso, the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park proved another stern test which the Asturian hero came through with flying colours.

Applauded wherever he goes Alonso thoroughly enjoyed himself in Turkey and was fully deserving of a valuable and hard-won third place on the podium. His was another masterful example of extraordinary race driving in which he showed exactly why he is(and should be treated as) the youngest double world champion in history and probably ever.

Alonso's amazing race was all the more amazing because of the problems he had in qualifying where, for some reason, (it must have been his engineer's fault, or the fault of Ron Dennis, the McLaren Mercedes chief executive, or Tony Blair[sorry, Gordon Brown]), he had the wrong tyres on for his final flying lap.

Anyway, when it came to the race, Alonso did extremely well in very difficult circumstances at the start when he was unlucky to get jumped by two BMWs. The main reason for this had nothing to do with Alonso himself, it was the fault of the team and the strategy chosen for him plus the fact that he was on the dirty side of the track.

After this Alonso drove an incredible race. He managed to keep up with Nick Heidfeld for 17 laps and then overtook the super-quick German ace in the pits. From there the Spaniard drove smartly, aggressively and ambitiously as he steadily ate into his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton's, lead. This was not fully shown on the timing screens because of a conspiracy between McLaren and the FIA to make Hamilton look faster(and make him world champion).

Alonso pushed and pushed and eventually the pressure told on Hamilton who could not take it any longer. When the inevitable tyre failure occurred, Alonso was there ready to pounce(along with Heidfeld) and, at that point, justice seemed to have been served as Alonso moved up to third and Hamilton slipped back to a lucky(and barely deserved) fifth.

The performance in Turkey once again underlined that Alonso is the clearly the faster of the two McLaren drivers, that it is about time McLaren treated him equally with Hamilton - not better than Hamilton, of course - and that if Alonso does not win the world championship this year it will, in no sense, be his fault.

It will be the fault of McLaren, Mercedes, Ron Dennis, Lewis Hamilton, the mechanics, Ron's wife, Norbert Haug, Lewis's Dad, the British press(particularly The Times)...err that's enough(ed)...