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Pit Stop

It may be two weeks after the event, but I am still a bit stunned that Max Mosley is still president of motorsport's governing body, the FIA.

In the run-up to the vote in France, Mosley was a bit like Hillary Clinton - doomed to failure and yet refusing to throw in the towel when it seemed the right thing to do. After his amazing victory at the FIA council he's more like Hillary's husband, Bill - the comeback kid. How on earth did he manage to overturn the odds and stay on as president?

A large part of it seems to be the odd form of democracy the FIA practises. The organisation is made up of national clubs, but the size of each of them is not reflected in the amount of votes it wields. So the 103 votes cast for Mosley reflected only five per cent of the ordinary membership. The American Automobile Association and its Canadian counterpart represent 60 per cent of the membership but had just a solitary vote each.

Of course all of the 170 delegates were men. I can't help but think that had to be a huge advantage for Mosley. I suspect women may well have taken a much dimmer view of his actions with a gaggle of prostitutes and not have accepted it was purely a private matter among consenting adults.

Of course Mosley's arguments are nonsense and his behaviour both before and after the vote show this. He has become a pariah; something that became blatantly obvious when Bernie Ecclestone said his position was untenable.

It's led to the real possibility that Formula One may look to break away from the FIA. The two men, friends for decades, are locked in a 'cold war' as the two sides argue over a new agreement for the running of the sport. The tension isn't helped by the cancellation of a meeting between the two this week.

In this light, Mosley's victory is a hollow one. How can he savour it when he isn't welcomed at grands prix? As the man no-one wants to be photographed next to, he has had to relinquish his public duties and instead pull the levers from behind the scenes. You've got to ask, what's the point? Especially as, to mollify FIA members, he agreed to leave office in October next year at the end of his current term. It would have been better if the FIA council members had acted like real politicians and had the conviction to implement regime change.

From a man who is history, to one who has a glittering career ahead of him - Robert Kubica. You may recall from an earlier column how he has gone on a diet to help redistribute the weight of his car. In Canada, it all paid off with a glorious win in a BMW one-two - all the more remarkable given it was the same track at which he suffered a horrible high-speed accident the year before.

More remarkably, it leaves the Pole in pole position - at the head of the driver's championship. It seems we were too busy watching the dust-up between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton to realise there was another part of the equation. It just shows it's fine to be fast, but consistency is the thing to cherish.

Of course he did have a helping hand in Montreal, and no doubt he would have bought a beer later on for Hamilton. Let's be honest, we've all done it, well I certainly have. You need to get a move on, perhaps you don't have your mind on the road ahead and all of a sudden you've back ended someone at a red light.

Sadly for Hamilton he took out Raikkonen at the end of the pit lane in front of a TV audience of hundreds of millions who all saw the Ferrari driver's furious reaction as he pointed over to the lights. How you fail to see two stationary cars or hear your pit crew yelling 'Red light!!' on the radio, I don't know. Although, as I say, many of us have done similar things.

Mind you, in my case the driver in front agreed there was no real damage and off we went on our merry way. Hamilton not only ruined Raikkonen's race and upset his bosses and fans, but also goes into qualifying in France with a 10-place penalty on his back. That's got to hurt almost as much as losing your no-claims bonus.

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