boohoohoo, euro fans

56 laps on a circuit (in)famous for producing wild and wooly races when the monsoons strke. and strike they did today during the sepang malaysian grand prix where brawn gp's jenson button emerged as victor to another unconventional race. of the 56 laps, 33 laps were completed, the race being red-flagged as the torrential rain reduced cars to spinning wheels.

IF the race had started at 14.00 local time, button would have had his full 56 laps and much-needed yahoo victory with the matching fist pumps and fingers jabbing in the air from the cockpit as he does his victory lap.

IF the race had started at a time NOT GEARED for european audiences, the rain would not have come and caused so much havoc.

so what if vettel had intimated that he was hoping for a wet race so that he might make up for his 10-grid penalty?

it happened at albert park in melbourne and it happened again at sepang yesterday. by catering to the european market, both races started later in the afternoon than they usually do so that when the twilight came on, drivers encountered visibility problems. in melbourne, the common complaint was the way the sun, low in the sky at 6 pm in the australian autumn, was filtered by the trees, which made it hard to see the corners. under the forbidding skies of a fickle monsoon malaysian sky, the threat of rain and gathering dusk reduced felipe massa, who was struggling to get into the points, to a screaming wreck. "give me a white visor please! give it to me now! i can't see! i can't see!" his ferrari team replied in befuddled tones, "ok, ok, felipe, we're getting the visor to you. relax."

as i waited for race control to declare a race restart, i kept looking out our living room window at the darkening sky. di na ito puede, i thought apprehensively. mark webber was making the rounds under his aide's umbrella, asking drivers what they thought of the conditions. nakajima, barrichello, and rosberg had gotten out and were slinking around the track railings, reluctant to get back into their car cockpits. those who had opted to stay in their cars like jarno trulli and jenson button did not look too thrilled at the prospect of trying to finish the race on a track filled with puddles. too many things had to be considered apart from poor visibility.

how to heat up the extreme wet tires in these very wet conditions?
how to focus on optimal racing in dismal weather conditions?
how to drive so that the spray of the car in front would not impede one's view of the track?

onto the clay season, m'love

so you lost to juan martin del potro for the first time today in three tight sets. it's ok, rafael, mi rafalito. all i know is that you're sweeping the ground clean in a few weeks! vamos and bring on the clay!

*in photo (courtesy of C-note): rafa in the heat before losing to JMDP