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2006 F1 season finale

The 2006 F1 season is over and Alonso defended his World Champion title at Sao Paulo, Brazil by finishing the Brazilian GrandPrix in second. Felipe Massa drove a faultless drive from pole position to take the chequered flag at his home GrandPrix. Ayrton Senna was the last countryman to have won at Interlagos, where Massa grew up. But the day belongs to the F1 legend, Michael Schumacher who demonstrated why he is still the best out there in his final Formula one race. Schumacher, the only man who can deprive Alonso started 10th on the grid after technical problems prevented him from setting a time in important final qualifying. To win an eighth World title, he must win the race, with Alonso failing to score. Even though its tough ask from 10th on the grid, no one dared to rule out the possibility as Ferrari dominated all weekend. Read More »

Hat-trick for Schumi as Ferrari dominates again

Michael Schumacher won the 67 lap action packed German Grand prix infront of his home crowd and enliven the 2006 Drivers’ Championship. Team mate Massa is right behind him in well deserved second place. Kimi Raikkonen comes home third for McLaren with Jenson Button fourth in the much improved Honda. Most importantly Alonso is down in fifth which makes the Championship very interesting. Now Alonso got 100 points to Schumi’s 89 in Drivers Championship. With testing ban for everyone for another 2 races and the way Ferrari dominated the weekend, it looks like Renault is in deep trouble. I hope Schumi cuts down the remaining 11 points deficit in the comming two races in Hungary and Turkey. Read More »

Schumacher and Ferrari reigns Supreme in US GP

Schumacher and Ferrari dominated the United States Grandprix at Indianapolis with Alonso managing no better than 5th place. Schumi made 5 wins out of 7 appearances in the US GP for ferrari. Right from the first lap ferrari was on their own race with all others having a race of their own. The start itself was brilliant as, into turn 1 and Massa takes the lead from Schumacher with Alonso side by side with the german. Schumi keeps second, but there has been drama at the back of the grid with a pile up into turn one.

Safety car was deployed. A total of seven cars are in the gravel trap at the first turn. Hiedfeld, Webber, Klien, Montagny, Montoya, Speed, Raikkonen all gone. That was an amazing start for Alonso, for a moment it looked as if he was going to take the lead into turn 1. Replays showed that it was a huge accident at the back, the two mclarens made contact. They in turn touched a Super Aguri. The result was a further impact with Heidfeld’s BMW sauber which sent the german into a spectacular barrel roll. There is smoke comming from Button’s car and he retires in Honda garage. Montoya was the guy responsible for triggering atleast some of the drama on lap 1. Read More »

Even Ferrari’s scooter was quick at Indy!

Everyone might have known already that Michael Schumacher and Ferrari interrupted Renault’s long run of success by dominating qualifying at Indianapolis. Alonso admitted that, tyres aside, one of Ferrari’s advantages this weekend is mammoth straight line speed. He said it felt like he was ‘driving a GP2 car’ when, at one stage at Indy, a Ferrari passed him (He was refering to Massa who overtook Alonso during qualifying.).

Ferrari are untouchable here and if they are reliable and do not crash then their race will be more or less the same as last year - out on their own. We are not going to just give up and not try but to think that we are going to beat them would be idiotic.”

It’s Ferrari’s true pace

Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn says that his team’s dominant performance in United States Grand Prix qualifying is a reflection of its car’s true pace. Having lagged behind Renault in Canada just a week ago, a race where Ferrari expected to be very strong, the team has made a remarkable recovery and claimed a front row sweep at Indianapolis, a second clear of the field. Brawn told ITV Sport’s Ted Kravitz that the speed was always in the car, it was just a matter of waiting for the tyre war to turn in Bridgestone’s favour. Brawn said

I really felt we would be strong in these two races with the nature of the car, We were disappointed in Montreal to not be more competitive, but really we had a tyre problem there. I think what we are seeing here is a situation where the tyres are working well, and shows the true performance of the car.

Alonso does it again in dramatic Canadian Grandprix.

Alonso takes his maiden Canadian GrandPrix win, with seven time canadian GrandPrix winner, Michael Schumacher taking second and Raikkonen in third. Only 14 out of 22 drivers crossed the line as everyone suffered or struggled for rear grip at the hairpin which is just covered in marbles at the end. With just 10 laps to go, Villeneuve went hard into the wall at turn 1 and the safety car was deployed, which enabled Schumi to come close to Raikkonen and eventually pass him at the hairpin to claim the extra 2 points. Raikkonen was really unlucky with heldups at both the pitstops and finally loosing 2nd place.