Posted in Race Results on Jul 31st, 2006 No Comments »
Ferrari dominated the German grand prix with a brilliant 1-2. Michael’s spirited race win saw him cut the lead in the world championship to 11 points with six races to go. From now on if Michael wins every race he will become the first ever Eight time World Champion.
Massa’s brilliant drive saw him tail Schumacher from the start to the end of the race. The Ferraris controlled the race from the 16th lap onwards when race leader Kimi pitted. The scarlet cars were hardly ever 5s separate and had an astounding lead of about 40s going into the end of the second stint.
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Posted in Qualification on Jul 29th, 2006 No Comments »
Kimi Raikkonen showed a spirited comeback for the Mc Larens as he took pole for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. The Mc Laren picked up the pace slowly in the session and did a magical 1m 14.070s lap of the circuit, almost two-tenths of a second faster than the nearest competitor.
Ferrari took 2nd and 3rd led by Michael who put the fastest lap of the entire qualification in the second session. Massa looked strong as well providing the German the required buffer to the Renaults. Button will lineup next to Massa in the second row, the Hondas impressed right through the session with very quick laps.
Fisichella and Barrichello form the 3rd row. Giancarlo was quicker than Fernando in every session of qualification probably indicating that the engine change between the Renaults might be quiet significant. Barrichello followed his team mates footsteps to take respectable 6th in qualification.
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Posted in Qualification on Jul 16th, 2006 No Comments »
The questions of a french revenge for the World Cup were thrown out of the window as Ferraris dominated Qualification and kept the charged-up Renault’s at bay. Michael’s spirited performance in the three sections of qualification was justified as he took Pole. Massa proved the Ferrari’s return by sealing the second spot.
Alonso’s heroics gave him a decent 3rd spot in the starting grid after he and Michael went no holds barred at the start of the 3rd qualification session. The two produced the higest overtakings we hv seen in a very long time by passing each other once right after they had a mano-e-mano when the session turned green.
Toyota’s were inpressive in quali for the first time qualifing ahead of the Mc Larens and Fisichella who look like they are on a heavier fuel strategy.
The race will be really intersting, clearly the Ferrari’s are faster in the first section of the race track and the Renault in the second and third(Alonso setting faster sector times). This means that the scarlet cars are faster in the faster section and Renault’s aerodynamics kick in, in the remaining part of the lap. This difference will be minute compared to the effect of track temp and tyres.
The race in my opinion will be clearly be between Alonso and Michael, the start and positions after the first lap will be the important factor. If it turnes out like Indy it can easily be Massa, Alonso and Michael to the first corner.
My Predictions:
1. Alonso/ Michael
3. Massa
Qualification results
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Posted in Race Results on Jul 3rd, 2006 No Comments »
If there was a way to respond to 5 consecutive poles and 4 consecutive victories, it was shown in Indianapolis. Michael Schumacher produced a scintillating performance to get pole,the fastest lap and win ahead of his teammate. The biggest statestic in the race is clearly Michael Schumacher - 10 points and Fernando Alonso - 4 points.
The race did not start perfectly for Michael but it was far better than 7 other cars whose American adventure ended within 5 seconds of the start lights. The incident involved Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Scott Speed, Christian Klien and Franck Montagny. Button managed to continue but only for another lap after which he retired.
Up front Massa and Alonso had impressive starts getting ahead of their teammates. Massa would lead the pack of cars behind the safety car till about lap 6. So far there had been only 3 corners of racing and in it Alonso nearly upset Michael’s race by brilliant move into the first corner. The Ferrari’s held their nerve and dominated once the restart happened.
Alonso was clearly holding up Giancarlo whose car was clearly the faster of the two. At lap 15 Giancarlo got ahead of Alonso and replays indicated that Alonso gave way so as to not spoil his teammates race. Alonso had little to do with the race result after that.
Michael was only a second off Massa and in the first set of pitstops went ahead in a blaze of fastest sector times. He went on to put the fastest lap of the race and there was nothing he was worried of after that. Massa held his position comfortably as Fisi in third could only at best equal the Ferrari’s pace and that happened only once every 5 laps or so.
The race was prefect for Trulli as he started in the pit lane and with a well controlled single pitstop strategy. He managed to get past Alonso when the Spaniard pitted for his second stop.
The pace of the Ferraris was so incredible in this race that fingers have been pointed to Michelin. Most ppl think that they might hv gone for a conservative tyre compound to make sure last year’s incident does not repeat. The fact that four of the top five fastest laps were from Bridgestone runners indicates the same.
Renault will look to answer back to Ferrari’s warcry in a couple of weeks as we head to Renault’s home Grand Prix in France. Michael will be looking to gain more points as the teams head for Europe and Ferrari will be itching for more success.
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Posted in Qualification on Jul 2nd, 2006 1 Comment »
Michael Schumacher produced the best laps seen at Indianpolis to take pole for tommorow’s United States Grand Prix. Massa produced a scorcher to slide himself into the front row and look to help Michael gain some ground over Fernando Alonso.
Renault have looked in compleat disarray so far this weekend as they were totally outclassed by the Scarlet cars. Fisichella was the fastest of the two Renaults right behind the Ferrari’s and Rubens Barrichello took 4th in the last lap of the race to get into the Ferrari-Renault mix. Alonso seemed to have chosen to play a stratergic race and had to be satisfied with 5th after recieving a scare in round 2 when he almost got eliminated.
Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button, Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Nick Heidfeld made up the top 10. The Mc Laren struggling produce a decent lap and Nick had to park his car a few mins into the 3rd session probably costing him 10 spots on the starting grid.
The race looks like a proper Ferrari comeback and I doubt unless there is a engine(or mechanical) faliure Michael will be stopable. Alonso will hv to fight his way to 2nd and I think he should not have anyproblems getting there(probably stopping one stop lesser than the Ferrari’s) Between Massa and Fisi I think the scarlet car must take this one.
My Predictions:
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Fernado Alonso
3. Fillipe Massa
Qualification Results
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