Monaco Incident Part 2

Yesterday race stewards at the Monaco Grand Prix deemed the over taking move by Michael Schumacher on Fernando Alonso to have been a breach of racing regulations, and have penalised the German driver.

Schumacher, who finished the race in 6th position after a sneaky overtake on the final corner, has been penalised with a Stop Go penalty, which race stewards converted into a 20 second penalty after the race.

The stewards, that included Schumacher's former rival Damon Hill, sighted their argument to article 4o.13 in the sporting regulations that states "if the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking."

The 20 second penalty drops Schumacher back into 12th place and out of a points scoring position, whilst Sebastian Buemi moves up into 10th place to pick up one world championship point for team Toro Roso.

Mercedes will likely appeal the stewards decision, with a date for the appeal being set by the FIA at a later date.

Monaco Incident

This weekends Monaco Grand Prix, as it seems to do every year, threw up more thrills, spills and talking points then the rest of the season. The most obvious talking point this year is the incident that took place on the last corner of the final lap between Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, and former Ferrari driver and 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher.

Following an incident at la Rascasse Monaco's tight second to last corner, the safety car was introduced for the 4th time in sundays race. With just 4 laps remaining and plenty of debris on the track it seemed that the race would finish under the safety car. However race stewards decided the track was clear enough for the safety car to come in on the last lap, allowing the race to finish under racing conditions for the final corner, and the home straight.

F1 rules state that once the safety car pits in normal racing can take place once a car has passed the safety car line, that in Monaco's case, crosses the track a few meters down from the entry to the pits.

Exiting la Rascasse Alonso managed to get his back end out of shape sliding his car in the entry to Anthony Noghes corner. This slide allowed Schumacher, who had been trailing Alonso behind the safety car, to nip up the inside of the Ferrari and maintain the position out of the final corner and onto the home straight.

Initially it seemed that maybe the Mercedes driver had not waited until passing the safety car line, before overtaking Alonso. However video evidence showed this was not to be the case.

After the race Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali believed that Schumacher's move was against F1 rules. Alonso was instructed that the race was "over" and therefore the pass should not be allowed.

Former Ferrari man Ross Brawn had a different view.

"The regulations which are new this year which say you can race between safety car line 1 and the start finish line"

"We were advised before the end of the race that the safety car would be coming in, there was no instruction that the race would finish under the safety car"

Both teams will be presenting their respective cases to the race stewards, but the debate will continue into next week.

Monaco Grand Prix Race Round Up

Webber Shines Brightest As The Stars Come Out For The Monaco Grand Prix

On a perfect day for racing in the small principality Mark Webber put on an almost perfect drive to ensure he took the chequered flag in first place on Sunday in Monaco. Webber, who becomes the first Australian to win the street race since Jack Brabham in 1959, started on pole after pipping Robert Kubica, with what many have described as a perfect lap, in saturdays final session of qualifying. And he never lost his position at the front of the field, as the Australian managed to get his Red Bull Racing car first into turn one and pull away from a chasing pack.

However as history tells us, the Monaco grand prix always throws up a few thrills and spills to entertain the crowds, and cause havoc for the drivers. Sundays race was no exception. After Nico Hulkenberg collided with the barriers exiting the tunnel on lap 1 the safety car was deployed and remained out for the first 6 laps of the race. The pack bunched up behind Webber as the leader was prevented from extending any sort of read over his World Championship rivals. However it was the McLaren of Jensen Button that suffered most from the introduction of the safety car. Due to a mix up at McLaren that resulted in a bung being left in the a cooling vent of his side pod, Button's engine over heated under the slow place of the safety car forcing last years World Champion to retire after only 3 laps.

Once normal racing resumed Webber pulled away again from Vettel and the remainder of the field, whilst at the back of the pack, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who started from the pits due to a crash in practise saturday morning that prevented him from qualifying, started to work his way past the F1 newbies. After being stuck behind Lucas Di Grassi of Virgin Racing for almost 3 laps Alonso made short work of the Lotus' and Hispania Racing cars eventually moving himself into 10^th place.

As Alonso pilled on the pressure, thanks him making his mandatory pit stop on lap 2, the front runners began to make their stops to prevent the Spaniard from passing them when they pitted. Hamilton, Vettel and Kubica all pitted around lap 22-23 and managed to retain their positions.

As many of the front runners came in Nico Rosberg found clear air and managed to post the fastest lap of the race. It was not enough for him to gain leverage on the leaders as Webber exited the pits with Rosberg in his rear view mirrors. Rosberg was unable to extend his gap over the chasing group and after pitting on lap 29 he was forced to rejoin behind Alonso, Hamilton, Massa and his team mate Schumacher.

The safety car made its second appearance of the day after Rubens Barrichello smashed into the barriers at the top of the hill at around 170mph thanks to a failure at the left rear of his car. Webber's 15 second lead was wiped out as the cars bunched up as Rubens wreckage was cleared from the track.

After the cars were again allowed to race, it was Webber that again took the initiative and stretched out another healthy lead. Robert Kubica, who was looking to retake second place back from Vettel after the young German overtook him at the start of the race, pulled out a number of fastest laps and filled the Red Bull drivers mirrors with his Yellow and Black Renault.

However another incident forced the safety car to come out, as the race stewards suspected a lose drain cover on the road could cause a major accident. Once the safety car pulled back in from its third outing Webber, again, pulled out all the stops to pull away from the chasing pack, as Vettel and Kubica, were joined by Massa in the fight for second.

Monaco's tight streets continued to hamper the drivers ability to overtake, as the race processioned through the principality. Much of the races action seemed to be over until Lap 74 when Jarno Trulli, attempted to slide his Lotus up the inside of Karun Chandhok at Rascasse. As the two touched the Lotus went straight over the top of Chandhok's Hispania car taking both parties out of the race. The incident happened yards away from the front of Mark Webber's car as he managed to avoid the nasty tangle of the two back markers. It also brought out the safety car for the 4^th and final time in the race. With the safety car coming in on the last lap, it allowed Webber to take the chequered flag under racing conditions and win the most prestigious Grand Prix on the calender.

Monaco Qualifying Round Up

Webber edges out Kubica as Red Bull see Pole in Monaco

For the 6th time this year it will be a Red Bull Racing car at the front of the grid for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix. Australian Mark Webber, who takes his second pole in as many weeks, managed to take pole position away from Renault driver Robert Kubica by just 3 tenths of a second in the third session of saturdays qualifying.

Kubica had managed to hold off strong challenges from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, and Webber's team mate Vettel, before finally being knocked off pole by Webber on his final lap of the session.

Kubica splits the two Red Bulls, with the young German, Vettel, taking 3rd whilst Felipe Massa's ferrari finished 4th to complete the first 2 rows of the Grid.

The McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button take 5th and 8th positions respectively with the two Mercedes GP drivers slotting in between them, as Nico Rosberg managed to again out qualify his World Champion team mate Michael Schumacher to take 6th.

Rubens Barrichello placed his Williams-Cosworth 9th on the grid, but was well off the pace of the front runners, with Vitantonio Liuzzi getting his Force India car into saturdays final qualifying session and 10th place on the grid.

Noticeable by his absence in qualifying was Fernando Alonso, who managed to have a tangle with the barriers of the tricky street circuit in the final practise session on saturday morning. The crash caused enough damage to the chasis of his Ferrari that he was unable to get it fixed before qualifying, and therefore was unable to take part. Alonso will start Sundays race from the back of the grid behind Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok of Hispania racing, and will have to try and find as many overtaking spots as he can on the narrow twisty street circuit, if he is to have a chance of picking up any points and strengthen his title challenge.

Alonso was not the only driver to be caught out by the tight corners and unforgiving nature of Monaco, as Renault's Martin Petrov managed to hit the barriers at turn one during the second session of qualifying leaving him stuck in 13th on the grid for sunday.

Speaking after his flying lap Webber described his final run.

"It all came together in that lap, the car was a pleasure to drive and I am delighted because the guys have worked really hard.

"To get pole at Monaco is obviously a great feeling so I am really pleased."

Webber will be looking to match his impressive drive last week which saw him lead from start to finish in Spain.

NBA Game 5 Boston @ Cleveland Short Summary.

Pierce and Co Revel, as Cleveland Lose Home Court Advantage

Tuesday night saw game 5 between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Boston came into town off the back of a 97-87 win in game 4 of this tight series, and the Celtics were looking again to the star of that game, Rajan Rondo, to help bring home vital road victory for the visitors.

For much of the opening moments of the game nothing could separate the two sides as they swapped the lead between each other for most of the first quater. But as the second period progressed it was Boston who began to take control.

After Cleveland pulled out to an early lead Boston looked to their big time players to respond to the pressure Cleveland was putting on them. Paul Pierce kicked into gear, and notched up 14 points in the first half, with Kevin Garnett netting himself 12 inside the first 24 minutes. By half time Boston had a 44 - 50 lead.

After the half the Celtics just ran away from a Cleveland team that just couldn't find its rhythm. League MVP LeBron James only managed 15 point, with 9 of them coming from the free throw line, as he shot his way to a miserable 3/14 from the floor.

On the other side of the court Ray Allen and Paul Pierce lead Boston with 25 and 21 points respectively, as the Celtics racked up 70 points in the second half to take game 5 with a comfortable 120 - 88 win.

Game 5 ended in misery for Cleveland who now head to Boston needing a win in game 6 to keep the series alive and to prevent Boston moving to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic.

NBA 10/05/10

Last night saw the Suns meet the Spurs in San Antonio in Game 4 of their series in the Western Playoffs. The Suns, who have been knocked out of the playoffs by San Antonio 4 times since 2003, took a commanding 3 game lead into last nights game, looking to send the Spurs "fishing" for the remainder of the summer.

The Suns started slowly and allowed the Spurs to stretch out a 25-19 first quater lead over the visitors, but that would prove to be as good as it would get for San Antonio in a thrilling night of basketball. Phoenix managed to put together 9-2 run in the 2nd to take away the Spurs lead midway through the quater, which included some key play from their bench players, especially Jarred Dudley who racked up 16 pts on a very effective night.

The Spurs were by no means out of the tie however, as Manu Ginobili, who posted up 15 pts and 9 assists, managed to team with both Duncan and Parker to keep San Antonio's playoff hopes alive.

With 6 min left to play in the third Sun's fans watched with baited breath as All-Star point guard Steve Nash took a blow to the face from the elbow of fellow All-Star Tim Duncan. The knock opened a cut above Nash's right eye and would require Nash to leave the floor for the rest of the quater to get stitches. San Antonio used this period to put together an 11 point run and tie up the game heading into the fourth.

As the 4th ticked away the game remained tied with both teams trading minimal leads, until with 10 minutes left Steve Nash, back from the locker room, started to etch out a lead for Phoenix. After nailing a long range three, that game the Suns a 77-80 lead Nash went on to score another 7pts and 5 assists to add to his already impressive tallies.

Etching out a 6 point lead with 50 seconds to go, Suns fans could not have been scorned for thinking that they had this wrapped up, yet the Spurs remained in contention, with Parker and Nash trading buckets until George Hill was fouled whilst making a clutch 3 pointer, giving the Spurs a 4 point play and a chance to reduce the lead to 2.

However after a pair of Grant Hill free throws, Ginobili was unable to hit his three point attempt and after Richardson grabbed the rebound and hit the two resulting free throws, the Suns took game 4 and the Series over their rivals and progressed to the Western Conference Championships.

Nightly Notables

On a night where someone would have to step up in order to seal the deal for Phoenix, both Steve Nash, and Amar'e Stoudemire answered the call. Nash totalled an impressive 20 points, shooting 9/15 and dished the ball out across the court racking up 9 assists. Stoudemire's powerful inside game grabbed him 5 rebounds and 29 points, shooting a very impressive 10/17 on the night.

On the Spurs side of the ball, Tim Duncan grabbed 8 rebounds and 17 points, joint 2nd in scoring for San Antonio alongside George Hill who also hit 17 points, shooting 6/11. Tony Parker was the Spurs star of the night as he posted 22 points 5 rebounds and 5 assists, but it was not enough to keep them in the game or in the series.

Phoenix now wait for the Conclusion of tonights game between the LA Lakers and the Utah Jazz, to find out who they will meet in the Conference Finals. Utah who narrowly lost game 3 of their series need to win at home tonight in game 4 as they, like the Spurs were last night, stand on the brink of elimination, having lost the first 3 games of their series with Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers.

Else where tonight, the Orlando Magic come off a massive 40 point win over Josh Smith and the Atlanta Hawks and will be looking to close out the series away from home. Atlanta, who have been dominated by the Magic all series, will be relying on Smith and Johnson, neither of whom have impressed in the previous 3 games, to increase their production if the Hawks are to stand a chance of winning a series which many feel, is already over.

Orlando's (or Atlanta's) opponents in the Eastern Conference final will be either the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Boston Celtics, who are locked at 2-2 in a nail biting series. The Cavs took a 2-1 lead in game 3 after LeBron James took centre stage racking up 38 points and 7 assists in a dominating 124 - 80 win in Boston. However Boston replied, much as they did in game 2, on Saturday night with a 97 - 87 win, thanks to a 29 point 13 assist display from Celtics guard Rajan Rondo. Game 5 will see the series head back to Cleveland, but after the 104 - 86 win the Celtics managed in game 2 in Cleveland, home field advantage means nothing in this series, which could easily stretch to a full 7 games.