Italian Grand Prix Review Championship on the line
Hey, sports fans I thought I'd start my reviews on sporting events with one of Formula One's most significant and historic races the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The race is massive not just historically but also for the Drivers Championship as we head into the flyaway races. If you look at the history of the Formula One, it's not just a race that teams, notably Ferrari, and drivers like but as so often it is a massive momentum booster or destroyer for the contenders of previous Championships. This race also has a history of freak results apart from the norm of the rest of the season. The Italian Grand Prix has created history and formula one greats along with the birth of legends. It's had its fair share of high and ugly memories.
As mentioned, it has hosted Grand Prix's from the start of Grand Prix racing in 1950. It is one of a few races that has survived the turmoil of constant calendar changes along with the Monaco Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix (even though it has changed tracks more times than Watford has had managers in their tenure in the Premier League). It has loads of great memories for the fans like seeing Niki Lauda make his comeback race after nearly getting killed in a crash at the Nurburgring in Germany and going from last to finishing 6th to keep himself in the 1976 Formula One World Championship. Or is the setting for Sebastian Vettel's first-ever win in his career at Torro Rosso before winning his 4 world championships at Red Bull. Also in 1988 when McLaren's Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 15 of 16 races the Italian Grand Prix was won not by their rivals Williams and Lotus but by Ferrari who had struggled throughout the whole year.
It had also seen its fair share of sorrow with deaths of some of the top drivers like in 1970 Jochen Rindt lost his life when his Lotus crashed into Armco barriers and because Rindt didn't wear his seatbelt as tight as it should have been. The drivers in the end because of the number of points that Rindt was ahead by decided to make him the first, and so far only, posthumous world champion.
Another reason why F1 drivers and fans love it is that it also has been seen as momentum boosts and destroyers. The most famous example was that of the 2014 world championship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Going into that race, Hamilton started dominating the flyaway races before entering Europe. Then Rosberg dominates the team in all the tracks in that European period except the Canadian Grand Prix and the British Grand in which Hamilton won, the team had trouble with controlling both of the drivers leading into the race after the puncture that Rosberg did to Hamilton's car in Spa. The chase ended with Hamilton winning the race and took him on a massive leap of momentum which would lead to him winning the championship.
Fast forward to 2017 and the season is dominated by two of the best drivers to have driven in the last 10 years and racing for two of the sports top race teams. Hamilton looking for his third in four years at Mercedes while Sebastian Vettel was looking to become the first Ferrari driver to win since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Going into the Italian Grand Prix, the consequences were that if Hamilton won and Vettel didn't take second then, Hamilton would take the lead in the championship heading into the first of the flyaway races in Singapore. The free practice sessions and qualifying on Friday and Saturday were on wet tracks and in fact on a track so wet that it was deemed unsafe for drivers to actually drive around safely. In the end, because they had started qualifying at the usual time of one o'clock that it took until four o'clock to finish the whole qualifying sessions. It ended up with Hamilton not surprisingly on pole, breaking a record 69th pole from an F1 legend in Michael Schumacher, however second place went to Williams rookie driver Lance Stroll, and the Ferrari's were on the third row.
The race was being done in dry conditions except on slicks it was almost like they were racing on as close to being nice as possible, because of the wet track that had mostly made the road fresh and F1 cars need tracks that had been used or, "rubbered in". But in the end, it made picking the right tyres to win actually interesting. Get the right tyre, and you can go quickly to the top of the leaderboard and win the race.
The race itself started off entertaining to Bottas and Raikkonen having a little battle to establish who was the best of the second drivers of the two main teams. Then on lap 3, there was a battle between the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Williams of Felipe Massa which resulted in Verstappen getting a punctured front right tyre. Apart from that and the number of retirements like Palmer on lap 30 and the usual undertakes in the pit window it was an easy win for Hamilton as the Ferrari despite being in their home team ended up being a poor shadow of the team for the power and driveability of the Mercedes.
Hamilton ended up being the winner with a comfortable lead and because of Vettel finishing third Hamilton now took the lead in the World Championship. The best Driver of the whole race was decided as the Driver of the Race after overtaking 12 drivers to go from 16th to 4th and even was attempting to challenge Vettel for 3rd but was just too far behind. The next race is Singapore and will be the beginning of the end of the championship.
Join me soon as I'll be discussing the NFL.
KRO Mark
As mentioned, it has hosted Grand Prix's from the start of Grand Prix racing in 1950. It is one of a few races that has survived the turmoil of constant calendar changes along with the Monaco Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix (even though it has changed tracks more times than Watford has had managers in their tenure in the Premier League). It has loads of great memories for the fans like seeing Niki Lauda make his comeback race after nearly getting killed in a crash at the Nurburgring in Germany and going from last to finishing 6th to keep himself in the 1976 Formula One World Championship. Or is the setting for Sebastian Vettel's first-ever win in his career at Torro Rosso before winning his 4 world championships at Red Bull. Also in 1988 when McLaren's Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 15 of 16 races the Italian Grand Prix was won not by their rivals Williams and Lotus but by Ferrari who had struggled throughout the whole year.
It had also seen its fair share of sorrow with deaths of some of the top drivers like in 1970 Jochen Rindt lost his life when his Lotus crashed into Armco barriers and because Rindt didn't wear his seatbelt as tight as it should have been. The drivers in the end because of the number of points that Rindt was ahead by decided to make him the first, and so far only, posthumous world champion.
Another reason why F1 drivers and fans love it is that it also has been seen as momentum boosts and destroyers. The most famous example was that of the 2014 world championship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Going into that race, Hamilton started dominating the flyaway races before entering Europe. Then Rosberg dominates the team in all the tracks in that European period except the Canadian Grand Prix and the British Grand in which Hamilton won, the team had trouble with controlling both of the drivers leading into the race after the puncture that Rosberg did to Hamilton's car in Spa. The chase ended with Hamilton winning the race and took him on a massive leap of momentum which would lead to him winning the championship.
Fast forward to 2017 and the season is dominated by two of the best drivers to have driven in the last 10 years and racing for two of the sports top race teams. Hamilton looking for his third in four years at Mercedes while Sebastian Vettel was looking to become the first Ferrari driver to win since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Going into the Italian Grand Prix, the consequences were that if Hamilton won and Vettel didn't take second then, Hamilton would take the lead in the championship heading into the first of the flyaway races in Singapore. The free practice sessions and qualifying on Friday and Saturday were on wet tracks and in fact on a track so wet that it was deemed unsafe for drivers to actually drive around safely. In the end, because they had started qualifying at the usual time of one o'clock that it took until four o'clock to finish the whole qualifying sessions. It ended up with Hamilton not surprisingly on pole, breaking a record 69th pole from an F1 legend in Michael Schumacher, however second place went to Williams rookie driver Lance Stroll, and the Ferrari's were on the third row.
The race was being done in dry conditions except on slicks it was almost like they were racing on as close to being nice as possible, because of the wet track that had mostly made the road fresh and F1 cars need tracks that had been used or, "rubbered in". But in the end, it made picking the right tyres to win actually interesting. Get the right tyre, and you can go quickly to the top of the leaderboard and win the race.
The race itself started off entertaining to Bottas and Raikkonen having a little battle to establish who was the best of the second drivers of the two main teams. Then on lap 3, there was a battle between the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Williams of Felipe Massa which resulted in Verstappen getting a punctured front right tyre. Apart from that and the number of retirements like Palmer on lap 30 and the usual undertakes in the pit window it was an easy win for Hamilton as the Ferrari despite being in their home team ended up being a poor shadow of the team for the power and driveability of the Mercedes.
Hamilton ended up being the winner with a comfortable lead and because of Vettel finishing third Hamilton now took the lead in the World Championship. The best Driver of the whole race was decided as the Driver of the Race after overtaking 12 drivers to go from 16th to 4th and even was attempting to challenge Vettel for 3rd but was just too far behind. The next race is Singapore and will be the beginning of the end of the championship.
Join me soon as I'll be discussing the NFL.
KRO Mark
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