If we think about incidents from this year alone, there have been other teams who have done the same. Sebastian Vettel got the new front wing at Silverstone ahead of Mark Webber and at Turkey before that Jenson Button was told to save fuel when he was trailing Lewis Hamilton in second position. The absurd part therefore is not that Ferrari did use team orders to get their lead driver some advantage. Instead it is that this season is probably shaping up for a grand stand finish with five drivers and three teams having a mathematical chance of being crowned champions. And with only six races to go, it might just get dirty if a couple of races do not go as per plans for any of these five drivers.

In letting Ferrari go and declaring that they are re-thinking the ban on this team-order rule, they have sent out the message that if something like the German GP is repeated blatantly – and what Ferrari did was blatant enough – then there won’t be many consequences. A precedent has been set unfortunately and in any court hearing such as the WMSC one in Paris yesterday, anybody in the dock can use it and get away with murder on track. It is not to say that there should be team orders. I think that teams should have the freedom to do what they want for they invest millions and millions more are at stake along with reputations. But they – team orders – should come with a rider, like naming a number one or number two driver before the season or each race, or probably should only be implemented when one driver has no mathematical chance of winning the championship. However this debate is for later when we do know what re-thinking the FIA have done regarding this issue.

For now, the point is, do we really want a season building up to be as close as this, to be affected by team orders now that even FIA doesn’t deal with them too harshly?

People can take their pick as per their whims and fancies. Some would fancy a ton made incidentally on their birthday or marriage anniversaries or job promotions, and would have no qualms in saying that maybe it was just the Little Master’s way of wishing them. Others would remember most the innings they witnessed not from the confines of their dressing room but in the stadiums of their respective cities, where the Indian team might have been touring. Speaking from personal experience, even students pick and choose – the one that enlightens their moods so much that the exam next day goes very well, is the best hundred.

Very recently, Sachin Tendulkar pronounced as his best the hundred he scored immediately after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The Test match was played at Chennai and against England, his 103 not out allowed India to chase down a massive 387-run target. You can almost immediately see the reasoning why he believes so: in 2008, the country witnessed the scariest terrorist attack in its history and hailing from the same city, he is bound to feel satisfied that an Indian win on the back of his hundred somewhat soothed the people of Mumbai, parched from all the hurt.

But there is another reason – valid only in cricketing terms and if one can say so, not based on sentiment. Throughout his career, critics have often questioned his ability to take India over and across the winning line. The likes of Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara stood ahead because Sachin hadn’t scored a match winning hundred in the fourth innings of a Test or whilst chasing down a target in ODIs. To some extent these absurd allegations were true, but only in terms of statistics. For such innings were truly missing from his arsenal of records, though that doesn’t mean he is a lesser batsman in any sense of the word.

However, think of it from the player’s point of view: he is regarded one of the best batsmen – if not the best – to play the game and has on umpteen occasions set up a chase for his team or played a great hand in the first innings of a Test, again setting up the game for his mates. Cricket after all is a team sport, and not unless an individual’s efforts are backed up by his mates, they will not win as a unit. The last time any one remembered such a match-winning innings from him was almost a decade prior to his efforts in 2008. We know it better as the Desert Storm.

In that sense, 2008 was a landmark year for the Indian batsman. Earlier in the year he had scored a ton in the first final of the CB series and just so that his detractors take note, that innings came in a successful run-chase. Combined with the hundred in Chennai ten months later, it is evident that he paid back a full reply to any disparaging comments that had come his way over the years. But at this juncture is the need to question: is the best cricket he played to be judged against hollow criticism?

The answer is no, for his genius transcends victory or defeat. How many times have we visited the stadiums wondering that our trip be made worthwhile with a century from his blade, so what if India loses? If we have to go to work, we wish he plays a swashbuckling innings that can be caught on television before scurrying off to our offices, never mind what the remaining players dish out. Students preparing for exams take breaks that coincident with the time period when Sachin is at the crease, and they keep praying that his stay is considerably long. Why, even Pakistani fans pray first for a win for their team and then a hundred from him!

Point is, if we take out the pressures of victory and loss from the equation and measure his innings’ worth purely in terms of their cricketing genius, one is afraid even the Master himself may have read their value wrong. There is no denying his 2008 Chennai hundred was a top notch innings, but talking of victory, it was actually Virender Sehwag who had set it up on the fourth evening. Compare that to his 136 against Pakistan in 1999 and people will remember the tears they shed when he fought through severe back pain and some excellent spin bowling by Saqlain Mushtaq, yet fell just ahead of the finish line. Did any of the English bowlers posses such guile and craft? Could they have put the remaining Indian batsmen under the same pressure even in a hundred years as did Wasim Akram and company that afternoon some nine years ago?

Back then he was considered to be in pristine touch, so what of the double ton procured in Sydney in 2003? The runs had been flowing in a trickle throughout the tour, his favorite cover drive proving to be his downfall on more than one occasion. What does he do? Cut out the scoring on the off-side and bide out his time until the runs start coming with ease again. As much as pressure and conditions, doesn’t form come into the equation? When the mind is pulling you in a different direction than you want it to go, when the footwork isn’t as nimble as the rest of the batsmen and when the willow just won’t listen to the commands you send out, scoring 241 runs in such an environment is the most enviable job on the planet.

It is an endless debate this, for a hundred arguments and counter-arguments can be deliberated over all the runs he has scored. Are the runs scored early on in his career on bouncy Perth tracks or hostile English conditions against bowling attacks better than any in world cricket today any less? Is the half-century in his maiden Test series scored with a bloodied nose not worth savoring again and again, and then again? Or, the 98 in the 2003 World Cup amidst the media frenzy building up for more than a year, and the stamina displayed in scoring a first double hundred in ODIs not proof enough of his insatiable hunger for runs?

Point is, when you are spoilt for choice in a mouth-watering buffet, post-dinner it is indeed tough to pin-point the most delectable offering.

This article was first published at www.dreamcricket.com.

One wonders though if it will indeed be that simple. The way Red Bull Racing have gone about putting a lid on things, it suggests that they seem to be favoring Vettel. Certainly their young drivers’ program chief Helmut Marko seems to tow that line and has indeed exerted some pressure on team principal Christian Horner to talk in that manner. A very interesting piece by noted F1 commentator James Allen seemed to point towards the possibility of Horner being under pressure to support one driver over the other and we all seem to know who that is.

Webber’s immediate task is a bit easier compared to the long term problem. Right now, he can sit down with Vettel, share a can or two of icy Red Bull drinks between them and say, ‘ok maybe you should have given me more room and maybe I should have given you more room. Let us just promise to do that from here onwards.’ And for Canada, it might even work for the Red Bulls are not expected to run riot over there. There it will be down to which driver can make the most of the Montreal circuit with its long straights and restrict the damage to their chances.

However from the British GP onwards, the problem might just resurge. At Silverstone, with its flowing high speed corners, the Red Bulls are again expected to fly and, Webber and Vettel will look to start winning again. What happens then? What if Vettel wants to make a statement and Webber doesn’t want to relinquish whatever lead he may have over his teammate and possibly other drivers? Can Webber then trust his team which he suspects of siding with his competitor? Can Red Bull cope with a split garage? It is a situation not unknown in Formula One especially when the car is a championship contender and both drivers capable of winning.

The last time that happened was in 2007 when the Fernando Alonso-Lewis Hamilton partnership blew up in the face of McLaren. Ron Dennis’ radio intercept to Lewis in the Chinese GP that ‘they were racing Fernando and not Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari’ should be the stuff of legends and included in a tutorial for team principals how not to favor one driver over another. The Woking team was left clutching at straws as Raikkonen stole the championship from their hands at the last race in Brazil. Of course, isn’t it ironical that McLaren are waiting to pounce if the Red Bulls do go to the gutter this season?

However that is easier said than done. This particular race’s incidents has fueled speculation that the Red Bull garage isn’t as neutral a place as it was earlier made out to be. The official line of the team remains that both drivers were at fault in the on-track clash, but team principal Christian Horner and young drivers’ program chief Helmut Marko have inclined a bit towards blaming Mark Webber for the incident. The two have not spoken in forthright terms in this regard but have indicated that they expected Webber to move over because Vettel had his nose ahead when approaching Turn 12. It was even evident in TV replays that Horner, on the pit wall, was pining for one of the drivers to give more space to the other and it is anybody’s guess who that might be.

The question that arises now though is this: Vettel didn’t have a clear advantage over Webber going into turn, so what is their basis of forming such a judgment?

The answer to this lies in the fuel the two cars were carrying at that stage. Horner stated, after the two drivers’ debrief, that Vettel had one lap more worth of fuel than Webber and could still run his car at his prevalent race pace, while the Aussie was in conserve mode as he had used more in the initial stages of the race. Vettel achieved this while trailing Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race while Webber had to drive the wheels off his car to keep ahead of the McLaren.

In effect, this also explains why Vettel seemed to be gaining on Webber in the build up to the incident. Also, Marko says that both drivers were made aware of the situation and Vettel had to make a move when he did, for he would have lost performance in terms of fuel from Lap 41 onwards. In other words, Webber was told that he had lesser revs available than his team mate ahead of the clash and still decided not to yield easily to him.

Does that mean Mark Webber couldn’t understand the disguised ‘team order’ to let Vettel pass? Or after the mistake he made to let his younger mate through earlier in Malaysia, he wasn’t going to let him go through easily any which ways? The true story of the fuel levels and revs available to the two drivers is known only to the team and no one else. But the underlying point is this: with a car that is capable of winning the championship, Webber has put Vettel under pressure with his recent performances and this was an important race for the German to get back. Clearly the camaraderie within the team will be affected by this incident and from here on, it will be interesting to watch if Red Bull will be able to keep things calm and surge ahead like they did in the first part of the season, or will everything fall apart for a team that is not used to these high pressure situations. Furthermore if the situation doesn’t deflate between Vettel and Webber, or explodes again later on in the season, will the Aussie still be in his present team, come 2011?

The fuel level story affected another team in the race but got overshadowed by the Red Bull fiasco, and also because they benefited with their opponents’ slip-up and kept their heads to get a 1-2 result. After the Red Bulls went out of contention for the win, the McLaren pit wall relayed a disguised ‘team order’ of their own for Lewis Hamilton to save fuel and told him that Jenson Button behind would be doing the same. However, Button soon tried a move on his younger team mate which was repelled, but highlighted a second time in the race when team directions had been ignored. That the two McLarens made out of the scrap without hassles is reflective of the respect and space their two drivers still give each other. Perhaps that will also change in the near future if the Woking team will carry its momentum forward, and indeed challenge the Red Bulls for the championships from here on.

They did so in fine style, restricting a powerful Australian batting line-up to a score of 147 for six and with Craig Kieswetter hitting 63 and Kevin Pietersen 47, England got home with three overs to spare to confirm an emphatic win. Kieswetter and Pietersen came together early after Michael Lumb (2) chipped Shaun Tait to Hussey at mid-on and the pair put on 111 for the second wicket, hitting 11 fours and three sixes between them as Australia failed to cope with a confident assault on the victory target.

Their stand was ended when Kieswetter, at the crease for 49 balls was bowled by Mitchell Johnson in slightly bizarre fashion when, after backing away in order to manufacture a shot, he ended up leaving the ball onto his stumps. Pietersen, who faced 31 balls, departed in more usual circumstances when he skied leg-spinner Steven Smith to David Warner in the deep. The possibility of a late collapse was then eliminated as Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan continued to play positively, Morgan belting Smith over midwicket for a maximum and Collingwood getting off the mark with a six. He then won the game by driving Shane Watson down the ground to spark wild celebrations among England players, coaching staff and fans around the world.

Earlier, David Hussey scored 59 to drive Australia to a score of 147 for six and give them a chance of victory. England won the toss and chose to bowl first and quickly had Australia in trouble with early wickets but Hussey, Cameron White (30) and Michael Hussey (17 not out) helped them reach a competitive score. Ryan Sidebottom took two early wickets, having Watson caught by Graeme Swann at slip after he was initialy spilled by Kieswetter for two and then having Brad Haddin superbly snaffled by the wicket-keeper down the leg-side.

Warner was run out by a Lumb direct hit and Michael Clarke made a run-a-ball 27 before he was well caught by Collingwood as Swann bowled superbly to claim one for 17 as Australia slipped to 45 for four. Hussey then powered his way to 59 in 54 balls with two fours and two sixes and put on 50 with White for the fifth wicket and he then added 47 with brother Michael for the sixth before he was run out attempting a second run in the closing stages of an innings that never really got going. 147 represented a challenge, particularly in a final, but England completed a dream run with an assured performance and once Pietersen and Kieswetter got going, they never looked like letting Australia back into the match.

Match report courtesy www.cricketworld.com.

Schuamcher was handed out a drive-through penalty for his move on the last lap of the race as he overtook the Ferrari just as the safety car pulled in. Since the penalty was given after the race was over, twenty seconds are added to the driver’s time and that means Schuamcher has found himself demoted to 12th from 6th, without any championship points.

The rules until last year didn’t allow overtaking under safety car, until the cars cross the finishing line, but they have been amended for this season. They state now that once the safety car is in, overtaking is allowed between the finishing line and the safety car line as well. Under that ruling Schumacher’s move is actually legal. Then why the penalty is the question.

That is because of an amendment to the new rule stating that in case of the safety car coming in on the last lap, the cars will not be allowed overtaking as per the above mentioned new rule. The cars are meant to take the chequered flag as they were and this has been done to allow the race not to finish under safety car pretext. However this leaves the door of ambiguity open as has been highlighted by the Schumacher incident. To his credit, Alonso went off the racing line at the last corner and the German didn’t really have any place to go except stick the car ahead. What happens when there is an accident, won’t cars overtake then?

As always the FIA has made news because of rules that don’t really make much sense. In the end this comes out to be the first major blunder by the race stewarts this year. And the fact that former champion and Schumacher’s ex-rival Damon Hill was the ex-racer on the panel for Monaco, things have heated up to this extent. Even if the appeal is considered, there is no way the penalty will be taken away but probably the rules will be immediately amended for future incidents. Something that should have been done beforehand and has deprived Schumacher and his fans a chance to cherish a fine performance for a second consecutive race weekend.

The race wasn’t easy by any chance for there were as many as four safety car periods which meant re-starts again and again. But Webber maintained his pace throughout the race never looking uncomfortable. The moment that it all mattered most was at the start of the race itself where he had to mind Vettel and Kubica both. But he was quickly off, ahead of Vettel which put the slow starting Kubica into third. From then on, safety car or no safety car, the Aussie wasn’t bothered as he disappeared into the distance again and again.

For others though, safety cars mattered a lot more. Most importantly for Fernando Alonso who started his Ferrari in the pits. He started on soft tyres and got them out of the way at the first safety car when Nico Hulkenberg crashed his Williams on Lap 2. Alonso got his supersofts out of the way and got on the medium tyres, running them until the end to finish in the points. It was a heroic race from his to rescue his championship bid as he finished seventh. He could have been sixth but for a cheeky move by Michael Schumacher on the final corner of the race. The Saftey Car had again just gone in and it left about 100 meters of track to joust for between the safety car line and the finish line. Alonso went slightly off the racing line and Schumacher pulled alongside him and then overtook after he crossed the safety car line. Or atleast that is how it seemed on TV replays as the matter is still under scrutiny (at the time of writing) by race stewarts.

Their team mates though had a paler race in comparison. Felipe Massa again drove a lonely race out of sight for most parts. He made a bid on Kubica on the first corner at the start but the Pole closed the door on him. He then spent the rest of the race fighting for and finishing fourth. Seen individually it is a good result especially after a bad Spanish GP but compared to his team mate, Alonso still wins hands down. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg looked good for fourth on pit strategy. While his competitors pitted and came out behind Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, he built a gap to them and could have gotten out ahead had he pitted before the Japanese driver. But he left it one lap too late and lost out as Kobayashi’s Sauber stopped just before the German pitted. He finished eighth.

It was a bad day in office also for McLaren. One of their mechanics left a bung on Jenson Button’s radiator and his car overheated behind the first safety car. It meant no points for the other double race winner this season while team mate Lewis Hamilton finished fifth. At one point his race engineer asked him to look after his brakes, to which he gave an irritated response. Not sure if that went down well with the team.

Behind these drivers, the two Force Indias finished in the top ten. This is the first occasion this season that both Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi have finished in points. They made good on Williams’ loss for whom Rubens Barrichello had made a good start jumping to 6th from 9th on the grid. But he spun out causing the second safety car on Lap 32. The cause for it could very well be the loose drain cover which caused a third safety car but was later deemed safe enough.

But the battle for 14th between Karun Chandhok and Jarno Trulli ended in tears when with three laps to go, Trulli went for an audacious pass on Chandhok’s HRT and the Lotus ended up resting on the Indian driver’s car, almost taking his head off. The good thing was that both of them walked away safe but the bad part was Chandhok not finishing the race. He had done well to keep going and keeping ahead of Trulli for nearly twenty laps, and mind you, it was a high attrition race with only twelve cars running at the Chequered Flag.

In the drivers’ championship now, it is Webber and Vettel equal on points with Alonso (73) and Button (70) behind them. Webber is now a clear championship contender with only Vettel seeming to be anywhere close to his pace. The next race is the fast and free-flowing Turkish GP where Red Bull is expected to fly again and it will be a circuit where Vettel will be looking to mount a fight back before it is too late.

Red Bull were not expected to be dominant here this weekend but Webber was ahead by three-tenths off Kubica and a further four-tenths ahead of Vettel. Kubica has been quick all weekend and the team has made progress from Barcelona last week when they were not amongst the fastest six cars. Monaco’s unique circuit is of course suiting the Pole who almost made it to, well, the pole position. Vettel meanwhile ran into heavy traffic in Q3 and made it to the second row only on his last hot lap, edging Ferrari’s Felipe Massa into fourth.

The Scuderia will be having mixed feelings tonight. On the one hand they will be happy to see Massa back in form, thanks no less to supersoft tyres in use here. But on the other hand the mechanics will be busy building a new car for Fernando Alonso after he suffered a heavy shunt in third free practice, a couple of hours before qualifying. He will be starting in the pitlane, and hoping for some luck and praying for some rain.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished fifth and eighth respectively for the McLaren, sandwiching the two Mercedes GP drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher between them. All four of them seemed unhappy with the result: Lewis because that was maximum he could draw from the car and it shows how much McLaren have concentrated on the F-duct system rather than getting more downforce; Button because he thought Massa impeded him in Q3; Schumacher was unhappy that his team mate impeded him while Rosberg was disappointed about his final runs in which he ran into traffic. Till then he thought he could challenge for pole and he was indeed quite quick in the first two sessions.

Rubens Barrichello and Vitantonio Liuzzi completed the top ten. The battle for ‘best of the rest’ is now between Williams and Force India as Renault seems to be mixing with the four big teams. Force India will be disappointed that Adrian Sutil couldn’t get into the top ten for he has traditionally done well at Monaco, both in F1 and Formula 3000. However he will be pushing for points in the race as he has the option to start on the hard tyres.

In Q1 the traffic wasn’t really as bad as talked about in the past week. The top teams were all out on track quickly and got in banker laps which meant the new teams were again trying to get in. Heikki Kovalainen in his Lotus was the only one who could have challenged to break into Q2 but he couldn’t. India’s Karun Chandhok couldn’t go quicker than his team mate Bruno Senna in this qualifying event and will start in 23rd position. It has already been established that HRT cars are going slower than GP2 cars at this circuit and so a tough race lies ahead of the duo. As concerns the rest of them, it will be a long race wherein overtaking is usually tough if it stays dry. The start will be important and Webber will not only have to watch out for Kubica but also the fast starting Vettel and Massa. With Alonso expected to try and charge from behind, an intriguing race is anticipated.

Sebastien Vettel (Red Bull) was second in the morning session with Robert Kubica a quick third behind in his Renault (full times). Later in the afternoon, there was a bit of rain but not too heavy. The drivers though did venture out as there is forecast of unpredictable weather over the weekend and therefore tried driving on the slippery circuit. Nico Rosberg was second in the afternoon for Mercedes while Vettel took third (full times).

Of course the first concern for the cars would be how fast the Red Bulls are this weekend. They will be quick indeed with their high down force but the word from Spain is that they are quicker over the fast, free flowing corners. This means that the gap at twisty Monaco might not be that large. McLaren are hoping to be even more competitive this weekend. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished 7th and 8th in the morning session, while they were placed 7th and 9th in the afternoon when they couldn’t do much due to a greasy track.

But there would be firm gaze on Ferrari and Mercedes as well. Ferrari seemed third best on pace at Barcelona with Felipe Massa’s form a real worry for the team. Post race he blamed it on the tyre compounds. This weekend Bridgestone are bringing the medium and supersoft compound, the same as in Bahrain where the Scuderia seemed strong. It showed in the free practice for Massa as he finished fifth and fourth in the two sessions. It seems though Alonso can still trump him up.

Mercedes will be hoping that they make a step up here rather than down. Michael Schumacher had a good result in the last race but Nico had a torrid time. He led every one believe that it was a set up problem and not because of the longer chassis the team brought. We won’t know about that till Turkey when that chassis is raced again for the team will be racing the older, shorter chassis this weekend.

About Indian interests, well, Force India are expected to bring in more updates, and with rain predicted, it should suit Adrian Sutil a bit. But what they need are points from the other driver Tonio Liuzzi and it remains to be seen how thin patience will run with him. As far as Karun Chandhok is concerned, HRT and the rest of the back markers are expected to have a torrid race due to lack of space and their slow pace. But they will make the first session of qualifying very interesting and couple with rain, we could be in for a cracker of a race.

Despite Red Bull not running away with a huge gap at the start, it wasn’t really as close a race as F1 enthusiasts across the world would have wanted. Webber did win by more than 24 seconds from Alonso and nearly 53 seconds from Vettel, while fourth placed Michael Schumacher came home a full minute behind. But all of this wouldn’t have been possible had Webber not closed the door on his team mate and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren at the first corner. Right at the start, he kept awake unlike in Malaysia to deny the fast starting Vettel any advantage. From there on, it was just about keeping out of trouble and that he did.

Vettel though didn’t have an easy race. He clashed with Lewis after the first round of pit stops and the British driver was able to gain a place over him. But he couldn’t secure the second place on the podium after crashing out on the penultimate lap with a seeming left front puncture. However McLaren stated that he had struck debris and this debate will rage on till Monaco next week for Lewis is known to be hard on his tyres. Meanwhile Vettel came in third due to this incident, after he had earlier dropped down to fourth behind Alonso because he had to make another pit stop.

Red Bull made that call simply because Schumacher was holding up traffic in fifth place for much of the race. They wanted to take a look at his brakes which he used up quite quickly towards the end and despite his engineer asking him to slow down, didn’t really let up in his pace. Meanwhile for the first time in four races, Schumacher finished a complete weekend ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg who could only finish 13th. Clearly the changes have worked for the seven time champion, in particular, the weight redistribution but a podium or a win is still out of the question as Mercedes GP seem to be more than a second off pace at the moment.

Schumacher though did a fantastic job of keeping a long line of drivers behind him for a majority of the race. After Jenson Button pitted on Lap 16 and came out behind the German, he tried again and again to get past. But it was a mix of brilliant defensive racing from the former world champion that kept the current champion at bay, and of course the loss of downforce when approaching the car in front. Schumacher was so off the pace of Alonso ahead of him that Felipe Massa, Adrian Sutil and Robert Kubica all caught up, forming a train for much of the race. Rubens Barrichello drove a good race to rescue the final point after a disastrous qualifying.

Talking Indian interests, Force India again had the one drive in the points and now, are consistently scoring championship points. But again the worrisome part is Tonio Liuzzi’s form. That is okay till the rest of the competing teams around them, Renault and Williams do not have both their drivers in points. In some ways, Force India’s updates didn’t really work for them and they will be looking to draw out more for them. Meanwhile Karun Chandhok retired from the race after 27 laps due to a suspension failure as Jaime Alguersuari smashed into him. Till then, he gave a good account of his race pace.

This means Button (70) still leads Alonso (67) in the driver’s championship standings with Vettel (60) in third. The big loser is Nico Rosberg who didn’t score any points. In the constructor’s battle, Red Bull (113) have closed the gap on McLaren (119) and Ferrari (116). But what would be worrying the teams more than points is the high amount of downforce Red Bull have found in their upgrades which is the secret to their awesome pace. Monaco GP next week, with its max downforce requirements, seems to be Red Bull’s playground at the moment.