Me Blog!

Waterford were beaten as you all no doubt know by now.

I guess it was to be expected but no doubt no one expected the wholesale slaughter that ensued. I’m sticking with my theory that the entire Waterford team were fed an dodgy curry for breakfast. To be honest that is how they looked on the pitch. It was as if they were concentrating on tightening their bowels rather than their defence and always with one eye on the quickest route to the nearest toilet instead of the player marking them.

The Belgian Grand Prix was a whole other story though.

Epic stuff it was. Rain for the last three laps that threw everything asunder. Race leader Raikkonen flung his car into the wall but not until after Hamilton had overtaken him in a rather controversial manoeuvre.

It was titanic. Cars slithering around on a track that suddenly took on the consistency of ice. Both Hamilton and Raikkonen made mistakes and in that fateful move Hamilton cut a corner to gain advantage only to sportingly obey the rules to ensure that Raikkonen was ahead of him once more before they crossed the finishing line.

Then Hamilton overtook Raikkonen, the Finn subsequently crashed into a wall and Hamilton had won.

Or so we thought.

I don’t particularly like Lewis Hamilton. I make no secret of it and before anyone plays a race card, I dislike him because he appears to me like a spoiled brat who has had things all too easy over the years. But I readily admit that he is a talented driver (and I might be just a bit jealous). He wouldn’t be driving a McLaren F1 car otherwise. The point I’m trying to make is that he entered Formula 1 expecting to win the championship from the word go. And he knew this was a possibility because he knew that the first Formula 1 car he would be driving would be a McLaren.

But enough of my dislike of him. I do however think that he was dealt a bad hand today.

That 25 second penalty was utterly ridiculous. It was chaos out there for every single driver for the last three laps and Hamilton kept his head. As soon as he realised that he had gained an advantage he let Raikkonen pass him before ultimately passing Raikkonen on merit alone.

Sporting stuff but not according to the race stewards.

Hamilton did break a rule, and recognised it as soon as it happened and acted upon it. However rules are rules but the conditions were exceptional to say the least and Hamilton wasn’t the only one to fall foul of the conditions. By this evening after the stewards investigations had concluded he was one of only two drivers handed a post-race penalty. The other was Timo Glock driving for Toyota who was deemed to have overtaken another car for position under a waved yellow flag.

So Hamilton was dealt the full blow of a stewards gloved hand on his shoulder and was handed a 25 second penalty which ultimately resulted him placed third in the race and not with the victory that even I couldn’t  deny him.

I can’t help thinking that a 10 place grid penalty for the next race would be a more suitable penalty than the one that was handed down to him today. He did break the rules after all and like I mentioned already rules are rules. But his now aborted win would have been well deserved.

By the end of the race, conditions were utterly alien but it does indeed appear that the great anti-McLaren conspiracy theory has legs and so too is the theory that only red coloured cars can do what they want without having to worry about repercussions.

In any event Massa, the new race winner (in a red coloured car no less) is only two points behind Hamilton with just five races to go. It will keep the excitement up for us spectators. At least so it is assumed. But it will be no more exciting for me to see a Ferrari driver win the drivers championship than it was for me to see Kilkenny win another All Ireland Championship.