Daily Sports News

After an excellent qualifying on Saturday, Jenson Button continued his superb season form by climbing to the top of the podium in Monte Carlo. Button started on top of the grid and led almost the entire race; he only lost his lead temporarily when he stopped for his pit stop. Button’s teammate Brazilian Rubens Barrichello had an excellent start when he jumped from third spot to second leaving behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.  The Barrichello finished the race on the second spot, a clear sign of dominance by the Brawn GP Team. Kimi could have finished the race in the second spot but a bad pit stop which made his loose around 5 seconds pushed him to the third spot. It looks like Ferrari has managed to make there car a winning machine again but they still have to streamline other domains if they need to come back strongly in the remaining season.

Felipe Massa made sure that his F60 stayed well ahead of Mark Webber and finished fourth and Webber finished fifth. Nico Rosberg made sure that his Williams finished sixth after overtaking Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. It was not a great race for Vettel who crashed out in the 15th lap. Renault’s Fernando Alonso finished the race in seventh position climbing up three positions after starting the race on ninth position. Sebastien Bourdais took the finial points by finished the race in eighth place. It was a great finish for Bourdais who started the race in the fourteenth place. Giancarlo Fisichella for Force India came agonizingly close to scoring a maiden point for his team before eventually finishing ninth. Timo Glock finished tenth for Toyota followed by BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld who finished eleventh. Last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton started last on the grid and could only climb up eight places and finished 12th. Behind the McLaren were Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil of Force India Team.

Monte Carlo is a street circuit and also one of the toughest and is notoriously famous of its accidents. The race started with out any accident but some drivers had there own share of mishaps. Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi ran into the rear of Nelson Piquet’s Renault in the 11th lap and both the drivers had to retire. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel crashed at Ste Devote on the 15th lap. BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica had to retire due to a problem in the breaking system. Heikki Kovalainen also crashed his McLaren-Mercedes in the swimming pool section on the 52nd lap. After the race the points table looks like:

Driver Standings:

1. Jenson Button    -    51
2. Rubens Barrichello    -    35
3. Sebastian Vettel    -    23
4. Mark Webber    -    19.5
5. Jarno Trulli    -    14.5
6. Timo Glock    -    12
7. Fernando Alonso    -    11
8. Kimi Räikkönen    -    9
9. Lewis Hamilton    -    9
10. Felipe Massa    -    8

Constructor Standings:

1. Brawn-Mercedes    -    86
2. RBR-Renault    -    42.5
3. Toyota    -    26.5
4. Ferrari    -    17
5. McLaren-Mercedes    -    13
6. Renault    -    11
7. Williams-Toyota    -    7.5
8. BMW Sauber    -    6
9. STR-Ferrari    -    5

With just a miniscule 44 days in hand, IPL and Cricket South Africa has successfully managed to conjugate a spell bounding experience that was a treat to all the senses.

Akon, gyrated and lip-synched to his famous track ‘Smackdown’. He kept the audiences on their feet with his foot-tapping tunes and constant contact with the audience. In his third track, Akon went vocal for about 20% of the performance time. Post the Akon performance; one just got hypnotized by the tantalizing drum performances by skilled hands that effortlessly fused the Indian classic ‘..raghupati raghave raja ram..’ with mesmeric Afro background scores, that left every Indian humbled to the core.

Great troupe performances by dancers in African and space age attire and Indian dancers in new age attire who belonged to the renowned Shamak Davak gang.Adding magic to the moment were mammoth helium air balloons with artistically performing trapeze artists suspended in mid-air at ceiling level of the oval shaped stadium. The ongoing spectacle involved Technicolor light, sound and laser shows featuring humongous balloon displays with acrobats performing skilled acts. The fresh entry to the show was the competition among 10 gorgeous locals for the South Africa Bollywood beauty pageant. The winner of the pageant, Dune, received the crown from Akon. Akon wooed Dune with the song ‘u r so beautiful’.

The current reigning Bollywood queen Katrina performed live to the pulsating global hit ‘Jai ho’ along with countless Afro-Indian dancers and Shamak Davar troupe in the background. Live fire show performances to the throbbing music and beating drums were truly the icing of the cake. Amazing drummers providing syntillating back scores to the people having rotating fire circles in their hands and head. Drummers were beating with fire sticks on their drums and people rotating concentric fire circles. People carrying sticks of live fireworks in their hands, were constantly swaying them in circular motions.

Eddie grant, the singer par excellence was the next to perform to retro Afro tunes which truly reflected the spirit of South Africa. He sang in the Jamaican way the infamous tune ‘Give me hope joana’. IPL and Cricket South Africa have come with the novel initiative to donate part of its funds to the help educate and treat fund with constant and regular donations. Shaimak Davar sang ‘Vande Mataram’ solo initially and later fused tunes with Eddie Grant. Listening to this Afro-INDO Fusion, Katrina could not help but shake a leg with Akon or join in the singing. It was a visual extravaganza with the performers swaying the Indian Flag and the mid-air hot air spectacle of women acrobats.

The finale was an enthralling pyrotechnic show with display of about 1500 fireworks displays in all vibrant colours, forms and shapes lighting up the Johannesburg skyline.

The closing ceremony of the DLF IPL 2009 was chock-a-block with lots of entertainment, Akon, drumbeats, South African Bollywood beauty pageant and Phoenix fire dancers all culminating to make a life long impression. Winners ‘The Deccan Chargers’ took the grand trophy, cheque and the spoils. The Deccan Chargers and The Royal Challengers who were coincidently the second last and last teams in the last year, have significantly improved their performance by making it to the finals. But, it was eventually the Deccan Chargers who held their nerve in a tight situation to emerge winners. President of Republic of SA, Mr. Bindra, were among the heavy weights present at the presentation ceremony.

DLF IPL Final Highlight

Forbes magazine moved him to the list of 355 ex-billionaires but he still has loads of wealth and which place is better to show it in style then Monaco. Dr. Vijay Mallya owner of the Force India Team threw the opening party on his mega yacht, The Indian Empress. The party was attended by 150 guests for dinner and 500 for dancing afterwards. The king of good times certainly proved his credentials right, even thought his team is yet to score any points but he certainly scored amongst the who’s and who of formula 1. Amongst the guest who attended the lavish event were Renault’s Flavio Briatore, Red Bull’s Christian Horner, BMW’s Mario Theissen, Williams’ Adam Parr, Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone, CVC’s Donald McKenzie, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Philipp Green, Michael Johnson, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Adrian Sutil, Giancarlo Fisichella and Vitantonio Liuzzi. On top on the guest list was HSH Prince Albert of Monaco who commented “Vijay’s parties have established themselves as a tradition that I always attend with great pleasure”.

On the racing front there have been some changes in the various cars. Farrari F60 has a revised wing which is the similar to Brawn to improve the channel of air away from the front tyres. The Red Bull team has introduced a revised rear wing to their RB5. The Brawn team has introduced a new rear suspension and dampers to their BGP001 car.

As per the practice session on Thursday, Nico Rosberg of Williams-Toyota was the fastest doing 45 laps which the fastest time being 1:15.243. Lewis Hamilton is sparked after his engagement declaration and was the second fastest. Brawn team showed its form as the season leaders and was places third and fourth fastest. Despite the fact that Ferrari has lately been in news mainly due to budget capping issue yet Felipe Massa managed finished fifth fastest in the practice. But things changed in the Saturday practice with Spaniard Alonso clocked the fastest time thus far this weekend. The time was enough to remove Button from the first spot. Some other drivers who clocked good timing in the practice were Kovalainen as third fastest, Barrichello was fourth, Massa was fifth followed by Kimi and Lewis for sixth and seventh fastest timing. Now all wait for the Saturday qualifying with one team hoping to score it first point of the season.