An incident packed
race with only 8 drivers crossing the line!
Michael Schumacher won the race from Rubens Barrichello with Takuma Sato
finally getting on the podium. Jarno Trulli starting from the back managed 4th
while Olivier Panis scored a 5th place for Toyota. The 2 McLaren's finished
6th and 7th (who would have expected that!) and Zsolt Baumgartner scores the
1st point for Minardi since the 2002 Australian Grand Prix!
A few highlights;
Michael
Schumacher capitalised on one opportunity to get ahead of Rubens and he
did it. From then onwards everything played into his hands. That is
Michael.
All weekend
Rubens Barrichello had the better of Michael except for a little slip at
the restart when he let Michael through. Having to pit behind Michael also
lost him a few positions but made up most of that time. After one attempt
to pass Michael, it seems that he wasn't allowed to try again and that is
a pity.
BAR gave away
fighting with the Ferrari's by not stopping under the safety car. Takuma
Sato would have pushed Barrichello and Michael. At least he did entertain
us with numerous overtaking moves only a few would dare to make and it was
his team-mate this round that had the gremlins.
Both Renaults
once again had amazing starts. Trulli finished 4th from the back while
Alonso was 3rd after starting 9th. Pity that Alonso had to retire due to a
puncture.
Toyota looked
strong on this track and Panis finishing 5th was a good result for the
team. They have much more work to do if they are to score points
regularly.
McLaren
finishing both cars for the second race in a row. That is an amazing achievement
so well done Ron Dennis and Co. At least you have a driver that can make
up for 2 extra pit stops for topping up air in the car! and still manage
6th ahead of his team-mate.
Well done to
Zsolt Baumgartner for scoring the first point for Minardi since the 2002
Australian GP. Sometimes you can score points just because you were there
at the end!
It is good to
hear that Ralf Schumacher is recovering well. He too suffered a puncture
that sent him into the wall. Juan Pablo had to jump into the spare car and
started from the pit lane. He was on target for a 3rd or 4th until he was
given the black flag for not clearing the grid just a few seconds too
late. It is a pity but you can only blame Williams for their second stuff
up in as many races. If the car isn't starting by a set time, the driver
should have been told to leave. You have to be realistic in those
situations and not optimistic.
Regarding the
punctures, Alonso, Ralf and Fisichella suffered from them (2 Michelins and
1 Bridgestone). The punctures should be thoroughly investigated and if
they are from debris from other cars then a solution must be found because
driver lives (and possibly spectators) are at stake here.
Your
thoughts ?
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What others are saying:
Speed commentators
work "WELL done?" Only if you're referring to an oven. They
generally only suck, but with Varsha back, they have really hit the pits!
Varsha is a world class idiot when it comes to any kind of racing and I can't
believe he got the F1 spot back.
Their constant praising of the idiot, One Pablum Montoad, makes me want to
puke, especially when they turn around and badmouth Sato for driving like
Montoad has since Montoya entered F1. He has been crashing into people and
blowing up engines since day one and has been on a steady course since then.
He especially likes running into the Brothers Schumacher, but he has taken out
several other notables on occasion. And it's NEVER his fault, just ask him.
Can't forget the time he passed Jos Verstappen, then pulled over in front of
Jos with about 3 feet to spare and slammed on his brakes. Old Jos had nowhere
to go, but over the top. Not Montoya's fault, he said so.
Varsha and Hobbs are so eloquent in their praise for him, and have been since
he arrived that I've had to start muting the audio when they start up. Gag me
with a spoon. Then their constant yammering about how the race should have
been red flagged during Ralf's shunt got a bit boring. I'm not going to argue
whether or not it should've been (probably should've), but the bigger problem
here is the crappy design of of typical American racetracks, which, for the
most part are just slot car tracks. There is no runoff room. You get to smack
a wall then end up in the middle of traffic.
Everyone likes to badmouth Monaco for their track layout, but Indy and Circuit
Gilles Villeneuve are the same, or worse. At least Monaco is interesting.
Americans, with their hangup on NASCRAP seem to be enamored with pace cars and
yellow and red flags. It's sad when racing has MANDATORY yellow flags planned
to do a "Tire check?" I've given up watching almost all American
racing due to the idiocy of the whole race being planned around yellow
flags.
As for Eddy Irvine, he had his chance to win the World Championship in '99 and
proved to the world he couldn't do it. End of his story. He was nowhere near
the driver that Schumacher is, or even as he thought he was. He liked to say
he could win it, and beat Schumacher, if he had the chance, the championship
was offered to him on the proverbial golden platter and he blew it.
Personally, I think Schumacher threw the Japanese Grand Prix, letting Hakkinen
win it to keep Irvine from winning the Championship, but allowing Ferrari to
win the Manufacturer's Cup. Irvine obviously wasn't fast enough to beat either
Schumacher or Hakkinen.
Why should Ferrari allow open racing between their drivers anyway? It only
causes problems. How many times have teammates taken each other out with this
open racing stuff. Uh, not since Canada when the idiot Montoad took his
teammate out, or real recently when the two Toyotas took each other out, and
it's been going on for years, Senna/Prost, etc.
If I were a team manager, I would do what Ferrari does, too. Frankly, I think
it's an idiotic idea for team members to race each other like that. If one
driver is faster, he should be allowed to win, if the slower guy is holding up
traffic and the faster guy, the faster guy should be let by. There are enough
other people on the track to have to battle with. Your teammate shouldn't be
one of them. But then we have the AMA Superbike and Formula Xtreme battles
going on between Zemke and DuHamel. Fantastic racing. But, then, who is the
superior rider? And motorcycle racing has a lot fewer cases of teammates
taking each other out as it smarts a bit more to crash a bike than a car. It
does make for good racing, and when you have a half dozen machines in the mix,
the manufacturer is going to get points even if the front runners do fall off.
Two lose all your Mfg points in F1 because two guys on the team decide to dice
it out can be a bit tougher to take - Bare - USA
I was lucky enough
to be at Indianapolis for the race weekend, and had a very good time. The
weather was great and the people were very pleasant. I was in stand 'H' at
turn one, with a very good view of turns Two, three, four and five as well. It
seemed as though every five minutes something was happening right in front of
us. From the four car Pileup at the start, to Alonso's puncture (right around
the same time as Ralf's) to Michael overtaking Ruben's after the second safety
car (he really wasn't in front when they came across the start/finish line
right?) Rubens overtaking move on turn three, Webbers engine meltdown, Trulli
going off the track, Sato's overtaking move (and subsequent trip over the
grass) on Trulli. Even Heidfeld coming to a stop, and the Minardi overtaking
the ailing Sauber to get a point happened right in front of us. It was quite
entertaining. If I had watched the race on TV I would have had a different
opinion I think. Certainly the Speed Channel doesn't come close to doing a
race justice. Regarding Ralf. I would say that all the incidents close to us
were attended to very quickly. This was probably because all the cars involved
ended up off the track. Ralf was in the middle of the track with cars coming
around behind him. Despite this, he was attended to within 90 seconds of him
coming a stop. At this point the race should have been red flagged. There was
way too much debris on the track, and not just around Ralf's car, turn one was
covered in Alonso's carbon as well. I saw Raikkonen run over a big chunk. How
many times did he pit?
While I'm unimpressed at the FIA's 'explanation' of Schumacher not beating
Rubens past the start/finish line (he should have received a drive through
penalty. End of story) I had a fantastic time.
On Sunday evening we just wanted to load up and catch a plane to France! - Tom
H - USA
That was a pretty
exciting race!
First off, I don't know what the heck happened to da Matta at the start, but
he slowed so much before turn 2, and Klein just slammed into him. What a mess
that was. Then they didn't clean up so well, and I think that was what caused
Ralph to Crash.
For the first time in a long time, I was really scared for Ralph. You just
don't see too many wrecks like that in F-1. We get sort of used to it here in
the U.S., with the nature of the tracks and the concrete walls, but not in
F-1. And then Derek Daly comes on and says that he missed the safety barriers,
and smacked the concrete flush, and I was more scared.
I don't know what to say about the safety crew, except I'm sure it won't
happen like that again.
I'm happy to see Toyota improve, and McLaren too. One thing that really stands
out on this track, and thats the level of competition. By that I mean, how
close times are during Qualifying. It's not like at Nurburgring, where the
midfield is 3.5 seconds behind the leaders. It's .5 a second a lap. Which
brings Questions like, is it the elevation changes on the traditional tracks?
Or is it that long straight at the Indy speedway?
I would also like to acknowledge JPM's complaint regarding his
disqualification. I feel the same way. They knew early on that he was
disqualified. How bad would they feel if he was hurt in a crash ?
Since I complained about the Speed TV coverage last week, this week I must
say, "WELL Done". And I like having Derek Daly there, as he adds a
new perspective.
And lastly I agree with Andre. Ferrari isn't fooling me with their talk of
racing. But I think you have to give Rubens a lot of credit. Eddie Irvine was
put in the same position with Schumacher. If they tell you to run third, and
hold up Coulthard, that's what you do. If Schumacher crashes out, and they
tell you to win, that's what you do. That is a stress-full position to be in.
And I don't think it's as easy as we would all like to believe. We all know
how Eddie liked to run his mouth, But he never did with Schumacher. He openly
states how good Michael is, and how hard he was to have as a team-mate. So I
think that probably speaks volumes for what Rubens has to deal with - John
N - USA
The race was a
typical Formula 1 Race. No big deal there. What amazes me is the time that it
took for the safety crews to get to Ralf Schumacher!!! Being from the US I'm
used to seeing the safety crews moving and at the scene of the accident almost
before the car(s) have stopped moving. Luckily Ralf appears to be OK with just
minor injuries. My question is, what would have happened to him if there had
been a fire and the crews took over 90 seconds to get there?? Would he still
have came out of the situation as well?? This is an area that the FIA should
look at very carefully. Safety needs to be a number one priority. Right now it
seems secondary - Bruce C - USA.
The 3 minutes that
Ralf Schumacher had to wait before medical help arrived is inexcusable and
shameful. He could've been unconscious, bleeding profusely and dying. It's so
fortunate that he's O.K and I'm very grateful that that's the case for him. I
hope that this shameful and inexcusable delay in medical treatment is fully
investigated and corrected so that such an inexcusable and shameful delay is
never repeated again. I certainly hope that no one else is injured but if
that's the case, the next driver to be injured might not be so lucky - Nancy
K - USA.
I think the way
the crashes were handled needs to be looked at very closely. It seemed like it
took way too long for the medical people to get out to Ralf's car. And why wasn't
the race red flagged so the track could be cleaned up properly.
Sato must have big brass ones for some of the passing manuvers I saw him pull
off. He made it so he is the hero, if he had not he would be the goat. Over
all it was a great race, it even looked like Rubens actually raced against
Michael, briefly.
I am very happy to hear that Ralf is O.K., just bruised and sore. I hope he
recovers enough to run in France - Jeff S - USA.
Today I watched a
bad play badly played by bad actors. And I'm talking about the fake fighting
between the Ferrari drivers. I still believe that Michael is the best driver
around, and he would be even greater if Jean Todt and Ross Brawn would allow a
fair fight between their drivers.
When Mr. Brawn says "Our drivers were free to race one another" I
feel myself insulted. The last lap before Barrichello's second pit stop was
1'11"3. A piece of something was blamed... Their last 10 laps where
around 1'12" when they were able to do them close to 1'11" (or
less).
The safety car was a good excuse for Barrichello to let Schumacher go and he
just pretended to try to pass Michael when it was near impossible. After that
they brought their cars home.
It's a shame! I'm sorry that Rubens agrees with this kind of
arrangement.
I repeat: Michael is better than Rubens, but it is perfectly clear to me that
Rubens will only be allowed to win under special conditions - Andre B -
Brazil
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