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My Japanese Grand Prix review

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Murray Walker | 12:07 UK time, Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Hello everyone, what another enthralling weekend we have just had at the famous figure-of-eight track at Suzuka.

Red Bull were dominant in Japan as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber secured a one-two finish, coming home ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, while the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button slipped back in the title hunt.

I went to the Brooklands Museum to film my thoughts on the race and you can watch it here.

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Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Nice blog Murray, I agree with you that if Schumacher is in the right car he will win. Such a disappointment in the Mercedes this year though, and I hope he is back next year to find out.

  • Comment number 2.

    "anything can happen there and it probably will" including nothing...

  • Comment number 3.

    ill second to anything happening, coz it already has at the rest of the races

  • Comment number 4.

    I'd like to comment on a piece yesterday saying that Kubica is arguably the best driver in F1 based on his good results in a poor car. A complete load of drivel, lucky for Mark Hughes the editor that it wasn't a blog or he would have got an earful for such unfounded speculation.

    What we have seen this year is that there are many different driving styles and different car setups which suit some tracks better than others.

    Great to see Red Bull shaking up the establishment of Ferrari and McLaren, hope Webber wins.

  • Comment number 5.

    Korea looks a decent track, hopefully we will get an entertaining race. I agree with you Murray, it's almost certain in my mind that one of the Red Bull drivers will win the championship. If neither of them do, it would be a huge disappointment for the team as they have had the best car out there this season by a good margin.

  • Comment number 6.

    what a race it was more of them would be great, Brazil will obviously be a great race, i can't remember a borring one, i do think the title will be rapped up there again, although i hope not, Korea - the great unknown, after driving it on the new game it seems to be quite a good track the only issue i can see is if there is a tail wind up that long straight there will be no over taking.

  • Comment number 7.

    If Schumacher will win in the right car, what will Rosberg do, having (almost) consistently outqualified and outraced him this season in the same car? And I assume the epithet 'obstructive' applied to Alguersuari (why does Mr Walker and the entire English speaking world introduce a 'sh' sound into his name?) is meant as a compliment. After all there are few drivers more obstructive than Schumi nowadays - you only have to ask Rubens.

  • Comment number 8.

    Normally there are several degrees of analysis, and some anti-Schumacher comments here seem to have gone for the shortcuts. Just check MS' relative performance in Monaco, Turkey, Spa and Suzuka and think again.

    As for Kubica, Huges did have a point. The Pole has consistently out-performed his car both in qualifying and in the race, and on a number of different tracks. We cannot yet say whether he is the best (in fact, impossible to clearly pick one out of the current crop of talents) because he has not yet been forced to produce that kind of consistent performance under a WC-winning pressure; I am however ready to bet that he'll duly raise to the challenge when the opportunity presents itself.

    I too hope good old Webbo wins it!

  • Comment number 9.

    #7 - When will they say it right? Having got an A in GCSE Spanish, I'm inclined to take the high ground.

    I would love it if Webber won. He's had awful luck in the past and he throughly deserves the championship.

  • Comment number 10.

    #9 well its the same with VETTEL - having an A in GCSE german i would like to see people pronounce his name correctly as well, but of course no offence to the legendary Murray Walker

  • Comment number 11.

    I always pronounce is Al ger shwari. I thought that was correct.

  • Comment number 12.

    I have to ask; how are Lotus guaranteed 10th in the constructor's championship? As best I see it, the bottom three teams are all on 0pts, so surely one point (as rare as it is that any will find it, I'll grant) would be enough for 10th?

    Assuming none of them score any points, I assume Lotus are guaranteed that spot through races finished etc? (i.e. having had so many more/higher finishes than Hispania/Virgin that even with straight DNFs from here on, they can't be caught?)

  • Comment number 13.

    To #1 "Nickynak HCAFC" ...frankly, completely disagree: objectively speaking, Schumi has not even been able to beat his Team mate Rosberg in the same car, scoring less than half the points !!??

    If one wants to highlight players other than the top 5 kids on the block, I think that if Kubica and Rosberg had an RBR, Ferrari or Mclaren, they'd be at least as good as the guys currently riding them ...not Schumi.

  • Comment number 14.

    @12, if a Virgin/HRT gets an 11th then that means Lotus will lose 10th.

  • Comment number 15.

    i guess to those saying schumacher would struggle to beat rosberg-it really has varied from race to race in terms of competitiveness.one thing i know for sure is that he struggles with qualifying, but more than makes up for it with his starts (which, oddly, is a sign of him having good reflexes, i havent seen him make half the mistakes rosberg has made at the start).also, in terms of outright pace, f1 drivers often have these karting races, and if i remember correctly, all karts are the same, and schumacher won a fair few of these races against the current "top crop".and to those saying f1 cars are very different to karts, you are absolutely correct-but remember that karting is often a very good indicator of how competitive an f1 driver will be.most of the paddock have done karting and won major championships.i really do think that with a solid car he can test with in winter properly, and with all his experience and knowledge (remember schumacher is very knowledgeable about these cars-hence his usefulness to engineers and developers)-i really think he could do a LOT better next year.the world championship may be a tad unrealistic, but not impossible-he certainly has the potential to do it again.

  • Comment number 16.

    I still fancy Alonso. He doesn't have a teammate allowed to take points off him (the opposite if anything), and quite apart from the Red Bulls taking points off each other, I can see them colliding in one of the final races as every point becomes critical.

  • Comment number 17.

    So, who does everyone think will win the championship, and who for you is the driver of the year?
    For me, driver of the year is Lewis Hamilton. Not a biased opinion, I just think he has over achieved dramatically this year with the car he has. Stil ahead of his team mate on points dispite his significant luck change in recent races.
    As for the championship, its a Red Bull....Vettel. Webber may be leading however, watch out for the dark horse Vettel.! People may give him stick but I think he is a real talent. A real bet for the future as well!

  • Comment number 18.

    All these comments about mispronounciation are spot on.

    I also speak fluent spanish and can't believe the ignorance of the F1 comentators. They should at least have the decency to ask the drivers how they want their names pronounced.

    Not all names are pronounced well using the Queens English. Time to get modern guys.

  • Comment number 19.

    English commentators speak with an English accent, get over it! You should listen to the Italian commentators talking about Tott-en-am Hotspoors, Arse-e-nall or even John O'Sheee! How annoying was Lineker insisting on saying 'Roberto Carlosh' even though we knew he was probably right!

  • Comment number 20.

    it is unreasonable to expect commentators to get everyones' names right-especially seeing how many different names from different countries are in the sport.for example my name would be pronounced yaa-seen, but im called ya-sin.i dont care tbh.unless alguersuari complains about this, then i dont see it as a problem as such

  • Comment number 21.

    I didn't expect to spark such a debate about the pronunciation of drivers' names with my comment about Alguersuari. Of course, most 'foreign' commentators make a pig's breakfast of most English footballers' names, but I'm with Sportmadgav - why can't commentators ASK the drivers how they'd like their names pronounced? There are only 20 of them - it's not like having to ask all the foreign members of 20 Premiership squads what their names really are.

    And I also know that in German the initial V (as in Vettel) is not pronounced the same as it is in English (nor is it in Dutch, but Spurs player Van der Vaaart is probably happy with being mispronounced). But the English have a 'tradition' of pronouncing German 'v's like English 'v's, while I can see no reason for adding a 'sh' sound to Alguersuari's name (except by analogy with the English word 'sure' - but then what about 'suave' or 'persuasive'?).

    And I also know that Spanish commentators always mispronounce Kubica's name, but Spain's top commentator, Lobato, at least asked him if he minded!

  • Comment number 22.

    You could also critcise Murray for not pronouncing the first "r" in Alguersuari, but I suppose he is not a Spanish speaker - and why should he be. Incidentally Alonso's name is also usually mispronounced - the "s" is always sibilant in Spanish and not voiced (ie like Alonsso and not like Alonzo, to approximate in English). For my part I wonder why Jaime is Jaime (Castilian Spanish) and not Jaume seeing as he is Catalan by birth...
    Why the language lesson? To be honest it is a bit late and I am bored. And I happen to enjoy using foreign languages (however strange that is for a Brit).

  • Comment number 23.

    to hear how the drivers pronounce their own names.

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