Battle of the Arrows

I love my Formula One, and when people come to me and say it's boring I like to punch them in the face because they clearly don't watch it or understand it. This season is panning out pretty much the same as the past few seasons with Mercedes Benz Silver Arrows being pretty dominant and the other teams playing catch up so to speak but it's been anything but boring. It's had its fair share of drama and it's only escalating as the season goes on.

The battle for the drivers title has really heated up between Mercs two drivers though, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton aren't afraid to square up physically on the circuit to beat one another and while we hope they keep it clean, it depends on the drivers how they handle matters on the track. Mercedes Benz maintain that they will not be giving team orders to either of their drivers and they will be allowed to race each other, which is what the fans want to see. 

Gone of the days where you have a number 1 and number 2 driver in a car that's clearly miles better than the rest. In the era which saw Michael Schumacher dominate the sport with Ferrari, it was made evident that Rubens Barrichello played second fiddle to the German, take nothing away from Michael, he was the best by far but some races the Brazilian had the better of him but the team would issue an instruction via radio for him to move over and let Schumacher claim maximum points. It didn't sit well with many of the spectators and some of the commentators but it worked for the team at the time. 

None of that though, even after the two took each other out in Spain and most recently last weekend in Austria which saw an unbelievable final lap with the two of them coming together and Lewis overtaking Nico who's car suffered the worse after the collision to win the race. Rosberg crawled home in 4th, adding some vital points for his challenged for the title but it could have been much worse for him. There were a lot of different opinions about what happened but in the end the FIA deemed Rosberg the guilty party and subsequently fined. 

This weekend see's Lewis race at "home" in the Silverstone Grand Prix and while the spectators were clearly against him in Austria, he doesn't have to worry about any booing should he visit the podium again on Sunday. I agree with many of the sentiments shared on Sunday about the booing, it's harsh and don't believe their should be a place for it in sport, if you're unhappy with the driver, just don't clap. Show him the bird like what I did from my couch. 

It's the business end of the season with so many races in such a short span of time, so it will be interesting to see what happens. For now it seems like Rosberg and Hamilton are going to be the only two challenging for the drivers title, unless they keep crashing into each other. So while the rest of the season might be slightly predictable, it's still going to be interesting to see how it goes down. 

Also another thing to rejoice on is that everyone's favourite driver, the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen has renewed his contract with Scuderia Ferrari which will see him in ther drivers seat for the Italian F1 team in 2017. While he may not be the driver he was a good few years ago, he still hasn't lost it, seeing that he was on the podium this past weekend. I think people should just leave him alone because he knows what he's doing...

Euro 2016 Preview

Being South African, we get all the feels in June when it comes to football, tomorrow see's 6 years since we successfully hosted the FIFA World Cup in our beautiful country, fast forward to today and after a seriously of allegations and arrests, many of the FIFA hierarchy that were involved then and now in hot water over corruption scandal but that's not what the purpose of this blog was for, tonight the UEFA Euro 2016 kicks off in Paris, France and see's the giants of Europe go head to head in what should be a thrilling tournament. 

The first game sees hosts France up against a team many tip for second place in their group, Romania. Albania and Switzerland make up the rest of the group, so the hosts seem to have got them self a fairly easy opening stage of the tournament. 

For most groups they seem pretty well balanced but there's always the one Group of Death and that for me has to be Group D with Spain, Czech Republic, Turket and Croatia, all of which are capable of causing massive upsets. It's bound to be a tight affair with Spain not playing at the same level as they were 6 years ago, although they remain favourites to top the group. 

Another interesting group to keep an eye on is Group E, which features underdogs Belgium, whilst they are tipped to take top spot in the group which also features Italy, Republic of Ireland and Sweden, the bookies don't think Belgium has what it takes to go all the way. They have a star studded team with many players whom feature in the English Premier League and many rate them as their favourites but it remains to be seen if they can do it. 

The money is on Germany though, they find themselves in Group C which features Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland. Seems pretty straight forward but don't write off any of the others, we all know what Ukraine are capable off and tournament debutantes Northern Ireland will have a point to prove in their first appearance in the continental competition. 

England find themselves in Group B, whilst everyone feels they should secure top spot, their other opponents, namely Russia, Wales and Slovakia will try to upset this notion. England with Roy at the helm have had a fair bit of luck in qualifying for the tournament and while people are taking bets on when England will get knocked out, many are keen to write off the stigma that is normally associated with the Three Lions, they squad, is young and full of talent and maybe this could be their year?

Finally Group F, another one that should be straight forward with Portugal looking to finish in the lead after the group stages, who will follow behind them is a tricky one, many tip Iceland but Hungary and Austria will have something else to say about that. One things for certain though, when Portugal eventually get knocked out, we will see Cristiano crying on the field.