Nicely done with the report again Ash - makes me wonder though how you managed to stage the 1-2-3 finish!
And now it's time for...
THE DESTRUCTION INDEX
We're really starting to rack up the points across the board here, quite a few high scorers at Sepang, although no one breached double digits like last week. Here's the biggest gains (losses?) from the latest race:
+7: Lee Davidson (McLaren), Danny Graham (Midland)
+6: Tag Schwarz (Super Aguri), Yuuji Kawasie (Williams)
+5: David Smith (BMW Sauber)
And those who came through unscathed, congrats/curses: Scott Woodwiss (Renault), Brad Horton (McLaren), Ben Dunstan (Ferrari), Duncan Hutchinson (Ferrari), Ashley Butler and Guillaume Dubois (Honda). I guess it was a cleaner (and drier. Grr!) race than I expected.
Now let's get to the top 10 destruction masters, overall through Sepang! (The parentheses are the amount of position gained, not points)
1st: LeeBee Davidson (McLaren), 16 points (+4)
2nd: David "DNF" Smith (BMW Sauber), 14 points (+4)
3rd (tie): Appie Charkaoui (Midland) (-1), 'Femme Fatale' Taylor (Toro Rosso) (0), Luke "#@*(&#@" Mason (Renault) (-2), 13 points
6th: Alphabet Soup Zemahj (Red Bull), 12 points (+1)
7th (tie): The Sting (Red Bull) (+4), Tag You're It Schwarz (Super Aguri) (+6), D-Graham (Midland) (+9), 10 points
10th (tie): Scott Woodwiss (Renault) (-6), Herman Chang (BMW Sauber) (-2), 9 points
And on the bottom end, all by his lonesome:
22nd: Simon Trendell (Toro Rosso), 1 point
So, what to say?
All the zeroes broke their spell this week, with the aforementioned Trendell just barely by messing up quali, Keller with a botched quali and a DNF, and KamiKawa with his usual load of Sato'ing into things.
Let it be known however that No Destruction Not Always Means Yes Points, as Mr. Trendell is lacking in both columns. However, the unnecessarily safe Honda team (tied for 20th), is setting a good example to the contrary - 2nd and 3rd to last in desruction, 2nd and 3rd to first in points.
Quali errors still seem to be the most common among drivers, although the solo pit stop errors are very popular among certain drivers such as the Graham Cracker and Bee. On the flip side we've only had one solo spin and stall so far this season.
The most dangerous teams so far this season is surprisingly the championship-winning crew at BMW Sauber, totaling 23 points between Chang and Smith. Party's over guys, lay off the champange, huh? But perhaps some of their issues can be attributed to outside influences, such as Kawasie's latest rampage...