Finn Wins In Finland But Frenchman Is Third Time Title Favorite

With Lewish Hamilton pretty much set to win another championship in Formula One we have a look at Sebastien Ogier in Rallying who is doing much the same thing

Formula One’s summer break gives us all a chance to reflect on the 2015 championship so far. Naturally since Lewis Hamilton and the boys at Mercedes have run away with the season like a they were robbing a gas station that process won’t take very long. It would be delightful to say that “anything could happen” in the second half of the year’s calendar, but frankly one would have to be gambling on news of something pretty spectacular occurring to ensure that.

Serial Winners In Motorsport

• F1 turns into a parade
• Oglier in Rallying
• Hamilton in Formula One

Bookies like ComeOn! Sportsbook are offering just three names in the Championship now and the odds say it all with Hamilton on at 1.20, Nico Rosberg way off at 5.50 (based on his performance thus far rather than his car methinks) and Sebastian Vettel technically in the running at 14.00 but requiring either a miracle, or sadly, a tragedy to give him even a ghost of a chance. No wonder people are turning over and watching something else like the Copa America.

If you were Finnish gambling laws of physics would be broken and somehow the threats and predictions of his being dropped by Ferrari would have catapulted Kimi Raikkonen to as yet unseen levels of performance you’d be severe disappointed, his recent form has been calamitous, and it hasn’t been helped by a garage that seems to be staffed by the Keystone Kops. It would have been nice if the pressure had brought out the best in the unorthodox Finn but alas, F1 now thrives on orthodoxy.

The Futility Of The Grid

A review of the results so far this year make for easy reading, Hamilton has won half the races with Rosberg getting three wins and Vettel just two, and so at this point I should revel in the personal battles of the drivers down the field, but I won’t, because frankly they’re terribly boring people trying to squeeze time out of nowhere in a competition they can’t possibly win. The sheer futility making a mockery of their ambitious statements and high hopes for the race ahead.

We know they don’t have a hope, they know they don’t have a hope, so why do the teams and sponsors insist they go before the cameras and tell us they are looking forward to a race they know they’re going to lose and how they hope to get a good result which they can’t because the only good result in motor racing is called “Winning” and Hamilton and co have that all sewn up? Formula One has become a parade but it’s not the only motorsport to be suffering this malady of monopoly.

Take rallying. No, really, take it. If Formula One is absurd in its anal attention to miniscule fractions of seconds rallying is for men who like grease smeared hands and the possibility of crashing in scenery far prettier than you find at a Formula One motor racing circuit far from stewards, marshals or any sort of medical assistance. You know. Lunatics. In Rallying there’s a bit of a tradition for serial champions and as those that like to bet on sport in Finland will know that looks set to continue.

Loeb & Ogier Dominate

Back in the mid-nineties, just after Colin McRae’s historic win, it was the Finn Tommi Makinen that took four titles in a row, a record beaten when Sebastien Loeb just kept on winning. The Frenchman won the World Rally Championship a grand total of nine times on the trot, which is truly remarkable, and now his fellow countryman Sebastien Ogier seems to be setting himself up nicely for a third title, which explains nicely why you only ever get to see highlight shows not coverage anymore.

Of course in the rally of Finland just finished Oglier only managed second place in the end but given there are only five more events left and he’s on 182 points in the championship with his nearest rival only having 93 it’s another championship that is terribly easy to predict. The guy on 93 points is Jari-Matti Latvala who may one day be a champion in his own right, but it won’t be this year despite his gambling news of a home win in Finland last weekend would boost his chances.

Next comes the Rally of Germany and mathematically Oglier could grab the title although it’s likely to be another few events before that is well and truly sorted out, although the bookies offering 1/500 on the Frenchman means it’s all over bar the shouting. Latvala is 33/1 and just like Rosberg behind Hamilton he doesn’t have a hope. His second consecutive win on his home rally, however, perhaps a nice consolation prize. Shame there’s no German Grand prix, eh Nico?