Stuff of true motor racing from Alonso, Vettel

After Nico Rosberg’s retirement it was an easy run for Lewis Hamilton to take the chequered flag in his home Grand Prix.

There were a couple of highlights that I thoroughly enjoyed. First, Filipe Massa’s amazing reactions to avoid crashing into the wreckage of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari on the first lap. Massa’s experience certainly saved the day for both drivers.

But the real treat had to be the incredible battle for fifth spot between the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.

The two world champions gave me some heart-stopping moments as it appeared that disaster was just around the corner – the footage showing just how close they were was excellent. This is the stuff of true motor racing and the reason we all follow the sport.

As I watched, all thoughts of the wrong noises and those newfangled hybrid systems of today’s cars were wiped from my grey cells. This was just classic racing and a joy to behold.
What a shame then, that we had to listen to almost infantile comments from both drivers.

One accused the other of crossing the forbidden white lines on one or two of the corners. It reminded me of my grandchildren attempting to shed the responsibility for some misdemeanour.
Finally, after losing the position to Vettel, Alonso accused him of using DRS in a non-DRS zone. Whatever next?

What does perturb me is the entire white-line ruling. Race director Charlie Whiting issues zero tolerance rules to the drivers about exceeding track limits. If any driver contravenes this ruling it will result in a loss of their recorded time during qualifying and, should it occur during the race, the driver will be reported to the stewards.

When you have two very talented protagonists fighting it out for a position, as we saw with that Ferrari-Red Bull battle, do the drivers really have time to think about an F1 road ordinance? And, quite honestly, as spectators do we care if someone puts a wheel over those all-important road markings?

If it produces the sort of racing we witnessed then I couldn’t give a flying fig about a white-line indiscretion.

Last week I wrote about the future of Hockenheim. This week it is Monza. Despite the heritage of this classic circuit, it appears that it will not be home to the Italian Grand Prix for much longer – if Bernie Ecclestone’s plans come to fruition.

With a contract expiring at the end of 2016, the future for the Autodromo Nazionale in Ecclestone’s view is “not good”. He is quoted as saying: “I don’t think we’ll do another contract. The old one was a disaster for us from a commercial point of view. After 2016, bye-bye.”

He claims that audiences are lower in Italy than anywhere else. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that audience numbers are dropping in just about every country and, with the ridiculous scenario that is F1 today, that is not likely to change in the near future.

On the other hand, perhaps this is his way of trying to extract more money from the circuit owners and organisers who, despite having made many improvements to meet the requirements of the F1 world, have now had to approach the Italian government for assistance in upgrading the facilities once again.

Then again, maybe it is a move to shift the event to the Mugello track conveniently owned by Ferrari.

Time, and Bernie, will tell.