Summertime Rains

It was a pleasant surprise to see heavy thunderclouds gather up above, in a sky that was devoid of such clouds for almost two full months! The temperature was soaring day-by-day and was in the mid-40's for most part of the last week. But today the stormclouds gathered at around 3 PM and a light drizzle gladdened the spirits of the Hyderabadis who were reeling under the intense heat till now. Suddenly mirchi bajjis seemed to be a hot commodity and they promptly disappeared off our canteen shelves! 

It is indeed an invigorating sight to see dark n heavy clouds up above in the month of May! The occassion was not lost and many of us gathered on the terrace admiring the skyline and the peacocks that were getting ready to strut their stuff in the park just across our office. Bliss!!! Wish everyday in summer would be like thus henceforth!!! Wishful thinking,eh? 

European Grand Prix – The Race

Michael Schumacher banked on a terrific pit-stop strategy to leapfrog Fernando Alonso and won the European Grand Prix at Nurburgring in style. It was the second successive win for the German and the Ferrari, after their win at Imola and it has laid to rest the rumours that Ferrari was down and out,atleast temporarily! The race was pretty interesting from the first lap itself, when Liuzzi was sidelined into the Red Bull of David Coulthard and both of them had to retire subsequently.Mark Webber also had to retire and from thereon, the race focus again shifted to the lead pack where all front-runners were separated by mere seconds, which made the race all the more interesting.

All of the front runners were on a two-pitstop strategy and after the first round of stops, it was Fernando Alonso in the lead being chased by the two ferraris of Michael Schumacher. Kimi Raikkonen managed a neat overtaking maneouvre on Jenson Button to shoot into fourth place; Button retired later in the race with engine problems. Also out of the race were Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien and the Super Aguris. The real twist in the tale came around the 2nd round of pitstops. Alonso pitted on Lap 38 but Schumacher chose to stay out and put some stunning laps and combined with a near-perfect pitstop of only 6.8 seconds,on th 41st lap, managed to come out ahead of Alonso and from thereon he never looked back. Alonso was content with the 2nd place though! Kimi Raikkonen could not pull off the same trick on the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Massa held on to take the first podium place of his career. The battle for the 5th.6th & 7th places was also a raging one as Barrichello, Fisichella & Rosberg all huddled close to each other for most part of the last 15 laps or so. They finished the race in that order while Villeneuve took the last point-scoring position. The Next race is in a week's time at Catalunya.