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.
