Schumi single-handedly delivers for Ferrari at Monza

Michael schumacher wins the Italian Grandprix at Monza, the Temple of Speed. With Alonso retiring from the race, Schumacher is now just 2 points behind in Drivers Championship, while Ferrari move ahead of Renault in the Constructor’s championship. Ferrari’s future driver Kimi Raikkonen came home second after starting from Pole.

Schumacher almost lost his 2nd place in to the first corner but regained it immediately. Kubica moves to 4th but soon Massa passes him and Alonso in 7th tries to cut the chicane to pass Heidfeld for P6, but was lucky to escape with it. Till lap 16 the order at the top remained same as Raikkonen pits from the lead and the Schumachers stop on lap 17 has got him just ahead of Raikkonen. This was the defining moment and Schumi held on to the lead to win from there. But the main question is where is Alonso and how many points can Schumi take away from him.

On lap 20 Alonso and massa pits from 4th and 6th place with couple of drivers on single stop before them on the track. Nothing dramatic happened yet and it continued untill the second round of pitstop as usual. On lap 39 Raikkonen pits from P2 and joins infront of Kubica and Massa comfortably. A lap later Schumacher pits from the leap for a 7 second quick stop and rejoins comfortably ahead of Raikkonen in 1st place. On lap 40 Massa pits from 5th place and Alonso gets clean air to have a look at Kubica. On lap 42 Kubica and Alonso pits together and they emerge side by side down the pit lane with Alonso holding the lead. Most importantly they both came out infront of Massa which means Alonso has brilliantly managed to get himself into a podium position after his P10 grid slot.

At this point it looked like Schumi gonna cut the lead by just 4 points. But the most defining moment of the race and Word Championship happened on lap 45 when Alonso is out of the race with a mechanical failure. This made Massa who is behind him ran over the chicane amid the smoke from Alonso’s car. If the order stays at it is, Michael Schumacher will close to within 2 points of Alonso in the fight for the Driver’s Championship. Massa pits for tyres as a result and dropped back to 9th place and out of points.

It means Michael schumacher is alone to deliver for ferrari and he starts his final lap with Tifosi erupting all over in celebration already. And the man at the center of attraction all weekend crosses the line to take his 90th Grandprix win. With World Champion and Championship leader Alonso’s car in air held to the crane, Schumacher completes the lap of Honor.

Check the Ferrari’s official website frontpage from before the race, which shows how confident they are about today and the master of speed, Schumacher delivers it perfectly at the temple of Speed, Monza.

Note: The moment Schumacher won the race Ferrari’s official website went down, may be due to heavy traffic with people checking for Ferrari’s and Schumacher’s future decisions.

Disaster for Schumacher as Raikkonen snatches Pole

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.