Fernando Alonso admits he was hard on Sebastian Vettel in their Monza dice

Saturday 31 December 2011

Fernando Alonso admitted he was particularly hard on Sebastian Vettel when the runaway points leader was attacking him in the opening stages of the Italian Grand Prix as he felt Vettel would not want to risk too much given his position in the standings.

Alonso had taken the race lead at the start, but was only able to hang on for just over a lap following the early restart before Vettel got through. The Red Bull ended up partially on the grass at Curva Grande at one point as Alonso tried to maintain his place.

“We have nothing to lose in the battles with Sebastian,” said Alonso, who ultimately finished third. “He is leading the championship by 100 points so when we have to defend we will be a little bit harder with him.”

The start had seen Alonso move from fourth to first, taking to the grass as he went three-abreast with Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

“We have been doing some good starts in last couple of grands prix but when starting fifth or sixth there was not enough room to overtake,” Alonso said. “Here in Monza we knew if the car was in the same feeling of good starts then we have enough space and enough of a run to the first corner to overtake people.”

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Loris Capirossi Retires, Riders Pay Tribute

Loris Capirossi has announced he will retire at the end of the 2011 MotoGP world championship during an emotional press conference at the Misano circuit. The 38-year-old said he had decided to call time on the longest Grand Prix career history despite having offers to race a private 1000ccc bike and to switch to World Superbikes.

“It is difficult for me to say this after 22 seasons but this for sure is my last race in Italy because I decide to retire at the end of the season. When I do the last race in Valencia, racing for me will stop. I won’t go to a different championship and I will stop racing completely. It is strange to listen to many riders talking about testing new bikes and I won’t ever do that. I have been thinking a lot about stopping and I’ve kept saying yes and no, but I’m sure I’ve made the right decision.

Sometimes you have to take the most difficult decision to stop. Sure to reach that decision is not easy, especially for me because I have a plan to ride the 1000 bike again next year. But during this season it has been really tough and always I’m looking at the future and to have a competitive bike is always more difficult. There are a lot of young riders coming really strong and I looked at myself and decided that this was the best time to stop. I started to ride when I was only four and now I am 38, and I do 22 seasons in Grand Prix, so all my life I have been in bikes.

Now I’ve got the rest of my life in front of me to think about what I do. I am happy with myself because this is the right time to retire. I am 100 per cent sure this is the correct decision. When you stop but you don’t want to then this is pretty bad, but I had a couple of offers to ride the CRT bike but it is not my dream to ride that kind of bike. I had an opportunity to ride a good bike in World Superbikes also. I didn’t decide to stop because I didn’t have the opportunity.”

Capirossi won 29 races including nine in MotoGP and he won two 125GP and one 250GP title. Talking about his best memories Capirossi said: “There are lots of nice and beautiful memories. My first title in 1990 with 125s, my first victory with the 500 in Mugello and my first victory with Ducati were great moment.”

Capirossi also joked while sitting alongside Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Ben Spies that he wanted some help from them to achieve his 100th career podium in the final six races.”

He added: “I want to ask these guys to help me a lot to get my 100th podium.”

Capirossi is the longest-serving rider in Grand Prix history with 2011 being his 22nd season. He made his 325th start in Sunday’s 28-lap race, having won 29 races. The 38-year-old is a close pal of Italian legend Rossi, having raced together since 1998 in 250s and MotoGP. Rossi and Stoner would both go on to pay tribute to Capirossi.

Rossi said: “I have a lot of memories of Loris, the first ones were from the TV. I remember when he won his first race in 125s in Suzuka and also I was a great, great fan of Loris when he was against (Max) Biaggi (laughs). After I fought with him a lot in MotoGP and we had a lot of great fights to the last lap.

What I remember were the fights for the 250 title in 1999 and also a lot of battles on the Honda in 500s. But I think what the best memories are with the 1000 in 2006 Mugello and Sepang when I fight with Loris on the last lap and had a great battle until the last braking. I think we are losing one of the best riders of this sport.”

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Sebastian Vettel on pole for Italian GP

Sebastian Vettel made it 10 poles for the season as he continues to close in on Nigel Mansell’s Formula One record. On a circuit supposed to be Red Bull’s worst over the closing seven races of a one-sided campaign, the reigning champion smashed his rivals to grab top spot on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel blitzed the Monza track with a time of one minute 22.275secs to finish a full half second clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who lines up second for the fourth consecutive race. The German is now just four short of Mansell’s mark of 14 set in 1992, cementing Red Bull’s unblemished record of claiming pole in every race this season.

In his career, Vettel now has 25 poles, eighth in F1 history, with only Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Mansell, Juan Manuel Fangio and Mika Hakkinen ahead of him.

Behind the front row, Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate Jenson Button lines up third alongside the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, with Mark Webber fifth and a staggering 0.7secs adrift of team-mate Vettel. Felipe Massa starts sixth in his Ferrari, followed by the Renault of Vitaly Petrov and Mercedes duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Bruno Senna scraped into the top 10 with a stunning lap at the end of Q2, however, did not venture out in the last 10 minutes. Paul di Resta was the unlucky recipient of Senna’s flying lap, the Force India driver missing out on a place in the top 10 by a mere 0.006secs.

At least the Scot had the satisfaction of finishing ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil, with the duo lining up 11th and 12th, the margin between them just 0.046secs.Sebastian Vettel on pole for Italian GP The Williams pair of Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado start 13th and 14th, the latter doing well to even make it into Q2.

The Venezuelan was involved in the only incident of the session as he hit a barrier coming out of Parabolica, swiping off his front wing. Maldonado was fortunate the accident occurred close to the entry of the pitlane, and that he ended up facing in the right direction after his spin. It enabled his team to work quickly on fitting a new nose and tyres and sending him back out again in time to get through Q1.

The Sauber duo of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi start 15th and 17th, sandwiching Sebastien Buemi in his Toro Rosso in 16th. On a power circuit such as Monza, the bottom seven to drop out in the wake of the opening 20-minute Q1 were no surprise. Jaime Alguersuari lost out to team-mate Buemi by 0.170secs and will start 18th, with Lotus duo Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen behind him, the Italian almost half-a-second clear of the Finn.

Virgin pair Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio occupy the 11th row of the grid in 21st and 22nd places, the former 0.4secs off Kovalainen and only 0.018secs ahead of his team-mate. Despite a troubled weekend so far, Daniel Ricciardo at least out-qualified more experienced partner Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the duo 23rd and 24th.

“I didn’t expect to be on pole by that big a margin on a track that in the last two years has not suited us,” said Vettel.

“As you can imagine I’m very happy, also that we have quite a racy approach. The balance is good and the car is great.

“We’ve been working hard as we’ve known this is not the best track for us when it’s dry.

“All in all I’m very pleased with the result. I got everything out of the car.” Hamilton dismissed suggestions this was a pole that got away as he said: “I don’t think so. I didn’t have a half a second in the bag.

“It’s a great step Jenson and I are up there, but Sebastian was mega quick, with his last lap untouchable.” As for Button, he said: “I totally agree with Lewis. Even if we had got a bit more out of the car, we didn’t have enough to challenge Seb.

“Fortunately, it’s not so important to be on pole here as we have DRS (drag reduction system) to aid overtaking.”

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The Lincoln Lawyer Review – Starring Matthew McConaughey & Marisa Tomei

As a lawyer, Mick Haller knows all about the murky nature of the human character. He’s seen his share of bad behavior and devious duplicity—lying and cheating to get ahead, to “win” no matter what the cost. He sees it in court, he sees it on the street, he sees it even at home.

Pretty awkward, really, since the dude lives alone.

Mick, who does business out of the back of his classic Lincoln Town Car, is the sort of lawyer who gives lawyers a bad name. He’s not picky about who he takes as clients: bikers, drug dealers, rapists … as long as they can pay. He’s good at what he does—when his license isn’t suspended.

In truth, Mick’s greatest fear is defending an innocent man. And he’s wondering whether his greatest fear just hired him.

Louis Roulet looks like an overgrown boy scout—certainly not the sort of guy who would beat a prostitute nearly to death. He swears he’s innocent: He’s been set up, he claims … an easy mark for an ambitious hooker looking to score some of his considerable wealth. The prostitute, he says, must’ve inflicted those bruises on herself—or had an accomplice do it for her.

Is it possible the guy could be telling the truth? At first Mick thinks so—particularly as evidence begins to corroborate his story. And yet, Louis doesn’t appear to be telling the whole truth either. Mick uncovers inconsistencies, half-truths, bizarre connections. He begins to wonder, Is he assisting an innocent man? Or is he helping a serial killer go free?

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Sucker Punch (2011) By Zack Snyder

Why are stepparents always so rotten in movies?

In a wordless prologue, we see that after her mother’s funeral, Baby Doll’s sinister stepfather heartlessly assaults her and her little sister. And when the younger girl dies, his pins the blame squarely on Baby Doll.

She’s banished to Lennox House, a 1950s-era gothic psychiatric asylum, where her stepfather blithely orders up a lobotomy. In five days, Baby Doll will be a mindless vegetable.

That is, she’ll be a mindless vegetable unless she can find a way out of this terrifying place which somehow operates on three outlandish levels: reality (a mental hospital), subreality (a burlesque-fueled “gentleman’s club”) and a dream world (an apocalyptic, steampunk battlefield chockablock with machine guns, zombified WWI soldiers, dragons, robots and supernatural samurais).

The bereft (but still sexy) Baby Doll quickly befriends fellow (sexy) female inmates Rocket, Blondie, Amber and Sweet Pea. With the help of Madame Gorski, the therapist/choreographer, the girls attempt to outwit Blue, the evil chief orderly/nightclub owner. To escape the asylum, they must collect five items: a map, fire, a knife and a key—with the fifth thing being kept a mystery.

To distract and entrance their male captors and obtain each component, Baby Doll dances for the men they will hoodwink. Via her epic performances (which we never see), she and the other girls somehow enter the fantasy battlefield realm, where they are met with video game-like challenges proffered by a nameless wise man.

The goal is pedestrian: Get out of jail free. The hyper-stylized (sexy) shoot-’em-up methods are surreal to say the least, absurd to say the most.

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Limitless Movie Review, Starring Bradley Cooper & Robert De Niro

I know how Eddie Morra feels. Like him, I know almost everything, but have forgotten most of it. We are told time and again that we use only a small portion of our brains and have enough left over to run nations in our down time. “Limitless” is about Eddie’s adventures after his ex-brother-in-law gives him a pill that suddenly puts his entire brain online.

He finishes his novel at typing speed. He wins at poker, invests in the market, and runs it up to millions. He fascinates a woman who had rejected him as a loser. He knows intuitively how to handle situations that used to baffle him. He is hailed as the Wall Street guru of the age.

Eddie is played by Bradley Cooper as a schlep who becomes a king. This sort of mental rags-to-riches progression has inspired a lot of movies; ever see Cliff Robertson in “Charly” (1968)? The difference here is that Eddie Mora remains himself before and after, and all that changes is his ability to recall everything he ever saw or heard. “Limitless” assumes that would be a benefit and make him rich, but what if most of what he ever saw or heard about Wall Street was wrong (as it usually is)?

The movie sidesteps the problem that what we need is more intelligence and a better ability to reason, not a better memory. For memory, modern man has Google. There’s no need to stumble over such technicalities, however; given its premise “Limitless” is passably entertaining. Abbie Cornish plays Lindy, the successful young professional woman who dumps Eddie as a loser and falls for him all over again when he becomes a winner. This is not sneaky on her part; there is every reason to dump the original Eddie and many good ones to return.

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The Adjustment Bureau – Starring Matt Damon & Emily Blunt

For millennia, humankind has wrestled with these competing notions of how much freedom we really have to determine our own ends. Do our decisions matter? Or are they somehow scripted for us? Or is it all just up to chance in the end?

While these questions have animated many a theological debate, they don’t keep David Norris up at night. The youngest-ever New York state representative is on the brink of winning his first senatorial contest. And as far as he’s concerned, his fate is firmly in his own hands. After all, that’s the message he idealistically delivers to voters: “Your future is about your choices,” he says in a stump speech. “Not theirs.”

When an embarrassing photo of a bawdy college stunt sabotages David’s campaign, however, the future he’s always envisioned seems in doubt. Until, that is, a random encounter with a beautiful woman named Elise.

A chance moment of serendipity?

Actually, no.

David soon learns, much to his dismay, that his future has very little to do with his choices. Instead, his fate has been decreed by someone with the faintly ominous title of The Chairman. And The Chairman has The Plan. And serving the interests of The Plan are a group of scowling, fedora-wearing, vaguely J. Edgar Hooverian agents—members of The Adjustment Bureau.

Their job? Make sure no one drifts too far from The Plan.

But David is something of a problem child when it comes to submitting to plans. He struggles to submit to his own plans, let alone anyone else’s. And in the wake of meeting Elise, plans are the least of his concern. Feelings are what matter to him now.

There’s only one problem: In The Plan, David was only supposed to bump into Elise one time, an exposure designed to give his course a slight adjustment. The Plan wasn’t for him to fall in love with her. But when he sees Elise again on a bus, The Plan gets lobbed out the window.

And The Adjustment Bureau is none too happy about that.

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