Monday October 09, 2006

The Japanese GP

After the result of the last race Alonso is angry with Renault. He claims some of the team do not want him to win the championship and then take the coveted number one to Mclaren. I was wondering what would happen to the number one sticker if Schumi wins the championship ? Who then gets to put the one on their car? The other point to mention now is the engines design being used cannot be changed again for future seasons and all will be cranked down to 19,000 revs next year I think.

Qualifying again ITV showed it after the event and as we had friends around I was not able to watch it. In the final free practice Schumi is very fast and bizarelly of all the Toyotas are also doing well.

Qualifying one, the usual suspects of Super Aguri are elinated but also the Red Bull cars are out of the qualifying. Luizzi and Albers sneak in to make it into Q2.

Qualifying two, the Mclarens are eliminated leaving them in P11 and P13 and Kubica is also elininated.

Final Qualifying, Massa grabs pole with Schumi alongside him. Perhaps the Toyotas are running light on fuel but they make it to P3/P4. Next Renault and they are not looking good at this point in P5/P6. Honda claim the fourth row in P7/P8. Alonso has a lot of work to do on Sunday.

 1.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   1'29"599  233.320 Km/h  
 2.  5  M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari           B   1'29"711  233.028 Km/h  
 3.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   1'29"989  232.308 Km/h  
 4.  8  TRULLI       Toyota            B   1'30"039  232.179 Km/h  
 5.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   1'30"371  231.326 Km/h  
 6.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   1'30"599  230.744 Km/h  
 7. 12  BUTTON       Honda             M   1'30"992  229.748 Km/h  
 8. 11  BARRICHELLO  Honda             M   1'31"478  228.527 Km/h 

The race, a crucial start for Alonso he needs to be past the Toyotas in his fast starting Renault. There are 130,000 spectators here at the last race at Susuka for a while. Alonso does make it past one Toyota and Button gets past Fisi ,Massa is ahead of Schumi. Rubens has a damaged front wing and has to pit. 51 to go Massa lets Schumi past him Kubica in P10 has a train of cars behind him. 48 to go unseen by us Fisi repasses Button. 44 to go Alonso goes wide and nearly looses his place to Trulli. 42 to go Alonso has recovered and is on the back of Ralph's car. Toyota pit Trulli and Alonso breezes past Ralph . 38 to go EM>Alonso pits and crucially comes out ahead of Massa who is behind Heidfeld. 37 to go Button pits, Schumi a lap later.

33 to go Albers has a really nasty incident after he reported vibration in his car the drive shaft comes off the car destroying the rear of the Spyker. 31 to go Kimi pits and the Schumi/Alonso gap is five seconds. 24 to go Speed has a big off but recovers the car out of the kitty litter. All the four Red Bull cars are in their own train. The gap between Schumi/Alonso had come down to four seconds but after Alonso has made it through traffic it is back to five. Kubica has a big off but manages to avoid the tyre barrier. A marshall bravely has run out and retrieved Alber's drive shaft. A present to show the grandchildren perhaps. Both the Toyotas have now pitted and are running three seconds slower than the leaders. 20 to go Fisi pits. A lap later Alonso does so and Schumi another lap after that.

17 to go Schumi's engine blows he is out of the race Alonso now leads. Unseen Button's last pit stop has him ahead of the Toyotas who are fighting each other for position. 13 to go Webber has a big off and wrecks the side of his car. DC is also out of the race. 12 to go Kimi pits and like Button is now ahead of the Toyotas. 9 to go Button is under pressure from a charging Kimi. The BMW's are also battling each other and Alonso is safe with Massa fifteen seconds behind him. He then goes on to win a very dramatic race.

 1.  1  ALONSO       Renault           M   1h23'53"413  219.983 Km/h  
 2.  6  MASSA        Ferrari           B   +  0'16"102  219.281 Km/h  
 3.  2  FISICHELLA   Renault           M   +  0'23"903  218.943 Km/h  
 4. 12  BUTTON       Honda             M   +  0'34"104  218.502 Km/h  
 5.  3  RAIKKONEN    McLaren Mercedes  M   +  0'43"505  218.097 Km/h  
 6.  8  TRULLI       Toyota            B   +  0'46"706  217.960 Km/h  
 7.  7  R.SCHUMACHER Toyota            B   +  0'48"807  217.870 Km/h  
 8. 16  HEIDFELD     BMW Sauber        M   +  1'16"000  216.710 Km/h 

In two weeks time the last race is in Brazil. Whatever Schumi does if there is a any points finish for Alonso that will mean he wins the championship. But if Alonso has a DNF and Schumi wins Schumi will win the championship by virtue of his greater number of wins during 2006