Japanese Grand Prix: Not A Racer? Not A Problem

                         That finger. That victorious, but unbelievably annoying, digit. The sight of Sebastian Vettel's right index finger, oddly turned the wrong way around, will be imprinted onto the memory of F1 for some time to come. It has certainly been the only thing F1 fans will have seen for the entirety of the second half of this season. Red Bull's dominance has led to F1 being accused of being repetitive and borderline boring, with Vettel generally qualifying on pole and leading a practically lights to flag victory. Though it didn't happen this way in Japan, the end result was the same. The irriting twisted index finger raised in triumph come the end of the race. However, there have also been recent questions asked of Vettel's ability as a racer. Seeing as the vast majority of his victories have been won from the front, a question mark can still be raised above his head over his ability to relentlessly chase down and overtake those infront of him. When you think back over recent years, races like Japan in 2005, when Kimi Raikkonen, then at McLaren, came from 17th on the grid to overtake Giancarlo Fisichella on a pulsating final lap to win the race, really illustrate how much real racing ability you have. Similarly Jenson Button's 2011 Canadian Grand Prix win gives us the impression of a racer, coming from last place to win the race on the final lap. Vettel has not yet had that moment, and this was another race where he had the opportunity, but it went begging.

                          The race was overshadowed by the tragic news on Friday that Maria de Villota, a former test driver for Marussia, had been found dead in her Spanish hotel room. After a horrific crash during a test in July 2012, which saw her lose her right eye, and suffer massive head injuries, Maria showed incredible bravery to fight back. Whilst the crash effectively ended her career as a race driver, she would not be kept away from the paddock, becoming an inspiration to millions worldwide. Her smile and fighting spirit was matched only by her generosity and desire to do good, and she will be remembered by everyone involved in Formula 1, and the motorsport world in general. Such were the extent of her injuries from her crash, it was concluded that she had died as a result of her injuries, and the coroner released a report of 'death by natural causes' the following day. In memory of the 33 year old, many of the teams adopted her 'star' crash helmet design. Marussia had it emblazoned on several parts of the car, whilst Jenson Button had his own tribute, placing a star on his helmet to show his respects. She was a bright and bubbly personality for the sport, and Formula 1 will miss her dearly.

                            The Suzuka circuit in Japan has been described by many as a drivers' favourite. With its twisting, technically challenging corners, it is a race-track that forces every ounce of concentration and driving ability from the racers. Whilst it is unlike Monaco, in that one mistake does not necessarily earn you a trip to the barriers, one mistake can certainly cost you an exceptional amount of time. Every corner needs to be entered and exited smoothly, otherwise you have a great disadvantage to the cars behind and in front. The iconic corners include Dunlop, Spoon Corner and, of course, the 180 mph 130R corner. It is a circuit where we have seen some of the best, and most dramatic races in the history of the sport. This year's qualifying certainly added to this drama. In qualifying one, we had two separate fires! After fumes caught light in the Sauber garage, Esteban Gutierrez had to make a swift exit from his vehicle as a small fire started behind his head. Thanks to extreme safety regulations, and layers of fire retardant clothing, fire is, thankfully, not the threat it once was in Formula 1. However, it is always disconcerting to see flames in a garage, and luckily, it was an easily containable situation. If one fire during qualifying is unusual, two is extraordinary. However, just ten minutes later, John-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso was seen lapping with both of the rear brakes on fire, forcing him to retire from qualifying and pull up next to a marshal. This brought out the red flag, causing chaos as the lights went green. With several cars still under pressure from those behind, there was a free-for-all at the end of Q1, with both Massa and Raikkonen making daring passes in an attempt to find space. The big loser at the end of all this was Adrian Sutil. The Force India driver failed to find enough space, meaning that he had to start from the back (having opted to change his engine).

                                    Q2 saw no real surprises, with all of the protagonists comfortably through to the shootout. The main winner of Q2 was Nico Hulkenberg. The German is having a tremendous second half of the season with Sauber, and he has been linked with several teams further up the grid. Once again, he managed to drag a mid-grid car into the top 10. Q3 began quite slowly, with only 4 cars opting to take the opportunity to go out early. In the battle between the Red Bulls for pole, it looked like luck was finally on Webber's side. Vettel had been radioed to explain that his KERS system had failed, costing the German up to three tenths a lap. This would prove crucial. For the first time this season, the Aussie managed to beat his team mate. Such has been the dominance of Red Bull, that generally means pole. Behind that pair, Lewis Hamilton produced an excellent lap to edge ahead of Romain Grosjean, who has been ending the season strongly. Hulkenberg, however, was a revelation. In a far inferior car, he managed to outqualify both Ferraris and the Lotus of Raikkonen: a good effort. But the day belonged to Webber, who may have just had his final pole position.

                                     The Australian will have woken on Sunday morning hoping for the victory to go with his pole, however to do that, he would need to rectify a serious ongoing problem. Webber starts have been extremely suspect, and this has often cost him valuable places and points. Nowhere is this more important than on pole. However, Webber would have a nightmare start, but, even more unusually, as did his teammate. Off the line, the Red Bulls were swamped by Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean, with the latter soaring into the lead. The Mercedes was less fortunate. In the process of overtaking Vettel, Hamilton clipped his front wing, causing a right rear puncture. This caused him to drift wildly, and dropped him right to the back of the field. It would eventually end his race, as the damage to the floor of the car from the delaminating tyre was too much to continue with. Further back, Jules Bianchi and Guido van der Garde tripped over one another on the run down to the first corner, spearing the pair into the gravel. The yellow flags proved a great aid to Romain Grosjean, as it disabled the DRS, preventing the Red Bulls gaining too much time. By the time the yellow flags were rescinded, the Frenchman had broken the 1 second window, and was looking good for the win.

                                      Suzuka is not a track known for its wealth of overtaking opportunities, and as such, the race would all come down to the most effective strategies. The front three all made their first stops within three laps of one another, retaining their places. This meant that round one of the tactical battle had gone to the Lotus team. Further back, overtaking was few and far between, with the race characterised by a large amount of car trains, most notably, the train forming behind Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso in 4th place. With the Aussie running a long first stint, many of the earlier stoppers became trapped behind Ricciardo. This included the other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Mercedes day had gone from bad to worse in the laps after Lewis Hamilton's retirement. At the German's first stop, he was released into the path of Sergio Perez, earning him a drive-through penalty and dropping him back into 12th place. With both Ferraris and Lotuses infront of Rosberg, Mercedes were looking like dropping a long way out of the race for 2nd place in the Constructors Championship.

                                       Back up front, the change of tyres had seemed to have a profound effect on the Red Bulls, moving them closer to Grosjean. Webber was looking particularly racy as he came towards the end of his stint, getting within the one second window. Like the first time, it was Webber to pit first and attempt the undercut, but this time, Grosjean and Vettel stayed out longer. The Lotus's pace had dropped away, allowing Vettel to reel him in quickly. However, try as he might, the German could not get past the Lotus. This time, when Grosjean pitted on lap 30, he had no defence to Webber behind, rejoining a good 5 seconds behind. Vettel then turned his attention to jumping the pair, however, he would have to do so on old tyres. It also became very clear that Webber would need to stop again, as the Aussie was setting fastest lap times and burning through his tyres. When Vettel did evetually stop, for the final time, he rejoined behind Grosjean. However, this time, on fresher tyres, he did not find it difficult to overtake the Frenchman. This was his only pass of the race, and he would need just the one.

                                        With Vettel flying away at the front, Mark Webber made his final stop, changing to the softer tyre on lap 47. If he could pass Grosjean quickly, he could make an attempt at hunting Vettel down. Grosjean, however, seemed to have learnt his lessons from the time spent being hounded by Vettel. Lap anfter lap passed, with the Australian becoming increasingly frustrated, and the race win slipped out of his hands. Though he eventually made an excellent pass on Grosjean on lap 52, there was little he could do to reel in his team mate. Vettel took the chequered flag to win his 9th race of the season, by 7 seconds from his teammate. Though Fernando Alonso finished 4th, meaning that the title was not mathmatically over, he conceded defeat to his rival. The title will be decided in India if Alonso fails to outscore Vettel by 16 points. Seeing as the German has had only 1 retirement in a year, it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances to deny him from here.

                                          But the question remains: is Vettel a true racer? Here, he had the opportunity to show everyone how tenacious and capable he is, however he at times looked out of ideas against Romain Grosjean. Though he did eventually overtake the Frenchman, it was the perfect execution of a better strategy that won the German this race. He certainly prefers to be out in front, as he is the expert of creating gaps and running away from the rest of the field. Whether he will ever win a race from the back of the field, putting the race in the annuls alongside those races like Japan 8 years ago, I am unsure. His car seems too good to need him to do this at the minute, so we may be waiting for some time to find this out.

The 2013 French Open Finals: Same Old, Same Old?

             In the French Open preview post, I set out who I thought would be the most likely candidates for both the men's and women's championships, hoping for a surprise or two along the way. As the end of another Grand Slam draws ever nearer, it is clear from the four finalists that this has not happened. No Goran Ivanisevic-style surprise for us this time around, with the biggest shock being that it is clay-court specialist David Ferrer, and not Roger Federer, in the men's final with Rafa Nadal. The top four domination of the men's game seems set to continue, with only Federer's position being weakened by the events of the last two weeks. In the women's game, it is arguably even more predictable, as the family that have monopolised the game for the past decade and a half remain in control, albeit halved in power.

              With a little examination of the finalists and their run to the tournament's summit, we can see how monotonous today's game is. It could certainly be argued that has always been the case, especially in the men's game, with dominance from the likes of Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Becker, Agassi, Sampras, and more recently, Federer regularly characterising tennis. Therefore repeatedly seeing the same names perhaps should not be surprising. However, with the increased publicity and awareness of tennis in recent years, should we have expected to see more competition than experienced previously?

               I will begin with today's women's final, contested between pre-tournament favourite Serena Williams, and reigning champion Maria Sharapova. Beginning with Serena, her route to the final has been relatively simple. Crushing her first three opponents for the loss of just 6 games, she cruised into the second week, doing little to challenge the assertion that the tournament winner is practically pre-determined. Another straight-sets victory in the fourth round against the 15th seed, Roberta Vinci, suggests that even the top 20 is not particularly competitive, seeing the American into the quarter final without dropping a set. There she met Svetlana Kuznetsova, who, despite being unseeded, is considered a very dangerous player. So it proved, with Serena being pushed all the way to the full three sets, claiming a 6-3 victory in the 3rd. The loss of a set evidently angered Williams, as she destroyed 5th seed Sara Errani in the subsequent semi-final to progress to yet another final, eradicating the memories of last year's shocking 1st round exit at Roland Garros.

              Her opponent, Maria Sharapova, has had an altogether more strenuous passage to her second successive Parisian final. Despite winning all of her opening four matches without dropping a set, matching the achievement of Serena, she found it considerably more difficult than the American to whitewash opponents, conceding more and more games in each match she was involved in. The quarter final saw the Russian concede her first set of the tournament against Serb, Jelena Jankovic. A horrendous start saw the reigning champion lose the first set 6-0 to the world number 18, and though she recovered to win in three sets, she can ill-afford to reproduce this start against Serena. Her semi final also saw her lose a set, with Victoria Azarenka levelling the match after a strong start from Maria. Her battling third set victory shows that she certainly has the fight to challenge Serena. Whether a poor start would prove fatal is difficult to tell. Serena is definitely the favourite for today's final, but I would not count out Maria.

               Moving on to the men's final, it appears almost unnecessary to reveal that Rafa Nadal is in another French Open final, as his dominance of the Grand Slam is well documented. The 7-times winner has had a more difficult route to this year's centrepiece than many would have expected. In both his first, and second round matches, he could only manage to win in 4 sets, suggesting signs of a Lukas Rosol-esque repeat, and the shock tennis seemingly requires. Nevertheless, he stabilised in later rounds, progressing from there to the semi finals without dropping a set, including a particularly impressive performance against Stanislav Wawrinka in the quarter-finals. There he met world number 1 Novak Djokovic, and yesterday saw one of the best matches in French Open history. A rollercoaster semi-final, with both men having ample opportunity to claim victory, Nadal triumphed in a mammoth 4 and a half hour, 5 set encounter, winning the final set 9-7 to progress to his eighth Roland Garros final. His trials and tribulations along the way, however, suggests that it is becoming ever more difficult to remain successful in the men's game.

               In contrast, tomorrow will mark the inaugural Grand Slam final of David Ferrer's career. The clay court specialist has had a remarkably successful journey to the final, being the only one of the four finalists in either the men's or women's games not to drop a set. Bearing in mind the dominance of Rafa Nadal in recent years here, there are few who would have predicted that! Most impressive were his victories in the quarter and semi finals against firstly Tommy Robredo, whom he dispatched comfortably 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, and then home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. With an expectant home crowd, desperate for a French Grand Slam winner, to comprehensively beat the Frenchman 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 is highly impressive. To beat Nadal he will have to be at the top of his game, and get a touch of luck along the way, but with the form he is in, there is no reason why we can't see a significant shock tomorrow. It would certainly be nice to show that there is a bit of variety in the game.

               The game of tennis has always had dominating factors, but certainly with the increasing coverage and publicity, I would have expected to see a more competitive tournament. If we compare tennis to another sport that has seen a recent increase in publicity, like Formula 1, we see the dominance of certain players maintained in tennis, and a much more competitive and open field in the latter. This makes me wonder if we will ever see a truly competitive tennis tournament, without there being some element of pre-determined nature to them. Until we do, moments like Ivanisevic's at Wimbledon will continue to be tennis gold.   

2013 French Open: Can Nadal Be Stopped on Clay?

This weekend represents the start of this year’s second grand slam of the tennis season, as the great names of the modern game make their way to Roland Garros. This tournament signals the start of a busy summer for tennis, with two majors in the space of a month and a half. Whilst English fans often simply see Roland Garros as a pre-cursor to the ‘greatest major’ in Wimbledon, we must not forget that the Parisian competition offers the same amount of world ranking points. It is therefore only home bias, and to a certain extent, a feeling of inevitability over the winner of the men’s tournament, that forces that viewpoint.

 

In terms of British interest, we were dealt a serious, and potentially fatal, blow when British number 1 and world number 2 Andy Murray announced he would be withdrawing from the French Open, having suffered a recurrence of the back injury that had plagued him for the last couple of years. British fans will be looking anxiously at his progress, hoping that he will be fit to compete on the grass at Wimbledon. This leaves us mostly looking at the women’s draw for British hopes, with both Heather Watson and Laura Robson having significant successes in recent tournaments. Whilst winning the tournament outright may be too much to ask for these young prodigies, getting to the second week will certainly be the primary aim.

 

The winner of the men’s tournament has been practically pre-determined for the last 8 years, with clay specialist Rafael Nadal winning the tournament a record 7 out of the last 8 contests, and is the winner of the last 3. The Spaniard, ranked world number 4, will undoubtedly start this tournament as favourite, especially with Murray’s withdrawal. However, he has not had the most consistent season, suffering from injury, and we have also seen him exit big tournaments in shocks in the past. A five set defeat in that classic match against Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon last year gives us some element of doubt about simply handing him the trophy now.

 

The other prospective winners are fairly obvious. Roger Federer will once again be there or there about come the end of the tournament. The Swiss master has a never-say-die attitude that has allowed him to adapt his game to best suit his advancing age. You can never write off a man that has reached the final of every Grand Slam at least 5 times. Novak Djokovic is the other obvious choice for winner, but the Serbian has often found Roland Garros a tough nut to crack. It is the only Grand Slam he requires to complete his Career Grand Slam, and as a result will undoubtedly be driven, especially after his final defeat to Nadal last year. However, that final appearance was his first in Paris, and he does not have a particularly good record in the French capital. Outside of the top two, David Ferrer has always been considered to be good on clay, as Andy Murray has experienced to his cost in the past. Although the Spaniard has never reached a final at Roland Garros, a couple of fortunate results is all it would take to see the world number 5 to his inaugural Grand Slam final. Similarly, French hopes will largely be pinned on the likeable Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose signature victory dance has endeared many of the fans to him. He has extinguished Roger Federer’s hopes on numerous occasions, making his case to be a viable contender for this title. The home fans will also be pushing the world number 8 on, which has an inevitable positive effect on the performance of the home players. No-one outside these players has a predictable chance of winning the French Open, but as we have seen, anything can happen over the next two weeks.

 

As far as the women’s tournament goes, the winner is slightly less predictable. Though Serena Williams has been made strong favourite for the title, there is less of a one-person domination than in the men’s game. Also, the fact that Serena herself was shocked with a round 1 defeat at Roland Garros last year means that she is not infallible at the Parisian tournament. A 54 minute 6-0, 6-1 victory in the first round this year, however, suggests she is back to her very best form. Last year’s winner, Maria Sharapova, should also be considered to be in with a chance of winning it. Though her recent form has not been fantastic, she often produces her best on the big occasions, and therefore cannot be written off. Other prospective winners include: the noisy Victoria Azarenka, winner of two Australian Open titles, Agnieska Radwanska, winner of last year’s Wimbledon, clay specialist Li Na, 2011 French Open champion and the feisty Aussie Samantha Stosur, amongst others. The women’s game is far more open than the men’s and promises to be a very entertaining contest.

 

The return of Grand Slam tennis to Europe truly signifies the start of summer. A fascinating (and sometimes noisy) few months will follow, with two of the greatest tournaments in modern tennis. Hopefully we will see very little rain, and therefore no need for the dreaded covers. The French Open promises to be a very intriguing contest in both fields, and one I will be glued to.