Minardi Wins!!!

What a fantastic result for true motor racing fans. I always knew that Vettel chap was quick but to win a grand prix in what really is the Minardi team is absolutely unbelievable, as the man himself was moved to say.

There are several interesting aspects to this story for me personally. The Toro Rosso team in reality is the old Minardi team. They're still based in Faenza. Despite the Red Bull money, the still have around 15% the headcount of McLaren and Ferrari. They are in fact the customer team to a non-manufacturer team, Red Bull Racing. The person who must be more than proud and vindicated must be Adrian Newey. After the altercations with Geoff Willis in past races, he must be feeling quite good about himself. It is after all his car.

The story today proves that if customer cars were allowed, a privately run but well financed team can take on the works cars. Especially in this case, they are allowed the latest Red Bull chassis allied to a decent engine. In Toro Rosso's case, they took on and beat the works Red Bulls and the works Ferraris. I seriously think the silly rules banning customer cars should be rethought of. For really, its fun to watch the customers beat the works cars.

Another aspect to today's events must be Sebastien himself. He failed to finish the first four races of the year but in all of the four looked mighty indeed running firmly in the points. Today's result was no fluke. He had the pace to win the race. Given the chance he took it. I have full respect for drivers who cut their teeth in the smaller teams and still manage to look good. Fernando, Kimi, even that retard Massa cut their teeth in teams such as Sauber (pre BMW) and of course Minardi. That punk Hamilton got spoon fed a McLaren. I'd like to see him perform to such a level driving a Toro Rosso or Force India. Sebastien has managed to impress everyone by winning in the tiniest team in the paddock. That is incredibly impressive stuff and all the kudos and respect to the young fellow. If ever there is an obvious candidate for future world champion, it would be Sebastien. Hamilton may win it this year but his punk style bully boy driving wins him no favours nor respect among his fellow drivers. Neither does it impress me.

Team boss Gerhard Berger has been feeling the pressure lately. Toro Ross will have to both design and build the cars for next year. Mateschitz has been making noises about selling off his share of Toro Rosso. And yet now, its the Toro Rossos that have gifted him the first win. Gerhard Berger was one of my favourite drivers back in the day and its so great to see him winning as a team boss. Absolutely fantastic.

If Toro Rosso does not go from strength to strength from hereon due to a lack of backing, motor racing fans should really mourn. Another team I felt could have achieved a result of this magnitude was Super Aguri had they been given proper financing and the sort of support Toro Rosso enjoys from Red Bull technology. That is to say, being given the latest Honda technologies instead of obsolete items.

Without taking anything away from the likes of McLaren and BMW, it is teams such as Super Aguri and Toro Rosso, backed up by a pure passion for racing that really deserves results such as today. And Formula 1 would do well to ensure that not only Toro Rosso survives but the smaller teams should be given sufficient backing to allow them to effectively compete for poles and wins.

This is a great day. Great for the little team from Faenza. A giant result for Formula 1 and motor racing as a whole. May there be more to come.

Macau Grand Prix Roundup

Its a testament to Lewis Hamilton's blinding speed to find that his lap record of the 6.1 km Guia circuit has stood since 2002 and has only been beaten today by Robert Streit. But once again, the Macau Grand Prix has proven to be a hard test for the grand prix stars of tomorrow. Of course, far be it for bloody Star Sports to carry the qualifying race held yesterday so I missed out on a lot of the action. Big name casualty during race 1 was one Sebastien Vettel, who had to start this race from the back.

Formula 3 Euro Series runner Kamui Kobayashi started from pole ahead of Marko Asmer and Kohei Hirate. All of these guys running in Dallara Mercedes run by ASM, Hitech and Manor respectively. But the one everyone had their eye on was Paul di Resta who started fourth is the second ASM Dallara-Merc. Having beaten Vettel in the Euro Series and taken the Masters at Zandvoort, he was in with a chance to do the triple grand slam by taking the Macau Grand Prix.

As ever, the race itself proved highly unpredictable. Going into Lisboa on the opening lap, we were treated to a highly amusing incident involving Kobayashi (favourite for the race after a storming qualifying), di Resta and Asmer. Kobayashi tried to go on the outside of Asmer, who himself was just simply too late on the brakes and simply went straight ahead. I'm not sure if di Resta was concentrating too hard on the car ahead of him, but he too went straight ahead after punting Asmer. In all the confusion, British Formula 3 champion, 22 year old Mike Conway found himself in the lead ahead of Hirate, newly signed Williams F1 tester Kazuki Nakajima, Andre Sutil (another highly rated runner) and Richard Antinucci.

Paul di Resta would restart but would crash at the end of that lap, prompting the deployment of the safety car. After the restart Sutil would pass Nakajima who attempted a fightback only to outbrake himself into Lisboa and letting through Sutil and Antinucci.

Of all the runners today, I was quite impressed by Antinucci's pace and consistency. Of course Conway was running away in front after a good restart but Antinucci seemd to have the fighting spirit in him today. The 25 year old Roman born and resident American pulling out some really quick laps and putting a really solid drive. His moves against both the highly rated Sutil and later on Hirate were particularly sweet and decisive. I think he's a little too old now to enter Formula 1 and certainly his past record hasn't been too good but today he seemed on form. I think he must have taken second fastest lap of the race and also beating Lewis Hamilton's 4 year old record.

This year's Formula 3 race must have been the best I've seen in a while at Macau. I just wished Vettel could have been up front with the leaders and I had fancied him to win. But the challenge of Macau's bumps and demanding turns is to keep it on the island in the first place. This he failed to do although it must be said he had problems with his brakes in the qualification race. However, Mike Conway is a worthy winner of this race. He had a stunning mid season in British Formula 3 with KKR beating much fancied Bruno Senna with a good string of victories. Now he's won Formula 3's premier event. Hard luck if he doesn't get a GP2 drive next year but with this victory I'm sure he will.