#the 5 second penalty ones are boring too btw

[promiscuousasexual]

bro these comments about oscar and alonso under alpine posts are just boring i’m so sorry like it’s so repetitive

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 145/310

2014 Russian GP

Alright it's the 16th round, we're very close to the end of the season now. I only have the race this time. It's the first Russian GP apparently? Mercedes could win the WCC here.

The race took place in October 2014 despite calls to cancel it following the shooting down of the Malaysia Airline Flight 17 by Russian forces. When questions were asked about not only that but the plan to hold a European GP in Azerbaijan despite human rights issues in the country, both Horner and Toto said it was the FIA's responsibility to decide and not their place to have an opinion on it which is bullshit. 

Marussia was supposed to have Alexander Rossi replace Jules Bianchi but ultimately decided not to replace him and run only one car. As a gesture to Jules and his family they prepped his car and set it up in his garage as usual. All the drivers wore stickers on their helmets saying "Tous avec Jules #17" and there was a minute of silence before the race. 

Maldonado received a ten place grid penalty in Japan for components changes but he qualified 17th there so as per the new rule, he had to serve what was left of the penalty in Russia, thus granting him a 5 place grid penalty for this race. 

The weather is beautiful. Nico is 2nd, with Lewis on pole. Valtteri 3rd, Jenson 4th, Kvyat 5th (?!), Daniel 6th, Alonso 7th, Raikkonen 8th, JEV is 9th, and Seb is only 10th… he actually qualified 11th but Magnussen got a penalty. 

Formation lap 

Brundle and Crofty say it's difficult to focus on racing both for them and for the drivers as everybody is thinking of Jules, who is fighting for his life. 

And they're racing. 

Good clean start, Nico attacks Lewis in the next straight. He locks up but takes the lead. Then he goes very wide, which you could argue extends his advantage… Brundle thinks indeed Nico has to give his place back. Right as he finishes saying that, we get a radio message telling Nico he needs to "please" give the place back to Lewis. He says he has to box because of the vibration anyway. He gives the place back. He pits. He's told he's gonna have to go to the end on these. Erm. Really? 51 laps? Is that even possible? Wtf. Anyway the race gets reaaaally boring after that. 

Lap 10. Lewis is still in the lead although Valterri is "only" 2.7 away. Then it's Jenson a further 9 seconds down, Alonso, Magnussen, Seb, Daniel, Vergne, Raikkonen and Kvyat. Nico is currently P15. If he truly has to go to the end on these tyres, he can't attack too hard. Chilton retires. Nico is told they think he can achieve a podium. Mmmh. Okay? We'll see… he's currently P11 though so… maybe? If he can make the tyres last. Btw it's still boring as all fucks. 

It's lap 20. Yes already. The race is really that boring I have nothing to tell you. Lewis is now 6.7 seconds ahead of Valtteri who's 13 something seconds ahead of Jenson, then it's still Alonso, Magnussen, Seb, Daniel must have pitted because it's now JEV in P7, Raikkonen P8, Kvyat P9 and Perez just got overtaken by Nico as I was writing this. Jenson pits. The tyre performance is dramatically dropping now which makes it improbable that Nico will last to the end. Lewis extended his gap over Valtteri to 13.8 (so double what it was on lap 20) in about 5 laps. JEV pits. Lewis is not struggling too much given he's in clean air. Alonso pits, it's VERY long, over 7 seconds. We're halfway through the race. Valtteri pits. Raikkonen pits. Lewis is called in. Kobayashi retires. Lewis is still in the lead. Massa pits. 

It's lap 30. They're showing us the number of pit stops instead of the times. Behind Lewis is now Seb but he hasn't pitted yet. Not far behind him is Valtteri, Nico up in P4. Then Jenson, Magnussen, Alonso, Daniel, Gutierrez (?), and Raikkonen. Seb pits. Out in P8, while Nico forces Valtteri wide and gets ahead of him. Mmmh… Valtteri's engineer says "so for info Rosberg fitted these prime tyres on lap 1, so he's gonna get deg. We'll get him back." Kvyat is critical on fuel. 20 laps to go. Still nothing much to say. 

It's lap 40. Guess what. I have nothing to say. Lewis is still in the lead, almost 18 seconds ahead of Nico. Then it's still the same, Valtteri, Jenson, Magnussen, Alonso, Daniel, Seb, Gutierrez, and Raikkonen. EW. OH EWWW. I'm trying to watch a very boring race and I'm shown Bernie Ecclestone hugging Putin. Absolutely fuck that shit. Anyway Nico is asked if he thinks he can stay on these tyres to the end. He says "affirm, yes, easy. Well, not easy but they feel good for now." 

10 laps to go. Still nothing. Stop showing me Putin ffs. 5 laps to go. Valtteri is coming really fast at Nico, but the gap is 4.5. 

It's the end of the race. 

Lewis wins, Nico P2, Valtteri P3.

Mercedes wins the WCC. Bono : "Awesome drive Lewis! Awesome drive mate! Absolute masterclass. Great job there Lewis. Just keep the revs up, pal. Awesome job." Lewis : "Congratulations to the team on the constructors’ championship! Great job, man. History in the making." (Ah boy, you can't imagine how right you are). 

Niki says it's unbelievable. He jokes that he doesn't know if he can call himself a 4 time world champion now. Ted asks if Lewis is looking unstoppable for the WCC now. Niki is not really listening anymore as he's trying to hug Paddy Lowe. He says "yes, kind of, kind of." Lewis hugs Paddy as well.

Ohhh god. Jump scare. Putin is in the cool down room. Lewis shakes Bernie's hand and then Bottas' and doesn't even look at Putin lmao. Nico shakes Putin's hand while Lewis gets weighed. Bottas shakes Putin's hand. Lewis does not. Everybody is a bit tense. Paddy shakes Putin's hand. Nobody is talking. Lewis is styling his hair in the back. This is the most uncomfortable scene I've seen in 145 races. The camera pans out. Valtteri, Nico and Paddy are standing there and barely talking in hushed voices.

The camera pans out a bit further and there's Bernie and Putin looking at them in silence.

Oh my god. Putin says something to his translator. She asks them for him how much weight they lost during the race. What a weird ass question. Nico says 3kg.

Lewis is looking at which of the caps is his. Neither of the three it seems. NOW he shakes Putin’s hand. Putin goes back to talking with his people about the organisation for what comes next. Paddy and Rosberg are whispering into each other's ears uncomfortably. Lewis is talking with Bottas. Putin and the weird guys finally leave the room. It's completely silent again. 

Ew it's Putin giving Lewis his trophy. And Paddy's.

And then Paddy gets drenched in champagne as he should but why does his body moves like that lmao he's so weird and funny I'm very fond of him

Lewis says hi in Russian to the crowd. He says he's so happy to be here and they've had an amazing weekend. He says the fans and the organisers and Russia have been so good to him and the team. He's looking forward to coming there many, many more times. The Russian interviewer says he's 17 points ahead in the WDC now. Lewis says Nico did a great job recovering today. There's a wasp flying around them lol. The car was performing really well and they did a great job as a team, making history. He's proud to be a part of it. He did not answer the question about the WDC at all. Then the interviewer makes plans to drink vodka with him to celebrate his win.

BTW, this race result also puts Valtteri up in 4th place in the WDC, ahead of Seb and Alonso, in a Williams. Good job! 

Also I read on Wikipedia that both Marussia and Caterham went into administration after this race due to financial difficulties. Caterham managed to come back for the Abu Dhabi GP, and then disappeared. Marussia ultimately was able to enter the 2015 season but as a British team rather than a Russian one.

That's it. 3 races to go! 

[lailababar]

10 years ago I was home for the holidays and on my way from Lahore to Sheikhupura. My driver Shahzad was driving the car. We were driving fast because it late at night, the roads were empty, and we were young. A car started driving alongside us, matching our speed. We would go faster and they would catch up. And then they started flashing their lights at our car. When we did not stop the car, they tried to overtake us, and when that didn’t work, at 100 km/hr, they hit the rear of the car so that their car was wedged into ours. Then they started braking making our car slow down too. Once we were slowed, they overtook us and parked their car diagonally across ours so we could not escape. 4 men came out. It was like a scene from a bad Bollywood movie. 4 doors opening, 4 men stepping out, in my memory the time slowed down and every detail left an impression. 2 had rifles. They held them with both hands, and flanked the other two men. I recall this night perfectly because it is always playing, over and over, in my head. A loop recording from hell. One man rapped on Shahzad’s window, and when he refused to open the door they pulled out their guns and rapped again, this time with the butt of their pistols. Shahzad has told me to try to lay low on the backseat. He was in his 20s. I was 17. (When I look back on this I’m shocked that we were so young, but then again, you grow up fast when you grow up afraid). I did not have credit in my phone. I couldn’t make a phone call. I found his phone and called his brother. I didn’t know exactly where we were, I didn’t know how far from Lahore or how close to Sheikhupura. I was afraid and trying to find details in the dark. I had a blackberry and the BBM messenger was on. I messaged my cousin Sherdil on it and blissfully he replied. The sheer fear I had in this moment will never leave my body. I know myself as pre fear and post fear. I told him we had been stopped by 4 armed men. That they were talking to shahzad but it looked grim. He said he’ll send police officers out to look for us. We both knew the police would be too late, the details I had given were so vague.

I remember thinking of what I would do when the men had me. I had notions of bartering, of asking, pleasing, begging, them to not rape me in exchange for any amount of money they wanted. It’s odd how even in the worst moments of your life, you have time to imagine it being even worse. And then I heard a ‘thunk’. They had slammed shahzad into the car window with just enough force to convey their intentions. And then one of them said the sentence that haunts my every waking moment “bachi aur gari de do, tumhare se Kuch nai chahye”. Give us the girl and the car, we don’t need anything from you. They had a gun to Shahzad’s temple. And I was sitting helpless in the backseat of my car refusing to let panic set in. Refusing to show fear, never mind that I was alone. I heard Shahzad’s voice clear as day ‘nahin’ (no). The man hit him with the butt of his pistol and suddenly there were gunshots in the air.

This is the point where the panic seeped into my bones. I didn’t know what would happen next. And I hate the theory that there are infinite alternate universes and each of them have different outcomes for every scenario. I kept flirting between the present and a make believe future. Suddenly the car door opened. It took me a few seconds to realise it was Shahzad. My legs were shaking, my hands had tremors. He sat down, locked the car, and asked if I was okay. He joked about me looking afraid and I let out a nervous laugh and said no I’m not. When I looked outside there were a hundred people around our car. Some local man had had a few burglaries so he was on high alert for thieves. When he heard some commotion near his house he came out and thought his house was about to be robbed. And so he shot at us. The men who had stopped us thought it was our back up and got into their cars and sped away. And suddenly the whole neighbourhood woke up and was on the road. I had wanted to drive out of that area within seconds. Shahzad explained to me that those men could be waiting ahead to attack again so we had to sit and wait for 15 minutes. Enough time to have them get bored. To clear our path. Those 15 minutes were agony personified. It took every inch of my self control to not show fear, I’m sure I looked afraid, but I tried so hard to not show it.

And you know what my take away was back then? I’m so lucky. Lucky to have escaped. Lucky that that man thought he was being robbed. Lucky that there was no crossfire. Lucky. Lucky. Lucky. And I was partially right, I was luckier than most. Definitely luckier than the woman who needed petrol on the motor way. (This incident was on the GT road btw, so CCPO sahab can fuck off with that). But you know what, as women are options shouldn’t just be terrified or broken. I was not lucky to have had men chase down my car and try to kidnap me. I was not lucky to worry about being raped when I was 17. I was not lucky to be in a country where basic safety is not just not guaranteed but it’s considered unnecessary. I was not lucky to have known that my clothes, the fact that I was in Pajamas would be talked about more than the men who were attacking me. I was not lucky to have been scared so bad, so early. I fared better than my counterpart did yesterday, this news story could’ve been broken 10 years ago with blurred pictures of my face. It was a miracle I survived. But I was not lucky to have been in that situation. And I hate that I cannot escape that night. Not even in my sleep.

I am still afraid of that road. I’m also afraid of dark roads. Im afraid when cars tailgate me on the highway. I am afraid when I notice the same car in my rear view mirror for more than 5 minutes. I’m afraid so often that it’s just another facet of my being. This happened 10 years ago and i am still afraid. And I am not alone. So many women have near miss stories, so many of us get followed home by men, so many of us have had to drive slower or faster to shake off the awful cretins that are Pakistani men. And we are all afraid. 50% of your population lives in perpetual fear. Does that not worry you?

I don’t want men calling for death penalties or stricter laws, the laws are strict, you just don’t implement them. I want men to worry about every word that leaves their mouth. I want them to think and rethink their sentences, weigh them against their guilt. I want all men to look at themselves like I did that night. Analyse your life to see what all you did to contribute to rape culture. Do you know even today I think I might have invited that attack. I was so ashamed to show fear because I believed that I had done something, laughed while looking at their car, or had my windows down, or something, to entice them. When we march, don’t play devil’s advocate. There is no dignity in contributing further to the plight of those already marginalised. Instead play our advocate. Use your arguments to fight with your male friends when they minimise rape, when they objectify women. Talk to each other and the women in your life about how you have contributed to life being harder for us. Don’t get salty about #menaretrash, instead understand that women are afraid. We have been for our whole lives. Your discomfort is not oppression. Be better and if you have harassers and rapists in your friends group, and we all know you do, call them out, refuse to associate with them, or at the very least don’t give them awards for bravery *ahem* ALIZAFAR *ahem*. Basically try and make life just a little bit easier for women, god knows we need it.