2010 Australian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Red Bulls have Wiings

The Red Bulls proved they do have wiings at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne as they locked out the first row at the Saturday Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel notched up his second successive pole position as he drove the wheels off his car on his first flying lap in Q3 and that proved more than enough.

Teammate Mark Webber grabbed the second fastest time and would hope this time around he’ll have a fulfilling home race. Fernando Alonso took P3 as Ferrari couldn’t quite match up to the pace of the Red Bulls. There seemed to be some rain falling at the end of the qualifying session and probably that put off the drivers from going all out at the fag end of the session.

McLaren’s Jenson Button took P4 and Felipe Massa only managed P5, ahead of the Mercedes’ of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in P6 & P7 respectively. Rubens Barrichello put his Williams on P8 ahead of the Renault of Robert Kubica and the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

2010 UEFA Champions League Draw

The draw for the 2010 UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals was held earlier today and it threw out what seem like some very intriguing matchups.

Home	Away	First Leg	Return Leg
Lyon	Bordeaux	30th March	7th April
Bayern Munich	Manchester United	30th March	7th April
Arsenal	Barcelona	31st March	6th April
Inter Milan	CSKA Moscow	31st March	6th April

The Semi Final draw looks like this:

• Bayern Munich / Manchester United Vs. Lyon / Bordeaux (21st & 27th April)
• Arsenal / Barcelona Vs. Inter Milan / CSKA Moscow (20th & 28th April)

On paper, Manchester United seem to have an easy draw but Bayern have a bone to pick with United after their ‘98 loss in the final and won’t be easy opponents. Of course, both Man Utd & Barcelona have the advantage of the 2nd leg being played at home so a deficit from the first leg won’t be an insurmountable task (unless of course, they lose the away leg real bad)

Arsenal have a tricky tie with holders Barcelona and face the prospect of a rejuvenated Inter Milan if they get past the Catalans. Mind, I’m not too aware of the Russian team but do know that they’re freshest of them all, what with their season starting just a while ago. And both the French teams are also quite good – one brushed away Real Madrid and the other has a real miserly defence.

All in all, it should a right real football fest come the first week of April. I’m betting on a Man U Vs. Inter Milan final…Inter to lose, of course

Ugadi Wishes to everyone…

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Ugadi!

వికృతి నమ సంవత్సర శుభాకాంక్షలు

Hope the new year bring with it all the flavors of life that you desire! Enjoy the Ugadi pachchadi and keep aside some of it for me

2010 Bahrain Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Vettel grabs season’s first pole

The 2010 F1 Season finally vroomed off at the Sakhir circuit for the season-opening Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix and the first pole position for what seems like a glorious F1 season was grabbed by Sebastian Vettel for the Red Bull racing team as he ran around the circuit in 1 Min 54.101s. Felipe Massa lines up in P2 with teammate Fernando Alonso in P3.

The top 10 lines up as follows:

1. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull
2. Felipe Massa – Ferrari
3. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari
4. Lewis Hamilton – McLaren
5. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes
6. Mark Webber – Red Bull
7. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes
8. Jenson Button – McLaren
9. Robert Kubica – Renault
10. Adrian Sutil – Force India

Q1 was a see-saw affair (I’ll admit that I was late into catching the telecast ) The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were the early pace-setters and were briefly P1 for a while before the Red Bulls of Mark Webber & Sebastian Vettel quickly established them at the top of the timesheets. But Fernando Alonso had the last say as he ended Q1 on P1, with Adrian Sutil of Force India a very credible P3. The ones to face the axe at the end of the first qualifying session included  the Toro Rosso of Jaime Algersuari, the two Virgin cars of Timo Glock & Lucas di Grassi, the two Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen & Jarno Trulli and the two Hispanias of Bruno Senna & Karun Chandhok.

Movie Review: Atithi…Tum Kab Jaoge?

Atithi Devo Bhava. Guest is akin to God. Us Indians have been brought up on this adage…respect a guest and treat him nice. Easier said than done, isn’t it? There have been many an instances of an unwanted guest overstaying their welcome and becoming and unbearable PITA. And before long, we try to conjure up inane ways to get rid of them, as politely as we can and without appearing to really detest their presence!

 

Around such a mundane situation does revolve the latest movie to hit the marquee – Atithi…Tum Kab Jaoge? Into the lives of Puneet (Ajay Devgn), a script writer and Munmun (Konkana Sen Sharma), an architect, breezes in one Lambodhar Chacha (Paresh Rawal), ostensibly as a far off relative of Puneet. He is welcome initially but his rustic mannerisms, eye for detail and voracious appetite – among others – start irking the family slowly. Though he endears himself to the other inhabitants of the society and their son, Puneet and Mumnun are clearly fed up of this guest’s overstay. Out come inanely conjured plans and desperate manoeuvres to oust this “pest” but to no avail. I won’t spoil the fun by revealing whether they actually manage to get rid of him or not!

Even with a pretty thin premise and a none-too-unexpected outcome, ATKJ manages to hold your attention and probably does strike a familiar chord with the urban audience, who maybe have faced such a situation before. Most of the humour is situational and well woven into the storyline. One gets to see a multitude of characters as in Priyadarsan movies and they’re well etched at the outset before they make an eventual contribution at crucial junctures in the story. In fact, I half-expected to see something like Bawarchi  where a complete stranger becomes such an influence that he becomes indispensable. But this one’s nothing like that!