Take 5 – Some things change, some things stay the same
Lewis won again in F1, but there was a new king to be crowned in MotoGP.
It’s a fine line between order and chaos. Too much of the same and things begin to stagnate and become stale, while too much instability breeds uncertainty and a foggy vision going forward.
Such has been the dominance in F1 by Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton over the past seven years, it's difficult to remember when they weren’t winning. With his win in Turkey yesterday, Lewis claimed his seventh world title, now equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record, while Mercedes had already wrapped up the constructor’s title for the seventh year in a row. Hamilton’s nearest rival, his teammate Valtteri Bottas, had a race to forget and was eventually lapped by Hamilton, further showing just how far ahead both he and his Mercedes are to the rest of the field.
From complete certainty to complete uncertainty, the MotoGP this season has been nothing but surprises, yielding a first time champion in second-year Spanish Suzuki rider, Joan Mir. Defending champion Marc Marquez had a massive crash in the very first race which eventually ruled him out for the season, leaving the title up for grabs for any and all comers. No one predicted Mir, who had a DNF in the first round, to be fighting for podiums let alone winning the championship. Despite only winning one race all season, the previous week in Valencia, Mir’s consistency shone through in year full of ups and downs for many riders.
It’s been more than a month since LeBron James won his fourth NBA title, this time with LA Lakers, when they beat the Miami Heat in six games (4-2). Such is the regularity in which we see LeBron in the finals (being in 9 of the last 10), it can be easy to overlook how good he still is even in the twilight of his career.
Winding back a couple more months to August, the very stretched out 2019-20 Champions League came to a conclusion with Bayern Munich winning their sixth title. However, the point I wish to bring up is that it was the first time in 15 years that a Messi or Ronaldo-led side had not reached the semi-finals. This is astounding and further cements just how good and for so long the pair of them have been, but also signals a bit of a “changing of the guard” so to speak.
The 2020 US Presidential election…no I’ll just stop there *winks*.