Sunday Musings, F1 and the final day of Premiere League

 A fun sports Sunday with a F1 Race and the final day of the Premiere League season.  But coffee and recommendations first.  The coffee today comes from local Houston roaster Fusion Beans.  I've been enjoying Fusion Beans since they were selling them direct to customers at the Seabrook farmers market years ago, even before they opened up the fantastic Southside Espresso that has now sadly closed.  A great team that I always wish good things for.  This particular coffee is a single origin Guatemala coffee.  Used a Chemex to make this cup and got some really wonderful notes of chocolate, cream, and tropical fruits.  Lacked a little clarity, but that could have been my fault as I haven't dialed in the grinder for the Chemex filter.  Still a great cup, but will try this in my normal pour over to get the clarity and acidity I typically enjoy.

My recommendation this week is the newest season of Dr. Who which is now streaming on Disney+ here in the US.  I think that Jodie Whitaker gets a lot of undo flack for her time as the Doctor.  In mind the blame lies at the feet of the writer, so I was extremely happy to see Russell T. Davies back at the helm, along with the newest Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.  A couple of episodes in and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.  It's a mix of pushing the current boundaries while also being a bit of a throwback, a bit silly, but fun as Dr. Who should always be.  Can't wait for the rest of the season.

Formula 1

Today was the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, the first of two GPs in Italy.

Overall McLaren had a good start to the weekend.  Both drivers were in the top 5 in qualifying.  Oscar was actually P2 after Q3, but got penalized 3 positions due to a run in with Magnussen in Q1, which put Lando at P2 and Oscar fell back to P5.  Surprising no one Max Verstappen was once again a top the Pole.

The start of the race was fairly pedestrian with most drivers starting on Medium tires.  Not a lot of crazy passing or anything at all really.  Imola can be a tough track to pass, with only one DRS zone, as well as being fairly narrow compared to other tracks not named Monaco.

The top of the leaderboard started pitting around lap 22 with Mercedes Driver Russell the first in the pit.  Followed by Lando pitting in lap 23 switching from Medium tires to Hard.  Lando tried to come out in front of Red Bulls Perez but the team just didn't time it right, however within in a lap he had passed the driver from Mexico.

Piastri also came in and pitted in lap 24 also switching to hard tires.

Norris eventually got up to P2 as others pitted, but he still felt like he wasn’t getting pace of the drivers behind him.  The McLaren crew fell that the other drivers were burning through their tires at a much higher rate than Norris was and that in the end it would work out.

Norris was solidly in P2 but it was obvious that this was yet another race where Verstappen and the Red Bull car were on another level.  At least for a little while, as the laps progressed Norris  started to nibble at Verstappen’s heals, as Max started to complain that his tires were shot.  LeClerc who had been attempting to get within striking distance of the McLaren driver began to fall back a little bit.  With11 laps to go at this point, the question was if there was enough left in the race for Norris to pull closer.

Norris showing once again that he is truly a tire whisperer, doing an outstanding job of nursing his tires allowing him to have some left for a fight at the end of the race to battle Max.

The last 5 laps Norris was pushing incredibly hard.  Some of the best driving I have seen all season.  Not just nibbling, but gulping down the space between him and the leading Red Bull. Getting it down to 1.5 seconds with 4 laps left.  Getting within DRS zone striking distance.

This was a rare race that actually had some excitement at the end of the race.

But it was for not. Norris may have pushed his car and tires to the limit and started to complain that he had lost all grip on his tires.  He still valiantly fought on through the remaining 3 laps, still nibbling, still fighting.  While Norris was running out of tires, Verstappen's battery was running out.  A great finish to the race with two drivers leaving it all on the track.  Unfortunately, Lando just ran out of time, narrowing Max’s lead to almost a half a second by the end of the race, but ultimately finishing P2 with Oscar finishing P4 and LeClerc at P3.  Some great points for Team Papaya.  Lando gaining on LeClerc in the Drivers championship and McLaren gaining on Ferrari and RB on the constructors championship.

Ferrari finally got on the podium at Imola for the first time since Schumacher thanks to the hard driving of LeClerc.

7 races into the season and we see some shuffling in the drivers championship:

Verstappen at top with 161 points,

LeClerc passed Perez and has 113 points to Perez's 107 and Norris is at 4th with 101 and Sainz rounding out the top 5 with 93 points.  Very close 2-5.

In the constructors championship, Red Bull stays atop with 268 points, Ferrari with 212 and McLaren gaining a little ground with 154 points.

Premiere League

I love how the EPL finishes their season.  All teams playing on the same day at the exact same time.  It makes for a great time of flipping among channels to see how everyone is doing especially when your team is playing for the championship.  Alas that is not the case for the reds this season.  They unfortunately played extremely poorly down the stretch.  They seemed lackluster and played with very little heart which was the most disappointing thing to see especially considering that this is to be Jurgen Klopps last season with the Reds.  Klopp came into a team that was struggling and in a short time has lead  them to multiple championships winning multiple different types of titles.  I had hoped that they would win another premiere league for him this year, but it wasn't meant to be.  

One of the coolest scenes today was the crowds lining the Liverpool Streets as the team bus made its way to Anfielf, the fans singing and changing for Jurgen showing him a tremendous amount of love and appreciation for all that he has done for the city.  He will go down as one of the great managers that Liverpool has had and is incredibly beloved by every Reds fan.

While the Reds didn't have anything to play for today, I had high hopes that they would step and play their hearts out for Klopp, especially considering there were some players like Mo Salah who were probably playing their last match for LFC.

A rather frustratingly lack luster start to the match.  At the 28th minutes, a Wolves es player got sent off with a red card leaving them a man down for the rest of the match.  McAllister finally put one in the net for the Reds at the 34th minute.  Giving them the lead hopefully for the rest of the match.

Shortly after Quansah scored on an assist from Salah to make it 2-0 at the half.  The reds slowed down the second half, but still gave Klopp a win in his final match.  It was nice to see him give the fist pump one last time and the crowd was amazing in their outpouring of love to Jurgen.

They started chanting for him with 5 minutes left in regular play and kept it up throughout extra time and afterwards.  I can't imagine what it must have been like to be there live, how loud and loving it would ben.

Overall after having some high hopes for this season, I end on a disappointment.  Yes the Reds win, but Man City once again finish the season on top of the table.  Worse, I have to believe that the Reds are going to take a big step back next season.  While I think Slot will be a good manager he will need a season or two to put his stamp on the team.  Plus I believe there will be significant turnover with not only Salah leaving, but a few other players as well.  The team will look and feel completely different next season so not sure how far up the table they will finish.  Cheers to Jurgen and all the success he has had with this team.  He has done so much for the team and the city, I wish him all the happiness in what ever he does next.