Formula One Trash Talk: Malaysian Grand Prix

Coverage is again on Speed TV and the race goes off at 3:30 am Sunday morning East Coast time which is 12:30 am West Coast time Sunday morning.

Picking right up where he left off at the Australian GP, Sebastian Vettel has taken pole for the run at Sepang in Kuala Lampur. Vettel barely nudged out Lewis Hamilton in the last seconds of the final qualifying round, with Webber, Button, Alonso, Heidfeld, Massa and Petrov following in that order. Petrov had a great run in OZ, placing third for his first podium in his young career. It will be fun to see what he can continue to extract from the Renault, both at Sepang and during the rest of the year.

Little noticed was the fact that the fastest lap turned at the Aussie GP was put in by Massa. The Ferraris are stronger than they have shown in the results so far this year; they will come around I think. Not so for the Mercedes cars and Michael Schumacher. Schumi, again, could manage only eleventh place on the grid. The poor qualifications are shocking for the all time, by a large margin, leader in F1 poles with 68. Certainly the quality of machinery is a large part, but Michael made his reputation for wringing incredible things out of lesser cars well before joining Scuderia Ferrari, so it is really looking like the lion’s skills and drive are not what they once were.

It appears that Major League Baseball is back and the boys of not quite yet sumer have taken the field again. Except of course Manny, who being Manny, has apparently juiced and walked off into retirement. A shame, he was one hell of a professional hitter and a heck of a character; a sad way to see him him go. Also the NBA season is winding up, so there are plenty of sports to jabber about.

It is raining like hell here, so tonight is right for some storm music courtesy of the Doors.

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  1. orionATL says:

    raining like hell in phoenix?

    how about some hopi prayers-have-been-answered chants?

    y’all are, as i understand it, in a serious, long-term drought situation – like 300 yrs. worth.

    i enjoy your posts on formula one, bmaz –

    auto racing outside of nascar seemed to have been banned from the sorry-and-getting-sorrier sports pages i read.

  2. bobschacht says:

    Before we get full-on into the NBA playoffs, I want to marvel a little at the women’s college BB tournament. The final featured a pair of 2-seeds who knocked off all 4 top seeds, both by playing well AS A TEAM. Notre Dame got by with only one senior, and she will probably not be drafted, although she might go in the 3rd round. Texas A&M had never been in the finals before, and while they got to the finals as a team, their All-American, Danielle Adams, finally came to life in the second half, and Notre Dame, which was able to handle UConn, collapsed in the last 5 minutes. Give some credit to some awesome defense by Texas A&M. Notre Dame scored more points against them than anyone else in the tournament, and were calm, cool and collected throughout the tournament until the last five minutes, started to panic a bit, rushed their shots, and could not finish.

    NBA: I mainly want to see how far the Celtics can get. Will they be able to get serious minutes from Shaq, or Jermaine O’Neal? If so, they could get to the finals again. But the Bulls are a lot stronger this year. And remember all the hype about how LeBron, Dwayne Wade and — who was the third superstar? Chris Bosh? — how they were going to run roughshod over the NBA, and be a cinch for the finals? Well, they’re 0-3 against the Celtics so far this year. They pair up on Sunday, and whoever wins might lock up the #2 seed. I think that will be this week-end’s big game, even if Shaq doesn’t play.

    Bob in AZ

    • bmaz says:

      Sure, he is the bald guy in a blue suit whose head has ears that stick out and looks a little like the dude with a pitchfork in the American Gothic painting. Except Novitsky is pretty tall and more athletically built.

      • BayStateLibrul says:

        True. Thought maybe they would depict him thrashing through Bond’s garbage

        disposal for evidence?

        • bmaz says:

          Better would be videos of him threatening the wives, children and parents of witnesses in order to extort witnesses to say things he wants.

    • bmaz says:

      I think much of Phil’s work for Road & Track is probably accessible online. If not, John Lamm is th eguy who would be the one to get it out.

  3. JTMinIA says:

    Can someone explain the 20-sec penalty to Hamilton? He was on the line and didn’t move to block when Alonso clipped him. What was Hamilton supposed to do? Or did he lift and I just can’t detect this in the video?

    • chetnolian says:

      Apparently Hamilton changed direction too much. I couldn’t see that on live TV but I guess the stewards did. I’m sure there would have been no action if Alonso hadn’t clipped him so I guess Hamilton feels pretty sore as the contact was clearly a mistake by an over eager Alonso.

  4. chetnolian says:

    I see that my prediction that Paul di Resta is one to watch is coming true. In the points each race so far. Not bad for a rookie.