Brazilian Grand Prix

In past few years Brazil has been the scene of the crowning of the world champion and we were all hoping it could be Jenson's title this year. The highlight of this years qualifying was the weather. All the cars went out in Quali 1 which caused one or two surprises to say the least.

Instead of the usual contenders we lost Lewis, Heikki, Sebastian, Nick and Vintanio.
Then the heavens opened and nothing happened for at least 2 hours and it was getting close to finishing qualifying using the grid positions from quali 1. After what seemed like an eternity quali restarted on a wet circuit.

Jenson then struggled and finished a very lonely 14th which wasn't where anyone expected him to be but in front of the even more lowly Sebastian. So Kamui, Jaime and Kazuki made 11, 12 and 13.

Off we went into quali 3 and the fight for pole. We were to have a very mixed up grid anyway apart from 1 and 2. Mark and Rubens fought it out at the front and after a thrilling fight Rubens took the pole at his home Grand Prix. Adrian shot the Force India into 3rd followed by Jarno.

Kimi followed in front of Sebastian (Buemi) in front of Nico, Robert, Kazuki and finishing the top 10, Fernando.

So into race day and whilst there was a slight chance of rain at least it started in the dry. Rubens led away from pole followed by Mark and what was to be the best race of the year commenced. There are those that suggest, including me sometimes, that F1 is boring with no overtaking.

With Jenson, Sebastian and Lewis at the back we were set for a thriller. An accident took out a very unhappy Fernando as he tangled with Adrian and Jarno and Nick also had a coming off. That took 4 out of the race and obviously moved up the 3 rocket ships coming at speed.

Lewis, Sebastian and Jenson sliced through the grid dispelling the myth about no overtaking in F1. Jenson particularly drove a fantastic race overtaking with unbelievable accuracy, nothing was to stop his dream.

So with some thrilling drives the race finished with Mark in P1 followed by Robert, Lewis, Sebastian (V), Jenson, Kimi, Sebastian (B) and the last points went to Rubens.

Jenson's 5th place was enough to take the World Championship and for the 2nd year in succession we had another British World Champion. The points of the 2 Brawn's also gave the Constructors Championship to Brawn so it was a double celebration.

I cannot end this report without mentioning Kumai Kobayashi after his first race in F1. His was a fantsatic drive to 9th and it may even give him a Toyota drive for 2010.

So what a race, great driving, tremendous overtaking and 2 championships concluded during the day.

Now with baited breath the Forumla 1 circus sets off to Abu Dhabi and the second new circuit in the desert and part of the United Emirates.

Singapore Grand Prix

So here we are at the race which has caused much controversary of late with the allegations that Renault forced Nelson Piquet Junior to crash at last years race (2008) so Alonso could win. The resultant FIA Council meeting concluded that Flavio Briatorre would be excluded from any involvement with events controlled by the FIA for life and Pat Simonds for 5 years.

Nelson Piquet was however given immunity as he was the one who offered the information to the FIA. I still find the saga difficult to accept within the sport I love and feel Nelson should have a penalty. He was the one that crashed the car at the perfect moment to allow Alonso, who had just pitted, to go on and win the race after the Safety Car period.

As if F1 hasn't had enough controversy over the past 2 seasons we are then faced with what has been called the worst act of its type in sporting history. Let us all hope we can finish the 2009 season off without any other controversy and that we can get back to the sport and start again with a clean sheet in 2010.

Back to F1. The teams came to Singapore with the 2009 World Champion in the balance. Battle was once more joined between, Red Bull and Brawn. Quali 1 saw a change for the first 5 drop outs as we saw Heidfeld, Liuzzi, Grosjean, and Alguersauri and the luckless Fizzi who just can't get to grips with the Ferrari. It is sad but Fizzi simply hasn't got there yet and doesn't seem to be any nearer.

Quali 2 came as a disaster for Jenson who finished 11th and not happy with his lot as once again he was outpaced by Rubens. The same luck applied to Kimi who coudn't get the Ferrari set up so both Ferrari's failed to get into Quali 1. So we lost Jarno who was again outpaced by Timo in his flying Toyota, Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Jenson and Kimi.

Into Quali 3 and without doubt Lewis was the star of the day. He launched his Mclaren into pole with a lap untouched by anyone else. His nearest challenger was the usual Sebastian Vettel who finished in P2. Nico was flying and put his Williams into P3 closely followed by Mark Webber. Alonso followed Mark and Timo (Glock) in his Toyota just pipped Robert (Kubica) and to finish off it was Heikki, Rubens and Kazuki.

Into race day and Lewis remained hot favourite and from the flag he was never really headed apart from pit stops. Timo drove a hero's race into second and he really had the Toyota humming and the same applied to Nico until he came out of the pits and crossed the dreaded White line. As is normal with this offence it brings an automatic drive through and put him back down to 11th.

The title contenders were basically locked together finishing in line astern with Sebastian (4), Rubens (5) and Jenson (6). This result tightened the championship and they went to Brazil with all 3 still in the fight albeit Jenson still has the edge.

So after returning to the scene of the Renault debacle last year all went off without a hitch, off to Japan.