Washington, June 27 (DPA) US President Barack Obama extended his condolences to Michael Jackson's family and fans, and noted that the pop icon's life at times was 'sad and tragic', the White House said Friday.
Obama's condolences came one day after Jackson died at the age of 50 from an apparent cardiac arrest. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that he discussed the death with Obama.
'He said to me that, obviously, 'Michael Jackson was a spectacular performer, a music icon',' Gibbs said.
'The president also said ...'aspects of his life were sad and tragic',' Gibbs said.
'His condolences went out to the Jackson family and to fans that mourned his loss,' he added. Gibbs said he was unaware of whether Obama called the Jackson family.
Jackson's sudden death has generated worldwide grieving for the icon who dominated the music scene in the 1980s and into the following decade.
The US House of Representatives held a moment of silence at the beginning of its session Friday.
It was a huge risk, with a potentially huge reward: Michael Jackson's 50 sold-out London comeback shows.
And now it's a huge financial disaster.
Concert promoter AEG Live must return $85 million in ticket sales for the eerily billed "This Is It" dates, the first Jackson live shows in a dozen years.
It's already spent more than $20 million on production costs for the shows, billed as the most expensive arena gigs ever.
AEG is out millions more in lost merchandise sales, and perhaps another $10 million in upfront money paid to Jackson.
AEG won't say if insurance covered its outlay for the mega-deal with the notoriously unpredictable Jackson. The first date was set for July 13.
"We're still dealing with all our financial people," said AEG spokesman Michael Roth. "There are a lot of numbers out there, everybody has it wrong so far. It's too early."
Jerry Kroll, a California insurance lawyer, said the Jackson deal was a perilous proposal from the start.
"You look at Michael Jackson's history of cancellations, his history of unreliability," said Kroll, who was involved after the singer shut down a 1993 world tour over a prescription drug addiction.
"It's a very risky deal. On the other hand, no risk, no reward."
The Jackson estate - already a reported $400 million in debt - could take a hit, too. The singer was likely responsible for pre-tour expenses, including rehearsal costs, Kroll said.
There was no word on how refunds will be distributed to the 750,000 ticketholders for the shows at London's O2 arena. Ticket agencies assured buyers they would get their money back.
Fans from around the world - from as far away as Botswana - snapped up seats for the shows. Tickets sold at a rate of 11 per second, 657 per minute and nearly 40,000 an hour.
For ticketholders like Seth Faber, 27, of Manhattan, the lost shows aren't about refunds. Faber - who planned a family trip to London - was disappointed about missing a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"This was going to be my Beatles at Shea Stadium moment," said Faber, who bought four tickets to the Aug. 17 show. "It's weird, because we had this suspicious feeling that one way or another, this wouldn't come together.
"But not in this way, this tragic ending."
Jonas Twitchen, 27, a London business consultant, said for him, the show will go on - sort of.
He and three friends plan to take their refund money - about $132 apiece - and rent a private karaoke room, where they will sing Jackson songs as a tribute.
"This is the most I ever paid for a gig in my life," he said. "I definitely want to get my money back."
(Reuters) - Michael Jackson's sudden death at the age of 50 brought reactions from across the music world and elsewhere. Below are some of those reactions.
-- U.S. President Barack Obama called Jackson a "spectacular performer" and said some of aspects of the performer's life were "sad and tragic," according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
-- Elizabeth Taylor, acting legend and good friend said in a statement: "My heart ... my mind ... are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can't imagine life without him. We has so much in common and we had such loving fun together."
"I keep looking at the photo he game me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever."
-- Singing legend Diana Ross: "I can't stop crying, this is too sudden and shocking. I am unable to imagine this. My heart is hurting. I am in prayer for his kids and the family."
-- Motown's Smokey Robinson: "It is always hard to lose a friend. I will miss Michael and all that he brought to the world through his music and his creative genius. I know that his legend will live on and the world will miss him dearly."
-- Political activist and family friend, Rev. Jesse Jackson talking to reporters at the Jackson family home in California:
"He was so excited about going to London ... The world was waiting for Michael's return. And Michael was practicing maybe three hours a day, real vigorous exercise. That's why we are so taken aback by the suddenness of this heart attack, because Michael was really in good physical shape," Jackson said.
-- Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley who was married to Jackson in the mid-1990s, said in a statement:
"I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. I am heartbroken for his children, who I know were everything to him, and for his family. This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."
-- Jackson's sister, Janet, was "grief-stricken and devastated at the sudden loss of her brother" and flying back to California to be with her family, according to a statement released through her manager.
-- Music producer Quincy Jones, who collaborated with Jackson on three of his best-selling albums, "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad," said:
"I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at this young age, I just don't have the words."
"He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today and part of my soul has gone with him."
-- Former Beatle Paul McCartney said on his website:
"It's so sad and shocking. I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever and my memories of our time together will be happy ones."
-- Actress Brooke Shields, another long-time friend said:
"My heart is overcome with sadness for the devastating loss of my true friend Michael. He was an extraordinary friend, artist and contributor to the world. I join his family and his fans in celebrating his incredible life and mourning his untimely passing."
-- Pop star Madonna said: "I can't stop crying over the sad news. ... I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever. My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his family. God bless."
-- Singer Justin Timberlake, who has called Jackson his idol, told the celebrity Web site TMZ.com:
"I can't find the words right now to express how deeply saddened I am by Michael's passing. We have lost a genius and a true ambassador of not only pop music, but of all music."
"He has been an inspiration to multiple generations and I will always cherish the moments I shared with him on stage and all of the things I learned about music from him."
-- Motown Records founder Berry Gordy said in a statement that he was "shocked beyond words" to hear of Jackson's death.
"It's like a dream -- a bad dream. This cannot be. How can Michael Jackson not be here?" Gordy said.
-- Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who performed on Jackson's 1991 hit "Black or White," said: "Really sad news about Michael. He was talent from on high."
-- Singer and friend Liza Minnelli told Entertainment Tonight: "He was a kind, genuine and wonderful man. He was also one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived. I loved him very much and I will miss him every remaining day of my life."
-- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly magazine: "Just as there will never be another Fred Astaire or Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley, there will never be anyone comparable to Michael Jackson. His talent, his wonderment and his mystery make him legend."
-- Rock star Lenny Kravitz said in a statement:
"There will never be another talent like Michael Jackson. Many people are saying what a performer, what an icon...They speak about the controversy and countless other things. But the truth of the matter is he was a boy that God blessed with the most angelic voice...He was a beautiful human being. I am deeply saddened this evening."
-- Singer Mariah Carey: "I am heartbroken...Let us remember him for his unparalleled contribution to the world of music, his generosity of spirit in his quest to heal the world, and the joy he brought to his millions of devoted fans throughout the world.
"I feel blessed to have performed with him several times and to call him my friend."
NEW YORK: When Michael Jackson anointed himself “King of Pop” over two decades ago, there was considerable rumbling about his hubris: Yes, he may have become a world sensation with record-setting sales of “Thriller,” and yes, he may have had a string of No. 1 hits with smashes like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” but the king of all pop music?
Surely, in a modern music history that has given us Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and so many other greats, that title was more than a bit inflated.
But in actuality, Jackson understated his significance.
Jackson came into our public consciousness as an impossibly cute preteen wonder in 1969, an unbelievably precocious singer in his family band, The Jackson 5. The soon-to-be Motown legend channeled songs like “I Want You Back,” and “I’ll Be There” with a passion and soulfulness that belied his young years. Even then, his dance moves, copped from the likes of James Brown and Jackie Wilson, were exquisite, and his onstage presence outshone seasoned veterans.
The spotlight began to dim when he entered his late teens, however, and while he still had R&B hits with the Jacksons.
But then he met Quincy Jones, and the musical landscape changed. With the legendary producer, Jackson crafted “Off the Wall”.
The best-selling album showed the world a grown-up Michael Jackson with grown-up artistry, showcasing his breathy alto-soprano voice and providing a springboard to his early videos.
At the time, it was Jackson’s music that was front and centre and his personal life had yet to become intertwined with his public image.
That began to change during “Thriller”. Also produced by Jones, it featured even more of Jackson’s song writing talents. Selling more than 50 million albums to become the globe’s best-selling disc, it spawned seven Billboard top 10 hits, including two No. 1s with “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” It won a then-unprecedented eight Grammys and numerous other awards.
It was an impact measured much more than in statistics.
He broke racial barriers on MTV, becoming the first African-American artist to be prominently featured on the young, rock-oriented cable TV channel when the success of “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” became so overwhelming it could not be ignored.
He also established the benchmark for the way videos would be made, with stunning cinematography and choreography.
But as Jackson’s fame grew, his eccentricities, from his strange affinity for children and all things childlike, to his at times asexual image to his fascination with plastic surgery, began to dull the shine off of his sparkling image. If his plastic surgery made him disturbingly unwatchable, soon, allegations of child abuse would make him reviled among many. He was first accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1993; no charges were ever filed, a civil lawsuit was settled out of court. Though he had a chart-topping album with “HIStory” in 1995 and was still a superstar, he was a damaged one. A criminal charge of molestation of another young boy in 2004, which resulted in his acquittal in 2005, further stripped his marketability and his legacy.
But when he announced he’d be doing a series of comeback concerts, the demand was so insatiable he was signed on for an unprecedented 50 shows.
Of course, there will be no comeback now. But the legacy he leaves behind is so rich, so deep, that no scandal can torpedo it. The “Thriller” may be gone, but the thrill will always remain. — AP
CHENNAI: Music maestro A.R. Rahman, who is now in Los Angeles, said he was shocked at the “untimely passing away” of Michael Jackson, who he described as “one of the greatest musicians of our time.”
In a tribute to the ‘King of Pop,’ Rahman said Jackson, for most of this generation, was an icon who made uncompromising music. He pushed the milestone of pop music to unbelievable levels through the Eighties and Nineties. “I am yet to find an artist with that energy, perfection and vision.”
Recalls meeting
Recalling his recent meeting with Jackson after the Oscars in Los Angeles, Rahman said the meeting was very pleasant and memorable. “He said he loved India and the people of the country. He told me that he heard good things about me and he was praising the chord progression of Jai Ho’s chorus.”
Expressing his awe for Jackson, Rahman said the star was bubbling with energy. “He told me that every dance move he did, came from his soul.” Reminiscing the five second-demonstration that the ace performer gave, he said: “It was a stunning example…like a lightning striking.”
Jackson was concerned about issues such as global warming and war. “He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the lines of ‘We are the World’ for him. I nodded in awe.”
Jackson also introduced Rahman to his children. They told their father that they loved him and he replied “I love you more!” When Rahman wished him well for his concerts, Jackson told him “God bless you.”
On hearing the news of Jackson’s death, Rahman said he wished it were another rumour. “It took me time to believe that he is no more.”
Describing how his team drew inspiration from Jackson, Rahman said: “I remember, my late sound engineer Sridhar brought me a video of the premiere of ‘Remember the Time,’ when I was recording ‘Kadal Rojave’ for my first film Roja. We were all so inspired that afternoon.”
“Now, there is no Sridhar and no Jackson anymore. I hope all of us value people’s existence more and respect them when they are alive. Life is short. Artists and their art live for ever. Jai Ho, MJ ! We love you for your music, regardless of all the controversies,” Rahman said.
LOS ANGELES: For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.
Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at the UCLA Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said.
Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.
The singer was rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home in which he was living, shortly after noon by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. A hospital spokesman would not confirm reports of cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2.26 p.m. local time.
As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, one cannot calculate the full effect Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he sold more than 750 million albums.
Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.
From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like ‘I Want You Back,’ ‘I’ll Be There,’ ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,’ ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Thriller’ and ‘Black and White’ that exploited his high voice and infectious energy.
As a solo performer, Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance became embedded in the cultural firmament.
Thriller
His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of ‘Thriller,’ from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the ‘Victory’ world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.
But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, California, but Jackson was acquitted on all charges.
Jackson was an object of fascination for the news media since the Jackson 5’s first hit, ‘I Want You Back,’ in 1969. His public image wavered between that of the musical naif, who wanted only to recapture his youth by riding on roller-coasters and having sleepovers with his friends, to the calculated mogul who carefully constructed his persona around his often-baffling public behaviour.
Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 concerts at the O2 arena in London beginning next month and continuing into 2010. The shows, which quickly sold out, were positioned as a comeback.
Jackson’s brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy, have all had performing careers since they stopped performing together.
His sisters, Rebbie, La Toya and Janet, are also singers, and Janet Jackson has been a major star in her own right for two decades.
They all survive him, as do his parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson, of Las Vegas, and three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, born to Jackson’s second wife, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, and Prince Michael Jackson II, the son of a surrogate mother. Jackson was also briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley.
One day after Michael Jackson's sudden death, speculation was already turning on Friday to what killed the 50-year-old "King of Pop" just weeks before his long-awaited series of comeback concerts.
Jackson, a former child star who became one of the best-selling pop artists of all time before a descending into a strange and reclusive lifestyle, died on Thursday afternoon at a Los Angeles hospital, where he had been rushed in full cardiac arrest after collapsing at his nearby rental home.
His passing was front page news around the world, airwaves were filled with his greatest hits from "Thriller" to "Billie Jean," social networking sites were bombarded with messages and tributes from fans and musicians continued to pour in.
"It's so sad and shocking," said former Beatle Paul McCartney. "I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever."
Few details were known about the circumstances surrounding Jackson's death, but the entertainer was reportedly unconscious and not breathing by the time he arrived at UCLA Medical Center, and doctors were unable to revive him.
His body was flown by helicopter from the hospital to the coroner's office late on Thursday.
Brian Oxman, a spokesman for the Jackson family, told CNN on Thursday the family had been concerned about his health and had tried in vain to take care of him for months.
"Michael appeared at rehearsals a couple of times, he was very seriously trying to be able to do those rehearsals," Oxman said of Jackson's preparations for a series of 50 concerts that were scheduled to begin in London in July.
"His use of medications had gotten in the way, his injuries which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebrae and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way," Oxman told CNN.
Authorities have scheduled an autopsy for Friday. But they cautioned it could take weeks to determine a cause of death, which will likely have to wait for the return of toxicology tests. Those tests will determine if Jackson had any drugs, alcohol or prescription medications in his system.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery Homicide division searched Jackson's home in the upscale Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles at the behest of Chief William Bratton. But they called the investigation an "every day" event.
TAINTED TALENT?
Jackson dominated the charts in the 1980s and is considered one of the most successful entertainers of the past century, with a lifetime sales tally estimated at 750 million records, 13 Grammy Awards and several seminal music videos to his name.
"Michael was and will remain one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived," said Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jackson's first label boss.
"He was exceptional, artistic and original. He gave the world his heart and soul through his music."
But Jackson's reputation as a singer and dancer was overshadowed in recent years by his increasingly abnormal appearance, and bizarre lifestyle, which included his friendship with a chimp and a preference for the company of children.
He named his estate in the central California foothills Neverland Valley Ranch, in tribute to the J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan stories, and filled it with amusement park rides and a petting zoo.
Jackson was twice accused of molesting young boys and was charged in 2003 with child sexual abuse. He became even more reclusive following his 2005 acquittal and vowed he would never again live at Neverland.
Facing a battered reputation and mountain of debts the Wall Street Journal reported ran to $500 million, Jackson had spent the last two months rehearsing for the London concerts, including Wednesday night at the huge Staples Center arena, home to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.
Despite reports of Jackson's ill-health, the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March Jackson passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.
"I can't stop crying over the sad news," Madonna said in a statement. "I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever."
Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children and first performed with his brothers as a member of the Jackson 5.
His 1982 album "Thriller" yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million internationally.
The following year, he unveiled his signature "moonwalk" dance move, gliding across the stage and setting off an instant trend, while performing "Billie Jean" during an NBC special.
In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996.
"I'm so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. ... This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me," Presley said in statement.
Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999, and he later had another child with an unidentified surrogate mother.
He is survived by three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.
LONDON: Fans around the world grieved for Michael Jackson on Friday, as his star friends in Hollywood declared themselves devastated by the
sudden death of the "King of Pop."
Madonna said she could not stop crying. Elizabeth Taylor, one of the singer's closest friends, was too stunned to comment. Many tributes put Jackson into the pantheon of tragic stars alongside Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.
Fan clubs around the world from Paris to Beijing planned candlelit vigils for the 50-year-old superstar. At the Glastonbury pop festival in Britain, thousands danced to Jackson's iconic songs such as "Thriller" and "Billie Jean."
But the recriminations also started over the treatment of the singer who made the world's biggest selling album "Thriller" and was planning comeback shows in London next month after being dragged through the courts on paedophilia charges.
As fans gathered outside the Los Angeles hospital where the troubled star was pronounced dead after apparently suffering a heart attack, some of the biggest names in entertainment paid their own tributes.
Pop diva Madonna called Jackson "one of the greats" of modern music.
"I can't stop crying over the sad news," she told celebrity website People.com. "I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever."
Beatle Paul McCartney hailed Jackson as a "massively talented boy man with a gentle soul".
Actress Taylor, one of Jackson's longstanding friends, was "too devastated" to issue a statement, her spokesperson said.
Quincy Jones who produced the "Thriller" album said: "To this day, that music is played in every corner of the world, and the reason is because he had it all -- talent, grace and professionalism."
The star's first wife Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, said: "I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. I am heartbroken for his children, who I know were everything to him, and for his family."
Jackson's influence was also highlighted by the new generation of pop stars.
Justin Timberlake -- who like Jackson is known for both his singing and dancing -- said in a statement that the world had "lost a genius and a true ambassador of not only pop music, but of all music."
Singer Beyonce said: "The incomparable Michael Jackson has made a bigger impact on music than any other artist in the history of music."
Jackson has immediately been put among the all-time entertainment greats.
"Just as there will never be another Fred Astaire or Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley, there will never be anyone comparable to Michael Jackson," film director Steven Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly.
"His talent, his wonderment and his mystery make him a legend."
But many lamented the pressures of his eccentric private life, financial troubles and his planned comeback.
Flawed genius
Commentators reflecting on Jackson's life focused on his flaws as well as his global fame and musical flair.
"Broken and broke: the child star haunted by fame and scandal" read a profile in the Guardian newspaper, which called him "the natural successor to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley".
Jackson sold an estimated 750 million records, a figure that is likely to rise with the expected posthumous re-release of his hits. "Thriller", which came out in 1982, remains the best-selling album of all time.
Jackson also won 13 Grammy Awards, made boundary-breaking music videos and his slick dance moves were imitated by legions of fans, and fellow pop stars, around the world.
But his preference for the company of children, high-pitched voice, numerous plastic surgeries and life as a virtual recluse earned him many
critics and the nickname "Wacko Jacko."
When he came to London to announce his residency at the O2 Arena starting on July 13, bookmakers immediately took bets on whether he would turn up for the first show, amid concerns and rumours over his physical and mental health.
His sudden death, nevertheless, came as a surprise.
"I spoke to Michael only a few days ago and he was absolutely on top of everything, working hard and really excited about (the) forthcoming shows," said Mark Lester, a former child actor and godfather to Jackson's children.
Quincy Jones, who worked closely with Jackson on some of his most successful recordings, led tributes from the music world.
"I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news," he said of one of the first black entertainers of the MTV generation to gain a big crossover following.
Pop star Madonna said: "I can't stop crying over the sad news ... I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever."
Germany's Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, speaking in front of the Adlon Hotel where in 2002 Jackson caused a stir by dangling his baby from a top floor window in front of adoring fans, described Jackson as a great artist.
"But his life was also rather tragic in the end ... That's why I hope his whole life is taken into account when reflecting upon his death and not only the last few years."
McLaren have failed to score point for four races - the first time that’s happened since 1981.
But it’s all good for Sebastian Vettel, who joins the ranks of F1 drivers to score a ‘hat-trick’ in a Grand Prix. Here are the stats and facts from the British Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel scored the third win of his career, giving him as many victories as Giancarlo Fisichella, 1958 world champion Mike Hawthorn and 1961 world champion Phil Hill, among others.
Vettel also scored his first ever fastest lap (which was also the first for a Red Bull) and fourth pole position. That gave him his first ever hat-trick of a win from pole position from fastest lap, something only 42 other F1 drivers have achieved. Of the current crop, six other drivers have done so: Felipe Massa (on four occasions), Fernando Alonso (three), Rubens Barrichello (two), Leiws Hamilton (two), Kimi Raikkonen (two) and Jenson Button (one).
Had he not lost the lead to Mark Webber for three laps, Vettel would have become only the 21st driver to have won a race from pole position, setting fastest lap and leading every lap. The reintroduction of refuelling in 1994 has made this ‘grand slam’ especially difficult to achieve, and no driver on the grid today ever has. Here are the 20 drivers who did, and how many times they achieved it:
Drivers with the most ‘grand slams’
1
Jim Clark
8
2
Alberto Ascari
5
3
Michael Schumacher
5
4
Jackie Stewart
4
5
Ayrton Senna
4
6
Nigel Mansell
4
7
Nelson Piquet
3
8
Juan Manuel Fangio
2
9
Jack Brabham
2
10
Mika Hakkinen
2
11
Mike Hawthorn
1
12
Stirling Moss
1
13
Jo Siffert
1
14
Jacky Ickx
1
15
Clay Regazzoni
1
16
Niki Lauda
1
17
Jacques Laffite
1
18
Gilles Villeneuve
1
19
Gerhard Berger
1
20
Damon Hill
1
Brawn GP passed the 100 point mark for this year, but Jenson Button failed to finish on the podium for the first time this season. That ends his streak of seven in a row.
Kazuki Nakajima scored the best qualifying position of his career with fifth, his previous best was tenth (twice).
McLaren: It just gets worse
McLaren failed to score for the fourth race in a row. You have to go back to the start of the 1981 season to find a comparable barren patch: the team ended 1980 failing to score at Watkins Glen in America, then started 1981 point-less in the first four rounds of 1981 at Long Beach (USA), Jacarepagua (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).
To put that into perspective, neither Lewis Hamilton or Heikki Kovalainen had been born by then, and none of those four tracks have been on the F1 calendar for at least a decade. Their drivers during those events were Alain Prost (1980), John Watson (1980 and 1981) and Andrea de Cesaris (1981).
2009 F1 drivers' championship - top four (click to enlarge)
Was Silverstone a turning point for Red Bull? If Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have now got faster cars than the Brawns, then the hunt is on to see if either of them can overhaul Jenson Button. Button is 25 points ahead of Vettel and 28.5 clear of Webber with nine rounds remaining.
The British Grand Prix Silverstone, Britain 60 laps; 308.355km
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1h22:49.328 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 15.188 3. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) + 41.175 4. Massa Ferrari (B) + 45.043 5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 45.915 6. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) + 46.285 7. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1:08.307 8. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 1:09.622 9. Glock Toyota (B) + 1:09.823 10. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1:11.522 11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:14.023 12. Piquet Renault (B) + 1 lap 13. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap 14. Alonso Renault (B) + 1 lap 15. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap 16. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap 17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap 18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:20.735
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 25 Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 24
MSN search is now called Bing. The all new search from MSN looks much better and is sending very good traffic to my sites. It is believed that MSN still gives lot of importance to meta tags and keywords. I have a few websites where I use the All in One Seo plugin with wordpress. I put some keywords and descriptions for individual posts which is getting me good traffic from Bing. I have always had good conversions with Bing/MSN and thus using meta keywords is helping me a lot nowadays.
We all are aware of the famous Nigerian Scams. Then there is a scam where you get cheated after getting convinced to change your Mobile Phone talk time plan. While this was not enough, I came across another scam. This scam is done through television. I was aware of such scams before but was never convinced that they are cheating people. I got cheated by these TV channels a few days ago. The channel is called E24. This channel hosts a lot of contests which are easy to win. For e.g. They will cover half face of a very famous actor or actress and then ask us to guess the actor. These guys themselves make fake calls and provide wrong answers to make people believe that this is real. Couple of days ago there was such competition going on. The challenge was to guess the actress and even a kid would guess that she is the famous actress from Bollywood Madhuri Dixit. These guys give a phone number and ask us to hold for very long. They say that the person who holds the line for maximum time will have a chance to win this contest. The contest prize money kept on increasing as people were giving wrong answers and some of them got disconnected. It was really hard to believe that people did not know it was Madhuri Dixit. This program was called Bollywood Dhamal and the prize money was Rs 95,000.
The calls people make on these shows are charged from Rs 7 to Rs 10 per minute. This means, you can easily lose upto Rs 50 or more in such calls as they never answer your call. All they ask is to keep waiting or keep trying again. After doing some research, I found out that NOONE has yet won these contests. This is just a SCAM to make money for themeselves. These TV show owners tie up with network operators. They get a share of the money we spent on dialling these numbers which cost us HUGE money. There was another show on ESPN called STUMPED which I came across recently. The stumped show always concidered me lucky after going through their menu three times. They said they will call me as I am lucky but I never got the call. Why am I always lucky after going through the menu three times? Because I am spending my time and paying for the call charges out of which these scammers get some portion. They also make money by asking us to send SMS. They also say that person who sends most SMS has chance to win. I am sure there are people who waste 100s and 1000s on such scammers. Have you ever got paid by such TV shows? Post in comments to provie me wrong.
I have got a few emails by people asking me questions on various topics related to making money online. I cannot answer them all because I need to know your background and other information for giving you a proper suggestion. Starting today, I will give training or help people one on one. I am sure there are many of you who want to start websites and make money online but are not able to do so due to some or the other reason. I will help you guys for FREE and ensure that you kick start your online money making journey soon.
I will select one person who can get in touch with me via email, Yahoo Messenger or GTalk. I guess around 5 - 7 days for each person will be enough to start his/her online empire. I will help everyone but it will be on a first come first serve basis. Please note that I won't be available forever to help you.
You need to do the following to get my FREE help or training:
Post a comment here with as much detail as possible. Please note that person providing all details will be chosen first. This means if the first person does not post his background and details then I move to the second. The first person will get a chance later for sure.
You will have to document everything you do and provide it to me. I will post it here for everyone else to read and help themselves. This post can have your link of the website we have worked on.
You may also create a PDF which can be downloaded by blog readers here.
Depending on the response and people needing help, I will move everyone to a forum on my site where we all can brain storm and help each other make money online. This forum will be private where we can discuss and share our SECRETS of making money online. Start with your entries soon!
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction: RNR Manohar
Star-casts: Nakul, Sunaina, Pawan, Karunas, Santhanam, Srinath, M S Bhaskar, Raj Kapoor, Santhana Bharathi, Delhi Ganesh, Meera Krishna, Manobala, Tharani and many others.
Music: D. Imman
‘Kadhalil Vizhundhen’ perhaps could’ve been commercially successful with the wild marketing of Sun Pictures. But to be incisive, this endeavor with ‘Maasilamani’ is quite commendable from the point-view of ‘B’ and ‘C’ centres. Director Manohar who strikes with his debut directorial after penning dialogues for various Tamil films has proved himself to be brilliant on penning smart-moved plots. Although, few amongst them in screenplay are illustrating to be absurd, they’re diminished with the good packaging.
After a long time, we tend to hear whistles of cheering from audiences for the fast beat songs. Applause to Imman indeed!
The film’s script is so simple. Born and brought up across the lanes of Rani Anna Nagar slum, Maasilamani is an aggressive youngster who strikes violently when unjust troubles his colony members. He falls in love with Divya (Sunaina) hailing from a rich background and well-pampered by her family members. Eventually, rest of the film is about the girl mistaking the boy to be a ruffian and later how this lad wins over her heart with smart moves forms crux of the story.
The screenplay is so interesting especially in the latter part once Pawan, the police officer is introduced. The protagonist’s smart moves are so decorously planted by Manohar, especially the climax portions with lots of fun and equivalently emotions. However, the filmmaker could’ve avoided the lengthy-dragging dialogues and got it trimmed in climax as audiences are quite perplexed what she wants to convey.
Although, there are certain loopholes in the racy-screenplay, it isn’t much blatant to your cognizance if you’ve merely planned to sit back and relax. The film has much funny movements that are quite enjoyable. MS Bhaskar enacting the role of various actors from Rajnikanth till ‘Ghajini’ Surya is hilarious. Santhanam-Srinath combo works the best alike in ‘Santhosh Subramaniam’. Nakul has improved a lot from his previous film and behaves much matured. Sunaina looks so contrastive from her debut flick as she has lots of rooms for performance, uttering dialogues and glamorous quotients.
Musical score by Imman embellishes the film with good songs. ‘Odi Odi’ is a peppy fast beat number that wins the applause from audiences. Thiru’s cinematography is okay and he could’ve avoided certain shakes on his camera.
On the whole, ‘Maasilamani’ is a film you can watch once if you’re not so concerned about logics.
Lazy, transparent, disposable and at its worst, boring, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is a sometimes beautiful piece of animation consistently ruined by unfocused directing, bizarre editing choices, phoned-in voice acting, and a script which is neither witty nor filled with momentum. Of course it’s in 3D too because the extra dimension, like everything else in the prehistoric troposphere, is yet another apparatus for the film to hastily implement without foresight, planning or success. I guess the first question which comes to mind is why bother? Why bother even finishing a film all involved were clearly so ambivalent about?
Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are having a baby. Or a cub. Or a gosling. Or whatever a newborn woolly mammoth is called. For some strange reason, this impending birth causes Manny to distance himself from all of his friends, probably to give each of them a three minute back story to resolve an hour and a half later like some second-rate, shabby Wizard Of Oz redux. Diego (Denis Leary), a smilodon, fears domestic tranquility has softened his instincts and desire as a hunter. Sid (John Leguizamo), a ground sloth, feels abandoned and adopts three baby dinosaurs. Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), twin opossums, work on their pratfalls and fart jokes. And Scrat (Chris Wedge), a saber-toothed squirrel, well, he’s still wandering around with that acorn, though, this time with a lady frenemy conveniently named Scratte hot on his tail.
After the dinosaur triplets’ mother appears and abducts her own babies along with their captor Sid, 10,000 B.C.’s overbearing and talkative A-Team discover a crack in the ice which grants them access to a more primitive age of grass, foliage, and stegosauruses. There they meet Buck (Simon Pegg), an excited, one-eyed weasel who promises to track Sid and the dinosaurs into a forest of lava. Because, as those of you who are paleontologists out there know, baby T-Rex’s have to be nurtured on or around a volcano. Evolutionary, my dear Baron Munchausen.
Laughing gas, a reptilian-looking Godzilla and ill-tempered birds all show up to put the search party on hold and add a few extra minutes of screen time, but mercifully, a conclusion is reached involving woolly mammoth hatchlings, knives fashioned out of teeth and of course, a cutesy end to each one of the side stories. Hooray for the efforts of conveniently packaging what one started.
It’s not so much Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is terrible as it is disinterested, lacksidasical and slow. Rather than starting with a central idea and adding layers as it works its way out, this film seems to have envisioned several nifty camera tricks and a few time period relevant jokes and cobbled together lame ways to tie it all together. You know how I know this? Because all of Ice Age’s best bits are cutaway shots and snappy one-liners completely unrelated to the plot. A story about a T-Rex being turned into a T-Rachel. Knowing a caterpillar before he came out. The best jokes could not be less relevant to what’s going on, which means they were written separately from the story arc. There’s no playful bantering between the characters, no cutesy, improvised off-the-cuff moments--just fruitless, joyless, forced dialogue inter-spliced now and again with the random irrelevant, original idea.
All the best children’s movies contain subject matter some might say is perhaps too old for the intended viewer. Like Pixar’s newest Up, they expose deep and sensitive issues like death, loss, abandonment, fear, isolation, loneliness, betrayal and greed, knowing little kids can grasp (and stomach) a lot more depth than we’d guess. Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is surface-level fluff barely fit for background noise, too stupid to realize a gag about looking for milk and instead jerking off a bull is way less appropriate for kids than just telling them a real story. With real emotional complexity.
This movie makes The Prince Of Egypt seem like Beauty And The Beast
You know how animated movies of a certain ilk will hire a lot of famous funny people to do voices, hoping to entertain adults but somehow sucking out everything that makes those famous people appealing to begin with? That's essentially what happens, in a live-action way, in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, a movie so stuffed with celebrities that the likes of Christopher Guest and Steve Coogan barely make an impact. Other familiar faces, like Amy Adams and Bill Hader, fare a little better, but are still doing all they can just to keep their heads above the din of this noisy, overstuffed sequel.
Ben Stiller is back again as the master of ceremonies, former Natural History Museum night guard Larry Daley, now a TV pitchman who, surprise surprise, is unhappy with his life despite his riches. He maintains his attachment to his former friends at the museum the way children linger over stuffed animals, going back to visit tiny cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson), tiny Roman soldier Octavius (Coogan), life-size Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and all the others when the museum's lights are off for the night. One visit turns out to be the last, though, when Larry discovers the dusty old exhibits are being shipped off to storage at the Smithsonian, the giant network of museums in Washington, D.C.
Of course it's only a matter of time before Larry's inanimate-by-day friends need him again, and because of something about a tablet and a cranky pharaoh (Hank Azaria) who wants to one-up his brother, Larry is on an all-night adventure across the many Smithsonians, joined by spunky Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams). Other new characters popping up this time are manifold, including the villainous Napoleon (Alain Chabat), Ivan the Terrible (Guest) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), but most notable are the self-aggrandizing, hilarious General Custer (Bill Hader, bless him), and weirdly enough, a statue of Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial, come to life (and voiced by Azaria, obviously).
There's a lot of fun to be had in some minor cameos, from works of art-- Monet's waterlilies come to life like a neon sign-- to virtually half the cast of The Office. But it all goes by so quickly, as Larry flies (sometimes literally) between exhibits and characters barely have time to toss out a joke before moving on to the next big obstacle.The script by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant makes little effort toward combining character moments and action, meaning that characters will stand around and make jokes (or, in one instance, get punched in the head by monkeys) while slowing the story to a halt. Jonah Hill's brief appearance as a security guard is funny, but it makes no sense for Larry to kid around with him while supposedly on an urgent mission. Same goes for the moments of romance between Amelia Earhart and Larry that, while touching, have nothing to do with the story at hand. Plus, she's a wax figurine. Way to make it awkward.
None of this will matter to the primary audience of children, who will laugh at the funny and not-so-funny jokes and enjoy a confirmation, once again, of their secret suspicion that everything comes to life when they're not looking. But it's a shame that director Shawn Levy feels the need to talk down to them, pausing the film for laughs and over-explaining the rudimentary plot. Plus he manages to bring in Ricky Gervais and render him completely unfunny, a baffling crime against the audience for which he must one day atone.
So take your kids, enjoy the zooming action and the slightly nerdy reverence for the past, and try not to think about what this delightful concept might have been in the hands of a tighter, more aware director. It's not the worst family friendly movie you can find, and hey, at least it throws in a little history along the way.
Part of the problem with the movie version of The Da Vinci Code was that it took itself too seriously. You had these people dashing around Europe, investigating obscure clues and uncovering outrageous conspiracies, but the only person who seemed to be having any fun with it was Ian McKellen. "Tom Hanks has never seemed so dull," I wrote in my review.
Well, say what you will about Ron Howard as a director, but at least he's consistent. Angels & Demons, the Da Vinci Code sequel, is as overly serious as its predecessor, and poor Mr. Hanks -- the world's most likable man, for crying out loud! -- is still dour and intense. I get that saving the world from disaster is important business, and the characters may not have time to smile and joke and enjoy themselves. But is it too much to ask for it to be fun for the audience?
Not having read Dan Brown's Angels & Demons novel (which actually came before Da Vinci, not after), I was able to find some entertainment in the mechanics of the plot -- not knowing how the mystery would be unraveled, curious to see what the clues would mean. The screenplay, by veteran action writer David Koepp (Panic Room) and Ron Howard regular Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), basically adheres to a limited point of view -- we don't know any more than the Hanks character, Robert Langdon, does. For viewers who already know where things are going, there may not be much pleasure in watching Langdon figure it out, unless the movie has deviated significantly from the book. This time around, Langdon, relieved of his absurd haircut and back at Harvard University, is summoned by the Vatican after four high-ranking cardinals are kidnapped. The Vatican, in a state of high alert anyway due to the pope having just died, believes the evildoers are members of the super-secret group known as the Illuminati. The reason they believe this is that whoever abducted the cardinals left behind a piece of paper that says "ILLUMINATI" on it. Langdon's expertise is needed because this "ILLUMINATI" symbol is written in the form of an ambigram, i.e., it reads the same right-side-up and upside-down. (Look at how Angels & Demons appears on the cover of the novel.) Allegedly, this is an ancient secret, the sudden appearance of which can ONLY mean the Illuminati have come out of hiding, because surely no one else could have figured out how to design an ambigram out of "Illuminati."
The kidnappers have also swiped a canister of anti-matter from a Vatican-funded lab in Switzerland, with the apparent goal of using it to blow up Vatican City. In the meantime, they've left a video message for the Vatican in which their language sounds normal but is actually densely packed with clues about their plans and whereabouts. Langdon deciphers these clues and, with a scientist named Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) at his side, dashes all over Rome in an effort to thwart the evildoers. It kind of makes you wonder why the evildoers went to the trouble of hiding clues in their message, unless they wanted to be thwarted. Maybe it was a cry for help?
Assisting Langdon is Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), chamberlain to the late pope and current acting head of state of Vatican City (something of a placeholder until the college of cardinals chooses a new pontiff). An orphan, Patrick is devout and humble, and unafraid of uncovering the truth, no matter what it may be. Somewhat fussier and more old-fashioned is Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard), the head of Vatican City's police force, who scoffs at Langdon's code-breaking and old-sculpture-interpreting.
As I said, there's a certain rote enjoyment to be had in seeing the elaborate story unfold, a basic thrill in wondering what's going to happen next. What it lacks is a human touch. Vittoria Vetra is a total blank who might as well have been played by a pile of socks for all the personality she brings. Patrick and Richter are generic types, a Sympathizer and Antagonist, respectively, whose characters never get fully fleshed out. Even Langdon -- being played by the world's most likable man, for crying out loud! -- seems like nothing more than a perturbed academic who must hastily solve riddles and save Rome. He's busy and frantic, but that is not the same as being interesting.
The film also lacks a crisis that can measure up to the one in The Da Vinci Code. That story was ultimately about the divinity of Jesus Christ, with secrets emerging that threatened to shake the Roman Catholic Church at its very foundation! Angels & Demons is about imperiled clergymen and a terrorist plot to destroy Rome -- big deals, sure, but hardly on a par with what sequel-goers are expecting. As a means of dealing with that shortcoming, Angels & Demons flirts with bigger issues, including science vs. religion, and briefly claims that the anti-matter relates to "the creation of life." But this is merely bluster, an effort to make us think the film is deeper than it is. It's ultimately just a 24-style murder-and-mayhem thriller -- which is a fine thing to be. Why take it so seriously, though?
Today, we're launching a host of new features in Google Books that give you more ways to browse and share the content from the Google Books collection. For example, we've added a feature that allows you to embed previews of books in your blog or website, so you can share pages of your favorite books as easily as you would a YouTube video. We've also added a thumbnail view of full book and magazine pages and an improved way to search within books.
Today, we added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. This means you can now translate any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian — whether it's a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message. The service is available free at http://translate.google.com.
We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran. Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone's access to information.
6/18/2009
As with all machine translation, it's not perfect yet. And we're launching this service quickly, so it may perform slowly at times. We'll keep a close watch and if it breaks, we'll restore service as quickly as we can.
We've optimized this service for translation between Persian and English. But we're working hard to improve Persian translation for the additional 40 languages available via Google Translate. If you see something you think is incorrectly translated, we invite you to click on the "contribute a better translation" link and we'll learn from your correction.
The web provides many new channels of communication that enable us to see events unfold in real-time around the world. We hope that Google Translate helps make all that information accessible to you — no matter what language you speak. So please visit Google Translate and try it out.
Twenty 20 is most popular,quick and glamorous form of cricket.The idea of a shortened format of the game at a professional level was discussed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) first in 1998 and then subsequently in 2001. When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one-day competition to fill its place.
On international level,first t20 match was played between Australia and Newzealand on 17 February 2005.
The popularity of this form of cricket increased rapidly after first T20 World Cup Cricket Tournament which was held in South Africa in 2007..
The final of this tournament was played between India and Pakistan.Remember these were two teams which were kicked out from very first round of ICC World Cup 2007 played in West Indies.After a thrilling match,India won this match by 5 runs.Therefore first trophy of this Tournament Gone to India.
After 2 years this Tournament is again playing in land of England. The arrangement of teams in 4 groups are as follow.
Group A=India,Bangladesh,Ireland Group B=Pakistan,England,Netherlands Group C=Australia,Srilanka,West Indies Group D=Newzealand,SouthAfrica,Scotland
Although India,Pakistan and Australia are hot favourite for this tournamnet yet it is difficult to tell anything about this form of cricket Pakistan squad consist of Following players Younis Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Aamir.
Shoiab Akhtar who is famous for his fast bowling is again unfit and therefore he is not playing this tournament On paper,Pakistan is strong team of the tournament but matches can only be won with performance.Younis khan,the captain of Pakistan team, is confident that his team will show good performance in this tournament and will win this Tournament May Allah Succeed Pakistan in winning this Tournament.
Last weekend the Grand Prix of Turkey took place with Jenson Button in the Brawn GP car taking his sixth win of the season followed by the two Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel had claimed pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session as the chequered flag was raised at the end of the session ahead of Button.
Barrichello qualified in third followed by Webber in fourth and Toyota driver Jarno Trulli in fifth. The two Ferrari drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were in sixth and seventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Renault in eighth. Nico Rosberg in the Williams started from ninth followed by Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber completing the top ten.
As the lights went out Vettel took the lead as Trulli moved into third place while Barrichello suffered some sort of problem and almost stalled on the grid, dropping him back several places.
Button passed Vettel exiting turn 10 of the first lap after the German hit the kerb and ran wide at turn 9, meanwhile Webber passed Trulli to take the third place.
Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India was one of the first drivers to pit on lap 5 while in eighteenth place. He had been suffering from some sort of brake problem during qualifying and seems it had not been rectified as he retired from the race.
On lap 7, Barrichello made a pass on Heikki Kovalainen but couldn’t make it stick as Kovalainen re-passed the Brawn GP driver using his KERS system. On lap 9, Barrichello tried again but this time there was contact between the two drivers and Barrichello’s car span on the track, dropping him back to seventeenth and behind the second McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
Barrichello passed Hamilton on lap 9 and then went onto pass the Renault of Nelson Piquet easily on lap 11 before hunting down the Force India of Adrian Sutil. On lap13, however, the Brazilian once again made contact, this time with Sutil, losing part of his front wing and seeing him pit on the following lap, moving him back to fifteenth position.
By lap 15, Button had created a gap of six seconds from Vettel, as Alonso entered the pits for his first stop from seventh place and Vettel pitted from second.
Vettel rejoined in sixth place as Trulli pitted from third. Button then entered the pits for his first stop on lap 17, along with Massa, Webber, and Rosberg, leaving Button to return to the track in first place.
Button led the race followed by Vettel, Kubica and Webber, until Kubica pitted on lap 21 and Vettel began closing in on the Brawn GP driver. The gap became less and less between the front two cars until Vettel once again pitted confirming he was on a three-stop strategy.
Vettel rejoined in third place behind Button and Webber. Rosberg was now in fourth ahead of Trulli, Massa and team-mate Kazuki Nakajima.
Lewis Hamilton, who had qualified the McLaren in sixteenth place, was in tenth by lap 33 and all over the back of Alonso. He then pitted and rejoined ahead of Piquet until the Renault driver passed him going into turn 13 and 14. On lap 28, Hamilton was also passed by Sebastian Buemi in the Toro Rosso.
Button made his final pit stop on lap 43, with Webber doing the same on the following lap from second. Button once again rejoined to take the lead followed by Vettel, who had yet to stop for the third time which he finally did on lap 49.
Barrichello entered the pits for the third time of lap 49, but this time he retired the Brawn GP car after suffering clutch trouble at the start and then a problem with the gearbox.
It was another dismal weekend for the Ferrari team, although both drivers finished inside the top ten at the Istanbul circuit. Raikkonen had a bad start, losing ground at the off and then tangled with Alonso, damaging his front wing.
The Williams driver Nico Rosberg, claimed his best result of the season so far with a fifth place, although he could have had a possible fourth had he not been held up by his team-mate. Nakajima ran well until his mechanics suffered problems fitting his front-left wheel during his final pit stop, putting him out of the points.
Button now lead the championship by 26 points over his team-mate Barrichello, winning six out of the seven rounds so far this season. Mark Webber finished in second place only 7 seconds behind Button ahead of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel in third.
Jarno Trulli finished in fourth followed by Nico Rosberg in fifth, Felipe Massa in sixth, Robert Kubica in seventh, Timo Glock in eighth, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Fernando Alonso completing the top ten drivers of the day.
Here are the results;
1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 58 laps 1hr 26m 24.848s 2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault +00m 06.7s 3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +00m 07.4s 4. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota +00m 27.8s 5. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota +00m 31.5s 6. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 39.9s 7. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber +00m 46.2s 8. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota +00m 46.9s
9. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 50.2s 10. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault +00m 62.4s 11. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber +00m 64.3s 12. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota +00m 66.3s 13. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 80.4s 14. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap 15. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap 16. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil Renault-Renault +1 lap 17. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +1 lap 18. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
Rtd Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 47 laps completed mechanical Rtd Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 4 laps completed mechanical
Fastest lap:
Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 1m 27.579s lap 40
Oh, how Roger Federer savored every moment with his first French Open trophy.
He raised it overhead. He cradled it in the crook of his elbow. He closed his eyes and kissed it. He examined the names of other champions etched on its base. Even in a downpour on Court Philippe Chatrier, as heavy, gray clouds blocked any shred of sunlight Sunday, that silver trophy sure seemed to glisten.
Finally, the lone major championship that had eluded Federer was his. With his latest masterful performance, Federer tied Pete Sampras’ record of 14 major singles titles and became the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam
History was at stake, and Federer was at his best, completely outplaying No. 23-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden en route to a 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 victory in a French Open final that lacked suspense but not significance.
“Maybe my greatest victory — or certainly the one that takes the most pressure off my shoulders,” Federer said in French, moments after dropping to his knees, caking them with clay, as his 127 mph service winner ended the match. “I think that now, and until the end of my career, I can really play with my mind at peace and no longer hear that I’ve never won at Roland Garros.”
Federer came heartbreakingly close in the past, losing the previous three French Open finals, so there certainly was something poetic about his tying Sampras’ Grand Slam mark at this particular tournament, on this particular court.
“Now that he’s won in Paris, I think it just more solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game,” Sampras told The Associated Press.
“If there’s anyone that deserves it, it’s Roger,” Sampras said. “He’s come so close — lost to one guy who’s going to go down as probably the greatest clay-courter of all time.”
That would be Rafael Nadal, the man who beat Federer at Roland Garros in the 2006-08 finals and the 2005 semifinals, too. But Nadal’s 31-match French Open winning streak ended this year with a fourth-round loss to the hard-hitting Soderling.
“I knew the day Rafa won’t be in the finals, I will be there, and I will win. I always knew that, and I believed in it. That’s exactly what happened,” the second-seeded Federer said. “It’s funny. I didn’t hope for it. But I believed in it.”
Only 7-13 against Nadal, Federer entered Sunday 9-0 against Soderling and, other than the threat of postponement because of rain, there was never any doubt that would become 10-0 by day’s end.
That’s because Federer showed off the athleticism and artistry that carried him to five championships at Wimbledon, the last five at the U.S. Open and three at the Australian Open. Federer hit more aces than Soderling, 16-2. He broke Soderling four times. He won 40 of the first 47 points on his serve. He won five points with delicate drop shots
Federer was outstanding at the start, taking a 4-0 lead, and close to perfect in the tiebreaker. That was Soderling’s chance to get into the match, but Federer wouldn’t allow it: The Swiss star served four points — and all four were aces, ranging from 118 mph to 132 mph.
Federer called it “one of the greatest tiebreakers in my career.”
Soderling never really stood a chance, not against Federer, not on this day, not on this stage.
“You really gave me a lesson in how to play tennis,” Soderling told Federer.
This was Federer’s 19th Grand Slam final, equaling Ivan Lendl’s record, and Soderling’s first. Soderling not only shocked Nadal — and the entire tennis world — but also beat No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez and No. 14 David Ferrer.
“Every time I played Roger, after the match, I always said, ’I played so bad today.’ Now I learned that it’s not that I played bad,” Soderling said. “He makes me play bad.”
For only two moments was Federer the least bit shaken: As the last few points were played — victory tantalizingly close — and during a bizarre and worrisome episode when a man jumped over the photographer’s pit and ran on the court.
It happened after the first point at 2-1 in the second set, and the intruder went right up to Federer and tried to put a red hat on him. Federer brushed the man aside before security guards even got close enough to intervene. After hopping the net, the man was tackled and jailed for questioning
“A touch scary,” Federer said, lamenting he didn’t ask for a chance to gather himself. “It definitely felt uncomfortable once he came close to me. Looking back, it definitely threw me out of my rhythm a little bit.”
Federer looked up at his pregnant wife, Mirka, and adjusted his headband, but soon was playing again. He lost that game at love, then quickly settled back into a groove.
Until, that is, the countdown to a championship had gone from matches to sets to games to points.
Waiting in his changeover chair at 5-4 in the third set, Federer shook his legs to stay loose and took a few sips of water, then wiped his face with a towel. Stepping back on court to try to serve out the match, he was churning inside.
“You can imagine how difficult that game was,” Federer said. “It was almost unplayable for me.”
He put a forehand into the net. He sailed a backhand long. He shanked a swinging forehand volley 3 feet beyond the baseline to give Soderling a break point.
“My mind was always wondering, ’What if? What if I win this tournament?”’ Federer said.
He gathered himself, of course, and won the next three points — the last three points of a tournament that meant so much to Federer.
For the next 40 minutes, he stayed on that court, relishing it instead of dreading it. Federer accepted the trophy from Andre Agassi, whose 1999 French Open title made him the last man with a full set of Grand Slam trophies.
“I’m so happy for you, man,” Agassi told Federer. Later, Agassi said: “Roger has earned his place, his rightful place, in the game, and winning here was just something that would have been a bit of a crime if he never did.”
Federer won three major titles each in 2004, 2006 and 2007, but 2008 was a struggle by his — and only his — lofty standards. Slowed by mononucleosis, he lost in last year’s Australian Open semifinals — the only one of the past 16 Grand Slam tournaments at which Federer didn’t reach the final. He absorbed the most lopsided Grand Slam loss of his career in the 2008 French Open final against Nadal, then lost to Nadal again in the Wimbledon final, 9-7 in the fifth set. He also lost the No. 1 ranking to Nadal, before winning the U.S. Open in September.
Then came another five-set setback against Nadal in this year’s Australian Open final, and Federer’s anguish was there for the world to see when he wept during the postmatch ceremony.
Four months later, on Sunday, Federer cried on court again. When the Swiss national anthem played for the first time after a French Open men’s final, tears rolled down Federer’s cheeks, that silver trophy nestled in his arms.
