My Motor Sport May

Once again I must apologise for not posting more regularly to this blog. Unfortunately the day job is becoming the evening and weekend job too it seems.

I have given myself a slap on the hand and written out "I must remember to post more regularly" one hundred times.

Well for me the season finally kicked off in earnest over the May Bank Holiday weekend when I attended my first event of the year, the BTCC at Brands Hatch. As you can tell from the picture of Andrew Jordan above, it was a bit of a damp day (understatement of 2010).

Being a die hard BTCC fan, even though I hadn't got around to pre-ordering my ticket online, I decided to go (despite the weather looking a bit iffy before I'd even set off from home).

Ever the eternal optimist, I kept telling myself "it's bound to clear up in a minute" and "the odd shower always livens up the racing".

Well I have to confess it was the wettest, most miserable day I've ever had in all the years I've been going to Brands Hatch. The weather just got worse and worse....

Whilst watching the first race half way up Hailwood Hill, the rain managed to penetrate not one, not two but four layers of clothing including a "waterproof" coat, a sweatshirt, a shirt and a tee shirt. My jeans became so waterlogged they stuck to my legs. My feet were squelching in water inside my boots. My hands went red and eventually numb.

When water started to get into my camera I finally had to admit defeat and decamped to the cosy (and by that time very full!), Hailwood Restaurant.

The first race was historically won by Tom Chilton in the LPG powered Ford Focus. A first LPG victory in the BTCC and Chilton/Ford's first BTCC win since Adam was a lad.

The rain got even worse so I decided to remain holed up in the Hailwood Restaurant and watch race two on the TV. This wasn't actually a complete disaster as there was a good atmosphere in the room with many of my fellow bedraggled racegoers all huddled around the one small TV screen.

It looked like Chilton would take a double victory in race two. Although he crossed the line in front of his team mate Tom Onslow-Cole, there was a subsequent technical issue with the car (something to do with the ride height) and Chilton's victory celebrations were cut short. Onslow-Cole was therefore accredited with the second Ford win of the day.

By the time race three came around later in the afternoon the weather had finally started to dry up a bit. Unfortunately, by this time, many people had already called it a day and were making their way home.

Race three victory was taken by Jackson in the Airwaves BMW who always seems to pull a result out of the bag at Brands Hatch. I was quite pleased with myself as he had been one of my predicted winners of the day. My other predicted winner (Plato) had a largely forgettable day.

After the excitement of the BTCC at Brands Hatch, I watched the mundane Spanish Grand Prix. I was absolutely gutted to see Lewis' car let go two laps from the end of the race and miss out on a podium finish. It was good to see Mark Webber take a well earned victory after all the years of poor luck he has endured.

The Monaco Grand Prix although predictable is still one of my favourites on the F1 calendar. Highlights for me were a back to back victory for Webber and seeing Schumacher up to his old tricks and getting penalised (for once).

The surprise for me has been how well Kubica is going in the Renault. I had a feeling pre-season that the Renault would be pretty mediocre but it seems to be a half decent car.

Most gutting moment was seeing Barichello crash out after being on course for some decent points. Apparently the accident was caused by a loose manhole cover being sucked up by the car's downforce. Something that will have to be looked into for future events.

Well hopefully you have enjoyed reading this post. If you have (or haven't for that matter!), please feel free to leave a comment. They are always welcome.

Button wins at Spanish GP - Barrichello Spits the Dummy!

Britain's Jenson Button drove his way to victory number four of the 2009 F1 season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday beating his Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello into second place.

Barrichello had outpaced and passed Button at the start of the race to take the lead and on his planned three stop strategy should have won the race. During the race Brawn GP decided to switch Button from three stop to a two stop strategy enabling him to take the victory.

On the BBC F1 coverage you could clearly see Barrichello was bemused to find himself in second place when he clearly thought the win had been in his grasp.

Post race Barrichello was quoted as saying he would "hang up his helmet" immediately if he had any suspicion that Ross Brawn was favouring Button. Brawn has denied showing any favour to either of his two drivers.

It must seem like deja vu to Barrichello after playing Patsy to Michael Schumacher for all those years at Ferrari - same team boss - same scenario - just a smaller pay packet!

L2F's view is that Rubens is being paranoid. Ross Brawn has been around too long to put all his eggs in one basket when there are still twelve races left to run.

Button is clearly on a roll at the moment but cast your mind back to earlier in his career when things weren't running so smoothly for him - for example his time at Renault when the perma tanned one had to give him the hurry up or the is he going to Williams or isn't he debacle.

A few DNF's here and there or a slip up or two for Button and Barrichello could still have his day. They should both keep an eye on young Vettel of Red Bull too.

By the way L2F tip - Barrichello for victory at Silverstone.......