Michael Schumacher finishes in style

The last race of the 2006 Formula One season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, turned out to be an emotional one. Felipe Massa won his home race to give Ferrari a well deserved finish at the top of the podium. Fernando Alonso retained his driver’s title with a well-controlled race. But above all, Michael Schumacher gave us a stunning display of driving by finishing fourth after some disastrous moments beyond his control in the final race of his brilliant career.

It seemed like luck had deserted Schumi when a fuel pressure problem forced him out of the 3rd round of qualifying pushing him down to 10th place on the starting grid. As the race began, Schumacher applied pressure on Fisichella and overtook him in the 9th lap. However, he soon pitted to replace a tyre that was probably damaged by debris left behind by Rosberg’s crash. He fell down to 19th position, but what followed was some superfast, record-setting laps. In due time, he passed Barrichello and with 9 laps remaining, he forced Fisichella to make a mistake and go wide and overtook him.

But immediately he seemed to lose speed and it felt like the fuel pressure problem had kicked in again, but he soon got back upto speed and challenged Raikkonen who did well to block him on one lap. However, Schumi pushed hard again and squeezed his way through the inside as Raikkonen desperately tried to close the small opening between his car and the pit wall. That move right there was proof enough that Schumacher was still at his peak.

One can only wonder what the result would have been had engine trouble not hit Schumi during qualifying. Though not a fitting end to an illustrious career, the race was a fitting end to the 2006 season.

As for Schumi, well, let’s all wish him good luck for his future and thank him for all the wonderful racing that he has treated us to.

Schumacher is still the winner for me

He set the best timing in qualifying, he set the fastest lap of the race, he had the highest average speed of the race, and he started last on the grid at position no.22 and finished the race at position no.5. This is the stuff that winners are made of. This is what set Michael Schumacher apart from the rest of the Formula 1 drivers.

The drama started on Saturday when Schumacher set the fastest timing in qualifying to secure pole position. However in the final corner in the final session of qualifying, he seemed to lock up his brakes and came to a stalled his car on the circuit. This apparently forced the other drivers to slow down.

The stewards summoned Schumi and he was stripped of his pole position. These guys are a bunch of knuckleheads. According to them:

Schumacher had no justifiable reason for braking so hard, as he had been traveling little or no quicker than at the same point on previous laps. In conclusion, Schumacher deliberately stopped his car on the circuit, an infringement of the sporting regulations

Race rivals Renault claims that Schumi’s actions prevented Alonso from setting a time better than his. YEAH RIGHT! They must be talking right out of their arse!

I have two questions for these nincompoops:

1. If Alonso was going to go faster on this final lap to try and better Schumacher’s qualifying time, wouldn’t Schumacher be trying the same resulting in a human error forcing him to brake hard? This is precision driving we are talking of guys. Even a “little” quicker on a corner can propel you into the barriers.
2. Why the hell didn’t Alonso go faster in the earlier laps? Was he playing catch-up? What for? Doesn’t he have the balls to go all out and set a benchmark himself and force others to play catch-up?

Shame on you FIA!

Shame on you Renault and Alonso!

Go Schumi go! We all know that you were the best driver in the race today. Climbing up 17 places on the Monaco circuit where overtaking is almost impossible is a skill possessed only by the best out there.

Michael Schumacher: Champion stuff

Those of you who saw the Formula 1 race today at Imola would definitely understand the title. The weekend started of brilliantly for Schumi and Ferrari as he established a new world record by securing his 66th pole position and emulating – whom I consider the greatest F1 driver ever – Ayrton Senna. This event itself was ironic since it was at this very track, twelve years ago, that Senna lost his life when he crashed during the race.

It was just one of those days when it seemed that nothing would go wrong for Schumi. Coming off a disappointing season last year and not really having a great outing so far this year, it was a welcome change for the Tifosi (Ferrari fans for the uninitiated) and what better location than Italy – the land of Ferrari.

Schumi got off to a brilliant start and was already pulling away into the lead and the crowd, which was a sea of red, was going wild. He had scored the fastest lap timings in each of the first 10 laps. His run was broken by another Ferrari, his teammate Felipe Massa. Then Fernando Alonso set a scorching lap 12 timing, only to be scorched by Schumi again in lap 13. As the race progressed, things looked comfortable for Schumi until he hit traffic. The tight turns at Imola prevented him from lapping the slower cars and had to slow down till he got to an open straightway. This gave Alonso a chance to catch up with Schumi.

Now the race was on and Alonso was right on Schumi’s tail applying all the pressure he could. This is where you begin to understand the difference between a champion and the others. This is where you have Schumi and then you have other drivers. With the kind of pressure being applied by Alonso – whom I consider to be the next best thing to happen to F1 after Schumi – any other driver would have pushed his car too much and would have committed a blunder and thrown away the race. But not Schumi! He began toying around with Alonso. He would slow down more than necessary into the turns, just to break Alonso’s momentum. Now Schumi was dictating the pace of the race instead of Alonso.

The two were going nose-to-tail and then it happened. With 4 laps to go, the pressure had its effect and a blunder was committed. No, not by Schumi, but Alonso! On one of the turns, Schumi as always had the gates neatly locked and Alonso tried a little too hard, went a little too wide into the turn and lost a few vital milliseconds. Schumi noticed it and he did the only thing that we could expect of him – he rubbed it in! Suddenly his car was flying and he set another scorching lap time. After that, it was a cruise for him over the next 3 laps as there was no way Alonso would be able to catch up.

Is this the beginning of a Schumi-Ferrari comeback? We will have to wait and watch. But for now, I just wish I was in Italy coz they are going to have one hell of a party tonight!

Congratulations Schumi! Congratulations Ferrari! Good luck for the rest of the season. This Tifosi is signing out to treat myself to an ice-cream!