The boys are back in town
Silverstone, Northamptonshire
England
11 July 2010
Whilst the ‘beautiful game’ (patronized by hooligans) will be drawing the curtain on its premier event, we petrolheads will be raising it on the 2nd half of the formula 1 season nipping in and out of the shires of Northampton and Buckingham. The British Grand prix brings home Lewis Hamilton heading the drivers standings with fellow McLaren-Mercedes team mate Jenson Button breathing down his neck in 2nd place a mere 6 points behind.
Football levels the playing field (this time for Africa?) and motorsport really makes use of the bridges that have been built between erstwhile antagonists. A quick look at the F1 drivers standings showed that the top two drivers (Button and Hamilton) are British driving for a British team powered by a German company. Sebastian Vettel’s a German driving for a French team sponsored by a Thai/Austrian energy drink company. The Italians have Spanish and Brazilians drivers for them and even the superficially all-German Mercedes GP team has British and Japanese skeletons in its closet.
Hamilton will be coming on as home favourite having taken the chequered flag last in 2008 and stumbled awfully in 2009. He now appears to be regaining his winning form with 5 podium positions so far, rising from 3rd in Bahrain to 2nd in China (The McLaren 1-2 with Button) and the European GP and finally taking the cup in Turkey and Canada. His team mate on the other hand is yet to win at Silverstone. Button though, has quickly turned around the label ‘The most talented driver never to have won the GP’ to become an exciting pilot to watch on the F1 track and become a force to reckon with. All he needed it seems was to have the right team backing him, which he got from Brawn GP in 2009 and this season with McLaren Mercedes.
The circuit at Silverstone played host to the 5th round of the MotoGP championship. Jorge Lorenzo riding for the Fiat Yamaha racing team pipped Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovisioso to the post on that particular day out. The sport is missing the presence of Lorenzo’s team mate and defending world champion Valentino Rossi who suffered a compound fracture of his tibia after a crash during the 2nd free practice session for the Italian GP.
Audiophile: The boys are back in town – Thin Lizzy
Off my shelf: 1984 – George Orwell
Midday Matineé: Trainspotting [1996]
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Kelly Macdonald
Directed by: Danny Boyle
