Hamilton outsmarts Vettel in Barcelona GP

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, on Sunday, saw a fascinating match up between Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari. This was the fifth Grand Prix of the season, with Vettel having won 2 races and Hamilton 1.

Hamilton and Vettel, winners of seven of the last nine drivers' titles, provided a cliffhanger of a contest today. A contest which had it all. Dangerous contact between the cars, multiple overtaking attempts and smart tyre strategy.

If there were any doubts as to who the favorites for this year's driver's title were, those were answered today as the duo gave enough indication that this season would be a direct head-to-head for the crown.

In the end, it was Hamilton and his team Mercedes’ strategy that saw them through, ably supported by the other Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas.

Both drivers made 2 pit-stops during the 66-lapped race. It was the choice of tyres that made pretty much all the difference.

While Vettel went for Soft, Soft and Medium respectively, Hamilton chose Soft, Medium and Soft, in that order. 

A Soft tire provides speed, and faster turning on corners, while sacrificing durability. A Medium tire on the other hand, is more durable, with a lesser speed. I shall take up tyres in detail in another blog spot.

Hamilton had started the race on pole position, with Vettel on second. After the race began, Vettel soon pulled ahead of Hamilton and started increasing the gap from Hamilton on second, whose Mercedes teammate Bottas was behind on third. 

After coming out of his first pit stop, where he chose Soft tyres, Vettel joined at second position behind Bottas, and realized that he has got to make the best use of this part of the race, where he is on Soft, while Hamilton is on Medium. He made multiple attempts to overtake Bottas in Laps 23 and 24, and was thwarted effectively by Bottas, thus helping Hamilton gain a precious couple of seconds in number 3 position.

Vettel finally overtook Bottas in Lap 25, and soon enough Bottas allowed Hamilton to overtake, showing brilliant teamwork. Vettel meanwhile pushed to extend his lead. 

Lap 37, Hamilton pits, switches to soft tyres, and joins the track 24 seconds behind Vettel. Lap 38, Vettel pits, and he joins back very close to Hamilton, and the two cars come very close to each other, but Vettel pulls ahead, Hamilton isn't too happy and is heard telling on the team radio that he was alongside Vettel and was forced to push wide.

But the advantage is with Hamilton with his soft tyres. Meanwhile, Bottas' engine goes bad in Lap 40, and he is out of the race.

Hamilton keeps striving desperately to overtake, and finally succeeds in doing so in Lap 44, with an amazing maneuver. Vettel now keeps hoping that Hamilton wouldn't be able to take his soft tyres to the end of the race, and would be forced to stop.

Hamilton doesn't, and manages his engine superbly well, keeps extending his lead, and in the last 6 laps, it seems that Vettel has accepted the result. 

Hamilton eventually wins by 3.5 seconds, and closes Vettel's lead at the top of the drivers' championship to 6 points. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a fascinating season on our hands!

The rise and rise of Brand Kohli

Feb 2017 saw Virat Kohli, captain of Team India, making a big announcement on his Twitter, “A new era begins now. With @PUMA. #Forever #ForeverFaster”, heralding the start of an 8-year period for which he shall endorse Puma.

The endorsement deal is worth INR 110 crores, broken up into –

1. Fixed payments of roughly INR 12 crore per annum
2. Royalty payments depending on the brand's business performance

The Puma contract is path-breaking if you consider the fact that no Indian sportsperson has ever signed a deal of this magnitude. In the past, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni have been in the Rs 100-crore club through multi-year contract with sports and talent management agencies, but neither crossed the mark via a single deal.

Puma would work with Kohli in markets like UK, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East and "wherever Cricket is relevant.” The deal helps Virat fill the gap for a sports brand in his portfolio, which had appeared since December, when he decided not to renew his 3-year contract with Adidas.

Currently, the stalwart endorses the following 17 brands apart from Puma –

• Audi
• Boost
• Colgate
• Gionee
• Herbalife
• Manyavar
• MRF
• Nitesh Estates
• Pepsi
• Punjab National Bank
• Samsonite
• Shyam Steel
• Smaaash
• Tissot
• USL
• Valvoline
• Vicks
   

The journey

Kohli’s brand endorsement journey started soon after he captained India U-19 team to victory in the 2008 U-19 World Cup. He was signed up by sports agent Bunty Sajdeh of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment after the 2008 Under-19 World Cup. (Sajdeh also manages endorsements for Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Murali Vijay.)

His first endorsement was in 2010 when he joined actor Genelia D’Souza for Titan’s Fastrack. The deal lasted 2 years and was worth INR 25 lakhs, a miniscule amount as compared to his current earnings.

The ascent       

The years since 2010 witnessed Kohli coming into his own, rising exponentially on the back of some brilliant innings to emerge as India’s leading and one of the world’s best batsmen. He went on to assume captaincy of India in all three formats of the game and of the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. His brand value has increased in sync throughout.

One of his biggest endorsement deals was signed in 2014, INR 10 crore per annum deal with German sports goods giant Adidas, for a 3-year period. The same year, he signed up for a INR 6.5 crore-per-year deal with MRF.

In 2015, the charismatic batsman entered into an 18-month deal with carmaker Audi India (INR 5 crores). Audi thus replaced Japanese automaker ToyotaKirloskar in his brand portfolio.

The enigma that keeps growing

All the different brands have the option of either hiring the endorser on a yearly basis or a day basis. For the day based contracts, Kohli charges INR 2 crores per day (equivalent to the amount Sachin used to charge and higher than MS Dhoni’s INR 1.5 crores per day).

Kohli signs contracts for about 3 days with per day charge of Rs 2 crores. Brands utilizes those three days in photo shoots, press briefings along with other appearances

A notable thing is that Virat is quite selective about which brands he wants to associate his name with. “The brands which he thinks match his personality or he will use, are the ones he opts for,” says Sajdeh. According to industry sources, Tata Motors had approached Kohli but the cricketer chose to endorse Audi over it, even though it offered him lesser money, as the luxury automobile brand “suited” him more.

Apart from endorsements, he also has a plethora of investments in fashion brands, gyms and sports franchises, discussed in detail here.

‘Cheeku’ as he is fondly known in Delhi’s cricket circles, has certainly come a long way from a INR 25 lakh start with Titan to a INR 110 cr contract with Puma. In terms of cricket, he has Sachin’s records to chase down, but in terms of endorsements, he clearly leads the pack and only sky seems to be the limit!

Battle of the Gladiators : Chapter 50

Saturday, May 13th 2017, Madrid Masters Semi Final 1 marked half a century of clashes between tennis' great champions, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The previous head to head had been quiet even, with Djokovic slightly ahead at 26-23.

Here's an interesting compilation on all those 49 matches,in case you are interested.

It is a fact that goes unnoticed that the duo have played more matches together as compared to the more famous Federer-Nadal rivalry, which has seen 37 encounters. The varied playing styles of Nadal and Federer and their great friendship off the court are probably some of the reasons that 'Fedal' is more fabled than Nadal – Djokovic (gosh, we still don't have a moniker for it!).

The formbook 

Coming into this game, the World No. 2 Serbian was on an unbeaten 7 match streak against Nadal, dating back to 2014, however what evened the scales was the fact that Novak had seen a poor start to 2017, and had very recently fired his whole coaching staff before this tournament desperately hoping for a change in fortunes for the season.

Nadal, on the other hand, has been in blazing hot form since the start of 2017, playing in 6 finals, including the epic Australian Open final against Federer (Fedal XXXV, as it was labeled by some) after a painful return from injury. The clay court season had been ominous, with Nadal winning his 10th title in Monte Carlo and Barcelona each. He looked set for his record breaking 5th crown in Madrid, but there stood Djokovic.

Matchup no. 50 

Nadal carried his good form into this game, breaking Djokovic in the first game itself, much to the delight of the crowd. He broke again in the third game, and then served to go 4-0 up. The first set was done and dusted in 40 mins. Djokovic made many unforced errors and continued looking a patch of his dominant self who had been in red hot form for last couple of years.

The second set started with Nadal breaking in the second game, but the third game saw Djokovic trying to break the flow and come into his own. The returns were back, and so was the fighter comeback spirit typical of Djokovic. He broke Nadal back in the third game, and then served brilliantly to win his service game to nil. However, the brilliance came through only in patches, as Nadal clawed back and left his stamp on this encounter. With 1 hr 40 mins on the clock, and 5-4 up, Nadal served for the match, had two match points. But, Djokovic, as we have so often come to see in the past, magically rises his game and goes on to save both of them. However, today was not his day, as has been the story this season, and Nadal closed the game on his third match point.

How does Djokovic move on from here? Who would he appoint as his new coach? Can he overcome his mental demons or is the current slump a sign of something bigger? Many unanswered questions, but tennis would eagerly await the great Serb to come back into his own.