I drank beer on Friday night. This shouldn’t be that much of a problem but for me it is because every single time I have a “few” I’m dying for days afterwards. Saturday was spent on the sofa not moving, the last thing I wanted to do was upset my guts anymore than what they were! Sunday I was still feeling too rough to do much of anything, I’m just about coming around today.

The cool thing is that because I was fooked it meant that I got to watch a lot of sport. I managed to catch 2 Heineken Cup games over the weekend. First of all Leinster stuffed Wasps in a game that was far more 1 sided than I was ever expecting. Leinster were happy to run the ball and kick at the right time whilst Wasps were looking for the kick all the time. The end result was 41 – 11 to Leinster, was much deserved as well. The second game I caught was another Anglo/Irish game, this time the current champions Munster against Sale Sharks. Again it was the Irish team that looked to play the running Rugby from the start and Sale were looking desperate at times. They did manage to get themselves back into the game but that only drove Munster on to try harder winning 24-16. Not a stuffing but still it was convincing enough. Special notice must go out to Munsters forwards at the breakdown, they were excellent at isolating the Sale players are turning the ball over, it’s probably what won them the game. Also something that made me laugh, the touching moment when one of the sale forwards wiped the “split open” head of one of the other forwards with his rotten shirt, as if it was going to help. The ref still made him go off, has rugby gone soft?

Saturday was also the first round of Premier League games after the international break so I was looking forward to catching up on all the games on Football First. All the top teams did well, winning convincingly. Well all except Liverpool anyway who in their normal style for the season were jammy as hell and didn’t really deserve fuck all. But what you gonna do? One thing that did annoy me was the lack of the Man Utd – WBA game from football first. Shitty Setanta strikes again. I wonder how long the greedy bastards are going to carry on putting sports fans through this for?

Sunday I was up early for the Chinese Grand Prix. Wasn’t a classic was it? As soon as Hamilton was in front it had that look of being all over. It was no surprise as well to see Ferrari pull out some team orders near then to try and get that midget Massa as close to Hamilton as possible for the last race. I started this season as a long time Ferrari fan but I’ve really swung around in the last half dozen races. It Massa wins the title then Formula 1 loses all credibility as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather watch a A1GP race than that! Anyhoo, Hamilton goes into the last race of the season at Brazil with a 7 point lead knowing that a 5th or better finish wil secure the title. I’m expecting plenty of steward action to try and screw him up as much as possible.

So other than all that I also caught some of the snooker, which was as dull as watching paint dry once Rocket Ronnie was knocked out by that 11 year old. Oh yeah and Andy Murray won some Britvic or something like that as well. But we don’t like Tennis, it’s full of nob heads.

After an action packed (well the first bit anyway) Japanese Grand Prix we are still no closer to knowing who will win this years drivers championship. Massa finished in eighth place securing one championship point whilst Lewis Hamilton finished in 12th, well outside of the points.

During the race both contenders were penalised by the stewards, Hamilton on the first corner of the first lap for overtaking The Boring Bastard and Massa for spinning Hamilton. At the end of the day this left Alonso to take another victory (I wonder what odds you would have got on Alonso winning to races in a row this year?) With 2 races left there is now 6 points between the top 2 drivers and it looks like the FIA have got what they wanted all along. With so much money in terms of TV rights covering Formula 1 it makes perfect sense that the powers that be would want the championship to be dragged out until the last race.

I’m fully expect a few more things to go in Ferrari’s favour before this seasons out.

Awesome race, awesome scenery! That’s the most I’ve enjoyed a Formula 1 race in a long long time. From what is pretty much a repdictable boring sport to enough uncertanity that even the commentators didn’t know what was going on. My highlight was when Fernando Alonoso’s pit crew got on the radio to tell him that they didn’t know what strategies the other teams were doing and just to go for it! You take the maths and tactics out of Formula 1 and all of a sudden it’s exciting again. Next year I’d like to see the Wheel Of Fortune Strategy Randomizer used to decide how many pit stops each driver has to take. That should shake thing up nicely.

Overall it was a great race for McLaren with Lewis Hamilton finishing third and pulling out his lead of Massa to 7 pioints with 3 races left. It basically means that Hamilton can finish second to Massa in the remaining races and still win the championship. Being the cynical bastard I am though I do wonder if Massa would have been given his penalty if he wasn’t already so far behind after dragging his refuelling hose down the pit lane? I reckon he might have got away with a fine if he wan’t out of contention already.

Anyhoo, don’t want to finish on a downer, it was a cracking race on a propper racing circuit. The driver looked fooked at the end of it. It was also nice to see Kimi “The Robot” taking a tumble, it’s great he ewasn’t hurt put as a racer he’s dull as dish water. “Consistent” does not make for exciting racing. Bumps, Formula 1 needs more bumps!

If you’re anything like me you like to know the Formula 1 track before the race, it helps you appreciate where the drivers are in relation to each other.  Seeing as how the usual method (F1 computer game) isn’t available for Singapore yet I trawled this up on YouTube.  My first impression is that it looks like a relatively slow technical circuit.

Lewis Hamilton will find out today whether or not his appeal to be reinstated as the winner of this years Belgian Grand Prix is successful. With any luck justice will be done, Formula 1 and the FIA will be put back in their place (to govern racing, not kiss the ass of Ferrari) and racing will be the winner.

Hamilton was full of balls at the hearing yesterday, turning around and giving Ferrari counsel, Nigel Tozzi a fist full of attitude. Good on him. I don’t understand why Ferrari are involved at all, it should be a case of Mclaren versus the governing body, not Ferrari. Hamilton asked Tozzi at one point, “Are you a racing driver? NO!”

Tozzi then told Hamilton to “stop personalising” the issue as he was under instruction from Ferrari, who “know as much about Formula One as you do”. Hamilton replied, “With respect, I doubt it.” He’s right. Ferrari are a company, the knowledge of Ferrari is contained within the individuals who have come and gone over the years. Hamilton is UNDOUBTADLY the most talented out and out racer on the planet today. It’s refreshing to see a British sports personality who has personality, cockyness for sure but when you’re good then you shouldn’t have a problem telling people how good you are. Especially arguing with somebody who is only being paid to voice an opinion on a subject of which they have no experience.

If Hamilton and McLaren don’t win this then in my mind Formula 1 is corrupt, simple as that.

Yesterdays weather in qualifying should go some way to providing us was a top notch race on what is my favourite Formula 1 track, Monza. Even the powers that be can’t decide who is going to fall off a wet track! Monza is the fastest circuit of the season, being not much more than long straights with chicanes. There are 3 other high speed turns but they’re all 100mph+ so don’t really count! If there’s one thing that Monza normally brings it’s excitement and overtaking, with any luck the stewards will just let it happen and Formula 1 can go some way towards repairing its battered reputation.

Qualifying yesterday was full of incident. It looked in qualifying 1 that we were going to lose some of the top drivers but just as it looked like we were going to get a mix up the track dried slightly and we we’re left with some of the usual 5 drivers being dropped. Qualifying 2 is where it really kicked off. Lewis Hamilton deciding to give some intermediates a run out (on what was initially a drying track) got caught out when the rain bucketed down again. Those first few minutes were the fastest of the whole session, anybody not out on the right tyres was in real trouble. Hamilton, who didn’t look himself all through qualifying, ended up in 15th place, a couple of seconds behind 10th. World champion Kimi Raikkonen didn’t do much better only managing 14th.

The final qualifying session became a lottery. Most notable were the Toro Rosso’s, securing their first ever pole position (Vetel) and a 4th place as well. Mark Webber also put in a storming last lap effort to jump up into 3rd. Kovalainen did his best for Mclaren going second fastest whilst Massa ended up in the middle of the group. All in all it has set the stage for a great race as the faster cars try to work their way forward, I’ve got money on an “incident” at the first chicane.

Keep your eyes out for a wet race as well, this could make it even more of a lottery. The drivers are only allowed 3 sets of full wets for the weekend, most have already used 2 and started on their 3rd. If the whole race is wet there is going to be some serious tyre issues.

Last night I was dropping the kids of at the pool flicking through “Born To Be Riled” by Jeremy Clarkson. It’s well worth a read. One of the stories in it was about the 1997 Formula 1 Championship. After the dubious decisions that went on that year to penalise the drivers in a way that dragged out the championship way beyond what it should have been (Jacques Villeneuve had a far superior car to Michael Schumacher that year and was a giveme for the title), Jeremy questioned what Formula 1 had become. Is it really about as real as WWE wrestling?

I reckon the same questions are going to be asked this year. There is a lot of anti Ferrari feeling going around, people think they are being favoured by the powers that be. I think they’re right.. But I don’t think it’s Ferrari’s fault that all Lewis Hamilton has to do is fart to get a penalty. I’m sure if a Ferrari driver was leading the championship and in danger of extending that lead then all sorts of mystery penalties would be pulled out of Mr Formula One’s arse. Formula 1 makes a good share of its entire income from selling TV rights. To get the best price the championship needs to be competitive right up to the last race, an 8 point lead for Lewis Hamilton is not competitive, a 2 point lead on the other hand is. If team Formula 1 had any sense they would realise that Lewis Hamilton is the best thing to happen to the sport in the last 10 years. He’s brought back overtaking and with it viewing figures, or rather he did. If he overtakes he gets penalised, on the other hand I reckon it would take Kimi Raikkonen jumping out of his car and taking a dump in the McLaren cockpit to get a penalty, everything else is fair game for Ferrari…. well until they pull out a championship lead anyway. It’s a staged panto to drag everything out until the last race of the season. It pisses me off because I used to LOVE watching Patresse, Prost, Senna and Mansell “fighting” on the track. It’s become boring, but even worse it’s staged boredom.

So I’ve established that Formula 1 is now nothing to do with racing but just a panto to sell TV rights. So why criticise Ferrari, are they really cheats? Yes. Not because they are getting preferred treatment but because they DON’T HAVE THE HONESTY TO ADMIT IT. After what happened at Spa their drivers, officials, the whole Ferrari team should have come out and complained about the penalty Hamilton received. It was racing, they are a racing team, with racing drivers. Or they are supposed to be. To tow the FIA line and say that all is well is a load of bollocks. That is why Ferrari are cheats and why I’ll not be following the drivers of my favourite team anymore. They should be disgusted with themselves. For the first time in my life I’ll be supporting a McLaren driver, even better I hope that they stuff Ferrari at Monza, now that will be justice.

Raikkonen’s early braking was clearly a contributory factor to which Hamilton pointedly remarked: “That’s the way he drives. If you don’t have the balls to brake late, that’s your problem.”