After a hectic qualifying it looks like we’ve got a grid for a great race tomorrow at Monza. With two STRs up front it looks as if Kovalainen should get an early lead with Vettel and Webber giving chase. In the dry he should take Vettel with ease early on.
Not sure if Bourdais will be in there, he may run 5th or 6th for a while. I reckon both STRs will have fallen back a little before the first stops. Webber’s career is littered with terrible luck so expect his car to expire, or someone to drive into him.

The main interest will be watching Raikkonen and Hamilton (and Kubica) working their way through the field and whether they can catch Massa. With the points situation Kovalainen’s job is basically to beat Massa, preferably by winning. Hamilton has the points lead so can afford to give one or two away but would rather not so will be out to minimise that loss. Kimi needs to win to gain points back, nothing else will do. Heikki also wants to win for his own reputation, of course – he IS in a McLaren, he’s expected to win races. Massa needs to beat Hamilton by several points-paying positions regardless of what their respective team-mates do.

We’re in for a classic title run over the rest of the year, don’t miss it.

Check out the MotoGP at Indy as well. Could be dull, could be the best thing ever. MotoGP races are a bit like that. One week you watch a parade of riders, the next week all hell breaks loose with passing and repassing… I’m not the world’s foremost expert on MotoGP so I just sit back and enjoy.

The other thing on is the 1000km race at Silverstone. I nearly attended and would have done had the Italian GP not been on, but after all the happenings at Spa and with a grid such as we have at Monza I could NOT miss that Grand Prix. Yeah I know I could tape it (I haven’t quite caught up with DVRs yet) but it’s not the same…

And I think some taxi cabs are running around in circles somewhere.

Regular readers of The Starting Grid may wonder who I am. I’m Patrick, I write my own blog at Too Much Racing. Mark very kindly asked me to contribute over here from time to time and I was only too happy to oblige. Check out my blog after every F1 and IndyCar race for my ‘race notes’ posts, this is the stream of conciousness running through my head during the races. I’m told they are quite good but I couldn’t possibly comment.
Thanks again to Mark and Void for allowing my musings to appear at The Starting Grid.

Ok, even I can’t possibly believe that Eddie Gossage’s offer to JR is going to work out. And I have run with some pretty crazy ideas in the past. But it presents an interesting thought. Could this be the beginning of many more track sponsored driver proposals? Why wouldn’t a track owner push for this type of publicity?

If TG continues to grow the Vision racing team, there is potentially a seat for “guest” drivers. I don’t believe that TG can run a profitable team in the traditional sense. They are starting to become competitive on the ovals, but thats about it. I doubt they will ever be competitive on the bendy courses. But the team could continue to serve its original purpose of supporting the series if they were able to provide rides for popular drivers. (Ahem.. PT) In order for any self respecting driver to consider this a car capable of running in the lead pack would be required. And if Vision can continue to progress on the ovals, they could be the answer.

Part of me likes the idea.. part of me doesn’t. It does have kind of a cheesy feeling to it. But I think if they could get some credible drivers in there, it could be really interesting. As long as they are competitive. And offering 100K to NASCAB’s top driver isn’t going to cut it. Either get some real money together, or shoot for someone who doesn’t burn cash in his fireplace.

Tony was back at IMS yesterday, looking to see some real racing action. They say he was there for his midget/sprint teams… but we all know the real reason. He has always been open to the idea of coming back. And not just for the 500.

“If I was going to come to Indianapolis again, I don’t want to come and show up and run the month of May.

If I’m going to do it, I need to start at Homestead, and I need to run all the races leading up to the month of May to really feel like I’m being fair to the team and fair to myself.”

I have always liked Tony, even though he drives for the dark side. He is one of the few drivers over there that doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid. And even with all of his complaining, it would be great to see him run again. So Tony… what if we…

We promise no Pop Off valves (until 2010…maybe…)