Monday June 12, 2006

Silverstone the British GP

The silly season gets to start earlier every year in F1. There are strong rumours that Kimi has signed for Ferrari but now it seems they are also looking at DC and even Button is mentioned. I am sure the latter would like to be a in winning car and not in his Honda Civic performance based car at the moment. Even if Schumi stays at Ferrari, Massa unless he improves does not look like he will be in the red car next year. Back to qualifying.

Due to a mistake in my part I missed most of qualifying. Button and Webber were both knocked out in session one after posting a time and not going out near the end of the session to save the skins. In any case Button was again slower than his teammate in the free practice. However his team did him a diservice, as he got called into the weighbridge during the session and he had time to do another lap, but they did not send him out.Alonso will be pleased to see Kimi on P2 to keep Schumi at bay.

1.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   1'20"253  230.616 Km/h  
2.  3  RAIKKONEN    McLaren Mercedes  M   1'20"397  230.203 Km/h  
3.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   1'20"574  229.697 Km/h  
4.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   1'20"764  229.157 Km/h  
5.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   1'20"919  228.718 Km/h  
6. 11  BARRICHELLO  Honda             M   1'20"943  228.650 Km/h 

A clean start for the race but in the midfield trouble was brewing as Speed managed to take out a slow starting Ralph and Webber. Button was making good progress up to P14. To clear the track the safety car was deployed and when it comes in Alonso controls the pace until the start finish line he does his dodgy speed them up slow them down tricks. Kimi gets close to him and also Schumi nearly passes the Mclaren but does not make it stick. 54 to go and Button has passed two others to get up to DC they are in P11/P12. Heidfeld is doing well having got up to P6 at the start he is being chased by Montoya. 50 to go and Button's dream of salvedging some points out of this weekend go up in smoke like his car. He is seen walking back to the pits smiling and waving to fans. He even gets up close to them to shake a few hands. Nice touch.

48 to go and only three seconds seperate the top three cars. It is expected that Schumi will pit first then Kimi then Alonso It falls just like that. However before he pits Alonso posts a series of fastest laps showing his consistant driving style. After this round of pit stops the BMW Sauber's have not stopped and Heidlfeld is in P2. hHwever when he pits he has trouble getting away and his pit stop is extended by eight seconds. JV stops with 33 to go. 30 to go and Alonso is well clear of Kimi who has the Red Baron of Schumi glued to his wing.

It is difficult to see how even Ross Brawn can with Schumi can get him past Kimi. He pits first and almost without ceromony does a few blizy fast sectors and after Kimi stops he has bagged P2 off him. Amazing Schumi at his best. With 7 to go Fisi is catching Kimi but does not get past him. The race result:

1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:25:51.927
2. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari +00:13.951
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 00:18.672
4. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 00:19.976
5. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:31.559
6. Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) McLaren 01:04.769
7. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 01:11.594
8. Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) BMW Sauber 01:18.299

Rubens underlines the rotten race pace of the Honda by coming in at P10, perhaps even Honda Civic is being optimistic.. The BMW's underline a strong part of the season for them with another points paying finish. The finishers are quite interesting because the manufacturer places one to three are repeated four to six. All of those latter places are at least twenty seconds beind their respective team Leaders back to school you guys. Canada in two weeks.