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.
Fernando Alonso was penalised by the F1 Stewards at the hungaroring on Friday for dangerous driving in front of Robert Doornbos during free practice. Apart from the Spaniards incident with Doornbos, Alonso also overtook him under yellow flags. Both incidents will cost him one second each during qualifying. The angry hand gestures at Doornbos were similar to those directed against championship rival Michael Schumacher in the Hockenheim pit lane a week ago. A statement said the reigning World Champion’s antics were ‘unnecessary, unacceptable and dangerous’, while Alonso (also) also overtook under a yellow flag.
The Spaniard will have two seconds added to his lap times in each of the three sections of knockout qualifying on Saturday, which could leave his Renault car stranded down the grid on a circuit that is notoriously difficult to pass on. For Alonso it will be almost impossible now to make it to the final knock-out round in qualifying with a total of two seconds being added on his qualifying time. Read More »
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 »
kimi Raikkonen snatched a surprise Pole position from Michael schumacher at Mclaren’s engine partner Mercedes’ home event. Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Ferrari dominated the session right up until Raikkonen’s clocked in the Pole time. Schumacher starts second and is firm favourite to take the win tomorrow while Massa once again did a great job for Ferrari and starts third. The practice form suggested that a third successive Ferrari front row lock out was on the cards, and indeed the Maranello squad had things all its own way in the first two knockout sessions. But come the decisive 15-minute shootout, Schumacher had no answer for Raikkonen’s pace and wound up 0.135s adrift. But the good news is that the rivals, Giancarlo Fisichella is only fifth and world champion Fernando Alonso looking lost in seventh. It was all smiles at Honda who have Jenson Button starting fourth with Rubens Barrichello sixth.
With every one guessing that Raikkonen is undoubtedly light on fuel for the start of the 67-lap race, Ferrari and Micheal Schumacher along with Massa looks strong while Alonso has an uphill task as in Indianapolis to save his lead in the Championship. As usual, I will be posting a complete review of tommorow’s race.
Ferrari has pumped in another $26 million to boost Michael Schumacher’s charge for an eighth World Championship in 2006. Buoyed by the German’s dominance at Indianapolis, Jean Todt convinced his backers to bolster this year’s Ferrari budget, according to German newspaper Bild.
At Jerez last Friday, in preparation for the upcoming French Grand Prix, the 37-year-old Schumi set a new test lap record with a rejuvenated completely overhauled Ferrari 248 F1 car. Although Ross Brawn insists that it is not a ‘B’ specification, the heavily revised 248 features a new engine cover, front wing and engine, improved aerodynamics, packing an extra 20 hp. Read More »
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 »
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.”
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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.
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Michael Schumacher and Ferrari secured the pole position and front row in United States Grand Prix Qualifying with a scintillating performance. Schumacher and Massa dominated all saturday finishing 1-2 in the third and final practice and finally securing the front row in qualifying. Its one of the dominating performances by Ferrari after a long time with Alonso managing only 5th place. Schumi trails Fernando Alonso by 25 points in the championship but enjoys a formidable record at Indianapolis and hinted at another successful weekend today.
World champion Alonso, who has NEVER finished a race at Indianapolis was down in 5th and anything can happen in the race but IMO Schumi will take away minimum of 4 points from Alonso’s lead in this race. Ferrari really looks to have got their strategy right here at Indianapolis, so lets wait and see what happens tommorow. Read More »
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.
On the whole its a boring first half and the second half was little bit exciting with some overtakings. Ferrari and Schumacher have lot of work to do to catch up Renault in the next weekend’s United States GrandPrix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Read More »