Monday July 17, 2006

The French GP

After two races in North America the F1 circus returns to Europe to the French Magny Cours circuit. Two changes for the rest of the 2006 season Montoya has left Team Mac now and the final qualifying session has been reduced to fifteen minutes from twenty.

During qualifying Sauber ran their ugly vertical wings on the front of their cars. Honda were having another torrid time and Button ended up in P18, Rubens got dumped on the second session in P14. In the last session Alonso was following Schumi on the track and overtook him. They both then pitted at the same time for new tyres for their flying laps. Schumi was fastest and Alonso had to pit for new tyres to try again. He failed to do so and with Massa on P2 Ferrari have locked out the front row. Renault will want one of their fast starts on race day. At the end Toyota looked good and both cars delivered good lap times. Kimi was nearly out run by Pedro but got ahead of him at the end. Fisi was a dissapointing seventh. Mercedes have in this qualifying been the first team to break the 20K barrier ( evs).

1.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   1'15"493  210.345 Km/h  
2.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   1'15"510  210.298 Km/h  
3.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   1'15"785  209.535 Km/h  
4.  8  TRULLI       Toyota            B   1'16"036  208.843 Km/h  
5.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   1'16"091  208.692 Km/h  
6.  3  RAIKKONEN    McLaren Mercedes  M   1'16"281  208.172 Km/h  
7.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   1'16"345  207.998 Km/h  
8.  4  DE LA ROSA   McLaren Mercedes  M   1'16"632  207.219 Km/h  

At the start the front runners hold their places despite Alonso's best efforts. Webber gets up to P8 and DC drops to P11. Sato also drops out of the race soon after it starts. 63 to go and Alonso is getting closer to Massa but not enough to make a move. Schumi is four seconds ahead of his teammate who is clearly slowing Alonso up by slowing his own pace. Rubens has a train of cars behind him goes wide and lets Speed past him.

56 to go and Schumi is posting fastest laps; Monteiro has a big off and bounces down into the gravel. De Rosa is having plenty of goes at Webber but cannot make any of them stick. JV gets past Rubens. 54 to go Massa pits and rejoins in clear air with new tyres on. Alonso is looking very ragged on track. 53 to go Alonso pits as does Kimi early for him. Schumi pits with 52 to go as does Fisi. 51 to go Rubens pulls out of the race and Trulli pits. De Rosa has got past Webber in the pit stops.

49 to go Button stops as does Rosberg, Ralph also stops and has a bad stop - trouble with a tyre change. Schumi is now back in P1 ahead of his teammate and Alonso. 44 to go Kimi gets past Trulli in what looks like a quick snooze moment for the Italian. 37 to go Schumi eight seconds ahead of Massa and Alonso is five seconds behind him. 34 to go Alonso is held up badly in traffic and looses more time to those in front of him. Heidfeld is overtaken by De Rosa. 32 to go Schumi pits again and comes out just behind Alonso he now is a pit stop ahead of his rival. He wisely keeps clear of the Renault

Webber's rear tyre delaminates and has him off the track but he recovers to the pits for a change. 30 to go Trulli pulls out of the race. Webber has another tyre change but a long stop to try and understand what is going on. 29 to go Alonso and not well reported has a longer fill than expected. 25 to go Webber rejoins the race and Rosberg comes in for similar treatment. 21 to go Kimi is catching Alonso by 1/2 second a lap.

18 th go Kimi less than four seconds behind Alonso and the three stoppers now pit but Alonso does not need to. When all the stops are complete Pat Symonds has got his driver into P2 minimising the damage to his championship lead. 8 to go Webber is retired, and soon after that Button does so from P11. In the end Schumi wins and is the first driver to win a race eight times in total. Another record for him.

 1.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   1h32'07"803  200.968 Km/h  
 2.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   +  0'10"131  200.600 Km/h  
 3.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   +  0'22"546  200.151 Km/h  
 4.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   +  0'27"212  199.983 Km/h  
 5.  3  RAIKKONEN    McLaren Mercedes  M   +  0'33"006  199.775 Km/h  
 6.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   +  0'45"265  199.335 Km/h  
 7.  4  DE LA ROSA   McLaren Mercedes  M   +  0'49"407  199.187 Km/h  
 8. 16  HEIDFELD     BMW Sauber        M      1 lap(s)  

Next race Hockenheim seventeen points seperates Schumi from Alonso