FORMULA ONE RACING — October 18
BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX
October 19
The question becomes whether the battle for the drivers’ title will extend to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, and we will find out. [private]
I think if you had asked me on Friday, I may have been leaning toward the Red Bull guys – Sebastian Vettel, who raced from the pole to victory with such ease in Japan, and Mark Webber, who had taken a lot of problems with his vehicle at Suzaka, taking so many sit stops you’d thought he was a guy with diarrhea taking frequent bathroom breaks. But he steadied things up, and in one of the concluding laps, he “went purple,” meaning that he had the fastest lap in the race, although he wound up near the back of the pack.
Webber had the fastest practice time in the first Friday session, and then he was followed as a front-runner in the afternoon by Fernando Alonso of the Renault team (for now anyway). Saturday’s qualifying session changed things around a bit. Rubens Barrichello, the veteran who is making a gallant run at the drivers’ championship in the twilight (maybe) of his career, captured the pole in front of his countrymen, which maybe shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, since five of the previous six poles in Brazil had been won by Brazilian drivers. Races are often won in qualifying, and this is Barrichello’s golden opportunity to create some drama, because Jenson Button, his Brawn GP teammate and the current leader in the drivers’ standings, is in the seventh row. Rubens has the opportunity to make up a lot of ground, and so does Vettel for that matter, because he is just two points behind Barrichello. But Vettel is starting 16th, and he’s not going to win from there.
Maybe it gets wet, which may hurt the Ferrari and McLaren cars, although Alonso, who is set to ride with Ferrari next year, said he would be aided by slower conditions in his Renault.It has been suggested that the Brawn team would much sooner see Button clinch the title this weekend, but with their other guy on the pole they have no choice but to “make it fair.”
Okay maybe it’s not the sexy pick to go with the favorite, but it is set up pretty well for Barrichello here.
THE PODIUM (we’re using odds from BetUS.com):
1st – RUBENS BARRICHELLO (+110)
2nd – ADRIAN SUTIL (+1000)
3rd – MARK WEBBER (+180)
(All information is for news matter only; All games are graded on a scale of 1-4 stars. Lines are subject to change)
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