Sunday, Race Day
This was a triumphant consecutive win for Ferrari today which Renault have been completely owned. Lol! As predicted from F1 experts, Ferrari seemed to have the upper hand in overall package and their pace was cheekily used. And Michael Schumacher took the victorious win in his home land at the Nurburgring.
The engines on the grid were heating up as up the rest lined their cars up into their grid positions. Alonso and his Renault got off to a perfect start staying clear from Michael and Felipe in the sister Ferrari. Felipe almost looked like he would have beaten Michael out of the first corner but it wasnt so. Kimi also had a good start maintaining his position and looked strong as he hunted down on Barrichello’s Honda. Montoya however had a terrible start as he fell back to 11th place. Ours hearts skipped a beat as we all anticipated a clean pile-up free first corner, with just a minor incident between Ralf Schumacher who clipped Vitantonio Liuzzi who then merged into David Coulthard’s way. This little tangle resulted in two retirements already! Coulthard suffered damaged steering and Liuzzi failed to bring his car to the pits for a nose cone change with a punctured rear tyre. His car’s journey ended on track which caused the Safety car to be deployed.
Once the race restarted, Alonso and Schumacher had no tussle between each other Massa followed with Jenson Button behind who also had a good start, jumping 2 places, however Kimi soon striked at him to take 4th place. As the others loomed out in front, Jenson was alone and his Honda forced him to retire just around half way through the grand prix.
Meanwhile, Alonso and Schumacher were feistly trading fastest laps between one another, however there was no ground being made up from the Ferrari. Heads were scratched as we wondered just when Alonso would pit, having gone extra light in qualifying, and to see whether Ferrari had any much more fuel than the Renault. On lap 17, Alonso strided into the pits, while Schumacher hustled past. Alonso’s pit clocked 7.6 seconds, and on the next lap it was Michaels turn for his pit stop. To everyones suprise (including Ross Brawns *wink*), the Ferrari wasn’t heavier at all. No specific ground was made in this round of pit stop, also due to Michaels rough in-lap. It showed he was pushing and so far, Renault seemed comfortable with the result…
Kimi Raikkonen was in the lead of the race, with more fuel to go and he brought in lap after lap fast and consistantly faster lap times. With Alonso just 10 seconds behind, it wasn’t enough for Kimi to gain a position, so he pitted and rejoined back in 4th place behind Massa. Everyones pace became steady with fuller tanks, until the second round of pit stops, Fernando and Michael were stepping on it and contested each other with competitive fastest lap times. Though Michael was just around 0.2 seconds slower, and 1.3 seconds behind, it wasnt enough even for a passing attempt. The team relied on the pit stops to make sure a change in lead was about to happen.
We were all fooled, along with Renault, as Michael’s Ferrari lasted out Fernando’s second pitstop by 3 laps with the extra fuel he took in his first pitstop. Thanks to Ross Brawns tactics, Michael set intense fast laps to beat Alonso and Ferrari succeeded with Alonso bearing down the pit straight and Michael exiting the pits just in time, in fact with a 5 second cushion lead! Kworrr!
Michael lead the race then, while Alonso had to put up with tired Michelins with Massa and Raikkonen gaining up behind him. Despite how close Kimi was to Massa, the order remained unchanged to the finish line. Juan Pablo frustratingly was driving out of the points, and then he suffered mechanical problems towards the closing laps. Fisichella finally got Villeneuve out of his way during the race, by beating him out of the pits. Ahead of them was Rosberg, who drove from 22nd up to 8th place but also had to pit once more so he fell back 7th place. Unusually, there were plenty of retirements all together at the Nurburgring, with just 13 cars finishing out of 22.
My thoughts on the results: What an excellent team work from Ferrari, which shows they very well know how to win races in difficult circumstances. Ross Brawn completely owned Pat Symonds and its a 2-0 to Ferrari since San Marino.
In McLarens point of view, both cars really should have finished. So far, its been about just finishing races, and despite Kimi’s engine upgrade, 4th was the best possible. Juan Pablo had to suffer from which was obvious to me, a weak car due an old over done engine. He had his moments were he looked like he could push, but thats about it. And I’m certain McLaren and Mercedes are working hard back in Woking, however, so far they’ve had to grit their teeths and just face it….for now *wink*
I’m having to grit my teeth through it but my continued support for the team is forever!
Keep Flying Kimi, hold on, don’t you let go okay?
Keep Working McLaren Mercedes, okay?
Saturday, qualifying
Much is anticipated this weekend, as Renault and Ferrari drive into another head-to-head battle. And it is yet to be seen whether McLaren can do something about it. So far, the qualifying today has been reminiscent of the competiton in San Marino, with Honda dropping back though.
Session One had confusion written all over it for the teams, as a red flad occured on the computer systems, despite no red flag on the track. This resulted in an angry Christian Klien who was on a hot lap but had to enter the pits due to the reg flag. Thus, he became knocked out of the session. Jacques Villeneuve also had to pay the price of the timing glitch that occured. The session continued after 10 minutes, with Fernando Alonso setting the fastest lap ahead of a very fast Michael Schumacher, and Kimi Raikkonen. While the FIA were issuing a justified result for Jacques Villeneuve, Fischella popped into second fastes behind his teammates Fernando.
Session Two ensued with an explosion of emotion from Fisichella, who apparantly lost 0.7 of a second according to Renaults telementry, because Jacques Villeneuve held him up on his fastest lap. Seeing how Fisichella reacted, he may have possibly gone faster than Alonso. He demonstrated his frustration at Villeneuve for being knocked out of the second session. Funnily though, Villeneuve continued his way about and did a great lap grabbing 10th place in the session. Up the front, Kimi Raikkonen was setting the pace finally with his McLaren and new Mercedes engine, by beating Fernando. Juan Pablo in the other McLaren managed 5th place ahead of Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari had more pace to show and pushed his car infront of Kimi’s to go fastest in the session with a time of 1.30.2
Session Three ended in a showdown between Renault and Ferrari typically, but this time Fernando Alonso took the honours. He was just 0.2 of a second faster than Michael who seemed to be the fastest of the gang. Ross Brawns acknowledgement of Alonso’s lap showed Michael and his car couldnt match up to it, and he was right as Michaels second try kept 2nd place, but Massa did a great effort to back Michael up in 3rd. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello did reasonably well in 4th and 6th place in their Hondas. Kimi and his McLaren seem to like staying behind as his fastest lap only claimed a 5th position. However, his performance has shown McLaren do indeed have the pace. Juan Pablo had to settle for 9th place with the older engine, and no doubt McLaren are continuing to run with a heavy tank for the race.
FUCK ISRAEL 