Season Opener Finished

I am afraid I am writing this with my foot in my mouth. Before the season started I predicted Lewis Hamilton's chances of having a successful season seem about as hopeful as Greece going to war against Great Britain. Well, not only did Hamilton absolutely blitz everyone else during qualifying, he also finished on the podium, despite falling back at the start of the race. With that in mind, Jensen Button will appear to be very fast this year. He qualified second Saturday, then dominated the race on Sunday. Personally I am glad that the team that made the best looking car, without that ugly "punched in the nose" front end, appear to have the fastest car. That also being said, the Red Bull RB8 looked pretty good once the race started, so I don't think they will just be nipping on the heels of McLaren all season long.
So who will I give the tip of the hat to? Well certainly not Felipe Massa who had a frankly pathetic qualifying session and race. Fernando Alonso on the other hand though looked very good. Obviously the 2012 competitor for Ferrari didn't look very good performance wise, but he was driving the car to the limit, coming home with 10 points. Pastor Maldonado also receives my praise for having an extremely consistent race. A shame that he spun the car when catching the two time champion Alonso. Both drivers of the Saubers also had good races, with Kobayashi coming in 6th and Perez finishing 8th. And how about the Iceman? Kimi Raikkonen an absolutely wonderful race, starting 18th and finishing 7th. Granted he was helped by Nico Rosberg dropping off at the end of the race, but some of his passing maneuvers were very good. The Torro Rosso team also did a good job with Daniel Ricciardo coming in 9th and Jean Eric-Vergne finishing just outside the points in 11th. Romain Grosjean certainly impressed with his 3rd place qualifying position, and I will not be surprised to see him on the podium this year. Unfortunately a collision with Maldonado ended his race early. So now we all look forward to Malaysia to see how the teams respond. I would like to see an exciting season, and by the looks of things, it is shaping up to be just that.

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