Euro is GO!

Well that was a bit of a shock wasn't it? I must admit even if I had predicted the correct race winner I would never have predicted a race as exciting as that. Alonso wins from 11th on the grid, Vettel suddenly looks fast but shockingly the Renault has developed unreliability that causes Vettel and Grosjean to fail to finish. The Mclarens are nowhere and still terrible at pit stops, whilst Schumacher seems as sloppy as ever whilst Rosberg has reverted to trundling round tracks impressing himself with 6th place finishes.
So finally Valencia delivers an entertaining race. Pirelli must surely take all the credit for this despite all media outlets praising Valencia even though nothing has changed at the circuit it is still the same go-kart track it has always been. The only major difference is the tyres which finally seem to be causing mayhem in the field as drivers are on different compounds, different ages of tyre and different remaining amounts of rubber meaning a huge range of top speeds or speeds achievable round corners etc. We got to see huge trains of cars, dozens of overtakes and a number of exciting and dramatic incidents.
The Renaults seem to have dispelled my fear they would repeat last years strategy of giving up mid season to focus on next years car. The car looks fast, and fully capable of achieving a race win. Both drivers are competing well but to me Grojean looks like a man inches from getting his first win which will open the gates to further wins and competing for titles. Raikonnen? I'm not so sure. He seems capable of a win given the right circumstances but I just don't feel he will ever be focused enough again to really compete for regular victories despite me being glad he's back with his skillful, exciting driving and his complete disdain for all the corporate glad handing and p.c., sanatised, p.r., b.s., that all other sportsmen churn out before and after events.
The Button mystery baffles me to such a degree that combined with my natural dislike for the bloke who only won a title when his car was vastly better than anyone else's and once the competition improved their cars he didn't win another race. The guy that can be heard on every radio transmission wining "too much overstear', oh no hang on "too much understear". Its never his fault, there is always something wrong with the car. Yet the Ferrari is widely acknowledge to be the worst of the front running cars and Alonso wins when he feels like it, it seems, and he appears to be leading the championship. So I dismiss Button and his moaning I care not. I did have cause to consider him the other day though as I wondered whether is in fact his pace the real pace of the Mclaren and Lewis is driving the wheels off of his car. In a similar vein is Massa's pace the real pace of the Ferrari and in fact Alonso is doing an even better job than he's being praised for. I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle but frankly either way my sympathy and patience with Button and Massa has now been completely exhausted.
Webber seems to have a mental bloke or the strangest luck in the world, as he started 19th but yet again finished 4th. He could of course heave been on the podium but for what seemed like a sympathy vote for Schumacher from the stewards who dismissed appeals against the Mercedes team for Michaels seeming use of his DRS in a yellow flag zone.
So to the retirements. Well I was cheated. Only the 3rd time this season I've backed Vettel to win and for the 3rd time he's let me down. I can't believe with only 20 laps to go the bullet proof Renault would collapse with a failed alternator. Stranger still Grosjean retired a handful of laps later also with a failed alternator in a Renault engine. Very strange indeed. So with so many of us predicting Sebastian it was a very low scoring week. Martin was unlucky as he threw in a late all three prediction of Vettel and with 20 laps to go looked to be top scorer of the weekend. Moments later Martin's left with only 10 points. No need to worry though as four others finished with this total. I was saved by predicting Rosberg for fastest lap also predicted by Alex and George which is only the second race that anyone has predicted this category.
Alan WA was scuppered by Maldonado's terrible driving and incident causing again. Hamilton was set of 3rd which would have been slightly disappointing but not bad with Vettel and Button not scoring and finishing in front of Webber. Sadly Maldonado decided to again display his dreadful decision making when his blood is up. His post race interview confirmed his delusions too as he claimed Lewis had forced him off the track and caused the accident when to my mind it's fairly clear Lewis held his line, and despite Maldonado's statement "there was nothing I could do" he chose not to use his brake pedal and ploughed into the side of Hamilton's car. Thus Alan WA was denied 15 points so rather than 2nd he sits 4th in our league. However Lewis shouldn't have been in that position. He should have been leading the race but once again Mclaren balls it up and he lost 3 places in a pit stop. Frankly if he left at the end of the season and even if he went to Ferrari I couldn't hold it against him as the continuous failings of Mclaren under the witless leadership of Whitmarsh is ruining his career. He should have at least two championship titles by now rather than the single one Mclaren have been able to help him achieve. The Top scorer this week was a tie between George and Alex by predicting a 4th place, the pole and the fastest lap setter. Jack scored 3rd by somehow nailing the unlikely winner of Alonso and I was saved by predicting Rosberg's fastest lap and Vettel's pole. everybody else was punished by the retirements and finished tied on 10 points the bottom score this week.
So 12 races to go 35 points cover 1st  to 8th with Martin a little adrift in 9th but still with so many races and so many points still available there is plenty of time for things to change.
Currently after this weeks points haul George sits atop our league table having been 12 points behind Simon last week this week she is 10 points ahead now with an amazing turnaround. So congratulations to George and now off to Blighty and the GP of Silverstone.

The League Table after 8 races

Week 8
	Predictor	Points
1	George	161
2	Simon	151
3	Jack	141
4	Alan WA	137
5	James	136
6	Alex	134
7	Becx	131
8	Alan D	126
9	Martin	99

 
Predictions for Great Britain by 07/07/12 please. Best of luck.