Indy500: The Greatest Spectacle in Racing

The Indy500 is flagship event of the Indycar series and is one third of the triple crown of motorsport. It is known as 'The Greatest Spectacle in racing.'

The event is the one which requires flat out racing to win it. It is an oval track containing 4 high speed left handers. It's not that simple though. There are many factors you need to address while you are driving 230 miles per hour. It's a 200 lap race. Each lap being 2.5 miles. The Indy500 is different from other races as the drivers have to deal with constant stoppages, safety periods and restarts which allow a driver to charge from lower down the order in the later stages of the race. Speed? Endurance? Waiting for the right moment? Wheel to wheel racing with no room for error? You get it all at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy500!!! 

The 101st event of the Indy500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana received increased attention. This was due to 2 time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso had announced that he would miss the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix ( the Monaco Grand Prix is part of the motorsport triple crown. Alonso had won this race twice) in an attempt to win the Indy500 and move one step closer in becoming the 2nd man after Briton Graham Hill to complete the motorsport triple crown. 

 The McClaren Andretti Honda, driven by Alonso, was one of six cars entered into the Indy500 by the Andretti Autosport team. Alonso put in an impressive 4 laps in the fast 9 of qualifying to take 5^th on the grid in his debut oval track qualifying run.

All the 33 cars made a clean getaway, but, the race was littered with caution periods, the first one arrived after 53 laps. It caused the red flag to come out, and stop the race.

The crash on lap 53 featuring Dixon's car in the air and Howard's car on the asphalt

Pole sitter Scott Dixon’s Chip Granassi Racing was caught by an out of control Jay Howard who hit the wall on turn 1 and lost control of his car, he slid back and Scott Dixon hit his out of control car, the impact resulted in him getting propelled into the air and his car breaking after getting smashed on the barriers and the asphalt. Mercifully the driver’s cockpit managed to remain intact and Scott Dixon was able to leave the car on his own feet.

Fernando Alonso was leading the race at this point and the restart following the clean up of debris from the crash, started from behind him. Alonso struggled at the restart and dropped back.
In lap 67 came the second caution period Conor Daly crashed into the outside wall on turn 3, Jack Harvey tried to dodge the debris, but spun and crashed into the wall.

Caution flew once again on lap 81 as debris from Marco Andretti's car broke off and landed on the course on the front straight. The majority of the field elected to pit during the caution. A useful strategy so as to not drop many places and take advantage of the slow speeds to be maintained on track.

Further cautions were called in lap 122, 130 and 138 which constantly bunched the field together.

Fernando Alonso skipped Monaco as he had a McClaren in Formula 1 that was horrible in straightline speed and he was tired of the Honda engine stalling in the back of his car.

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Honda engine blew up and Alonso took over the lead.  The stars seemed to be aligning to give Alonso a fairytale rookie victory at 'The Brickyard' .On lap 179 Alonso's Orange McClaren Andretti Autosport was in 9^th ,just 1 spot behind Andretti team mate Takuma Sato before he felt the familiar sensation of his engine failing. The Honda engine went up in smoke and so did Alonso’s hopes of winning the Indy500. The curse of Honda had followed the man across the Atlantic to a different racing series.

 As the man cambered out of the car a 300,000 strong crowd gave him a standing ovation. He was a rookie, but, if people weren’t aware of the fact, he would have been considered a veteran IndyCar racer for, it seemed like he had been driving on ovals all his life. Alonso was named rookie of the year and deservedly so as he lead for 27 laps which was the third most laps led by any driver in the race.

"I felt the noise and the engine friction so I backed off," said Alonso. "It's a shame because I felt we deserved to finish and experience the last lap - who knows where we could have finished."

A 5 car crash between turn 1 and 2 on lap 183 saw the final caution period. 

After 7 cautions, 1 red flag, and multiple re starts we now had 10 laps of flat out wheel to wheel racing. It was still anyone’s race as the cars were closely bunched together and flying across the oval shaped asphalt at speeds northwards of 220 mph.

"You have to stay calm, be ready for the last one-third of the race. That is where it comes."- Fernando Alonso.

16 out of the 33 made it to the final 10 laps. They had stayed calm and now it was a 200 mile an hour sprint to the finish.

Following the final restart on lap 190, the 3 time Indy500 winner Helio Castroneves stormed past Ed Jones and stormed into the race lead. Max Chilton who lead for the most laps in the race was overtaken by Castroneves and then quickly passed by Sato and Ed Jones. With 5 laps to go it was a duel between Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves, Sato made a pass and gained the lead. However this is the Indy500 and even a small error would see him fall out of the top 10 or even crash out of the race as errors at over 220 mph are costly. He had crashed out of the 2012 Indy500 after attempting to pass the lead driver. As Sato and Castroneves headed into the final turn it was still anybody's race. Sato eventually crossed the line, 3 hours 13 minutes and 3 seconds after starting the race and was 0.2011 seconds ahead of Castroneves.

The Japanese driver held his nerve and despite the Alonso debacle, a Honda powered car won the Indy500 with a Japanese driver at the wheel. The ex-Formula 1 driver won his first race at the famed Brickyard which also was the first win for an Asian. He made his way to the winner’s circle and gulped down the bottle of milk as per tradition and emptied a bit of the milk onto himself.

Indy500 winner Takuma Sato celebrating on Victory Lane

After such a strong showing Fernando Alonso could be motivated to switch to the IndyCar series if he isn’t able to find a championship winning car in Formula1.

With its flat out wheel to wheel racing, stoppages, re starts, crashes and a high speed sprint for the win right up to the chequered flag, the race billed as the greatest spectacle in racing, lived up to it's billing and delivered a thriller!

IPL FINALS 2017

It’s been 5 days since the IPL final was completed and the euphoria of the win is still present in a Mumbai fan like me. And what a low scoring thriller it was!!!

There’s just something spectacular about low scoring thrillers, isn’t there? When such low scoring games go down to the wire the excitement among fans and pressure on the field intensifies even further, for just 1 error can ruin everything.
Ruin everything in the sense that the bowler has a paltry 15 runs to defend from 12 balls, he misses the block hole and presents a half volley or a low full toss which gets carted for 6, equation 9 from 11. Game ruined? A wicket in a high scoring game will ruin everything as a new batsman will have to get set and then go after the bowling and there is no time, but, in low scoring games in just attempting to get in they can take the game right to the end.

The IPL final was such a low scoring game. The stage was set and the two best teams of the IPL descended upon the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad to battle it out for the IPL 10 trophy.

Rising Pune Supergiant had beaten Mumbai Indians in the group stages as well as the first playoff and had the momentum on their side having completed a treble on the two time champions.

Mumbai despite being a side that is comfortable with chasing, went for the tried and tested formula of bat first, put runs on the board and defend it. It is the best method in a final (so as to let the scoreboard pressure pile on the chasing team in a high stakes game) and Mumbai had won both of their IPL titles when they had batted first. It seemed like a bad decision with Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons getting dismissed early to leave Mumbai reeling at 8-2. Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu joined hands and steered the ship to safety reaching 41-2 but wickets and regular intervals saw Mumbai stumble to 79-7 and were down and out after 14 overs when Krunal Pandya and Mitchell Johnson joined hands. Krunal was the last recognised batsman and Johnson was the last bowler who could bat. Krunal put in a man of the match performance and his 47 runs pushed Mumbai to a total that would require Rising Pune Supergiant to commence their chase going at a fraction over run a ball.

Only Mumbai fans and fools gave Mumbai a chance at the innings break for everyone though that a chase of 130 runs in 20 overs would be a cakewalk for a side that had batsmen like Dhoni and Steve Smith. People thought the Mumbai Indians fans were fools, but the fools dared to dream, no matter how crazy they seemed in the eyes of others.

 What followed was a disciplined bowling performance aided by the slowness of the pitch which saw Mumbai not let Pune get ahead of the run rate at any point in the innings.

Mumbai were not at their sharpest for the first six overs and notable blip on the field was Krunal Pandya dropping a sitter offered to him by Ajinkya Rahane. However their bowling was brilliant and no one had an off day.

At the 15 over mark it seemed that batting first was a masterstroke as batting on this pitch with the ball stopping and not coming onto the bat was tedious. It was getting slower every over. Mumbai's ground fielding had improved to make the chase for Pune even tougher.

 Credits to Steve Smith for actually laying down anchor and playing a slow innings as he read the pitch perfectly and realised that it would be tough for the batsmen who followed to get their eye in. He had to bat out the overs if Rising Pune Supergiant were to have a chance. In the 16^th over Steve Smith took a risk and played a brilliant switch hit for 6. The equation was now 33 runs from 24 balls. Jasprit Bumrah’s over saw Pune score 3 runs and lose the wicket of M.S.Dhoni.
 Lasith Malinga followed it up with an equally impressive over which saw 7 runs scored. The equation was now 23 runs from 2 overs. Bumrah bowled 5 good balls and missed the mark on just 1 which was driven straight back for 6. Game blown wide open. Had that ball not gone for 6 it would have been 16 runs needed of the final over.

Malinga, Bumrah, Karn Sharma and Krunal Pandya had completed their quota of 4 over each, and the burden of defending the 11 runs fell on the experienced shoulders of Mumbai's senior most pacer who was initially bought into the squad as a fringe player, but with injury to Mitchell McClanaghan his services were called upon.

A 35 year old Aussie speedster, 11 runs to defend. Bad odds in a T20 game? Wait! The pacer goes by the name Mitchell Johnson. How's the equation now?

An ecstatic Mitchell Johnson after dismissing the danger man Steve Smith

Still doubtful. He is old.

 You can take the man out of the game, but you can't take the game out of him for cometh the hour cometh the man and at the most important stage of the tournament the man the man came up with the goods. 

The first ball was smacked to Deep Square for a boundary. He was asking Rohit Sharma to position a fielder at that exact spot while standing at the top of his mark. That seemed to awaken the mean beast within the man. The beast last seen terrorising the Englishmen during the 2013-14 ashes series. He rolled back the years and removed Manoj Tiwary and Steve Smith of consecutive deliveries. Washington Sundar played and missed the next ball which missed the stumps by mere inches and Pune scampered through for a leg bye. Johnson could have had a wicket of the next ball but Hardik Pandya dropped the catch(to credit the fielder, his sensational movement and spectacular forward dive was what made it possible for it to be a catching opportunity). With 4 needed of 1, all 3 results were still possible. Johnson bowled it slightly wide and Dan Christian heaved the ball towards deep mid wicket. Krunal stopped the boundary and eliminated the possibility of a Pune win, he fumbled slightly and quickly fired in an accurate throw straight over the bails into Parthiv Patel’s gloves. Parthiv collected it cleanly and broke the stumps as Washington Sundar was sprinting to the keepers end to complete the 3^rd run to take the game into the super over. Mumbai defending 130 had restricted Pune to 128 and won a thriller of a game by a single run!

It was Mumbai Indians’ 3^rd IPL title, and they closed out the 10 year cycle of IPL with the most titles. Mumbai had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, at the innings break only a fool would have given them a chance. Their fans…. The fools who dared to dream, this one, Mumbai's 3rd IPL title  was for those fools who dared to dream.

Monaco GP preview

With 4 races of the season done, we now head off to the glam circuit on the calendar. People may argue that that honour belongs to Singapore, but no, this place beats Singapore in every aspect, Singapore would lose all its sheen if it was a day race like Monaco is.

A car navigating the right hander of the left-right-left nouvelle chicane

 

Monaco is like an obstacle course with high rises just at the edge of the track, as one exits the tunnel the circuit goes along parallel to the bay where the multi-millionaires dock their yachts and soak in the action. It is just so unique and a one of its kind circuit.

Yachts along Tabac

Triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet was fond of saying that racing at Monaco was "like trying to cycle round your living room", but added that "a win here was worth two anywhere else".

The words of Nelson Piquet shed light on how tricky the circuit is. Street circuits are tricky but this place makes the other street circuits seem easy. The Monaco GP is one third of the events which are dubbed as the Triple-Crown of motorsports (Indy 500 and Le Mans 24 hours race are the other events)

It contains the slowest corner in Formula One (the Fairmont Hairpin, taken at just 48 kmph) and one of the quickest (the flat out kink in the tunnel, three turns beyond the hairpin, taken at 260 kmph)

The cars snaking around the Fairmont hairpin

 

Despite being a circuit that needs audacious overtaking methods there exists one point on the track where overtaking can be attempted, like breaking late and going around the outside on Fairmont and quickly cutting back in to complete the move.

Out of the tunnel, the cars have to brake hard for the tight left-right-left nouvelle chicane. This has been the scene of several large accidents, like the one suffered by Sergio Pérez in 2011. The chicane is generally the only place on the circuit where overtaking can be attempted like on other circuits. To overtake anywhere else is purely based on driver skills. Hence, Monaco is the ultimate test of a drivers skills. Qualifying here is of the utmost importance as overtaking is extremely tough on the narrow streets snaking around the principality.
Most circuits on the f1 calendar have a minimum race distance of 305km and a time limit somewhere between 1 and half hours to 2 hours, but in Monaco the time limit is maintained but not the minimum race distance. Yet it has the most laps of any race of the calendar.
Fernando Alonso in that pathetically uncompetitive McClaren could have posted a good result here due to the lack of long straights demanding horsepower. But having won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, the last triumph coming in 2007, he has chosen to go to the IndyCar Indianapolis 500 event to attempt to win it and move one step closer to completing the Motorsports Triple Crown . Jenson Button will race for McLaren in place of the Double World Champion.

Mercedes head into Monaco with an 8 point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors Championship. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari leads Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes by 6 points in the Drivers championship. The duo have won 2 races each this season and will be looking to get a 3^rd this season in the principality. Or will the Finns Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes play spoilsport. Could Max Verstappen mount a challenge on F1’s biggest stage?

Find out who will reign supreme in the principality!

 

Playoff 1: Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiant

56 games of the IPL season have been completed and we got our top 4 who headed straight into the playoffs.

Mumbai Indians sealed their berth in the top 2 before their final league encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders and actually managed to rest half their side for that game.

Rising Pune Supergiant played Kings XI Punjab and knew a win would propel them from 4^th  to second, but a defeat would see them drop to 5^th and overtaken by the Punjab side on Net Run Rtae who were 5th  would clinch 4^th spot. Pune beat Punjab and we had ourselves a Maharashtra derby in the 1^st playoff.

The Wankhede Stadium, home ground of the Mumbai Indians and venue of the first playoff was packed with a biased home crowd, the stadium was decked in blue and the atmosphere was electric. The Pune side however had support as fans were cheering on Mumbai boy Ajinkya Rahane as he lent stability to the Pune innings after they were in a spot of bother after twin strikes by Mumbai’s pacers in the 1^st 2 overs sent back explosive opener Rahul Tripathi and captain Steve Smith leaving the Supergiant at 9-2.

It seemed like Mumbai had made a good decision to bowl first. I had a few doubts as Mumbai have batted first in both of the IPL final wins as well as their IPL 8 playoff 1 win in 2015 all 3 against Chennai Super Kings and had lost the IPL 3 final to Chennai Super Kings, the IPL 4 qualifier 2 to Royal Challengers Bangalore , IPL 5 eliminator to Chennai Super Kings and the IPL 6 qualifier 1 to Chennai Super Kings when they were chasing. The ball seemed to be stopping onto the batsmen and Mumbai possibly missed a trick by not allowing Lasith Malinga to bowl his full quota of 4 overs. Mitchell McClanaghan got torn into in the penultimate over and conceded 26 runs. Jasprit Bumrah went for 15 in his over and Mumbai Indians conceded an IPL record 41 runs in the last 2 overs.

McClanaghan’s over shows us how costly a wide or no ball can be. He bowled a no ball at the start which gave Pune a free hit which was carted for 6 over long on, Pune now had the confidence that they could clear the rope and Dhoni in particular went berserk, McClanaghan bowled 2 wides in a row while attempting to steer clear of Dhoni’s hitting arc. The 2^nd of those extra balls was hit over long of for a 6. Costly? Hell yea!!

With 162 to win Mumbai started off brilliantly with Parthiv Patel playing positively and scoring at will, his partner Lendl Simmons was labouring along and an unfortunate run out put him out of his misery. An umpiring howler followed which saw Rohit Sharma adjudged LBW after replays showed a massive inside edge onto his pads, and then two balls later Ambati Rayudu fell.

At 41-3 the pressure of chasing in a knockout game was getting to Mumbai and Pollard perished in a manner similar to Rayudu when he too holed out to short mid-wicket. No one but Parthiv Patel made a contribution and wickets fell at regular intervals. The remaining batsmen were all struggling due to the ball gripping in the surface and were holing out in the deep.

In the end Mumbai finished 20 runs short despite big hitting by the 3 pacers towards the tail end of the innings.

 Captain Rohit Sharma termed the performance, the worst batting display this season.

As a result of this dominant win, Rising Pune Supergiant head straight off to the finals and will have a 4 day rest to sit back for a bit as they await the winner of Mumbai vs Hyderbad/Kolkata.

Mumbai now head off to Bengaluru and will await the winner of Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. One thing for sure though they seriously have to consider their batting line-up as well as the usage of McClanaghan in the death.