Bharath Kumar

Raikkonen snatched his second straight Pole position for tommorow’s Hungary Grand Prix with a stunning last minute lap. It was heartbreak for Massa as he was the fastest driver all day behind Michael Schumacher. Meanwhile Schumacher was given an identical penalty as Alonso for overtaking two cars after the red flags had been deployed to halt the final practice session. Jenson Button’s Honda engine had expired, putting oil down on the circuit. That means that both Alonso and Schumacher came into qualifying with two sec time penalties to be added to their best lap times. As a result Michael and Alonso were out of the final shootout lying in 12th and 15th place respectively. But as Button drops 10 places down from 4th to 14th, Schumacher starts from 11th while Alonso will be pushed back to 16th and his team mate Fisichella will start from 7th place.

Michael Schumacher will have to do everything he can to get the maximum points from 11th on the grid, but it is worth noting that Nigel Mansell started one place lower in 1989 in his Ferrari and won the race. Well Schumi, I cant think of anyone else who can do that as the Ferrari dominated all the weekend so far. As usual I will be posting the complete review of tommorow’s race, which should be an interesting one.

Schumacher and Ferrari, dominant all weekend to date swept the second row while Renault secures the front row at Circuit de Catalunya. Alonso celebrated his second successive Pole position and first at his home race with his team mate Fisi grabbing the second spot on the front row. Schumacher now has a real fight in his hands, but his 248 F1 does seem to have a straight line speed advantage here in 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. So, the scene is set for another epic duel between Ferrari and Renault.

In other news Schumacher announced on Thursday that he could delay his decision to continue with Ferrari or quit the sport until the end of the year and Ferrari is quite happy to wait until the end of the season. Technical director Ross Brawn thinks someone of the magnitude of Michael gets as much time as he wants and we have to work around it. This news could mean that Schumacher is still considering retiring, and after two-straight wins he has the form to win this year’s championship. What will be better than for the Ferrari legend to go out than by securing an eighth title?.

Michael Schumacher says Ferrari is gearing up for an all-out assault at Imola. Ferrari is preparing a significant upgrade for its first home Grand Prix of 2006. The red car driven by Michael Schumacher at Imola later this month will boast better aerodynamics, a stronger V8 engine with revised pistons, new front and rear suspension and new Bridgestone tyres. ”We are going to work flat out for three weeks,” Schumacher vowed. The 37-year-old will test the new Imola-spec package next week at Barcelona. Ferrari Principal Jean Todt said: ”I think we can be competitive at Imola — exactly how competitive, we will find out. ”Much depends on the other teams. We will have a significant upgrade in Imola, but we will not be the only ones.”

The seven-time champion, who crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix having struggled for pace on cold tyres, said that his performance in Melbourne is not representative of Ferrari’s competitive level in 2006. “performances like that of this weekend are not our objective,” said Schumacher. “This year is completely different,” he said. “This time we are much more competitive and our all-round package is much better than it appears. However, in the course of this weekend we did not show this. Read More »