I hate to see penalties in a F1 race. It taints the whole thing. The race is ruined if it comes down to subtracting seconds at the end, luckily, even after 3 major penalties, this race ended in a fairly solid note. Fernando Alonso raced so perfectly that I don’t think anyone could have touched him.

Right off the bat, Lewis Hamilton got in a tangle with Raikkonen, then Massa, then got spun around, and eventually ended up at the pack of the pack AND got a penalty. At that point he was essentially out of the race. Then the other McLaren driver, Kovalainen, had a hydraulics failure, so almost immediately, both McLaren cars were assured 0 points.

Robert Kubica had a stellar race, though, and was in first for a while actually, but Alonso just raced too perfectly.

Both of the cars from my favorite team, Toro Rosso, did well, and my personal favorite, Sebastian Vettel, had a great showing. I think he’s definitely going to be a big name in this sport as he gets older. Within the next year or so, he’ll probably get picked up by one of the senior teams. Unfortunately for the other Toro Rosso driver, Sebastian Bourdais, he picked up a nonsense penalty for a “collision” with Massa and lost 25 seconds off his time.

Despite the penalties, it was a great race, and Alonso performed superbly. Still, even with only 2 races left, the season is to close to call.

Check out the three penalties:

Here are the complete race results

NOTE: Bourdais was initially classified sixth, but had 25 seconds added to his race time for a collision with Massa.

Driver’s Championship Standings

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Constructor’s Championship Standings

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.